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tagged w/ War
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Kucinich: 'We're getting ready for war against Iran'
Kucinich: 'We're getting ready for war against Iran'
NDAA Authorizes War Against Iran
By Rep. Dennis Kucinich
Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) is urging Members to reject H.R. 4310, the National Defense Authorization Act, FY 2013 because it prepares the way for a disastrous war with Iran. Even if the House accepts a proposed amendment by John Conyers (D-MI) to state that the authorization is not a specific declaration of war, the bill still calls for aggressive redeployment of our armed services to begin "credible, visible preparations for a military option."
May 18, 2012 "Huffington Post" -- May 17, 2012 -- This week, Congress is considering two pieces of legislation relating to Iran. The first undermines a diplomatic solution with Iran and lowers the bar for war. The second authorizes a war of choice against Iran and begins military preparations for it.
much more at link:
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article31360.htmKucinich: 'We're getting ready for war against Iran' NDAA Authorizes... more-
- circlesquared
- added this
- 3 days ago
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- 54 comments
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Ron Paul, 30 years of patriotism
Ron Paul, 30 years of patriotism http://youtu.be/53A_fnNgyMc-
- Radical_Centrist
- added this
- 2 days ago
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- 11 comments
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Memorial Day 2012 – Was The Iraq War a War of Choice?
A video I made during the Iraq war. So much sadness, so much pain, was it really necessary? We need to reexamine our reasons to go to war, so a war of choice can never happen again. thinkingblue
Was the Iraq War Necessary?
By Editorial Office On February 23rd, 2011
Given the present economic conditions facing the world, rising unemployment and public dissatisfaction with dictators and oppressive regimes, was the U.S. led Iraq war really necessary? Might Saddam Hussein have been toppled from power by his own people at some point, particularly in this spreading democratic movement through the region?
Saddam Hussein
It will remain a question that will haunt the legacy of former President George W. Bush for many years. However, our view is that the war was not necessary, though of all the Mid-East potentates, Hussein was likely the last to fall.
Some may speculate whether the Americanization of the Iraqi government sowed the seeds of democratic thought in the region. Perhaps there is a scintilla of truth in that, but the more likely cause of the revolutions is a growing dissatisfaction with poverty and unemployment. Coupled with a number of leaders who’ve stolen vast sums, live like kings while their people starve, social media provided the communication tool to network those dissatisfied citizens where America’s previous communications with rebel groups has failed for decades.
More than likely, the people of the Muslim world became and remain anti-American following the invasion of Iraq. While none complained that Hussein was toppled from power, many do fear American imperialism so this “Facebook Revolution” is more likely the result of the economic conditions people face than American democratic ideology. MORE HERE: http://www.epicurusinstitute.org/was-the-iraq-war-necessary/603A video I made during the Iraq war. So much sadness, so much pain, was it really... more-
- thinkingblue
- added this
- 4 days ago
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- 28 comments
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What do we actually spend on national security? A mindboggling one trillion dollars a year
As the country’s big wars on the Eurasian continent wind down, American war-making and war preparations fly ever more regularly under the radar. There has, for instance, been much discussion about the Obama administration’s policy “pivot” to Asia -- the only warlike act in the region so far has, however, been a little noted drone strike in the Philippines. At the same time, remarkably little attention has been paid to a massive build-up of U.S. forces in the Persian Gulf, and -- though both seem to be underway (and connected) -- who talks about the “pivot” to the Western Indian Ocean or the “pivot” to Africa?
For those keeping a careful eye out, U.S. drone (and air) bases in the region have been proliferating -- in the Seychelles Islands, in Ethiopia, and at an unidentified site on the Arabian peninsula, among other places. Recently, however, Wired’s Danger Room website reported that an Italian blogger had put the pieces together and offered impressive evidence of a larger war-making effort in the region, involving not only drones but F-15E fighter jets, possibly being used to bomb Yemen. Meanwhile, there are U.S. drone strikes in Yemen almost daily and at least 20 special forces operatives are reportedly now on the ground there, helping direct some of the fighting and even taking casualties.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Africa Command (Africom), set up in 2007, has been gaining clout. In 2011, 100 special operations troops, mainly Green Berets, were moved into Central Africa, officially to aid in the hunting down of Joseph Kony, leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army. Recently, it was reported that a brigade of regular U.S. combat troops will soon be assigned to the command and given training duties throughout the region. Meanwhile, the U.S. has been organizing a proxy war, supported by drone attacks, against al-Shabab rebels in Somalia, using Ugandan, Kenyan, and other African troops as those proxies. And more’s afoot. It’s just that, if you weren’t an obsessive news watcher, you would have next to no way of knowing that any of this was taking place.
War American-style, already long detached from the lives of most Americans, is growing more so: ever more secret, presidential, and beyond the control of, or accountability to, citizens or Congress. In only one way is this not true: we taxpayers still fork over the massive sums that make our perpetual state of war and war state possible. As Chris Hellman and Mattea Kramer of the invaluable National Priorities Project report, the expense of all this is blowing a hole in your wallet and our treasury. To offer but one small example, if someday soon the Pakistani/Afghan border is reopened to U.S. war supplies, you will be paying the Pakistanis $1,500-$1,800 for every truck that crosses it, at an estimated cost of at least $1 million a day (with other "fees" likely). And yet, it’s remarkable how little Americans know about what’s coming out of their pockets when the subject is “national security,” or where exactly it’s all going. Which is why we need Hellman and Kramer (and their new book, A People’s Guide to the Federal Budget) to keep us in the loop. Tom
War Pay
The Nearly $1 Trillion National Security Budget
By Chris Hellman and Mattea Kramer
Recent months have seen a flurry of headlines about cuts (often called “threats”) to the U.S. defense budget. Last week, lawmakers in the House of Representatives even passed a bill that was meant to spare national security spending from future cuts by reducing school-lunch funding and other social programs.
Here, then, is a simple question that, for some curious reason, no one bothers to ask, no less answer: How much are we spending on national security these days? With major wars winding down, has Washington already cut such spending so close to the bone that further reductions would be perilous to our safety?
In fact, with projected cuts added in, the national security budget in fiscal 2013 will be nearly $1 trillion -- a staggering enough sum that it’s worth taking a walk through the maze of the national security budget to see just where that money’s lodged.
If you’ve heard a number for how much the U.S. spends on the military, it’s probably in the neighborhood of $530 billion. That’s the Pentagon’s base budget for fiscal 2013, and represents a 2.5% cut from 2012. But that $530 billion is merely the beginning of what the U.S. spends on national security. Let’s dig a little deeper.
The Pentagon’s base budget doesn’t include war funding, which in recent years has been well over $100 billion. With U.S. troops withdrawn from Iraq and troop levels falling in Afghanistan, you might think that war funding would be plummeting as well. In fact, it will drop to a mere $88 billion in fiscal 2013. By way of comparison, the federal government will spend around $64 billion on education that same year.
Add in war funding, and our national security total jumps to $618 billion. And we’re still just getting started.
More at the linkAs the country’s big wars on the Eurasian continent wind down, American... more-
- JanforGore
- added this
- 6 days ago
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- 11 comments
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The Hot Dog Stand: How Much Would You Charge?
by Amaterasu Solar
Let Us presume a world where free energy is available to all. Also, Let’s add robots doing all the necessary work no One wants to do - or taking up the slack where not enough People are doing necessary work.
In this scenario, there would not be any need for money - in any form: barter, trade, work exchange, cash, checks, electronic funds. You may doubt this, but Let’s examine a single case to illustrate the whole.
Let Us now suppose that You have a hot dog cart - You like to hang around it from time to time and chat with People, say; You are a gregarious sort. And You like to see people happy eating food. The energy to run this cart is free, and You have a robot tending it, taking orders, fixing the dogs, and so on. You, Yourself, may choose to fix a dog or two for People You particularly like, but You don’t HAVE to do any of the work.
Your robot is run on free energy, so it doesn’t cost You anything.
Now Let’s say Your hot dogs come from pigs, and the farm - where the pigs are allowed to roam a few acres - is run by robots. There may be someone who LOVES to raise pigs there, but most likely, the pigs are cared for, organically, by the robots (which are run on free energy). The cost of the pigs themselves is nothing.
The fields that grow the food for the pigs are farmed by robots, running on free energy, and perhaps a Human or three who LOVE to farm the land. The tilling, planting, weeding, debugging (maybe by small robots patrolling the plants), and harvesting is all handled organically by these robots and so there is no cost to grow the pig food.
Robots transport the pig feed for free (and any Humans who LOVE to transport things, should there be any).
Robots would handle the slaughter, cleanly (We would ensure this), quickly and honorably. They would also process the meat into the dogs, and upon a standing order, or Your request over the web, would deliver the dogs to Your cart - for free.
From the fields, free-range chicken coops and dairies (handled by robots), would come the ingredients for the buns and condiments, delivered to bakeries and processing plants for free - baked by robots (and Those whose bliss it is to bake large batches of buns) and processed by robots, with no energy cost anywhere. These things too would be delivered upon request, for free.
So… How much would You charge for these hot dogs? You paid nothing for the energy in the production line, nor for the labor in the production line - Those who chose to add Their Human energy did so not because They HAD to in order to survive, but because They LOVE to do what They were doing. Things being free, They simply chose to spend Their time in Their bliss. The seeds that were farmed are freely given by nature...so are the pigs, for that matter. The planet sits under Us freely for seeds to go into and pigs to live on.
You paid nothing for these hot dogs; it costs You zero to run the stand. (And We could go into the stand itself, as well as the robot, costing nothing, too, through robot workers for mining the metals, smelting, shaping, etc...). So why would You need to charge for the hot dogs?
Now, Let's say one day You befriend someone and She just LOVES to make specialty hot dogs - Her own "secret recipe" of spices. She can get Her meat free, Her spices free, Her cooking heat free, Her pots and pans and whatever else for free. And, because She doesn't HAVE to spend 8 or more hours pursuing Her slave's compensation for Her Human energy, She has time and energy of Her own to devote to making Her signature hot dogs.
One day She invites You over - You, who don't have to "mind the store," since Your robot can handle it easily - and so You decide to hang out with Her while She is in Her bliss, making Her dogs.
You say, "Hey. Those smell damn good. Better than what I have at the hot dog stand! If You have any extra, can I distribute them at My cart?"
She smiles in delight. "Of course. I always have a lot and You can have what You want! Thank You for the compliment!"
Thus begins a happy relationship. You have a robot pack up Her dogs and take them to the cart. You also have a sign made up saying, "NOW! Dogs by Delilah!" And soon, Delilah is blissfully making Her dogs, and Your cart is gaining the reputation of being the best on the block - or in town…or in the world. You develop a reputation. Your cart is written up in a number of blogs, and demand for the dogs - HUMAN made - grows. Soon, reservations are required to get the dogs, because Delilah does not want to make THAT many dogs. All this is handled via net and computer.
In the end, You gain reputation for having a popular hot dog cart, Delilah has reputation for making dogs, and neither of You have traded, bartered, exchanged work, exchanged coin, bills, checks or electronic funds (money).
But You are both very rich in social standing.
This all seems idyllic, so wonderful to consider. Every Human Being freed from wage-slavery and poverty to follow Her/His bliss, with richness in character and betterment contributions defining wealth. But can We get there? The answer is, YES!, but We need a plan.
The Plan is to:
1) Raise awareness that electrogravitics technology (which provides gravity control (“antigravity”) and overunity (“free energy”)) exists so that We can -
2) Call for the release of the overunity technology to -
3) Remove the cost of energy in manufacturing, transportation, agriculture, homes, & misc. so -
4) The cost of building robots to do the necessary jobs no One wants to do becomes affordable so -
5) We can relieve Ourselves of undesired toil, being supported easily at this point on social services since -
6) Money will become unnecessary when the effort to collect the penny for the week's groceries (the room full of furniture, the house, the [fill in the blank]) is more than the penny is worth
By abundantly replacing the money with what it represents (meaningful energy expended), the need for money dissipates and there is no motive to promote consumerism. There is no motive to create cheap, breakable goods to ensure future sales. There is no motive to solve issues the cheapest or most profitable way. There is no motive to steal - if One wants it, another can be had for the asking on the web. There is no motive to defraud. There is no motive to silence discoveries. There is no motive to hide cures. There is no motive to do what does not give One bliss.
But surely there are plenty Whose bliss is solving problems. Plenty Whose bliss is creating robots. Plenty Whose bliss is programming. Plenty Whose bliss is researching. Plenty Whose bliss is helping Others. Plenty Whose bliss is building. Plenty Whose bliss is creating art. Plenty Whose bliss is teaching. Plenty Whose bliss is any endeavor robots can't handle.
There WILL be motive to better the world - Those who contribute will earn appreciation, thanks, gratitude, name recognition and Self satisfaction. Instill a Betterment Ethic in place of the work "ethic" (a slave's ethic - enrich others with One's Human energy).
"From Each according to BLISS; to Each according to DESIRE."
So if One wants to be a couch potato... Heh. No problem!
Clearly We must spread this information. Widely. Below is a link to a petition, but if You choose to sign it, don’t stop there. Share it. Email it to friends and family, tweet it often on Twitter, post it to the Hotel Califacebook and on forums You visit. Become proactive and maintain the proactivity. If We all do this, We can make this planet a far better place than it is now.
To sign a petition for the release of electrogravitics technology:
http://www.change.org/petitions/us-military-release-the-technology-of-electrogravitics
More detail on the simple chaos seed for a society with free energy: http://bit.ly/I5TriH
Twitter: @AmaterasuSolarby Amaterasu Solar Let Us presume a world where free energy is available to all.... more-
- Amaterasu
- added this
- 21 days ago
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Make Hemp Not War
"The prestige of government has undoubtedly been lowered considerably by the prohibition law. For nothing is more destructive of respect for the government and the law of the land than passing laws which cannot be enforced. It is an open secret that the dangerous increase of crime in this country is closely connected with this."
- Albert Einstein quote on Hemp
"I think people need to be educated to the fact that marijuana is not a drug. Marijuana is an herb and a flower. God put it here. If He put it here and He wants it to grow, what gives the government the right to say that God is wrong?”"
- Willie Nelson quote on Marijuana
"Why is marijuana against the law? It grows naturally upon our planet. Doesn't the idea of making nature against the law seem to you a bit . . . unnatural"
- Bill Hicks quote on Marijuana
"Even if one takes every reefer madness allegation of the prohibitionists at face value, marijuana prohibition has done far more harm to far more people than marijuana ever could."
- William F. Buckley Jr. quote on Marijuana
"One's condition on marijuana is always existential. One can feel the importance of each moment and how it is changing one. One feels one's being, one becomes aware of the enormous apparatus of nothingness -- the hum of a hi-fi set, the emptiness of a pointless interruption, one becomes aware of the war between each of us, how the nothingness in each of us seeks to attack the being of others, how our being in turn is attacked by the nothingness in others"
- Norman Mailer quote on Marijuana
"i talked to Snoop Doggy Dog today. well I'm not sure if you could really call it talked because I could hardly understand what he was saying. But i think he was trying to communicate was that he wanted to work with me in some sort of capacity and something involving marijuana."
- Marilyn Manson quote on Marijuana
"When a private enterprise fails, it is closed down; when a government enterprise fails, it is expanded. Isn’t that exactly what’s been happening with drugs?"
- Milton Friedman quote on Marijuana
"It really puzzles me to see marijuana connected with narcotics . . . dope and all that crap. It's a thousand times better than whiskey - it's an assistant - a friend."
- Louis Armstrong quote on Marijuana
"That is not a drug. It’s a leaf,"
- Arnold Schwarzenegger, U.S. President Wannabe quote on Marijuana
"Hemp is of first necessity to the wealth & protection of the country."
- Thomas Jefferson, U.S. President quote on Hemp
"Make the most you can of the Indian Hemp seed and sow it everywhere."
- George Washington, U.S. President quote on Hemp
"I now have absolute proof that smoking even one marijuana cigarette is equal in brain damage to being on Bikini Island during an H-bomb blast"
- Ronald Reagan, U.S. President quote on Marijuana
"When I was in England, I experimented with marijuana a time or two, and I didn't like it, and I didn't inhale, and I never tried again."
- Bill Clinton, U.S. President quote on Marijuana
"When I was a kid I inhaled frequently. That was the point."
- Barack Obama, U.S. President quote on Marijuana
"There's been no top authority saying what marijuana does to you. I really don't know that much about it. I tried it once but it didn't do anything to me."
- John Wayne quote on Marijuana
"I think pot should be legal. I don't smoke it, but I like the smell of it."
- Andy Warhol quote on Marijuana
"I enjoy smoking cannabis and see no harm in it".
- Jennifer Aniston quote on Marijuana
"If John Lennon is deported, I'm leaving too...with my musicians..and my marijuana."
- Art Garfunkel quote on Marijuana
"Forty million Americans smoked marijuana; the only ones who didn't like it were Judge Ginsberg, Clarence Thomas and Bill Clinton."
- Jay Leno quote on Marijuana
"
The illegality of cannabis is outrageous, an impediment to full utilization of a drug which helps produce the serenity and insight, sensitivity and fellowship so desperately needed in this increasingly mad and dangerous world."
- Carl Sagan quote on Marijuana
"I used to smoke marijuana. But I'll tell you something: I would only smoke it in the late evening. Oh, occasionally the early evening, but usually the late evening - or the mid-evening. Just the early evening, mid-evening and late evening. Occasionally, early afternoon, early mid-afternoon, or perhaps the late-mid-afternoon. Oh, sometimes the early-mid-late-early morning. . . . ...But never at dusk."
- Steve Martin quote on Marijuana
"When you return to this mundane sphere from your visionary world, you would seem to leave a Neapolitan spring for a Lapland winter - to quit paradise for earth - heaven for hell! Taste the hashish, guest of mine - taste the hashish!" - Alexander Dumas quote on Marijuana
"Why use up the forests which were centuries in the making and the mines which required ages to lay down, if we can get the equivalent of forest and mineral products in the annual growth of the hemp fields?"
- Henry Ford quote on Marijuana
"If the words "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" don't include the right to experiment with your own consciousness, then the Declaration of Independence isn't worth the hemp it was written on."
- Terence McKenna quote on Marijuana
"Penalties against possession of a drug should not be more damaging to an individual than the use of the drug itself; and where they are, they should be changed. Nowhere is this more clear than in the laws against possession of marihuana in private for personal use... Therefore, I support legislation amending Federal law to eliminate all Federal criminal penalties for the possession of up to one ounce of marihuana."
- Jimmy Carter, U.S. President quote on Marijuana
"We shall, by and by, want a world of hemp more for our own consumption."
- John Adams, U.S. President quote on Hemp
"La cucaracha, la cucaracha, Ya no quieres caminar, Porque no tienes,
Porque le falta, Marihuana que fumar."
- Pancho Villa quote on Marijuana
http://rezn8d.net/2012/04/05/make-hemp-not-war/"The prestige of government has undoubtedly been lowered considerably by the... more-
- R3zn8D
- added this
- 1 month ago
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- 23 comments
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We Just Built Skynet in the Desert, Now What?
Ten years after 9/11, the National Security Agency (NSA) is close to putting the finishing touches on what will be the single biggest spy center in the country. According to James Bamford of WIRED, this new one million-square foot spy complex in the Utah Desert will actually be capable of monitoring, intercepting and de-encrypting just about any message sent over any communication network in the country. It will be capable of keeping tabs on any civilian in the U.S. or any foreigner visiting the USA. And it will all be hooked up to federal computers in Washington, giving it access to the records and databases of the most powerful government agencies in the country. If all this is starting to sound a lot like Skynet in the Terminator movies, that’s because, well, it is - minus the Schwarzenegger robots, of course.
The sheer amount of data that the NSA – and by extension the CIA, FBI and Pentagon – will be able to collect on both foreigners and its own civilians is staggering. The $2 billion center, which goes by the disarmingly bland name of the Utah Data Center, is the final piece in the puzzle for the Pentagon, which has been attempting to build a Global Information Grid ever since 9/11. Remember the Total Information Awareness program of 2003? Well, it’s now here in physical form – and it’s heavily guarded. In military parlance, it’s not a “soft” target - the facility has been hardened to the point where a 15,000-pound vehicle traveling at 50 miles per hour couldn't muscle its way inside. At its peak, this new surveillance center will be able to handle so much data that the NSA practically had to coin a new word to describe it: yottabytes. There are so many servers running this system that the annual cooling costs are estimated to be $40 million.
That’s quite an electricity bill for a "data center."
That's because this federal spy center goes far beyond what’s already being collected about us online, to explore the “Deep Web” that’s all but invisible to typical search engines. The spy center will also delve into the world of code-breaking and reverse-encryption. Even things that we think are far beyond any type of cyber-penetration will be readily available to the powers-that-be. That’s where things get downright scary. We assume that spambots and spiders slither behind us everywhere we go online, but what do we really know about all the other information that is being tracked about us? What information is being collected about us by security monitors in the streets and satellites overhead? The scope of what's being collected by the NSA is breathlessly thorough in detail, reaching into every area of our lives:
"Flowing through its servers and routers and stored in near-bottomless databases will be all forms of communication, including the complete contents of private emails, cell phone calls, and Google searches, as well as all sorts of personal data trails—parking receipts, travel itineraries, bookstore purchases, and other digital “pocket litter.” It is, in some measure, the realization of the “total information awareness” program created during the first term of the Bush administration—an effort that was killed by Congress in 2003 after it caused an outcry over its potential for invading Americans’ privacy."
This digital "pocket litter" that each of us leaves behind us may sound harmless – but that's until all of this highly unstructured data gets dumped into a supercomputing capable of mining all this data and producing patterns and insights. This “pocket litter” is no longer trash once it can be used to construct ever-more precise profiles of everyday civilians and predict future behaviors.
“Cybersecurity” and “the war on terror” are handy little buzzwords for enabling governments to extend their cyber-surveillance over every aspect of our lives. At the end of the day, pure democracy and absolute authoritarianism are really just flip sides of the same coin. This is precisely why dystopian novels such as George Orwell’s 1984 and Yevgeny Zamyatin’s We are so terrifying. Authoritarian regimes always start out with a willingness to help - not enslave - its civilians. War is Peace. Freedom is Slavery. Ignorance is Strength. A government that claims to protect its citizens by spying on them is a government that needs to be watched, monitored and held under strict surveillance by its own citizens.
http://bigthink.com/endless-innovation/we-just-built-skynet-in-the-desert-now-whatTen years after 9/11, the National Security Agency (NSA) is close to putting the... more -
No surprise here! Republicans put oil ahead of troops' lives
The Republicans are at it again through their favorite mouthpiece, Fox News, wanting to invade Syria supposedly to protect human rights, but also to protect their "black gold---oil."
Read more here:
http://corksphere.blogspot.com/2012/05/no-surprise-here-republicans-put-oil.htmlThe Republicans are at it again through their favorite mouthpiece, Fox News, wanting... more-
- BillCorcoran
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- 3 hours ago
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Flashback: 1957 CIA-MI6 Plot to Terrorise Syria, Spark Fake Revolution and Assassinate Leadership
Same as Iran 1979, same Libya 2011, same as it ever was
*******
Ben Fenton
The Guardian
Sat, 27 Sep 2003 14:49 CDT
Nearly 50 years before the war in Iraq, Britain and America sought a secretive "regime change" in another Arab country they accused of spreading terror and threatening the west's oil supplies, by planning the invasion of Syria and the assassination of leading figures.
Newly discovered documents show how in 1957 Harold Macmillan and President Dwight Eisenhower approved a CIA-MI6 plan to stage fake border incidents as an excuse for an invasion by Syria's pro-western neighbours, and then to "eliminate" the most influential triumvirate in Damascus.
The plans, frighteningly frank in their discussion, were discovered in the private papers of Duncan Sandys, Mr Macmillan's defence secretary, by Matthew Jones, a reader in international history at Royal Holloway, University of London.
Although historians know that intelligence services had sought to topple the Syrian regime in the autumn of 1957, this is the first time any document has been found showing that the assassination of three leading figures was at the heart of the scheme. In the document drawn up by a top secret and high-level working group that met in Washington in September 1957, Mr Macmillan and President Eisenhower were left in no doubt about the need to assassinate the top men in Damascus.Same as Iran 1979, same Libya 2011, same as it ever was ******* Ben Fenton The... more-
- maasanova
- added this
- 10 hours ago
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- 0 comments
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US Military Warns Syria of Armed Intervention
"The US's top military officer has warned Syria it could face armed intervention as international outrage grows over the massacre of women and children by tanks and artillery in Houla.
General Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, said that following the UN security council's condemnation of the slaughter – in which more than 100 people were killed, many of them children – there needed to be increased diplomatic pressure on Damascus. But he added that the US would be prepared to act militarily if it was "asked to do so".
"There is always a military option," he told Fox News. "You'll always find military leaders to be somewhat cautious about the use of force, because we're never entirely sure what comes out on the other side. But that said, it may come to a point with Syria because of the atrocities."
The warning comes as Barack Obama is under increasing pressure from his Republican opponent in November's presidential election, Mitt Romney, and members of Congress to take tougher action over Syria.
Romney accused Obama of weakness and disparaged his support for efforts by the former UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, to revive a failing peace plan. He said Washington should instead arm opposition groups.
"After nearly a year and a half of slaughter, it is far past time for the United States to begin to lead and put an end to the Assad regime. President Obama can no longer ignore calls from congressional leaders in both parties to take more assertive steps," he said.
Romney continued: "The Annan 'peace' plan, which President Obama still supports, has merely granted the Assad regime more time to execute its military onslaught. The United States should work with partners to organise and arm Syrian opposition groups so they can defend themselves. The bloodshed in Houla makes clear that our goal must be a new Syrian government."
Senator John McCain, the Republican presidential candidate against Obama four years ago, called the White House "feckless" for not doing more to stop Syria.
"This is a shameful episode in American history," he said. "It's really an abdication of everything that America stands for and believes in."
Dempsey was asked if there is a place in Syria for the Libya model, in which Nato led a bombing campaign ostensibly to protect civilian areas but which swiftly evolved into action directly in support of the rebels.
"I'm sure there are some things that we did in Libya that could be applicable in a Syria environment or Syria scenario. But I'm very cautious about templates," he said.
Obama has steered clear of public discussion about military action against the Assad regime, saying that conditions in Syria are different from those in Libya. For a start, Russia is a major diplomatic obstacle to military action or even much stronger sanctions although it backed the UN security council condemnation of Damascus on Sunday, suggesting there are limits to the protection it is prepared to offer.
Neither is there much appetite for military intervention in other western capitals, including France which led the assault on Libya but which has since had a change of leadership with the election of Francois Hollande.
Domestic US political conditions have also shifted since the Libya campaign. With an election in November, the president may not want to embroil US forces in another Middle East conflict when he is trumpeting getting the US out of unpopular wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Washington is instead looking to a negotiated transition that would see President Bashar al-Assad surrender power as part of a power sharing agreement between the rebels and the regime.
The Russian foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, on Monday said that Russia is not wedded to keeping Assad in control.
"It is not the most important thing who is in power in Syria, what regime has power," he said. "For us, the main thing is to put an end to the violence among civilians and to provide for political dialogue under which the Syrians themselves decide on the sovereignty of their country.""The US's top military officer has warned Syria it could face armed... more-
- Truthitswhatsfordinner
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My Dad, Adolf, Stalin, Mussolini and Memorial Day
I don't talk about my Dad much. Once I turned 13 something changed and we kind of became enemies at times. There were good times when he told me stories, but they were mostly war stories because that was so much of his life and if even half of what he said was true he was not a guy to piss off in a fight.I don't talk about my Dad much. Once I turned 13 something changed and we kind of... more-
- baghdadbythebay
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Memorial Day: our most troubled national holiday | Scholars and Rogues
We have made gods of those who died on Omaha Beach, at Midway, on the fields of Gettysburg and Antietam, of the brave patriots whose blood watered the tree of liberty, and so on. We have been less kind to those who never came home from Vietnam (or whose bodies came home with their minds utterly destroyed). If we didn’t have a Memorial Day already, who thinks we’d create one today to honor the fallen from that war, from Iraq and Afghanistan?
Today I honor our war dead, but I’m mad as hell that our leaders, corrupt and sociopathic as they so often are, have killed so many without cause.We have made gods of those who died on Omaha Beach, at Midway, on the fields of... more-
- hoosierdaddy
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Memorial Day 2012 - The Truest Fog Of War ~ They Will Say ANYTHING!
Memorial Day 2012-
- mfb1949
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Blu-ray review: 'Memorial Day'
http://www.examiner.com/review/blu-ray-review-memorial-day
A review of the war drama Memorial Day starring Jonathan Bennett, John Cromwell, and James Cromwell and directed by Sam Fischer. Memorial Day comes to DVD and Blu-ray tomorrow, May 29.http://www.examiner.com/review/blu-ray-review-memorial-day A review of the war... more-
- evilbutters
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Why I Like Joe Biden
The Vice President tells how grief almost consumed him.-
- Progresshiv
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Deal or no deal, Iran may be bombed – Israeli minister
A military strike against Iranian facilities is not out of the question, even though Tehran has reached agreement on a probe with the UN’s nuclear watchdog, says Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak.
The official was referring to a deal announced on Tuesday by the International Atomic Energy Agency. Barak called it an Iranian ploy to fend off international pressure.
The minister told Army Radio that "a nuclear Iran is intolerable and no options should be taken off the table," referring to the use of force.
He said the only way Israel could see Iran develop its civilian nuclear industry is if it shuts down all of its uranium enrichment sites and uses imported fuel.
The comments came as Iranian nuclear negotiators are meeting the P5+1 group in Baghdad on Wednesday. They are to discuss the conflict over Iran’s nuclear ambitions, which the West suspects of being a clandestine attempt to build an atomic weapon. Iran insists its pursuits are purely civilian.
"Dragging things out, in our eyes, is problematic, so conversations between the West and Iran must occur more frequently. North Korea also negotiated with the West but in the end tested nuclear weapons," Barak pointed out.
Last week US Ambassador Dan Shapiro said the Pentagon has a plan for a military strike on Iran, and may carry it out if ordered.
"It would be preferable to resolve this diplomatically and through the use of pressure than to use military force," he said.
Possible use of force against Iran has been discussed by Israel and its western allies for months. Israel insists on the right to strike when and if it sees fit, saying it will not ask for anyone’s consent. There is fear that if such an attack happens, Iran would retaliate at any forces it sees as enemies, which could result in a major regional war.A military strike against Iranian facilities is not out of the question, even though... more-
- Baliyani
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I Hung My Head "VIDEO"
Early one morning
With time to kill
I borrowed Jebb's rifle
And sat on a hill
I saw a lone rider
Crossing the plain
I drew a bead on him
To practice my aim
My brother's rifle
Went of in my hand
A shot rang out
Across the land
The horse, he kept running
The rider was dead
I hung my head
I hung my head
http://youtu.be/7j6JgLev6gEEarly one morning With time to kill I borrowed Jebb's rifle And sat on a hill... more-
- Radical_Centrist
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- 7 days ago
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Republican GOP Tea Party's War On Women (continued)
http://thethinkingblue.com/GOPwaronwomen.html
Please forgive me but I must re-blog this video, it shows the GOP Tea Party misogyny and their lack of Public Morality so thoroughly with honesty. Thank you Robert Reich, your video also fits today's blog so perfectly.
Now for the excerpt From This Link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2012/mar/05/republican-party-declares-war-on-women
Please click this link for the original image on today's blog: http://i933.photobucket.com/albums/ad179/thethinkingblue/cantbelieve.jpg
The more Republican candidates pitch for social conservative votes, the more we see the misogyny of America's religious right
Rick Santorum... has cast America as fighting a spiritual struggle against secularism and Satan.
Republicans and their Tea Party shock troops say they want to "take America back". Progressives think they mean back to the 1950s, back to when men were men, women were ladies, and black folks only got into the White House by the back door. But Republicans are thinking big: they actually want to take us back to the Middle Ages, back to the "good old days" of sexual repression, regulation (ON SOCIAL ISSUES) and punishment.
Forget the economy: this election is becoming a referendum on women's bodies, since it's women (according to the Republicans' Book of Holy Misogyny) who like to have sex without wanting to get pregnant, and, if they do get pregnant, might want to have an abortion; women who demand, as former Senator Rick Santorum says, a "license to do things in the sexual realm that is [sic] counter to how things are supposed to be."
You know, "sluts".
Republicans in Congress have launched a dubious investigation of Planned Parenthood, the century-old women's health organization, and tried to take away its funding. The Senate narrowly defeated an amendment that would have allowed employers to deny insurance coverage for anything the employer found morally or religiously objectionable: contraception, certainly, but perhaps also lung cancer treatment ("you should have stopped smoking"), HIV/Aids testing ("homosexuality is an abomination"), and pre-natal care for single women ("nice girls get themselves a husband before they get themselves a baby"). http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2012/mar/05/republican-party-declares-war-on-women
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When I stumbled across this article I thought GOOD SUPERNATURAL GUY, this is a remarkable dissertation of what the GOP Tea Party is all about in plain English AND it came from the objectivity of another country, The United Kingdom, (Leave it to the Brits to call it like it is). This WAR ON WOMEN (and it's not SO CALLED it IS) made me think... (Which I do quite frequently... I don't know why, maybe because I have a few BRAIN CELLS hanging around with nothing to do) what about all the unwanted little babies that the GOP Tea Party supposedly are trying to SAVE... (All the unwanted pregnancies that the male-chowder-heads inside the GOP Tea Party wish to force to term, so they can become a bunch of impoverished lazy bums – as the same GOP Tea Party would ascribe to them, once born) ...what about those tiny little guys who were FORCED into existence even though no one wanted them. With a few KEY words typed in to Google, the on-line search machine gave me back ‘VOILA’ this link:
http://users.resist.ca/~kirstena/machallinstitutionhistory.html
Here is a heart wrenching EXCERPT:
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American Child Institution History
World Poverty The history of child welfare for neglected and dependent children in the United States traces its roots to Elizabethan Poor Laws from the 1600's and British common law that came to America via the colonists. Up until the 1800's, abandoned and neglected children were placed in workhouses, and sold into indentured servitude or industrial labor, alongside destitute adults. Poor children often also ended up in poorhouses/almshouses alongside adults. In Robert L. Geiser's book, The Illusion of Caring, (1973: Beacon Press, Boston), he says in 1795, there were 622 paupers in the New York City Almshouse and 259 of them, over 40 percent, were children under the age of nine. He goes on to write, "In 1821, in the Boston Almshouse were 78 sick persons, 77 children, 9 maniacs and idiots, and 155 unclassified inmates, mostly old and decrepit…In 1834, the Boston Almshouse (originally intended to be a workhouse for the able-bodied poor) now contained 134 sick persons, 132 children (104 of school age and 28 at nurse), and a distressing 61 persons insane or idiotic…" (p. 152). Eventually public outrage over conditions for poor children in adult work and poverty institutions removed children into specialized child institutions, which eventually gave way to a foster care revolution, ushered in by Charles Loring Brace, in the mid-1840's. The 1800's saw an economic depression, and the U.S. government began getting involved in child welfare, in addition to existing religious and private organizations devoted to the cause for differing reasons. By the mid-1900's, foster care had begun to replace institutional care for dependent children. Yet even in 2008, we are experiencing what some call a "broken foster care system," with children dying in foster care regularly, without proper state supervision. Hundreds of thousands of children have gone through American child institutions and foster care placements. The problem of what to do with abandoned, impoverished children is one as old as America herself. http://users.resist.ca/~kirstena/machallinstitutionhistory.html
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HEY FOLKS, that's the America the Republican GOP Tea Party wishes to take us back to... http://i933.photobucket.com/albums/ad179/thethinkingblue/SAYWHAT.gifI just can't help but wonder, (another past-time for those pesky BRAIN CELLS with not much to do) WHO ARE OUR LEADERS? Are they the educated folk that we elect OR are THEY the unenlightened, scared to death, small minded ignorants who complain and throw hissy-fits because we have come a long way from the puritanical pathetic people of yesteryear (YOU KNOW THE ONES WHO USE TO BURN OLD LADIES AT THE STAKE http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_by_burning )? thinkingblue
Please forgive me but I must re-blog this video, it shows the GOP Tea Party misogyny and their lack of Public Morality so thoroughly with honesty.
GOP War On Women - continued http://thethinkingblue.com/kos/GOPwaronwomen.html
War On Women? Poppycock! http://www.thethinkingblue.com/kos/womenpoppycock.htmlhttp://thethinkingblue.com/GOPwaronwomen.html Please forgive me but I must re-blog... more-
- thinkingblue
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- 8 days ago
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Revolution 99 Updates: Chicago Welcomes War Pigs. Celebrates Evil
Nato summit leaders should have been forced to watch the moving protest of the former troops chucking their medals away
No amount of medals, ribbons, or flags can cover the amount of human suffering caused by this war.”
“I have only one word, and it is shame.”
“This is for the people of Iraq and Afghanistan.”Nato summit leaders should have been forced to watch the moving protest of the former... more-
- joeeddy
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- 9 days ago
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A War On Women? Poppycock!
Despite the persistent gender gap in opinion polls and mounting criticism of their hostility to women’s rights, Republicans are not backing off their assault on women’s equality and well-being.
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The GOP is still trying to deny that they are waging a WAR ON WOMEN even though everything they do, every word that comes from their lips, every bill they try to push, affirms otherwise. A few examples in my own words below but don't take my arrogant opinion of anger towards the SOB... Oops I mean, GOP, just read the article "The Campaign Against Women" for REAL HARD EVIDENCE that proves, indeed the GOP/TP Republicans are waging a political war on all us W-O-M-E-N. (only those of us who are either low income or low middle income because wealthy women will be able to override the GOP's unfair laws against females, with M-O-N-E-Y.)
ABORTION - GOP is whittling away at Roe v. Wade until it no longer exists.
ACCESS TO HEALTH CARE - GOP wishes to defund Planned Parenthood, denying low income women life saving medical treatment.
EQUAL PAY- GOP does not believe women deserve the same wages as men for the same jobs.
DOMESTIC VIOLENCE - The GOP wishes to omit new protections for gay, Indian, student and immigrant abuse victims ... GOP also wish to roll back protections for immigrant women whose status is dependent on a spouse, making it more likely that they will stay with their abusers, at real personal risk... AND THE GOP IS STILL INSISTING THAT 'THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A WAR ON WOMEN...
Say What?
NOW TURN ON YOUR TV AND TUNE IN TO FOX NEWS TO HEAR, Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity, and Neil Cavuto et.al., clamor,
“Par-don My French, Folks… ‘A WAR ON WOMEN’ Poppycock and Fiddlesticks!! IT’S JUST A LIBERAL PLOT perpetrated by DEMOCRATS”.
You Decide? thinkingblue
The Campaign Against Women
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/20/opinion/sunday/the-attack-on-women-is-real.htmlDespite the persistent gender gap in opinion polls and mounting criticism of their... more-
- thinkingblue
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- 9 days ago
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