“Let the pitch forks do their job”

Obama’s Big Sellout by MATT TAIBBI (Another Classic)

The president has packed his economic team with Wall Street insiders intent on turning the bailout into an all-out giveaway.

MATT TAIBBI Posted Dec 09, 2009 2:35 PM

Barack Obama ran for president as a man of the people, standing up to Wall Street as the global economy melted down in that fateful fall of 2008. He pushed a tax plan to soak the rich, ripped NAFTA for hurting the middle class and tore into John McCain for supporting a bankruptcy bill that sided with wealthy bankers “at the expense of hardworking Americans.” Obama may not have run to the left of Samuel Gompers or Cesar Chavez, but it’s not like you saw him on the campaign trail flanked by bankers from Citigroup and Goldman Sachs. What inspired supporters who pushed him to his historic win was the sense that a genuine outsider was finally breaking into an exclusive club, that walls were being torn down, that things were, for lack of a better or more specific term, changing.

Then he got elected.

What’s taken place in the year since Obama won the presidency has turned out to be one of the most dramatic political about-faces in our history. Elected in the midst of a crushing economic crisis brought on by a decade of orgiastic deregulation and unchecked greed, Obama had a clear mandate to rein in Wall Street and remake the entire structure of the American economy. What he did instead was ship even his most marginally progressive campaign advisers off to various bureaucratic Siberias, while packing the key economic positions in his White House with the very people who caused the crisis in the first place. This new team of bubble-fattened ex-bankers and laissez-faire intellectuals then proceeded to sell us all out, instituting a massive, trickle-up bailout and systematically gutting regulatory reform from the inside.

How could Obama let this happen? Is he just a rookie in the political big leagues, hoodwinked by Beltway old-timers? Or is the vacillating, ineffectual servant of banking interests we’ve been seeing on TV this fall who Obama really is?

Whatever the president’s real motives are, the extensive series of loophole-rich financial “reforms” that the Democrats are currently pushing may ultimately do more harm than good. In fact, some parts of the new reforms border on insanity, threatening to vastly amplify Wall Street’s political power by institutionalizing the taxpayer’s role as a welfare provider for the financial-services industry. At one point in the debate, Obama’s top economic advisers demanded the power to award future bailouts without even going to Congress for approval — and without providing taxpayers a single dime in equity on the deals.

How did we get here? It started just moments after the election — and almost nobody noticed.

FULL READ HERE: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/31234647/obamas_big_sellout/1

VIDEO HERE: http://taibbi.rssoundingboard.com/matt-taibbi-on-obamas-economy#

Dennis Kucinich on “MSNBC – The Ed Show” 12.8.09

US No business in the Middle of Afghan Civil War

Phyllis Bennis: Obama said that there was no military solution, but that’s all he’s really offering

Obama’s Vietnam-lite

Cops Use Taser on ‘Out of Control’ Child

PUEBLO, Colo. (Dec. 3) — Colorado sheriff’s deputies shocked an “out of control” 10-year-old child with a Taser and arrested him.

Pueblo Sheriff’s Capt. Jeff Teschner said Wednesday that the boy was not hurt when deputies took action Monday after arriving at his foster home, where he was reportedly destroying property. Teschner says deputies were justified in their use of force. The deputies say the youth threatened them with a pipe and a stick, and threw a piece of wood at them.

The boy was arrested on suspicion of menacing with a deadly weapon.

Last month, a police officer in a small Arkansas town was fired after using a stun gun on an unruly 10-year-old girl, not for using the Taser but for violating department policy by failing to use the camera attached to it.

Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. Active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.

FULL READ HERE:

http://news.aol.com/article/colorado-police-shock-out-of-control/798808?icid=main|main|dl5|link6|http%3A%2F%2Fnews.aol.com%2Farticle%2Fcolorado-police-shock-out-of-control%2F798808

Matt Taibbi Discusses “Obama’s Big Sell-Out to Wall St” on MSNBC

Kucinich on Fox News: “On The Record with Greta Van Susteren”

A word from Mr. Kucinich:

Dear Friends,

Tonight the President will announce an escalation of the war in Afghanistan. An additional 30,000 troops will bring the United States’ total in Afghanistan to 100,000. Tomorrow I will offer an analysis of the President’s plan.

The community I represent in Cleveland, Ohio, is suffering from massive unemployment, record home foreclosures, and small business failures. People are losing their jobs, their health care, their homes, their savings, their investments, and their retirement security. The middle class is gravely threatened. What is happening in Cleveland is occurring nationwide. Yet, Wall Street received over $13 trillion in bailouts, with untold millions for high salaries and bonuses, while Main Street loses its power through unemployment, reduced wages and benefits and little or no access to credit or investment capital. There is something fundamentally wrong with our economy which borrowing more money to spend on war cannot and will not cure. Perhaps nation building should begin at home.

An escalation of the war in Afghanistan at a time of such economic dislocation and hardship raises questions about America’s priorities and whether or not we are losing our way as we attempt to stride aside the globe as some Colossus. Tomorrow we will begin anew the discussion.

Thank you.

Dennis

Ron Paul – The Kudlow Report, 11/30/09

On Monday night, Congressman Paul appeared on CNBC to debate former ITC chief economist Peter Morici over the Federal Reserve’s role in the economy and the need for greater transparency at the Fed.

Music to my Ears

Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner is making few new friends in Congress these days, as a growing litany of bipartisan critics are questioning whether he should keep his job.

Rep. Kevin Brady of Texas, the top Republican House member on the Joint Economic Committee, on Thursday was the latest lawmaker to call for Mr. Geithner to resign, saying the nation has lost confidence in the Obama administration’s ability to handle the economy.

“For the sake of our jobs, will you step down from your post?” Mr. Brady asked Mr. Geithner during a hearing of the panel.

Mr. Geithner, who was appointed by Mr. Obama and took office in January, shrugged off the request, saying that it was “a great privilege for me to serve this president.”

“I agree with almost nothing in what you said,” the secretary added. “And I think almost nothing of what you said represents a fair and accurate perception of where this economy is today.”

Another Texas Republican, Rep. Michael C. Burgess, went a step further than Mr. Brady in his criticism of the secretary.

“I don’t think that you should be fired; I thought you should have never been hired,” Mr. Burgess told Mr. Geithner.

Mr. Burgess said questionable actions in Mr. Geithner’s past, such his admission shortly after his nomination that he owed back taxes, made him unsuitable for the job from the beginning.

“It did not leave the American people with a good feeling about the person who was going to be responsible for this economic recovery,” he said.

The GOP rebukes came two days after the release of an embarrassing report by a Treasury Department watchdog that criticized Mr. Geithner’s handling last fall of an initial emergency plan to save then-failing American International Group (AIG) while head of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

The report, conducted by Neil Barofsky, special inspector general for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), said that although the Federal Reserve’s initial $85 billion credit line to AIG helped the company settle many of its outstanding contracts with outside parties, “its terms were unworkable.”

Even some liberals have been piling on Mr. Geithner. Rep. Peter A. DeFazio, Oregon Democrat, said flatly on MSNBC on Wednesday that Mr. Geithner should quit.

Mr. DeFazio said that within the House Congressional Progressive Caucus, a group of liberal House Democrats of which he is a member, there is a growing consensus that Mr. Geithner should leave his post.

“The populist caucus is considering questions regarding both him and some other members of the economic team in the near future,” he said.

The congressman also hinted that White House economic adviser Lawrence H. Summers should perhaps be shown the door.

The president “is being failed by his economic team,” Mr. DeFazio told Ed Schultz on MSNBC. “We may have to sacrifice just two more jobs to get millions back for Americans.”

Why did we give that piece of SHIT a Nobel PEACE Prize?

I hate Obama and his lack of change. Obama promised to end the war and not raise taxes. Now, he is going to send AT LEAST 34k more troops and now we are talking about a War Tax!!!! WTF!?!?!?! Wake up and burn your flags folks, your government has sold your country to banks and corporations while you were sleeping! He is a piece shit, just like Bush. It’s time to retract that Nobel Peace Prize. What a joke!

And yes, I know John Murtha is only proposing this so we take a harder look at the war situation – which is smart. I just can’t believe we are even considering more troops under the promise of change and how FUCKING broke we are.

(Nov. 24) — With President Barack Obama expected to announce his plan for Afghanistan on Dec. 1, the debate about how to pay for the war is heating up. The U.S. commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, wants 40,000 more troops. Obama’s plan would send 34,000 during the next year, U.S. officials told McClatchy Newspapers. House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey opposes any increase in the 68,000-member U.S. force in Afghanistan. But now that a surge appears inevitable, he and some other top

Democrats are demanding a new tax to cover the expense of the war. Various estimates put the annual cost at $500,000 to $1 million per soldier. “If we don’t pay for it, the cost of the Afghan war will wipe out every initiative we have to rebuild our own economy,” the Wisconsin Democrat told ABC News. Obey, who came into office in 1969, said that’s what happened during the Vietnam War. If the war is to be fought, “it’s only fair that everyone share the burden,” said a joint statement from Obey, House Democratic Caucus Chairman John Larson and Defense Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman John Murtha.

Their proposal would impose a 1 percent levy on middle-class taxpayers. Those earning more would be taxed at a higher rate, depending on how much is needed for the war. Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin has also talked about a war tax, but only for the wealthy.

FULL READ HERE: http://www.sphere.com/2009/11/24/the-point-democrats-call-for-war-tax/

MORE HERE: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091124/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_us_afghanistan

Keiser Report on RT: Markets, Finance, Scandal

In our new program – “Keiser report”, hosted by the renowned financial analyst and former stockbroker Max Keiser – the most provocative questions in US politics are tackled head-on.

Lou Dobbs is Leaving CNN

Another outlet of truth going down, it’s a another sad day in America.

BlackWater Approved $1 million payoffs after killing 17 Iraqi Civilians

Dennis Kucinich Explains Why He Voted Against The Health Care Bill

“Obama is in bed with Wall Street just like Bush” – Peter Schiff

Obama is in bed with Wall Street just like Bush Peter Schiff on SBS Dateline

 

How Goldman secretly bet on the U.S. housing crash

Goldman taking away people’s homes

Ron Paul vs. Michael Moore on Larry King

Obama and the Media – Still on honeymoon?

The Military-Industrial-Congressional Complex

9/11 Redux

Homes: About to get much cheaper

• By Les Christie, CNNMoney.com staff writer

Home values are predicted to drop in 342 out of 381 markets during the next year, according to a new forecast of real estate prices.

Overall, the national median home price is predicted to drop 11.3% by June 30, 2010, according to Fiserv, a financial information and analysis firm. For the following year, the firm anticipates some stabilization with prices rising 3.6%.

In the past, Fiserv anticipated the rapid decline in home-sale prices over the past few years — though it underestimated the scope.

Mark Zandi, chief economist with Moody’s Economy.com, agreed with Fiserv’s current assessments. “I think more price declines are coming because the foreclosure crisis is not over,” he said.

In fact, those areas with high concentrations of foreclosure sales will experience the steepest drops, according to Fiserv. Miami, for example, is expected to be the biggest loser. Prices are forecast to plunge 29.9% by next June — after having already fallen a whopping 48% during the past three years.

If Fiserv’s forecast holds, Miami real median home price will tumble to $142,000 by June 2011.

In Orlando, Fla., the second-worst performing market, Fiserv anticipates a 27% price collapse by June 2010, followed by a less severe drop the following year. In Hanford, Calif., prices are estimated to drop 26.9% and continue falling 9.5% in 2011; in Naples, Fla., they’re expected to fall 26.8% and then flatten out.

Other notable losers include Las Vegas, where prices have already fallen 54.6% and are expected to lose another 23.9% by June 2010. In Phoenix values have already collapsed by 54% and could fall another 23.4%. In both cities, Fiserv anticipates the losses to continue into 2011, but they will be less than 5%.

Prices had stabilized

The latest forecast is at odds with the past few months of the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price index. That report has given hope that most housing markets may have already stabilized because the composite index of 20 cities rose in May, June and July. Nationally, it found that home prices have gained 3.6%.

Brad Hunter, chief economist for Metrostudy, which provides housing market information to the industry, however, expects a change in fortunes, however.

“I’m afraid Case-Shiller may be just a temporary reprieve,” he said.

He pointed out that the tax credit for first-time home buyers helped support prices during the three months of Case-Shiller gains. By the end of November, the credit will have been used by 1.8 million homebuyers, at least 355,000 of whom would not have bought a house without the tax break, according to estimates by the National Association of Realtors. But the market assistance ends when the credit expires on Dec. 1.

Hunter also sees a new wave of foreclosure problems coming from higher priced loans and prime mortgages. He expects a high failure rate for option ARM loans that were issued to prime customers so they could buy homes in bubble markets, such as California and Florida. In those areas, prices for even modest homes had skyrocketed.

Winners

A handful of metro areas will buck the trend, according to Fiserv. Six markets will remain flat, and 33 will actually post gains. The biggest winner will be the Kennewick, Wash., metro area, where home prices have ramped up 8.9% over the past three years and are expected to increase another 3.4% by June 2010.

Fairbanks, Alaska, prices are anticipated to rise 2.5%, while Anchorage will climb 2.1%. Elmira, N.Y., prices may inch up 1.8%.

The nation’s biggest metro area, New York City, will underperform the nation as a whole over the next two years, according to Fiserv. Prices, which have already fallen 21.7% to a median of $375,000, are expected to fall 17.4% by June 2011.

Home values in the nation’s second largest city, Los Angeles, have fallen 43.3% since June 2006 to a median of $313,000. They are expected to dive another 20.2% over by June 2010, and then start to climb in 2011. Chicago prices, which have fallen 25.2% to $227,000, will drop only 4.1% over the next 12 months and then starting to climb.

The Detroit metro area now has the dubious distinction of having the lowest home prices in the country. Prices have dropped 51.7% to a median of $50,000. They’re expected to fall another 9.1% and then stabilize.

Beneath the hype: Is Iran close to nukes?

Full Spectrum Dominance and the NWO

Goldman Sachs is EVERYWHERE

Schiff is on the move!

The Regulators should be in Jail – Jim Rogers

Bank of America says it won’t repay Government loan

Carl Gutierrez, 09.15.09, 05:00 PM EDT

Bank of America is trying to avoid paying back taxpayers for a $4 billion guarantee to cover its toxic assets

Bank of America is fighting against the Treasury Department’s claim that it owes taxpayers at least part of the $4 billion federal guarantee it received in January because the company benefited from announcing that it had the U.S. government’s backing.

Bank of America ( BAC – news - people ) has argued that it doesn’t need to pay the Treasury back because it was simply an oral agreement. Things looked differently nine months ago. During the company’s fourth-quarter conference call, which was held on Jan. 16, Chief Executive Ken Lewis announced BofA received a federal guarantee for $118 billion of toxic assets, most of which were accrued in its acquisition of Merrill Lynch, in addition to the $20 billion it received to complete the deal. (See “Ken Lewis Is Getting Lonely.”) Lewis said the guarantee was worth $4 billion and that it was essentially insurance protection.

During the same conference call, Joe Price, BofA’s chief financial officer, said that the firm had entered several agreements with a number of government agencies that would replenish capital and essentially provide insurance against the downside risk to the $118 billion pool in capital markets-related exposures.

BofA’s accompanying press release stated the government “agreed to provide protection against further losses on $118 billion in selected capital-markets exposure, primarily from the former Merrill Lynch portfolio.” According to BofA, “under the agreement” it would cover the first $10 billion in losses, while the government would cover 90% of any following losses, noting the bank would pay a premium of 3.4% of those assets for this program.

“It gave investors confidence that there was a quantifiable downside risk to the higher-risk Merrill assets,” said David George, an analyst at Robert W. Baird.

The picture changed on May 7. Within BofA’s response to the “stress test” results, it said it was “seeking an end to negotiations and to terminate its term sheet with respect to the proposed guarantee of approximately $118 billion in capital markets assets by the U.S. government. We believe that the expense of the asset wrap exceeds the potential benefit, especially since, even under our stress test conclusions, losses never exceed the initial $10 billion we would have to cover.” (See “For Most Banks, Not Too Stressful.”)

MORE HERE:
http://www.forbes.com/2009/09/15/lewis-bank-america-markets-equities-merrill-lynch.html

More U.S. troops in Afghanistan – Typical Obama

Leaving Lehman, exposing Wall Street

George Orwell rolls in his grave.

Ron Paul, CNN “American Morning,” 9/14/09

Congressman Ron Paul discusses his new book “End The Fed,” as well as other economic issues and Federal Reserve-related topics on CNN’s “American Morning.”

Charlie Sheen’s letter to Obama

Alex Jones interviews Charlie Sheen.

I recently had the pleasure of sitting down with our 44^th President of the United States of America, Barack Hussein Obama, while he was out promoting his health care reform initiative. I requested 30 minutes given the scope and detail of my inquiry; they said I could have 20. Twenty minutes, 1200 seconds, not a lot of time to question the President about one of the most important events in our nation’s history. The following is a transcript of our remarkable discussion.

Charlie Sheen – Good afternoon Mr. President, thank you so much for taking time out of your demanding schedule.

President Barack Obama – My pleasure, the content of your request seemed like something I should carve out a few minutes for.

CS – I should point out that I voted for you, as your promises of hope and change, transparency and accountability, as well as putting government back into the hands of the American people, struck an emotional chord in me that I hadn’t felt in quite some time, perhaps ever.

PBO – And I appreciate that Charlie. Big fan of the show, by the way.

CS – Sir, I can’t imagine when you might find the time to actually watch my show given the measure of what you inherited.

PBO – I have it Tivo’d on Air Force One. Nice break from the traveling press corps. (He glances at his watch) not to be abrupt or to rush you, but you have 19 minutes left.

CS – I’ll take that as an invitation to cut to the chase.

PBO – I’m all ears. Or so I’ve been told.

CS - Sir, in the very near future we will be experiencing our first 9/11 anniversary with you as Commander in Chief.

PBO – Yes. A very solemn day for our Nation. A day of reflection and yet a day of historical consciousness as well.

CS – Very much so sir, very much so indeed…. Now; In researching your position regarding the events of 9/11 and the subsequent investigation that followed, am I correct to understand that you fully support and endorse the findings of the commission report otherwise known as the ‘official story’?

PBO – Do I have any reason not to? Given that most of us are presumably in touch with similar evidence.

CS – I really wish that were the case, sir. Are you aware, Mr. President, of the recent stunning revelations that sixty percent of the 9/11 commissioners have publicly stated that the government agreed not to tell the truth about 9/11 and that the Pentagon was engaged in deliberate deception about their response to the attack?

PBO – I am aware of certain “in fighting” during the course of their very thorough and tireless investigative process.

CS – Mr. President, it’s hard to label this type of friction as “in fighting” or make the irresponsible leap to “thorough,” when the evidence I insist you examine regarding 6 of the 10 members are statements of fact.

(At this point one of Obama’s senior aides approaches the President and whispers into his ear. Obama glances quickly at his watch and nods as the aide resumes his post at the doorway, directly behind me.)

PBO – No disrespect Mr. Sheen, but I have to ask; what is it that you seem to be implying with the initial direction of this discussion?

CS – I am not implying anything Mr. President. I am here to present the facts and see what you plan to do with them.

PBO -  Let me guess; your ‘facts,’ allegedly supporting these claims are in the folders you brought with you?

CS – Good guess Mr. President.

(I hand the first folder of documents to the President)

CS – Again sir, these are not my opinions or assumptions, this is all a matter of public record, reported through mainstream media, painstakingly fact checked and verified.

(the President glances into the folder I handed him)

CS – You’ll notice sir on page one of the dossier dated August of  ‘06 from the Washington Post, the statements of John Farmer, senior council to the 9/11 commission, his quote stating, “I was shocked how different the truth was from the way it was described.”

PBO – (as he glances down at the report, almost inaudible) …. um hmm….

CS – He goes on to further state “The [NORAD Air Defense] tapes told a radically different story from what had been told to us and the public for two years….”

(the President continues to view the documents)

Charlie Sheen writing 20 Minutes with the President. Photo by Alex Jones.

CS – On pages two and three, sir, are the statements, as well, from commission co-chairmen Thomas Kean and Lee Hamilton, commissioners Bob Kerrey, Timothy Roemer and John Lehman, as well as the statements of commissioner Max Cleland, an ex-Senator from Georgia , who resigned, stating:

“It is a national scandal. This investigation is now compromised. One of these days we will have to get the full story because the 9/11 issue is so important to America. But this White House wants to cover it up.”

He also described President Bush’s desire to delay the process as not to damage the ‘04 re-election bid. They suspected deception to the point where they considered referring the matter to the Justice Department for criminal investigation. Mr. President, this information alone is unequivocally grounds for a new investigation!

PBO – Mistakes were clearly made but we as a people and as a country need to move forward. It is obviously in our best interest as a democratic society to focus our efforts and our resources on the future of this great nation and our ability to protect the American people and our allies from this type of terrorism in the coming years.

CS – Sir, how can we focus on the future when THE COMMISSION ITSELF is on record stating that they still do not know the truth??

PBO – Even if what you state, might in some capacity, begin to approach an open discussion or balanced debate, I can’t speak for, or about the decisions certain commission members made during an extremely difficult period. Perhaps you should be interviewing them instead of me. Wait, don’t tell me; I was easier to track down than they were?

CS -  Not exactly sir, but let’s be honest. You’re the President of the United States, the leader of the free world, the buck stops with you. 9/11 has been the pretext for the systematic dismantling of our Constitution and Bill of Rights. Your administration is reading from the same playbook that the Bush administration foisted on America through documented secrecy and deception.

PBO – Mr. Sheen, I’m having a difficult time sitting here and listening to you draw distorted parallels between the Bush/Cheney regime and mine.

CS – Mr. President the parallels are not distorted just because you say they are. Let’s stick to the facts. You promised to abolish the Patriot Act and then voted to re-authorize it. You pledged to end warrantless wire tapping against the American people and now energetically defend it. You decried the practice of rendition and now continue it. You promised over and over again on the campaign trail, that you would end the practice of indefinite detention and instead, you have expanded it to permanent detention of “detainees” without trial. This far exceeds the outrages of the former administration. Call me crazy Mr. President, but is this not your record?

PBO – Mr. Sheen, my staff and I authorized this interview based on your request to discuss 9/11 and deliver some additional information you’re convinced I’d not previously reviewed. Call me crazy, But it appears as though you’ve blindly wandered off topic.

CS – Sir, the examples I just illustrated are a direct result of 9/11.

PBO – And I’m telling you that we must move forward, we must endure through these dangerous and politically challenging years ahead.

CS – Mr. President, we cannot move forward with a bottomless warren of unanswered questions surrounding that day and its aftermath.

PBO – I read the official report. Every word every page. Perhaps you should do the same.

CS – I have sir, and so have thousands of family members of the victims, and guess what; they have the same questions I do and probably a lot more. I didn’t lose a loved one on that horrific day Mr. President and neither did you. But since then I, along with millions of other Americans lost something we held true and dear for most of our lives in this great country of ours; we lost our hope.

PBO – And I’d like to believe that I am here to restore that hope. To restore confidence in your leaders, in the system that the voting public chose through a peaceful transfer of power.

(An odd moment of silence between us. Precious time ticking away).

CS – Mr. President, are you aware of the number of days it took to begin the investigation into JFK’s assassination?

PBO – If memory serves I believe it was two weeks.

CS – Close. Seventeen days to be exact. Are you aware sir, how long it took to begin the investigation into Pearl Harbor?

PBO – I would say again about….two weeks.

CS – Close again sir, eleven days to be exact. Are you aware Mr. President how long it took to begin the investigation into 9/11?

PBO – I know it must have seemed like a very long time for all the grieving families.

CS – It was a very long time Mr. President – four hundred and forty  days. Roughly 14 months. Does it bother you Mr. President that it only took FIVE HOURS for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld after the initial attack to recommend and endorse a full scale offensive against Iraq?

PBO – I am not aware of any such purported claim.

CS – I have the proof Mr. President, along with scores of documents and facts I’d like you to take a look at. Here.

(I hand him another file – much thicker than the first)

PBO – I see you came prepared Charlie.

CS – No other way to show up Mr. President.  When in doubt over prepare I always say.

PBO – Now you sound like the First Lady.

CS – That’s quite a compliment sir.

PBO – As you wish. Please continue.

CS – Sir, I’d like to direct your attention to the stack of documents in the folder I just handed you. The first in from the top is entitled “Operation Northwoods”, a declassified Pentagon plan to stage terror attacks on US soil, to be blamed on Cuba as a pretext for war.

PBO – And I’d like to direct your attention to the fact that the principle draftsman of this improbable blueprint  was quickly denied a second term as Joint Chiefs chairman and sent packing to a European NATO garrison. Thank God his otherworldly ambitions never saw the light of day.

CS – I wouldn’t be so certain about that Mr. President.

PBO – I could easily say the same to you Charlie.

(the President checks his watch)

CS – The next document reads “Declassified staged provocations.” Now, Honestly Mr. President I wish I was making this stuff up. I’m certain you are familiar with the USS Maine Incident, the sinking of the Lusitania, which we all now know brought us into WW1, and of course the most famous, the Gulf of Tonkin incident.

PBO – Of course I am familiar with these historical events and I’m aware that there’s a measure of controversy surrounding them. But to be quite frank with you, this is all ancient history.

CS – Mr. President, it has been often said; “Those who do not know history are doomed to repeat it.” And I concede to you sir, these events are the past.

PBO – A vastly different world young man, shouldering a radically disparate state of universal affairs.

CS – No argument sir, I‘m merely inviting you to acknowledge some credibility to the pattern or the theme. Case in point; the next document in your folder. It was published by the think-tank, Project For a New American Century and it’s entitled “Rebuilding Americas Defenses”, and was written by Dick Cheney and Jeb Bush. To quote from the document sir – (the President interrupts)

PBO – “Further, the process of transformation, even if it brings revolutionary change, is likely to be a long one, absent some catastrophic and catalyzing event – like a new Pearl Harbor.”

CS – Touché, sir. Your thoughts on this statement Mr. President?

PBO – I would call this a blatant case of misjudgment fueled by an unfortunate milieu of assumption. For some, the uninformed denial of coincidence.

CS – Interesting angle sir. Nevertheless, Vice President Cheney didn’t stop there. In early 2008, Pulitzer prize winning journalist Seymour Hersh and MSNBC, both reported that Cheney had proposed to the Pentagon an outrageous plan to have the U.S. Navy create fake Iranian patrol boats, to be manned by Navy Seals, who would then stage an attack on US destroyers in the Strait of Hormuz. This event was to be blamed on Iran and used as a pretext for war. Does any of this information worry you Mr. President?  Should we just ignore it, until these realities can be dismissed years from now by our children, as ancient history as well?

PBO – Of course this information worries me, yet it’s not nearly as worrisome as you sitting here today suspiciously implying that 9/11 was somehow allowed to happen or even orchestrated from the inside.

CS – Mr. President I am not suspiciously implying anything. I am merely exposing the documents and asking the questions that nobody in power will even look at or acknowledge. And as I stated earlier, I voted for you, I believed in your message of hope and change. Mr. President I have come to you specifically hoping for a change. A change in the perception that our government has not yet made itself open and accountable to the people. These are your words Mr. President not mine. The lives of thousands were brutally cut short and those left behind to suffer their infinite pain are with me today Mr. President. They are with me in spirit and flesh, and the message we carry will not be silenced anymore by media fueled mantras insisting how they are supposed to feel. Deciding for them, for 8 long years, what can be thought, what can be said, what can be asked.

PBO – And I appreciate your passion, I appreciate your conviction. In spite of your concerns, in spite of what your data might or might not reveal, what you and the families must understand and accept is that we are doing everything we can to protect you.

CS – Mr. President , I realize were very short on time, so please allow me to run down a list of bullet points that might illuminate some reasons why we don’t embrace the warm hug of Federal protection.

PBO – We’ve come this far. Fire away.

CS – Please keep in mind Mr. President everything I’m about to say is documented as fact and part of the public record. The information you are holding in your hands chronicles and verifies each and every point.

PBO – You have five minutes left. The floor is yours. Brief me.

CS – Thank you Mr. President. Okay, first; On the FBI’s most wanted list Osama Bin Laden is not charged with the crimes of 911. When I called the FBI to ask them why this was the case, they replied: “There’s not enough evidence to link Bin Laden to the crime scene,” I later discovered he had never even been indicted by the D.O.J.

CS – Number 2; FBI translator Sibel Edmonds, was dismissed and gagged by the D.O.J. after she revealed that the government had foreknowledge of plans to attack American cities using planes as bombs as early as April 2001. In July of ‘09, Mrs. Edmonds broke the Federal gag order and went public to reveal that Osama Bin Laden, Al Qaeda and the Taliban were all working for and with the C.I.A. up until the day of 9/11.

CS – Number 3;  The following is a quote from Mayor Giuliani during an interview on 9/11 with Peter Jennings for ABC News. “I went down to the scene and we set up headquarters at 75 Barkley Street, which was right there with the Police Commissioner, the Fire Commissioner, the Head of Emergency Management, and we were operating out of there when we were told that the World Trade Center was going to collapse. And it did collapse before we could actually get out of the building, so we were trapped in the building for 10, 15 minutes, and finally found an exit and got out, walked north, and took a lot of people with us.”

WHO TOLD HIM THIS??? To this day, the answer to this question remains unanswered, completely ignored and emphatically DENIED by Mayor Giuliani on several public occasions.

CS – Number 4; In April 2004, USA Today reported, “In the two years before the Sept. 11 attacks, the North American Aerospace Defense Command conducted exercises simulating what the White House says was unimaginable at the time: hijacked airliners used as weapons to crash into targets and cause mass casualties.” One of the targets was the World Trade Center.

CS – Number 5; On September 12th 2007, CNN’s ‘Anderson Cooper 360’, reported that the mysterious “white plane” spotted and videotaped by multiple media outlets, flying in restricted airspace over the White House shortly before 10am on the morning of 9/11, was in fact the Air Force’s E-4B, a specially modified Boeing 747 with a communications pod behind the cockpit; otherwise known as “The Doomsday Plane”.

Though fully aware of the event, the 9/11 Commission did not deem the appearance of the military plane to be of any interest and did not include it in the final 9/11 Commission report.

CS – Number 6; Three F-16s assigned to Andrews Air Force Base, ten miles from Washington, DC, are conducting training exercises in North Carolina 207 miles away as the first plane crashes into the WTC. Even at significantly less than their top speed of 1500 mph, they could still have defended the skies over Washington well before 9am, more than 37 minutes before Flight 77 crashes into the Pentagon, however, they did not return until after 9:55am.

Andrews AFB had no armed fighters on alert and ready to take off on the morning of 9/11.

CS – Number 7; WTC Building 7. Watch the video of its collapse.

CS – Number 8; Flight 93 is fourth plane to crash on 9/11 at 10:03am. V.P. Cheney only gives shoot down order at 10:10-10:20am and this is not communicated to NORAD until 28 minutes after Flight 93 has crashed.

Fueling further suspicion on this front is the fact that three months before the attacks of 9/11, Dick Cheney usurped control of NORAD, and therefore he, and no one else on planet Earth, had the power to call for military sorties on the hijacked airliners on 9/11. He did not exercise that power. Three months after 9/11, he relinquished command of NORAD and returned it to military operation.

CS – Number 9; Scores of main stream news outlets reported that the F.B.I. conducted an investigation of at least FIVE of the 9/11 hijackers being trained at U.S. military flight schools. Those investigations are now sealed and need to be declassified.

CS – Number 10; In 2004, New York firefighters Mike Bellone and Nicholas DeMasi went public to say they had found the black boxes at the World Trade Center, but were told to keep their mouths shut by FBI agents. Nicholas DeMasi said that he escorted federal agents on an all-terrain vehicle in October 2001 and helped them locate the devices, a story backed up by rescue volunteer Mike Bellone.

As the Philadelphia Daily News reported at the time, “Their story raises the question of whether there was a some type of cover-up at Ground Zero.”

CS – Number 11 – Hundreds of eye witnesses including first responders, fire captains, news reporters, and police, all described multiple explosions in both towers before and during the collapse.

CS – Number 12; An astounding video uncovered from the archives shows BBC News correspondent Jane Standley reporting on the collapse of WTC Building 7 over twenty minutes before it fell at 5:20pm on the afternoon of 9/11. Tapes from earlier BBC broadcasts show news anchors discussing the collapse of WTC 7 a full 26 minutes in advance. The BBC at first claimed that their tapes from 9/11 had been “lost” before admitting that they made the “error” of reporting the collapse of WTC 7 before it happened without adequately explaining how they could have obtained advance knowledge of the event.

In addition, over an hour before the collapse of WTC 7, at 4:10pm, CNN’s Aaron Brown reported that the building “has either collapsed, or is collapsing.”

CS – Number 13; Solicitor General Ted Olson’s claim that his wife Barbara Olsen called him twice from Flight 77, describing hijackers with box cutters, was a central plank of the official 9/11 story.

However, the credibility of the story was completely undermined after Olsen kept changing his story about whether his wife used her cell phone or the airplane phone. The technology to enable cell phone calls from high-altitude airline flights was not created until 2004. American Airlines confirmed that Flight 77 was a Boeing 757 and that this plane did not have airplane phones on board.

According to the FBI, Barbara Olsen attempted to call her husband only once and the call failed to connect, therefore Olsen must have been lying when he claimed he had spoken to his wife from Flight 77.

CS – Number 14; The size of a Boeing 757 is approximately 125ft in width and yet images of the impact zone at the Pentagon supposedly caused by the crash merely show a hole no more than 16ft in diameter. The engines of the 757 would have punctured a hole bigger than this, never mind the whole plane. Images before the partial collapse of the impact zone show little real impact damage and a sparse debris field completely inconsistent with the crash of a large jetliner, especially when contrasted with other images showing airplane crashes into buildings.

CS – Number 15; What is the meaning behind the following quote attributed to Dick Cheney which came to light during the 9/11 Commission hearings? The passage is taken from testimony given by then Secretary of Transportation Norman Mineta.

During the time that the airplane was coming in to the Pentagon, there was a young man who would come in and say to the Vice President, “The plane is 50 miles out.” “The plane is 30 miles out.” And when it got down to “the plane is 10 miles out,” the young man also said to the Vice President, “Do the orders still stand?” And the Vice President turned and whipped his neck around and said, “Of course the orders still stand. Have you heard anything to the contrary?”

As the plane was not shot down, in addition to the fact that armed fighter jets were nowhere near the plane and the Pentagon defensive system was not activated, are we to take it that the orders were to let the plane find its target?

CS – Number 16; In May 2003, the Miami Herald reported how the Bush administration was refusing to release a 900-page congressional report on 9/11 because it wanted to “avoid enshrining embarrassing details in the report,” particularly regarding pre-9/11 warnings as well as the fact that the hijackers were trained at U.S. flight schools.

CS – Number 17; Top Pentagon officials cancelled their scheduled flights for September 11^th on September 10^th. San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown, following a security warning, cancelled a flight into New York that was scheduled for the morning of 9/11.

CS – Number 18; The technology to enable cell phone calls from high-altitude airline flights was not created until 2004, and even by that point it was only in the trial phase. Calls from cell phones which formed an integral part of the official government version of events were technologically impossible at the time.

CS – Number 19: On April 29, 2004, President Bush and V.P. Cheney would only meet with the commission under specific clandestine conditions. They insisted on testifying together and not under oath. They also demanded that their testimony be treated as a matter of “state secret.” To date, nothing they spoke of that day exists in the public domain.

CS – And finally Mr. President – Number 20; A few days after the attack, several newspapers as well as the FBI reported that a paper passport had been found in the ruins of the WTC. In August 2004, CNN reported that 9/11 hijacker Ziad Jarrah’s visa was found in the remains of Flight 93 which went down in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

At least a third of the WTC victim’s bodies were vaporized and many of the victims of the Pentagon incident were burned beyond recognition. And yet visas and paper passports which identify the perpetrators and back up the official version of events miraculously survive explosions and fires that we are told melted steel buildings.

(The Senior aide appears again beside the President whispering in his ear. He then quickly moves off).

PBO – Well Charlie I can’t say this hasn’t been interesting. As I said earlier you’ve showed up today focused and organized.  Regardless how I feel about the material you’ve presented, I must commend your dedication and zeal. However, our time here is up.

(the President rises from his chair , I do the same).

CS – Mr. President! One more second!

(The President starts towards the door – I follow him quickly step for step).

CS – Mr. President, I implore you based on the evidence you now possess, to use your Executive Power. Prove to us all Sir, that you do, in fact, care. Create a truly comprehensive and open Congressional investigation of 9/11 and its aftermath. The families deserve the truth, the American people and the rest of the free world deserve the truth. Mr. President -

(He pauses. We shake hands).

CS – Make sure you’re on the right side of history.

(The President breaks the handshake).

PBO – I am on the right side of history. Thank you Charlie, my staff and I will be in touch.

(I watch as he strides gracefully out of the room, the truth I provided him held firmly by his side; in the hand of providence.)

Author’s Note:  What you have just read didn’t actually happen… yet.

This is an open letter to the President requesting a new investigation.

Charlie Sheen.

Follow Up Interview with Alex Jones:

Still feeling good about Gold

Great News! Fewer paying speed-camera tickets

Fewer paying speed-camera tickets

But DPS is on lookout for so-called frequent fliers, drivers who flout the system

Dave Vontesmar hates photo enforcement.

Vontesmar drives nearly 30 miles a day from his home in north Phoenix to his job at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport

and passes through the photo-enforcement gantlet on Interstate 17, Arizona 51 and Interstate 10.

But when state Department of Public Safety officers served 37 unpaid photo-enforcement tickets to Vontesmar recently, he wasn’t fazed.

The photos all show the driver wearing a monkey mask.

“Not one of them there is a picture where you can identify the driver,” Vontesmar said. “The ball’s in their court. I sent back all these ones I got with a copy of my driver’s license and said, ‘It’s not me. I’m not paying them.’ “

The latest data from the DPS shows more motorists are disregarding the violation notices upon arrival in the mail.

When the system was just getting set up in October, 34 percent of drivers paid their tickets. By June, that statistic had dropped to 24 percent.

Program effects

DPS officials repeatedly point out that the success of the photo-enforcement program is not measured in revenue it generates – about $20 million for the state through the end of July – or the number of notices of violation issued.

“Our whole goal is not to issue tickets, just to get people to drive the speed limit,” Lt. Jeff King said.

King instead prefers to focus on the program’s positive effects on Arizona’s highways, particularly in the Valley where fatalities, a factor that closely correlates with speed in wrecks, have dropped by 10 to 20 percent since the same time last year. His anecdotal evidence also points to drivers slowing down.

“The whole purpose behind it is voluntary compliance, and (the cameras) work really good,” King said.

DPS statistics support the notion that the program is slowing some drivers down, too. Photo-enforcement cameras activated about 78,000 fewer times in July than in December, though King notes other factors such as the economy could have contributed to fewer drivers being on the road.

King said there are plenty of people who willfully disregard the violations that arrive in the mail, generated by the 78 fixed and mobile units around the state.

DPS officers target such drivers, dubbed frequent fliers, who have 15 or more active violations. King said that number could fluctuate from 100 to 600 motorists.

Drivers have 30 days to respond to a notice of violation after it arrives in the mail. Motorists can either pay the fine, challenge the ticket or inform the DPS that the recipient is not the driver and return the paperwork with a copy of their driver’s license. Drivers who challenge tickets could end up in Justice Court

.

Those who ignore the notice may be served with a hand-delivered ticket.

A case in point

Vontesmar, a flight attendant, chose to inform the DPS that he was not driving when confronted with the 37 violations at his job three weeks ago. DPS officials estimate the car registered in Vontesmar’s name was caught by cameras more than 90 times, but time had lapsed on the majority of violations by the time officers tracked Vontesmar down.

Vontesmar is confident that he won’t have to pay the fines, an amount that could exceed $6,500.

“It’s obviously a revenue grab,” he said of the program. “They’re required by law to ID the driver of the vehicle. If they can’t identify the driver or the vehicle by the picture, what are they doing to identify the driver?”

Typically, the DPS uses driver’s-license photos and vehicle registration to confirm the identity of motorists, but there is a special unit assigned to go after frequent fliers.

In this case, officers sat outside Vontesmar’s home and watched him drive to work. “We watched him four different times put the monkey mask on and put the giraffe-style mask on,” Officer Dave Porter said. “Based on surveillance, we were positive that Vontesmar was the driver.”

Porter said that it would be up to justices of the peace to determine what to do with Vontesmar’s tickets, but the officer said there is enough evidence to reissue the tickets in Vontesmar’s name, despite his claims that he was not the driver.

Some frequent speeders cover their faces, use post-office boxes or fictitious addresses to beat the system, said Officer Jeff Hawkins, who is working 50 such cases.

“They generally do it under the pretext that they’re not going to be caught,” he said. “These are what you probably consider as people who don’t really respect the law at all.”

FULL READ HERE:
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2009/09/08/20090908dpsmonkey0908.html

And… this is why Glenn Beck is part of the PROBLEM

What Beck fails to understand is that the president (Obama or Bush) doesn’t have shit to do with this. These are orders by the Bilderburg Group, the CFR, etc.

I hate all cops

Why would you rehire him Obama?

Why would you rehire him Obama? Look, I know you’re a smart guy, but this is stupid. Because you’re a banker bitch.

Ron Paul on CNN American Morning

On Wednesday, July 22, 2009, Dr. Paul appeared on CNN’s “American Morning” to discuss the failure of the current government-managed health care system and to advocate for less government interference and greater patient control.