Whatever Happened to the Commons, or Democracy Inaction

Obama in the Sights

Old news by now, but still interesting.

This:

Ever since she realized back in early March that Obama was going to take the nomination Hillary Clintons long-term strategy has been to do her best to ensure McCain will win this November so she can become the Democratic nominee in 2012. But she had a short term strategy too and on Friday she deliberately made it explicit in a newspaper office in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. There she suggested that some is likely to step up to the plate and assassinate Barack Obama in the waning moments of the California primary, just as Bobby Kennedy was forty years go almost to the day. The wish is mother to the deed. If anything does happen to Obama in California Mrs Clinton should surely be indicted as a co-conspirator.

How to else construe her grotesque remarks in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, in the editorial offices of the Argus Leader newspaper. Here she told the editors, "My husband did not wrap up the nomination in 1992 until he won the California primary somewhere in the middle of June, right? We all remember Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June in California. I don't understand it," she said, dismissing calls to drop out.

There is no other way to construe these sentences, not thrown over her shoulder on a campaign walk, but delivered in measured tones to the Argus-Leader editorial board, but to interpret them as Mrs Clintons more or less explicit statement that she is spending a million a day just to keep her hat in the ring because Obama might well get killed.
Alexander Cockburn: Death-Wish Hillary Primes Manchurian Candidate.

Then this:

Fox News Jokes About Killing Obama

To paraphrase Clausewitz: Assassination is not a mere act of policy but a true political instrument, a continuation of political activity by other means.

Welcome to Rome, 2008.

The Midas Touch: An Example of how Golem's POV Co-Opts Any Movement

Note: Annotational emphasis is mine.

Michael Moore making '9/11' sequel

Documentary to be released in 2009
(Variety, May 13)
By PAMELA MCCLINTOCK, ANNE THOMPSON

Michael Moore is making a sequel to "Fahrenheit 9/11" for Overture Films and Paramount Vantage, which will shop the project to international buyers when the Cannes Film Festival and market get under way today.

The two companies are co-financing and co-producing the untitled doc, which will be released next year. Overture will distribute the film domestically, while Vantage will handle international.

Moore may be leaving the Weinstein Co. -- where he made his last two films, including "Fahrenheit 9/11" -- but Overture and Vantage are no strangers to the filmmaker. Overture CEO Chris McGurk and chief operating officer Danny Rosett were both at MGM and United Artists, home of Moore's "Bowling for Columbine."

Moore also knows Vantage topper Nick Meyer, former president of Lionsgate's international arm. Lionsgate teamed with Bob and Harvey Weinstein and distributed "Fahrenheit 9/11" after Disney refused to let Miramax do so. Lionsgate again teamed with the Weinsteins to distribute Moore's most recent docu, "Sicko."

"Fahrenheit 9/11," a scathing indictment of George W. Bush's war on terrorism and a hit at the worldwide box office, won the coveted Palme d'Or at Cannes in 2004. "Bowling for Columbine" also played at Cannes, and "Sicko" preemed at the fest last year.

Moore's new doc could play at Cannes next year, if it isn't released earlier in the spring. He's already at work on the film.

"Clearly, we have a movie of global appeal here. Michael Moore is a very talented filmmaker, and this is a branded property," Meyer said, adding that the Weinsteins helped build that brand.

Sequel will pick up where "Fahrenheit 9/11" left off. In the time since, Bush's popularity has plummeted, while the Iraq war continues and the economy falters.

"It's a vote of confidence on Michael's part and a great partnership for all of us," Rosett said. "There is a voracious appetite for this kind of commentary."

Moore has made three of the five top-grossing documentaries of all time. "Fahrenheit 9/11" is the highest-grossing docu ever domestically, earning $119.1 million. It grossed another $100 million at the international box office.

Moore's decision not to make his next film with the Weinstein Co. comes after "Sicko" failed to ignite at the box office. Film, which took on the U.S. health care system, grossed $24.5 million domestically and $11.2 million internationally. Topically, the film didn't resonate with overseas auds.

Deal strengthens the relationship between Vantage and Overture. Last year, the two entered into an exclusive international distribution deal that gives Overture access to Vantage's international sales division, as well as the distrib arm of Paramount Pictures Intl.

Vantage will likely keep distribution rights to certain overseas territories after selling off the rest.

Bob and Harvey Weinstein will get an exec producing credit.

Corporate Profits Threatened by Heinous Theft of a Sixteen-Cent Blob of Dough

Fired? Fired?! She should have been thrown in jail! Take her kids away from her! Let's bring back stoning for chrissakes!

Tim Hortons fires single mom over free Timbit

May 08, 2008 04:30 AM
The Canadian Press

LONDON, Ont.Giving a free Timbit to a baby has cost a single mother of four her job.

Nicole Lilliman, 27, was fired yesterday from her Tim Hortons job for giving one of the 16-cent blobs of fried dough to a tot.

"I have been fired for giving a baby a Timbit," Lilliman said yesterday.

"It was just out of my heart she was pointing and going `ah, ah...' I should have gone to my purse and got the change, but it was busy."

Lilliman, who has worked at the store for three years, said she thought little of the incident since Timbits are often doled out to dogs and children.

She said the baby was about 11 months old, and she gave her the treat to quiet her, since her mom a Tims' regular had been ``having a bad day."

"I could see (the dismissal) if it was a sandwich or something," she said. "But it was a Timbit."

Three managers greeted her yesterday, saying she had been caught on video giving free food to a child.

"They said, `Remember, Monday you gave out a free Timbit,' " she said.

"I had to think, then I was like, `Oh yeah,' and I smiled because I thought I'd get a warning."

Instead, she was fired for theft.

Giving food away is against the rules, said Tim Hortons district manager Nicole Mitchell.

The Timbits given to pets, Mitchell added, are usually "day-old and recycled."

Oh, but wait, there's more.

Tim Hortons rehires Timbit donor

May 08, 2008 10:14 AM
Curtis Rush
STAFF REPORTER

A day after she was fired for giving away a single Timbit to a child, a Tim Hortons employee in London, Ont., has her job back.

Nicole Lilliman, a single mother of four, has been rehired at another Tim Hortons restaurant after what the chain described as an overreaction by a manager.

Lilliman was fired yesterday after she was seen giving one of the small blobs of fried dough to a small child who came in with a regular customer on Monday.

The 27-year-old woman, who worked at the outlet for three years, said she didnt see any harm in giving away the 16-cent treat, since Timbits are often doled out to children and dogs.

But a manager fired Lilliman after telling her that giving food away free was against the rules.

Hours later, Lilliman received a call offering her a job at another Tim Hortons store.

"She wasn't comfortable returning to the same location, so she has been rehired at another location but with the same franchise owner," said Tim Hortons spokesperson Rachel Douglas.

Douglas said Lilliman was very "gracious" in accepting the offer, and will be repaid for any loss in pay.

Tim Hortons does not have a corporate policy governing the giving away of doughnuts, Douglas said, adding that franchise owners are free to set their own policies.

"We're working with the store owner on this policy, she said, calling Lillimans firing an overreaction and not appropriate.

At worst, she said Lilliman should have been warned about the owner's policy.

Douglas also said it's common for Timbits to be given away if they are day-olds.

"This incident was very disappointing for us," she said.

Clearly justice has not triumphed. The manager who original fired that vicious felon should be promoted for her zealous diligence. Instead criminal behaviour is rewarded. Absolutely disgraceful... it sends the wrong message. It's a sad day for capitalism.

itsaNaziWorldOrder

I tend to find the comments at Common Dreams far more interesting and insightful than the articles.

There are some commenters there I love reading for their intelligence, insight, articulateness, and passion: luckylefty, COMark, RichM, galen, bakunin, and a few others.

Today is the first day I've seen comments from someone named itsaNaziWorldOrder (commenting at this article). Not only are his analyses in line with mine, but he extends them further along the same vectors, bringing something new to the mix, a frisson that I find both enticing and... troubling? Are his analyses too astute? I can't help but wonder...

Insider or PsyOp?

Astute Analysis or TinFoil Hat?

Political Fact or Convincing Storytelling?

You decide:

• itsaNaziWorldOrder May 6th, 2008 11:59 am
  

  I was heavily involved with Iranian opposition leaders prior to Khomeini's return and also related to many who held positions of influence under the Shah.
  
  And, it is without question that what was being sold on the world's stage, in our CIA run and corporate run media is very far from the truth.
  
  It is a matter of accepted history that MI6 and the CIA orchestrated a coup to oust Mossadegh and replace him with the second Pahlavi.
  
  This puppeted government of the Shah was completely administered by foreign secret services and business interests. During the Shah's tenure, a brutal domestic secret service operation kept dissidents and opposition in check by the use of torture, assassinations, strict information control (prison sentences could even be meted out for having the wrong book in possession when crossing the border into Iran) and just as strictly controlled access to economic and social advancement.
  
  Iran was a country ruled by an elite for the elite.
  
  When the revolution came, it was a surprise to many to see the sudden and overwhelming popularity of Khomeini. And many Iranians living outside Iran as students, etc. were surprised by the sudden dominance of Khomeini.
  
  And I think it has to be asked, why Khomeini? Was it because the people were so devout they would only accept a religious leader with opposition credentials? What about Khomeinis time of exile in Iraq? Saddam was actually assisted to power (like the Shah) by foreign secret services including the CIA. Why would Khomeini be so much safer in Iraq?
  
  My own observations and years of experience since have convinced me that the Islamic 'revolution' was entirely staged for the same reasons that the Taliban was created, to revision a society and ready it for war-making programs and demonizing on the world's stage.
  
  Furthermore, my personal involvement with these events has revealed how deceitful the histories written have been... such as complete fabrication of events with believable but entirely fallacious character profiles.
  
  Iran is a pawn in the game of genocide. The Iran-Iraq war, largely administered for the fun and profits of the world's elite was being run in Iran by German secret services and in Iraq by the CIA.
  
  Iran today, like times before, is an exercise in the war-maker's art. And the people of Iran have as little to do with events unfolding in their lives as you and I do with the GMO programs that put sub-standard food on our shelves and bankrupt local economies around the world.
  



• itsaNaziWorldOrder May 6th, 2008 12:54 pm
  

  "War is still the only game worth playing."
  
  Cyrus Samrad, Iranian industrialist, foreign secret service collaborator and US State Department favorite.
  
  The war games of the elite consider the 'riff raff' of nations, disposable goods.
  
  Said with a grin, "My people are happier when they are hungry, they don't complain so much." Cyrus Samrad
  
  Could the international elite find a better 'comprador' to administer their interests?
  
  What do you think such people think and do when they operating in this country and other places outside Iran? Their money is being used to bribe local officials, and engage in many other heinous crimes to defeat community vitality and maximize their own profits and fun.
  
  But, these are not the Iranian people, they are the parasitic Iranian super-elite and the very ones who help set the stage for the Iranian masses to be genocided.



• itsaNaziWorldOrder May 6th, 2008 1:49 pm
  

  >"And this ENTIRE enterprise ABSOLUTELY DEPENDS on one thing.
  >
  >Petroleum. And the access and control of it."
  
  Wrong again! Oil dependency itself was a planned outcome. Truly one needs to go back yet further to watch how various programs in different parts of the world perfectly dovetailed to bring about near world-wide oil dependency.
  
  Oil production in the Middle East has ALWAYS been a highly controlled industry. Puppet regimes are in place to provide a credible shield for the machinations of international corporate interest. And they have no power whatsoever to affect oil production, pricing or distribution.
  
  You are told they have but it is false. What moneys Saudis (and others) receive for oil, is spent according to strict guidelines established by international elitist interests; what they consider innocuous or beneficial-to-themselves expenditures.
  
  Since early last century, all Middle Eastern oil (and the phony political institutions set-up to provide cover) has been controlled by the same European cartel and their American partners.
  
  The economic justification for political unrest (fostered by the elite) is just another smokescreen and one being used to make war (genocide) more palatable to those being sent to fight it or being taxed to support it.
  
  These ridiculous lies have all have one thing in common; they help create the illusion that war has some economic or political justification outside the interests of a tiny group of elite war-planners.
  
  War profits are huge! But the exercise of totalitarian power is the real interest of those who orchestrate wars. Those who are its victims are left completely incapacitated and readied for 'new' scripting. Think about it.
  
  Genocide is the process whereby the aspirations and potentials of individuals and/or groups are defeated. It involves numbers of community-defeating programs, all of which we can witness being used to defeat any hope of sustainability or individuality in people around the world, and Iran is certainly no exception.
  
  Until the idea of government as a good for the people is replaced with an understanding of our actual government as a protection for an elite power model to maintain and extend control, we have no hope of understanding the total lies from which all wars (genocides) spring.
  
  Indeed, 9/11 (as pretty much everyone knows) was an 'inside job'. It helped provide justification for intensifying the genocide in Iraq and facilitated the surveillance programs and terror programs that have all but silenced genuine opposition to this international Nazi War Machine.



• itsaNaziWorldOrder May 6th, 2008 2:16 pm
  

  > "One thing the rich filth hadnt counted on was food shortages coming so soon. They also are probably a little surprised by the timing of the upcoming worldwide economic collapse."
  
  They not only count on it, they have orchestrated it! Recently a documentary called "The World According to Monsanto" came out, and then was removed from Google video. Try to find it. It is one of the most important documentaries you will ever watch.
  
  I also generally post this link on hunger from Food First http://foodfirst.org/en/12myths It is an excellent treatment of the subject and quite credibly reveals that most of the assumptions we have been taught regarding food shortages are balderdash.
  
  As for economic collapse...
  
  I was in Argentina a few years after the peso collapsed. There I met a man, Jim Sass, who was a retired naval officer and whose wife was a former US embassy attaché and who had worked in US embassies in Russia and China.
  
  Wow! What stories I could tell! Suffice it to say that they were in Argentina picking over the recently fallen plums (farms, wineries, etc.) and making international deals with the spoils. One day after taking us to see his new and fabulous estate, he said rather proudly, "I was the one who came up with the plan for the collapse of the peso!" (So, those of you who thought it was due to Argentinas corrupt politicians and other bunglers of state... well, they would not be there if they were not willing to be complicit... but Argentina's peso tanked due to a 'low-intensity warfare' hit, plain and simple!)
  
  What benefit does this have for the people of the US? Absolutely none! For, it is also in the interests of these megalomaniacs to insure uncontested markets for their ill-gotten goods... which means local economies are undercut to insure a market monopoly/dominance.



• itsaNaziWorldOrder May 6th, 2008 2:44 pm
  

  
  > "The current war may be about oil, but let's not forget that conflict with the Middle East now is a thousand years ongoing and it's about religion."
  
  Wars throughout the world including the Middle East are certainly more than a thousand years old and they have NEVER been about religion... but, religion has certainly been used time and again to embroil the unwitting in the war-making machinations of the empire builders.
  
  Let's look at recent history... Afghanistan.
  
  The Taliban are being funded with American and British funds distributed with the help of Pakistani intelligence. Brezinski is generally credited with the plan to convert Afghanistan to a nation of 'Islamic' fanatics.
  
  Textbooks to help revision Afghanistan to a 'fundamentalist' Islamic state were written in Michigan!! Sociologists, psychologists, anthropologists and others are often involved in research and projects that are funded and/or guided by military interests.
  
  Minority tribes in Vietnam were studied by US professors at Berkeley for instance during US involvement there to better understand how to approach minority groups (and enlist their support) to facilitate the general chaos being implemented across Indochinese societies.
  
  Religion is a tool of social demarcation, factioning. It is played and highlighted as the case may be to increase mis-understandings between and fear in target populations. Another useful tool in the war-makers chest is Gladio-style terrorism. Random acts of incredible violence that can then be blamed on the group one is attempting to demonize (9/11 is a perfect case in point).
  
  A few years back, as many will remember, Iraqi terrorists were caught and Oops! They turned out to be British agents!



• itsaNaziWorldOrder May 6th, 2008 3:07 pm
  

  > "By the Rules of Recopricity it is America that should be overthrown."
  
  'America' is being overthrown. Our currency is being eroded, and since I had been told it would be brought to ten percent of its current value (that was three years ago), I think we are only in the beginning phase.
  
  Opportunity (capital investment) outside the corporate structure is tightly controlled by a banking establishment that is fully integrated within the military/polices state hierarchy.
  
  Everywhere across society the military is stepping in to offer 'jobs' to those who can't find work.
  
  The sustainability of communities is under complete attack and the corporations have nearly vanquished all independent operators... FBI surveillance is regular around the clock with high-tech laden reconnaissance flights over all major US cities.
  
  And on and on and on...
  
  What can we do? First, nothing stupid. COINTELPRO is alive and well and much better funded with many more agents at work and much more surveillance and offensive tools at its disposal, and government sponsored assassinations are still undertaken in American society.
  
  http://www.monitor.net/monitor/9905a/jbcointelpro.html



• itsaNaziWorldOrder May 6th, 2008 3:12 pm
  

  > "Wow- the conspiracy afficionado's really came out of the woodwork on this one."
  
  My credentials are very solid. I have to go to a meeting but you can ask whatever you like by way of verification and I will answer when I return.
  
  My reports (commnets) are focused on experiences I personally had with some of people who were certainly key players behind the scenes of community shattering events.
  



• itsaNaziWorldOrder May 6th, 2008 8:03 pm
  

  > "You ask us to believe that a secret held by thousands has been perfectly kept (and in the utter absence of proof to the contrary)."
  
  My personal experience with the ‘need to know’ community is that they keep secrets incredibly well. One of the reasons that has occurred to me for this is that they love identifying as one of those ‘in the know’ (and chosen to play ‘in the game’ too).
  
  Somehow this translates into making them feel ’special’ and empowered.
  
  BTW, these qualities are a matter of assessment for many psychological tests. So there is not as much risk as one might guess.
  
  Do you really suppose that FBI undercover operators go to the local bar and talk about their top secret stalking and surveillance operations? What about top secret biological warfare experiments? Or past MK-Ultra experiments? etc., etc., etc.
  
  Being a part of a 'team' so to speak is sufficient generally to make people WANT to keep those secrets with which they have been entrusted… a matter to many of personal 'honor' or accomplishment but also as one very necessary 'entrance fee' for be allowed to remain within that select group.
  
  Reporters working on a newspaper often have this sense of ‘being on the inside’ as do many people in many professions. No, keeping a secret, especially one that you share with friends (co-conspirators) is not only easy, for many it is great fun, and important to personal and group bonding.
  
  Thousands of people in on the planning of 9/11? You mean the Ten Thousand Club? Those who managed to pass every security test? Hmm… It’s a badge of personal honor even if only the select initiates can recognize each other.
  
  And, opening ones mouth about a state secret (after taking an oath of secrecy) could get one killed…



• itsaNaziWorldOrder May 6th, 2008 8:40 pm
  

  In reference to the Iranian ‘revolution’:
  
  “In the end, you will find that England was behind it.”
  
  Cyrus Samrad, 1983
  
  Please consider what role England played in genociding thousands of Indian tribes and nations in the Americas (not to mention the destructions of the natural environments) and the subsequent establishment of ‘democratic’ institutions… and even the funding of BOTH sides of the ‘American’ ‘revolution’…
  
  And now consider England’s role in establishing Israel… a plum by any standards in the war-maker’s tool chest…
  
  If one could look at the picture from all global sides; the US and Israel seem more like instruments than architects, each with their own specialized functions.

For the after-dinner mint here's this comment, posted at the same article, that confirms many of itsaNaziWorldOrder's veil-shattering assertions.

Q: When you take the red pill, do you see things as they are, or does the mind-altering result only present you with a different hallucination?

• MiMiCcS May 6th, 2008 9:00 pm
  

  We are essentially just another commonwealth nation of the British Empire, we do the dirt work for them, and our leaders that do good get knighted by the Queen.
  
  You should read “A Century of War” by William Engdahl.
  
  http://nyc.indymedia.org/en/2008/02/94746.html
  
  “It Began in November 1978 with a White House Iran task force that recommended Washington end support for the Shah and replace him with Ayatollah Khomeini, then living in France. It would be by the same type coup that overthrew the Iranian government in 1953 along with broader aims that again are in play in the region.
  
  Key then (and now) was to balkanize the Middle East along tribal and religious lines - a simple divide and conquer strategy that worked in the 1990s Balkan wars. The aim was to create an “Arc of Crisis” that would spread to Central Asia and the Soviet Union. Another 1978 event highlighted the urgency. At the time, the Shah was negotiating a 25-year oil agreement with British Petroleum (BP), but talks broke down in October. BP demanded exclusive rights to future Iranian output but refused to guarantee oil purchases. The Shah balked and was on the verge of independently seeking new buyers with eager ones lined up in Germany, France, Japan and elsewhere.
  
  Washington and London were alarmed and acted. They implemented destabilization plans, starting with cutting Iranian oil purchases. Economic pressures followed, and trained US and UK agitators exacerbated them by fanning religious discontent and overall turmoil. Oil strikes as well were used. They crippled production and made things worse. American security advisors recommended Iran’s Savak secret police use repressive tactics to maximize antipathy to the Shah. The Carter administration cynically protested human rights abuses, and BBC correspondents exaggerated anti-Shah protests to rev up hysteria against him. At the same time, it gave Khomeini an open platform to speak and prevented the Shah from replying.
  
  Things came to a head in January, 1979 when he fled the country, and Khomeini returned to Tehran and proclaimed a theocratic state. Chaos was unleashed, and by May the new regime cancelled plans for further nuclear reactor development. At the same time, Iran’s oil exports were cut off, and the Saudis inexplicably cut their own in January. Spot prices skyrocketed, and a second oil shock ensued that was as deviously conceived as the first one. Then it got worse. In October, newly appointed Fed Chairman Paul Volker unleashed a new scheme that turned calamity into catastrophe by design.
  
  It was a radical new monetary policy on the pretext of “squeezing inflation out of the system.” In fact, it was made-in-Washington fraud to preserve dollar hegemony, make it the world’s most sought currency, and crush industrial growth to let political and financial power prop up dollar strength. Volker succeeded by raising interest rates from 10% to 16% and finally 20% in weeks. World policy makers were stunned, economies plunged into the deepest recession since the 1930s, and the dollar began an extraordinary five year ascent.
  
  The combined effect of oil and Volker shocks took “the bloom off the nuclear rose” and ended its threat to Anglo-American oil supremacy. And if more was needed it came on March 28, 1979 in the middle of Pennsylvania at a place called Three Mile Island. Conveniently, at the same time The China Syndrome was released that fictionalized the ongoing event. The combined effect was public hysteria, and later investigation revealed critical valves had illegally been closed. In addition, FEMA controlled all news to create panic. The scheme worked, and Anglo-American supremacy was reasserted over the industrial and financial world. Nothing is stable forever, however, and within a decade new rumblings would be felt.
  
  Imposing the New World Order
  
  The combined effects of two oil shocks and resulting inflation created a new US “landed aristocracy” while the vast majority of Americans saw their living standards sink. It was the same type scheme Margaret Thatcher imposed on Britain when she declared “there is no alternative.” Preaching free market hokum, she claimed deficit spending was the culprit, not two oil shocks causing 18% UK inflation. Her remedy - kill the patient to save it by cutting the money supply and government spending while sharply hiking interest rates to 17% in weeks, thereby causing depression she called the “Thatcher revolution.” Engdahl had another view saying: “Never in modern history had an industrialized nation undergone such (a counterproductive) shock” in so short a time, except in wartime emergency. Thatcher crushed the economy by design the way Volker did in America.”
  
  The Bilderbergers and TLC want 200 dollar a barrel oil. Striking Iran will get us there, and then they will Volckerize the US economy with high interest rates as in the 80’s and destroy whats left of it, and set the stage for martial law to quell the food riots and One World Government will be ushered in to fill the vacuum.