nearly trump hair

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RT tells it.

[I honestly tried to make him look a little less hideous. It was too much for me.]

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Chris Floyd tells it.

This policy is what the Nobel Peace Laureate — the first African-American president in history — is now perpetuating in the only nation to liberate itself from slavery. But of course, the most important thing is not the dispossessed in Haiti, nor the innocent people in Libya, Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen, Somalia and Pakistan being killed, day after day, by the Laureate's bombs, bullets and assassins. No, the main thing is — he's not John McCain! And we must put aside these trifles, these heaps of corpses, and rally around the prez to "defend our gains and regroup for a progressive counter-offensive in 2012!" The best is yet to come!

If you go down and read the Lendman piece in last night's nukequake post, along with this one, you might be shocked out of your groupthink "progressivism" for maybe even up to an hour....

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love, 99
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empire, inc.

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Blackwater has a new director... but... I'm confused. It doesn't sound to me as though it has a CEO. It sounds as though the new owners just appointed him "the" director of the directors. Doesn't that make him the Chairman?

A retired admiral and short-lived nominee to head the Defense Department has been named the director of the nation's largest and most controversial private security force.

Retired Adm. Bobby Ray Inman, 79, who's legendary intelligence career includes serving as the vice director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, director of the National Security Agency, and most recently as deputy director of the Central Intelligence Agency, will lead the board of directors for Xe Services, formerly Blackwater USA.

...a biography of Inman issued in a press release by the White House in 1993 describes Inman as having a “bipartisan reputation as one of the nation's finest intelligence officers.” It also pointed to news accounts that referred to him as "simply one of the smartest people ever to come out of Washington or anywhere."

Maybe they said that twenty years ago, but if had ever been true, he's actually almost 81 now, and it's more like he can be trusted not to interfere.

You make a name for yourself as someone who will further the enterprises of the unutterably corrupt and you get a dazzling resumé made for you. You never want for anything again, even when you are ready for the rest home.

Wonder why you're such a loser compared to the movers and shakers wagging their KMA cards at DHS? You didn't fight to get into a position to sell out, that's why.

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love, 99
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sing it!

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In contrast with what is happening in Egypt and Tunisia, Libya occupies the first spot on the Human Development Index for Africa and it has the highest life expectancy on the continent. Education and health receive special attention from the State. The cultural level of its population is without a doubt the highest. Its problems are of a different sort. The population wasn’t lacking food and essential social services. The country needed an abundant foreign labour force to carry out ambitious plans for production and social development.

For that reason, it provided jobs for hundreds of thousands of workers from Egypt, Tunisia, China and other countries. It had enormous incomes and reserves in convertible currencies deposited in the banks of the wealthy countries from which they acquired consumer goods and even sophisticated weapons that were supplied exactly by the same countries that today want to invade it in the name of human rights.

The colossal campaign of lies, unleashed by the mass media, resulted in great confusion in world public opinion. Some time will go by before we can reconstruct what has really happened in Libya, and we can separate the true facts from the false ones that have been spread.

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love, 99
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just asking

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I don't care how many times I look at him, I cannot get "Moon Over Parador" out of my mind.

How was Libya doing under the rule of Gaddafi? How bad did the people have it? Were they oppressed as we now commonly accept as fact? Let us look at the facts for a moment.

Before the chaos erupted, Libya had a lower incarceration rate than the Czech republic. It ranked 61st. Libya had the lowest infant mortality rate of all of Africa. Libya had the highest life expectancy of all of Africa. Less than 5% of the population was undernourished. In response to the rising food prices around the world, the government of Libya abolished ALL taxes on food.

People in Libya were rich. Libya had the highest gross domestic product (GDP) at purchasing power parity (PPP) per capita of all of Africa. The government took care to ensure that everyone in the country shared in the wealth. Libya had the highest Human Development Index of any country on the continent. The wealth was distributed equally. In Libya, a lower percentage of people lived below the poverty line than in the Netherlands.

How does Libya get so rich? The answer is oil. The country has a lot of oil, and does not allow foreign corporations to steal the resources while the population starves, unlike countries like Nigeria, a country that is basically run by Shell.

Is that so?

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Extra credit....

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Keiser Report from Beirut... Max talks to two-time Pulitzer prize winner Anthony Shadid of the New York Times, who very obviously won both for having memorized US foreign policy shtick, executing it flawlessly, while having an Arab name.

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AP reports and I stripped of mindfucks:

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's 34-year-old car has been sold for nearly $2.5 million at an auction to raise money for a low-income housing project.

ISNA's report Tuesday doesn't identify the buyer, but quotes the individual's lawyer, Mamoud Isari, as saying the buyer plans to build a museum and exhibit the car.

The 1977 white Peugeot sedan was put up for auction in January in a move by the president to [help] fulfill a campaign promise to put a roof over the head of every Iranian.

It shouldn't even irk me anymore that they can't even report something as innocuous as this without wording such that it besmirches him. Do you ever wonder how bad faith actors can just keep it up? I mean, I'm told that bloodlines are very important to the controllers. They've bred out morals. Not just some morals. All. All gone.

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love, 99
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i'm a bit squeaky right now

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Maybe a long walk off a short pier will help? Maybe just a long walk.

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love, 99
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only place walking like an egyptian will do any good is ...

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... HERE.

None of the other revolutions stand an ice cube's chance in hell until we do it.... Maybe we're all toast anyway... but it's long past time we stopped letting precious people be slaughtered while we sit on our fat American asses.

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Mayhap they're experimenting to avoid WWIII by simply running the propaganda at full throttle. I mean, give me a break. Bolivians turning on Evo over SUGAR prices? I don't think so. Neither do you. But the handbook states you can get mobs of starving people to rise up anywhere and against anyone for the mere investment of a couple bucks. The return on that couple bucks is too pornographic to mention in polite society.

NOBODY'S going to bring down our dollar because they're being forced to import our inflation at the point of our military's might. So their people will so much the more easily and cheaply be turned against them. No sense in bringing on a nuclear conflagration when you are perfectly capable of starving people into complying with your imperial prerogatives and doing all the killing and dying for you right there where they live. It's sort of like lounging in bed, lazily fooling with the remote control.

They WANT you to think America is losing influence in the world. And you think it because you want it. It isn't true.

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love, 99
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this would do me

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Nicely.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has confirmed for the first time that the Obama administration has demanded the establishment of a system of permanent US military bases across the country, effectively laying the basis for an indefinite neo-colonial occupation.

Karzai stated that his government was negotiating with US officials on a range of strategic agreements, including the permanent bases. He said Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had discussed the issue with him during last week’s Munich Security Conference in Germany.

Surely you know someone with a backyard big enough....

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love, 99
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united states overthrows mubarak

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I don't have any doubts left.

From a 2008 Cairo Embassy cable:

XXXXXXXXXXXX claimed that several opposition forces — including the Wafd, Nasserite, Karama and Tagammu parties, and the Muslim Brotherhood, Kifaya, and Revolutionary Socialist movements — have agreed to support an unwritten plan for a transition to a parliamentary democracy, involving a weakened presidency and an empowered prime minister and parliament, before the scheduled 2011 presidential elections. According to XXXXXXXXXXXX, the opposition is interested in receiving support from the army and the police for a transitional government prior to the 2011 elections. XXXXXXXXXXXX asserted that this plan is so sensitive it cannot be written down.

This would have firmly implanted the idea behind the injection of news items about the suitability of ElBaradei to replace Mubarak, and is bolstered by his having made a much-published "return to Egypt", when it was so short-lived before he retired to Vienna. I don't think he'd been back until the call to prayer last Friday, and this might account for his glum physiognomy and uninspired speechifying these past few days.

He'd rather be in Vienna, but he's been slotted for this ruse and now must show up for it.

It's going to shake out that not only am I positive there are no ACTUAL terrorists anywhere within the global citizenry, but also no ACTUAL revolutionaries, save those who fervently follow those "shining" few who mysteriously take the lead.

Little wonder the meme we-don't-want-to-be-seen-as-picking-the-Egyptian-president is in such heavy rotation. Strictly speaking, it's the gospel truth, but practically-speaking, yes, that would be a bummer, but we're picking him anyway.

It's a wrap.

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I know, I know, how 'bout an old movie? What could be more relaxing than that?

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love, 99
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i've been worrying about this for at least a week

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Notwithstanding the outrage over F. William Engdahl daring to suggest such a thing, this is a real possibility. I'm not getting over having been duped by the so-called Orange Revolution in Ukraine. It reminds me of when my horse kicked me in the head. She was trying to kick another horse, but got me instead, and for many years after my stomach would start trying to trade places with my liver every time I was in a corral with a loose horse. No, just because you've been kicked in the head five or six times by color and flower revolutions doesn't mean every one of them has been incited by our covert ops, but we do have to keep asking that goddam question we learned was key when we got kicked in the head in 2001. I might not have even mentioned this, because I truly am in visceral solidarity with the Egyptians and Tunisians and Yemenis and all those rising up around the world, except for my reaction to seeing ElBaradei's name keep popping up in news accounts of the Egyptian uprising.

We have been hearing about him for Mubarak's post ever since he left the IAEA. Just like we kept hearing Hillary's name for president since the day after Clinton left office. She was going to be president until they realized a black president would be even harder to dis whilst bringing hardcore fascism down around us. You know that's so. THE MEDIA ARE NOT OUR FRIENDS. Their function is to keep us in a specially-crafted consensus trance, they didn't change their tune about Hillary until their bosses decided on Obama, and then we got a veritable cosmic symphony of celebration of Martin's Dream while the McCain/Palin circus kept the bubbas busy... so we DO need to be suspicious as hell right now.

The United States DOES have armies of black ops in every country of strategic interest. That's been shown over and over and over. JSOC has been busily hiring since the advent of Genghis Ponzi Yoo's administration, so think. Find links. Pray The Guardian starts hitting the Cairo cables hard... or at least one of the sites trying to help wade through them.

... and ... just as I was about to mention my worry about whether we should not now suspect Anonymous too, I see THIS... which has made me more suspicious. Mindfuckers Rule the World. We need our own global news operation. We couldn't get it, no matter what, because they would infiltrate it and coöpt it. This. Is. NO. Fun.

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love, 99
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the state of our dystopia

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Little-known "fact": the psycho-president is the reincarnation of the psycho-pharaoh....

In honor of "the chosen" one, Democratic-Fascists and Republican-Fascists will not split themselves across the aisle from each other tonight. Isn't that so darn cozy?

Oh, oh, you'll pardon my tone, please, because I'm stumping for HUMANS to unite AGAINST murderating fuck space lizards, NOT space lizards to unite against humans.

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Legislators, for the first time, are allowed to bring their digital gizmos to the SOTU... and are expected to be making their outbursts on Twit-Face... so, suckers, don't say I didn't warn you.

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5:40pm PST: The interminable clapping begins... yer earplugs are in yer junk drawer under various twist ties too cute to discard and rubber bands long past the integrity of their rubber. Best get them handy before this gets seriously annoying.

So far, I've been happiest noting how focussed on the persons staying out to allow for continuity of government the commentators have been. Seems it isn't only me at least subconsciously hoping the ground opens up and swallows the lot of them in one transcendental Gaian gulp....

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6:30pm PST: So far, it's apparent GPY feels our loss of jobs to India and China is due to those countries doing a better job of educating their children. If only we will do a better job of educating our kids, we will be even more #1 than the already and still #1 we are, plus, bonus points, we'll straddle the immigration thing precisely fifty-fifty together... and, so far, not a hint that we have troops anywhere on the globe.

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6:42pm PST: AT LAST WE'RE GOING TO LOWER THE TAX ON CORPORATIONS! OMG!

You heard it here first.

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6:48pm PST: The austerity part.

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6:55pm PST: Consolidating/reorganizing federal agencies. At last, all agencies are dismissed, except DHS.

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6:57pm PST: Finally lies about getting out of Iraq, while bragging about our moral authority... amazing, amazing orator, no?

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6:59pm PST: Finally begins bullshitting about our glorious Afghan mission and promises to bring our troops home starting in July.

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7:00pm PST: Brings up Pakistan and puts on his cowboy hat and shakes his fist at terrorists.

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7:01pm PST: Invokes S.T.A.R.T. and the reset with Russia and Asia, and projects same for South America. I know they're quaking with anticipation for that.

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7:03pm PST: Digressing into incoherent blather about Africa and standing with Tunisians, notwithstanding having stood with their dictator up to now. Everyone on earth wants what we have and we love the men and women who serve our country... and didn't mean it to come out the way it sounded.... This is, at last, the acknowledgement of our troops all over globe from all over this country. And, don't worry, you are now allowed to be a storm trooper no matter who you love. One giant leap backward for all Gay Americans.

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7:07pm PST: Must be winding up because he's back to giving Sarah Palin's Facebook speech from just the other day....

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7:10pm PST:

LADIES AND GENTLEMAN THE STATE OF OUR UNION IS FUBAR.

Oh, no, wait! Chilean miners! Plan B. Rescue. Little guys doing big things. Oh, how inspiring. Gott bless this great idea for a new company.... I think I can. I think I can. I think I can. WE DO BIG THINGS!

Yes, we motherfuckin' do. Over a thousand bases, bitchez.

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7:13pm PST: FIN.

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love, 99
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transferring back to the death star

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They really said no? Who Knew?

Members of Switzerland’s parliament are demanding the ouster of US diplomats who are believed to be involved in illegal spying activities out of their Geneva embassy, a revelation which came out of a WikiLeaks cable from 2005.

The cable, released by Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten, cited US embassy officials “checking out” a Middle Eastern-looking couple on the grounds that they were near the embassy and had the word “Islam” on a sign inside their car.

The Swiss Justice Ministry is investigating the program, and says there is evidence of the same sort of widespread surveillance out of the Geneva embassy as the US was found to be conducting in Norway and Denmark.

However while Norway eventually conceded that certain of its officials had secretly approved of the spying (while not telling the officials launching the investigation), Swiss officials say the US approached them on the possibility of launching such operations and was rebuffed at least twice. The evidence now is that they decided to go through with it anyhow.

Sorta like here, where we keep saying no to fascist stuff and they do it anyway.

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Coleen Rowley....

Damn right, Helen....

Nick Turse....

LEAVE CHILE RIGHT NOW....

COMPLETELY doesn't matter WHAT we say... ever....

Oh, fucking hell, I guess I can stop worrying about lifesaving pharmaceuticals drying up in the crash....

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The CIA is "out of control" and often refuses to cooperate with other parts of the national security community, even undermining their efforts, said former National Security Agency head William Odom, according to a recently released record of a 9/11 Commission interview.

"The CIA currently doesn't work for anyone. It thinks it works for the president, but it doesn't and it's out of control," says a report summarizing remarks made by Odom, a retired three-star general who served as director of the NSA from 1985 to 1988.

Odom, who also served on the National Security Council staff during the Carter administration, was known as an outspoken advocate for intelligence reform. He died in 2008.

William Odom, former director of the National Security Agency, was known as an outspoken advocate for intelligence reform.

The 2003 interview, among others conducted by the 9/11 Commission, was posted on the website Cryptome, which is often compared to the secret-spilling WikiLeaks website. The report was not a leak, however, but one of many records relating to the 9/11 Commission that have been released and made available on the National Archives website.

"Quite a few remain 'access restricted' for classification review," John Young, who runs Cryptome, told AOL News in an e-mail about the records, some of which he has reposted. "We expect to make an FOIA [Freedom of information Act] request for their release once we have a full listing of those restricted."

In the commission interview, Odom portrayed CIA officers as individualistic, saying they were interested in writing "exposes." He also accused the CIA of not sharing "humint," meaning intelligence collected through contact with people, and of trying to sabotage the Pentagon's own work in this area.

"The director of the CIA has as much reason to brief the president as the man on the moon," Odom told the staff of the commission investigating the failure to prevent the terror attacks.

Odom also believed that intelligence officials weren't held sufficiently accountable for the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. He said he believed that the heads of the NSA and the CIA should both have been fired by the president after 9/11 for "symbolic purposes."

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Ravingly-jealous old fuck is either poisoning the well or warning compatriots... which?

Something else to heap sleeping powder on the masses and come to naught....

Today's Keiser Report....

Austerity hits home....

Got food?

Whut, restoring their buddhas and installing satellite dishes?

Third millennium opium den....

Gorgeous toxic soup....

Stuxnet not so threatening... but nice try....

HAIL MEDVEDEV....

Hail Mary....

Yuh, "rambling" probably was more like "sputtering" over the psychedelia we call "policy" nowadays....

It's come to this....

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In the early months of Obama's presidency, the American Right did to him what they do to every Democratic politician: they accused him of being soft on defense (specifically "soft on Terror") and leaving the nation weak and vulnerable to attack. But that tactic quickly became untenable as everyone (other than his hardest-core followers) was forced to acknowledge that Obama was embracing and even expanding — rather than reversing — the core Bush/Cheney approach to Terrorism. As a result, leading right-wing figures began lavishing Obama with praise — and claiming vindication — based on Obama's switch from harsh critic of those policies (as a candidate) to their leading advocate (once in power).

As early as May, 2009, former Bush OLC lawyer Jack Goldsmith wrote in The New Republic that Obama was not only continuing Bush/Cheney Terrorism policies, but was strengthening them — both because he was causing them to be codified in law and, more important, converting those policies from right-wing dogma into harmonious bipartisan consensus. Obama's decision "to continue core Bush terrorism policies is like Nixon going to China,"Goldsmith wrote. Last October, former Bush NSA and CIA Director Michael Hayden — one of the most ideological Bush officials, whose confirmation as CIA chief was opposed by then-Sen. Obama on the ground he had overseen the illegal NSA spying program — gushed with praise for Obama: "there's been a powerful continuity between the 43rd and the 44th president." James Jay Carafano, a homeland-security expert at the Heritage Foundation, told The New York Times' Peter Baker last January: "I don’t think it's even fair to call it Bush Lite. It's Bush. It's really, really hard to find a difference that's meaningful and not atmospheric."

Those are the nation's most extreme conservatives praising Obama's Terrorism policies. And now Dick Cheney himself — who once led the "soft on Terror" attacks — is sounding the same theme. In an interview last night with NBC News, Cheney praised Obama for continuing his and Bush's core approach to Terrorism:

He obviously has been through the fires of becoming President and having to make decisions and live with the consequences. And it's different than being a candidate. When he was candidate he was all for closing Gitmo. He was very critical of what we'd done on the counterterrorism area to protect America from further attack and so forth. . . .

I think he's — in terms of a lot of the terrorism policies — the early talk, for example, about prosecuting people in the CIA who've been carrying out our policies — all of that's fallen by the wayside. I think he's learned that what we did was far more appropriate than he ever gave us credit for while he was a candidate. So I think he's learned from experience.

Cheney was then specifically asked whether he stood by his early attacks on Obama's national security policies — "You said you believe President Obama has made America less safe. That he's actually raised the risk of attack. Do you still feel that way?" — and Cheney, not exactly known for changing his mind, essentially said that, thanks to Obama's continuity, he now does not:

Well, when I made that comment, I was concerned that the counterterrorism policies that we'd put in place after 9/11 that had kept the nation safe for over seven years were being sort of rapidly discarded. Or he was going to attempt to discard them. . . . As I say, I think he's found it necessary to be more sympathetic to the kinds of things we did.

It overstates the case to say there are no differences. There were some: Obama formally ended the "enhanced interrogation program" (the authorization for which had been withdrawn when he took office); banned CIA black sites (which were empty when he took office); and has not invoked the Article II lawbreaking theories of Bush's first term (Bush largely abandoned them as well in his second term as Congress began legalizing his programs). And there is a more conciliatory tone, and some greater technocratic efficiency, in some foreign policy pronouncements. But the crux of Bush/Cheney radicalism — the mindset and policies that caused much of the controversy — continues and has even been strengthened. Gen. Hayden put it best, as quoted by The Washington Times:

"You've got state secrets, targeted killings, indefinite detention, renditions, the opposition to extending the right of habeas corpus to prisoners at Bagram [in Afghanistan]," Mr. Hayden said, listing the continuities. "And although it is slightly different, Obama has been as aggressive as President Bush in defending prerogatives about who he has to inform in Congress for executive covert action."

And that list, impressive though it is, doesn't even include the due-process-free assassination hit lists of American citizens, the sweeping executive power and secrecy theories used to justify it, the multi-tiered, "state-always-wins" justice system the Obama DOJ concocted for detainees, the vastly more aggressive war on whistleblowers and press freedoms, or the new presidential immunity doctrines his DOJ has invented. Critically, this continuity extends beyond specific policies into the underlying sloganeering mentality in which they're based: we're in a Global War; the whole Earth is the Battlefield; the Terrorists want to kill us because they're intrinsically Evil (not in reaction to anything we do); we're justified in doing anything and everything to eradicate Them; the President's overarching obligation (contrary to his Constitutional oath) is to keep us Safe; this should all be kept secret from us; we can't be bothered with obsolete dogma like Due Process and Warrants, etc. etc.

Aside from the repressiveness of the policies themselves, there are three highly significant and enduring harms from Obama's behavior.

First, it creates the impression that Republicans were right all along in the Bush-era War on Terror debates and Democratic critics were wrong. The same theme is constantly sounded by conservatives who point out Obama's continuation of these policies: that he criticized those policies as a candidate out of ignorance and partisan advantage, but once he became President, he realized they were right as a result of accessing the relevant classified information and needing to keep the country safe from the Terrorist threat. Goldsmith, for instance, claimed Obama changed his mind about these matters "after absorbing the classified intelligence and considering the various options. GOP Sen. Susan Collins told the NYT's Baker that Obama "is finding that many of those policies were better-thought-out than they realized." Cheney boasted that Obama "obviously has been through the fires of becoming President and having to make decisions and live with the consequences." Predictably — and understandably — here's the headline Cheney's interview generated in The Hill this morning.

This has settled in as orthodoxy: one could criticize Bush/Cheney Terrorism policies only out of ignorance and/or being free of the solemn obligation to Keep America Safe.

Second, Obama has single-handedly eliminated virtually all mainstream debate over these War on Terror policies. At least during the Bush years, we had one party which steadfastly supported them but one party which claimed (albeit not very persuasively) to vehemently oppose them. At least there was a pretense of vigorous debate over their legality, morality, efficacy, and compatibility with our national values.

Those debates are no more. Even the hardest-core right-wing polemicists — Gen. Hayden, the Heritage Foundation, Dick Cheney — now praise Obama's actions in these areas. Opposition from national Democrats has faded away to almost complete nonexistence now that it's a Democratic President doing these things. What was once viewed as the signature of Bush/Cheney radicalism is now official, bipartisan Washington consensus: the policies equally of both parties and all Serious people. Thanks to Barack Obama, this architecture is firmly embedded in place and invulnerable to meaningful political challenge.

Third, Obama's embrace of these policies has completely rehabilitated the reputations and standing of the Bush officials responsible for them. Yesterday, J. Gerald Herbert — a long-time DOJ official — told The Raw Story that Obama's refusal to investigate or prosecute Bush era crimes is both a violation of DOJ's duties and sets a "dangerous precedent" by vesting lawbreaking elites with immunity. The active protection of torturers and other high-level lawbreakers both signals that they did nothing seriously wrong and, independently, ensures that such conduct will be repeated in the future.

But Obama's impact in this area extends far beyond that. Dick Cheney is not only free of ignominy, but can run around claiming vindication from Obama's actions because he's right. The American Right constantly said during the Bush years that any President who knew what Bush knew and was faced with the duty of keeping the country safe would do the same thing. Obama has provided the best possible evidence imaginable to prove those claims true.

Conservatives would love to bash Obama for being weak on Terrorism so that, in the event of another attack, they can blame him (and Cheney, in last night's interview, left open that possibility by suggesting Obama may suffer from unknown failures). If it were at all possible, they'd be out accusing him of abandoning critical programs that Keep us Safe; that's what they do best. But they cannot with a straight face claim that Obama has abandoned their core approach, so they do the only thing they can do: acknowledge that he has continued and strengthened it and point out that it proves they were right — and he was wrong — all along. If Obama has indeed changed his mind over the last two years as a result of all the Secret Scary Things he's seen as President, then I genuinely believe that he and the Democratic Party owe a heartfelt, public apology to Bush, Cheney and the GOP for all the harsh insults they spewed about them for years based on policies that they are now themselves aggressively continuing.

Obama has won the War on Terror debate — for the American Right. And as Dick Cheney's interview last night demonstrates, they're every bit as appreciative as they should be.

—Glenn Greenwald

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About sums it up, eh?

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DEPRESSING ENOUGH?

I mean—and I should strive to be clearer always—does all this help blank out the urge to do something? And do you realize that you are relying on it? It's NOT merely that they're doing it to you. You are relying on it. Do you see how this is so?

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love, 99
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do it for yemen

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Or do it because we can't afford it, but do it. Don't just read the cables, report on them....

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love, 99
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awakening sleeping dogs

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Even though I agree Moussavi and Karroubi are guilty, and feel compelled to point out that anyone who did similarly here would have suffered even more, I'm not looking forward to the apoplexy this will surely reïgnite.

They made their bid to help expand the imperium and failed... which at least set back the drive for world domination anyway... something... some small favor for which to be grateful.

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love, 99
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read the cables

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READ THE CABLES.

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love, 99
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ya know, when ya step back, it's pretty obvious we're being farmed

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SO much shit comes down all over the globe because we just keep grazing and producing all the wool needed to empower a very few really vicious sociopaths. I think they shoulda made a much bigger deal outta the real Little Red Riding Hood story or something. Luckily for some there are people who will go to great lengths to impede them.

Foreign Financing of Venezuelan Political Organisations Illegal under New Law
By TAMARA PEARSON | Venezuelanalysis
24 December 2010

Mérida — On Wednesday morning the Venezuelan National Assembly approved the Defence of Political Sovereignty and National Self Determination Law, making foreign funding of political organisations illegal. It also passed a reform to the Political Parties law, bringing in a penalty for legislators who change political parties.

The political sovereignty law is a short law of 10 articles, that aims to protect Venezuelan political life from foreign interference through financial support or donations to political organisations.

It applies to political organisations, which are organisations that promote citizen participation in public spaces or control of public power or that promote candidates aspiring for election. It also applies to organisations that promote and defend citizens’ political rights.

Penalties include fines of double the amount received and the expulsion from Venezuela of foreigners who participate in such financing. Presidents of the organisations breaking the law would be barred from political positions for five to eight years and organisations would likewise be banned from electoral processes for five to eight years.

Also, political organisations who invite a foreigner to express their opinion in a way that “offends state institutions, civil servants or the exercise of sovereignty” will be penalised with fines of 5-10,000 tax unites. The current tax unit is worth 65 bolivars (US$15).

United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) legislator Rafic Souki said the law prevents political parties and non government organisations from receiving external financing with the aim of destabilising the country.

Venezuelan Communist Party (PCV) legislator Edgar Lucena said his party reserved their vote of support, saying that while the law was important in preventing “imperialist intervention through financing and any type of resources coming from drug trafficking”, the law does not “guarantee...the consolidation of proletarian internationalism... expressed by international cooperation of workers, of the people, and of revolutionary movements of the world.”

Opposition parties Podemos and Frente Humanista voted against the law because they believed it is “another act of persecution of dissidence”.

Correo del Orinoco International pointed out that the law is not unique to Venezuela, and that the “US also forbids foreign funding for political campaigns or parties, and highly regulates all foreign financing for other activities, including lobbying, public relations and NGOs”.

The passing of the law follows years of funding for opposition political groups and media agencies through U.S entities such as USAID and the National Endowment for Democracy (NED).

The National Assembly also reformed the Political Parties, Public Meetings, and Protests Law so that legislators who change political parties during their legislative period will be penalised.

The aim of the reform is to “respect the will of the people who chose the legislators during the parliamentary elections,” Telesur reported.

In the last week the National Assembly has approved or reformed over 20 laws, according to legislator Dario Vivas.

Somebody has learned the lesson of Piggy Number Three and is applying it.

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love, 99
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it's not fantasy and you're not dreaming

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Life isn't even grand when you ignore it anymore. Ignoring that fascists are using our strength and our resources to slaughter and starve anyone and everyone they like is not taking you off their list. Maybe you've held on to enough to get through the rest of your life... if you keep your head down... and stay lucky, but not your kids. For sure not your kids.

Wikileaks: Documents Confirm US Plans Against Venezuela
by Eva Golinger
16 December 2010

State Department documents published by Wikileaks evidence Washington's plans to "contain" Venezuela's influence in the region and increase efforts to provoke regime change

A substantial portion of the more than 1600 State Department documents Wikileaks has published during the past two weeks refer to the ongoing efforts of US diplomacy to isolate and counter the Venezuelan government.

Since Hugo Chavez won the presidency for the first time in 1998, Washington has engaged in numerous efforts to overthrow him, including a failed coup d'etat in April 2002, an oil industry strike that same year, worldwide media campaigns and varios electoral interventions. The State Department has also used its funding agencies, USAID and the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), to channel millions of dollars annually to anti-Chavez NGOs, political parties, journalists and media organizations in Venezuela, who have been working to undermine the Chavez administration and force him from power.
When these interventionist policies have been denounced by the Chavez government and others, Washington has repeatedly denied any efforts to isolate or act against the Venezuelan head of state.

Nonetheless, the State Department cables published by Wikileaks clearly evidence that not only has Washington been actively funding anti-Chavez groups in Venezuela, but it also has engaged in serious efforts during the past few years to convince governments worldwide to assume an adversarial position against President Hugo Chavez.

"CONTENTION" PLAN AGAINST A "FORMIDABLE FOE"

In a secret document authored by current Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, Craig Kelly, and sent by the US Embassy in Santiago in June 2007 to the Secretary of State, CIA and Southern Command of the Pentagon, along with a series of other US embassies in the region, Kelly proposed "six main areas of action for the US government (USG) to limit Chavez's influence" and "reassert US leadership in the region".

Kelly, who played a primary role as "mediator" during last year's coup d'etat in Honduras against President Manuel Zelaya, classifies President Hugo Chavez as an "enemy" in his report. "Know the enemy: We have to better understand how Chavez thinks and what he intends...To effectively counter the threat he represents, we need to know better his objectives and how he intends to pursue them. This requires better intelligence in all of our countries". Further on in the memo, Kelly confesses that President Chavez is a "formidable foe", but, he adds, "he certainly can be taken".

In 2006, Washington activated a Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Mission Manager for Venezuela and Cuba. The mission, headed by clandestine CIA veteran Timothy Langford, is one of only four such intelligence entities of its type. The others were created to handle intelligence matters relating to Iran, North Korea and Afghanistan/Pakistan, evidencing the clear priority that Washington has placed on Venezuela as a target of increased espionage and covert operations.

Another suggestion made by Kelly in the secret cable, is a recommendation to increase US presence in the region and improve relations with Latin American military forces. "We should continue to strengthen ties to those military leaders in the region who share our concern over Chavez".

Kelly also proposed a "psychological operations" program against the Venezuelan government to exploit its vulnerabilities. "We also need to make sure that the truth about Chavez - his hollow vision, his empty promises, his dangerous international relationships, starting with Iran - gets out, always exercising careful judgment about where and how we take on Chavez directly/publicly".

Kelly recommended US officials make more visits to the region to "show the flag and explain directly to populations our view of democracy and progress". Kelly also offered details on how Washington could better exploit the differences amongst South American governments to isolate Venezuela:

"Brazil...can be a powerful counterpoint to Chavez's project...Chile offers another excellent alternative to Chavez...We should look to find other ways to give Chile the lead on important initiatives, but without making them look like they are our puppets or surrogates. Argentina is more complex, but still presents distinct characteristics that should inform our approach to countering Chavez's influence there".

PRESSURING MERCOSUR

Kelly also revealed the pressure Washington has been applying to Mercosur (Market of the South) to not accept Venezuela as a full member in the regional trade bloc. "With regard to Mercosur, we should not be timid in stating that Venezuela's membership will torpedo US interest in even considering direct negotiations with the trading bloc".

MEXICO, BOGOTA & OTHERS ASK TO "FIGHT" CHAVEZ

The cables published by Wikileaks not only reveal US hostility towards Venezuela, but also the requests made by regional leaders and politicians to work against President Chavez.

One secret document from October 2009 referring to a meeting between Mexican President Felipe Calderon and US Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair tells of how Calderon confessed he was "trying to isolate Venezuela through the Rio Group". The Mexican head of state also appealed to the US intelligence chief, "The region needs a visible US presence...the United States must be ready to engage the next Brazilian president. Brazil, he said, is key to restraining Chavez...The US needs to engage Brazil more and influence its outlook".

URIBE REQUESTS "MILITARY ACTION" AGAINST CHAVEZ

In several secret documents authored by the US Embassy in Colombia, efforts by ex President of Colombia, Alvaro Uribe, to convince Washington to take action against Venezuela are evidenced.

In one cable from December 2007, the US Ambassador in Colombia recounts a meeting between Uribe and a delegation of US congress members, including Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid. According to the text, Uribe "likened the threat Chavez poses to Latin America to that posed by Hitler in Europe".

And in yet another report summarizing a January 2008 meeting between Uribe and the Head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Michael Mullen, Uribe is quoted as recommending military action against Venezuela.

"The best counter to Chavez, in Uribe's view, remains action - including use of the military".

Later in that same secret cable, Uribe urged Washington to "lead a public campaign against Venezuela...to counter Chavez..."

OPPOSITION BISHOP REQUESTS US ACTION

In addition to regional politicians and US diplomats urging plans against President Chavez, one cable reveals how during a meeting between a Venezuelan Archbishop and the US Ambassador, the religious leader asked for Washington to act against his own government. At the meeting, which took place in January 2005 according to the document, Archbishop Baltazar Porras told Ambassador William Brownfield that the "US government should be more clear and public in its criticism of the Chavez administration" and that the "international community also needs to work and speak out more to contain Chavez..."

The plans and strategies revealed through these official documents confirm what other evidence has already corroborated regarding Washington's increase in aggression towards Venezuela. The US continues to fund opposition groups that act to undermine Venezuelan democracy while escalating its hostile discourse and policies against the Chavez government.

This week's Senate affirmation of Larry Palmer as Ambassador to Venezuela will only make matters worse. Palmer was rejected by the Venezuelan government after he made negative statements about the Chavez administration in August. Washington's insistence of sending Palmer appears to be an effort to provoke a rupture in diplomatic relations.

So do we even know WHAT to make of this? Well do we?

If you never could believe it before, despite all the evidence and despite Perkins traveling the world to blow the whistle, the cables coming out are showing the functionaries, whose job it is to facilitate it, facilitating it... AS OPPOSED TO DOING THE JOBS YOU THINK THEY'RE OUT THERE TO DO.

You fucking have to dial a 900 number to deal with passport issues. DO YOU HEAR ME? They are not serving the public. They are serving the corporations. This is fascism. This is what we died to save the world from in WWII. Of course, clearly, we LOST WWII and the fascists won, but so many volunteered to go die in Europe precisely to save us and the world from THIS. What in the hell is the matter with you?

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love, 99
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nobel laureate creating peace on earth

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Fucking hell. Dubya does have more scruples.

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love, 99
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no. really.

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And then when you consider THIS on top of THIS, it all begins to seem so damn familiar. They told us we were never getting out of the Middle East and we just wouldn't believe them, ran to the voting booths like lemmings....

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Also way too familiar and makes no nevermind either....

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love, 99
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just keeps irking the snot out of the imperialists

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My kind of puppet. Entertaining. Colorful. Rabble rousing. Still a miserable fuck who should be shot right along with almost everyone in our government over the last decade, but, well, he definitely gives more value, more bang for our bucks.

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love, 99
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worse than a twilight zone episode

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THE most aggravating puppet in American history....

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love, 99
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