Don’t Piss Off China – Listen To Ron Paul

China’s US$1.3 trillion in foreign exchange reserves are the largest in the world and are believed to be comprised largely of dollar assets, potentially giving Beijing enormous sway over the dollar’s value and currency markets worldwide.

…. Chinese government economists as saying China would dump its dollar holdings in the event of a trade war with Washington added to jitters in stock markets already unnerved by volatility in U.S. share markets.

Government Debt – The Greatest Threat to National Security   by Rep. Ron Paul, MD

 Once again the federal government has reached its “debt ceiling,” and once again Congress is poised to authorize an increase in government borrowing. Between its ever-growing bureaucracies, expanding entitlements, and overseas military entanglements, the federal government is borrowing roughly one billion dollars every day to pay its bills.

Federal law limits the amount of debt the U.S. Treasury may carry, and the current amount – a whopping $7.4 trillion – has been reached once again by a spendthrift federal government. Total federal spending, which now exceeds $2 trillion annually, once took more than 100 years to double. Today it doubles in less than a decade, and the rate is accelerating. When President Reagan entered office in 1981 facing a federal debt of $1 trillion that had piled up over the decades, he declared that figure “incomprehensible.” At its present rate of spending, the federal government will soon amass $1 trillion of new debt in just one year.

Why am I hearing these facts from a Libertarian?  Why aren’t these facts being  debated by all candidates candidly?  America’s decisions must pass scrutiny by China before it listens to American Taxpayers?    What exactly is the American voice in this equation?    It’s not rocket science to understand that your child’s allowance will suffer when you must pay the mortgage instead.  China seems to hold the note on this country,  that’s fine with me as long as I don’t suffer from neglect by those I elect to administer the business of America.  America’s allowance is the welfare of our infrastructure.  We know all about that because we destroyed Iraq’s infrastructure and must pay to rebuild it.  Meantime, our bridges are falling,  our roads need repair,  our local services are scraping by,  our water supply is getting polluted and dwindling, our sewer systems are collapsing and our kids health care is pitiful.  Oh, forgot,  our electrical grid is becoming unreliable.  So, what does this all mean?  Ever hear of “robbing Peter to pay Paul”?  Well, Peter is pissed and Ron Paul knows it.

Is this why Bush has Armageddon envy?  Will this cancel our debts?  It surely get everyone’s mind off his criminal behavior and focus on personal survival! 

While Middle East Anticipates Bush Free World, White House Launches Propaganda Storm

Middle East already planning for Bush’s departure

Bush, Congress could collide on Iran By Matt Stearns | McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON – Taking military action against Iran could put President Bush on a collision course with Congress, leading Democrats and a Republican lawmaker cautioned Friday following Bush’s threat of unspecified consequences for alleged Iranian meddling in Iraq.

Iraq pullout could create chaos By Nancy A. Youssef | McClatchy Newspapers
WASHINGTON — U.S. troops could withdraw from Iraq within months, but if Iraq’s government remains politically deadlocked, it probably would collapse and the nation would descend into chaos … the U.S. Army concluded earlier this month.

I feel disinformation raining down on my head. I feel another ‘marketing ploy’ to confuse important issues, again. BushCo wants to beat Musharraf at the ‘State of Emergency’ game! Watch out Iran … Darth Cheney has his eye on you …

Cheney’s Secret Escalation Plan? By Dan Froomkin Special to washingtonpost.com
At yesterday’s press conference, President Bush announced that he had put Iran on notice. “One of the main reasons that I asked [U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan] Crocker to meet with Iranians inside Iraq, was to send the message that there will be consequences for people transporting, delivering EFPs, highly sophisticated IEDs [improvised explosive devices] that kill Americans in Iraq.”
Describing Iran as “a very troubling nation right now,” largely because of its nuclear program, Bush warned its leaders that “when we catch you playing a non-constructive role [in Iraq] there will be a price to pay.”
So what price is Bush prepared to exact? Is this saber-rattling a harbinger of war? And perhaps most to the point: What is Vice President Cheney up to?
…..Cheney has long been said to be looking for some way to maneuver Bush into having no choice but to launch a full-scale attack against Iran. Vice President Cheney does not support President Bush’s tack towards Condoleezza Rice’s diplomatic efforts and fears that the President is taking diplomacy with Iran too seriously.     “This White House official has stated to several Washington insiders that Cheney is planning to deploy an ‘end run strategy’ around the President if he and his team lose the policy argument. . . .  “According to this official, Cheney believes that Bush can not be counted on to make the ‘right decision’ when it comes to dealing with Iran and thus Cheney believes that he must tie the President’s hands.’”    Isn’t that called TREASON?

Anger follows fear! Fear that the hijackers of this country are getting closer to taking a fatal step toward the Armageddon they so desperately want. Anger that I must sit here and watch worthless caucuses decide who our leader will not be. Yes, Iraq will need a babysitter. No, we do not have to threaten Iran with ‘mass destruction’ to pour water on the fire we set. As soon as America can demonstrate that religion of oil (the new Christianity) is not the solution, the middle east may be more negotiable. The last thing Americans should endorse is sending Christian Missionaries … shades of the Catholic Missionaries annihilating the natives of the New World who did not convert quick enough. When someone invades your country and shouts that you must renounce the faith of your fathers and embrace Jesus as their Savior, all hell will break loose! This is what Jihadists see. This is what they are called to die for, even thought politics and economics is still the bottom line. The convert or die mentality is the spark for an Armageddon conflagration! I am very angry at Bush for stirring up Christian Dominionists in this country to endorse a theocratic national agenda. Our soldiers are not evangelists! Keep religion out of politics! If the truth hurts, get out before you start a civil war in this country. We know you are watching and listening to our anger … bring it on!

Bush And Mush Linked At The Hip, Face Similar Fates

Rice ‘sways Musharraf on emergency’
LAHORE, Pakistan (CNN) — U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice helped persuade Pakistan’s President Pervez Musharraf to hold off declaring a state of emergency, high level Pakistani government sources said Thursday. Musharraf was said to be considering the move, which would bolster military rule and suspend democratic freedoms, amid security concerns that pose the biggest threat to army chief’s rule since he seized power in a coup in 1999. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Despite Musharraf’s apparent climbdown, senior U.S. military officials remain deeply concerned that the state of emergency remained a viable option for Pakistan’s leader, according to CNN Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr.

Scared the US, huh, Bush was not ready to pull the inevitable terror debacle to declare his own ‘state emergency’. For Bush and Musharraf, the timing must be right. So, we must keep a close eye on Musharraf , he is our weather vane for the storm Bush has planned for us.

Musharraf’s State of Emergency By Ahmed Rashid, Washington Post
LAHORE, Pakistan — President Pervez Musharraf was on the verge of imposing a state of emergency in Pakistan last week before being stopped by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and civilian advisers. It is clear to all in this extremely tense country that power is rapidly flowing away from Musharraf, even as he desperately tries to find a way out of an impossible political impasse.
Bhutto wants to restore democracy
Independent Online, South Africa – Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf has reiterated his opposition to the return of two exiled former prime ministers before parliamentary elections … in remarks broadcast on Sunday, ex-Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto highlighted her party’s opposition to Pakistan having military leadership.
Timing of Bhutto return in dispute Sydney Morning Herald, Claudia Parsons
BENAZIR BHUTTO, the former prime minister and leader of Pakistan’s largest opposition party, said she hoped to return home by mid-October for elections in which she may ally with the President, Pervez Musharraf.
“I would like to go back to Pakistan sooner rather than later, but General Musharraf still is opposed to my return to Pakistan,” Bhutto said in New York on Saturday. “He’s prepared for my return to Pakistan but the timing of it is under dispute between the two of us.”
Musharraf wants exiled leaders to stay away Staff Reporter, Dawn, Pakistan
ISLAMABAD, Aug 11: President Gen Pervez Musharraf on Saturday said the return of Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif to the country before the general election would disturb the political atmosphere, adding that they would be well-advised not to insist on coming home.

Bhutto, fly in the ointment?

CHENEY – The New Dr. Death, Wants To Strike Iran

Cheney urging strikes on Iran

By Warren P. Strobel, John Walcott and Nancy A. Youssef | McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON – President Bush charged Thursday that Iran continues to arm and train insurgents who are killing U.S. soldiers in Iraq, and he threatened action if that continues.

At a news conference Thursday, Bush said Iran had been warned of unspecified consequences if it continued its alleged support for anti-American forces in Iraq. U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker had conveyed the warning in meetings with his Iranian counterpart in Baghdad, the president said.

Bush wasn’t specific, and a State Department official refused to elaborate on the warning.

Behind the scenes, however, the president’s top aides have been engaged in an intensive internal debate over how to respond to Iran’s support for Shiite Muslim groups in Iraq and its nuclear program. Vice President Dick Cheney several weeks ago proposed launching airstrikes at suspected training camps in Iraq run by the Quds force, a special unit of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, according to two U.S. officials who are involved in Iran policy.

Cheney, who’s long been skeptical of diplomacy with Iran, argued for military action if hard new evidence emerges of Iran’s complicity in supporting anti-American forces in Iraq; for example, catching a truckload of fighters or weapons crossing into Iraq from Iran, one official said.

The two officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to talk publicly about internal government deliberations.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice opposes this idea, the officials said. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has stated publicly that “we think we can handle this inside the borders of Iraq.”

Lea Anne McBride, a Cheney spokeswoman, said only that “the vice president is right where the president is” on Iran policy.

Bush left no doubt at his news conference that he intended to get tough with Iran.

“My message to the Iranian people is, you can do better than this current government,” he said. “You don’t have to be isolated. You don’t have to be in a position where you can’t realize your full economic potential.”

The Bush administration has launched what appears to be a coordinated campaign to pin more of Iraq’s security troubles on Iran. Until now, some hawks within the administration – including Cheney – are said to have favored military strikes to stop Iran from furthering its suspected ambitions for nuclear weapons.

Patrick Clawson, an Iran specialist at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said a strike on the Quds camps in Iran could make the nuclear diplomacy more difficult.

Before launching such a strike, “We better be prepared to go public with very detailed and very convincing intelligence,” Clawson said.

What the hell is this guy thinking? Expanding his war to Iran is a solution to his sinking ship? Mayday, Mayday! We must do something to stop this insanity. Lieberman, Tancredo and Darth Cheney are trying to assure a lifetime of war – no winners! Is this the ploy the Bush A-bomb-a-nation will perpetrate to declare the ‘state of emergency’ required to insure calling off elections? Can you spell ‘civil war’ in America between the ‘lemmings’ and the enlightened? We cannot allow any more world atrocities committed in the name of America! We either evacuate or fight. Pick your poison. I personally don’t want to abandon this great experiment to the awful corruption we have been prisoner to for the last eight years. I prefer to stay and fight. Is anyone with me? We are not subjects to a despotic dictator, we are Americans. We are supposed to have a voice, which means we a have a responsible for protecting our freedom!

Fleas Jumping Off The Dead Administration – Lets Prosecute

Bush’s Muse Stands Accused

Speeches Weren’t His, Colleague Says By Peter Baker Washington Post Staff Writer

He has been hailed as the best White House speechwriter since Kennedy’s Theodore Sorensen, the muse behind President Bush‘s most famous phrases, the moral conscience of the West Wing. But now Michael J. Gerson is accused by a former colleague of taking credit for words he did not write.

According to Matthew Scully, who worked with him for five years, Gerson is not the bard of Bushworld but rather a “self-publicizing” glory hog guilty of “foolish vanity,” “sheer pettiness” and “credit hounding.” In Scully’s account, Gerson did not come up with the language that made him famous. “Few lines of note were written by Mike,” Scully says, “and none at all that come to mind from the post-9/11 addresses — not even ‘axis of evil.’ “

Scully’s blistering portrait of one of the president’s most prominent former advisers, in the new issue of the Atlantic, touched off an intense pushback by the White House yesterday as top Bush aides jumped to defend Gerson as the victim of a jealous associate. But the internecine feuding may signal something broader than pride of authorship. Scully’s 10-page indictment represents the sort of classic Washington tell-all once rare in an administration known for discipline and loyalty.

This is a great illustration of ‘rats jumping ship’, ‘fleas jump off dying animals’.  The impenetrable armor that has protected this most despicable monster, is melting away.  The insiders and kamikazes are seeking safe refuge and last minute advantage.  When you know a cause is lost, you turn ‘states witness‘ to protect your own ass.  Watch the coming months as former ‘unknowns’ emerge to ‘tell all’ about the greasy workings they participated in or witnessed.   Just like someone who ‘rats’ on a mafia boss, these whistleblowers are seeking asylum from the ‘Republican Dons’ who would hurt them very much …

This country needs a Nuremberg Trial for these criminals. There is no excuse. They are the guilty fringe of the most dangerous administration this country has ever produced. The definition of America was edited and re-written to serve the agenda of corporate greed. The crime of taking the emotional tragedy of 9/11, and skewing it to serve their prime agenda of invading Iraq instead of pursuing the “perpetrators” is a ‘high treasonous crime’ against this country. We should be set up to start our own Nuremberg Trial as soon as these guys evacuate the highest positions in this land!

Mixed Signals and Doublespeak

Gates Says Troop Drawdown Possible

WASHINGTON -  Defense Secretary Robert Gates acknowledged Sunday that political stability in Iraq won’t likely happen before the Bush administration makes its critical September assessment on whether its war strategy is working. But Gates declined to predict that a drawdown of U.S. military forces in such a scenario would happen by year’s end.

Gates is almost good at ‘doublespeak‘. More references to Orwellian moments.

“It’s a possibility,” Gates hedged, when asked if he considered a troop drawdown this year a “strong possibility” or would bet on it.

“We’re doing contingency planning on a lot of different possibilities,” Gates said.

“Circumstances changed in a different way,” Gates said. “That’s the process we hope will evolve over time.”

Gates cannot keep his optimism afloat. Speculation about what US “drawdown” capabilities will be when Petraeus reads his script in September, is a marketing exercise. Why can’t Gates keep his story straight? Because, he has no clue what script will handed to him, he is not the only Hollywood production in the works.

US may start Iraq pull-out this year, says Gates
Gates: U.S. underestimated Iraq ‘mistrust’
Gates says Iraq politics disappointing

Gates says political stability in Iraq unlikely before September

Then, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says on Fox Noise,
Security “has improved some” because of U.S. and Iraqi cooperation, she said Sunday.

“Clearly, too, we have a lot of work to do on the political side,” she said. But, she added, “I would not underestimate the importance of the continuing work of the leaders of these very powerful parties in Iraq.” A majority vote would get the law passed “but it would not have the force of all of the groups that wanted to do this,” she said. “They don’t want a 51-49 on constitutional reform.”

Condi is expert at ‘doublespeak‘. No one can pin her down on anything.

Bush Ability to “Strike Fear” Trumps The Bill Of Rights

House Approves Wiretap Measure

White House Bill Boosts Warrantless Surveillance

By Ellen Nakashima and Joby Warrick Washington Post

The Democratic-controlled House last night approved and sent to President Bush for his signature legislation written by his intelligence advisers to enhance their ability to intercept the electronic communications of foreigners without a court order.

The 227 to 183 House vote capped a high-pressure campaign by the White House to change the nation’s wiretap law, in which the administration capitalized on Democrats’ fears of being branded weak on terrorism and on a general congressional desire to act on the measure before an August recess.

If BushCo can strike fear into the hearts of our elected representatives, forcing them to enable illegal and unconstitutional acts, then we have elected nothing! This is now a ghost democracy fraught with Black Ops and Shadow Government. Civil war or revolution is no longer an option … because every move we make is scrutinized. Americans are all suspects now. Americans are the enemy. Americans will become the zombies from George Orwell’s ’1984′ where hidden microphones and informers in order to catch potential “thoughtcriminals” who could endanger the security of the Dystopian GOP Party.

The original statute was enacted after the revelation of CIA abuses in the 1970s, and it required judicial oversight for most federal wiretapping conducted in the United States.

Privacy and civil liberties advocates, and many Democratic lawmakers, complained that the Bush administration’s revisions of the law could breach constitutional protections against government intrusion. But the administration, aided by Republican congressional leaders, suggested that a failure to approve what intelligence officials sought could expose the country to a greater risk of terrorist attacks.

Democrats facing reelection next year in conservative districts helped propel the bill to a quick approval. Adding to the pressures they felt were recent intelligence reports about threatening new al-Qaeda activity in Pakistan and the disclosure by House Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) of a secret court ruling earlier this year that complicated the wiretapping of purely foreign communications that happen to pass through a communications node on U.S. soil.

 

Bush Wants To Listen And Watch Our Every Word

Bush urges Congress to pass wiretap bill

Lawmakers hustle to act before recess

By Charlie Savage, Globe Staff  |  August 3, 2007

WASHINGTON — Congress is rushing to expand the military’s authority to wiretap phone calls and e-mails on US soil. The Bush administration, warning that terrorists may soon attack again, is pressuring lawmakers to approve the legislation before they leave town this weekend for their annual August vacations.

The proposal, the details of which remain murky, had received little public discussion before this week and has not undergone the normal committee review process. It would apparently give the National Security Agency legal approval to resume one type of the warrantless wiretapping that President Bush authorized after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

Doesn’t history remind us that Stalin and Hitler built excuses to spy on their own people to control anyone who opposed their political agendas.  What will your congressman do?  Do you have representation?  Are our ‘inalienable rights’  a terrorist conspiracy?  Our Founding Fathers would be in Guantanamo for fighting for ‘inalienable rights’ as Americans!

Bush, the reincarnation of Hitler,  does this all because his imaginary God has spoken to him and given him the Armageddon Agenda. 

Happy Afghans – Happy Taliban – Buying Power

Another record poppy crop in Afghanistan

WASHINGTON (AP) — Afghanistan will produce another record poppy harvest this year that cements its status as the world’s near-sole supplier of the heroin source, yet a furious debate over how to reverse the trend is stalling proposals to cut the crop, U.S. officials say. As President Bush prepares for weekend talks with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, divisions within the U.S. administration and among NATO allies have delayed release of a $475 million counternarcotics program for Afghanistan, where intelligence officials see growing links between drugs and the Taliban, the officials said.

… counterdrug proposals by some U.S. officials have met fierce resistance, including boosting the amount of forcible poppy field destruction in provinces that grow the most, officials said. The approach also would link millions of dollars in development aid to benchmarks on eradication; arrests and prosecutions of narcotraders, corrupt officials; and on alternative crop production.

<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>

“Afghanistan is providing close to 95 percent of the world’s heroin,” the State Department’s top counternarcotics official, Tom Schweich, said at a recent conference. “That makes it almost a sole-source supplier” and presents a situation “unique in world history.”   (entire article)

So, here we go again. Just like Viet Nam (remember that one?) the CIA was an accomplice with the drug cartel of SE Asia. What makes this any different?   We talk big, but the bottom line is, to make the local war lords happy we must allow their economy to flourish. They let us destroy a field here and there to show the media, but the big money always wins. They must also line the pockets of the Narcotics Police – it’s economics after all!

Letter From An American Muslim

As American as you are

Pious Christian and Jewish values are not inherently in conflict with American civic life, as secular folk tend to forget. Devout immigrant Muslims don’t belong? That ship has sailed. This is a letter to your beautiful heart: We are your blood, says Mohja Kahf.

Fayetteville, Arkansas – A certain Middle Eastern religion is much maligned in this country. Full of veils and mystery, it is widely seen as sexist. Often violent, sometimes manipulated by demagogues, it yet has sweetness at the core, and many people are turning to it in their search for meaning.

I’m talking about Christianity.

This Muslim squirms whenever secular friends – tolerant toward believers in Buddhism, Judaism, Hinduism, Islam and Native American spirituality – dismiss Christians with snorts of contempt. “It’s because the Christian right wants to take over this country,” they protest.

That may be, but it doesn’t justify trashing the religion and its spectrum of believers. Christianity has inspired Americans to the politics of abolition and civil rights, as well as to heinous acts. Christian values have motivated the Ku Klux Klan to burn houses, and Jimmy Carter to build them. You can’t say that when Christianity informs politics, only bad things happen.

This may strike you as odd coming from a Muslim. But it’s true: people of faith do not signify the apocalypse for democracy. And that goes for believing Muslims as much as for other religious folk. Muslims, in a very specific way, are not strangers in your midst. We are kin. Not just kin in the lovely way that all humans are. We carry pieces of your family story. (see entire letter)

This story is poignant because we do not hear from enough centrists.

All faiths have something to contribute to our spiritual well being, but lately the centrifuge has spun so fast that organized religion has been flung to the edges. It is refreshing to hear from someone who espouses a more thoughtful demonstration of their faith. This letter is so correct that middle eastern religions grew from the same root. The family tree whose limbs fight each other is no more than sibling rivalry. All those siblings appear to be trying to get special attention from the same parent.

God is supposed to be over ALL those who believe in God as their spiritual parent. What the hell, then, is an Army of God?   The idea that an army can battle in the name of God is an oxymoron. Religions should not to be used as weapons! What is the point? The world conflict we find ourselves in is NOT religious but political economics driven by marketing geniuses.

We are so naive to have fallen for the oldest magic trick, sleight of hand. They hand you a cat but call it a dog. The words of our political leaders when they talk about religion are designed to appeal to your inner-most beliefs so you don’t look at the facts. If you fall for this, then you contribute to the destruction of this world through ignorance. Politicians use marketing to get your vote and approval for their decisions. This is a marketing ploy. See it for what it is. Learn the facts, even if you have to dig for them. But don’t distort those facts through a religious filter.