http://www.liveleak.com/browse?q=dealings Fri, 24 May 2013 13:41:35 -0400 Liveleak http://edge.liveleak.com/80281E/u/u/ll2/logo.gif http://www.liveleak.com/browse?q=dealings Thu, 23 May 2013 23:06:05 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=682_1369364486 Lwe5113 According to the Census Bureau , 15% of the US population descended into poverty in 2011. That amounts to 46 million Americans at or below the poverty threshold with an average household income of $23,200.00 annually for a family of four. Socialist programs like social security benefits assured that 21 million people were kept out of poverty. At the same time unemployment benefits floated 2.3 million people from being totally destitute. Food Stamps have increased to help 3.9 million people. The fact of low-paying jobs and the unemployed are causing our American economy to continue to flounder. This is a direct causation to the destruction of the middle class in America. Retirement and investments is the last thing on American's minds when they are trying to make current ends meet on $4000 per month. As the majority of Americans become impoverished, the wealthiest 1% have seen their net worth skyrocket above 288 times the average median household. The crux of Americans is living on savings, trying to stay afloat while their stream of income rapidly dwindles. This trend will come bearing down on US citizens as hope for the future becomes a financial unreality. These days of eliminating unnecessary expenditures are proving to be impossible as Americans can no longer cut out any more money from their daily standard of living. A result of the planned implosion of 2008 has taken the homes of most Americans, yet they either built tent-cities to live in or moved in with relatives who had not been foreclosed on. When the economy removed more than half of the employment in America, those who lost their jobs simply stood in welfare and food stamp lines for a hand-out. At what point will the American public stand up against this banking cartel-controlled destruction of our Constitutional Republic? Ben Bernanke, chairman of the privately-owned central bank called the Federal Reserve was expected to announce their technocratic answer to the manufactured destruction of our American economy and US dollar. Bernanke stated that the Fed would purchase $1 trillion in mortgage-backed securities over a 2 year period, thereby combining feudalism with monetary implosion. Without determining the exact time frame of this "policy stimulus", the Fed will have over-reaching control as never before. The technocrats, an arm of the global Elite, have Wall Street and Capitol Hill waited with baited breath, wondering how US stocks, investors and the value of our monetary system will be dealt with. The Fed will release projections concerning the economy including import and export. There is the threat of the Fed printing more money misleadingly called quantitative easing which encompasses US Treasury bond purchases, mortgage-backed securities and debt issued by government-backed agencies such as Fannie Mae. In April, Bernanke announced that in the event of another stock market crash, the Fed would take over using monetary policy as an excuse to usurp more power over the financial future of the American public. The Fed's policymaking committee has stated that they will buy an estimated $40 billion of mortgage-backed securitized debt that was created by the mega-banks within America at the directive of the central banking cartels. The statement reads: "If the outlook for the labor market does not improve substantially, the committee will continue its purchase of agency mortgage-backed securities, undertake additional asset purchases, and employ its other policy tools as appropriate until such improvement is achieved in a context of price stability." The US dollars' worth continues to fall while US stocks gain ground and gold soars. The inception of QE3 is the next step in the implosion of the US dollar by the banking cartels. Citigroup released a study last June that claimed when governments force banks to purchase government debt, this act will only worsen the financial crisis. Hans Larenzen, Citigroup strategist asserts: "Captive bank demand can buy time and can help keep domestic yields low. However, the distortions that build up over time can sow the seeds of an even bigger crisis, if the time bought isn't used very prudently. Specifically, having banks loaded up with domestic sovereign debt will only increase the domestic fallout if the sovereign ultimately reneges on its obligations." As the recent audit of the New York Federal Reserve Bank showed "we now know that the Federal Reserve provided more than $16 trillion in total financial assistance to some of the largest financial institutions and corporations in the United States and throughout the world. This is a clear case of socialism for the rich and rugged, you're-on-your-own individualism for everyone else." Before the audit took place, Bernanke came out and threatened the American public for pursuing the inquiry by attempting to deter Congress with assertions that the dealings of the Fed are private matters. Bernanke told Capitol Hill that their political meddling would produce a "nightmare scenario". The globalist puppet Obama jumped onboard to say that he believed the legislation was a "really, really bad idea." Senator Ron Paul, who introduced the Federal Reserve Transparency Act of 2012 , refused to be shaken from his path. In 2008, the technocrats gave $700 billion in taxpayer money to the Central Bank of China, as well as other central banks across the globe to pay off their mortgage-backed securitized frauds. While Bernanke's threat of QE3 confounds the masses, as of August 9th banks have been given the legal standing to co-mingle customer secured funds with their own to pay off debts when under duress, have declared bankruptcy or insolvent. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) are no longer insuring customers against fraudulent stealing of their monies out of private checking accounts, savings accounts, IRAs, CDs, and all other accounts held by customers. When a customer deposits money into a bank, the bank essentially issues a promise to have those funds available when the customer returns to withdraw the deposited amount. When the same customer withdraws funds from their account (whether checking or savings) the customer assumes that the bank has enough funds to cover their withdrawal; including the presumption that their monies are separate from the bank's assets. Since 2010, the Federal Reserve have collected all mega-bank's contingency plans for financial collapse in the US; along with investments from those banks into private mercenary security firms such as DynCorp and Blackwater. Once the US dollar is brought to its knees, after being unseated as the global reserve currency, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank and UN will step in to introduce the one world currency. According to a report issued by the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the reset button on the global fiat debacle is the issuance of a global currency issued by the IMF and controlled by the UN. As the Fed grossly distorts the global economy as well as the US dollar with QE3, the government bonds purchased become worth less and less. This feeds directly into their plan to inflate fiat currencies into oblivion. http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=682_1369364486 Lwe5113 Bernanke's Stimulus Simply Following Global Elite's Directives to Implode the US Dollar bernanke, fed, globalist, bank, Thu, 16 May 2013 13:55:33 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=cfa_1368726435 Detroit Iron By Nile Gardiner World Last updated: May 16th, 2013 This has been a nightmare week for Barack Obama, without a doubt the worst of his presidency so far. Steven T. Miller, acting commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service has resigned over his agency's targeting of conservative groups, which even The Washington Post labeled this morning a "horror story" . Yesterday Obama's Attorney General Eric Holder testified before the House Judiciary Committee on a host of issues including the Benghazi debacle, in what can only be described as a train wreck of a performance. Holder was simply unable or unwilling to answer most key questions, and demonstrated a level of contempt for elected officials in Congress that was breathtaking. It was yet another public relations disaster for the Obama team. In addition the administration has come under heavy fire over the Justice Department's monitoring of phone records belonging to Associated Press journalists. All this has combined to create a perfect storm in the first year of Obama's second term, a wave of scandals that has been so damaging to the standing of this administration that even The New York Times today carries the headline on its front page: "An Onset of Woes Raises Questions on Obama Vision" . When even the usually subservient inflight newspaper of Air Force One has doubts over the job the president is doing you know the situation is really desperate for The White House. George F. Will, one of America's most influential political commentators, and a columnist for The Washington Post, believes there are "echoes of Watergate" in both the IRS and Benghazi scandals. As Will wrote earlier this week: The burglary occurred in 1972, the climax came in 1974, but40 years ago this week - May 17, 1973 - the Senate Watergate hearings began exploring the nature of Richard Nixon's administration. Now the nature of Barack Obama's administration is being clarified as revelations about IRS targeting of conservative groups merge with myriad Benghazi mendacities. Will doesn't go as far as saying that Barack Obama will suffer the same fate as Nixon. After all, Obama benefits from a Senate controlled by the Democrats. But there is no denying the parallels between the sense of impunity in this White House and that of Richard Nixon's four decades ago. In fact it's considerably worse on many fronts. Political analyst Michael Barone warned back in October 2008 of what he called "The Coming Liberal Thugocracy," referring to then Senator Obama's call for his supporters "to get in their face" when confronting Republicans and Independents. Barone argued at the time that "Obama supporters who found the campuses congenial and Mr. Obama himself, who has chosen to live all his adult life in university communities, seem to find it entirely natural to suppress speech they don't like and seem utterly oblivious to claims this violates the letter and spirit of the First Amendment." Barone's predictions have been proved correct. As I've noted in previous pieces, this is a nasty, brutish, imperial-style presidency that is highly intolerant of dissent, and which goes out of its way to target political opponents. It is ironic that one of the journalists threatened by the Obama White House in recent months has been Bob Woodward, one of two Washington Post reporters who originally broke the Watergate scandal, and who was immortalised in the 1976 Oscar winner All The President's Men , where he was played by Robert Redford. Woodward was warned back in February by White House economic adviser Gene Sperling that he would "regret" remarks he made on the sequester issue. Other writers, including Bill Clinton's former special counsel Lanny Davis, have faced similar threats. Is it any surprise that conservative groups have been targeted en masse by the federal government following the kind of deeply unpleasant rhetoric used by Vice President Joe Biden, who supported the charge by Democrat Congressman Mike Doyle of Pennsylvania that Tea Party Republicans had "acted like terrorists" over the debt issue? Biden has been a master of this kind of divisive, heated language, telling union members at an AFL-CIO rally in Detroit in September 2011 that "you are the only folks keeping the barbarians from the gates." At the same rally, Teamsters president Jimmy Hoffa declared : "President Obama, this is your army, and we are ready to march. Everybody here's got a vote. If we go back, and we keep the eye on the prize, let's take these son of a bitches out and give America back to America where we belong." Needless to say, President Obama remained silent on both the Biden and Hoffa remarks, and in the following year called on his supporters to take "revenge" against Republicans at the ballot box. This week, thanks to unprecedented levels of Congressional and mainstream media scrutiny of the actions of the Obama administration, the American people have been given a powerful insight into the way in which this presidency has operated. For far too long, the Obama administration has acted like an imperial court rather than a government that is accountable to the nation. The White House's culture of arrogance and impunity, coupled with a deeply unpleasant vindictiveness, is increasingly there for all to see. Suppression of political dissent, a callous disregard for the loss of American life in Benghazi, and the relentless rise of big government - these will be three of the most of enduring images of Barack Obama's imperial presidency. http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/nilegardiner/100216779/why-barack-obamas-imperial-presidency-is-imploding/ http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=cfa_1368726435 Detroit Iron Why Barack Obama's imperial presidency is imploding Obama, Eric Holder, George F. Will, Michael Barone, New York Times, Richard Nixon, Washington Post, Watergate Thu, 16 May 2013 13:32:45 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=235_1368721981 omniradar A web of control - with fingers in every pie The influence of Jewish moneylenders has been woven into the history of the West for centuries and runs like a thread throughout all events, hidden in many guises, yet ever present. An insidious, dangerous, secret coterie that works behind the scenes. But, like a jigsaw puzzle, out of the mesh of intrigue the pieces fit together to form a pattern. Thread Number One: England The watershed for Europe was the Reformation. Henry VIII of England was in need of a son and a new wife. Thomas Cromwell was happy to oblige. The split away from the old church, brought the Bible into prominence and thereby increased Jewish influence. After an embargo of almost 400 years, Jews were allowed to return to England in 1656 thanks to a "financial arrangement" between Oliver Cromwell and the Jewish Sanhedrin. As a "National Debt" is an essential first ingredient of financial control, and wars are the prime cause of debt, it took only to 1693 before England found herself unable to meet her commitments, thanks to the continental wars of William of Orange which had been financed by the Jewish moneylenders of Amsterdam. Despite the many dissident voices against the establishment of the Bank of England, (i.e. a method whereby the State finance was taken out of the control of the State and into the hands of bankers) the bill went through the House of Commons and, although the House of Lords asserted it was intended to enrich usurers at the expense of the nobility, the Bank came into being and was founded in 1694. Fueled by the gold and silver bled from South America that poured into Europe to fill the coffers of the bankers, the Industrial Revolution produced a false face of prosperity whilst at the same time destroying cottage industry, producing urban factory squalor and commencing the start of economic control by the moneylenders. This phase continued into the mid-nineteenth century when the first Jewish Prime Minister, Benjamin Disraeli, commented: "...the world is governed by very different personages from what is imagined by those who are not behind the scenes..." The stage was now set for the British Empire and underneath the Pomp and Circumstance came the steady infiltration into the economics of the east - and its riches. Max Weber, a historian, published "The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism" (By that time usury had achieved respectability under the new title of Capitalism.) In his book he claimed that Protestantism - more specifically, its Calvinist branches - promoted the rise of modern capitalism. In England the need to muzzle the old ruling order was achieved, not by assassination or execution as in France and Russia, but by erosion, i.e. via a Land Tax and then by marriage. Lord Rosebery started the trend by marrying a Rothschild and Arthur Balfour, the signatory of the fallacious "Balfour Declaration", set the stage for the creation of Israel. The trend towards the formation of a new Jewish aristocracy continues with Blair's "title for money" policy, orchestrated by the chief fundraiser for the Labour Party, "Lord" Levy. Queen Victoria may have been the Empress of India but it was Disraeli the agent of the "City" of London who engineered the means whereby the east was conquered using the manpower of the British Isles. Thread Number Two: France In France the monarchy foundered on bankrupcy, stemming from Louis X1V's continental wars. Necker (supposedly Protestant but probably of Jewish origin) lauded as a financial genius, employed the dangerous tactics of using ruinous short-term loans at exorbitant interest to shore up the shaky finances, which spelt ultimate disaster. At the same time the necklace conspiracy engineered through Cagliostro (a Freemason) and the Jewish jewellers, Bassenge and Bohmer, fueled anger against the extravagance of the queen. The dismissal of Necker led to the attack on the Bastille, and the aristocracy - a much more top heavy group than the English variety - were effectively eradicated by the guillotine. France by this time had acquired a National Debt and the Bank of France was created in Paris in 1800. Napoleon wanted the country to break free from the power of the bankers and the debt. According to him: "when the Government is dependent on bankers for money, the bankers, not the leaders of the Government, are in control.... The hand that gives is above the hand that takes. Money has no motherland. Financiers are without patriotism or decency. Their sole object is gain." In 1806, he remarked: "By what miracle did whole provinces of France become heavily mortgaged to the Jews, when there are only sixty thousand of them in this country?" (MSS of Napoleon, 1811.) In 1882 the collapse of the Union Gen http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=235_1368721981 omniradar All Wars Are Bankers' Wars . Not in School History Books Strangely. All Wars & Both Sides & Financed By Zionist Bankers ! Mon, 13 May 2013 07:43:46 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=235_1368445086 Zurm With Dubai emerging as a major stopover point for long haul journeys, five hundred flights a month will deliver over one million of us to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in the next year. Dubai is being promoted as a luxury high-class paradise in the desert, but the reality is brutally different, as Australian Alicia Gali discovered. Gali took a job in the UAE with one of the world's biggest hotel chains, Starwood. What happened next makes this story a must-watch for every Australian planning on travelling through the region. Gali was using her laptop in the hotel's staff bar when her drink was spiked. She awoke to a nightmare beyond belief: she had been savagely raped by three of her colleagues. Alone and frightened, she took herself to hospital. What Alicia didn't know is that under the UAE's strict sharia laws, if the perpetrator does not confess, a rape cannot be convicted without four adult Muslim male witnesses. She was charged with having illicit sex outside marriage, and thrown in a filthy jail cell for eight months. Now, finally home and struggling to move on with her life, Alicia breaks her silence for the first time on television to reporter Ross Coulthart. "What happened in June 2008 to Alicia Gali, a former employee of Le M'eridien Al Aqah hotel, was deplorable. While the hotel worked diligently on Ms. Gali's behalf, the authorities investigated and prosecuted Ms. Gali under the local laws. Additionally, the men involved were also prosecuted and each served prison terms before being deported. As for Ms. Gali's lawsuit against the hotel, we disagree with the allegations. The hotel management provided support and assistance to Ms. Gali and her family throughout that time, including assisting with medical support and the investigation, liaising with her representative Australian embassy and coordinating and arranging affairs with her family in Australia. http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=235_1368445086 Zurm Australian woman raped by Muslim gang, then jailed for having sex outside of marriage Australian,woman,raped,Muslim,gang,jailed,sex,outside,marriage Sun, 12 May 2013 12:39:12 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=da8_1368376406 Detroit Iron The HAARP antenna array. BY NOAH SHACHTMAN 05.10.13 2:02 PM In the history of U.S. military research, there's never been a project with such a combination of big science, high sleaze, and pure conspiratorial strangeness. Yet somehow, some way, the story of the High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program, or HAARP, just got sleazier and stranger - all thanks to an elderly physicist named Alfred Wong. Wong was an early proponent of HAARP, who used the facility in his studies of the ionosphere, the electrically-charged portion of the atmosphere. He also was something of a serial con man, according to a federal plea agreement provided to Danger Room. (.pdf) On Thursday, Wong agreed to pay nearly $1.7 million in damages for falsely billing Darpa and the Interior Department. He also plead guilty to a host of fraud charges. HAARP was originally pitched back in the Cold War as a way for plasma physicists to study the ionosphere by blasting it with radio frequency emissions. If you build this series of RF antennas in remote Alaska, the scientists told the Pentagon, HAARP wound not only advance our understanding of this crucial field. It could also be used to fry incoming Soviet missiles and spy on underground bunkers. One physicist working for the Arco oil-and-gas conglomerate even suggested that HAARP could be used to weaponize hurricanes - that is, if Arco's natural gas fields were used to power the thing. But the Pentagon was only partially interested. So instead the scientists - including a UCLA physics professor Alfred Wong - sought out Ted Stevens, an Alaska senator with a legendary soft spot for pet projects. "He provided some congressional money, some pork money," one of the scientists later told me for a 2009 WIRED magazine story . "It was much less than the bridge to nowhere." With Stevens' help, HAARP was eventually built, and physicists began doing some rather fascinating research there. But when those early ideas about HAARP's potential military uses came out - hoo boy, the tinfoil hat crowd went berserk, and stayed that way for a very long time. Everything from the Haiti earthquake to Hurricane Katrina was blamed on HAARP's dark weather-manipulated powers. People swore that the Alaskan antenna array was controlling their minds. A Russian military journal warned that blasting the ionosphere would cause the planet to " capsize ." Leading the charge was a one-time gemologist, miner, school supervisor, Chickaloon tribal administrator, and mind-control lecturer named Nick Begich, who just happened to be the brother of Stevens' eventual successor, Sen. Mark Begich. Through it all, Wong continued to do research at HAARP and at a neighboring facility called the High Power Auroral Stimulation Observatory, or HIPAS. And over the years, he claimed that he had no idea where people got those crazy notions about HAARP. (Although he occasionally floated ideas himself about hacking the planet and controlling the climate.) Wong swore he had no idea why Sen. Stevens, after their meeting together, kept insisting that HAARP would be able to harness the aurora borealis to bring a new, unlimited source of power to the planet. "There's a current flowing up there that you can modulate, and make some waves," Wong told theWashington Post in 1991. " have never claimed it was a way of taking energy to the ground." Perhaps Wong was telling the truth then. But it appears he has been less than forthright in his dealings with the government more recently. On Thursday, Wong plead guilty to federal fraud charges for submitting bogus invoices to U.S. government agencies. The now-retired professor used a number of different companies - including Van Nuys-based Non-linear Ion Dynamics (NID) and Beverly Hills' Alfred Wong Technologies - to score millions in government research contracts over the last decade. But what Wong did after scoring those contracts was somewhat less than ethical, according to his plea agreement . Darpa paid Wong's Non-linear Ion Dynamics, or NID, less than a million dollars to conduct "basic research into the feasibility of a nano technology battery based upon radiation emitted from a radioactive isotope," the plea agreement notes. In 2005, Wong claimed that Alfred Wong Technologies had sold some equipment related to this research to NID. He then billed the Pentagon for $160,000 in reimbursement. The problem was, "none of the items listed in the two invoices were manufactured by AWT," according to the plea deal. "AWT had no employees other than defendant, no manufacturing facilities, and expended no funds in the fabrication of these items." Oops. Wong wasn't done. Through a third front company, the International Foundation for Science, Health, and the Environment ("IFSHE"), he received a $25 million dollar Department of Interior contract to manage HIPAS, the ionospheric research facility neighboring HAARP in Alaska. Again, Wong claimed that one of his companies had sold equipment to another. Again, it was bogus. "In fact, expenditure was for furniture at IFSHE/NID headquarters in Van Nuys, California," the plea agreement notes. He also used the contract money to fund personal trips to Paris. Perhaps Wong's guilty plea will be the final spasm of HAARP-related weirdness. Perhaps now the facility will cease being Alaska's equivalent of Area 51 , and just be another unassuming government funded research effort. Then, again, the facility has recently been blamed for Hurricane Sandy and pegged as an earthquake weapon to be used in a " false flag " attack on North Korea. http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2013/05/haarp-fraud/ http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=da8_1368376406 Detroit Iron HAARP: OK, He Didn't Cause Hurricane Katrina. But He Is Guilty of Fraud. Alfred Wong, HAARP, International Foundation for Science, Health, and the Environment ("IFSHE"), Tue, 07 May 2013 17:49:21 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=4cb_1367962896 aydeo Before Iran became Israel's No. 1 archenemy, thousands of Israelis stationed in Tehran lived quite the life there. Dan Shadur's film "Before the Revolution," premiering at the Docaviv Film Festival in Tel Aviv this week, takes an insider's look at this dolce vita that came to an abrupt end in 1979, when under threat to their lives, Israelis were forced to evacuate Iranian territory. Shadur, who spent his childhood years in Tehran, where his parents served as envoys, tracked down many of their old friends and acquaintances - among them former Mossad agents, diplomats, contractors and security guards. Their shared recollections, letters, photographs and home movies bring back to life this almost-forgotten pre-revolutionary period when Israelis and Iranians wined and dined together, engaged in business dealings and exchanged intelligence secrets. Shadur's 80-minute documentary, with English subtitles, opens with a former security guard recounting the incredulous scene of hundreds of Iranians gathered on the streets to watch a film about Israel's famed Entebbe raid being projected on the outside wall of the embassy. At the part where Israeli soldiers storm the Ugandan airport, he recalls, the Iranians burst into wild applause. But later on, when the Israeli commando leader Yoni Netanyahu (Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's brother) is gunned down, they collectively erupt into tears. Who could have imagined, he asks, that just a few months later, he and other once-admired Israelis would be forced out of the country "with our tails between our legs"? Shadur's deceased mother, the filmmaker recalls, once described those years in Iran as the best period in their lives. A husband and wife, former kibbutzniks and old friends of his parents, talk about their initial amazement at being assigned a maid who "washed all our clothes by hand." Salaries were so high and the cost of living so low, other members of this former Israeli expat community testify, that they were eventually able to save enough money during their stints in Iran to purchase spacious apartments in Tel Aviv with no need to take out mortgages. All this may explain why many preferred to ignore the increasingly evident signs around them of a grassroots uprising against the Shah and to live in their "bubble," as one woman described it, making their way out of the country, often clandestinely, in just the nick of time. As an Israeli passenger on one of the last flights to leave Iran recalls, the plane "absolutely shook" from all the celebratory jumping and clapping that took place when it safely entered Turkish airspace. http://www.haaretz.com/news/features/once-upon-a-time-in-iran-and-other-israeli-tales-1.518632 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=4cb_1367962896 aydeo The day when the Iranians cheered the IDF special forces in Entebbe... Before the Revolution,Tehran,Israelis,Relations,Entebbe Mon, 06 May 2013 13:20:29 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=225_1367860342 Detroit Iron By Ken Wells & Ari Levy - May 6, 2013 12:01 AM ET In 1999, Al Gore, then U.S. vice president and a Democratic candidate for president, sold $6,000 worth of cows.The former senator, who spent most of his working life in Congress, had a net worth of about $1.7 million and assets that included pasture rents from a family farm and royalties from a zinc mine, remnants of his rural roots in Carthage, Tennessee . Funds from the cattle sale went to three of his kids, according to federal disclosure forms filed as part of his presidential run. Fourteen years later, he made an estimated $100 million in a single month. In January, the Current TV network, which he helped to start in 2004, was sold to Qatari-owned Al Jazeera Satellite Network for about $500 million. After debt, he grossed an estimated $70 million for his 20 percent stake, according to people familiar with the transaction. Two weeks later, Gore exercised options, at $7.48 a share, on 59,000 shares of Apple Inc. stock that he'd been granted for serving on the Cupertino, California-based company's board since 2003. On paper, it was about a $30 million payday based on the company's share price on the day he claimed the options. That's a pretty good January for a guy who couldn't yet call himself a multimillionaire when he briefly slipped from public life after his bitterly contested presidential election loss to George W. Bush in late 2000, based on 1999 and 2000 disclosure forms. Gore isn't finished exercising his Apple stock grants. Those 59,000 are part of 101,358 Apple options and shares of restricted stock Gore has amassed, according to company filings, giving his total holdings a gross value of more than $45.6 million today. Nobel PrizeAlbert Arnold Gore Jr., 65, is a lot of things to a lot of people. Among friends and fans, he's the progressive Democrat who should have been president, visionary author and Internet prophet, the man who more than anyone drove climate change to the center of public consciousness. Detractors see Gore as a limousine liberal, tiresome pedant and climate alarmist who lives a jet-setting, carbon-profligate lifestyle while preaching asceticism for everyone else. His work and writing on global warming have earned him a share of a Nobel Prize as well as a South Park cartoon parody in which he tries to scare school kids to his beliefs with a fictitious global-warming surrogate monster known as ManBearPig. Whatever you think of Gore, one thing is indisputable: leveraging his aura as a technology seer and his political and climate work connections, Gore has remade himself into a wealthy businessman, amassing a fortune that may exceed $200 million. Romney WealthThat's close to the $250 million net worth of 2012 Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney , whom President Barack Obama and Democrats targeted in ads and speeches as being out of touch with most Americans. Gore declined to be interviewed for this story. Estimates of his wealth are based on company filings, government records, public pronouncements he or his associates have made about past business dealings and interviews with people in a position to know of and evaluate Gore's holdings. How Gore achieved this is as much about timing and luck as it is about business skills. His Apple board tenure has coincided with a 5,900 percent increase in its stock price. Current TV was a moribund "fixer-upper" when Al Jazeera stepped in to buy it at "a huge valuation," said Derek Baine, an SNL Kagan cable analyst in Monterey, California . Gore also had his share of flubs, most of them in his efforts at green-tech investing. An investment firm he helped to start took stakes in two carbon-trading firms that fizzled and also racked up tens of millions in losses in a solar-module maker. Diving InThe wealth accumulation attests to Gore's ability, particularly among technology companies and rich political progressives, to attract moneyed and skilled people to do deals with him or seek his paid counsel. This may be in part because Gore, by reputation, shuns figurehead appointments for real ones. One example: At Apple's request, he dove into an options backdating scandal, which predated his arrival, chairing a 2006 committee that recommended revisions to company policies. "It doesn't surprise me," Reed Hundt, a Gore high-school friend, said of his business success. Hundt, whom Gore helped get appointed to run Bill Clinton's Federal Communications Commission in 1993, didn't detect a business gene in young Al back in their days at Washington 's private St. Albans School. Gore went on to graduate with a degree in government from Harvard University, dabble in journalism and study but never graduate from law school at Vanderbilt University. Instead, he quit to run for public office. 'Going Places'Still, says Hundt, "it was clear that Al was smart and was going places." Gore hasn't tried to hide his prosperity. Back in 2000, about $750,000 of his net worth was tied to two homes he and his then-wife Tipper owned in Virginia and Tennessee. Most of the rest had been recently inherited, including an undisclosed number of shares of Occidental Petroleum Corp. left to him by his late father, Senator Albert Gore Sr., and valued at between $500,000 and $1 million, according to disclosure forms. He's moved up the housing ladder since then. He owns a 20- room, 10,000-square-foot antebellum mansion in Nashville's wealthy Belle Meade neighborhood that's mostly shrouded from view by a thicket of Southern foliage and a massive iron gate. In 2010 -- weeks before the Gores announced they were dissolving their 40-year marriage -- he purchased an oceanfront six- bedroom, $8.9 million villa in Montecito, California, where Oprah Winfrey and Kirk Douglas have lived. Utility BillIt isn't clear how the divorce affects Gore's net worth. No settlement has ever been published and Betsy McManus, Al Gore's director of communications, declined to comment on it. Such lavish living isn't lost on Gore's critics. In 2007, the Tennessee Center for Policy Research, using a public records request, published Gore's Nashville home utility bill, showing it used almost 221,000 kilowatt-hours in 2006 -- 20 times the national average household consumption. Gore's people dismissed the revelation. His ascent into America's 1 percent happened quickly. After losing to Bush, he had enough wealth by March 2008 to put $35 million into hedge funds and private partnerships through Capricorn Investment Group, a Palo Alto, California-based company, according to U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission documents. The investment company was founded by his buddy, Canadian billionaire Jeffrey Skoll, who amassed a large part of his fortune in shares he was awarded as the first president of EBay Inc. Book ProfitsHis best-selling climate books, "Earth in the Balance," "An Inconvenient Truth" and "The Assault on Reason," haven't contributed to his wealth. Gore has long pledged any book and film money to his nonprofit, the Climate Reality Project, created in 2011 from two advocacy groups Gore founded a year earlier. By the time of the Capricorn investment, he was already starting to rake in cash from Generation Investment Management - - a fund that incorporates "sustainability" into its investment approach. Gore co-founded GIM in 2004 with former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Managing Director David W. Blood. Public filings show that in 2008 through 2011 London-based GIM racked up almost 140 million pounds ($218 million) in profits to be split among its 26 partners. Gore and Blood as founders are thought to have the largest equity stakes. GIM doesn't disclose partnership equity or how the partners split profits, said Richard Campbell, a spokesman. Prosperous EnterprisesGore had a string of connections and invitations to join what would turn out to be prosperous enterprises. Skoll's Participant Media produced the 2006 Oscar-winning documentary, "An Inconvenient Truth," based on Gore's climate work. The movie was pivotal in helping him win his share of the 2007 Nobel and claim speaker fees at $175,000 a pop. Prior to being invited to join Apple's board, Gore was tapped as a senior adviser to Google Inc. (GOOG) before its 2004 initial public offering and at a time when it was not yet a household word. Google won't discuss his duties or compensation though some in Silicon Valley believe his pay there may be as rich as his Apple remuneration, which that company is required to disclose because he's a director. Kleiner PerkinsBlood joined with Gore after he was among the original 221 Goldman partners who got shares in that company's 1999 IPO. Blood's 0.66 percent stake, based on valuations at the time, was thought to be worth about $100 million. Blood lived with his family in Brazil as a youngster and has said he was distressed by the extreme poverty there. Gore's notion of "sustainable capitalism" appealed to Blood, who also declined to be interviewed for this story. In November 2007, GIM announced a partnership with Silicon Valley venture capital company Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, to join its green-investing efforts. The goal, according to a joint press release at the time, was to create "a global collaboration to find, fund and accelerate green business, technology and policy solutions with the greatest potential to help solve the current climate crisis." Gore was made a partner at Kleiner Perkins and John Doerr, an early investor in Amazon.com Inc., Intuit Inc. and Google, joined GIM's advisory board. At Kleiner Perkins, Gore helps with investment strategies and selectively advises companies but doesn't lead deals or take board seats on startups the firm invests in. Kleiner Perkins declined to discuss his compensation. Green BlemishesInvesting on behalf of its clients, GIM has put $50 million to $100 million in KPCB's $1 billion green growth fund, according to two people with knowledge of the amount who asked not to be identified because they aren't authorized to speak about it. While Kleiner Perkins doesn't publish fund results, its green fund hasn't had unblemished success. Along with potential winners like Bloom Energy, a fuel-cell maker, and Nest Labs Inc., a thermostat company, Kleiner Perkins also backed Miasole Inc., a solar-panel maker that was bought for a reported $30 million after raising at least $494 million from investors, and Fisker Automotive Inc., the electric-car maker that fired three-quarters of its staff last month. Well VersedGore earns his keep in Silicon Valley beyond simply attending the annual holiday party. He's made himself available to a number of technology companies that got startup help from Kleiner Perkins. Andrew Fisher, chairman of Shazam Entertainment Ltd., a mobile music app maker backed by Kleiner Perkins, said Gore flew to London two years ago and agreed to be interviewed on stage in front of about 200 company employees and business partners. Gore's preparation was first rate and it was clear that "he's tremendously well-versed" in Kleiner Perkins's investments, Fisher said. At the presentation, "he talked about his work around the environment, leadership in small companies, decision making, sitting on the board of Apple. People were fascinated with his insight." Gore paid a similar visit last year to a recycling plant in Vancouver run by Harvest Power Inc., one of Kleiner Perkins's clean-tech companies. Shopkick VisitEric Feng, former Hulu LLC chief technology officer and ex- Kleiner Perkins employee, described Gore as an energized and active participant in investment decisions who is "very well- respected among the partners." He's regularly asked for feedback on investments and is considered "a very valuable resource," Feng said. Shopkick Inc. Chief Executive Officer and co-founder Cyriac Roeding met Gore about two years ago at Kleiner Perkins. As a guru on climate change, Roeding figured Gore was unlikely to have much interest in Shopkick's technology, which helps retailers target customers with discounts. "I took a photo with him because I thought I'd never see him again," Roeding says. He was wrong. In February 2012, Gore joined Roeding at the Village Pub in Silicon Valley -- the same place where Mark Zuckerberg was famously courted by Accel Partners' Jim Breyer -- for an intimate event with about 35 executives from top retailers like Macy's Inc., Crate & Barrel and Target Corp. In a fireside chat, Gore answered every question Roeding threw his way and showed a deep knowledge of Shopkick's market. Internet Invention"I had not planned on talking about Shopkick, but he just kept coming back to it," Roeding says. "He talked about how the future of the physical world is converging with the digital world." They love Al Gore in Silicon Valley and why shouldn't they? Gore never claimed, as some conservative critics have asserted, to have invented the Internet. Still, as a Tennessee congressman and senator, he was the first national politician to see how personal computers connected to a system he popularized as the "information superhighway" would radically change the social and commercial landscape of the U.S. and the world. He drafted the Performance Computing Act of 1991, often called the Gore Bill, which led to funding to build the system that later became the Internet. Luck and TimingNone of this was lost on Apple when, in March 2003, Steve Jobs personally asked Gore to join the board. An Apple press release about the appointment was a techie love fest. "Al is an avid Mac user and does his own video editing in Final Cut Pro," Jobs said. Apple was trading at about $7.50 a share when Gore accepted the Apple board seat. The company's stock closed at $449.98 on May 3 in New York. The escalation of his options alone would have made him rich. Gore's profiting from the Al Jazeera sale is another example of luck, timing or both. Gore and partners that included Los Angeles billionaire Ron Burkle, Hyatt Legal Services founder Joel Hyatt and San Francisco money manager Richard Blum bought the predecessor company for $70 million in 2004. Re-launched as Current TV, Gore said at the time he wanted to create a "transformational" network. It would, like YouTube, thrive on youthful viewer input, be an antidote to Fox News and a liberal competitor to MSNBC . Olbermann SuitInstead, Current failed to make much of an impact at all while Gore was paying himself $1.2 million a year in salary and bonuses, according to 2008 SEC documents filed as part of a proposed public offering that was later withdrawn. Meanwhile, Time Warner Cable Inc., which carried the network and accounted for about 9 million of its subscribers, made noises about dropping Current from its listings along with other "low- rated" networks. In 2011, Current attempted to remake itself by bringing in Keith Olbermann, the former anchor of MSNBC's Countdown program. The relationship quickly devolved into a public relations disaster. Olbermann, who had signed what was reported to be a five-year, $50 million contract, was fired in March 2012. Accusations and lawsuits flew. Current, in an April 6, 2012, breach-of-contract suit in Los Angeles County Superior Court, accused Olbermann of waging a campaign to "undermine" the network by, among other things, taking unauthorized days off, leaking the terms of his contract to the media and failing to lead Current's 2012 primary election coverage as he was asked to do. 'Immediate Interest'Olbermann, in his own lawsuit, painted an ugly picture of the Gore-anointed management team. Current, while promising to deliver "a high-caliber political commentary show," turned out to be amateur hour with Gore and co-founder Hyatt "no more than dilettantes portraying entertainment industry executives." Olbermann had asked the court to award him as much as $70 million. The two parties reached a settlement in March for terms that weren't disclosed. The sale to Al Jazeera drew a lawsuit from media consultant John Terenzio who said putting the two networks in touch was his idea and he's owed money. Terenzio said he sent an intermediary to see Current investor Richard Blum under a supposition that "in light of Current's well-publicized financial woes, its principals might be interested in selling the struggling network." Blum, according to the lawsuit, "expressed immediate interest" in hearing Terenzio's proposal, explaining that "he and other Current investors were concerned about the prospect of losing their shirt in financially troubled Current." Blum, Al Jazeera and Current declined to comment on the lawsuit. 'Mogul Al'The transaction also raised eyebrows because Gore, who has for years inveighed against fossil fuels and their role in climate change, sold the network to a company funded in part by oil-rich Qatar. Jon Stewart, host of the Daily Show television program, asked in January, "Can mogul Al Gore coexist with activist Al Gore?" Gore defended the sale on the grounds that, among other things, Al Jazeera has "the highest quality, most extensive, best climate coverage of any network in the world." It's a position Gore's been forced to defend repeatedly along the tour for his latest book "The Future: the Six Drivers of Global Change." Cable TV analysts, meanwhile, were abuzz over the $500 million payout. Current had been seeking buyers for a while, aware that Time Warner might soon pull the plug, but had not found any takers until Al Jazeera stepped forward. 'High Price'"It seems like a really high price to me," SNL's Baine said. "It's hard to sell a fixer-upper. From the beginning Current had a programming strategy that hadn't worked and they changed it over and over and it still didn't work. Honestly, not a lot of people had ever heard of it." Al Jazeera might have been desperate enough to get into the U.S. market to pay that kind of a premium since it's still cheaper to buy a network than it is to build one from scratch, he said. "To be locked out of one of the world's biggest markets is a problem for them," Blaine said. Al Jazeera, while declining to comment on the price, has said it intends to hire about 100 journalists in New York and Washington for its rebranded channel. The deal had no sooner been announced than Time Warner Cable said it was in fact pulling the plug on Current "as quickly as possible" and wouldn't carry the rebranded Al Jazeera channel over its U.S. distribution system. Meanwhile, Gore's "sustainable" GIM investing company has seen its philosophy of buying stocks and holding for the long term tested at times. Blood and GoreBlood and Gore, as the company is sometimes known, eschews "the dominance of short-termism in the market" which "fosters general market instability and undermines the efforts of executives seeking long-term value creation," the two men wrote in an 2011 op-end in the Wall Street Journal. GIM's roster of publicly traded U.S. holdings include successful, albeit not particularly green, companies like Amazon, EBay, Procter & Gamble Co. and Colgate-Palmolive Co. A few of the others would count in GIM parlance as green or at least sustainable investments, such as Solarcity Corp., a rooftop solar installer, and Blackbaud Inc., a software maker that helps nonprofits raise money. Green InvestingGIM has assets under management of about $8.5 billion. Its investment strategy and returns have been impressive enough that Britain's Environment Agency asked it to manage 7.2 percent of its 1.6 billion-pound investment portfolio through 2014. That's up from 4.8 percent in 2009, according to documents filed with Britain's securities regulator. At times the company's green investing approach hasn't worked. In 2008, with optimism that a Democrat-controlled Congress would establish carbon controls and an international climate treaty would be extended, GIM bought a 9.6 percent stake, in Camco International Ltd., a manager of projects that reduce greenhouse gases. By early 2010, GIM had upped its stake in the company now known as Camco Clean Energy Plc to 18.6 percent, according to documents. By October of that year, with Republicans in the House saying no to climate legislation and Kyoto Protocol talks stalled, shares in Camco were taking a beating. GIM dumped its stake. Neither company would comment on GIM's actions. Climate ExchangeIn another instance, GIM took a 10 percent stake in the Chicago Climate Exchange, set up in 2003 by former derivatives guru Richard Sandor to take advantage of what the exchange's founders hoped would be a government-mandated price on carbon. The exchange ran into the same headwinds as Camco and was sold to Atlanta-based IntercontinentalExchange Inc. in May 2010 for $581 million. It was later shut as carbon prices fell to all- time lows. GIM would only say that neither Camco nor Chicago Climate Exchange were profitable investments. If emissions limits had been approved by Congress, both Camco and the exchange stood to rake in huge profits, said Dan Kish, vice president for policy with the Washington-based Institute for Energy Research, which gets funding from oil and natural gas companies. "Al Gore is like the preacher touting his moral purity and superiority," Kish said. "Yet it turns out that heeding his preachings is directly linked to his financial interests." Besides its losing investments in Camco and Chicago Climate Exchange, GIM also bailed out of First Solar Inc., a solar-panel maker that, like bankrupt Solyndra LLC, got squeezed when cheap Chinese supplies began hitting the market in late 2010. Democracy 'Hacked'According to SEC filings, GIM first began buying First Solar at $113 a share in the third quarter of 2010. GIM continued its buying for several more quarters even as the shares lost luster. When it was clear First Solar was truly tanking, GIM dumped its last lot in the second quarter of 2012. It's accumulated loss was $165.9 million, according to a Bloomberg calculation based on SEC filings. Gore said in a May 1 interview with Bloomberg Television that American democracy has been "hacked" by the influence of money in politics and that he hopes activist investors will continue to exert influence on corporations globally to act in a responsible way. During a 2009 House hearing, Tennessee Republican Representative Marsha Blackburn tackled Gore on the issue of whether he had become a "climate profiteer" by betting on companies that might hugely benefit from his advocacy. Gore's response: "Congresswoman, if you believe that the reason I have been working on this issue for 30 years is because of greed, you don't know me." To contact the reporters on this story: Ken Wells in New York at kwells8@bloomberg.net ; Ari Levy in San Francisco at alevy5@bloomberg.net To contact the editors responsible for this story: Tina Davis at tinadavis@bloomberg.net ; John Brecher at jbrecher4@bloomberg.net http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-05-06/gore-is-romney-rich-with-200-million-after-bush-defeat.html http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=225_1367860342 Detroit Iron Gore Is Romney-Rich With $200 Million After Bush Defeat Al Gore Sun, 28 Apr 2013 21:03:31 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=8b5_1367197196 mngardens I wanted to write about the march and encourage all of you to get involved with the march in anyway you can, but I realized after looking at the weeds coming up in my garden that I wanted to explain Monsanto's Roundup and my dealings with it. I remembered using it years ago in so many ways, from driveway cracks, spot spraying in my vegetable garden and my flower beds. I can say over the past 30 years I myself have used about 10,000 gallons of it in one way or another. I used it in our park systems for weed control with a backpack sprayer, using it on fields with 500 gallon tanks with booms spraying weeds along the farm roads, spraying along 5 acre fields that were planted with the intention of selling those vegetables to the public. It did not really hit me until a few years back when I saw the real damage that Roundup does to the environment. I sprayed along a 5 mile fence line to control the weeds that were growing up into it. I came back the next day to do some spot spraying and was having my lunch at the halfway point. I looked down to see how the spray was taking when I noticed the other things I was killing. I noticed the Milkweed, Goldenrod, Joe Pye Weed, Phlox, Dogbane, and Asters just to name a few, they were dying right in front of my eyes. I could see their leaves starting to droop and welt, and I was the one who killed them. Oh some might say that its just a small amount, but if you look at the land that we have torn up to farm and what is left for the native plants, well that was not right. I looked at the bees and the Monarchs that were all around me and I was the one who just killed their food source. That night I started to look into the effects of Roundup on the environment and the damage that it does, it blew my mind how much more Roundup does than just kill the weeds. Monsanto's Roundup is killing off parts of the food chain, that DOES affect us! It kills the plants that feed the insects, it kills the insects that feed the birds and other animals, it kills our environment, Monsanto's Roundup kills us! Being in the nursery business I see Roundup being used in so many applications and I have talked to homeowners that use illegally along their shoreline, homeowners that over spray it to kill shrubs, homeowners that don't dilute it so they can kill the plant faster. I have seen people use it not diluted to kill Buckthorn with a hand pump sprayer not realizing the drift of the spray and what it does. Now here is more about Monsanto and why they have Farmers use Roundup on their crops which we eat. Monsanto has genetically engineered certain crop seeds, such as soybeans, beets, cotton and corn, to be resistant to Roundup and suffer no ill effects from the herbicide. This allows the crops to be doused with the herbicide for weed control without killing the crop itself. Can you imagine the amount of Roundup Monsanto sells to cover all those millions of acres of farmland alone? Almost half of Roundup --- 41 percent --- is glyphosate, a broad-spectrum, non selective herbicide. It can kill all kinds of plants, including perennials and grass, by being absorbed through the leaves and stalk tissue. Once in the plant, it inhibits amino acid metabolism throughout the entire system, causing the plant to slowly die. It should be kept away from ponds, lakes, rivers and all water systems, as it is highly toxic to aquatic animals. I'll translate this, Roundup will kill any plant up to 1/4 inch in diameter and if not diluted will kill a plaint up to a half inch in diameter. France's highest court has ruled that U.S. agrochemical giant Monsanto had not told the truth about the safety of its best-selling weed-killer, Roundup. The court confirmed an earlier judgment that Monsanto had falsely advertised its herbicide as "biodegradable" and claimed it "left the soil clean." Roundup is the world's best-selling herbicide. Roundup's main ingredient, is classed as "dangerous for the environment" by the European Union. If you must kill weeds on those cracks and in your flower beds consider using Vinegar, and put a cone over it to spot spray. The rate would be 1/4 cup of Vinegar to one gallon of water, but mulch your flower and vegetable beds to suppress weeds, that alone will take care of your weed problem. So there you go, the reason I stand and march against Monsanto, you might have yours and I would love to hear why you are marching. Please send me an email, mark@mngardens.com and I would like to post those stories here on this blog so you can see all the reasons people are marching. Thanks, Mark http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=8b5_1367197196 mngardens MONSANTO, BEES AND ROUNDUP twin cities march against monsanto, minnesota, minnesota gardens, march against monsanto Sat, 27 Apr 2013 12:20:46 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=08b_1367078953 Baldrick by Dan Eden Please also see Omert Humiliates America and Who Controls Hollywood and the Media? .Someone wrote and asked me, "Why are there Israeli- but not Mexican-American Dual Nationals?" Well, here's my take on this. I'd also like your views and opinions.Before I begin I'd like to day something important. There is a new law -- the so-called "Hate Speech" law, that just passed the House and is expected to pass the Senate and become law very soon. It was originally designed to guard against discrimination of oppressed minorities but was soon recognized as a way for Israel to forever end any criticism of the state of Israel and Zionism. When it is law, this page, and many like it will be deleted from the internet as yet another mile marker of the infringement of truth and free speech by certain dual-nationals at the expense of true and patriotic Americans. Enough said. Unless we are Native American Indians, all Americans have their origins in some other country. Both of my parents were from England. They were proud to be "British" but they were most proud of achieving their American citizenship. Sure, we had pictures of the Queen and nick-nacks with the Union Jack on them. My mother even celebrated the traditional 4o'clock tea time and was good at making Yorkshire Pudding. In the late 60's my older brother served in the US Army and did his tour in Viet Nam. When it came down to "allegiance," we were all patriotic Americans. Period. The word "allegiance" means that we promise loyalty. It also carries with it the expectation that this loyalty will be exclusive and unrestrained. In the case of a declared war or real threat or conflict, for example, our allegiance to America should preclude any other interest, be it another country or political ideology. When they took their oath to become American citizens, my parents had to pledge their "allegiance" exclusively to America and renounce their allegiance to "any and all foreign governments." That included Great Britain, one of our strongest allies. Before Viewzone asked me to research the meaning of "dual citizenship," I had never heard of the term. How could someone be a citizen of two countries at the same time? But I was just ignorant. Dual nationalities and citizenships are quite common. From my internet research, I learned that in 1997, a French Canadian with a U.S. passport ran for mayor of Plattsburgh, N.Y. He argued that the incumbent spoke French too poorly to be running a city so close to Quebec. He lost. Also in 1997, a retired top American official for the U.S. EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) ran for president of Lithuania. He was inaugurated in February to a burst of fireworks! In 1996, Dominicans from New York not only could vote in the Dominican Republic's presidential elections for the first time, they could vote for a fellow New Yorker. Multiple nationalities have become so commonplace that some analysts fear the trend is undermining the notion of nationhood, particularly in the place with the most diverse citizenry on Earth: the United States. Debate over the issue intensified in the late 1990s, when Mexico joined the growing list of poor nations that say it's OK for their nationals to be citizens of the countries to which they have migrated. Under the law that took effect in 1998 Mexicans abroad -- most of them in the United States -- will be able to retain Mexican citizenship even if they seek U.S. citizenship. And naturalized Americans of Mexican descent will be able to reclaim their original citizenship. The Mexican government stopped short, for now, of giving expatriates the right to vote. Security Issues Since citizenship carries with it a responsibility to be exclusively loyal to one country, the whole concept of dual citizenship and nationality raises questions about which of the dual citizenships have priority. This is extremely important when the two countries have opposing interests. It can be a deadly problem when a dual citizen is in a high position within our American government. Can one imagine a Japanese citizen serving in the Pentagon during WWII? Or how about a citizen of the Soviet Union holding a cabinet position in the White House during the Cold War? Today's conflicts are centered in the Middle East. America needs to balance foreign policies towards oil producing Arab nations with our goal being peace and stability in the region. This places a burdon on our government to be even-handed in our dealings with the Arab world and Israel. While the Iraq War was waged on lies about Weapons of Mass Destruction and revenge for 911, the real reason has emerged as a well designed global plan to improve the power and leverage of Israel. Added to this policy is yet another potential blow to American interests and security -- the impending War with Iran. This war will be waged for the security of Israel and will be paid for by the blood of American soldiers and the hard-earned money of American citizens whose quality of life is inversely tied to the cost of petrolium. Recently, in their much lauded paper, The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy , Harvard professor, Stephen Walt, and University of Chicago professor, John Mearsheimer, focused attention on the strong Israeli lobby which has a powerful influence over American foreign policies (see BBC article ). They detail the influence that this lobby has exerted, forming a series of international policies which can be viewed as in direct opposition to the interests and security of the American people. These acts and policies are more often than not carried out by US government appointees who hold powerful positions and who are dual American-Israeli citizens. Since the policies they support are often exclusively beneficial to Israel, often to the detriment of America, it has been argued that their loyalties are misdirected. A few classic examples can be cited here. Jonathan Jay Pollard was an American-Israeli citizen who worked for the US government. He is well known because he stole more secrets from the U.S. than has any other spy in American history. During his interrogation Pollard said he felt compelled to put the "interests of my state" ahead of his own. Although as a U.S. Navy counter-intelligence specialist he had a top-secret security clearance, by "my state" he meant the state of Israel. Literally tens of thousands of Americans holding U.S. passports admit they feel a primary allegiance to the state of Israel. In many instances, these Americans vote in Israeli elections, wear Israeli uniforms and fight in Israeli wars. Many are actively engaged both in the confiscation of Palestinian lands and in the Israeli political system. Three examples come to mind: One is Rabbi Meir Kahane , who founded the militant Jewish Defense League in the U.S. in the 1960s, then emigrated to Israel where, eventually, he was elected to the Knesset. Until he was shot and killed at one of his U.S. fund-raising rallies in 1990, the Brooklyn-born rabbi shuttled between Tel Aviv and New York, where he recruited militant American Jews for his activities in Israel against Palestinians. He claimed to be a "dual citizen" of America and Israel. Another Jewish American, James Mahon from Alexandria, Virginia, reportedly was on a secret mission to kill PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat when he was shot in 1980 by an unknown assailant. When he was shot, Mahon held an American M-16 in his hand and a U.S. passport in his pocket . Then there was Alan Harry Goodman , an American Jew who left his home in Baltimore, Maryland, flew to Israel and served in the Israeli army. Then, on April 11, 1982, armed with an Uzi submachine gun, he walked, alone, to Al-Aqsa, Jerusalem's most holy Islamic shrine, where he opened fire, killing two Palestinians and wounding others. Both the U.S. and Israeli governments played down the incident, as did the media. Most recently, US Navy Petty Officer, Ariel J. Weinmann , while serving at or near Bahrain, Mexico, and Austria, "with intent or reason to believe it would be used to the injury of the United States or to the advantage of a foreign nation (Israel), to communicate, deliver or transmit classified CONFIDENTIAL and SECRET information relating to the national defense, to a representative, officer, agent or employee of a foreign government." Weinmann was apprehended on March 26 after being listed as "a deserter by his command," according to the US Navy. The information he gathered was supplied to Israel. Ben-Ami Kadish , a Connecticut-born U.S. dual citizen who worked in New Jersey was arrested and charged with giving top secret nuclear information and details about the US Patriot Missile to an Israeli agent -- the same agent involved with the Jay Pollard case. The espionage charges reportedly stem from acts committed in the 1980s. These activities, like the ones with convicted spy Pollard, were immediately denied by Israel (Pollard pleaded guilty in 1986). It is further reported that Israeli officials instructed Kadish to lie to US investigators. Kadish was scheduled to be arraigned on April 22, 2008 at U.S. District Court in Manhattan. more here...... http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=08b_1367078953 Baldrick Dual Citizenship -- Loyal to Whom? Dual,Citizenship,--, Loyal, to ,Whom,Israel,USA,US,America Wed, 24 Apr 2013 15:19:06 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=171_1366831002 cathy winslow President Barack Obama went from hoping to pass a bill calling for serious gun law reforms to eventually asking for the bare minimum: background checks and he didn't even get that. 4 months into his second term is the President's influence starting to wane? The recent push for gun law reform was born out of last year's massacre at a Connecticut elementary school Newtown, CT stirring raw emotions across the country. The President had the support of the people, even gun owners. %80 of all Americans supported background checks. But he couldn't get the votes in Washington, not even from the Democrat-Controlled Senate. Unlike in Washington, where gun control supporters didn't have the muscle to pass legislation on background checks, a state Senate committee in Sacramento has just approved eight bills to strengthen California's already tight firearms regulations. However, without universal background checks nationwide, California and any state with tight gun laws is vulnerable to dealings and wheelings. And then there is the issue of the relentless influence of the National Rifle Association. The group is credited with successfully lobbying for, and in some cases helping to draft, Stand Your Ground laws and legislation. The NRA funneled over half a million dollars' worth of contributions to hundreds of congressmen in 2012. With midterm elections coming up in 2014, Democrats are concerned about losing their ground, after all who can forget Al Gore's defeat to George W. Bush in the 2000 presidential race many are convinced it was due to his support for stronger Gun laws. The democrats have never seem to gotten passed that issue. The President had the support of the overwhelming majority of the American public but didn't have the votes, will this be Barak Obama's biggest defeat and how it will affect his next four years as President is yet to be seen http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/04/23/299767/will-obama-succeed-in-gun-control-challenge/ http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=171_1366831002 cathy winslow Will Obama succeed in gun control challenge? Obama,Gun control,background checks,NRA Tue, 23 Apr 2013 19:22:44 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=6a8_1366759058 TopSecretDocuments Proof That Craft or Blackwater Agents Did The Boston Marathon Bombing - Must See Video & Pictures! Sunday, April 21, 2013 22:47 (Before It's News) % of readers think this story is Fact. Add your two cents. NOW SEE WHITE SQUARE PATCH ON THE RIGHT SIDE OF THIS IMAGE OF DESTROYED BOMBPACK AFTER THE BOSTON BOMBING!!! COMPARE WHITE PATCH TO 2ND IMAGE BACKPACK WHITE PATCH ABOVE! IT IS THE SAME WHITE SQUARE PATCH!!! THE BOMBERS!!!? IN THESE 2 PICTURES ABOVE & BELOW 2 MEN CARRYING REMOTE CONTROL DEVICES IN THEIR HANDS RUNNING ABOVE, WALKING BELOW? HERE IS THE AMAZING VIDEO: Published on Apr 20, 2013 In this video i show you how the Media suspect that is still alive and captured , Left the event WITH HIS BACKPACK ! BUT ......Their Craft aka Blackwater Agent was caught running out of the scene ..WITHOUT HIS BACKPACK ....The one that matches the Bomb Backpack PERFECTLY !! LOOK ! Proof That Craft or Blackwater Agents did the Boston Marathon Bombing Event http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjocGidSLJw http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2311925/Boston-manhunt-Photos-reveal-injures-Tamerlan-Tsarnaev-revealed-Dzhokhar-ran-body-getaway.html?ICO=most_read_module http://www.news24.com/World/News/Boston-bomb-suspect-in-serious-condition-20130420 https://fbcdn-sphotos-c-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/420681_368361239947297_1127185752_n.jpg http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=o53xq1&s=4 http://beforeitsnews.com/terrorism/2013/04/proof-that-craft-or-blackwater-agents-did-the-boston-marathon-bombing-2445882.html Boston Bombers Uncle On Feds Payroll, Tied To CIA Monday, April 22, 2013 13:48 % of readers think this story is Fact. Add your two cents. (Before It's News) Boston Bombers' Uncle Tied To CIA An investigative report from Daniel Hopsicker reveals murky dealings that indicate a connection between Boston Bomber's Uncle Ruslan Tsanir and the CIA. The report reveals that the bomber's Uncle, made famous for his outspoken condemnation of his nephew's which aired repeatedly on international news networks, is a well-connected oil executive who at one point worked for a Halliburton shell company used as a front to obtain oil contracts from the Kasakh State which is not involved in an investigation for laundering $6 billion. Tsanir's company was well known as being on the CIA's payroll for reporting intelligence out of the country and further raising eyebrows is the fact the Tsnanir was also receiving money directly from USAID, a U.S. taxpayer foreign aid fund notoriously known for funding global CIA black operations which operate under the flag of various humanitarian and pro-democracy operations. Tsanir's connections became international news during a Swiss investigation in 2011 when his name popped up as one of several executives in a ring of offshore oil companies involved in money laundering for "international corruption". As Daniel notes: Was Boston Bombers 'Uncle Ruslan' with the CIA? The uncle of the two men who set off bombs at the Boston Marathon, who struck the only grace note in an otherwise horrific week, worked as a "consultant" for the Agency for International Development (USAID) a U.S. Government Agency often used for cover by agents of the CIA, in the former Soviet Republic of Kazakhstan during the "Wild West" days of the early 1990's, when anything that wasn't nailed down in that country was up for grabs. Tsarni, a well-connected oil executive, is currently involved in an international criminal investigation into a Kazakh billionaire banker-turned-fugitive alleged to have absconded with $6 billion from Kazakhstan's BTA Bank. But the biggest red flag, the one pertinent to murder in Boston, was Oligarch Kukibayev's use of money laundered through a network of offshore companies from which Kazakhstan claims Ablyazov embezzled a very cool $6 billion dollars. And this is where "Uncle Ruslan" Tsarni comes in. The purchase of the Prince's estate was put together, according to prosecutors in Italy and Switzerland, by a group of oil executives who comprise "a network of personal and business relationships" allegedly used for "international corruption," reported The London Telegraph. Tsarni, called "a US lawyer who has had dealings in Kazakh business affairs," by the Sunday Times, clearly appears to be a member of that network. The Sunday Times reported, "A statement by Ruslan Zaindi Tsarni was given in the High Court in December, claiming that Kulibayev bought Sunninghill and properties in Mayfair with $96 million derived from a complex series of deals intended to disguise money laundering." "Tsarni alleged that the money came from the takeover of a western company, which had been used as a front to obtain oil contracts from the Kazakh state." A Big Big Sky's the Limit The "western company" used to launder the money which the Sunday Times referred to is Big Sky Energy Corporation, where Ruslan Tsarni was a top executive. Big Sky, which used to be known as China Energy Ventures Corp, is a now-bankrupt US oil company run by S.A. (Al) Sehsuvaroglu , a long-time executive of Halliburton, which had oil leases in Kakakhstan's Caspian Basin. Tsarni was Big Sky's Corporate Secretary and Vice President for Business Development. He joined Big Sky in 2005. "From 1994 to 1996, Mr. Tsarni served as a consultant contracted by USAID for projects aimed to develop securities markets in Central Asia, where he trained corporate governance and corporate finance principals in state and private companies." "Nelson, Big Sky, Ablyazov, Kulibayev and the rest were all on my watch list for intelligence connections and pay-offs of various kinds at Platts," The news corroborates other reports beginning to emerge about the family and its abundant connections. Before the Tsarnaev family moved to the United States a decade ago, they lived in the northern Kyrgyz town of Tokmok, near the border with Kazakhstan, which is home of the country's largest ethnic Chechen community. the extended Tsarnaev family is well-known there, even beyond their local community. "organized crime boss Aziz Batukaev, who is also an ethnic Chechen, lived next door to the Tsarnaevs. Halliburton executives, suspected CIA assets, Chechnyan crime bosses, oligarchs stealing billions from banks and laundering money with seeming impunity, fire-eaters, peacock-feathered stilt-walkers, and a girl swinging on a trapeze pouring vodka into ice sculptures shaped like naked male and female torsos... If there hadn't been two of them, the investigation would already be pointing to a single misfit, a lone nut bomber. Read Entire Article... From a comment on Daniel's article the plot thickens: Major Kazakhstan Players (Including Bribes). Dick Cheney, State Kazakhstan Oil Advisory Board, Halliburton was all over the Caspian, still is. Amerada Hess (Baker & Botts ) (Delta, Saudi), Board member Kean is Chairman of 9-11 Commission =conflict of interest. BP Amoco (Baker & Botts), Amoco implicated in bribery scandal. Phillips Petroleum, implicated in bribery scandal. ChevronTexaco, Texaco implicated in bribery scandal; Baker & Botts represents ChevronTexaco and Mayer Brown represents Kazakhstan. James H. Giffen indicted for bribery-2003. That nasty matter of bribes in Kazakhstan involving Mr. James H. Giffen did involve Mobil, as well as Texaco, Amoco and Phillips Petroleum. ExxonMobil, Mobil implicated in bribery scandal. Schlumberger Oil Services, Jamie Gorelick on board, 9-11 Commission member, conflict of interest. Schlumberger stayed pretty quiet about their Caspian Basin adventures until the 9-11 Commission was wrapping up and handing things over to Congress to slam shut more of our American freedoms instead of addressing 9-11 and who did it, and bring them to justice. (Continued growth in Russia and the Caspian, and strong performance across Asia and the Middle East, were both very encouraging. North America pricing moved up satisfactorily in the quarter.) Mayer Brown, Rowe & Maw, represents Kazakhstan. Slightly conflicted out on 9-11 Commission. http://www.yuricareport.com/Energy/OilCompaniesLawyers12-04.pdf http://beforeitsnews.com/scandals/2013/04/boston-bombers-uncle-on-feds-payroll-tied-to-cia-2431140.html http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=6a8_1366759058 TopSecretDocuments Proof That Craft or Blackwater Agents Did The Boston Marathon Bombing - Must See Video & Pictures! Blackwater, The Craft, backpacks, Boston Marathon, CIA Sun, 21 Apr 2013 23:41:19 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=949_1366601927 AxisofEvil In a sweeping unanimous vote, members of Congress voted to overturn parts of the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act that previously banned 28,000 federal employees, including members of Congress , from engaging in insider trading, requiring them to make financial disclosures publicly online. The bill passed into law April 2012 after lengthy debate, but took less than one minute to repeal in both the Senate and the House last week - President Barack Obama has since signed the newly-repealed bill into law. The Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act, was a law passed last year designed to prevent insider trading among lawmakers and government officials by requiring them to post disclosures of financial transactions online. According to official records, no Republican or Democrat objected in the unanimous repeal, consuming just 10 seconds worth of time in the Senate and 14 seconds in the House, according to official records. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) was one of the leading proponents of the repeal basing his decision on the a recommendation made by the National Academy of Public Administration. "This was their recommendation and the House and Senate agreed it was the best course of action," he said. Government officials will still have to file disclosures of securities trades more than $1,000 within 45 days, but they no longer have to file them in a searchable database that is readily available to the public. Despite robust support for STOCK last year, President Obama signed the repeal into law Tuesday. Lawmakers contend that the repeal is a necessary security measure. The National Academy of Public Administration, a nonprofit group, published a report last month declaring that posting financial transactions histories online would create an "unwarranted risk to national security and law enforcement, as well as threaten agency missions, individual safety and privacy." The group has recommended that the online posting requirements should be suspended indefinitely. The original STOCK legislation followed a "60 Minutes" television report highlighting how some members of Congress are making money on stock trades illegally by having insider knowledge of upcoming decisions by major corporations and financial institutions before they are announced to the public. Lawmakers have been involved in shady dealings that some believe is evidence of insider trading. In a notable example, Senator Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) sold more than $115,000 worth of stocks and mutual fund shares in September 2008 as U.S. stock markets plummeted during the worst financial downturn since the Great Depression. He used much of the money to invest in Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. Durbin's 2008 financial disclosure statement shows that he sold mutual fund shares worth $42,696 on Sept. 19, the day after then-Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke urged congressional leaders in a closed meeting to craft a bank bailout to help financially troubled banks. The Sunlight Foundation, a government accountability watchdog group, reported that despite its rapid passage, there were delays in making the details of the STOCK repeal available to the public. "The bill was not available to the public on the Library of Congress website," Sunlight reports. Spokespeople for Sunlight believe that the repeal could open the door for illegal trades. " sets an extraordinarily dangerous precedent suggesting that any risks stem not from information being public but from public information being online," said Lisa Rosenberg of the Sunlight Foundation. http://www.mintpressnews.com/congress-repeals-disclosure-of-financial-transactions-critics-decry-insider-trading/ http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=949_1366601927 AxisofEvil Congress Repeals Disclosure Of Financial Transactions, Critics Decry Insider Trading Corrupt SOBs, US polticians and Insider trading