Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Top 20 Influential Conservative Women in Politics

Honorable Mentions: Jedediah Bila, Marsha Blackburn, Teri Christoph/Stacy Mott, Monica Crowley, Renee Ellmers, Megyn Kelly, Rachel Marsden, Susanna Martinez, Star Parker

20) Tammy Bruce: Radio talk show host, blogger
19) Liz Cheney: Co-Founder, Keep America Safe
18) Tina Korbe: Associate editor for HotAir.com
17) Mary Katharine Ham: Radio host, blogger at the Daily Caller, Fox News contributor.
16) Dana Loesch: Editor-in-Chief of Big Journalism, a CNN contributor, and hosts her own daily radio show.
15) Dana Perino: Former White House Press Secretary, rotating host of “The Five.”
14) Pamela Geller: Blogger, activist, executive director of Stop Islamization of America.
13) Phyllis Schlafly: Columnist, President of Eagle Forum
12) S.E. Cupp: Columnist, contributing editor at Townhall magazine, TV personality
11) Dr. Laura Schlessinger: Radio host on SIRIUS XM.
10) Nikki Haley: Governor of South Carolina.
9) Condi Rice: Former foreign policy advisor to George Bush, former Secretary of State.
8) Jan Brewer: Governor of Arizona.
7) Kathryn Jean Lopez: Syndicated columnist, editor of National Review Online.
6) Michelle Malkin: Best selling author, highly read blogger, very popular columnist.
5) Cathy McMorris Rodgers: Republican Congresswoman, Vice-Chair of the House Republican Conference.
4) Michele Bachmann: Minnesota Congresswoman, presidential candidate.
3) Laura Ingraham: Talk host with 6 million plus listeners per week.
2) Ann Coulter: Best selling author, extremely popular columnist.
1) Sarah Palin: Former Governor of Alaska, former VP candidate.

Top 20 Influential Black Conservatives

Honorable Mentions: Ali Akbar, Deneen Borelli, Janice Rogers Brown, James Golden, Amy Holmes, Niger Innis, Roy Innis, Alan Keyes, AlfonZo Rachel, Erik Rush, Armstrong Williams

20) Jesse Lee Peterson: The founder of BOND, television personality, and radio host.

19) Deroy Murdock: He’s a syndicated columnist, political talking head, and contributing editor with National Review Online.

18) J.C. Watts: The former college football quarterback was a prominent Republican congressman, but lost considerable influence with conservatives when he publicly noted he was considering backing Obama in 2008.

17) Angela McGlowan: She’s an author, political commentator, and she ran and lost in a congressional primary in 2010.

16) Shelby Steele: The columnist and documentary film maker.

15) Ward Connerly: The founder of the American Civil Rights Institute and an activist dedicated to fighting racial quotas.

14) Mychal S. Massie: The National Chairman of the conservative black think tank, Project 21.

13) Robert George: He’s an editorial writer for the New York Post.

12) Ken Blackwell: He ran and lost for Governor of Ohio, was a candidate for the RNC National Committee Chairman; he’s a senior fellow for family empowerment at the Family Research Council and a columnist.

11) Star Parker: She’s an increasingly popular syndicated columnist who ran for Congress in California in 2010 and lost.

10) Colin Powell: He’s a former general and the first black Secretary of State. Although he still has considerable name recognition and influence with the general public, he has considerably less sway than he used to in the Republican Party since he endorsed Barack Obama in 2008.

9) Larry Elder: The sage from South Central is a popular columnist and syndicated talk radio host.

8) Michael Steele: He was the first black Republican National Committee Chairman. He’s now a columnist and TV commentator.

7) Condi Rice: She’s the head of the Global Center for Business and the Economy at Stanford, a former foreign policy advisor to George W. Bush, and the first black woman to ever be Secretary of State.

6) Walter Williams: The professor at George Mason University is a popular columnist and a fill-in radio host on the Rush Limbaugh program.

5) Tim Scott: Scott is the first black Republican congressman elected in South Carolina for 114 years.

4) Thomas Sowell: He’s a Senior Fellow on Public Policy at the Hoover Institution who’s one of the most popular conservative columnists in America.

3) Allen West: The first black Republican congressman from Florida since 1876. Keynote speaker for CPAC in 2011.

2) Herman Cain: Former CEO of Godfather’s Pizza, former talk radio host, and a candidate running for the presidency of the United States.

1) Clarence Thomas: Supreme Court Justice.

The 20 Most Influential Conservative Jews In Politics Right Wing News

Honorable Mentions: Max Boot, Carolyn Glick, Michael Ledeen, Richard Perle, Daniel Pipe, Norman Podhoretz, Dorothy Rabinowitz, Evan Sayet, Paul Wolfowitz

20) Jeff Jacoby: Columnist
19) Jennifer Rubin: Columnist and blogger for the Washington Post
18) Lucianne Goldberg: Lucianne.com
17) Ben Shapiro: Columnist, radio host.
16) Pamela Geller: Blogger, activist, Executive Director of Stop Islamization of America.
15) Ari Fleischer: Former White House Press Secretary, CNN Contributor
14) Ben Stein: American Spectator columnist, actor
13) Ken Mehlman: Former Bush campaign manager, Former RNC Chairman
12) Michael Medved: 3.75 million radio listeners, columnist
11) John Podhoretz: Editor of Commentary, New York Post columnist
10) David Horowitz: FrontPageMagzine, David Horowitz Freedom Center, & Students for Academic Freedom.
9) Dennis Prager: 1.5 radio listeners, columnist
8) Jonah Goldberg: Columnist
7) Michael Savage: 9 million radio listeners
6) William Kristol: Founder and Editor of the Weekly Standard
5) Charles Krauthammer: Columnist, frequent TV appearances
4) Eric Cantor: House Majority Leader
3) Andrew Breitbart: Breitbart.com, Big Journalism, Big Hollywood, Big Peace.
2) Mark Levin: 8.5 million radio listeners
1) Matt Drudge: Founder of the Drudge Report

Leon Cooperman Open Letter to President Obama

OPEN LETTER TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
From Leon Cooperman.

November 28, 2011

President Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, D.C. 20500

Dear Mr. President,

It is with a great sense of disappointment that I write this. Like many others, I hoped that your election would bring a salutary change of direction to the country, despite what more than a few feared was an overly aggressive social agenda. And I cannot credibly blame you for the economic mess that you inherited, even if the policy response on your watch has been profligate and largely ineffectual. (You did not, after all, invent TARP.) I understand that when surrounded by cries of "the end of the world as we know it is nigh", even the strongest of minds may have a tendency to shoot first and aim later in a well-intended effort to stave off the predicted apocalypse.

But what I can justifiably hold you accountable for is your and your minions' role in setting the tenor of the rancorous debate now roiling us that smacks of what so many have characterized as "class warfare". Whether this reflects your principled belief that the eternal divide between the haves and have-nots is at the root of all the evils that afflict our society or just a cynical, populist appeal to his base by a president struggling in the polls is of little importance. What does matter is that the divisive, polarizing tone of your rhetoric is cleaving a widening gulf, at this point as much visceral as philosophical, between the downtrodden and those best positioned to help them. It is a gulf that is at once counterproductive and freighted with dangerous historical precedents. And it is an approach to governing that owes more to desperate demagoguery than your Administration should feel comfortable with.

Just to be clear, while I have been richly rewarded by a life of hard work (and a great deal of luck), I was not to-the-manor-born. My father was a plumber who practiced his trade in the South Bronx after he and my mother emigrated from Poland. I was the first member of my family to earn a college degree. I benefited from both a good public education system (P.S. 75, Morris High School and Hunter College, all in the Bronx) and my parents' constant prodding. When I joined Goldman Sachs following graduation from Columbia University's business school, I had no money in the bank, a negative net worth, a National Defense Education Act student loan to repay, and a six-month-old child (not to mention his mother, my wife of now 47 years) to support. I had a successful, near-25-year run at Goldman, which I left 20 years ago to start a private investment firm. As a result of my good fortune, I have been able to give away to those less blessed far more than I have spent on myself and my family over a lifetime, and last year I subscribed to Warren Buffett's Giving Pledge to ensure that my money, properly stewarded, continues to do some good after I'm gone.

My story is anything but unique. I know many people who are similarly situated, by both humble family history and hard-won accomplishment, whose greatest joy in life is to use their resources to sustain their communities. Some have achieved a level of wealth where philanthropy is no longer a by-product of their work but its primary impetus. This is as it should be. We feel privileged to be in a position to give back, and we do. My parents would have expected nothing less of me.

I am not, by training or disposition, a policy wonk, polemicist or pamphleteer. I confess admiration for those who, with greater clarity of expression and command of the relevant statistical details, make these same points with more eloquence and authoritativeness than I can hope to muster. For recent examples, I would point you to "Hunting the Rich" (Leaders, The Economist, September 24, 2011), "The Divider vs. the Thinker" (Peggy Noonan, The Wall Street Journal, October 29, 2011), "Wall Street Occupiers Misdirect Anger" (Christine Todd Whitman, Bloomberg, October 31, 2011), and "Beyond Occupy" (Bill Keller, The New York Times, October 31, 2011) - all, if you haven't read them, making estimable work of the subject.

But as a taxpaying businessman with a weekly payroll to meet and more than a passing familiarity with the ways of both Wall Street and Washington, I do feel justified in asking you: is the tone of the current debate really constructive?

People of differing political persuasions can (and do) reasonably argue about whether, and how high, tax rates should be hiked for upper-income earners; whether the Bush-era tax cuts should be extended or permitted to expire, and for whom; whether various deductions and exclusions under the federal tax code that benefit principally the wealthy and multinational corporations should be curtailed or eliminated; whether unemployment benefits and the payroll tax cut should be extended; whether the burdens of paying for the nation's bloated entitlement programs are being fairly spread around, and whether those programs themselves should be reconfigured in light of current and projected budgetary constraints; whether financial institutions deemed "too big to fail" should be serially bailed out or broken up first, like an earlier era's trusts, because they pose a systemic risk and their size benefits no one but their owners; whether the solution to what ails us as a nation is an amalgam of more regulation, wealth redistribution, and a greater concentration of power in a central government that has proven no more (I'm being charitable here) adept than the private sector in reining in the excesses that brought us to this pass - the list goes on and on, and the dialectic is admirably American. Even though, as a high-income taxpayer, I might be considered one of its targets, I find this reassessment of so many entrenched economic premises healthy and long overdue. Anyone who could survey today's challenging fiscal landscape, with an un- and underemployment rate of nearly 20 percent and roughly 40 percent of the country on public assistance, and not acknowledge an imperative for change is either heartless, brainless, or running for office on a very parochial agenda. And if I end up paying more taxes as a result, so be it. The alternatives are all worse.

But what I do find objectionable is the highly politicized idiom in which this debate is being conducted. Now, I am not naive. I understand that in today's America, this is how the business of governing typically gets done - a situation that, given the gravity of our problems, is as deplorable as it is seemingly ineluctable. But as President first and foremost and leader of your party second, you should endeavor to rise above the partisan fray and raise the level of discourse to one that is both more civil and more conciliatory, that seeks collaboration over confrontation. That is what "leading by example" means to most people.

Capitalism is not the source of our problems, as an economy or as a society, and capitalists are not the scourge that they are too often made out to be. As a group, we employ many millions of taxpaying people, pay their salaries, provide them with healthcare coverage, start new companies, found new industries, create new products, fill store shelves at Christmas, and keep the wheels of commerce and progress (and indeed of government, by generating the income whose taxation funds it) moving. To frame the debate as one of rich-and-entitled versus poor-and-dispossessed is to both miss the point and further inflame an already incendiary environment. It is also a naked, political pander to some of the basest human emotions - a strategy, as history teaches, that never ends well for anyone but totalitarians and anarchists.

With due respect, Mr. President, it's time for you to throttle-down the partisan rhetoric and appeal to people's better instincts, not their worst. Rather than assume that the wealthy are a monolithic, selfish and unfeeling lot who must be subjugated by the force of the state, set a tone that encourages people of good will to meet in the middle. When you were a community organizer in Chicago, you learned the art of waging a guerilla campaign against a far superior force. But you've graduated from that milieu and now help to set the agenda for that superior force. You might do well at this point to eschew the polarizing vernacular of political militancy and become the transcendent leader you were elected to be. You are likely to be far more effective, and history is likely to treat you far more kindly for it.

Sincerely,

Leon G. Cooperman
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

American Justice - Jackson's Doctor

By Nicholas Contompasis

Michael Jackson's doctor goes to jail faster than you can say "Thriller" while Corzine, Frank, Dodd, Obama, Pelosi, Reed, Bernanke, Paulson, Rankle, Geithner, Holder, most Congressmen and appointed czars continue to destroy our country.
This speaks volumes to the injustice of our justice system!!!!
When will the mob finally get it, and punish the people that really harm them most, not some washed up celebrate's doctor?

Europe is Scared Shitless

By Nicholas Contompasis

As goes the White House, so goes Europe! It's just that simple.
Leading up to the U.S. Presidential elections in 2012 the E.U. will be waiting with bated breath to see if the reign of Obama is over. Polls and leading indicators, as to who may win the White House, will give the pirates of Europe time to ready themselves for the austerity program from hell.
If Republicans win the Presidency and take the Senate, Paul Ryan's budget will become law faster than Obama heading out of town. That means that there will be a six trillion dollar cut in government spending over the next ten years. ObamaCare will be repealed and the U.S. economy will be well on its way to recovery.
Europe has had it good so far, faking their way with dummy austerity programs while Obama destroys the once powerful U.S. economy.
But, when the U.S. gets its act together in 2013 the Eurozone will be forced to correct their evil ways of overspending and bloated governments.
Expect riots, bombings and well, let your imagination run wild. It will get ugly and it will be blamed on us, of course.
This is why Europe loved and did everything possible to promote Barack Obama as President, because it allowed them another four years of living on our gravy train that the American taxpayer has been forced to support.
Well, on Inauguration Day 2013 the real shit is gonna hit the fan!!!

Monday, November 28, 2011

Obama and the Democrat Party Declare Political Racism Against the White Man - The New York Times


By Nicholas Contompasis

Obama and the Democrat Party in 2012, according to the New York Times today, will abandon the white middle class to concentrate on entitlement-receiving voters and minorities. That's welfare recipients and minorities many of whom have just arrived.
In other words, our sitting President is a racist for not including whites in any governmental initiatives. This is how it started when ten million Jews in Europe ended up in ovens.
By doing this, he will destroy any support he has left of the independent white voter, most likely ensuring his defeat.
This is one of the most dangerous political moves made by any President. It completely changes the American political landscape.
Logic tells you that if the country is politically divided by race against one color 'WHITES" there's big big trouble down the road for our country.
This is political racism in its purest form.
Obama the divider must go!!!!!

Sunday, November 27, 2011

Breaking News - The Plot to Destroy DSK Dominique Strauss-Kahn - Signs Point to Trap Linked to French Pols - New York Post


By LAURA ITALIANO and ANNIE KARNI

It sure seemed like employees of Midtown’s posh Sofitel were happy to hear Dominique Strauss-Kahn was in trouble.
Two employees of the high-end hotel high-fived and performed a bizarre, 3-minute celebratory dance moments after learning that a maid had accused Strauss-Kahn of sexually assaulting her, a bombshell new report reveals.
The revelers — whose celebration was captured on security video — were Brian Yearwood, the hotel’s chief engineer, and an unidentified man who had accompanied the maid, Nafissatou Diallo, to the hotel’s security office.
“They could have won the lottery,” quipped DSK lawyer William Taylor, who has seen the curious video.
“It seems directly related to speaking with Diallo and calling the police,” Taylor told The Post.
The dance video has no audio, so it’s unclear what the excitement was really about. But the “extraordinary” dance is just one of a slew of suspicious facts about DSK’s last hours May 14 at the Sofitel offered in a story by veteran investigative reporter Edward Jay Epstein, published online yesterday by the New York Review of Books.
The story doesn’t go into detail about the sexual-assault allegations brought against Strauss-Kahn, which were eventually dropped by Manhattan prosecutors.
Instead, it details a series of events mostly after the incident — and it implies strongly that DSK may have been set up by allies of his main political rival, French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
The idea of a political plot against Strauss-Kahn is “absolutely ridiculous,” said Jean-Francois Cope, secretary general of Sarkozy’s party, the UMP.
“To imagine that what happened to Mr. Strauss-Kahn was the object of any kind of involvement by the UMP, excuse me, but let me say that it’s a bit obvious as a manipulation,” he said.
But Taylor, a key member of Strauss-Kahn’s New York legal team, said questions raised in the report demand answers.
“We know [the maid] isn’t telling the truth,” he said. “But now we have to wonder whether the hotel and the French government are telling the truth.”
After the alleged assault around noon, DSK checked out of the hotel and went to lunch with his daughter and her boyfriend.
That was about when Diallo told hotel security that Strauss-Kahn had emerged from the shower and assaulted her in room 2806.
At 1:03 p.m., John Sheehan, director of safety and security at Accor — the French-based hotel company that owns the Sofitel — got a call at his home in upstate Washingtonville.
He rushed to Manhattan, and on the way dialed a 646 phone number that appears to belong to Accor, the New York Review of Books story said.
It was unclear with whom Sheehan wanted to speak.
One possibility, the story says, was his boss, Rene-Georges Querry, a Sarkozy pal who was taking in a soccer match in France from the president’s private box that morning.
But Querry claims he did not hear news about DSK until four hours later, when the destroyed politico was taken into custody.
Another possibility was Xavier Graff, the duty officer at Accor in Paris.
Graff, wrote an e-mail five weeks after DSK’s arrest that he took credit for “bringing down” the IMF chief, who at the time of his arrest was leading Sarkozy in presidential polls. Graff later claimed he was joking, but the indiscretion cost him his job.
Taylor also questions why the hotel staff didn’t call police until 1:31 p.m. — an hour after Diallo reported the assault.
“Why didn’t the hotel call the police [immediately]? The Sofitel and the French government should respond to these questions.”
Two hours before his alleged sex assault on Diallo, DSK had been alerted via text from a female friend that his IMF BlackBerry may have been hacked by Sarkozy’s operatives, according to the report.
DSK lost the hacked BlackBerry that day, and it has never been recovered, the story said.
Strauss-Kahn was charged with attempted rape. His lawyers claimed he’d had a consensual “hurried sexual encounter.” The charges were dropped in August after prosecutors decided Diallo was an unreliable witness and had lied about the day’s events.

Tea Party Members and Leaders Listen Up - Former Black Panther Warns Conservatives of 2012 Violence


BY Suzanne Eovaldi

Former Black Panther and left-wing activist Brandon Darby told a packed East Orlando Tea Party this week that he left the Black Panthers because basically he loves America.  He said he just couldn’t take it anymore when he happened upon a video training session by anarchist leaders showing gullible young men how to make Molotov cocktails to shut down the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis in 2008.
”Anarchists were showing videos of throwing Molotov cocktails at corporate systems,” Darby said. The ingredients were bought at a local big box and built using tampons as wicks with oil laced into the gasoline “to better stick to the skin,” like homemade napalm. Darby said something snapped in his consciousness when these radicals began openly calling for shutting down the convention by any means possible, simply because they didn’t like what the Republicans and Sarah Palin were saying.
“That’s bullying,” he said.  Giving a heads-up to organizers for the August 27, 2012, GOP convention at the Tampa Convention Center, the now conservative forum speaker is warning what could happen again. He said a definite structure of planners had set up a three part division of responsibilities in the leftist camp:
The Reds, the hardcore anarchists dressed in black, whose sole aim was to fight the police;
The Yellows, who were tasked with blocking roads to the Xcel site; and
The Greens, a loosely knit collection of about 10,000 routine protestors.
“I want to get those who want to destroy our country,” he told thecConservatives in a big media event ignored by the local print outlet in a new expression of liberal bias by omission. The liberal media at the time, in typical progressive media-speak, said Darby exhibited a “hyper-masculinity” that led astray the gullible youths who had plans to lob gasoline bombs into a parking lot of cop cars. These two young men, however, received jail terms.
Darby is a great example of the virtues writers  praised years ago.  A runaway at an early age, he wandered through teen runaway life before getting sucked into the Black Panther Party. Darby turned FBI informant after meeting Police Major John Bryson, who was in charge of New Orleans’s famed Ninth Ward.  After Bryson rescued a former Panther stranded by Katrina, he started to realize that police do care and that “not all cops are pigs.”
What really convinced him to follow the right path was the fact that more than 20,000 brilliant leftists could not establish order out of the Katrina chaos.  When he looked out over his audience, he said, “I knew I did the right thing.”
He made a right turn to save his beloved country from the same kind of chaos he sees coming to overtake all of America.

Saturday, November 26, 2011

Apocalypse Now - The Implosion of the Eurozone and the World Economy


By Nicholas Contompasis


Technically speaking, the Eurozone is a bit larger than the U.S. economy. If the Eurozone implodes it will affect the world's economy like a tsunami hitting South Florida, elevation thirty-five feet.
Based on reports coming out of Germany today, it looks like the Fourth Reich has emerged. Germany's economy is the strongest in Europe and since the Eurozone countries are all attached at the hip, the strongest will have the last word. If Germany doesn't take control of the Union it will fail, sending that tsunami like a guided missile into every home and business throughout Europe and the world. Yes, it will affect even you!!!
But, what I've mentioned are just the very predictable economic effects. What about the social upheaval that could and most likely will happen, specifically in the Eurozone?
At this time the unelected governing body that oversees the Eurozone has now stepped over the line by forcing elected heads of state out of office as they have done in Italy and Greece. Did anyone ask the people of these countries?
So, now we have a dictatorial body making the decisions that were once made by the people.
One can only imagine the push back that will come from this sort of thing.
Historically, the Greeks and Italians have always governed themselves. To have some bureaucrat from the North dictate who their leader is, wont go down well, and isn't.
Modern-day Germany is no Third Reich but they will be forced to jam down the throats of faltering nations the medicine they need or a peaceful Europe will end.
Most historians and keen observers of social and civil studies understand that when a peoples ability to self-govern ends so does civil order.
With the inclusion of high-tech mobile devices to manipulate the masses by hundreds of evil doers, this will be ugly.
Imagine most European countries with failed banks and unelected leaders that the people refuse to follow. This is Europe's future if Germany doesn't have its way.
But, I'm not finished. This dangerous cocktail has one last ingredient to be added, Islam!!! Make no mistake, this civil and economic trauma has now opened the door to an ever spreading European Muslim population.
For hundreds of years Islam has eyed Europe as a fat cow waiting to be slaughtered. History has many pages of bloody battles between Christianity and Islam fought under the title Religious Wars, and its about to flare up again with a weak and defenseless Europe.
Muslim terrorist bombs are a given in this situation and it would be just the trigger to set off more riots and deeper fear throughout the zone, crippling an already faltering economy.
The future for Europe and the world economy isn't bright, make no mistake about it.
But, before this is over the contagion will spread here with almost the same magnitude as the E.U. and a global economy will most likely implode, leaving you to fill in the blanks on how bad it will get.
Is it apocalyptic? Very much so!

Obama in the Bunker

By Nicholas Contompasis

As Chris Matthews mentioned in a recent interview, the President doesn't talk to anyone in Congress including Democrats and hasn't since the 2010 midterm elections.
He is now running the country with a bunker mentality, occasionally showing his anger towards the American people by issuing Executive Orders against them.
One can only imagine what he's doing up there in the White House with unbridled power over our lives? Are you not concerned?? We don't even know who this man is, do we???

Why doesn't someone, anyone just ask Obama where and when he signed up for his Social Security number?

Why doesn't someone, anyone just ask Obama if he has received public and or government assistance of any kind under any alias?

Why doesn't someone, anyone just ask Obama why he wont produce his original long form birth certificate?

Why doesn't someone, anyone just ask Obama where he lived while in his 2nd, 3rd, and 4th year at Columbia?

Why doesn't someone, anyone just ask Obama "WHY" he has lied and deceived the American people about his identity and background?

Thursday, November 24, 2011

The Times Are Far More Dangerous Than You Realize

By Nicholas Contompasis

Destabilizing governments seems to be the trick du jour for many forces in the world. The use of wireless Internet devices to manipulate and misinform is the new technique, rather than messy guns and bombs. Mobilize the people with promises of utopia and they do all the work.
The Left, the Right, governments, socioeconomic philosophies, political parties, financial hedge-funds, unions and armies all are playing with this new toy. They are mobilizing the general public to do what they want, if possible.
But, in reality they're actually not sure what outcome they'll create.
So, basically we have a multitude of conflicting forces manipulating and contriving to control our world, with a good possibility of destroying our current governing infrastructure and replacing it with chaos.
Then, the questions are, can you see this coming and if so, will you allow yourself to be manipulated?
Many peoples around the world are at this moment being forced to answer these very hard questions.
But, we know that no government is perfect, so would you trade in your current situation for an unknown?
The way things are going and with the ever-increasing sophistication of the technology, you will be answering these questions sooner than you think, whether you like it or not!!!

BREAKING NEWS - US, Turkey Urge Citizens to Leave Syria 'Immediately'

Embassy issues statement advising all Americans to leave Syria while commercial flights still operating.

WASHINGTON (Ynet) – The US embassy in Damascus is calling all Americans to leave Syria immediately while there are still commercial flights. The number of airlines operating in Syria has dropped considerably since the summer, a statement posted on the embassy's website on Wednesday noted.
The US stated it believes Syria is descending into a civil war and foreigners are therefore in danger.
US Ambassador to Syria Robert Ford was meant to return to Damascus this week after leaving Syria for fear of his life. The US has now announced Ford will not be returning to his post. This signals that the US fears there is real danger for the ambassador's safety.
Meanwhile, CBS reported that Turkey has also warned its citizens against staying in Syria. The Turkish foreign ministry called on pilgrims who are en route to Mecca to avoid traveling back to Turkey by bus via Syria and instead take direct flights from Saudi Arabia.
The warning comes just two days after Syrian troops opened fire at two buses transporting Turkish citizens in what is thought to be an act of revenge over Turkish criticism of Assad's violent crackdown of protests. The Syrian president is under growing pressure to stop violence.

Rush Limbaugh Makes the "Hot Word of the Day" on Dictionary.com* and Unfairly Labels Limbaugh a Racist


By Nicholas Contompasis

I signed up for "A Word A Day" on dictionary.com*. Everyday they shoot out a new word and meaning to help broaden your vocabulary.
Well, I got today's word and followed the word back to the Dictionary website where there was an article alongside the word of the day.
I have included this short article below and found it interesting how they blatantly labeled Rush Limbaugh a racist for describing the First Lady Michelle Obama, as "uppity-ish" on his radio show the other day, which I heard live.
In defense of Mr. Limbaugh it appears that the Liberal smear machine is everywhere and takes every opportunity to attack anyone from the Right, which I'm proud to be a part of.
The use of words is an art and Mr. Limbaugh is without a doubt a Picasso. I've been listening to him since his Sacramento days, 24 years ago, and he is no racist. This smear article to influence the general public, that may have never heard of him, is going too far for a mundane website like dictionary.com*.

Article:
"Today the word “uppity” rose to number seven on Google’s list of extremely popular searches. The reason? Conservative talk radio host Rush Limbaugh referred to First Lady Michelle Obama as “uppity-ish.” Specifically, Limbaugh was discussing a Nascar rally on Sunday the 20th where Michelle Obama was booed by the crowd. Limbaugh said he believed the crowd was upset because “They understand it’s a little bit of uppity-ism.”
Not only are record numbers of people searching for the word, but the media has been discussing Limbaugh’s particular word choice. Both the Los Angeles Times and the New York Times, for example, have run stories on the incident.
Why does this particular word cause such a response? Unlike its synonym arrogant, the word uppity has a uniquely loaded racial history. It was first used in 1880 in a song called “Uncle Remus” to refer to black Americans who were being too self-assertive or stepping out of their so-called place. Back in 2008, when a Georgia senator referred to Obama as “uppity” it also caused quite a ruckus. It was discussed in USA Today, on NPR and of course across the blogosphere.
Our goal is always definition, explanation and education. We hope you find this additional history of the controversial word helpful. Because of the highly charged emotions and issues surrounding this topic, we will not be allowing comments on this Hot Word post."

*
Dictionary.com, LLC, the world's largest and most authoritative online dictionary helps people get smarter any time, any place. Dictionary.com provides reliable access to millions of word definitions, synonyms, spelling, audio pronunciations, example sentences, and translations from its Web properties at Dictionary.com, Thesaurus.com, and Reference.com and through its mobile iPhone, BlackBerry, and Android applications and API data services. Dictionary.com also offers brain building games and tools designed to entertain and educate.

Get Ready for Bland Tasteless Food America - Obama is Taking Salt Out of Your Diet for 2012 - What Next Bacon? Them's Fight'n Words Partner!!!

FDA Considers Mandatory Salt Reductions

By Walter Olson

With little publicity, the federal Food and Drug Administration has begun laying groundwork for one of the more audacious regulatory initiatives of the Obama administration: mandatory reductions in the salt content of processed foods in the supermarket aisle and at restaurants.
In a September 15 “Request for Comments, Data, and Information” (PDF) published in the Federal Register, the FDA solicits from the public “comments, data, and evidence relevant to the dietary intake of sodium as well as current and emerging approaches designed to promote sodium reduction.” Among the specific ideas it has in mind: setting federally prescribed “targets” for “stepwise” reductions in the amount of salt allowable in various foods, the phased nature of the reductions indicated because consumers’ “taste preference for sodium is acquired and can be modified.”
Various government programs (notably in Mayor Bloomberg’s New York City) already arm-twist producers into supposedly voluntary reductions, but the FDA notice hints broadly that voluntary measures will not suffice. Its public comment period ends next Tuesday, November 29; let’s hope the agency gets an earful from citizens about the importance of freedom and consumer choice.
As I noted last month in a Cato podcast with interviewer Caleb Brown, the FDA’s new initiative plunges it deeper into social engineering than it has gone in the past. It’s one thing to limit adulteration or contamination of foods, or the use of mysterious chemical additives; it is another to order the reformulation of recipes to reduce intake of a substance that 1) occurs naturally in virtually all foods; 2) is beneficial to health in many circumstances; and 3) has been sought out and purposely added to the human diet through recorded history.
As the FDA acknowledges, salt is far more than a flavor enhancer, capable of such miracles as turning vegetable soup into something small children will gladly eat. It also continues to be (as it has been through history) vital in preventing a wide range of bacterial spoilage and food poisoning dangers in the food supply. It also assists with texture, appearance, and shelf life. Consumers notice when it is missing, as Campbell’s found when it was forced by lagging sales to restore salt to its Select Harvest soup line, and as H.J. Heinz found when it faced a consumer revolt in Britain after reformulating its HP Sauce at the urging of the British government (see Telegraph and Daily Mail accounts).
As I noted a while back, the government’s dietary advice has changed often through the years, and its recommendations in retrospect have regularly proved to be unfounded and even damaging. Sure enough, reports have begun to come out that the salt panic has been exaggerated and may even pose some health dangers of its own. “New review questions benefit of cutting down on salt,” reported Reuters about a new review of more than 160 scientific studies published in the American Journal of Hypertension. “It’s time to end the war on salt,” per a July Scientific American article by Melinda Wenner Moyer.
And as for post-Thanksgiving dieting? As Reader’s Digest points out, eating more produce and less processed food is known to be a healthy step, and will much reduce your sodium intake. In the mean time, you can file comments here about whether you’d like to go on making these choices yourself, or have FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg make them for you.

And the Beat Goes On - Obama White House Leaks Continue to Kill and Neutralize Our C.I.A. Agents - Happy Thanksgiving


By Nicholas Contompasis

As the tragedy in Lebanon a few days ago spreads to other C.I.A. outposts in the Middle East, America's ability to defend itself becomes weaker around the world. Is it this President's wish to destroy the C.I.A., it seems so!?!?
The cancer of this region is Iran. Now another C.I.A. station in the highly sensitive city of Tehran has been imprisoned and will most likely be executed soon.
This cannot continue before real evidence points to deliberate acts of treason by the Obama Administration.
How can any patriotic American put up with the staffing at the White House that is blatantly anti-American?
When you have so many high level appointed Iranian decent operatives working with U.S. policy makers, there are no secrets.
Come on President Obama it's as obvious as the nose on your face, that keeps growing.



Iran claims arrest of 12 CIA agents

Jessica Phelan November 24, 2011

Twelve suspected CIA agents have been arrested in Iran, according to an Iranian politician. They were allegedly working with Israeli's intelligence service, the Mossad.
Iranian intelligence services have arrested 12 CIA agents, according to Iranian legislator Parviz Sorouri.
Sorouri, who the Associated Press describes as an influential member of Iran's parliamentary Foreign Policy and National Security Committee, told state media that the alleged agents were working in collaboration with the Mossad and other Middle Eastern intelligence agencies.
Sorouri accused the alleged agents of seeking to sabotage Iranian nuclear, military and security, reported state-owned Press TV:
"The US and Zionist regime's espionage apparatuses were trying to damage Iran both from inside and outside with a heavy blow, using regional intelligence services.
"Fortunately, with swift reaction by the Iranian intelligence department, the actions failed to bear fruit."
He gave no details about the nationality of the alleged agents, or where they were arrested.
His claims are as yet unconfirmed. Iran periodically announces the capture or execution of alleged US or Israeli spies, and often no further information is released, noted the AP.
The report comes shortly after current and former US officials said that two CIA-run espionage rings had been unmasked in Iran and Lebanon, where they were reportedly spying on the Iranian nuclear program and Hezbollah's activities with regard to Israel.

Monday, November 21, 2011

Breaking News - Did the White House Tip Off Hezbollah - C.I.A. Slaughter?

By Nicholas Contompasis

With all of the Iranians now working in the White House it's no surprise that in Lebanon, Hezbollah has wiped out an entire C.I.A. Station. Did President Obama's close aid Valerie Jarrett tip off her countryman or was it former Congressmen Weiner's wife, an Iranian, who works closely with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton?
All we know is, this never happens, only on Obama's watch!!!!!


Disaster for CIA in Lebanon
By Rick Moran

Sources are blaming the capture of several Hezb'allah informants on poor tradecraft; not covering tracks and leaving sources exposed.
Reuters:
In an apparently serious setback for U.S. intelligence against a key adversary, Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shi'ite militia, has succeeded in identifying and arresting informants within its ranks who were working for the CIA, current and former U.S. officials said.
Separately, counterintelligence officers in Iran also succeeded in uncovering the identities of at least a handful of alleged CIA informants, the officials said.
Some former U.S. officials said that the CIA informants, believed to be local recruits rather than U.S. citizens, were uncovered, at least in part, due to sloppy procedures - known in the espionage world as "tradecraft" - used by the agency.
But Bob Baer, a former CIA operations officer whose books inspired the Hollywood movie Syriana, said that Hezbollah's counterintelligence capabilities are formidable and should not be underestimated.
"Hezbollah's security is as good as any in the world's. It's the best. It's better than that of the KGB," the former Soviet spy agency, Baer said.
The loss of these informants comes at an inopportune time. With zero hour approaching as far as an Israeli attack on Iran's nuclear facilities, it would have been advantageous to know what Hezb'allah was up to, what they might have been planning.
CIA is blaming a loss of expertise as a result of fighting the war on terror. That sounds like excuse making to me. Not only will this affect our intelligence gathering capabilities in the near future, but longer term, it will be harder to get people to spy for us unless we prove we can protect them.
At the moment, our record does not inspire confidence.

Schoen, Caddell: Supercommittee Fiasco Shows Obama Needs to Go

By Martin Gould

Barack Obama has shown such poor leadership as president that he needs to step down before the next election for the good of the country, Democratic pollsters Patrick Caddell and Doug Schoen say.
They made their call on the day that Obama was criticized anew for failing to prevent the collapse of the congressional budget supercommittee, which is on the verge of announcing that it has failed to reach agreement on ways to solve the country’s debt crisis.
"One year ago in these pages, we warned that if President Obama continued down his overly partisan road, the nation would be 'guaranteed two years of political gridlock at a time when we can ill afford it.'" Caddell and Schoen write. "The result has been exactly as we predicted: stalemate in Washington, fights over the debt ceiling, an inability to tackle the debt and deficit, and paralysis exacerbating market turmoil and economic decline."
Now the pair say Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has to be prodded into taking Obama’s place as the Democrats’ candidate in November next year.
“Even though Mrs. Clinton has expressed no interest in running, and we have no information to suggest that she is running any sort of stealth campaign, it is clear that she commands majority support throughout the country,” the respected pollsters write in an op-ed in Monday’s Wall Street Journal.
Their comments came amid mounting criticism of Obama’s detachment from the workings of the supercommittee. As it neared its deadline, the president was off the mainland U.S. for nine days, hosting an Asian-Pacific summit in Hawaii before jetting off to Australia and Indonesia. He returned to Washington on Sunday.
“He’s done nothing,” blasted Mitt Romney, the favorite to be the Republican challenger at next year’s election, on Monday. “It is another example of failed leadership. He has not taken personal responsibility to get the supercommittee to find ways to balance the budget and cut spending.”
Florida Rep. Allen West slammed the president, saying, “He has stood by and done nothing to encourage bipartisanship among this committee.” West said Obama must now stop the automatic trigger that would see $600 billion “ripped” from defense spending in the next 10 years.
Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., ranking member on the Senate Budget Committee, also faulted President Obama for not getting involved.
"The Republican House laid out a good plan. The president, except for his irresponsible budget and the Republican Senate, has done nothing to lay out a plan that can be analyzed by the American people," he said.
"The commander-in-chief is absent from battle," he told Fox News.
When the debt committee was first organized over the summer, the White House was left out of the negotiation in order to reduce any feared injection of politics, and let the lawmakers communicate among themselves.
Former New Hampshire Sen. Judd Gregg said Obama’s absence from the heavy-lifting of budget negotiations was indicative a series of disconnects from policy.
“Throughout his term, President Obama has avoided leading on the issue of fiscal responsibility,” wrote Gregg, a Republican who also was New Hampshire's governor and a U.S. representative, in an op-ed in The Hill. “He walked away from his own commission, the one led by former Sen. Alan Simpson, R-Wyoming, and former White House Chief of Staff Erskine Bowles, when he found its report filled with inconvenient choices.
“Now in a week when leadership is needed to push this critical committee to do something big and bring the nation’s fiscal house back into order, the president once again disappears. It causes one to wonder, why?”
Meanwhile, criticism on the left came from the least likely source:  Chris Matthews of liberal MSNBC took to the air on Saturday to ask, “Why does he want a second term?
“What’s he going to do in his second term?” added Matthews. “More of this? Is this it? Is this as good as it gets? Where are we going?”
But the Wall Street Journal critique from Caddell, who worked as a pollster for President Jimmy Carter and Schoen, who did the same for President Bill Clinton, was the most damning. They said, they were writing “as patriots and Democrats,” who are “concerned about the fate of our party and, most of all, our country.”
They liken today’s position to the electoral years of 1952 and 1968 when Democratic presidents Harry Truman and Lyndon Johnson both decided to step down once they had “accepted the reality that they could not effectively govern the nation if they sought re-election to the White House.”
“Both men took the moral high ground and decided against running for a new term as president,” they write. “President Obama is facing a similar reality—and he must reach the same conclusion.”
Whereas the Democrats lost in both ’52 and ’68, this time Clinton’s overwhelming popularity would be a hedge against claims that the president cut and run, they argue.
“Never before has there been such an obvious potential successor—one who has been a loyal and effective member of the president's administration, who has the stature to take on the office, and who is the only leader capable of uniting the country around a bipartisan economic and foreign policy.
“This is about more than electoral politics,” they add. “Not only is Mrs. Clinton better positioned to win in 2012 than Mr. Obama, but she is better positioned to govern if she does. Given her strong public support, she has the ability to step above partisan politics, reach out to Republicans, change the dialogue, and break the gridlock in Washington.”
The pollsters, who often write articles together, say that the question facing Obama isn’t whether he can win in 2012, but whether he deserves to. To beat the GOP candidate, they argue, his campaign would have to be so negative that it would make governing during a second term “almost impossible.”
“He has to make the case that the Republicans, who have garnered even lower ratings in the polls for their unwillingness to compromise and settle for gridlock, represent a more risky and dangerous choice than the current administration—an argument he's clearly begun to articulate,” they say.
But withdrawing from the election would be a game changer that would force Republicans to soften their stance on a whole range of issues.
“By taking himself out of the campaign, he would change the dynamic from who is more to blame – George W. Bush or Barack Obama? – to a more constructive dialogue about our nation's future.”
And they argue that the current secretary of state would have a better chance of winning – and a better chance of governing effectively.
“Her argument would almost certainly have to be about reconciliation and about an overarching deal to rein in the federal deficit. She will understand implicitly the need to draw up a bipartisan plan with elements similar to her husband's in the mid-to-late '90s—entitlement reform, reform of the Defense Department, reining in spending, all the while working to preserve the country's social safety net.”

Hollywood Producer Speaks Out Against Massive Obama and DNC Corruption

By Sher Zieve 
What would have seemed unlikely—if not impossible as the fear of doing so was too great—three years ago, is beginning to happen today. Some successful in Hollywood are actually speaking out against Dictator-in-Chief Obama and the now totally corrupt Marxist-Democrat Party.
As with the commencement of all pro-liberty movements, only the most courageous amongst us first step into the fray. The others follow after they believe it is safer to do so. The brave one, this time, is producer and now screenwriter Bettina Sofia Viviano. Through a series of events I met Bettina, and that led to the following interview. I believe many if not most will find it eye-opening and extremely revealing.

The Interview
Sher: Bettina, first of all thank you so much for your time. You are one of the seemingly fewer and fewer Conservative producers in Hollywood who has been very successful including your latest film Jack & Jill starring Adam Sandler and opening 11 November.
When we talked last week, you told me that you had no interest in politics until the 2008 general elections. Please tell my readers the story of what changed both your attitude and perspective towards the current US political theater.
Bettina: Back in 2008, I had never even voted in my life. I wasn’t registered to vote, and I probably didn’t even know how many Congressman the US has. I knew that, being in the film business, I was SUPPOSED to be a far left Democrat or face being blackballed and abused by my colleagues. So, I just didn’t bother with it. Why bother if you really have no choice anyway?
Then a writer/director client of mine, a Democrat, called me and asked me if I wanted to produce a documentary about voter fraud in the Democratic Primary with her. She had received a phone call from a very well known Congressional Investigator in Washington, who told her that the Hillary campaign had launched serious allegations against the Obama campaign for caucus fraud. We saw a letter from Hillary’s lawyer in DC, Lynn Utrecht, and sure enough there was something there.
When the director, Gigi Gaston, first told me about this…I couldn’t have been less interested. Really? Caucus fraud? Who cares. I wasn’t political and I didn’t have a dog in the Hillary/Obama race anyway. However, it was one of those split second decisions that changes the entire course of one’s life. For some reason, I agreed to do it and my life has never been the same. What we saw…the ugly, vicious, nasty voter fraud committed by the Obama camp, the DNC and ACORN, has scarred me for life. The entire time we were going across the country interviewing people who had experienced and witnessed the fraud, I could only feel that America was a third world, banana republic like Cuba. In fact, Brad Sherman, a California Congressman, told one of my partners on the film that “there was so much fraud in the Democratic Primary that we look like a banana republic.” He of course refused to say it on camera, but they all knew what happened. All of them. And the fact that no one stood up against this fraud, and in many instances criminal acts, appalled me. What they did to Mrs. Clinton was beyond disgraceful, and in the end we proved that by all accounts she really did win the nomination. Imagine what a different country this would be right now had she won. She might be a far left Democrat like Obama, but the big differences are that she is competent and doesn’t hate this country as he does.
Sher: After you had begun filming the documentary “We Will Not Be Silenced,” you discovered that Barack Hussein Obama’s fraud permeated virtually everything he did politically…from using his group ACORN to commit extreme election fraud to his usage of the New Black Panthers wielding weapons to intimidate voters. The fraud begins with Obama’s stealing votes and support from Hillary Clinton for the 2008 Democrat nomination. Would you give us the details of how this patently ugly and deviant picture unfolded?
Bettina: We started investigating the caucus fraud that was reported in 14 caucus states. There were 2000 complaints in Texas ALONE. Along with those claims, there were as I said a lot of criminal complaints as well at the police stations. What we found in every state was that the stories were always the same. People reporting vandalism, threats, death threats, fraud, falsified documents, lock outs, intimidation, you name it…all directed at the Hillary voters. And the worst part was that the ACORN/Obama campaign/DNC thugs weren’t really hiding it from anyone.
I think that Democrats always justify their fraud with moral relativity. They think that what they are doing is for “everyone’s own good” so the end justifies the means. We saw such blatant disregard for human beings, personal property, the laws of our country, and civil society in general that I was truly horrified. So many people we interviewed were scared to come forward, whether due to threats of losing their lives, their jobs, or being thrown out of the Democratic Party. I just kept thinking…who the hell do these people think they are? They are blatantly and openly committing the most heinous acts of voter fraud, threats, intimidation, and they don’t care. If I brought this fraud up to my Democrat friends, the only thing they said to me was “well BUSH did it too.” But, oddly, this wasn’t Republican on Democrat voter fraud. This was the Democrats eating their own.
Sher: On a lighter note, recently Dictator Obama’s team established his latest snitch website “Attackwatch.com.” Apparently, if anyone tells the truth about Obama they are to be reported to members of the still-growing Obama Police State. I understand that it was taken offline for awhile but, like all of the undead, it’s back! Many conservatives and others reported themselves but, I found your story particularly hilarious. Please tell the readers what you did to report yourself.
Bettina: I have basically had it with the Obama Regime and their snooping on people, trying to silence dissent, attempting to quash the First Amendment. They, again, would love to silence everyone so we can live in some hopey dopey world where no one’s opinions are welcome unless they kiss Obama’s rear end. When Obama put that “Something’s Fishy” nonsense on the White House website, I felt like I was living in Venezuala or Cuba. Everyone was supposed to “report their friends and neighbors who say negative things about Obamacare.” WHAT? “Report” them? OMG this really had become Hitler Germany. So, rather than wait for one of my friends or neighbors to report how much I hated Obama and his disgusting, vile, ridiculous “destroy America” piece of garbage legislation, DEATHCARE, I decided to just report MYSELF.

I called the White House message line, got a live operator, told her I hate Obama and Obamacare, and that I had my bag packed for the FEMA Camp if she wanted to send someone to come get me. Surprisingly, she laughed and giggled and hung up. I really was waiting for the Secret Service visit but it never came. Which kind of angers me because I have Facebook friends who have made very benign comments about Obama and have received the visits from the guys in the black SUVs. I guess you haven’t arrived until you have been the recipient of Obama’s attempt to shut everyone up.
Sher: Working in Hollywood, you have a unique perspective. What are you hearing about Obama’s continuation of his destructive tenure that you can share with us?
Bettina: I try not to discuss politics that much with my friends in Hollywood. They are all great people, but sometimes I wonder if they even know why they are liberals. I mean, it has come down to the fact that you just CAN’T support Obama and his criminal regime, no matter what party you are in. It’s too bad, because the Democrats signed their own death warrant by taking down Hillary for Obama. We warned them, and now I see a ton of buyer’s remorse. I will say this…In public you will never get anyone in Hollywood to discuss Obama’s disastrous “Presidency.” They know it would be career suicide to tell the truth. But, when I have private conversations with my friends, they admit he is a failure and was a mistake. Three years ago I warned everyone that Obama was the biggest threat to our safety, security and prosperity and I am sadly right.
Sher: Thanks so much, Bettina. Is there anything else you’d like to share with the readers?
Bettina: This has been an incredibly eye-opening three years for me. I think we can all agree that the direction of our country has been hideous and that this is possibly the last chance we have to repair the damage. I would just like to say to your readers…Get involved. This is critical to the survival of our country. The best thing people can do is get active; become poll watchers in their precincts, because the ACORN people are out there already, getting ready to steal another election. Obama’s numbers are so bad, that we know there is no logical way for him to win in 2012. The fraud will be huge, just like it was in 2008. Please, people, don’t stay home. Support the GOP candidate…donate your time and money…and volunteer at your polling location. This is the most important fight of our lifetime. The one thing I can say about my fellow Americans who have decided to join the fight to save our country…Democrats really underestimate the power of the American Spirit.

Would You Vote for This Conservative for President of the United States?

I know about Libya. I know what Federal agencies must go. I know how many states we have. I know Hawaii isn't in Asia. I know how to pronounce corpsman. I can throw a baseball like a mother-fu*ker and most of all, I don't do vacations.
Stay thirsty my friends and vote for a real American this time!!!
- Nick Contompasis

Soros - Today - Email to Mothers of America to Join Occupy Riots Around the America

From: Monifa, MomsRising.org [mailto:info@momsrising.org]
Sent: Thursday, November 17, 2011
To: Xxxxxxx
Subject: OWS Raided While Protesters Sleep
 
Mayors across the country are attempting to shut down OWS protests.

Add your voice to the call for mayors to protect the constitutional right to assemble!


Take Action

Dear Xxxxxxx,

The time is now.  There is an URGENT need for you to add your voice to the thousands of Momsrising members who want mayors to know that the right to peaceably assemble is a fundamental cornerstone of our democracy. [1]
Two months ago, on Wall Street in New York, hundreds of people gathered to generate critical and much-needed coverage about the economic issues ordinary families are facing when they try to feed, clothe, and educate their children.  Every day, MomsRising members fight for leaders to prioritize Main Street, not only Wall Street--and the Occupy Wall Street movement is bringing more attention to these issues and must not be shut down.
We need your help in getting more letters to mayors in cities, like Chicago, Oakland, Atlanta, and New York, where attempts have been made to shut down protests. Tuesday, the mayor of New York used thousands of police in riot gear to temporarily dismantle the Occupy Wall Street camp in the middle of the night, while many protesters were asleep. [2]
Please take a moment to sign on to our open letter to mayors across the country--urging them to allow the Occupy Wall Street participants to peaceably assemble as is their constitutional right:
In contrast to New York’s mayor, the mayors of Santa Fe and Albany, NY have worked with protesters [3]. These collaborations have made protest sites safe, while still allowing a platform for freedom of speech and assembly.
More than 100 cities across the country have joined the Occupy Wall Street movement in a call for better banking and government economic polices and practices. And as crowds of dynamic, energetic, and peaceful people gather in city centers, some local officials are getting antsy.  At 1:30 Tuesday morning, without warning, thousands of police officers descended on New York’s Occupy Wall Street and evicted protesters who'd been peacefully occupying Liberty Park for months.
Don't forget to sign on to our open letter to mayors across the country urging them to allow the Occupy Wall Street participants to peaceably assemble:
Your message to mayors underscores that there are vast numbers of people, beyond those who are able to participate in-person, who are deeply concerned about the growing economic inequality and poverty, and declining median incomes in our country. So please take a moment now, after you click the link above and take action, to forward this email to friends and family--and also to post the action link on your Facebook page--so others can show their support too.
It's particularly important that mothers and families speak up in support because the Occupy Wall Street movement is an important wake up call that ALL leaders need to hear: Our leaders can't keep balancing budgets on the already overburdened backs of children, families, and regular people--the 99%--while giving Wall Street a free ride.  
What, and who, are the 99% anyway?
As the New York Times recently wrote: "When the protesters say they represent 99 percent of Americans, they are referring to the concentration of income in today's deeply unequal society. Before the recession, the share of income held by those in the top 1 percent of households was 23.5 percent, the highest since 1928 and more than double the 10 percent level of the late 1970s. That share declined slightly as financial markets tanked in 2008, and updated data is not yet available, but inequality is most certainly on the rise. In the last few years, for instance, corporate profits (which flow largely to the wealthy) have reached their highest level as a share of the economy since 1950, while worker pay as a share of the economy is at its lowest point since the mid-1950s." [4]
*Don't forget to sign on to our open letter to mayors across the country urging them to allow the Occupy Wall Street participants to peaceably assemble:
Thank you for taking a moment to support getting this message out loud and clear all over the country!  (And don't forget to forward this email and post the action link on Facebook too!)
- Monifa and the whole MomsRising Team

P.S. Share why you would like leaders and Congress to prioritize families on Main Street instead of Wall Street here.



[1] First Amendment of the Unites States Constitution

[2] Associated Press – November 15, 2011 and New York Times, November 15, 2011

[3] NewMexican.com, November 4, 2011

[4] New York Times , October 10, 2011

Like what we're doing? Donate: We're a bootstrap, low overhead, mom run organization. Your donations make the work of MomsRising.org possible--and we deeply appreciate your support. Every little bit counts.

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Why Obama is Opposed to Israel

by Bishop E. W. Jackson, Sr. | 6/22/2011
A BLACK AMERICAN CLERGYMAN POINTS TO THE SOURCE OF THE PRESIDENT'S ANTI-ISRAELISM
Like Barack Hussein Obama II, I am a graduate of Harvard Law School. I too have Muslims in my family. I am black, and I was once a leftist Democrat.
Since our backgrounds are somewhat similar, I perceive something in Obama's policy toward Israel which people without that background may not see. All my life I have witnessed a strain of anti-Semitism in the black community. It has been fueled by the rise of the Nation of Islam and Louis Farrakhan, but it predates that organization.
We heard it in Jesse Jackson's 'HYMIE town' remark years ago during his presidential campaign. We heard it most recently in Jeremiah Wright's remark about 'them Jews' not allowing Obama to speak with him. I hear it from my own Muslim family members who see the problem in the Middle East as a 'Jew' problem.
Growing up in a small, predominantly black urban community in Pennsylvania, I heard the comments about Jewish shop owners. They were 'greedy cheaters' who could not be trusted, according to my family and others in the neighborhood. I was too young to understand what it means to be Jewish, or know that I was hearing anti-Semitism. These people seemed nice enough to me, but others said they were 'evil'. Sadly, this bigotry has yet to be eradicated from the black community.
In Chicago, the anti-Jewish sentiment among black people is even more pronounced because of the direct influence of Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam. Most African Americans are not followers of 'The Nation', but many have a quiet respect for its leader because, they say, 'he speaks the truth' and 'stands up for the black man'. What they mean of course is that he viciously attacks the perceived 'enemies' of the black community: white people and Jews. Even some self-described Christians buy into his demagoguery.
The question is whether Obama, given his Muslim roots and experience in Farrakhan's Chicago, shares this antipathy for Israel and Jewish people. Is there any evidence that he does?
First, the President was taught for twenty years by a virulent anti-Semite, the Reverend Jeremiah Wright. In the black community it is called 'sitting under'. You don't merely attend a church, you 'sit under' a Pastor to be taught and mentored by him. Obama 'sat under' Wright for a very long time. He was comfortable enough with Farrakhan: Wright's friend: to attend and help organize his 'Million Man March'. I was on C-Span the morning of the march arguing that we must never legitimize a racist and anti-Semite, no matter what 'good' he claims to be doing. Yet a future President was in the crowd giving Farrakhan his enthusiastic support.
The classic left wing view is that Israel is the oppressive occupier, and the Palestinians are Israel 's victims. Obama is clearly sympathetic to this view. In speaking to the 'Muslim World, 'he did not address the widespread Islamic hatred of Jews. Instead he attacked Israel over the growth of West Bank settlements. Surely he knows that settlements are not the crux of the problem. The absolute refusal of the Palestinians to accept Israel's right to exist as a Jewish state is the insurmountable obstacle. That's where the pressure needs to be placed, but this President sees it differently. He also made the preposterous comparison of the Holocaust to Palestinian 'dislocation'.
Obama clearly has Muslim sensibilities. He sees the world and Israel from a Muslim perspective. His construct of 'The Muslim World' is unique in modern diplomacy. It is said that only The Muslim Brotherhood and other radical elements of the religion use that concept. It is a call to unify Muslims around the world. It is rather odd to hear an American President use it. In doing so he reveals more about his thinking than he intends. The dramatic policy reversal of joining the unrelentingly anti-Semitic, anti-Israel and pro-Islamic UN Human Rights Council is in keeping with the President's truest: albeit undeclared red: sensibilities.
Those who are paying attention and thinking about these issues do not find it unreasonable to consider that President Obama is influenced by a strain of anti-Semitism picked up from the black community, his leftist friends and colleagues, his Muslim associations and his long period of mentor-ship under Jeremiah Wright. If this conclusion is accurate, Israel has some dark days ahead. For the first time in her history, she may find the President of the United States siding with her enemies. Those who believe, as I do, that Israel must be protected had better be ready for the fight. We are.

NEVER AGAIN!

E. W. Jackson is Bishop of Exodus Faith Ministries, an author and retired attorney

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

George Soros is Now Pushing Your Child's Teachers to Start Mimi Occupy Demonstrations Across the Country on Thursday - In This Email Tonight

From: Lenore Palladino, MoveOn.org Civic Action [moveon-help@list.moveon.org]
Sent: Tuesday, November 15, 2011
To: TEACHER
Subject: URGENT: Can you host a 99% event in your city?

Occupy Wall Street protesters were evicted early this morning. Can you host an event on Thursday in your city to show the strength and resolve of the 99% movement?

Host an event!
I can't lead this event, but keep me up to date on the campaign.
The original #OWS call to action for the 17th included this fitting line: "You cannot evict an idea whose time has come. We are the 99%. We are everywhere." You have the chance to make these words a powerful reality by organizing an event to show the 99% won't stop the fight against rampant inequality in our country.
Can you organize a vigil or speak-out to make sure your community's voice is heard on "We Are The 99%" day?
Yes, I can lead an event this Thursday!

Thanks for all you do,
–Lenore, Laura, Carrie, Anna

Monday, November 14, 2011

These are the Demands Occupy Wall Street Want - Get a Load of this Bullshit - PURE COMMUNISM

Repeal the Taft-Hartley Act. Unionize ALL workers immediately.

Raise the minimum wage immediately to $18/hr. Create a maximum wage of $90/hr to eliminate inequality.

Institute a 6 hour workday, and 6 weeks of paid vacation.

Institute a moratorium on all foreclosures and layoffs immediately.

Repeal racist and xenophobic English-only laws.

Open the borders to all immigrants, legal or illegal. Offer immediate, unconditional amnesty, to all undocumented residents of the US.

Create a single-payer, universal health care system.

Pass stricter campaign finance reform laws. Ban all private donations. All campaigns will receive equal funding, provided by the taxpayers.

Institute a negative income tax, and tax the very rich at rates up to 90%.

Pass far stricter environmental protection and animal rights laws.

Allow workers to elect their supervisors.

Lower the retirement age to 55. Increase Social Security benefits.

Create a 5% annual wealth tax for the very rich.

Ban the private ownership of land.

Make homeschooling illegal. Religious fanatics use it to feed their children propaganda.

Reduce the age of majority to 16.

Abolish the death penalty and life in prison. We call for the immediate release of all death row inmates from death row and transferred to regular prisons.

Release all political prisoners immediately.

Immediate withdrawal from Iraq and Afghanistan.

Abolish the debt limit.

Ban private gun ownership.

Strengthen the separation of church and state.

Immediate debt forgiveness for all.

End the 'War on Drugs'.

Sunday, November 13, 2011

This is the Kind of Leadership We Need in America

By Nicholas Contompasis

British Member of the European Parliament, Nigel Farage to European Parliament is brilliant in this video. This is leadership at its finest. Watch how he points out the member countries folly and the doom they are about to experience. "What planet are you on?" he asks the members.
Questions that should be asked of our own Congressmen and President.
This video is empowering. Watch the entire video, it gets better as he hits a grand slam.



Bonus video


What the European Union is Really Afraid of.....

By Nicholas Contompasis

As the Soviet Union gradually became a distant memory, the small countries of Europe formed the E.U. The formation of this European Union was to bring economic and social prosperity to the region, similar to the U.S.

Thus, during twenty years as it grew, the living standards of its member states became some of the best in the world. But, trouble was brewing.

Like most unions there are always weak links that have to be supported when times are bad, and it appears this is one of those times.

I won’t bore you with the messy details of why Greece and other member states are derelict in their financial dealings. I’m just going to remind you of what is really bothering this frail union of debt ridden countries. The angry protesters on the streets of Athens may appear to be the reason for concern, but they're not.

It’s about a history book, The History of Europe. In that book as you read chapter after chapter, you are constantly reminded that every country, at one time or another had raped and pillaged the other. It could be said that after hundreds of years just about every person in Europe had a damn good reason to kill people from every other member state.

As this European economic crisis spreads across the landscape of historic battlefields and graves of ancestors, the leaders of this Union know that it must not fail, or else.

Or else, the continent will revert back to its historic ways of envy, greed and prejudice. For if this Union were too fail and break back into its original countries, historians know it would be just a matter of time before another continental war occurred. The E.U. fears itself more than any external threat.

So, don’t be surprised if you see the E.U. do everything in its power to keep its members in tow. For it’s easier to write a check than bury the dead.

It's the devil in all of us that must be controlled, or we will fall back into an old but new chapter in The History of Europe.

Saturday, November 12, 2011

Occupy Wall Street vs Tea Party Equals Civil War - Where Have the Tea Party Street Demonstrations Gone?


By Nicholas Contompasis

Can you imagine what would happen if Occupy Wall Street demonstrators met the Tea Party on the streets of America? Of course, there would be violence. That's why you don't see Tea Party street demonstrations anymore in America.
In a logical and well thought out move, the Tea Party has taken the movement to cyberspace, where they can touch more people and counter the so called Leftist mainstream media.
This is one of the smartest moves by the Tea Party since their inception back in 2009. The interesting part of this seemingly well coordinated move was that it wasn't coordinated at all. It just happened.
It seems that the clear minded Patriots of America came up with this strategic move individually on their own. The move was nothing short of brilliant and flies in the face of the Obama Administration's attempt to create a violent and disruptive environment in America.
Their plan isn't working, and for that matter seems to be backfiring on them. The American people are fed up with the filthy, raping and robbing demonstrators that now represent the President, Lefty Congressmen and Mayors. The cause of this disruption to Americans is squarely being laid at the feet of Democrats.
With three murders and deaths reported at Occupy sites over the past two days America has had it!!!
Now, most Liberal mayors that are hosting these bizarre acts of outspoken insanity are turning on the demonstrators. They now say they will clean up the mess they've encouraged and will finally do their jobs of maintaining order and stability in our larger American cities.
Time will tell, but in the meantime the Tea Party remains the undisputed champion of Democracy at work for a better America. They didn't need a leader, they didn't need a play book, they just did what was in their hearts and they're rapidly changing America for the better.
There will never be a conflict between the Tea Party and Occupy simply because the Tea Party members are smart, love their country and wouldn't do anything to harm it. We can't say that about Occupy, can we?

Friday, November 11, 2011

J. Edgar - When the FBI Meets Brokeback Mountain


By Nicholas Contompasis

I Just saw J. Edgar, Clint Eastwoods new movie about J. Edgar Hoover who was director of the FBI for decades. It was a great movie which will remind all of us how fragile our Democracy is.
Peppered throughout the movie are reminders and warning signs of how far we've gone unbridled into dangerous and unchartered waters with our society.
If you see it, which I suggest you do, you'll see the parallel between old communist riots and demonstrations with our now violent Occupy Wall Street demonstrations.
The rather confusing sex life of Hoover frankly is nothing I was interested in, but Eastwood was clever enough to weave all of it into a extremely informative movie.

Thursday, November 10, 2011

The President Pardons Penn State Coach Jerry Sandusky of Pedophilia Crimes

This was taken from the New York Times yesterday November 9, 2021.

The President Pardons Jerry Sandusky Penn State Coach

by Nathan Semoresmutt

The President of the United States today announced that he has pardoned Jerry Sandusky, coach for Penn State, who was charged and convicted of sexual abuse to children while being on staff with Penn State's football team.
The President made his announcement in coordination with the signing of House Bill 111169 that establishes a don't ask don't tell national law for pedophiles and individuals that follow the practice of bestiality. He went on to announce the release of all convicted pedophiles and abusers of animals in the country's 2,133 jails and that the database that has been tracking them for decades be destroyed.
The President also stated that he was happy that a new day was dawning for these oppressed members of society and that a statue of Sandusky would be placed somewhere in the D.C. area to honor his fight for justice, even though he passed away five years ago in a state prison of pedophilia-loneliness, a common disease of these individuals.
The United Christian Union that now represents all Christians in America, now a minority religion, has objected to the signing of this bill and the President's blatant ignorance to the violence that it will bring to young children and animals. They also went on to say that it all started back in 2008 when the country turned hard Left with the election of President Obama who opened the door by canceling the military don't ask don't tell policy for gays and allowing gays to marry. They went on to say that the moral deterioration of the country has gradually degraded since that time.
It was also mentioned that the President was happy that his followers in the Democrat party have opened their arms to the members of the American Man Boy Love Association as new votes for the President.


Disclaimer: This is a satire and is not factual. It is not meant to promote pedophilia or bestiality. To the contrary it is meant to illustrate the continual moral decay in America.
Written by Nicholas Contompasis

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

U.S.A. BANKRUPTCY 101

It is easy to dismiss individual programs that benefit non-citizens until they're put together and this picture emerges.  Someone did a lot of research to put together all of this data. Often these programs are buried within other programs making them difficult to find. 
A Real Eye Opener 
WHY is the USA BANKRUPT?
Informative, and mind boggling! You think the war in Iraq was costing us too much?  
Read this:
We have been hammered with the propaganda that it was the Iraq war and 
the war on terror that is bankrupting us. I now find that to be RIDICULOUS. I hope the following 14 reasons are forwarded over and over again until they are read so many times that the reader gets sick of reading them. I also have included the URL's for verification 
of all the following facts...

1. $11 Billion to $22 billion is spent on welfare to illegal aliens each year by state governments.
2. $22 Billion dollars a year is spent on food assistance programs such as food stamps, 
WIC, and free school lunches for illegal aliens.
3. $2.5 Billion dollars a year is spent on Medicaid for illegal aliens.  
4. $12 Billion dollars a year is spent  on primary and secondary school education 
for children here illegally and they cannot speak a word of English!
5. $17 Billion dollars a year is spent for education for the American-born children of illegal aliens, known as anchor babies.
6. $3 Million Dollars a DAY is spent to incarcerate illegal aliens. 
7. 30% percent of all Federal Prison inmates are illegal aliens. 
8. $90 Billion Dollars a year is spent on illegal aliens for Welfare & social services by the American taxpayers.
9.$200 Billion dollars a year in suppressed American wages are caused by the illegal 
aliens.
13. In 2006, illegal aliens sent home $45 BILLION in remittances to their countries of origin.
14. The Dark Side of Illegal Immigration: Nearly One million sex crimes committed 
by Illegal Immigrants In The United States .

The total cost is a whopping $ 338.3 BILLION DOLLARS A YEAR AND IF YOU'RE LIKE ME, HAVING TROUBLE UNDERSTANDING THIS AMOUNT OF MONEY; IT IS $338,300,000,000.00 WHICH WOULD BE ENOUGH TO STIMULATE THE ECONOMY FOR THE CITIZENS OF THIS COUNTRY. Are we THAT Stupid? 
YES, FOR LETTING THOSE IN THE U.S. CONGRESS GET AWAY WITH LETTING 
THIS HAPPEN YEAR AFTER YEAR!!!!! 

 

Obama's Evil Plan to Regulate Christianity - Today Announced a New Tax on Christmas Trees


By Nicholas Contompasis

This is how it starts friends, the slow insidious government creep into what any normal person would think is a mundane and harmless industry. Obama is now regulating into submission the Christmas tree industry.
We all know what their plan is. With the help of environmentalists and atheists expect to see limits put on the sale of Christmas trees. This would be a slap in the face to every Christian in America.
As American Christians continue to battle their own government for the legitimacy of their religion, this is just another reminder of what President Obama said earlier in his Presidency "America is not a Christian nation."
I beg to differ!!!


By David S. Addington

Heritage Reported:

President Obama’s Agriculture Department today announced that it will impose a new 15-cent charge on all fresh Christmas trees—the Christmas Tree Tax—to support a new Federal program to improve the image and marketing of Christmas trees.

In the Federal Register of November 8, 2011, Acting Administrator of Agricultural Marketing David R. Shipman announced that the Secretary of Agriculture will appoint a Christmas Tree Promotion Board. The purpose of the Board is to run a “program of promotion, research, evaluation, and information designed to strengthen the Christmas tree industry’s position in the marketplace; maintain and expend existing markets for Christmas trees; and to carry out programs, plans, and projects designed to provide maximum benefits to the Christmas tree industry” (7 CFR 1214.46(n)). And the program of “information” is to include efforts to “enhance the image of Christmas trees and the Christmas tree industry in the United States” (7 CFR 1214.10).

To pay for the new Federal Christmas tree image improvement and marketing program, the Department of Agriculture imposed a 15-cent fee on all sales of fresh Christmas trees by sellers of more than 500 trees per year (7 CFR 1214.52). And, of course, the Christmas tree sellers are free to pass along the 15-cent Federal fee to consumers who buy their Christmas trees.

Acting Administrator Shipman had the temerity to say the 15-cent mandatory Christmas tree fee “is not a tax nor does it yield revenue for the Federal government” (76 CFR 69102). The Federal government mandates that the Christmas tree sellers pay the 15-cents per tree, whether they want to or not. The Federal government directs that the revenue generated by the 15-cent fee goes to the Board appointed by the Secretary of Agriculture to carry out the Christmas tree program established by the Secretary of Agriculture. Mr. President, that’s a new 15-cent tax to pay for a Federal program to improve the image and marketing of Christmas trees.

Another opinion -


The Christmas Tree Tax Is a Microcosm of What’s Wrong with Constitutional Law

Posted by Ilya Shapiro

Jim Harper beat me to the punch on the new Christmas tree tax — probably because I initially thought it was a joke — but there’s actually much more to say here beyond the USDA’s claim that it’s not a tax and the general absurdity of the situation.  Three quick things:

First, there are obvious Free Exercise and Equal Protection issues here.  That is, unless we consider Christmas trees to be wholly secular, this is an obvious burden on the free exercise of Christianity, and one that no other religion faces.  Even if it might be reasonable to see Christmas trees as not particularly religious – pine trees played no role in The Greatest Story Ever Told and, e.g., my secular Jewish family always had a traditional Russian New Year’s Tree (which has no ties to Russian Orthodox Christianity) – but do we want courts drawing lines between, say, creches/crucifixes and trees/Santa?

Second, and probably even more important given the times in which we live, where in the Constitution does the federal government get the power to tax the sale of a local agricultural product?  Setting aside trees trucked in from out-of-state, there’s no interstate commerce here to regulate.  And if it’s a tax (which, again, Ag officials deny) — presumably an excise, which is specified in the Constitution and which courts have construed to be a tax on transactions or privileges – how does assessing it to promote the general welfare or common defense?  The administration cites the Commodity Promotion, Research and Information Act of 1996, under which the tax mandatory fee funds a new program to ”enhance the image of Christmas trees and the Christmas tree industry in the United States.”  That’s what passes for the general welfare? 

Third, even if the tax is a lawful use of federal power, shouldn’t Congress be the body levying it, rather than an agency of the USDA?

I could go on, but this little 15-cent tree tax is a microcosm of what’s wrong with constitutional law, evermore divorced from the Constitution as it is.  Yes, under modern doctrine, the Christmas tree tax can be probably justified under either the Commerce Clause or the General Welfare Clause — and Congress can delegate to bureaucrats the power to levy certain “assessments” – but is that the kind of government we signed up for?

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

What Did Obama Really Say to President Sarkozy of France and Why It's Important - "Everyday" - "More Often"

By Nicholas Contompasis

"I cannot bear Netanyahu, he's a liar," Sarkozy told Obama.
"You're fed up with him, but I have to deal with him even more often than you," Obama replied.
There are conflicting reports that Obama said "everyday" not "more often," leading to the question, why change the comment and what would be the importance of "everyday"?
Let me try and fill in the gaps.
"Everyday" could allude to the fact that there is an ongoing joint military action against Iran and Obama slipped up. Whatever they said, it's very dangerous.

The Methods of Nonviolent Protest and Persuasion - My Take - Part III


By Nicholas Contompasis

Know the 198 rules of fighting back and recognizing manipulation by others.
From Gene Sharp's book (1973) The Politics of Nonviolent Action.
Remember, all sides are capable of using these methods and are. It's all around you, as you'll start to notice.

Political Intervention
193. Overloading of administrative systems (sound familiar - entitlements - big gov)
194. Disclosing identities of secret agents (sound familiar - Wikileaks)
195. Seeking imprisonment (sound familiar - Occupy Wall Street)
196. Civil disobedience of "neutral" laws (sound familiar)
197. Work-on without collaboration (Executive Orders)
198. Dual sovereignty and parallel government (sound familiar - Obama czars)

The Methods of Nonviolent Protest and Persuasion - My Take - Part II


By Nicholas Contompasis

Know the 198 rules of fighting back and recognizing manipulation by others.
From Gene Sharp's book (1973) The Politics of Nonviolent Action.
Remember, all sides are capable of using these methods and are. It's all around you, as you'll start to notice.

Withdrawal from the Social System
65. Stay-at-home (sound familiar?)
66. Total personal noncooperation (sound familiar?)
67. "Flight" of workers
68. Sanctuary
69. Collective disappearance
70. Protest emigration (sound familiar?)

The Methods of Nonviolent Protest and Persuasion - My Take - Part I


By Nicholas Contompasis

Know the 198 rules of fighting back and recognizing manipulation by others.
From Gene Sharp's book (1973) The Politics of Nonviolent Action.

Action by Holders of Financial Resources (that's you).

86. Withdrawal of bank deposits (sound familiar?)
87. Refusal to pay fees, dues, and assessments (sound familiar?)
88. Refusal to pay debts or interest (sound familiar?)
89. Severance of funds and credit (sound familiar?)
90. Revenue refusal
91. Refusal of a government's money

Saturday, November 5, 2011

This is the Back Story on the Egyptian Uprising and U.S. Involvement - Egypt: A Virtual Smoking Gun?

by Maidhc Ó Cathail March 4, 2011

On January 12, 2009, US Undersecretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs James K. Glassman joined a group of Egyptian political bloggers from the Virtual Newsroom of the American University in Cairo.
Less than two months earlier, Glassman and Jared Cohen (Update: Jared Cohen’s buddy, Nicole Lapin, the daughter of a former Miss Israel, has been romantically linked to Twitter founder and CEO Jack Dorsey, whom Cohen contacted in June 2009 to help keep Iranian dissidents twittering.) from the Secretary’s Policy Planning Staff had given an on-the-record briefing on the State Department’s alliance with ten partners in the private sector—including Facebook, Google, MTV, AT&T, Howcast, Access 360 Media—to form the Alliance for Youth Movements (AYM). During the briefing, Glassman singled out Egypt’s April 6 Youth Movement for special mention, saying that some of its members would be in attendance at the inaugural AYM youth summit in New York from December 3-5. Asked about “the risk of unleashing something here that is going to come back to bite you, especially with our allies,” Glassman replied:
We are very supportive of pro-democracy groups around the world. And sometimes, that puts us at odds with certain governments.
When pressed by the questioner, Glassman added:
Now, we have to work with those governments. And let me also just say, there’s a difference on an operational level between public—what we do in public diplomacy and what is often done in official diplomacy. We are communicating and engaging at the level of the public, not at the level of officials. So you know, it certainly is possible that some of these governments will not be all that happy that—at what we’re doing, but that’s what we do in public diplomacy.
Commenting on Cohen’s point that “these organizations online that are coming together are more of a new kind of civil society organization” that “eventually makes the transformation,” Glassman acknowledged that the US government has “been engaging with such civil society organizations in places like Egypt for a long time.”
As Al Jazeera revealed in a behind the scenes look at Egypt’s non-violent coup, the State Department-linked April 6 Youth Movement played a crucial role in making that “transformation,” by organizing and directing the protests that toppled America’s erstwhile ally Mubarak. The April 6 leaders also received training from the Belgrade-based Centre for Applied Nonviolent Action and Strategies (CANVAS), which works closely with the International Center for Nonviolent Conflict (ICNC). The ICNC was founded and funded entirely by Peter Ackerman, the junk bond “teflon guy,” who chaired Freedom House from September 2005 until January 2009. Freedom House is funded in part by the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), the US government-sponsored neoconservative-led regime change specialists.
On April 19, 2010, Ackerman attended an event entitled “Cyber-Dissidents and Political Change” sponsored by the George W. Bush Institute, which Glassman has headed since September 3, 2009. “Inspired by President and Mrs. Bush’s unwavering commitment to freedom for all people,” its website states, “The Bush Institute works to embolden dissidents and freedom advocates, creating a powerful network for moral support and education.” Among the cyber-dissidents in attendance at its Dallas event were Rodrigo Diamanti from Venezuela; Arash Kamangir, from Iran; Oleg Kozlovsky, from Russia; Ernesto Hernández Busto, from Cuba (who lives in Barcelona); Isaac Mao, from China; and Ahed Alhendi, from Syria. Clearly, some countries are seen as more deserving of Mr. and Mrs. Bush’s freedom advocacy than others.
In 2007, Glassman became Chairman of the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), a US government agency that provides propaganda to non-American overseas audiences via the Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, the Middle East Broadcasting Networks (Alhurra TV and Radio Sawa), Radio Free Asia, and the Office of Cuba Broadcasting (Radio and TV Marti). Norman J. Pattiz, the “founding father” of Radio Sawa, which is increasingly popular in Egypt, sits on BBG’s board. Pattiz is also on the national board of the Israel Policy Forum, which is “committed to a strong and enduring U.S.-Israel relationship and to advancing the shared interests of the United States and the State of Israel.” Its Israeli Advisory Council is comprised of prominent figures from the Israeli military and intelligence establishment, mostly notably David Kimche, who was once described as “Israel’s Leading Spy and Would-Be Mossad Chief.” According to a Washington Report profile:
The “man with the suitcase,” as Kimche became known by colleagues in Israel, would appear in an African country a day or two before a major coup, and leave a week later after the new regime was firmly in control, often with the aid of Israeli security teams. (One of Israel’s protege allies in Africa whom Kimche helped to groom was none other than the continent’s most infamous ruler, Col. Idi Amin of Uganda.)
Prior to his involvement with “democracy promotion,” Glassman was a resident fellow at the neoconservative American Enterprise Institute, the propaganda mill that hatched the “global war on terror” primarily to advance the national interest of Israel. While there he founded The American, a magazine of ideas for business leaders, published by the AEI, and was its editor-in-chief from 2005 to 2007. Clearly, his neocon paymasters were not put off by his unenviable financial track record. In his 1999 book “Dow 36,000,” written shortly before the dot-com bubble burst, he predicted that the Dow Jones Industrial Average would rise to 36,000 within a few years. Commenting on the “hysteria” that fueled the deregulation-induced financial crisis nine years later, Ralph Nader singled out Glassman’s bestseller, joking that he would send it back to Glassman with one of the zeros missing.
As evidence of what a small neocon world we live in, Glassman’s co-author, Kevin A. Hassett, was an economic advisor to John McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign. Sen. McCain, who chairs NED’s Republican wing, the International Republican Institute, recently paid a visit to Tahrir Square with his inseparable travel buddy, Joe Lieberman, “the No. 1 pro-Israel advocate and leader in Congress.” Surveying the post-revolutionary scene, an “optimistic” Sen. Lieberman declared:
“This is a remarkable situation, and frankly, we should feel very good about the assistance we have given the Egyptian military over the years since the Camp David peace with Israel, because the Egyptian military really allowed this revolution in Egypt to be peaceful and let the people carry out their desires for political freedom and economic opportunity.”