Why is Ecuador Reneging on Asylum for Snowden?

Julian Assange has found a safe harbor in Ecuador but apparently all is not well between Assange and the socialist Ecuador government that is now accusing Assange of illegally arranging Snowden's asylum in Ecuador.

Edward Snowden's plan to seek sanctuary in Ecuador is falling apart

As whistle-blower waits in limbo, Ecuadorean frustration at the 'grandstanding' of ally Julian Assange has put in doubt his quest for asylum

The plan to spirit whistle-blower Edward Snowden to sanctuary in Latin America appears to be falling apart amid tension between Ecuador's government and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.

President Rafael Correa halted a bid to help Snowden leave Russia amid concerns Assange was usurping the role of the Ecuadorean government, according to leaked diplomatic correspondence.

He declared invalid a temporary travel document which could have helped extract Snowden from his reported location in Moscow.

Correa declared that the safe conduct pass issued by Ecuador's London consul - in collaboration with Assange - was unauthorised. Other Ecuadorean diplomats privately said the WikiLeaks founder could be perceived as "running the show".

Yesterday Correa said he had spoken with US Vice-President Joe Biden about Snowden, and that Biden had asked Ecuador to reject the fugitive intelligence leaker's asylum request.

Correa said the conversation took place on Friday and that Biden "passed on a polite request from the United States to reject the request".

According to the leaked diplomatic correspondence, obtained by the broadcaster Univision and shared with The Wall Street Journal, divisions over Assange have annoyed Ecuador's government.

What's really going on here?  The US is using its foreign aid hammer and Joe Biden is the messenger.

US aid to Ecuador questioned amid Snowden asylum bid

For its own good, Ecuador might want to reconsider rolling out the red carpet for NSA leaker Edward Snowden as he crisscrosses his way through anti-American countries while seeking asylum, some say.

If Ecuador's President Rafael Correa does give Snowden the green light to call the Latin American country home -- in defiance of the U.S. -- analysts warn that Correa would be biting the hand that helps feed his country. The U.S. government has been sending Ecuador money for the past seven decades.

National security analyst Aaron Cohen told Fox News the U.S. should consider cutting off that aid if Ecuador approves Snowden's asylum request.....

During the past 50 years, USAID, the main American foreign aid agency, has given millions of dollars for education and economic growth. In the past five years alone, Ecuador has received $144.4 million.....

While the amount has steadily decreased from $35 million in 2009 to an estimated $12 million in aid requested for 2014, cutting ties with America could become more costly for Correa than he anticipated.

In recent months, Ecuadorean officials have made trips to Washington, jockeying for preferential treatment for some of its country's key native products like frozen broccoli and fresh-cut roses.

Favored political status, which breaks down to more jobs for Ecuadoreans and cheaper goods for Americans, could be one of the first things on the chopping block if Ecuador grants Snowden asylum.

At the end of the day, tyrannical statist and socialist governments will always support each other over liberty, transparency, disclosure, truth and justice.  We shouldn't be surprised if Ecuador turns Assange over to the US or facilitates his liquidation in cooperation with the CIA.

The US has two big hammers that it uses to whip nations into compliance 1. the trade hammer and 2. the foreign aid hammer.  The US can and has ruthlessly crushed exports from non-compliant nations.  As for foreign aid, it's well documented that most foreign aid is nothing but a defense contractor subsidy.

America's $2.3 Trillion Dollar Foreign Aid is Mostly a Defense Contractor Subsidy

Meanwhile, the Evil Empire marches on in its ruthless pursuit to crush liberty and free trade everywhere.

Why Sunni Islam is Crucial to World Peace and Crushing the NWO

Humanity certainly isn't without its struggles against tyranny.  Western Civilization, somewhere between on life support and truly permanently dead, actually succeeded is laying the blueprint for human liberty and it largely happened by challenging state and theocratic powers.  First, absolute theocratic papal powers were challenged and ultimately absolutely monarchies were challenged.  Protestantism  is derived from the word 'protest' and it splintered the Christian world into many different Christian sects, all of which paved the way for the Enlightenment that was accompanied by incredible advance in science, technology, prosperity as well as rights for the common man.  Humankind in the western world was elevated out of the perpetual serfdom of feudalism.  Unfortunately, that paradigm is rapidly changing as modern corporatist feudalism and its anti-free trade crony capitalist trade agreements are being constantly negotiated with the goal of booting mankind back to the master's feudal plantation.

Throughout its history, there has been no revolt in the Muslim world to challenge theocratic and temporal powers.  In fact, Islam actually has a theocratic basis against revolting against government, no matter how tyrannical.  It's called Fitna.  Fitna is so central to Islamic theology that it's mentioned in the first chapter of the Koran and Muhammed said "Say, ‘Fighting therein is a great (transgression) but a greater (transgression) with Allâh is to prevent mankind from following the way of Allâh, to disbelieve in Him, to prevent access to Al-Masjid-Al-Harâm (at Makkah), and to drive out its inhabitants, and Al-Fitnah is worse than killing.".  The Islamic prohibition against rising up against Muslim rulers is strong and pervasive; it's embedded in the Islamic religion and culture.

Western elites have always admired Islam because of its ability to control people and prevent uprisings against unjust rulers.  That a historic clash of civilizations between the Christian world and the Islamic world has been ongoing since the days Islam busted out of the Arabian Peninsula in the 7th century is an understatement.  But organized religions are always tools of the state be they Christian or Muslim.  Religions have always fought against tolerance, peaceful co-existence and natural rights simply because as tools of the state, religions exist to advance the state or empire, whatever the human cost.

There is a dangerous NWO alliance and it involves the US, Europe and Saudi Arabia.  The Saudis embrace the most intolerant and vile form of Islam ever to exist - it's called Sunni Salafist Wahhabism.  Not all Muslims are Sunnis and not all Sunnis are Wahhabists.  But the US and Europe have been in bed with the Wahhabists at least since the days of Jimmy Carter who funded and armed the Afghan Mujuhadeen, now the Sunni Salafist Wahhabist Taliban. The US-Europe-Wahhabist alliance is based on oil and financial control.

Ever since Nixon dethered the dollar from gold in 1971, the dollar has been a petro-dollar.  So long as oil trades in dollars, the dollar remains the world's reserve currency.  So long as the fiat dollar is the world's reserve currency, big oil, big financial interests and central banks ruthlessly rule the planet.

The US-Europe-Wahhabist/Saudi Alliance is a Satanic and oily marriage made in hell because it promotes, funds and arms radical Islam.   It it also vastly contributes to the concentration of wealth and power everywhere. Not surprisingly, it  keeps the world at war and is creating geopolitical and economic nightmares everywhere.  But oil rules and Western/Saudi oil interests go back a long way.

The US-Europe-Saudis supported regime change in Libya and the ouster/death of Qadaffi has left Libya, a nation that is 97% Sunni Islam, facing a Wahhabist takeover.

The US-Europe-Saudis supported regime change in Egypt and funded the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood and its total takeover of Egypt.

The US-Europe-Saudis support regime change in Syria and Sunni Turkey under the leadership of Sunni Salafist Wahhabist Erdogan is promoting war on Syria.

But all is not going well.  As it turns out, Sunni Muslims aren't as anti-fitna as westerners and the Saudis thought.  There is a ferocious upheaval going on in the Sunni world as Sunni Muslims are rising up against Wahhabism and its tyrannical and intolerant leaders.  They are also rising up against the NWO and its wars.

Even in the Muslim Brotherhood friendly Egypt, protests against the Morsi and his evil Muslim Brotherhood regime are popping up as yet another US intervention blows up.

Clashes, tear gas as massive protests grip Egypt amid 'growing security crisis'

The above photo is from a News Breaker tweet "BREAKING PHOTO: Building on fire, reportedly Muslim Brotherhood's HQ in Alexandria, Egypt" dated 6/28/13.

What is going on in Egypt is that Muslims seeking liberty oppose the ruthless Morsi Wahhabist Islamist regime.  Egypt will probably breakout into a civil war and the US, Europe and Saudis will arm the hell out of the evil Muslim Brotherhood.

In Sunni majority Turkey, protests against Wahhabist Prime Minister Erdogan have been going on for weeks.  Turkey has a fairly secular and tolerant Muslim population.  Photos tell the story.  In Turkey, women are dressed like western women as this photo that went viral of a Turkish women in a red dress being gassed by Turkish police shows.

In Saudi Arabia and other Wahhabist controlled Muslim nations, women look like this:

Moreover, it is widely reported that the Sunni Turks oppose war on Syria, despite Erdogan's best efforts to commit Turkey to war on Syria.

Daily English News - Turkish people oppose war against Syria

Things aren't going well for the NWO and largely because of Sunni Muslims who are taking a stand against tyranny and war, and possibly even theocracy.

Furthermore, it's been widely reported that Sunni majority Syria supports the reasonably tolerant Assad regime and they don't want to be ruled by the Saudis, Wahhabists or Taliban/Al Qaeda murderous nutjobs.  The Syrian Sunnis are strongly backing Assad because they understand that the Syrian rebels are nothing more than US/Saudi funded Wahhabists and Al Qaeda.

Minimally, this will affect the grand schemes of the NWO and its US-Europe-Saudi alliance at least in the short term.  An invasion of Syria will be considerably more difficult without Turkish support and political instability in Turkey is definitely not conducive to drawing Turkey and its people into another NWO war.  The fact that most Syrian Sunnis support Assad is another blow to the NWO and The Empire.

It's been rumored for quite some time that Saudi Arabia's oil wells are running dry and the thick gloppy stuff coming out of Saudi wells is difficult to refine, unlike Nigerian light sweet crude.  The rumors of Saudi oil depletion are further reinforced by the fact that there has been no independent verification of Saudi oil reserves although the Saudis claim they are swimming in untapped oil.   Without oil, Saudi Arabia gets blasted back to the Dark Ages of nothing but sand and camels.  The Saudis are fully aware their their power is tethered to its oil.

The incredibly stupid US invasion of Iraq created an extraordinary geopolitical crisis.  Saddam Hussein was a Sunni who ruled over the Shiite 75% majority in Iraq.  With the Shiites now in control of Iraq and Iraqi oil, courtesy of the US, the natural allies of Iraq are now non-Sunni nations like Shiite Iran.  Iran isn't dangerous and poses no threat whatsoever to anybody, the US or the House of Saud.

The NWO and Big Oil's End Game is to get its thieving hands on Iranian and Iraqi oil and nobody wants that more than Big Oil and the Saudis.  The Saudis seek to use western military might to wipe out Shiite Islam and deliver Iranian and Iraqi oil to the House of Saud who partners with western oil interests. What Big Oil wants, Big Oil always gets from the District of Crime in DC where filthy oil money oils a lot of political campaign coffers.

Assad stands squarely against the grand scheme or the Great Game of the 21st century.  Russia does maintain military bases in Syria.  One thing is certain, the US and the Saudis may fund and arm the Al Qaeda rebels but Russia will arm Syria.

The US-Saudi intervention in Syria will not end well.

Meanwhile, it's definitely inspiring to see Sunni Muslims rise up against tyranny.  That's bad news for the Empire.  The Sunni Muslims hold the power to bust the NWO and and it's US-Europe-Saudi Wahhabist Alliance into pieces and save the world from wars and militarism gone mad.

Meanwhile, I'm rooting for the Turkish protesters and the Syrian Sunnis who support Assad.  We don't need to thrust the Middle East into one horrific regional war that will kill millions.  For what?  Saudi and US control of oil, and the petro-dollar?

Muslims are no longer living in the backward Dark Ages.  They too have Internet connections, cell phones, Twitter accounts and access to information and truth. Connected people are difficult to control with propaganda.

Liberty is Calling YOU! Support and Join the Liberty Calling Project.

The Liberty Calling project is about spreading the message of peace, liberty and prosperity.  Jerry Titus created the website, LibertyCalling.net, and Judy Morris started posting.  Others have joined joined the Liberty Calling project and we have a Facebook page.

We believe that these are great times for liberty activists because we've got powerful and extraordinary tools that include the Internet, alternate media and social media.   We also believe that there is a huge market for liberty and getting the message out absolutely requires that liberty activists participate in spreading the message of liberty.

Our goal is to showcase liberty news and activism under the Liberty Calling umbrella.  We are ordinary citizens who are passionate about liberty.  We are citizen journalists with a passion for truth.  We are news aggregators who scour the Internet for the best and most relevant news.

We cover foreign policy (endless wars), civil liberties (Police State USA), economics (Austrian vs. Keynesian), monetary policy (Federal Reserve), fiscal policy (government spending), the contentious social issues (always nasty), the New World Order (global tyranny) and other relevant issues like voluntarism and survival in an increasingly hostile and totalitarian world.

What have we learned?  We've learned that the liberty movement is growing because the message of liberty is becoming popular everywhere.  Therefore, we are recruiting liberty folks with a passion for posting news and writing or both.  Some folks like to post news and others like to write and we welcome both, as well as liberty bloggers.

Even if you have no interest in posting, writing or blogging, you can use your powerful social media activism to advocate for the Liberty Calling Project by suggesting our Facebook page and website page to your friends and fellow liberty activists.  You can Tweet and use other social media venues to promote Liberty Calling.  Spreading the message of liberty is always just a few clicks away and it works.  It's been working since Ron Paul's 2008 campaign when liberty busted out of obscurity and started going mainstream.

It's something that we did alone and of our own initiative.  With the liberty movement being so fragmented and consequently small in media reach, Liberty Calling definitely holds the potential to challenge mainstream media and its vast powers but only if we make it happen.

Personally, I've of the opinion that there's a inner journalist in all of us.  Liberty activists crave information and we aim to deliver it on a timely and chronic basis.

Listen and see if your inner journalist is calling you to deliver the message of liberty.  For more information, message us on Facebook, Judy Morris, Jerry Titus or Bill Walker. 

Mainstream media and its government pimps don't have to be in control of the news.  It's our responsibility to squash tyranny, censorship and chronic attacks on the first amendment.

Liberty is calling YOU so answer the most important call you will ever get.  We alone hold the power to build a new liberty media.  Yes We Can!

Senator Obama Voted YES on Bush No Warrant Wire Tap Bill in July 2008.

The above photo is Obama on the campaign trail in 2008 and it's straight from BarackObama.com.

It's hard to understand why liberals and Democrats are suddenly raging against Obama on civil liberties.  It's not as though his love of Bush surveillance and crushing disregard for civil liberties wasn't clearly evident in 2008 when Obama voted YES on a Bush warrantless wiretapping bill, roll call vote here.

On July 9, 2008, CNN reported:

Senate sends no-warrant wiretapping bill to Bush

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Senate Wednesday approved a bill to put new rules in place for intelligence agency eavesdropping on suspected terrorists.

The bill also effectively protects telephone companies from being sued for cooperating with a government surveillance program launched in the wake of the 2001 attacks on New York and Washington. The White House pushed hard for the provision, with a threat to veto the bill if it did not contain protection for phone companies.

The vote was 69-28, with Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois voting in favor. Republican candidate Sen. John McCain of Arizona was not present for the vote.

President Bush said Wednesday afternoon he will sign the bill, calling it "vital" and "long overdue."

The bill, formally known as the FISA Amendments Act, updates the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. It will:

* Require the secret court set up to oversee FISA to review the surveillance of any targeted American whether the person is in the United States or abroad;

*Provide for the FISA court to sign off on procedures for removing the name of any American inadvertently captured in a communication with a foreign target;

*Prohibit reverse targeting, which is when intelligence officials eavesdrop on a foreigner's communications overseas as a means to spy on someone in the United States.

*Close a loophole by explicitly establishing the 1978 law as the exclusive means for authorizing electronic surveillance;

*Set up a procedure for federal judges to determine whether a telecommunications company can be sued for providing the intelligence community access to its networks without a court order.

Opponents argued that the provision creating a judicial review of cases against the telecommunication companies is a sham.

The bill essentially grants immunity to the telecommunication companies, the opponents said, because all of the telephone carriers received government certifications saying their participation in the program was legal.

Obama was criticized for backing away from his early opposition to the bill by liberal bloggers and individuals commenting on his campaign Web site.

It was no secret that Obama supported Bush era warrantless wiretapping and he's got a vote to prove it.

Fast forward to May 26, 2011 when President Obama signed an extension of the Patriot Act.  Obama's 2008 senate vote on Bush warrantless wiretapping and his 5/2011 signing the renewal of the Patriot Act as president unequivocally proves that Obama is and never was concerned with civil liberties.  In fact, Obama's record on civil liberties is no better than the Bush record.

Just as Republicans gave Bush and Gang a pass on horrific violations of civil liberties, the Democrats are willing to generally give Obama and Gang a pass with minor exceptions.  Yeah, the Dems are grumbling but that won't stop them from worshipping Democrat tyranny.

While MSM media continues to shamelessly spin NSA-gate as necessary for our national security, the Edward Snowden affair is like a continuous stream of rays of sunshine and truth, and most of the truth is coming from alternate and foreign media.

Know the Carlyle Group (owns Booz Allen), it's the Face of Evil

Few Americans have even heard of the Carlyle Group but thanks to whistleblower Edward Snowden, the name Booz Allen Hamilton, who employed Snowden, is suddenly on the radar and much to the chagrin of the government.  Booz Allen Hamilton is owned by the Carlyle Group, a  very secretive but extremely powerful consortium of well connected insiders including many Saudis and the bin Laden family; Carlyle investors earned vast fortunes from defense contractors, government contracts and insider information.

Bloomberg Businessweek recently reported that the Carlyle Group is the world's most profitable spy corporation.

Booz Allen, the World's Most Profitable Spy Organization

In the fiscal year ended in March 2013, Booz Allen Hamilton reported $5.76 billion in revenue, 99 percent of which came from government contracts, and $219 million in net income. Almost a quarter of its revenue—$1.3 billion—was from major U.S. intelligence agencies. Along with competitors such as Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC), CACI, and BAE Systems (BAESY), the McLean (Va.)-based firm is a prime beneficiary of an explosion in government spending on intelligence contractors over the past decade. About 70 percent of the 2013 U.S. intelligence budget is contracted out, according to a Bloomberg Industries analysis; the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) says almost a fifth of intelligence personnel work in the private sector.

Forbes reported that Booz Allen has made $2 billion for the Carlyle Group, here.  Spying on Americans and everybody else on the planet is extremely profitable for corporate insiders.

Corporations, defense contractors and the technology industry are very well connected in the District of Crime and in DC just about every Congress Critter is bought and paid for by defense contractors, banksters and other corporatist special interests.  It's just how the filthy special interest money sloshes around in America's corrupt to the core political toilet bowel.

What do we know about the Carlyle Group?  A lot.   Greg Schneider of the creepy Washington Post that defends everything in the District of Crime wrote a most interesting piece in March 2003 that focused on the Carlyle Group.

David M. Rubenstein is exasperated, and he blurts something that a quick look around the room proves is outrageous: "We're not," he nearly shouts, "that well connected!" Behind him is a picture of Rubenstein on a plane with then-Gov. George W. Bush. Across the room, a photo of Rubenstein with the president's father and mother. Next to that, Rubenstein and Mikhail Gorbachev. Elsewhere: Rubenstein and Jimmy Carter. On a bookshelf: Rubenstein and the pope.

Rubenstein, after all, is co-founder of the Carlyle Group, an investment house famous as one of the most well-connected companies anywhere. Former president George H.W. Bush is a Carlyle adviser. Former British prime minister John Major heads its European arm. Former secretary of state James Baker is senior counselor, former White House budget chief Richard Darman is a partner, former SEC chairman Arthur Levitt is senior adviser -- the list goes on.

"We've actually replaced the Trilateral Commission" as the darling of conspiracy theorists, says Rubenstein -- who, truth be told, happens to be a member of the Trilateral Commission.

It didn't help that as the World Trade Center burned on Sept. 11, 2001, the news interrupted a Carlyle business conference at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel here attended by a brother of Osama bin Laden. Former president Bush, a fellow investor, had been with him at the conference the previous day.

The Washington Post link has since been expunged but WanttoKnow.info captured it in its entirely, here.

The Carlyle Group existed as a private equity company until 2012 when it went public, here.  In 2005, the Washington Post wrote a fairly revealing piece about the Carlyle Group titled Carlyle Group Prepares for the Next Generation. 

Carlyle Group is putting the finishing touches on what will be the biggest independently managed corporate buyout fund in history, a $6.5 billion pile of cash that will probably be the last such fund for Carlyle's three founders.

A ton of insider money has always flowed into the Carlyle Group.  Carlyle acquired Booz Allen Hamilton in 2008 for $2.54 billion, a business that Bloomberg described as "a U.S. government-consulting business", here.

The UK based Guardian that broke the Edward Snowden story is an excellent source of outstanding investigative journalism.  The Guardian did a piece on the Carlyle Group in 2003.

'Ex-presidents club' gets fat on conflict

High-flying venture capital firm Carlyle Group cashes in when the tanks roll, writes Jamie Doward.

It is the sort of thing they really could have done without. For 15 years one of America's most powerful venture capital groups has tried to play down suggestions that its multi-billion dollar funds get fat on the back of global conflict. But now, with the invasion of Iraq under way, a new book chronicling the relatively short history of the Carlyle Group threatens to draw attention to the company's close links with the Pentagon.

Dan Briody, author of the Iron Triangle, Inside the Secret World of the Carlyle Group, alleges the company's executives were so worried about his book they told staff not to talk to him....

Briody's account of how an upstart venture capital firm went from nothing to managing funds of nearly $14 billion in just 15 years, earning investors returns of around 36 per cent, is likely to reinforce the controversial image of the Carlyle Group and raise concerns about its influence in Washington and beyond.

Sometimes called the Ex-Presidents Club, Carlyle has a glittering array of ex-politicians and big league bankers on its board. Former secretary of state James Baker is managing director while ex-secretary of defence Frank Carlucci is chairman. George Bush senior is an adviser. John Major heads up its European operations. To give the conspiracy theorists plenty of ammunition, US newspapers have also highlighted the fact that current Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was a wrestling partner of Carlucci's at Princeton and the two have remained close friends ever since.

Frank Carlucci is another creepy Carlyle character.  He roomed with Rumsfeld in college and they remained very close friends and political associates over the decades.  Carlucci has an impressive neocon resume - Secretary of Defense under Reagan, CIA Deputy Director under Carter and National Security Advisor to Reagan.  Carlucci also had a high ranking position in the Nixon Administration.  Carlucci's Widipedia biography is here.  Carlucci was also implicated in the assassination of Congo prime minister Patrice Lumumba according to Widipedia.

Patrice Lumumba, the first prime minister of independent Congo, was assassinated in January 1961 during The Congo Crisis. During that time, Carlucci was the second secretary at the US embassy in the Congo and, covertly, a CIA agent. His participation in Lumumba's assassination is implied with the release of US government documents revealing that President Dwight Eisenhower ordered the CIA to murder Lumumba. Minutes of an August 1960 National Security Council meeting confirm that Eisenhower told CIA chief Allen Dulles to "eliminate" the Congolese leader. The official note taker, Robert H. Johnson, testified to this before the Senate Intelligence Committee in 1975.

During a broadcast on HBO of the film Lumumba, directed by Raoul Peck, the name of Carlucci was bleeped and removed from the credits due to the ex-CIA official's lawsuit threat. Carlucci’s lawyers threatened Peck and distribution company Zeitgeist Films with legal action if the name of the former US official was not bleeped out of a scene that shows American Ambassador Clare Timberlake and Carlucci, along with Belgian and Congolese officials, plotting Lumumba’s assassination.

Carlucci was also a key player in the Project for a New American Century (PNAC), the premier think tank of the neocons that was hugely powerful, influential and controlled the Republican Party as well as its agenda.  PNAC was founded by William Kristol, Chief of Staff to Vice President Dan Quale during the term of Bush Sr.  Any Google search of the Project for a New American Century will validate its goals of non-stop wars; Global Research documented the overt militarism of PNAC, here.

I've barely skimmed the surface on the Carlyle Group and PNAC and am only covering very few major points.  The Carlyle Group and PNAC represent an unspeakable evil in America and these folks have unlimited power.

The PNAC was subjected to so much bad publicity and largely based on its own publications and agenda that the neocons formed a new neocon think tank called The Foreign Policy Initiative (FPI) in 2009 which is headed by pretty much the same cast of characters who ran PNAC, here.

Neoconservatives form a new think tank to rehabilitate their image and regain some of the influence they had under the Bush administration, according to news reports. The Foreign Policy Initiative (FPI) is headed by Weekly Standard publisher William Kristol, foreign policy consultant Robert Kagan, and former Bush administration official Dan Senor. Its first activity will be to sponsor a March 31 conference (see March 31, 2009) pushing for a US “surge” in Afghanistan similar to the one Kagan helped plan for Iraq (see January 2007).

Successor to PNAC - Many see the FPI as the logical successor to Kristol and Kagan’s previous neoconservative organization, the now-defunct Project for the New American Century (PNAC—see January 26, 1998). PNAC’s membership roll included many prominent Bush administration officials, including then-Vice President Dick Cheney and the Defense Department’s top two officials, Donald Rumsfeld and Paul Wolfowitz.

That a handful of power hungry elected psychopaths, powerful defense contractors and their thieving banksters were able to seize control of an entire nation of 310 million folks and subject them to endless wars, impoverishment and tyranny is beyond evil.  But that is precisely what has happened in America.

The Democratic Party is no better than the Republican Party because at the end of the day both the Republicans and Democrats (with minor exceptions) report to their corporate bosses who fund their campaigns.  Many Democrats are of the opinion that the Democrats they vote for are peace loving folks who are not affiliated with the likes of Carlyle Group.  But Carlyle's founder, David Rubenstein, was a Democrat and advisor to Jimmy Carter.  Fox News reports, link here:

The Carlyle Group, the world’s third largest private equity firm in Washington, D.C. with more than $150 billion in assets under management, was co-founded by David Rubenstein, one of former President Jimmy Carter’s top domestic policy advisors.

The Carlyle Group also has among its executives President Clinton’s chief of staff Thomas “Mack” McLarty, and Arthur Levitt, President Clinton’s former chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission.

President Obama’s auto “czar,” Steve Rattner, spent three decades on Wall Street and co-founded the Quadrangle Group, a Wall Street private equity firm that focuses on restructuring mid-market companies in the media, telecom and information technology sectors.

Nearly all the Republicans and all the Democrats are on the same team and they are all bought and paid for by the same players.  That's the primary reason why the elites who lord over us could care less who wins elections - both parties will deliver what they demand.

Although the once private and secretive Carlyle Group has now gone public, it's activities are not so secret anymore and it's embarked on diversification that includes technology and healthcare.  As with the Bush Administration passing the Patriot Act with votes from the Democrats that dropped an iron curtain of NSA surveillance over the planet and resulted in huge profits for spy contractors like Booz Allen, Obamacare has also opened up opportunities in government controlled healthcare.  Carlyle invested in a CRO or contract research organization.  Irvin Levin Associates, Inc. reports:

At the beginning of October, two private equity firms, The Carlyle Group and Hellman & Friedman LP, (H&F) joined forces to make a $3.9 billion bid for Pharmaceutical Product Development (NASDAQ: PPDI). The target is a contract research organization, or CRO, that provides drug discovery, development and life-cycle management services in clinical development and laboratory services.....

The transaction has fully committed financing, consisting of a combination of equity provided by Carlyle Partners and Hellman & Friedman Capital Partners, and external debt financing commitments provided by Credit Suisse, JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs and UBS.

It's not surprising that whenever the government intervenes, the Carlyle Group and its bankster partners are there to reap vast profits, profits that in all likelihood wouldn't exist in a free market.  However, when the government mandates or subsidizes, crony capitalists are quick to embrace ill gotten fascist profits.

The marriage of big business and big government is a very bad idea because it results in oppression of the people as well as impoverishment.  There is no better example of such incestuous marriages than the Carlyle Group. 

Journalist Michael Hastings Died in a Car Crash. Is There a Story Here?

Much has been written and speculated about the death of 33 year old journalist Michael Hastings in a car crash.  Here's what Wikipedia says about Hasting:

Michael Mahon Hastings (January 28, 1980 – June 18, 2013) was an American journalist, writer and reporter for BuzzFeed.[5] Hastings rose to prominence with his coverage of the Iraq War for Newsweek. After his fiancee died in Iraq, he wrote the memoir I Lost My Love in Baghdad: A Modern War Story (2008). His Rolling Stone profile of General Stanley McChrystal, commander of NATO's International Security Assistance Force in the Afghanistan war, documented the widespread contempt of him and his staff for civilian officials in the US government and resulted in the general's resignation.....

In June 2010, Rolling Stone published "The Runaway General", Hastings's profile of US Army general Stanley McChrystal,[12] then commander of NATO's International Security Assistance Force in the Afghanistan war. The article reported remarks by McChrystal's staff that were overtly critical and contemptuous of White House staff and other civilian officials. On June 22, the news of the forthcoming article reached the attention of the American print media and the White House. McChrystal immediately issued an extensive apology, and Duncan Boothby, the civilian contractor responsible for coordinating the article with Hastings, resigned. U.S. President Barack Obama summoned McChrystal to the White House on June 23,[13][14] and relieved him of command.

When a prominent young journalist dies under possibly mysterious circumstance, it's not at all unusual for conspiracy theorists to jump into high gear.  However, we live in an age where  conspiracy is no longer theory or definitely not always theory.  The alternate media started to immediately buzz about the death of Hastings who was a Buzzfeed journalist at the time of his death.

What really caught my attention about the death of Hasting was the fact that Economic Policy Journal (EPJ) is posting on the issue.  Robert Wenzel and his Economic Policy Journal is not a website that chases conspiracy theories, although it will publish well documented contrarian pieces on issues deemed by the government and mainstream media to be conspiracy nonsense.  Wenzel is a guy who loves well document facts, not conspiracies.  EPJ recently posted:

Was Michael Hastings Running for His Life When He Crashed? by By Paul Huebl

Award winning journalist Michael Hastings reportedly was under investigation by the FBI after his explosive interview and news story that led to the resignation of General Stanley McChrystal.

The sudden rash of conspiracy theories surrounding Hastings death seems to have serious merit. As a long time investigator, I have obvious questions. I have learned that Hastings was a good and temperate driver. The 4:15 AM, June 18th fiery crash of his Mercedes sedan in Los Angeles show signs of incredibly high speed that apparently caused the loss of control of the car by Hastings.

Very recently Hastings had complained to several people that he was under surveillance by the FBI. The FBI is nothing more than an arm of Eric Holder’s Justice Departmentand they often get instructions from the very highest levels of government.

BREAKING Just Hours Before His Death Hastings Contacted Lawyer About FBI Investigation

Wikileaks reports that investigative reporter Michael Hastings contacted WikiLeaks lawyer Jennifer Robinson just a few hours before he died in a fiery car crash, saying that the FBI was investigating him.

Automotive Writer on Hastings Crash: Fire Doesn't Happen Like That

Jack Baruth writes at The Truth About Cars about the car crash that killed Michael Hastings, be sure to view the video of the fire...

A Google of Michael Hastings will result in a ton of information.  Infowars, the extremely popular website of Alex Jones, is writing about Hastings.

Evidence Indicates Michael Hastings Was Assassinated

The revelation that Rolling Stone journalist Michael Hastings was working on a story about the CIA before his death and had contacted a Wikileaks lawyer about being under investigation by the FBI hours before his car exploded into flames has bolstered increasingly valid claims that the 33-year-old was assassinated.

I'm confident that whatever happened to Hastings will be thoroughly investigated and documented by highly competent independent journalists.  This isn't a story that is going away and in the Age of the Internet, the government and its mainstream media partners in crime no longer hold absolute power over information and its reach.  Hastings only died 2 days ago and already the alternate truth media is wildly buzzing.

Ultimately, there's a truth in every story and the propaganda powers of government continue to grow weaker and and less credible.  The government has a very long history of killing people or in the words of NSA spooks caught chatting at the airport about Edward Snowden "just disappear him".

Will the GOP Masturbate & Legitimately Rape Itself to Death?

It's bad enough that Republicans raised the 'legitimate rape' issue that cost the GOP 2 senate seats in 2012 when Todd Akin and Richard Mourdock lost elections because neither believed that a woman could possibly become pregnant from an act of rape.  According to Akin and Mourdock, a pregnancy is a gift from God and God wouldn't allow an act of violent rape to produce a child or gift from God.  Therefore, any woman who is impregnated as a result of rape is a liar and the sex must have been consensual.

The American people and voters were appalled.  Perhaps Republicans could use some remedial biology courses.

But it gets even worse.  Astoundingly, Texas Republican Mike Burgess took the abortion debate to an even higher level is insanity by asserting that late term abortion should be abolished because male fetuses pleasure themselves as early as 15 weeks.

Republican cites masturbating fetuses to support new abortion restrictions

Representative Michael Burgess (R-TX) on Monday asserted that he witnessed male fetuses pleasuring themselves as early as 15-weeks after conception, RH Reality Check reported. His comments came during a House Rules committee debate on the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, which would ban abortions nationwide after 20 weeks of pregnancy. “This is a subject that I do know something about,” Burgess said, citing his experience as an OB/GYN. “There is no question in my mind that a baby at 20-weeks after conception can feel pain. The fact of the matter is, I argue with the chairman because I thought the date was far too late. We should be setting this at 15-weeks, 16-weeks.”

I personally oppose late term abortion but not for the reasons offered by Rep. Michael Burgess.  My own personal views on abortion are expressed here and yes I do support the right to an early abortion.  However, I absolutely oppose public funding of all abortions and I further believe that constitutionally the issue should should reside with the states, not the federal government.

In a 228-196 vote, the House passed a ban on abortion after 20 weeks knowing full well that it won't survive in the Democrat controlled Senate, not to mention a presidential veto.

The Republicans are once again pandering to their base.  Really, since when have the Republicans ever cared about human life?  Republicans have no problem using foreign policy to murder men, women and children who pose no threat whatsoever to the US.

Moreover, an alarming number of badly wounded veterans are returning from combat duty missing their 'junk'.

Alarming Rise in Sexually Mutilated US Troops in Afghanistan

How much is a penis worth? Actuarially speaking that is. More or less than a thumb or a toe? More or less than an arm or a leg? While these questions are not on the minds of most Americans, the Department of Veterans Affairs has been forced to confront them because of the changing nature of combat injuries in Afghanistan. And, more importantly, the impact of the traumatic psychological after-effects of devastating wounds to genitalia is very much on the minds of returning servicemen and women and their families.....

For veterans whose physical lives have been forever altered by combat injuries, there is all of the above plus an additional set of excruciatingly difficult challenges awaiting them involving the loss of limbs, and traumatic brain disorders. And, within this group are a subset of veterans forced to deal with the loss or mangling of an organ of their manhood; the penis.

"The signature physical wound of the war in Afghanistan begins when you step on a homemade bomb," Men's Health contributing editor Bob Drury wrote in the November 2011 edition of the magazine. Drury, who has covered both the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, pointed out that, "Most of these are built with the fertilizer ammonium nitrate, an ingredient widely available throughout Afghanistan. The detonation, triggered either by a buried pressure plate or, less often, a command wire operated by a nearby enemy, instantly pulverizes the flesh, bone, tissue, and muscle of one or both of your lower limbs. In all likelihood the force of the explosion will sever the nerves in your leg or legs, and yet you will experience little pain. Surprisingly, as shock sets in and you lie in your pooling blood, you may not feel anything but a vague sense of pressure, as if a strong man were wrapping both hands around one of your calves and squeezing as hard as he could.

"In many cases, the force of the explosion also travels straight up into your genital and pelvic area, blasting tiny shards of rock and dirt into your torso between your front and rear Kevlar body-armor flaps," Drury continued. "If all or part of your 'package' is not blown off by the detonation itself, the flying debris from the blast often penetrates soft tissue, leaving you vulnerable to penile, scrotal, testicular, and rectal infections. If the damage is bad enough, it could even lead to a full or partial amputation of your genitals."

At the very least Rep. Burgess raises an important issue that is totally ignored, namely that we really should be very concerned about the fate of male 'junk'.  Furthermore, wars are very dangerous to male genitalia and a hit from a IED is very likely to guarantee the destruction of penises and testicles.

In utero or fully mature out of utero, Republicans definitely put a much higher value on the manhood of the unborn male than it does on a member of the military.  I guess soldier 'junk' is deemed expendable so long as it serves the goals of the Empire.

Oh well, the Republicans stepped into it again.  So what else is new?

While American voters are notoriously forgetful, their memories are indeed selective and when they go to vote they remember things like 'legitimate rape' and 'masturbating fetuses'.

The Republicans will never bring foreign policy out of the closet for debate and neither will the Dems for that matter.  But this old  broad is all for bringing penises out of the closet for a real debate.

Fetal pain should be a legitimate issue but so should the excruciating pain of soldiers whose penises and testicles went flying in neocon wars.

What is a man without his manhood?  

Pro-Choice? Pro-Life? America is a Culture of Death

There is probably no issue in America that inflames passions more than the abortion issue.  With nary a peep from the media on the horrifying Gosnell abortuary, most of which was taxpayer subsidized butchery, liberals and progressive just casually dubbed Gosnell's baby murder factory nothing more than 'reproductive healthcare'.  Really?  Butchering babies born alive and butchering late term fetuses is reproductive healthcare?

On the pro-life side, most of those folks are rabid warmongering neocons who advocate for our murderous wars that kill entire Muslim families including pregnant women, mothers, children and babies.  That's hardly pro-life.

The hypocrisy on both sides is loud and deafening. The real truth is that America really is a culture of death and the American people, regardless of political beliefs, abandoned a culture of life decades ago when they embraced the state and all its evil.  A gazillion years ago when I was young and pondering the Vietnam War, I would ask folks about the war that was slaughtering millions of southeast Asians.  The reply was always the same: so what, they are only gooks.  Indeed! Fast forward to today and it's so what, they are only Muslims.  Any nation that is so morally depraved that it labels genocide and mass murder a noble endeavor and patriotic act is a nation that is doomed by its own evil.  The pro-life Republicans who endorse US foreign policy may carry a Bible but these folks are anything but moral or Christ-like as they blindly worship the military has become their favorite Golden Calf.

I don't like abortion and never will.  Still, I've reluctantly supported legal early abortion while opposing late term abortions except in extraordinary circumstances when the life of the mother is at stake.  A freshly fertilized egg is scientifically deemed a zygote that transforms itself to a blastocyst, then an embryo and ultimately a fetus.  Defining precisely what constitutes a human life has always been an issue of dispute.  Some folks believe that a freshly fertilized egg is a human being that should have full constitutional protections.  These radical pro-lifers lead what is known as the Personhood Amendment movement as they seek to confer full constitutional rights and protections upon a zygote.  Others view a zygote as a form of life that has the potential to grow into a human being but at what point is quite contentious.

Many within the radical religious right absolutely support arresting, trying and executing women who had abortion as well as they physicians.  As one who opposes the death penalty because I abhor the right of the state to kill anybody, America's religious right would like nothing better than having the legal right to round up women and their abortionist physicians and kill them.

Although the abortion debate and precisely what constitutes a human life is nothing new, what is irrefutable on the abortion issue is that at some point the zygote/blastocyst/embryo/fetus is in fact an unborn human being and terminating its life is not 'reproductive healthcare' but outright murder of an unborn human being.  I read a lot from the left and the right on the abortion issue and many liberals  have morally conceded in so many words that "hey, at some point we really are dealing with an unborn human being and murdering it is outright inhumane and barbarous".

The Personhood movement comes with grave consequences and unique legal problems that no human society has ever dealt with.  If a person driving a vehicle accidentally rear ends the vehicle of a pregnant female and she loses the zygote/blastocyst/embryo/fetus, that person is guilty of some form of murder, minimally involuntary homocide or even a felony requiring prison time.  Moreover, many in the Personhood movement even oppose the birth control pill because they believe that the pill can either spontaneously terminate an unborn life or it interferes with the will of God who is creating a new human being.  If God is the perfect omnipotent creator of the universe, He is infallible and makes no mistakes according to believers.

But not all pregnancies result in a healthy bouncy baby.  God's mistake?  The woman's mistake? I saw a TV documentary a few years back about a pro-life couple who wanted a family.  Their first child was so severely deformed as a result of a congenital defect that it was bed ridden, couldn't walk, grow, talk or even feed itself.  The parents were unaware that they carried a rare gene that created a deformed child.  Although they wanted more children, they postponed the decision until a genetic test was available to ascertain if the unborn life was afflicted with the defect.  They conceived, had the test and the 2nd child was normal but they were prepared to abort despite being strongly pro-life.

The critical point here is this: Should voters, society or legislative bodies make such decisions?  Hell no!  No one should have the right to make such a decision except the parents and I can't imagine a worse decision for a pro-life couple than making the decision to terminate a deformed form of life that will never be remotely normal or ever have any meaningful quality of life.

If Americans want a better quality of life and a culture of life, they had better start with some morality jarring soul searching.

On the progressive left they celebrate the right to murder the unborn with an orgiastic fury.  Then the orgiastic fury grips the Warvangelicals as they celebrate endless wars and the killing of their perceived religious enemies.

When it comes to human life and protecting it, hardly anybody in America holds the moral high ground.

According to the polls, Americans consistently support the right to an early abortion but overwhelmingly oppose late term abortion.  But this won't satisfy the radical pro-choice or pro-life groups.

As for me, I'll never like or celebrate abortion although I would never vote to take the right to an early abortion away from any women.  I haven't lived her life or walked in her shoes and as far as I'm concerned the issue is between the woman and God.  I'm not God and playing God is morally repugnant to me.  God will be a far better judge of human actions and choices than me and that's how it ought to be.

Meanwhile, the moral cesspool that is American will continue to rupture and destroy our once great nation, its backbone and its moral fiber.

When Americans want to take about the 100 million plus folks that our foreign policy and military industrial complex has killed for defense contractor profits, I just might revisit the abortion issue.  But so long as folks on the left and right defend the right of the state to murder and commit genocide, why even raise the issue of the sacredness of a human life?

If all human life isn't sacred then no human life can be sacred.  

I'm Defending Rand Paul Because I'm Sick of Everybody Beating Him Up!

I am so sick of folks beating up on Rand Paul and the lions share of the beatings are coming straight from the so-called liberty movement camp where folks are so intellectually lazy they refuse to even checkout his voting record or facts.  Therefore, I'm setting the record straight.

The #1 false accusation against Rand Paul is that he betrayed his own father, Ron Paul, and endorsed Mitt Romney over his dad.  That's an outright lie that is perpetrated by fruitcakes who are way short on facts and very long on fiction.  Rand Paul always said that his dad was his choice for president but as a Republican, Rand said that he would endorse the GOP nominee, whoever it was.   That's party politics.  Rand Paul certainly wasn't out on the campaign trail pimping for Mittens.

The #2 false accusation against Rand Paul is that he supported sanctions against Iran.  Rand Paul was in a bad situation as the Senate was about to vote nearly unanimously for sanctions against Iran and Rand managed to get an amendment passed that specifically states that the bill in no way constituted war on Iran or a military intervention.  All Rand Paul did was take a very bad situation where he was going to lose anyway and make it less bad.  Given the circumstance, it was the best he could do.  Rand Paul made the point that he wanted the sanctions to be used to bring Iran to the negotiating table and said:

I believe sanctions can be enhanced through strategic diplomacy engaging Russia and China. Finally, Iran has recently asked for renewed discussions, some believe this is a direct outcome of the pressure of sanctions. In addition, I have insisted and been successful in adding language to sanctions assuring that nothing in the legislation is to be interpreted as a decl of war or a use of author of force.

Rand Paul has been accused of being the reincarnation of Satan for the crime of visiting Israel.  Well, everybody, Republican or Democrat, visits Israel but that didn't stop the anti-Semites who see a 'Zionist' conspiracy in everything from accusing Rand Paul of being Zionist scum.

Rand Paul is the only member of Congress who visited Israel and gave a 'let's end foreign aid' speech but that didn't quell his critics.  Rand Paul has been very vociferous about ending all foreign aid to all nations including Israel.

Rand Paul in Israel: End All Foreign Aid Gradually

On his first trip to Israel, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said Monday that all U.S. foreign aid should be gradually eliminated, including the roughly $3 billion sent annually to the country he was visiting.

Speaking at the Jerusalem Institute for Market Studies, a liberty-oriented Israeli think tank, Paul “acknowledged he was expressing a ‘minority opinion’ and doubted Congress would end foreign aid in his lifetime,” according to the Associated Press.

“It’s unlikely anything changes,” he said, “but I think it is worth discussing.”

Paul, who was recently appointed to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, laid out the reasons why he believes winding down foreign aid would benefit both the United States and Israel.

In the wacky world of social media and its massive amount of misinformation and disinformation, it's hard not to conclude that social media is nothing more than one giant lunatic asylum.  Still, it's not hard to find eminently sane folks on Facebook et. al. and most of them are sick and tired of wasting their time engaging the crazies and the liars.  It's as if such folks are either severely misinformed or controlled opposition planted by the government (something I've frequently been accused of).

In any event, Rand Paul is doing an excellent job trying to bring sanity to the insanity that dwells in the District of Crime.  His stellar and stunning 13 hour filibuster got kudos and rave reviews from civil libertarians on the right and left as Rand alone set twitter ablaze for an evening with the Stand With Rand hashtag.

Rand Paul recently took on the social conservatives comprising the Faith and Freedom Coalition and Ron Paul supporter Gary North documented his speech in an article titled Rand Paul’s Speech: Bring Our Troops Home.  While the social conservatives are definitely a thorn in the side of liberty activists because of their overt embrace of neocon foreign policy, Rand Paul is spreading the anti-war message among creepy folks who are traditionally hostile to peace and he's doing it on their own turf.

Rand Paul is not only venturing into venues and issues where few Republicans have ever dared to travel but he gave a blockbuster speech at Howard University, an African American college.  That historic speech is covered here.

Rand Paul has spoken many times about the injustice of the criminal justice system and how it targets and hurts minorities.  In fact, Rand Paul recently wrote an awesome piece on this issue.

Rand Paul | Fighting racial bias in the federal judicial process

Here are two statistics that disturb me, and should startle everyone:

• African Americans in Kentucky are six times more likely than whites to be arrested for marijuana possession.

• While African Americans are 13 percent of the total U.S. population, they make up 37 percent of the prison population.

What is the reason for these disparities?.....

In the case of arrests, federal agencies have hamstrung local law enforcement agencies by requiring them to meet numerical arrest goals in order to secure funding. Morally, this is troubling. In practical terms, instead of local enforcement agencies spending their time investigating serious felony crimes, they concentrate on minority and depressed neighborhoods to increase their drug arrest statistics.

The American Civil Liberties Union, which reported on the arrest statistics, highlighted the Edward Byrne Justice Assistance Grant Program. This federal program distributes millions of dollars a year to local law enforcement agencies. Arrest numbers are a performance measure used in doling out the money.

Despite his courageous advocacy for civil liberties and racial justice as well as peace and ending the damn wars, Rand Paul still manages to be scorned and all without any justification whatsoever.

Let's examine Rand Paul's voting record.  Since being sworn in as a Senator in January 2011, he's assembled quite a few votes including:

12/21/12 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) - voted NO.
05/26/11 Renewal of Patriot Act - voted NO.

Rand Paul's complete voting record is here and it's the most liberty oriented voting record in the US Senate and a voting record that Ron Paul would be proud of.  To disparage the strongest constitutionalist in the US Senate in decades is foolish and baseless.

Yes, it's extremely perplexing that Rand Paul continues to earn the wrath of many.  Yet none of the Rand Paul haters can offer up any valid and documented criticism of Rand Paul's voting record and they just toss out vile but unsubstantiated garbage.  Yeah, somebody could nit pick Rand Paul's voting record on minor issues but on the big issues Rand Paul is rock solid on liberty and the constitution.

In many ways the liberty movement is its own worst enemy.  America isn't going to become a 100% Rothbardian purist anarcho capitalist society, not now, not ever.  Moreover, such a society has never existed anywhere although societies do experience cycles consisting of bursts of liberty and tyranny.  Right now America has embraced unspeakable tyranny.

Rand Paul is just trying to get America back on the constitutional liberty track with a whole lot less government power and a whole lot more freedom.  It's a formidable challenge, one that his father spent decades fighting for.  If that's not good enough for the folks in the liberty movement then there is nothing that can ever appease them.  Furthermore, Rand Paul is nosediving straight into the belly of the beast.  He's tackling tough issues and he's taking on the lunatic religious right by appealing to their sense of justice and Christian sensibilities.

Rand Paul is just as tenacious and committed as Ron Paul and while Rand's tactics and strategy may differ, there is zero evidence that Ron and Rand substantially disagree on anything.

In my humble opinion, Rand Paul is the best hope for 2016 because he's the only Republican who is even remotely appealing to voters of all political stripes including independents, crossover Dems, anti-war folks, Libertarians and Paulites.

If Rand Paul fails to secure the Republican nomination for president in 2016, it will be because the liberty activists failed to support a solid liberty candidate and that's a real tragedy.  What the hell do they want?