"I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them."
July 2, 2009 Jefferson, the American Mind and the Birth of America The Declaration of Independence was an expression of what colonial America believed at the time. As Jefferson said, it contained no new ideas. He merely put pen to paper in declaring what people of that day were thinking. ...
In less than 200 words, Jefferson sums up with lucidity, logic and eloquence the argument for the American Revolution, the creation of a new political system and a universal philosophy for human rights, not merely for Americans but for the world as well. These ideas would later be translated into the basic institutions of the American republic.
Consider the opening words of the Declaration: "When, in the Course of human events..." Those words place the Declaration, and the Revolution, in the appropriate setting, against a backdrop that is not merely American or British but universal history. Those words connect it with the experience of people everywhere--not only at a moment of history but in every era. ...
Thus, the new nation was to assume its place "among the powers of the earth." It was not the laws of the British Empire, or even of history, but of "Nature and of Nature's God" that entitled Americans to an equal station.
- by John W. Whitehead / The Rutherford Institute
Give me Money! The Bible does not minimize the importance of economics. The Garden of Eden makes mention of gold and precious stones: "The gold of that land is good" (Genesis 2:11-12). Jesus used money as a teaching device in many of His parables. John MacArthur, pastor of Grace Community Church, Panorama City, California, said that
16 out of 38 of Christ's parables deal with money; more is said in the New Testament about money than heaven and hell combined; five times more is said about money than prayer; and while there are 500 plus verses on both prayer and faith, there are over 2,000 verses dealing with money and possessions.
- by Gary DeMar / American Vision
Life, Liberty, and Property Are Inseparable Life, liberty, and property were the central, inalienable rights that formed the foundation of the great experiment in self government called the United States of America. The founders of our country never broke apart this sacred triumvirate, because each one of these rights is inextricably bound to the other. No one of these three can exist without the other. Moreover, when all three are secured, it is almost impossible for injustice to exist. Wherever one does find injustice, one invariably finds a violation of one of these three basic rights at its root.
- by Tom Mullen / Campaign For Liberty
Banks Own the US Government Last month, when the US Congress failed to pass a bankruptcy reform measure that would have allowed home mortgages to be modified in bankruptcy, senator Dick Durbin succinctly commented: "The banks own the place." That seems pretty clear.
After all, it was the banks' greed that fed the housing bubble with loony loans that were guaranteed to go bad. Of course the finance guys also made a fortune guaranteeing the loans that were guaranteed to go bad (ie AIG), and when everything went bust, the taxpayers got handed the bill. The cost of the bailout will certainly be in the hundreds of billions, if not more than $1tn when it is all over.
More importantly, we are looking at the most severe economic downturn since the Great Depression. The cumulative lost output over the years 2008-2012 will almost certainly exceed $5tn. That comes to more than $60,000 for an average family of four. This is the price that we are paying for the bankers' greed, coupled with incredible incompetence and/or corruption from our regulators.
- by Dean Baker / Guardian UK
Auditing the Fed Will Audit the State If Ron Paul succeeds in getting the Fed audited, the consequences could be far-reaching. Assuming the audit isn't rigged to protect the guilty, as a similar bill was in 1978, the Fed will need every obfuscating Keynesian to testify and write editorials on its behalf, to reassure the public that monetary matters really are best left to the gods who rule us, such as Ben Bernanke and Timothy Geithner. Monetarists, too, would likely join the "Save the Fed" crusade, perhaps arguing that even a great free market economist like Milton Friedman considered the Fed useful for preventing and curing recessions.
- by George F. Smith / Mises.org
Ron Paul ...Will He Rise Again? Yesterday on Meet the Press, the declining prospects for the Republican Party were reviewed. The yawning conclusion was that no one can really challenge Barack Obama in 2012 and no one can revive the G.O.P.
The prospects of all the possible candidates were assessed, but there was one glaring omission. Guess who?
Meet the Press cannot be blamed for omitting the one man who is still on everyone's lips, as in "you know, I think he may have been right, after all." The one man who predicted the economic collapse, who suggested that the Federal Reserve needed an audit itself, who warned that electing a Democrat or Republican was pretty much the same thing; and that there would still be a war where we don't need one. The lobbyists would still rule. The government would still intrude.
- by Doug Wead / LewRockwell.com
07/01/2009 Freedom Watch 21 w/ Ron Paul, John McManus, David Bruckner, Mary Ruwart, Jim Babka
Do We Need State Control of Medical Care? Talk to any doctor and he or she will tell you that they spend many hours per week doing paperwork, almost all of it required by government and insurers. The government paperwork is especially pernicious because errors or disagreements on billing – even innocent ones – can lead to criminal charges. The legal aspect of medical care has turned into a minefield for the providers, and that has to impact overall costs.
The main issue, however, is quite simple, yet also profound: Medical care is a scarce good and thus is subject to the laws of economics. All too often, we hear that medical care is not like other goods and services and is set apart from economic laws. All we can say in return is, "Not so fast, my friend."
Application of economic theories does not discriminate between the kinds of goods and services rendered. If something is scarce, the same laws apply whether we speak of brain surgery or pork bellies. Such words are disconcerting to people who believe that medical care should be a right that should be provided to everyone regardless of one's personal wealth. Unfortunately, all government interventions – all of them –carrying out this "rights" mandate only serve to make medical care less available (and less effective) for everyone.
- by William Anderson / Foundation For Economic Education
Obama Moderates Health-Care Stance President Barack Obama, after picking fights with rivals over health care during the election campaign, is signaling flexibility on many of his previous stances as he tries to put a health-care deal together.
As a candidate, Mr. Obama criticized Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton for proposing that all Americans be required to get health insurance. Now he says he is open to the idea.
He ran some 47,000 TV ads criticizing Republican candidate John McCain for wanting to tax employee health benefits and cut Medicare spending. Mr. Obama has now signaled openness to taxing such benefits, and has proposed his own Medicare cuts -- in both cases on a smaller scale.
- by Laura Meckler / The Wall Street Journal
Wal-Mart Supports Health Plan That Will Destroy Small Businesses (WMT) Matthew Yglesias proudly announces that his employer the liberal thinktank Center for American Progress has convinced Wal-Mart (WMT) to support a law that would legally obligate employers to pay for their employees' health insurance. ...
Sorry Matt! We hate to bust your bubble, but you and your employer are being used for Wal-Mart's agenda, which is as greedy and selfish as ever. Actually, it's worse.
This is all about introducing a bill that will harm its competitors, particularly businesses of a slightly lower size that can't buy health insurance on the same scale. The company already has a major price and sourcing edge over its competitors, and this law would allow it to exploit that even more.
- by Joe Weisenthal / Business Insider
Emotion, Few Details, in Obama's Health Care Pitch The health care changes that Obama called for Wednesday would reshape the nation's medical landscape. He says he wants to cover nearly 50 million uninsured Americans, to persuade doctors to stress quality over quantity of care, to squeeze billions of dollars from spending.
But details on exactly how to do those things were generally lacking in his hour-long town hall forum before a friendly, hand-picked audience in a Washington suburb. The lingering questions underscore the tough negotiations awaiting Congress, the administration and dozens of special interest groups in the coming months. Lawmakers will return to debating the issue when they return from a one-week recess on Monday.
Some of Obama's questioners Wednesday were from friendly sources, including a member of the Service Employees International Union and a member of Health Care for America Now, which organized a Capitol Hill rally last week calling for an overhaul. White House aides selected other questions submitted by people on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter.
Republicans said the event was a political sham designed to help Obama, not to inform the public.
"Americans are already skeptical about the cost and adverse impact of the president's health care plans," Republican National Committee spokesman Trevor Francis said. "Stacking the audience and preselecting questions may make for a good TV, but it's the wrong way to engage in a meaningful discussion about reforming health care."
- by Philip Elliot and Charles Babington, Associated Press / Yahoo News
Helen Thomas: Not Even Nixon Tried to Control the Media Like Obama Following a testy exchange during Wednesday’s briefing with White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, veteran White House correspondent Helen Thomas told CNSNews.com that not even Richard Nixon tried to control the press the way President Obama is trying to control the press.
"Nixon didn't try to do that," Thomas said. "They couldn't control (the media). They didn't try.
"What the hell do they think we are, puppets?" Thomas said. "They're supposed to stay out of our business. They are our public servants. We pay them."
- by Penny Starr and Fred Lucas / CNS News
CBS, Helen Thomas Challenge Gibbs On "Controlled" Town Hall Meeting 7/1/09 - CBS' Chip Reid and Helen Thomas double teamed Robert Gibbs today at the daily press briefing on the "tightly controlled" town hall meeting President Obama will hold on health care. Gibbs kept saying lets have this discussion AFTER the meeting. Helen Thomas accused the White House of "controlling the press." She said almost all White House/Obama events are "prepackaged." She accused the White House of not "having any answers."
US Marines Launch Major Offensive in Afghanistan Thousands of U.S. Marines poured from helicopters and armored vehicles into Taliban-controlled villages in southern Afghanistan on Thursday in the first major operation under President Barack Obama's strategy to stabilize the country.
The offensive was launched shortly after 1 a.m. Thursday local time (4:30 p.m. EDT Wednesday, 2030 GMT Wednesday) in Helmand province, a Taliban stronghold and the world's largest opium poppy-producing area. The goal is to clear insurgents from the hotly contested region before the nation's Aug. 20 presidential election.
- by Jason Straziuso, Associated Press / The Seattle Times
PNAC Revisited Look at the following press release on Obama's forthcoming summit meeting with Russian President Dmitri Medvedev and judge for yourself whether Bill Kristol's and Bob Kagan's new 'Foreign Policy Initiative' (FPI) is not indeed the latest incarnation of the Project for the New American Century (PNAC).
The modus operandi is exactly the same: an open letter to the president signed by most of the same neo-conservatives who signed onto PNAC letters from 1998 to 2005 and whose commitment to human rights and democratic values - as opposed to enhancing global U.S. military dominance and Israeli military hegemony in the Middle East - has always been somewhat suspect, to say the least.
- by Jim Lobe / Inter Press Service
U.S. Hardens Its Stance Ahead of Summit With Russia The Obama White House on Wednesday adopted a hard line against negotiating away missile-defense sites in Eastern Europe and limiting NATO expansion in the former Soviet Union, just days ahead of a summit meeting in Moscow. The hardened posture made it clear the Kremlin wouldn't make headway on two of its top priorities for the summit. Later this year, negotiators will turn to a more ambitious effort to further cut the number of strategic warheads, as well as battlefield nuclear weapons and nondeployed warheads. In Moscow, Mr. Obama will deliver what White House officials are billing as his third major foreign-policy address, after his April arms-control speech in Prague and his address in Cairo to the Muslim world
- by Jonathan Weisman, Gregory L. White and Alan Cullison / The Wall Street Journal
Iraq Occupation Isn't Over Yet Former UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter discusses the withdrawal caveats that could keep U.S. troops in Iraq indefinitely, the Iraqi army's inability to maintain order, Maliki's pursuit of short-term oil profits at the expense of Iraq's future, the Obama administration's lack of moral courage for a messy withdrawal and how the acceptance of U.S. funding by Iranian opposition groups destroys their credibility.
Pirates of the Mediterranean On June 30, the government of Israel committed an act of piracy when the Israeli Navy in international waters illegally boarded the "Spirit of Humanity," kidnapped its 21-person crew from 11 countries, including former US Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney and Nobel Laureate Mairead MaGuire, and confiscated the cargo of medical supplies, olive trees, reconstruction materials, and children's toys that were on the way to the Mediterranean coast of Gaza. The "Spirit of Humanity," along with the kidnapped 21 persons is being towed to Israel as I write.
Gaza has been described as the "world's largest concentration camp." It is home to 1.5 million Palestinians who were driven by force of American-supplied Israeli arms out of their homes, off their farms, and out of their villages so that Israel could steal their land and make the Palestinian land available to Israeli settlers.
What we have been witnessing for 60 years is a replay in modern times, despite the United Nations and laws strictly preventing Israel's theft of Palestine, of the 17th, 18th, and 19th century theft of American Indian lands by US settlers. An Israeli government spokesman recently rebuked the President of the United States, a country, the Israeli said, who stole all of its land from Indians, for complaining about Israel's theft of Palestine.
- by Paul Craig Roberts
Government Poisons US Soldiers with Flu Vaccination
BUT that does not mean they have no turning points or breaking points. In Rome the professional, imperial guard, The Praetorian Guard, was highly disciplined and bore casualties well in the early years. But over the decades of imperial struggles and military in-breeding common to such armies largely cut off from the civil population, they became bored with routine, self-centered, arrogant, puffed up with their own importance, and started deposing and imposing emperors, forcing them to put more and more of the national wealth into the military and so on. The professional military became a tyrannical force no civilians could control, so it controlled them through their imposed emperors.
That was one of the crucial reasons the American Constitutionalists were so desperate to prevent the rise of a professional army in the U.S.
- by Jack D. Douglas / LewRockwell.com
Obama's 'Climate Astrologer' President Obama's Energy Secretary Steven Chu is at it again. Fresh off his declarations in May claiming computer model predictions as evidence of a certain climate catastrophe, (see: Climate Depot Exclusive: Sec. Chu's assertions 'quite simply being proven wrong by the latest climate data' - April 19, 2009), he has now gotten more bold, confidently predicting a certain climate catastrophe by the year 2109. (When he and everyone who hears his warning today will be unable to verify his predictions because they will be conveniently DEAD!)
- by Marc Morano / NewsWithViews.com
CEI is submitting the report to the EPA and formally requesting that EPA re-open the comment period on its so-called "endangerment proceeding," so the public can comment on both the report and on EPA's conduct. EPA's official comment period ended June 23.
Today's actions follow CEI's release of internal EPA emails a week ago that demonstrated the agency cover-up, followed by a draft version of the report released last Thursday. A day later, the author of the report was given permission by the agency to release the final report but only on his own website.
- by Christine Hall / CEI.org
Obama's EPA: Politics and Lies Outshine Science in New Age of "Transparency" President Obama's Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), in its impartial, objective and unbiased pursuit of inconvenient truths, censored and suppressed one of its own researchers, who co-authored a 98-page report detailing why the dangers and causes of global warming are (at best) inconclusive, because, "The administrator and the administration have decided to move forward on endangerment, and your comments do not help the legal or policy case for this decision." (Does policy determine science or does science determine policy at the EPA? One wonders…)
- by Daniel Heller / Examiner.com
WTP Federal Lawsuit to Ban All Electronic Voting, Heads for Trial WTP instigated a federal lawsuit in New York seeking to hold election officials in all fifty states accountable for their deprivation of the People's fundamental Right to Vote because of the use of non-verifiable electronic and mechanical machine-based vote counting.
- by Freedom's Phoenix
Do You Know the Bill of Rights? For more than 200 years, Americans have enjoyed the freedoms laid out in the Bill of Rights without really knowing what they are. Yet as John W. Whitehead points out in this week’s vodcast, never has there been a time when knowing our rights has been more critical and safeguarding them more necessary.
July 1, 2009 Independence Now And Forever As we approach Independence Day, it behooves us to recall the principles of America's founding, especially in light of the ongoing attempt by today's political and commercial leaders to merge the United States into a hemispheric government. In fact, the clarion call for independence is just as fundamental, just as revolutionary as it was 233 years ago. If the United States is going to maintain its independence and freedom much beyond the year 2010, it will only be because millions of freedom-loving Americans (and the governments of the States in which they reside) are willing to fight for it.
- by Chuck Baldwin / The Covenant News
Why a Bill of Rights? Why did the founders of our nation give us the Bill of Rights? The answer is easy. They knew Congress could not be trusted with our God-given rights. Think about it. Why in the world would they have written the First Amendment prohibiting Congress from enacting any law that abridges freedom of speech and the press? The answer is that in the absence of such a limitation Congress would abridge free speech and free press. That same distrust of Congress explains the other amendments found in our Bill of Rights protecting rights such as our rights to property, fair trial and to bear arms. The Bill of Rights should serve as a constant reminder of the deep distrust our founders had of government. They knew that some government was necessary, but they rightfully saw government as the enemy of the people and they sought to limit government and provide us with protections.
After the 1787 Constitutional Convention, there were intense ratification debates about the proposed Constitution. Both James Madison and Alexander Hamilton expressed grave reservations about Thomas Jefferson's, George Mason's and others' insistence that the Constitution be amended by the Bill of Rights. Those reservations weren't the result of a lack of concern for liberty. To the contrary, they were concerned about the loss of liberties.
- by Walter E. Williams / WorldNetDaily
Congress Pushing for Federal Reserve Audit A majority of the U.S. House of Representatives is now in support of a historic bill by Republican lawmaker Ron Paul to audit the Federal Reserve (the Fed), the privately run central bank that sets monetary policy for the United States.
A similar bill in the U.S. Senate was proposed by Democratic Socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders, and has three right-wing Republican co-sponsors.
Meanwhile, a House committee recently approved an amendment offered by left-leaning Democrat Dennis Kucinich to a bill granting more oversight to the Government Accountability Office, which would audit the Fed's response to the economic crisis specifically.
Notably, the amendment passed committee unanimously, with broad bipartisan support, and now heads to the full House for action.
- by Matthew Cardinale / Inter Press Service
CNBC: "This Market Continues To Be Propped Up By Government Intervention And Manipulation" Amusing to see the biggest propaganda voice for the administration and General Electric let this one slip. At 2:22 in the video below, Larry Levin discloses the truth about ongoing flagrant market manipulation. That's why CNBC needs a 15 second delay, although Freudian slips among all the noise are why watching the channel can be so rewarding at the end of the day.
- by Tyler Durden / Zero Hedge
Shredding Your Safety Nets Modern man believes in government-funded safety nets. He thinks that other taxpayers can and should be taxed to bail out those taxpayers who make bad economic decisions, so long as those taxpayers being bailed out are people like themselves. They don't want bailouts for bankers, and they don't want bailouts for people who got into no-money-down mortgages to buy in neighborhoods "above their station."
- by Gary North / LewRockwell.com
States Plan on Opting Out of Obamacare Some state lawmakers, in preemptive mode, are considering ballot initiatives for the 2010 election which would allow them to opt out of Obama care, if the voters so choose. The states of Indiana, Minnesota, New Mexico, North Dakota, and Wyoming are all proposing some sort of legislation to unshackle themselves from what some describe as a trampling of state’s rights by the federal government’s passage of the healthcare reform package.
- by Ann Shibler / The New American
Peter Schiff - TIME Magazine Interview
Schiff Can Beat Dodd The latest poll shows "political unknown" (though actual man of substance) Peter Schiff almost tied with long-term, corrupt senator and hollow man Chris Dodd. And the poll does not take into account the national fundraising ability of Schiff among smaller donors, and his national volunteer-attracting capability. Dodd is supported only by rich people on the federal dole, and paid campaign workers. (Thanks to Travis)
- by Lew Rockwell / LRC Blog
Obamageddon - 2012 Empire America is on the verge of collapse. Its social, economic and political systems are failed and failing. The measures taken by successive governments to save the politically corrupt, morally bankrupt, physically decrepit giant from collapse have served to only hasten its demise. While the decline has been decades in the making, the acceleration of ruinous policies under the current Administration is leading the United States – and much of the world – to the point of no return.
- by Gerald Celente / LewRockwell.com
Generations of conservatives followed the great advice of our Founding Fathers and pursued a restrained foreign policy that rebuffed entangling alliances and advised America, in the words of John Quincy Adams, not to "go abroad looking for dragons to slay."...
Unfortunately, our foreign policy is undermining our security. We have more than 700 military installations in 135 countries around the globe. We have 50,000 troops in Germany, 30,000 in Japan, and 25,000 in South Korea. Worse, we have our brave men and women bogged down occupying Iraq and Afghanistan in the midst of ethnic strife and civil war.
We spend more than $1 trillion per year on our foreign policy, and our military is stretched thin. We can no longer afford to be the world's policeman. We must bring our troops home from around the world, cut overseas spending and strengthen our national defense....
- by Ron Paul / The Washington Times
He made his vote because he feels, like George Washington, the nation should avoid all foreign entanglements. The U.S. should not meddle in the affairs of Iran or any nation for that matter. Too many times and too often this has happened and the results have ranged from unsatisfactory towards U.S. interests to downright dishonorable and disgraceful.
Especially Iran. The tortured history between the two nations that stretches back to the 1953 overthrow of the government of Dr. Mohammed Mossadegh is but one example of such U.S. foreign entanglement.
So Ron Paul voted alone while so many others fell over themselves to offer praise and support for the demonstrators. It's a nice gesture but also quite cheap. It doesn't require the U.S. to do something, anything when those protestors are being beaten and killed by Basilj and Revolutionary Guard thugs.
And yet Ron Paul was not alone. One other person agreed with his foreign policy views and acted accordingly to set U.S. policy in similarity to those views.
The President of the United States.
- by Sean Scallon / EtherZone
There are lots of reasons to criticize Russia for its domestic political practices as well as brutal attack on Georgia last year. But the latter's record when it comes to opposition rights and press freedom actually isn't that good. There's also more than a little evidence to suggest that Tbilisi started last summer's brawl. Washington need not choose sides among these two states.
In any case, there's no reason for the U.S. to put the lives, liberty, and wealth of Americans at risk by getting involved between the two potential combatants. We should sympathize with the plight of the Georgian people, with a bad government at home and a threatening government next door. However, that doesn't warrant bringing Georgia into NATO or extending a unilateral American security guarantee. Alliances and defense commitments should be used to protect Americans, not other peoples, no matter how friendly they might be. That's especially true when the U.S. is facing a nuclear power determined to protect its own border half a world away. Put bluntly: it's time for America to defend America, not the rest of the world.
- by Doug Bandow / Campaign For Liberty
U.S. Re-Approves Israel Loan Guarantees Program The United States has re-approved its Israel loan guarantees program, subject to meeting fiscal targets, the Finance Ministry in Jerusalem said Tuesday.
The move comes amid tensions between Israel and the Obama administration over Jerusalem's settlement policy in the West Bank.
"Re-approval of the loan guarantees shows significant faith in Israel's economy by the U.S. government," Yarom Ariav, the Finance Ministry's director-general, said in a statement after signing the agreement.
- by Reuters / Haaretz.com
Israel Attacks Gaza-bound Aid Ship, Kidnaps Activists A Gaza-bound ship carrying aid to the strip was attacked and captured by the Israeli Navy today, and the 21 activists on the boat are being held as captives by the Israeli government at an undisclosed location. According to the ground that sponsored the voyage, the Israeli government has also confiscated the medicine and other humanitarian goods that were on board.
Among those captured by the Israelis was former US Congresswoman and 2008 Green Party presidential candidate Cynthia McKinney, who was also on board a ship which tried to reach Gaza in December before nearly being sunk by the Israeli Navy. That ship managed to flee to Lebanon, however.
- by Jason Ditz / Antiwar.com
Fein: Obama 'Shuts His Eyes' to 'Open Confessions' of Bush-era War Crimes Speaking at the National Press Club on Monday, former Reagan administration Associate Attorney General Bruce Fein lamented President Barack Obama's decision to shut his eyes to open confessions of war crimes by members of the prior administration.
"It's at the highest levels that the rule of law finds its greatest majesty," he told reporters. "That's why the United States was so idolized after Nixon left. We said that the most powerful man in the world is subject to the law. He cannot defy it."
Fein was making the historical argument with respect to the Obama administration's continued refusal to investigate the Bush administration's torture program, which was designed and specifically authorized by high-level officials.
- by Stephen C. Webster / The Raw Story
Obama Must Prosecute Torture Bruce Fein, associate deputy attorney general under Ronald Reagan, discusses restoring the rule of law to the executive branch of government, the unprosecuted torture and FISA violations that are piling up, Obama's impeachable neglect of his duty to faithfully execute the law and why a presidential pardon and not selectively ignoring the law is the way to deal with politically sensitive crimes.
Iraq: Mission Accomplished? More than six years after US forces captured Baghdad, American combat troops will withdraw from all Iraqi cities and towns by tonight, handing over full control to the 600,000-strong Iraqi army and police and marking a crucial step in Iraq's return to independence.
Iraqi state television has been showing a clock with an Iraqi flag marking the time that remains until the US pull-out with the words: "June 30: National Sovereignty Day". The Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki who, although closely allied to the US, nevertheless calls its departure a "great victory", has declared today a national holiday.
- by Patrick Cockburn / Independent UK
Key in Afghanistan: Economy, Not Military National security adviser James L. Jones told U.S. military commanders here last week that the Obama administration wants to hold troop levels here flat for now, and focus instead on carrying out the previously approved strategy of increased economic development, improved governance and participation by the Afghan military and civilians in the conflict.
The message seems designed to cap expectations that more troops might be coming, though the administration has not ruled out additional deployments in the future. Jones was carrying out directions from President Obama, who said recently, "My strong view is that we are not going to succeed simply by piling on more and more troops."
"This will not be won by the military alone," Jones said in an interview during his trip. "We tried that for six years." He also said: "The piece of the strategy that has to work in the next year is economic development. If that is not done right, there are not enough troops in the world to succeed."
- by Bob Woodward / The Washington Post
According to the Haaretz daily, "Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin and asked him to prevent the arms deal from going through."
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak met a week ago at the Paris Airshow with Gen. Nikolai Makarov, chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, and reportedly "asked that he also intervene to prevent the arms sale."
Israel and the U.S. insist that the delivery of advanced air defense systems to Iran would undermine the military balance in the region, and Russia has until recently delayed the implementation of the deal.
- by RIA Novosti
Weapons: Our #1 Export? The last official version of U.S. arms export policy is from the Clinton years. In addition to the usual rhetoric about promoting regional stability, ensuring U.S. military superiority, and promoting "peaceful conflict resolution and arms control, human rights, democratization," Presidential Decision Directive 34 (February 1995) inserted a new consideration: "enhanc[ing] the ability of the U.S. defense industrial base to meet U.S. defense requirements and maintain long term military superiority at lower costs." In other words, a potential arms sale should be judged in part on whether it is good for weapons manufacturers.
Not every administration needs a formal export policy. Under the guise of the global war on terror, President George W. Bush fast-tracked weapons sales, released countries from arms embargoes, and pumped more money into foreign military aid. His policy was — in essence —sell, sell, sell, and he did it without issuing a formal policy statement.
But now, President Barack Obama needs to decisively break with Bush era practices. Unfortunately, so far the administration is opting for less clarity and more verbiage.
- by Frida Berrigan / Foreign Policy In Focus
EPA's Secret Document Sen. Inhofe discusses the Cap-and-Trade legislation that passed in the U.S. House and the EPA's secret document on greenhouse gases.
Cap and Trade Equals Fraud and Tax H.R. 2454: American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 will result in a totalitarian centralization of the American economy in the administrative agencies of the federal government, especially the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). This 1,300 page horror is a prime example of congressional modus operandi -- no one in Congress actually had the opportunity to read the bill which was, incidentally, being amended as it was debated on the floor. As H.R. 2454 shows, this axiom still holds true: the more benign the title of a congressional bill, the more draconian its contents. After all, who could be against clean energy or security? The real goal of H.R. 2454 has nothing to do with either of these; it is a power grab, pure and simple.
True environmentalists -- those of us who are concerned about things such as clean air and water -- should oppose schemes like H.R. 2454. H.R. 2454 is not designed to clean up the environment. It is designed to generate more revenue for the government and to give the government more power over the economy, our lives, and our freedom. And it does so at the expense of the environment.
- by Glenn Jacobs / Campaign For Liberty
London Guardian contributor George Monbiot, today asks "Have the climate change deniers abandoned us during the heatwave?"
His central, and indeed his only point seems to be that because it is hot at the moment in the South East of England, this can be used to counter those who question the "consensus" on climate change because they cite the fact that temperatures around the world are actually decreasing.
- by Steve Watson / Prison Planet
June 30, 2009 Into Slavery Proclaiming Freedom Blind, Stubborn Americans: Though the North American Union, a globalizing unit, is quickly advancing on many different fronts there is no mention of it in the media. In Texas, mendacious politicians have approved the new Trans Texas Corridor which is the first leg of a major highway designed to allow the trucking of foreign goods (mostly Chinese) from Mexico into the interior of United States and Canada. Open borders and amnesty for millions of illegal aliens is a North American Union objective. ... In spite of the fact that David Rockefeller's book "Memoirs" contains a conspiracy confession recorded in black and white for all to see, most United States citizens still refuse to believe his confession preferring the erroneous opinion that all is well. Russian writer Stanislav Mishin wrote in Pravda, "The proud American will go down into his slavery without a fight, beating his chest and proclaiming to the world, how free he really is. The world will only snicker."
- by Al Cronkrite / The Covenant News
World Globalization of the Banking & Regulatory Structure - Pt 2 There are those who have been predicting a time when there would appear a world government structure. That time is here. Many, however, have predicted that it would be political in power. That is not necessarily so. Although the United Nations has been an organizing power worldwide to harmonize national law with international law, they do not issue or print money—for that is the role of central banks. With the new and vast empowerments being given to the central banks of the world and with the restructuring of the Financial Stability Board, it appears that world government is financial and economic. The old adage is true, "He who owns the gold makes the rules."
The entire banking system of the world, with the exception of a few Muslim countries, is run by private corporations called "central banks." America's central bank, the Federal Reserve, was founded in 1913. People should understand that it is not Congress which runs America but the Federal Reserve because without the money and credit that it provides to banks and subsequently home owners, farmers, and businesses, would not be able to function. All one has to do is study the various past economic crises to know that they occurred when the national banking system cut off credit. There is no doubt that the 2008 Credit Crisis has helped everyone to see that it is the banks-primarily the international banks and the central banks which run the world. While the names of the shareholders of the Federal Reserve remain secret, many people believe that the large international banks are some of its owners.
- by Joan Veon / NewsWithViews
Ron Paul on Cap and Trade In his latest C4L video, Dr. Paul discusses the House vote on Cap and Trade and reminds his colleagues that opposition to big government intervention should carry through to all acts against the Constitution.
Cap and Trade Will Lead to Capital Flight The real inconvenient truth is that the cost of government regulations, taxes, fees, red tape and bureaucracy is a considerable expense that has to be considered when companies decide where to do business and how many people they can afford to hire. Increasing governmental burden directly causes capital flight and job losses, as Spain has learned. In this global economy its easy enough for businesses to relocate to countries that are more politically friendly to economic growth. If our government continues to kick the economy while its down, it will be a long time before it gets back up. In fact, jobs are much more likely to go overseas, compounding our problems.
And for what? Contrary to claims repeated over and over, there is no consensus in the scientific community that global warming is getting worse or that it is manmade. In fact over 30,000 scientists signed a petition recently directly disputing the claims on which this policy is based. Legitimate environmental claims should instead be directed towards the public sector. The government, especially the military, is the most serious polluter in the country, and is exempt from most EPA regulations. Meanwhile Washington bureaucrats have classified the very air we exhale as a pollutant and have gone unchallenged in this incredible assertion. The logical consequence is that there will come a time when we will have to buy a government permit just to emit carbon dioxide into the atmosphere from our own lungs!
The events on Capitol Hill last week just demonstrate Washington's audacity in manufacturing problems just so they can expand government power to solve them.
- by Ron Paul / Texas Straight Talk
Rep. Sensenbrenner on Suppressed EPA Report U.S. Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, R-Wisc., on the EPA's suppression of a report directly related to the agency's endangerment finding, which would regulate CO2 under the Clean Air Act.
The feisty congressman from Texas, whose insurgent "Ron Paul Revolution" presidential campaign rankled Republican leaders last year, now has the GOP House leadership on his side -- backing a measure that generated paltry support when he first introduced it 26 years ago.
Paul, as of Tuesday, has won 245 co-sponsors to a bill that would require a full-fledged audit of the Federal Reserve by the end of 2010.
- by Judson Berger / Fox News
States Brace for Shutdowns Indiana is one of five states -- along with Arizona, California, Mississippi and Pennsylvania -- bracing for possible shutdowns this week as time runs out for lawmakers to close billion-dollar gaps in their fiscal 2010 budgets. Of the 46 states whose fiscal year ends today, 32 did not have budgets passed and approved by their governors as of Monday afternoon, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Although the majority of those are expected to pass eleventh-hour budgets, the fiscal futures of a handful remain uncertain, said Todd Haggerty, an NCSL research analyst. "It's a lot of states that are coming down to the wire," Haggerty said. "It's far more than we've seen in the past, and it's because of the state of the economy. "What's different now is that the recession has eroded tax revenues across the country." Collectively, he said, states are wrestling with budget deficits totaling $121 billion
- by P.J. Huffstutter & Nicholas Riccardi / The Los Angeles Times
Struggling Cities Cancel Fourth of July Fireworks Nearly 50 cash-strapped cities nationwide are forgoing fireworks festivities, choosing instead to retain jobs or, in the case of Montebello, Calif., give the money to food banks.
- by P.J. Huffstutter / The Los Angeles Times
Could Your Post Office Be Closing? As the United States Postal Service, weighed down by a crippling multibillion-dollar deficit, shrinks its operations, post offices across the country are on the chopping block. Each year, hundreds of postal operations shutter, but this coming fall could be the single biggest consolidation in Postal Service history.
Over the next three months, more than 3,200 post offices and retail outlets -- out of 34,000 -- will be reviewed for possible closure or consolidation.
- by MSN Money
China and Brazil Bypassing the U.S. Dollar China and Brazil are working on a currency arrangement to allow exporters and importers to settle deals in their local currencies, bypassing the U.S. dollar, the countries' central banks said on Sunday.
China's central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan and Brazil's Central Bank President Henrique Meirelles discussed the bilateral deal in a meeting at the Bank for International Settlements on Saturday.
- by Reuters
Swiss Banks Closing American Accounts Swiss banks are shutting the accounts of Americans as the U.S. Internal Revenue Service accelerates the hunt for tax dodgers.
UBS AG and Credit Suisse Group AG, the country's biggest banks, have told Americans to move their money into specially created units registered in the U.S., or lose their accounts. Smaller private banks such as Geneva-based Mirabaud & Cie. are closing all accounts held by U.S. taxpayers.
- by Warren Giles / Bloomberg
Real ID: A Real Warning on the Danger of Government The REAL ID Act may be on the verge of receiving its final coffin nails. Unfortunately, the Obama administration is pushing a replacement bill that poses many of the same threats as REAL ID. The history of REAL ID should inspire friends of freedom to once again vigorously oppose any and every federal grab for their personal information.
The feds had sought legislation to create national ID cards in the 1990s but were rebuffed by a Republican Congress. But, after 9/11, "everything changed" -- at least in Washington. Regardless of the reasons why the CIA and FBI failed to stop the hijackers, the solution was far more snooping and the potential creation of hundreds of millions of dossiers on American citizens. Almost overnight, it became widely accepted that the government must have unlimited powers to search anywhere and everywhere for enemies of freedom. The worse the government's failure to protect Americans, the further it permitted itself to intrude.
- by James Bovard / Campaign For Liberty
Why I Own Guns? Messiah Obama, Eric Holder, Bobby Rush, Charles Schumer, Barbara Boxer, Dianne Feinstein and Sarah Brady can choose not to own a firearm; that is their right, though at least one of them felt the need to own one. I choose to own a gun for many reasons that I will touch on in this article. Those listed above do not have the right to deny me ownership of a firearm; I don't care how many fools voted for them or who they know at Diebold who can illegally manipulate a voting machine.
- by Michael Gaddy / LewRockwell.com
CNN Poll: Americans Don't Want to Intervene in Iran Election Crisis A new national poll suggests that that nearly three out of four Americans don't want the U.S. directly intervene in the election crisis in Iran even though most Americans are upset by how the Iranian government has dealt with protests over controversial election results.
- by Paul Steinhauser / CNN
US-Russia Report on Scrapping Nuclear Weapons to be Unveiled A three-step process for the phased elimination of nuclear weapons will be unveiled by a powerful group of former policy makers in Washington tomorrow. The report by the Global Zero Commission, formed last December to urge Barack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev to rid the world of nuclear weapons, is released ahead of a summit in Moscow between the two leaders next weekend. The US-Russia summit, Obama's first as US president, is expected to see a bilateral agreement cutting nuclear stockpiles through a pact to replace the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (Start-1), which expires this year. A new treaty is seen as crucial to head off a new nuclear arms race drawing in other countries. Ahead of the summit, Nato and Russian foreign ministers met in Corfu in Greece Saturday for the first time in more than a year
- by Nick Mathiason & Ian Traynor / Guardian UK
On June 17, the House Appropriations Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs held a "mark-up" session on the budget. The subcommittee came under pressure from an antiwar group that sought to suspend or condition foreign aid over Israel's use of US weapons which left 3000 Palestinians dead during the Bush administration. The subcommittee held its session in a tiny Capitol room denying activists and members of the press access. The budget quickly passed and is now before the full House Appropriations Committee.
Israel enjoys "unusually wide latitude in spending the [military assistance] funds," according to the Wall Street Journal.
- by Grant F. Smith / Online Journal
'US Sent Taliban into Iraq' Investigative journalist Wayne Madsen in the US claims American intelligence sent Afghan mercenaries into Iraq, in order to attack the country's civilians and military personnel.
Advocacy Groups Want CIA Lawyers Disbarred A coalition of advocacy groups is asking the District of Columbia and New York bar associations to disbar three government attorneys for approving and enabling the CIA's harsh interrogation program.
- by Pamela Hess, Associated Press / Antiwar News
Witch Hunts and Torture Former POW John McCain knows torture, and he has consistently condemned its use by government agents. Nonetheless, in April he warned that any probe into the Bush administration's use of harsh interrogation techniques would amount to a "witch hunt." The senator was surely unaware of the considerable historical irony involved in his invoking this phrase.
- by Mary Zeiss Stange / USA Today
Obama Breaks Promise, Embraces Healthcare Tax The Obama White House left open the possibility Sunday that the president would break a campaign promise and raise taxes on people earning less than $250,000 to support his health care overhaul agenda.
White House adviser David Axelrod said the administration wouldn't rule out taxing some employees' benefits to fund a health care agenda that has yet to take final form. The move would be a compromise with fellow Democrats, who are pushing the proposal as a way to pay for the massive undertaking without ballooning the federal deficit.
- by NewsMax
Top WH Advisor: Obama Won't Rule Out Middle Class Tax Hike "The president had said in the past that he doesn't believe taxing health care benefits at any level is necessarily the best way to go here. He still believes that. But there are a number of formulations and we'll wait and see. The important thing at this point is to keep the process moving, to keep people at the table, to the keep the discussions going. We've gotten a long way down the road and we want to finish that journey."
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