tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37653679103334131912024-03-04T22:52:56.077-08:00Lab ExperimentsUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger736125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3765367910333413191.post-35515472686220307382014-08-06T06:12:00.000-07:002014-08-06T06:14:27.250-07:00<div style="text-align: center;">
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3765367910333413191.post-69595389990312965622014-03-10T08:15:00.000-07:002014-03-10T08:20:11.839-07:00<div align="center" style="background: white; line-height: 15.95pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3765367910333413191.post-46483798285803543172013-05-29T05:27:00.000-07:002013-05-29T05:27:57.398-07:00Ed's Brief Biography<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Bio...A political activist since his first year in college and his involvement in the Campaign of John F. Kennedy, Ed. is now a full time Political Consultant since retiring from a 31 year career as an American History and Political Science Instructor, during which he was repeatedly recognized and awarded for his excellence in teaching and research, having been awarded "The Ashland Teacher of The Year Teacher Achievement Award” in 1989.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Having held elective office at every level of the teaching profession: local, district, state and national, Ed. has established and outstanding reputation in the labor movement community.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">An Experienced Campaign director and manager, Ed. has built campaign organizations, (Candidate and Issues), from the ground up including: total strategy planning, campaign planning, design, development, staffing, training, organization, fund raising, personnel selection and recruitment, communications (including press, radio, TV, literature development and speech writing) and successful execution. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Educated at Central Connecticut State University, The New York Institute of Photography and Kent State University he has maintained a life long involvement in Photography with several awards and public exhibitions in addition to published work. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">His legendary ability to analyze campaign progress and to evaluate polling data and call elections precinct by precinct has earned him the nickname "The Precinct Master".</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3765367910333413191.post-92152639563329294032012-08-06T07:06:00.002-07:002012-08-06T07:06:49.601-07:00<div align="center"> <table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoNormalTable" style="border-collapse: collapse; border: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-insideh: .5pt solid windowtext; mso-border-insidev: .5pt solid windowtext; mso-padding-alt: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-yfti-tbllook: 1184;"><tbody>
<tr style="mso-yfti-firstrow: yes; mso-yfti-irow: 0; mso-yfti-lastrow: yes;"> <td style="border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 6.65in;" valign="top" width="638"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
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</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Military's plans to quell "Tea Party insurrection"</span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Full Spectrum Operations in the Homeland: A “Vision” of the Future:</span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">“Combat units will conduct overt Show of Force operations to remind the insurrectionists they are now facing professional military forces, with all the training and equipment that implies…”</span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The U.S. Army’s Operating Concept 2016-2028 was issued in August 2010 with three goals.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>First, it aims to portray how future Army forces will conduct operations as part of a joint force to deter conflict, prevail in war, and succeed in a range of contingencies, at home and abroad.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Second, the concept describes the employment of Army forces at the tactical and operational levels of war between 2016 and 2028.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Third, in broad terms the concept describes how Army headquarters, from theater army to division, organize and use their forces.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The concept goes on to describe the major categories of Army operations, identify the capabilities required of Army forces, and guide how force development should be prioritized. The goal of this concept is to establish a common frame of reference for thinking about how the US Army will conduct full spectrum operations in the coming two decades (US Army Training and Doctrine Command, The Army Operating Concept 2016 – 2028, TRADOC Pamphlet 525-3-1, dated 19 August 2010, p. iii.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Hereafter cited as TD Pam 525-3-1.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Army defines full spectrum operations as the combination of offensive, defensive, and either stability operations overseas or civil support operations on U.S. soil).</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">A key and understudied aspect of full spectrum operations is how to conduct these operations within American borders.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If we face a period of persistent global conflict as outlined in successive National Security Strategy documents, then Army officers are professionally obligated to consider the conduct of operations on U.S. soil.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Army capstone and operating concepts must provide guidance concerning how the Army will conduct the range of operations required to defend the republic at home.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In this paper, we posit a scenario in which a group of political reactionaries take over a strategically positioned town and have the tacit support of not only local law enforcement but also state government officials, right up to the governor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Under present law, which initially stemmed from bad feelings about Reconstruction, the military’s domestic role is highly circumscribed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the situation we lay out below, even though the governor refuses to seek federal help to quell the uprising (the usual channel for military assistance), the Constitution allows the president broad leeway in times of insurrection.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Citing the precedents of Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War and Dwight D. Eisenhower sending troops to Little Rock in 1957, the president mobilizes the military and the Department of Homeland Security, to regain control of the city.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This scenario requires us to consider how domestic intelligence is gathered and shared, the role of local law enforcement (to the extent that it supports the operation), the scope and limits of the Insurrection Act--for example maintaining a military chain of command but in support of the Attorney General as the Department of Justice is the Lead Federal Agency (LFA) under the conditions of the Act--and the roles of the local, national, and international media.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The Scenario (2016) </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The Great Recession of the early twenty-first century lasts far longer than anyone anticipated.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After a change in control of the White House and Congress in 2012, the governing party cuts off all funding that had been dedicated to boosting the economy or toward relief.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The United States economy has flatlined, much like Japan’s in the 1990s, for the better part of a decade.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By 2016, the economy shows signs of reawakening, but the middle and lower-middle classes have yet to experience much in the way of job growth or pay raises.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Unemployment continues to hover perilously close to double digits, small businesses cannot meet bankers’ terms to borrow money, and taxes on the middle class remain relatively high.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A high-profile and vocal minority has directed the public’s fear and frustration at nonwhites and immigrants.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After almost ten years of race-baiting and immigrant-bashing by right-wing demagogues, nearly one in five Americans reports being vehemently opposed to immigration, legal or illegal, and even U.S.-born nonwhites have become occasional targets for mobs of angry whites.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">In May 2016 an extremist militia motivated by the goals of the “tea party” movement takes over the government of Darlington, South Carolina, occupying City Hall, disbanding the city council, and placing the mayor under house arrest.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Activists remove the chief of police and either disarm local police and county sheriff departments or discourage them from interfering.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In truth, this is hardly necessary.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Many law enforcement officials already are sympathetic to the tea party’s agenda, know many of the people involved, and have made clear they will not challenge the takeover.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The militia members are organized and have a relatively well thought-out plan of action.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">With Darlington under their control, militia members quickly move beyond the city limits to establish “check points” – in reality, something more like choke points -- on major transportation lines.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Traffic on I-95, the East Coast’s main north-south artery; I-20; and commercial and passenger rail lines are stopped and searched, allegedly for “illegal aliens.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Citizens who complain are immediately detained.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Activists also collect “tolls” from drivers, ostensibly to maintain public schools and various city and county programs, but evidence suggests the money is actually going toward quickly increasing stores of heavy weapons and ammunition.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They also take over the town web site and use social media sites to get their message out unrestricted. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">When the leaders of the group hold a press conference to announce their goals, they invoke the Declaration of Independence and argue that the current form of the federal government is not deriving its “just powers from the consent of the governed” but is actually “destructive to these ends.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Therefore, they say, the people can alter or abolish the existing government and replace it with another that, in the words of the Declaration, “shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>While mainstream politicians and citizens react with alarm, the “tea party” insurrectionists in South Carolina enjoy a groundswell of support from other tea party groups, militias, racist organizations such as the Ku Klux Klan, anti-immigrant associations such as the Minutemen, and other right-wing groups.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At the press conference the masked militia members’ uniforms sport a unit seal with a man wearing a tricorn hat and carrying a musket over the motto “Today’s Minutemen.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When a reporter asked the leaders who are the “red coats” the spokesman answered, “I don’t know who the redcoats are…it could be federal troops.” Experts warn that while these groups heretofore have been considered weak and marginal, the rapid coalescence among them poses a genuine national threat.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The mayor of Darlington calls the governor and his congressman.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He cannot act to counter the efforts of the local tea party because he is confined to his home and under guard.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The governor, who ran on a platform that professed sympathy with tea party goals, is reluctant to confront the militia directly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He refuses to call out the National Guard.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He has the State Police monitor the roadblocks and checkpoints on the interstate and state roads but does not order the authorities to take further action.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In public the governor calls for calm and proposes talks with the local tea party to resolve issues.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Privately, he sends word through aides asking the federal government to act to restore order.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Due to his previous stance and the appearance of being “pro” tea party goals the governor has little political room to maneuver.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The Department of Homeland Security responds to the governor’s request by asking for defense support to civil law enforcement.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After the Department of Justice states that the conditions in Darlington and surrounding areas meet the conditions necessary to invoke the Insurrection Act, the President invokes it.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">(From Title 10 US Code the President may use the militia or Armed Forces to:</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">§ 331 – Suppress an insurrection against a State government at the request of the Legislature or, if not in session, the Governor.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">§ 332 – Suppress unlawful obstruction or rebellion against the U.S.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">§ 333 – Suppress insurrection or domestic violence if it (1) hinders the execution of the laws to the extent that a part or class of citizens are deprived of Constitutional rights and the State is unable or refuses to protect those rights or (2) obstructs the execution of any Federal law or impedes the course of justice under Federal laws.)</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">By proclamation he calls on the insurrectionists to disperse peacefully within 15 days.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is no violation of the Posse Comitatus Act.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The President appoints the Attorney General and the Department of Justice as the lead federal agency to deal with the crisis.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The President calls the South Carolina National Guard to federal service.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Joint Staff in Washington, D.C., alerts U.S. Northern Command, the headquarters responsible for the defense of North America, to begin crisis action planning.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Northern Command in turn alerts U.S. Army North/Fifth U.S. Army for operations as a Joint Task Force headquarters.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Army units at Fort Bragg, N.C.; Fort Stewart, Ga.; and Marines at Camp Lejuene, N.C. go on alert.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The full range of media, national and international, is on scene.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">“Fix Darlington, but don’t destroy it!”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Upon receiving the alert for possible operations in Darlington, the Fifth Army staff begins the military decision making process with mission analysis and intelligence preparation of the battlefield. (Intelligence Preparation of the Battlefield is the term applied to the procedures performed by the intelligence staff of all Army unit headquarters in the development of bases of information on the enemy, terrain and weather, critical buildings and facilities in a region and other points.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Army units conduct operations on the basis of this information.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The term is in Army doctrine and could be problematic when conducted in advance of operations on U.S. soil. The general form of the initial intelligence estimate is in figure 1.)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In developing the intelligence estimate military intelligence planners will confront the first constraints on the conduct of full spectrum operations in the United States, as well as constraints on supporting law enforcement.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The analytical steps of the Intelligence Preparation of the Battlefield, or IPB, must be modified in preparing for and conducting operations in the homeland.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The steps of the IPB process are: define the operational environment/battlespace, describe environmental effects on operations/describe battlespace effects, evaluate the threat/adversary, and determine threat/adversary courses of action. (PSYOP was changed to Military Information Support Operations, MISO, by Secretary of Defense directive in June 2010.)</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">While preparing terrain and weather data do not pose a major problem to the G-2, gathering data on the threat and under civil considerations for intelligence and operational purposes is problematic to say the least.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Estimate (FM 2-01.3, p. 7, chapter 1)</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Executive Order 12333, United States Intelligence Activities, dated 4 December 1981, relates mostly to intelligence gathering outside the continental United States. However, it also outlines in broad terms permissible information-gathering within the United States and on American citizens and permanent resident aliens, categorized as United States persons. (The executive order included in its definition of “United States persons” unincorporated associations mostly comprising American citizens or permanent resident aliens; or a corporation incorporated in the United States, except for a corporation directed and controlled by a foreign government or governments.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The basic thrust of the rules and regulations concerning intelligence collection and dissemination are focused on protecting American citizens’ Constitutional rights.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These rules and regulations are focused, properly, on support to law enforcement.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They do not contain much guidance concerning the conduct of full spectrum operations such as the situation facing the corps.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>While the best practice as described in FM 3-28 is to retain just enough for situational awareness and force protection the situation facing the corps strains the limits of situational awareness and could place the G2 and commanders at some risk once the dust has settled in the aftermath of an operation within the homeland.) The Fifth Army intelligence analysts will have a great deal of difficulty determining tea party members’ legal status.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Because the Defense Department does not collect or store information on American civilians or civilian groups during peacetime, the military will have to rely on local and state law enforcement officials at the start of operations to establish intelligence data-bases and ultimately restore the rule of law in Darlington.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Using all intelligence disciplines from human intelligence to signals intelligence, the Fifth Army G2 and his staff section will collect as much information as they need to accomplish the mission.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Once the rule of law is restored the Fifth Army G2 must ensure that it destroys information gathered during the operation within 90 days unless the law or the Secretary of Defense requires the Fifth Army to keep it for use in legal cases (Field Manual 3-28, Civil Support Operations, pp. 7-13.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The FM cites Department of Defense Directive, DODD, 5200.27).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Because of the legal constraints on the military’s involvement in domestic affairs and the sympathies of local law enforcement, developing the initial intelligence, a continuing estimate, and potential adversary courses of action (what the insurrectionists holding Darlington and surrounding areas might do in response to Army operations) will be difficult. (The closest guidance on handling information collected in the course of civil disturbance operations is in Department of Defense Directive 5200.27 and Department of Defense Directive 5240.1R.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These directives state: “Operations Related to Civil Disturbance. The Attorney General is the chief civilian officer in charge of coordinating all federal government activities relating to civil disturbances. Upon specific prior authorization of the Secretary of Defense or his designee, information may be acquired that is essential to meet operational requirements flowing from the mission as to DOD to assist civil authorities in dealing with civil disturbances. Such authorization will only be granted when there is a distinct threat of a civil disturbance exceeding the law enforcement capabilities of State and local authorities.”)</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Fifth Army terrain analysts continue using open sources ranging from Google maps to Map-quest.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Federal legal restrictions on assembling databases remain in effect and even incidental imagery, aerial photos gathered in the conduct of previously conducted training missions, cannot be used.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Surveillance of the tea party roadblocks and checkpoints around Darlington proceeds carefully.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Developing legal data-bases is one effort, but support for local law enforcement is hindered because of problems in determining how to share this information and with whom.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Despite these problems, receiving support from local law enforcement is critical to restoring the rule of law in Darlington.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>City police officers, county sheriff deputies and state troopers can contribute valuable local knowledge of personalities, customs and terrain beyond what can be found in data-bases and observation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Liaison officers and non-commissioned officers, with appropriate communications equipment must be exchanged.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Given the suspicion that local police are sympathetic to the tea party members’ goals special consideration to operational security must be incorporated into planning.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Informally communicating to the insurrectionists the determination of federal forces to restore local government can materially improve the likelihood of success.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, informants sympathetic to the tea party could easily compromise the element of surprise.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The fact that a federal court must authorize wire taps in every instance also complicate the monitoring of communications into and out of Darlington.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Operations in Darlington specifically and in the homeland generally must also take into account the possibility of increased violence and the range of responses to violence. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">All federal military forces involved in civil support must follow the standing rules for the use of force (SRUF) specified by the Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Much like the rules of force issued to the 7th Infantry Division during operations in Los Angeles in 1992 the underlying principle involves a continuum of force, a graduated level of response determined by civilians' behavior.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Fifth Army must assume that every incident of gunfire will be investigated. (Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff Instruction, CJCSI, 3121.01B, Standing Rules of Engagement/Standing Rules for the Use of Force for US Forces.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There are many similarities between rules for the use of force and rules of engagement, the right of self-defense for example.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The fundamental difference is rules of engagement are by nature permissive measures intended to allow the maximum use of destructive combat power appropriate for the mission.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Rules for the use of force are restrictive measures intended to allow only the minimum force necessary to accomplish the mission.) All units involved must also realize that operations will be conducted under the close scrutiny of the media.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Operating under media scrutiny is not a new phenomenon for the U.S. military.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What is new and newsworthy about this operation is that it is taking place in the continental United States.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Commanders and staffs must think about the effect of this attention and be alert when considering how to use the media.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The media will broadcast the President’s proclamation and cover military preparations for operations in Darlington.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Their reports will be as available to tea party leaders in Darlington as they are to a family watching the evening news in San Francisco.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Coupled with a gradual build-up of federal forces in the local area, all covered by the media, the effect of this pressure will compound over time and quite possibly cause doubt about the correctness of the events in Darlington in the minds of its’ citizens and the insurrectionists who control the town.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Joint Task Force commander, staff and subordinate units must operate as transparently as possible, while still giving due consideration to operational security.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Commanders must manage these issues even as they increase pressure on the insurrectionists. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The design of this plan to restore the rule of law to Darlington will include information/influence operations designed to present a picture of the federal response and the inevitable defeat of the insurrection.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The concept of the joint plan includes a phased deployment of selected forces into the area beginning with reconnaissance and military intelligence units.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Once the Fifth Army commander determines he has a complete picture of activity within the town and especially of the insurrectionists’ patterns of behavior, deployment of combat, combat support and combat service support forces will begin from Forts Bragg and Stewart, and Camp Lejuene.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Commanders will need to consider how the insurrectionists will respond.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Soldiers and Marines involved in this operation, and especially their families will be subject to electronic mail, Facebook messages, Twitters, and all manner of information and source of pressure.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Given that Soldiers and Marines stationed at Forts Bragg and Stewart as well as Camp Lejuene live relatively nearby and that many come from this region, chances are they will know someone who lives in or near Darlington.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Countering Al Qaeda web-based propaganda is one thing, countering domestic information bombardments is another effort entirely.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The design and execution of operations to restore the rule of law in Darlington will be complicated.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Fifth Army will retain a military chain of command for regular Army and Marine Corps units along with the federalized South Carolina National Guard, but will be in support of the Department of Justice as the Lead Federal Agency, LFA.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Attorney General may designate a Senior Civilian Representative of the Attorney General (SCRAG) to coordinate the efforts of all Federal agencies.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The SCRAG has the authority to assign missions to federal military forces.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Attorney General may also appoint a Senior Federal Law Enforcement Officer (SFLEO) to coordinate all Federal law enforcement activities.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The pace of the operation needs to be deliberate and controlled.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Combat units will conduct overt Show of Force operations to remind the insurrectionists they are now facing professional military forces, with all the training and equipment that implies.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Army and Marine units will remove road blocks and check points both overtly and covertly with minimum essential force to ratchet up pressure continually on insurrectionist leadership.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Representatives of state and local government as well as federalized South Carolina National Guard units will care for residents choosing to flee Darlington.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A focus on the humanitarian aspect of the effort will be politically more palatable for the state and local officials.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Federal forces continue to tighten the noose as troops seize and secure power and water stations, radio and TV stations, and hospitals.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The final phase of the operation, restoring order and returning properly elected officials to their offices, will be the most sensitive.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Movements must be planned and executed more carefully than the operations that established the conditions for handover.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At this point military operations will be on the downturn but the need for more politically aware military advice will not.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>War, and the use of federal military force on U.S. soil, remains an extension of policy by other means.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Given the invocation of the Insurrection Act, the federal government must defeat the insurrection, preferably with minimum force.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Insurrectionists and their sympathizers must have no doubt that an uprising against the Constitution will be defeated.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Dealing with the leaders of the insurrection can be left to the proper authorities, but drawing from America history, military advice would suggest an amnesty for individual members of the militia and prosecution for leaders of the movement who broke the law.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This fictional scenario leads not to conclusions but points to ponder when considering 21st century full spectrum operations in the continental United States.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The Insurrection Act does not need to be changed for the 21st century.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Because it is broadly written, the law allows the flexibility needed to address a range of threats to the Republic. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">What we must consider in the design of homeland defense or security exercises is translating the Act into action.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Army Operating Concept describes Homeland Defense as the protection of “U.S. sovereignty, territory, domestic population, and critical defense infrastructure against external threats and aggression, or other threats as directed by the president” (TD Pam 525-3-1, p. 27.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Emphasis added.) Neither the operating concept nor recently published Army doctrine, FM 3-28 Civil Support Operations, goes into detail when considering the range of “other threats.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>While invoking the Insurrection Act must be a last resort, once it is put into play Americans will expect the military to execute without pause and as professionally as if it were acting overseas.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Army cannot disappoint the American people, especially in such a moment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>While real problems and real difficulties of such operations may not be perceived until the point of execution preparation will afford the Army the ability to not be too badly wrong at the outset. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Being not too badly wrong at the outset requires focused military education on the nuances of operations in the homeland.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Army doctrine defines full spectrum operations as a mix of offense, defense and either stability or civil support operations.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Curriculum development is a true zero sum game; when a subject is added another must be removed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Given the array of threats and adversaries; from “commando-style” raids such as Mumbai, the changing face of militias in the United States, rising unrest in Mexico, and the tendency to the extreme in American politics the subject of how American armed forces will conduct security and defense operations within the continental U.S. must be addressed in the curricula of our Staff and War Colleges. (The Kansas City Star, 12 September 2010, “The New Militia.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The front page story concerns the changing tactics of militia movements and how militias now focus on community service and away from violence against the government.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Law enforcement agencies feel this is camouflage for true intentions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The story covered armed paramilitary militias in Missouri and Kansas.)</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The Army must address the how to of intelligence/information gathering and sharing, liaison with local law enforcement and conduct of Information Operations in focused exercises, such as UNIFIED QUEST, given a wider range of invited participants.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The real question of how to educate the Army on full spectrum operations under homeland security and defense conditions must be a part of an overall review of professional military education for the 21st century.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We cannot discount the agility of an external threat, the evolution of Al Qaeda for example, and its ability to take advantage of a “Darlington event” within U.S. borders.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How would we respond to this type of action?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What if border violence from Mexico crosses into the United States?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The pressure for action will be enormous and the expectation of professional, disciplined military action will be equally so given the faith the American people have in their armed forces.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The simple fact is that while the Department of Justice is the Lead Federal Agency in these operations the public face of the operation will be uniformed American Soldiers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On a TV camera a civilian is a civilian but here is no mistaking the mottled battle dress of a Soldier with the U.S. flag on his or her right sleeve. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The table of organization and equipment of Fifth U.S. Army/Army North must be scrutinized.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The range of liaison parties that must be exchanged in the conduct of operations on American soil is extensive.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Coordination with federal, state and local civil law enforcement and security agencies is a vital element in concluding homeland operations successfully.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The liaison parties cannot be ad hoc or last minute additions to the headquarters.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At a minimum such parties must routinely exercise with the headquarters. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">In 1933 then Colonel George Marshall criticized the education that the Army Command and General Staff College provided as inadequate to “the chaotic state of affairs in the first few months of a campaign with a major power” (From a 1933 letter from COL GC Marshall to MG Stewart Heintzelman, cited in a report on the US Army Command and General Staff College conducted in 1982 by MG Guy Meloy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The report is held in the Special Collections section of the Combined Arms Research Library, Fort Leavenworth, KS.) We must continue on the path of ensuring the avoidance of the “chaotic state of affairs” in the opening moments of future campaigns, defending the nation from within and without.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As Dr. Sebastian L. v. Gorka wrote in Joint Forces Quarterly (p. 33), “[N]o concepts are immune to critique and reappraisal when it comes to securing the homeland.”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Glass-Stegall was the law implemented during the first depression to keep investment banks from becoming commercial banks & causing another depression. Which is exactly what happened when it was repealed,turning Wall St. into a casino with</span><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Georgia;"></span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> Goldman Sachs & the Fed Reserve acting as the house. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The house never loses. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">We did and we have not had the gonads to stand up and really fight/strike back. I don't think there is a statute of limitations on this. What they've done is treasonous. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 2; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><a href="http://www.nationalmemo.com/the-missing-evidence-in-romneys-tax-records/"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">The ‘Missing Evidence’ In Romney’s Tax Records</span></a></span></b></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 2; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 2; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><a href="http://www.juancole.com/2012/08/romney-and-the-missing-evidence-instruction-sullivan.html"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">http://www.juancole.com/2012/08/romney-and-the-missing-evidence-instruction-sullivan.html</span></a></span></b></div><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">A Cabinet nominee or a Supreme Court nominee produces decades of tax returns to the Senate for confirmation. Romney should meet that criteria.</span><br />
<br />
<div align="center" style="text-align: center;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The deduction for the horse included over $2,000 in medical expenses. Medical expenses are not deductible for taxpayers unless they exceed 7.5% of adjusted gross income. In Romney’s world, horses are more valuable than people.</span></i></div><br />
<div align="center" style="text-align: center;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Obviously, Romney will not produce his tax returns because he knows what’s in them is more damaging that the static he will take for not releasing them.</span></i></div><br />
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">At law, if a person is control of evidence refuses to produce the evidence, then the jury is instructed that there is a presumption that the evidence would be against the party failing to produce. It is called the “Missing Evidence” instruction.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">What is silliest for Romney is that he and his aides continue to talk about Harry Reid. One aide compared Reid’s actions to McCarthyism. Reid has not accused Romney of any wrongdoing. McCarthy called Americans traitors and ruined their careers. </span><br />
<br />
<div align="center" style="text-align: center;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Romney’s failure to disclose on his tax returns is consistent with his lifelong secrecy. After a motor vehicle accident in France in which a passenger in Romney’s car is said to have been killed, he allegedly swore everyone to secrecy. No one knows why Mitt Romney got a rare missionary deferment during the Vietnam War– deferment in which he lived in a palace and converted no one.</span></i></div><br />
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The records from the Salt Lake City Olympics are unavailable. Mitt bought new computers at the end of his term as governor in Massachusetts. The computers and their memories of his term as governor are gone.</span><br />
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<div align="center" style="text-align: center;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">There is a pattern of secrecy. It is consistent with his fundamental intellectual dishonesty. He reminds me of Richard Nixon.</span></i></div><div align="center" style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Absent some game changing VP selection or collapse of the economy, this race is over. I put little value in summer polls, but the recent CBS poll indicated that among likely voters in swing states that 90% of the voters have made up their minds and are unlikely to change it. Obama has stopped spending in Pennsylvania. States like NC, MO and IN are coming more into play. Romney is going to campaign in Indiana next week. If you are a Republican and you are campaigning in Indiana in August, you are in trouble.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">John Sullivan is an Indianapolis attorney who has been active in politics since 1968. He is a former Chairperson of the Indiana Recount Commission and Vice President of the Marion County Convention Center and Recreational Facilities Commission. He was the Democratic nominee for Mayor of Indianapolis and has run the Indiana presidential campaigns for a number of Democratic candidates. He has also been elected delegate to several Democratic National Conventions since 1984. He worked in Congress in the early 1970s for Rep. Michael Harrington (D-MA).</span><br />
<br />
<h2 align="center" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><a href="http://www.nationalmemo.com/lol-of-the-week-mitt-reminds-us-he-would-have-bankrupted-every-gm-dealer-in-america/">LOL Of The Week: Mitt Reminds Us He Would Have Bankrupted Every GM Dealer In America</a></span></h2><h2 align="center" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">THAT’S NOT GOING TO PLAY WELL IN OHIO….</span></h2><h2 align="center" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="433" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/ettjF5iOc4E" width="770"></iframe></span></h2><h2 align="center" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> </span></h2><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Last week, we learned that nothing will ever improve President Obama’s image in the world more than Mitt Romney traveling abroad. Mitt <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnOTKHQND8I" target="_blank">insulted all of London</a>, praised <a href="http://www.nationalmemo.com/question-time-what-did-mitt-romney-learn-during-his-travels-abroad/" target="_blank">socialized medicine in Israel</a> and brought along an aide who told reporters to “<a href="http://www.nationalmemo.com/kiss-my-ass-fear-and-loathing-in-the-romney-campaign/" target="_blank">Kiss my ass!</a>” at a holy site in Poland. The lesson was: When your schtick only appeals to people who hate the President of the United States, it’s hard to be diplomatic.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Mitt then returned home from that mess to face the biggest mess of his campaign: taxes.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">No, not the controversy around his tax returns. Though you probably know that Harry Reid, who happens to be the highest-ranking Mormon in the U.S. government, publically accused Mitt of not paying any taxes for the last ten years. This accusation, the Senate Majority Leader claimed, was based on information from a very credible investor in Bain Capital. Now making accusations based on hearsay is a low down, dirty <a href="http://tbogg.firedoglake.com/2012/08/03/harrys-game/" target="_blank">honey badger</a> tactic, no doubt. (It’s a tactic so low down and dirty that it’s <a href="http://video.msnbc.msn.com/the-rachel-maddow-show/48497159" target="_blank">reminiscent of how Mitt</a> demanded that Ted Kennedy release his tax returns in 1994 and that his opponent’s spouse release his returns in the 2002 Massachusetts gubernatorial primary — while refusing to release his own.)</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Actually, Mitt’s real mess is <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/study-romney-tax-plan-would-result-in-cuts-for-rich-higher-burden-for-others/2012/08/01/gJQAbeCCOX_story.html" target="_blank">his tax plan</a>—which we now know would raise taxes on 95 percent of Americans. A new study by the Tax Policy Center pointed out that Mitt’s plan includes massive tax breaks for the richest Americans while leaving middle class families to pay up to $2,000 more a year.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Suddenly Mitt’s incredibly low 14 percent personal tax rate on an income of over $20 million a year became more than a talking point about fairness. It was an example of <a href="http://www.nationalmemo.com/what-romneys-taxes-tell-us-about-the-tax-code/" target="_blank">the kind of tax policy he believes in</a>: Millionaires like him need more tax cuts and the middle class needs to pay for them.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">And suddenly, Mitt needed to distract attention from his new status as a Republican nominee proposing to raise taxes on the middle class. What to do?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">First, attack the group that produced the study — which is a group you <a href="http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entries/romney-camp-cited-same-think-tank-they-now">once praised</a> as “objective” and “non-partisan.” When that doesn’t work, change the subject.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">What did Mitt decide to change the subject to? The auto industry. <a href="http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20120802/POLITICS01/208020370/1121/AUTO0102/Romney-ad-rips-auto-dealership-closings" target="_blank">Romney released an ad</a> Thursday that blamed the President for a GM dealership closing. What the ad didn’t mention is that if Mitt Romney had his way, there would be no GM dealerships in America any more.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Yes, Mitt is now past the point of taking credit for an auto rescue he opposed. He is now saying that he would have saved more dealerships.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">This is why Mitt is one of the <a href="http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/370412/20120804/mitt-romney-personal-image-negative-pew-poll.htm" target="_blank">most unlikable presidential contenders on record</a>. He rejects the one useful accomplishment of his life—Romneycare. At the same time, he says the President can’t run on his record and then tries to run on the President’s record of saving the auto industry.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Mitt Romney taking credit for the auto rescue is like John McCain taking credit for keeping Sarah Palin out of the White House. It’s like the Coyote taking credit for the Roadrunner’s good health. It’s like Al Gore taking credit for hotter summers.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">In 2008, only one national figure opposed the rescue of the auto industry: Mitt Romney. In an op-ed he placed in the <em><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">New York Times</span></em> charitably headlined “<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/19/opinion/19romney.html" target="_blank">Let Detroit Go Bankrupt</a>,” Mitt wrote, “If General Motors, Ford and Chrysler get the bailout that their chief executives asked for yesterday, you can kiss the American automotive industry goodbye.” It was an easy position to take because at that point, government bailouts were less popular than even George W. Bush and Bernie Madoff.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Mitt wanted private equity firms like his own Bain Capital to finance managed bankruptcies of GM and Chrysler, while global markets were crumbling. The problem was that <a href="http://www.theatlanticwire.com/politics/2012/02/bain-capital-turned-down-chance-invest-gm/48909/" target="_blank">firms like Bain refused</a> to do so. So the government stepped in. The Obama Administration then took over the rescue.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Three years later, the rebirth of the auto industry has sparked an economic renewal in Ohio and Michigan that no one anticipated.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Yes, Ohio and Michigan. Romney can’t win the election without Ohio, a state that history says no Republican can lose in a successful presidential campaign. And if he wins Michigan, one of his home states, his election would be guaranteed. These are the two states that had the most to lose if the auto industry had disappeared and took one of every eight American jobs with it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Mitt’s campaign is a mess, but he won’t sink below 45-46 percent of the vote because he has already been spent close to a billion dollars to slander this President. But if he’s counting on the voters of Ohio and Michigan to ignore the tax increases he’s proposing for the middle class or to forget where Mitt stood when they needed him most, he’s only fooling himself.</span><br />
<br />
<h2 align="center" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/charts-that-should-terrify-mitt-romney-2012-8#ixzz22glPEz7y">http://www.businessinsider.com/charts-that-should-terrify-mitt-romney-2012-8#ixzz22glPEz7y</a></span></h2><h2 align="center" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> </span></h2><h1 align="center" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";"><a href="http://www.investinganswers.com/personal-finance/career-job-hunting/10-middle-class-jobs-will-vanish-2018-3037?utm_source=outbrain&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=ia-ob-0911">10 Middle-Class Jobs That Will Vanish by 2018</a></span></h1><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">By the year 2018, the manufacturing industry will lose 1.2 million jobs, the mining and oil/gas extraction industry will lose another 104,000 jobs and utility companies will lose 59,000 jobs, according to the<span class="nolink"> Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS)</span>.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><h1 align="center" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";"><a href="http://www.investinganswers.com/education/economics/why-middle-class-americans-are-turning-dumpster-diving-3543">Why Middle-Class Americans Are Turning to Dumpster Diving</a></span></h1><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Have you ever thought about getting your food out of a trash can? <br />
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Dumpster diving has become a hot new trend in America. In fact, dumpster divers even have a trendy new name -- "freegans" -- and as the <a href="http://www.investinganswers.com/financial-dictionary/economics/economy-1517"><span class="definition-url">economy</span></a> crumbles their numbers are multiplying. <br />
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Many freegans consider dumpster diving to be a great way to save money on groceries. Others do it because they want to live more simply. Freegans that are concerned about the environment view dumpster diving as a great way to "recycle" and other politically-minded freegans consider dumpster diving to be a form of political protest.<br />
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[Click here to read the <em><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">New York Times</span></em> article, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/06/magazine/06Squatters-t.html?pagewanted=1" target="_blank">"The Freegan Establishment"</a>]</span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><h1 align="center" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";"><a href="http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-romney-property-tax-20120806,0,4926772.story">Romneys, Caught In Housing Bust, Got Tax Cut In La Jolla</a></span></h1><h2 align="center" style="text-align: center;"><span class="MsoHyperlink"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><a href="http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-romney-property-tax-20120806,0,4926772.story">Reassessment Of Their $12-Million Home, One Of Many Reductions In San Diego County, Has Saved $109,000 Over Four Years.</a></span></span><span style="color: #365f91; font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"></span></h2><h2 align="center" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> </span></h2><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Mitt and <a href="http://www.latimes.com/topic/politics/ann-romney-PECLB0000014811.topic" title="Ann Romney">Ann Romney</a> were easily able to afford a $12-million La Jolla home.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">But that didn't insulate them from the winds buffeting the real estate market in the months following their purchase in 2008.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">After paying cash for the Mediterranean-style house with 61 feet of beach frontage, they asked San Diego County for dramatic property tax relief.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><a href="http://www.latimes.com/topic/politics/government/mitt-romney-PEPLT007376.topic" title="Mitt Romney">Romney</a>, the presumptive <a href="http://www.latimes.com/topic/politics/parties-movements/republican-party-ORGOV0000004.topic" title="Republican Party">GOP</a> nominee for president whose wealth is estimated at $250 million, has rejected calls from <a href="http://www.latimes.com/topic/politics/parties-movements/democratic-party-ORGOV0000005.topic" title="Democratic Party">Democrats</a> and Republicans to release his income tax returns prior to 2010. But San Diego County assessor records shed light on one sliver of the couple's personal taxes during that time: a months-long effort to reduce their annual property tax bill.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Initially, the Romneys asked that their 2009 assessment, $12.24 million, be reduced to $6.8 million, maintaining that their home had lost about 45% of its value in the first seven months they owned it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Thirteen months later, after hiring an attorney to guide them, the Romneys filed an amended appeal, contending the home had suffered a less-dramatic fall of 27.3%, to $8.9 million.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">They also filed an appeal for the 2010 tax year, claiming the house had dropped further, to $7.5 million, 38.7% less than the home's assessed value.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">As a result, the Romneys have saved about $109,000 in property taxes over four years.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">They were far from alone in seeking a reduction. Since the real estate market crashed, about 250,000 San Diego County homes have been reassessed at lower values, sometimes at the owner's request and other times at the county's initiative.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The Romney campaign referred all questions about their La Jolla property taxes to Matthew A. Peterson, a lobbyist and attorney who helped the Romneys find the home. He has also guided them through the complex permit process for demolishing the home and rebuilding on the site.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Referring to their initial claim, Peterson said he did not know how the Romneys determined that their house value had fallen so dramatically, but he thought they may have been reacting to dismal news reports. In any case, he said, they were not required to file documentation at the beginning.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The assessor has two years to act, and while an application is pending, Peterson said, "You hire a lawyer, a team of appraisers, and you come up with a realistic value, then file a realistic appeal."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">But "once I got involved," Peterson said, "the tax assessor's office was pretty darned aggressive determining the value."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Property values were dropping in La Jolla's 92037 ZIP Code, as in other places, around the time the Romneys bought into the neighborhood. World financial markets were in turmoil, and uncertainty rocked previously stable U.S. real estate.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">To buttress their claims, the Romneys used La Jolla appraiser John Streb, who specializes in seven-figure homes.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Assessing a home such as the Romneys' is complicated, Streb said. There are a limited number of beachfront properties and they vary dramatically in size and quality.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The home next door to the south, at 325 Dunemere Drive, was purchased by one of Mitt Romney's best friends, Kansas City meatpacking billionaire John Miller and his wife, Victoria, for $16.5 million two months before the Romneys bought the home at 311 Dunemere.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">But the Miller home is a historic property. In exchange for a dramatically lower assessment and taxes, the owners agree not to change the exterior, according to Cathy Winterrowd, principal planner for San Diego's Historical Resources Board.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Once owned by the late actor <a href="http://www.latimes.com/topic/entertainment/cliff-robertson-PECLB003554.topic" title="Cliff Robertson">Cliff Robertson</a>, the Miller home is assessed at only $1.74 million, according to county records, a fraction of its value. Rather than paying annual taxes of about $165,000, which one would expect for a $16.5-million home, the Millers pay $18,846.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The home on the north side of the Romneys, at 310 Dunemere, was also an unsuitable comparison, even though it had changed hands just before Streb's appraisal. Purchased as a short sale for $2.4 million in 2010, the home was quickly assessed at $4.5 million by the county, which claimed the sale price did not accurately reflect the home's market value. In that case, the property taxes nearly doubled, said the home's owner, Jeff Lepore.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Analyst Andrew LePage of the real estate metrics service DataQuick said there was no question La Jolla home prices had dropped since 2008, but that beachfront property usually holds its value better than other properties.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Working for the Romneys, Streb concluded that the entire 92037 ZIP Code had suffered a 41% decline in average sales prices between the first six months of 2008 and the six months preceding his appraisal in October 2010. He settled on a value of $7.5 million for the Romney home.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The San Diego County Assessment Appeals Board agreed that the value of the Romney home had dropped, but not by nearly as much as Streb claimed.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">On Feb. 23, 2011, the board reduced the 2009 assessment by $800,000, to $11.4 million, lowering the tax bill to $125,291 from $134,909.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The 2010 assessment was reduced to $10 million, with a corresponding drop in taxes to $110,180 from $134,535.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">For the 2011 tax year, the Romneys did not have to apply for a reduction, said Jeffrey Olson, division chief of assessment services for the assessor's office. The county is legally required to reassess a property automatically once it has been reduced. The county reduced the Romneys' assessment to $8.7 million. Their property tax bill for the year was $96,843 and is likely to be the same for 2012, Olson said.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">From its 2009 assessed value of $12.24 million, their home has dropped 29%.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">(Since purchasing their Chicago home in 2005 for $1.65 million, <a href="http://www.latimes.com/topic/politics/government/barack-obama-PEPLT007408.topic" title="Barack Obama">President Obama</a> and his wife, Michelle, have paid annual taxes that started at about $22,000 and have risen to nearly $27,000 this year.)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Had the Romneys never applied for a reassessment, they may have received one anyway because San Diego County has taken what it calls a proactive approach to assessments after the real estate downturn.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">While they could have kept fighting for a lower assessment, Peterson said, they chose not to.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">"As soon as the assessor's staff came up with that number, I said, 'Well, that's significantly higher than fair market value. Do you want to proceed with a formal hearing, and they said, 'No, if that's what the assessor thinks, that's what we will go with,' " Peterson recalled.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">While the low-six-figure savings may not seem like much to the Romneys, "I would think it's foolish not to request a decline in value if you are entitled," said Paul Habibi, who teaches real estate finance and development in the <a href="http://www.latimes.com/topic/education/colleges-universities/university-of-california-los-angeles-OREDU0000192268.topic" title="University of California, Los Angeles">UCLA</a> Anderson Graduate School of Management. "That's like saying a rich man should not bend over to pick up a hundred dollar bill."</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Mitt Romney doesn’t deny making a fortune investing in companies that outsourced jobs to Mexico and China—he just says there’s “no evidence” he was in charge at that point. But newly disclosed documents show Romney was Bain’s sole stockholder, CEO, and Chairman when jobs were shipped overseas. Here’s the evidence—take a look, then share it with your friends.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="433" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/rXVpTa_Y6Ho" width="770"></iframe></span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="433" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/X7_EJLBU400" width="770"></iframe></span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><h2 align="center" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><a href="http://original.antiwar.com/justin/2012/08/05/the-bloodlust-of-walter-russell-mead/">The Bloodlust Of Walter Russell Mead</a></span></h2><h2 align="center" style="text-align: center;"><span class="MsoHyperlink"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><a href="http://original.antiwar.com/justin/2012/08/05/the-bloodlust-of-walter-russell-mead/">Syria And The Regime-Changers' Credo Of Death</a></span></span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"></span></h2><h2 align="center" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> </span></h2><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Good news — the Syrian rebels are mellowing! McClatchy news agency <a href="http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2012/08/03/159888/accounts-of-syria-rebels-executing.html">reports</a> from the front lines:</span><br />
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<div align="center" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">“<i>Abu Abdullah said that the [rebel military] council had ordered the executions of some 150 men since the beginning of the conflict, but that the rate had declined as the rebels feel the neighborhood is ‘cleaned’ of pro-regime elements.</i></span></div><br />
<div align="center" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">“’<i>In the beginning, we would execute 10 or 15 men a week,’ he said. “Now it’s closer to one every 10 or 20 days.’”</i></span></div><br />
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">That’s what I call progress. Before you know it, they’ll go to monthly executions. Maybe they’ll even stop putting prisoners in cars rigged with explosives and then detonating the vehicle remotely when it approaches a government checkpoint — another charming practice noted by McClatchy. But don’t get your hopes up….</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">So barbarous are these “rebels” that they <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDQa2YBQ0IY">record</a> their <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVV0W7H0EtQ">atrocities</a> for <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXErD2VDshI">posterity</a> by making <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ebPSOtDdsM">videos</a> and posting them on <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nNa45DGYkk">YouTube</a>: they expect the world to applaud them rather than step back in <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYhsabj8tJc">horror</a>. Over at the US State Department, they aren’t exactly applauding, but then again neither are they backing off their support for the “Free Syrian Army”: “We condemn actions like that,” said Jay Carney, former Obama shill at <i>Time</i> magazine and now the official White House spokesman, “but [he] quickly added that Syrian government forces have perpetrated “the overwhelming amount of violence in Syria.” </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Just wait until the rebels get in power: they’ll soon match — and perhaps outstrip — the atrocities the Assad family has committed in its decades of dictatorship. Summary executions, the “cleansing” of neighborhoods, the car bombs, the <a href="http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article32094.htm">imposition</a> of Sharia law on the “liberated” areas — the Islamist reign of terror in Syria has just begun, and you are paying for it with your tax dollars. Remember that when tax time comes along.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Yes, the US government “condemns” these monsters, but they’re <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/08/02/us-usa-syria-obama-order-idUSBRE8701OK20120802">footing the bill</a> for the insurrection, championing the rebels in international diplomatic forums, and sending aid directly to these monsters. What does a condemnation out of Carney’s mouth mean in this context?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Next to nothing. After all, why should the US do anything more than lamely try to distance themselves from the rebels’ bloodthirsty jihad — when our own military does much worse as a routine matter? We launch cowardly drone attacks on distant targets, raining death on women, children, donkeys, and anyone or anything that gets in our way, <a href="http://www.asiantribune.com/news/2012/05/09/civilian-death-drone-attacks-high-us-sidesteps-issue-arguing-legality">killing thousands</a> of civilians. We lock up prisoners — most of whom are <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2rfRcS9jqA">innocent</a> — without charges and keep them <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1k7OaUzg2K8">for years</a>. Our decades-long campaign to carry out regime-change in Iraq resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of civilians, not only in the course of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casualties_of_the_Iraq_War">the fighting</a> but also in the run-up to the shooting: sanctions murdered many thousands of children and old folks. And we justify it all with a barrage of lying propaganda — and <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0WDCYcUJ4o">brazen arrogance</a> — which is lapped up by the “mainstream” media. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The real military heft of the rebel army is provided by Al Qaeda and its affiliates, while the “Free Syrian Army” is basically a myth: the reality is that the FSA is just a name, while the rebels’ military assets are located in a myriad of local militias under the control of radical Islamists. When Syrian newscaster Mohammed al-Saeed was kidnapped from his home in Damascus by rebel forces, <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/kidnapped-syrian-tv-host-executed-095410044.html">his execution</a> was <a href="http://www.rt.com/news/syrian-host-saeed-executed-868/">publicized</a> in a video with the Al Qaeda flag flying in the background. “May this be a lesson to all who support the regime,” the kidnappers declared. If this isn’t terrorism, then there is no real meaning attached to the term. The murder was <a href="http://english.alarabiya.net/articles/2012/08/05/230545.html">claimed</a> by the “Al Nusra Front,” a local gang of jihadists who openly support Al Qaeda. Al Nusra has been behind most of the really spectacular successes pulled off by the rebels: the suicide <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/syria/9261970/Al-Nusra-Front-jihadists-claim-Damascus-suicide-bombs.html">bombing in Damascus</a> that killed top Ba’ath party officials, including the minister of defense; a <a href="http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2114788,00.html">raid</a> on the heavily fortified Syrian Air Force building in Damascus and <a href="http://www.topix.com/forum/religion/islam/TL88DGIO6AGVDSMUO">numerous other attacks</a> on targets throughout the country. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Of course, no Westerner who supports the rebels could actually defend these atrocities, which is why Carney and his bosses are issuing empty “condemnations. Oh, but wait: we haven’t taken into account <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Russell_Mead">Walter Russell Mead</a>, the noted foreign policy analyst and neocon-par-excellence, who <a href="http://blogs.the-american-interest.com/wrm/2012/08/02/video-of-syrian-rebel-atrocities-a-sign-of-things-to-come/">writes</a>:</span><br />
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<div align="center" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">“<i>We think the human rights crusaders calling for the arrest of the rebels after these executions are barking up the wrong tree. Revolutionary Syria has no courts and no law at the moment. To speak of ‘crimes’ in circumstances like this is to make rhetorical noise, not to enunciate valid principles of law. Aleppo is in a state of nature, where there can be no crimes and the law of the jungle is pretty much all that applies.”</i></span></div><br />
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">To warmongers of Mead’s ilk, who glories in his “hard-headed” invocation of the Law of the Jungle, the idea of moral law — a law above states, courts, and the apparatus of coercion — is just “rhetorical noise.” Glorious “revolutionary Syria,” where US tax dollars are going to fuel Washington’s regime-change operation in the Middle East, exists in “a state of nature” — a condition that underscores the real nature and goal of our policy in the region. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">What the Americans are doing in Syria goes way beyond mere “war crimes.” In the past, acts deemed “war crimes” mostly consisted of random incidents, rather than pre-planned efforts to, say, exterminate an entire people. The Nazis are recalled with universal loathing precisely because of the exceptional character of their horrific crimes. The Communists, although less loathed, engaged in similarly large-scale atrocities. What is happening in Syria is the planned extermination of a nation, rather than a people. While it’s true US support for the rebels is a dagger aimed at the heart of Syria’s Christian and Alawite minorities, the effective elimination of these groups isn’t the goal of our regime-changers: their purpose is to atomize the Syrian state and produce a region in chaos. To divide, smash up, and remake the Muslim world — that’s the long-range goal. In the short term, however, they’ll settle for a blow struck at their principal enemy in the region. The rebels are but a lure, which this administration is hoping will reel in a really big catch: the Iranians.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The <a href="http://www.stargazette.com/usatoday/article/56772730?odyssey=mod%7Cnewswell%7Ctext%7CFRONTPAGE%7Cs">kidnapping</a> of dozens of Iranian religious pilgrims in Syria — also claimed by Al Nusra — and the rebels’ contention that the pilgrims are in reality “Iranian Revolutionary Guards” sent in to aid the regime, is a clear provocation. Adding fuel to the fire, the rebels <a href="http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_world/view/1218114/1/.html">proclaim</a> their intention to target any and all Iranians on Syrian soil: just the sort of tactic one might expect of a terrorist group, which murders indiscriminately. Note that in <a href="http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_world/view/1218114/1/.html">this account</a>, Al Nusra is wearing its “Free Syrian Army” hat, another clue to the interchangeability of these supposedly separate groups. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The FSA/Al Nusra terrorist ethos is the perfect instrument for carrying out the Western agenda of regional chaos. While Jay Carney can issue all the condemnations he wants, the atrocities committed by America’s Syrian sock-puppets are the key to the success of our strategy in the Middle East. And as thousands die, Mead can effectively tell us to look the other way. After all, Syria is in a “state of nature” — thanks to US government support for the rebels — and the laws of man and God are suspended. Those laws will “return” if and when our sock puppets take Damascus.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">This is the credo of the War Party, in all its insane Bizarro World glory: in articulating it so bluntly, the role of people like Mead is to justify mass murder — but is he really up to the job? He concludes his apologia for the jihadists with a call to escalate the slaughter:</span><br />
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<div align="center" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">“<i>More blood must now flow in Syria. Peace will come when the winners are tired of killing and the losers are ready to submit. There will likely be more horrendous footage uploaded to the internet. It’s as if the infamous women knitting in the shadow of the guillotine during the French Revolution had cell phones and streamed the bloody pictures to a waiting world. This revolution, at least in part, is going to be televised, and we aren’t going to like what we see.”</i></span></div><br />
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">It’s the War Party’s credo of death in a nutshell:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">“<i>More blood must flow”!</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">It must flow like a great river, “cleansing” pro-Assad neighborhoods in Syria, driving everything before it and welling up to break the dam of the Shi’ite regime in Iran, flooding the streets of Tehran in a scarlet rain. What’s interesting here is that Mead openly invokes the Jacobin spirit that animates the regime-changers, including himself. This is a development most of us will find a bit surprising, and maybe even shocking — except for the conservative philosopher Claes Ryn, who early on <a href="http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/a-jacobin-in-chief/">detected</a> the Jacobin spirit in the previous administration’s foreign policy:</span><br />
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<div align="center" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">“<i>Today communism has collapsed, but another universalist ideology, the new Jacobinism, has taken its place. A difference between the French and the new Jacobinism is that the latter has chosen not France but America as mankind’s savior.”</i></span></div><div align="center" style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">As Uncle Sam drags one nation after another to the guillotine, while the neocon <a href="http://villains.wikia.com/wiki/Madame_Defarge">Madame Defarges</a> of the Twitterverse celebrate videos of summary executions, the real nature of the neocons’ “historic mission” — as professor Ryn puts it — becomes all too readily apparent. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The danger posed by the US to the rest of the world is more than the equivalent of the threat once posed by the totalitarian ideologies of National Socialism and its Communist blood brother. Like the Communists, the warlords of Washington have their <a href="http://rt.com/usa/news/democracy-promotion-usa-regime/">paid agents</a> in every country, who are hard at work carrying out their orders to pulverize entire nations and leave them drenched in rivers of blood. We see them at work in Syria, and, soon we will see them in Iran.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Onward, ever onward pushes the American juggernaut, with our Lilliputian allies following in our wake as we chart a course set for nothing less than world domination. Relentlessly aggressive, ruthless in its methods, and merciless when it comes to systematically targeting and eliminating its enemies, American imperialism is the main danger to peace and liberty on earth. None of us is safe until it is put out of business — no, <a href="http://www.democracynow.org/2011/9/30/with_death_of_anwar_al_awlaki">not even American citizens</a>, who can be killed by order of our commander in chief, a death sentence against which there is no defense, no trial, and no possibility of appeal. </span><br />
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<h1 align="center" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";"><a href="http://www.albawaba.com/news/syria-defected-pm-slams-war-crimes-and-genocide-carried-out-assad-regime-437219">Syria: Defected PM Slams "War Crimes And Genocide" Carried Out By Assad Regime</a></span></h1><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2012/08/201281141339576130.html">'My Classmate Is A War Criminal'</a></span></b></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Syrian expatriates in the US recount their impressions of the country's embattled president during his student days.</span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><strong><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Chicago, IL</span></strong><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> - A story is told of a medical student, who attended the University of Damascus, Syria's top academic institution, in the 1980s. During one physical training exercise, he caught the ire of the instructor, who proceeded to call him "a son of a donkey".<br />
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The red-faced instructor soon realised who he was talking to and quickly apologised. The student was Bashar, second son and ultimate successor of then-President Hafez al-Assad. But the younger Assad took the insult "very lightly".<br />
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As Dr Zaher Sahloul recounted the incident involving his classmate of six years, the Chicago pulmonary specialist wondered how "a very average and humble person" turned out to become the architect of the ongoing bloodshed in Syria, which has already killed more than 17,000 people, according to the United Nations.<br />
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"You never imagine that the person who used to be your classmate in medical school, will be able to do this type of war crimes against humanity," said Sahloul, a native of Homs and president of the Syrian American Medical Society.</span><br />
<div align="center" style="text-align: center;"><strong><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">A NEW LOW</span></strong></div><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br />
For Sahloul and his fellow Syrian Americans who are observing Ramadan, this year's holy month marks a new low in the close-knit community, many of whom have friends and family members caught in the 17-month old armed uprising. Their prayers, which range from asking for the protection of elderly parents who chose to remain in the bombed-out city of Homs to the swift ouster of the Assad regime from Damascus, reflect the anguish of a wounded nation, whose own president is attacking his own people.<br />
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"It's very difficult to celebrate the festivities of the month of Ramadan, while you have people in your family who are at any time at the threat of death," said Sahloul. "What's going on right now is a grave humanitarian situation." …MORE…</span><br />
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<h1 align="center" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";"><a href="http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2012/08/01/the-neoconservative-war-criminals-in-our-midst-2/">The Neoconservative War Criminals In Our Midst</a></span></h1><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The State Department has an office that hunts German war criminals. Bureaucracies being what they are, the office will exist into next century when any surviving German prison guards will be 200 years old. From time to time the State Department claims to have found a lowly German soldier who was assigned as a prison camp guard. The ancient personage, who had lived in the US for the past 50 or 60 years without doing harm to anyone, is then merciless persecuted, usually on the basis of hearsay. I have never understood what the State Department thinks the alleged prison guard was supposed to have done–freed the prisoners, resign his position?–when Prussian aristocrats, high-ranking German Army generals and Field Marshall and national hero Erwin Rommel were murdered for trying to overthrow Hitler.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">What the State Department needs is an office that rounds up American war criminals. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">They are in abundance and not hard to find. Indeed, recently 56 of them made themselves public by signing a letter to President Obama demanding that he send in the US Army to complete the destruction of Syria and its people that Washington has begun. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">At the Nuremberg Trials of the defeated Germans after World War II, the US government established the principle that naked aggression–the American way in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Pakistan, and Yemen–is a war crime. Therefore, there is a very strong precedent for the State Department to round up those neoconservatives who are fomenting more war crimes. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">But don’t expect it to happen. Today, war criminals run the State Department and the entire US Government. They are elected to the presidency, the House, and the Senate, and appointed to the federal courts as judges. American soldiers, such as Bradley Manning, who behave as the State Department expects German soldiers to have behaved, are not honored, but are thrown into dungeons and tortured while a court martial case is concocted against them. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Hypocrisy is Washington’s hallmark, and all but the most delusional are now accustomed to their rulers speaking one way and behaving in the opposite. It is now part of the American character to regard ourselves as members of the “virtuous nation,” “the indispensable people,” while our rulers commit war crimes around the globe.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Whereas we have all been made complicit in war crimes by “our” government, it still behooves us to know who are the active war criminals in our midst who have burdened us with our war criminal reputation. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">You can learn the identity of many of those who are driving the world into World War Three, while their policies result in the murder of large numbers of Arabs and Muslims in Syria, Afghanistan, Libya, Somalia, Pakistan, Yemen, Iraq, and Lebanon, by perusing the signatures to the contrived letter to Obama from the neoconsevatives calling on Obama to invade Syria in order to “rescue” the Syrian people from their government.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">According the the letter signed by 56 neoconservatives, only the Syrian government is responsible for deaths in Syria. The Washington sponsored and armed “rebels” are merely protecting the Syrian people from the Assad government. According to the letter signers, the only way the Syrian people can be saved is if Washington overthrows the Syrian government and installs a puppet state attentive to the needs of Israel and Washington.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Among the 56 signatures are a few names from the Syrian National Congress, believed to be a CIA front, and a few names from dupes among the goyim. The rest of the signatures are those of Jewish neoconservatives tightly allied with Israel, some of whom are apparently dual-Israeli citizens who participate in the formation of US foreign policy. The names on this list comprise a concentration of evil, the goal of which is not only to bring armageddon to the Syrian people but also to the world.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The letter to Obama is part of the propaganda operation to demonize the Syrian government with lies in order to get rid of a government that supports Hizbollah, the Muslims in southern Lebanon who have twice driven the vaunted, but cowardly, Israeli army out of Lebanon, thus preventing the Israeli government from achieving its aim of stealing the water resources of southern Lebanon.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Not a single sentence in the letter is correct. Listen to this one for example: “The Assad regime poses a grave threat to national security interests of the United States.” What utter total absurdity, and the morons who signed the letter pretend to be “security experts.” </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">How do we evaluate the fact that 56 people have no shame whatsoever and will lie to the President of the United States, telling him to his face the most absurd and obvious false things in order to advance their personal agenda at the expense of not merely the lives of Syrians but, by leading to wider war, of life on earth? </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">This same neocon architects of armageddon are also working against Iran, Russia, the former Soviet central Asian countries, Ukraine, Belarus, and China. It seems that they can’t wait to start a nuclear war.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">You can find the names of some of humanity’s worst enemies here: <a href="http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article32021.htm" target="_blank" title="http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article32021.htm">http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article32021.htm</a> </span><br />
<div align="center" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><script src="http://cdn.widgetserver.com/syndication/subscriber/InsertWidget.js" type="text/javascript"></script><script type="text/javascript">if (WIDGETBOX)
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</div><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Politics is an ugly business, the saying goes, and one aspect of that ugliness are the votes a devoted activist must cast for a candidate he doesn't much like. Take candidate Mitt Romney, for instance. But if the big-money donors of the right have anything to say about, those right-wing voters will be turning out for Mitt Romney on election day.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">At a conference staged by David Koch's Americans For Prosperity Foundation, Tea Party activists from around the country gathered in Washington, D.C. last weekend to hear famous right-wingers harangue President Barack Obama, and to learn what part they can play in securing the president's defeat. This year, the anti-Obama rhetoric was typically sharp, while mentions of the Republican presidential candidate were few and far between. </span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">As Stephen Moore, columnist and member of the <em><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">Wall Street Journal</span></em> editorial board, told a roomful of activists at a breakout session: "I'm not here to promote Mitt Romney; I think he's fine -- I don't think he's the world's greatest, most charismatic candidate...But I do think that this is such a critical, critical election...And none of us want to wake up on November 5th and think that we didn't do everything that we could to make sure that the community organizer goes back to community organizing."</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">It was a sentiment echoed by activists from around the country. Ken Aschenbrenner, a petrochemical salesman, rode a bus up from North Carolina, which is often described as a battleground state. I noted that the conference attendees didn't seem to be enthusiastic about Romney.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"No, they're not," he said. "And I'll be honest: he was not my first choice during the primary. However, he is who we have now, and we have to stand behind him. This election is not about electing Mitt Romney; it's about getting President Obama out and saving our country -- and recapturing our country."</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Aschenbrenner, who is tall and thin, with a open face, would have preferred former U.S. senator Rick Santorum or former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, both of whom sought to link Obama with encouraging dependence on the federal government, for a presidential candidate. Their candidacies may be over, but their words live on. A complaint heard more than once from the podiums at the conference was the administration's efforts to educate people on their eligibility for government assistance, especially food stamps.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The point wasn't lost on this activist. "I feel that the government is holding people down, and keeping them from what they need to do to get our economy going," he said. "Because when's the last time you ever got a job from a poor person?"</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">But what's done is done, and asked if he'll be working hard to turn out the vote for Romney, the North Carolinian replied, "Oh, absolutely."</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><strong><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The Wisconsin Effect</span></strong><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br clear="all" /> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">As the 2012 election campaign advances to its most frenzied leg, the contest comes down to a handful of states, the vaunted "swing" states such as Aschenbrenner's Tar Heel haven, as well as Virginia, Florida and Wisconsin, and a few others. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Electoral map and polling experts tend to downplay Wisconsin in that mix, seeing as the polls show Obama ahead of Romney by more than the margin of error. (The most recent Public Policy Polling survey has Obama up by 6 points.)</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">But Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett was looking pretty good as the Dairy State's potential new governor in the recall election against Gov. Scott Walker, and he lost by a sizable margin. It's the kind of result that Americans For Prosperity, with allies such as Ralph Reed's Faith and Freedom Coalition, hope to replicate across the nation on behalf of Mitt Romney in November.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">At a breakout session titled "Battlefront Wisconsin: What Worked, and How to Repeat It," Luke Hilgemann, director of Americans For Prosperity's Wisconsin chapter, showed off the organization's winning ground strategy, which combined whiz-bang technology with the application of old-fashioned shoe leather, together with some tight messaging that was likely focus-group-tested.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">AFP activists were outfitted with iPad-like tablet devices that featured artfully phrased survey questions respondents could answer on the tablet's touch screen. AFP foot soldiers took these tablets with them to households identified by the kind of micro-targeting strategies used by Web advertisers. (For more detail on these strategies, see our July report, Religious Right's Ralph Reed Field-Tests Plan to Defeat Obama.) Using the tablet's GPS feature, activists are directed to particular homes in a given neighborhood, based on the micro-targeted voter database that AFP has assembled.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Hilgemann said that Americans For Prosperity activists knocked on 75,000 doors and made 50,000 calls in the days leading up to the recall election.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">As Ralph Reed, a former business partner of Americans For Prosperity President Tim Phillips, explained to activists at his Faith and Freedom Coalition conference in June, the polling that predicted a tight race in the recall election between Walker and Barrett was wrong because the polling models did not account for the uptick in right-wing turnout that vote-wranglers like Phillips and Reed made happen.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Phillips noted with pride that the AFP Wisconsin chapter now has "more grassroots activists than the Wisconsin teachers' union has members." And if Wisconsin activists could do all that, so could AFP activists around the country, officials told conference attendees throughout the two-day confab.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">For many in attendance, the highlight of the weekend was a Friday night speech delivered by Scott Walker, whose career was shaped by Americans For Prosperity going back to the days when he was the elected executive of Milwaukee County. In his speech, Walker cast himself as a David against a labor-backed Goliath in the days when the state erupted in an uprising in February 2011, after Walker sent a bill to the legislature that effectively ended collective bargaining rights for the state's public employees.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The crowd cheered wildly.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><strong><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Yes, Virginia...</span></strong><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Because of Walker's symbolic value as a dragon-slayer, the AFP audience loved him madly despite his limited talents as a speaker.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Of far greater talent was his warm-up act, the very conservative Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, who won his seat with the help of Ralph Reed in 2010, just two years after Obama won the state by more than 6 points in the 2008 presidential election. (Progressives may recall McDonnell as the governor who backtracked on his initial support for a state bill that would have required women seeking abortions to undergo a transvaginal ultrasound. McDonnell ultimately signed a bill that required a medically unnecessary ultrasound, but not one that had to be administered with a vaginal probe.)</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Virginia is being touted as the state that could determine the outcome of the 2012 presidential race, much as Ohio did in 2004, or Florida might have, had the Supreme Court allowed it, in 2000. But current polls that show a functional tie between Obama and Romney don't reflect a potentially treacherous glitch for Romney: a third-party run by the popular right-wing Virgil Goode, a former congressman from Virginia's 5th District, who also served for more than 20 years in the state legislature.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Goode is running on the ticket of the Christian Reconstructionist Constitution Party, making him an attractive vehicle for a protest vote if, say, you're an evangelical Christian who thinks Mormonism is an anti-Christian cult. In a PPP poll released mid-July, Goode was polling in 9 percent in Virginia.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">McDonnell, handsome and charming, is said to be short-listed as a potential running mate for Romney -- a move that could calm the itchy lever-fingers of Old Dominion's religious-right voters.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I caught McDonnell just after he delivered remarks to the AFP crowd at the Washington Hilton, as he left the hotel.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I asked if Goode's candidacy could harm Romney, McDonnell replied: "I'm sensing that the momentum is so clearly on the side of Mitt Romney that I don't think a few votes there will make a difference. Because this is a serious election. It's a serious time for our country. People are not gonna vote on who they like, or who sounds the best. But they're gonna vote on who they really believe can get results, to get the greatest country on earth out of debt and back to work -- that's the only thing that matters."</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">When asked if he would accept the vice presidential nomination if it was offered, McDonnell laughed, saying, "I can't answer that until I'm asked, so you'll have to talk with Mitt." </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I pressed him a bit more: Had he been vetted? </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"I'm not going to talk about that," McDonnell said. "They're goin' through the whole process right now, and it looks like the governor will have some announcements soon, and I'll wait to hear, too."</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">With that, turned to step into his waiting black SUV.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The next day, I asked activist John Corcoran, of Roanoke, Va., if he thought Goode could take advantage of anti-Mormon sentiment towards Romney. "Any of these third-party people are basically are tryin' to be spoilers, and I don't think that they'll get enough," Corcoran, an exterminator, said. "People are smart enough now that they know that they have to go with one of the major parties to really make their vote count...I think people are really focused on the economy. They're not really lookin' at Mormonism..."</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">He also thought that Romney's recent overseas trip did him good among Virginia voters, especially when Romney attributed the disparate economic fortunes of Israel and the Palestinian territories to difference of "culture."</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><strong><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The Chick-fil-A Factor</span></strong><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">While the Americans For Prosperity foot soldiers, or "calvary" as they often refer to themselves, stand poised to do battle for Romney, the former Massachusetts governor always seems just shy of closing the deal. At the "Defending the American Dream" conference, activists embraced the cause of Chick-fil-A, the fast-food chain that came under fire by LGBT activists after CEO Dan Cathy told a Georgia radio host that legalizing same-sex marriage is to invite "God’s judgment on our nation." When the full scope of the Cathy family's anti-gay activities was exposed by LGBT activists (including investment in discredited "ex-gay therapies"), Boston Mayor Tom Menino and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel pledged to keep Chick-fil-A from opening stores in their cities -- effectively turning what had been a battle against bigotry into a cause celebre for business owners, who are well-represented in Tea Party outposts.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">In the exhibition hall at the conference, self-published author Barbara Bluefield packaged her book in Chick-fil-A bags, and raffled off a $50 Chick-fil-A gift card. Every time Chick-fil-A was mentioned from a conference podium, a huge cheer when up from the crowd.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Yet Romney declined to take a position, telling reporters in Las Vegas on Friday that the Chick-fil-A controversy is one of those "things that are not part of my campaign," leading the Faith and Freedom Coalition's Ralph Reed to tell Politico that Romney is making a mistake. Romney still hasn't closed the deal with the conservative base, Reed said.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">But Reed's old buddy, Tim Phillips thinks he knows one thing that would help. "I would never presume to give advice to anyone who's running for president, but if you're looking for a running mate, I think Gov. Scott Walker or Gov. Bob McDonnell..." The rest of his sentence was drowned out by the roar of the crowd.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">It's hard to see how Romney wins without the boots on the ground offered by Tim Phillips' Americans for Prosperity and the strategic expertise of Ralph Reed's Faith and Freedom Coalition. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">You can rest assured his running made will be Koch-approved.</span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><script src="http://cdn.widgetserver.com/syndication/subscriber/InsertWidget.js" type="text/javascript"></script><script type="text/javascript">if (WIDGETBOX)
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<br />
<br />
August 6, the anniversary of Hiroshima, should be a day of somber reflection, not only on the terrible events of that day in 1945, but also on what they revealed: that humans, in their dedicated quest to extend their capacities for destruction, had finally found a way to approach the ultimate limit.<br />
<br />
This year‚ Aug. 6 memorials have special significance. They take place shortly before the 50th anniversary of, "the most dangerous moment in human history," in the words of the historian and John F. Kennedy adviser Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., referring to the Cuban missile crisis.<br />
<br />
Graham Allison writes in the current issue of Foreign Affairs that Kennedy, "ordered actions that he knew would increase the risk not only of conventional war but also nuclear war," with a likelihood of perhaps 50 percent, he believed, an estimate that Allison regards as realistic.<br />
<br />
Kennedy declared a high-level nuclear alert that authorized, "NATO aircraft with Turkish pilots ... (or others) ... to take off, fly to Moscow, and drop a bomb."<br />
<br />
None were more shocked by the discovery of missiles in Cuba than the men in charge of the similar missiles that the U.S. had secretly deployed in Okinawa six months earlier, surely aimed at China, at a moment of elevated regional tensions.<br />
<br />
Kennedy took Chairman Nikita Khrushchev, "right to the brink of nuclear war and he looked over the edge and had no stomach for it," according to Gen. David Burchinal, then a high-ranking official in the Pentagon planning staff. One can hardly count on such sanity forever.<br />
<br />
Khrushchev accepted a formula that Kennedy devised, ending the crisis just short of war. The formula‚ boldest element, Allison writes, was, "a secret sweetener that promised the withdrawal of U.S. missiles from Turkey within six months after the crisis was resolved." These were obsolete missiles that were being replaced by far more lethal, and invulnerable, Polaris submarines.<br />
<br />
In brief, even at high risk of war of unimaginable destruction, it was felt necessary to reinforce the principle that U.S. has the unilateral right to deploy nuclear missiles anywhere, some aimed at China or at the borders of Russia, which had previously placed no missiles outside the USSR. Justifications of course have been offered, but I do not think they withstand analysis.<br />
<br />
An accompanying principle is that Cuba had no right to have missiles for defense against what appeared to be an imminent U.S. invasion. The plans for Kennedy‚ terrorist programs, Operation Mongoose, called for, "open revolt and overthrow of the Communist regime," in October 1962, the month of the missile crisis, recognizing that, "final success will require decisive U.S. military intervention."<br />
<br />
The terrorist operations against Cuba are commonly dismissed by U.S. commentators as insignificant CIA shenanigans. The victims, not surprisingly, see matters rather differently. We can at last hear their voices in Keith Bolender‚, "Voices from the Other Side: An Oral History of Terrorism Against Cuba."<br />
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The events of October 1962 are widely hailed as Kennedy‚ finest hour. Allison offers them as, "a guide for how to defuse conflicts, manage great-power relationships, and make sound decisions about foreign policy in general." In particular, today‚ conflicts with Iran and China.<br />
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Disaster was perilously close in 1962, and there has been no shortage of dangerous moments since. In 1973, in the last days of the Arab-Israeli war, Henry Kissinger called a high-level nuclear alert. India and Pakistan have come close to nuclear war. There have been innumerable cases when human intervention aborted nuclear attack only moments before launch after false reports by automated systems. There is much to think about on Aug. 6.<br />
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Allison joins many others in regarding Iran‚ nuclear programs as the most severe current crisis, "an even more complex challenge for American policymakers than the Cuban missile crisis," because of the threat of Israeli bombing.<br />
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The war against Iran is already well underway, including assassination of scientists and economic pressures that have reached the level of, "undeclared war," in the judgment of the Iran specialist Gary Sick.<br />
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Great pride is taken in the sophisticated cyberwar directed against Iran. The Pentagon regards cyberwar as, "an act of war," that authorizes the target, "to respond using traditional military force," The Wall Street Journal reports. With the usual exception: not when the U.S. or an ally is the perpetrator.<br />
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The Iran threat has recently been outlined by Gen. Giora Eiland, one of Israel‚ top military planners, described as, "one of the most ingenious and prolific thinkers the (Israeli military) has ever produced."<br />
<br />
Of the threats he outlines, the most credible is that, "any confrontation on our borders will take place under an Iranian nuclear umbrella." Israel might therefore be constrained in resorting to force. Eiland agrees with the Pentagon and U.S. intelligence, which also regard deterrence as the major threat that Iran poses.<br />
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The current escalation of the, "undeclared war," against Iran increases the threat of accidental large-scale war. Some of the dangers were illustrated last month when a U.S. naval vessel, part of the huge deployment in the Gulf, fired on a small fishing boat, killing one Indian crew member and wounding at least three others. It would not take much to set off a major war.<br />
<br />
One sensible way to avoid such dread consequences is to pursue, "the goal of establishing in the Middle East a zone free from weapons of mass destruction and all missiles for their delivery and the objective of a global ban on chemical weapons," the wording of Security Council resolution 687 of April 1991, which the U.S. and U.K. invoked in their effort to provide a thin legal cover for their invasion of Iraq 12 years later.<br />
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The goal has been an Arab-Iranian objective since 1974, regularly re-endorsed, and by now it has near-unanimous global support, at least formally. An international conference to consider ways to implement such a treaty may take place in December.<br />
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Progress is unlikely unless there is mass public support in the West. Failure to grasp the opportunity will, once again, lengthen the grim shadow that has darkened the world since that fateful Aug. 6.<br />
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http://www.nationalmemo.com/five-of-mitt-romneys-scariest-billionaire-donors <br />
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Five Of Mitt Romney’s Scariest Billionaire Donors<br />
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August 1st, 2012 11:10 pm<br />
Jason Sattler<br />
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If you’re the son or daughter of a billionaire, now is the time to act. Convince your parents to donate millions of dollars to one of the Super PAC’s trying to get Mitt Romney elected.<br />
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Here’s the sell: Mom, Dad, Mitt is going to give you millions in tax breaks over his four years in office, according to a new study by the non-partisan Brookings Institute. But don’t just think of yourself. Think of me. I could get billions! Mitt wants to completely eliminate the Estate Tax, which is only paid by one out of 1000 Americans. This would effectively make me as much of a billionaire as you are without me doing anything except being born to the best parents in the world.<br />
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Of course, the benefits Mitt is offering to his billionaire donors aren’t limited to billions in tax breaks to them and their kids. There’s also rampant deregulation, potential wars and possibly even a shoe contract.<br />
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Meet five of the thirty-two billionaires who are spending big to put Mitt in the White House and who accordingly want big things in return.<br />
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Continue Reading >> 1 2 3 4 5 6<br />
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7 Ways Romney’s Education Plan Would Destroy America’s Public Schools<br />
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Mitt Romney wants to destroy public education in the US and get rid of the Department of Education.<br />
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I am not inventing this: you can read all about it in his education white paper entitled “A Chance for Every Child: Mitt Romney’s Plan for Restoring the Promise of American Education” with a forward by Jeb Bush, no less. If you believe that destroying public education as we know it and turning our schools over to the private sector will solve its problems, then this plan is for you.<br />
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The central themes of the Romney plan are a rehash of Republican education ideas from the past thirty years. Here’s how Romney is planning to destroy public education:<br />
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1. Subsidizing parents who want to send their child to a private or religious school. Romney offers complete support for using taxpayer money to pay for private school vouchers, privately managed charters, for-profit online schools, and almost every other alternative to public schools.<br />
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2. Encouraging the private sector to operate schools. To cut costs, Romney encourages the proliferation of for-profit online universities. Romney’s plan says that no new money is needed because more spending on schools will not fix our problems. However, he proposes to dedicate more taxpayer money to the priorities that he favors, such as vouchers, charter schools, and online schools.<br />
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3. Putting commercial banks in charge of the federal student loan program. Romney claims that more federal aid leads to higher tuition, so he offers no new federal funding to help students crippled by debt. Instead, Romney would encourage involvement of the private sector by having commercial banks serve as the intermediary for federal student loans. Obama eliminated this approach in 2012 as too costly.<br />
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4. Holding teachers and schools accountable for students’ test scores. Romney also wants more federal money to reward states for “eliminating or reforming teacher tenure and establishing systems that focus on effectiveness in advancing student achievement.” In other words, Romney is willing to hand out money to states if they eliminate due process rights for teachers and if they pay more to teachers whose students get higher scores on standardized tests and get rid of teacher whose students do not.<br />
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5. Lowering entrance requirements for new teachers. Romney takes a strong stand against certification of teachers, the minimal state-level requirement that future teachers must pass either state or national tests to demonstrate their knowledge and skill, which he considers an unnecessary hurdle.<br />
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6. Eliminating the need to limit class size. Romney apparently believes that class size does not matter (although presumably it mattered to him when he chose a school with small classes for his own children).<br />
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7. Eliminating teachers’ rights. In the vision presented by Romney, public dollars would flow to schools that teach creationism. Anyone could teach, without passing any test of their knowledge and skills and without any professional preparation. Teachers could also be fired for any reason, without any protection of their freedom to teach.<br />
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This is all very, very scary for us public school teachers.<br />
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As if that were not enough, Diane Ravitch, writing in The New York Review of Books, notes:<br />
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Paradoxically, Romney’s campaign takes credit for the fact that Massachusetts leads the nation in reading and mathematics on the federal tests known as National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP).<br />
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But Romney was not responsible to the state’s academic success, which is owing to reforms that are entirely different from the ones he is now proposing for the country (my italics). Signed into law a full decade before Romney began his tenure as governor in 2003, the Massachusetts Education Reform Act involved a commitment by the state to double state funding of public education from $1.3 billion in 1993 to $2.6 billion by 2000; to provide a minimum foundation budget for every district to meet its needs, to develop strong curricula for subjects such as science, history, the arts, foreign languages, mathematics, and English; to put into effect a testing program based on the curriculum; to expand professional development for teachers; and to test would-be teachers. In the late 1990s – again, before Romney assumed office – the state added new funds for early childhood education.<br />
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Candidate Romney should explain how privatizing the way we school our children will further his goal of “restoring the promise of American education.”<br />
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Here’s what John Adams had to say about public education (with thanks again to Diane Ravitch):<br />
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“The whole people must take upon themselves the education of the whole people, and must be willing to bear the expenses of it.. There should not be a district of one mile square, without a school in it, not founded by a charitable individual, but maintained at the public expense of the people themselves.”<br />
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Message to candidate Romney from an experienced educator: Restoring American education means supporting public schools, not destroying them.<br />
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What do you think?<br />
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Romney: Let’s Cut Teachers, Firefighters, Police<br />
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Romney’s Education Plan Recycles Failed Ideas<br />
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Romney Advisor: Women’s Issues Just ‘Shiny Objects’ (Video)<br />
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The Romney campaign may want senior adviser Eric Fehrnstrom to stop talking. The man who gave the 2012 campaign “Etch-a-Sketch” strategy has now declared that issues that affect women are simply “shiny objects” that distract voters from more important topics.<br />
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Appearing on This Week With George Stephanopolus, Fehrnstrom said, “Mitt Romney is pro-life. He’ll govern as a pro-life president, but you’re going to see the Democrats use all sorts of shiny objects to distract people’s attention from the Obama performance on the economy. This is not a social issue election.”<br />
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That will be news not only to the women who have been fighting against abortion restrictions, but to Republicans themselves. Since gaining power in 2011, Republicans across the country have pushed a rash of draconian anti-choice restrictions, including attempting to ban sex-selective abortion restrictions in just the last week.<br />
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Romney himself repeatedly has hit on social themes in the election, blasting President Barack Obama for requiring employers to provide birth control as part of preventative coverage — despite having done the same as governor of Massachusetts.<br />
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Obama Deputy Campaign Manager Stephanie Cutter reacted with incredulity to the statement.<br />
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“If it’s not a social issue election then why did Mitt Romney just spend the last year campaigning on social issues?” Cutter asked. “These are his positions that he’s taken. Whether it’s giving bosses control over whether female employees can get contraception, being for the so-called personhood amendment that would ban all forms of abortion or telling the American people that he’ll get back to them on whether he supports Lilly Ledbetter, which is an economic issue and it should be a no-brainer, but the governor couldn’t even bring himself to be for that.”<br />
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Perhaps most galling is the idea that issues like abortion, fair pay and equal rights are just “shiny objects.” The girl turned away from an Oklahoma hospital after being raped was not a shiny object; she was a hurt, scared person who just wanted to get medical treatment. That care might have included emergency contraception, though, and thanks to so-called “conscience” laws, doctors who don’t believe in birth control don’t have to treat patients.<br />
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For the tens of millions of American women who have had abortions, and the hundreds of millions of American men and women who have used contraception, the right to access health services is not a distraction. It is a core right, one as basic as the right to free speech, or freedom of religion. Those aren’t distractions. They’re vital.<br />
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Watch the Video:<br />
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http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/08/romneys-kiss-my-spokesman-takes-time-off-campaign-trail
President Obama has found it difficult to find support for any of his proposals among Republicans on Capitol Hill. He passed his landmark achievements – health reform legislation and wall street reform – without any help from Democrats. That national health reform law was in part based on the bipartisan law enacted by Mitt Romney in Massachusetts. But it never gained popularity nationally. One Congress watcher, Norm Ornstein of the American Enterprise Institute said recently that Republicans are more to fault for the gridlock in Washington than are the Democrats.
ORLANDO — President Obama Is On A Tear Over Taxes, Blasting Rival Mitt Romney’s Proposals Today As Nothing More Than “Fairy Dust” To Try To Fix The Economy.
“They have tried to sell us this trickle down, tax cut ‘fairy dust’ before. And guess what? It didn’t work then, it will not work now,” Obama said of Romney’s plan to slash rates for corporations and upper-income earners.
“It’s not a plan to create jobs, it’s not a plan to reduce the deficit. It is not a plan to build the middle class. It is not a plan to move the economy forward,” he said.
Romney has argued that extending the current Bush-era tax rates and cutting rates further for the wealthy will spur hiring by small businesses.
“Under President Obama, middle-class Americans have experienced higher unemployment, lower incomes, and greater uncertainty about the future,” said Romney spokesman Ryan Williams.
“Now he is promising to raise taxes on millions of families and small businesses – which is the last thing we should do in a struggling economy,” he said.
The crowd of 2500 here predictably wasn’t having any of Romney’s ideas, booing at the mere mention of his name.
They were equally as vocal in praising the president, affectionately heckling him during his speech and singing him a boisterous rendition of “Happy Birthday.”
Obama turns 51 on Saturday.
“If I had known you guys were going to sing, we would have had a cake. And then I would have blown out the candle, I would have made a wish that probably would have had to do with electoral votes,” he said with a grin. “A win in Florida wouldn’t be a bad birthday present.”
Guy Adams: I thought the internet age had ended this kind of censorship
I'm still awaiting a detailed explanation from Twitter as to why my account was immediately suspended
Twitter Suspends Journalist's Account
A journalist criticized NBC over Olympics coverage and was suspended from Twitter, which has partnered with NBC for its coverage.
Here are three things that NBC prevented their public from being able to watch on network television so far this Olympic Games: live footage of the opening ceremony; live footage of Saturday's swimming showdown between Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte; live footage of the USA men's basketball "dream team."
A fourth thing they do not want people to see is the email address of Gary Zenkel, the executive responsible for this shambles. And a fifth thing is my Twitter feed, which over the weekend contained a couple of dozen occasionally uncouth observations about their coverage, several of which were accompanied by the trending hashtag: "#NBCfail."
As a journalist, you know you are doing your job properly when you manage to upset rich, powerful and entitled people who are used to getting their own way. And you know you've really got under their skin when they pursue censorship, the avenue of last resort since time immemorial.
The internet era is meant to be different, though. Thanks to Twitter, and Google and every other medium dedicated to the free exchange of information, the world is supposed to have changed. That's why the Arab Spring happened; it's why Justin Bieber happened. And its why, regardless of its comparative frivolity, NBC's successful attempt to suspend a journalist from a social networking site sets an ugly precedent.
Twitter's guidelines forbid users from publishing what they call "private" information, including "private email addresses". There is plenty of sense in this. But I did not Tweet a private email address. I Tweeted a corporate address for Mr Zenkel, which is widely listed online, and is identical in form to that of tens of thousands of those at NBC.
I was not contacted by NBC or Twitter before my account was suspended. If they had dropped me a line, I might – might! – have quietly deleted the offending Tweet. Instead, they wandered into a PR controversy which has resulted in hundreds of thousands more people being made aware of its existence. Like any right thinking-person, I take the issue of online bullying seriously. I would hate for anyone to come to harm as a result of something I uploaded to the internet. But I'm at a loss to see how a bit of forthright correspondence from a disgruntled public could be anything more than a minor annoyance to a power-broker of Mr Zenkel's lofty status. I'm still awaiting a detailed explanation from Twitter as to why my account was immediately suspended. On the face of it, their reaction seems heavy-handed.
As for Gary Zenkel, he is supposedly a grown-up, with a salary, and ego to match. His TV network has decided to delay broadcasting key Olympic events until Prime Time on the grounds it hopes to make more money from advertising. NBC surely knew viewers would be upset by this. If it now displeases Mr Zenkel to get emails from those rightly-angry customers, then he is surely in the wrong job.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/aug/01/israeli-pm-iran-nuclear- programme
Israeli PM says time running out to stop Iran's nuclear programme
Binyamin Netanyahu tells visiting US defence secretary that sanctions and diplomacy have so far failed to end standoff
Time is running out for the international community to halt Iran's nuclear programme by peaceful means, the Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, told US defence secretary Leon Panetta in Jerusalem on Wednesday.
Sanctions, diplomacy and declarations of a willingness to take military action as a last resort had not yet convinced the Iranians to stop their programme, he said. "However forceful our statements, they have not convinced Iran that we are serious about stopping them. Right now the Iranian regime believes that the international community does not have the will to stop its nuclear programme."
Netanyahu said earlier that although sanctions were hurting the Iranian economy, such measures had "yet to move its nuclear programme even a millimetre backwards".
Panetta is the fourth senior US administration official to visit Israel in recent weeks as concern has mounted in Washington that Netanyahu is preparing the ground for a military strike in the coming months.
In an attempt to reassure Israel – and counter the robust support for military action pledged by presumptive Republican candidate Mitt Romney in Jerusalem earlier this week – Panetta told the prime minister: "We will not allow Iran to develop a nuclear weapon, period. We will not allow them to develop a nuclear weapon, and we will exert all options in the effort to ensure that that does not happen."
The question of whether Israel will unilaterally strike against Iran's nuclear sites in the coming months has returned to the fore after a period of relatively dampened speculation. There have also been fresh reports of a split between the Israeli political and security establishments over the merits of early unilateral action, following open opposition to such a move from former security chiefs.
In a series of television interviews as Panetta arrived in Israel from Egypt, Netanyahu said any decision would be taken by the country's political leadership. But, he added, "I have not taken a decision".
Following reports that senior defence officials, including military chief of staff Benny Gantz and Mossad chief Tamir Pardo, were opposed to Israel acting alone, the prime minister said: "In every democracy the decision-maker is the political echelon and the implementer is the professional echelon. That is how it always was and that is how it always will be."
He said Israel had the right to defend itself. "Things that affect our fate, our very existence, we don't entrust to others – not even to our best friends," he said.
Gantz denied that he was behind the reports, saying: "None of these stories was released by me … I tell the political echelon what I have to say, and they listen."
The Israeli military was prepared for a military strike, he said. "As we see it, 'all options are on the table' is not a slogan, it is a working plan and we are doing it."
Earlier Panetta met his counterpart, Ehud Barak, and toured an Iron Dome battery near Ashkelon, close to the border with Gaza. Israel deploys the weapons against rockets and missiles fired from Gaza.
Panetta denied reports that the purpose of his visit was to share with Israel an operational plan drawn up by the Pentagon to stop the Iranian nuclear programme by force in 18 months, by which time the administration believes it will be at a critical threshold.
Israel's former security chief has censured the country's "messianic" political leadership for talking up the prospects of a military stike on Iran's nuclear programme.
In unusually candid comments set to ratchet up tensions over Iran at the top of Israel's political establishment, Yuval Diskin, who retired as head of the internal intelligence agency Shin Bet last year, said he had "no faith" in the abilities of the prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, and the defence minister, Ehud Barak, to conduct a war.
The pair, who are the foremost advocates of military action against Iran's nuclear programme, were "not fit to hold the steering wheel of power", Diskin told a meeting on Friday night.
"My major problem is that I have no faith in the current leadership, which must lead us in an event on the scale of war with Iran or a regional war," he said.
"I don't believe in either the prime minister or the defence minister. I don't believe in a leadership that makes decisions based on messianic feelings. Believe me, I have observed them from up close ... They are not people who I, on a personal level, trust to lead Israel to an event on that scale and carry it off.
"They are misleading the public on the Iran issue. They tell the public that if Israel acts, Iran won't have a nuclear bomb. This is misleading. Actually, many experts say that an Israeli attack would accelerate the Iranian nuclear race."
The Super Rich Are Out of Sight
The super rich, the less than 1 percent of the population who own the lion’s share of the nation’s wealth, go uncounted in most income distribution reports. Even those who purport to study the question regularly overlook the very wealthiest among us. For instance, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, relying on the latest U.S. Census Bureau data, released a report in December 1997 showing that in the last two decades “incomes of the richest fifth increased by 30 percent or nearly $27,000 after adjusting for inflation.” The average income of the top 20 percent was $117,500, or almost 13 times larger than the $9,250 average income of the poorest 20 percent.
But where are the super rich? An average of $117,500 is an upper-middle income, not at all representative of a rich cohort, let alone a super rich one. All such reports about income distribution are based on U.S. Census Bureau surveys that regularly leave Big Money out of the picture.
A few phone calls to the Census Bureau in Washington D.C. revealed that for years the bureau never interviewed anyone who had an income higher than $300,000. Or if interviewed, they were never recorded as above the “reportable upper limit” of $300,000, the top figure allowed by the bureau's computer program.
In 1994, the bureau lifted the upper limit to $1 million. This still excludes the very richest who own the lion’s share of the wealth, the hundreds of billionaires and thousands of multimillionaires who make many times more than $1 million a year. The super rich simply have been computerized out of the picture.
When asked why this procedure was used, an official said that the Census Bureau’s computers could not handle higher amounts. A most improbable excuse, since once the bureau decided to raise the upper limit from $300,000 to $1 million it did so without any difficulty, and it could do so again.
Another reason the official gave was “confidentiality.” Given place coordinates, someone with a very high income might be identified.
Furthermore, he said, high-income respondents usually understate their investment returns by about 40 to 50 percent. Finally, the official argued that since the super rich are so few, they are not likely to show up in a national sample.
But by designating the (decapitated) top 20 percent of the entire nation as the “richest” quintile, the Census Bureau is including millions of people who make as little as $70,000. If you make over $100,000, you are in the top 4 percent.
Now $100,000 is a tidy sum indeed, but it's not super rich — as in Mellon, Morgan, or Murdock. The difference between Michael Eisner, Disney CEO who pocketed $565 million in 1996, and the individuals who average $9,250 is not 13 to 1 — the reported spread between highest and lowest quintiles — but over 61,000 to 1.
Speaking of CEOs, much attention has been given to the top corporate managers who rake in tens of millions of dollars annually in salaries and perks.
But little is said about the tens of billions that these same corporations distribute to the top investor class each year, again that invisible fraction of 1 percent of the population.
Media publicity that focuses exclusively on a handful of greedy top executives conveniently avoids any exposure of the super rich as a class. In fact, reining in the CEOs who cut into the corporate take would well serve the big shareholder's interests.
Two studies that do their best to muddy our understanding of wealth, conducted respectively by the Rand Corporation and the Brookings Institution and widely reported in the major media, found that individuals typically become rich not from inheritance but by maintaining their health and working hard. Most of their savings comes from their earnings and has nothing to do with inherited family wealth, the researchers would have us believe.
In typical social-science fashion, they prefigured their findings by limiting the scope of their data. Both studies failed to note that achieving a high income is itself in large part due to inherited advantages. Those coming from upper-strata households have a far better opportunity to maintain their health and develop their performance, attend superior schools, and achieve the advanced professional training, contacts, and influence needed to land the higher paying positions.
More importantly, both the Rand and Brookings studies fail to include the super rich, those who sit on immense and largely inherited fortunes. Instead, the investigators concentrate on upper-middle-class professionals and managers, most of whom earn in the $100,000 to $300,000 range — which indicates that the researchers have no idea how rich the very rich really are.
When pressed on this point, they explain that there is a shortage of data on the very rich.
Being such a tiny percentage, “they’re an extremely difficult part of the population to survey,” pleads Rand economist James P. Smith, offering the same excuse given by the Census Bureau officials. That Smith finds the super rich difficult to survey should not cause us to overlook the fact that their existence refutes his findings about self-earned wealth.
He seems to admit as much when he says, "This [study] shouldn't be taken as a statement that the Rockefellers didn’t give to their kids and the Kennedys didn't give to their kids." (New York Times, July 7, 1995) Indeed, most of the really big money is inherited — and by a portion of the population that is so minuscule as to be judged statistically inaccessible.
The higher one goes up the income scale, the greater the rate of capital accumulation. Economist Paul Krugman notes that not only have the top 20 percent grown more affluent compared with everyone below, the top 5 percent have grown richer compared with the next 15 percent.
The top one percent have become richer compared with the next 4 percent.
And the top 0.25 percent have grown richer than the next 0.75 percent.
That top 0.25 owns more wealth than the other 99 percent combined.
It has been estimated that if children’s play blocks represented $1,000 each, over 98 percent of us would have incomes represented by piles of blocks that went not more than a few yards off the ground, while the top one percent would stack many times higher than the Eiffel Tower.
Marx's prediction about the growing gap between rich and poor still haunts the land — and the entire planet.
The growing concentration of wealth creates still more poverty. As some few get ever richer, more people fall deeper into destitution, finding it increasingly difficult to emerge from it.
The same pattern holds throughout much of the world. For years now, as the wealth of the few has been growing, the number of poor has been increasing at a faster rate than the earth's population. A rising tide sinks many boats.
To grasp the true extent of wealth and income inequality in the United States, we should stop treating the “top quintile” — the upper-middle class — as the "richest" cohort in the country.
But to do that, we need to look beyond the Census Bureau's cooked statistics. We need to catch sight of that tiny, stratospheric apex that owns most of the world.
Michael Parenti is the author of Against Empire, Dirty Truths, America Besieged, and most recently, History as Mystery, all published by City Lights Books.
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http://www.alternet.org/story/156467/6_things_you_should_know_about_the_%2421_trillion_the_world%27s_richest_people_are_hiding_in_tax_shelters?paging=off<br />
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A technology breakdown at a major trading firm roiled the prices of 140 stocks listed on the New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday, undermining the fragile investor confidence.<br />
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The problems at Knight Capital Group, one of the largest firms that buys and sells stocks to provide liquidity to the markets, emerged at the beginning of trading.<br />
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Heavy computer-based trading caused a rush of orders for dozens of stocks, ranging from well-known bellwethers like General Electric to tiny Wizzard Software Corp, whose shares soared to $14.76 after closing the previous day at $3.50. The NYSE has canceled trades in six particularly volatile issues.<br />
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The trading glitches are the latest in a series of market snafus that have hurt retail investors' confidence, including the botched Facebook initial public offering, the 2010 'flash crash' in which nearly $1 trillion in market value disappeared in minutes, and the failed public offering of BATS Global Markets, a rival to the NYSE and the Nasdaq.<br />
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The exact nature of the technology issues were unclear. The the magnitude and fallout for Knight, which was forced to tell clients to send orders elsewhere, and for the broader market were also unknown. Knight's stock plunged nearly 33 percent to $6.94, a nine-year closing low for the stock.<br />
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Knight Capital issued a terse statement acknowledging the trading errors, but company officials were not available for further comment.<br />
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'This morning, a technology issue occurred in Knight's market-making unit related to the routing of shares of approximately 150 stocks to the NYSE,' Knight said in the statement.<br />
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Observers said the problem highlighted the weaknesses in the market that remain two years after the Flash Crash. 'The structure that we have in place is so complicated and intertwined, that all of these entanglements have created real issues in the marketplace,' said Christopher Nagy, a consultant to exchanges and brokerages.<br />
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Heavy buy orders in some stocks sent prices soaring, while others plunged. Many of the names were lesser-known issues such as Molycorp, a stock that usually averages about 2.65 million shares daily but which saw volume of more than 5.7 million shares in the first 45 minutes of trading, bouncing between $17.50 and $14.35 in that period.<br />
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The mood at the Knight Capital booth on the NYSE trading floor was somber, with worried traders taking numerous phone calls as well as answering questions from NYSE officials who were making inquiries on the floor.<br />
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Many on the floor were aware that the problematic trades were coming from Knight. – Reuters<br />
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Iranians Should Be ‘Very Fearful For Next 12 Weeks: Ex-Mossad Chief<br />
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By Times of Israel staff<br />
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August 02, 2012 "Times of Israel" -- The former Mossad chief Efraim Halevy, who told The Times of Israel in an interview in March that there would be “nothing else left” but a resort to force if the diplomatic track with Iran did not quickly produce a breakthrough, hinted Thursday that the moment of truth on Iran’s nuclear drive was now imminent.<br />
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“If I were an Iranian, I would be very fearful of the next 12 weeks,” Halevy, who is also a former national security adviser and ambassador, told The New York Times.<br />
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In an Israel Radio interview later Thursday, he added that Israel’s threats of military action had a certain “credibility” and “seriousness.” He said the Iranian nuclear issue, and the Syrian issue, were the key regional concerns, and reiterated that “If I were an Iranian, I would be very fearful of the next 12 weeks.”<br />
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The New York Times report, focusing on Wednesday’s talks here by Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, said there was “feverish speculation” in Israel that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “will act in September or early October.”<br />
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Apart from Netanyahu’s concern that Israel’s military option would “soon” become redundant, the paper cited several other reasons “for the potential timing.” Among them, it said, was the fact that “Israel does not like to fight wars in winter.” Also, Netanyahu “feels that he will have less leverage if President Obama is reelected” while, were Mitt Romney to win the November elections, “the new president would be unlikely to want to take on a big military action early in his term.”<br />
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Still, Thursday’s article continued, “a number of administration officials say they remain hopeful that Israel has no imminent plans to attack and may be willing to let the United States take the lead in any future military strike, which they say would not occur until next year at the earliest.”<br />
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The New York Times further reported that administration officials say “Israeli officials are less confrontational in private” and that Netanyahu “understands the consequences of military action for Israel, the United States and the region. They say they know he has to maintain the credibility of his threat to keep up pressure on the United States to continue with sanctions and the development of military plans.”<br />
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In his interview with The Times of Israel in late March, Halevy said that if the then-upcoming international talks with Iran on thwarting its nuclear program did not quickly produce a breakthrough, there will be “nothing else left” but a resort to force.<br />
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He also said he had “no doubt that for the past few years Israel has been readying its capabilities to meet the Iranians if necessary by force.<br />
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It was “tragic,” Halevy added at the time, that “I don’t see any great effort being made” by the P5+1 group — the five UN Security Council permanent members and Germany — to prepare urgently and effectively for those talks. The lights “should be burning through the night” to get a strategy together, he said. “The number one thing the world should be doing [on Iran] is investing enormous preparation into the P5+1 confrontation, because this is really the ‘Last Train to San Fernando.’”<br />
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Iran, he predicted, would doubtless try to play for time in the talks. The international community, therefore, needed to be ready with its strategy and tactics, and to be represented by “a very high-level, experienced, wise and creative negotiator.”<br />
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For the international community, said Halevy, “there’s no time for, you know, ‘Let’s meet again in two or three months, let’s do our homework, let’s not rush things, let’s look at it, and so forth.’” Rather, he said, “there has to be a breakthrough… If there is no breakthrough, it means to say that the talks have failed.”<br />
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Asked if, by a breakthrough, he meant Iran announcing the suspension of its nuclear program, Halevy demurred. “I don’t want to say ‘Iran suspending the program.’ I don’t believe that everything will become public overnight.” But it would need to be clear, he said, “that there is a serious negotiation… They don’t have to spell it all out, but it has to be clear.”<br />
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Halevy said he did see signs of greater potential international coordination over Iran. He was encouraged by the growing consensus on tackling Syria, notably including Russia and China, which he said could also be reflected in a coordinated strategy on Iran. He also noted that the priority for the ayatollahs’ regime in Iran is “survival” at all costs.<br />
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Nonetheless, if the negotiations fail, “there’s nothing else left” but a resort to force, he said.<br />
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Perhaps, it was put to Halevy, Israel could live with a nuclear weapons-capable Iran? Halevy responded: “I don’t think that we should countenance that as long as we can do what we can to remove it. I don’t accept the notion that Israel is destructible. But I think that if Iran retains a nuclear capability, life here is going to be very tough for a very long period to come. Israel will not disappear, but Israel will go through a period which I would not like it to go through.”<br />
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Asked whether he believed the Israeli government wanted a diplomatic solution, he answered: “I’m not sure every Israeli wants a diplomatic solution… I’m not sure that the government is entirely behind this support for a diplomatic solution.”<br />
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http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article32066.htm<br />
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Israeli's Brainwashed Into State Of Apathy<br />
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By Haim Baram<br />
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August 02, 2012 "Information Clearing House" -- In rare moments of lucidity, even the mythological “average Israeli” feels that our less than splendid isolation is intolerable. We are constantly brainwashed by our establishment, and the endless bombardments combining biblical rhetoric, alarmist prophesies and demagogic evocations of the holocaust confuse even the elitist circles, despite their liberal self-image and professed Western outlook. This increasingly pervasive syndrome can partially account for our sheepish acquiesce with the rampant rumours and speculations about the forthcoming Israeli attack on Iran. <br />
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The consequences of such aggression are abundantly clear for most educated Israelis, even right-wingers. Yet, the current mood dictates certain apathy, very untypical in saner epochs. What has happened to our judgement, critical faculties and rebellious propensities? How can one reconcile the complete loss of faith with our institutions including the IDF with the fatalistic acceptance of our fate? There is no clear cut explanation, only pessimistic theories and general air of resignation, unprecedented in our country’s history.<br />
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In every political discussion one hears well-connected politicians and commentators list the most likely scenarios and the conclusions are normally somber. The prevalent assessments fail to grasp the logic behind the almost inevitable aggression. The nuclear capabilities of Iran are likely to remain intact; the retaliation by the Iranians is bound to be harsh; the attack on Iranian territory will unite the entire Moslem world against Israel; there will be no international sympathy towards Israel even in the terrible case of death to thousands of people here; most Americans will interpret, and not without reason, the Israeli operation as an attempt by Binyamin Netanyahu to subvert the relatively liberal regime in Washington and to help the reactionary Republican party in its election campaign.<br />
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The Israeli Prime-Minister is regarded here, almost universally, as a Republican hack, with vested interests in the victory of the hard-core right-wingers in the US. Actually, he has built his entire career as an Israeli politician on the premise, that White House policies, which do not fully concur with the interest of Israel’s right-wing government, can be subverted and finally even eradicated by the US congress, supposedly under the influence of the pro-Likud lobby in Washington. <br />
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There is an element of conceit here that has turned Netanyahu into the scourge of American liberals, a foe of the Democrats and a staunch ally of the worst war-mongers and neo-liberals in the American political arena. The South-American leftist, arguably forming a very potent ideological, social and political powerbase in Latin-America, brand official Israel as an enemy, and not without cause. Millions in Brazil, Argentina and the entire spectrum of opinion in Central America will castigate Israel as an aggressor if the Netanyahu regime attack Iran. <br />
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But even their reaction will be dwarfed but the gathering storm in the Moslem world. The wealthy and conservative sector of the US Jewry and their allies in Alabama and Texas are unlikely to shield the Israelis from the popular international wrath.<br />
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The left in Israel, our allies the Arab citizens and the entire peace camp here need the world to save the region from the planned, senseless attack on Iran which could well deteriorate into a future nuclear war. As we cannot rely on our cabinet ministers, some of them baying for blood, we must call upon governments, NGOs and political movements worldwide to help us to prevent the Netanyahu lunacy before the PM unleashes his fury on the denizens of the Middle-East, including us, the Israelis.<br />
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Haim Baram is an Israeli writer and broadcaster. He was (with Major-General Matti Peled, Uri Avnery and Dr. Ya'akov Arnon) a founding member of the Israeli Council for Israeli-Palestinian Peace (ICIPP). He was a member of the Israel Committee for Mordechai Vanunu.<br />
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Turkey Provides Surface-to-air Missiles for Syrian Insurgents<br />
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By Reuters<br />
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US and allied officials acknowledged that officials of Saudi Arabia and Qatar were discussing whether surface-to-air missiles might help Syrian rebels bring down Russian-made helicopters and other aircraft the Syrian army was using to move troops between trouble spots. <br />
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http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article32057.htm<br />
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August 02, 2012 "The Nation" -- WASHINGTON - Rebels fighting to depose Syrian president Bashar al Assad have for the first time acquired a small supply of surface-to-air missiles, according to a news report that a Western official did not dispute.<br />
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NBC News reported that the rebel Free Syrian Army had obtained nearly two dozen of the weapons, which were delivered to them via neighbouring Turkey, whose moderate Islamist government has been demanding Assad’s departure with increasing vehemence.<br />
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Indications are that the US government, which has said it opposes arming the rebels, is not responsible for the delivery of the missiles.<br />
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But some US government sources have been saying for weeks that Arab governments seeking to oust Assad, including Saudi Arabia and Qatar, have been pressing for such missiles, also known as MANPADs, for man-portable air-defence systems, to be supplied to the rebels.<br />
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In recent days, air operations against the rebels by Syrian government forces appear to have been stepped up, particularly around the contested city of Aleppo, making the rebels’ need for MANPADs more urgent.<br />
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Precisely what kind of MANPADs have been delivered to Syrian rebels is unclear and NBC News did not provide details. Such weapons range from the primitive to highly sophisticated.<br />
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And even if the rebels do have the weapons, it is unclear whether they have the training to operate them effectively against Assad’s air forces in the immediate future.<br />
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Some conservative US lawmakers, such as Republican Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham, have criticized the administration of President Barack Obama for moving too slowly to assist the rebels and have suggested the US government become directly involved in arming Assad’s opponents.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3765367910333413191.post-45507967313057643882012-08-02T19:13:00.002-07:002012-08-02T19:13:35.210-07:00<div style="text-align: center;"></div><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">In Hiroshima's Shadow : The Iran Gamble World War III Billed As A Regional Conflict Plus Other Disturbing News Of The Day!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">August 6, the anniversary of Hiroshima, should be a day of somber reflection, not only on the terrible events of that day in 1945, but also on what they revealed: that humans, in their dedicated quest to extend their capacities for destruction, had finally found a way to approach the ultimate limit.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">This year‚ Aug. 6 memorials have special significance. They take place shortly before the 50th anniversary of, "the most dangerous moment in human history," in the words of the historian and John F. Kennedy adviser Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., referring to the Cuban missile crisis.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Graham Allison writes in the current issue of Foreign Affairs that Kennedy, "ordered actions that he knew would increase the risk not only of conventional war but also nuclear war," with a likelihood of perhaps 50 percent, he believed, an estimate that Allison regards as realistic.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Kennedy declared a high-level nuclear alert that authorized, "NATO aircraft with Turkish pilots ... (or others) ... to take off, fly to Moscow, and drop a bomb."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">None were more shocked by the discovery of missiles in Cuba than the men in charge of the similar missiles that the U.S. had secretly deployed in Okinawa six months earlier, surely aimed at China, at a moment of elevated regional tensions.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Kennedy took Chairman Nikita Khrushchev, "right to the brink of nuclear war and he looked over the edge and had no stomach for it," according to Gen. David Burchinal, then a high-ranking official in the Pentagon planning staff. One can hardly count on such sanity forever.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Khrushchev accepted a formula that Kennedy devised, ending the crisis just short of war. The formula‚ boldest element, Allison writes, was, "a secret sweetener that promised the withdrawal of U.S. missiles from Turkey within six months after the crisis was resolved." These were obsolete missiles that were being replaced by far more lethal, and invulnerable, Polaris submarines.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">In brief, even at high risk of war of unimaginable destruction, it was felt necessary to reinforce the principle that U.S. has the unilateral right to deploy nuclear missiles anywhere, some aimed at China or at the borders of Russia, which had previously placed no missiles outside the USSR. Justifications of course have been offered, but I do not think they withstand analysis.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">An accompanying principle is that Cuba had no right to have missiles for defense against what appeared to be an imminent U.S. invasion. The plans for Kennedy‚ terrorist programs, Operation Mongoose, called for, "open revolt and overthrow of the Communist regime," in October 1962, the month of the missile crisis, recognizing that, "final success will require decisive U.S. military intervention."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">The terrorist operations against Cuba are commonly dismissed by U.S. commentators as insignificant CIA shenanigans. The victims, not surprisingly, see matters rather differently. We can at last hear their voices in Keith Bolender‚, "Voices from the Other Side: An Oral History of Terrorism Against Cuba."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">The events of October 1962 are widely hailed as Kennedy‚ finest hour. Allison offers them as, "a guide for how to defuse conflicts, manage great-power relationships, and make sound decisions about foreign policy in general." In particular, today‚ conflicts with Iran and China.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Disaster was perilously close in 1962, and there has been no shortage of dangerous moments since. In 1973, in the last days of the Arab-Israeli war, Henry Kissinger called a high-level nuclear alert. India and Pakistan have come close to nuclear war. There have been innumerable cases when human intervention aborted nuclear attack only moments before launch after false reports by automated systems. There is much to think about on Aug. 6.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Allison joins many others in regarding Iran‚ nuclear programs as the most severe current crisis, "an even more complex challenge for American policymakers than the Cuban missile crisis," because of the threat of Israeli bombing.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">The war against Iran is already well underway, including assassination of scientists and economic pressures that have reached the level of, "undeclared war," in the judgment of the Iran specialist Gary Sick.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Great pride is taken in the sophisticated cyberwar directed against Iran. The Pentagon regards cyberwar as, "an act of war," that authorizes the target, "to respond using traditional military force," The Wall Street Journal reports. With the usual exception: not when the U.S. or an ally is the perpetrator.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">The Iran threat has recently been outlined by Gen. Giora Eiland, one of Israel‚ top military planners, described as, "one of the most ingenious and prolific thinkers the (Israeli military) has ever produced."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Of the threats he outlines, the most credible is that, "any confrontation on our borders will take place under an Iranian nuclear umbrella." Israel might therefore be constrained in resorting to force. Eiland agrees with the Pentagon and U.S. intelligence, which also regard deterrence as the major threat that Iran poses.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">The current escalation of the, "undeclared war," against Iran increases the threat of accidental large-scale war. Some of the dangers were illustrated last month when a U.S. naval vessel, part of the huge deployment in the Gulf, fired on a small fishing boat, killing one Indian crew member and wounding at least three others. It would not take much to set off a major war.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">One sensible way to avoid such dread consequences is to pursue, "the goal of establishing in the Middle East a zone free from weapons of mass destruction and all missiles for their delivery and the objective of a global ban on chemical weapons," the wording of Security Council resolution 687 of April 1991, which the U.S. and U.K. invoked in their effort to provide a thin legal cover for their invasion of Iraq 12 years later.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">The goal has been an Arab-Iranian objective since 1974, regularly re-endorsed, and by now it has near-unanimous global support, at least formally. An international conference to consider ways to implement such a treaty may take place in December.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Progress is unlikely unless there is mass public support in the West. Failure to grasp the opportunity will, once again, lengthen the grim shadow that has darkened the world since that fateful Aug. 6.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">http://www.nationalmemo.com/five-of-mitt-romneys-scariest-billionaire-donors </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Five Of Mitt Romney’s Scariest Billionaire Donors</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">August 1st, 2012 11:10 pm</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Jason Sattler</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">If you’re the son or daughter of a billionaire, now is the time to act. Convince your parents to donate millions of dollars to one of the Super PAC’s trying to get Mitt Romney elected.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Here’s the sell: Mom, Dad, Mitt is going to give you millions in tax breaks over his four years in office, according to a new study by the non-partisan Brookings Institute. But don’t just think of yourself. Think of me. I could get billions! Mitt wants to completely eliminate the Estate Tax, which is only paid by one out of 1000 Americans. This would effectively make me as much of a billionaire as you are without me doing anything except being born to the best parents in the world.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Of course, the benefits Mitt is offering to his billionaire donors aren’t limited to billions in tax breaks to them and their kids. There’s also rampant deregulation, potential wars and possibly even a shoe contract.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Meet five of the thirty-two billionaires who are spending big to put Mitt in the White House and who accordingly want big things in return.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Continue Reading >> 1 2 3 4 5 6</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">7 Ways Romney’s Education Plan Would Destroy America’s Public Schools</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Mitt Romney wants to destroy public education in the US and get rid of the Department of Education.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">I am not inventing this: you can read all about it in his education white paper entitled “A Chance for Every Child: Mitt Romney’s Plan for Restoring the Promise of American Education” with a forward by Jeb Bush, no less. If you believe that destroying public education as we know it and turning our schools over to the private sector will solve its problems, then this plan is for you.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">The central themes of the Romney plan are a rehash of Republican education ideas from the past thirty years. Here’s how Romney is planning to destroy public education:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">1. Subsidizing parents who want to send their child to a private or religious school. Romney offers complete support for using taxpayer money to pay for private school vouchers, privately managed charters, for-profit online schools, and almost every other alternative to public schools.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">2. Encouraging the private sector to operate schools. To cut costs, Romney encourages the proliferation of for-profit online universities. Romney’s plan says that no new money is needed because more spending on schools will not fix our problems. However, he proposes to dedicate more taxpayer money to the priorities that he favors, such as vouchers, charter schools, and online schools.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">3. Putting commercial banks in charge of the federal student loan program. Romney claims that more federal aid leads to higher tuition, so he offers no new federal funding to help students crippled by debt. Instead, Romney would encourage involvement of the private sector by having commercial banks serve as the intermediary for federal student loans. Obama eliminated this approach in 2012 as too costly.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">4. Holding teachers and schools accountable for students’ test scores. Romney also wants more federal money to reward states for “eliminating or reforming teacher tenure and establishing systems that focus on effectiveness in advancing student achievement.” In other words, Romney is willing to hand out money to states if they eliminate due process rights for teachers and if they pay more to teachers whose students get higher scores on standardized tests and get rid of teacher whose students do not.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">5. Lowering entrance requirements for new teachers. Romney takes a strong stand against certification of teachers, the minimal state-level requirement that future teachers must pass either state or national tests to demonstrate their knowledge and skill, which he considers an unnecessary hurdle.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">6. Eliminating the need to limit class size. Romney apparently believes that class size does not matter (although presumably it mattered to him when he chose a school with small classes for his own children).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">7. Eliminating teachers’ rights. In the vision presented by Romney, public dollars would flow to schools that teach creationism. Anyone could teach, without passing any test of their knowledge and skills and without any professional preparation. Teachers could also be fired for any reason, without any protection of their freedom to teach.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">This is all very, very scary for us public school teachers.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">As if that were not enough, Diane Ravitch, writing in The New York Review of Books, notes:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Paradoxically, Romney’s campaign takes credit for the fact that Massachusetts leads the nation in reading and mathematics on the federal tests known as National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">But Romney was not responsible to the state’s academic success, which is owing to reforms that are entirely different from the ones he is now proposing for the country (my italics). Signed into law a full decade before Romney began his tenure as governor in 2003, the Massachusetts Education Reform Act involved a commitment by the state to double state funding of public education from $1.3 billion in 1993 to $2.6 billion by 2000; to provide a minimum foundation budget for every district to meet its needs, to develop strong curricula for subjects such as science, history, the arts, foreign languages, mathematics, and English; to put into effect a testing program based on the curriculum; to expand professional development for teachers; and to test would-be teachers. In the late 1990s – again, before Romney assumed office – the state added new funds for early childhood education.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Candidate Romney should explain how privatizing the way we school our children will further his goal of “restoring the promise of American education.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Here’s what John Adams had to say about public education (with thanks again to Diane Ravitch):</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">“The whole people must take upon themselves the education of the whole people, and must be willing to bear the expenses of it.. There should not be a district of one mile square, without a school in it, not founded by a charitable individual, but maintained at the public expense of the people themselves.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Message to candidate Romney from an experienced educator: Restoring American education means supporting public schools, not destroying them.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">What do you think?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Romney: Let’s Cut Teachers, Firefighters, Police</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Romney’s Education Plan Recycles Failed Ideas</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Romney Advisor: Women’s Issues Just ‘Shiny Objects’ (Video)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">The Romney campaign may want senior adviser Eric Fehrnstrom to stop talking. The man who gave the 2012 campaign “Etch-a-Sketch” strategy has now declared that issues that affect women are simply “shiny objects” that distract voters from more important topics.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Appearing on This Week With George Stephanopolus, Fehrnstrom said, “Mitt Romney is pro-life. He’ll govern as a pro-life president, but you’re going to see the Democrats use all sorts of shiny objects to distract people’s attention from the Obama performance on the economy. This is not a social issue election.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">That will be news not only to the women who have been fighting against abortion restrictions, but to Republicans themselves. Since gaining power in 2011, Republicans across the country have pushed a rash of draconian anti-choice restrictions, including attempting to ban sex-selective abortion restrictions in just the last week.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Romney himself repeatedly has hit on social themes in the election, blasting President Barack Obama for requiring employers to provide birth control as part of preventative coverage — despite having done the same as governor of Massachusetts.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Obama Deputy Campaign Manager Stephanie Cutter reacted with incredulity to the statement.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">“If it’s not a social issue election then why did Mitt Romney just spend the last year campaigning on social issues?” Cutter asked. “These are his positions that he’s taken. Whether it’s giving bosses control over whether female employees can get contraception, being for the so-called personhood amendment that would ban all forms of abortion or telling the American people that he’ll get back to them on whether he supports Lilly Ledbetter, which is an economic issue and it should be a no-brainer, but the governor couldn’t even bring himself to be for that.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Perhaps most galling is the idea that issues like abortion, fair pay and equal rights are just “shiny objects.” The girl turned away from an Oklahoma hospital after being raped was not a shiny object; she was a hurt, scared person who just wanted to get medical treatment. That care might have included emergency contraception, though, and thanks to so-called “conscience” laws, doctors who don’t believe in birth control don’t have to treat patients.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">For the tens of millions of American women who have had abortions, and the hundreds of millions of American men and women who have used contraception, the right to access health services is not a distraction. It is a core right, one as basic as the right to free speech, or freedom of religion. Those aren’t distractions. They’re vital.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/08/romneys-kiss-my-spokesman-takes-time-off-campaign-trail</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">President Obama has found it difficult to find support for any of his proposals among Republicans on Capitol Hill. He passed his landmark achievements – health reform legislation and wall street reform – without any help from Democrats. That national health reform law was in part based on the bipartisan law enacted by Mitt Romney in Massachusetts. But it never gained popularity nationally. One Congress watcher, Norm Ornstein of the American Enterprise Institute said recently that Republicans are more to fault for the gridlock in Washington than are the Democrats.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">ORLANDO — President Obama Is On A Tear Over Taxes, Blasting Rival Mitt Romney’s Proposals Today As Nothing More Than “Fairy Dust” To Try To Fix The Economy.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">“They have tried to sell us this trickle down, tax cut ‘fairy dust’ before. And guess what? It didn’t work then, it will not work now,” Obama said of Romney’s plan to slash rates for corporations and upper-income earners.</span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">“It’s not a plan to create jobs, it’s not a plan to reduce the deficit. It is not a plan to build the middle class. It is not a plan to move the economy forward,” he said.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Romney has argued that extending the current Bush-era tax rates and cutting rates further for the wealthy will spur hiring by small businesses.</span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">“Under President Obama, middle-class Americans have experienced higher unemployment, lower incomes, and greater uncertainty about the future,” said Romney spokesman Ryan Williams.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">“Now he is promising to raise taxes on millions of families and small businesses – which is the last thing we should do in a struggling economy,” he said.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">The crowd of 2500 here predictably wasn’t having any of Romney’s ideas, booing at the mere mention of his name.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">They were equally as vocal in praising the president, affectionately heckling him during his speech and singing him a boisterous rendition of “Happy Birthday.”</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Obama turns 51 on Saturday.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">“If I had known you guys were going to sing, we would have had a cake. And then I would have blown out the candle, I would have made a wish that probably would have had to do with electoral votes,” he said with a grin. “A win in Florida wouldn’t be a bad birthday present.”</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Guy Adams: I thought the internet age had ended this kind of censorship</span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">I'm still awaiting a detailed explanation from Twitter as to why my account was immediately suspended</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Twitter Suspends Journalist's Account</span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">A journalist criticized NBC over Olympics coverage and was suspended from Twitter, which has partnered with NBC for its coverage.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Here are three things that NBC prevented their public from being able to watch on network television so far this Olympic Games: live footage of the opening ceremony; live footage of Saturday's swimming showdown between Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte; live footage of the USA men's basketball "dream team."</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">A fourth thing they do not want people to see is the email address of Gary Zenkel, the executive responsible for this shambles. And a fifth thing is my Twitter feed, which over the weekend contained a couple of dozen occasionally uncouth observations about their coverage, several of which were accompanied by the trending hashtag: "#NBCfail."</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">As a journalist, you know you are doing your job properly when you manage to upset rich, powerful and entitled people who are used to getting their own way. And you know you've really got under their skin when they pursue censorship, the avenue of last resort since time immemorial.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">The internet era is meant to be different, though. Thanks to Twitter, and Google and every other medium dedicated to the free exchange of information, the world is supposed to have changed. That's why the Arab Spring happened; it's why Justin Bieber happened. And its why, regardless of its comparative frivolity, NBC's successful attempt to suspend a journalist from a social networking site sets an ugly precedent.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Twitter's guidelines forbid users from publishing what they call "private" information, including "private email addresses". There is plenty of sense in this. But I did not Tweet a private email address. I Tweeted a corporate address for Mr Zenkel, which is widely listed online, and is identical in form to that of tens of thousands of those at NBC.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">I was not contacted by NBC or Twitter before my account was suspended. If they had dropped me a line, I might – might! – have quietly deleted the offending Tweet. Instead, they wandered into a PR controversy which has resulted in hundreds of thousands more people being made aware of its existence. Like any right thinking-person, I take the issue of online bullying seriously. I would hate for anyone to come to harm as a result of something I uploaded to the internet. But I'm at a loss to see how a bit of forthright correspondence from a disgruntled public could be anything more than a minor annoyance to a power-broker of Mr Zenkel's lofty status. I'm still awaiting a detailed explanation from Twitter as to why my account was immediately suspended. On the face of it, their reaction seems heavy-handed.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">As for Gary Zenkel, he is supposedly a grown-up, with a salary, and ego to match. His TV network has decided to delay broadcasting key Olympic events until Prime Time on the grounds it hopes to make more money from advertising. NBC surely knew viewers would be upset by this. If it now displeases Mr Zenkel to get emails from those rightly-angry customers, then he is surely in the wrong job.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/aug/01/israeli-pm-iran-nuclear- programme</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Israeli PM says time running out to stop Iran's nuclear programme</span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Binyamin Netanyahu tells visiting US defence secretary that sanctions and diplomacy have so far failed to end standoff</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Time is running out for the international community to halt Iran's nuclear programme by peaceful means, the Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, told US defence secretary Leon Panetta in Jerusalem on Wednesday.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Sanctions, diplomacy and declarations of a willingness to take military action as a last resort had not yet convinced the Iranians to stop their programme, he said. "However forceful our statements, they have not convinced Iran that we are serious about stopping them. Right now the Iranian regime believes that the international community does not have the will to stop its nuclear programme."</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Netanyahu said earlier that although sanctions were hurting the Iranian economy, such measures had "yet to move its nuclear programme even a millimetre backwards".</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Panetta is the fourth senior US administration official to visit Israel in recent weeks as concern has mounted in Washington that Netanyahu is preparing the ground for a military strike in the coming months.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">In an attempt to reassure Israel – and counter the robust support for military action pledged by presumptive Republican candidate Mitt Romney in Jerusalem earlier this week – Panetta told the prime minister: "We will not allow Iran to develop a nuclear weapon, period. We will not allow them to develop a nuclear weapon, and we will exert all options in the effort to ensure that that does not happen."</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">The question of whether Israel will unilaterally strike against Iran's nuclear sites in the coming months has returned to the fore after a period of relatively dampened speculation. There have also been fresh reports of a split between the Israeli political and security establishments over the merits of early unilateral action, following open opposition to such a move from former security chiefs.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">In a series of television interviews as Panetta arrived in Israel from Egypt, Netanyahu said any decision would be taken by the country's political leadership. But, he added, "I have not taken a decision".</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Following reports that senior defence officials, including military chief of staff Benny Gantz and Mossad chief Tamir Pardo, were opposed to Israel acting alone, the prime minister said: "In every democracy the decision-maker is the political echelon and the implementer is the professional echelon. That is how it always was and that is how it always will be."</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">He said Israel had the right to defend itself. "Things that affect our fate, our very existence, we don't entrust to others – not even to our best friends," he said.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Gantz denied that he was behind the reports, saying: "None of these stories was released by me … I tell the political echelon what I have to say, and they listen."</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">The Israeli military was prepared for a military strike, he said. "As we see it, 'all options are on the table' is not a slogan, it is a working plan and we are doing it."</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Earlier Panetta met his counterpart, Ehud Barak, and toured an Iron Dome battery near Ashkelon, close to the border with Gaza. Israel deploys the weapons against rockets and missiles fired from Gaza.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Panetta denied reports that the purpose of his visit was to share with Israel an operational plan drawn up by the Pentagon to stop the Iranian nuclear programme by force in 18 months, by which time the administration believes it will be at a critical threshold.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Israel's former security chief has censured the country's "messianic" political leadership for talking up the prospects of a military stike on Iran's nuclear programme.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">In unusually candid comments set to ratchet up tensions over Iran at the top of Israel's political establishment, Yuval Diskin, who retired as head of the internal intelligence agency Shin Bet last year, said he had "no faith" in the abilities of the prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, and the defence minister, Ehud Barak, to conduct a war.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">The pair, who are the foremost advocates of military action against Iran's nuclear programme, were "not fit to hold the steering wheel of power", Diskin told a meeting on Friday night.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">"My major problem is that I have no faith in the current leadership, which must lead us in an event on the scale of war with Iran or a regional war," he said.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">"I don't believe in either the prime minister or the defence minister. I don't believe in a leadership that makes decisions based on messianic feelings. Believe me, I have observed them from up close ... They are not people who I, on a personal level, trust to lead Israel to an event on that scale and carry it off.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">"They are misleading the public on the Iran issue. They tell the public that if Israel acts, Iran won't have a nuclear bomb. This is misleading. Actually, many experts say that an Israeli attack would accelerate the Iranian nuclear race."</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">The Super Rich Are Out of Sight</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">The super rich, the less than 1 percent of the population who own the lion’s share of the nation’s wealth, go uncounted in most income distribution reports. Even those who purport to study the question regularly overlook the very wealthiest among us. For instance, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, relying on the latest U.S. Census Bureau data, released a report in December 1997 showing that in the last two decades “incomes of the richest fifth increased by 30 percent or nearly $27,000 after adjusting for inflation.” The average income of the top 20 percent was $117,500, or almost 13 times larger than the $9,250 average income of the poorest 20 percent.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">But where are the super rich? An average of $117,500 is an upper-middle income, not at all representative of a rich cohort, let alone a super rich one. All such reports about income distribution are based on U.S. Census Bureau surveys that regularly leave Big Money out of the picture. </span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">A few phone calls to the Census Bureau in Washington D.C. revealed that for years the bureau never interviewed anyone who had an income higher than $300,000. Or if interviewed, they were never recorded as above the “reportable upper limit” of $300,000, the top figure allowed by the bureau's computer program. </span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">In 1994, the bureau lifted the upper limit to $1 million. This still excludes the very richest who own the lion’s share of the wealth, the hundreds of billionaires and thousands of multimillionaires who make many times more than $1 million a year. The super rich simply have been computerized out of the picture.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">When asked why this procedure was used, an official said that the Census Bureau’s computers could not handle higher amounts. A most improbable excuse, since once the bureau decided to raise the upper limit from $300,000 to $1 million it did so without any difficulty, and it could do so again. </span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Another reason the official gave was “confidentiality.” Given place coordinates, someone with a very high income might be identified. </span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Furthermore, he said, high-income respondents usually understate their investment returns by about 40 to 50 percent. Finally, the official argued that since the super rich are so few, they are not likely to show up in a national sample.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">But by designating the (decapitated) top 20 percent of the entire nation as the “richest” quintile, the Census Bureau is including millions of people who make as little as $70,000. If you make over $100,000, you are in the top 4 percent. </span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Now $100,000 is a tidy sum indeed, but it's not super rich — as in Mellon, Morgan, or Murdock. The difference between Michael Eisner, Disney CEO who pocketed $565 million in 1996, and the individuals who average $9,250 is not 13 to 1 — the reported spread between highest and lowest quintiles — but over 61,000 to 1.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Speaking of CEOs, much attention has been given to the top corporate managers who rake in tens of millions of dollars annually in salaries and perks. </span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">But little is said about the tens of billions that these same corporations distribute to the top investor class each year, again that invisible fraction of 1 percent of the population. </span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Media publicity that focuses exclusively on a handful of greedy top executives conveniently avoids any exposure of the super rich as a class. In fact, reining in the CEOs who cut into the corporate take would well serve the big shareholder's interests.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Two studies that do their best to muddy our understanding of wealth, conducted respectively by the Rand Corporation and the Brookings Institution and widely reported in the major media, found that individuals typically become rich not from inheritance but by maintaining their health and working hard. Most of their savings comes from their earnings and has nothing to do with inherited family wealth, the researchers would have us believe. </span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">In typical social-science fashion, they prefigured their findings by limiting the scope of their data. Both studies failed to note that achieving a high income is itself in large part due to inherited advantages. Those coming from upper-strata households have a far better opportunity to maintain their health and develop their performance, attend superior schools, and achieve the advanced professional training, contacts, and influence needed to land the higher paying positions.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">More importantly, both the Rand and Brookings studies fail to include the super rich, those who sit on immense and largely inherited fortunes. Instead, the investigators concentrate on upper-middle-class professionals and managers, most of whom earn in the $100,000 to $300,000 range — which indicates that the researchers have no idea how rich the very rich really are.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">When pressed on this point, they explain that there is a shortage of data on the very rich. </span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Being such a tiny percentage, “they’re an extremely difficult part of the population to survey,” pleads Rand economist James P. Smith, offering the same excuse given by the Census Bureau officials. That Smith finds the super rich difficult to survey should not cause us to overlook the fact that their existence refutes his findings about self-earned wealth.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"> He seems to admit as much when he says, "This [study] shouldn't be taken as a statement that the Rockefellers didn’t give to their kids and the Kennedys didn't give to their kids." (New York Times, July 7, 1995) Indeed, most of the really big money is inherited — and by a portion of the population that is so minuscule as to be judged statistically inaccessible.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">The higher one goes up the income scale, the greater the rate of capital accumulation. Economist Paul Krugman notes that not only have the top 20 percent grown more affluent compared with everyone below, the top 5 percent have grown richer compared with the next 15 percent. </span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">The top one percent have become richer compared with the next 4 percent. </span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">And the top 0.25 percent have grown richer than the next 0.75 percent. </span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">That top 0.25 owns more wealth than the other 99 percent combined. </span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">It has been estimated that if children’s play blocks represented $1,000 each, over 98 percent of us would have incomes represented by piles of blocks that went not more than a few yards off the ground, while the top one percent would stack many times higher than the Eiffel Tower.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Marx's prediction about the growing gap between rich and poor still haunts the land — and the entire planet. </span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">The growing concentration of wealth creates still more poverty. As some few get ever richer, more people fall deeper into destitution, finding it increasingly difficult to emerge from it. </span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">The same pattern holds throughout much of the world. For years now, as the wealth of the few has been growing, the number of poor has been increasing at a faster rate than the earth's population. A rising tide sinks many boats.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">To grasp the true extent of wealth and income inequality in the United States, we should stop treating the “top quintile” — the upper-middle class — as the "richest" cohort in the country. </span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">But to do that, we need to look beyond the Census Bureau's cooked statistics. We need to catch sight of that tiny, stratospheric apex that owns most of the world.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Michael Parenti is the author of Against Empire, Dirty Truths, America Besieged, and most recently, History as Mystery, all published by City Lights Books.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">http://www.alternet.org/story/156467/6_things_you_should_know_about_the_%2421_trillion_the_world%27s_richest_people_are_hiding_in_tax_shelters?paging=off</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">A technology breakdown at a major trading firm roiled the prices of 140 stocks listed on the New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday, undermining the fragile investor confidence.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">The problems at Knight Capital Group, one of the largest firms that buys and sells stocks to provide liquidity to the markets, emerged at the beginning of trading.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Heavy computer-based trading caused a rush of orders for dozens of stocks, ranging from well-known bellwethers like General Electric to tiny Wizzard Software Corp, whose shares soared to $14.76 after closing the previous day at $3.50. The NYSE has canceled trades in six particularly volatile issues.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">The trading glitches are the latest in a series of market snafus that have hurt retail investors' confidence, including the botched Facebook initial public offering, the 2010 'flash crash' in which nearly $1 trillion in market value disappeared in minutes, and the failed public offering of BATS Global Markets, a rival to the NYSE and the Nasdaq.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">The exact nature of the technology issues were unclear. The the magnitude and fallout for Knight, which was forced to tell clients to send orders elsewhere, and for the broader market were also unknown. Knight's stock plunged nearly 33 percent to $6.94, a nine-year closing low for the stock.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Knight Capital issued a terse statement acknowledging the trading errors, but company officials were not available for further comment.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">'This morning, a technology issue occurred in Knight's market-making unit related to the routing of shares of approximately 150 stocks to the NYSE,' Knight said in the statement.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Observers said the problem highlighted the weaknesses in the market that remain two years after the Flash Crash. 'The structure that we have in place is so complicated and intertwined, that all of these entanglements have created real issues in the marketplace,' said Christopher Nagy, a consultant to exchanges and brokerages.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Heavy buy orders in some stocks sent prices soaring, while others plunged. Many of the names were lesser-known issues such as Molycorp, a stock that usually averages about 2.65 million shares daily but which saw volume of more than 5.7 million shares in the first 45 minutes of trading, bouncing between $17.50 and $14.35 in that period.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">The mood at the Knight Capital booth on the NYSE trading floor was somber, with worried traders taking numerous phone calls as well as answering questions from NYSE officials who were making inquiries on the floor.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Many on the floor were aware that the problematic trades were coming from Knight. – Reuters</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Iranians Should Be ‘Very Fearful For Next 12 Weeks: Ex-Mossad Chief</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">By Times of Israel staff</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">August 02, 2012 "Times of Israel" -- The former Mossad chief Efraim Halevy, who told The Times of Israel in an interview in March that there would be “nothing else left” but a resort to force if the diplomatic track with Iran did not quickly produce a breakthrough, hinted Thursday that the moment of truth on Iran’s nuclear drive was now imminent.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">“If I were an Iranian, I would be very fearful of the next 12 weeks,” Halevy, who is also a former national security adviser and ambassador, told The New York Times.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">In an Israel Radio interview later Thursday, he added that Israel’s threats of military action had a certain “credibility” and “seriousness.” He said the Iranian nuclear issue, and the Syrian issue, were the key regional concerns, and reiterated that “If I were an Iranian, I would be very fearful of the next 12 weeks.”</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">The New York Times report, focusing on Wednesday’s talks here by Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, said there was “feverish speculation” in Israel that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “will act in September or early October.”</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Apart from Netanyahu’s concern that Israel’s military option would “soon” become redundant, the paper cited several other reasons “for the potential timing.” Among them, it said, was the fact that “Israel does not like to fight wars in winter.” Also, Netanyahu “feels that he will have less leverage if President Obama is reelected” while, were Mitt Romney to win the November elections, “the new president would be unlikely to want to take on a big military action early in his term.”</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Still, Thursday’s article continued, “a number of administration officials say they remain hopeful that Israel has no imminent plans to attack and may be willing to let the United States take the lead in any future military strike, which they say would not occur until next year at the earliest.”</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">The New York Times further reported that administration officials say “Israeli officials are less confrontational in private” and that Netanyahu “understands the consequences of military action for Israel, the United States and the region. They say they know he has to maintain the credibility of his threat to keep up pressure on the United States to continue with sanctions and the development of military plans.”</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">In his interview with The Times of Israel in late March, Halevy said that if the then-upcoming international talks with Iran on thwarting its nuclear program did not quickly produce a breakthrough, there will be “nothing else left” but a resort to force.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">He also said he had “no doubt that for the past few years Israel has been readying its capabilities to meet the Iranians if necessary by force.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">It was “tragic,” Halevy added at the time, that “I don’t see any great effort being made” by the P5+1 group — the five UN Security Council permanent members and Germany — to prepare urgently and effectively for those talks. The lights “should be burning through the night” to get a strategy together, he said. “The number one thing the world should be doing [on Iran] is investing enormous preparation into the P5+1 confrontation, because this is really the ‘Last Train to San Fernando.’”</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Iran, he predicted, would doubtless try to play for time in the talks. The international community, therefore, needed to be ready with its strategy and tactics, and to be represented by “a very high-level, experienced, wise and creative negotiator.”</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">For the international community, said Halevy, “there’s no time for, you know, ‘Let’s meet again in two or three months, let’s do our homework, let’s not rush things, let’s look at it, and so forth.’” Rather, he said, “there has to be a breakthrough… If there is no breakthrough, it means to say that the talks have failed.”</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Asked if, by a breakthrough, he meant Iran announcing the suspension of its nuclear program, Halevy demurred. “I don’t want to say ‘Iran suspending the program.’ I don’t believe that everything will become public overnight.” But it would need to be clear, he said, “that there is a serious negotiation… They don’t have to spell it all out, but it has to be clear.”</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Halevy said he did see signs of greater potential international coordination over Iran. He was encouraged by the growing consensus on tackling Syria, notably including Russia and China, which he said could also be reflected in a coordinated strategy on Iran. He also noted that the priority for the ayatollahs’ regime in Iran is “survival” at all costs.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Nonetheless, if the negotiations fail, “there’s nothing else left” but a resort to force, he said.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Perhaps, it was put to Halevy, Israel could live with a nuclear weapons-capable Iran? Halevy responded: “I don’t think that we should countenance that as long as we can do what we can to remove it. I don’t accept the notion that Israel is destructible. But I think that if Iran retains a nuclear capability, life here is going to be very tough for a very long period to come. Israel will not disappear, but Israel will go through a period which I would not like it to go through.”</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Asked whether he believed the Israeli government wanted a diplomatic solution, he answered: “I’m not sure every Israeli wants a diplomatic solution… I’m not sure that the government is entirely behind this support for a diplomatic solution.”</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article32066.htm</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Israeli's Brainwashed Into State Of Apathy</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">By Haim Baram</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">August 02, 2012 "Information Clearing House" -- In rare moments of lucidity, even the mythological “average Israeli” feels that our less than splendid isolation is intolerable. We are constantly brainwashed by our establishment, and the endless bombardments combining biblical rhetoric, alarmist prophesies and demagogic evocations of the holocaust confuse even the elitist circles, despite their liberal self-image and professed Western outlook. This increasingly pervasive syndrome can partially account for our sheepish acquiesce with the rampant rumours and speculations about the forthcoming Israeli attack on Iran. </span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">The consequences of such aggression are abundantly clear for most educated Israelis, even right-wingers. Yet, the current mood dictates certain apathy, very untypical in saner epochs. What has happened to our judgement, critical faculties and rebellious propensities? How can one reconcile the complete loss of faith with our institutions including the IDF with the fatalistic acceptance of our fate? There is no clear cut explanation, only pessimistic theories and general air of resignation, unprecedented in our country’s history.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">In every political discussion one hears well-connected politicians and commentators list the most likely scenarios and the conclusions are normally somber. The prevalent assessments fail to grasp the logic behind the almost inevitable aggression. The nuclear capabilities of Iran are likely to remain intact; the retaliation by the Iranians is bound to be harsh; the attack on Iranian territory will unite the entire Moslem world against Israel; there will be no international sympathy towards Israel even in the terrible case of death to thousands of people here; most Americans will interpret, and not without reason, the Israeli operation as an attempt by Binyamin Netanyahu to subvert the relatively liberal regime in Washington and to help the reactionary Republican party in its election campaign.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">The Israeli Prime-Minister is regarded here, almost universally, as a Republican hack, with vested interests in the victory of the hard-core right-wingers in the US. Actually, he has built his entire career as an Israeli politician on the premise, that White House policies, which do not fully concur with the interest of Israel’s right-wing government, can be subverted and finally even eradicated by the US congress, supposedly under the influence of the pro-Likud lobby in Washington. </span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">There is an element of conceit here that has turned Netanyahu into the scourge of American liberals, a foe of the Democrats and a staunch ally of the worst war-mongers and neo-liberals in the American political arena. The South-American leftist, arguably forming a very potent ideological, social and political powerbase in Latin-America, brand official Israel as an enemy, and not without cause. Millions in Brazil, Argentina and the entire spectrum of opinion in Central America will castigate Israel as an aggressor if the Netanyahu regime attack Iran. </span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">But even their reaction will be dwarfed but the gathering storm in the Moslem world. The wealthy and conservative sector of the US Jewry and their allies in Alabama and Texas are unlikely to shield the Israelis from the popular international wrath.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">The left in Israel, our allies the Arab citizens and the entire peace camp here need the world to save the region from the planned, senseless attack on Iran which could well deteriorate into a future nuclear war. As we cannot rely on our cabinet ministers, some of them baying for blood, we must call upon governments, NGOs and political movements worldwide to help us to prevent the Netanyahu lunacy before the PM unleashes his fury on the denizens of the Middle-East, including us, the Israelis.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Haim Baram is an Israeli writer and broadcaster. He was (with Major-General Matti Peled, Uri Avnery and Dr. Ya'akov Arnon) a founding member of the Israeli Council for Israeli-Palestinian Peace (ICIPP). He was a member of the Israel Committee for Mordechai Vanunu.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Turkey Provides Surface-to-air Missiles for Syrian Insurgents</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">By Reuters</span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">US and allied officials acknowledged that officials of Saudi Arabia and Qatar were discussing whether surface-to-air missiles might help Syrian rebels bring down Russian-made helicopters and other aircraft the Syrian army was using to move troops between trouble spots. </span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article32057.htm</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">August 02, 2012 "The Nation" -- WASHINGTON - Rebels fighting to depose Syrian president Bashar al Assad have for the first time acquired a small supply of surface-to-air missiles, according to a news report that a Western official did not dispute.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">NBC News reported that the rebel Free Syrian Army had obtained nearly two dozen of the weapons, which were delivered to them via neighbouring Turkey, whose moderate Islamist government has been demanding Assad’s departure with increasing vehemence.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Indications are that the US government, which has said it opposes arming the rebels, is not responsible for the delivery of the missiles.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">But some US government sources have been saying for weeks that Arab governments seeking to oust Assad, including Saudi Arabia and Qatar, have been pressing for such missiles, also known as MANPADs, for man-portable air-defence systems, to be supplied to the rebels.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">In recent days, air operations against the rebels by Syrian government forces appear to have been stepped up, particularly around the contested city of Aleppo, making the rebels’ need for MANPADs more urgent.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Precisely what kind of MANPADs have been delivered to Syrian rebels is unclear and NBC News did not provide details. Such weapons range from the primitive to highly sophisticated.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">And even if the rebels do have the weapons, it is unclear whether they have the training to operate them effectively against Assad’s air forces in the immediate future.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Some conservative US lawmakers, such as Republican Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham, have criticized the administration of President Barack Obama for moving too slowly to assist the rebels and have suggested the US government become directly involved in arming Assad’s opponents.</span>
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</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3765367910333413191.post-45026012088493403172012-08-02T18:56:00.003-07:002012-08-02T19:01:54.893-07:00<div style="text-align: center;"> <div align="center"> <table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoNormalTable" style="border-collapse: collapse; border: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-insideh: .5pt solid windowtext; mso-border-insidev: .5pt solid windowtext; mso-padding-alt: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-yfti-tbllook: 1184;"><tbody>
<tr style="mso-yfti-firstrow: yes; mso-yfti-irow: 0; mso-yfti-lastrow: yes;"> <td style="border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 6.65in;" valign="top" width="638"> <div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><a href="http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/10660-in-hiroshimas-shadow">In Hiroshima's Shadow</a><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>: The Iran Gamble World War III Billed As A Regional Conflict Plus Other Disturbing News Of The Day!</span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">August 6, the anniversary of Hiroshima, should be a day of somber reflection, not only on the terrible events of that day in 1945, but also on what they revealed: that humans, in their dedicated quest to extend their capacities for destruction, had finally found a way to approach the ultimate limit.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">This year‚ Aug. 6 memorials have special significance. They take place shortly before the 50th anniversary of, "the most dangerous moment in human history," in the words of the historian and John F. Kennedy adviser Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., referring to the Cuban missile crisis.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Graham Allison writes in the current issue of Foreign Affairs that Kennedy, "ordered actions that he knew would increase the risk not only of conventional war but also nuclear war," with a likelihood of perhaps 50 percent, he believed, an estimate that Allison regards as realistic.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Kennedy declared a high-level nuclear alert that authorized, "NATO aircraft with Turkish pilots ... (or others) ... to take off, fly to Moscow, and drop a bomb."</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">None were more shocked by the discovery of missiles in Cuba than the men in charge of the similar missiles that the U.S. had secretly deployed in Okinawa six months earlier, surely aimed at China, at a moment of elevated regional tensions.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Kennedy took Chairman Nikita Khrushchev, "right to the brink of nuclear war and he looked over the edge and had no stomach for it," according to Gen. David Burchinal, then a high-ranking official in the Pentagon planning staff. One can hardly count on such sanity forever.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Khrushchev accepted a formula that Kennedy devised, ending the crisis just short of war. The formula‚ boldest element, Allison writes, was, "a secret sweetener that promised the withdrawal of U.S. missiles from Turkey within six months after the crisis was resolved." These were obsolete missiles that were being replaced by far more lethal, and invulnerable, Polaris submarines.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">In brief, even at high risk of war of unimaginable destruction, it was felt necessary to reinforce the principle that U.S. has the unilateral right to deploy nuclear missiles anywhere, some aimed at China or at the borders of Russia, which had previously placed no missiles outside the USSR. Justifications of course have been offered, but I do not think they withstand analysis.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">An accompanying principle is that Cuba had no right to have missiles for defense against what appeared to be an imminent U.S. invasion. The plans for Kennedy‚ terrorist programs, Operation Mongoose, called for, "open revolt and overthrow of the Communist regime," in October 1962, the month of the missile crisis, recognizing that, "final success will require decisive U.S. military intervention."</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The terrorist operations against Cuba are commonly dismissed by U.S. commentators as insignificant CIA shenanigans. The victims, not surprisingly, see matters rather differently. We can at last hear their voices in Keith Bolender‚, "Voices from the Other Side: An Oral History of Terrorism Against Cuba."</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The events of October 1962 are widely hailed as Kennedy‚ finest hour. Allison offers them as, "a guide for how to defuse conflicts, manage great-power relationships, and make sound decisions about foreign policy in general." In particular, today‚ conflicts with Iran and China.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Disaster was perilously close in 1962, and there has been no shortage of dangerous moments since. In 1973, in the last days of the Arab-Israeli war, Henry Kissinger called a high-level nuclear alert. India and Pakistan have come close to nuclear war. There have been innumerable cases when human intervention aborted nuclear attack only moments before launch after false reports by automated systems. There is much to think about on Aug. 6.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Allison joins many others in regarding Iran‚ nuclear programs as the most severe current crisis, "an even more complex challenge for American policymakers than the Cuban missile crisis," because of the threat of Israeli bombing.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The war against Iran is already well underway, including assassination of scientists and economic pressures that have reached the level of, "undeclared war," in the judgment of the Iran specialist Gary Sick.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Great pride is taken in the sophisticated cyberwar directed against Iran. The Pentagon regards cyberwar as, "an act of war," that authorizes the target, "to respond using traditional military force," The Wall Street Journal reports. With the usual exception: not when the U.S. or an ally is the perpetrator.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The Iran threat has recently been outlined by Gen. Giora Eiland, one of Israel‚ top military planners, described as, "one of the most ingenious and prolific thinkers the (Israeli military) has ever produced."</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Of the threats he outlines, the most credible is that, "any confrontation on our borders will take place under an Iranian nuclear umbrella." Israel might therefore be constrained in resorting to force. Eiland agrees with the Pentagon and U.S. intelligence, which also regard deterrence as the major threat that Iran poses.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The current escalation of the, "undeclared war," against Iran increases the threat of accidental large-scale war. Some of the dangers were illustrated last month when a U.S. naval vessel, part of the huge deployment in the Gulf, fired on a small fishing boat, killing one Indian crew member and wounding at least three others. It would not take much to set off a major war.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">One sensible way to avoid such dread consequences is to pursue, "the goal of establishing in the Middle East a zone free from weapons of mass destruction and all missiles for their delivery and the objective of a global ban on chemical weapons," the wording of Security Council resolution 687 of April 1991, which the U.S. and U.K. invoked in their effort to provide a thin legal cover for their invasion of Iraq 12 years later.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The goal has been an Arab-Iranian objective since 1974, regularly re-endorsed, and by now it has near-unanimous global support, at least formally. An international conference to consider ways to implement such a treaty may take place in December.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><a href="http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=32117">Progress is unlikely unless there is mass public support in the West. Failure to grasp the opportunity will, once again, lengthen the grim shadow that has darkened the world since that fateful Aug. 6.</a></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
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</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><a href="http://www.nationalmemo.com/five-of-mitt-romneys-scariest-billionaire-donors">http://www.nationalmemo.com/five-of-mitt-romneys-scariest-billionaire-donors</a> </span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><a href="http://www.nationalmemo.com/five-of-mitt-romneys-scariest-billionaire-donors">Five Of Mitt Romney’s Scariest Billionaire Donors</a></span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">August 1st, 2012 11:10 pm</span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Jason Sattler</span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">If you’re the son or daughter of a billionaire, now is the time to act. Convince your parents to donate millions of dollars to one of the Super PAC’s trying to get Mitt Romney elected.</span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Here’s the sell: Mom, Dad, Mitt is going to give you millions in tax breaks over his four years in office, according to a new study by the non-partisan Brookings Institute. But don’t just think of yourself. Think of me. I could get billions! <a href="http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/08/01/who-would-gain-in-a-romney-tax-overhaul/">Mitt wants to completely eliminate the Estate Tax</a>, which is only <a href="http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/briefing-book/key-elements/estate/who.cfm">paid by one out of 1000 Americans</a>. This would effectively make me as much of a billionaire as you are without me doing anything except being born to the best parents in the world.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Of course, the benefits Mitt is offering to his billionaire donors aren’t limited to billions in tax breaks to them and their kids. There’s also rampant deregulation, potential wars and possibly even a shoe contract.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/clareoconnor/2012/06/13/sheldon-adelson-tops-romney-donor-list-that-now-includes-32-billionaires/">Meet five of the thirty-two billionaires</a> who are spending big to put Mitt in the White House and who accordingly want big things in return.</span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Continue Reading >> 1<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><a href="http://www.nationalmemo.com/five-of-mitt-romneys-scariest-billionaire-donors/2/">2</a><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><a href="http://www.nationalmemo.com/five-of-mitt-romneys-scariest-billionaire-donors/3/">3</a><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><a href="http://www.nationalmemo.com/five-of-mitt-romneys-scariest-billionaire-donors/4/">4</a><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><a href="http://www.nationalmemo.com/five-of-mitt-romneys-scariest-billionaire-donors/5/">5</a><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><a href="http://www.nationalmemo.com/five-of-mitt-romneys-scariest-billionaire-donors/6/">6</a></span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><a href="http://www.care2.com/causes/7-ways-romneys-education-plan-would-destroy-americas-public-schools.html#ixzz22OXYgQ2Z">7 Ways Romney’s Education Plan Would Destroy America’s Public Schools</a></span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Mitt Romney wants to destroy public education in the US and get rid of the Department of Education.</span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">I am not inventing this: you can read all about it in his education white paper entitled “A Chance for Every Child: Mitt Romney’s Plan for Restoring the Promise of American Education” with a forward by Jeb Bush, no less. If you believe that destroying public education as we know it and turning our schools over to the private sector will solve its problems, then this plan is for you.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The central themes of the Romney plan are a rehash of Republican education ideas from the past thirty years. Here’s how Romney is planning to destroy public education:</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">1. Subsidizing parents who want to send their child to a private or religious school. Romney offers complete support for using taxpayer money to pay for private school vouchers, privately managed charters, for-profit online schools, and almost every other alternative to public schools.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">2.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Encouraging the private sector to operate schools. To cut costs, Romney encourages the proliferation of for-profit online universities. Romney’s plan says that no new money is needed because more spending on schools will not fix our problems. However, he proposes to dedicate more taxpayer money to the priorities that he favors, such as vouchers, charter schools, and online schools.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">3.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Putting commercial banks in charge of the federal student loan program.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Romney claims that more federal aid leads to higher tuition, so he offers no new federal funding to help students crippled by debt. Instead, Romney would encourage involvement of the private sector by having commercial banks serve as the intermediary for federal student loans. Obama eliminated this approach in 2012 as too costly.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">4.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Holding teachers and schools accountable for students’ test scores. Romney also wants more federal money to reward states for “eliminating or reforming teacher tenure and establishing systems that focus on effectiveness in advancing student achievement.” In other words, Romney is willing to hand out money to states if they eliminate due process rights for teachers and if they pay more to teachers whose students get higher scores on<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>standardized tests and get rid of teacher whose students do not.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">5.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Lowering entrance requirements for new teachers. Romney takes a strong stand against certification of teachers, the minimal state-level requirement that future teachers must pass either state or national tests to demonstrate their knowledge and skill, which he considers an unnecessary hurdle.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">6.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Eliminating the need to limit class size. Romney apparently believes that class size does not matter (although presumably it mattered to him when he chose a school with small classes for his own children).</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">7.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Eliminating teachers’ rights. In the vision presented by Romney, public dollars would flow to schools that teach creationism. Anyone could teach, without passing any test of their knowledge and skills and without any professional preparation. Teachers could also be fired for any reason, without any protection of their freedom to teach.</span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">This is all very, very scary for us public school teachers.</span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">As if that were not enough, Diane Ravitch, writing in The New York Review of Books, notes:</span></i></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Paradoxically, Romney’s campaign takes credit for the fact that Massachusetts leads the nation in reading and mathematics on the federal tests known as National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP).</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">But Romney was not responsible to the state’s academic success, which is owing to reforms that are entirely different from the ones he is now proposing for the country (my italics). Signed into law a full decade before Romney began his tenure as governor in 2003, the Massachusetts Education Reform Act involved a commitment by the state to double state funding of public education from $1.3 billion in 1993 to $2.6 billion by 2000; to provide a minimum foundation budget for every district to meet its needs, to develop strong curricula for subjects such as science, history, the arts, foreign languages, mathematics, and English; to put into effect a testing program based on the curriculum; to expand professional development for teachers; and to test would-be teachers. In the late 1990s – again, before Romney assumed office – the state added new funds for early childhood education.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Candidate Romney should explain how privatizing the way we school our children will further his goal of “restoring the promise of American education.”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Here’s what John Adams had to say about public education (with thanks again to Diane Ravitch):</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">“The whole people must take upon themselves the education of the whole people, and must be willing to bear the expenses of it.. There should not be a district of one mile square, without a school in it, not founded by a charitable individual, but maintained at the public expense of the people themselves.”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Message to candidate Romney from an experienced educator: Restoring American education means supporting public schools, not destroying them.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><a href="http://www.care2.com/causes/7-ways-romneys-education-plan-would-destroy-americas-public-schools.html#ixzz22OXw9sNF">What do you think?</a></span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><a href="http://www.care2.com/causes/romney-lets-cut-teachers-firefighters-police.html">Romney: Let’s Cut Teachers, Firefighters, Police</a></span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><a href="http://www.care2.com/causes/romneys-education-plan-recycles-failed-ideas.html">Romney’s Education Plan Recycles Failed Ideas</a></span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><a href="http://www.care2.com/causes/romney-advisor-womens-issues-just-shiny-objects-video.html">Romney Advisor: Women’s Issues Just ‘Shiny Objects’ (Video)</a></span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The Romney campaign may want senior adviser Eric Fehrnstrom to stop talking. The man who gave the 2012 campaign “Etch-a-Sketch” strategy has now declared that issues that affect women are simply “shiny objects” that distract voters from more important topics.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Appearing on This Week With George Stephanopolus, Fehrnstrom said, “Mitt Romney is pro-life. He’ll govern as a pro-life president, but you’re going to see the Democrats use all sorts of shiny objects to distract people’s attention from the Obama performance on the economy. This is not a social issue election.”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">That will be news not only to the women who have been fighting against abortion restrictions, but to Republicans themselves. Since gaining power in 2011, Republicans across the country have pushed a rash of draconian anti-choice restrictions, including attempting to ban sex-selective abortion restrictions in just the last week.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Romney himself repeatedly has hit on social themes in the election, blasting President Barack Obama for requiring employers to provide birth control as part of preventative coverage — despite having done the same as governor of Massachusetts.</span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Obama Deputy Campaign Manager Stephanie Cutter reacted with incredulity to the statement.</span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">“If it’s not a social issue election then why did Mitt Romney just spend the last year campaigning on social issues?” Cutter asked. “These are his positions that he’s taken. Whether it’s giving bosses control over whether female employees can get contraception, being for the so-called personhood amendment that would ban all forms of abortion or telling the American people that he’ll get back to them on whether he supports Lilly Ledbetter, which is an economic issue and it should be a no-brainer, but the governor couldn’t even bring himself to be for that.”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Perhaps most galling is the idea that issues like abortion, fair pay and equal rights are just “shiny objects.” The girl turned away from an Oklahoma hospital after being raped was not a shiny object; she was a hurt, scared person who just wanted to get medical treatment. That care might have included emergency contraception, though, and thanks to so-called “conscience” laws, doctors who don’t believe in birth control don’t have to treat patients.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">For the tens of millions of American women who have had abortions, and the hundreds of millions of American men and women who have used contraception, the right to access health services is not a distraction. It is a core right, one as basic as the right to free speech, or freedom of religion. Those aren’t distractions. They’re vital.</span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><br />
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<tr style="mso-yfti-firstrow: yes; mso-yfti-irow: 0; mso-yfti-lastrow: yes;"> <td style="border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 467.25pt;" valign="top" width="623"> <div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><a href="http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/08/romneys-kiss-my-spokesman-takes-time-off-campaign-trail">http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/08/romneys-kiss-my-spokesman-takes-time-off-campaign-trail</a></span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">President Obama has found it difficult to find support for any of his proposals among Republicans on Capitol Hill.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He passed his landmark achievements – health reform legislation and wall street reform – without any help from Democrats. That national health reform law was in part based on the bipartisan law enacted by Mitt Romney in Massachusetts. But it never gained popularity nationally. One Congress watcher, <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/power-players-abc-news/blame-party-washington-problems-102604505.html">Norm Ornstein of the American Enterprise Institute</a> said recently that Republicans are more to fault for the gridlock in Washington than are the Democrats.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><a href="http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/08/birthday-wishes-fairy-dust-for-obama-in-orlando/">ORLANDO — President Obama Is On A Tear Over Taxes, Blasting Rival Mitt Romney’s Proposals Today As Nothing More Than “Fairy Dust” To Try To Fix The Economy</a>.</span></b></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">“They have tried to sell us this trickle down, tax cut ‘fairy dust’ before. And guess what? It didn’t work then, it will not work now,” Obama said of Romney’s plan to slash rates for corporations and upper-income earners.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">“It’s not a plan to create jobs, it’s not a plan to reduce the deficit. It is not a plan to build the middle class. It is not a plan to move the economy forward,” he said.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Romney has argued that extending the current Bush-era tax rates and cutting rates further for the wealthy will spur hiring by small businesses.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">“Under President Obama, middle-class Americans have experienced higher unemployment, lower incomes, and greater uncertainty about the future,” said Romney spokesman Ryan Williams.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">“Now he is promising to raise taxes on millions of families and small businesses – which is the last thing we should do in a struggling economy,” he said.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The crowd of 2500 here predictably wasn’t having any of Romney’s ideas, booing at the mere mention of his name.</span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">They were equally as vocal in praising the president, affectionately heckling him during his speech and singing him a boisterous rendition of “Happy Birthday.”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Obama turns 51 on Saturday.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">“If I had known you guys were going to sing, we would have had a cake. And then I would have blown out the candle, I would have made a wish that probably would have had to do with electoral votes,” he said with a grin. “A win in Florida wouldn’t be a bad birthday present.”</span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/guy-adams-i-thought-the-internet-age-had-ended-this-kind-of-censorship-7988208.html">Guy Adams: I thought the internet age had ended this kind of censorship</a></span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><span class="MsoHyperlink"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/guy-adams-i-thought-the-internet-age-had-ended-this-kind-of-censorship-7988208.html">I'm still awaiting a detailed explanation from Twitter as to why my account was immediately suspended</a></span></span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"></span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Twitter Suspends Journalist's Account</span></b></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">A journalist criticized NBC over Olympics coverage and was suspended from Twitter, which has partnered with NBC for its coverage.</span></b></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Here are three things that NBC prevented their public from being able to watch on network television so far this Olympic Games: live footage of the opening ceremony; live footage of Saturday's swimming showdown between Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte; live footage of the USA men's basketball "dream team."</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">A fourth thing they do not want people to see is the email address of Gary Zenkel, the executive responsible for this shambles. And a fifth thing is my Twitter feed, which over the weekend contained a couple of dozen occasionally uncouth observations about their coverage, several of which were accompanied by the trending hashtag: "#NBCfail."</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">As a journalist, you know you are doing your job properly when you manage to upset rich, powerful and entitled people who are used to getting their own way. And you know you've really got under their skin when they pursue censorship, the avenue of last resort since time immemorial.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The internet era is meant to be different, though. Thanks to Twitter, and Google and every other medium dedicated to the free exchange of information, the world is supposed to have changed. That's why the Arab Spring happened; it's why Justin Bieber happened. And its why, regardless of its comparative frivolity, NBC's successful attempt to suspend a journalist from a social networking site sets an ugly precedent.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Twitter's guidelines forbid users from publishing what they call "private" information, including "private email addresses". There is plenty of sense in this. But I did not Tweet a private email address. I Tweeted a corporate address for Mr Zenkel, which is widely listed online, and is identical in form to that of tens of thousands of those at NBC.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">I was not contacted by NBC or Twitter before my account was suspended. If they had dropped me a line, I might – might! – have quietly deleted the offending Tweet. Instead, they wandered into a PR controversy which has resulted in hundreds of thousands more people being made aware of its existence. Like any right thinking-person, I take the issue of online bullying seriously. I would hate for anyone to come to harm as a result of something I uploaded to the internet. But I'm at a loss to see how a bit of forthright correspondence from a disgruntled public could be anything more than a minor annoyance to a power-broker of Mr Zenkel's lofty status. I'm still awaiting a detailed explanation from Twitter as to why my account was immediately suspended. On the face of it, their reaction seems heavy-handed.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">As for Gary Zenkel, he is supposedly a grown-up, with a salary, and ego to match. His TV network has decided to delay broadcasting key Olympic events until Prime Time on the grounds it hopes to make more money from advertising. NBC surely knew viewers would be upset by this. If it now displeases Mr Zenkel to get emails from those rightly-angry customers, then he is surely in the wrong job.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/aug/01/israeli-pm-iran-nuclear-">http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/aug/01/israeli-pm-iran-nuclear-</a> <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/aug/01/israeli-pm-iran-nuclear-">programme</a></span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/aug/01/israeli-pm-iran-nuclear-">Israeli PM says time running out to stop Iran's nuclear programme</a></span></i></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><span class="MsoHyperlink"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/aug/01/israeli-pm-iran-nuclear-">Binyamin Netanyahu tells visiting US defence secretary that sanctions and diplomacy have so far failed to end standoff</a></span></i></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"></span></i></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Time is running out for the international community to halt Iran's nuclear programme by peaceful means, the Israeli prime minister, <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/binyamin-netanyahu">Binyamin Netanyahu</a>, told US defence secretary Leon Panetta in Jerusalem on Wednesday.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Sanctions, diplomacy and declarations of a willingness to take military action as a last resort had not yet convinced the Iranians to stop their programme, he said. "However forceful our statements, they have not convinced Iran that we are serious about stopping them. Right now the Iranian regime believes that the international community does not have the will to stop its nuclear programme."</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Netanyahu said earlier that although sanctions were hurting the Iranian economy, such measures had "yet to move its nuclear programme even a millimetre backwards".</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Panetta is the fourth senior US administration official to visit Israel in recent weeks as concern has mounted in Washington that Netanyahu is preparing the ground for a military strike in the coming months.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">In an attempt to reassure Israel – and counter the robust support for military action pledged by presumptive Republican candidate Mitt Romney in Jerusalem earlier this week – Panetta told the prime minister: "We will not allow Iran to develop a nuclear weapon, period. We will not allow them to develop a nuclear weapon, and we will exert all options in the effort to ensure that that does not happen."</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The question of whether Israel will unilaterally strike against Iran's nuclear sites in the coming months has returned to the fore after a period of relatively dampened speculation. There have also been fresh reports of a split between the Israeli political and security establishments over the merits of early unilateral action, following open opposition to such a move from former security chiefs.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">In a series of television interviews as Panetta arrived in Israel from Egypt, Netanyahu said any decision would be taken by the country's political leadership. But, he added, "I have not taken a decision".</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Following reports that senior defence officials, including military chief of staff Benny Gantz and Mossad chief Tamir Pardo, were opposed to Israel acting alone, the prime minister said: "In every democracy the decision-maker is the political echelon and the implementer is the professional echelon. That is how it always was and that is how it always will be."</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">He said Israel had the right to defend itself. "Things that affect our fate, our very existence, we don't entrust to others – not even to our best friends," he said.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Gantz denied that he was behind the reports, saying: "None of these stories was released by me … I tell the political echelon what I have to say, and they listen."</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The Israeli military was prepared for a military strike, he said. "As we see it, 'all options are on the table' is not a slogan, it is a working plan and we are doing it."</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Earlier Panetta met his counterpart, Ehud Barak, and toured an Iron Dome battery near Ashkelon, close to the border with Gaza. Israel deploys the weapons against rockets and missiles fired from Gaza.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Panetta denied reports that the purpose of his visit was to share with Israel an operational plan drawn up by the Pentagon to stop the Iranian nuclear programme by force in 18 months, by which time the administration believes it will be at a critical threshold.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Israel's former security chief has censured the country's "messianic" political leadership for talking up the prospects of a military stike on Iran's nuclear programme.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/apr/28/israeli-spy-chief-warns-netanyahu-barak">In unusually candid comments set to ratchet up tensions over Iran at the top of Israel's political establishment, Yuval Diskin, who retired as head of the internal intelligence agency Shin Bet last year, said he had "no faith" in the abilities of the prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, and the defence minister, Ehud Barak, to conduct a war.</a></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The pair, who are the foremost advocates of military action against Iran's nuclear programme, were "not fit to hold the steering wheel of power", Diskin told a meeting on Friday night.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">"My major problem is that I have no faith in the current leadership, which must lead us in an event on the scale of war with Iran or a regional war," he said.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">"I don't believe in either the prime minister or the defence minister. I don't believe in a leadership that makes decisions based on messianic feelings. Believe me, I have observed them from up close ... They are not people who I, on a personal level, trust to lead Israel to an event on that scale and carry it off.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">"They are misleading the public on the Iran issue. They tell the public that if Israel acts, Iran won't have a nuclear bomb. This is misleading. Actually, many experts say that an Israeli attack would accelerate the Iranian nuclear race."</span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><a href="http://www.michaelparenti.org/Superrich.html">The Super Rich Are Out of Sight</a></span></b></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The super rich, the less than 1 percent of the population who own the lion’s share of the nation’s wealth, go uncounted in most income distribution reports. Even those who purport to study the question regularly overlook the very wealthiest among us. For instance, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, relying on the latest U.S. Census Bureau data, released a report in December 1997 showing that in the last two decades “incomes of the richest fifth increased by 30 percent or nearly $27,000 after adjusting for inflation.” The average income of the top 20 percent was $117,500, or almost 13 times larger than the $9,250 average income of the poorest 20 percent.</span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">But where are the super rich? An average of $117,500 is an upper-middle income, not at all representative of a rich cohort, let alone a super rich one. All such reports about income distribution are based on U.S. Census Bureau surveys that regularly leave Big Money out of the picture. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">A few phone calls to the Census Bureau in Washington D.C. revealed that for years the bureau never interviewed anyone who had an income higher than $300,000. Or if interviewed, they were never recorded as above the “reportable upper limit” of $300,000, the top figure allowed by the bureau's computer program. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">In 1994, the bureau lifted the upper limit to $1 million. This still excludes the very richest who own the lion’s share of the wealth, the hundreds of billionaires and thousands of multimillionaires who make many times more than $1 million a year. The super rich simply have been computerized out of the picture.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">When asked why this procedure was used, an official said that the Census Bureau’s computers could not handle higher amounts. A most improbable excuse, since once the bureau decided to raise the upper limit from $300,000 to $1 million it did so without any difficulty, and it could do so again. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Another reason the official gave was “confidentiality.” Given place coordinates, someone with a very high income might be identified. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Furthermore, he said, high-income respondents usually understate their investment returns by about 40 to 50 percent. Finally, the official argued that since the super rich are so few, they are not likely to show up in a national sample.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">But by designating the (decapitated) top 20 percent of the entire nation as the “richest” quintile, the Census Bureau is including millions of people who make as little as $70,000. If you make over $100,000, you are in the top 4 percent. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Now $100,000 is a tidy sum indeed, but it's not super rich — as in Mellon, Morgan, or Murdock. The difference between Michael Eisner, Disney CEO who pocketed $565 million in 1996, and the individuals who average $9,250 is not 13 to 1 — the reported spread between highest and lowest quintiles — but over 61,000 to 1.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Speaking of CEOs, much attention has been given to the top corporate managers who rake in tens of millions of dollars annually in salaries and perks. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">But little is said about the tens of billions that these same corporations distribute to the top investor class each year, again that invisible fraction of 1 percent of the population. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Media publicity that focuses exclusively on a handful of greedy top executives conveniently avoids any exposure of the super rich as a class. In fact, reining in the CEOs who cut into the corporate take would well serve the big shareholder's interests.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Two studies that do their best to muddy our understanding of wealth, conducted respectively by the Rand Corporation and the Brookings Institution and widely reported in the major media, found that individuals typically become rich not from inheritance but by maintaining their health and working hard. Most of their savings comes from their earnings and has nothing to do with inherited family wealth, the researchers would have us believe. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">In typical social-science fashion, they prefigured their findings by limiting the scope of their data. Both studies failed to note that achieving a high income is itself in large part due to inherited advantages. Those coming from upper-strata households have a far better opportunity to maintain their health and develop their performance, attend superior schools, and achieve the advanced professional training, contacts, and influence needed to land the higher paying positions.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">More importantly, both the Rand and Brookings studies fail to include the super rich, those who sit on immense and largely inherited fortunes. Instead, the investigators concentrate on upper-middle-class professionals and managers, most of whom earn in the $100,000 to $300,000 range — which indicates that the researchers have no idea how rich the very rich really are.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">When pressed on this point, they explain that there is a shortage of data on the very rich. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Being such a tiny percentage, “they’re an extremely difficult part of the population to survey,” pleads Rand economist James P. Smith, offering the same excuse given by the Census Bureau officials. That Smith finds the super rich difficult to survey should not cause us to overlook the fact that their existence refutes his findings about self-earned wealth.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He seems to admit as much when he says, "This [study] shouldn't be taken as a statement that the Rockefellers didn’t give to their kids and the Kennedys didn't give to their kids." (New York Times, July 7, 1995) Indeed, most of the really big money is inherited — and by a portion of the population that is so minuscule as to be judged statistically inaccessible.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The higher one goes up the income scale, the greater the rate of capital accumulation. Economist Paul Krugman notes that not only have the top 20 percent grown more affluent compared with everyone below, the top 5 percent have grown richer compared with the next 15 percent. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The top one percent have become richer compared with the next 4 percent. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">And the top 0.25 percent have grown richer than the next 0.75 percent. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">That top 0.25 owns more wealth than the other 99 percent combined. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">It has been estimated that if children’s play blocks represented $1,000 each, over 98 percent of us would have incomes represented by piles of blocks that went not more than a few yards off the ground, while the top one percent would stack many times higher than the Eiffel Tower.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Marx's prediction about the growing gap between rich and poor still haunts the land — and the entire planet. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The growing concentration of wealth creates still more poverty. As some few get ever richer, more people fall deeper into destitution, finding it increasingly difficult to emerge from it. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The same pattern holds throughout much of the world. For years now, as the wealth of the few has been growing, the number of poor has been increasing at a faster rate than the earth's population. A rising tide sinks many boats.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">To grasp the true extent of wealth and income inequality in the United States, we should stop treating the “top quintile” — the upper-middle class — as the "richest" cohort in the country. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">But to do that, we need to look beyond the Census Bureau's cooked statistics. We need to catch sight of that tiny, stratospheric apex that owns most of the world.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Michael Parenti is the author of Against Empire, Dirty Truths, America Besieged, and most recently, History as Mystery, all published by City Lights Books.</span></div></td> </tr>
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<tr style="mso-yfti-firstrow: yes; mso-yfti-irow: 0; mso-yfti-lastrow: yes;"> <td style="border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 467.25pt;" valign="top" width="623"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/story/156467/6_things_you_should_know_about_the_%2421_trillion_the_world%27s_richest_people_are_hiding_in_tax_shelters?paging=off">http://www.alternet.org/story/156467/6_things_you_should_know_about_the_%2421_trillion_the_world%27s_richest_people_are_hiding_in_tax_shelters?paging=off</a></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><a href="http://world.einnews.com/article/108194097?promo=800&utm_source=MailingList&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Breaking+News%3A+world100-thursday">A technology breakdown at a major trading firm roiled the prices of 140 stocks listed on the New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday, undermining the fragile investor confidence.</a></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The problems at Knight Capital Group, one of the largest firms that buys and sells stocks to provide liquidity to the markets, emerged at the beginning of trading.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Heavy computer-based trading caused a rush of orders for dozens of stocks, ranging from well-known bellwethers like General Electric to tiny Wizzard Software Corp, whose shares soared to $14.76 after closing the previous day at $3.50. The NYSE has canceled trades in six particularly volatile issues.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The trading glitches are the latest in a series of market snafus that have hurt retail investors' confidence, including the botched Facebook initial public offering, the 2010 'flash crash' in which nearly $1 trillion in market value disappeared in minutes, and the failed public offering of BATS Global Markets, a rival to the NYSE and the Nasdaq.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The exact nature of the technology issues were unclear. The the magnitude and fallout for Knight, which was forced to tell clients to send orders elsewhere, and for the broader market were also unknown. Knight's stock plunged nearly 33 percent to $6.94, a nine-year closing low for the stock.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Knight Capital issued a terse statement acknowledging the trading errors, but company officials were not available for further comment.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">'This morning, a technology issue occurred in Knight's market-making unit related to the routing of shares of approximately 150 stocks to the NYSE,' Knight said in the statement.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Observers said the problem highlighted the weaknesses in the market that remain two years after the Flash Crash. 'The structure that we have in place is so complicated and intertwined, that all of these entanglements have created real issues in the marketplace,' said Christopher Nagy, a consultant to exchanges and brokerages.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Heavy buy orders in some stocks sent prices soaring, while others plunged. Many of the names were lesser-known issues such as Molycorp, a stock that usually averages about 2.65 million shares daily but which saw volume of more than 5.7 million shares in the first 45 minutes of trading, bouncing between $17.50 and $14.35 in that period.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The mood at the Knight Capital booth on the NYSE trading floor was somber, with worried traders taking numerous phone calls as well as answering questions from NYSE officials who were making inquiries on the floor.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Many on the floor were aware that the problematic trades were coming from Knight.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>– Reuters</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><a href="http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article32064.htm">Iranians Should Be ‘Very Fearful For Next 12 Weeks: Ex-Mossad Chief</a></span></b></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">By Times of Israel staff</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><a href="http://www.timesofisrael.com/efraim-halevy-if-i-were-an-iranian-i-would-be-very-fearful-of-the-next-12-weeks-ex-mossad-chief-tells-ny-times/">August 02, 2012 "Times of Israel"</a> -- The former Mossad chief Efraim Halevy, who told The Times of Israel in an interview in March that there would be “nothing else left” but a resort to force if the diplomatic track with Iran did not quickly produce a breakthrough, hinted Thursday that the moment of truth on Iran’s nuclear drive was now imminent.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">“If I were an Iranian, I would be very fearful of the next 12 weeks,” Halevy, who is also a former national security adviser and ambassador, told The New York Times.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">In an Israel Radio interview later Thursday, he added that Israel’s threats of military action had a certain “credibility” and “seriousness.” He said the Iranian nuclear issue, and the Syrian issue, were the key regional concerns, and reiterated that “If I were an Iranian, I would be very fearful of the next 12 weeks.”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The New York Times report, focusing on Wednesday’s talks here by Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, said there was “feverish speculation” in Israel that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “will act in September or early October.”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Apart from Netanyahu’s concern that Israel’s military option would “soon” become redundant, the paper cited several other reasons “for the potential timing.” Among them, it said, was the fact that “Israel does not like to fight wars in winter.” Also, Netanyahu “feels that he will have less leverage if President Obama is reelected” while, were Mitt Romney to win the November elections, “the new president would be unlikely to want to take on a big military action early in his term.”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Still, Thursday’s article continued, “a number of administration officials say they remain hopeful that Israel has no imminent plans to attack and may be willing to let the United States take the lead in any future military strike, which they say would not occur until next year at the earliest.”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The New York Times further reported that administration officials say “Israeli officials are less confrontational in private” and that Netanyahu “understands the consequences of military action for Israel, the United States and the region. They say they know he has to maintain the credibility of his threat to keep up pressure on the United States to continue with sanctions and the development of military plans.”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">In his interview with The Times of Israel in late March, Halevy said that if the then-upcoming international talks with Iran on thwarting its nuclear program did not quickly produce a breakthrough, there will be “nothing else left” but a resort to force.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">He also said he had “no doubt that for the past few years Israel has been readying its capabilities to meet the Iranians if necessary by force.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">It was “tragic,” Halevy added at the time, that “I don’t see any great effort being made” by the P5+1 group — the five UN Security Council permanent members and Germany — to prepare urgently and effectively for those talks. The lights “should be burning through the night” to get a strategy together, he said. “The number one thing the world should be doing [on Iran] is investing enormous preparation into the P5+1 confrontation, because this is really the ‘Last Train to San Fernando.’”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Iran, he predicted, would doubtless try to play for time in the talks. The international community, therefore, needed to be ready with its strategy and tactics, and to be represented by “a very high-level, experienced, wise and creative negotiator.”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">For the international community, said Halevy, “there’s no time for, you know, ‘Let’s meet again in two or three months, let’s do our homework, let’s not rush things, let’s look at it, and so forth.’” Rather, he said, “there has to be a breakthrough… If there is no breakthrough, it means to say that the talks have failed.”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Asked if, by a breakthrough, he meant Iran announcing the suspension of its nuclear program, Halevy demurred. “I don’t want to say ‘Iran suspending the program.’ I don’t believe that everything will become public overnight.” But it would need to be clear, he said, “that there is a serious negotiation… They don’t have to spell it all out, but it has to be clear.”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Halevy said he did see signs of greater potential international coordination over Iran. He was encouraged by the growing consensus on tackling Syria, notably including Russia and China, which he said could also be reflected in a coordinated strategy on Iran. He also noted that the priority for the ayatollahs’ regime in Iran is “survival” at all costs.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Nonetheless, if the negotiations fail, “there’s nothing else left” but a resort to force, he said.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Perhaps, it was put to Halevy, Israel could live with a nuclear weapons-capable Iran? Halevy responded: “I don’t think that we should countenance that as long as we can do what we can to remove it. I don’t accept the notion that Israel is destructible. But I think that if Iran retains a nuclear capability, life here is going to be very tough for a very long period to come. Israel will not disappear, but Israel will go through a period which I would not like it to go through.”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Asked whether he believed the Israeli government wanted a diplomatic solution, he answered: “I’m not sure every Israeli wants a diplomatic solution… I’m not sure that the government is entirely behind this support for a diplomatic solution.”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><a href="http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article32066.htm">http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article32066.htm</a></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><a href="http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article32066.htm">Israeli's Brainwashed Into State Of Apathy</a></span></b></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">By Haim Baram</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">August 02, 2012 "Information Clearing House" --<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In rare moments of lucidity, even the mythological “average Israeli” feels that our less than splendid isolation is intolerable. We are constantly brainwashed by our establishment, and the endless bombardments combining biblical rhetoric, alarmist prophesies and demagogic evocations of the holocaust confuse even the elitist circles, despite their liberal self-image and professed Western outlook. This increasingly pervasive syndrome can partially account for our sheepish acquiesce with the rampant rumours and speculations about the forthcoming Israeli attack on Iran. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The consequences of such aggression are abundantly clear for most educated Israelis, even right-wingers. Yet, the current mood dictates certain apathy, very untypical in saner epochs. What has happened to our judgement, critical faculties and rebellious propensities? How can one reconcile the complete loss of faith with our institutions including the IDF with the fatalistic acceptance of our fate? There is no clear cut explanation, only pessimistic theories and general air of resignation, unprecedented in our country’s history.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">In every political discussion one hears well-connected politicians and commentators list the most likely scenarios and the conclusions are normally somber. The prevalent assessments fail to grasp the logic behind the almost inevitable aggression. The nuclear capabilities of Iran are likely to remain intact; the retaliation by the Iranians is bound to be harsh; the attack on Iranian territory will unite the entire Moslem world against Israel; there will be no international sympathy towards Israel even in the terrible case of death to thousands of people here; most Americans will interpret, and not without reason, the Israeli operation as an attempt by Binyamin Netanyahu to subvert the relatively liberal regime in Washington and to help the reactionary Republican party in its election campaign.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The Israeli Prime-Minister is regarded here, almost universally, as a Republican hack, with vested interests in the victory of the hard-core right-wingers in the US. Actually, he has built his entire career as an Israeli politician on the premise, that White House policies, which do not fully concur with the interest of Israel’s right-wing government, can be subverted and finally even eradicated by the US congress, supposedly under the influence of the pro-Likud lobby in Washington. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">There is an element of conceit here that has turned Netanyahu into the scourge of American liberals, a foe of the Democrats and a staunch ally of the worst war-mongers and neo-liberals in the American political arena. The South-American leftist, arguably forming a very potent ideological, social and political powerbase in Latin-America, brand official Israel as an enemy, and not without cause. Millions in Brazil, Argentina and the entire spectrum of opinion in Central America will castigate Israel as an aggressor if the Netanyahu regime attack Iran. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">But even their reaction will be dwarfed but the gathering storm in the Moslem world. The wealthy and conservative sector of the US Jewry and their allies in Alabama and Texas are unlikely to shield the Israelis from the popular international wrath.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The left in Israel, our allies the Arab citizens and the entire peace camp here need the world to save the region from the planned, senseless attack on Iran which could well deteriorate into a future nuclear war. As we cannot rely on our cabinet ministers, some of them baying for blood, we must call upon governments, NGOs and political movements worldwide to help us to prevent the Netanyahu lunacy before the PM unleashes his fury on the denizens of the Middle-East, including us, the Israelis.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Haim Baram is an Israeli writer and broadcaster. He was (with Major-General Matti Peled, Uri Avnery and Dr. Ya'akov Arnon) a founding member of the Israeli Council for Israeli-Palestinian Peace (ICIPP). He was a member of the Israel Committee for Mordechai Vanunu.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><a href="http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article32057.htm">Turkey Provides Surface-to-air Missiles for Syrian Insurgents</a></span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">By Reuters</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">US and allied officials acknowledged that officials of Saudi Arabia and Qatar were discussing whether surface-to-air missiles might help Syrian rebels bring down Russian-made helicopters and other aircraft the Syrian army was using to move troops between trouble spots.</span></i><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><a href="http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article32057.htm">http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article32057.htm</a></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"><a href="http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article32057.htm">August 02, 2012 "The Nation" -- WASHINGTON - Rebels fighting to depose Syrian president Bashar al Assad have for the first time acquired a small supply of surface-to-air missiles, according to a news report that a Western official did not dispute</a>.</span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">NBC News reported that the rebel Free Syrian Army had obtained nearly two dozen of the weapons, which were delivered to them via neighbouring Turkey, whose moderate Islamist government has been demanding Assad’s departure with increasing vehemence.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Indications are that the US government, which has said it opposes arming the rebels, is not responsible for the delivery of the missiles.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">But some US government sources have been saying for weeks that Arab governments seeking to oust Assad, including Saudi Arabia and Qatar, have been pressing for such missiles, also known as MANPADs, for man-portable air-defence systems, to be supplied to the rebels.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">In recent days, air operations against the rebels by Syrian government forces appear to have been stepped up, particularly around the contested city of Aleppo, making the rebels’ need for MANPADs more urgent.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Precisely what kind of MANPADs have been delivered to Syrian rebels is unclear and NBC News did not provide details. Such weapons range from the primitive to highly sophisticated.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">And even if the rebels do have the weapons, it is unclear whether they have the training to operate them effectively against Assad’s air forces in the immediate future.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Some conservative US lawmakers, such as Republican Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham, have criticized the administration of President Barack Obama for moving too slowly to assist the rebels and have suggested the US government become directly involved in arming Assad’s opponents.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
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</tbody></table></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;"></span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3765367910333413191.post-54377266639832443132012-08-02T18:46:00.001-07:002012-08-02T18:46:04.982-07:00In Hiroshima's Shadow : The Iran Gamble World War III Billed As A Regional Conflict Plus Other Disturbing News Of The Day!<br />
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August 6, the anniversary of Hiroshima, should be a day of somber reflection, not only on the terrible events of that day in 1945, but also on what they revealed: that humans, in their dedicated quest to extend their capacities for destruction, had finally found a way to approach the ultimate limit.<br />
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This year‚ Aug. 6 memorials have special significance. They take place shortly before the 50th anniversary of, "the most dangerous moment in human history," in the words of the historian and John F. Kennedy adviser Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., referring to the Cuban missile crisis.<br />
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Graham Allison writes in the current issue of Foreign Affairs that Kennedy, "ordered actions that he knew would increase the risk not only of conventional war but also nuclear war," with a likelihood of perhaps 50 percent, he believed, an estimate that Allison regards as realistic.<br />
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Kennedy declared a high-level nuclear alert that authorized, "NATO aircraft with Turkish pilots ... (or others) ... to take off, fly to Moscow, and drop a bomb."<br />
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None were more shocked by the discovery of missiles in Cuba than the men in charge of the similar missiles that the U.S. had secretly deployed in Okinawa six months earlier, surely aimed at China, at a moment of elevated regional tensions.<br />
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Kennedy took Chairman Nikita Khrushchev, "right to the brink of nuclear war and he looked over the edge and had no stomach for it," according to Gen. David Burchinal, then a high-ranking official in the Pentagon planning staff. One can hardly count on such sanity forever.<br />
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Khrushchev accepted a formula that Kennedy devised, ending the crisis just short of war. The formula‚ boldest element, Allison writes, was, "a secret sweetener that promised the withdrawal of U.S. missiles from Turkey within six months after the crisis was resolved." These were obsolete missiles that were being replaced by far more lethal, and invulnerable, Polaris submarines.<br />
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In brief, even at high risk of war of unimaginable destruction, it was felt necessary to reinforce the principle that U.S. has the unilateral right to deploy nuclear missiles anywhere, some aimed at China or at the borders of Russia, which had previously placed no missiles outside the USSR. Justifications of course have been offered, but I do not think they withstand analysis.<br />
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An accompanying principle is that Cuba had no right to have missiles for defense against what appeared to be an imminent U.S. invasion. The plans for Kennedy‚ terrorist programs, Operation Mongoose, called for, "open revolt and overthrow of the Communist regime," in October 1962, the month of the missile crisis, recognizing that, "final success will require decisive U.S. military intervention."<br />
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The terrorist operations against Cuba are commonly dismissed by U.S. commentators as insignificant CIA shenanigans. The victims, not surprisingly, see matters rather differently. We can at last hear their voices in Keith Bolender‚, "Voices from the Other Side: An Oral History of Terrorism Against Cuba."<br />
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The events of October 1962 are widely hailed as Kennedy‚ finest hour. Allison offers them as, "a guide for how to defuse conflicts, manage great-power relationships, and make sound decisions about foreign policy in general." In particular, today‚ conflicts with Iran and China.<br />
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Disaster was perilously close in 1962, and there has been no shortage of dangerous moments since. In 1973, in the last days of the Arab-Israeli war, Henry Kissinger called a high-level nuclear alert. India and Pakistan have come close to nuclear war. There have been innumerable cases when human intervention aborted nuclear attack only moments before launch after false reports by automated systems. There is much to think about on Aug. 6.<br />
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Allison joins many others in regarding Iran‚ nuclear programs as the most severe current crisis, "an even more complex challenge for American policymakers than the Cuban missile crisis," because of the threat of Israeli bombing.<br />
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The war against Iran is already well underway, including assassination of scientists and economic pressures that have reached the level of, "undeclared war," in the judgment of the Iran specialist Gary Sick.<br />
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Great pride is taken in the sophisticated cyberwar directed against Iran. The Pentagon regards cyberwar as, "an act of war," that authorizes the target, "to respond using traditional military force," The Wall Street Journal reports. With the usual exception: not when the U.S. or an ally is the perpetrator.<br />
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The Iran threat has recently been outlined by Gen. Giora Eiland, one of Israel‚ top military planners, described as, "one of the most ingenious and prolific thinkers the (Israeli military) has ever produced."<br />
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Of the threats he outlines, the most credible is that, "any confrontation on our borders will take place under an Iranian nuclear umbrella." Israel might therefore be constrained in resorting to force. Eiland agrees with the Pentagon and U.S. intelligence, which also regard deterrence as the major threat that Iran poses.<br />
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The current escalation of the, "undeclared war," against Iran increases the threat of accidental large-scale war. Some of the dangers were illustrated last month when a U.S. naval vessel, part of the huge deployment in the Gulf, fired on a small fishing boat, killing one Indian crew member and wounding at least three others. It would not take much to set off a major war.<br />
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One sensible way to avoid such dread consequences is to pursue, "the goal of establishing in the Middle East a zone free from weapons of mass destruction and all missiles for their delivery and the objective of a global ban on chemical weapons," the wording of Security Council resolution 687 of April 1991, which the U.S. and U.K. invoked in their effort to provide a thin legal cover for their invasion of Iraq 12 years later.<br />
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The goal has been an Arab-Iranian objective since 1974, regularly re-endorsed, and by now it has near-unanimous global support, at least formally. An international conference to consider ways to implement such a treaty may take place in December.<br />
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Progress is unlikely unless there is mass public support in the West. Failure to grasp the opportunity will, once again, lengthen the grim shadow that has darkened the world since that fateful Aug. 6.<br />
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http://www.nationalmemo.com/five-of-mitt-romneys-scariest-billionaire-donors <br />
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Five Of Mitt Romney’s Scariest Billionaire Donors<br />
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August 1st, 2012 11:10 pm<br />
Jason Sattler<br />
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If you’re the son or daughter of a billionaire, now is the time to act. Convince your parents to donate millions of dollars to one of the Super PAC’s trying to get Mitt Romney elected.<br />
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Here’s the sell: Mom, Dad, Mitt is going to give you millions in tax breaks over his four years in office, according to a new study by the non-partisan Brookings Institute. But don’t just think of yourself. Think of me. I could get billions! Mitt wants to completely eliminate the Estate Tax, which is only paid by one out of 1000 Americans. This would effectively make me as much of a billionaire as you are without me doing anything except being born to the best parents in the world.<br />
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Of course, the benefits Mitt is offering to his billionaire donors aren’t limited to billions in tax breaks to them and their kids. There’s also rampant deregulation, potential wars and possibly even a shoe contract.<br />
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Meet five of the thirty-two billionaires who are spending big to put Mitt in the White House and who accordingly want big things in return.<br />
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7 Ways Romney’s Education Plan Would Destroy America’s Public Schools<br />
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Mitt Romney wants to destroy public education in the US and get rid of the Department of Education.<br />
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I am not inventing this: you can read all about it in his education white paper entitled “A Chance for Every Child: Mitt Romney’s Plan for Restoring the Promise of American Education” with a forward by Jeb Bush, no less. If you believe that destroying public education as we know it and turning our schools over to the private sector will solve its problems, then this plan is for you.<br />
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The central themes of the Romney plan are a rehash of Republican education ideas from the past thirty years. Here’s how Romney is planning to destroy public education:<br />
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1. Subsidizing parents who want to send their child to a private or religious school. Romney offers complete support for using taxpayer money to pay for private school vouchers, privately managed charters, for-profit online schools, and almost every other alternative to public schools.<br />
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2. Encouraging the private sector to operate schools. To cut costs, Romney encourages the proliferation of for-profit online universities. Romney’s plan says that no new money is needed because more spending on schools will not fix our problems. However, he proposes to dedicate more taxpayer money to the priorities that he favors, such as vouchers, charter schools, and online schools.<br />
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3. Putting commercial banks in charge of the federal student loan program. Romney claims that more federal aid leads to higher tuition, so he offers no new federal funding to help students crippled by debt. Instead, Romney would encourage involvement of the private sector by having commercial banks serve as the intermediary for federal student loans. Obama eliminated this approach in 2012 as too costly.<br />
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4. Holding teachers and schools accountable for students’ test scores. Romney also wants more federal money to reward states for “eliminating or reforming teacher tenure and establishing systems that focus on effectiveness in advancing student achievement.” In other words, Romney is willing to hand out money to states if they eliminate due process rights for teachers and if they pay more to teachers whose students get higher scores on standardized tests and get rid of teacher whose students do not.<br />
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5. Lowering entrance requirements for new teachers. Romney takes a strong stand against certification of teachers, the minimal state-level requirement that future teachers must pass either state or national tests to demonstrate their knowledge and skill, which he considers an unnecessary hurdle.<br />
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6. Eliminating the need to limit class size. Romney apparently believes that class size does not matter (although presumably it mattered to him when he chose a school with small classes for his own children).<br />
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7. Eliminating teachers’ rights. In the vision presented by Romney, public dollars would flow to schools that teach creationism. Anyone could teach, without passing any test of their knowledge and skills and without any professional preparation. Teachers could also be fired for any reason, without any protection of their freedom to teach.<br />
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This is all very, very scary for us public school teachers.<br />
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As if that were not enough, Diane Ravitch, writing in The New York Review of Books, notes:<br />
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Paradoxically, Romney’s campaign takes credit for the fact that Massachusetts leads the nation in reading and mathematics on the federal tests known as National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP).<br />
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But Romney was not responsible to the state’s academic success, which is owing to reforms that are entirely different from the ones he is now proposing for the country (my italics). Signed into law a full decade before Romney began his tenure as governor in 2003, the Massachusetts Education Reform Act involved a commitment by the state to double state funding of public education from $1.3 billion in 1993 to $2.6 billion by 2000; to provide a minimum foundation budget for every district to meet its needs, to develop strong curricula for subjects such as science, history, the arts, foreign languages, mathematics, and English; to put into effect a testing program based on the curriculum; to expand professional development for teachers; and to test would-be teachers. In the late 1990s – again, before Romney assumed office – the state added new funds for early childhood education.<br />
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Candidate Romney should explain how privatizing the way we school our children will further his goal of “restoring the promise of American education.”<br />
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Here’s what John Adams had to say about public education (with thanks again to Diane Ravitch):<br />
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“The whole people must take upon themselves the education of the whole people, and must be willing to bear the expenses of it.. There should not be a district of one mile square, without a school in it, not founded by a charitable individual, but maintained at the public expense of the people themselves.”<br />
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Message to candidate Romney from an experienced educator: Restoring American education means supporting public schools, not destroying them.<br />
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What do you think?<br />
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Romney: Let’s Cut Teachers, Firefighters, Police<br />
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Romney’s Education Plan Recycles Failed Ideas<br />
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Romney Advisor: Women’s Issues Just ‘Shiny Objects’ (Video)<br />
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The Romney campaign may want senior adviser Eric Fehrnstrom to stop talking. The man who gave the 2012 campaign “Etch-a-Sketch” strategy has now declared that issues that affect women are simply “shiny objects” that distract voters from more important topics.<br />
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Appearing on This Week With George Stephanopolus, Fehrnstrom said, “Mitt Romney is pro-life. He’ll govern as a pro-life president, but you’re going to see the Democrats use all sorts of shiny objects to distract people’s attention from the Obama performance on the economy. This is not a social issue election.”<br />
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That will be news not only to the women who have been fighting against abortion restrictions, but to Republicans themselves. Since gaining power in 2011, Republicans across the country have pushed a rash of draconian anti-choice restrictions, including attempting to ban sex-selective abortion restrictions in just the last week.<br />
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Romney himself repeatedly has hit on social themes in the election, blasting President Barack Obama for requiring employers to provide birth control as part of preventative coverage — despite having done the same as governor of Massachusetts.<br />
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Obama Deputy Campaign Manager Stephanie Cutter reacted with incredulity to the statement.<br />
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“If it’s not a social issue election then why did Mitt Romney just spend the last year campaigning on social issues?” Cutter asked. “These are his positions that he’s taken. Whether it’s giving bosses control over whether female employees can get contraception, being for the so-called personhood amendment that would ban all forms of abortion or telling the American people that he’ll get back to them on whether he supports Lilly Ledbetter, which is an economic issue and it should be a no-brainer, but the governor couldn’t even bring himself to be for that.”<br />
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Perhaps most galling is the idea that issues like abortion, fair pay and equal rights are just “shiny objects.” The girl turned away from an Oklahoma hospital after being raped was not a shiny object; she was a hurt, scared person who just wanted to get medical treatment. That care might have included emergency contraception, though, and thanks to so-called “conscience” laws, doctors who don’t believe in birth control don’t have to treat patients.<br />
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For the tens of millions of American women who have had abortions, and the hundreds of millions of American men and women who have used contraception, the right to access health services is not a distraction. It is a core right, one as basic as the right to free speech, or freedom of religion. Those aren’t distractions. They’re vital.<br />
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Watch the Video:<br />
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http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/08/romneys-kiss-my-spokesman-takes-time-off-campaign-trail
President Obama has found it difficult to find support for any of his proposals among Republicans on Capitol Hill. He passed his landmark achievements – health reform legislation and wall street reform – without any help from Democrats. That national health reform law was in part based on the bipartisan law enacted by Mitt Romney in Massachusetts. But it never gained popularity nationally. One Congress watcher, Norm Ornstein of the American Enterprise Institute said recently that Republicans are more to fault for the gridlock in Washington than are the Democrats.
ORLANDO — President Obama Is On A Tear Over Taxes, Blasting Rival Mitt Romney’s Proposals Today As Nothing More Than “Fairy Dust” To Try To Fix The Economy.
“They have tried to sell us this trickle down, tax cut ‘fairy dust’ before. And guess what? It didn’t work then, it will not work now,” Obama said of Romney’s plan to slash rates for corporations and upper-income earners.
“It’s not a plan to create jobs, it’s not a plan to reduce the deficit. It is not a plan to build the middle class. It is not a plan to move the economy forward,” he said.
Romney has argued that extending the current Bush-era tax rates and cutting rates further for the wealthy will spur hiring by small businesses.
“Under President Obama, middle-class Americans have experienced higher unemployment, lower incomes, and greater uncertainty about the future,” said Romney spokesman Ryan Williams.
“Now he is promising to raise taxes on millions of families and small businesses – which is the last thing we should do in a struggling economy,” he said.
The crowd of 2500 here predictably wasn’t having any of Romney’s ideas, booing at the mere mention of his name.
They were equally as vocal in praising the president, affectionately heckling him during his speech and singing him a boisterous rendition of “Happy Birthday.”
Obama turns 51 on Saturday.
“If I had known you guys were going to sing, we would have had a cake. And then I would have blown out the candle, I would have made a wish that probably would have had to do with electoral votes,” he said with a grin. “A win in Florida wouldn’t be a bad birthday present.”
Guy Adams: I thought the internet age had ended this kind of censorship
I'm still awaiting a detailed explanation from Twitter as to why my account was immediately suspended
Twitter Suspends Journalist's Account
A journalist criticized NBC over Olympics coverage and was suspended from Twitter, which has partnered with NBC for its coverage.
Here are three things that NBC prevented their public from being able to watch on network television so far this Olympic Games: live footage of the opening ceremony; live footage of Saturday's swimming showdown between Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte; live footage of the USA men's basketball "dream team."
A fourth thing they do not want people to see is the email address of Gary Zenkel, the executive responsible for this shambles. And a fifth thing is my Twitter feed, which over the weekend contained a couple of dozen occasionally uncouth observations about their coverage, several of which were accompanied by the trending hashtag: "#NBCfail."
As a journalist, you know you are doing your job properly when you manage to upset rich, powerful and entitled people who are used to getting their own way. And you know you've really got under their skin when they pursue censorship, the avenue of last resort since time immemorial.
The internet era is meant to be different, though. Thanks to Twitter, and Google and every other medium dedicated to the free exchange of information, the world is supposed to have changed. That's why the Arab Spring happened; it's why Justin Bieber happened. And its why, regardless of its comparative frivolity, NBC's successful attempt to suspend a journalist from a social networking site sets an ugly precedent.
Twitter's guidelines forbid users from publishing what they call "private" information, including "private email addresses". There is plenty of sense in this. But I did not Tweet a private email address. I Tweeted a corporate address for Mr Zenkel, which is widely listed online, and is identical in form to that of tens of thousands of those at NBC.
I was not contacted by NBC or Twitter before my account was suspended. If they had dropped me a line, I might – might! – have quietly deleted the offending Tweet. Instead, they wandered into a PR controversy which has resulted in hundreds of thousands more people being made aware of its existence. Like any right thinking-person, I take the issue of online bullying seriously. I would hate for anyone to come to harm as a result of something I uploaded to the internet. But I'm at a loss to see how a bit of forthright correspondence from a disgruntled public could be anything more than a minor annoyance to a power-broker of Mr Zenkel's lofty status. I'm still awaiting a detailed explanation from Twitter as to why my account was immediately suspended. On the face of it, their reaction seems heavy-handed.
As for Gary Zenkel, he is supposedly a grown-up, with a salary, and ego to match. His TV network has decided to delay broadcasting key Olympic events until Prime Time on the grounds it hopes to make more money from advertising. NBC surely knew viewers would be upset by this. If it now displeases Mr Zenkel to get emails from those rightly-angry customers, then he is surely in the wrong job.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/aug/01/israeli-pm-iran-nuclear- programme
Israeli PM says time running out to stop Iran's nuclear programme
Binyamin Netanyahu tells visiting US defence secretary that sanctions and diplomacy have so far failed to end standoff
Time is running out for the international community to halt Iran's nuclear programme by peaceful means, the Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, told US defence secretary Leon Panetta in Jerusalem on Wednesday.
Sanctions, diplomacy and declarations of a willingness to take military action as a last resort had not yet convinced the Iranians to stop their programme, he said. "However forceful our statements, they have not convinced Iran that we are serious about stopping them. Right now the Iranian regime believes that the international community does not have the will to stop its nuclear programme."
Netanyahu said earlier that although sanctions were hurting the Iranian economy, such measures had "yet to move its nuclear programme even a millimetre backwards".
Panetta is the fourth senior US administration official to visit Israel in recent weeks as concern has mounted in Washington that Netanyahu is preparing the ground for a military strike in the coming months.
In an attempt to reassure Israel – and counter the robust support for military action pledged by presumptive Republican candidate Mitt Romney in Jerusalem earlier this week – Panetta told the prime minister: "We will not allow Iran to develop a nuclear weapon, period. We will not allow them to develop a nuclear weapon, and we will exert all options in the effort to ensure that that does not happen."
The question of whether Israel will unilaterally strike against Iran's nuclear sites in the coming months has returned to the fore after a period of relatively dampened speculation. There have also been fresh reports of a split between the Israeli political and security establishments over the merits of early unilateral action, following open opposition to such a move from former security chiefs.
In a series of television interviews as Panetta arrived in Israel from Egypt, Netanyahu said any decision would be taken by the country's political leadership. But, he added, "I have not taken a decision".
Following reports that senior defence officials, including military chief of staff Benny Gantz and Mossad chief Tamir Pardo, were opposed to Israel acting alone, the prime minister said: "In every democracy the decision-maker is the political echelon and the implementer is the professional echelon. That is how it always was and that is how it always will be."
He said Israel had the right to defend itself. "Things that affect our fate, our very existence, we don't entrust to others – not even to our best friends," he said.
Gantz denied that he was behind the reports, saying: "None of these stories was released by me … I tell the political echelon what I have to say, and they listen."
The Israeli military was prepared for a military strike, he said. "As we see it, 'all options are on the table' is not a slogan, it is a working plan and we are doing it."
Earlier Panetta met his counterpart, Ehud Barak, and toured an Iron Dome battery near Ashkelon, close to the border with Gaza. Israel deploys the weapons against rockets and missiles fired from Gaza.
Panetta denied reports that the purpose of his visit was to share with Israel an operational plan drawn up by the Pentagon to stop the Iranian nuclear programme by force in 18 months, by which time the administration believes it will be at a critical threshold.
Israel's former security chief has censured the country's "messianic" political leadership for talking up the prospects of a military stike on Iran's nuclear programme.
In unusually candid comments set to ratchet up tensions over Iran at the top of Israel's political establishment, Yuval Diskin, who retired as head of the internal intelligence agency Shin Bet last year, said he had "no faith" in the abilities of the prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, and the defence minister, Ehud Barak, to conduct a war.
The pair, who are the foremost advocates of military action against Iran's nuclear programme, were "not fit to hold the steering wheel of power", Diskin told a meeting on Friday night.
"My major problem is that I have no faith in the current leadership, which must lead us in an event on the scale of war with Iran or a regional war," he said.
"I don't believe in either the prime minister or the defence minister. I don't believe in a leadership that makes decisions based on messianic feelings. Believe me, I have observed them from up close ... They are not people who I, on a personal level, trust to lead Israel to an event on that scale and carry it off.
"They are misleading the public on the Iran issue. They tell the public that if Israel acts, Iran won't have a nuclear bomb. This is misleading. Actually, many experts say that an Israeli attack would accelerate the Iranian nuclear race."
The Super Rich Are Out of Sight
The super rich, the less than 1 percent of the population who own the lion’s share of the nation’s wealth, go uncounted in most income distribution reports. Even those who purport to study the question regularly overlook the very wealthiest among us. For instance, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, relying on the latest U.S. Census Bureau data, released a report in December 1997 showing that in the last two decades “incomes of the richest fifth increased by 30 percent or nearly $27,000 after adjusting for inflation.” The average income of the top 20 percent was $117,500, or almost 13 times larger than the $9,250 average income of the poorest 20 percent.
But where are the super rich? An average of $117,500 is an upper-middle income, not at all representative of a rich cohort, let alone a super rich one. All such reports about income distribution are based on U.S. Census Bureau surveys that regularly leave Big Money out of the picture.
A few phone calls to the Census Bureau in Washington D.C. revealed that for years the bureau never interviewed anyone who had an income higher than $300,000. Or if interviewed, they were never recorded as above the “reportable upper limit” of $300,000, the top figure allowed by the bureau's computer program.
In 1994, the bureau lifted the upper limit to $1 million. This still excludes the very richest who own the lion’s share of the wealth, the hundreds of billionaires and thousands of multimillionaires who make many times more than $1 million a year. The super rich simply have been computerized out of the picture.
When asked why this procedure was used, an official said that the Census Bureau’s computers could not handle higher amounts. A most improbable excuse, since once the bureau decided to raise the upper limit from $300,000 to $1 million it did so without any difficulty, and it could do so again.
Another reason the official gave was “confidentiality.” Given place coordinates, someone with a very high income might be identified.
Furthermore, he said, high-income respondents usually understate their investment returns by about 40 to 50 percent. Finally, the official argued that since the super rich are so few, they are not likely to show up in a national sample.
But by designating the (decapitated) top 20 percent of the entire nation as the “richest” quintile, the Census Bureau is including millions of people who make as little as $70,000. If you make over $100,000, you are in the top 4 percent.
Now $100,000 is a tidy sum indeed, but it's not super rich — as in Mellon, Morgan, or Murdock. The difference between Michael Eisner, Disney CEO who pocketed $565 million in 1996, and the individuals who average $9,250 is not 13 to 1 — the reported spread between highest and lowest quintiles — but over 61,000 to 1.
Speaking of CEOs, much attention has been given to the top corporate managers who rake in tens of millions of dollars annually in salaries and perks.
But little is said about the tens of billions that these same corporations distribute to the top investor class each year, again that invisible fraction of 1 percent of the population.
Media publicity that focuses exclusively on a handful of greedy top executives conveniently avoids any exposure of the super rich as a class. In fact, reining in the CEOs who cut into the corporate take would well serve the big shareholder's interests.
Two studies that do their best to muddy our understanding of wealth, conducted respectively by the Rand Corporation and the Brookings Institution and widely reported in the major media, found that individuals typically become rich not from inheritance but by maintaining their health and working hard. Most of their savings comes from their earnings and has nothing to do with inherited family wealth, the researchers would have us believe.
In typical social-science fashion, they prefigured their findings by limiting the scope of their data. Both studies failed to note that achieving a high income is itself in large part due to inherited advantages. Those coming from upper-strata households have a far better opportunity to maintain their health and develop their performance, attend superior schools, and achieve the advanced professional training, contacts, and influence needed to land the higher paying positions.
More importantly, both the Rand and Brookings studies fail to include the super rich, those who sit on immense and largely inherited fortunes. Instead, the investigators concentrate on upper-middle-class professionals and managers, most of whom earn in the $100,000 to $300,000 range — which indicates that the researchers have no idea how rich the very rich really are.
When pressed on this point, they explain that there is a shortage of data on the very rich.
Being such a tiny percentage, “they’re an extremely difficult part of the population to survey,” pleads Rand economist James P. Smith, offering the same excuse given by the Census Bureau officials. That Smith finds the super rich difficult to survey should not cause us to overlook the fact that their existence refutes his findings about self-earned wealth.
He seems to admit as much when he says, "This [study] shouldn't be taken as a statement that the Rockefellers didn’t give to their kids and the Kennedys didn't give to their kids." (New York Times, July 7, 1995) Indeed, most of the really big money is inherited — and by a portion of the population that is so minuscule as to be judged statistically inaccessible.
The higher one goes up the income scale, the greater the rate of capital accumulation. Economist Paul Krugman notes that not only have the top 20 percent grown more affluent compared with everyone below, the top 5 percent have grown richer compared with the next 15 percent.
The top one percent have become richer compared with the next 4 percent.
And the top 0.25 percent have grown richer than the next 0.75 percent.
That top 0.25 owns more wealth than the other 99 percent combined.
It has been estimated that if children’s play blocks represented $1,000 each, over 98 percent of us would have incomes represented by piles of blocks that went not more than a few yards off the ground, while the top one percent would stack many times higher than the Eiffel Tower.
Marx's prediction about the growing gap between rich and poor still haunts the land — and the entire planet.
The growing concentration of wealth creates still more poverty. As some few get ever richer, more people fall deeper into destitution, finding it increasingly difficult to emerge from it.
The same pattern holds throughout much of the world. For years now, as the wealth of the few has been growing, the number of poor has been increasing at a faster rate than the earth's population. A rising tide sinks many boats.
To grasp the true extent of wealth and income inequality in the United States, we should stop treating the “top quintile” — the upper-middle class — as the "richest" cohort in the country.
But to do that, we need to look beyond the Census Bureau's cooked statistics. We need to catch sight of that tiny, stratospheric apex that owns most of the world.
Michael Parenti is the author of Against Empire, Dirty Truths, America Besieged, and most recently, History as Mystery, all published by City Lights Books.
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http://www.alternet.org/story/156467/6_things_you_should_know_about_the_%2421_trillion_the_world%27s_richest_people_are_hiding_in_tax_shelters?paging=off<br />
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A technology breakdown at a major trading firm roiled the prices of 140 stocks listed on the New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday, undermining the fragile investor confidence.<br />
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The problems at Knight Capital Group, one of the largest firms that buys and sells stocks to provide liquidity to the markets, emerged at the beginning of trading.<br />
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Heavy computer-based trading caused a rush of orders for dozens of stocks, ranging from well-known bellwethers like General Electric to tiny Wizzard Software Corp, whose shares soared to $14.76 after closing the previous day at $3.50. The NYSE has canceled trades in six particularly volatile issues.<br />
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The trading glitches are the latest in a series of market snafus that have hurt retail investors' confidence, including the botched Facebook initial public offering, the 2010 'flash crash' in which nearly $1 trillion in market value disappeared in minutes, and the failed public offering of BATS Global Markets, a rival to the NYSE and the Nasdaq.<br />
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The exact nature of the technology issues were unclear. The the magnitude and fallout for Knight, which was forced to tell clients to send orders elsewhere, and for the broader market were also unknown. Knight's stock plunged nearly 33 percent to $6.94, a nine-year closing low for the stock.<br />
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Knight Capital issued a terse statement acknowledging the trading errors, but company officials were not available for further comment.<br />
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'This morning, a technology issue occurred in Knight's market-making unit related to the routing of shares of approximately 150 stocks to the NYSE,' Knight said in the statement.<br />
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Observers said the problem highlighted the weaknesses in the market that remain two years after the Flash Crash. 'The structure that we have in place is so complicated and intertwined, that all of these entanglements have created real issues in the marketplace,' said Christopher Nagy, a consultant to exchanges and brokerages.<br />
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Heavy buy orders in some stocks sent prices soaring, while others plunged. Many of the names were lesser-known issues such as Molycorp, a stock that usually averages about 2.65 million shares daily but which saw volume of more than 5.7 million shares in the first 45 minutes of trading, bouncing between $17.50 and $14.35 in that period.<br />
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The mood at the Knight Capital booth on the NYSE trading floor was somber, with worried traders taking numerous phone calls as well as answering questions from NYSE officials who were making inquiries on the floor.<br />
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Many on the floor were aware that the problematic trades were coming from Knight. – Reuters<br />
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Iranians Should Be ‘Very Fearful For Next 12 Weeks: Ex-Mossad Chief<br />
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By Times of Israel staff<br />
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August 02, 2012 "Times of Israel" -- The former Mossad chief Efraim Halevy, who told The Times of Israel in an interview in March that there would be “nothing else left” but a resort to force if the diplomatic track with Iran did not quickly produce a breakthrough, hinted Thursday that the moment of truth on Iran’s nuclear drive was now imminent.<br />
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“If I were an Iranian, I would be very fearful of the next 12 weeks,” Halevy, who is also a former national security adviser and ambassador, told The New York Times.<br />
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In an Israel Radio interview later Thursday, he added that Israel’s threats of military action had a certain “credibility” and “seriousness.” He said the Iranian nuclear issue, and the Syrian issue, were the key regional concerns, and reiterated that “If I were an Iranian, I would be very fearful of the next 12 weeks.”<br />
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The New York Times report, focusing on Wednesday’s talks here by Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, said there was “feverish speculation” in Israel that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “will act in September or early October.”<br />
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Apart from Netanyahu’s concern that Israel’s military option would “soon” become redundant, the paper cited several other reasons “for the potential timing.” Among them, it said, was the fact that “Israel does not like to fight wars in winter.” Also, Netanyahu “feels that he will have less leverage if President Obama is reelected” while, were Mitt Romney to win the November elections, “the new president would be unlikely to want to take on a big military action early in his term.”<br />
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Still, Thursday’s article continued, “a number of administration officials say they remain hopeful that Israel has no imminent plans to attack and may be willing to let the United States take the lead in any future military strike, which they say would not occur until next year at the earliest.”<br />
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The New York Times further reported that administration officials say “Israeli officials are less confrontational in private” and that Netanyahu “understands the consequences of military action for Israel, the United States and the region. They say they know he has to maintain the credibility of his threat to keep up pressure on the United States to continue with sanctions and the development of military plans.”<br />
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In his interview with The Times of Israel in late March, Halevy said that if the then-upcoming international talks with Iran on thwarting its nuclear program did not quickly produce a breakthrough, there will be “nothing else left” but a resort to force.<br />
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He also said he had “no doubt that for the past few years Israel has been readying its capabilities to meet the Iranians if necessary by force.<br />
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It was “tragic,” Halevy added at the time, that “I don’t see any great effort being made” by the P5+1 group — the five UN Security Council permanent members and Germany — to prepare urgently and effectively for those talks. The lights “should be burning through the night” to get a strategy together, he said. “The number one thing the world should be doing [on Iran] is investing enormous preparation into the P5+1 confrontation, because this is really the ‘Last Train to San Fernando.’”<br />
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Iran, he predicted, would doubtless try to play for time in the talks. The international community, therefore, needed to be ready with its strategy and tactics, and to be represented by “a very high-level, experienced, wise and creative negotiator.”<br />
<br />
For the international community, said Halevy, “there’s no time for, you know, ‘Let’s meet again in two or three months, let’s do our homework, let’s not rush things, let’s look at it, and so forth.’” Rather, he said, “there has to be a breakthrough… If there is no breakthrough, it means to say that the talks have failed.”<br />
<br />
Asked if, by a breakthrough, he meant Iran announcing the suspension of its nuclear program, Halevy demurred. “I don’t want to say ‘Iran suspending the program.’ I don’t believe that everything will become public overnight.” But it would need to be clear, he said, “that there is a serious negotiation… They don’t have to spell it all out, but it has to be clear.”<br />
<br />
Halevy said he did see signs of greater potential international coordination over Iran. He was encouraged by the growing consensus on tackling Syria, notably including Russia and China, which he said could also be reflected in a coordinated strategy on Iran. He also noted that the priority for the ayatollahs’ regime in Iran is “survival” at all costs.<br />
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Nonetheless, if the negotiations fail, “there’s nothing else left” but a resort to force, he said.<br />
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Perhaps, it was put to Halevy, Israel could live with a nuclear weapons-capable Iran? Halevy responded: “I don’t think that we should countenance that as long as we can do what we can to remove it. I don’t accept the notion that Israel is destructible. But I think that if Iran retains a nuclear capability, life here is going to be very tough for a very long period to come. Israel will not disappear, but Israel will go through a period which I would not like it to go through.”<br />
<br />
Asked whether he believed the Israeli government wanted a diplomatic solution, he answered: “I’m not sure every Israeli wants a diplomatic solution… I’m not sure that the government is entirely behind this support for a diplomatic solution.”<br />
<br />
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article32066.htm<br />
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Israeli's Brainwashed Into State Of Apathy<br />
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By Haim Baram<br />
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August 02, 2012 "Information Clearing House" -- In rare moments of lucidity, even the mythological “average Israeli” feels that our less than splendid isolation is intolerable. We are constantly brainwashed by our establishment, and the endless bombardments combining biblical rhetoric, alarmist prophesies and demagogic evocations of the holocaust confuse even the elitist circles, despite their liberal self-image and professed Western outlook. This increasingly pervasive syndrome can partially account for our sheepish acquiesce with the rampant rumours and speculations about the forthcoming Israeli attack on Iran. <br />
<br />
The consequences of such aggression are abundantly clear for most educated Israelis, even right-wingers. Yet, the current mood dictates certain apathy, very untypical in saner epochs. What has happened to our judgement, critical faculties and rebellious propensities? How can one reconcile the complete loss of faith with our institutions including the IDF with the fatalistic acceptance of our fate? There is no clear cut explanation, only pessimistic theories and general air of resignation, unprecedented in our country’s history.<br />
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In every political discussion one hears well-connected politicians and commentators list the most likely scenarios and the conclusions are normally somber. The prevalent assessments fail to grasp the logic behind the almost inevitable aggression. The nuclear capabilities of Iran are likely to remain intact; the retaliation by the Iranians is bound to be harsh; the attack on Iranian territory will unite the entire Moslem world against Israel; there will be no international sympathy towards Israel even in the terrible case of death to thousands of people here; most Americans will interpret, and not without reason, the Israeli operation as an attempt by Binyamin Netanyahu to subvert the relatively liberal regime in Washington and to help the reactionary Republican party in its election campaign.<br />
<br />
The Israeli Prime-Minister is regarded here, almost universally, as a Republican hack, with vested interests in the victory of the hard-core right-wingers in the US. Actually, he has built his entire career as an Israeli politician on the premise, that White House policies, which do not fully concur with the interest of Israel’s right-wing government, can be subverted and finally even eradicated by the US congress, supposedly under the influence of the pro-Likud lobby in Washington. <br />
<br />
There is an element of conceit here that has turned Netanyahu into the scourge of American liberals, a foe of the Democrats and a staunch ally of the worst war-mongers and neo-liberals in the American political arena. The South-American leftist, arguably forming a very potent ideological, social and political powerbase in Latin-America, brand official Israel as an enemy, and not without cause. Millions in Brazil, Argentina and the entire spectrum of opinion in Central America will castigate Israel as an aggressor if the Netanyahu regime attack Iran. <br />
<br />
But even their reaction will be dwarfed but the gathering storm in the Moslem world. The wealthy and conservative sector of the US Jewry and their allies in Alabama and Texas are unlikely to shield the Israelis from the popular international wrath.<br />
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The left in Israel, our allies the Arab citizens and the entire peace camp here need the world to save the region from the planned, senseless attack on Iran which could well deteriorate into a future nuclear war. As we cannot rely on our cabinet ministers, some of them baying for blood, we must call upon governments, NGOs and political movements worldwide to help us to prevent the Netanyahu lunacy before the PM unleashes his fury on the denizens of the Middle-East, including us, the Israelis.<br />
<br />
Haim Baram is an Israeli writer and broadcaster. He was (with Major-General Matti Peled, Uri Avnery and Dr. Ya'akov Arnon) a founding member of the Israeli Council for Israeli-Palestinian Peace (ICIPP). He was a member of the Israel Committee for Mordechai Vanunu.<br />
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Turkey Provides Surface-to-air Missiles for Syrian Insurgents<br />
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By Reuters<br />
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US and allied officials acknowledged that officials of Saudi Arabia and Qatar were discussing whether surface-to-air missiles might help Syrian rebels bring down Russian-made helicopters and other aircraft the Syrian army was using to move troops between trouble spots. <br />
<br />
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article32057.htm<br />
<br />
<br />
August 02, 2012 "The Nation" -- WASHINGTON - Rebels fighting to depose Syrian president Bashar al Assad have for the first time acquired a small supply of surface-to-air missiles, according to a news report that a Western official did not dispute.<br />
<br />
NBC News reported that the rebel Free Syrian Army had obtained nearly two dozen of the weapons, which were delivered to them via neighbouring Turkey, whose moderate Islamist government has been demanding Assad’s departure with increasing vehemence.<br />
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Indications are that the US government, which has said it opposes arming the rebels, is not responsible for the delivery of the missiles.<br />
<br />
But some US government sources have been saying for weeks that Arab governments seeking to oust Assad, including Saudi Arabia and Qatar, have been pressing for such missiles, also known as MANPADs, for man-portable air-defence systems, to be supplied to the rebels.<br />
<br />
In recent days, air operations against the rebels by Syrian government forces appear to have been stepped up, particularly around the contested city of Aleppo, making the rebels’ need for MANPADs more urgent.<br />
<br />
Precisely what kind of MANPADs have been delivered to Syrian rebels is unclear and NBC News did not provide details. Such weapons range from the primitive to highly sophisticated.<br />
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And even if the rebels do have the weapons, it is unclear whether they have the training to operate them effectively against Assad’s air forces in the immediate future.<br />
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Some conservative US lawmakers, such as Republican Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham, have criticized the administration of President Barack Obama for moving too slowly to assist the rebels and have suggested the US government become directly involved in arming Assad’s opponents.<br />
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<br />
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3765367910333413191.post-27861216059069258282012-08-02T18:43:00.002-07:002012-08-02T18:43:25.280-07:00<div align="center">In Hiroshima's Shadow : The Iran Gamble World War III Billed As A Regional Conflict Plus Other Disturbing News Of The Day!</div><div align="center"><br />
August 6, the anniversary of Hiroshima, should be a day of somber reflection, not only on the terrible events of that day in 1945, but also on what they revealed: that humans, in their dedicated quest to extend their capacities for destruction, had finally found a way to approach the ultimate limit.</div><div align="center">This year‚ Aug. 6 memorials have special significance. They take place shortly before the 50th anniversary of, "the most dangerous moment in human history," in the words of the historian and John F. Kennedy adviser Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., referring to the Cuban missile crisis.</div><div align="center">Graham Allison writes in the current issue of Foreign Affairs that Kennedy, "ordered actions that he knew would increase the risk not only of conventional war but also nuclear war," with a likelihood of perhaps 50 percent, he believed, an estimate that Allison regards as realistic.</div><div align="center">Kennedy declared a high-level nuclear alert that authorized, "NATO aircraft with Turkish pilots ... (or others) ... to take off, fly to Moscow, and drop a bomb."</div><div align="center">None were more shocked by the discovery of missiles in Cuba than the men in charge of the similar missiles that the U.S. had secretly deployed in Okinawa six months earlier, surely aimed at China, at a moment of elevated regional tensions.</div><div align="center">Kennedy took Chairman Nikita Khrushchev, "right to the brink of nuclear war and he looked over the edge and had no stomach for it," according to Gen. David Burchinal, then a high-ranking official in the Pentagon planning staff. One can hardly count on such sanity forever.</div><div align="center">Khrushchev accepted a formula that Kennedy devised, ending the crisis just short of war. The formula‚ boldest element, Allison writes, was, "a secret sweetener that promised the withdrawal of U.S. missiles from Turkey within six months after the crisis was resolved." These were obsolete missiles that were being replaced by far more lethal, and invulnerable, Polaris submarines.</div><div align="center">In brief, even at high risk of war of unimaginable destruction, it was felt necessary to reinforce the principle that U.S. has the unilateral right to deploy nuclear missiles anywhere, some aimed at China or at the borders of Russia, which had previously placed no missiles outside the USSR. Justifications of course have been offered, but I do not think they withstand analysis.</div><div align="center">An accompanying principle is that Cuba had no right to have missiles for defense against what appeared to be an imminent U.S. invasion. The plans for Kennedy‚ terrorist programs, Operation Mongoose, called for, "open revolt and overthrow of the Communist regime," in October 1962, the month of the missile crisis, recognizing that, "final success will require decisive U.S. military intervention."</div><div align="center">The terrorist operations against Cuba are commonly dismissed by U.S. commentators as insignificant CIA shenanigans. The victims, not surprisingly, see matters rather differently. We can at last hear their voices in Keith Bolender‚, "Voices from the Other Side: An Oral History of Terrorism Against Cuba."</div><div align="center">The events of October 1962 are widely hailed as Kennedy‚ finest hour. Allison offers them as, "a guide for how to defuse conflicts, manage great-power relationships, and make sound decisions about foreign policy in general." In particular, today‚ conflicts with Iran and China.</div><div align="center">Disaster was perilously close in 1962, and there has been no shortage of dangerous moments since. In 1973, in the last days of the Arab-Israeli war, Henry Kissinger called a high-level nuclear alert. India and Pakistan have come close to nuclear war. There have been innumerable cases when human intervention aborted nuclear attack only moments before launch after false reports by automated systems. There is much to think about on Aug. 6.</div><div align="center">Allison joins many others in regarding Iran‚ nuclear programs as the most severe current crisis, "an even more complex challenge for American policymakers than the Cuban missile crisis," because of the threat of Israeli bombing.</div><div align="center">The war against Iran is already well underway, including assassination of scientists and economic pressures that have reached the level of, "undeclared war," in the judgment of the Iran specialist Gary Sick.</div><div align="center">Great pride is taken in the sophisticated cyberwar directed against Iran. The Pentagon regards cyberwar as, "an act of war," that authorizes the target, "to respond using traditional military force," The Wall Street Journal reports. With the usual exception: not when the U.S. or an ally is the perpetrator.</div><div align="center">The Iran threat has recently been outlined by Gen. Giora Eiland, one of Israel‚ top military planners, described as, "one of the most ingenious and prolific thinkers the (Israeli military) has ever produced."</div><div align="center">Of the threats he outlines, the most credible is that, "any confrontation on our borders will take place under an Iranian nuclear umbrella." Israel might therefore be constrained in resorting to force. Eiland agrees with the Pentagon and U.S. intelligence, which also regard deterrence as the major threat that Iran poses.</div><div align="center">The current escalation of the, "undeclared war," against Iran increases the threat of accidental large-scale war. Some of the dangers were illustrated last month when a U.S. naval vessel, part of the huge deployment in the Gulf, fired on a small fishing boat, killing one Indian crew member and wounding at least three others. It would not take much to set off a major war.</div><div align="center">One sensible way to avoid such dread consequences is to pursue, "the goal of establishing in the Middle East a zone free from weapons of mass destruction and all missiles for their delivery and the objective of a global ban on chemical weapons," the wording of Security Council resolution 687 of April 1991, which the U.S. and U.K. invoked in their effort to provide a thin legal cover for their invasion of Iraq 12 years later.</div><div align="center">The goal has been an Arab-Iranian objective since 1974, regularly re-endorsed, and by now it has near-unanimous global support, at least formally. An international conference to consider ways to implement such a treaty may take place in December.</div><div align="center">Progress is unlikely unless there is mass public support in the West. Failure to grasp the opportunity will, once again, lengthen the grim shadow that has darkened the world since that fateful Aug. 6.</div><div align="center"><br />
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iframe width="770" height="433" src="<a href="http://www.youtube.com/embed/J0R_Lv_5tqI">http://www.youtube.com/embed/J0R_Lv_5tqI</a>" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></div><div align="center"><a href="http://www.nationalmemo.com/five-of-mitt-romneys-scariest-billionaire-donors">http://www.nationalmemo.com/five-of-mitt-romneys-scariest-billionaire-donors</a> </div><div align="center">Five Of Mitt Romney’s Scariest Billionaire Donors</div><div align="center">August 1st, 2012 11:10 pm<br />
Jason Sattler<br />
<br />
If you’re the son or daughter of a billionaire, now is the time to act. Convince your parents to donate millions of dollars to one of the Super PAC’s trying to get Mitt Romney elected.</div><div align="center">Here’s the sell: Mom, Dad, Mitt is going to give you millions in tax breaks over his four years in office, according to a new study by the non-partisan Brookings Institute. But don’t just think of yourself. Think of me. I could get billions! Mitt wants to completely eliminate the Estate Tax, which is only paid by one out of 1000 Americans. This would effectively make me as much of a billionaire as you are without me doing anything except being born to the best parents in the world.</div><div align="center">Of course, the benefits Mitt is offering to his billionaire donors aren’t limited to billions in tax breaks to them and their kids. There’s also rampant deregulation, potential wars and possibly even a shoe contract.</div><div align="center">Meet five of the thirty-two billionaires who are spending big to put Mitt in the White House and who accordingly want big things in return.</div><div align="center">Continue Reading >> 1 2 3 4 5 6</div><div align="center">7 Ways Romney’s Education Plan Would Destroy America’s Public Schools</div><div align="center">Mitt Romney wants to destroy public education in the US and get rid of the Department of Education.</div><div align="center">I am not inventing this: you can read all about it in his education white paper entitled “A Chance for Every Child: Mitt Romney’s Plan for Restoring the Promise of American Education” with a forward by Jeb Bush, no less. If you believe that destroying public education as we know it and turning our schools over to the private sector will solve its problems, then this plan is for you.</div><div align="center">The central themes of the Romney plan are a rehash of Republican education ideas from the past thirty years. Here’s how Romney is planning to destroy public education:</div><div align="center">1. Subsidizing parents who want to send their child to a private or religious school. Romney offers complete support for using taxpayer money to pay for private school vouchers, privately managed charters, for-profit online schools, and almost every other alternative to public schools.</div><div align="center">2. Encouraging the private sector to operate schools. To cut costs, Romney encourages the proliferation of for-profit online universities. Romney’s plan says that no new money is needed because more spending on schools will not fix our problems. However, he proposes to dedicate more taxpayer money to the priorities that he favors, such as vouchers, charter schools, and online schools.</div><div align="center">3. Putting commercial banks in charge of the federal student loan program. Romney claims that more federal aid leads to higher tuition, so he offers no new federal funding to help students crippled by debt. Instead, Romney would encourage involvement of the private sector by having commercial banks serve as the intermediary for federal student loans. Obama eliminated this approach in 2012 as too costly.</div><div align="center">4. Holding teachers and schools accountable for students’ test scores. Romney also wants more federal money to reward states for “eliminating or reforming teacher tenure and establishing systems that focus on effectiveness in advancing student achievement.” In other words, Romney is willing to hand out money to states if they eliminate due process rights for teachers and if they pay more to teachers whose students get higher scores on standardized tests and get rid of teacher whose students do not.</div><div align="center">5. Lowering entrance requirements for new teachers. Romney takes a strong stand against certification of teachers, the minimal state-level requirement that future teachers must pass either state or national tests to demonstrate their knowledge and skill, which he considers an unnecessary hurdle.</div><div align="center">6. Eliminating the need to limit class size. Romney apparently believes that class size does not matter (although presumably it mattered to him when he chose a school with small classes for his own children).</div><div align="center">7. Eliminating teachers’ rights. In the vision presented by Romney, public dollars would flow to schools that teach creationism. Anyone could teach, without passing any test of their knowledge and skills and without any professional preparation. Teachers could also be fired for any reason, without any protection of their freedom to teach.</div><div align="center">This is all very, very scary for us public school teachers.</div><div align="center">As if that were not enough, Diane Ravitch, writing in The New York Review of Books, notes:</div><div align="center">Paradoxically, Romney’s campaign takes credit for the fact that Massachusetts leads the nation in reading and mathematics on the federal tests known as National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP).</div><div align="center">But Romney was not responsible to the state’s academic success, which is owing to reforms that are entirely different from the ones he is now proposing for the country (my italics). Signed into law a full decade before Romney began his tenure as governor in 2003, the Massachusetts Education Reform Act involved a commitment by the state to double state funding of public education from $1.3 billion in 1993 to $2.6 billion by 2000; to provide a minimum foundation budget for every district to meet its needs, to develop strong curricula for subjects such as science, history, the arts, foreign languages, mathematics, and English; to put into effect a testing program based on the curriculum; to expand professional development for teachers; and to test would-be teachers. In the late 1990s – again, before Romney assumed office – the state added new funds for early childhood education.</div><div align="center">Candidate Romney should explain how privatizing the way we school our children will further his goal of “restoring the promise of American education.”</div><div align="center">Here’s what John Adams had to say about public education (with thanks again to Diane Ravitch):</div><div align="center">“The whole people must take upon themselves the education of the whole people, and must be willing to bear the expenses of it.. There should not be a district of one mile square, without a school in it, not founded by a charitable individual, but maintained at the public expense of the people themselves.”</div><div align="center">Message to candidate Romney from an experienced educator: Restoring American education means supporting public schools, not destroying them.</div><div align="center">What do you think?</div><div align="center">Romney: Let’s Cut Teachers, Firefighters, Police</div><div align="center">Romney’s Education Plan Recycles Failed Ideas</div><div align="center">Romney Advisor: Women’s Issues Just ‘Shiny Objects’ (Video)</div><div align="center">The Romney campaign may want senior adviser Eric Fehrnstrom to stop talking. The man who gave the 2012 campaign “Etch-a-Sketch” strategy has now declared that issues that affect women are simply “shiny objects” that distract voters from more important topics.</div><div align="center">Appearing on This Week With George Stephanopolus, Fehrnstrom said, “Mitt Romney is pro-life. He’ll govern as a pro-life president, but you’re going to see the Democrats use all sorts of shiny objects to distract people’s attention from the Obama performance on the economy. This is not a social issue election.”</div><div align="center">That will be news not only to the women who have been fighting against abortion restrictions, but to Republicans themselves. Since gaining power in 2011, Republicans across the country have pushed a rash of draconian anti-choice restrictions, including attempting to ban sex-selective abortion restrictions in just the last week.</div><div align="center">Romney himself repeatedly has hit on social themes in the election, blasting President Barack Obama for requiring employers to provide birth control as part of preventative coverage — despite having done the same as governor of Massachusetts.</div><div align="center">Obama Deputy Campaign Manager Stephanie Cutter reacted with incredulity to the statement.</div><div align="center">“If it’s not a social issue election then why did Mitt Romney just spend the last year campaigning on social issues?” Cutter asked. “These are his positions that he’s taken. Whether it’s giving bosses control over whether female employees can get contraception, being for the so-called personhood amendment that would ban all forms of abortion or telling the American people that he’ll get back to them on whether he supports Lilly Ledbetter, which is an economic issue and it should be a no-brainer, but the governor couldn’t even bring himself to be for that.”</div><div align="center">Perhaps most galling is the idea that issues like abortion, fair pay and equal rights are just “shiny objects.” The girl turned away from an Oklahoma hospital after being raped was not a shiny object; she was a hurt, scared person who just wanted to get medical treatment. That care might have included emergency contraception, though, and thanks to so-called “conscience” laws, doctors who don’t believe in birth control don’t have to treat patients.</div><div align="center">For the tens of millions of American women who have had abortions, and the hundreds of millions of American men and women who have used contraception, the right to access health services is not a distraction. It is a core right, one as basic as the right to free speech, or freedom of religion. Those aren’t distractions. They’re vital.</div><div align="center">Watch the Video:</div><div align="center"><object allowfullscreen="true" allownetworking="all" allowscriptaccess="always" cdnapi.kaltura.com="cdnapi.kaltura.com" data="<a href=" height="460" http:="http:" id="kaltura_player_1343914230" index.php="index.php" kwidget="kwidget" name="kaltura_player_1343914230" scqezpv3="scqezpv3" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" uiconf_id="uiconf_id" wid="wid" width="740">http://cdnapi.kaltura.com/index.php/kwidget/wid/0_scqezpv3/uiconf_id/5590821</a>"> <param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"/> <param name="allowNetworking" value="all"/> <param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"/> <param name="bgcolor" value="#000000"/> <param name="movie" value="<a href='http://cdnapi.kaltura.com/index.php/kwidget/wid/0_scqezpv3/uiconf_id/5590821"/'>http://cdnapi.kaltura.com/index.php/kwidget/wid/0_scqezpv3/uiconf_id/5590821"/</a>> <param name="flashVars" value="referer=$referer$&autoPlay=false&addThis.playerSize=392x221&addThis.playerSize=740x460"/> <a href="<a href='http://abcnews.go.com/video">Watch'>http://abcnews.go.com/video">Watch</a> More News Videos at ABC</a> <a href="<a href='http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/OTUS/">2012'>http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/OTUS/">2012</a> Presidential Election</a> <a href="<a href='http://abcnews.go.com/entertainment">Entertainment'>http://abcnews.go.com/entertainment">Entertainment</a> & Celebrity News</a> </object></div><div align="center"><a href="http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/08/romneys-kiss-my-spokesman-takes-time-off-campaign-trail">http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/08/romneys-kiss-my-spokesman-takes-time-off-campaign-trail</a></div><div align="center">President Obama has found it difficult to find support for any of his proposals among Republicans on Capitol Hill. He passed his landmark achievements – health reform legislation and wall street reform – without any help from Democrats. That national health reform law was in part based on the bipartisan law enacted by Mitt Romney in Massachusetts. But it never gained popularity nationally. One Congress watcher, Norm Ornstein of the American Enterprise Institute said recently that Republicans are more to fault for the gridlock in Washington than are the Democrats.</div><div align="center">ORLANDO — President Obama Is On A Tear Over Taxes, Blasting Rival Mitt Romney’s Proposals Today As Nothing More Than “Fairy Dust” To Try To Fix The Economy.</div><div align="center">“They have tried to sell us this trickle down, tax cut ‘fairy dust’ before. And guess what? It didn’t work then, it will not work now,” Obama said of Romney’s plan to slash rates for corporations and upper-income earners. “It’s not a plan to create jobs, it’s not a plan to reduce the deficit. It is not a plan to build the middle class. It is not a plan to move the economy forward,” he said.</div><div align="center">Romney has argued that extending the current Bush-era tax rates and cutting rates further for the wealthy will spur hiring by small businesses. “Under President Obama, middle-class Americans have experienced higher unemployment, lower incomes, and greater uncertainty about the future,” said Romney spokesman Ryan Williams.</div><div align="center">“Now he is promising to raise taxes on millions of families and small businesses – which is the last thing we should do in a struggling economy,” he said.</div><div align="center">The crowd of 2500 here predictably wasn’t having any of Romney’s ideas, booing at the mere mention of his name.</div><div align="center">They were equally as vocal in praising the president, affectionately heckling him during his speech and singing him a boisterous rendition of “Happy Birthday.”</div><div align="center">Obama turns 51 on Saturday.</div><div align="center">“If I had known you guys were going to sing, we would have had a cake. And then I would have blown out the candle, I would have made a wish that probably would have had to do with electoral votes,” he said with a grin. “A win in Florida wouldn’t be a bad birthday present.”</div><div align="center">Guy Adams: I thought the internet age had ended this kind of censorship I'm still awaiting a detailed explanation from Twitter as to why my account was immediately suspended</div><div align="center">Twitter Suspends Journalist's Account A journalist criticized NBC over Olympics coverage and was suspended from Twitter, which has partnered with NBC for its coverage.</div><div align="center">Here are three things that NBC prevented their public from being able to watch on network television so far this Olympic Games: live footage of the opening ceremony; live footage of Saturday's swimming showdown between Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte; live footage of the USA men's basketball "dream team."</div><div align="center">A fourth thing they do not want people to see is the email address of Gary Zenkel, the executive responsible for this shambles. And a fifth thing is my Twitter feed, which over the weekend contained a couple of dozen occasionally uncouth observations about their coverage, several of which were accompanied by the trending hashtag: "#NBCfail."</div><div align="center">As a journalist, you know you are doing your job properly when you manage to upset rich, powerful and entitled people who are used to getting their own way. And you know you've really got under their skin when they pursue censorship, the avenue of last resort since time immemorial.</div><div align="center">The internet era is meant to be different, though. Thanks to Twitter, and Google and every other medium dedicated to the free exchange of information, the world is supposed to have changed. That's why the Arab Spring happened; it's why Justin Bieber happened. And its why, regardless of its comparative frivolity, NBC's successful attempt to suspend a journalist from a social networking site sets an ugly precedent.</div><div align="center">Twitter's guidelines forbid users from publishing what they call "private" information, including "private email addresses". There is plenty of sense in this. But I did not Tweet a private email address. I Tweeted a corporate address for Mr Zenkel, which is widely listed online, and is identical in form to that of tens of thousands of those at NBC.</div><div align="center">I was not contacted by NBC or Twitter before my account was suspended. If they had dropped me a line, I might – might! – have quietly deleted the offending Tweet. Instead, they wandered into a PR controversy which has resulted in hundreds of thousands more people being made aware of its existence. Like any right thinking-person, I take the issue of online bullying seriously. I would hate for anyone to come to harm as a result of something I uploaded to the internet. But I'm at a loss to see how a bit of forthright correspondence from a disgruntled public could be anything more than a minor annoyance to a power-broker of Mr Zenkel's lofty status. I'm still awaiting a detailed explanation from Twitter as to why my account was immediately suspended. On the face of it, their reaction seems heavy-handed.</div><div align="center">As for Gary Zenkel, he is supposedly a grown-up, with a salary, and ego to match. His TV network has decided to delay broadcasting key Olympic events until Prime Time on the grounds it hopes to make more money from advertising. NBC surely knew viewers would be upset by this. If it now displeases Mr Zenkel to get emails from those rightly-angry customers, then he is surely in the wrong job.</div><div align="center"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/aug/01/israeli-pm-iran-nuclear">http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/aug/01/israeli-pm-iran-nuclear</a>- programme</div><div align="center">Israeli PM says time running out to stop Iran's nuclear programme Binyamin Netanyahu tells visiting US defence secretary that sanctions and diplomacy have so far failed to end standoff</div><div align="center">Time is running out for the international community to halt Iran's nuclear programme by peaceful means, the Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, told US defence secretary Leon Panetta in Jerusalem on Wednesday.</div><div align="center">Sanctions, diplomacy and declarations of a willingness to take military action as a last resort had not yet convinced the Iranians to stop their programme, he said. "However forceful our statements, they have not convinced Iran that we are serious about stopping them. Right now the Iranian regime believes that the international community does not have the will to stop its nuclear programme."</div><div align="center">Netanyahu said earlier that although sanctions were hurting the Iranian economy, such measures had "yet to move its nuclear programme even a millimetre backwards".</div><div align="center">Panetta is the fourth senior US administration official to visit Israel in recent weeks as concern has mounted in Washington that Netanyahu is preparing the ground for a military strike in the coming months.</div><div align="center">In an attempt to reassure Israel – and counter the robust support for military action pledged by presumptive Republican candidate Mitt Romney in Jerusalem earlier this week – Panetta told the prime minister: "We will not allow Iran to develop a nuclear weapon, period. We will not allow them to develop a nuclear weapon, and we will exert all options in the effort to ensure that that does not happen."</div><div align="center">The question of whether Israel will unilaterally strike against Iran's nuclear sites in the coming months has returned to the fore after a period of relatively dampened speculation. There have also been fresh reports of a split between the Israeli political and security establishments over the merits of early unilateral action, following open opposition to such a move from former security chiefs.</div><div align="center">In a series of television interviews as Panetta arrived in Israel from Egypt, Netanyahu said any decision would be taken by the country's political leadership. But, he added, "I have not taken a decision".</div><div align="center">Following reports that senior defence officials, including military chief of staff Benny Gantz and Mossad chief Tamir Pardo, were opposed to Israel acting alone, the prime minister said: "In every democracy the decision-maker is the political echelon and the implementer is the professional echelon. That is how it always was and that is how it always will be."</div><div align="center">He said Israel had the right to defend itself. "Things that affect our fate, our very existence, we don't entrust to others – not even to our best friends," he said.</div><div align="center">Gantz denied that he was behind the reports, saying: "None of these stories was released by me … I tell the political echelon what I have to say, and they listen."</div><div align="center">The Israeli military was prepared for a military strike, he said. "As we see it, 'all options are on the table' is not a slogan, it is a working plan and we are doing it."</div><div align="center">Earlier Panetta met his counterpart, Ehud Barak, and toured an Iron Dome battery near Ashkelon, close to the border with Gaza. Israel deploys the weapons against rockets and missiles fired from Gaza.</div><div align="center">Panetta denied reports that the purpose of his visit was to share with Israel an operational plan drawn up by the Pentagon to stop the Iranian nuclear programme by force in 18 months, by which time the administration believes it will be at a critical threshold.</div><div align="center">Israel's former security chief has censured the country's "messianic" political leadership for talking up the prospects of a military stike on Iran's nuclear programme.</div><div align="center">In unusually candid comments set to ratchet up tensions over Iran at the top of Israel's political establishment, Yuval Diskin, who retired as head of the internal intelligence agency Shin Bet last year, said he had "no faith" in the abilities of the prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, and the defence minister, Ehud Barak, to conduct a war.</div><div align="center">The pair, who are the foremost advocates of military action against Iran's nuclear programme, were "not fit to hold the steering wheel of power", Diskin told a meeting on Friday night.</div><div align="center">"My major problem is that I have no faith in the current leadership, which must lead us in an event on the scale of war with Iran or a regional war," he said.</div><div align="center">"I don't believe in either the prime minister or the defence minister. I don't believe in a leadership that makes decisions based on messianic feelings. Believe me, I have observed them from up close ... They are not people who I, on a personal level, trust to lead Israel to an event on that scale and carry it off.</div><div align="center">"They are misleading the public on the Iran issue. They tell the public that if Israel acts, Iran won't have a nuclear bomb. This is misleading. Actually, many experts say that an Israeli attack would accelerate the Iranian nuclear race."</div><div align="center">The Super Rich Are Out of Sight</div><div align="center">The super rich, the less than 1 percent of the population who own the lion’s share of the nation’s wealth, go uncounted in most income distribution reports. Even those who purport to study the question regularly overlook the very wealthiest among us. For instance, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, relying on the latest U.S. Census Bureau data, released a report in December 1997 showing that in the last two decades “incomes of the richest fifth increased by 30 percent or nearly $27,000 after adjusting for inflation.” The average income of the top 20 percent was $117,500, or almost 13 times larger than the $9,250 average income of the poorest 20 percent.</div><div align="center">But where are the super rich? An average of $117,500 is an upper-middle income, not at all representative of a rich cohort, let alone a super rich one. All such reports about income distribution are based on U.S. Census Bureau surveys that regularly leave Big Money out of the picture. </div><div align="center">A few phone calls to the Census Bureau in Washington D.C. revealed that for years the bureau never interviewed anyone who had an income higher than $300,000. Or if interviewed, they were never recorded as above the “reportable upper limit” of $300,000, the top figure allowed by the bureau's computer program. </div><div align="center">In 1994, the bureau lifted the upper limit to $1 million. This still excludes the very richest who own the lion’s share of the wealth, the hundreds of billionaires and thousands of multimillionaires who make many times more than $1 million a year. The super rich simply have been computerized out of the picture.</div><div align="center">When asked why this procedure was used, an official said that the Census Bureau’s computers could not handle higher amounts. A most improbable excuse, since once the bureau decided to raise the upper limit from $300,000 to $1 million it did so without any difficulty, and it could do so again. </div><div align="center">Another reason the official gave was “confidentiality.” Given place coordinates, someone with a very high income might be identified. </div><div align="center">Furthermore, he said, high-income respondents usually understate their investment returns by about 40 to 50 percent. Finally, the official argued that since the super rich are so few, they are not likely to show up in a national sample.</div><div align="center">But by designating the (decapitated) top 20 percent of the entire nation as the “richest” quintile, the Census Bureau is including millions of people who make as little as $70,000. If you make over $100,000, you are in the top 4 percent. </div><div align="center">Now $100,000 is a tidy sum indeed, but it's not super rich — as in Mellon, Morgan, or Murdock. The difference between Michael Eisner, Disney CEO who pocketed $565 million in 1996, and the individuals who average $9,250 is not 13 to 1 — the reported spread between highest and lowest quintiles — but over 61,000 to 1.</div><div align="center">Speaking of CEOs, much attention has been given to the top corporate managers who rake in tens of millions of dollars annually in salaries and perks. </div><div align="center">But little is said about the tens of billions that these same corporations distribute to the top investor class each year, again that invisible fraction of 1 percent of the population. </div><div align="center">Media publicity that focuses exclusively on a handful of greedy top executives conveniently avoids any exposure of the super rich as a class. In fact, reining in the CEOs who cut into the corporate take would well serve the big shareholder's interests.</div><div align="center">Two studies that do their best to muddy our understanding of wealth, conducted respectively by the Rand Corporation and the Brookings Institution and widely reported in the major media, found that individuals typically become rich not from inheritance but by maintaining their health and working hard. Most of their savings comes from their earnings and has nothing to do with inherited family wealth, the researchers would have us believe. </div><div align="center">In typical social-science fashion, they prefigured their findings by limiting the scope of their data. Both studies failed to note that achieving a high income is itself in large part due to inherited advantages. Those coming from upper-strata households have a far better opportunity to maintain their health and develop their performance, attend superior schools, and achieve the advanced professional training, contacts, and influence needed to land the higher paying positions.</div><div align="center">More importantly, both the Rand and Brookings studies fail to include the super rich, those who sit on immense and largely inherited fortunes. Instead, the investigators concentrate on upper-middle-class professionals and managers, most of whom earn in the $100,000 to $300,000 range — which indicates that the researchers have no idea how rich the very rich really are.</div><div align="center">When pressed on this point, they explain that there is a shortage of data on the very rich. </div><div align="center">Being such a tiny percentage, “they’re an extremely difficult part of the population to survey,” pleads Rand economist James P. Smith, offering the same excuse given by the Census Bureau officials. That Smith finds the super rich difficult to survey should not cause us to overlook the fact that their existence refutes his findings about self-earned wealth.</div><div align="center"> He seems to admit as much when he says, "This [study] shouldn't be taken as a statement that the Rockefellers didn’t give to their kids and the Kennedys didn't give to their kids." (New York Times, July 7, 1995) Indeed, most of the really big money is inherited — and by a portion of the population that is so minuscule as to be judged statistically inaccessible.</div><div align="center">The higher one goes up the income scale, the greater the rate of capital accumulation. Economist Paul Krugman notes that not only have the top 20 percent grown more affluent compared with everyone below, the top 5 percent have grown richer compared with the next 15 percent. </div><div align="center">The top one percent have become richer compared with the next 4 percent. </div><div align="center">And the top 0.25 percent have grown richer than the next 0.75 percent. </div><div align="center">That top 0.25 owns more wealth than the other 99 percent combined. </div><div align="center">It has been estimated that if children’s play blocks represented $1,000 each, over 98 percent of us would have incomes represented by piles of blocks that went not more than a few yards off the ground, while the top one percent would stack many times higher than the Eiffel Tower.</div><div align="center">Marx's prediction about the growing gap between rich and poor still haunts the land — and the entire planet. </div><div align="center">The growing concentration of wealth creates still more poverty. As some few get ever richer, more people fall deeper into destitution, finding it increasingly difficult to emerge from it. </div><div align="center">The same pattern holds throughout much of the world. For years now, as the wealth of the few has been growing, the number of poor has been increasing at a faster rate than the earth's population. A rising tide sinks many boats.</div><div align="center">To grasp the true extent of wealth and income inequality in the United States, we should stop treating the “top quintile” — the upper-middle class — as the "richest" cohort in the country. </div><div align="center">But to do that, we need to look beyond the Census Bureau's cooked statistics. We need to catch sight of that tiny, stratospheric apex that owns most of the world.</div><div align="center">Michael Parenti is the author of Against Empire, Dirty Truths, America Besieged, and most recently, History as Mystery, all published by City Lights Books.</div><div align="center"><iframe src="<a href=" embed="embed" height="433" tfgorzly7w="tfgorzly7w" width="770" www.youtube.com="www.youtube.com"><p>http://www.youtube.com/embed/PtFGoRZLy7w&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen&amp;gt;</p></iframe></div><div align="center"><iframe src="<a href=" embed="embed" height="433" width="770" www.youtube.com="www.youtube.com" zcjigrtb9q="zcjigrtb9q"><p>http://www.youtube.com/embed/4zCJigrTb9Q&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen&amp;gt;</p></iframe></div><div align="center"><iframe src="<a href=" embed="embed" height="433" width="770" www.youtube.com="www.youtube.com"><p>http://www.youtube.com/embed/X7_EJLBU400&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen&amp;gt;</p></iframe></div><div align="center"></div><div align="center"><iframe src="<a href=" embed="embed" height="433" tfgorzly7w="tfgorzly7w" width="770" www.youtube.com="www.youtube.com"><p>http://www.youtube.com/embed/PtFGoRZLy7w&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen&amp;gt;</p></iframe></div><div align="center"><iframe src="<a href=" embed="embed" height="433" width="770" www.youtube.com="www.youtube.com" zcjigrtb9q="zcjigrtb9q"><p>http://www.youtube.com/embed/4zCJigrTb9Q&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen&amp;gt;</p></iframe></div><div align="center"><iframe src="<a href=" embed="embed" height="433" width="770" www.youtube.com="www.youtube.com"><p>http://www.youtube.com/embed/X7_EJLBU400&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen&amp;gt;</p></iframe></div><div align="center"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/story/156467/6_things_you_should_know_about_the_%2421_trillion_the_world%27s_richest_people_are_hiding_in_tax_shelters?paging=off">http://www.alternet.org/story/156467/6_things_you_should_know_about_the_%2421_trillion_the_world%27s_richest_people_are_hiding_in_tax_shelters?paging=off</a></div><div align="center">A technology breakdown at a major trading firm roiled the prices of 140 stocks listed on the New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday, undermining the fragile investor confidence.</div><div align="center">The problems at Knight Capital Group, one of the largest firms that buys and sells stocks to provide liquidity to the markets, emerged at the beginning of trading.</div><div align="center">Heavy computer-based trading caused a rush of orders for dozens of stocks, ranging from well-known bellwethers like General Electric to tiny Wizzard Software Corp, whose shares soared to $14.76 after closing the previous day at $3.50. The NYSE has canceled trades in six particularly volatile issues.</div><div align="center">The trading glitches are the latest in a series of market snafus that have hurt retail investors' confidence, including the botched Facebook initial public offering, the 2010 'flash crash' in which nearly $1 trillion in market value disappeared in minutes, and the failed public offering of BATS Global Markets, a rival to the NYSE and the Nasdaq.</div><div align="center">The exact nature of the technology issues were unclear. The the magnitude and fallout for Knight, which was forced to tell clients to send orders elsewhere, and for the broader market were also unknown. Knight's stock plunged nearly 33 percent to $6.94, a nine-year closing low for the stock.</div><div align="center">Knight Capital issued a terse statement acknowledging the trading errors, but company officials were not available for further comment.</div><div align="center">'This morning, a technology issue occurred in Knight's market-making unit related to the routing of shares of approximately 150 stocks to the NYSE,' Knight said in the statement.</div><div align="center">Observers said the problem highlighted the weaknesses in the market that remain two years after the Flash Crash. 'The structure that we have in place is so complicated and intertwined, that all of these entanglements have created real issues in the marketplace,' said Christopher Nagy, a consultant to exchanges and brokerages.</div><div align="center">Heavy buy orders in some stocks sent prices soaring, while others plunged. Many of the names were lesser-known issues such as Molycorp, a stock that usually averages about 2.65 million shares daily but which saw volume of more than 5.7 million shares in the first 45 minutes of trading, bouncing between $17.50 and $14.35 in that period.</div><div align="center">The mood at the Knight Capital booth on the NYSE trading floor was somber, with worried traders taking numerous phone calls as well as answering questions from NYSE officials who were making inquiries on the floor.</div><div align="center">Many on the floor were aware that the problematic trades were coming from Knight. – Reuters</div><div align="center">Iranians Should Be ‘Very Fearful For Next 12 Weeks: Ex-Mossad Chief</div><div align="center">By Times of Israel staff</div><div align="center">August 02, 2012 "Times of Israel" -- The former Mossad chief Efraim Halevy, who told The Times of Israel in an interview in March that there would be “nothing else left” but a resort to force if the diplomatic track with Iran did not quickly produce a breakthrough, hinted Thursday that the moment of truth on Iran’s nuclear drive was now imminent.</div><div align="center">“If I were an Iranian, I would be very fearful of the next 12 weeks,” Halevy, who is also a former national security adviser and ambassador, told The New York Times.</div><div align="center">In an Israel Radio interview later Thursday, he added that Israel’s threats of military action had a certain “credibility” and “seriousness.” He said the Iranian nuclear issue, and the Syrian issue, were the key regional concerns, and reiterated that “If I were an Iranian, I would be very fearful of the next 12 weeks.”</div><div align="center">The New York Times report, focusing on Wednesday’s talks here by Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, said there was “feverish speculation” in Israel that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “will act in September or early October.”</div><div align="center">Apart from Netanyahu’s concern that Israel’s military option would “soon” become redundant, the paper cited several other reasons “for the potential timing.” Among them, it said, was the fact that “Israel does not like to fight wars in winter.” Also, Netanyahu “feels that he will have less leverage if President Obama is reelected” while, were Mitt Romney to win the November elections, “the new president would be unlikely to want to take on a big military action early in his term.”</div><div align="center">Still, Thursday’s article continued, “a number of administration officials say they remain hopeful that Israel has no imminent plans to attack and may be willing to let the United States take the lead in any future military strike, which they say would not occur until next year at the earliest.”</div><div align="center">The New York Times further reported that administration officials say “Israeli officials are less confrontational in private” and that Netanyahu “understands the consequences of military action for Israel, the United States and the region. They say they know he has to maintain the credibility of his threat to keep up pressure on the United States to continue with sanctions and the development of military plans.”</div><div align="center">In his interview with The Times of Israel in late March, Halevy said that if the then-upcoming international talks with Iran on thwarting its nuclear program did not quickly produce a breakthrough, there will be “nothing else left” but a resort to force.</div><div align="center">He also said he had “no doubt that for the past few years Israel has been readying its capabilities to meet the Iranians if necessary by force.</div><div align="center">It was “tragic,” Halevy added at the time, that “I don’t see any great effort being made” by the P5+1 group — the five UN Security Council permanent members and Germany — to prepare urgently and effectively for those talks. The lights “should be burning through the night” to get a strategy together, he said. “The number one thing the world should be doing [on Iran] is investing enormous preparation into the P5+1 confrontation, because this is really the ‘Last Train to San Fernando.’”</div><div align="center">Iran, he predicted, would doubtless try to play for time in the talks. The international community, therefore, needed to be ready with its strategy and tactics, and to be represented by “a very high-level, experienced, wise and creative negotiator.”</div><div align="center">For the international community, said Halevy, “there’s no time for, you know, ‘Let’s meet again in two or three months, let’s do our homework, let’s not rush things, let’s look at it, and so forth.’” Rather, he said, “there has to be a breakthrough… If there is no breakthrough, it means to say that the talks have failed.”</div><div align="center">Asked if, by a breakthrough, he meant Iran announcing the suspension of its nuclear program, Halevy demurred. “I don’t want to say ‘Iran suspending the program.’ I don’t believe that everything will become public overnight.” But it would need to be clear, he said, “that there is a serious negotiation… They don’t have to spell it all out, but it has to be clear.”</div><div align="center">Halevy said he did see signs of greater potential international coordination over Iran. He was encouraged by the growing consensus on tackling Syria, notably including Russia and China, which he said could also be reflected in a coordinated strategy on Iran. He also noted that the priority for the ayatollahs’ regime in Iran is “survival” at all costs.</div><div align="center">Nonetheless, if the negotiations fail, “there’s nothing else left” but a resort to force, he said.</div><div align="center">Perhaps, it was put to Halevy, Israel could live with a nuclear weapons-capable Iran? Halevy responded: “I don’t think that we should countenance that as long as we can do what we can to remove it. I don’t accept the notion that Israel is destructible. But I think that if Iran retains a nuclear capability, life here is going to be very tough for a very long period to come. Israel will not disappear, but Israel will go through a period which I would not like it to go through.”</div><div align="center">Asked whether he believed the Israeli government wanted a diplomatic solution, he answered: “I’m not sure every Israeli wants a diplomatic solution… I’m not sure that the government is entirely behind this support for a diplomatic solution.”</div><div align="center"><a href="http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article32066.htm">http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article32066.htm</a></div><div align="center">Israeli's Brainwashed Into State Of Apathy</div><div align="center">By Haim Baram</div><div align="center">August 02, 2012 "Information Clearing House" -- In rare moments of lucidity, even the mythological “average Israeli” feels that our less than splendid isolation is intolerable. We are constantly brainwashed by our establishment, and the endless bombardments combining biblical rhetoric, alarmist prophesies and demagogic evocations of the holocaust confuse even the elitist circles, despite their liberal self-image and professed Western outlook. This increasingly pervasive syndrome can partially account for our sheepish acquiesce with the rampant rumours and speculations about the forthcoming Israeli attack on Iran. </div><div align="center">The consequences of such aggression are abundantly clear for most educated Israelis, even right-wingers. Yet, the current mood dictates certain apathy, very untypical in saner epochs. What has happened to our judgement, critical faculties and rebellious propensities? How can one reconcile the complete loss of faith with our institutions including the IDF with the fatalistic acceptance of our fate? There is no clear cut explanation, only pessimistic theories and general air of resignation, unprecedented in our country’s history.</div><div align="center">In every political discussion one hears well-connected politicians and commentators list the most likely scenarios and the conclusions are normally somber. The prevalent assessments fail to grasp the logic behind the almost inevitable aggression. The nuclear capabilities of Iran are likely to remain intact; the retaliation by the Iranians is bound to be harsh; the attack on Iranian territory will unite the entire Moslem world against Israel; there will be no international sympathy towards Israel even in the terrible case of death to thousands of people here; most Americans will interpret, and not without reason, the Israeli operation as an attempt by Binyamin Netanyahu to subvert the relatively liberal regime in Washington and to help the reactionary Republican party in its election campaign.</div><div align="center">The Israeli Prime-Minister is regarded here, almost universally, as a Republican hack, with vested interests in the victory of the hard-core right-wingers in the US. Actually, he has built his entire career as an Israeli politician on the premise, that White House policies, which do not fully concur with the interest of Israel’s right-wing government, can be subverted and finally even eradicated by the US congress, supposedly under the influence of the pro-Likud lobby in Washington. </div><div align="center">There is an element of conceit here that has turned Netanyahu into the scourge of American liberals, a foe of the Democrats and a staunch ally of the worst war-mongers and neo-liberals in the American political arena. The South-American leftist, arguably forming a very potent ideological, social and political powerbase in Latin-America, brand official Israel as an enemy, and not without cause. Millions in Brazil, Argentina and the entire spectrum of opinion in Central America will castigate Israel as an aggressor if the Netanyahu regime attack Iran. </div><div align="center">But even their reaction will be dwarfed but the gathering storm in the Moslem world. The wealthy and conservative sector of the US Jewry and their allies in Alabama and Texas are unlikely to shield the Israelis from the popular international wrath.</div><div align="center">The left in Israel, our allies the Arab citizens and the entire peace camp here need the world to save the region from the planned, senseless attack on Iran which could well deteriorate into a future nuclear war. As we cannot rely on our cabinet ministers, some of them baying for blood, we must call upon governments, NGOs and political movements worldwide to help us to prevent the Netanyahu lunacy before the PM unleashes his fury on the denizens of the Middle-East, including us, the Israelis.</div><div align="center">Haim Baram is an Israeli writer and broadcaster. He was (with Major-General Matti Peled, Uri Avnery and Dr. Ya'akov Arnon) a founding member of the Israeli Council for Israeli-Palestinian Peace (ICIPP). He was a member of the Israel Committee for Mordechai Vanunu.</div><div align="center">Turkey Provides Surface-to-air Missiles for Syrian Insurgents</div><div align="center">By Reuters US and allied officials acknowledged that officials of Saudi Arabia and Qatar were discussing whether surface-to-air missiles might help Syrian rebels bring down Russian-made helicopters and other aircraft the Syrian army was using to move troops between trouble spots. </div><div align="center"><a href="http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article32057.htm">http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article32057.htm</a></div><div align="center">August 02, 2012 "The Nation" -- WASHINGTON - Rebels fighting to depose Syrian president Bashar al Assad have for the first time acquired a small supply of surface-to-air missiles, according to a news report that a Western official did not dispute.</div><div align="center">NBC News reported that the rebel Free Syrian Army had obtained nearly two dozen of the weapons, which were delivered to them via neighbouring Turkey, whose moderate Islamist government has been demanding Assad’s departure with increasing vehemence.</div><div align="center">Indications are that the US government, which has said it opposes arming the rebels, is not responsible for the delivery of the missiles.</div><div align="center">But some US government sources have been saying for weeks that Arab governments seeking to oust Assad, including Saudi Arabia and Qatar, have been pressing for such missiles, also known as MANPADs, for man-portable air-defence systems, to be supplied to the rebels.</div><div align="center">In recent days, air operations against the rebels by Syrian government forces appear to have been stepped up, particularly around the contested city of Aleppo, making the rebels’ need for MANPADs more urgent.</div><div align="center">Precisely what kind of MANPADs have been delivered to Syrian rebels is unclear and NBC News did not provide details. Such weapons range from the primitive to highly sophisticated.</div><div align="center">And even if the rebels do have the weapons, it is unclear whether they have the training to operate them effectively against Assad’s air forces in the immediate future.</div><div align="center">Some conservative US lawmakers, such as Republican Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham, have criticized the administration of President Barack Obama for moving too slowly to assist the rebels and have suggested the US government become directly involved in arming Assad’s opponents.</div><div align="center"></div><br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3765367910333413191.post-84921454753171030092012-08-02T18:38:00.002-07:002012-08-02T18:38:35.551-07:00<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><br />
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</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"></div><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">In Hiroshima's Shadow : The Iran Gamble World War III Billed As A Regional Conflict Plus Other Disturbing News Of The Day!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">August 6, the anniversary of Hiroshima, should be a day of somber reflection, not only on the terrible events of that day in 1945, but also on what they revealed: that humans, in their dedicated quest to extend their capacities for destruction, had finally found a way to approach the ultimate limit.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">This year‚ Aug. 6 memorials have special significance. They take place shortly before the 50th anniversary of, "the most dangerous moment in human history," in the words of the historian and John F. Kennedy adviser Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., referring to the Cuban missile crisis.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Graham Allison writes in the current issue of Foreign Affairs that Kennedy, "ordered actions that he knew would increase the risk not only of conventional war but also nuclear war," with a likelihood of perhaps 50 percent, he believed, an estimate that Allison regards as realistic.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Kennedy declared a high-level nuclear alert that authorized, "NATO aircraft with Turkish pilots ... (or others) ... to take off, fly to Moscow, and drop a bomb."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">None were more shocked by the discovery of missiles in Cuba than the men in charge of the similar missiles that the U.S. had secretly deployed in Okinawa six months earlier, surely aimed at China, at a moment of elevated regional tensions.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Kennedy took Chairman Nikita Khrushchev, "right to the brink of nuclear war and he looked over the edge and had no stomach for it," according to Gen. David Burchinal, then a high-ranking official in the Pentagon planning staff. One can hardly count on such sanity forever.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Khrushchev accepted a formula that Kennedy devised, ending the crisis just short of war. The formula‚ boldest element, Allison writes, was, "a secret sweetener that promised the withdrawal of U.S. missiles from Turkey within six months after the crisis was resolved." These were obsolete missiles that were being replaced by far more lethal, and invulnerable, Polaris submarines.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">In brief, even at high risk of war of unimaginable destruction, it was felt necessary to reinforce the principle that U.S. has the unilateral right to deploy nuclear missiles anywhere, some aimed at China or at the borders of Russia, which had previously placed no missiles outside the USSR. Justifications of course have been offered, but I do not think they withstand analysis.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">An accompanying principle is that Cuba had no right to have missiles for defense against what appeared to be an imminent U.S. invasion. The plans for Kennedy‚ terrorist programs, Operation Mongoose, called for, "open revolt and overthrow of the Communist regime," in October 1962, the month of the missile crisis, recognizing that, "final success will require decisive U.S. military intervention."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">The terrorist operations against Cuba are commonly dismissed by U.S. commentators as insignificant CIA shenanigans. The victims, not surprisingly, see matters rather differently. We can at last hear their voices in Keith Bolender‚, "Voices from the Other Side: An Oral History of Terrorism Against Cuba."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">The events of October 1962 are widely hailed as Kennedy‚ finest hour. Allison offers them as, "a guide for how to defuse conflicts, manage great-power relationships, and make sound decisions about foreign policy in general." In particular, today‚ conflicts with Iran and China.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Disaster was perilously close in 1962, and there has been no shortage of dangerous moments since. In 1973, in the last days of the Arab-Israeli war, Henry Kissinger called a high-level nuclear alert. India and Pakistan have come close to nuclear war. There have been innumerable cases when human intervention aborted nuclear attack only moments before launch after false reports by automated systems. There is much to think about on Aug. 6.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Allison joins many others in regarding Iran‚ nuclear programs as the most severe current crisis, "an even more complex challenge for American policymakers than the Cuban missile crisis," because of the threat of Israeli bombing.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">The war against Iran is already well underway, including assassination of scientists and economic pressures that have reached the level of, "undeclared war," in the judgment of the Iran specialist Gary Sick.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Great pride is taken in the sophisticated cyberwar directed against Iran. The Pentagon regards cyberwar as, "an act of war," that authorizes the target, "to respond using traditional military force," The Wall Street Journal reports. With the usual exception: not when the U.S. or an ally is the perpetrator.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">The Iran threat has recently been outlined by Gen. Giora Eiland, one of Israel‚ top military planners, described as, "one of the most ingenious and prolific thinkers the (Israeli military) has ever produced."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Of the threats he outlines, the most credible is that, "any confrontation on our borders will take place under an Iranian nuclear umbrella." Israel might therefore be constrained in resorting to force. Eiland agrees with the Pentagon and U.S. intelligence, which also regard deterrence as the major threat that Iran poses.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">The current escalation of the, "undeclared war," against Iran increases the threat of accidental large-scale war. Some of the dangers were illustrated last month when a U.S. naval vessel, part of the huge deployment in the Gulf, fired on a small fishing boat, killing one Indian crew member and wounding at least three others. It would not take much to set off a major war.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">One sensible way to avoid such dread consequences is to pursue, "the goal of establishing in the Middle East a zone free from weapons of mass destruction and all missiles for their delivery and the objective of a global ban on chemical weapons," the wording of Security Council resolution 687 of April 1991, which the U.S. and U.K. invoked in their effort to provide a thin legal cover for their invasion of Iraq 12 years later.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">The goal has been an Arab-Iranian objective since 1974, regularly re-endorsed, and by now it has near-unanimous global support, at least formally. An international conference to consider ways to implement such a treaty may take place in December.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Progress is unlikely unless there is mass public support in the West. Failure to grasp the opportunity will, once again, lengthen the grim shadow that has darkened the world since that fateful Aug. 6.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">iframe width="770" height="433" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/J0R_Lv_5tqI" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">http://www.nationalmemo.com/five-of-mitt-romneys-scariest-billionaire-donors </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Five Of Mitt Romney’s Scariest Billionaire Donors</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">August 1st, 2012 11:10 pm</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Jason Sattler</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">If you’re the son or daughter of a billionaire, now is the time to act. Convince your parents to donate millions of dollars to one of the Super PAC’s trying to get Mitt Romney elected.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Here’s the sell: Mom, Dad, Mitt is going to give you millions in tax breaks over his four years in office, according to a new study by the non-partisan Brookings Institute. But don’t just think of yourself. Think of me. I could get billions! Mitt wants to completely eliminate the Estate Tax, which is only paid by one out of 1000 Americans. This would effectively make me as much of a billionaire as you are without me doing anything except being born to the best parents in the world.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Of course, the benefits Mitt is offering to his billionaire donors aren’t limited to billions in tax breaks to them and their kids. There’s also rampant deregulation, potential wars and possibly even a shoe contract.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Meet five of the thirty-two billionaires who are spending big to put Mitt in the White House and who accordingly want big things in return.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Continue Reading >> 1 2 3 4 5 6</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">7 Ways Romney’s Education Plan Would Destroy America’s Public Schools</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Mitt Romney wants to destroy public education in the US and get rid of the Department of Education.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">I am not inventing this: you can read all about it in his education white paper entitled “A Chance for Every Child: Mitt Romney’s Plan for Restoring the Promise of American Education” with a forward by Jeb Bush, no less. If you believe that destroying public education as we know it and turning our schools over to the private sector will solve its problems, then this plan is for you.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">The central themes of the Romney plan are a rehash of Republican education ideas from the past thirty years. Here’s how Romney is planning to destroy public education:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">1. Subsidizing parents who want to send their child to a private or religious school. Romney offers complete support for using taxpayer money to pay for private school vouchers, privately managed charters, for-profit online schools, and almost every other alternative to public schools.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">2. Encouraging the private sector to operate schools. To cut costs, Romney encourages the proliferation of for-profit online universities. Romney’s plan says that no new money is needed because more spending on schools will not fix our problems. However, he proposes to dedicate more taxpayer money to the priorities that he favors, such as vouchers, charter schools, and online schools.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">3. Putting commercial banks in charge of the federal student loan program. Romney claims that more federal aid leads to higher tuition, so he offers no new federal funding to help students crippled by debt. Instead, Romney would encourage involvement of the private sector by having commercial banks serve as the intermediary for federal student loans. Obama eliminated this approach in 2012 as too costly.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">4. Holding teachers and schools accountable for students’ test scores. Romney also wants more federal money to reward states for “eliminating or reforming teacher tenure and establishing systems that focus on effectiveness in advancing student achievement.” In other words, Romney is willing to hand out money to states if they eliminate due process rights for teachers and if they pay more to teachers whose students get higher scores on standardized tests and get rid of teacher whose students do not.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">5. Lowering entrance requirements for new teachers. Romney takes a strong stand against certification of teachers, the minimal state-level requirement that future teachers must pass either state or national tests to demonstrate their knowledge and skill, which he considers an unnecessary hurdle.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">6. Eliminating the need to limit class size. Romney apparently believes that class size does not matter (although presumably it mattered to him when he chose a school with small classes for his own children).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">7. Eliminating teachers’ rights. In the vision presented by Romney, public dollars would flow to schools that teach creationism. Anyone could teach, without passing any test of their knowledge and skills and without any professional preparation. Teachers could also be fired for any reason, without any protection of their freedom to teach.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">This is all very, very scary for us public school teachers.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">As if that were not enough, Diane Ravitch, writing in The New York Review of Books, notes:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Paradoxically, Romney’s campaign takes credit for the fact that Massachusetts leads the nation in reading and mathematics on the federal tests known as National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">But Romney was not responsible to the state’s academic success, which is owing to reforms that are entirely different from the ones he is now proposing for the country (my italics). Signed into law a full decade before Romney began his tenure as governor in 2003, the Massachusetts Education Reform Act involved a commitment by the state to double state funding of public education from $1.3 billion in 1993 to $2.6 billion by 2000; to provide a minimum foundation budget for every district to meet its needs, to develop strong curricula for subjects such as science, history, the arts, foreign languages, mathematics, and English; to put into effect a testing program based on the curriculum; to expand professional development for teachers; and to test would-be teachers. In the late 1990s – again, before Romney assumed office – the state added new funds for early childhood education.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Candidate Romney should explain how privatizing the way we school our children will further his goal of “restoring the promise of American education.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Here’s what John Adams had to say about public education (with thanks again to Diane Ravitch):</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">“The whole people must take upon themselves the education of the whole people, and must be willing to bear the expenses of it.. There should not be a district of one mile square, without a school in it, not founded by a charitable individual, but maintained at the public expense of the people themselves.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Message to candidate Romney from an experienced educator: Restoring American education means supporting public schools, not destroying them.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">What do you think?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Romney: Let’s Cut Teachers, Firefighters, Police</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Romney’s Education Plan Recycles Failed Ideas</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Romney Advisor: Women’s Issues Just ‘Shiny Objects’ (Video)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">The Romney campaign may want senior adviser Eric Fehrnstrom to stop talking. The man who gave the 2012 campaign “Etch-a-Sketch” strategy has now declared that issues that affect women are simply “shiny objects” that distract voters from more important topics.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Appearing on This Week With George Stephanopolus, Fehrnstrom said, “Mitt Romney is pro-life. He’ll govern as a pro-life president, but you’re going to see the Democrats use all sorts of shiny objects to distract people’s attention from the Obama performance on the economy. This is not a social issue election.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">That will be news not only to the women who have been fighting against abortion restrictions, but to Republicans themselves. Since gaining power in 2011, Republicans across the country have pushed a rash of draconian anti-choice restrictions, including attempting to ban sex-selective abortion restrictions in just the last week.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Romney himself repeatedly has hit on social themes in the election, blasting President Barack Obama for requiring employers to provide birth control as part of preventative coverage — despite having done the same as governor of Massachusetts.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Obama Deputy Campaign Manager Stephanie Cutter reacted with incredulity to the statement.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">“If it’s not a social issue election then why did Mitt Romney just spend the last year campaigning on social issues?” Cutter asked. “These are his positions that he’s taken. Whether it’s giving bosses control over whether female employees can get contraception, being for the so-called personhood amendment that would ban all forms of abortion or telling the American people that he’ll get back to them on whether he supports Lilly Ledbetter, which is an economic issue and it should be a no-brainer, but the governor couldn’t even bring himself to be for that.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Perhaps most galling is the idea that issues like abortion, fair pay and equal rights are just “shiny objects.” The girl turned away from an Oklahoma hospital after being raped was not a shiny object; she was a hurt, scared person who just wanted to get medical treatment. That care might have included emergency contraception, though, and thanks to so-called “conscience” laws, doctors who don’t believe in birth control don’t have to treat patients.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">For the tens of millions of American women who have had abortions, and the hundreds of millions of American men and women who have used contraception, the right to access health services is not a distraction. It is a core right, one as basic as the right to free speech, or freedom of religion. Those aren’t distractions. They’re vital.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Watch the Video:</span><br />
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<a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/OTUS/">2012 Presidential Election</a>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/08/romneys-kiss-my-spokesman-takes-time-off-campaign-trail</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">President Obama has found it difficult to find support for any of his proposals among Republicans on Capitol Hill. He passed his landmark achievements – health reform legislation and wall street reform – without any help from Democrats. That national health reform law was in part based on the bipartisan law enacted by Mitt Romney in Massachusetts. But it never gained popularity nationally. One Congress watcher, Norm Ornstein of the American Enterprise Institute said recently that Republicans are more to fault for the gridlock in Washington than are the Democrats.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">ORLANDO — President Obama Is On A Tear Over Taxes, Blasting Rival Mitt Romney’s Proposals Today As Nothing More Than “Fairy Dust” To Try To Fix The Economy.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">“They have tried to sell us this trickle down, tax cut ‘fairy dust’ before. And guess what? It didn’t work then, it will not work now,” Obama said of Romney’s plan to slash rates for corporations and upper-income earners.</span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">“It’s not a plan to create jobs, it’s not a plan to reduce the deficit. It is not a plan to build the middle class. It is not a plan to move the economy forward,” he said.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Romney has argued that extending the current Bush-era tax rates and cutting rates further for the wealthy will spur hiring by small businesses.</span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">“Under President Obama, middle-class Americans have experienced higher unemployment, lower incomes, and greater uncertainty about the future,” said Romney spokesman Ryan Williams.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">“Now he is promising to raise taxes on millions of families and small businesses – which is the last thing we should do in a struggling economy,” he said.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">The crowd of 2500 here predictably wasn’t having any of Romney’s ideas, booing at the mere mention of his name.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">They were equally as vocal in praising the president, affectionately heckling him during his speech and singing him a boisterous rendition of “Happy Birthday.”</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Obama turns 51 on Saturday.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">“If I had known you guys were going to sing, we would have had a cake. And then I would have blown out the candle, I would have made a wish that probably would have had to do with electoral votes,” he said with a grin. “A win in Florida wouldn’t be a bad birthday present.”</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Guy Adams: I thought the internet age had ended this kind of censorship</span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">I'm still awaiting a detailed explanation from Twitter as to why my account was immediately suspended</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Twitter Suspends Journalist's Account</span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">A journalist criticized NBC over Olympics coverage and was suspended from Twitter, which has partnered with NBC for its coverage.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Here are three things that NBC prevented their public from being able to watch on network television so far this Olympic Games: live footage of the opening ceremony; live footage of Saturday's swimming showdown between Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte; live footage of the USA men's basketball "dream team."</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">A fourth thing they do not want people to see is the email address of Gary Zenkel, the executive responsible for this shambles. And a fifth thing is my Twitter feed, which over the weekend contained a couple of dozen occasionally uncouth observations about their coverage, several of which were accompanied by the trending hashtag: "#NBCfail."</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">As a journalist, you know you are doing your job properly when you manage to upset rich, powerful and entitled people who are used to getting their own way. And you know you've really got under their skin when they pursue censorship, the avenue of last resort since time immemorial.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">The internet era is meant to be different, though. Thanks to Twitter, and Google and every other medium dedicated to the free exchange of information, the world is supposed to have changed. That's why the Arab Spring happened; it's why Justin Bieber happened. And its why, regardless of its comparative frivolity, NBC's successful attempt to suspend a journalist from a social networking site sets an ugly precedent.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Twitter's guidelines forbid users from publishing what they call "private" information, including "private email addresses". There is plenty of sense in this. But I did not Tweet a private email address. I Tweeted a corporate address for Mr Zenkel, which is widely listed online, and is identical in form to that of tens of thousands of those at NBC.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">I was not contacted by NBC or Twitter before my account was suspended. If they had dropped me a line, I might – might! – have quietly deleted the offending Tweet. Instead, they wandered into a PR controversy which has resulted in hundreds of thousands more people being made aware of its existence. Like any right thinking-person, I take the issue of online bullying seriously. I would hate for anyone to come to harm as a result of something I uploaded to the internet. But I'm at a loss to see how a bit of forthright correspondence from a disgruntled public could be anything more than a minor annoyance to a power-broker of Mr Zenkel's lofty status. I'm still awaiting a detailed explanation from Twitter as to why my account was immediately suspended. On the face of it, their reaction seems heavy-handed.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">As for Gary Zenkel, he is supposedly a grown-up, with a salary, and ego to match. His TV network has decided to delay broadcasting key Olympic events until Prime Time on the grounds it hopes to make more money from advertising. NBC surely knew viewers would be upset by this. If it now displeases Mr Zenkel to get emails from those rightly-angry customers, then he is surely in the wrong job.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/aug/01/israeli-pm-iran-nuclear- programme</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Israeli PM says time running out to stop Iran's nuclear programme</span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Binyamin Netanyahu tells visiting US defence secretary that sanctions and diplomacy have so far failed to end standoff</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Time is running out for the international community to halt Iran's nuclear programme by peaceful means, the Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, told US defence secretary Leon Panetta in Jerusalem on Wednesday.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Sanctions, diplomacy and declarations of a willingness to take military action as a last resort had not yet convinced the Iranians to stop their programme, he said. "However forceful our statements, they have not convinced Iran that we are serious about stopping them. Right now the Iranian regime believes that the international community does not have the will to stop its nuclear programme."</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Netanyahu said earlier that although sanctions were hurting the Iranian economy, such measures had "yet to move its nuclear programme even a millimetre backwards".</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Panetta is the fourth senior US administration official to visit Israel in recent weeks as concern has mounted in Washington that Netanyahu is preparing the ground for a military strike in the coming months.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">In an attempt to reassure Israel – and counter the robust support for military action pledged by presumptive Republican candidate Mitt Romney in Jerusalem earlier this week – Panetta told the prime minister: "We will not allow Iran to develop a nuclear weapon, period. We will not allow them to develop a nuclear weapon, and we will exert all options in the effort to ensure that that does not happen."</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">The question of whether Israel will unilaterally strike against Iran's nuclear sites in the coming months has returned to the fore after a period of relatively dampened speculation. There have also been fresh reports of a split between the Israeli political and security establishments over the merits of early unilateral action, following open opposition to such a move from former security chiefs.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">In a series of television interviews as Panetta arrived in Israel from Egypt, Netanyahu said any decision would be taken by the country's political leadership. But, he added, "I have not taken a decision".</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Following reports that senior defence officials, including military chief of staff Benny Gantz and Mossad chief Tamir Pardo, were opposed to Israel acting alone, the prime minister said: "In every democracy the decision-maker is the political echelon and the implementer is the professional echelon. That is how it always was and that is how it always will be."</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">He said Israel had the right to defend itself. "Things that affect our fate, our very existence, we don't entrust to others – not even to our best friends," he said.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Gantz denied that he was behind the reports, saying: "None of these stories was released by me … I tell the political echelon what I have to say, and they listen."</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">The Israeli military was prepared for a military strike, he said. "As we see it, 'all options are on the table' is not a slogan, it is a working plan and we are doing it."</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Earlier Panetta met his counterpart, Ehud Barak, and toured an Iron Dome battery near Ashkelon, close to the border with Gaza. Israel deploys the weapons against rockets and missiles fired from Gaza.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Panetta denied reports that the purpose of his visit was to share with Israel an operational plan drawn up by the Pentagon to stop the Iranian nuclear programme by force in 18 months, by which time the administration believes it will be at a critical threshold.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Israel's former security chief has censured the country's "messianic" political leadership for talking up the prospects of a military stike on Iran's nuclear programme.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">In unusually candid comments set to ratchet up tensions over Iran at the top of Israel's political establishment, Yuval Diskin, who retired as head of the internal intelligence agency Shin Bet last year, said he had "no faith" in the abilities of the prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, and the defence minister, Ehud Barak, to conduct a war.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">The pair, who are the foremost advocates of military action against Iran's nuclear programme, were "not fit to hold the steering wheel of power", Diskin told a meeting on Friday night.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">"My major problem is that I have no faith in the current leadership, which must lead us in an event on the scale of war with Iran or a regional war," he said.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">"I don't believe in either the prime minister or the defence minister. I don't believe in a leadership that makes decisions based on messianic feelings. Believe me, I have observed them from up close ... They are not people who I, on a personal level, trust to lead Israel to an event on that scale and carry it off.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">"They are misleading the public on the Iran issue. They tell the public that if Israel acts, Iran won't have a nuclear bomb. This is misleading. Actually, many experts say that an Israeli attack would accelerate the Iranian nuclear race."</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">The Super Rich Are Out of Sight</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">The super rich, the less than 1 percent of the population who own the lion’s share of the nation’s wealth, go uncounted in most income distribution reports. Even those who purport to study the question regularly overlook the very wealthiest among us. For instance, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, relying on the latest U.S. Census Bureau data, released a report in December 1997 showing that in the last two decades “incomes of the richest fifth increased by 30 percent or nearly $27,000 after adjusting for inflation.” The average income of the top 20 percent was $117,500, or almost 13 times larger than the $9,250 average income of the poorest 20 percent.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">But where are the super rich? An average of $117,500 is an upper-middle income, not at all representative of a rich cohort, let alone a super rich one. All such reports about income distribution are based on U.S. Census Bureau surveys that regularly leave Big Money out of the picture. </span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">A few phone calls to the Census Bureau in Washington D.C. revealed that for years the bureau never interviewed anyone who had an income higher than $300,000. Or if interviewed, they were never recorded as above the “reportable upper limit” of $300,000, the top figure allowed by the bureau's computer program. </span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">In 1994, the bureau lifted the upper limit to $1 million. This still excludes the very richest who own the lion’s share of the wealth, the hundreds of billionaires and thousands of multimillionaires who make many times more than $1 million a year. The super rich simply have been computerized out of the picture.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">When asked why this procedure was used, an official said that the Census Bureau’s computers could not handle higher amounts. A most improbable excuse, since once the bureau decided to raise the upper limit from $300,000 to $1 million it did so without any difficulty, and it could do so again. </span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Another reason the official gave was “confidentiality.” Given place coordinates, someone with a very high income might be identified. </span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Furthermore, he said, high-income respondents usually understate their investment returns by about 40 to 50 percent. Finally, the official argued that since the super rich are so few, they are not likely to show up in a national sample.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">But by designating the (decapitated) top 20 percent of the entire nation as the “richest” quintile, the Census Bureau is including millions of people who make as little as $70,000. If you make over $100,000, you are in the top 4 percent. </span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Now $100,000 is a tidy sum indeed, but it's not super rich — as in Mellon, Morgan, or Murdock. The difference between Michael Eisner, Disney CEO who pocketed $565 million in 1996, and the individuals who average $9,250 is not 13 to 1 — the reported spread between highest and lowest quintiles — but over 61,000 to 1.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Speaking of CEOs, much attention has been given to the top corporate managers who rake in tens of millions of dollars annually in salaries and perks. </span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">But little is said about the tens of billions that these same corporations distribute to the top investor class each year, again that invisible fraction of 1 percent of the population. </span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Media publicity that focuses exclusively on a handful of greedy top executives conveniently avoids any exposure of the super rich as a class. In fact, reining in the CEOs who cut into the corporate take would well serve the big shareholder's interests.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Two studies that do their best to muddy our understanding of wealth, conducted respectively by the Rand Corporation and the Brookings Institution and widely reported in the major media, found that individuals typically become rich not from inheritance but by maintaining their health and working hard. Most of their savings comes from their earnings and has nothing to do with inherited family wealth, the researchers would have us believe. </span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">In typical social-science fashion, they prefigured their findings by limiting the scope of their data. Both studies failed to note that achieving a high income is itself in large part due to inherited advantages. Those coming from upper-strata households have a far better opportunity to maintain their health and develop their performance, attend superior schools, and achieve the advanced professional training, contacts, and influence needed to land the higher paying positions.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">More importantly, both the Rand and Brookings studies fail to include the super rich, those who sit on immense and largely inherited fortunes. Instead, the investigators concentrate on upper-middle-class professionals and managers, most of whom earn in the $100,000 to $300,000 range — which indicates that the researchers have no idea how rich the very rich really are.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">When pressed on this point, they explain that there is a shortage of data on the very rich. </span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Being such a tiny percentage, “they’re an extremely difficult part of the population to survey,” pleads Rand economist James P. Smith, offering the same excuse given by the Census Bureau officials. That Smith finds the super rich difficult to survey should not cause us to overlook the fact that their existence refutes his findings about self-earned wealth.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"> He seems to admit as much when he says, "This [study] shouldn't be taken as a statement that the Rockefellers didn’t give to their kids and the Kennedys didn't give to their kids." (New York Times, July 7, 1995) Indeed, most of the really big money is inherited — and by a portion of the population that is so minuscule as to be judged statistically inaccessible.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">The higher one goes up the income scale, the greater the rate of capital accumulation. Economist Paul Krugman notes that not only have the top 20 percent grown more affluent compared with everyone below, the top 5 percent have grown richer compared with the next 15 percent. </span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">The top one percent have become richer compared with the next 4 percent. </span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">And the top 0.25 percent have grown richer than the next 0.75 percent. </span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">That top 0.25 owns more wealth than the other 99 percent combined. </span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">It has been estimated that if children’s play blocks represented $1,000 each, over 98 percent of us would have incomes represented by piles of blocks that went not more than a few yards off the ground, while the top one percent would stack many times higher than the Eiffel Tower.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Marx's prediction about the growing gap between rich and poor still haunts the land — and the entire planet. </span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">The growing concentration of wealth creates still more poverty. As some few get ever richer, more people fall deeper into destitution, finding it increasingly difficult to emerge from it. </span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">The same pattern holds throughout much of the world. For years now, as the wealth of the few has been growing, the number of poor has been increasing at a faster rate than the earth's population. A rising tide sinks many boats.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">To grasp the true extent of wealth and income inequality in the United States, we should stop treating the “top quintile” — the upper-middle class — as the "richest" cohort in the country. </span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">But to do that, we need to look beyond the Census Bureau's cooked statistics. We need to catch sight of that tiny, stratospheric apex that owns most of the world.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Michael Parenti is the author of Against Empire, Dirty Truths, America Besieged, and most recently, History as Mystery, all published by City Lights Books.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">http://www.alternet.org/story/156467/6_things_you_should_know_about_the_%2421_trillion_the_world%27s_richest_people_are_hiding_in_tax_shelters?paging=off</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">A technology breakdown at a major trading firm roiled the prices of 140 stocks listed on the New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday, undermining the fragile investor confidence.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">The problems at Knight Capital Group, one of the largest firms that buys and sells stocks to provide liquidity to the markets, emerged at the beginning of trading.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Heavy computer-based trading caused a rush of orders for dozens of stocks, ranging from well-known bellwethers like General Electric to tiny Wizzard Software Corp, whose shares soared to $14.76 after closing the previous day at $3.50. The NYSE has canceled trades in six particularly volatile issues.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">The trading glitches are the latest in a series of market snafus that have hurt retail investors' confidence, including the botched Facebook initial public offering, the 2010 'flash crash' in which nearly $1 trillion in market value disappeared in minutes, and the failed public offering of BATS Global Markets, a rival to the NYSE and the Nasdaq.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">The exact nature of the technology issues were unclear. The the magnitude and fallout for Knight, which was forced to tell clients to send orders elsewhere, and for the broader market were also unknown. Knight's stock plunged nearly 33 percent to $6.94, a nine-year closing low for the stock.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Knight Capital issued a terse statement acknowledging the trading errors, but company officials were not available for further comment.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">'This morning, a technology issue occurred in Knight's market-making unit related to the routing of shares of approximately 150 stocks to the NYSE,' Knight said in the statement.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Observers said the problem highlighted the weaknesses in the market that remain two years after the Flash Crash. 'The structure that we have in place is so complicated and intertwined, that all of these entanglements have created real issues in the marketplace,' said Christopher Nagy, a consultant to exchanges and brokerages.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Heavy buy orders in some stocks sent prices soaring, while others plunged. Many of the names were lesser-known issues such as Molycorp, a stock that usually averages about 2.65 million shares daily but which saw volume of more than 5.7 million shares in the first 45 minutes of trading, bouncing between $17.50 and $14.35 in that period.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">The mood at the Knight Capital booth on the NYSE trading floor was somber, with worried traders taking numerous phone calls as well as answering questions from NYSE officials who were making inquiries on the floor.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Many on the floor were aware that the problematic trades were coming from Knight. – Reuters</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Iranians Should Be ‘Very Fearful For Next 12 Weeks: Ex-Mossad Chief</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">By Times of Israel staff</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">August 02, 2012 "Times of Israel" -- The former Mossad chief Efraim Halevy, who told The Times of Israel in an interview in March that there would be “nothing else left” but a resort to force if the diplomatic track with Iran did not quickly produce a breakthrough, hinted Thursday that the moment of truth on Iran’s nuclear drive was now imminent.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">“If I were an Iranian, I would be very fearful of the next 12 weeks,” Halevy, who is also a former national security adviser and ambassador, told The New York Times.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">In an Israel Radio interview later Thursday, he added that Israel’s threats of military action had a certain “credibility” and “seriousness.” He said the Iranian nuclear issue, and the Syrian issue, were the key regional concerns, and reiterated that “If I were an Iranian, I would be very fearful of the next 12 weeks.”</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">The New York Times report, focusing on Wednesday’s talks here by Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, said there was “feverish speculation” in Israel that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “will act in September or early October.”</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Apart from Netanyahu’s concern that Israel’s military option would “soon” become redundant, the paper cited several other reasons “for the potential timing.” Among them, it said, was the fact that “Israel does not like to fight wars in winter.” Also, Netanyahu “feels that he will have less leverage if President Obama is reelected” while, were Mitt Romney to win the November elections, “the new president would be unlikely to want to take on a big military action early in his term.”</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Still, Thursday’s article continued, “a number of administration officials say they remain hopeful that Israel has no imminent plans to attack and may be willing to let the United States take the lead in any future military strike, which they say would not occur until next year at the earliest.”</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">The New York Times further reported that administration officials say “Israeli officials are less confrontational in private” and that Netanyahu “understands the consequences of military action for Israel, the United States and the region. They say they know he has to maintain the credibility of his threat to keep up pressure on the United States to continue with sanctions and the development of military plans.”</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">In his interview with The Times of Israel in late March, Halevy said that if the then-upcoming international talks with Iran on thwarting its nuclear program did not quickly produce a breakthrough, there will be “nothing else left” but a resort to force.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">He also said he had “no doubt that for the past few years Israel has been readying its capabilities to meet the Iranians if necessary by force.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">It was “tragic,” Halevy added at the time, that “I don’t see any great effort being made” by the P5+1 group — the five UN Security Council permanent members and Germany — to prepare urgently and effectively for those talks. The lights “should be burning through the night” to get a strategy together, he said. “The number one thing the world should be doing [on Iran] is investing enormous preparation into the P5+1 confrontation, because this is really the ‘Last Train to San Fernando.’”</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Iran, he predicted, would doubtless try to play for time in the talks. The international community, therefore, needed to be ready with its strategy and tactics, and to be represented by “a very high-level, experienced, wise and creative negotiator.”</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">For the international community, said Halevy, “there’s no time for, you know, ‘Let’s meet again in two or three months, let’s do our homework, let’s not rush things, let’s look at it, and so forth.’” Rather, he said, “there has to be a breakthrough… If there is no breakthrough, it means to say that the talks have failed.”</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Asked if, by a breakthrough, he meant Iran announcing the suspension of its nuclear program, Halevy demurred. “I don’t want to say ‘Iran suspending the program.’ I don’t believe that everything will become public overnight.” But it would need to be clear, he said, “that there is a serious negotiation… They don’t have to spell it all out, but it has to be clear.”</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Halevy said he did see signs of greater potential international coordination over Iran. He was encouraged by the growing consensus on tackling Syria, notably including Russia and China, which he said could also be reflected in a coordinated strategy on Iran. He also noted that the priority for the ayatollahs’ regime in Iran is “survival” at all costs.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Nonetheless, if the negotiations fail, “there’s nothing else left” but a resort to force, he said.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Perhaps, it was put to Halevy, Israel could live with a nuclear weapons-capable Iran? Halevy responded: “I don’t think that we should countenance that as long as we can do what we can to remove it. I don’t accept the notion that Israel is destructible. But I think that if Iran retains a nuclear capability, life here is going to be very tough for a very long period to come. Israel will not disappear, but Israel will go through a period which I would not like it to go through.”</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Asked whether he believed the Israeli government wanted a diplomatic solution, he answered: “I’m not sure every Israeli wants a diplomatic solution… I’m not sure that the government is entirely behind this support for a diplomatic solution.”</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article32066.htm</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Israeli's Brainwashed Into State Of Apathy</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">By Haim Baram</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">August 02, 2012 "Information Clearing House" -- In rare moments of lucidity, even the mythological “average Israeli” feels that our less than splendid isolation is intolerable. We are constantly brainwashed by our establishment, and the endless bombardments combining biblical rhetoric, alarmist prophesies and demagogic evocations of the holocaust confuse even the elitist circles, despite their liberal self-image and professed Western outlook. This increasingly pervasive syndrome can partially account for our sheepish acquiesce with the rampant rumours and speculations about the forthcoming Israeli attack on Iran. </span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">The consequences of such aggression are abundantly clear for most educated Israelis, even right-wingers. Yet, the current mood dictates certain apathy, very untypical in saner epochs. What has happened to our judgement, critical faculties and rebellious propensities? How can one reconcile the complete loss of faith with our institutions including the IDF with the fatalistic acceptance of our fate? There is no clear cut explanation, only pessimistic theories and general air of resignation, unprecedented in our country’s history.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">In every political discussion one hears well-connected politicians and commentators list the most likely scenarios and the conclusions are normally somber. The prevalent assessments fail to grasp the logic behind the almost inevitable aggression. The nuclear capabilities of Iran are likely to remain intact; the retaliation by the Iranians is bound to be harsh; the attack on Iranian territory will unite the entire Moslem world against Israel; there will be no international sympathy towards Israel even in the terrible case of death to thousands of people here; most Americans will interpret, and not without reason, the Israeli operation as an attempt by Binyamin Netanyahu to subvert the relatively liberal regime in Washington and to help the reactionary Republican party in its election campaign.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">The Israeli Prime-Minister is regarded here, almost universally, as a Republican hack, with vested interests in the victory of the hard-core right-wingers in the US. Actually, he has built his entire career as an Israeli politician on the premise, that White House policies, which do not fully concur with the interest of Israel’s right-wing government, can be subverted and finally even eradicated by the US congress, supposedly under the influence of the pro-Likud lobby in Washington. </span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">There is an element of conceit here that has turned Netanyahu into the scourge of American liberals, a foe of the Democrats and a staunch ally of the worst war-mongers and neo-liberals in the American political arena. The South-American leftist, arguably forming a very potent ideological, social and political powerbase in Latin-America, brand official Israel as an enemy, and not without cause. Millions in Brazil, Argentina and the entire spectrum of opinion in Central America will castigate Israel as an aggressor if the Netanyahu regime attack Iran. </span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">But even their reaction will be dwarfed but the gathering storm in the Moslem world. The wealthy and conservative sector of the US Jewry and their allies in Alabama and Texas are unlikely to shield the Israelis from the popular international wrath.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">The left in Israel, our allies the Arab citizens and the entire peace camp here need the world to save the region from the planned, senseless attack on Iran which could well deteriorate into a future nuclear war. As we cannot rely on our cabinet ministers, some of them baying for blood, we must call upon governments, NGOs and political movements worldwide to help us to prevent the Netanyahu lunacy before the PM unleashes his fury on the denizens of the Middle-East, including us, the Israelis.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Haim Baram is an Israeli writer and broadcaster. He was (with Major-General Matti Peled, Uri Avnery and Dr. Ya'akov Arnon) a founding member of the Israeli Council for Israeli-Palestinian Peace (ICIPP). He was a member of the Israel Committee for Mordechai Vanunu.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Turkey Provides Surface-to-air Missiles for Syrian Insurgents</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">By Reuters</span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">US and allied officials acknowledged that officials of Saudi Arabia and Qatar were discussing whether surface-to-air missiles might help Syrian rebels bring down Russian-made helicopters and other aircraft the Syrian army was using to move troops between trouble spots. </span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article32057.htm</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">August 02, 2012 "The Nation" -- WASHINGTON - Rebels fighting to depose Syrian president Bashar al Assad have for the first time acquired a small supply of surface-to-air missiles, according to a news report that a Western official did not dispute.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">NBC News reported that the rebel Free Syrian Army had obtained nearly two dozen of the weapons, which were delivered to them via neighbouring Turkey, whose moderate Islamist government has been demanding Assad’s departure with increasing vehemence.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Indications are that the US government, which has said it opposes arming the rebels, is not responsible for the delivery of the missiles.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">But some US government sources have been saying for weeks that Arab governments seeking to oust Assad, including Saudi Arabia and Qatar, have been pressing for such missiles, also known as MANPADs, for man-portable air-defence systems, to be supplied to the rebels.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">In recent days, air operations against the rebels by Syrian government forces appear to have been stepped up, particularly around the contested city of Aleppo, making the rebels’ need for MANPADs more urgent.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Precisely what kind of MANPADs have been delivered to Syrian rebels is unclear and NBC News did not provide details. Such weapons range from the primitive to highly sophisticated.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">And even if the rebels do have the weapons, it is unclear whether they have the training to operate them effectively against Assad’s air forces in the immediate future.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Some conservative US lawmakers, such as Republican Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham, have criticized the administration of President Barack Obama for moving too slowly to assist the rebels and have suggested the US government become directly involved in arming Assad’s opponents.</span>
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</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3765367910333413191.post-42100877896526460332012-08-02T07:51:00.001-07:002012-08-02T07:51:22.799-07:00<div style="text-align: center;"></div><br />
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http://www.nationalmemo.com/five-of-mitt-romneys-scariest-billionaire-donors/<br />
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Five Of Mitt Romney’s Scariest Billionaire Donors<br />
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August 1st, 2012 11:10 pm<br />
Jason Sattler<br />
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If you’re the son or daughter of a billionaire, now is the time to act. Convince your parents to donate millions of dollars to one of the Super PAC’s trying to get Mitt Romney elected.<br />
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Here’s the sell: Mom, Dad, Mitt is going to give you millions in tax breaks over his four years in office, according to a new study by the non-partisan Brookings Institute. But don’t just think of yourself. Think of me. I could get billions! Mitt wants to completely eliminate the Estate Tax, which is only paid by one out of 1000 Americans. This would effectively make me as much of a billionaire as you are without me doing anything except being born to the best parents in the world.<br />
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Of course, the benefits Mitt is offering to his billionaire donors aren’t limited to billions in tax breaks to them and their kids. There’s also rampant deregulation, potential wars and possibly even a shoe contract.<br />
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Meet five of the thirty-two billionaires who are spending big to put Mitt in the White House and who accordingly want big things in return.<br />
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Continue Reading >> 1 2 3 4 5 6<br />
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7 Ways Romney’s Education Plan Would Destroy America’s Public Schools<br />
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Mitt Romney wants to destroy public education in the US and get rid of the Department of Education.<br />
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I am not inventing this: you can read all about it in his education white paper entitled “A Chance for Every Child: Mitt Romney’s Plan for Restoring the Promise of American Education” with a forward by Jeb Bush, no less. If you believe that destroying public education as we know it and turning our schools over to the private sector will solve its problems, then this plan is for you.<br />
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The central themes of the Romney plan are a rehash of Republican education ideas from the past thirty years. Here’s how Romney is planning to destroy public education:<br />
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1. Subsidizing parents who want to send their child to a private or religious school. Romney offers complete support for using taxpayer money to pay for private school vouchers, privately managed charters, for-profit online schools, and almost every other alternative to public schools.<br />
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2. Encouraging the private sector to operate schools. To cut costs, Romney encourages the proliferation of for-profit online universities. Romney’s plan says that no new money is needed because more spending on schools will not fix our problems. However, he proposes to dedicate more taxpayer money to the priorities that he favors, such as vouchers, charter schools, and online schools.<br />
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3. Putting commercial banks in charge of the federal student loan program. Romney claims that more federal aid leads to higher tuition, so he offers no new federal funding to help students crippled by debt. Instead, Romney would encourage involvement of the private sector by having commercial banks serve as the intermediary for federal student loans. Obama eliminated this approach in 2012 as too costly.<br />
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4. Holding teachers and schools accountable for students’ test scores. Romney also wants more federal money to reward states for “eliminating or reforming teacher tenure and establishing systems that focus on effectiveness in advancing student achievement.” In other words, Romney is willing to hand out money to states if they eliminate due process rights for teachers and if they pay more to teachers whose students get higher scores on standardized tests and get rid of teacher whose students do not.<br />
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5. Lowering entrance requirements for new teachers. Romney takes a strong stand against certification of teachers, the minimal state-level requirement that future teachers must pass either state or national tests to demonstrate their knowledge and skill, which he considers an unnecessary hurdle.<br />
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6. Eliminating the need to limit class size. Romney apparently believes that class size does not matter (although presumably it mattered to him when he chose a school with small classes for his own children).<br />
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7. Eliminating teachers’ rights. In the vision presented by Romney, public dollars would flow to schools that teach creationism. Anyone could teach, without passing any test of their knowledge and skills and without any professional preparation. Teachers could also be fired for any reason, without any protection of their freedom to teach.<br />
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This is all very, very scary for us public school teachers.<br />
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As if that were not enough, Diane Ravitch, writing in The New York Review of Books, notes:<br />
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Paradoxically, Romney’s campaign takes credit for the fact that Massachusetts leads the nation in reading and mathematics on the federal tests known as National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP).<br />
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But Romney was not responsible to the state’s academic success, which is owing to reforms that are entirely different from the ones he is now proposing for the country (my italics). Signed into law a full decade before Romney began his tenure as governor in 2003, the Massachusetts Education Reform Act involved a commitment by the state to double state funding of public education from $1.3 billion in 1993 to $2.6 billion by 2000; to provide a minimum foundation budget for every district to meet its needs, to develop strong curricula for subjects such as science, history, the arts, foreign languages, mathematics, and English; to put into effect a testing program based on the curriculum; to expand professional development for teachers; and to test would-be teachers. In the late 1990s – again, before Romney assumed office – the state added new funds for early childhood education.<br />
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Candidate Romney should explain how privatizing the way we school our children will further his goal of “restoring the promise of American education.”<br />
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Here’s what John Adams had to say about public education (with thanks again to Diane Ravitch):<br />
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“The whole people must take upon themselves the education of the whole people, and must be willing to bear the expenses of it.. There should not be a district of one mile square, without a school in it, not founded by a charitable individual, but maintained at the public expense of the people themselves.”<br />
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Message to candidate Romney from an experienced educator: Restoring American education means supporting public schools, not destroying them.<br />
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What do you think?<br />
<br />
Romney: Let’s Cut Teachers, Firefighters, Police<br />
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Romney’s Education Plan Recycles Failed Ideas<br />
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Romney Advisor: Women’s Issues Just ‘Shiny Objects’ (Video)<br />
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The Romney campaign may want senior adviser Eric Fehrnstrom to stop talking. The man who gave the 2012 campaign “Etch-a-Sketch” strategy has now declared that issues that affect women are simply “shiny objects” that distract voters from more important topics.<br />
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Appearing on This Week With George Stephanopolus, Fehrnstrom said, “Mitt Romney is pro-life. He’ll govern as a pro-life president, but you’re going to see the Democrats use all sorts of shiny objects to distract people’s attention from the Obama performance on the economy. This is not a social issue election.”<br />
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That will be news not only to the women who have been fighting against abortion restrictions, but to Republicans themselves. Since gaining power in 2011, Republicans across the country have pushed a rash of draconian anti-choice restrictions, including attempting to ban sex-selective abortion restrictions in just the last week.<br />
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Romney himself repeatedly has hit on social themes in the election, blasting President Barack Obama for requiring employers to provide birth control as part of preventative coverage — despite having done the same as governor of Massachusetts.<br />
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Obama Deputy Campaign Manager Stephanie Cutter reacted with incredulity to the statement.<br />
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“If it’s not a social issue election then why did Mitt Romney just spend the last year campaigning on social issues?” Cutter asked. “These are his positions that he’s taken. Whether it’s giving bosses control over whether female employees can get contraception, being for the so-called personhood amendment that would ban all forms of abortion or telling the American people that he’ll get back to them on whether he supports Lilly Ledbetter, which is an economic issue and it should be a no-brainer, but the governor couldn’t even bring himself to be for that.”<br />
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Perhaps most galling is the idea that issues like abortion, fair pay and equal rights are just “shiny objects.” The girl turned away from an Oklahoma hospital after being raped was not a shiny object; she was a hurt, scared person who just wanted to get medical treatment. That care might have included emergency contraception, though, and thanks to so-called “conscience” laws, doctors who don’t believe in birth control don’t have to treat patients.<br />
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For the tens of millions of American women who have had abortions, and the hundreds of millions of American men and women who have used contraception, the right to access health services is not a distraction. It is a core right, one as basic as the right to free speech, or freedom of religion. Those aren’t distractions. They’re vital.<br />
<br />
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<br />
Guy Adams: I thought the internet age had ended this kind of censorship<br />
I'm still awaiting a detailed explanation from Twitter as to why my account was immediately suspended<br />
Twitter Suspends Journalist's Account<br />
A journalist criticized NBC over Olympics coverage and was suspended from Twitter, which has partnered with NBC for its coverage.<br />
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Here are three things that NBC prevented their public from being able to watch on network television so far this Olympic Games: live footage of the opening ceremony; live footage of Saturday's swimming showdown between Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte; live footage of the USA men's basketball "dream team."<br />
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A fourth thing they do not want people to see is the email address of Gary Zenkel, the executive responsible for this shambles. And a fifth thing is my Twitter feed, which over the weekend contained a couple of dozen occasionally uncouth observations about their coverage, several of which were accompanied by the trending hashtag: "#NBCfail."<br />
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As a journalist, you know you are doing your job properly when you manage to upset rich, powerful and entitled people who are used to getting their own way. And you know you've really got under their skin when they pursue censorship, the avenue of last resort since time immemorial.<br />
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The internet era is meant to be different, though. Thanks to Twitter, and Google and every other medium dedicated to the free exchange of information, the world is supposed to have changed. That's why the Arab Spring happened; it's why Justin Bieber happened. And its why, regardless of its comparative frivolity, NBC's successful attempt to suspend a journalist from a social networking site sets an ugly precedent.<br />
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Twitter's guidelines forbid users from publishing what they call "private" information, including "private email addresses". There is plenty of sense in this. But I did not Tweet a private email address. I Tweeted a corporate address for Mr Zenkel, which is widely listed online, and is identical in form to that of tens of thousands of those at NBC.<br />
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I was not contacted by NBC or Twitter before my account was suspended. If they had dropped me a line, I might – might! – have quietly deleted the offending Tweet. Instead, they wandered into a PR controversy which has resulted in hundreds of thousands more people being made aware of its existence. Like any right thinking-person, I take the issue of online bullying seriously. I would hate for anyone to come to harm as a result of something I uploaded to the internet. But I'm at a loss to see how a bit of forthright correspondence from a disgruntled public could be anything more than a minor annoyance to a power-broker of Mr Zenkel's lofty status. I'm still awaiting a detailed explanation from Twitter as to why my account was immediately suspended. On the face of it, their reaction seems heavy-handed.<br />
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As for Gary Zenkel, he is supposedly a grown-up, with a salary, and ego to match. His TV network has decided to delay broadcasting key Olympic events until Prime Time on the grounds it hopes to make more money from advertising. NBC surely knew viewers would be upset by this. If it now displeases Mr Zenkel to get emails from those rightly-angry customers, then he is surely in the wrong job.<br />
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/aug/01/israeli-pm-iran-nuclear-programme<br />
Israeli PM says time running out to stop Iran's nuclear programme<br />
Binyamin Netanyahu tells visiting US defence secretary that sanctions and diplomacy have so far failed to end standoff<br />
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Time is running out for the international community to halt Iran's nuclear programme by peaceful means, the Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, told US defence secretary Leon Panetta in Jerusalem on Wednesday.<br />
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Sanctions, diplomacy and declarations of a willingness to take military action as a last resort had not yet convinced the Iranians to stop their programme, he said. "However forceful our statements, they have not convinced Iran that we are serious about stopping them. Right now the Iranian regime believes that the international community does not have the will to stop its nuclear programme."<br />
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Netanyahu said earlier that although sanctions were hurting the Iranian economy, such measures had "yet to move its nuclear programme even a millimetre backwards".<br />
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Panetta is the fourth senior US administration official to visit Israel in recent weeks as concern has mounted in Washington that Netanyahu is preparing the ground for a military strike in the coming months.<br />
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In an attempt to reassure Israel – and counter the robust support for military action pledged by presumptive Republican candidate Mitt Romney in Jerusalem earlier this week – Panetta told the prime minister: "We will not allow Iran to develop a nuclear weapon, period. We will not allow them to develop a nuclear weapon, and we will exert all options in the effort to ensure that that does not happen."<br />
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The question of whether Israel will unilaterally strike against Iran's nuclear sites in the coming months has returned to the fore after a period of relatively dampened speculation. There have also been fresh reports of a split between the Israeli political and security establishments over the merits of early unilateral action, following open opposition to such a move from former security chiefs.<br />
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In a series of television interviews as Panetta arrived in Israel from Egypt, Netanyahu said any decision would be taken by the country's political leadership. But, he added, "I have not taken a decision".<br />
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Following reports that senior defence officials, including military chief of staff Benny Gantz and Mossad chief Tamir Pardo, were opposed to Israel acting alone, the prime minister said: "In every democracy the decision-maker is the political echelon and the implementer is the professional echelon. That is how it always was and that is how it always will be."<br />
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He said Israel had the right to defend itself. "Things that affect our fate, our very existence, we don't entrust to others – not even to our best friends," he said.<br />
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Gantz denied that he was behind the reports, saying: "None of these stories was released by me … I tell the political echelon what I have to say, and they listen."<br />
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The Israeli military was prepared for a military strike, he said. "As we see it, 'all options are on the table' is not a slogan, it is a working plan and we are doing it."<br />
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Earlier Panetta met his counterpart, Ehud Barak, and toured an Iron Dome battery near Ashkelon, close to the border with Gaza. Israel deploys the weapons against rockets and missiles fired from Gaza.<br />
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Panetta denied reports that the purpose of his visit was to share with Israel an operational plan drawn up by the Pentagon to stop the Iranian nuclear programme by force in 18 months, by which time the administration believes it will be at a critical threshold.<br />
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Israel's former security chief has censured the country's "messianic" political leadership for talking up the prospects of a military stike on Iran's nuclear programme.<br />
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In unusually candid comments set to ratchet up tensions over Iran at the top of Israel's political establishment, Yuval Diskin, who retired as head of the internal intelligence agency Shin Bet last year, said he had "no faith" in the abilities of the prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, and the defence minister, Ehud Barak, to conduct a war.<br />
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The pair, who are the foremost advocates of military action against Iran's nuclear programme, were "not fit to hold the steering wheel of power", Diskin told a meeting on Friday night.<br />
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"My major problem is that I have no faith in the current leadership, which must lead us in an event on the scale of war with Iran or a regional war," he said.<br />
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"I don't believe in either the prime minister or the defence minister. I don't believe in a leadership that makes decisions based on messianic feelings. Believe me, I have observed them from up close ... They are not people who I, on a personal level, trust to lead Israel to an event on that scale and carry it off.<br />
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"They are misleading the public on the Iran issue. They tell the public that if Israel acts, Iran won't have a nuclear bomb. This is misleading. Actually, many experts say that an Israeli attack would accelerate the Iranian nuclear race."<br />
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The Super Rich Are Out of Sight<br />
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The super rich, the less than 1 percent of the population who own the lion’s share of the nation’s wealth, go uncounted in most income distribution reports. Even those who purport to study the question regularly overlook the very wealthiest among us. For instance, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, relying on the latest U.S. Census Bureau data, released a report in December 1997 showing that in the last two decades “incomes of the richest fifth increased by 30 percent or nearly $27,000 after adjusting for inflation.” The average income of the top 20 percent was $117,500, or almost 13 times larger than the $9,250 average income of the poorest 20 percent.<br />
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But where are the super rich? An average of $117,500 is an upper-middle income, not at all representative of a rich cohort, let alone a super rich one. All such reports about income distribution are based on U.S. Census Bureau surveys that regularly leave Big Money out of the picture.<br />
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A few phone calls to the Census Bureau in Washington D.C. revealed that for years the bureau never interviewed anyone who had an income higher than $300,000. Or if interviewed, they were never recorded as above the “reportable upper limit” of $300,000, the top figure allowed by the bureau's computer program.<br />
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In 1994, the bureau lifted the upper limit to $1 million. This still excludes the very richest who own the lion’s share of the wealth, the hundreds of billionaires and thousands of multimillionaires who make many times more than $1 million a year. The super rich simply have been computerized out of the picture.<br />
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When asked why this procedure was used, an official said that the Census Bureau’s computers could not handle higher amounts. A most improbable excuse, since once the bureau decided to raise the upper limit from $300,000 to $1 million it did so without any difficulty, and it could do so again.<br />
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Another reason the official gave was “confidentiality.” Given place coordinates, someone with a very high income might be identified.<br />
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Furthermore, he said, high-income respondents usually understate their investment returns by about 40 to 50 percent. Finally, the official argued that since the super rich are so few, they are not likely to show up in a national sample.<br />
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But by designating the (decapitated) top 20 percent of the entire nation as the “richest” quintile, the Census Bureau is including millions of people who make as little as $70,000. If you make over $100,000, you are in the top 4 percent.<br />
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Now $100,000 is a tidy sum indeed, but it's not super rich — as in Mellon, Morgan, or Murdock. The difference between Michael Eisner, Disney CEO who pocketed $565 million in 1996, and the individuals who average $9,250 is not 13 to 1 — the reported spread between highest and lowest quintiles — but over 61,000 to 1.<br />
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Speaking of CEOs, much attention has been given to the top corporate managers who rake in tens of millions of dollars annually in salaries and perks.<br />
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But little is said about the tens of billions that these same corporations distribute to the top investor class each year, again that invisible fraction of 1 percent of the population.<br />
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Media publicity that focuses exclusively on a handful of greedy top executives conveniently avoids any exposure of the super rich as a class. In fact, reining in the CEOs who cut into the corporate take would well serve the big shareholder's interests.<br />
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Two studies that do their best to muddy our understanding of wealth, conducted respectively by the Rand Corporation and the Brookings Institution and widely reported in the major media, found that individuals typically become rich not from inheritance but by maintaining their health and working hard. Most of their savings comes from their earnings and has nothing to do with inherited family wealth, the researchers would have us believe.<br />
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In typical social-science fashion, they prefigured their findings by limiting the scope of their data. Both studies failed to note that achieving a high income is itself in large part due to inherited advantages. Those coming from upper-strata households have a far better opportunity to maintain their health and develop their performance, attend superior schools, and achieve the advanced professional training, contacts, and influence needed to land the higher paying positions.<br />
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More importantly, both the Rand and Brookings studies fail to include the super rich, those who sit on immense and largely inherited fortunes. Instead, the investigators concentrate on upper-middle-class professionals and managers, most of whom earn in the $100,000 to $300,000 range — which indicates that the researchers have no idea how rich the very rich really are.<br />
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When pressed on this point, they explain that there is a shortage of data on the very rich.<br />
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Being such a tiny percentage, “they’re an extremely difficult part of the population to survey,” pleads Rand economist James P. Smith, offering the same excuse given by the Census Bureau officials. That Smith finds the super rich difficult to survey should not cause us to overlook the fact that their existence refutes his findings about self-earned wealth.<br />
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He seems to admit as much when he says, "This [study] shouldn't be taken as a statement that the Rockefellers didn’t give to their kids and the Kennedys didn't give to their kids." (New York Times, July 7, 1995) Indeed, most of the really big money is inherited — and by a portion of the population that is so minuscule as to be judged statistically inaccessible.<br />
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The higher one goes up the income scale, the greater the rate of capital accumulation. Economist Paul Krugman notes that not only have the top 20 percent grown more affluent compared with everyone below, the top 5 percent have grown richer compared with the next 15 percent.<br />
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The top one percent have become richer compared with the next 4 percent.<br />
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And the top 0.25 percent have grown richer than the next 0.75 percent.<br />
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That top 0.25 owns more wealth than the other 99 percent combined.<br />
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It has been estimated that if children’s play blocks represented $1,000 each, over 98 percent of us would have incomes represented by piles of blocks that went not more than a few yards off the ground, while the top one percent would stack many times higher than the Eiffel Tower.<br />
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Marx's prediction about the growing gap between rich and poor still haunts the land — and the entire planet.<br />
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The growing concentration of wealth creates still more poverty. As some few get ever richer, more people fall deeper into destitution, finding it increasingly difficult to emerge from it.<br />
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The same pattern holds throughout much of the world. For years now, as the wealth of the few has been growing, the number of poor has been increasing at a faster rate than the earth's population. A rising tide sinks many boats.<br />
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To grasp the true extent of wealth and income inequality in the United States, we should stop treating the “top quintile” — the upper-middle class — as the "richest" cohort in the country.<br />
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But to do that, we need to look beyond the Census Bureau's cooked statistics. We need to catch sight of that tiny, stratospheric apex that owns most of the world.<br />
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Michael Parenti is the author of Against Empire, Dirty Truths, America Besieged, and most recently, History as Mystery, all published by City Lights Books.<br />
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http://www.alternet.org/story/156467/6_things_you_should_know_about_the_%2421_trillion_the_world%27s_richest_people_are_hiding_in_tax_shelters?paging=off<br />
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A technology breakdown at a major trading firm roiled the prices of 140 stocks listed on the New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday, undermining the fragile investor confidence.<br />
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The problems at Knight Capital Group, one of the largest firms that buys and sells stocks to provide liquidity to the markets, emerged at the beginning of trading.<br />
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Heavy computer-based trading caused a rush of orders for dozens of stocks, ranging from well-known bellwethers like General Electric to tiny Wizzard Software Corp, whose shares soared to $14.76 after closing the previous day at $3.50. The NYSE has canceled trades in six particularly volatile issues.<br />
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The trading glitches are the latest in a series of market snafus that have hurt retail investors' confidence, including the botched Facebook initial public offering, the 2010 'flash crash' in which nearly $1 trillion in market value disappeared in minutes, and the failed public offering of BATS Global Markets, a rival to the NYSE and the Nasdaq.<br />
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The exact nature of the technology issues were unclear. The the magnitude and fallout for Knight, which was forced to tell clients to send orders elsewhere, and for the broader market were also unknown. Knight's stock plunged nearly 33 percent to $6.94, a nine-year closing low for the stock.<br />
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Knight Capital issued a terse statement acknowledging the trading errors, but company officials were not available for further comment.<br />
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'This morning, a technology issue occurred in Knight's market-making unit related to the routing of shares of approximately 150 stocks to the NYSE,' Knight said in the statement.<br />
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Observers said the problem highlighted the weaknesses in the market that remain two years after the Flash Crash. 'The structure that we have in place is so complicated and intertwined, that all of these entanglements have created real issues in the marketplace,' said Christopher Nagy, a consultant to exchanges and brokerages.<br />
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Heavy buy orders in some stocks sent prices soaring, while others plunged. Many of the names were lesser-known issues such as Molycorp, a stock that usually averages about 2.65 million shares daily but which saw volume of more than 5.7 million shares in the first 45 minutes of trading, bouncing between $17.50 and $14.35 in that period.<br />
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The mood at the Knight Capital booth on the NYSE trading floor was somber, with worried traders taking numerous phone calls as well as answering questions from NYSE officials who were making inquiries on the floor.<br />
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Many on the floor were aware that the problematic trades were coming from Knight. - ReutersUnknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3765367910333413191.post-35274786186599438432012-08-02T06:32:00.001-07:002012-08-02T06:32:19.983-07:00<div style="text-align: center;"></div>Watch the Video:<br />
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</div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3765367910333413191.post-28555424252419408162012-07-24T06:20:00.002-07:002012-07-24T06:21:51.415-07:00<div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">“Only after the last tree has been cut down. Only after the last fish has been caught. Only after the last river has been poisoned. Only then will you realize that money cannot be eaten. Cree Nation Tribal Prophecy”</div><div style="text-align: center;">The Elites Are Unanimous: Lower Everyone's Wages and Standard of Living -- Except They Don't Say it Out Loud</div><div style="text-align: center;">America's 1% are in harmony on the matter that concerns them most -- who gets the biggest slice of the pie.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
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</div><div style="text-align: center;">http://secretarcana.com/hiddenknowledge/monarch-programming-mind-control</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
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<noscript>Get the &amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://www.widgetbox.com/widget/the-long-war-journal-kwikkarl"&amp;amp;amp;gt;The Long War Journal&amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;gt; widget and many other &amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://www.widgetbox.com/"&amp;amp;amp;gt;great free widgets&amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;gt; at &amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://www.widgetbox.com"&amp;amp;amp;gt;Widgetbox&amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;gt;! Not seeing a widget? (&amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://support.widgetbox.com/"&amp;amp;amp;gt;More info&amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;gt;)</noscript>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3765367910333413191.post-51568599391151148902012-07-21T05:52:00.002-07:002012-07-21T05:52:30.424-07:00<div style="text-align: center;"><iframe frameborder="0" height="554" src="http://mlb.mlb.com/shared/video/embed/embed.html?width=700&height=554&content_id=23157659&property=gbtv" width="700">Your browser does not support iframes.</iframe></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3765367910333413191.post-995757478108666392012-07-21T05:51:00.002-07:002012-07-21T05:51:56.375-07:00<div style="text-align: center;"><br />
<iframe frameborder="0" height="554" src="http://mlb.mlb.com/shared/video/embed/embed.html?width=700&height=554&content_id=23157659&property=gbtv" width="700">Your browser does not support iframes.</iframe></div><div style="text-align: center;"></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3765367910333413191.post-51824313537697514242012-07-20T07:37:00.001-07:002012-07-20T07:37:45.914-07:00<div style="text-align: center;"></div><br />
US Election 2012: Mitt Romney fortune built with help from Robert Maxwell and Jack Lyons<br />
<br />
Robert Maxwell and Jack Lyons, two of the most notorious figures in British corporate history, helped Mitt Romney build his $250 million (£160 million) fortune, it can be disclosed.<br />
<br />
Maxwell, the late owner of Mirror Newspapers, invested $2 million in Mr Romney's first private equity fund, which launched the controversial career in finance that the Republican presidential challenger now cites as proof of his ability to lead the US to prosperity.<br />
<br />
He was recruited by Lyons, a late colleague of Mr Romney's at Bain & Company and one of the "Guinness Four" who were convicted in 1990 over the infamous share-trading fraud at the drinks firm. Lyons and his family invested almost $3 million in Mr Romney's fund.<br />
<br />
Both Lyons and Maxwell kept their money in tax havens. The discovery of their financial links to Mr Romney comes amid mounting pressure on the former Massachusetts governor to disclose details of his own offshore holdings, including a Swiss bank account.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/100550169" style="-x-system-font: none; display: block; font-family: Helvetica,Arial,Sans-serif; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 12px auto 6px auto; text-decoration: underline;" title="View Bain Capital on Scribd">Bain Capital</a><iframe class="scribd_iframe_embed" data-aspect-ratio="" data-auto-height="true" frameborder="0" height="600" id="doc_21639" scrolling="no" src="http://www.scribd.com/embeds/100550169/content?start_page=1&view_mode=list" width="100%"></iframe>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3765367910333413191.post-14754422163621242992012-07-20T06:03:00.002-07:002012-07-20T06:03:52.765-07:00<div style="text-align: center;"><br />
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