The First 100 Days: What Did You Do?

Barack Obama was largely elected in response to the failures of the Bush administration. Has he or is he on his way to fixing anything? If so, what? Today we complete the first 100 days of Barack Obama's presidency and look back to see what we learned and how everyone has performed so far.

The Citizens of the US, Grade C+ (But YOU get an A)

Several important questions come to mind in the midst of a rapidly growing federal government that spoon feeds record profits for the defense, security, oil, banking, organized crime and pharmaceutical industries:

1) Is the government regulating industry or is it a tool of industry?

2) Why are the profits increasing for these industries while the quality of their work decreases? (ie, we have an increase in terrorism, war, bad banking, oil supply disruptions and illnesses)?

3) Does the president control the government or do industry and the government control the president?

4) How can we change things?

Is the general public asking any of these questions? I think more-so than usual, yes, thus the increase in political blogs. Most blogs, this one included somewhat, are however constantly reacting to what we're handed as opposed to driving agendas.

I understand the answers to 1-3:

1) Is the government regulating industry or is it a tool of industry?

 We've seen a slight improvement in this area under Barack Obama, but the government has been a tool of industry until we see otherwise. The Wall Street that sabotaged us, with ties to organized crime,  was catered to, without the promised oversight and just ahead of record profits. There is still hope for change in this area under a Barack Obama administration, but let's focus on the reality over the perceptions that the speeches leave us with.

2) Why are the profits increasing for these industries while the quality of their work decreases?

These are businesses, not altruistic entities. The government is giving them money but not demanding results or providing oversight. Was Iraq a failure or a success? A huge success for many companies. Ask questions. Use logic. Think for yourself. Be brave and vigilant. Ignore the alleged wisdom of crowds.

3) Does the president control the government or do industry and the government control the president?

When a puppet like Bush Jr is president, the answer is obvious, but even with someone who seeks to be a strong leader like Barack Obama, the balance may tilt a bit toward the president, but not by much. Just recently NYC's Ground Zero was buzzed by the US military without Barack Obama's knowledge. He is alleged to be furious.

4) How can we change things?

I don't have the answer other than what I've posted on this blog. Throughout history there has been a battle between the powerless many and the powerful few. US Democracy seemed to be the most recent evolution and response to this dilemna. It had been working quite well until financial entities became more powerful than governments. (For an entertaining comedy on the subject, see the movie Network.) In my opinion, in broadstroke, the nation did well to elect Barack Obama, but then expected Barack Obama to fix everything without giving enough time or input to the problems at hand. Are we now on the way to global government? Many might think that's a good idea, but isn't government today a misnomer? Until governments actually regulate and police the large-scale "bad guys" they are tools for them.

I know this: that we can change ourselves without government and that we can affect government by making our own culture, but that as a society many of us are too addicted to the culture that is made for us; we're too tired, we're too busy, we're too lazy. I can be guilty of these things as well, though I strive not to be.

A C+ is a bit rough, but as the world evolves, what we need to do becomes greater. Every reader of this blog and every post from readers of this blog gets an A, regardless of whether I agreed or not. Simply by taking the time to read what I shared or pointed to and to post your thoughts is being involved and does make a difference. Society is viral. You have affected me and that's one more independent input coming from a human being and not an industry. For that, I thank you....very much. I only needed one reader to motivate myself to write. We don't all need to be leaders of society, but if we're leaders of our own lives and always step up just a bit more, we'll always increase our opportunities for positive change.

The Federal Government, Grade F

The federal government is a huge place and most of it remains in place from president to president. During the past 100 days we heard that Dick Cheney essentially had a second chain of command running up to him, which included an assasination ring and with personnel that are still working against Barack Obama from within the government. There seems to be a never ending battle within the cowboy world of intelligence agencies; with one hand of the government fighting the other, one hand hurting the US and the other trying to help it. The size of it increases as it becomes more and more privatized. The contract process has not changed, with no bid contracts (no competition) and cost+ contracts (incentivized to run over budget) still being the norm. Despite rhetoric in Obama's speeches, there is still little to no oversight anywhere in government. It's as if the politicians and department heads mereley serve to distribute contracts while putting on a good show for the public.

Barack Obama, Grade B-

The campaign speeches Barack Obama gave in that amazing and inspiring hard-working campaign he ran indicated that he knew what the problems in our country were -- he talked about corruption, he pointed out that the Iraq occupation had empowered Iran and made Israel weaker and he even mentioned the contract process I mentioned above. Some of his critics said that he was nothing more than a master politician. I have not been thrilled by his presidency yet. I do think he's an improvement over Bush, but if you raise a plane up by 20 degrees that is heading downward at 45 degrees, the plane is still going downward. 

On the positive, Obama has improved perceptions of the US simply by using the bully pulpit and sounding intelligent and rational. He's tackling the deep economic problems with a stimulus package I agree with (I wasn't however a fan of the bailouts -- let bad businesses fail). What about wars for profit? What about regulations? Oversight that was promised? Why is he protecting the Bush administration's secrets?

Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) on Tuesday released a report card-style review of the Obama administration’s progress in overturning President Bush’s controversial national security measures, giving President Obama high marks for most actions except for a “troubling” use of secrecy.

We need more. He has time, but I believe he needs our help. He's going to respond to the loudest voices. Who are those going to be?

Eureka for the Pharmaceutical Industry!

Pharmaceutical Companies are going to make a lot of money on flu. The federal government is seeking an additional $1.5 billion for swine flu vaccinations.

Three years ago, the Bush administration awarded about $1 billion to vaccine makers as a way to increase and speed production. Several vaccine makers, including Baxter and Sanofi-Aventis, the "Blackwater of bugs", were awarded multimillion-dollar contracts: :Sanofi Aventis Invests 100 Million Euros In New Facility In Mexico to Produce Seasonal and Pandemic Influenza Vaccine.

Legitgov.org is tracking interesting oddities about the flu here. One oddity is the name: Swine Flu, whereas swine can't get this strain -- only humans.

If you are going to get vaccinated against it, should you be concerned about Baxter's vaccination? They are making a vaccination, but previously one of their vaccinations CONTAINED H5N1 (the human form of avian flu). They sent it to labs in Czech Republic, Germany and Slovenia. Initially, Baxter refused to reveal how the vaccines were contaminated with H5N1, invoking “trade secrets.” After increased pressure, they then claimed that pure H5N1 batches were sent by accident.

A container of swine virus samples packed in dry ice exploded on a Swiss train, injuring one person but posing no other risks to humans, police said on Tuesday. The box held vials of swine flu virus, although a different strain than the H1N1 variety that has caused about 150 deaths in Mexico and infected people in the United States, Canada, Spain and Britain. A technician was transporting the container on Monday night to the Swiss national flu centre in Geneva, where scientists are developing a flu test for humans, police said.

The U.S. Army is finishing an investigation into the disappearance of three vials of a potentially lethal pathogen from the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick, Md., the Washington Post reported today (see GSN, Feb. 10). 

Scientists have shown that tiny changes to modern flu viruses could render them as deadly as the 1918 strain which killed millions.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/3719990.stm

Flashback: CDC to mix avian, human flu viruses in pandemic study

The United States has flatly denied allegations it was producing biological weapons from bird flu samples sent by Indonesia to the World Health Organization, the English daily The Jakarta Post reported Monday. Michael H. Anderson, counselor for Public Affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Indonesia, [has issued the denial]. However, Indonesian senior biodefense researcher Isro Samihardjo said the U.S. could use bird flu virus samples from Indonesia to develop weapons at the Los Alamos Laboratory. Isro was speaking at a meeting about Health Minister Siti Fadilah Supari's newly released book here Saturday. In her book "It's Time for the World to Change, Divine Hands behind Bird Flu," Siti writes of her suspicions about a conspiracy between the U.S. and the WHO.

What is the US government but a bunch of private companies, no?

Jan 14, 2004 (CIDRAP News) – One of the worst fears of infectious disease experts is that the H5N1 avian influenza virus now circulating in parts of Asia will combine with a human-adapted flu virus to create a deadly new flu virus that could spread around the world.

That could happen, scientists predict, if someone who is already infected with an ordinary flu virus contracts the avian virus at the same time. The avian virus has already caused at least 48 confirmed human illness cases in Asia, of which 35 have been fatal. The virus has shown little ability to spread from person to person, but the fear is that a hybrid could combine the killing power of the avian virus with the transmissibility of human flu viruses.

Speaking at a conference to reassure the public over hers government's response to the swine flu threat, Indonesian Heath Minister Siti Fadilah Supari said Tuesday that the controversial virus could have been man-made.

She declined to elaborate on her claim but she had previously accused Western governments of making and spreading viruses in the developing world to boost pharmaceutical companies' profits, AFP reported.

http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=92794&sectionid=3510212

Warning: Extreme right-wing groups are dangerous & growing

And here I thought extreme right-wing had become the acceptable norm: famous right-wingers like Cheney, Netanyahu, Ahmadinejad and Osama Bin Laden were previously always invited to the tea party, no? Does Osama signify a real, a perceived shift or a little of both?

Right-wing extremists are the biggest danger to the US. That upsets our right-wing politicians and business leaders.

Right-wing billionaires are manufacturing rowdy tea-parties.

Libertarians say republicans are hijacking their tea parties.

Obama may protect extreme right-wingers re: torture.

Hate groups increase dramatically.

Somalians accuse the west of pirate-like activities in dumping nuclear waste on their coast.

Extreme left-wing, extreme right-wing; either one leads to larger more centralized government, generally corrupted by business interests and organized crime and generally blaming extremists as a justification for their own extremism.

No?

Physics

Interesting.



"Scientists found an active high-quality ‘super-explosive’ in the dust collected after the attack on the World Trade Centre in 2001 and the finding is completely contradictory to the findings of the official investigation financed by the American administration with George W. Bush at the helm.

The Open Chemical Physics Journal published a peer reviewed study by retired professor Steven E. Jones, doctor Niels Harrit and other scientists who scientifically proved that traces of “a highly engineered explosive” had been found in the rubble and dust collected after the falls of WTC 1, 2 and 7.

According to the U.S. government, “The cost and production rate of super-thermite composites has limited the use of these materials in DoD applications”.

"

What?!?

"A team of nine scientists have released a startling new report on the events of 9/11, using data from dust gathered in the days and weeks after the towers came down. They discovered that scattered throughout the dust samples were red and gray chips of 'active thermitic material', or an un-reacted pyrotechnic explosive.

"In a study published by the Open Chemical Physics Journal -- a peer-reviewed, scientific publication -- Steven E. Jones and Niels Harrit level a stark allegation: that within the dust and rubble of the World Trade Center towers lays evidence of "a highly engineered explosive," contrary to all federal studies of the collapses."

"HONG KONG -- A quarter of the world's companies, and 40 percent in the United States, plan to freeze salaries this year, but employees in South America and India can look forward to robust rises, a global survey shows on Tuesday."

"The high-profile proprietor of a second feeder fund has been charged in connection with Bernie Madoff's multi-billion dollar Ponzi scheme."


Your Job:
Take the day off

Shake down

Organized crime has long been involved in drug traffic, money laundering, arms dealing and terror financing and over the recent past, more and more, media and government. The American public consequently more and more gets its news, information and government from...organized crime. This would have seemed outlandish years ago, but now it's just one more piece of information that just passes us by while we do...what are we doing?

One hand of the government is creating problems while the other hand tries to solve them. It's an an ever-growing multi-dimensional cottage industry but cottage industries provide jobs...

Decriminalizing drugs leads to less drug abuse?

Champions of harsh drug criminalization laws as the best solution to curbing drug use will be chagrined to find that Portugal’s eight year history of decriminalization has led to lower drug usage rates.

Mexican President: US officials are involved in drug trade.

Obama protecting illegal Bush programs

President Barack Obama invoked "state secrets" to prevent a court from reviewing the legality of the National Security Agency's warantless wiretapping program, moving late Friday to have a lawsuit that challenged the program dismissed.

Some might say this science is a smoking gun that should be investigated. Some might say that the story will get legs even if the TV news ignores it:

The Open Chemical Physics Journal: Active Thermitic Material Discovered in Dust from the 9/11 World Trade

We have discovered distinctive red/gray chips in all the samples we have studied of the dust produced by the destruction of the World Trade Center. Examination of four of these samples, collected from separate sites, is reported in this paper. These red/gray chips show marked similarities in all four samples. One sample was collected by a Manhattan resident about ten minutes after the collapse of the second WTC Tower, two the next day, and a fourth about a week later. The properties of these chips were analyzed using optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray energy dispersive spectroscopy (XEDS), and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The red material contains grains approximately 100 nm across which are largely iron oxide, while aluminum is contained in tiny plate-like structures. Separation of components using methyl ethyl ketone demonstrated that elemental aluminum is present. The iron oxide and aluminum are intimately mixed in the red material. When ignited in a DSC device the chips exhibit large but narrow exotherms occurring at approximately 430 °C, far below the normal ignition temperature for conventional thermite. Numerous iron-rich spheres are clearly observed in the residue following the ignition of these peculiar red/gray chips. The red portion of these chips is found to be an unreacted thermitic material and highly energetic.

I like enjoying life and being as uplifting as possible, so I'm fighting the cynicism that tells me we are incapable as a society of processing, investigating, comprehending, accepting or responding to such a smoking gun.

From one of our readers:Escape from the Zombie Food Court

No matter how smart we may think we are, the larger world cannot and does not exist for most of us in this room, except through media and maybe through the shallow experience of tourism, or in the minority instance, we may know of it through higher education. The world however, is not a cultural history course, a National Geographic special or recreational destination. It is a real place with many fast developing disasters, economic and ecological collapse being just two. The more aware among us grasp that there is much at stake. Yet, even the most informed and educated Americans have cultural conditioning working against them round the clock.

Your Job:
Speak up

Look over there

If the attacks on 9/11 were allowed to happen or if the severity of the attacks were augmented, wouldn't scientists be able to demonstrate that?

Scientists insinuate the WTC towers came down from secondary explosions.

A team of nine scientists have released a startling new report on the events of 9/11, using data from dust gathered in the days and weeks after the towers came down. They discovered that scattered throughout the dust samples were red and gray chips of 'active thermitic material', or an un-reacted pyrotechnic explosive.

Banks Knowingly Allowed Fraud, Geithner Covering UP

In an explosive interview on PBS' Bill Moyers Journal, William K. Black, a professor of economics and law with the University of Missouri, alleged that American banks and credit agencies conspired to create a system in which so-called "liars loans" could receive AAA ratings and zero oversight, amounting to a massive "fraud" at the epicenter of US finance.

Your Job:
Tell ME what to do. These are two huge stories, but why won't they affect us?

How will we react to another terror attack?

Will we rally around revenge while again marginalizing all those not focused on counter-attacking someone, anyone, whoever seems to be loosely guilty. Will there be time to investigate the crime, go after all that helped let it happen and truly end the financing and training of the militants? "Why are you waiting," the public might ask. "Why aren't we attacking Iran now?" the politicians and media talking heads might demand. Advertising rates will increase as the public tunes in to hear all about this group called "Al Qaeda of Iran" while obvious oddities are ignored. When the public is mourning and afraid, they are eager to trust leadership and get revenge, regardless of who it's against. Revenge is sloppy. Tragedy changes things.

Obama runs the government, right? He's a good guy; the days of questionable terror events, war and torture that fosters terrorism, the politicization and profiteering of terrorism are over, right? Obama's in charge and Dick Cheney is gone, right? The questionable connections between terrorism, organized crime, terror financing and politicians are a thing of the past, no? The defense industry and organized crime are too busy taking over banks to.... but wait, wars and a response to terrorism are very profitable ways (for banks, defense/security industries and organized crime) to get out of a deep recession....

So what's the harm in being a bit more alert right now? Fear is the wrong response to terrorism though it's the one that politicians and war/security businesses would probably rather have you experience. Revenge is sloppy and we're easily misled.

Dick Cheney has not left the building.

Former Vice President Dick Cheney has moles in the Obama government which report back to him from the Pentagon, investigative reporter Seymour Hersh told NPR and MSNBC on Tuesday.

Speaking with NPR's Terri Gross, Hersh revealed that the former Vice President -- who he characterized as "really smart" -- has individuals that report back to him from key positions in government. He called these individuals "stay-behinds," an intelligence term generally applied to insiders left behind in foreign governments after the occupying power is driven out.

"He’s put people back," Hersh said. "They call it a stay-behind. It’s sort of an intelligence term of art. When you leave a country and, you know, you’ve driven out, you know, you’ve lost the war. You leave people behind. It’s a stay-behind that you can continue to contacts with, to do sabotage, whatever you want to do.

"Cheney’s left a stay behind," Hersh continued. "He’s got people in a lot of agencies that still tell him what’s going on. Particularly in defense, obviously. Also in the NSA, there’s still people that talk to him. He still knows what’s going on. Can he still control policy up to a point? Probably up to a point, a minor point. But he’s still there. He’s still a presence."

So who has more influence over the Pentagon, Dick Cheney and Israel (who also have "moles in the Pentagon") or Barack Obama?

What's Barack Obama going to do about any of this -- Dick Cheney ran an assassination ring and nothing happens. Does the president run the government or does the government run the president? You know what I think.

Your Job:
Pay attention. Be alert. Don't be afraid.