Cyber Space -Virtual Playground of the Gods

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For over 15 years I have been writing about the potential of the Internet to bring good or evil to our world.  No doubt there are countless functions the cyber space universe can supply for the good of mankind.

 

Scientific and medical research both benefit from it with the ability to share data and speed up the processing of information.  It has been instrumental in the evolution of capitalism by dramatically changing the way people do business and get information.

 

Book publishers have been decimated by the Internet impact on book sales with e-books now able to instantly deliver books to your home or office at far less cost than you going to the nearest book store and fighting the crowds.

 

 

In music new artists abound on the Internet free of the shackles of the music publishers, the control of the producers and with the elimination of bribes paid to radio stations to only put certain artists in their playlist who are under contract to powerful record labels.

 

Both the fields of book and music publishing are in serious trouble, but maybe they earned it by trying to spoon feed the public certain authors and artists while refusing to take any risk on new artists in need of help thus strangling the heart and soul of American music, it's essential creative energy and powerful will to take risks and push the envelope.

 

The digital revolution is also extending it's tentacles into the movie and television business and once again is serving as an instigator of long overdue change to yet another industry that was growing irrelevant with it's risk aversion and obsession of control of artists, scripts and productions.

 

Thanks to our virtual world on the Internet books, records and movies are now available to us from old and new artists, every day there are new productions that actually have meaningful stories, coherent lyrics and happy endings that can have a lot of impact on the quality of life and attitude of people.

 

 

Of course in their last gasps of life the old guard are dumping junk on the market still using their worn out formulas of success to avoid risk, in other words, a propensity to simply copy the last successful movie and flood the market with multiple sequels is failing them at last.  With the Internet people now have the power to make choices for themselves and find the independent artists and companies long shunned by mainstream producers.

 

Beyond that there are many educational and informational benefits from the Internet.

 

But there are also dark sides to the Internet that have opened the floodgates to the demons who prey on the weaknesses and perversions which afflict a great many of our people.

 

About ten years ago I discovered an international prostitution ring operating on a popular social site.  After documenting how it worked, I was able to contact some of the actual prostitutes and interview them.

 

They told how they were recruited throughout Europe and were sent to major European cities, usually for a period of a few months, where they would rendezvous with the clients.  They were very high end, meeting in the best hotels and given the most expensive clothes and chauffeured limousines.

 

Every few months they were rotated to another major city to avoid detection by local and international police.  But they owed a lot of money to their "sponsors" and in fact were nothing but high-end sex slaves.  So I turned my information over to the owner of the Internet social service.  What a dumb thing to do.

 

Terrified (I guess) that I was going to post a news release accusing them of moral bankruptcy or something, instead of a thanks I got threats to sue me, sue me until I was bankrupt since they had billions and I was just a lowly reporter.  Some good did result as the highly sophisticated prostitution ring vanished from the Internet, no doubt resurfacing in some other location but no longer part of a mainstream social site..

 

 

To this day the Internet is used for every illegal and immoral purpose possible from child molestation to prostitution, pirating to pimping.   Then there is the DarkNet, that sinister and mysterious no man's land in cyber space where good intentions are swallowed up by evil results.  You should learn more about the DarkNet.

 

Finally, there is the world of cyber security where honesty and disclosure long ago vanished from the scene.

 

The culmination of Dark Force power manifests in cyber security where virtually everyone lies, or is required to lie, by the governments, private contractors and individual hackers involved in raping your rights to privacy and freedom.

 

I got to see this world from the inside out and rest assured what goes on in this arena most likely exceeds your wildest imagination.  Without a doubt the entire world was pretty much hacked over a decade ago and ever since competing interests from big and small countries and companies alike have been building profiles on you.

 

 

Every time I hear President Obama condemn China for hacking US top secret files I think of how many years the US has been hacking everyone else's top secret files in the world.  No one is without guilt when it comes to stealing records from other sovereign nations.

 

The bizarre NSA scandal dominating world news right now is the inevitable result of a lust for power and obsession with stealing information by governments, and powerful corporations.

 

One by one it seems our revered institutions are falling because they got a little too greedy and decided they were above the law.  Just look at the rash of illegal activity revealed recently in the fields of housing, financial speculation, energy pricing, international banking ad infinitum.

 

We need to pay a lot more attention to the administration and management of the virtual world.  It certainly serves some mighty beneficial purposes but it also serves some rather sinister masters and the Internet, unfortunately, is totally oblivious to characteristics like knowing right from wrong, knowing the value of children or young girls being forced into sexual slavery and perversion.

 

It certainly does not have the capacity to tell the truth as it has no basis for truth or lies.  And it has no empathy or compassion for people for there is no emotional sensitivity in virtual space.  In terms of a mathematical algorithm it is free of bias, prejudice, and discrimination because it is also free of morality, ethics and oversight.

 

Be informed and beware.

 

 

The following was published by The Telegraph from the United Kingdom.

 

We present the ten most famous hackers

 

1. Kevin Mitnick

 

Probably the most famous hacker of his generation, Mitnick has been described by the US Department of Justice as "the most wanted computer criminal in United States history." The self-styled 'hacker poster boy' allegedly hacked into the computer systems of some of the world's top technology and telecommunications companies including Nokia, Fujitsu and Motorola. After a highly publicised pursuit by the FBI, Mitnick was arrested in 1995 and after confessing to several charges as part of a plea-bargain agreement, he served a five year prison sentence. He was released on parole in 2000 and today runs a computer security consultancy. He didn't refer to his hacking activities as 'hacking' and instead called them 'social engineering'.

 

2. Kevin Poulson

 

Poulson first gained notoriety by hacking into the phone lines of Los Angeles radio station KIIS-FM, ensuring he would be the 102nd caller and thus the winner of a competition the station was running in which the prize was a Porsche. Under the hacker alias Dark Dante, he also reactivated old Yellow Page escort telephone numbers for an acquaintance that then ran a virtual escort agency. The authorities began pursuing Poulson in earnest after he hacked into a federal investigation database. Poulson even appeared on the US television Unsolved Mysteries as a fugitive – although all the 1-800 phone lines for the program mysteriously crashed. Since his release from prison, Poulson has reinvented himself as a journalist.

 

3. Adrian Lamo

 

Adrian Lamo was named 'the homeless hacker' for his penchant for using coffee shops, libraries and internet cafés as his bases for hacking. Most of his illicit activities involved breaking into computer networks and then reporting on their vulnerabilities to the companies that owned them. Lamo's biggest claim to fame came when he broke into the intranet of the New York Times and added his name to their database of experts. He also used the paper's LexisNexis account to gain access to the confidential details of high-profile subjects. Lamo currently works as a journalist.

 

4. Stephen Wozniak

 

Famous for being the co-founder of Apple, Stephen "Woz" Wozniak began his 'white-hat' hacking career with 'phone phreaking' – slang for bypassing the phone system. While studying at the University of California he made devices for his friends called 'blue boxes' that allowed them to make free long distance phone calls. Wozniak allegedly used one such device to call the Pope. He later dropped out of university after he began work on an idea for a computer. He formed Apple Computer with his friend Steve Jobs and the rest, as they say, is history.

 

 

5. Loyd Blankenship

 

Also known as The Mentor, Blankenship was a member of a couple of hacker elite groups in the 1980s – notably the Legion Of Doom, who battled for supremacy online against the Masters Of Deception. However, his biggest claim to fame is that he is the author of the Hacker Manifesto (The Conscience of a Hacker), which he wrote after he was arrested in 1986. The Manifesto states that a hacker's only crime is curiosity and is looked at as not only a moral guide by hackers up to today, but also a cornerstone of hacker philosophy. It was reprinted in Phrack magazine and even made its way into the 1995 film Hackers, which starred Angelina Jolie.

 

6. Michael Calce

 

Calce gained notoriety when he was just 15 years old by hacking into some of the largest commercial websites in the world. On Valentine's Day in 2000, using the hacker alias MafiaBoy, Calce launched a series of denial-of-service attacks across 75 computers in 52 networks, which affected sites such as eBay, Amazon and Yahoo. He was arrested after he was noticed boasting about his hack in online chat rooms. He was received a sentence of eight months of "open custody," one year of probation, restricted use of the internet, and a small fine.

 

7. Robert Tappan Morris

 

In November of 1988 a computer virus, which was later traced to Cornell University, infected around 6,000 major Unix machines, slowing them down to the point of being unusable and causing millions of dollars in damage. Whether this virus was the first of its type is debatable. What is public record, however, is that its creator, Robert Tappan Morris, became the first person to be convicted under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. Morris said his 'worm' virus wasn't intended to damage anything and was instead released to gauge the size of the internet. This assertion didn't help him, however, and he was sentenced to three years probation, 4000 hours of community service and a hefty fine. A computer disk containing the source code for the Morris Worm remains on display at the Boston Museum of Science to this day.

 

8. The Masters Of Deception

 

The Masters Of Deception (MoD) were a New York-based group of elite hackers who targeted US phone systems in the mid to late 80s. A splinter group from the Legion Of Doom (LoD), they became a target for the authorities after they broke into AT&T's computer system. The group was eventually brought to heel in 1992 with many of its members receiving jail or suspended sentences.

 

9. David L. Smith

 

Smith is the author of the notorious Melissa worm virus, which was the first successful email-aware virus distributed in the Usenet discussion group alt. sex. The virus original form was sent via email. Smith was arrested and later sentenced to jail for causing over $80 million worth of damage.

 

10. Sven Jaschan

 

Jaschan was found guilty of writing the Netsky and Sasser worms in 2004 while he was still a teenager. The viruses were found to be responsible for 70 per cent of all the malware seen spreading over the internet at the time. Jaschan received a suspended sentence and three years probation for his crimes. He was also hired by a security company.

 

 

CPT Editor's Note:  If the bad guys (China, etc.) do all the hacking why are all or most all of the world's top ten hackers from America?  And isn't it true that the best of all hackers are the ones who don't get caught?

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The Death of Television News in America

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Did you know that in 1980 55 million Americans watched the network news every night?  In other words 24% of the USA population watched the news.  If 24% of the USA population watched the network and cable news on TV today 75.6 million people would be watching.

 

So why are just 25 million Americans watching the network and cable news today?  That means less than 8% of our population gets their news from the blob tube today.  What about the other 92% of the population?

 

Okay, this story could be a psychological thriller if you care about such things since we are talking about something that can have a major influence on your mind.  If you are a trusted psychologist is this drastic loss of news watchers a bad or good thing?

 

As an investigative reporter I want to find the truth behind the numbers.  So I first check on things like do people trust the news media.  Here is the latest Gallup poll.

 

Honesty/Ethics in Professions

 

 

So 24%  of the people seem to trust journalists.  That means 76% of the people don't trust journalists.  At least they are more trusted than politicians, lawyers, stockbrokers, Congress members and car salesmen.  It also means while just 8% watch the TV news 24% don't trust them.

 

Why would people want to watch news they don't trust?  No wonder the numbers keep dropping.  Is it good or bad that people don't trust the media?  If they don't trust the TV media who do they trust for news?

 

Sadly print media and radio are both fading into extinction as news sources while the digital revolution has brought us multiple sources for news bytes but little in the way of in-depth reporting.

 

I had a theory it all started back in 1979 when President Jimmy Carter got attacked by the killer rabbit.  Such stories could have accelerated the loss of trust in the media.

 

  

 

 

In spite of an expanding variety of ways to get news, a sizable minority of young people continues to go newsless on a typical day. Fully 29 % of those younger than 25 say they got no news yesterday either from digital news platforms, including cell phones and social networks, or traditional news platforms. That is little changed from 33% in 2010.

 

 

In all cases the more choices we have for news the fewer people are using them.  Thus the access is there, so is the availability, but the content and delivery seem to suck.

 

Once upon a time there was some semblance of journalism integrity when it came to news.  Standards, ethics and fact checking were all practiced before most stories got into the news.  With the Internet, there are no longer requirements for standards on content, ethics in the writing style, objectivity in reporting or fact checking in the content.

 

 

Once upon a time no respectable reporter would quote an anonymous source but today's Internet is filled with unsubstantiated facts and unknown sources of information.   Worse, there is no one in a position to bring such discipline and ethics to the Internet since it has no loyalty to sovereign geographic boundaries.

 

Who would you sue and under what court of law if a story full of lies is on the Internet?  It can be almost impossible to track the source of the story when Internet servers all around the world are used to transmit information.

 

So we are helpless to enforce any journalistic standards.  Maybe it is a good thing fewer and fewer people are watching the news or are accepting the digital universe as the source for news.

 

 

Yet I cannot help thinking that a society that no longer thinks and is no longer informed of the situation in the world may very well be so caught up in self-serving interests that the good of all the people is a distant memory.

 

Maybe we need more digital applications teaching us how to give selflessly rather than simply take.  Self-gratification is not a Cardinal virtue in spite of what you may have read in the digital universe.

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The Strange Stories Genealogy Generates

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When I was a kid my grandfather used to sit me down on Sunday afternoons and give me a copy of one of the top magazines of the 1950's.  The magazine might be Time Magazine (1923-present), Life Magazine (1936-2000), Popular Mechanics (1902-present), Harper's Magazine (1850-present), Scientific American (1845-present), National Geographic (1888-present) or Boy's Life (1911-present).  He would quiz me on what I knew about the contents.

 

Since I was the only one in my family who loved to read and learn except Grandpa Pat, I figured he was desperate for intellectual discussions about current events, science or history.  So what if I was a kid, I still devoured magazines and listened to the news on radio and TV.

 

My grandfather was an immigrant of Scottish-Irish descent and he came to America from Donegal County, Ireland.  Of course his Campbell clan had been forced to leave Scotland a few hundred years earlier when England started enforcing the new Anglican religion in order to cover up King Henry VIII and his frisky ways.

 

 

Most of Europe was Catholic in the 1500's when the Pope delayed giving King Henry an annulment from his first wife, a method of divorcing your wife without divorcing her by having the Pope declare the marriage never existed in the first place.

 

Divorce was not allowed by the church.  Annulment was the only way to get out of marriage and remain a Catholic.  But there had to be a good reason and Henry had none except the need to pursue further peccadilloes with all the ladies of the world who seemed to love him.

 

Without an annulment the death of his wife was the only way for him to get married again.  Ironically, it was the death of his brother that forced him to get married in the first place.

 

Back in the good old days of the monarchies when the parents arranged marriages for their children in order to merge with other monarchies, a three year old Catherine was betrothed to Prince Arthur of England, Henry's older brother and heir to the throne, thus setting up a consolidation of the Spanish and English empires.

 

 

They were married in 1501, when she turned 16, and six months later Prince Arthur died after both became ill, possibly from sweating sickness.  This caused a royal mess as the whole succession plan to consolidate the kingdoms was unraveling.  So Arthur's brother, Henry, who was five years younger than Catherine, had to marry his brother's widow to keep things on track.

 

Unfortunately, that same Catholic church had canon law that forbade men from marrying their brother's widow.  Yet there was a way around that canon law as well.  The Pope could grant a dispensation if the marriage was never consummated.

 

Catherine said the marriage was never consummated during the 6 month period and the Pope granted the dispensation.  It still took several years due to monarchy bureaucratic delays before they were married.  Then Catherine never produced a male heir to the throne with Henry, just a female named Mary, and Henry feared the Tudor family was so dysfunctional a woman could never rule the kingdom.

 

Henry's first wife at the time, Catherine of Aragon, was the daughter of the most powerful monarchy in the world, Queen Isabella I of Castile and King Ferdinand II of Argon, the Queen and King of the Spanish empire.  Yes, the same Isabella who helped finance the discovery of America by Columbus.

 

 

One could write numerous more volumes or scripts on the incredible, bizarre and off-the-wall antics of the royal monarchies that ruled the world and in particular the Tudor family in England.  The truth about them is far more riveting a tale than the fiction of Hollywood screen writers.

 

Anyway, finding the young maids of his wife far more interesting and desirable than his older wife, Henry needed an out so for the second time he asked the Pope to waive a canon law for him.  First the dispensation and now the annulment.

 

When the Pope took to much time to act Henry went out and changed the ruling church to Anglican and banned Catholics from England, Scotland and Wales among other places controlled by the British.

 

 

A few wives and numerous peccadilloes later, peccadilloes being the insignificance old Henry attached to the affairs, adultery and general debauchery he considered essential to his monarchy, the old boy died.  The cause of death was long attributed to that deadly old venerable venereal disease syphilis.  Imagine that, being killed by too many peccadilloes!

 

Now historians point to diabetes, obesity, or even brain damage from a 1536 jousting accident.  Aristocrats never stop trying to re-write any history that makes the family look bad.

 

After his death from diabetes, obesity, brain damage or syphilis his son Edward (King Edward VI), became king at 9 years old and died at age 15.  In order to keep his oldest daughter Mary, a Catholic, from being queen Henry had directed that Lady Jane Grey succeed Edward.  Jane was queen 9 days before Bloody Mary showed up, imprisoned her and then had her executed in 1554.

 

 

Thus his daughter Mary (Queen Mary I or Bloody Mary) did become Queen lasing only until 1558  when she died and Elizabeth, Henry's last child and daughter of second wife Ann Boleyn, became Queen.

 

Queen Elizabeth I, my all time favorite Queen of England, ruled for 45 years and is often considered the greatest Queen of England.  She refused to marry in order to assure there would never be another Tudor on the throne of England.

 

 

It seems Henry's legacy was too much for her.  There is an old English rhyme that summarized Henry's rule.

 

King Henry the Eighth

to six wives he was wedded.

One died, one survived,

two divorced, two beheaded.

For historical accuracy change divorced to annulled.

One of the reasons I thought Elizabeth was great is she refused to enforce her dad's (King Henry) law banishing Catholics from England.  It was not until after she died that Catholics were finally told to denouncement their Catholic faith and become Anglican or leave the country.  They could be imprisoned and even executed for refusing to denounce their faith.

My grandfather's Campbell clan ruled Scotland at the time.  They were Catholics.  In the early 1600's they were ordered to denounce their Catholic faith or give up all rights to ruling Scotland.  Those that remained Catholic gave up all rights to succession and were sent to Ireland, where Catholics still ruled.

So you can see how King Henry VIII and his daughter Queen Elizabeth I had a direct impact on my family about 450 years ago and why my family immigrated to America.  Ironically, while the Campbell's were my maternal family the Putnam's from my father's side were from England and were Anglican aristocratic defenders of the monarchy.

For some odd reason reunions of my family never seemed to work.
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New CPT Columnist

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Fannee Hilander
 

The Barefoot Blueblood Blonde Belle

of Bluegrass Horse Country Kentucky

 

CPT is pleased to introduce our new columnist from Kentucky, Fannee Hilander, a true Blueblood from the Bluegrass of thoroughbred horse country.  This Southern Belle has come a long ways from the barefoot babe of Muddy Ford, Kentucky to matriarch of her Hilander clan, not to be confused with the immortal Scottish Highlanders whose ancestors settled all around Fannee's Indian Summer Place in Kentucky and introduced world-famous Bourbon to the unsuspecting Earthlings.

 

In a word Fannee is "authentic" whatever that may mean to you.  Like most Bluebloods she is also a stickler for etiquette, likes Jaguar sports cars, has a life size coat of armor in her doorway, a massive Indian totem pole tree in her front yard, and huge lion statues at the entry to her little corner of paradise.  Of course the picture perfect setting would not be complete without the spectacular water falls guarding her enchanted farm.

 

 

This is a woman of purpose.  By 16 years old she won a United Nations UNICEF competition and appeared on the nationally famous Ed Sullivan Show from New York City.  The "Really Big Shew" appearance was sandwiched the week between the two legendary Ed Sullivan introductions of a young singer named Elvis Presley.  Imagine that, missing by a week from sharing backstage with the King of Rock and Roll.

 

 

Should one ever receive a coveted invitation to any of the legendary social events at Indian Summer Place Farm you will no doubt wind up sipping mint juleps by the swimming pool as a Blueblood breed of free range and free yard chickens dart between your legs while you discuss the latest odds for the Kentucky Derby.

 

In spite of having a hair dresser and manicurist on full time retainer Fannee is not above getting her nails scratched or make up smudged while searching for the perfect story for her books, movies, documentaries or magazine articles.

 

 

Her favorite literary subjects beyond her mother, immediate family and scantily clad Mayan Indian dancers are world famous or almost world famous celebrities from movie actors to politicians to sports legends to Native American leaders, IF she finds their story interesting.

 

I've seen her in action from the sophisticated New York City skyscrapers to the Smithsonian museums in our nation's capitol.  Of course there were also stops at the National Press club luncheon with the President of Chile to a rollicking evening at a French Burlesque club downtown.  Fannee leaves no stone unturned in her search for adventure, and/or stories.

 

 

She prowls the mountains of Santa Fe, New Mexico and the theaters of southwestern film festivals with occasional side trips to Paris, France or Yucatan Mexico.  I was even with her at one of the most incredible of all Native American events in the canyons of Arizona where the Hopi nation hosted a fulfillment of sacred prophecies by the Hopi, Navajo, and Zuni nations of the US, the Algonquin from Canada, the Ute from Columbia, South America and the Aborigines from Australia along with Tibetan monks sent by the Dali Lama.

 

You get the idea.  Another writer with way too much time on her hands whose subjects may be anyone from a Sheik in Dubai (just another fellow horse person) to our most powerful politicians in Washington (good old Kentucky boys).  Her stories are as colorful as her personality as you will discover and she brings us a fresh new perspective behind the scenes in the mysterious world of the elite.

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Obamaville - June 14, 2013

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 Obamaville - June 14, 2013 - The Midterm Check Up

 

Halfway through the first year of his second term as President of these United States, just what have we realized of the Obama Dream we were given when he first ran to be chief executive, commander in chief, the husband of the First Lady or maybe biggest spender in our history?

 

Is writing this story a journalist's "dream" ticket to a Pulitzer, or a "nightmare" demotion to writing those dreaded obituaries?

 

My a lot can happen by the 5th year of a presidency --- or not.

 

First you have to get elected, and then elected again.  It means the people might have been fooled once, but they presumably knew what they were doing when they re-elected you.  Now what happens really is the fault of the people who voted for Obama.

 

Ages ago a newly elected Barack Obama promised a lot and did some pretty serious Bushwhacking in the process.  In his first year as the first minority to ever be elected president he promised to deliver things like comprehensive Immigration Reform and closing Guantanamo Prison in Cuba.

 

 

Of course the Iraq and Afghanistan wars would be ended immediately with a high degree of success.  The dastardly Bush recession would be fixed and everyone will keep their homes and get back their lost jobs.  In the meantime he would give everyone in our country health insurance and lower the cost of healthcare.

 

There might have been some mention of a new concept of redistribution of wealth from the "elite" class to the middle class, which in Obamaese means anyone making less than a million or two million dollars a year.  Truth is very difficult to find in the fog in our nation's capitol.

 

Now where I come from about a hundred miles from where Mark Twain grew up, if someone told me the middle class was everyone except the rich, powerful and very few "elite", I might scratch my head in wonder.

 

 

So if the middle class is everyone else, how many "elite's" are there?  Of course the wealthy "elites" have mastered hiding their money from detection by IRS or any other criminal or social tax deductible organization.  The truth is no one really knows this answer, including the All Omnipotent NSA since they REALLY are watching you all the time.

 

So it is a guess by anyone that 1-5% of Americans belong to the so called "elite".  Yet these people control all the wealth of America and much of the world according to those who know and speak the truth.

 

 

 

Now, back to my most recent line of thought, if no more than 5% are "elite" and we are going to redistribute their wealth so we all get what we deserve, then everyone becomes a card carrying member of the "elite".

 

Guess we might need all those illegal immigrants since none of the "elite" work like the middle class has been doing ever since we first drove out the British.  That's one way to drive down the unemployment rate, just eliminate the middle class.  Won't be any jobless if everyone is home managing their money instead of making it.

 

One other big Obama promise was to throw those crooks on Wall Street or Main Street, where ever they might be carrying out their predatory practices, in jail.

 

Then reality set in.  Suddenly, when he was elected president, he was expected to do what he said he would do.  Like nothing counted when he was just a presidential candidate.  Only if you were the final one elected would your promises have to be honest, truthful and delivered.

 

No first year Immigration reform or prison closings.  Five years later they are both just as he found them when he became responsible for all Americans as president.

 

 

 

As for ending the two wars being fought to end the bigger war on terror, our president's words of peace and cooperation for all Earthlings got him the coveted Nobel Peace prize a couple of weeks later as the one person in the world who did more than everyone else to bring about peace.

 

Clearly words speak louder than actions for a few weeks later he ordered tens of thousands of more American troops and billions of dollars in military expenditures in Afghanistan.  What a difference a few weeks can make.

 

Eventually, long after he had promised, we are pretty much out of Iraq.  Now that the war on terror between the US and Al-Qaeda is over the people of Iraq can finish their Civil Separatist war which is far more brutal and deadly than our Geneva Convention based efforts.

 

One thing the Obama administration did learn from all the war efforts is the value of drones, those unmanned airplanes that can successfully kill terrorists without risking the lives of American soldiers.  Any deaths of innocent civilians including children are just collateral damage to the mission.

 

Afghanistan, after billions in bribes, is just now winding down.  Both wars cost far too many lives of the brave American soldiers, men and women, sent to the war zones.

 

 

Fixing Bush's financial recession has been a little bit more complicated than Obama might have suspected since it seemed to take several years to find everything that could be blamed on Bush.

 

In Detroit he saved the world auto industry by transforming General Motors Corporation into the Government Motors Corporation.  His AIG bailout gave billions of dollars to those barons of Wall Street like Goldman Sachs.

 

Millions of Americans lost their jobs and millions of Americans lost their homes since Obama was elected.  The economy is declared to be stable and safe.

 

But people have not found new jobs or replaced foreclosed homes.  And those who have suffered most are the very middle class he promised to save.

 

Seniors saw their retirement savings vanish away.  Minorities by the millions lost their jobs and homes.  So did the Caucasians.  Ironically, many were the very special interest groups who overwhelmingly elected Obama to office.  I guess you can't bite the hand that feeds you when you are the one doing the feeding.

 

No major crooks have been sent to jail.

 

 

As for health care and costs, after a brutal couple of  years Obama Care did get approved but all the tough promises to keep were delayed until after the re-election campaign.  Now we are beginning to see that much of it is impossible to implement.

 

Neither health insurance or medical treatment costs have gone down but continue their upward trajectory.  Americans spend more being sicker than nearly all other developed countries.  We also spend far more on legal drugs than anyone else meaning we are either much sicker or love being legally "stoned".

 

 

Obama might have another first to his credit, not having a budget approved the entire time he has been president.

 

On the other hand, he has had a few trouble spots he did not expect.  The Benghazi attack in Libya left four Americans including the Ambassador dead.

 

The IRS (Internal Revenue Service) targeted Tea Party conservatives for harassment while the NSA (National Security Agency) targeted just plain people for about everything with their cell phone and internet tapping and hacking initiatives.

 

 

The Office of the Chief Executive and Commander in chief (the White House) of course knew nothing of such actions by their own agencies and people.

 

Then there is the Mexican drug war and Syrian civil war in which the big news is we have done nothing in either case.  As a result of our inaction or intellectual constipation 93,000 people have died in Syria and between 60,000 and 90,000 have died in Mexico.

 

Need we say more about the state of affairs of the nation?  To be perfectly honest there are a lot more good, inspiring or entertaining stories we need to cover.

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Obama DOD Nominee Chuck Hagel

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January 7, 2013
Dateline: Washington, DC

Obama DOD Nominee Chuck Hagel

Lightning Rod or Voice of Reason?

Today President Obama nominated former Senator Chuck Hagel as the next Secretary of Defense and the first enlisted soldier to ever hold the office.  The nomination met with instant criticism from liberals and conservatives, Democrats and Republicans alike.

 

I believe no better nominee could be considered for this critical cabinet position and I say that not as a journalist, former political junkie or political party member but as someone deeply concerned about the future of America in a time of fiscal austerity.

 

Also I say that as someone who worked with Chuck when he first began his political career in Nebraska as we both served as congressional staffers and learned political warfare Midwestern style.

 

What does that mean?

 We served a Republican congressman from Omaha Nebraska in a congressional district that was dominated by Democrats from the city of Omaha with a non-partisan mayor and non-partisan state legislature.

 

In fact, from 1969 - 1973 I worked for three different mayors of Omaha, first a Republican, then a Democrat, then a Republican who turned Democrat in order to run against our congressional boss for US Senate in 1976.

 

Politics in the Heartland forced one to be accommodating of different views.  Once elections were decided the political party labels and political philosophies dissolved or nothing could be accomplished for the good of the people.

Compromise was a way of life and working together was far more important than party litmus tests.

When I worked in the mayors office we coordinated extensively with the GOP congressman and I got to know Chuck and appreciate the independence we all had to master in order to do good for the people.

After a stint in the Executive Office of the President I joined the same congressional office as a fellow staff member and Chuck worked in DC while I stayed in the district working with the Democrats and coordinating with the Strategic Air Command headquarters also in our district.

On many trips to Washington to meet with federal agencies Chuck let me stay at his apartment on Capitol Hill as we were both compulsive workaholics.

Chuck Hagel, though a Republican, is one of few Washington political veterans with no strings attached in terms of being beholden to special interests.  While most of our national politicians were owned by defense contractors and special interests Chuck was a former enlisted man, not career military politician, who understood the underbelly of the military and defense industry.

Because of his experience he also understood the financial implications of federal policy and was never afraid to speak his own mind, not parrot the will of the political party or president.

President's Lincoln, Eisenhower, Kennedy and Reagan all warned of the dangers of a military industrial complex, one in which our politicians and military leaders became senior executives or rich lobbyists in the defense industry when they retired, got defeated or driven from office.

Today more than ever we need government leaders who can stand up to the military industrial complex and make changes that no political party loyalist would ever be allowed to support.

Our federal government is riddled with conflicts of interest, special interests and greed because our public policy is determined as much by how much money can be made by individuals, foundations and politicians as by how well the policy serves the public good.

We need government officials who refuse to play the game that has nearly destroyed our ability to govern America FOR THE PEOPLE instead of for the political party or special interests.

Defense, like all government functions, has to be cut back and made affordable.  There are more American soldiers stationed overseas than in America and nations around the world are charging us excessive amounts for the bases we maintain to protect them.

Chuck Hagel is a pragmatic person who tells us the truth about wars and relationships and he has demonstrated consistently that he is far more patriotic than political, dating back to the two Purple Hearts he was awarded for service in Viet Nam.

We need a Defense Secretary whose first concern is for America, who is not a hack for either political party, who will not sugar coat the truth and will never forget the people and needs of Main Street America.

We also need a Secretary not interested in advancing his political career but in serving the public interest.  In the 42 years I have known Chuck Hagel and followed his career he has never been a yes man or someone who sucked up to the media to enhance his own agenda.

Hagel is an All American patriot from our nation's populist Heartland who never lost his perspective on the needs of the people nor catered to special interests in Washington.

The Senate should confirm him because of his differences with politicians and party platforms in Washington.

Jim Putnam

Publisher
Coltons Point Times
.