Borrow billions from the poor, middle class to give a tax cut to the richest families in America

Sen. Mary Landrieu, a conservative Democratic from Louisiana, lashed out Tuesday at President Obama's deal with congressional Republicans that allows tax cuts for the wealthy to be extended for two years.

Extending the tax cuts for those making more than a million dollars a year is borderline immoral, Landrieu charged. "I'm going to argue forcefully for the nonsensicalness and the almost, you know, moral corruptness of that particular policy," said Landrieu, walking into a meeting with Vice President Joe Biden and Senate Democrats. "This is beyond politics. This is about justice and doing what's right."

Landrieu was fuming about the deal. On her way into the meeting, she slammed the tax-cut extension as a needless giveaway, adding, "That's all I have to say." But it wasn't. She emerged from the meeting a few moments later to continue prosecuting her case to reporters.

"It's what I'm calling the Obama-McConnell plan. We're going to borrow $46 billion from the poor, from the middle class, from businesses of all sizes basically to give a tax cut to families in America today, that despite the recession, are making over a million dollars. I mean, this is unprecedented. Unprecedented. I want to repeat that," she said. Landrieu added, however, that she had yet to make a decision on the final package and was speaking strictly about the extension of tax cuts for the wealthy.

Huffington Post

Critics Slam Obama Administration for 'Hiding' Massive Saudi Arms Deal

The Obama administration has quietly forged ahead with its proposal to sell $60 billion worth of fighter jets and attack helicopters to Saudi Arabia unhampered by Congress, despite questions raised in legislative inquiries and in an internal congressional report about the wisdom of the deal.

The massive arms deal would be the single largest sale of weapons to a foreign nation in the history of the U.S., outfitting Saudi Arabia with a fully modernized, potent new air force.

"Our six-decade-long security relationship with Saudi Arabia is a primary security pillar in the region," Defense Sec. Robert M. Gates and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton wrote in a Nov. 16 letter to congress. "This package continues that tradition."

More on ABC News

Washington Post: War with Iran would rescue economy

Washington Post political correspondent David Broder has kind words for President Barack Obama in in his opinion column Sunday, arguing that it isn't the president's fault the economy is stuck in reverse.

Here is where Obama is likely to prevail. With strong Republican support in Congress for challenging Iran's ambition to become a nuclear power, he can spend much of 2011 and 2012 orchestrating a showdown with the mullahs. This will help him politically because the opposition party will be urging him on. And as tensions rise and we accelerate preparations for war, the economy will improve.

"I am not suggesting, of course, that the president incite a war to get re-elected," Broder qualifies. "But the nation will rally around Obama because Iran is the greatest threat to the world in the young century."

More on Raw Story

Obama’s Secret Assault on Terrorism

The White House has intensified the Central Intelligence Agency’s drone missile campaign in Pakistan, approved raids against Qaeda operatives in Somalia and launched clandestine operations from Kenya. The administration has worked with European allies to dismantle terrorist groups in North Africa, efforts that include a recent French strike in Algeria. And the Pentagon tapped a network of private contractors to gather intelligence about things like militant hide-outs in Pakistan and the location of an American soldier currently in Taliban hands.

While the stealth war began in the Bush administration, it has expanded under President Obama, who rose to prominence in part for his early opposition to the invasion of Iraq. Virtually none of the newly aggressive steps undertaken by the United States government have been publicly acknowledged. In contrast with the troop buildup in Afghanistan, which came after months of robust debate, for example, the American military campaign in Yemen began without notice in December and has never been officially confirmed.

Obama administration officials point to the benefits of bringing the fight against Al Qaeda and other militants into the shadows. Afghanistan and Iraq, they said, have sobered American politicians and voters about the staggering costs of big wars that topple governments, require years of occupation and can be a catalyst for further radicalization throughout the Muslim world.

Full story at NYTimes.com

John Pilger: Obama Is A Corporate Marketing Creation

John Richard Pilger is an Australian journalist and documentary maker. He has twice won Britain's Journalist of the Year Award, and his documentaries have received academy awards in Britain and the US.

Wakeymedia2 (see some great Pilger documentaries)

The Great American Bubble Machine

One of the Top Contributors to Obama’s election campaign was Goldman Sachs. OpenSecrets.org 

Bankers set for record bonuses on back of Goldman Sachs profits - Bankers at Goldman Sachs are on track for average pay packets of more than $770,000 (£475,000) this year after the investment bank astonished Wall Street and the City with barnstorming results yesterday.

Only days after Alistair Darling, the Chancellor, warned that very high City bonuses helped bankers to make reckless decisions that led to the credit crisis, big bonuses are back. Goldman, which employs 5,500 people in London, reported a spectacular recovery in profits to $3.4 billion in the three months to June and earmarked $6.65 billion for pay and bonuses.  Times Online

Matt Taibbi on how Goldman Sachs has engineered every major market manipulation since the Great Depression. Rolling Stone (Further parts here)

Bohemian Grove 2009

"This years elite retreat at Bohemian Grove is fast approaching. Many of the Grove’s guests will be flying into Santa Rosa Airport on the 10th of July, a Friday. They will travel West towards a small town called Monte Rio via highway 116, or River Road to discuss events and policy in private.

In the spirit of past rallies and protests organized by the Bohemian Grove Action Network, 9/11 Truth and anti-globalization activists will maintain a presence at the Grove. This is the first weekend of the retreat and they will be performing their Cremation of Care ceremony. I must mention that while the elite are here meeting privately, our focus is what the elite do outside the Grove.

Bohemian Grove 2009 Protests : Indybay

The "Cremation of Care" Ritual. Yes folks, here they are – America's corporate leaders, dressed in robes, burning their collective conscience at the feet of a statue of a 40-foot owl. Pretty weird. Or is it?  Much more information at the Bohemian Grove Action Network

Extract from Dark Secrets: Inside the Bohemian Grove Of Alex Jones. Look at the Global Elite and their strange ritual.

Obama Blocks Probes into Afghan Massacre

'The US administration has repeatedly blocked probes into alleged mass killing of Afghan war prisoners by a US-backed Afghan warlord during the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan. The New York Times quoted Friday US government and human rights officials as saying that the Bush administration had failed to investigate the mass executions of up to 2,000 Taliban POW's by the forces of General Abdul Rashid Dostum in September 2001.

Meanwhile, Obama administration officials said Friday they had no grounds to investigate into the case because only foreigners were involved and the alleged massacre occurred in a foreign country.'

Read more... See the documentary 'Afghan Massacre: Convoy of Death' here...

from David Icke Website - Latest Headlines

Cheney 'silenced CIA over spy plan'

Dick Cheney, the former US vice-president, deliberately withheld details of a secret CIA spy programme from the US congress for eight years, a newspaper has reported.

Cheney, who was vice-president to George Bush between 2001 and January this year, ordered the CIA not to tell congress of a new "counter-terrorism" programme, The New York Times reported on Saturday.

The details of the intelligence programme, launched after the attacks on the US in September 2001, remain secret.

According to the Time's sources, Cheney's role in stifling the information was revealed by Leon Panetta, who now heads the CIA and who ordered the programme to be stopped in June.

Al Jazeera

Creepy, revealing quote from White House staffer

Jane Hamsher details the extremely aggressive tactics the White House and House leadership used to coerce liberal environmentalist members to vote for the cap-and-trade bill despite their belief that it helped polluters more than it did anything else (and remember their ability to do that the next time they claim that a bill they ostensibly support simply couldn't pass because it lacked the necessary votes).  Jane quotes from a Politico article reporting on White House anger towards environmentalist Democratic Rep. Lloyd Doggett, due to an impassioned floor speech he gave arguing that the bill was so industry-friendly that it would do more harm than good.  That article contains this quote:

The White House is smoking mad at Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas), who says he's voting against the climate bill — despite the lobbying of the entire First Family in the Oval Office last night.

If the bill goes down, Obama won't forget Doggett's role, Democrats say. It's "stunning that he would ignore the wishes not just of his president, but of his constituents and the country,” said an administration official.

This has become an emerging theme among both the White House and House leadership:  that progressive members of Congress have an obligation to carry out "the wishes of the President" even when they disagree (now, apparently, it's "stunning" when they defy his dictates).  That was the same subservient mentality that led House Democrats who admitted they opposed the war supplemental spending and/or the foreign bank bailout to nonetheless vote for the bill:  because they President favored it.  The duty of Congress is not to obey the wishes of the President.

More on Salon.com

WANT and WISH For Another Terrorist Attack in the U.S.

Beck guest Scheuer "The only chance we have as a country right now is" for bin Laden to "detonate a major weapon" in U S. Via http://www.mediamatters.org.

A Few Thoughts on the Coup in Honduras - Obama's First Coup D'etat

There is a lot of great analysis circulating on the military coup against Manuel Zelaya in Honduras. I do not see a need to re-invent the wheel. (See here here here and here). However, a few key things jump out at me. First, we know that the coup was led by Gen. Romeo Vasquez, a graduate of the US Army School of the Americas. As we know very well from history, these “graduates” maintain ties to the US military as they climb the military career ladders in their respective countries. That is a major reason why the US trains these individuals.

Secondly, the US has a fairly significant military presence in Honduras. Joint Task Force-Bravo is located at Soto Cano Air Base, Honduras. The base is home to some 550 US military personnel and more than 650 US and Honduran civilians:

They work in six different areas including the Joint Staff, Air Force Forces (612th Air Base Squadron), Army Forces, Joint Security Forces and the Medical Element. 1st Battalion, 228th Aviation Regiment, a US Army South asset, is a tenant unit also based at Soto Cano. The J-Staff provides command and control for JTF-B.

The New York Times reports that “The unit focuses on training Honduran military forces, counternarcotics operations, search and rescue, and disaster relief missions throughout Central America.”
Significantly, according to GlobalSecurity, “Soto Cano is a Honduran military installation and home of the Honduran Air Force.”
This connection to the Air Force is particularly significant given this report in NarcoNews:

The head of the Air Force, Gen. Luis Javier Prince Suazo, studied in the School of the Americas in 1996.  The Air Force has been a central protagonist in the Honduran crisis.  When the military refused to distribute the ballot boxes for the opinion poll, the ballot boxes were stored on an Air Force base until citizens accompanied by Zelaya rescued them.  Zelaya reports that after soldiers kidnapped him, they took him to an Air Force base, where he was put on a plane and sent to Costa Rica.

It is impossible to imagine that the US was not aware that the coup was in the works. In fact, this was basically confirmed by The New York Times in Monday’s paper.

Story continues on RebelReports

Also see the very good site School of the Americas Watch – Pictures of the Coup here

Depleted Uranium Children Iraq

There is widespread contamination with cancer-causing depleted uranium munitions in Afghanistan and Iraq causing dramatically rising birth deformities. This video was censored on you tube...Lets see how long it will stay up this time...

YouTube

Honduras president condemns 'plot'

Manuel Zelaya, the president of Honduras, has called for "peaceful resistance" after the country's military forced him to leave the country.

After arriving in Costa Rica on Sunday, Zelaya said that he had been the "victim of kidnapping" when Honduran soldiers raided his home earlier in the day.

The military made its move after Zelaya vowed to go ahead with a referendum on constitutional changes, which the Central American nation's supreme court and attorney-general had declared illegal.
"They came to my house in the early hours of the morning and firing guns they broke the doors with bayonets and threatened to shout me," Zelaya told Venezuela's Telesur television station.

"I don't think that the whole army supported this interruption of the democratic system by capturing a president elected by the people.  
"I think that this has been a plot by an elite whose only wish is to keep the country isolated and in total poverty."

Al Jazeera

Venezuelan president: US behind Honduras coup – Inquirer.net

US Justice Dept. asks judge to drop Obama from suit filed by Geronimo’s heirs

The U.S. Department of Justice asked a federal judge to limit the scope of a lawsuit filed by the descendants of legendary Apache warrior Geronimo.

The suit, which names President Barack Obama and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates along with Yale University and the secretive Order of the Skull & Bones fraternity, aims to have Geronimo’s physical remains and personal effects transported from Fort Sill, Oklahoma, to southern New Mexico for a proper tribal burial.

The Justice Department’s brief, filed with the U.S. District Court for Washington, D.C. on June 10, seeks to remove the president and defense secretary from the suit.

The suit alleges that members of the Order of the Skull & Bones fraternity, whose members are among the most powerful and wealthy in American history, stole some of Geronimo’s remains and moved them in secret to New Haven, Connecticut. It is rumored that a group of bonesmen, allegedly including Prescott Bush — a former U.S. Senator whose son and grandson were both Republican presidents — dug up Geronimo’s grave in 1918 and brought his skull to the society’s clubhouse.

Raw Story - US seeks to stop Geronimo lawsuit (BBC)

Also see:Yale Historian Finds Clue To Geronimo Skull and

Whose Skull and Bones? on Yale Alumni Magazine

This Alex Jones documentary exposes the connections between the Bohemian Club and Skull and Bones and other American occult secret societies.

Obama Regulatory Reform Plan Officially Establishes Banking Dictatorship In United States

President Obama’s plan to give the privately-owned and unaccountable Federal Reserve complete regulatory oversight across the entire U.S. economy, which is likely to be enacted before the end of the year, will officially herald the beginning of a new form of government in the United States - an ultra-powerful banking dictatorship controlled by a small gaggle of shadowy and corrupt elitists.

The new rules would see the Fed given the authority to “regulate” any company whose activity it believes could threaten the economy and the markets.

This goes a step further than the centrally planned economies of the Soviet Union or Communist China, in that the Federal Reserve is not even accountable to the U.S. government, it is a private entity that according to former Fed chairman Alan Greenspan, is accountable to nobody but the banking families that own it.

Much more on PrisonPanet.com with links to mainstream news

Obama Reform Plan Establishes Banking Dictatorship In US - Obamanati.info

And the War continues….

LiveLeak.com - Deconstructed

U.S. May Permit 9/11 Guilty Pleas in Capital Cases

The Obama administration is considering a change in the law for the military commissions at the prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, that would clear the way for detainees facing the death penalty to plead guilty without a full trial.

The provision could permit military prosecutors to avoid airing the details of brutal interrogation techniques. It could also allow the five detainees who have been charged with the Sept. 11 attacks to achieve their stated goal of pleading guilty to gain what they have called martyrdom.

The proposal, in a draft of legislation that would be submitted to Congress, has not been publicly disclosed. It was circulated to officials under restrictions requiring secrecy. People who have read or been briefed on it said it had been presented to Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates by an administration task force on detention.

NYTimes.com

Inside the Military’s Secret Terror-Tagging Tech

The story that the CIA uses tiny homing beacons to guide their drone strikes in Pakistan may sound like an urban myth. But this sort of technology does exist, and might well be used for exactly this purpose. It might even have been the “secret weapon” that Bob Woodward said helped the American military pacify Iraq.

The military has spent hundreds of millions of dollars researching, developing, and purchasing a slew of “Tagging tracking and locating” (TTL) gear — gizmos designed to keep covertly tabs from far away. Most of these technologies are highly classified. But there’s enough information in the open literature to get a sense of what the government is pursuing: laser-based reflectors, super-strength RFID tags, and homing beacons so tiny, they can be woven into fabric or into paper.

Danger Room | Wired.com

Also see Spy Chips Guiding CIA Drone Strikes, Locals Say

US 'must reduce Afghan deaths'

The US president's nominee to take over command of US and Nato forces in Afghanistan has pledged to reduce Afghan casualties as the US steps up its war against Taliban fighters in the country.

Lieutenant-General Stanley McChrystal told the senate armed services committee on Tuesday that the US had to lessen civilian deaths in order to maintain "credibility".

"Our willingness to operate in ways that minimise casualties or damage - even when doing so makes our task more difficult - is essential to our credibility," he said.

McChrystal said he believed the war to be "winnable" but that an increase in casualties was to be expected, and said that such a victory would require a well resourced "classic counterinsurgency strategy".

Al Jazeera