..Larouche Online Almanac
Published: Tuesday, Jan. 16, 2007

Volume 6, Issue Number 3

*Sponsored by LaRouchePAC

This Week You Need To Know:

Democrats Throw Down the Gauntlet on Bush's 'Surge'

by William Jones

Anticipating President Bush's psychotic babbling to the nation on Jan. 10, Congressional Democrats decided to throw down the gauntlet to the Bush Administration, showing clearly that they are prepared to wield the independent power of the Legislative branch to stop the mad rush to war.

When the Senate Democrats held their retreat on Jan. 5, senior party leaders Bill Clinton and George Mitchell attended, and emphasized the need for the Democrats to take the offensive and set the agenda, rather than react to the White House. The result was Massachusetts Sen. Edward Kennedy's hard-hitting speech on Jan. 9 at the National Press Club—a preemptive attack on Bush's anticipated "surge" proposal, on the eve of the President's address to the nation.

As expected, Bush called for an additional 21,500 troops to be deployed in Iraq; not expected, was Bush's virtual declaration of war against Iran and Syria.

Kennedy should be seen essentially as a point-man for a Democratic strategy that includes a mobilization for a non-partisan resolution opposing the surge, which is now broadly identified by members of Congress and others, as a spearhead for war against Iran. Senators on both sides of the aisle are also loudly warning against an impending strike on Iran, and indicating that it would be a trigger for impeachment. Whether the Democrats are prepared to take the follow-up steps, toward impeachment, which White House intransigence demands, is still a wide-open question.

In his Press Club address, Kennedy announced that he was putting forward legislation which would require the President to come to Congress before increasing the number of troops in Iraq. "Our bill will say that no additional troops can be sent and no additional dollars can be spent on such an escalation, unless and until Congress approves the President's plan," Kennedy said.... ...complete article, PDF

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This Week's News Updates:
Included
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Duration:
US Economy, Animated Studies New: The WLYM Animation Project
Animated Studies of the US Physical Economy.
Proposed Rail Development Corridors.

Recent LaRouche Webcasts*

"The Old Economics is Dead, and The New Economics Must Begin" Jan. 11, 2007
"Organizing the Recovery from the Great Crash of 2007" Nov. 16, 2006
World Crisis on Eve of U.S. General Election - From Berlin Oct. 31, 2006
"A World-Historical Moment" - From Berlin Sept. 6, 2006
"Rohatyn as Satan" July 20, 2006
"Emergency Actions Required by Congress" June 9, 2006
"The Greatest Economic Crisis in Modern History" Apr. 27, 2006
"Make a Platonic Revolution to Save Our Civilization" Feb. 23, 2006
"Rebuild a Looted U.S. Economy"
video: Baltimore: from Industrial Powerhouse to Death Zones
Jan. 11, 2006
"The Tasks Before Us in the Post-Cheney Era"
Videos: US Dams, US Nuclear Plants
Nov. 16, 2005
"Rediscovering America: The Lessons of LaRouche's Famous Oct. 12, 1988 Forecast" Oct. 12, 2005
Sept. 16, 2005
Emergency Webcast,
"Pulling This Nation Together Now!"
Sept. 3, 2005
"LaRouche Addresses Urgent Changes in Economic and Monetary Policy"
Short video (WMA format)
June 16, 2005
April 7, 2005
*Sponsored by LaRouchePAC

This Week in
American History


January 16—22, 1961

President Kennedy Delivers His Inaugural Address in Troubled Times

The memory of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy's inaugural address is usually focussed on one memorable phrase that he used—"And so, my fellow Americans: Ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country." The optimism of America's youngest President was reflected in the rising young generation of that time, many of whom went into public service, especially the Peace Corps, to try to make a positive difference in the world. Yet it is now often forgotten that when Kennedy was inaugurated on January 20, 1961, he and the nation faced an increasingly difficult and perilous situation, one that he called the "balance of terror."

The United States and the Soviet Union were engaged in a frantic arms race, especially involving atomic weapons. On September 19, 1957 the U.S. conducted its first underground atomic explosion, and the next year, on January 3, the U.S. Air Force announced the formation of the first two squadrons armed with intermediate-range ballistic missiles. The launching of the Soviet Union's Sputnik satellite, clearly visible when it passed over the United States, sped up America's efforts to develop rockets which could carry payloads into space.

President Dwight D. Eisenhower met with Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev at Camp David in 1960, however, and the amicable talks gave hope for a future solution. But on May 5, 1960, the Soviets announced the downing of an unarmed U.S. plane piloted by Francis Gary Powers over Russian territory. Two days later, the U.S. admitted that the plane was on a spy mission. Khrushchev used the incident to kill the upcoming Paris Summit Conference, and also cancelled his invitation to President Eisenhower to visit Moscow.

During the same time period, matters were coming to a head in Germany. In 1959, U.S. Secretary of State Christian Herter had returned from the Geneva Conference to announce that the nations of the West were convinced that the Soviet Union's goal was to absorb West Berlin and eventually all of Germany into the Communist bloc. Provocations from East Germany followed, culminating, in August of 1961, in the building of the Berlin Wall.

Also in the same period, U.S. relations with Cuba were deteriorating. Beginning with a stiff protest to Cuba on January 11, 1960 regarding confiscation of American property, the war of words escalated when the U.S. State Department accused the Cuban Government on June 4 of undertaking a "campaign of slander." By October 20, the State Department had placed an embargo on exports to Cuba, excepting some medicines and foodstuffs. By the time John Kennedy was elected President on November 8, there was already a plan afoot for Cuban exiles in the United States to invade Fidel Castro's Cuba, and on January 3, before the inauguration, the U.S. broke diplomatic relations with the island.

On the positive side, the peaceful use of nuclear power and the space program had made impressive strides. On February 8, 1957, the U.S. had pledged full support for plans by the European Atomic Energy Community for the establishment of an atomic energy industry in Europe within ten years. The U.S. itself had developed nuclear-powered ships and submarines, and on November 18, 1959, the Atomic Energy Commission announced the development of a small nuclear reactor which could provide electrical power for space vehicles. Earlier that year, on April 9, the first seven astronauts were chosen from among military test pilots by NASA.

Although President Kennedy mentioned the arms race and the threat posed by nuclear weapons in his inaugural address, he chose to emphasize the positive actions that could break the grip of the "balance of terror" on both America and the Soviet Union. He began his address by saying: "We observe today not a victory of party but a celebration of freedom—symbolizing an end as well as a beginning—signifying renewal as well as change. For I have sworn before you and Almighty God the same solemn oath our forebears prescribed nearly a century and three quarters ago.

"The world is very different now. For man holds in his mortal hands the power to abolish all forms of human poverty and all forms of human life. And yet the same revolutionary beliefs for which our forebears fought are still at issue around the globe—the belief that the rights of man come not from the generosity of the state but from the hand of God.

"We dare not forget today that we are the heirs of that first revolution. Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans—born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage—and unwilling to witness or permit the slow undoing of those human rights to which this nation has always been committed, and to which we are committed today at home and around the world.

"Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, to assure the survival and the success of liberty.

"This much we pledge—and more.

"To those old allies whose cultural and spiritual origins we share, we pledge the loyalty of faithful friends. United, there is little we cannot do in a host of cooperative ventures. Divided, there is little we can do—for we dare not meet a powerful challenge at odds and split asunder.

"To those new states whom we welcome to the ranks of the free, we pledge our word that one form of colonial control shall not have passed away merely to be replaced by a far more iron tyranny. We shall not always expect to find them supporting our view. But we shall always hope to find them strongly supporting their own freedom—and to remember that in the past, those who foolishly sought power by riding the back of the tiger ended up inside.

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LaRouche Webcast

The Old Economics Is Dead; the New Economics Must Begin

Lyndon LaRouche addressed an international webcast on "The Old Economics Is Dead, The New Economics Must Begin," in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 11, 2007.

I think we should begin by declaring this the Year of Bel Canto Choral Singing [applause] which is one of the more important weapons available to us, to change the world, and to transform people who look glum and miserable on the streets, into actually smiling and happy human beings.

But we have to justify that happiness at the same time. We can proclaim it, we can declare for it, we can call for it, but we must make it possible.

...complete coverage, PDF

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Feature:

LAROUCHE WEBCAST
The Old Economics Is Dead, the New Economics Must Begin

Lyndon LaRouche addressed an international webcast on 'The Old Economics Is Dead, The New Economics Must Begin,' in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 11, 2007. The proceedings were moderated by Debra Freeman.
Freeman: . . . Obviously, with the paint barely dry on the walls of the new Congress, we have come into a very important moment in American history. And I think that there is little question that what we do, over the course of the next days, will determine not only the immediate future of the United States, but in fact, the future of the world. We have a new Congress, one that many of the people gathered here in this room, and people who are gathered around the United States participating long-distance in this event, played a critical role in bringing about. ...


National:

Democrats Throw Down the Gauntlet on Bush's 'Surge'
by William Jones

Anticipating President Bush's psychotic babbling to the nation on Jan. 10, Congressional Democrats decided to throw down the gauntlet to the Bush Administration, showing clearly that they are prepared to wield the independent power of the Legislative branch to stop the mad rush to war.

Senate Dems, GOP Throw Down Gauntlet to Rice
Probably not since Vietnam has an Administration been as isolated as the Bush-Cheney Administration is today, judging by the responses of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Jan. 11 to an appearance by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who had come to defend President Bush's 'surge' plan.

  • Documentation
    Kennedy Bill To Reassert Congress's Power Over War

    In a speech to at the National Press Club in Washington Jan. 9, Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) announced that he was introducing a bill requiring the Congress to vote before the President escalates troops levels in Iraq, and to reassert Congressional authority over the Iraq War, as required by Article I, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution. We reprint a summary of the legislation as it appears on Senator Kennedy's website.

The 'Surge': Tragedy Replayed as Farce
by David Shavin

Frederick Kagan's power-point paper on victory in Iraq, a sort of Viagra-driven two-year surge of troops, presented at the American Enterprise Institute Dec. 14, proves nothing about war-fighting or strategy—though it does lend credence to the theory that the nuts don't fall far from the tree.

Obituary
In Memory of a Fighter: William P. Robinson
by Stuart Rosenblatt

Longtime Norfolk lawyer and member of the Virginia House of Delegates William P. 'Billy' Robinson, Jr. passed away on Dec. 19, 2006. Robinson had been battling cancer, but succumbed at the age of 64. Ever the fighter, Robinson was at court only days earlier, winning a dismissal in a murder case.


Economics:

Will Anglo-Dutch Use Sterling To Bring Down Dollar System?
by Mary Burdman

The most remarkable fact about the following report on the menace to the United States from circles in the City of London, is that the U.S. government appears to be completely ignorant of such an immediate and massive present, potentially devastating strategic threat to the United States, from European Anglo-Dutch Liberal circles tied to U.S. President George W. Bush's closest European crony, the United Kingdom's Prime Minister Tony Blair.

In Failing Auto Supply Sector, 'Big Three' Means Hedge Funds
by Paul Gallagher

A shocking measure of the disintegration of the strategically vital auto-supply industrial sector—the largest and most versatile store of machine-tool skills in the modern economy— was given in early January. The firm Hedge Fund Research published its finding that at the end of 2006, hedge funds and private equity funds (the distinctions between these two varieties of financial locusts have been disappearing) controlled auto-supply industrial assets worth $1.1 trillion internationally, and about $400 billion in North America. The magnitude of this control has doubled in just three years.

U.S. Congress Must Forge Ahead With Nuclear Power
by Marsha Freeman

Globally, a nuclear renaissance is under way. On Jan. 9-10, a conference on the peaceful uses of nuclear technology in Africa was hosted by Algeria and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). 'Algeria has the right to benefit from atomic energy without constraint or undue interference,' stated Ramtane Lamamra, Algerian secretary general of the Atomic Energy Ministry, expressing the sentiment of those in attendance, who represented 45 African nations.

N.Y. Court Case Charges That Plan To Close Hospitals Is Unconstitutional
On Jan. 3, a Bronx, New York Supreme Court judge issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) barring the implementation of a plan to shut down Westchester Square Medical Center, one of 57 hospitals inNewYork State that are being closed or downsized by recommendation of the 'Commission on Health Care Facilities in the 21st Century.' The recommendations of the Commission, which is chaired by longtime associate of synarchist banker Felix Rohatyn, Stephen Berger, became law when the state legislature failed to overturn them on Jan. 1.


International:

British Arc of Crisis Extended to Africa
by Douglas DeGroot

The December military offensive by Ethiopian troops in Somalia, ostensibly in defense of a weak Transitional Federal Government (TFG), with the support and encouragement of the Bush Administration, plus the subsequent U.S. airstrikes in Somalia, and the presence of U.S. troops there, demonstrate that Vice President Dick Cheney and his neo-con cabal are intent on expanding the British-designed global crusade against Islam by instigating a war in the Horn of Africa.

Interview: David Shinn
Rebuild Somalia To Undercut Warlords

David Shinn is a former U.S. Ambassador to Ethiopia, and in his 37 years with the State Department, he also served as the director of East and Horn of African Affairs. He is now an adjunct professor in the Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University. He was interviewed by Lawrence Freeman on Jan. 4, 2007, at a Washington, D.C. forum on Somalia.

Friends of Nazi Carl Schmitt
Federalist Society Infiltrates Germany
by Rainer Apel and Anton Chaitkin

A leading German politician, spotted carrying around a copy of Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf in public, maybe even in the national parliament—could that be possible in the Germany of today? Or, a leading legal expert, even a member of the German Supreme Court, walking around with a copy of Nazi 'crown jurist' Carl Schmitt's writings on the infamous 1935 Nuremberg racial laws? Could that happen, 61 years after the end of the Third Reich, after six decades of an official ban on Nazi writings?

Press Paints Hitler As a Silly Clown
by Lyndon H. LaRouche, Jr.

January 6, 2007
WIESBADEN, GERMANY—Today, in Germany, some leading press have put new emphasis on conditioning the population of Germany to see dictator Adolf Hitler as virtually a German remake of 'Bozo the Clown.' The obvious implication is, that by defanging Adolf Hitler's image in this way, the way is cleared for a new kind of Fu¨hrer, with a content similar, still, to that of real-life history's Hitler; but, with a different exterior, a Hollywood-style image in the likeness of actor Charlie Chaplin's memorable Hollywood performance.

Change in Washington: Good Chances For German Presidency of the EU
by Helga Zepp-LaRouche

Since the landslide victory of the Democrats, the political climate in Washington will be characterized by the newly elected 110th Congress and an improved Senate. But President Bush, in his short press conference on Jan. 3, underlined his refusal to pay attention to the will of the voters. 'Congress has changed, but the tasks facing our country have not changed,' Bush announced, and then disappeared after five minutes, without answering any questions. Political Washington knows what that means: Bush and Cheney will soon go for increasing troop strength in Iraq by something like 30,000 soldiers. Many military figures and experts have warned, that the goal of this is not just to have more American troops in Iraq, but that this increase must actually be seen in connection with an imminent military strike against Iran.

The Litvinenko Murder
The Story Within the Story: LaRouche's Enemies Caught With Their Pants Down
by Claudio Celani

On Nov. 23, 2006, former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko died in a London hospital, apparently poisoned by polonium 210. Litvinenko's poisoning and death prompted a massive international campaign accusing Russian President Vladimir Putin of having ordered his assassination. Most vociferous in this campaign was Boris Berezovsky, the Russian oligarch and enemy of Putin who is at the top of an extradition list filed by Russian authorities with the British government. Berezovsky lives in London and Litvinenko worked for him.

New Democratic Majority Initiates Policy Shift Towards Americas
by Gretchen Small

Before it was even sworn in, the new bipartisan consensus emerging under Democratic leadership in the U.S. Congress gave the nations of the Americas grounds to hope that respectful, principled cooperation with the United States may become possible again. Worried leaders of the region heartily welcomed the possibility.

Colombia and Ecuador: Conflict or Integration?
The following declaration was issued by the LaRouche Youth Movement (LYM) in Colombia on Jan. 1, 2007.
Just as a significant group of Ibero-American governments are distancing themselves from the disastrous genocidal policies of the International Monetary Fund and the misnamed policy of 'free-trade,' and promoting a common program of integration for the recovery of our economies and peoples, looted and bled by the shameful liberal Anglo-Dutch financial system, up pops a conflict between Colombia and Ecuador over glysophate fumigation [for eradication of drug crops— ed.]. The financial oligarchy, whose power is sustained by this usurious system, is not only amused by this conflict, but is provoking it. The reality is, that that financial system is disintegrating by leaps and bounds: We now face a collapse of the whole international financial system, more serious than that which occurred in the 1930s.


Editorial:

Nothing Works Without Impeachment
Evaluating the situation with the new Congress on Jan. 12, in the wake of President Bush's psychotic announcement of an escalation in Southwest Asia, clearly vectored toward war against Iran, and perhaps Syria, Lyndon LaRouche stressed: Nothing works without impeachment.

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