|
Aaron Russo R.I.P (1943 - 2007) (pg. 3)
|
View this Thread in Original format
| Trancer-X |
| quote: | Originally posted by pkcRAISTLIN
blah blah blah |
Your mindless ridicule only makes me post more, btw ;) |
|
|
| Trancer-X |
As Lou Dobbs said, "it's daddy's proposal."
(talking about George H. W. Bush)
|
|
|
| Trancer-X |
My wake-up call: Watch for another 9/11-WMD experience
by Paul Craig Roberts
Bush has the Republican Party in such a mess that it cannot survive without another 9/11. Whether authentic or orchestrated, an attack will activate Bush’s new executive orders, which create a dictatorial police state in event of “national emergency.”
This is a wake-up call that we are about to experience another 9/11-WMD experience.
The wake-up call is unlikely to be effective, because the American attitude toward government changed fundamentally 70-odd years ago. Prior to the 1930s, Americans were suspicious of government, but with the arrival of the Great Depression, Tojo, and Hitler, President Franklin D. Roosevelt convinced Americans that government existed to protect them from rapacious private interests and foreign threats. Today, Americans are more likely to give the benefit of the doubt to government than they are to family members, friends, and those who would warn them about the government’s protection.
Intelligent observers are puzzled that President Bush is persisting in a futile and unpopular war at the obvious expense of his party’s electoral chances in 2008.
In the July 18 Los Angeles Times (“Bush the Albatross”), Ronald Brownstein reminds us that Bush’s behavior is disastrous for his political party. Unpopular presidents “have consistently undercut their party in the next election.” Brownstein reports that “88 percent of voters who disapproved of the retiring president’s job performance voted against his party’s nominee in past elections. . . . On average, 80 percent of voters who disapproved of a president’s performance have voted against his party’s candidates even in House races since 1986.”
Brownstein notes that with Bush’s dismal approval rating, this implies a total wipeout of the Republicans in 2008.
A number of pundits have concluded that the reason the Democrats have not brought a halt to Bush’s follies is that they expect Bush’s unpopular policies to provide them with a landslide victory next year.
There is a problem with this reasoning. It assumes that Cheney, Rove, and the Republicans are ignorant of these facts or are content for the Republican Party to be destroyed after Bush has his warmonger-police state fling. “After me, the deluge.”
Isn’t it more likely that Cheney and Rove have in mind events that will, once again, rally the people behind President Bush and the Republican Party, that is fighting the “war on terror” that the Democrats “want to lose”?
Such events could take a number of forms. As even diehard Republican Patrick J. Buchanan observed on July 17, with three US aircraft carrier battle groups in congested waters off Iran, another Tonkin Gulf incident could easily be engineered to set us at war with Iran.
If Bush’s intentions were merely to bomb a nuclear reactor, he would not need three carrier strike forces.
Lately, the administration has switched to blaming Iran for the war in Iraq. The US Senate has already lined up behind the latest lie with a 97-0 vote to condemn Iran.
Alternatively, false flag “terrorist” strikes could be orchestrated in the US. The Bush administration has already infiltrated some dissident groups and encouraged them to participate in terrorist talk, for which they were arrested. It is possible that the administration could provoke some groups to actual acts of violence.
Many Americans dismiss suspicion of their government as treasonous, and most believe conspiracy to be impossible “because someone would talk.” There is no basis in any known fact for this opinion.
According to polls, 36 percent of the American people disbelieve the 9/11 Commission Report. Despite this lack of confidence, and despite the numerous omissions and errors in the report, it has proven impossible to have an independent investigation of 9/11 or to examine the official explanation in public debate. Even experts and people with a lifetime of distinguished public service are dismissed as “conspiracy theorists,” “kooks,” and “traitors” if they question the official explanation of 9/11. This despite the fact that war in the Middle East, a long-planned goal of Bush’s neoconservative administration, could not have been initiated without a “new Pearl Harbor.”
That powerfully constructed steel buildings could suddenly turn to dust because they were struck by two flimsy aluminum airliners and experienced small fires on a few floors that burned for a short time appears unexceptionable to a majority of Americans.
Moreover, people have talked. Hundreds of them. Firefighters, police, janitors, and others report hearing and experiencing a series of explosions in upper floors and massive explosions in the underground basements. This eyewitness testimony was kept under wraps for three or more years until the official explanation had taken root. The oral histories were finally forced loose by Freedom Of Information Act suits. The eyewitness reports of explosion after explosion had no effect.
Larry Silverstein, who received billions of dollars in insurance payments for the destroyed buildings, talked. He said on public television that the order was given “to pull” building 7. His stunning admission had no effect.
The Bush administration is preparing us for more terrorist attacks. The latest intelligence report says that Al Qaeda has regrouped, rebuilt, and has the ability to come after us again. "Al Qaeda will intensify its efforts to put operatives here," says the report.
Security operatives, such as Michael Chertoff, and various instruments of administration propaganda have warned that we will be attacked before next year’s election. Chertoff is not a person who wants to be known as Chicken Little for telling us that the sky is falling.
Bush has the Republican Party in such a mess that it cannot survive without another 9/11. Whether authentic or orchestrated, an attack will activate Bush’s new executive orders, which create a dictatorial police state in event of “national emergency.” [See here.]
The UK government is hand-in-glove with the Bush administration and will provide cover or verification for whatever claim the Bush administration advances. So will the right-wing governments in Canada and Australia. That takes care of the English-speaking world from which contrary explanations might reach the American people.
It is possible that Bush is now too weak, that suspicion is too great, and that there is too much internal resistance in the federal bureaucracy and military for any such scenario. If so, then my prediction prior to the invasion that the US invasion of Iraq will destroy Bush, the Republican Party, and the conservative movement will be proven true. The Democrats’ strategy of doing nothing except making sure Bush gets his way will produce the landslide that they expect.
However, this assumes that Cheney, Rove, and their neoconservative allies have lost their cunning and their manipulative skills. It is difficult to imagine a more dangerous assumption for Democrats and the American people to make.
Once the US experiences new attacks, Bush will be vindicated. His voice will be confident as he speaks to the nation:
“My administration knew that there would be more attacks from these terrorists who hate us and our way of life and are determined to destroy every one of us. If only more of you had believed me and supported my war on terror these new attacks would not have happened. Our security efforts were impaired by the Democrats’ determined attempts to surrender to the terrorists by forcing our withdrawal from Iraq and by civil libertarian assaults on our necessary security measures. If only more Americans had trusted their government, this would not have happened.”
And so on. Anyone should be able to write the script.
Paul Craig Roberts wrote the Kemp-Roth bill and was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration. He was Associate Editor of the Wall Street Journal editorial page and Contributing Editor of National Review. He is author or coauthor of eight books, including The Supply-Side Revolution (Harvard University Press). He has held numerous academic appointments, including the William E. Simon Chair in Political Economy, Center for Strategic and International Studies, Georgetown University and Senior Research Fellow, Hoover Institution, Stanford University. He has contributed to numerous scholar journals and testified before Congress on 30 occasions. He has been awarded the U.S. Treasury's Meritorious Service Award and the French Legion of Honor. He was a reviewer for the Journal of Political Economy under editor Robert Mundell. He can be reached at: [email protected]
http://baltimorechronicle.com/2007/072007Roberts.shtml |
|
|
| Trancer-X |
A Dawning Dictatorship? (911-2B & NSPD-51)
A Piecemeal Prologue
Half of the American people believe that the Bush administration is on the hunt for Al-Qaeda for the 9/11 attacks. Another half believe that 9/11 was a Bush administration inside job, attributable not to Al-Qaeda, but to "Al-CIA-duh." Both halves, though, agree on one thing, and aren’t shy about saying it: This summer we are likely to suffer another terror attack, a "911-2B."
The list of notables’ quotables begins with the springtime warning of the vice president to NBC’s Tim Russert on Meet the Press:
April 15, 2007, Dick Cheney: "The greatest threat now is ‘a 9/11’ occurring ... with a nuclear weapon in the middle of one of our own cities."
June 3, 2007, Dennis Milligan, Chairman of the Arkansas Republican Party: "I believe fully the president is doing the right thing, and I think all we need is some attacks on American soil like we had on [Sept. 11, 2001]."
July 1, 2007, ABC News: "A secret U.S. law enforcement report, prepared for the Department of Homeland Security, warns that al Qaeda is planning a terror "spectacular" this summer."
July 11, 2007, Michael Chertoff, Homeland Security chief: "I believe we are entering a period this summer of increased risk."
July 20, 2007, Paul Craig Roberts, former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury: "Whether authentic or orchestrated, an attack will activate Bush’s new executive orders [NSPD-51], which create a dictatorial police state in event of national emergency."
July 24, 2007, Peter DeFazio, House Homeland Security Committee member: "I just can’t believe they’re going to deny a member of Congress the right of reviewing how they plan to conduct the government of the United States after a significant terrorist attack … Maybe the people who think there’s a conspiracy out there are right."
A Recess Review
As Congress goes home for August, opinion polls show that roughly two out of three American citizens either dislike or detest George W. Bush, and things are rapidly falling apart for him. More and more White House officials are invoking executive privilege to avoid answering the hard questions of an exasperated legislative branch about them and their "unitary executive." Alberto Gonzales is the object of a growing congressional impeachment movement, as is Dick Cheney — and half of the public wants Bush impeached, too.
In the last two weeks the stock market has dropped by nearly a thousand points, and threatens a bearish mauling of the financial sector that has been the Bush administration’s base and beneficiary.
His own Republicans are threatening to bail out on busted-down Iraq, unless they get strong reassurances from General David Petraeus in mid-September. The general’s situation is hardly reassuring, though. Embattled Baghdad, which he was sent to secure, is currently under fire and without water, and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is publicly calling for his removal.
Wednesday, Aug. 1, could have been the worst day of all for the White House. In the morning came the news that the Iraqi government had fallen apart, with the Sunni faction quitting al-Maliki’s cabinet. This disastrous development was likely to hold the headlines until the end of the week, when Congress would head home to discuss this latest war calamity with already war-weary constituents.
A Minnesota Miracle
Wednesday afternoon could have added even more woes to the White House. America’s first and only Muslim congressman, Keith Ellison, appeared on CNN’s Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer to discuss some scorching anti-Bush comments he had made on July 8 to constituents in Minneapolis, in which he had compared 9/11 to the Reichstag Fire, and George Bush to Adolph Hitler. In 1933 Hitler used the Reichstag Fire, carried out under his orders, to establish a dictatorship in Germany.
Ellison’s analysis is accepted by most of the Muslim world, much of the non-Muslim world, and a growing minority of Americans. Rather than defend it, though, Ellison backed down with apologies in his interview with Blitzer, saying that his remarks were a "rookie mistake," never to be repeated.
Perhaps Ellison’s retreat from his remarks was an attempt to stave off the disaster that frequently befalls those who disrupt the political paradigm. If so, it didn’t work. Two hours after Ellison’s mea culpa, his congressional district suffered a freak disaster with the collapse of the I-35 bridge into the Mississippi River.
One man’s loss is another’s gain, though. In the news, the collapse of the Minneapolis bridge supplanted the collapse of the al-Maliki government and the Bush White House for the rest of Wednesday..., then Thursday..., then Friday. By Saturday the congressman who had accused the unitary executive of treason was with Bush himself, taking a tour of his afflicted district, and begging for the relief of federal funds.
A Cowardly Congress
It’s hard to fathom why the Democratic Congress would bow down to the unitary executive before skipping town for summer vacation, but that’s just what they have done.
Last week Congress gave the White House the gift of expanded executive power by its approval of the 9/11 Commission’s recommendations, further extending the reach of the unitary executive.
Friday, the Senate voted 60-28 in favor of granting Bush and Gonzales more power to conduct domestic surveillance without the trouble of a court warrant. The House followed suit Saturday, with a vote of 227-183.
A Dodging DeFazio
On the same day that the Minneapolis bridge fell into the Mississippi, the White House refused a written request by House Homeland Security chairman Bernie Thompson and Oregon Congressman Peter DeFazio to read classified annexes of NSPD-51, the presidential order, announced in May, by which Bush can declare himself dictator in the event of a natural catastrophe like Katrina — or a terror attack like 9/11-2B.
DeFazio’s Oregon is the target of "Noble Resolve," an upcoming 9/11-2B military exercise scheduled for August 20-24 that includes a nuclear attack on Portland. Pacific Northwesterners are increasingly alarmed that they may be the targets of a false flag nuclear attack, or the fallout from it. You can’t blame them. After all, according to all sources, left and right, 911-2B is the only thing that can revitalize the war president and the war plan.
Oregon’s DeFazio is unfazed by it all, or pretends to be. Penny Dodge, his chief of staff, refuses to answer questions from media about his failure. DeFazio has taken to the Internet and airwaves to urge his constituents to relax — despite his inability to examine NSPD-51, and his unwillingness to examine the possibility that they may be targets for a military exercise. He urges trust in the motives of the unitary executive. In doing so DeFazio fails in his duty, and acts the part of Bush’s buffoon in a comedy of terrors.
Captain May is a former Army military intelligence and public affairs officer, as well as a former NBC editorial writer. His political and military analyses have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, the Houston Chronicle and Military Intelligence Magazine.
http://www.lonestaricon.com/absolut...sp?a=1729&z=162 |
|
|
| shaolin_Z |
| quote: | Originally posted by Trancer-X
As Lou Dobbs said, "it's daddy's proposal."
(talking about George H. W. Bush)
|
That's an odd thing to see on CNN  |
|
|
| Haunted |
thanks for posting all that Trancer, definitely intriguing.
whats wrong with a one world government though? isn't it time we put our differences behind us and realized that humanity is one and should act as one? i personally am tired of all these wars over resources or borders, if there was a collective government we wouldn't have issues like that. now of course there would have to be some kind of democratic principles involved, not just the rich elite in charge. maybe i've seen too much star trek but I think it would work.
of course the counter-argument is that Bush made us realize how dangerous government can really be. maybe humanity isn't ready for such a leap yet. |
|
|
| Trancer-X |
| quote: | Originally posted by Haunted
thanks for posting all that Trancer, definitely intriguing.
whats wrong with a one world government though? isn't it time we put our differences behind us and realized that humanity is one and should act as one? i personally am tired of all these wars over resources or borders, if there was a collective government we wouldn't have issues like that. now of course there would have to be some kind of democratic principles involved, not just the rich elite in charge. maybe i've seen too much star trek but I think it would work.
of course the counter-argument is that Bush made us realize how dangerous government can really be. maybe humanity isn't ready for such a leap yet. |
With all of the corruption in government do you think that it would really be wise to have one single power possessing the keys to everything? What would happen if that power were to be hijacked? Who would save us then?
What if that world government turned out to be a bunch of fascists in disguise and all they really wanted was to implement a totalitarian dictatorship? |
|
|
| Zild |
| WTF kind of degree do you get by writing a dissertation on western feminism? LOL I bet some people here have real degrees or are studying for real degrees like physics, medicine, engineering... |
|
|
| Trancer-X |
| quote: | Originally posted by Zild
WTF kind of degree do you get by writing a dissertation on western feminism? LOL I bet some people here have real degrees or are studying for real degrees like physics, medicine, engineering... |
It's saddening to me to see someone who's so indoctrinated that they're unable to see beyond simple paradigms.
We've been so conditioned that we now believe that a person needs a formal degree in order to have any credibility in this world.
| quote: | "I have never let my schooling interfere with my education."
- Mark Twain |
|
|
|
|
|
