LINO – Libertarian In Name Only

ORLANDO, Florida – Barely twenty-four hours in and already the Libertarian party of two thousand and sixteen is starting to experience dissention in the ranks.

Over Memorial day weekend Libertarians came together from across the country and around the world to nominate their president and vice presidential candidates at their annual national party convention. And for many the top of the ticket for the fall and the general election season is troubling, deeply troubling.

Many Libertarians say that with the assention of former Massachusetts Governor William Weld to the vice presidency that it will just give the North American Union types and Wall Street Big Money Donors a paper tiger in a Gary Johnson administration, should he win the presidency in the fall.

Because from sun-drenched Florida and the grave of the late great Economist Harry Browne, the 1996 and 2000 Libertarian party nominee for President of the United States of America, you can hear the battle cry of LINO – Libertarian In Name Only!

No doubt the Johnson-Weld ticket will tell Libertarians and you fellow voter nothing could be further from the truth. No paper tigers here, no LINO’s allowed! And so it will go, no?

But lets look at it from this perspective for just a minute, shall we? My prediction is that the Johnson-Weld ticket will be Libertarian-lite in that they’ll run under the Libertarian party banner but will, instead, draw from the well of the Never Trump Never Hillary movements in a kind of “A Coalition of the Willing.” Or as Bill Clinton and Dick Morris did so infamously in the 1990’s, “Triangulation.”

Seeking out those disgruntled and disavowed  Democrats and Republicans who just can’t stand the idea, much less stomach it, of another Clinton or that for matter a Donald J. Trump in The White House.

Or, maybe not? Maybe just maybe it’s what they all really want, and it’s just going to be made to look like it’s not? Just so the media, talking-heads, politicos and party bosses can have something to talk about on the nightly news.

In either case I like Bill Weld and have enormous respect for Gary Johnson, ever since 2011 when he first ran for the presidency. Then as now Johnson stands for some of the same things that I do, but with Charles and David Koch, through Bill Weld, pulling on Johnson like he’s a puppet and they’re the masters even I can’t stomach that!

I hate Charles and David Koch with every fiber of my being for what they have done to this great country of ours and this beautiful world in which we all live. They are evil incarnate, in my opinion, and hell itself would be a far worse place with them in it.

I call LINO – Libertarian in Name Only! And for those disgruntled and disaffected Libertarians I offer this as your Battle Cry:

Hold fast, and as Jesse Ventura says, “Stay Vigilant…”

–Rhett.

‘Justice Delayed, Justice Denied’ … CIA Torture Report, REPORTEDLY, Being Delayed Until After Election Day 2014 ..

U.S. Senator Dianne G.B. Feinstein, Democrat – California

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Its being widely reported that the White House is ‘angling’ to have the CIA ‘Torture Report’ delayed, yet again, until after the Election of 2014 when it is predicted that the Republicans will take over the United States Senate and ‘kill’ the release of the report ‘altogether’.

Senator Feinstein, Chairwoman of the Select Committee for Intelligence in the United States Senate, its reported is doing all that she can to get the White House to release the report anyway but, White House Chief of Staff Dennis McDonough, who is a staunch Allie of C.I.A. Director John O. Brennan,privately, wants the report delayed until after the election thus ensuring, to Brennan’s relief, the killing off of the reports’ release by Allied Republicans in the United States Senate.

IF, I was an Establishment guy you wouldn’t hear much less read a hard word one from me on such a rumored effort. In fact all you would hear would be crickets.

But and you know that I am anything but an Establishment guy and anything but quiet.

If true, IF TRUE NOW, because there are two sides to every story and we have not officially heard from the President on this alleged delay. Yet. But if true then this latest delay would explain a lot.

The Obama Administration thinks it safe, thinks it cover IF the Republicans should win the Senate in November. That the war hawks, namely, Senators McCain, Graham and Ayotte. Will ‘hold the political line’. Recite, chapter and verse, about how that the ‘surge worked’. Gen. David Petraeus was a ‘hero’. And that the George W. Bush Administration was right when they said, “that if we don’t fight them over there then we will be fighting them over here.”

And so it goes. …

Mr. Abu Zubaydah, indefinite detention (‘prolonged detention’) candidate from 2003 to 2008 …

Tonight and off and on throughout the day yesterday certain social media circles were awash with, “Is Obama really a Republican?”

“Is he covering for the Bush Administration because he likes their policies on torture?” Yet still and all in other circles it was remarked that, “Obama is just trying to figure out how best to release this report.”

Or, “He’s just trying to do right by the Intelligence Community.”

And so it goes. …

I would like to believe the later and not the former. I’d like to believe that President Obama has our best interests at heart when it comes to such things. That he would and will honor the remainder of his 2008 presidential campaign platform. That ‘the oceans will begin to heal … prolonged and perpetual wars will end … I will prosecute George W. Bush and (my cousin) Richard B. Cheney for war crimes’.

“With Liberty and Justice For Some: How the Law is Used To Destroy Equality and Protect and Powerful…” By Glenn Greenwald

But I am reminded of the man who said, “politicians campaign in poetry and govern in prose.”

I am also reminded of how President Obama said, “(9/11 is over,) Osama bin Laden is dead, Al Qaeda is on the run, and GM is alive and well…”

Based on these things and more the so-called War on Terror should be over. Git-Mo forever closed. We closed Abu Ghraib why can’t we close Git-Mo? Oh wait, now I remember, John McCain would have a fit if Git-Mo was closed. Lindsey Graham would have to have him committed. And such pressure can’t be expected to be placed on Lindsey Graham. Although Kelly Ayotte might give you odds for the commitment of both. But I digress.

U.S. Senator John S. McCain, Republican-Arizona

In my opinion this President has given ‘creative license’, cart blanch to the MK-Ultra – Military Industrialist Complex – Police State Faction of Government the all-important opportunities to lie, cheat, steal, kill and destroy the whole of humanity for the sake of ‘keeping America(ns) safe’. And it’s for crap! It’s for crap folks. Don’t you dare believe the hype.

Don’t be fooled by this tripe. This rock gut about ‘keeping America(ns) safe’. You know better. I know better. John O. Brennan and the Torture State have killed more modern men then small pox. Mr. Obama knows it. Knows that with his help, James Clapper’s direction and Richard B. Cheney’s tutelage John Brennan was groomed to drone the free world away while listening in to your and my cellphone conversations.

From the ‘Leave your Drones At Home’ Rally of 2013; Washington, D.C. …

Permitted under presidential edict to reduce modern man to his knees while the Rothschild Zionists rape our charred remains and get rich while they do it.

But we are to complain not. Just bend over, grab the ankles, turn our heads and cough. We can’t be allowed or permitted to hold our representative government to account. ‘Justice delayed is justice denied’ folks!

Wake up! Come too. Snap out of it. Quit laying their and taking it. Quit swallowing what is left of your self-esteem, your self-respect and on November the 4th 2014 go to the polls and vote. VOTE! Vote for freedom. Vote for justice. Vote for accountability.

Send Mr. Obama & Company a clear and conscience message that we will not tolerate this any longer. That by our vote we hold you in dereliction of duty. Until then though, “Good night and good luck fellow Citizens of Earth…”–Rhett.

#Blog: “The ‘ACCIDENTAL’ Statesman..” By Rhett E. Column, #CIAtorturereport, #AXJ, #SWN

Former President of the United States of America, Harry S. Truman…

“..which the White House accidentally emailed to an Associated Press reporter…” — The White House Report on Torture, “Bush-era tactics…”… has been leaked?!?!

 

WASHINGTON, D.C. — I just finished reading an article from MSN News Services, via Reuters and the AP on the so-called Bush-era torture programs/enhanced interrogation techniques during the early days of the War on Terror and I must say I am experiencing and have been experiencing a myriad of emotions, a veritable roller coaster ride of feelings on this pending report for the last two weeks.

I cannot, for the life of me, figure out what, respectfully, Mr. Obama & Co. are hiding? Why the need to delay, and deny the American people, their right to know? Additionally why the need to provide cover for the Intelligence Community? Finally why, in this article I read, was a pending report from out of the White House, “accidentally emailed” to an Associated Press reporter?

These are but some of the many questions some of the many points of emotion I have been wrestling with, and again, for the last two weeks.

And so it goes…

I learned something this week and I also want to correct, publicly now, a record of standing I have long-held against a former President of these United States, Dwight Eisenhower. I contended that it was former President Eisenhower who started the C.I.A., it was not. It was in fact Harry Truman who started the C.I.A., BUT and his later years he, like so many of us do, had a change of heart on all things Central Intelligence Agency. Here, is where the change of heart began.

And so it goes…

I said all that to say this. The White House, more importantly this President, Barack H. Obama, II., and the honorable, had better come clean. He has but two whole handfuls of months left in his presidency to serve. He has a real opportunity. A real chance to level the playing field to correct the record as it were for the good of all mankind. To become something far more than what I have titled him under this #blogpost as, an ‘ACCIDENTAL’ Statesman.

President Barack H. Obama, II, 2012 Democratic National Convention…

“I’ve studied the Constitution as a student, I’ve taught it as a teacher, I’ve been bound by it as a lawyer and a legislator. I took an oath to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution as Commander-in-Chief, and as a citizen, I know that we must never, ever, turn our back on its enduring principles for expedience sake.” — President Obama, 2009 Speech on National Security

 

THIS PRESIDENT, needs to hear from the American people TODAY on this vitally important issue.  He needs to be reminded of the words, the oath he took on behalf of the American people! To stand up for the Rule of Law and to adhere, strictly and always, to its concepts, precepts and edicts. Without fail or exception. Because and forthwith ,”the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few or the one in this case.” Bottom line.

Because, and I will close with this. Comments such as these from online news articles, though good and very informative, WILL NOT suffice,

“The report does not draw the legal conclusion that the CIA’s actions constituted torture, though it makes clear that in some cases they amounted to torture by a common definition, two people who have read the report said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the still-classified document publicly by name.

The Senate report, the State Department proposes to say, “leaves no doubt that the methods used to extract information from some terrorist suspects caused profound pain, suffering and humiliation. It also leaves no doubt that the harm caused by the use of these techniques outweighed any potential benefit.”

Those methods included slapping, humiliation, exposure to cold, sleep deprivation and the near-drowning technique known as waterboarding.

The White House document is significant because it also reveals some of the State Department’s concerns about how the CIA’s tactics will be portrayed around the world.”

 

COMMENTS like these, for me at least, add up to duck and cover, run and hide, that age-old game of cat and mouse, that has been played throughout history both time and memorial by our fathers, grandfathers and forebears. The Cold War is over folks!

Yet Barack Obama, it appears wants to do nothing more than allow the Intelligence Community to play with the lives, fortunes and sacred honors of We The American People. It would appear to me, in the very least, that ,his attitude and actions of late, the Constitutional Law Professor has an obligatory disdain for the Rule of Law. It says, by his actions, that the Intelligence Community could give a fat rat’s rectum less about the Rule of Law OR that they only care about the Rule of Law when it is more than conveniently necessary for them to do so.

Such an attitude, such an approach toward governance and toward the everyday people who elected him to high office amounts to what Hollywood calls, “creative license”. And creative license will not cut it Mr. President! Respectfully.

Peace.

–Rhett.

 

#Blog: “Mr. President, “TEAR DOWN THIS WALL!”…” By Rhett E. Column, #SWN #AXJ

Any day now President Barack Obama will be releasing a formal report on the ‘Bush-era’ C.I.A. torture memo. But already ‘push back’ looms long and large from within and out of the Intelligence Community. They do not want President Obama to release a report that just may paint them and in fact certain members of the Bush Administration in an unfavorable light.

And they have done and will continue to do all they can to keep the president from releasing that report in full, unmolested and unrequited. Such is disturbing. Makes one wonder or at least stop for a minute and ask yourself, “What are they hiding?”  “Why the secrecy?”

Believe it or not a great opportunity has been presented to this president, laid really, on his door step. The chance to tell-all, come clean or at least wipe the slate clean for, and of all people, the Intelligence Community itself.

You see the Intel community ,since Harry Truman was President, has always wanted to be the hero, the savior of the free world. To be painted in a positive a light as possible. Someone or at the very least some thing that never ever does a darn thing wrong. Bottom line.

Try as they may, try as a setting President might though, the Intelligence Community, the C.I.A., period, is anything but a hero to all and most certainly not a true friend to the law.

Besides if they were such the heroes as they wish to be portrayed it would be proven out both time and memorial ,in the body of their work. You would find no holes in the spying process. No need for secrecy. No need for subterfuge. Just plain, good ole fashioned excellent police work all the way around. Above board, and most certainly above reproach. There would never ever be the need for such a report to be released by the White House, by the Office of the President. No need for a near raping of Congressional staffers by C.I.A. people just because they turned a computer on.

And so it goes….

To that end I would like to invite and encourage you all to encourage the President to release this report unredacted. No freckles. No frills. No fringes. Just the plain truth of the matter. If it hurts the Bush Administration it hurts them. If it hurts the Intelligence Community it hurts it. Consequences. Repercussions. The like. Be damned.

You can leave your comments for the President here. And in so doing tell him, per the Subject Selection of Civil Rights, to release the C.I.A. report completely unredacted.

If you don’t wish to write him on-line he does have a snail mail address which can be found here. Or call and leave a voice mail message.

This is too important. To critical an issue to just let go to the way side. Just let it slide by. Additionally pressure needs to be brought to bear with the United States Senate’s Select Committee on Intelligence. This Committee, Chaired by United States Senator Dianne G.B. Feinstein, Democrat-California needs to hear from US as well. They need to be encouraged, greatly, to encourage President Obama to release that report. To get some backbone on behalf of the American people. To respect the right of privacy.

And so it goes….

The Intelligence Community has gotten away with murder for to long now! The president, as I said, has been handed a real opportunity. Laid firmly and squarely at his feet by a corrupt and inept police state that is hell-bent on destroying the last vestiges of a true and decent society.

Unless and until our government miners stand up to them, especially when and where we ourselves cannot this egregious activity will persist. Bottom line.

Call the President. Call the U.S. Capitol. Speak to your Congressional Representative and speak to the staff for the Senate Intelligence Committee and tell them to RELEASE THAT REPORT UNREDACTED. Thank you.

Peace.

–Rhett.

#Blog: “Torture, torture and more torture..” By Rhett E. Column, #SWN

President Obama speaking to a crowd…

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Sometime between now and before Summer 2014 comes to an end the White House will release a much-anticipated report on the so-called ‘Bush era torture programs’, and I for one cannot wait. The only question though is HOW will the report be released. Will it be released un-redacted or so redacted to the point, that it will leave all those desirous to read it wondering, “Well, why did you release it in the first place? What are you trying to hide?”

And so it goes…

CLEARLY Barack H. Obama, II., and the honorable, is a conflicted soul, especially when it comes to this report. On the one hand he vowed a vow before God and former President George H.W. Bush and his son Jeb that he would not prosecute or bring ‘undue harm and attention’ to the former president (George W. Bush).

He worked, in a rarity, with the 113th Congress of the United States of America to make doubly sure that George Bush & Co. would never see the inside of a federal, state, local or world courtroom, now or in the future. U.S. Attorneys General Eric Holder insured that, made it all safe and legal like.

But, and it seems almost as if at least some in this once willful Congress are desirous to renege. Chief amongst them is U.S. Senator Dianne G.B. Feinstein, Democrat-California and U.S. Senator Ronald S. Wyden, Democrat-Oregon.

They along with their counterparts on the United States Senate’s Select Committee on Intelligence have been pushing, privately and in some cases publicly, to get that intelligence report released. Unmolested and Unrequited.

Yet, still and all the Intelligence Community and certain members of the George W. Bush Administration are pushing back. According to reports from those in the know, John Brennan, at C.I.A., and James Clapper, at N.S.S., are waving ‘the country will be made less safe’ flag, should this report ever be released un-redacted, or at the very least, and at most, upon release, be nothing more than tailor-made to the Intelligence Community favor.

What to do? And hence the conflicting of the President.

And so it goes….

I am reminded early and often of both my mistakes to believe, strongly and solely, in the George W. Bush Administration and my willingness to blindly carry that out, without cause or question.

I like so many had the blinders of undying devotion and loyalty to both my country and the Bush Administration squarely on. Unwilling. Unwavering. Unrelenting. Unrepentant in that stance.

BUT, and thanks be to God for some loyal and loving friends and family members who knew that one day ‘I would see the light’. And after the 2004 election cycle was concluded and Mr. Bush had been reelected those blinders came off.

I began to do my own independent research and analysis. Began to question with boldness and conviction, “Just what in the holy hell are you people doing?” “What the hell is going on here?!”

And so it would go….

There is no doubt in my mind that George W. Bush, Richard B. Cheney and all those associated with, by, for, and to that Administration, up to and including former Secretary of State Collin Powell, should be drug before the World Court at the Hague for both crimes against humanity and the world, in a time of war and a state of torture. Being made to give an answer and then put in prison for the rest of their natural lives. Period. Full stop.

But, and the question is, the FACT REMAINS is Barack Obama willing to renege on a long-held promise?

A near blood oath really, “that current presidents not bring trouble to the door steps of past presidents and that past presidents, in turn, not attack current presidents…”

This was and remains a sort of standard-bearer started by, of all people, George H.W. Bush. That no matter what past presidents, current presidents and future presidents would stick together.

Much to the chagrin of former President James E. Carter I might add.

Both truth, time, and memorial patiently wait for Mr. Obama’s answer.

Peace.

–Rhett.

 

 

#Blog: “The Bones of Milk: How U.S. Sen. Dianne G.B. Feinstein made a living, off the dead…” By Rhett E. Column, #SWN

 

 

What can you say about the late great Harvey B. Milk that hasn’t been said already? What kind of note or accord can you strike out of respect for both the living and the long dead? RECENTLY, the United States Postal Service came out with a postage stamp in honor of the man, and I couldn’t be more PROUD than I am now. Thank you USPS! It’s a beautiful stamp and one that reflects well Mr. Milk.

The stamp was revealed and set into circulation on what would have been Mr. Milk’s 84th birthday back in May of this year.

Link #1: http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/national-international/Harvey-Milk-Stamp-Goes-On-Sale-at-Post-Offices-Nationwide-260317911.html

Together with members of the USPS, the Milk Foundation, GO Proud Los Angeles and San Francisco, family and friends of Mr. Milk’s they unveiled the stamp and the rest as they say is history.

We are, as a nation, standing on the most crucial days of our time. At a proverbial crossroads. A fork in the road. Choosing this day whom We Shall All Serve? Serving ourselves or serving others? Harvey Milk choose to serve others. I to choose to serve others but there are some amongst us who choose to serve themselves. Case in point: United States Senator Dianne G.B. Feinstein, Democrat-California.

Dianne Feinstein made her political bones off the long dead bones of Harvey Milk. Period. Full Stop.

From San Francisco’s City Hall to the Halls of Congress in Washington, D.C. Never once bothering to say, “thank you Harvey Milk for giving me my shot at political stardom. My opportunity and lease on life.” A lot of people don’t know this but Dianne Feinstein got her start in politics working with Harvey Milk. A semi-shy girl-Friday from the Bay Area she came to Milk Offices in the Castro District with wide eyes and bright-enough attitude to match. Harvey Milk took that and ran with it. Producing for the rest of the world what we see and read about on an almost daily basis.

Some would argue that Milk made a mistake. Feeding the monster after midnight as it were. Unleashing upon the free world and often uncaring, shiftless, feckless, war hawkish woman who is often times found out over her skies when it comes to the day-to-day of Governance. Somewhere in Russia Edward Snowden just cleared his throat in agreement, but I digress. You say well if she’s really all the bad Rhett how come the people of San Francisco twice elected her to office as Mayor? Answer: Questionable voting tabulation. More on that at a later date.

The point being is that Dianne G.B. Feinstein has stood on the shoulders of a giant and never once said thank you. She has made her living off the bones of Milk and for that she should be ashamed. Where is the equality? Where is the human victory for all mankind? Most certainly not with Dianne G.B. Feinstein I can tell you that.

#RIP Mr. Milk, thank you!

Link #2: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvey_Milk

–Rhett.