Tag Archives: obama

International, Technology, U.S.

World War 3 & Government Incompetence: Stealth drone incident reveals diplomatic impotence of the United States

“We have asked for it back. We’ll see how the Iranians respond.”-Barack Obama, President of the United States

“I don’t expect that that will happen.”-Leon Panetta, U.S. Secretary of Defense

“We submitted a formal request for the return of our lost equipment as we would in any situation to any government around the world.”-Hillary Clinton, U.S. Secretary of State

“There are people here who have been able to control this spy plane, who can surely analyze this plane’s system…In any case, now we have this spy plane.”-Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, President of Iran

 

Business/Economics, U.S.

World War 3 & United Police States of America: Obama to sign into law the very National Defense Authorization Act he said he would veto. People of the U.S. you are now enemies of your own state, welcome to NAZI-land.

“…the [Obama] administration asked us to remove the language which says that U.S. citizens and lawful residents would not be subject to this section.”-Carl Levin, U.S. Senator from Michigan

There is now speculation that President Barack Obama will sign into law S.1253.RS, a bill he said he would veto. The reasoning behind that is based on statements from Senator Carl Levin, who stressed many times that it was the Obama administration that cut any language from the bill, that would protect U.S. citizens from being detained indefinitely.

Watch Senator Levin’s statements from cspan2 here.

President Obama could sign the bill into law as soon as December 13. Happy Holidays!

 

Business/Economics, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? U.S. Postal Service cuts officially (almost) done deal, will “move forward” with austerity measures, Merry Xmas!

As promised, the U.S. Postal Service made its dreaded announcement on December 5.  The USPS filed a request with the Postal Regulatory Commission to “move forward” with austerity measures that will not only cut back service, but eliminate hundreds of thousands of jobs.

“We’re in a deep financial crisis today because we have a business model that’s tied to the past [ie Congress]. We are expected to operate like a business, but don’t have the flexibility to do so [because of rules created by Congress]. Our business model is fundamentally inflexible [no thanks to Congress]. It prevents the postal service from solving its problems.”-Patrick Donahoe, U.S. Postmaster General, November 2011

The plan, supported by the Obama Administration, calls for cutting U.S.$20 billion from operating costs by 2015.  That means closing 252 processing facilities, closing 3,700 post offices, and eliminating 100,000 jobs!!!

The processing centers will be closed by spring 2012.  Job losses just from the closing of processing centers could hit 28,000! Expect delays in getting your mail.

This after the U.S. Congress decided to ‘delay’ any action on their part until after next year’s Presidential elections.  The move guarantees the demise of the USPS, because President Barack Obama set the default date for the Postal Service as December 16, 2010.

In a PBS interview, both the Postmaster General, and the President of the Letter Carrier’s Union said it wasn’t really about lack of business, in fact the Postmaster General said package volume was still good.  It was all about the U.S. Congress ripping off the non-taxpayer funded Postal Service: “The Postal Service actually has somewhere between $50 billion and $125 billion in their other funds that is not taxpayer money. They haven’t used a dime of taxpayer money in over 30 years! And the Congress just needs to act responsibly and quickly to give them access to that — those funds.”- Fredric Rolando, president of the National Association of Letter Carriers

Rolando pointed out that the job losses will go beyond the USPS. It will affect all the companies the USPS contracts with, like FedEx, Siemens, Northrop-Grumman, Pat Salmon & Sons and Campbell-Ewald, to name a few.

Rolando, in the PBS interview, predicted that millions of jobs will eventually be lost because of what’s happening to the USPS!

Merry Xmas Mr. Scrooge, and God bless us, everyone!

 

Business/Economics, Idaho, U.S.

Voter Incompetence: Obama supporter blind to Obama’s stance on shutting down the U.S. Postal Service

At a recent Obama rally in Scranton, Pennsylvania, a blind faith Obama supporter asked the President about stopping postal processing center closings, because the closings would have drastic affects on local economies.

The response: “Let me look into it.”-Barack Obama, President of the United States

This is not a case of Obama not knowing the issue, rather it’s a case of Obama blowing off a blind faith supporter who doesn’t realize that Obama is all for the closings!

Back in September Obama issued his official suggestions for how to deal with the U.S. Postal Service (a self supporting service, does not rely on taxpayer funding).  Amazingly Obama’s suggestions are in line with what the Postmaster General, Patrick Donahoe, wants; things like ending Saturday delivery and closing down post offices and processing centers across the country.

Here’s how the blind faith supporter of Obama reacted to the President’s response: “…just his willingness to look into it spoke volumes to me. I could definitely tell he cared.”-Corey O’Brian, Lackawanna County Commissioner and blind faith supporter of Barack Obama

Here in southeastern Idaho the only processing center on this side of the state, in Pocatello, is targeted for closing.  Local postal workers explained to me that if I wanted to send a letter to Idaho Falls (just an hour’s drive from where I live) it would end up going to Salt Lake City, Utah, to be sent back into Idaho before getting to Idaho Falls!

The problem, for us ‘customers’ of the USPS, and for our local economies, is that whether Obama and the Postmaster General get their way, or the U.S. Congress actually comes up with their own plan, or, the U.S. Congress allows the USPS to default, the results are going to be severe: Thousands of postal workers laid off, post offices closed down, processing centers closed down, etc.  As I’ve said before, what economic recovery?  And stop being so blind to what ‘our’ elected officials are doing!!!

International, U.S.

Government Incompetence & Word War 3: Iran & Lebanon capture dozens of U.S. spies. CIA official says Lebanon’s spies better than the old KGB. This happened back in June, U.S. media just now talking about it, may be part of plan to justify war with Iran.

“Hezbollah’s security is as good as any in the world’s. It’s the best. It’s better than that of the KGB.”-Bob Baer, former CIA operations officer

“Beirut station is out of business.”-unnamed CIA official

Call it a major set back for the United States, in their espionage of Iran and Lebanon.  The U.S. media says more than a dozen undercover agents working for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) were caught.  Iranian media say it was at least 30 spies in Iran, and at least 42 in other countries!  To show you how incompetent our government has become, CIA officials learned of the espionage catastrophe while watching an Iran Today newscast.

Normally U.S. officials always play down anything reported by the Iranian media, but this time CIA officials say the info presented was hardcore CIA tactics, the Iranians could only know about it because they did indeed catch the undercover spies.

ABC News quoted a U.S. official as calling the situation an “occasional setback”.  During the Cold War this would have been a major embarrassment, to say the least!

The Iranian program that reported the U.S. spy disaster is called Iran Today, it’s presented by the news service PressTV. According to Iranian media the arrests of the U.S. paid spies began back in May!  In Lebanon, Hezbollah Secretary General Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah, announced the arrest of several spies working for the CIA back in June!

You can watch the two Iran Today programs here and here.

But arrests of spies in Lebanon actually go back to April 2009, when hundreds of spies were arrested, many working for Israel’s Mossad.  Where was the U.S. media then?

ABC News has been reporting that most of the spies were executed.  Since the U.S. is now ‘blind’ in Lebanon and Iran, the only way U.S. officials can assume their undercover agents are dead, is because their actions resulted in the deaths of Iranians and Lebanese.

According to Iranian media, spies who’re not connected to the death of one of their citizens will be sentenced to hard labor.  Only if they are found to have been involved with the assassination, or killing, of a citizen would they be executed.  If you’ve paid attention to news from Iran you’d know that many Iranian nuclear scientists have been assassinated in the past few years, as well as many seemingly random explosions that have killed Iranian civilians.

Why is the U.S. media now running with this story?  Could it be that the failed FBI sting operation, that was presented as an attempted Iranian assassination of a Saudi Arabian official, has failed to rouse enough support for war with Iran, so now the Obama administration has decided to somehow use this major CIA FAIL to generate support for war with Iran?

 

 

 

 

 

International, U.S.

World War 3: Peaceprize winner, Obama, sending thousands of U.S. Marines to Australia. Prep for war with China, or trying to save money?

“With my visit to the region I am making it clear that the United States is stepping up its commitment to the entire Asia-Pacific region.  But the second message I’m trying to send is that we are here to stay. This is a region of huge strategic importance to us.  Even as we make a whole host of important fiscal decisions back home, this is right up there at the top of my priority list.  And we’re going to make sure that we are able to fulfill our leadership role in the Asia-Pacific region.”-Barack Obama, Noble peace prize winner & President of the United States

After nearly four years as President of the United States, Barack Obama finally makes an official visit to Australia, where he announced the deployment of 2,500 Marines!

U.S. officials claim it’s partly at the request of the Australian Prime Minister, Julia Gillard.  Foreign policy analysts say it’s really about surrounding China with U.S. forces, in preparation for war.

Currently the U.S. and dozens of Asian/Pacific countries have been discussing the creation of a TPP (Trans Pacific Partnership, or free trade zone).  China has been deliberately left out of those TPP negotiations.  In fact, many of the governments of the smaller Asian countries are pushing for the TPP as a way of protecting themselves, economically, from China.

Another possibility is that the U.S. Department of Defense is trying to cut costs, shutting down state side bases.  Part of this move, to send the USMC to Australia, includes training of U.S. military pilots in Australia, rather than the U.S.  Obama said U.S. forces will jointly train with their Australian counterparts.

The important thing is that this is definitely an overt move of expansion on the part of the struggling U.S. Empire: “…the first long-term expansion of the American military presence in the Pacific since the end of the Vietnam War.”– New York Times

 

Business/Economics, Idaho, U.S.

Occupy Idaho: Bank sues Mayor for business loan, Mayor says her business is not in trouble

Coeur d’Alene Mayor Sandi Bloem was shocked to learn that her jewelry store is being sued for more than $80,000.

Panhandle State Bank says the lawsuit is over a $75,000 loan made back in 2005.  Bloem says she was in the process of renegotiating the loan, and never had any indication the bank was going to sue.  She says her jewelry store is not in financial trouble, even though the bank says she failed to pay off the loan.

 

International, U.S.

World War 3: Sarkozy & Obama caught calling Israeli leaders ‘liars’

“I can’t stand him!”-Nicolas Sarkozy, President of France

“You’re fed up with him, but I have to deal with him every day!”-Barack Obama, President of the United States

Who are these two presidents talking about, why Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, of course.

On November 7, at the G20 meeting in Cannes, a microphone between Sarkozy and Obama was left on, and recorded how they really feel about Israeli leaders.

French media say Sarkozy went so far as to call Netanyahu a “liar”!

International, U.S.

Occupy America! Some facts about Revolutions the leaderless Wall Street occupiers, and Tea Partiers, need to know

The following is a brief on research I did on how Revolutions actually work, because they don’t follow the predictions of Karl Marx; that revolutions are led by the lower classes.  Three authors were read: Crane Brinton, James C. Davies and Ted Gurr.

James C. Davies (creator of the J-curve theory of revolutions) compared the theories of Karl Marx and A. de Tocqueville, with the Dorr Rebellion,  1917 Russian Revolution and 1952 Egyptian Revolution.

Davies found that economically motivated revolutions come after a relatively long time of decline for the middle and upper classes (the poor are too destitute to do anything about their situation).  In other words, it’s like a frog in a boiling pot of water; it takes awhile before the middle and upper classes realize they’re being screwed over.

Davies also discovered that if economic times are bad enough no revolution will take place, because everyone is too busy fending for themselves.  In other words if the middle and upper classes wait too long, they won’t have the strength to fight the elites.

Ted Gurr (Why Men Rebel) found that civil strife is affected by many factors, including economic deprivation and how the society views its leaders/government.

Gurr found that societies with a history of recurring civil strife are most likely to continue with such problems in the future.  Here in the United States the main problem is that too many citizens put too much faith in their ‘authorities’; from organized religion, to Corporate America and their government (at all levels/local/state/federal).  The irony is that the United States was founded on rebellion against authority (something that has been forgotten by many U.S. citizens).

Gurr also found that the success, or failure, of a revolution depends on how much support (from the general population and from outside the country) it gets.

One way the government/Corporate America can snuff out domestic support is to control the media coverage of such revolutions.  In fact our government (along with the British) has also used the media to create false revolutions (false flag ops) in other countries: The 1953 coup in Iran is a prime example.

Another proof of support for revolutions comes from the 1776 U.S. Revolution. If it wasn’t for the occasional raids into the southern Colonies by the Spanish, and the blockade of the British navy by the French navy, there would be no United States.

Crane Brinton (The Anatomy of Revolution) applied the scientific method in studying the 1641 English Revolution, 1776 U.S. Revolution (American War of Independence), the 1789 French Revolution and the 1917 Russian Revolution.

Brinton found that those revolutions were actually started by middle and upper class leaders.  The poor had little to do with it. The motivation of the middle and upper classes were economic: They were living in circumstances that were threatening to take away the economic gains they, and their predecessors had made, for the benefit of the elites.

Some beginning signs of Revolution: Austerity acts; tax increases/cuts to social programs.  Tax revolts.  Mobilization of Revolutionaries.  Ineffectual government reforms/accommodations.  Government repression.

Revolutionaries tend to be better leaders, organizers and motivators, than the establishment, but Brinton has warnings for Revolutionaries: Usually what happens is moderates take control of government but end up running things the same as before.  Then extremists take over, and things can get nasty, like a “reign of terror”.  Extremists can take advantage of “mob mentality” resulting in social terror that is presented as being democratic. Eventually extremists turn on each other, leading to dictatorships.  (Also, read Orwell’s Animal Farm. There’s also a cartoon version, but it’s not really for the kids ’cause it follows the book closely.)

So, these three researchers discovered that it’s not the poor who lead revolutions, it is the middle and upper classes.  The middle and upper classes revolt because their economically unstable governments (and now unstable Corporate America as well) put pressure on the more stable public, which causes the public to feel threatened and creates, at the very least, the perception that their economic prosperity (or even the chance of ever achieving prosperity) is finished.

Occupy America: Steve Jobs’ secret to success; Live Life your way

Occupy America: Federal Reserve boss blames Wall Street

Opinion, U.S.

United Police States of America: The U.S. is not governed by the Rule of Law, Obama can kill you without explaining why

So much for the Rule of Law.  How many times has George Bush Jr used that phrase during one of his many speeches justifying the War on Terror?  Well the Obama administration proves that the U.S. government operates without due process, without regard for the law, they make up secret laws as they go.

“The Justice Department wrote a secret memorandum authorizing the lethal targeting of Anwar al-Aulaqi, the American-born radical cleric who was killed by a U.S. drone strike Friday, according to administration officials. The document was produced following a review of the legal issues raised by striking a U.S. citizen and involved senior lawyers from across the administration. There was no dissent about the legality of killing Aulaqi, the officials said.”-Washington Post

In the recent killings of two U.S. citizens, Anwar al Awlaki and Samir Khan, President Barack Obama says the Justice Department came up with legal justification for the killing, even though al Awlaki has never been directly linked with any attacks against the U.S.  He was killed for speaking his mind!

“The White House refused to offer evidence of al-Awlaki’s role in terrorism or answer questions about the standard for killing an American.”-Washington Post

Here’s an interesting statement: Obama called al Awlaki “…the leader of external operations for Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula.” What’s interesting is that it’s the first time the United States referred to al Awlaki in that way!  In fact, it was after they killed him that the U.S. government “linked” him directly to attempted terrorist attacks (the main stream media bought the bullshit)!

There are media reports out of the Middle East that say al Awlaki’s assassination coincided with the return of the pro-U.S. president of Yemen, from medical exile after being wounded in an attack on his life.  Al Awlaki was seen as a leader in the Arab uprising going on in Yemen right now, and a threat to the pro-U.S. president of Yemen.  That’s probably the real reason he was killed.

Here’s another interesting point, the mosque in Virginia, where al Awlaki preached, stated that his message was of tolerance, until he went to Yemen, where he was arrested and tortured by the pro-U.S. Yemen government.  After that is when he started making statements against the U.S.  Well no surprise there, but then all these holier than tho police state NAZIs actually expect you to thank them after they torture you!

And what did U.S. citizen Samir Khan do?  He edited a Jihadi Internet magazine!  So I guess us bloggers are fair game.

Many people might say that since the U.S. Justice Department legally justified the killing, then it must be legal.  The problem is that in a society run by the Rule of Law, all laws must be public knowledge (remember the saying: Ignorance of the law is no excuse).  This “law” the Obama administration came up with is “classified”.

So now, in the United States, the land of the Rule of Law, is a secret law that says the President of the United States can kill any U.S. citizen based on what that citizen says, or who they piss off!  Who’s the real terrorist here?