Puppet MastersS


Vader

Cheney, Rumsfeld and other psycho war criminals joke about waterboarding while America burns

Joan Walsh
Salon
Wed, 09 Oct 2013 18:49 UTC
don & dick
Don and Dick, snakes in suits
Talk about torture.

As the nation is dragged toward a debt-ceiling crisis by a band of radical Republicans determined to invalidate laws they don't like but don't have the power to repeal, party elders got together for a lighthearted roast of accused war criminal Dick Cheney in New York Tuesday night. The ad in Commentary read:
"He was White House chief of staff. He was House minority whip. He was secretary of defense. He was vice president of the United States. Now ... he will be the main course."
Ben Smith at BuzzFeed has the exclusive details. Read them.

Apparently guests shared details of the off-the-record gala, which featured humor from Donald Rumsfeld, Michael Mukasey and spoiled nepotista (and party wrecker) Liz Cheney, who wants to be the first Wyoming senator who's actually from Virginia. There were lighthearted waterboarding jokes, and someone - reportedly Sen. Joe Lieberman - rocked the house by saying "something to the effect that it's nice that we're all here at the Plaza instead of in cages after some war crimes trial," one of Smith's sources told him.

If only.

Comment: Just to be clear: it is blatantly obvious that whether democrats or republicans, those who rule America for the past 40 or so years, are psychopaths. By their fruits we know it.

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Che Guevara

Chomsky: For almost 70 years the U.S. has been the world leader in spreading destruction and misery across the planet

Noam Chomsky
AlterNet
Mon, 07 Oct 2013 17:37 UTC
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Despite Obama's noble words, America has imposed vicious dictatorships and supported horrendous crime

The recent Obama-Putin tiff over American exceptionalism reignited an ongoing debate over the Obama Doctrine: Is the president veering toward isolationism? Or will he proudly carry the banner of exceptionalism?

The debate is narrower than it may seem. There is considerable common ground between the two positions, as was expressed clearly by Hans Morgenthau, the founder of the now dominant no-sentimentality "realist" school of international relations.

Throughout his work, Morgenthau describes America as unique among all powers past and present in that it has a "transcendent purpose" that it "must defend and promote" throughout the world: "the establishment of equality in freedom."

The competing concepts "exceptionalism" and "isolationism" both accept this doctrine and its various elaborations but differ with regard to its application.

One extreme was vigorously defended by President Obama in his Sept. 10 address to the nation: "What makes America different," he declared, "what makes us exceptional," is that we are dedicated to act, "with humility, but with resolve," when we detect violations somewhere.
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Cult

Priest: Obama admin. denied Mass to Catholics

David Brody
CBN News
Tue, 08 Oct 2013 17:13 UTC
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How about trying this one on for size? Here is the press release headline from Congressman Tim Huelskamp's office this afternoon:

Obama Administration Denies Mass to Catholics

Apparently, a priest was denied access to a military chapel this weekend. Father Ray Leonard serves at Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay in Georgia but because of the government shutdown, he wasn't allowed to go to celebrate Mass this past weekend.
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Eye 1

White House, IRS exchanged confidential taxpayer info

Patrick Howley
The Daily Caller
Wed, 09 Oct 2013 17:08 UTC
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Top Internal Revenue Service Obamacare official Sarah Hall Ingram discussed confidential taxpayer information with senior Obama White House officials, according to 2012 emails obtained by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and provided to The Daily Caller.

Lois Lerner, then head of the IRS Tax Exempt Organizations division, also received an email alongside White House officials that contained confidential information.

Ingram attempted to counsel the White House on a lawsuit from religious organizations opposing Obamacare's contraception mandate. Email exchanges involving Ingram and White House officials - including White House health policy advisor Ellen Montz and deputy assistant to the president for health policy Jeanne Lambrew - contained confidential taxpayer information, according to Oversight.

The emails provided to Oversight investigators by the IRS had numerous redactions with the signifier "6103."

Section 6103 of the Internal Revenue Code forbids a federal employee from "disclos[ing] any return or return information obtained by him in any manner in connection with his service as such an officer or an employee."
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Dollars

Rejoice: the Yellen Fed will print money forever to create jobs

Ambrose Evans-Pritchard
The Telegraph
Wed, 09 Oct 2013 17:01 UTC
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Janet Yellen
We now know where we stand. Janet Yellen is to take over the US Federal Reserve, the world's monetary hegemon, the master of all our lives.

The Fed will be looser for longer. The FOMC will continue to print money until the US economy creates enough jobs to reignite wage pressures and inflation, regardless of asset bubbles, or collateral damage along the way.

No Fed chief in history has been better qualified. She is a glaring contrast to Alan Greenspan, a political speech writer for Richard Nixon, who never earned a real PhD (it was honorary) or penned an economic paper of depth.

She has pedigree. Her husband is Nobel laureate George Akerlof, the scourge of efficient markets theory. She co-authored "Market for Lemons", the paper that won the prize.
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Dollar

Ben Swann: Govt shutdown is great example of Govt acting as lord OVER people, not for people


RT America
Fri, 11 Oct 2013 16:11 UTC
While government services around the country have shut down - including food inspections, cancer treatments and meteorological tracking - the House gym is still up and running, albeit without towel service. Republicans in the House continue passing piecemeal budget bills, including one passing military death benefits on Wednesday. Democrats are opposed to piecemeal funding, in part because it could take up to 10 weeks to fully fund the government. In the meantime, the country draws ever closer to a potential debt-ceiling default on October 17 with no congressional compromise in sight. RT's Sam Sacks talks to Ben Swann, founder of benswann.com, about the consequences of a continued shutdown and of the country defaulting on its debts.

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X

Another one? US fires general Michael Carey in charge of nuclear missiles


RIA Novosti
Fri, 11 Oct 2013 13:09 UTC
Maj. Gen. Michael Carey
© US Air ForceMaj. Gen. Michael Carey was fired from his command of the US Air Force’s nuclear missiles.
The US Air Force on Friday fired the general in charge of its entire arsenal of nuclear missiles, citing "a loss of trust and confidence in his leadership and judgment."

Maj. Gen. Michael Carey was removed from his command of the 20th Air Force, which is responsible for the nation's three wings of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), the US Air Force Global Strike Command (AFGSC) said in a statement.

The three wings of ICBMs consist of a total of 450 missiles at three bases across the country, The Associated Press reported.

The decision to fire Carey was made by the commander of AFGSC, Lt. Gen. James Kowalski, "based on information from an Inspector General investigation into Carey's behavior during a temporary duty assignment," the statement said.

Kowalski is in charge of all of the Air Force's nuclear weapons.

Officials would not say what led to Carey's dismissal, but the statement said it had nothing to do with his command of the nation's nuclear weapons or sexual misconduct.

The vice commander of AFGSC, Maj. Gen. Jack Weinstein, has been named Carey's interim replacement.
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X

Vice Adm. Tim Giardina fired as no. 2 nuclear commander

Luis Martinez
ABC News
Wed, 09 Oct 2013 13:22 UTC
Navy Vice Adm. Tim Giardina
© US NavyNavy Vice Adm. Tim Giardina is shown in a Nov. 11, 2011, photo.
The No. 2 officer at U.S. Strategic Command has been relieved of command by President Obama because of a "loss of confidence" in his abilities to carry out his post.

Vice Adm. Tim Giardina has been the focus of a criminal investigation looking into his suspected use of counterfeit gambling chips in a poker game at a western Iowa casino.

StratCom commander Gen. Robert Kehler suspended Giardina from his duties as deputy commander on Sept. 3 and recommended to Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel that he be relieved from his post. Kehler's moves were guided by preliminary information he had received from investigations of Giardina's alleged activities.

A defense official said Wednesday that "based upon a recommendation from the Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, the president determined Oct. 3 that Vice Adm. Timothy M. Giardina, former Deputy Commander, U.S. Strategic Command (O-9), should be relieved."

President Obama became involved in the case because only the president can relieve a three- and four-star officer from his post.

Giardina has been reassigned to an undetermined position within the Navy.

Comment: Something strange is going on here. The successor Lt. Gen.James Kowalski fires two days later another general in charge of US nuclear weapons.

Another one? US fires general Michael Carey in charge of nuclear missiles

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Bad Guys

Did Obama swap 'black' detention sites for ships?

Eileen Sullivan
My Way News
Tue, 08 Oct 2013 03:12 UTC
Image from the FBI website shows Anas al-Libi, an al-Qaeda leader connected to the 1998 embassy bombings in eastern Africa and wanted by the United States for more than a decade.
© AP/FBIThis file image from the FBI website shows Anas al-Libi, an al-Qaeda leader connected to the 1998 embassy bombings in eastern Africa and wanted by the United States for more than a decade. Gunmen in a three-car convoy seized Nazih Abdul-Hamed al-Ruqai, known by his alias Anas al-Libi, outside his house Saturday, Oct. 5, 2013, in the Libyan capital, his relatives said. Two law enforcement officials say a team of U.S. investigators from the military, the intelligence community and the Justice Department has been deployed to question Abu Anas al-Libi, according to two law enforcement officials.
Instead of sending suspected terrorists to Guantanamo Bay or secret CIA "black" sites for interrogation, the Obama administration is questioning terrorists for as long as it takes aboard U.S. naval vessels.

And it's doing it in a way that preserves the government's ability to ultimately prosecute the suspects in civilian courts.

That's the pattern emerging with the recent capture of Abu Anas al-Libi, one of the FBI's most wanted terrorists, long-sought for his alleged role in the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Africa. He was captured in a raid Saturday and is being held aboard the USS San Antonio, an amphibious warship mainly used to transport troops.

Questioning suspected terrorists aboard U.S. warships in international waters is President Barack Obama's answer to the Bush administration detention policies that candidate Obama promised to end. The strategy also makes good on Obama's pledge to prosecute terrorists in U.S. civilian courts, which many Republicans have argued against. But it also raises questions about using "law of war" powers to circumvent the safeguards of the U.S. criminal justice system.
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Evil Rays

US to clean up chemical weapons illegally left behind in Panama


Voltaire Network
Fri, 11 Oct 2013 10:06 UTC
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Taking advantage of the chemical weapon crisis in Syria, the government of Panama has reminded the United-States their obligation to destroy the chemical weapons that they had left on San Jose island, the biggest of the country.

When they signed the treaty banning chemical weapons, in 1997, the US falsly declared not to posses any such weapons outside of their own territory. An inventory established in 2002 by Panama showed the presence of numerous weapons and munitions, dating back to different years. At least 16 different sites were used by the Pentagon to test chemical weapons in Panama.

For 11 years, Panama has been vainly requesting to destruction of phosgene and mustard gas in particular, and of over 120 000 munitions. During that period, at least 20 people died accidentally because of these weapons.
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