Another Barack Bush Lie

Obama Lies. Often. And Without fear of accountability.

Signing Statements

h/t AfterDowningStreet

Are You A Good Boy Scout or Girl Scout?

The best ones are prepared for almost anything (kinda proves that my “scouting” abilities suck):

Bank Holiday (Swine Flu Second Wave) Coming in Late August?

Looking at what happened last September/October, we know that the whole ponzi financial system is very fragile. Gerald Celente issued a bank holiday warning late last year. A Congressman from PA told that the world financial system was only a few hours away from complete meltdown last year. German chancellor Angela Merkel, argued that national sovereignty over financial regulation is what caused the crisis in the first place. The stage has been set for a new global finiancal order to soon take effect.

Bloomberg reports corporate executives have started ditching their stocks at a rate not seen in years. This suggests that the market—currently enjoying one of the greatest rallies in decades as stocks continue to rise from last year’s post-crash nadir—is about to have the rug pulled out from under it, a fact that corporate executives in the know are taking to heart as they scramble to get rid of their worthless stocks before the general public realize what’s going on.

“They’re looking to take some money off the table because they think the rally will come to an end,” said Ben Silverman, the Seattle-based research director at InsiderScore. “It’s the most bearish we’ve seen insiders, on a whole, in two years.”

The last time there were more U.S. corporations with executives reducing their holdings than adding to them was during the week ended June 19, 2007, the data show. The next month, two Bear Stearns Cos. hedge funds filed for bankruptcy protection as securities linked to subprime mortgages fell apart, helping trigger almost $1.5 trillion in losses and writedowns at the world’s biggest financial companies and the 57 percent drop in the S&P 500 from Oct. 9, 2007, to March 9, 2009.

There’s much more information in the report about stock sales at individual companies, but, perhaps the most important detail is that insider selling reached an all-time record back in the first quarter of 2000, as the 18-year bull market in stocks reached its climax, the official demarcation point between “dotcom” and “dotbomb”.

Are the wheels coming off the system? Many think so.

Bob Chapman’s Int’l Forecaster newsletter revealed (5/20) this startling intelligence (from within US State Dept & embassies):

”Some US embassies worldwide are being advised to purchase massive amounts of local currencies; enough to last them a year. Some embassies are being sent enormous amounts of US cash to purchase currencies from those govts, quietly. But not £’s. Inside the State Dept there is a sense of sadness & foreboding that ‘something’ is about to happen, unknown re a date—just that within 180 days, but could be 120-150 days.”

Bob quotes another source that “Panasonic has told their people to be back in Japan by Sept 09.”

Harry Schultz, dean of newsletter writers, has quoted the Chapman letter of May 30 regarding US embassies being sent large amounts of cash with which to buy local currencies, to last them a year. Here is Harry’s remarkable take on the situation:

“My HSL suspicion is that the elite plan another FDR style “bank holiday” of indefinite length, perhaps very soon, to let the insiders sort-out the bank mess which is getting more out of their control every day. Insiders want/need to impose new bank rules. Widespread nationalization could result, already under way. It could also lead to a formal US$ devaluation, as FDR did by revaluing gold (& then confiscating it). But devalue against what? The euro? Doubtful. Gold? Maybe. Or vs. the IMF basket of currencies (which seems more likely)—& much in the news recently. Any kind of bank holiday will push the US$ lower, which may be a bonus benefit to their ongoing scenario of letting the $ fall. Such a fall would get the devaluation they want without having to declare it. In sum, the insiders want more bank & system control, fewer banks & a lower US$. A bank holiday would suit all their needs.

A Bob Chapman subscriber reported overhearing 2 FEMA jacketed men talking to a police chief in Calif. They wanted to federalize the police across the US. They (govt) would be closing banks in late Aug, early Sept & that it will get ugly.”

A bank holiday would be a response to panic, which is not imminent. It may happen in the future when all the problems are revealed, but only in response to an acute situation. A proactive shutting down of banks is not in anyone’s economic interest. Spending would freeze up and a total loss of confidence would ensue, sending everything into a downward spiral.  What could change this equation would be a pandemic type of event.

Late August also marks the date when the Spanish flu became incredibly deadly:

In late August 1918, the second wave of the Spanish flu struck three port cities at nearly the same time. These cities (Boston, United States; Brest, France; and Freetown, Sierra Leone) all felt the lethalness of this new mutation immediately.

If history repeats itself and the swine flu second-wave becomes a mega-death killer, late August or early September would be the time of year we can expect it to hit with fullforce. The Spanish flu spread quickly, killing an estimated 50 million to 100 million people around the world.

If this Swine Flu is the Spanish Flu reborn and has escaped the labortory (or been unleased as a population control device), then banking insiders might know this. If there is a conspiracy afoot, late August or early September seems a good time  for their ‘bank holiday’ because they know people will be preocupped with the pandemic.

Now is the time to prepare for worst case senerio, as any good Boy or Girl Scout would do.

I have no idea if it will be the Swine Flu or some other catalyst, but they will need the scapegoat to implement the worst that is on its way. The system is crashing all around us and they aren’t telling us the truth about it.

I am headed to the attorney in a few minutes to file Chapter 7. This is the last “boy scout” badge I hope to earn.

h/t unSpy and the original article can be found at ReclaimAmerica

oye’

In this June 12, 2009 photo, Rabbi Aaron Katz is seen during a service at the progressive Judaism Synagogue in Warsaw. He is Poland’s first openly and unabashedly gay rabbi. Katz settled in Warsaw with Kevin Gleason, a former Hollywood producer with whom he entered into a registered domestic partnership in Los Angeles two years ago. (AP Photo/Alik Keplicz)

WARSAW, Poland – When Rabbi Aaron Katz walks the streets of Warsaw’s former Jewish quarter, scenes of that lost world fill his imagination: Families headed to synagogue, women in their kitchens cooking Sabbath meals, his father as a boy with the sidecurls of an Orthodox Jew.
But Katz’s life could hardly be more different from that prewar eastern European culture, at least in one key respect: He is Poland’s first openly gay rabbi.
Born in Argentina 53 years ago to parents who fled Poland before the Holocaust, Katz is the latest rabbi to play his part in reviving a once vibrant Jewish community that was all but wiped out by Hitler.

He settled into Warsaw’s historic Jewish district in March with Kevin Gleason, a former Hollywood producer on such reality TV shows as “The Bachelor” and “Nanny 911,” with whom he entered into a registered domestic partnership in Los Angeles two years ago.
They live only three streets from the birth home of Katz’s father in a modern and spacious apartment with their dogs, two gentle brown boxers. Katz says he is moved by the links to his past, but keeps his focus on the future.
“I don’t think we will come back to this great Jewish life,” he said, referring to prewar Poland, a country where one person in 10 was Jewish and where synagogues, yeshivas and shtetls defined the landscape. “But I hope we will have a normal Jewish life in Poland.”
Katz is certainly an anomaly in conservative Poland, where to be either Jewish or gay is challenge enough — at least outside the cities. Of a population of 38 million, about 5,000 are registered as Jews, while thousands more have part-Jewish ancestry, and some have returned to their roots since Poland shed its communist dictatorship.
Katz is the second rabbi to serve Beit Warszawa, a Reform community with 250 members that was founded in the capital 10 years ago by Polish and American Jews who felt little affinity with some Orthodox practices, such as separating men and women during Sabbath services. The Reform movement ordains gay rabbis.
Homosexuals have won acceptance at differing levels throughout post-communist Eastern Europe. The Czech Republic and Slovenia recognize same-sex partnerships, as will Hungary from July 1. Poland hasn’t gone that far. It has an active gay rights movement and gay nightclubs in the cities, but the Catholic church and some conservative politicians still publicly describe homosexuality as abnormal and immoral.
Katz, a citizen of Argentina, Israel and Sweden, says so far he has not faced anti-Semitism or homophobia in Poland. But some community members, speaking in private, reveal a degree of discomfort.
One woman at a Sabbath service whispered that she found Katz’s open sexuality too “aggressive.” A longtime male member counseled against writing about the rabbi, lest anti-Semites use it against the community.
A third member, Piotr Lukasz, said he himself supports gay rights, and marched with an Israeli flag during a recent gay rights parade in Warsaw. But he said he had heard others complain that it would weaken an already small and fragile community.
“They say that Poland is not a ready for a gay rabbi because the outside society is very conservative,” said Lukasz, a 23-year-old student of cultural anthropology. “An openly gay rabbi is something very controversial.”
Others, though, seem comfortable, as evidenced by a recent string of dinners where Jews and non-Jews joined Katz and his partner at their home, digging into goulash or chicken-and-potato meals around the dining room table and socializing through the evening.
Katz is the chief cook — it’s because he likes to be in charge, says Gleason, who instead welcomes guests warmly at the door and keeps their wine glasses filled through the evenings.
“I think the rabbi’s home should be open,” Katz said. “The moment that you take a position, your family takes the position too. It’s a role.”
Katz’s life as a rabbi has been an evolution from one world to another. In the 1980s and early 1990s he was Sweden’s chief Orthodox rabbi, married to a woman with whom he had five children now aged 16 to 31. Later he lived and worked in Berlin and Los Angeles. He had a dark beard, but today is clean-shaven.
The only photograph in their living room shows Katz and Gleason on the day they sealed their partnership — which they refer to as a marriage — surrounded by both their families, including Katz’s sons and daughters, who are close to the couple and who showed their acceptance of the union with a gift of a ketubah, a traditional Jewish wedding certificate.
Katz’s journey away from Orthodox Judaism was part of his “coming out process,” he explains, but also was influenced by the realization that some of his children were not attracted to Orthodox worship. He concluded that Reform Judaism was more attractive to the young.
Still, he insists that as modern as he is, he loves tradition.
He keeps a kosher home and has enthusiastically embraced the Jewish tradition of matchmaker, using his dinners to introduce singles — usually heterosexuals but not exclusively.
Asked how many marriages have resulted, he said “a couple,” but Gleason jumped in to correct him: “You’re being modest,” he said.
Gleason, 50, was born into a Catholic family but converted to Judaism for Katz. He left Hollywood and now does administrative and fundraising work for the synagogue. He attends services, sitting in the back and tapping on his watch when he feels the rabbi’s lively sermons are getting to long.
Still, the openness of their relationship can catch people in Warsaw off guard.
“I introduce him as my partner they say, ‘Oh he’s also a rabbi?’” Katz said. “When I say ‘my partner’ they think I mean like in business. So I say ‘no, no, no, we are living together.’”

.. and those monitoring this prior???

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31604191/ns/business-us_business/

NEW YORK – It was a crime of epic proportions: a multibillion-dollar Ponzi scheme that wiped out fortunes, drained retirement nest eggs, ruined charities and foundations, and even pushed some investors to commit suicide.

[cont @ link]

This is all well and good, but what about the accountability of those in our government agencies who’s job it is/was to oversee companies like this along the way???? I demand their pay checks back!!!!

Basic CPR Classes…

… teach and have taught forever, that if someone has any pulse, ANY– do NOT do CPR, that stops the heart!!!
[just sayin']
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_michael_jackson

NOW The Gullible Fools Come Out Pissed (As Usual, A Day Late and a Dollar Short)

I hear ya, Marie, but if you didn’t figure out the bastards were lying to you before you actually voted for the lying scumbag, then all that can really be said about you is that your judgment is shit.

Too damned late and another election gone due to the gullible fools who call themselves “progressives”. Another 4 years of the same old shit.

Ask for your money back now, Marie, but I hold you and all of the rest of you idiots responsible.

I Want My Money Back! (Pres. Obama!)

by Marie Marchand

I want my money back.

I gave $20 a week for seven months, plus $60 every once in a while for a t-shirt and sticker.  I gave of my modest purse joyfully.  Once I add that all up, it makes a grand total of… $106 billion?!  Wait a minute, I thought I was supporting change I could believe in, not more of the same bloodshed and war!

Betrayal is a part of life.  After awhile, you just come to expect it.  Yet, the initial shock always hits you as a surprise.  Alas, the nature of betrayal.  Humans are vulnerable to being betrayed because underneath our husky shells, our pain and hardened hearts, we are soft and trustful creatures.  We want to believe in people.

I’m not that young, so I possess some cynicism.  But I’m not that old either, so I manage some idealism.  Sure, I am used to being betrayed by my government.  But I thought my days of calling the White House in tears were over.  To think that Barack Obama preyed on this naive hope in me and millions like me is unforgivable.

I expect the Republicans to throw money at the Military Industrial Complex.  Yet, from the Democrats, I was promised a different direction (like OUT of the Middle East).  Regrettably, there has been miniscule change.  There is still nothing to believe in.

It is against my religion to say the Pledge of Allegiance.  (I am a Christian so I pledge allegiance only to God.)  I did, however, pledge my time and treasure to Barack Obama.   On November 4, 2008, I danced in the streets waving the American Flag, feeling proud to be an American.  I was pathetically close to bustin’ out some Toby Keith ditties.

It’s not just the $106 billion that makes me feel betrayed.  It’s not just the fact that Gitmo probably won’t be shut down after all.  It is not even the president’s assurance to Republicans that he will not release the photos of detainee abuse.

It is the rumors of intimidation and strong-arming that are, to me, the greatest betrayal.

That President Barack Obama sent Rahm Emanuel and Nancy Pelosi to bully anti-war Democrats into voting for the supplemental (and threatening to withdraw the leadership’s support for their re-elections if they didn’t) is a shameful misuse of power.  Where’s the humanity I once saw in Barack?  It’s just more of the same and I can’t stomach it.

I knew I was naïve; yet like millions of Americans, I had no choice but to believe.  Our hearts were desperate for hope.  We saw Barack Obama as an oasis in the desert.  To think that he may be just a mirage is heartbreaking.When you have a minute, give Wisconsin Senator Russ Feingold a call at (202) 224-5323.  He was the only Democrat in the Senate to vote against the war funding (along with three Republicans and an Independent).

Oh, and please consider supporting my grassroots campaign to get my $680 back so I can donate it to the Whatcom Peace & Justice Center. Thanks.

h/t CommonDreams

Marie Marchand is executive director of the Whatcom Peace & Justice Center in Bellingham, WA.

Obama’s Emerging Legacy: Wars, Bankers and For-Profit Healthcare

By Glen Ford, Executive Editor Black Agenda Report

As of this writing, the Progressives for Obama website still exists, a relic of Left delusion that should have died of embarrassment months ago. Barack Obama has, indeed, grown in the presidency – but not into the FDR-like figure of his leftish supporters’ imaginations. Nor has his presence in the Oval Office served to spur Blacks and progressives to dramatic action, creating the “push” that Left Obamites had predicted would allow their champion to act on his more “liberal” instincts. Quite the contrary. The “Obama Effect” has led to the near-total collapse of the Left– both its white and Black wings – and made the nation safe for rule by finance capital and militarists.

The military, finance capital and healthcare corporations (insurers are a branch of finance capital) are winning every important battle because, on fundamental issues, President Obama is on their side. It is he who crushed the anti-war bloc in the US. House; who silenced and marginalized single payer advocates, while fawning over health profiteers; who engineered the greatest transfer of wealth in human history to bankers, leaving them free to once again ruin themselves and the rest of us.
So let us give President Obama his due. He not only smashed the Left opposition, he humiliated them.

There is no longer an anti-war bloc in the U.S. Congress. It began to evaporate when Obama took office. The Out of Iraq Caucus has dissolved. The Progressive Congressional Caucus cannot find a mission. And the Congressional Black Caucus can claim only eight members worthy of the label, “progressive.” The list of CBC members among the 32 Democrats that voted “No” to Obama’s $106 billion Iraq and Afghanistan war request is so short, it can be taken in at a glance.

Here are the few, the brave:

Barbara Lee (CA), Maxine Waters (CA), Diane Watson (CA), John Lewis (GA), Donna Edwards (MD), John Conyers (MI), Keith Ellison (MN), Donald Payne (NJ).

Less than seven years ago, only four members of the CBC supported George Bush’s Iraq War Powers: Harold Ford, Jr. (TN), William Jefferson (LA), Albert Wynn (MD) and Sanford Bishop (GA). In the pages of The Black Commentator I called them the “Four Eunuchs of War” and felt confident in writing:

“The rest of the 36 voting members of the Congressional Black Caucus defended Black America’s political legacy, voting No. Rep. Barbara Lee (CA) led half of her CBC colleagues in support of her ‘alternative to war’ resolution, demonstrating once again that African Americans are the core of the forces of peace and justice in the U.S.”

It’s been all down hill for the CBC since 2002, a steady slide into corporatism and irrelevance. With the Black progressive “core” definitively demobilized since January 20, the Left is largely adrift.

Obama has accomplished what George Bush could not: virtually silence progressive voices in Congress, so that he can stoke the fires of war on two fronts without significant challenge from the legislative branch. It is a great victory, so why not congratulate the president, and give him the elemental respect of recognizing that he is – or is trying his best to be – a Man of War?
A Murdered Dream

Kudos, again, to the president, for such adroitness in killing a dream whose time appeared to have come: single-payer healthcare. Obama made non-persons of healthcare reform’s best friends in the Democratic Party, barring them from White House-sponsored healthcare events. The president erected a big tent that included everyone except single-payer advocates who, from Obama’s perspective, are the enemy. Instead, he wheels and deals and even invents nonexistent agreements with Big Pharma, Big Hospitals, and Big Insurance, all the while vowing to slice huge chunks out of Medicare and Medicaid.

Obama apologists offer their usual excuse: the president must huddle and compromise with the profiteers, if he is to get any kind of health care passed. The single-payers are well-meaning spoilers. Obama had to muzzle them, so he could get down to business on a practical plan.
What should be clear as day to any lucid, rational observer of the last 150-plus days, is that Obama has not compromised with anybody. Certainly, he never even thought to compromise with single-payer advocates – he simply shut them out of the discussion. And he was never in a position to effectively compromise with the healthcare profiteers and their political servants, since Obama never submitted a Plan of his own, or endorsed anyone else’s. Instead, he encouraged everybody and their momma except single-payer advocates to fashion their own plans – creating a cacophony of what Rep. Conyers aptly calls “crap.” In the end, he will throw his weight behind one or another pile of healthcare crap.

Is Obama incompetent? Only if you believe he sincerely wants a healthcare plan that is as close to the ideal of health-as-a-right as possible, in which case, yes, he has been amazingly incompetent. But why disrespect our president? Give the man credit for knowing what he is doing. Assess his efforts according to the clear logic of his actions, for he has worked wonders.
Obama has succeeded in shutting out of the debate proponents of an idea supported by an overwhelming majority of Americans and an even larger segment of his own party. According to a June 12-16 New York Times/CBS News poll:

“…72 percent of those questioned supported a government-administered insurance plan — something like Medicare for those under 65 — that would compete for customers with private insurers…. Sixty-four percent said they thought the federal government should guarantee coverage, a figure that has stayed steady all decade.”

Only 20 percent of respondents oppose a Medicare-for-all-type plan. It would require the awesome power of a still very popular president to hold back a mob that is composed of damn near everybody, but Obama is up to the task. At the end of the process – this crap storm – that he has so skillfully set in motion, Obama will settle on a legislative contraption that will not even cover all of the 45 million-plus currently uninsured. For-profit healthcare will be safe for the remainder of his term, and possibly much, much longer.

Give Obama his props. He has turned the tide against real reform at a time of generalized crisis, when the chances for creating a civilized healthcare system were most propitious. He is a wonderment!

The Bankers’ Man

Even a man of Obama’s vast talents cannot easily hide the fact that the federal government (including the Federal Reserve) has “spent, lent or committed $12.8 trillion…to stem the longest recession since the 1930s,” as reported by the Bloomberg financial news service on March 31. The vast bulk of the money has gone to finance capitalists, most of it on President Obama’s watch. It is easily the largest transfer of national treasure in planetary history, accomplished in the relative wink of an eye, mostly outside the legislative process. By comparison, the 2008 Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the United States – that is, the value of every good and service produced by every man, woman, child and enterprise of any kind in the nation – was $14.2 trillion. By the end of March, the feds had “spent, lent or committed” a sum equal to 90 percent of last year’s total economic activity in the United States – and still counting.

The Obama administration’s facade is cracking on the macro economic issue. Despite his hollow protestations, it is now generally perceived that Obama’s team is allowing “the banks” to get away with murder, theft and mayhem. In reality, the finance capitalist class is virtually inseparable from Obama’s economic apparatus; one is an extension of the other. Larry Summers, Tim Geithner, Robert Rubin, Paul Volker and the rest of Obama’s economic Rasputins will no more “rein in” finance capitalists, than they would put shackles on themselves.

Once gain, I must ask that you respect President Obama. Allow him to surround himself with people of like mind, men and women with whom he shares a core worldview. Do not belittle our president, by grumbling that he is being “manipulated” by “the bankers.” Accept that he is a strong leader, who knows what he wants to accomplish and is wise enough to choose a team that reflects his vision. The Obama administration serves the bankers’ interests because Obama wishes to do so.

This will be his undoing – not his expanding wars, not the healthcare fiasco – and much sooner than most think. Obama’s sham banking regulations were unveiled to great fanfare – and bombed, colossally, on the front page of the New York Times. In language that an economics columnist for the “gray lady” of corporate media seldom deploys against sitting presidents, Joe Nocera wrote:

“Everywhere you look in the plan, you see the same thing: additional regulation on the margin, but nothing that amounts to a true overhaul…. Firms will have to put up a little more capital, and deal with a little more oversight, but once the financial crisis is over, it will, in all likelihood, be back to business as usual.”

Nocera’s headline read, “Only a Hint of Roosevelt in Financial Overhaul.” William Greider, writing in The Nation, a bastion of “Progressives for Obama,” concluded that “most of Obama’s reforms are insubstantial gestures, not actual remedies.”

Kevin Baker’s devastating piece in the July issue of Harper’s stripped the emperor naked. Obama was not, as his progressive followers imagined, the second coming of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Rather, he is the political soul-mate of FDR’s predecessor, Herbert Hoover:

“Much like Herbert Hoover, Barack Obama is a man attempting to realize a stirring new vision of his society without cutting himself free from the dogmas of the past—without accepting the inevitable conflict….

“The common thread running through all of Obama’s major proposals right now, is that they are labrynthian solutions designed mainly to avoid conflict. The bank bailout, cap-and-trade on carbon emissions, health-care pools – all of these ideas are, like Hillary Clinton’s ill-fated 1993 health plan, simultaneously too complicated to draw a constituency and too threatening for Congress to shape and pass as Obama would like. They bear the seeds of their own destruction.”
Baker is too kind. He persists in assigning Obama the most progressive of motives, when the content and consistency of his actions point to a profoundly corporate frame of mind and outlook. The president “avoids conflict” with the banks because he has no basic problem with them occupying the commanding heights of power in U.S. society.

It is better, and ultimately more respectful, to judge a politician, or any person, by the accumulated body of his work. Based on his record as candidate and president to date, it is plain that Obama sees the world as the bankers see it. He accepts their advice because he agrees with it. He shares their core ethic, and is therefore always forgiving of their “excesses.” The fate of his presidency is entwined with theirs.

At some point in the near future Barack Obama will become inextricably associated in the public mind with Big Capital – and deservedly so. No one can predict when this perceptual critical mass will be reached, but once it has occurred, it sticks.

The aftershocks of the recent meltdown and the before-shocks of the next, onrushing crisis of capitalism will bring a cascade of calamities to the doorstep of the White House. With each crisis, Obama will do what we now know comes natural to him: protect capital at all costs to society as a whole.

With their champion saddled with such baggage, it will be interesting to see when “Progressives for Obama” become extinct.

Never Forget “The King”

A Tiny Revolution is a Must Read Blog.

Let us not be distracted by The Elite’s Shining Little Objects that sway our attention from their dictates and policies of domination. Don’t allow their propaganda arms (commonly referred to as the MSM) to take your attention away from the real issues (as in the non-stop MSNBC Keith Olbermann coverage of Michael’s demise). For hours on end, we saw the top of the hospital and heard over and over again about the “King of Pop” being dead. I kept thinking that OJ Simpson’s Bronco would pop up at any moment and we could spend several hours watching that and reminiscing about how fun those days were.

Oh, and the only pinup model I ever actually “pinned up” on a wall died, too.

Kurt Nimmo at InfoWars has the skinny:

Jackson and Fawcett Deaths Overshadow NWO Moves On Liberty

It’s like manna from heaven for the corporate media. Michael Jackson, the “King of Pop,” and Farrah Fawcett, the “It Girl,” have died on the same day. Details of these two tragic events will now dominate the media for more than a week and push vastly more important events into the shadows.

Obama and Congress plan to hand the entire U.S. economy over to an evil cartel of private banksters and inbred elitists, thus creating a dictatorship not answerable to the people. Meanwhile, the corporate media has gathered in a feeding frenzy over the death of a mentally disturbed music icon.

It is no longer news that the Fed will soon have the power to seize any company, from the corner hot dog stand to once mighty automotive corporations. Farrah Fawcett’s death by cancer is more important than the fact the government will soon usher in a form of corporatism – what Mussolini called fascism – of a magnitude and sophistication never before witnessed.

Earlier in the week, Rep. Ron Paul warned that Obama and Congress are working together to produce a complete economic collapse, and yet this did not even make a ripple in the corporate media news cycle.

Globalist Brent Scowcroft admits the CIA and the Pentagon are busy at work undermining the government of Iran and yet the media focuses on what appears to be the staged murder of a young woman in Tehran and does not bother to mention her death is obviously part of the overall diabolical scheme to meddle in Iran’s affairs and prepare for a shock and awe campaign to rival the one unleashed on Iraq with the horrific result of more than a million dead people.

Evidence abounds that the World Health Organization, the United Nations, big pharma and governments around the world at the behest of the international bankers are planning to unleash a bioweapon attack in the guise of a flu pandemic. Journalist Jane Burgermeister has presented compelling evidence of this plot (including the declaration of martial law and mandatory toxic vaccinations) and yet the corporate media is silent.

The documented existence of FEMA detention and work camps and mass grave sites for this engineered pandemic are ignored by the corporate media with the exception of a lame hit piece conducted by government disinfo operative Glenn Beck and his sidekick from the paragon of yellow journalism, Hearst publishing.

There are government encroachments aimed at liberty on all fronts — water rights, CPS snatching children across the country, numerous laws proposed to limit and diminish if not eliminate gun rights — and yet the corporate media focuses exclusively on the death of celebrities.

In 200 BC the Roman poet Juvenal wrote about the lamentable fact the masses had given up their birthright of political involvement and abdicated their duties for only two things — bread and circuses.

Our rulers have yet to hand out bread, but they have engineered alluring electronic circuses and grand distractions. In doing so they are leading the masses down the path to enslavement.

h/t DeProgram

How Governor Sanford’s Actions Made Haley Barbour Our Next POTUS

There is a lot of HooDoo going on about Gov Sanford’s liaison with his Argentinian sweetie (as a side a note, most Argentine women I have seen are drop dead gorgeous, but maybe I just look at the wrong magazines).

“Well, I went for a 4 day hike on the Appalachian trail“. Jesus, dude. You suck as a liar (which explains the R behind your name).

Anyway, what this does is open up the gallery for all the right-wing idiots clamoring all over themselves to be the next RayGun. Facing South has been on the spot regarding the missing Governor. Chris is also on spot regarding how this affects the upcoming presidential race in 2012.

The RGA (The Republican Governors Association) quickly announced that they are replacing Gov Sanford after he resigned his position. Found at Politico:

That was fast: The Republican Governors Association just announced that Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour — already “in line” to take the chairmanship of the RGA — has assumed it.

” As a former RNC chairman and one of the best governors in the country, no one is better positioned to takeover as RGA chairman than Governor Barbour,” executive director Nick Ayers said in a statement.

Barbour is also a 2012 contender who sees the virtue of keeping his profile, for now, comfortably low, and one of the best-respected political minds in the Republican Party.

How low a profile is it when you do this?

more about “RGA“, posted with vodpod

It makes me wonder if all of this is intentional. Would Gov Sanford still be protecting the R Party for some reason? I mean, I know he has been an idiot and had his foolish stance shut down by his state congress via veto (which has to be extremely embarrassing). Maybe it is simply that Sanford was thinking with little head instead of the hollow one on his shoulders.

But as Franklin D. Roosevelt said, “In politics, nothing happens by accident. If it happens, you can bet it was planned that way.”

Sanford is a clown who was playing diddly with a hot Latina woman and my bet is that it was about to become huge news. He circumvented the further destruction of the R Party (yeah, good luck with that one) by “coming out”. This also erases the the black eye that the “Stimulus Fighters” brought on themselves.

But Geezus Christ and a Whole Bunch of “By-God’s”, are you people SERIOUSLY considering a vote for that garbage can looking asshole, racist fuck, killer-releaser? REALLY?!?

Is this the best that R’s have to offer? Or Palin?

Somehow I am convinced that there are enough ignorant rednecks that even this worthless bag of shit may actually get a chance. Nothing will surprise me with this country. And the clueless Yahoos who have brought us to this state we are in.

Friends

Many of you have shared your thoughts with me about my situation (here and in emails). I cannot tell you how much it means to me (especially my buddy, Lynda).

I wanted to speak about friends for a sec. I have old classmates that I say are “friends”. I have people that I see at least weekly that I call “friends”. I have Principals (those I sell for) that are “friends” and visit here, in a few cases… don’t tell Rob I said hello. I have thousands of acquaintances and even customers that I call “friends”. But, that little word is like the word “love”. It carries all sorts of shades of differences and depth of meaning.

My 30th class reunion is this Saturday. I was initially instrumental in helping get the thing rolling and even came up with a blog for the class reunion. (PS: I am the gorgeous redhead with the freaky striped shirt on front… I know all you old women love red heads)

The class president and I have the same first name (which is Raymond, for those that don’t know). (Hi, nice to meet cha)

Anyway, “the other Raymond” has been calling and writing, trying to prod me into coming because A) I couldn’t afford it and B) I am an embarrassed mess. He, as a wonderful friend, offered to pay for everything for Susan and I ($40) and has been relentless in prodding me along.

Last reunion, I was pretty darn successful in my business and everything was exciting and happy. BuelahLady was the only prego woman there and we would have won the prize for youngest child, except for the fact that BuelahBaby was in the belly at the time. As far as I know, we have the youngest child in the group.

Just in the span of 9 months, I have basically had my business fall apart. Not from inactivity or less work hell, I have been working harder than ever), but due to this entire financial debacle that is attributable to our government and the banking class that robbed us blind. I am pissed about that and it shows in my writing and comments at other blogs.

Then, yesterday, another friend called (this guy and I were extremely close in high school… and I have plenty of stories to tell about that crazy fucker some day) and he wanted to do what we did last time, he and his wife come to my house to stay and us go to the reunion together. It occured to me in his words that it had been at least 3 years since I had spoken to him. One of my very best friends and it has been 3 freaking years?

He didn’t know anything… that we had to sell our house, that Susan and I both had back surgeries and/or that we were devastated financially.

He said, “Why didn’t you call me?”

For what? Hell, I am a 47 year old white male who was fairly affluent (at least for a redneck) and better off than most people I know personally.

He said, “Do you remember several years ago, you met me at Hardee’s, gave me a $100 bill, and never said a word about it afterwards?”

I admitted that I did not remember that. It was then that he said, “Raymond, you have friends that love and care for you very much. We know what you have done to open your house to people (I housed a family of 4 from Germany for over a year because they couldn’t afford to make it on their own… I have housed family members for months on end… I have given thousands of dollars to needy folks here or there.” Etc, etc, etc

He went through a list of things he remembered me doing for others that honestly I forgot. Or, more aptly, I never register those things to be remembered. What I mean is, I never give with expectations of anything. I have only lent money a couple of times and I don’t like that. If I have it, I’ll GIVE it. At least, that is the way it was when I had it to give.

Look, I am no Saint. I can be the meanest fucking Dickhead you ever came into contact with. There is no doubt. But, true to myself, I can be the lovingest and most supporting clod ever, too. You cannot find a better friend or meaner enemy. Yeah, I am a screwed up mess, for sure.

I never think to ask for help, because I have always been the “go-to” man. I have always been the helper, not the helpee. I am the guy that fixes everything… that can think his way through ANYTHING. But when it comes to asking for help, I don’t know how to do this, to be honest.

What I told Bubba (yeah, I am friends with a “Bubba”, imagine that) was that the help I really need is getting to know more contacts that I can sell to. I don’t want handouts. I don’t want freebies or the government to take care of me and my family. I want what is honest, right and noble.

But I also have some sage friends, like my Girlfriend, Lynda (and no, not THAT kind of girlfriend) who have actually experienced some of this (even Bubba has been through the Big B… bankruptcy). My buddy Lisa has shared advice with me that is so wonderfully sound. Kelso and Diane have been warm and receptive and most importantly, supportive (even though I can give Diane hell). My sister, who doesn’t have a pot to piss in, has offered to do anything she can to help (she waits tables for $2/hr + tips). Even my Mom offered to watch BuelahGirl and would have given me the $40 for the reunion.

I cannot begin to tell you all how much I appreciate you all. It brings tears to my eyes to know that I have emotional support from “friends”. Real friends.

But we must acknowledge something in all of this: I have come to the realization that what is happening to me is intentional (not me, solely,  as a target, but we are ALL the target). I am no right-wing fool like Limbaugh and Beck and O’Liely, but I do believe that our government is doing whatever it can to bring our economy down and kill the dollar. Why they are doing it, I have yet to ascertain, but I have my suspicions of world currency and the only way they will be able to get rid of all this toxic debt is through the failure of our dollar or all out war (maybe a combination).

I thought I could out think them, but medical issues screwed me. I thought I could bob and weave through the changes in the manufacturing base and still come out on top (yet they have been able to send the manufacturing to slave labor countries.

By God, this is ME we are talking about. I ALWAYS succeed (at least that WAS my mindset).

If I am correct about the intention of this fiasco, then it is high time all us “friends” get real and shut this mutherfucker down. It can be done and I have a plan. But we must do this together.

It will take “friends’ to make this happen.

Changing Scope of This Blog: Ratcheting Up The Rhetoric

I have absolutley nothing else left to lose. The appointment with the attorney is Monday and I had to scrape up all my coins and borrow a bit just to pay the amount to file Chapter7.

Luckily, my business can be run with very little credit and if I continue to work smartly (only travel when it is a known, viable project; continue to focus on businesses that may upstart or grow with the economy, like solar, medical and, yes, military; and continue to look out for new and exciting products to add to my repertoire).

I am very concerned about health care: my wife’s issues and I do have controlled high blood pressure. I am most concerned about my daughter, tho and making sure I can keep her healthy.

So, after a couple of days of introspection and hard work with my business and garden, I have decided that the scope of this blog must change. I have never been one to hold back much, but I do hold back (believe it or not). Not any more.

The fact of the matter is that in most cases I have been extraordinarily prophetic (and correct) about the circumstances that face America and the rest of the world. I knew on 9-11-2001 that those buildings were brought down by something other than planes. I knew back then that W wanted to take out Saddam and invade Iraq and would look for any excuse to do so (following the PNAC dictate to a “T”). When W was getting all those rave reviews from you “progressives”, I took the side of Phil Donahue and Dennis Kucinich and KNEW damn well that it was all a bunch of lies. (What this means is that if you were part of the 90%+ approval rating of that ignorant fuck early on, you have no credibility, forethought or discernment) . Just a mindless sycophantic Sheople awaiting the slaughter.

I saw the financial thing long before many others even considered it newsworthy. I felt it in my business and saw it slowly trail off until I cannot seem to get an order (I lost one order, but all the rest are just sitting on their money until the economy starts to pick up: a never-ending cycle of “wait and starve”). I have been correct that the man that you, the dumbass Sheople in this country elected, was a lying sum-bitch. But you fell for it to spite Bush and the perceived “bad guys” (I’m talking to you pretend Progressives now). You lame-assed fuckers have elected a black Bush, even though you thought you were voting for the antithesis of Bush. It only proves what a bunch of ignorant assholes you are. He proves it with virtually every initiative and act.

The fact of the matter is that I have been correct and you, you stupid fuck heads have NOT been correct. So, if you truly want to try and correct things from your debacle, we need to address the 6 critical issues that this country must address as quickly as possible for us to try and salvage this country from those that are hell-bent on what can only be called Fascism (Friendly or unfriendly). Fascism is the corporate takover of a government and this is certainly the case for America. When that “corporate” entity includes the MIC, PIC, a controlled media and public, and a controlling Big Money/Fed Reserve, it will take a mass uprising to change things.

But you ignorant fucks are going to have to wake up and stop figting over their little wedge issues; come together and stand for truth and morality; get rid of these money grubbing politicians who are reaping huge benefits from stealing your money and taking the money from their Corporate cronies.

#1: Election Reform MUST take place. It should be publicly funded and the committees that control debates should NOT be the ones who fund and control the candidates. There should be no PAC money or any corporate funding allowed. Period. The DNC and RNC should have no say in who debates.

#2: We need to dissolve the Corporate Personhood. ONLY a human being should have the rights that were intended for us… Corporations should not be allowed any of these rights, as if they, too, were human.

#3: We must End The Fed and re-introduce a monetary system that is controlled by government, not the private banking systems.

#3A: We need to find, charge, and prosecute any and all of the bankers and thieves who brought the country to its knees.

#3B: we need every tax dollar back from the TARP and various banking bailouts and let those sorry, thieving mutherfuckers default and fail. Period.

4: We MUST introduce a Single-Payer, Not-for-profit healthcare system and totally eradicate the scurge we call “Health Insurance Companies”. In the meantime (please see #1), let’s vote out each and every asshole who has taken a single dime from these entities (including Obama, Baucus and all the other rich dickheads who are also “invested” in these very same companies). Each and every state needs to take out those sorry fuckers who won’t put the only viable system “on-the-table” (and goddamnit, stop agreeing with these lying assholes that the “Public Option” is a real option for Single Payer. It is NOT). It is just a weak-kneed population so easily swayed by bullshit that it is sickening.

#5: Stop The American Empire and Hegemony. We must stop spending over a $1Trillion a year of “defense” when their is nothing to defend ourselves from with military might. Everyone knows that Iraq is a damned lie (but your Messiah wants to continue the “war” and also fund the IMF with some of those funds). If you ignorant rednecks would simply get your head out of your ass, this is really quite simple: we are pouring money into other countries while we are falling totally apart here. Yet, you and your ignorant ass will argue about abortion and ACORN being the biggest issues that face us or that we are headed to Socialism (I wish).

#6: Stop the Prison Industrial Complex and Disable America’s Police State We must stop the imprisoning of marijuana/drug users and instill a real program for rehabilitation, instead of the feeding of the private Prison beast. At the same time, we need to implement studies of the medicinal value of marijuana and get rid of the wore-out and failed, “War on Drugs”. we need to educate cops that they are not above the law and to stop government funding of their coverups in abuse (police departments get money to defend against lawsuits for their actions and/or mistakes, instead of being held accountable)

More than anything else: WAKE THE FUCK UP!

This blog is ratcheting up the rhetoric. I have nothing to lose and don’t give a fuck. You can stick along for the BuelahRide or jump off now. But if you want real change, you better start listening to my redneck ass and actually begin to help. Otherwise, you will be in my spot shortly; broke, bankrupt and not a customer (family member) ready to offer even a crumb.

Which reminds me of a song:

God Bless the Child

Them that’s got, shall get

Them that’s not, shall lose

So the Bible said, and it still is news

Mama may have, and papa may have

God bless’ the child,

That’s got his own

That’s got his own

Yes the strong seem to get more

While the weak ones fade

Empty pockets don’t

Ever make the grade

As mama may have

And papa may have

God bless’ the child

That’s got his own

That’s got his own.

And when you got money,

You got a lots of friends

Crowdin’ ’round your door

When the money’s gone

And all you’re spendin’ ends

They won’t be ’round any more

No, no, no more

And rich relations

May give you

A crust of bread and such

You can help yourself

But don’t take too much

Mama may have

And your papa may have

But God bless’ the child

That’s got his own

That’s got his own

God bless’ the child who can stand up and say

I’ve got my own Ev’ry child’s, got to have his own!

Did he say Tennessee in regards to Acorn??

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/jun/22/gop-lawmaker-says-dems-shut-down-debate-house/

GOP lawmaker: Dems shut down debate in House
By David R. Sands Monday, June 22, 2009

A Republican lawmaker accused House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and congressional Democrats of “shutting down the process” in the House of Representatives to block his effort to investigate the national community organizing group ACORN.
Rep. Steve King, Iowa Republican, said in an interview on The Washington Times’ morning radio show “America’s Morning News” that Mrs. Pelosi and the Democratic majority had recently authorized an unprecedented change in House rules to curb the right of the minority to offer amendments to appropriations spending bills.
The debate over the new rules governing how bills are dealt with sparked a bitter partisan clash in the House last week.
Democrats say the restrictions are needed to ensure Congress has the time to pass a dozen individual spending bills in the next few months to fund the government, while lawmakers also deal with health care and energy reform. Mr. King and other Republicans charge the rules violate the House’s traditions for debate and are meant to protect Democrats from politically embarrassing votes.
“Nancy Pelosi has shut down the process and it’s disgraceful,” Mr. King said.
Audio clip

The Washington Times America’s Morning News (interview with Rep. Steve King), June 22, 2009

steveking.mp3

Mr. King had asked to offer two amendments related to the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), which Republicans charge has worked closely with Democrats and the Obama administration on political organizing and boosting Democratic party efforts.
The amendments, which were blocked from a House floor vote, would have prevented ACORN from being eligible for federal funding and blocked its workers and chapters from helping organize or participate in the 2010 Census.
ACORN’s mostly conservative critics say the Obama administration will rely on the organizing group heavily in the census count to unfairly boost the population counts of groups and areas sympathetic to liberal and Democratic causes.
ACORN officials deny any improprieties and say the group is only one of “more than 250″ groups working with the Census Bureau to recruit workers for the massive national headcount.

* I am amazed, not really, that there is such a difference in the two Nations Capitol papers… the Washington Times [Rep]   and the Washington Post [Dem]. The times calls Obama “Mr.”… not president!]

BuelahWorld Slowly Crumbles

It has finally happened. Healthcare costs have taken their ugly toll and I can say that I am flat broke.

I have been paying $1,173/month premiums to Blue Cross Blue Shield of MS (BCBS of TN would not sign us when we moved due to pre-existing conditions). As I informed a friend today, we were forced to drive over 7,000 miles last year alone, just to go to our doctors (Susan’s Psych is in Tupelo, over 1.5 hours one way). BuelahGirl’s money-grubbing Doctors would not cut out her adenoids and tonsils at the same time, so we had two surgery bills for her last year (then found out that her allergies were the culprit and that she could have been treated with allergy shots, which she is Now on and doing great).

BuelahLady has one medication that costs $800/month with out insurance coverage, so we can’t do without it. We simply MUST have the very thing that is slowly killing me: Health Insurance.

I finally convinced BuelahLady to do the one thing I swore many years ago I would never allow to happen in my family, ask for help. She signed up for Disability (and she is most certainly unable to work and hasn’t in many years). They say they always get turned down the first attempt, but any Doctor who sees her Xrays and views her history will well know that she has massive problems.

And I am in a bout of severe depression, the likes of which I have never experienced before. I am wallowing in the pity of failure: failure as a provider, failure as a husband and dad, and failure as an activist (trying to help bring change). Each day is more difficult to endure, simply because it appears that I am wasting my time. It appears no one is going to buy anything anytime soon and my intuition tells me that things will get much worse before they get better.

I can’t work any harder or try new strategies and customer prospects (I have exhausted most everything I can think of). All I know to do is spend every waking moment looking for new avenues to make money or provide food for my family.

I lost a sale last week that was supposed to end up being around 35 robots (each one paid me about $2K). Every deal I work on ends up either delayed, not carried forward, or as in this case, lost due to an integrator not knowing what he was doing and me not being able to correct the issues in time. It just seems that I am batting 0 and I cannot continue much longer.

That being said, it appears that I will be taking more time away from the computer and trying desperately to find something else to do to make money. I must also put more focus on my garden (which I worked on all weekend) to make sure I can have some food.

I have asked a few friends about bankruptcy, but no one has any advice. If you do know anything about it, I’d appreciate a few pointers.

Posting may be erratic to non-existent, so if you care, sign up for the RSS feed.

Take care,

B’Man

So many different views…

Ahmadinejad tells US, Britain to stay out of Iranian affairs
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1245184882119&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called on the United States and Britain on Sunday to stop interfering in the Islamic Republic’s internal affairs, the ISNA news agency was cited by Reuters.

“Definitely by hasty remarks you will not be placed in the circle of friendship with the Iranian nation. Therefore I advise you to correct your interfering stances,” Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying in a meeting with clerics and scholars.
Many Western countries have criticized the election, which was won by Ahmadinejad according to official figures, and its aftermath. His main opponent, moderate Mir Hossein Mousavi, says the vote was rigged. The government denied the charges.
Also Sunday, Iran’s Parliament reiterated warnings sounded by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in which he said that leaders of the US, UK, France and Germany must not to interfere in the country’s internal affairs, threatening that Iran would respond to such meddling “in other fields.”
Iranian parliament speaker Ali Larijani directed a message at US President Barack Obama, saying that he “showed the deceitful meaning of change too soon.”
According to Iran’s ISNA news agency, Larijani called for the National Security and Foreign Policy Commission of the Iranian Parliament to revise relations with the US, UK, France and Germany.
Ahmadinejad’s statements Sunday were some of his first since a post-election rally he held last weekend.
His comments on Sunday came despite efforts by US President Barack Obama continued to avoid being seen as meddling in Iranian politics.
Even as Obama came under more forceful criticism that he should speak out more strongly on behalf of the protesters, on Friday the US president took pains to avoid directly confronting the ayatollahs.
The US House and Senate passed resolutions backing the protesters’ actions, and Republicans have seized on the text to charge that Obama has not done enough to stand with the Iranian people as they challenge the election results in which the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei declared current president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad the winner despite widespread reports of irregularities.
“We stand with those who would look to peaceful resolution of conflict and we believe that the voices of people have to be heard, that that’s a universal value that the American people stand for and this administration stands for,” Obama said, echoing his earlier statements on the chaotic and at times violent protests. “I’m very concerned, based on some of the tenor and tone of the statements that have been made, that the government of Iran recognize that the world is watching.”
Obama responded to charges that he has not said enough on the protesters’ behalf by saying, “The last thing that I want to do is to have the United States be a foil for those forces inside Iran who would love nothing better than to make this an argument about the United States. That’s what they do. That’s what we’re already seeing. We shouldn’t be playing into that.”
On Saturday, perhaps in response to congressional criticism, Obama challenged Iran’s government to halt “all violent and unjust actions against its own people.” He said in a statement that the universal rights to assembly and free speech must be respected and that the US “stands with all who seek to exercise those rights.”
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said the administration welcomed the House resolution and described it as reflecting “the words of President Obama throughout the week.”
Yet the House resolution explicitly “condemns the ongoing violence against demonstrators by the Government of Iran and pro-government militias, as well as the ongoing government suppression of independent electronic communication”. The congressional resolutions also express support for “all Iranian citizens who embrace the values of freedom, human rights, civil liberties, and rule of law.”
And the news Web site Politico reported that the administration had pushed members of Congress to tone down the language.
“We made it clear that we didn’t want to make the US a foil in a debate that has nothing to do with us,” a senior administration official was quoted as saying. “This is a debate among Iranians.”
The resolutions were backed by Republicans who have increasingly attacked the Obama administration for not supporting the protesters more emphatically.
Eric Cantor, the No. 2 Republican in the US House of Representatives, was among those voicing concern.
“Their silence on the issue of human rights violations is very troubling to me. America has a moral responsibility to stand up for human rights around the world and to condemn the abuses that are occurring in Teheran today,” he told AFP.
He is calling for immediate passage of new Iran sanctions legislation to “send a message very quickly to our allies and the rest of the world that we mean to live by our commitments that we do not want Iran to become a nuclear power.”
Cantor’s words were echoed in a flurry of editorials and columns by former Bush administration officials and many other voices on the right of the political spectrum.
At the same time, a new Pew poll found that Americans are more concerned about Iran’s nuclear program that at any point in the past year, with 69 percent of Americans believing it is a “major threat,” up from 62% a year ago. Islamic extremist groups were seen as the most pressing, with 78% agreeing they constitute a major threat (as opposed to 72% who said that a year ago.) The next greatest concern was the North Korean nuclear program, which 72% say is a grave threat, a jump from 55% a year ago.
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict came in last on the survey’s list, with only 49% seeing it as a serious threat to the US.
In terms of Obama’s handling of the Middle East, 62% said he was striking the right balance between Israel and the Palestinians, while 6% thought he was favoring Israel and 17% thought he was favoring the Palestinians.
There was a significant partisan divide in the answers, as only 43% of Republicans thought he was striking the right balance in comparison to 78% of Democrats, while the 36% of the former thought he was favoring Palestinians in comparison to only 4% of the latter who did. In both groups, 5% of respondents thought Obama was favoring Israel too much.
Overall, 57% of Americans approve of his foreign policy approach, with 31% disapproving and 12% saying they didn’t know.
The telephone survey was conducted of 1,502 adults between June 10 and 14 and had margins of error for different demographic groups that ranged from 3% to 5%.

Unstable Leader is a mentally unstable elephant

Korea… The Elephant in the room is movin’ around
BBC:
China and Russia pressure N Korea
Russia and China have urged North Korea to return to the negotiating table over the future of its nuclear programmes.
In a joint statement the two powers expressed “serious concern” about tensions on the Korean peninsula.
Their move came after North Korea had threatened a “thousand-fold” retaliation against the US and its allies if Pyongyang were provoked.
China and Russia have already signed a United Nations resolution approving tougher sanctions against North Korea.
The reclusive state held a nuclear test and launched missiles in May, has torn up peace agreements signed after the Korean War in 1953, ejected international nuclear energy monitors, and threatened more tests.
China and Russia issued their joint statement after a series of meetings in Russia. Nine out of 14 pages focused on economic issues.
These included a deal for Russia to supply China with oil for 20 years, and cooperation agreements in coal and natural gas production.
“ Russia and China are ready to foster the lowering of tension in Northeast Asia and call for the continuation of efforts by all sides to resolve disagreements through peaceful means, through dialogue and consultations ”
Joint Statement, Chinese President Hu Jintao and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev
Time to talk
The statement issued by Chinese President Hu Jintao and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev pressed for a peaceful resolution of the Korean standoff and the “swiftest renewal” of the now-frozen six-party talks involving their countries as well as North and South Korea, Japan and the United States.
“Russia and China are ready to foster the lowering of tension in Northeast Asia and call for the continuation of efforts by all sides to resolve disagreements through peaceful means, through dialogue and consultations,” the statement said.
Analysts said the direct mention of concern about developments in North Korea was a clear sign of growing impatience with Pyongyang even among its allies.
In Vienna, at a meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency, diplomats said China and Russia joined other nations in calling on North Korea to return to talks.
The Chinese delegate said the international community needed to respect North Korea’s sovereignty, but urged the Pyongyang regime to come back to the table “and the rest of us to show calm and restraint,” a diplomat told reporters.
North Korea stopped cooperating with the IAEA in mid-April, ordered the agency to remove all containment and surveillance equipment from the Yongbyon nuclear facilities and asked IAEA inspectors to leave the country.
Shared borders
North-eastern China, and Russia’s Far East, share borders with North Korea.
China has long been a rare friend to North Korea, having fought on its side against US-led forces in the Korean War of 1950 to 1953.
Moscow was one of North Korea’s strongest backers during the Cold War. After the 1991 Soviet collapse, China was the only country with any real clout with North Korea, although Moscow has tried to nurture ties in recent years.
This week, North Korea threatened a “thousand-fold” military retaliation against the US and its allies if it is provoked.
The warning came after US President Barack Obama said that a nuclear-armed North Korea posed a “grave threat” to the world.