Thursday, July 2, 2009

Waging War Upon Our Friends

The trusted watch-keepers of the world have turned their hearts to midnight plunder, while they carried-out their duty standing guard over mankind, who blissfully, unaware, continued to sleep. Morning rapidly approaches and the householders are sure to demand an accounting.

The exploding world economy and the expanding war are but symptoms of the great mental sickness that afflicts society, waves of warning of the tsunamis that lie directly ahead. The dominant ideas and ideology that drive our world are all collapsing around us, falling from the weight of their own corruption and immoral baggage.

In the ongoing warfare of ideas, the selfish immorality of the old order is proving to be its downfall, as it meets the impenetrable resistance of the higher ideals of selflessness and human compassion. When the heart of the people is exposed to the emotionally crippling images of the children of war, then and thereafter, their only concern becomes the ending of the scourge of war.

FarahAfghanistan

bala_baluk_wounded2

Human nature is naturally compassionate, no matter how much the person has changed from the innocence of their youth. Even evil men must feel the heart’s emotional tugging at their consciences, no matter how deeply they have buried it, at the sight of such a suffering little one. Knowing that you and your government did this to these children and thousands more just like them, just like your own children that you so dearly love. We are the authors of what you see.

For God so loved the world that he sent us all sons and daughters, to melt our cold hearts and to expose our buried consciences. Human suffering is probably the most powerful motivation for good on this earth. It moves men to take-up arms to avenge it. It motivates others to offer their own lives that others might suffer less.

Humankind has the means to save itself from itself, just as surely as it has the means to cause its own extinction, all that separates the two is the gulf of choice and human freewill. Those of us who believe in a higher power, The One who created all things both great and small, know for certain that mankind will one day rise to the challenge before him. We know that the promise of eventual world peace is a solid truth, just waiting for enough people to understand and choose to reach out with us. Peace is truly just a handshake away, all that is lacking is the will to effect change and the desire to leave this world a better place.

The only question is how long before we as a people begin to care about our fellow man? This is the one factor that determines how much the suffering will intensify before we arrive at our predetermined solution. Efforts spent shoring-up the old collapsing political/economic structure only add to the suffering by adding to the length of the suffering and wasting limited resources in futile attempts to repair the rotten, immoral order that compelled mankind’s sprint to self-destruction.

Military adventures, intended to deflect the coming collapse merely increase our national guilt for having failed in our voluntary task of standing watch at the ramparts of freedom, guarding the rights of God’s creation with one arm, while we killed and indiscriminately erased both people and human rights with the other strong arm. Our military became our means of plundering our brothers’ resources and rights, because we were trusted it to defend our friends against foreign aggressors.

We reach-out our hand to both friend and foe, expecting commerce, while preparing to wage covert war upon them. We buy our friends in the world, the rest we simply intimidate or secretly undermine. From behind the shield of nearly omnipotent military power we have bribed and browbeat the world into submission to our ideas, our ideology, our economic schemes. Our cutthroat system of buying, selling and extorting our friends based solely on profit instead of need, therefore it is designed to weed-out everyone (regardless of their needs) who don’t have the cash to meet they need. The “haves and have-nots” exclusionary economic system is about to be crushed under the impending weight of the hungry misery it spreads far and wide.

The immorality of the current system will bring forth a new moral economic system from the violence of the old one dying. Each war or epidemic of violence that wracks the nations is a cry for help, as a segment of society explodes as a result of the local contradictions.

The war on Pakistan is a case in point. Here we have compelled our most faithful ally to engage in full-scale civil war as the means to salvage our failing economic order, by way of seizing the Caspian oil and gas reserves. We have forced Pakistan onto a path towards its own destruction as a feeble-minded calculated gamble to avert our own deserved dissolution. It seems only logical that a nation which feeds its own insatiable appetite for more of everything by depriving the poorest of the poor nations of the little that they have to call their own, would seek to avert its own profit loss by spreading death and suffering amongst the very people who have time and again proven to be among its best friends.

History has proven that some of America’s most trusted friends and allies have been the recipients of her most insidious and deadly intrigues. Pakistani leaders are delusional if they think that their friendship with the United States is stronger than that of Italy, or Germany.

The CIA turned Pakistan into the “epicenter of terrorism” for a reason. That reason went way beyond the mission against the Soviets, or else the training camps would have been shut-down and some attempt would have been made to clean-up the mess they had made when the Russians left Afghanistan. The CIA kept the camps and the madrassas running, turning-out thousands of good jihadis. By relying on the factor of “deniability,” they put the training camps in Pakistani hands. This should have been understood by Pakistan’s leaders for what it was, a euphemistic way to express the reality that the Army and the ISI were always intended to be America’s scapegoat. That time has come.

America has turned the tables on Pakistan. Just as Pakistan has used their proxy army, the local Taliban to stage running battles (some were for real), in order to fool the United States about Pakistani intentions in the war on terror, the new administration is using their own creation, the “Pakistani Taliban” (TTP), to call the Army’s bluff about its latest war in its tribal region. The generals can no longer get away with merely chasing the local Taliban from one agency into another, or anything less than waging total war in all of FATA and the NWFP. Pakistan’s “double-game” is over, while America’s double-games have barely begun.

Gen. Kayani has been trying to follow in Musharref’s footsteps, running a limited pretend all-out war production, even following the same order of the previous war on Waziristan, tribal jirgas, lashkars, economic siege, etc. The General’s neatly dressed, never dirty, determined-looking soldiers faithfully posed for countless publicity shots, putting on a great show for the international circus media. Army spokesmen claim to have killed 1,500 terrorists in Malakand and elsewhere, always taking place beyond the range of the camera’s lens. There are no “embedded reporters” in Pakistan. The only news coming out of the region is approved after passing through several layers of filtering by the controlling governments there, especially by the one all-controlling super government. If Pakistan is really out to get Mehsud, as Kayani boasted, then it is because that is what Obama wants Pakistan to do.

The Predator strikes are the Pakistani strategy, intended to ease their citizenry into a renewed fight in S. Waziristan. (SEE: Paramilitary Pretense, Who Controls the Predators?) The last two attempts to carry the operation into the militant home base were met by fierce resistance on the ground, as well as in Pakistan’s streets. The people became so enraged that this path of slowly boiling Pakistan’s “frogs” became the only feasible alternative. This theory means that Mehsud is either an asset of the ISI or their CIA bosses. and the regular terror attacks upon Shiites and their shrines, even attacks on outposts of the Frontier Corp are likely the work of the ISI, just as the militants have been claiming in various interviews. As unlikely as this all seems, no other theory explains the curious behavior of Pakistan’s government and military and mountains of circumstantial evidence linking the ISI to the militanct.

So while Pakistan’s dysfunction is entirely Pakistan’s fault, American naivete cannot get a pass because Pakistan is a basket case. In the Age of Obama, America has to do better. Anyone that was really interested in debilitating the Punjabi-dominated, Hindu-hating, right-leaning, military-dominated Pakistani establishment would have to be recklessly foolish if it went and helped rebrand the Pakistan army in the wake of eight years of Musharraf and a devastating and humiliating defeat at the hands of the country’s lawyers. Yet that’s exactly what President Zardari has done since the May 8 offensive was launched into Swat. The Swat offensive has helped rehabilitate the image of the military.”

If Pakistan was really pursuing a policy of “divide and rule” in its negotiations with Mullah Nazir, seeking to separate the powerful warlord from Baitullah Mehsud before launching a new war in S. Waziristan against him, then the Army would not have allowed the continuing Predator attacks on Nazir to take place, or go unanswered. None of this happened. If they were serious about overtures made to the Wana warlord then they most certainly would not have shelled his offices.

Obama is driving the former enemies together. This is Langley’s intention. Mullah Nazir has not been the sole target of drone attacks for the past year to thwart Pakistan’s peace initiatives with the militants (since Washington controls everything Islamabad does), the reason is much more sinister than that.

If the United States government was truly at odds with the Army over American attacks upon Pakistani citizens, carried-out in order to sabotage Pakistan’s war plans, then there would be swift reprisals, because such an affront to Pakistan’s sovereignty would be far worse than merely “counter-productive.” Everything is going according to the Imperial game plan–American drones attack all pro-Pakistani militant leaders, ignoring everyone who is killing Pakistanis. The targeted leaders coalesce into a powerful, motivated union.

The generous benefactors of Maulana Fazlullah and his TNSM forces were sponsors of state terrorism, directed mostly at girls’ schools and CD shops in the North West Region. Their murderous rampage and deceptive Shariah pacts forced Army intervention. Predator attacks upon Mullah Nazir intensify, until he begins to fight back, forcing the Army to scrap plans to divide the Taliban as a means to avoid a massive tribal war, focusing only on Mehsud. Meanwhile, some unknown outfit bombs Shia mosques and shopping areas (Nazir blames the attacks upon the Army), stoking the war in Kurram. Bahadur honors his pact with Nazir and Mehsud; he fights back, forcing the Army to broaden their planned offensive to include N. Waziristan against their better judgement.

Never once, do the generals complain, or offer resistance to American violations of sovereignty. Instead, they follow the orders of their American masters, while the President of Pakistan continues to represent the President of the United States, instead of his own people, who are being killed by the dozens and the hundreds by the good old USA!

Hard as they may try to set their own course, Pakistan’s generals have surrendered their souls to the devil when they plotted with American generals to deceive their countrymen into passively, even enthusiastically accepting the new war. The war in Waziristan (both North and South) will be fought on Obama’s terms.

According to Army spokesman, Maj-Gen Athar Abbas:

“It was thus obvious that the confrontation between the militants and the military in North Waziristan would escalate because the US is unlikely to give up its policy of using drones to target militants positions.”

In other words, for the first time, one of the silent generals dared to explain the Army’s position. ISI concerns about “shaping the battlefield” and confining the war in Wana to Mehsud didn’t amount to a hill of beans to Petraeus and Mullen, Obama insists that Pakistan go against the generals’ better judgment and incite a “tribal uprising.”

The attacks in N. Waziristan by Gul Bahadur and the artillery strikes upon Nazir’s headquarters, both a bi-product of the Predator prevarications, as well as the recent assassination of Pakistan’s other “ace in the hole, Qari Zainuddin, have destroyed Pakistan’s last chance to restore the writ of the state without resorting to all-out civil war. Either Gen. Kayani submits entirely to Obama’s will, including the planned submission to Indian domination afterwards, or he stands-up to the United States, meaning he stops the drone attacks and reveals the entire ugly scenario that the CIA cannot allow anyone to reveal. “Al Qaida” is fake. The war on terror is a fraud. The fraud is a plan for world war. And we all know that neither Gen. Kayani, nor any other Pakistani official will ever reveal the “great game” or the plot to destroy the Islamic Republic.

The United States corporacracy is a monstrous devouring beast and “Islamist terror” is her illegitimate offspring.

By: Peter Chamberlin

Helen Thomas hits White House for lack of transparency

At the White House presser on Wednesday, several correspondents questioned the way the Oval Office selected questions from the public for today’s virtual town hall.

President Barack Obama answered pre-selected questions Wednesday afternoon about health care sent in from emails, Facebook and Twitter. CBS’ Chip Reid and columnist Helen Thomas thought this reflected a lack of transparency at the White House.

“It feels like the concept of a town hall, I think, is to have an open public forum. And this sounds like a very tightly controlled audience and list of questions. Why do it that way?” asked Reid.

White House press secretary Richard Gibbs deflected the question, but that only raised the ire of Helen Thomas, UPI’s veteran correspondent who has long been at the top of the White House press corps totem pole.

“We have never had that in the White House,” Thomas said, referring to the degree that press events are pre-scripted in the Obama administration. “I’m amazed, I’m amazed at you people who called for openness and transparency…”

That’s when things got testy, and Gibbs looked very uncomfortable as Reid and Thomas took turns attacking his evasive answers.

“Calling reporters the night before, telling them they’re going to be called on — that’s shocking,” Thomas said, referring to an incident last week when Huffington Post blogger Nico Pitney was given advance warning that he would be called on to ask a question on behalf of the Iranian public.

At the White House presser on Wednesday, several correspondents questioned the way the Oval Office selected questions from the public for today’s virtual town hall.

President Barack Obama answered pre-selected questions Wednesday afternoon about health care sent in from emails, Facebook and Twitter. CBS’ Chip Reid and columnist Helen Thomas thought this reflected a lack of transparency at the White House.

“It feels like the concept of a town hall, I think, is to have an open public forum. And this sounds like a very tightly controlled audience and list of questions. Why do it that way?” asked Reid.

White House press secretary Richard Gibbs deflected the question, but that only raised the ire of Helen Thomas, UPI’s veteran correspondent who has long been at the top of the White House press corps totem pole.

“We have never had that in the White House,” Thomas said, referring to the degree that press events are pre-scripted in the Obama administration. “I’m amazed, I’m amazed at you people who called for openness and transparency…”

That’s when things got testy, and Gibbs looked very uncomfortable as Reid and Thomas took turns attacking his evasive answers.

“Calling reporters the night before, telling them they’re going to be called on — that’s shocking,” Thomas said, referring to an incident last week when Huffington Post blogger Nico Pitney was given advance warning that he would be called on to ask a question on behalf of the Iranian public.

This video is from C-SPAN, broadcast July 1, 2009.

Download video via RawReplay.com

Cap and Trade Equals Fraud and Tax

H.R. 2454: American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 will result in a totalitarian centralization of the American economy in the administrative agencies of the federal government, especially the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). This 1,300 page horror is a prime example of congressional modus operandi -- no one in Congress actually had the opportunity to read the bill which was, incidentally, being amended as it was debated on the floor. As H.R. 2454 shows, this axiom still holds true: the more benign the title of a congressional bill, the more draconian its contents. After all, who could be against clean energy or security? The real goal of H.R. 2454 has nothing to do with either of these; it is a power grab, pure and simple.

While we have all heard much about the tax implications of H.R. 2454 and that every American family could see a $3,000 a year increase in their energy costs, H.R. 2454 does much more than that. H.R. 2454 is a fascistic fait accompli, giving the government expansive powers to regulate, subsidize, and tax more sectors of the economy. The bill authorizes more federal government control over the electrical grid, state and local building codes, lighting and appliances, industry, the financial markets, and, perhaps most ominously of all, the health care system. In addition, it includes wealth redistribution measures and would allow increases in foreign aid.

Part of the rhetoric surrounding H.R. 2454 is that it will help break America's dependency on foreign oil by encouraging development of renewable energy sources. Most likely, the opposite will happen as oil companies "cope with U.S. carbon legislation by closing fuel plants, cutting capital spending and increasing imports."

Ironically, cap and trade -- the cornerstone of H.R. 2454 -- does not protect the environment! Even Greenpeace opposed H.R. 2454, recognizing that it "chooses politics over science." While I would argue that the science to which Greenpeace refers is dubious at best, there is no question that H.R. 2454 has put politics above all else.

In a cap and trade system, the government deems a certain level of pollution acceptable as long as the polluter pays a tax. That's like saying that it's acceptable for someone to throw trash on your lawn so long as he has bought a government permit. Even worse, he can throw even more trash on your lawn if he buys additional permits from someone who refrains from throwing trash on your lawn. In effect, cap and trade legalizes pollution.

Advocates of cap and trade have used tortured logic to portray it as a market based system. James Boyce, an economist at the University of Massachusetts, claims that "this is the biggest creation and allocation of property rights since the Homestead Act." This statement is false on its face and falls into the realm of fantasy.

Unlike the Homestead Act which dealt with property that actually existed in the real world, the property rights to which Boyce refers have been created exclusively through government edit. There is no such thing as a "carbon credit" except on a bureaucrat's spreadsheet. Boyce's statement turns the concept of property rights -- the basis of a free society -- on its head. The "right" to pollute is not a form of property, it is a government granted privilege.

No one has a "right" to have clean air and water provided for them at someone else's expense. But no one should have the "right" to pollute air or water that he does not own. Far from creating a new form of property rights, cap and trade undermines the property rights that we own in our own bodies by granting polluters the legal privilege of polluting resources that they do not own and that we put into our bodies, i.e. air and water.

Litigation (in the cases where harm has come to individuals) and a strict respect for property rights offer much more effective ways of dealing with pollution than regulation does.

True environmentalists -- those of us who are concerned about things such as clean air and water -- should oppose schemes like H.R. 2454. H.R. 2454 is not designed to clean up the environment. It is designed to generate more revenue for the government and to give the government more power over the economy, our lives, and our freedom. And it does so at the expense of the environment.

為身份證報生紙問題發飆‧張慶信罵砂登記局長沒腦

(吉隆坡)國陣民都魯議員拿督斯里張慶信週二(6月30日)因身份證和報生紙問題發飆,大罵砂拉越國民登記局局長沒有腦袋和發神經。

他說,他已經很次在國會提出砂州偏遠地區人民在申請身份證和報生紙遭刁難的問題,每次相關部長在國會回答得非常清楚,而且有關條例也已放寬,但是執行的官員卻有很大問題。

為何不能撤換局長?

他直指砂州登記局局長沒有進步和不主,甚至是不腦做事。

他提出附加問題時說,特別是長屋居民,他們的孩子往往在長屋出生,所以沒有醫院證明,在申請報生紙和身份證時皆面對問題。

們只要求他提供一個解決方案,我要知道,為何不能撤換這名局長?”

他說,有時,這名局長發起神經來,要求民都魯的長屋居民千里迢迢到古晉去面試。

“面甚麼試?有的人去面試,但申請最終也是被拒絕,白跑一趟?”

副內長承諾嚴正看待

內政部副部長拿督阿布瑟曼承諾會嚴正的看待砂州國民登記局局長的做法與態度。

他認同要偏遠地區人民長途跋涉到城市去申請報生紙和身份證,是不切實際的做法。

他指出,內政部已成立工作隊深入民間,流動性的處理有關問題,只是可能是執行上出現紕漏。

“開放措施幫不到人”‧馬哈迪:只讓納吉更受歡迎

(雪蘭莪‧首邦市)前首相敦馬哈迪指出,首相拿督斯里納吉宣佈一連串的開放措施,只是為了使他本身更受歡迎(popular),但這些政策卻幫不到任何人。

他表示,有關措施是否能夠協助提昇大馬的經濟,他(馬哈迪)不得而知。

他週二(6月30日)為新推出的英文新聞站(Malaysian Mirror)主持推介後指出,大馬的經濟自獨立後一直在走高,但現在卻因為外在因素而走下坡。

經濟走下坡是外在因素

們的經濟走下坡是因為外在因素,不是內在(因素),而內在事務是要(使自己)得更受歡迎。”

他表示,現在的馬來社群認為,他們所享有的東西已被取走,但卻又沒有得到回饋,故導致許的不滿,到頭來這些開放措施無法幫助任何人,不管是馬來人、華人或印度人。

談到外資的課題時,馬哈迪說,大馬對外資必須持謹慎的態度,因為他們不忠於大馬,當有利可圖時,他們就來,當沒錢賺時,他們便撤資,政府屆時就必須付出代價。

不應允外資直接進市場

他說,他同意讓外資來馬設廠及進行基建,但外資如果要直接進入市場(market),就不能被允許。

詢及國會反對黨領袖拿督斯里安華指納吉抄襲由他倡導的開放措施,馬哈迪回應說:“我早已不再與他(安華)同調,對他來說,甚麼都有陰謀。”

出席者包括大馬鏡報董事兼總編輯佘貴生及前砂拉越人聯黨署理主席丹斯里劉賢鎮。

指可導政國陣敗北
馬哈迪揶揄凱里助選

馬哈迪週二揶揄巫青團團長凱里若在馬力勿來州議席補選中參與助選,將導政國陣敗北。

他表示,他不會為這次的補選助選。

他打趣說:“我不會(助選),但可以叫凱裡,他可以讓國陣敗北。”

詢及他在卸任後頻發表政府聆聽“4樓的聲音”,而目前的政府是否也有這個傾向,他回應說:“一些證據顯示,人們喜歡聽四樓的聲音,但我現在不知是第幾樓。”

另外,他表示,內政部每月與各報編輯見面的做法可讓編輯有機會向當局發問,當局可能要他們“這樣”報導,但他們卻還是可以“那樣”報導。

他指出,國內的媒體在處理新聞時往往是自我過濾,其實很多的國家都是有如此的做法,但在過濾新聞時,必須謹慎。

他也調,政府必須告知人民政府所要的處事方式。

對羅斯瑪沒個人看法

“我對羅斯瑪沒有個人看法,更沒有公眾看法。”

馬哈迪在被問到對首相夫人拿汀斯里羅斯瑪的看法時,做出上述回應。

他說,羅斯瑪是他的朋友,人們都會原諒朋友。

支票轉換制全馬同步實施‧蔡國治:避免銀行系統混亂‧國行應設交替過渡期

(雪蘭莪‧八打靈再也)隆雪中華工商總會副會長拿督蔡國治表示,由於新電子過賬系統--支票轉換制度(CTCS)馬同步實施,當局必須設定一個交替過渡期,避免因銀行系統問題引起混亂。

他形容這是一項很好的措施,惟在實施期間必須檢討可能出現的技術問題,包括銀行現有的系統是否能應付龐大的支票數量。

他說,國行必須設定至少為期一週的交替過渡期,讓銀行及商家對新措施有所調整。

他舉例,一般商家是銀行工作日當天開出支票,但過賬日期為隔天工作日,因此在新措施下,商家首先必須自調適,任何的小差距都會產生問題。

“銀行在過渡交替期間應儘量讓支票同一天內過賬,但若做不到,則必須根據現有系統即2天內過賬,再對銀行系統制度作出評估。”

此外,蔡國治希望國行對外說明所謂的“一天過賬”,是指‘一個工作天’(相等於8小時)或是24小時內過賬,兩者之間有所不同。

大眾銀行:料不出現太大問題

大眾銀行發言人表示,國內大數銀行實施CTCS已有一段時間,一些銀行之前因系統問題才導致這項措施一再展延。

他說,國行目前正式宣佈全國同步實施這項新系統,料不會出現太大的問題,因大多數銀行之前已完成系統提昇工作。

eSPICK‧系統支票化影像和電子數據

簡單來說,eSPICK系統在支票結算處理過程中,將由影像支票和電子數據的無紙作業取代。根據支票電子托收模式,托收支票銀行將把支票化為影像和蒐集數據,傳送至結算銀行(國行),由結算銀行轉送影像和數據至付款銀行。

支票電子轉移則是為處理龐大支票數目的機構而推出的新措施,例如能源、電訊、保險和股票經紀公司。參與機構可將付款數據轉送至托收銀行,由托收銀行轉移至結算銀行,再由結算銀行轉移至付款銀行。

參與機構無須發出實體支票,使本身的磁性油墨字識別(MICR)解碼支票數據轉移為付款指示,直接從支付者戶頭扣款。

原有系統v s支票轉換制度

原有系統
外坡支票沒有在同一日結算
外坡和本坡支票結算日不同,外坡支票最長等
上8個工作天才結算
延宕通知未付款支票
外坡支票徵收50仙或0.03%收費

支票電子托收和轉移系統
所有支票(外坡和本坡)同一日結算
外坡支票結算減少至2個工作日
未付款外坡支票將在第三個工作天獲得通知
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林冠英:公平分配股權‧每平民土著應獲100股

(檳城)民主行黨秘書長林冠英認為,政府若要確保土著獲得公平分配土著股權,那就應該提供每位平民土著100股(one lot),而非巫統土著(umno putera)。

也是檳州首席部長的他今日(週三,7月1日)出席捷航空公司開啟新加坡直飛檳城首航的新聞發佈會時,歡迎首相拿督斯里納吉宣佈國內外公司尋求上市時,不必再遵守外資委員會(FIC)的30%土著股權限制。

不過,林冠英對尋求上市的大馬公司在25%公眾持股權中的50%必須保留給土著認購的措施,有所意見。

非所有土著受惠

他認為,並非所有土著都在土著股權認購的措施中受惠。

他甚至在新聞發佈會上,詢問在場採訪的巫裔同行是否持有任何土著股票,只見一些同行搖搖頭表示沒有。

“都沒有,是嗎?試問,就連這些擁有學識的記者都無法拿到股票,那這些數以十億令吉計的股票都哪去了?”

他認為,政府若要確保每位土著持有股票,那麼就讓每位土著或每戶土著家庭自動享有100股的優惠,不必申請;同時限制每人就只能持100股,而非一人可以享有數百萬令吉的股票,那是不理的。

“這是年來所積極要求的,可是,國陣政府卻從未這麼做。”

他也建議政府除了讓每名土著享有100股之外,也可以在25%公眾持股權中,分配其中的5至10%股票給非土著的貧困人士。