Puppet MastersS


Bad Guys

U.S. lawmakers, lobbyists rated dishonest, unethical


Press TV
Mon, 16 Dec 2013 03:42 UTC
u.s. politicians
Lobbyists and members of Congress have been rated as the least honest and ethical professionals in the United States.
Lobbyists and members of Congress have been rated as the least honest and ethical professionals in the United States, according to a new survey.

A Gallup poll published on Monday showed that only 6 percent of Americans rate lobbyists as having "high" or "very high" honesty and ethical standards. In fact, lobbyists earned the lowest place out of the 22 professions on the poll.

The abysmal ranking for lobbyists is not much of a surprise since 7 out of every 10 Americans believe lobbyists have too much power in the US, according to another Gallup poll conducted in April.

US lawmakers were the next in the worst ratings with only 8 percent of people saying their representatives in Congress have high ethical standards.

Down from 9 percent in November, members of Congress continue to fail to impress the public.

Comment: "...it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair..."

~ Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities

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Light Saber

Uruguay's Prez rips into U.N. official over marijuana law: 'Stop lying'

Roque Planas
Huffington Post
Fri, 13 Dec 2013 17:10 UTC
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José "Pepe" Mujica shot back on Friday at the president of the International Narcotics Control Board, a U.N. agency, for saying that his administration refused to meet with the agency's officials before legalizing marijuana this week.

Mujica batted down the criticism, insisting that his administration is open to discussing the law and accusing the INCB President Raymond Yans of applying a double standard by criticizing Uruguay, even as U.S. states pass laws to legalize recreational marijuana consumption.

"Tell this old guy not to lie," Mujica told reporters, according to Colombian daily El Espectador. "Any guy in the street can meet with me. Let him come to Uruguay and meet with me whenever he wants... He thinks that because he's in an international position, he can tell whatever lie he wants."
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Eye 1

Report: US-led war plunges Afghans into poverty


Press TV
Mon, 16 Dec 2013 03:59 UTC

Millions of Afghan people suffer from poverty and unemployment while the US spends over 6 billion dollars every month in the war-torn country, Press TV reports.

Senior officials in Washington say they spend more than six billion dollars of taxpayers' money in Afghanistan every month. However, international bodies and charity groups say Afghanistan still remains one of the poorest countries in the world.

Figures show the money is spent on US soldiers, military operations, as well as civilian and military contractors.

Several charity organizations including Oxfam have repeatedly criticized the US and its NATO allies for failing to tackle the poverty across the war-ravaged country. Insecurity, however, continues to grow across the country, with the Afghan population suffering from poverty and unemployment.

Comment: Isn't it nice to know where your American tax dollars are going and for what purpose(s) they are being extorted?

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Bullseye

'Lie of the Year' prize goes to Obama


RT
Fri, 13 Dec 2013 14:47 UTC
obama
© AFP Photo / Jewel SamadUS President Barack Obama

It's probably not the kind of recognition he wanted to receive, but President Barack Obama has been awarded PolitiFact's "Lie of the Year" for 2013.

The infamous prize, handed out annually by the fact-checking website PolitiFact, was given to Obama because of his statements claiming that Americans would be able to keep their health insurance under the Affordable Care Act if they liked their plan.

"If you like your health care plan, you can keep it,"
 Obama said on numerous occasions over the years. Soon after cancellation notices began arriving in American mailboxes this fall - more than four million people have seen their coverage cancelled at this point, largely due to the fact that their coverage did not reach the ACA's minimum requirements - Obama denied that such a promise was made, saying he actually meant that plans could be kept only if they hadn't changed since the health care law was passed.

Obama's explanation didn't pass muster, however, especially since he'd been captured on video promising that health care plans would stay in place at least two dozen times. Facing public backlash, Obama apologized and unveiled a one-year plan to allow insurers keep selling existing plans that are about to be cancelled.

Comment: The U.S. president should deem himself fortunate if he's managed to hold onto even a small percentage of the public trust, given his administration's predatory, destructive and murderous military actions and policies across the globe, not just the lies he tells in the U.S. If he were at all concerned about regaining some semblance of personal credibility in the eyes of the American public ( or the world for that matter), wouldn't there be some indication by now? Perhaps if he stopped cheerleading and implementing policies and military actions that consistently do more harm than good, if he STOPPED lying, his chances of regaining some credibility would increase. Regaining credibility doesn't appear to be his focus or even on the agenda.

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Arrow Down

Kenyan senator caught photoshopping Nelson Mandela tribute picture

Natasha Clark
The Telegraph, UK
Thu, 12 Dec 2013 15:35 UTC
Photoshopped
© FacebookThe doctored image (left) showing Nelson Mandela with Mike Sonko, and (right) Mandela with Muhammad Ali.
A Kenyan senator who posted an image of himself with Nelson Mandela on his Facebook account has been caught out after it was exposed as a photoshopped picture.

The image was posted on Mike Sonko's Facebook page last Friday along with the caption: "A good head and a good heart are always a formidable combination".

The original picture however is Mandela smiling with the boxer Muhammad Ali. The photoshopped image features Mike Sonko wearing a pair of sunglasses, looking toward the camera.

The photo has also been edited to feature an outdoor background.

He tagged 10 other people in the image, which has been shared almost 700 times on Facebook.
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Star of David

Ministers approve 'unconstitutional' bill penalizing left-wing NGOs

Jonathan Lis
Haaretz
Sun, 15 Dec 2013 15:05 UTC
ayelet shaked
© Michael Fattal
Ayelet Shaked at a Knesset committee meeting in May 2013.
A bill to restrict funding to leftist nonprofit organization won the government's approval Sunady, passing the Ministerial Committee for Legislation by an 8-4 vote. The ministers supporting it belonged to Likud, Yisrael Beiteinu and Habayit Hayehudi, while the four opponents were Tzipi Livni (Hatnuah), and Yesh Atid's Yair Lapid, Jacob Perry and Yael German.

The approved version changed two clauses in the original proposal: That a leftist nonprofit would be penalized even if only one member of its board violated one of the clauses for which sanctions are imposed, and that sanctions would be imposed on organizations working against "the Jewish-democratic identity of the state." The latter clause would have included negating, even implicitly, Israel's existence as a Jewish state, or calling for the separation of religion and state.

In an unusual move, it was agreed that the bill would be debated again by the ministerial panel after it passes its preliminary reading in the Knesset.

Under the revised bill, certain nonprofits that receive donations from a foreign entity would be required to pay a 45 percent tax on the contributions. The law would apply to groups that work for or call on others to boycott Israel, stop investing in Israel, or impose sanctions on the state or its citizens. It would also apply to groups calling to prosecute IDF soldiers for war crimes, subsequently exposing such alleged acts, or calling to investigate them.

Comment: The law won't 'turn' Israel into a pariah and an outcast among developed Western countries. It won't 'lump' Israel into some category of countries that undermines free discourse and supports restriction of free expression. Israel has already carved itself into this niche by its own hand.

The Israeli government already stands at the front of the line for all of the above, by its own hand.
One might even say, the line forms behind Israel. All one has to do is examine the well-documented, extensive list of Israeli atrocities, war crimes, restriction, denial and suppression of basic human rights, including freedom to express opinions that run counter to Israeli government ideology and policy;or scrutinize Israel's blatant, ongoing crimes against humanity, clearly portrayed on the world wide web in vivid detail with regard to its illegal military occupation and blockade of Palestine.

It's amazing how Israeli officials can continue to even use words like 'unconstitutional' or 'freedom', considering the horrendous, tyrannical manner in which their government conducts itself in this world on a daily basis.

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Post-It Note

Chile's once and future president, Michelle Bachelet, wins runoff election


The Guardian
Sun, 15 Dec 2013 17:54 UTC
Bachelet wins election after promising profound changes in society in response to years of street protests
Image
© Felipe Trueba/EPAMichelle Bachelet after voting at a polling station in La Reina commune, near Santiago de Chile.
Chile's once and future president, Michelle Bachelet, won Sunday's runoff election after promising profound changes in society in response to years of street protests.

With 90% of the votes counted, Bachelet had an unbeatable 62% to 38% for the centre-right's Evelyn Matthei, who conceded defeat.

A moderate socialist, Bachelet served as president in 2006-2010, then ran the United Nation's women's agency from New York as her successor, conservative Sebastian Pinera, was confronted with widespread demonstrations for change.

She has a new centre-left coalition and promises to finance education with higher corporate taxes, reduce the wealth gap, protect the environment and reform the constitution.

But concerns that turnout would be low had worried Bachelet, who needed a strong mandate to make good on her promises.

"This is an important day and I hope people can come and participate and through their vote give a clear expression of the kind of Chile where they want to continue to live," Bachelet said after voting in her Santiago neighborhood of La Reina. "The changes we need can't be produced through skepticism."
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Eye 1

SOTT Focus: It's devolution baby! Destination nowhere under the stewardship of psychopaths

Doug DiPasquale & Joe Quinn
Sott.net
Mon, 16 Dec 2013 10:33 UTC
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A grand conspiracy to poison the food supply? Not really.
"Diet, injections, and injunctions will combine, from a very early age, to produce the sort of character the authorities consider desirable."

~ Bertrand Russell, The Impact of Science on Society.
Anyone who has taken even a cursory look at what passes for human food these days can't but conclude that it is literally unfit to eat. Aspartame, BPA, fluoride, MSG, preservatives, cloned or irradiated meats, factory farming, GMOs, artificial colors, artificial flavors, nanoparticles - the list of franken-foods that we are asked to happily shove down our throats is ever-expanding and ever-more horrifying. It seems every day there's a different news story about how our food supply is being perverted in ways that take us further and further away from what actually nourishes our bodies, and therefore ever further from being able to think, move and generally function as we should.

One would be forgiven, therefore, for seeing some sort of agenda behind this perversion of our food. How else can we explain the corruption of the most essential ingredient for mental, emotional and physical health, if not by positing a grand conscious conspiracy on the part of the 'elite' to control the global population? A population that isn't able to think and do, isn't able to rebel, right? Surely a population that is addicted to food additives - and even addictive natural foods that alter our perceptions, like gluten, casein and sugar, and make us dependent on these foods - is a population that is easily molded to the machinations of a ruling class.
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War Whore

'Revolution' in Ukraine - Cui bono? Warhawk John McCain addresses demonstrations

Daniel McAdams
RT.com
Mon, 16 Dec 2013 09:40 UTC
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© RTWarhawk John McCain
If there are US-backed groups anywhere seeking the overthrow of their government, you will find John McCain in their midst. He is the Energizer Bunny of interventionism.

Fresh off his trip to Libya, where he was granted an award by the military on the same day the Libyan parliament declared Sharia law, McCain was this weekend on the streets of Kiev.

McCain walked among the protestors, giving encouragement to those who have occupied and trashed government buildings in attempt to overthrow the Ukrainian government. "I am proud of what the people of Ukraine are doing," he said.

Of course, when peaceful antiwar protesters showed up at McCain's own Senate office in 2007, he promptly had them arrested.

For those who may not know, McCain is the long-time chairman of the US government funded International Republican Institute, which spent millions supporting the Orange Revolution 1.0 in 2004. Now McCain (and his IRI) is back for 2.0.

Along with IRI's parent organization, the government-funded National Endowment for Democracy, and USAID, you can find the material and organizational support for the current uprising in Ukraine. Glance at the websites of opposition-oriented "NGOs" like the Institute of Mass Information, Internews, Uniter, and many others and you will see the ubiquitous logos indicating US government funding of the Ukrainian opposition. You can also see the US government funded - and CIA-affiliated - Freedom House among the most prominent opposition supporters in Ukraine.
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HAL9000

Yemeni parliament votes to ban drone attacks


RT
Mon, 16 Dec 2013 06:57 UTC
Drone strike in Yemen
© Reutres/Khaled Abdullah

A tribesman walks near a building damaged last year by a U.S. drone air strike targeting suspected al Qaeda militants in Azan of the southeastern Yemeni province of Shabwa February 3, 2013.
An anti-drone motion was passed by Yemen's parliament on Sunday, banning drone attacks. The symbolic vote comes amid growing anger against US unmanned aircrafts used to kill off Al-Qaeda-linked terrorists. Concerns for civilians are also on the rise.

"Members of parliament voted to stop what drones are doing in Yemeni airspace, stressing the importance of preserving innocent civilian lives against any attack and maintaining Yemeni sovereignty," SABA news agency reported.

The non-binding motion needs to be approved by the president in order to have any political weight. At the moment, the motions passed by the Yemeni parliament are seen as no more than recommendations to the government, Reuters stressed.

Washington has recently increased the intensity of drone strikes in Yemen in an offensive against Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), despite widespread criticism sparked by the fact that strikes are far from "surgical."

Yemen is considered to be AQAP's main foothold of what is deemed the most active wing of the militant network.
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