01/2/12

Ron Paul’s Soros Defense Plan

By: Daniel Greenfield
Sultan Knish
Cross-posted with permission…

It was recently observed that Ron Paul was to the left of Obama on national security and the best evidence for that statement can be found when one year ago Ron Paul joined forces with Barney Frank on a proposal to gut national defense via a panel of experts, quite a few of whom were tied to George Soros.

In July 2010, Barney Frank and Ron Paul co-authored a Huffington Post article rolling out their Sustainable Defense Task Force. The Task Force “consisting of experts on military expenditures that span the ideological spectrum” would recommend a trillion dollars in defense cuts. The experts however didn’t quite “span the ideological spectrum”, more like float under it.

The panel of experts who would decide how to best gut national defense featured such independent thinkers as William D Hartung of the New America Foundation. Hartung’s main expertise was appearing in “Hijacking Catastrophe: 9/11, Fear & the Selling of American Empire”.

Then there was Lawrence J. Kolb of the Center for American Progress and Miriam Pemberton of the Institute for Policy Studies. If you want to know what the Center, the Foundation and the Institute all have in common, it’s Hungarian and smells like stale cabbage and the death of nations.

The rather creepy Institute for Policy Studies issued a paper proposing that Obama act as king and rule through executive orders. The New American Foundation is not only backed by Soros but has his son on its leadership council. The Center for American Progress is run by the co-chair of Obama’s transition team and is all for intents and purposes the think tank of the White House. All three are Soros funded.

But it doesn’t end there. Also on the panel was Christopher Hellman of the National Priorities Project. If you are wondering what the NPP is. It’s a think tank whose objective is to “influence national spending priorities”. And if you’re in the mood for a double, Miriam Pemberton is also on the board of the NPP. The man behind the curtain at NPP? None other than our favorite Hungarian James Bond villain.

Going further down the list there’s Winslow Wheeler of the Center for Defense Information. The CDI’s goal is to strengthen “national and international security through international cooperation, reduced reliance on unilateral military power to resolve conflict”. CDI operates under the aegis of the World Security Institute, which is apparently the least creepy name they could think of. Wheeler is a Counterpunch contributor, a site which even Stalinists think goes a bit too far. CDI gets money from Soros’ Open Society Institute where the stench of death and stale cabbage never goes away.

Then there’s Charles Knight and Carl Conetta of the Project for Defense Alternatives which appears to be a subset of the Commonwealth Institute. Of its Board of Directors, S.M. Miller is also the founder of United for a Fair Economy which enjoys generous support from a certain philanthropic chap who occasionally destroys economies for sport. Another member Guy Molyneux has also worked with the OSI. A third board member Richard Healey, was formerly director of the Institute for Policy Studies and is on the advisory board of the Center for Social Inclusion, founded by two OSI veterans.

If you think this can’t get any worse, sorry to disappoint you but meet Paul Kawika Martin of Peace Action. You might know PA better by its old name of The Committee for a SANE Nuclear Policy or just SANE. A Communist front group investigated by none other than Senator Thomas Dodd. PA has the same attitude toward American defense that burglars have toward alarm systems in other people’s homes. They don’t like them very much. And they have a “five year strategic plan” for the job.

Paul Kawika Martin travels around fighting progress on board The Rainbow Warrior and is also involved with Physicians for Social Responsibility. Martin has also collaborated with NIAC, a front for the Iranian regime. I think you can guess by now who funds Physicians for Social Responsibility. If you can’t, here’s a hint. The initials are GS.

Then there’s Laicie Olson of the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation. The Center is actually a subset of the Council for a Livable World. Olson originally worked for Physicians for Social Responsibility.

Also on board was Heather Hurlburt of the National Security Network. The NSN’s goals are to “build a strong progressive national security and counter conservative spin.” Its founder was part of Obama’s transition team and resigned to work for Janet Napolitano. Soros’ OSI helped fund NSN and its Special Counsel was on the NSN Policy Committee.

If you’re tired of reading through all this, then good news because here’s the summary. Of the Paul-Frank Task Force, 9 out of 14 members were linked to Soros’s organs. Two were affiliated with the Cato Institute. One is indeterminate.

Ron Paul proposed to put a bunch of Soros funded think tank experts in charge of dismantling the US military. Think about that for a moment. And then think about it again. Ron Paul supporters can see conspiracies in a glass of water, can they see anything wrong with this picture? Can they see anything wrong with having a man from a group that was investigated for its Communist ties in the driver’s seat on national defense?

The task force’s proposals included cutting nuclear deterrence, reducing the fleet by 57 ships, including two carriers, canceling the Joint Strike Fighter. “Severely curtail missile defense”. and that is a direct quote from the report. Retiring four Marine battalions. Reducing the military by 200,000 personnel. Cutting defense research spending by 50 billion over ten years. And increasing health care fees for members of the military.

Not only did Paul join forces with Barney Frank to slash military preparedness, but he ended up putting the experts of a foreign billionaire with global ambitions in charge of the project. And that was what he did as a congressman. Can anyone imagine what he would do as President?

But why would Ron Paul allow George Soros that much power and influence over America’s defense policy. There are a number of possibilities. There is the possibility that Ron Paul just didn’t know and didn’t bother to do his research. Which is not much of a recommendation for the job he’s running for. There’s another possibility that Ron Paul knew and didn’t care, that he had no objection to being part of a left-right alliance against the “American Empire” with Soros. But there’s also a third possibility.

During the previous election, Americans Against Escalation in Iraq ran an ad praising Ron Paul for his position against the war. AAEI was an umbrella group for MoveOn.org, the Center for American Progress, SEIU, Americans United For Change, the National Security Network and others in the progressive bestiary. A number of those beasties were Soros groups.

I’m not one to dabble in conspiracy theories, but when Soros pays for an ad praising you during the Republican primaries and then you put his experts in charge of America’s defense policy, then maybe some questions should be asked.

01/2/12

Is Obama’s 2012 Political Strategy Really Just a Prayer?

By: Jeffrey Klein, Political Buzz Examiner
Examiner.com

The news wires have been abuzz about President Barack Obama’s political strategy for 2012, in his bid for re-election in November 2012.

His “secret” weapon?

Contrast and “distance” himself from Congress.

Deputy White House Press Secretary, Joshua Earnest, told reporters, who were covering President Obama’s nineteen day vacation in Hawaii that … “In terms of the president’s relationship with Congress in 2012, the state of the debate, if you will, the president is no longer tied to Washington, D.C.,” according to a FOX News article from New Years Eve.

The Obama White House has always been a wealth of irony…

Actually, since Barack Obama’s first State of the Union address in January 2009, just two weeks after the 47 year old junior Senator from Illinois was inaugurated as President of the United States, there is barely enough reporting to suggest that he has had any relationship with Congress.

The Obama administration has only produced one annual budget document–about one year ago–filled to the brim with out-of-control liberal program spending, which was soundly defeated in a unanimous bi-partisan vote in the Senate.

Of course, the Democrats had just suffered the worst political shellacking in almost 70 years, as a result of the brand new, spend thrift “force de ‘Tea Party,'” in the 2010 mid-term elections, which gave Republicans control of the House, and took away Democrats filibuster proof majority in the Senate.

Mr. Earnest’s statement of “no longer tied to Washington, D.C.” seems like more a retrospective, as to this point in time, President Obama has spent more time on Air Force One flying [his family] around the world, playing more rounds of golf and taking more vacation time [in elegant locales] than any other president before him in history.

Leadership is not a word that has been widely associated with Barack Obama, unless you count the people from the Nobel organization in Sweden who selected him to be the recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in October 2009.

Mr. Earnest made another statement to the same reporting pool that was “curious,” regarding the way President Obama intends to “position” himself … “We’re going to be doubling down on our commitment and our message in terms of fighting for the middle class.”

If by “middle class” President Obama means the dwindling Public and Private Unions that have sucked the life out of most companies and governments, resulting in unmanageable budget deficits and bankruptcies, while having no affect whatsoever on the unemployment rate in three years, after having increased the national debt by $5 trillion–it is probably a really bad idea.

During the first two years of the Obama administration, when they had complete control of the federal government, he chose to expend virtually all of his political capital on passage of “Obamacare,” which American voters [including those still unemployed] have roundly opposed since the beginning, according to the weekly Rasmussen Poll Reports.

Earlier in the year President Obama said that he was proud his hard won healthcare act had been nicknamed “Obamacare,” however, according to former Democrat Strategist Doug Shoen … “The health care law is unpopular, especially among swing voters … So the White House wants to say as little as possible about it.”

Too little, too late–Obamacare is tied firmly around his neck.

Finally, Earnest’s ill chosen words let slip the “core” of the White House 2012 strategy…

“So in terms of the public’s conception of what’s happening in Washington, D.C., you have an image of a gridlocked, dysfunctional Congress, and a president who’s leaving no stone unturned to try to find solutions to the difficult financial challenges and economic challenges facing this country.”

The public’s true conception is being camouflaged by a coordinated mainstream media and their conspiring pollsters, much like they attempted back in the 1980 contest between incumbent President Jimmy Carter (D) and California Governor Ronald Reagan (R).

Up until just 3 days before the election, they judged it an even money race…

Governor Ronald Reagan won 49 states in a “landslide,” after Carter conceded defeat–before the votes in California were even counted.

Solid polling of 1,000 “likely voters” indicates that the Republican candidate will be victorious over incumbent President Obama by a margin of 47 to 39 percent–that is the true public conception as of December 27, 2011.

So, is President Obama’s 2012 political strategy really just a prayer?

Copyright (c) 2012 by Jeffrey Klein

01/2/12

Obama Demanded Protection of Citizens be Removed from NDAA

By: Sher Ziev
Gulag Bound

Obama Announces he Can Imprison Anyone He Chooses… If he Chooses

Today’s column will be short and to the point.  It has finally arrived, folks.  I’d hoped I was wrong about it but, tragically and chillingly I was not.  Obama has just announced–in his own words–that he can detain (imprison) anyone he wants with the new unconstitutional NDAA bill passed by Congress and signed by the now self-proclaimed Dictator-in-Chief Barack Hussein Obama.  Note:  As usual, the Marxist-media doesn’t care and is, instead, jubilant that Dear Leader Obama has finally done away with that pesky Constitution.

In a statement published 31 December on his White House site, Mr. Obama states:  “Today I have signed into law H.R. 1540, the “National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012.”  He goes in the state:  “I have signed this bill despite having serious reservations with certain provisions that regulate the detention, interrogation, and prosecution of suspected terrorists.”  Note:  Senator Carl Levin (D-MI) advised in the below YouTube video that the White House and Barack Obama demanded the removal of any and all protections for US citizens and legal residents.  So, the collaborative Congress gave him the dictatorial powers he has wanted since he usurped the Office of POTUS.


Carl Levin: “…the administration asked us to remove the language which says that U.S. Citizens
and lawful residents would not be subject to this section…”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHaJrnlqCgo

The now formal Dictator of the USA Obama also disingenuously stated:   “Section 1021 affirms the executive branch’s authority to detain persons covered by the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) (Public Law 107-40; 50 U.S.C. 1541 note). This section breaks no new ground [yes, it does] and is unnecessary. The authority it describes was included in the 2001 AUMF, as recognized by the Supreme Court and confirmed through lower court decisions since then.”

“Two critical limitations in section 1021 confirm that it solely codifies established authorities. First, under section 1021(d), the bill does not “limit or expand the authority of the President or the scope of the Authorization for Use of Military Force.” Second, under section 1021(e), the bill may not be construed to affect any “existing law or authorities relating to the detention of United States citizens, lawful resident aliens of the United States, or any other persons who are captured or arrested in the United States.”  Note:  But, it does.

“My Administration strongly supported the inclusion of these limitations in order to make clear beyond doubt that the legislation does nothing more than confirm authorities that the Federal courts have recognized as lawful under the 2001 AUMF.”  Note:  No, it did not.  In fact, per Democrat Senator Carl Levin, just the opposite occurred–as Obama demanded protections for US citizens and legal residents be removed before he would sign the bill!   Obama continues with:  “Moreover, I want to clarify that my Administration will not authorize the indefinite military detention without trial of American citizens.”  Translation:  “I may choose to be a beneficent dictator, if I wish to do so.”

“Indeed, I believe that doing so would break with our most important traditions and values [they are not ’traditions and values’ they are US law] as a Nation. My Administration will interpret section 1021 in a manner that ensures that any detention it authorizes complies with the Constitution, the laws of war, and all other applicable law.”  Note:  This is another abject ObamaLie.  The new revised NDAA bill, which Obama demanded, effectively renders the US Constitution’s Bill of Rights–and the US Constitution, itself–null and void.

We have now reached the end of the road as a free country.  As never before, only two choices now remain We-the-People:  “If we refuse to rise up and fight, we’ll be forced to lie down and die.”

“And the people shall be oppressed, every one by another, and every one by his neighbour: the child shall behave himself proudly against the ancient, and the base against the honourable”–Isaiah 3:5

Statement by the President on H.R. 1540:
at whitehouse.gov

Proof Obama Will Sign NDAA 1031 Citizen Indefinite Detention Law in a Few Days and that the removal of protection for US citizens and legal residents was demanded by the White House (video shown above in GulagBound.com):
at youtube.com


Sher Zieve is an author and political commentator. Zieve’s op-ed columns are widely carried by multiple internet journals and sites, and she also writes hard news.

Her columns have also appeared in The Oregon Herald, Dallas Times, Sacramento Sun, in international news publications, and on multiple university websites. Sher is also a guest on multiple national radio shows.

Sher can be reached at [email protected].

Graphics added by Gulag Bound