The Enemy Is Washington

An economy destroyed

By Paul Craig Roberts

Recently, the bond rating agencies that gave junk derivatives triple-A ratings threatened to downgrade US Treasury bonds if the White House and Congress did not reach a deficit reduction deal and debt ceiling increase.  The downgrade threat is not credible, and neither is the default threat.  Both are make-believe crises that are being hyped in order to force cutbacks in Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security.

If the rating agencies downgraded Treasuries, the company executives would be arrested for the fraudulent ratings that they gave to the junk that Wall Street peddled to the rest of the world. The companies would be destroyed and their ratings discredited. The US government will never default on its bonds, because the bonds, unlike those of Greece, Spain, and Ireland, are payable in its own currency. Regardless of whether the debt ceiling is raised, the Federal Reserve will continue to purchase the Treasury’s debt.  If Goldman Sachs is too big to fail, then so is the US government.

There is no budget focus on the illegal wars and military occupations that the US government has underway in at least six countries or the 66-year old US occupations of Japan and Germany and the ring of military bases being constructed around Russia.

The total military/security budget is in the vicinity of $1.1-$1.2 trillion, or 70% -75% of the federal budget deficit.

In contrast, Social Security is solvent.  Medicare expenditures are coming close to exceeding the 2.3% payroll tax that funds Medicare, but it is dishonest for politicians and pundits to blame the US budget deficit on “entitlement programs.”

Entitlements are funded with a payroll tax.  Wars are not funded. The criminal Bush regime lied to Americans and claimed that the Iraq war would only cost $70 billion at the most and would be paid for with Iraq oil revenues. When Bush’s chief economic advisor, Larry Lindsey, said the Iraq invasion would cost $200 billion, the White House Moron fired him. In fact, Lindsay was off by a factor of 20. Economic and budget experts have calculated that the Iraq and Afghanistan wars have consumed $4,000 billion in out-of-pocket and already incurred future costs.  In other words, the ongoing wars and occupations have already eaten up the $4 trillion by which Obama hopes to cut federal spending over the next ten years. Bomb now, pay later.

As taxing the rich is not part of the political solution, the focus is on rewarding the insurance companies by privatizing Medicare at some future date with government subsidized insurance premiums, by capping Medicaid, and by loading the diminishing middle class with additional Social Security tax.

Washington’s priorities and those of its presstitutes could not be clearer. President Obama, like George W. Bush before him, both parties in Congress, the print and TV media, and National Public Radio have made it clear that war is a far more important priority than health care and old age pensions for Americans.

The American people and their wants and needs are not represented in Washington. Washington serves powerful interest groups, such as the military/security complex, Wall Street and the banksters, agribusiness, the oil companies, the insurance companies, pharmaceuticals, and the mining and timber industries.  Washington endows these interests with excess profits by committing war crimes and terrorizing foreign populations with bombs, drones, and invasions, by deregulating the financial sector and bailing it out of its greed-driven mistakes after it has stolen Americans’ pensions, homes, and jobs, by refusing to protect the land, air, water, oceans and wildlife from polluters and despoilers, and by constructing a health care system with the highest costs and highest profits in the world.

The way to reduce health care costs is to take out gobs of costs and profits with a single payer system.  A private health care system can continue to operate alongside for those who can afford it.

The way to get the budget under control is to stop the gratuitous hegemonic wars, wars that will end in a nuclear confrontation.

The US economy is in a deepening recession from which recovery is not possible, because American middle class jobs in manufacturing and professional services have been offshored and given to foreigners.  US GDP, consumer purchasing power, and tax base have been handed over to China, India, and Indonesia in order that Wall Street, shareholders, and corporate CEOs can earn more.

When the goods and services produced offshore come back into America, they arrive as imports. The trade balance worsens, the US dollar declines further in exchange value, and prices rise for Americans, whose incomes are stagnant or falling.

This is economic destruction. It always occurs when an oligarchy seizes control of a government. The short-run profits of the powerful are maximized at the expense of the viability of the economy.

The US economy is driven by consumer demand, but with 22.3% unemployment, stagnant and declining wages and salaries, and consumer debt burdens so high that consumers cannot borrow to spend, there is nothing to drive the economy.

Washington’s response to this dilemma is to increase the austerity! Cutting back Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security, forcing down wages by destroying unions and offshoring jobs (which results in a labor surplus and lower wages), and driving up the prices of food and energy by depreciating the dollar further erodes consumer purchasing power.  The Federal Reserve can print money to rescue the crooked financial institutions, but it cannot rescue the American consumer.

As a final point, confront the fact that you are even lied to about “deficit reduction.” Even if Obama gets his $4 trillion “deficit reduction” over the next decade, it does not mean that the current national debt will be $4 trillion less than it currently is.  The “reduction” merely means that the growth in the national debt will be $4 trillion less than otherwise.  Regardless of any “deficit reduction,” the national debt ten years from now will be much higher than it presently is.

Paul Craig Roberts [email him] was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury during President Reagan’s first term.  He was Associate Editor of the Wall Street Journal.  He has held numerous academic appointments, including the William E. Simon Chair, Center for Strategic and International Studies, Georgetown University, and Senior Research Fellow, Hoover Institution, Stanford University. He was awarded the Legion of Honor by French President Francois Mitterrand. He is the author of Supply-Side Revolution : An Insider’s Account of Policymaking in Washington;  Alienation and the Soviet Economy and Meltdown: Inside the Soviet Economy, and is the co-author with Lawrence M. Stratton of The Tyranny of Good Intentions : How Prosecutors and Bureaucrats Are Trampling the Constitution in the Name of Justice. Click here for Peter Brimelow’s Forbes Magazine interview with Roberts about the epidemic of prosecutorial misconduct.

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Clinton allowed Sat. attack on American Human Rights for Gaza workers?,

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In September 2006, the world experienced a paradigm shift when a strong lobbying effort by grassroots organizations effectively derailed an initiative: A move that was tantamount to a declaration of war on Iran.

U.S.: Iran Resolution Shelved in Rare Defeat for Israel Lobby

In a significant and highly unusual defeat for the powerful American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) the Democratic leadership of the House of Representatives has decided to shelve a long-pending, albeit non-binding, resolution that called for President George W. Bush to launch what critics called a blockade against Iran.

But an unexpectedly strong lobbying effort by a number of grassroots Iranian-American, Jewish-American, peace, and church groups effectively derailed the initiative.

The decision by the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Rep. Howard Berman, to shelve HR 362 marked an unusual defeat for AIPAC, according to its critics who charged that the resolution was designed to lay the groundwork for the Bush administration or any successor administration to take military action against Iran.

A nuclear confrontation with Iran was avoided in 2006 because a small number of people with the power of community were enough to convince our Government not to take the world to the point of no return.

Our un-elected officials got the message, that the perils of a nuclear confrontation with Iran could mean the end of life for everyone here on earth. Congress refused to go along with the Bush Administration’s plans for military action against Iran.

Just two years later, the power of community stopped congress from attacking Iran.

Iran 2010

If you aren’t up to speed about the most dangerous move towards nuclear war the world has seen since the 1962 Cuba Missile Crisis, visit the critically acclaimed Global Research website founded by Michel Chossudovsky, Professor of Economics at the University of Ottawa and Director of the Centre for Research on Globalization.

Chossudovsky writes:

The US and its allies are preparing to launch a nuclear war directed against Iran with devastating consequences and this military adventure in the real sense of the word threatens the future of humanity.

The international community has endorsed nuclear war in the name of World Peace. “Making the World safer” is the justification for launching a military operation which could potentially result in a nuclear holocaust.

Iran, a country with a non-existent nuclear weapons capability and an air force that belongs in a museum, is not a threat to either nuclear power with a presence in the Middle East, the United States or Israel. [1]

The community of grassroots Iranian-American, Jewish-American, peace, and church groups have proven over and over, when we cooperate with each other we can make a difference.

The Powers That Be (TPTB) knew the day would come when the people would realize the power they have when they work together for their own survival.

Be it growing our own food in cooperation with our neighbors or lobbying the U.S. government with the truth about Iran, it only takes a small number of us to make a difference. [2]

Normally I don’t recommend those “take action” campaigns, the ones that tell us, “it’s not too late, click-here to importune our “elected” representatives with emails and faxes.” But in this case our emails and faxes attest to our power…of community. [3]

Start by contacting the Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton and demand she honor the commitment made by President Obama during the 2007 Democratic debate when he said that he would, “As president, be willing to meet without preconditions with Iran’s leaders, and that the notion of not talking to one’s foes was ridiculous.” [4]

E-mail President of the United States, (202) 456-1414 Phone, (202) 456-2461 Fax
E-mail The Secretary of State, (202) 647-6575 press 1 to leave a comment

“In nuclear war all men are cremated equal” Dexter Gordon

We can do this, we did it in 2006, 2008 and we can do it in 2010.

Katherine Smith, PhD mandrell2010@gmail.com

Footnotes:
[1] Israel has enough plutonium to make up to 200 nuclear weapons. Who’s Telling the Truth About Iran’s Nuclear Program? by Muhammad Sahimi

[2] [Excerpt From Grandmother Scores Huge Victory over Monsanto]

And the question that scares Monsanto to death:

Why don’t I and all of my neighbors just grow our own food…on one square foot of land?

The conversation at Starbucks is no longer about which stocks or houses are going up (or down) but which vegetables sprout the fastest and how many crops can one get in before winter. Now when someone mentions planting a bush permanently they are not talking about how to bury our last president but the best way to plant super bush beans in the spring.

Quit worrying about HR 875, going to jail or getting fined $1 million for growing your own food; that has to be disinformation.

Even if there were enough food police there aren’t enough judges and prosecutors to enforce such a ridiculous law.

What the Monsanto lobby is really afraid of is that one day we will wake up and realize if we work together as a community and cooperate with each other then they will have no power over us.

[3] Those “take action”- campaigns that appeal to our selfish and divisive nature don’t work. These are going around the internet:

Subject: Sign the letter to Google. Tell them to stop being evil and protect the free and open Internet.

Subject: Hi — this is Jason Rosenbaum, a new campaigner at the PCCC. I’ve got some urgent news. Can you sign our promise to oppose cuts in Social Security and then ask your representatives to sign on as well?

All they accomplish is to reinforce our feelings of helpless and isolation. They create negative energy, consider a typical rant:

“These people have been robbing us for years. I don’t for the life of me know why we keep sending the same people that keep doing the same things over and over again. We need to empty Washington! Send them home in wholesale fashion. Take the profit out, of public service and put the public service, back in!”

[4] Mr. Obama first made waves with his views on Iran policy in 2007, when he said during a Democratic debate that he would, as president, be willing to meet without preconditions with Iran’s leaders, and that the notion of not talking to one’s foes was “ridiculous.”

Since becoming president, Mr. Obama has pursued diplomacy, but his stance has become steadily more confrontational. Iran’s Nuclear Program, The New York Times

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Chelsea Clinton Engaged To Marc Mezvinsky

Chelsea Clinton is engaged to her longtime boyfriend Marc Mezvinsky, a spokesman for former President Clinton told ABC News.

People magazine got a hold of the couple’s email to friends and family sharing the news. They’re planning to wed next summer.

Engagement rumors were swirling earlier this year; Hillary Clinton shot them down in July.

Mezvinsky works at Goldman Sachs; his parents are both former members of Congress. His father pleaded guilty in 2002 to swindling dozens of investors out of $10 million after getting caught up in a Nigerian scam. Interestingly, his mother lost her seat in a conservative congressional district after one term in part because she chose to vote for President Clinton’s first budget.

The couple became friends as teenagers in Washington and both attended Stanford University. They now live in New York, where Mezvinsky works and Clinton is attending graduate school at Columbia University’s School of Public Health.

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Secretary of State Says US or “Some Other Enemy” May Launch First Strike Against Iran

Citing the disastrous 2003 US invasion of Iraq as an example, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton today warned that by continuing to refuse to abandon its civilian nuclear program, Iran was risking the possibility of an invasion by the US or “some other enemy that would do that to them.”

The comments came during an interview on ABC’s “This Week” program, and when asked by interviewer and former Clinton-era official George Stephanopoulus, Secretary Clinton reiterated “that’s right, as a first strike.”

The bulk of the interview emphasized US opposition to the Iranian program, along with unquestioned claims that the nation was pursuing nuclear weapons. Secretary Clinton also extended the American nuclear umbrella over Israel in the event that Iran attacked them.

Considering it was no more than 72 hours ago that President Obama made his historic call for a “new beginning” to US relations with the Muslim world, it seems incredible that his administration is already raising the prospect of an Iraq-style invasion of Iran.

Already six years in, the Iraq occupation has killed thousands of US soldiers, sucked trillions from the American economy, and is stretching the military to its limits. It is unfathomable that with this war still far from over, the Obama Administration is considering an Iraq redux in its larger neighbor to the east.

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President elect Barack Obama made choices today for “a broad and diverse team” in Chicago, reports the Associated Press. Hillary Clinton, Robert Gates, former Gen. James Jones, Eric Holder, Janet Napolitano, and Susan Rice “round” out this “change” team which is, of course, not change but a seamless transition between the Bush neocons and Obama’s decidedly neoliberal choices.

Obama announces Hillary Clinton as his Secretary of State.

Consider the following uncomfortable facts that the corporate media will never tell you in a month of Sundays:

Hillary Clinton: As Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton will continue the Bush-Clinton legacy of mass murder and “humanitarian” interventions in “failed states,” that is to say states not toting the New World Order party line.

Clinton wrote for the Council on Foreign Relations publication Foreign Affairs that ending “the war in Iraq is the first step toward restoring the United States’ global leadership,” never mind her 2002 Senate vote allowing Bush and the neocons to invade Iraq and subsequently slaughter over a million Iraqis.

Clinton, as a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, has stated she wants to send more troops into the Afghan meat grinder and have them chase the CIA-created Taliban and al-Qaeda around. Afghanistan needs to get “as much, if not more attention” than Iraq, said Clinton earlier this year on a campaign stop in Cape Fear, North Carolina, an appropriately named venue.

“The next president will be the first to inherit two wars, a long-term campaign against global terrorist networks, and growing tension with Iran as it seeks to acquire nuclear weapons. The United States will face a resurgent Russia whose future orientation is uncertain and a rapidly growing China that must be integrated into the international system,” Clinton wrote for the CFR. In other words, the wars will continue, Iran will be “confronted” (bombed into submission), and Russia and China forced into the “international system,” in other words the bankster system that thrives on looting and imposed debt misery.

Clinton, as Secretary of State, will continue the phony GWOT indefinitely. “It is essential that we win this war against these borderless terrorists, but it is, I believe, critical that we once again recommit ourselves to that American internationalism that I mentioned in the beginning,” Clinton told Richard Haass and the Council on Foreign Relations in 2003. Internationalism, of course, is inseparable from neoliberal globalism of the sort the CFR has pushed for decades.

Robert Gates: More than anything, keeping Robert Gates on at the Pentagon is a signal to the plebs that the neocon policies of the Bush administration will stay in effect, albeit with a few minor changes and a lot of window dressing.

Gates is a loyal Bush senior stooge. During Bush 41’s presidency, Gates served as deputy national security adviser and then as CIA director. He was dean of the Bush School and then president of Texas A&M, which is where the Bush presidential library is located. “In other words, Bob Gates is a Bush 41 kinda guy,” writes Ivo Daalder.

Robert Gates is a consummate insider. “Gates indeed worked under every U.S. president from Richard M. Nixon to George Herbert Walker Bush,” notes the National Security Archive. He is closely connected to former Secretary of State James Baker III, a prominent CFR member and Bush crime family functionary and consigliere.

“The Iran Contra affair in which Robert Gates was implicated was part of the architecture of the ‘war on terrorism’. What is rarely acknowledged is that part of the proceeds of the illegal weapons sales to Iran were also used to finance the CIA sponsored Islamic brigades (i.e. Al Qaeda) involved in the Soviet-Afghan war. These covert operations in support of Al Qaeda paved the way for the ‘war on terrorism’ which constitutes the cornerstone of US National Security doctrine,” writes Michel Chossudovsky.

As Obama’s Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates will oversee the military aspects of this doctrine with an invasion of Pakistan and further involvement in Afghanistan.

Gen. James Jones: Former Marine general and former NATO supreme commander James Jones will be Obama’s National Security Advisor. Jones sits on the board of directors of the Boeing Company, Chevron, and NATO’s Atlantic Council of the United States. Jones is cozy with the Council on Foreign Relations. He is reportedly a good friend of John McCain and is respected by Republicans.

	Eric Holder and Janet Napolitano.

In essence, Jones will serve as Big Oil’s security chief. “Jones is currently a director of Chevron Oil. He also heads of the Chamber of Commerce’s Institute for 21st Century Energy — a group lobbying on energy issues in DC and described by the Grist as ‘part of the Republican machine, dominated by — and lobbying fiercely for the interests of — Big Oil, Big Auto, Big Pharma, and other such Bigs,’” writes Mitchell Anderson.

“Jones would be reflective of two huge Obama priorities,” notes Spencer Ackerman. “First, Afghanistan. As NATO Commander, Jones ceaselessly lobbied the European allies for greater assistance in the Afghanistan war. Second, energy security. Jones is widely known to be an advocate of alternative energy sources, and, as Politico notes, chairs an energy task force for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. And of course there’s the good optics of such a well-respected general being Obama’s closest White House aide on foreign policy.”

Incidentally, even though former Sec. Def. Rumsfeld exiled Jones to his mostly ceremonial NATO post, the general is onboard with the coming attack against Pakistan and possibly Iran. During a September, 2006 Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing, Jones testified that it was “generally accepted” that Taliban leaders operated out Quetta, Pakistan.

Finally, Jones “has pointed to Camp Bondsteel in Kosovo as a ‘model’ for US bases elsewhere,” writes Chad Nagle. “Anyone who has seen the gigantic and ominous Bondsteel, set amid the wasteland of bombed out and destitute Kosovo, has an idea of what the US-imposed New World Order will look like – destroyed dumps where a fortress houses thousands of American military personnel behind its walls and the fearful population outside can rot in hell.

It was, of course, the husband of Obama’s choice for Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, that turned Kosovo and the former Yugoslavia into a wasteland. An Obama administration promises more of the same.

Eric Holder: Former Clintonite and Deputy Attorney General Eric Holder will be Obama’s attorney general. Holder is probably best and infamously remembered for his role in the controversial pardon of billionaire fugitive Marc Rich, the FBI Most Wanted criminal who colluded with Iran at a time when that country was holding U.S. hostages.

In private practice as an attorney, Holder represents Merck and helped negotiate an agreement with the Justice Department for Chiquita Brands International in a case that involved Chiquita’s payment of “protection money” to the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, a group on the U.S. government’s list of terrorist organizations.

Most disturbing, however, is the role Holder played in the D.C. v. Heller ruling on handguns. Holder joined the Reno-led amicus brief, which urged the Supreme Court to uphold Washington, D.C.’s handgun ban and said the Department of Justice from Franklin Roosevelt through Bill Clinton had always believed that the Second Amendment does not protect the rights of individuals to own guns for personal use. In short, Holder is a gun grabber who is opposed to the Second Amendment. As attorney general, we can bet he will work tirelessly to outlaw all firearms in the United States.

Finally, Holder has advocated government censorship of the internet. “It is gonna be a difficult thing, but it seems to me that if we can come up with reasonable restrictions, reasonable regulations in how people interact on the Internet, that is something that the Supreme Court and the courts ought to favorably look at,” Holder told NPR after the Columbine massacre in 1999.

Janet Napolitano: Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano will be Obama’s Homeland Security secretary. She will continue the do-nothing approach to illegal immigration. “Far from being a border hawk, Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano frequently blocked efforts to curb illegal immigration, say enforcement advocates concerned about her expected nomination to be the Homeland Security secretary under President Barack Obama,” reports Fred Lucas for CNS News. She opposes a border fence and favors a controversial technology visa program and favors a “stringent pathway to citizenship,” in other words allowing millions of illegal aliens to become citizens.

As a CFR member, Napolitano is onboard with the globalist agenda to impoverish the American worker. She has proposed endless H-1B visas in order to displace skilled workers. “I’m going to direct the Secretary of Labor to tell us what our labor market needs are, and we’re going to adjust the visas accordingly, and we’re going to put in place a process to do that, protecting jobs for American workers but realizing that we will have a national labor shortage moving forward. I’m going to pay specific attention to certain areas such as H-1B visas [for skilled workers], where there is such a demonstrated need and there’s more than enough work for everyone to go around,” Donald A. Collins quotes her as declaring.

Susan E. Rice: Ms. Rice, a former assistant secretary of state for African Affairs under Clinton and a Rhodes scholar, is a minion of the Brooking Institution. Brookings is a neolib “think tank” par excellence. It is funded by the Ford Foundation, the John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, American Express, the Bank of America, Lockheed Martin, Walmart, Goldman Sachs, and the United Nations.

Rice, who the neocons consider a “leftist,” is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Aspen Strategy Group, the latter where she rubs elbows with the likes of Brent Scowcroft, the neocon Eliot A. Cohen (a “leading champion” of the war in Iraq), Madeleine Albright (a proponent of mass murdering Iraqi children), CFR president Richard N. Haass, and other crossover neocons and neolibs.

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Obama’s spokesman Robert Gibbs told the media that Obama and Clinton held a private meeting last night but he refused to disclose where it taken place, except that it was not at Clinton’s home in Washington, as had been widely reported. Hillary campaign managers also refused to disclose the location of the rendezvous.

“Reporters traveling with Obama sensed something might be happening between the pair when they arrived at Dulles International Airport after an event in Northern Virginia and Obama was not aboard the airplane,”

Dulles just happens to be walking distance from the Westfields Marriott hotel in Chantilly where Henry Kissinger, David Rockefeller and the rest of the Bilderberg globalists are convening

Asked at the time about the Illinois senator’s whereabouts, Gibbs smiled and declined to comment,” the reports adds.

What is the only political “event” taking place in Northern Virginia at the moment? The Bilderberg Group meeting of course. Rather than taking the easier option of meeting at Clinton’s Washington mansion, Obama and Hillary went out of their way to grace the Bilderberg elitists with their presence.

The neo-liberal website Wonkette, which had previously ridiculed “conspiracy theorists” for ascribing power to Bilderberg, seemed to take a somewhat different tone when it made the connection between Obama and Hillary’s meeting and the Bilderberg Group.

“Guess who had a very private talky-talk in (maybe) romantic Northern Virginia tonight, probably at the Bilderberg Group meeting in Chantilly? Your Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton!,” states the blog. “They really met and talked, in private, Thursday night. And really, it sounds like they did this at that creepy Bilderberg Group meeting, which is happening now, and which is so secret that nobody will admit they’re going, even though everybody who is anybody goes to Bilderberg.”

To have the potential future President and Vice-President of America attend a conference that debunkers have dismissed as a mere talking shop for old white men once again underscores the real influence that Bilderberg enjoys.

Not one U.S. corporate media outlet has made the connection between the location of the Bilderberg Group conference this year and Obama and Hillary’s decision to venture out to Chantilly for their confidential “tet a tet”.

Not one U.S. corporate media outlet has yet uttered one word about 125 of the world’s most influential power brokers meeting behind closed doors to discuss the future of the planet on U.S. soil – while being met by the probable future President of the United States.

Both Hillary and Obama have deep rooted connections to the Bilderberg elitists.

Bill Clinton attended the 1991 meeting in Germany shortly before becoming President and he attended again in 1999 when the conference was held in Sintra, Portugal (despite Clinton’s lie that he had not attended in 15 years).

Hillary herself was rumored to have attended the 2006 meeting in Ottawa, Canada.

As we reported last month, Bilderberg luminary and top corporate elitist James A. Johnson will select Democratic candidate Barack Obama’s running mate for the 2008 election and in turn potentially act as kingmaker for America’s future President.

Johnson also selected John Kerry’s running mate John Edwards in 2004 after Edwards had impressed Bilderberg elitists Henry Kissinger and David Rockefeller with a speech he gave at the globalist confab in Italy that year.

Johnson, who attended last year’s Bilderberg meeting in Turkey, is a representative for Friends of Bilderberg, an offshoot group that organizes Bilderberg’s annual meeting.

Hillary and Obama’s attendance of the 2008 Bilderberg meeting, and the complete failure of the mainstream media to report on the fact, once again betrays the super-secretive nature and influential reputation that the 54-year-old organization still maintains.

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By 9:30 a.m., New York City police detectives and Secret Service agents had shut down the exhibition, and building workers had quickly covered over the inflammatory title with large sheets of brown paper and blue masking tape. The gallery is across the street from the southern entrance to The New York Times building.

The police officers declined to answer any questions, and at first would not permit reporters to speak with Mr. Arboleda, who was wearing a black T-shirt and making cellphone calls from inside the makeshift gallery.

Later, Mr. Arboleda, who is 27, said in an interview: “It’s art. It’s not supposed to be harmful. It’s about character assassination — about how Obama and Hillary have been portrayed by the media.” He added, “It’s about the media.”

Mr. Arboleda said the exhibition was to open on Thursday and run all day.

The interview was abruptly ended as Mr. Arboleda was led off to the Midtown South police precinct station for what he called an interrogation.

Reached by telephone this morning, Eric Joza, the building manager for the building at 264 West 40th Street, between Eighth and Seventh Avenues, said: “I had no idea what he was going to do. All I knew is that he was an artist and was going to use the store for two days: today and tomorrow.” There are offices above the storefront.

Mr. Joza would not identify the building’s owner, and he would not disclose the terms of the lease or the previous occupant of the storefront, beyond saying that the storefront had been vacant.

Mr. Arboleda has even set up elaborate Web sites, one for Mrs. Clinton and one for Mr. Obama.

Shortly after 11:30 a.m., Mr. Arboleda called reporters to let them know that he had been released.

“The Secret Service had to do a whole questionnaire with me,” he said. “It was about an hour of questioning. They asked if I owned guns, if I was a violent person, if I had ever been institutionalized.”

Mr. Arboleda answered no. Nonetheless, he said the Secret Service asked him if he would voluntarily take down the exhibition title from the window.

“I’m renting that space; the space was allocated for an exhibition and it’s my right to put those words up,” he said. “They said it could incite someone to do something crazy, like break the window. It’s terrible, because they’re violating my rights. If someone breaks a window, they’re committing a crime.”

He added, “The exhibition is supposed to be about character assassination. It’s philosophical and metaphorical.”

He said he had not yet decided whether to take down the exhibition’s title, saying he first needed to speak to representatives of the building’s owner.

Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly, speaking to reporters at 1 Police Plaza around noon, said, “I am not certain he has been arrested,” then added, “He put up signs indicating the assassination of Senator Clinton and Barack Obama. And we notified the Secret Service. This individual is being spoken to. He apparently made statements that had to with their reputation. This is all under investigation.”

Asked whether the artwork was being seen as dangerous, Mr. Kelly said: “Obviously, it sounds totally inappropriate. We need more information as to what the purpose of it was. As I say, apparently he made some statements that he was referring to their reputations … don’t know, we will have to get more information. But he is being questioned now by our detectives and the Secret Service.”

Mr. Kelly was also asked why the artist would be questioned at all. “Why would we question him?” he responded. “Well, we want to determine what his motives are. Obviously they could be interpreted as advocating harm to protectees; both of the senators, of course, are now being provided Secret Service protection, that’s why the Secret Service was interested; both of them are federal employees, so, ah, of course it is a concern to federal authorities as it is to ourselves. Our lawyers are researching it and will determine if there are any violations of law; right now he is being questioned.”

(In fact, when Mr. Kelly spoke, Mr. Arboleda had already been released from custody a short while earlier.)

Special Agent Eric P. Zahren, a spokesman for the Secret Service in Washington, emphasized in a telephone interview that the agency did not seek to shut down the show.

“We did not shut down that exhibit or request that anybody else shut it down,” Agent Zahren said. “This was brought to our attention, we went out there and had a conversation with the individual, but we did not shut it down.”

According to Mr. Arboleda’s Web sites, he was born in Boston in 1981 and lives in New York City. His family moved to Medellín, Colombia, shortly after he was born, and lived there until 1992. He holds a master’s degree in architecture from the Catholic University of America and has been trained in photography, painting, fashion design and graphic design. His first solo show, “The New Vitruvians,” was presented at Tribeca Issey Miyake in 2007.

Assassination has been the subject of many cultural products, including even a Stephen Sondheim musical, “Assassins.” But in the post-9/11 context, recent comments touching on assassination during this political season — including references by former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton — have hit a nerve, and have been followed by apologies.

The safety of Mr. Obama, the presumptive Democratic Party presidential nominee, has been an issue. When he was assigned Secret Service coverage in May 2007, it was the earliest point in a campaign that a candidate had been given protection. In February, Jeff Zeleny of The Times wrote a Political Memo on the “hushed worry” on the minds of many Obama supporters; it mentioned how his wife, Michelle Obama, had voiced concerns about his safety.

“Checkpoint,” a 2004 novel by Nicholson Baker, purported to plumb the thoughts of a would-be presidential assassin. In 2006, a British digital-television station commissioned a 90-minute film, “Death of a President,” about the aftermath of a fictional assassination of President Bush by a sniper.

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Clinton, who later apologized, made the remark about Kennedy to the editorial board of the Sioux Falls Argus Leader newspaper when explaining that other races for the Democratic presidential nomination had lasted into June.

“My husband did not wrap up the nomination in 1992 until he won the California primary somewhere in the middle of June, right? We all remember Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June in California,” she said.

“I don’t understand it,” Clinton said, referring to calls for her to pull out of the Democratic nominating race, which ends on June 3 with primaries in South Dakota and Montana.

Kennedy, brother of slain U.S. President John F. Kennedy and Massachusetts Sen. Edward Kennedy, was assassinated during the 1968 race for the Democratic nomination.

Clinton’s comments drew a sharp response from the Obama campaign.

“Senator Clinton’s statement before the Argus Leader editorial board was unfortunate and has no place in this campaign,” said Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton.

Clinton told reporters later, “I regret if my referencing of that moment of trauma for our entire country and particularly the Kennedy family was in any way offensive. I had no intention of that whatsoever.”

“I’m honored to hold Senator Kennedy’s seat in the United States Senate from the state of New York and have the highest regard for the entire Kennedy family,” Clinton added.

A spokesman said Clinton had simply been pointing out that Democratic campaigns in the past had continued into June and therefore people should not be pressuring her to withdraw.

“She was simply referencing her husband in 1992 and Robert Kennedy in 1968 as historical examples of the nominating process going well into the summer. Any other reading is inaccurate,” Clinton spokesman Mo Elleithee said.

There have been concerns about the safety of Obama, an Illinois senator who would be the first black U.S. president. He began receiving Secret Service protection 18 months before the November election — earlier than any other candidate has received increased security.

The protection came after congressional leaders raised the issue with Homeland Security and other groups and presented information that reportedly included threats on the Web and in letters.

Obama has an almost insurmountable lead over Clinton in the race for Democratic nomination. The former first lady has said she would continue until the last state has held its nominating contest.

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By James P. Tucker Jr.

The Trilateral Commission—one of the three most powerful globalist groups in the world—held closed-door meetings right here in Washington, D.C. from April 25 to 28. True to form, those members of the media who knew about the meeting—or were themselves participants in the proceedings—refused to discuss what went on inside or report on the attendees. Luckily, AFP’s own editor, Jim Tucker, was on the scene to bust this clandestine confabulation wide open.

Luminaries at the Trilateral Commission meeting in Washington expressed confidence that they own all three major presidential candidates, who, despite political posturing, will support sovereignty-surrendering measures such as NAFTA and the “North American Union.”

The second item of interest this morning was titled “The New Feudalism” by Moss David Posner. David postulates in this essay that Americans have a disconnect to reality that has been carefully groomed over the years to make them susceptible to things that they would normally not accept. He goes on to conclude,

The current crop of international criminals wishes to reduce the world to one large feudal system. Such a notion endured for many centuries before. Could they really believe such is possible? Could they really pull it off? In this last regard, history does not speak in our favor.

Connecting the dots, one would have to conclude that David is absolutely correct in his conclusion. It all makes sense.

Standing Orders for the Next President

According to James Tucker,

This panel [Trilateral Commission] had these orders for the next president: increase foreign aid across the board because “America does not pay its fair share,” pay up the arrears in UN dues, allow as many immigrants into the United States as want to come and provide “amnesty” for illegal aliens already here.

Why else would the Trilateral Commission’s standing orders for the next President include such things as open borders, illegal alien amnesty, and shelling out even more taxpayer money, if not to reduce American citizens to lives of servitude and desperation?

All three handpicked Presidential candidates will do nothing to stop NAFTA or the NAU. In fact, they have pledged to support them. Here are quotes from the Trilateral Commission’s meeting regarding the candidates’ stand on these issues:

“John has always supported free trade, even while campaigning before union leaders… Hil and Barack are pretending to be unhappy about some things, but that’s merely political posturing. They’re solidly in support…” referring to Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.), Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) and Barack Obama (D-Ill.). Mrs. Clinton, they noted, held strategy sessions as first lady on how to get Congress to approve NAFTA “without changes.” As president, they agreed, she would do no more than “dot an i or cross a t.” Candidate Obama has not denied news reports in Canada that his top economic adviser, Austan Goolsbee, assured Canadian diplomats that the senator would keep NAFTA intact and his anti-trade talk is just “campaign rhetoric.” (Tucker, 2008)

The Trilateral Commission members concluded that the only real danger is Ron Paul.

They expressed concern that Paul’s rallies have attracted multitudes of young people who are getting “their political education.” They want Republicans to pressure Paul to drop out now and stop his education rallies. This assignment was given to Thomas Foley, former U.S. House speaker. (Tucker, 2008)

An educated and informed populace is not on the agenda for these New World Order (NWO) promoters. After all, have you ever seen an educated feudal serf?

The Stockholm Syndrome

Remember President Bush saying after 9/11 “if you are not with us, you are with the terrorists?” Who is this “us?” Why, the global elite of course. You thought it was all loyal Americans? Think again. Who are “the terrorists?” anyone besides the global elite. And what do you do with terrorists? If you are the ruling power, you exterminate, torture, and use them to accomplish your objectives. You keep them uninformed, fill their lives with propaganda and lies, and make them believe that there is nothing they can do about it. In fact, if you’re very good at what you do, they even learn to love you for it. This phenomenon is called the Stockholm Syndrome.

The Stockholm syndrome occurs when abused persons show signs of loyalty to their abuser/s because they become emotionally attached. How do you get your victim to become emotionally attached? According to Katina Krasnic, “This development occurs when there are perceived threats of violence, disempowerment of the subject, high levels of stress or trauma upon subject, and ultimate dependence upon the person in control for base survival” (LINK).

Isn’t this exactly what our government is doing? The population is bombarded with perceived threats of terrorism, our basic human rights are being confiscated before our eyes and we are becoming more disempowered by the day. People are under high levels of stress due to the threat of violence, as well as foreclosures, gasoline prices, lowering wages, loss of jobs, lack of medical care, and the myriad of other ways stress is induced. This stress creates the ultimate dependence desired by the abusers in power, and is exactly what is happening at this very moment. By the time the program is complete, people will be running to the government to protect them from the government, and thus, the serfdom noose tightens; and as good little serfs, will defend their master to the death.

In an act of self-delusion, the victims of Stockholm Syndrome develop conditions in order to reassure themselves that they will be protected or cared for. By creating a false emotional attachment and seeking praise and approval of their captor, they attempt to make a false reality for themselves, in which no harm can come to them. And by defending and/or protecting their captors from police or anyone who “comes to the rescue,” they allow themselves to appear as if they have some control in a relationship which they really have no power. The value of their lives, which the captor grants, is seen as a sign of affection or love, and the captive wishes to reciprocate in order to maintain their own position at that time. By accepting a level of objectification that one should reject as a matter of basic human dignity, hostages or captives weaken their ability to control their emotions. This allows them to become malleable, thus becoming easily susceptible to the whims of their captors, and creates this unbalanced relationship of attachment between the captor and the captive. (Krasnec, 2008)

Presidential Elections and the Road to Serfdom

Our Presidential elections are an emotional parade in which charlatans called candidates create a false reality for a nation of Stockholm Syndrome victims who desperately need to believe that someone in a high place actually cares about what happens to them. This is a carefully constructed delusion. While the populace lives the delusion and buys into the lies perpetrated by these Trilateral Commission globalist lackeys, the real players work the sidelines and act as shills in a crowd of marks, spurring the act on.

Wake up! John, Hillary, and Obama do not care one iota about the people of this country. They are charlatans in a circus staged for no other purpose than to push the people of this country further down the road to delusion and serfdom.

There is no doubt in this writer’s mind that feudalism is the global elite’s plan for the earth’s population. David Posner has nailed it. Americans are to be reduced to serfdom in this Utopia envisioned by the Trilateral Commission, Bilderbergs, and the rest of the criminals in power in a worldwide conspiracy to dominate life itself.

What Chance Do We Have?

The only chance that we as a people have is that these “leaders” do not perceive their own weaknesses because of arrogance. The more power they get, the more arrogant they get, and the weaker they become. As one ascends into the heights of arrogance, the less aware a person becomes of any personal weakness, and as any fighter knows, if an opponent is not aware of personal weakness, vulnerabilities are created. The key is to study one’s opponent, and prepare one’s self to strike at his/her undefended weakness. You cannot study your opponent if you are too engrossed in his/her charade by being a good little Stockholm Syndrome victim.

Therefore, I encourage people to think outside the box. Do not get wrapped up in the emotional hype surrounding the three Presidential “frontrunners.” They are all supporting the same ideology, and that is feudal serfdom for America as well as the rest of the world. Wake up! Join the people willing to think beyond the hype. Start studying your adversary and spreading the word about the weaknesses you encounter. It is the only chance we have.

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“Now is not the time to renegotiate NAFTA or walk away from NAFTA. Now is the time to make it work better for all our people and now is time to reduce trade barriers worldwide,” Bush told a joint news conference with his Mexican counterpart Felipe Calderon and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

Turning on an abortive bill on a free trade agreement with Columbia, Bush blamed Democrats for their efforts to block it on Congress.

“It makes no sense to me to say that Columbian goods can come into our country duty free, yet our goods can’t go into Columbia duty free,” Bush said.

He said that a failure by the U.S. Congress to pass the agreement would send “a terrible signal” to neighboring countries.

“An agreement with Columbia would level the playing field,” he said, adding that it was a “bad decision” for Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the House of Representatives, to have blocked a vote on the deal.

Pelosi has refused to schedule a vote on the agreement with Columbia, a move Bush said could effectively kill it this year.

U.S. Senators Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton, who are locked in a bitter struggle for the Democratic party’s presidential nomination, have threatened to renegotiate NAFTA or even pull back from it if elected.

Bush also expressed concern over the rising prices of oil for U.S. consumers as it surged to a fresh high above 119 U.S. dollars a barrel.

But he denied that the U.S. economy is being dragged down into a recession by the subprime mortgages meltdown.

“We are not in a recession, we are in a slowdown,” said Bush, who has repeatedly expressed confidence in the resilience of the U.S. economy.

Echoing Bush’s comments, Calderon said that “this is not the time to even think about amending it or canceling it.”

“This is the time to strengthen and reinvigorate this free trade agreement among our three countries,” Calderon said.

The Mexican president said that NAFTA has helped create jobs, improved services and enhanced people’s quality of life and that “we want these benefits to reach more and more of our citizens.”

Calderon announced that the next North American Leaders’ Summit will be held in Mexico in 2009.

In his remarks, Harper said NAFTA was “critically important” for jobs and posterity on both sides of the border, saying that it would be a mistake to renegotiate it.

Harper stressed the importance of energy security, describing it as a “critical part of NAFTA arrangements.”

“Canada is the biggest and most stable supplier of energy to the United States in the world,” said the prime minister.

The press conference capped the North American leaders’ annual summit under the framework of the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP) launched in March 2005.

Earlier in the day, they met with top business leaders from the three countries before heading into formal talks.

Apart from the free trade issue, the three leaders also spent the two days at the summit discussing broad topics such as food safety, emergency responses, energy supply, border security, environmental protection and organized crime.

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Moderators George Stephanopolous and Charlie Gibson spent the first 50 minutes obsessed with distractions that only political insiders care about–gaffes, polling numbers, the stale Rev. Wright story, and the old-news Bosnia story. And, channelling Karl Rove, they directed a video question to Barack Obama asking if he loves the American flag or not. Seriously.
Enough is enough. The public needs the media to stop hurting the national dialogue in this important election year. Can you sign the petition to ABC and other media outlets and pass it on to friends who are also fed up?

comment will be presented to ABC and other media.

Petition here
http://pol.moveon.org/enoughdistractions/?rc=homepage
ABC has 20,000 angry comments

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Now that we know from the 11,000 pages of Clinton White House documents released that former First Lady was an ardent advocate for NAFTA; now that we know she held at least five meetings to strategize about how to win congressional approval of the deal; now that we know she was in the thick of the manuevering to block the efforts of labor, farm, environmental and human rights groups to get a better agreement.

MSNBC’s Hardball with Chris Matthews reports:

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