Thursday, May 31, 2007

WAITING AND WATCHING

LUKE 12: 29-57.



29And seek not ye what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, neither be ye of doubtful mind.

30For all these things do the nations of the world seek after: and your Father knoweth that ye have need of these things.

31But rather seek ye the kingdom of God; and all these things shall be added unto you.

32Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.

33Sell that ye have, and give alms; provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth.

34For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

35Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning;

36And ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their lord, when he will return from the wedding; that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto him immediately.

37Blessed are those servants, whom the lord when he cometh shall find watching: verily I say unto you, that he shall gird himself, and make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them.

38And if he shall come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, and find them so, blessed are those servants.

39And this know, that if the goodman of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched, and not have suffered his house to be broken through.

40Be ye therefore ready also: for the Son of man cometh at an hour when ye think not.

41Then Peter said unto him, Lord, speakest thou this parable unto us, or even to all?

42And the Lord said, Who then is that faithful and wise steward, whom his lord shall make ruler over his household, to give them their portion of meat in due season?

43Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing.

44Of a truth I say unto you, that he will make him ruler over all that he hath.

45But and if that servant say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming; and shall begin to beat the menservants and maidens, and to eat and drink, and to be drunken;

46The lord of that servant will come in a day when he looketh not for him, and at an hour when he is not aware, and will cut him in sunder, and will appoint him his portion with the unbelievers.

47And that servant, which knew his lord's will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes.

48But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more.

49I am come to send fire on the earth; and what will I, if it be already kindled?

50But I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how am I straitened till it be accomplished!

51Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, Nay; but rather division:

52For from henceforth there shall be five in one house divided, three against two, and two against three.

53The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against the father; the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother; the mother in law against her daughter in law, and the daughter in law against her mother in law.

54And he said also to the people, When ye see a cloud rise out of the west, straightway ye say, There cometh a shower; and so it is.

55And when ye see the south wind blow, ye say, There will be heat; and it cometh to pass.

56Ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky and of the earth; but how is it that ye do not discern this time?

57Yea, and why even of yourselves judge ye not what is right?

NEW ARMS RACE!

Putin: U.S. has triggered new arms race
By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 35 minutes ago

Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, speaks at a news conference after a meeting with Greek President Carolos Papoulias in the Kremlin in Moscow, Thursday, May 31, 2007. Greek President Carolos Papoulias is on an official visit to Russia. (AP Photo/Alexander Nemenov, Pool)

MOSCOW - President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that tests of new Russian missiles were a response to the planned deployment of U.S. missile defense installations and other forces in Europe, suggesting Washington has triggered a new arms race.

In a clear reference to the United States, he harshly criticized "imperialism" in global affairs and warned that Russia will strengthen its military potential to maintain a global strategic balance.

"It wasn't us who initiated a new round of arms race," Putin said when asked about Russia's missile tests at a news conference after talks in the Kremlin with Greek President Karolos Papoulias.

Putin described Tuesday's tests of a new ballistic missile capable of carrying multiple nuclear warheads and a new cruise missile as part of the Russian response to the planned deployment of new U.S. military bases and missile defense sites in ex-Soviet satellites in Central and Eastern Europe.

He assailed the United States and other NATO members for failing to ratify an amended version of the 1990 Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) treaty, which limits the deployment of heavy non-nuclear weapons around the continent.

"We have signed and ratified the CFE and are fully implementing it. We have pulled out all our heavy weapons from the European part of Russia to (locations) behind the Ural Mountains and cut our military by 300,000 men," Putin said.

"And what about our partners? They are filling Eastern Europe with new weapons. A new base in Bulgaria, another one in Romania, a (missile defense) site in Poland and a radar in the Czech Republic," he said. "What we are supposed to do? We can't just sit back and look at that."

Putin and other Russian officials have repeatedly rejected U.S. assurances that the planned missile defense installations are meant to counter a potential threat from nations such as Iran and pose no danger to Russia.

Putin reaffirmed his warning that Russia would opt out of the CFE treaty altogether if NATO nations fail to ratify its amended version.

"Either you ratify the treaty and start observing it, or we will opt out of it," Putin said.

In remarks clearly directed against Washington, Putin blasted those "who want to dictate their will to all others regardless of international norms and law."

"It's dangerous and harmful," he added. "Norms of the international law were replaced with political expediency. We view it as diktat and imperialism."

Russia this week initiated an international conference to be held in Austria in early June to discuss the situation around the CFE treaty.

Putin described the tests of new missiles conducted by Russia on Tuesday as a necessary response to the Western action.

"There is no reason to fear these actions by Russia, they aren't aggressive. It's merely a response to tough and unfounded unilateral actions by our partners," he said. "These actions are aimed at preserving a global balance."

In one missile test Tuesday, a prototype of new Russia's intercontinental ballistic missile, called the RS-24, was fired from a mobile launcher at the Plesetsk launch site in northwestern Russia and its test warhead landed on target 3,400 miles away on the Far Eastern Kamchatka Peninsula, officials said. Russia's military also tested a new cruise missile based on the existing short-range Iskander missile.

"We will keep modernizing our potential," Putin said.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070531/ap_on_re_eu/russia_putin

HANDWRITING ON THE WALL


The Handwriting on the Wall Is Written in Blood
By Scott Galindez
t r u t h o u t Perspective

Monday 28 May 2007

"I think the handwriting is on the wall that we are going in a different direction in the fall."

"We can no longer support an endless occupation in Iraq and Afghanistan."

The quotes above are not from anti-war Democrats. No, it's not Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) or Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Nebraska). These quotes come from Senators Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) and Jeff Sessions (R-Alabama).

Is this just another fake moving of the goal posts? Or is it a sign of a major sea change to come from the Republicans in Congress? We have been hearing for months that many Republicans are only giving the "surge" until September, and then they will be looking for a "new strategy." I have to ask, Senator McConnell, if the handwriting is on the wall, then why wait until September? How many more American troops and Iraqis will die for a policy that you already know is failed?

This Memorial Day, nearly 1,000 more families will be visiting the graves of American soldiers killed in Iraq than a year ago. With death tolls over 100 for the last few months, I have to ask if over 400 new lives should be sacrificed, if the handwriting is already on the wall?

The handwriting that is on the wall is being written in the blood on the hands of those who continue to support funding for this war.

If Senator McConnell thinks the handwriting is already on the wall, why didn't he support an override of the president's veto of the Iraq supplemental, which included a timeline for withdrawal from Iraq?

If Senator Sessions believes that we cannot support an endless occupation, then why doesn't he support timelines for withdrawal?

When Senator McConnell next speaks to the troops or the families of those serving in Iraq, I challenge him to explain to them why the direction is not changing today, and why their loved ones should fight between now and September.

While many Americans are frustrated that the Democrats have not done more, the bottom line is that the Republicans in Congress have blocked every attempt to force Bush's hand. The Democrats should not be let off the hook, but the recent votes have shown that if they had the power, they would end the war. It is the Republicans who are voting against their conscience to support the president - not to support the troops.




Scott Galindez is the DC Bureau Chief of Truthout.

Source: http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/052807Y.shtml

BRITISH SURVEILLANCE CAMERAS

Orwell rolls in his grave: Britain's endemic surveillance cameras talk back

Will Byrne
Published: Wednesday May 30, 2007

Observed by over 4.2 million closed circuit – or CCTV – cameras across the country, Britain is already the most surveilled industrialized state in the Western world. It was recently estimated that the average Briton is captured by electronic eyes more than 300 times on a typical workday.

Yet the country’s surveillance network, which boasts one camera for every fourteen citizens, is no longer merely facilitating observance: It has now begun talking back. In a scene eerily reminiscent of Orwell's dystopian vision of 1984, loudspeakers in one small-town center in northern Britain scold anyone they catch engaged in “anti-social behaviour,” including littering, drunkenness, or fighting.

Observing a bank of monitors in the council “control centre,” Middlesbrough town officials use the technology to broadcast warnings to deviants in real-time. The crime-fighting strategy behind the “speaker cam” draws upon the humiliation of being rebuked in public. A representative explained its function to the BBC in April as being to “embarrass” misbehavers into following the rules. Reports of wrongful chiding have been plentiful.

In one case, a young mother named Marie Brewster was falsely reprimanded for littering. She recounted her experience for The Guardian. “We were in the town centre and I'd got some chips at McDonald's for my daughter Ellie, but they were hot so I tipped them into a box and crumpled the packet up. I put it on the bottom of Ellie's pram to take home but then heard this voice say: ‘Please place the rubbish in the bin provided.’” She filed her complaint when she saw footage of the event in a televised news piece advocating the effectiveness of the new innovation in combating crime.

The British government, it would seem, harbors little doubt about the system’s efficacy. On the same day that authorities in Middlesbrough issued an official apology to ­Ms. Brewster, the Home Office, the UK’s governmental branch on security and crime, announced its intent to distribute $1 million for the outfitting of such talking cameras in 20 other city centers. In one of the selected towns, local officials have opened up a contest for schoolchildren in which youths will compete to provide the recorded warnings to be broadcast in cases of infraction.

The “speaker cam” may be only the first in a row of new surveillance techniques to emerge in the British public sphere. A range of novel pre-emptive security technologies is being considered for addition to the CCTV arsenal throughout the country. In London, police and officials are discussing the widespread installation on pre-existing cameras of highly sensitive microphones that can detect “aggressive tones” based on the decibel, pitch, and speed of words spoken. More than 300 of these listening devices are already being piloted in offices and public spaces.

Citing a leaked memo from a January meeting of the Home Office, the London–based daily The Sun recently revealed that the government was also considering the installation of X-ray cameras in lampposts on public streets. “Detection of weapons and explosives will become easier” the memo read, but added bluntly, “Privacy is an issue because the machines see through clothing.”

The British technology review Electronic Design reported in late April that the Home Office is interested in utilizing new lip-reading technologies which, triggered by “key words and sentences,” could act to automatically alert authorities to criminal or terrorist intent. Research on the technology, part of a three year venture undertaken by a computer vision scientist, is already being funded by a $780,000 grant from the British government.

On Monday, police in the county of Merseyside unveiled Britain’s most dramatic surveillance contrivance to date: a CCTV camera that flies. Propelled by helicopter-style rotors and directed either by remote control or pre-programmed flight plans, the nearly silent two-foot drone can be outfitted with thermal-powered cameras and loudspeakers. Assistant Chief Constable Simon Byrne explained the primary purpose of the device as “to support our anti-social taskforce in gathering all-important evidence to put offenders before the courts.”

As the observation of behavior takes on bizarre new forms, and data collection on the public continues to lose transparency, red flags have begun waving among privacy groups. Many have expressed wariness over the potential for undemocratic abuses of personal information, a concern that has also been raised with regard to the UK’s police-controlled DNA databank, which now contains over 3.5 million profiles.

A study published by human rights watchdog Privacy International in November placed Britain among the five worst countries in the industrialized world at protecting individual privacy, ranking alongside China and Russia as exercising “endemic surveillance.” In an interview with RAW STORY, Privacy International’s Gus Hosein explained that the grounds for the grim assessment were by no means limited to Britain’s expansive fleet of cameras. He noted that, among western democracies, the UK is the only country in which judicial authorization is not required for third-party interception of communication, making governmental or corporate observance of an individual’s data all but impossible to regulate.

And despite giving rise to a corporate and law enforcement procedure that is singular to Britain among its democratic peers, Hosein stated that the issue has received “no coverage” in the press. Last year, he added, police accessed “traffic data” of communications – information on who emails whom, who calls whom, or an individual’s location at the time of mobile phone use – 439,000 times, all without a warrant.

Since his group released its stunning conclusions on privacy in the UK, Hosein said, things have only gotten worse. He described Britain’s new identity card scheme, an unprecedented endeavor in which all citizens and residents will be fingerprinted to allow for immediate identification, as the country’s “most invasive yet.” He also drew attention to Tony Blair’s call on Sunday to grant broader police powers nationwide, allowing officers to stop and question any individual without requiring suspicion of a crime. Under the proposed changes, which Blair plans to push into law over the next few weeks, individuals who refuse to answer police inquiries – which would cover anything from identity to destination – would run the risk of arrest or a fine. Such policy has never been implemented in Britain outside of wartime.

Hosein closed by saying that, with respect to privacy in the democratic world, “whatever bad policy is out there, Britain does it worse.”

The British political arena houses its share of critics as well, the most prominent being the government's information commissioner, Richard Thomas, who warned a year ago that Britain might “sleepwalk into a surveillance society.” He has more recently stated that the country is “committing a slow social suicide” with its CCTV proliferation.

Early this month, Thomas went before members of Parliament to voice his concerns over governmental and corporate intrusion into the lives of citizens and to push for increased safeguards, such as routine privacy impact assessments and greater regulation of the companies that supply surveillance technology. “No one wants their electronic footprint to expose every aspect of their daily life,” he said.

The UK, which has no written constitution, first enacted ground rules with respect to governmental security procedure in 1994 and passed its first comprehensive Human Rights Act in 1998. But some legal experts say that, in the actual process of pursuing and realizing security policy, the new regulations carry little weight. In an interview with RAW STORY, Bill Bowring, a senior professor of law at the University of London and a member of the human rights group Council of Liberty, suggested that the statutes are often circumvented or ignored altogether. “The present surveillance situation certainly transgresses both the Human Rights Act and the European Convention for Human Rights,” he said.

Bowring, troubled by what he called “the government's constant scare-mongering” in its furthering of “draconian” security measures, stressed the need for a “written constitution with entrenched provisions on human rights and civil liberties.”

Others see the issue quite differently. Home Secretary John Reid, perhaps the most ardent public proponent of surveillance in Britain, has often cast opposition to CCTV expansion as misguided priggishness about personal privacy, arguing that such a system is the only way to ensure individual security and comfort in a society beleaguered by violent crime. In a statement to the BBC about the “speaker cam” initiative, he predicted that there would be those “in the minority who will be more concerned about what they claim are civil liberties intrusions.”

But many detractors’ positions have nothing to do with questions of ethical or democratic transgression. Some of the more vocal opponents of the CCTV arsenal have set aside concerns about civil liberties to argue that the “eye in the sky” approach simply isn’t working against crime.

One of them is Martin Gill, a criminology professor at the University of Leicester, whose 2005 study of 13 CCTV community initiatives found that in a majority of the neighborhoods, criminal activity actually increased. The Home Office’s own comparative studies have found lighting in public areas to be a more effective tool in lowering crime levels than surveillance cameras. Many opponents have pointed to London, where the CCTV’s greatest concentration of cameras was ineffective in halting the terrorist bombings in July of 2005, and where a sharp rise in the past six months has put the city’s murder rate at one of its most critical levels ever.

For other CCTV critics, it is not a loss of liberties or even of lives that they bemoan, but rather the huge price tag. In the last ten years, the Home Office has spent more than three quarters of its crime prevention budget on “technology of record,” and $500 million has been spent since 1994 on the CCTV system alone.

Still, most Britons have shown little concern about the broadening surveillance of their lives. In the case of the CCTV surveillance apparatus, in fact, they have been overwhelmingly supportive. In a recent survey carried out by The Guardian, a miniscule 2 percent of UK citizens reported that they “object to the CCTV system in principle” – 45 percent even consented to the installation of cameras in public toilets. In another poll, 70 percent listed their explicit support for the advancement of the surveillance network.

Even Ms. Brewster, who watched her own unwarranted reproof at the hands of a “speaker cam” on the evening news, remained assenting. “I still think the cameras are a good idea,” she told the BBC, “but I have to say when you haven't done anything wrong it's annoying to appear like this.”



Source: http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Orwell_rolls_in_his_grave_0530.html

DICTATORSHIP DIRECTIVES, FEW NOTICE

Bush Pens Dictatorship Directive, Few Notice

by Kurt Nimmo

Global Research, May 30, 2007
Another Day in the Empire



It is hardly surprising not a single corporate newspaper reported the death of the Constitution. Go to Google News and type in “National Security and Homeland Security Presidential Directive” and hit enter. Google returns ten paltry results, not one from the New York Times, the Washington Post, or related corporate media source. Google Trends rates the story as “mild,” that is to say it warrants nary a blip on the news radar screen. Of course, another death blow to the Constitution, already long on life support, is hardly news. Few understand we now live in a dictatorship, or maybe it should be called a decidership.

“The Bush administration has released a directive called the National Security and Homeland Security Presidential Directive. The directive released on May 9th, 2007 has gone almost unnoticed by the mainstream and alternative media. This is understandable considering the huge Ron Paul and immigration news but this story is equally as huge. In this directive, Bush declares that in the event of a ‘Catastrophic Emergency’ the President will be entrusted with leading the activities to ensure constitutional government. The language in this directive would in effect make the President a dictator in the case of such an emergency,” writes Lee Rogers for Global Research. “The language written in the directive is disturbing because it doesn’t say that the President will work with the other branches of government equally to ensure a constitutional government is protected. It says clearly that there will be a cooperative effort among the three branches that will be coordinated by the President. If the President is coordinating these efforts it effectively puts him in charge of every branch. The language in the directive is entirely Orwellian in nature making it seem that it is a cooperative effort between all three branches but than it says that the President is in charge of the cooperative effort.”

In short, Bush may now declare himself absolute ruler at any moment and Congress can like it or lump it. Naturally, this act of betrayal is of so little importance and consequence, the corporate media believes you are better served knowing Justin Timberlake is in love.

“This directive on its face is unconstitutional because each branch of government the executive, legislative and judicial are supposed to be equal in power,” Lee continues. “By putting the President in charge of coordinating such an effort to ensure constitutional government over all three branches is effectively making the President a dictator allowing him to tell all branches of government what to do.”

So much for the first three articles of the Constitution, designed to make sure there remains a separation of power between branches of government. “Ambition must be made to counteract ambition,” declared James Madison in the Federalist Papers. Madison, in his original draft of the Bill of Rights, included a proposed amendment that would make the separation of powers explicit, but this proposal was rejected, primarily because his fellow members of Congress thought the separation of powers principle was obvious in the Constitution. There was no way for them to read the future, or predict the wholesale selling and buying of Congress, a judiciary stacked with reactionary troglodytes from the Federalist Society, and a largely brain dead public apparently more interested in Britney Spears lip-sync concerts than preserving the Constitution, let alone comprehending it.

Bush, of course, takes his marching orders from higher up on the food chain, more specifically the World Economic Forum, the club of billionaires and transnational corporations that meet annually in Davos, Switzerland, where they plot our future. In January, the Forum, “with numerous links to business networks, policy-makers and government, NGOs and think-tanks,” at the behest of Merrill Lynch, Swiss Re and the Center for Risk Management and Decision Processes, and Wharton School, produced Global Risks 2007, a report containing various dire “global risk” scenarios, including “a full-blown [influenza] pandemic, with one million deaths worldwide.” Other possible “global risk” scenarios include “international terrorism” and “climate change.”

But what does all of this have to do with Bush and the National Security and Homeland Security Presidential Directive?

“The Directive slipped out relatively unnoticed by the mainstream media, yet it has important and positive implications for the future resiliency of public sector operations in the United States,” reports Continuity Central. “The concepts of a National Continuity Coordinator and a centrally directed National Continuity Implementation Plan are to be welcomed in principle and are something which other countries should look seriously at emulating.”

Earlier in the year the World Economic Forum called for such a position to be set up in every government in its ‘Global Risks 2007’ report. This championed the appointment of ‘Country Risk Officers’ who would provide a focal point in government for mitigating global risks across departments, learning from private-sector approaches and escaping a ‘silo-based’ approach.

As for the position of National Continuity Coordinator, it went to Frances Fragos Townsend, chair of the Homeland Security Council, who reports to Bush, or rather the neocons and a scattering of neolibs who tell Dubya what to say and do every morning.

“Townsend, as Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism, by virtue of the National Security and Homeland Security Presidential Directive signed May 9, 2007, by President Bush, is also National Continuity Coordinator,” notes SourceWatch. The National Security and Homeland Security Presidential Directive states: “The President shall lead the activities of the Federal Government for ensuring constitutional government. In order to advise and assist the President in that function, the Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism (APHS/CT) is hereby designated as the National Continuity Coordinator. The National Continuity Coordinator, in coordination with the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs (APNSA), without exercising directive authority, shall coordinate the development and implementation of continuity policy for executive departments and agencies. The Continuity Policy Coordination Committee (CPCC), chaired by a Senior Director from the Homeland Security Council staff, designated by the National Continuity Coordinator, shall be the main day-to-day forum for such policy coordination.”

In essence, the globalist oligarchy, from on-high in Davos, through “business networks, policy-makers … NGOs and think-tanks,” are driving policies designed to reduce the Constitution to an irrelevancy. Of course, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights are but the last impediment to establishing a globalist soviet in the United States, soon to be merged into a North American Union, itself but a component of larger “trading” blocs carved out by the globalists.

Considering all of this, it makes perfect sense the corporate media ignored the rollout of the National Security and Homeland Security Presidential Directive, same as they ignore the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America, even though the latter involves the direct participation of Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez, Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff, and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

Naturally, any talk of conspiracy to sell out the nation and dismantle the Constitution and the Bill of Rights relegates one to the tinfoil hat brigade, for if such things are not reported upon or discussed at Fox News, they naturally fall in the province of kooky conspiracy theories.


Global Research Articles by Kurt Nimmo

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Centre for Research on Globalization.

To become a Member of Global Research

The CRG grants permission to cross-post original Global Research articles on community internet sites as long as the text & title are not modified. The source and the author's copyright must be displayed. For publication of Global Research articles in print or other forms including commercial internet sites, contact: crgeditor@yahoo.com

www.globalresearch.ca contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available to our readers under the provisions of "fair use" in an effort to advance a better understanding of political, economic and social issues. The material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving it for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material for purposes other than "fair use" you must request permission from the copyright owner.

For media inquiries: crgeditor@yahoo.com

© Copyright Kurt Nimmo, Another Day in the Empire, 2007

The url address of this article is: www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=5816

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Privacy Policy

© Copyright 2005-2007 GlobalResearch.ca
Web site engine by Polygraphx Multimedia © Copyright 2005-2007

Source: http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=5816

.

Wednesday, May 30, 2007

PREMEDITATED MERGER (BILL)


WND Exclusive
PREMEDITATED MERGER
North America 'partnership' fast-tracked in border bill
Calls for speedier regional economic integration between U.S., Mexico

Posted: May 20, 2007
1:00 a.m. Eastern


© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com

WASHINGTON – The controversial "Secure Borders, Economic Opportunity and Immigration Reform Act of 2007," which would grant millions of illegal aliens the right to stay in the U.S. under certain conditions, contains provisions for the acceleration of the Security and Prosperity Partnership, a plan for North American economic and defense integration, WND has learned.

The bill, as worked out by Senate and White House negotiators, cites the SPP agreement signed by President Bush and his counterparts in Mexico and Canada March 23, 2005 – an agreement that has been criticized as a blueprint for building a European Union-style merger of the three countries of North America.

"It is the sense of Congress that the United States and Mexico should accelerate the implementation of the Partnership for Prosperity to help generate economic growth and improve the standard of living in Mexico, which will lead to reduced migration," the draft legislation states on page 211 on the version time-stamped May 18, 2007 11:58 p.m.

Since agreement on the major provisions of the bill was announced late last week, a firestorm of opposition has ignited across the country. Senators and representatives are reporting heavy volumes of phone calls and emails expressing outrage with the legislation they believe represents the largest "amnesty" program ever contemplated by the federal government.

President Bush yesterday attempted to tackle the concerns of those opposing the bill – denying again he would ever support an "amnesty" bill. The Senate is expected to begin debating the measure this week.

In its current form, the bill would offer probationary legal status to the estimated 15 million to 20 million illegal aliens who were in the U.S. before Jan. 1, 2007. Those who then met a series of requirements — including payment of a $5,000 fine and $2,000 in processing fees — could gain citizenship within an estimated 12 to 13 years.

In his weekly radio address, Bush said the plan "will help us resolve the status of millions of illegal immigrants who are here already, without animosity and without amnesty."

Bush said under the bill, those who "come out of the shadows" of illegal immigration will qualify for a special visa if they "pass a strict background check, pay a fine, hold a job, maintain a clean criminal record and eventually learn English."

To become citizens, he said, they must pay an additional fine, "go to the back of the line [of applications], pass a citizenship test, and return to their country to apply for their green card."

Among other provisions, including increased hiring of Border Patrol officers, the bill would establish a temporary worker program.



"">Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, called the deal "amnesty – a pardon and reward for lawbreakers."

"Many senators claim that their deal renews respect for the rule of law," King said. "Let me respond to that absurd statement by stating clearly, you cannot simultaneously tear down and rebuild one of our constitutional principles. I took an oath to uphold the Constitution and the rule of law. The price for amnesty is the sacrifice of the rule of law."

King, ranking Republican on the Immigration Subcommittee of the U.S. House Judiciary Committee, said each of the senators who struck the deal "should wear a scarlet letter 'A' for amnesty."

Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., also was quick to label the bill "amnesty."

The senator said it "rewards people who broke the law with permanent legal status and puts them ahead of millions of law-abiding immigrants waiting to come to America."

"I don't care how you try to spin it, this is amnesty," DeMint said.

"I hope we don't take a thousand page bill written in secret and try to ram it through the Senate in a few days," he added. "This is a very important issue for America and we need time to debate it."

In fact, while the draft bill is far from finished, it is 326 pages in its current form.

The House is not expected to act until the Senate passes a bill.

Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., called the deal "the best possible chance we will have in years to secure our borders and bring millions of people out of the shadows and into the sunshine of America."

Illegal immigrants would be allowed to come forward and obtain a "Z visa" that puts them on a track for permanent residency within eight to 13 years. Fees and a fine of $5,000 are required and heads of household first must return to their home countries.

The illegals would be able to obtain a probationary card right away to live and work in the U.S.

Source: http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=55787

RUSSIA'S NEW ICBM

Russia says new missile can beat any system

Putin warns US on Europe-based defense shield

First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov said Russia tested an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of carrying multiple independent warheads, and it also successfully conducted a preliminary test of a tactical cruise missile that he said could fly farther than existing, similar weapons.

"As of today, Russia has new tactical and strategic complexes that are capable of overcoming any existing or future missile defense systems," Ivanov said, according to the ITAR-Tass news agency. "So in terms of defense and security, Russians can look calmly to the country's future."

Ivanov is a former defense minister seen as a potential Kremlin favorite to succeed Putin next year. Both he and Putin have said repeatedly that Russia would continue to improve its nuclear arsenals and respond to US plans to deploy a missile defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic -- NATO nations that were in Moscow's front yard during the Cold War as Warsaw Pact members.

Russia has bristled at the plans, dismissing US assertions that the system would be aimed at blocking possible attacks by Iran and saying it would destroy the strategic balance of forces in Europe.

"We consider it harmful and dangerous to turn Europe into a powder keg and to fill it with new kinds of weapons," Putin said at a news conference with visiting Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates.

Russian arms control expert Alexander Pikayev said the new ICBMs appeared to be part of Russia's promised response to the missile defense plans and, more broadly, an effort to "strengthen the strategic nuclear triad -- land-based, sea-based and air-based delivery systems for nuclear weapons -- which suffered significant downsizing" amid financial troubles after the 1991 Soviet collapse.

The ICBM, called the RS-24, was fired from a mobile launcher at the Plesetsk launch site in northwestern Russia. Its test warhead landed on target some 3,400 miles away on the Far Eastern Kamchatka Peninsula, the Strategic Missile Forces said in a statement.

The new missile is seen as eventually replacing the aging RS-18s and RS-20s that are the backbone of the country's missile forces, the statement said. Those missiles are known in the West as the SS-19 Stiletto and the SS-18 Satan.

The RS-24 "strengthens the capability of the attack groups of the Strategic Missile Forces by surmounting antimissile defense systems, at the same time strengthening the potential for nuclear deterrence," the statement said.

Ivanov said the missile was a new version of the Topol-M, first commissioned in 1997 and known as the SS-27 in the West, but one that that can carry multiple independent warheads, ITAR-Tass reported. Existing Topol-M missiles are capable of hitting targets more than 6,000 miles away.

Pikayev, a senior analyst at the Moscow-based Institute for World Economy and International Relations, said that little had been revealed about the missile's development, but that Russia has been seeking to improve its capability to penetrate missile defense systems and that the new missile would likely answer to that goal.

He said that Russia had been working on a version of the Topol-M that could carry MIRVs -- Multiple Independently Targetable Reentry Vehicles -- and that its development was probably inevitable after the US withdrew from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty in 2002 in order to develop a national missile defense.

Pikayev concurred with the missile forces' statement that the RS-24 conforms with terms laid down in the START-I treaty.

© Copyright
2007
The New York Times Company

SUN TZU, WAR, AND 9/11




SUN TZU, WAR, AND 9/11

MAY 29, 2007. If you believe the media, you’d conclude most Americans are too dumb to imagine their government can hatch conspiracies. But if you read the Internet and national poll results, the opposite becomes clear: a huge number of Americans believe the government does forward conspiracies.

When you read Sun Tzu, you discover how people in power can and do stage events to win silent wars.

9/11 was the pretext for such a war.

It had willing participants and tacticians inside the federal government. But there is more. 9/11 USED the propensity of these “leaders” to go to war. There was manipulation at that level.

It’s called using your enemies’ strengths to defeat him, and it works. It’s a principle of judo, and judo politics were at the heart of Sun Tzu’s writings.

People outside the corridors of US government saw that war in Iraq would lead to the present quagmire. The quagmire would reduce the overall power and morale of the US. That was and is the goal.

Why? Because the aims of globalism demand that all nations are weakened, so they can be folded into the massive bureaucratic structure that literally runs the planet. And if you think this is a good idea and is a solution to the insane actions of nationalisms, think again.

Globalism is fascism on a worldwide scale.

9/11 was the event that made it possible for certain empire-builders inside the US government---Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, etc.---to justify the war in Iraq.

So 9/11 was the perfect storm that fit the goals of globalism.

And the ensuing so-called war on terrorism provides the pretext for limiting and squeezing down individual freedom---a requirement for a de facto fascist government.

Before he even took office in 2001, it was clear that Bush wanted to go back to Iraq to “finish the job” his father started. So 9/11 became the ideal event that would allow Bush to follow his mad idea.

Take a person’s strength---his aggressive impulses, to be more precise---and play on them. Use them. Manipulate them. And get the outcome that will make him (and the nation) weaker. Turn the strength into weakness.

Despite denials and howls of protest from pundits and the press, this type of manipulation was and is the game. It has worked. And it will continue to work as long as the American people keep believing in the fundamental lies of the media.

But that faith is eroding and collapsing.

To grasp what a government is doing in a puppet-like fashion, just look at those few issues on which both sides of the aisle agree, no matter who is in power, no matter who is occupying the White House and the Congress. Globalism---“free trade” and all its sinister implications---is right at the head of that list. Look at the presidential candidates, the ones who have a real chance of winning in 2008. You can be sure there is no difference of opinion of among them on this issue. They are united. Just as George W Bush and Bill Clinton are united on “free trade.” It’s a slam dunk.

In a sense, that makes Bush a schizophrenic. He and his pals have been trying to make an end run around globalism to extend the American empire. And yet Bush is also a globalist. That tells you why it helps to have someone like him in the White House at this time. Someone who can’t think his way out of wet paper bag.

The US government---and those people who, behind the scenes, pull the strings---are offering the American people two choices. A de facto global fascist managerial system, or a brutal American world empire. It’s up to the people to derail and surpass both of these lunatic choices.

From author James Bamford, on the infamous NORTHWOODS plan, in his book, Body of Secrets, here is a Sun Tzu-type plan, formulated in the bowels of the Pentagon:

“Although no one in Congress could have known it at the time, Lemnitzer and the Joint Chiefs had quietly slipped over the edge.

“According to secret and long-hidden documents obtained for Body of Secrets, the Joint Chiefs of Staff drew up and approved plans for what may be the most corrupt plan ever created by the U.S. government. In the name of anticommunism, they proposed launching a secret and bloody war of terrorism against their own country in order to trick the American public into supporting an ill-conceived war they intended to launch against Cuba.

“Codenamed Operation Northwoods, the plan, which had the written approval of the Chairman and every member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, called for innocent people to be shot on American streets; for boats carrying refugees fleeing Cuba to be sunk on the high seas; for a wave of violent terrorism to be launched in Washington, D.C., Miami, and elsewhere. People would be framed for bombings they did not commit; planes would be hijacked. Using phony evidence, all of it would be blamed on Castro, thus giving Lemnitzer and his cabal the excuse, as well as the public and international backing, they needed to launch their war.”

JON RAPPOPORT www.nomorefakenews.com


Source: http://www.nomorefakenews.com/index.php

FINAL CONFLICT


The line of distinction between professed Christians and the ungodly is now hardly distinguishable. Church-members love what the world loves, and are ready to join with them; and Satan determines to unite them in one body, and thus strengthen his cause by sweeping all into the ranks of Spiritualism. Papists, who boast of miracles as a certain sign of the true church, will be readily deceived by this wonder-working power; and Protestants, having cast away the shield of truth, will also be deluded. Papists, Protestants, and worldlings will alike accept the form of godliness without the power, and they will see in this union a grand movement for the conversion of the world, and the ushering in of the long-expected millennium.

Through Spiritualism, Satan appears as a benefactor of the race, healing the diseases of the people, and professing to present a new and more exalted system of religious faith; but at the same time he works as a destroyer. His temptations are leading multitudes to ruin. Intemperance dethrones reason; sensual indulgence, strife, and bloodshed follow. Satan delights in war; for it excites the worst passions of the soul, and then sweeps into eternity its victims steeped in vice and blood. It is his object to incite the nations to war against one another; for he can thus divert the minds of the people from the work of preparation to stand in the day of God.



Satan works through the elements also to garner his harvest of unprepared souls. He has studied the secrets of the laboratories of nature, and he uses all his power to control the elements as far as God allows. When he was suffered to afflict Job, how quickly flocks and herds, servants, houses, children, were swept away, one trouble succeeding another as in a moment. It is God that shields his creatures, and hedges them in from the power of the destroyer. But the Christian world have shown contempt for the law of Jehovah; and the Lord will do just what he has declared that he would, he will withdraw his blessings from the earth, and remove his protecting care from those who are rebelling against his law, and teaching and forcing others to do the same. Satan has control of all whom God does not especially guard. He will favor and prosper some, in order to further his own designs, and he will bring trouble upon others, and lead men to believe that it is God who is afflicting them.


While appearing to the children of men as a great physician who can heal all their maladies, he will bring disease and disaster, until populous cities are reduced to ruin and desolation. Even now he is at work. In accidents and calamities by sea and by land, in great conflagrations, in fierce tornadoes and terrific hail-storms, in tempests, floods, cyclones, tidal waves, and earthquakes, in every place and in a thousand forms, Satan is exercising his power. He sweeps away the ripening harvest, and famine and distress follow.

He imparts to the air a deadly taint, and thousands perish by the pestilence. These visitations are to become more and more frequent and disastrous. Destruction will be upon both man and beast. "The earth mourneth and fadeth away," "the haughty people . . . do languish. The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant." [ISA. 24:4, 5.]



And then the great deceiver will persuade men that those who serve God are causing these evils. The class that have provoked the displeasure of Heaven will charge all their troubles upon those whose obedience to God's commandments is a perpetual reproof to transgressors. It will be declared that men are offending God by the violation of the Sunday-sabbath, that this sin has brought calamities which will not cease until Sunday observance shall be strictly enforced, and that those who present the claims of the fourth commandment, thus destroying reverence for Sunday, are troublers of the people, preventing their restoration to divine favor and temporal prosperity. Thus the accusation urged of old against the servant of God will be repeated, and upon grounds equally well established. "And it came to pass, when Ahab saw Elijah, that Ahab said unto him, Art thou he that troubleth Israel?

And he answered, I have not troubled Israel; but thou, and thy father's house, in that ye have forsaken the commandments of the Lord, and thou hast followed Baalim." [1 KINGS 18:17, 18.] As the wrath of the people shall be excited by false charges, they will pursue a course toward God's ambassadors very similar to that which apostate Israel pursued toward Elijah.



The miracle-working power manifested through Spiritualism will exert its influence against those who choose to obey God rather than men. Communications from the spirits will declare that God has sent them to convince the rejecters of Sunday of their error, affirming that the laws of the land should be obeyed as the law of God. They will lament the great wickedness in the world, and second the testimony of religious teachers, that the degraded state of morals is caused by the desecration of Sunday.

Great will be the indignation excited against all who refuse to accept their testimony.



Satan's policy in this final conflict with God's people is the same that he employed in the opening of the great controversy in Heaven. He professed to be seeking to promote the stability of the divine government, while secretly bending every effort to secure its overthrow. And the very work which he was thus endeavoring to accomplish, he charged upon the loyal angels. The same policy of deception has marked the history of the Romish Church.

It has professed to act as the vicegerent of Heaven, while seeking to exalt itself above God, and to change his law. Under the rule of Rome, those who suffered death for their fidelity to the gospel were denounced as evil-doers; they were declared to be in league with Satan; and every possible means was employed to cover them with reproach, to cause them to appear, in the eyes of the people, and even to themselves, as the vilest of criminals. So it will be now. While Satan seeks to destroy those who honor God's law he will cause them to be accused as law-breakers, as men who are dishonoring God, and bringing judgments upon the world.



God never forces the will or the conscience; but Satan's constant resort--to gain control of those whom he cannot otherwise seduce--is compulsion by cruelty. Through fear or force he endeavors to rule the conscience, and to secure homage to himself.

To accomplish this, he works through both religious and secular authorities, moving them to the enforcement of human laws in defiance of the law of God.



Those who honor the Bible Sabbath will be denounced as enemies of law and order, as breaking down the moral restraints of society, causing anarchy and corruption, and calling down the judgments of God upon the earth. Their conscientious scruples will be pronounced obstinacy, stubbornness, and contempt of authority. They will be accused of disaffection toward the government. Ministers who deny the obligation of the divine law will present from the pulpit the duty of yielding obedience to the civil authorities as ordained of God.

In legislative halls and courts of justice, commandment-keepers will be misrepresented and condemned. A false coloring will be given to their words; the worst construction will be put upon their motives.


As the Protestant churches reject the clear, scriptural arguments in defense of God's law, they will long to silence those whose faith they cannot overthrow by the Bible. Though they blind their own eyes to the fact, they are now adopting a course which will lead to the persecution of those who conscientiously refuse to do what the rest of the Christian world are doing, and acknowledge the claims of the papal Sabbath.

The dignitaries of church and State will unite to bribe, persuade, or compel all classes to honor the Sunday. The lack of divine authority will be supplied by oppressive enactments. Political corruption is destroying love of justice and regard for truth; and even in free America, rulers and legislators, in order to secure public favor, will yield to the popular demand for a law enforcing Sunday observance.

Liberty of conscience, which has cost so great a sacrifice, will no longer be respected. In the soon-coming conflict we shall see exemplified the prophet's words: "The dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ." [REV. 12:17.]


The Great Controversy (1888), Ellen G. White, Pages 588-592.

Tuesday, May 29, 2007

THE NEW RULES OF IMPERIALISM

Originally published May 29 2007

The new rules of imperialism: Economic warfare, consumer products and disease exports America

by Mike Adams

History tells us that imperialist nations quite predictably invade weaker nations on a regular basis... especially when those weaker nations happen to be standing on valuable natural resources like oil or uranium. Thanks to this desire for strategic control over territories, the twentieth century was the bloodiest in human history, with more people being lost to war, greed and conquest than during any single century in recorded history (including the centuries spanning Greek and Roman civilizations).

War remains as supported as ever today, and in fact, many nations actually thirst for war. Just look at the pro-war coverage on Fox News and the unending war games being played on computers and game consoles by young men who find entertainment in war. (In fact, the U.S. Army is actually recruiting young men now through a free, downloadable video game that teaches young boys how to pick up a rifle and kill people with it.)



Why some nations create war

The people of some nations actually create war (or support it) in their quest to express a sense of nationalistic heroism. Failing nations need heroes, and when those heroes are no longer found in the realms of science, art, politics or global achievement, they will be fabricated from the false victories of war.

The tearful American mom whose son dies in Iraq is, indeed, suffering a tremendous personal loss, but her loss is a necessary part of feeding the population's desire to proclaim there are heroes among them. Through the sacrificing of young men who are killed in Iraq, the people of America can find common connection, righteousness, and purpose where none existed before. War gives meaning to empty lives, and it delivers a masochistic form of entertainment to those who are too young, too old or too wealthy to participate. This is precisely why, throughout human history, the leaders of failing nations have habitually turned to military imperialism as a method to distract the people from far more serious problems at home. When the sons of a nation are returning home in body bags, nobody pays much attention to failures in education or the economy.

This is not to say that there are not some instances in which going to war has genuine justification. When a nation is threatened by an invading force, for example, going to war to defend your own land against invading aggressors is not only necessary, it is also truly heroic. Defending your own land is courageous; invading your neighbor's land is cowardly. (Some people claim, by the way, that the only way to protect America's land is to invade other countries first. This concept, called "preemptive war" is based on mass distortions used to falsely justify actions of war.)

In America today, the thirst for war remains as strong as ever. But the real war being waged on the world right now by America is not merely found in the limited military action in the Middle East. That's only the blunt instrument of this war. The real American invasion is happening through foods, medicines, personal care products, international banking and intellectual property law. Through the proliferation of fast food restaurants, pharmaceutical companies, chemically-contaminated consumer products and similar items invented in America, the world is being bombarded by systems of food, medicine and distorted intellectual property claims that are producing far more casualties than any bombs-and-bullets war.



How to control a nation

In World War II, the Germans attempted to steal natural resources from neighboring nations by forcefully occupying and controlling the targeted territories. Today, war is far more sophisticated: America steals national resources by patenting seeds, genes, medicines and ideas, then applying economic and political pressure against targeted nations to forcefully take a cut of their productivity through the application of intellectual property law. Only Thailand has offered any sort of resistance in an attempt to protect its people from the predatory, monopolistic drug pricing of Big Pharma, for example, but most countries just go right along and pay tribute to the western world through outrageous patent royalties on medicines that should belong to the people.

If that's not enough to dominate the targeted nation's economy, America sends in the World Bank. The World Bank makes predatory loans to desperate nations, knowing full well they cannot pay them back. It then uses the leverage of debt to invade those nations with western financial institutions. Those banks and lending institutions subsequently turn around and engage in predatory financial practices that soak the people of the target nation, skimming off productivity and exporting it back to the West where rich white men cash in billions without a single honest day's work.

The World Trade Organization, for its part, makes sure that targeted nations comply with imperialistic western trade practices. The huge push of Big Tobacco into Asia, for example, is the result of support by "world trade" proponents who threatened to impose trade sanctions against Asian nations if they tried to ban cigarette advertising. Today, more than a third of Chinese men are addicted to cigarettes, generating billions in annual profits for Big Tobacco companies who are right now producing more Chinese casualties than any war in China's long history.

Western medicine is also invading the continents around the world, bringing its expensive, heartless and corporate-controlled system of medicine to nations who were actually far healthier, happier and more financially solvent before America showed up with all its patented chemicals. Chinese medicine, for example, is routinely discredited in China by arrogant Chinese doctors who went to med school in America then returned home to betray their own fellow citizens. Drug companies see China's one billion people as nothing more than revenue-generating patients, and convincing all those people to take more medicines will require a well-planned, well-funded economic and philosophical assault on Chinese medicine. Essentially, Big Pharma must find a way to disconnect the Chinese from their heritage, turning them all into depressed, diseased "white" consumers whose medical mythology worships the falsehoods of western reductionism.



Consequences of the great American invasion

All around the world, America is invading nations through its foods, medicines, consumer products, dangerous economic practices, synthetic chemicals and intellectual property. And everywhere that American products are adopted, widespread disease and death soon follows.

Small island nations in the South Pacific, for example, had never heard of diabetes, heart disease or depression just two generations ago. But then American-made processed food products invaded their islands, edging out traditional foods like raw coconut, fresh fish, seaweed and taro. Today, South Pacific populations are suffering from widespread diabetes, depression, heart disease, learning disabilities, asthma and much more -- all thanks to the "invasion" of American foods, medicines and products.

America is the world's largest exporter of disease. Through our popular soda products, cigarettes, fast food chains and manufactured foods, we have caused more death and disease around the world than any nation in human history (including Hitler, Stalin and Pol Pot). And it all remains perfectly legal. Our chemical companies even manufacture and export pesticide chemicals that have been banned in the United States. Poor agricultural nations openly use those deadly pesticides on their crops, then ship the produce back to the U.S. where consumers buy it at grocery stores. It's all perfectly legal and, in fact, encouraged by U.S. political leaders.



Resistance is futile

It's actually more than legal: It's required! Any nation that says "no" to western products and intellectual property is immediately branded an enemy of world trade and is targeted for legal action by the WTO. Even creating pro-consumer safety standards such as banning aspartame, sodium nitrite or hydrogenated oils can be deemed a violation of international trade agreements. Product sales, you see, are the No. 1 priority, even when nations are being decimated by the products manufactured and exported by American companies.

Poor nations with undereducated populations suffer enormously under western economic imperialism. It's easy to sell Pepsi, cigarettes and lotto tickets to people in a country like Panama, for example, where the education level remains low and people are easily tricked into thinking that western products will make them happier. Pepsi, in fact, is the dominant consumer product throughout most of Central and South America. You can hardly travel anywhere south of the U.S. / Mexico border without being inundated with Pepsi propaganda. The Pepsi logo is more prominent than images of the Virgin Mary or the Pope, even though many South and Central American populations are Catholic. (It's quite clear what they actually worship!)

These international product invasions are important to the bottom line of U.S. corporations, of course, who are expanding their propaganda campaigns to non-U.S. countries following the wising up of American consumers. Only uneducated, ignorant consumers drink soft drink products in America these days. It's the same crowd that buys lotto tickets, smokes cigarettes, watches TV infomercials and lives on frozen dinners. Smart consumers in America switched to healthier drinks long ago. That's why soda sales continue to fall each year, and that's why U.S. soda corporations have to increasingly crank up their marketing machines in countries that haven't yet caught on to the toxicity of aspartame or the links between diabetes and high-fructose corn syrup.



The west is conquering the world

There's no more need to drop tanks, soldiers and bombs on nations in order to conquer them. Countries can be controlled through economics, intellectual property law, banking and finance systems. Consumers can be controlled through advertising, publicity and corporate-fabricated fake news.

The corporations, as always, rake in the profits while the consumers pay the price all over the world. They eat their American hamburgers, drink their American sodas, take their American medicines and think they're cool, sophisticated consumers even while their internal organs are beginning to fail from all the toxic chemicals. Soon, they will suffer from American diseases: Cancer, diabetes, depression, osteoporosis, heart disease, obesity and violent, psychotic behavior. In fact, we're already seeing it: Countries like Thailand and Japan are witnessing unprecedented obesity for the first time in history, and diseases like diabetes and depression are only a few years away from becoming pandemic throughout Asia. This is almost entirely from their adoption of western diets and medical practices.

Those nations that continue to worship western culture are engaged in a dangerous game of paying homage to precisely the wrong group. Worshipping American foods, products and medicines will only destroy the health and happiness of any nation, and mimicking American financial markets will only spell economic suicide in the long run. There is nothing good that can come of debt spending, intentional disease proliferation (through ignoring disease prevention programs), widespread chemical contamination and corporate dominance over the people and the government. These are the things that will come to destroy the world's nations, probably starting with America.



The last days of America as we know it

The era of American dominance in the world is nearly over. It will likely be replaced by an era of Chinese dominance, in which western medicine, western science, western debt spending and western culture will ultimately be rejected by most world nations.

It's time for Americans to face up to the reality of the country they're living in. Take the issue of health care as a rather important example. Did you know that you can get better health care in Cuba than America? Did you know that the life expectancy of a Cuban citizen is the same as an American citizen, and yet Americans spend hundreds of times more money per capita on disease care and sickness care than Cubans? American medicine is an utter failure, and it's destroying the economic viability of the entire country. Businesses are going bankrupt or moving offshore because of health care costs, and even those that can afford to operate on U.S. soil are faced with the reality that it's almost impossible to hire employees who can actually think these days thanks to the widespread use of brain-damaging prescription drugs. Success stories like Google are increasingly rare.

I remember living in Taiwan in the 1990's, and I paid something like $4 / month for health insurance coverage. A visit to the doctor cost me $2 out of pocket. Every person in Taiwan who has a job gets automatic health insurance coverage, and the nation has prospered economically over the last four decades in a way that the U.S. simply cannot match. The Taiwan people are innovative, resourceful and hard working. Of course, they're also hopelessly corrupt when it comes to politics, but that seems to be a universal law: Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.



America's reputation is in shambles

If you travel the world these days and ask about America, you might be surprised at the negative answers you'll hear. This is not obvious to people living in America because, of course, they only have access to the controlled, pro-America news sources that dominate mainstream thinking. But the world opinion of America has already suffered a severe setback under the leaderhip of President Bush, and in time, the world will reject American intellectual property, the American medicine scam and the harmful effects of American foods and beverages.

History will reveal America to be a nation that burned itself out on drugs, debt spending and junk foods, destroying the health its own people until its population could hardly even reproduce without medical intervention. Lacking any useful ideas, steeped in the defense of the status quo and abandoning the true needs of its own people, American political leaders have set our nation on a destructive course that may prove impossible to reverse. And they seem to want to destroy as many other nations as possible along the way -- as long as it generates more profits for U.S. corporations in the short term. "Poison the world and reap the profits!"



The future belongs to smart nations

Any nation that wishes to protect itself from the same fate America is headed towards would be wise to reject American foods, medicines, beverages, consumer products, intellectual property laws and financial practices.

The nations that survive and prosper over the next hundred years will be:

• Those nations that save money and invest in their future (rather then spending it on war or underfunded entitlement program).

• Those nations that reject western foods and pass laws to protect their populations from dangerous chemicals in foods, beverages and consumer products.

• Those nations that reject American intellectual property guidelines and ban corporations or private individuals from "owning" patents on medicines, seeds and genes.

• Those nations that invest in education, energy efficiency and environmental cleanup in order to create a better future for their children.

• Those nations that invest now in energy independence, teaching their people to use less energy while switching to vehicles that can run on electricity (which can be produced domestically in any country).

• Those nations that reject elite-controlled banking and money systems and restore the power of the currency to the people, where open trade can happen with zero inflation, creating enormous abundance for the people.

No nation will likely fully embrace all these points, but those that manage to fulfill at least some of them will do far better than those who don't. What's certain is that those nations attempting to mimic the culture of America will suffer the same fate as America -- a fate that will soon be obvious to even the most insistent deniers who claim that environmental pollution, endless debt spending and the mass contamination of food and medicines with deadly synthetic chemicals are somehow sustainable practices. The end result of all this is not in question by any serious thinker: Widespread bankruptcy, disease pandemics, environmental collapse and a bursting of the food production bubble.

Papua New Guinea may ultimatey emerge as one of the few successful, sustainable nations in the world. If you're not sure why, I urge you to read Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond, and then study the history of human civilization from a geographic viewpoint. You will see that the only nations with any sort of future are those that protect and nurture the health of their people and their environment, taking a long-term perspective rather than short-term economic gain. America has no long-term vision other than controlling world oil resources. America has no investment whatsoever in the health of its people and virtually no effort to protect its environment. America is fixated on short-term thinking and stop-gap measures, ignoring the greater concerns of education, renewable energy, individual health and individual liberty. And finally, America is a bankrupt nation by any honest accounting method, and it is only by the grace of debt holders of Asia that America can continue to sell debt at all.

No wise nation will follow America into this quagmire (and why should they, when they have their own quagmires to explore?).

The good news in all this, by the way, is that you don't have to follow the fate of your nation. By protecting your own health, saving your own wealth and investing in the future of yourself and your children (through education, fertile land, etc.), you can avoid the worst of what's coming and actually thrive during difficult times. That's why taking charge of your own life right now is more important than ever. Be independent from the mainstream. Learn how to protect your own health and reject medical propaganda. Understand the basic laws of economics and how debt is manufactured and sold. (A good book on that is called the Concise Guide to Economics and it's available free at http://www.conciseguidetoeconomics.com/ ). Teach yourself the basic principles of sustainable living, green living and "hippie wisdom." These are the things that will get you through the tough times ahead.

In terms of financial news, be sure to read the Daily Reckoning (http://www.dailyreckoning.com/) if you want to hear the truth about world financial news. Also check out the book Empire of Debt, which earns my top recommendation for the best book available on the coming financial collapse of America.

I haven't even mentioned peak oil yet, by the way. Ever wonder what happens when the oil runs out? Check out this page on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peak_oil





All content posted on this site is commentary or opinion and is protected under Free Speech. Truth Publishing LLC takes sole responsibility for all content. Truth Publishing sells no hard products and earns no money from the recommendation of products. Newstarget.com is presented for educational and commentary purposes only and should not be construed as professional advice from any licensed practitioner. Truth Publishing assumes no responsibility for the use or misuse of this material. For the full terms of usage of this material, visit www.NewsTarget.com/terms.shtml

Source: http://www.newstarget.com/z021873.html

CHARLIE SHEEN RESPONDS

Charlie Sheen Responds To New York Post Hit Piece
Actor: "My views and convictions regarding 9/11 have not wavered"

Charlie Sheen
Prison Planet
Monday, May 28, 2007





COMMENT FROM ALEX JONES

More disgusting spin from Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. I awoke Memorial Day to see more than a dozen news stories trumpeting that Charlie Sheen was no longer involved in Loose Change Final Cut. Within hours, the distortions of Page Six (known for blackmailing people with real and manufactured dirt) had mutated into complete fairy tales in other publications alleging 9/11 truth was a dying fad, and that Rosie O'Donnell had also deserted the movement.

If the New World Order wants to hide their crimes of 9/11 they're going to have to do a better job than this.

Charlie Sheen courageously followed his conscience when he publicly questioned the official 9/11 fable - that angers the establishment and they desperately want to create the illusion that he has recanted - not just in an attempt to discredit Mr. Sheen, but to scare other prominent members of the community from going public as well.

Below are the cold hard facts directly from Charlie Sheen.

Charlie Sheen has issued a brief statement in response to a New York Post article that claimed he was having "second thoughts" about his involvement in Loose Change Final Cut and the 9/11 Truth Movement as a whole.

---------------------------------------

My views and convictions regarding the events of 9/11 have not wavered. I still firmly believe the citizens of this great country, especially the family members of those tragically lost, deserve a much more accurate and thorough investigation surrounding the horrific events.

The suspicious fact that certain relevant testimonies were not included in the Keen Commission's final report, discredits the majority of their findings. A bi-partisan, democratically selected panel needs to be established that would include (but not limited to), victim family members, firefighters, rescue workers as well as key eye witnesses to the various crime scenes. Not some tepid rehash of Bush-serving lap-dogs cherry picking evidence to support erroneous and fictional "Magic Bullet" explanations.

We will not tolerate any testimony behind closed doors from subjects not placed "Under Oath". We will not tolerate the real and hard questions being dismissed for reasons of "National Security". We will not tolerate our freedom of speech being dismantled and ignored as not to "Disrespect the deceased".

I'm baffled as well by the fact Bin Laden's crimes listed on the FBI's most wanted list DO NOT include those of 9/11. If you do not believe me, see for yourselves -

http://www.fbi.gov/wanted/terrorists/terbinladen.htm

As far as "Loose Change- Final Cut" is concerned, I await the newest version to be presented to me, at which point I will make my decision to participate (or not) based on the film's content and merit.

I remain patriotically steadfast.

Charlie Sheen.

RELATED: The Truth About Charlie Sheen & Loose Change

Source: http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/may2007/280507sheenresponds.htm

Photo source: http://www.spirituallysmart.com/pics.htm

WILL HE WALK AWAY IN 2009




Will Bush walk away in 2009?





Tue May 29, 2007 at 12:03:22 AM PDT




Obviously, the Democratic Party has chosen to be an impotent, faux-opposition party in this bad theater they call "The Two Party System".


We all see now that impeachment is indeed completely "off the table". So are a lot of things, like defunding the war, and giving any opposition at all to "Mr. 28 percent".


Many of us have had a difficult time picturing how it's going to go in January of 2009. It's hard to imagine Bush and Cheney just walking away from their unpopular but apparently supernaturally powerful positions as the leaders of the Only Superpower On Earth.


Well on May 9, Bush quietly signed a directive that may ensure that he and Tricky Dick II don't have to hand over the reigns.


It's called the National Security and Homeland Security Presidential Directive and provides Bush with everything he needs to provide "continuance" of, well, whatever he wants to "continue".




I first heard about this last night, in our own Dailykos' Diary rescue -- National Security and Homeland Security Presidential Directive, by phreephallin. I thought I'd look into it a little more throughly, since it touches on issues that I've studied in the past.


Basically the directive states the in the case of a national Catastrophic Emergency", the President, along with the head of Homeland Security, can take over the government and do whatever they please in order to provide "continuance".


Here's the quote right from the White House website:



(b) "Catastrophic Emergency" means any incident, regardless of location, that results in extraordinary levels of mass casualties, damage, or disruption severely affecting the U.S. population, infrastructure, environment, economy, or government functions


Sounds innocent enough, right? But look at that phrase "regardless of location". What the hell is that supposed to mean? Stephen Pizzo at the Smirking Chimp puts it quite beautifully:



Regardless of location? Would that include, say, a terrorist attack on Saudi oil fields and refineries? That would certainly "disrupt" the U.S. population and economy.


"or government functions." Would that include mass public protests such as those during the Civil Rights and Vietnam War eras?


But it get better. We may not even have to wait for a real "national emergency" to hit before the President can assume the mantle of near-dictator. Under the guise of "maintaining government continuity, the President could just sign a "NEF" - a National Emergency Finding:"



" As a result of the asymmetric threat environment, adequate warning of potential emergencies that could pose a significant risk to the homeland might not be available, and therefore all continuity planning shall be based on the assumption that no such warning will be received."


Once the President signs "detects" a real or imagined threat, and signs a NEF, here's what he gets for his signature:



The President shall lead the activities of the Federal Government for ensuring constitutional government.


In other words, to quote the old Christian hymn, "He has the whole world, in his hands, the whole world, in his hands..."


You can read the entire press release on this at the White House's website, listed above. Ah, but you can't read the whole thing:



(24) Security. This directive and the information contained herein shall be protected from unauthorized disclosure, provided that, except for Annex A, the Annexes attached to this directive are classified and shall be accorded appropriate handling, consistent with applicable Executive Orders.


And another thing I found disturbing about the order:



(22) Revocation. Presidential Decision Directive 67 of October 21, 1998 ("Enduring Constitutional Government and Continuity of Government Operations"), including all Annexes thereto, is hereby revoked.


Hm, who was President in 1998? Oh yeah, that other guy. So whatever Clinton decided would work in this regard has been simply tossed out the window and replaced with the Bush/Cheney/Gonzales plan for "continuance". Great.


Now, you might think that this is something that any president has to deal with, and it certainly is. However, the Criminal Wing of the Republican Party has been working on this for YEARS.


There are many familiar names in the history of nefarious plans to subvert the Constitution and intill Martial Law throughout our country. Cheney. Rumsfeld. Oliver North.


Oliver North? Yup. Here's a nice article from way back in 2002 entitled "Foundations are in place for martial law in the US". This article was alarming enough that the Democrats' own Jim McDermott got a little freaked out about it:



I recently read an article published in the Sydney, Australia, Morning Herald entitled ``Foundations Are in Place for Martial Law in the United States.''


The author is a man named Ritt Goldstein, an investigative reporter for the Herald, and he said that recent pronouncements from the Bush administration and national security initiatives put in place in the Reagan era could see internment camps and martial law in the United States.


When President Ronald Reagan was considering invading Nicaragua, he issued a series of executive orders which provided FEMA with broad powers in the event of a crisis, such as the violent and widespread internal dissent or national opposition against a U.S. military invasion abroad. They were never used.


SNIP (and here comes the juicy part:)


From 1982 to 1984, Colonel Oliver North assisted FEMA in drafting its civil defense preparations. Details of those plans emerged during the 1987 Iran-Contra scandal. They included executive orders providing for suspension of the Constitution, the imposition of martial law, internment camps, and the turning over of government to the President and FEMA.


A Miami Herald article on the 5th of July, 1987, reported that the former FEMA director's, Louis Guiffrida's, deputy, John Brinkerhoff, handled the martial law portion of the planning. The planning was said to be similar to one Mr. Guiffrida had developed earlier to combat a national uprising by black militants. It provided for the detention of at least 21 million American Negroes in assembly centers or relocation camps. Today, Mr. Brinkerhoff is with the highly influential Anser Institute for Homeland Security. Following a request by the Pentagon in January that the U.S. military be allowed the option of deploying troops on American streets, the institute in February published a paper by Mr. Brinkerhoff arguing the legality of this. He alleged that the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878, which has long been accepted as prohibiting such deployments, had simply been misunderstood and misapplied. The preface to the article also provided the revelation that the national plan he had worked on under Mr. Guiffrida was approved by Reagan and actions were taken to implement it.


Bush doesn't need FEMA anymore for this, because he has his very own Department of Homeland Security. The Posse Comitatus Act doesn't apply to him, (according to him) and all he has to do is decide there's an emergency coming down the pike to suspend the constitution and start throwing whoever he feels like it into camps.


It would be nice to know more specifics about Reagan's plan, but:



Disturbingly, the full facts and final contents of Mr Reagan's national plan remain uncertain. This is in part because President Bush took the unusual step of sealing the Reagan presidential papers last November.


What we do know is that Cheney and Rummy have were also in on this in the 1980's. As Peter Dale Scott reported here, the illegal NSA spying program may have started even before 9/11, due to their planning of such "continuance" operations:



At the time, Cheney was a Wyoming congressman, while Rumsfeld, who had been defense secretary under President Ford, was a businessman and CEO of the drug company G.D. Searle. Overall responsibility for the program had been assigned to Vice President George H.W. Bush, "with Lt. Col. Oliver North ... as the National Security Council action officer," according to James Bamford in his book A Pretext for War.


These men planned for suspension of the Constitution, not just after nuclear attack, but for any "national security emergency," which they defined in Executive Order 12656 of 1988 as: "Any occurrence, including natural disaster, military attack, technological or other emergency, that seriously degrades or seriously threatens the national security of the United States." Clearly 9/11 would meet this definition.


As developed in the mid-1980s by Oliver North in the White House, the plans called for not just the surveillance but the potential detention of large numbers of American citizens. During the Iran-Contra hearings, North was asked about his work on "a contingency plan in the event of emergency, that would suspend the American constitution." The chairman, Democratic Senator Inouye, ruled that this was a "highly sensitive and classified" matter, not to be dealt with in an open hearing.


The supporting agency for the planning and implementation was the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). FEMA was headed for much of the 1980s by Louis Giuffrida, whose COG plans for massive detention became so extreme that even President Reagan’s then Attorney General, William French Smith, raised objections.


Smith eventually left Washington, while COG continued to evolve. And in May 2001 Cheney and FEMA were reunited: President George W. Bush appointed Cheney to head a terrorism task force and created a new office within FEMA to assist him. In effect, Bush was authorizing a resumption of the kind of planning that Cheney and FEMA had conducted under the heading of COG.


Keep in mind, that "back when Reagan was considering invading Nicaragua", our current Defense Secretary, Robert Gates, was the number 2 guy at the CIA and besides wanting to bomb Nicaragua was a key player in the Iran/Contra criminality.


And by sheer coincidence, Cheney's old company Halliburton is now building detention camps in the United States to house, oh, just a whole lot of people. A 385 million dollar contract, and they're damn proud of it:


Halliburton Press Release


Dailykos: Concentration Camps Being Built on US Soil?


And this one is especially creepy:
Satellite Photographs Emerge of Halliburton's American Concentration Camp written by, supposedly, someone doing subcontracting work for KBR. (Kellog Brown Root, Halliburton's subsiidiary).


I'm gonna quote Stephen Pizzo again to wrap this up:



I don't know. Some days I wonder why I bother. Some days I wonder if Americans even deserve the freedoms that are being taken away from us one by one by this utterly lawless and un-American, administration.


And then there's Congress. They won't end a war that the vast majority of Americans want ended. And now they won't even consider impeaching a President who has broken more laws and violated the U.S. Constitution more times in less than seven years than all 42 Presidents before him - combined.


Why aren't we in the streets? All of us? Why isn't Pennsylvania Ave blocked by protesters every day?


And, remarkably, no member of Congress will be booed off the stage at home-state Memorial Day picnics this weekend. Why not?


They certainly should be booed, this weekend and every time they appear in public. Because they are have just been standing around, doing nothing. Just watching, even aiding and abetting, as it's all just slip-slidin' away.



Hitler's Enabling Act


An Enabling Act (Ermächtigungsgesetz in German) was passed by Germany's parliament (the Reichstag) on March 23, 1933. It was the second major step after the Reichstag Fire Decree through which the Nazis obtained dictatorial powers using largely legal means. The Act enabled Chancellor Adolf Hitler and his cabinet to enact laws without the participation of the Reichstag. The formal name of the Enabling Act was Gesetz zur Behebung der Not von Volk und Reich ("Law to Remedy the Distress of the People and the State").


Source: http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/5/29/12921/7971