The Revolution Comes From the Right

In effect, NSPD 51 outlines the final touches to the coup d'etat.The dictator will run local, state and federal governments.
Rowdies, freethinkers and Constitutionalists will sit in detention camps.
The power elite can sell the country to the oriental tiger economies, convert their winnings to Euros and wallow in continental splendor. Those Americans who want to eat can work for coolie wages.
The progressives believe they can derail this outcome by electing Barack or Hillary in November.
Can anybody tell me how we can stop Martial Law that would suspend the elections?

The Rising Cost of Baseball Tickets

Why does everyone assume elections will take place this year? As expressed in NSPD51, the President can state an emergency and declare Martial Law at his discretion.
Has anyone been able to change his course in a meaningful way?
Does he have a reason to retire?
Living abroad for 25 years, I'd like to see a ballgame or two. If the price of admission includes prison and torture, I'll stay where I am.

Don't Sleep with Your Cell Phone On

In the movie "Sword of Gideon" two Israeli assassins masqueraded as telephone repairmen. Entering the apartment of a Munich Massacre mastermind, they installed a small bomb in his telephone mouthpiece. After he arrived home, they made an explosive call.
The film impressed me to the point I sold my land line. Until last week I had used a cellular phone.
With the GPSS system, the Americans can locate any cell phone on earth. The ones owned by the FARC men served to guide the American smart bombs to their hideaway.
On Saturday I let my landlord steal my cell phone. If he keeps it charged, he might get a bang out of it.

Israelis and Arabs May find Unity in Death

Israelis and Arabs forget we have common enemies. Here is a possible scenario. Four nuclear devices explode in the four major Israeli cities.
The Israelis launch 250 fighter/bombers to nuke 500 population centers in the Arab World.
Years later the few survivors may learn it was a false flags CIA op, or maybe a Russian ploy to obtain oilfields.
Continued turmoil plays into the hands of our enemies.

Recent US Attempts to Destabilize Andean Region

US Seeks to Destabilize Andean Region

Jason Paz

Normally, Columbia’s right wing strongman Alvaro Uribe is not the type to order an act of war against neighboring Ecuador. The fervent backing of the US administration could have strengthened his resolve.

President Bush lauds the killing of 13 guerrillas and two FARC leaders as a victory in the War on Terror. Body searches at the scene have ‘revealed’ a relationship between Chavez and FARC: $300 millions and depleted uranium. How convenient this is for Americans who want to seize Venezuelan oil assets in time of war!

There is nothing to stop Bush from declaring Martial Law and putting NSPD 51 in force.

I hope someone will explain to me why this sorry eventuality is impossible.

In the meantime, Mr Gott examines the political ramifications of recent events. Although I agree with him in every regard, I alone am responsible for my words and opinions above.

For FARC's Sake: Colombia's U.S.-Sponsored Aggression Destabilizing Andean Region

Richard Gott, Alternet

Originally appeared on Free to Comment

The deaths of Raúl Reyes and Julián Conrado, two senior figures in the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), are clearly a serious blow to the guerrilla organization. It will now call a halt to the release of hostages held by the FARC in the jungle over many years, a process that had been proceeding slowly under the auspices of the Venezuelan president, Hugo Chávez. Freedom in the short term for the former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, in which the French president Nicolas Sarkozy has taken a personal interest, now seems unlikely, and many people believe that she is dying. Hopes of the imminent release of three U.S. defense contractors have also been dashed.

By all accounts, the midnight attack on the camp of the FARC leaders, a mile inside Ecuadorean territory in the jungle region south of the Putumayo River, was a political decision taken by the Colombian president, Alvaro Uribe, to end the peace process orchestrated by Chávez. Four Colombian politicians, held as hostages by the FARC for the past six years, were released last week and given a royal welcome in Caracas. Reyes had been among those who organized their freedom. Killed at the age of 59, Reyes had long been more of a diplomat than a guerrilla commander, though he was often photographed in military fatigues and carrying a gun.

According to the Ecuadorean president, Rafael Correa, the bodies of the FARC commanders and 13 guerrillas were recovered in their pajamas after being bombed while sleeping in a tent on the Ecuadorean side of the frontier. The Colombian air force, Correa claimed, had used advanced technology "with the collaboration of foreign powers" to locate the camp and "to massacre" its occupants. Uribe's government is a close ally of the United States and Israel, whereas Correa belongs to the radical camp led by Chávez. Subsequent to the bombing, Colombian troops crossed the frontier into Ecuador to recover the bodies.

Ever since 9/11, the United States has requested the Colombian government to refer to the FARC as a "terrorist" organization, a word also now used by the European Union. Yet the Colombian guerrillas are the most long-lasting of all such movements in Latin America, long predating the current obsession with "terrorism." Their leader, Manuel Marulanda, first led the FARC in the early 1960s and has survived into the 21st century, while Raúl Reyes had run the organization's political wing for many years. A well-known negotiator and promoter of the FARC's cause in meetings in Europe and Latin America, Reyes was a crucial collaborator in the recent efforts by the Venezuelan president and Colombian Senator Piedad Córdoba to release some of the Colombian hostages.

The FARC has witnessed many changes over the past 40 years, but none of them has affected its ability to survive. One change has been the increasing production in Colombia of the raw material for cocaine and heroin, fueling the drug markets of the United States and Europe, which was once grown in Bolivia and Peru. Land in Colombia devoted to growing cannabis, coca and poppies has grown fivefold since the 1960s, and the FARC has long provided protection to the rural workers on these plantations, as well as exacting tribute from the drug barons.

Another change has been the growth of paramilitary organizations, first sponsored by the drug barons and then by the state, that have revived the pattern of civil war that has been a particular Colombian phenomenon since the 19th century. Coupled with the growth of the paramilitaries has been the U.S.-designed Plan Colombia, a military aid package first agreed with President Clinton in 1999, that has made Colombia the fifth-largest recipient of U.S. aid in the world.

A third change has been the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the corresponding loss of influence of the Colombian Communist Party, once the principal political backer of the FARC. The death in 1990 of Jacobo Arenas, the talented Communist leader, left Marulanda and Reyes as the FARC's sole commanders.

Negotiations between the guerrillas and the government have been a feature of the past 25 years, but an unfortunate experience in the 1980s turned the FARC into a reluctant participant. After a ceasefire in 1984, the FARC was encouraged to establish a legal political party, the Patriotic Union, and to put forward candidates in the elections in 1985. The Patriotic Union was reasonably successful, securing six senators, 23 deputies, and several hundred local councillors. But the outcome was disastrous. After emerging into the open and putting their heads above the parapet, many of the UP supporters were singled out and killed. More than 4,000 left-wing activists and organizers were assassinated in the year after the elections. The guerrillas retired to their safe territories in the rural areas and vowed not to make the same mistake again. Further negotiations took place between 1999 and 2002, but the government negotiators could not overcome this legacy of mistrust on the part of the FARC. When Uribe became president in 2002, he abandoned all such efforts and embarked on seeking an entirely military solution.

Last year, Uribe came under considerable pressure from within Colombia to make greater efforts to secure the release of the hostages, and this was backed by many governments in Latin America as well as by France. Hugo Chávez took up the challenge, and in spite of noncooperation from Uribe, he was instrumental in moving the process on. The FARC will soon find new commanders, but the willful slaughter of Reyes and the other guerrillas in an illegal cross-border operation in Ecuador will put all peace negotiations on hold for a considerable time, which was clearly Uribe's purpose in ordering the strike.

He is now getting more than he bargained for. Chávez has indicated his own personal disgust with the Colombian action by closing the Venezuelan embassy in Bogota and ordering troops to the border. While still dealing with a powerful internal insurgency, Uribe now faces two angry presidents in two important neighboring countries, mobilizing their armies on his frontiers.

Slave Traffickers Abduct Millions of Children

Millions of minors worldwide become victims of slave traffickers every year. Many parents are too ashamed to vouch for their child's return. Most victim families lack the funds for a return air ticket.
Local law enforcers side with the kidnappers.
The nations ignore the plight of the victims.
The United Nations does not back the laws already on the books.
Consequently, victims such as my son have little hope for escape.
There are more slaves in captivity than at any other time in history.

What Does Your Rep Do With His $37 millions Gift?

Four of my dogs are trying to eat a process server. He has a foreclosure notice on the property next door. So, unless the Police find his bones in my garden, I am in the clear.
The incident reminds me of an article I read a few weeks ago. The latest US budget includes $20 billions earmarked by the Congress for various projects. Without examination or oversight, the funds could end up anywhere.
Inconsequential in the USA, the monies impress the hell out of an Israeli like me. They amount to nearly one-fifth of Israel's Gross Domestic Product.
As the process server scales the outer wall to escape, I calculate each House and Senate member's share in this largess at a little over $37 millions. Surely, this amount is sufficient to win the hearts and minds of the incumbents constituents.
As my dogs on the process server, the legislators are doing a job on the public.
Every dog has his day.

Does Bush Peep into Your Snail Mail?

Bush Legalizes Warrantless Search of US Mail

Jesse Wendel, Alternet

On December 20, 2007, President Bush signed routine postal legislation. In a "Signing Statement", the President claims Executive Power to search the mail of U.S. citizens inside the United States without a warrant, in direct contradiction of the bill he had just signed.

The Seattle Times

The move, one year after The New York Times' disclosure of a secret program that allowed warrantless monitoring of Americans' phone calls and e-mail, caught Capitol Hill by surprise.

"Despite the president's statement that he may be able to circumvent a basic privacy protection, the new postal law continues to prohibit the government from snooping into people's mail without a warrant," said Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., the incoming House Government Reform Committee chairman, who co-sponsored the bill.

"You have to be concerned," a senior U.S. official agreed. "It takes executive-branch authority beyond anything we've ever known."

Yet, in his statement, Bush said he will "construe" an exception, "which provides for opening of an item of a class of mail otherwise sealed against inspection in a manner consistent ... with the need to conduct searches in exigent circumstances."

White House spokeswoman Emily Lawrimore denied Bush was claiming new authority.

"In certain circumstances -- such as with the proverbial 'ticking bomb' -- the Constitution does not require warrants for reasonable searches," she said.

Bush, however, cited "exigent circumstances" that could refer to an imminent danger or a long-standing state of emergency.

I feel safer already.

If you were wondering what Keith Olbermann was going to talk about tonight, we've got you covered... This.

The only real question is, will Keith have video of The President actually wiping his ass with The Constitution, or are those films Top-Secret Presidential -- like the list of people Dick Cheney has shotgunned, then made to apologize?

Reading our mail? Letters from soldiers to their boyfriends and girlfriends. Strategy memos from Fortune 500 Companies to strategic partners including how they'll bid on government jobs. Whistle-blower memos. Letters to criminal defense lawyers, priests and rabbis.

If the U.S. Mail isn't private, next thing you know the Feds will be listening to our damn phone calls! Reading our emails! Restricting our ability to travel or arresting us for trying to get into a political event if we're not assimilated.

Worst. President. Ever.

Will Mr Bush Serve a Third Term?

Perhaps someone can enlighten me.

What is to prevent Mr Bush from staging a false flags event and declaring Martial Law? Acting under NSPD 51, he could seize control of the three branches of government and suspend the 2008 elections indefinitely.

Who would oppose him? How?

Would George Set Up NSPD 51 for Hillary?

Would George Prepare NSPD 51 for Hillary?

NSPD-51: Bush prepares martial law

Submitted by Bill Weinberg, World War 4 Report to opednews.com

Every president since FDR has drawn up such plans. The most notorious were Nixon's "Operation Garden Plot" and Reagan's "REX 84 Alpha"—a legacy we recalled when the Homeland Security Act passed in 2002. This latest incarnation has gone unnoticed by the New York Times and other major media. Leave it to the editorial page of Tennessee's Chattanoogan, May 24:

Bush Makes Power Grab
President Bush, without so much as issuing a press statement, on May 9 signed a directive that granted near dictatorial powers to the office of the president in the event of a national emergency declared by the president.

The "National Security and Homeland Security Presidential Directive," with the dual designation of NSPD-51, as a National Security Presidential Directive, and HSPD-20, as a Homeland Security Presidential Directive, establishes under the office of president a new National Continuity Coordinator.

That job, as the document describes, is to make plans for "National Essential Functions" of all federal, state, local, territorial, and tribal governments, as well as private sector organizations to continue functioning under the president's directives in the event of a national emergency.

The directive loosely defines "catastrophic emergency" as "any incident, regardless of location, that results in extraordinary levels of mass casualties, damage, or disruption severely affecting the U.S. population, infrastructure, environment, economy, or government functions."

When the President determines a catastrophic emergency has occurred, the President can take over all government functions and direct all private sector activities to ensure we will emerge from the emergency with an "enduring constitutional government."

Translated into layman's terms, when the President determines a national emergency has occurred, the President can declare to the office of the presidency powers usually assumed by dictators to direct any and all government and business activities until the emergency is declared over.

Ironically, the directive sees no contradiction in the assumption of dictatorial powers by the President with the goal of maintaining constitutional continuity through an emergency.

The directive specifies that the assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism will be designated as the National Continuity Coordinator. Further established is a Continuity Policy Coordination Committee, chaired by a senior director from the Homeland Security Council staff, designated by the National Continuity Coordinator, to be "the main day-to-day forum for such policy coordination."

Currently, the assistant to the president for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism is Frances Fragos Townsend. Townsend spent 13 years at the Justice Department before moving to the U.S. Coast Guard where she served as assistant commandant for intelligence. She is a White House staff member in the executive office of the president who also chairs the Homeland Security Council, which as a counterpart to the National Security Council reports directly to the president.

The directive issued May 9 makes no attempt to reconcile the powers created there for the National Continuity Coordinator with the National Emergency Act. As specified by U.S. Code Title 50, Chapter 34, Subchapter II, Section 1621, the National Emergency Act allows that the president may declare a national emergency but requires that such proclamation "shall immediately be transmitted to the Congress and published in the Federal Register."

A Congressional Research Service study notes that under the National Emergency Act, the President "may seize property, organize and control the means of production, seize commodities, assign military forces abroad, institute martial law, seize and control all transportation and communication, regulate the operation of private enterprise, restrict travel, and, in a variety of ways, control the lives of United States citizens."

The CRS study notes that the National Emergency Act sets up congress as a balance empowered to "modify, rescind, or render dormant such delegated emergency authority," if Congress believes the president has acted inappropriately.

NSPD-51/ HSPD-20 appears to supersede the National Emergency Act by creating the new position of National Continuity Coordinator without any specific act of Congress authorizing the position.

NSPD-51/ HSPD-20 also makes no reference whatsoever to Congress. The language of the May 9 directive appears to negate any a requirement that the President submit to Congress a determination that a national emergency exists, suggesting instead that the powers of the executive order can be implemented without any congressional approval or oversight.

Homeland Security spokesperson Russ Knocke affirmed that the Homeland Security Department will be implementing the requirements of NSPD-51/HSPD-20 under Townsend's direction.

The White House had no comment.

While we're skeptical Bush will have the cojones to pull this off, NSPD-51 is particularly ominous in light of the draconian provisions of the 2007 National Defense Authorization Act.