Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Has Romney Been Reading Bastiat?

Has Romney Been Reading Bastiat?
by Wilton Alston on September 18, 2012 @ 12:43 pm

"Government is the great fiction, through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else." ~ Frederic Bastiat

No. Not even.

When Romney said "there are 47 percent who are with him [POTUS], who are dependent on government, who believe that, that they are victims, who believe that government has the responsibility to care for them" he was roughly half right. Very. Roughly. What he left out is that the "other" 47 percent, those that are with him [Romney] are after the same thing. Admittedly, the number of people who are unrepentant tax feeders, to use Will Grigg's apt description, is likely (hopefully?) lower than 94 percent. The naive, hopeful dreamer in me would peg it at probably closer to 65-75 percent. Whatever the exact number is, the simple fact of the matter is that politics–particularly in the U.S., but abroad as well–is dominated by sociopaths with megalomaniacal tendencies who are often attended to and served by sycophants with dependency issues.

Me and the other 25-35 percent just wish they'd all leave us the hell alone.

http://libertarianstandard.com/2012/09/18/has-romney-been-reading-bastiat/

Thanks Bush and Obama!

Economic Blinders

Economic Blinders
By Peter G. Klein
Tuesday, September 18th, 2012

Paul Krugman isn't the only Princeton economist producing sloppy and ill-informed newspaper columns. Alan Blinder weighs in with a September 6 Wall Street Journal column on the "stark" [sic] differences between the economic programs of Obama and Romney-Ryan. Blinder starts out well enough:

The Rooseveltian consensus embodied three main elements: a modest social safety net to protect vulnerable Americans from some of the downsides of unfettered markets, Keynesian-style policies to shorten recessions, and a progressive tax-transfer system to mitigate income inequality (albeit only slightly).

The two political parties certainly had their differences between the 1930s and the 2000s, but the broad consensus often had bipartisan support. Thus Eisenhower built public infrastructure; Nixon declared himself a Keynesian and established the Environmental Protection Agency; both Reagan and Bush II acted like Keynesians; Bush I promised a "kinder, gentler nation" and Bush II expanded Medicareunfortunately, without a way to pay for it.

One can quibble with his characterization of the modern welfare state as a "modest social safety net," and sensible people understand that Keynesian-style policies create and prolong, not shorten, recessions. But it's true that all establishment political figures since the 1930s, Democrat or Republican, embrace FDR and Keynes. Unfortunately, Blinder then goes off the rails: "But with Messrs. Romney and Ryan, it's out with Franklin Roosevelt and in with Ayn Rand."

This attempted bon mot illustrates the vapidity of American political and economic discourse. Paul Ryan says a few nice things about Ayn Rand, F. A. Hayek, and even Mises, and this makes him a devotee of "unfettered markets"! Blinder offers few specifics to illustrate Romney and Ryan's deviations from the Rooseveltian consensus. He mentions the Ryan budget that radical document proposing to slash federal spending from 22% of GDP to 20% of GDP, some $5 trillion of annual largesse, by 2040, which is practically tomorrow! A veritable John Galt, that Paul Ryan. And Blinder reminds us that Romney and Ryan have pledged to repeal Dodd-Frank, without which we would have a completely unfettered, unregulated, free-market banking sector. Get ready for dog-eat-dog! The list goes on -- Romney and Ryan want the government to provide medicare vouchers, rather than pay medicare bills directly, which certainly sounds like a total free market in medicine to me.

Blinder ends on this unfortunate note: "President Obama stands with President Eisenhower's emphasis on building infrastructure, with President Reagan's willingness to raise taxes to reduce the deficit, and with President George H.W. Bush's call for a kinder, gentler economic policy. Mitt Romney stands with Barry Goldwater and Herbert Hoover." As Murray Rothbard famously pointed out (1, 2), and most serious historians now acknowledge, Hoover was Roosevelt before Roosevelt was cool. So indeed, Romney stands with Hoover -- as does Obama -- but not in the sense that Blinder means it.

http://bastiat.mises.org/

Re: The Perpetual Warmonger

Hey Plain Ol? Netanyahu is an Israeli......How could he be imprisoned
in
the U.S. for some type of traitorous act?
----
Netanyahu has lived both in Israel and the U.S.: first grade in
Israel; second and third in the U.S.; fourth through eighth in
Jerusalem; high school in suburban Philadelphia; military service in
Israel; B.A. and M.A. at MIT. He held dual citizenship, which enabled
him to travel freely between both countries, study in the U.S.,
receive federal loans to cover his education costs at MIT and work
legally. Like every U.S. citizen, Netanyahu has a social security
number, a credit account, and numerous other files in a variety of
government offices.
According to Israeli law, a person who runs for the Knesset (the
Israeli parliament) cannot hold dual citizenship. Netanyahu claims
that in 1982 he gave up his U.S. citizenship, yet he is unwilling to
grant the press access to his file located in the U.S. Embassy in Tel-
Aviv—the file which holds information regarding his citizenship.
Interestingly, the status of his files in the U.S. has not changed, so
according to U.S. law Netanyahu remains a U.S. citizen.

The allegations contained within the link about the FBI de-classifying
some
1985 intelligence regarding Bebe's involvement in attempting to
smubble
nuclear triggers is old news.....I remember, back in 1985 when the
allegations were revealed publicly. It was quickly downplayed in the
media
at the time.
---
some don't forget

On Sep 18, 11:05 am, Keith In Tampa <keithinta...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hey Plain Ol? Netanyahu is an Israeli......How could he be imprisoned in
> the U.S. for some type of traitorous act?
>
> Interesting article.......I have said, for at least twenty-something
> years, (maybe 30?) that BeBe Netanhayu is one, dangerous individual; and
> now, this is "Da Bebe's" third or fourth stint at PM of Israel?
>
> The allegations contained within the link about the FBI de-classifying some
> 1985 intelligence regarding Bebe's involvement in attempting to smubble
> nuclear triggers is old news.....I remember, back in 1985 when the
> allegations were revealed publicly. It was quickly downplayed in the media
> at the time.
>
> Nevertheless, the allegations by Juan Cole that Rumsfeld back in 1998 said
> that Iran could have ICBM's by 2003 is a little bit misleading; but
> nevertheless Rumsfeld was pretty close to being right on the money:
>
> http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/fedagencies/july-dec98/missile_7-15.html
>
> http://iranprimer.usip.org/resource/irans-ballistic-missile-program
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On Tue, Sep 18, 2012 at 2:59 PM, MJ <micha...@america.net> wrote:
>
> > *The Perpetual Warmonger
> > *Posted by LHR, Jr. on September 17, 2012 02:47 PM
>
> > In 1992, as in 2012, Netanyahu<http://www.juancole.com/2012/09/netanyahu-in-1992-iran-close-to-havin...>was claiming that Iran was close to having a nuclear bomb, and so the US
> > should commit mass murder against the Persians. (Thanks to Travis Holte)
>
> > xxx
>
> > *Netanyahu in 1992: Iran close to having nuclear bomb
> > *Posted on 09/16/2012 by Juan
>
> > Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is trapped in reflection theory.
> > He was allegedly himself involved in illegally smuggling nuclear triggers
> > out of the US, and he assumes that Iran desperately wants a nuclear weapon
> > as well.
> > <http://original.antiwar.com/smith-grant/2012/07/03/netanyahu-worked-i...>But
> > Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has given a fatwa against nukes, and there is no
> > solid intelligence pointing to an Iranian weapons program. Iran can't be
> > close to having a weapon if it doesn't have a weapons program.
>
> > He has no credibility left on such warnings.
>
> > Reprint edn.:
>
> > Scott Peterson at the Christian Science Monitor<http://www.csmonitor.com/layout/set/print/content/view/print/422252>did a useful timeline for dire Israeli and US predictions of an imminent
> > Iranian nuclear weapon, beginning 20 years ago.
>
> > 1992: Israeli member of parliament Binyamin Netanyahu predicts that Iran
> > was "3 to 5 years" from having a nuclear weapon.
>
> > 1992: Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres predicts an Iranian nuclear
> > warhead by 1999 to French TV.
>
> > 1995: The New York Times quotes US and Israeli officials saying that Iran
> > would have the bomb by 2000.
>
> > 1998: Donald Rumsfeld tells Congress that Iran could have an
> > intercontinental ballistic missile that could hit the US by 2003.
>
> >http://www.juancole.com/2012/09/netanyahu-in-1992-iran-close-to-havin...
>
> > --
> > Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups.
> > For options & help seehttp://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum
>
> > * Visit our other community athttp://www.PoliticalForum.com/
> > * It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls.
> > * Read the latest breaking news, and more.

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The Truth Behind the Romney “Gaffe”

"Is what both Romney and Obama are doing a corruption of the idea of the political party? Ludwig von Mises, whose book Liberalism explains everything you need to know about democracy, says that this is precisely why political parties were founded. "All modern political parties and all modern party ideologies originated as a reaction on the part of special group interests fighting for a privileged status against [classical] liberalism."
"The best statement on this was framed by Frederic Bastiat: "The state is the great fictitious entity by which everyone seeks to live at the expense of everyone else." "

The Truth Behind the Romney "Gaffe"
Jeffrey Tucker · September 18, 2012

Cover the kids' ears! Hide their eyes! Shuffle the weak and frail from the room! A politician running for president has uttered a heresy that brings into question the holy grail of democratic politics. Romney has failed to pretend as if the country is one big happy family that uses our glorious voting system to discover ever better ways of governing ourselves.

Which is to say that Romney made a gaffe.

You know the definition of a political gaffe: inadvertent and unscripted truth. That's what the supposed scandal of Romney's off-the-cuff comments amounts to. He told potential donors an unvarnished truth that everyone knows but which is not part of the official civic creed of the land of the free:

"There are 47% of the people who will vote for the president, no matter what… All right, there are 47% who are with him, who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it. That that's an entitlement. And the government should give it to them. And they will vote for this president no matter what…These are people who pay no income tax."

The implied model here is that modern democracy is a system that enables mass confiscation of wealth by some from others. And who can doubt it? In older monarchical systems, only a tiny elite was privileged to steal from everyone else, and if they stole too much, people would get angry and overthrow them.

Democracy solved the problem by granting everyone the privilege once reserved to elites. Now we can all steal from each other, and even from ourselves. This way, it is no longer clear who the enemy is. We don't know whom to blame when things get bad. There is no one to overthrow but ourselves.

And things are indeed getting bad. As income falls, the household budget is ever more squeezed, we are living ever longer, and the boomers retire, government benefits are soaring on autopilot.

Indeed, the 47% figure might be low. Other estimates put it closer to half. And it is rising. A smaller percentage of household income comes from wages than ever before. Food stamps, Medicaid, unemployment benefits, disability benefits, Social Security… this stuff adds up and amounts to dependency.

He also helpfully noted that 47% do not pay income taxes. That doesn't mean that they don't pay tax. They are actually heavily taxed at the payroll level a tax that pays into the very benefits that have made them dependent, a tax that has been more heavily raised under Republicans than Democrats. Everyone is taxed for every dollar earned and on the sale of nearly everything. But of course, neither party wants to talk about those taxes.

Also presumed in Romney's talk: People vote their economic interest. Again, experience bears this out. If household economics don't stack up, nothing else works. Politicians have limited time and money and need to get the biggest bang for their buck.

No, this is not writing off half the country, as the partisan pundits are saying. It is the mapping out of an electoral strategy based on the "median voter theorem." This is the idea that elections are won not by the partisans or extremes on either side, but by the people in the middle. This is the business of politics. It is about finding and appealing to the interests of the median voter.

Shocking? If so, you have never bumped into a campaign consultant at a cocktail party. This is how they all talk and think. Indeed, this is how politics has worked for, oh, 200 or so years, and ever more so since the expansion of the franchise.

In the video, Romney goes on to say that his job is to appeal to the independent 5% who will turn the election in his direction. Notice that this outlook also "writes off" all the people that he already knows will vote for him. He is also giving himself a license to put their interests on the shelf as well, at least in rhetoric.

For this reason, anyone who dedicates himself or herself to getting Romney elected, as a means of protecting personal wealth from confiscation, will be sorely disappointed. Republicans as much as Democrats find ways to take what is yours.

And by the way, Obama thinks the same way. Obama will never convince voters who are already dedicated to Romney, and every single Obama adviser knows this. This is a fight for the remaining 5%. And what's more, politics is business in another form. It is about giving and getting. Political parties represent interests, not ideas.

But oh, how precious is American political culture! We must not hear these things. We must never be permitted to hear what is true. Instead we have a Victorian sensibility about our civic religion. We sing the national anthem, say the pledge and reflect on 19th-century mythologies about our revered Founders, because, after all, we have the greatest system of government ever conceived, one so wonderful that it should be exported and imposed all over the world.

Or so we tell our youngsters. As adults, we should know the truth. Politics is a means of wealth redistribution. Electoral strategy is a race to the bottom. After all, it is emphatically not the case the Romney's chosen constituents are free of dependency. Note that he is ramping up his imperial warmonger talk in recent days.

Every day, there is a new enemy that he accuses Obama of not slaying. And it's not only about the military. It is about our trading partners. He has blasted the Obama administration for being soft on China.

What's this about? It's about reassuring his supportive pressure groups that he supports their interests. He will protect the American corporate class against foreign enemies who attempt to bypass the corporate oligarchs by selling cheap stuff to you and me. No, he won't let that happen. And it is about reassuring the military-industrial complex that its subsidies will continue.

In fact, Romney represents a different class of dependents. Large banks. Financial institutions on the dole. Monied elite who live off cheap credit and infinite liquidity courtesy of the central bank.

Either way, the rest of us get looted. The election is about who controls that margin of loot that remains after the autopilot spending administered by the permanent class of bureaucrats is finished doling out its entitlements left and right.

In a way, I feel sorry for the bourgeoisie gathered in that small room to hear his talk. He wanted their money -- a payment in exchange for his promise to protect their wealth from the grasping hoards. But he still wanted their money. Whether he will actually do this is another matter. And why should they have to pay at all?

There once was this idea called freedom. You keep what you earn. You don't live off others. You mind your own business. Society works out its own problems without politicians, police, bureaucrats, and power elites running lives.

Is what both Romney and Obama are doing a corruption of the idea of the political party? Ludwig von Mises, whose book Liberalism (a Laissez Faire Club selection) explains everything you need to know about democracy, says that this is precisely why political parties were founded. "All modern political parties and all modern party ideologies originated as a reaction on the part of special group interests fighting for a privileged status against liberalism."

The best statement on this was framed by Frederic Bastiat: "The state is the great fictitious entity by which everyone seeks to live at the expense of everyone else." His book The Law is part of the Laissez Faire Club's "Economics in One Library" that comes free to every Club member. The point of law is precisely to prevent the mutual looting that goes by the name "democracy." But once property rights are no longer secure, political elites can plunder with impunity.

In fact, as I think about the next month and a half of grueling election posturing, I can't imagine doing without this book. It not only foresaw this moment, but fully explains it, and further shows how no truly independent-minded person can depend on any political machine to protect his or her interests.

To keep our liberty and property from their clutches is our job.

http://lfb.org/today/the-truth-behind-the-romney-gaffe/

Intervention Backfires in Libya

Intervention Backfires in Libya
by Rep. Ron Paul, September 18, 2012

The attack on the U.S. consulate in Libya and the killing of the U.S. ambassador and several aides is another tragic example of how our interventionist foreign policy undermines our national security. The more the U.S. tries to control the rest of the world, whether by democracy promotion, aid to foreign governments, or bombs, the more events spin out of control into chaos, unintended consequences, and blowback.

Unfortunately, what we saw in Libya last week is nothing new.

In 1980s Afghanistan, the U.S. supported Islamic radicals in their efforts to expel the invading Soviet military. These radicals became what came to be known as al-Qaeda, and our one-times allies turned on us most spectacularly on Sept. 11, 2001.

Iraq did not have a significant al-Qaeda presence before the 2003 U.S. invasion, but our occupation of that country and attempt to remake it in our image caused a massive reaction that opened the door to al-Qaeda, leading to thousands of U.S. soldiers dead, a country destroyed, and instability that shows no sign of diminishing.

In Libya we worked with, among others, the rebel Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG), which included foreign elements of al-Qaeda. It has been pointed out that the al-Qaeda-affiliated radicals we fought in Iraq were some of the same groups we worked with to overthrow Gadhafi in Libya. Last year, in a television interview, I predicted that the result of NATO's bombing of Libya would likely be an increased al-Qaeda presence in the country. I said at the time that we may be delivering al-Qaeda another prize.

Not long after NATO overthrew Gadhafi, the al-Qaeda flag was flown over the courthouse in Benghazi. Should we be surprised, then, that less than a year later there would be an attack on our consulate in Benghazi? We have been told for at least the past 11 years that these people are the enemy who seeks to do us harm.

There is danger in the belief we can remake the world by bribing some countries and bombing others. But that is precisely what the interventionists be they liberal or conservative seem to believe. When the world does not conform to their image, they seem genuinely shocked. The secretary of state's reaction to the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi was one of confusion. "How could this happen in a country we helped liberate, in a city we helped save from destruction?" she asked.

The problem is that we do not know and we cannot know enough about these societies we are seeking to remake. We never try to see through the eyes of those we seek to liberate. Libya is in utter chaos, the infrastructure has been bombed to rubble, the economy has ceased to exist, gangs and militias rule by brutal force, and the government is seen as a completely illegitimate and powerless U.S. puppet. How could anyone be shocked that the Libyans do not see our bombing their country as saving it from destruction?

Currently, the U.S. is actively supporting rebels in Syria that even our CIA tells us are affiliated with al-Qaeda. Many of these radical Islamist fighters in Syria were not long ago fighting in Libya. We must learn from these mistakes and immediately cease all support for the Syrian rebels, lest history once again repeat itself. We are literally backing the same people in Syria that we are fighting in Afghanistan and that have just killed our ambassador in Libya! We must finally abandon the interventionist impulse before it is too late.

http://original.antiwar.com/paul/2012/09/17/intervention-backfires-in-libya/

JP 7 Destructive Sins and The best object of benefit-Pious Woman

http://muslimislambooks.blogspot.com

1) Seven Destructive Sins

2) The Best object of Benefit of the world is the pious woman (Muslim 8/3465)

Obama funding mosques worldwide with U.S. dollars

We send $1.5 billion to Egypt who is led by our enemies, and embark on an on-going program of spending our tax dollars for refurbishing Mosques in the middle east...while our economy is in shambles Hmmm.

Has our president helped protect Christian churches in the middle east which are being routinely destroyed by Islamists? No. Have synagogues been refurbished and protected in the middles east? No. They've been shut down.

But let's elect him because he's a Democrat...

Investigation Finds Obama Financing Mosques Worldwide With U.S. Taxpayer Dollars « Pat Dollard

US Taxpayer Millions for Offshore Mosques as Obama Demands Higher Taxes - YouTube

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Muslim cleric Abu Islam Burns the Holy Bible in front of thousands of Muslims at protest outside the US Embassy in Cairo

Muslim cleric Abu Islam Burns the Holy Bible

By Dan Wooding Published: 16th September 2012

Abu Islam tore and burned the Holy Bible in front of thousands of Muslims.

Muslim cleric Abu Islam Burns the Holy Bible in front of thousands of Muslims at protest outside the US Embassy in Cairo, Egypt, on Tuesday, 9/11. His action was met with applause and anti-Christian cheers from the demonstrators.

According to Mary Abdelmassih in a story carried by the Assyrian International News Agency (www.aina.org), the cleric, before leaving the demonstration and getting into his car, told the crowds "next time I will urinate on it."

The video — http://vladtepesblog.com/?p=52886 — shows the Muslim cleric tearing the Bible and says:

* 0.02 "the overwhelming Book, the Book of Truth and Peace. The place for these words and this book is over the heads because it is the real inspiration… (He places the Koran on his head) voices chanting Allahu Akbar.
* 0.30 He Says: message to the Egyptian Christians. Out of respect and politeness to the Egyptian Christians we will not do the same like what they did to our God's book, we will be generous towards you today and say we will respect you "momentarily." We will respect this book which is in the Arabic language.
* 0:54 Demonstrators' chants "Coming, Coming O Islam"
* 1.09 Abu Islam holds another Bible and says: This is the book the dog Terry believes in, as well as those dogs with him the Egyptian Christians in America.
* 1.19 Abu Islam: Today I can only TEAR IT APART. He starts tearing the bible and throwing the leaves towards the mob, amid chants of Allahu Akbar and "Khaybar, Khaybar, O Jews, the army of Mohammad is coming."
* 2.06 Abu Islam saying: to all the cross worshippers around the world we will not keep quiet . Today, we tore it.
* 2.13 a man in blue beside him burns the bible raising it for everyone to see.
* Abu Islam: Salamu Aleycom (Peace be with you) and leaves, with mob chanting "Khaybar, Khaybar, O Jews, the army of Mohammad is coming." "Governing, governing, O Koran." "Coming, Coming O Islam."

Abdelmassih went on to report that Dr. Mustafa Maraghy, professor of law and Islamic law at Cairo University, filed a complaint with the Attorney General against the cleric, whose real name is Ahmed Abdullah. The complaint cited Abdullah, who is the owner of the TV channel the Islamic Nation, for contempt of religion, disturbing public security and peace.

Dr Maraghy, who is the chairman of the Coptic Coalition, said that tearing and burning the Holy Bible, which all Christians in the world believe in, is a "villainous and barbaric act." He added that it is not permitted at all to defame religions. "The same hurt feelings we felt by the film which insulted the prophet is the same that we felt by this criminal act," he said.

He vowed that the Coptic Coalition will not ignore such "ignorant people" but will prosecute them. The Maspero Coptic Youth Union has called on President Morsy to intervene immediately to put an end to any efforts which would kindle the fire of sedition between Muslims and Copts.
Another complaint was also filed this morning against Abu Islam by Karam Gabriel, lawyer with the Copts of Egypt Coalition, for his recent burning of the Holy Bible as well as his previous insults to Christianity through his books and through his Islamic Nation TV Channel.

Abdelmassih then stated that the Coalition, which has among its members Muslims and Copts, has issued an official statement condemning the film insulting the Prophet of Islam. Magdy Saber, spokesman for the Union, condemned Abu Islam's tearing and burning of the Bible in front of the Copts who were present before the US Embassy, where they had gone in support of their Muslim brothers regarding to prophet's film.

Saber demanded from officials to take the necessary measures to prevent sedition among the Egyptians. "If we condemn the film-makers of the prophet film who live outside Egypt," he said, "we should also condemn this disgraceful act in Egypt, stressing the need to punish Abu Islam for his irresponsible actions."

In an interview today with The Mohit newspaper, Abu Islam denied burning the Bible, saying, "I tore it apart and threw it to the demonstrators to step on it with their shoes." He added, "Next time I will make my grandson urinate on it, as the saying goes, an eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth and the starter is at fault."

Commenting on the fact that the film producers do not represent all Copts and the masses of the American people and therefore their holy book should not be insulted in response, Abu Islam said "if someone one did something, everyone bears the guilt and bears the outcome. Did not all Muslims bear the pain of what Osama bin Laden did? Did not all Muslims bear the pain of Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman being described as a terrorist? Let them taste from the cup the Islamic world had to drink."

Coptic activist Mark Ebeid said, "Until now we have not heard any condemnation from any Muslim organization or Al-Azhar, as our church did concerning the Prophet film. We have hope that the Church will say something about our Holy Book."

Monopolizing War?

Monopolizing War?
What America Knows How to Do Best
By Tom Engelhardt

It's pop-quiz time when it comes to the American way of war: three questions, torn from the latest news, just for you. Here's the first of them, and good luck!

Two weeks ago, 200 U.S. Marines began armed operations in…?:

a) Afghanistan

b) Pakistan

c) Iran

d) Somalia

e) Yemen

f) Central Africa

g) Northern Mali

h) The Philippines

i) Guatemala

If you opted for any answer, "a" through "h," you took a reasonable shot at it. After all, there's an ongoing American war in Afghanistan and somewhere in the southern part of that country, 200 armed U.S. Marines could well have been involved in an operation. In Pakistan, an undeclared, CIA-run air war has long been underway, and in the past there have been armed border crossings by U.S. special operations forces as well as U.S. piloted cross-border air strikes, but no Marines.

When it comes to Iran, Washington's regional preparations for war are staggering. The continual build-up of U.S. naval power in the Persian Gulf, of land forces on bases around that country, of air power (and anti-missile defenses) in the region should leave any observer breathless. There are U.S. special operations forces near the Iranian border and CIA drones regularly over that country. In conjunction with the Israelis, Washington has launched a cyberwar against Iran's nuclear program and computer systems. It has also established fierce oil and banking sanctions, and there seem to have been at least some U.S. cross-border operations into Iran going back to at least 2007. In addition, a recent front-page New York Times story on Obama administration attempts to mollify Israel over its Iran policy included this ominous line: "The administration is also considering... covert activities that have been previously considered and rejected." So 200 armed Marines in action in Iran -- not yet, but don't get down on yourself, it was a good guess.

In Somalia, according to Wired magazine's Danger Room blog, there have been far more U.S. drone flights and strikes against the Islamic extremist al-Shabaab movement and al-Qaeda elements than anyone previously knew. In addition, the U.S. has at least partially funded, supported, equipped, advised, and promoted proxy wars there, involving Ethiopian troops back in 2007 and more recently Ugandan and Burundi troops (as well as an invading Kenyan army). In addition, CIA operatives and possibly other irregulars and hired guns are well established in Mogadishu, the capital.

In Yemen, as in Somalia, the combination has been proxy war and strikes by drones (as well as piloted planes), with some U.S. special forces advisors on the ground, and civilian casualties (and anger at the U.S.) rising in the southern part of the country -- but also, as in Somalia, no Marines. Central Africa? Now, there's a thought. After all, at least 100 Green Berets were sent in there this year as part of a campaign against Joseph Kony's Ugandan-based Lord's Resistance Army. As for Northern Mali, taken over by Islamic extremists (including an al-Qaeda-affiliated group), it certainly presents a target for future U.S. intervention -- and we still don't know what those three U.S. Army commandos who skidded off a bridge to their deaths in their Toyota Land Rover with three "Moroccan prostitutes" were doing in a country with which the U.S. military had officially cut its ties after a democratically elected government was overthrown. But 200 Marines operating in war-torn areas of Africa? Not yet. When it comes to the Philippines, again no Marines, even though U.S. special forces and drones have been aiding the government in a low-level conflict with Islamic militants in Mindanao.

As it happens, the correct, if surprising, answer is "i." And if you chose it, congratulations!

On August 29th, the Associated Press reported that a "team of 200 U.S. Marines began patrolling Guatemala's western coast this week in an unprecedented operation to beat drug traffickers in the Central America region, a U.S. military spokesman said Wednesday." This could have been big news. It's a sizeable enough intervention: 200 Marines sent into action in a country where we last had a military presence in 1978. If this wasn't the beginning of something bigger and wider, it would be surprising, given that commando-style operatives from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration have been firing weapons and killing locals in a similar effort in Honduras, and that, along with U.S. drones, the CIA is evidently moving ever deeper into the drug war in Mexico.

In addition, there's a history here. After all, in the early part of the previous century, sending in the Marines -- in Nicaragua, Haiti, the Dominican Repubic, and elsewhere -- was the way Washington demonstrated its power in its own "backyard." And yet other than a few straightforward news reports on the Guatemalan intervention, there has been no significant media discussion, no storm of criticism or commentary, no mention at either political convention, and no debate or discussion about the wisdom of such a step in this country. Odds are that you didn't even notice that it had happened.

Think of it another way: in the post-2001 era, along with two disastrous wars on the Eurasian mainland, we've been regularly sending in the Marines or special operations forces, as well as naval, air, and robotic power. Such acts are, by now, so ordinary that they are seldom considered worthy of much discussion here, even though no other country acts (or even has the capacity to act) this way. This is simply what Washington's National Security Complex does for a living.

At the moment, it seems, a historical circle is being closed with the Marines once again heading back into Latin America as the "drug war" Washington proclaimed years ago becomes an actual drug war. It's a demonstration that, these days, when Washington sees a problem anywhere on the planet, its version of a "foreign policy" is most likely to call on the U.S. military. Force is increasingly not our option of last resort, but our first choice.

Now, consider question two in our little snap quiz of recent war news:

In 2011, what percentage of the global arms market did the U.S. control?

(Keep in mind that, as everyone knows, the world is an arms bazaar filled with haggling merchants. Though the Cold War and the superpower arms rivalry is long over, there are obviously plenty of countries eager to peddle their weaponry, no matter what conflicts may be stoked as a result.)

a) 37% ($12.1 billion), followed closely by Russia ($10.7 billion), France, China, and the United Kingdom.

b) 52.7% ($21.3 billion), followed by Russia at 19.3% ($12.8 billion), France, Britain, China, Germany, and Italy.

c) 68% ($37.8 billion), followed by Italy at 9% ($3.7 billion) and Russia at 8% ($3.5 billion).

d) 78% ($66.3 billion), followed by Russia at 5.6% ($4.8 billion).

Naturally, you naturally eliminated "d" first. Who wouldn't? After all, cornering close to 80% of the arms market would mean that the global weapons bazaar had essentially been converted into a monopoly operation. Of course, it's common knowledge that the U.S. arms giants, given a massive helping hand in their marketing by the Pentagon, remain the collective 800-pound gorilla in any room. But 37% of that market is nothing to sniff at. (At least, it wasn't in 1990, the final days of the Cold War when the Russians were still a major competitor worldwide.) As for 52.7%, what national industry wouldn't bask in the glory of such a figure -- a majority share of arms sold worldwide? (And, in fact, that was an impressive percentage back in the dismal sales year of 2010, when arms budgets worldwide were still feeling the pain of the lingering global economic recession.) Okay, so what about that hefty 68%? It couldn't have been a more striking achievement for U.S. arms makers back in 2008 in what was otherwise distinctly a lagging market.

The correct answer for 2011, however, is the singularly unbelievable one: the U.S. actually tripled its arms sales last year, hitting a record high, and cornering almost 78% of the global arms trade. This was reported in late August but, like those 200 Marines in Guatemala, never made onto front pages or into the top TV news stories. And yet, if arms were drugs (and it's possible that, in some sense, they are, and that we humans can indeed get addicted to them), then the U.S. has become something close enough to the world's sole dealer. That should be front-page news, shouldn't it?

Okay, so here's the third question in today's quiz:

From a local base in which country did U.S. Global Hawk drones fly long-range surveillance missions between late 2001 and at least 2006?

a) The Seychelles Islands

b) Ethiopia

c) An unnamed Middle Eastern country

d) Australia

Actually, the drone base the U.S. has indeed operated in the Seychelles Islands in the Indian Ocean was first used only in 2009 and the drone base Washington has developed in Ethiopia by upgrading a civilian airport only became operational in 2011. As for that " unnamed Middle Eastern country," perhaps Saudi Arabia, the new airstrip being built there, assumedly for the CIA's drones, may now be operational. Once again, the right answer turns out to be the unlikely one. Recently, the Australian media reported that the U.S. had flown early, secretive Global Hawk missions out of a Royal Australian Base at Edinburg. These were detected by a "group of Adelaide aviation historians." The Global Hawk, an enormous drone, can stay in the air a long time. What those flights were surveilling back then is unknown, though North Korea might be one guess. Whether they continued beyond 2006 is also unknown.

Unlike the previous two stories, this one never made it into the U.S. media and if it had, would have gone unnoticed anyway. After all, who in Washington or among U.S. reporters and pundits would have found it odd that, long before its recent, much-ballyhooed " pivot" to Asia, the U.S. was flying some of its earliest drone missions over vast areas of the Pacific? Who even finds it strange that, in the years since 2001, the U.S. has been putting together an ever more elaborate network of its own drone bases on foreign soil, or that the U.S. has an estimated 1,000-1,200 military bases scattered across the planet, some the size of small American towns (not to speak of scads of bases in the United States)?

Like those Marines in Guatemala, like the near-monopoly on the arms trade, this sort of thing is hardly considered significant news in the U.S., though in its size and scope it is surely historically unprecedented. Nor does it seem strange to us that no other country on the planet has more than a tiny number of bases outside its own territory: the Russians have a scattered few in the former SSRs of the Soviet Union and a single old naval base in Syria that has been in the news of late; the French still have some in Francophone Africa; the British have a few leftovers from their own imperial era, including the island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean, which has essentially been transformed into an American base; and the Chinese may be in the process of setting up a couple of modest bases as well. Add up every non-American base on foreign soil, however, and the total is probably less than 2% of the American empire of bases.

Investing in War

It would, by the way, be a snap to construct a little quiz like this every couple of weeks from U.S. military news that's reported but not attended to here, and each quiz would make the same essential point: from Washington's perspective, the world is primarily a landscape for arming for, garrisoning for, training for, planning for, and making war. War is what we invest our time, energy, and treasure in on a scale that is, in its own way, remarkable, even if it seldom registers in this country.

In a sense (leaving aside the obvious inability of the U.S. military to actually win wars), it may, at this point, be what we do best. After all, whatever the results, it's an accomplishment to send 200 Marines to Guatemala for a month of drug interdiction work, to get those Global Hawks secretly to Australia to monitor the Pacific, and to corner the market on things that go boom in the night.

Think of it this way: the United States is alone on the planet, not just in its ability, but in its willingness to use military force in drug wars, religious wars, political wars, conflicts of almost any sort, constantly and on a global scale. No other group of powers collectively even comes close. It also stands alone as a purveyor of major weapons systems and so as a generator of war. It is, in a sense, a massive machine for the promotion of war on a global scale.

We have, in other words, what increasingly looks like a monopoly on war. There have, of course, been warrior societies in the past that committed themselves to a mobilized life of war-making above all else. What's unique about the United States is that it isn't a warrior society. Quite the opposite.

Washington may be mobilized for permanent war. Special operations forces may be operating in up to 120 countries. Drone bases may be proliferating across the planet. We may be building up forces in the Persian Gulf and "pivoting" to Asia. Warrior corporations and rent-a-gun mercenary outfits have mobilized on the country's disparate battlefronts to profit from the increasingly privatized twenty-first-century American version of war. The American people, however, are demobilized and detached from the wars, interventions, operations, and other military activities done in their name. As a result, 200 Marines in Guatemala, almost 78% of global weapons sales, drones flying surveillance from Australia -- no one here notices; no one here cares.

War: it's what we do the most and attend to the least. It's a nasty combination.

http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175592/tomgram%3A_engelhardt%2C_washington_invested_in_war/#more

Obama and the Iraqi Withdrawal: Credit Where Credit's Not Due

Monday, September 17, 2012
Obama and the Iraqi Withdrawal: Credit Where Credit's Not Due
by Sheldon Richman

I'm tired of Obama's supporters boasting -- falsely -- that he kept his promise to end the war in Iraq. First, the war isn't over. Sectarian violence is still commonplace. The millions of refugees created by the U.S invasion in 2003 still have not returned home.

Second, Obama withdrew the last U.S. troops only because George W. Bush was forced by the Iraqi government, which is allied with Iran, to sign a Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) dictating a full withdrawal at the end of 2011. Bush wanted dozens of permanent bases but Prime Minister Maliki said no.

As 2011 wore on, Obama sent War Secretary Panetta to beg Maliki to "ask" that U.S. troops remain in Iraq. Maliki refused, especially after Muqtada al Sadr, the influential Shi'ite leader, threatened to resume his Mahdi Army's resistance to U.S. occupation. Maliki also told Panetta there would be no U.S. bases.

Obama withdrew the troops because -- despite his best efforts -- he was ordered to do so under terms reluctantly agreed to by his predecessor.

Obama's supporters should stop lying about how the U.S. occupation in Iraq ended.

http://sheldonfreeassociation.blogspot.com/2012/09/credit-where-credits-not-due.html?spref=fb

Dropping the Context: About that Anti-Muslim Video

Tuesday, September 18, 2012
Dropping the Context: About that Anti-Muslim Video
by Sheldon Richman

Perhaps if the West, and especially the United States since World War II, hadn't subjected Arabs and Muslims in Asia and Africa to nonstop brutality -- if the U.S. hadn't embargoed and invaded Muslim countries -- if the U.S. hadn't bombed innocent civilians, increasingly by remote-controlled killer drones -- if the U.S. hadn't sponsored repressive dictators and monarchs throughout the Muslim world -- if the U.S. hadn't tortured Muslims at Guantanamo and Bagram, and sent others to be tortured in the dictatorships to which it rendered suspected terrorists -- if the U.S. hadn't enabled Israel's savage treatment of the Palestinians, the occupation and confiscation of their land, and the devastating invasions of its neighbors -- if U.S. troops hadn't peed on Afghan corpses -- and if U.S. troops hadn't burned Qurans in Afghanistan --

Maybe -- just maybe -- that ridiculous anti-Muslim video would not have caused the outrage we witness today.

http://sheldonfreeassociation.blogspot.com/2012/09/dropping-context-about-that-video.html?spref=fb

Fwd: Washington post voter guide is very short - suggestions

---------

Your website address: www.BruceMajorsDC.com
Your email address: Majors.Bruce@gmail.com
Your date of birth: 12-14-1959
Do you hold this office now? No
Your neighborhood of residence: West End
EDUCATION: BA, philosophy and political science American University and University of Chicago; MBA, Georgetown University.
CURRENT OCCUPATION: Realtor, blogger

CIVIC ACTIVITIES & ELECTED OFFICES: Volunteer, DC education choice and term limits initiatives; Campaign volunteer, Jack Evans (first city council race), Patrick Mara (city council race), Nancy Lord (mayoral race), Gary Johnson (presidential campaign); donor, Reel Affirmations, Mautner Project, Human Rights Campaign, CATO Institute, Reason Foundation. Feral cat rescue and placement.

What is the most urgent problem facing your jurisdiction? Being taxed by the federal and District governments, while the federal government refuses to let us be represented in Congress and the DC government over rules voters initiatives (term limits etc) and delivers failing schools, failing power lines, corruption, and runaway spending. We need to throw almost every incumbent out and create new parties as well.

Why should voters elect you? I am the only candidate who believes you are not a slave, you own yourself, and you are not the property of the government.

Re: A Forwarded Message: Conditions in Israel - Your Most Important E-mail

Allah, Liberty and Love shows all of us how to reconcile faith and freedom in a world seething with repressive dogmas. Irshad Manji's key teaching is "moral courage," the willingness to speak up when everyone else wants to shut you up. This book is the ultimate guide to becoming a gutsy global citizen.

To purchase Allah, Liberty and Love, click here.
To read the footnotes for every fact in Allah, Liberty and Love, click here.

To learn even more about the book, view Irshad's short videos:

On Tuesday, September 18, 2012, Keith In Tampa wrote:

From a Family Member, (and no, we are not Jewish).....No disrespect intended, but there is no one in my family that is Jewish.....We are for the most part, Protestant; although there are a number of family members who have married Catholics, and in particular, one cousin who has converted to Catholicism. We also have a few Crackpots in the family, many who hold Plain Ol's religious (and political) points of view. Then, there is the crazy Uncle, who is Union and supports Obama, but another story for another day....

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From:
Date: Tue, Sep 18, 2012 at 3:47 AM
Subject: Conditions in Israel - Your Most Important E-mail
To:

This was forwarded to me from my 1st cousin in Ga.

Scary, huh?

From: "**** "

Subject: Conditions in Israel - Your Most Important E-mail

Date: September 17, 2012 3:30:46 PM EDT

-----Original Message-----

My brother and his family live in Jerusalem - he is a minister - and a former Navy SEAL - his office is close to one of Israel 's largest underground military bases.

He called me last night which is very unusual - usually it is email.

He called to tell me that he is sending his family back to the US immediately due to what he is seeing happen within the last week and what he is being told by his military contacts in both the Israel and US military.

He said he is seeing with his own eyes military movements the likes of which he has never seen in his 20+ years in Israel .

What he called a massive redeployment and protective tactics of forces is underway.

Over the last two days he has seen anti-aircraft missile deployments throughout the Jerusalem area including 3 mobile units that he can see from his office windows.

In addition, he has seen very large Israeli armored columns moving fast toward the Sinia where Egypt has now moved in Armor.

There are reports of the top military leaders meeting with Israel 's Sr. Rabbi which is something that has happened preceding every prior military campaign.

His admonition is to watch carefully and pray for Israel and its people.

He is convinced that barring something extraordinary Israel will attack Iran - with or without the US - and very soon.

It is the belief in Israel that Obama does not stand with Israel but with the Arab countries.

He has told me before that Israel will saber rattle from time to time but that this time is very different from what he is seeing and hearing.
He was at the Wailing Wall 2 days ago and there were hundreds of IDF soldiers there. As he was leaving he passed at least 20 military buses full of soldiers in route to the wall.

He has never seen this before either.

Just thought I would pass this along.
My brother is not an alarmist by any means.

When he talks like this it gets my attention for sure and usually I find he knows more than he shares.

There are reports that Israel is asking Obama to come to Israel immediately but they are being answered with silence.

My opinion is that I see the making of the perfect storm.

__

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A Forwarded Message: Conditions in Israel - Your Most Important E-mail

From a Family Member, (and no, we are not Jewish).....No disrespect intended, but there is no one in my family that is Jewish.....We are for the most part, Protestant; although there are a number of family members who have married Catholics, and in particular, one cousin who has converted to Catholicism. We also have a few Crackpots in the family, many who hold Plain Ol's religious (and political) points of view. Then, there is the crazy Uncle, who is Union and supports Obama, but another story for another day....

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From:
Date: Tue, Sep 18, 2012 at 3:47 AM
Subject: Conditions in Israel - Your Most Important E-mail
To:

This was forwarded to me from my 1st cousin in Ga.

Scary, huh?

From: "**** "

Subject: Conditions in Israel - Your Most Important E-mail

Date: September 17, 2012 3:30:46 PM EDT

-----Original Message-----

My brother and his family live in Jerusalem - he is a minister - and a former Navy SEAL - his office is close to one of Israel 's largest underground military bases.

He called me last night which is very unusual - usually it is email.

He called to tell me that he is sending his family back to the US immediately due to what he is seeing happen within the last week and what he is being told by his military contacts in both the Israel and US military.

He said he is seeing with his own eyes military movements the likes of which he has never seen in his 20+ years in Israel .

What he called a massive redeployment and protective tactics of forces is underway.

Over the last two days he has seen anti-aircraft missile deployments throughout the Jerusalem area including 3 mobile units that he can see from his office windows.

In addition, he has seen very large Israeli armored columns moving fast toward the Sinia where Egypt has now moved in Armor.

There are reports of the top military leaders meeting with Israel 's Sr. Rabbi which is something that has happened preceding every prior military campaign.

His admonition is to watch carefully and pray for Israel and its people.

He is convinced that barring something extraordinary Israel will attack Iran - with or without the US - and very soon.

It is the belief in Israel that Obama does not stand with Israel but with the Arab countries.

He has told me before that Israel will saber rattle from time to time but that this time is very different from what he is seeing and hearing.
He was at the Wailing Wall 2 days ago and there were hundreds of IDF soldiers there. As he was leaving he passed at least 20 military buses full of soldiers in route to the wall.

He has never seen this before either.

Just thought I would pass this along.
My brother is not an alarmist by any means.

When he talks like this it gets my attention for sure and usually I find he knows more than he shares.

There are reports that Israel is asking Obama to come to Israel immediately but they are being answered with silence.

My opinion is that I see the making of the perfect storm.

__

Re: JP First Aid, Music or Chinese

W.A.S.

Yes you are right.

Our hardheartedness may lead us to a bitter and painful end of our nation.

First Aid as a compulsory subject is a good suggestion.

Likewise there are many suggestions and plans.

We must, repeat must never forget to bring to books, all of the officials and administrators and the owners of the factory, to create an exemplary example for the future.

We can not lose hundreds of innocent people with their bodies so badly burnt that they are not even recognizable, and just look the other way.

On Mon, Sep 17, 2012 at 11:51 PM, UN Barry <unbarry@yahoo.com> wrote:

aoa,

The painful incident of the factory fire at Karachi cant be expressed in words. I am totally

speechless about our hardheartedness and thinking that where it will lead us? What will be our end?

I just want to draw the attention of authorities to make the "First Aid" as a compulsory subject in our schools, colleges and at the university level instead of music and The Chinese. Here in our city the firebrigades, ambulances , police are habitual to take life rather than saving it. They are paid for their cruelties....

Hope somebody will take some attempt in this regard....

Thanx
regards
U N Barry

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JP

Assalam o Alaikum
Dear All
Please find attachment and read it.
Regards.

Thanks & Regards ...?

To be the world’s best apparel company.

Zaighum Hasnain
Finance Department

Head Office.

Tel: +92-41-8734910

Ext: 362

Cell: 0321-6095220

JP Civil Society Protest Demonstration on Wednesday 19th Sept at 3:30 PM Islamabad Press Club

Ladies and Gentlemen, there are times that test us, such times do not come everyday but when such times come we need to respond in responsible manner if we want to live as a respectable society. To do so, we must respect our values, faith, religion, culture and above all such personalities who have molded our lives since generations to coming generations and for all times to come.

This film that has been produced is not an attack on Prophet Muhammad (S.A.W) but on our conscience and commitment to Allah and His Apostle Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). Its a test of our resolve, of how true we are to ourselves and our faith.

To demonstrate it positively, a peaceful demonstration has been planned for Wednesday, 19th of Sept. in front of Islamabad Press Club. Its an obligation on every Muslim to demonstrate his/her love for Allah and his Prophet.

You are requested to please participate open-hearted and in large numbers. We shall assemble at 3:30 PM and disperse at 4:30 PM.

Raja G Mujtaba
O.M. Center For Policy Studies

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