The butcher has gone to his reward - Saddam was tried and found guilty of mass murder and hanged until dead - justice is done - well, maybe for most of us, but there is a part of the western world that doesn't think so.
Our national media and the international media still thinks that Saddam got a raw deal - sure they say he was a butcher, but we shouldn't hold that against him. After all what is a few hundred thousand people dead by his hand, they weren't Americans, right. We should just have left things alone. The major media said he was dignified and came from humble beginnings after the hanging.
Liberals love mass killers - I have said this many times in other post and there isn't a day that goes by that at least one of the high profile Democrats shows us that they really care for the international terrorists and mass murders. After all they are cut from the same cloth.
Here is a little history of the close friends of liberal Democrats.
J.R. Dunn
Lenin - Dead of the complications of a stroke, perhaps assisted by poisoning, January 21, 1924.
Benito Mussolini - Executed without judicial procedure by communist partisans, April 28 1945. The act was robbed of any meaning by the concurrent murder of his innocent mistress, Clara Petacci.
Adolf Hitler - Dead by his own hand beneath the ruins of the Berlin Chancellory, April 30, 1945.
Stalin - Dead of stroke aided by medical neglect at age 74 at his dacha outside Moscow, March 5, 1953.
Ho Chi Minh - Dead of heart failure at age 79 at his home in Hanoi, September 2, 1969.
Francisco Franco - Dead of old age at 82 on November 20, 1975.
Mao Tse Tung - Dead of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis at age 82, on September 9, 1976.
Tito - Dead of circulatory problems on May 4, 1980, three days before his 88th birthday.
Nicolae Ceaucescu - Shot out of hand at age 71 after a bogus "trial" following a nationaluprising, December 25, 1989.
Ruhollah Khomeini - Dead of cancer on June 3, 1989, at the age of 89.
Kim Il-sung - Dead of a heart attack at 82 in Pyongyang, July 8, 1994.
Pol Pot - Dead at age 72 (possibly a suicide) on April 16, 1998, while waiting to be turned over to an international tribunal.
Idi Amin Dada - Dead of old age at age 79 on August 16, 2003, after years of exile in SaudiArabia.
Slobodan Milosevic - Dead in his cell under unexplained circumstances while in the hands of an international criminal tribunal at the Hague, March 11, 2006.
Most of the great butchers of the 20th century died of old age, in their own beds, some ofthem honored by millions. Not a single one met justice in the sense accepted in free states across the world. The handful who died otherwise are aberrations, victims of strange events that act as models for nothing.
There is one single exception - the hanging of Saddam Hussein on December 30, 2006after a careful, lengthy trial carried out under extremely difficult circumstances according tointernationally recognized judicial norms. The state of Iraq has succeeded where the rest of the civilized world has failed. It is a singular achievement, and it will stand.
"There is no more acceptable sacrifice than the blood of a tyrant."
- Giovanni Boccaccio
Sunday, December 31, 2006
Saturday, December 30, 2006
A Big Gut is Bad for Your Health
I couldn't resist this, especially here in Wisconsin, where having a beer gut is some kind of symbol of success.
Big Bellies Tied to Heart Disease
The more your belly sticks out, the greater your risk of developing heart disease, a new study shows. "The message is really obesity in the abdomen matters even more than obesity overall," Dr. Carlos Iribarren of Kaiser Permanente of Northern California in Oakland, the study's lead author, told Reuters Health.
Body mass index (BMI), a gauge of weight in relation to height, is a fairly crude way to judge a person's heart disease risk based on obesity, he noted. For example, muscular people may have a high BMI and be perfectly healthy.
In the current study, Iribarren and his team looked at 101,765 men and women who underwent checkups between 1965 and 1970, which included SAD measurements, and were then followed for about 12 years. Men with the largest SAD were 42 percent more likely to develop heart disease during follow-up compared to those with the smallest SAD, while a large SAD increased heart disease risk by 44 percent for women, Iribarren and his team found.
Within BMI categories, the researchers found, heart disease risk rose with SAD; even among men of normal weight, heart disease risk was higher for those with bigger bellies. The relationship between SAD and heart disease risk was strongest among the youngest men and women, which is not surprising, Iribarren said, given that people who develop central obesity younger in life would likely have more serious problems.
"I think it has important implications for prevention," he said. " Don't let this happen to you when you're young; that's kind of the message."
SOURCE: American Journal of Epidemiology, December 15, 2006.© Reuters 2006.
Big Bellies Tied to Heart Disease
The more your belly sticks out, the greater your risk of developing heart disease, a new study shows. "The message is really obesity in the abdomen matters even more than obesity overall," Dr. Carlos Iribarren of Kaiser Permanente of Northern California in Oakland, the study's lead author, told Reuters Health.
Body mass index (BMI), a gauge of weight in relation to height, is a fairly crude way to judge a person's heart disease risk based on obesity, he noted. For example, muscular people may have a high BMI and be perfectly healthy.
In the current study, Iribarren and his team looked at 101,765 men and women who underwent checkups between 1965 and 1970, which included SAD measurements, and were then followed for about 12 years. Men with the largest SAD were 42 percent more likely to develop heart disease during follow-up compared to those with the smallest SAD, while a large SAD increased heart disease risk by 44 percent for women, Iribarren and his team found.
Within BMI categories, the researchers found, heart disease risk rose with SAD; even among men of normal weight, heart disease risk was higher for those with bigger bellies. The relationship between SAD and heart disease risk was strongest among the youngest men and women, which is not surprising, Iribarren said, given that people who develop central obesity younger in life would likely have more serious problems.
"I think it has important implications for prevention," he said. " Don't let this happen to you when you're young; that's kind of the message."
SOURCE: American Journal of Epidemiology, December 15, 2006.© Reuters 2006.
Hillary Depends on Hindsight for Voting
The woman is too much to believe - she will say and do anything to get elected - there is no point to low to go to get votes, or no lie too big to tell to make people believe she is human - the perfect liberal Democrat.
Hillary Disavows Her Iraq War Vote
Sen. Hillary Clinton has for the first time said she would not have voted to authorize the 2002 attack on Iraq if she had known then what she knows now. Previously the likely presidential candidate in 2008 has said that if the Senate had all the information it has today — about Iraq’s weapons program and the current difficulties in pacifying the nation, for example — there would never have been a vote on the Senate floor. During a Dec. 18 appearance on NBC’s “Today” show, Clinton repeated that refrain. But this time she added: “And I certainly wouldn’t have voted that way.”
Clinton’s change of heart regarding the war comes as she is facing an increasing threat from Sen. Barack Obama, who as a state official in Illinois, spoke out against the Iraqi invasion as Clinton was voting for it. Two of her other potential presidential rivals, Sens. John Kerry and John Edwards, also voted to authorize the invasion, but then publicly declared they had made a mistake and called for troops withdrawals. As recently as September, when
Clinton was asked on ABC’s “Nightline” about supporters who wanted her to say she was sorry for voting for the war, Hillary stated: “I don’t think that’s responsible.” And in June, Clinton was actually booed during a Washington appearance when she said it was wrong to set a strict timetable for a withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq.
Hillary Disavows Her Iraq War Vote
Sen. Hillary Clinton has for the first time said she would not have voted to authorize the 2002 attack on Iraq if she had known then what she knows now. Previously the likely presidential candidate in 2008 has said that if the Senate had all the information it has today — about Iraq’s weapons program and the current difficulties in pacifying the nation, for example — there would never have been a vote on the Senate floor. During a Dec. 18 appearance on NBC’s “Today” show, Clinton repeated that refrain. But this time she added: “And I certainly wouldn’t have voted that way.”
Clinton’s change of heart regarding the war comes as she is facing an increasing threat from Sen. Barack Obama, who as a state official in Illinois, spoke out against the Iraqi invasion as Clinton was voting for it. Two of her other potential presidential rivals, Sens. John Kerry and John Edwards, also voted to authorize the invasion, but then publicly declared they had made a mistake and called for troops withdrawals. As recently as September, when
Clinton was asked on ABC’s “Nightline” about supporters who wanted her to say she was sorry for voting for the war, Hillary stated: “I don’t think that’s responsible.” And in June, Clinton was actually booed during a Washington appearance when she said it was wrong to set a strict timetable for a withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq.
Al Gore's fantasy of Adequacy
Al Gore Angles for Oscar (AP)
White House Gore is waging a fierce campaign for recognition and an Oscar statuette for his global warming documentary, while reviving talk that he's pursuing a bigger prize: the presidency.
His recent itinerary has been the ultimate in high profile. The former vice president made self-deprecating jokes on "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno," offered ideas on preserving the environment to Oprah Winfrey and her daytime audience and parried questions on Iraq from Matt Lauer on "The Today Show." This Saturday Gore is hosting a network of 1,600 house parties across the country to watch and discuss his documentary, "An Inconvenient Truth," with the Democrat planning to address the gatherings by satellite hookup. The movie is on the short list of feature-length documentaries being considered for Oscar nominations.
White House Gore is waging a fierce campaign for recognition and an Oscar statuette for his global warming documentary, while reviving talk that he's pursuing a bigger prize: the presidency.
His recent itinerary has been the ultimate in high profile. The former vice president made self-deprecating jokes on "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno," offered ideas on preserving the environment to Oprah Winfrey and her daytime audience and parried questions on Iraq from Matt Lauer on "The Today Show." This Saturday Gore is hosting a network of 1,600 house parties across the country to watch and discuss his documentary, "An Inconvenient Truth," with the Democrat planning to address the gatherings by satellite hookup. The movie is on the short list of feature-length documentaries being considered for Oscar nominations.
:Hillary: Number One Mom
Well it's nice to be back home again after some time on the road and enjoying the company of family and the Christmas season -
What better way to bring the season of cheer and giving to the new year than a message about Hillary and Mom - heh - enjoy
Breaking from NewsMax.com
Hillary's New Strategy: The Mom President
"We've never had a mother who ever ran or was elected president." That was Hillary Clinton speaking earlier this week, when she appeared on the television show The View. Don't think for a minute that she was just making an interesting historical observation. No, Hillary doesn't work that way. She never says or does anything that hasn't been perfectly scripted and endlessly polled beforehand.
She had a message, a new strategy to try out. So look for the new "Mom Strategy" to be the anchor of her presidential run. Forget Soccer Moms and Security Moms; now it's going to be all Moms all the time - with Hillary as the biggest Mom of all. The "Mom Strategy" is key to presenting the latest iteration of Hillary. She needs to move out of the center space that she populated in her last reincarnation as a moderate. That's over.
Because democratic primary voters are squarely at odds with her positions on the war in Iraq, she needs to move on. The "Mom Strategy" gives her a credible way to tack to the left on the war. She's already begun. Last week, she told an NPR audience that she would have voted against the war if only she had known then what she knows now. Woulda, shoulda, coulda. In furtherance of the new Mom strategy, she has re-released her best-selling book It Takes A Village. This time, she is pictured surrounded by adoring, well-groomed and respectful children on the cover. Just like Mom. This is no coincidence; it's an element of the strategy.
The subliminal message: I'm a Mom and I'm running for president. Moms take care of people, they're compassionate and don't want wars. The fact that the book isn't selling well in its re-release - Amazon ranks it at 5,000 - doesn't matter. It's the cover photo that resonates.
Hillary the Hawk may ultimately be the way to win the centrists who dominate the general electorate. But Hillary, the Mom, another Mother for Peace, is the way to capture the left that runs the Democratic primaries. And that's exactly what she's doing. Gender stereotypes are still alive and well in America and cut across men and women in all ideologies.
Survey research shows that all voters believe that women are more compassionate, more focused on children and education, and more pro-peace than men. By tapping into this helpful stereotype, Hillary can flank her rivals on the left, even though her record of support for the war and collusion with the right wing on flag burning speaks loudly to the contrary.
Mom as a metaphor carries all the right messages: empathy with other mothers (particularly the heavily Democratic single moms), a commitment to education, and family values. Now that Illinois Senator Barak Obama has threatened to bring a newer "first" to presidential politics — the first black may trump the first woman — Hillary answers by labeling herself as the first mother to seek the presidency. (Actually, she's not. While Elizabeth Dole — who ran in 2000 — has no children, another woman, who had two children, ran for president in 1872. Victoria Woodhull, an early suffragette - and mistress of Cornelius Vanderbilt - ran as the candidate of the Equal Rights Party).
Hillary's new strategy echoes the 1996 Bill Clinton strategy in pushing a "fatherhood" agenda. Embracing the idea of taking responsibility, enforcing child support, promoting school uniforms and curfews, and fighting against teen smoking and sex and violence on TV, President Clinton promoted the idea of his fatherhood in his bid for re-election. He began his political career as Arkansas' boy Governor. When he ran for president, he was everyone's buddy — eating at McDonalds and jogging in baggy shorts — but as president he needed to grow up and project the subtle image of America's father.
In carefully choreographed photos, he was deliberately surrounded by adoring children looking up at him as he pushed his new message. Now Hillary is seeking to run for president as America's Mom — pro-peace, pro-family, pro-children. And it started last week on The View. Stay tuned.
What better way to bring the season of cheer and giving to the new year than a message about Hillary and Mom - heh - enjoy
Breaking from NewsMax.com
Hillary's New Strategy: The Mom President
"We've never had a mother who ever ran or was elected president." That was Hillary Clinton speaking earlier this week, when she appeared on the television show The View. Don't think for a minute that she was just making an interesting historical observation. No, Hillary doesn't work that way. She never says or does anything that hasn't been perfectly scripted and endlessly polled beforehand.
She had a message, a new strategy to try out. So look for the new "Mom Strategy" to be the anchor of her presidential run. Forget Soccer Moms and Security Moms; now it's going to be all Moms all the time - with Hillary as the biggest Mom of all. The "Mom Strategy" is key to presenting the latest iteration of Hillary. She needs to move out of the center space that she populated in her last reincarnation as a moderate. That's over.
Because democratic primary voters are squarely at odds with her positions on the war in Iraq, she needs to move on. The "Mom Strategy" gives her a credible way to tack to the left on the war. She's already begun. Last week, she told an NPR audience that she would have voted against the war if only she had known then what she knows now. Woulda, shoulda, coulda. In furtherance of the new Mom strategy, she has re-released her best-selling book It Takes A Village. This time, she is pictured surrounded by adoring, well-groomed and respectful children on the cover. Just like Mom. This is no coincidence; it's an element of the strategy.
The subliminal message: I'm a Mom and I'm running for president. Moms take care of people, they're compassionate and don't want wars. The fact that the book isn't selling well in its re-release - Amazon ranks it at 5,000 - doesn't matter. It's the cover photo that resonates.
Hillary the Hawk may ultimately be the way to win the centrists who dominate the general electorate. But Hillary, the Mom, another Mother for Peace, is the way to capture the left that runs the Democratic primaries. And that's exactly what she's doing. Gender stereotypes are still alive and well in America and cut across men and women in all ideologies.
Survey research shows that all voters believe that women are more compassionate, more focused on children and education, and more pro-peace than men. By tapping into this helpful stereotype, Hillary can flank her rivals on the left, even though her record of support for the war and collusion with the right wing on flag burning speaks loudly to the contrary.
Mom as a metaphor carries all the right messages: empathy with other mothers (particularly the heavily Democratic single moms), a commitment to education, and family values. Now that Illinois Senator Barak Obama has threatened to bring a newer "first" to presidential politics — the first black may trump the first woman — Hillary answers by labeling herself as the first mother to seek the presidency. (Actually, she's not. While Elizabeth Dole — who ran in 2000 — has no children, another woman, who had two children, ran for president in 1872. Victoria Woodhull, an early suffragette - and mistress of Cornelius Vanderbilt - ran as the candidate of the Equal Rights Party).
Hillary's new strategy echoes the 1996 Bill Clinton strategy in pushing a "fatherhood" agenda. Embracing the idea of taking responsibility, enforcing child support, promoting school uniforms and curfews, and fighting against teen smoking and sex and violence on TV, President Clinton promoted the idea of his fatherhood in his bid for re-election. He began his political career as Arkansas' boy Governor. When he ran for president, he was everyone's buddy — eating at McDonalds and jogging in baggy shorts — but as president he needed to grow up and project the subtle image of America's father.
In carefully choreographed photos, he was deliberately surrounded by adoring children looking up at him as he pushed his new message. Now Hillary is seeking to run for president as America's Mom — pro-peace, pro-family, pro-children. And it started last week on The View. Stay tuned.
Thursday, December 21, 2006
Sandy Berger Protects the Clintons
Sandy Berger is back in the news again but only for a few hours - the media will close their eyes and hears to anything that makes the Clintons look bad and in this case it has to do with national security.
What the problem here is Clinton, by his inaction on the terrorist networks in this country, has put the nation at risk, and if we knew just what papers that Berger took out, destroyed and then put back after changing the content, we would have a good idea just how critical the danger we were facing, maybe even prevented the 9/11 attack.
But we will never know and for most people in this country they don't care. These are the same people that voted in November that turned power over to the same people like Sandy Berger.
Just think a minute about why this is so important to the Democrats - if we knew that the information that Berger took put the nation at risk and it was directly related to Bill Clinton, and most people think it is, how does Hillary fit into this web of conspiracy and cover-up? She was Bill's right hand in most everything he did. What did she know and when did she know it - hmmmm
The following is just more evidence that the Democrats are up their collective necks in this massive cover-up.
DoJ's democRAT line
Clarice Feldman
While the DoJ (Dept. of Justice) papered over Sandy Berger's theft and destruction of classified documents from the National Archives, classified documents then of interest to the 9/11 Commission, the judge in the case insisted on a stronger penalty than the DoJ prosecutors who were clearly sympathetic to Berger did, and today the Inspector General of the Archives blew the whistle on the DoJ and Berger's conduct :
A former national security adviser to President Clinton, Samuel Berger, stashed highly classified documents under a trailer in downtown Washington in order to evade detection by National Archives personnel, a government report released yesterday said. The report from the inspector-general for the National Archives, Paul Brachfeld, said Mr. Berger executed the cloak-and-dagger maneuver
At the time the news of his prosecution became public we noted that the press was remarkably incurious and that Berger and his pals in the Clinton coterie had obviously leaked the story to minimize its impact:
Now that the details have been made known and we have had a peep at the inside workings of the DoJ in another case, the Lewis Libby prosecution, I have more questions.
1) How did this plea deal came about in a Republican administration committed to eradicate leaking? and 2) How can the DoJ justify the contrast between Berger's treatment when he deliberately destroyed real classified information and obstructed the work of the 9/11 Commission and their treatment of Libby who it hounded even though they knew (and kept secret0 the fact that it was Armitage, not Libby, who leaked Plame's identity, information which even the prosevutor will not try to show was actually classified?.
A particularly telling detail was the bit in the news reports of Berger's treatment to the effect that DOJ sources insisted that "no original information" had been lost. That, of course, is simply the negative way of saying: All annotations to the original documents have been lost; we will never know for sure what the reactions of responsible members of the Clinton administration were to the contents of these highly important national security documents.
Of course DOJ has always known this, as well as the significance of Berger's conduct So, what interest did the prosecutors have in minimizing the seriousness of Berger's crime--for crime it was, whatever the plea deal ultimately was? Or am I forgetting that the DOJ officials--the same ones who oversaw the start of Plamegate--have close ties to certain Democratic senators?
What the problem here is Clinton, by his inaction on the terrorist networks in this country, has put the nation at risk, and if we knew just what papers that Berger took out, destroyed and then put back after changing the content, we would have a good idea just how critical the danger we were facing, maybe even prevented the 9/11 attack.
But we will never know and for most people in this country they don't care. These are the same people that voted in November that turned power over to the same people like Sandy Berger.
Just think a minute about why this is so important to the Democrats - if we knew that the information that Berger took put the nation at risk and it was directly related to Bill Clinton, and most people think it is, how does Hillary fit into this web of conspiracy and cover-up? She was Bill's right hand in most everything he did. What did she know and when did she know it - hmmmm
The following is just more evidence that the Democrats are up their collective necks in this massive cover-up.
DoJ's democRAT line
Clarice Feldman
While the DoJ (Dept. of Justice) papered over Sandy Berger's theft and destruction of classified documents from the National Archives, classified documents then of interest to the 9/11 Commission, the judge in the case insisted on a stronger penalty than the DoJ prosecutors who were clearly sympathetic to Berger did, and today the Inspector General of the Archives blew the whistle on the DoJ and Berger's conduct :
A former national security adviser to President Clinton, Samuel Berger, stashed highly classified documents under a trailer in downtown Washington in order to evade detection by National Archives personnel, a government report released yesterday said. The report from the inspector-general for the National Archives, Paul Brachfeld, said Mr. Berger executed the cloak-and-dagger maneuver
At the time the news of his prosecution became public we noted that the press was remarkably incurious and that Berger and his pals in the Clinton coterie had obviously leaked the story to minimize its impact:
Now that the details have been made known and we have had a peep at the inside workings of the DoJ in another case, the Lewis Libby prosecution, I have more questions.
1) How did this plea deal came about in a Republican administration committed to eradicate leaking? and 2) How can the DoJ justify the contrast between Berger's treatment when he deliberately destroyed real classified information and obstructed the work of the 9/11 Commission and their treatment of Libby who it hounded even though they knew (and kept secret0 the fact that it was Armitage, not Libby, who leaked Plame's identity, information which even the prosevutor will not try to show was actually classified?.
A particularly telling detail was the bit in the news reports of Berger's treatment to the effect that DOJ sources insisted that "no original information" had been lost. That, of course, is simply the negative way of saying: All annotations to the original documents have been lost; we will never know for sure what the reactions of responsible members of the Clinton administration were to the contents of these highly important national security documents.
Of course DOJ has always known this, as well as the significance of Berger's conduct So, what interest did the prosecutors have in minimizing the seriousness of Berger's crime--for crime it was, whatever the plea deal ultimately was? Or am I forgetting that the DOJ officials--the same ones who oversaw the start of Plamegate--have close ties to certain Democratic senators?
Jimmy Carter Sold his Soul
Just when you thought Jimmy Carter couldn't get any worse, he proves us wrong by falling to new lows. But upon any close inspection of Jimmy, one would find that he has always been a man without a moral compass.
The following from the American Thinker:
"Hundreds of millions of dollars"
Thomas Lifson
Rachel Ehrenfeld writes an eye-opening column in today's Washington Times, on the Arab money connections of Jimmy Carter. Like James Baker III, the only president ever called "Jimmy" has lots and lots of lucrative connections to money with Islamic connections. It is a must-read. Two examples:
Between 1976-1977, the Carter family peanut business received a bailout in the form of a $4.6 million, "poorly managed" and highly irregular loan from the National Bank of Georgia (NBG). According to a July 29, 1980 Jack Anderson expose in The Washington Post, the bank's biggest borrower was Mr. Carter, and its chairman at that time was Mr. Carter's confidant, and later his director of the Office of Management and Budget, Bert Lance.
At that time, Mr. Lance's mismanagement of the NBG got him and the bank into trouble. Agha Hasan Abedi, the Pakistani founder of the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI), known as the bank "which would bribe God," came to Mr. Lance's rescue making him a $100,000-a-year consultant. Abedi then declared: "we would never talk about exploiting his relationship with the president."
Next, he introduced Mr. Lance to Saudi billionaire Gaith Pharaon, who fronted for BCCI and the Saudi royal family. In January 1978, Abedi paid off Mr. Lance's $3.5 million debt to the NBG, and Pharaon secretly gained control over the bank. Mr. Anderson wrote: "Of course, the Saudis remained discretely silent... kept quiet about Carter's irregularities... [and] renegotiated the loan to Carter's advantage."
There is no evidence that the former president received direct payment from the Saudis. But "according to... the bank files, [it] renegotiated the repayment terms... savings... $60,000 for the Carter family... The President owned 62% of the business and therefore was the largest beneficiary." Pharaon later contributed generously to the former president's library and center.
Then there's this:
A quick survey of the major contributors to the Carter Center reveals hundreds of millions of dollars from Saudi and Gulf contributors. But it was BCCI that helped Mr. Carter established his center.
The scandals surrounding BCCI were never fully explored. Democrat elder statesman Clark Clifford, among other prominent figures, was let off from prosecution because of his age. I believe that BCCI was a lodestone of global corruption, but we will probably never know the full story.
Posted at 02:02 PM
The following from the American Thinker:
"Hundreds of millions of dollars"
Thomas Lifson
Rachel Ehrenfeld writes an eye-opening column in today's Washington Times, on the Arab money connections of Jimmy Carter. Like James Baker III, the only president ever called "Jimmy" has lots and lots of lucrative connections to money with Islamic connections. It is a must-read. Two examples:
Between 1976-1977, the Carter family peanut business received a bailout in the form of a $4.6 million, "poorly managed" and highly irregular loan from the National Bank of Georgia (NBG). According to a July 29, 1980 Jack Anderson expose in The Washington Post, the bank's biggest borrower was Mr. Carter, and its chairman at that time was Mr. Carter's confidant, and later his director of the Office of Management and Budget, Bert Lance.
At that time, Mr. Lance's mismanagement of the NBG got him and the bank into trouble. Agha Hasan Abedi, the Pakistani founder of the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI), known as the bank "which would bribe God," came to Mr. Lance's rescue making him a $100,000-a-year consultant. Abedi then declared: "we would never talk about exploiting his relationship with the president."
Next, he introduced Mr. Lance to Saudi billionaire Gaith Pharaon, who fronted for BCCI and the Saudi royal family. In January 1978, Abedi paid off Mr. Lance's $3.5 million debt to the NBG, and Pharaon secretly gained control over the bank. Mr. Anderson wrote: "Of course, the Saudis remained discretely silent... kept quiet about Carter's irregularities... [and] renegotiated the loan to Carter's advantage."
There is no evidence that the former president received direct payment from the Saudis. But "according to... the bank files, [it] renegotiated the repayment terms... savings... $60,000 for the Carter family... The President owned 62% of the business and therefore was the largest beneficiary." Pharaon later contributed generously to the former president's library and center.
Then there's this:
A quick survey of the major contributors to the Carter Center reveals hundreds of millions of dollars from Saudi and Gulf contributors. But it was BCCI that helped Mr. Carter established his center.
The scandals surrounding BCCI were never fully explored. Democrat elder statesman Clark Clifford, among other prominent figures, was let off from prosecution because of his age. I believe that BCCI was a lodestone of global corruption, but we will probably never know the full story.
Posted at 02:02 PM
Dick Morris: Hillary go Away
Dick Morris used to be an adviser to Bill Clinton but now he is coming out against Hillary for president. This article sums up Hillary to a tee - and Obama as well.
Political strategist Dick Morris is so disgusted by the prospect of a Hillary Clinton presidency that he’s announced he’ll leave the country if she wins the Democratic nomination.
Appearing on Fox News Channel’s "Hannity & Colmes,” Morris – a former aide to President Bill Clinton – said that Bill and Hillary both suffer from Attention Deficit Disorder: "When they don’t get enough attention, they’re disordered.”
He also took a swipe at Hillary for re-releasing her book "It Takes a Village,” telling substitute host Karen Hanretty: "This seems to just reek of desperation on [Clinton’s] part . . . as a means to get herself out there.”
Morris dismissed Sen. Barack Obama’s chances of winning the presidency, saying he is the "best thing that’s ever happened to Hillary Clinton. Because he can’t win. You think about the guy for five minutes and you’re not gonna vote for him.”
However, Morris went on: "Obama’s in fact a better first than [Clinton] is. First black is better than first woman, in politics.”
Morris suggested that Hillary let Obama "float and then let him float away, like a balloon, probably running him for vice president on her ticket.
"I’m leaving the country if this happens.”
Political strategist Dick Morris is so disgusted by the prospect of a Hillary Clinton presidency that he’s announced he’ll leave the country if she wins the Democratic nomination.
Appearing on Fox News Channel’s "Hannity & Colmes,” Morris – a former aide to President Bill Clinton – said that Bill and Hillary both suffer from Attention Deficit Disorder: "When they don’t get enough attention, they’re disordered.”
He also took a swipe at Hillary for re-releasing her book "It Takes a Village,” telling substitute host Karen Hanretty: "This seems to just reek of desperation on [Clinton’s] part . . . as a means to get herself out there.”
Morris dismissed Sen. Barack Obama’s chances of winning the presidency, saying he is the "best thing that’s ever happened to Hillary Clinton. Because he can’t win. You think about the guy for five minutes and you’re not gonna vote for him.”
However, Morris went on: "Obama’s in fact a better first than [Clinton] is. First black is better than first woman, in politics.”
Morris suggested that Hillary let Obama "float and then let him float away, like a balloon, probably running him for vice president on her ticket.
"I’m leaving the country if this happens.”
Wednesday, December 20, 2006
Peace is not the Absence of Conflict
There is talk of peace and what it will take to achieve it - some say all we have to do is get out of Iraq and things will fall into place just like they did when we left Vietnam.
Of course that is faulty thinking as we broke our word to South Vietnam when we went there. We said we will help defend that country from the communist north. We went back on our word and left them to their fate. Tens of thousands died in the take over of the south and hundreds of thousands died in Cambodia.
Many are calling for negotiations with the neighbors of Iraq - Iran and Syria. Both have indicated they want to destroy Iraq as a democracy, take it over for it's oil reserves and use it as a base for terrorists in the middle east and against Israel. Where do you start to negotiate?
There is a saying that I think fits the times ,"Pease is not the absence of conflict, but the ability to cope with it."
It's a new war, like none we have ever fought before. The consequences or retreat and surrender will doom many generation to come in this country and all of western culture.
There can be no other way but to stay the course, no matter how long it takes.
Of course that is faulty thinking as we broke our word to South Vietnam when we went there. We said we will help defend that country from the communist north. We went back on our word and left them to their fate. Tens of thousands died in the take over of the south and hundreds of thousands died in Cambodia.
Many are calling for negotiations with the neighbors of Iraq - Iran and Syria. Both have indicated they want to destroy Iraq as a democracy, take it over for it's oil reserves and use it as a base for terrorists in the middle east and against Israel. Where do you start to negotiate?
There is a saying that I think fits the times ,"Pease is not the absence of conflict, but the ability to cope with it."
It's a new war, like none we have ever fought before. The consequences or retreat and surrender will doom many generation to come in this country and all of western culture.
There can be no other way but to stay the course, no matter how long it takes.
Monday, December 18, 2006
The United Nations is Useless
We must find a way to get rid of the UN - there has to be a way to move it some place where it can function, as it does now, as a clearing house for terrorists but not with our money.
I think the best solution would be to disband it altogether. As it is now, it is a totally corrupt institution. It serves no useful purpose to anyone, anywhere.
What follows is just one of dirty untold stories of the UN and Kofi Annen.
I think the best solution would be to disband it altogether. As it is now, it is a totally corrupt institution. It serves no useful purpose to anyone, anywhere.
What follows is just one of dirty untold stories of the UN and Kofi Annen.
Lives of the rich and famous: The UN
Thomas Lifson (American Thinker)
There is a certain kind of "wealth" that goes undetected by tax authorities, surveys, and the general public. It is the wealth that consists of the ability to spend other people's money on pleasurable objects. A shining example is on offer today, courtesy of the London Sunday Telegraph and Mark Malloch Brown, Kofi Annan's right-hand man at the United Nations.
Now that Annan's corrupt era as Secretary-General is coming to a close, it is time for hagiographies to be produced, so as to drown out the cries of mean-spirited people who might point out the world's largest financial scandal in history or the genocidal slaughter in Rwanda, both of which happened under Annan's responsibility.
And hey, if you are going to lavish praise, you might as well be lavish, right?
The United Nations Development Program, which spends $4 billion a year allegedly helping the world's poor, has just paid over half a million dollars to produce a vanity history of itself. And the resulting book has rocketed to # 577,233 in the sales rankings at Amazon.com, showing that the UN's legendary skills at getting value for money are still at work as Annan's reign comes to an end.
The project was authorized by Mark Malloch Brown, who himself knows how to lead a life of wealth without actually having to earn all that much money. As the New York Sun reported last year:
Mark Malloch Brown, whose current annual net salary as an undersecretary general is $125,000 a year, has emerged as the tenant in a house that Mr. Soros owns and that rents for $120,000 a year?
The rich are different from you and me, according to F. Scott Fitzgerald. The kind of wealth wielded by Annan and Brown is different from that of the rich. No taxes, no accountability, and the ability to pose as somemiind of saint. Nice work, if you can get it.
Hat tip: Brigitte
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