by Muriel Kane, Raw Story

Republican presidential hopeful Ron Paul has consistently denied having written — or even read — the inflammatory racist and anti-gay remarks that went out under his name in newsletters he published in the early 1990s. Although numerous associates agree that Paul does not hold racist views, however, it appears that he may have known more about the racist articles than he has been willing to admit.

The Washington Post reported on Friday that three people with first-hand knowledge of Paul’s operations say “he was deeply involved in the company that produced the newsletters, Ron Paul & Associates, and closely monitored its operations, signing off on articles and speaking to staff members virtually every day.”

“It was his newsletter, and it was under his name, so he always got to see the final product. … He would proof it,’’ former company secretary Renae Hathway told the Post.

According to these sources, the main author of the racist passages was Lew Rockwell, who was then the vice president of Paul’s company.

[read the rest, here]

SOPA and PIPA are two of the most widely misunderstood pieces of legislation to recently come down the D.C. corporatist pipeline as of late (later I will write about that and the new pending legislation submitted by the same senator). Meanwhile, the recent shuttering of Megaupload and the subsequent arrest of Kim Dotcom is being portrayed as something that it clearly isn’t.

But what it is, is much worse.

The point is, you aren’t getting the full story on any of these matters even on so-called dissident conservative, libertarian, or “progressive” sites. So the question becomes, “why?”

Fascism is the seamless melding of the corporation and the state to the advantage of the owners, stockholders, and their puppet lawmakers at the direct cost of the citizen. Government’s role as protector and defender of civil liberties is replaced by that of defender of corporate control/profits and collector of tax revenue which is directly handed over to the corporations in just as fast as humanly possible.

Think of the for-profit Federal Reserve system being implemented on every facet of government responsibility (federal, state, and local) and you start to get the picture.

We think the privatized fed should be ended and they envision a world where it is expanded into every aspect of our lives.

Deregulation, smaller government, and privatization. These are the ingredients, the prerequisites of fascism.

But it all has to be codified into law. The corporation has to replace the state in the traditional roles of government by the rule of law, in order for this neoliberal coup to withstand future challenges.

SOPA and PIPA were not about allowing “big guberment” to shutter websites and arrest copy-write infringing people. They were not about letting “socialist government” stooges infringe on your first amendment rights.

They were about allowing corporations to do it. They were (are) further examples of legislating fascism under the administration of “CHANGE”. Pure and simple.

This next bill they have on tap, the cynically named “Protecting Children from Internet Pornographers Act“, is almost the same thing with a slight difference; it gives corporations the ability to collect data on you personally, your complete internet and keystroke history (along with passwords, checking account info, emails, ect.), and then to take action against you on their own say so. To essentially block individual users from the internet based solely on a corporation’s decision because of what they claim to be your internet history.

SOPA and PIPA would have allowed the corporate state to make charges against various websites and without evidence or due process, they could shutter any site on the web.

SOPA /PIPA would have removed inconvenient websites while “Protecting Children” H.R. 1981 will remove inconvenient users all the while putting the power to strip you of constitutional rights not in the hands of “big guberment”…

… but instead in the control of the newly developing Corporate States of America.

Let’s also not forget that when combined with the NDAA of 2012 which declares all the world to be a combat zone, whatever they claim you did online could also provide just enough “evidence” to not only remove your footprint entirely from the web, but it could also justify your indefinite detention for providing aid to the enemy under NDAA.

Starting to get the picture?

They’re legislating the last stages of the fascist coup right in front of our eyes. These major steps are taking place under the cover of the presidential primary season when every single “progressive” and conservative outlet is arguing about Romney’s cash or Newt’s trash.

“Nothing to see here folks. Isn’t Santorum crazy?”

Then you have the arrest of Kim Dotcom and the shuttering of his site, Megaupload.

The MegaUpload story is important for a different reason than has been pointed out all over the web.

Glenn Greenwald recently covered this issue. He rightly explains that the federal government already has the power to shutter websites and make arrests due to copy-write violations thanks to the the 2008  PRO-IP Act but then he fails to explain why SOPA/PIPA were so important to the corporate community. He fails to mention that the reason for the new legislation is to hand over those unconstitutional powers to the corporate state.

Greenwald then goes on to bring up the MegaUpload story in reference as simply an example of how the government is going ahead with these “new powers” regardless of the SOPA/PIPA defeat. In making that claim, Greenwald misses the point completely and even contradicts himself in the process.

If the powers to shutter and arrest members of a website are already the law of the land, what point is there in writing another series of laws that do the same thing? Greenwald acknowledges the existing law and then ignores it’s relevance in his summation.

“But it nonetheless sends a very clear message when citizens celebrate a rare victory in denying the Government a power it seeks — the power to shut down websites without a trial — only for the Government to turn around the very next day and shut down one of the world’s largest and best-known sites. Whether intended or not, the message is unmistakable: Congratulations, citizens, on your cute little “democracy” victory in denying us the power to shut down websites without a trial: we’re now going to shut down one of your most popular websites without a trial.” Glenn Greenwald

So why did they shut down MegaUpload?

Money. and LOTS of it.

The owners of MegaUpload had announced back in Dec. 2011 that they were going to offer a new kind of music label to artists, one that allowed them to store their music on a cloud and directly market their art to customers, to their computers, I-Phones, smart phones, I-pods, ect. via a digital system which would provide for the artists 90% of their revenue. They were going to do that and also create a system by which artists would receive revenue for file-sharing of their music through MegaUpload via a system called MegaKey.

The system they created was called MegaBox and they had a press release and the website and software and the cloud was already up and ready to go. They had even already been through beta testing and several partners were on-board including Amazon MP3.

 ”UMG knows that we are going to compete with them via our own music venture called Megabox.com, a site that will soon allow artists to sell their creations directly to consumers while allowing artists to keep 90 percent of earnings,”

“We have a solution called the Megakeythat will allow artists to earn income from users who download music for free, Yes that’s right, we will pay artists even for free downloads.  The Megakey business model has been tested with over a million users and it works.”

“You can expect several Megabox announcements next year including exclusive deals with artists who are eager to depart from outdated business models.” Kim Dotcom, MegaUpload

MegaUpload was taken out because their new innovative system was going to radically change the way the music industry did business. This was going to cost companies like UMG billions of dollars while putting more of that money in the hands of the artists, making music cheaper to buy for the consumer, and provide a more level playing field for new artists just starting out.

And the Justice Department crushed it in service to the mega-corporations which they serve.

Not a word about this from Greenwald and not a word about the state handing unconstitutional powers to the corporations from him either. Why do you think that is?

Do you think Saloon will be targeted by SOPA/PIPA? Do you think Greenwald really worries about the provisions of the “Protecting Children” Act?

Well, he certainly won’t have to worry about such things if he keeps missing obvious points like these.

What we have witnessed over the past few weeks is the beginnings of the last stages of the legislation of the fascist state and the Megaupload story is just another example of how that state, the government working on behalf of the corporations, is dedicated to the service of corporate persons rather than us.

One might ask Mr. Greenwald how he missed all of this in his insightful analysis of the current events. But then again, he did support the Supreme Court ruling in Citizen’s United, didn’t he?

Russia Today is reporting (without providing a link or a direct quote) that the Fars News Agency, a so-called “semi-official” news agency in Iran, has stated that a senior Iranian official has made the statement that Iran “would definitely” close the Strait of Hormuz if an EU oil embargo disrupts their oil exports.

“Tensions in the Gulf could reach a breaking point as a senior Iranian official said Iran would “definitely” close the Strait of Hormuz if an EU oil embargo disrupted the export of crude oil, the semi-official Fars news agency reports.” Russia Today

This statement by Russia Today is misleading on several fronts.

Fars is not a semi-official news agency in Iran. Fars makes this statement on their own website: “Fars News Agency (FNA) is Iran’s leading independent news agency…” Fars was created in 2003 and the English version in late 2005, a time when the Bush administration was pumping millions into subversion and destabilization programs in Iran.

This story comes on the same day that the EU announced it will adhere to the US led Iranian sanctions based on the discredited propaganda that Iran is attempting to build a nuclear weapon. The 27 nations of the EU will honor and continue with their Iranian contracts until July of this year. As I reported earlier, this gives them approximately 6 months before they go into effect.

Curiously, an MSNBC report on this story has a slightly different take on the Fars News Agency report on Iran’s response to this development:

“The best way (to respond to the EU decision)  is to stop exporting oil ourselves before the end of this six months and before the implementation of the plan,” the semi-official Fars news agency quoted him as saying, Reuters reports.” MSNBC

Given the different takes on the article, I decided to look it up and here’s the full quote from the Fars article:

“The best way for us is to stop oil exports before the 6-month deadline (announced by the EU) comes to an end and the oil embargo plan comes into effect so that crude prices go up and Europeans’ US-driven plans for sanctioning our country’s oil fall flat,” Former Iranian Intelligence Minister Ali Falahian

The Fars article goes on to mention an older warning from Iran that they would close the Strait if the West sanctioned all of their oil exports, but does not tie that into what Ali Falahian said about how to deal with the EU announcement.

Other Fars articles reflect the almost casual reaction the Iranians are having to the announcement of EU’s embargo plans:

“The oil embargo against Iran is just a propaganda by a number of the US and European politicians and will have no effect on Iran’s economy,” member of the parliament’s Energy Commission

So it looks as if Iran is sending a clear message that the EU sanctions will have little effect on them and that they intend to impose the sanctions earlier than the EU time frame. Seems as if they are going to let the market dictate their retaliation as opposed to violence.

But Russia Today’s article makes it seem as if they are “definitely” going to attack someone, probably the U.S., closing down the Strait.

That’s curious, isn’t it?

Remember this?

“After all attempts to frame Iran have failed thus far, a Jerusalem Post article (written by a former Israeli intelligence officer turned Operation Mockingbird style “journalist“) suggests Iran will provide the needed pretext for the war themselves by attacking a U.S. warship.” Scott Creighton

And let’s also keep this in mind…

We are sending the oldest carrier in our fleet, one already scheduled for deactivation in a year, into the Middle East (the Gulf) in MARCH of this year.

The controversial NDAA bill which Obama signed Dec. 31st is scheduled to go into effect in MARCH of this year as well.

Wouldn’t it be a coincidence if after all of this posturing for war against Iran, they were to torpedo a U.S. ship that was old and outdated and already slated to be decommissioned?

Four days ago Russia Today published an article that claimed an Iranian sub could torpedo a US vessel “especially US aircraft carriers” without being detected. This claim also came from the “semi-official” Fars News Agency.

“An Iranian commander has warned that Tehran is on full alert in case of enemy threats, and has the best submarines in the world ready to “ambush and hit enemy vessels, especially US Aircraft carriers, from the seabed throughout the Persian Gulf.”

­Lieutenant Commander of the Iranian Army’s Self-Sufficiency Jihad Rear Admiral Farhad Amiri hailed the Iranian submarines as “the best electronic diesel vessels in the world, noiseless and able to easily evade detection as they are equipped with sonar-evading technology,” the country’s semi-state Fars news agency reported” Russia Today

This sets up a situation where a US vessel (perhaps one ready to be decommissioned?) gets hit in the Strait by a torpedo fired from a sub that never appears on any radar or other detection equipment.

With all of this misinformation readily in place, who is going to be the presumptive aggressor in this seemingly unavoidable conflict? Is this simply a way to continue the game of brinksmanship over regime change in Syria and Iran? Is the US sending a not so subtle message to Russia and Iran that they are willing to stage a false flag event and light the fuse for WWIII if they don’t get what they want?

“So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”  Mathew 20:16

How are selected presidents currently marketed to the U.S. population through the artifice of the election process in a way that leaves most with the comfortable illusion that we still have a democratic process that still answers to the will of the people?

What history shows us is that Newt Gingrich did not win South Carolina as much as Barack Obama has been selected to occupy the White House for 4 more years. So who was the big winner in South Carolina yesterday? Barack Obama and his neoliberal bosses who apparently need his special brand of left cover for 4 more years.

Newt Gingrich will win the Republican nomination after a close race with either Rick Santorum or Mitt Romney and then he will lose to Barack Obama in the general election of 2012. How do I know this? It’s already happened. Twice.

Allow me to explain.

1. John McCain 2008:

“So the last will be first“

Here’s the scheme, it’s pretty simple: if you want candidate “A” to win, make sure he’s running against an extremely unpopular candidate “B“, rig the secretive opaque electronic vote counting system in candidate “A“‘s favor, and then point to how unpopular candidate “B” was to his own party to justify the general election voting results.

It worked in 2008 and it will work again in 2012.

Prior to 2008, when John McCain was the designated loser in that contrived WWE style “election” show, electronic voting machines played an integral role in hijacking the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections mainly by directly subverting the general election votes through super-secret protected software that counted the votes we supposedly cast. We have courageous people like Bev Harris and Brad Friedman to thank for bringing to light major vote counting irregularities from those elections and others over the course of the last 11 years.

But in 2008, largely because their scheme had already been exposed, they decided to make a slight change in their modus operandi for the next presidential “election”. What they decided to do was to run their anointed puppet against a person who no one wanted in the White House, John McCain and his bimbo VP candidate Sarah Palin.

How did they chose McCain? The let the voters pick their own loser. Think of it like a nationwide focus group.

“I’ll Suck my way to safety” McCain campaign co-chair

Back in June of 2007, John McCain’s candidacy was falling apart. He was polling next to dead last and he couldn’t get campaign contributions to save his life. Two of his teams top leaders, campaign manager Terry Nelson and campaign chief strategist John Weaver, resigned.

On July 11th,  a co-chair of McCain’s Florida campaign State Rep Bob Allen, was arrested for offering to pay a Florida cop $20 bucks to let him suck his weenie.  Five days later 9 more leading McCain campaign staff members quit as well. The campaign was falling apart but for some reason, John McCain stayed in the race.

McCain consistently polled last or near last from then until mid-December 2007 at which time he enjoyed an unexpected resurgence in the media which was reflected a little in the polls but not at first in the early primaries.

But then something remarkable happened: John McCain, whose campaign shouldn’t have survived past July 2007, came from near dead last, secured the nomination in record time and he won by a landslide to boot.

McCain even “won” the Florida primary, the state where his campaign co-chair had just been convicted in November of trying to give a police officer a blow-job in a public bathroom in a park. Allen claimed that he was so scared of the “stocky black man” and all the other “black guys” in the park, that he only offered to pay him $20 and give him head because he was “intimidated”. He was going to suck his way through that crowd of scary black men. He was going to suck himself to safety. That was his story. How do you think that went over in a state like Florida less than 2 months prior to the primary?

Over at CNN’s 2008 election center website, you can look up all the Republican Party primary results and even use a little slider interactive graphic to see how the candidates were doing day to day during the primary season. What you will see is a remarkable turnaround in McCain’s campaign which happens practically overnight (Jan 15th to Feb 5th) so that by time Super Tuesday was over, John McCain was the presumptive winner. The campaign for the most part was over.

Once he miraculously secured the party nomination, John McCain went on to make some rather idiotic campaign choices that would further marginalize him in from the voters of his own party.

He had Joe Lieberman follow him around his campaign stops literally whispering answers in his ear in plain sight of the republican voters. Lieberman was considered at the time to be the most liberal congressman in Washington (another ridiculous claim) being seen as taking his marching orders from Joe certainly wasn’t good for his conservative street cred.

McCain then picked a tremendously weak Vice Presidential candidate, Sarah Palin. Palin didn’t miss an opportunity to show the people just how stupid she could act, even sitting on the set during a Saturday Night Live episode letting the cast make fun of her without doing anything about it, right before the election. Two weeks later, McCain did the same thing.

And then there was this.

John McCain was picked to lose. They carefully took the candidate least liked by the republican voters and served him up as the loser platter so that the anointed Barack Obama would win the “election” and serve the system by providing much needed left cover, continuity of corruption, and a consensus stamp of approval on the Bush/Cheney criminality.

2. Alvin Greene 2010:

Picked to Lose

South Carolina was John McCain’s first major victory in the primary season of 2008 and it just so happens that it is also the first victory of Newt Gingrich here in 2012. McCain came from out of nowhere to win South Carolina just like Newt Gingrich came from a double digit deficit less than two weeks ago to win yesterday. Surprise!

Well, you shouldn’t be because South Carolina seems to have even more of a history of nobodies popping up out of nowhere to “win” elections run on these electronic voting machines. Remember Alvin Greene?

I wrote a great deal about Alvin Greene during and just after the 2010 elections. There no question that Greene was hand selected to beat Vic Rawls, a genuinely progressive Democratic candidate, so that he could then lose to the republican incumbent Jim DeMint. I’m not the only one.

Alvin Greene was a college graduate from the University of South Carolina with a Political Science degree and an intelligence specialist during his military career. But for his election campaign Greene played the role of village idiot, going “full retard” on more than one occasion.

To win the primary, he didn’t campaign, he didn’t make speeches, he took out no ads, he barely had a platform.

Oh yeah, and he was a sex offender. Alvin Greene was facing criminal charges for going down to a college and walking into a residence hall and sitting down next to a young student he had never met before in the computer lab showing her some demented porn that she clearly didn’t want to see. He did that then sat there waiting for the cops to show up and arrest him around the same time he filed to run for office.

At one point when asked about his case, Greene, a USC graduate and a guy holding a degree in Political Science, claimed he didn’t know what the word “indictment” meant.

Vic Rawls was not going down without a fight so he gathered his evidence, several hours worth to be presented, and he petitioned the South Carolina Democratic Party Executive Committee to hear his case for a recount of the primary totals. Alvin Greene, like he did in his primary campaign, didn’t show up to the hearing. Statisticians, professors, and voting machine experts testified that there was a 95% chance that the electronic voting machines stole the election for Greene. 14 witnesses in all testified on behalf of Vic Rawls in a case that is as obvious as the nose on your face. That primary was hacked. And Greene didn’t even bother to show up.

But the fix was in and the National Democratic Party pushed the South Carolina executive committee and Vic Rawls lost his bid to examine the evidence of the primary election and retarded acting Greene took his one man show to the general election and neoliberal Jim DeMint won his seat back.

3. Newt Gingrich 2012:

We’ve been SCYTLed

Like McCain in 2008, Newt Gingrich’s campaign was damn near over in June and July this past year. His senior campaign staff resigned in June and as the graphic below shows (from Gallup) Gingrich was losing ground steadily from there on out. It was no where but down for the Gingrich campaign. (click on image for larger view)

After losing the first two primary contests, Iowa he came in 4th with 13% of the vote and New Hampshire he came in 4th again with only 9%, Gingrich suddenly turned his fates around surprising everyone with a miraculous statement making victory which will certainly turn the tides for his faltering campaign.

Those votes were counted on electronic voting machines just like John McCain’s in 2008 and Alvin Greene’s in 2010.

But this year the votes were processed, each and every vote, by a software called SCYTL which is owned and operated by a Spanish company out of Barcelona. The SCYTL software had some rather curious vote counting issues over the years. This is what Bev Harris has to say about that:

In Broward County FL, the results reported by Scytl-owned SOE Software in 2008 showed an entire candidate, who was winning, disappear into vapor in the middle of the count, and in Hillsborough County FL and Dallas County TX, votes that had been reported began to disappear. Bev Harris

Newt Gingrich is corrupt. His congressional check writing scandal and his 1.7 million or so he took from Freddy Mac and Fannie Mae should go to prove that.

He’s now laughably playing the role of the populist republican candidate, calling out Mitt Romney for his vulture capitalist career at Bain but the whole time Newt’s $500,000 Tiffany’s account is just waiting to re-emerge.

He was the first Speaker of the House to be disciplined for ethical wrong-doing after 84 ethics charges were leveled against him.

In short there are tons of reasons for Newt to lose this election and he’s already adding to that list by alienating members of his own party and throwing around racist innuendo like suggesting poor kids should work as “janitors” while in school. This is all designed to “get out the vote” for Obama, of course.

Yes, the South Carolina primary was probably hacked so that picked to lose Gingrich would come from behind and “win” the 2012 Republican Primary which unfortunately means Barack Obama is slated for another 4 years of keeping the anti-war movement and the peace movement sitting on their hands rather than waving them angrily at the White House in protest.

We have to wait and see, but if history is any indication, it looks like Newt “Alvin Greene” Gingrich is set-up to fail.

A publisher in Atlanta, Andrew Adler of the Atlanta Jewish Times, recently wrote an opinion piece in his paper (What Would You Do?) which proposed the Israeli assassination of a seated U.S. president in order to defend Israel from nuclear weapons that Iran does not currently have and is not currently developing (according to the NIEs of 2007 and 2010)

Adler’s Jan. 13th 2012 article puts his 3,500 or so readers in the unenviable position of Israel’s Prime Minister facing what he seems to think is the inevitable destruction of Israel at the hands of the Syrians, Hezbollah, and Iran and asked them “What Would They Do?”: strike Hezbollah (killing civilians), strike Syria (killing civilians), or have Mossad agents already in the U.S.(his words, not mine) kill the president of the United States because he backed off a provocative missile defense drill, Austere Challenge 12,with Israel off Iran’s coastline?

“Three, give the go-ahead for U.S.-based Mossad agents to take out a president deemed unfriendly to Israel in order for the current vice president to take his place, and forcefully dictate that the United States’ policy includes its helping the Jewish state obliterate its enemies.

Yes, you read “three” correctly. Order a hit on a president in order to preserve Israel’s existence. Think about it. If I have thought of this Tom Clancy-type scenario, don’t you think that this almost unfathomable idea has been discussed in Israel’s most inner circles?

Another way of putting “three” in perspective goes something like this: How far would you go to save a nation comprised of seven million lives…Jews, Christians and Arabs alike?

You have got to believe, like I do, that all options are on the table.” Andrew Adler

(Notice that he thinks the vice president would be more inclined to do Israel’s bidding than Obama is? That’s because Biden once famously claimed “I am a Zionist. You don’t have to be a Jew to be a Zionist“.)

Once Gawker got this story out to the internet, it’s taken off a bit and Adler has issued an apology of sorts but only after all the negative response following the Gawker story.

This story ties in directly with a growing push to force out those who might stand opposed to Israeli foreign policy directives as is exemplified by the current “anti-Semitism” smear campaign being leveled at “progressive” and left wing writers and bloggers across the country.

Aside from suggesting that neo-con writers attack progressive and left-wing bloggers as “anti-Semites” for questioning whether certain AIPAC advocates have our interests or the interests of Israel at heart as their primary considerations, Josh Block went on to suggest that merely reporting the facts about the non-existent Iranian nuclear program was enough to earn writers the same “anti-Semite” distinction and thus they should not be “tolerated”. This is part of what Block said in a recent Politico interview:

“As a progressive Democrat, I am convinced that on issues as important as the US-Israel alliance and the threat posed by Iran’s nuclear program, there is no room for uncivil discourse or name calling, like ‘Israel Firster or ‘Likudnik’, and policy or political rhetoric that is hostile to Israel, or suggests that Iran has no nuclear weapons program, has no place in the mainstream Democratic party discourse. I also believe that when it occurs, progressive institutions, have a responsibility not to tolerate such speech or arguments.” Josh Block

Glenn Greenwald did a very good job covering the Josh Block story and Yossi Gurvitz did a great job in pointing out the fact that this proves that there are in fact such a thing in America as “Israel-firsters”, American citizens who put the supposed needs of a foreign country ahead of those of their own.

“However, Adler did prove a point, albeit not one he intended: He showed us that there are, in fact, American Jews who are “Israel-firsters”, that is, people who put the interests of Israel ahead of their own country. In Adler’s case, to the point of supporting the assassination of his own duly-elected president – which skirts very closely to treason.” Yossi Gurvitz

There are many Israel-firsters in this country and one doesn’t have to go so far as to suggest the treasonous act of murdering a president to qualify for the title. Just read “The Israel Lobby” by John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt to start to get an understanding of what I am talking about.

As Greenwald pointed out in his article on the Josh Block “anti-Semitism” smear campaign, one of the most troubling aspects of this new push to silence dissent is just how far removed from reality Block’s criteria seems to be. He’s using the label “anti-Semitism” as a bludgeon to try to keep writers, bloggers, even people simply leaving comments on websites from mentioning well documented facts about Iran’s non-existent nuclear weapons programs.

“Yet Lt. Gen. Ronald Burgess, Jr., Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, said in early 2010 that: “The bottom line assessments of the NIE still hold true. We have not seen indication that the (Iranian) government has made the decision to move ahead with the program.”3 The State Department’s July 2010 Compliance Report stated flatly that: “Iran had a comprehensive nuclear weapons development program that was ordered halted in fall 2003” Arms Control Association

According to Block’s new rules, the entire NIE would have to be labeled as an “anti-Semitic” organization along with the current head of the Pentagon.

Panetta says: “Are they [Iran] trying to develop a nuclear weapon? No.” Global Research

Both Block and Adler are displaying a desperation of sorts. Either they have bought into the “Israel as perpetual victim” dementia or they are well aware that what they are doing is simply trying in their own way to help promote Israeli/neo-con propaganda and stamp out any and all dissenting viewpoints.

Either way their desperation levels have seemingly reached a fevered pitch.

Obama didn’t back off of the oil embargo and the military drill because he wanted to, he did it because Russia stated that any aggression toward Iran would be considered aggression toward Moscow and because so many of the U.S.’s global partners delayed or simply refused to participate in the Iran oil sanctions. He simply got out positioned by Iran’s global network of supporters who couldn’t find any justification for setting WWIII in motion because of an Iranian nuclear program that doesn’t exist.

Israel has been running a high priced PR campaign since they slaughtered 1,400 Palestinians during Operation Cast Lead and since they killed peaceful activists on the Mavi Marmara just over a year or so ago. Now they’ve murdered yet another Iranian nuclear scientist in an obvious effort to either create some Iranian blow-back which could be used to justify a U.S. attack or used as pre-text to finger Iran for another U.S.S. Liberty type false flag event.

Either way, Israel’s reputation is suffering again and their PR megaphonies are busy doing damage control spin at every opportunity they get.

Josh Block’s smear campaign looks like an example of Adler’s preemptive strike suggestion, only this time, rather than being leveled at Hezbollah or Syria, they are taking aim at those who would tell the truth to other Americans about the nature of Israeli foreign policy.

Let’s hope Adler’s other little proposal (Mossad assassinations) isn’t suggested next by Mr. Block as a way of dealing with those pesky little “anti-Semite” truth tellers out here in internet land. Be extra careful driving and look out for two guys on a motorcycle carrying a little metal box with an antenna sticking out of the top.

I mean, to put it in Adler’s own words: How far would you go to save a nation comprised of seven million lives…Jews, Christians and Arabs alike? You have got to believe, like I do, that all options are on the table“

UPDATE: Questions that this brings to mind:

Why hadn’t the Secret Service already arrested this guy for proposing the Mossad kill the president? It had been sitting there since the 13th of January.

After the attack on the Iranian nuclear scientist and teacher, is anyone at all alarmed about the fact that this writer says that Mossad agents are already active in the U.S.?

Harry Reid announced that SOPA and PIPA would be shelved for now until a “compromise” is reached.

Of about 40 co-sponsors for the Pipa bill, a handful withdrew their support on Wednesday, as thousands of websites participated in a co-ordinated online protes. BBC

One of the creators of the world wide web denounced SOPA (after the fact) claiming that it was detrimental to human rights.

“If you’re in America then you should go and call somebody or send an email to protest against these (censorship) bills because they have not been put together to respect human rights as is appropriate in a democratic country.”  Berners-Lee

US Senator Ron Wyden wrote a letter to the internet and those who chose to participate in a largely symbolic blackout protest. Wyden has been opposed to SOPA from the start.

Today thousands of websites have chosen to voluntarily go offline or modify their home pages with public service information.  Some have called this a stunt.  I say it’s a brave and poignant reminder that we can’t take the Internet for granted…

… Protect IP (PIPA) and the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) are a step towards a different kind of Internet.  They are a step towards an Internet in which those with money and lawyers and access to power have a greater voice than those who don’t.  They are a step towards an Internet in which online innovators need lawyers as much or more than they need good ideas.  And they are a step towards a world in which Americans have less of a voice to argue for a free and open Internet around the world. Ron Wyden

The United States has forced the arrest of a Dutch citizen in New Zealand over copyright claims. 37 year-old Kim Dotcom, head of Megaupload was arrested today by authorities in New Zealand on charges of violating American copyright laws. They took nearly 100 million in assets from Dotcom and his associates while Dotcom himself has retained the services of a lawyer who defended Bill Clinton and Enron both.

Bob Bennett, the man who defended Bill Clinton during the Monica Lewinsky scandal, was on Thursday retained to represent Megaupload.

Speaking to the Guardian, Bennett said: “All I am at liberty to say at this stage is that we will be vigorously defending the case.”

The attorney’s former clients also include collapsed energy giant Enron, and former defence secretaries Clark Clifford and Casper Weinberger. Guardian

UPDATE: see updates at the end of the article

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With so much money and profit on the line when they push to fully privatize the entire postal service, do you think that this new USPS Clock Tosser video was staged to overshadow the FedEx package tossing video that came out a month ago?

I think it was and here’s why.

Michael Oreb, the homeowner who caught the recent USPS package tossing incident on video just happened to have installed those video cameras last week and apparently he ordered the clock just after the video cameras were installed. Oreb claims that he decided to put the video system in because of the recent string of arson in California, but the arsonist was caught a while ago and who installs video cameras to protect themselves from arsonists anyway.

You might think a better way to protect your family in that situation would be fire suppression and smoke detector systems or maybe a way to get out of the house safely… but video cameras which feed to a recorder that would ultimately be burned in the fire? That wouldn’t even help the police catch who did it. Quite useless as a defense for your wife from an arsonist who had been caught long before Oreb installed his cameras.

But the cameras weren’t to late to catch the USPS guy throwing a package over his fence, a package that was ordered after the cameras were installed.

Here’s another interesting fact about all of this; if you notice in the screenshot below, Oreb’s camera is perfectly positioned to catch the USPS truck after it is parked as well as the landing of the package itself. You couldn’t stage it better if you were directing an infomercial.

Look how neatly that incident fit into the frame of Oreb’s newly installed camera. Almost as if it was planned that way, huh?

And speaking of that video camera system he put up, take a look at this. If it was me, I would be less angry at the postman than I would be with the security company that installed his camera like this.

How long til a bird lands on that connection? Is that there to make it easier for thieves to disconnect the camera?

Take this into consideration as well, Michael Oreb was sitting at home waiting for the camera to catch this act and it also appears that his gate is locked though most news sources fail to mention or to show the USPS deliveryman trying to open the gate.

I mentioned that this has the look of an infomercial before and I also have to admit that Oreb himself comes across like an infomercial actor. Oreb is constantly smiling while talking about all of this.

Apparently all this attention suits him just fine when he admits himself that the USPS was there nearly immediately offering to make good on the problem. Most people, like you or me, would have been satisfied getting them to replace or repair the broken item, but not Michael Oreb. Oreb immediately started the press of all things, trying to make a national scandal out of all of this. The whole time smiling away.

Which is another interesting factor in all of this: why wouldn’t Oreb let the post office take the clock and have it repaired or replaced? I think I may have the answer to that… it’s a cheap reproduction.

According to Oreb’s story, he got this “antique 1938 German Black Forest cuckoo clock” because he has been wanting one for a long time and his father had one and his grandfather had one before him. What a touching story, I thought, so I decided to look up the particular clock he seems to have there.

Here’s a couple stills of Oreb’s “antique” 1938 German Black Forest clock.

plastic leaves and branches?

where is the "Made In Germany" stamp?

I immediately started to question the authenticity of this so-called “antique” when I first saw the video so I did a little research on this type of clock. Turns out they aren’t very rare so I don’t know why someone like Oreb would have to wait so long to get one. One of the actual vintage Black Forest clocks pictured below costs $85 bucks and you can get them like that all day long. There are also places that sell them ranging in price from $120-$400, shipping next day.

But take a look at these clocks and see if you don’t notice a difference.

notice the manufacturer's stamp and the multi-tones in the wood?

notice it says "made in Germany" and the detail in the weights? also notice the checkered pattern in the background plate

What Oreb seems to have done is;

1. hastily set up some video cameras in a perfect position to capture this event
2. then ordered a cheap knock-off of a grandfather clock
3. told his postal worker that if he isn’t home and the gate is locked to pitch the package in the yard under the tree and out of the reach of people walking by
4. left his gate locked while he was home watching the video surveillance camera for the postal worker to do exactly what he was told to do

This whole thing smells like a PR stunt to promote the privatization of the postal service and judging from…

• Oreb’s infomercial persona
• the crappy camera installation
• his rush self-promote this event in the media
• his silly story about the need for video cameras to protect his family from fire
• his seeming dishonesty about the clock itself
• and the rather suspicious timing of all of these events which coincidentally occurred just in time to take the pressure off FedEx

… I think it’s pretty obvious what really happened here.

UPDATE: Who edited out the section of the video where the postal deliveryman tried to open the locked gate? Did Oreg do that himself before going public with this video?

Remember this guy?

Check out his video where he doesn’t attempt to even open the gate or press the buzzer to be let in.

UPDATE 2: Turns out there is an unedited video of the postman trying to open the gate. Michael Oreb narrates a video on Good Day LA saying that while he was sitting there watching all of this take place: “Here he (the postman) does come up and checks my gate, which we do have locked.”

Every single account of this event says that Oreb was home viewing the video live as it happened. How much time does it take for the mailman to get out of his truck, get the package in his hands, walk up to the gate and try to open it before tossing it over the fence? Well, the edited video showing him try the gate shows from 12:16:55 to 12:17:07 before tossing it over the fence but that video doesn’t show the mailman getting out of the truck.

The point is, Oreb had more than enough time to see the mailman with his package and simply walk over to his front door and open it to tell the postman he would be there to open the gate, but Oreb does not do that. Coupled with all the other facts listed below, I think this proves that Oreb wanted to capture this video so he could use it to gain attention for himself either to suit his own needs or to help promote a call to privatize the US Postal Service.

The “libertarians” over at Prison Planet didn’t lift a finger to help kill off the “Big Guberment” SOPA Bill that seems to have been shelved at least for now no thanks to the “Info Warriors”.

In yet another pro-corporatist move it seems they are a bit peeved that Obama has decided to take another look at the Keystone Pipeline project which would have taken their blessed private property away from land owners via eminent domain and handed it over to a CANADIAN mega corporation so they could pump oil from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico.

So much for the respect of private property and limited government.

Aaron covers the Obama administration’s move to block the expansion of a 1,661-mile oil pipeline that would have carried 700,000 much needed barrels of crude a day from Alberta’s oil to refineries and created 20,000 jobs. This is yet another act of financial terrorism by the White House as the deliberate shut down of the American economy goes into high gear. Prison Planet

How’s that for champions of limited government? They call it “economic terrorism” for Obama to refuse to force landowners to hand over their property to a CANADIAN COMPANY so they can make huge profits bringing CANADIAN OIL to market in the Gulf of Mexico off our shores.

Eminent domain is a forceful takeover of private personal property. Limited government individuals do not like government encroaching on their personal liberties, especially on their personal private property. But more so, landowners do not like their land being taken away from them by the government to be given to a private corporation. How would you like it if your land was forcibly stolen from you? Jonathan Moriano

And the folks over at Prison Planet, from Austin Texas, are selling out their fellow Texans to boot!

There is a growing call for public hearings from  Texas landowners and residents in NE Texas who are facing potential eminent domain seizures of their land for the Keystone XL/TransCanada pipeline.  The following organizations are doing this together:  Independent Texans, We Texans, Texans for Accountable Government, Texans Uniting for Reform and Freedom. Independent Texans Petition to Stop Keystone Pipeline

President Barack Obama may put his mark on the World Bank by nominating Lawrence Summers, his former National Economic Council director, to lead the bank when Robert Zoellick’s term expires later this year, according to two people familiar with the matter.

While a Summers nomination may draw criticism from some Democrats who disagree with his past stances on deregulating the financial industry, he has support inside the administration from top officials, including Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and current NEC Director Gene Sperling, said one of the people.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is also being considered, along with other candidates, said the other person. Both spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal White House deliberations.

[read the rest, here]