twitter supended me i guess they dont want the truth come in out

Obama Secretly Places Ban On Free Speech)
our military leaders suck they are with obama
they dont care about you are me
i didnt know i had that much power that they would stop me
but it is all good

Robert Rich

December 29, 2013 7:55am PST

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Long gone may the days be where the people of the United States have the right to express themselves freely under the First Amendment.  Obama just signed a bill into law secretly that allows for Secret Service to arrest anyone publicly protesting within their vicinity.
The bill turned law, H.R. 347, has passed through congress with little objection from either side, or the American public.  This could be on account of lawmakers sneaking it through congress allowing for no real discussion on the matter until after it was passed.
(See also: Obama Secretly Places Ban On Free Speech)
The law effectively allows for secret service, or anyone under secret service protection, to dictate public demonstrations.  If they find anyone to be in violation of the law, people arrested would be charged with a felony and potentially subjected to over a year in prison.
We all remember this, right:

Sign The Petition To Repeal Obamacare

Click Here →

Well now, it just might get you thrown in jail.
H.R. 347 certainly isn’t the first act of aggression on the first amendment this administration has portrayed, but it certainly is the boldest.  It’s no wonder the bill went through congress so silently because it gives Secret Service, and more importantly anyone under their protection, the right to control the atmosphere wherever they go.
So if you know the president is going to be nearby and you decide to stand across the street holding a sign, you could be arrested and thrown in jail.
(See also: Judge Rules That Obama Admin NSA Spying Is LEGAL)
This violation of the freedom of speech is unacceptable and frankly, quite frightening. We all know, if you give a mouse a cookie, he’ll ask for a glass of milk, so what’s stopping politicians there?
Why not restrict more negative speech on the President?  How about the news? Maybe anything said online in a negative tone against the President will soon be banned. Who knows, in a few years with the NSA listening to your phone calls, Secret Service may just randomly show up and haul you away.
Either way it’s a slippery slope but wrong no matter what way you look at it. Read the First Amendment and see if you can pick out what’s wrong here:

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

H.R. 347 is in clear violation of the First Amendment being that it limits our free speech, our right to assemble peaceably, and to “petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” Isn’t this a country of the people, for the people and by the people?
(See also: Retired U.S. General Destroys Obama Criticizing His “Amateur” Leadership)
What purpose does a democracy have when all its citizen’s rights are taken away and leaders are given free rein to do as they please and arrest anyone that may oppose them?  Sounds like something else doesn’t it? Isn’t that exactly what we fought for so many years ago, and what our forefathers made so perfectly clear trying to make sure it would never happened again?
This is exactly what is so wrong with liberals—they will argue nonsense until they’re blue in the face in order to twist the constitutions words to fit their agenda.  We’ve seen it with the Second Amendment, and now we’re seeing an all out assault on the first.
What do you guys think—is this a sign of bigger things to come? Let us know what you think in a comment below!

How Republican Loyalty To Their Masters Is Destroying America

Author: Mitchell S. Gilbert November 9, 2011 11:56 am

• How is it that the American Congress today includes so many incompetent people who have neither the skills, smarts nor character to serve as Legislators?
• How is it that we have elected officials who came to Washington, not to serve the interests of the people, but to promote one single cause like not increasing taxes, or deregulating industry?
  
• How did America get to the point that we have politicians leading our nation and running for the Presidency who don’t believe in science and openly disparage civil liberties, human rights, immigrants, science and intellectualism?

Where did America go wrong? This short story offers a parable about the politics of a small town where one rich family was able to protect themselves and their financial bottom-line by controlling the local media and making sure that they “owned” as many local elected officials as possible.
GREED DESTROYS A TOWN

MEET VIRGIL

David Hock angrily hung up his desk phone. He was exasperated. All those snide jokes about him creating political monsters that would eventually turn on him were coming true.
Virgil Pick was a moron. Hock knew that when he encouraged the former sanitation engineer (aka: garbage man) to run for town council. He thought if he financed Virgil’s campaign and regularly briefed him on important issues, Virgil would turn out to be another dependable vote on the council.

Hock was Pick’s political mentor and public advocate. Just last week, a reporter from the Surly Gazette asked Hock what he thought of Virgil’s suggestion to a Sunday crowd at the local shooting range, that “Jews and fags make for great moving targets?” With and impish smile of embarrassment, Hock observed that Virgil was basically a “good man who just needed a little more polish befitting an elected official.”

Now the SOB wouldn’t promise Hock his support on tomorrow’s important vote at the town council meeting. Damn fool, “I made him and I’ll break him,” Hock mumbled to no one in particular.
The town charter was clear, at least 3/4 of the town council members had to vote for any proposal to increase property taxes or to seek capital financing for any new municipal projects. As of this moment it appeared that 4 out of the 7 members of the Surly town council would vote against the proposal.
For the first time since he started meddling in town politics, Hock felt things were spiraling out of control. He was worried, and for good reason.

A REAL “CHURCH LADY”

?Hock wasn’t surprised that Sarah Bachmann wasn’t going to vote for the bill. While she was happy to take his sizable campaign donation, she didn’t take orders from anyone. In fact, the town’s most ornery religious-crank had more passion than smarts and was proud to tell anyone that she “answered to no one but Jesus.”
While not the minister of Surly’s Church of Divine Truth, Sarah certainly acted like she had a monopoly on knowing God’s will. She viewed the town, and for that matter much of the world as being divided between good and evil and it was she who got to decide who belonged in each camp.
Hock befriended Sarah years ago when he realized how her angry rhetoric at PTA and town-hall meetings intimidated people. While he personally thought she was a first class nut-job, he would sooner have the nut-job as a friend than as an enemy.
Bachmann’s agenda was simple, maintain Surly as a 1950‘s-circa Midwest backwater: unassuming, simple, culturally and socially uncluttered by the outside world. Any suggestion of change sparked her indignation. And if you didn’t agree with her point of view, Sarah Bachmann had no hesitation publicly questioning your morality, ethics or standing with Lord. She was a force to be reckoned with and a damn powerful ally to have on your side.

??A PRINCE OF A GUY

?Peter Prince was another council-member who owed his seat to David Hock. But Prince was determined to make Surly as undesirable a place as possible for African-Americans, Latinos and any other non-whites who might be thinking of calling Surly, home. “America is for Americans” he repeatedly intoned. Hock laughed to himself every time he heard Prince express the sentiment. Years earlier, over more than a few beers, Prince got all teary-eyed talking about the challenges his immigrant parents faced when they settled in America. Yea, “America is for Americans” that Peter Prince approved of. No, the guy was not the sharpest tool in the shed.
Prince had repeatedly made it clear to Hock that he would not vote for the proposal at the council meeting. Nothing good could come from the town raising taxes, improving the schools and all that. “We’ll just end up attracting more undesirables” he proclaimed. Prince would be damned before he would see one dime of his taxes used to educate some “colored or Muslim kid who would eventually kill a good American.”

A LITTLE HOCK-SURLY HISTORY?

It was back in the mid-twentieth century that the Brothers-Hock, David and Chuck, saw their many investments and businesses in the small Midwestern town of Surly start to generate serious money. They owned the town’s supermarket, a car dealership and an ever-expanding fertilizer business. They were the richest people in Surly and the town’s largest employer.
As their fortunes grew, so did their tax obligations. The Hock brothers considered themselves philanthropists when it came to making voluntary, tax-deductible donations to charities of their choosing. But they never liked signing over their hard-earned money to the government. Taxation to their thinking, was nothing less than legalized pick-pocketing.

WHY DID THE SMALL TOWN NEED A SECOND NEWSPAPER?

Back in 1992 when one of Surly’s two physicians, Dale More, suggested to the town council that Hock’s fertilizer business might be polluting the town’s water table, David recognized that his family’s financial security might well be determined by their capacity to control the flow of information and the politics of the small town. He needed a way to inform and “educate people” about the “truth,” his truth.
While Chuck had reservations about starting a second paper to compete with The Gazette which had been publishing in Surly for over a century, David thought starting their own newspaper might yet prove to be the single best investment they ever made.
It didn’t take long for Hock’s new paper, The Beaver Dispatch (BD) to get going. One of the first targets of the paper’s “Off the Record” gossip column was Dr. More. Unsubstantiated stories about his education, personal life and mistakes in prescribing drugs for his patients brought an end to his local practice. He and his family left town less than a year after he raised the issue of the town’s polluted drinking water.
The BD was always investigating the town’s municipal departments in an effort to identify real or imagined fraud and waste. Hock made sure that the BD published editorials that disputed the necessity of every new capital project proposed by municipal department heads or the town council. Whether it was building a new high school, fixing the lights on main street or buying a couple of new fire trucks for first time in 30 years, the BD made it quite clear that the good folks of Surly just didn’t need such “extravagant” expenditures.
RECKLESS PEOPLE IN IMPORTANT POSITIONS
Not everyone in Surely was blind to how the Hock family controlled the BD or their efforts to demonize political enemies. Many folks in town stayed loyal to the Gazette and worked hard to make sure that there were always a few people on the town council who weren’t “owned” by the Hock family.
David Hock hand-picked Virgil Pick and Peter Prince to run for the town council in the 2010 election. The two angry loudmouths just seemed like natural politicians. It didn’t take much to convince them of “the truth” and who they needed to define the “truth” for them.
Virgil’s daily tirades to the breakfast crowd at the Sunshine Diner were legendary. Peter Prince’s throne for proclaiming what was wrong in the world was a bar stool at the town’s only watering hole, The Bigelow Tavern. If there was any reason the hard-working folks of Surly hesitated to catch a cold brew after work, it was the apprehension of becoming a captive audience to a Peter Prince diatribe.
The BD had of course endorsed Pick, Prince and Bachman for town council. And while he didn’t outrightly promise Sarah Bachmann that he would stop beer sales at the Hock family supermarket as she wanted, David convincingly suggested to Sarah over tea that the idea was certainly worthy of further discussion.
Hock did promise Sarah that the BD would support her efforts to keep the State’s new sex-ed curriculum out of the high school. As far as Sarah was concerned, “Opening a teenager’s eyes to something their hormones are demanding is like inviting the devil to teach in our classrooms.”
When Surly’s favorite church-lady handily won reelection to the town council, she told her supporters over homemade pastries in the church atrium that she now had a mandate to keep the town: a quiet, Christian community that will never put out the welcome mat for people who don’t know the Lord Jesus Christ.
THE SCARY TRUTH
Property taxes in Surly had not been raised in more than 20 years. No town council in recent memory had the nerve to buck the Hock family’s efforts to keep the municipality minimally functional. As a result:

• The Sheriff and his two deputies were probably among the lowest paid in the state
• The three school buildings in Surly were in decrepit condition with ever aging equipment
• The salaries and benefits provided to school administrators and teachers were not only the lowest in the state, they ranked among the lowest in all 50 States.

But by 2011, years of Hock family greed were coming home to roost. All the municipal employees were demanding a living wage or threatening to walk. And they weren’t talking about walking out on strike, they talking about walking out of Surly, permanently.
More than 2 dozen families had left town in just the last couple of years because of the town’s ailing infrastructure and poor schools. Anyone with eyes and wheels could see for themselves the nice parks, playgrounds and other community facilities neighboring towns had to offer.
CAN YOU TEACH OLD DOGS NEW TRICKS?
Hock knew that he had to let the Surely town council finally do some serious investing in infrastructure or the town would self-destruct. The motion that had been introduced at the last town council meeting was to take out a significant capital improvement loan and increase property taxes for the first time in two decades by a whopping 1%.
The three independent council members who had introduced the bill expressed optimism that the overdue capital improvements would not only retain current residents, but attract new ones. A couple of well-known builders in the state had already expressed interest in putting up some new homes near the proposed new high school and community pool.
The future of Surely was on the line. But after decades of non-stop rhetoric about the evils of taxes and government, many older Surly residents were skeptical about the audacious proposal. After all, they were retired and on a fixed incomes. More importantly, they had no complaints about their quality of life and why should they worry about what would be going on in town after they were 6 feet in the ground?
Hock knew that young families no longer seriously thought of the town as good place to raise kids. And if Surly’s already scant tax base continued to dwindle, the town would implode.
The Hock family had too much invested in Surly to just pick up and move elsewhere. Their own greed was killing the town that had served as the family’s personal ATM for generations.
How could he now convince folks who had followed his lead for so long that sometimes people do need a well financed government to secure the future?
David Hock was in trouble and he had no one to blame but himself.

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Documents Detail Coordination Between Republican Party And Right-Wing Media

Author: Nathaniel Downes July 27, 2013 12:53 am

Ever noticed how for years it appeared that the right-wing in this country appeared to be working in lock-step? Every right-wing media outlet discussing the same topics in the same way as every right-wing politician? From Benghazi to the debt crisis, the talking points were point for point identical. There was a reason for this, Grover Norquist has held weekly planning sessions for the Republican Party and other conservative groups for years now. Held at the same time every week, this meeting has been the go-to event for those seeking to establish themselves within the conservative movement. As a result, he has been able to control the message by both lawmakers and lobbyists.

This consolidation has made him quite influential, but as with many such sessions, it becomes a case of haves, and have-nots. And with the loss of the election, a coalition of interests has decided on stepping away, and created their own weekly meeting. Calling itself Groundswell, this group has been steadily growing in strength, sapping the attention away from Grover Norquist’s weekly shindig, and the name list is getting quite impressive. With Ginny Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, as the main planner, this group has set as its goal to control the message which Grover Norquist had no masterfully managed, and for doing it, they have embedded themselves with the right-wing media. Not just invited media to observe, as Grover Norquist has done for decades, but actually implanted the media in the brainstorming sessions themselves.
As reported in Mother Jones, Groundswell has tied itself heavily with right-wing media outlets such as Breitbart and the Daily Caller as well as right-wing organizations such as voter suppression organization True the Vote, anti-family organization the Family Research Council, and other similar groups. This is an adaptation of the approach the bi-annual Koch brothers meeting has taken for years. As rightly pointed out by Slate.com, Groundswell is a conservative coördination group, mainly filled with journalists, lawyers, pundits and former politicians. The group has targeted traditional Republican donors to coördinate, enabling the right money to reach the right hands at the right time.
Some have dismissed Groundswell as unimportant, but they are being very short-sighted. With the Republican civil war causing the right-wing to consume its own, Groundswell is well poised to become kingmakers in the next-generation of the Republican leadership. This group is full of people who know where the bodies lie and they have shown no fear in using that knowledge to leverage people into sharing the same message. They are positioning themselves in the same way Grover Norquist did in the 1990′s, but rather than relying upon the right-wing media to pick up their message, they have tapped that media for generating the message itself.
We can expect even more tight integration between politician and propaganda from the right-wing. In the end, this group correctly understands that their problem is that they are losing the message against liberals. After 40 years of power, the conservative message has been heard loud and clear, and the United States is soundly rejecting it. The demographics shift is shifting the population younger, and less white. Even the Republican leadership has come to accept that it must change its policies or it will die out. Instead of change, this group seeks to reframe the message, to create, and push that message onto the public through every avenue they can.
By creating a more solid coördination between pundit and media, Groundswell aims to control the message, to get the people of the United States to march to their propaganda. And it appears that the plan is working, as we can witness in this video on Obamacare. Even Republican politicians are finding themselves frequently at-odds with their own misinformed constituents. And we can only expect this to get worse as Groundswell continues its activities.
Groundswell is the new right-wing media machine, embedding their media outlets not only to report on policy, but to shape it. This is the clearest form of propaganda, and demonstrates how far the GOP will go to gain power. This portion of the Republican Party has clearly aligned themselves not for the betterment of the United States, but for their own purposes. They do not care about me, or you, only the power they aim to wrest from us.

Conservatives, Media, News, Op-Eds, Republicans

Audio Emerges Proving Secret Conservative Organization Behind Benghazi “Scandal”

Posted by Justin Acuff ⋅ August 3, 2013 ⋅ 78 Comments

Filed Under  Benghazi, Center for Security Policy, Clarence Thomas, Darrell Issa, Frank Gaffney, John Boehner, republican, True The Vote

Groundswell, the conservative behind-the-scenes organization that forms a coalition between prominent Republicans, right wing media, and conservative activists to wage a “30-front war against Obama and progressives” has been revealed to have played a role in the hype and false scandalization of the Benghazi “controversy.” A secret tape released by Crooks And Liars (audio below) has detailed the cooperation between House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), Ginni Thomas (the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas), former Rep. Allen West, as well as high-ranking members of Judicial Watch and Breitbart. The meeting was presided over by Catherine Engelbrecht, one of the founders of the voter suppression group, True The Vote.
In the tape, Frank Gaffney of the Center for Security Policy and Jerry Boykin of the Family Research Council are revealed to have met with Boehner and Issa to discuss Benghazi:

A secret audio tape of one of Groundswell’s weekly meetings shows that prominent members of the group pressed House Speaker John Boehner and Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), the chair of the House oversight committee, to expand the Benghazi investigation and make this supposed scandal a top-priority for congressional Republicans. This recording indicates Groundswell’s mission extends beyond message coordination to scandal-stoking. (Mother Jones)

Also in the tape, which covers the first 20 minutes of a Groundswell meeting, they also reveal that GOP congresspeople are willing, albeit reluctantly, to raise the debt ceiling, which may be excellent news for future Washington negotiations. Unfortunately, however, they also discussed their war on voting rights — insanely accusing the left of being the political force attempting to disenfranchise voters.
Crooks And Liars reports:

During the meeting, True the Vote made a presentation (document below) about their plan to attack groups who are actively working to protect voting rights around the country, particularly after the Supreme Court gutted most of the protections. Code-named “Hydra”, True the Vote argues that the left is undermining voting rights, and must be stopped, by hook or by crook.

Here’s an excerpt from their laughable (but dangerous) Hydra propaganda:

Yes, they’re seriously saying that the left’s mission to extend early voting time and promote youth registration is undermining democracy — and is a war on voting rights. Meanwhile, they’re enacting laws that make it extremely difficult for minorities and other marginalized groups to vote, purposefully and admittedly preventing Democratic constituents from reaching the polls. Not only that, but the war they’re fighting against voter fraud is imaginary — there are hardly any documented cases of voter fraud, and none that are widespread. There is no cause and no enemy — sort of like another war perpetrated by the right.
True The Vote and Groundswell also played an interesting role in the false IRS scandal, when conservatives exploded in rage after the IRS investigated the tax-free status of obviously conservatively partisan nonprofits, despite later finding out that progressive groups were targeted as well.
Crooks And Liars establishes a timeline of events, showing the role of political operatives in engineering the false scandal:

On May 8, 2013, True the Vote is a facilitator and presenter at a meeting where Ginni Thomas and others are key players. TTV presents their plan to attack “the left” for daring to register voters. They’re committed to stopping them from challenging any and all efforts to disenfranchise voters. Or as they describe it, securing the vote. Others might call it democracy corrupted.
On May 9, 2013 the IRS “scandal” breaks after Lois Lerner plants a question in a conference Q&A about IRS “targeting.”
On May 21, 2013, True the Vote, represented by ActRight Legal Foundation, sues the IRS for not granting their tax-exempt status and targeting them for their beliefs. ActRight Legal Foundation uses Cleta Mitchell as one of their consulting attorneys. Mitchell is a well-known and very high profile litigator on behalf of conservative causes. There are very few conservative nonprofits that don’t have Mitchell’s fingerprints all over them.

Another interesting note — besides the obvious partisanship of True The Vote, as seen in their Hydra document below  – is that True The Vote was also under investigation by Congress for voter suppression when the IRS investigation and subsequent “scandal” came about.
Here’s the audio from the Groundswell meeting:
Also of interest, the Hydra document by True The Vote:

Hydra Plan – Plan to Attack Voting Rights

Reposted from Occupy Democrats with permission.

Related articles

• Groundswell Group Stoked Scandals with Help From GOP Leaders (crooksandliars.com)
• From Crooks & Liars: Groundswell Group Stoked Scandals with Help From GOP Leaders, By karoli (theobamacrat.com)
• Groundswell: A Secret Tape Reveals How It Lobbied Boehner and Issa on Benghazi (motherjones.com)
• Groundswell Group Stoked Scandals with Help From GOP Leaders (browardsblog.blogspot.com)

Video: Sun has 'flipped upside down' as new magnetic cycle begins

The sun’s magnetic field has fully reversed its polarity, marking the midpoint of Solar Cycle 24, which will be completed in 11 years time

Tomas Jivanda

Sunday 29 December 2013

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The sun has "flipped upside down", with its north and south poles reversed to reach the midpoint of Solar Cycle 24, Nasa has said.

Now, the magnetic fields will once again started moving in opposite directions to begin the completion of the 22 year long process which will culminate in the poles switching once again.
"A reversal of the sun's magnetic field is, literally, a big event," said Nasa’s Dr. Tony Phillips.
"The domain of the sun's magnetic influence (also known as the 'heliosphere') extends billions of kilometers beyond Pluto. Changes to the field's polarity ripple all the way out to the Voyager probes, on the doorstep of interstellar space."
To mark the event, Nasa has released a visualisation of the entire process.
At the beginning, in 1997 the video shows the sun in Solar Cycle 23 with its positive polarity on the top (the green lines), and the negative polarity on the bottom (the purple lines).
Each set of lines gradually move toward the opposite pole, showing a complete flip around 2002, completing the sun's previous cycle.
Both set of lines representing the opposing magnetic fields then begin to work their way back, to culminate in the latest flip.
READ MORE: Sun will 'flip upside down' within weeks, says Nasa
"At the height of each magnetic flip, the sun goes through periods of more solar activity, during which there are more sunspots, and more eruptive events such as solar flares and coronal mass ejections," said Nasa’s Karen C. Fox.
"Cosmic rays are also affected," added  Dr. Phillips. "These are high-energy particles accelerated to nearly light speed by supernova explosions and other violent events in the galaxy."

Leaked US regime change manual, admits Ukraine’s its ‘Playbook’ (E31)

December 29, 2013 08:45

Ukrainian cossaks cross themself during a service before taking their guarding duty at the camp of the pro-EU opposition at Kiev's Independence Square on December 24, 2013 (AFP Photo / Sergey Supinsky)

Download video (95.99 MB)

Happy Xmas Ukraine! Openly pro-Nazi rioters ripping up paving stones for weapons and driving bulldozers at people get sweets from America’s Asst. Secretary of State, the surprisingly long list of countries where the US attempts regime change under cover of 'human rights'; and George Clooney becomes the Pentagon’s sexy new weapon.
Seek truth from facts with Humanitarian Imperialism author Jean Bricmont, UN Human Rights Rapporteur Richard Falk, political analyst Richard Becker, Asia Times' Pepe Escobar, On Immoral Interventionism author Gilad Atzmon, and 'worth 500,000 dead kids' Madeleine Albright.
Watch live on RT:
Sunday December 15 at 04:45, 08:45, 12:45, 16:45, 20:45 GMT.
Monday December 16 at 00:45 GMT.
For more information, please visit rt.com/schedule/.

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
RT: Leaked US regime change manual exposes interference in Ukraine and beyond- Coming up.

Announcer: Chilling Pentagon plans reveal systematic and violent overthrow of democracies.Why is John Kerry's Assistant handing out candies to fanatical rioters bulldozing people and injuring hundreds in unprovoked attacks.
And a warning Washington's 'jihadists' are set on World War.
RT: When Western colonizers of the 20^thcentury banned parks in Shanghai to dogs and Chinese, they didn't admit to folks back home they were racists enslaving whole nations and robbing their resources. They reassured the public through mainstream media that they were 'civilising the natives'.To trick the savvier 21^stcentury Public, scholar Noam Chomsky notes the 'pretext' has become even more caring, but in practice the West's continuing to overturn governments throughout the world and install puppet regimes. America's current destabilization of Ukraine's government, writes Washington-based analyst Nebojsa Malic, is following the White House regime change manual 'to the letter'.
The tip of the iceberg's US senators like McCain flying to Kiev and joining the protesters, while Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland hands them out candies. The reality is top US officials are already calling for sanctions against the country, which would hit exactly the ordinary people they claim to be intervening for.
It's accompanied by a hysterical corporate media baying for blood, completely exaggerating protest numbers, and ignoring their violence. The US government, notes Virtual Politics, has been bankrolling opposition politicians in the Ukraine since the 2004 'Orange Revolution', despite admitting the government it's attacking is a democratic one.
In fact, writes Rogue State: A Guide to the World's Only Superpower, the US has funded particular parties or candidates in at least dozens of supposedly independent nations, and forced out governments in even more.US law however strictly forbids ANY foreign funding of its own politics.
US Code Amended, Article 4, Section 441 E (A): It shall be unlawful for a foreign national to make any contribution of money in connection with political office.
RT: If a foreign power joined Occupy Wall Street protesters and paid the opposition to help bring down the US government like Washington's doing in Ukraine and elsewhere, analysts say the White House would go ballistic.
Richard Becker, political analyst: There would be hysteria. That would be regarded as utterly unacceptable interference in the internal affairs of the United States by the government leaders and yet they have no compunction about doing this now in Ukraine and in many many other cases around the world.
It’s clear that what the United States government is after is regime change in Ukraine and it has nothing to do with what they say they are concerned about, that is, you know, human rights and democracy. Why are there no sanctions against the United States for what they did to Iraq or what it’s done in Afghanistan, or what it’s done in Vietnam or in so many other countries around the world?
World Police: Team America clip: The actors are calling for an emergency meeting. Already expected to attend are Helen Hunt, George Clooney.
RT: The satire Team America notes the growing trend of actors trying to use their glamor to sway public opinion in world politics.
World Police: Team America: My fellow actors, what the world needs is an international advisory committee who truly understands global politics. Namely, us.
RT: Angelina Jolie was wheeled into a photo op with disgraced army chief Dave Petraeus in Baghdad, as people began to question the mainstream version of the Iraq disaster. Never previously showing the slightest interest in Ukraine, in a bizarre case of life imitating art George Clooney just jumped on the Kiev bandwagon reading a Ukraine speech from a script to the side of the camera apparently written for him by a State Department ghostwriter.
George Clooney, celebrity actor: To all of you in the square in Kiev or all around Ukraine. We here in the United States have great affinity for those seeking democracy.
Nebojsa Malic, political analyst: It's posturing. What does George Clooney know about the economics of Ukraine? Nothing. There is a CIA manual for regime change, and it's being followed to the letter by people on the payroll of Western organizations and governments.
RT: CIA regime change manuals a few decades ago were being airdropped over democratic countries that weren't subservient enough. Propaganda booklets like these under the euphemistic name The Freedom Fighter's Manual were scattered across Nicaragua, instructing citizens how to sabotage their country by cutting telephone lines, leaving taps on, and chopping trees onto highways.
The CIA’s document publicly admits to terrorism. It carefully avoids the word 'assassinate' in print, calling to 'neutralize' the country's police, judges and government officials. Using the language of the mafia world it writes professional criminals will be hired to carry out selected 'jobs'. Far from renouncing these policies, illegal black ops are moving from an auxiliary to the ‘predominant’ tactic of US foreign policy, reveals the leaked new army manual from the Pentagon.
Meant to be kept secret, the destruction notice reads ‘destroy by any method that will prevent disclosure’. The manual officially orders behavior it says it's aware is unlawful, including instructing US troops to wear the army uniforms of other countries. It also calls to infiltrate civilian groups and train ‘guerrilla’ forces. The document concludes such illegal interference in other countries is now the rule for American policy.
US attacks on Iran are ‘taking a page from the playbook’ on Ukraine and Georgia. America's training Iranian terrorists, notes the BBC, responsible for thousands of assassinations. But as soon as the Pentagon began funding them, Hillary Clinton took the terrorist group off the official terrorist list.
Basic medicines are being blocked by US sanctions on Iran. The Guardian reports this is putting literally millions of lives at risk. Leading war crimes prosecutor Professor Francis Boyle warns Iran's children are going down the path of Iraq. US sanctions since the ‘90s there, reports PBS News, are directly responsible for half a million deaths of children.
‘60 Minutes’, CBS News
Interviewer: We have heard that half a million children have died, I mean, that’s more children died in Hiroshima. And, you know, is the price worth it?
Madeleine Albright, former United States Secretary of State: I think this is a very hard choice, but we think the price is worth it.
RT: Let's speak to Pepe Escobar at the Asia Times, great to see you, so State calls half a million dead children worth it, in Iran's case what do they mean by worth it?
Pepe Escobar, Asia Times: The issue of the nuclear program was prefabricated, especially by the US, with an ulterior motive which everybody also knows what it is – regime change.
RT: Barack Obama and David Cameron keep saying the ‘international community’ supports them in all this regime changing, do people really approve of all this?
Escobar: Look, we have to make a distinction between the US, Canada - the Government, not Canadians - and let’s say three European powers: France, Britain and Germany. And on the other side, this bulk of humanity, let’s put it this way I would say it would be like 85% of the world’s population, if not more. They know everything about the Iranian dossier because they’re reading their local press and they follow it in an unbiased way, apart from reading the odd Reuters or AP dispatch.
RT: The Pentagon's new military doctrine simply abandons international principles of sovereignty or the rule of law.A Washington insider told the site Subrealism it seeks nothing less than ‘world domination’ and no independence will be tolerated.
US ‘National Defense Strategy’: We will defeat adversaries at the time, place, and in the manner of our choosing. Our role in the world depends on projecting our forces in distant environments where adversaries may seek to deny us access.
RT: The Pentagon couches this doctrine in the lovely-sounding phrase ‘Responsibility to Protect’. Sceptics say it's actually just ‘Licence to Kill’.
Richard Falk's Princeton Professor of International Law and UN Human Rights Rapporteur, it's really great to speak to you. Why does the US always meet so much resistance from people it's supposedly ‘protecting’?
Richard Falk, UN Human Rights Rapporteur: There's a great deal of suspicion around the claims of ‘humanitarian intervention’. It actually magnifies the zone of violence and the form of violence, it has the opposite effect of what’s intended.
RT: ‘The opposite effect' of what was intended in Syria, reports Reuters, may become a watershed for the US. Leaked talks between America and Al-Qaeda last week revealed Washington's no longer insisting on regime change there. Reports of America's organ-eating partners saying ‘America's next’ if they win Syria appears to have got even neocons a little nervous.
Dr. Gilad Atzmon calls interventionism just murder by another name.Gilad joins us it's great to speak to you. If the US stops intervening, what about all the other poor people in the world, waiting for the US to bomb, and save them?
Dr.Gilad Atzmon, author of On Immoral Interventionism: Interventionism is a recipe to a colossal disaster. And this is something that we see in Iraq and Afghanistan. We have to let people find their way. If women in Afghanistan want to be liberated, they have to work hard. And I can tell you that when my wife wants something from me, you know, she knows how to do it.
RT: Humanitarian Imperialism: Using Human Rights to Sell War a keynote book on the subject writes how hawks' poster boys for intervention - the Kosovo and Yugoslavia wars – actually prove the opposite, the horrific consequences of US interference.In fact by its very definition any US intervention automatically means a country is no longer exercising national sovereignty or the democracy Washington claims to be imposing.
The author of Humanitarian Imperialism is Professor Jean Bricmont, really great to speak to you. Why are you scathing about this policy?

Professor Jean Bricmont, author of Humanitarian Imperialism:See, democracy presupposes sovereignty. What the US does in effect is a world dictatorship. If you take away the sovereignty of the people by constant intervention, by paying the opposition, by buying elections etcetera, then it's like a dictatorship.

RT:Some say every US intervention since Vietnam has failed and they're hated by the people on the end of them, so why do they keep on interfering?
Bricmont: It’s like a fanatical religion, it's our jihad. I mean the human rights crowd are our jihadists.
RT: Humanitarian Imperialism lists some signs of the covert regime change campaign: establishment media screaming ‘Give war a chance’.If McCain's posing for pictures with terrorists, the White House is claiming an atrocity's happened the moment it needs an excuse to invade, or celebs are showing a sudden interest in faraway economies, it may be a plan for an interventionist 'jihad’ or, more appropriately, new ‘crusade’ by the West.Seek truth from facts, this is The Truthseeker.

Obama Gives Muslim Nation $195,000,000 For Muslim Holiday

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It’s the Muslim holiday, Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of Ramadan. President Obama has decided to give $195M of taxpayer money to the Islamic nation of Syria to mark the occasion.

In an official White House release, President Obama said: “Michelle and I send our warmest greetings to Muslims celebrating Eid al-Fitr here in the United States and around the world. During the past month, Muslims have honored their faith through prayer and service, fasting and time spent with loved ones.”
Then, he gets to the best part of any holiday celebration…the gifts!

“To help the many Syrians in need this Eid al-Fitr, the United States is providing an additional $195 million in food aid and other humanitarian aid, bringing our humanitarian contribution to the Syrian people to over $1 billion since the crisis began.”

Meanwhile, the sequester continues, the White House is not conducting educational tours, and our military don’t have the necessary equipment to protect themselves.

Is this a time to celebrate with a war-torn Muslim country, or a time to be fiscally responsible?

BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA'S CANNIBAL POLITICS

BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA'S CANNIBAL POLITICS

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Published on Monday, 30 December 2013 08:48

Written by ARMIGER REGIS PHD

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By Armiger Regis
In order to write this article, examples abound.  On a daily basis, and despite the instructions mainstream media must have received, there is no way to conceal or dissimulate the constant tragedies that originate in the Muslim Middle East. 

No one will blame it only on the Obama Administration as Saudi-U.S. relations have existed before his ascension to power.  It was under the Bushes that it blossomed and no wonder, given that the Bush family had common interests shared extensively and deeply with the rulers of the Muslim country, the Saudi royal family.  
Many have been the enigmas surrounding the events prior to 9/11. Was there a reason for Prince Turki al-Faisal, for instance, to resign as Minister of the Interior of the Kingdom in August, barely a month before the massacre that was masterminded by his compatriot and relative, Osama Bin Laden and his terrorists, al Qaeda?
However, it is under Barack Hussein Obama, the first Muslim President of the United States, that the American Navy and Military have been placed to fight along, side by side, the same al Qaeda terror group in Libya, where the Americans helped bring down the regime.  As a result, former U.S. ally, President, Muammar al Gaddafi was savagely murdered by al Qaeda terrorists that now are ruling the country with the blessing of the Americans.

Under the wrapping of “collaboration”, American troops have also been training, passing their savvy and experience, to Afghans.  Obviously they have been unable to screen who is who in the impossible to understand region -and attacks have been followed by massacres and both presidents, Karzai and Obama, in unison demanding all but the moral surrender of American troops to serve foreign rulers, cleverly disguised in NATO uniforms.
A few days ago, the news announced that the Egyptian government has intensified its crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood, formally listing the group as a terrorist organization after accusing it of carrying out a suicide bomb attack on a police station that killed 16 people and wounded over 100.
As Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann writes:

In October 2003, the former counter-terrorism “czar” for both President Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, Richard Clarke, testified before the US Senate that virtually every Islamic terrorist organisation in the world had in common membership and inspiration from the ideology of the Muslim Brotherhood. Not only has virtually every leader of Al-Qaeda passed through the ranks of the Muslim Brotherhood, but several of the 9/11 hijackers, including ringleader Mohamed Atta, were known to have been radicalised through the Brotherhood.

So, while Egyptians have been awakened by the horrors of terrorism during Morsi’s presidency, ever since his ousting, they have also been determined to eradicate terrorism.  
The reality is that there is an incredible amount of Muslim perpetrated terrorism throughout the world, for instance in only one year, against Christians, against Buddhists, and others, including their own people, or Muslims of other countries, like in Pakistan, India, and so on.   
And, Americans, to their grand despair, have a crushing reality to deal with. President Obama, on the contrary, is opening the doors of his government precisely to members and political operatives from the Brothers in the heart of his Administration.  Not only that, but he has given them key jobs where they have become advisers to policy-making within his Administration -with the appropriate clearance that gives them access to national top secrets, no doubt.
Beyond such words that anyone can use to describe Muslim terrorism, there is the sudden suffering, the indescribable pain, the tearing of bodies into pieces and the violation to a human being perpetrated by others for whom one can hardly dare use the same word to refer to, as their actions, cannot be classified as anything else other than bestial.  
These are facts of the XXIst century and any Muslim can read daily headlines reporting massacres, deadly attacks against innocent civilians, even of self-inflicted amputations as in the case of a Muslim man who amputated his own hands because sharia said so -and only because of petty theft.  
How deeply low is this world falling?  
The corruption of the soul resulting from licentiousness and permissiveness, is numbing peoples who astoundingly do not react with horror and revolt to these cases of vile affront against human beings.
The worst case so far, is the recent public display on a YouTube video showing Taliban monsters playing football with the severed heads of Pakistani policemen.  
This has been shown by many others already, but there has been no signal anywhere in the world, of public protestation, as the one clearly staged by decent Egyptian Muslims denouncing terrorism precisely supported by the American President, Mr. Barack Hussein Obama -whom they have accused of supporting the terrorist politics of sharia throughout the world.   

Instead, as earlier mentioned, the Obama Administration is importing Muslim Brotherhood operatives in its midst.
Obamacare already includes a piece of sharia in American life, as beheading and decapitation (by guillotine) is specifically mentioned in its Code 9 E 978.
It also includes a “special mention” which could, in fact, refer to sharia ordered amputations:  other specified means, i.e., INJURY UNDETERMINED WHETHER ACCIDENTALLY OR PURPOSELY INFLICTED  (E980-E989)  [Note: Categories E980-E989 are for use when it is stated that an investigation by a medical or legal authority has not determined      whether the injuries are accidental, suicidal, or homicidal. They include self-inflicted injuries, but not poisoning, when not specified whether accidental or with intent to harm.]
It is, therefore, no surprise that the Obama Administration has decided not to consider designating the Muslim Brotherhood terrorists.  Indeed, how could they?   In reality, terrorists do not consider terrorists, terrorists.
But, what about the people?  Americans and all the peoples of Planet Earth, with their silence, are condoning this kind of savagery committed by monsters who look like humans against innocent people who never thought it was important to stop the tide of bestial savagery that is degrading the human species to the lowest of hell.  
The author, Armiger Regis Phd, is a philosopher and historian, who is devoting his time to the study of ‘acceptance of terrorism or the degrading of the human soul, in the XXIst century.”

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Major General (Ret) Paul Vallely: Calls for the Forced Resignation of Obama, ‘Entire Government Needs to Be Cleansed’

December 1, 2013 by admin 4 Comments

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Retired Major General Paul Vallely speaks on the Steve Malzberg Show about the lack of leadership in DC and his national call to action. The General said and we call can agree that the entire government needs to be cleansed. He is calling for the resignation naturally of obama and Biden but also the resignation of Harry Reid, John Boehner, Mitch McConnell, Nancy Pelosi “let’s get some new leaders moved up here that we can do under the Constitution and get people working for this government again that are effective.”
Impeachment, Vallely said, is not a viable option because of “partisan politics.”

Maj. General Paul Vallely -- Retired General, Fox News Military Analyst.: http://youtu.be/wSnifobhn0U via @youtube

 In his capacity as chairman of the organization Stand Up America, Vallely issued what he termed a “National Call to Action” to force the resignations of Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.

Obama's Facebook Page Plastered with Messages Promising Iranian Resistance

by John Sexton 30 Dec 2013, 12:44 PM PDT

Hundreds of messages proclaiming Iranian resistance to the United States have been published as comments on Barack Obama's official Facebook page.

"Hey America, Be Angry at Us and Die of This Anger, Go Die" is one of many which have appeared on the official Facebook page today. Others are more blunt. "Mr. President Obama... Our country is ready for American soldiers in mass graves" reads one such message. "Down with America" appears on the site and "Death to Israel" has also been posted in Arabic numerous times in the last few hours.
The flood of messages appear to be part of a coordinated effort by people associated with Iranian hardliners. Several of the messages mention Ayatollah Khamenei. One message posted in Arabic by someone named Ali reads "Long live the Islamic Republic of Iran." Another blunt statement posted in English by someone named Abofazl reads "Obama is the soldier of satan and usa is the big satan."
All of the anti-US comments have been posted as responses to ordinary OFA fundraising or messaging efforts, none of which appear to mention Iran in any way. Posts near the top of the page have been hit with the most comments but even posts as old as early December have received similar comments in both Arabic and English. 
One item which has been posted numerous times by different users is a short letter in Arabic along with a rough translation into English. It reads:

When you say, the final option (military ) is on the table we also say " answer or Khamenei " is on the table
You do not have to do anything
Iran has always win
Iran rather than sanctions and threats of fear nor grief for sacrificing youth !
If you thought the dust from our feet makes sanctions , you thought wrong
Our children are brave and courageous, Sayyid Ali Khamenei
We are the children of the eight -year sacred defense tight fist with your mouth , and the arrogance of America strike on January 9 again proved too Covenant
We 're standing desperate !
No doubt this revolution by the people and the leadership of Imam Khamenei
It will take its course
We're desperate
Imam Khomeini: America can not do anything

It's difficult to identify when the messages began. Some were appearing on the site yesterday but they seem to have peaked after noon EST today.
President Obama has been negotiating a deal with Iran which would ostensibly prevent the country from seeking nuclear weapons. The initial 6-month deal was announced at the end of last month. The deal immediately came under fire and the President himself said it was a 50-50 proposition.
Iran's position has been that it is only seeking nuclear technology for peaceful, power-generating purposes. Some outside observers doubt this is the case and suggest Iran is simply taking advantage of a weakened President.
OFA did not respond to a request for comment in time to be included in this story.

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Former General Turned Conservative Activist Calls For Citizen's Arrest Of Obama

 

I WILL DO IT PUT ME IN WASHINTON I WILL WALK RIGHT UP TOP HIM AND TELL HIM HE IS UNDER ARREST 

I WILL DO IT

Former General Turned Conservative Activist Calls For Citizen's Arrest Of Obama

Submitted by Brian Tashman on Monday, 12/30/2013 11:35 am

Paul Vallely, a former general who now works as a conservative activist and Fox News analyst, suggested in a recent interview that President Obama should face citizen’s arrest for his supposedly treasonous crimes.
After suggesting that the country hold a “national recall” election, which he admitted has no basis in the constitution, Vallely urged people “get off our derrieres” and protest the government in the millions: “If we’ve got to march in the state capitals, if we’ve got to march in Washington with one hundred million people, then that’s what we need to do.”
He even called for a citizens’ arrest against the President and administration officials: “I would say if we can make citizens’ arrest, I challenge our government that if we have people that are conducting treason against the United States and the best interests of our country, violating the Constitution, violating our laws, just as they are doing with these excessive executive orders that are coming out of the White House where you have a President and his team that doesn’t care about the Constitution.”
Back in November, Vallely endorsed a Tea Party rally in Washington D.C. calling for Obama’s overthrow, although it didn’t exactly draw one hundred million people. Vallely has also published several columns that accuse Obama of treason.
“They will do anything they can to win, they will do anything, they will go for the throat and that’s what we have to do because we’re in battle to save the United States, so we have options out there and we have to pursue all of those options to take the country back.”
Vallely said he that an Egyptian-style uprising against Obama is needed instead of impeachment: “I would use the Egyptian model where they had 33 million Egyptians stand up to oust Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood. We need millions to stand up in our state capitals and in Washington D.C. and we need to have that done within the next twelve months because I can tell you , my forecast, things are going to get far worse than better, especially with Obamacare and the other things that are happening to degrade the effectiveness of our federal government.”

Nigeria: Muslims murder 12 Christians in attacks on two Christian villages -- 8 at wedding reception

Nigeria: Muslims murder 12 Christians in attacks on two Christian villages -- 8 at wedding reception

The Christian leaders who are silent about who does this killing and why, for fear of offending their Muslim "dialogue" partners in the West, have a great deal to answer for.
"Extremists kill 12 in Nigerian Christian villages," from the Associated Press, December 30 (thanks to Kenneth):

MAIDUGURI, Nigeria — Witnesses say suspected Islamic militants killed 12 civilians in weekend attacks on two Christian villages in Muslim-dominated northeast Nigeria. One attack targeted a wedding party. The witnesses said eight victims died when extremists attacked a wedding reception at Tashan-Alede village in Borno state late Saturday night, and four in neighboring Kwajffa village on Sunday.
A security official confirmed the attacks but said they did not yet have casualty figures. All spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.
The leader of a 4-year-old Islamic uprising that has killed thousands in northeast Nigeria recently threatened to target Christians. Village attacks have become common with many more Muslims than Christians killed this year.
The attacks have continued despite a state of emergency and the deployment of thousands of troops since May.

Senate on Record-Setting ‘Filibuster’ Pace

By Niels Lesniewski Posted at 11:42 a.m. today

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(Douglas Graham/CQ Roll Call)

The Senate of the 113th Congress is on track to feature the most filibuster-breaking votes in history, and there’s no reason to think it won’t reach that milestone.
The 64 roll call votes on debate-limiting motions — also known as cloture — in the first session are more than half of the 112 in the record-setting 110th Congress, according to Senate statistics. While the traditional expectation is that the second session has less time for business because senators leave early to campaign, the recent changes to the Senate’s nomination rules make additional cloture votes more likely.
Following the use of the “nuclear option,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., can pretty much get any of President Barack Obama’s nominees confirmed by cutting off debate with a simple majority vote, and the time for debate on district court judgeships and most executive branch nominees had already been substantially curtailed under a prior agreement.
Of course, not all “filibuster” votes are created equal. In some cases this year, Democrats were legitimately attempting to overcome GOP-led blockades. In other cases, Republicans argued there was no objection, or claimed they were only delaying an issue in order to secure more debate time or votes on their amendments.
Still, speaking only of the win-loss record, Reid had a pretty good year. Of the 63 cloture motions filed by Democrats to break real or perceived filibusters, the Senate only rejected 13 of them, almost an 80 percent winning record with a slightly larger Democratic caucus than in the 112th Congress.

Three of those rejected cloture bids came in the back-and-forth over blunting a scheduled increase in student loan interest rates. One of them was actually a Reid cloture motion on proceeding to a GOP proposal spearheaded by Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma as part of dueling test votes that were set up for failure.
Of course, the comparison between 2013 and prior years is not all apples to apples because the list contains all of the nomination cloture votes following Reid’s use of the nuclear option to set a precedent that only a majority is needed to invoke cloture on nominations except those to the Supreme Court. It’s a clear indication of the increased power of the majority in the new Senate.
Four of the times Reid lost cloture votes in 2013, he was setting up the Democratic argument to impose the nuclear option. He did so by forcing votes on vacant seats on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, a move that Republicans opposed.
However, the very first failed 60-vote threshold cloture motion of the 113th Congress appears to have laid the groundwork for the seismic changes to come.
It was Feb. 14, on the nomination of former Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., to be Defense secretary. Republicans argued at the time (and have repeatedly said since then) that they only wanted more time to get questions answered.
“It’s not a filibuster,” Sen. Johnny Isakson said at the time. “All we’re doing is extending debate. We could have another vote tomorrow.”
To the Georgia Republican’s point, the Senate ultimately invoked cloture on and confirmed Hagel shortly after the Presidents Day recess. However, Isakson’s comment was another reminder that the filibuster is in the eye of the beholder. And as became clear during the July rules change standoff that led to an ultimately short-lived detente, the delay in the Hagel confirmation particularly bothered Reid, who had been a longtime skeptic of changes to the filibuster rules.
After deploying the nuclear option, Democrats invoked cloture on a total of 17 nominees under the new procedure, including several during all-night sessions. The list includes three individuals who previously fell short of the 60-vote threshold that used to be required. Those three are new D.C. Circuit judges Nina Pillard and Patricia Ann Millett, as well as Rep. Melvin Watt. The North Carolina Democrat is leaving the House to take the helm of the Federal Housing Finance Agency.
The results would’ve been more lopsided, but Democrats decided not to push forward with cloture votes on another batch of nominees that would have delayed the arrival of the Christmas break. The get-out-of-town deal set up confirmation of Janet L. Yellen as chairwoman of the Federal Reserve on Jan. 6.
The two new judges seem all but certain to be joined eventually by Robert L. Wilkins on the appellate bench. The current district judge was blocked under the 60-vote requirement and Democrats did not advance his nomination on reconsideration before the Senate departed for the holiday season.
It may take a bit of time in January to queue up the next slew of confirmation votes under the new expedited procedure, though. Republicans demanded that almost all nominees pending before the Senate at the time of adjournment be returned to the White House. That means committees will need to repeat the process of reporting them to the floor for consideration.
“Republicans have for the first time ever, refused to allow any currently pending judicial nominees to be held over so that they could be ready for immediate action next year. For purely political reasons, Senate Republicans are forcing us to duplicate work next year that we have already completed in 2013,” Judiciary Chairman Patrick J. Leahy, D-Vt., said in a Dec. 20 statement. “It is a waste of taxpayer dollars and valuable resources that could be spent addressing the difficult issues facing our Nation.”
For Republicans, objecting to the wholesale return of nominees is one in a series of responses to Reid’s nuclear maneuver.
When Majority Whip Richard J. Durbin, D-Ill., tried to get the pending nominations carried over into 2014 just before the Senate left, Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina blocked the move, citing the collapse of comity.
“All I can say is that the normal way the Senate has operated for a couple of hundred years has been destroyed this year, and asking that normalcy come about now is beyond the pale, but we are where we are,” Graham said.