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Octafish's Journal
 Answer: Stop funding War and start funding Peace. Without devoting a trillion dollars a year to killing people or preparing to kill people, the nation could afford a number of "Manhattan Projects" to make existence better for the living. For instance: 1. Energy Manhattan Project for clean, renewable energy we were talking about before Wall Street needed the Big Bail Out. 2. Transportation Manhattan Project to develop passenger rail service that would connect the nation's cities and neighborhoods and reduce the need for the polluting, gas-guzzling airplanes and automobiles. 3. Food and Water Manhattan Project to develop new ways of feeding all people and providing them with clean drinking water. 4. Education Manhattan Project which would serve to provide the brains needed to solve the global and national problems we know about, as well as the know-how to tackle the ones we don't. 5. Outer Space Manhattan Project to explore and develop the Final Frontier, creating a way for humanity to utilize resources on the moon and asteroids, rather than despoiling the planet; colonizing other worlds would also provide a way to alleviate earth's exploding population. Even after funding all that, with all the associated funding for jobs and training, I'd bet we'd still have many hundreds of billions left over each year to do more. What other peaceful ways can our nation invest to make life better for living? She's kicking off her book tour next Wednesday.
Grand Rapids is the home town of Dick and Betsy DeVoss. The heir to the Amway -- cough, Scamway -- fortune, he ran as the ultra-dim GOP candidate for Michigan governor in 2006. She's the brains of the outfit and sister to Erik the Blackwater Prince. The bloody lot of them are humongous GOP funders, which is why, not to be outdone, Rev. Gubner Huckleberry Huckabee will be in GR next Thursday.  She is fully and completely poseable These turds are positioning themselves for 2012, ingratiating themselves with those dwelling at the bottom of the spiritual barrel. While most people in Western Michigan are good folk, the region is home to some of the most conservative religious kookery this side of apartheid or C Street. This choice of town to kick off their "book" tours remind me of 1980, when Ronnie Reagan appealed to the subterranean racist crowd. He opened his campaign in Philadelphia, Mississippi, where three civil rights marchers were murdered. His presence there sent a dog-whistle of a signal that he was "one of us" to the racist crowd. Like Pruneface, Queen Sarah and Huckleberry, are signallin' that they're "OK" to the religious racist turds in GR and across America. While they haven't announced their candidacies, they're making out like theirs is a three-year campaign of book signings and speech making. With Corporate McPravda on their side, it's a good bet to play out loud and hard on the tee vee. You betcha.  A bit of history from the last weeks of President Kennedy's life, courtesy of The Education Forum by DUer John Simkin : 'SPOOKS' MAKE LIFE MISERABLE FOR AMBASSADOR LODGE 'Arrogant' CIA Disobeys Orders in Viet Nam Richard Starnes The Washington Daily News, Wednesday, October 2, 1963, p.3 SAIGON, Oct.2 - The story of the Central Intelligence Agency's role in South Viet Nam is a dismal chronicle of bureaucratic arrogance, obstinate disregard of orders, and unrestrained thirst for power. Twice the CIA flatly refused to carry out instructions from Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge, according to a high United States source here. In one of these instances the CIA frustrated a plan of action Mr. Lodge brought with him from Washington because the agency disagreed with it. This led to a dramatic confrontation between Mr. Lodge and John Richardson, chief of the huge CIA apparatus here. Mr. Lodge failed to move Mr. Richardson, and the dispute was bucked back to Washington. Secretary of State Dean Rusk and CIA Chief John A. McCone were unable to resolve the conflict, and the matter is now reported to be awaiting settlement by President Kennedy. It is one of the developments expected to be covered in Defense Secretary Robert McNamara's report to Mr. Kennedy. Others Critical, Too Other American agencies here are incredibly bitter about the CIA. "If the United States ever experiences a 'Seven Days in May' it will come from the CIA, and not from the Pentagon," one U.S. official commented caustically. ("Seven Days in May" is a fictional account of an attempted military coup to take over the U.S. Government.) CIA "spooks" (a universal term for secret agents here) have penetrated every branch of the American community in Saigon, until non-spook Americans here almost seem to be suffering a CIA psychosis. An American field officer with a distinguished combat career speaks angrily about "that man at headquarters in Saigon wearing a colonel's uniform." He means the man is a CIA agent, and he can't understand what he is doing at U.S. military headquarters here, unless it is spying on other Americans. Another American officer, talking about the CIA, acidly commented: "You'd think they'd have learned something from Cuba but apparently they didn't." Few Know CIA Strength Few people other than Mr. Richardson and his close aides know the actual CIA strength here, but a widely used figure is 600. Many are clandestine agents known only to a few of their fellow spooks. Even Mr. Richardson is a man about whom it is difficult to learn much in Saigon. He is said to be a former OSS officer, and to have served with distinction in the CIA in the Philippines. A surprising number of the spooks are known to be involved in their ghostly trade and some make no secret of it. "There are a number of spooks in the U.S. Information Service, in the U.S. Operations mission, in every aspect of American official and commercial life here, " one official - presumably a non-spook - said. "They represent a tremendous power and total unaccountability to anyone," he added. Coupled with the ubiquitous secret police of Ngo Dinh Nhu, a surfeit of spooks has given Saigon an oppressive police state atmosphere. The Nhu-Richardson relationship is a subject of lively speculation. The CIA continues to pay the special forces which conducted brutal raids on Buddhist temples last Aug. 21, altho in fairness it should be pointed out that the CIA is paying these goons for the war against communist guerillas, not Buddhist bonzes (priests). Hand Over Millions Nevertheless, on the first of every month, the CIA dutifully hands over a quarter million American dollars to pay these special forces. Whatever else it buys, it doesn't buy any solid information on what the special forces are up to. The Aug. 21 raids caught top U.S. officials here and in Washington flat-footed. Nhu ordered the special forces to crush the Buddhist priests, but the CIA wasn't let in on the secret. (Some CIA button men now say they warned their superiors what was coming up, but in any event the warning of harsh repression was never passed to top officials here or in Washington.) Consequently, Washington reacted unsurely to the crisis. Top officials here and at home were outraged at the news the CIA was paying the temple raiders, but the CIA continued the payments. It may not be a direct subsidy for a religious war against the country's Buddhist majority, but it comes close to that. And for every State Department aide here who will tell you, "Dammit, the CIA is supposed to gather information, not make policy, but policy-making is what they're doing here," there are military officers who scream over the way the spooks dabble in military operations. A Typical Example For example, highly trained trail watchers are an important part of the effort to end Viet Cong infiltration from across the Laos and Cambodia borders. But if the trailer watchers spot incoming Viet Congs, they report it to the CIA in Saigon, and in the fullness of time, the spooks may tell the military. One very high American official here, a man who has spent much of his life in the service of democracy, likened the CIA's growth to a malignancy, and added he was not sure even the White House could control it any longer. Unquestionably Mr. McNamara and Gen. Maxwell Taylor both got an earful from people who are beginning to fear the CIA is becoming a Third Force co-equal with President Diem's regime and the U.S. Government - and answerable to neither. There is naturally the highest interest here as to whether Mr. McNamara will persuade Mr. Kennedy something ought to be done about it. SOURCE: http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.ph... ADDENDUM from Education Forum writer: “The most important consequence of the Cold War remains the least discussed. How and why American democracy died lies beyond the scope of this introductory essay. It is enough to note that the CIA revolt against the presidency of John Fitzgerald Kennedy – the single event which did more than any other to hasten its end – was, quite contrary to over forty years of censorship and deceit, both publicly anticipated and publicly opposed. No American journalist worked more bravely to thwart the anticipated revolt than Scripps-Howard’s Richard Starnes. His ‘reward’ was effectively to become a non-person, not just in the work of mainstream fellow-journalists and historians, but also that of nominally oppositional Kennedy assassination writers. It could have been worse: John J. McCone, Director of Central Intelligence, sought his instant dismissal; while others within the agency doubtless had more drastic punishment in mind, almost certainly of the kind meted out to CBS’ George Polk fifteen years earlier. This time, shrewder agency minds prevailed. Senator Dodd was given a speech to read by the CIA denouncing Starnes in everything but name. William F. Buckley, Jr., suddenly occupied an adjacent column. In short, Starnes was allowed to live, even as his Scripps-Howard career was put under overt and intense CIA scrutiny - and quietly, systematically, withered on the Mockingbird vine.” From “Light on a Dry Shadow,” the preface to ‘Arrogant’ CIA: The Selected Scripps-Howard Journalism of Richard T. Starnes, 1960-1965 (provisionally scheduled for self-publication in November 2006). As far as I am aware, the remarkable example (above) of what Claud Cockburn called “preventative journalism” has never appeared in its entirety anywhere on the internet. Instead, readers have had to make do with the next-day riposte of the NYT’s Arthur Krock. The latter, it should be noted, was a veteran CIA-mouthpiece and messenger boy. Dick Starnes was 85 on July 4, 2006. He remains, in bucolic retirement, a wonderfully fluent and witty writer; and as good a friend as any Englishman could wish for. I dedicate the despatch’s web debut to Judy Mann, in affectionate remembrance. http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.ph... -------------------- The Education Forum is an outstanding resource for those interested in President Kennedy, his administration, and his assassination. From what we've learned in the last few years is that Lodge also was disregarding orders -- from President Kennedy. More here: Vietnam and Iraq Wars Started by Same People Know your BFEE: Hitler’s Bankers Shaped Vietnam War JFK Would NEVER Have Fallen for Phony INTEL! The author and tee vee personality was on CNN's Joy Behar show
and, of course, she used the occassion to slander Liberals, saying Liberals were always behind political assassinations. She proclaimed Lee Harvey Oswald guilty of being a "Lefty," working on behalf of Fidel Castro and, by extension, the Soviet Union.  SOURCE: http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/heathe... Coulter also said if anything happens to Obama, it'll be the work of MoveOn.org. Coulter: Lee Harvey Osward tried to move to the Soviet Union. He was on his way to Cuba. He was a communist. You have one after another of all these guys. So it isn’t…it isn’t because Obama is liberal…if something happens to him it’s going to be MoveOn.org. People who lie about Liberals, peace and history sure seem to get a lot of airtime. Remember Phil Donohue? Want to know who helps make it feel like things are going to hell?
 The late Abraham Vereide and then-President Dwight D. Eisenhower Meet the Senators in the Creepy Right-Wing Cult Trying to Defeat Health Care Reform The Family has spent decades consolidating power within the GOP and may have come to dominate the party even among those who do not belong to the cult. By Adele M. Stan, AlterNet. Posted October 20, 2009. In the heat of summer, a din of voices arose from the U.S. Senate in opposition to the health care reform legislation that was taking shape in both houses of Congress. Overlooked in media coverage of the health care brouhaha is the membership of many of the senators who most vociferously oppose the legislation in the right-wing religious cult known as The Family. With the Senate Finance Committee's passage last Tuesday of its version of health care legislation, expect the debate to flare again as the bill moves to the Senate floor. The Family's point men -- "key men" in the cult's theological lexicon -- will likely try once again to defeat reform in the service of their Supply-Side Jesus. You could chalk it up to nothing more than pure partisanship, this obstructionism on the part of these Republicans. Or you could say that the ideology-cum-theology of The Family, which has spent decades consolidating power within the GOP, has at last come to dominate the party even among those who do not belong to the cult. EXCERPT... Not His Brother's Keeper It's that theology that led The Family, over the years, to aid and abet such dictators as Haiti's Francois "Papa Doc" Duvalier, Indonesia's Haji Muhammad Suharto, Chile's Augusto Pinochet, and the brutal Angolan rebel Jonas Savimbi, who among them killed more than a million people. The Family seems to be fond of "revolutions" of a particular type: Those that overthrow socialists or any kind of leftists, even those, like Chile's Salvador Allende, who were democratically elected. As Jeff Sharlet explains in his masterful book, The Family, "God chooses his key men according to His concerns, not ours ..." CONTINUED... http://www.alternet.org/story/143252 / Something else these guys preach: Jesus hated Unions. Scandal-linked “The Family” Says: Jesus Wants You to Bust Unions Controversy continues to swirl around The Family, the secretive Christian group linked to sex scandals by its GOP members—including Sen. John Ensign, Gov. Mark Sanford and Rep. Charles Pickering. Also known as The Fellowship Foundation, the group’s perverse ideology-cum-theology promotes the notion that an elite group of powerful men should become close to Jesus and guide the rest of us on our behalf. And their converted convent and residential headquarters, dubbed the C Street Residence, has become ground-zero in the latest outbreak of GOP hypocrisy. Yet even as they believe that conventional morality shouldn’t have to apply to them, they’re also motivated by a deep belief in the value of free-market capitalism and the evil of unions. As The Week Magazine summarized:
Vereide’s recruiting efforts spread eastward, and in 1941 he arrived in Washington, where he began cultivating friendships with powerful people and setting up prayer groups. By then, Vereide was convinced that conventional Christianity had it backwards: Instead of ministering to the down-and-out, Jesus wanted believers to tend to the “up-and-out”—members of America’s elite who lacked intimacy with Jesus. In Vereide’s worldview, free-market capitalism is divinely ordained, and unions and regulations are a form of blasphemy. It’s little wonder that Sen. John Ensign, among other GOP faithful, have been so virulently opposed to the Employee Free Choice Act, which is designed to level the playing field for workers. CONTINUED... http://www.inthesetimes.com/working/entry/... / Gee. Jesus must've loved Empire, too. The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power Preaching the Gospel of 'biblical capitalism,' military might, and American empire by Enver Masud May 25, 2009 The Wisdom Fund Ivanwald, situated in a cul-de-sac at the end of 24th Street North in Arlington, Virginia, is the stronghold of a widespread "invisible" and powerful organization, working for "democracy" and "free markets," but in reality extending the American empire. Founded by a Norwegian immigrant Abraham Vereide (known as Abram) - now led by Doug Coe, the network - organized much like Ivanwald into cells of five, and "populated by elite, politically ambitious fundamentalists," is the subject of Jeff Sharlett's book: "The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power." The organization has operated under many guises, some active, some defunct: National Committee for Christian Leadership, International Christian Leadership, the National Leadership Council, Fellowship House, the Fellowship Foundation, the National Fellowship Council, the International Foundation. These groups are intended to draw attention away from the Family, and to prevent it from becoming, in the words of one of the Family's leaders, "a target for misunderstanding." Established in 1935 to oppose FDR's New Deal and the spread of trade unions, the Family's network spans the world organizing weekly prayer meetings at which the rich and powerful meet to advance their agenda. The Family's only publicized gathering is the National Prayer Breakfast - "attended by Pakistan's famously corrupt Benazir Bhutto." Its keynote is often delivered by an outsider. One such address was delivered by Saudi Arabia's Prince Bandar. Every president since Eisenhower has attended the National Prayer Breakfast Abram founded in 1953. CONTINUED... http://www.twf.org/News/Y2009/0525-Family.... Happy holidays! From the Small World Department:
 Banister, Eastland and the '56 SISS Hearings Author: jpshinley Email: jpshinley@my-dejanews.com Date: 1998/07/17 EXCERPT... The Liveright incident spurred New Orleans Mayor deLesseps Story "Chep" Morrison to order a probe of "subversive activities in New Orleans." Morrsion stated that he had contacted SISS chairman Eastland and asked for any information the subcommittee had. Morrison selected Assistant Police Superintendent Guy Banister to head the investigation. (NOTP, March 21, 1956, p. 1) Banister later was a figure of interest in the Garrison probe and has been alleged to have been personally acquainted with Oswald. Morrison and Banister traveled to Greenwood, Mississippi, to confer personally with Senator Eastland for more than three hours. "Describing the conference as completely 'satisfactory,' Morrsion said, 'Mr. Banister has complete liason with the committee's staff which was the main object of our trip.'" (NOTP, March 23, 1956, p. 1) Less than a week later, plans to hold SISS hearings in New Orleans were announced. (NOTP, March 28, 1956, p. 1) The subcommittee issued subpenas for ten witnesses. Efforts to locate one witness, Hunter Pitts O'Dell, resulted in the seizure of books and documents from a rented room which O'Dell had vacated. Banister termed the library "the finest collection of Communist literature in the South that I have ever seen or heard of." (NOTP, March 23, 1956, p. 1; March 31, 1956, p. 1) Hunter Pitts O'Dell is a figure of some importance because of his later association with Martin Luther King and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. O'Dell's alleged Communist ties were used to discredit Dr. King. (Garrow, David J. The FBI and Martin Luther King, Jr. New York: Penguin Books, 1981) Interestingly, Louisiana political boss and notorious segregationist Leander Perez publicly linked King and O'Dell in March of 1960. (NOTP, March 12, 1960, section 3, p. 2) The SISS held public hearings on April 5 and 6. The NOTP devoted extensive space to coverage of the hearings, including detailed summaries of the testimony of each of the witnessess. (NOTP, April 6, 1956; April 7, 1956). At follow-up hearings in Washington, three additional witnesses, including O'Dell were heard. (NOTP, April 12, 1956, p.1; April 13, 1956, p. 1) The Orleans Parish District Attorney's office announced it was considering prosecuting O'Dell and other SISS witnesses under Louisiana anti-subversion laws. Charges were finally filed in 1957. (NOTP, May 9, 1956, p. 1; March 26, 1957, p. 1; April 4, 1957, p. 8) CONTINUED... http://www.jfk-online.com/jpsbe56sissh.htm... Guy B really, really hated the commies. Why he'd hang out with Oswald is no mystery. Hanging out with Eastland is another matter.  Check out what Gareth Porter says: Leaked Paper on Iranian Nuke Based on Disputed Intel The Iranian Rift in the IAEA By GARETH PORTER October 6, 2009 Excerpts of the internal draft report by the staff of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) published online last week show that the report's claims about Iranian work on a nuclear weapon is based almost entirely on intelligence documents which have provoked a serious conflict within the agency. Contrary to sensational stories by the Associated Press and The New York Times, the excerpts on the website of the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS) reveal that the IAEA's Safeguards Department, which wrote the report, only has suspicions – not real evidence - that Iran has been working on nuclear weapons in recent years. The newly published excerpts make it clear, moreover, that the so-called "Alleged Studies" documents brought to the attention of the agency by the United States five years ago are central to its assertion that Iran had such a programme in 2002-03. Whether those documents are genuine or were fabricated has been the subject of a fierce struggle behind the scenes for many months between two departments of the IAEA. Some IAEA officials began calling for a clear statement by the agency that it could not affirm the documents' authenticity after the agency obtained hard evidence in early 2008 that a key document in the collection had been fraudulently altered, as previously reported by this writer. As journalist Mark Hibbs reported last week in Nucleonics Week, opposition to relying on the intelligence documents has come not only from outgoing Director General Mohamed ElBaradei but from the Department of External Relations and Policy Coordination. CONTINUED... http://www.counterpunch.org/porter10062009... Of course, there's more. Iran Military Industrial Complex Taliban's Tank-Killing Bombs Came from U.S., Not Iran By Gareth Porter | IPS News Fri, 2009-09-04 16:24. In support of the official U.S. assertion that Iran is arming its sworn enemy, the Taliban, the head of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), Dennis Blair, has cited a statement by a Taliban commander last year attributing military success against NATO forces to Iranian military assistance. But the Taliban commander's claim is contradicted by evidence from the U.S. Defence Department, Canadian forces in Afghanistan and the Taliban itself that the increased damage to NATO tanks by Taliban forces has come from anti-tank mines provided by the United States to the jihadi movement in Afghanistan in the 1980s. The Taliban claim was cited by ODNI in written responses to questions for the record from the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence following testimony by Blair before the Committee Feb. 12, 2009. The responses were released to the Federation of American Scientists under the Freedom of Information Act Jul. 30. ODNI wrote that Iran was "covertly supplying arms to Afghan insurgents while publicly posing as supportive of the Afghan government". As evidence of such covert Iranian arms supply, the ODNI said, "Taliban commanders have publicly credited Iranian support for their successful operations against Coalition forces". Read more. CONTINUED... http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=483... And, the money. The Pentagon's Corrupt Sock Puppet "Military Analysts" Exposed by Gareth Porter Investigative historian and journalist Huffington Post Posted: April 20, 2008 09:32 AM Sunday's New York Times, investigative reporter David Barstow exposes television's "military analysts" on the Iraq War as sock puppets of the Pentagon who consciously peddle the Bush administration's talking points on Iraq while hiding their own vested economic interest in selling the public on the Bush administration's happy talk about the war. This very long and very well-documented story lays bare the most blatantly obnoxious feature of the "Military-Industrial-Media Complex" which ensures that the airwaves convey the administration's major messages on the war day in a day out. The story should mobilize the blogosphere and news media figures who still have some integrity to demand immediate reform of a massively corrupt network system of covering military affairs. For starters, the networks should be forced to fire every "military analyst" who has been recruited accepted all-expenses-paid trips to Iraq, uncritically mouthed the administration talking points while concealing their special relationship or maintained vested financial interests in Pentagon contracts through business relationships with contractors. Based on 8,000 pages of email messages, transcripts and records, Barstow recounts a successful effort by Donald Rumsfeld's Pentagon to use retired military officers to create a "media Trojan horse" on the Iraq War. Not only did the "military analysts" routinely violate basic ethical standards of journalism by accepting trips completely arranged and paid for the administration; they were consciously participating in its strategy to manipulate public opinion by regurgitating the pro-war arguments they were given in top-level official briefings -- which they had to promise to keep secret. But even worse, Barstow shows how they had a personal financial stake in parroting the administration's war propaganda. He reports that several dozen military analysts who appear constantly on Fox, CNN and other networks and invariably support the administration's line "represent more than 150 military contractors either as lobbyists, senior executives, board members or consultants." CONTINUED... http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-gareth-po... He doesn't call them the BFEE. Gareth Porter prefers military-industrial-Congressional complex. While I loathed his politics, I will always admire how William Safire did an excellent service in regards to one very important truth.
 William Safire was almost alone tying George Herbert Walker Bush to the illegal arming of Saddam Hussein's Iraq. In fact, very few liberal and almost zero conservative voices have dared oppose the Bush bandwagon, let alone the War Party. The story, read by the late Representative Tom Lantos (D-California), into the Congressional Record (public domain, emphasis by Octafish): THE ADMINISTRATION'S IRAQ GATE SCANDAL BY WILLIAM SAFIRE Congressional Record Extension of Remarks - May 19, 1992 Washington Americans now know that the war in the Persian Gulf was brought about by a colossal foreign-policy blunder: George Bush's decision, after the Iran-Iraq war ended, to entrust regional security to Saddam Hussein. What is not yet widely understood is how that benighted policy led to the Bush Administration's fraudulent use of public funds, its sustained deception of Congress and its obstruction of justice. As the Saudi Ambassador, Prince Bandar, was urging Mr. Bush and Mr. Baker to buy the friendship of the Iraqi dictator in August 1989, the F.B.I. uncovered a huge scam at the Atlanta branch of the Lavoro Bank to finance the buildup of Iraq's war machine by diverting U.S.-guaranteed grain loans. Instead of pressing the investigation or curbing the appeasement, the President turned a blind eye to lawbreaking and directed another billion dollars to Iraq. Our State and Agriculture Department's complicity in Iraq's duplicity transformed what could have been dealt with as `Saddam's Lavoro scandal' into George Bush's Iraqgate. The first element of corruption is the wrongful application of U.S. credit guarantees. Neither the Commodity Credit Corporation nor the Export-Import Bank runs a foreign-aid program; their purpose is to stimulate U.S. exports. High-risk loan guarantees to achieve foreign-policy goals unlawful endanger that purpose. Yet we now know that George Bush personally leaned on Ex-Im to subvert its charter--not to promote our exports but to promote relations with the dictator. And we have evidence that James Baker overrode worries in Agriculture and O.M.B. that the law was being perverted: Mr. Baker's closest aid, Robert Kimmett, wrote triumphantly, `your call to . . . Yeutter . . . paid off.' Former Agriculture Secretary Clayton Yeutter is now under White House protection. Second element of corruption is the misleading of Congress. When the charge was made two years ago in this space that State was improperly intervening in this case, Mr. Baker's top Middle East aide denied it to Senate Foreign Relations; meanwhile, Yeutter aides deceived Senator Leahy's Agriculture Committee about the real foreign-policy purpose of the C.C.C. guarantees. To carry out Mr. Bush's infamous National Security Directive 26, lawful oversight was systematically blinded. Third area of Iraqgate corruption is the obstruction of justice. Atlanta's assistant U.S. Attorney Gail McKenzie, long blamed here for foot-dragging, would not withhold from a grand jury what she has already told friends: that indictment of Lavoro officials was held up for nearly a year by the Bush Criminal Division. The long delay in prosecution enabled James Baker to shake credits for Saddam out of malfeasant Agriculture appointees. When House Banking Chairman Henry Gonzalez gathered documents marked `secret' showing this pattern of corruption, he put them in the Congressional Record. Two months later, as the media awakened, Mr. Bush gave the familiar `gate' order; stonewall. `Public disclosure of classified information harms the national security,' Attorney General William Barr instructed the House Banking Committee last week. `. . . in light of your recent disclosures, the executive branch will not provide any more classified information'--unless the wrongdoing is kept secret. `Your threat to withhold documents,' responded Chairman Gonzalez, `has all the earmarks of a classic effort to obstruct a proper and legitimate investigation . . . none of the documents compromise, in any fashion whatsoever, the national security or intelligence sources and methods.' Mr. Barr, in personal jeopardy, has flung down the gauntlet. Chairman Gonzalez tells me he plans to present his obstruction case this week to House Judiciary Chairman Jack Brooks, probably flanked by Representatives Charles Schumer and Barney Frank, members of both committees. `I will recommend that Judiciary consider requiring the appointment of an independent counsel,' says Mr. Gonzalez, who has been given reason to believe that Judiciary--capable of triggering the Ethics in Government Act--will be persuaded to act. Policy blunders are not crimes. But perverting the purpose of appropriated funds is a crime; lying to Congress compounds that crime; and obstructing justice to cover up the original crime is a criminal conspiracy. SOURCE: http://www.fas.org/spp/starwars/congress/1... # # # "Corruption." What an excellent word. Too bad so few today are brave enough to print it in regards to the Bush political dynasty. God Speed, Mr. Safire.   For those who thought the insurance game couldn't possibly be any Capitalist Health Insurance for All Many 'captive' insurance companies are domiciled in Bermuda and the Cayman Islands, making them one-stop tropical shops for tax shelters and self-insurance. By Terry J. Allen In These Times September 15, 2009 Here’s what corporations know, but don’t want you to find out: Private insurance is for suckers. Armies of healthcare industry flacks, lobbyists and bought-and-paid-for legislators rant that nonprofit, public insurance is a slippery slope to socialist hell, will limit your choice of physicians to Doc Watson and Dr. Kevorkian, and bankrupt the country. But, in fact, most U.S. Fortune 500 companies wouldn’t touch private insurance with a 10-foot colonoscope. When they need to insure their financial health against fire, terrorism, and liability lawsuits sparked by defective products and polluting factories that kill people, they don’t call State Farm. Instead, corporations routinely insure themselves by creating a “captive” insurance company as a wholly-owned subsidiary. “The parent company is insuring its own risk,” says Sandy Bigglestone, of Vermont’s Captive Insurance division. SNIP... We could capture the same sweet deal if we cut out the middleman and insure ourselves. Single-payer health insurance, or at least, a public option, is the counterpart to captive insurance for us peons who get cancer instead of billion-dollar bonuses and $2,000 co-pays for ambulance rides instead of junkets on corporate jets. Under a public option, the government would act as our own wholly owned subsidiary—our nonprofit, low-overhead captive insurer. Most of the world’s captives are domiciled (sounds so homey) in Bermuda and the Cayman Islands, making them one-stop tropical shops for tax shelters and self-insurance. “About 85 percent of the top 50 healthcare systems in the United States have some relationship with the Bermuda market, either through captives domiciled there, or by buying reinsurance for their captives,” insurance insider Judy Hart told the trade group, Bermuda Captive Club. CONTINUED... http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/4882/c... / Anyone else think the game is rigged in favor of corporations? Who did the "rigging"? We certainly know who got "gamed."  ...defendin' Dixie and its perverted "traditional" way of life. |
A few important things to know about the assassination of President Kennedy
President John F. Kennedy was proud to be a Liberal Democrat who worked every day he was in office to keep the peace and to make life better for all Americans. As President, Kennedy worked to make ours a stronger nation and this a better world. Many in the country opposed him for his Liberal perspective on civil rights. Kennedy ordered the integration of more than college campuses, he ordered the FBI and Secret Service to hire African American agents. Others opposed his Liberal policies towards other nations and regions. Kennedy favored economic development of the Third World, rather than the past approach of siding with a particular nation's strongman or oligarch to more economically steal the natural resources. In Africa, his policies were to help people learn to feed themselves, read to their kids, and take care of the sick and elderly. That policy, Kennedy believed, would make the United States longer and better allies. Most, if not all, of his successors returned to the traditional policy of stealing all that a nation had to offer. JFK also made enemies with the most frightening elements of the psychology that is the United States. The monied elite that owns the contracts and politicians that put the pork on the table for their sponsors are no strangers to violence. They make their biggest money off of the most horrible thing there is. So, for his less than three years as President, John F. Kennedy faced the War Party, the military-industrial-governmental complex that did all it could to make the Cold War Hot. Still, the War Party tried to have war over the Bay of Pigs. Kennedy said, "No. The War Party tried to have war over the Cuban Missile Crisis, Kennedy said, "No. The War Party tried to have war in Vietnam and southeast Asia. Then, as well, Kennedy said, "No." Of course, all along when they pushed for war with the Soviet Union, Kennedy said, "No." The War Party presented Kennedy with Operation NORTHWOODS, a plan that suggested the US Government kill Americans and make it look like Cuba did it as a pretext for war with Cuba and the Soviet Union. Kennedy said, "No." And he fired the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff who submitted it. Then came November 22, 1963 and Dallas. After President Kennedy was dead, the War Party made out like Lee Harvey Oswald did it. And the FBI, CIA and Warren Commission (as revealed through Dulles' "Mighty Wurlitzer") left a trail of "fixed" evidence to make it out Oswald was working for Cuba and its master, the Soviet Union. Yet, that is merely a falsehood perpetuated by the nation's political elite and mass media. For according to the records of the United States Government, Oswald worked for the United States. Fight Evil
 Dear DUer and Reader, Thanks for stopping in to check out this journal. I'd also like to thank DU for making it possible. The reason it's here is to get people aware of what the Bush Transnational Criminal Enterprise does to destroy the United States of America; how they loot the nation's Treasury; impoverish We the People; cover our planet with war; work to enslave our children; and kill those who oppose them. My journal also is here to try and help prevent the world these pirates, slavemasters and warmongers work night and day to create. Please feel free to spread the information, opinions, ideas and links. Please let me know if I've made a mistake or if you disagree with me. Please also chip in to add to the evidence against these treasonous, warmongering, mass murdering, profiteering gangsters I refer to as the Bush Family Evil Empire. That name is a bit of a misnomer as they operate to enforce the will of a global ruling elite. To them, evil "is only business." - Octafish Latest Threads
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