The Stark Raving Viking

Time to fine, arrest, and prosecute

2009-12-15T00:03:00.003-05:00

Image stolen [from here]

There seems to be a massive conspiracy to cover up, obstruct justice, and to destroy evidence. Why aren't these crimes being investigated for prosecutions?

The below on the Huffington Post [found here]

Bush E-mails Found: 22 Million Missing E-mails From George W. Bush White House Recovered

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PETE YOST | 12/14/09 09:24 PM |

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WASHINGTON — Computer technicians have found 22 million missing White House e-mails from the administration of President George W. Bush and the Obama administration is searching for dozens more days' worth of potentially lost e-mail from the Bush years, according to two groups that filed suit over the failure by the Bush White House to install an electronic record keeping system.

The two private groups – Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington and the National Security Archive – said Monday they were settling the lawsuits they filed against the Executive Office of the President in 2007.

It will be years before the public sees any of the recovered e-mails because they will now go through the National Archives' process for releasing presidential and agency records. Presidential records of the Bush administration won't be available until 2014 at the earliest.

Former Bush White House spokesman Scott Stanzel said the 22 million e-mails already had been recovered while Bush was still in office and that misleading statements about the former administration's work demonstrate "a continued anti-Bush agenda, nearly a year after a new president was sworn in."

"The liberal groups CREW and National Security Archive litigate for sport, distort the facts and have consistently tried to create a spooky conspiracy out of standard IT issues," Stanzel said in a statement.

The 22 million e-mails "would never have been found but for our lawsuits and pressure from Capitol Hill," said Anne Weismann, chief counsel for CREW. "It was only then that they did this reanalysis and found as a result that there were 22 million e-mails that they were unable to account for before."

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said the Bush administration had been dismissive of congressional requests that the administration recover the e-mails. Leahy said it was "another example of the Bush administration's reflexive resistance to congressional oversight and the public's right to know."

The tally of missing e-mails, the additional searches and the settlement are the latest development in a political controversy that stemmed from the Bush White House's failure to install a properly working electronic record keeping system. Two federal laws require the White House to preserve its records.

The two private organizations say there is not yet a final count on the extent of missing White House e-mail and there may never be a complete tally.

Meredith Fuchs, general counsel to the National Security Archive, said "many poor choices were made during the Bush administration and there was little concern about the availability of e-mail records despite the fact that they were contending with regular subpoenas for records and had a legal obligation to preserve their records."

"We may never discover the full story of what happened here," said Melanie Sloan, CREW's executive director. "It seems like they just didn't want the e-mails preserved."

Sloan said the latest count of misplaced e-mails "gives us confirmation that the Bush administration lied when they said no e-mails were missing."

The two groups say the 22 million White House e-mails were previously mislabeled and effectively lost.

The government now can find and search 22 million more e-mails than it could in late 2005 and the settlement means that the Obama administration will restore 94 calendar days of e-mail from backup tape, said Kristen Lejnieks, an attorney representing the National Security Archive.

Stanzel, the former White House spokesman, said that the 94 days of e-mails to be recovered from back-up tapes consist of 61 calendar days already planned in the Bush era and an additional 33 days of recovery that the Obama White House have agreed to recover as part of the settlement of the court case.

Sheila Shadmand, another lawyer representing the National Security Archive, said the Obama administration is making a strong effort to clean up "the electronic data mess left behind by the prior administration."

Records released as a result of the lawsuits reveal that the Bush White House was aware during the president's first term in office that the e-mail system had serious archiving problems, which didn't become publicly known until 2006, when federal prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald disclosed them during his criminal investigation of the outing of CIA operative Valerie Plame.

A Microsoft Corp. document on the Bush White House's e-mail problems states that Microsoft was called in to help find electronic messages in October 2003, more than two years before the problem surfaced publicly. October 2003 was the month that the Justice Department began gearing up its criminal investigation into who in the Bush administration leaked the identity of Plame, the wife of Bush administration war critic Joseph Wilson.

VIDEO: US “Obie Homeless Camps”

2009-12-13T23:33:00.000-05:00

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Text that I posted with above youtube.com video:

There is a homeless camp in Keene, New Hampshire, called "In-tent-city". I saw only one tent, but there is a shelter made out of trees sawed with chainsaws, donated wafer board plywood, scrap aluminum, and other materials. These people have nowhere to go as the homeless shelters are full.

There is insulation used, there is some wiring, a generator used for a couple hours a day, two wood stoves, and mattresses across a dirt floor.

The city is trying to evict them, and the camp made the front page of the local newspaper. A politician owns the land and commercial building used by Hanaford's Supermarket.

The building inspector, health inspector, and other authorities want the homeless people out of the heated shelter and into tents where these people could freeze, get wet, lose fingers, toes, endanger their lives, and/or actually die.

The crooks pulling the puppet strings of our US leaders have ripped the average people off to a point of their having to live in the woods. I call these camps in the US, "Obie Homeless Camps" after Barack Obama.

This is why there are no checks and balances in the US and this is why the dollar is going to completely fail:
http://starkravingviking.blogspot.com/2009/12/government-goon-unions.html

The American KGB

2009-12-12T11:45:00.005-05:00

The above image stolen from [here]

If you think the US President has any real power, think again. Watching the History Channel last night about the sex lives of Presidents with a feature about J. Edgar Hoover just reaffirmed believes I have held. Whomever has the most dirt on others, and is willing to use it, is in charge.

For as long as Hoover was head of the the FBI, he ruled the US. Hoover, for whatever reason, protected the Mafia, and refused to let agents investigate organized crime. The means to murder, to foster prostitution, gambling, roughing people up, fixing investigations, domestic and international spying/espionage, the holding of political prisoners in the US, murder-for-hire, drug dealing, loan sharking, obstruction of justice, racketeering, and the covering up of police, judicial, CIA, attorney, official, and prosecutorial misconduct etc. was all in the realm of the FBI. There is now some entity, or group, that is bigger than the FBI; it might not even be headquartered in the US.

Those in the banking industry, war corporations, and international drug cartels all seem to have a hand in running the USA behind the scenes. These unseen power managers keep stealing every dollar they can until every average citizen is bankrupted. When the sheep finally rise up, there will be special camps waiting. There has never been so many inside agents, informers, and private contracted goons in the US, ever. There has never been such a rise of these sorts of people, combined with the cessation of rights, ever, without the people being subjugated with mass murder being just one of the symptoms of an ongoing process.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy may have gotten in the way of the Mafia/FBI monopoly on the heroin trade by allegedly having CIA and corrupt military bosses set up shell companies to supply advisers in Vietnam, so that military and CIA transports could fly heroin into the US out of Laos. What did Reagan and Ollie North do with cocaine? They allegedly had the CIA and military transports bring as much of the stuff into the US as was possible to fund Black Ops and to make the "important people" rich.

This theme [expanded here with video]

The inner spiderweb of the courts, government, and police: [Goon Unions]

Whom are you writing a blank check to spy on you at will, steal your money and possessions, break up your family at will, and to enslave you? Do you think these behind the scenes people need to be investigated and have their official agencies and puppets subjected to civilian oversight?

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FBI Founder J. Edgar Hoover's Blackmail Files Part 1

text with video:
Here is a documentary on all the people who the Founder of the FBI "Blackmailed", etc. This guy was one "sick puppy". He had control of the US Government for over 40 years. Listen to what this freak did.

J.Edgar Hoover,his oil-friends & his 'non-existant' mafia #1

text w/ video:
Amongst the comments are by Bobby Baker himself.

Mentioned figures vacationing at Murchison's Hotel Del Charro; Hoover,'key-leutenants' of Carlos Marcello, Richard Nixon, 'powerful' people.

D.H.Byrd owned the Texas School Book Depository and founded the Civil Air Patrol which Oswald was a member of.

Seymour Pollack comments on Meyer Lansky of his speaking of their 'immunity'. He and his friends. Marcello and Trafficante were untouchable.

They knew of Hoover's relationship with Clyde Tolson.

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This blogger's email: stevengerickson@yahoo.com

To share this post, click on white envelope below to send to a friend by email

Video: Drunk Boss Exposes Himself at Work?

2009-12-10T20:54:00.002-05:00

Boss of a used car lot, drinking beer and vodka during the day, talks about homosexual sex, farting, and sleeping with his young daughters:

The boss in the above video can't be heard saying he sleeps with his daughters. The line is repeated so it can be heard, and the boss admits saying it, saying, "yes".

[click here for more information, videos, pictures]

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[click here] for full version of the post below:

Bi-polar meltdown?

7-21-09 Mark Lanoue of Marks Motors Inc., Brattleboro, Vermont, talks to employees as in the video, and worse. He yells at his little girls, "Get out!":

Video shot from cellphone 7-27-09, Brattleboro, VT:

Check out video above for a vendor talking about male on male sexual harassment in the workplace involving the "boss" in the below photo. Mark Lanoue grabs male employee's buttocks saying things like, "I want to feel you in me."

From Jezebel, Celebrity, Sex, and Fashion for Women:

2009-12-10T16:11:00.001-05:00

The below [found here], this blogger's post on Alex Kelly [found here]

Rapist Who Fled Country To Ski Bemoans His Tortured Existence

You know, sometimes, we get a little up in arms about some entitled jerkwad who needs to grow up and then we read the papers and realize that there are actually some really, really awful men in the world who we also need to screw with. World, meet Alex Kelly, who is tired of his 15 minutes. Don't know who he is after all? Let us assist in that, after the jump.

Alex Kelly is a rapist. A spoiled, rich, entitled SOB who probably could have gotten whatever sex he wanted from his girlfriend at the time but apparently preferred to get his rocks off by forcing other girls. Oh, and because once wasn't enough, he did it twice in 4 days.

And then, just before his trial started, he fled to Europe and stayed there living on his parents' dime for 8 years, skiing and having a grand old time, because there's nothing like a little vacation to take your mind off the fact that you raped 2 teenage girls and are facing charges back home. But he finally did decide to make it back to Connecticut for the trial, got convicted of the first charge and eventually pled to the second and thankfully went to jail for a good long time.

But, now he's due to be released, and the courts are a little upset that he hasn't yet paid his $10,000 fine. Despite coming from the kind of money that can finance 8 years on the lam in Europe, his parents supposedly aren't helping him with that little pesky fine thing and he's only making $1.75 an hour and he's tired of his 15 minutes because, like, who would hire him now.

But, reading that made me want to scream because I don't feel sorry for him that the shitty things he did got publicized and written about or that he might not be able to use the degree he earned in prison after he was convicted of raping 2 girls because fleeing to avoid prosecution gave him 15 minutes of "fame" he might otherwise not have had. So, asshole, here's about 20 more seconds of publicity and I hope it means you have to work at a demeaning, menial job because someone else saw your rotten fucking face on this blog.

Rapist: Who'd Ever Hire Me? [NY Post]
Fiancee Testifies in Alex Kelly Rape Case [NY Times]
Remember Alex Kelly? [The Stark Raving Viking]
Alex Kelly found guilty of rape [CNN]
Alex Kelly Avoids Trial In 2d Rape [NY Times]
Judge says Alex Kelly can be released from prison on time [Newsday]
Convicted rapist Alex Kelly appears in court [WTNH.com]

Video, Copenhagen, Climate Change, and Dennis Miller

2009-12-09T19:31:00.000-05:00

Dennis Miller on the Fraud that is Global Warming

Text with video:
Dennis explains much of the psychology that has been behind the Global Warming (aka Climate Change) Zealots who have jumped on the bandwagon much like a modern day religion.

Now that the fundamental science behind their beliefs has proved to be completely false, it'll be interesting to see how long it takes the majority to move onto the "Next Great Cause".

Steven G. Erickson response:

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From the "Reason, Hit, & Run" blog:

Print|Email

"Danish Text" Roils Copenhagen Climate Change Conference

Ronald Bailey | December 9, 2009

The Guardian is reporting on an apparently leaked draft agreement among rich nation negotiators at the Copenhagen climate change conference. That agreement outlines a plan for rationing carbon dioxide emissions globally through 2050 and how aid to poor nations aimed at helping them adapt to climate change might be divvied up and monitored. UN documents are always tricky to interpret, but this one has provoked a storm of protest from poor country representatives. As the Guardian reports:

The UN Copenhagen climate talks are in disarray today after developing countries reacted furiously to leaked documents that show world leaders will next week be asked to sign an agreement that hands more power to rich countries and sidelines the UN's role in all future climate change negotiations....

The document was described last night by one senior diplomat as "a very dangerous document for developing countries. It is a fundamental reworking of the UN balance of obligations. It is to be superimposed without discussion on the talks".

A confidential analysis of the text by developing countries also seen by the Guardian shows deep unease over details of the text. In particular, it is understood to:

• Force developing countries to agree to specific emission cuts and measures that were not part of the original UN agreement;

• Divide poor countries further by creating a new category of developing countries called "the most vulnerable";

• Weaken the UN's role in handling climate finance;

• Not allow poor countries to emit more than 1.44 tonnes of carbon per person by 2050, while allowing rich countries to emit 2.67 tonnes.

Developing countries that have seen the text are understood to be furious that it is being promoted by rich countries without their knowledge and without discussion in the negotiations.

"It is being done in secret. Clearly the intention is to get [Barack] Obama and the leaders of other rich countries to muscle it through when they arrive next week. It effectively is the end of the UN process," said one diplomat, who asked to remain nameless...

Few numbers or figures are included in the text because these would be filled in later by world leaders. However, it seeks to hold temperature rises to 2C and mentions the sum of $10bn a year to help poor countries adapt to climate change from 2012-15.

One observation: As economist William Easterly has pointed out, most of the $2.3 trillion in aid that rich countries have poured into developing countries over the past half century has been wasted. Could that be why the negotiators of the "Danish Text" want better monitoring and greater control over whatever climate aid they hand out to developing countries? Just asking.

One further note about that 2.67 tons of carbon each rich person would be allowed to emit in 2050 - currently the average American emits about 20 tons annually and the global average is 4 tons. As I noted in my April, 2008 column, "Are You Stomping the Environment Flat?," the last time ...

Americans emitted per person roughly 2.5 tons of carbon dioxide annually back [was] in 1870. In those days, per capita GDP was $194 per year which would be equivalent to about $2,500 today.

Again, just saying.

See whole Guardian story here.

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This blogger's email: stevengerickson@yahoo.com

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The Demoralizing of Youth, Subversion, a Video:

2009-12-09T15:33:00.002-05:00

The below video tells the basics of a government bent on taking total control.

KGB Agent Tells You What The Illusion Is! (The REAL Illusion)

Text with video:
This amazing interview was done back in 1985 with a former KGB agent who was trained in subversion techniques. He explains the 4 basic steps to socially engineering entire generations into thinking and behaving the way those in power want them to. It's shocking because our nation has been transformed in the exact same way, and followed the exact same steps.

But remember out of the old world...emerges a new world...

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Are the "crazy ideas" of the mid 1990's now being implemented?

"Sustainable Development"

Human beings to be "stacked and packed", by state, in separate and unequal areas.

Agenda 21 for a U.N. Dictatorship pt.1/2

Text with video:
Effective execution of Agenda 21 will require a profound reorientation of all human society, unlike anything the world has ever experienced a major shift in the priorities of both governments and individuals and an unprecedented redeployment of human and financial resources. This shift will demand that a concern for the environmental consequences of every human action be integrated into individual and collective decision-making at every level.
- excerpt, UN Agenda 21

White Cop who likes to shoot Blacks in Back

2009-12-09T00:43:00.005-05:00

[click here] for post about the "Teflon Badge", Robert Lawlor

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Connecticut

Former Hartford police Det. Robert Lawlor speaks outside the Hartford Superior Court after was found not guilty of manslaughter. (BETTINA HANSEN / HARTFORD COURANT / December 8, 2009)

Former Hartford Police Officer Robert Lawlor Not Guilty Of Manslaughter

By ALAINE GRIFFIN and VANESSA DE LA TORRE The Hartford Courant

4:51 p.m. EST, December 8, 2009

HARTFORD - Former Hartford police officer Robert Lawlor was found not guilty today of manslaughter for shooting and killing one man and wounding another in 2005.

The jury returned the verdict in Hartford Superior Court around 1 p.m. today. It began deliberating the case Friday afternoon. Lawlor faced a maximum of 40 years in prison.

Jashon Bryant, 18, was killed on May 7, 2005, when Lawlor shot him and 26-year-old Brandon Henry during a drug investigation. Lawlor testified that he thought Bryant had a gun.

Wailing with grief, Bryant's family and friends rushed out of the courtroom after the verdict was read.

"A policeman has license to kill black people in our neighborhood and get away with it," said Keith Thomas, Bryant's father. "It was my son who got bullets put into him. [Lawlor] should be going to prison."

Judicial marshals stood by inside the courthouse as the verdict was read, and the mood was tense and confrontational. All other court business had been stopped.

Outside the courthouse, Thomas continued to criticize the police, as well as an all-white jury of four women and two men.

"Where do we go from here?" he asked. "We still live in the slavery days. Do what you want to the niggers out here on the street, because you're going to get away with it," he said.

Bryant's mother Cynthia nearly collapsed outside the courthouse as she sobbed with relatives about the verdict.

"It wasn't no justice," she said. "That man killed my son, and he got applauded for it."

Speaking outside the courthouse, Lawlor said he was prepared for the jury to come back with either verdict, but he said he was not willing to apologize.

"To apologize would be to admit some fault," Lawlor said. He said it was the toughest decision he'd ever had to make.

"I did what I had to do that night to ensure the safety of the public," he said.

"This case was certainly a tragedy for Bobby Lawlor and certainly a tragedy for the family of Jashon Bryant," said Michael A. Georgetti, Lawlor's attorney. "My heart goes out to everyone.

"However," he continued, "this case should not have been tried in the first place. The legislature should take a close look at the investigatory grand jury system and the abuses that take place within it." When asked what Lawlor would do next, Georgetti said he did not believe he would go back into law enforcement. "At this point my client is going to get on with the rest of his life."

Two dozen state police troopers and judicial marshals escorted Lawlor down Russ Street to his attorney's office as members of Bryant's family yelled at Lawlor. At one point, the crowd stopped at the intersection of Russ and Oak streets, blocking traffic as Bryant's father Keith Thomas and Bryant's sister Shirin Bryant confronted Lawlor in the middle of the street.

Shirin Bryant talked with Lawlor about how, throughout the trial, they exchanged hellos, and Lawlor agreed. But when asked why Lawlor would not apologize to her, Lawlor said, "I don't want to talk in front of 50 people."

Hartford police then called for backup to clear the traffic, and Lawlor proceeded into Georgetti's office.

Lawlor was working a police sting involving drugs and guns with an agent from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives when, he said, he saw Bryant holding a gun as Bryant got into Henry's car, authorities said. The officers approached the car, and when the vehicle began moving, Lawlor fired his weapon. The bullets struck Bryant and Henry, who sped away from the scene.

Bryant died instantly from two gunshot wounds to the head. Henry, who was shot in the chest, ran away wounded and hid under a porch until police dogs found him. Henry told officers who found him he couldn't believe he "got shot over drugs," according to testimony. Police found cocaine in the vehicle, but they never found a weapon, and a grand jury recommended that charges be brought against Lawlor.

Lawlor did not take the stand, but his grand jury testimony was read into evidence.

Check back to courant.com for updates.

CORRECTION: A previous version of this story posted on Dec. 8 at 2:21 p.m. misidentified Jashon Bryant's sister. Her name is Shirin Bryant .

Copyright © 2009, The Hartford Courant

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A Norwalk, Connecticut, police officer, Matthew Morelli, allegedly committed suicide by holding an AK-47 out by its barrel, yeah right! There are allegations of all sorts of police misconduct including risk of injury to minors and worse. [more]

[click here] for blogger's fair use of copyrighted materials notice

http://judicialmisconduct.blogspot.com/

This blogger's email address: stevengerickson@yahoo.com

Bin Laden not a Bush target?

2009-12-08T00:01:00.002-05:00

Emails Show bin Laden was Bush Talking Point, not Target

Millions of Messages Sent, but Only Handful Mention Al Qaeda Leader

By Margie Burns

“Missing” White House emails retrieved from Bush administration records indicate that top Bush Justice Department officials had little interest in the pursuit of Osama bin Laden or Mullah Mohammed Omar, head of the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), prolonged correspondence has pursued “missing” emails between the Bush White House and Bush’s attorney general, deputy attorney general, associate attorney general, Office of Public Affairs, Office of Legal Counsel and Office of the Inspector General, in the Justice Department.

After a lengthy search, President Obama’s Office of Information Policy, which handles FOIA requests, found emails pertaining to Osama bin Laden or to Mullah Omar only in Attorney General and Office of Public Affairs records from the Bush administration. Alberto Gonzales, previously Bush’s White House counsel and then Attorney General, did not use email.

White House emails from the Bush years, often reported as missing, numbered in the millions. Thousands of emails were sent between the Bush White House and top Justice Department officials, through both government email accounts and private accounts including the Republican National Committee.

FOIA inquiries have produced two emails, totaling four pages, between the White House and Justice under the former administration relating to Mullah Mohammed Omar.

The FOIA requests produced 26 emails, totaling 119 pages, relating to Osama bin Laden.

The first internal reference to Mullah Omar, according to email records, occurred Dec. 7, 2001. White House staffer Edward Ingle forwarded a series of talking points titled “Meet Mullah Omar” from Deputy National Security Adviser James R. Wilkinson to a distribution list of several dozen government personnel in Cabinet offices and the Pentagon including Paul Wolfowitz. Omar has continued to evade capture and is believed to be living in neighboring Pakistan. There is no reference in the emails to Omar dating from the period when he was evading US forces. The next, and only other, mention of Omar’s name was an incidental reference in a Sept. 23, 2004, New York Times article on Afghanistan forwarded the same day by White House staffers.

The 26 emails that mention Osama bin Laden in correspondence between the Bush White House and Justice Department break down as follows:

There were seven email references to Osama bin Laden in 2001. Five occurred in press releases from White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer forwarded by Ingle — one Executive Order, two transcripts of press briefings and two sets of talking points — dating from Sept. 24 to Dec. 17, 2001. Kenneth B. Mehlman, then in the Executive Office Building and later chairman of the Republican National Committee, sent around a copy of Bush’s address to the Joint Session of Congress Sept. 21, 2001, in which Bush briefly mentioned “a person named Osama bin Laden.” The other mention of bin Laden in 2001 comes in an Oct. 15 St. Louis Post-Dispatch article about John Ashcroft and terrorism, forwarded by David Israelite.

One email reference to bin Laden occurred in 2002, also forwarded by David Israelite. Under the heading “Do you remember?,” Israelite distributed to colleagues, including Barbara Comstock, a description of a purported 1987 video clip saying that Oliver North warned Congress about Osama bin Laden in the Iran-Contra hearings but was shut off by then-Sen. Al Gore. This claim had already been debunked by North himself (see www.snopes.com). Comstock went on to chair Scooter Libby’s defense fund in 2007 and in 2008 ran for Congress from Virginia.

There were three email references to bin Laden in 2003 — a press briefing, a forwarded newspaper article, and a December statement from Director of Public Affairs Mark Corallo criticizing a Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse study.

Fifteen emails mentioned bin Laden in 2004. Some were in response to criticism of the White House after disclosure of the famous Aug. 6, 2001, Presidential Daily Briefing, “Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S.” All email references are forwarded press briefings and other press releases, forwarded newspaper articles, or talking points related to bin Laden.

The Department of Justice represents the US government in enforcing the law in the public interest. According to the official definition of responsibilities printed under a photograph of then Attorney General Ashcroft, “Through its thousands of lawyers, investigators, and agents, the Department plays the key role in protection against criminals and subversion ... It represents the government in legal matters generally, rendering legal advice and opinions, upon request, to the President and to the heads of the executive departments. The Attorney General supervises and directs these activities, as well as those of the U.S. attorneys and U.S. marshals in the various judicial districts around the country.”

Either top Justice Department personnel under the previous administration were not a set of bloodhounds, or documents have been suppressed. The email archives contain no indication that inside circles in the Bush White House and DOJ were paying attention to capturing Osama bin Laden or Mullah Omar. Mentions of bin Laden and Omar come strictly in the context of public relations.

There are no records of emails to or from Alberto Gonzales, presumably because he did not have an email account.

Email records searched under FOIA include those of previous Attorney General Ashcroft; Michael Chertoff, previously assistant attorney general in the Criminal Division and later secretary of Homeland Security; former Deputy Attorney General James Comey; former Deputy Attorney Paul McNulty; Philip J. Perry, acting associate attorney general and son-in-law of Vice President Dick Cheney; former Associate Attorney General Jay B. Stephens; and David Ayres, Ashcroft’s chief of staff.

After leaving Justice, Ayres co-founded The Ashcroft Group. His corporate biography describes Ayres thus:

“After the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, Mr. Ayres managed the Department’s crisis operations and restructuring of the FBI to focus on preventing terrorist attacks. As the Attorney General’s principal counter-terrorism advisor, Mr. Ayres oversaw numerous counter-terrorism operations, program reorganizations and policy reforms to prevent additional terrorist attacks.”

Many persons in the Department of Justice and the executive offices of the White House had responsibilities in the “war on terror,” at least according to public pronouncements. Given all the public emphasis on “information sharing” and cooperation among law enforcement and security entities, and the speechifying against a purported “wall” between domestic and foreign information gathering, one would think there would have been extensive correspondence about bin Laden and Omar among others.

Again, either there was such extensive correspondence, and it is being suppressed; or there was no such interest in bin Laden at the highest levels of government, meaning that indeed the previous administration viewed bin Laden chiefly as a public relations tool.

What did they know about bin Laden that they did not share with the public? Were they confident, for undisclosed reasons, that he posed no threat? Why are there no expressions of concern about his whereabouts?

With this plate handed to him, it is a wonder that President Obama’s hair has not turned white already.

Margie Burns is a Texas native who now writes from Washington, D.C. Email margie.burns@verizon.net. See her blog at www.margieburns.com

From The Progressive Populist, December 15, 2009

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[click here] for Fed up with the "Fed"

Jesse Ventura on Howard Stern Radio

2009-12-07T19:21:00.008-05:00

Jesse Ventura has an interesting take on 9/11. There were those who lost their jobs when a couple was able to sneak into the White House to a party, uninvited. Ventura says no one was fired over the 9/11 debacle is because when you fire people there are honest investigations.

Jesse Ventura is going to have a show on Tru Tv and talks about that with Howard Stern.

Ventura tells the heroin and Afghanistan story in the below video.

Jesse Ventura on Howard Stern: HAARP Pt2

Text with video:
Jesse Ventura returns to the Howard Stern Radio Show to promote his new TV series "Conspiracy Theory" debuting tonight on TruTV. He discusses 9/11, HAARP, JFK and other government conspiracies. Tune in tonight and see the premiere episode for yourself!
__________________________
The Secrets of HAARP

HAARP, or the High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program, was developed by international oil companies as a high-powered way to communicate with submarines utilizing extremely low frequency (ELF) radio waves to penetrate the ocean. When the U.S. military realized its potency, it bought HAARP.

Now, some experts say, it also has a more nefarious purpose: to penetrate human skulls and control the minds of its victims.

HAARP is housed in a massive 35 acre, 180 tower complex in Gakona, AK. The antennas can shoot 3.6 million watts of powerful radio waves into the uppermost part of the Earth's atmosphere, heating it up and creating irregularities that cause the ionosphere to bounce the radio signals back to the ground. But many skeptical Alaskans believe that HAARP is actually a sophisticated weapons system that can destroy incoming missiles, manipulate the weather and even control human brains.

D.A.R.P.A.

DARPA - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is an agency of the United States Department of Defense responsible for the development of new ...

DARPA's mission - DARPA as a model - History - Organization

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DARPA - Cached - Similar -

Jesse Ventura returns to the Howard Stern Radio Show to promote his new TV series "Conspiracy Theory" debuting tonight on TruTV. He discusses 9/11, HAARP, JFK and other government conspiracies. Tune in tonight and see the premiere episode for yourself!

Ventura says there was a US Government was found guilty in a civil trial of being involved in the conspiracy to kill Martin Luther King Jr. while OJ Simpson was on trial.

Ventura goes on to say that there were two Oswalds in the JFK assassination. He says that one CIA Oswald was setting up the one to go down for the John F. Kennedy assassination.

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Alex Jones interviews Jesse Ventura:

Jesse Ventura Returns to Alex Jones Tv 1/3:Watch 9/11 Truth on 12/09/2009 at 10pm EST on TruTv

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Youtube videos questioning Jesse Ventura's credibility and the TruTv Conspiracy Theory premises:

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This blogger's email: stevengerickson@yahoo.com

"Behind the Black Robes: Failed Justice"

2009-12-05T12:31:00.001-05:00

a book written by former candidate for Massachusetts Governor and disbarred Attorney, Barbara C. Johnson. She tells it like it is in the below audio interview recorded on youtube, posted at bottom. An attorney can be disbarred and end up in prison if he, or she, acts in your best interest, not in the interest of a corrupt judicial system. Barbara is now in Costa Rica and allegedly a Supreme Court Justice requested a signed copy of her book. Barbara Johnson talks about that and more below.

Last 11 minutes of interview with Barbara Johnson, 12-4-09

Uncut, one and a half hour, 20 minute, Steven G. Erickson interviews Barbara C. Johnson, 12-4-09:

[click here] for OpEdNews.com post on Barbara Johnson, called:
Looters' Pretend Justice System and Barbara C. Johnson

Chris Matthews calls West Point the "Enemy Camp"

2009-12-03T19:50:00.002-05:00

Text w/ video:
After President Obama's Speech to West Point about Afghanistan, Chris Matthews calls West Point the "Enemy Camp"

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Is sending 30,000 more US Troops to Afghanistan like putting meat in a blender? Why is it that as soon as the US had boots on the ground in Afghanistan, the world's largest heroin producer, heroin became cheaper, stronger, and more available on US streets? Are the CIA and high ranking military merely drug lords working for the US President?

[click here] for:

The Mafia, CIA, and George Bush

[click here] for more of my thoughts, with posted videos, regarding the subjects of the Iraq War, the Afghanistan War, being ripped off by the American government and general injustice.

This blogger's email: stevengerickson@yahoo.com

http://thesrv.blogspot.com/

Government Goon Unions?

2009-12-01T04:37:00.006-05:00

Cartoon image stolen [from here]

Service Employees International Union
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Service Employees International Union (SEIU) is a labor union representing about 1.8 million workers^[1] in over 100 occupations in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. The main divisions are health care (around 50% of the union's membership), including hospital, home care and nursing home workers, public services (government employees), and property services (including janitors and security officers). SEIU has over 300 local branches. It is affiliated with the Change to Win Federation and the Canadian Labour Congress. It is based in Washington, D.C., and has seven internal divisions: Communications, Education, Human Rights, International Affairs, Organization, Political, and Research.

SEIU is sometimes referred to as the "purple ocean," easily recognized at political events thanks to the union's purple shirts. The union is also known for its Justice for Janitors campaigns.

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Are most police, court workers, town halls etc controlled by union bosses? [this post may enlighten you]

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Former Norwalk, Connecticut, Mayor Bill Collins talks about police officers plastering police union stickers on his car, his home, drinking and throwing beer bottles on his porch, abducting and beating citizens while wearing ski masks etc. The testimony is from an official Judiciary Committee legislative hearing back in December 1996, but not much has changed. More recently an officer allegedly committed "suicide" by hold an AK-47 out from himself by the barrel, and shot himself dead. The officer who allegedly committed suicide was said to have reported other officers for child pornography, rape, and/or other crimes committed, and obviously can no longer testify as a witness.

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Andrea Wilson was the former assistant head of the Judicial Worker's Union in Connecticut. She exposes the tip of the total corruption iceberg going on in Connecticut, and probably in all states.

Text with video:
Info, CLICK HERE:
http://starkravingviking.blogspot.com...
Are Connecticut Judges being bribed in Cocaine?

Part 2 of the Judicial Branch's THE PUBLIC SERVICE AND TRUST COMMISSION, click here:
http://starkravingviking.blogspot.com...

The above video was shot 12-6-2007 at the Bridgeport, CT, Superior Court.

It is a contination of the first meeting at the Connecticut Supreme Court:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0leWFb...

Andrea Wilson, of Bethel, CT, really sticks her neck out. I don't yet know the name of the judicial branch employee who was 2nd to speak. Andrea is, or maybe now, was, a worker in the court library at Stamford, Connecticut, Superior Court.

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http://thesrv.blogspot.com/

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[click here] for:

The American KGB

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[click here for videos]

The Demoralizing of Youth, Subversion

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The below video advocates buying gold and silver. I watched the video, and I would consider going to check out, or actually live in Paraguay, Uruguay, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Thailand, or possibly another country. Yes, I could consider becoming a "Patriotic US Ex-Patriot"

The Dollar Bubble

text with video:

The Dollar Bubble starring Peter Schiff, Ron Paul, Marc Faber, Gerald Celente, Jim Rogers, and others. Prepare now for the U.S. dollar collapse.

Become a member of the National Inflation Association for free at http://inflation.us

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This blogger's email: stevengerickson@yahoo.com

An Open Letter to President Obama from Michael Moore

2009-12-01T01:48:00.003-05:00

By Michael Moore (about the author)

opednews.com Permalink

P.S. There's still time to have your voice heard. Call the White House at 202-456-1111 or email the President.

Monday, November 30th, 2009

Dear President Obama,

Do you really want to be the new "war president"? If you go to West Point tomorrow night (Tuesday, 8pm) and announce that you are increasing, rather than withdrawing, the troops in Afghanistan, you are the new war president. Pure and simple. And with that you will do the worst possible thing you could do -- destroy the hopes and dreams so many millions have placed in you. With just one speech tomorrow night you will turn a multitude of young people who were the backbone of your campaign into disillusioned cynics. You will teach them what they've always heard is true -- that all politicians are alike. I simply can't believe you're about to do what they say you are going to do. Please say it isn't so.

It is not your job to do what the generals tell you to do. We are a civilian-run government. WE tell the Joint Chiefs what to do, not the other way around. That's the way General Washington insisted it must be. That's what President Truman told General MacArthur when MacArthur wanted to invade China. "You're fired!," said Truman, and that was that. And you should have fired Gen. McChrystal when he went to the press to preempt you, telling the press what YOU had to do. Let me be blunt: We love our kids in the armed services, but we f*#&in' hate these generals, from Westmoreland in Vietnam to, yes, even Colin Powell for lying to the UN with his made-up drawings of WMD (he has since sought redemption).

So now you feel backed into a corner. 30 years ago this past Thursday (Thanksgiving) the Soviet generals had a cool idea -- "Let's invade Afghanistan!" Well, that turned out to be the final nail in the USSR coffin.

There's a reason they don't call Afghanistan the "Garden State" (though they probably should, seeing how the corrupt President Karzai, whom we back, has his brother in the heroin trade raising poppies). Afghanistan's nickname is the "Graveyard of Empires." If you don't believe it, give the British a call. I'd have you call Genghis Khan but I lost his number. I do have Gorbachev's number though. It's + 41 22 789 1662. I'm sure he could give you an earful about the historic blunder you're about to commit.

With our economic collapse still in full swing and our precious young men and women being sacrificed on the altar of arrogance and greed, the breakdown of this great civilization we call America will head, full throttle, into oblivion if you become the "war president." Empires never think the end is near, until the end is here. Empires think that more evil will force the heathens to toe the line -- and yet it never works. The heathens usually tear them to shreds.

Choose carefully, President Obama. You of all people know that it doesn't have to be this way. You still have a few hours to listen to your heart, and your own clear thinking. You know that nothing good can come from sending more troops halfway around the world to a place neither you nor they understand, to achieve an objective that neither you nor they understand, in a country that does not want us there. You can feel it in your bones.

I know you know that there are LESS than a hundred al-Qaeda left in Afghanistan! A hundred thousand troops trying to crush a hundred guys living in caves? Are you serious? Have you drunk Bush's Kool-Aid? I refuse to believe it.

Your potential decision to expand the war (while saying that you're doing it so you can "end the war") will do more to set your legacy in stone than any of the great things you've said and done in your first year. One more throwing a bone from you to the Republicans and the coalition of the hopeful and the hopeless may be gone -- and this nation will be back in the hands of the haters quicker than you can shout "tea bag!"

Choose carefully, Mr. President. Your corporate backers are going to abandon you as soon as it is clear you are a one-term president and that the nation will be safely back in the hands of the usual idiots who do their bidding. That could be Wednesday morning.
We the people still love you. We the people still have a sliver of hope. But we the people can't take it anymore. We can't take your caving in, over and over, when we elected you by a big, wide margin of millions to get in there and get the job done. What part of "landslide victory" don't you understand?

Don't be deceived into thinking that sending a few more troops into Afghanistan will make a difference, or earn you the respect of the haters. They will not stop until this country is torn asunder and every last dollar is extracted from the poor and soon-to-be poor. You could send a million troops over there and the crazy Right still wouldn't be happy. You would still be the victim of their incessant venom on hate radio and television because no matter what you do, you can't change the one thing about yourself that sends them over the edge.

The haters were not the ones who elected you, and they can't be won over by abandoning the rest of us.

President Obama, it's time to come home. Ask your neighbors in Chicago and the parents of the young men and women doing the fighting and dying if they want more billions and more troops sent to Afghanistan. Do you think they will say, "No, we don't need health care, we don't need jobs, we don't need homes. You go on ahead, Mr. President, and send our wealth and our sons and daughters overseas, 'cause we don't need them, either."

What would Martin Luther King, Jr. do? What would your grandmother do? Not send more poor people to kill other poor people who pose no threat to them, that's what they'd do. Not spend billions and trillions to wage war while American children are sleeping on the streets and standing in bread lines.

All of us that voted and prayed for you and cried the night of your victory have endured an Orwellian hell of eight years of crimes committed in our name: torture, rendition, suspension of the bill of rights, invading nations who had not attacked us, blowing up neighborhoods that Saddam "might" be in (but never was), slaughtering wedding parties in Afghanistan. We watched as hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians were slaughtered and tens of thousands of our brave young men and women were killed, maimed, or endured mental anguish -- the full terror of which we scarcely know.

When we elected you we didn't expect miracles. We didn't even expect much change. But we expected some. We thought you would stop the madness. Stop the killing. Stop the insane idea that men with guns can reorganize a nation that doesn't even function as a nation and never, ever has.

Stop, stop, stop! For the sake of the lives of young Americans and Afghan civilians, stop. For the sake of your presidency, hope, and the future of our nation, stop. For God's sake, stop.

Tonight we still have hope.
Tomorrow, we shall see. The ball is in your court. You DON'T have to do this. You can be a profile in courage. You can be your mother's son.

We're counting on you.

Yours,

Michael Moore

MichaelMoore.com

Michael Francis Moore (born April 23, 1954) is an American film director, author, and social commentator. He is widely known for his outspoken, critical views on globalization, large corporations, gun violence, the Iraq War, and the George W. Bush (more...)

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Steven G. Erickson's comment on the above posted on OpEdNews.com under Moore's post:

I agree

I can't say I agree with you, especially early on as I was a flag waving, non-religious, Republican voting citizen. I voted for Bush the first time. We all make mistakes. I do agree with almost 100% of what you have written above this comment, great job.

I believe George H. W. Bush is a drug lord and should be prosecuted as well as his piece of crap sons, both Jeb and Georgie boy.

I am just about fed up. I believe the Afghanistan war of occupation is more about smuggling heroin into the US than anything to do with terrorists. I expound on my thoughts of where the country is going and my thoughts of possibly looking to live outside the country, [91 second video posted here below another video]

I, too, believe that Afghanistan wasn't smart to begin in, isn't smart to stay in. I post my opinion, and posted a video of Daniel Ellsberg and Matt Hoh talking about why we shouldn't be in Afghanistan, scroll down in this post for video.

Many of us here on OpEdNews.com talk about what is wrong. What about a real solution? I think there is one. Simply, if we did away with the monarchy of the courts and had a people's Grand Jury System, there could be an audit of the Fed, Bush wouldn't have pulled his crap, and the banksters would have been in jail cells before they caused as much damage as they did. A youtube.com video explaining a people's Grand Jury System in simple terms.

I either want to do what I can to improve this country, or I am going to find somewhere else to live in the world where honest, hard working citizens aren't the target of the government, the parasites are.

by Steven G. Erickson (8 articles, 0 quicklinks, 93 diaries, 407 comments [111 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Tuesday, Dec 1, 2009 at 12:34:31 AM

This blogger's email: stevengerickson@yahoo.com

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Cindy Sheehan assaulted by Veteran

2009-11-29T12:09:00.011-05:00

Image stolen [from here]

Should your politics, expression of free speech, and who you are determine whether, or not, someone who assaults you is arrested and prosecuted? Should who commits a crime determine whether they are arrested and prosecuted, or not? Shouldn't we have equal justice in America?

Video of latest Sheehan incident [found here]

From Cindy Sheehan's blog:

Sunday, November 29, 2009

"Killing is right and proper" (What happened at Travis AFB, yesterday)

“The Killing is Right and Proper”

Cindy Sheehan

Yesterday, Bay Area CODEPINK and I, started our caravan to Creech AFB in Nevada with a morning peace rally at Travis AFB in Fairfield, CA.

After we got there we were informed that we had to move off the base and were shown by MPs where we could protest. As good warriors for free speech and peace, we groused about it and we were moving forward to where we were supposed to go, when a very angry older man pulled up and started yelling at us to: “Don’t go, I want to counter protest you.” I told him, first of all, he shouldn’t be drinking so early in the morning, and secondly not to worry, that we were going anywhere, we were just moving about 100 yards away. [more from source]

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I met up with some members of Code Pink in Minneapolis Minnesota at the Free Press NCMR event:

http://thesrv.blogspot.com/2008/06/codepink-women-for-peace.html

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Afghanistan War + More Troops = Catastrophe (Full Video)

Brave New Conversations: Daniel Ellsberg and Matt Hoh Pt. 1

Text with video:
Daniel Ellsberg (the man who helped end the Vietnam War when he leaked the Pentagon Papers to the New York Times) and Matthew Hoh (the first known US official to resign in protest of the Afghan war) stopped by our studios for a special Conversation about the war in Afghanistan. As an introduction to Brave New Conversations, we are inviting you and everyone you know to view the first half of this historic conversation (30 minutes) for free! Please join the conversation at http://bravenewconversations.com

Steven G. Erickson responds to the above video, 11-30-2009, 9:30 AM EST:

[click here] for Peter Brewton 1992 video interview. (Scroll down in post)

Text that I supplied with above youtube video as posted on youtube.com:
This video is responding to the one I viewed by Brave New Video, here:
http://starkravingviking.blogspot.com...

I do think a lot of the mess the USA is in started with George H. W. Bush, the CIA, looting of banks, etc back in the 1980's. Pete Brewton, an author, journalist, and journalism professor, talks about George H. W. Bush being a drug lord, organized crime, spook in this 1992 interview:
http://starkravingviking.blogspot.com...
(scroll down for videos)
(scroll down in post for video and more information)

The reason, I, Steven G. Erickson, blog and post videos can be found here:
http://thegetjusticecoalition.blogspo...
It is my core argument that the Connecticut State Police and Court personnel are complicit in promoting prostitution, vandalism, the break up of families, harm children, terrorize citizens, are involved in domestic spying, and there seems to be an official policy to use police informants to aid police in the distribution of heroin and crack cocaine.

More here on the scourge of official drug dealing:
http://thegetjusticecoalition.blogspo...

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http://thegetjusticecoalition.blogspot.com/

This blogger's email: stevengerickson@yahoo.com

[click here] for all of my youtube.com videos

http://thesrv.blogspot.com/

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Video and post sent in by email:

2009-11-28T12:08:00.002-05:00

Federal Reserve = Slavery

For LIBERTY Abolish the FED!

Jake Towne at the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia 11/22/09 END THE FED!!!

Jake Towne's speech on the Federal Reserve at the Constitution rEVOLution Tea Party event in Philadelphia on 11/22/2009.

Towne is an independent candidate for US Congress (Pennsylvania's 15th district) in 2010. You can learn more about his thoughts on the FED here. http://towneforcongress.com/platform-...

Transcript the above video can be read here.

Later that day Jake Towne delivered a thirty minute talk on how the transition to sound money could be accomplished. Transcript of that speech can be read here.

Reasons for US to get out of Afghanistan?

2009-11-27T11:52:00.003-05:00

Image stolen [from here]

Image stolen [from here]

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The below was cut and pasted from [this OpEdNews.com piece]

WHERE DO YOUR CONGRESSMAN'S MILITARY CONTRACTOR CAMPAIGN DOLLARS COME FROM? Go to Maplight.org ("Defense")

Tell your representative to co-sponsor Rep. Barbara Lee's HR 3699, blocking troop escalation in Afghanistan (list of present co-sponsors.) Contact congress member HERE.

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War Veterans Suffer from PTSD

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I think that Phil Donahue's documentary, "Body of War", is a must see. It shows what is wrong with our political system and with the current wars of occupation in Afghanistan and Iraq.

This blogger's email: stevengerickson@yahoo.com

http://thegetjusticecoalition.blogspot.com/

The Mafia, CIA, and George Bush

2009-11-25T12:34:00.003-05:00

Image stolen [from here]

The Mafia, CIA and George Bush (Part 1)

Text w/ video:
Pete Brewton teaches journalism and law at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas. The author of the bestseller The Mafia, CIA and George Bush, he is an award-winning journalist with 15 years reporting experience at the Houston Chronicle and the Houston Post. He practiced law in Houston for five years.

Mr. Brewton holds a Bachelors degree in philosophy from Rice University, a Masters degree in astronomy from New Mexico State University, a Masters degree from the American Graduate School of International Management, and a law degree from the University of Texas. He travels frequently to help with his mothers working cattle ranch in Lampasas County.

Mr. Brewton has won more than 20 reporting awards, including a Katie Award from the Dallas Press Club, first place in public service from the Texas APME, and the PEN Center USA West Literary Award.

He is the author of the book The Mafia, CIA and George Bush, which is based on his investigations of powerful Texas businessmen, politicians, and their connections to the savings and loans scandals of the 1980s. Brewton also explores the relationship that George H. W. Bush had with Ted Shackley, Carl E. Jenkins, Paul Helliwell, Rafael 'Chi Chi' Quintero and Thomas G. Clines.

The Mafia, CIA and George Bush (Part 2)

Text with video:
Carlos "The Little Man" Marcello (February 6, 1910 - March 3, 1993) was an Italian-American mobster who became the boss of the New Orleans crime family, during the 1940s.

By the end of 1947, Marcello had taken control of Louisiana's illegal gambling network. He had also joined forces with New York Mob associate Meyer Lansky in order to skim money from some of the most important casinos in the New Orleans area. According to former members of the Chicago Outfit, Marcello was also assigned a cut of the money skimmed from Las Vegas casinos, in exchange for providing "muscle" in Florida real estate deals. By this time, Marcello had been selected as the "Godfather" of the New Orleans Mafia, by the family's capos and the Commission. He was to hold this position for the next 30 years.

On March 24, 1959, Marcello appeared before a United States Senate committee investigating organized crime. Serving as Chief Counsel to the committee was Robert F. Kennedy; his brother, Senator John F. Kennedy, was a member of the committee. In response to committee questioning, Marcello invoked the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution, in refusing to answer any questions relating to his background, activities and associates.

After becoming President, John Kennedy appointed his brother Robert as U.S. Attorney General. The two men worked closely together on a wide variety of issues including the attempt to tackle organized crime. In March 1961 Attorney General Robert Kennedy, acting on requests which had been first made to the Eisenhower administration by former Louisiana state police superintendent Francis Grevemberg, took steps to deport Marcello to Guatemala (the country Marcello had falsely listed as his birthplace). On April 4, of that year, Marcello was arrested by the authorities and taken forcibly to Guatemala.

It did not take Marcello long to get back into the United States. Undercover informants reported that Marcello made several threats against John F. Kennedy, at one time uttering the traditional Sicilian death threat curse, "Take the stone from my shoe." Some of those who knew him, however, suggested that Marcello did not know enough Italian to utter such a threat. In September 1962, Marcello told private investigator Edward Becker that, "A dog will continue to bite you if you cut off its tail...," (meaning Attorney General Robert Kennedy.), "...whereas if you cut off the dog's head...," (meaning President Kennedy), "... it would cease to cause trouble." Becker reported that Marcello, "clearly stated that he was going to arrange to have President Kennedy killed in some way." Marcello told another informant that he would need to take out "insurance" for the assassination by, ".... setting up some nut to take the fall for the job, just like they do in Sicily."

Just before Kennedy was assassinated on 22 November 1963, Dallas, Texas nightclub owner Jack Ruby made contact with Marcello, and Tampa, Florida boss Santo Trafficante, about a labor problem he was having with the American Guild of Variety Artists (AGVA). Ruby was a longtime associate of the Chicago Outfit and was sent to Dallas to open up rackets for the Outfit, all while under the umbrella of the New Orleans branch of La Cosa Nostra, whose sphere of influence included Dallas.

After Kennedy's assassination, the Federal Bureau of Investigation investigated Marcello. They came to the conclusion that Marcello was not involved in the assassination. On the other hand, they also said that they, "... did not believe Carlos Marcello was a significant organized crime figure," and that Marcello earned his living, "... as a tomato salesman and real estate investor." As a result of this investigation, the Warren Commission concluded that there was no direct link between Ruby and Marcello.

In 1966, Marcello was arrested in New York City after having met with the National Commission. The meeting was reportedly called because Marcello's leadership was being challenged by Trafficante Jr. and Anthony Carolla, the son of Marcello's predecessor as boss of the New Orleans Combine. The Commission had reportedly ruled in Marcello's favor just before the police burst in.

Marcello was then charged with consorting with known felons. After a long, drawn-out legal battle, Marcello was convicted of assaulting an FBI agent whom he had punched in the face on his return to Louisiana. Sentenced to two years in prison, he served less than six months, and was released on 12 March 1971.

The Mafia, CIA and George Bush (Part 3)

Text with video:
Pete Brewton teaches journalism and law at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas. The author of the bestseller The Mafia, CIA and George Bush, he is an award-winning journalist with 15 years reporting experience at the Houston Chronicle and the Houston Post. He practiced law in Houston for five years.

James Addison Baker, III (born April 28, 1930) is an American attorney, politician, political administrator, and political advisor.

He served as the Chief of Staff in President Ronald Reagan's first administration and in the final year of the administration of President George H. W. Bush. Baker also served as Secretary of the Treasury from 1985-1988 in the second Reagan administration, and Secretary of State in the George H. W. Bush administration. He is also the namesake of the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy at Rice University in Houston, Texas.

Baker served in the United States Marine Corps (19521954), attaining the rank of First Lieutenant and later rising to Captain in the United States Marine Corps Reserve.

From 1957 to 1969, and then from 1973 to 1975 he practiced law at the law firm of Andrews & Kurth.

Baker's first wife, the former Mary Stuart McHenry, was active in the Republican Party, working on the Congressional campaigns of George H. W. Bush. Originally Baker had been a Democrat, although he had been too busy trying to succeed in a competitive law firm to worry about politics and he considered himself apolitical. His wife's influence and enthusiasm led Baker to both politics as a career and the Republican Party. He was a regular tennis partner with Bush at the Houston Country Club in the late 1950s. When Bush decided to run for the U.S. Senate in 1969, he supported Baker's decision to run for the Congressional seat he was vacating. However, Baker changed his mind about running when his wife was diagnosed with cancer. She died of breast cancer in February 1970.

Bush then encouraged Baker to become active in politics to deal with the grief, something Bush had done when his daughter, Pauline Robinson (19491953), died of leukemia. Baker became chairman of Bush's Senate campaign in Harris County. Though Bush lost to Lloyd Bentsen in the election, Baker continued in politics, becoming the Finance Chairman of the Republican Party in 1971. The following year, he was selected as the Gulf Coast Regional Chairman for the Richard Nixon presidential campaign. In 1973 and 1974, Baker returned to the full time practice of law at Andrews & Kurth.

He served as Undersecretary of Commerce under President Gerald Ford in 1975 and ran Ford's unsuccessful re-election campaign in 1976. In 1978, Baker ran unsuccessfully to become Attorney General of Texas, losing the election to future Governor Mark White.

The Mafia, CIA and George Bush (Part 4)

Text with video:
Pete Brewton teaches journalism and law at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas. The author of the bestseller The Mafia, CIA and George Bush, he is an award-winning journalist with 15 years reporting experience at the Houston Chronicle and the Houston Post. He practiced law in Houston for five years.

Palmer National of Washington, D.C. is a bank in Washington, D.C.. It was founded in 1983 by Harvey McLean, Jr. (a businessman from Shreveport, Louisiana. It was initially funded with $2.8 million to McLean from Herman K. Beebe. Oliver North used this bank during the Iran-Contra scandal by funneling money from his shell organization, the "National Endowment for the Preservation of Liberty," through Palmer National Bank to the Contras.

Herman K. Beebe, from Louisiana, was a convicted felon and Mafia associate. He had many connections to the intelligence community and was considered godfather of the dirty Texas S&Ls. He initially started his career in the insurance business and eventually banking, specifically; Savings and Loan Banks. Herman Beebe played a key role in the Savings and Loan scandals. Houston Post reporter Pete Brewton linked Beebe to a dozen failed S & L's. Altogether, Herman Beebe controlled, directly or indirectly, at least 55 banks and 29 S & L's in eight states. What is particularly interesting about Beebe's participation in these banks and savings and loans is his unique background. Herman Beebe had served nine months in federal prison for bank fraud and had impeccable credentials as a financier for New Orleans-based organized crime figures, including Vincent and Carlos Marcello. Additionally, according to ABC News Beebe invested money in Robert Tilton.

It was thought that Harvey McLean Jr. funded the startup of Palmer National Bank. It was actually Herman K. Beebe Sr. close friend and business associate of McLean. It has been reported that Beebe had numerous connections to New Orleans Mafia boss Carlos Marcello, associations with Mafia families in New York and California, and links to the Teamsters. Marcello has extensive business ties with fellow Louisiana organized crime figure. Herman Beebe was involved in a scheme in the early 1970s to smuggle guns and explosives to anti-Castro Cubans operating in Mexico.

In 1983 Beebe loaned McLean $2.8 million from his Bossier Bank and Trust in Bossier City, La. McLean owned Paris Savings and Loan of Paris, Texas. The $2.8 million loan provided the majority of the money that was used to initially capitalize Palmer Bank. Palmer National Bank loaned money to individuals and organizations that were involved in covert aid to the Nicaraguan Contras. In February 1985 the National Endowment for the Preservation of Liberty (NEPL), a conservative foundation run by Iran-Contra figure Carl "Spitz" Channell, who, as a director of International Business Communications, became a principal contractor for the OPD (now-defunct Office for Public Diplomacy). Channell secured $650,000 from Palmer National to illegally purchase weapons for the Nicaraguan Contras. Channell was one of the few private citizens convicted of crimes in the Iran-Contra scandal. He was the first to plead guilty to illegal activities in the scandal, and was placed on two years' probation for illegally using NEPL to help Oliver North raise donations for military supplies for the Contras. The money went through NEPL's account at Palmer National to a Banking in Swiss bank account used by North for Contra funding and the secret arms deals with Iran. NEPL raised about $10 million for the Contras after Congress had banned such military aid. In addition, the National Conservative Political Action Committee(NCPAC) borrowed more than $400,000 from Palmer National, as did political action committees for Senator Bob Dole (R-KS.) and then-Rep.Jack Kemp (R-NY).

A 1985 report by the comptroller of the currency listed Palmer as one of 12 national banks that Beebe had possible influence or control over. Further, Beebe has been implicated in the failure of at least 12 savings and loans (including Vernon Savings in Dallas and Continental Savings in Houston). In April 1985, just after Beebe had been convicted of defrauding the Small Business Administration and two months before the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation shut down Bossier, the $2.8 million loan from Bossier that established Palmer was transferred to San Jacinto Savings of Beaumont, Texas. Beebe pleaded guilty to fraud in connection with a loan at State Savings in Dallas and has twice been successfully prosecuted.

The Mafia, CIA and George Bush (Part 5)

Text with video:
In American political jargon, an October surprise is a news event with the potential to influence the outcome of an election, particularly one for the U.S. presidency. The reference to the month of October is because the Tuesday after the first Monday in November is the date for national elections (as well as many state and local elections), and therefore events that take place in late October have greater potential to influence the decisions of prospective voters.

The term came into use shortly after the 1972 presidential election between Republican incumbent Richard Nixon and Democrat George McGovern, when the United States was in the fourth year of negotiations to end the very long and domestically divisive Vietnam War. Twelve days before the election day of November 7, on October 26, 1972, the United States' chief negotiator, the presidential National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger, appeared at a press conference held at the White House and announced, "We believe that peace is at hand." Nixon, despite having vowed to end the unpopular war during his presidential election campaign four years earlier, had failed to either cease hostilities or gradually bring about an end to the war. Nixon was nevertheless already widely considered to be assured of an easy reelection victory against McGovern, but Kissinger's "peace is at hand" declaration may have increased Nixon's already high standing with the electorate. In the event, Nixon outpolled McGovern in every state except Massachusetts and achieved a 20 point lead in the nationwide popular vote. The fighting ended in 1973, but the last soldiers didn't leave Vietnam until 1975.

Since that election, the term "October surprise" has been used preemptively during campaign season by partisans of one side to discredit late-campaign news by the other side.

During the Iran hostage crisis, the Republican challenger Ronald Reagan feared a last-minute deal to release the hostages, which might earn incumbent Jimmy Carter enough votes to win re-election in the 1980 presidential election. As it happened, in the days prior to the election, press coverage was consumed with the Iranian government's decision—and Carter's simultaneous announcement—that the hostages would not be released until after the election.

It was first written about in a Jack Anderson article in the Washington Post in the fall of 1980, in which he alleged that the Carter administration was preparing a major military operation in Iran for rescuing U.S. hostages in order to help him get reelected. Subsequent allegations surfaced against Reagan alleging that his team had impeded the hostage release to negate the potential boost to the Carter campaign.

After the release of the hostages on the same day as Reagan's inauguration on January 20, 1981, some charged that the Reagan campaign made a secret deal with the Iranian government whereby the Iranians would hold the hostages until Reagan was inaugurated, ensuring that Carter would lose the election. Gary Sick, former Naval intelligence officer, and member of the National Security council under Presidents Ford, Carter, and Reagan made the accusation in a New York Times editorial. Initial response from Congress was hostile: House Democrats refused to authorize an inquiry, and Senate Republicans killed a $600,000 appropriation for a probe. Some former hostages sent an open letter demanding an inquiry. In subsequent Congressional testimony, Sick said that the popular media had distorted and misrepresented the accusers, reducing them to "gross generalizations" and "generic conspiracy theorists." Sick presented three main grounds for suspicion: 1. The disappearance of then-CIA Director William Casey during the time he is alleged to have been making the deal. 2. The refusal of both the F.B.I. and U.S. Customs to release records about Cyrus Hashemi, alleged to be working for both the Carter administration and Casey at this time. 3. "There is a considerable body of evidence that military equipment began to flow in substantial quantities from Israel to Iran almost immediately after the Reagan inauguration and that these shipments were known to, and approved, by the new administration."

Bani-Sadr, the former President of Iran, has also stated "that the Reagan campaign struck a deal with Teheran to delay the release of the hostages in 1980," asserting that "by the month before the American Presidential election in November 1980, many in Iran's ruling circles were openly discussing the fact that a deal had been made between the Reagan campaign team and some Iranian religious leaders in which the hostages' release would be delayed until after the election so as to prevent President Carter's re-election." He makes the same charge in "My Turn to Speak: Iran, the Revolution & Secret Deals with the U.S."

The Mafia, CIA and George Bush (Part 6)

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Lloyd Millard Bentsen, Jr. (February 11, 1921 - May 23, 2006) was a four-term United States senator (1971 until 1993) from Texas and the Democratic Party nominee for Vice President in 1988 on the Michael Dukakis ticket. He also served in the House of Representatives from 1949 to 1955. In his later political life, he was Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee and the U.S. Treasury Secretary during the early years of the Clinton administration.

For 16 years, Bentsen worked in the financial sector in Houston. He was successful and became very secure financially. By 1970, he had become president of Lincoln Consolidated, a financial holding institution.

Following his successful primary campaign, which upset liberal incumbent Ralph Yarborough for the 1970 Democratic nomination for a Texas seat in the U.S. Senate, Bentsen resigned all management positions and directorships.

Later that year, Bentsen went on to win the general election when he was pitted against Congressman and future President George H. W. Bush. On election night, Bentsen beat Bush convincingly.

Beginning in 1974, Bentsen campaigned for the Democratic Party's 1976 presidential nomination. In 1974 he visited 30 states and raised $350,000 at a single fundraiser in Texas. Bentsen formally announced his candidacy on February 17, 1975, and in the early part of that year he had already raised over $1 million for his campaign; only George Wallace of Alabama and Henry M. "Scoop" Jackson of Washington had raised more money by that point. Bentsen did not organize effectively on a national level, and many observers believed the freshman senator was running without any real hope of winning the nomination, hoping instead to secure a vice-presidential nomination.

Wallace and Jackson were considered to be the two main contenders for the moderate to conservative voters to whom Bentsen would appeal; early in the campaign few foresaw Jimmy Carter of Georgia also effectively appealing to that group.

By October 1975 Bentsen, generating little national attention or significance in the polls, scaled back his campaign to a limited effort in areas of 8 to 10 states, hoping for a deadlocked convention. In the first state contest Bentsen vigorously contested, he managed only 1.6% of the vote in Mississippi. Two weeks later Bentsen staked the remainder of his campaign and resources in neighboring Oklahoma but finished third with only 12%. A few days later Bentsen shut down his national campaign, staying in the race only as a favorite son in Texas. However, in the May 1, 1976, primary Jimmy Carter won 92 of Texas' 98 delegates. The eventual nominee and president, Carter was later quoted as saying he had expected a much stronger showing by Bentsen but that Bentsen's failure to campaign nationally had ended his hopes.

Firmly ensconced in Washington, Bentsen was overwhelmingly re-elected to the Senate in 1976, 1982, and 1988. He defeated sitting Republican congressmen from "safe" House seats in all four of his Senate elections, including Bush in 1970. In 1976, he ended the career of Alan Steelman of Dallas. In 1982, he defeated James M. Collins of Dallas. In 1988, he defeated Beau Boulter of Amarillo. Bentsen was also on the ballot as the Democratic vice presidential nominee that year; he could seek both offices under the 1960 "Johnson law."

Bentsen was known as a moderate Democrat. His support for abortion rights, the Equal Rights Amendment, and civil rights was balanced by his endorsement of public school prayer, capital punishment, tax cuts, and deregulation of industry. He generally supported business interests in the arena of economic policy and swiftly rose to become a power to be reckoned with on the Senate Finance Committee.

Bentsen's reputation as a moderate Democrat served to alienate him not only from supporters of Ralph Yarborough, but from prominent national liberals, as well. Indeed, during the 1970 Senate race, the Keynesian economist John Kenneth Galbraith endorsed George Bush, arguing that if Bentsen were elected to the Senate, he would invariably become the face of a new, more conservative Texas Democratic Party, and that the long-term interests of Texas liberalism demanded Bentsen's defeat.

The Mafia, CIA and George Bush (Part 7)

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The savings and loan crisis of the 1980s and 1990s (commonly referred to as the S&L crisis) was the failure of 745 savings and loan associations (S&Ls aka thrifts). An S&L association is a financial institution in the United States that accepts savings deposits and makes mortgage loans. The ultimate cost of the crisis is estimated to have totaled around $160.1 billion, about $124.6 billion of which was directly paid for by the US government—that is, the US taxpayer, either directly or through charges on their savings and loan accounts — which contributed to the large budget deficits of the early 1990s.

The concomitant slowdown in the finance industry and the real estate market may have been a contributing cause of the 19901991 economic recession. Between 1986 and 1991, the number of new homes constructed per year dropped from 1.8 million to 1 million, which was at the time the lowest rate since World War II.

The United States Congress granted all thrifts in 1980, including savings and loan associations, the power to make consumer and commercial loans and to issue transaction accounts. Designed to help the thrift industry retain its deposit base and to improve its profitability, the Depository Institutions Deregulation and Monetary Control Act (DIDMCA) of 1980 allowed thrifts to make consumer loans up to 20 percent of their assets, issue credit cards, accept negotiable order of withdrawal (NOW) accounts from individuals and nonprofit organizations, and invest up to 20 percent of their assets in commercial real estate loans.

The damage to S&L operations led Congress to act, passing a bill in September 1981 allowing S&Ls to sell their mortgage loans and use the cash generated to seek better returns; the losses created by the sales were to be amortized over the life of the loan, and any losses could also be offset against taxes paid over the preceding 10 years. This all made S&Ls eager to sell their loans. The buyers—major Wall Street firms—were quick to take advantage of the S&Ls' lack of expertise, buying at 60%-90% of value and then transforming the loans by bundling them as, effectively, government-backed bonds (by virtue of Ginnie Mae, Freddie Mac, or Fannie Mae guarantees). S&Ls were one group buying these bonds, holding $150 billion by 1986, and being charged substantial fees for the transactions.

In 1982, the Garn-St Germain Depository Institutions Act was passed and increased the proportion of assets that thrifts could hold in consumer and commercial real estate loans and allowed thrifts to invest 5 percent of their assets in commercial loans until January 1, 1984, when this percentage increased to 10 percent.

A large number of S&L customers' defaults and bankruptcies ensued, and the S&Ls that had overextended themselves were forced into insolvency proceedings themselves.

The US government agency FSLIC, which at the time insured S&L accounts in the same way the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation insures commercial bank accounts, then had to repay all the depositors whose money was lost. From 1986 to 1989, FSLIC closed or otherwise resolved 296 institutions with total assets of $125 billion. An even more traumatic period followed, with the creation of the Resolution Trust Corporation in 1989 and that agencys resolution by mid-1995 of an additional 747 thrifts.

A Federal Reserve Bank panel stated the resulting taxpayer bailout ended up being even larger than it would have been because moral hazard and adverse selection incentives that compounded the systems losses.

There also were state-chartered S&Ls that failed. Some state insurance funds failed, requiring state taxpayer bailouts.

Silverado Savings and Loan collapsed in 1988, costing taxpayers $1.3 billion. Neil Bush, son of then Vice President of the United States George H. W. Bush, was Director of Silverado at the time. Neil Bush was accused of giving himself a loan from Silverado, but he denied all wrongdoing.

The US Office of Thrift Supervision investigated Silverado's failure and determined that Neil Bush had engaged in numerous "breaches of his fiduciary duties involving multiple conflicts of interest." Although Bush was not indicted on criminal charges, a civil action was brought against him and the other Silverado directors by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation; it was eventually settled out of court, with Bush paying $50,000 as part of the settlement, the Washington Post reported.

As a director of a failing thrift, Bush voted to approve $100 million in what were ultimately bad loans to two of his business partners. And in voting for the loans, he failed to inform fellow board members at Silverado Savings & Loan that the loan applicants were his business partners.

The Mafia, CIA and George Bush (Part 8)

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Pete Brewton teaches journalism and law at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas. The author of the bestseller The Mafia, CIA and George Bush, he is an award-winning journalist with 15 years reporting experience at the Houston Chronicle and the Houston Post. He practiced law in Houston for five years.

Mr. Brewton holds a Bachelors degree in philosophy from Rice University, a Masters degree in astronomy from New Mexico State University, a Masters degree from the American Graduate School of International Management, and a law degree from the University of Texas. He travels frequently to help with his mothers working cattle ranch in Lampasas County.

Mr. Brewton has won more than 20 reporting awards, including a Katie Award from the Dallas Press Club, first place in public service from the Texas APME, and the PEN Center USA West Literary Award.

He is the author of the book The Mafia, CIA and George Bush, which is based on his investigations of powerful Texas businessmen, politicians, and their connections to the savings and loans scandals of the 1980s. Brewton also explores the relationship that George H. W. Bush had with Ted Shackley, Carl E. Jenkins, Paul Helliwell, Rafael 'Chi Chi' Quintero and Thomas G. Clines.

The Mafia, CIA and George Bush (Part 9)

text with video:
Silverado Savings and Loan collapsed in 1988, costing taxpayers $1.3 billion. Neil Bush, son of then Vice President of the United States George H. W. Bush, was Director of Silverado at the time. Neil Bush was accused of giving himself a loan from Silverado, but he denied all wrongdoing.

The US Office of Thrift Supervision investigated Silverado's failure and determined that Neil Bush had engaged in numerous "breaches of his fiduciary duties involving multiple conflicts of interest." Although Bush was not indicted on criminal charges, a civil action was brought against him and the other Silverado directors by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation; it was eventually settled out of court, with Bush paying $50,000 as part of the settlement, the Washington Post reported.

As a director of a failing thrift, Bush voted to approve $100 million in what were ultimately bad loans to two of his business partners. And in voting for the loans, he failed to inform fellow board members at Silverado Savings & Loan that the loan applicants were his business partners.

Neil Bush paid a $50,000 fine and was banned from banking activities for his role in taking down Silverado, which cost taxpayers $1.3 billion. A Resolution Trust Corporation Suit against Bush and other officers of Silverado was settled in 1991 for $26.5 million.

As a result, the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement Act of 1989 (FIRREA) dramatically changed the savings and loan industry and its federal regulation. The highlights of the legislation, signed into law August 9, 1989, were: 1. The Federal Home Loan Bank Board (FHLBB) and the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation (FSLIC) were abolished.
2. The Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS), a bureau of the Treasury Department, was created to charter, regulate, examine, and supervise savings institutions.
3. The Federal Housing Finance Board (FHFB) was created as an independent agency to oversee the 12 federal home loan banks (also called district banks).
4. The Savings Association Insurance Fund (SAIF) replaced the FSLIC as an ongoing insurance fund for thrift institutions (like the FDIC, the FSLIC was a permanent corporation that insured savings and loan accounts up to $100,000). SAIF is administered by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.
5. The Resolution Trust Corporation (RTC) was established to dispose of failed thrift institutions taken over by regulators after January 1, 1989. The RTC will make insured deposits at those institutions available to their customers.
6. FIRREA gives both Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae additional responsibility to support mortgages for low- and moderate-income families.

While not part of the savings and loan crisis, many other banks failed. Between 1980 and 1994 more than 1,600 banks insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) were closed or received FDIC financial assistance.

From 1986 to 1995, the number of US federally insured savings and loans in the United States declined from 3,234 to 1,645. This was primarily, but not exclusively, due to unsound real estate lending.

The market share of S&Ls for single family mortgage loans went from 53% in 1975 to 30% in 1990. US General Accounting Office estimated cost of the crisis to around USD $160.1 billion, about $124.6 billion of which was directly paid for by the US government from 1986 to 1996. That figure does not include thrift insurance funds used before 1986 or after 1996. It also does not include state run thrift insurance funds or state bailouts.

The US government ultimately appropriated 105 billion dollars to resolve the crisis. After banks repaid loans through various procedures, there was a net loss to taxpayers of approximately $124 billion dollars by the end of 1999.

The concomitant slowdown in the finance industry and the real estate market may have been a contributing cause of the 19901991 economic recession. Between 1986 and 1991, the number of new homes constructed dropped from 1.8 to 1 million, the lowest rate since World War II.

Some commentators believe that a taxpayer-funded government bailout related to mortgages during the savings and loan crisis may have created a moral hazard and acted as encouragement to lenders to make similar higher risk loans during the 2007 subprime mortgage financial crisis.

The Mafia, CIA and George Bush (Part 10)

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Gulf and Western Industries, Inc., for a number of years known as Gulf+Western, was an American conglomerate.

Gulf and Western's prosaic origins date to a manufacturer named Michigan Bumper Co. founded in 1934, though Charles Bluhdorn treated his 1958 takeover of what was then Michigan Plating & Stamping as its "founding" for the purpose of later anniversaries.

Under Bluhdorn the company diversified widely, leaving behind things like stamping metal bumpers not only for communications properties like Paramount Pictures (1966) but also clothing (Kayser-Roth, which happened to own the Miss Universe pageant because it had bought Pacific Mills, which had invented the pageant to sell its Catalina brand of swimsuits), APS Holding Corp. auto parts, New Jersey Zinc (1966), the South Puerto Rico Sugar Company in La Romana, Dominican Republic (1967), the Associates First Capital Corporation, a financial services company (1968), Consolidated Cigars (1968), Stax Records (1968), Sega (1969), Simon and Schuster (1975), Madison Square Garden and by extension the New York Rangers and New York Knicks (1977) and Simmons Bedding Company (1979).

The company also purchased Desilu Productions from Lucille Ball in 1967, which included most of Ball's television product, as well as such properties as Star Trek and Mission: Impossible (It and its successor companies would make millions on both series over the following decades with such projects as Star Trek's various hit follow-up TV projects and films, beginning in the late 1970s). On June 5, 1980, Gulf+Western unveiled an electric car, powered by a zinc chloride battery that would hold a charge for several hours and permit speeds of up to 60 miles per hour. By year's end, however, the U.S. Department of Energy (which had invested $15 million in the project) reported that the battery had 65% less power than predicted and could be recharged only by highly trained personnel.

In 1983 Bluhdorn died of a heart attack on a plane en route home from the sugar plantation to New York headquarters, and the board bypassed president David Judelson and named senior vice president Martin S. Davis, who had come up through Paramount Pictures, as the new Chief Executive Officer.

Davis slimmed down the company's wilder diversifications and focused it on entertainment, and sold all of its non-entertainment and non-publishing assets. In 1981, former officials of Gulf and Western's Natural Resources Division led a buyout of New Jersey Zinc and made it a subsidiary of Horsehead Industries, Inc. In 1983, Gulf & Western sold Consolidated Cigar Corporation to five of its senior managers. Also in 1983, Gulf+Western sold the U.S. assets of Sega to pinball manufacturer Bally Manufacturing Corporation. The Japanese assets of Sega were purchased by a group of investors led by David Rosen and Hayao Nakayama. South Puerto Sugar was sold to an investment group including The Fanjul Brothers in 1984. In 1985, APS auto parts, Kayser-Roth clothing and Simmons Bedding were sold to the Wickes Companies. The company restructured, subsequently renamed itself Paramount Communications in 1989, and promptly sold The Associates to the Ford Motor Company. * The Talking Heads song "Puzzling Evidence" which is about the commercialization of America mentions the conglomerate in the line "With your Gulf and Western and your Mastercard, got what you wanted and lost what you had". * In Mel Brooks' 1976 film, Silent Movie, the main characters make a colorized silent film to prevent "Engulf & Devour" from taking over a film studio. This was in reference to the Gulf+Western takeover of Paramount Pictures in 1966. * In the Animaniacs episode "This Pun For Hire", a rare and valuable statue serves as a plot device - when one of the characters tries to run off with it, she says that she "claims it in the name of Gulf+Western", and Yakko concludes she works for Paramount. By the time the episode aired, G+W had ceased to exist.

The Mafia, CIA and George Bush (Part 11)

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The below re-posted [from here]

The War on Drugs - a Bush Family Production

The World's #1 Drug Dealer of All Time

From 1976 to 1979, Papa Bush directed the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). In 1979 he made his first try to become President of the United States. He lost the Republican Party nomination to Ronald Reagan who asked Bush to be his Vice-President. Bush became Vice- President in 1980 and headed the National Security Council's "Crisis Management Team". Mr. Bush was busy during his term as Vice-President becoming the largest crack cocaine dealer in the World.

After becoming the World's #1 Drug Dealer during his term in office as Vice-President, in 1988, George Bush was elected President. The San Jose Mercury News in August, 1996, in an expose by reporter Gary Webb based on court records described how the Nicaraguan Contras with the backing of the Reagan-Bush administration, flooded the streets of Los Angeles with crack cocaine during 1983-87, supplying gangs like the Crips and Bloods. The Executive Intelligence Review (EIR) reported on September 20, 1996 that this was done while George Bush was overseeing the entire operation along with Oliver North (of Iran-Contra fame). As a direct result, there were 100,000 to 200,000 people imprisoned in America on drug charges.

An article, "CIA Genl. Counsel: Contra Drug Records May Not Exist" published in The New Federalist on September 30, 1996 reports that Jeff Smith, General Counsel of the CIA has "acknowledged--for the first time-- that records of such activities may not exist, for the reason that U.S. government officials may have been involved in privatized, 'off-line' secret operations."
The article goes on to say that the activities of Oliver North, Richard Secord, Felix Rodriguez, and others, were all supervised by George Bush and that the operation was actually run outside the "official" CIA through private networks and contractors. Apparently, such covert operations are permitted under the 1981 Executive Order 12333, and under National Security Decision Directives 2, 3, and others.
At a Washington, D.C. press conference on Sept. 19, 1996, EIR Washington bureau chief Bill Jones, Law Editor Edward Spannuas, Counterintelligence Editor Jeffery Steinberg, and EIR analyst Gail Billington, released a 120-page special multi-client report, 'Would a President Bob Dole Prosecute Drug Super-Kingpin George Bush?' which documents the role of the former Vice President and President, in overseeing the biggest cocaine-smuggling operations of the 1980s. Steinberg reviewed many of Reagan Presidential Executive Orders and National Security Decision Directives, many now declassified, that placed Vice President Bush -- not the CIA -- directly in charge of the Contra operation. Although active and former CIA personnel were involved in the Contra supply operations, Steinberg documented that it was senior Bush aides, including ex-CIA official Donald Gregg, ex-CIA officer Felix Rodriguez, and Marine Lt. Col. Oliver North, who administered the secret program and who had first-hand knowledge of the illegal drug trafficking by Contra pilots.

'The evidence is overwhelming,' Steinberg concluded, 'that the Contras were flooding the United States with illegal drugs, to finance the war in Central America; and that Vice President George Bush sat on top.'' And who was his right-hand man? Dick Cheney! Scary, isn't it?

During his term of office he granted 6 pardons to former officials in Watergate scandals. Bush officially began his "War on Drugs" on September 5, 1989, just two years after supplying street gangs in the United States with millions of dollars in crack cocaine. He outlined the Federal Government's strategy for eliminating drug use when he gave the first prime time address of his presidency. His budget asked for $7.9 billion from Congress, a $2.2 billion increase from the previous budget. Of that, 70% would go to law enforcement, which included $1.6 billion for jails. However, only 30% went to prevention, education, and treatment.

Bush chose to wage his war by primarily focusing on demand in the United States, which meant arresting the drug user (not the trafficker) rather than focusing on prevention, education and treatment, or interdiction (trying to reduce the supply of drugs). Since the federal government has very limited police power, Bush decided to wage this war through by coercing the states. States that did not comply with the Bush plan would be penalized with a reduction in funding from the federal government.

A bill was passed in December, 1990 that coerced the states into suspending the driver's licenses and revoking government permits and benefits including college loans of those who were convicted of drug crimes. If the states did not enact the legislation mandated by this federal bill, there would be a significant reduction of federal aid to their highways, beginning in 1993. This is America? No. It is Papa George Bush’s view of America – not unlike a dictatorship. By coercing the states into doing the brunt of the fighting, without providing them with adequate funds, the federal government was forcing them to spend more money out of their own budgets to fight Bush's “War on Drugs” – a “war” he had created himself by supplying the drugs!

Bush used forfeiture, or confiscation of property that "the government believed to be drug related". This law was used to confiscate cars, currency and land. The seized property is then auctioned off to raise money for both the state and federal governments. Forfeiture doesn't even require a trial, let alone a conviction. It's Good Old Russia right here in America and nobody is saying anything!

Forfeiture laws operate under assumed guilt. In 1989, the United States government took in over $1 billion due to forfeiture. Jails soon became overcrowded. Drug arrests rose almost 69%. By 1992 there were more people in federal jails for drug charges than there were for all crimes in 1980, causing Chief Justice of the Supreme Court William Rehnquist to complain that there were too many arrests. Despite the $1.6 billion that had gone to build new federal prisons, there was a logjam due to Bush's focus on the drug user; twice as many people were arrested for possession than for selling. This overcrowding meant that sentences had to be shortened, usually of violent offenders since drug offenders received mandatory sentences.

The drug war was a dismal failure in its dealings with the poor and it was planned that way. Bush glutted the streets of America with drugs. Then he started his "War on Drugs", not on the traffickers, but on the users, the same users that for whom he had provided the drugs. He made sure people were put in jail with mandatory sentencing, deprived them of personal property through forfeiture, and labeled them a "drug user" by society. Thanks to Bush many corporations and businesses in American rob our citizens of their basic right to privacy by requiring drug testing before employment. Worst of all, he made the States pay for it. It is the way they divide and conquer the American people.

No effort was made to rehabilitate or treat those convicted of drug related crimes. If Bush actually wanted to reduce demand, he would have placed more emphasis on treatment. Bush ignored treatment, education and research. Congress felt that his initial budget for treatment was so inadequate that it added $1.1 billion for treatment, prevention, and education. By 1992, the amount for treatment alone had grown to $1.9 billion. Not enough was known about drug abuse and addiction to treat it. This is the father of the man who claims to be a “compassionate Conservative”, an oxymoron is there ever was one.

Papa Bush's War on Drugs was a racist attack on the poor who by 1992 used more cocaine, heroin, and crack than when the War on Drugs began. One million people still smoked crack by the end of the Bush administration. The crime rate actually increased during the war on drugs. After a year of fighting drugs in Washington, D.C., his drug czar admitted failure. Drug use did not decline, and the homicide rate remained steady.

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Text posted with video:

SvenVonErick
October 23, 2008

(less info)

Explanation:
http://starkravingviking.blogspot.com...

I, Steven G. Erickson, had filmed Vermont Attorney General candidate Charlotte Dennett and Vincent Bugliosi from the current Attorney General's office around the streets of Montpelier, VT, as they were asking about prosecuting US President George W. Bush for murder and about voting.

Whether or not you live in Vermont, if you want to see Bush prosecuted I advise getting in touch with people in Vermont to get out in support of Progressive candidate Dennett.

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[click here] to view Steven G. Erickson videos posted on Youtube.com

[click here] to go to most recent Stark Raving Viking blog posts

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[click here] for:

Kill a cop and not get in trouble if you have powerful family connections?

John M. Walker Jr.

The Start of the Big Plan?

2009-11-25T08:54:00.002-05:00

NSA eavesdropping more widespread than reported

By Wayne Madsen (about the author)

opednews.com Permalink

Reprinted from Online Journal

National Security Agency (NSA) sources have reported to WMR that the signals intelligence agency's warrantless wiretapping program was more widespread than originally reported and that it began shortly after the 2001 inauguration of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney,some six months prior to the 9/11 attacks.

Former Qwest CEOJoseph Nacchio reported that NSA requested that his firm take part in the warrantless wiretapping program in a February 27, 2001, meeting but that he told NSA that Qwest would refuse to participate. AT&T, BellSouth, SBC, Sprint, and Verizon all agreed to participate in the wiretapping program, which resulted in such a large database of intercepted calls, faxes, and e-mails, that NSA recently announced it was building a huge 1 million square feet data warehouse at a cost of $1.5 billion at Camp Williamsin Utah, as well as another massive data warehouse in San Antonio. The cover story is that the warehouses are part of NSA's new Cyber Command responsibilities. NSA sources have told WMR that the warehouses are to store the massive amount of intercepts collected by the ongoing Terrorist Surveillance Program, an above top secret program once code named STELLAR WIND by the NSA.

Nacchio was later convicted on 19 counts of insider trading of Qwest stock and sentenced to six years in federal prison. Nacchio maintained that his prosecution and conviction was in retaliation for his refusal to participate in the illegal NSA surveillance program. NSA also canceled a major contract with Qwest over its refusal to wiretap calls without warrants.

President Obamaordered his Justice Department's attorneys to press U.S. Judge Vaughn Walker to toss out a lawsuit brought against the Bush administration's warrantless wiretap program, details of which were revealed by AT&T engineer Mark Klein. Our NSA sources revealed that Obama has asked the lawsuit to be dismissed because the warrantless wiretapping program is as robust in collecting massive amounts of intercepted communications without a warrant under Obama as it didduring the Bush-Cheney administration. Obama also backs immunity from lawsuits for telecommunications companies participating in the illegal surveillance operations. The Justice Department is using the draconian State Secrets Privilege to battle against lawsuits against the telecommunication carriers.

NSA collects domestic communications by installing specialized eavesdropping equipment, including traffic analyzers,at over 25 telecommunications facilities around the United States, including where Klein worked at AT&T'scentral office in theSBC Buildingat 611 Folsom Street in San Francisco and at major switching facilities in Bridgeton, Missouri; San Jose; San Diego; Seattle; Los Angeles (1150 South Olive Street, as well asthe Beverly Hills central office that targets the area's rich and famous celebrities); Chicago (227 West Monroe Street); New York (Lower Manhattan at 33 Thomas Street, 375 Pearl Street,and 811 10th Avenue); Northern Virginia/Washington, DC; Miami; Atlanta (Midtown Center); Houston; Minneapolis; Detroit (1365 Cass Avenue); Jacksonville, Florida; Philadelphia; Kansas City; Dallas (One AT&T Plaza); Memphis; Pittsburgh; Bedminster, New Jersey; Boston; Nashville (333 Commerce Street); Baltimore; Cleveland (Huron Road Building); and Denver.

One of the first targets of the NSA warrantless wiretapping program in February 2001, a few weeks after Bush's inauguration, was Iraqi-Americans and other Arab-Americans, as well asresident aliens from Arab countries in the United States. The warrantless wiretapping of the Arab-American community coincided with “surge operations” directed by NSA against the communications of Saddam Hussein and his top government officials in Iraq and other countries.

The NSA warrantless wiretapping program soon grew to include millions of Americans, including elected and appointed government officials, federal judges, anti-Bush celebrities and clergy, and even intelligence and law enforcement officials. WMR previously reported that a joint NSA-CIA database code-named FIRST FRUITS maintained a database on the intercepted phone calls of U.S. journalists.

WMR previously reported that NSA “fishnet” surveillance was used in the take down of New York Governor Eliot Spitzer and Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, as well as political dirt gathering directed against New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, Secretary of State Colin Powell, and then-Senator Joe Biden. There is also every indication that NSA intercepted the phone calls and emails of the junior senator from Illinois -- one Barack Obama.

http://www.waynemadsenreport.com

For more, visit Wayne Madsen Report, which its publisher, Wayne Madsen, keeps refreshed with more news than any one reporter has a right to.

Wayne Madsen is an (more...)

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http://thegetjusticecoalition.blogspot.com/

Racism, Dirty Tricks, Surveillance, and Official Drug Dealing

2009-11-24T10:43:00.003-05:00

Martin Luther King Jr. pic stolen [from here]

[click here] for excerpt:
In a period of two months, recently declassified documents on Operation Lantern Spike indicate that 240 military personnel were assigned in the two months of March and April to conduct surveillance on Dr. King. The documents further reveal that 16,900 man-hours were spent on this assignment.

It's hard to know where we are currently in the USA, unless we examine where we have been.

What does Oliver North have to do with the George W. Bush regime? [answer]

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[click here] for:

Louis Giuffrida

Excerpt:
Giuffrida and North worked to refine and implement Operation GARDEN PLOT, a plan to suspend the Constitution in the event of a national crisis, such as widespread internal opposition to a U.S. military invasion abroad. GARDEN PLOT was actually implemented during LA's Rodney King Riots in the form of street curfews as well as in recent anti-globalization protests.

In 1983, at the annual meeting of the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences, FEMA's General Frank S. Salcedo recommended expanding FEMA's power even further. As he saw it at least 100,000 U.S. citizens, from survivalists to tax protesters, were serious threats to civil security. Salcedo saw FEMA's new frontier as the protection of industrial and government leaders from assassination, and the protection of civil and military installations from sabotage or attack. Notable for stations such as this one, Salcedo warned against dissident groups gaining access to U.S. opinion or a global audience in times of crisis.

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[click here] for a post on Rex 84:

Excerpt:
Rex 84, short for Readiness Exercise 1984, was a plan by the United States federal government to test their ability to detain large numbers of American citizens in case of massive civil unrest or national emergency. Exercises similar to Rex 84 happen periodically.[1] Plans for roundups of persons in the United States in times of crisis are constructed during periods of increased political repression such as the Palmer Raids and the McCarthy Era. For example, from 1967 to 1971 the FBI kept a list of persons to be rounded up as subversive, dubbed the "ADEX" list.[2]

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[click here] for:

Palmer Raids

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America's Drug Crisis: Brought to You by the CIA

By Dave Lindorff 10-28-2009 (about the author)

opednews.com Permalink

Next time you see a junkie sprawled at the curb in the downtown of your nearest city, or read about someone who died of a heroin overdose, just imagine a big yellow sign posted next to him or her saying: “Your Federal Tax Dollars at Work.”

Kudos to the New York Times, and to reporters Dexter Filkins, Mark Mazzetti and James Risen, for their lead article today reporting that Ahmed Wali Karzai, brother of Afghanistan's stunningly corrupt President Hamid Karzai, a leading drug lord in the world's major opium-producing nation, has for eight years been on the CIA payroll.

Okay, the article was lacking much historical perspective (more on that later), and the dead hand of top editors was evident in the overly cautious tone (I loved the third paragraph, which stated that “The financial ties and close working relationship between the intelligence agency and Mr. Karzai raises significant questions about America's war strategy, which is currently under review at the White House.” Well, duh! It should be raising questions about why we are even in Afghanistan, about who should be going to jail at the CIA, and about how can the government explain this to the over 1000 soldiers and Marines who have died supposedly helping to build a new Afghanistan). But that said, the newspaper that helped cheerlead us into the pointless and criminal Iraq invasion in 2003, and that prevented journalist Risen from running his exposé of the Bush/Cheney administration's massive warrantless National Security Agency electronic spying operation until after the 2004 presidential election, this time gave a critically important story full timely play, and even, appropriately, included a teaser in the same front-page story about October being the most deadly month yet for the US in Afghanistan.

What the article didn't mention at all is that there is a clear historical pattern here. During the Vietnam War, the CIA, and its Air America airline front-company, were neck deep in the Southeast Asian heroin trade. At the time, it was Southeast Asia, not Afghanistan, that was the leading producer and exporter of opium, mostly to the US, where there was a resulting heroin epidemic.

A decade later, in the 1980s, during the Reagan administration, as the late investigative journalist Gary Webb so brilliantly documented first in a series titled “Dark Alliance” in the San Jose Mercury newspaper, and later in a book by that same name, the CIA was deeply involved in the development of and smuggling of cocaine into the US, which was soon engulfed in a crack cocaine epidemic—one that continues to destroy African American and other poor communities across the country. (The Times' role here was sordid—it and other leading papers, including the Washington Post and Los Angeles Times—did despicable hit pieces on Webb shamelessly trashing his work and his career, and ultimately driving him to suicide, though his facts have held up.) In this case, Webb showed that the Agency was actually using the drugs as a way to fund arms, which it could use its own planes to ferry down to the Contra forces it was backing to subvert the Sandinista government in Nicaragua at a time Congress had barred the US from supporting the Contras.

And now we have Afghanistan, once a sleepy backwater of the world with little connection to drugs (the Taliban, before their overthrow by US forces in 20001, had, according to the UN, virtually eliminated opium production there), but now responsible for as much as 80 percent of the world's opium production—this at a time that the US effectively finances and runs the place, with an occupying army that, together with Afghan government forces that it controls, outnumbers the Taliban 12-1 according to a recent AP story.

The real story here is that where the US goes, the drug trade soon follows, and the leading role in developing and nurturing that trade appears to be played by the Central Intelligence Agency.

Your tax dollars at work.

The issue at this point should not be how many troops the US should add to its total in Afghanistan. It shouldn't even be over whether the US should up the ante or scale back to a more limited goal of hunting terrorists. It should be about how quickly the US can extricate its forces from Afghanistan, how soon the Congress can start hearings into corruption and drug pushing by the CIA, and how soon the Attorney General's office will begin a grand jury probe into the CIA's drug dealing.

Americans, who for years have supported a stupid, blundering and ineffective “War on Drugs” in this country, and who mindlessly back “zero-tolerance” policies towards drugs in schools and on the job, should demand a “zero-tolerance” policy toward drugs and dealing with drug pushers in government and foreign policy, including the CIA.

For years we have been fed the story that the Taliban are being financed by their taxes on opium farmers. That may be partly true, but recently we've been learning that it's not the real story. Taliban forces in Afghanistan, it turns out, have been heavily subsidized by protection money paid to them by civilian aid organizations, including even American government-funded aid programs, and even, reportedly, by the military forces of some of America's NATO allies (there is currently a scandal in Italy concerning such payments by Italian forces). But beyond that, the opium industry, far from being controlled by the Taliban, has been, to a great extent, controlled by the very warlords with which the US has allied itself, and, as the Times now reports, by Ahmed Wali Karzai, the president's own brother.

Karzai, we are also told by Filkins, Mazzetti and Risen, was a key player in producing hundreds of thousands of fraudulent ballots for his brother's election theft earlier this year. Left unsaid is whether the CIA might have played a role in that scam too. In a country where finding printing presses is sure to be difficult, and where transporting bales of counterfeit ballots is risky, you have to wonder whether an agency like the CIA, which has ready access to printers and to helicopters, might have had a hand in keeping its assets in control in Kabul.

Sure that's idle speculation on my part, but when you learn that America's spook agency has been keeping not just Karzai, but lots of other unsavory Afghani warlords, on its payroll, such speculation is only logical.

The real attitude of the CIA here was best illustrated by an anonymous quote in the Filkins, Mazzetti and Risen piece, where a “former CIA officer with experience in Afghanistan,” explaining the agency's backing of Karzai, said, “Virtually every significant Afghan figure has had brushes with the drug trade. If you are looking for Mother Teresa, she doesn't live in Afghanistan.”

“The end justifies the means” is America's foreign policy and military motto, clearly.

The Times article exposing the CIA link to Afghanistan's drug-kingpin presidential brother should be the last straw for Americans. President Obama's “necessary” war in Afghanistan is nothing but a sick joke.

The opium, and resulting heroin, that is flooding into Europe and America thanks to the CIA's active support of the industry and its owners in Afghanistan are doing far more grave damage to our societies than any turbaned terrorists armed with suicide bomb vests could hope to inflict.

The Afghanistan War has to be ended now.

Let the prosecution of America's government drug pushers begin.

DAVE LINDORFF is a Philadelphia-based investigative reporter. His latest book is “The Case for Impeachment” (St. Martin's Press, 2006). His work is available at www.thiscantbehappening.net

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The "Jim Crow" Museum

The above images [found here]

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The Jim Crow laws meant to keep minorities "in their place" are being used to wreck families and put as many citizens in prison as is possible for the Elite, elected officials, and their Mafia friends all to profit. [Those laws exposed]

[The trail]

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[click here] for:

Taxpayer CEO bailout for wives, ex-wives, mistresses, and girlfriends?

The woman pictured above is the 30-something ex-wife of the 60-something CEO. She spends $53,000 dollars, or so, a week, has no job and assets. So is the taxpayer bailout to supply the "comfort women" of CEOs a continuation of their lavish lifestyle. My buddy, Chris Kennedy, used to work for UTC, and helped designed US fighter jets. I wonder if his job was axed to divert funds to CEO "comfort women".

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[click here] for more of excerpt:
A state social worker is accusing four Hartford police officers of pressuring her to lie about the possible presence of drugs inside an apartment where two people were arrested and four children were removed three years ago.

Valerie M. Miles' refusal to change her report to remove mention of the three small plastic bags she said she saw, including one containing "a small quantity of a white substance," led to her arrest in 2005 and temporarily cost her her job at the state Department of Children and Families.

The police officers did not mention the bags in their reports, and no bags were seized as evidence.

Dangerous Goofball Squad, The Connecticut State Police

[more]

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[click here] for:

The US, F ups, and the CIA

Charles Nesbitt Wilson

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Masked Police Beat/Abduct Citizens

Former Norwalk, Connecticut, Mayor William "Bill" Collins talks about police officers abducting citizens while wearing ski masks to beat the suspects at abandoned waterfront warehouses.

Police were showing citizens and elected officials who was really in charge.

Bill Collins testified in front of Judiciary Committee member legislators at the Hartford Capitol. Click link below for the complete Ritt Goldstein, Civilian Overight hearings:
http://thesrv.blogspot.com/2008/03/us...

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http://thegetjusticecoalition.blogspot.com/

To share this post, click on white envelope below.
This blogger's email: stevengerickson@yahoo.com

Considering becoming a Patriotic US American Ex-Patriot

2009-11-22T17:20:00.002-05:00

Image stolen [from here]

It may not be about loving one's country being a factor on one deciding to leave. Not liking the current government and its mismanagement, thinking that a financial crisis will interrupt the basics of life, not feeling there is free expression and freedom, etc, can all be reasons to consider living outside the US. If you are thinking of possibly looking into the possibility of living, working, and pursuing life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness outside the United States of America, I hope you contact me.

I am considering contacting interested persons in Costa Rica and Ecuador about helping provide information to Americans considering becoming Ex-Patriots. I am also looking for individuals interested in becoming Ex-Patriots and/or in becoming business partners in providing opportunities, lodging, finding work, etc. outside the US. I will not share email address, personal, and other information of those contacting me unless asked to do so.

Are you a US citizen considering the possibility of living, retiring, and residing outside the US, but are not willing to give up your US Passport or citizenship? Please email me.

Thank you.

stevengerickson@yahoo.com

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I found the below doing a blog word search

The below [found here]

Rethink Redirect

Trip Start Dec 08, 2008

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124

Trip End Ongoing

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Map your own trip!

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Where I stayed

Apartment in San Telmo

(Buenos Aires hotels)

Buenos Aires, Capital Federal District, Argentina
Wednesday, November 4, 2009

We used Craigslist.org and found a well-lit, well-located apartment on calle Peru in our favorite part of Buenos Aires, San Telmo. We thought we would give living in the big city a try even though we had many red flags popping up the day of our arrival. But these flags kept on coming. Like, one day, we got a list of apartment building rules shoved under the door of our apartment with a rule about no loud music and television during the quiet hours - 1pm - 4pm and 11 pm and 6 am everyday - highlightred with yellow flourescent ink. Now, I am not sure that this was intended directly for us but I am pretty sure it was. We didnt have any high powered amplifier or even use the television - we would listen to music or radio programs through the computer, just using the built-in speakers within the computer.

Apartment in Buenos Aires

Big Avenue 9 July

Avenida 9 Julio

In BsAs

Yes we did need to adjust to city life again. Or did we? We began to think about whether we really needed to live in such a big city. We just spent the last 20 years of our lives in Paris and New York and the times were great - but we were working, making money and enjoyed being around other people doing the same. Dont get me wrong - Buenos Aries would be a great place to live - just like New York - if you are making good money and getting everything you need to live comfortably. But we really want to do something new.

Everyday we hear more news about the economic crises worsening. It is clear that the dollar is going to become worthless in the next year or two and when this happens there is going to be chaos in the US. Without the dollar as the world reserve currency it will be next to impossible for America to buy imports - oil, goods and everything it is currently importing will become so expensive. There will be few food deliveries to grocery stores and things will become bleak there. Argentina has been through this sort of crisis recently. The situation in America may carry over to other places, to Argentina and everywhere. People in Buenos Aires take stupid rules too seriously and maybe years under Peron still make them this way. I dont know its just the feeling you get there...The police state in the US and here maybe, too, will just get stronger as people become desperate and crime soars.... We really want to be somewhere where we can be more self-sufficient. I think if this were a year ago we would have stayed in Buenos Aires and built our future there, but with all that we have experienced and learned in the past year, we now know its time for a change...

Harley Davidson Buell in Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires Buell Dealer

Guillermo, Buell Mechanic

Harley Davidson Buell in Buenos Aires

We got the Buell completely serviced. We had the fork seals replaced, and the cause of all the problems we were having was discovered to be the alternator wasn't charging below 2,500 rpms. I had the clutch plates replaced and the front wheel bearings replaced so they wouldn't have the same fate as the rear bearings. So the Buell is now again like new and ready to ride. With all the parts in stock, the bike was surprisingly ready to get back on the road in about 3 days. I thought it would take at least 10 days.

So we got everything ready, checked out of the apartment early, got our security deposit back and got ready to head to where we felt the best in the past - Ecuador and Colombia. We decided to move to Ecuador because there is a growing community of ex-pat patriotic Americans moving there and building a community. It is also very easy to get permanent residency there - an investment of $25K is all that is needed. It is $250K in Colombia, thus making Colombia our second choice.

Its about 5,000 miles back up to Ecuador and we used our time in Argentina preparing for the next leg northward - getting the bikes ready, helmets visors replaced, re-organizing and repacking everything we have with us...

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How Many US Citizen Expats are Living in Costa Rica? at The REAL ...
Jul 6, 2006 ... 11 Responses to “How Many US Citizen Expats are Living in Costa Rica?” Greg on July 6, 2006 9:36 am. I just recently tuned in to your blog ...
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Living in Costa Rica: Resources for Expatriates
Resources, websites and articles for expatriates living in Costa Rica or moving to ... P.O. Box 4946-1000 San José, Costa Rica; U.S. Mailing Address: AmCham ...
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Expats in Costa Rica: Interviews with People Living and Working in ...
Scott is an American expat who has made San Jose, Costa Rica, his permanent home. ... Sara and her family relocated from the USA to Escazu, Costa Rica, ...
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Information courtesy of American-European Real Estate Costa Rica. Visit their website to find prices and photos for 400+ properties in the most popular ...
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Moving to Costa Rica? Living in Costa Rica? Use our network to meet other expats, share information and ask questions about international schools in Costa ...
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Top Searches: • costa rica expat blogs • costa rica expat forum ... message boards for expats costa rica • being a us expat costa rica • costa rica expats ...
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Interview – An American Expat In Costa Rica | Go Backpacking
Sep 10, 2009 ... Astrid, Casey (middle) and me in Medellin I met Casey during my last week in Colombia. More than a decade earlier, he had left the United ...
www.gobackpacking.com/.../interview-an-american-expat-in-costa-rica/ - Cached
American in Costa Rica, American expats living in Costa Rica
Meet American in Costa Rica on the American expat in Costa Rica network. The best way to contact American expatriates in Costa Rica.
www.expat-blog.com/en/.../american/in/...america/costa-rica/ - Cached - Similar
Interview – An American Expat In Costa Rica - Lonely Planet
Sep 10, 2009 ... Interview – An American Expat In Costa Rica ... I only worked for one year in the U.S. upon graduation, then moved to Costa Rica to start my ...
www.lonelyplanet.com/.../Interview+–+An+American+Expat+In+Costa+Rica?... - Cached
10 Most Suitable Countries for American Expatriates | Expatify.com
Thailand puts out a serious effort to lure the American expat. .... That leaves Thailand,and Costa Rica for the poor among us. The next best places will be ...
www.expatify.com/.../10-most-suitable-countries-for-american-expatriates.html - Cached - Similar

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Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Coming to America

My Great Grandmother, Anna Sandness, emigrated from Norway to the USA. Her brother made her the jewelry box to take over aboard ship. The picture is of her jewelry box.

My Great Grandmother, Lena Cassatt's clock. She is of German and French descent.

I'm related to the French Impressionist Painter, Mary Cassatt, friend of Edgar Degas.

My Great, Great Grandfather Sven G. Erickson came from Sweden to settle in North Dakota. He lived in a sod house. Dirt cubes were cut out of the ground and a house was made. It is almost arctic cold in North Dakota. It was so cold, furniture was once burned in my Great, Great Grandfather's home. If they didn't do that to keep warm, I may not be here.

Will there be a push for Americans to consider leaving America to be "Free" and "American" elsewhere. I talk about the possibility of leaving for Costa Rica, Ecuador, or other destination in [this post].

Steven G. Erickson's reason for wanting to live outside the US:

This blogger's email: stevengerickson@yahoo.com

http://thegetjusticecoalition.blogspot.com/

To share this post, click on white envelope below.

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OpEd News post with video [click here]

Family Estrangement PTSD Syndrome

2009-11-18T00:05:00.004-05:00

Image stolen [from here]

The definition of PTSD is at bottom of post. A child, teenager, and/or adult estranged from family, having strained relations with a family member or members, or the odd man, or woman, out, can have their daily routines, self-worth, work ethic, goals, ability to be intimate with a significant other, and pursuit of happiness all thrown off kilter with strained family relations or in having the lack thereof. So, many have undiagnosed Post Traumatic Stress Disorder due to family estrangement and/or having strained family relations.

[click here] for:

The Spurned Child Syndrome

Excerpt:

"Having no desire to seek the parent's approval, goes the longest way to healing. Tune out, the endless tape of abuse of parent statements, remembering physical and emotional trauma, and do what you can not to suffer PTSD symptoms. Figure it is the parent's mental health problem, and condition, not yours."

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The below [found here]

Edgar Allan Poe:

The Man in the Crowd

Drug addict, alcoholic, suicidal, and insane; none of these are the words that come to mind when you think of great minds of our time. However, one poet fits all of these categories. The author of hailed literary works such as "The Raven," and the short story, "The Fall of the House of Usher," Edgar Allan Poe had many mental and personal problems throughout his life. His poems reflect his emotions toward the events of his life. For example, his feelings of isolation from family and peers appear in the poem "Alone," and many of his poems, such as "To Helen," and "Annabel Lee," are about the women he loved. One poem stands out, as a tribute to the melancholy that accompanied him throughout his days; the poem "A Dream" speaks of lost love, forgotten happiness, hope, and a cruel awakening to the real world. Poe’s writing exemplifies his brilliant imagination through metaphors that describe his life.

Poe’s early life had much influence on his writing and adult character. His parents died when he was three and the Allan family raised him; he took Allan as his middle name as a demonstration of gratitude. At first regarded as their adopted son and heir, Poe’s life with the Allans was a pleasant one. He attended Manor School at Stoke, Newington, and later the University of Virginia. Mrs. Allan felt affection for her adopted son, but he was never legally accepted into the family. In this happy home, however, there were drawbacks. John Allan, his substitute father, did not approve of Poe’s fondness for writing. Ignored by Allan during his time at the University of Virginia, Poe began to drink and gamble heavily. This had a disastrous effect on his previously brilliant academics and reputation. Upon discovering Poe’s inadequacies, Allan refused to allow him to return to school. Their relationship ended over an argument when Allan attempted to force Poe to study law rather than poetry, and the optimistic young man headed north to further his literary career, with secret financial help from Mrs. Allan. Forced now to live off his own skills, Poe worked for Boston newspapers, and various magazines. Over the next few years, Poe did clerical work in the army and partially amended his relationship with his "foster-father." In these years, Mrs. Allan died and despite urgent requests to Mr. Allan, the brokenhearted Poe was not allowed to visit until after she was buried. Formally disowned by his surrogate father a few years later, Poe went to New York to advance his writing career.

His first notable success was winning a newspaper contest with a prize of $50 for the best short story in October 1833. With great financial assistance from John P. Kennedy, Poe became internationally famous for his poems and short stories. He married his 13-year-old cousin, Virginia Clemms in 1835 or 1836. To Poe’s despair, his bride died at 24 from a burst blood vessel. His poem, "Annabel Lee" portrays his grief. Virginia’s death increased the problems Poe had had since his teenage years: alcoholism, drug addiction, and depression. Poe’s life began to go downhill. He continued to battle suicidal melancholy, attempting to kill himself in 1849. The brilliant, if eccentric poet’s discontented life ended from "acute congestion of the brain;" Poe was found in a delirious condition in a gutter on the streets of Baltimore. Four days later, the desolate man had gone to his grave.

Edgar Allan Poe made many contributions to the world of literature and poetry. The academy of American poets says, "Poe's work as an editor, a poet, and a critic had a profound impact on American and international literature" (http://www.poets.org/poets/). He was the first true writer of thriller and horror stories, with tales such as "The Cask of Amontillado." His clever mind dramatically altered detective stories, he took the writing of short stories from a mere profession to an art, and he was a brilliant poet. His fame was known through America, England, and France, with renowned works such as "The Raven," "The Bells," "The Purloined Letter," and countless others. Though a troubled individual, Poe’s effect on literature and poetry was mind-blowing. It is impossible to read a poem or story written by Edgar Allan Poe without being terrified, feeling great remorse for the characters, and noticing the breathtaking power with which Poe wields his words.

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The below from medicinenet.com [found here]

Post-traumatic stress disorder Index

Definition of Post-traumatic stress disorder

Phobias Slideshow

Post-traumatic stress disorder: A common anxiety disorder that develops after exposure to a terrifying event or ordeal in which grave physical harm occurred or was threatened. Family members of victims also can develop the disorder. PTSD can occur in people of any age, including children and adolescents. More than twice as many women as men experience PTSD following exposure to trauma. Depression, alcohol or other substance abuse, or other anxiety disorders frequently co-occur with PTSD.

The diagnosis of PTSD requires that one or more symptoms from each of the following categories be present for at least a month and that symptom or symptoms must seriously interfere with leading a normal life:

Reliving the event through upsetting thoughts, nightmares or flashbacks, or having very strong mental and physical reactions if something reminds the person of the event.

Avoiding activities, thoughts, feelings or conversations that remind the person of the event; feeling numb to one's surroundings; or being unable to remember details of the event.

Having a loss of interest in important activities, feeling all alone, being unable to have normal emotions or feeling that there is nothing to look forward to in the future may also be experienced.

Feeling that one can never relax and must be on guard all the time to protect oneself, trouble sleeping, feeling irritable, overreacting when startled, angry outbursts or trouble concentrating.

Traumatic events that may trigger post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) include violent personal assaults, natural or human-caused disasters, accidents, or military combat. Among those who may experience PTSD are troops who served in the Vietnam and Gulf Wars; rescue workers involved in the aftermath of disasters like the terrorist attacks on New York City and Washington, D.C.; survivors of the Oklahoma City bombing; survivors of accidents, rape, physical and sexual abuse, and other crimes; immigrants fleeing violence in their countries; survivors of the 1994 California earthquake, the 1997 North and South Dakota floods, and hurricanes Hugo and Andrew; and people who witness traumatic events.

Many people with PTSD repeatedly re-experience the ordeal in the form of flashback episodes, memories, nightmares, or frightening thoughts, especially when they are exposed to events or objects reminiscent of the trauma. Anniversaries of the event can also trigger symptoms. People with PTSD also experience emotional numbness and sleep disturbances, depression, anxiety, and irritability or outbursts of anger. Feelings of intense guilt are also common. Most people with PTSD try to avoid any reminders or thoughts of the ordeal. PTSD is diagnosed when symptoms last more than 1 month.

Physical symptoms such as headaches, gastrointestinal distress, immune system problems, dizziness, chest pain, or discomfort in other parts of the body are common in people with PTSD. Often, these symptoms may be treated without the recognition that they stem from an anxiety disorder.

Treatment may be through cognitive-behavioral therapy, group therapy, and/or exposure therapy, in which the person gradually and repeatedly re-lives the frightening experience under controlled conditions to help him or her work through the trauma. Several types of medication, particularly the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and other antidepressants, can also help relieve the symptoms of PTSD.

Giving people an opportunity to talk about their experiences very soon after a catastrophic event may reduce some of the symptoms of PTSD. A study of 12,000 school children who lived through a hurricane in Hawaii found that those who got counseling early on were doing much better 2 years later than those who did not.

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http://thegetjusticecoalition.blogspot.com/

This blog was posted by Steven G. Erickson
my email: stevengerickson@yahoo.com

To share this post, click on white envelope below.

www.whistleblower.org

2009-11-17T12:50:00.004-05:00

http://www.whistleblower.org/template/index.cfm

GAP, Government Accountability Project

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Breaking Justice Dept. Corruption in Birkenfeld Case: U.S. Gave UBS Kingpin Immunity

By Jesselyn Radack (about the author)

opednews.com Permalink

For OpEdNews: Jesselyn Radack - Writer

It's gone from bad to worse. I've written previously about how Brad Birkenfeld, the whistleblower who shattered 75 years of Swiss bank secrecy, is the only one going to jail in this multi-billion dollar scandal. But now my dyspepsia has turned to projectile vomiting. I have asked in previous diaries why, when the U.S. had UBS kingpin Martin Liechti in its claws, it set him scot-free back to Switzerland.

Well, we now know why. Consistent with a disturbing trend, the United States granted the worse of the worst immunity, and is imprisoning not just a bit player, but the whistleblower... and an American.

Jesselyn Radack's diary :: ::

If you don't know about financial whistleblower Brad Birkenfeld already, then I recommend you watch this:

In Le Temps today, Switzerland's leading daily newspaper, http://www.bilan.ch/...
it states that Martin Liechti received immunity. I know it is in French, but the relevant part translates as follows:

Despite incriminating documents pointing to LEICHTI, he was granted immunity.

But the U.S. would have had nothing on Liechti (as evidenced by the fact that it searched his place some five years ago and couldn't make a case), but for Brad Birkenfeld, who blew the whistle on Liechti and other top UBS executives.

So, it is especially shocking to find that the U.S. granted immunity to Liechti, the mastermind, when it wouldn't grant immunity to Birkenfeld, and actually prosecuted him!

There is no justice. What can you do? Watch the YouTube video, rate it, and post a comment. Spread this wretched story.

reprinted from Dailykos.com

http://www.patriotictruthteller.net

My name is Jesselyn Radack and I am the former Justice Department ethics attorney and whistleblower in the case of "American Taliban" John Walker Lindh. In today's issue of The National Law (more...)

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This blogger's whistleblowing efforts [found here]

This blogger's email: stevengerickson@yahoo.com

9-11 Conspiracy Theories Beaten to Death

2009-11-16T19:53:00.006-05:00

If there was even one engine block of a car or truck that was melted just from having dust and debris falling from the towers, that alone would be overwhelming proof that there was something else at work other than the jet fuel burning and the crashes into the towers. I'm a skeptic, but it does seem from the photos on the site where I got those below, that debris clung to steel and then started burning leaving other materials alone.

There is extensive damage to the front of car 2723, including no door handle on the driver's door. There is an unusual, unburned circular area on the rear door.

Why doesn't the paper burn?

Presumably these cars are finally being towed away from that lot. Those wheels look fairly good which means they probably aren't steel.

Peculiar wilting of car doors and deformed window surrounds on FDR Drive. Kerosene fires cannot do this.

This burns fuel, kerosene, which is similar to jet fuel. This fuel does not melt metal like it's plastic.

[source for pictures]
There are more photos at source and they can be clicked on there, to make bigger.

I found links to the above on the Kenny's Side show blog [here]

World War II in HD

2009-11-16T00:11:00.003-05:00

I watched most of the first part of a series on the History Channel tonight.

War really is a waste of people and resources. Seeing the dead and wounded in such large numbers is just a complete waste. There was a pulling together of Americans for a “just war”. Most of the soldiers in the 2 wars of occupation currently going on can't feel they are fighting a “just war”, ensuring freedom for Americans. Most Americans might not want us in two wars.

There is such a contrast of what America was, and is now.

http://thesrv.blogspot.com/