*OCCUPY LUV NEWS
* ** *Lots of Occupy news this morning, and we start with Occupy DC <http://october2011.org/blogs/kevin-zeese/police-threaten-two-dc-occupy-encampment>, because of its symbolism in representing the movement in the nation's capitol. Today there will be a protest at the White House about Park Police plans to ban tents tomorrow, with participants making it clear "We aren't leaving." We are endorsing, at /LUV News/, that people peaceably assemble tomorrow at noon at Freedom Plaza, 13th and Pennsylvania, a block from the main Metro Station downtown Washington DC, and we will be there (/LUV News/ tomorrow morning may be abbreviated as we will be on the road much of the day). Occupy Oakland erupted yesterday as thousands of activists attempted to take over abandoned buildings opposed by Oakland police, with over 300 arrests (/al Jazeera/ <http://www.aljazeera.com/news/americas/2012/01/201212965453169669.html>). Occupy Japan is defying an order <http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/01/28-0> to abandon their tent encampment opposing nuclear power. Occupy the Super Bowl has begun, as activists marched in Indianapolis <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/28/occupy-super-bowl-2012-protest-indianapolis-village-union_n_1239214.html> yesterday, with more protests planned before this massively televised event takes place next Sunday. We are very impressed with how well-organized occupy groups are in Indiana (and just about every other state, and many nations). And the topless Ukrainian women of FEMEN have traveled over the mountains to Davos for a protest at the World Economic Forum <http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/01/28>, carrying signs reading "Gangster's Party in Davos," "Poor Because of You," and "Crisis Made in Davos," drawing attention to this meeting of the most powerful interests on the planet. When protests against the invasion of Iraq by millions were ignored by the mass media, topless women found they could get attention for it, this one always works. * ** ------------------------------------------------------------------------ *BUSH LIED TO FBI DIRECTOR ABOUT WARRENTLESS SURVEILLANCE * ** *Markus Baram has a piece this morning <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/27/bush-lied-to-fbi-director_n_1237262.html> about our last president lying to his FBI Director about warrentless surveillance he was conducting. There will be no investigation, as the Obama regime has increased Bush surveillance measures and has been willing to cover up all criminal activity of this predecessor, like human rights violations and war crimes for which any of us peasants would be imprisoned for life, if not executed. Bush continues to run loose in our streets-- don't hold your breath on this one. * ** ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ** ** ** ------------------------------------------------------------------------ **As a guest on an alternative radio program Friday, I was asked about things corporate media will not allow, and I responded that the mass media does not allow the "defense" budget to be questioned, or the wars (among other things) in any meaningful way. I pointed out that I'd seen an opinion poll during the 1980's, at the height of the Cold War, showing that most Americans wanted defense spending cut. We've linked to polls showing that Americans today want the wars stopped and the troops brought home. But how many peace activists do you see on television news, which claims to give "both sides." The two sides never include the public interest side-- what the American people want. If such opinions were allowed in mass media, a consensus would soon appear for shutting down the wars and cutting the defense budget down to, well, actual defense, perhaps without the multimillion dollar salaries of Nuclear Mafia <http://luvnews.info/Mafia.htm> corporate executives and the billions in profits. We might shut down our thousand military bases abroad, for which there is little support by the American people, and they have nothing to do with our defense (they actually defend transnational corporations that evade paying taxes here and don't give a damn about the American people or the nation, though they often wave the American flag for effect as they stuff the pockets of politicians with campaign bribes). Keeping the American people in the dark about these issues is vital to the efforts of our ruling Forces of Greed <http://luvnews.info/FOG.htm> to wage perpetual war, which keeps them rolling in profits --Jack ** *US Plans for Perpetual War <http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/01/28-6> * * * *by Renee Parsons </author/renee-parsons>* *As an attack on Iran remains temporarily on the backburner and Syria, home to US-identified terrorist group Hamas, moves up the queue as the next target for military intervention, both are part of a larger strategy proposed to newly-elected Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in 1996.* *The "Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm" suggested <http://www.iasps.org/strat1.htm> a "new approach to peace' premised on a 'clean break' from the Oslo peace process of the 1990's. Oslo would have withdrawn Israeli troops from the occupied territories while affirming Palestine's right of self-determination. Rather than pursuing a 'comprehensive peace' with the Arab world, Clean Break advocated an aggressive pre-emptive military strategy to destabilize Iraq and eliminate Saddam Hussein. In addition, Clean Break retained the 'right of hot pursuit' anywhere within the occupied territories and encouraged 'seizing the initiative' by "engaging" Hezbollah, Syria and Iran to trigger ultimate regime change.* *The key authors of that document, American neo-cons Richard Perle, David Wurmser and Douglas Feith (who Gen. Tommy Franks called the 'fucking stupidest guy on the face of the earth" i.e. Bob Woodward's /Plan of Attack/, pg 281), soon found themselves influential national security positions within a receptive Bush Administration from which to proselytize their recommendations.* *A decade later, the authors of that study are gone in name but their spirit of unending wars is alive and well within the Obama Administration's recently announced "Defense Strategic Guidance" as part of "Sustaining US Global Leadership: Priorities for 21st Century Defense," <https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/282223-defense-strategic-guidance.html> Where Clean Break offered what was then a radical Middle East military strategy, Obama's DSG identifies US military priorities for the 21st century to "confront and defeat aggression anywhere in the world" with an emphasis on the Middle East and Asia-Pacific region as the "greatest challenges for the future." (Panetta, 1-5-2012)* *Even prior to announcement of the DSG, the American military is still pursuing WMD's as combat troops have been deployed to chase local 'terrorists' that pose no threat to the US; such as the Lord's Army in Uganda and escalating a US military presence dispatching 2,500 Marines to Australia to protect US 'national interests' in the South China Sea and Indian Ocean.* *Addressing a January 5th news conference at the Pentagon, the president cited <http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/StrategicR> 'enduring national interests' as he read a prepared ten minute statement and left the podium without taking any questions; attending reporters remained in their places with bright, shiny faces leaving Defense Secretary Panetta and Joint Chief Martin Dempsey to carry on. With his usual eloquence, the president pledged that the United States is going to "maintain our military superiority ... ready for the full range of contingencies and threats" and that 'the US faces a complex and growing array of security challenges across the globe."* *The president's grim pronouncements failed to reassure a US commitment to international law or to provide an analysis to justify a future of perpetual armed conflict and, as both Obama and Panetta postulated the pretense of victory in Iraq, neither acknowledged the 800-pound gorilla in the room that if the systematic destruction of Iraq and Afghanistan as a result of U.S. interventions was an example of providing for a 'safer, more stable, prosperous world,' then perhaps the world would be better off if the United States stayed at home and minded its own business..* *In a questionable grip on reality, the president recounted the 'extraordinary' growth of country's military budget since 9/11 as he acknowledged that "global responsibilities demand leadership, the defense budget will still be larger than it was toward the end of the Bush administration." Obama went on to make the prediction that the American people will "accept a defense budget" that 'continues to be larger than roughly the next ten countries combined." As the news networks almost entirely allowed the implications of DSG to slide under the radar neglecting to inform the American public of the president's generosity regarding his new military strategy, the average American taxpayer remains unaware of Obama's future foreign policy objectives and its consequences for social programs that millions of Americans rely on. Nor has the American taxpayer benefited from a presidential explanation of how a budget 'larger than it was' will affect the country's fragile economic stability.* *With passage of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) is required to prepare budget projections for all Federal departments. Those projections are premised on a baseline budget process that predicts future budget increases based on inflation, new programs, increased administrative costs, etc. In a bi-partisan game of smoke and mirrors intent on tricking the taxpayer, it is reductions to this baseline budget projection that the Pentagon is now heralding as 'cuts.' Therefore, the $487 billion in 'cuts' over the next ten years are, in reality, coming out of the projections prepared by the CBO which explains <http://www.cbo.gov/budget/budget.cfm> why there are no cuts to any major weapons program.* *In addition, with the Pentagon's four-year baseline budget <http://www.gpoaccess.gov/usbudget/fy12/pdf/BUDGET-2012-BUD-7.pdf%20%20pg%2064> cycle of 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012 at $515 billion, $533 billion, $549 billion and $531 billion, respectively; for the president and Panetta to claim that the proposed 'baseline' budget for 2013 of $525 billion is a dramatic cut representing significant savings does not meet the straight-face test or their ethical obligation to the country.* *Neither the president nor Panetta felt any need to articulate a credible global threat that requires eternal armed vigilance as the country continues to dismantle its People Programs and as its infrastructure continues to crumble -- nor did either provide the American people with a thoughtful rationale for who, why, when, where and how.* *In sync with Clean Break's principles, DSG provides a framework for reassuring any nervous Nellies of the US ability to sustain multiple wars simultaneously in multiple global locations as Secretary Panetta suggested <http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/DBr> "from a land war in South Korea and at the same time, threats in the Strait of Hormuz" (1-5-2012 news conference Q&A).* *As DSG transforms the nature of US combat realigning its forces beyond the Mideast, the US will "of necessity" rebalance toward the Asia-Pacific region in recognition of the 'growth of China's military power....to avoid causing friction in the region." Recognizing that 'over the long term, China's emergence as a regional power will have the potential to effect the US economy and our security in a variety of ways," refers to more than just the US missing an interest payment on its debt or China knocking on our door to demand payment.* *DSG eschews diplomacy as a viable alternative in favor of a military response to international tensions with a reduction in the need for 'boots on the ground' while relying on an increase in a leaner, meaner new generation of remote-powered guilt-free drones, the weapon that Ron Paul suggests <http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-auto-drone-20120126,0,740306.story> are unconstitutional, and more agile, flexible Special Op troops.* *After the president's departure, Panetta, once known as a liberal House Democrat from California, began to morph into a gnarl-faced Dr. Strangelove with every utterance of war, enemies, threats, death and destruction as he touted U.S. military dominance and its ability to "decisively prevail in any conflict.'* *With the world's largest military force including an incomparable nuclear arsenal and a budget to match, exactly who are we protecting the Homeland from -- and what condition will it be in when they arrive? If al Qaeda's goal was to destroy the country's quality of life, its economic prosperity or its high regard for the First Amendment and civil liberties while creating a second-rate banana republic, they have done a terrific job.* http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/01/28-6 ** ------------------------------------------------------------------------ *If you wish to be removed from this list, please let us know* ** *To join the Liberty Underground news service email libertyuv@hotmail.comwith "join" for a subject* ** *You may also join our talk group athttp://groups.yahoo.com/group/libertyundergroundtalk/ <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/libertyundergroundtalk/>if you would like to participate* ** *email: libert...@hotmail.com* ** *Tell your friends about /LUV News/ because some people just don't get it* [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ --------------------------------------------------------------------------- LAAMN: Los Angeles Alternative Media Network --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe: <mailto:laamn-unsubscr...@egroups.com> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe: <mailto:laamn-subscr...@egroups.com> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Digest: <mailto:laamn-dig...@egroups.com> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Help: <mailto:laamn-ow...@egroups.com?subject=laamn> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Post: <mailto:la...@egroups.com> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive1: <http://www.egroups.com/messages/laamn> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive2: <http://www.mail-archive.com/laamn@egroups.com> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yahoo! 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