Blog Smith is inspired by the myth of Hephaestus in the creation of blacksmith-like, forged materials: ideas. This blog analyzes topics that interest me: IT, politics, technology, history, education, music, and the history of religions.
"Slick Willie" released a list of his financial supporters. Among the donations to the William J. Clinton Foundation are included amounts of $10 million to $25 million from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and real estate mogul Stephen Bing. Clinton agreed to the release the list after Obama nominated Hillary to become secretary of state.
The governments of Kuwait and Qatar are also on the list, as is Saudi businessman Nasser Al-Rashid, who has close ties to the Saudi royal family. Saudi Sheikh Mohammed H. Al-Amoudi, reputed to be one of the richest men in the world, is among the donors as well. Both Saudis contributed in the $1 million to $5 million range. A group called Friends of Saudi Arabia and the Dubai Foundation appear in the same category. What influence do these people have on the government of the U.S.?
Indian businessman Lakshmi Mittal also donated between $1 million and $5 million, as did the Open Society Institute, which wealthy businessman George Soros founded. Israeli-born television owner Haim Saban, who runs the Spanish-language TV station Univision, donated between $5 million and $10 million personally or through his foundation. The two biggest donors are UNITAID, an international organization that purchases drugs for the world's poorest people, and the Children's Investment Fund Foundation, both of which donated more than $25 million.
The full 2,922-page list of contributors is available. It includes only donation ranges, not specific amounts, and no information about donors beyond their names.
Jorge Baro, a private investigator, has released an affidavit that casts doubt on whether Obama's family lived at the address listed in the published notice of his birth in 1961. Baro's affidavit documents an interview his staff conducted with Beatrice Arakaki, who has lived at 6075 Kalanianaole Highway in Honolulu since before Obama was born.
A U.S. Government publication written by Lt. Col. (USA Ret.) Nathan Freier entitled “Known Unknowns: Unconventional Strategic Shocks in Defense Strategy Development” warns of “strategic shocks.” The author posits domestic events which our federal government, defense, and intelligence agencies are woefully ill-equipped to deal with.
We should all be listening to how Obama answers questions, or as the case may be, avoid them, to see how transparent he is. Obama was asked a question about Rahm Emanuel's contacts with Governor Blagojevich, by reporter John McCormick of the Chicago Tribune. Obama cut him off and responded by telling McComrmick not to "...waste your question," and then he stumbled through his "uhh, uhh, ahh, uhh..." misspeaking as he does when he doesn't have a scripted answer, or a teleprompter.
The Lightfoot v. Bowen information is updated here:
No. 08A524 Title: Gail Lightfoot, et al., Applicants v. Debra Bowen, California Secretary of State
Docketed: Lower Ct: Supreme Court of California Case Nos.: (S168690)
~~~Date~~~ ~~~~~~~Proceedings and Orders~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Dec 12 2008 Application (08A524) for a stay pending the filing and disposition of a petition for a writ of certiorari, submitted to Justice Kennedy.
~~Name~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~Address~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~Phone~~~ Attorneys for Petitioners: Orly Taitz 26302 La Paz (949) 683-5411 Counsel of Record Mission Viejo, CA 92691 Party name: Gail Lightfoot, et al.
A false rumor had circulated that Lightfoot v Bowen was denied by the Supreme Court but that is not true. It is still being reviewed and more cases are coming.
You know you are onto something when Noam Chomsky begins to say Obama is Bush, Part II.
Chomsky is about as far Left as one can get without biting Marx on the nose but he is criticizing Obama for his lack of transparency and his poor judgment of appointees.
A poll conducted by CNN concluded that Obama had an 80% approval rating which I found curious. He resigned from the Senate, he is not working as the President, thus, he is unemployed. Nonetheless, the American people rated his job performance exceptionally well. This is quite an achievement for an unemployed person.
Despite the shoe throwers, the stone throwers, the bombs, and militias, British troops will begin leaving Iraq in May 2009. Bush forged a coalition of the willing to oust dictator Saddam Hussein. If the U.S. had stayed the course in Somalia, we might have had less of an issue with pirates around the Horn of Africa, but Iraq has made remarkable progress. If a commitment to democracy continues, Iraq could have an historically positive effect in the region.
An "honorable Iraq," Muntadhar al-Zaidi, threw his shoes at the American head of state, and, as all weak nations, America, and Americans, are barely offended at all.
The Official Gazette of Illinois published this article and photo on 12 November 2008 when the story promoted the idea that Obama was concerned about his constituents. The article said:
After congratulating President-elect Barack Obama on his Nov. 4 victory, Governor Rod Blagojevich now begins the difficult task of finding a replacement for Illinois’ Senate seat.
And the caption under the photo reads:
Governor Blagojevich confers with now President-elect Barack Obama.
The story has been scrubbed.
As reported earlier, a second KHQA story, originally published on 8 November, has also been scrubbed. That KHQA post confirmed that the 5 November meeting between Obama and Blagojevich took place.
A “strategic shock” describes a possible scenario by the U.S. Army War College’s Strategic Institute including the collapse of a nuclear state to massive unrest in the United States. “Widespread civil violence inside the United States would force the defense establishment to reorient priorities in extremis to defend basic domestic order and human security,” stated the report, authored by retired Lt. Col. Nathan Freir.
* Former presidential candidate Alan Keyes headlines a list of people filing a suit in California that asks the secretary of state to refuse to allow the state's 55 Electoral College votes to be cast in the 2008 presidential election until Obama verifies his eligibility to hold the office. The case is pending.
Private investigator Douglas Hagmann of HomelandSecurityUS.com reported earlier he found 13 cases challenging Obama's eligibility still active or semi-active.
Without additional documentation, we are facing a constitutional crisis if our troops and citizens refuse to obey a government that does not follow previous procedures and legal precedent.
Atlah Worldwide is the home of Reverend James David Manning, PhD who posts his sermons on YouTube. The Pastor has a respectable resume including having held corporate jobs as a marketing executive with Proctor & Gamble and Ford Motor Company. He gained wider circulation with typical sermons such as "Obama Got a White Mama." In this sermon Pastor Manning attacks Barack Obama and calls his whole congregation "maggots" and "despicable hypocrites without honor or integrity" because they didn't vote for Hillary Clinton and are supporting Barack Obama. Reverend Manning states "black men don't have a pot to piss in or a window to throw it out of." He describes the Black community as "all black men pimps and playas and black women playa lovers." He evokes the wrath of God and condemns his congregation to "boiling egg shells to make soup and scraping up pigeon droppings to make gravy to put on egg shells to eat."
Graphic source: The Elect as Senator, left, laughs with Blagojevich during Governor's Day 17 August 2005 at the Illinois State Fair in Springfield, Ill.: Randy Squires/Associated Press
They endorsed and worked for one another in Illinois politics so there were happier times for The Elect and Blagojevich.
"I said 'Oh, there's a menorah and a Christmas tree and where is my crescent?'" said resident Asad Jilani.
Thus, a decision by Armonk, N.Y. officials resulted in an Islamic star and crescent on top of the community's Christmas tree and a menorah.
How fair is this to Islam? Not at all since the faith has nothing to do with the religious tradition of the season nor does it relate directly to the cultural expression of the Christmas season.
In a story about transparency and The Elect, I merely posted a list of paper documentation not released by Obama but it was censored by Brown. It serves little purpose to allow some comments to be made but to censor the points that disagree with the MSM. Brown is all bull.
Its all here, the blood, the gore, the rape, racial conflict, fighting cat women, lesbians no less, in this loosely based novel of gladiatrixes of ancient Rome. The action is fast paced enough as our protagonist, Lysander, priestess of Sparta, is imprisoned and coerced to become a slave of a fighting school. She falls in love with a fellow (no pun intended) gladiatrix who meets an untimely end. As re-named Achillia for the games, Lysander develops into a formidable fighting machine and hero of the games, which inspired the depraved Balbus, owner of the school, to create even larger spectacles, appealing as high as the Roman imperial court. Throughout we are treated with dialogue fairly heavy to inform us of Roman military tactics, gladiator training, and Roman culture. The path is clear to a follow-up novel in that this work introduces us to Trajan, eventual Emperor, subjugator of the Dacians, the area in which the chief antagonist gladiatrix originates from, and in this novel returned to at the end. Read this if you enjoy historical novels of the period and you would like to learn a bit about Roman entertainment.
A new virtual world, Muxlim Pal, allows Muslims to create a cartoon avatar based loosely on other virtual worlds such as The Sims. Aimed at Muslims in Western nations, Muxlim Pal claims not to be a religious site, said Mohamed El-Fatatry, founder of Muxlim.com--the parent site of Muxlim Pal.
A 5 November report by KHQA-TV's Carol Sowers, Quincy, Ill., station, has been removed from their website and it has retracted a story where The Elect planned to discuss his replacement for his vacated Senate seat with Gov. Blagojevich.
The Elect now says "I had no contact with the governor."
The following Benjamin Franklin quote is from the “Law of Nations.” A constitution is attacked gradually over time until “states have thus entirely changed their nature, and lost their original constitution:”
§ 30. Of the support of the constitution and obedience to the laws.
The constitution and laws of a state are the basis of the public tranquility, the firmest support of political authority, and a security for the liberty of the citizens. But this constitution is a vain phantom, and the best laws are useless, if they be not religiously observed: the nation ought then to watch very attentively, in order to render them equally respected by those who govern, and by the people destined to obey. To attack the constitution of the state and to violate its laws, is a capital crime against society; and if those guilty of it are invested with authority, they add to this crime a perfidious abuse of the power with which they are intrusted. The nation ought constantly to repress them with its utmost vigour and vigilance, as the importance of the case requires.
It is very uncommon to see the laws and constitution of a state openly and boldly opposed: it is against silent and gradual attacks that a nation ought to be particularly on its guard. Sudden revolutions strike the imaginations of men: they are detailed in history; their secret springs are developed. But we overlook the changes that insensibly happen by a long train of steps that are but slightly marked. It would be rendering nations an important service to show from history how many states have thus entirely changed their nature, and lost their original constitution. This would awaken the attention of mankind: — impressed thenceforward with this excellent maxim (no less essential in politics than in morals) principiis obsta, — they would no longer shut their eyes against innovations, which, though inconsiderable in themselves, may serve as steps to mount to higher and more pernicious enterprises.
Everyone, and I would suggest this would be instructive in classes all over the country, can check whether the image of The Elect's birth certificate from Obama’s web site was altered when checked with even a free hex editor. The hex editor displays information about the image and in this case reveals the image was edited with Adobe Photoshop CS3 on 6/12/2008 at 8:42am. It was altered on a Macintosh.2c Using Adobe Photoshop CS3 at 08:06:12 08:42:36 as indicated in the right side column of the free hex editor anyone can download. Hex editors can be used to check image attributes. The editor also can be used to change the attributes but in this case it seems very obvious the changed attributes match what has been altered to fake Obama’s certification of birth, not a legal document. A State seal and signature were added later to another jpg on his web site. The jpg examined had no State seal or official signature.
In a free country, you can always ignore the noise created by the mainstream media who are fawning at the mouth to get in line with corporate interests. On the other hand, you can always read for yourself and make up your own mind who has the better argument regarding the natural born citizen issue.
The Founders anticipated the issues, they were prescient. It is uncanny how they knew the crowd would be so dazzled, it is almost as if they could envision the subsequent media developments of television and the Internet. I choose not to get caught up with the fray and I urge any seriously interested to keep researching the subtleties of the law.
Kashmir-based Islamofascist Lashkar-e-Taiba has deep ties to America. Since 2003, at least five U.S. citizens have been convicted in federal court of conspiring to provide material support to Lashkar-e-Taiba. At least nine more men, considered to be in the same larger circle, have been convicted of firearms violations and other felonies. Several other cases are still making their way through the legal process.
In April, 2000 Virginian Randall Todd Royer went to a LeT camp in Kashmir. Royer trained for a month. In August, Seifullah Chapman made a similar trip, and trained for a month as well. After 9/11 Royer and others recruited Ibrahim al-Hamdi, Yong Ki Kwon, Muhammed Aatique, and Khwaja Mahmood Hasan for training. In December 2001, two of the men, Khan and Kwon, were asked "to return to the United States, gather information, and spread propaganda." A year later, Khan was purchasing drone aircraft parts, and gave them to a LeT operative. Lashkar is a sieve for Al Qaeda. The organization discerns who should leave and who qualifies. In 2007, Mahmud Faruq Brent was convicted of providing material support to LeT, after he admitted to attending one of their training camps. Federal prosecutors in Atlanta are still trying Syed Haris Ahmed and Ehsanul Islam Sadequee for aiding LeT.
Graphic source: Charles Rex Arbogast/Associated Press
Barack Obama is flanked by Gov. Blagojevich, left, and Chicago mayor Richard M. Daley, right, during an April 2007 rally.
Graphic source: AP
A federal judge in January will sentence political fundraiser Antoin "Tony" Rezko, who helped bankroll campaigns for The Elect and Governor Rod Blagojevich.
Rezko was convicted in June on charges of using clout with Blagojevich's administration to help launch a $7 million kickback scheme. His sentencing had been postponed indefinitely, giving rise to widespread speculation he was talking to federal prosecutors investigating alleged corruption in state government.
Rezko was a prolific fundraiser who raised money for President-elect Obama's campaigns for the state legislature and Congress, but not for Obama's presidential campaign.
Rezko is set to go to trial early next year on unrelated charges that he swindled the General Electric Capital Corp. out of $10 million in the sale of a group of pizza restaurants. He also allegedly owes hundreds of thousands of dollars in gambling debts.
Today, Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich is facing federal corruption charges. FBI agents arrested Blagojevich and his chief of staff, John Harris, on charges related in part to the selection of The Elect's successor to the Senate. The charges include a count of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud and a count of solicitation of bribery. The 76-page affidavit allege that wiretaps recorded Blagojevich conspiring to sell or trade the vacant Senate seat in exchange for financial benefits for himself and his wife, Patti.
Obama admitted nothing.
"Obviously, like the rest of the people of Illinois, I am saddened and sobered by the news that came out of the U.S. attorney's office today," he said. "But as this is an ongoing investigation involving the governor, I don't think it would be appropriate for me to comment on the issue at this time."
Obama said he had no contact with the governor or his office.
His statement that he didn't have contact with Blagojevich about the Senate seat seems to conflict with that of top adviser David Axelrod, who told Fox News Chicago on 23 November: "I know he's talked to the governor, and there are a whole range of names, many of which have surfaced, and I think he has a fondness for a lot of them."
On Tuesday, Axelrod issued a detraction saying: "I was mistaken. ... They did not then or at any time discuss the subject."
And, I take it the people of Illinois were represented by a Senator who had no interest in finding a suitable replacement. If something does not sound right it usually is not true.
"I was not aware of what was happening," Obama added.
One possible connection between The Elect and the governor had been raised earlier in the year. Federal authorities also allege the governor and Harris schemed with others--including convicted real estate developer Rezko--to obtain financial benefits for himself, his family and others, including his campaign committee, Friends of Blagojevich. Obama was an associate of Rezko in particular in obtaining his mansion in Chicago.
In addition, Obama is close to Illinois Senate President Emil Jones, who has been the governor's staunchest legislative ally. And at least one top aide to Obama, Michael Strautmanis, previously worked for Blagojevich. Obama has appointed Strautmanis to serve as White House chief of staff to the presidential assistant for intergovernmental relations and public liaison. The Chicago native was legislative director and counsel to Blagojevich when the governor was a member of Congress and then helped Blagojevich win the governorship in 2002. There is no indication that Strautmanis is involved in the case.
"We were in the middle of a corruption crime spree and we wanted to stop it," stated U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald.
Blagojevich is most likely guilty, guilty of being the low man on the totem pole. He is the scapegoat.
He still gets to appoint a Senatorial successor, unless one of the other proposals such as him resigning is enacted.
As background, journalist Evelyn Pringle has been doing a lot of in depth research into Obama’s many long time connections to crime and corruption in Chicago and Illinois. Here are some excerpts from her research:
“The names of Obama and Blagojevich became tied to the bid rigging scandal when reports surfaced that Companion had sought their help in carrying out the contract a year after Alsammarae left office, and around the same time he was thrown in jail in Iraq.”
“US Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald does not make a habit of destroying pubic officials by listing them in indictments for no reason and the only two political candidates identified as receiving campaign money from Operation Board Games kickback schemes are Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich and the US Senator from Illinois, Barack Obama.”
“Instead of referring to Board Games as the “Rezko” case, before long the media will likely be calling it the “Blagojevich” case. However, because the governor did not become the presidential candidate, when the scandal is recorded in the history books it will be the “Barack Obama” case. “
“Dr Michel Malek gave Obama $10,000 a little over a month before the first meeting on June 30, 2003. He also donated $25,000 to Blagojevich three weeks later on July 25, 2003, and gave Obama another $500 in September 2003. Malek was an investor in Riverside Park. “
“Dr Fortunee Massuda donated $25,000 to Blagojevich on July 25, 2003, and gave a total of $2,000 to Obama on different dates. Massuda’s husband, Charles Hannon, is a co-schemer in the pension fund case and testified against Rezko in the trial.”
“In the media, Obama always made it sound like he rarely saw Rezko, saying they met for breakfast or lunch once or twice a year. However, the FBI mole John Thomas helped investigators “build a record of repeat visits to the old offices of Rezko and former business partner Daniel Mahru’s Rezmar Corp., at 853 N. Elston, by Blagojevich and Obama during 2004 and 2005,” according to the February 10, 2008 Sun-Times.”
“On May 20, 2005, the Times said, “Two Rezko associates gave Blagojevich $25,000 each just days after the governor named them to a state panel.”
However, the reporters either failed to notice, or failed to mention, that panel member Malek gave $10,000 to Obama on June 30, 2003.“
Governor Linda Lingle of Hawaii indicated that Valerie Jarrett, a close friend of The Elect, and adviser who is co-chair of his transition office, would accompany Obama to the islands. Lingle will meet with Jarrett. The governor also invited Obama to meet with her.
I wonder if they still need to clear up more paperwork.
The Elect visited Hawaii in October to visit his ailing grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, who died. Obama snubbed a funeral or service for his grandmother who raised him.
His grandmother was cremated without The Elect or his family attending.
Cort Wrotnowski’s emergency application for a stay and/or injunction as to the Electoral College meeting on 15 December was today referred to the full Court by the Honorable Associate Justice Anotonin Scalia. It has been distributed for Conference of Friday December 12. The official case name is WROTNOWSKI v. BYSIEWICZ, United States Supreme Court Docket No. 08A469.
The central issue is the same as the Donofrio case: whether Barack Obama is not eligible to the office of President due to the fact that he was a British citizen at the time of his birth.
Article 2, Section 1, of the U.S. Constitution specifically states: "No person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President."
His father's nationality, as a British citizen, appears to make Barack Obama ineligible for the presidency as he is not a natural born Citizen.
"When Barack Obama Jr. was born on Aug. 4, 1961, in Honolulu, Kenya was a British colony, still part of the United Kingdom's dwindling empire. As a Kenyan native, Barack Obama Sr. was a British subject whose citizenship status was governed by The British Nationality Act of 1948. That same act governed the status of Obama Sr.'s children."
Cf. http://www.fastcheck.org/
Of relevance is the newly discovered ineligibility of 21st President Chester Arthur due to his having been born as a British subject. This is relevant to the case at hand in that Justice Gray--who wrote the seminal opinion in United States v. Wong Kim Arc-- was appointed by Chester Arthur.
The Justice who wrote the opinion was appointed by Chester Arthur.
The first Vietnamese-American elected to the House says he hopes his win will push more young people to become politically active. Anh "Joseph" Cao says his win shows that "really anything can happen." The Republican defeated nine-term Democratic Rep. William Jefferson in the mostly African-American and heavily Democratic New Orleans-area district. Jefferson had been expected to win a 10th term but he has been battling scandals and a federal indictment for the past three years. Cao came to the U.S. at the age of 8 after his family fled Vietnam as it fell to communists.
"When I [was] 9 years old, I received a letter from my father while he was in the re-education camp," Cao said. "He told me to study hard, to work hard and to give back to your country and to your community. So I hope to do that in Congress."
The Elect as Elect now proposes public works including a likely:
budget deficit that will come in at 1 Trillion or 1.5 Trillion dollars.
Analogous to the public works of Eisenhower with the Federal Aid Highway Act in 1956, which led to the construction of 42,795 miles of roads, the government concluded that the total cost came to $128.9 billion, with the federal government paying $114.3 billion and the states picking up the rest.
I do not suppose anyone noticed that we are not currently undergoing the economic growth that we enjoyed under an Eisenhower administration. The deficit will simply be passed on to a less prosperous next generation.
The Elect has promised not to light up in the smoke-free White House. Does this mean he will release his medical records? I would not assume a middle-aged smoker would be in good health. "There are times where I've fallen off the wagon," he stated on Meet the Press, but the substantive issue, which people have the right to know, is what his actual health involves. But, to date, no records are scheduled to be released. We are expected to accept, on faith, that all is well. The Elect added during the campaign: "But I figure, seeing as I'm running for president, I need to cut myself a little slack," he said.
"I've done a terrific job, under the circumstances, of making myself much healthier," which implies that something relating to his health may be less than well.
The Elect told the magazine Men's Health in an interview for its November issue that he wished he had more time for staying fit and that he still occasionally smoked a cigarette. This is another indication that health is a concern.
Although no one should be shocked with the atrocious failures of the CIA, the length, depth, and outrageous incompetence of CIA is startlingly in this work nonetheless. There were few successes and consistent failings of a revolving door of directors and an inability of both Republicans and Democratic presidents to grasp the essential importance of protecting Americans from attack. Most notably with 9/11, but in case after case, CIA could not provide verifiable intelligence about American's enemies and they failed in their mission to protect America.
The author is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist for the New York Times which in itself commends itself to be read. The Weiner volume updates the gap left by the now dated works of John Ranelagh (The Agency, 1986) and Christopher Andrew (For the President’s Eyes Only, 1995) regarding CIA history.
As Weiner relates it, the title phrase “legacy of ashes” comes from a critical remark President Dwight D. Eisenhower uttered near the end of his administration when, Weiner tells us, Ike finally blew up at Director of Central Intelligence (DCI) Allen Dulles and the failings of CIA generally, and more particularly at Dulles’s resistance to recommendations for intelligence reform from the president’s board of consultants.
“A great deal has been accomplished,” Dulles insisted to the president at the final gatherings of Eisenhower’s National Security Council. Everything is well in hand, he said. I have fixed the clandestine service. American intelligence has never been more agile and adept. Coordination and cooperation are better than they have ever been. The proposals of the president’s intelligence board were preposterous, he said, they were madness, they were illegal. I am responsible under the law for intelligence coordination, he reminded the president. I cannot delegate that responsibility. Without my leadership, he said, American intelligence would be a “body floating in thin air.”
At the last, Dwight Eisenhower exploded in anger and frustration. “The structure of our intelligence organization is faulty,” he told Dulles. It makes no sense, it has to be reorganized, and we should have done it long ago. Nothing had changed since Pearl Harbor. “I have suffered an eight-year defeat on this,” said the president of the United States. He said he would “leave a legacy of ashes” to his successor (p. 166).
Weiner takes license with factual data since the interaction, as presumed here, did not take place as reported.
An examination of the source documents shows that:
* Dulles made his remarks (“body floating in thin air”) at a meeting of the National Security Council (NSC) on 12 January 1961, and he was speaking against a Defense Department proposal to separate the position of DCI from the management of CIA.
* Eisenhower’s supposed retort (“eight-year defeat…legacy of ashes”) occurred a week earlier, at the 5 January NSC meeting, and had nothing to do with CIA. Eisenhower was expressing frustration at what he considered his major failing regarding intelligence—his inability to reform and streamline military intelligence.
* Far from criticizing Dulles and CIA, Eisenhower at both meetings affirmed the Agency’s central role in the collection and correlation of strategic intelligence while criticizing the redundancy and expense of having four separate military intelligence agencies.
* The words “preposterous” and “madness” are nowhere to be found in the record of Dulles’s remarks on proposals to reform intelligence (Memoranda of Discussions at the 473rd Meeting (5 January 1961) and the 474th Meeting (12 January 1961) of the National Security Council; documents 80 and 84, in Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961–1963: Volume XXV (2001). See also document 79, a record of 3 January meeting of Eisenhower, National Security Advisor Gordon Gray, and General Andrew Goodpaster).
The central concern of Weiner is of course to compare CIA performance against other intelligence agencies. The intelligence services that are often judged to be superior to CIA—the Israeli Mossad, the Cuban DGI, the East German Stasi, and even the British SIS—are far more limited in focus and scope. However, the real problem are the abundant mistakes and difficulties that a democracy has when engaged in covert operations. The most notable point of comparison in terms of performance from superior agencies, with the exception of the SIS of course, is that CIA originates from a democratic nation. They are at a disadvantage in the dark world of covert operations. The problem is acute in that CIA from the beginning was charged with worldwide coverage in all intelligence areas, something no other service, except perhaps the Soviet KGB, was required to do. As has been pointed out many times, `it is a rough neighborhood.' But perhaps more to the point, when you read alleged success stories and self-serving memoirs, such as George Tenet's about his tenure as head of CIA, he pointedly acclaims successes of other agencies, as a way of complimenting his our actions of course. This is a roundabout way of suggesting that other intelligence agencies are more effective than CIA.
In regards to CIA origins, Weiner is forced by his own premise of CIA incompetence to assert the incredible: that Harry Truman didn’t know what was going on in his own administration regarding Cold War covert activities.
Yet publicly available documents, which Weiner seems to be unaware of or ignores, make an overwhelming case that President Truman was informed frequently of NSC and other policy discussions on covert operations and CIA’s role in them. In Michael Warner, ed., CIA Cold War Records: The CIA Under Harry Truman (CIA History Staff, 1994) is a memo from the DCI dated 23 April 1952 to the NSC about CIA activities. It includes (pages 459–60) a discussion of “cold war covert activities, including guerrilla warfare.” The document is marked “Included in the President’s Book.”
Weiner might also have read Hayden Peake, “Harry S. Truman on CIA Covert Activities,” in Studies in Intelligence 25, No. 1 (1981). Peake demonstrates that, Truman’s stated opposition to Eisenhower- and Kennedy-era covert operations notwithstanding, CIA officials of the late 1940s and early 1950s considered Truman to have been intimately involved in the development of CIA’s covert mission.
Weiner might also have examined more closely the holdings of the Truman Library, where he would have been able to see a progress report sent by DCI Souers to the president in June 1946 on “planning for psychological warfare” on the part of the Central Intelligence Group; he might also have taken note of the NSC memorandums for the president summarizing NSC discussions of 20 May and 3 June 1948 concerning psychological and political warfare, also in the Truman Library, President’s Secretary’s files.
He misses other important evidence of Truman’s knowledge of such activity, such as the Acting DCI’s 16 January 1951 report to the NSC on “Responsibilities of CIA (OPC) with Respect to Guerrilla Warfare.” Weiner does cite the 23 October 1951 NSC report on “Scope and Pace of Covert Operations,” but he misses the significance of this document’s presence in the files of Truman’s secretary—unless Weiner is implying that she was in on the aforementioned conspiracy to keep him in the dark.
During the Eisenhower administration, CIA began their mission to provide actionable intelligence about American enemies to a succession of presidents. Eisenhower handled CIA by looking the other way. CIA should act but not to let Eisenhower know what manner of nefarious activities CIA did.
Allen Dulles freely admitted to Eisenhower that CIA had no sources in the Kremlin, that its Soviet estimates relied more on speculation and “the logic of the situation” than on hard evidence, and that the Agency could not reliably warn of a sudden Soviet attack (pp. 73–75). This goes to the heart of Weiner's import; CIA failed to penetrate and discover the intentions of American's enemies.
Weiner chronicles the chaos of the early days of CIA espionage and covert action, particularly when the Office of Strategic Operations and Office of Policy Coordination were separate entities with separate stations in the field and competing programs (p. 33).
Weiner notes with some alarm that ethnic agent teams were sent into action and few--about 25%--were ever heard from again. These ethnic agents were nationalists, willing to risk their lives against the Soviets in their homeland without US help, and we were willing to take the chance that sending them might yield good intelligence or otherwise harm our adversaries. By contrast, in the more recent case of the Chinese Muslim Uighers for example, they will simply be dispatched without mission or recruitment, insofar as we know, out of Guatanomo. The same low risk-possible moderate to high return because of their actions is not apparently considered today.
Successes pale in comparison with the failures of CIA. In 1948 CIA accurately assessed the chance for war with the Soviets as nil which was a positive accomplishment but the accurate Agency predictions of genocide in Rwanda in 1994 hardly compares as something which impacts the security of Americans.
One of most notable failures and the most memorable is an episode in Guatemala in 1994, when the CIA chief of station confronted the American ambassador, Marilyn McAfee, with intelligence, as she recalled, that "I was having a lesbian affair with my secretary, whose name was Carol Murphy." The CIA's friends in the Guatemalan military had bugged McAfee's bedroom, Weiner reports, and "recorded her cooing endearments to Murphy. They spread the word that the ambassador was a lesbian." The CIA's "Murphy memo" was widely distributed in Washington. There was only one problem: the ambassador was married, not gay, and not sleeping with her secretary. " 'Murphy' was the name of her two-year-old black standard poodle. The bug in her bedroom had recorded her petting her dog."
Weiner portrays the development of the U-2 spy plane, mostly as a result of the fact that CIA could not develop human assets inside the USSR. However, if we had only developed “a bigger picture of life inside the Soviet Union” that revealed the Russians “were unable to produce the necessities of life” (p. 114), we would not have had to create the unprecedented capability to take pictures of Soviet military power from 70,000 feet. A better insight into Soviet life would have revealed that a formidable and genuinely threatening military machine was a chimera. Satellite imagery helped keep the Cold War cold. This is significant.
Other successes include the successful covert support of democracy in Italy in 1948. The Berlin Tunnel operation gets a note, and the story of CIA’s first major Soviet spy, Pyotr Popov, is buried in a footnote. The Agency understood the 1967 Mideast war and was attributable to the rigorous analytic work that was behind the judgment.
A key point that could be an overwhelming success is whether CIA identified the collapse of the Soviet Union. Weiner also repeats the canard that CIA missed the decline of the USSR, something that was obvious to everyone in the world but the Agency. He does not discuss several important sources that have refuted this claim: the work of Bruce Berkowitz, Douglas MacEachin, Robert Gates, and the Case Program of Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. CIA analysts warned of the USSR’s socio-economic troubles from the late 1970s on.
Another mistake is the common misconception is to dismiss Ronald Reagan as someone who came to the presidency knowing “little more about the CIA than what he had learned at the movies” (p. 375). This is a wrong-headed view of a president who in 1975 had served on the Rockefeller Commission investigating intelligence activities and who had drafted for his own delivery, from 1975 to 1978, radio addresses on national security matters that included cogent discussions about CIA and intelligence issues. In addition, a large number of Reagan’s letters and essays has emerged that dispel Weiner’s notion.
A recent, really critical situation to consider is the infamous “sixteen words” President Bush used in the 2003 State of the Union address about Saddam Hussein’s alleged efforts to purchase uranium in Africa. Weiner, claiming that Bush was making “CIA’s case,” omits mention of the attribution of the information to British intelligence. Moreover, George Tenet’s recent memoir makes it clear that the Agency had removed the assertion from previous speeches and simply had failed to do so for the State of the Union. CIA, in fact, did not support that statement.
There are errors of fact in Legacy of Ashes. Following is a short list:
* OSS was not “barred from seeing the most important intercepted communications” during World War II (p. 5); few in any organization could view ULTRA intercepts, but within OSS the X-2 counterintelligence branch had access. * The distinction between the espionage and covert action missions did not emerge in the postwar period (p. 11) but years earlier was already part of the organizing principle of OSS; the Secret Intelligence branch handled what would later be called HUMINT, and various other branches were responsible for paramilitary and other covert activity. * The 1949 CIA Act did not provide the Agency with the legal authority to conduct covert action (p. 40)—that legislation concerned DCI authorities regarding personnel, secrecy, and unvouchered funds (which certainly helped operations remain covert); the Agency construed its covert action authority from admittedly vague language in the 1947 National Security Act and from Executive Orders. * Weiner obviously read (and quotes from) my Studies in Intelligence article on the ill-fated flight of Jack Downey and Dick Fecteau in 1952, yet he misrepresented a flight to pick up documents as a mission to “rescue” agents who had radioed for help (p. 60). * The reference to a “CIA colonel” (p. 88) is odd; the KGB had colonels, but CIA never had military ranks—though it has employed military officers. * Weiner also errs when he says that the current director, Michael Hayden (p. 510), is the first active-duty military officer to lead the Agency since the early 1950s—that was Admiral Stansfield Turner (1977). * Weiner says that the 1950s-era program to encourage Soviet walk-ins outside the USSR, REDCAP, was not effective and had no significant successes by 1956 (p. 124). He forgets the two Peters, Pyotr Deriabin and Pyotr Popov, both of whom were immensely important assets. * The idea that the “Islamic warriors” CIA supported in Afghanistan would later turn on the United States (p. xv) fails to make the basic distinction between the Afghan mujahedin, whom the Agency supported, and Arabs who went to Afghanistan in the 1980s—whom CIA did not support. * John McCone was never a deputy secretary of defense (p. 180) and did not, as DCI, begin mass firings (p. 188).
In Weiner's view the CIA never performed up to snuff. He paints a critical portrait of an agency run by Ivy League incompetents, "old Grotonians" who lied to presidents -- an agency that, more often than not, failed to foresee major world events, violated human rights, spied on Americans, plotted assassinations of foreign leaders, and put so much of its energy and resources into bungled covert operations that it failed in its core mission of collecting and analyzing information.
The success of CIA have to be taken with a grain of salt. CIA had overthrown the legally elected government of Guatemala, a covert operation long touted as one of the intelligence agency's grand "successes." It was even called Operation Success. Guatemala was made safe for United Fruit -- talk about banana republics -- but not for democracy. A series of military dictators followed the CIA coup, with death squads and repression in which perhaps 200,000 Guatemalans perished.
The question of how CIA relates to democracy is acute. Weiner states that CIA director Richard Helms opposed Richard Nixon in regards to the Watergate cover-up. Not so. In an odd footnote, Weiner says Helms "complied with the president's order to go along with the cover-up for sixteen days at most." But the author, who quotes extensively from dozens of CIA documents, curiously makes no mention of the damning memo that Helms wrote to his deputy, Vernon Walters, on June 28, 1972, about the FBI investigation of the break-in: "We still adhere to the request that they confine themselves to the personalities already arrested or directly under suspicion and that they desist from expanding this investigation into other areas which may well, eventually, run afoul of our operations." It was a bald-faced lie, exactly what the White House was demanding that Helms tell the FBI.
Of course, the most critical point is the CIA quandry. How do we proceed without clear direction of the president and what do we do to serve a democracy in undemocratic ways. John Hamre, former deputy secretary of defense and president of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington states: "It is an organization that thrives through deception. How do you manage an organization like that?" Weiner notes: "How do you run a secret intelligence service in an open democracy? How do you serve the truth by lying? How do you spread democracy by deceit?" (p. 501). We are left with the paradox that is CIA.
Economist and business manager Phil Mullan says don't blame China. Mullan says China has been keeping the US afloat, but text book economics says rich countries are supposed to support poor countries not the other way around.
Mullan says "America is the most indebted country in the world," but "presumes to be the world's economic leader," and has an economy based on "fictitious capital values."
Phil Mullan, economist and business manager, says the credit crisis isn't simply an economic recession but a reflection of a weakened economic policy.
Mullan says what makes it worse is economic authorities have been consistently behind the curve. Mullan claims "We've lived with an economic paradigm of there is no alternative to the market.
Economist and business manager Phil Mullan says economic markets in the west have been hollowed out.
Economic growth has appeared to look good, but what is the quality of this growth? Mullan asserts economic activity in the west revolves around retail, property, and public spending, while taking advantage of manufacturers in the East.
Investment banker Michael Savage says that the crisis isn't a result of banks lending more money that they have but of other economies such as China and East Asian oil producers pumping money into Western economies.
Savage says, "I'd point the finger at the Chinese working class." "The Chinese should consume more, thats the way out of the crisis."
The Fox News/Opinion Data exit polling showed that the vote cast by people under 30 held steady at 11% percent, the same level the organization's 2004 exit polls had found. Edison Media Research/Mitofsky International found a higher proportion of the vote cast by 18-29 year olds--18%--but, by the same methodology, the firm found the 2004 voter base was 17 percent composed of people in that age cohort. The fact is that neither polling firm found any real increase from the levels they found four years ago.
The myth of the small donor is even more instructive. Fred Lucas, CNSNews.com, reports that the Campaign Finance Institute (CFI) found that only 26% of the donors to Obama's campaign gave $200 or less, compared to 25% for Bush's campaign in 2004. Most of the money raised came from the fat cats. CFI found that he got 80% more money from large donors (over $1,000) than from those who gave less than $200.
Busta Rhymes' new single, "Arab Money," has proven to be controversial. Galaxy FM suspended a DJ over the single. The title is claimed to be offensive and racist while the rapper is accused of mixing up elements of the Koran, but this is hardly the first time the Koran was mixed in a pop song. Busta has just joined Salman Rushdie, Theo van Gogh, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Geert Wilders, he is in good company.
Edwin Vieira, Jr., PhD, J.D. discusses the original intent and living document interpretations of the Constitution of the United States of America. While considering Vieira's comments, he provides reliable guidance to interpreting the Constitution today.
Ex-KGB agent and defector, Yuri Bezmenov, in an interview of 1984, describes the perfect ‘demoralization’ of the populace which then paves the way for ‘destabilization’ of a country in the foreign affairs, national security, and economic arenas.
“The liberties of our country, the freedom of our civil Constitution, are worth defending at all hazards; and it is our duty to defend them against all attacks. We have received them as a fair inheritance from our worthy ancestors: they purchased them for us with toil and danger and expense of treasure and blood, and transmitted them to us with care and diligence. It will bring an everlasting mark of infamy on the present generation, enlightened as it is, if we should suffer them to be wrested from us by violence without a struggle, or to be cheated out of them by the artifices of false and designing men.”
One of the most effective uses of the con is to hide in plain site or to get your mark to look left when you should be looking right. Also, I learned from the monster, LBJ, that bad news or disinformation breaks on a Saturday when news is slow and sure enough, it broke again today in the Shinseki appointment. CNN took pains to point out in that story that he was born in Hawaii, just like The Elect. The idea is to plant the Hawaii birth more firmly in people's heads, to get them looking where it does not matter. And, due to the research and SCOTUS filing by Leo Donofrio, he points out that President Chester Arthur concealed that he was a British Subject at birth, thus disqualifying him from the presidency. He covered it up so that he could be president.
First, we will launch a massive effort to make public buildings more energy-efficient. Our government now pays the highest energy bill in the world. We need to change that. We need to upgrade our federal buildings by replacing old heating systems and installing efficient light bulbs. That won't just save you, the American taxpayer, billions of dollars each year. It will put people back to work.
Second, we will create millions of jobs by making the single largest new investment in our national infrastructure since the creation of the federal highway system in the 1950s. We'll invest your precious tax dollars in new and smarter ways, and well set a simple rule - use it or lose it. If a state doesn't act quickly to invest in roads and bridges in their communities, they'll lose the money.
Third, my economic recovery plan will launch the most sweeping effort to modernize and upgrade school buildings that this country has ever seen. We will repair broken schools, make them energy-efficient, and put new computers in our classrooms. Because to help our children compete in a 21st century economy, we need to send them to 21st century schools.
As we renew our schools and highways, well also renew our information superhighway. It is unacceptable that the United States ranks 15th in the world in broadband adoption. Here, in the country that invented the Internet, every child should have the chance to get online, and they'll get that chance when I'm President - because that's how well strengthen America's competitiveness in the world.
In addition to connecting our libraries and schools to the Internet, we must also ensure that our hospitals are connected to each other through the Internet. That is why the economic recovery plan I'm proposing will help modernize our health care system - and that won't just save jobs, it will save lives. We will make sure that every doctor's office and hospital in this country is using cutting edge technology and electronic medical records so that we can cut red tape, prevent medical mistakes, and help save billions of dollars each year.
The Elect will save billions of dollars by replacing heating systems, changing light bulbs, and he will be a life saver.
The economic road to recovery includes the creation of jobs including:
1. heating system replacer; 2. light bulb installer; 3. road and bridge construction worker; 4. school construction worker; 5. Internet installer for schools and hospitals.
I did not want to quote The Elect out of context but this is what he said, he will be saving billions of dollars and he is a life-saver.
"We need to upgrade our federal buildings by replacing old heating systems and installing efficient light bulbs. That won't just save you, the American taxpayer, billions of dollars each year. It will put people back to work."
Where exactly do you purchase those billion dollar light bulbs? And, I take it Americans will now be working as light bulb changers and heating system replacers.
I am pleased to see that The Elect has thought through and developed a rock solid economic recovery plan.
The Elect announced his--no change--plan to fix the economy:
"There are no quick or easy fixes to this crisis, which has been many years in the making, and it's likely to get worse before it gets better. But now is the time to respond with urgent resolve to put people back to work and get our economy moving again. At the same time, this painful crisis also provides us with an opportunity to transform our economy to improve the lives of ordinary people by rebuilding roads and modernizing schools for our children, investing in clean energy solutions to break our dependence on imported oil, and making an early down payment on the long-term reforms that will grow and strengthen our economy for all Americans for years to come."
Has it not become obvious that he has no idea what to do? A future working on roads is not what young people have been dreaming to do as part of the American dream.
The agreement sets 30 June 2009, as the deadline for U.S. combat troops to withdraw from all Iraqi cities and towns; the date for all U.S. troops to leave Iraq is 31 December 2011.
Pay no attention to that man behind the podium, there is no "Office of the President-Elect" in the United States Constitution; furthermore, the Electoral College has not met yet so there is no President Elect just yet.
Is this the same signature appearing on each document? Some people consider what look like The Elect's signatures, on different documents, and have questioned whether it is from the same hand. For example, people have questioned one from an allegedly counterfeit Selective Service Registration and the other is from his Statement of Candidacy. Has anyone compared the signatures?
The Elect has no paper trail for the past 48 years. There is no documentation, records, or paper trail.
List of possible documentation:
Original, vault copy birth certificate: not released. Certificate of Live Birth: released but counterfeited. Obama/Dunham marriage license: not released. Soetoro/Dunham marriage license: not released. Soetoro adoption records: not released. Fransiskus Assisi School: school application released stating religion: "Islam." Punahou School records: not released. Selective Service Registration: released but counterfeited. Occidental College records: not released. Passport (Pakistan): not released. Columbia College records: not released. Columbia thesis: not released. Harvard College records: not released. Harvard Law Review articles: likely none but perhaps one unsigned has been found. Baptism certificate: none. Medical records: not released. Illinois State Senate records: none. Illinois State Senate schedule: lost. Law practice client list: not released. University of Chicago scholarly articles: none.
The Elect received nearly $750 million dollars during the campaign. That is more than twice what McCain raised and it's more than what Bush and Kerry combined managed to snag during 2004. The Elect opted out of taking public funds which made him the first candidate for president to opt out of public financing since the system was created in the 1970s to counter the effect of buying the election.
As Governor Bill Richardson stated at the Democratic National Convention in Denver Colorado on 1 September 2008: "Barack Obama is an immigrant...he is one of us...." I do not think it can be much clearer. The U.S. favors an immigrant as President.
In April 2008, a resolution was proposed to the U.S. Senate, recognizing John McCain as a "natural born citizen." Now what is odd about this resolution is that it was introduced by the opposition party, Democrats, Senator Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) and Senator Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
The bill was co-sponsored by whom? It was co-sponsored by political opponents, nominees, The Elect, Barack Obama, and Hillary Clinton.
Their sponsorship, in the midst of a contentious campaign, is to say the least odd. Why were they so interested in the subject of "natural born citizen?"
At the time, McCain was obviously their primary opponent as he turned out to be during the Fall campaign.
In any case, Senate Resolution 511 was passed on 30 April 2008 as a non-binding resolution. S.R. 511. S.R. 511 is not a law, but rather, a unanimous opinion. Obama and Clinton were determined to demonstrate that McCain qualifies as a natural born citizen.
The respective candidates addressed the question that The Elect, Obama, did not want to face directly. Are you, yourself, a natural born citizen? Obama has failed to produce documentation that he is a natural born citizen of the United States. He attempted to defer questions about his origins by deflecting doubts about McCain. McCain agreed with the arrangement so no one would be inclined to doubt the citizenship about a person who clearly loves this country and was willing to fight and suffer as a prisoner of war as he did for five and a half years.
We await definitive proof or the Supreme Court Justices will decide. Or, The Elect could simply produce a $14.00 authentic birth certificate, or his student records, or a passport before he entered the Senate, or health records stating his natural born status at birth, or any simple and easily produced documentation. So, far, no records have been transparent, only expensive legal defenses and claims of how transparent his administration will be. So far, this is not so.
Cf. S.R. 511:
Co-sponsors
o Sen. Hillary Clinton [D, NY] o Sen. Barack Obama [D, Ill]
Committees
Introduced result Voted on by Senate April 10, 2008 April 30, 2008
All Bill Actions
* Passed by Unanimous Consent in the Senate on Apr 30, 2008. Resolution agreed to in Senate without amendment and with a preamble by Unanimous Consent. * Apr 24, 2008: Committee on the Judiciary. Date of scheduled consideration. SD-226. 10:00 a.m. * Apr 24, 2008: Committee on the Judiciary. Ordered to be reported without amendment favorably. * Added to calendar on Apr 24, 2008: Placed on Senate Legislative Calendar under General Orders. Calendar No. 715.. * Added to calendar on Apr 24, 2008: Committee on the Judiciary. Ordered to be reported without amendment favorably.. * Apr 24, 2008: Committee on the Judiciary. Reported by Senator Leahy without amendment and with a preamble. Without written report. * Apr 10, 2008: Referred to the Committee on the Judiciary. * Introduced on Apr 10, 2008.
"No Senator or Representative shall, during the time for which he was elected, be appointed to any civil office under the authority of the United States, which shall have been created, or the emoluments whereof shall have been increased during such time."
Although the language is difficult it really simply means that a lawmaker cannot fill a position if the salary for that position has increased during their term in office. It looks like Hillary can not be Secretery of State, or, is there a way that she still could be?
This constitutional issue, Hillary's, has gotten in the mainstream media although questions of whether The Elect is a natural born citizen or not has remained in the blogsphere.
When the question of compensation has happened before in the recent past lawmakers simply made an end around.
Ohio Senator William Saxbe was named President Nixon's attorney general in 1974 and again when Texas Sen. Lloyd Bentsen became President Clinton's Treasury secretary in 1993.
Congress voted a lower salary, or the candidate simply accepted a lower salary, it is not as if she needs the money anyway. The third is the most likely route, no one has the standing, or the right, to sue to stop her from being secretary of state.
The last is the most troubling for an administration touting transparency as their motiff.
CNN issued the results of a survery which reported that tuition and fees, adjusted for inflation, rose 439% from 1982 to 2007; moreover, public policy and education received an "F" in affordability in 49 states, California received a "C."
Dr. Orly Taitz has files a natural born citizen suit in California Supreme Court: the Docket number is S16869, Lightfoot v. Bowen. This is a “Petition for Extraordinary Writ of Mandamus for Stay.” The California Court will either issue an emergency stay of the voting of the electors, or decline to hear the case because it is a federal issue.
The BBC ran an interesting story about Iranian reaction to The Elect's victory. One blogger, cartoonist and blogger Nikahang Kosar who now lives in Canada, likened Obama to the reformist Mohammad Khatami in Iran. Obama's promise of 'change' reminds many Iranians of their own optimism when they elected the reformist Mohammad Khatami as president in 1997. This reflects the disillusionment Khatami's supporters felt when his attempts at reform were blocked by Iran's Islamic hardliners.
Likewise, Tehran journalist Ehsan Taqaddosi echoes this feeling, writing on demokracy.blogfa.com states: "Khatami was our Obama."
And, a third Iranian, Ehsan Taqaddosi, fears Obama cannot deliver what he promises.
Like Obama, Khatami was a pleasant talker and he introduced concepts such as the rule of the people and democracy into our political literature. But what happened in practice?
Nothing changed... Everyone says that Obama will be the same as his predecessors and in practice he may only be able to create a short, sharp shock.
Khatami also created a short, sharp shock and at the end of his tenure, we didn't witness any of the enthusiasm and determination which existed during the initial years of his government's rule.
The Iranian comments were originally in Farsi and translated by BBC Monitoring.
Gary Kreep of the United States Justice Foundation has notified the state of California that a dead woman is listed as an official elector. Kreep stated:
"In the 28th Congressional District (Congressman Howard Berman), situated in Los Angeles County, Ilene Huber is listed as the presidential elector designated in that district. However, as shown in the attached certified statement of Dean C. Logan, registrar-recorder/county clerk of the county of Los Angeles, state of California, there is no Ilene Huber listed as a registered voter in the County of Los Angeles. A statewide search of public records has revealed only one Ilene Huber in the state of California, and she is deceased-a copy of her certificate of death is attached hereto as well."
The Philip J. Berg petition for writ of certiorari from The Elect was ignored by him and the Democratic National Committee. The Elect has not produced a legitimate, original birth certificate. Berg is now filing a motion to stop Obama from taking office in January. Berg is asking the SCOTUS to stop state certification of electors to keep the Electoral College from meeting 15 December and casting votes for Obama. He is also seeking to postpone the official vote count Jan. 6 until the court reaches a decision on his appeal.
The Donofrio situation can be summarized but there are more as well.
SCOTUS updates today include the Cort Wrotnowski situation, an emergency application. Wrotnowski's Docket now shows that the renewed application to Justice Scalia is dated Nov. 29. That’s the date Cort express mailed the original papers.
The U.S. military expects to have 20,000 uniformed troops inside the United States by 2011 according to Pentagon officials. The justification for the combat troops is said to help state and local officials respond to a nuclear terrorist attack or other domestic catastrophe.
There are, and should be, strenuous opponents to this plan from both the left, the American Civil Liberties Union, and the right, the libertarian Cato Institute. Both ends of the political spectrum should be alarmed by this unwarranted expansion of executive authority.
The Constitution was written with the intention of having civilians in control of the military, not the other way around. Article 1, Section 8, Clause 12 placed a two-year limit on spending for the army as a measure to insure civilian control of the military.
This tradition persisted throughout American history.
Any new law alters the two-centuries-old Insurrection Act, which Congress passed in 1807 to limit the president’s power to deploy troops within the United States. That law has long allowed the president to mobilize troops only “to suppress, in a State, any insurrection, domestic violence, unlawful combination, or conspiracy.”
Along these lines, the Posse Comitatus Act is a United States federal law (18 U.S.C. § 1385) passed on June 16, 1878 after the end of Reconstruction. The Act prohibits the federal uniformed services (the Army, Air Force, and State National Guard forces except when they are impressed into federal service) from exercising nominally state law enforcement, police, or peace officer powers that maintain "law and order" on non-federal property (states and their counties and municipal divisions) in the former Confederate states.
The National Defense Act of 1916 made each State's militia (volunteer army) a part of the National Guard. Each State's National Guard is under the command of that State's governor; but Congress has given the President the power to call those units into federal service under exceptional circumstances, such as during the Los Angeles riots in 1992, when necessary (Article 1, Section 8, Clauses 15 and 16). I also read the 3rd Amendment, the quartering of troops amongst civilians, as another indication that the Founders were wary about having combat troops amongst the general populace. The U.S. has had a long-standing tradition of being wary of the use of standing armies to keep the peace.
The unprecedented nature of the 20,000 troops combat troops should be clear. Troops returning from urban warfare in Iraq and Afghanistan are being re-deployed in America.
The question is why?
There is no insurrection currently and the National Guard along with law enforcement agencies have traditionally provided security. Why does the U.S. government feel compelled to place so many combat troops in the general population?
Domestic deployment appears to be an expansion in presidential and military authority. Cato Vice President Gene Healy warned of "a creeping militarization" of homeland security.
The troops are here already. The first reaction force is built around the Army's 3rd Infantry Division's 1st Brigade Combat Team, which returned in April after 15 months in Iraq. The team includes operations, aviation and medical task forces that are to be ready to deploy at home or overseas within 48 hours, with units specializing in chemical decontamination, bomb disposal, emergency care and logistics. The troops are on a one-year domestic mission.
Although some Pentagon leaders initially expected to build the next two response units around combat teams, they are likely to be drawn mainly from reserves and the National Guard, such as the 218th Maneuver Enhancement Brigade from South Carolina, which returned in May after more than a year in Afghanistan.
Since 1 October 2008, the US Army announced that the 3rd Infantry Division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team (BCT) will be under the day-to-day control of U.S. Army North, the Army service component of Northern Command (NORTHCOM), as an on-call federal response force for natural or man-made emergencies and disasters, including terrorist attacks.
This marks the first time an active U.S. Army unit will be given a dedicated assignment to NORTHCOM, where it is stated they may be "called upon to help with civil unrest and crowd control or to deal with potentially horrific scenarios such as massive poisoning and chaos in response to a chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear or high-yield explosive (CBRNE) attack." These soldiers will also learn how to use non-lethal weapons designed to "subdue unruly or dangerous individuals" without killing them, and also includes equipment to stand up a hasty road block; spike strips for slowing, stopping or controlling traffic; shields and batons; and beanbag bullets. However, the "non-lethal crowd control package [...] is intended for use on deployments to the war zone, not in the U.S.
Uh huh.
Even government officials are noting the extreme measures. Before the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, dedicating 20,000 troops to domestic response--a nearly sevenfold increase in five years--"would have been extraordinary to the point of unbelievable," stated Paul McHale, assistant defense secretary for homeland defense. Even McHale stated that this was "a fundamental change in military culture."
The Pentagon's plan calls for three rapid-reaction forces to be ready for emergency response by September 2011. The first 4,700-person unit, built around an active-duty combat brigade based at Fort Stewart, Ga., was available as of Oct. 1, said Gen. Victor E. Renuart Jr., commander of the U.S. Northern Command.
If funding continues, two additional teams will join nearly 80 smaller National Guard and reserve units made up of about 6,000 troops in supporting local and state officials nationwide. All would be trained to respond to a domestic chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, or high-yield explosive attack, or CBRNE event, as the military calls it.
Military preparations for a domestic weapon-of-mass-destruction attack have been underway since at least 1996, when the Marine Corps activated a 350-member chemical and biological incident response force and later based it in Indian Head, Md., a Washington suburb. Such efforts accelerated after the Sept. 11 attacks, and at the time Iraq was invaded in 2003, a Pentagon joint task force drew on 3,000 civil support personnel across the United States.
In 2005, a new Pentagon homeland defense strategy emphasized "preparing for multiple, simultaneous mass casualty incidents."
In late 2007, Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England signed a directive approving more than $556 million over five years to set up the three response teams, known as CBRNE Consequence Management Response Forces.
Last month, McHale said, authorities agreed to begin a $1.8 million pilot project funded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency through which civilian authorities in five states could tap military planners to develop disaster response plans. Hawaii, Massachusetts, South Carolina, Washington and West Virginia will each focus on a particular threat--pandemic flu, a terrorist attack, hurricane, earthquake and catastrophic chemical release, respectively.
Last Monday, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, seemingly now retained by The Elect, ordered defense officials to review whether the military, Guard and reserves can respond adequately to domestic disasters.Gates ordered defense officials to review whether the military, Guard and reserves can respond adequately to domestic disasters.
Gates gave commanders 25 days to propose changes and cost estimates. He cited the work of a congressionally chartered commission, which concluded in January that the Guard and reserve forces are not ready and that they lack equipment and training.
Bert B. Tussing, director of homeland defense and security issues at the U.S. Army War College's Center for Strategic Leadership, said the new Pentagon approach "breaks the mold" by assigning an active-duty combat brigade to the Northern Command for the first time.
Is it happening to America?
"An evil exists that threatens every man, woman, and child of this great nation. We must take steps to ensure our domestic security and protect our homeland."
GPS works by using the 29 satellites orbiting the Earth 12,000 miles up. Five of them are redundant. The U.S. military began launching them in 1978, and it took until 1994 to get the required 24 in orbit which was enough to calculate a position anywhere in the world. These 2,000- to 4,000-pound satellites are 17 feet wide. They traverse six separate orbits with each orbit having four satellites chasing one another.
The satellites are positioned so that any ground-based GPS receiver can always receive data from at least four of them. A master control station in Colorado Springs and five unstaffed monitor stations around the world track each satellite's orbit precisely. The controls are correcting in that if a satellite is out of position, they command its booster rockets to nudge it back on track.
Using a 50-watt radio transmitter each orbiting GPS satellite continuously broadcasts signals containing a pseudorandom code that provides its identity and position and the time maintained by an atomic clock. An accurate data location requires at least three satellites and incrementally four is much better, and six or seven provide even more accurate results. A GPS receiver uses relatively simple geometric calculations to determine its own latitude, longitude, and altitude. By comparing successive readings as compared with time, it can also calculate ground speed and direction.
Errors persist since many people have noticed that GPS data is never totally accurate. Radio waves travel at the speed of light or 186,000 miles/second. And in a vacuum, the Earth's atmosphere slows waves down. Further delays occur when signals bounce off intervening obstacles such as buildings, elevated geography, and trees. Until 2000, the public GPS was purposely made less accurate because GPS was originally designed for military use and the U.S. government didn't want enemy forces to possess better position information. Thus, the U.S. military introduced deliberate errors into the system. This process resulted in GPS calculations that could be off by 100 meters.
Differential GPS (DGPS) now corrects for measurement errors by comparing the GPS positions recorded at designated reference stations with the accurately known positions (determined through careful surveys) of those stations. The improved calculations result in accuracy within a yard or two.
As the recent Barbara Walter's interview illustrated, The Elect has a discernable spasm under his right eye. As the middle-aged smoker that he is, it would have been fortuitous if he had released his medical records so that the American people would know what his health problems are. However, the tic is an indication that the stress of the transition has begun to wear on him.
The Elect is leading the U.S. down a treacherous foreign policy path by deciding on Clinton. As the U.S. unipolar strength is receding the international world is transitioning to a multipolar situation per the NIC. Foreign policy will be dysfunctionally multilateralist as the U.S. is now committed to international interests. This provides a vulnerability to foreign entities who may inject their agenda into U.S. national interests. This increasing dependency is a high risk strategy for the American people. Clinton will only be able to obtain international agreements without validating the assumptions of U.S. recovery and linking U.S. national interests. International interests will begin to predominate foreign policy discussions and will likely end up controlling our economy and negatively impacting our national security. Russia has forged such an agreement with Europe because of its energy intimidation. Russia has already begun to move in Venuzuela.
In addition, the U.S. foreign policy will not recover from it's original economic status using The Elect's domestic recovery plan involving the building of bridges, roads, the renovation of schools, and promoting green energy. The Elect will need to discover that government projects do not create revenue, they deplete it.
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Info World: Information Technology News, Computer Networking & Security;
Information Week: Business Innovation Powered by Technology:
Infostor: The Leading Source for Enterprise Storage Professionals;
Infrastructure Insite: Bringing IT Together;
Insurance Technology: Business Innovation Powered by Technology;
Integrated Solutions: For Enterprise Content Management;
Intel Premier IT: Sharing Best Practices with the Information Technology Community;
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Scholastic Instructor
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Tech Briefs: Engineering Solutions for Design & Manufacturing;
Tech Net: The Microsoft Journal for IT Professionals;
Tech Partner: Gain a Competitive Edge Through Solutions Providers;
Technology & Learning: Ideas and Tools for Ed Tech Leaders;
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VAR Business: Strategic Insight for Technology Integrators:
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Virtualization Review: Powering the New IT Generation;
Visual Studio: Enterprise Solutions for .Net Development;
VON Magazine: Voice, Video & Vision;
Wall Street Technology: Business Innovation Powered by Technology;
Wallace, Robert, Spycraft: The Secret History of the CIA's Spytechs, from Communism to al-Qaeda;
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A tax on toilet paper; I kid you not. According to the sponsor, "the Water Protection and Reinvestment Act will be financed broadly by small fees on such things as . . . products disposed of in waste water." Congress wants to tax what you do in the privacy of your bathroom.
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