January 17, 1961, President Eisenhower warns of the brevity of the USA Military Industrial Complex.

August 5, 1964 - After the USA engaged in covert naval activity offshore North Vietnam, they got the break they were looking for - Aggravated assault by the North Vietnamese and the rest is history.

Three years. It only took three years of an itchy trigger finger and the promise of large oil sales to the military to discard the warnings of President Eisenhower.

30-year Anniversary: Tonkin Gulf Lie Launched Vietnam War (click title to entry - thank you)
By Jeff Cohen and Norman Solomon

Thirty years ago, it all seemed very clear.

"American Planes Hit North Vietnam After Second Attack on Our Destroyers; Move Taken to Halt New Aggression", announced a Washington Post headline on Aug. 5, 1964.

That same day, the front page of the New York Times reported: "President Johnson has ordered retaliatory action against gunboats and 'certain supporting facilities in North Vietnam' after renewed attacks against American destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin."

But there was no "second attack" by North Vietnam — no "renewed attacks against American destroyers." By reporting official claims as absolute truths, American journalism opened the floodgates for the bloody Vietnam War.

A pattern took hold: continuous government lies passed on by pliant mass media...leading to over 50,000 American deaths and millions of Vietnamese casualties.

The official story was that North Vietnamese torpedo boats launched an "unprovoked attack" against a U.S. destroyer on "routine patrol" in the Tonkin Gulf on Aug. 2 — and that North Vietnamese PT boats followed up with a "deliberate attack" on a pair of U.S. ships two days later.

The truth was very different....


A sustainable economy that is peaceful in nature is possible. The American People have to want it above all else.

Who do you trust? The people that don't protect us from war, but, advocate it...or the people that get us out of it and seek peaceful economies?

Honorable Deployment and a global strategy to peace and peace keeping.

Good night.

Before they find their way into office they run the corporations that fail and bail them out after they are elected. Corporate welfare.

May 14, 2007
Policy Analysis no. 592

The Corporate Welfare State: How the Federal Government Subsidizes U.S. Businesses

by Stephen Slivinski

The federal government (click title to entry - thank you) spent $92 billion in direct and indirect subsidies to businesses and private- sector corporate entities — expenditures commonly referred to as "corporate welfare" — in fiscal year 2006. The definition of business subsidies used in this report is broader than that used by the Department of Commerce's Bureau of Economic Analysis, which recently put the costs of direct business subsidies at $57 billion in 2005. For the purposes of this study, "corporate welfare" is defined as any federal spending program that provides payments or unique benefits and advantages to specific companies or industries....

The Political Right Wing likes to pride themselves on creating private sector jobs.

Right.

After the election of 1980...

...Michael Milken (click title to entry - thank you) under the 1970 RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations) statute. The SEC accused the defendants of trading on inside information as well as filing false disclosure forms with the SEC to disguise stock ownership.

Drexel and Milken were accused of manipulating stock prices, of keeping false records, and of defrauding their own clients. Drexel plead guilty to six felony counts of securities fraud on December 21 and paid a $650 million settlement fee. The company also agreed to assist in the indictment against Milken. Two months later, Milken was indicted on ninety-eight counts, including insider trading and racketeering....

After the election of 1984...

...His indifference to urban problems was legendary. (click title to entry - thank you) Reagan owed little to urban voters, big-city mayors, black or Hispanic leaders, or labor unions – the major advocates for metropolitan concerns. Early in his presidency, at a White House reception, Reagan greeted the only black member of his Cabinet, Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Samuel Pierce, saying: “How are you, Mr. Mayor? I’m glad to meet you. How are things in your city?”

Reagan not only failed to recognize his own HUD Secretary, he failed to deal with the growing corruption scandal at the agency that resulted in the indictment and conviction of top Reagan administration officials for illegally targeting housing subsidies to politically connected developers. Fortunately for Reagan, the “HUD Scandal” wasn’t uncovered until he’d left office.

Reagan also presided over the dramatic deregulation of the nation’s savings and loan industry allowing S&Ls to end their reliance on home mortgages and engage in an orgy of commercial real estate speculation. The result was widespread corruption, mismanagement and the collapse of hundreds of thrift institutions that ultimately led to a taxpayer bailout that cost hundreds of billions of dollars.

The 1980s saw pervasive racial discrimination by banks, real estate agents and landlords, unmonitored by the Reagan administration. Community groups uncovered blatant redlining by banks using federal Home Mortgage Disclosure Act information. But Reagan’s HUD and justice departments failed to prosecute or sanction banks that violated the Community Reinvestment Act, which prohibits racial discrimination in lending. During that time, of the 40,000 applications from banks requesting permission to expand their operations, Reagan’s bank regulators denied only eight of them on grounds of violating CRA regulations....

Tea Party puts ignorance and racism on display

Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., waves after speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington on March 2. (click title to entry - thank you)

Opinion

February 27, 2010 2:00 AM (click here)

Feb. 23 — To the Editor:

A few weeks ago in Nashville, we witnessed the worst of America on display at the first national "Tea Party" convention.

The nativist, racist message that has been seeping out of this movement has never been put forward cogently until this point. Then former GOP Rep. Tom Tancredo walked on to the stage and confirmed what many believed about this so-called "movement."

Tancredo cited a lack of civics exams for people to vote. This was a tactic used by many states in the deep South to prevent African-Americans from voting. He also disparaged our nation's strong history of immigration by saying the president was elected by a bunch of people who couldn't speak English. Racism? Oh, I think so.

Then came former half-term Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, full of her frightening, yet uninformed "just folk" speak. How is that "hopey, changey stuff working out for ya?" she asked.

Well, Gov. Palin, a lot better than if you had been elected vice president. America is finally working its way out of the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. We have a president who believes in diplomacy and understands the nuances of international relations. We have a president who respects the separation of church and state and, most importantly, we have a president who has a solid grasp of the English language. None of which, by the way, I believe would have occurred under a McCain-Palin administration.

According to the tea party movement, America has lost its way and its freedoms are being eroded. Wrong. What the tea party movement fears is progress, and this frightens them no end....

After the election of 1988...

Neil Bush

What was the Savings and Loans Crisis? (click here)

The Savings and Loans Crisis created the greatest banking collapse since the Great Depression of 1929. By 1989, over half the Savings and Loans had failed, along with the FSLIC fund that was created to insure their deposits.

Empire Savings in Texas revealed land flips and other criminal activities. Half of the failed S&L's were from Texas, pushing that state into recession. As bad land investments were auctioned off, real estate prices collapsed, office vacancy rose to 30%, and crude oil prices fell 50%....

...Five U.S. Senators, known as the Keating Five, were investigated by the Senate Ethics Committee for improper conduct. They had accepted $1.5 million in campaign contributions from Charles Keating, head of the Lincoln Savings and Loan Association. They had also put pressure on the Federal Home Loan Banking Board, who was investigating possible criminal activities at Lincoln....

The current economic crisis (click title to entry - thank you) demands that we understand John McCain's attitudes about economic oversight and corporate influence in federal regulation. Nothing illustrates the danger of his approach more clearly than his central role in the savings and loan scandal of the late '80s and early '90s....

Oy vey! Arkansas State Senator Kim Hendren calls Chuck Schumer 'that Jew'

BY Michael Mcauliff
DAILY NEWS WASHINGTON BUREAU

Updated Thursday, May 14th 2009, 2:50 PM

WASHINGTON - A Republican Senate challenger in Arkansas called Sen. Chuck Schumer "that Jew" at a campaign event and has spent a week backtracking, apologizing, and digging himself in deeper.

Kim Hendren, now the minority leader of the Arkansas state Senate, dropped his J-bomb last week after he got mad that Schumer described conservative Republicans as "hard right" in a TV interview.

He almost got away with it, but conservative Arkansas blogger Jason Tolbert it, and called out Hendren, who is challenging Democratic Sen. Blanche Lincoln.

Hendren excused his remark by pointing to his reputation as a gaffe machine.

"I don't use a Teleprompter, and occasionally I put my foot in my month," he told Tolbert, then inserted it a little farther.

"I was attempting to explain that unlike Sen. Schumer, I believe in traditional values, like we used to see on "The Andy Griffith Show'" Hendren said....

After the election of 1992...

...President Clinton’s Record on the Economy: (click title to entry - thank you) In 1992, 10 million Americans were unemployed, the country faced record deficits, and poverty and welfare rolls were growing. Family incomes were losing ground to inflation and jobs were being created at the slowest rate since the Great Depression. Today, America enjoys what may be the strongest economy ever....

After the election of 1996...

President Clinton announces another record budget surplus (click title to entry - thank you)

From CNN White House Correspondent Kelly Wallace

September 27, 2000
Web posted at: 4:51 p.m. EDT (2051 GMT)

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Clinton announced Wednesday that the federal budget surplus for fiscal year 2000 amounted to at least $230 billion, making it the largest in U.S. history and topping last year's record surplus of $122.7 billion.

"Eight years ago, our future was at risk," Clinton said Wednesday morning. "Economic growth was low, unemployment was high, interest rates were high, the federal debt had quadrupled in the previous 12 years. When Vice President Gore and I took office, the budget deficit was $290 billion, and it was projected this year the budget deficit would be $455 billion."...

The John Birch Society - lest we forget.

...Paul’s newsletters of the ’80s and ’90s were filled with anti-Semitic and racist rants (click title to entry - thank you), proving his slumming in the ugliest corners of conspiracyland today is no mistake....



...There are several pieces of evidence tying Paul to both white supremacists and right wing conspiracy theorists. One connection that ties Paul to both Neo-Nazis and conspiracy theorists, is his close connection to the John Birch society. The John Birch Society is a group that has been called, paranoid, radical, racist, and extremist, and believes in a Jewish/Freemason conspiracy to transform the world into a communist “New World Order.”...

After the election of 2000...

Document Says Oil Chiefs Met With Cheney Task Force (click title to entry - thank you)

By Dana Milbank and Justin Blum

Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, November 16, 2005

...The document, obtained this week by The Washington Post, shows that officials from Exxon Mobil Corp., Conoco (before its merger with Phillips), Shell Oil Co. and BP America Inc. met in the White House complex with the Cheney aides who were developing a national energy policy, parts of which became law and parts of which are still being debated.

In a joint hearing last week of the Senate Energy and Commerce committees, the chief executives of Exxon Mobil Corp., Chevron Corp. and ConocoPhillips said their firms did not participate in the 2001 task force. The president of Shell Oil said his company did not participate "to my knowledge," and the chief of BP America Inc. said he did not know....

The National Energy Policy Development Group was a group (click here), created by Executive Order on January 29, 2001, that was chaired by Vice President Richard Cheney. The group, commonly referred to as the "Cheney Energy Task Force," produced a National Energy Policy report in May 2001. [1] In a cover note to George W. Bush, Cheney wrote that "we have developed a national energy policy designed to help bring together business, government, local communities and citizens to promote dependable, affordable and environmentally sound energy for the future." [2] (pdf) The composition of the task force, according to the report, was confined to government officials....

Enron: What Dick Cheney Knew (click here)

By John Nichols

March 28, 2002

...Enron CEO Kenneth Lay knew he needed high-level help. So he arranged to meet with a man who had headed a corporation with extensive business ties to Enron and who had been a prime recipient of Enron's political largesse. Vice President Dick Cheney cleared his calendar for an April 17 private meeting with Lay regarding what aides described as "energy policy matters" and "the energy crisis in California." At the meeting Lay handed Cheney a memo that read in part: "The administration should reject any attempt to re-regulate wholesale power markets by adopting price caps..."

After the election of 2004...

Paulson Bailout Plan a Historic Swindle(click title to entry - thank you)

By William Greider

September 19, 2008

Financial-market wise guys, who had been seized with fear, are suddenly drunk with hope. They are rallying explosively because they think they have successfully stampeded Washington into accepting the Wall Street Journal solution to the crisis: dump it all on the taxpayers. That is the meaning of the massive bailout Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson has shopped around Congress. It would relieve the major banks and investment firms of their mountainous rotten assets and make the public swallow their losses--many hundreds of billions, maybe much more. What's not to like if you are a financial titan threatened with extinction?...

It's Saturday Night

Racist Blogger Crosses The Line

New Jersey-based blogger Hal Turner arriving at Federal Court today in the Brooklyn borough of New York.

CHICAGO (AP) -- A white supremacist blogger was arrested at his New Jersey home Wednesday and charged with threatening to assault or murder three Chicago-based judges who refused to overturn local ordinances banning handguns.

Hal Turner, 47, a former Internet radio talk show host, was taken into custody by FBI agents who went to his North Bergen home with a search warrant, according to the U.S. attorney's office.

Prosecutors quoted a Turner Internet posting as saying: "Let me be the first to say this plainly: These judges deserve to be killed."

The posting included a map showing the Everett Dirksen Federal Courthouse, where the three judges are based. It said a map showing the judges' homes would later be added.

The posting also referred to the murder of the mother and husband of Chicago-based federal Judge Joan Humphrey Lefkow in February 2005 ? a crime that sent shock waves across the nation.

"Apparently, the 7th U.S. Circuit Court didn't get the hint after those killings," the posting said. "It appears another lesson is needed."

U.S. Attorney Patrick J. Fitzgerald announced the arrest, which stemmed from a complaint filed in federal court in Chicago....

Prosecutors ask to exclude ties to FBI in retrial of N.J. blogger accused of threatening judges (click here)

By The Star-Ledger Continuous News Desk

February 17, 2010, 5:27AM

Federal prosecutors are asking a judge to ban right-wing blogger Hal Turner from revealing to a jury he was an FBI informant in a retrial for allegedly threatening three federal judges in Chicago, a report in NorthJersey.com said.

Prosecutors said allowing argument about his status as an informant would just distract the jury, but his defense said he was trained to make statements similar to the ones charged as a threat in the case, according to the report. A judge declared a mistrial last December in the case against the New Jersey blogger. Prosecutors had argued that Turner knew his Internet tirade, which insisted the judges "deserved to be killed," could provoke violence by members of his radical audience. The defense likened Turner to a "shock jock" and argued he was expressing an opinion protected by the First Amendment.

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

JUDGE SIDES WITH TURNER! TRIAL BEGINS MONDAY

In yet another legal victory for radio host and blogger Hal Turner, a federal judge has ruled Turner's role as a national security intelligence operative for the FBI can be admitted at trial.

The government is prosecuting Turner over an editorial he published last June which criticized three federal judges who violated the US Constitution and who ignored a recent US Supreme Court ruling. The editorial called the Judges "traitors" and said they "deserve to be killed."

The government claims that "deserve to be killed" is a threat to actually go kill them. Hal Turner says "deserve" is an opinion; protected free speech....

7th Circuit Judges May Testify in Retrial Over Web Threats (click here)

Lynne Marek

The National Law Journal

February 26, 2010

Federal prosecutors are beefing up their case against Web radio talk show host Harold "Hal" Turner, charged with encouraging listeners to murder three federal appellate judges. In Turner's retrial, which starts next week in Brooklyn, N.Y., prosecutors plan to call those judges to the stand.

Last week the prosecutors, who work in the U.S. Attorney's Office in Chicago, overcame objections from Turner's lawyer, Michael Orozco, and won permission to have the three judges from the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago provide testimony, according to documents filed in the case. The targets of Turner's vitriol were Chief Judge Frank Easterbrook, Judge Richard Posner and Judge William Bauer, a former U.S. Attorney in Chicago.

Turner was indicted last June after he posted Internet messages that said the judges "deserve to be killed" for their June 2 ruling allowing a Chicago handgun ban to stand. (The same ban is now being challenged before the U.S. Supreme Court.) In a June 3 post, Turner provided the names, work addresses, phone numbers and photos of Easterbrook, Posner and Bauer. He called them "traitors" and said "their blood will replenish the tree of liberty."

Turner has pleaded not guilty, arguing that he's just a shock jock exercising his First Amendment rights and that he never intended any harm against the judges. His lawyer, Michael Orozco of Bailey & Orozco in Newark, N.J, also won permission from the trial judge to submit evidence that Turner was once a paid FBI informant who attended extremist group meetings and then provided information to the bureau....

"GOP Lyrics" by Beth Hart

silver blue hair & a cane in her hand
living to die in the promised land
handing out flyers for the coming of Christ
she says raise from the fire for eternal life
or they'll
take your mind & they'll strip your faith
& they'll starve you with nothin' that you already ate
& they'll compliment just to break you down
Spin you in circles runnin' round & round
Good Ole People live
Good Ole People
coke bottle glasses & a smile on his face
He stands on the corner screamin' don't mix the race
commanding all the children to confess all their sins
then he beats his wife with a bottle of Gin
& they'll
whip your mind just to strip your faith
counterfeit people comin' to dominate
& they'll get you high just to greet you down
Spin you in circles movin' round & round
Good Ole People live
Good Ole People give
But Good Ole People can't drive
& maybe that's why Good Ole People die

Bush/Cheney nearly scammed the public of their 401Ks before they left in January 2009.

The Obama/Biden Administration stopped this in the nick of time. The American Electorate simply can't return this kind of power back to Republicans. Would not be a good idea.

The Executive Branch of the USA is very powerful. They 'administer' the laws of the country. Responsible and Learned people need to be in those offices. This is a 'big one.'

Don't be fooled by rhetoric.



There was a press release on February 26, 2010 about clarifying the kind of advice citizens receive regarding their 401K. There is a Task Force to allow public commentary on changes to the regulations governing how people receive advice.

What the public announcement doesn't say is that the Bush/Cheney administration was on the verge of scamming the public, while putting their investments at risk. The Bush/Cheney administration was allowing provisions that advisers could direct their advice to serve their own best interests, regardless, of the risk to the public.

This is the announcement:

EBSA News Release (click here)

Release Date: February 26, 2010
Release Number: 10-251-NAT
Contact Name: Gloria Della or Joseph DeWolk
Phone Number: 202.693.8666/202.694.4676

U.S. Labor Department rules to improve retirement security announced as part of White House Middle Class Task Force's year-end report
Rules enhance retirement advice and transparency for workers

Washington – Today, at a White House forum hosted by Vice President Joe Biden, the U.S. Department of Labor announced two new rules designed to enhance retirement security and transparency for the millions of workers covered by 401(k), pension and other retirement arrangements. The announcement was part of the White House Middle Class Task Force's year-end report, which the vice president released at this morning's event.

During the past year, the Middle Class Task Force has focused on solutions to the challenges facing America's middle class - including retirement security and the need for high-quality jobs for middle class workers. The report details the year's work of the task force, and it includes a proposed rule on investment advice. The department also is announcing the publication of a final rule on multiemployer plan transparency....

Below is part of the analysis that lead up to the Task Force. I don't want to hear how the Obama/Biden Administration is doing anything except the people's work. They are shifting through a mess created over eight years of 'advantageous Republican' planning in order to better safeguard the American people from losing everything.

Background (click title to entry - thank you)

• EBSA is responsible for administering and enforcing the fiduciary, reporting, and disclosure provisions of Title I of the ERISA. The agency oversees approximately 708,000 private pension plans, including 483,000 participant-directed individual account plans such as 401(k)-type plans, and millions of private health and welfare plans that are subject to ERISA.

• As of 2007, more than one-half of private-sector employees participated in defined contribution plans that allow for participant direction, with these plans covering 60 million active participants and holding about $3 trillion in assets.

• In general, investment advice given by an investment adviser to plan participants on investments that pay additional fees to the adviser or its affiliates can violate the prohibited transaction rules of ERISA and the Internal Revenue Code. This has limited the types of investment advice arrangements available to participants in 401(k) plans and IRAs.

• Given the rise in participation in 401(k) type plans and IRAs, the retirement security of millions of America’s workers increasingly depends on their investment decisions. Thus, there is increased recognition of the importance of investment advice in helping participants avoid costly investment errors.

• The Department published a Request for Information in December 2006, published a proposed regulation in August 2008, and held a public hearing on October 21, 2008. A final rule and related class exemption published in January 2009 were withdrawn in November 2010 in response to concerns raised in public comment letters questioning the adequacy of the final class exemption's conditions to mitigate the potential for investment adviser self-dealing.

Basically what that says, above, is that the Administration of Obama/Biden discovered public comment that was IGNORED by the Bush/Cheney Administration when they published the proposed change in rules governing all those monies. The American People were about to be fleeced AGAIN.

I imagine Halliburton would love to get their hands on that volume of funds in order to facilitate their further extortion of the American people.

Below is the announcement of the published request for public comment in the Federal Register:

The PDF to the Federal Register announcement (click here)

Public Notice and Comment on the Proposal (click here)

The Department will publish the proposed regulation in the Federal Register on March 2, 2010. The Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) invites public comments from interested persons on the proposed regulation’s conditions applicable to investment advice arrangements. Public comments can be submitted electronically by email to e-ORI@dol.gov or by using the Federal eRulemaking portal at www.regulations.gov. All comments will be available to the public, without charge, online at www.regulations.gov and www.dol.gov/ebsa, and at the EBSA Public Disclosure Room.