Monday 29 September 2008

Greg Palast: Rove Has Already Fixed the 2008 Election

"The Republican Political Machine has not only united the most stupid and selfish people in the country, they are prepared to steal the 2008 election."

Mike Caddell, Editor, Fightin' Cock Flyer, Kansas, USA.






Climate Change & Energy & Economania : Getting Green Power Going
Posted on Medialens, September 29, 2008

We can no longer trust the current Banks, Financial Institutions, Energy corporates and Trading Floors to deliver Renewable Energy to us.

They're all about to collapse in the largest Merger and Acquisition of all time. Down the plughole of debt with rotten security.

We desperately need new funds, and we need to choose a currency that's not the US Dollar, to Get Green Power Going.

A currency that's separate from the others. A currency that's underwritten by an already large percentage of Renewable Power, the only secure Energy going forward.

And that currency is... ? The Euro !

My friends, it's time to think about putting all our spare cash into Euro Energy Bonds.

Who's going to start the Euro Energy Fund ?

Mr Al Gore ?

The End of 'Free-market' Capitalism?

Where is American Capitalism Headed?

Amid the chaos and chatter about this week's financial bailout, one clear theme emerged in some quarters: The era of 'free-market' capitalism is over. But is it, really?

The present trend to nationalize bad debts is being described as 'Socialism for the Rich and the Devil-take-the-Hindmost Capitalism for the Poor'. While the rich will try to maintain their privileges how long will the rest of us put up with such a gross injustice?

People are angry. What next?




American News Project



Saturday 27 September 2008

Clusterf#@k to the Poor House - Dive of Death

"It really is true what they say: Those that do not study the past get an exciting opportunity to repeat it" ~ Jon Stewart




The Daily Show, September 25, 2008

Friday 26 September 2008

Once in a century rip-off
September 26, 2008
The Real News Network

Economist Michael Hudson: The bailout is a giveaway that will cause hyperinflation and dollar collapse



Panic the people, make them think there's an emergency. There's no emergency at all. The debts of the very rich people—you know, it's just in the last five years that the richest 1 percent of the American population have increased their wealth from 37 percent to 57 percent of all the returns to wealth—dividends, interest, and capital gains in the economy, they vastly increased it. They don't want it to go back to normal. They'd like to keep on increasing it. And you can only do this kind of a ripoff—this is a once-in-a-century ripoff, and you can only do this kind of thing under emergency conditions, usually with the kind of bloodshed you saw when Pinochet introduced free markets at gunpoint in Chile. (More ...)

Wednesday 24 September 2008


Top 25 Censored Stories for 2009

* #1. Over One Million Iraqi Deaths Caused by US Occupation
* # 2 Security and Prosperity Partnership: Militarized NAFTA
* # 3 InfraGard: The FBI Deputizes Business
* # 4 ILEA: Is the US Restarting Dirty Wars in Latin America?
* # 5 Seizing War Protesters’ Assets
* # 6 The Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act
* # 7 Guest Workers Inc.: Fraud and Human Trafficking
* # 8 Executive Orders Can Be Changed Secretly
* #9 Iraq and Afghanistan Vets Testify
* # 10 APA Complicit in CIA Torture
* # 11 El Salvador’s Water Privatization and the Global War on Terror
* # 12 Bush Profiteers Collect Billions From No Child Left Behind
* # 13 Tracking Billions of Dollars Lost in Iraq
* # 14 Mainstreaming Nuclear Waste
* # 15 Worldwide Slavery
* # 16 Annual Survey on Trade Union Rights
* # 17 UN’s Empty Declaration of Indigenous Rights
* # 18 Cruelty and Death in Juvenile Detention Centers
* # 19 Indigenous Herders and Small Farmers Fight Livestock Extinction
* # 20 Marijuana Arrests Set New Record
* # 21 NATO Considers “First Strike” Nuclear Option
* # 22 CARE Rejects US Food Aid
* # 23 FDA Complicit in Pushing Pharmaceutical Drugs
* # 24 Japan Questions 9/11 and the Global War on Terror
* # 25 Bush’s Real Problem with Eliot Spitzer

From Project Censored


"Project censored is one of the organizations that we should listen to, to be assured that our newspapers and our broadcast outlets are practising thorough and ethical journalism." — Walter Cronkite

Tuesday 23 September 2008

Cynthia McKinney: an American Matriarch Pleads for Her Country



An extraordinary speech presented by Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney from the Alex Jones film "Matrix of Evil." Included is a clip of Mario Savio's fiery, "gears of the machine" speech he delivered at Berkeley.

Rory's Note: I was going to put this video up anyway. But when I heard the Savio quote my heart leapt as it's one my blog, Chimes of Freedom, has been carrying for over a year now.


Welcome to the Final Stages of the Coup ... Resist it Now or Kiss Your Liberties Goodbye Forever

In 2000, the long fought for and long admired democracy of the United States of America began a slow and steady decline toward fascism - a Bush family tradition - with the installment of a president - a man the citizens overwhelmingly rejected (although the funny math told a still believed myth) - by a few corrupt judges on the US Supreme Court. That coup is now nearly complete and checkmate is all but unavoidable.

(Now read on ...)


Monday 22 September 2008

The Middle Class Must Not Be Forced to Bail Out Wall Street Greed


Now, we are being told that if Congress does not act immediately and approve the $700 billion Wall Street bailout proposal these "free marketers" have just written up, there will be an unprecedented economic meltdown in the United States and an unraveling of the global economy.

This proposal as presented is an unacceptable attempt to force middle income families (and our children) to pick up the cost of fixing the horrendous economic mess that is the product of the Bush Administration's deregulatory fever and Wall Street's insatiable greed. If the potential danger to our economy was not so dire, this blatant effort to essentially transfer $700 billion up the income ladder to those at the top would be laughable. (more)

Take back America! Take back the Planet!



Register, download the free movie, burn some DVD's and pass them around. Courtesy Michael Moore and the Slackers of America, get out there and get'em in November!

***This message comes to you from a Red State rebel, my compañero in Kansas, Mike Caddell, editor of Fightin' Cock Flyer, Discomfit Magazine and Storming Heaven's Gates***

"Slacker Uprising" is the new film by Michael Moore and is available for a FREE download at http://slackeruprising.com starting September 23rd 2008. Sign up now!


$1 Trillion Fix: US Government goes Kamikaze

While US Treasury Secretary Henry 'Kamikaze' Paulson seeks Congress permission to spend a further $700 billion of taxpayer's money to chase after bad debts, Bloomberg reports that public borrowing will soon go over $1 trillion and that this will crush the US Dollar.

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson's plan to end the rout in U.S. financial markets may derail the dollar's three-month rally as investors weigh the costs of the rescue.

The combination of spending $700 billion on soured mortgage-related assets and providing $400 billion to guarantee money-market mutual funds will boost U.S. borrowing as much as $1 trillion, according to Barclays Capital interest-rate strategist Michael Pond in New York. While the rescue may restore investor confidence to battered financial markets, traders will again focus on the twin budget and current-account deficits and negative real U.S. interest rates.

Bloomberg, 'Dollar May Get `Crushed' as Traders Weigh Up Bailout', 22/09/08

It's all complete madness and exposes a panicking government that has no idea what to do in the face of the impending collapse that many of us in the global blogging fraternity have been warning about for years now. And neither the US or UK governments appear to be looking at any longer term strategies than trying to bail out a rapidly-sinking Titanic showing us all how incapable and incompetent they and their so-called neoliberal 'free market' chums really are.

Meantime both Russia and China are beginning to talk of setting up an alternative, global monetary system. They will, no doubt, soon find allies in other parts of the world such as Venezuela and South America. The Russians and French have taken the first steps towards a pan-European security pact.

Congressman Ron Paul (R) has described 'Kamikaze' Paulson's move to be akin to giving a drug addict yet another fix. Here's his take on events:







Thursday 18 September 2008


The Gaian Apocalypse is Upon Us

Some of us --this writer included-- have been warning for some years that another huge collapse of the capitalist system was on its way. Looking back on those early days the collapse has been like a rail-crash in slow motion. It's something that has had a long, drawn out process of manifestation.

But, my friends, it's really happening now in front of our very eyes. And, as one of the commentators in the video below observes, these are indeed interesting times. Times when even a popular programme on BBC Radio asks the question, Is capitalism finished?

Well you can guess what my answer is. But just to be sure, I'll spell it out: yes, capitalism is rapidly winding up but let's not fool ourselves that this was a momentary thing. Its decline has been going on for decades now but, rather like a melting ice-floe, there comes a moment in the process of meltdown when the momentum begins to vastly accelerate. We have reached that moment it seems.



And so we must ask, what next? Where are the signs of a global revolution against capitalism? The revolution, as has been said, will not be televised, so don't look for it there, you won't find it in the artificial bubble of unreality which the apparatchiks, the nomenklatura of the capitalist system, try to fool us is consensus reality. All of that was and is a lot of wishful thinking from which they are now being rudely woken.

Despite appearances what we are facing today is the Mother of All Revolutions:

What we see all about us is the corporate capitalism of a 'New World Order' spiralling increasingly out-of-control mimicking a planetary biosystem also, apparently increasingly in chaos.

That's the reality, forget the endless torrent of words for which the talking heads are paid to spew out. It is in the enactment of nothing less than a tremendous planetary paradigm shift that we find ourselves now.
War from the Perspective of a Paradigm Shift, Chimes of Freedom, 12/01/06

I wrote that some years ago, comparing the breakdown of capitalism to that of the planet's biosystem. When you think about it, there's nothing fanciful at all in that. Human behaviour, including its behaviour in the world of economics, is but an aspect of the greater, planetary biosystem. When human behaviour goes out of kilter with the biosystem and acts, instead, like a cancer cell it ends up destroying itself. That is no doubt what Karl Marx was thinking of when he predicted that capitalism, through its own success, would bury itself.

Now look around us: can we not see that Marx was right? Or are we so addicted to worshipping the illusory Golden Calf that we shall continue to deny the obvious and fish around, ever more desperately, for excuses and rationales? It's much easier to do nothing while it all happens around us ... just so long that it is we who are not suffering from the consequences. But that is no longer the case. The big collapse is pulling us all in with it.

This is a thing of planetary consequences. In a time of what the Native Americans describe as the Earth Changes, the Apocalypse has arrived. Of course I don't mean the simplistic nonsense espoused by fanatical Christian Fundamentalists or Bushco and his bandits.

Living in a world where the predominant archetypes are of a judeo-christian nature, it surprises me not at all that we should find ourselves in what appears to be the endgame of Armageddon. Except that, in the real world, Armageddon is not being played out by Man but by Nature, Gaia herself. And compared to the machinations of the New World Order the Armageddon that is already all around us is the one so effetely described by the War Party's media as the "Climate Changes."

War from the Perspective of a Paradigm Shift, Chimes of Freedom,
12/01/06


In reality and outside their artificial bubble it is something far more real. Something which could be described as a Gaian Apocalypse, a phenomenon which is taking place on many levels of experience, macrocosmic and microcosmic. It is a holistic phenomenon precisely because of the technological outreach that capitalism has achieved. Whether we appreciate it or not we all live in a global village, something of which the collapse of capitalism is once more reminding us. It is, more than ever, a time when we shall all have to Think Global and Act Local. Those two are both part of the same reality we now need to address.

And in the language of old-time socialism, the time for international revolution has come. The Revolution is taking place amongst global humanity: in the anti globalist movement, in South America, in the food riots taking place world-over, in the growing resistance to the Chinese elite as the videos here illustrate. All we have to do is to join the dots together ...

Wall Street Teeters, the Empire & China Shake



Now Read Mike Ruppert's 'Life after the Oil Crash' here

Sunday 14 September 2008

Medvedev's Address to the Valdai Club




Saturday 13 September 2008


Saakashvili is an "unpredictable, pathological, and mentally unstable drug abuser," says Medvedev.

Mikheil Saakashvili is a coke addict with a bipolar disorder. This is what the Western MSM is keeping quiet about. It's a huge embarrassment to western leaders who are looking to the ex-Soviet Republic joining the military-political organisation, NATO.

During the recent Caucasus Conflict the BBC caught Saakashvili chewing his own tie in a moment of anxiety. Then, on being challenged on Saakashvili's use of the European Flag, France's President Sarkozy while looking visibly embarrassed replied that no one could be stopped from using the European Flag if they so wished.

Now Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has stated publicly that Saakashvili is an "unpredictable, pathological and mentally unstable drug abuser":

“The Georgian head of state is not just a man we won’t do business with. He’s an unpredictable pathological and mentally unstable drug abuser. Western journalists, that interviewed him not so long ago, know it! A two-hour-long interview on the high – that’s over the edge for a head of state. If NATO needs such a leader - go ahead.”

Russia Today, 13 September 2008



The RT article, "I'll never forget that night" has had its sub-headline changed from "Saakashvili is a mentally unstable drug abuser - Medvedev". According to a leading RT journalist, several RT personnel had been present when Medvedev made the latter comment in a closed discussion with members of the Valdai Discussion Club.

According to the same journalist, Saakashvili has got an insatiable taste for coke as well as expensive wrist-watches. "If you want a meeting with Saak it is understood that he expects a watch worth no less than $15k."

A further report on Medvedev's allegations are, in reference to his comments about Georgia's possible NATO membership, on the Civil Georgia website:

“As far as Georgia’s NATO membership is concerned, I have already told you about it, it will clearly be one of the serious destabilizing factors for NATO itself and for Caucasus. It would have been only a half-trouble if there were balanced, wise politicians in the Georgian leadership – even if they were oriented towards overseas [referring to western orientation]; but it is another matter when there is a person as a head of state, with whom we will not only have any business, but also who is totally unpredictable, a person burdened with a mass of pathologies, who, unfortunately, is in an unbalanced psychological condition, [a person] who – am sorry but – takes narcotic drugs, which is a well-known fact for western journalists, who have interviewed him recently. Two hours of interview under the condition of a strong narcotic influence for a head of state – it is too much, it is overdose. If our colleagues from NATO want to have this kind of leader, then go ahead.”

Civil Georgia, Tbilisi, 13/09/08

You can see a report by RT on the Valdai Discussion Club speech here. Reference to Medvedev's comments are made in the final part of the video report.

Another commentator on a private forum observes that:

Tbilisi is a place where people enjoy vast social networks even if they don't have Internet access. My friends from there seem to be well aware of Mikheil's drug addiction.

Sadly, this problem is very typical among the people of his generation in the former USSR. In his case it's probably stemming from addiction to medicine he had to take for his bipolar disorder.

It’s a shame that his handlers and political entourage keep exploiting this sick man. I hope that Mikheil will be brave to seek professional help soon.

'Untimely Thoughts' - An Expert Discussion Group on Russia, 12/09/08

This may not be breaking news in Russia or in the Caucasus but most certainly is to those of us in the West who have been subject to an incessant barrage of disinformation and downright lies about recent events in the Caucasus Conflict where these days our embedded MSM behaves as if it were under Soviet-style reporting restrictions.

The prospect of a mentally unstable, drug-addicted sociopath leading an unstable ex-Soviet Republic with aspirations to joining NATO should be giving our western rulers nightmares. The disturbing fact that while not only is it failing to have that effect, that it is, on the contrary, only encouraging them to up the ante, to rearm the belligerent Georgians and to cheer them on to fully-fledged NATO membership should lead us to ask if the West, led by the US, is deliberately setting-up Georgia once more as its proxy in a premeditated, future hot war with Russia?

There is plenty of reason to believe so. It is widely held that such a confrontation might be sparked off in the Ukraine where another unstable regime, currently led by the unpopular Viktor Yushchenko, is in a rulership crisis. Many Ukrainians are of Russian origin and most Ukrainians would prefer to ally with Russia and not NATO:

Ukrainian citizens prefer integration with Russia and other CIS member countries to that with European and Euro-Atlantic structures, judging by the results of a recent poll posted at the Thursday press conference at the Interfax-Ukraine office in Kyiv.

A recent poll held by the Ukrainian National Academy of Sciences' Sociology Institute polled 1,800 Ukrainians nationwide on August 15-27 by request of the Ukrainian Forum foundation.

Twenty-seven percent of the respondents said they wished full-scale political and economic integration with Russia and other CIS countries, while 26% suggested economic integration within the CIS trade zone. Only 17% wished the soonest EU membership, and another 23% supported more profound relations with the European Union and a free trade zone.

Forty-six percent said that the possible accession to NATO would cause Ukrainian destabilization, and about 30% said the opposite.

Interfax, 04/09/08

But, for geo-strategic reasons, the area is up for grabs by the West which has no intentions of Russia regaining its old hegemonic presence in the Crimea. Not only have Ukrainian politics been destabilised by western neocon organisations but the present, highly unpopular Yushchenko is a US puppet.

The problem facing Ukraine today is the President, Viktor Yushchenko.

What we are seeing, but has not been properly reported ... is an ongoing power struggle between the Office of The President and the people's democratically elected representative Parliament (Pure and simple).

Yushchenko and his political party Our Ukraine continuously seek to undermine Ukraine's economic and democratic development. They have opposed every effort to see Ukraine become at democratic parliamentary republic.

Ukraine Today, 09/09/08

A mentally ill drug abuser on the one hand and a would-be tyrant on the other. These are the West's 'allies' in an area of the world which is in any event a geo-strategic flashpoint. As most analysts agree, it is inconceivable that the Georgians would have unleashed their genocide on the small republic of South Ossetia without some encouragement from neocons in Washington DC who had already armed them to the teeth. And as has been suggested by a previous article published here at least one of the motives of the US might have been to test the resolve of the Russians, their allies and the European Union in the face of Russian retaliation. A test case, then, for the US war-machine against more serious conflicts it might have in mind to unleash in Eurasia.

One Russian strategic analyst proposes a possible false-flag incident which could lead to a much wider conflagration:

[A] provocation such as a murder of Russian sailors or a blow-up of a Russian warship will be organized in Sevastopol, the result being a civil war in Ukraine and a direct military conflict between the country and Russia.

Obviously, the US intends to use Georgia as a foothold in a campaign aimed at dragging Russia into a low-intensity conflict as it has been done in Vietnam. The response of the Ukrainian leadership has shown that it is ready to join Georgia in a military confrontation with Russia in case Washington asks it to.

Parallelly, the US will be bracing for an attack on Iran. The result will be McCain's victory in the coming presidential race. The American society has given him carte blanche to take drastic measures to deal with the countries which do not side with the US.

'Georgia: the First Step Towards Chaos Control (II)', Yuri Baranchik, Strategic Culture Foundation


Baranchik goes on to observe the disastrous failure of the unipolar US in exercising foreign policy and the highly dangerous time in which we find ourselves:

The fact that the US elite aims at instigating a series of regional conflicts shows that the US is no longer able to carry the burden of the global leadership, and the coming war is the last resort to retain it. However, the conflict will not last forever and sooner or later the US will have to downscale its military and political presence worldwide. The reliance on war demonstrates that the US elite's intellectual potential needed to maintain the status of the US as the only superpower is exhausted.

'Georgia: the First Step Towards Chaos Control (II)', Yuri Baranchik, Strategic Culture Foundation

Now that the US puppet and dictator, Musharraf, is no longer in control even Pakistan is now threatening to retaliate if the US continues to make cross-border attacks against its territory. While the US is now weak it becomes even more dangerous and liable to strike out at any one of the innumerable enemies it has created for itself world-over. When does threatening talk lead to something far worse?

Anticipating the likelihood of a serious political crisis in the Ukraine, the US talks tough:

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Daniel Fried pledged Friday that the United States would back Ukraine in a territorial dispute ... Fried's remarks echo comments made last week by Vice President Dick Cheney. During a visit to the ex-Soviet Republic, Cheney said the U.S. has "a deep and abiding interest" in the country's "well-being and security."

Wiredispatch.com, 12/09/08

The great irony of this particular report is the contrast between the US' verbal machismo and the more cautious approach exercised by the Ukrainians themselves!

However, Ukraine's defense minister said during a visit to Denmark Friday that a war with Moscow was unlikely because Ukraine is such an important link in Europe's energy supply.

Asked about a potential military conflict with Russia, Yuri Yekhanurov said he didn't "believe something like this might happen in the future."

A conflict would "have an influence on not only Ukraine but the whole world," Yekhanurov said, noting that 80 percent of the natural gas exported to Europe passes through Ukraine.

ibid

For Europeans, the situation is crystal clear. The days of the all-powerful US are now finally gone. It is in the interests of Europe to find a stable entente with Russia as a partner and an ally. If outright EU membership for Russia is inconceivable than it should be given nothing less than a most favoured nation status. The US won't like such moves and will do everything to stop them from happening. All the more reason why the EU should now work more closely with Russia and China and, at the same time, stand firm against any further warmongering from the White House.

Rory Winter

Friday 12 September 2008


South Ossetians celebrate Independence

Despite the lunatic behaviour of Georgia's Saakashvili (eg. chewing his own tie on TV) the servile MSM of the West is obliged to keep up the pretence that this nutcase rules over a democratic country. Well, it must be democratic because the US, Britain and NATO supports it, mustn't it? Here's another revealing essay on the subject by Peter Lavelle of Russia Today:


Where is the media now?
September 10, 2008

Have you noticed or not noticed something about Western media coverage of Russia since the Medvedev-Sarkozy deal? Well I have – there hasn’t been much. And at a time in which seeing the peace process move forward is of up-most importance. It would appear the “commentariat” (which means most of Western mainstream TV and print media) much prefers stories that show Russia in the worst possible light. When Russia constructively works to establish peace and security in its own backyard, in tandem with the EU, the commentariat loses interest.

Why does this happen? The reasons seem obvious to me.

As far as the commentariat is concerned, if Russia gets something positive out of negotiations settling the South Caucasian crisis something is wrong. The conclusion drawn is either the EU, for example, screwed up or Russia is up to no good. It is part of the commentariat’s gospel of faith that Russia should not be allowed to have ANY national security interests. And if Russia disagrees with the West, it is because Russia is against “democracy,” “liberal values,” and other ideological principles the West hides behind to promote its geopolitical interests at the expense others. Russia is no longer the Soviet Union, but West’s media is becoming more Soviet with every passing day.

When Russia claims it is protecting its national security interests, the commentariat automatically translate anything Moscow does into “hostility,” “aggression,” and bullying.” What was Russia supposed to do when Saakashvili embarked upon his genocidal campaign against South Ossetia? Was it supposed to stand on the sidelines and telephone the UN for a Security Council meeting? Well, that’s what the commentariat was probably hoping – hoping that Russia would cave into Western sponsored aggression. The storyline the commentariat wanted to write was “Russian occupiers rightly pushed out of Georgian territory.” They same copy probably would have never mentioned ethnic cleansing committed against the South Ossetian people. Well, Russian peacekeepers and military DID step in and foiled a humanitarian catastrophe – and the commentariat has demonized Russia every since. The commentariat is on the wrong side of morality and common decency – not to mention the obligations of responsible media.

Then there is the issue of the main villain in this plot – Mikhail Saakashvili. It is appalling how the commentariat protects him. The US State Department is on the defensive recalling its close ties with him and Georgia’s crippled political opposition (because of Saakashvili authoritarian tendencies) now openly demands to know why Georgia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity have been compromised. The commentariat doesn’t have the moral fortitude to even make a pretense toward serving the public good by really questioning why the West continues to support “the beacon of democracy in the Caucuses.”

All of this strikes me as quite strange and an obvious double-standard. Slobodan Milosevic and Radovan Karadzic proved to be quite popular for the commentariat to demonize (and maybe for good reason). However, Saakashvili strikes me as part of that crowd who should be subject to intense scrutiny as well. But the commentariat will never admit this or do what is right. Milosevic and Karadzic were not puppets or supporters of the West, but Saakashvili is. This is why Saakashvili is getting a free pass. Again, this is a disgrace and a dereliction of duty on the part of Western media.

I can only guess when the commentariat will again consider Russia – like when claiming Russia “again fails to fulfill its ceasefire commitments.” I bet you that this will never be said about the Georgian side. Saying as much doesn’t sell.

Peter Lavelle


U.S. citizens demand truth on 9/11
Russia Today

Seven years after the 9/11 tragedy in New York, there are many people who say they don't trust the official version of events. The U.S. government denies all conspiracy theories but skeptics say there are still more questions than answers.



Hundreds of protesters have come out onto the streets of New York City. They roamed the streets chanting, and held peace signs in front of where the Twin Towers used to stand.

On the anniversary of the tragedy that shook the world, these people say they want answers. They are challenging the official results of the investigation into 9/11. They say what they want is the truth.

According to the 9/11 Truth Movement, the goal of officials behind 9/11 was to justify America’s wars and increase domestic control.

Meanwhile, some Americans say the beliefs of the movement are too controversial and offensive. To them the Truth Movement’s way of demanding answers is too confrontational, and that’s what turns people off.

Protesters, however, believe that more people support them than some are ready to admit.

Jonathan Freeland from 9/11 Truth Movement claims that it took him ten minutes to give away 66 'inside job' t-shirts.

Those questioning the reasons behind 9/11 say the response to what they do is often violent, because realizing their Government has allegedly been corrupted is hard for some Americans.

These people say they will continue to come out onto the streets until the time comes when there are less questions than answers.

Thursday 11 September 2008


The War Which Will Help McCain Win
Yuri Baranchik, Strategic Culture Foundation

Georgia has done a great job as the proving ground during the five-day war. With the help of this war, those who are promoting the Republican nominee in the US presidential race have found out all they needed to know.

It was a part of Washington's plan that Russia would respond resolutely to the US-prepared Georgian incursion into South Ossetia. As a result of Russia's repelling the aggression, the US Administration obtained the information it needed to analyze the consequences of future armed conflicts in the post-Soviet space and Senator J. McCain's chances to become the next US President got a real boost. Besides, Washington had the opportunity to probe into the positions of Europe (obviously, the EU would not follow the US in the case of serious tensions with Russia) and China (which would rather not intervene).

In the US, practically all the benefits from the situation which emerged due to the Georgian invasion of South Ossetia were drawn by the Republicans, as the evolution of McCain's rating clearly shows. McCain was 7% behind his rival B. Obama by the early August but the gap began to shrink when the conflict in the Caucasus broke out, and by August 23 both presidential hopefuls had 47%. The process stopped at this point, though, as the war ended. Subsequently, Obama began to lead again – now he has 50% vs McCain's 42%.

In other words, the conflict in the Caucasus was provoked by the Republicans in the hope to gain advantages in the presidential campaign. The five-day war triggered exactly the electoral reaction they expected – it appeared at the moment that the US needed a President who would make a better military commander, and Vietnam-war veteran McCain seemed better fit for the role than his relatively young rival. The logic behind the voting on November 4, 2008 became completely obvious.

Thus, it takes a war for McCain to win. It takes more than just a small war which only made it possible for him to catch up with Obama. It has to be a serious one with an impressive death toll, and then the triumph of the Republican hawk on November 4 would be guaranteed. A war between the US and Iran would serve the purpose.

For the Republican elite which is ready to unleash a war with Iran for the sake of McCain's victory, what is at stake is not one but three presidential terms. Republican Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin will have good starting positions in the 2014 presidential race. Republican politicians no longer worry about oil prices as the margin from the domestic sales of imported oil is theirs anyhow, and the financial crisis in the US simply cannot be prevented, so the main question at the moment is who is going to be at the helm during the crisis to reap the benefits stemming from the redistribution of the global and US domestic markets.

What have the Republicans already gained thanks to the military experiment in the Caucasus?

First, it transpired that Russia will react harshly to military expansion attempts in the post-Soviet space. Confronting a serious enemy in international politics is a situation generally advantageous from the Republican standpoint.

Secondly, it became clear that the EU as a whole is not a dependable partner for the US and the US must rely on bilateral ties with some of the EU countries (Great Britain, Poland).

Thirdly, China, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, and the Collective Security Treaty Organization would easily abandon Russia and opt for non-intervention.

Fourthly, a small country like Georgia cannot present a sufficiently big problem to paralyze Russia. The task would take involving Russia in two conflicts at once, hence the role of Ukraine. Making Ukraine a part of the “arrangement' would also be a way of punishing the defiant Europe by destabilizing its energy supply routes.

Currently there seems to be an informational lull, but the impression is perfunctory. A major war and the transfer of control from Bush to McCain in the situation of a massive armed conflict are of vital importance for the forces which advance McCain and hope to go on running the US for the next 12 years.

In this light, the likely scenario for the future is as follows:

New conflicts in the post-Soviet space will be organized with the help of the already outgoing US puppets Saakashvili and Yushchenko. The process will probably begin in Ukraine. Yushchenko will resort to the use of force against his opponents to amass power in his hands. Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko is already targeted: she is under practically undisguised surveillance and will be interrogated by the prosecutor on September 11. The interrogation is likely to be followed by arrest, now or later. After it, Yushchenko will issue a decree introducing the presidential rule “until the situation normalizes”. The regime will be marked by a witch-hunting campaign with numerous provocations against politicians – and not only politicians – known for pro-Russian leanings. In case this would not be enough, provocations targeting Russian warships docked in Sevastopol and their personnel should be expected.

Since there are at least three influential political clans in Ukraine and the country is already being torn apart by President Yushchenko's irresponsible politics, by the early October a number of local conflicts will quickly evolve into a civil war (unless by that time Yushchenko gets arrested for treason instead). The result will be the disintegration of Ukraine.

This time, Russia will try to avoid getting directly involved in Ukraine's domestic conflict and limit its efforts to implicitly supporting pro-Russian forces in the Ukrainian elite as well as in the country's eastern regions and in the Crimea.

In case the situation in Ukraine remains under control, Russia is going to have a much greater potential to influence the international situation when the US strikes Iran. On the other hand, if the temperature of the conflict gets high and it spills beyond Ukraine's borders, Russia will have to fight for its interests as it did in the Caucasus.

Tentatively, Moscow will decide what to do about Ukraine by mid-October.

Following the developments, Saakashvil's thugs rearmed with the US assistance will get back into play after some rest in late October.

The US stock market will see a partial drop as the security of the energy transit routes from Russia to Europe will be affected and the global fuel prices will soar. The US population will panic and the neocons will frighten it further by pictures of “the global chaos” until the no-return point is reached.

By that time Russia will be confronted by a total information war.

In late October Cheney's political group will organize a provocation against the US of proportions comparable to those of September 11. The death toll will be high and Iran will be blamed. Several days prior to the November 4 elections, President Bush will declare another crusade in the name of democracy which will in practice mean a “pre-emptive” war against Iran.

Under the circumstances McCain will be a natural choice in the US as the leader capable of fighting the global terrorism and the rogue countries all the way to the logical completion.

Campaigning on the day of the elections may be prohibited, but McCain will do well without it. Media reports from conflict zones in Georgia, Ukraine, and Iran will be the background of the elections on November 4. The public will see Eurasia in flames and ask for a strong-handed US politics as the way to cope with the global chaos.

Early morning on November 5, McCain will declare himself as the winner determined to carry the light of democracy all over the world.

______________________________

SEE ALSO:

New crisis envelopes UkrainePresident threatens Ukraine with a state of emergency


The West's Phantom Pains



The Afghan Victim Memorial Project

On the day when the most monstrous hypocrisy is taking place in New York, where the conspiratorial powers behind the events of 911 cry crocodile tears for all those whose lives whose blood is on their hands, I bring to your attention a much greater crime committed by the very same powers and a website dedicated to its victims.

"The civilian dead in Afghanistan can also be seen as victims of September 11, 2001 – a twin tragedy. The purpose of this site is to create an online memorial as a gesture of love and support to the families of the deceased. The aim is to list as many as possible of the persons killed, with details of their lives, the circumstances of their deaths. Hard copy files are kept of all reports detailing each incident. This may take many years to complete, and we cannot anticipate the final number of authenticated victims of the bombing, invasion and occupation."

THE AFGHAN VICTIM MEMORIAL PROJECT

Wednesday 10 September 2008

Stop the March of the Police State! Act Now!

My regular readers will know that for several years, since this blog was first created after the events of 77 in July 2005, I have been warning of the erosion of liberties and the creation of police states on both sides of the Atlantic.

The fact that this is happening as a transatlantic phenomenon is no accident. Bush's fascists first performed a coup on the US electorate by stealing the presidential election in 2000. We know now that by rights the Democratic candidate, Al Gore, was the rightful winner. But there was no challenge. Bush and his band of rogues were allowed to take over the White House. And it happened again in 2004 with 'faulty' electronic voting machines! Again, the criminals were allowed to get away with it. What now in 2008?

It was clear to many of us that the events of 911 were indeed a conspiracy involving some very powerful forces in north America and elsewhere. The purpose was to so traumatize the public that there would be no struggle when a premeditated, systematic erosion of constitutional and civil liberties followed --not only in the USA but in the UK as well as in other English-speaking countries. The wholly spurious 'War on Terror' was the ideological weapon used with which to bludgeon the opposition into submission.

On the international level we were told to prepare ourselves for 'Endless War' the description used by the Bush/Blair/Brown neocons for ongoing imperialist aggression by the US/UK/Israel in what might otherwise be called Resource Wars --wars staged in order that the West might secure strategic resources such as Oil, Gas, Water and other Mineral Resources needed to keep its system turning over.

The police states created through the fake 'War on Terror' are but one side of the coin. On the other is the prospect of Endless War. Taken together, we see the nightmare prospect of an Orwellian apocalypse. It started in earnest with the mass-murders of 911 and 77. It continues with the inexorable march of the police state. Many eyes are opening to what is going on. Many more need still to be opened. Please help that process by passing this link and text to as many people as possible. There isn't a moment to lose.

Rory Winter, CAMPAIGN for a DEMOCRATIC EUROPE.

NUJ Film shows Police obstruction of Journalists

NUJ, 9 September 2008

The National Union of Journalists has released a short film highlighting some of the problems faced by journalists covering public demonstrations.

The video was released the day after the TUC in Brighton condemned the erosion of civil liberties and media freedoms in Britain. TUC unions unanimously backed a motion, proposed by the National Union of Journalists, which called for a rethink of government policies that put journalists at risk of imprisonment just for doing their job.

Speaking after the TUC vote, NUJ General Secretary Jeremy Dear said: “Journalism is facing grave threats in an age of intolerance. Whilst on the streets dissent is being criminalized, independent journalism is being increasingly caught in the civil liberties clampdown.”

The nine-minute video, called Press Freedom: Collateral Damage, includes examples of the police obstructing journalists in their work.



Release of the film follows numerous complaints from media workers who have experiences of the police going beyond their powers in attempting to restrict the ability of journalists to do their work. The NUJ’s motion to the TUC was part of a wider campaign for a greater recognition of press freedom by the UK government.

The motion also highlights cases of journalists, such as Robin Ackroyd and Shiv Malik, who have faced the threat of jail because of legal demands to reveal confidential source information.

In his speech to Congress, Jeremy Dear drew attention to the case of Sally Murrer, who is facing criminal prosecution for receiving information from a police source, and highlighted the problems faced by journalists attempting to cover the recent Climate Camp in Kent.

Jeremy said: “The terrorising of journalists isn’t just done by shadowy men in balaclavas, but also by governments and organisations who use the apparatus of the law or state authorities to suppress and distort the information they do not want the public to know and to terrorise the journalists involved through injunctions, threats to imprisonment and financial ruin.

“The use of the Terrorism Act and SOCPA increasingly criminalize not just those who protest but those deemed to be giving the oxygen of publicity to such dissent. Journalists’ material and their sources are increasingly targeted by those who wish to pull a cloak of secrecy over their actions.”

The speech concluded: “This isn’t over-zealous policing this is a co-ordinated and systematic abuse of media freedom – and we must expose it, challenge it and act against those who undermine the rights of photographers, journalists and media workers.

“And we must do so because if whistleblowers and sources fear speaking out, if photographers and journalists cannot probe the dark corners of business, politics or human rights, the ability of the media – already under threat from concentration of ownership and cost-cutting – to hold power to account, to expose wrongdoing, to provide the information on which citizens can make informed decisions about their lives will be seriously compromised.

“The Terrorism Act and SOCPA are not sophisticated security policies – they are the blunt instruments of an intolerant government.

“As if in some Orwellian nightmare the Ministry of Freedom tells us that the price we must pay for peace and liberty at home is not just a war in Iraq – not just the billions spent on war – but, in the wake of the London bombings, is the fingerprinting of council workers and the covert surveillance of M&S workers. It is ID cards and 42-day detention. It is curbs on the right to protest, the civil contingencies act and it is the extension of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act, a snoopers’ charter giving access to personal texts, emails and internet use.

“The price is too high. Less liberty does not imply greater security. It never has.

“Our movement has been at the forefront of the great struggles for human and civil rights over the past century. In this age of intolerance new struggles must be waged and we must lead that fight.”

Propaganda
Craig Murray's blog
September 10, 2008

I have been worrying about the serious deterioration of civil liberties in the UK for five years now, but a small incident last night convinced me we are living in a country that must be classified as "Not free". I was travelling to the theatre on the tube, and the large majority of passengers were shrouded by copies of either London Lite or the London Paper. Some thirty copies of each banner headline screamed shrilly its message of fear through the train: "Five Suicide Bombers on the Loose in London!" "Jet Terror Plot!" "Terror Jury Holiday Farce Resulted in Acquittals!"

The propaganda, which reflected uncritically the briefing the Security Services and Home Office have been manically pumping out since the non-existence of the "Bigger than 9/11" jet plot was confirmed, was so stark and so divorced from any connection to the truth, that I am convinced we are already in effect living in a totalitarian state where the government controls the population through fear with brutal efficiency and with absolutely no regard to the truth. The government had contrived to turn a major blow for its "War on Terror" scaremongering into a vehicle to ramp up that scaremongering.

The Lite told of there still being bombers around from the "Jet Terror Plot" and gave no indication whatsoever that the jury had decided the jet plot did not exist. Indeed it claimed shamelessly that the three terrorists convicted of conspiracy to murder had been planning to bring down planes - a direct lie.

The London Paper was still more worrying, because it put detail into the line the odious security service spokesman Frank "Goebbels" Gardner has been pumping out on the BBC: juries are unreliable. It said that the failure to convict in the trial was due to interruptions for a holiday for the jurors and because of an injury to a juror in a golf accident. The clear trend of the briefing coming from the government is towards the abolition of jury trials in terrorist cases: Diplock courts.

Meantime in London two men are on trial for "terrorism" because they attended a demonstration at the Uzbek Embassy against the hideous Uzbek regime, at which red paint was thrown at the Embassy to symbolise the blood of Karimov's many thousands of victims. Such protest as paint-throwing should, I think, be illegal, but given events like the Andijan massacre of many hundreds of peaceful demonstrators, I have huge sympathy for those who undertake civil disobedience in the Uzbek case. It has nothing to do with terrorism, but under the notorious Section 58 of the Terrorism Act there is real danger of conviction and heavy sentences.

These are critical times: all good men and women must fight hard against the closing in of the system upon us.