Tuesday, October 28, 2008

McCain should be happy

John McCain had suspended his campaign saying that
it was more important to the American people that he be in Washington.
Well he went to Washington to work on that Bill,
and who's to say that it did not help the American people ?

He should be proud of himself for doing the right thing even if it did cost him the election.
After all, Senator Obama did capitalize on the economy when McCain was away.
So if John McCain indeed did this for the American people,
he should have no shame or bad feelings about loosing this election.

Thanks John ! Really, we appreciate it.
Now, get out of the way....



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God and All - Thoughts on humans, evolution, religion and more: being-human God and All

Saturday, October 25, 2008

AP INVESTIGATION: Palin pipeline terms curbed bids

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – Gov. Sarah Palin's signature accomplishment — a contract to build a 1,715-mile pipeline to bring natural gas from Alaska to the Lower 48 — emerged from a flawed bidding process that narrowed the field to a company with ties to her administration, an Associated Press investigation shows.

Beginning at the Republican National Convention in August, the McCain-Palin ticket has touted the pipeline as an example of how it would help America achieve energy independence.

"We're building a nearly $40 billion natural gas pipeline, which is North America's largest and most expensive infrastructure project ever, to flow those sources of energy into hungry markets," Palin said during the Oct. 2 vice presidential debate.

Despite Palin's boast of a smart and fair bidding process, the AP found that her team crafted terms that favored only a few independent pipeline companies and ultimately benefited the winner, TransCanada Corp.

And contrary to the ballyhoo, there's no guarantee the pipeline will ever be built; at a minimum, any project is years away, as TransCanada must first overcome major financial and regulatory hurdles.

In interviews and a review of records, the AP found:

_Instead of creating a process that would attract many potential builders, Palin slanted the terms away from an important group — the global energy giants that own the rights to the gas.

_Despite promises and legal guidance not to talk directly with potential bidders, Palin had meetings or phone calls with nearly every major candidate, including TransCanada.

_The leader of Palin's pipeline team had been a partner at a lobbying firm where she worked on behalf of a TransCanada subsidiary. Also, that woman's former business partner at the lobbying firm was TransCanada's lead private lobbyist on the pipeline deal, interacting with legislators in the weeks before the vote to grant TransCanada the contract. Plus, a former TransCanada executive served as an outside consultant to Palin's pipeline team.

_Under a different set of rules four years earlier, TransCanada had offered to build the pipeline without a state subsidy; under Palin, the company could receive a maximum $500 million.

"Governor Palin held firmly to her fundamental belief that Alaska could best serve Alaskans and the nation's interests by pursuing a competitive approach to building a natural gas pipeline," said McCain-Palin spokesman Taylor Griffin. "There was an open and transparent process that subjected the decision to extensive public scrutiny and due diligence."

___

ONLY ONE VIABLE BIDDER

There were never more than a few players that could execute such a complex undertaking — at least a million tons of steel stretching across some of Earth's most hostile and remote terrain.

TransCanada estimates it will cost $26 billion; Palin's consultants estimate nearly $40 billion.

The pipeline would run from Alaska's North Slope to Alberta in Canada; secondary supply lines would take the gas to various points in the United States and Canada. The pipeline would carry 4.5 billion cubic feet of natural gas daily, about 8 percent of the present U.S. market.

Building such a pipeline had been a dream for decades. The rising cost and demand for energy injected new urgency into the proposal.

So too did the depletion of Alaska's long-reliable reserves of oil, which are trapped in the same Arctic Circle reservoirs as clean-burning natural gas. Not only does that oil provide jobs, it pays for an annual dividend check to nearly every Alaska resident. This year's payment was $2,069, 25 percent higher than 2007 — plus a $1,200 bonus rebate to help offset higher energy costs.

Palin was elected as governor two years ago in part because of her populist appeal. Promising "New Energy for Alaska," she vowed to take on Exxon Mobil Corp., ConocoPhillips and BP, the multinational energy companies that long dominated the state's biggest industry.

Oil interests were particularly unpopular at that moment: Federal agents had recently raided the offices of six lawmakers in a Justice Department investigation into whether an Alaska oil services company paid bribes in exchange for promoting a new taxing formula that would ultimately further the multinationals' pipeline plans.

Palin ousted fellow Republican Gov. Frank Murkowski, who pushed a pipeline deal he negotiated in secret with the "Big Three" energy companies. That deal went nowhere.

With Alaskans eager for progress and sour on Big Oil, Palin tackled the pipeline issue with gusto, meeting with representatives from all sides and assembling her own team of experts to draw up terms.

Palin invited bidders to submit applications and offered the multimillion-dollar subsidy. Members of Palin's team say that without the incentive, it might not have received any bids for the risky undertaking.

___

TIES THAT BIND

Palin's team was led by Marty Rutherford, a widely respected energy specialist who entered the upper levels of state government nearly 20 years ago. Rutherford solidified her status when, in 2005, she joined an exodus of Department of Natural Resources staff who felt Murkowski was selling out to the oil giants.

What the Palin administration didn't tell legislators — and neglected to mention in its announcement of Rutherford's appointment — was that in 2003, Rutherford left public service and worked for 10 months at the Anchorage-based Jade North lobbying firm. There she did $40,200 worth of work for Foothills Pipe Lines Alaska, Inc., a subsidiary of TransCanada.

Foothills Pipe Lines Alaska Inc. paid Rutherford for expertise on topics including state legislation and funding related to gas commercialization, according to her 2003 lobbyist registration statement.

Palin has said she wasn't bothered by that past work because it had occurred several years before. But Rutherford wouldn't have passed her new boss' own standards: Under ethics reforms the governor pushed through, Rutherford would have had to wait a year to jump from government service to a lobbying firm.

Rutherford also has downplayed her work for Foothills.

"I did a couple of projects for them, small projects," she told a state Senate committee examining the TransCanada bid earlier this year. While a partner, Rutherford said, she "realized that my heart was not in the private sector, it was in the public sector, and I sold out for the same amount of money I bought in for."

At one point, Palin's pipeline team debated Rutherford's role, but concluded there was no problem.

"We were looking at it in terms of is this an actual conflict or is there the appearance of impropriety of Marty's participation," said Pat Galvin, the commissioner of the Revenue Department and another top team member. "It was determined that there was none, and so we moved forward."

Patricia Bielawski, Rutherford's former partner at Jade North, spent last summer in Juneau, the state capital, serving as TransCanada's lead private lobbyist on the pipeline deal. While the Legislature debated — and ultimately approved — the TransCanada deal, Bielawski met with lawmakers and sat in on the public proceedings, several legislators said.

Bielawski told AP earlier this month that Rutherford's employment at her firm was irrelevant. She said Rutherford never directly lobbied the Legislature for Foothills, and that Rutherford broke no rules based on 2003 state ethics guidelines.

"There's no statutory or regulatory prohibition that extends to things that many years ago," Bielawski said. "So there's no issue."

But others say it's a legitimate question.

"I'm not saying someone's getting paid off for a sweetheart contract, but it's very hard to ignore that this is your former partner and your former client standing there before you," said Republican Sen. Lyda Green, a Palin critic who in August was among the handful of lawmakers who voted against awarding TransCanada the license. "Every time it was mentioned to the governor or to the commission, it was like, 'How could you question such a wonderful person?'"

Tony Palmer, the TransCanada vice president who leads the company's Alaska gas pipeline effort, rejects the suggestion that his company benefited.

"We have gained clearly no advantage from anything that Ms. Rutherford did for Foothills some five years ago on a very much unrelated topic," he said.

Rutherford did not respond to interview requests made directly to her and through the governor's office. But Griffin, the spokesman for the McCain-Palin campaign, said Rutherford "had no decision-making role or authority," and contended that such matters were handled by others on the Palin pipeline team.

TransCanada also had a connection to the team hired by the Palin administration to analyze the bid. Patrick Anderson, a former TransCanada executive, served as an outside consultant and ultimately helped the state conclude that TransCanada's technical solution for shipping gas through freezing temperatures would work.

___

NARROW SET OF RULES

In January 2007, Palin spoke the first of at least two times to Vice President Dick Cheney, the Bush administration's point person on energy issues, according to calendars obtained by the AP through a public records request. Cheney's staff pressed the Palin administration to draw in the energy companies, said current and former state officials involved in those discussions.

As the governor's approach unfolded in the spring of 2007, there were signs it was skewed in a different direction.

Palin said she saw problems if the firms that own the gas also owned the pipeline. They could manipulate the market or charge prohibitive fees to smaller exploration firms, discouraging competition.

Several important requirements in the legislation were unpalatable to the big oil companies. In the talks under Murkowski, the firms asked that the rates for the gas production tax and royalties be fixed for 45 years; Palin refused to consider setting rates for that long.

Under the Palin process, the pipeline firms had an advantage because they simply pass along taxes paid by oil and gas producers.

Oil company officials warned lawmakers they wouldn't participate under those terms. Still, in a near unanimous vote, the Legislature passed the Alaska Gasline Inducement Act in May 2007, generally as written by Palin's pipeline team.

Once the state issued its request for proposals on July 2, 2007, the level of communication between the government and potential bidders was supposed to decrease drastically, so that no one would be accused of gaining unfair advantage. State lawyers advised public officials to keep their distance, and bidders were told to submit questions on a Web site where answers could be seen by all.

Several of the state's gas line team members interviewed by AP said they had no contact with possible bidders. But Palin had conversations with executives at most of the major potential bidders during that period, according to her calendars.

While the calendars don't detail what was discussed, the documents indicate that the pipeline was the subject of the discussions, or that the conversations occurred immediately after a briefing with Palin's pipeline team.

When she was in Michigan for a National Governors Association summit in late July 2007, Palin and her team met executives from Williams Co., a pipeline builder that ended up not bidding.

"The purpose of the meeting was to more fully understand the details of the project, which we were still evaluating at the time," company spokeswoman Julie Gentz said in a statement.

TransCanada's Palmer described communication with state officials as nonexistent.

According to the governor's official schedule, however, Palin called TransCanada President and CEO Hal Kvisle on Aug. 8, 2007. Asked about that call, Palmer said it was to clarify the bidding process.

Griffin said that in keeping with legal guidance, Palin never spoke in any of the meetings about the competitive bidding process.

By the Nov. 30 submission deadline, there were five applications. But the state disqualified four for failing to satisfy the bill's requirements.

That left TransCanada.

The Canadian giant had been pursuing an Alaska pipeline since at least 2004, when the company negotiated a deal with Rutherford that the state ended up shelving. While the details remain confidential, six people familiar with the terms told the AP that TransCanada was willing to do the work then without the large state subsidy.

In testimony this July before the state Senate, Rutherford herself confirmed such a willingness, but described the 2004 deal as presenting a different set of trade-offs. A state lawyer warned her not to say more, lest she violate a confidentiality agreement.

Others who reviewed the deal think much of the $500 million will be wasted money.

"Most definitely TransCanada got a sweetheart deal this time," said Republican Sen. Bert Stedman, who voted against the TransCanada license. "Where else could you get a $500 million reimbursement when you don't even have the financing to build the pipeline?"

___

Associated Press writer Brett J. Blackledge contributed to this report.

http://911review.org

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Friday, October 24, 2008

Private Military Contractors Writing the News? Pentagon's Propaganda mercenaries

Note that there are more retired generals working for private mercenaries'
contractors than in the Pentagon.

The definition for such a situation is Feudal Fascism...

Private <http://www.infowars.com/?p=5372> Military Contractors Writing the
News? The Pentagon's Propaganda at Its Worst

AlterNet | Months after the Pentagon pundits flap, the Department of Defense
continues to hand down contracts for propaganda in Iraq and beyond.

<http://infowars-shop.stores.yahoo.net/fourthreich.html> Jim Marrs

The Rise of the Fourth Reich
For the first time Jim Marrs has gathered compelling evidence that an effort
has been underway for the past sixty years to bring a form of National
Socialism to modern America, creating in essence a modern empire-or "Fourth
Reich"! <http://infowars-shop.stores.yahoo.net/fourthreich.html> Get this
blockbuster at Alex Jones' Infowars Store today!

<http://www.infowars.com/?p=5372> Private Military Contractors Writing the
News? The Pentagon's Propaganda at Its Worst

Liliana Segura
AlterNet
October 17, 2008

Less than a week after the Washington Post
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/02/AR200...
4223_pf.html> reported that the Department of Defense will pay private
contractors $300 million over the next three years to "produce news stories,
entertainment programs and public service advertisements for the Iraqi media
in an effort to 'engage and inspire' the local population to support U.S.
objectives and the Iraqi government," Virginia Sen. Jim Webb wrote a
strongly worded letter to Defense Secretary Robert Gates. "I have serious
reservations about the need for this expenditure in today's political and
economic environment," he wrote. "Consequently, I am asking that you put
these contracts on hold until the Armed Services Committee and the next
administration can review the entire issue of U.S. propaganda efforts inside
Iraq."

Such a review, if it were to happen, would be a formidable undertaking, one
that would have to start with the declaration of the "War on Terror" itself.
It's a project the Bush administration has always approached as a PR
campaign as much as a military one. Who can forget former White House Chief
of Staff Andy Card's explanation for the need to introduce the Iraq War to
Americans in September: "From a marketing point of view, you don't introduce
new products in August." And remember the short-lived attempt by
administration officials to re-brand the "War on Terror" by renaming it the
"Global Struggle Against Violent Extremism"? (Reports at the time were that
administration officials worried that the original phrase "may have outlived
its usefulness," due to its sole focus on military might.)

Regardless of what you call it, the so-called "War on Terror" has cost
American taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars in propaganda costs
alone. As with so much of modern war-making, most of this work is carried
out by private military contractors. With the word "Halliburton" now
shorthand for waste, fraud and abuse for many Americans, taxpayers'
tolerance for war profiteering has reached new lows - especially when
private military companies operating with no oversight undermine the very
"hearts and minds" that mission propaganda is supposedly meant to advance.

Selling the War to Americans

Perhaps one of the Bush administration's most egregious PR undertakings in
the war on Iraq was revealed this spring, when the New York Times
<http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/20/washington/20generals.html> blew the lid
off the Pentagon's military analyst program, in which more than 75 retired
military officials were recruited to spout pro-war rhetoric on major
networks in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq. These "message force
multipliers," as they were branded, were provided with thousands of talking
points by the Department of Defense starting in 2002. In one memo, dated
Dec. 9, 2002 and titled "Department of Defense Themes and Talking Points on
Iraq," a quote from Paul Wolfowitz - "We cannot allow one of the world's
most murderous dictators to provide terrorists a sanctuary in Iraq" - was
followed with a bullet point: "Saddam Hussein: A Global Threat."

The investigative piece by the Times said the project "continues to this
day," seeking to "exploit ideological and military allegiances, and also a
powerful financial dynamic: Most of the analysts have ties to military
contractors vested in the very war policies they are asked to assess on
air."

"Records and interviews show how the Bush administration has used its
control over access and information in an effort to transform the analysts
into a kind of media Trojan horse - an instrument intended to shape
terrorism coverage from inside the major TV and radio networks." It would be
hard to overstate the implications of such a program, particularly for a
country that claims to be a beacon of democracy.

Although the Pentagon was said to have suspended its PR briefings of retired
military officials shortly after the Times story broke, since claiming that
its inspector general is conducting an investigation, in reality there has
been precious little fallout. However, in one promising move, earlier this
month, the Federal Communications Commission sent five letters of inquiry to
TV military analysts in an apparent probing of the program. According to
<http://www.usnews.com/blogs/washington-whispers/2008/10/6/fcc-probes-...
on-analysts.html> one report, "at issue is that some of them were also
linked to Pentagon contracts, raising the issue of conflict of interest. In
its letter signed by the chief of the investigations and hearings division
enforcement bureau, the FCC suggests that TV stations and networks may have
violated two sections of the Communications Act of 1934 by not identifying
the ties to the Pentagon that their military analysts had." Diane Farsetta
at PR Watch, who has written extensively on the Pentagon's pundits,
particularly their work on behalf of defense contractors, says, "the good
news is that that's (a first) step toward conducting an investigation."

Profiting off the "War of Ideas"

Beyond the Pentagon's pundit "scandal," the fact that propaganda contracts
continue to be awarded to the very companies that have previously been
implicated in ethical breaches for disseminating unattributed U.S.
propaganda abroad is reason enough to renew alarm. More than the dollar
amount, what is outrageous to Farsetta about the most recent propaganda
contract is that it is "blatantly illegal." "If you look at this most recent
contract," she explains, "one of the 'strategic audiences' is U.S.
audiences." According to federal law going back to World War II, she says
"no taxpayer money can go to propagandize U.S. audiences."

* A d v e r t i s e m e n t

*
<http://www.prisonplanet.tv/subscribe.html> Prison Planet TV

The Washington Post story describes the contract as the latest in a series
of cutting-edge PR initiatives undertaken since 2003 that represent a
revolution in what it calls "the military's role in the war of ideas."
"Iraq, where hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent on such
contracts, has been the proving ground for the transformation."

"The tools they're using, the means, the robustness of this activity has
just skyrocketed since 2003. In the past, a lot of this stuff was just some
guy's dreams,'" said a senior U.S. military official, one of several who
discussed the sensitive defense program on the condition of anonymity.

The Pentagon still sometimes feels it is playing catch-up in a propaganda
market dominated by al Qaeda, whose media operations include sophisticated
Web sites and professionally produced videos and audios featuring Osama bin
Laden and his lieutenants. "We're being out-communicated by a guy in a
cave," Secretary Robert M. Gates often remarks.

The new contract was awarded to four companies, most of whom Farsetta refers
to as "the usual suspects," including
<http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Lincoln_Group#_note-8> Lincoln
Group, the Pennsylvania Avenue company that in 2005 was found to have
planted articles written by U.S. military officials in Iraqi newspapers
without attribution. (Although the group was cleared of any illegalities,
even then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld recognized the potential breach,
remarking, "Gee, that's not what we ought to be doing."

Selling the War to Iraqis

The main target audience for the $300 million contract is Iraqis. But,
different from earlier propaganda efforts, the content is not simply meant
to convince them of the noble intentions of their American occupiers.
"Originally, the major focus was all about the U.S.," says Farsetta. "The
message then was, 'Hey, you're free now,' but over time it has shifted to
more 'make sure you support your own government, your own police.'"

Indeed, the Washington Post quoted an unnamed official who described one
component of the program:

"There's a video piece produced by a contractor showing a family being
attacked by a group of bad guys, and their daughter being taken off. The
message is: You've got to stand up against the enemy." The professionally
produced vignette, he said, "is offered for airing on various (television)
stations in Iraq. They don't know that the originator of the content is the
U.S. government. If they did, they would never run anything.

"If you asked most Iraqis," he said, "they would say, 'It came from the
government, our own government.'"

A pretty blunt admission, to be sure, and one that lays bare the dubious
ethical nature of the program (not to mention the extent that the military
recognizes Iraqis' antipathy for the U.S. government). But it's not the
first time the U.S. government has sought to play hand puppet with Iraqi
media. Last spring, the NSA obtained and made public a document, along with
a PowerPoint presentation, that revealed the Pentagon's plans in the run-up
to the war to create a "Rapid Reaction Media Team." Jim Lobe, D.C. bureau
chief of InterPress Services, covered the revelation in May 2007; as he
wrote, the proposal was for a "six-month, $51 million budget for the RRMT
operation, apparently the first phase in a one- to two-year 'strategic
information campaign'":

Among other items, the budget called for the hiring of two U.S. "media
consultants" who were to be paid $140,000 each for six months' work. A
further $800,000 were to be paid for six Iraqi "media consultants" over the
same period.

Both the paper and the slide presentation were prepared by two Pentagon
offices - Special Operations and Low-Intensity Conflict, which, among other
things, specialize in psychological warfare, and the Office of Special Plans
under then undersecretary of defense for policy, Douglas Feith - in
mid-January, 2003, two months before the invasion, according to NSA analyst
Joyce Battle.

"The RRMT concept focuses on USG-UK pre- and post-hostilities efforts to
develop programming, train talent, and rapidly deploy a team of U.S./UK
media experts with a team of 'hand selected' Iraqi media experts to
communicate immediately with the Iraqi public opinion upon liberation of
Iraq," according to the paper.

The "hand-picked" Iraqi experts, according to the paper, would provide
planning and program guidance for the U.S. experts and help ''select and
train the Iraqi broadcasters and publishers ('the face') for the
USG/coalition sponsored information effort." USG is an abbreviation for U.S.
government.

In a rather extraordinary quote, the document boasted, "It will be as if,
after another day of deadly agit-prop, the North Korean people turned off
their TVs at night, and turned them on in the morning to find the rich fare
of South Korean TV spread before them as their very own."

Circumventing Congress

In the United States, few lawmakers have had a chance to scrutinize this
latest deployment of public funds for propaganda. (Like so many other
contracts awarded to private defense corporations, this one was awarded with
no Congressional approval.) But Webb's letter to Defense Secretary Robert
Gates suggests that it could become an issue.

At a time when this country is facing such a grave economic crisis, and at a
time when the government of Iraq now shows at least a $79 billion surplus
from recent oil revenues, in my view it makes little sense for the U.S.
Department of Defense to be spending hundreds of millions of dollars to
propagandize the Iraqi people. There is now an elected government in Iraq,
which is recognized to have the power and authority to negotiate a long-term
security agreement with the government of the United States. Clearly that
government is capable, both politically and financially, of communicating
with its own people in the manner now contemplated by these DOD contracts -
and without being accused by adversaries of being a foreign government that
is fulminating internal conditions through propaganda.

Laudable as his efforts to reign in contractors may be - much of Webb's
letter was devoted to military contractors more generally, and Blackwater
specifically - his letter made no mention of the myriad ethical questions
raised by the propaganda contract. To name a few, says Farsetta, "the fact
that the media produced is overwhelmingly not attributed to the U.S.
government;" "the fact that one of the 'strategic audiences' listed in the
contract is 'U.S. audiences,' in apparent violation of U.S. law;" and "the
difficulties in holding private contractors operating in war zones
accountable to any standard (ethical, performance or otherwise)."

Webb, who first learned about this contract as did most Americans, from the
Washington Post, has called for a thorough review of the Pentagon's
"strategic communications" initiatives, including Congressional hearings."
Were this to happen, says Farsetta, "I would love for those hearings to
include representatives from foreign governments and civil society groups
where the U.S. has major propaganda operations, including Iraq and
Afghanistan. The heads of firms like the Lincoln Group, L-3 and Rendon
should also testify, under oath."

But, she says, "What really bothers me is that Webb's using the "we've given
Iraq so much and now it's time for them to step up" argument. That argument
never fails to amaze and anger me. We bombed them in 1991, then for more
than a decade placed them under such devastating sanctions that hundreds of
thousands of children died, then bombed them more ferociously over a longer
period of time. Yet some politicians have the gall to complain that the
Iraqis aren't doing enough now? That's not to mention that the argument
assumes that Iraqi leaders have the same priorities as U.S. officials.
Personally, I say we need to get our propaganda and troops out of Iraq and
pay them reparations."

*** exposing the hidden truth for further educational research only ***
CAVEAT LECTOR ***

In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed
without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the
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<http://groups.google.com/group/total_truth_sciences/topics?gvc=2>
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<http://blogs.albawaba.com/alexanderjames>
http://blogs.albawaba.com/alexanderjames
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*** Revealing the hidden Truth For Educational & Further Research Purposes
only. *** Welcome to Real News Edited excerpts, non-partisan,
pro-truth-honesty-peace, and anti-war-lies-crime. The purpose is to expose
corruptions, frauds, deceptions, lies, criminal plans, cover-ups and
free-speech silencing by powerful people in governments, foundations,
corporations and media, which are done using the name of democracy, human
rights, false interpretations of religions, cults, occults, patriotism,
economy, business, media, elections, justice, charity, etc., and are used to
trick the public into hatred & wars and out of their lives, money and
freedoms, while the propaganda we are subjected to makes us believe that we
have evolved to where such things cannot happen [remember slavery,
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Truth We Trust! The opinions expressed herein contain positions and
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NOTICE: Due to Presidential Executive Orders, the National Security Agency
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are all intended for entertainment and amusement only.

Labels: , , , , ,

Saturday, October 18, 2008

Ode to Sara Palin

From the cold up north comes a woman who hunts
she was very good at Karl Rovian stunts
She attracts conservative crowds far, wide, and big
Not bad for a candidate, with an IQ 3 more than a pig

She barks so loud - Don't,
Don't, Don't vote for him
He eats Arugula salad,
and has black skin
He is a terrorist, a liberal, he's different you see
He cares about the poor, He has a college degree

It's about HOPE, and CHANGE, thats OUR message TOO..
But the difference is, is that We're red white and blue

Its taxes, the economy, that big money tree
We can fix it, like before, just look at Bush 1, 2, and three


http://flickr.com/photos/31225864@N06/2923705367/


http://flickr.com/photos/31225864@N06/


Bush humor political satire

Bush humor political satire

Bush humor political satire

Labels: , , , , , , ,

Friday, October 10, 2008

Meet Sarah Palin’s radical right-wing pals

Meet Sarah Palin’s radical right-wing pals

Extremists Mark Chryson and Steve Stoll helped launch Palin’s political career in Alaska, and in return had influence over policy. “Her door was open,” says Chryson — and still is.

Editor’s note: Research support provided by the Nation Institute Investigative Fund. For Salon’s complete coverage of Sarah Palin, click here.

Oct. 10, 2008 PALMER, Alaska — | On the afternoon of Sept. 24 in downtown Palmer, Alaska, as the sun began to sink behind the snowcapped mountains that flank the picturesque Mat-Su Valley, 51-year-old Mark Chryson sat for an hour on a park bench, reveling in tales of his days as chairman of the Alaska Independence Party. The stocky, gray-haired computer technician waxed nostalgic about quixotic battles to eliminate taxes, support the “traditional family” and secede from the United States.

So long as Alaska remained under the boot of the federal government, said Chryson, the AIP had to stand on guard to stymie a New World Order. He invited a Salon reporter to see a few items inside his pickup truck that were intended for his personal protection. “This here is my attack dog,” he said with a chuckle, handing the reporter an exuberant 8-pound papillon from his passenger seat. “Her name is Suzy.” Then he pulled a 9-millimeter Makarov PM pistol — once the standard-issue sidearm for Soviet cops — out of his glove compartment. “I’ve got enough weaponry to raise a small army in my basement,” he said, clutching the gun in his palm. “Then again, so do most Alaskans.” But Chryson added a message of reassurance to residents of that faraway place some Alaskans call “the 48.” “We want to go our separate ways,” he said, “but we are not going to kill you.”

Though Chryson belongs to a fringe political party, one that advocates the secession of Alaska from the Union, and that organizes with other like-minded secessionist movements from Canada to the Deep South, he is not without peculiar influence in state politics, especially the rise of Sarah Palin. An obscure figure outside of Alaska, Chryson has been a political fixture in the hometown of the Republican vice-presidential nominee for over a decade. During the 1990s, when Chryson directed the AIP, he and another radical right-winger, Steve Stoll, played a quiet but pivotal role in electing Palin as mayor of Wasilla and shaping her political agenda afterward. Both Stoll and Chryson not only contributed to Palin’s campaign financially, they played major behind-the-scenes roles in the Palin camp before, during and after her victory.

Palin backed Chryson as he successfully advanced a host of anti-tax, pro-gun initiatives, including one that altered the state Constitution’s language to better facilitate the formation of anti-government militias. She joined in their vendetta against several local officials they disliked, and listened to their advice about hiring. She attempted to name Stoll, a John Birch Society activist known in the Mat-Su Valley as “Black Helicopter Steve,” to an empty Wasilla City Council seat. “Every time I showed up her door was open,” said Chryson. “And that policy continued when she became governor.”

When Chryson first met Sarah Palin, however, he didn’t really trust her politically. It was the early 1990s, when he was a member of a local libertarian pressure group called SAGE, or Standing Against Government Excess. (SAGE’s founder, Tammy McGraw, was Palin’s birth coach.) Palin was a leader in a pro-sales-tax citizens group called WOW, or Watch Over Wasilla, earning a political credential before her 1992 campaign for City Council. Though he was impressed by her interpersonal skills, Chryson greeted Palin’s election warily, thinking she was too close to the Democrats on the council and too pro-tax.

But soon, Palin and Chryson discovered they could be useful to each other. Palin would be running for mayor, while Chryson was about to take over the chairmanship of the Alaska Independence Party, which at its peak in 1990 had managed to elect a governor.

The AIP was born of the vision of “Old Joe” Vogler, a hard-bitten former gold miner who hated the government of the United States almost as much as he hated wolves and environmentalists. His resentment peaked during the early 1970s when the federal government began installing Alaska’s oil and gas pipeline. Fueled by raw rage — “The United States has made a colony of Alaska,” he told author John McPhee in 1977 — Vogler declared a maverick candidacy for the governorship in 1982. Though he lost, Old Joe became a force to be reckoned with, as well as a constant source of amusement for Alaska’s political class. During a gubernatorial debate in 1982, Vogler proposed using nuclear weapons to obliterate the glaciers blocking roadways to Juneau. “There’s gold under there!” he exclaimed.

Vogler made another failed run for the governor’s mansion in 1986. But the AIP’s fortunes shifted suddenly four years later when Vogler convinced Richard Nixon’s former interior secretary, Wally Hickel, to run for governor under his party’s banner. Hickel coasted to victory, outflanking a moderate Republican and a centrist Democrat. An archconservative Republican running under the AIP candidate, Jack Coghill, was elected lieutenant governor.

Hickel’s subsequent failure as governor to press for a vote on Alaskan independence rankled Old Joe. With sponsorship from the Islamic Republic of Iran, Vogler was scheduled to present his case for Alaskan secession before the United Nations General Assembly in the late spring of 1993. But before he could, Old Joe’s long, strange political career ended tragically that May when he was murdered by a fellow secessionist.

Hickel rejoined the Republican Party the year after Vogler’s death and didn’t run for reelection. Lt. Gov. Coghill’s campaign to succeed him as the AIP candidate for governor ended in disaster; he peeled away just enough votes from the Republican, Jim Campbell, to throw the gubernatorial election to Democrat Tony Knowles.

Despite the disaster, Coghill hung on as AIP chairman for three more years. When he was asked to resign in 1997, Mark Chryson replaced him. Chryson pursued a dual policy of cozying up to secessionist and right-wing groups in Alaska and elsewhere while also attempting to replicate the AIP’s success with Hickel in infiltrating the mainstream.

Unlike some radical right-wingers, Chryson doesn’t put forward his ideas freighted with anger or paranoia. And in a state where defense of gun and property rights often takes on a real religious fervor, Chryson was able to present himself as a typical Alaskan.

He rose through party ranks by reducing the AIP’s platform to a single page that “90 percent of Alaskans could agree with.” This meant scrubbing the old platform of what Chryson called “racist language” while accommodating the state’s growing Christian right movement by emphasizing the AIP’s commitment to the “traditional family.”

“The AIP is very family-oriented,” Chryson explained. “We’re for the traditional family — daddy, mommy, kids — because we all know that it was Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve. And we don’t care if Heather has two mommies. That’s not a traditional family.”

Chryson further streamlined the AIP’s platform by softening its secessionist language. Instead of calling for immediate separation from the United States, the platform now demands a vote on independence.

Yet Chryson maintains that his party remains committed to full independence. “The Alaskan Independence Party has got links to almost every independence-minded movement in the world,” Chryson exclaimed. “And Alaska is not the only place that’s about separation. There’s at least 30 different states that are talking about some type of separation from the United States.”

Next page: The War of Northern Aggression, or the Civil War, or the War Between the States — however you want to refer to it — was not about slavery



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Wednesday, October 08, 2008

McCain's Nazi-Cocaine Connection

McCain's Nazi-Cocaine Connection


Also see: "Bush, McCain and the Old Iran-Contra Team"

ELECTION
gawker.com
10-07-08

Well, this election is fast turning into an opposition-research-fueled shitstorm. On Meet The Press Sunday, Democratic strategist Paul Begala casually mentioned that John McCain sat on the board of the U.S. Council For World Freedom. And the Associated Press this morning elaborated on exactly what that entails [see below]. "The U.S. Council for World Freedom was part of an international organization linked to former Nazi collaborators and ultra-right-wing death squads in Central America.," AP said. Very interesting! But the rest of the article doesn't give any details on these Nazis or the role of this group, called the World Anti-Communist League, in launching a "Cocaine Coup" that turned Bolivia into a drug trafficking hub and hotbed of brutal torture. Luckily a former AP and Newsweek reporter named Roberty Parry wrote an oddly fun book called Lost History, which can provide further illumination:
In 1966, the Asian Peoples Anti-Communist League expanded into the World Anti-Communist League, an international alliance that pulled together traditional conservatives with former Nazis, overt radicalists and Latin American "death squad" operatives. In an interview, reitred U.S. Army Gen. John K. Singlaub, a former WACL president], said "the Japanese [WACL] chapter was taken over almost entirely by the Moonies."

Through WACL and other political relationships, [Moonies founder Sun Myung] Moon built bridges to right-wing forces in South America during the 1970s.... [a] Bolivian WACL leader [last name Gasser]... was a leading figure in the coup....

...CAUSE, one of Moon's anti-communist organizations, listed as members nearly all the leading Bolivian coup-makers.

...An architect of the Bolivian coup was World War II Nazi fugitive Klaus Barbie, who was working as a Bolivian intelligence officer under the name Klaus Altmann. Barbie drew up plans modeled after the 1976 Argentine coup and contacted the Argentines for help. As the coup took shape, Barbie organized a secret lodge, called Thule, where he lectured his followers under swastikas by candlelight. [[!!!??!!]]

....The slaughter was fierce.... Labor leader Marcelo Quiroga... 'was dragged off to police headuarters to be the object of a game played by torture experts imported from Argentina's dreaded Mechanic School of the Navy...' [[-pages 38-41, 200-202]]

The WACL/Moonie/Barbie forces then transported cocaine on behalf of the drug lords they had made a deal with prior to the coup, Parry wrote. The drug trafficking eventually became an issue for the U.S. government (despite evidence the CIA was complicit in the coup) and the Moonies pulled out. And about a year later the Moonies, apparently flush with cash, launched the conservative Washington Times at an alleged cost of about $100 million per year! Very interesting.

Supposedly McCain was involved with this WACL council about as little as Obama was involved with 1960s radical Bill Ayers. "I don't recall talking to McCain at all on the work of the group," Singlaub (the retired Army general from the quote above) told AP. Singlaub, however, doesn't remember McCain quitting the group in 1984 as McCain has long claimed he did. That's probably because McCain attended the group's 1985 "Freedom Fighter Of The Year" awards! (See HuffPo link at top.)

Dredging up this McCain link is a crafty bit of flackery on behalf of Barack Obama's campaign in that it seems to neutralize the issue of Obama's affiliation with Ayers. Trouble is, the Ayers issue was useful mainly as an excuse to paint Obama as he was already seen by some voters — an un-American terrorist sympathizer. And the people who think that aren't going to care about some extreme anti-communist group McCain affiliated himself with a long time ago. The people who might care about that, in fact, are mostly already voting for Obama. So, nice going, oppo-wise, linking McCain with Nazis and so forth, but it's probably not going to stop all this "Who Is Barack Obama?" business.

http://gawker.com/5059938/mccains-nazi+cocaine-connection

•••••••
Oct 7, 5:58 AM EDT

McCain linked to private group in Iran-Contra case
By PETE YOST
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) -- GOP presidential nominee John McCain has past connections to a private group that supplied aid to guerrillas seeking to overthrow the leftist government of Nicaragua in the Iran-Contra affair.

McCain's ties are facing renewed scrutiny after his campaign criticized Barack Obama for his link to a former radical who engaged in violent acts 40 years ago.

The U.S. Council for World Freedom was part of an international organization linked to former Nazi collaborators and ultra-right-wing death squads in Central America. The group was dedicated to stamping out communism around the globe.

The council's founder, retired Army Maj. Gen. John Singlaub, said McCain became associated with the organization in the early 1980s as McCain was launching his political career in Arizona. Singlaub said McCain was a supporter but not an active member in the group.

"McCain was a new guy on the block learning the ropes," Singlaub told The Associated Press in an interview. "I think I met him in the Washington area when he was just a new congressman. We had McCain on the board to make him feel like he wasn't left out. It looks good to have names on a letterhead who are well-known and appreciated.

"I don't recall talking to McCain at all on the work of the group," Singlaub said.

The renewed attention over McCain's association with Singlaub's group comes as McCain's campaign steps up criticism of Obama's dealings with William Ayers, a college professor who co-founded the Weather Underground and years later worked on education reform in Chicago alongside Obama. Ayers held a meet-the-candidate event at his home when Obama first ran for public office in the mid-1990s.

Obama was roughly 8 years old when Ayers, now at the University of Illinois at Chicago, was working with the Weather Underground, which took responsibility for bombings that included nonfatal blasts at the Pentagon and U.S. Capitol. McCain's vice presidential nominee, Sarah Palin, has said that Obama "pals around with terrorists."

In McCain's case, Singlaub knew McCain's father, a Navy admiral who had sought Singlaub's counsel when McCain, a Navy pilot, became a prisoner of war and spent 5 1/2 years in North Vietnamese hands.

"John's father asked me for advice about what he ought to do now that his son had been shot down and captured," Singlaub recalled in one of two recent interviews. "I said, 'As long as you don't give any impression that you care more about him than you care about any of the other prisoners, he won't be treated any differently.'"

Covert arms shipments to the rebels called Contras, financed in part by secret arms sales to Iran, became known as the Iran-Contra affair. They proved to be the undoing of Singlaub's council.

In 1987, the Internal Revenue Service withdrew the tax-exempt status of Singlaub's group because of its activities on behalf of the Contras.

Elected to the House in 1982 and at a time when he was on the board of Singlaub's council, McCain was among Republicans on Capitol Hill expressing support for the Contras, a CIA-organized guerrilla force in Central America. In 1984, Congress cut off CIA funds for the Contras.

Months before the cutoff, top Reagan administration officials ramped up a secret White House-directed supply network and put National Security Council aide Oliver North in charge of running it. The goal was to keep the Contras operational until Congress could be persuaded to resume CIA funding.

Singlaub's private group became the public cover for the White House operation.

Secretly, Singlaub worked with North in an effort to raise millions of dollars from foreign governments.

McCain has said previously he resigned from the council in 1984 and asked in 1986 to have his name removed from the group's letterhead.

"I didn't know whether (the group's activity) was legal or illegal, but I didn't think I wanted to be associated with them," McCain said in a newspaper interview in 1986.

Singlaub does not recall any McCain resignation in 1984 or May 1986. Nor does Joyce Downey, who oversaw the group's day-to-day activities.

"That's a surprise to me," Singlaub said. "This is the first time I've ever heard that. There may have been someone in his office communicating with our office."

"I don't ever remember hearing about his resigning, but I really wasn't worried about that part of our activities, a housekeeping thing," said Singlaub. "If he didn't want to be on the board that's OK. It wasn't as if he had been active participant and we were going to miss his help. He had no active interest. He certainly supported us."

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