April 30, 2012

Key Witness to RFK Assassination Says Sirhan Sirhan Didn’t Act Alone



Key Witness to RFK Assassination Says Sirhan Sirhan Didn’t Act Alone

April 30, 2012

The Sideshow - A key witness to the 1968 assassination of Robert F. Kennedy has retracted her official statements in the case and now claims that convicted assassin Sirhan Sirhan did not act alone.

Nina Rhodes-Hughes, 78, tells CNN that the FBI and then-California Attorney General Kamala Harris "twisted" her original statements to authorities.

"What has to come out is that there was another shooter to my right," Rhodes told CNN. "The truth has got to be told. No more cover-ups."

Rhodes' original FBI statement says she only heard 8 gunshots at the time and makes no mention of a second shooter. However, Rhodes, who was just feet away from Kennedy says she never claimed to have only heard 8 shots.

"I never said eight shots. I never, never said it. There were more than eight shots," she told CNN. "There were at least 12, maybe 14. And I know there were because I heard the rhythm in my head."

Last November, Sirhan's attorneys announced they were filing a challenge to the verdict, alleging a conspiracy by authorities in the case. They are asking that Sirhan be released from prison. His attorneys argue that Sirhan was the victim of a malicious form of "hypo programming" that falsely caused him to believe he was RFK's assassin.

"For me it's hopeful and sad that it's only coming out now instead of before -- but at least now instead of never," Rhodes told CNN.

Rhodes was never called as a witness in Sirhan's trial but claims she gave an interview shortly after the shooting during which she claimed to have heard at least a dozen shots.

Monsanto is a Threat to Every Non-GMO Farmer in America

So as an act of solidarity for universal food freedom, OSGATA and the other plaintiffs filed a lawsuit against Monsanto back on March 29, 2011, aimed at protecting the hundreds of thousands of non-GMO and organic farmers in the U.S. from having their livelihoods destroyed by Monsanto’s genetic trespass onto their property. And even though the case was recently dismissed by Judge Buchwald, OSGATA et al. are pressing on in this important fight for justice by filing an appeal.

Farmers Defend Their Right to Grow Food Against Monsanto

April 15, 2012

Natural News - The plaintiffs in a case seeking protection from Monsanto’s predatory patent lawsuits have filed a Notice of Appeal challenging the case’s recent dismissal by Judge Naomi Buchwald of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. The Organic Seed Growers and Trade Association (OSGATA) and dozens of other food freedom advocacy groups and family farmers originally filed the suit on behalf of small growers everywhere in order to defend them against Monsanto’s crusade of agricultural terrorism.

In case you are unaware, Monsanto has a nasty little history of suing farmers whose crops become inadvertently contaminated by the biotechnology giant’s transgenic seeds and pollen. Between 1997 and 2010, in fact, Monsanto actually admits to having filed at least 144 lawsuits against farmers, and settled another 700 cases out of court, for so-called “patent infringement” involving non-genetically-modified (non-GMO) and organic crops that have become contaminated with GM materials and traits.

In one case, Monsanto targeted a 74-year-old seed cleaner named Mo Parr that the company claimed was infringing its patents. Though he vehemently denied the accusations, Parr ended up having his bank records subpoenaed, and his customers harassed. Monsanto eventually sued Parr for his supposed crimes, which did not exist, and actually won (http://www.cbsnews.com/2100-18563_162-4048288.html).

So as an act of solidarity for universal food freedom, OSGATA and the other plaintiffs filed a lawsuit against Monsanto back on March 29, 2011, aimed at protecting the hundreds of thousands of non-GMO and organic farmers in the U.S. from having their livelihoods destroyed by Monsanto’s genetic trespass onto their property. And even though the case was recently dismissed by Judge Buchwald, OSGATA et al. are pressing on in this important fight for justice by filing an appeal.

“Farmers have the right to protect themselves from falsely being accused of patent infringement by Monsanto before they are contaminated by Monsanto’s transgenic seed,” said Dan Ravicher, Executive Director of the Public Patent Foundation, a non-profit legal services organization representing the plaintiffs in the case. “Judge Buchwald erred by denying plaintiffs that right and they have now initiated the process of having her decision reversed.”
Judge Buchwald’s misguided opinion that the case lacks merit, which is why she dismissed it, fails to recognize that every farmer who does not grow GM crops is at risk of being sued by Monsanto for patent infringement. The purpose of the lawsuit, of course, is to set a preliminary precedent that bars Monsanto from ever suing farmers whose non-GM crops become contaminated with GM traits, which is a perfectly reasonable approach to this ever-growing problem.

“These farmers have no desire to use Monsanto’s GMO seeds, yet they are forced into the untenable position of losing their right to farm in the manner in which they choose, face legal intimidation and the loss of economic livelihood, all because America’s legal system has failed to adequately protect them from the real threat of genetic trespass that is inherent as a result of Monsanto’s patented GMO seeds and the natural biological functions of cross pollination from wind, insects or animals,” said David Murphy, Founder and Executive Director of Food Democracy Now!.

Bilderberg Invasion 2012: The Globalist Hubris Heads to Virginia!

Speculation that the location of the Bilderberg Group’s annual meeting would be chosen to coincide with this year’s U.S. presidential election appears to have been accurate with the likelihood that Bilderberg will hold their confab in Chantilly, Virginia from May 31st to June 3rd. [Source]

Secretive Bilderberg Group Set to Meet in Virginia May 31st-June 3rd

Globalist clique set to play role in U.S. presidential election

April 24, 2012

Infowars.com - Speculation that the location of the Bilderberg Group’s annual meeting would be chosen to coincide with this year’s U.S. presidential election appears to have been accurate with the likelihood that Bilderberg will hold their confab in Chantilly, Virginia from May 31st to June 3rd.

As we reported yesterday, rumors that Haifa, Israel would be the location of the conference appear to have been misguided. The Westfields Marriott Washington Dulles hotel, site of the Bilderberg meeting in 2002 and 2008, is fully booked from Thursday May 31st up to and including June 3rd, but has rooms available either side of those dates, suggesting almost certainly that it will be home turf for Bilderberg’s crucial 2012 get-together.

“The odds were pretty high that in election year the not-so-public face of the Bormann continuity NATO P2 – otherwise know as the Bilderberg conference – would take place in the US,” points out Bilderberg.org’s Tony Gosling.

Bilderberg sleuth Gosling notes that the choice of location will virtually guarantee that people flying into the United States to cover the conference will be met with “what have now become the ‘normal’ US pre-WW3 fascist ‘customs’ checks.”

Indeed, after last year’s scenes in St. Moritz Switzerland, where Bilderberg members were directly confronted by protesters after a bizarre decision to take a ‘nature walk’ down the mountainside to their hotel, expect security around this year’s conference to be noticeably tighter.

Although the Westfields Marriott is very likely to play host to this year’s Bilderberg meeting, the group has been known in the past to book numerous hotels as a decoy to throw reporters off the scent.

Bilderberg’s decision to hold the conference in the United States is directly connected with the key role the secretive clique of industrialists, bankers, academic leaders and media figureheads will play in influencing the 2012 presidential election.

As we reported earlier this month, Bilderberg are set to select Mitt Romney’s running mate, with Florida Senator Marco Rubio the prime candidate to take the VP slot. Bilderberg displayed their kingmaker status during the last two U.S. presidential elections when they selected Barack Obama’s running mate Joe Biden in 2008, as well as picking John Edwards to be John Kerry’s VP in 2004.

Rubio has primed himself as a well-groomed internationalist candidate, following the likes of Hillary Clinton around to international summits including last weekend’s Summit of the Americas in Colombia.

The potential for Obama himself to make an appearance at this year’s event is also a distinct possibility given what happened four years ago, when Obama and Clinton evaded the press and reportedly met with Bilderberg in Virginia behind closed doors. A year later at the 2009 Bilderberg meeting in Greece, Obama officials delivered private briefings to Bilderberg elitists, reported Politico’s Ken Vogel.

Although no final decision has been made, it’s almost certain that Alex Jones will be in attendance to protest the meeting just as he was at the same location in 2008. Meanwhile, veteran Bilderberg tracker Jim Tucker of the American Free Press won’t have far to travel – given the amount of air miles Tucker has racked up over the decades covering Bilderberg this year’s confab is virtually in his backyard.

April 29, 2012

Moderate Earthquake Shakes Southern California

Magnitude 3.8 Earthquake Shakes Southern California, No Damage Reported

April 28, 2012

AP - Some Southern Californians were shaken out of bed Saturday morning by a small earthquake that rattled homes across the Inland Empire region and caused buildings to sway in downtown Los Angeles.

The magnitude 3.8 earthquake struck at 8:07 a.m. The U.S. Geological Survey said it was centred about two miles northwest of Devore, in San Bernardino County. The quake was downgraded from an initial magnitude of 4.1.

"It felt like a sonic boom," said Letty Salgado, a server at Papa Tony's Diner in San Bernardino. "Everybody was startled. Customers all looked at each other, then went right back to their breakfasts. It was real quick."

A San Bernardino County Sheriff's dispatcher in nearby Rancho Cucamonga said the station shook for a few seconds, but there were no calls about damage or injuries.

A small 2.0 magnitude aftershock hit about a half-mile away about two minutes later, the USGS said. That was followed by a 1.8 magnitude shock at 8:14 a.m.

Lucy Jones with the USGS said the quake was located in an area where three faults come together. Early reports that the quake occurred on the San Andreas Fault were incorrect, Jones said.

"I was just sitting in my old chair when the house started shaking," recalled Frank Chavez of Crestline, a mountain town just east of the epicenter. "I looked at my wife and we both said, 'earthquake!'. It was no big deal. These get to be old hat if you live in California awhile."

Chavez said dishes rattled in the kitchen but nothing was damaged.

Some buildings swayed in downtown Los Angeles, about 60 miles to the west, and residents reported shaking along LA County's beaches.

Paul Harrington was reading in bed at his home in Hesperia, about 20 miles north of the epicenter, when he felt the quake hit.

"It started out as a little tremble, like a plane passing overhead. Then a few seconds later, there was a real jolt," Harrington said. "A few seconds after that there was another smaller jolt."

Harrington said he felt the shaking for several seconds. His home was not damaged.

The epicenter was approximately near the junction of the 15 and 215 freeways at the base of the San Bernardino Mountains below the Cajon Pass.

Unmanned Drones are Patrolling US-Canada Border

Unmanned Drones are Patrolling US-Canada Border in Eastern Washington

April 29, 2012

AP - The U.S. government's unmanned drones patrolling the U.S.-Canadian border are venturing into Washington state's airspace.

In testimony before a U.S. Senate panel this week, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said northern border surveillance using unmanned aerial aircraft now expands from North Dakota to eastern Washington.

The two 10,000-pound Predator-B unmanned aircrafts based in Grand Forks, N.D., have a 950-mile coverage range and "they do enter Washington airspace, in the vicinity of Spokane," said Customs and Border Protection spokeswoman Gina Gray on Thursday.

The unmanned aircrafts "can stay in the air for up to 20 hours at a time, something no other aircraft in the federal inventory can do," Gray said.

"In this manner it is a force multiplier, providing aerial surveillance support for border agents by investigating sensor activity in remote areas to distinguish between real or perceived threats, allowing the boots on the ground force to best allocate their resources and efforts."

Since 2005, the Department of Homeland Security has deployed a handful of drones around the country, with some based in Arizona, Florida, North Dakota, and Texas -- with more planned for the future. Operations out of North Dakota first began in 2011.

The drones help both patrol and aid during natural disasters. For example, Gray said the Predators have mapped the flooded Red River Valley in the areas of North Dakota and Minnesota. The drones are equipped with cameras that can provide aerial pictures of disaster areas.

The drones also can be loaned to local agencies in cases of emergencies. In fiscal year 2011, CBP's drones contributed to the seizure of 7,600 pounds of narcotics and 75 arrests, Gray added.

The use of drones has proliferated among federal and local law enforcement agencies nationwide along with civilian hobbyists in recent years.

In December, Congress gave the Federal Aviation Administration six months to pick half a dozen sites around the country where the military and others can fly unmanned aircraft in the vicinity of regular air traffic, with the aim of demonstrating they're safe.

But concerns remain, including privacy and the government worries they could collide with passenger planes or come crashing down to the ground, concerns that have slowed more widespread adoption of the technology.

A recent American Civil Liberties Union report said allowing drones greater access takes the country "a large step closer to a surveillance society in which our every move is monitored, tracked, recorded, and scrutinized by the authorities."

Kendle Allen, sheriff of remote Stevens County, said his agency has not asked for drone assistance.

"There is always mixed feelings about something flying above you," Allen said.

But he said in Stevens County's rugged mountainous terrain, aerial patrol can be useful in case of emergencies. His office has used U.S. Border Patrol helicopters in the past to search for people missing in the woods.

Feds Claim That the Real Threat is Not al Qaeda But Home-grown Extremists or 'Lone Wolves'

Al Qaeda Now Incapable of 9/11-scale Attack: U.S. Officials

April 28, 2012

Reuters - Al Qaeda's core organization is likely incapable of carrying out another mass-casualty attack on the scale of September 11, 2001, U.S. intelligence and counterterrorism officials said on Friday.

U.S. government experts also believe that the likelihood of an attack using chemical, biological, atomic or radiological weapons over the next year was not high, said Robert Cardillo, deputy director of U.S. National Intelligence.

Cardillo and other U.S. officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, described these assessments on a conference call with journalists billed as an opportunity for government experts to voice their assessments of al Qaeda's potency a year after the killing of Osama bin Laden in a U.S. commando raid.

Cardillo said the al Qaeda "core" organization that bin Laden created has suffered strategic setbacks due to the outbreak of "Arab Spring" protests and rebellions in Islamic countries, which have not spread great sympathy for al Qaeda's hardline and violent brand of Islam.

More worrying to U.S. counterterrorism officials and their allies abroad is the possibility of home-grown extremists, or "lone wolves," who are radicalized over the Internet or in small cells, but who also now are being given encouragement by media outlets connected to al Qaeda and its affiliates.

While they were unwilling to declare that al Qaeda was on the brink of "strategic defeat," the U.S. officials did say they believed the central organization founded by bin Laden simply was not capable today of marshalling the kind of resources and planning that went into the deadly suicide airplane hijackings of September 11, 2001.

The officials said that the United States regards four al Qaeda spinoffs or affiliates as still posing threats of greater or lesser degree to U.S. interests.

Most deadly, the officials said, was Yemen-based al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), which U.S. officials believe was behind unsuccessful but imaginative attempts to attack continental U.S. targets over the last 18 months using airplane-borne bombs stashed in a passenger's underwear and in photocopier ink cartridges.

Al Qaeda in Iraq, which arose in the wake of the 2003 U.S. invasion to oust Saddam Hussein, remains a potentially lethal presence in that country and may be expanding its activities into neighboring Syria, though officials did not indicate they believe it poses much of a threat to U.S. interests outside that region.

U.S. officials said they regarded al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), an affiliate based in North Africa, as largely a criminal organization engaged in kidnapping Westerners for ransom. But they said they were concerned such tactics could evolve into more spectacular kidnappings intended to win publicity for militant causes.

U.S. officials said that after a period in which their struggle became a magnet for disillusioned Islamic youths in both the United States and Europe, al Qaeda's Somali affiliate, al Shabaab, has seen a measurable falloff in Western recruiting and support.

On balance, a counterterrorism official said, it was "clear we've made progress towards defeating al Qaeda the organization," though elements of both the ideology and the organization certainly remain, including "a number of active networks in the United Kingdom."

White House Elite and the Obama Family Extravagant Lifestyle

Obama Family Extravagant Lifestyle – the Belated Campaign Drag

April 27, 2012

Patricia Campion | Yahoo! Contributor Network – President Barack Obama is in serious re-election trouble.

Despite his claim Wednesday that he has "added more than 4 million jobs over the past two years," the Labor Department reported Thursday new claims for unemployment benefits rose 6,250 to 381,750. The figure from the previous week was revised up to 389,000. This marked the highest number of new unemployment benefits claims since the week ending Jan. 7.

Then, in spite of Obama's 2009 vow to cut government waste, there's that whole Las Vegas-General Services Administration thing. Of course, the White House has made sure to clear itself of any connection in the Secret Service/prostitution scandal.

Now there's the Osama bin Laden embarrassment to contend with.

In the17 minute mini-movie "The Road We've Traveled," Obama's campaign used former President Bill Clinton to argue Republican front-runner Mitt Romney would not have launched the raid to capture bin Laden.

But a memo obtained and released by Time Magazine -- written by then-CIA head Leon Panetta -- confirms Obama didn't launch the raid either.

In the interest of protecting himself from making a decision -- which might have backfired and cost him politically if the raid failed -- Obama handed the "timing, operational decision making and control" of the raid to Adm. William McRaven.

Still, even as Obama struggles to keep his re-election nose above the general election waters being churned by these and a host of other problems, there is a serious undertow surging beneath the surface. The riptide of negative public sentiment -- over what the U.K. Telegraph described in August 2010 as "the extravagance and arrogance on display among the White House elites that rule America as though they had been handed some divine right to govern with impunity" -- is threatening to drag him under.

In September 2010, The Daily Mail reported of Carla Bruni's book revelation that Michelle Obama said being first lady is "hell" and she "can't stand it."

On Thursday, Real Clear Politics quoted her saying her fantasy "is to walk right out the front door" of the White House "and just keep walking."

Apparently, when it comes to the extravagant lifestyle she shares with her husband at taxpayers' expense, a growing number of Democrat voters are beginning to share her vision.

The Washington Examiner reported analysis of swing voters in 11 battleground states shows blue collar Democrats are "depressed about the economy" and resentful of their tax dollars "being sucked up by both the rich and those living on government assistance."

Above all, they are angry at the Obamas in knowing their tax dollars have been used to foot the bill for 17 lavish family vacations around the world while they continue to settle for disappointing "staycations" because they can't afford gas and a hotel room.

Remember the first lady's luxurious vacation to Spain in 2010? Back then Politics Daily reported White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs assuring the public that, while the first lady was "on a private trip," the Obamas picked up much of the tab on their own.

But analysis of government records released by Judicial Watch reveals her "private mother-daughter trip with longtime family friends" cost taxpayers at least $467,585.

A survey by Pew Research Center for the People & the Press showed the Obama-led government received the lowest positive rating score of the past 15 years.

While the majority of Americans remain satisfied with the performance levels of their local and state governments, only 33 percent have a favorable opinion about government on the federal level.

The factor in this survey that should give Obama great concern is that only 27 percent of those key independent voters have a favorable opinion of his government.

Of course, 51 percent of Democrats surveyed view the Obama-led government favorably and, as expected, only 20 percent of Republicans approve.

Then again, the approval disparity can be easily explained. Another Pew Research Center survey a month ago found that when tested on their level of political knowledge "Republicans fare substantially better than Democrats."

April 28, 2012

The Return of Debtors' Prisons

Jailed for $280: The Return of Debtors' Prisons

April 23, 2012

CBS MoneyWatch - How did breast cancer survivor Lisa Lindsay end up behind bars? She didn't pay a medical bill -- one the Herrin, Ill., teaching assistant was told she didn't owe. "She got a $280 medical bill in error and was told she didn't have to pay it," The Associated Press reports. "But the bill was turned over to a collection agency, and eventually state troopers showed up at her home and took her to jail in handcuffs."

Although the U.S. abolished debtors' prisons in the 1830s, more than a third of U.S. states allow the police to haul people in who don't pay all manner of debts, from bills for health care services to credit card and auto loans. In parts of Illinois, debt collectors commonly use publicly funded courts, sheriff's deputies, and country jails to pressure people who owe even small amounts to pay up, according to the AP.

Under the law, debtors aren't arrested for nonpayment, but rather for failing to respond to court hearings, pay legal fines, or otherwise showing "contempt of court" in connection with a creditor lawsuit. That loophole has lawmakers in the Illinois House of Representatives concerned enough to pass a bill in March that would make it illegal to send residents of the state to jail if they can't pay a debt. The measure awaits action in the senate.
"Creditors have been manipulating the court system to extract money from the unemployed, veterans, even seniors who rely solely on their benefits to get by each month," Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan said last month in a statement voicing support for the legislation. "Too many people have been thrown in jail simply because they're too poor to pay their debts. We cannot allow these illegal abuses to continue."
Debt collectors typically avoid filing suit against debtors, a representative with the Illinois Collectors Association tells the AP.
"A consumer that has been arrested or jailed can't pay a debt. We want to work with consumers to resolve issues," he said.
Yet Illinois isn't the only state where residents get locked up for owing money. A 2010 report by the American Civil Liberties Union that focused on only five states -- Georgia, Louisiana, Michigan, Ohio, and Washington -- found that people were being jailed at "increasingly alarming rates" over legal debts. Cases ranged from a woman who was arrested four separate times for failing to pay $251 in fines and court costs related to a fourth-degree misdemeanor conviction, to a mentally ill juvenile jailed by a judge over a previous conviction for stealing school supplies.

According to the ACLU:
"The sad truth is that debtors' prisons are flourishing today, more than two decades after the Supreme Court prohibited imprisoning those who are too poor to pay their legal debts. In this era of shrinking budgets, state and local governments have turned aggressively to using the threat and reality of imprisonment to squeeze revenue out of the poorest defendants who appear in their courts."
Some states also apply "poverty penalties," including late fees, payment plan fees, and interest when people are unable to pay all their debts at once, according to a report by the New York University's Brennan Center for Justice. Alabama charges a 30 percent collection fee, for instance, while Florida allows private debt collectors to add a 40 percent surcharge on the original debt. Some Florida counties also use so-called collection courts, where debtors can be jailed but have no right to a public defender.
"Many states are imposing new and often onerous 'user fees' on individuals with criminal convictions," the authors of the Brennan Center report wrote. "Yet far from being easy money, these fees impose severe -- and often hidden -- costs on communities, taxpayers, and indigent people convicted of crimes. They create new paths to prison for those unable to pay their debts and make it harder to find employment and housing as well to meet child-support obligations."
Such practices, heightened in recent years by the effects of the recession, amount to criminalizing poverty, say critics in urging federal authorities to intervene.
"More people are unemployed, more people are struggling financially, and more creditors are trying to get their debt paid," Madigan told the AP.
Read More...

Iran Says It has the Ability to Position a Naval Vessel within Three Miles of the U.S. East Coast

Iranian Naval Admiral: ‘If Needed, We Can Move to Within Three Miles of New York’

April 27, 2012

Reza Kahlili, The Daily Caller - The Islamic Republic of Iran said Tuesday that it has the ability to position a naval vessel within three miles of the East Coast of the United States.

“The power of our naval forces is such that we have a presence in all the waters of the world and, if needed, we can move to within three miles of New York,” Rear Admiral Ali Fadavi said Tuesday during a speech to the students of the University of Yazd in Iran.
His remarks were quoted by an Iranian student news agency.

This naval saber rattling represents a stark escalation in Iran’s war rhetoric, as the West weighs the question of whether to impose new economic sanctions or directly attack the Islamic regime’s illicit nuclear facilities.

“The Americans’ only tool to rule the world is their naval dominance of the Persian Gulf,” Fadavi added, “and they will face any other power that threatens their status.”

The admiral was speaking on the anniversary of a failed April 24, 1980 U.S. military operation — dubbed “Operation Eagle Claw” — that sought to rescue American hostages held captive at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran.

A Pentagon official responded to Fadavi’s claim on Friday. “You should ask the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps what their plans are,” the official told The Daily Caller. “We support freedom of the seas and encourage all countries to follow international laws.”

But on Friday, Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh, Iran’s top air force commander, told the Fars New Agency that the Islamic republic’s military is also capable of crippling or disabling U.S. aircraft carriers.

“First, sinking an aircraft carrier is not a complicated task,” Hajizadeh said. ”Second, an aircraft carrier is equipped with so many advanced, delicate, and sensitive devices … that it could be incapacitated by even the smallest explosion.”

Although the U.S. military would likely intercept Iranian naval vessels before they could enter U.S. territorial waters, Iranian commercial vessels sailing under another country’s flag — if en route to Venezuela, for instance — could come close enough to the American shoreline to strike the U.S. Iran already possesses the capability to launch ballistic missiles from a ship.

Concerns about Iran’s nuclear-weapons ambitions make the threat of a naval incursion into U.S. waters a more pressing issue. Texas Republican Rep. Michael Conaway is promoting the Credible Military Option to Counter Iran Act, H.R. 4485, as one measure to prevent Iran from building a nuclear bomb.

The bill formalizes an understood U.S. policy “to take all necessary measures, including military action if required, to prevent Iran from threatening the United States, its allies, or Iran’s neighbors with a nuclear weapon.” It also allocates more than $594 million to enhance American firepower in the Persian Gulf region in fiscal 2012 and 2013.

“Preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon is among the most urgent national security challenges facing the United States,” Conaway wrote Wednesday in a “dear colleague” letter to other members of Congress. His legislation is needed, he said, “to prevent the increasingly dangerous situation in Iran from spiraling out of control.”

“My bill demonstrates to a defiant Iranian regime that the United States is prepared to take military action should they not halt their nuclear program,” Conaway told TheDC on Friday. “We must have a credible military option on the table to advance any real negotiations.”

Iranian Revolutionary Guards naval commanders said in July 2011 that they would expand their mission into the Atlantic Ocean, and that the country had equipped a number of its vessels with long-range ballistic missiles.

In September, Iranian Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi said Iran planned to deploy naval vessels in the Atlantic Ocean. “The Navy has a strong presence in the Caspian Sea, Persian Gulf, Sea of Oman, Indian Ocean and international waters and soon it will be present in the Atlantic Ocean,” Vahidi said.

On that same day, Rear Adm. Fadavi dismissed the idea of setting up a military hotline between U.S. and Iran. Media reports had quoted an unidentified U.S. defense official floating the idea after a series of close encounters between the countries’ forces in the Persian Gulf.

“When we go to the Gulf of Mexico,” Fadavi said, “we will establish direct communication with them.”

Reza Kahlili is a pseudonym for a former CIA operative in Iran’s Revolutionary Guard and the author of the award winning book ”A Time to Betray.” He teaches at the U.S. Department of Defense’s Joint Counterintelligence Training Academy (JCITA) and is a member of the Task Force on National and Homeland Security.

TSA Found 'Anomaly' in Jeffrey Goldberg's Mother-in-Law's Crotch Area

TSA Found 'Anomaly' in Jeffrey Goldberg's Mother-in-Law's Crotch Area

April 27, 2012

The Atlantic Wire - The mighty TSA had already taken down 7-year-old would-be terrorists with cerebral palsy and made at least one suspected al-Qaeda operative pump her own breast, so why not go after Atlantic writer Jeffrey Goldberg's 79-year-old tiny mother in law?

"Okay, I now have definitive proof that al Qaeda has actually won," Goldberg writes, retelling the Rhode Island-to-Washington, D.C. trip his 4'11" mother-in-law was taking. The "proof?" Per Goldberg:

The TSA agent said, again, in full voice, "There's an anomaly in the crotch area."

This is, of course, a painful post for me to write. Like most normal American men, I don't want to see the words "my mother-in-law" and "crotch area" in the same paragraph. But let me go on anyway.

My mother-in-law said, "As far as I know I don't have any anomalies in the crotch area."

The TSA agent told her she would have to go through the scanner again. She demurred, saying she didn't like the machine very much. The agent told her she could opt for a pat-down. My mother-in-law refused to be frisked, figuring, correctly, that "they were going to pat-down my crotch area. I mean, there wasn't an anomaly in the chest area."

So she went through the scanner again. Of course, this time -- one minute later -- the TSA found no "anomalies," and she was free to go.

The TSA picked the wrong mother-in-law. Goldberg is a longtime critic of airport screening procedures: In 2008, he wrote a story for the magazine headlined The Things He Carried and appeared on The Colbert Report to talk about it. In case you were wondering, the Twitterverse has sided with Goldberg. But hey, the TSA keeping us safe right? Well at least when they're not in cahoots with drug couriers.

RELATED: TSA Declares Banned-in-Europe Airport X-Rays 'Completely Safe'

For Goldberg's full recap, head on over to The Atlantic.

Israel Attack on Iran Will Result in a Dramatic Acceleration of the Iran's Nuclear Program

Israeli Ex-intel Chief Slams PM's Iran Stance

April 28, 2012

AP - The former head of Israel's Shin Bet security agency has accused the country's political leaders of exaggerating the effectiveness of a possible military strike against Iran, in a striking indication of Israel's turmoil over how to deal with the Iranian nuclear program.

Yuval Diskin said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak — who have been saber-rattling for months — have their judgment clouded by "messianic feelings" and should not be trusted to lead policy on Iran. Diskin, who headed Shin Bet until last year, said a strike might actually accelerate the Iranian program.

Iran says its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes. Israel, like the West, believes that Tehran is developing weapons technology, but there is intense debate over whether international economic sanctions accompanying the current round of negotiations might prevent Iran from developing a bomb, or whether at some point a military strike should be launched.

Diskin's comments deepened the sense that a rift is growing between the hawkish Netanyahu government and the security establishment over the question of a strike.

In Israel, security figures carry clout well into retirement. Although they frequently pursue political careers, Diskin had been seen as relatively apolitical, perhaps lending his words even greater weight.

"I don't have faith in the current leadership of Israel to lead us to an event of this magnitude, of war with Iran," Diskin said at a public meeting Friday, video of which was posted on the Internet the next day and quickly became the lead news item in Israel.

"I do not believe in a leadership that makes decisions based on Messianic feelings," he continued. "I have seen them up close. They are not messiahs, these two, and they are not the people that I personally trust to lead Israel into an event."

Diskin said it was possible that "one of the results of an Israel attack on Iran could be a dramatic acceleration of the Iran program ... They will have legitimacy to do it more quickly and in a shorter timeframe."

Spokesmen for Netanyahu and Barak both refused comment on the issue.

Further complicating the picture is the widely held belief that Israel's threats are actually a bluff of historic proportion and that indeed they have been effective in compelling the world to boycott Iranian oil and isolate its central bank.

From that perspective, criticism such as Diskin's, based on a literal approach, could be presented as simplistic and damaging.

Israeli security officials have taken issue with the political leadership on several issues: whether sanctions will make a strike unnecessary, whether a strike will be militarily effective, and whether Israel should strike unilaterally if it cannot gain American approval.

Diskin's speech came days after the country's current top military commander, Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz, also seemed to disagree with the country's leadership on the likelihood that Iran will pursue a nuclear weapon.

Gantz told The Associated Press this week that Iran is seeking to develop its "military nuclear capability," but that the Islamic Republic would ultimately bow to international pressure and decide against building a weapon. The key to that pressure, he said, were sanctions and the threat of a military strike.

One of the first criticisms voiced by a security figure came last summer from Israel's recently retired spy chief Meir Dagan. He called a military strike against Iran's nuclear program "stupid." Dagan, who headed the Mossad spy agency, said an effective attack on Iran would be difficult because Iranian nuclear facilities are scattered and mobile, and warned it could trigger war.

Other senior figures with security backgrounds have questioned whether Israel should act alone, as Netanyahu insists the country has a right to do.

Last month Shaul Mofaz — a former military chief and defense minister who has since been elected head of the opposition Kadima Party — said the threats of an imminent military strike are actually weakening Israel. Mofaz, who was born in Iran and moved to Israel as a child, said Israel "is not a ghetto" and that despite its military might must fully coordinate with the U.S. on any plan to strike Iran.

Dan Halutz, who led the military from 2005 to 2007, also criticized Netanyahu last month for invoking Holocaust imagery in describing the threat posed by a nuclear-armed Iran.

"We are not kings of the world," Halutz said. "We should remember who we are."

A recent poll suggested the public agrees. The survey, conducted by the Israeli Dahaf agency for the University of Maryland, said 81 percent of Israelis oppose a solo attack on Iran. At the same time, it said two-thirds of Israelis would support military action if coordinated with Washington. The poll, released last week, questioned 500 Israelis and had a margin of error of 4.3 percentage points.

In a recent report the U.N. nuclear agency found Iran continues to enrich uranium — a key step toward developing a bomb. Although few in Israel would dispute that a nuclear-armed Iran is an existential threat, debate has revolved around the cost-benefit analysis of an attack.

On the cost side is the possible retaliation, in the form of Iranian missiles as well as rocket attacks by Iranian proxies Hezbollah and Hamas on its northern and southern borders. Especially daunting is the prospect of sustained missile strikes on Tel Aviv, a bustling business and entertainment capital whose populous is psychologically ill-prepared for a homefront war.

It also would likely cause oil prices to skyrocket at a time when the global economy is already struggling — risking a new recession for which Israel would absorb much if not most of the blame. Some also fear that Iran might attack American targets in response to any Israeli strike — a scenario that could directly influence the outcome of this fall's U.S. presidential election.

DoD Confirms Russian Troops to Train on U.S. Soil

There will be no date, no particular point in history where you can say, “On this date, the New World Order was ushered in.” To a very large extent, we’re already in it. We’ve been in it for a long, long time. What they’re really doing is just building the walls a little bit at a time with the passage of each day, and we’re in it. We will never be able to say, “Gee, it started on this date.” If there was to be a date that historians might want to put on the arrival of this monster, I suppose it would be the date on which all of the nations of the world surrendered control over their money and over their military, because those are the two legs on which national sovereignty stands. If you’ve got a strong military and a strong money system, you’re a sovereign nation. If you don’t have those things, you’re nothing. You’re just a territory that is controlled by someone who does have strong money or a strong military. So we’re very close to the surrender of our money right now. I suppose that would be a date that historians might choose for the crossover point. - G. Edward Griffin, Restore the Republic's Reality Report, May 17, 2009

DoD Confirms Russian Troops to Train on U.S. Soil

April 27, 2012

Infowars.com - The Department of Defense has confirmed foreign media reports that Russian troops are set to target terrorists on Americans soil as part of an unprecedented joint drill with the United States which will take place in Colorado next month.

As we reported yesterday, Airborne troops from Russia are set to take part in drills focused around targeting terrorists at Fort Carson between May 24 and May 31. The soldiers will also be mingling with the local community, attending a baseball game in Colorado Springs during their stay.

Although it marks the first time Russian troops will train on U.S. soil, soldiers from a plethora of different nations have been involved in similar drills for well over a decade.

“The Russian soldiers are here as invited guests of the U.S. government; this is part of a formal bilateral exchange program between the U.S. and Russia that seeks to develop transparency and promote defense reform,” Cmdr. Wendy L. Snyder, U.S. Defense Press Officer for policy, told The New American in an e-mail. “This is the first time that American and Russian special operations troops have participated in a bilateral exercise.”

“According to Snyder, the exercises — which she said would last about three weeks in all — will serve to train and improve skills related to terror-war fighting. About 20 Russian soldiers will be participating, with most of the training to take place on the Fort Carson, Colorado, Army base and a mountain training area several hours away.”

The presence of foreign troops on U.S. soil has long caused consternation with many on the American right for a number of reasons, both historical and contemporary, stretching right back to when the British called upon German Hessian soldiers during the Revolutionary War.

More modern fears revolve around global UN peacekeeping troops being used to quell unrest inside America, an issue touched upon by Henry Kissinger during the 1991 Bilderberg meeting when he stated,

“Today Americans would be outraged if U.N. troops entered Los Angeles to restore order; tomorrow they will be grateful.”

Drills such as FEMA’s 2009 NLE exercise, during which foreign troops worked alongside U.S. authorities, have led to concerns that the federal government would be forced to rely on foreign mercenaries to restore order, confiscate weapons or even incarcerate citizens during a national emergency, because of the likelihood that Americans would refuse to carry out such orders against other Americans.

One of the primary reasons why this story hasn’t gone viral is because doubt was cast on the issue when a known disinformation outlet (European Union Times) decided to embellish the details by adding completely manufactured nonsense about Russian troops “seizing the CIA’s main computer facility in Denver, the NSA’s main computer facility in Bluffdale, Utah, and taking control of main runways and terminals of the Denver International Airport.”

Despite the fact that these claims come from a source who is notorious for making a living out of fooling people into believing bogus stories, Glenn Beck’s The Blaze website carried them without retraction.

This in turn poisoned the well and led some to believe that the drills themselves, which are completely confirmed and admitted, were a hoax.

The Department of Defense’s acknowledgment that the exercises as described in the initial media reports are indeed taking place will hopefully put an end to this confusion and allow focus to return to the question of why Russian troops are training to kill “terrorists” on U.S. soil.

Foreign Troops in America

June 2007

Nathan Leal - In this dream, I was in my home town - Loveland, Colorado.

A terrorist event had just occured somewhere else in the U.S.

Because of the attack, all of America was under Martial Law.

There was a command given to all citizens that everyone had to report to their neighborhood public school.

The purpose of going to the school was some sort of mandatory registration (part of their war on terror).

When I arrived at the registration area with my wife, there was a long line with hundreds of people in line.

Along the length of the line were soldiers maintaining order. They were shoving people and giving commands.

I joined the line waiting to get into the building.

As the line slowly moved, I eventually got close enough to several of the soldiers.

They began to ask me questions, but I could not understand them because one of them was speaking Russian and the other one was speaking German.

Conclusion: Martial Law is coming to America in our future with foreign troops.

Date when this will occur unknown.

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Flashback: Hank Paulson Calling for Benefit Cutbacks, an Older Retirement Age and Other Attacks on the Social Security System

Hank Paulson — the guy who as Treasury Secretary under President George W. Bush, helped engineer the real estate bubble that brought the economy to its knees, and who then engineered the sweet deal that helped his former company, Goldman Sachs, come out of the crisis as the nation’s biggest bank, fattened by tens of billions of taxpayer bailout dollars, calling for its privatization — is calling for benefit cutbacks, an older retirement age and other attacks on the system.

Boo! The Scary, Scary Social Security ‘Crisis’ is Back!

March 25, 2010

The Public Record - Get ready kids. It’s time for more scare stories about Social Security.

The New York Times weighed in Wednesday with a dire warning that this year, six years ahead of what had been predicted only a few years ago, the Social Security system would be paying out more in benefits than it takes in from the payroll tax. The reason for this earlier-than-anticipated event is the Great Recession, the paper explained.

Well yeah. If you were 62, or 65, and you had lost your job, with no likelihood of its coming back, wouldn’t you, once your unemployment checks ran out, opt to start your retirement earlier than planned, so you’d at least have some money coming in each month?

Oh, and with 10 percent of the work force currently unemployed (actually close to 21 percent if you count the people who have given up looking for a nonexistent job, and those who have taken some low-paid part-time work out of desperation), there is a lot less money being paid into the Social Security Trust Fund.

So with beneficiaries rising faster than anticipated, and the total national payroll in sharp decline, of course things have gone negative for Social Security earlier than originally anticipated.


So what to do about it?

Well Hank Paulson, the guy who as Treasury Secretary under President George W. Bush, helped engineer the real estate bubble that brought the economy to its knees, and who then engineered the sweet deal that helped his former company, Goldman Sachs, come out of the crisis as the nation’s biggest bank, fattened by tens of billions of taxpayer bailout dollars, and of course Peter Peterson, the former ad exec turned self-described economic guru who has been a perpetual doomsayer about Social Security, calling for its privatization, are both calling for benefit cutbacks, an older retirement age and other attacks on the system.

But really, what’s the crisis?

Sure a wave of Baby Boomers is about to start retiring next year (actually for those born first, in 1946, who decided to retire early at age 62, Baby Boomer retirement began in 2008), but that’s a demographic wave that will eventually pass. In the meantime, financing the benefits for Baby Boomer retireees simply means that current workers–the Baby Boomers’ children and grandchildren–will have to pay more in payroll taxes. Or–and this is what has people like Paulson and Peterson scared–Baby Boomers and their allies among younger workers, may decide to use their unprecedented electoral clout to take those extra tax payments not out of younger workers, but out of their employers.

There is, after all, no legal, theoretical or even mystical reason why the Social Security payroll tax should be split 50/50, with half being paid by the worker, and half by the employer. It could easily be a 40/60 split, with the employer paying 50 percent more than the worker, or even a 30/70 split. That is a political question.

Likewise, there is no reason on earth why the payroll tax should be set at the same percentage rate for all income levels, as it is now, instead of progressively calculated, so that high-income workers would pay a higher percentage of income into the fund than low-income workers.


And finally, there is no reason why the income subject to the payroll tax (the FICA tax on your W-2 statement) should be capped (currently at $106,800), or why investment income should be exempt.


The so-called Social Security funding “crisis,” which has Republicans and many Democrats warning of the system’s looming “insolvency” as though Social Security were just another AIG, could be solved simply by just eliminating the income cap, and taxing investment income.

Oh, but the conservatives wail, if we raise the payroll tax, America will become uncompetitive, and our economy will collapse.

How then to explain Germany, where social security as a percentage of GDP is much greater than in the US (40 percent of Germany’s adult population receive some form of government income, whether in the form of retirement payments, unemployment compensation or disability payments–far higher than in the US)? Despite its high social welfare budget, and its high wages, Germany is the second-largest exporter in the world after China, and despite Germany’s being a huge importer of goods and services, second only to the US, overall, Germany is a net exporter. Go figure.

Clearly, the problem with America’s economy is not high social security costs, and the “crisis” facing Social Security is not that it is going to “go bankrupt.” It is simply that the corporate interests in America, and the wealthy, don’t want to have to pay for the system. They want the lion’s share of the funding to be paid by ordinary workers and the poor.

The political game being played by corporate interests, Republicans, conservative Democrats, and by the corporate media, is to pretend that Social Security is just another pension system–underfunded, overburdened, and in need of downsizing. They insist the only solution is cutting benefits, raising the retirement age, and privatizing–taking away the guarantee of a monthly benefit check, and replacing it with the “miracle” of the financial markets.

American workers need to reject this campaign of misrepresentation. They need to realize that Social Security is a government income-support program, and that its benefits are not just for the elderly, but are also for the current workers, who are relieved of having to personally care for their parents and grandparents. They need to realize that Social Security is a government program, and that it will be there for them when they want to retire, just as it is available now for today’s retirees.

And they need to realize that there are many ways to finance those current and future benefits besides just raising their own and their employers’ payroll tax payments from the current 7.65 percent each and/or raising the retirement age beyond the current 66/67 level. We need to demand that all Americans pay the payroll tax on all income, with no caps and no exemption for investment income.

At that point, the fake “crisis” will be over, and we can focus on the real crises facing us: the endless wars that our government keeps dragging us into (one advantage Germany has is that it spends only 1 perce of GDP on its military, compared to 5 percent for the US), global climate change, and health care (yeah, they sure didn’t solve that one with the so-called Health Care Reform Act just passed, which will still leave us spending 20 percent of GDP on health care by 2016, up from 17.5 percent this year!).

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April 27, 2012

Private Retirement Benefits will be Forced into an Automatic/Mandatory IRA Program

Your Private Wealth Is Threatened By Government Revenue Needs and Treasury Debt

This is Part 2, of Ron Holland's speech Down Argentine Way presented on the recent FreedomFest Untitled 1 financial cruise down in South America during November. Here at the Foundation we hope to report more information and editorial comment about what is happening in South America. ...

January 18, 2011

GoldSpeculator - There is nothing very complicated or prophetic about forecasting how Washington plans to steal much of the remaining private wealth of most American citizens over the next decade or so. This is the norm in history and politics throughout world history and this has always been the major function of governments.

While the Anglo-American establishment has whitewashed this part of history, politics and information over the last 150 years, today with the internet, the truth of our history is apparent to anyone willing to do the research.

Just as the citizens of America and Great Britain have in the past financially benefited from living under the Anglo-American Axis in many ways, today in these twilight latter-days of the empire so we will suffer under the wealth confiscation and likely retribution from the rest of the world due to the accident of our birthplace and citizenship.

As the American national debt grows larger, here are 15-plus probable attacks on your wealth over the coming ten years.

Your assets, benefits and future prosperity will be forfeit to Washington's elites as they try to buy time to right a sinking ship -- and to no avail. The impact on our wealth and future prosperity will likely dwarf what has happened before in Argentina, during the Russian collapse and in Germany with the post First World War Weimer republic.

This essay will discuss the threats and possible new taxes, penalties and controls designed to transfer wealth from the private sector to the federal government.
  • Social Security Theft - As we see today in France, Social Security retirement ages will be further extended into the future. Wealthy Americans will be "means tested" and entirely forfeit their benefits, and Washington will eventually end cost-of-living adjustments for all but the poorest Social Security recipients.

  • Manipulate Cost of Living Adjustments & Statistics To Steal Your Wealth - Even those receiving existing benefits will find their cost-of-living adjustments dramatically reduced over time with false inflation statistics just as we see today.

  • The End of Capital Gains - The severe depth of the recession has bought US investors a couple of years extension of capital gains, but this will not be a permanent benefit regardless of the party in power. First, favorable capital gains treatment will likely be ended for all privately-owned investments except for US domestic stock and bond investments. Foreign stocks and bonds will be taxed at regular income tax levels while domestic securities, other than (non-productive assets) including mining and natural resource companies, will still be provided favorable capital gains treatment. If they are able to manipulate the stock market to new highs, then expect an eventual end to capital gains for US equities.

  • The Probable Imposition of a Non-Productive Asset Gain Tax - Americans with highly-appreciated precious metals investments (including numismatics and collectibles) will find a substantial amount of their gains charged with an emergency non-productive asset gain tax. Not only will you lose capital gains treatment but expect an additional high penalty tax on gains as the last thing the establishment wants is hard money investors benefiting while the rest of population find their investments collapsing in value.

  • This Tax Will Likely Be Extended to Mining and Natural Resource Stocks - Another reason to take your profits sooner rather than later in a crisis situation where the public with conventional investments will clamor for this type of retroactive tax.

  • A Two-Tier Gold Price Structure - At the very least, there may well be a government enforced set or internal price for precious metals sales that operates outside the free-market pricing outside the jurisdiction of the United States. This could be handled by the non-productive asset tax mentioned about or used during a time of government gold confiscation to pay lower prices to American investors than the price outside of America. This is what happened during Roosevelt's earlier gold confiscation; and don't expect Congress to help you.

  • The Risk of Private Gold Confiscation Will Continue To Increase - When the dollar and Treasury market crashes, Washington will enact legislation or use Presidential Executive Orders against gold investors to curtail your profits, add a confiscatory non-productive asset tax or confiscate your gold with some type of fiat currency exchange. In any case, they plan to end up with your gold as this will be the basis of a fake gold standard which may be used as the pretense to confiscate your gold. This will take place during the coming bond and dollar crisis by Presidential Executive Order. (Next month's letter will have a discussion on Presidential Executive Orders past and future.)

  • The Fed and Washington Might Manufacture A Fake Gold Standard - Free-market public and private currency competition should replace the failed fiat currencies in use around the world today, But Washington will not give up their monopoly on currency creation without a fight and fraud against the American people; and in the latter stages of a dollar crash we can expect some type of complicated, fake gold standard or backing as a final fallback position. Just plan on this happening and it may well be the excuse used for outright gold confiscation.

  • Washington Will Confiscate Large Private Retirement Fund Balances - Hungry, Bulgaria and Poland are already seizing private retirement funds to meet budget shortfalls. This will take place in the United States. Read the current report on the European pension seizures later in the newsletter under "What You Might Have Missed in the Press".

  • The long-term confiscation and control idea is to eventually force all retirement benefits under the new automatic/mandatory IRA program where everything will be combined with and managed like your Social Security benefits. Wealthy and productive Americans will find their retirement benefits used to support the trillions in underfunded union, state and local government employee plans.

  • Remaining Retirement Funds May Be Forced Into Mandated US Treasury Obligations - As in Europe, you can expect a percentage of your remaining retirement funds, and new required contributions in the proposed Automatic IRA accounts, will be forced into government bond obligations; and your funds will become the buyer of last resort of US Treasury debt. While the Chinese, Japan and offshore nations, central banks and investors are dumping Treasuries, your retirement security will be sacrificed to provide liquidity for investors selling the debt obligations.

  • All Productive Working Americans Will Be Forced Into A Mandatory, Automatic IRA Scheme With Required Annual Contributions - Americans with limited or no savings may actually benefit with this program while those of us with substantial retirement assets will find our benefits stolen to prop up the retirement programs of cities, states and unions.

  • Home Values May Continue To Decline From the Bubble Levels - There are still substantial levels of foreclosures and short sales on the market, which will be followed by more homes (currently held off the market due to low demand ) being listed for sale during any temporary price upturn.

  • An End to the Home Interest Deduction - Proposals in Congress are already putting the home interest deduction on the table of deduction to be reduced or eliminated in the future. I project the home interest deductions will first be eliminated for wealthy homeowners and later expanded to the middle class. This will create further downward pressure on real estate values; and the current weakness may buy some time for homeowners.

  • Rising Income & Estate Taxes - We have already seen this play out during the Lame Duck session of Congress. Estate taxes have been restored; and the only question is, will the rate remain at current levels or go up. Second, the Bush tax cuts have been extended for two years due to the bad economy, but both parties will soon raise income taxes due to revenue needs.

  • A National Sales or VAT Tax Is Coming - Most western nations already have a VAT tax, and this is also already in discussion stages by Congress. Expect an initial tax rate of 5% or more in addition to existing state, county and city sales taxes; and the rates will only go up from there.

  • State, Municipal & Union Bankruptcies & You Pick Up the Bill - Note that these costs, which will be bailed out by the federal government in many cases and ultimately by the taxpayers, will be in addition to the coming bailout on their existing retirement and health benefit plans. Note that there is finally some good news on this front as many Democrats and Republicans are attempting to curb the growth and powers of parasitic public employee unions.
What Should Americans Do About Washington's National Debt?

Everyone with any intelligence in the US and around the world knows that there is no way for Washington to manage the tens of trillions in debt and unfunded liabilities short of ultimate repudiation or hyperinflation. Thanks to Wall Street, bankers, and the Anglo-American financial elite, our ruinous debt-financing Ponzi scheme has been exported to most Western nations as their politicians have made a compact with the devil in delivering vote-buying programs and postponing the interest and debt reduction to future generations.

Watch the cuts and subsequent riots in Greece, Ireland, the United Kingdom and you'll see just a little of the future for the United States with its faltering world reserve currency status.

The question is, should the citizens and the formerly sovereign states of the United States wait for Washington's foreign creditors to seize the remaining government and private assets left after our politicians have finished with us?

Our politicians are in the process of totally bankrupting the country, individual states and municipalities; and in a less than a decade will have confiscated most private wealth and placed tens of trillions of more debt on future generations. Should we act now before Congress and our politicians loot our personal, retirement and real estate wealth; destroy our Treasury obligations; and kill the dollar? Should we democratically take matters into our own hands before the looming dollar and debt crisis?

One alternative is for Americans in the individual states to organize and work toward a "Washington National Debt Constitutional Amendment" and repudiate much of the Washington government debt before it bankrupts every private American citizen. Otherwise, the massive increase in the level of indebtedness due to the meltdown and depression may first bring down the Treasury market followed by the US dollar; and this will destroy the American economy for decades to come.

The American people need to meet the problem on terms which will make the best of a difficult situation for the nation and our personal financial security instead of allowing foreign creditors, our financial establishment, and Washington to buy more time for them through the confiscation of our private wealth, financial security and liberty.

Only a grassroots effort by the American people through state-nullification or the constitutional amendment process have any hope of success. The alternative is to expect those who are destroying our economy and nation to solve the problem they created without sacrificing us in the process. This is just wishful and foolish thinking.

On December 21, 1913 the New York Times stated,
"New York will be on a firmer basis of financial growth, and we shall soon see her the money center of the world."
This was one day before the Federal Reserve Act was hurriedly passed and signed into law with limited debate by a Congress controlled by Washington and banking special interests.

These undemocratic tactics were designed then -- just as today -- to thwart the will and overwhelming opposition of the American people to expensive handouts for Wall Street and those shadowy few who stand behind the banking system.

Now, Washington's illegitimate national debt is growing exponentially due to the bailouts and stimulus bills as Congress tries to jump-start a depression threatened economy. This additional debt load will, within the next decade, bankrupt our nation and impoverish most productive, working Americans.

The Federal Reserve, together with the above financial elites, essentially manufactured the credit and real-estate bubble. The result: continued enhancement of foreign investment in their Treasury debt Ponzi scheme along with obscene profits for Wall Street at the expense of the American people.

This scam by our financial establishment makes Bernard Madoff's despicable actions look like Mother Teresa's charity operation in comparison. An unintentional consequence of these actions was the meltdown in markets, the credit crisis and spreading global depression when the bubble finally burst.

Now there is a cover-up of the cause and coming global run, crash and probable collapse of US Treasury obligations because of the dramatic increase in Washington's national debt to unsustainable levels. This economic tidal wave threatens the financial security and wealth of every American along with their savings, real estate, retirement plans, investment portfolios as well as their promised Social Security and Medicare benefits.

Concerned Americans must bypass a corrupt Congress and the leadership of both political parties often controlled by special interests at the national level and seek a debt solution through the constitutional amendment and nullification process starting at the state level.

Repudiating the illegitimate national debt of Washington politicians and special interests will allow existing treasury-debt-obligation owners and investors time to dispose of the unlawful debt created only to profit special financial and corporate interests. They own and control majorities in the House and Senate, much of the party leadership positions, and the Federal Reserve System ...

Bankrupted States = Constitutional Convention and the Proposed Constitution for the 'Newstates of America'

December 24, 2008

NewsWithViews - The strategically planned and forthcoming Constitutional Convention, which will address “a balanced budget,” is quite a cover story. Therefore, let us consider the truth behind this elaborate usurpation scheme.

As the country is failing in every direction -- from the former individual in America to each and every individual state in the country, the total economic crash of EVERYTHING -- and all converging at the very same time and as we speak -- is, let us say, extraordinarily convenient.

Add this convenience to the fact that on March 27, 1969, President Richard Nixon divided the country into 10 regions via the Government Reorganization Act. Then with Nixon’s Executive Order 11647, the nation was divided up into 10 administrative regions on February 14, 1972 (Federal Register February 12, 1972, Vol. 37, No. 30), which also established the Federal Regional Council for the newly designed 10 regions.

Now, why did former President Richard Nixon redefine the United States? He did so because the United Nations passed a resolution that the United States must reorganize into 10 regions. Can you name your regional directors? Who are these councils, and where are their office buildings? Actually, you don’t know because they were not “elected,” nor are they mentioned on your tell-a-visions. Your regional councilmen are “appointees.” Can you tell me who appointed them to regional power? Bet you can’t.

And the reorganizing of our former nation, achieved more than 25 years ago, and of which you know nothing, certainly suggests that “government” as we knew it changed a long time ago. With all this information now in hands, ask yourselves what would happen in the event of a really big, national “crisis?” What powers do your states hold, or for that matter, your counties or local governments hold -- especially since they are all bankrupt AND have regional managers.

Add this to your plate: now that you know your nation has been redrawn and redistributed, what if I told you that a new constitution was written at the same time the country was divided into 10 regions? Ever heard of the Proposed Constitution for the Newstates of America?

In 1964, the Ford Foundation funded an outfit called the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions to write a new constitution for our nation. After 40 drafts, a staff of 100+ people, and at a cost of 2.5 million dollars a year, a decade later (1974) the Proposed Constitution for the Newstates of America was finished. Mind you -- a ten year, $25,000,000.00 project…let us therefore assume that the funding foundation(s) were very serious about this investment. And two years later, in 1976, Mr. Nelson Rockefeller, who at that time was the president of the Senate, introduced HCR 28, which called for an unlimited Constitutional Convention -- the perfect tool whereby to dissolve our current constitution and implant the handily written new constitution -- and all without congressional oversight or public knowledge.

Didn’t go well for Nelson in 1976, but guess what? A new Constitutional Convention is right around our corners again -- with 32 states requesting the Con-Con, and with only 34 required for it’s convening -- and with most American states now totally, conveniently, bankrupt.

Look at it this way: the Feds can not possibly bail out 50 states because they’ve already given all our money away -- right? And we can’t pay taxes anyway because we have no jobs. Gosh…what can the Feds possibly do to rectify this horrible situation?

Dialectically speaking, they’ve had their answer of choice in the wings for decades. It’s called dissolving state, county, and local powers for centralized power. Gosh…it’s the United Nations mandate for one world government and regionalization of the United States -- as commanded in the 1960’s. Do tell, folks…do tell.

The current economic “crisis” is the tool, the highly planned and patient tool, to set up the global governing bureaucracy for real and for certain with the second convening of the Constitutional Convention in the wings. The big wigs tried it before in 1976, and they are trying again, but this time having manufactured national bankruptcy as public fear-based appeasement.

I suggest you read your forthcoming constitution, which is also your forthcoming nightmare. Here is just a taste of your global privileges from your Constitution for the Newstates of America:Article 1A Sec. 1 - 'Freedom of expression shall not be abridged except in declared emergency."

Article 1A Sec. 8 - "The practice of religion shall be privileged."

Article 1B Sec. 8 - "Bearing of arms shall be confined to the police, members of the armed forces, and those licensed under law." See the note below from a respected teacher [and friend] in the UK:

"Britain is already divided into regions. The region of Kent includes a bit of France. Most of our laws now come from Brussels. We have never agreed to this. After Heath lied to get a 'yes' to the Common Market in 1879 or so, Lib Lab Con in the house of Commons have steadily, traitorously handed over government of our land to Brussels. We do not elect the officials in the regions. Most people are unaware they exist.... MPs have given up representing us. Many people are just TV fodder."
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