Letter Never Sent Tell me when to go.

From National Resources Defense Council:

Confidential Papers Show Exxon Hand in White House Move to Oust Top Scientist from International Global Warming Panel

Continue reading →

Looking at this site it appears that most prominent Republicans were too good to serve their country in the military. That goes for our asshole-in-chief. Hypocrite assholes.

From MSNBC:

Economists have known for a long time that it pays to be tall. Multiple studies have found that an extra inch of height can be worth an extra $1,000 a year or so in wages, after controlling for education and experience. If you’re 6 feet tall, you probably earn about $6,000 more than the equally qualified 5-foot-6-inch shrimp down the hall.

(Note: I fucking lost my previous version of this entry while I was working on it) Secretary of State, Colin Powell, found time in his busy schedule to stop by the annual meeting of the Trilateral Commission to give a private off-the-record talk.

Delivering unprepared and off-the-record remarks, the secretary gave a review of the problems facing the Western world and discussed some details of the Mideast tour, the commission member said.

However, several members who attended the secretary’s speech declined to provide specifics of Powell’s remarks. …

In the commission’s 29-year-history, such discussions have remained closed to the public and all remarks made by speakers are off-the-record

So, essentially a bunch of unelected, unaccountable elitists get to meet privately with a senior member of our ‘elected’ government and we don’t get the privilege of knowing what exactly they’re discussing.

While I was at the Trilateral Commission’s official website I noticed that the former North American Chairman is Paul A. Volker. This is the same Paul A. Volker who is currently trying to help Arthur Andersen with their criminal problems having been caught cooking the books for Enron. Paul A. Volker, in addition to being a trilateralist, is also a former chairman of the Federal Reserve Board. Does that seem a little improper? You didn’t hear nothing, bub! Keep moving!

The Trilateral Commission has an interesting story behind it.

The Trilateral Commission was established in 1973. Its founder and primary financial angel was international financier, David Rockefeller, longtime chairman of the Rockefeller family-controlled Chase Manhattan Bank and undisputed overlord of his family’s global corporate empire.

Rockefeller’s idea for establishing the commission emerged after he had read a book entitled Between Two Ages written by an Establishment scholar, Prof. Zbigniew Brzezinski of Columbia University.

In his book Brzezinski proposed a vast alliance between North America, Western Europe and Japan. According to Brzezinski, changes in the modern world required it.

“Resist as it might,” Brzezinski wrote elsewhere, “the American system is compelled gradually to accommodate itself to this emerging international context, with the U.S. government called upon to negotiate, to guarantee, and, to some extent, to protect the various arrangements that have been contrived even by private business.”

In other words, it was necessary for the international upper class to band together to protect its interests, and to ensure, in the developed nations, that political leaders were brought to power who would ensure that the global financial interests (of the Rockefellers and the other ruling elites) would be protected over those of the hoi polloi.

• List of Members of Council on Foreign Relations and Trilateral Commission: I’m not sure how up to date this is.
• Trilateral Commission Books Yes, they have books. Might be worth a read to see what they’re advocating. Note: while I was checking out this book summary I noticed this passage which is interesting in relation to our government’s policy towards Afghanistan: The book includes chapters on energy policies in North America, Europe, and Japan; energy investment in Russia, Central Asia, and the Caucasus; and the energy dynamics of rapidly industrializing countries, particularly in Asia. Central Asia is exactly where the US has taken the ‘war against terror’. It is an area which western business would love to get their mitts on and there is a power vaccuum there which the US would like to fill. Look at who they’ve installed in Afghanistan, ex-Unocal employee Hamid Karzai. While else would they invade Afghanistan when all of the bombers of the WTC were Saudis?

The Declaration of Independence is an amazing document. Since the American government has travelled down this dangerous path it becomes all the more important for us to take the words of the Declaration to heart. It is our duty to change a corrupt system, or if necessary, to overthrow it.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.–Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

• Full text here

From Al Martin RAW:

Imperial State Power in America

Now even US postage stamps will project the supremacy of American Imperial Power into the world. The new 57-cent stamp shows an eagle, which is an exact copy of the symbol of the Waffen SS, which in turn was taken from the Imperial Praetorian eagle of Ancient Rome. This is one of the first in a new series of postage stamps being released by the US Post Office to commemorate the New Age of State Power.

According to the Moh’s color chart, the color of the stamp used to be called Nordic or Aryan Blue — before the war. After the war, when those words became politically incorrect, the name of the blue was changed to the more neutral-sounding Icelandic Blue.

The stamp portrays an eagle resting on triple-perched pediments. It’s a beautifully executed design, if one wants to portray State Power. This eagle is man’s most ancient and recognizable symbol of State Power. The seven pediments on the eagle’s chevron shaped breastplate represent the seven hills of Rome. The three Ionic columned perch represents Order, Discipline and Obedience, which was the pledge undertaken by the Obsidian Order.

Any philatelist would recognize this eagle and any numismatist, who collects Third Reich or Caesarian coins, would also know it. This iconography is not original with the Third Reich, of course, since they borrowed it from the ancient Romans.

Deficits are back thanks to our fearless leader. To keep from defaulting on the national debt (which has never happened in American history!) the Bush gang is raiding federal employee retirement accounts. Sounds like Enronomics to me. Of course, the Clinton gang did the same thing in 1995. Where’s Matt Dillon when you need him?

What possible explanation can be used to justify this? Even according to the prosecution Lindh had nothing to do with the death of CIA spook, Johnny Spann. Everything about this whole situation reeks of scapegoating. The US is eager to have something to show for all the fireworks and made-for-tv crap when in reality they have done really nothing. Bombing third-world civilians doesn’t really qualify as a war in my opinion.

Why in God’s name are the Democrats on their knees to help Hollywood pass draconian copyright laws? I know Big Media gives them lots of money, but they could try to make it look a little less like blatant quid pro quo. Email, fax, and call your elected officials and make sure they oppose the Consumer Broadband and Digital Television Promotion Act. I may be forced to vote Republican this year. I’m becoming one of those hard-to-pin-down swing voters. Well, at least Patrick Leahy is opposing this bill. Vermont has the most interesting senators, Patrick Leahy and Jim Jeffords. In the house they have the only socialist, Bernie Sanders.

Related:

• Digital Consumer: Protecting Fair Rights

It’s nice to see the Arab states displaying some backbone by trying to undo the imminent invasion of Iraq by Bush Junior and his thugs.

Baghdad-Kuwait Accord — Support Is Rebuff to Bush’s Efforts

The government in Riyadh is sensitive to the idea that it would be once again seen as an ally in any attack by the United States on Iraq, a Muslim nation. That sensitivity is partly the result of a widespread domestic impression that America’s war on terrorism has actually been an assault on Islam.

In addition, after the Sept. 11 attacks, the Saudis stressed repeatedly that the first step toward ending the terrorism inspired by Osama bin Laden was to solve the Palestinian conflict, which inspires many in the Arab world to take up arms against the United States and its Arab allies.

Today, the message from the Saudis seemed clear. They coordinated an unprecedented Arab peace initiative toward Israel on the very day they also pushed through a surprise Kuwaiti-Iraqi reconciliation, suggesting that if the former problem could be solved, the Iraqi issue could, too.

“I think the Saudis are basically sending a message to the Americans to solve the Palestinian question and things will fall into place,” said George Hawatmeh, the editor of the Jordanian daily Al Rai. “Take care of the Palestinian problem, the mother of all problems, and we will solve the rest in our own way. We will take care of Iraq.”

Related:
1. The myth that Iraq gassed the Kurds straight from a Pentagon report in 1990. This libel against Iraq is openly expressed by the current administration despite the absence (according to this report) of evidence. It is suggested that Iran was actually responsible for the gas attacks. Of course, Iraq has no love for the independent Kurds, but then neither does Turkey, a strong US ally. The Kurds are surrounded by enemies. A Kurdish proverb says Kurds have “no friends but the mountains.” Turkey is not excited about the potential dissolution of Iraq because it fears this might lead to the creation of an independent Kurdish state which could end up taking a chunk out of Turkey’s borders and drastically change the balance of power in the region. The Kurdish people have an interesting history. The Kurds are the largest ethnic group in the world without a country of their own. The Muslim hero of the Crusades, Saladin (Salah al-Din Yusuf bin Ayub), was a Kurd as was the Persian King Darius.
2. More on the Kurds: The Kurd population numbers around 20-25 million and they make up roughly 23% of the Turkish population. Turkey has it’s own history of abuse against the Kurds:
   
   The Treaty of Sèvres (1920), which liquidated the Ottoman Empire, provided for the creation of an autonomous Kurdish state. Because of Turkey’s military revival under Kemal Atatürk, however, the Treaty of Lausanne (1923), which superseded Sèvres, failed to mention the creation of a Kurdish nation. Revolts by the Kurds of Turkey in 1925 and 1930 were forcibly quelled. Later (1937–38) aerial bombardment, poison gas, and artillery shelling of Kurdish strongholds by the government resulted in the slaughter of many thousands of Turkey’s Kurds. The Kurds in Iran also rebelled during the 1920s, and at the end of World War II a Soviet-backed Kurdish “republic” existed briefly.

   With the overthrow of the Iraqi monarchy in 1958, the Kurds hoped for greater administration and development projects, which the new Ba’athist government failed to grant. Agitation among Iraq’s Kurds for a unified and autonomous Kurdistan led in the 1960s to prolonged warfare between Iraqi troops and the Kurds under Mustafa al-Barzani. In 1970, Iraq finally promised local self-rule to the Kurds, with the city of Erbil as the capital of the Kurdish area. The Kurds refused to accept the terms of the agreement, however, contending that the president of Iraq would retain real authority and demanding that Kirkuk, an important oil center, be included in the autonomous Kurdish region.

   In 1974 the Iraqi government sought to impose its plan for limited autonomy in Kurdistan. It was rejected by the Kurds, and heavy fighting erupted. After the establishment of the Islamic Republic in Iran (1979), the government there launched a murderous campaign against its Kurdish inhabitants as well as a program to assassinate Kurdish leaders. Iraqi attacks on the Kurds continued throughout the Iran-Iraq War (1980–88), culminating (1988) in poison gas attacks on Kurdish villages to quash resistance and in the rounding up and execution of male Kurds, all of which resulted in the killing of some 200,000 in that year alone.

   With the end of the Persian Gulf War (1991), yet another Kurdish uprising against Iraqi rule was crushed by Iraqi forces; nearly 500,000 Kurds fled to the Iraq-Turkey border, and more than one million fled to Iran. Thousands of Kurds subsequently returned to their homes under UN protection. In 1992 the Kurds established an “autonomous region” in N Iraq and held a general election. However, the Kurds were split into two opposed groups, the Kurdistan Democratic party and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, which engaged in sporadic warfare. In 1999 the two groups agreed to end hostilities.

   In Turkey, where the government has long attempted to suppress Kurdish culture, fighting erupted in the mid-1980s, mainly in SE Turkey, between government forces and guerrillas of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which was established in 1984. The PKK has also engaged in terrorist attacks. In 1992 the Turkish government again mounted a concerted attack on its Kurdish minority, killing more than 20,000 and creating about two million refugees. In 1995, Turkey waged a military campaign against PKK base camps in northern Iraq, and in 1999 it captured the guerrillas’ leader, Abdullah Ocalan, who was subsequently condemned to death. Some 23,000–30,000 people are thought to have died in the 15-year war. The legal People’s Democracy party is now the principal civilian voice of Kurdish nationalism in Turkey. The PKK announced in Feb., 2000, that they would end their attacks, but the arrest the same month of the Kurdish mayors of Diyarbakir and other towns on charges of aiding the rebels threatened to revive the unrest. There were also clashes in the 1990s between the Kurds of Turkey and Iraq.
   /