Sunday, January 1, 2012

The Looking Spoon Blog: 2011 Graphics Roundup





The Looking Spoon Blog


2011 Graphics Roundup

Posted: 31 Dec 2011 06:52 PM PST

These are not necessarily the most popular or artistic posts of 2011 so much as they're the ones that best marked the events of the year... I did my best with chronology, and it's a bit incomplete at the moment. I'll update more later.

You are subscribed to email updates from Blog
To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now.
Email delivery powered by Google
Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610


--
Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups.
For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum
 
* Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/
* It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls.
* Read the latest breaking news, and more.

Mossad Chief: Iranian Nuclear Weapon Would NOT Be Existential Threat


Mossad Chief: Iranian Nuclear Weapon Wouldn't Be Existential Threat
Says Term Being 'Used Too Freely'
by Jason Ditz, December 30, 2011

Speaking at a meeting of top Israeli ambassadors in Jerusalem, Mossad chief Tamir Pardo rejected the notion that Iran, even if they were nuclear armed, constituted an "existential threat," saying the term is being used "too freely."

" If you said a nuclear bomb in Iranian hands was an 'existential' threat, that would mean that we would have to close up shop. That's not the situation," Pardo insisted. The claim that such a situation would be an existential threat has been a common talking point among hawks in both Israel and the US.

Pardo is the latest in a growing line of Israeli intelligence officials who have been making comments unfavorable to the Netanyahu government's pro-war stance. His predecessor, Meir Dagan, had cautioned openly against attacking Iran, warning it would lead to a "regional war." The comments spawned angry condemnations from political leaders.

Of course the entire question of what a threat Iranian nuclear weapons would be is purely hypothetical, as the IAEA continues to confirm the non-diversion of nuclear material to any non-civilian purpose and Iranian leaders have rejected the notion of obtaining such a weapon on religious grounds.

http://news.antiwar.com/2011/12/30/mossad-chief-iranian-nuclear-weapon-wouldnt-be-existential-threat/

Beware of Mitt, say Bay State conservatives


Saturday, Dec 31, 2011 10:47 AM Eastern Standard Time
Beware of Mitt, say Bay State conservatives
The right-wing in Massachusetts has a message for Iowa
By Edward Mason and Tom Mashberg

Mitt Romney's Iowa surge coincides with a new Iowa TV spot in which he touts himself as a genuinely conservative businessman who will shrink and streamline the federal government.

But some Massachusetts tax watchdogs and small government advocates who remember Romney's days in the governor's chair say: Iowa buyer beware. They note that Romney promised leaner government when he sat atop Beacon Hill from 2003 to 2007, only to leave the state largely unchanged. Rather, they say his legacy is thick with tax and fee hikes that should make conservatives do a double-take, a big-government proposal for what amounted to a "revenue czar," and, of course, Romney-care, which bears no small resemblance to President Obama's Afford Healthcare Act.

"Did he make government smaller and simpler – no, it looked very much like what it did four years earlier," said Michael Widmer, president of the nonpartisan Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation. "There was very little reform to show for his four years."

Gubernatorial candidate Romney vowed sweeping changes to the Bay State in 2002 – just as he is doing in 2012 while running against Washington. He inherited a $3 billion budget deficit, a recession and a declining jobs base.

As a candidate, Romney vowed to find $2 billion to $3 billion in waste, fraud, abuse and duplication from state government to close the budget gap. Romney simply cut spending and axed programs. (Widmer noted Romney never found the alleged billions in wastefulness.) And, in the ultimate apostasy for 2012 conservatives, Romney also went hard after corporate loopholes to generate more tax money from businesses.

Equally notable, critics say, is that Romney raised revenues with a host of fee hikes and tax levies. In essence, when you needed it from the state, he jacked up its price.

In all, Romney proposed 88 fee hikes in his first budget – not all of which became law. Fee hikes were proposed on a spectacular array of items that had been free or cheap: hunting licenses, permits to sell used cars, elevator inspection permits, fees to leave your car at a state reservation, fees to deliver petroleum. He even proposed a $15 fee for I.D. cards for the Massachusetts Commission for the Blind – a plan that was rejected.

It was the sort of balanced approach – a combination of spending cuts and revenue enhancements – that's become a non-starter in Republican Washington.
"He balanced budget old fashioned way," Widmer said. "You cut programs and raised revenue."

While some minor agencies were combined to save money, Widmer poo-poohed any notion of serious executive branch restructuring under Romney.

"Reforms were never realistically going to be part of the equation," Widmer said.

Brian Gilmore, executive vice president at Associated Industries of Massachusetts, the state's largest employer trade group, recalled "there was nibbling around the edges …(but) there weren't major changes" ­ such as slashing the ranks of state employees, as was done under former Republican Gov. William Weld in the 1900s?

Indeed, the public sector labor force expanded under Romney's watch. According to the Department of Labor and Workforce Development, the state payroll increased by 3,000 workers, or 2.6 percent, under Romney,

Gilmore's group has a bone to pick with Romney the conservative businessman. While it applauded a number of his stands as good for business, the group found it "unfair" that Romney went after business tax loopholes three times in four years for a total of $375 million annually.

If businesses were outraged by the loophole closings, they were flabbergasted by what many called an "unprecedented" expansion of state power by the GOP governor.

As he cracked down on loopholes, Romney also proposed giving control to the state revenue commissioner to adjust the tax filings of certain corporations who used complicated transactions and out-of-state shelters to avoid paying their fair share of state taxes.

"It was something you might take out of the liberal Democratic playbook," said David Tuerck, director of the conservative Beacon Hill Institute.

Romney eventually withdrew the proposal. But Tuerck warns Iowa conservatives that Romney's signature health care reform – grew rather than whittled away at the size of the state. It forced the creation of a new agency, the HealthCare Connector.

"It becomes a way to make government bigger," said Tureck, an opponent of both the state and national health care laws. "It was naïve of Romney to think you could put a mandate into the system and think expanded coverage wasn't an expansion."

But James Stergios, executive director of the Pioneer Institute, a market-based think tank, said conservative critics are wrong to focus on loophole closings and Romneycare. He saw Romney's reforms up close as chief of staff and undersecretary for policy in state Office of Environmental Affairs.

"The cuts in 2003-2004 were real – there were people marching in the street saying, 'What about my programs,'" Stergios said, recalling emergency budget cuts Romney made to slash spending.

Romney did shrink some agencies, including a pair in Stergios' department ­ merging the patronage haven Boston-based Metropolitan District Commission and state parks offices to form the Department of Conservation and Recreation.

"That says something about his ability to streamline government," Stergios said.

Romney merged other agencies – for instance, he combined the sprawling state colleges and universities and forced out University of Massachusetts President William Bulger, brother of alleged mob boss James "Whitey" Bulger. But he failed to get a Democratic Legislature to go along with plans to consolidate the troubled, costly Massachusetts Turnpike Authority into his highway department. It would take his successor, Democratic Gov. Deval Patrick, to slap together all of the state's transportation agencies into a single cost-saving entity.

The irony for Romney is that in running away from his record in Massachusetts, he is running from the very "balanced approach" to budget deficits ­ closing loopholes, raising revenues and enacting spending cuts ­ that a lot of conservative and middle-of-the-road Americans believe is needed to right the ship in Washington.

Tureck warned Iowa conservatives to steer clear of Romney-style reform.

"He has an aura of being a big government conservative – his willingness to roll back Obama['s health care program] is not as clear as Santorum or Bachmann," Tureck said. "Iowans should think about that when they decide who to vote for."

http://www.salon.com/2011/12/31/beware_of_mitt_say_bay_state_conservatives/

Today’s Presidential Campaign Sounds Like a Horse Race


Today's Presidential Campaign Sounds Like a Horse Race
by Bill Sardi

Today's Presidential campaign sounds more like a horse race.

"The horses are entering the starting gate. Jockeys to watch are top-tier picks Romney, Gingrich and Perry, sporting 6-to-1, 5-to-1 and 4-to-1 odds respectively. But there's a slight delay. Perry's horse, a Texas stallion, is kicking and the stewards are having a difficult time getting him into the gate.
And they're out of the gates and off and running. Cain, riding his horse "Girlfriend" is off to a strong lead, followed by Paul riding "Constitution" and then Bachmann riding "Blind Faith."
Now at the first turn Cain is drifting back into the pack and Rick Perry on his horse "Forgetful" is surging into the lead followed by Paul.
Going into the back stretch it is Gingrich riding "Fannie Mae" who has nudged by a half-length ahead of Paul.
Now coming around the far turn it is Romney and his horse "Millionaire" who is neck-and-neck with Gingrich, followed by Paul and the others are two lengths behind. And now a race-horse fan (Jon Stewart) has suddenly thrown a sign onto the track which asks: "What about Paul riding Constitution?"
But Gingrich's horse begins to fade as his horse looks like it has thrown a shoe. But here comes Santorum riding "Wartime" from the back of the pack.
Now Paul, on a horse everyone said could never win, is clearly leading the pack now by a length and a half as we enter the final stretch. If only the betting window could take late tickets now! And the winner is……."

How we forget that it is the news media's job to create theatre out of elections to capture viewers for advertisers. All the mud that is to be thrown at a candidate is temporarily closeted to build up a candidate and then later bring him/her down. With so many Americans views on each Presidential candidate being shaped by this contrived TV election drama, it's a wonder so many Americans continue to fall for it.

But it works – as soon as the news media creates a script for the masses to repeat, you begin to hear in conversation that, for example, a candidate has a foreign policy that is "isolationist" (immaterial argument since the nation is using borrowed money to implement its current foreign policy of intimidation by military might and bribery masqueraded as foreign aid. The day is fast approaching when America will have to abandon its navy ships overseas and recall its troops in foreign lands.).


The year of the SUPER PACS

This year's Presidential election has a new twist – Super PACS (political action committees). Due to a new Supreme Court ruling that allows PACS to side-step the $2500 per voter limit on election donations, Super PACS are doing all the negative advertising for their candidate and letting the candidate use his/her own funds to air positive ads.

Instead of the trailer at the end of the ad saying "My name is FRANK SMITH and I'm running for President and I am responsible for the content of this message," campaign TV ads now say: "Super Pac Z is responsible for the content of this message."

But what is perplexing for the TV networks is that, overall, TV ads in Iowa, where electioneering for the first Presidential primary is underway, are down drastically. According to an estimate of political ad buys conducted by Campaign Media Analysis Group (CMAG), spending in Iowa is down nearly 85% from last cycle.

In 2008 Barack Obama raised ~$750 million in campaign funds and spent most of it. The TV networks want to get that money. They are not an unbiased party here.

The news media loathes revealing where PACS get their funds. PACS that donated the most to Barack Obama's 2008 campaign were financial and educational institutions (Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, JP Morgan Chase, UBS, Morgan Stanley; University of California, Stanford University, Harvard and Columbia Universities).

If money can buy elections, Mr. Obama could declare victory today. So far his campaign has raised the most money by a wide margin. But this only speaks for special interests controlling elections. Mr. Obama faces declining popularity that is only marginalized by most of his contenders shooting themselves in the foot.

http://lewrockwell.com/sardi/sardi199.html

From Israel: Vote Ron Paul and Let My People Go!

"Not everyone can handle the message of freedom. It's too frightening for some people, and some are just too enslaved. Those are the people that despise Ron Paul, the same types who rebelled against Moses in the desert and attempted to go back to Egypt. Freedom is too much for them and they can't handle the Divine gift. They want and need someone to control them. Their souls have been too battered by slavery, taxation, and wars."

From Israel: Vote Ron Paul and Let My People Go!
by Rafi Farber

Lately I've been having trouble sleeping. I sit here in my living room in Karnei Shomron, Israel, on the 8th night of Chanukah, wondering what other miracles lay in store on January 3rd and in the months ahead. The name Ron Paul is constantly at my fingertips. I've typed it in so many times the past month it's insane. I'm experiencing an excitement I've rarely ever felt, and I don't even live in America anymore. During the last Republican debate I woke myself up at 3am Israel time to watch an 8pm EST live stream on YouTube, with no fatigue whatsoever. I'm on overdrive, and I can't calm myself.

I've only recently figured out what this excitement actually is.

I first got interested in the whole freedom movement when I heard that Ron Paul wanted to end all foreign aid, including to my country, Israel. This seemed like a spectacular idea to me. I hate the idea of taking American tax payer money I don't need. The only reason we take it, by the way, is not because we need it. It's that we don't want to feel alone, and Jews always feel a deep existential isolation and loneliness. "As I see them from the mountain tops, gaze on them from the heights, this is a people that dwells alone, not counted among the Nations," says Balaam of the People of Israel in Numbers 23:9. We still feel that loneliness. So we take the money. It's shameful, it's theft, it's destructive, it's morally wrong, and it makes people hate us for tying them into a conflict they have no business trying to solve. I wanted it to end and didn't trust any Israeli leader to give it up on his own, so I looked up more about Ron Paul.

What I found was fascinating. On the forums, I learned of people who, back in '08, literally gave their lives short of death to this man. Some poured money into his campaign they could not afford to give, and some even lost their marriages because of their single-minded insane dedication. This shocked me. I couldn't yet understand it, but after a few days of listening to him, it began to click.

What is it about Ron Paul that inspires such extremes? Such maddening support on the one hand, and such fear and loathing on the other? I can give the answer in one word: Soul.

The essential soul of a human being is by definition free. The idea that men are free as determined by God is a concept that is foreign to most men. This is because most men want to control others, to take away their freedom. This is usually referred to as the drive for power. The drive for power is antithetical to freedom because power means the ability to control others. There is only one legitimate thing that power can and should be used for, whether it be military, legislative, or executive power. That is, to legalize freedom.

Ron Paul doesn't want to be President to "give" me freedom. He doesn't own my freedom and he didn't give it to me. The only reason Ron Paul wants to be President is to stop punishing people for using their freedom that is rightfully theirs. He wants no power. This is clear to anyone who listens to him speak.

There are two kinds of human beings. Those who want power, and those who want freedom. You can tell which one's which very easily. Those who want freedom are straight-edged. They are consistent, principled, and you can feel their human soul when they speak to you. There's a continuum out there of human souls somewhere in spiritual cyberspace, and when you come into contact with one of these souls, you know immediately, because souls are by definition free. You sense sincerity, realness, consistency, a free human being. If you're a man who seeks freedom and you come into contact with a real human soul, you become instantly addicted and you swallow up anything you can get your hands on. You want to unite immediately, no matter what you disagree on. There are people in the freedom movement that don't exactly like Israel, especially me being a "settler" and I don't care. If they want freedom, I sense it and my human drive for individualism suddenly turns into an intense desire to unite into a collective – but a collective of free individuals. It's a beautiful dialectic, and it doesn't matter what we agree or disagree on, as long as we agree on freedom.

You get hooked on Ron Paul and you desperately seek more and more, any video you can find from the past, any speeches you missed, anything he said that you haven't heard yet, even though you've heard it a thousand times already in different words. You can't help yourself. The voracious hunger to be able to use your God-given freedom takes you over entirely. It's like you suddenly realize you're human and the Divine Image with which God created you comes alive and catches fire.

But something else happens to you. Once you get hooked on Ron Paul, you can no longer bear to listen to a man who wants power, and you become instantly disgusted when they start saying words. Before, they were just boring. Now they're revolting. Listening to Romney or Gingrich or Bush or Obama makes you sick and you don't know how Ron Paul gets through those debates without getting nauseous. You see a political veneer in these politicians that's so transparent it's like a ghost flapping its ethereal tongue at you. You can't bear it.

What's so maddening about hearing Romney or Gingrich talk is that there's someone standing there saying things, but there's no soul in it. These are not free men. These are power men. Not that Romney or Gingrich don't have souls. They do. They are men just like you and I. But they have practically forfeited their souls to try and attain power, to control others with spin and talking points and contradictory statements like "I want to cut the budget and expand the military!" and they'll say it with a polished tone and a straight face, just like a soulless recording. Their humanity is so buried under the mountain of lies they have told themselves, that neither they themselves nor you can even sense their souls in the human continuum. The scene of a human body speaking but no soul communicating can drive a free man mad.

The reason that Ron Paul never goes down in the polls is that he's not "convincing" people in the everyday sense that he's right on whatever issue. He's activating human souls, lighting spiritual fires one by one speaking about freedom. Once a soul gets activated, and the man realizes that he IS free no matter what people do to him or tell him, there is no turning back. The other candidates are trying to turn heads with snappy one-liners that sound cool. Slaves follow these one-liners like mobs, and follow each other from candidate to candidate. Slowly but surely, Ron Paul activates a few of the individual souls in the mob as they bob from snappy comeback to snappy comeback and he goes up in the polls.

Yet, we cannot expect every man woman and child to understand or get excited about the message of liberty. In fact, most just can't handle it. Being truly free is as terrifying as it is electrifying. The Bible tells us this very clearly in the story of the Exodus from Egypt. When Moses finally accepts the role of deliverer from God, he was assigned to say the following to my great-grandparents the Israelites:

"Therefore say to the Israelites: I am God. I will free you from the labors of the Egyptians and deliver you from their bondage. I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with amazing signs. And I will take you to be My people and I will be your God, and you will know that I am the Lord who freed you from the labors of the Egyptians." (Ex. 6:6-7)

And what was my grandparents' response?

"And Moses told this to the people, but they didn't listen due to lack of spirit and cruel bondage." (6:9)

Not everyone can handle the message of freedom. It's too frightening for some people, and some are just too enslaved. Those are the people that despise Ron Paul, the same types who rebelled against Moses in the desert and attempted to go back to Egypt. Freedom is too much for them and they can't handle the Divine gift. They want and need someone to control them. Their souls have been too battered by slavery, taxation, and wars.

But nonetheless, God forced my stiff-necked great grandparents to leave Egypt, and as a result I'm here today, preaching freedom once again, fighting not only for America's freedom, but for my own from America's influence in my own region.

Vote Ron Paul and let my people go once again! Stop meddling here and stop trying to buy influence by giving me money. Stop trying to be the all powerful Peace Maker and let us work out the problems here on our own! If we think Iran is a threat, we can handle it and we'll take the consequences. It's not America's problem and you can't afford another war.

Now I understand why people will give everything to this man. Whenever he's asked the question, "Would you legalize heroin?" Ron Paul answers, "I want to legalize freedom!" Little do these people understand that freedom is a thousand times more addictive than heroin.

American Jews! Wake up! Set your brothers in Israel free! We were the first nation ever to be set free by God, and we brought the concept of liberty to the world when we left Egypt over 3000 years ago. It's about time we set the example we were chosen to set.

http://lewrockwell.com/orig12/farber-r1.1.1.html

PETA wants memorial for cows killed on road

Attached would be a fitting monument to PETA.   Or Obama.

New post on Fellowship of the Minds

PETA wants memorial for cows killed on road

by DCG

MSNBC:  An animal rights group wants Illinois to install highway signs in memory of cattle that died when trucks hauling them flipped in two separate wrecks.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) wants to buy the markers, one in suburban Chicago and one northwest of Peoria. PETA's Dec. 15 request to the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT)  contends the signs would pay tribute to the more than 20 head of cattle killed as a result of negligent driving in Illinois in 2011.

The request likely will be denied, IDOT spokesman Josh Kauffman said. The state's Roadside Memorial Act specifies that only relatives who lost loved ones in highway crashes may request memorials, he said.

PETA campaign coordinator Tracy Patton, of Arlington Heights, who wrote the letter seeking the markers, wants the department to disregard that requirement.  "Because there are no surviving family members for animals in the meat trade, we ask that you waive this requirement of the program and allow concerned Illinois citizens like me to apply in lieu of a relative," she wrote.

In Illinois, relatives of people killed in crashes caused by reckless driving can pay $200 for an official roadside marker if . Fines pay for signs put up in honor of victims of drunken drivers, and numerous roadside markers have been approved since passage of the 2007 act, also called Tina's Law. The legislation honors Tina Ball, a construction worker killed in a work zone on Interstate 57 by a drunken driver in 2003.

Gravely injured by a drunken driver when she was 15, Marti Belluschi of the Alliance Against Intoxicated Motorists worked for years to pass Tina's Law. She said she's an animal lover, but she wishes PETA would pursue other means of raising awareness for their issues.  "These signs are appropriate for fatal crashes where a human being has lost his or her life," said Belluschi, who still carries facial scars and suffers double vision from the crash in her youth.

"Cows are intelligent, sensitive animals who feel pain the same way we do," Byrne said. Livestock transported for slaughter endure extreme weather, hunger and thirst, she said. If they are hurt in an accident, their suffering can be prolonged.

Highway crashes involving livestock can be horrific. Cattle plummeted from an overpass in May when a truck overturned on Interstate 80 near Hazel Crest. The roadside markers envisioned by PETA would memorialize 16 animals killed in that accident and six killed in October on Interstate 74 about 40 miles northwest of Peoria. No humans died in the wrecks.

I bet PETA would like memorial signs in front of all McDonald's, Burger King, Sonic and Wendy's restaurants as well. 

DCG

DCG | January 1, 2012 at 6:07 am | Tags: PETA | Categories: Culture War, Idiots In General | URL: http://wp.me/pKuKY-bxV

Comment    See all comments

Unsubscribe or change your email settings at Manage Subscriptions.

Trouble clicking? Copy and paste this URL into your browser:
http://fellowshipofminds.wordpress.com/2012/01/01/peta-wants-memorial-for-cows-killed-on-road/

Thanks for flying with WordPress.com


--
Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups.
For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum
 
* Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/
* It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls.
* Read the latest breaking news, and more.

Obama's Corruption, Secrecy and Contempt Exposed Dr. Alan Bates







 

Obama's Corruption, Secrecy and Contempt Exposed

by Dr. Alan Bates, MD

 

When Barack Obama was 'elected' as president, he made three promises: 

 

"I promise 100 percent transparency in my administration."
"I will allow five days of public comment before I sign any bills."
"I'll put the health care negotiations on C-SPAN so everyone can see who is at the table."

 

Not one of these promises Obama kept.  The Obama administration has been framed by secrecy, corruption and contempt for the rule of law and the wishes of the huge majority of Americans,  all in the interest of his objective to "transform America" from a nation of liberty and justice to one of socialism and government corruption.  Here is what he has accomplished:

 

*Spent $757 billion in bailout funds to nationalize various industries and give government enormous new financial power and control over the U.S. economy while sacrificing bondholders.  His supporters were rewarded with appointments to positions of influence without Congressional approval and authorized to spend taxpayer money on pet projects which not only did not 'stimulate the economy' but resulted in failed bankrupt companies such as Solyndra and deepening of the nation's deficits. 

 

*Forced Obamacare through Congress with the help of Speakers Pelosi and Reid---over 2000 pages of new government regulations designed to overhaul the best healthcare system in the world into a government-run program of rationing by non-medical administrators---supposedly to solve the single problem of an uninsured minority including illegals.  A neurosurgeon recently returning from DC where his specialty society reviewed the changes under Obamacare notes that Americans older than 70 who suffer strokes will no longer receive lifesaving treatment but merely comfort care.  Is not this government administered euthanasia? 

 

*Sued the states of Arizona and Alabama for passing laws to enforce existing immigration law not enforced by the Obama Administration.  Obama has circumvented the rule of law and also taken unprecedented actions which he claims are 'executive orders' to accomplish amnesty for illegals in order to create an additional layer of uneducated taxpayer-supported serfs who can vote for him in 2012.  For the first time in history, DHS has been ordered by Obama not to enforce immigration laws and to allow sanctuary cities and states in violation of Federal immigration law!  Obama's violation of the rule of law has support from radical leftist allies such La Raza, ACLU and a corrupt Mexican government. 

 

*Nationalized college student loans.

 

*Nationalized the home mortgage industry and indirectly much of our banking system with the help of other corrupt Democrats such as Barney Frank and Chris Dodd.

 

Worse still,  the liberal media look the other way with regards to the secrecy, cover-ups, corruption and the criminal actions of  Obama and his cronies.  Labor unions and corrupt left-wing groups show increasing commitment to his malignant ideology of big government.  Obama's operatives have been able to get away with actual bribery of Democrat candidates in Colorado and Pennsylvania to drop their challenge of Obama-backed candidates. This violates Federal laws in the same way as what Governor Blagojevich of Illinois was just convicted of—but the leftwing press does not seem to care.   It is imperative that American patriots educate those who do not yet see the big picutre so that we can restore a legitimate government answerable to the people and not to corrupt and greedy men with anti-American ideologies who are well on the way to destruction of our economy, our culture and our security.

 

There are a number of well-funded organizations which deserve readers' consideration as they have the ability to address these critical issues ranging from defense of freedom of speech and religion to prosecuting government corruption.  While there are many more,  a few effective organizations are:

 

Judicial Watch at  www.JudicialWatch.org  -exposing and litigating govt corruption

 

Freedom Center at  www.horowitzfreedomcenter.org -educating and mobilizing Americans against those who would take away our freedom and crush our culture.

 

Alliance Defense Fund  www.alliancedefensefund.org - successfully litigating against those who trample our constitutional freedoms.

 

Liberty Counsel    www.libertycounsel.org -educating and litigating to protect freedom of speech, expression and religion along with fighting Obamacare and other corrupt government intrusions into the lives of free people.

 

I encourage you to visit these sites and consider your support at a time when our very survival as a free people and a government which follows the rule of law are imperiled by this Administration and those Leftist outsiders who control its actions. 

 

 

Get the facts.  Watch the latest video clips about the latest issues on Gulf1
 
If you no longer wish to receive these columns from Dr. Alan Bates, please use:
http://www.gulf1.net/remove/remove_bates.html

 

Copyright December 30, 2011 by Gulf1
 



 


--
Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups.
For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum
 
* Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/
* It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls.
* Read the latest breaking news, and more.

An Anti-Idiotarian Manifesto


 


http://www.catb.org/~esr/aim/index.html
 

Why We Fight — An Anti-Idiotarian Manifesto (2.0)

WHEREAS, the period since the terrible events of 9/11 has exposed the vacuity and moral confusion of all too many of the thinkers, politicians, and activists operating within conventional political categories;

WHEREAS, the Left has failed us by succumbing to reflexive anti-Americanism; by apologizing for terrorist acts; by propounding squalid theories of moral equivalence; and by blaming the victims of evil for the act of evil;

WHEREAS, the Right has failed us by pushing `anti-terrorist' measures which bid fair to be both ineffective and prejudicial to the central liberties of a free society; and in some cases by rhetorically descending to almost the same level of bigotry as our enemies;

WHEREAS, even many of the Libertarians from whom we expected more intelligence have retreated into a petulant isolationism, refusing to recognize that, at this time, using the state to carry the war back to the aggressors is our only practical instrument of self-defense;

WE THEREFORE ASSERT the following convictions as the premises of the anti-idiotarian position:

1.     THAT Western civilization is threatened with the specter of mass death perpetrated by nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons placed in the hands of terrorists by rogue states;

2.     THAT the terrorists and their state sponsors have declared and are pursuing a war not against the vices of Western civilization but against its core virtues: against the freedom of thought and speech and conscience, against the life of reason; against the equality of women, against pluralism and tolerance; against, indeed, all the qualities which separate civilized human beings from savagery, slavery, and fanaticism;

3.     THAT no adjustments of American or Western foreign policy, or concessions to the Palestinians, or actions taken against globalization, or efforts to alleviate world poverty, are of more than incidental interest to these terrorists;

4.     THAT, upon their own representation, they will not be dissuaded from their violence by any surrender less extreme than the imposition of Islam and shari'a law on the kaffir West;

5.     THAT, as said terrorists have demonstrated the willingness to use civilian airliners as flying bombs to kill thousands of innocent people, we would commit a vast crime of moral negligence if we underestimated the scope of their future malice even without weapons of mass destruction;

6.     THAT they have sought, and on plausible evidence found, alliance with rogue states such as pre-liberation Iraq, Iran, and North Korea; states that are known to have active programs working towards the development and delivery of weapons of that would multiply the terrorists' ability to commit atrocities by a thousandfold;

WE THEREFORE DECLARE that both the terrorists and their state sponsors have made themselves outlaws from the moral community of mankind, to be dealt with as rabid dogs are.

WE FURTHER AFFIRM that the `root cause' of Islamo-fascist terrorism lies in the animating politico-religious ideas of fundamentalist Islam and not in any signfiicant respect elsewhere, and that a central aim of the war against terror must be to displace and discredit those animating ideas.

WE REJECT, as a self-serving power grab by the least trustworthy elements of our own side, the theory that terrorist depredations can be effectively prevented by further restrictions on the right of free speech, or the right of peaceable assembly, or the right to bear arms in self-defense; and we strenuously oppose police-state measures such as the imposition of national ID cards or airport-level surveillance of public areas;

IN GRAVE KNOWLEDGE that the state of war brings out the worst in both individual human beings and societies, we reject the alternative of ceding to the world's barbarians the exclusive privilege of force;

WE SUPPORT the efforts of the United States of America, its allies, and the West to hunt down and capture or kill individual members of the Islamo-fascist terror network;

WE SUPPORT speedy American and allied military action against the rogue states that support terrorism, both as a means of alleviating the immediate threat and of deterring future state sponsorship of terrorism by the threat of war to the knife.

WE SUPPORT, in recognition of the fact that the military and police cannot and should not be everywhere, efforts to meet the distributed threat with a distributed response; to arm airline pilots, and to recognize as well the ordinary citizen's right and duty to respond to terrorist aggression with effective force.

WE SUPPORT, as an alternative greatly preferable to future nuclear/chemical/biological blackmail of the West, the forcible overthrow of the governments of nations that combine sponsorship of terrorism with the possession of weapons of mass destruction; and the occupation of those nations until such time as the root causes of terrorism have been eradicated from their societies.

WE DEFINE IDIOTARIANISM as the species of delusion within the moral community of mankind that gives aid and comfort to terrorists and tyrants operating outside it.

WE REJECT the idiotarianism of the Left — the moral blindness that refuses to recognize that free markets, individual liberty, and experimental science have made the West a fundamentally better place than any culture in which jihad, `honor killings', and female genital mutilation are daily practices approved by a stultifying religion.

WE REJECT the idiotarianism of the Right — whether it manifests as head-in-the-sand isolationism or as a a Christian-chauvinist political agenda that echoes the religious absolutism of our enemies.

WE ARE MEMBERS OF A CIVILIZATION, and we hold that civilization to be worth defending. We have not sought war, but we will fight it to the end. We will fight for our civilization in our thoughts, in our words, and in our deeds.

WE HAVE AWAKENED; we have seen the face of evil in the acts of the Bin Ladens and Husseins and Arafats of the world; we have seen through the lies and self-delusions of the idiotarians who did so much to enable and excuse their evil. We shall not flinch from our duty to confront that evil.

WE SHALL DEMAND as citizens and voters that those we delegate to lead pursue the war against terror with an unflagging will to victory and all means necessary — while remaining always mindful that we must not become what we fight;

WE SHALL REMEMBER that the West's keenest weapons are reason and the truth; that we must shine a pitiless light on the lies from which terrorist hatred is built; and that we must also be vigilant against the expedient lie from our own side, lest our victories become tainted and hollow, sowing trouble for the future.

WE HAVE FAITH that we are equal to these challenges; we shall not be paralyzed by fear of the enemy, nor yet by fear of ourselves;

WE SHALL SHED the moral cowards and the appeasers and the apologists; and we shall fight the barbarians and fanatics, and we shall defeat them. We shall defeat them in war, crushing their dream of dominion; and we shall defeat them in peace, using our wealth and freedoms to win their women and children to civilized ways, and ultimately wiping their diseased and virulent ideologies from the face of the Earth.

THIS WE SWEAR, on the graves of those who died at the World Trade Center; and those who died in the Sari Club in Bali; and those who died on U.S.S. Cole; and indeed on the graves of all the nameless victims in the Middle East itself who have been slaughtered by terrorism and rogue states:

YOU SHALL NOT HAVE DIED IN VAIN.

Eric S. Raymond    
26 December 2003

 



--
Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups.
For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum
 
* Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/
* It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls.
* Read the latest breaking news, and more.

Obama Celebrates Fictitious Holiday, Urging Black Racial Unity

Kwanzaa = Kwapzaa just as Koran = Korap


New post on Fellowship of the Minds

Obama Celebrates Fictitious Holiday, Urging Black Racial Unity

by Dr. Eowyn

The Obamas Celebrate Black Racial Solidarity in Annual Kwanzaa Message

Posted by on December 30, 2011

Barack and Michelle Obama rushed out a message to mark a phony, racist holiday invented by a Marxist who served years in prison for torturing two women. "We celebrate Kwanzaa," they wrote, "at a time when many African Americans and all Americans reflect on our many blessings" — such as a 15.5 percent black unemployment rate, the highest in 27 years. They acknowledge "many Americans going through enormous challenges ," but they insist "in the spirit of unity, or Umoja, we can overcome those challenges together."

Last year's Kwanzaa message also hailed those who "light the Kinara today in the spirit of umoja, or unity."

Umoja is one of the seven principles of Kwanzaa. However, it does not simply mean "unity." Umoja is a racial unity of all black people — in a struggle against others. In his 1988 book The African American Holiday of Kwanzaa: A Celebration of Family Community and Culture, Kwanzaa inventor Maulena Karenga (born Ron Everett) wrote that umoja "means a oneness, a similarity and sameness that gives us an identity as a people, an African people. And inherent in the identity as a people is the ethical and political imperative to self-consciously unite in order to define, defend and develop our interests." (Emphasis added.)

The Obamas' 2010 message specifically mentioned "the seven principles of Kwanzaa — unity, self determination, collective work and responsibility, cooperative economics, purpose, creativity, and faith." Columnist Kathy Shaidle pointed out, "Ujamaa, or 'cooperative economics'—one of the seven principles of Kwanzaa—is the term the socialist leader of Tanzania, Julius Nyerere, used for his disastrous policy of putting tens of thousands of Tanzanians on collective farms." (Emphasis in original.)

Last year, Barry and Michelle deemed these "the very values that make us Americans."

Although Obama issued no proclamation for Easter this year, the first family made time to celebrate racially aggrieved deception. Kwanzaa was created — invented — by Ron Everett, who later dubbed himself Maulana Karenga (which means "master-teacher of nationalism" in Swahili). He founded The Organization US ("United Slaves"). His followers murdered two Black Panthers in 1969. Everett was convicted of the May 1970 torture of two women in his home, and served only a portion of his sentence — some claim because he became an informant for the FBI.

Such is the founder of Obama's beloved holiday. Everett/Karenga told The Washington Post, "People think it's African. But it's not…I said it was African because you know black people in this country wouldn't celebrate it if they knew it was American."

In essence, Everett admitted his holiday was a racist fraud. No wonder it so enthralls our president.

– from Ben Johnson, The White House Watch.

H/t our beloved Miss May.

~Eowyn

Comment    See all comments

Unsubscribe or change your email settings at Manage Subscriptions.

Trouble clicking? Copy and paste this URL into your browser:
http://fellowshipofminds.wordpress.com/2012/01/01/obama-celebrates-fictitious-holiday-urging-black-racial-unity/

Thanks for flying with WordPress.com


--
Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups.
For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum
 
* Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/
* It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls.
* Read the latest breaking news, and more.

Re: Iowa’s Choice: Dr. Paul or U.S. bankruptcy , more wars, and many more dead soldiers and Marines

predator drones, cluster bombs, foreign and military aids to dictators (billions to Egypt), threats

On Sun, Jan 1, 2012 at 10:30 AM, Keith In Tampa <keithintampa@gmail.com> wrote:
I'm curious.....What and how are we intervening in "The Muslim World"?  By supporting Israel?   Is "Mike"  suggesting that we not support Israel?
 
Paul also takes it a step further, by blaming the 9/11 attacks on America directly.  This is the analogy to Jeremiah Wright, and Charles Lane is correct.

On Sun, Jan 1, 2012 at 8:49 AM, Bruce Majors <majors.bruce@gmail.com> wrote:


Iowa's Choice: Dr. Paul or U.S. bankruptcy, more wars, and many more dead soldiers and Marines
By mike | Published: December 31, 2011

Two recent experiences underlined for me what Iowans will vote for next week in the field of foreign policy if they do not vote for Dr. Ron Paul. On Christmas day, I heard Chris Wallace's program on FOX. He had a guest ­ Mr. Charles Lane ­ who made the false and scurrilous claim that Dr. Paul's foreign policy was the same as that of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright's America-hating policy, a doctrine that appealed to Barack Obama for more than twenty years and which the president and his party are now implementing. Following this imbecilic assertion of Mr. Lane to its logical conclusion, U.S. soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines also must be ardent devotees of Rev Wright's anti-Americanism as they donate many times more money to Dr. Paul than to all the other Republican candidates combined.

Then on 26 December, I visited Mount Vernon's new and extraordinary multi-media museum documenting the life of George Washington. At the end of the exhibition there is video of U.S. Senators reading Washington's Farewell Address into the record, something they appear to do every year. When I arrived in front of the video Senator John McCain was reading Washington's clear warnings about the dangers of foreign intervention and the fatal impact of mindlessly favoring one country over another. To hear this from McCain's interventionist, war-mongering, and Israel-is-always-right mouth was sound evidence of his hypocrisy and deceitfulness, as well as his and his senatorial colleagues' ignorance of Washington's ideas and U.S. history generally.

Based on these two experiences, let us look at what Iowans not voting for Ron Paul will help to inflict on an America already terribly wounded by the Republican and Democratic interventionism in the Muslim world.

1.) A foreign policy that will complete U.S. bankruptcy. While there is a lot of talk about cutting domestic spending to bring the federal debt under control, it is obvious that neither party is willing to make substantial cuts in that area. Indeed, both are counting on drastic cuts in defense spending to help reduce the federal debt. While they may agree on and even make defense-spending cuts, any such reductions will be short-lived and then restored to much more than current levels. Obama and any Republican save Dr. Paul will continue to intervene in the Muslim world and so will motivate more Muslims to fight us. A third-grader could tell you that you cannot cut defense spending when Washington's unrelenting interventionism is cultivating new enemies who are intent on attacking U.S. citizens and interests. If you are being attacked, our third grader would patiently explain, you have to spend whatever it takes to defend yourself. And there is no doubt that we and our vital interests are going to keep being attacked by Islamists as long as we continue to intervene in their world.

2.) Obama's return or the election of any Republican but Dr. Paul means the continuation of the State Department's not-so-secret computer/Facebook/Twitter proselytizing campaign to incite people to overthrow their governments in places like Iran, Russia, Tunisia, Syria, Egypt, Libya, Yemen, and elsewhere. [NB: Three offices of Mrs. Clinton's elitist democracy/feminism crusade in Cairo were raided and shut by Egyptian authorities on 28 December 2011 for intervening in Egypt's domestic affairs.] This mindless promotion of anarchy alienates the governments targeted and will motivate them to harm the United States in some manner. Of no concern to Obama, Mrs. Clinton, and Senators McCain and Graham, of course, are the thousands of young and naive people who will die at the hands of the regimes they are instigated to overthrow by the democracy-pushing federal bureaucrats and their elitist political masters, all of whom are safe and secure here in North America. Dr. Paul's non-interventionist policy will allow foreigners to work out their political destiny in their own way and at their own pace; prevent unnecessary additions to America's growing list of enemies; and save countless young lives.

3.) All the Republican contenders and the Obama administration are whole-hearted believers that the Arab Spring will bring the installation of secular democracy across that region. This has been and still is a nonsense that only adolescent idealists ­ or deliberate liars ­ could believe, and one that has been proven fatuous by the fact that Islamists have won every election held since the start of the Arab Spring. Neither the Obamaites nor the Republicans will admit they are wrong on this issue and they will pump billions of dollars in foreign aid into the Arab-Spring countries in a feckless, Muslim-alienating effort to build secular democracies and install the crazed feminism of Mrs. Clinton. Such aid not only will be wasted, but it surely will cause more Muslims take up arms against America. Indeed, the continuation of this bipartisan cultural/feminist war on Islam is likely to start the clash of civilizations Professor Huntington predicted.

4.) Electing anyone but Ron Paul will further increase the already strong chances of widespread Islamist-conducted violence inside the United States. Any other Republican candidate or a reelected Obama will keep lying to Americans by claiming that we are being attacked because of our liberties, gender-equality laws, and elections rather than because of Washington's constant intervention in the Islamic world. This now two-decade-old lie ­ which is abetted by most of the media ­ has hidden from Americans the fact that all of the would-be Islamist attackers who have been captured in this country were motivated by the invasion of Iraq, U.S. support for Israel, or some other U.S. government action in the Muslim world. As Dr. Paul has explained, our Islamist enemies are motivated by Washington's bipartisan foreign policy, and as long as that foreign policy does not change the number of young, U.S.-citizen Muslim males willing to attack their fellow citizens will keep increasing. For those who doubt this reality, a quick look at the recently adopted Defense Appropriations Act will clear their eyes. That Act's authorization for the U.S. military to detain U.S. citizens in the United States is clear evidence that the leaders of both parties know that their foreign policy is going to bring war to America's streets and towns and that the U.S. military will be called on to fight Islamists militants here at home.

5.) Obama and any Republican candidate, except for Dr. Paul, will slavishly obey the U.S.-citizen-dominated, pro-Israel lobby that bribes and suborns them by getting into a war with Iran. Indeed, Washington, Tel Aviv, and London are already conducting a lethal, covert-action war inside Iran which is killing Iranian nuclear scientists and destroying nuclear-related facilities, as well as trying to goad Tehran into reacting with violence and thereby give the West a casus belli. Such a war would be a financial and military disaster for the United States, and would be watched with glee by Russian and Chinese leaders who ­ while their countries would lose some trade with Iran during a war ­ would applaud another U.S. self-inflicted would that further erodes the already failing economy that is the base of American power. Moreover, if U.S. political leaders would not permit the U.S. military to defeat Afghan and Iraqi mujahedin armed with Korean War-vintage weapons, they surely will not allow the military to defeat a much better armed nation-state like Iran. Thus we would have yet another politically imposed defeat for the U.S. military. More painful for Americans will be the Iran-sponsored attacks that will occur in the United States if Washington and/or Israel launch a first strike on Iran. The only serious threat Iran poses to the United States is the result of more than 35 years of near-criminal bipartisan negligence by the U.S. executive and legislative branches in the fields of border control and domestic security. Both Iran's military and intelligence services and their Lebanese Hizballah surrogate have created clandestine entry points along our southern border, as well as a large clandestine infrastructure in the continental United States, one which works with similar networks in Canada, Mexico, and the Caribbean. Iran is too smart and fearful of U.S. military power to use this apparatus to strike first in North America, but the network clearly is meant to allow Tehran to respond violently here if Iran is attacked by America and/or Israel.

6.) While all of the Republican candidates and Obama talk about their plans to make America energy self-sufficient to the greatest extent possible, there is no reason to believe any of them. In the past 40 years, the two parties have made virtually no progress toward this goal, unless you count moving up Daylight Savings Time by three weeks as a major gain. Both parties have taken the easy and profitable route: dependence on oil-rich Arab tyrants, a policy that mandates that the U.S. military spends billions each year to defend the Arab Peninsula's fundamentally anti-U.S. police states. Only Dr. Paul could be counted on to allow the unfettered development of all domestic energy resources to promote energy self-sufficiency and allow the gradual abandonment of our mujahedin- motivating exploitation of Muslim oil. But even Dr. Paul cannot prevent the United States from fighting an oil war that the Republicans and Democrats have fixed on the national agenda, one that America will wage in the Niger Delta region ­ from which we will soon get 20-25 percent of our crude ­ because of the Islamist insurgency that is gathering steam in Nigeria and threatening the oil-rich Delta region's stability.

Notwithstanding the damnable lies about Dr. Paul's foreign policy constantly proclaimed by his fellow Republican candidates, leading pro-Israel/pro-intervention U.S.-citizens and their journalist friends, and most of the media, only the gentleman from Texas speaks for the Founder's non-interventionist vision of America's role in world affairs and for plain common sense. In the Founders' non-interventionist design for U.S. foreign policy that is championed by Dr. Paul, Iowans will find a proven road to the maintenance of America's sovereignty, independence, peace, and prosperity. In the realm of common sense, Dr. Paul beats his fellow candidates, the Obamaites, and the media hands down. Dr. Paul challenges the interventionists in both parties on their plans for spreading secular democracy ­ and causing wars thereby ­ on historical grounds that are irrefutable because they are just good commonsense. We, the British, the Australians, and the Canadians have been building our republics/democracies since Magna Charta in 1215 ­ that is for nearly 800 years ­ and we are not yet quite perfect. If Iowans and all Americans truly think about what Dr. Paul is saying ­ and not what the interventionists say he is saying ­ they would respond favorably to the Texan's logical conclusion that what we have not fully accomplished in eight centuries cannot possibly be attained in Egypt, Afghanistan, or elsewhere in the Muslim world in 6 weeks, 6 months, or six years, not least because none of those places separate church from state. Dr. Paul's precise use of history and commonsense exposes the exorbitantly costly effort to build democracies in the Islamic world for what it is; namely, Washington throwing money down the drain for a cause that is impossibly lost from the start and one that will involve us in wars where we have no interests.

In the words of Dr. Paul's Republican opponents, the Obamaites, and most of the media, on the other hand, Iowans ought to easily be able to hear the elitist, racist, and war-causing Wilsonian doctrine of intervening abroad to impose democracy and secular social beliefs on foreigners at the point of bayonets. Indeed, the national-security policy advocated by Dr. Paul's opponents and critics boils down to the clear and absurd argument that: America needs more and more wars ­ and the dead/maimed military personnel attendant thereto ­ that are motivated by Washington's intervention abroad if Americans are to be safe and secure at home.

For Iowans and Americans as a whole, then, the best choice for their children, grandchildren, and country clearly lies in the Founder's foreign-policy wisdom and Dr. Paul's sturdy advocacy and promised application thereof.

http://non-intervention.com/1018/iowa%E2%80%99s-choice-dr-paul-or-u-s-bankruptcy-more-wars-and-many-more-dead-soldiers-and-marines/

--
Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups.
For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum
 
* Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/
* It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls.
* Read the latest breaking news, and more.

--
Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups.
For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum
 
* Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/
* It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls.
* Read the latest breaking news, and more.

--
Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups.
For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum
 
* Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/
* It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls.
* Read the latest breaking news, and more.

--
Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups.
For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum
 
* Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/
* It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls.
* Read the latest breaking news, and more.