Big Republican Gains in Congress. Is President Obama Secretly Celebrating?

Is Obama, in his heart of hearts, delighted at the results of last week's election? After all, it didn't take President Obama long to sell out the progressives in his first term when his cabinet picks didn’t include a single liberal and he extended, not to mention, expanded, many of the Bush administration's policies: from increasing drone strikes in foreign countries to drafting legal justification for killing U.S. citizens abroad to signing the Bush tax cuts into law to spying on Americans to deportation of immigrants. Unfortunately, President Obama has no problem helping his financial friends on Wall Street.

Now, Obama is very good at spouting liberal rhetoric and Fox News is very good at spreading the delusion that he's some extreme left-wing socialist, if one looks at Obama's actions, they clearly prove otherwise. Obama, as author and activist Cornel West said, is a "Rockefeller Republican in blackface."  

“AMY GOODMAN: It’s good to be with you. So we’re right here in the president’s city. In fact, he just flew out on Wednesday after his re-election. Cornel West, the figures—who is ahead? Who isn’t? As your book is titled The Rich and the Rest of Us.

CORNEL WEST: Well, one, I think that it’s morally obscene and spiritually profane to spend $6 billion on an election, $2 billion on a presidential election, and not have any serious discussion—poverty, trade unions being pushed against the wall dealing with stagnating and declining wages when profits are still up and the 1 percent are doing very well, no talk about drones dropping bombs on innocent people. So we end up with such a narrow, truncated political discourse, as the major problems—ecological catastrophe, climate change, global warming. So it’s very sad. I mean, I’m glad there was not a right-wing takeover, but we end up with a Republican, a Rockefeller Republican in blackface, with Barack Obama, so that our struggle with regard to poverty intensifies.

One thing is for sure: the Republican Congress and President Obama certainly agree on one very important issue: prioritizing and fast tracking the very secretive Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), which virtually exempts multinational corporations from national laws.  In other words, even more protection for corporate profits..."NAFTA on steroids".

Fast-track legislation was introduced in January but Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid would not allow a vote. Many Democrats fear that opening markets to countries with lower wages and standards will cost American jobs. Republicans tend to be supportive, because from the small leaks, since the TPP is negotiated mostly in secret, seem to indicate favoring US big business above overseas consumers (e.g entertainment, pharmaceuticals etc.)

After the election, when Mitch McConnell was asked what specific areas he could work on with President Obama:

“ Trade agreements. The president and I were just talking about that right before I came over here. Most of his party is unenthusiastic about international trade. We think it’s good for America. And so, I’ve got a lot of members who believe that international trade agreements are a winner for America. And the president and I discussed that right before I came over here, and I think he’s interested in moving forward. I said, "Send us trade agreements. We’re anxious to take a look at them." -- Sen. Mitch McConnell, November 5, 2014 

Links:

McConnell and Obama are Already Planning to Undercut Liberal Democrats in Congress

“Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Wednesday that he and President Barack Obama are already discussing plans to cut corporate tax rates and pass free trade agreements, following the GOP's major gains in Tuesday's elections.

...

“Obama has struggled to sell Democrats on the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a pact his administration is negotiating with 11 other Pacific nations. Leaked drafts of the text have sparked a host of liberal concerns. Consumer advocates are worried about potential restrictions on food safety and other regulations, environmentalists fear it will undermine environmental protections, and global health experts are concerned it will curb access to low-cost generic medicines.

U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman has a testy relationship with many Democrats in Congress and with many liberal policy organizations, who accuse him of making promises on key Democratic priorities and then retracting them as trade negotiations continue.

Large swaths of the Democratic Party are simply wary of free trade deals in the mode of the 1993 North American Free Trade Agreement. Some studies have concluded that such deals exacerbate income inequality and depress wages. While the NAFTA and World Trade Organization treaties have helped to expand overall U.S. economic growth, many economists argue they have had substantial negative consequences for American workers.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, however, is a strong supporter of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which has not yet been finalized. The pre-eminent American corporate lobbying group almost exclusively supports Republican candidates.

Trade and Income Distribution: The Debate and New Evidence

“Trade policy in particular has at times been hostage to the fears of some (including Ross Perot) that international trade and globalization are reducing living standards for American workers.

Stop TPP

Expose the TPP

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Who Owns Your Congressman?

From Masters in Accounting:

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Why is Government Trying to Cripple the Second Largest Employer in America?

I do a lot of shipping for my business, therefore, I must interact with the post office on a daily basis. Over the past year or so, many of the items I ship come back stamped, "return to sender" falsely claiming there is no such address, amongst other equally irritating reasons.  This had never happened before, so I asked one of the postal workers, "What's going on, here?"  He told me ever since they've had to lay off their top tier employees, errors abound.  So I decided to do some research and here's what I found.

Firstly, if you depend upon the  mainstream media for news about the post office, the second largest employer after Walmart, you're led to believe the post office is on its last legs.  Politicians claim it's in crisis and therefore USPS must layoff thousands of workers and reduce services, right down to taking the courtesy scotch tape off the counter. However, the truth of the matter is the self-supporting post office has been doing very well over the last couple of years despite email, due mostly to the booming e-commerce sector and the ever increasing number of people shopping online...all of those items must be shipped!

Second, since 1981--under the Reagan administration--the postal service has been required by law to be entirely self-sufficient.  In other words, the post office receives NO taxpayer funding, while having to adhere to caps on the rates they can charge.

Third,  if that wasn't enough, under the Bush administration, Congress passed the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2006 (PAEA)  forcing USPS  to “prefund its future health care benefit payments to retirees for the next 75 years in an astonishing ten-year time span” — meaning that it had to put aside billions of dollars [$5.5 billion per year] to pay for the health benefits of employees it hasn’t even hired yet, something “that no other government or private corporation is required to do.”  As of now, they have set aside $50 billion to pay for future retiree health benefits.  How many corporations can claim the same?

Although, President Obama had nothing to do with this outrageous burden put upon the post office, he hasn't done anything to remedy the situation.  In fact, Obama pushed for the end of Saturday delivery in his budget proposal  even though the institution receives NO funding from the government. Meanwhile, another attempt is being made to put profit ahead of public interest:  H.R. 2748: Postal Reform Act of 2013 by Rep. Darrell Issa and S. 1486: Postal Reform Act of 2013 by Sen Thomas Carper.

Most of us take the Post Office for granted because it's always been there. However, aside from the great number of people it employs and the convenience it provides, when you consider that the cost of mailing a letter to any area in the country cost only .46 cents versus mailing that same letter to any area in the country through let's say, UPS or Fedex--which cost at the very least costs $9, it becomes clear just how important this institution is. In addition, few realize that the post office actually delivers packages for UPS and Fed Ex (25% of all packages) to places they refuses to go, for instance, rural and other non-profitable areas. The USPS has always been and will continue to be a VITAL connection for those who live in rural areas.

Also, keep in mind, the post office is the only government bureaucracy mentioned in the Constitution.

“In June 1788, the ninth state ratified the Constitution, which gave Congress the power “To establish Post Offices and post Roads” in Article I, Section 8. A year later, the Act of September 22, 1789 (1 Stat. 70), continued the Post Office and made the Postmaster General subject to the direction of the President. Four days later, President Washington appointed Samuel Osgood as the first Postmaster General under the Constitution. A population of almost four million was served by 75 Post Offices and about 2,400 miles of post roads.

The Post Office received two one-year extensions by the Acts of August 4, 1790 (1 Stat. 178), and March 3, 1791 (1 Stat. 218). The Act of February 20, 1792 (1 Stat. 232), continued the Post Office for another two years and formally admitted newspapers to the mails, gave Congress the power to establish post routes, and prohibited postal officials from opening letters. Later legislation enlarged the duties of the Post Office, strengthened and unified its organization, and provided rules for its development. The Act of May 8, 1794 (1 Stat. 354), continued the Post Office indefinitely.

The Post Office moved from Philadelphia in 1800 when Washington, D.C., became the seat of government. Two horse-drawn wagons carried all postal records, furniture, and supplies.

The last three decades have proved that the world’s most efficient mail system not only does quite well on its own, but even in the face of Machiavellian forces trying its absolute best to destroy the well-established fundamental part of our society.

Links:

Don't Shrink the US Post Office; Expand It!

Community and Postal Workers United

Delivering for America

Delivering the Truth: Postal Service Myths and Facts

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House Leadership Invokes "Martial Law" to Muscle Through Legislation.

Yesterday, congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee stated (see video below):

“We have martial law…and my colleagues know what it means…"

This is the procedure that the leadership uses to muscle through important bills.

Under “martial law,” the leadership can file legislation with tens or hundreds of pages of fine print, and move immediately to debate and votes on it before members of Congress, the media, or the public have an opportunity to understand fully what provisions have been altered or inserted into the legislation behind closed doors.

What is “Martial Law”?

“The House leadership is using a parliamentary gambit to evade a longstanding House rule that is supposed to ensure that this kind of obfuscation does not occur. That House rule (Rule XIII(6)(a)) provides that a resolution (called a rule) reported by the Rules Committee cannot be considered by the House on the same legislative day that the rule is reported (except by a two-thirds vote of the House). This is supposed to ensure that Members of the House and the public have at least one day to examine and analyze what is in legislation before they have to debate and vote on it.

To maneuver around this House rule and rush the three proposals discussed above to a vote before they have been fully examined, the Rules Committee reported a rule late Thursday afternoon (H.Res. 958) that would waive the application of Rule XIII(6)(a). Instead, it would allow the Rules Committee to wait until the last minute and not to report the rules governing the consideration of these bills or to release the text of the bills themselves until immediately before debate and votes on the bills, and on the rules governing their consideration, commences.

This extraordinary procedure is known as a “martial law” rule because it suspends the normal procedures and safeguards and allows the House Leadership to operate in a more authoritarian fashion. It enables the Leadership to seek to ram a bill or conference report through before the Members have the opportunity to fully understand what they are voting on.

Legislation that has far-reaching implications for millions of Americans deserves to be considered under a more democratic process. Waiting until the last minute to reveal what is in these bills, and then “spinning” or potentially mischaracterizing changes in the bills without Members of the House or the public having an opportunity to obtain a more objective review of what the legislation does, is unfair to Members of the House. It also is unfair to the millions of Americans whose lives could be affected by this legislation. It represents a further step in reducing the degree of transparency and democracy in how this country is governed and how decisions are made. At a time when our leaders preach the goal of promoting democracy abroad, they should not be reducing it at home.

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Our Common Enemy Ain't Each Other

Rather it's our unaccountable lawmakers who can't be bothered to show up for important briefings. If any one of us failed to show up for a meeting, we would be fired, yet these jokers fail to show up on a regular basis.

That's right. Most of our senators decided to "leave Washington early Thursday afternoon instead of attending a briefing with James Clapper, the Director of National Intelligence, Keith Alexander, the head of the National Security Agency (NSA), and other officials."

Only 47 of 100 senators attended the 2:30 briefing, leaving dozens of chairs in the secure meeting room empty as Clapper, Alexander and other senior officials told lawmakers about classified programs to monitor millions of telephone calls and broad swaths of Internet activity. The room on the lower level of the Capitol Visitor Center is large enough to fit the entire Senate membership, according to a Senate aide.

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Behind the Glossy Presentation Prepared & Edited for General Public Consumption

Norman Dodd

A few years ago I blogged about the "deliberate dumbing down of America" and I included congressional investigator (Reece Committee) Norman Dodd's interview that exposed the charitable trusts and tax-exempt foundation's hidden agenda toward the acceptance of global government based on the principles of socialism which is to be ruled from behind the scenes by those same interests which control the foundations.  This interview includes such a wealth of information that I thought I'd post it again, adding to it, some background of what led up to the Reece Committee, and additional information and links.

Some background:

After America had freed the world--winning WWII, that is--by 1950, Eastern Europe and China had fallen to communism.  But a U.S. senate investigative committee found that General Chiang Kai-shek had virtually won the civil war against communist China, and was very much committed to creating a democratic form of government. So what happened?  Well, the American State Department decided that's not what they wanted and demanded that Chiang Kai-shek form a coalition with the Chinese communists. He refused. So the American State department put an arms embargo on China and saw to it that Chiang Kai-shek did not get the weapons he already purchased. Not only that, his efforts at buying weapons elsewhere were blocked by the State Department.

From the Institution of Pacific Relations Report

"The guiding and influencing of [Vice President] Wallace that John Carter Vincent [Chief of the State Department's Division of Chinese Affairs] acknowledged included the following:

(1) He steered the conversations between Chiang and Wallace during the mission toward a settlement between Chiang and the Communists;

(2) he had Wallace emphasize the desire of the United States that Chiang make peace with the Communists;

(3) when Madame Chiang Kai-shek proposed during the conversation that there be a North Pacific Conference, Vincent directed the conversation toward an insistence by Wallace that China and the U.S.S.R. settle first (p.2062);

(4) Vincent conceded he urged Wallace to press that the United States would not aid Chiang until he made his peace with the Soviet Union (pp. 2065-2066);

(5) Vincent kept bringing the conversation back to the question of the United States sending a representative to Communist territory in Yenan, and finally extracted a promise from Chiang that one would be sent (pp. 2060-2061);

(6) when Chiang, recognizing the prestige such an act would give the Communists, argued against it (p.2051), Vincent urged Wallace to stress that the United States was not interested in Chiang's opposition (p.2052) from the Communists but were interested in the military intelligence such a representative would yield (p. 2055);

(7) Later it was shown that Vincent again steered the conversation so that the promise given by Chiang for the representative to Yenan was really nailed down."

Now, the U.S. Congress voted $125 million to be sent to Chiang Kai-shek but the ships were kept in the harbor in San Francisco for months. Finally, when the weapons arrived in China, there was no ammunition to be found, therefore, utterly useless. Without weapons, Chiang Kai-shek and his large army was defeated by a small well-armed communist army in 1949.  This is backed up by the 1952  McCarran Committee's report on the Institute for Pacific Relations (IPR) .

The IPR was an organization, financed by the Rockefeller Foundation and the Carnegie Foundation, specifically designed to use as a propaganda tool for the Communists.  For instance, they   spoke of Mao and Zhou Enlai,as if they were George Washington and Abe Lincoln, and through a carefully crafted propaganda campaign, convinced many in the U.S. that Chinese Communists were not Communists at all.  The American State Department got their wish, and the newly formed Chinese government-- that America helped to establish--resulted in the death of up to 80 million Chinese. 

After the report on the IPR came out, it sparked a congressional investigation to determine which of these "foundations and organizations are using their resources for purposes other than the purposes for which they were established, and especially to determine which such foundations and organizations are using their resources for un-American and subversive activities or for purposes not in the interest or tradition of the United States." The first of the Congressional Committees to attempt such an investigation was the Cox Committee, created in 1952 under the leadership of Congressman Eugene E.Cox. However, not only did this congressional committee suffer great obstacles, their leader, Congressman Cox died. Fortunately, Congressman Carroll Reece of Tennessee, demanded a new investigation which became the Reece Committee, of which Norman Dodd became director of research.

According to the book, Foundations Their Power and Influence, tremendous pressure was brought to bear on members of Congress to force them to stop the investigation as well as to cut off appropriations. The committee was routinely attacked in the New York Times, Washington Post and all of the major media outlets. Congressman Wayne Hays was appointed to disrupt its hearings.

". . . Mr. Hays told us one day that 'the White House' [Eisenhower] had been in touch with him and asked him if be would cooperate to kill the committee."

What the record quickly shows is that a considerable portion of the IPR activities operated not to discover, analyze, assemble and publish data (the normal primary concern of scholarship and research), but to influence public opinion. The subcommittee noted throughout all the testimony and all the exhibits that so great a portion of the IPR energies went into public relations, lobbying, propaganda, and other activities, having the primary effect of influencing public opinion that it is not correct or adequate to describe the IPR as a scholarly and research organization. Its chief function was rather that of a crucible of United States public opinion on the Far East.

Rowan Gaither [head of the Ford Foundation]: "Those of us here at the policy-making level have all had experience either with the OSS or the European Econmoic Administration in operating under directives the origins of which is the White House.  We today operate under just such directives.  Would you like to know what the substance of those directives is

Norman Dodd: Yes, Mr. Gaither, I would very much like to know.

Rowan Gaither: The substance of the directives under which we operate is that we shall use our grant-making power so to alter life in the Untied States that we can be comfortably merged with the Soviet Union."

Norman Dodd: "Mr. Gaither, in light of what you just told me, many of your grants make sense, but I don't think you're entitled to withhold this information from the people of this country to whom you are beholden for your tax exemptions so why don't you tell them what you just told me?"

Rowan Gaither: "Mr. Dodd, we would not think of doing that"

Norman Dodd: Well, Mr. Gaither, in answer to your first question, you forced the Congress of the U.S. to spend $150,000 to find out what you just told me.

Once one opens their eyes to the truth behind the carefully crafted presentation of the "truth," it takes some time to reflect upon, and deal with this reality: that our subversive public education system and mainstream media is basically a tool to brainwash, condition, and fool us into compliance with the agenda of the ruling class. As Norman Dodd sincerely points out the ruling class has been scheming to consolidate all the power to rule America by corporate monopoly. Why communism? Because collectivism at centralized levels is easy to manipulate toward a tyrannical government.  This type of system needs  communitarian law, which is based on the "consensus reached by globalist "do-gooders."

Economic and psychological weapons of destruction rather than full out war...that's the plan. A man in a stupor is harmless. A mind befuddled by reality shows, iPhones, Twitter, Facebook is manageable. So the elite can continue to offshore our jobs and loot the treasury to the tune of trillions of dollars as was the plan all along by aforementioned major subversive forces.



Related Links:

2020: Our Common Destiny & The Anti Communitarian Manifesto

"...explores the history, philosophy, and modern-day implementation of Sustainable Development, Communitarian Law, and Community Policing.

Part-autobiography, part-thesis, and part-guidebook to International Law, this 327-page book introduces Community Law with a mix of personal experiences, field research, and direct quotes from American presidents and international heads of state, domestic and foreign courts, officials, ecclesiastics, gurus, agencies, think tanks, universities and law schools, foundations, conferences, scientific reports, newspapers, and academic journals.

The Roosevelt Neighborhood Plan (Washington) and The Anchorage 2020/Anchorage Bowl Comprehensive Plan (Alaska) are highlighted to show how Local Agenda 21 plans balance individuals, laws, and economic growth. Readers are challenged to consider some of the little-known aspects of Community Economic Development, like mapping and mobilizing human assets, data-mining, innovative militarized policing, mandates for service, global citizenship, the Hegelian Dialectic, and the ancient spiritual foundation for a worldwide, corporate, quasi-religious legal framework.

The Turning of the Tides

Hearings before the special committee to investigate tax-exempt foundations and comparable organizations House of Representatives 83rd Congress Second Session on H. Res. 217 (1,000 pages)

Report on the Commission on Social Studies, 1934

"Conclusions and Recommendations for the Social Studies", funded by the tax-exempt Carnegie Corporation of New York, published in 1934, is the most important report ever written on the future of American education. All its recommendations and its philosophy are an intrinsic part of education in the United States today. Professor Harold Laski, a philosopher of British socialism, said of this report: "At bottom, and stripped of its carefully neutral phrases, the report is an educational program for a 'Socialist America'. One excerpt from this important report reads "The implications for education are clear and imperative: (a) the efficient functioning of the emerging economy and the full utilization of its potentialities require profound changes in the attitudes and outlook of the American people, especially the rising generation--a complete and frank recognition that the old order is passing, that the new order is emerging, (pp. 34-35).

click here for The Dodd Report

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The Lawless America Revolution

Lawless America is a project created by William M. Windsor, and GRIP -- Government Reform & Integrity Platform dedicated to exposing dishonesty and corruption in government while presenting ways to battle this epidemic. Mr. Windsor ventured out, by himself, and interviewed thousands of people on a 173 day road trip throughout the United States. These stories are, plain and simple, horror stories of unbelievable accounts of judicial and government corruption. But as unbelievable as they sound, they're true. Most provide evidence, not to mention Mr. Windsor thoroughly checks out each person interviewed.

Ultimately, Mr. Windsor plans to edit the countless hours of the footage he's taken down to a two-hour film and enter it in the Sundance Film Festival. But his most important goal is to deliver the videos of testimony he's already produced to Congress the first weekend in February 2013.

Meet Me in DC. February 5-6, 2013.

"We hope to have at least one constituent for every member of Congress to hand-deliver the 50+ hours of Congressional testimony filmed by Lawless America from over 1,000 people filmed during the Road Trip....This is going to be a truly special event. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of victims of government and judicial corruption will be in Washington DC. There has never been a larger group of whistleblowers to let their voices be heard. We will be presenting over 50 hours of testimony to Congress, part of over 2,000 hours of interviews conducted by Bill Windsor for Lawless America."

Here are a few stories that, in my humble opinion, are so compelling they should be considered required viewing.

Mind-blowing accounts of Child "Protective" Services and Family Court corruption:



Here (below) is the amazing story of Dr. Elizabeth Rohr of Dallas Texas, who, as someone commented: "Elizabeth's story sounds like the book of Job in the Bible" due to her well-connected monster ex-husband and the very corrupt Texas system of "justice."



See also: Another Family Blames Dawson State Jail For Inmate Death Dawson State Jail, where Dr. Rohr was incarcerated, is a low security facility for people convicted of non-violent crimes run by Corrections Corporation of America, a private prison management company that has a contract with the State of Texas. As Dr. Rohr stated in her testimony, inmates are treated like cattle, or worse.

Dawson State Jail Intolerable Conditions - more first hand accounts at the "house of horrors". Remember, these non-violent inmates are extraordinarily profitable for the prison industrial complex.

These are just...heartbreaking.

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The Abortion Industry: Baby Flesh Pills, Roasted Human Fetuses and the Harvesting of Fetal Baby Parts

Sound like a horror movie? It's not. Although, it seems as if real life is becoming a horror movie, especially considering our grisly human fetal industry.

A British man of Taiwanese origin,has been arrested by the Thai police for having six roasted human fetuses in his luggage. Reports say he intended to sell the fetuses in Taiwan where some believe they would bring luck and wealth.  He could have made about $40,000

The fetuses were wrapped in gold leaf which led the police to believe that they were meant to be used in a black magic ritual called Guman Thong, which translate to 'golden child'. A traditional Guman Thong is made from the dead baby of a woman who died in childbirth.In the past, monks would cut the baby's body out of the mother', which they had exhumed from the grave, performed a ritual over it and then baked it. The recent arrest, along with the 2,000 fetuses found hidden in a Buddhist temple morgue that appear to have come from illegal abortion clinics.over 2,000 fetuses found in a Buddhist temple in Thailand less than two years ago,  has revealed that the ancient, illegal practices are still ongoing, catering to an international black market of the occult.

However, this is just the tip of a very dark iceberg.  The "abortion industry" is a huge profit making business. On March 8, 2000, ABC's news weekly 20/20 produced evidence of "a thriving industry in which aborted fetuses women donate to help medical research are being marketed for hundreds, even thousands of dollars." Chris Wallace interviewed several people involved in the harvesting of fetal body parts and produced a price list from one firm, Opening Lines, offering fetal spinal cords for $325, fetal reproductive organs for $550, fetal brains for $999 (if less than eight weeks), and the like.  A 1999 brochure from Opening Lines, a Division of Consultative and Diagnostic Pathology, Inc. stated purpose is to “maximize the utilization of fresh fetal tissue [they] process.”

Here is a current price list.

Partial-birth abortion, much more risky to mothers, are favored over other late-term methods of abortion because it affords the greatest opportunity to profit from the harvesting of fetal parts.  A hearing before congress revealed that most of the babies are 'harvested' alive, without anesthesia, to secure freshest organs. 

A new product warning label is needed: Fetal Free.

"Unborn babies at 20 weeks development actually feel pain more intensely than adults,” reports Dr. Ranalli, a neurologist at the University of Toronto. He adds, “[This is a] uniquely vulnerable time, since the pain system is fully established, yet the higher level pain-modifying system has barely begun to develop”

Despite this known fact, abortions are still routinely performed without the use of pain-mitigating interventions for the fetus".

While many companies tout humane and cruelty-free practices in industries involving animals (poultry) and in product-testing methodologies, abortion techniques are decidedly painful for the fetus and include one of the following procedures,

• Partial-birth abortion(D X): The unborn baby is delivered feet first, except for the head, which is punctured at the base of the skull with a sharp object. Thebrain is then suctioned out, killing the child.
• Dilation and Evacuation (D E): Sharp-edged instruments are used to grasp,twist, and tear the baby’s body into pieces, which are then removed from the womb.
• Saline abortion: Salt water is injected into the womb through the mother’s abdomen. The unborn baby swallows this fluid, is poisoned and dies in a process that sometimes takes 24 hours. The toxic saline solution causes severe burns over the unborn child’s entire body

In 1999, fifty U.S. company's purchased the stem cells, one company under the name American Society for Anti-Aging, and a company called Senomyx uses embryonic stem cells to test popular foods that we all eat. Pepsi just recently stopped using them , but Nestle, and Lipton are patrons of Senomyx. The latest company to hit the headlines is StemCells Inc, which has just gained federal approval in the US to harvest the brains from abortions, and use them in experiments.

I guess if you believe a fetus is not really a human, just a clump of cells, then you should have no objection to to this grisly industry.  At the same time, I bet you can't help but feel a twinge of disgust.   .

Links:

Thousands of pills filled with powdered human baby flesh discovered by customs officials in South Korea

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Big Brother Legislation Under the Guise of Protecting Children: .

If you haven't noticed there is a significant effort to not only severely restrict the internet, but to spy and collect our personal information while doing so. This time, it's under the guise of protecting children from Internet pornography: H.R.1981 - Protecting Children From Internet Pornographers Act of 2011 A bill which Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX) has fast-tracked.

However, this bill does not protect children from anything at all - because criminals use encryption and other devious methods to avert authorities, whereas ordinary citizens do not - rather, this bill would require Internet service providers to capture credit card data, bank statements, IP information and search history from every user and keep it on hand for 18 months. Moreover, the government would not need a warrant to look at all your data. And once all of this personal information about innocent Americans is collected, it would be available to law enforcement for any purpose.

So, once again,  in this ever expanding Orwellian house of mirrors, the innocent are targeted, while the truly guilty go free.

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Secret Congress. Secret. Wall Street Government.

Now, Congress has the constitutional authority to meet in secret - excluding press and public - whenever they deem necessary. According to Congressional Research Service, since 1830, the House has met in secret four times: 1979, 1980, 1983, and 2008. The report: Secret Sessions of the House and Senate: Authority, Confidentiality, and Frequency.

However, does the U.S. Constitution grant authority to Wall Street and top government officials to conceal pertinent information from Congress and the public?  Well, obviously it doesn't matter because that's what's happening.

The documents show how top US government officials willfully concealed from Congress and the public the true extent of the 2008-'09 bailouts that enriched the few and enhanced the interests of giant Wall Streets firms. Here’s what came out as the result of Bloomberg's investigation:

The secret Wall Street bailouts totaled $7.77 trillion, 10 times more than the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) officially passed by Congress in 2008.

Knowledge of the secret bailout funds was not shared with Congress even while it was drafting and debating legislation to break up the big banks.

The secret loans financed bank mergers so that the largest banks could grow even larger. The money also allowed banks to step up their lobbying efforts.

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Based on New Census Measure, Number of Americans in Poverty at Record High

As as a congressional super committee nears a November 23rd deadline to make more than $1 trillion in cuts to the federal budget, an experimental measure that takes geographic location into account yields highest-ever number of poor Americans. 49.1 million are poor, based on a new census measure that for the first time takes into account rising medical costs and other expenses.

Moreover, using the old supplemental poverty measure, one in fifteen - 6.7% of the population - are among America's poorest poor..  Data shows about 20.5 million Americans make up the poorest poor, defined as those at 50% or less of the official poverty level.

Poverty for Americans 65-years and older is on track to nearly double after factoring in rising out-of-pocket medical expenses.   Poverty increases are also anticipated for the working-age population because of commuting and child-care costs, while child poverty will dip partly due to the positive effect of food stamps...that's if those food stamps survive the cuts.

"There now really is no unaffected group, except maybe the very top income earners," said Robert Moffitt, a professor of economics at Johns Hopkins University. "Recessions are supposed to be temporary, and when it's over, everything returns to where it was before. But the worry now is that the downturn - which will end eventually - will have long-lasting effects on families who lose jobs, become worse off and can't recover."

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Despite Record Level Poverty, Soaring Food Prices, Food Stamps on the Chopping Block.

Despite soaring food prices (double the core inflation rate), due mostly to excessive speculation because of a deregulated agricultural commodity derivatives markets; rapidly rising poverty rates, and steady unemployment numbers, Congress is calling for dramatic cuts to Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), the food stamp program, regardless of the fact that for every $1 spent on food stamps, $1.79 is made.

According to US Department of Agriculture, since December 2008, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) has set records, every month, except one. August, 2011, the last month reported, was no exception, as it has set another record for the number of Americans - 45.8 million - receiving food stamps, a figure  1.1% higher than the previous month and 8.1% more than a year earlier, with Texas and California leading the pack.

Household participation in SNAP is climbing so steadily that it has far surpassed, even the peak reached after the fallout of hurricane Katrina.

"The slow economic strangulation of millions of middle-class Americans started long before the Great Recession, which merely exacerbated the “personal recession” that ordinary Americans had been suffering for years." -- Edward Luce in a Financial Times article.

Meanwhile, the incomes of the top 1 per cent have more than tripled.
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Congress Touring Israel for Free.

Despite the fact that accepting free trips from lobbyists is illegal for Congress members under US anti-graft and corruption laws, the American Israel Educational Foundation - affiliate of the largest Zionist lobby in the US: the American Israel Public Affairs Committee with its a tax-exempt 501(c)(4) organization with two donors - is sponsoring an all-expenses-paid, week-long junkets to Israel. The top congressional leaders of both parties are leading the trips.

Unlike the far more numerous nonprofit 501(c)(3) organizations, which have to continually “means test” that they have a wide public funding base in order for contributor donations to be tax-deductible, contributions to 501(c)(4) organizations such as AIPAC (which actively lobbies Congress, the executive, and numerous government agencies) are not tax-deductible. There are no contribution limits to 501 (c)(4) nonprofit groups. Individuals, foreign nationals, partnerships, associations, and other organizations may contribute whatever amount they like to a 501(c)(4).

81 congressional representatives - 55 Republicans and 26 Democrats - from all over the country, led by Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, are traveling to Israel this month. Most are freshmen congressmen, and the group includes half of all the freshmen Republicans voted into office in 2010.

Don't you think the $3 billion in direct aid and $3 billion in indirect aid provided to Israel each year by the US Congress would be better spent reviving the declining US economy?



Israel-Palestine Missing Headlines

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The Assault on Our Living Standards in Full Gear.

The jobs are leaving. Wages are stagnant. Basic necessities such as food, water and energy prices are skyrocketing. The social safety net is in tatters. Yet, despite the fact that living standards in the US are starting to resemble that of a third world nation, Social Security and Medicare are on the chopping block.  You see, in order to get the debt ceiling increase, Republicans, "the very people who exploded the debt," are demanding the end of the Social Security and Medicare programs, as we know it.  Hoping to resolve this, behind closed doors, before they break for summer vacation (full month of August), the push is on to pass the bill to see what's in it, according to Rosiland Peterson.  Sound familiar?

President Obama and members of the U.S. House and Senate have placed Social Security and Medicare on the chopping block in ongoing debt ceiling negotiations. In these secret negotiations, far away from public enlightenment or debate, deals are being cooked-up to undermine, cut or privatize these important and highly beneficial programs.

Withdrawing government spending literally “takes money out of the economy.” We have a crisis because of lack of demand. Republican solutions of giving the wealthy and corporations even more money and tax cuts obviously will not work because the rich don't create jobs, we do. The rich are already richer than ever, with a greater share of the income and wealth than ever, and giant corporations are already sitting on tons of cash.

Currently, there are seventeen bills pending in either the U.S. House of Representatives or the U.S. Senate that are related to changes in Social Security. All but two of the seventeen bills undermine Social Security.

H.R. 1052: Social Security Guarantee Act of 2011 Introduced Mar 11, 2011
H.R. 1332: Social Security Fairness Act of 2011 Introduced Apr 1, 2011
H.R. 1118: Social Security Protection Act of 2011 Introduced Mar 16, 2011
S. 582: Social Security Protection Act of 2011 Introduced Mar 15, 2011
H.R. 219: Social Security Preservation Act of 2011 Introduced Jan 7, 2011
S. 123: Social Security Lock-Box Act of 2011 Introduced Jan 25, 2011
 H.R. 149: Social Security Beneficiary Tax Reduction Act Introduced Jan 5, 2011
H.R. 160: Social Security Fairness for the Terminally Ill Act of 2011 Introduced Jan 5, 2011
H.R. 311: Social Security Number Fraudulent Use Notification Act of 2011 Introduced Jan 18, 2011
H.R. 787: No Social Security for Illegal Immigrants Act of 2011 Introduced Feb 17, 2011
 H.R. 1538: Social Security Identity Defense Act of 2011 Introduced Apr 14, 2011
S. 181: Social Security Totalization Agreement Reform Act of 2011 Introduced Jan 25, 2011
H.R. 1630: Social Security and Medicare Protection Act Introduced Apr 15, 2011
 H.R. 98: Illegal Immigration Enforcement and Social Security Protection Act of 2011 Introduced Jan 5, 2011
S. 804: Social Security Solvency and Sustainability Act Introduced Apr 13, 2011
H.R. 797: No Loopholes in Social Security Taxes Act Introduced Feb 18, 2011
 H.R. 796: Social Security Protection and Truth in Budgeting Act of 2011 Introduced Feb 18, 2011

The Toll Free Telephone Number for all members of the U.S. Senate or House of Representatives: (1866) 220-0044

Links:

Debt-Ceiling Deal's Cuts Could Crash Economy

Govtrack

Social Security and Medicare Alert 2011

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Extreme Weather: Natural or Nurtured?

The "historically ferocious twister" that destroyed a good part of Joplin, Missouri, leaving at least 125 dead and more than 900 people injured, with initial reports of a staggering 1,500 missing - recently whittled down to 232 missing - appears not to be the end of the nightmare for this tornado prone zone, as the ever-present threat of more tornadoes looms. The National Weather Service issued tornado watches and a series of warnings in a dozen states, stretching northwest from Texas though the Mississippi River valley to Ohio.

The sheer intensity and length of these storm fronts is unbelievable. Video captured in Joplin, Missouri appears to show the tornado triple in size in seconds. Is that normal? Or is something else going on?

Some are trying to blame human beings for this devastating extreme weather seen around the world.  Isn't that convenient?  Especially when so much profit is to be made.  The Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX) was formed to buy and sell carbon credits , the currency of cap-and-trade. Founder Richard Sandor estimates the climate trading market could be "a $10 trillion dollar market." Maurice Strong, Al Gore, GE, and many other 'global warming' profiteers will reap the enormous rewards should "cap and trade" legislation prevail. In fact, the United Nations is pushing Hollywood to promote this climate alarmist bullsh*t.

Moreover, guess who helped establish the market for, and became the major trader in, EPA’s $20 billion-per-year sulfur dioxide cap-and-trade program? Enron!

This cap and trade exchange of NOx and SO2 emission allowances caused Enron’s stock to rapidly rise. It was the forerunner of today’s CO2 trading, now taken up by CCX. Enron was a promoter of the Kyoto Protocol since it would increase their profits. Enron’s Ken Lay had meetings with Clinton and Gore to try to get Kyoto promoted: “Enron officials later expressed elation at the results of the Kyoto conference. An internal memo said the Kyoto agreement, if implemented, would "do more to promote Enron's business than almost any other regulatory initiative outside of restructuring the energy and natural gas industries in Europe and the United States."”

Now, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration just published “Forensic Meteorology Solves the Mystery of Record Snows” in which they conclude that there is no human "fingerprint" that implicates human involvement in global warming, or cooling or whatever the hell is happening to the climate.

“They found no evidence — no human “fingerprints” — to implicate our involvement in the snowstorms. If global warming was the culprit, the team would have expected to find a gradual increase in heavy snowstorms in the mid-Atlantic region as temperatures rose during the past century. But historical analysis revealed no such increase in snowfall. Nor did the CSI team find any indication of an upward trend in winter precipitation along the eastern seaboard.”

So, a $10 trillion dollar market is one hell of an incentive to interfere with Mother Nature. However, is weather modification possible...now?

Weather modification will become a part of domestic and international security and could be done unilaterally... It could have offensive and defensive applications and even be used for deterrence purposes. The ability to generate precipitation, fog, and storms on earth or to modify space weather, ... and the production of artificial weather all are a part of an integrated set of technologies which can provide substantial increase in US, or degraded capability in an adversary, to achieve global awareness, reach, and power. (US Air Force. Air University of the US Air Force, AF 2025 Final Report, http://www.au.af.mil/au/2025/)

Links:


Congress has been notified about 'HAARP Rings' by constituent letter

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GOP Wants to Declare WW III "Until the Termination of Hostilities"

Assuming that the following is real, and not a "red herring" serving to distract us from something like...oh, I don't know, the treasury tapping pension funds to help fund government...

Only three weeks after the Navy Seals, supposedly, shot Osama Bin Laden in the face, and, it appears an official declaration of endless war may be in the works.  Rep. Howard McKeon (R-Calif.), the chairman of the Armed Services Committee inserted  language - so broad and vague that it could essentially be used to justify anything -  into the 2012 National Defense Authorization Bill.  It authorizes the president to declare a state of permanent war (against all nations, organizations, and persons, both domestically and abroad), with no congressional approval required. It's to come up for a vote before congress soon. President Obama  did not request the sweeping powers, as it believes it already has all the authority it needs to wage the terror war.

This "sleeper provision" hidden deep in the text of defense bill could become "the single biggest hand-over of unchecked war authority from Congress to the executive branch in modern American history."  It fails to define enemies or borders, fails to define "hostilities", fails to define “belligerents,” who could be detained without trial until the end of time, and would grant the president – and every president that follows – sweeping new power to make war almost anywhere they suspect terrorists may reside - including, right here in the United States, against American citizens -  regardless of whether there has been any harm to U.S. citizens, or any attack on the United States, or any imminent threat of an attack.  Moreover, the bill requires that all arrests related to terrorism be treated as military arrests, thus circumventing the constitution.

The "sleeper provision" can be found on p. 134 of the H.R. 1540—FY12 NATIONAL DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION BILL

Congress affirms that:

(1) the United States is engaged in an armed conflict with al-Qaeda, the Taliban, and associated forces and that those entities continue to pose a threat to the United States and its citizens, both domestically and abroad;

(2) the President has the authority to use all necessary and appropriate force during the current armed conflict with al-Qaeda, the Taliban, and associated forces pursuant to the Authorization for Use of Military Force (Public Law 107–40; 50 U.S.C. 1541 note);

(3) the current armed conflict includes nations, organization, and persons who—

(A) are part of, or are substantially supporting, al‐Qaeda, the Taliban, or associated forces that are engaged in hostilities against the United States or its coalition partners; or

(B) have engaged in hostilities or have directly supported hostilities in aid of a nation, organization, or person described in subparagraph (A); and

(4) the President’s authority pursuant to the Authorization for Use of Military Force (Public Law 107–40; 50 U.S.C. 1541 note) includes the authority to detain belligerents, including persons described in paragraph (3), until the termination of hostilities.

The establishment media outlets (Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, etc.) are spinning the proposed language as harmless.  However, in a nation where activist equals terrorist, the ambiguity and wording of the bill is anything but harmless.
Links:


House Democrats Protest GOP's plan for permanent war against terror. - Nearly three dozen House Democrats are calling on Republicans to withdraw a section of the 2012 defense authorization bill that they say would effectively declare a state of permanent war against unnamed Taliban and al Qaeda operatives.

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Democrats Offer to Triple Cuts in Social Spending While Tsunami of Inflation is Headed Our Way.

As "many workers are barely treading water as their wages fail to keep up with rising prices" the Obama administration and congressional Democrats have offered to triple the amount of cuts in social spending for 2011, from $10 billion to $30 billion, in order to appease congressional Republicans, who, after intense lobbying from the Tea Party, want to cut $61 billion,  before the April 8 deadline. These cuts "would mark the largest-ever federal budget cuts in social spending in a single year."

Despite the  criminal behavior of the ruling class, and, that throughout the bankster-created  crisis, their pay grew at pre-downturn clip, the extreme polarization of wealth, as productivity gains continue, and corporate profits surge, continues. It is not estimated that one in four American households have zero or less than zero net worth.

The modest wage growth appears to reflect lower expectations among the unemployed.

"There's a capitulation on the part of workers," said David Resler, chief economist at Nomura Securities. "They're increasingly willing to accept a lower wage than they might have thought they had to when the recession started. The fact that average hourly earnings are now weak or falling is an indication to me that the market is starting to clear."

This gives businesses an additional cushion at a time of higher commodity costs.

"Companies are in the dominant bargaining position," said Paul Ashworth, chief U.S. economist at Capital Economics, a consultancy. "They don't have the added problem of paying more for their wages as well."

And, if that's not depressing enough, according to the National Inflation Association a tsunami of inflation will hit the U.S. due to the Japan crisis.

Links:

It's the Inequality, Stupid

Greenspan Returns to De-Regulation

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National Security: Orwellian Doublespeak for National Hazard.

Frank Church Open Senate Hearings on CIA and the secret poison gun, which can induce heart attacks, cancer, etc.. From the hearings, Congress created limits, in response to the widespread abuse on the monitoring of citizens, which FISA undid.



No Place to Hide (should be a must read/listen for everyone)


In 1968 a reporting apparatus that relied on nothing more than shoe leather and manila folders was created. Agents who normally did security checks, were in addition, given the task of monitoring dissent.  It covered millions of Americans conducting totally law abiding lives.

In 1975 Senator Frank Church headed a congressional commission to investigate widespread abuses by US intelligence and law enforcement agencies. Senator Church warned us about government’s power to turn surveillance technologies on its own citizens if it chose to.

"No American would have any privacy left, such is the capability to monitor everything - telephone conversations, telegrams, it doesn't matter. There would be no place to hide." -- Senator Frank Church in 1975

Well, I wonder what he would say about the power of information and surveillance technologies to watch and assess we, the people, in order to "protect" us.

Protect us?  Take a look at these declassified MK-Ultra project documents, and you will see the most Orwellian doublespeak definition of protection ever created.  We're still reeling from the heinous effects of  MK-Ultra and all of the other CIA operations or projects designed to "protect" us, that are most likely still going on today.

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Brutal Winter? Freeze the Poor, the Elderly, and the Sick!

Once again, those most effected by the actions of the soulless few at the top will pay the price.  As colder-than-normal temperatures continue across our nation, President Obama will propose cutting $2.5 billion from the government’s energy assistance fund for poor people.

“I’ve always supported serious efforts to restore fiscal sanity, but in the middle of a brutal, even historic, New England winter, home heating assistance is more critical than ever to the health and welfare of millions of Americans, especially senior citizens.” - Sen. John Kerry

How can a government that supposedly works for the people...serves the people, cut funding to the elderly, the sick and and the poor, for something as essential to maintaining life as heat? Death panels, anyone?

However, the GOP wanted to cut $5 billion from the energy assistance program, and now, they have increased spending cuts from the total budget from $74 billion to $100 billion.

In another victory for tea-party rebels in Congress, House Appropriations Committee Chairman Harold Rogers today scrapped his original plan for spending cuts and announced that he will seek to cut $100 billion from what President Obama had requested for this year.

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Leaving Whistleblowers and Taxpayers Hopelessly in a Lurch

Abuse of the public trust is at an all time high. So, its more important than ever before to see and understand, what our leadership is up to...the leadership we've been conditioned to trust. And, that's where the  Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act (WPEA) came in.  It was legislation aimed at exposing corruption at the top levels of politics, our economy, and other large institutions. The Act would have protected federal workers who use legal and safe channels to expose waste, fraud, abuse, and threats to public safety. 

So, you say, what's more important than protecting against "unlawful acts, regulatory violations, abuses of authority, dangers to public health and any gross mismanagement or gross waste of funds?" Apparently, everything. Especially after a few Republicans connected the WikiLeaks controversy to the WPEA, ultimately killing it.

Yep, the act of one  senator, who shall remain nameless, secretly put a hold on the bill after it passed a voice vote, just before the chamber adjourned for the Christmas holiday...the political scoundrel's favorite time of the year.

But isn't it weird how it always comes down to that one scoundrel who messes things up for everyone?  Anyway, WikiLeaks seems to be the go-to excuse for everything from restrict-the-Internet to kill-the-whistleblower...protection.

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