Two senior Republican senators say the United States, and not Israel, should attack Iran if military action becomes “necessary.”
They also say a simple strike at the country’s nuclear capability wouldn’t be enough — the US would have to launch an “all-or-nothing” war against Iran with the aim of crippling the country’s military capabilities.
“I think an Israeli attack on Iran is a nightmare for the world, because it will rally the Arab world around Iran and they’re not aligned now. It’s too much pressure to put on Israel,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) told Fox News’ Chris Wallace.
He continued: “If the sanctions fail, and Iran’s going down the road to get a nuclear weapon, any Sunni Arab state that could, would want a nuclear weapon. Israel will be more imperiled. The world will change dramatically for the worst. Military action should be the last resort anyone looks at, and I would rather our allies and us take military action if it’s necessary.”
But Graham doesn’t think an attack should be limited to airstrikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities. “If we use military action against Iran, we should not only go after their nuclear facilities. We should destroy their ability to make conventional war. They should have no planes that can fly and no ships that can float,” said Graham.
Sen. , Republican of Georgia, agrees.
“The problem with military action also is that you’re probably not going to be able to stop the production of uranium by just a simple airstrike,” Chambliss said on Fox News Sunday. “Lindsey’s right. It’s an all or nothing deal. And is it worth that at this point in time, when we know they have the capability? We can slow them down, but a full-out military strike is what it would take,” said Chambliss.
This video is from Fox’s Fox News Sunday, broadcast Oct. 4, 2009.
Israel will ‘attack Iran if sanctions not in place by Christmas’
Iran’s ambassador to UN demands Security Council take steps against comments made by Ephraim Sneh, who said Israel would attack Iran if sanctions weren’t in place by Christmas.
Iran’s ambassador to the UN, Mohammad Khazaee, sent a letter of protest to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in which he wrote that “there is no explanation for Israel’s continuing threats against Tehran”.
He was referring to an interview given by former Deputy Defense Minister Ephraim Sneh to the Sunday Times in which he said that if Iran were not further sanctioned by this Christmas Israel would attack the country.
Sneh told the paper that if Israel were forced to attack the Islamic Republic on its own it would do so, remarks the Iranian ambassador deemed “irresponsible”.
The Washington Times reported today that the McCain campaign and the Republican National Committee have been “negotiating with Rep. Ron Paul to win his support and acquire the names of his sympathizers among the 4,607 delegates and alternates at the Republican National Convention.”
However, when CNN’s John King asked Paul this morning whether such reports were true, Paul laughed. “I wouldn’t put it in those words,” he said. In fact, he said the RNC seemed to be trying to keep him off the convention floor, even though as a congressman, he should be able to get floor passes without a problem. Watch it:
Paul was barred from speaking at the convention “because the congressman would not change his position on the war in Iraq, which he opposes.” The Washington Times also reports that Paul “was denied permission to address the Republican Platform Committee last week” after “the McCain forces who controlled the platform proceedings, as well as the Rules Committee and the Credentials Committee, objected.”
The McCain campaign’s stonewalling of Ron Paul may not have the support of his vice presidential pick, Gov. Sarah Palin. In an interview with MTV earlier this year, Palin expressed support for Paul, saying that he was “cool“:
He’s cool. He’s a good guy. He’s a good guy. He’s so independent. He’s independent of like the party machine, I’m like, right on, so am I. The party machinery, on both sides of the party, ya know, Americans are tiring of the incessant partisanship that gets in the way of just doing the right thing for this country.
Paul will at least be welcome at a “counter convention” held in Minneapolis for his supporters, where he is speaking today. Paul said he expected around 18,000 people to attend today’s rally.
Former Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul has declined to endorse either John McCain or Barack Obama, and he told CNN’s Kiran Chetry on Thursday that he sees “no difference” between them because both espouse foreign policies that only create more threats to our national interests.
Chetry asked Paul, “Do you think it’s a valid argument … that a John McCain administration would be a four-year extension of the Bush administration?”
“Sure, but I think that’s what’s going to happen with Obama, too,” Paul replied. “There’s no difference.”
“Their foreign policies are identical,” Paul explained. “They want more troops in Afghanistan. They want to send more support to Georgia to protect the oil line there. Neither one says bring home the troops from Iraq from the bases — you know the bases are going to stay there, the embassy as big as the Vatican, that’s going to remain. So their foreign policies are exactly the same. They’re both very, very aggressive with Iran. So I would say there’s no difference.”
“How would you handle these global threats, then, if it’s not to send our troops there and make sure that we’re protected?” Chetry asked.
“We create the threats!” Paul replied emphatically. “Why are we on the borders of Russia provoking the Russians? I mean, the Georgians initiated the military attack against these enclaves where there were mostly Russians. … It’s the fact that we’re over there that we create these crises.”
“Isn’t it part of our duty, though, to support these fledgling democracies that ask for our help?” asked Chetry.
“No, it’s not our responsibility to do that,” Paul said firmly. “We should endorse the principle but not send troops and money. … Once we get over there, we just aggravate the situation.”
“We bombed Serbia in order for Kosovo to become independent,” Paul concluded. “Now the Russians are doing the same thing. … It’s this total inconsistency.”
Ron Paul’s rally: The other political convention in town
When followers of erstwhile presidential candidate Ron Paul said they were going to stage an alternate convention, they meant it. Pretty much everything about Paul’s grassroots Rally for the Republic stands in stark contrast to the Republican national convention getting underway in St. Paul.
Its delegates are on their way via “Ronvoy,” a caravan of minivans and charter buses organized on the Internet. Many are eschewing hotels in favor of campgrounds and RV parks in Twin Cities exurbs, according to organizers. Still others will arrive just in time for the rally, a 12-hour marathon of speakers and entertainers taking place Tuesday at the Target Center in downtown Minneapolis.
“Most of our people are not wealthy,” said Drew Ivers, a longtime GOP activist who is Paul’s delegate coordinator. “They’re working people feeling the pinch. They’re not country-club elitists. With the price of gas, they’re caravanning in in minivans and the like.
“These people are sacrificing to make this happen,” Ivers added. “I think it’s commendable.”
Speakers expected at the rally include former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura, MSNBC correspondent Tucker Carlson, anti-tax lobbyist Grover Norquist, Barry Goldwater Jr., son of the late presidential candidate, and Barb White, a candidate in Minnesota’s fifth congressional district.
On hand to entertain the 10,000 supporters organizers say they expect will be musicians Marc Scibilia, Rockie Lynne, Sara Evans and Aimee Allen, the voice behind “The Ron Paul Revolution Theme Song.” Tickets, still available at Ticketmaster at press time, are priced at a cheeky $17.76.
$4.7 million in campaign coffers A physician and 10-term congressman from the greater Houston area, Paul officially suspended his campaign for the GOP presidential nomination in June. Instead, he announced, he would use the $4.7 million remaining in his campaign coffers to underwrite the Campaign for Liberty, a grassroots effort to push libertarian-minded candidates for local offices across the country.
COLUMBUS, OHIO: Plaintiff attorneys for a lawsuit filed in 2006 that sought voting records to prove whether their suspicion that Republicans conspired to suppress the votes of two active Democratic demographics that helped President Bush win the state and a second term in the White House, changed the focus of their lawsuit Thursday, saying they will now focus on learning more about the roles played by Karl Rove, Bush’s political architect and Mike Connell, a long-time Bush family confidant and Information technology guru – now working for Sen. John McCain – who as an information technology tradesman, built various computer systems that produced election irregularities that favored Republicans and whose work, if not ferreted out and stopped now, may do the same this year for McCain as it did for Bush against Kerry four years ago.
Ohio became famous, or infamous depending on your political persuasion, for catapulting George W. Bush into a second term as the nation’s president. In 2004 the state was run by Republicans, who held all statewide offices and controlled both houses of the legislature. The Secretary of State at the time was Kenneth J. Blackwell, an African American from Cincinnati who previously had served as State Treasurer and was in his second term as the state’s chief elections officer. At the time, Blackwell was also the co-chairman of the Bush-Cheney re-election committee. When the narrow election was over, Bush won Ohio from his Democratic rival, Massachusetts’ Sen. John Kerry, by the slim margin of about 118, 000 plus votes, or few than a dozen votes for each of Ohio’s 11,000 polling locations.
Rove Threatened GOP I.T. Guru to “’take the fall’ for election fraud in Ohio” Letter Sent to Attorney General Mukasey Requesting ’Protection for Mr. Connell and His Family From This Reported Attempt to Intimidate a Witness’ After Tip from ’Credible Source’
UPDATE: OH AG Reportedly Asked to Provide Immunity Protection…
Karl Rove has threatened a GOP high-tech guru and his wife, if he does not “’take the fall’ for election fraud in Ohio,” according to a letter sent this morning to Attorney General Michael Mukasey, by Ohio election attorney Cliff Arnebeck.
The email, posted in full below, details threats against Mike Connell of the Republican firm New Media Communications, which describes itself on its website as “a powerhouse in the field of Republican website development and Internet services” and having “played a strategic role in helping the GOP expand its technological supremacy.”
The Nevada Republican Party decided Thursday not to reconvene its scuttled state convention this month, claiming it couldn’t generate enough interest to reach a legal quorum to elect delegates to the national convention in St. Paul, Minn.
Instead, the party’s executive board, in a private conference call July 25, would decide who from Nevada will attend the Republican National Convention to formally nominate U.S. Sen. John McCain.
The state party abruptly ended its state convention in April to head off a delegation of Ron Paul supporters who had captured control of the proceedings and appeared on track to elect a majority slate to the Sept. 1-4 national convention.
A group of disaffected Republicans trying to get to the national convention are asking a Reno judge to halt the party’s efforts to appoint a national delegation in a private conference call scheduled for Friday.
Dr. Wayne Terhune, a Sparks dentist leading a contingent of Ron Paul supporters, said the state party broke the law when it canceled the reconvening of the state convention planned for Saturday.
“They are illegally appointing delegates behind closed doors in private phone calls,” Terhune said Monday. “State law says you have to have a convention.”
Potential next President John McCain’s sick obsession with slaughtering brown people in the Middle East betrayed itself again yesterday when he responded to a question about exporting cigarettes to Iran by saying, “maybe that’s a way of killing them.”
McCain was asked by a reporter, “We’ve learned that exports to Iran increased by tenfold during the Bush administration, biggest export was cigarettes,” to which McCain snapped back, “maybe that’s a way of killing them,” before laughing and chuckling, “I meant that as a joke.”
This is not the first time that McCain has expressed his bloodlust for seeing Iranians massacred.
During an April 2007 town hall meeting in South Carolina, one of McCain’s fawning Neo-Con slug acolytes stood up and asked why “we don’t send an airmail message to Tehran,” to which McCain responded, “Remember that old Beach Boys song? Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran.”
The whole audience snickered at the thought of innocent Iranian women and children being blown to bits for the good of the American empire.
Does a historical pretext even exist against which to measure potential Presidents who find killing hundreds of thousands of people funny?
Hitler, Pol Pot, and Osama Bin Laden liked to talk about slaughtering masses of people on a regular basis, but they stopped short of cracking jokes about it.
McCain was subject to a barrage of criticism after his last outburst but he’s gone on to repeat such comments without a care in the world.
Either the body politic is so jaded by 7 years of imperial Neo-Con bloodletting that McCain thinks such comments are tame in comparison, or he knows he’s a ringer and has no chance anyway of beating the elite’s chosen one for 2008 – Barack Obama.
Or he could just be one sick bastard. That makes for presidential material these days.
Republican presidential candidate John McCain let his tongue get the best of him at a town hall meeting Friday, revealing what critics would say is the true effect of opening US coastlines to drilling he now supports after years of opposing.
“I’ll do everything in my power to get those offshore reserves exploited … um, er, explored, discovered and um…” McCain said, drawing some knowing chuckles from the largely Republican audience.
He had to stop and collect his thoughts. Already he had been answering a woman’s question about lowering gas prices for nearly two minutes — squeezing in a joke about France in the process — and he seemed flustered.
On orders from Senator John McCain’s security detail, Denver police escorted a 61-year-old woman away who was waiting in line to attend a so-called town hall meeting with McCain that was billed as open to the public.
Carol Kreck, who works as a librarian in Denver, held a homemade sign reading “McCain = Bush.” On orders from McCain’s security detail, police cited her for trespassing and escorted her to the sidewalk. She was told if she returned she would be arrested.
“And all I did was carry a sign that said McCain = Bush,” Kreck said. “And for everyone who voted for Bush, I don’t see why it’s offensive to say McCain = Bush.”
This episode by McCain’s Secret Service appears to be a rerun of McCain’s 2005 town hall in Denver with President Bush in which the Secret Service had three Denver citizens removed from an “open” event where McCain was campaigning with Pres. Bush for his plan to privatize social security.
The percentage of voters who give Congress good or excellent ratings has fallen to single digits for the first time in Rasmussen Reports tracking history. This month, just 9% say Congress is doing a good or excellent job. Most voters (52%) say Congress is doing a poor job, which ties the record high in that dubious category.
Last month, 11% of voters gave the legislature good or excellent ratings. Congress has not received higher than a 15% approval rating since the beginning of 2008.
The percentage of Democrats who give Congress positive ratings fell from 17% last month to 13% this month. The number of Democrats who give Congress a poor rating remained unchanged. Among Republicans, 8% give Congress good or excellent ratings, up just a point from last month. Sixty-five percent (65%) of GOP voters say Congress is doing a poor job, down a single point from last month.
Voters not affiliated with either party are the most critical of Congressional performance. Just 3% of those voters give Congress positive ratings, down from 6% last month. Sixty-three percent (63%) believe Congress is doing a poor job, up from 57% last month.
The co-host of a recent top-dollar fundraiser for Sen. John McCain oversaw the payment of roughly $1.7 million to a Colombian paramilitary group that is today designated a terrorist organization by the United States.
Carl H. Lindner Jr., the billionaire Cincinnati businessman, was CEO of Chiquita Brands International from 1984 to 2001, and remained on the company’s board of directors until May 2002. Beginning under his tenure, Chiquita executives paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (known by the Spanish acronym AUC), which is described by George Washington University’s National Security Archive as an “illegal right-wing anti-guerrilla group tied to many of the country’s most notorious civilian massacres.”
Following a Justice Department indictment last year, Chiquita admitted to illegally funding the paramilitaries and agreed to pay a $25 million fine. Chiquita’s payments to the AUC began in 1997 and lasted seven years; roughly half of the funds came after the group was designated a Foreign Terrorist Organization by the U.S. State Department in 2001.
According to the Justice Department, the payments “were reviewed and approved by senior executives” of Chiquita, who knew by no later than September 2000 “that the AUC was a violent, paramilitary organization.”
Late last week, Lindner co-hosted a $25,000-per-person fundraiser for McCain and the Republican Party in the wealthy Indian Hills neighborhood of Cincinnati, Ohio. The event raised about $2 million; Lindner also serves on McCain’s Ohio Victory Team.
One of John McCain’s Republican colleagues says he saw the presumed GOP presidential nominee roughly grab an associate of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega and lift him out of his chair during a diplomatic mission to the Central American nation in 1987.
A former McCain aide who was along on the mission said he doesn’t recall an incident like the one described by Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Miss.
Cochran said he saw McCain, who has a reputation for being hot tempered, rough up an Ortega associate during a trip to Nicaragua led by former Sen. Bob Dole, R-Kansas.
Republican congressman Ron Paul warns against military engagement in Iran, saying ‘bombing Iran’ will cause energy prices to skyrocket.
In a speech on the House floor, Congressman Paul suggested that the US is inching toward an ‘endless struggle’ similar to the Iraq war.
“In the last several weeks, if not for months we have heard a lot of talk about the potential of Israel and/or the United States bombing Iran. Energy prices are being bid up because of this fear. It has been predicted that if bombs start dropping, that we will see energy prices double or triple,” said the Republican.
“To me it is almost like deja vu all over again. We listened to the rhetoric for years and years before we went into Iraq. We did not go in the correct manner, we did not declare war, we are there and it is an endless struggle,” he told a nearly empty House chamber.
“I cannot believe it, that we may well be on the verge of initiating the bombing of Iran,” said the war veteran.
The 72-year-old former presidential candidate then blasted what he called the ‘virtual Iran war resolution’, which is soon to be considered by the House of Representatives.
“This resolution, House Resolution 362 is a virtual war resolution. It is the declaration of tremendous sanctions, and boycotts and embargoes on the Iranians. It is very, very severe,” Paul said.
Supported by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), House Resolution 362 (and the Senate version Resolution 580), known as the ‘Iran War Resolution’ can be considered a means of imposing harsher sanctions as well as a naval blockade restricting exports to the oil-rich country.
This bill, which was introduced at an AIPAC annual policy conference, has gained 208 co-sponsors in the House and 29 in the Senate. It will likely be put to a vote after July 4.
“The fear is, they say, maybe some day, [Iran is] going to get a nuclear weapon, even though our own CIA’s National Intelligence Estimate has said that the Iranians have not been working on a nuclear weapon since 2003,” continued the 10-term congressman.
The US and Israel accuse Tehran of making efforts to produce nuclear weapons; Iran insists its nuclear program is directed at peaceful purposes.
The most recent UN nuclear watchdog report on Tehran’s nuclear program, however, has conceded that there is no link between the use of nuclear material and ‘the alleged studies’ of weaponization attributed to Iran by Western countries.
“This is unbelievable! This is closing down Iran. Where do we have this authority? Where do we get the moral authority? Where do we get the international legality for this? Where do we get the Constitutional authority for this?” asked Paul.
Rep. Ron Paul ended his presidential campaign Thursday night, but the maverick Texas lawmaker who spurned a political movement vowed to continue his efforts through a new organization, the Campaign for Liberty.
Paul’s exit from the race was just a formality. He never had a shot at the nomination but his grassroots candidacy cultivated national interest and was fueled by an online fund-raising operation of small donors who saw promise in Paul’s political message. A video of his farewell speech Thursday night has been viewed nearly 600,000 times.
The Texas lawmaker is hoping that base will transfer to his new political effort, whose mission is to elect more libertarian-minded candidates, like Paul, to office. “We’ll make our presence felt at every level of government, where just a few people with our level of enthusiasm can make a world of difference. We’ll keep an eye on Congress and lobby against legislation that threatens us,” Paul writes on his new site. “We’ll identify and support political candidates who champion our great ideas against the empty suits the party establishments offer the public. We will be a permanent presence on the American political landscape. That I promise you.”
Paul will also be holding his own convention, of sorts, during the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn., in early September. A Sept. 2 rally is in the works at Williams Arena at the University of Minnesota where Paul hopes to attract 11,000 attendees.
CNN’s Wolf Blitzer talked to Ron Paul about a rally his has planned in the same city as the Republican convention. Paul told Blitzer that his rally would pose a philosophical challenge to the Republican’s convention.
Paul told Blitzer that he had no intention of supporting John McCain. Paul said, “I don’t plan to endorse John McCain unless he changed his views on the war and was interested in the Federal Reserve and all these other things, which is not likely to happen.”
This video is from CNN’s Situation Room, broadcast June 16, 2008.
After being denied a speaking slot at the Republican convention this summer, former candidate Rep. Ron Paul, who is not supporting GOP nominee John McCain, has decided to stage his own parallel convention in Minneapolis.
“There is a growing surge of people out there just craving” for a return “to traditional American government, limited government that places personal liberty first and places an emphasis on personal responsibility and essentially gets out of the way after that,” Paul spokesman Jesse Benton told the Pittsburgh Tribune Review. “The buzz we get from supporters is that they are very eager to come to St. Paul and very eager to send a strong message.”
After being initially viewed as little more than a gadfly’s revolt, Paul’s campaign picked up substantial steam during the GOP primaries, when the libertarian leaning Texan raised about $35 million almost entirely online and garnered more than a million votes. Paul’s secured at least 35 convention delegates, but Republican party big-wigs are denying him a speaking slot.
The Tribune-Review has the details on Paul’s parallel convention:
Maverick GOP presidential candidate Ron Paul has booked an arena in Minneapolis for a “mini-convention” that could steal some of John McCain’s thunder just days before he accepts the Republican nomination.
A Paul campaign aide said the Texas congressman hopes to pack about 11,000 supporters into the Williams Arena at the University of Minnesota on Sept. 2, which coincides with the second day of the Republican National Convention at the Xcel Energy Center in neighboring St. Paul.
Benton tells MSNBC that Paul’s decision to hold his own convention is about more than just not getting a speaking slot at the GOP’s main shindig.
Paul’s supporters are really “looking to build a national organization that is going to run at a grassroots level, be organized at a precinct level, and to identify candidates to support,” Benton said, “real constitutionalist candidates.”
Paul camp expects to have about 50 delegates to the national convention. They will attend the Paul convention and the campaign is encouraging them to go to the official GOP convention as “active and positive.” But, Benton added, Paul’s supporters are independent-minded and aren’t going to be told what to do.
There’s some evidence that Paul’s influence is beginning to stretch beyond the presidential race already. Libertarian magazine Reason recently profiled several “Ron Paul Republicans” who are seeking congressional seats in House races across the country this year.
Ron Paul: Pelosi pulled Iran bill on orders of Israel In a speech given on 06 june 2008, in reston, virginia, at the hyatt regency, reston, to the future of freedom foundation, ’restoring the republic 2008: foreign policy and civil liberties’ conference, congressman ron paul, tells how speaker of the house, nancy pelosi, ’deliberately’ pulled a supplemental bill requiring congressional approval for attacking iran on orders of israel and aipac.
Senate Republicans on Friday blocked a global warming bill that would have required major reductions in greenhouse gases, pushing debate over the world’s biggest environmental concern to next year for a new Congress and president.
Democratic leaders fell a dozen votes short of getting the 60 needed to end a Republican filibuster on the measure and bring the bill up for a vote, prompting Majority Leader Harry Reid to pull the legislation from consideration.
The Senate debate focused on bitter disagreement over the expected economic costs of putting a price on carbon dioxide, the leading greenhouse gas that comes from burning fossil fuels. Opponents said it would lead to higher energy costs.
“It’s just the beginning for us,” proclaimed Sen. Barbara Boxer, D- Calif., a chief sponsor of the bill, noting that 54 senators had expressed support of the legislation, although that’s still short of what would be needed to overcome concerted GOP opposition.
“It’s clear a majority of Congress wants to act,” Boxer said at a news conference.
If this week’s Senate debate on a proposed cap-and-trade system for greenhouse gases was supposed to be a dress rehearsal for climate legislation, things are not looking too good for opening night.
The week has been marked by parliamentary maneuvers and bitter accusations over divergent estimates of the bill’s future costs. On Wednesday, a group of GOP senators asked that the clerk of the Senate read the entire 491-page bill aloud, an extremely rare request. That took more than 10 hours.
The establishment is getting ready to push forward with Joe Lieberman’s proposed carbon credit enslavement bill. The bill otherwise known as America’s Climate Security Act of 2007 or S 2191 will give the Environmental Protection Agency draconian powers to implement a carbon credit system here in the United States. Read my full analysis of the bill here. This is nothing more than a carbon tax and the bill intends to reduce the amount of available carbon credits on a year to year basis starting in the year 2012. This will effectively make it more difficult for small and medium sized businesses to compete with the large multinational corporations who will have the resources to deal with this ridiculous enslavement tax. The threat of man made carbon emissions causing global warming is a documented fraud. Over 31,000 scientists have recently come forward refuting the claims of Al Gore and others who are promoting this lie. The fact that the corporate controlled media can continue to promote this huge lie as propaganda to pass this carbon credit initiative is utterly insane.
For years the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works was the burial ground for legislation addressing among other things coal powered electricity generation. The U.S. has about a quarter of the world’s known supply of coal and coal is the primary source of electricity in this country. (Hydroelectric power is not as prominent elsewhere as in this region.) It is commonly said that reducing the emissions of coal used to generate electricity is vital to controlling greenhouse gas emissions here. Most seem to believe that this is the cornerstone to any effective policy. In December the committee, with a Democratic majority, passed America’s Climate Security Act of 2007 and the bill will be debated in the Senate next week.
The Republicans are split on this bill. Larry Craig and other Republicans did all he could to prevent the bill from getting out of committee. The bill though is sponsored by Joe Lieberman and John Warner. (Warner is on the committee.)
Even though there is absolutely no difference between the Republicans and the Democrats, it is pretty clear that the establishment is hell bent on pushing this thing through. The majority of Democrats are going to support this bill and if the Republicans are split on this bill, it means it will pass the U.S. Senate relatively easy. It doesn’t matter that the vast majority of Americans oppose the measures in this bill. The establishment wants this carbon credit initiative passed so they can effectively enslave the majority of free humanity.
The GOP has said that they are going to try to form some opposition to this bill, but in reality it will be nothing more than a staged debate. This piece of legislation is going to get passed and any opposition will be for the purposes of the theater played out in the media to make the masses believe that we actually have Senators that represent the people.
San Francisco has already passed a carbon tax on businesses which is just a warm up for what we are going to see across this country if S 2191 gets passed. It is incredibly insane that these people are going forward with an agenda to establish a system of carbon credits on the basis of man made carbon emissions causing global warming. With over 31,000 scientists many with high level degrees refuting the doomsday claims of Al Gore, this global warming crap along with this carbon tax push is becoming more and more of a sick joke.
At the Nueces County Republican party convention, March 29th, in Corpus Christi Texas, Ron Paul supporters walked out in protest and held their own emergency convention in the parking lot. Republican party Chairperson Mike Bertuzzi grossly violated party rules by announcing new delegates to the morning’s roll call who were never elected as precinct delegates on the night of the Republican primary, then again by ignoring repeated objections by party delegates, which he is required to recognize.
Mr. Bertuzzi claims that he avoided a ’party takeover’ by unruly Ron Paul supporters, but a recently released audio tape of the event clearly shows otherwise. As a blatant violation of convention rules is underway by the Chairperson, many delegates can be heard rising to voice objections with no avail until a local man, Paul Hunt , is escorted out by the Sergeant at Arms..
The following morning, the local news rag, The Corpus Christi Caller Times, reported only one side of the incident, by claiming that a GOP party takeover had been thwarted while presenting Chairperson Mike Bertuzzi as some kind of political hero for violating the rights of local Republicans.
GOP Walks Out On Their Own Convention In Ron Paul Fiasco Rule change had given Paul supporters bigger influence but officials simply cancelled event Paul Joseph Watson Prison Planet April 28, 2008
After Ron Paul supporters managed to get a rule changed positioning them for more national convention delegate slots than expected, the Nevada GOP simply cancelled their own state convention and left, in what political observers are calling an unprecedented fiasco.
“After a super-majority of Ron Paul supporters captured control of the Republican state convention Saturday, state party officials abruptly canceled the event without electing delegates to the national convention,” reports the Reno Gazette Journal.
“I’ve seen factions walk out, I’ve never seen a party walk out, I’ve never even heard of that,” said Jeff Greenspan, regional coordinator for the Paul campaign.
Earlier in the day, state delegates supporting the Texas Congressman’s pursuit of the nomination “voted through a rules change that forced the state party to abandon its pre-set ballot of potential national convention delegates and open up the race to the rest of the state delegates,” according to the Gazette Journal.
As the convention neared its end, chairman Bob Beers claimed that the party’s contract for the hall at the Peppermill Resort Casino had expired and the event would be rescheduled, and delegates who had traveled from several hundreds of miles away in some cases were barred from voting, prompting loud boos and catcalls from the audience.
“As Beers was escorted out of the building, a short-lived effort to rescue the convention was launched by party activist Mike Weber. Although several hundred Paul supporters stayed, they weren’t strong enough to make a quorum to continue the convention,” according to reports.
Officials claimed that the rule change overwhelmed the party’s capacity to process the votes, but Paul supporters were left furious by the decision.
“This was an organized effort to promote the agenda of a few people, the party leaders, over we the people,” said Chloie Leavitt.
Paul’s rousing speech had earlier been met with raucous cheers by supporters who drowned out the small number of McCain supporters attempting to heckle.
“Our campaign has continued, is doing well and improving, even though we know exactly what the numbers are,” Paul said. “But the message is worthwhile. Your vote can really count if you vote for limitation of government power and spending,” stated the Congressman.
The following You Tube clips illustrate what happened in Reno this weekend, a situation described by the poster as “total anarchy”.
DC Madam Predicted She Would Be Suicided “Rape, beating, maiming, disfigurement and more than likely murder disguised in the form of just another jailhouse accident or suicide would await me,” Palfrey wrote – Time Magazine curiously quick to re-affirm suicide story
Click here to listen to Palfrey clearly state that she would not commit suicide.
DC Madam Deborah Jeane Palfrey predicted she would be “suicided” on several occasions both recently and as far back as 17 years ago – comments that now appear ominous in light of the announcement that the former head of a Washington escort service allegedly killed herself today.
“If taken into custody, my physical safety and most probably my very life would be jeopardized,” she wrote in August 1991 following an attempt to bring her to trial, “Rape, beating, maiming, disfigurement and more than likely murder disguised in the form of just another jailhouse accident or suicide would await me,” said Palfrey in a handwritten letter to the judge accusing the San Diego police vice squad of having a vendetta against her.
During several recent appearances on The Alex Jones Show, Palfrey also said that she was at risk of being killed and that authorities would make it look like suicide. She made it clear that she was not suicidal and if she was found dead it would be murder.
Palfrey had threatened to release the names of well-known clients of her upscale call girl ring in the nation’s capitol, and had indicated that Dick Cheney may be one of them.
“We now know it goes at least as high as a United States Senator,” Palfrey told The Alex Jones Show, “I’m hearing rumors now from other people that there are other possibilities in that stratosphere so to speak, on that level.”
“No I’m not planning to commit suicide,” Palfrey told The Alex Jones Show on her last appearance in March, “I’m planning on going into court and defending myself vigorously and exposing the government,” she said.
“Blanche Palfrey had no sign that her daughter was suicidal, and there was no immediate indication that alcohol or drugs were involved, police Capt. Jeffrey Young said,” according to an AP report.
Click here to listen to Palfrey clearly state that she would not commit suicide.
Click here to listen to the entirety of a July 2007 interview with Palfrey.
UPDATE: In an almost uncanny development, as soon as this article started to go viral on the Internet, Time Magazine released a story claiming that Palfrey told author Dan Moldea that she would rather commit suicide than go to jail. What a funny coincidence!
Eerie Flashback: DC Madam said ’I’d never want my life to end in suicide’ Palfrey rejected suicide in May 2007 interview
When Deborah Jeane Palfrey (aka the “DC Madam,” who was found hanged in Tarpon Springs, Florida on Thursday) sat down in May 2007 for an interview with Carol Joynt, host of the Q&A Cafe interview series, most everything was up in the air: Palfrey faced a criminal indictment on prostitution charges and was fighting courts over how to handle thirteen years of phone records which contained the phone numbers of many clients of her escort service.
But, for Palfrey, one thing was crystal clear during that interview: She would never end her life by hanging herself.
Joynt brought up the subject of Brandy Britton, a Baltimore prostitute whom had occasionally worked for Palfrey and whom had hanged herself in January 2007, only days away from facing prostitution charges.
Palfrey told Joynt in no uncertain terms: “I don’t want to be like her. I don’t want to end up like her.”
In the months following the interview with Joynt, Palfrey’s fortunes took a turn for the worse. In April, a federal jury convicted Palfrey of running a prostitution ring and she awaited her sentencing on July 24, where she faced up to six years in prison.
In the end, Palfrey’s proud and defiant statements about Britton’s tragic end couldn’t stop her own sad conclusion, and it all too closely tracked the final days of her former employee: A woman caught up in an illegal world of sex and money, and for whom the pressure ultimately became too much to bear.
Palfrey Considered Call Girl’s “Suicide” Possible Murder DC Madam employee also found hanged despite family’s insistence she was upbeat, positive
DC Madam Deborah Jeane Palfrey, who was found hanged today in what authorities claim was a “suicide,” not only asserted that she would never commit suicide, but also thought the alleged suicide of one of her former call girls was possibly murder.
Asked if the suicide was in fact murder, Palfrey told the Alex Jones Show in July last year, “Well we don’t know about that, there’s two schools of thought – one says yes one says no,”
Asked what the circumstances were that made people question the alleged “suicide” of her former call girl, Palfrey responded, “People say that she was a very upbeat person, a very positive person that she was going into court, she was ready to fight them, that she absolutely was not going to give in and all of a sudden a few days before she was to go to trial she committed suicide and her family members and friends say this was extremely abnormal.”
“She was not in a frame of mind to commit suicide, you know perhaps she knew something, there’s been a lot of speculation about that,” said Palfrey, “She had very little to lose, she wasn’t going to go to jail, she’d been charged on a prostitution case,” added Palfrey, noting that individuals involved in the call girl scandal possibly thought Britton was about to name names.
Brandy Britton
According to a Post Chronicle report, Palfrey and Britton’s alleged “suicides” bear similar hallmarks.
During several recent appearances on The Alex Jones Show, Palfrey conceded that she was at risk of being killed and that authorities would make it look like suicide. She made it clear that she was not suicidal and if she was found dead it would be murder.
“No I’m not planning to commit suicide,” Palfrey told The Alex Jones Show on her last appearance in March, “I’m planning on going into court and defending myself vigorously and exposing the government,” she said.
“Blanche Palfrey had no sign that her daughter was suicidal, and there was no immediate indication that alcohol or drugs were involved, police Capt. Jeffrey Young said,” according to an AP report.
Click here to listen to Palfrey clearly state that she would not commit suicide on two separate occasions, as well as discuss the case of Brandy Britton.
Ron Paul was a guest on Coast To Coast AM with George Noory from 1 – 2 AM on March 25, 2008. During questions a disingenuous Neocon named Joe called in to ask Ron Paul about his supporters believing in “conspiracy theories”. This was similar to what CNN did during the debates.
Ron Paul answered and said while he did not believe the Government did 9/11 he was not satisfied with the investigation and would like a new investigation into 9/11.
High Tide: The Ron Paul Revolution Continues
Grassroots effort stresses continuing the Ron Paul Revolution, restoring the spirit of freedom in the country and turning back the tide of sprawling foreign wars and disastrous economic policy
The High Tide could be a lifting anthem for the Ron Paul Revolution as it seeks ways to voice its message in the post-campaign era. The video features high quality 3-D animation and Dr. Ron Paul’s voice. It’s stunning imagery dramatically portrays the dark landscape of spreading wars and an unfolding economic wasteland that have resulted from bad policy.
It carries also the spirit of freedom that Ron Paul hoped his campaign would rekindle– and in many ways already has– as people across the country are now sparking debate over scaling back government power and following constitutionally-based policies.
Grassroots supporter Nate Evans (ArcFx, WeAreChange.org) donated months of work to put together the 3-D promo (click here for high quality) that will have to settle for underscoring the high-point of an unusual presidential campaign that has now receded from hopes of winning the GOP nomination. Nevertheless, the campaign succeeded in shedding light on the skewed policies of the phony candidates who shared the stage with him. His disenfranchisement in polls, electronic voting and media coverage demonstrated the manipulation over so-called free elections.
Ron Paul recently conceded that “convention victory” had been lost, but that the fight would continue. “Many victories have been achieved due to your hard work and enthusiasm,” said Paul.
“I don’t mind playing a key role in the revolution, but it has to be more than a Ron Paul revolution,” he said. Somehow, that is reflected in this animated video that transcends the mere man Ron Paul is individually and elevates instead the ideas and history his policy is based upon.
So, what will be the high mark of the Ron Paul Revolution, in their campaign for the presidency? What is its the lasting impact, and in what form will it continue?
Paul urges the continuation of meet-up groups, and even campaign races in effort to gain more delegates and take small victories where they are still available in the election, if only to stretch the political muscle for a future contest.
“At the rate our economy is slipping, we will likely see the disintegration of the American empire,” said Paul. “Today’s events should be seen as a tremendous opportunity to change our country for the good.”
The Ron Paul Revolution intends to make an lasting impression when it will march together in Washington. Which direction that will take us, is the next step.
The shadow of the Sept. 11 terror attacks is eclipsing press freedom and other constitutional safeguards in the United States, Associated Press President and CEO Tom Curley said Thursday.
“What has become clear in the aftermath of 9/11 is how much expediency trumps safeguards,” Curley said in remarks prepared for the annual dinner of the Radio and Television News Directors Foundation.
“Congress steps back from its constitutional role of executive oversight. Civilian oversight of the military wanes. A Justice Department interprets laws in ways that extend police powers. More drastically, prisons are established in places where government or military operatives circumvent due process or control trials,” Curley said in accepting the foundation’s First Amendment Leadership Award.
“It’s at moments like these when a free press matters most,” he said.
Curley was selected for his role in pushing for more openness in government and for emphasizing reporting on First Amendment issues. That includes efforts by the AP to establish the Sunshine in Government Initiative, a news media coalition that presses for strengthening Freedom of Information laws and for greater government openness.
Jimmy Breslin says there are only two headlines that sell newspapers: WAR and BIG GUY DIES. (Here at Huffington, the two headlines are OBAMA and SOMEONE’S NOT PAYING ENOUGH ATTENTION TO OBAMA.) In cable news, the only stories anyone cares about involve missing white women, the blonder the better.
Elizabeth Smart and Chandra Levy, Laci Peterson and JonBenet Ramsey, Madeline McCann and Jessica Lynch, the Runaway Bride and the remains of Anna Nicole Smith. Those stories were made for cable. Sure, it’s fun to watch a casino implode, the first hundred times, but it doesn’t have the same urgent familiarity; the same prurient arc of tension a relief, like a cross between a nipple slip and a mining disaster. There’s something about a missing white women that just works for 24-hour news. Like shipwrecks in Shakespeare, or the way you can’t write a truly awful folk song without mentioning smoking.
Is it news that we need? Of course not. I’m sure Natalee Holloway was a perfectly nice person, but unless there are particles of her in my drinking water, I don’t need to know she’s still gone.
As unsettling as the stories are, we can take a kind of comfort in the soothing inexorability of the coverage. The message is that the medium cares. If a woman goes missing — and she’s not black or poor — CNN, Fox and MSNBC will cover it.
So what happened to the missing blonde woman in John McCain’s lobbying scandal?
It’s been twelve days.
Where on Earth is Vicki Iseman?
We’ve heard from John McCain:
“I’m very disappointed in the New York Times…”
And from Cindy McCain:
“I’m very, very disappointed in The New York Times…”
But what about Vicki Iseman? Isn’t she disappointed?
Not even in Thomas Friedman?
Until we hear her speak, or hear she’s been identified from dental records, how can we ever have closure?
It’s not just that she’s vanished, although that should be enough, considering her hair color. And it’s not just that she’s been tied to a U.S. senator with a very real chance of achieving America’s highest office and then dying in it. It’s that there are still only three pictures of her on Google.
She’s been a lobbyist for eighteen years, but she’s only been photographed three times. And one of those times was with President Bush. Unless she folds up neatly and fits inside Jack Abramoff’s hat, it doesn’t make sense.
Where’s Vicki Iseman and where’s the cable news coverage of her disappearance?
Ron Paul Hammers Neo-Con Rival To Retain Congressional Seat ABC News still claims it was close-fought, despite fact that margin of victory was Congressman’s biggest ever in District 14
Ron Paul comprehensively defeated main rival Chris Peden last night to retain his Congressional seat and display a metaphorical middle finger to Neo-Con attack dogs who had attempted to deceive the public into doubting the Congressman’s chances by making out it was a close-fought race.
Neo-Cons have egg on their faces this morning after Paul hammered Peden 70-30 to retain his seat in the House of Congress.
Even after the results came in, ABC News were still at it, claiming today, “The fiery Republican with a libertarian bent survived a strong challenge to his day job in Congress on Tuesday, besting a well-funded challenger.”
Writing that Paul’s presidential run, “Nearly came back to bite him at home,” the report conveniently fails to mention the margin by which Paul tanked his opponent – a margin 10 points higher than when Paul defeated Democrat Shane Sklar in 2006 and his easiest victory in any Congressional election since he first ran for District 14.
The establishment media and fawning neo-libs like Wonkette did their level best to prop-up Peden as someone who had a legitimate chance of challenging Paul for his Congressional seat, a clear double-standard considering the fact that they wrote off Ron Paul’s presidential aspirations from the very start.
In a sophomoric hit piece, The Lone Star Times website, which proudly displays a Peden for Congress banner, cited a report that claimed “Peden holds a double-digit lead over “the taxpayer’s best friend.”
Under the headline, Could Ron Paul Really Fall?, the site quoted a Pajamas Media blog that falsely claimed, “Polls show Dr. Paul falling behind relatively unknown challenger Chris Peden in his 14th Texas District endangering his congressional seat in the Texas primary.”
Other establishment media mouthpieces like The Nation attempted to get a Pedenphile bandwagon rolling by hoaxing readers into thinking the Councilman had a chance of beating Paul, when independent polls clearly showed the Congressman was drubbing his opponent, who was a virtual unknown amongst District 14 residents.
“Some Washington insiders would have you believe that Republicans no longer believe in the principles our country and party were founded upon, but the voters in my district have once again proven them wrong,” Mr. Paul said, in a statement. “The message of freedom is popular, and I will continue to trumpet it in Congress and across America as I fight on behalf of the conservative, common sense values which made our country so great.”
OK, Disciples of Paul, here’s the chance you’ve been waiting for to get Mike Huckabee, the only remaining contender between your guy, Rep. Ron Paul, and the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination, that nobody senator from Arizona, John McCain.
Do you know what Huckabee wrote on Tuesday? You won’t believe it. Seriously.
Because he needs the publicity and doesn’t have the money to buy much advertising to convince the rapidly growing number of Republicans who see the former Arkansas governor as a lingering nuisance who can’t take a hint that his presidential hopes are over, smoked, done, dashed, cooked, fried, kaput, finished, completed and hopeless, Huckabee has challenged McCain to a debate. Hey, it only cost a stamp.
Huckabee’s letter says: “I believe a Lincoln-Douglas debate so that voters can better understand our views on critical issues such as health care, education, energy independence, terrorism and national security is just what we need.”
Of course, the Lincoln-Douglas debates occurred in….
a U.S. Senate race. There were seven of them, each three hours long. (That was in the 1850s before commercials for bathroom breaks.) And, also, the Republican lost that race.
But nevermind, Huckabee wants the spectacle of a debate before next Tuesday’s March 4 primaries, when his campaign hopes could become absolute cinders. He’d also like your online signature on the letter for publicity.
But here’s the real outrage that will rock the Internet in the next few hours. After paying the now-required tribute to Sen. McCain as “an American hero,” Huckabee writes:
“Now that the race for the Republican nomination is down to just the two of us, I believe this is the time for a real discussion about our vision for the future of this great country.”
The two of us? As in 2? One more than one and one less than three? Huckabee has no idea what he is in for, dissing the party’s other remaining candidate. Just watch the comments section below for a taste. He’s completely disregarded the existence of the 10-term libertarian-like congressman from Texas. Who may not have a realistic chance of beating McCain either, but don’t tell that to members of the Ron Paul Revolution.
Did John McCain confirm the worst fears of Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter at a campaign stop in Texas this week?
The Arizona Republican, who caught plenty of flak from his party’s most vocal conservatives during the presidential primary campaign, slipped up in a speech to supporters Thursday, when he was trying to outline the differences between himself and the to-be-decided Democratic nominee.
“I’m a proud conservative, liberal Repub — uh, conservative Republican,” McCain said, trying to stuff his Freudian slip back into his mouth.
“Hello, easy there,” McCain said to laughs from the crowd. “Let me say this: I am a proud conservative Republican, and both of my possible, likely opponents are liberal Democrats.”
McCain went on to note Barack Obama’s ranking as National Journal’s most liberal Senator for 2007, previewing what will likely be an oft-repeated refrain if the Illinois Senator scores the Democratic nomination. The ranking’s methodology has been questioned elsewhere, but similar attacks were seen to have damaged John Kerry in 2004 after he received the same No. 1 ranking from the inside-the-beltway policy journal.
The “proud … liberal” slip wasn’t McCain’s only brush with what Freud might say was an inadvertent revelation of his subconscious thoughts. Early in the speech, railing against negative campaign ads, McCain said the following:
“I want to assure you that … I will conduct a respectful debate. Now, it’ll be dispirited — it’ll be spirited — because there are stark differences.”
McCain: “Doesn’t Matter” if I’ve Got Indicted Rep. Renzi on Campaign