"A nation's best defense is an educated citizenry" - Thomas Jefferson ------- Our enemy is coming again and we must be prepared ... our worst must be better than their best! – The Center for Strategic Information Application (CSIA) provides focused news - occasional analysis and interpretation ---- Recommended searches "absolutely" -"must read" - "troubling" - "9/11" - "jihad" - "sharia" - "Federal Reserve" - "Sibel".
(Compiler's note: A must read article. This program sounds a lot like Nazi Germany some years ago.)
By Examiner Editorial
With almost no public attention, both chambers of Congress in the past week advanced an alarming expansion of the Americorps national service plan, with the number of federally funded community service job increasing from 75,000 to 250,000 at a cost of $5.7 billion. Lurking behind the feel-good rhetoric spouted by the measure’s advocates is a bill that on closer inspection reveals multiple provisions that together create a strong odor of creepy authoritarianism. The House passed the measure overwhelmingly, while only 14 senators had the sense and courage to vote against it on a key procedural motion. Every legislator who either voted for this bill or didn’t vote at all has some serious explaining to do.
Last summer, then-candidate Barack Obama threw civil liberties to the wind when he proposed “a civilian national security force that’s just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded” as the regular military. The expanded Americorps is not quite so disturbing, but a number of provisions in the bill raise serious concerns.
To begin with, the legislation threatens the voluntary nature of Americorps by calling for consideration of “a workable, fair, and reasonable mandatory service requirement for all able young people.” It anticipates the possibility of requiring “all individuals in the United States” to perform such service – including elementary school students. The bill also summons up unsettling memories of World War II-era paramilitary groups by saying the new program should “combine the best practices of civilian service with the best aspects of military service,” while establishing “campuses” that serve as “operational headquarters,” complete with “superintendents” and “uniforms” for all participants. It allows for the elimination of all age restrictions in order to involve Americans at all stages of life. And it calls for creation of “a permanent cadre” in a “National Community Civilian Corps.”
But that’s not all. The bill also calls for “youth engagement zones” in which “service learning” is “a mandatory part of the curriculum in all of the secondary schools served by the local educational agency.” This updated form of voluntary community service is also to be “integrated into the science, technology, engineering and mathematics curricula” at all levels of schooling. Sounds like a government curriculum for government approved “service learning,” which is nothing less than indoctrination. Now, ask yourself if congressmen who voted for this monstrosity had a clue what they were voting for. If not, they’re guilty of dereliction of duty. If yes, the implications are truly frightening.
UPDATE:
Between being first officially "reported" to the House and being voted on by the full House, bill managers stripped one whole section of the measure that created a Congressional Commission on Civil Service, thus removing the section that contained the language cited above concerning "a workable, fair, and reasonable mandatory service requirement for all able young people" and a possible requirement for "all individuals in the United States" to perform such service. The section could be restored during the Senate-House conference committee meeting. A new, separate bill containing that language has since been introduced in the House.
A report about modern militia activity will no longer be distributed to Missouri law enforcement officers after receiving nationwide criticism that it contains political profiling.
The decision came Wednesday, hours after Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder called for Department of Public Safety Director John Britt to be placed on leave because of the report, which said followers of third-party political candidates might be militia members.
But the superintendent of the Missouri Highway Patrol said Britt wasn't to blame. Instead, Col. James Keathley said, the issue is a flawed oversight system, which will be revamped. Keathley said the report was sent to highway patrol members without being reviewed by him or Britt.
Since the report was leaked to the public earlier this month, it has been criticized by conservatives and third-party candidates. ....
WASHINGTON — The Pentagon’s new Africa Command is still recovering from early missteps in explaining its missions and purpose, miscues that government investigators say have left lingering fears at the State Department, in Congress and on the continent that the Defense Department is militarizing the nation’s foreign policy in Africa.
Investigators also reported problems with the command’s goal of filling its ranks with many more diplomats and civilians from the Treasury, Commerce and other federal departments than traditional military commands. The Pentagon originally planned to draw 125 people — or one quarter of the command’s staff — from other agencies; the number is now hovering at 52.
A report issued Wednesday by the Government Accountability Office acknowledged that the command had taken steps recently to win the trust of American diplomats and development experts, as well as African leaders. But it said the command must do a better job explaining what it does to build credibility among its United States government partners and with the African nations it is seeking to help.
“The military’s large size brings the promise of increased resources,” the report said, but that size also stirs concerns among African nations “about potential encroachment into civilian responsibilities like development and diplomacy.”
In an interview here on Monday, before the G.A.O. issued its report, Gen. William E. Ward, the head of the command, said many of the misperceptions about the command had been dispelled. “We are, in fact, able to devote our attention to the programs that we want to put in place and that are being asked for by our African friends, programs that clearly support our foreign policy and that lead to increased prospects for stability on the continent,” General Ward said.
Souad Mekhennet contributed reporting from New York.
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has sent a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder announcing her intentions to hold a hearing on the issue of newspaper consolidation in the San Francisco Bay area, citing anti-trust laws as a potential avenue to do something about this. The hearing would be by the Courts & Competition Policy Subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee, according to Pelosi’s letter.
While clearly there are serious issues engulfing the newspaper industry, in San Francisco and elsewhere, the problem isn’t one of anti-trust violations. Pelosi has made her feelings known. She would like a return to the Fairness Doctrine. This is a nose under the tent.
Yes, the industry is changing. It has been for years. But other than perhaps some limits on one company owning too many TV, radio and newspapers in a single market, the government really should have no role in the business of news.
The whole news paradigm is changing. We have public radio and TV, both on national and local levels. We have both print and online-only newspapers and magazines. Examples: Seattle Post-Intelligencer has just gone to strictly online; U.S. News & World Report has become online only except for once-a-month consumer oriented issues in print; The Christian Science Monitorbecame the first national newspaper to go exclusively online; and the nearly 200-year-old Ann Arbor (Michigan) News announced this week that it is going to become exclusively web based starting in July. Many other high profile newspapers have been struggling to stay afloat – in Philadelphia, Detroit, Chicago, Los Angeles, and even the New York Times has lost much of its stock value and has had to borrow money against its headquarters in New York.
The problem is that few papers have been able to successfully monetize the news on the Internet. That’s partly because advertisers aren’t satisfied with the results, and subscribers are generally reluctant when they have access to so much free material on the Internet.
The change in the news business is everywhere. We now have Propublica.com, which is 28 investigative reporters paid by the Sandlers of San Francisco, philanthropists who felt the newspapers weren’t doing enough of it on their own. They have done some great work on covering the TARP funds. The Drudge Report is still the largest by far of the news aggregators, which is another type of news source that didn’t used to exist. The Wall Street Journal is one of the only publications making money via subscribers. It is a unique brand that businessmen and stockholders the world over turn to and trust for its reliability on financial and political matters.
It’s true, and unfortunate, that many news organizations are run with the bottom line being the biggest factor to the owners. And it means that there are fewer bureaus, fewer foreign bureaus, and fewer reporters in the remaining bureaus. On the other hand we can read blogs and news sites from all over the world. There are plenty of people willing to keep providing news reports for free. It is up to us as individuals to sort out what is reliable and what isn’t. That cannot be a role for government bureaucrats or politicians.
We are going through a period comparable to changing from horse and buggy to cars. A lot of shake-up that is better left to market forces. Especially with something as sacred as news and its protector, the First Amendment. The government has no business picking winners and losers. If a government entity bails out the last remaining newspaper in a city, is that newspaper’s coverage of that entity tainted? It’s certainly suspect.
In some cities, college and even high school journalism departments have flip-cams and other high quality, low-cost video equipment and send students out to cover school board and city hall meetings. It’s obviously not as desirable as having professional journalists who have covered the beat for years, but it is an industry in flux, and often these students will do a better job than hardened reporters who have lost their passion.
One of the worst things that has happened to the newspaper industry is Craig’s List, which is where people place classified ads for little or nothing, and people go to those classified ads looking for anything from a job, to a prostitute to a used car.
Jack Shafer of Slate.com did a story back in 2006, citing a story from a Harvard Business School publication that traced the history of newspaper consolidation, and found that between 1953 and 1980, the number of family-owned newspapers went from 1,300 to 700, and that the factors included technology, labor unions, and tax codes.
The bottom line is that consolidation is part of the natural evolution of news. It means different things in different markets. This story from 2008 details the consolidation of several San Francisco Bay area publications that more or less went in together to save costs, but have still had to let many people go.
But AIM Editor Cliff Kincaid, in the book that he co-authored, The Death of Talk Radio?, and I have been warning for years that what Speaker Pelosi – and Sens. John Kerry, Dick Durbin and others want is a return to the Fairness Doctrine. Our associate Bethany Stotts also wrote an excellent piece describing how the current plan by President Obama
is to use localism or diversity of ownership as a ruse to accomplish the same goal. Republican Congressman Mike Pence of Indiana has gathered quotes on his website from a number of leading Democrats who have openly advocated for a return to the Fairness Doctrine.
Speaker Pelosi is determined to try to regulate what news we can read, watch and listen to. It would make it much easier for the Democrats to get their agenda enacted. This latest attempt, using anti-trust laws, should certainly fail.
(Compiler's note: Must read and stay tuned for this one ....)
Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) has introduced legislation that would "bar the dollar from being replace by any foreign currency." A statement from Bachmann's website:
“Yesterday, during a Financial Services Committee hearing, I asked Secretary Geithner if he would denounce efforts to move towards a global currency and he answered unequivocally that he would," said Bachmann. "And President Obama gave the nation the same assurances. But just a day later, Secretary Geithner has left the option on the table. I want to know which it is. The American people deserve to know."
On Monday, Geithner and Bernanke both rejected the idea of a global currency in Congressional testimony. But in remarks to the Council on Foreign Relations yesterday, Geithner indicated he was open to the idea.
Here he also reveals himself to be a Misunderstander of Islam, since he invokes Qur'an 8:60 as if it were relevant to the modern world, when any Islamic apologist in the West will tell you that only greasy Islamophobes think that that verse has anything to do with anything beyond the lifetime of Muhammad. I trust that Honest Ibe Hooper of CAIR, as soon as he has completed his mission in Pakistan, will be winging his way to Qatar to explain to Qaradawi how to read the Qur'an in context.
"Sheik Yousuf Al-Qaradhawi: The Arabs Should Obtain Nuclear Weapons for Deterrence," from MEMRITV, February 20 (just posted), with thanks to Rosanne:
Following are excerpts from a sermon by Sunni Islamic scholar Sheik Yousuf Al-Qaradhawi, which aired on Qatar TV on February 20, 2009.
Sheik Yousuf Al-Qaradhawi: The Prophet Muhammad wanted peace that is based on strength. He does not want the peace of the weak, the peace of those who disappoint, the peace of those who surrender – like the peace Israel wants to impose on us and the Palestinians. That is not peace. That is what Allah meant when he said: "And do not falter and cry for peace when you have the upper hand, for Allah is with you, and will not refrain from [rewarding] you for your actions." Peace that is based on delusion and submission is not peace.The Prophet Muhammad wanted peace that is based on strength. Therefore, the Koran referred to this, saying: "Prepare against them what force and steeds of war you can, to strike terror in the hearts of the enemies of Allah and of your own enemies, and others besides them, whom you do not know, but Allah knows." "Prepare against them what force and steeds of war you can."
That's Qur'an 8:60.
A few days ago, a Muslim asked me if we were allowed to possess WMDs – nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons. I said to him: "Yes, we must possess such weapons, but not use them." We must possess such weapons in order to strike terror in our enemies – "Strike terror in the hearts of the enemies," and frighten them. If we had nuclear weapons, they would be afraid to attack us, as was the case between the Soviet Union and the Americans, and between India and Pakistan. This is armed peace.
We must acquire [military] strength. "Prepare against them what force and steeds of war you can, to strike terror in the hearts of the enemies of Allah and of your own enemies." The "steeds of war" of our times are tanks, armored vehicles, and submarines. These are the steeds of our times. It is not enough to equip ourselves with horses in order to confront tanks. Horses can only be used for certain things. Each generation must prepare its own devices with which to strike terror in the enemies of Allah. We do not want to attack anybody, but to strike fear in our enemies, so that they will not attack us.
spearheading the effort in Washington state to bring light to the issue of Barack Obama's eligibility to be president says he was shadowed all day today by officers with the federal Department of Homeland Security, the Snohomish County sheriff's office and the Everitt city police department.
"There's definitely observation," attorney Stephen Pidgeon told WND. "Maybe observation in anticipation of making an arrest."
for Washington state plaintiffs challenging Obama's eligibility to be president under the Constitution's demand for that office to be occupied only by a "natural born" citizen. Dozens of similar cases have been filed around the country since the election and many have been dismissed, often because judges rule the plaintiffs don't have "standing" to bring a complaint.
The Washington state case, however, cites state law that vests
in citizens the right to raise questions about an elected official's authority, effectively granting standing to those plaintiffs.
The case, although it has been filed, has not been brought to court for hearings yet.
Pidgeon told WND today he contacted his personal defense attorney, and also was in contact with the Alliance Defense Fund, a national organization advocating for civil liberties and religious and personal freedoms.
Pidgeon is affiliated with the organization and told WND that there would be a letter sent inquiring about the surveillance.
He said he first became aware of the situation when his wife left their rural home early in the day and reported there were three law enforcement vehicles parked nearby, along with three black Suburban-style vehicles carrying camouflage-wearing agents, apparently from Homeland Security.
Pidgeon said he has been "outspoken" about the Obama administration and its validity due to the eligibility questions, but didn't realize he was "qualifying as an enemy of the state."
He immediately reached out to a number of individuals through e-mail.
"My only protection is to contact the people I know," he said.
Officials of the Department of Homeland Security did not return multiple WND messages seeking a comment on the situation. Officials with the Snohomish sheriff's office and the Everett city police department said they didn't know anything about it.
"Where Homeland Security is concerned, obviously there are people working for the Obama administration with little consideration for free speech," Pidgeon told WND.
He said when he left his home, he had a sheriff's vehicle "marking every turn that I made."
"There's definitely observation," he said.
"The fact of the matter is that we have taken the position and it is consistent with Orly Taitz' position that Barack Obama failed to establish his bona fides by the election on November 4," he said. "We alleged under Democratic National Committee rules he had a burden to establish to the DNC's satisfaction his eligibility. He never did.
"As a consequence the burden remains on him. He didn't meet the burden of proving his eligibility to hold the office."
He said voters cannot simply rewrite the Constitution's eligibility requirements in a presidential vote. For one thing, only 52 percent voted for Obama, and the Constitution requires approval from three-fourths of the states for an amendment.
He also cited U.S. senators and congressman who have credited the online "fact" organizations such as snopes or factcheck for authenticating Obama's eligibility.
"Any senator who would rely on snopes or factcheck to establish a judicial opinion whether or not this person has documented his eligibility is a fool," Pidgeon said. And citing a federal judge who said the issue of Obama's eligibility already had been "twittered," he said that is "tantamount to malpractice."
Several hours after Pidgeon returned WND's call, he called again.
"We are definitely under surveillance and it's coordinated with Homeland Security," he said.
He said one of his associates had been followed from his home to the law firm's downtown office, and the associate was stopped just outside the building.
"The police officer claimed he didn't have brake lights working," Pidgeon said. "But he does."
WND has reported on dozens of legal challenges to Obama's status as a "natural born citizen." The Constitution, Article 2, Section 1, states, "No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President."
Some of the legal challenges question whether he was actually born in Hawaii, as he insists. If he was born out of the country, Obama's American mother, the suits contend, was too young at the time of his birth to confer American citizenship to her son under the law at the time.
Other challenges have focused on Obama's citizenship through his father, a Kenyan subject to the jurisdiction of the United Kingdom at the time of his birth, thus making him a dual citizen. The cases contend the framers of the Constitution excluded dual citizens from qualifying as natural born.
Further, others question his citizenship by virtue of his attendance in Indonesian schools during his childhood and question on what passport did he travel to Pakistan three decades ago.
Adding fuel to the fire is Obama's persistent refusal to release documents that could provide answers. While his supporters cite an online version of a "Certification of Live Birth" from Hawaii, critics point out such documents actually were issued for children not born in the state.
Hawaiian officials have confirmed they have a birth certificate on file for Obama, but it cannot be released without his permission, and they have not revealed the information it contains.
John Eidsmoe, an expert on the U.S. Constitution working with the Foundation on Moral Law, told WND a demand for verification of Obama's eligibility appears to be legitimate.
Eidsmoe said it's clear that Obama has something in the documentation of his history, including his birth certificate, college records and other documents that "he does not want the public to know."
Reuters NEW YORK -- Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on Wednesday said he is "quite open" to China's suggestion of moving toward a currency system linked to the International Monetary Fund's Strategic Drawing Rights.
Zhou Xiaochuan, China's central bank governor, earlier this month said the world should consider the SDR, a basket of dollars, euros, sterling and yen, as a super-sovereign reserve currency.
Geithner, responding to a question, said he hadn't read Zhou's proposal but added, "as I understand it, it's a proposal designed to increase the use of the IMF's Special Drawing Rights. I am actually quite open to that suggestion."
However, he said it should be viewed as an "evolutionary building on the current architecture rather than moving us to a global monetary union."
(Compiler's note: This is a must read and consider interview)
By: Jim Meyers
Former top military commander Gen. Richard Myers tells Newsmax that America’s enemies in the war on terror are “ruthless” and “relentless” and will not hesitate to use nuclear or biological weapons if they obtain them.
“They want to do away with our way of life,” Myers tells Newsmax TV’s Ashley Martella. “They could bring great harm to this country and our friends and allies.”
Myers, who served as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from October 2001 until September 2005, tells Newsmax that the U.S. focused too narrowly on tactical battles and failed to develop a long-rang strategy to battle terrorism.
[Editor's Note: Watch Gen. Richard Myers discuss that threats facing America in the coming years - Go Here Now]
“After 9/11 we had some things we had to do right away,” said Myers, author of the new book, “Eyes on the Horizon: Serving on the Front Lines of National Security.”
“Afghanistan was one of them. Then we went into Iraq. But the development of a strategy to deal with the whole issue of violent extremism — we didn’t take the time to do that because we were so busy with the day to day.
Myers said the further America gets from the events of 9/11, the more complacent it gets, and the more danger the country is in.
“I’m not an alarmist but I did spend four years right after 9/11 looking at all this intelligence from violent extremists,” he says. “ They could [attack America] through biological weapons. God forbid if they get their hands on nuclear materials, they could do it that way as well. And they’re ruthless so we know they’d use them.”
Martella asked Myers about a new official British government report warning that the threat of a terrorist attack using a weapon of mass destruction, such as a nuclear or biological weapon, on a major city is higher than ever.
“I don’t see the intelligence on a daily basis anymore, but I do think the threat is very high,” Myers responded.
“It wasn’t that long ago, just a little more than a year ago, when that plot to bring airliners down over the North Atlantic [was thwarted]. I think there were 10 or 20 airliners involved in that plot. If that hadn’t been thwarted we’d be talking about 2,000 dead potentially from that.
“So like I said, they’re relentless, they’re ruthless. If they can get their hands on dangerous material, nuclear material, biological weapons, they wouldn’t hesitate to use them. They want to bring down the United States in particular and the West in general.”
Martella asked Myers for his assessment of the current situation in Iraq.
“I think things in Iraq are going extremely well right now,” said Myers. “But I think, as all the leaders in Iraq and General Petraeus himself say, it’s reversible…
“I think there is real reason for optimism. I think we have to be very careful, though. There are people who would like it not to be a success. The al-Qaida are part of that. They are pretty much decimated in Iraq, but they never give up.
“And there are other factions inside Iraq, and of course Iran. You never know exactly how they’re going to want to influence events inside Iraq.”
On the Iranian threat, Myers declared: “Any country that sponsors terrorism, which Iran does, that doesn’t believe in the existence of the state of Israel, that is aggressively pursuing nuclear weapons — this is not a good thing.”
Martella asked if it would be a mistake for the Barack Obama administration to abandon plans for a U.S. missile defense system in Eastern Europe.
“One thing is for certain: The only country in the world that can build an effective missile defense system is the United States of America,” said Myers, a former fighter pilot who also served as Commander in Chief of the North American Aerospace Defense Command.
“Implicit in that is the obligation to at least offer our allies and our friends our ability to protect them from the rogue nations that can develop missiles now and could possibly threaten them.”
Martella asked: “With the every-escalating drug violence along the Mexican border, how do you feel about sending U.S. troops there?”
Myers responded: “Active-duty U.S. troops? I think it would have to get a heck of a lot worse before you’d want to send U.S. troops under congressional or presidential decree to go down there. U.S. troops are not trained for law enforcement action. That would be an extreme action.
“The other option is that you could send the National Guard. I know the Texas and Arizona governors have talked about that potential. They can go and act in a law enforcement capacity … If they need more manpower on the border the National Guard is an option. but active duty troops I think would be a big mistake.”
A British Home Office counter-terrorism strategy report has warned that the country is at an increased risk of attack from nuclear and dirty bombs.
Terrorists "aspire to use chemical, biological, radiological and even nuclear weapons and explosives (CBRNE)," The Sun quotes the strategy paper, as saying.
Home Secretary Jacqui Smith unveiled the document with the stark warning of the changing shape of terror threats.
It reveals: "Changing technology and the theft and smuggling of CBRNE materials make this aspiration more realistic than it may have been."
The document further outlines how terrorists have developed new types of explosives and new ways of using them and how the government is now looking at ways of coping with a nuclear, chemical or biological attacks as well as the more conventional bombings.
The report - known as Contest Two - is the first unclassified document to contain a detailed account of UK officials' assessment of the underlying causes of the terrorist threat and its likely future direction.
Smith while admitting to the severity of the terror threat against the UK, however, maintains that the country is winning the war against al-Qaeda and other terror outfits.
The Contest strategy is divided into four strands - Prevent, Pursue, Protect and Prepare.
This covers preventing radicalisation of potential terror recruits, disrupting terror operations, reducing the vulnerability of the UK and ensuring the country is ready for the consequences of any attack.
A Home Guard of 60,000 civilians including office workers, retailers and hotel staff across the country will be trained to respond to terrorist threats.
The strategy will involve enlisting the "widest range" of people and making other citizens more vigilant about the threat of an attack.
By 2011, Britain will be spending 3.5 billion pounds a year on counter-terrorism. (ANI)
Americans are used to April 15th being the day you're told to pay up.
This year, Tax Day is the day to say you're TEA'd - Taxed Enough Already.
As you read this, liberals in Congress are beginning the process of forcing passage of the $3.6 trillion, high-spending, high-borrowing and high-taxing Obama budget.
President Obama is even mobilizing teams of his presidential campaign supporters, now a political organization called Organizing for America, who are going door-to-door campaign style to pitch his irresponsibly massive government expansion program that will raise taxes on every single American.
And what could they possibly be saying about a budget that the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office predicted last week will lead to deficits $2.3 trillion larger than the Obama White House is telling us?
Once again, we see Washington promoting irresponsible spending and expecting responsible taxpayers to foot the bill.
Here's what you can do to fight back: On April 15, join your fellow Americans at Tax Day Tea Parties across the nation to say no to the Obama budget. I want to tell you about two groups that are helping to organize the Tea Parties. Why these two groups? I will tell you in a minute and explain how you can participate.
Get Involved in a Tax Day Tea Party on April 15
You won't read about it in the elite media, but tens of thousands of Americans in hundreds of American communities are organizing Tax Day Tea Parties for this April 15th.
Some communities have already held Tea Parties to fight back against Wall Street and Washington insiders who'd rather taxpayers ask fewer questions and write more checks.
Over 4,000 turned out in Orlando this past weekend.
More came out in Cincinnati than at anytime since the Vietnam War protests.
But all of this has been a warm-up act for April 15.
The Reagan Coalition is Reassembling itself to Fight the Obama Budget
Some Tea Party participants call themselves "God-fearing patriots," and it's a good description for the movement that is gaining strength.
In outrage against the billions of our dollars being used to pay for the irresponsible behavior of others - and the trillions more in the Obama budget that will be used to expand government even further into our lives - the Reagan coalition of the faithful and the fiscally conservative is reassembling.
There's no super-rich sugar daddy like George Soros pulling the strings.
There's no special interest group like Moveon.org creating the illusion of a grassroots movement.
And it's not a taxpayer-funded "protest" group like ACORN.
It's just ordinary Americans who believe in preserving American values and principles like faith, freedom and smaller government.
That's why I want to tell you about two groups. Each group is focusing on bringing like-minded people together at the same events.
The first group is TaxDayTeaParty.com, a broad coalition of grassroots groups which has already organized many of the Tea Parties that you probably heard about. They have already confirmed more than 250 locations in all 50 states for the April 15 Tea Parties.
The second group is TeaPartyDay.com which is a joint effort by Renewing American Leadership and the American Family Association. They are committed to bringing people of faith and their families to the Tea Parties. Over 10,000 are already signed up.
Get Your Tea Party Tool Kit at AmericanSolutions.com
American Solutions has created a Tea Party Tool Kit that you can download and pass out at your local Tea Party. The Tool Kit is designed to communicate, not just that we're angry, but that we have a bold agenda with better solutions that will actually get our economy growing again. It's available here.
The Tea Party Tool Kit's key component is 12 American Solutions for Jobs and Prosperity, a pro-growth, pro-freedom alternative to the irresponsible policies of the Obama budget.
April 15 is just 20 days away. Go to AmericanSolutions.com/TeaParty now to find a Tax Day Tea Party near you and get involved.
Secretary Geithner Has Lost the Confidence of the American People - If He Ever Had It to Begin With
Another reason to come out to a Tax Day Tea Party is to let President Obama know that Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has lost the confidence of the American people and needs to resign.
The Geithner nomination for Treasury Secretary was tainted from the outset. In the midst of a crisis of trust in our financial institutions and our government institutions, the last person we needed for a Treasury Secretary was a public official who had deliberately failed to pay his taxes.
And since then, the news has only gotten worse. As I wrote last week, from the beginning of the crisis last fall, Geithner has been central to the Bush-Obama policy of corporate bailouts that has enriched Wall Street firms with the taxpayers' money.
The Joke's On Us: Goldman Sachs Never Needed a Bailout
The latest revelation is perhaps the worst yet.
Remember how the Paulson-Geithner-Bernanke bailout of AIG was initially sold to the American people? We were told that failing to prop up the firm with taxpayer dollars would let loose a cascading failure of the entire banking system.
It turns out that this was never exactly true.
That's right. Goldman Sachs Chief Financial Officer David Viniar announced last week that his firm never needed the taxpayers' help after all. Goldman Sachs, it turns out, wouldn't have failed if AIG had been allowed to fail.
The reason Viniar made the announcement was to divert the public's attention from allegations that Goldman profited handsomely from the bailout of AIG.
But in trying to tamp down one scandal, Viniar has revealed another: The ground on which Paulson, Geithner and Bernanke sold the $170 billion AIG bailout was - at least partially - a lie.
The Top Four Beneficiaries of the AIG Bailout? Goldman Sachs and Three Foreign Banks
So if we didn't avert a banking crisis with the AIG bailout, what exactly have the taxpayers gotten for their $170 billion? Well, nothing so far. But here's the list of the top four beneficiaries of the AIG bailout:
Goldman Sachs: $12.9 billion
Société Générale (France) $11.9 billion
Deutsche Bank (Germany) $11.8 billion
Barclays (United Kingdom) $7.9 billion
This is the real scandal of the AIG bailout.
Add the other TARP funds Goldman Sachs received to the AIG pass-through money and you get an astounding total of $23 billion from the taxpayers.
All for a company that now says it never needed help to begin with.
If that's not a reason to come to a Tax Day Tea Party on April 15, I don't know what is.
See you there.
Your friend, Newt Gingrich
P.S. Today, I will testify in front of the Senate Special Committee on Aging. Alongside former Justice of the Supreme Court Sandra Day O'Connor and former U.S. Senator Bob Kerrey, I will discuss the recommendations in the Alzheimer's Study Group's National Strategic Plan to overcome the mounting Alzheimer's crisis. Earlier this month, I appeared on the "Today Show" discussing Alzheimer's and will be on "Nightline" this evening. In my next newsletter, I'll provide more details on the recommendations. I want to thank our members of the ASG.
P.P.S. Those of you who follow my "tweets" on Twitter have already heard my call for Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner to resign. I'm having a lot of fun with this new technology. If you'd like to correspond with me and follow my "tweets" on Twitter, just click here. Oh, and you can also follow me on facebook as well.
(Compiler's note: Must read -- lets hope we can get these power grubbers out of the free market while we still have any left.Remember the FDIC or "Fed" is NOT federal at all.)
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, left, talks with Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke before the start of a House hearing on AIG.
The government's top financial regulators are channeling widespread outrage over retention bonuses at American International Group Inc. to quickly win authority they have sought for much of the past year to seize nonbank companies and freeze their contracts.
The House Financial Services Committee plans to vote as early as next week on legislation that would give the government that authority. Federal officials already have such power over banks. The Obama administration is pushing for fast action on the issue, even before Congress tackles a broader overhaul of financial regulation.
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, in congressional testimony Tuesday, said the lack of authority to seize AIG -- the way the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. places failing banks into so-called receivership -- forced the government into the position of owning almost 80% of the insurance giant, and serving as its major lender, while lacking the power to stop multimillion-dollar bonus contracts signed before the government intervention.
"If a federal agency had had such tools on Sept. 16, they could have been used to put AIG into conservatorship or receivership, unwind it slowly, protect policyholders, and impose haircuts on creditors and counterparties as appropriate," Mr. Bernanke said.
While the power seems likely to be granted by Congress, it's unclear which wing of the government would be given the authority. Mr. Geithner proposed that any emergency action be based on a determination by the Treasury secretary along with the Federal Reserve and the federal regulator overseeing the company.
He said that in addition to the power to seize a company, the proposed authority would give the government rights to sell or transfer assets or liabilities of the firm and renegotiate contracts, including those with employees.
Rep. Barney Frank (D., Mass.), chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, declined to say whether the power would be provided to the FDIC, the Treasury or some combination of the two. Speaking to reporters after Tuesday's hearing, Mr. Frank said that he had discussed the issue with President Barack Obama and that the committee would vote on a bill either next week or the following week. But the legislation would still be at least a few weeks away from enactment, because it must go through the Senate as well.
Several lawmakers expressed their displeasure with the AIG intervention during Tuesday's hearing. But the outrage that consumed Capitol Hill -- and much of America -- for the past week appeared to have softened.
Mr. Geithner and Mr. Bernanke have faced a storm of criticism since the disclosure 10 days ago that AIG had paid $165 million in bonuses to employees in the same unit that triggered many of its problems. But they blunted much of the anger by focusing their testimony on the limits to their authority and the regulatory holes that created the problems around AIG.
The two officials, joined by Federal Reserve Bank of New York President William Dudley, explained that they sought to block the bonuses but were advised of the limitations to breaking the contracts.
Mr. Bernanke said that upon learning of the payments, he asked that they be stopped. Informed that they were mandated by contracts, Mr. Bernanke said he "then asked that suit be filed to prevent the payments." But legal staff counseled against that because laws in Connecticut, where the AIG unit is based, could result in the "perverse effect" of doubling or tripling the payouts to those employees through damages.
Still, Messrs. Bernanke and Geithner on Tuesday faced continued criticism over other decisions on AIG and the wider government financial-rescue efforts. Mr. Bernanke was asked repeatedly about the tens of billions of dollars AIG has paid out to major banks, including foreign institutions, using government money. He maintained that AIG needed to meet its obligations to prevent a default that he said would cause "chaos in financial markets." He also noted that European governments have bailed out their banks without distinguishing between European and American creditors.
HANCOCK, N.Y. — If you didn't know where to look, you'd probably never find Islamberg, a private Muslim community in the woods of the western Catskills, 150 miles northwest of New York City.
The town, sitting on a quiet dirt road past a gate marked with No Trespassing signs, is home to an estimated 100 residents. There are small houses and other buildings visible from the outside, but it is what can't be seen from beyond the gate that has some watchers worried.
Islamberg was founded in 1980 by Sheikh Syed Mubarik Ali Shah Gilani, a Pakistani cleric who purchased a 70-acre plot and invited followers, mostly Muslim converts living in New York City, to settle there.
The town has its own mosque, grocery store and schoolhouse. It also reportedly has a firing range where residents take regular target practice. Gilani established similar rural enclaves across the country — at least six, including the Red House community in southern Virginia — though some believe there are dozens of them, all operating under the umbrella of the "Muslims of the Americas" group founded by Gilani.
Federal authorities say Gilani was also one of the founders of Jamaat al-Fuqra, a terrorist organization believed responsible for dozens of bombings and murders across the U.S. and abroad. The group was linked to the planning of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, and 10 years earlier a member was arrested and later convicted for bombing a hotel in Portland, Ore.
Shoe bomber Richard Reid has been linked to the group, along with convicted D.C. sniper John Allen Muhammad. But it is Sheikh Gilani who creates the most controversy and concern.
Gilani has told his followers that "Zionist plotters" plan to rule the world, and he encourates them to leave America's cities and avoid the "decadence of a godless society." Gilani is the man American reporter Daniel Pearl was trying to interview in Pakistan when he was kidnapped and beheaded. The Sheikh was taken into custody and later released by Pakistani authorities; he denies any involvement in Pearl's murder.
Gilani also denies any connection to Jamaat al-Fuqra, as do residents of the MOA compounds, who say the "terrorist" group doesn't exist and was created by enemies of Islam hoping to destroy their communities. Members also deny sending a portion of their earnings to the Sheikh, but a former resident told FOX News that 10 to 30 percent of their income is regularly delivered to Gilani in the form of cash donations.
FOX News attempted to visit Islamberg after earlier efforts to set up on-camera interviews were rebuffed. A spokesman said by phone that residents typically shy away from interviews since they worry their words will be manipulated and turned against them. He accused FOX News of misrepresenting the group and suggested covering an Islamic festival in Binghamton later in the month to celebrate the birthday of the prophet Muhammad. Then he hung up.
Some residents, collecting their mail outside the compound or stopping for a short spell at its edge, spoke briefly of life on the inside. One woman told FOX News she was happy to be "away from the city and away from the drugs and crap that's going on," raising her family safely in Islamberg.
Another resident drove out, dressed in a cap and robe, video camera in hand, and moved so close to a female producer that he actually made contact. The resident kept his camera rolling for the next 15 minutes without saying a word, but he finally began to answer questions.
The man said residents get along with their neighbors and don't trust the media, which he said paints their town as a guarded compound "where no one can enter and exit."
"It's a village," he insisted, "with people of all backgrounds, cultures and races."
He said he was a 20-year veteran of the Air Force, still active in the reserves, who grew up in Brooklyn and converted to Islam while in the service.
"I got awards for 'bridging the gap' between American and Saudi soldiers," he said, noting that he had helped process the bodies when 19 U.S. servicemen were killed in a 1996 terror attack in Saudi Arabia. He said there were many veterans in Islamberg, including one with a Purple Heart citation from Vietnam.
The man denied the existence of Jamat al-Fuqra, and at first denied giving a share of his earnings to Sheik Gilani, but he later admitted that "all churches have tithes."
During the interview, two state police cars roared up, as one of the residents had called the cops, a common occurrence when reporters show up at the gate.
Local police told FOX News there has been plenty of rumor and innuendo over the years but very little trouble. The FBI's Albany Division said the agency has an open discourse with the residents of Islamberg. They've visited the compound but won't discuss whether there are any ongoing investigations.
That has not dispelled the worries of some watchdogs. Robert Spencer, director of Jihad Watch, says the group is making a concerted public relations effort to present a benign face and hide its violent past.
"I think we need to be very much on guard about every member of these compounds," he said. Though Spencer admits there is nothing inherently wrong with living in isolation, he stressed that "they're not at all open to visitors, they're not at all open to scrutiny and there's an abundance of evidence of sinister goings-on."
Spencer offered no evidence to back his misgivings, but suggested political correctness may be hampering investigations. He says the group's connection to Sheikh Gilani is reason enough to be concerned that they're planning for "something on a larger scale and longer term," to "further the causes of the global Islamic Jihad", something MOA has repeatedly denied and scoffed at in the past.
Residents call it a peaceful place to raise a family away from the pressures of the city, and maintain that the group is woefully misunderstood.
"I used to work customs when I was overseas and I come here and get harassed at the grocery store and the bank. A clerk claimed my military ID was invalid because I'm Muslim," the resident told FOX News.
Critics, lacking an eye into the cloistered community, still wonder whether it's something more.
(Compiler's note: Must read - see. My friend and fellow Marine forwarded the below comment and link to me. The video is about 9 minutes long and is a speech by a Kuwaiti about anthrax and terrorism in general. The naïveté of some of our ‘leaders’ is appalling!)
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has a new word for terrorism - "man-caused disasters". Not only that, but in herMarch 16th, 2009 interview with the German press, she states that her job is to help prepare for risks from "man-caused disasters". Now watch the video!! I doubt the Secretary has watched it.
France's trade unions staged a national strike protesting the economic downturn and causing a one-day stoppage in rail, air and local transport throughout the country on Thursday. Similar protests in the United States this summer are becoming increasingly likely, as tent cities for the homeless are springing up in dozens of U.S. cities, Jerome Corsi's Red Alert reports.
More than 1 million people took to the streets throughout France Thursday as a national poll showed 74 percent of the French supported the protest.
This followed a one-day national strike in January that sent hundreds of thousands of French workers to the streets, protesting job cuts and demanding higher welfare payments to cushion the impact of the economic crisis.
The mass protests in France are evidence of the increasing economic distress being felt in the EU from the global economic downturn, Corsi wrote.
The French gross domestic product, or GDP, is expected to fall 1.9 percent this year, compared with drops of 2.8 percent in Great Britain and 2.5 percent in Germany, according to the Economist.
Meanwhile, protests in the U.S. are becoming more likely.
In Las Vegas, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reports the City Council is considering a proposal to designate a piece of vacant land for the homeless as an alternative to the impromptu tent city that has persisted on Foremaster Lane between Main Street and Las Vegas Boulevard North, despite repeated attempts by city officials to sweep the area clean.
In Sacramento, Calif., Mayor Kevin Johnson has negotiated with a coalition of property owners to move some 100 to 200 homeless living in a tent city camp north of downtown into apartments, shelters and other structures, according to the Sacramento Bee.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported homeless have begun spending their days in the state capitol in Madison, moving into the basement for warmth, from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., when they are required to leave.
Red Alert expects that by this summer, street protests will come to the United States, as the U.S. middle class increasingly becomes squeezed by fear of losing jobs and homes.
"The Obama administration would be well advised to realize that President Obama's appearance on Jay Leno's late-night television show may not demonstrate the level of dedicated leadership or seriousness the American public expects of a president when the country is heading toward the most severe economic downturn since the Great Depression of the 1930s," Corsi wrote. "The American public would also be well advised to take a close look at French bailouts before becoming too enthusiastic about supporting more Obama administration bailouts."
Red Alert's author, whose books "The Obama Nation" and "Unfit for Command" have topped the New York Times best-sellers list, received his Ph.D. from Harvard University in political science in 1972. For nearly 25 years, beginning in 1981, he worked with banks throughout the U.S. and around the world to develop financial services marketing companies to assist banks in establishing broker/dealers and insurance subsidiaries to provide financial planning products and services to their retail customers. In this career, Corsi developed three different third-party financial services marketing firms that reached gross sales levels of $1 billion in annuities and equal volume in mutual funds. In 1999, he began developing Internet-based financial marketing firms, also adapted to work in conjunction with banks.
In his 25-year financial services career, Corsi has been a noted financial services speaker and writer, publishing three books and numerous articles in professional financial services journals and magazines.
For more information on spreading economic protests and for financial guidance during difficult times, read Jerome Corsi's Red Alert, the premium, online intelligence news source by the WND staff writer, columnist and author of the New York Times No. 1 best-seller, "The Obama Nation."
The state of Wyoming has adopted a resolution to inform Washington bureaucrats and bureaucracies of its opposition to any plans to hold a Constitutional Convention
that would recommend changes or alterations to the nation's founding document.
House Enrolled Joint Resolution 3 was signed recently by Democratic Gov. Dave Freudenthal.
The Wyoming Family Coalition said the measure, sponsored by state Rep. Bob Brechtel, R-Casper, is intended to announce the state's opposition to "any attempts to dismantle the United States Constitution which has generally served the country well for nearly 230 years."
"A Constitutional Convention would open a Pandora's Box in this country and would allow debate on our most precious rights," said the WFC's chairman, John Birbari of Lander.
"These rights come from God and are guaranteed by the lawful U.S. Constitution, they include our rights of free speech, the right to assemble, the right to practice the religion of our choice, the right to keep and bear arms and many others," he said.
"Given the current climate in Washington, the people of Wyoming do not want these rights or any of the basic provisions of the Constitution threatened by a Constitutional Convention."
The bill passed both houses with overwhelming majorities and was signed into law by the governor March 11.
"It takes 34 for states calling for a Constitutional Convention in order to have one,” Birbari said. "Until this action by our legislature, 32 states had issued the call including Wyoming. Now, it's down to 31."
Whether a rescission vote would be found valid, however, remains in question. Constitution expert John Eidsmoe, author of the book "Christianity & the Constitution," told WND earlier there isn't a clear constitutional directive on the issue.
A public policy organization recently issued an urgent alert that affirmative votes were needed from only two more states before a Constitutional Convention could be assembled in which "today's corrupt politicians and judges" could formally change the U.S. Constitution's "'problematic' provisions to reflect the philosophical and social mores of our contemporary society."
"Don't for one second doubt that delegates to a Con Con wouldn't revise the First Amendment into a government-controlled privilege, replace the 2nd Amendment with a 'collective' right to self-defense, and abolish the 4th, 5th, and 10th Amendments, and the rest of the Bill of Rights," said the warning from the American Policy Center.
Changes also could include the incorporation of "rights" to abortion and euthanasia, as well as the "separation" of church and state, the group said.
As WND reported,President Obama has expressed the belief that the U.S. Constitution needs to be interpreted through the lens of current events.
The final vote from the 1787 Constitutional Convention
Tom DeWeese, who runs the APC and its education and grassroots work, previously told WND the possibilities stunned him when he discovered lawmakers in Ohio were considering a call for a Constitutional Convention. He explained that 32 other states already have taken a vote, and only one more would be needed to require Congress to name convention delegates who then would have more power than Congress itself. The Ohio vote later was delayed after DeWeese publicized its work.
Eidsmoe, who now is staff counsel for the Foundation for Moral Law, told WND the constitutional requirements for such an event are unclear.
"It leaves a lot of unanswered questions," Eidsmoe told WND. "Ultimately it would have to be resolved by a court, but a court has never considered this."
At the last Constitutional Convention, in 1787, the proposal was to make modifications to the Articles of Confederation, but delegates simply threw them out and wrote a new Constitution, according to historians.
Among other unanswered questions are how officers would be chosen, how delegates would be named and whether it would be open to the public or would allow changes in the Constitution be written behind closed doors, he said.
Chuck Baldwin, presidential candidate for the Constitution Party last year, said the delegates to the 1787 Constitutional Convention were "freedom-loving patriots who had just fought a bloody war for independence and were in no mind to re-enact tyranny upon the land they had just fought to liberate."
"However, can one imagine what would happen if the current bunch of politically correct leftists in Washington, D.C., were to be granted the power to rewrite our Constitution?" Baldwin continued. "It would be the end of the United States of America, and that is no hyperbole."
The effort to establish a convention began about 40 years ago, mostly based on issues such as the desire for a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution.
"Since then, 32 states have issued the call. The total number of states that are required to enact the Con Con is 34," Baldwin wrote. "Simple math reveals that we are only two states short of this disaster. As word of this potential calamity began to surface, the effort stalled with the total states issuing the call stuck at 32.
"With the election of Barack Obama, however, supporters of a Con Con have been emboldened and are now trying to resurrect the momentum. The state that is currently in the crosshairs appears to be Ohio," Baldwin said.
DeWeese wrote in his alert, "In truth no restrictive language from any state can legally limit the scope or outcome of a [Constitutional] Convention! Once a Convention is called Congress determines how the delegates to the Convention are chosen. Once chosen, those Convention delegates possess more power than the U.S. Congress itself."
"DeWeese is right," Baldwin added. "If called, a modern Constitutional Convention could declare the U.S. Constitution to be null and void, and could completely rewrite the document. For example, former U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Warren Burger once declared, 'There is no effective way to limit or muzzle the actions of a Constitutional Convention. The Convention could make its own rules and set its own agenda.'"
Melody Barnes, a senior domestic policy adviser to the Obama campaign, has told Fox News Obama's "view is that our society isn't static and the law isn't static as well. That the Constitution is a living and breathing document and that the law and the justices who interpret it have to understand that."
WND also reportedObama believes the Constitution is flawed,because it fails to address wealth redistribution, and he says the Supreme Court should have intervened years ago to accomplish that.
Obama told Chicago's public station WBEZ-FM that "redistributive change" is needed, pointing to what he regarded as a failure of the U.S. Supreme Court under Chief Justice Earl Warren in its rulings on civil rights issues in the 1960s.
The Warren court, he said, failed to "break free from the essential constraints" in the U.S. Constitution and launch a major redistribution of wealth. But Obama, then an Illinois state lawmaker, said the legislative branch of government, rather than the courts, probably was the ideal avenue for accomplishing that goal.
In the 2001 interview, Obama said:
If you look at the victories and failures of the civil rights movement and its litigation strategy in the court, I think where it succeeded was to invest formal rights in previously dispossessed people, so that now I would have the right to vote. I would now be able to sit at the lunch counter and order and as long as I could pay for it I’d be OK
But, the Supreme Court never ventured into the issues of redistribution of wealth, and of more basic issues such as political and economic justice in society. To that extent, as radical as I think people try to characterize the Warren Court, it wasn't that radical. It didn't break free from the essential constraints that were placed by the Founding Fathers in the Constitution, at least as it's been interpreted, and the Warren Court interpreted in the same way, that generally the Constitution is a charter of negative liberties. Says what the states can't do to you. Says what the federal government can't do to you, but doesn't say what the federal government or state government must do on your behalf.
And that hasn't shifted and one of the, I think, tragedies of the civil rights movement was because the civil rights movement became so court-focused I think there was a tendency to lose track of the political and community organizing and activities on the ground that are able to put together the actual coalition of powers through which you bring about redistributive change. In some ways we still suffer from that.
WND also has reported an associate at a Chicago law firm whose partner served on a finance committee for Obama has advocated simply abandoning the U.S. Constitution's requirement that a president be a "natural born" citizen.
The paper was written in 2006 by Sarah Herlihy, just two years after Obama had won a landslide election in Illinois to the U.S. Senate. Herlihy is listed as an associate at the Chicago firm of Kirkland & Ellis. A partner in the same firm, Bruce I. Ettelson, cites his membership on the finance committees for both Obama and Sen. Richard Durbin on the corporate website.
The issue of Obama's own eligibility under the U.S. Constitution's requirements that presidents be "natural born" citizens is the subject of nearly two dozen court cases, including several that have gone to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Herlihy's published paper reveals that the requirement likely was considered in a negative light by organizations linked to Obama in the months before he announced in 2007 his candidacy for the presidency.
"The natural born citizen requirement in Article II of the United States Constitution has been called the 'stupidest provision' in the Constitution, 'undecidedly un-American,' 'blatantly discriminatory,' and the 'Constitution's worst provision,'" Herlihy begins in her introduction to the paper titled, "Amending the Natural Born Citizen Requirement: Globalization as the Impetus and the Obstacle."
Posts
![[Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, left, talks with Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke on Capitol Hill Tuesday.]](http://s.wsj.net/public/resources/images/OB-DI936_0324ai_F_20090324105947.jpg)
Associated Press
