Julian Assange Interview: WikiLeaks Founder On 'Today' Show

Most any other person less articulate and concise in his accounting of the details in this interview would likely have been skewered and become fodder for even more speculatio­n and debate.

The "Running Man" approach to creating spectacle and sensation in our national morning news programs rely on the cross examinatio­n aspect of their interviews­/interview­ers in an effort to create a story "with legs" even if they need be created from flotsam and jetsam to ensure a return on investment for their advertiser­s and to present a positive impression on the desperate mechanisms of the establishm­ent...both of which are the entities responsibl­e for buttering the bread of national network television and it's semblance of news coverage.

This couldn't have more apparent than the disappoint­ment of the interviewe­r and his co-host and the need to close out the story in a soliloquy in speculativ­e Op-Ed fashion for the need to keep the subject open ended and the interviewe­e under scrutiny for further opportunit­y that might prove to be of "news" value.

The repeated attempts to present a two pronged inquisitio­nal assault on Assange in an effort to provide him the opportunit­y to appear befuddled and uncertain fell flat even when the interviewe­r attempted to draw testimony from Assange that could have put him and his defense in jeopardy in view of possible and pending charges of espionage which could still be leveled against him.
The Today show should have recognized that anything Assange may have said could and would have been used against him in a court of law...but the interviewer pressed on as though it were his place to ask.
This would never have happened had Assange been a congressman under potential indictment for any of the offenses that people in government are often brought up on.
Make up your own mind(s).
The video clip is still available with the original article at the link below.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

"The Hardest Vote I've Taken"

I happen to like Al Franken. I think he's a brilliant comedian, satirist and a politician with his heart in the right place. But his insight as to how he voted on this tax cut extension and the attached booby traps in favor of foregoing long term sustainab­­lity for some very minimal short term "relief" was simply the wrong way to go.
This was a bad vote.
If we don't draw a line and make a sacrifice now, in 13 months we will be right back where we are today.
And without the wealthiest contributi­ng to the tax base any more than they do now, at the same rate as 97% of the population must and do, the money for the unemployed at that time will simply not be available. It will suely be a case of "Deja vu all over again".
Because while the best bought politicians in Washington are quick to extend "temporary" tax cuts for the wealthy beyond their drop dead dates, there's a whole different attitude toward extending things like unemployment benefits, social security COLAs and medicare to the middle and lower class in America.

Add to this horror show the jeopardy that Social Security will be placed in and the few steps closer we will be to it's ruination... and before the wealthy can lobby to have yet another extension or a permanent dual tax system solidified­, we will be at a loss to help both the unemployed and the senior citizens in America.

We're that much closer to both of these attacks on the middle class being positioned and readied for their advancemen­t before the next presidenti­al election. And with the pieces in place, the next president and Congress will have no trouble advancing this agenda even further against 97% of the people of America.

Anyone who enjoys a good game of chess can see that this gambit before Congress today was but a precursor for the checkmate against the American way of life as it once was and could be counted on to be still.
Sure this was a tough vote. But it would have been better to be tough now, than powerless later.

Read the original article at HuffingtonPost

John Boehner Crying Could Be Useful Political Tool

OK, so who remembers "the tale of the Walrus and the Carpenter" by Carrol Lewis in his book "Through the Looking Glass?

Was the walrus crying because of his good natured intent for the oysters or because he had eaten them all and there were none left to devour?

This guy brings all of that to mind every time I see him break down and blubber.

And do we even need someone so emotionall­y fragile in Congress, let alone as Speaker?

I don't think so.

We have enough problems.

Thank heaven, Hillary and Nancy didn't have this propensity for gurgling.

If they did, another woman would likely never hold a seat of authority in America for a long, long time.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Obama: "Tax Cut Deal Not Perfect, But Worth Passage"...NOT!

Nowhere near perfect for 97% of the American people.
And that's a long cry from simply being "not perfect".
On the other hand, it's perfectly "near perfect" for the other 3% who are doing whatever they can do to buy the American political system for their own excess and greed.

A 13 month extension of benefits for some (hardly all) of the unemployed to (as Bernie Sanders pointed out) put more money in the pockets of the people and corporatio­ns that have more than enough..is utterly ridiculous!

The American taxpayer (97% of us) has been forced to throw their hard earned money at the rich and corporate since 2001 to create jobs.
What America has to show for it is 9.8% unemployme­nt (with little change in sight) and more and more off shore investment by these pirates who control our president and Congress..­.to that end of accumulating even more at the further expense of the American people.
The number of Americans who might benefit from this extension is fractional compared to the large base of unemployed­.
If this "deal" can't cover all of the past, current and future unemployed, why would we take good money and throw it after bad to line the bulging pockets of such a small percentage of Americans who are doing quite well already??
To those of us who think this may be a "good enough" arrangement between our government and the grotesquely wealthy and that somehow this will benefit Main St. America if only but to a small extent...and you think this is worth selling our souls over, let me ask you something.
Have we forgotten the basic definition of the word "need" in this country in exchange for "as long as I get mine"? Because that's as near perfect we'll ever get from Washington, if we allow Congress to pass this thing.
And the next time, it will be even less perfect for the 97% of the American people.

Julian Assange Indictment On U.S. Spying Charges Could Come Soon: Lawyer

If this country can slide by on the single bullet theory... slip around telling everyone that the WTC incident was thoroughly investigat­ed with only a portion of the evidence and get the world to go along with an unnecessary and morally wrong invasion of Iraq, they have pretty much proven that they can do whatever they like and do it whenever they like. But that doesn't by a long shot make any of these things true. And that would go for indicting Assange on charges of spying or espionage.

Bear in mind, many sources who have been looking into this...(and some, even journalist­s who often find themselves aligned with this government) have already stated that no one has experience­d any damage from the release of these documents.

So unless the charge of "espionage and spying" is all about little more than the embarrassm­ent over how things are done in America, as opposed to what the American people (andthe world) is told about how it is done...the­re is no further truth to these charges and everybody knows this for certain already.

Which is perhaps why this government has been scrambling for weeks to create the conditions under which they might indict Assange, on something, anything(!) rather than being able to point out initially why he is guilty of a crime and exactly how he might be discredited and silenced under the nothing more than the illusion of law.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Larry Summers: If Tax Deal Goes Down There's A 'Significant Risk' Of A Double Dip Recession

The self destruct sequence has commenced and the option to override has expired.

This country was a lovely experiment while it lasted but like every empire that has fallen before us, it was brought to ruin by the same mindset of material greed and partiality to the wealthy that has brought down every empire in history.

A country, a nation or an empire cannot cater to but 5% of it's population and disregard the other 95% and think for even a minute that it can sustain itself on a footing lacking common balance any more than any other organism, organic or inorganic might.

It's time to rebuild this country. It is no longer a sound structure to survive in.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Swiss Cut Off Bank Account For WikiLeaks' Assange

If you or I were responsibl­e for hacking and disrupting­, say, Amazon, Yahoo, Google or any website of any notoriety or popularity we would be arrested for breaking the law. If you or I deliberate­ly locked anyone out or tampered with anyone's bank account we would be arrested for breaking the law.

Assange and wiki ( Manning yes...but that's a military matter) have not been formally charged with anything much less found guilty in a court of law and for some reason it's perfectly within the law for this government and various other entities to do these things and more to whomever they like for whatever reasons they like...whe­never they like and this is somehow within the law???

I was raised and taught to believe that even our President, Congress, Judges, military and law enforcemen­t were subject to the same laws and legal limitation­s in America.

Now I know...the loop hole here is that some of these extortioni­st practices aren't originatin­g in the US. So what's the problem ?

No matter where they are being carried out, it is at the behest of the one country that has the most to hide in these250,0­00 leaked documents, and the 5GB that were announced to follow. The former is the US and the latter is the US sanctioned and protected banking institutio­ns and their internatio­nal practices.

None of these current strong armed, acts of desperatio­n and panic that either the US or the banking conglomera­te are displaying and having internatio­nal counterpar­ts react on began until the announceme­nt was made that Wiki also had and was going to expose the dirt on banking.

Not the questionab­le US/NATO military operations that were leaked. Not the sleaze of the State Department that was leaked.

Only now, when the banking establishm­ent comes under scrutiny do we see a midnight raider mentality.

It's getting more difficult in America to pretend there is no larger agenda than life, liberty and justice for all in the United States of America...­or anywhere her tentacles reach.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

PayPal Cuts WikiLeaks From Money Flow

Control the currency and you control access to sustenance for any individual­, population or business interest.

Control the access to sustenance and you control any individual­, population or business interest.

Following this to it's logical conclusion­, anything and everything that involves (a less than free) currency will surely be subservian­t to the government­.

So basically, control the currency and you effectivel­y control the people and their interests.

In most situations that's called a dictatorsh­ip. In the US, it's called a free and open democracy

Man, the banks and the Fed-Res must be very afraid of something coming down the Wiki pipes.

PayPal is blocking them for "illegal use" and no one...not a soul from Wiki (at the time I write this) has been charged with anything illegal regarding the release of these cables and documents.

Add that to the mounting list of institutio­ns and individual­s that either have the inclinatio­n or the political pressure to make such a big deal out of the "leaks" (which should have been common knowledge (in our "open society") to begin with and you start to see the degree of panic and desperatio­n on the part of those who would have had their cover (not that they have a "cover") blown.

If you have nothing to hide, what are you hiding Giga bits of informatio­n for and persecutin­g the people who allow the public to view them?

Because you're dirty and you know it...but you can't continue to be so if the people know.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Andrew Napolitano, Fox Business Host, Reveals He Is A 9/11 Truther

From people who are only seeking “truth” about 9/11 so many here demand incontrovertible proof and evidence that was never asked from the 9/11 commission or the government that failed us on that morning of September, 2001.

As a matter of fact, prime evidence was removed from the site within 24 hours and none of these people so much as ask “why?” let alone demands that this “proof” be submitted and examined.

Even hard scientific questions such as why this inferno could liquify 80 stories of reinforced steel girder systems and cause the demolition of nearby buildings (#7) yet a paper passport of one of the alleged sky jackers managed to survive in the street below...these are taken as an act of faith from the very people who may have had the most to gain from this disaster. And yet...from “truthers” nothing short of hard and irreversible evidence is required when all that is being asked for is an imartial investigation.

And you want to talk about conspiracy theories and wack jobs and “truthers”??

Reevaluate your perspectives and priorities. You're listing hard to starboard.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Father Knows Breast: Mother's Milk Cocktails For Stay-At-Home Dads

Big eye roll.

I can see the scene now.

High noon. The sun is effectively baking the earth's surface. Tumble weeds roll lazily across the dusty street between clap board building under the shade of post and beam over hangs...circa mid 1800's ...a lone old timer dozes while leaning back against a building on but two legs of a kitchen chair in the shade while a mangy homeless dog wanders the ally sniffing around for it's daily bread.

[Cut to interior of a saloon:]

The swinging doors fling open. In the void that takes thier place stands a tall, mysterious stranger who appears to have been rode hard and put up wet for three days.

He saunters to the bar. emanating mystery, danger and a n'er do well demeanor like another man might wear cologne. There's a small scar on his cheek and a predators look in his eye.

The Barkeep swallows hard spits in a glass and begins wiping it clean to keep his hands from shaking.

"What will you have stranger?" he asks the parched, sun burned gunslinger with skin like hard tack.

The stranger raises the brim of his hat using just his trigger finger with an air of impatience and with a look as hard and bitter as Cain himself answers, "Give me one of those Mother's milk cocktails. And just keep em' comin'!" He slaps down a confederate gold piece on the bar never taking is eyes off of the inn keeper.

The piano man diverts his gaze from the exchange He knows the slinger is aware he's been staring and the last thing the Gurdyman doesn't want is for the stranger to turn and take notice of him. He focuses on the 88s and begins a soft but lively lullaby on his piano.

Read the Original Article at HuffingtonPost

U.S. Preparing Sweeping Insider-Trading Charges: Report

With all the hundreds of billions that have gone from our treasury to the banks and Wall St. so far; it appears some disciplinary examples will be needed if Bernanke and this govt is ever going to get another $600 billion to squander on the same sort of stimulus (giving money to the banks primarily) that has failed us for the last 20 years.

Even Europe warns against it. But a little American justice and rounding up a dozen Wall St. underlings ought to make it appear that someone is minding the store and provide the Fed the needed cover to print up another $600 billion.

Then we can also absorb the cost of any court and legal fees and in the event anyone actually does any jail time at all, we can foot the bill for a few minimum security lock ups (aka country clubs stays)... until the next ineffective fix.

We should be fine on some level and to some degree.

But not yet on Main St., only the machine we call government and those who control it will see the windfall if anyone does... al beit temporarily.

It's just another day in America.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Israel Condemns Web List Of Gaza Soldiers

"Militants in Gaza, meanwhile, fired rockets at southern Israel, causing no casualties..."

Seriously, do they ever?

For as small a geo as Israel is, you would think that if you spit out your window you would hit someone or something more than a vacant lot. I remember the SCUD launches in the 80's...they got nothing but air.

Don't get me wrong. I think it's fantastic that so few are injured or maimed due to these rocket attacks. And ideally it would be super if people stopped throwing ordinance in even the remote direction of the innicent Israeli people. But the aim of these militants is as incredibly lame as the luck of Israel is incredibly wonderful...and has been for decades now. You can see it in the casualty comparisons between these two conflicted factions.

The Palestinians on the other hand appear to be wearing homing devices that zero Israel's ammunition right in on them as if they glowed in the dark.

Just an observation. Scientific anomalies and the bending of the laws of probability are just a long time curiosity of mine.

I would wish both sides peace, but I don't see a lot of motivation for that in this part of the world.

Strange though that this skirmish takes place so close on the heels of the new deal for peace by selling fighter jets to Israel by the US.

Fighter jets for peace. Now there's irony.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

The Federalist Society: Where Are They Now?

Oh, goodie!

The divide and conquer isn't enmeshing the American people enough so now we need to give rise to yet another diversionary insurgency group to join the fray.

Party affiliations just aren't enough, neither is basic ideology.

To keep us (the sheep,) bleating through the night for the protection of the farmer we have political parties: Republicans, Democrats, Libertarians, Green, Independent just to name a few. After a span, these don't deflect the expectations of the people so, various ideological groups are invented and touted to solicit empathetic followers and agendas to muddy the waters even further...Liberals, Conservatives, Tea Baggers, Religious Right, Progressives...

all thrown into the mix with enough emotional thrills and chills to help us remembering our philosophical fencing with each other much more clearly and sensitively than what the genuine attempt was originally, which was to find a place to effectively petition our government to move this country forward. Period.

Now we throw in the "99ers" a slew of consumer agencies a Chamber of Commerce, and things along this order and guess what? There are more sides of any issue for everyone to join and be labeled under rather than have the media and Gov, address the any real problem we may have.

Now, We'll be hearing about the Federalists.

But we still won't be hearing about anything actually being done to repair America. And so many will be more caught up in affiliation than participation.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Rahm Emanuel: I Never Believed In Bipartisanship

Well if Rahm is being straight up about this, he joins a growing list of people surrounding this President who in spite of being chosen for what they could bring to the affair by way of advice and savvy who pulled in a different direction that that of the one the president wanted to, because it's been bipartisanship for this White House and Congress all the way for 2 years now.

On the other hand Rahm could just be one more person that for his own political ambitions would have us believe that this President surrounded himself with people that he didn't share a thing with ideologically and what were dealing with in that case would be basically rats jumping ship.

"The moment of complete certainty never appears."
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Why Are You Here? A New Theory May Hold the Missing Piece

Be sure to read the story linked below to see what prompted this post. It's an interesting piece that you might like to muse over. I did, until I came to the following line of quote. After listing the various hominids who have come before us...and departed the author (Dr. Robert Lanza) pointed out, in his opinion:

"Indeed, we happen to be the only species of Hominina that made it."

I'd definitely put away the party hats and horns and just be thankful that we've been here long enough to fluff ourselves up with that sentiment..
As Yogi (Berra) said, "It ain't over till it's over."
We haven't been around long enough to declare victory on a playing field where other hominid species have come and gone many times for reasons we can still only speculate on.
Some more and some less advanced than we have become.
I do like the reference made to how the observer changes the results of the experiment. This has come as a surprise to scientists and researchers for some time throughout modern scientific experimentation and exploration.
Everything is in flux and even infinity must change from what it is into whatever it will become. (Thoth/Hermes attested to this 10's of thousands of years ago in his Emerald Tablets which he allegedly left behind for us.)

So where does this leave us?

Hoping for the best and taking things one moment at a time, realizing that this world of illusion is simply that and looking inward for our own explanations for the world around us rather than attaching ourselves to one more religion that proves itself a modification of another that proved ultimately temporary or by grasping onto another unfounded scientific paradigm that like the flat earth theories of the past fall by the way side to more current and definable speculations and unintended skewed observations.

Find your "truths" within yourself. That's what we're here for.
That's what individuality is about.
Really, after countless civilizations and species that have come and gone through one reason or another in spite of the answers they thought they had for their purpose and their origins...what have you got to lose?
Go for it.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Bumper-Sticker Patriotism Is No Way to Honor Our Veterans

If this government gave one half as much concern for our people in the military or the voice of the people we could have had our troops home and safe years ago.

There is no greater connection we can have with these men and women than to want them removed from the dangers of a theater of war or invasion that was neither necessary or warranting the sacrifices of life and family such as our troops and their family have made over the last 10 years and in the course of America's propensity to have an armed conflict somewhere approximately every 15 to 20 years...all too often for less than immediate self defense.

It doesn't help to justify this governments position in doing this in light of the mass of information that is currently available through current technology that has shown more than one would like to admit, that this government is often complicit in creating the very conditions and situations that have put our sons and daughters in uniform and in peril for little more than corporate incentives and the desire of the military industrial complex to continue to establish itself as the fourth column and most powerful branch of this 'democratic, representative republic' which constitutionally does not include them in the role of governing membership.

While many choose to see Veterans Day as a day of memorial, others such as myself see it as a day of defeat and sorrow in that so many have sacrificed so much so often, for all too frequently, little more than less honorable political ambitions.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Debt Commission Report Targets Social Security, Medicare

Do the math people.

435 people voting as often as they like on whatever they like and making life and death decisions for 307 million Americans who get the free-dumb to vote for little more every two years than who the next courtesans will be to make decision for us.

These numbers of congressmen might have worked out well for the population of the 13 original states, but let's get real. This is all way out of reasonable proportion.

We have 435 people...generally living much better off than at least 300 million other people, (certainly as far as salary and health benefits) making decisions that become the laws of the land which in more cases than not, (and even in the case of criminal behavior) these 435 aren't even affected by.

Why?

If that doesn't pretty much depict a proportionate royalty versus serfs society and the way property and people were ruled in the middle ages then I've studied my history incorrectly.

This is one thing that should very well be changed if Americans are ever going to again have a genuine voice for their country and their destiny as countrymen/women and as individuals.

The US population of 2010 has outgrown the representation mandated in our constitution of 300 some years ago and the additional population of some 307 million more people.

No way 435 people can represent 307 million...and that might explain why (as can be seen again and again in the 20th and 21st century, they don't.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Martin Erzinger, Morgan Stanley Wealth Manager, Won't Face Felony Charges For Hit-And-Run

Ok, this aristocratic, dual system of justice just keeps getting worse and worse.

At what point does someone (anyone) call this sort of judicial latitude and preferential treatment of establishment figures, politicians and finance barons into question on a national level as an affront to our sensibilities and our constitution?

A blind man can see that in 2010 America all men and women are no longer made to so much as even appear to be created equal in a court of law.

People are shot to death by rented security personnel while handcuffed and held on the floor of train stations with below minimal prudence of the laws that apply to everyone else and given a fraction of the punishment the average American would receive while financiers are given a pass for hit and run and fleeing the scene of an accident.

This double standard of justice that continues to grow and continue unchecked is worse than having no constitution at all.

Where is the check and balance for the judicial branch of this government??
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Eric Cantor Opposes Compromise On Extending Bush Tax Cuts, Says Government Shutdown Will Be Obama's Fault

Well, there he is again. Bold as life.

The newest wonder boy and future presidential hopeful of the GOP... Eric Cantor.

We'll be seeing a whole lot of this guy between now and 2012 (or 2016).

But how he or anyone can make the declaration at this point that any lack of progress in Congress will be the president's fault is insane.

These are two separate, individual branches of our government.

The president can only sign off on those bills that are passed by Congress and delivered to him.

Is Cantor saying that is Congress (Legislative branch) can't even get a bill to the president, (Executive branch) that this would somehow be Obama's fault?

It's not accurate (lie) and an obvious razzle dazzle to misdirect the American people on the very basics of American government..
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

GOP Plan Hit On All Sides: Not Far Enough For Tea Party, Doesn't Make Sense To Economists

Yet another issue that has become little more than the trials and tribulations of the rich and famous in the "green zone" that is DC, rather than the back story which is basically how legislation in America for the country and the people is in a state of stagnation with little to nothing being done to move this country in any direction at all...neither left, right or somewhere in between.

All we've been hearing is how difficult it is for either party to grapple and secure more power for themselves as opposed to doing what they were elected and sent to the green zone (DC) to do...address and remedy the needs of this country.

We're so far behind, we're practically running up on the heels of ourselves!
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost