President Lindsey Graham Would "Literally Use the Military" Against Congress

While the United States Congress currently enjoys approval ratings hovering somewhere between genital herpes and pedophilia it as after all a body mandated by the Constitution. The legislative branch is badly broken as is evident by the failure to put a check on the unitary executive (aka the king), the churning out of laws that destroy our cherished birthright civil liberties and the ongoing meddling in overseas conflicts with the main purpose of juicing arms sales. In a land of widespread institutional failure and corruption there are few worse than 'our elected representatives' when it comes to an illustration of just how far that we have fallen.

The U.S. Congress as it currently exists is the biggest gaggle of zanies, liars, cheats, perverts, con artists, charlatans, demagogues, egomaniacs, de facto lobbyists and outright traitors in the land. But as poisoned as the institution has become it is still firmly embodied within the U.S. Constitution. So whenever a prospective presidential candidate shoots off his mouth calling for sending the military after Congress it should turn a few heads.

Senator Lindsey Graham, who is Robin to John McCain’s Batman as well as one of the most strident, big government worshippers in Congress drew scorn over comments that seemed to call for a military coup. While speaking in front of the "politics and pies" forum in New Hampshire where he was promoting his long shot White House bid, the Palmetto State Princess let slip that as president he would unleash the troops against the legislature if they didn’t acquiesce to his whims.

As reported by the website Vox in a story entitled “Lindsey Graham: As president I would deploy the military against Congress”:

Republican senator and presidential maybe-hopeful Lindsey Graham stopped by the "politics and pies" forum in Concord, New Hampshire, today, where he announced that if he is elected president in 2016, his first act will be to deploy the military in Washington to force Congress to reverse cuts to the defense and intelligence budgets.

Yes, you heard that right. Here are Graham's exact words:

And here's the first thing I would do if I were president of the United States. I wouldn't let Congress leave town until we fix this. I would literally use the military to keep them in if I had to. We're not leaving town until we restore these defense cuts. We are not leaving town until we restore the intel cuts.

Graham would use the military to force members of Congress to not just vote on the bill — but to pass it. Graham didn't say "until I get an up-or-down vote on restoring defense cuts." He said "until we restore these defense cuts."

In other words, Graham is proposing that his first act as president would be to use the military to force the legislative branch to pass his agenda.

Graham’s staff flew into damage control mode to spin it as a “joke” taken out of context by his political opponents but with this particular authority loving fascist one never knows. 

Graham is a media darling for his availability and the gift of providing great sound bites on any number of issues about war and the domestic police and surveillance state. He has gone so far as to babble about the possibility of a nuclear device being detonated in Charleston Harbor and has never met a foreign conflict that he would not send the sons and daughters of American mothers off to die for. He also is one of the biggest advocates of the ongoing drive to bestow near godlike powers on the federal government to monitor every phone call, email, text and purchase that Americans make with all to be archived in a massive NSA storage facility for some vague future use by a future president. He is also a full blown, balls out lunatic.

Graham’s call for sending the military after Congress was really less of a joke than another outbreak of his paranoid delusions coupled with an incurable case of diarrhea of the mouth. Thank God that this crank has about as much chance at becoming President of the United States as Kim Kardashian does.

Big Brother Running Amok: NSA/GCHQ Hack Huge SIM Card Producer

Stories of the NSA drive to in the words of retired boss General Keith Alexander “Collect It All”, have lately gone the way of “Deflategate” in the mainstream media but Big Brother never sleeps. We all need to understand that we live in the waning days of having any expectation of privacy and it is only a matter of time until big government is trying to get at what is inside our skulls too. This week there were two major reports of what the secret police have been up to yet the domestic media has largely stayed focused on the political rat race and various and sundry celebrity tales. This failure to engage in serious investigative journalism is exactly why guys like Brian Williams are able to land multi-million dollar jobs as the gatekeepers in the McNews industry.

The story with the most far reaching consequences is the allegation that the NSA and their counterparts across the pond in jolly old England - GCHQ - hacked into the world’s largest provider of SIM cards. Those are those little things inside everyone’s smartphones that allow for the protection of private data when communicating and engaging in financial transactions. Billions of cellphones worldwide could possibly be affected by this massive breach of encryption - maybe even yours.

As reported by Reuters in the story “NSA, British spies hack Gemalto to tap mobile calls: Intercept”:

Digital security company Gemalto NV was hacked by American and British spies to steal encryption keys used to protect the privacy of cellphone communications, news website Intercept reported, citing documents provided by whistleblower Edward Snowden.

The hack by the National Security Agency (NSA) and UK's Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) allowed the agencies to monitor a large portion of voice and data mobile communications around the world without permission from governments and telecom companies, according to the report.

A GCHQ spokesperson said the agency did not comment on intelligence matters. NSA could not be immediately reached for comment.

Gemalto makes smart chips for mobile phones, bank cards and biometric passports and counts Verizon and AT&T Inc among its 450 wireless network provider customers around the world.

The hack story was broken by the website The Intercept in a huge expose entitled “The Great SIM Heist:  How Spies Stole The Keys To The Encryption Castle” which is a long and detailed piece that is well worth the time spent reading it. Many will of course dismiss this out of hand because the documents about the hacking were provided by former government contractor turned NSA Whistleblower Edward Snowden who is a controversial figure to put it mildly. However, in the days of a rogue government and the Obama regime’s ongoing war on journalists and whistleblowers it takes bold action to expose the scale of government criminality.

The other story, which is easily dismissed because it can simply be denounced as Putin propaganda is that of Russian computer security firm Kaspersky identifying the ability to embed spyware deep inside computer hard drives. According to the Reuters story “Russian researchers expose breakthrough U.S. spying program”:

The U.S. National Security Agency has figured out how to hide spying software deep within hard drives made by Western Digital, Seagate, Toshiba and other top manufacturers, giving the agency the means to eavesdrop on the majority of the world's computers, according to cyber researchers and former operatives.

That long-sought and closely guarded ability was part of a cluster of spying programs discovered by Kaspersky Lab, the Moscow-based security software maker that has exposed a series of Western cyberespionage operations.

Kaspersky said it found personal computers in 30 countries infected with one or more of the spying programs, with the most infections seen in Iran, followed by Russia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, China, Mali, Syria, Yemen and Algeria. The targets included government and military institutions, telecommunication companies, banks, energy companies, nuclear researchers, media, and Islamic activists, Kaspersky said.

The firm declined to publicly name the country behind the spying campaign, but said it was closely linked to Stuxnet, the NSA-led cyberweapon that was used to attack Iran's uranium enrichment facility. The NSA is the agency responsible for gathering electronic intelligence on behalf of the United States.

A former NSA employee told Reuters that Kaspersky's analysis was correct, and that people still in the intelligence agency valued these spying programs as highly as Stuxnet. Another former intelligence operative confirmed that the NSA had developed the prized technique of concealing spyware in hard drives, but said he did not know which spy efforts relied on it.

NSA spokeswoman Vanee Vines declined to comment.

These stories are perfect examples of how the surveillance industrial complex has run amok and will continue to do so until lawmakers do their jobs. Our elected 'representatives' should subject the NSA to the type of rigorous oversight needed to prevent the ongoing digital rampage. The spooks and data vampires whose activities are funded by U.S. taxpayer dollars are not only gutting the Constitution but doing immense and irreparable damage to American tech businesses, especially in the new era of cloud computing.

Silicon Valley high-rollers understand this too and have been highly critical of the potential financial damage to their industries and have taken their concerns directly to Emperor Barack Obama himself. But Obama is a defender of the status quo and there will be no effort to reign in the data grabbers and snoopers on his watch. Don't look for it from Jeb Bush either if he is the next one to sit on the throne, especially since he just defended his brother's mass surveillance programs that "keep us safe".

One day Americans will be made to face the consequences of their complicity in allowing the wolves to be the ones charged with guarding the hen house and that day is rapidly approaching.

NSA District Democrat Representative Brings Fascist Back Surveillance Bill

The mysterious story swirling around alleged North Korean involvement in the Sony Hack and later the movie “The Interview” has become a bit clearer now. While there has never been any solid proof that linked the regime of Kim Jong Un to the hacking and alleged (but never substantiated) “terrorist” threats against movie theaters the Obama administration continued to push the blame North Korea narrative. Some more astute observers of the ongoing track towards full-blown fascism in The Homeland smelled a rat and speculated that the whole thing was just a pretense to impose even more Draconian domestic spying upon millions of law-abiding citizens. Well, now it is no longer just speculation as Congress has delivered their usual running drop kick to the crotch of powerless Americans.

As soon as the new Congress had returned from their latest taxpayer funded extended vacation it became obvious what the priorities truly are. The reintroduction of CISPA aka the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act was a top item on the agenda and will garner the typical bipartisan support that such criminal actions against the American people always get. Look for a barrage of laws that further erode the Constitution and restrict civil liberties and privacy rights in the coming year, especially since the media has been hysterically pushing fear in the aftermath of the Charlie Hebdo attack.

According to The Hill in a story entitled “House Dem revives major cyber bill”:

A senior Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee on Friday will reintroduce a controversial bill that would help the public and private sectors share information about cybersecurity threats.

“The reason I’m putting bill in now is I want to keep the momentum going on what’s happening out there in the world,” Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger (D-Md.), told The Hill in an interview, referring to the recent Sony hack, which the FBI blamed on North Korea.

The measure — known as the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) — has been a top legislative priority for industry groups and intelligence officials, who argue the country cannot properly defend critical infrastructure without it.

The House passed Ruppersberger’s bill last year, but it stalled in the Senate amid concerns from privacy advocates that it would enable more collection of Americans’ private information.

Ruppersberger lost his 2014 co-sponsor of the bill, former House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers (R-Mich.), who retired from Congress.

“I’m putting the bill in by myself,” Ruppersberger said, acknowledging it would require work to find new bipartisan support. But by reintroducing the bill, “hopefully that will create momentum,” he added.

Ruppersberger wants to ride the wave of attention on Capitol Hill driven by the cyberattack on Sony, which caused the studio to almost cancel the release of a multimillion-dollar comedy, “The Interview,” which depicts an American plot to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Sony ultimately released the film to a limited number of theaters and streamed it online.

What is always left out whenever Dutch Ruppersberger is cited is that his home district happens to be the location of the headquarters of the NSA Stasi in Fort Meade, Maryland – a wretched hive of scum and villainy. The domestic spying and data-mining apparatus as well as the local economy in and around the Second Congressional District in Maryland depends on Dutch going to Washington and delivering the bacon for the expansion of the ever growing surveillance state.

The Hill piece also states that “Ruppersberger lost his 2014 co-sponsor of the bill, former House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers (R-Mich.), who retired from Congress” but doesn’t mention that Rogers has taken his act to CNN. It is an example of the perverse and corrupt system that Americans now must live under that such a high-ranking figure as Rogers is able to cash in on his government experience and will now have a cable television network offering him a national forum as a pimp for the surveillance state. In regards to Rogers it is never mentioned that his wife was a lobbyist whose clients stood to profit from the very programs that he was supposed to be exercising oversight upon.

No surprise that the NSA Stasi is absolutely delighted that Ruppersberger has reincarnated CISPA with The Hill also reporting that “NSA chief wants cyber bill to fight hackers”:

The head of the National Security Agency wants lawmakers to pass a contentious cybersecurity bill to help federal officials go after hackers.

“I think it's a very important first step,” spy agency director Adm. Michael Rogers said on Fox Business Network on Friday.

“In the end, the key to our ability to be effective, I believe, as a nation in cyber, will be our ability to span the divide between the private sector and the public sector or the government.”

The controversial bill introduced by Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger (D-Md.) on Thursday would make it easier for private companies to share information about possible hackers and lines of attack with each other and the government. Backers say it's a critical step to ensure there are no blind spots on the country's networks.

Anyone who didn’t see where this was going with all of the sound and fury over “The Interview” and the media acting as the propagandists selling slavery repackaged as  “patriotism” while demonizing North Korea was not paying very close attention. The legislation is a wet dream for the apple pie authoritarians and their corporate allies that will profit from it. And as with everything else that this loathsome rogue government touches - a nightmare for us all.

Republicans Now Have Cover to Fund the Homeland Security Gestapo

With Mitch McConnell and John Boehner having now been officially crowned as leaders of the new Republican majority in Congress it is time to begin to do away with all of those pesky promises. The most bothersome to the corrupt establishment is the threatening to withhold funds from the Department of Homeland Security. Back when the pork stuffed abomination that was the “Cromnibus” was rammed through, the GOP leadership effectively punted on challenging Emperor Obama’s decree granting amnesty to millions of illegal immigrants.The argument at the time being that funding the government – and doling out graft – was too important to be held up over taking a principled stand against Obama's executive order. So it was put off until early 2015 when the funding of DHS could serve as a bargaining chip. This was always a loser and the reason why was very predictable because fear sells in America as is now evident in the aftermath of the Charlie Hebdo attack.

That the defunding of  any portion of the all-encompassing big government monstrosity that is DHS was ever considered a political possibility shows the idiocy of the political class. There was always going to be an excuse to protect what is the exoskeleton for full blown American fascism. That is so because in today’s world with the constant episodes of radical Islamists murdering people there would be an ample supply of bad-assed bogeymen to justify it's existence. So now with the assassination of twelve people at the headquarters of a satirical French newspaper the excuse has arrived just behind the 2015 New Years baby.

According to a story from The Hill entitled “Security chairman: Paris attack shows DHS must stay funded” House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Michael McCaul issues a warning:

House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-Texas) says the attack in Paris on Wednesday highlights the need to keep the Department of Homeland Security open through the battle over immigration.

Republicans are in the midst of figuring out a strategy to fight President Obama's executive action on immigration. Under the spending bill passed last year, funding for the Department of Homeland Security expires in February, allowing Republicans to revisit the immigration battle.

"Our leadership and I just got out of the meeting and had discussions about how to proceed," McCaul said on CNN's "Situation Room" Wednesday night. "We want to stop this executive action, but I think the responsible individuals like myself have no desire to shut down this department. It's too important to the national security interest of the United States."

"I think this incident today highlights why that's necessary," he later added, referring to the attack by masked gunmen on Charlie Hebdo, a satirical newspaper in Paris, that killed 12 people.

Asked if a deal will be worked out to keep the Department of Homeland Security open, McCaul replied, "Yes."

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) also said the department will stay open, though it is unclear what a deal would look like at this point.

"It’s an important piece of legislation, and we’ll decide in February how to handle it, but at the end of the day, we’re going to fund the department, obviously," McConnell said at a press conference earlier on Wednesday.

The Charlie Hebdo attacks were like a gift from the heavens for good ole Mitch McConnell who despite his rhetoric to the contrary will sell out to Obama at the drop of a hat. Now he has political cover as does the resilient Boehner who just swatted down a challenge to his leadership. And the more fascistic Republicans who have always been backers of a gargantuan surveillance and police state have Mitch’s back. Most notably Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina.

The Palmetto State princess is always sought out by the media for his strident defense of hard-core authoritarian big government which he defends in his best honey-soaked Gomer Pyle style drawl. According to a story from CNN’s website entitled “Paris attack quickly becomes Washington funding fight” Graham warns of using DHS funding as a way to derail Obama’s immigration policy:

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, told CNN after the Paris attack Wednesday that the party should rethink those plans -- or at least make sure they're narrowly tailored.

"I hope that we could challenge the executive action of the President in a mature fashion," he said. "I've never been for shutting down Homeland Security."

The Homeland Security Department's funding is due to expire Feb. 27 -- a date chosen by Republicans in December, as they hashed out a deal to keep the rest of the government up and running through much of 2015, specifically to force Obama into a confrontation over immigration.

Americans ceded their civil liberties to the federal government in the aftermath of 9/11 with nary a whimper and have been rewarded with a doomsday machine that could be used by a charismatic tyrant to carry out purges that Stalin or Hitler could only dream of. The Department of Homeland Security is a threat to every American and should be completely dismantled given the potential to be weaponized and turned against domestic political dissidents, journalists and government critics. Now that the case is being made to back down from using it as a bargaining chip and giving Obama his first big win after the voters demanded change in the mid-terms. Is it just me or does November 4, 2014 now seem like ancient history?

With scum like Graham working the media to feed their propaganda into the national dispersal system it will be politically impossible to even think about touching DHS funding. The star-spangled sheep, never ones to engage in critical thinking are being scared shitless by saturation coverage of the murder of twelve people that didn’t even occur on freaking American soil and the cynical Obama will soon join in by preaching from the bully pulpit.

We are one step further down the road to fascism, a place where elections don’t matter and the power of an ever metastasizing anti-Constitutional cancer continues to eat away at what was once a free country.

More proof that elections don't matter when the entire system is rotten.

Give Us The Wolf: CNN Targeting by Sony Hackers Exposed as Hoax

The so-called “monkey in a tropical forest” who is currently the head of the big government circus has set America up for yet another embarrassing foreign policy fiasco. The rush to judgment to blame North Korea over the Sony hacking and subsequent takedown of that country’s internet increasingly looks like it was directed at the wrong target. There are serious questions being asked by experts over whether the hacking and subsequent hyping of “terrorist” threats against movie theaters showing “The Interview” is hogwash. The government and the media that serves as it's propaganda arm and fear-mongering megaphone have been putting one over on Americans again.

It’s understandable that the Obama regime would want to exploit the Sony hacking to foster a climate of dread in order to ease the cramming down the citizen's throats of a new and oppressive cybersecurity bill. When it comes to lying, Obama and the anti-Constitutional contingent in Congress are seasoned pros and never even bother with the telling the truth. There is a method to their madness but even pathological fibbers and fascists can push it too far which is what happened with the alleged targeting of CNN by the perpetrators of the Sony hack.

According to a story by the website The Intercept that is based on an actual Department of Homeland Security/FBI Joint Intelligence bulletin entitled “Sony Hackers Threaten U.S. News Media Organization”:

The threat against the unnamed news organization by the Guardians of Peace, the hacker group that has claimed credit for the Sony attack, “may extend to other such organizations in the near future,” according to a Joint Intelligence Bulletin of the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security obtained by The Intercept.

Referring to Sony only as “USPER1”and the news organization as “USPER2,” the Joint Intelligence Bulletin, dated Dec. 24 and marked For Official Use Only, states that its purpose is “to provide information on the late-November 2014 cyber intrusion targeting USPER1 and related threats concerning the planned release of the movie, ‘The Interview.’ Additionally, these threats have extended to USPER2 —a news media organization—and may extend to other such organizations in the near future.”

Despite a lack of specific details it was then reported that the news organization was CNN and that the alleged threat extended to uber-celebrity host and former AIPAC lobbyist Wolf Blitzer. The federal dicks were sent into hyperactive mode by a Pastebin post that called for the ratings challenged cable network to hand over their star: "You have 24 hours to give us the Wolf". Now that the first in an ongoing series of bogus terrorist threats - 2015 will produce a bumper crop - has been debunked before the New Year's baby has taken his first diaper dump. A Tennessee freelance writer copped to the "threat" against Wolf/CNN and admitted that it was all a joke.

As reported by the Daily Mail in a story entitled “Sony hacker threat against CNN 'is a hoax': Nashville writer claims credit for post that demanded network turn over Wolf Blitzer”:

A hacking threat against CNN that rose to the FBI attention is actually a hoax, claims a freelance writer from Tennessee who is claiming responsibility for the post.

David Garrett Jr., from Nashville, says he we the one who posted to the anonymous site 'pastebin' claiming to be Sony hackers the 'Guardians of Peace.' It included the bizarre demand that CNN should turn over anchor Wolf Blitzer.

It is believed that the FBI issued a Joint Intelligence Bulletin based on that post that warned CNN and other media companies that hack attacks could be in the works.

Mr Garrett, who rights about security issues for Examiner.com, revealed himself on Twitter today after news media organizations, including Daily Mail Online, picked up the story about the FBI warning.

'My fake pastbin post is being investigated by the FBI. I wrote for CNN to "give us the Wolf" and the FBI is actually taking it as a threat,' he tweeted.

'It was a joke. And to show that no one investigates anything. Everything is rumors. I had no idea it would be taken seriously.'

He says he wrote the post to make the point that pastebin is an unreliable source and that anyone can post anything to the site.

One has to wonder just how many taxpayer dollars were burned up by the G-men over this obvious wild goose chase. I am sure that Mr. Garrett has rocketed to the top of the whatever shit list that the alphabet soup agencies are keeping on "troublemakers". In a way it's pretty damn funny until you realize that the joke is on us all - again.

Unhinged Lindsey Graham Blames China For Sony Hacking

Senator Lindsey Graham has developed a reputation for being somewhat of a hysteric over the years and Sunday morning’s appearance on CNN’s State of the Union was a testament to the bizarre nature of the Palmetto State princess. John McCain’s little buddy spewed nonstop nonsense to hostess Dana Bash, the temporary replacement for the insipid blathering sow Candy Crowley who left the network earlier this month. Graham’s interview was a tour de force of bullshit that ran the gamut from him blaming China for the Sony hack for which North Korea was fingered to calling for Republican leaders to back Obama’s amnesty for illegals and even a hint at a possible 2016 presidential run.

According to a story from the website of CNN entitled “Graham suspects China involved in Sony attack”:

Sen. Lindsey Graham hinted at China's involvement in the North Korean cyberattack on Sony Pictures and called for additional U.S. action against North Korea to make the hermit kingdom "feel the pain that is due."

"I can't imagine anything this massive happening in North Korea without China being involved or at least knowing about it," Graham, a Republican from South Carolina, told CNN's Dana Bash on "State of the Union."

Graham called for more sanctions against the regime and said President Barack Obama should put North Korea back on the list of state sponsors of terrorism, something Obama is currently reviewing.

The Republican senator gave Obama rare kudos for the President's handling of the North Korean affair so far.

"So far so good, Mr. President," Graham said, despite adding that Obama should have labeled the attack as cyberterrorism and not "cybervandalism," as Obama called the hack in a CNN interview last week.

"What's happened here it shows how exposed we are in America to cyberattack," Graham said. "If North Korea can do this to a major corporation in America, what can other people do to our country."

So where it he proof? How many times are these sleazy career political hacks allowed to just show up and pull wild accusations out of their asses with nothing to back them up? McCain and former House Intelligence Committee boss Mike Rogers are both notorious for such things while the celebrity hosts never call them on any of it. What is said on these shows unfortunately drives the week’s official propaganda and once chopped up into bite-sized McNews McNuggets is what is fed to the populace. This is what happens when there is no longer any such thing as legitimate, objective and hard-hitting journalism practiced in America. Herr Goebbels would be proud especially when a foreign corporation like Sony is constantly trotted out as being as American as apple pie by tools like Graham and his ilk.

Graham is always a go to guy for the media whenever a prominent "Republican" is needed to defend big government such as the surveillance and warfare states. He is singing from the same hymnal as the rest of the fascists in Congress and the White House who are readying a new iteration of a cybersecurity bill that will further undermine privacy rights in this country early in 2015. The blaming of North Korea for the overhyped “terrorist” threats against movie theaters showing the film "The Interview" and now the floating of the trial balloon that China is behind it all will only be used as further justification for the undermining of civil liberties. But again, nobody ever calls these guys on any of this crap so whatever monster is now being built in the NSA and Pentagon laboratories will soon be unleashed on a helpless and propagandized populace who inhabit the world’s biggest lemming colony.

Principled conservatives had a shot at dethroning Graham but blew it when they were unable to rally around a solid opponent last June. Graham then was easily reelected to a third Senate term where he will be an indispensable member of the Mitch McConnell coalition that is assembled to cut deals with Emperor Obama – especially on mass surveillance to lock down the fascist state.

Shameless, just shameless.

Government Now Implies that White House Fence Jumper Was on an Assassination Mission

These days it is increasingly difficult to tell the difference between what is real and what is bullshit when it comes from the Obama administration and the larger government - neither of which have any credibility. Breaking news has transformed the White House fence jumper into a veritable killing machine. Perhaps it was the laughable attempt to push that three inch bladed pocket knife that Omar Gonzalez had on him when he crashed Barry's pad on Friday as a real threat but now we are being told that he had an arsenal in his car.

The Washington Post is reporting in a story entitled "White House fence jumper had ammunition, machete in car, prosecutors said" that:

Federal prosecutors alleged Monday in federal court that a man who jumped a fence and ran into the White House’s unlocked front door Friday night posed a threat to President Obama and was keeping 800 rounds of ammunition, two hatchets and a machete in his car, parked blocks away.

Omar Jose Gonzalez, 42, formerly of Copperas Cove, Tex., appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge John M. Facciola of the District on one charge of unlawfully entering a restricted building or grounds while carrying a deadly or dangerous weapon.

After a 20-minute hearing, Facciola ordered Gonzalez held until Oct. 1, pending revocation of bond by authorities in an unrelated July 19 incident in Wythe County, Va., in which he was arrested while allegedly carrying a sniper rifle, a sawed-off shotgun and a map of the Washington area with the White House and Masonic Temple in Alexandria, Va., circled.

Earlier, on Aug. 25, Assistant U.S. Attorney David Mudd said, U.S. Secret Service officers saw Gonzalez carrying a hatchet in the back waistband of his pants along the south fence of the White House and questioned him. Gonzalez agreed to let them search his vehicle, parked nearby on New York Avenue NW, but at that time found only camping gear and two dogs, and released him.

Gonzalez’s “preoccupation with the White House and accumulation of a large amount of ammunition in apparently a short period of time represented a danger to the president,” Mudd said.

Now whether it is the truth or a lie if the weapons cache was actually inside the vehicle when Gonzalez rolled up to the White House or was planted is anyone’s guess. There also is to this point no report of actual guns in the vehicle which is bizarre given the implied threat. The feds are masters of entrapment and trumping up cases to justify their own existence and planting "evidence" would not be outside the realm of possibility. The charge that he was actually a “threat to the president” is ridiculous since Obama was long gone by the time of the incident. Even the somnolent Secret Service would have noticed a heavily armed minority charging across the lawn - unless they were busy with prostitutes - and shot his ass down. You also have to love the standard media trick of using his full middle name ala Lee Harvey Oswald to mix into a sinister narrative of an intent of attempted assassination.  It is a gift to all of those who want to further crack down on civil liberties and sow fear in an election cycle. The only way that it would have worked out better for Obama is if the guy were a white supremacist.

This is what happens when you live under a government that does not even bother with even pretending to tell the truth about anything. Is it any wonder that one would be a skeptic? Yes, the atmosphere is indeed collapsing but it is only following the truth in doing so. As the late muckraker I.F. Stone so perfectly nailed it - "all governments are run by liars and nothing that they say should be believed".

King Obama's Palace Security to Increase after Fence Jumper Incident

In the aftermath of Friday's embarrassing  security breach after a man who jumped the fence triggered an evacuation of the White House, there will be investigations of how such a thing was allowed to happen. There will also be the inevitable increase of security as the specter of fear is invoked over even more terrorist bogeymen, the latest of which is being reported to make ISIS look like the Boy Scouts. Get used to hearing the word Khorosan because it will be the new fall product of the fear-mongers as the mid-term elections loom and Americans need to be reminded of exactly who it is that is keeping them safe.

The Secret Service is deservedly drawing heavy criticism for allowing the intruder, a disturbed Army veteran named Omar Gonzalez  to actually enter the building at Barry's crib after scaling the fence. It has been revealed that Gonzalez had a "knife" which has been hyped by the lurid and sensationalist US media as though it were a giant machete and he was on a beheading mission. It was actually a "3 inch" knife with a serrated blade or in layman's terms a pocket knife. Anything to ratchet up the fear factor because fear is the coin of the realm these days.

Details have emerged on Gonzalez as are described in the Washington Post story “White House knife-wielder was getting 'weird,' neighbors say”:

He served as a sniper in Iraq, his family said, serving three tours in a war-torn country.

He was discharged in 2012, and was divorced that same year.

He reportedly suffers from post-traumatic stress.

He thought “the atmosphere was collapsing and needed to get the information to the president of the United States so that he could get the word out to the people,” prosecutors said.

For Omar J. Gonzalez, the homeless 42-year-old veteran charged with trespassing and carrying a deadly weapon after jumping the White House fence, things had gone wrong.

“Omar is a good guy; he’s just got some issues that he needs help with,” said Samantha Bell, his ex-wife, told the Associated Press. “I think this is a cry out for help, what he’s done.”

Bell said Gonzalez began toting a .45 at all times. He watched her sleep. He was paranoid.

His neighbors in Copperas Cove, Tex., noticed.

“At the end, he got so weird,” Elke Warner, a former neighbor, said. “He had motion detector lights put in.”

Gonzalez's troubles are a reminder of the struggles that our military folks face when returning from wars abroad to a people who are largely indifferent and a veterans health care system that is seriously broken. It is obvious that the man needed serious help and there are tens if not hundreds of thousands who will never go to the lengths of scaling the White House fence who suffer in quiet desperation. That is however a story for another time as America goes into full blown panic mode again. Security is already being shored up around 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and will likely now include "buffer zones" and the obligatory heavily armed guards to ensure that the king is kept safe.

The increased security should serve as a warning to stay the hell away from the White House. Secret Service will have itchy trigger fingers and be ready to shoot to kill to avenge the embarrassment inflicted upon them after they were punked by Gonzalez. It is entirely within the realm of possibility that there will be another brutal and unnecessary shooting of a civilian. It is the proverbial license to kill.

Recall the story of Miriam Carey, the Connecticut woman who was shot 5 times from behind by Capitol police after a bizarre incident where she hit a White House barrier and then was chased by the Secret Service. Carey, like Gonzalez may have had mental issues - she also had a 1 year old child in the car who survived the hail of gunfire. It will be open season now, especially since a second security breach occurred over the weekend where a man drove his car to the White House gates and refused to leave.

Another interesting aspect of the Gonzalez incident is that it has been reported that he was desperately trying to get a message to Obama himself that "the atmosphere is collapsing". It is not a coincidence that he chose this past weekend to pay his visit as there was a huge march by environmental activists over climate change that took place in New York City. In a way it is kind of ironic in that Obama tried to score some cheap political points last week with his dog and pony show announcement that he was seeking to expedite the phasing out of the refrigerant R-134a. This would be yet another act of economic terrorism against Americans in that the coolant is used in the majority of the nation's automobiles and refrigerators and having to find a substitute or replace the equipment would be extremely costly.

Not that Obama gives a rat's ass about what remains of the decimated middle class - he never did in the first place despite all of that silly-assed hope and change hogwash. Soon he will be out of the White House and free to play golf every day for the rest of his life on the taxpayer dole with the best security that money can buy. He will be yukking it up with his golfing buddies as the carbon jackboot stomps up and down on the faces of Americans.

Strange days indeed.

Saddam's Uranium: The Sequel

"The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa."

-President George W. Bush

The latest escalation of the propaganda war against people desiring a return to some semblance of normalcy as existed prior to September 11, 2001 – the day when everything changed – is the claim that the bad-ass Islamic bogeymen ISIS has taken control of 88 pounds of Uranium in Iraq. The dirty bomb card has now been dealt and will be hyped by the corrupt state-corporate media as one more reason to ratchet down civil liberties, subject citizens to more invasive search and confiscate tactics in airports and most of all serve as a cudgel during the coming election cycle.

The tale of the Iraqi Uranium redux and the weapons of mass destruction threat – remember, we don’t want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud – first surfaced back in June with the story that ISIS had taken control of one of Saddam’s old chemical weapons plants at Muthanna. That one didn’t get much traction other than on selected right-wing echo chamber blogs and bottom-feeder websites because it was hasty and sloppy. The 88 pounds (nice round and memorable number isn’t it?) that are now claimed to have been seized from Mosul University has the official backing of the government of Iraq, the UN Ambassador who per a Reuters story told UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in a recent letter.

The Reuters story, “Exclusive: Iraq tells U.N. that ‘terrorist groups’ seized nuclear weapons” states:

Insurgents in Iraq have seized nuclear materials used for scientific research at a university in the country's north, Iraq told the United Nations in a letter appealing for help to "stave off the threat of their use by terrorists in Iraq or abroad."

Nearly 40 kilograms (88 pounds) of uranium compounds were kept at Mosul University, Iraq's U.N. Ambassador Mohamed Ali Alhakim told U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in the July 8 letter obtained by Reuters on Wednesday.

"Terrorist groups have seized control of nuclear material at the sites that came out of the control of the state," Alhakim wrote, adding that such materials "can be used in manufacturing weapons of mass destruction."

"These nuclear materials, despite the limited amounts mentioned, can enable terrorist groups, with the availability of the required expertise, to use it separate or in combination with other materials in its terrorist acts," said Alhakim.

He warned that they could also be smuggled out of Iraq.

Libertarian financial blog Zero Hedge also cites the story of the 88 pounds of uranium in a posting entitled “ISIS Has Seized 88 Pounds Of Uranium In Northern Iraq” from which I excerpt:

With the mainstream media having moved on in the news cycle to Dow 'almost' 17,000 and the 'Border Crisis' Scandal, it seems The Islamic State (the terrorists formerly known as ISIS) have stepped up their game and come out swinging... by seizing 88 pounds of nuclear material (uranium compounds) from Mosul University. As Iraq's UN Ambassador warned, "these nuclear materials, despite the limited amounts mentioned, "can be used in manufacturing weapons of mass destruction... or in combination with other materials in its terrorist acts."

First, the sitting government of Iraq as besieged as it currently is has a huge interest in putting down the mysterious ISIS eruption so anything that comes out of it, such as claims made by the Iraqi UN Ambassador about 88 pounds of uranium needs to be taken with extreme skepticism. The timing also serves western regimes in Washington and London who are continually confronted with their rogue behavior, specifically NSA/FBI/CIA unconstitutional and unjustifiable surveillance - as in prominent American-Muslim leaders being subjected to targeting because they are Muslims and two US spies turning up within the German government. The renewed threat of that "smoking gun as a mushroom cloud" gives the ruling regimes of both nations an excuse to rebut critics and launch a crackdown in the always invoked interests of "national security". This is already happening in the UK where Prime Minister David Cameron has called for an emergency law to circumvent the process in order to lock their surveillance systems into place as a matter of protecting the populace from "terrorists" (never mind that the real terrorists are embedded in the increasingly Norsefire leaning government) and using ISIS as the excuse.

The Obama administration hasn't gone that route yet but it's coming and if it isn't Obama then it will be Republicans in Congress after they retake the Senate in November and begin the impeachment proceedings. Having a dirty bomb go off  - or better yet, an alleged plot being foiled -would be an enormous boon to the security state apparatus and will provide Republicans with the added charge that Obama "did not keep America safe from the terrorists". The chatter from those seemingly in the know, for example Dick Cheney with his promise of a new 9/11 and Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham is extremely suspicious and grows louder with each subsequent Sunday morning bloviation circuit cycle.

The story of the 88 pounds of death and destruction though, at least of this morning is primarily being promulgated once again on right-wing blogs and websites such as The Gateway Pundit with “Caliphate Goes Nuclear”, Free Republic with “ISIS has seized 88 pounds of Uranium in Northern Iraq” (taken from Zero Hedge) and trashy site BuzzFeed with “ISIS Militants Seize Nuclear Materials in Iraq that Could Be Used for WMD’s”, It has all of the hallmarks of one of those propaganda dispersals that were commonplace during the Bushreich and nothing could be better for the future prospects of Republicans than to resuscitate that monster again. Not that the Democrats don't deserve to be nailed to the wall on their abysmal record on "terrorism" - Obama has vastly expanded the surveillance state, formally put into law the right of the president to have American citizens extra-judicially killed and continued the meddling in the Middle East that does the exact opposite of win hearts and minds. - The administration is also standing by while Israeli extremist nutjob Bibi Netanyahu is engaging in another bloody attack on Gaza after his demagoguery over the tragic abduction and murder of three young Jews that created a climate of racism and lust for blood vengeance much like the one that gripped the USA! USA! USA! after 9/11.  While the nature of ISIS itself is still unknown as to the origin, funding and state backing behind it the region continues on a slow rolling boil. 

Onward goes this sweltering summer of fear...