Originally Posted by Sideshow Bob
Bwahahahahaha
Bwahahahahaha
he aint done shit wtf are u talkin about really?
what has he done?
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/mag...ents035755.php
some of you need to stop searching jay-z videos for owls and pyramids and start reading once in a while
its bigger than black and white. and sadly the majority of the vote will be based on just that
obama has done good?? lolol
if good is defined as destroying the American Constitution, conducting illegal drone attacks, Bailing out centralised banks and industries, while the average joe slips into poverty., increase the military / defense spending, while all the time destroying democracy... wealth is being siphoned off to the rich and elite... our kids, and there kids will be living in a time of no wealth or prosperity.....
lol at one of the comments = he killed osama.. lololol
people are fooled so easily.
WATCH
* SCYTL (In Spain) **
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BALDERTON CAPITOL (U.K.) - *** Only Investor In SCYTL!!! ***
http://www.balderton.com/portfolio/scytl
http://www.balderton.com/team (Leadership)
http://www.balderton.com/team/tim-bunting (Prior Goldman Sachs)
http://www.balderton.com/team/mark-evans (Prior Goldman Sachs)
http://www.balderton.com/team/charlotte-anne-swerling (Prior taskforce for Tony Blair)
wtf? stfu when grown men are talking boy. lmao "he aint done shit"
Obama Administration’s Achievements (Thus Far)
Click any category or: Expand | Collapse All Items
Arts and Culture
Increased funding for the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) to the highest level since 1992. ref , ref , ref
Created an artist corps for public schools. ref
Championed the importance of arts education. ref
Promoted cultural diplomacy. ref
Banking and Financial Reform
BROAD POLICY:
Established the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform. ref
Established President’s Advisory Council on Financial Capability to assist in financial education for all Americans. ref , ref , ref
Restoring American Financial Stability Act of 2010. ref , ref
Dodd-Frank (DF) Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, the biggest financial reform law since the Great Depression. ref
Managed the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) ref
Assigned a Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program Act of 2009. ref
Pension relief Act of 2010. ref
Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act. ref , ref
Played a lead role in G-20 Summit re: financial crisis. ref
Reformed deferral rules to curb tax advantages for investing overseas. ref
Established new offshore investment policy that promotes in-sourcing. ref , ref
FUNDING:
Cut salaries for 65 bailout executives (Pay Czar). ref
Banks have repaid 75% of TARP funds, bringing the cost down to $89B as of June 2010. ref
Closed offshore tax safe havens, tax credit loopholes. ref , ref , ref
TARGETED ACTIONS:
Created the Financial Stability Oversight Council to monitor stability of the financial system and individual firms (DF). ref
New requirements for reporting financial data (DF). ref
Created self-funded Office of Financial Research (OFR) to collect information from financial firms (DF). ref
OFR employees must wait a year before working for certain financial firms. ref
Provided for orderly liquidation of financial companies (DF). ref
Limited trading activities of banks (Volcker Rule) beginning 2 yrs after passage (DF). ref
Swaps Pushout Rule prevented federal assistance to swaps (including derivatives) traders (DF). ref
Derivatives must be traded transparently through a clearing house (DF). ref
Defined the amount and nature of assets required to meet capital requirements (DF). ref
Originators of asset-backed securities must retain 5% ownership/risk (DF). ref
Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection (DF). ref
Stronger client fiduciary duty for broker-dealers (DF). ref
Higher standards for securities advertising and disclosures (DF). ref
Expanded “insider loans” (DF). ref
Higher standards for sytemically important ($50 billion assetsinstitutions, including annual stress tests and restrictions on bank acquisitions (DF). ref
Executive compensation must be determined by an independent committee (DF). ref
Issued compensation guidelines for bank executive salary and bonuses. ref , ref
Financial agencies must establish Offices of Women and Minorities to promote more diverse hiring (DF). ref
Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure Act. ref , ref
Credit CARD Technical Corrections Act of 2009. ref
Established a credit card bill of rights. ref
Reformed credit card swipe fees. ref
Created new criminal penalties for mortgage fraud. ref
Congress pursued Goldman Sachs for securities violations. ref
Permanently extended Research and Experimentation Tax Credit for domestic investments. ref
RESULTS:
(Treasury) Sold 1.5 billion shares of Citigroup at a profit. ref
G-20 summit produced a $1.1 trillion deal to combat the global financial crisis. ref
Negotiated deal with Swiss banks to permit US government to gain access to records of tax evaders and criminals. ref
Financial reform has ‘strongest consumer financial protections in history.’ ref
Section curator:
Civil Rights
FUNDING:
Provided $12.2 billion in new funding for the Individuals with Disabilities Act though the American Recovery and investment Act. ref
TARGETED ACTIONS:
Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act; Instituted equal pay for women. ref , ref , ref
Presidential Memorandum extending benefits to same-sex partners of federal employees. ref , ref , ref , ref
Presidential Memorandum protecting gay and lesbian partners’ visitation/healthcare decision-making rights (4/15/2010). ref
Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act to include gender, sexual orientation and disability. ref
Supported the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell (DADT). ref
Ryan White HIV/AIDS Treatment Extension Act. ref
Established White House Council on Women and Girls (Executive Order 13506 ). ref
Financial agencies must establish Offices of Women and Minorities to promote more diverse hiring.
Increased minority access to capital. ref
Pushing through settlement in the black farmers lawsuit against USDA. ref , ref
Signed the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. ref
Increased Federal Employment of Individuals with Disabilities (Exec Order)(celebrating 20th anniversary of the ADA). ref , ref
Section curator: ^roytoric
Commerce, Trade and technology
BROAD POLICY:
Promoted internet freedom as part of U.S. foreign policy. ref , ref , ref
Webcaster Settlement Act of 2009. ref
Satellite Television Extension Act of 2010. ref
FUNDING:
Expanded loan programs for small businesses. ref
TARGETED ACTION:
Small Business Act. ref
Small Business Investment Act. ref
Proposed tougher meat industry antitrust rules. ref , ref
Denied federal contracts to tax delinquents. ref
Appointed the nation’s first Chief Technology Officer. ref
Established Federal IT Dashboard. ref
Modernized the USA.gov portal to connect people to the services they require. ref
Launched the National Export Initiative, with the goal of doubling US exports by 2015. ref , ref
Provided National Export Initiative/Progress report and named President’s Export Council. ref , ref
Launched piracy crackdown. ref
Section curators:
Conservation
BROAD POLICY:
Morris K. Udall Scholarship and Excellence in National Environmental Policy Amendments Act of 2009. ref
Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009. ref
North American Wetlands Conservation Act. ref
Stewardship of the Ocean (established National Ocean Council ), our Coasts and the Great Lakes (Executive Order). ref
Federal Leadership in Environmental, Energy and Economic Performance (Executive Order). ref , ref
Established partnerships to share environmental technology with other countries. ref
FUNDING:
Increased funding for the Land and Water Conservation Fund. ref
Increased funding for national parks and forests. ref
$175 million of ARRA allocated for water conservation, $135 million of that in the West. ref
TARGETED AREAS:
Reengaged in the treaties/agreements to protect the Antarctic. ref , ref
Expanded access to places to hunt and fish. ref
Chesapeake Bay Protection and Restoration (Executive Order). ref , ref
Led effort to phase out whaling. ref
Pursued a wildfire management plan. ref
Encouraged more controlled burns to reduce wildfires. ref
Ordered removal of more brush, small trees and vegetation that fuel wildfires. ref
Section curator: ^pash
Economy
BROAD POLICY:
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA): a $789 billion economic stimulus plan. ref
US auto industry rescue plan. ref , ref
Start-Up activity now higher than it was during the dotcom boom. ref
Created task force to fight deficit. ref
Worker, Homeownership, and Business Assistance Act of 2009. ref
Temporary extension of programs under the Small Business Act and the Small Business Investment Act of 1958. ref
FUNDING:
Increased minority access to capital. ref
$26 billion aid to states package (Aug 2010). ref
TARGETED ACTIONS:
Raised the small business investment limit to $250,000 through the end of 2009. ref
Created an Advanced Manufacturing Fund to invest in peer-reviewed manufacturing processes. ref
Improper Payments Elimination and Recovery Act – establishes a Federal “Do Not Pay” list. ref
Extended and indexed the 2007 Alternative Minimum Tax patch. ref
Adopted Economic Substance tax doctrine. ref
Extended unemployment insurance benefits and temporarily suspend taxes on these benefits. ref ref
Economy grew 5.9% in 4th quarter. ref
U.S. Economy: Manufacturing grew by most since 2004. ref
U.S. GDP up 3.2% in first quarter. ref
Consumer spending showed biggest rise in 3 years. ref
Orders for most durable goods rose. ref
Wholesale inventories and sales rose in March. ref
$26 billion state aid bill triggered a surge of private municipal investment. ref
EXHIBITS – THE STIMULUS ONE YEAR LATER:
Success of the stimulus–how do you illustrate ‘could have been worse’? ref
Distribution of ARRA funds by year. ref
Need for financial education: Investors who act on their own do worse than T-bills; market timers earn negative returns. ref
Consumer debt patterns (revolving and non-revolving) through end of 2009. ref
Growth of the national debt from 2000-2009. ref
Bar chart showing increases in national debt by President (since Carter). ref
Pie chart: 2009 annual deficit contrasting large Bush tax cuts and relatively small ARRA. ref
THE LEGACY: AUGUST 2010
The Economy Has Been Growing – seasonally adjusted change in GDP by quarter 2007-2010. ref
The Private Sector Has Begun to Add Jobs – Monthly change in nonfarm employment 2008-2010. ref
GDP would have been lower without the Recovery Act (2007-2013 projection) (scroll down to Part III to see chart). ref
Unemployment would have been higher without ARRA (2008-2010). ref
The gap between actual and full-employment GDP would have been much larger without TARP and ARRA (2008-2010). ref
MISCELLANEOUS EXHIBITS:
Public Sector Lost 316,000 jobs October 09-July 10 (state aid negotiated out of ARRA by GOP). ref
Section curator ^roytoric
Education: College
BROAD POLICY:
Enacted largest reform of student aid in 40 years. ref , ref
Health Care and Education Affordability Reconciliation Act of 2010. ref
Established President’s Advisory Council on Financial Capability to assist in financial education for all Americans. ref , ref , ref
FUNDING:
Increased funding for land-grant college. ref
Provided means for students struggling to make college loan payments to refinance. ref
TARGETED ACTIONS:
Expanded Pell grants for low-income students. ref
Expanded Pell grant pool by eliminating private lender subsidies for student loans. ref
Section curators: ^ejoyce ^Kroth
Education: Health of Children
BROAD POLICY:
Created the Race to the Top Fund ($4.35 billion) to reward States that create comprehensive education reform plans. ref
Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2009 . ref
FUNDING:
Provided funding for high-speed, broadband Internet access to K-12 schools. ref
Established State Equalization Fund; new funds for school construction (ARRA). ref
Provided $77 Billion for reforms to to strengthen Elementary and Secondary education. ref
Fully funded the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG). ref
Provided $12.2 billion in new funding for the Individuals with Disabilities Act through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. ref
$26 billion state aid package saved 160,000 teacher jobs (Aug 2010) ref
Provided over $2.3 billion in additional funding to Head Start and Early Head Start programs in 2009. ref
Provided $5 billion dollars for Early Learning Programs under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. ref
Roughly doubled the amount available in Federal Child Care Block Grants. ref
Established “Promise Neighborhood” Grants (modeled after the Harlem Children’s Zone). ref , ref
Eliminated abstinence-only funding in budget. ref , ref
TARGETED ACTIONS:
Helped rebuild schools in New Orleans. ref
Established school programs to highlight space and science achievements. ref
Recruited math and science degree graduates to the teaching profession. ref
Expanded the Nurse-Family Partnership to all low-income, first-time mothers . ref
Provided affordable, high-quality child care. ref
Unveiled initiatives to help men be better fathers. ref
Section curators: ^ejoyce ^Kroth
We do it for the people.
continued here, you stupid fuck
lmao he "aintdone shit". just shut your stupid mouth.
Employment: Jobs
BROAD POLICY:
Jobs for Main Street Act (2010). ref
American Jobs and Closing Tax Loopholes Act of 2010. ref
National Export Initiative ref
FUNDING:
(DOL) Dedicated $100 million in Energy Training Partnership green jobs training grants. ref
(DOL) Dedicated $150 million for Pathways Out of Poverty green jobs training grants. ref
$33 billion-dollar jobs package (March 2010). ref , ref
$26 billion aid to states package (Aug 2010). ref
$5,000 tax credit for every new worker. ref
New Health IT Workforce Grants (ARRA). ref
TARGETED ACTIONS:
Job training programs in clean technologies for displaced workers. ref
Green Vet Initiative to promote environmental jobs for veterans. ref
Financial agencies must establish Offices of Women and Minorities to promote more diverse hiring (DF).
Recruited math and science degree graduates to the teaching profession. ref
Initiated a new policy to promote federal hiring of military spouses. ref , ref
Required new hires to sign a form affirming their hiring was not due to political affiliations or contributions. ref , ref
RESULTS:
CBO found 3.7 Million jobs created by stimulus (May 2010). ref
Job loss exploded under Bush, improves under Obama. ref
682,370 jobs created under the Recovery Act Between January 1 — March 31,2010. ref , ref , ref
New jobless claims tumble. ref
March payrolls surge by 162,000 US says . ref
March jobs data showed biggest growth in three years .ref
U.S. economy added 90000 jobs in April . ref
Jobless rates dropped in 34 states and DC (AP). ref
Section curator: ^roytoric
Energy: Green
BROAD POLICY:
Established an Energy Partnership for the Americas. ref
Established the Biofuels Working Group to develop a comprehensive approach to alternative fuels. ref
Additional measures to advance clean energy/solar investments and job creation (ARRA). ref
Launched new Climate Service. ref
Worked toward deploying a global climate change research and monitoring system. ref
Implemented renewable fuels mandate of 36 billion gallons by 2022. ref
FUNDING:
More than doubled federal spending for research on clean fuels. ref
$60 billion in spending and tax incentives for renewable and clean energy. ref
Invested in all types of alternative energy. ref
Increased funding for the Environmental Protection Agency. ref
Invested $2 billion in solar power, hailed new jobs. ref , ref , ref
Established consumer tax credit for plug-in hybrid cars. ref , ref
Provided grants to encourage energy-efficient building codes. ref
Doubled funding for bicycling, walking projects ref , ref
(DOL) Dedicated $100 million in Energy Training Partnership green jobs training grants. ref
(DOL) Dedicated $150 million for Pathways Out of Poverty green jobs training grants. ref
$8 billion combined public/pvt funding committed to develop Smart Power Grid (part of ARRA). ref
Incentivized farmers to use more renewable energy and be more energy efficient. ref
TARGETED ACTIONS:
Purchased fuel efficient American-made fleet for the federal government. ref
Ordered 5,000 hybrids for federal fleet. ref
(NIST) Completed first release of Smart Grid framework. ref
Created job training programs in clean technologies for displaced workers. ref
Created Green Vet Initiative to promote environmental jobs for veterans. ref
Established program to convert manufacturing centers into clean technology leaders. ref
RESULTS:
First President to create detailed vision for clean energy economy. ref
Wind power growth up 39% due to government stimulus. ref
Study: Almost 5 million charging stations by 2015. ref
Section curator: ^pash
Energy: Old
BROAD POLICY:
Ended the previous policy of not regulating and labeling carbon dioxide emissions. ref
Created Interagency Task Force on Carbon Capture and Storage. ref
Set national standards for fuel economy and first ever greenhouse gas emission levels for passenger cars and light trucks. ref
Set smog limit: new strict proposal to replace Bush-era rule (EPA). ref ref
Regulated greenhouse gases for large industrial sources (EPA). ref
Raised fuel economy standards. ref
Required states to provide incentives for utilities to reduce energy consumption. ref
Allowed states to enact tougher fuel efficiency standards than federal standards. ref
Established Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future. ref
FUNDING:
Pledged more than $8 billion for new nuclear reactors. ref
Tax breaks to promote public transit. ref
TARGETED ACTIONS:
Dismantled the Minerals Management Service, cutting ties between industry and government. ref , ref
Reengaged in global warming and greenhouse gas emissions talks. ref , ref
Offered 17% U.S. emissions cuts at climate summit. ref
Pledged 28% cut in federal greenhouse gas emissions by 2020. ref
Expanded greenhouse gas reduction targets for Federal operations -13% reduction from indirect sources by 2020. ref
(FTC) Toughened anti-greenwashing rules. ref
Instituted “Cash for Clunkers” to spur auto sales and promote fuel efficiency . ref , ref
Ordered inspections of mines with poor safety records. ref
Closed loophole that allowed drilling in Rockies without environmental review. ref
(EPA) Sharply limited mountaintop mining. ref
(EPA) Announced historic plans to regulate coal ash. ref
Required electric utilities to produce 20% of their electricity demand from renewable energy sources by 2020. ref
(EPA) Limited mercury emissions. ref ref
Section curator: ^pash
Energy: Oil
BROAD POLICY:
Introduced Oil Spill Recovery Bill to remove oil company liability cap. ref ref
Created offshore drilling safety review board. ref
Created new drilling agency with investigative arm. ref
Ended previous practice of having White House aides rewrite scientific and environmental rules, regulations and reports. ref
FUNDING:
Ordered $20 billion escrow fund by BP to reimburse lost incomes in Gulf. ref
Ordered $100 million to compensate those hurt by drilling moratorium. ref
TARGETED ACTIONS:
Dismantled the Minerals Management Service, cutting ties between industry and government. ref , ref
Mandated new safety rules for offshore drilling. ref
Opened civil and criminal investigations into Gulf oil spill. ref , ref
(Congress) Launched investigation into gas drilling practices. ref
Established the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling. ref
Amended Oil Pollution Act of 1990 authorizing advances from Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund for the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. ref
Expanded oil rig workers’ families abilities to sue and recover. ref
Fined BP subsidiary $5.2 million for false reporting. ref
(EPA) Barred Texas’ authority to issue refinery operating permits. ref
Section curator: ^pash
Foreign Affairs and International Relations
BROAD POLICY:
Re-established the United States standing in the world. ref , ref , ref
Poll: World’s opinion of U.S. has “improved sharply” under Obama. ref
47 nations rise to Obama’s challenge at US nuke summit and agree to four years of non-proliferation efforts. ref
Visited more countries and world leaders than any first year president. ref
G-20 Summit produced a $1.1 trillion deal to combat the global financial crisis. ref
Launched an international Add Value to Agriculture initiative (AVTA). ref
Created a rapid response fund for emerging democracies. ref
Bolstered the military’s ability to speak different languages. ref
BY REGION:
West Hem: Returned the rights of Americans to visit and assist their families in Cuba. ref , ref , ref
Middle East: Appointed envoys to the Middle East and AFPAK affirming the power of American diplomacy. ref
Middle East: Renewed loan guarantees for Israel. ref
Middle East: Pledged $400 million in aid to Gaza civillians. ref
Middle East: Pressured Israel to end Gaza blockade. ref
Middle East: Refused to give Israel a “green light” to strike Iran, augmenting Mid-East stability. ref
Middle East: Iran Sanctions Act. ref
Asia: Authorized President Bill Clinton’s mission to secure the release of two Americans held in North Korea. ref
Asia: Authorized discussions with Myanmar and mission by Sen. Jim Webb to secure the release of an American held captive. ref
Asia: Renewed import restrictions under Burmese Freedom and Democracy Act of 2003. ref
Asia: Nuclear arms agreements with India (5/4/2010). ref
Africa: Lord’s Resistance Army Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act of 2009. ref
Africa: Helped stabilize Somalia (Exec Order). ref
Aus: Nuclear arms agreements with Australia (5/5/2010). ref
Europe: Nuclear arms agreement with Russia. ref , ref , ref , ref
Europe: Agreed with Switzerland to bolster tax information exchange ref , ref
Government Efficiency
BROAD POLICY:
Established the President’s Management Advisory Board. ref
Streamlined and modernized government to save taxpayer dollars. ref
Ended previous practice of having White House aides rewrite scientific and environmental rules, regulations and reports. ref
SPECIFIC CUTS:
Cut salaries of senior White House aides. ref
Made $20 Billion in budget cuts. ref
Provided that Members of Congress shall not receive a cost of living adjustment in pay during fiscal year 2011. ref , ref , ref
Eliminated F-22 fighter jet program after lobbying Senate vote to strip financing for more jets from a defense funding authorization bill. ref , ref , ref
Canceled contract for new Presidential helicopter fleet (28 helicopters, $11.2 billion). ref
OTHER TARGETED ACTIONS:
Enhanced payment accuracy through a “Do Not Pay” list. ref
Cracked down on tax cheats (Exec Order). ref
Returned taxpayer monies for refurbishment of White House offices and living quarters. ref , ref
Established the USA.gov portal connecting people to the services they require. ref
Section curator: ^roytoric
Health and Wellness
BROAD POLICY:
Established HealthCare.gov, a web portal for determining and comparing all consumer health insurance and health care options ref , ref
Established an independent health institute to provide accurate and objective information. ref
Established the National Prevention, Health Promotion, and Public Health Council . ref , ref
Established President’s Council on Fitness, Sports and Nutrition. ref
Ended previous policy of cutting the FDA and circumventing FDA rules. ref
Implemented a National HIV/AIDS Strategy 7/13/10 ref
FUNDING:
Provided $20 billion increase for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. ref
Provided $500 million in expanded funding for Health Professions Training Programs. ref , ref
Provided funding to strengthen hospital preparedness and emergency response ref
Expanded funding to train primary care providers and public health practitioners. ref
Increased funding to expand community based prevention prog: rams. ref
TARGETED ACTIONS:
First Lady Michelle Obama kicked off anti-obesity effort. ref
Established a New Patient’s Bill of Rights. ref
Established Patient Safety and Medical Liability Demonstration Projects. ref , ref
Questioned Prestigious Hospitals in Electronic Health Records Probe (DHHS). ref
Established Standards For Accessible Medical Diagnostic Equipment ref
Expanded vaccination programs. ref , ref
Signed the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Treatment Extension Act of 2009. ref
Engaged global efforts on HIV/AIDS issues. ref
(FDA) Now regulating tobacco. ref , ref
Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act. ref
(FDA) Ordered Tobacco Companies to Disclose Cigarette Ingredients. ref , ref , ref
Banned sale of “light” cigarettes. ref
Increased Federal Employment of Individuals with Disabilities (Exec Order)(celebrating 20th anniversary of the ADA). ref , ref
(FDA) to discuss stricter guidelines for tanning beds due to skin cancer. ref
(FDA) Issued new guidance limiting antibiotic use in cattle to preserve efficacy in humans (6/28/2010). ref
FDA) Reconsidered safety of Bisphenol A, initiates study. ref
Section curator: ^roytoric
Health Care Reform (See also Taxes)
BROAD POLICY:
Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act // Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 (March 2010). ref , ref
Required large employers to contribute to a national health plan. ref
Required insurance companies to cover pre-existing conditions. ref , ref
Required health plans to disclose how much of the premium goes to patient care. ref
Established an independent health institute to provide accurate and objective information. ref
Provided minimum essential health care coverage by Veteran’s Affairs. ref
Expanded eligibility for State Children’s Health Insurance Fund (SCHIP). ref , ref
Prevented children from being refused health insurance coverage. ref
Established Early Retiree Reinsurance Program. ref
Increased regulation of drug manufacturers. ref , ref
Cut prescription drug costs for Medicare recipients by 50% and began eliminating the plan’s gap (“donut hole”) in coverage. ref
TRICARE Affirmation Act. ref
Extended COBRA (Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act) to provide for a continuation of health care. ref , ref , ref
Medicare Physician Payment Reform Act of 2009. ref , ref , ref , ref
Section curator: ^roytoric
Housing
BROAD POLICY:
Unveiled $275 billion dollar housing plan ref
Established “Opening Doors” – a federal strategic plan to prevent and end homelessness. ref , ref
FUNDING:
Provided $510 Million for the rehabilitation of Native American housing. ref
Provided $2 billion for Neighborhood Stabilization Program . ref
Provided $5 billion for Weatherization Assistance Program for low income families. ref
Provided grants to encourage energy-efficient building codes. Ref
TARGETED ACTIONS:
Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act. ref
Helping Families Save Their Homes Act, helping millions avoid foreclosure . ref , ref
Established the Making Home Affordable Plan, which will provide for the refinance or loan modification for 9 Million homeowners. ref
RESULTS:
New-home sales saw biggest jump in 47 years. ref , ref
Foreclosures fall 2%. ref
Humanitarianism
BROAD POLICY:
Supported the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell (DADT). ref
Civil Rights History Project Act of 2009. ref , ref
FUNDING:
Accelerated tax benefits for charitable cash contributions for Haiti earthquake relief. ref
Made Haiti donations tax deductible for 2009. ref
$60 million for flood victims in Pakistan (8/19/10).
TARGETED ACTIONS:
The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act; instituted equal pay for women. ref , ref , ref
Presidential Memorandum extending benefits to same-sex partners of federal employees. ref , ref , ref , ref
Increased federal employment of individuals with disabilities (Exec Order)(celebrating 20th anniversary of the ADA). ref ref
Presidential Memorandum extending benefits to Same-Sex Partners of Federal Employees. ref , ref , ref , ref
Presidential Memorandum protecting gay and lesbian partners’ visitation/healthcare decision-making rights (4/15/2010). ref
The Ryan White HIV/AIDS Treatment Extension Act. ref
Awarded the Presidential Medal of freedom to Harvey Milk and Billie Jean King. ref
The Daniel Pearl Freedom of the Press Act, advancing press freedom and safety for journalists. ref , ref,
The Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act to include gender, sexual orientation and disability. ref
Established White House Council on Women and Girls (Executive Order 13506 ). ref
Awarded 2009 Nobel Peace Prize. ref
Signed the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. ref
The Native American Heritage Day Act of 2009. ref
Appointed an American Indian policy adviser. ref
(EPA) Reversed Controversial “Human Guinea Pig” Rule. ref
Immigration
Requested emergency funding of $600 million for Border Security. ref
Deployed more drones on Mexico border (Homeland Security). ref
Deported higher numbers of Illegal Immigrants. ref
Infrastructure
BROAD POLICY:
Introduced plan to expand broadband Internet across U.S. ref , ref
FUNDING:
$8 billion combined public/private funding committed to develop Smart Power Grid (ARRA.) ref
$800 million to fund rapid rollout of rural broadband expansion (7/2010). ref
Provided funding for high-speed, broadband Internet access to K-12 schools. ref
Increased infrastructure spending (roads, bridges, power plants) after years of neglect. ref
$290 million in funding for 53 grants to “fund new streetcars, buses, and transit facilities.” ref ref
Invested $13 Billion (ARRA: $8B + $1B 5-year federal budget) in high speed rail projects in 13 major corridors ref , ref , ref
Provided grants to encourage energy-efficient building codes. ref
Created a social investment fund network. ref
Funded a major expansion of AmeriCorps. ref
TARGETED ACTIONS:
(NIST) Completed first release of Smart Grid framework. ref
Opened 500 MHz of wireless spectrum over next 10 years to expand wireless/mobile broadband use. ref
Commenced 10,000th road project, Columbus, OH (part of ARRA); June 2010. ref , ref
Airport and Airway Extension Act. ref
Initiated modification to Sanitary Sewer Overflow (SSO) regulations. ref , ref
Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act, which expands the volunteer program. ref , ref ref
RESULTS:
Study: Almost 5 million charging stations by 2015. ref
10,000th highway project (ARRA). ref
Section curator: ^roytoric
Labor
Established POWER Initiative – protects government workers, ensures reemployment, reduces worker’s comp claims and payments. ref
Restored funding to the EEOC and the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs. ref
Law and Justice
BROAD POLICY:
Outlined new federal drug control policy. ref ref
Ordered review of mandatory minimum sentences. ref
FUNDING:
Restored funding for the Byrne Justice Assistance Grant (Byrne/JAG) program. ref
TARGETED ACTIONS:
Appointment of first Latina to the Supreme Court. ref , ref
Appointed first black Attorney General, Eric Holder. ref
Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act to include gender, sexual orientation and disability. ref
Established crimes programs for the new Orleans area. ref
Brought greter alignment to sentencing guidelines for powdered versus crack cocaine. ref
Denounced SCOTUS ruling in Citizens United. ref
Pushing through settlement in the Black Farmers Lawsuit against USDA . ref , ref
DTV Delay Act. ref
Criminal History Background Checks Pilot Extension Act of 2009. ref
Tribal Law and Order Act. ref , ref , ref , ref
RESULTS:
U.S. jail population declined for first time in decades. ref
Section curators:
Medicaid/Medicare/Social Security
BROAD POLICY:
Established independent commission to make recommendations on slowing the costs of Medicare. ref
Social Security Disability Applicant Access to Professional Representation Act of 2010. ref
FUNDING:
Eliminated higher subsidies to Medicare Advantage plans. ref
TARGETED ACTIONS:
Medicare Physician Payment Reform Act of 2009. ref , ref , ref , ref
Cut prescription drug costs for Medicare recipients by 50% and began eliminating the plan’s gap (“donut hole”) in coverage. ref
Preserved access to care for Medicare beneficiaries ref
Expanded eligibility for Medicaid. ref
Military and National Security
BROAD POLICY:
Began restructuring the military to reflect present day threats and technology. ref
Recommitted the U.S. to a policy of “no torture” and full compliance with the Geneva Conventions. ref
All servicepeople receive education in a region’s culture and language before deployment there (a soldier said this on Maddow).
Supported the Repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell (DADT). ref , ref
Ended the previous stop-loss policy that kept soldiers in Iraq/Afghanistan longer than their enlistment date. ref
Established new cyber security office. ref , ref
Defense Production Act Reauthorization of 2009. ref
Weapons Systems Acquisition Reform Act. ref
Nuclear Forensics and Attribution Act. ref
FUNDING:
Cut the missile defense program by $1.4 billion in 2010. ref
Eliminated F-22 fighter jet program after lobbying Senate vote to strip financing for more jets from a defense funding authorization bill. ref , ref , ref
Canceled contract for new Presidential helicopter fleet (28 helicopters, $11.2 billion). ref
$1.1 Billion for improving airport security. ref
Increased pay and benefits for military personnel. ref
BY REGION/THEATER:
AF Changed the failing/status quo military command in Afghanistan. ref , ref
AF Set troop pullout in Afghanistan to begin in summer 2011. ref , ref
AF Established Afghan War policy that limits aerial bombing, prioritizes aid
AF infrastructure, diplomacy, and good government practices. ref
AF Ordered military to withdraw fast food establishments from Afghan bases. ref
IQ Ended combat mission (remaining personnel are nonagressive) 8/18/10
SOM Increased US Navy patrols off Somali coast. ref
SOM Ordered SEAL operation that resulted in killing of three terrorists and the release of US captain held by Somali pirates. ref
Closed secret detention facilities in Eastern Europe and elsewhere. ref , ref
Opened door to space arms treaty. ref , ref
Restarted the nuclear nonproliferation talks, building back up the nuclear inspection infrastructure/protocols. ref
Executive Order Optimizing the Security of Biological Select Agents and Toxins in the US. ref
Caught more Taliban Leaders in one month than Bush/Cheney did in six years. ref
Negotiated nuclear arms agreements with Australia (5/5/2010), India (5/4/2010), and Russia (5/10/2010). ref , ref , ref , ref
New START treaty and protocol with Medvedev. ref
Section curators:
Military Veterans and Families
BROAD POLICY:
Initiated a new policy to promote federal hiring of military spouses. ref , ref
Improved benefits for veterans. ref , ref , ref , ref
Interagency Task Force on Veterans Small Business Development . ref
Worked to clear the backlog of veterans claims and streamline benefits to those who served. ref
FUNDING:
Provided for the expenses of families of to be at Dover AFB when fallen soldiers arrive.ref
Donated 250K of Nobel prize money to Fisher House. ref
Veterans Health Care Budget Reform and Transparency Act of 2009. ref
Veterans’ Compensation Cost-of-Living Adjustment Act of 2009. ref
TARGETED ACTIONS:
Medal of Honor Commemorative Coin Act of 2009. ref
Promoted a bill to award a Congressional Gold Medal to the Women Airforce Service Pilots (“WASP”). ref
Ended media blackout on war casualties; reporting full information. ref , ref , ref , ref
Military Spouses Residency Relief Act. ref
Improved basic housing allowance for military personnel. ref
Caregivers and Veterans Omnibus Health Services Act of 2010. ref
Provided minimum essential health care coverage by Veteran’s Affairs. ref
Authorized construction/opening of additional health centers to care for veterans. ref
Korean War Veterans Recognition Act. ref
Blinded Veterans Association. ref
Major Charles R. Soltes, Jr., O.D. Department of Veterans Affairs Blind Rehabilitation Center. ref
Improved access for Veterans to receive PTSD treatment. ref
Green Vet Initiative to promote environmental jobs for veterans. ref
Section curators: ^roytoric
National Disasters and Emergencies
BROAD POLICY:
Ordered an extensive review of hurricane and natural disaster preparedness. ref , ref
Memorandum on the Long-Term Gulf Coast Restoration Support Plan ref
FUNDING:
Provided $210 Million for building and upgrading fire stations. ref
Ordered $20 billion escrow fund by BP to reimburse lost incomes in Gulf. ref
Ordered $100 million to compensate those hurt by drilling moratorium. ref
TARGETED ACTIONS:
Haiti Economic Lift Program Act of 2010. ref
Haiti Debt Relief and Earthquake Recovery Act of 2010. ref
Emergency Aid to American Survivors of the Haiti Earthquake Act. ref
National Service
The Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act — Expands the national volunteer program. ref ref , ref ref
Created a Social Investment Fund Network. ref
Section curators: ^roytoric
Scientific and Medical Research
BROAD POLICY:
Removed restrictions and provided support for embryonic stem-cell research and new biomedical research. ref , ref , ref ref
Extended the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. ref , ref
Supported Landsat Data Continuity Mission to enhance earth mapping. ref
FUNDING:
Provided new federal funding for science and research labs. ref
Provided grants to early-career researchers. ref
TARGETED ACTIONS:
Appointed an assistant to the president for science and technology policy. ref
Optimized the Security of Biological Select Agents and Toxins in the United States ref
Optimized the Security of Biological Select Agents and Toxins in the United States ref
Space Exploration and Space Station
BROAD POLICY:
Worked with international allies on International Space Station ref
Opened door to space arms treaty. ref , ref
Used the private sector to improve spaceflight ref
Supported commercial access to outer space ref
FUNDING:
Increased spending to prepare for longer space missions ref
TARGETED ACTIONS:
Added another Space Shuttle flight ref
Partnered to enhance the potential of the International Space Station ref
Used the International Space Station for fundamental biological and physical research ref
Determined whether International Space Station can operate after 2016 ref
Conducted robust research and development on future space missions ref
DOD opened access to social media sites (Air Force News). ref
DOD will film all interrogations. ref
Cracked down on tax cheats (exec order). ref
Dismantled the Minerals Management Service, cutting ties between industry and government. ref , ref
Established the USA.gov portal connecting people to the services they require ref
Daniel Pearl Freedom of the Press Act. ref , ref
White House voluntary disclosure policy – visitor access records/450,000 records to date ref ref
Taxes
BROAD POLICY:
Adopted Economic Substance tax doctrine. ref
Cracked down on tax cheats (Exec Order). ref
TARGETED ACTIONS: TAX CREDITS/REDUCTIONS:
Temporarily suspended taxes on unemployment benefits. ref ref
Established consumer tax credit for plug-in hybrid cars. ref , ref
$60 billion in spending and tax incentives for renewable and clean energy. ref
Tax breaks to promote public transit. ref
Extended and indexed the 2007 Alternative Minimum Tax patch. ref
Small business teax credits for the cost of health insurance for employees beginning 1/1/10 (HCR).
2-year temporary tax credit up to $1 billion to encourage investment in new disease prevention and treatment therapies (HCR).
Income floor for medical expense deductions for individuals age 65 and older (and their spouses) remains at 7.5% through 2016; Raise 7.5% floor to 10% for all others (1/1/13) (HCR) ref
Health insurance premium tax credits and subsidies available for those with income up to 4x the federal poverty level (1/1/14) (HCR) ref ref
Accelerated tax benefits for charitable cash contributions for Haiti earthquake relief. ref
TARGETED ACTIONS: TAX ASSESSMENTS/INCREASES:
Made Haiti donations tax deductible for 2009. ref
ncreased penalty tax of 20% on nonqual distributions from HSA and MSA (1/1/11) (HCR) ref
Income tax rates for the highest earners will change from 35 to 39.6 percent. (1/1/11) (HCR) ref
Capital gains tax for the highest earners will change from 15 to 20 percent. (1/1/11) (HCR) ref
2.3% excise tax on manufacturers and importers of certain medical devices (1/1/13) (HCR) ref
For high earners the capital gains tax will rise from 20 to 23.8 percent. (1/1/13) (HCR) ref
A 2.35 percent Medicare payroll tax only on wages over the threshold (an increase of 0.9 percent) (1/1/13) (HCR) ref
Tax increase for corporations with assets of at least $1 billion (1/1/14) (HCR) ref
40% Excise tax on Cadillac health plans (2018) (HCR) ref
TARGETED ACTIONS: TAX ENFORCEMENT AND ADMINISTRATION:
Closed offshore tax safe havens, tax credit loopholes . ref , ref , ref
Employers will report the value of health benefits on W-2s (1/1/11) (HCR) ref
RESULTS:
Tax bills hit lowest level since 1950. ref
Tax refunds up 10 percent due to stimulus. ref
Section curator: ^roytoric
Transparency and Accountability
BROAD POLICY:
Mandate to follow the standards of the Freedom of Information Act (exec order). ref
Instructed all federal agencies to promote openness and transparency as much as possible. ref
Unveiled “open government” plans. ref
Federal IT Dashboard, “a website enabling federal agencies & the public to view details of information technology”. ref
TARGETED ACTIONS:
Released presidential records. ref
Imposed limits on lobbyists’ access to the White House. ref ref
Imposed limits on White House aides working for lobbyists after their tenure in the administration. ref
Closed lobbyist loopholes with respect to the Recovery Act ref
Banned lobbyist gifts to executive employees. ref
Provided more town halls and media access than previous administration. ref , ref
Required health plans to disclose how much of the premium goes to patient care. ref
Established an independent health institute to provide accurate and objective information. ref
Required new hires to sign a form affirming their hiring was not due to political affiliations or contributions. ref , ref
Established a uniform standard for declassifying, safeguarding and classifying national security information (12/29/2009). ref
Created a national declassification center. ref
DOD opened access to social media sites (Air Force News). ref
DOD will film all interrogations. ref
Cracked down on tax cheats (exec order). ref
Dismantled the Minerals Management Service, cutting ties between industry and government. ref , ref
Established the USA.gov portal connecting people to the services they require ref
Daniel Pearl Freedom of the Press Act. ref , ref
RESULTS:
White House voluntary disclosure policy – visitor access records/450,000 records to date ref ref
Recovery, Progress and Change
Federal deficit shrank 8% year-on-year.
Financial reform has ‘strongest consumer financial protections in history.’ ref
Wall St reform designed to end taxpayer bailouts. ref
Six-month report card: exports in the first four months of 2010 were 17 percent higher than in the first four months of 2009 . ref
Job loss exploded under Bush, improves under Obama. ref
682,370 jobs created under the Recovery Act Between January 1 — March 31,2010. ref , ref , ref
New jobless claims tumble. ref
March payrolls surge by 162,000. ref
March jobs data showed biggest growth in three years .ref
U.S. economy added 90,000 jobs in April . ref
Jobless rates dropped in 34 states and DC (AP). ref
New-home sales saw biggest jump in 47 years. ref , ref
Foreclosures fall 2%. ref
U.S. Economy: Manufacturing grew by most since 2004. ref
U.S. GDP up 3.2% in first quarter, consumer spending showed biggest rise in 3 years . ref
Orders for most durable goods rose. ref
Wholesale inventories and sales rose in March. ref
Consumer confidence highest in 2 years. ref
Start-Up activity now higher than it was during the dotcom boom. ref
Study: almost 5 million charging stations by 2015. ref
Wind power growth up 39% due to government stimulus. ref
Poll: world’s opinion of U.S. has “improved sharply” under Obama.ref
47 nations rise to Obama’s challenge at US nuke summit and agree to four years of non-proliferation efforts. ref
U.S. jail population declined for first time in decades. ref
We do it for the people.
He Returned The Executive Branch To Fiscal Responsibility After the Bush Debacle
1. Within his first week, he signed an Executive Order ordering an audit of government contracts, and combating waste and abuse. http://1.usa.gov/dUvbu5
2. Created the post of Chief Performance Officer, whose job it is to make operations more efficient to save the federal government money. http://n.pr/hcgBn1
3. On his first full day, he froze White House salaries. http://on.msnbc.com/ewJUIx
4. He appointed the first Federal Chief Information Officer to oversee federal IT spending. http://www.cio.gov
5. He committed to phasing out unnecessary and outdated weapons systems. To that end, he also signed the Democratic-sponsored Weapons Systems Acquisition Reform Act, which attempted to put a stop to waste, fraud and abuse in the defense procurement and contracting system. http://bit.ly/hOw1t1 http://bit.ly/fz8GAd
6. Through an executive order, he created the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform. http://bit.ly/hwKhKa
He Improved the Economy, Preventing a Bush Depression
7. Pushed through and signed the Democratic-sponsored American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, otherwise known as “the stimulus package.” The bill passed, even though only three Republicans voted for it. In a major departure from the previous administration, he launched recovery.gov, a website that allows taxpayers to track spending from the Act. http://1.usa.gov/ibiFSs http://1.usa.gov/e3BJMk
8. The Bush-led Great Recession was costing the economy nearly 800,000 jobs per month by the time President Obama took office. But by the end of his first year, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act created and sustained 2.1 million jobs and stimulated the economyby 3.5%. http://reut.rs/i46CEE
9. Not only did he completed the massive TARP financial and banking rescue plan, he also leaned on the banks and others, and recovered virtually all of the bail-out money. http://1.usa.gov/eA5jVS http://bit.ly/eCNrD6
10. He created the Making Home Affordable home refinancing plan. http://1.usa.gov/goy6zl
11. Oversaw the creation of more jobs in 2010 alone than Bush did in eight years. http://bit.ly/hrrnjY
12. Along with Democrats, and almost no Republicans, implemented an auto industry rescue plan, and saved as many as 1 million jobs. http://bit.ly/ibhpxr Many are of the opinion that he saved the entire auto industry, and even the economy of the entire Midwest. http://bit.ly/gj7mt5 This resulted in GM returning to its place as the top car company in the world. http://lat.ms/zIJuQx Willard Romney, on the other hand, advocated for the entire industry to go belly-up. http://nyti.ms/k0zp
13. Doubled funding for the Manufacturing Extension Partnership, which is designed to improve manufacturing efficiency. http://bit.ly/eYD4nf
14. Signed the Democratic-sponsored Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act giving the federal government more tools to investigate and prosecute fraud in every corner of the financial system, and create a bipartisan Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission to investigate the financial fraud that led to the economic meltdown. http://abcn.ws/g18Fe7
15. Signed the Democratic-sponsored Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure (CARD) Act, which was designed to to protect consumers from unfair and deceptive credit card practices. http://1.usa.gov/gIaNcS
16. Increased infrastructure spending after years of neglect. http://bit.ly/f77aOw
17. Signed the Democratic-sponsored and passed Helping Families Save Their Homes Act, expanding on the Making Home Affordable Program to help millions of Americans avoid preventable foreclosures. The bill also provided $2.2 billion to help combat homelessness, and to stabilize the housing market. http://bit.ly/eEpLFn
18. Through the Worker, Homeownership, and Business Assistance Act of 2009, he and Congressional Democrats provided tax credits to first-time home buyers, which helped the U.S. housing market recovery. http://bit.ly/dZgXXw http://bit.ly/gORYfL
19. Initiated a $15 billion plan designed to encourage increased lending to small businesses.
http://1.usa.gov/eu0u0b
20. Created business.gov, which allows for online collaboration between small businesses and experts re managing a business. (The program has since merged with SBA.gov.) http://www.business.gov
21. Played a lead role in getting the G-20 Summit to commit to a $1.1 trillion deal to combat the global financial crisis. http://nyti.ms/gHlgp5
22. Took steps to improve minority access to capital. http://bit.ly/f9xVE7
23. Signed an Executive Order instructing federal agencies to review all federal regulations and remove any unnecessary and/or burdensome regulations from the books. http://1.usa.gov/Lpo5bd
24. Through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, saved at least 300,000 education jobs, such as teachers, principals, librarians, and counselors that would have otherwise been lost. http://1.usa.gov/ez30Dc
25. Dismantled the Minerals Management Service, thereby cutting ties between energy companies and the government. http://nyti.ms/bw1MLu
26. Along with Congressional Democrats, provided funding to states and the Department of Homeland Security to save thousands of police and firefighter jobs from being cut during the recession. http://bit.ly/g0IKWR
27. Used recovered TARP money to fund programs at local housing finance agencies in California, Florida, Nevada, Arizona and Michigan. http://on.msnbc.com/i1i8eV
28. Crafted an Executive order establishing the President’s Advisory Council on Financial Capability to assist in financial education for all Americans. http://bit.ly/eyqsNE
He Fostered Greater Transparency and Better Government, After the Excesses of the Bush Years
29. Signed an order banning gifts from lobbyists to anyone in the Executive Branch. http://bit.ly/fsBACN
30. Signed an order banning anyone from working in an agency they had lobbied in previous years, and put strict limits on lobbyists’ access to the White House. http://nyti.ms/gOrznV
31. Held the first-ever first online town hall from the White House, and took questions from the public. http://bit.ly/gVNSgX
32. Became the first to stream every White House event, live. http://1.usa.gov/kAgOP5
33. Established a central portal for Americans to find service opportunities. http://www.serve.gov
34. Provided the first voluntary disclosure of the White House Visitors Log in history. http://1.usa.gov/hQ7ttV
35. Issued an Executive Order on Presidential Records, which restored the 30-day time frame for former presidents to review records, and eliminated the right for the vice president or family members of former presidents to do the reviews. Provides the public with greater access to historic White House documents, and severely curtails the ability to use executive privilege to shield them. http://1.usa.gov/gUetLb
36. Improved aspects of the Freedom of Information Act, and issued new guidelines to make FOIA more open and transparent when processing FOIA requests. http://1.usa.gov/gjrnp2
Wall Street Reforms and Consumer Protection
37. Ordered 65 executives who took bailout money to cut their own pay until they paid back all bailout money. http://huff.to/eAi9Qq
38. Along with Congressional Democrats, pushed through and got passed Dodd-Frank, one of the largest and most comprehensive Wall Street reforms since the Great Depression. http://bit.ly/hWCPg0 http://bit.ly/geHpcD
39. Through Dodd-Frank legislation, created the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau http://1.usa.gov/j5onG
40. Through Dodd-Frank, the Executive Branch fashioned rules that reduce the influence of speculators in the oil market. http://bit.ly/MDnA1t
41. Fashioned rules so that banks can no longer use YOUR money to invest in high-risk financial instruments that work against their own customers' interests. http://bit.ly/fnTayj
42. Supported the concept of allowing stockholders to vote on executive compensation. http://bit.ly/fnTayj
43. Endorsed and supported the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act of 2009 that would close offshore tax avoidance loopholes. http://bit.ly/esOdfB http://bit.ly/eG4DPM
44. Negotiated a deal with Swiss banks that now permits the US government to gain access to the records of criminals and tax evaders. http://bit.ly/htfDgw
45. Signed the American Jobs and Closing Tax Loopholes Act, which closed many of the loopholes that allowed companies to send jobs overseas, and avoid paying US taxes by moving money offshore. http://1.usa.gov/bd1RTq
46. Established a Consumer Protection Financial Bureau designed to protect consumers from financial sector excesses. http://bit.ly/fnTayj
47. Oversaw and then signed a Democratic bill constituting the most sweeping food safety legislation since the Great Depression. http://thedc.com/gxkCtP
48. Through the Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act, extended the False Claims Act to combat fraud by companies and individuals usingmoney from the TARP and Stimulus programs. http://bit.ly/SLTcSa
He Ushered Through Many Changes That Enhanced Civil Rights and Anti-Discrimination
49. Along with Congressional Democrats, advocated for and signed the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, which made it a federal crime to assault anyone based on his or her sexual orientation or gender identity. http://bit.ly/gsMSJ7
50. Pushed through, signed and demanded the Pentagon enact a repeal of the discriminatory “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” policy that forced soldiers to lie in order to be eligible to fight for their country, and put our troops at risk by disqualifying many qualified soldiers from helping. http://bit.ly/fdahuH http://bit.ly/mZV4Pz
51. Extended benefits to same-sex partners of federal employees. http://1.usa.gov/g2RLCj
52. Appointed more openly gay officials than anyone in history. http://bit.ly/g1lA7D
53. Appointed first openly transgender Cabinet Official in History. http://bit.ly/58zUp7
54. Changed HUD rules to prohibit gender and sexual orientation-based discrimination in housing bit.ly/9RxEnP
55. Changed his mind and publicly expressed support for the right to enter into a same-sex marriage. http://bit.ly/JsiFKp
56. Issued a Presidential Memorandum reaffirming the rights of gay couples to make medical decisions for each other. http://1.usa.gov/aUueGT
57. Wrote and signed an Executive Order establishing a White House Council on Women and Girls to ensure that all Cabinet and Cabinet-level agencies evaluate the effect of their policies and programs on women and families. http://bit.ly/e1puTk http://1.usa.gov/rFfqMM
58. Signed the Democratic-sponsored Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which restored basic protections against pay discrimination for women and other workers. This was after the GOP blocked the bill in 2007. Only 5 Republican Senators voted for the bill. http://bit.ly/fT3Cxg
59. Expanded funding for the Violence Against Women Act. http://1.usa.gov/dSbI0x
60. Under his guidance, National Labor Relations Board issued final rules that require all employers to prominently post employees' rights where all employees or prospective employees can see it, including websites and intranets, beginning November 2011. http://1.usa.gov/qu2EhQ
61. Advocated that United Nations adopt a policy supporting gay rights worldwide. http://lat.ms/pQe1RS
62. Issued an order requiring hospitals to allow visitation by same-sex couples. reut.rs/llNJek
63. Appointed Kareem Dale as the first ever Special Assistant to the President for Disability Policy. http://1.usa.gov/fi5IY0
64. Helped Democrats in Congress pass and signed the Civil Rights History Act. http://bit.ly/th0JC8
He Made Major Improvements in Foreign Relations and American Status Around the World
65. Visited more countries and met with more world leaders than any previous president during his first six months in office. http://bit.ly/hZycda
66. As he promised, he gave a speech at a major Islamic forum in Cairo early in his administration. http://nyti.ms/dKvY4g
67. Helped to restore America's reputation around the world as a global leader that does the "right thing" in world affairs, at least according to the rest of the world. http://bit.ly/h743y7 http://bit.ly/ho4TCr
68. Re-established and reinforced our partnership with NATO and other allies on strategic international issues. http://1.usa.gov/e7QuDj
69. Closed a number of secret detention facilities. http://nyti.ms/rpUc9l
70. Improved relations with Middle East countries by appointing special envoys. http://1.usa.gov/tiGAGe
71. Pushed for military to emphasize devlopment of foreign language skills. http://bit.ly/AxUCLV
72. Offered $400 million to the people living in Gaza, called on both Israel and the Palestinians to stop inciting violence. http://bit.ly/9axfWh
73. Refused to give Israel the green light to attack Iran over their possible nuclear program, and thus avoid another war that Republicans wanted. http://bit.ly/xVmSZK
74. Worked with Democratic Congress to make donations to Haiti tax deductible in 2009. http://huff.to/6YkAVY
75. Established a new U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue. http://1.usa.gov/eX28DP
76. Issued Executive Order blocking interference and helping to stabilize Somalia. http://1.usa.gov/hxdf8U
77. Established new, more reasonable policies in our relations with Cuba, such as allowing Cuban-Americans to visit their families and send money to support them. http://n.pr/hY3Kwa http://nyti.ms/emQBde
78. Ordered the closure of the prison at Guantanamo Bay. It was Republicans (and, unfortunately, progressive Democrats) who prevented follow through. http://bit.ly/eW6CVF
79. Ordered a review of our detention and interrogation policy, and prohibited the use of torture, or what Bush called "enhanced interrogation." He ordered interrogators to limit their actions to the Army Field manual. http://bit.ly/g6MTuC
80. Ordered all secret detention facilities in Eastern Europe and elsewhere to be closed. http://bbc.in/h6N9ax
81. Released the Bush torture memos. http://bit.ly/hWJ5z0
82. On his second day in office, he signed a detailed Executive Order that banned torture, reversed all Bush torture policies, and put the United States in compliance with the Geneva Convention. http://1.usa.gov/dL6Zve http://nyti.ms/hzWWys
83. In response to the emerging "Arab Spring," he created a Rapid Response fund, to assist emerging democracies with foreign aid, debt relief, technical assistance and investment packages in order to show that the United States stands with them. http://bit.ly/zfmGv9
84. Passed the Iran Sanctions Act, to prevent war, and to encourage Iran to give up their nuclear program. http://1.usa.gov/wLtNjb
85. Ended the Iraq War. http://tgr.ph/ru0tyS
86. Authorized and oversaw a secret mission by SEAL Team Six to rescue two hostages held by Somali pirates. http://bit.ly/y8c9Fz
He Took a More Realistic Approach to “Defense”
87. Created a comprehensive new strategy for dealing with the international nuclear threat. http://1.usa.gov/gDX1nE
88. Authorized a $1.4 billion reduction in Star Wars program in 2010. http://1.usa.gov/gLFZl2
89. Restarted nuclear nonproliferation talks and built up the nuclear inspection infrastructure/protocols to where they had been before Bush. http://lat.ms/gkcl3i
90. Signed and pushed through ratification a new SALT Treaty. http://bit.ly/f3JVtw
91. Negotiated and signed a new START Treaty that will lst until at least 2021. http://1.usa.gov/cI1bC4
92. Through the Defense Authorization Act, reversed the Bush Administration and committed to no permanent military bases in Iraq. http://bit.ly/hk73OJ
93. Developed first comprehensive strategy with regard to Afghanistan and Pakistan designed to facilitate the defeat of al Qaeda and the withdrawal of most troops, as well as the rebuilding of Afghanistan. http://wapo.st/ee4Xcs
94. Returned our focus to Afghanistan, stabilized the country, and began the process of withdrawing our troops from the country. http://bit.ly/lNXUna
95. Negotiated a deal with Afghan govenment, to withdraw troops and military support, while assisting in rebuilding and modernizing of the country. http://bit.ly/K362an
96. Took steps to severely weaken al Qaeda and limited their ability to terrorize the world. http://yhoo.it/n5lXs6
97. Negotiated and signed a nuclear nonproliferation treaty with India. http://1.usa.gov/aHp0Cn
98. Took decisive action to use NATO to limit the slaughter of innocents in Libya, so that the Libyan people could topple a despotic government and determine their own fate. http://aje.me/qAh4Sj
His Administration Treated Soldiers and Veterans with Respect That Was Missing Previously
99. Along with Congressional Democrats, not only reauthorized families of fallen soldiers to be able to visit when the body arrives at Dover AFB, but also provided funding for it. Ended the media blackout on coverage of the return of fallen soldiers. http://nyti.ms/glqN66 http://bbc.in/gWSSkA
100. Funded Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) with an extra $1.4 billion to improve veterans’ services. http://1.usa.gov/huhqfo
101. Provided active combat troops with better body armor. http://bit.ly/hzSv2h
102. Created Joint Virtual Lifetime Electronic Record program for military personnel, in order to improve the quality of their medical care. http://1.usa.gov/f4yaxW
103. Put an end to the Bush-era stop-loss policy that kept soldiers in Iraq/Afghanistan beyond their enlistment date. (personal note: my son will be in harm’s way for six fewer months with Obama as president, so you know I love this one.) http://nyti.ms/e2YQ7Q
104. Along with Congressional Democrats, supported and signed Veterans Health Care Budget Reform and Transparency Act, which made more money available to enable better medical care for veterans. http://1.usa.gov/fN4ur1
105. Along with Congressional Democrats, ushered through largest spending increase in 30 years for Department of Veterans Affairs, with money to go to improved medical facilities, and to assist states in acquiring or constructing state nursing homes and extended care facilities. http://1.usa.gov/gY3x
106. Created the Green Vet Initiative, which provided special funding to the Labor Department to provide veterans with training in green jobs. http://bit.ly/epwUQY
107. Initiated and signed a recruitment and employment plan to get more veterans into government jobs. http://bit.ly/b48coi
108. Oversaw a $4.6 billion expansion of the Veterans Administration budget to pay for more mental health professionals. http://bit.ly/gjzTxX
109. Signed the Military Spouses Residency Relief Act, which ensures that spouses of military personnel who are forced to move because their spouse is posted for military duty will be able to avoid state taxes in their temporary residence. http://bit.ly/1Gh0NX
He Refocused the Federal Government on Education
110. Repeatedly increased funding for student financial aid, and at the same time cut the banks completely out of the process. http://bit.ly/gYWd30 http://bit.ly/e9c7Dr http://bit.ly/eEzTNq
111. Reformed student loan program, to make it possible for students to refinance at a lower rate. http://nyti.ms/dMvHOt
112. Through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act , invested heavily in elementary, secondary and post-secondary education. http://1.usa.gov/gGRIAr
113. Created the Race to the Top program, which encouraged states to come up with effective school reforms and rewards the best of them. http://bit.ly/NHtZ7L
114. Oversaw major expansion of broadband availability in K-12 schools nationwide http://bit.ly/fNDcj3 ,
115. Oversaw major expansion in school construction. http://bit.ly/fYwNrV
116. Also through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, he put $5 billion into early education, including Head Start. http://1.usa.gov/tzT2Rr
117. Signed the Democratic-sponsored Post-9/11 GI Bill, also known as GI Bill 2.0 http://bit.ly/hPhG7J
118. Oversaw expansion of the Pell Grants program, to expand opportunity for low income students to go to college. http://bit.ly/hI6tXz
119. Along with Democratic Congress, passed and signed Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, which provided an extra $12.2 billion in funds. http://1.usa.gov/dQvtUe
120. Took major new steps to protec students from ineffective for-profit colleges through "gainful employment" measures, whereby schools have to demonstrate that its students actually find work to get federal aid. http://1.usa.gov/jkzQe2
121. With First Lady Michelle Obama, passed the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act, which will improve nutrition in schools and make children healthier. http://1.usa.gov/GAXkSk
He Pushed Through Improvements in National Safety and Security
122. Restored federal agencies such as FEMA to the point that they have been able to manage a huge number of natural disasters successfully. http://bit.ly/h8Xj7z
123. Authorized Navy SEALS to successfully secure the release of a US captain held by Somali pirates and increased patrols off the Somali coast. http://nyti.ms/efBO7B
124. Has repeatedly beefed up border security http://bit.ly/mMYB4i
125. Ordered and oversaw the Navy SEALS operation that killed Osama bin Laden. http://bit.ly/jChpgw
Reoriented Government to an Adult View on Science, Technology and Health Care
126. Created a Presidential Memorandum to restore scientific integrity in government decision-making. http://1.usa.gov/g2SDuw
127. Opened up process for fast-tracking patent approval for green energy projects. http://bit.ly/j0KV2U
128. Eliminated Bush-era restrictions on embryonic stem cell research, and provided increased federal support for biomedical and stem cell research. http://bit.ly/h36SSO http://ti.me/edezge
129. Through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, committed more federal funding, about $18 billion, to support non-defense science and research labs. http://nyti.ms/fTs9t7
130. Signed Democratic-sponsored Christopher and Dana Reeve Paralysis Act, the first comprehensive attempt to improve the lives of Americans living with paralysis. http://bit.ly/fOi2rb
131. Expanded the Nurse-Family Partnership program, which provides home visits by trained registered nurses to low-income expectant mothers and their families, to cover more first-time mothers. http://bit.ly/jRRRJc
132. Obama EPA reveresed research ethics standards which allowed humands to be used as "guinea pigs" in tests of the effects of chemicals, to comply with numerous codes of medical ethics. http://bit.ly/bKgqdS
133. Conducted a cyberspace policy review. http://1.usa.gov/gmbdvC
134. Provided financial support for private sector space programs. http://bit.ly/fn8ucr
135. Oversaw enhanced earth mapping, to provide valuable data for agricultural, educational, scientific, and government use. http://bit.ly/dNTRyP
136. Along with Democrats in Congress, ushered through and signed a bill authorizing FDA to regulate tobacco. http://on.msnbc.com/fiKViB As a result, the FDA has Ordered Tobacco Companies to Disclose Cigarette Ingredients and banned sale of cigarettes falsely labeled as “light.”
137. Through American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, provided $500 million for Health Professions Training Programs. http://bit.ly/ecQSgA
138. Increased funding for community-based prevention programs. http://bit.ly/frMPG3
139. Oversaw a 50% decrease in cost of prescription drugs for seniors. http://bit.ly/e5b1iq http://1.usa.gov/fVNkt9
140. Eliminated the Bush-era practice of forbidding Medicare from negotiating with drug companies on price. http://bit.ly/fOkG5b
141. Two weeks after taking office, signed Democratic-sponsored Children’s Health Insurance Reauthorization Act, which increased the number of children covered by health insurance by 4 million. http://bit.ly/fDEzGv
142. Urged Congress to investigate Anthem Blue Cross for raising premiums 39% without explanation. Democratic Rep. Waxman responded by launching a probe, and Anthem Blue Cross put increase on hold for two months. http://yhoo.it/e8Tj9C
143. Ushered through and signed Affordable Care Act, which expanded health insurance coverage to at least 30 million more people, ended many common insurance company practices that are often detrimental to those with coverage. He also established healthcare.gov, so that taxpayers could keep up with developments. http://www.healthcare.gov/
144. Through ACA, allowed children to be covered under their parents’ policy until they turned 26. http://nyti.ms/fNB26V
145. Through the ACA, provided tax breaks to allow 3.5 million small business to provide health insurance to their employees, and 29 million people will receive tax breaks to help them afford health insurance. http://nyti.ms/fNB26V
146. Through the ACA, expanded Medicaid to those making up to 133% of the federal poverty level. http://nyti.ms/ekMWpo
147. Through the ACA, health insurance companies now have to disclose how much of your premium actually goes to pay for patient care. http://nyti.ms/fNB26V
148. Provisions in theACA have already resulted in Medicare costs actually declining slightly this fiscal year, for the first time in many years, according to the Congressional Budget Office. The increase in 2011 was 4%, which is very low compared to the average 12% annual inflation rate during previous 40 years. http://1.usa.gov/oMxpTh
149. Through the ACA, expanded space exploration and discovery options to more players http://bit.ly/PNTS7e
150. Through the Connect America Fund, pushed through and received FCC approval for a move of $8 billion in subsidies away from telephone landlines to assist lower-income rural families in accessing broadband. http://lat.ms/vhRUEs
He Took Steps to Strengthen the Middle Class and Families, and to Fight Poverty
151. Worked to provide affordable, high-quality child care to working families. http://bit.ly/fNfidS
152. Cracked down on companies that were previously denying sick pay, vacation and health insurance, and Social Security and Medicare tax payments through abuse of the employee classification of independent contractor. http://nyti.ms/fOGLcj
153. Through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act , cut taxes for 95% of America's working families. http://bit.ly/eSEI4F
154. Tax rates for average working families are the lowest since 1950. http://bit.ly/f74pD8
155. Extended and fully funded the patch for the Alternative Minimum Tax for 10 years. http://bit.ly/eFeSdP
156. Extended discounted COBRA health coverage for the unemployed from 9 months to 15 months, and he’s extended unemployment benefits several times. http://aol.it/evtVxD http://nyti.ms/emrqKJ http://bit.ly/hOtIpg http://bit.ly/fTT7kz
157. Provided a $20 billion increase for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (Food Stamps). http://nyti.ms/gfLqyM
158. Signed an Executive Order that established the White House Office of Urban Affairs. http://wapo.st/eWECA8
He Took Concrete Steps to Improve Our Environment and Address Our Energy Needs
159. Fast-tracked regulations to allow states to enact fuel efficiency standards that exceeded federal standards. http://nyti.ms/e8e94x
160. Fast-tracked increased fuel economy standards for vehicles beginning with the 2011 model year. It was the first time such standards had been increased in a decade. http://politi.co/hiaPKM
161. Oversaw establishment of an Energy Partnership for the Americas, to create more markets for American-made biofuels and green energy technologies. http://bit.ly/lZp73y
162. Obama EPA reversed a Bush-era decision to allow the largest mountaintop removal project in US history. http://bit.ly/lP3yEL
163. Ordered the Department of Energy to implement more aggressive efficiency standards for common household appliances. http://1.usa.gov/g3MTbu
164. Ordered energy plants to prepare to produce at least 15% of all energy through renewable resources like wind and solar, by 2021. http://reut.rs/fV155p (As you can see, Republicans are trying hard to kill it.)
165. Oversaw the creation of an initiative that converts old factories and manufacturing centers into new clean technology centers. http://bit.ly/mjnq2R
166. Bypassed Republican opposition in Congress and ordered EPA to begin regulating and measuring carbon emissions. http://bit.ly/froaP5
167. Obama EPA ruled that CO2 is a pollutant. http://bit.ly/iQTSNN
168. Oversaw doubling federal spending on clean energy research. http://bit.ly/iN0sCE
169. Pushed through a tax credit to help people buy plug-in hybrid cars. http://bit.ly/j8UP5Y
170. Created a program to develop renewable energy projects on the waters of our Outer Continental Shelf that will produce electricity from wind, wave, and ocean currents. http://1.usa.gov/fgfRWq
171. Reengaged in the climate change and greenhouse gas emissions agreements talks, and proposed one himself. He also addressed the U.N. Climate Change Conference, officially reversing the Bush era stance that climate change was a “hoax.” http://bit.ly/dX6Vj3 http://bit.ly/fE2PxK http://nyti.ms/hfeqvv
172. Fully supported the initial phase of the creation of a legally-binding treaty to reduce mercury emissions worldwide. http://bit.ly/eJ6QOO
173. Required states to provide incentives to utilities to reduce their energy consumption. http://bit.ly/lBhk7P
174. Following the neglect of Bush’s eight year reign, he reengaged in a number of treaties and agreements designed to protect the Antarctic. http://bit.ly/fzQUFO
175. Created tax write-offs for purchases of hybrid automobiles, and later he and Democrats morphed that program into one that includes electric cars. http://bit.ly/glCukV
176. Mandated that federal government fleet purchases be for fuel-efficient American vehicles, and encouraged that federal agencies support experimental, fuel-efficient vehicles. http://bit.ly/h5KZqy http://1.usa.gov/fLWq5c http://1.usa.gov/hmUSbk
177. Oversaw and pushed through amendment to the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 authorizing advances from Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund for the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. http://1.usa.gov/yTRYVo
178. Actively tried to amend the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 to eliminate the liability limits for those companies responsible for large oil spills. http://nyti.ms/bxjDi3
179. Initiated Criminal and Civil inquiries into the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. http://nyti.ms/bVuB7a
180. Through his EPA, he asserted federal legal supremacy, and barred Texas from authorizing new refinery permits on its own. http://bit.ly/ww8eMd
181. Strengthened the Endangered Species Act. http://bit.ly/hscjsH
182. Obama EPA improved boiler safety standards to improve air quality, and save 6500 lives per year. http://bit.ly/jYH7nt
183. Through the EPA, attemped to take steps to severely limit the use of antibiotics in livestock feed, to increase their efficacy in humans. http://bit.ly/fBuWd2
184. Through new EPA regulations, he created a pretext for closing the dirtiest power plants in the country, by limiting emissions of mercury and other toxic gasses. http://bit.ly/rQCIgA
185. Increased funding for National Parks and Forests by 10% http://bit.ly/fbJPjY
186. Announced greatly improved commercial fuel efficiency standards. http://1.usa.gov/oQiC1K
187. Announced a huge increase in average fuel economy standards from 27.5mpg in 2010 to 35.5mpg starting in 2016 and 54.5 starting in 2025 http://1.usa.gov/qtghsW
But That's Not All...
188. Expanded trade agreements to include stricter labor and environmental agreements such as NAFTA. http://bit.ly/etznpY
189. Oversaw funding of the design of a new Smithsonian National Museum of African American History, which is scheduled to open on the National Mall in 2015. He protected the funding during the recent budget negotiations. http://on.fb.me/fD0EVO http://bit.ly/ff5Luv
190. Oversaw and passed increased funding for the National Endowment for the Arts. http://bit.ly/dFb8qF
191. Nominated Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court. Sotomayor is the first Hispanic Justice in the court’s history, and the women represent only the third and fourth women to serve on the court, out of a total of 112 justices. http://huff.to/eOChg6 http://bit.ly/i02wgP
192. Appointed the most diverse Cabinet in history, including more women than any other incoming president. http://bit.ly/dX6vNB
193. Eliminated federal funding for abstinence-only education, and rescinded the global gag rule. http://bit.ly/eCFAI1 http://bit.ly/f92drF
194. Loosened the rules and allowed the 14 states that legalized medical marijuana to regulate themselves without federal interference. http://huff.to/eQfa7j
195. Signed national service legislation, increasing funding for national service groups, including triple the size of the Americorps program. http://bit.ly/idgQH5
196. Signed an Executive Order that will speed up deployment of a more comprehensive broadband infrastructure. http://1.usa.gov/M7rVpe
197. Signed an Executive Order creating jobs immediately by instructing them to reduce the time needed for review and permitting of infrastructure projects. http://1.usa.gov/GHxaYt
198. Signed a bill that provided $4.3 billion in additional assistance to 9/11 first reponders. http://bit.ly/o7cWYS
199. Signed an Executive Order pledging support for efforts to end the global problem of violence against women and girls. http://1.usa.gov/MHTRVU
We do it for the people.
^^ you forgot to add he won a noble PEACE PRIZE -> having increased the conflicts the usa are involved in, he has also given the green light to corporations to do what they want on american soil., with no repercussions (BP)... the funding he has given out, is more power to jpmorgan and chase, those corps biggest income is FOODSTAMPS. yes he has done alot for those who keep the status quo, he is lining the pockets of the rich and wealthy, through FRAUD daily.. LOL at he improoved teh economy.. and bailed out with tax payer cash(your kids cash) made the banks 'too big to fail' while those who had homes/loans etc. are left homeless.. even the recent bailout. the cash comes from the public, and is given to the banks that committed the fraud as REWARD...
i wont even go into AL CIADA, as i know food knowsb etter than to use them as an example..
if he really wanted to change the economy... get american corporations (such as apple) to use the slaves of the u.s rather than the slaves off china.. who get paid fuck all..
under obama you gots the super congress... their goes your democracy.. or having anything serious debated in congress... just accept that they know better than you? and will always do the truthful and just thing? lol... change! hope for change!
BUT obama is the mouth piece, for the real man of power....
check out this dudes books, and how far up the food chain he is, and has been -> zbigniew brzezinski
<- read understand what the plan is.
<- READ understand the system
some background for you obama lovers
Summary: There is a man who is more dangerous to mankind than any other living person today. His name is Zbigniew Brzezinski, a CFR-member , Arch-Trilateral Commissionist, Bilderberger. He has been the evil spirit behind 5 US presidents, including Obama – and he is obsessed with but one thought: The US is to dominate a communist one world state. For that purpose, he sees Eurasia as his grand chessboard, where the battle is to be won. Like any chessplayer, he starts by occupupying the centre of the chessboard, Central Asia. He wants peace there, friendly arrangements, in particular with China, if possible, so that he can pursue the goal of his obsession, i.e the purpose of the Trilateral Commission created by him and David Rockefeller: To create a world state by fusing a coming North American Union, at which he is working through the CSIS, the Union for the Mediterranean – and a Far East block which is now being created. His aim is a communist one world state where Russia, which he hates, is subdued by being split into 3 republics in a loose confederation – and if that is not possible – then ultimately even by WW III. He and David Rockefeller are behind the fusion of world religions for peace in the world state. In stead he collaborates with Al Gore and Gorbachev to promote the environmental Gaia religion. In the Agenda 21 state people in the technetronic era will be totally controlled and via artificial intelligence (brain chipping) become posthuman robots. He has worked on selling US infrastructure like harbours, outsourcing US jobs, giving the Panama Canal to the Chinese, selling illegal weapons to the Soviet, Iran, Iraq, Libya. He nurtured the Taliban and Al Qaida and ignored Islamic fundamentalism. Advised by Zbigniew and his son, Ian, Obama is now encircling Russia and China, which has not been so cooperative as wanted by Zbigniew, with anti-ballistic missiles which can also be used to inactivate Russian and Chinese satellites, so as to hinder retaliation after a US first strike against the nuclear arsenals of those countries. Russia knows and is preparing for the possibility of having to deliver a preemptive attack – according to the chief of the Russian Joint Staff, Yuri Baluyevsky. These considerations are probably being accentuated by the fact that Russia can hardly afford a fresh weapons race. However, Brzezinski does not believe in Russia´s capacity to strike!
Who is Zbigniew Brzezinski?
See this video: Brzezinski is the promotor of a Communist Obama who is for a social change in the US and to end the Iraq war and redefines security.
I have previously written about him and his vision for the world: “The Grand Chessboard”. Zbigniew Brzezinski has been called Obama´s Rasputin.
Patrick Briley 16 Sept. 2008: The following is very weird – and one wonders that one man has had so much influence on world affairs. Much of it is confirmed by Wikipedia.
Zbigniew Brzezinski is Barack Obama’s foreign policy advisor. Brzezenski was the national security advisor for President Carter from 1977 to 1981. In 1988 he endorsed HW Bush for President and was Co-Chair of the HW Bush national security advisory task force. From 1987 to 1989 he also served on the HW Bush’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board. Clinton Secretary of State Madeline Albright was a student of Brzezenski´s. GW Bush Secretary of State, Condi Rice (also a former national security advisor), who studied under Albright’s father, shares many of the same world government views with Brzezinski and Albright.
Zbigniew Brzezinski is an advocate of socialist world government, a goal he has promoted as a member of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) to “guide policy makers” and as a speaker at former Soviet Premier and Communist Mikhail Gorbachev’s first World Forum. This State of the World Forum had interesting partners. Brzezinski is an architect of creating regions of global governance from independent nations to achieve world government. The CSIS issues the North American Integration Monitor, which hopes for a North American Union (NAU).
The proposals for global taxes by Obama have come with the recommendations of ZbigniewBrzezinski to pay for globalization and world government. Obama has proposed a global poverty tax in a US Senate bill. The Climate Change Control Bill strongly supported by Obama calls for an international governing regime to monitor and regulate carbon dioxide and “carbon footprints” from discovery, to production, to consumption at a cost of $50 trillion globally and at a cost of $8 trillion for US taxpayers, all to be paid for by a global tax, whose monies will be used to establish a world government body.
Left: Obama´s puppeteers, the Trilateral Commissionists, Zbigniew Brzezinski and David Rockefeller.
Obama, Brzezinski and Al Gore have worked closely with Communist backed environmental fronts led by Gorbachev (proponent of Earth Charter, author of Manifesto for Earth), to promote the falsehood of significant global climate change due to manmade sources of greenhouse gases to scare the world and the US into paying such a global tax to “save the planet.”
Obama’s longstanding ties with Communist, Marxist and Islamic terror mentors in the US have been well documented in the US and world press. What many do not know but need to know is that Zbigniew Brzezinski represents another one of these Islamic terror, socialistic, world government and Marxist mentors of Obama´s.
Brzezinski openly praises Marxism in his book Between Two Ages published in 1970 - in which he desribes man´s behaviour and mind to be totally controlled, people having artificial intelligence (brain chipping) in a “technetronic” dictatorship. Incidentally Brzezenski’s father was an ambassador to Russia from Poland during Stalin’s reign and Zbigniew worked to protect and defend some East German intelligence agents of Stasi some of whose former members later worked to enable the 9/11 hijackers and other Islamic terrorists (Hamburg cell of Atta, Alshehhi and Jarrah – hardly correct). Brzezinski has dual US and Polish citizenship.
Council on Foreign Relations member, Bilderberger, Zbigniew Brzezinski co-founded the Trilateral Commission (TC) with David Rockefeller in 1973 and was its first director. Brzezinski selected Jimmy Carter as a member while Carter was the governor of Georgia and before Carter became US President. TC is the primary organization managing the goals of globalization toachieve world government via manipulations of economies, politics and religions of nations around the world including the US.
According to Dr. Dennis Cuddy, Brzezinski, as TC director, advocated, in a 1973 memo, establishing means for social control over the world populations by deliberate “economic and political destabilization” so that later the debt leash could be used to “strangle a rebellious nation into submission (to global governance).”
The TC, Rice and Brzezenski have actively promoted illegal immigration and non-enforcement of US immigration laws to advance the NAU. They have promoted foreign control of the US by facilitating the sell off of US infrastructure and companies to foreign governments including those from the EU, China, Russia and Islamic terror nations. Brzezinski, Rice, the TC and their socialist friends have intentionally helped destabilize the US economy by devaluating the US dollar through the sending of US jobs overseas.They are trying to control the US energy economy via the Climate Change Control bills and to prevent US energy independence (which would stop the devaluation of the dollar) by calling for curtailing and drastically controlling production of oil. Zbigniew Brzezinski’s contrived leash is not limited just to money and capital; it includes controlling populations, and nations by controlling their jobs, their immigration, their food, their water, their energy, their politicians and governments, and their religions.
The world government socialists like Brzezinski and Obama are promoting a “new order of religions,” an amalgamation of religions to unify and control populations and nations. They are including in their new order umbrella of religions Islamic aspirations for a world caliphate, Communitarianistic and New Age beliefs, the Gaia (“mother” Earth) religion of environmentalists exploited by the Communists, by Al Gore (the tree hugger) and by those who worship the created rather than the Creator.
Brzezinski worked with Republican globalists like Kissinger and US Senator Henry Bellmon (OK) to give the Panama Canal away ultimately for Communist Chinese control (Carter-Torrijos Treaties). Under Carter, Brzezinski was responsible for the severing of direct US recogniton of Taiwan as an independent nation and recognizing only Communist China.
As soon as Carter became President Brzezinski started to illegally manipulate the export control list to enable advanced US computer, military (guidance systems), energy (nuclear; coal, oil shale, tar sands conversion and synthetic fuels) technologies to be transferred and sold by US companies (such as Control Data, GE and Union Carbide) to the Soviet Union.
Brzezinski with Osama bin Laden during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan!On February 2, 1979, Brzezinski wrote a memo to Carterfalsely claiming that Islamic fundamentalism was not an imminent threat and would not gain prominence in the Middle East. Brzezinski was the architect of the formation of US CIA and Saudi training and funding for the Afghan mujaheddin network, some of which would later form the Taliban and would shelter Al Qaeda terrorists camps. Brzezinski, along with Clinton’s NSC advisor Anthony Lake, John McCain, Bob Dole and Newt Gingrich, was a proponent of using the Saudis and CIA to directly fund the AlQaeda and Iranian arming and training in and outside the US of Islamic terrrorists from Albania, Kosvo and Bosnia to kick out the Serbs and Croats. Some of these same terrorists became the 9/11 hijackers?? Carter and Bzezinski are and have been “diplomats at large” along with Boren for Hamas terrorists in the Middle East and US as reflected in Obama’s pro-Islamic foreign policies.
Zeit Kritiker: Brzezinski is Obama´s puppeteer.
Even during the tenure of G.W. Bush, Brzezinski took over key sectors of the U.S. government. Since then, the danger of a confrontation between the United States with Russia, China, Sudan, Pakistan and more recently with Iran and Yemen has highly increased.The aggression of the U.S. toward Iran, ultimately aims at a confrontation with Russia and China.
“The Grand Chessborad” dissipates any doubt: The US is to dominate all Eurasia. Then American high finance would in effect be in control of 70 percent of the oil and gas reserves - in order to secure American primacy for a long time. With Obama as a puppet of the Trilateral Commission, Zbigniew Brzezinski and David Rockefeller see this goal within reach.
Moscow is well aware of this situation, the fear of Brzezinski’s finger on the nuclear button does not leave Russia inactive: The Chief of the Russian General Staff, Yury Baluyevsky announced in January 2008, “Russia would revise its nuclear doctrine, so that a nuclear first strike in certain situations would be possible.” (WG Tarpley, Barack Obama - How a U.S. President is Made p. 166). Brzezinski and his followers are so obsessed with America as the sole superpower that they are willing to take the risk of World War III. That should be clear to everyone.
Brzezinski´s Grand Chessboard: Eurasia
Brzezinski: A Geostrategy for Eurasia Foreign Affairs September/October 1997.
Article read here: A power that dominated Eurasia would exercise decisive influence over two of the world’s three most economically productive regions. A glance at the map also suggests that a country dominant in Eurasia would almost automatically control the Middle East and Africa. With Eurasia now serving as the decisive geopolitical chessboard.
Brzezinski wants understanding with China – and wants to weaken Russia by splitting her into 3 republics.
Any expansion of Europe’s political scope is automatically an expansion of U.S. influence. America must be careful not to alienate Turkey. America should use its influence in Europe to encourage Turkey’s eventual admission to the EU. In addition, it is not in America’s interest to perpetuate U.S.-Iranian hostility. The core of the new transcontinental security framework could be a standing committee composed of the major Eurasian powers, with America, Europe, China, Japan, a confederated Russia, and India collectively addressing critical issues for Eurasia’s stability.
Comment: This is the idea of the Trilateral Commission founded by Brzezinski and David Rockefeller
Brzezinki´s legacy
Trend 26 Jan. 2009 Brzezinski told Polish Radio that there are no other options than aggression when dealing with Moscow, speaking of the anti-missile shield.
Global Research 3 Febr. 2010 With or without Brzezinski´s advise, Obama is now provoking both Russia, China and Iran by sale of of sophisticated ground-to-air missiles to Poland, various weaponry for Taiwan and anti-missile defence systems to 4 Gulf States. A fresh provokation against Russia was reported on 5 Febr. by the EUObserver: The US will set up its anti missile shield (against Iran?) in Romania and in the Black Sea
Global Res. 5 Febr. 2010: These same Army Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) systems are going to be deployed in Taiwan as the U.S. continues its military encirclement of China. U.S. PAC-3 systems have already been deployed in Japan and South Korea. News that the U.S. is about to deploy a PAC-3 missile battery in Poland led Russia’s ambassador to NATO, Dmitry Rogozin, to recently state: “Do they really think that we will calmly watch the location of a rocket system, at a distance of 60 km from Kaliningrad?”
The official authorization of Patriot transfers to Taiwan – the missiles are produced by Raytheon Company headquartered in Massachusetts, whose former vice president of Government Operations and Strategy William Lynn is now Obama’s Deputy Secretary of Defense – resulted in China’s vice foreign minister, He Yafei, saying “We believe this move endangers China’s national security.”The strategy is clear. Surround Russia and China with mobile “missile defense” systems whose job is to take out their retaliatory capability after a U.S. first-strike against their nuclear weapons. All this means one thing – an extended arms race withRussia and China which will mean huge profits for the weapons industry. And Brzezinski? Global Res. 15 Aug. 2008 Obama’s foreign policy team in addition to father Zbigniew Brzezinski, includes Brzezinski’s son, Ian Brzezinski, current US Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for European and NATO Affairs. Ian Brzezinski is a devout backer of US missile defense policy, as well as Kosovo independence and NATO expansion into Ukraine and Georgia.
The Brzezinskis. Ian Brzezinski left. They are a mortal danger to the world.
Comment
Bzrezinski´s big idea is the necessity for the USA to dominate the world. He will do so by means of his child, the Trilateral Commission´s, aim, i.e. fusioning a North American Union, which he is creating through the CSIS, the Union for the Mediterranean and an East Asian bloc, which is being constructed.
US domination of Eurasia is a must. Therefore, US is now occupying the centre of the chessboard, Central Asia – at any cost, even World War III. And he might have it soon in case Russia and China are unable to participate in a new armament race.
He underestimates Russia as a nuclear power capable of delivering a first strike catastrophically. Unauthorized Obama biographer, Webster Tarpley, says on thisvideo that Bzrezinski will spare Iran and use the US forces in a war against Russia!! Here Tarpley tells about Brzezinski admitting on French TV, that he lured the Soviet Union to invade Afghanistan. Islamic fundamentalism as a threat to the world: “Nonsense” says Brzezinski. He is willing to use any means to provoke war with Russia, which he hates. Here is a view that supports him: AG Friedensforschung der Universität Kassel: “What course of events would history take if American and european geo-politicians – without taking the new diestribution of power into consideration – would, in fact, stick to the plan of primacy in Eurasia? In this case a clash between different great powers would occur – wheter as a cold or a hot war.” This may be what US Vice-President, Joe Biden, and Colin Powell meant. In fact, after the Georgian-Russian war, Brzezinski did see Russia as a military hindrance to US Dominance in Eurasia – video.
Source: http://euro-med.dk/?p=13551
Check his evil quotes in this video
ZBIG: Psychopath Extraordinaire and Puppetmaster-General of Barack Hussein Obama
This video is a compilation of clips featuring New World Order gofer and Barack Hussein Obama puppetmaster, Zbigniew Brzezinski, interspersed with quotes taken directly from Brzezinski's books.
lastly my FAVE Z-BIG QUOTABLE
its called 'massive global political awakening'
in his book the age between the technocratic era, he states ' the biggest problem we have (to oppose the new world order) is a massive global political awakening '
from globalresearch.ca / globalresearch.org
The Global Political Awakening and the New World Order
The Technological Revolution and the Future of Freedom, Part 1
There is a new and unique development in human history that is taking place around the world; it is unprecedented in reach and volume, and it is also the greatest threat to all global power structures: the ‘global political awakening.’ The term was coined by Zbigniew Brzezinski, and refers to the fact that, as Brzezinski wrote:
For the first time in history almost all of humanity is politically activated, politically conscious and politically interactive. Global activism is generating a surge in the quest for cultural respect and economic opportunity in a world scarred by memories of colonial or imperial domination.[1]
It is, in essence, this massive ‘global political awakening’ which presents the gravest and greatest challenge to the organized powers of globalization and the global political economy: nation-states, multinational corporations and banks, central banks, international organizations, military, intelligence, media and academic institutions. The Transnational Capitalist Class (TCC), or ‘Superclass’ as David Rothkopf refers to them, are globalized like never before. For the first time in history, we have a truly global and heavily integrated elite. As elites have globalized their power, seeking to construct a ‘new world order’ of global governance and ultimately global government, they have simultaneously globalized populations.
The ‘Technological Revolution’ (or ‘Technetronic’ Revolution, as Brzezinski termed it in 1970) involves two major geopolitical developments. The first is that as technology advances, systems of mass communication rapidly accelerate, and the world’s people are able to engage in instant communication with one another and gain access to information from around the world. In it, lies the potential – and ultimately a central source – of a massive global political awakening. Simultaneously, the Technological Revolution has allowed elites to redirect and control society in ways never before imagined, ultimately culminating in a global scientific dictatorship, as many have warned of since the early decades of the 20th century. The potential for controlling the masses has never been so great, as science unleashes the power of genetics, biometrics, surveillance, and new forms of modern eugenics; implemented by a scientific elite equipped with systems of psycho-social control (the use of psychology in controlling the masses).
What is the “Global Political Awakening”?
To answer this question, it is best to let Zbigniew Brzezinski speak for himself, since it is his term. In 2009, Zbigniew Brzezinski published an article based on a speech he delivered to the London-based Chatham House in their academic journal, International Affairs. Chatham House, formerly the Royal Institute of International Relations, is the British counterpart to the US-based Council on Foreign Relations, both of which were founded in 1921 as “Sister Institutes” to coordinate Anglo-American foreign policy. His article, “Major foreign policy challenges for the next US President,” aptly analyzes the major geopolitical challenges for the Obama administration in leading the global hegemonic state at this critical juncture. Brzezinski refers to the ‘global political awakening’ as “a truly transformative event on the global scene,” since:
For the first time in human history almost all of humanity is politically activated, politically conscious and politically interactive. There are only a few pockets of humanity left in the remotest corners of the world that are not politically alert and engaged with the political turmoil and stirrings that are so widespread today around the world. The resulting global political activism is generating a surge in the quest for personal dignity, cultural respect and economic opportunity in a world painfully scarred by memories of centuries-long alien colonial or imperial domination.[2]
Brzezinski posits that the ‘global political awakening’ is one of the most dramatic and significant developments in geopolitics that has ever occurred, and it “is apparent in radically different forms from Iraq to Indonesia, from Bolivia to Tibet.” As the Economist explained, “Though America has focused on its notion of what people want (democracy and the wealth created by free trade and open markets), Brzezinski points in a different direction: It’s about dignity.” Further, argues Brzezinski, “The worldwide yearning for human dignity is the central challenge inherent in the phenomenon of global political awakening.”[3]
In 2005, Brzezinski wrote an essay for The American Interest entitled, “The Dilemma of the Last Sovereign,” in which he explains the geopolitical landscape that America and the world find themselves in. He wrote that, “For most states, sovereignty now verges on being a legal fiction,” and he critically assessed the foreign policy objectives and rhetoric of the Bush administration. Brzezinski has been an ardent critic of the “war on terror” and the rhetoric inherent in it, namely that of the demonization of Islam and Muslim people, which constitute one of the fastest growing populations and the fastest growing religion in the world. Brzezinski fears the compound negative affects this can have on American foreign policy and the objectives and aspirations of global power. He writes:
America needs to face squarely a centrally important new global reality: that the world’s population is experiencing a political awakening unprecedented in scope and intensity, with the result that the politics of populism are transforming the politics of power. The need to respond to that massive phenomenon poses to the uniquely sovereign America an historic dilemma: What should be the central definition of America’s global role?[4]
Brzezinski explains that formulating a foreign policy based off of one single event – the September 11th terror attacks – has both legitimized illegal measures (torture, suspension of habeas corpus, etc) and has launched and pacified citizens to accepting the “global war on terror,” a war without end. The rhetoric and emotions central to this global foreign policy created a wave of patriotism and feelings of redemption and revenge. Thus, Brzezinski explains:
There was no need to be more precise as to who the terrorists actually were, where they came from, or what historical motives, religious passions or political grievances had focused their hatred on America. Terrorism thus replaced Soviet nuclear weapons as the principal threat, and terrorists (potentially omnipresent and generally identified as Muslims) replaced communists as the ubiquitous menace.[5]
Brzezinski explains that this foreign policy, which has inflamed anti-Americanism around the world, specifically in the Muslim world, which was the principle target population of ‘terrorist’ rhetoric, has in fact further inflamed the ‘global political awakening’. Brzezinski writes that:
[T]he central challenge of our time is posed not by global terrorism, but rather by the intensifying turbulence caused by the phenomenon of global political awakening. That awakening is socially massive and politically radicalizing.[6]
This ‘global political awakening’, Brzezinski writes, while unique in its global scope today, originates in the ideas and actions of the French Revolution, which was central in “transforming modern politics through the emergence of a socially powerful national consciousness.” Brzezinski explains the evolution of the ‘awakening’:
During the subsequent 216 years, political awakening has spread gradually but inexorably like an ink blot. Europe of 1848, and more generally the nationalist movements of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, reflected the new politics of populist passions and growing mass commitment. In some places that combination embraced utopian Manichaeism for which the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, the Fascist assumption of power in Italy in 1922, and the Nazi seizure of the German state in 1933 were the launch-pads. The political awakening also swept China, precipitating several decades of civil conflict. Anti-colonial sentiments galvanized India, where the tactic of passive resistance effectively disarmed imperial domination, and after World War II anti-colonial political stirrings elsewhere ended the remaining European empires. In the western hemisphere, Mexico experienced the first inklings of populist activism already in the 1860s, leading eventually to the Mexican Revolution of the early 20th century.[7]
Ultimately, what this implies is that – regardless of the final results of past awakenings – what is central to the concept of a ‘political awakening’ is the population – the people – taking on a political and social consciousness and subsequently, partaking in massive political and social action aimed at generating a major shift and change, or revolution, in the political, social and economic realms. Thus, no social transformation presents a greater or more direct challenge to entrenched and centralized power structures – whether they are political, social or economic in nature. Brzezinski goes on to explain the evolution of the ‘global political awakening’ in modern times:
It is no overstatement to assert that now in the 21st century the population of much of the developing world is politically stirring and in many places seething with unrest. It is a population acutely conscious of social injustice to an unprecedented degree, and often resentful of its perceived lack of political dignity. The nearly universal access to radio, television and increasingly the Internet is creating a community of shared perceptions and envy that can be galvanized and channeled by demagogic political or religious passions. These energies transcend sovereign borders and pose a challenge both to existing states as well as to the existing global hierarchy, on top of which America still perches.[8]
Brzezinski explains that several central areas of the ‘global political awakening’, such as China, India, Egypt, Bolivia, the Muslims in the Middle East, North Africa, Southeast Asia and increasingly in Europe, as well as Indians in Latin America, “increasingly are defining what they desire in reaction to what they perceive to be the hostile impact on them of the outside world. In differing ways and degrees of intensity they dislike the status quo, and many of them are susceptible to being mobilized against the external power that they both envy and perceive as self-interestedly preoccupied with that status quo.” Brzezinski elaborates on the specific group most affected by this awakening:
The youth of the Third World are particularly restless and resentful. The demographic revolution they embody is thus a political time-bomb, as well. With the exception of Europe, Japan and America, the rapidly expanding demographic bulge in the 25-year-old-and-under age bracket is creating a huge mass of impatient young people. Their minds have been stirred by sounds and images that emanate from afar and which intensify their disaffection with what is at hand. Their potential revolutionary spearhead is likely to emerge from among the scores of millions of students concentrated in the often intellectually dubious “tertiary level” educational institutions of developing countries. Depending on the definition of the tertiary educational level, there are currently worldwide between 80 and 130 million “college” students. Typically originating from the socially insecure lower middle class and inflamed by a sense of social outrage, these millions of students are revolutionaries-in-waiting, already semi-mobilized in large congregations, connected by the Internet and pre-positioned for a replay on a larger scale of what transpired years earlier in Mexico City or in Tiananmen Square. Their physical energy and emotional frustration is just waiting to be triggered by a cause, or a faith, or a hatred.[9]
Brzezinski thus posits that to address this new global “challenge” to entrenched powers, particularly nation-states that cannot sufficiently address the increasingly non-pliant populations and populist demands, what is required, is “increasingly supranational cooperation, actively promoted by the United States.” In other words, Brzezinski favours an increased and expanded ‘internationalization’, not surprising considering he laid the intellectual foundations of the Trilateral Commission. He explains that “Democracy per se is not an enduring solution,” as it could be overtaken by “radically resentful populism.” This is truly a new global reality:
Politically awakened mankind craves political dignity, which democracy can enhance, but political dignity also encompasses ethnic or national self-determination, religious self-definition, and human and social rights, all in a world now acutely aware of economic, racial and ethnic inequities. The quest for political dignity, especially through national self-determination and social transformation, is part of the pulse of self-assertion by the world’s underprivileged.[10]
Thus, writes Brzezinski, “An effective response can only come from a self-confident America genuinely committed to a new vision of global solidarity.” The idea is that to address the grievances caused by globalization and global power structures, the world and America must expand and institutionalize the process of globalization, not simply in the economic sphere, but in the social and political as well. It is a flawed logic, to say the least, that the answer to this problem is to enhance and strengthen the systemic problems. One cannot put out a fire by adding fuel.
Brzezinski even wrote that, “Let it be said right away that supranationality should not be confused with world government. Even if it were desirable, mankind is not remotely ready for world government, and the American people certainly do not want it.” Instead, Brzezinski argues, America must be central in constructing a system of global governance, “in shaping a world that is defined less by the fiction of state sovereignty and more by the reality of expanding and politically regulated interdependence.”[11] In other words, not ‘global government’ but ‘global governance’, which is simply a rhetorical ploy, as ‘global governance’ – no matter how overlapping, sporadic and desultory it presents itself, is in fact a key step and necessary transition in the moves toward an actual global government.
Thus, the rhetoric and reality of a “global war on terror” in actuality further inflames the ‘global political awakening’ as opposed to challenging and addressing the issue. In 2007, Brzezinski told the US Senate that the “War on terror” was a “mythical historical narrative,”[12] or in other words, a complete fiction.
Of Power and People
To properly understand the ‘global political awakening’ it is imperative to understand and analyze the power structures that it most gravely threatens. Why is Brzezinski speaking so vociferously on this subject? From what perspective does he approach this issue?
Global power structures are most often represented by nation-states, of which there are over 200 in the world, and the vast majority are overlooking increasingly politically awakened populations who are more shaped by transnational communications and realities (such as poverty, inequality, war, empire, etc.) than by national issues. Among nation-states, the most dominant are the western powers, particularly the United States, which sits atop the global hierarchy of nations as the global hegemon (empire). American foreign policy was provided with the imperial impetus by an inter-locking network of international think tanks, which bring together the top political, banking, industrial, academic, media, military and intelligence figures to formulate coordinated policies.
The most notable of these institutions that socialize elites across national borders and provide the rationale and impetus for empire are an inter-locking network of international think tanks. In 1921, British and American elite academics got together with major international banking interests to form two “sister institutes” called the Royal Institute of International Affairs (RIIA) in London, now known as Chatham House, and the Council on Foreign Relations in the United States. Subsequent related think tanks were created in Canada, such as the Canadian Institute of International Affairs, now known as the Canadian International Council (CIC), and other affiliated think tanks in South Africa, India, Australia, and more recently in the European Union with the formation of the European Council on Foreign Relations.[13]
Following World War I, these powers sought to reshape the world order in their designs, with Woodrow Wilson proclaiming a right to “national self determination” which shaped the formation of nation-states throughout the Middle East, which until the war was dominated by the Ottoman Empire. Thus, proclaiming a right to “self-determination” for people everywhere became, in fact, a means of constructing nation-state power structures which the western nations became not only instrumental in building, but in exerting hegemony over. To control people, one must construct institutions of control. Nations like Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Kuwait, etc., did not exist prior to World War I.
Elites have always sought to control populations and individuals for their own power desires. It does not matter whether the political system is that of fascism, communism, socialism or democracy: elites seek power and control and are inherent in each system of governance. In 1928, Edward Bernays, nephew of the father of psychoanalysis Sigmund Freud, wrote one of his most influential works entitled “Propaganda.” Bernays also wrote the book on “Public Relations,” and is known as the “father of public relations,” and few outside of that area know of Bernays; however, his effect on elites and social control has been profound and wide-ranging.
Bernays led the propaganda effort behind the 1954 CIA coup in Guatemala, framing it as a “liberation from Communism” when in fact it was the imposition of a decades-long dictatorship to protect the interests of the United Fruit Company, who had hired Bernays to manage the media campaign against the democratic socialist government of Guatemala. Bernays also found a fan and student in Josef Goebbels, Hitler’s Minister of Propaganda, who took many of his ideas from Bernays’ writings. Among one of Bernays’ more infamous projects was the popularizing of smoking for American women, as he hired beautiful women to walk up and down Madison Avenue while smoking cigarettes, giving women the idea that smoking is synonymous with beauty.
In his 1928 book, “Propaganda,” Bernays wrote that, “If we understand the mechanisms and motives of the group mind, it is now possible to control and regiment the masses according to our will without their knowing it.” Further:
The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society… Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. . . . In almost every act of our daily lives, whether in the sphere of politics or business, in our social conduct or our ethical thinking, we are dominated by the relatively small number of persons . . . who understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses. It is they who pull the wires which control the public mind.[14]
Following World War II, America became the global hegemon, whose imperial impetus was provided by the strategic concept of “containment” in containing the spread of Communism. Thus, America’s imperial adventures in Korea, the Middle East, Africa, Asia and South America became defined by the desire to “roll back” the influence of the Soviet Union and Communism. It was, not surprisingly, the Council on Foreign Relations that originated the idea of “containment” as a central feature of foreign policy.[15]
Further, following World War II, America was handed the responsibility for overseeing and managing the international monetary system and global political economy through the creation of institutions and agreements such as the World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF), NATO, the UN, and GATT (later to become the World Trade Organization – WTO). One central power institution that was significant in establishing consensus among Western elites and providing a forum for expanding global western hegemony was the Bilderberg Group, founded in 1954 as an international think tank.[16]
Zbigniew Brzezinski, an up-and-coming academic, joined the Council on Foreign Relations in the early 1960s. In 1970, Brzezinski, who had attended a few Bilderberg meetings, wrote a book entitled, “Between Two Ages: America’s Role in the Technetronic Era,” in which he analyzed the impact of the ‘Revolution in Technology and Electronics,’ thus, the ‘technetronic era.’ Brzezinski defines the ‘technetronic society’ as, “a society that is shaped culturally, psychologically, socially, and economically by the impact of technology and electronics – particularly in the arena of computers and communications. The industrial process is no longer the principal determinant of social change, altering the mores, the social structure, and the values of society.”[17]
Brzezinski, expanding upon notions of social control, such as those propagated by Edward Bernays, wrote that, “Human conduct, some argue, can be predetermined and subjected to deliberate control,” and he quoted an “experimenter in intelligence control” who asserted that, “I foresee the time when we shall have the means and therefore, inevitably, the temptation to manipulate the behaviour and intellectual functioning of all the people through environmental and biochemical manipulation of the brain.”[18]
Brzezinski, in a telling exposé of his astute powers of observation and ability to identify major global trends, wrote that we are “witnessing the emergence of transnational elites” who are “composed of international businessmen, scholars, professional men, and public officials. The ties of these new elites cut across national boundaries, their perspectives are not confined by national traditions, and their interests are more functional than national.” Further, writes Brzezinski, “it is likely that before long the social elites of most of the more advanced countries will be highly internationalist or globalist in spirit and outlook.” However, warns Brzezinski, this increasing internationalization of elites “could create a dangerous gap between them and the politically activated masses, whose ‘nativism’ – exploited by more nationalist political leaders – could work against the ‘cosmopolitan’ elites.”[19] Brzezinski also wrote about “the gradual appearance of a more controlled and directed society,” in the “technetronic revolution;” explaining:
Such a society would be dominated by an elite whose claim to political power would rest on allegedly superior scientific know-how. Unhindered by the restraints of traditional liberal values, this elite would not hesitate to achieve its political ends by using the latest modern techniques for influencing public behavior and keeping society under close surveillance and control. Under such circumstances, the scientific and technological momentum of the country would not be reversed but would actually feed on the situation it exploits.[20]
Further, writes Brzezinski, “Persisting social crisis, the emergence of a charismatic personality, and the exploitation of mass media to obtain public confidence would be the steppingstones in the piecemeal transformation of the United States into a highly controlled society.” Elaborating, Brzezinski writes, “The traditionally democratic American society could, because of its fascination with technical efficiency, become an extremely controlled society, and its humane and individualistic qualities would thereby be lost.”[21]
In his book, Brzezinski called for a “Community of the Developed Nations,” consisting of Western Europe, North America and Japan, to coordinate and integrate in order to shape a ‘new world order’ built upon ideas of global governance under the direction of these transnational elites. In 1972, Brzezinski and his friend, David Rockefeller, presented the idea to the annual Bilderberg meetings. Rockefeller was, at that time, Chairman of the Council on Foreign Relations and was CEO of Chase Manhattan Bank. In 1973, Brzezinski and Rockefeller created the Trilateral Commission, a sort of sister institute to the Bilderberg Group, with much cross-over membership, bringing Japan into the western sphere of economic and political integration.[22]
In 1975, the Trilateral Commission published a Task Force Report entitled, “The Crisis of Democracy,” of which one of the principal authors was Samuel Huntington, a political scientist and close associate and friend of Zbigniew Brzezinski. In this report, Huntington argues that the 1960s saw a surge in democracy in America, with an upswing in citizen participation, often “in the form of marches, demonstrations, protest movements, and ‘cause’ organizations.”[23] Further, “the 1960s also saw a reassertion of the primacy of equality as a goal in social, economic, and political life.”[24] Huntington analyzed how as part of this “democratic surge,” statistics showed that throughout the 1960s and into the early 1970s, there was a dramatic increase in the percentage of people who felt the United States was spending too much on defense (from 18% in 1960 to 52% in 1969, largely due to the Vietnam War).[25] In other words, people were becoming politically aware of empire and exploitation.
Huntington wrote that the “essence of the democratic surge of the 1960s was a general challenge to existing systems of authority, public and private,” and that, “People no longer felt the same compulsion to obey those whom they had previously considered superior to themselves in age, rank, status, expertise, character, or talents.” Huntington explained that in the 1960s, “hierarchy, expertise, and wealth” had come “under heavy attack.”[26] He stated that three key issues which were central to the increased political participation in the 1960s were:
social issues, such as use of drugs, civil liberties, and the role of women; racial issues, involving integration, busing, government aid to minority groups, and urban riots; military issues, involving primarily, of course, the war in Vietnam but also the draft, military spending, military aid programs, and the role of the military-industrial complex more generally.[27]
Huntington presented these issues, essentially, as the “crisis of democracy,” in that they increased distrust with the government and authority, that they led to social and ideological polarization, and led to a “Decline in the authority, status, influence, and effectiveness of the presidency.”[28]
Huntington concluded that many problems of governance in the United States stem from an “excess of democracy,” and that, “the effective operation of a democratic political system usually requires some measure of apathy and noninvolvement on the part of some individuals and groups.” Huntington explained that society has always had “marginal groups” which do not participate in politics, and while acknowledging that the existence of “marginality on the part of some groups is inherently undemocratic,” it has also “enabled democracy to function effectively.” Huntington identifies “the blacks” as one such group that had become politically active, posing a “danger of overloading the political system with demands.”[29]
Huntington, in his conclusion, stated that the vulnerability of democracy, essentially the ‘crisis of democracy,’ comes from “a highly educated, mobilized, and participant society,” and that what is needed is “a more balanced existence” in which there are “desirable limits to the indefinite extension of political democracy.”[30] Summed up, the Trilateral Commission Task Force Report essentially explained that the “Crisis of Democracy” is that there is too much of it, and so the ‘solution’ to the ‘crisis’ is to have less democracy and more ‘authority.’
The New World Order
Following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, American ideologues – politicians and academics – began discussing the idea of the emergence of a “new world order” in which power in the world is centralized with one power – the United States, and laid the basis for an expansion of elitist ideology pertaining to the notion of ‘globalization’: that power and power structures should be globalizaed. In short, the ‘new world order’ was to be a global order of global governance. In the short term, it was to be led by the United States, which must be the central and primary actor in constructing a new world order, and ultimately a global government.[31]
Anne-Marie Slaughter, currently the Director of Policy Planning for the US State Department, is a prominent academic within the American elite establishment, having long served in various posts at the State Department, elite universities and on the board of the Council on Foreign Relations. In 1997, Slaughter wrote an article for the journal of the Council on Foreign Relations, “Foreign Affairs,” in which she discussed the theoretical foundations of the ‘new world order.’ In it, she wrote that, “The state is not disappearing, it is disaggregating into its separate, functionally distinct parts. These parts—courts, regulatory agencies, executives, and even legislatures—are networking with their counterparts abroad, creating a dense web of relations that constitutes a new, transgovernmental order,” and that, “transgovernmentalism is rapidly becoming the most widespread and effective mode of international governance.”[32]
Long preceding Slaughter’s analysis of the ‘new world order,’ Richard N. Gardner published an article in Foreign Affairs titled, “The Hard Road to World Order.” Gardner, a former American Ambassador and member of the Trilateral Commission, wrote that, “The quest for a world structure that secures peace, advances human rights and provides the conditions for economic progress—for what is loosely called world order—has never seemed more frustrating but at the same time strangely hopeful.”[33]
Gardner wrote, “If instant world government, [UN] Charter review, and a greatly strengthened International Court do not provide the answers, what hope for progress is there? The answer will not satisfy those who seek simple solutions to complex problems, but it comes down essentially to this: The hope for the foreseeable future lies, not in building up a few ambitious central institutions of universal membership and general jurisdiction as was envisaged at the end of the last war, but rather in the much more decentralized, disorderly and pragmatic process of inventing or adapting institutions of limited jurisdiction and selected membership to deal with specific problems on a case-by-case basis, as the necessity for cooperation is perceived by the relevant nations.”[34]
He then stated, “In short, the “house of world order” will have to be built from the bottom up rather than from the top down. It will look like a great “booming, buzzing confusion,” to use William James’ famous description of reality, but an end run around national sovereignty, eroding it piece by piece, will accomplish much more than the old-fashioned frontal assault.”[35]
In 1992, Strobe Talbott wrote an article for Time Magazine entitled, “The Birth of the Global Nation.” Talbott worked as a journalist for Time Magazine for 21 years, and has been a fellow of the Yale Corporation, a trustee of the Hotchkiss School and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a director of the Council on Foreign Relations, the North American Executive Committee of the Trilateral Commission, and the American Association of Rhodes Scholars, and a member of the participating faculty of the World Economic Forum. Talbott served as Deputy Secretary of State from 1994 to 2001 in the Clinton administration and currently sits as President of the Brookings Institution, one of the premier American think tanks. In his 1992 article, “within the next hundred years,” Talbott wrote, “nationhood as we know it will be obsolete; all states will recognize a single, global authority.” He explained:
All countries are basically social arrangements, accommodations to changing circumstances. No matter how permanent and even sacred they may seem at any one time, in fact they are all artificial and temporary. Through the ages, there has been an overall trend toward larger units claiming sovereignty and, paradoxically, a gradual diminution of how much true sovereignty any one country actually has.[36]
Further, he wrote that, “it has taken the events in our own wondrous and terrible century to clinch the case for world government. With the advent of electricity, radio and air travel, the planet has become smaller than ever, its commercial life freer, its nations more interdependent and its conflicts bloodier.”[37]
David Rothkopf, a scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, former Deputy Undersecretary of Commerce for International Trade in the Clinton administration, former managing director of Kissinger and Associates, and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, recently wrote a book titled, “Superclass: The Global Power Elite and the World They are Making.” As a member of that “superclass,” his writing should provide a necessary insight into the construction of this “New World Order.” He states that, “In a world of global movements and threats that don’t present their passports at national borders, it is no longer possible for a nation-state acting alone to fulfill its portion of the social contract.” He wrote that, “progress will continue to be made,” however, it will be challenging, because it “undercuts many national and local power structures and cultural concepts that have foundations deep in the bedrock of human civilization, namely the notion of sovereignty.” He further wrote that, “Mechanisms of global governance are more achievable in today’s environment,” and that these mechanisms “are often creative with temporary solutions to urgent problems that cannot wait for the world to embrace a bigger and more controversial idea like real global government.”[38]
In December of 2008, the Financial Times published an article titled, “And Now for A World Government,” in which the author, former Bilderberg attendee, Gideon Rachman, wrote that, “for the first time in my life, I think the formation of some sort of world government is plausible,” and that, “A ‘world government’ would involve much more than co-operation between nations. It would be an entity with state-like characteristics, backed by a body of laws. The European Union has already set up a continental government for 27 countries, which could be a model. The EU has a supreme court, a currency, thousands of pages of law, a large civil service and the ability to deploy military force.”[39]
He stated that, “it is increasingly clear that the most difficult issues facing national governments are international in nature: there is global warming, a global financial crisis and a ‘global war on terror’.” He wrote that the European model could “go global” and that a world government “could be done,” as “The financial crisis and climate change are pushing national governments towards global solutions, even in countries such as China and the US that are traditionally fierce guardians of national sovereignty.” He quoted an adviser to French President Nicolas Sarkozy as saying, “Global governance is just a euphemism for global government,” and that the “core of the international financial crisis is that we have global financial markets and no global rule of law.” However, Rachman states that any push towards a global government “will be a painful, slow process.” He then states that a key problem in this push can be explained with an example from the EU, which “has suffered a series of humiliating defeats in referendums, when plans for ‘ever closer union’ have been referred to the voters. In general, the Union has progressed fastest when far-reaching deals have been agreed by technocrats and politicians – and then pushed through without direct reference to the voters. International governance tends to be effective, only when it is anti-democratic.”[40]
The Global Political Awakening and the Global Economic Crisis
In the face of the global economic crisis, the process that has led to the global political awakening is rapidly expanding, as the social, political and economic inequalities and disparities that led to the awakening are all being exacerbated and expanded. Thus, the global political awakening itself is entering into a period in which it will undergo rapid, expansionary and global transformation.
This ‘global political awakening’, of which Brzezinski has explained as being one of the primary global geopolitical challenges of today, has largely, up until recent times, been exemplified in the ‘Global South’, or the ‘Third World’ developing nations of the Middle East, Central and Southeast Asia, Africa and Latin America. Developments in recent decades and years in Venezuela, Bolivia, and Iran exemplify the nationalist-orientation of much of this awakening, taking place in a world increasingly and incrementally moving towards global governance and global institutions.
In 1998, Hugo Chavez became President of Venezuela, having campaigned on promises of aiding the nation’s poor majority. In 2002, an American coup attempt took place in Venezuela, but Chavez retained his power and was further emboldened by the attempt, and gained a great burst of popular support among the people. Chavez has undertaken what he refers to as a process of “Bolivarian socialism”, and has taken a decidedly and vehemently anti-American posture in Latin America, long considered America’s “back yard.” Suddenly, there is virulent rhetoric and contempt against the United States and its influence in the region, which itself is backed by the enormous oil-wealth of Venezuela.
In Bolivia, Evo Morales was elected President in 2005 of the poorest nation in South America, and he was also the first indigenous leader of that country to ever hold that position of power, after having long been dominated by the Spanish-descended landed aristocracy. Evo Morales rose to power on the wave of various social movements within Bolivia, key among them being the “water wars” which took place in Cochabamba, Bolivia’s third largest city, in 2000. The water wars were instigated after the World Bank forced Bolivia to privatize its water so that American and European companies could come in and purchase the rights to Bolivia’s water, meaning that people in the poorest nation in South America could not even drink rain water without paying American or European companies for the ‘right’ to use it. Thus, revolt arose and Evo Morales rose with it. Now, Morales and Chavez represent the “new Left” in Latin America, and with it, growing sentiments of anti-American imperialism.
In Iran, itself defined more by nationalism than ethnic polarities, has become a principal target of the western hegemonic world order, as it sits atop massive gas and oil reserves, and is virulently anti-American and firmly opposed to western hegemony in the Middle East. However, with increased American rhetoric against Iran, its regime and political elites are further emboldened and politically strengthened among its people, the majority of whom are poor.
Global socio-political economic conditions directly relate to the expansion and emergence of the ‘global political awakening’. As of 1998, “3 billion people live on less than $2 per day while 1.3 billion get by on less than $1 per day. Seventy percent of those living on less than $1 per day are women.”[41] In 2003, a World Bank report revealed that, “A minority of the world’s population (17%) consume most of the world’s resources (80%), leaving almost 5 billion people to live on the remaining 20%. As a result, billions of people are living without the very basic necessities of life – food, water, housing and sanitation.”[42]
In regards to poverty and hunger statistics, “Over 840 million people in the world are malnourished—799 million of them are from the developing world. Sadly, more than 153 million of them are under the age of 5 (half the entire US population).” Further, “Every day, 34,000 children under five die of hunger or other hunger-related diseases. This results in 6 million deaths a year.” That amounts to a “Hunger Holocaust” that takes place every single year. As of 2003, “Of 6.2 billion living today, 1.2 billion live on less than $1 per day. Nearly 3 billion people live on less than $2 a day.”[43]
In 2006, a groundbreaking and comprehensive report released by the World Institute for Development Economics Research of the United Nations University (UNU-WIDER) reported that, “The richest 2% of adults in the world own more than half of global household wealth.” An incredibly startling statistic was that:
[T]he richest 1% of adults alone owned 40% of global assets in the year 2000, and that the richest 10% of adults accounted for 85% of the world total. In contrast, the bottom half of the world adult population owned barely 1% of global wealth.[44]
This is worth repeating: the top 1% owns 40% of global assets; the top 10% owns 85% of world assets; and the bottom 50% owns 1% of global assets; a sobering figure, indeed. Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.
The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) report stated that in 2009, “an estimated 55 million to 90 million more people will be living in extreme poverty than anticipated before the crisis.” Further, “the encouraging trend in the eradication of hunger since the early 1990s was reversed in 2008, largely due to higher food prices.” Hunger in developing regions has risen to 17% in 2008, and “children bear the brunt of the burden.”[45]
In April of 2009, a major global charity, Oxfam, reported that a couple trillion dollars given to bail out banks could have been enough “to end global extreme poverty for 50 years.”[46] In September of 2009, Oxfam reported that the economic crisis “is forcing 100 people-a-minute into poverty.” Oxfam stated that, “Developing countries across the globe are struggling to respond to the global recession that continues to slash incomes, destroy jobs and has helped push the total number of hungry people in the world above 1 billion.”[47]
The financial crisis has hit the ‘developing’ world much harder than the western developed nations of the world. The UN reported in March of 2009 that, “Reduced growth in 2009 will cost the 390 million people in sub-Saharan Africa living in extreme poverty around $18 billion, or $46 per person,” and “This projected loss represents 20 per cent of the per capita income of Africa’s poor – a figure that dwarfs the losses sustained in the developed world.”[48]
Thus, the majority of the world’s people live in absolute poverty and social dislocation. This is directly the result of the globalized world order that has been and is being constructed. Now, as that same infrastructure is being further institutionalized and built upon, people are being thrown into the ‘awakening’ like never before. Their very poverty pushes them into an awakening. There is a seemingly lost notion of judging a society by how it treats it weakest members: the poor. Poverty forces one to look at the world differently, as they see the harsh restraints that society has imposed upon the human spirit. Life simply cannot be about the struggle to make payments week-to-week; to afford water, shelter, and food; to live according to the dictates of money and power.
Look to history, and you see that from some of the most oppressive societies can come the greatest of humanity. Russia, a nation which has never in its history experienced true political freedom for the individual, has managed to produce some of the greatest music, art, expression and literature as a vibrant outcry of humanity from a society so overcome with the need to control it. It the fact that such triumphs of human spirit can come from such tyrannies over human nature is a sobering display of the great mystery of human beings. Why waste humanity by subjecting it to poverty? Think of the difference that could be made if all of humanity was allowed to flourish individually and collectively; think of all the ideas, art, expression, intellect and beauty we aren’t getting from those who have no voice.
Until we address this fundamental issue, any notion of humanity as being ‘civilized’ is but a cynical joke. If it’s human civilization, we haven’t quite figured it out yet. We don’t yet have a proper definition of ‘civilized’, and we need to make it ‘humane’.
The West and the Awakening
The middle classes of the western world are undergoing a dramatic transition, most especially in the wake of the global economic crisis. In the previous decades, the middle class has become a debt-based class, whose consumption was based almost entirely on debt, and so their ability to consume and be the social bedrock of the capitalist system is but a mere fiction. Never in history has the middle class, and most especially the youth who are graduating college into the hardest job market in decades, been in such peril.[49]
The global debt crisis, which is beginning in Greece, and spreading throughout the euro-zone economies of Spain, Portugal, Ireland and ultimately the entire EU, will further consume the UK, Japan and go all the way to America.[50] This will be a truly global debt crisis. Government measures to address the issue of debt focus on the implementation of ‘fiscal austerity measures’ to reduce the debt burdens and make interest payments on their debts.
‘Fiscal austerity’ is a vague term that in actuality refers to cutting social spending and increasing taxes. The effect this has is that the public sector is devastated, as all assets are privatized, public workers are fired en masse, unemployment becomes rampant, health and education disappear, taxes rise dramatically, and currencies are devalued to make all assets cheaper for international corporations and banks to buy up, while internally causing inflation – dramatically increasing the costs of fuel and food. In short, ‘fiscal austerity’ implies ‘social destruction’ as the social foundations of nations and peoples are pulled out from under them. States then become despotic and oppress the people, who naturally revolt against ‘austerity’: the sterilization of society.
‘Fiscal austerity’ swept the developing world through the 1980s and 1990s in response to the 1980s debt crisis which consumed Latin America, Africa, and areas of Asia. The result of the fiscal austerity measures imposed upon nations by the World Bank and IMF was the social dismantling of the new societies and their subsequent enslavement to the international creditors of the IMF, World Bank, and western corporations and banks. It was an era of economic imperialism, and the IMF was a central tool of this imperial project.
As the debt crisis we see unfolding today sweeps the world, the IMF is again stepping in to impose ‘fiscal austerity’ on nations in return for short-term loans for countries to pay off the interest on their exorbitant debts, themselves owed mostly to major European and American banks. Western nations have agreed to impose fiscal austerity,[51] which will in fact only inflame the crisis, deepen the depression and destroy the social foundations of the west so that we are left only with the authoritarian apparatus of state power – the police, military, homeland ‘security’ apparatus – which is employed against people to protect the status quo powers.
The IMF has also come to the global economic crisis with a new agenda, giving out loans in its own synthetic currency – Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) – an international reserve basket of currencies. The G20 in April of 2009 granted the IMF the authority to begin phasing in the applications of issuing SDRs, and for the IMF to in effect become a global central bank issuing a global currency.[52] So through this global debt crisis, SDRs will be disbursed globally – both efficiently and in abundance – as nations will need major capital inflows and loans to pay off interest payments, or in the event of a default. This will happen at a pace so rapid that it would never be conceivable if not for a global economic crisis. The same took place in the 1980s, as the nature of “Structural Adjustment Programs” (SAPs) could not be properly assessed as detrimental to economic conditions and ultimately socially devastating, for countries needed money fast (as the debt crisis spread across the developing world) and were not in a position to negotiate. Today, this will be the ‘globalization’ of the debt crisis of the 1980s, on a much larger and more devastating scale, and the reaction will be equally globalized and devastating: the continued implementation of ‘global governance’.
As austerity hits the west, the middle class will vanish in obscurity, as they will be absorbed into the lower, labour-oriented working class.[53] The youth of the western middle class, comprising the majority of the educated youth, will be exposed to a ‘poverty of expectations’ in which they grew up in a world in which they were promised everything, and from whom everything was so quickly taken. The inevitability of protests, riots and possible rebellion is as sure as the sun rises.[54]
In the United States, the emergence of the Tea Party movement is representative of – in large part – a growing dissatisfaction with the government and the economy. Naturally, like any group, it has its radical and fringe elements, which tend to draw the majority of media attention in an effort to shape public opinion, but the core and the driving force of the movement is the notion of popular dissatisfaction with government. Whatever one thinks of the legitimacy of such protestations, people are not pleased, and people are taking to the streets. And so it begins.
Even intellectuals of the left have spoken publicly warning people not to simply and so easily discount the Tea Party movement as fringe or radical. One such individual, Noam Chomsky, while speaking at a University in April of 2010, warned that he felt fascism was coming to America, and he explained that, “Ridiculing the tea party shenanigans is a serious error,” as their attitudes “are understandable.” He explained, “For over 30 years, real incomes have stagnated or declined. This is in large part the consequence of the decision in the 1970s to financialize the economy.” This constitutes ‘class resentment’, as “The bankers, who are primarily responsible for the crisis, are now reveling in record bonuses while official unemployment is around 10 percent and unemployment in the manufacturing sector is at Depression-era levels.” This same financial industry is directly linked to Obama, who is supporting their interests, and people are noticing.[55]
Another notable feminist intellectual of the left, Naomi Wolf, who wrote a book during the Bush administration on the emergence of fascism in America, and much of her message is being picked up by the Tea Party movement, as those on the right who were listening and agreeing with Wolf during the Bush administration (a considerable minority), then provided the impetus for the emergence of the Tea Party movement and many of its core or original ideas. In an interview in March 2010, Wolf explained that her ideas are even more relevant under Obama than Bush. She explained, “Bush legalized torture, but Obama is legalizing impunity. He promised to roll stuff back, but he is institutionalizing these things forever. It is terrifying and the left doesn’t seem to recognize it.” She explained how the left, while active under Bush, has been tranquilized under Obama, and that there is a potential for true intellectuals and for people more generally and more importantly, to reach out to each other across the spectrum. She explained:
I was invited by the Ron Paul supporters to their rally in Washington last summer and I loved it. I met a lot of people I respected, a lot of “ordinary” people, as in not privileged. They were stepping up to the plate, when my own liberal privileged fellow demographic habituates were lying around whining. It was a wake-up call to the libertarians that there’s a progressive who cares so much about the same issues. Their views of liberals are just as distorted as ours are of conservatives.[56]
In regards to the Tea Party movement, Wolf had this to say: “The Tea Party is not monolithic. There is a battle between people who care about liberty and the Constitution and the Republican Establishment who is trying to take ownership of it and redirect it for its own purposes.” Further, she explained that the Tea Party is “ahead of their time” on certain issues, “I used to think “End the Fed people” were crackpots. The media paints them as deranged. But it turned out we had good reason to have more oversight.”[57]
In time, others will join with the Tea Party movement and new activist groups, the anti-war movement will have to revitalize itself or die away; since Obama became President their influence, their voice, and their dignity has all but vanished. They have become a pacified voice, and their silence is complicity; thus, the anti-war movement must reignite and reinvigorate or it will decompose. The ‘Left’s’ distrust of corporations must merge with the ‘Right’s’ distrust of government to create a trust in ‘people’. Soon students will be joining protests, and the issues of the Tea Party movement and others like it can become more refined and informed.
When the middle classes of the west are plunged into poverty, it will force an awakening, for when people have nothing, they have nothing left to lose. The only way that the entrenched powers of the world have been able to expand their power and maintain their power is with the ignorant consent of the populations of the west. Issues of war, empire, economics and terror shape public opinion and allow social planners to redirect and reconstitute society. The people of the west have allowed themselves to be ruled as such and have allowed our rulers to be so ruthless in our names. People have been blinded by consumerism and entertainment. Images of celebrities, professional sports, Hollywood, iPods, blackberrys, and PCs consume the minds of people, and especially the youth of the west today. It has been the illusion of being the consuming class that has allowed our societies to be run so recklessly. So long as we have our TVs and PCs we won’t pay attention to anything else!
When the ability to consume is removed, the people will enter into a period of a great awakening. This will give rise to major new political movements, many progressive but some regressive, some fringe and radical, some violent and tyrannical, but altogether new and ultimately global. This is when the people of the west will come to realize the plight of the rest. This will be the era in which people begin to understand the realization that there is great truth in Dr. Martin Luther King’s words, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” Thus, the struggle of Africans will become the struggle of Americans: it must be freedom for all or freedom for none.
This is the major geopolitical reality and the pre-eminent global threat to world power structures. No development in all of human history presents such a monumental challenge to the status quo. As global power structures have never resembled such a monumental threat to mankind, mankind has never posed such an immense threat to institutionalized power. For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Even if elites think that they truly do run the world, human nature has a way of exposing the flaws in that assumption. Human nature is not meant to be ‘controlled,’ but rather is meant to be nurtured.
A View From the Top
Again, it is important to go to Brzezinski’s own words in describing this new geopolitical reality, as it provides great insight into not only how the ‘global political awakening’ is defined; but more importantly, how it is perceived by those who hold power. In 2004, Brzezinski gave a speech at the Carnegie Council on his 2004 book, “The Choice”. The Carnegie Council is an elite think tank based in the United States, so Brzezinski is speaking to those who are potentially negatively affected by such an awakening. Brzezinski stated that America’s foreign policy in the wake of 9/11 – the “War on Terror” – is presenting a major challenge to American hegemony, as it is increasingly isolating the United States and damaging the nation’s credibility, as well as hiding the issues in virulent rhetoric which only further inflames the real and true challenge: the global political awakening. He states:
The misdiagnosis [of foreign policy] pertains to a relatively vague, excessively abstract, highly emotional, semi-theological definition of the chief menace that we face today in the world, and the consequent slighting of what I view as the unprecedented global challenge arising out of the unique phenomenon of a truly massive global political awakening of mankind. We live in an age in which mankind writ large is becoming politically conscious and politically activated to an unprecedented degree, and it is this condition which is producing a great deal of international turmoil.
But we are not focusing on that. We are focusing specifically on one word, which is being elevated into a specter, defined as an entity, presented as somehow unified but unrelated to any specific event or place—and that word is terrorism. The global challenge today on the basis of which we tend to operate politically is the definition of terrorism with a global reach as the principal challenge of our time.
I don’t deny that terrorism is a reality, a threat to us, an ugly menace and a vicious manifestation. But it is a symptom of something larger and more complicated, related to the global turmoil that takes place in many parts of the world and manifests itself in different ways.
That turmoil is the product of the political awakening, the fact that today vast masses of the world are not politically neutered, as they have been throughout history. They have political consciousness. It may be undefined, it may point in different directions, it may be primitive, it may be intolerant, it may be hateful, but it is a form of political activism.[58]
Brzezinski explains that literacy has made for greater political awareness, while TV has made for immediate awareness of global disparities, and the Internet has provided instant communications. Further, says Brzezinski, “Much of this is also spurred by America’s impact on the world,” or in other words, American economic, political, and cultural imperialism; and further, “Much of it is also fueled by globalization, which the United States propounds, favors and projects by virtue of being a globally outward-thrusting society.” Brzezinski warns, “But that also contributes to instability, and is beginning to create something altogether new: namely, some new ideological or doctrinal challenge which might fill the void created by the disappearance of communism.” Brzezinski explains that Communism emerged in the last century as an alternative, however, today:
it is now totally discredited, and we have a pragmatic vacuum in the world today regarding doctrines. But I see the beginnings, in writings and stirrings, of the making of a doctrine which combines anti-Americanism with anti-globalization, and the two could become a powerful force in a world that is very unequal and turbulent.[59]
A question following Brzezinski’s speech asked him to expand upon how to address the notion of and deal with the ‘global political awakening’. Brzezinski explained that, “We deal with the world as it is and we are as we are. If we are to use our power intelligently and if we are to move in the right direction, we have no choice but do it incrementally.”[60] In other words, as Brzezinski has detailed his vision of a solution to world problems in creating the conditions for global governance; they must do it “incrementally,” for that is how to “use [their] power intelligently.” The solution to the ‘global political awakening’, in the view from the top, is to continue to create the apparatus of an oppressive global government.
On April 23, 2010, Zbigniew Brzezinski went to the Montreal Council on Foreign Relations to give a speech at an event jointly-hosted by the Canadian International Council (CIC), the Canadian counterpart to the Council on Foreign Relations in the US and Chatham House in the U.K. These are many of the intellectual, social, political and economic elite of Canada. In his speech, Brzezinski gives a breakdown of the modern geopolitical realities:
Let me begin by making just a thumbnail definition of the geopolitical context in which we all find ourselves, including America. And in my perspective, that geopolitical context is very much defined by new – by two new global realities. The first is that global political leadership – by which I mean the role of certain leading powers in the world – has now become much more diversified unlike what it was until relatively recently. Relatively recently still, the world was dominated by the Atlantic world, as it had been for many centuries. It no longer is. Today, the rise of the Far East has created a new but much more differentiated global leadership. One which in a nutshell involves a wanton hazard, an arbitrary list of the primary players in the world scene: the United States, clearly; maybe next to it – but maybe – the European Union, I say maybe because it is not yet a political entity; certainly, increasingly so, and visibly so, China; Russia, mainly in one respect only because it is a nuclear power co-equal to the United States, but otherwise very deficient in all of the major indices of what constitutes global power. Behind Russia, perhaps individually, but to a much lesser extent, Germany, France, Great Britain, Japan, certainly, although it does not have the political assertive posture; India is rising, and then in the background of that we have the new entity of the G20, a much more diversified global leadership, lacking internal unity, with many of its members in bilateral antagonisms. That makes the context much more complicated.
The other major change in international affairs is that for the first time, in all of human history, mankind has been politically awakened. That is a total new reality – total new reality. It has not been so for most of human history until the last one hundred years. And in the course of the last one hundred years, the whole world has become politically awakened. And no matter where you go, politics is a matter of social engagement, and most people know what is generally going on –generally going on – in the world, and are consciously aware of global inequities, inequalities, lack of respect, exploitation. Mankind is now politically awakened and stirring. The combination of the two: the diversified global leadership, politically awakened masses, makes a much more difficult context for any major power including, currently, the leading world power: the United States.[61]
Conclusion
So, the Technological Revolution has led to a diametrically opposed, antagonistic, and conflicting geopolitical reality: never before has humanity been so awakened to issues of power, exploitation, imperialism and domination; and simultaneously, never before have elites been so transnational and global in orientation, and with the ability to impose such a truly global system of scientific despotism and political oppression. These are the two major geopolitical realities of the world today. Reflect on that. Never in all of human history has mankind been so capable of achieving a true global political psycho-social awakening; nor has humanity ever been in such danger of being subjected to a truly global scientific totalitarianism, potentially more oppressive than any system known before, and without a doubt more technologically capable of imposing a permanent despotism upon humanity. So we are filled with hope, but driven by urgency. In all of human history, never has the potential nor the repercussions of human actions and ideas ever been so monumental.
Suddenly, global elites are faced with the reality of seeking to dominate populations that are increasingly becoming self-aware and are developing a global consciousness. Thus, a population being subjected to domination in Africa has the ability to become aware of a population being subjected to the same forms of domination in the Middle East, South America or Asia; and they can recognize that they are all being dominated by the same global power structures. That is a key point: not only is the awakening global in its reach, but in its nature; it creates within the individual, an awareness of the global condition. So it is a ‘global awakening’ both in the external environment, and in the internal psychology.
This new reality in the world, coupled with the fact that the world’s population has never been so vast, presents a challenge to elites seeking to dominate people all over the world who are aware and awakened to the realities of social inequality, war, poverty, exploitation, disrespect, imperialism and domination. This directly implies that these populations will be significantly more challenging to control: economically, politically, socially, psychologically and spiritually. Thus, from the point of view of the global oligarchy, the only method of imposing order and control – on this unique and historical human condition – is through the organized chaos of economic crises, war, and the rapid expansion and institutionalization of a global scientific dictatorship. Our hope is their fear; and our greatest fear is their only hope.
As Charles Dickens once wrote, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” That has never been so true as it is today.
This has been Part 1 in the three-part series, “The Technological Revolution and the Future of Freedom.”
Part 2 will examine the nature of the global awakening in the ‘west’, particularly the United States, and the potential for revolution within that awakening; as well as the state systems of control and oppression being constructed to deal with it; notably, the construction of a Homeland Security State.
Part 3 will examine the evolution of the idea and reality of a scientific dictatorship, the technological revolution’s effect on power, and the emergence of new systems of social control based upon a modern implementation of eugenics.
Andrew Gavin Marshall is a Research Associate with the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG), and is studying Political Economy and History in Canada. He is co-editor, with Michel Chossudovsky, of the recent book, “The Global Economic Crisis: The Great Depression of the XXI Century,” available to order at Globalresearch.ca.
sources are all here http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-glo...w-world-order/
Food for thought
the mufucka still aint done shit bro
"stfu when grown men are talking boy"
dude u aint sayin nothin bro. just like any other thread u post in.
lmao i got mouths to feed and ass to wipe and u gon tell me to shut up when grown folks are takin lol. how old are u anyway 21-22?? the president hasnt done anything for me and my family.
all i see u doin on this forum is bitchin and complainin man
"Provided minimum"
"Middle East: Renewed loan guarantees for Israel. ref
Middle East: Pledged $400 million in aid to Gaza civillians. ref" - how does that help us and our deficit??
"Instructed all federal agencies to promote openness and transparency as much as possible. ref
Unveiled “open government” plans. ref " - That right there is bullshit bro
i could pick out more but i still dont really see anything that he did. so yeah he aint done shit but destroy our contstitution.
and your insults are lame, weak and tired faggot. get my dick out ur mouth and learn how to talk. still waitin on ur wack ass music to drop too
if you can handle 8 years of the retarded Bush, then you can handle 8 years of Obama too
ahahahahahahhahaaha
the bolded part is the funniest shit.
the president is helping you out when you go to the welfare office to get your
handouts, you bum ass nigga.
what has the president done for you and your family? what kind of shit is that? what do you want faggit?
is the taxes he cut for your broke ass not enough help?how can we help you help yourself bro? are you taking donations?take your bum ass to work and earn money for your family like everybody else on this planet you faggit.
keep crying and projecting you big baby lmao
We do it for the people.
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