DOMINOES IN THE DESERT - there goes the neighborhood

As the United States plies its brand of “democracy” in the Mideast and Persia, the Church State of Iran is countering with spreading their unique brand of Islam. It has become painfully evident that the U.S. does not have a clue when it comes to understanding any other religion forms of Christianity and Judaism. The fate of all the Mideast, Persian, and neighboring Countries hangs in the balance. With most of Europe and all of Russia sharing in this demise, the longer this state of affairs exists, the longer western expansionist tendencies in the region will last, and the more dramatic Iran’s reaction will be. What is perfectly clear is that outside involvement in the Mideast and Persia is not about the oil. It’s not about human rights. It is about the total lack of understanding of the Islamic religion. This lack of understanding fuels a high level of fear that the political and corporate driven attempts to bring calm and peace to the region can’t seem to resolve. In this case, ignorance is not bliss; it is very dangerous to the world as a whole. There is a solution to all the turmoil that has been draining the human resources of too many Countries around the world.

The solution is three-fold in nature. The first part involves a concerted effort by all non-Islamic nations to do their best in understanding the true nature of the Islamic religion. This is not a religion that foments jihad, or any sort of extreme violence. As religions go, Islam is a very beneficent religion; loving, nurturing, kind, and forgiving. The second part of the equation involves the non-Islamic nations understanding and accepting that some folks prefer a Church State to that of a western style governmental structure. Not everyone wants to be like the United States; or, Canada, England, Spain, Greece, Russia, China, etc. Once these two are put into practice, Islamic governments around the globe will truly feel that they have a place at the table, and they aren’t going to be targets of colonialism, expansionism, or occupation.

The third part is a little trickier, but not out of the realm of possibility. This would be a legal form of State sponsored assassination. The “State” in this instance would ideally be the United Nations. As a world body, the U.N. should have the ability to remove singular despots from their perches as Kings, Emirs, Dictators, Grand Imams, Ayatollahs, etc. The benchmark would not include how a ruler got into power, but what he did once he assumed that leadership role.  Topping the list of determinants for assassination would be Human Rights, as describe by the U.N.; not described by any one member Nation, or private interest group. The U.N. would have the right to choose the “who, what, when, where, and why” for this action to proceed. In no way would any corporate influence be allowed to have any weight, whatsoever, in determining the specific action. Sorry, Dick Cheney. Sorry, Halliburton. Sorry, Exxon-Mobil.

This third part, being relative drastic in nature, would necessarily be preceded by diplomatic efforts to resolve the problem in a predetermined time period. Given the enactment of this third option, it would only take a few legal assassinations to let folks know that the world means business when it comes to peaceful coexistence. In defining “crisis intervention”, this type of action offers the absolute minimum of collateral damage to people, places, and things. Certainly, all peace-loving people would agree that lowering the “collateral damage” quotient is a desirable element in achieving World Peace.

The current situation in the Near-East and Mideast is not sustainable for very much longer. The next step will undoubtedly be an escalation of hostile takeovers that the world has never seen before. The entire quagmire will amount to a “domino effect” more damaging than that which occurred in Indo-China in the 1950’s, 60’s, & 70’s; an effect the United States has yet to recover from. And, of course, what happens to Israel is totally up in the air, as they will be surrounded by the opposition.

THROWING GOOD MONEY AFTER BAD

The death knell of democracy

The place said to be the origin of Man will also see the death of Man. Why nobody is looking at this little problem we like to call the Mideast and Persia is a complete mystery to me. The beginning of the end started with the overthrow of the Shah of Iran in 1978. That was a debacle that thoroughly embarrassed the United States, and has led to a constant stream of overt and covert missions to retrieve the face we lost. Our presence in the Mideast has nothing to do with oil. It has nothing to do with nation building, or democracy. It has everything to do with revenge. The United States Government is Hell bent on turning the Mideast upside-down and inside-out for taking over our Embassy in Tehran and holding most of the Staff hostage for a year and a half.

There has always been talk of America’s envy of Mideast oil. The word on the street after freeing Kuwait was that the U.S. would benefit by receiving more oil at a lower price. That didn’t happen, did it? So, we went back and took down Iraq with the promise that Iraqi oil would completely pay for our military expedition. That didn’t quite happen either, did it? 

I suppose that our incursion into Afghanistan will be paid for by the opium production that is alive and well in that Country. Well, you know that isn’t going to happen.

Has anyone ever thought about just how much money the United States has dropped in this Region? I did a little looking into that question, and the numbers might keep you up at night. How does $6,509,500,000.00^[1] sound [$6.510 trillion] since 1980? That’s a lot of Doe-Ray-Me, if you know what I mean. This money is given freely to Countries whose citizens have an annual per capita income of $500.00 dollars (if that).I won’t even begin to tell you what we could have done with that money here at home. If you ponder the situation for a while, you’ll come up with some pretty good ideas of your own.

Obviously, there is nothing we can do about all this spilled milk. That milk is firmly entrenched in the bank accounts of every Sheikh who ever rode a camel, or drove a Rolls Royce. It’s all tucked away in places nobody, especially us, can get at. So kiss it goodbye; chalk it up to experience, and hope we don’t keep doing the same thing decade in and decade out. Oh, but wait, we are doing the same thing, even as I write this. You see, the American political thought process is totally devoid of one thing; thought. We the people keep electing morons to do our biding. These morons are easily spun around and paid off by those lovely 1%-ers we have all grown to admire so much. What are they paid off to do? You guessed it! Our elected officials are paid to do the biding of their financial benefactors who, for the most part, own most of the Nation’s wealth, and intend to own it all in the not so distant future.

You may ask, “Why would anyone, in their right mind, want to tell our government to pour all those trillions of taxpayers’ dollars into an obvious “money pit’ in the Mideast?” The answer is fairly simple and is becoming clearer every day. If the 1% get the 99% to throw their money away, then the 99% won’t have any money left. When this happens, our Federal, State and Local governments go belly up, as in bankrupt, for lack of a tax base. Meanwhile, the 1% is skimming off the top of all these tax dollars and hoarding cash offshore in tax havens. When the time comes, and it will, the 1% will buy this Country back for pennies on the dollar. Don’t worry about Sharia Law blanketing the Nation, or the Western World, for that matter. The only religion will be that of the corporation. The only way to put bread on your table will be to cow-tow to the corporation. In essence, the corporation will attempt to rule the World, but not until another one of our military expeditions has been undertaken to avenge those poor souls who had to endure captivity in the heat and sweat of Iran.

The end result of this will most likely be Armageddon. In its attempt to find the face it lost in 1978, the United States will find itself staring down the barrels of the Russian and the Chinese Military, and this time someone will blink.

^[1]$409.5 billion / 1980-2010 in foreign aid; $3.7 trillion for three major military efforts and $1.6 trillion for five minor military efforts / $800 billion for logistical aid to Israel, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan in their little skirmishes. [Huffington Post, Forbes Magazine, U.S. State Department, Government Accounting Office, Rand Corp.]

NEW TERM: “ULTIMATE DOWN-LOADER”

Before the entire world gets all warm and fuzzy with the term “whistleblower”, they need to have some idea of just what a “whistleblower” is, both figuratively and literally. We tend to jump to the Figurative definition when we hear of anyone telling secrets, or uncovering wrong doings, no matter the situation and no matter the accusations. With so much leaking of secrets, governmental, industrial and corporate, the lines between “leaking” and “whistleblowing” are getting blurred. Literally speaking, the act of “whistleblowing” is initiated by an individual who feels he/she has been told to do, or sees, something that he/she feels is, at best not legal, or injurious to others. It really is no more complicated than that.

With this literal definition in mind, a number of folks in the News are exempt from this category. This would include Bradley Manning, Ed Snowden, Mark Klein, Samy Kamkar, Russ Tice, and Babak Pasdar. These are but a few of the people who had daily access to very sensitive documents the Government would rather you and I not see. In neither instance were any one of these people asked to do anything that was harmful, or illegal, to themselves, or anyone else. They have absconded with information entrusted to them, or made available, by their employers and have chosen to share said information to the general public much to the dismay of their employers. In most cases, as with the aforementioned individuals, there was a serious attempt to leak their findings and documents through the legitimate Press in this Country. All the Media outlets who were approached either balked, or outright declined to touch any of this. When these “ultimate down-loaders” got rejected by local Media, they felt justified in seeking other outlets for their disclosures. That is what brought The Guardian Newspaper and Wikileaks into the lime light. And, having successfully leaked all these documents, I would find highly improbable that any of the main actors were at all surprised with the Government’s reaction.

When it comes to the inner operations of the U.S. Intelligence Agencies, there appears to be a heightened degree of overt ego; protracted across the breadth of management in these Agencies. This sense of entitlement to self-importance is usually spurred on by zealots and hawks in the Legislative and Executive Branches of the U.S. Federal bureaucratic maze. With regard to the egos involved, one needs simply to watch C-Span to get a feeling of the total arrogance held not only by the leadership of these Agencies, but also the Assistants, Deputies, Under-Secretaries, and the like (especially in the Intelligence community). I only point this out because of the apparent direction of deception our Federal Government is going. Think about it. We have so many “wars” on so many subjects and issues that the American Public is being driven into accepting secrecy as the normal way we conduct every day government. Take a moment, and try to make a list of the “wars” the United States is currently waging. I did, and came up with over fifty of them before my head started to hurt and I had to stop. To wit; war on drugs, war on women, war on guns (whaaat?), war on obesity, war on abortion, war on voters rights, and on and on and on and on!

So, we are left with the task of coming up with a new name for the folks who leak Classified, Top-Secret, Sensitive government documentation to a democratic public who has paid good money for an open form of said government. Calling them “Leakers” seems so plebeian and mundane. The term “Outers” may confuse them with the LGBT Community (certainly not a parallel worthy of making). Something along the lines of “UDL – Ultimate Down-loader” may be an apt moniker.

Bradley Manning – DoD UDL

Ed Snowden – NSA UDL

Russ Tice – NSA UDL

Samy Kamkar – TELECOM UDL

Babak Pasdar - TELECOM UDL

Mark Klein - TELECOM  UDL

Ultimate DownLoader

So let’s hear it!

Send in your own suggestions.

Keep those cards and letters coming.

The ones you didn’t hear much about:

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_whistleblowers

2003	Babak Pasdar	United States Government	Computer security consultant performing contract work for a major telecom carrier, revealed that a U.S. government office in Quantico, Virginia had direct, high-speed access to a major wireless carrier's systems, exposing customers' voicecalls, data packets and physical movements to uncontrolled surveillance. Pasdar executed a seven-page affidavit for the nonprofit Government Accountability Project in Washington.
2007	Mark Klein	National Security Agency	retired communications technician for AT&T, revealed the details of his personal knowledge of the secret 2003 construction of a monitoring facility in Room 641A of 611 Folsom Street in San Francisco, the site of a large SBC phone building, three floors of which are occupied by AT&T. The facility is alleged to be one of several operated by the National Security Agency as part of the warrantless surveillance undertaken by the Bush administration in the wake of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
2005	Russ Tice	US Government	Former intelligence analyst for the National Security Agency (NSA), the U.S. Air Force, Office of Naval Intelligence, and the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). Most recently he is one of the sources used by the New York Times in reporting on the NSA wiretapping controversy. He had earlier been known for reporting suspicions that a DIA colleague of his might be a Chinese spy.[citation needed]
2010-2011	Samy Kamkar	Apple, Microsoft, and Google	Computer hacker who exposed the illicit, global mobile phone tracking of all users, regardless of GPS or Location Services settings, on the Apple iPhone, Google Android and Microsoft Windows Phone mobile devices, and their transmission of GPS and Wi-Fi information to their parent companies, which led to a series of class-action lawsuits and a privacy hearing on Capitol Hill.

Name that tune

                                         

WHISTLE-BLOWING , 

LEAKING , 

AND THE PUBLIC’S NEED TO KNOW THE DIFFERENCE : WHAT’S IN A NAME?

Before the entire world gets all warm and fuzzy with the term “whistleblower”, they need to have some idea of just what a “whistleblower” is, both figuratively and literally. We tend to jump to the Figurative definition when we hear of anyone telling secrets, or uncovering wrong doings, no matter the situation and no matter the accusations. With so much leaking of secrets, governmental, industrial and corporate, the lines between “leaking” and “whistleblowing” are getting blurred. Literally speaking, the act of “whistleblowing” is initiated by an individual who feels he/she has been told to do something that he/she feels is, at best, not legal, or injurious to others. It really is no more complicated than that.

With this literal definition in mind, a number of folks in the News are exempt from this category. This would include Bradley Manning, Ed Snowden, Mark Klein, Samy Kamkar, Russ Tice, and Babak Pasdar. These are but a few of the people who had daily access to very sensitive documents the Government would rather you and I not see. In neither instance were any one of these people asked to do anything that was harmful, or illegal, to themselves, or anyone else. They have absconded with information entrusted, or available, to them by their employers and have chosen to share said information to the general public much to the dismay of their employers.

When it comes to the inner operations of the U.S. Intelligence Agencies, there appears to be a heightened degree ego protracted across the breadth of management in these Agencies. This sense of entitlement to self-importance is usually spurred on by zealots and hawks in the Legislative and Executive Branches of the U.S. Federal bureaucratic maze. With regard to the egos involved, one needs simply to watch C-Span to get a feeling of the total arrogance not only of the leadership, but also the “Assistant, Deputy, Under-Secretary, Pro-Tem’s”, especially of the Intelligence community. I only point this out because of the apparent direction of deception our Federal Government is going. Think about it. We have so many “wars” on so many subjects and issues that the American Public is being driven into accepting secrecy as the normal way we conduct every day government. Take a moment, and try to make a list of the “wars” the United States is currently waging. I did, and came up with over fifty of them before my head started to hurt and I had to stop. To wit; war on drugs, war on women, war on guns (whaaat?), war on obesity, war on abortion, war on voters rights, and on and on and on and on!

So, we are left with the task of coming up with a new name for the folks who leak “Classified, Top-Secret, Sensitive” government documentation to a democratic public who has paid good money for an open form of said government. Calling them “Leakers” seems so plebeian and mundane. The terms “Outers” may confuse them with the LGBT Community (certainly not a parallel worthy of making). Something along the lines of “UDL – Ultimate Down Loader” may be an apt moniker.

Bradley Manning – DoD UDL

Ed Snowden – NSA UDL

Russ Tice – NSA UDL

Samy Kamkar – TELECOM UDL

Babak Pasdar - TELECOM UDL

Mark Klein - TELECOM UDL

So let’s hear it! Send in your own suggestions. Keep those cards and letters coming.

The ones you didn’t hear much about:

 Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_whistleblowers

2003	Babak Pasdar	United States Government	Computer security consultant performing contract work for a major telecom carrier, revealed that a U.S. government office in Quantico, Virginia had direct, high-speed access to a major wireless carrier's systems, exposing customers' voice-calls, data packets and physical movements to uncontrolled surveillance. Pasdar executed a seven-page affidavit for the nonprofit Government Accountability Project in Washington.
2007	Mark Klein	National Security Agency	retired communications technician for AT&T, revealed the details of his personal knowledge of the secret 2003 construction of a monitoring facility in Room 641A of 611 Folsom Street in San Francisco, the site of a large SBC phone building, three floors of which are occupied by AT&T. The facility is alleged to be one of several operated by the National Security Agency as part of the warrantless surveillance undertaken by the Bush administration in the wake of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
2005	Russ Tice	US Government	Former intelligence analyst for the National Security Agency (NSA), the U.S. Air Force, Office of Naval Intelligence, and the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). Most recently he is one of the sources used by the New York Times in reporting on the NSA wiretapping controversy. He had earlier been known for reporting suspicions that a DIA colleague of his might be a Chinese spy.[citation needed]
2010-2011	Samy Kamkar	Apple, Microsoft, and Google	Computer hacker who exposed the illicit, global mobile phone tracking of all users, regardless of GPS or Location Services settings, on the Apple iPhone, Google Android and Microsoft Windows Phone mobile devices, and their transmission of GPS and Wi-Fi information to their parent companies, which led to a series of class-action lawsuits and a privacy hearing on Capitol Hill.

AND, THE MARIONETTES DANCED UNTIL DAWN!

Who’s pulling the strings?

We know who the puppets are, but the big question is, “Who’s pulling the puppet’s strings?” With a remarkable number of whistle-blowers, this Century has gotten off to a very inauspicious start. The “Bush Years” didn’t seem to spawn very many of these leakers. During Obama’s reign, however, the leaks seem to be coming at a fast and furious rate. When a rash of these occurrences happen back to back to back, you have to put some distance between yourself and the events. Only then can you have a shot at seeing the big picture. Without much effort you can begin to notice possible patterns of what appear to be irrational, illogical situations. You start having some “Ah-Ha” moments, as you look at the time-lines and the events as a continuum of some sinister plot. We’re not talking James Bond, The Bourne Identity, or Maxwell Smart. But, at some point, you have to ask yourself, “What the Hell is going on here?”

Brad Manning

Julian Assange

Ed Snowden

Since 2008, there has been a truck load of stupidity emanating from Washington, DC. I stopped counting how many times the House of Representatives voted to strike down the Affordable Health Care Act. I stopped counting out of sheer disgust for our body Politic. There was this little thing they called the “Fiscal Cliff” which went the way of the old “Y2k” scare. The President still hasn’t been allowed to fill over half the open judicial positions in the Federal Court system; they have to be voted in by Congress. Guantanamo Bay Penitentiary is still in business for absolutely no reason. We pulled out of Iraq, beefed up our presence in Afghanistan, and, now, we’re taking a serious look at Syria. We’re repeating events that aren’t even history, yet. The U.S. Congress doesn’t consider the fact that the Country is still in an Economic Depression, so they won’t vote for any job creating stimulus Bills; I think the Democrats have simply thrown up their hands and walked away from that effort. Apparently the Country doesn’t need any Abortion Clinics, or Doctors who are willing to provide that service. And, while we’re at it, let’s make damn sure Women continue to make sizably less money for performing the same job as a man. By denying the LGBT Community their Civil Rights, are we upholding the Biblical rendition of marriage? Oh, I’m sorry. I forgot that over 50% of “traditional” Biblical marriages end in divorce, but, dear God, don’t let that stand in your way when voting for the Defense of Marriage Act. Do I remember correctly that someone put together a Bill that would require the sellers of lethal weapons to run background checks on their buyers? Silly me. What chance would a Bill like that have in our wonderful, upstanding, and worthy Congress?

Johnny Boehner

So, you see, it’s not just the whistle-blowers making all the noise. Our Elected Officials are off drumming to a different tune, also. If I was looking at a period of time that spanned decades, perhaps none of this would be cause for concern. But, all this, and more, and in such rapid succession has lead me to believe that "something’s rotten in Denmark"; so the saying goes. The question I keep coming back to is, “Who’s pulling the strings?”

Dickie Cheney

Donnie Rumsfeld

Jaime Diamond, CitiCorp

Jeffery Immelt, GE                              

Koch Brothers

Bobby Stevens, Lockheed

Rex Tillerson, Exxon-Mobil

Stevie Kandarian, MetLife

……………………………………. And the list goes on!