COLLECTIVE MADNESS


“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."

Sunday, October 07, 2007

Who's Running America?

Years ago, a friend of mine, Tom Dye, a political science professor, researched the theory that a ruling elite such as the Bilderbergers or the Trilateral Commission controls America and especially American foreign policy. From a Googled article about his book Who's Running America? The Clinton Years :
Professor Dye has made these lists of who's in power for every administration since 1976, and the quality of the data he supplies makes it easy to see the continuation of these powerful forces from 1940 through today. "My argument," says Professor Dye, "that industrial wealth and banks and other centers of financial power are influencing government comes essentially from a system in which foundations [receive] large grants from wealthy corporations and in turn fund various policy planning groups." Groups such as the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, the Bookings Institution in Washington, the Heritage Foundation in Washington, the American Enterprise Institute and other policy planning groups, according to Professor Dye, really set the agenda for the congress and the president and other governmental agencies. "In other words," says Dye, "these are the folks that operate sort of behind the governmental reporting that we get. We get reports on bills introduced in congress and what congress does in committee and on the floor and so on. But we don't get an awful lot of reports in the news media on what the Council on Foreign Relations is planning for us in terms of our international role. What are we doing in terms of NATO expansion and so on, and that's all really been pretty well planned out ahead by the Council on Foreign Relations before it gets to the news media and before it gets in the President's speech."

"...All governments are by the few," rather than by the people, continues Dye. "There is no way to have government by the people. All governments are by the few. We are fortunate that in a democracy we can select which few we want to have governance, in a sense.... You're probably going to get the same kinds of people -- they'll be different people, but they'll have the same backgrounds and the same schools and the same universities and the same social backgrounds, regardless of whether Bob Dole or Bill Clinton is elected."
When I talked to him back in the Reagan years, his conclusion was that there was no grand hidden conspiracy. It seems that by 1996 he had begun to see some patterns.


Supreme Court case pits Bush against Texas over death penalty for Mexican
MARK SHERMAN
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON — To put it bluntly, Texas wants President Bush to get out of the way of the state's plan to execute a Mexican for the brutal killing of two teenage girls.

Bush, who presided over 152 executions as governor of Texas, wants to halt the execution of Jose Ernesto Medellin in what has become a confusing test of presidential power that the Supreme Court, which hears the case this week, ultimately will sort out.

The president wants to enforce a decision by the International Court of Justice that found the convictions of Medellin and 50 other Mexican-born prisoners violated their rights to legal help as outlined in the 1963 Vienna Convention.

That is the same court Bush has since said he plans to ignore if it makes similar decisions affecting state criminal laws.

"The president does not agree with the ICJ's interpretation of the Vienna Convention," the administration said in arguments filed with the court. This time, though, the U.S. agreed to abide by the international court's decision because ignoring it would harm American interests abroad, the government said.

Texas argues that neither the international court nor Bush has any say in Medellin's case.

Medellin was born in Mexico but spent much of his childhood in the United States. He was 18 in June 1993, when he and other members of the Black and Whites gang in Houston encountered two teenage girls on a railroad trestle.

The girls were gang-raped and strangled. Their bodies were found four days later.

Medellin was arrested a few days later. He was told he had a right to remain silent and have a lawyer present, but the police did not tell him that he could request assistance from the Mexican consulate.

Medellin gave a written confession. He was convicted of murder in the course of a sexual assault, a capital offense in Texas. A judge sentenced him to death in October 1994.

Medellin did not raise the lack of assistance from Mexican diplomats during his trial or sentencing. When he did claim his rights had been violated, Texas and federal courts turned him down because he had not objected at his trial. Mexico later sued the United States in the International Court of Justice in The Hague on behalf of Medellin and 50 other Mexicans on death row in the U.S.

It seems that too much of US foreign policy with regard to Mexico is conducted in the shadows. The agenda is set by an otherwise disparate group of corporations, globalists, and transnationalists. Ordinarily their individual agendas may be at odds with one another but on the issue of North America, they seem to have found common ground.

38 comments:

  1. Everybody's interests were served but ours. They probably even convinced themselves that ours were served, as well. I'm pretty sure Dubya probably did.

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  2. "Grand Conspiracy"

    Wonder what that would look like?

    Boners on both sides of every issue.
    Boners deciding which issues are "serious"
    Boners defining the scope of the debate

    At least the Knights Templar have been exonerated, can't blame them.

    Letting the World Court rule in Texas, ash will be in paradise, that GWBush is the facilitator will put him in denial, though.

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  3. One must wonder, what was the country of origin for the funding for the weapons those Kurds were using.

    ISTANBUL, Turkey (Associated Press) -- Kurdish rebels killed 13 Turkish soldiers Sunday in a clash in the country's southeast, and troops shelled an area near the Iraqi frontier to try to stop the rebels from escaping across the border, the military said.

    The soldiers were killed in the southeastern province of Sirnak, not far from where a rebel was killed earlier in the week, said a statement on the military's Web site.

    An operation to track down the rebels was under way, and troops shelled areas near the border to try to prevent rebels from reaching their bases in northern Iraq, the statement said.


    Is the US now at war with Turkey, if those Kurds were carrying M16s?

    The "Iranian interference in Iraq" Standard, can we bear to be judged by that same "Iraqi interference in Turkey" Standard?

    Or will the Turks be justified in attacking US weapons warehouses and transport systems, in Kuwait and Iraq, to protect their troops, in Turkey?

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  4. Gotta stop the flow of weapons to terrorists, in Turkey.

    Flowing right through US secured Iraq. Right from Colt Arms Company to the Kurdish terrorists.

    Wouldn't that be something...

    Wonder what would be worse,
    That the US Government knew and approved, or that the US Government knows, and disapproves.
    But being unable to stop it.

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  5. US History is more or less on hold until we can get a regime change. The excesses of the Bush Administration assure that voters will be so sick of Republicans they will do a clean sweep in 2008. And Hillary's 33 point lead over Obama assures that we will have our first woman president. Womenfolk tend to care about their children and grandchildren more than quarterly profit reports.

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  6. Jesus Christ Teresita it'll be Hillary running the country and not the women folk and that serpent has never had an egoless notion in her life.

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  7. Let us remember This Day as a day that lives in famy, a day when the west 'did not retreat'. A day that contributed to women's lib more than Hillary ever has. Hillary the beneficiary.

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  8. The Clintons, the dynasty from Hope.

    It's gonna be grand!

    She can be beaten, but not by a young, Jr Senator from IL., who happens to black, as well.

    Not in a million years.

    Something to see, though, how she handles the Victory Parades.

    Did the US win, or lose.
    Cast your ballot in Nov. '08.

    Bet on the side that acknowledges the US military as the winner, in Iraq.

    From now to March, if the Administration preps the field, they could pull it off.

    Though they have never made the moves before, it could be that they were waiting for the decisive moment, when the Election hangs in the balance.

    If they do not set the stage from March to May, the window will close. If they do set the stage, the GOP could pull out the White House in November of '08.

    And even maintain a filibustable Senate.

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  9. The Senate is going to be tough for the Republicans. They got a lot of seats up. We could lose here, having nothing to do with Craig, but just because so many dem types have moved in the state. It's not a cinch in Idaho next time.

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  10. If they can spin Iraq into the win column, that'd be enough.

    If the make the election one of deciding, declare a victory or a defeat, that could do it, too.

    But those on the "right" that will not admit victory, if they do not get on board the Victory train, by March ...

    The Peace train will run them over.

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  11. Bobal,
    Put on your suspension of disbelief goggles and behold the paradise that awaits, when, and only when, one of the sweet, kind, and pure gender takes over with velvet gloves of beneficient governance!

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  12. Bet on the side that acknowledges the US military as the winner, in Iraq.

    That would be the Dems. After a victory you come home. The Pubs don't want to come home.

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  13. Right Doug, but as the joke goes, when we get HillaryCare, where are the Canadians going to go when they need a doctor?

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  14. Could be, Ms T.

    General P will give his March report, it'll be "good". Things will have improved since Sep, and the troops a flowing home smoothly, no flare ups of violence.

    Just like in Basra.

    He will say the drawdowns can continue, through the next eight months, which get US to Jan'09 and 100,000 soldiers and Marines on the ground in Iraq.
    That'll be the "Plan".
    Already is, per SecDef Gates.

    Stay, in force, through the '09 Iraqi Elections, which will solidify the US claim of victory, and then accelerate the withdrawal to whatever baseline presence the US and Iraqi negotiate.

    Whomever stakes out that "Victory" claim, first, will profit most.

    The other will be buried in the tailings.

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  15. bob,
    It's oh ho Mexico for private Doctors.

    Panama has a good medical system.
    India, in select locales.

    Lots of places in the world where US citizens will be able to go, for 1st class health care.

    Hospitals/spas/resorts

    Globalized networks of specialists, pay to play.
    If you want the best ...
    If you want Mayo Standard health care,
    today ... go to Scottsdale AZ
    tomorrow ... Puerto Bello, Panama?

    Or Costa Rica.
    Somewhere out of the hurricane track.

    Complete new resort style accomadations, with the world's best doctors.
    It'll become all the rage, amongst those that can afford to leave the System.

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  16. Then another Report, in September '08.

    That'll either be a love fest or death match.

    I'd vote for a lovefest.

    The Hill $ Bill Show won't get flanked on losing the War.
    No, she could well claim Victory, or perhaps Bill gives it away, on Oprah.

    Leaving Rudy to bang the drum of jingoism, while Ms Clinton grabs the laurels of Vicory.

    Perhaps it'll be President Rodham, after the election, of course.

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  17. There are relatively few individuals today who would not take offense to being labeled a fascist. This was not always so, for before and during the 1930’s even though Western societies in general rejected philosophies of fascism, the term had nowhere near the stigma that it does today, and many were drawn to the concept.

    One individual who embraced the ideas of both fascism and liberalism was HG Wells. Before Hitler and Mussolini brought infamy to the term fascism, Wells had referred to himself as a “liberal fascist” and put forward a theory of revolutionary praxis centered around a concept he described as “liberal fascism.” The end result envisioned was a group of authoritarian elitists ruling over a global liberal utopia, a benevolent oligarchy for the good of mankind.

    Liberalism today in large would reject any association with fascism when in actuality what they reject is the old terminology. Fascism in theory need not contain all of the harsh elements of Nazism and as a concept presented under a different name it fits in perfectly with a socialist agenda. When analyzing the ideas and philosophies of liberalism today, if in comparison we look back at Wells’s concept of liberal fascism, we have a very close match. Yes, Wells’s liberal fascism is still alive, but that is not what it is called - It is called progressive.

    .
    .
    http://skarbutts.wordpress.com

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  18. Do the Praxis and the Skarbutt share a similar locale on the body?

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  19. Doug,

    Only when verbalizing their thoughts.

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  20. The NDE of Ibn Al-Arabi

    by Joel Krebs, Canadian psychiatrist

    from 'Vital Signs' the monthly of IANDS

    In contrast we will look at the experience of one of the great Islamic saints--al-Arabi, originally from Andalusia....After a lifetime of studying, traveling and spiritual practices and asceticism, he arrived at Mecca, the "Mother of All Cities". From here he wrote the "Meccan Revelations",. his greatest work. In it he gives the account of his appointment to the station of the Seal of Universal Sainthood. He recounts:

    (whether this is an NDE, trance, vision or just what Dr. Krebs says can't be determined)

    "I saw the Prophet in this world(some word of trance, vision) sovereign, quite unapproachable, protected from every gaze or glance, aided and assisted. The messengers stood by him according to their rank; his community surrounded him; the Angels of Dominion stood around the throne of his Station and the Angels engendered by men's actions were ranged in front of him.(this would seem to make it something of a judgement scene) The Veracious One(abu Bakr, ist successor to the Prophet) was seated on his sublime right; the Discriminator(Omar, 2nd dude)on his holy left, the seal of sainthood; Jesus was squatting in front of him and speaking to him about the history of Woman. ( :) ) At the same time, Ali, the fourth successor and father of most Sufi orders, was interpreting in his own language the words of Jesus; and the Possessor of the two lights, Uthman, the third successor and husband of two of the prophets's daughters, was wearing the cloak of his modesty and stood in front as is his custom."

    And the vision or whatever goes on...

    I think this is remarkable, he has Jesus informing the prophet about the girls. :)

    What's going on here? A freudian slip, a moment of reverse insight, what? What the hell is this? I can understand Jesus being there, but telling the prophet about women?

    Jesus instructing the prophet in a otherwordly scene about women. Maybe I fail to comprehend.

    Kind of grabbed me by the throat.

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  21. Later in the vision al-Arabi starts to ramble about one AlDougal, whom scholarship has thus far failed to identify....

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  22. Not so, Bob.

    To see:

    noun
    1 a large juicy tropical fruit consisting of aromatic edible yellow flesh surrounded by a tough segmented skin and topped with a tuft of stiff leaves.
    2 the widely cultivated tropical American plant that bears this fruit. It is low-growing, with a spiral of spiny sword-shaped leaves on a thick stem. • Ananas comosus, family Bromeliaceae.
    3 informal a hand grenade.

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  23. Al-Dougal was struggling mightly to hold in his laughter, as from his vantage point, he was able to see that the squatting Jesus was leaving a steaming hot one as his calling card for those assembled, who were as yet none the wiser, Robes having that as an advantage, if nothing else.

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  24. These Folk need to read their al-Arabi, maybe...or better yet the parables of Jesus.

    Mat :)

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  25. Given it's "Chinese" problem, do you think that Al-Matal would lead to the confusion of our Brother at the Bar with the dishonored Mattel?
    ---
    Mattel apologizes to China over recalls - Consumer News - MSNBC.com
    US-based toy giant Mattel Inc. issued an extraordinary apology to China on Friday over the recall of Chinese-made toys...

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  26. I believe Al-Dougal has been issued a recall for all future apologies to Al-Matal.

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  27. Who's Running America?

    Who's guiding its long-term strategic decisions?

    Eastward expansion and cooperations

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  28. I thought George Soros ran America?

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  29. not a cinch in Idaho

    Crazy. Not you Bob but just the fact that Idaho could be in that predicament I always remember Idaho being one of the reddest of the red. I don't think there's even a light blue county in the state.

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  30. Map

    A lot of our counties have pine trees for voters, Sam.

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  31. Interesting Maps

    Scroll down they get kinda psychedelic.

    Time for Dr. Wattenburg, KGO.
    Nite.

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  32. I'll have to check and see if old uncle Bill is on the Internets:
    You happen to know?
    ...and then there's Ron Owens, last time I checked he was still there, and that disgusting liberal Catholic guy too.
    Wonder if Ray Talufero is still with us?
    Jazebo Collins, Weigant and Partner, RIP, I suppose, or I KNOW for Jazebo.
    Anybody else here able to claim to have met Les Crane?
    Anybody know who he is?
    SF Trivia for the nite.

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  33. Fifth Generation Warfare:

    "In the light of this, it seems that we have at least three powerful and well advanced 5GW wars against the United States right now."

    Well, the U.S. and its allies are far from defenseless.
    ....................

    “The most immediate task [for the U.S.] is to make certain that no state or combination of states gains the capacity to expel the United States from Eurasia or even to diminish significantly its decisive arbitration role.”

    - Brzezinski, The Grand Chessboard, p.198

    “Today we are witnessing an almost uncontained hyper use of force — military force — in international relations, force that is plunging the world into an abyss of permanent conflicts. As a result we do not have sufficient strength to find a comprehensive solution to any one of these conflicts. Finding a political settlement also becomes impossible. We are seeing a greater and greater disdain for the basic principles of international law. And independent legal norms are, as a matter of fact, coming increasingly closer to one state’s legal system. One state and, of course, first and foremost the United States, has overstepped its national borders in every way.”

    -Vladimir Putin at the Munich Conference on Security Policy in Germany (February 11, 2007)

    The U.S./NATO does not need to pacify Afghanistan. It needs a military presence sufficient to organize and direct forces into the heart of Eurasia.

    In Afghanistan?

    Bagram Air Field north of Kabul, Kandahar Air Field in southern Afghanistan and Shindand Air Field in the western province of Herat. Shindand, the largest US base in Afghanistan, was built some 100 kilometers from the border with Iran. Russia, China, Iran and Arab lands lie fairly close to these bases.

    What about Manas Air Base at Bishkek's international airport. Manas is not only near to Afghanistan; it is also in easy striking distance to Caspian Sea oil and gas, as well as to the borders of both China and Russia
    ..................................

    To the West?

    Today NATO includes former Warsaw Pact or Soviet Union states Poland, Latvia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Lithuania, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Slovakia and Slovenia. Candidates to join include the Republic of Georgia, Croatia, Albania and Macedonia.

    How about the network of new US military bases? For example, Camp Bondsteel, at the border between Kosovo and Macedonia. Bondsteel put US air power within easy striking distance of the oil-rich Middle East and Caspian Sea, as well as Russia. Are there U.S. bases in Hungary, Bosnia, Albania and Macedonia? How about Bezmer in Bulgaria?

    ....................

    In the Middle East?

    Kuwait signed a security agreement with NATO during a GCC-NATO Conference that took place from December 11 to December 12, 2006. The GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) which has been renamed The Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf includes Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the U.A.E., Qatar, Bahrain, and Oman. The GCC already has a military agreement amongst its members, the Gulf Shield Defence Force, and individual bilateral security agreements with the U.S. and Britain. NATO has been in dialogue with Qatar, Kuwait, and the other members of the GCC in pursuit of establishing a more formal NATO presence in the Persian Gulf and a new security arrangement against Iran.

    .......................

    In the Far East?

    The Straits of Taiwan and Malacca are geo-strategically vital to transporting oil and resources to China. Whoever controls both straits controls the flow of energy to China under the present status quo. It would be a harsh blow to China, should the straits be blocked and the stream of oil tankers stopped or delayed, just as it would be a blow to the U.S. and E.U. should the Straits of Hormuz be blocked by Iran. It so happens that the U.S. Navy dominates these shipping lanes. Until China has a secure source of inflowing energy from a route that is not controlled by the United States it will continue to be vulnerable to the U.S. Navy which continuously monitors both the Straits of Taiwan and Malacca.

    Both Taiwan and Singapore are close allies of the U.S. because of these realities. Also, Singapore and Taiwan are heavily militarized with a view to exerting control over these two vital straits. Should there be a war between China and the United States, both Singapore and Taiwan, in alliance with the U.S. Navy, have contingency plans to block oil traffic from reaching China.

    Although the Straights of Malacca lie within the sovereign maritime territory of Malaysia, the rapid militarization of Singapore is aimed at controlling and, if need be, halting the flow of oil tankers from the Straits of Malacca. This would cut the flow of energy to China in the event of a war between the U.S. and China. The naval facilities of Singapore are also highly specialized to service warships and submarines and are heavily used by the U.S. Navy.

    China knows that it is vulnerable to military invention against its energy supplies. This is why the Chinese have been developing their naval bases and pushing for oil terminals and energy corridors to be built over land routes directly from Central Asia and the Russian Federation to China. Chinese cooperation with Russia, Iran, and the republics of Central Asia serves the purpose of creating a trans-Asian energy corridor that would ensure a continuous flow of energy to China in the event of an American-led naval blockade of the high seas.

    China
    .......................

    and Israel?

    In July 2007, Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman stepped up the pressure, claiming EU and US support for eventual Israeli military action against Iran:
    “If we start military operations against Iran alone, then Europe and the US will support us,” Lieberman told Army Radio following a meeting earlier in the week with NATO and European Union officials. Lieberman said the Western powers acknowledged the severity of the Iranian nuclear threat to the Jewish state, but said that ongoing conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq are “going to prevent the leaders of countries in Europe and America from deciding on the use of force to destroy Iran's nuclear facilities,” even if diplomacy ultimately fails. The message Lieberman said the NATO and EU officials conveyed to him is that Israel should “prevent the threat herself.”

    - Israel Today, Wednesday, July 11

    What is Suter?

    But perhaps the most intriguing family of systems being "readied for operations" is BAE Systems' Suter network exploitation programs, designed to "break into enemy networks to hear communications, see what enemy sensors are seeing and, in some circumstances, become the systems manager with the ability to manipulate enemy sensors."

    Sound familiar?

    ...The Navy already announced that a second aircraft carrier has been deployed to the region. On board is to be the third squadron of EA-6Bs equipped with the latest Northrop Grumman ICAP III electronic attack system. It is designed to identify and locate enemy emitters and jam signals that can be used to remotely detonate explosive devices (AW&ST Nov. 7, 2005, p. 33). The U.S. Air Force's EC-130 Compass Call electronic attack aircraft are being used in Iraq to detonate explosive devices along convoy routes. It also was used earlier in the decade as a testbed for the Suter programs, which evolved into a system to invade enemy communications networks.

    Elephant Bar
    Wed Feb 28, 08:28:00 PM EST

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  34. India holds key in NATO's world view continued...

    India seeks aerial wargames with US, NATO As It Tests Another Nuke Class Missile

    Always a pleasure to visit the bar

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