". . . a republic, if you can keep it."
In case you’ve forgotten, Ron Paul endorsed John Dennis back in January.
Needless to say (but I’ll say it anyway), this race has HUGE NATIONAL SIGNIFICANCE. Can you imagine a Ron Paul endorsed Republican knocking off Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, in liberal San Francisco??? It is possible. Freedom is popular, and nowhere is it more popular than in San Francisco.
(Read more from dailypaul.com)
The Army has detained a 22-year-old soldier in Baghdad in connection with the leak of a military video that shows Apache helicopters gunning down unarmed men in Iraq, including two journalists, defense officials said Monday.
Army Spc. Bradley Manning of Potomac, Md., now being held in Kuwait pending the results of an investigation, was the third suspected leaker known to have been apprehended under the Obama administration. (Read more from myantiwar.org)
Rep. Sherman: Prosecute U.S. Citizens involved with Gaza Flotilla
On a press call hosted by a pro-Israel organization, Rep. Brad Sherman, Democrat of California, told reporters that he intends to seek the prosecution of any U.S. citizens who were aboard or involved with the Freedom Flotilla.
“The Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 [PDF] makes it absolutely illegal for any American to give food, money, school supplies, paper clips, concrete or weapons to Hamas or any of its officials,” Sherman said on the Israel Project call, conflating Hamas and Gaza’s civilian population. “And so I will be asking the Attorney General to prosecute any American involved in what was clearly an effort to give items of value to a terrorist organization.”
Sherman also said that he plans on working with the Department of Homeland Security to make sure that any non-U.S. citizen involved with or aboard the Flotilla are excluded from entering the U.S. (Read more from lobelog.com)
Texas senator defends Israel over killing of US activist
Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) believes the pro-Palestinian activists who were killed in a clash with the Israeli military had provoked the confrontation.
ABC’s Jake Tapper asked Cornyn how the US should react after Israeli commandos killed Furkan Dogan, a dual US and Turkish national who was part of the aid flotilla bound for Gaza.
“It’s become clear that Israel killed a US citizen in international waters with this flotilla incident,” Tapper said. “What should the US response be when an ally kills a US citizen?”
“We don’t know all the circumstances yet,” Cornyn replied. “But it appears to be a premeditated provocation of Israel and an attempt to run the blockade that’s existed since Hamas took over Gaza.” (Read more from rawstory.com)
Brown launches defense of Israel
Senator Scott Brown tonight launched into a strong defense of Israel, saying critics of the recent flotilla incident were downplaying the security threats against the country.
Brown, addressing a pro-Israel group in Boston, tied Israel and the United States together in fighting against terrorism. He also called for further sanctions on Iran, saying “there is no greater strategic threat facing the world than a nuclear-armed Iran.” (Read more from boston.com)
Jewish flotilla to break Gaza siege
The German-Jewish organization Jewish Voice for Peace in the Middle East is preparing a Jewish flotilla to the Gaza Strip. “We intend to leave around July,” a member of the organization, Kate Leitrer, said to Ynet. “We have one small craft so far, in which there will be between 12 and 16 people, mostly Jews.” (Read more from ynetnews.com)
IDF Admits It Doctored Flotilla Audio Clip. Washington Post’s Kessler Must Retract
The IDF admitted today in a press release that it doctored audio footage from its exchanges with the Gaza flotilla in order to paint the flotilla passengers as anti-Semites. (Read more from maxblumenthal.com)
Israeli document: Gaza blockade isn’t about security
As Israel ordered a slight easing of its blockade of the Gaza Strip Wednesday, McClatchy obtained an Israeli government document that describes the blockade not as a security measure but as “economic warfare” against the Islamist group Hamas, which rules the Palestinian territory. (Read more from mcclatchydc.com)
Zionists celebrating and justifying Gaza flotilla murders, chanting “death to Arabs”
US Citizen Executed In Israeli Flotilla Raid?
It is ironic that the Israeli Defense forces attacked a flotilla of relief ships bound from Europe to Gaza in international waters in a manner all too similar to its assault against the USS Liberty also in international waters on June 8 forty-three years ago. It is even more tragic and a national disgrace that in the immediate aftermath of Memorial Day there is scant remembrance of the 34 crew members comprising naval officers, seamen, two marines and a civilian who were killed in the attack along with the 171 crew members who were wounded. While the official inquiries by both nations found the attack to be a case of mistaken identity of the Liberty, to this day there is a long record of distinguished officers and journalists who take strong exception to this view believing that the attack was deliberate. Indeed the attack on the Liberty is the only maritime incident in U.S. history where our military forces were killed that was never investigated by the Congress.
While few would dispute that the United States and Israel share vital strategic interests, all too often it has been Israeli intransigent policies rather than U.S. interests which have dominated our bilateral relationships. As a global superpower, the U.S. has strategic interests in the Middle East that go far beyond our bilateral relations with Israel–regional political stability, access to oil, control of sea lanes, etc. However so lopsided have our bilateral relations become that even after scandals such as the Pollard spying case in the 1980s came to light, high level officials and lobbyists in both Washington and Israel went out of their way to downplay the significance of the information Pollard passed to both Israeli and Russian intelligence (in order to keep Jewish immigration to Israel alive), despite testimony by four retired admirals who had served as Directors of National Intelligence that Pollard’s revelations had been devastating to U.S. national security and that any premature release would be “irresponsible.” (Read more from washingtonnote.com)
A deadly Israeli attack on a US ship — an incident largely kept in the dark by Washington — receives new attention with survivors reliving the painful memory.
USS Liberty survivors gathered in Washington on Monday to commemorate the 42nd anniversary of the incident and expound on how they were sprayed with bullets by America’s “closest ally and beneficiary”.
On June 8, 1967, the unarmed spy ship USS Liberty was on duty in international waters off the Sinai Peninsula when it was bombarded by Israeli fighter jets and torpedo boats.
The two-hour-long attacks killed at least 34 sailors, wounded 173 others and nearly sunk the ship.
The attack on the Liberty came at a time when Israel had engaged in a brief but intense war with Egypt and its Arab allies, which coincided with the US war on Vietnam.
Although the ship was clearly marked as an American vessel, Israelis declared the attack on Liberty as a simple case of “friendly fire” and “mistaken identity”.
Despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, former US president Lyndon Johnson accepted the Israeli claim and cancelled all investigations into the incident.
“It was a case of mistaken identity …I do not care if every man drowned and the ship sank, we will not embarrass an ally,” Johnson had told his opponents who demanded an open congressional hearing to address the Israeli claim.
USS Liberty survivor Rick Almett, however, begged to differ.
“There was a conspiracy between our government and Israel. So that’s the reason why they didn’t pursue it and why the investigations were covered up because of the alliance of Israel and the United States,” Almetti told Press TV.
In a separate interview with Press TV, Jim Smith — another surviving member of the USS Liberty crew — said the incident was “an intentional act by Israel to sink the ship with all hands and no survivors”. (Read more from globalresearch.ca)
A bust of dictator Joseph Stalin has been placed at the National D-Day Memorial in Bedford despite public protest over its presence.
The sculpture was installed at the memorial Tuesday, said William McIntosh, president of the memorial foundation. (Read more from newsadvance.com)
Commentary by Dr. Yuri Maltsev here.
This is a clip from a new documentary on knowing your rights when confronted by police.
Also, see Why you should NEVER, EVER, under any circumstances speak with the police.
Okay, this isn’t directly related to the state of our republic, but there’s been a lot of noise about this lately. If you need stronger justification, know there have been accusations of conspiracy for this issue not getting more attentions sooner, though that seems to have now changed:
What vitamin may we need in amounts up to 25 times higher than the government recommends for us to be healthy?
What vitamin deficiency affects 70-80 percent of the population, is almost never diagnosed and has been linked to many cancers, high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes, depression,(i) fibromyalgia, chronic muscle pain, bone loss and autoimmune diseases like multiple sclerosis?(ii)
What vitamin is almost totally absent from our food supply?
What vitamin is the hidden cause of much suffering that is easy to treat?
The answer to all of these questions is vitamin D.
Over the last 15 years of my practice, my focus has been to discover what the body needs to function optimally. Vitamin D, a nutrient (more of a hormone and gene modulator) is a critical, essential ingredient for health and optimal function. The problem is that most of us don’t have enough of it because we work and live indoors, use sun block and can’t get enough from our diet–even in fortified foods.
Two recent studies in the journal Pediatrics found that 70 percent of American kids aren’t getting enough vitamin D, and this puts them at higher risk of obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure and lower levels of good cholesterol. (iii) Low vitamin D levels also may increase a child’s risk of developing heart disease later in life.
Overall, 7.6 million, or nine percent, of US children were vitamin-D deficient, and another 50.8 million, or 61 percent, had insufficient levels of this important vitamin in their blood.
The average blood level of vitamin D was 25 ng/dl for Caucasians and 16 ng/dl for African Americans. The optimal level is 45 ng/dl and requires about 3000-4000 IU a day of vitamin D3 — 10 times current recommendations. If our whole population achieved a minimum level of 45 ng/dl, we would have 400,000 fewer premature deaths per year. There would be a reduction of cancer by 35 percent, type 2 diabetes by 33 percent and all causes of mortality by seven percent. (iv) (Read more from huffingtonpost.com)
Seven children selling lemonade were told by police they had to close up shop — because they didn’t have a permit.
Cops went sour on a group of kids after a resident in the Haverford Township, Pa., neighborhood sicced police on the youngsters for selling lemonade on a residential street.
Police told the kids, including 5-year-old triplets, that they were violating the law, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.
Selling lemonade in the township requires a permit — which was news to the mother of four of the children, Dana Kleinschmidt, as well as the rest of the police department.
. . . .
After a little research by fellow officer Sgt. Joe Hagan, it was discovered that selling lemonade is legal — for children under the age of 16. (Read more from nbcphiladelphia.com)
Two former CIA officials have admitted to creating a fake video in which intelligence officers dressed up as Osama Bin Laden and his cronies in an effort to defame the terrorist leader throughout the middle east.
The details are outlined in a Washington Post article by investigative reporter and former Army Intelligence case officer Jeff Stein.
Stein’s sources told him that during planning for the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the CIA’s Iraq Operations Group considered creating a fake video of Saddam Hussein engaged in sexual acts with a teenage boy, then flooding Iraq with copies of the tape.
That idea, along with faking Iraqi news bulletins, never came to fruition according to the former CIA officials, because agreement on the projects could not be reached between the Iraq Group and CIA’s Office of Technical Services.
However, the two sources reveal that the agency did previously concoct at least one fake Bin Laden video:
The agency actually did make a video purporting to show Osama bin Laden and his cronies sitting around a campfire swigging bottles of liquor and savoring their conquests with boys, one of the former CIA officers recalled, chuckling at the memory. The actors were drawn from “some of us darker-skinned employees,” he said.
The former officials told Stein that the project was taken over by the military after it ground to a halt:
The reality, the former officials said, was that the agency really didn’t have enough money and expertise to carry out the projects.
“The military took them over,” said one. “They had assets in psy-war down at Ft. Bragg,” at the army’s special warfare center.
(Read more from prisonplanet.com)
I fear similar capabilities will be brought to bear against those of us who resist our government’s growing tyranny.
Amnesty International complained in its annual report released Thursday that the U.S. and members of the European Union had obstructed international justice by using their positions on the UN Security Council to shield Israel from accountability for war crimes allegedly committed during last year’s Gaza war.
The rights group also accused Israel of continually violating human rights in the Gaza Strip. It cited Israel’s ongoing economic blockade as violating international law, leaving Gaza residents without adequate food or water supplies. (Read more from haaretz.com)
Israel is not a Western country, and hasn’t been for some time: helped along by this latest incident, the realization of this fact by Western governments and peoples will represent a turning point in the Jewish state’s relations with the civilized world, especially including Jews in the Diaspora. I have argued this for years: that the successful aliya program pushed by the Israeli government has displaced the old European-derived Israeli elites with a new, more Asiatic influence, one that is now – with the rise of the Israel far right – the dominant factor in Israeli politics.
Birthed by leftist Zionists who sought to build an egalitarian community in the midst of a desert, the modern state of Israel has taken on the characteristics of its neighbors – gone native, so to speak, both culturally and politically. The large scale infusion of North African and Asiatic populations has changed Israeli society irrevocably, so that, today, the rise of a thuggish fascist demagogue like Avigdor Lieberman, the former bouncer turned Foreign Minister, is all too believable. Lieberman isn’t a political anomaly: he and his party represent what is the dominant trend in Israeli politics. (Read more from antiwar.com)