betsy's blog

Big Oil pockets Iraq - All's fair in business and war. By Derrick Z. Jackson

Great article other than he neglected to mention the 1.2 million plus dead Iraqis in the first sentence and, of course, the 3,000+ 9/11 victims and all the sick and dying 9/11 first responders, Big Oil and empire's initial collateral damage. -- Betsy

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/opinion/21930919.html

Big Oil pockets Iraq
All's fair in business and war.

Derrick Z. Jackson
writes for the Boston Globe

It took five years, the deaths of 4,100 U.S. soldiers, and the wounding of 30,000 more to make Iraq safe for Exxon.

It is the inescapable open question since the reasons given by President Bush for the invasion and occupation did not exist - neither the weapons of mass destruction nor Saddam Hussein's ties to al-Qaeda and the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Welcome Home, Soldier: Now Shut Up By Paul Rockwell

"Moral courage is harder. It requires the bearer to walk away from the warm embrace of comradeship and denounce the myth of war as a fraud, to name it as an enterprise of death and immorality, to condemn himself, and those around him, as killers. It requires the bearer to become an outcast. There are times when taking a moral stance, perhaps the highest form of patriotism, means facing down the community, even the nation.”

" . . . only the truth can heal."

Excellent writing. -- Betsy

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article20191.htm

Welcome Home, Soldier: Now Shut Up

By Paul Rockwell

Ex Weapons Inspector: Iran Not Pursuing Nukes, But U.S. Will Attack Before '09 By Jason Leopold

Original Content at http://www.opednews.com/articles/Ex-Weapons-Inspector--Iran-by-Jason-Leopold-080626-731.html

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June 26, 2008

Ex Weapons Inspector: Iran Not Pursuing Nukes, But U.S. Will Attack Before '09

By Jason Leopold

Also published at my website, The Public Record.

In 2002, Scott Ritter, the former Chief United Nations Weapons Inspector In Iraq, publicly accused the Bush administration of lying to Congress and the public about assertions that Iraq was hiding a chemical and biological weapons arsenal.

By speaking out publicly, Ritter emerged as one of the most prominent whistleblowers since Daniel Ellsberg leaked the Pentagon Papers to The New York Times in the early 1970s.

Ritter’s criticisms about the Bush administration’s flawed prewar Iraq intelligence have been borne out by numerous investigations and reports, including one recently published by the Senate Armed Services Committee that found President George W. Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, and other senior administration officials knowingly lied about the threat Iraq posed to the United States.

Israel 'will attack Iran' before new US president sworn in, John Bolton predicts By Toby Harnden in Washington

Certainly sounds like they're prepping us, softening us up once again . . . between these comments and McCain's adviser's, Charlie Black, the other day. -- Betsy

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/israel/2182070/Israel-%27will-attack-Iran%27-before-new-US-president-...

Israel 'will attack Iran' before new US president sworn in, John Bolton predicts

By Toby Harnden in Washington

Last updated: 9:50 AM BST 24/06/2008

John Bolton, the former American ambassador to the United Nations, has predicted that Israel could attack Iran after the November presidential election but before George W Bush's successor is sworn in.
The Arab world would be "pleased" by Israeli strikes against Iranian nuclear facilities, he said in an interview with The Daily Telegraph.

"It [the reaction] will be positive privately. I think there'll be public denunciations but no action," he said.

Mr Bolton, an unflinching hawk who proposes military action to stop Iran developing nuclear weapons, bemoaned what he sees as a lack of will by the Bush administration to itself contemplate military strikes.

The Owners of the Country - George Carlin

I heard this particular routine on Lynn Samuels at Sirius earlier today - thought it worthwhile to post. He undoubtedly Knew. -- Betsy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dY4WlxO6i0&feature=related

Betsy
Summer of Truth, 2008

June 22, 2008 4th Amendment: Rest in Peace By Cindy Sheehan

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article20145.htm

4th Amendment: Rest in Peace

By Cindy Sheehan

4th Amendment
b. December 15, 1791
d. June 20, 2008

22/06/08 "ICH" -- - The 4th Amendment to the US constitution is just one more thing that has been murdered since bloody Emperor George took office in 2001: Over 4000 US soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan; over one million Iraqis and Afghanis and many of our brothers and sisters in this country who have been either killed or devastated by catastrophic climate change and other violence that has become rampant.

Among the things that have been murdered in George's quest to be the emperor of a vast US corporate-military empire are many aspects of our constitution.

A Totally Lawless Regime By Paul Craig Roberts

A Totally Lawless Regime

By Paul Craig Roberts

22/06/08 "ICH" --- Think about this question: In the 21st century what regime is more lawless than the Bush Regime?

Everyone is entitled to his own answer. The only answer I can come up with is the Zimbabwe regime of Robert Mugabe. Voted out of power in the last election, the great man hasn’t left. Zimbabweans are going to have to vote again, and the great man has said that any vote that is not for him will be cancelled by a bullet.

Does anyone remember how determined the British and the Americans and everyone else was to turn Rhodesia over to Mugabe in order to save Rhodesia from the evil Ian Smith? What a fool everyone was.

But before we laugh at those fools, we had best laugh at ourselves, or cry.

It is now an incontrovertible fact, known all over the world, that George W. Bush and his regime’s operatives lied through their teeth in order to launch wars of aggression against Afghanistan and Iraq, and that the Bush regime is doing the same thing again in hopes of launching an attack on Iran.

June 21, 2008 FISA in the Land of 9-11 Changed Everything By Blaine Kinsey

"Please ask your non-representatives to turn out the lights as they exit the Halls of Congress to campaign for re-election." -- Blaine Kinsey

I couldn't agree more. -- Betsy

Original Content at http://www.opednews.com/articles/FISA-IN-THE-LAND-OF-NINE-E-by-Blaine-Kinsey-080621-210.html
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June 21, 2008

FISA in the Land of 9-11 Changed Everything

By Blaine Kinsey

Yesterday was a day that will live in infamy due to the vote in the House of non-Representatives for FISA legislation that cripples the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution and also enables Congress to usurp the powers of the Judicial Branch by granting retroactive immunity to the telecommunication providers that assisted with the so-called Terrorist Surveillance Program. Quisling Democrats are calling this legislation a compromise, but that is only true in the sense that they have needlessly compromised the Constitution due to cowardice and shallow political considerations. An analysis of the vote quickly reveals that the minority Republicans still control the debate in Congress.

June 21, 2008 9/11 QUESTIONS STILL SMOLDERING OVERSEAS By Allen L Roland

Original Content at http://www.opednews.com/articles/9-11-QUESTIONS-STILL-SMOLD-by-Allen-L-Roland-080621-87.html
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June 21, 2008

9/11 QUESTIONS STILL SMOLDERING OVERSEAS

By Allen L Roland

When Pandora's Box is finally fully opened on the deceptions and abuses of power by the Cheney/Bush administration ~ the 9/11 coverup will stand alone as the most treasonous act in American history: Allen L Roland

Since the American mainstream media has completely dropped the ball on the 9/11 coverup by the Cheney/Bush administration ~ the Europeans are picking up the slack particularly in Japan.
In January 2008 Yukihisa Fujita, a member of the Democratic Party of Japan, asked the Japanese Parliament and Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda to explain gaping holes in the official 9/11 story that various groups claim to have exposed.

John Spiri, in a special to the Japan Times, writes of how Fujita, along with a growing number of individuals ~ including European and American politicians ~ are leading a charge to conduct a thorough, independent investigation of what happened on Sept. 11, 2001.

Excerpt:

June 19, 2008 Impeach Bush now? By Ray McGovern

Sadly, I'm pretty much convinced that "the people" will not wake up until another 9/11 happens or an attack on Iran commences . . . How much more evidence do "the people" and Congress need?

I feel a calm before the storm right now, but on a positive note, maybe that storm will allow 9/11 truth to finally be exposed . . . --Betsy

Original Content at http://www.opednews.com/articles/Impeach-Bush-now--by-Ray-McGovern-080619-333.html
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June 19, 2008

Impeach Bush now?

By Ray McGovern

United States Rep. John Conyers, the Detroit Democrat who chairs the House Judiciary Committee, has a rendezvous with destiny. He is uniquely placed to thrust a rod through the wheels of a White House juggernaut to war with Iran by commencing impeachment proceedings against President George W. Bush.

A move to impeach would bolster the resistance to Bush among our senior military leaders who know that attacking Iran at this time would be the strategic equivalent of the marches into Russia by Napoleon and Hitler.

HR 6304 - A Bill to Abolish the 4th Amendment

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIJdmePn4lY

On June 20, 2008 - 293 Representatives voted in favor to invalidate the 4th Amendment
But before they voted, this is what our leaders in Washington had to say about HR6304
(Assembled by the team at http://www.washingtonyourefired.com/)

AMENDMENT IV:
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.
-- BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

John Yoo, Totalitarian By Paul Craig Roberts

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article20133.htm

John Yoo, Totalitarian

By Paul Craig Roberts

19/06/08 "ICH" - -- - John Yoo stands outside the Anglo-American legal tradition. His views lead to self-incrimination wrung out of a victim by torture. He believes a president of the US can initiate war, even on false pretenses, and then use the war he starts as cover for depriving US citizens of habeas corpus protection. A US attorney general informed by Yoo’s memos even went so far as to tell the Senate Judiciary Committee that the Constitution does not provide habeas corpus protection to US citizens.

Yoo’s animosity to US civil liberties made him a logical choice for appointment to the Bush Regime’s Department of Justice (sic), but his appointment as a law professor at the University of California, Berkeley, shatters that university’s liberal image.

Habeas corpus is a centuries-old British legal reform that stopped authorities from arbitrarily throwing a person into a dungeon and leaving him there forever without presenting charges in a court of law. Without this protection, there can be no liberty.

Bomb Iran? What's to Stop Us? By Ray McGovern June 19, 2008

Bomb Iran? What's to Stop Us?

By Ray McGovern - June 19, 2008

It’s crazy, but it’s coming soon – from the same folks who brought us Iraq.

Unlike the attack on Iraq five years ago, to deal with Iran there need be no massing of troops. And, with the propaganda buildup already well under way, there need be little, if any, forewarning before shock and awe and pox – in the form of air and missile attacks – begin.

This time it will be largely the Air Force’s show, punctuated by missile and air strikes by the Navy. Israeli-American agreement has now been reached at the highest level; the armed forces planners, plotters and pilots are working out the details.

Emerging from a 90-minute White House meeting with President George W. Bush on June 4, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said the two leaders were of one mind:

Democracy Now! June 17, 2008 Former Senator Mike Gravel Calls for Independent 9/11 Investigation and Prosecution of President

9/11 Truth edges into mainstream alternative news . . . This is a milestone. --Betsy

http://www.democracynow.org/2008/6/17/former_senator_mike_gravel_calls

A daily TV/radio news program, hosted by Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez, airing on over 700 stations, pioneering the largest community media collaboration in the U.S. HomeDonateStoreStationsPast

Democracy Now!
June 17, 2008

Former Senator Mike Gravel Calls for Independent 9/11 Investigation and Prosecution of President Bush and Vice President Cheney

The former Democratic senator from Alaska discusses his presidential campaign, his role in the releasing of the Pentagon Papers and his support for NYC 9/11 Ballot Initiative Campaign, a grassroots group seeking to place an initiative on the ballot of the November 6th general election allowing registered New York City voters to create a new commission to investigate 9/11. [includes rush transcript]

Guest:

Sen. Mike Gravel, former Democratic senator from Alaska, who served two terms from 1969 to 1981, and a former candidate in the 2008 presidential election.

9/11 Ballot Initiative Campaign

Bush/Cheney Transcripts Subpoenaed By Jason Leopold

More lies and deceit exposed to the masses who previously would not believe that Bush & Cheney were capable of treason ("they would never") means one step closer for 9/11 Truth. -- Betsy

http://www.consortiumnews.com/2008/061708b.html

Bush/Cheney Transcripts Subpoenaed

By Jason Leopold
June 17, 2008

A House committee has subpoenaed FBI transcripts of interviews with President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney regarding their possible roles in the exposure of covert CIA officer Valerie Plame Wilson.

Rep. Henry Waxman, D-California, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, issued the subpoena on Monday to Attorney General Michael Mukasey in the latest chapter of a standoff over what Bush and Cheney told a special prosecutor about the case in 2004.

Earlier this month, the Justice Department denied Waxman’s request for a voluntary release of the interview transcripts on grounds that it “raises serious separation of powers and heightened confidentiality concerns.”

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