I believe we can call the Senate Armed Services Committee's confirmation hearing of Chuck Hagel on Thursday historic: for the savage questioning by Ted Cruz, Lindsey Graham and John McCain that many have compared to McCarthyite attacks, and for the exposure of the Israel lobby's influence in the discourse for all to see. Robert Naiman at Just Foreign Policy published this transcript of the hearing. I am sure that readers can make good use of it.
Last Monday, the Community of Latin American and Caribbean Countries (CELAC) met for its second summit in Santiago, Chile, one year after its founding meeting in Caracas, Venezuela in 2011. The Summit is the culmination of roughly a decade of efforts to create a viable mechanism for greater integration in the Americas, and particularly a year of planning by a “troika” of representatives from, believe it or not, Chile, Venezuela and Cuba. They were able to pull it off successfully, despite their obvious differences, and all 33 presidents or heads of state from the region attended, with the exception of Hugo Chavez from Venezuela, who sent a letter with his Vice-President Nicolás Maduro.
CELAC explicitly excludes the US and Canada, a historic first for a hemispheric organization with huge symbolic importance, because it answers a long-standing dream for unity of the subcontinent that harks back to Simón Bolívar and the struggles for independence from the European colonial powers. Beyond the symbolism, however, it is strategically crucial: It means that there is now a subcontinent bloc of developing nations that can speak with one voice,, and also serve as a counterweight to US political and economic hegemony.
Robert Steele lost everything when his conference was stolen in 2007 and 2008 by then ADDNI/OS, Eliot Jardines (who prior to being appointed visited Steele and promised not to do that), and his clearances were rescinded in 2006 by a (then) corrupt Defense Office of Hearings and Appeals (DOHA) process that refused to respect the Judge's findings in favor of Robert Steele and against DOHA on all counts related to 7,500 cheerfully declared foreign contacts, none of whom comprised bonds of affection, obligation, or common interest–they should never have been an issue. Steele could have survived one or the other, but not both at once. This led to the forced short sale of his townhouse, losing his one property and all savings. His oldest son wrecked the 1994 Buick Le Sabre. He is left with a 1964 MGB that has a rusted out bottom and cannot be sold (he's tried).
He has roughly $14,000 in personal liabilities, and one $3,000 liability from OSS.Net, Inc. (closed 31 December 2010) that the Commonwealth of Virginia has imposed on him, abusing their power by asserting that C Corporations with one director do not enjoy the same protection as do C Corporations with many expensive lawyers who create paper firewalls.
In tangible terms, Robert Steele is worth ($14,000). Lacking a PhD or clearances, Steele has been unemployable in any substantive capacity related to his skills. He appears to have been black-balled by DIA Office of Personnel which found him “unqualified” for over 30 positions in the 13-15 range in 2008. The DIA SES/DISL process has integrity, Steele was found qualified and interviewed for DISL HUMINT at DIA in 2008, he may even have been selected, but General Ron Burgess, USA had the final say and Steele was not offered the position. He has since been found qualified in 2012 and 2013 for SES positions including Assistant Inspector General for Intelligence at DoD, as well as a variety of 14-15 positions, but has only had one interview and not been selected for any positions as of today.
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As a classic example of bureaucratic disconnect, in 2009 Steele was requested BY NAME to be Chief Instructor for Intelligence and Information Operations at COINSOC in Iraq, and had a signed contract in hand from Raytheon for $276,000 a year, only $86,000 of which would be taxable. DOHA (still corrupt at that time) refused to do a simple NAC check to grant Steele the requisite SECRET clearance so he could go to a combat zone and earn a living. That one decision by DOHA (verbally, blowing off the Raytheon SSO, nothing in writing) has cost Steele — and the family he still has obligations to — $1.1 million dollars over four years.
Positive & Intangible Value Developments Below the Line
Activism – Andrew “K`Tetch” Norton: If we had any doubt of the reason we need to be extra vigilant in our work, this month has provided them in spades. But there is one thing that ties everything together, and that is the matter of integrity, and accountability. Through all the issues, those that take the lead are never held to account. Often, ironically, they do these acts while trying to hold others to account, in some sort of twisted egotistical irony powertrip.
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I could have posted this Friday, but I didn’t. Saturday was an option too, but I wanted to wait. Above all I felt a need to slowly think about things, before acting, or saying. Many have let their emotions speak, but while they’re good for the short-term, we need a long term look.
The past week or two has been a turbulent one for many like me. The success of the one-year anniversary since SOPA/PIPA was overshadowed by the tragic (and preventable) suicide of Aaron Swartz, and the launch of Mega on the one-year anniversary of the raid (pretty much to the minute)
Then, through it all the irony of the Martin Luther King speech about freedom, being locked down. To cap it, the one man going to be imprisoned for the waterboarding, is the one who alerted the public, and not one who conducted it.
It’s a conflicting and emotional time in many ways, as many of the issues we pirates are passionate about are hitting landmark points all in a week. And overshadowing it all is Aaron, and his tragic final decision.
It was actually quite an interesting spread too, you had the tech press, legal, activist, and me with the political aspects. I doubt they could have got a better spread if they’d wanted.
But from the talk there, and the pre-show banter, I took away one thing. We all care about this, and we all want the situation to improve.Sure we’re all young men, but we’ve looked at the situation out there, and see massive problems. We’re all intelligent and hardworking (well, those three are, I wouldn’t say that about myself, because I know it’s not true) and could easily making a shedload of money in any private concern of our choosing. Instead we choose to do this.
“Too big to fail is too big to continue. The megabanks have too much power in Washington and too much weight within the financial system.” Who said this and when?
The answer is Peggy Noonan, the prominent conservative commentator, writing recently in The Wall Street Journal.
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As Ms. Noonan puts it bluntly: “People think the G.O.P. is for the bankers. The G.O.P. should upend this assumption.”
This is a significant opportunity for anyone with clear thinking on the right – someone looking for a Teddy Roosevelt trustbusting or Nixon-goes-to-China moment. Again, Ms. Noonan gets it right: “In this case good policy is good politics. If you are a conservative you’re supposed to be for just treatment of the individual over the demands of concentrated elites.”
Recall that some grass roots conservatives are already there: House Republicans initially voted down TARP, the former presidential candidate Jon Huntsman’s plan to end too big to fail received widespread applause from many Republicans and a number of influential commentators, including George Will and Ms. Noonan, have advocated ending too big to fail.
This would play well in the Republican presidential primaries – and even better in the general election. Watch PBS “Frontline” on Jan. 22 for an articulate presentation of why serious potential financial crimes were not prosecuted during the first Obama administration, and think about how to turn these facts into political messages.
A smart candidate could even mobilize plenty of financial-sector support in favor of breaking up or otherwise restricting the too-big-to-fail financial entities. The megabanks have very few genuine friends.
The lasting legacy of Timothy Geithner is to create the perfect electoral issue for Republicans. Will they seize it?
In the midst of the current haggling over the US federal budget, the main fact is being ignored: the fiscal shortfall of the US government over decades is largely due to Wall Street’s rigging of the tax code so that the main money center banks pay little or nothing in the way of taxes.
Like the haughty nobility in France before the Revolution of 1789, the Wall Street banks are practically exempt from taxation, and the burden of paying for the government is shifted to the middle class. Anybody who is serious about reducing the power of Wall Street bankers in US politics must now mobilize to educate public opinion about the situation and its main remedy – the 1% Wall Street Sales Tax.
