Massive US naval armada heads for Iran...

http://europebusines.blogspot.com/2008/08/massive-us-naval-armada-heads-for-iran.html

Massive US naval armada heads for Iran...

Eurobusiness blogspot, Thursday, August 7, 2008


Operation Brimstone ended only one week ago. This was the joint US/UK/French naval war games in the Atlantic Ocean preparing for a naval blockade of Iran and the likely resulting war in the Persian Gulf area. The massive war games included a US Navy supercarrier battle group, an US Navy expeditionary carrier battle group, a Royal Navy carrier battle group, a French nuclear hunter-killer submarine plus a large number of US Navy cruisers, destroyers and frigates playing the "enemy force".

The lead American ship in these war games, the USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN71) and its Carrier Strike Group Two (CCSG-2) are now headed towards Iran along with the USS Ronald Reagon (CVN76) and its Carrier Strike Group Seven (CCSG-7) coming from Japan.

They are joining two existing USN battle groups in the Gulf area: the USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN72) with its Carrier Strike Group Nine (CCSG-9); and the USS Peleliu (LHA-5) with its expeditionary strike group.

Likely also under way towards the Persian Gulf is the USS Iwo Jima (LHD-7) and its expeditionary strike group, the UK Royal Navy HMS Ark Royal (R07) carrier battle group, assorted French naval assets including the nuclear hunter-killer submarine Amethyste and French Naval Rafale fighter jets on-board the USS Theodore Roosevelt. These ships took part in the just completed Operation Brimstone.

The build up of naval forces in the Gulf will be one of the largest multi-national naval armadas since the First and Second Gulf Wars. The intent is to create a US/EU naval blockade (which is an Act of War under international law) around Iran (with supporting air and land elements) to prevent the shipment of benzene and certain other refined oil products headed to Iranian ports. Iran has limited domestic oil refining capacity and imports 40% of its benzene. Cutting off benzene and other key products would cripple the Iranian economy. The neo-cons are counting on such a blockade launching a war with Iran.

The US Naval forces being assembled include the following:

Carrier Strike Group Nine
USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN72) nuclear powered supercarrier
with its Carrier Air Wing Two
Destroyer Squadron Nine:
USS Mobile Bay (CG53) guided missile cruiser
USS Russell (DDG59) guided missile destroyer
USS Momsen (DDG92) guided missile destroyer
USS Shoup (DDG86) guided missile destroyer
USS Ford (FFG54) guided missile frigate
USS Ingraham (FFG61) guided missile frigate
USS Rodney M. Davis (FFG60) guided missile frigate
USS Curts (FFG38) guided missile frigate
Plus one or more nuclear hunter-killer submarines

Peleliu Expeditionary Strike Group
USS Peleliu (LHA-5) a Tarawa-class amphibious assault carrier
USS Pearl Harbor (LSD52) assult ship
USS Dubuque (LPD8) assult ship/landing dock
USS Cape St. George (CG71) guided missile cruiser
USS Halsey (DDG97) guided missile destroyer
USS Benfold (DDG65) guided missile destroyer

Carrier Strike Group Two
USS Theodore Roosevelt (DVN71) nuclear powered supercarrier
with its Carrier Air Wing Eight
Destroyer Squadron 22
USS Monterey (CG61) guided missile cruiser
USS Mason (DDG87) guided missile destroyer
USS Nitze (DDG94) guided missile destroyer
USS Sullivans (DDG68) guided missile destroyer

USS Springfield (SSN761) nuclear powered hunter-killer submarine

IWO ESG ~ Iwo Jima Expeditionary Strike Group
USS Iwo Jima (LHD7) amphibious assault carrier
with its Amphibious Squadron Four
and with its 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit
USS San Antonio (LPD17) assault ship
USS Velia Gulf (CG72) guided missile cruiser
USS Ramage (DDG61) guided missile destroyer
USS Carter Hall (LSD50) assault ship
USS Roosevelt (DDG80) guided missile destroyer

USS Hartfore (SSN768) nuclear powered hunter-killer submarine

Carrier Strike Group Seven
USS Ronald Reagan (CVN76) nuclear powered supercarrier
with its Carrier Air Wing 14
Destroyer Squadron 7
USS Chancellorsville (CG62) guided missile cruiser
USS Howard (DDG83) guided missile destroyer
USS Gridley (DDG101) guided missile destroyer
USS Decatur (DDG73) guided missile destroyer
USS Thach (FFG43) guided missile frigate
USNS Rainier (T-AOE-7) fast combat support ship

Also likely to join the battle armada:

UK Royal Navy HMS Ark Royal Carrier Strike Group with assorted guided missile destroyers and frigates, nuclear hunter-killer submarines and support ships

French Navy nuclear powered hunter-killer submarines (likely the Amethyste and perhaps others), plus French Naval Rafale fighter jets operating off of the USS Theodore Roosevelt as the French Carrier Charles de Gaulle is in dry dock, and assorted surface warships

Various other US Navy warships and submarines and support ships.



The following USN ships took part (as the "enemy" forces) in Operation Brimstone and several may join in:

USS San Jacinto (CG56) guided missile cruiser
USS Anzio (CG68) guided missile cruiser
USS Normandy (CG60) guided missile cruiser
USS Carney (DDG64) guided missile destroyer
USS Oscar Austin (DDG79) guided missile destroyer
USS Winston S. Churchill (DDG81) guided missile destroyer
USS Carr (FFG52) guided missile frigate

The USS Iwo Jima and USS Peleliu Expeditionary Strike Groups have USMC Harrier jump jets and an assortment of assault and attack helicopters. The Expeditionary Strike Groups have powerful USMC Expeditionary Units with amphibious armor and ground forces trained for operating in shallow waters and in seizures of land assets, such as Qeshm Island (a 50 mile long island off of Bandar Abbas in the Gulf of Hormuz and headquarters of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps).

The large and very advanced nature of the US Naval warships is not only directed at Iran. There is a great fear that Russia and China may oppose the naval and air/land blockade of Iran. If Russian and perhaps Chinese naval warships escort commercial tankers to Iran in violation of the blockade it could be the most dangerous at-sea confrontation since the Cuban Missile Crisis. The US and allied Navies, by front loading a Naval blockade force with very powerful guided missile warships and strike carriers is attempting to have a force so powerful that Russia and China will not be tempted to mess with. This is a most serious game of military brinkmanship with major nuclear armed powers that have profound objections to the neo-con grand strategy and to western control of all of the Middle East's oil supply.

The Russian Navy this spring sent a major battle fleet into the Mediterranean headed by the modern aircraft carrier the Admiral Kuznetsov and the flagship of its Black Sea Fleet, the Guided Missile Heavy Cruiser Moskva. This powerful fleet has at least 11 surface ships and unknown numbers of subs and can use the Russian naval facility at Syria's Tartous port for resupply. The Admiral Kuznetsov carries approximately 47 warplanes and 10 helicopters. The warplanes are mostly the powerful Su-33, a naval version (with mid-air refueling capability) of the Su-27 family. While the Su-33 is a very powerful warplane it lacks the power of the stealth USAF F-22. However, the Russians insist that they have developed a plasma based system that allows them to stealth any aircraft and a recent incident where Russian fighters were able to appear unannounced over a US Navy carrier battle group tends to confirm their claims. The Su-33 can be armed with the 3M82 Moskit sea-skimming missile (NATO code name SS-N-22 Sunburn) and the even more powerful P-800 Oniks (also named Yakhonts; NATO code name SS-N-26 Onyx). Both missiles are designed to kill US Navy supercarriers by getting past the cruiser/destroyer screen and the USN point-defense Phalanx system by using high supersonic speeds and violent end maneuvers. Russian subs currently use the underwater rocket VA-111 Shkval (Squall), which is fired from standard 533mm torpedo tubes and reaches a speed of 360kph (230mph) underwater. There is no effective countermeasures to this system and no western counterpart.

A strategic diversion has been created for Russia. The Republic of Georgia, with US backing, is actively preparing for war on South Ossetia. The South Ossetia capital has been shelled and a large Georgian tank force has been heading towards the border. Russia has stated that it will not sit by and allow the Georgians to attack South Ossetia. The Russians are great chess players and this game may not turn out so well for the neo-cons.



UPDATE 8 August 2008 ~ War has broken out between Georgia and South Ossetia. At least 10 Russian troops have been killed and 30 wounded and 2 Russian fighter jets downed. American Marines, a thousand of them, have recently been in Georgia training the Georgian military forces. Several European nations stopped Bush and others from allowing Georgia into NATO. Russia is moving a large military force with armor towards the area. This could get bad, and remember it is just a strategic diversion....but one that could have horrific effects. Link to story "Russia sends forces into Georgia rebel conflict".



FURTHER UPDATE ~ Russian military forces in active combat; now total of four Russian fighter jets reported downed.



ADDITIONAL UPDATE ~ Georgia calls for US help; Russian Air Force bombs Georgian air bases.



DEBKA, the Israeli strategy and military site, states that Israeli military officers are advising the Georgian armed forces in combat operations and that 1,000 Israelis are in-combat on the side of Georgia at this time.

Kuwait has activated its "Emergency War Plan" as it and other Gulf nations prepare for the likelihood of a major regional war in the Middle East involving weapons of mass destruction.

The two-ton elephant in the living room of the neo-con strategy is the advanced biowar (ABW) that Iran, and to a lessor extent Syria, has. This places the motherlands of the major neo-con nations (America, France, the United Kingdom), as well as Israel, in grave danger. When the Soviet Union fell the Iranians hired as many out-of-work former Soviet advanced biowar experts as possible. In the last 15 or so years they have helped to develop a truly world class ABW program utilizing recombination DNA genetic engineering technology to create a large number of man made killer viruses. This form of weapon system does not require high tech military delivery systems. The viruses are sub-microscopic and once seeded in a population use the population itself as vectors. Seeding can be done without notice in shopping malls, churches, and other public places. The only real defense to an advanced global strategic biowar attack is to lock down the population as rapidly as possible and let those infected die off.

Unless the public gets it act together and forces the neo-cons to stop the march to yet another war in the Middle East we are apt to see a truly horrific nightmare unfold in OUR COUNTRIES.
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This article is troubling on so many levels it's not funny...there is a real possibility that our beloved leader, GWB, is going to press some buttons he has no business pressing. And that may be the end of life as we know it.

It's a play to grab most of the Middle East for the US. Actually, our "leaders" don't give a rat's ass about the people or histories of the countries, what the powers that be care about is OIL. Control that, and you control the world's commerce. There is another piece at work here, also behind the scenes, and it is named Codex Alimentarius. Look up Monsanto's "Terminator Seeds". I firmy believe that the world's elite is out to cut the population of the globe by around 90%. Don't remember where I heard it, but about 15 years ago, I was moving across the country from California to Georgia, and was listening to talk radio at night through the Sonora Desert. There was a guy on who was talking about a plan of the world's elite, given the rapidly dwindling resources (food, water, oil), to reduce the population of the world through warfare and starvation, and for the US (or what was left of it) to emerge as the leader of a unified world government. The figures that he gave were shocking, as the top elite of the world that control 99% of the global resources number only about 6-7000. Those people with the resources would survive, most of the rest would die. The survivors of the coming war would be the new slave class, and would serve their new masters. I recall the names of the CFR and the Bilderberg Group being mentioned, as well as timeline target of 2009. After looking into the Codex, which was an idea by a Nazi first put into effect in the early 60s, I realized why 2009 stuck out so much- that's when the Codex Alimentarius becomes the law of the world, criminalizing foods, medicines, even vitamins and drugs, unless they are produced by a consortium of very large companies. Those companies include Monsanto, which is why I mentioned the Terminator program. It will force almost all farmers to pay exorbitant fees to "license" their seed stock, and any seeds collected from that year's crop would not germinate the next year. They would be forced to buy new seed stock every year, thousands of dollars worth, year in and year out. Many farmers in the US, already hard-hit by the failing dollar and razor-thin profits, simply could not afford this, and plenty have left agriculture all together.

This current buildup is very scary, and there is nothing about it in the US media (for obvious reasons- we have Olympics coverage to distract us, as well as the upcoming announcements about the cast of "Dancing With The Stars" for this fall); the Russians have been steadily deploying out to the PG to back up the Iranians, and their subs in the Gulf have something we don't have an analog for- they have 230-mph, rocket-powered torpedos! There is no defense against them as of yet, sonar just doesn't "see" them until it's too late. The Admiral Kusnetsov, their most modern carrier, and its battle group are also headed out for the Gulf, if they're not already there. They have several squadrons of Su-33s, mainly, that supposedly have some sort of plasma-based "cloaking" ability. A few months back, a squadron of these 33's suddenly "appeared" directly over the USS Roosevelt (I think it was the Roosie, I'll double-check), causing quite a stir! They were COMPLETELY undetected! Puto has really upped the Russian military, and is hell-bent on putting the old USSR back together, including the Eastern Bloc. The Georgian-started (or is it George W-started?) "war" is only a small diversion. Kind of funny that it started at the same time as the Olympics, it got very little coverage over here. Bush is still telling Puto "You best stand down, boy. There WILL be consequences!" But I think that the rest of the world knows that we are stretched pretty thin- fighting a 3-front war is suicidal, at best. But think of the billions in no-bid contracts that will spring up from destroying the world! Halliburton and the Bushco go way back...even if Cheney isn't the CEO again until he steps down Jan 20th (providing we still have elections!). More angles on this than on a Chinese Checkers board! Just for the record, I have a real bad feeling about this one- it would set up Bush to be President-for-Life, especially if he calls off the elections due to the war(s). He's already given himself the authority to do that. Executive privilege and all...

Pelosi needs to be recalled...

Her behavior today, turning out the lights and cameras in the House on Republicans that were still debating, is deliberate, self-aggrandizing, and unconscionable. You should be ASHAMED, Nancy! I'm ashamed to have you representing my country! You should be removed as Speaker, and you should go back to private life- the more private, the better, as far as I'm concerned! What you did was immoral, shameful, despotic, anti-American, and illegal! You should hang your head in SHAME! This is NOT how I expect a Speaker to behave, it's discourteous, disingenuous, and you, madam, are indeed NOT running your own private Politburo! You are unworthy of the position you hold...wait until November, dearie- the people who elected you and your cronies are getting REAL SICK AND TIRED of the bullshit the CONgress is pulling. We need action in a time of crisis, and we're NOT getting it!

I call on all of my Californicated friends to rise up on November 4th, and vote against Pelosi, as well as EVERY incumbent. You say you want change? Here's your chance! All new people in Congress, this year, and every other year, and we'll have a new face on the government that is not beholden to corrupt corporations. "We The People" means ALL of us should be represented, not just the "captains of industry". We are sick of the games, the pandering, the corruption, the outright lies that our government tells. It's time to hold them responsible for their actions! Vote them OUT. Get out of our House, Pelosi. Your imperial strut has more than lost its charm.

We need to get out OurPitchfoksAndTorches and take back our country before it is too late!

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/08/01/politics/politico/thecrypt/main4314586.shtml

Something Big Is Happening...

Rep. Ron Paul, who is my Congressman, delivered this statement the other day, and it's resonance with me is undeniable. He hits the nail on the head here, and I think he has great courage to say these things, considering our current political/economic nightmare. The time is now to step up and speak out, and old Dr. Ron is coming through big time. I'm posting his entire statement for all to see- he's really not a loony/crazy. He speaks the truth here, and it is somewhat painful, especially if your name happens to be Pelosi...

He makes some very salient point about the giant scam that is the Fed, and about the problems with fiat currency; he also points out how far we have really strayed from the principles of our Constitution (a document that I am fairly sure 99% of the Senate and House has either never read, or doesn't care to understand), and he warns of the dangers of granting dictatorial powers to the Executive Branch, which we are perilously close to anyway. He also looks down on the welfare state, with it's "culture of entitlement" that has sucked away the drive and determination of the poor in this country. He ties it all in with the arguments, both pro and con, of "globalization".

Yes, the world is getting smaller. I plan to write in Ron Paul this November, if the elections still happen. He's the only politician who speaks truthfully and with an unvarnished pride in what we really are as a nation. Not these cut-throat corporate shills that currently occupy our government and enrich themselves and their buddies at our expense. Perhaps we should all grab OurPitchforksAndTorches and let Weaselton, DC, know just what the American people are REALLY capable of! So please join me on election day, and vote against incumbents- throw the rascals out on their asses!

As always, I am...

Amir Fazadh

Statement: "Something Big is Happening"

9 July 2008

Rep. Ron Paul, M.D.

Madam Speaker, I have, for the past 35 years, expressed my grave concern for the future of America . The course we have taken over the past century has threatened our liberties, security and prosperity. In spite of these long-held concerns, I have days--growing more frequent all the time--when I'm convinced the time is now upon us that some Big Events are about to occur. These fast-approaching events will not go unnoticed. They will affect all of us. They will not be limited to just some areas of our country. The world economy and political system will share in the chaos about to be unleashed.

Though the world has long suffered from the senselessness of wars that should have been avoided, my greatest fear is that the course on which we find ourselves will bring even greater conflict and economic suffering to the innocent people of the world--unless we quickly change our ways.

America , with her traditions of free markets and property rights, led the way toward great wealth and progress throughout the world as well as at home. Since we have lost our confidence in the principles of liberty, self reliance, hard work and frugality, and instead took on empire building, financed through inflation and debt, all this has changed. This is indeed frightening and an historic event.

The problem we face is not new in history. Authoritarianism has been around a long time. For centuries, inflation and debt have been used by tyrants to hold power, promote aggression, and provide “bread and circuses” for the people. The notion that a country can afford “guns and butter” with no significant penalty existed even before the 1960s when it became a popular slogan. It was then, though, we were told the Vietnam War and the massive expansion of the welfare state were not problems. The seventies proved that assumption wrong.

Today things are different from even ancient times or the 1970s. There is something to the argument that we are now a global economy. The world has more people and is more integrated due to modern technology, communications, and travel. If modern technology had been used to promote the ideas of liberty, free markets, sound money and trade, it would have ushered in a new golden age--a globalism we could accept.

Instead, the wealth and freedom we now enjoy are shrinking and rest upon a fragile philosophic infrastructure. It is not unlike the levies and bridges in our own country that our system of war and welfare has caused us to ignore.

I'm fearful that my concerns have been legitimate and may even be worse than I first thought. They are now at our doorstep. Time is short for making a course correction before this grand experiment in liberty goes into deep hibernation.

There are reasons to believe this coming crisis is different and bigger than the world has ever experienced. Instead of using globalism in a positive fashion, it's been used to globalize all of the mistakes of the politicians, bureaucrats and central bankers.

Being an unchallenged sole superpower was never accepted by us with a sense of humility and respect. Our arrogance and aggressiveness have been used to promote a world empire backed by the most powerful army of history. This type of globalist intervention creates problems for all citizens of the world and fails to contribute to the well-being of the world's populations. Just think how our personal liberties have been trashed here at home in the last decade.

The financial crisis, still in its early stages, is apparent to everyone: gasoline prices over $4 a gallon; skyrocketing education and medical-care costs; the collapse of the housing bubble; the bursting of the NASDAQ bubble; stock markets plunging; unemployment rising; massive underemployment; excessive government debt; and unmanageable personal debt. Little doubt exists as to whether we'll get stagflation. The question that will soon be asked is: When will the stagflation become an inflationary depression?

There are various reasons that the world economy has been globalized and the problems we face are worldwide. We cannot understand what we're facing without understanding fiat money and the long-developing dollar bubble.

There were several stages. From the inception of the Federal Reserve System in 1913 to 1933, the Central Bank established itself as the official dollar manager. By 1933, Americans could no longer own gold, thus removing restraint on the Federal Reserve to inflate for war and welfare.

By 1945, further restraints were removed by creating the Bretton-Woods Monetary System making the dollar the reserve currency of the world. This system lasted up until 1971. During the period between 1945 and 1971, some restraints on the Fed remained in place. Foreigners, but not Americans, could convert dollars to gold at $35 an ounce. Due to the excessive dollars being created, that system came to an end in 1971.

It's the post Bretton-Woods system that was responsible for globalizing inflation and markets and for generating a gigantic worldwide dollar bubble. That bubble is now bursting, and we're seeing what it's like to suffer the consequences of the many previous economic errors.

Ironically in these past 35 years, we have benefited from this very flawed system. Because the world accepted dollars as if they were gold, we only had to counterfeit more dollars, spend them overseas (indirectly encouraging our jobs to go overseas as well) and enjoy unearned prosperity. Those who took our dollars and gave us goods and services were only too anxious to loan those dollars back to us. This allowed us to export our inflation and delay the consequences we now are starting to see.

But it was never destined to last, and now we have to pay the piper. Our huge foreign debt must be paid or liquidated. Our entitlements are coming due just as the world has become more reluctant to hold dollars. The consequence of that decision is price inflation in this country--and that's what we are witnessing today. Already price inflation overseas is even higher than here at home as a consequence of foreign central banks' willingness to monetize our debt.

Printing dollars over long periods of time may not immediately push prices up--yet in time it always does. Now we're seeing catch-up for past inflating of the monetary supply. As bad as it is today with $4 a gallon gasoline, this is just the beginning. It's a gross distraction to hound away at “drill, drill, drill” as a solution to the dollar crisis and high gasoline prices. Its okay to let the market increase supplies and drill, but that issue is a gross distraction from the sins of deficits and Federal Reserve monetary shenanigans.

This bubble is different and bigger for another reason. The central banks of the world secretly collude to centrally plan the world economy. I'm convinced that agreements among central banks to “monetize” U.S. debt these past 15 years have existed, although secretly and out of the reach of any oversight of anyone--especially the U.S. Congress that doesn't care, or just flat doesn't understand. As this “gift” to us comes to an end, our problems worsen. The central banks and the various governments are very powerful, but eventually the markets overwhelm when the people who get stuck holding the bag (of bad dollars) catch on and spend the dollars into the economy with emotional zeal, thus igniting inflationary fever.

This time--since there are so many dollars and so many countries involved--the Fed has been able to “paper” over every approaching crisis for the past 15 years, especially with Alan Greenspan as Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, which has allowed the bubble to become history's greatest.

The mistakes made with excessive credit at artificially low rates are huge, and the market is demanding a correction. This involves excessive debt, misdirected investments, over-investments, and all the other problems caused by the government when spending the money they should never have had. Foreign militarism, welfare handouts and $80 trillion entitlement promises are all coming to an end. We don't have the money or the wealth-creating capacity to catch up and care for all the needs that now exist because we rejected the market economy, sound money, self reliance and the principles of liberty.

Since the correction of all this misallocation of resources is necessary and must come, one can look for some good that may come as this “Big Event” unfolds.

There are two choices that people can make. The one choice that is unavailable to us is to limp along with the status quo and prop up the system with more debt, inflation and lies. That won't happen.

One of the two choices, and the one chosen so often by government in the past is that of rejecting the principles of liberty and resorting to even bigger and more authoritarian government. Some argue that giving dictatorial powers to the President, just as we have allowed him to run the American empire, is what we should do. That's the great danger, and in this post-911 atmosphere, too many Americans are seeking safety over freedom. We have already lost too many of our personal liberties already. Real fear of economic collapse could prompt central planners to act to such a degree that the New Deal of the 30's might look like Jefferson 's Declaration of Independence.

The more the government is allowed to do in taking over and running the economy, the deeper the depression gets and the longer it lasts. That was the story of the 30s and the early 40s, and the same mistakes are likely to be made again if we do not wake up.

But the good news is that it need not be so bad if we do the right thing. I saw “Something Big” happening in the past 18 months on the campaign trail. I was encouraged that we are capable of waking up and doing the right thing. I have literally met thousands of high school and college kids who are quite willing to accept the challenge and responsibility of a free society and reject the cradle-to-grave welfare that is promised them by so many do-good politicians.

If more hear the message of liberty, more will join in this effort. The failure of our foreign policy, welfare system, and monetary policies and virtually all government solutions are so readily apparent, it doesn't take that much convincing. But the positive message of how freedom works and why it's possible is what is urgently needed.

One of the best parts of accepting self reliance in a free society is that true personal satisfaction with one's own life can be achieved. This doesn't happen when the government assumes the role of guardian, parent or provider, because it eliminates a sense of pride. But the real problem is the government can't provide the safety and economic security that it claims. The so called good that government claims it can deliver is always achieved at the expense of someone else's freedom. It's a failed system and the young people know it.

Restoring a free society doesn't eliminate the need to get our house in order and to pay for the extravagant spending. But the pain would not be long-lasting if we did the right things, and best of all the empire would have to end for financial reasons. Our wars would stop, the attack on civil liberties would cease, and prosperity would return. The choices are clear: it shouldn't be difficult, but the big event now unfolding gives us a great opportunity to reverse the tide and resume the truly great American Revolution started in 1776. Opportunity knocks in spite of the urgency and the dangers we face.

Let's make “Something Big Is Happening” be the discovery that freedom works and is popular and the big economic and political event we're witnessing is a blessing in disguise.

War with Iran Likely As Bush OKs Israel's Attack Plans

Sunday, July 13, 2008 7:19 AM

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The Sunday Times of London reported this weekend that "President George W. Bush has told the Israeli government that he may be prepared to approve a future military strike on Iranian nuclear facilities if negotiations with Tehran break down." The Times report quoted a senior Pentagon official as its source.

With increased resistance from the Pentagon and the November elections closing in, the White House may be choosing its next best option in dealing with Tehran: to have Israel launch strikes on Iran's nuclear weapons facilities.

The paper said Bush has told Israel it has an "amber light" to proceed.

“Amber means get on with your preparations, stand by for immediate attack and tell us when you’re ready,” the paper quoted a U.S. official as saying.

Military experts are not sure that Israel's military forces can do the job. Iran has dispersed its nuclear program sites around the country, and some weapons facilities are said to be deep within the earth. The U.S. has special bunker-busting bombs that could destroy such underground laboratories, but Israel does not.

Iran has made clear it will retaliate against Israel and the U.S. if either nation attacks it. Last week, Iran's military demonstrated its reach by firing nine long- and medium-range missiles -- including the modified Shahab-3 ballistic missile, which can easily strike Israel from western Iran.

Political factors may be playing a role in strike plans for both Bush and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

Bush is in lame-duck status, and Democratic Sen. Barack Obama, the front-runner to win the presidency in November, says he favors the use of diplomacy over force when dealing with Iran.

Olmert is facing a political crisis as corruption charges threaten his hold on office. Some Israeli political analysts say Olmert may order an attack on Iran to bolster his political standing in Jerusalem.

The Times cited one of Olmert's closest friends as quoting the prime minister: "In three months’ time it will be a different Middle East.”

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Scary proposition, that one. Yet, both Olmert and Bush seem hell-bent on destroying the world. President-elect Obama (I say this because the media seems to have already elected him) thinks that diplomacy will work better than brute force. My opinion? Doesn't really matter, but I think the only thing that the Iranians will understand is getting their asses handed to them. Brute force is the only thing they really understand. Theirs is a culture of conquest, that much is clear. Look at the history of their religion, their country, their neighbors. Brute force simply works with them.

Their religion was penned by two authors transcribing the history of their prophet, Mohammad. He was a fierce and mighty warrior, killing thousands, and his religion was used to whip into the Arabian Peninsula, those who didn't subscribe to the new religion were not left alone, they were not exiled, they were killed. Neighboring countries faced the same treatment, and soon, the entire fertile crescent was going Muslim (Moslem, in the words of the time).

The Muslim world is wanting to expand, wishing for an Islamic world Caliphate, one religion commanding the entire globe. This is no secret. They want to be the only religion, period. And in their world, the only religion is also the only government, which goes back to my earlier assertions that "religion is the world's oldest form of government".

They are making deep inroads into the Western world, using our own legal system against us to make certain that anyone speaking up against Islam is either silenced or jailed. They have a big foothold in Europe, with France and the UK nearly falling to the "Moslem Horde"...it's like the Crusades in reverse. They have a beachhead in the US, with the Detroit area seemingly the epicenter of their US operations. Yet, it's illegal to say anything against Islam. You can say things against Christianity or Judaism all you want, but the minute someone says anything against Islam, they labeled a racist bigot, and a lawsuit is slapped upon them.

I'm not against freedom of religion, except where that religion requires cutting off the heads of non-believers. I believe that people should be free to make up their own minds and hearts as to their personal faith, and having the freedom to make an informed choice is part of that equation. Islam doesn't make that distinction, it's either convert or die.

Now that I have that out of the way, let's talk a second about the upcoming war in Iran. I've been saying for quite some time that this would happen sooner than later, and this seems to be the case. We already have our battle lines drawn, and now it looks like coordinated efforts are being made to accelerate the process. Bush has nothing to lose by going to war in the final months of his presidency, and Olmert faces a crisis at home, being seen as the weakest leader in Israel's short history. gone from the scene are all the strong Israeli leaders, having been of the last generation, and mostly dead by now. This new generation of leadership is of the "appeasement" and "negotiate peace" types. It's been shown time and time again that the Arab mind cannot and will not be appeased, nor do they wish for peace. The only peace they will accept is the total subservience of the world to the Koran (Q'oran, Q'uran- however you want to spell it). So we're being conditioned in the West to accept our new Muslim masters, and Israel's Olmert is trying to save face amongst his people by bowing up against the Iranian Crescent. He has nothing to lose, survival of Israel itself notwithstanding, and the respect and admiration of his country to gain. Bush has nothing to lose, being the lame duck he's always been, and massive profits to gain in his waning days as leader of the "free" world. Is there a choice here that I'm not seeing? He has basically told Israel, "Go ahead and attack Iran, and if you need a little help, we have a carrier battle group over there anyway.

Geographically, the war makes sense. From the west, we already have bases in Saudi Arabia and Iraq, to the east, we already have bases in Afghanistan and Pakistan. To the north, we have bases in Turkey, and can use our assets in Germany as an insulated command post. Should be a classic "pincer" move, right? Something tells me that this won't be the case.

Hang on for a wild ride, it's quite possibly the end of the world as we know it!

Indy Mac bank collapse

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2008047114_webindymac11.html

The Feds have captured another bank...nice!

Chuck Schumer has been crowing for a couple days now that this bank was on the verge of collapse. Well, Chucky, ya done it. You killed a bank. Your cavalier comments caused the understandably jumpy public to "make a run on the bank", a run so big that they had to limit withdrawals to what you could get through the ATM machine (normally $200, about enough for a tank of gas and a couple bags of groceries). The withdrawals caused the bank, which would have been fine had you not opened your big yap, to slide into oblivion, and right into the FDIC's hands. This will be the costliest bank collapse in history, because there are so many other banks that are woefully overexposed to the sub-prime mortgage fiasco.

To fund this takeover, we the sheeple will have to come up with $40 billion, which is on top of our Iraq war bill, our Afghanistan bill, and our skyrocketing gas and electricity bills. For this I say "Thank You, Chuck!" Really nice of you to go around causing mass panic. Had they been left alone, and had you been silent, they likely would have suffered a further dip in their stock prices. Instead, you yanked the rug out from under them, and will probably do it again next week. So which one are you going after next, Chuck? Freddie or Fannie? Both are under severe pressure, and neither is in a position to adequately defend themselves from a smear campaign. If either of them go under, it could (and quite possibly will) cause a collapse of the entire Federal Reserve System, rendering the dollar worthless, and making inflation hit three-digit numbers, possibly four. You think gas prices are high now? Wait until Freddie and Fannie turn out the lights, causing a domino effect with bank runs all over the place. The Great Depression will look like a "slight softening of the economy".

This is bad, people. You all need to wake up and start demanding a return to a gold-backed currency, or at least silver. Something tangible, instead of derivatives and fractional fiat money. When the collapse happens, you might as well just wipe your butt with dollar bills, they'll be cheaper than the toilet paper that is about $1000/roll.

I have started to invest in silver, it's fairly cheap now, and I can't afford gold at the moment. It is still under $20 for the moment, but I look for it to climb significantly in the coming months (gold, too, but not platinum- not as much demand as the catalytic converters aren't being used as much since they're shutting down car and truck production).

I'm seeing reports of people giving up their health insurance to be able to scrape by for a while, to buy gas and food. Wages are under downward pressure, but prices are rising faster and faster. So go ahead, Bernanke, print us up some more money to bail out Indy Mac. You're really good at flipping the switch on the printing presses, and that devalues our currency by a noticable amount every time you do it. So print up! Maybe you can print a couple hundred billion bucks, and flood the market. That'd be sweet! Our money would be worthless, and you will have made us all slaves (except the elite, they have most of the money and transfer it to their shell corporations anyway).

Look out for the "Amero". It's coming, and maybe sooner than everyone thought!

Making the World Safe For Theocracy

Making the World Safe for Theocracy
By Michael Savage

Theocratic Iran continues to challenge Western democracies. Missiles designed to do in 6 minutes what Hitler did in 6 years to 6 million Jews were test fired by this radical Islamic theocracy. The Hitler of Iran has threatened to kill every Jewish person in Israel even if it costs Iran 50 percent of its population. Iran has imprisoned British sailors and sent a fleet of rubber boats against gigantic U.S. warships. Where is a strong statement from our president? Where is the bold warning against an enemy who has threatened us and our allies again and again? Nowhere. Silence and weak words are all that have come out of the White House and the West.

This is not the first time a nation led by a despot built up its military in defiance of the international community. In the 1930s Adolph Hitler cast aside the restrictions on the size of his military imposed on Germany after World War One and created the Wermacht and the Luftwaffe. Now the Hitler of Iran is launching missiles, flaunting his nation's nuclear technology, and threatening to shut down the Strait of Hormuz. Israel may act against Iran, but with the corrupt weakling Olmert in power, even this most basic act of self preservation is in doubt. Bush, the Chamberlain of our time, refuses to act. All he does is rattle the sabers of the 5th Fleet.

And why won't Bush act to save Western democracies from this madman? One, he doesn't want to rock the boat because of his ties to the Seven Sister oil companies and two, because he's writing his legacy. He wants liberal journalists and historians to write books about what a great statesman and peacemaker he really was. And so to fuel his own vanity, he lets the cancer of Iran metastasize and spread throughout the world. If Bush were to unleash the military might of the United States on this petty dictator and seize control of the Iranian oil fields, we could regain control of the Middle East, boost John McCain's poll numbers, greatly reduce oil prices, and save Israel from a second Holocaust. Instead Bush has decided to make the world safe for theocracy. And that's something everyone but the far left Democrats understand we have to fight.

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I was listening to Savage last night, in time for his monologue, and thought I'd post it here. He's dead-on accurate in his analysis, in my opinion, except for one thing- I don't think it would boost McCain's poll numbers. Maybe slightly, but not a huge jump. Obama has already been selected as our next President by the media and some financial concerns.

But if you read Dr. Savage's short piece above carefully, it is full of parallels that are happening right before our eyes. The Hitler of our time, the modern-day Chamberlain, the not-so-obvious alliteration to the number of the beast in the second sentence, it's all in there. Brilliant piece, Michael!

The motivations behind Bush's lack of leadership skills, or even the missing drive to even publicly rebuke the little sweater-wearing monster, is painfully obvious. BushCo is making too much money from the Iraq war...