Category Archives: Politics

Paul Rosenberg ~ Thomas Jefferson: “We Failed”

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FreemansPerspective.com May 15 2013

Thomas Jefferson – one of my long-time heroes – was convinced that he and his friends blew the chance they had to establish true freedom in America. I know that a hundred thousand self-praising textbooks, speeches, pundits and songs claim that Jefferson and the rest established freedom, but that’s NOT what Jefferson thought, and that is NOT what he said. (You can choose who to believe for yourself.)

Nearly fifty years after the declaration of independence, he was of the opinion that the founders did not fully live up to the moment presented to them.

Here is a letter that Jefferson wrote to John Cartwright on June 5th, 1824. Jefferson’s words are in plain text and my modern paraphrasing of the lines are in italics:

Our Revolution presented us an album on which we were free to write what we pleased. Yet we did not avail ourselves of all the advantages of our position.

The Revolution gave us a shot at real liberty, but we blew it.

We had never been permitted to exercise self-government. When forced to assume it, we were novices in its science. Its principles and forms had little entered into our former education. We established, however, some (but not all) of its important principles…

We weren’t prepared for what we had to do.

We think experience has proved the benefit of subjecting questions to two separate bodies of deliberants. But in constituting these bodies, [we have] been mistaken, making one of these bodies, and in some cases both, the representatives of property instead of persons.

We thought our legislative structure would protect us, but they were bought-off right away.

This double deliberation might be obtained just as well without any violation of true principle, either by requiring a greater age in one of the bodies, or by electing a proper number of representatives of persons, or by dividing them by lots into two chambers, and renewing the division at frequent intervals, in order to break up all cabals.

What we really needed was something that would break up parties and factions.

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Stephen Lendman ~ Close Guantanamo Now!

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Stephen Lendman May 14 2013

As president and commander-in-chief, Obama has legal authority to do so. On May 3, New York City Bar president Carey R. Dunne wrote him. He did so on behalf of the organization he heads.

He called indefinite detention “legally and morally indefensible.” He said 25 retired military flag officers said it’s “an effective recruiting tool for our enemies.”

He urged “concrete steps to restart the process toward closure.”

On May 7, the New York City Bar said “Obama has the authority to close (Guantanamo) under Section 1028 of the National Defense Authorization Act of 2013.”

It’s about transferring detainees “to foreign countries or other foreign entities.”

Obama could begin the process today. He could have done so long ago. He’ll have to explain why not. He bears full responsibility for spurning what he pledged to do.

In 2008, he promised closure. “From both a moral standpoint and a practical standpoint, torture is wrong,” he said.

“Barack Obama will end the use torture without exception. He also will eliminate the practice of extreme rendition, where we outsource our torture to other countries.”

Straightaway as president, he issued Executive Order titled “Review and Disposition of Individuals Detained at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base and Closure of Detention Facilities.”

A previous article explained. Sec. 3 states: “Closure of Detention Facilities at Guantanamo. The detention facilities at Guantanamo for individuals covered by this order shall be closed as soon as practicable, and no later than 1 year from the date of this order.”

“If any individuals covered by this order remain, they shall be returned to their home country, released, transferred to a third country, or transferred to another United States detention facility in a manner consistent with law and the national security and foreign policy interests of the United States.”

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Scott McConnell ~ Stephen Hawking And The Boston Globe: Two Breaks In The Wall

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The American Conservative May 14 2013

BDS = Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions ~G

It’s hard to know which is the bigger deal, Stephen Hawking’s BDS-inspired decision to drop out of a high-powered conference in Israel (a country he has visited several times before) or the Boston Globe’s endorsement of Hawking’s protest. Both actions would have been virtually inconceivable five years ago, and both reflect the broader impatience of mainstream, high-prestige Western institutions and personalities with Israel’s intensifying land-grabbing on the West Bank and its longstanding practice of using the never-ending “peace process” to camouflage policies of slow-motion ethnic cleansing.

Hawking of course is a global celebrity, renowned as a top theoretical physicist who has triumphed professionally despite suffering from the most debilitating of diseases. His defiance is celebrated in graphic form here and analyzed perceptively by the Israeli anti-occupation journalist Larry Derfner here. Derfner doesn’t really like BDS but notes that nothing else to date has worked: the Israeli public seems all too happy to elect governments which support the occupation, the United States is too timid to try “tough love” on Israel, and it’s very difficult for the Palestinians to make non-violent protest effective against an occupier using live ammunition, midnight arrests, and detention without trial. Not that they aren’t trying.

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Prof Michel Chossudovsky ~ America Is Losing Its Covert Syria War: US Sponsored Al Nusra Rebels Defeated By Syrian Armed Forces

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Global Research May 12 2013

obamaosama2Recent reports from the ground suggest that America and its allies are losing their covert war in support of the Al Nusra front. In recent weeks, the US sponsored Al Qaeda affiliated rebels have been decimated by the Syrian Armed Forces.

A nationwide offensive has been launched with the support of Russia and Iran. The weapons supply routes of the rebels have been disrupted:

“the [Syrian] army has concentrated on starving, and cutting off “rebel” supply routes and arms corridors, which predominantly run through Northern Lebanon,  Turkey, and Jordan” (SeeBuying Time in Syria by Phil Greaves, Global Research, May 11, 2013)

Al Nusra is largely made up of mercenaries recruited in Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar. Covert (Western) special forces and military advisers have also integrated their ranks.

The Al Qaeda affiliated terrorists directly funded by Washington constitute the foot-soldiers of the Western military alliance.

Confirmed by CNN, the Al Nusra terrorists have also been trained in the use of chemical weapons by special forces on contract to the Pentagon:

The training [in chemical weapons], which is taking place in Jordan and Turkey, involves how to monitor and secure stockpiles and handle weapons sites and materials, according to the sources. Some of the contractors are on the ground in Syria working with the rebels to monitor some of the sites, according to one of the officials.

The nationality of the trainers was not disclosed, though the officials cautioned against assuming all are American. (CNN, December 09, 2012, emphasis added

And once these Al Qaeda rebels had been supplied and trained in the use of WMDs by military contractors hired by the Pentagon,  the Syrian government would then be held responsible for using the WMD against the Syrian people.

US Sponsored Terrorists

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Pam Martens ~ The Cost To A Democracy From Spying On The Associated Press

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Wall Street On Parade May 15 2013

Eric Holder

We now know that the U.S. Department of Justice spied for two months on over 100 Associated Press reporters, secretly obtaining their work, home and cell phone records showing the phone numbers of their sources. The records covered phone calls made in April and May 2012 in AP bureaus in New York City, Washington, D.C., Hartford, Connecticut and the House of Representatives. No advance notification was given to the Associated Press.

Yesterday, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press issued a stern critique of the Justice Department action, writing:

“The scope of this action calls into question the very integrity of Department of Justice policies toward the press and its ability to balance, on its own, its police powers against the First Amendment rights of the news media and the public’s interest in reporting on all manner of government conduct.”

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The Resident ~ How 47% Of Congress Became Millionaires [Video]

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RTAmerica May 13 2013

According to many sources, about 47% of Congressmembers in the US are millionaires. Many of them became this rich, and richer, using their office as a way to make money. Whether through earmarks, insider trading, the revolving door, or otherwise, should Americans be more outraged? The Resident (aka Lori Harfenist) takes a look at the issue.

Jonathan Turley ~ Nixonian Or Obamaesque? Obama Administration Spied On Associated Press Editors And Reporters

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Jonathan Turley May 14 2013

I recently published a column on how Barack Obama has publicly assumed many of the powers that were once cited as the basis for the investigation and attempted impeachment of Richard Nixon. One of those areas was the Obama Administration’s crackdown on journalists. This week Attorney General Eric Holder appears to have yet again added to this ignoble record. It appears that the Justice Department secretly obtained two months of telephone records of reporters and editors for The Associated Press. This disclosure follows another recent disclosure that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) targeted conservative groups associated with the Tea Party. Yet, once again, most Democrats remain silent in a type of cult of personality where principle is discarded in favor of loyalty to the President.

The spying on reporters by the Obama Administration included outgoing calls for the work and personal phone numbers of individual reporters. The seizure covered general AP office numbers in New York, Washington and Hartford, Conn. The Justice Department showed no restraint or concern, even including the AP in the House of Representatives press gallery. It now appears that in a few years historians could well be saying the Nixon was perfectly Obamaesque in his abuses.

AP President and Chief Executive Officer Gary Pruitt has written a letter to Holder objecting to the spying, noting that “[t]here can be no possible justification for such an overbroad collection of the telephone communications of The Associated Press and its reporters.” I would be equally upset with the mere fact of the spying as opposed to its breadth.

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J. D. Heyes ~ South Carolina To Criminalize Implementation Of Obamacare; Showdown With Feds Inevitable

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NaturalNews May 13 2013

SC Governor Nikki Haley

More and more states are beginning to challenge the Obama Administration over what they view as unconstitutional abuses of power, especially regarding firearms and health care. The latest example comes from South Carolina, whose legislature has passed a measure declaring Obamacare to be “null and void” and criminalizing its implementation.

Lawmakers in the House passed the Freedom of Health Care Protection Act by a vote of 65-39, which seeks to “prohibit certain individuals from enforcing or attempting to enforce such unconstitutional laws; and to establish criminal penalties and civil liability for violating this article.”

According to reports, the measure would permit the state attorney general, with reasonable cause, “to restrain by temporary restraining order, temporary injunction, or permanent injunction” anyone who is believed to be causing harm to any state resident or business through implementation of the Obamacare law.

‘Not now, not ever’

House members appear to be following the lead of Republican Gov. Nikki Haley, who declared in her State of the State Address earlier this year that South Carolina neither wants nor can afford President Obama’s signature legislative accomplishment, “not now, not ever.”

“To that end, we will not pursue the type of government-run health exchanges being forced on us by Washington,” she said. “Despite the rose-colored rhetoric coming out of D.C., these exchanges are nothing more than a way to make the state do the federal government’s bidding in spending massive amounts of taxpayer dollars on insurance subsidies that we can’t afford.”

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Paul Joseph Watson ~ Groundbreaking New Bilderberg Revelations Coming Soon

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Infowars.com May 12 2013

Key intelligence uncovered: Transformation of Bilderberg into new breed of technocratic elite

Infowars reporter Paul Joseph Watson outside the Grove Hotel, Hertfordshire.

Major new revelations concerning the secretive Bilderberg Group have been uncovered by Infowars reporters who visited the Grove Hotel in Watford, UK – site of the elitist confab’s 2013 get-together.

With international policy having been set by Bilderberg for decades behind closed doors with complete contempt for transparency and the democratic process, the organization is in the process of merging with a new breed of technocrats under the umbrella of Google – with the behemoth corporation being handed the baton by Bilderberg to implement policies in a variety of different fields, both technology-related and geopolitical.

Infowars reporters who visited the Grove were able to document how the site is being used as an outpost for social media-driven regime change under the auspices of the “Arab Spring”.

The hotel is a key encampment for the newly extended private corporate-global government.

Other sources had already indicated that this was unfolding which is why Infowars reporters were sent to the Grove well in advance of Bilderberg’s 2013 confab.

The information set to be released is a game changer and will highlight how Bilderberg is transforming itself into a new technocratic elite, with Google at the helm.

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Sartre ~ Committing Treason And Benghazi Murder Cover-up

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BATR May 12 2013

iraqdeaths.gifTake off your partisan hat and open your minds to the actual uninterrupted high treason that is part of the foreign policy establishment. Party politics is often just a show that plays to their respective bases. However, the tract and direction of extending the transnational empire just continues on a global scale. The full-blown treason committed by every administration that practices the internationalist vision of democracy domination is really a masquerade for worldwide dominion. Presidents are mere temporary talking heads for the oligarchy that actually rules. Murdering their own diplomats and hired help is incidental, when 1,455,590 Iraqi deaths since the U.S. invasion are ignored and dismissed.

Just how well is the consistent and bipartisan aggressive interventionist foreign policy doing? Go over the list of The Arab Spring country by country.

The Wall Street Journal provides a timeline on U.S. Government Reaction to the Benghazi Attack. “For days after the Sept. 11 attack in Benghazi, Libya, intelligence officials and the Obama administration said it was likely the outgrowth of protests sparked by an anti-Islamic video made in the U.S. Follow some of the administration statements on the Libya attack.”The infamous propaganda voice for the Obamaistas, Media Matters puts forth their partisan spin in, What Dick Cheney’s Benghazi Criticism Misses.

“David Martosko of the Daily Mail Online provided former Vice President Dick Cheney a platform to criticize the Obama administration’s failure to anticipate the September 11, 2012 attacks on U.S. diplomatic facilities in Benghazi, Libya, without noting that seven attacks on U.S. diplomatic facilities occurred during the Bush administration.”

Such diversion seeks to limit focus on the literal events that caused the Benghazi attack and the real reasons why Ambassador Christopher Stevens was left to perish by the Obama/Clinton foreign policy team of betrayers.

The shameful chronicle of the intentional and politically motivated stand down that doomed Stevens and his defenders was sensitively told during Gregory Hicks’ 30 Minute Recount of Benghazi Attack. While the Congressional hearings were praised for the attempt to restrain partisan grandstanding, the Washington press corps avoids placing blame on the administration as a tenant of their loyalty test. A government cover-up is made easy when the imperium friendly media is reporting on a proclaimed progressive administration.

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Stephen Lendman ~ Israeli Lobby Power In America

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Stephen Lendman’s blog May 13 2013

In 1949, the American Zionist Council (AZC) was established. It operated until 1962. It was ordered to register as a foreign agent.

It failed to do so. It transferred its responsibilities to AIPAC. It calls itself “America’s Pro-Israel Lobby. It operates as an unregistered foreign agent.

It’s done so since 1953. With rare exceptions, no one in Congress confronts it. It wields enormous influence over US foreign policy. It fronts for Israeli lawlessness. It’s one of 52 major US Zionist organizations.

James Petras’ important book titled “The Power of Israel in the United States” discussed its enormous influence on US policy. It’s done so for over half a century.

It has deep roots throughout government, the business community, the dominant media, academia, the clergy, and powerful wealthy Jewish families.

Broad support comes from doctors, lawyers, accountants, other professionals, philanthropists, journalists and others.

Challengers risk being intimidated, blackmailed, smeared, pressured, removed from positions of authority, or called national security or terrorist threats.

Senator J. William Fulbright (1905 – 1995) first called Congress “Israeli-occupied territory.” He said “Israel controls the United States Senate. We should be more concerned about United States’ interests,” he added.

Former US Joint Chiefs Chairman Admiral Thomas Moorer (1970 – 1974) said:

“I’ve never seen a President – I don’t care who he is – stand up to (the Israelis). It just boggles the mind. They always get what they want.”

“The Israelis know what is going on all the time. If the American people understood what a grip those people have got on our government, they would rise up in arms. Our citizens certainly don’t have any idea what goes on.”

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Stephen Lendman ~ Obama’s Syria Game Plan: Libya 2.0

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Stephen Lendman May 10 2013

Obama’s already waging multiple direct and proxy wars. He’s heading America for more. Media scoundrels support it. They back all US aggression. They’re beating the drums again now. They’re manipulating public sentiment for support.

Russia, China and most other nations want peace. May 8 commemorates Victory in Europe Day (VE Day). Russia’s toll was greatest. For many, war horrors still echo.

On May 9, Russia commemorated Victory Day. Ceremonies included an elaborate Red Square military parade. Vladimir Putin spoke on the occasion. He’s mindful of Washington’s imperial plans. He stressed Russia’s commitment to peace, saying:

“We remember what the tragedy of war means, and we will do everything, everything that we can to ensure that no one ever dares unleash another one, to ensure that no one threatens our children, our home, our land.”

“We will do everything to strengthen global security.”

Washington, key NATO partners, Israel, and other regional allies threaten it. They’re heading incrementally for more war. Ousting Assad remains policy.

On May 9, Secretary of State Kerry reiterated where America stands.

During a meeting with Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh, he claimed all sides were working to “effect a transition government by mutual consent of both sides, which clearly means that in our judgment President Assad will not be a component of that transitional government.”

In other words, Assad must go. Syrians have no say. International law doesn’t matter. US-prioritized regime change overrules it. Washington rules alone count. Same old, same old remains policy.

Recent events suggest what’s coming. Israel’s very much involved. Last weekend’s premeditated bombings were a joint US/Israeli operation. Very likely they advanced the ball toward full-scale intervention.

Falsely accusing Syria of using chemical weapons did so further. Western-backed death squad massacres blamed on Assad pile on more.

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