CANDELA

Should the Marines get a medal or charges be filed against them?

2012-01-13T18:38:00.000-08:00

Understand that these Taliban fighters will kill you without even thinking about it. they will torture you and cut off your head. these are the people that the Marines were pissing on..Should we file charges?? I ask what charges should we file?? I say look at the nature of our enemy there and understand the anger of these men. Maryann Cummings has her offical word as follows:

Maryann B. Cummings, a spokeswoman for the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, said the Marines are in the United States. They have not been arrested, and authorities have not decided whether to press charges.

Cummings did not identify the Marines depicted in the short video, which shows them laughing as they urinate on three male bodies lined up on the ground next to a toppled wheelbarrow. A video caption refers to the corpses as “dead Talibans,” but it was unclear whether they were civilians or fighters killed after a battle.

Does Your dog Violate US Immigration Laws??

2011-08-09T01:51:00.000-07:00

My dog sleeps about 20 hours a day.

She has her food prepared for her.

She can eat whenever she wants, 24/7/365.

Her meals are provided at no cost to her.

She visits the Dr.. Once a year for her check-up, and again during the year if any medical needs arise.

For this she pays nothing and nothing is required of her.

She lives in a nice neighbourhood in a house that is much larger than she needs, but she is not required to do any upkeep. .

If she makes a mess, someone else cleans it up.

She has her choice of luxurious places to sleep.

She receives these accommodations absolutely free.

She is living like a Queen, and has absolutely no expenses whatsoever.

All of her costs are picked up by others who go out and earn a living every day.

I was just thinking about all this, and suddenly it hit me in the head like a ton of bricks,

My dog must be an Illegal Immigrant!!!!

When We Think About The Months and Years Ahead We Are Thinking About Unemployment, The National Debt, Healthcare Cost, China, ...And so Much MORE....

2011-07-19T05:31:00.000-07:00

So Many Questions...So Little Time

We keep getting emails like this but no light shines on the perplexing question!

From a high school classmate of over 50 years ago:

This came from a union guy in Chicago who didn't vote for Obama. Very,

very interesting perspective that I never thought of in this light.

It will be interesting to see what they put in his "Presidential Library"

about his early years when he is out of office.

In a country where we take notice of many, many facets of our public

figures' lives, doesn't seem odd that there's so little we know about our

current president, Barack Obama. For example, we know that Andrew Jackson 's wife

smoked a corn cob pipe and was accused of adultery; Abe Lincoln never went

to school; Jack Kennedy wore a back brace; Harry Truman played the piano.

As Americans, we enjoy knowing details about our news makers, but none of

us know one single humanizing fact about the history of our own president.

We are all aware of the lack of uncontestable birth records for Obama;

that document managing has been spectacularly successful. There are however,

several additional oddities in Obama's history that appear to be

as well managed as the birthing issue.

It's interesting that no one who ever dated him has shown up. The charisma

that caused women to be drawn to him so strongly during his campaign,

certainly would in the normal course of events, lead some lady to come forward,

if only to garner some attention for herself. We all know about JFK's

magnetism, that McCain was no monk and quite a few details about Palin's

courtship and even her athletic prowess Joe Biden's aneurisms are no secret; look

at Cheney and Clinton, we all know about their heart problems.. Certainly

Wild Bill Clinton's exploits before and during his White House years, were

well known. That's why it's so odd that not one lady has stepped up and

said, "He was soooo shy..." or "What a great dancer..."

It's virtually impossible to know anything about this fellow.

Who was the best man at his wedding? Start there. Then check groomsmen.

Then get the footage of the graduation ceremony. Has anyone talked to the

professors? It is odd that no one is bragging that they knew him or taught

him or lived with him.

When did he meet Michele, and how? Are there photos there? Every President

gives to the public all their photos, etc. for their library, etc. What

has he released? And who in hell voted for him to be the most

popular man in 2010? Doesn't this make you wonder?

Ever wonder why no one ever came forward from President Obama's past

saying they knew him, attended school with him, was his friend, etc?? Not one

person has ever come forward from his past.

It certainly is very, very strange...

This should be a cause for great concern. To those who voted for him, you

may have elected an unqualified, inexperienced shadow man. Have you seen a

movie named "The Manchurian Candidate"

As insignificant as each of us might be, someone with whom we went to

school will remember our name or face; someone will remember we were the clown

or the dork or the brain or the quiet one or the bully or something about

us.

George Stephanopoulos of ABC News, said the same thing during the 2008

campaign. He questions why no one has acknowledged the president was in their

classroom or ate in the same cafeteria or made impromptu speeches on

campus. Stephanopoulos also was a classmate of Obama at Columbia -- the class of

1984. He says he never had a single class with him..

He is such a great orator; why doesn't anyone in Obama's college class

remember him? Why won't he allow Columbia to release his records?

Nobody remembers Obama at Columbia University ....

Looking for evidence of Obama's past, Fox News contacted 400 Columbia

University students from the period when Obama claims to have been there.. but

none remembered him.

Wayne Allyn Root was, like Obama, a political science major at Columbia

who also graduated in 1983. In 2008, Root says of Obama, "I don't know a

single person at Columbia that knew him, and they all know me. I don't

have a classmate who ever knew Barack Obama at Columbia , ever."

No body recalls him. Root adds that he was also, like Obama, Class of '83

Political Science, and says, "You don't get more exact or closer than that

Never met him in my life, don't know anyone who ever met him. At

the class reunion, our 20th reunion five years ago, who was asked to be

the speaker of the class? Me. No one ever heard of Barack! And five years

ago, nobody even knew who he was. The guy who writes the class notes, who's

kind of the, as we say in New York , 'the macha' who knows everybody, has yet

to find a person, a human who ever met him."

Obama's photograph does not appear in the school's yearbook and Obama

consistently declines requests to talk about his years at Columbia, provide

school records, or provide the name of any former classmates or friends while

at Columbia

Some other interesting questions..

Why was Obama's law license inactivated in 2002?

Why was Michelle's law license inactivated by court order?

It is circulating that according to the U.S. Census, there is only one

Barack Obama but 27 Social Security numbers and over 80 alias.

The Social Security number he uses now originated in Connecticut where he

is never reported to have lived.

No wonder all his records are sealed....

Please feel free to copy and resend these very interesting questions. MAYBE SOMEONE HAS SOME ANSWERS.
Thanks for sharing this Karyn

America's Stocks Plummet In The Wake Of June's Jobs Report

2011-07-09T06:27:00.000-07:00

U.S. stocks opened sharply lower Friday after the government said businesses added the fewest jobs in June in more than a year. The unemployment rate rose to 9.2 percent.

Employers created only 18,000 jobs last month, a fraction of what economists expected. The Labor Department also lowered its estimates for the number of jobs created in April and May.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index dropped 15 in morning trading, or 1.2 percent, to 1,338. That erased the index's gains from Thursday and left it flat for the week.

In the face of this President Obama’s senior political adviser David Plouffe said Wednesday that people won’t vote in 2012 based on the unemployment rate.

Plouffe should probably hope that’s the case, since dismal job figures aren’t expected to get any better for Obama and the economy.

Most economists expect a report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics to show that the nation added about 100,000 jobs in June. That’s not enough to keep up with population growth, let alone lower the unemployment rate or make a dent in the 9 million jobs lost during the so called Great Recession.

As a consequence the Dow Jones industrial average fell 123 points, or 1 percent, to 12,597. The Nasdaq composite index fell 28, or 1 percent, to 2,844.

Hiring slumped in May due partly to high fuel prices and disruptions of industrial supplies because of the earthquake and tsunami disasters in Japan. Those problems now appear to be more persistent than many analysts had expected.

"There's just a lot more evidence than before that we're in an extended weak patch," said Brian Gendreau, market strategist for Cetera Financial Group. He said private economists will likely reduce their projections for overall economic growth this year.

Traders rushed to the relative safety of government bonds. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell to 3.04 percent from 3.19 percent just before the jobs report came out. Bond yields fall when demand for them increases.

Weak economic data this spring had pushed stocks near their lowest levels of the year two weeks ago. Markets recovered after signals that the economy was rebounding, and closed near their 2011 highs on Thursday. It now appears that those peaks, reached on April 29, will stand for the time being

Liberal, Urban, Elitist, Hate Palin - She is A Giant Threat To Hollywood

2011-06-30T01:32:00.000-07:00

Sarah Palin Brian C. Frank/REUTERS PELLA, Iowa -- Sarah Palin stared a bit uncomfortably at a movie screen Tuesday night watching a montage of Matt Damon, David Letterman, Madonna, Howard Stern, Bill Maher, Louis C.K. and other celebrities malign her, then asked The Hollywood Reporter: "What would make someone be so full of hate?"

Palin was in Pella, Iowa, at the premiere of a documentary about her called The Undefeated, which opens with several minutes of Hollywood entertainers using some of the most vulgar language imaginable to express their displeasure with the former vice presidential candidate. Some appear genuinely angry, and director Steve Bannon cuts to news footage twice in the film of Palin being hung in effigy.

After the movie, as throngs of supporters and reporters clamored for attention, THR asked her: "In the first 10 minutes where all the celebrities are trashing you, how do you respond to something like that?"

Splashy Sarah Palin Movie Premiere Shuts Out Hollywood; Turns Away Journalists

Palin said she hadn't seen or heard much of the TV and radio footage before seeing it in the movie, which bleeped some of the dirtier language, though it was easy to determine what the entertainers were saying, including lots of profane references to the female anatomy.

"This is the first that I've seen much of that. It kind of takes you back," she told THR. "It makes you want to reach out to some of these folks and say, What's your problem? And what was the problem? And what is the problem?

Sarah Palin's 'Undefeated' Doc Sets World Premiere for Tuesday in Iowa

"What would make a celebrity, like you saw on screen, so hate someone that they'd seek their destruction, their death, the death of their children? What would make someone be so full of hate and, I guess, a sense of being threatened that they would want to see that person destroyed?"

The movie begins with Sen. John McCain introducing his running mate, then quickly cuts to the Hollywood sign, and the music turns ominous. A TV news anchor says, "Hollywood has a new favorite pastime: taking aim at Sarah Palin."

Then the celebrity montage begins: Damon likens Palin to a "really bad Disney movie" and says she's "really scary"; Letterman attacks her, and the discourse descends in to the filthy from there. Maher insults her on his TV show, Madonna screams obscenities about her while on stage, and comedians use graphic, severely bleeped language to describe Palin and the intensity with which they "hate her."

VIDEO: New Sarah Palin Documentary Emerges

When the montage is through, the screen goes dark and a Bible verse comes into focus: "By their fruits ye shall know them."

As things got pushy with the media and the rest of the crowd and a security detail got more aggressive in protecting the former governor of Alaska, THR asked if she intended on defending herself against future celebrity barbs.

"I think the movie does that for me. But you know, there's never really a venue that absolutely lets somebody set the record straight. I mean, there are so many false narratives about me, about Todd, about our kids, about my record, about my team that has worked so hard together, that there's never gonna be a way to absolutely set the record straight."

Michele Bachmann all but stole the show at the Republican presidential debate

2011-06-14T07:19:00.000-07:00

Republican presidential hopefuls (l. to r.) former Sen. Rick Santorum (R) of Pennsylvania, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R) of Minnesota, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich (R) of Georgia, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, Rep. Ron Paul (R) of Texas, former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, and former Godfather's Pizza CEO Herman Cain took part in the first New Hampshire debate of the 2012 campaign at St. Anslem College in Manchester, N.H., on June 13

The congresswoman used her bluntness and charm to overshadow the men at the GOP debate—announcing her presidential bid and passionately defending the Tea Party. Howard Kurtz on why she shouldn’t be underestimated.
Michele Bachmann all but stole the show at the Republican presidential debate.
The only woman on the New Hampshire stage deftly utilized the CNN spotlight Monday night to announce that she filed her papers to officially run for president, setting off a flood of breaking-news alerts in the event’s opening moments. But she accomplished far more than that.
The Minnesota congresswoman got the first audience roar of the night, promising that Barack Obama would be a one-term president.

She offered a passionate and inclusive defense of the Tea Party, saying that unlike the distorted picture painted by the media, the movement includes “disaffected Democrats,” “independents,” “libertarians” and “people who have never been political a day in their lives.” That, she declares, “is why the left fears it so much.”
She even positioned herself as a truth-teller, saying she “fought against my own party” behind closed doors by opposing the Bush administration’s much-reviled TARP bailout plan.
Not bad for a rookie who kept smiling as she reeled off her best lines.
In fact, Bachmann equivocated only once, when she couldn’t choose between Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash. Go figure.
Bachmann is relatively new to the national stage, but as anyone who has watched her in action understands, she knows how to play this game.
Many people think of Bachmann and Sarah Palin as cut from the same cloth, but beyond their obvious similarities as outspoken conservative women, they are distinctly different. Bachmann, a decade older at 55, had a career as a tax lawyer and is well versed in the finer points of legislation. She is not only a third-term House member but spent a half-dozen years before that in the Minnesota Senate.

“I will not rest until Obamacare is repealed…It’s a promise, take it to the bank, cash the check.”

Predicting Our Foreign Policy Is An Impossible Task For the Average Taxpayer

2011-06-12T06:11:00.000-07:00

Click For Larger Image

US Immigration Policies 2011 - Is This Correct ??? Its Time To Wake Up America-

2011-06-07T06:09:00.000-07:00

IF YOU CROSS THE NORTH KOREAN BORDER

ILLEGALLY YOU GET 12 YEARS HARD LABOR.

IF YOU CROSS THE IRANIAN BORDER

ILLEGALLY YOU ARE DETAINED INDEFINITELY.

IF YOU CROSS THE AFGHAN BORDER

ILLEGALLY, YOU GET SHOT.

IF YOU CROSS THE SAUDI ARABIAN BORDER

ILLEGALLY YOU WILL BE JAILED.

IF YOU CROSS THE CHINESE BORDER

ILLEGALLY YOU MAY NEVER BE HEARD FROM AGAIN.

IF YOU CROSS THE VENEZUELAN BORDER

ILLEGALLY YOU WILL BE BRANDED A SPY AND YOUR FATE WILL BE SEALED.

IF YOU CROSS THE CUBAN BORDER ILLEGALLY

YOU WILL BE THROWN INTO POLITICAL PRISON TO ROT.

IF YOU CROSS THE U.S. BORDER ILLEGALLY YOU GET !!!

A JOB,

A DRIVERS LICENSE,

SOCIAL SECURITY CARD,

WELFARE,

FOOD STAMPS,

CREDIT CARDS,

SUBSIDIZED RENT OR A LOAN TO BUY A HOUSE,

FREE EDUCATION,

FREE HEALTH CARE,

A LOBBYIST IN WASHINGTON BILLIONS OF DOLLARS WORTH OF PUBLIC DOCUMENTS PRINTED IN YOUR LANGUAGE.

THE RIGHT TO CARRY YOUR COUNTRY'S FLAG WHILE YOU PROTEST THAT YOU DON'T GET ENOUGH RESPECT.

AND, IN MANY INSTANCES, YOU CAN VOTE.

I JUST WANTED TO MAKE SURE I HAD A FIRM GRASP ON THE SITUATION !!!

IT'S TIME TO WAKE UP AMERICA

White Teachers Forced to Sue for Gross Racisim From Black Principal - Sharpton's Role In this Behaviour

2011-05-25T05:38:00.000-07:00

As we reflect upon an April 20th, 2011 post stating, “When the country needs patriots Al Sharpton continues to be divisive" it is not suprising to find the following incident in the news!”

To see previous posting go to ..search box.."sharpton"

This post was based on a Utube video titled “Sharpton’s NAN race rants”.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCxPXQdaxY4

As you watch this video you will hear the black committee call explicitly for blacks educating blacks and refer to white teachers as not being qualified to teach black students.

I think that Charles Ray 111 , Principal accused of racial behavior, was also in attendance of this meeting as he carried their agenda of hate forward expertly.
Whether you like Sharpton or despise him, one will have to recognize that his words are powerful in the black community.

As we go forward in this perilous age, as we seek to snuff the fires of evil around the world and to keep those at bay that would seek to harm us;
Since we have entered the age of 9/11 as a united people in our shared pain, these words and actions coming from the mouth of Sharpton smack of an enemy of America; a traitor;
A traitor to his country and to his people, in my opinion. Sharpton is an element not far removed from the perpatrators of 9/11 who would destroy us from within.
As I read this article I was saddened but not surprised.
Read for yourself and share your opinion either here or by email.

Note: I found that it is beginning to be difficult to find a full article on this incident so I will publish the links for your convenience below:

http://www.newsvine.com/_news/2011/05/17/6661786-pa-lawsuits-whites-told-they-cant-teach-blacks

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1388634/White-teachers-sue-black-headmaster-claims-unfit-teach-African-American-students.html

The article is as follows:

PHILADELPHIA — Four white Philadelphia teachers filed federal race-bias lawsuits that accuse a black principal of creating a hostile work environment and suggesting they were unfit to teach black children.

The teachers work at a predominantly black elementary school that has a recent history of racial tension. Their lawsuits say that a former principal had them read an article that said "white teachers do not have the ability to teach African-American students."

The teachers also allege that the principal, Charles Ray III, and others undermined their work by reprimanding them, randomly changing their room assignments and letting black teachers ignore rules that their white counterparts had to follow. Ray also retaliated when they filed union grievances, they said.

"Charles Ray III consistently stated that he had a relationship with top school officials indicating that his conduct was part of an approved policy or was part of a pattern of practices sanctioned and supported by `higher authority,'" the suits allege.

The teachers — Nicole Boyd, Debra McKibben Marenbach, Colleen Yarnell and Marta Ciccimaro — filed the lawsuits last week, demanding more than $150,000 each. Courthouse News Service first reported on the complaints Tuesday.

The school district had no immediate comment, spokeswoman Shana Kemp told The Associated Press.

Kemp said she was not immediately authorized to say if Ray still works for the district. A message left at a possible home number for him was not immediately returned.

Racial tensions among staff at Thomas Mifflin Elementary School have simmered before.

A white principal left about four years ago amid a chorus of complaints from black parents. One mother testified at a City Council meeting in December 2007 that she had heard the administrator say Muslim students looked like "flying nuns," according to news reports.

In April 2008, vandals defaced a mural on the side of the school with anti-Semitic graffiti.

Ray arrived that fall, and lasted only for the 2008-09 school year, the lawsuit said.

The surrounding East Falls neighborhood is largely white and, in some sections, wealthy. Residents include former Gov. Ed Rendell and former U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter. But many white families in the area send their children to private schools.

Mifflin currently has about 270 students, 86 percent of them black and 85 percent of them poor, according to school district data.

The defendants include the local teachers union and a supervising teacher whom Ray allegedly ordered to go through personnel files and investigate their home and personal lives.

Lawyers for the teachers did not immediately return calls for comment.

President Obama What Have You Done To Us?

2011-05-22T00:42:00.000-07:00

Click to enlarge

What have YOU done to us Mr. President ! ?

Where have you lead us?

Where are our friends and allies?

Where has our "American Dream"future gone?

Where is our International and Economic foundation?

Where is our National pride?

Where is our power to lead the world?

Where is our wealth?

What have YOU done to our America?

Businessman

Homeowner

College Grad and Serviceman

Senior

Mother

Where is our future now!?

Can we get it back?

Mitt Romney is the focus of the first attack ad of the 2012 presidential race

2011-05-20T08:20:00.000-07:00

Mitt Romney is the focus of the first attack ad of the 2012 presidential race, with an independent group for President Obama tagging Romney as both a flip-flopper and a politician who would not protect Medicare.

http://www.youtube.com/embed/w_HccSnw6GY

“Mitt Romney says he's 'on the same page' as Paul Ryan, who wrote the plan to essentially end Medicare,” a narrator says, as dark, black and white images of the former Massachusetts governor flash across the screen. “But with Mitt Romney, you have to wonder...which page is he on today?"
The ad, which also tweaks Newt Gingrich, is going to be running in South Carolina just as Romney makes his first visit of the year to the state tomorrow.
The ad is being run by Priorities USA Action, a political action committee that is headed by President Obama’s former deputy press secretary, Bill Burton. The group can accept unlimited donations and is meant to counter Republican groups that were formed during the 2010 midterm elections. Those groups were criticized at the time by top Democrats, who have filed legislation to curb the influence of outside money in politics.
" President Obama and his team are desperate to change the subject to anything other than jobs and the millions of Americans out of work,” Andrea Saul, a spokeswoman for Romney’s presidential exploratory committee, said in a statement. “With 9.6% unemployment in South Carolina, voters are looking for a jobs plan not a smear campaign."
Romney tomorrow is planning to visit Irmo, S.C., to discuss the economy and meet with employees at Meetze Plumbing. It is his first trip to the Palmetto State this year.
Romney has in fact said that he and Ryan were “on the same page,” although he has not wholly embraced the Wisconsin Republican’s budget plan, which includes drastic cuts to Medicare. Romney said last week that he would at some point present his own plan on reforming the health care program for the elderly sand said it would “not be identical but shares objectives” with Ryan’s plan.

Trumph Announces He Will Not Run For President

2011-05-16T17:36:00.000-07:00

This answers my previous question about Trump asked here when he announced his interest in running for president. The question was:

Will Donald Trump have the willingness of spirit and patriotic drive to leave the farm, so to speak, and serve Washington in the spirit of our Founding Fathers?

Following is Trump’s full statement:"After considerable deliberation and reflection, I have decided not to pursue the office of the Presidency. This decision does not come easily or without regret; especially when my potential candidacy continues to be validated by ranking at the top of the Republican contenders in polls across the country. I maintain the strong conviction that if I were to run, I would be able to win the primary and ultimately, the general election. I have spent the past several months unofficially campaigning and recognize that running for public office cannot be done half heartedly. Ultimately, however, business is my greatest passion and I am not ready to leave the private sector.

"I want to personally thank the millions of Americans who have joined the various Trump grassroots movements and written me letters and e-mails encouraging me to run. My gratitude for your faith and trust in me could never be expressed properly in words. So, I make you this promise: that I will continue to voice my opinions loudly and help to shape our politician’s thoughts. My ability to bring important economic and foreign policy issues to the forefront of the national dialogue is perhaps my greatest asset and one of the most valuable services I can provide to this country.

The Modern Miracle of Donald Trump- Indy 500 and Trump-Liberal Media bias Toward Donald Trump

2011-05-09T07:26:00.000-07:00

This is Liberal Media throwing in the preverbal kitchen sink!

Click to enlarge

Donald Trump has turned down an offer to drive the pace car at the Indianapolis 500 because it would be "inappropriate" while he considers a possible 2012 run for the Republican presidential nomination, race organizers said on Thursday.

Like a true Presidential candidate the press is now following every move Donald Trump makes. Of course the latest is the decline to drive the pace car at the Indy 500.It strikes me that any decision would have been wrong for some reporters who openly hate Donald Trump. The above cartoon is an example of the press attempting to discredit Donald Trump and prevent him from getting the Republican nomination, of course.

One would think that If he is truly a ridicules candidate then the left wing should welcome an automatic looser to the opposing ranks; seemingly this is not the case! We should begin to see what Donald Trump’s political metal is made of now that he is getting pounded by the Obama’s slobbering, media storm - troopers.

The latest cartoon throws in everything including the kitchen sink which is all self explanatory and is indicative of the hatred that has been generated by the liberal media toward Donald Trump. All of it is straight forward hatred except for the IMS president firing Trump which stands for” Institute of Mathematical Statistics”. This little tidbit is not so straight forward! This is the preverbal kitchen sink!
Maybe the left should read the polls which puts Trump, who is not even an official candidate, just slightly behing Obama.

Reactions to this controversy have been interesting and as follows: If this is indicative of what is yet to come then President Obama may pray to his God that the liberal media and Opera Winfrey do their jobs. Everyday people are sick and tired and are beginning to express it rather candidly!

1- This is bullshit. His political views have NOTHING to do with driving the pace car. It bothers me that a bunch of loony libs can make some noise and Indy cowers and backs down.
Look, I certainly don't agree with some of what Trump says, and don't think he is honestly running for president anyway. But it really aggravates me when people force their ideologies onto others like this. "We don't like what he said about Obama, so he can't drive the pace car!"
What does one have to do with the other? Nothing.
Because you don't like what he says about the Messiah he can't do a public appearance?

2- You sir must hate the basic premise of Free Enterprise. Indy is a private corp that can do what they want. People out cried that they don't what Trump, Indy decided that there was enough noise for them to cancel. Had it been...say... Michelle Obama and people got mad and Indy canceled would you still be so mad? Honestly I could care less if he did or did not drive the pace car, I think it would be nice to have a Indy Legend drive it. It is called the grass roots movement, any small group of people can make a lot of noise and get more peopled involved to make a change, that is what the Tea Party is suppose to be about. I say what EVER about the whole thing.

3- Oh, but if I say it's wrong for Obama to do a Super Bowl commercial, or that his overweight wife shouldn't be telling me what I can or can't eat, I'm a racist?
F- YOU you bunch of hypocrites.

4- If you don't like Trump, fine. Don't watch his show, don't stay at his hotels, don't gamble in his casinos, and don't vote for him if he runs. By forcing Indy to shun him, to reneg on him driving the car, because you don't like what he says or stands for, is, for lack a a better term, facist.
Give him the f-ing keys.

Pakistan is Not Our Friend ~ Pakistan Is Not An Ally ~ Is Pakistan an enemy??

2011-05-05T20:31:00.000-07:00

Death To America they scream on their way to the bank with American tax dollars!

This is Pakistan where Billions of are tax dollars are spent. Americans are devils but our money is a blessing.

ISLAMABAD - Pakistan, in clear allusion to India, said on Thursday any country that tried to raid its territory in the way US forces did to kill Osama bin Laden would face consequences from its military.
Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir dismissed any suggestion the Pakistani military or its main spy agency had been involved with al-Qaeda and issued a blunt warning against any further intrusions.
Bashir did not directly respond to comments from the White House that US President Barack Obama reserved the right to take action again in Pakistan, but said there were “a number of questions” about how the covert raid took place.

See full article at:

http://nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online/Politics/06-May-2011/Pakistan-dares-India-to-breach-border

In addition the Pakistan Army has issued a warning to the US in the aftermath of the Bin Laden mission.

Is it TIME FOR A CHANGE YET??

Bush Understandably declines Obama's invitation to Ground Zero

2011-05-04T06:50:00.000-07:00

WASHINGTON –
A spokesman for George W. Bush says the former president has declined an invitation from President Barack Obama to attend an observance at New York's ground zero.

Obama plans to visit the site of the destroyed World Trade Center towers Thursday in the aftermath of a Navy SEALs raid that killed Osama bin Laden. The al-Qaida attack, which killed about 3,000 people, occurred in the early months of Bush's presidency in 2001.

The spokesman, David Sherzer, says the former president appreciated the offer to attend but has chosen to remain out of the spotlight during his post-presidency.
Sherzer says Bush celebrates bin Laden's death as an "important victory in the war on terror."

There is no need for President Bush to be there..He has already had his time at Ground Zero which I am sure he will never forget as we all will not forget. I will say that as Americans we all are united in spirit as we have seen justice done and we are grateful for it. I would say further however, enjoy your sucess Mr President , it is well deserved but do not gloat or it will likely haunt you.

Aftermath - Pakistan is in Turmoil - full investigation into failure of Intellengence to find Osama bin Laden

2011-05-03T06:09:00.000-07:00

New Cover

Time told LeParisien News that on Monday it will publish a special issue on Osama bin Laden , which would reveal a face of the head of Al-Qaeda died marked with a red cross, as he had already made for Adolf Hitler and Saddam Hussein.

The Most Hated Man In The World

Pakistan is in turmoil today: Islamabad wants to launch a "full investigation" on the failures of his intelligence services in their hunt for Bin Laden. The terrorist leader, whose Pakistani intelligence had lost track repeatedly, in fact, lived for several months at a hundred kilometers from Islamabad. Moreover, Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari Monday defended his country against accusations of not doing enough to track down the leader of al-Qaeda, insisting that Pakistan "had taken its share" of work.

Justice is Done-The most-wanted fugitive, Osama bin Laden, on the US list, has been killed on Sunday in a US operation

2011-05-02T00:38:00.000-07:00

No man suffers injustice without learning, vaguely but surely, what justice is.

~Isaac Rosenfeld~

As Americans and world citizens we have bitterly endured the injustice of 9/11. Today we understand more profoundly what justice means.

Justice is Done-The most-wanted fugitive, Osama bin Laden, on the US list, has been killed on Sunday in a US operation in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad, about 150km north of Islamabad.

In addition to the September 11^th massacre, Washington has also linked bin Laden to a string of attacks - including the 1998 bombings of American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania and the 2000 bombing of the warship USS Cole in Yemen.

Today we are grateful that justice has been done and in this way have honored and hopefully have brought some closer to the many victims of his (Osama bin Laden’s) violent life.

* The LORD is known by the judgment which he executeth: the wicked is snared in the work of his own hands. Higgaion. Selah.
(Psalm 9:16)

In an Al Jazeera report news from the Middle East states:

"Tonight, I can report to the people of the United States and the world, the United States had carried an operation that has killed Osama Bin Laden, a terrorist responsible for killing thousands of innocent people," Obama said in a statement.

"Today, at my direction, the United States carried out that operation... they killed Osama bin Laden and took custody of his body.

"The death of bin Laden marks the most significant achievement to date against al-Qaeda.

"We must also reaffirm that United states is not and will never be at war against Islam. Bin Laden was not a Muslim leader, in fact, he slaughtered many Muslims," Obama said.

US celebrations

As the news of bin Laden's death spread, crowds gathered outside the White House in Washington DC to celebrate.

Former US president George Bush called his death a "momentous achievement".

"The fight against terror goes on, but tonight America has sent an unmistakable message: No matter how long it takes, justice will be done," Bush said in a statement.

According to Al Jazeeera's Rosalind Jordan in Washington, the operation had been in the making for the last nine or 10 months.

"The fact that it happened inside Pakistan, there have been suggestions that Pakistani intelligence may have been protecting them," she said.

Patty Culhane, another Al Jazeera correspondent, said the US authorities got intelligence last September and were able to track bin Laden down through his couriers. They followed them to his compound which is reported to be worth over a million dollars.

Reporting from Pakistan, Al Jazeera's Kamal Hyder said the development had caught a lot of people by surprise .

"He was considered by many as a hero, but not to the extent that people would come out on the streets. The reaction so far not likely to be strong on the streets, perhaps a protest here or there by the religious parties," he said.

'Symbolic victory'

Qais Azimy, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Kabul, said Afghan officials described bin Laden's killing as a "symbolic victory", since he was no longer directly connected to the group's field operations.

Mark Kimmit, a US military analyst, said bin Laden's death "was not the end of terrorism, but an end of a chapter."

"Capturing or killing bin Laden has more iconic value. It will have symbolic value, because it has been a number of years since bin Laden has exercised day to day control over operations. We still have an al-Qaeda threat out there and that will be there for a number of years.

"This organization (al-Qaeda) is more than bin Laden, it may be symbolised by bin Laden, but it definitely is more than bin Laden," he said.

It is, however, a major accomplishment for Obama and his national security team. Obama's predecessor, George Bush, had repeatedly vowed to bring to justice the mastermind of the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington, but never did before leaving office in early 2009.

He had been the subject of a search since he eluded US soldiers and Afghan militia forces in a large-scale assault on the Tora Bora mountains in 2001. The trail quickly went cold after he disappeared and many intelligence officials believed he had been hiding in Pakistan.

While in hiding, bin Laden had taunted the West and advocated his views in videotapes spirited from his hideaway.

Thank You Ana for this Bloggers Award

2011-04-27T08:40:00.000-07:00

Thank you Ana for remembering me in your loop of delightful and distinguished readers. I was delighted to receive this award from you especially because I admire your work, your perception of life.I always enjoy your blog, http://coneltiempoenmisbrazos.blogspot.com , and your comments / observations on mine.

It was very difficult for me to choose only 7 Blogs to honor for this exercise as there are so many that have contributed in various ways to my life. However, I will play by the rules and choose my 7. Each of these Blog authors, in my estimation have made consistent contributions to others in their life and work on the web. I am very proud to list them here and pass along this award to each. I am not particularly given to doing this sort of chain but I have decided to do this one time.

If you want to follow this as well then You have to indicate seven features of your own character and give this award to 7 blogs that you admire or appreciate. If you don’t want to follow, don’t worry you CAN just take the award and do nothing. J

Congratulations to all of you!

http://myteapartychronicle.blogspot.com/
Cheryl Pass from North Carolina provides a bold political prospective about American life today. She is articulate and posts consistently in the form of political commentary which is always perceptive, researched and well thought out. Cheryl is a good read any day. Cheryl is also a talented artist and has other blogs showcasing her work.

http://thinkspin.blogspot.com/

Hailing from the US..With Lauren nothing is sacred. Her prospective rivals any comedian I have ever seen and her work never fails to make me smile.

http://hailaplimbare.blogspot.com/
Elena from Rumania, has a wonderful spirit as she reaches out to anyone who will come to her and read.

http://dunaaldesnudo.blogspot.com/

From Spain Duna will make you laugh and cry. She is a romantic first and last and a prolific poet. She reaches a wide audience who are stimulated by her work daily.

http://jensmith379.blogspot.com/
Jennifer also hails from the southern US where she blogs about her life in the South which is the culture she loves. She has a husband and son who all her readers get to know and a wonderful spirit that she projects always. Jennifer is a real humanitarian and reading her on blogspot or face book will always make you smile.

http://sheltersky.blogspot.com/
From the US kungmee is a talented photographer and Social Worker. In addition to consistently posting the beauty of the world in her unique way she describes herself as follows:
" What started as a need and desire to reach out to other Korean Adoptees and to also to look within myself has led me through an incredible journey. Since I had started my first blog, Korean American Adoptee Home is Within, I have reconnected with my family in Korea as well as found my younger brother in the Netherlands. I have also connected with many other adoptees,APs, and Artists who I feel are truly inspirational and empowering individuals. It has paved a way for me to learn, discover, and express my visions of how I see this world we share!. "

http://eusougourmet.blogspot.com/

From Portugal eu sou gormet is a wonderful critic of Portuguese cuisine. Through his work you will learn recipes from the best chefs in the country, and learn where to go for a taste of the good life! If you love food you will love eu sou gourmet any day.

I can only say BRAVO to you all and thank you for all of your work that makes our world a better place in your special way!

As per the rules I will now list 7 of my characteristics as follows: YIKES J

1- I am loyal by nature to friends, commitments, employers, those I love and family.

2- I am impatient – also I am self-directed, a planner and find myself impatient with others who might slow me down or put up roadblocks. I am also impatient with things I perceive as ignorance particularly when this behavior hurts others.

3- I am creative in that I need to make tasks interesting and love looking at the other side of the coin.

4- I am an excellent communicator. I have become a very detail oriented person in terms of completing tasks and meeting deadlines so I have learned the art of follow-through.

5- Sometimes thoughtless with birthdays, holidays, etc..Here lies a contradiction in terms of my organizational skills, I admit!

6- I feel like an explorer in life, love learning and experiencing new things. I have never lost the thrill of a "new discovery" or the wide-eyed amazement of a kid when I encounter something new and wonderful.

7- I am perceptive..This has been both a blessing and a curse for me but it helps me stay grounded and directed none-the-less.

Thanx Everyone
Carl

The Guardian says the break-out rivals anything pulled off by British Prisoners of War in the infamous Stalag Luft III German camp.-Taliban fighters escape in mass Afghan prison break - No Comment From The White House

2011-04-26T06:05:00.000-07:00

It becomes increasingly difficult for President Obama to justify the position of intending to close Guantanamo , of releasing the Taliban or refusing to take responsibility of holding these men securely. The Taliban have demonstrated that high security is required to hold these fighters in custody as they did previously in the break of 2007. The recent Wikileaks information notwithstanding does not negate this. The jail break will now endanger all American and all NATO forces now serving in Afghanistan. President Obama appears most interested in straddling the fence in an effort to begin his campaign for reelection.

As usual there has been no comment from the White House on the recent jail break. Just like there has been “ no comment” from the Whitehouse regarding one of President Barack Obama's close friends who has been arrested in Honolulu on suspicion of soliciting a prostitute.

No comment seems to be the theme when the going gets tough in this White House..

How will you protect our country and American citizens going forward Mr. President? Shall we exercise MORE tolerance and become MORE culturally sensitive?

No Comment Mr. President ??

Will Obama propose a multicultural conference to “talk it out like people do in a civilized society”, as he is so fond of saying? Will we hear from Sec. Gates soon before these men kill us? Shall we continue to be mindful of the sensitivities in the Afgan / Pakistani part of the world? Is it about time we go into this war, and there is no mistake it is a war, to win or just leave? At least we need to be decisive in our future path and with an “End Plan”, unlike the Iraq war.
Will we rely on France to guide us toward a solution through NATO in Afghanistan? It seems we have abrogated our leadership status with NATO in the Libyan conflict, with the exception of approving the use of drones, as our puppet Sec. Gates proudly relayed to the press, Sarkozy has certainly taken the lead there. Also, is President Obama aware that the rebel forces that we are ironically supporting in Libya are in part Taliban?
NPR reports:

“ In a troubling revelation for the United States and its allies as they seek to back anti-government forces in Libya who are fighting to oust longtime strongman Moamer Kadhafi, the documents showed one of the rebels' presumed trainers has closer ties to Al-Qaeda than previously thought.

Abu Sufian bin Qumu was engaged in violent extremist activities for two decades, previously training at two Al-Qaeda camps, fighting with the Taliban against the Soviet Union and the Northern Alliance and serving as Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden's driver in Sudan, according to NPR.”

So I ask what we are doing?? Where is our direction and what is our end plan? How will the United States benefit by this action and isn’t this a huge philosophical and political contradiction?
Is anyone angry yet?

The news as reported in the UK on the break is as follows:

"The freeing of so many hardened insurgents comes just before the summer "fighting season", and could potentially reverse some of the gains Nato made over the winter in intensified operations aimed at killing and capturing as many insurgents as possible.
It is also the second time huge numbers of prisoners have managed to escape the prison in just three years. In June 2008, the Taliban stormed the prison, using a suicide bomber to break a hole in a prison wall. The operation allowed 870 inmates, including 390 insurgents, to escape.
Afghan and Nato forces have launched a huge operation to try to recapture 475 prisoners, nearly all of them Taliban insurgents, who staged an extraordinary mass prison breakout using a tunnel.
Officials said the inmates had escaped through the tunnel, dug from a house to the wing of the prison where political prisoners are detained in Kandahar.
In an email, Zabiullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesman, said the tunnel was 1,050ft (320 metres) long and had taken five months to construct, "bypassing enemy check posts and Kandahar-Kabul main highway leading directly to the political prison".
He said just three insurgents inside the prison had known about the plot. They helped ferry the prisoners out of the jail in an operation lasting four and a half hours.
He said that by 3.30am on Monday morning, the entire political wing of the prison was emptied of inmates. These had been ferried off to "secure destinations" by a fleet of cars the Taliban had organized.
The message, written in near-perfect English, crowed over the failures of the security forces: "The most astonishing thing throughout the operation, as reported by mujahideen informants, was that all the enemy forces inside the prison, which includes foreign invaders, did not notice the results of the operation even four hours later and hence has not released any statements."

Libya - a Springboard For France On The World Stage- Where is America Now? Has America abrogated the role of global marshal?

2011-04-21T23:15:00.000-07:00

Article by Gary Anderson who is a retired Marine Corps officer. He is also an Adjunct Professor at the George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs.

Posted by Candela_cvp

Let’s make something clear, the civil war in Libya will not end in a stalemate. The French will likely intervene with ground forces and topple the Gaddafi regime, and they will probably do it within a month. It is quite possible that they will do so with Italian help. President Obama has fervently wished for America to be just one of the boys; in the end, this may be a case of wishing for something so much that you get it. America has abrogated the role of global marshal that it assumed after World War II. Every posse needs a Marshal to lead it. The French will likely pick up the tin star they found lying in the street of the global village.

When General Petraeus asked the famous question, “tell me how this ends?” early in the Iraq war, he was signaling unease about launching conflicts with no clear idea of how the world should look after the fighting stopped; the military calls this an “end state”. When he had a chance to do something about it, Petraeus as a caveat for assuming command in Iraq, insisted that the civilian side of the government craft a clear end state and give him adequate forces to pursue it. By the 2008 election, both candidates were promising never again to get us involved in an open ended conflict. Fast forward to 2011, where we have embarked on a military campaign with no clear strategic objective other than to “do something”; having done something that is clearly not enough, the administration seems at a loss. At this point, we have a strategic leadership vacuum, and the French will probably fill it.

There are four reasons why the French will step in. The first is that President Sarkozy is a student of history. France got involved in two disastrous stalemates in the last century on the western front in World War I and in Indochina mid century. These twin debacles coupled with the fiasco of the French collapse in 1040 sucked the vitality out of French martial traditions. France cannot afford a long war of incremental escalation such as the American involvement in Vietnam, and his country’s earlier Indochina experience.

A second reason is that France clearly fears and cannot tolerate, another wave of Muslim immigration into a country already on the brink of seeing the Gallic race becoming a minority in their own homeland. Italy is even more vulnerable in France in this respect as she is Libya’s former colonial ruler and a likely destination of choice for refugees. That is why I believe that the Italians may assist in a ground intervention.

Third, Sarkozy clearly wants French world, or at least regional, leadership restored. He wants to succeed where De Gaulle failed, and the Libyan situation presents a golden opportunity to restore the martial traditions of the French glory days of the Sun King and Napoleon.

Finally, of the European powers, only France retains a credible power projection capability beyond continental Europe. Although her constitution greatly restricts the use of the regular French Army beyond the defense of metropolitan France, she has maintained a volunteer expeditionary army in the Foreign Legion and her Marines (expeditionary infantry) which would be more than capable of dispatching Gaddafi’s battered loyalist forces.

None of this is to say that the French may not be walking into a situation similar to that we faced in 2004-6 in Iraq when Iraqi factions fought over the remains of their country and the more radical factions turned on their would-be Coalition Force liberators. Libya will likely be a mess for years to come. However, I am suggesting that the U.S. will not be calling the shots if the French intervene decisively, and we should think about if that is what we really want.

In fairness to President Obama, this is what he promised he would do and it is where the first President Bush also wanted us to go. The United States is just another rider in the posse at this point. If the posse threatens to become a lynch mob, we no longer have the decisive vote; nor do we have a veto if the rest of the posse decides to let the guy in the black hat go free. If the American people really want that, they are about to get. I have no choice to defer to the will of the majority if that is really what the majority wants; but I don’t have to like it.

Sharpton continutes to be divisive inspite of America's need for patriots

2011-04-20T07:39:00.000-07:00

Sharpton continutes to be divisive inspite of America's need for patriots

As you will see in the following clip Sharpton and his cronies now want only blacks educating blacks and to close construction jobs to fill positions with black workers..Seeing this in this day and age sickens me but tells us just what the hell is wrong with our government/society today!!
Sociologist Orlando Patterson has referred to him as a racial arsonist! Fox continues to give him air time which makes them no better in this regard.
Is there no one in media or gorverment that is not selfserving?
So when we begin to cut the PORK there is no better place to start. Cut these organizations that pander to nonscense! We need every citizen black/white or green to stand tall, to come togeather or we may not get another chance. Still we have this idiot carrying his own divisive agenda inspite of our national crises. Below is a video of this travisty. Judge for yourselves.

http://www.youtube.com/embed/DCxPXQdaxY4

Will Donald Trump have the willingness of spirit and patriotic drive to leave the farm and serve Washington in the spirit of our Founding Fathers?

2011-04-16T00:19:00.000-07:00

???

Donald Trump may be the hero of the century should he step up and run for PRESIDENT OF The UNITED STATES.

His fortune of approximately 2.5 Billion dollars and his profound influence across America and around the world, on many different levels, puts him in a very elite class if not a class by himself.

When I reflect on the premises with which this country was founded and when I think of how presidents and cabinet members came to serve I see a quality that is surprisingly Trumpesc.

For those Founders that could afford , men left their law practices, plantations and business to go to Washington and serve their country. They made this sacrifice for the creation, the betterment and for the development of our America. The strength of character and willness to serve for the greater good is a hallmark left by our Founders.

The list is long but when I think of men of service and strength of character I think of men like John Jay (December 12, 1745 – May 17, 1829) who was an American Politician, statesman, revolutionary, diplomat, a Founding Father of the United States, and the first Chief Justice of the United States (1789–95).

As per Wikipedia:

Jay served as the President of the Continental Congress from 1778 to 1779. During and after the American Revolution, Jay was a minister (ambassador) to Spain and France, helping to fashion United States foreign policy, and to secure favorable peace terms from Great Britain (with Jay's Treaty of 1794) and the First French Republic. Jay also co-wrote the Federalist Papers, along with Alexander Hamilton and James Madison.

After compounding an extraordinary life of accomplishments and service to the country, as one of the active creators of our America, Jay retired from public service to live the life of a farmer until his death.

I think of a more contemporary John Kennedy, who paid the ultimate price in service, and reflect on his words as he, in the spirit of our founding fathers, articulated in his Inaugural Address on January 20^th, 1961 the following:

"The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring to this endeavour will light our country and all who serve it -- and the glow from that fire can truly light the world.And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country.

My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man.

Finally, whether you are citizens of America or citizens of the world, ask of us the same high standards of strength and sacrifice which we ask of you. With a good conscience our only sure reward, with history the final judge of our deeds, let us go forth to lead the land we love, asking His blessing and His help, but knowing that here on earth God's work must truly be our own."

The gifts of so many men and women have made this country great and interestingly this is what brings me back to Donald Trump.

There has never been a man that has had so much and would gain so little by serving in our government.

There is not one thing that the Presidency of the United States can offer Donald Trump in terms of quality of life that he has not already achieved. Not perks nor planes..the truth is that living at the White House might be a step down for The Donald!

Will Donald Trump put his life on hold to live in the White House and make a contribution to his country?? ..To our country!

Will Donald Trump have the willingness of spirit and patriotic drive to leave the farm, so to speak, and serve Washington in the spirit of our Founding Fathers?

Will it be that the largest legacy of the billionaire from New York, is yet to come?

As I reflect on our crushing national debt, wars on several fronts and an embarrassing foreign policy I must confess that I am excited, although reservedly so, by Donald Trump’s words in a Fox interview saying

“I will make us proud of America again”!
Can He ??? Will He ???

Trump to Announce His Run for President

2011-04-14T00:50:00.000-07:00

If you wonder whether Donald Trump is serious about running for president, tune in to the finale of “The Celebrity Apprentice” on May 15.

Trump plans to say on the NBC show that he will be holding a press conference a few days after the May 15th show. At that press conference in the Trump Tower in New York, Trump will be announcing his candidacy for the presidency.
Even then, many will snicker that it’s all a publicity stunt. But that defies the facts and common sense.

However, Donald Trump is generating more than just media interest by flirting with a presidential run. A country music singer has written a song about the business mogul and TV star. The song, “Trump, Trump, Trump The Boys Are Marching!” was sent to TheIowaRepublican.com this morning

Of all the people on the planet, Donald Trump is the last person who needs more publicity. And if he is riding a groundswell of support, why would he—or anyone else—decide not to run?

Since writing the first story in January to report that Trump will definitely run, I have been amazed at how much the idea of a Trump presidency is catching on across the political spectrum. As I wrote in my story, Don’t Underestimate Donald Trump for President, he can be outrageous and boastful. But when it comes to a successful run at the presidency, don’t count him out!
Watching him on TV, you never got a sense until recently that Trump is a conservative. But those who know him best say he has long held hard-core conservative beliefs on fiscal and national security issues. After a recent chat with Trump, Reince Priebus, chairman of the Republican National Committee and an arch conservative, found him “credible.”

“If I run and if I win, this country will be respected again,” Trump promised to wild applause at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC).

What motivates Trump is his disgust with President Obama, whom he considers a “disaster.” Instead of using euphemisms to describe terrorists, as the Obama administration has done, “I would go after terrorists like nobody in history,” Trump tells me.

Hungry for a change from politicians who speak out of both sides of their mouth, people appreciate Donald’s take-no-prisoners solutions to the problems the country faces. They figure that a guy who has amassed a fortune of $2.4 billion can be trusted to handle the economy and foreign affairs. Unlike other Republican candidates, Donald will have the media on his side.

A Republican operative who is impressed by him asked me whether Trump has any problems.

“Does he drink?” he asked.
To those who know Donald, that is humorous. As Donald told me this week, he has never had a drink in his life. Then he added with a chuckle, “But I have other problems.”
No doubt those problems, including womanizing between marriages, will come out. But what will also become clear—as depicted recently on “The Oprah Show”—is that he has been a model father to his five kids.
No matter how involved he is in a conference or a negotiation, he always takes their calls.
Every morning, Trump reads the papers with his 4-year-old Barron, commenting on developments. His devotion to his kids and loyalty to friends speak volumes about his character.
From talking with him, I can tell that he has thought through the details of running. Agree with him or not, those who think Trump is pulling a publicity stunt have trouble grasping the novelty of a non-politician caring enough about his country to run for president.In part contributed by Ronald Kessler is chief Washington correspondent of Newsmax.com.

Soros Warns Moral Hazard ‘Looms’ - Oh Really !!!!

2011-04-13T05:48:00.000-07:00

Read this carefully. If your scared your normal!

Moral hazard in the financial system “looms larger than ever before,” even after the Dodd-Frank law gave U.S. federal agencies tools to regulate institutions that may be deemed too big to fail, said billionaire investor George Soros.
“The evidence is overwhelming that the first priority of the authorities is to prevent a market collapse, and everything else has to take second place,” Soros, chairman of Soros Fund Management LLC, said yesterday at a conference in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire.
Paul Volcker, former Federal Reserve Chairman, challenged the notion that large financial institutions wouldn’t be allowed to collapse, and asked Soros whether the extra yield on Goldman Sachs Group Inc. bonds relative to Treasurys would widen if the firm gave up its bank license.
“Probably currently it wouldn’t go up very much, but it would go up,” Soros said.
The Fed allowed investment banks Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley to convert to bank holding companies in September 2008. Dodd-Frank, the financial-regulation law enacted in July, gave the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. authority to wind down complex firms after the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. exacerbated the credit crisis and forced the U.S. to bail out companies including American International Group Inc.
“So you’re not 100 percent sure,” Volker replied. “You want a tough administrator, you get Sheila Bair up here and she’ll tell you what will happen if you fail on her watch.”
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Chairman Bair told bankers last month that while the Dodd-Frank law is not “perfect,” it will strengthen the sector by giving the agency tools to regulate “too-big-to-fail” institutions.
Goldman Sachs Notes
Goldman Sachs’ $1.5 billion of 5.15 percent notes due January 2014 traded at 107.21 cents on the dollar to yield 111.6 basis points more than similar-maturity Treasurys as of April 8, according to Trace, the bond-price reporting system of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority.
“It’s clear they’re clinging to this banking license they got during the crisis because they think the market would permit them to fail if they weren’t a bank,” Volker said. “Otherwise, why would they be holding onto the banking license with all the additional regulation?”
Volcker, 83, is known for taming inflation in the 1980s as Fed chairman and he provided advice on economic issues as well as the rewriting of regulations for financial institutions. The law enacting those regulations included the so-called Volcker rule, which banned proprietary trading at banks and restricted their investments in private-equity and hedge funds.
He was President Barack Obama’s head of Obama’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board and was replaced by General Electric Co. Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey Immelt.
Moral Hazard
Europe’s refusal to allow members of the monetary union to restructure their debt has added to moral hazard in the financial system, Soros said. Portugal will start negotiations with the European Union and the International Monetary Fund this week on a rescue package estimated at 80 billion euros ($116 billion). The country was forced to seek aid, following Greece and Ireland, after its budget gap helped drive up borrowing costs.
“Look at the situation in Europe, for instance, where authorities are insisting on no renegotiation or restructuring on outstanding debt because that could possibly provide a financial banking crisis,” Soros said. “At the present we bail out, but in the future we will bail in. It has absolutely no credibility.”
Soros Bets
Soros, 80, reportedly made $1 billion in a successful bet in 1992 that Britain would fail to keep its currency in a European exchange-rate system that pre-dated the euro. Other successful trades included a bet that the deutsche mark would rise after the collapse of the Berlin wall and a wager that Japanese stocks would start to tumble in 1989.
He and Volker spoke at a conference sponsored by the Institute for New Economic Thinking, which Soros helped found and supports.
U.S. and European officials met in Bretton Woods in 1944 to draw up rules that governed much of the world economy for almost three decades. Nations agreed to fix exchange rates, establish the International Monetary Fund and start the process of rebuilding Europe’s economy in the aftermath of World War II.
The Bretton Woods era ended in 1971, when inflation forced the U.S. to abandon the dollar’s peg to gold, an anchor of the system, heralding the era of floating exchange rates.

Our National Debt 2011 - Thank you health Care Reform ..

2011-04-12T00:08:00.000-07:00

Libya- C.I.A. Shadow Force Directs Air Strikes & and gathers Intelligence

2011-04-02T20:32:00.000-07:00

With the U.S. role in Libya at a turning point, the next critical decision is how, if at all, the U.S. chooses to support the opposition forces, particularly in the face of the ongoing budget crisis at home. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he is opposed to arming the rebels, a step his boss President Barack Obama has not ruled out.

While Obama has insisted that no American military ground troops participate in the Libyan campaign, small groups of C.I.A. operatives have been working in Libya for several weeks as part of a shadow force of Westerners that the Obama administration hopes can help bleed Colonel Qaddafi’s military, the officials said.

In addition to the C.I.A. presence, composed of an unknown number of Americans who had worked at the spy agency’s station in Tripoli and others who arrived more recently, current and former British officials said that dozens of British special forces and MI6 intelligence officers are working inside Libya. The British operatives have been directing airstrikes from British jets and gathering intelligence about the whereabouts of Libyan government tank columns, artillery pieces and missile installations, the officials said.

American officials hope that similar information gathered by American intelligence officers — including the location of Colonel Qaddafi’s munitions depots and the clusters of government troops inside towns — might help weaken Libya’s military enough to encourage defections within its ranks.

Breaking Report From Libya- Are We Doing A deal With The Devil?

2011-03-31T08:11:00.000-07:00

In a breaking AP report from Libya it is clear that in spite of Obama’s statement that we will not send troops into Libya we now have teams installed there.
To quote the report:
“In another blow to the regime, U.S. officials revealed Wednesday that the CIA has sent small teams of operatives into rebel-held eastern Libya while the White House debates whether to arm the opposition.”
These CIA teams are unquestionably teams of Special Forces who operate in small groups designed to carry any mission as is ordered.

Obama said in a national address Monday night that U.S. troops would not be used on the ground in Libya. This statement came on the heels of an admission by the White House they were unsure if these rebels could oust Gadhafi if the US and Allies did not increase assistance and was seeking UN support to provide assistance as needed.
The specific nature of increased intervention that was proposed is unclear at this time. This recognition is also coupled with the attitude of these rebels who were quick to praise the French after their first air strikes and followed this praise by saying that they could complete the job so please leave!
Within 2 days these rebel forces were begging for more air assistance as they were pummeled by regime forces.
Again we are finding a military action which is ambiguous in almost every respect. Are we doing a deal with the devil, as they say, to carte blanche support these rebel’s assent to power in war torn Libya? Do we have safe guards in place to insure the installation of a democracy or will these rebels, once they have the power, then tell us all to kiss off like they have demonstrated to the French at their first glimmer of success?
These are the thoughts of your “Question Box” making it's debut here on Candela.

Your , frank thoughts and questions are also more than welcome here.

Detroit ~ No Evidence of a Recovering Economy~ DEM'S Ecomomic Recovery Proves to Be Obamacide!!

2011-03-22T21:44:00.000-07:00

Laying bare the country’s most startling example of modern urban collapse, census data on Tuesday showed that Detroit’s population had plunged by 25 percent over the last decade. It was dramatic testimony to the crumbling industrial base of the Midwest, black flight to the suburbs and the tenuous future of what was once a thriving metropolis.

This was the largest percentage drop in history for any American city with more than 100,000 residents, apart from the unique situation of New Orleans, where the population dropped by 29 percent after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, said Andrew A. Beveridge, a sociologist at Queens College.

The number of people who vanished from Detroit — 237,500 — was bigger than the 140,000 who left New Orleans.

The loss in Detroit seemed to further demoralize some residents who said they already had little hope for the city’s future.

“Even if we had depressing issues before, the decline makes it so much harder to deal with,” said Samantha Howell, 32, who was getting gas on Tuesday on the city’s blighted East Side. “Yes, the city feels empty physically, empty of people, empty of ambition, drive. It feels empty.”

Detroit’s population fell to 713,777 in 2010, the lowest since 1910, when it was 466,000. In a shift that was unthinkable 20 years ago, Detroit is now smaller than Austin, Tex., Charlotte, N.C., and Jacksonville, Fla.

“It’s a major city in free-fall,” said L. Brooks Patterson, the county executive of neighboring Oakland County, which was also hit by the implosion of the automobile industry but whose population rose by almost 1 percent, thanks to an influx of black residents. “Detroit’s tax base is eroding, its citizens are fleeing and its school system is in the hands of a financial manager.”

Nearly a century ago, the expansion of the auto industry fueled a growth spurt that made Detroit the fourth-largest city in the country by 1920, a place it held until 1950, when the population peaked at almost two million. By 2000, Detroit had fallen to 10th place.

Depending on final numbers from all cities, Detroit now may have dropped to 18th place, said William Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution.

City officials, cognizant of the negative political and financial consequences of such a decline in population, said they intended to challenge the census. It probably missed tens of thousands of residents, they said.

“While we expected a decline in population, we are confident these figures will be revised,” Mayor David Bing said in a statement. He told reporters that if the city could account for a total of 750,000 people, it would meet a threshold for receiving more federal and state money.

Detroit is the only city in the United States where the population has climbed above one million but also fallen below one million, Mr. Beveridge said. And because of the magnitude of Detroit’s population drain, Michigan is the only state to register a net population loss since 2000. Michigan’s population fell by 0.6 percent while the nation’s as a whole grew by 9.7 percent.

The reasons for Detroit’s losses over the last decade include the travails of the auto industry and the collapse of the industrial-based economy.

“There’s been an erosion of the nation’s industrial base, and this is the most dramatic evidence of it,” Mr. Beveridge said.

But a major factor, too, has been the exodus of black residents to the suburbs, which followed the white flight that started in the 1960s. Detroit lost 185,393 black residents in the last decade.

“This is the biggest loss of blacks the city has shown, and that’s tied to the foreclosures in the city’s housing,” Mr. Frey said. Because of the Great Migration — when blacks flowed from the South to the North — and the loss of whites, he said, “Detroit has been the most segregated city in the country and it is still pretty segregated, but not as much.” At one point, the city was 83 percent black.

Many blacks moved to nearby suburbs, but census data shows that even those suburbs have barely held their own against population loss.

The staggering loss over the past decade surprised even demographers who track Detroit’s out-migration patterns.

“I never thought it would go this low,” said Kurt Metzger, an urban affairs expert and demographer who analyzes data about the city.

“This is the biggest percentage loss that Detroit has ever seen,” he said, noting that the city suffered a higher numerical loss, 300,000, from 1970 to 1980. Still, that accounted for only 20 percent of the population, which had been 1.5 million in 1970.

The question now is the degree to which the most recent census figures will discourage those who have invested in Detroit and continue to try to make a go of it.

“Obviously it’s going to be a blow,” Mr. Metzger said. “All of us are kind of shocked, but it means we have to work that much harder.”

Pam Geller Comments on The Peter King Hearings & on CAIR

2011-03-13T07:28:00.000-07:00

"Why CAIR is Going After Peter King" at Big Government today, Pamela Geller explains why the Hamas-linked Council on American-Islamic Relations is targeting Congressman Peter King despite the defanged nature of his upcoming hearings:

The Hamas-tied Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) is viciously going after Congressman Peter King (R-NY), who is planning on holding hearings about the radicalization of Muslims in America.

On Monday, CAIR's daily "American Muslim News Briefs" mailing contained no fewer than three shots at King:

Rep. King Turns Dispute with Mosque into Personal Vendetta

King Hearing Witness: 'We Are at War with Islam'

Video: GOP Rep. Bashes Islam, First Muslim in Congress

You might get the idea from this that King's hearings are actually going to do some good. After all, if the Hamas group CAIR is angry, King must be doing something right. Yet last week I called King's hearings a "show trial" after King told Politico that he was "not planning to call as witnesses such Muslim community critics as the Investigative Project on Terrorism's Steve Emerson and Jihad Watch's Robert Spencer." I wrote that "for King not to avail himself of Emerson's knowledge and Spencer's scholarship is an astounding case of willful blindness." Even worse, King (R-NY) said he was going to call Muslim Brotherhood-linked Congressman Keith Ellison (D-MN).

I support increasing awareness of the jihadist threat in our midst. Who more than I? But when Politico reported that King, who is the new chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, plans to take "testimony primarily from Muslims" during his upcoming hearings, I thought, why? The media considers it its mission to take its spin primarily from Muslims. The cultural elites are constantly haranguing us with the Islamic supremacist narrative of calling any candor or criticism of jihad "Islamophobia." [...]

So why is Hamas-tied CAIR so upset? Is CAIR going after King in spite of his capitulation? No. They are going after him because he conceded.

The Islamic supremacists sense King's weakness. They see that he is anxious to accommodate them and to avoid bad publicity, despite his earlier statement that he didn't care about being called a bigot if that was the price of exposing jihad activity in America. And so they are going in for the kill. This is what they do. We see this over and over again in Islamic history. It is an Islamic pattern: they treat every concession as surrender in installments. The record of the "Palestinian" peace talks with Israel is a primary case in point. The accommodation of Muslims in Europe, leading those Muslims to grow more aggressive and demanding every day, is another example. Appease jihad and they go for the jugular....

Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address Has Inspired Americans for Generations But New Book Sheds New Light on Lincoln's Racial Views

2011-03-06T17:47:00.000-08:00

Abraham Lincoln

Sixteenth President of the United States, 1809-1865

"As I would not be a slave so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of Democracy."

Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address has inspired Americans for generations, but consider his jarring remarks in 1862 to a White House audience of free blacks, urging them to leave the U.S. and settle in Central America.

"For the sake of your race, you should sacrifice something of your present comfort for the purpose of being as grand in that respect as the white people," Lincoln said, promoting his idea of colonization: resettling blacks in foreign countries on the belief that whites and blacks could not coexist in the same nation.

Lincoln went on to say that free blacks who envisioned a permanent life in the United States were being "selfish" and he promoted Central America as an ideal location "especially because of the similarity of climate with your native land — thus being suited to your physical condition."

As the nation celebrates the 150th anniversary of Lincoln's first inauguration Friday, a new book by a researcher at George Mason University in Fairfax makes the case that Lincoln was even more committed to colonizing blacks than previously known. The book, "Colonization After Emancipation," is based in part on newly uncovered documents that authors Philip Magness and Sebastian Page found at the British National Archives outside London and in the U.S. National Archives.

In an interview, Magness said he thinks the documents he uncovered reveal Lincoln's complexity.

"It makes his life more interesting, his racial legacy more controversial," said Magness, who is also an adjuct professor at American University.

Lincoln's views about colonization are well known among historians, even if they don't make it into most schoolbooks. Lincoln even referred to colonization in the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, his September 1862 warning to the South that he would free all slaves in Southern territory if the rebellion continued. Unlike some others, Lincoln always promoted a voluntary colonization, rather than forcing blacks to leave.

But historians differ on whether Lincoln moved away from colonization after he issued the official Emancipation Proclamation on Jan. 1, 1863, or whether he continued to support it.

Magness and Page's book offers evidence that Lincoln continued to support colonization, engaging in secret diplomacy with the British to establish a colony in British Honduras, now Belize.

Among the records found at the British archives is an 1863 order from Lincoln granting a British agent permission to recruit volunteers for a Belize colony.

"He didn't let colonization die off. He became very active in promoting it in the private sphere, through diplomatic channels," Magness said. He surmises that Lincoln grew weary of the controversy that surrounded colonization efforts, which had become enmeshed in scandal and were criticized by many abolitionists.

As late as 1864, Magness found a notation that Lincoln asked the attorney general whether he could continue to receive counsel from James Mitchell, his colonization commissioner, even after Congress had eliminated funding for Mitchell's office.

Illinois' state historian, Tom Schwartz, who is also a research director at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library in Springfield, Ill., said that while historians differ, there is ample evidence that Lincoln's views evolved away from colonization in the final two years of the Civil War.

Lincoln gave several speeches referring to the rights blacks had earned as they enlisted in the Union Army, for instance. And presidential secretary John Hay wrote in July 1864 that Lincoln had "sloughed off" colonization.

"Most of the evidence points to the idea that Lincoln is looking at other ways" to resolve the transition from slavery besides colonization at the end of his presidency, Schwartz said.

Lincoln is the not the only president whose views on race relations and slavery were more complex and less idealistic than children's storybook histories suggest. Gerorge Washington and Thomas Jefferson were both slaveholders despite misgivings. Washington freed his slaves when he died.

"Washington, because he wanted to keep the union, knew he had to ignore the slavery problem because it would have torn the country apart, said James Rees, director of Washington's Mount Vernon estate.

"It's tempting to wish he had tried. The nation had more chance of dealing with slavery with Washington than with anyone else," Rees said, noting the esteem in which Washington was held in both the North and the South.

Magness said views on Lincoln can be strongly held and often divergent. He noted that people have sought to use Lincoln's legacy to support all manner of political policy agendas since the day he was assassinated. And nobody can claim definitive knowledge of Lincoln's own views, especially on a topic as complex as race relations.

"He never had a chance to complete his vision. Lincoln's racial views were evolving at the time of his death," Magness said.

By MATTHEW BARAKAT

Censored Cables~Who do The New York Times and The Guardian work for? The WikiLeaks Secrets

2011-03-01T08:54:00.000-08:00

Bill Keller, an editor with The New York Times, has recently published an article titled "Dealing With Assange and the WikiLeaks Secrets." In the article, the author wrote how the newspaper was working with secret cables. From what the article says, it seems that Russia appears to be a real stronghold of freedom of speech.

Keller wrote: "Because of the range of the material and the very nature of diplomacy, the embassy cables were bound to be more explosive than the War Logs. Dean Baquet, our Washington bureau chief, gave the White House an early warning on Nov. 19. The following Tuesday, two days before Thanksgiving, Baquet and two colleagues were invited to a windowless room at the State Department, where they encountered an unsmiling crowd. Representatives from the White House, the State Department, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the C.I.A., the Defense Intelligence Agency, the F.B.I. and the Pentagon gathered around a conference table. Others, who never identified themselves, lined the walls. A solitary note-taker tapped away on a computer."

The next meetings would take place in the form of daily conference calls. "Before each discussion, our Washington bureau sent over a batch of specific cables that we intended to use in the coming days. They were circulated to regional specialists, who funneled their reactions to a small group at State, who came to our daily conversations with a list of priorities and arguments to back them up. We relayed the government's concerns, and our own decisions regarding them, to the other news outlets."

"The administration's concerns generally fell into three categories. First was the importance of protecting individuals who had spoken candidly to American diplomats in oppressive countries. We almost always agreed on those and were grateful to the government for pointing out some we overlooked..."That sometimes meant not just removing the name but also references to institutions that might give a clue to an identity and sometimes even the dates of conversations, which might be compared with surveillance tapes of an American Embassy to reveal who was visiting the diplomats that day."

"The second category included sensitive American programs, usually related to intelligence. We agreed to withhold some of this information, like a cable describing an intelligence-sharing program that took years to arrange and might be lost if exposed. In other cases, we went away convinced that publication would cause some embarrassment but no real harm.

"The third category consisted of cables that disclosed candid comments by and about foreign officials, including heads of state. The State Department feared publication would strain relations with those countries. We were mostly unconvinced.

Keller wrote that in all of his publications he was guided by his patriotic feelings. He was printing only the things that were good for America. If an editor of a Russian newspaper said that he or she was discussing publications with unsmiling people on Lubyanka or Smolenka, the liberal community of Moscow would not be thrilled with such a story.

Keller threw dirt at Assange, who had given him that sensational news. Keller portrayed him as a dirty tramp, who incidentally found a diamond on a dump. The Guardian journalists Harding and Lee developed the same line. They misused the dispatches in three different ways. They were printing them partially, covering up those whom they needed to cover up. They printed them under misleading headlines and exposed them to the public at well-chosen moments. The result of all that was so amazing that WikiLeaks publications raised concerns and suspicion with a number of Russian conspiracy theorists, particularly Nikolai Starikov and Mikhail Leontiev. If it wasn't for Assange's reckless wisdom, who handed over the cables to, among others, the Russian Reporter, WikiLeaks would have worked against Russia indeed, rather than against the US imperial ambitions, as Assange saw it.

It is hard to overestimate the role of Luke Harding, the under-expelled British journalist, a specialist for the informational war against Russia. It was Harding, who was responsible for editing the Russian WikiLeaks dossier for The Guardian. It was him who gave catchy headlines (e.g. - "Russia is a Mafia State"). "The heavily edited cables about the outlooks on life of a well-known political activist (MOSCOW 002632) was turned into a material about Gunvor company and the "Kremlin corruption,"" Vitaly Leibin said. It was Harding, who covered up corrupt officials from Western companies and their partners in Kazakhstan.

In addition, Harding was diligently "whacking" Lukashenko - either at his heart's will or at the will of Western financial circles. The day before the election in Belarus, Harding published the toughly censored 06MINSK641 cables in The Guardian. For the headline, he chose the phrase about Lukashenko's personal wealth worth $9 billion. The journalist deleted the details that explained where the slanderous data were coming from. If the explanation had been preserved, the Belarusian readers and voters would only burst with laughter. Below is the explanation that had been hidden from the public eye:

"Employees of the Czech Embassy delivered the list of 50 top oligarchs of Belarus to the US economic attache. The Czechs found that list - it was published in a Smolensk newspaper. The name of the newspaper is not known, but its email is vozduhu@yandex.ru. The embassy believes that the list was most likely made by the United Civil Party, an opposition party of Belarus.

To put it in a nutshell, the list was made out of thin air and published in a local newspaper in Smolensk. And they used that for a catchy headline before the election! There can be many other examples found to prove the misuse of the WikiLeaks cables against Belarus. However, The Guardian has never published the cables from Vilnius about the arrest of a delivery man who was carrying black money to Belarus opposition activists. The newspaper has not published the cables from the Minsk embassy either. The cables were about the visit of opposition leader Milinkevich: "He came to ask for money." Harding has not written anything about the fact that the Americans saw Lukashenko as "the eventual successor to Cuban leader Fidel Castro as the next Papa' of the anti-West block." Here is how a US ambassador described him: "Lukashenko is the ideal anti-globalist leader -- he is young (51 years old), energetic, bold, and he sits at the helm of a growing, stable (for now) economy in the heart of Europe."

The Guardian, the left stronghold of Western imperialism, stands up against Iran too.

Cable 09BAKU695 contains a detailed debriefing of an Iranian dissident, a young teacher from Teheran, a receiver of Western grants. It is clear that he angrily condemned ayatollahs, and his criticism of that regime was published in full. The dissident is an honest man, and he shared his views about opposition with Americans. These are realistic and pessimistic views.

He described opposition as disorganized mosaic of many groups, without any administration and goals. According to him, Mousavi is stubborn and not charismatic, Karroubi is bold, but has a few organized allies. The role of Rafsanjani is purely tactical and a short-term one. "The people do not consider him legitimate, that is why he cannot become a long-term leader." Anglo-American newspapers omitted all those observations not to ruin the impression of the Iranian opposition.

In cable 09BAKU687, an American contact in Iran explains the reason why the opposition had failed to win the Turki-speaking Azeris in the north-west of the country.

He said that "Tabriz residents are "very pragmatic"; while not afraid of protesting per se, they will only do so in favor of a tangible end result that they feel is clearly in their interest. He asserted that many Tabrizis saw the election and subsequent fallout as a power struggle within the Tehran regime which had little to do with them or their felt interests. He explained that "no matter who wins,(many Tabrizis) feel that there will be no change" in language, cultural, and government hiring policies that discriminate against Azeris. He depicted these as by far the most powerful regional political issues, outweighing desire for greater regional autonomy and other issues. While acknowledging that both Moussavi and Karroubi had made campaign statements endorsing liberalization of language policies, XXX said that these statements were perceived as lip service, and that "(de facto) Tehrani" Moussavi in particular was not regarded as credible on this issue, given his earlier attitudes on the issue when he was Prime Minister."

According to the ambassador, other sources share a similar point of view. The residents of Tabriz, i.e. Iranian Azeris, seek larger recognition of their language. They do not have many other ambitions.

Western newspapers omitted all of that important analysis not to undermine the image of the Iranian opposition.

I am not sure about human rights issues, but The Guardian always stands up to defend BP. In cable 07BAKU1268 The Guardian deleted the remarks from an Azeri businessman, who said that BP was violating laws and forcing up prices. In cable 08BAKU671 they deleted a critical phrase about BP: "Consortium members believe that BP failed the question about settlements, which cost consortium members billions of dollars and strengthened the positions of the Azeri state oil company." Readers will not know that according to Azeris, BP came into conspiracy with Gazprom against the interests of Azerbaijan.

Cable 07ASTANA919 from Kazakhstan misses the part which says that Western companies offer bribes. "From 1998 to 2003 the company paid $5.2 million for purchasing influence among Kazakh officials." Cable 09ASHGABAT1633 from Ashkhabad misses the details that throw shade on the bright image of Berdymuhammedov's family: "Older sister Aynabat was a central figure in bribery case at the language institute. Her son was connected with corruption when he helped Turkey's ERKU company to receive construction orders. President's nephews often appear in especially lucrative deals."

In Cable 07DUSHANBE1420 The Guardian deleted a reference to the fact that a sacked Tajik official was an American agent: "He was a partner of our embassy and a first-class source of information about the Tajik government."

In Cable 07MOSCOW1770 Harding removed the name and the position of the source who fully justified Khodorkovsky. A person reading the cable may think that they are reading the words from an informed and objective outsider. As a matter of fact, the source is Khorodkovsky's lawyer Yuri Schmidt, who is supposed to whitewash the imprisoned oligarch.

There are tens and hundreds of such examples. For this reason, The Guardian and The New York Times try to slander Julian Assange. He didn't accept it. In his interview with SBS Dateline, Assange said: "Our agreement with them was that they would redact information for ‘Cablegate', based on just one criteria, which was the protection of individuals from unfair incarceration, or any type of execution ... and for no other reasons."

He said: "The Guardian has been redacting all sorts of things ... for very different reasons. For instance, the Guardian has been redacting claims about particular companies who are corrupt. Now this is presumably to do with their paranoia about libel suits in the UK being made by these rich and powerful."

This doesn't sound very convincing. Let's assume that The Guardian is afraid of a libel suit. What stops them from printing a heavily edited dispatch if they could hand over the original, unedited, dispatch to the WikiLeaks website?

Who Really Owns the United States? ~ Looking for the list of our top international creditors?

2011-03-01T02:46:00.000-08:00

Regardless of how much closer Obama's budget brings our economy into a balance of payments not seen since 2001, we will continue to run deficits for the next decade, and the national debt will keep growing every year that happens.

While most of the country's $14 trillion debt is held by private banks in the U.S., the Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve Board estimate that, as of December, about $4.4 trillion of it was held by foreign governments that purchase our treasury securities much as an investor buys shares in a company and comes to own his or her little chunk of the organization.

Looking at the list of our top international creditors, a few overall characteristics show some interesting trends: Three of the top 10 spots are held by China and its constituent parts, and while two of our biggest creditors are fellow English-speaking democracies, a considerable share of our debt is held by oil exporters that tend to be decidedly less friendly in other areas of international relations.

Here we break down the top 10 foreign holders of U.S. debt, comparing each creditor's holdings with the equivalent chunk of the United States they "own," represented by the latest (2009) state gross domestic product data released by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. Obviously, these creditors won't actually take states from us as payment on our debts, but I shudder to imagine what states and national monuments they could assert a claim to!

1. Mainland China

Amount of U.S. debt: $891.6 billion

Share of total foreign debt: 20.4%

Building on the holdings of its associated territories, China is the undisputed largest holder of U.S. foreign debt in the world. Accounting for 20.4% of the total, mainland China's $891.6 billion in U.S. treasury securities is almost equal to the combined 2009 GDP of Illinois ($630.4 billion) and Indiana ($262.6 billion) in 2009, a shade higher at a combined $893 billion. As President Obama -- who is from Chicago -- wrangles over his proposed budget with Congress he may be wise to remember that his home city may be at stake in the deal.

2. Japan

Amount of U.S. debt: $883.6 billion

Share of total foreign debt: 20.2%

The runner-up on the list of our most significant international creditors goes to Japan, which accounts for over a fifth of our foreign debt holdings with $883.6 billion in U.S. treasury securities. That astronomical number is just shy of the combined GDP of a significant chunk of the lower 48: Minnesota ($260.7 billion), Wisconsin ($244.4 billion), Iowa ($142.3 billion) and Missouri ($239.8 billion) produced a combined output of $887.2 billion in 2009.

3. United Kingdom

Amount of U.S. debt: $541.3 billion

Share of total foreign debt: 12.4%

At number three on the list is perhaps our closest ally on the world stage, the United Kingdom (which includes the British provinces of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, as well as the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man). The U.K. holds $541.3 billion in U.S. foreign debt, which is 12.4% of our total external debt. That amount is equivalent to the combined GDP of two East Coast manufacturing hubs, Delaware ($60.6 billion) and New Jersey ($483 billion) -- which was named, yes, after the island of Jersey in the English Channel. The two states' combined output in 2009 came to $543.6 billion.

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4. Oil Exporters

Amount of U.S. debt: $218 billion

Share of total foreign debt: 5%

Another grouped entry, the oil exporters form another international bloc with money to burn. The group includes 15 countries as diverse as the regions they represent: Ecuador, Venezuela, Indonesia, Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Algeria, Gabon, Libya, and Nigeria. As a group they hold 5% of all American foreign debt, with a combined $218 billion of U.S. treasury securities in their own treasuries. That's roughly equivalent to the combined 2009 GDP of Nebraska ($86.4 billion) and Kansas ($124.9 billion), which seems to be an equal trade: The two states produce a bunch of grain for export, which many of the arid oil producers tend to trade for oil.

5. Brazil

Amount of U.S. debt: $180.8 billion

Share of total foreign debt: 4.1%

Rounding out the top five is the largest economy in South America, Brazil. The country known for its beaches, Carnaval and the unbridled hedonism that goes along with both has made a big investment in the U.S., buying up $180.8 billion in American debt up to December. That's almost equal to the $180.5 billion combined GDP of Idaho ($54 billion) and Nevada ($126.5 billion), a state that is no stranger to hedonism itself.

6. Caribbean Banking Centers

Amount of U.S. debt: $155.6 billion

Share of total foreign debt: 3.6%

You have to have cash on hand to buy up U.S. government debt, and offshore banking has given six countries the combined capital needed to make the Caribbean Banking Centers our sixth-largest foreign creditor. The Treasury Department counts the Bahamas, Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, the Netherlands Antilles, Panama and the British Virgin Islands in this designation, which as a group holds $155.6 billion in U.S. treasury securities. That's equivalent to the GDP of landlocked Kentucky ($156.6 billion), whose residents may not actually mind if they were ever to become an extension of some Caribbean island paradise.

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7. Hong Kong

Amount of U.S. debt: $138.2 billion

Share of total foreign debt: 3.2%

At No. 7 on the list of our foreign creditors is Hong Kong, a formerly British part of China that maintains a separate government and economic ties than the communist mainland. With $138.2 billion in U.S. treasury securities, the capitalist enclave could lay claim to Yellowstone Park and our nation's capital: The combined GDP of Wyoming ($37.5 billion) and Washington D.C. ($99.1 billion) totaled $136.6 billion in 2009.

8. Canada

Amount of U.S. debt: $134.6 billion

Share of total foreign debt: 3.1%

They say that a friend in need is a friend indeed, and our neighbor to the north has proven to be a kind and generous creditor in our time of financial need. Canada holds about 3.1% of our foreign debt, or $134.6 billion. If friend were to become enemy and Canada were looking to annex some U.S. land to cover the debt though, the country would have an easy time of it. The combined GDP of Maine ($51.3 billion), New Hampshire ($59.4 billion) and Vermont ($25.4 billion) comes close to Canada's debt holdings at $136.1 billion.

Residents of the three states in our extreme northeast corner should start practicing their French: They might become Québécois one of these days.

9. Taiwan

Amount of U.S. debt: $131.9 billion

Share of total foreign debt: 3.0%

Taiwan, an island barely 100 miles off the coast of China, is claimed by the People's Republic of China, despite having its own government and economic relations with the outside world. Part of those economic relations includes the island's holding of $131.9 billion of U.S. debt, roughly equivalent to the combined GDP of West Virginia ($63.3 billion) and Hawaii ($66.4 billion), which totals $129.7 billion.

Unless we get our spending in check, we risk losing some of our most visually stunning territory (West Virginia, obviously) to our friendly neighbors on the other side of the Pacific Ocean.

10. Russia

Amount of U.S. debt: $106.2 billion

Share of total foreign debt: 2.4%

Starting off the list of our major foreign creditors is Russia, which holds about 2.4% of the U.S. debt pie that sits on the international dinner table. Its $106.2 billion in treasury securities is equivalent to the 2009 GDP of our sparsely populated North: The combined output of North Dakota ($31.9 billion), South Dakota ($38.3 billion) and Montana ($36 billion) matches up nicely with the Russian holdings, at $106.2 billion.

Let's hope Russian president Dmitry Medvedev doesn't come to collect.

Greg Bocquet
Monday, February 28, 2011

Baseball's Hall of Fame center fielder Duke Snider dies at 84

2011-02-27T23:27:00.000-08:00

To his mother, he was Ed. To everyone else, he was "The Duke of Flatbush" — revered by a borough of baseball fans and forever remembered in a song that romanticized a most golden era.

Snider hit .295 with 407 career home runs, played in the World Series six times and won two titles. But the eight-time All-Star was defined by much more than his stats — he was, after all, part of the love affair between Brooklyn and "Dem Bums" who lived in the local neighborhoods.
"Willie, Duke and Mickey. They were great players in one city, one town. Duke never got the credit of being the outfielder that Mays and Mantle were," former teammate Don Zimmer said Sunday. "But Duke was a great outfielder. He was a great player."

During his playing career, Snider became an avocado farmer and lived many years in Fallbrook, Calif.
He is survived by his wife, Beverly, whom he married in 1947.

Obama rejects Defense of Marriage Act~ A Sucker Play using Gay Rights

2011-02-23T23:55:00.000-08:00

Washington

Victory for gay-rights advocates, US won’t defend law in court

The nature of Obama’s move places the burden on opponents of same-sex marriage in Congress to take action if they want to keep fighting in courts. And that could be a risky distraction for the GOP which has pledged deficit-fighting and budget issues as its top priorities. Obama is a master politician who is moving to take the focus off of a failing economy.

While Americans want Washington to focus on creating jobs and cutting spending, the president will have to explain why he thinks now is the appropriate time to stir up a controversial issue that sharply divides the nation.

Not surprisingly FRANK’S VIEW is that the administration’s decision ‘is both a sign of and a result of the fact that gay prejudice is being defeated by gay reality.

The Obama administration delivered an unexpected victory to gay-rights activists yesterday, declaring that a law prohibiting federal recognition of same-sex marriages is unconstitutional and discriminatory and that Department of Justice lawyers will no longer defend it in court.

The administration will still enforce the law, which prohibits the federal government from granting benefits to same-sex couples, such as breaks for estate taxes and Social Security payments to spouses. But Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. said it will stop opposing legal challenges, increasing the odds that court decisions striking down the law — including one in Massachusetts — will stand.

Obama’s decision represents a reversal for a president who, for the last two years, tried to walk a fine political line by defending the law in court while saying that he opposed it and wanted it repealed. Approved in 1996, the law, called the Defense of Marriage Act, defines marriage as between a man and a woman.

Yesterday’s victory for gay-rights advocates follows the congressional repeal in December of the ban on gays serving openly in the military. But the president is stopping short of personally endorsing gay marriage. The White House press secretary, Jay Carney, said Obama is still “grappling’’ with his feelings on the issue.

The responsibility for defending the marriage act now falls to Congress, which has the authority to appoint a special counsel to pursue the issue. Republicans, including Senator Scott Brown, while critical of the president’s decision, did not say yesterday whether they would take such a step.

“We can’t have presidents deciding what laws are constitutional and what laws are not,’’ Brown said in a statement. “That is a function of the judicial branch, not the executive.’’

But Massachusetts Representative Barney Frank, who is gay, hailed the decision as a “major breakthrough’’ that reflects society’s greater acceptance of gays and lesbians

“This is both a sign of and a result of the fact that gay prejudice is being defeated by gay reality,’’ he said.

The president’s decision immediately bolsters cases brought by supporters of same-sex marriage across the country, including one filed by Attorney General Martha Coakley that led Joseph L. Tauro, a federal judge in Boston, to declare last July that the law was unconstitutional.

For Obama, political analysts said, the nod to his liberal base is important, because he has been moving toward the political center following the Republicans’ winning control of the House last November.

“We can’t have presidents deciding what laws are constitutional and what laws are not,’’ Brown said in a statement. “That is a function of the judicial branch, not the executive.’’

But Massachusetts Representative Barney Frank, who is gay, hailed the decision as a “major breakthrough’’ that reflects society’s greater acceptance of gays and lesbians

“This is both a sign of and a result of the fact that gay prejudice is being defeated by gay reality,’’ he said.

The administration will drop an appeal of that ruling, Coakley said. She said that if Congress decides not to defend the law, Tauro’s decision against the Defense of Marriage Act “would be the final decision.’’

“As a practical matter, that would be the end of it here in Massachusetts,’’ Coakley said. “That would be the precedent and the law of the land, that the Defense of Marriage Act is unconstitutional.’’

Massachusetts recognized gay marriage in 2004, making it the first state in the nation to do so. Governor Deval Patrick applauded the president’s shift.

“In Massachusetts, we believe that every person ought to be able to marry whomever they love, and we believe the rest of the country is moving forward in that direction, too,’’ he said in a statement.

Gay marriage is now legal in five states and the District of Columbia. Even in those jurisdictions, however, the Defense of Marriage Act prevents gay couples from filing joint federal tax returns or receiving survivor compensation from Social Security.

In addition to the Massachusetts litigation, the decision affects two newer court cases — one in Connecticut and another in New York — that would have required that the administration take a fresh stand in the next few weeks.

The Connecticut case was filed by Boston-based Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders, or GLAD, and includes plaintiffs in Vermont and New Hampshire.

“It is extremely significant that the Department of Justice recognizes what we’ve been saying for years in our litigation,’’ said Mary Bonauto, civil rights project director for GLAD. “Laws that distinguish between people based on sexual orientation are suspicious and likely to reflect prejudice against gay people rather than good public policy.’’

Under federal law, the attorney general has discretion to refrain from “defending or asserting, in any judicial, administrative, or other proceeding, the constitutionality of any provision of any Federal statute,’’ provided the attorney general has determined it is unconstitutional. The law then requires the attorney general to notify Congress, which Holder said yesterday that he had done.

Opponents of same-sex marriage blasted the president and urged House Speaker John Boehner to mount a defense of the law.

“We’re shocked that the president and Attorney General Holder are refusing to carry out their constitutional duties to defend the laws established by Congress,’’ said Kris Mineau, president of the Massachusetts Family Institute. “They are trying to strike down’’ the marriage act “in its totality.’’

Boehner’s office yesterday did not say if Republicans plan to defend the law. But his spokesman, Michael Steel, accused Obama of poor timing.

Everything's fucked up, and nobody goes to jail

2011-02-18T10:25:00.000-08:00

February 16, 2011

Over drinks at a bar on a dreary, snowy night in Washington this past month, a former Senate investigator laughed as he polished off his beer.

"Everything's fucked up, and nobody goes to jail," he said. "That's your whole story right there. Hell, you don't even have to write the rest of it. Just write that."

I put down my notebook. "Just that?"

"That's right," he said, signaling to the waitress for the check. "Everything's fucked up, and nobody goes to jail. You can end the piece right there."

Nobody goes to jail. This is the mantra of the financial-crisis era, one that saw virtually every major bank and financial company on Wall Street embroiled in obscene criminal scandals that impoverished millions and collectively destroyed hundreds of billions, in fact, trillions of dollars of the world's wealth — and nobody went to jail. Nobody, that is, except Bernie Madoff, a flamboyant and pathological celebrity con artist, whose victims happened to be other rich and famous people.

This article appears in the March 3, 2011 issue of Rolling Stone. The issue is available now on newsstands and will appear in the online archive February 18.

The rest of them, all of them, got off. Not a single executive who ran the companies that cooked up and cashed in on the phony financial boom — an industrywide scam that involved the mass sale of mismarked, fraudulent mortgage-backed securities — has ever been convicted. Their names by now are familiar to even the most casual Middle American news consumer: companies like AIG, Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers, JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America and Morgan Stanley. Most of these firms were directly involved in elaborate fraud and theft. Lehman Brothers hid billions in loans from its investors. Bank of America lied about billions in bonuses. Goldman Sachs failed to tell clients how it put together the born-to-lose toxic mortgage deals it was selling. What's more, many of these companies had corporate chieftains whose actions cost investors billions — from AIG derivatives chief Joe Cassano, who assured investors they would not lose even "one dollar" just months before his unit imploded, to the $263 million in compensation that former Lehman chief Dick "The Gorilla" Fuld conveniently failed to disclose. Yet not one of them has faced time behind bars.

Invasion of the Home Snatchers

Instead, federal regulators and prosecutors have let the banks and finance companies that tried to burn the world economy to the ground get off with carefully orchestrated settlements — whitewash jobs that involve the firms paying pathetically small fines without even being required to admit wrongdoing. To add insult to injury, the people who actually committed the crimes almost never pay the fines themselves; banks caught defrauding their shareholders often use shareholder money to foot the tab of justice. "If the allegations in these settlements are true," says Jed Rakoff, a federal judge in the Southern District of New York, "it's management buying its way off cheap, from the pockets of their victims."

Taibblog: Commentary on politics and the economy by Matt Taibbi

To understand the significance of this, one has to think carefully about the efficacy of fines as a punishment for a defendant pool that includes the richest people on earth — people who simply get their companies to pay their fines for them. Conversely, one has to consider the powerful deterrent to further wrongdoing that the state is missing by not introducing this particular class of people to the experience of incarceration. "You put Lloyd Blankfein in pound-me-in-the-ass prison for one six-month term, and all this bullshit would stop, all over Wall Street," says a former congressional aide. "That's all it would take. Just once."

But that hasn't happened. Because the entire system set up to monitor and regulate Wall Street is fucked up.

Just ask the people who tried to do the right thing

By Matt Taibbi

Congratulations Ana Marquez on Your 50,000 Hit Milestone

2011-02-18T06:44:00.000-08:00

Ana, I was happy to see this recognition for your work on you Google blog

Con el tiempo en mis brazos. Your participation on the web has made us all richer.

For a treat visit Ana at:

http://coneltiempoenmisbrazos.blogspot.com

VA Court Hears WikiLeaks Case ~ Defense Lawyers' Argue That The Government's Request Violates The First Amendment..Clinton calls for 'serious conversation' about Internet freedom..

2011-02-15T23:58:00.000-08:00

Julian Assange and the State Department cables

An odd confluence of important issues came together in a federal courtroom in Alexandria on Tuesday: the criminal investigation of WikiLeaks, free speech and social networking.

It all stemmed from the government's attempts to get personal information from the Twitter accounts of three people linked to the WikiLeaks probe. Their lawyers argued that the data - screen names, mailing addresses, telephone numbers, credit card and bank account information, and Internet protocol addresses - are protected by the First Amendment. Prosecutors said the request is a routine part of their criminal probe.

It was the opening salvo in what experts expect to be a long and difficult investigation of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and others suspected of disclosing thousands of classified documents on the anti-secrecy Web site.

Tuesday's arguments went to the heart of a larger debate about WikiLeaks - whether the posting of the documents was free speech or a violation of national security. They also provided a high-profile test of outdated rules about what data the government can seize in the new world of social networking.

In the courtroom, John Keker, a lawyer representing one of the Twitter clients, said the users' data would give the government a map of people tied to WikiLeaks and essentially halt free speech online. He noted how social networking sites have been used in Egypt and Tunisia, where citizens have pushed for government changes, and suggested that such a broad request by the U.S. government in this case would put a stop to that.

John Palfrey, a Harvard law professor not associated with the case, said the government is using 18th-century arguments with 21st-century technology.

"These are not new arguments, but they're being used in a really interesting and important way that has a twist to them in light of social media," he said.

New details of probe

Until now, there has been little public evidence of the government's criminal investigation of WikiLeaks, a probe Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. announced in late November.

Information began to come out last week after U.S. Magistrate Judge Theresa Carroll Buchanan granted a motion from the three Twitter clients to unseal some filings in the case. Tuesday's hearing was the first public debate in the criminal investigation of Assange and others.

Court documents reveal that the government has asked for personal Twitter information from Assange; Bradley Manning, the Army private who is suspected of supplying classified material to the Web site; Birgitta Jonsdottir, a former WikiLeaks activist who is also a member of Iceland's Parliament; and two computer programmers, Rop Gonggrijp, a Dutch citizen, and Jacob Appelbaum, an American.

On Tuesday, defense lawyers tried to convince Buchanan that she should overturn her December ruling that ordered Twitter to disclose its clients' data, as well as unseal documents in the case, including requests from prosecutors to get information from other technology companies.

Aden Fine, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union who represents Jonsdottir, said that his client and the two others apparently have been "swept up into the government's investigation of WikiLeaks" and that the government's requests shouldn't be granted, nor should it be done using sealed documents

But prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney's Office of the Eastern District of Virginia disagreed, saying in court that their request to Twitter was routine and that releasing documents in the case would damage their investigation of WikiLeaks. It's unclear whether Twitter even collects all the information requested by the government.

After the hour-long hearing, Buchanan said she would take the case "under consideration." She is expected to issue a written order and opinion.

Keker argued that turning over the Twitter customers' information would also violate the Fourth Amendment, which protects against warrantless searches.

But Buchanan questioned whether Keker was exaggerating the amount of information that her Dec. 14 order allowed the government to get.

"What they're seeking is location data and timing data," Buchanan said. The government is not seeking data that would reveal the content of Twitter messages.

John Davis, an assistant U.S. attorney in Alexandria, said the government's request was routine.

"This is a standard - as this court knows well - investigative measure used in criminal investigations every day of the year all over the country," Davis said. "This is not about association rights. It is not about politics. It is about facts and evidence."

In court papers, defense lawyers accuse the government of "snooping because of what the [individuals] have said and because of who they know."

Manning has been accused by the military of leaking a video that showed two U.S. helicopters in Iraq firing at people on the ground in 2007. Jonsdottir was one of the producers of an edited version of the video.

The defense lawyers' argument that the government's request violates the First Amendment is, legal experts say, a new twist in fighting data-seizure in the world of social networking sites.

The number of court orders and subpoenas from authorities demanding that technology companies and telecommunications firms turn over information about their clients is rapidly growing. But the rules protecting personal information are spotty and not up to date with Internet technology. Experts say they were meant to deal with telephone records, not such evolving technology as e-mails and tweets.

Chris Calabrese, a lobbyist for the ACLU in Washington, said the laws pertaining to accessing communications date back to 1986.

"It is pre-www. We're using tools for accessing information on e-mail, social networking sites that were never contemplated," he said.

A spokesman for Twitter recently said the company had no comment on WikiLeaks, but he pointed to a Jan. 28 blog post. It said that the company's "position on freedom of expression carries with it a mandate to protect our users' right to speak freely and preserve their ability to contest having their private information revealed."

More to come:

-Assange sex assault allegations debated for 2nd day in extradition hearing

- Assange lawyers cast doubt on allegations at extradition trial in London

Saudis are unlikely to keep to their target oil output of 12.5 million barrels..According to WikiLeaks: Saudis Are running out of oil

2011-02-09T20:28:00.000-08:00

WikiLeaks "Believe It Or Not"

The latest startling revelation to come via documents leaked to Julian Assange's muckraking website and published by The Guardian should give pause to every suburban SUV-driver: U.S. officials think Saudi Arabia is overpromising on its capacity to supply oil to a fuel-thirsty world. That sets up a scenario, the documents show, whereby the Saudis could dramatically underdeliver on output by as soon as next year, sending fuel prices soaring.

The cables detail a meeting between a U.S. diplomat and Sadad al-Husseini, a geologist and former head of exploration for Saudi oil monopoly Aramco, in November 2007. Husseini told the American official that the Saudis are unlikely to keep to their target oil output of 12.5 million barrels per day output in order to keep prices stable. Husseini also indicated that Saudi producers are likely to hit "peak oil" -- the point at which global output hit its high mark -- as early as 2012. That means, in essence, that it will be all downhill from there for the enormous Saudi oil industry.

"According to al-Husseini, the crux of the issue is twofold. First, it is possible that Saudi reserves are not as bountiful as sometimes described, and the timeline for their production not as unrestrained as Aramco and energy optimists would like to portray," one of the cables reads. "While al-Husseini fundamentally contradicts the Aramco company line, he is no doomsday theorist. His pedigree, experience and outlook demand that his predictions be thoughtfully considered."

EmailPrint..By Brett Michael Dykes

US Embassy Cables~WikiLeaks: the latest developmentsWhistleblower Rudolf Elmer hands over Swiss bank documents

2011-01-18T06:07:00.000-08:00

Whistleblower Rudolf Elmer hands over Swiss bank documents, Dutch media publishes Afghan cables and more of today's WikiLeaks news and views.

11.30am: Good morning. Here are the latest WikiLeaks developments:

• Swiss banking whistleblower Rudolf Elmer is in London today, where he intends to give WikiLeaks the "offshore banking secrets of the rich and famous" ahead of trial later this week in Switzerland. From the Observer's story yesterday:

British and American individuals and companies are among the offshore clients whose details will be contained on CDs presented to WikiLeaks at the Frontline Club in London. Those involved include, Elmer tells the Observer, "approximately 40 politicians".

Elmer, who after his press conference will return to Switzerland from exile in Mauritius to face trial, is a former chief operating officer in the Cayman Islands and employee of the powerful Julius Baer bank, which accuses him of stealing the information

• Julian Assange has said it is "no coincidence" he gave cables from the US's embassy in The Hague to two Dutch media organisations. Dutch MPs are about to vote on whether to participate in a Nato police training mission in Afghanistan. Assange said: "If there is relevant material, it has to come out before they do."

One story to come out so far is that Dutch civil servants urged US officials to pressure former Labour party leader Wouter Bos to support a continued military mission in Afghanistan. "They complain 'he just doesn't get it'," the cables says of the Dutch officials attitude to Bos.

The US ambassador, Hartog Levin, suggested the following tactic for the Pittsburgh G20 summit in her cable back to Washington (pdf):

A pull-aside for Bos by a senior USG official such as NSA General Jones at the Pittsburgh Summit would be beneficial. It would make Bos aware of how important we view international leadership -- measured by a country's actions across the board. A pull-aside would also demonstrate to Prime Minister Balkenende our support for his efforts to get Cabinet approval of continued Dutch deployment

If you can read Dutch (or skip the Dutch and read the English quotes) RTL has a page on the Netherlands and the G20, with pdfs of relevant cables.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2011/jan/17/wikileaks-latest-developments for complete article.

Sharia Law is diametrically opposed to all Western values~Be vigilant in a “multi- cultural legislative watch"

2011-01-17T05:49:00.000-08:00

Killings of newborn babies on the rise in Pakistan

Pakistani volunteers are seen taking the corpses of two infants from the cold storage of a private charity's morgue in Karachi during the burial service. In the conservative Muslim nation, where the birth of children outside of marriage is condemned and adultery is a crime punishable by death under strict interpretations of Islamic law, infanticide is a crime on the rise.

Can we in the United State coexist with Sharia law?
This question takes only seconds to ponder, from my prospective. Sharia Law is in opposition to every single value that we hold dear. It does not matter if you are a Democrat or Republican, man or woman, even pro-life or pro-choice. If you are a 21^st century human it is clear to see that Sharia Law is diametrically opposed to all Western values and basic human decency. Why then would any of our elected officials defend and/or protect Sharia? We as Americans need to hold all elected officials accountable! If they abuse our trust then we can and should terminate their privileged position. We must careful follow all judges rulings on these matters. Our culture and our America is at stake.

A friend recently wrote to me and articulated the following:

“I never have believed that cultural differences would somehow magically melt away just because people live side by side. I also think you cannot have a unified country if we don't have a unified culture. The leftist idea that we can put Sharia Law side by side with American Law is ludicrous. Other cultures are not tolerant. Look at what is happening to Christians in Muslim countries. There is no "live and let live" mentality.” Cheryl Pass..Tea Party Chronicle..

The following article depicts yet more far reaching problems with Sharia Law, other than the obvious amputations and stonings. I have included contacts for pro-life as well as pro-choice organizations here at the end of this post because we need to act now as united Americans. This problem of infanticide/Sharia Law flies in the face of every decent value we have whatever side of the isle you are on. The following article is yet another glaring example of why we all need to be vigilant in a “multi- cultural legislative watch”. We may not get a second chance to preserve or culture and our nation.

"The lifeless bodies of two tiny babies are being given their final bath before burial in Karachi, after they were left to die in the southern Pakistani city's garbage dumps.

"They can only have been one or two days old," says volunteer worker Mohammad Saleem, pointing at the two small corpses being gently washed by his colleagues at a charity's morgue.

In the conservative Muslim nation, where the birth of children outside of marriage is condemned and adultery is a crime punishable by death under strict interpretations of Islamic law, infanticide is a crime on the rise.

More than 1,000 infants -- most of them girls -- were killed or abandoned to die in Pakistan last year according to conservative estimates by the Edhi Foundation, a charity working to reverse the grim trend.

The infanticide figures are collected only from Pakistan's main cities, leaving out huge swathes of the largely rural nation, and the charity says that in December alone it found 40 dead babies left in garbage dumps and sewers.

The number of dead infants found last year -- 1,210 -- was up from 890 in 2008 and 999 in 2009, says the Edhi Foundation manager in Karachi, Anwar Kazmi.

Tragic tales abound.

Kazmi recounts the discovery of the burnt body of a six-day-old infant who had been strangled. Another child was found on the steps of a mosque having been stoned to death on the orders of an extremist imam who has since disappeared, he says.

"Do not murder, lay them here," reads a sign hanging outside the charity's Karachi base where it has left cradles in the hope that parents will abandon their unwanted children there, instead of leaving them to die.

"People leave these children mostly because they think they are illegitimate, but they are as innocent and loveable as all human beings," says the charity's founder, well-known humanitarian Abdul Sattar Edhi.

Most children found are less than a week old.

Khair Mohammad, 65, works as a watchman in the charity's vast graveyard in the city outskirts. It is dotted with tiny unnamed graves.

"We acquired this land to bury children after another plot was filled with hundreds of bodies," he says.

The death toll is far worse among girls, says manager Kazmi, with nine out of ten dead babies the charity finds being female.

"The number of infanticides of girls has substantially increased," Kazmi says, a rise attributed to increased poverty across the country.

Girls are seen by many Pakistanis as a greater economic burden as most women are not permitted to work and are considered to be the financial responsibilty of their fathers, and later their husbands.

A Pakistani family can be forced to raise more than one million rupees (11,700 dollars) to marry their daughter off.

Edhi says that up to 200 babies are left in its 400 cradles nationwide each year and that it handles thousands of requests for adoption by childless couples.

Abortion is prohibited in Pakistan, except when the mother's life is at risk from her pregnancy, but advocates say that legalisation would reduce infanticide and save mothers from potentially fatal back-street terminations.

According to Pakistani law, anyone found to have abandoned an infant can be jailed for seven years, while anyone guilty of secretly burying a child can be imprisoned for two years. Murder is punishable with life imprisonment.

But crimes of infanticide are rarely prosecuted.

"The majority of police stations do not register cases of infanticide, let alone launch investigations into them," said lawyer Abdul Rasheed.

On the Internet, which is awash in warnings about Sharia law, Pamela Geller of the influential conservative blog Atlas Shrugged warns of "creeping Sharia" in the United States.

"It's a drip, drip, drip, drip, drip. The mosque-ing of the workplace where you're imposing prayer times on union contracts, non-Muslim workers have to lengthen their day: it's wrong," she told the New York Times. "And in places like Greeley and in Marshall, in Colorado, the media doesn't report on it, but they've come to fisticuffs, there's been rioting."

Geller's comments prompted the Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg to write that "a Martian takeover of New Jersey is more likely than the imposition of a caliphate, or of Muslim law, on America." He added: "Only a true paranoid could look at America as it is today and see the creeping takeover of Islamist caliphate ideology." I think you are naive Jeffery!

Pro-Life advocates argue that life begin at inception and oppose abortion on all levels.

CONTACT INFORMATION

National Right to Life Committee
512 10th St. NW
Washington, DC 20004
(202) 626-8800
NRLC@nrlc.org

Pro-choice advocates argue that whether or not to continue with a pregnancy is an inviolable personal choice, as it involves a woman's body, personal health, and future. They believe that both parents' and children's lives are better when abortions are legal, thus preventing women from going to desperate lengths to obtain illegal abortions. More broadly, pro-choice advocates frame their beliefs in terms of individual liberty, reproductive freedom, and reproductive rights.

Planned Parenthood Federation of America

1110 Vermont Ave. NW

Suite 300

Washington, DC 20005

202-973-4800

FAX: 202-296-3242

Call now..Act now..Call your congressman/woman

Chicago Bred ~ Washington Trained

2011-01-16T03:08:00.000-08:00

According to WikiLeaks, it has 20,000 more Twitter followers ~ Twitter followers defiant despite WikiLeaks probe

2011-01-13T15:38:00.000-08:00

Thousands of new followers have signed up to the WikiLeaks Twitter feed despite news that US authorities are snooping on supporters.

According to WikiLeaks, it has 20,000 more Twitter followers now than it did when the US started legal proceedings demanding that Twitter give up details of the whistleblowing site's supporters.

The US Department of Justice secured a court order demanding Twitter gave it information related to WikiLeaks' Twitter account, as well of account details of several members and supporters.

Blogs

Twitter data demand highlights cloud control problems

Once the secret subpoena was exposed, the US was criticised for using intimidation tactics, but far from acting as a deterrent, the measures appear to have increased support for WikiLeaks.

The news comes as EU officials continue to ponder the legality of the US's actions in seeking personal information from non-US citizens.

The Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) has called for the European Parliament to probe the US subpoenas to investigate whether the US action breached EU data protection rules.

"The EU should as a matter of urgency ask the US authorities for clarifications on the subpoenas imposed on Twitter and most probably on other private companies to provide personal information and communications of persons - including EU citizens - they consider to be related to Wikileaks,” said ALDE vice president Sophie In't Veld.

"The lack of an identified illegal act and of a judicial enquiry in the US casts a shadow on the whole process of lifting the protection of citizens' privacy for the sake of national security through such subpoena orders."

Iceland summons US envoy over WikiLeaks probe ~

2011-01-09T08:43:00.000-08:00

The American ambassador to Reykjavik has been summoned to explain why U.S. investigators are trying to access the private details of an Icelandic lawmaker's online activity as they try to build a criminal case against WikiLeaks. Ambassador Luis E. Arreaga was nominated by President Barack Obama as Ambassador to the Republic of Iceland on April 22, 2010.

Revelations that the U.S. Justice Department obtained a court order to examine data held by Twitter Inc. on Birgitta Jonsdottir, an Icelandic parliamentarian who sits on the country's Foreign Affairs Committee, immediately caused consternation in the tiny North Atlantic nation.

"(It is) very serious that a foreign state, the United States, demands such personal information of an Icelandic person, an elected official," Interior Minister Ogmundur Jonasson told Icelandic broadcaster RUV.
"This is even more serious when put (in) perspective and concerns freedom of speech and people's freedom in general," he added.
Jonsdottir is a one-time WikiLeaks collaborator also known for her work on Iceland's media initiative, which aims to turn the island nation into a free speech haven. Jonsdottir told The Associated Press she was too overwhelmed to comment Sunday, but in a recent post to Twitter, she said she was talking with American lawyers about how to beat the order — and was drumming up support in Iceland as well.
U.S. Ambassador Luis E. Arreaga has been summoned for a meeting at Iceland's Foreign Ministry to discuss the issue, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Urdur Gunnarsdottir said Sunday. It was not clear when the meeting was taking place.
U.S. Embassy in Reykjavik said no one there would be available for comment until Monday.
The evolving diplomatic spat illustrates the challenge American prosecutors face as they weigh whether to bring charges against WikiLeaks, an international, tech-savvy operation that has angered and embarrassed Washington with a series of huge leaks of classified information.
The most recent disclosure of thousands of secret State Department cables saw U.S. diplomats being ordered to gather the DNA and fingerprints of their international counterparts, captured backroom dealing over issues such as Guantanamo and rendition, and publicized unflattering assessments of friends and foes alike.
The U.S. says the disclosures have damaged international diplomacy and put the safety of informants and foreign human rights activists at risk. WikiLeaks has dismissed the claims, but Washington has been trying to find a way to prosecute the group and its leader, 39-year-old Julian Assange, who is currently in England.
A court order unsealed earlier this week revealed that American authorities had gone to court to seek data from Twitter about Assange, Jonsdottir, and others either known or suspected to have interacted with WikiLeaks.
Some of those named in the court order have said they suspect other companies — such as Facebook Inc., Google Inc., and the eBay Inc.-owned Internet communications company Skype — have also been secretly asked to hand over their personal data.

Boehner Vows To Put an End To The Gridlock

2011-01-05T07:46:00.000-08:00

John Boehner

Ascending to speaker of the House, Rep. John Boehner is ready to take the gavel from Democrat Nancy Pelosi, vowing to "give government back to the people" and bring an end to congressional gridlock.
"The American people have humbled us. They have refreshed our memories as to just how temporary the privilege to serve is," Boehner says in remarks prepared for his installation later Wednesday as the new speaker. "This is their Congress. It's about them, not us."
Taking control of the House at last, Republicans are rushing straight into a political fight with President Barack Obama over health care and changes in Washington they say voters demanded in the midterm elections.

Fight censorship ~ Vote Anyone Out Who Would Infringe On Our Right To Free Speech

2011-01-04T23:03:00.000-08:00

YOUR VOTE IS MORE POWERFUL THAN THE CHICAGO MOB

We must all track the politicians who would infringe on our right to free speech. We cannot accept it under the guise if “net neutrality” or any other means. Watch your senators and congressman closely. Through our votes we can take back our government and insist that these officials “represent” us!

Bank Of America Scared To Death Of Assange ~WikiLeaks Truth Strikes Terror !

2011-01-03T05:21:00.000-08:00

Bank of America is scrambling to prepare itself ahead of an expected WikiLeaks document dump that may expose damaging information about the bank, according to a New York Times report.

After revealing thousands of leaked U.S. diplomatic cables, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said in November that he was set to expose as "ecosystem of corruption" at a major U.S. bank. In an interview more than a year earlier, Assange said he had five gigabytes of information from a Bank of America executive's hard drive and was deciding how to release it.

Given Assange's comments, Bank of America has set up a special team to pore over thousands of documents and investigating whether any computers have gone missing in an effort to pin down what information might possibly be exposed.

CBS News Special Report: WikiLeaks

The Charlotte, N.C.-based bank has also employed the consultancy Booz Allen Hamilton to assist with the review.

According to the report, the investigation has turned up no evidence to suggest that Assange has acquired a hard drive directly from the bank. But the bank provided documents to the Securities and Exchange Commission, congressional investigators and the New York attorney general's office in the last two years that could account for Assange's claims.

How WikiLeaks Enlightened Us in 2010

Officials from all three bodies deny WikiLeaks could have obtained the information through them.

In a move last month that could have inflamed any WikiLeaks aggression, Bank of America joined Mastercard and Paypal in ceasing to process payments to WikiLeaks, on the basis that its leaks may be illegal.

The U.S. Justice Department has indicated it is investigating possible charges against WikiLeaks and Assange. And in Sweden, Assange remains the focus of a sex crimes investigation. Swedish authorities have requested his extradition from Britain, where he remains free on bail.

Voltaire on enlightened self-interest~ Can You Identify Their Party?

2011-01-01T23:15:00.000-08:00

Pascal ~ Voltaire

If these men lived today which party would they belong to based on the following expressed

Ideologies?

Republican or Democrat

I just discovered this gem in Voltaire’s Letters on England. Voltaire responds to Blaise Pascal’s pronouncement that,

“We are born unjust, for each of us is out for himself. That is against all order. We should work for the general good, and the tendency towards self-interest is the beginning of all disorder, in warfare, government, economy, etc.”

with this rejoinder (emphasis added):

“That is perfectly in order. It is as impossible for a society to be formed and be durable without self-interest as it would be to produce children without carnal desire or to think of eating without appetite, etc. It is love of self that encourages love of others, it is through our mutual needs that we are useful to the human race. That is the foundation of all commerce, the eternal link between men. Without it not a single art would have been invented, no society of ten people formed.”

Governor-elect Andrew Cuomo to embrace a “Latino Agenda” when he takes office. What About Americanism?

2010-12-31T21:25:00.000-08:00

Governor-elect Andrew Cuomo

NEW YORK—The Latino Society of New York, representing a slew of Hispanic organizations across the state, is calling on Governor-elect Andrew Cuomo to embrace a “Latino Agenda” when he takes office.

In six simultaneous press conferences around New York, Latino advocacy groups unveiled their 12-step plan, which calls for more Latinos to be appointed to senior policy positions, ban at-large elections in 1,400 localities which they call discriminatory, fund public higher education by taxing natural gas drilling companies, and strengthen diversity efforts in government.

How about embracing "assimilation" for a change?

The question Como should be asking is “ How do “legal” immigrants become Americans and in this case New Yorkers. The buzz-word "Diversity" has degenerated from a definition of tolerance and appreciation of the differences in cultures and ethnicities to a fast track for separatism, individual agendas, racism and countercultural movements. Wake up already !

81 percent of the more than 4 million Latinos in New York voted for the Cuomo-Duffy ticket. The writers of the Latino Agenda are asking that Cuomo refrain from making symbolic but empty appointments of Latino officials, and instead make real social and economic decisions to help their community.

Its A Crap Sandwitch

2010-12-30T05:04:00.000-08:00

How will it end?