Washington Post | June 16, 2007
Jose Antonio Vargas
On Technorati, which offers a real-time glimpse of the blogosphere, the most frequently searched term this week was "YouTube."
Then comes "Ron Paul."
The presence of the obscure Republican congressman from Texas on a list that includes terms such as "Sopranos," "Paris Hilton" and "iPhone" is a sign of the online buzz building around the long-shot Republican presidential hopeful -- even as mainstream political pundits have written him off.
Rep. Ron Paul is more popular on Facebook than Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.). He's got more friends on MySpace than former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney. His MeetUp groups, with 11,924 members in 279 cities, are the biggest in the Republican field. And his official YouTube videos, including clips of his three debate appearances, have been viewed nearly 1.1 million times -- more than those of any other candidate, Republican or Democrat, except Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.).
No one's more surprised at this robust Web presence than Paul himself, a self-described "old-school," "pen-and-paper guy" who's serving his 10th congressional term and was the Libertarian Party's nominee for president in 1988.
"To tell you the truth, I hadn't heard about this YouTube and all the other Internet sites until supporters started gathering in them," confessed Paul, 71, who said that he's raised about $100,000 after each of the three debates. Not bad considering that his campaign had less than $10,000 when his exploratory committee was formed in mid-February. "I tell you I've never raised money as efficiently as that, in all my years in Congress, and all I'm doing is speaking my mind."
That means saying again and again that the Republican Party, especially when it comes to government spending and foreign policy, is in "shambles."
But while many Democrats have welcomed the young and fresh-faced Obama, who's trailing Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) in most public opinion polls, Paul is barely making a dent in the Republican polls.
Republican strategists point out that libertarians, who make up a small but vocal portion of the Republican base, intrinsically gravitate toward the Web's anything-goes, leave-me-alone nature. They also say that his Web presence proves that the Internet can be a great equalizer in the race, giving a much-needed boost to a fringe candidate with little money and only a shadow of the campaign staffs marshaled by Romney, McCain and former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani.
An obstetrician and gynecologist, Paul is known as "Dr. No" in the House of Representatives. No to big government. No to the Internal Revenue Service. No to the federal ban on same-sex marriage.
"I'm for the individual," Paul said. "I'm not for the government."
If he had his way, the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Education, among other agencies, would not exist. In his view, the USA Patriot Act, which allows the government to search personal data, including private Internet use, is unconstitutional, and trade deals such as the North American Free Trade Agreement are a threat to American independence.
But perhaps what most notably separates Paul from the crowded Republican field, headed by what former Virginia governor James S. Gilmore III calls "Rudy McRomney," is his stance on the Iraq war. He's been against it from the very beginning.
After the second Republican presidential debate last month, when Paul implied that American foreign policy has contributed to anti-Americanism in the Middle East -- "They attack us because we're over there. We've been bombing Iraq for 10 years," Paul said -- he was attacked by Giuliani, and conservatives such as Saul Anuzis were livid. Anuzis, chairman of the Michigan GOP, threatened to circulate a petition to bar Paul from future Republican presidential debates. Though the petition never materialized, Anuzis's BlackBerry was flooded with e-mails and his office was inundated with calls for several days. "It was a distraction, no doubt," he said.
The culprits: Paul's growing number of supporters, some of whom posted Anuzis's e-mail address and office phone number on their blogs.
"At first I was skeptical of his increasing online presence, thinking that it's probably just a small cadre of dedicated Ron Paul fans," said Matt Lewis, a blogger and director of operations at Townhall, a popular conservative site. "But if you think about it, the number one issue in the country today is Iraq. If you're a conservative who supports the president's war, you have nine candidates to choose from. But if you're a conservative who believes that going into Iraq was a mistake, Ron Paul is the only game in town."
Added Terry Jeffrey, the syndicated newspaper columnist who ran Patrick J. Buchanan's failed White House bid in 1996: "On domestic issues like spending and taxation and the role of government, Ron Paul is saying exactly what traditional conservatives have historically thought, and he's pointing out that the Bush administration has walked away from these principles. That's a very attractive argument."
Especially to someone such as Brad Porter, who obsessively writes about Paul on his blog, subscribes to Paul's YouTube channel and attended a Ron Paul MeetUp event in Pittsburgh last week.
The 28-year-old Carnegie Mellon student donated $50 to Paul's coffers after the first debate, and an additional $50 after the third debate.
"For a poor college student, that's a lot," said Porter, a lifelong Republican. "But I'm not supporting him because I think he could get the nomination. I'm supporting him because I think he can influence the national conversation about what the role of government is, how much power should government have over our lives, how much liberty should we give up for security. These are important issues, and frankly, no one's thinking about them as seriously and sincerely as Ron Paul."
CanWest News Service | June 7, 2007
Kevin Dougherty
QUEBEC - Quebecers will be distinct from other Canadians in another way starting this fall: they'll have the country's first designated "carbon tax" to help fight global warming.
Natural Resources Minister Claude Bechard, who announced Wednesday that a 0.8-cent-a-litre carbon tax will come into force on Oct 1, added that he hopes the oil companies, which are reporting record profits, would absorb the tax and not pass it on to the consumer. Oil industry spokespeople were unavailable for comment late Wednesday afternoon.
The tax, Bechard said, is based on the "polluter pays" principle. "That is not negotiable," the minister said.
The carbon tax will raise $200 million a year to finance Quebec's plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and favour public transit.
Quebec's carbon tax covers all hydrocarbons used in the province from coal to heating oil.
The amount of the carbon tax varies according to the amount of carbon dioxide each fuel produces.
For gasoline, the tax is 0.8 cents a litre, the charge for diesel is 0.9 cents, for light heating oil 0.96 cents, heavy heating oil 1 cent a litre, coke used in steel making 1.3 cents a litre, coal $8 a tonne and propane 0.5 cents a litre.
Bechard noted that Ultramar, which operates Quebec's largest refinery, has said it would consider absorbing the new tax and had not made up its mind.
"We hope at 0.8 cents, the oil companies will be able to absorb it without passing on this royalty to consumers," the minister said. "Especially when you realize that refinery profit margins have gone in the last three, four months from 8 cents a litre to about 19, 20, 22 cents a litre."
Asked why he thinks the oil companies will absorb the carbon tax, Bechard said, "Well, we count on the goodwill of the gas companies." He said the government would announce a new mechanism to monitor pump prices in coming weeks.
Bechard has also threatened to impose a ceiling price on gasoline. Wednesday he said an announcement on that matter would be made in a "few days."
Floyd Anderson | June 4, 2007
Austin, Texas - Dr. Steven Jones reveals that he has discovered the existence of thermate in the WTC dust. Thermate is a combination of thermite and sulfur, and is a compound that can cut through steel. Wikipedia describes thermate as an incendiary compound used for military applications. Its presence at the WTC site suggests that the collapsed buildings contained pre-planted explosives and adds strength to the controlled demolition theory. A company called Securacom provided security for the World Trade Center, as well as for United Airlines and Dulles International Airport. Marvin P. Bush, brother of U.S. president George W. Bush, was a principal in this security company.
Dr. Jones also recently conducted experiments to determine the likelihood of NIST’s conclusion that the orange material flowing out of WTC 2 was aluminum alloys from Flight 175. Jones' results show that heated liquid aluminum alloys are silver in color, whereas a thermate reaction upon steel will produce an orange molten metal like that seen flowing out of the World Trade Center tower in the above image.
A Project for a New American Citizen Conference:
Rebuilding America's Senses 4/14/2007-4/15/2007
Daniel Estulin | May 21, 2007
In 1954, the most powerful men in the world met for the first time under the auspices of the Dutch royal crown and the Rockefeller family in the luxurious Hotel Bilderberg of the small Dutch town of Oosterbeck. For an entire weekend they debated the future of the world. When it was over, they decided to meet once every year to exchange ideas and analyze international affairs. They named themselves the Bilderberg Club. Since then, they have gathered yearly in a luxurious hotel somewhere in the world to decide the future of humanity.
In more than fifty years of meetings that brings together unprecedented power and money in the same time and place, never has any information been leaked as to what subjects were debated during the Bilderberg Club meetings. Bilderberg, one of the world’s most powerful secret organizations is run out of an 18m2 offices, staffed by one person, using one telephone line and a single fax number. There is no web page and no brass name plate on the door. The independent press has never been allowed in, and no statements have ever been released on the attendees’ conclusions nor has any agenda for a Bilderberg meeting been made public. How, in God’s name, can this be possible when Bilderberg´s elite membership list includes all of the most powerful individuals who run the Planet?
Leaders of the Bilderberg Club argue that this discretion is necessary to allow participants in the debates to speak freely without being on the record or reported publicly. Otherwise, Bilderbergers state, they would be forced to speak in the language of a press release. Doubtlessly, this discretion allows the Bilderberg Club to deliberate more freely, but that does not respond to the fundamental question: What do the world’s most powerful people talk about in these meetings?
Any modern democratic system protects the right to privacy, but doesn’t the public have a right to know what their political leaders are talking about when they meet the wealthiest business leaders of their respective countries?
What guarantees do citizens have that the Bilderberg Club isn’t a centre for influence trafficking and lobbying if they aren’t allowed to know what their representatives talk about at the Club’s secret gatherings? Why are the Davos World Economic Forum and G8 meetings carried in every newspaper, given front page coverage, with thousands of journalists in attendance, while no one covers Bilderberg Club meetings even though they are annually attended by Presidents of the International Monetary Fund, The World Bank, Federal Reserve, chairmen of 100 most powerful corporations in the world such as DaimlerChrysler, Coca Cola, British Petroleum, Chase Manhattan Bank, American Express, Goldman Sachs, Microsoft, Vice Presidents of the United States, Directors of the CIA and the FBI, General Secretaries of NATO, American Senators and members of Congress, European Prime Ministers and leaders of opposition parties, top editors and CEOs of the leading newspapers in the world. It is surprising that no mainstream corporate media outlets consider a gathering of such figures, whose wealth far exceeds the combined wealth of all United States citizens, to be newsworthy when a trip by any one of them on their own makes headline news on TV.
The delegates at Bilderberg 2007: Istanbul, Turkey May 31-June 3
This year’s delegation will once again include all of the most important politicians, businessmen, central bankers, European Commissioners and executives of the western corporate press. They will be joined at the table by leading representatives of the European Royalty, led by Queen Beatrix, the daughter of the Bilderberg founder, former Nazi, Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands and Bilderberger President, Etienne Davignon, Vice Chairman, Suez-Tractebel from Belgium. According to Bilderberg Steering Committee list which this author had access to, the following names have now been confirmed as official Bilderberg attendees for this year’s conference (In alphabetical order):
George Alogoskoufis, Minister of Economy and Finance (Greece);
Ali Babacan, Minister of Economic Affairs (Turkey);
Edward Balls, Economic Secretary to the Treasury (UK);
Francisco Pinto Balsemão, Chairman and CEO, IMPRESA, S.G.P.S.; Former Prime Minister (Portugal);
José M. Durão Barroso, President, European Commission (Portugal/International);
Franco Bernabé, Vice Chariman, Rothschild Europe (Italy);
Nicolas Beytout, Editor-in-Chief, Le Figaro (France);
Carl Bildt, Former Prime Minister (Sweden);
Hubert Burda, Publisher and CEO, Hubert Burda Media Holding (Belgium);
Philippe Camus, CEO, EADS (France);
Henri de Castries, Chairman of the Management Board and CEO, AXA (France);
Juan Luis Cebrian, Grupo PRISA media group (Spain);
Kenneth Clark, Member of Parliament (UK);
Timothy C. Collins, Senior Managing Director and CEO, Ripplewood Holdings, LLC (USA);
Bertrand Collomb, Chairman, Lafarge (France);
George A. David, Chairman, Coca-Cola H.B.C. S.A. (USA);
Kemal Dervis, Administrator, UNDP (Turkey);
Anders Eldrup, President, DONG A/S (Denmark);
John Elkann, Vice Chairman, Fiat S.p.A (Italy);
Martin S. Feldstein, President and CEO, National Bureau of Economic Research (USA);
Timothy F. Geithner, President and CEO, Federal Reserve Bank of New York (USA);
Paul A. Gigot, Editor of the Editorial Page, The Wall Street Journal (USA);
Dermot Gleeson, Chairman, AIB Group (Ireland);
Donald E. Graham, Chairman and CEO, The Washington Post Company (USA);
Victor Halberstadt, Professor of Economics, Leiden University; Former Honorary Secretary General of Bilderberg Meetings (the Netherlands);
Jean-Pierre Hansen, CEO, Suez-Tractebel S.A. (Belgium);
Richard N. Haass, President, Council on Foreign Relations (USA);
Richard C. Holbrooke, Vice Chairman, Perseus, LLC (USA);
Jaap G. Hoop de Scheffer, Secretary General, NATO (the Netherlands/International);
Allan B. Hubbard, Assistant to the President for Economic Policy, Director National Economic Council (USA);
Josef Joffe, Publisher-Editor, Die Zeit (Germany);
James A. Johnson, Vice Chairman, Perseus, LLC (USA);
Vernon E. Jordan, Jr., Senior Managing Director, Lazard Frères & Co. LLC (USA);
Anatole Kaletsky, Editor at Large, The Times (UK);
John Kerr of Kinlochard, Deputy Chairman, Royal Dutch Shell plc (the Netherlands);
Henry A. Kissinger, Chairman, Kissinger Associates (USA);
Mustafa V. Koç, Chariman, Koç Holding A.S. (Turkey);
Fehmi Koru, Senior Writer, Yeni Safek (Turkey);
Bernard Kouchner, Minister of Foreign Affairs (France);
Henry R. Kravis, Founding Partner, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. (USA);
Marie-Josée Kravis, Senior Fellow, Hudson Institute, Inc. (USA);
Neelie Kroes, Commissioner, European Commission (the Netherlands/International);
Ed Kronenburg, Director of the Private Office, NATO Headquarters (International);
William J. Luti, Special Assistant to the President for Defense Policy and Strategy, National Security Council (USA);
Jessica T. Mathews, President, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (USA);
Frank McKenna, Ambassador to the US, member Carlyle Group (Canada);
Thierry de Montbrial, President, French Institute for International Relations (France);
Mario Monti, President, Universita Commerciale Luigi Bocconi (Italy);
Craig J. Mundie, Chief Technical Officer Advanced Strategies and Policy, Microsoft Corporation (USA);
Egil Myklebust, Chairman of the Board of Directors SAS, Norsk Hydro ASA (Norway);
Matthias Nass, Deputy Editor, Die Zeit (Germany);
Adnrzej Olechowski, Leader Civic Platform (Poland);
Jorma Ollila, Chairman, Royal Dutch Shell plc/Nokia (Finland);
George Osborne, Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer (UK);
Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa, Minister of Finance (Italy);
Richard N. Perle, Resident Fellow, American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research (USA);
Heather Reisman, Chair and CEO, Indigo Books & Music Inc. (Canada);
David Rockefeller (USA);
MatÃas Rodriguez Inciarte, Executive Vice Chairman, Grupo Santander Bank, (Spain);
Dennis B. Ross, Director, Washington Institute for Near East Policy (USA);
Otto Schily, Former Minister of Interior Affairs; Member of Parliament; Member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs (Germany);
Jürgen E. Schrempp, Former Chairman of the Board of Management, DaimlerChrysler AG (Germany);
Tøger Seidenfaden, Executive Editor-in-Chief, Politiken (Denmark);
Peter D. Sutherland, Chairman, BP plc and Chairman, Goldman Sachs International (Ireland);
Giulio Tremonti, Vice President of the Chamber of Deputies (Italy);
Jean-Claude Trichet, Governor, European Central Bank (France/International);
John Vinocur, Senior Correspondent, International Herald Tribune (USA);
Jacob Wallenberg, Chairman, Investor AB (Sweden);
Martin H. Wolf, Associate Editor and Economics Commentator, The Financial Times (UK);
James D. Wolfensohn, Special Envoy for the Gaza Disengagement (USA);
Robert B. Zoellick, Deputy Secretary of State (USA);
Klaus Zumwinkel, Chairman of the Board of Management, Deutsche Post AG (USA);
Adrian D. Wooldridge, Foreign Correspondent, The Economist.
Amongst the names appearing on the initial list of invitees which this journalist had access to in January 2007 stand out the names of the now disgraced John Browne, British Petroleum’s Chief Executive Officer and the disgraced and fired former chief of the World Bank, Paul Wolfowitz. It will be interesting to see if either of these men makes an appearance at Bilderberg 2007. The Bilderbergers have no trouble accepting criminals into the fold as long as their misdeeds are conducted away from public spotlight and scrutiny. Once exposed, the culprits are generally discarded. Lord Conrad Black, former chief executive of Hollinger media group is a case in point.
Two others names on the original January 2007 list should raise a few eyebrows. One of them is Bernard Kouchner, the newly appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs in the right wing Nicolas Sarkozy government in France. Kouchner is a former founder of ONG Doctors without Borders. He was absent from Bilderberg 2006 in Ottawa, Canada. Could his government position been arranged prior to the French national elections? For my money, the surprise appearance of year award should go to Mahmood Sariolghalam, Associate Professor of International Relations, School of Economic and Political Sciences, National University of Iran. What is an Iranian doing at a NATO alliance controlled Bilderberg conference? We will know soon enough. Bilderberg 2007 is indeed a good time to look behind the scenes.
What will be discussed at Bilderberg 2007?
Aside from the Irak quagmire, energy problems continue to dominate Bilderberger discussions. Oil and natural gas are finite, non-renewable resources. That’s because once used up it cannot be replenished. As the world turns, and as oil and natural gas supplies dwindle while demand soars dramatically, especially with Indian and Chinese booming economies who want all the trinkets and privileges of an American way of life, we, as the Planet, have crossed the midpoint of oil production and discovery. From now on, the only sure thing is that supply will continue to diminish and prices will continue to increase. In these conditions world conflict is a physical certainty. End of oil means end of world’s financial system, something which has already been acknowledged by Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times, two full time members of the Bilderberger inner circle. Goldman Sachs oil report, [another full time member of the Bilderberger elite] published on March 30, 2005 increased the oil price range for the year 2005-6 from $55-$80 per barrel to $55-$105. During 2006 meeting, Bilderbergers have confirmed that their short range price estimate for oil for the 2007-08 continues to hover around US$105-150/barrel. No wonder Jose Barroso, President of the European Commission, announced several months ago during the unveiling of the new European energy policy that the time has come for a “post-industrial age.” To bring the world into the post industrial age, you first need to destroy the world´s economic base and create another Great Depression. When people are poor, they don´t spend money, they don´t travel, and they don´t consume.
As the economic impact sinks in, and as the after effects of Peak Oil become evident in the face of breakdown of civilization, the United States will be forced to challenge Europe, Russia and China for the hegemony of control and the ever depleting hydrocarbon, non-renewable reserves most of which are contained in the Middle East. That will be point number two on the Bilderberg 2007 agenda.
Third item on the agenda is European relations with Russia not only in Europe but also in Central Asia. With Moscow making a deal with Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan over the transport of gas to Europe, the US geo-strategic goal of driving a wedge between the Central Asian countries and Russia lies in shambles. While the US says this is "not good for Europe", the Europeans are divided. Iran, overnight has become America’s last hope in the energy war.
Iran war, after two years of huffing and puffing by the Bush government is definitely off the table. Furthermore, with France, Russia, Japan and China investing heavily in Iran, the world has drawn a line in the sand and the U.S. will be told at the conference not to cross it. There is blood in the water, and blood in the water usually leads to a good fight.
That notwithstanding, the United States needs to control the region, not only for its oil reserves but, most importantly to help it sustain world economic hegemony. Under this strategic design, regional states will be turned to weak domains of sectarian sheikhs with little or no sovereignty and, by implications, a pathetic agenda of their economic development. Regional chaos favours the spread of Islamic fundamentalism, which in turn reinforces the process of political and social disintegration supported by the Bilderbergers.
With Blair leaving, the UK will be told yet again, that they must, at all cost, do what is necessary to integrate the country into the European Community.
Finally, with Wolfowitz resigning from the World Bank, Bilderberg luminaries will try to come to a consensus on how best to overhaul not only the bank but its sister organization, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), led by a Spaniard, Rodrigo Rato. Wolfowitz became entangled in controversy seven weeks ago after World Bank whistleblowers leaked to the Washington-based non-governmental organization Government Accountability Project (GAP) documents that showed Wolfowitz pushing a high pay raise in a secondment deal to the US State Department for his girlfriend.
We, as a society, are at a crossroads. In almost every corner of the planet, stress points are beginning to fracture. The roads we take from here will determine the very future of humanity. It was former British Prime Minister, Benjamin Disraeli, who stated that “the world is governed by very different personages from what is imagined by those who are not behind the scenes.”
It is not up to God to bring us back from the “New Dark Age” planned for us. IT IS UP TO US. Whether we go into the next century as an electronic global police state or as free human beings depends on the action we take now. Forewarned is forearmed. We will never find the right answers if we don’t ask the proper questions.
Computer-generated images of heavily fortified compound removed
The Associated Press | June 1, 2007
WASHINGTON - Detailed plans for the new U.S. Embassy under construction in Baghdad appeared online Thursday in a breach of the tight security surrounding the sensitive project.
Computer-generated projections of the soon-to-be completed, heavily fortified compound were posted on the Web site of the Kansas City, Mo.-based architectural firm that was contracted to design the massive facility in the Iraqi capital.
The images were removed by Berger Devine Yaeger Inc. shortly after the company was contacted by the State Department.
“We work very hard to ensure the safety and security of our employees overseas,” said Gonzalo Gallegos, a department spokesman. “This kind of information out in the public domain detracts from that effort.”
The 10 images included a scheme of the overall layout of the compound, plus depictions of individual buildings including the embassy itself, office annexes, the Marine Corps security post, swimming pool, recreation center and the ambassador’s and deputy ambassador’s residences.
U.S. officials said the posted plans conformed at least roughly to conceptual drawings for the new embassy, which is being built on the banks of the Tigris River behind huge fences due to concerns about insurgents’ attacks.
Dan Sreebny, a spokesman for the embassy in Baghdad, declined to discuss the accuracy of the posted images.
“In terms of commenting whether they’re accurate, obviously we wouldn’t be commenting on that because we don’t want people to know whether they’re accurate or not for security reasons,” he said.
No help to enemies
Berger Devine Yaeger’s parent company, the giant contractor Louis Berger Group, said the plans had been very preliminary and would not be of help to potential U.S. enemies.
“The actual information that was up there was purely conjectural and conceptual in nature,” said company spokesman Jeffrey Willis. “Google Earth could give you a better snapshot of what the site looks like on the ground.”
Some U.S. officials acknowledged that damage may have been done by the postings and used expletives to describe their personal reactions. Still, they downplayed the overall risk.
“People are eventually going to figure out where all these places are, but you don’t have to draw them a map,” said one senior official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk about the embassy project.
Few are, and in Baghdad, the construction is under heavy guard and treated with extreme secrecy. It is off-limits to all but those with special passes, surrounded by tall, concrete blast walls and impossible to see except from the air.
The images posted on the Web site show that the $592 million embassy, expected to be completed in September on prime real estate two-thirds the size of Washington’s National Mall, will be a spacious and comfortable facility, albeit dangerous.
Identified as the “Baghdad U.S. Embassy Compound Master Plan,” the images show palm-lined paths, green grass gardens and volleyball and basketball courts outside the Marine post, as well as the swimming pool.
“In total, the 104-acre compound will include over twenty buildings, including one classified secure structure and housing for over 380 families,” the Web site says.
It says the compound will include the embassy building, housing, a PX, commissary, cinema, retail and shopping areas, restaurants, schools, a fire station, power and water treatment plants as well as telecommunications and wastewater treatment facilities.
A U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee report last year said embassy security will be extraordinary: Setbacks and perimeter no-go areas will be especially deep, structures reinforced to 2.5 times the standard and five high-security entrances, plus an emergency entrance-exit.
