11.08.2008

FBI file on Emanuel

How's that spotlight feeling on you now, Rahm? - Ed.

Wayne Madsen Reports via There Are No Sunglasses

WMR has learned from informed U.S. intelligence sources that prospective Barack Obama White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel has an active FBI counter-intelligence file maintained on him. Emanuel’s rise to the Chief of Staff position may pose a significant security problem for President-elect Obama if the FBI insists on conducting the full background security investigation normally required for senior White House officials.

Questions about Emanuel’s links to the Israeli intelligence service, the Mossad, were allegedly so great that President Bill Clinton was forced to dismiss Emanuel from the White House staff in 1998. One of the FBI agents who discovered Emanuel’s dealings with Israeli intelligence was, according to our sources, the late FBI counter-terrorism Assistant Director John O’Neill. O’Neill retired after being set up in a smear operation involving a temporarily stolen brief case in 2001. O’Neill and another FBI agent who still works for the bureau and shall remain nameless at this point to protect him and his career discovered that Emanuel was heavily involved in the decision to place intern Monica Lewinsky close to President Clinton. O’Neill accepted the top security
position for Kroll Associates at the World Trade Center. O’Neill was killed in the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center. WMR has also reported that O’Neill was a close friend of slain retired Houston CIA station chief Roland V. “Tony” Carnaby, who was similarly investigating Israeli intelligence operations in the Houston area when Houston police shot and killed him last April.

Emanuel reportedly had knowledge of Israeli intelligence penetration of White House communications systems and Lewinsky, in sworn testimony before the Office of Independent Counsel, stated: “He [Clinton] suspected that a foreign embassy [it is now known that embassy was that of Israel] was tapping his telephones, and he proposed cover stories.” Lewinsky continued, “If ever questioned, she should say that the two of them were just friends. If anyone ever asked about their phone sex, she should say that they knew their calls were being monitored all along, and the phone sex was just a put on.”

WMR has learned from U.S. intelligence sources that Emanuel was discovered to be part of a political intelligence and blackmail operation directed against Clinton by Israel’s Likud Party and Binyamin Netanyahu to sink Clinton’s proposed Middle East peace deal. We have also learned that the FBI investigation of Emanuel is part of a file code-named the “Mega file.” “Mega” is a reference to a top-level Mossad agent in the Reagan administration who was said to have run a number of Israeli agents, including U.S. Navy spy Jonathan Pollard.”

11.07.2008

Individuals, Secede!

The colossal stupidity of the American people is on grand display today. Some people are bubbling over with elation while others have been trampled by a mighty political hangover, neither group seeing that they were in fact making a non-choice and lending their support to a quantifiably meaningless charade that enhances the power of the state at their own expense.

read full article

Sarah Palin to run for Ted Stevens' US Senate Seat

You didn't think we were gonna get rid of her that easily, did you? - Ed.

Exclusive by the Earl of Stirling

I have spent a good deal of time speaking to a number of political leaders in the state of Alaska. This includes people at the Federal level, in the Governor's office, and on both sides of the political fence in the state legislature.

I can report that Governor Sarah Palin will be running in a special election for the US Senate seat currently held by long term Republican US Senator Ted Stevens.

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CT Dems: Lieberman's 'extraordinary disloyalty' means he must resign from party

Connecticut Democrats fed up with Sen. Joe Lieberman are eagerly waiting to hear what happens in Washington, but their own censure resolution now pending before the state central committee is pretty clear about what should be done.

lieberman.JPGLieberman's "extraordinary disloyalty" means he should resign from the party. Lieberman's "support of right-wing candidates cannot be reconciled with the ideals and values of the Democratic Party,'' the resolution states.

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Chris Matthews openly in the tank






















From LewRockwell.com

In this segment, Christ Matthews decides he will not be playing hardball with the coming administration. Yes, he has a "new" job: trying to "make this presidency work." I had no idea that journalists were assigned this responsibility, but here it is.

Matthews was OK sometimes at flushing out lies from the Bushies, but I guess his new job requires that he cover up the lies or ignore them altogether. I hardly can wait for this Brave New World.

Transition website: Foreign policy page

Starting off with some nice Zionist propaganda.... - Ed.

The Problem: Iran has sought nuclear weapons, supports militias inside Iraq and terror across the region, and its leaders threaten Israel and deny the Holocaust. But Obama and Biden believe that we have not exhausted our non-military options in confronting this threat; in many ways, we have yet to try them. That's why Obama stood up to the Bush administration's warnings of war, just like he stood up to the war in Iraq.

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JFK: The debris of history

Comment: This is the first in a series of articles written in 2006 commemorating the 43rd anniversary of the assassination of JFK that we will carry every weekday as we approach the 45th Anniversary of that tragedy for mankind.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy was a man who apparently used the system to get elected and then, once in office, he let it be known that he really was all about change and helping the masses, and he died for it. It is quite fitting for us to remember JFK and the conspiracy against him at a time when a new US president who also talks about change has just been elected... If Obama really means it, he'll have to be a lot smarter than Kennedy was - a very tall order indeed.

We find it interesting that Joe Biden's predictions for an Obama presidency make an explicit reference to JFK:
"Mark my words. [...] It will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy... Watch, we're gonna have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy."
It looks like Biden, and perhaps even Obama, know the details of the plan.

Read full story

The Men Behind Obama

h/t Connecting the Dots in the New World Order

Tarplay raises some great points, but it's far from certain that Russia and China and the world would fall into such a trap. - Ed.




Declaration of Independence from Israel

Being of sound mind and having the clarity to see where world problems originate from and having the determination to bring about resolution to those problems, we hereby declare ourselves free from the state of Israel and it’s influence in our lives.

We understand that Israel is a Zionist state, which offers a refuge for the world’s criminals and is rife with drug and people trafficking, and that Jerusalem is the world’s center for organized crime and crimes against humanity. We understand that “Al Qaeda” is really Mossad creating terror in the world for it’s own objectives. We understand that the Zionist influence has spread across the world and has corrupted our governments. In an effort to take back our rights as citizens of the world, we make the following pledge:

We refuse to fund, engage in or participate in any way, in wars fought on Israel’s behalf.

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The Brothers Emanuel (written in 1997)

The best Rahm Emanuel story is not the one about the decomposing two-and-a-half-foot fish he sent to a pollster who displeased him. It is not about the time - the many times - that he hung up on political contributors in a Chicago mayor's race, saying he was embarrassed to accept their $5,000 checks because they were $25,000 kind of guys. No, the definitive Rahm Emanuel story takes place in Little Rock, Ark., in the heady days after Bill Clinton was first elected President.

It was there that Emanuel, then Clinton's chief fund-raiser, repaired with George Stephanopoulos, Mandy Grunwald and other aides to Doe's, the campaign hangout. Revenge was heavy in the air as the group discussed the enemies - Democrats, Republicans, members of the press - who wronged them during the 1992 campaign. Clifford Jackson, the ex-friend of the President and peddler of the Clinton draft-dodging stories, was high on the list. So was William Donald Schaefer, then the Governor of Maryland and a Democrat who endorsed George Bush. Nathan Landow, the fund-raiser who backed the candidacy of Paul Tsongas, made it, too.

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Once and future Treasury Secretary?

NEW YORK (Fortune) -- There has been much talk of whom President-elect Barack Obama will name as his Treasury secretary. The guessing game on Wall Street and in Washington, serious stuff even before the election, has become even more intense. A job that was once a good part ceremonial - with the ultimate perk being your signature on the nation's currency - has become full-time serious. The new Treasury secretary is probably Obama's most significant appointment, and arguably the first significant decision the next president will make.

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Dealing with the great mirage

The Obama victory presents the authentic Left with a genuine challenge, one just as tricky as if John McCain had been pronounced the victor in the latest exercise in American managed elections. At a point when the Empire’s massive moral, political, and economic crimes had begun to threaten the continuing legitimacy of capitalist rule; when the old machinery of rhetoric and delusions that allow the US corporate oligarchy to rule pretty much undisturbed by the demands and needs of the masses was beginning to show signs of fatigue, they seem to have found a savior in Barack Obama, the ideal politician toplant hope, confound skeptics at home and replenish luster to America’s name abroad.

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Obama top advisor has long ties to neocons

GENEVA, Nov 2 (IPS) - With the 2008 presidential campaign at its end, pundits have begun to discuss in earnest what expected winner Barack Obama's administration might look like. An important piece of evidence is Obama's campaign team, which largely escaped the harsh scrutiny that his opponent's lobbyist-laden team received.

Because of Obama's relative inexperience on foreign policy, it is this part of his team that is getting much of the attention, and one adviser in particular -- Dennis Ross, Bill Clinton's Mideast envoy whose record includes supporting the pro-Iraq War advocacy campaigns of the Project for the New American Century and serving as a consultant to the Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP), a bastion of Israel-centric policy thinking in Washington.

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Obama's first appointment is son of Zionist terrorist

Rahm Israel Emanuel’s father was member of militant terror group that bombed hotels, massacred villagers - Obama pick is keen supporter of lobbying group aimed at creating militarized youth brigades

President elect Barack Obama’s first appointment, Rahm Israel Emanuel, who is set to become chief-of-staff, is the son of a member of the Zionist terrorist group Irgun, which was responsible for bombing hotels, marketplaces as well as the infamous Deir Yassin massacre, in which hundreds of Palestinian villagers were slaughtered.

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Rubin removes himself from consideration for Treasury

Nov. 6 (Bloomberg) -- Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin said he won't be joining the administration of President- elect Barack Obama, narrowing the field of potential candidates to become the next government's top economic official.

Obama is ``terrific,'' Rubin said today in an interview in New York. ``But I've spoken with him and told him I'm not interested in going back into government.''

Rubin, who served at the Treasury's helm from 1995 to 1999 under President Bill Clinton, has been mentioned as a possibility for several jobs in Obama's cabinet, including his former position. Rubin's decision boosts the chances for former Treasury chief Lawrence Summers and New York Federal Reserve Bank President Timothy Geithner.

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Socialists: Obama no socialist

These are hard times to be a socialist in America. And not just because there's a bourgeois-bloated Starbucks on every other corner, thumbing its capitalist nose at the proletariat.

No, it's tough these days because you've got politicians on the right, the same guys who just helped nationalize the banking system, derisively and inaccurately calling the presidential candidate on the left a socialist. That's enough to make Karl Marx harumph in his grave.

Local communists, rarely tapped as campaign pundits, say Sen. Barack Obama and his policies stand far afield from any form of socialism they know.

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Taxpayers may pay legal bills for mortgage execs

WASHINGTON (AP) --

Well, since it's an AP story, I'm not going to excerpt from it. But if you want to read about the many ways taxpayers can be screwed, just click through...

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79 Optical Illusions and Visual Phenomena

Just seemed appropriate today. - Ed.

These pages demonstrate visual phenomena, and »optical« or »visual illusions«. The latter is more appropriate, because most effects have their basis in the visual pathway, not in the optics of the eye. When I find the time I will expand the explanations, to the degree that these phenomena are really understood; any nice and thoughtful comment welcome.

You may be glad to know: There are no tasteless surprises here; you know, these infantile pranks where you scrutinize a picture and suddenly an ugly face (or the opposite end) screams at you…

Don’t distress yourself if you don’t see the effect described, even if trying carefully. For many illusions, there is a small percentage of people with perfectly normal vision who just don’t see it, for reasons currently unknown.

Read full story


11.06.2008

Only God can fix America; Obama is not God

China - China Daily - Original Article (Chinese)

The 2008 American presidential elections have come to a close. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, hoping to win, spent the most money in U.S. history and had the longest presidential campaign in history. Will Obama, who carries the expectations of American voters, be able to lead America out of its current predicament? The director of the Research Center of American Affairs at Renmin University of China, Professor Shi Yin Hong said, "Only God can fix 'the American predicament,' but Obama is not God."

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Word from Iran

Actually NATO, we can block off the Persian Gulf in the blink of an eye.

And Obama, please fulfill your promises.

Hackers and Spending Sprees

An awful lot of dirt coming out of Newsweek, of all places. - Ed.

Excerpt:

Officials at the FBI and the White House told the Obama campaign that they believed a foreign entity or organization sought to gather information on the evolution of both camps' policy positions—information that might be useful in negotiations with a future administration. The Feds assured the Obama team that it had not been hacked by its political opponents. (Obama technical experts later speculated that the hackers were Russian or Chinese.) [Naturally. - Ed.] A security firm retained by the Obama campaign took steps to secure its computer system and end the intrusion. White House and FBI officials had no comment earlier this week.

NEWSWEEK has also learned that Palin's shopping spree at high-end department stores was more extensive than previously reported. While publicly supporting Palin, McCain's top advisers privately fumed at what they regarded as her outrageous profligacy.

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Transition team speculation

Could somebody please jam the Z$&%^$ revolving door?!?!?!? - Ed.

Barack Obama’s promises of change will immediately be measured against his efforts to form an administration that inspires confidence and produces rejuvenation. In the days before his inauguration, his main influence on the future will be through his appointments.

A host of names are being bandied about as possible members of an Obama administration.

Paul Volcker, a key economic advisor, who was federal reserve chairman under Ronald Reagan and broke the back of an inflation crisis in the early 1980s, could return briefly to his old post to try and stabilize the economy.

Investor Warren Buffett and Robert Rubin, a former Clinton treasury secretary, could also assume economic posts in an Obama White House.

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Israel instructs Obama not to have dialogue with Iran

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel said Thursday U.S. President-elect Barack Obama's stated readiness to talk to Iran could be seen in the Middle East as a sign of weakness in efforts to persuade Tehran to curb its nuclear program.

"We live in a neighborhood in which sometimes dialogue -- in a situation where you have brought sanctions, and you then shift to dialogue -- is liable to be interpreted as weakness," Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said, asked on Israel Radio about policy change toward Tehran in an Obama administration.

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Obama, please do me a personal favor

Obama my dear, they tell me that you are going to change the world. Do me a favour, come and change my life personally.

Come to Israel, grab its stupid leadership by the throat and take its foot off the neck of another people. Come and force us to do what is clear, and written, and fitting, and necessary, come and get us out of the Territories, if necessary do it with a smile that reveals million-dollar teeth. If necessary bare your teeth and force us to do it.

Make it so that I don’t have to get up in the morning – I who hate to get up early, to go to the checkpoints, to watch and to weep. Make it so I will not have to see 19-year-old children who have been duped into believing that they are defending the home front by pointing rifles at five-year-old children.

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Mr. President, We too have a dream

Dear Mr. President-Elect, Barack Obama,

First of all, let me convey my heartiest congratulation to you on your election as the President of the United States of America.

I consider your election as President of United States of America as a miracle in itself. Born as the son of a Kenyan man and a white woman from Kansas who weren't well-off or well-known, through hard work and perseverance today you have become the President of United States of America. Unlike most of your predecessors, your humble background and past experience including your work as community leader will surely provide a different perspective about the reality from the grassroots level. Taking into consideration the path you treaded to reach the pinnacle of power, I surely believe that it is not without a purpose, particularly as you campaigned and got elected on the platform of 'Change'. I only hope that this purpose is for the well being of humanity as a whole. In fact, your election as the President of USA has suddenly brightened the image of your country and hope you enhance this expectation with the right policies that will unite humanity.

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Rahm Emanuel

As he prepares to take office, President-elect Barack Obama is relying on a small team of advisers who will lead his transition operation and help choose the members of a new Obama administration. Following is part of a series of profiles of potential members of the administration.

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Is Obama serious about protecting our liberty?

Obama, a former Constitutional law professor, promised during his campaign to curb the unconstitutional practices of the executive branch.

If he is serious about this, he must appoint vigorous advocates for constitutional principles and the rule of law to serve as heads of the following agencies:

  • Department of Justice
  • FBI
  • CIA
  • Treasury (which oversees the Secret Service and - of course - the bailouts)
  • NSA
Read full story

Bush calls economic summit for Nov 15

Is it the beginning of the NWO? Is it the end of bush family corruption? Could it be both? - Ed.

Washington — The leaders of 20 nations have been invited to attend an economic summit in Washington to discuss the current financial crisis, its causes and efforts to resolve it through more effective regulation and reform, the White House says.

“In addition, we expect that the leaders will discuss the effects of the crisis on emerging economies and developing nations,” White House press secretary Dana Perino said October 22. A growing concern among developed economies is what impact the current financial crisis will have long-term on developing nations and foreign financial assistance.

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Video: End of US financial leadership

Watch video.

Pentagon ready to brief incoming administration immediately

The Pentagon said it was prepared to begin briefing the president-elect’s team immediately, stressing the importance of a smooth wartime transition, as the US voted for a new president Tuesday.

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Sources: McCain aid fired for "trashing" staff

(CNN) — Randy Scheunemann, a senior foreign policy adviser to John McCain, was fired from the Arizona senator's campaign last week for what one aide called "trashing" the campaign staff, three senior McCain advisers tell CNN.

One of the aides tells CNN that campaign manager Rick Davis fired Scheunemann after determining that he had been in direct contact with journalists spreading "disinformation" about campaign aides, including Nicolle Wallace and other officials.

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Scheunemann denies it...

However, Goldfarb did concede that Scheunemann's campaign e-mail was cut off, and his blackberry was taken away late Friday. Goldfarb admits that senior McCain aides were mad at Scheunemann, and wanted to fire him, but he insists they stopped short of that, and instead simply turned off his campaign communication.

Israel now calling the shots on UK security?

Stuart Littlewood looks at how Israel lobbyists have penetrated deep into Britain’s security establishment, and argues that it’s time that Friends of Israel groups were registered as agents of a foreign power.
The corridors of power at Westminster are swarming with Israel supporters, even though the British public has little sympathy for the rogue regime.
The Israel lobby has now achieved a dangerous numerical advantage at the heart of Britain's security establishment thanks to the appointment of Kim Howells, formerly minister in charge of Middle East affairs and a one-time chairman of Labour Friends of Israel, to the chair of the Intelligence and Security Committee.
This committee has oversight of the Security Service (MI5), the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) and the work of the Joint Intelligence Committee and the Intelligence and Security Secretariat, which includes the Assessment Staff in the Cabinet Office. The committee also takes evidence from the Defence Intelligence Staff (DIS), part of the Ministry of Defence.

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11.05.2008

Urban Survival: Changing Presidents vs Changing Paradigms

The cabinet picks will give us a very good idea of where this thing's going. The Treasury job, in particular, will be fraught with meaning. - Ed.

Excerpt:

From a 'paradigm' perspective, really little is likely to change until we start to see how the Obamanation takes shape. Summers and Emanuel are considered by some to be top picks for chief of staff and Treasury Secretary. But nothing is in the bag: A couple of New Jersey democorps are saying former Goldman exec turned governor John Corzine is being considered for Treasury Secretary. Seems to me that here lately, the major qualification for that post has been having a stint at Goldman Sachs on the résumé.

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Now that Obama has won...there is no excuse

PILE ON, people. PILE ON. As much as the politicians have no excuse to go back to business as usual, neither do We The People. Stay awake now, and make your voices heard. Don't roll over and go back to sleep. Scroll down to read the wisdom from www, who understands what being an American means better than a great many Americans. - Ed.

Now that a Democrat has been elected president, the Democrats in Congress have no excuse. They can no longer pretend that they have to "hold back" to win the election.

They have no excuse to delay war crimes charges against Bush, Cheney and company for Iraq.

They have no excuse to delay war crimes charges for torture.

They have no excuse to delay criminal charges for spying on Americans.

They have no excuse to delay criminal charges for 9/11.

Now is not the time for Democratic machine politics. Now is the time to implement true American values - cherished across the political aisle - of liberty and justice.

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The Onion: Nation finally shitty enough to make social progress

WASHINGTON—After emerging victorious from one of the most pivotal elections in history, president-elect Barack Obama will assume the role of commander in chief on Jan. 20, shattering a racial barrier the United States is, at long last, shitty enough to overcome.

Although polls going into the final weeks of October showed Sen. Obama in the lead, it remained unclear whether the failing economy, dilapidated housing market, crumbling national infrastructure, health care crisis, energy crisis, and five-year-long disastrous war in Iraq had made the nation crappy enough to rise above 300 years of racial prejudice and make lasting change.

"Today the American people have made their voices heard, and they have said, 'Things are finally as terrible as we're willing to tolerate," said Obama, addressing a crowd of unemployed, uninsured, and debt-ridden supporters. "To elect a black man, in this country, and at this time—these last eight years must have really broken you."

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2008 Election Map adjusted for population



Read more.

With hope restored, now the work begins

Congratulations President-Elect Obama. You rose above the nasty partisan politics that have infected this country for so long now and lifted this nation up from the nightmare of the past eight years. The country has put their faith in you and now the real hard work begins. You will have a majority in both houses to assist you, so the road could be considerably easier at least for the first two years. The amount of the vote seems to indicate that even your enemies cannot use the silly “no mandate” mantra. Things have aligned themselves for you well.

Do not lose sight of why so many were dissatisfied though. It is not a repudiation of traditional republicanism or conservatism. It was a resounding “no more” to the neo-con vision for America. That is what you must seek to undo as your presidency unfolds.

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A Dear John letter to Sarah Palin

Dear Sarah

Or may I call you "Governor" seeing as that is the title that the majority of your fellow Americans decided that you should retain?

Oh yes, I know about the "Senator" scenario. We all do. It is just that, should you yield to the temptation offered by that scenario, a relationship already fraught with irreconcilable differences would pass breaking point. It would head for a bridge to nowhere, if you will.

We cannot be together anymore. It would be best if we agreed that you return to Alaska, and do all of that wonderful work we have heard so much about, even if we had some trouble believing it.

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Election Reaction from China

Like American people on the other side of the Pacific, we are excited, too, at the landslide win of Democrat Barack Obama, who will become the 44th President of the United States of America on January 20 next year.

We wish him all the best in bringing America out of the present financial quagmire as soon as possible, and re-energize the world's largest economy with his brand-new ideas and vision. A strong US economy is in the interest of China and all other countries that trade with it.

We also hope the good momentum of a relatively amicable and constructive bilateral relationship between China and the US will sustain and extend during the incoming four years of the Obama presidency.

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Election Reaction from the Muslim World

I am writing this column Tuesday morning as Americans vote in their presidential election. Wednesday morning we should know who wins, and Americans can be proud of another quite spectacular exercise in electoral democracy. Nowhere else in the world does a national leadership achieve incumbency by going through such intense, sustained – and at times silly - scrutiny by the media, local political and social institutions, and – most importantly of all - daily, direct contact with the voting public. Yet, there is a dark side to American political culture that we experience alongside its wondrous aspects, which the electoral campaign exposed in all its ugliness.

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Election Reaction from Russia

Only Satan would have been worse than the Bush regime. Therefore it could be argued that the new administration in the USA could never be worse than the one which divorced the hearts and minds of Americans from their brothers in the international community, which appalled the rest of the world with shock and awe tactics that included concentration camps, torture, mass murder and utter disrespect for international law. Yet in choosing Obama, the people of America have opted to come back into the international fold. Welcome back, friends!

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'Massive' rocket attack launched on Israel

The Damsel in Distress has impeccable timing. Precisely when they don't get what they want from the US elections, Israel hauls off and whacks six Palestinians, drawing a 'massive' rocket attack in retaliation that causes no damage or injuries, but which generates some useful headlines in the world press. - Ed.

Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip fired more than 35 rockets towards Israel today, the army and the Islamist group said, hours after the Israeli army killed six militants in the coastal territory.

An Israeli police spokesman said the rockets landed in southern Israel, causing no damage or injuries.

Hamas claimed responsibility for the attacks, the first such announcement by the Islamist group since an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire with Israel went into effect on June 19.

Palestinian officials said they had been informed by Israel that all commercial border crossings with the Gaza Strip would remain closed on Wednesday in response to the rocket attacks.

Israeli airstrikes killed five militants and Israeli soldiers shot dead a gunman during an incursion into the Gaza Strip on Tuesday.

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India seeks 'velvet divorce' from Iran

Something's going on behind the curtains here. - Ed.

Amid the rubble of the Middle East policy of the George W Bush-Ehud Olmert duo, there has been a true success story. The United States and Israel have largely succeeded in snatching India from the "other" side of the Middle Eastern geopolitical divide. This became evident more than once in the past week.

On October 26, US forces based in Iraq attacked the Syrian border village of Sukkaryiah. The attack triggered outrage regionally. Even the Arab League, which has an ambivalent attitude toward Damascus, felt compelled to condemn Washington. But Delhi looked away. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who paid a five-day visit to India in June - the first visit by a Syrian head of state in more than three decades - must be bemused why Delhi didn't say at least what was so patently obvious, namely, it is wrong to violate the territorial integrity of a sovereign country.

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Election Day Reflux

By www

John McCain has conceded the Presidency to Barak Obama, and praised the equality of the US which made Mr Obama's victory possible.

Let me tell you that as I would not ever have wanted John McCain to win, and if I had been eligible to vote I would have voted for Obama – since the electoral system in the US would have third party candidates end up carrying either a sense of disenfranchisement as the one they wanted cannot be allowed to win and/or guilt for allowing the one they wanted the least come to office.

Therefore, it is not out of remorse or because I am a bad looser that I am now writing that Barak Obama's victory is the beginning of a great struggle – but unlike the last 8 years, this time we will be struggling for something and not against. This time around all of us who want US to join the world, and not just act as if it never really were there in any significant way, have the ability to apply the pressure to ensure that the presidency is a representative position and not one of the rule of one or even a few individuals.

Not one single person in the US government – not the house, the senate or the presidency – is elected as a person.

They are all elected as representatives and as such must be told and mandated every single day of their service what we want of them to do in our name.

So as many of us feel that our vote was counted, that we had our will, as many should feel the sense of responsibility that comes from realizing that we own whatever comes next.

Americans tend to relax after Election Day, and the system has encouraged them to assume a passive posture while allowing those who represent not the majority but the profit and greed of the few gather in lobbying groups, accumulate and apply the pressure of wealth to those who are to serve the majority of Americans only.

It has seemed that Americans have not realized that while election is one day, representation is daily.

If we fail to act upon that, this election should be considered stolen as much as any preceding one – with the difference that the US people will be complicit in the crime.


--
Global Patriot - Human first of all....

"The thoughts and deeds of those who think they are superior to others and consider others as second-class and inferior; who intend to remain out of the divine circle, to be the absolute slaves of their materialistic and selfish desires, who intend to expand their aggressive and domineering natures, constitute the roots of today's problems in human societies."

11.04.2008

George Carlin - On Voting

Election 2008

By www

There was once a shining fruit hanging in a tree
Perfect, round and juicy - that was obvious to see
Everyone who saw it said to others: 'That one is sweet,the
sweetest fruit on any tree on this or any street'
They'd say: 'That one has flavor of wonderful delight'
And yet nobody had ever even tried to take a bite.

The people who owned the tree, of course, was proud as one can be
They gloated even though it was not them folks came to see
Even though their fruit was solely a result of efforts past
of previous owners of the tree who had cared to see them last.

But then one day to all surprise the fruit fell to the ground
and split right down the middle as people gathered 'round
And everyone could finally see what the fruit had hide
A thousand worms and spiders had eaten it inside.

While spectators had never dared to take a real close look
and the owners of the tree the fruit's delight for granted took
Critters had indulged in that which no one else dared taste
and now their deed was done and the fruit forever waste.

The world might see the USA as a structurual democracy
but it is eaten away from the inside because noone that dares see
and have the power ever takes responsibility.

Like the owners who took pride in that for which they never toiled
the people of the USA will find their gifts' been spoiled
The structure they were tapped to care for by those who'd gone before
will be hollowed out by worms and spiders eating at its' core.

First votes in as Dixville Notch, NH picks Obama

Dixville Notch, NH (AHN) - The town of Dixville Notch, New Hampshire, with a population of around 75 people and only 21 registered voters, has picked Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) to be the next president of the United States. Obama defeated Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) by a margin of 15 votes to 6.

Dixville Notch, which opens its polls for voting at midnight Eastern time on Monday evening, has been the first town to tally its ballots in the country for decades.

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Only a landslide is theft-proof

I'm with George here. It's the stealing--all the time with the constant stealing. I'm very sick of it. They started by stealing the 2000 election, and they've been going hog-wild stealing ever since. If Obama turns out to be another God-awful tool of the Illuminati, so be it. I can handle that knowing that he at least got in without stealing the votes. - Ed.

If you want Obama to win, you can't take victory for granted.

Even though the polls project that he'll win by a landslide, a lot of racists who say they'll vote for Obama will vote for McCain when they are alone in the voting booth. As former NBA Charles Barkley said:

I think the polls are absolutely useless. I do. Seriously. Most people who are racist, they are not going to answer that question correctly either on the phone call or on camera, so I 100 percent believe the polls are flat out useless. I think this race is going to be neck and neck down to the wire.

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Fire in the basement

from November 3:

Anyone refusing to follow politics would have missed a subtle event with enormous implications: a presidential candidate said his opponent was "a decent man", and the crowd booed. This is the nation-scale equivalent of finding a fire in your basement. The core of one of our major parties is turning into a lynch mob that can no longer be held in check by its leaders, and one of those leaders is actively encouraging it. Here's a smart but long-winded article about it, McCain-Palin and the Lucifer Effect.

We're very lucky that Obama came along to build a coalition of many races, classes, and political perspectives, to hold us in a calm and positive emotional space, and to organize us well enough to possibly defeat an alliance of religious fundamentalism, racism, belligerent nationalism, class resentment, vote rigging, and apocalyptic despair. These people are a minority, but remember that Hitler came to power with only 37% of the vote. America is like a giant bomb that we have to disarm, and tomorrow we have to make sure we cut the red wire and not the blue wire. But even then, the explosive charge will remain. I'm tempted to say this is the most important election you'll ever see, but I think there could be even more at stake in 2012.

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Related: McCain's Shameful Slur on Rashid Khalidi

Scenes from a blue oasis in a red state

Saw this in my neighborhood and had to take a picture of it. The context of this is that my neighborhood is stuffed with the sort of people right wing radio instructs you to hate: Earnest college students, college professors, liberal yuppies with jobs in marketing and law, bohemians who own successful antique shops. You know the like. It means that the overall tenor of the neighborhood, signage-wise, is “OBAMA! FUCK YEAH!” It’s not subtle in any way. I suspected, the second I saw this display, that the people responsible are trying to aggravate their neighbors. Considering that this house is in an area with heavy foot, car, and bicycle traffic and is right around the corner from the neighborhood hippie grocery store, I suspect mine is a good bet.

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A funny from the comment thread:

Mostly Harmless. Sincere and harmless. There are far worse displays than “no Obama”.

The signs are hand-made, not terribly threatening. It just looks like somebody cares, just not about the things we care about.

Did you ask them how they felt about the Socialest Bale Owt?


Secret Decoder Ring

Here it is ~ your very own secret decoder ring: something to help you decipher news and views pertaining to Islam and Muslims, a few things to keep in mind so that whenever you are reading or listening to something and these key words or key names pop up you can contemplate what the propagandists want you to believe and why in the light of what is really going on. You may want to add to them as you get further down the rabbit-hole and discover more and more of what lies beneath the surface. But be warned: decoding and deconstruction can rapidly go from a part-time hobby to a full-time job. Once you get started it's hard to stop. ~SuZ

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We Know Their Plans

Peter Chamberlain's analysis of events in Pakistan. - Ed.

Excerpt:

If we had a real news media in this country people like me wouldn’t have to speculate about the truth thousands of miles away in Pakistan, there would be honest reporters on the ground there.

Why do al Qaida and CIA fight the same enemies?

Why do both secret organizations, both sides in the same war, want to foment an Islamic democratic revolution in Pakistan and destroy the world order?

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The Federal Pie Chart


More information.

Reading matter for the days ahead

Last week, with desperate candidates bombarding the airwaves with caustic attacks on “spreading the wealth,” the top staffer of the closest thing America has to an inequality think tank came before Congress and delivered a rigorously thoughtful analysis of just how wide America’s great economic divide has become — and how we might start closing the gap.

This testimony from Robert Greenstein, the executive director of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, went largely unnoticed outside the House Ways and Means hearing room. But the testimony, fortunately, lives online. If you’re looking for something sober to read after Election Day, something that will focus you on the core reality of our time that so needs changing, start here.

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The USS Liberty is NOT in the news again, or How the USS Liberty incident almost caused WW III

Please read the whole thing, even if you think you know what the Liberty Incident is all about and especially if you are not familiar with the topic. Thanks.

Thanks to the incomparable Phillip Weiss blog, I have found out that the USS Liberty is not in the news again.

Mr. Nader has pressed Mr. McCain in the liberty incident matter.

But how is the McCain name even associated with the Liberty Incident?

Lets go to the www.military.com/news article, Nader Presses McCain on Liberty Attack, October 31, 2008 off Knight Ridder.

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Chinese factories closing by the tens of thousands

via Cryptogon

This story uses the phrase, “Government statistics.” Not just any government’s statistics, but China’s government statistics! HA.

Anyway, here’s some of the follow-on effects of Joe and Jane Six Pack not being able to use their house as an ATM anymore.

Via: Los Angeles Times:

Financially troubled plants are being abandoned by the boss, leaving behind unpaid workers and debts.

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Evidence of sunspot involvement in climate change compelling

Over the last few years, the evidence that sunspots on our sun are directly related to climate change on earth has been steadily increasing.

I explained the exact proposed mechanism in some detail previously. Great work in this field is being carried out by Dr Henrik Svensmark and coworkers in Denmark and elsewhere.

Briefly, the mechanism is that cosmic rays impact on the earth from deep space. These cosmic rays penetrate our atmosphere and lead to the formation of cloud cover. The cosmic rays nucleate sites in the atmosphere, from which clouds form from the natural water vapour.

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11.03.2008

Michael Moore's new film is online for free

Come watch the trailer for the new Michael Moore movie entitled "Slacker Uprising". You can download the entire movie for free by signing up at http://slackeruprising.com.

Joe, the Bummer

Like most Republican ‘Joe and pony’ shows the ‘stuff’ behind the icon is false. Joe is not a licensed plumber. He’s been proven a liar about most of his history, including his phony plumbing business. He hates socialism, but managed to take food stamps to feed his family once, during hard times. It’s hard to imagine the asshole would deny his parents social security in a scrape-by retirement:

“In the United States, the majority undertakes to supply a multitude of ready-made opinions for the use of individuals, who are thus relieved from the necessity of forming opinions of their own.” (Alexis de Tocqueville)

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The Grand Strategists Spill Their Guts

Video with Brzezinski, Kissinger and Scowcroft on Charlie Rose.

Video and transcript.

Profound, mind-staggering corruption details

I've been working through information at www.worldreports.org and came across this report published in May 2008. - Ed.

Excerpt:

UNPRECEDENTED BREACHES OF U.S. NATIONAL SECURITY DUE TO THE CORRUPTION
The penetration and breaches of US national security that we are about to expose here are so vast, unprecedented and pervasive, that to attribute them simplistically to the successful takeover of the Federal Government by the Chicago mafia would be insane.

The source of the file, obtained via the Editor’s intermediary, is Mr Robert Chapman, Founder, Editor and Publisher of The International Forecaster financial newsletter, which has a very good reputation. A former CIA counterintelligence officer (many years ago), Robert Chapman acquired expertise through personal experience as a broker and the former owner of a brokerage.

As a consequence of this intervention, the Editor may be obliged to tweak (but only very slightly) his ongoing, routine denunciation of the CIA as an unmitigated force for evil in the world, a stance that is, in turn, based upon the Editor’s experience and perception that ‘there is no such thing as a ‘White Hat’’. There is, however, such a thing as a former 'Grey Hat' that has been bleached White.

By way of introduction, Mr Chapman has just informed his subscribers as follows:

‘A former high-ranking member of the CIA, now retired, who was a career employee, contacted us this week. Due to our reporting on Halliburton and their corruption, we were given 46 pages of testimony on how Halliburton, the CIA, the Pentagon and Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld have been stealing billions of dollars’ [sic: Trillions, surely: Ed.]. What we were presented with will shortly be presented to Congressman Waxman’s Oversight and Reform Committee in the House’.

‘These 46 pages of step-by-step criminal procedure [form] only part of a larger body of evidence being presented to Congress. What is presented is astonishing in the scope of the crimes and the billions of dollars stolen by these criminals'.

'The text is raw copy never seen by the public previously. This is a long read, but it reveals the depth of the official corruption within our Government. It is our desire that as many Americans as possible read this report. It is devastating. The writer worked under Porter Goss until August 2004. Vice President Cheney forced Tenet out of the Agency and later [forced] this writer [out as well]'.

'We have not edited any of the text. It would be presumptuous of us to do so. The writer was assigned the rank of a Two-Star General when lent to the Pentagon by the CIA’.

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Gazprom to start exploratory gas drilling in Venezuela

MEXICO CITY, November 2 (RIA Novosti) - A Russian floating platform will start to drill deep test wells on November 7 to prospect natural gas fields in the Gulf of Venezuela, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said on Sunday.

In 2005, Gazprom won a tender to prospect and develop natural gas blocks Urumaco 1 and Urumaco 2 in the Gulf of Venezuela as part of the Rafael Urdaneta project.

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Pictures by Brett Marty

Very interesting, especially if you live in a stepchild state (as I do) that politicians never campaign in. - Ed.

Visit website.

Gallup: Obama has highest favorability rating of any presidential candidate in 16 years

Possible interpretations: 1) the pollsters are lying and McCain is really much further ahead than we believe; 2) they pollsters are telling the truth so when the counters steal for McCain it will ensure massive unrest to trigger martial law; 3) the pollsters are goosing Obama's results up to ensure he gets in because the powers prefer him to McCain; 4) people just prefer Obama and have clued in enough that the powers can't easily steal this one, so the powers are leaving this be and planning something else. - Ed.

If the final USA Today/Gallup poll is any indication, Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) has achieved his widest lead in the presidential race to date.

In addition, Obama's favorable rating is 62 percent -- the highest of any presidential candidate tracked in Gallup's final pre-election polls dating back to 1992.

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McCain's big backfire: Majority of Americans like the idea of spreading the wealth

John McCain and Joe the Plumber are campaigning for Barack Obama, and they don't even know it. The more McCain has ramped up his attacks on Obama as a "spreader of wealth," the more the country has lined up behind the Democrat's plan to spread the wealth. If McCain's economic agenda was a gun and his attacks on Obama's agenda the bullets, the old soldier would have shot both his feet clean off a long time ago.

Watching the GOP's coordinated if increasingly delirious attacks on Obama's economic plan, it's clear that the party is even further out of touch with the America of 2008 than previously imagined. After eight years of establishing and then extending America's lead as the most unequal of all industrialized countries, Republicans thought they could deflect a national groundswell of righteous anger by dusting off and hurling every insult in the conservative arsenal, including old favorites "extremist," "radical," "Marxist" and "socialist." One suspects they are saving "anarchist" and "Hessian" for McCain's last-gasp speech on Monday.

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Slaves to the Orgy of Money

Investors on the outside slammed while insiders getting rich, Market conditions indicate you need to protect yourself with gold and silver, Paulson monetary voodoo reanimates zombie fraudster banks, Market crashes set the stage for bank acquisitions, predicting a financial super entity,

Down go consumer confidence and real estate values to all-time lows, but, nevertheless, up goes the Dow undaunted, claiming its second largest point gain ever as the counterintuitive insider trading beat goes on and on and on, ad nausea. Insiders get wealthy, and the non-insiders chasing them get annihilated. This has been the story on Wall Street for over a century. Do you think it was merely some sort of serendipitous coincidence that the dark pool of liquidity, known as Project Turquoise, was set to be activated near the end of August, just in time for all the Illuminist insiders to enjoy the profitable fireworks as volatility reached all-time highs, so that all of their nefarious trading could be done in unregulated secrecy? We can assure you that there are no coincidences on Wall Street. There is only rampant, rampaging insider trading and fiendish manipulation.

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Putin blasts US for financial crisis

MOSCOW (AFP) - Russian leaders blamed the US financial system's irresponsibility for the world economic crisis and said it should top the next American president's agenda, as Washington struggled to calm markets Wednesday.

"Whoever is elected president, the number one goal will be to shed light on the state of the (US) economy," Medvedev told reporters following talks with Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Zapatero in Strelna, near Saint Petersburg.

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Putin: We must end monopoly in world finance

The Russian Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin, has called for a complete overhaul of the world’s financial system in order to guarantee stability and ensure progress. He was speaking in Astana in Kazakhstan, where the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation is meeting to in discuss the global financial crisis.

The organisation, which comprises Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, China, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, is widely seen as a counter-weight to NATO's influence in Eurasia. It is primarily concerned with security issues. This time, however, the sides are discussing how to develop social and economic cooperation.

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Israel spy chief fears Jewish extremist plot

That's funny. We have the same sorts of concerns here. - Ed.

JERUSALEM – The head of Israel's internal security service said Sunday he is "very concerned" that Jewish extremists could assassinate an Israeli leader in an attempt to foil peace moves with the Palestinians.

There has been a recent increase in violence by hardline Jewish settlers in the West Bank, and this week, Israel marks the 13th anniversary of the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin by an Israeli opponent of his negotiations.

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Still no medical records from Palin.

Sheesh. What's the rush already?!?! - Ed.

ABC News' Kate Snow reports: With three days left until the election, the John McCain campaign still has not, despite frequent requests, released any information about vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin's medical history, prompting some well-warranted skepticism.

Of course there are plenty of perfectly innocent explanations. The governor is perfectly healthy and the campaign feels no public pressure to release information? The doctor is on vacation and unreachable? The dog ate their records?

There are also more sinister explanations. But we won't go there.

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NASA - Magnetic portals connect sun and earth

Oct. 30, 2008: During the time it takes you to read this article, something will happen high overhead that until recently many scientists didn't believe in. A magnetic portal will open, linking Earth to the sun 93 million miles away. Tons of high-energy particles may flow through the opening before it closes again, around the time you reach the end of the page.

"It's called a flux transfer event or 'FTE,'" says space physicist David Sibeck of the Goddard Space Flight Center. "Ten years ago I was pretty sure they didn't exist, but now the evidence is incontrovertible."

Indeed, today Sibeck is telling an international assembly of space physicists at the 2008 Plasma Workshop in Huntsville, Alabama, that FTEs are not just common, but possibly twice as common as anyone had ever imagined.

Right: An artist's concept of Earth's magnetic field connecting to the sun's--a.k.a. a "flux transfer event"--with a spacecraft on hand to measure particles and fields. [Larger image]

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They Rule

via UrbanSurvival

An interface where you can plug in big names to see how they connect through corporate America, think tanks, etc. Some of the key banks seem to be missing, however... - Ed.

Visit site.

Triangle of Life - Earthquake Safety Information

Critical Earthquake Safety Information

Interesting perspective.

Please read this and pass it on -- it could save your life!!


* * * * EXTRACT FROM DOUG COPP'S ARTICLE ON THE "TRIANGLE OF LIFE", Edited by Larry Linn for MAA Safety Committee brief on 4/13/04.

My name is Doug Copp. I am the Rescue Chief and Disaster Manager of the American Rescue Team International (ARTI), the world's most experienced rescue team. The information in this article will save lives in an earthquake.

I have crawled inside 875 collapsed buildings, worked with rescue teams from 60 countries, founded rescue teams in several countries, and I am a member of many rescue teams from many countries. I was the United Nations expert in Disaster Mitigation (UNX051 -UNIENET) for two years. I have worked at every major disaster in the world since 1985, except for simultaneous disasters.

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