The Money Party

We Are Nothing To Them

Mark Karlin Scoops the Domestic Assassination by Drone Story

Feb 21

Posted by Michael Collins in Criminal Justice, Extremists, Intelligence, Violence | Comments off

I’ve known  Mark Karlin (online) for a while.  As editor of BuzzFlash, he was generous enough to run my voting rights and other  articles on more than a few occasions.  He’s an excellent analyst in addition to his editorial skills and a solid progressive Democrat from Chicago.  All the more reason to take  his article below is a fair warning about the potential abuse of power.     Michael Collins

By Mark Karlin, Editor
BuzzFlash and Truthout

These are the powers of a modern day Nero, not the leader of a nation based on the foundation of a Constitution guaranteeing specific rights and legal recourse.

Sometimes, it even takes BuzzFlash at Truthout a little time to write commentaries about killer issues, in this case literally.

According to the Wall Street Journal (in a February 15 article), Obama’s nominee to head the CIA, John Brennan, ambiguously left open the possibility that US citizens could be targeted for assassination in the United States: Read the rest of this entry »

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Feb 20

Posted by Michael Collins in Extremists | Comments off

roveOops!  A Tea Party fundraising mailer contained this image of Karl Rove.  Rove, as we’ve heard, has mounted an effort to take out the Tea Party as an influence on the Republican Party.  Nine of nine Tea Party candidates for the United States Senate lost elections in 2012.   The money behind the Republican Party is not pleased.  Major defense contractors, other corporate big wigs, and long term operatives are appalled that they can’t pick up the phone and tell their minions in Congress what to do.

The threat of sequestration by Congress, forced budget cutting due to the failure to pass a budget or continuing resolution is a very big deal.  An estimated one million jobs will be lost and the cost of defense contracts is in the tens of billions.  Those costs, just for starters, are due to the Tea Party members of the House of Representatives.  They are out of control and won’t back down. Read the rest of this entry »

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XL Pipeline Demonstration – Washington, DC February 17, 2013 Pam Burbul, Photographer

Feb 18

Posted by Michael Collins in Environment, Health, Obama | Comments off

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Also see People Tell Obama NO XL Pipeline, Start Leading on Environment by Michael Collins Read the rest of this entry »

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Citizens Tell Obama to Stop Pipeline and Get Busy on Environment

Feb 17

Posted by Michael Collins in Big Money, Environment | Comments off

(Washington, DC 1/17)  The nation’s capital hosted over 40,000 citizens assembled to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.  The crowd urged President Obama to bring to reality his lofty words on climate change in the inaugural address just days ago.  By stopping the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline, the president would deal a blow to the rogue energy companies who, by their actions, are ready to sacrifice everything to transport oil from Alberta, Canada’s tar sands, across the United States, for refinement in Houston, Texas and shipment to China.

The broader concern of the gathered citizens and march sponsors, 350.org, and the Sierra Club, represents the existential issue of our time.  We need to get very real, very soon on the manifest threat to the earth’s climate posed by fossil fuels and the threat to the human species embodied by insane ventures like the Canadian tar sands project.  The verdict of science is clear.  As leading climate scientist James E. Hansen said, the full exploitation of tar sands oil and use by China, or any nation, is “game over for the climate.”

Citizens gathered at the Washington Monument, where speakers outlined the last chance scenario for reversing climate change.  While nowhere near the entire solution, stopping the Keystone XL pipeline offers the biggest win in the war for survival.  Bill McKibben, founder of 350.org, opened the program with the demand that President Obama live up to his campaign rhetoric and stop the pipeline from crossing the Canadian border.  That action would devastate the corporate partnership of Enbridge, TransCanada, and the other vultures seeking to profit at the expense of everyone else.  Michael Brune, executive director of the Sierra Club, argued that the coal and oil industries are on the run.  He cited energy use estimates for Texas, Colorado, and other states that show 30% of energy needs will be met by alternative fuels.  Brune chained himself to the White House fencing February 14 in the Sierra Club’s first sanctioned act of civil disobedience in 120 years. Read the rest of this entry »

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Harry “the rat” Reid Torpedoes the Hagel Nomination

Feb 15

Posted by Michael Collins in Deense | Comments off

Michael Collins

Hagel’s confirmation has become a memorable battle, in part because many of his opponents are strongly pro-war while always having avoided themselves the kind of sacrifice Hagel exhibited.  Andrew Kreig, Justice Integrity Project

Senate Democratic Majority Harry Reid is a rat of epic proportions.  He was the only member of the Democratic majority who voted against cloture on the filibuster now in place by Senate Republicans.  Reid earned his latest rat tail for two acts against the citizens of this country.  First, of course, is the vote against cloture, thus allowing the Republicans to block the Hagel nomination.  Reid was forced into this vote by parliamentary rules which Reid himself created.  Before that, Reid assured the survival of the filibuster by refusing to curtail the odious process when he wrote the rules for this session of the Senate. Read the rest of this entry »

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Al Akahbar: Syria – Damascus Repels Another Rebel Attack

Feb 8

Posted by Michael Collins in Arab Spring, Corruption, Middle East, Syria, War (endless) | Comments off

A Syrian rebel takes position with a heavy machine gun on the Jabal al-Turkman mountain in Syrian's northern Latakia province on 5 February 2013. (Photo: AFP - Aamir Qureshi)

A Syrian rebel takes position with a heavy machine gun on the Jabal al-Turkman mountain in Syrian’s northern Latakia province on 5 February 2013. (Photo: AFP – Aamir Qureshi)

Remember all those articles over the last few months – Syria to fall soon; what will post-Assad Syria look like?  Soon, we were lead to believe, the demands of Former Secretary of State (and neo-colonialism) Hillary Clinton would come true.  When didn’t she say – “Assad must go!”  Ironically, Assad is  still around and Clinton is  gone. That’s one big step for mankind and an even bigger step backwards for the Syrian rebels, particularly the very Al Qaeda fighters operating under the name Al Nusra.  They fight and win but rely on direct or indirect funding, weapons, and technical assistance from NATO and the Gulf plutocrats.  In fact, we now know that Ms. Clinton and the disgraced General Petraeus were pushing for the United States to openly arm the rebels.  Cooler heads prevailed.  Weapons and other items were stalled.  Assad’s military made some changes.  And now, voila!, the Syrian Arab Army is defending the capital.

 

  Was any of this dreadful, deadly conflict worth it?
– Michael Collins

From Al Akahbar-English
Creative Commons

By: Anas Zarzar, Marah Mashi

Published Thursday, February 7, 2013

The armed Syrian opposition declared yet another “zero hour” to take Damascus on Wednesday. By nightfall, however, the army managed to restore order in the capital and widen its offensive against the rebels in the countryside. Read the rest of this entry »

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Belgian MP Laurent Louis Tears Down Empire Project – Amazing!

Feb 2

Posted by Michael Collins in 9/11, antiwar, Arab Spring, Corruption, Violence, War (endless) | Comments off

Speech by Laurent Louis – Posted by Michael Collins

“It is about time to stop lying to us and treating people like imbeciles.”

Tearing Down the Empire Project:  This speech represents a moment of extreme truth for the NATO powers. The United States, Great Britain, France and the lesser powers have been throwing their weight around Asia and Africa without regard to the norms of civilized behavior Their drill includes attacking countries that pose no threat to any NATO member; engaging in ruinious sanctions as a negotiating tool; threatening war; and, engaging in military actions as a matter of routine. Laurent Louis, a Belgian MP and crusader for human rights, spoke to parliament and laid out the truth behind naked aggression and the lies that justify it. Michael Collins
(Originally found at Kenny’s Sideshow)

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LAURENT LOUIS, MP: Thank you, Mr President. Dear Ministers, dear Colleagues.

Belgium is indeed the land of surrealism.

This morning we learned from the media that the Belgian army is incapable of fighting some extremist soldiers having radical Islamist beliefs existing within its own ranks but who cannot be dismissed for lack of legal means.

However, at the same time, we decide to help France in its war against “Terror” by providing logistical support for its operation in Mali. What wouldn’t we do in order to fight against terrorism outside our borders? I just hope we took care not to send for this anti-terrorist operation, in Mali, these much talked about Belgian Islamists soldiers!

I seem to be joking, but what is going on in the world today does not make me laugh at all. It doesn’t make me laugh, because without any doubt, the leaders of our Western countries are taking the people for imbeciles with the help and support of the Media which are nothing more today than an organ of propaganda of the ruling powers.

Around the world, military actions and regime’s destabilization are becoming more and more frequent. Preventive war has become the rule.

And today, in the name of democracy and the fight against terrorism, our states grant themselves the right to violate the sovereignty of independent countries and to overthrow legitimate leaders. Read the rest of this entry »

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