There is a remote, although gaining, possibility America's military will intervene as a last resort to resolve the “Obama problem.”
Don't dismiss it as unrealistic.
America isn't the Third World. If a military coup does occur here it will be civilized. That it has never happened doesn't mean it wont. Describing what may be afoot is not to advocate it. So, view the following through military eyes:
# Officers swear to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.” Unlike enlisted personnel, they do not swear to “obey the orders of the president of the United States.”
# Top military officers can see the Constitution they are sworn to defend being trampled as American institutions and enterprises are nationalized.
# They can see that Americans are increasingly alarmed that this nation, under President Barack Obama, may not even be recognizable as America by the 2012 election, in which he will surely seek continuation in office.
# They can see that the economy — ravaged by deficits, taxes, unemployment, and impending inflation — is financially reliant on foreign lender governments.
# They can see this president waging undeclared war on the intelligence community, without whose rigorous and independent functions the armed services are rendered blind in an ever-more hostile world overseas and at home.
# They can see the dismantling of defenses against missiles targeted at this nation by avowed enemies, even as America's troop strength is allowed to sag.
# They can see the horror of major warfare erupting simultaneously in two, and possibly three, far-flung theaters before America can react in time.
# They can see the nation's safety and their own military establishments and honor placed in jeopardy as never before.
So, if you are one of those observant military professionals, what do you do?
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Recommended daily allowance of insanity, under-reported news and uncensored opinion dismantling the propaganda matrix.
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Karzai family secrets
From Gerald Posner's report in The Daily Beast:
Ahmed and Mahmoud are cited by Afghanistan watchers as serious political liabilities to the country's fragile democracy and to Hamid Karzai's claim that his government is making progress against the systemic corruption that is part of the nation's DNA.
Neither has ever been charged with any crime. The duo recently came out swinging, providing The Daily Beast exclusive and feisty interviews regarding what Ahmed calls “the slanders, lies, and vicious attacks” swirling around them.
First, some background. Afghan and American officials have privately accused Ahmed, who heads the powerful provincial council in Kandahar, of being a heroin kingpin in the nation that supplies 90 percent of the world's opium supply. They cite a few examples. In 2004, Afghan security forces stumbled on a cache of heroin hidden in tractor-trailer outside Kandahar. The local commander, Habibullah Jan, said Ahmed called him and demanded the drugs be released. Jan was ambushed and shot to death in 2007, with government officials blaming the Taliban. In 2006, a DEA informant, Hajji Aman Kheri, gave a tip about a truck near Kandahar carrying 110 pounds of pure heroin, allegedly under the watchful eye of one of Ahmed's bodyguards. And last month, the German magazine Stern reported that British troops seized several tons of raw opium on one of Ahmed's farms.
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Ahmed and Mahmoud are cited by Afghanistan watchers as serious political liabilities to the country's fragile democracy and to Hamid Karzai's claim that his government is making progress against the systemic corruption that is part of the nation's DNA.
Neither has ever been charged with any crime. The duo recently came out swinging, providing The Daily Beast exclusive and feisty interviews regarding what Ahmed calls “the slanders, lies, and vicious attacks” swirling around them.
First, some background. Afghan and American officials have privately accused Ahmed, who heads the powerful provincial council in Kandahar, of being a heroin kingpin in the nation that supplies 90 percent of the world's opium supply. They cite a few examples. In 2004, Afghan security forces stumbled on a cache of heroin hidden in tractor-trailer outside Kandahar. The local commander, Habibullah Jan, said Ahmed called him and demanded the drugs be released. Jan was ambushed and shot to death in 2007, with government officials blaming the Taliban. In 2006, a DEA informant, Hajji Aman Kheri, gave a tip about a truck near Kandahar carrying 110 pounds of pure heroin, allegedly under the watchful eye of one of Ahmed's bodyguards. And last month, the German magazine Stern reported that British troops seized several tons of raw opium on one of Ahmed's farms.
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Did California police use a Taser on an unarmed, legless man in a wheelchair?
The Merced Police Department's Internal Affairs Division is investigating whether an officer twice used a Taser on an unarmed, wheelchair-bound man with no legs.
The man who was Tasered, Gregory Williams, 40, a double-leg amputee, spent six days in jail on suspicion of domestic violence and resisting arrest, but the Merced County District Attorney's office hasn't filed any charges.
Williams is black, and the two main arresting officers are white, but it's unknown whether race played any role in the incident.
Williams, who was released from jail on Friday, said he was manhandled and Tasered by police, even though he said he was never physically aggressive toward the officers and didn't resist arrest.
Williams said he was humiliated after his pants fell down during the incident. The officers allegedly left him outdoors in broad daylight, handcuffed on the pavement, nude below the waist. Williams said the Sept. 11 arrest also left him with an injured shoulder, limiting his mobility in his wheelchair.
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The man who was Tasered, Gregory Williams, 40, a double-leg amputee, spent six days in jail on suspicion of domestic violence and resisting arrest, but the Merced County District Attorney's office hasn't filed any charges.
Williams is black, and the two main arresting officers are white, but it's unknown whether race played any role in the incident.
Williams, who was released from jail on Friday, said he was manhandled and Tasered by police, even though he said he was never physically aggressive toward the officers and didn't resist arrest.
Williams said he was humiliated after his pants fell down during the incident. The officers allegedly left him outdoors in broad daylight, handcuffed on the pavement, nude below the waist. Williams said the Sept. 11 arrest also left him with an injured shoulder, limiting his mobility in his wheelchair.
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Worth Watching: Argentina’s Disappeared
Elizabeth DeNovella writes for The Progressive:
The new documentary, Our Disappeared/Nuestros Desaparecidos, examines the disappearance of 30,000 people during Argentina's military dictatorship of 1976-1983. Though Argentina's history differs from ours, we can still take away a valuable lesson: those who participated in state-sponsored torture must be held accountable.
This moving film was written and directed by Juan Mandelbaum. Mandelbaum fled Argentina in 1977 to escape the growing repression in his country. He returns thirty years later after an accidental discovery. Through a Google search, Mandelbaum learned that Patricia Dixon, a college girlfriend, was one of the “disappeared.”
Mandelbaum returns to Argentina to see what happened to Dixon and to others who had also disappeared. He weaves the national narrative—Peron's return to power and the military junta's deliberate attempt to destroy the left—with personal ones. We hear from the mothers, fathers, siblings, and even the children of the disappeared. The pain in people's faces when talking about their missing loved ones is heartbreaking.
The director doesn't shy away from the violence perpetrated by leftist armed radicals. “But the film leaves no doubt that there was no equivalency between the actions of the left and the repression by the military,” Mandelbaum writes in his director's statement. “The military represented the State of Argentina, and were obligated to follow the law.”
Instead, people were kidnapped, tortured, and held in secret detention centers. Mandelbaum visits the infamous Navy Mechanics School, which housed a detention center and five torture rooms. It was here that pregnant women were kept alive until the birth of their children, who were then adopted by military and police families. It was here that Mandelbaum's ex-girlfriend was probably taken.
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International Blasphemy Day is 30 September 2009
€25,000 fine for blasphemy in Ireland
Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern is to cut proposed fines for blasphemy from €100,000 to €25,000, under changes to be made to the Defamation Act next week.
Mr Ahern said the legislation, which passed its committee stage in the Dáil yesterday, has been drafted to “make it virtually impossible to get a successful prosecution [for blasphemy] out of it”.
A blasphemy prosecution has not been won for a century, while powers already in force under the 1961 Defamation Act have never been used.
The Government is currently modernising Ireland’s defamation laws, which passed its committee stage in the Dáil last evening.
Under Article 40 of the Constitution, “the publication or utterance of blasphemous, seditious, or indecent matter” is a criminal offence.
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Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern is to cut proposed fines for blasphemy from €100,000 to €25,000, under changes to be made to the Defamation Act next week.
Mr Ahern said the legislation, which passed its committee stage in the Dáil yesterday, has been drafted to “make it virtually impossible to get a successful prosecution [for blasphemy] out of it”.
A blasphemy prosecution has not been won for a century, while powers already in force under the 1961 Defamation Act have never been used.
The Government is currently modernising Ireland’s defamation laws, which passed its committee stage in the Dáil last evening.
Under Article 40 of the Constitution, “the publication or utterance of blasphemous, seditious, or indecent matter” is a criminal offence.
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America’s H1N1 expert says scientists are clueless about immune system reactions to vaccinations
America’s leading promoter of getting vaccinated for the H1N1 flu, Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute for Allergies and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), has admitted knowing nil about how human immunity responds to vaccinations, according an interview published by Bloomberg.
Dr. Fauci’s stunning admission came in response to questions raised by a study of 16,000 volunteers vaccinated against HIV with results alleged to be promising, but for reasons unknown. The unexpected outcome “tells us that we don’t even know what the correlates of immunity are,” Dr. Fauci said, referring to the measurable signs that a person has developed immunity to genetically-engineered surrogate viruses now used in the new flu vaccines.
“This is what honest intelligent vaccine critics have been saying all along,” said Dr. Leonard Horowitz, a Harvard-trained emerging diseases expert that has condemned vaccinations as “outlandishly barbaric and horrific, with risks far worse than using blood-letting leeches.”
“Dr. Fauci’s statement evidences the fraud and ignorance underlying vaccination programs in general,” Dr. Horowitz said. “Fauci admits being clueless about the fundamentals of immunity operating bioenergetically or electro-genetically, not chemically, that vaccine proponents criminally neglect to prosper by poisoning people.”
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Dr. Fauci’s stunning admission came in response to questions raised by a study of 16,000 volunteers vaccinated against HIV with results alleged to be promising, but for reasons unknown. The unexpected outcome “tells us that we don’t even know what the correlates of immunity are,” Dr. Fauci said, referring to the measurable signs that a person has developed immunity to genetically-engineered surrogate viruses now used in the new flu vaccines.
“This is what honest intelligent vaccine critics have been saying all along,” said Dr. Leonard Horowitz, a Harvard-trained emerging diseases expert that has condemned vaccinations as “outlandishly barbaric and horrific, with risks far worse than using blood-letting leeches.”
“Dr. Fauci’s statement evidences the fraud and ignorance underlying vaccination programs in general,” Dr. Horowitz said. “Fauci admits being clueless about the fundamentals of immunity operating bioenergetically or electro-genetically, not chemically, that vaccine proponents criminally neglect to prosper by poisoning people.”
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Al-Aqsa, the ultimate red line
Khalid Amayreh reports in The Rebel:
The unprovoked intrusion by Jewish fanatics into the Noble Sanctuary of Jerusalem on Sunday 27 September, should alarm every Muslim under the sun.
That was not, as the Israeli machine of lies would make you believe, a mere innocent visit by Jewish tourists to Islam’s third holiest sanctuary. It was rather a planned and calculated act of provocation against Muslims all over the world.
Jewish fanatics, we all know, don’t come to the Aqsa esplanade to visit; they come for the purpose of arrogating a foot-hold or perhaps hatching a conspiracy against Islamic edifices. In short, their ultimate goal is to carry out acts of terror and vandalism against Islamic holy places.
In the past, distant and near, Jewish terrorists, who often disguise themselves as tourists, carried out acts of murder against Muslim worshipers.
When Israel occupied the Old City of Jerusalem, the Israeli army Chief Rabbi Shlomo Goren tried meticulously to convince one commander of the conquering army to blow up the Aqsa Mosque “once and for all.”
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The unprovoked intrusion by Jewish fanatics into the Noble Sanctuary of Jerusalem on Sunday 27 September, should alarm every Muslim under the sun.
That was not, as the Israeli machine of lies would make you believe, a mere innocent visit by Jewish tourists to Islam’s third holiest sanctuary. It was rather a planned and calculated act of provocation against Muslims all over the world.
Jewish fanatics, we all know, don’t come to the Aqsa esplanade to visit; they come for the purpose of arrogating a foot-hold or perhaps hatching a conspiracy against Islamic edifices. In short, their ultimate goal is to carry out acts of terror and vandalism against Islamic holy places.
In the past, distant and near, Jewish terrorists, who often disguise themselves as tourists, carried out acts of murder against Muslim worshipers.
When Israel occupied the Old City of Jerusalem, the Israeli army Chief Rabbi Shlomo Goren tried meticulously to convince one commander of the conquering army to blow up the Aqsa Mosque “once and for all.”
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Origin of the 'V' sign
From Massey Magazine:
It was at Agincourt in 1415 that the ‘two finger salute’ appeared. The French, with their superiority of numbers, expected an easy victory. They therefore felt it safe to proclaim that henceforth any captured English archers would have their index and middle fingers cut off. As these were the fingers required to draw back a bowstring, the archer’s career would be ruined and any prospects of future employment severely limited. Unfortunately for the French though, Agincourt was a decisive English victory. The English archers took a severe toll of the dismounted knights advancing to meet them and then, not relishing the prospect of being separated from their fingers, drew their swords to have a go at hacking the knights to death at close quarters. After the battle, and in future ones, English archers held up their two fingers and waved them at the French. It was a sign intended as an insult and a warning and as such was an effective gesture. It showed the French that the archer’s two fingers remained intact and he still remained a deadly adversary.
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It was at Agincourt in 1415 that the ‘two finger salute’ appeared. The French, with their superiority of numbers, expected an easy victory. They therefore felt it safe to proclaim that henceforth any captured English archers would have their index and middle fingers cut off. As these were the fingers required to draw back a bowstring, the archer’s career would be ruined and any prospects of future employment severely limited. Unfortunately for the French though, Agincourt was a decisive English victory. The English archers took a severe toll of the dismounted knights advancing to meet them and then, not relishing the prospect of being separated from their fingers, drew their swords to have a go at hacking the knights to death at close quarters. After the battle, and in future ones, English archers held up their two fingers and waved them at the French. It was a sign intended as an insult and a warning and as such was an effective gesture. It showed the French that the archer’s two fingers remained intact and he still remained a deadly adversary.
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'The Taqwacores' on Q TV
The legendary Clash singer and guitarist Joe Strummer famously said, "the future is unwritten". Well, I'd love to hear what Strummer would have to say about Michael Muhammad Knight -- the author of "The Taqwacores", a book that, in many ways, wrote the future of the North American Muslim punk music scene. Knight's book takes us into a vibrant house of aspiring punk musicians living in Buffalo, New York. Like most young punks, the characters in this book live for sex, drugs and rock n' roll. But in this house they also pray to Mecca (denoted by a hole smashed in a wall). The characters in "The Taqwacores" all negotiate their identities - religious, political, cultural and sexual - through the rebellion of punk....from mohawked Sufis to burqa-wearing riot girls and Indonesian skater boys. The book began as a photocopied, spiral-bound zine that Knight distributed out of the trunk of his car in mosque parking lots. In 2005, it was picked up and published by Alternative Tentacles, Jello Biafra's record label, and it's now being re-released in soft-cover by Soft Skull Press. Knight has since written a few books on American Muslim culture but "The Taqwacores" seems to have had the most affect on contemporary culture. He's been hailed by critics as a Hunter S. Thompson, Jack Kerouac or J.D. Salinger for post-9-11 American muslim youth...many of whom were inspired to create bands of their own like "The Komanis" or Vancouver's all-girl punk outfit, "Secret Trial Five". The book has also inspired two films coming out this year -- a dramatic feature film - and a documentary by Montreal-based filmmaker, Omar Majeed. The two sat down in Studio Q to talk about the subject.
www.youtube.com/qtv