Alternative News. Activist Post, Alex Jones, And Others.

TheJoker · July 26, 2011, 4:06am

With a startling headline that should send shock waves throughout America, The Huffington Post is reporting that two influential Senators have put forth a plan that would essentially create a new legislative body, a new Super Congress.

"This ‘Super Congress,’ composed of members of both chambers and both parties, isn’t mentioned anywhere in the Constitution, but would be granted extraordinary new powers,” wrote Ryan Grim.

The plan, reportedly put forth by Mitch McConnell and Majority Leader Harry Reid, would create a new government body with six members from each party and would be used to pass unpopular debt ceiling legislation.

This plan would essentially create a national high council of liberal and conservative elites who could completely circumvent Congress!

The Huffington Post
Legislation approved by the Super Congress — which some on Capitol Hill are calling the “super committee” — would then be fast-tracked through both chambers, where it couldn’t be amended by simple, regular lawmakers, who’d have the ability only to cast an up or down vote.
With the weight of both leaderships behind it, a product originated by the Super Congress would have a strong chance of moving through the little Congress and quickly becoming law. A Super Congress would be less accountable than the system that exists today, and would find it easier to strip the public of popular benefits.
Negotiators are currently considering cutting the mortgage deduction and tax credits for retirement savings, for instance, extremely popular policies that would be difficult to slice up using the traditional legislative process.

What would stop Congress from using this new governing body to pass other even more unpopular laws and regulations?

As of the writing of this article (11:35pm PST) no other mainstream news is directly reporting this 100% illegal plan.

With that being said, as an independent journalist I honestly do not believe that The Huffington Post would stoop so low as to make up something this serious.

One possible connection is the recent talk about a super committee to tackle the debt ceiling issue.

In the July 22 edition of The Washington Post it was reported that Rep. Boehner was pushing a new super committee similar to the one proposed by Harry Reid.

Top Republican aides said Boehner envisions a short-term extension of the debt limit that would include spending cuts that meet or exceed the debt limit increase. That would be paired with a strategy for finding additional savings. Options include a new super committee of the sort proposed by Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.).
On July 18, an editorial in The Washington Post mentioned a plan for a new super committee that would have full authority on all issues related to the debt ceiling crisis.

One twist to the McConnell plan involves creating a new congressional super-committee — yes, another commission — tasked with producing additional debt reduction measures by the end of the year. Unlike, say, the Simpson-Bowles commission, the committee would not have to achieve a supermajority vote, and its proposals would be subject to an up-or-down majority vote in both houses of Congress.
It is essential that this committee have jurisdiction to consider all elements of the budget: discretionary spending, entitlements and tax revenue must all be on the table, as they were for Simpson-Bowles. If so, then, yes, one more commission with the ability to force Congress to confront reality would be better than none. But we see little reason for optimism that this commission would succeed where others have failed.
If lawmakers cannot now agree on the kind of balanced debt-reduction package that every previous commission has recognized is necessary, why would such agreement be within reach several months from now? If there is no prospect of the Republican allergy to new taxes easing, or of many Democrats becoming more open to the kind of entitlement reform President Obama has called necessary, it’s not clear how any balanced proposal is going to make it through Congress.
Whether or not this new Super Congress is connected to the super committee mentioned in the above Washington Post editorial remains to be seen.

Some have been quick to claim this is a harmless committee, but in doing so they have provided absolutely no evidence for their claims. Congress has proven countless times that they CANNOT be trusted, yet we are expected to trust them when they are openly giving themselves more, dictatorial power?

If this plan is actually in the works it may be a direct psy-op to incite the American people into open revolution. (Which would have disastrous implications).

It is important that we gather all the facts regarding this situation in order to find out if it is actually happening and if it is, who is and isn’t supporting the creation of a completely new, unconstitutional legislative body.

activistpost.com/2011/07/sup … l#comments

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kj1uZlV2t9A[/youtube]

TheJoker · July 26, 2011, 11:11am

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJJOSbUFxoI[/youtube]

Gobbo · July 26, 2011, 6:41pm

This forum is for western bookworm yuppie adult-children You haven’t seen the hundreds of these threads already filled with:

‘Duhhh… I is a philosopher so I’m more comfortable with bend the laws of physics and believing it.’
"Derp… I is a analytical IQ so I don’t need evidence, just a good argument.’
‘Durrr… I is a fourteen-year-old satanist/anarchist/nihilist/other teenage philosophy, I love power… with their powerzzz’

Whatchu talking bout here Willis?

Whatchu talkin bout everyone.

Gobbo · July 26, 2011, 6:51pm

Or,

"Duuhhhh… I’m old. Ok? I’m OLD. I’ve watched television, and and listened to the radio, and read like 26 books in my lifetime. I’ve worked the same job for like 40 years and I’m proud of that. I raised you on the credit thrown at my generation with televisions, gaming consoles, and other shiny devices. The cognitive gap between you, and me, when it comes to things like computers, and other concepts, is about the same as the chasm between everyday life and a person with Down’s Syndrome — and because of all that, I’m going to completely ignore anything you say that comes close to messing with the fragile, incredibly sad materialism-injected psychological cacoon I’ve built for myself with lectures on the dangers of the thing I know 1% of compared to you. In response to your involved, source-cited arguments, often times one, two, three hours long in video form I will use just ONE sentence: “I’m pretty old, and I’ve seen a lot in my lifetime, and believe me… if there was a conspiracy, someone would have come forward.”

TheJoker · July 26, 2011, 8:09pm

Old_Gobbo:

Or,

"Duuhhhh… I’m old. Ok? I’m OLD. I’ve watched television, and and listened to the radio, and read like 26 books in my lifetime. I’ve worked the same job for like 40 years and I’m proud of that. I raised you on the credit thrown at my generation with televisions, gaming consoles, and other shiny devices. The cognitive gap between you, and me, when it comes to things like computers, and other concepts, is about the same as the chasm between everyday life and a person with Down’s Syndrome — and because of all that, I’m going to completely ignore anything you say that comes close to messing with the fragile, incredibly sad materialism-injected psychological cacoon I’ve built for myself with lectures on the dangers of the thing I know 1% of compared to you. In response to your involved, source-cited arguments, often times one, two, three hours long in video form I will use just ONE sentence: “I’m pretty old, and I’ve seen a lot in my lifetime, and believe me… if there was a conspiracy, someone would have come forward.”

So conspiracies, don’t happen? It’s all bullshit? There isn’t any groups out there that commit conspiracies against everybody else?

Stoic_Guardian · July 26, 2011, 10:03pm

Old_Gobbo:

Or,

"Duuhhhh… I’m old. Ok? I’m OLD. I’ve watched television, and and listened to the radio, and read like 26 books in my lifetime. I’ve worked the same job for like 40 years and I’m proud of that. I raised you on the credit thrown at my generation with televisions, gaming consoles, and other shiny devices. The cognitive gap between you, and me, when it comes to things like computers, and other concepts, is about the same as the chasm between everyday life and a person with Down’s Syndrome — and because of all that, I’m going to completely ignore anything you say that comes close to messing with the fragile, incredibly sad materialism-injected psychological cacoon I’ve built for myself with lectures on the dangers of the thing I know 1% of compared to you. In response to your involved, source-cited arguments, often times one, two, three hours long in video form I will use just ONE sentence: “I’m pretty old, and I’ve seen a lot in my lifetime, and believe me… if there was a conspiracy, someone would have come forward.”

Magnific’

TheJoker · July 29, 2011, 1:11am

Stoic Guardian:

Old_Gobbo:

Or,

"Duuhhhh… I’m old. Ok? I’m OLD. I’ve watched television, and and listened to the radio, and read like 26 books in my lifetime. I’ve worked the same job for like 40 years and I’m proud of that. I raised you on the credit thrown at my generation with televisions, gaming consoles, and other shiny devices. The cognitive gap between you, and me, when it comes to things like computers, and other concepts, is about the same as the chasm between everyday life and a person with Down’s Syndrome — and because of all that, I’m going to completely ignore anything you say that comes close to messing with the fragile, incredibly sad materialism-injected psychological cacoon I’ve built for myself with lectures on the dangers of the thing I know 1% of compared to you. In response to your involved, source-cited arguments, often times one, two, three hours long in video form I will use just ONE sentence: “I’m pretty old, and I’ve seen a lot in my lifetime, and believe me… if there was a conspiracy, someone would have come forward.”

Magnific’

Did I miss somthing? I have been known to not catch on other people’s humor.

TheJoker · July 29, 2011, 1:13am

Adapting to an unconventional war, the United States and its allies picked up some new tactics in Afghanistan and Pakistan. In the past few years, drone attacks and night raids have become staples of the effort to combat al-Qaeda and the Taliban. The announcement of a new counterterrorism strategy and the beginning of troop withdrawals from the conflict suggest that these methods are poised to become fixtures of how the U.S. combats global terrorist threats.

These measures demonstrate an ability to adapt procedure to difficult realities. But the United States continues to fail in its efforts to create a concrete strategy to end the war in Afghanistan. Its use of these questionable tactics does as much to lose the battle for hearts and minds in the Muslim world as the more offensive tactics of pitched battles and indiscriminate application of force.

The Counterproductivity of Drones

The use of drones is changing the face of warfare. Most noticeably, their use does not require an air force to send its men into the line of fire. Both U.S. Air Force and British pilots fly missions in Afghanistan and Pakistan (the British assert that they have not done so in Pakistan) from the safety of Creech Air Force Base near Las Vegas, Nevada. The tempo of strikes has only increased under the Obama administration. Currently, there is a U.S. drone assault in Pakistan approximately every four days.

Despite its protection of coalition forces, the tactic is particularly devastating: 88 people were killed in drone strikes in June 2011 alone and an astounding 52 people were killed recently in a mere 24-hour period. Numbers like these, with absolutely zero American casualties, make drones a public relations success. It allows effective attacks to be carried out in areas difficult for soldiers to reach, such as the tribal areas of Pakistan that are alleged to be one of the launching points for insurgency activity.

Debate swirls around whether or not the use of predator and reaper drones, as well as many other robotic technologies, is a good omen for the future of mankind. There is a real fear that the gradual removal of human involvement will lower the inhibition to begin future conflicts because of the reduction of human and political risks associated with combat. If the revelation of U.S. drone strikes in other parts of the world, particularly Somalia, is any indicator, this is a cause for growing concern.

More importantly, the use of drones is counterproductive. Though they are capable of inflicting a lot of damage, drones effectively translate into political suicide. Covert drone programs not only operate in violation of international law, but their lack of precision means that approximately 15-20 percent of those killed in drone attacks are non-combatants. The killing of innocents causes the sort of “collateral damage” that costs the United States and its allies the hearts and minds of the local population. It is not surprising that those who face the sudden trauma of losing relatives and homes ascribe blame to those responsible and join those who fight them. “While violent extremists may be unpopular,” write David Kilcullen and Andrew Exum in The New York Times, “for a frightened population they seem less ominous than a faceless enemy that wages war from afar and often kills more civilians than militants.”

Considering these major drawbacks in the use of drone strikes, the pay-off is not high enough. Few of these missions are truly successful. Along with the aforementioned civilian deaths, drone strikes mostly kill nameless and easily replaced low-level militants rather than insurgency leadership. Only one in every seven attacks in Pakistan results in the death of a militant leader.

The Problem with Night Raids

Though real soldiers on the ground carry out night raids, far fewer men are required than in traditional warfare. Based on intelligence and tip-offs, JSOC (Joint Special Operations Command) troops accompanied by Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) infiltrate private residences throughout the country in search of enemy militants. The military establishment cites these night raids as indispensible tools in the effort to slow down the insurgency. It claims that, as of May 2011, the target is either killed or captured 50-60 percent of the time despite the fact that 80 percent of raids are conducted without a single gun fired. Reliance on this tactic as part of the kill/capture program has risen to the point where coalition forces conduct approximately 300 night raids each month.

Not conveyed in these numbers is that night raids come with a major psychological, human, and political price tag that cannot be ignored. Devastating as these attacks might be to the Taliban as it forces them to operate in smaller cells and in smaller spaces, the raids are now the number one grievance of the Afghan population. Locals and the U.S. military clearly have very different views of these night raids.

Afghans, for instance, insist that night raids have been accompanied by excessive use of force. They claim both physical and mental abuse from forced-entries and harsh interrogation. Property damage is often left unaccounted for. Bad intelligence influenced by personal grudges can often skew the process that determines which homes to raid. Further, these home invasions are an affront to Afghan culture. Attempts to clear up these transgressions date back to December 2010, when the top brass implemented rules that required ANSF personnel to accompany foreigners, to engage in a “soft knock” policy that would alert inhabitants of a raid rather than bombing open the front door, permitting only female units to interrogate women, and taking account of property damages for compensation. These changes have been mostly in theory, not in practice.

Like drone strikes, night raids are counterproductive. They may be effective tools for disrupting the Taliban, but they come at the price of losing the population and feeding the insurgency with droves of new recruits. Frustration with the number of civilians victimized and cultural trademarks trampled on has spilled over into anti-American sentiment. Episodes like the rally in Khost in July 13, 2011 protesting the 15 percent rise in civilian deaths in 2011 thus far show that this tactic serves to incite criticism of foreign involvement, deepen disillusionment with the Afghan National Government, and encourage people to join movements against them. As Mohammad Daudzai, Chief of Staff for Afghan President Hamid Karzai put it:

You have a village, has a very peaceful life, and then in the middle of the night, people come and surround the village and search a few houses and take a few prisoners, and in that scuffle a few of them are killed; women are disgraced. The next day, what do you expect? The entire village youth becomes Taliban.

The military is reluctant to give up on tactics that seem to be effective and economic uses of force. But in light of the real effects of drone strikes and night raids, the military has to stop them. On a human level, these raids serve to increase insecurity, destroy families, and trample on cultural norms. On a political level, the very groups the attacks intend to deter simply grow in strength and popularity.

These tactics may be deadly and serve to limit the number of foreign troops needed for attacks, but they are strategic failures. If the coalition’s primary goal in Afghanistan and Pakistan is to isolate and neutralize the influence of the insurgency and bolster the legitimacy of the local government, tactics that illicit fear of the government and drive people to shoulder up to the Taliban for protection against foreign attacks are clearly steps in the wrong direction.

fpif.org/articles/the_dual_f … and_drones

Moreno · July 29, 2011, 1:19am

of course there are conspiracies, everyone believes in them. Or did you think 9/11 was caused by pilot error? 2) people do come forward, which you would know if you did some research.

Gobbo · July 29, 2011, 1:19am

TheJoker:

Stoic Guardian:

Old_Gobbo:

Or,

"Duuhhhh… I’m old. Ok? I’m OLD. I’ve watched television, and and listened to the radio, and read like 26 books in my lifetime. I’ve worked the same job for like 40 years and I’m proud of that. I raised you on the credit thrown at my generation with televisions, gaming consoles, and other shiny devices. The cognitive gap between you, and me, when it comes to things like computers, and other concepts, is about the same as the chasm between everyday life and a person with Down’s Syndrome — and because of all that, I’m going to completely ignore anything you say that comes close to messing with the fragile, incredibly sad materialism-injected psychological cacoon I’ve built for myself with lectures on the dangers of the thing I know 1% of compared to you. In response to your involved, source-cited arguments, often times one, two, three hours long in video form I will use just ONE sentence: “I’m pretty old, and I’ve seen a lot in my lifetime, and believe me… if there was a conspiracy, someone would have come forward.”

Magnific’

Did I miss somthing? I have been known to not catch on other people’s humor.

Yes, my friend, I’m afraid you did. For I am not 40 years old.

TheJoker · July 30, 2011, 8:16pm

Not quite sure if I understand that reference of your sentence when it concerns being fourty years old.

TheJoker · July 30, 2011, 8:17pm

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SK6K-7rTrio[/youtube]

Abstract · July 30, 2011, 9:34pm

Keep it up I find it interesting.

Abstract · July 30, 2011, 11:19pm

If conspiracies don’t happen then where did the word come from?
Surely they are rare, all the more unsuspected, all the more dangerous.
Let the conspirators ramble and we will maintain awareness, should they stop then surely the conspiracy is abound.

Let the government decry it enough, and let enough movies be put out making conspiracy theorists be shown wrong and seem silly and there comes the wave of the entertained thinking that conspiracies are silly…
Perhaps the more conspiracies there are and the more that think them silly the more likely at least one is true that is being hidden by dilution, supported by some entity?

Gobbo · July 31, 2011, 12:41am

Movies are put out in association with military/think tank social conditioning.

The ones about conspiracies theoriest are not a coincidence. They are intentionally put out to obfuscate the truth. Look at like every Oliver Stone movie ever made. People think he’s making controversial movies and nothing could be further from the truth. He’s working for them.

Most people at this point cannot differentiate between reading something online and seeing it in a movie.

Moreno · July 31, 2011, 1:32am

Ask a prosecutor who has spent time working on getting conspiracy convictions in organized crime if he or she has had trouble proving conspiracies took place that he or she is sure occurred. Conspiracies - generally on more modest levels then what get called conspiracy theories - happen all the time, our laws reflect this fact, and many cannot be proven to legal standards. To think that all high level conspiracies happened in the past - take for example the way JP Morgan and others shoved the US in WW1 for profit - but somehow ended recently bears the burden of proof.

Moreno · July 31, 2011, 1:34am

And here we have a conspiracy theory.

Abstract · July 31, 2011, 1:50am

Technically this makes sense with regards to the music used and also even the general music pervading America…
Drums became largely used primarily for use in marching and war…I would think that as a result there may actually be a degree of genetic memory if not simply social recognition of significant and particular forms of drumming being associative to war…And of course they are so often used in movies but also largely in music…like Heavy metal which is common to many soldiers…

Moreno · July 31, 2011, 2:02am

For me ‘conspiracy theory’ is a neutral term. It does not mean silly or wrong. Otherwise the term is simply ridiculous. I was just pointing out it was a kind of conspiracy theory. Though it did have to do with films and not music.

Abstract · July 31, 2011, 3:17am

I was addressing you both…should have made a better attempt to be clear…