United States News Digest

Colin Powell: Obama Has Lost Ability to Connect with Americans

Sept. 19 (EIRNS)—Former Secretary of State Colin Powell, one of Barack Obama's early supporters for President, said on NBC's "Meet the Press" today that the economy and jobs are the overriding concerns of Americans, and that Obama "has lost some of the ability to connect, that he had during the campaign." Obama will not be at all happy with the bucket of cold water Powell just (politely) dumped on him. "The single issue that is uppermost in the minds of the American people," Powell stated, is "employment... For the American people, the main attack is employment." He added that people are angry not only at Obama, from whom they expect more focus on the economy, but also at establishment Republicans. He noted that the Tea Party has tapped into that anger, and is making a lot of noise, but you have to have more than slogans.

Democrats Continue To Break with Obama/Pelosi

Sept. 16 (EIRNS)—This morning, Tennessee Democratic District 6 Congressional candidate Brett Carter sent a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) requesting that she step down for the good of Democratic candidates. If elected, Carter said, he would not cast his vote for Pelosi to continue as Speaker. "It is time that we show Washington and time we show America that we are prepared to lead going forward," Carter said.

Another Democrat, Rep. Gene Taylor (Miss.) broke with the Obama White House by signing onto the Republican-initiated petition to repeal Obama's nazi health-care bill. Taylor is the first Democrat to sign the petition drafted by Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa). "Adding Rep. Taylor to the discharge petition is a significant step towards repealing Obamacare," said King. "Rep. Taylor is the first Democrat to sign the discharge petition, and it is my hope that his decision will pave the way for other Democrats who support repeal to break ranks with Speaker Pelosi and President Obama."

Taylor had voted against the bill on final passage, along with 34 other Democrats.

Neocons Issue Disinformation Report on 'Shariah Threat'

Sept. 15 (EIRNS)—Another facet of the build-up for perpetual war and a U.S. and/or Israeli attack on Iran was launched today, with the release of a report, "Shariah, the Threat to America," a 177-page tome geared to become a "primer" on Islam extremism for the American military. The report is poisonous disinformation, created by a core-group operating through the discredited neocon think tank, the Center for Security Policy. The authors include: former CIA Director and Cheney cabal operative James Woolsey; Christian Zionist Gen. "Jerry" Boykin (ret.); neocon think-tanker Frank Gaffney; and Gen. Paul Vallely (ret.), who coauthored "Mind Wars" with satanist Michael Aquino in the 1990s, and has advocated "total war" against Iran, including the use of nuclear weapons. This Anglo-Israeli operation is targetted against the U.S. military, which is the main institutional opponent to war against Iran.

In an op-ed announcing the report in the (Moonie) Washington Times, Sept. 15, Woolsey (and coauthors Andrew C. McCarthy and Harry E. Soyster) compare the need for this report to the Cold War "Team B" study designed to destroy the arguments that were "soft" on communism.

"Today, the United States faces a similarly insidious ideological threat: Shariah, the authoritarian doctrine that animates the Islamists and their jihadism," the article says.

According to well-informed military sources, the report uses the tragic Ft. Hood, Texas shootings to fan the flames of paranoia, and revive the "clash of civilizations" doctrine that makes Islam the enemy. The op-ed says, "Shariah is a compulsory system that Muslims are obliged to wage jihad to install and to which the rest of the world is required to submit," and that the authors will not "debate" other interpretations of the Islamic law with moderates.

Washington sources also report that the distribution of this disinformation will be heavily geared to Congress—especially the pro-Netanyahu Congressional offices—in order to pressure the administration into going into war with Iran.

Ambulance Privatization Threatens Emergency 911 Response

Sept. 14 (EIRNS)—As part of the Depression-era budget-cutting, more and more U.S. municipalities have contracted out their ambulance services to private corporations. Some of these companies are not local, but national, and even multi-national in nature. One of them, American Medical Response (AMR), a company formed only in the past few years, boasts both "off-shore" and "international" EMS response services. AMR has recently taken over the operation of the 911 phone banks in the Washington, D.C. area.

AMR is contracted by dozens of municipalities across the nation, including the cities of Las Vegas, Nevada, and Topeka, Kansas, and numerous communities in Santa Clara County, Calif. Recently, AMR was brought up in a complaint in Amarillo, Tex., for not having its ambulances properly outfitted with emergency supplies. Although they were cleared, the question of a "for profit" company providing emergency services is significant. For instance, the problem of privatized ambulances quickly becomes bound up with HMOs and insurance. HMO insurance will typically cover only the transportation portion of any emergency response, leading profit-based companies to try and maximize the trip/vehicle ratio, at the expense of all else. Thus their response times often suffer, sometimes being double the 3-5 minutes of the local fire and rescue squads.

AMR is caught up in the middle of dispute between the City of Stockton, and San Joaquin County, Calif., on this very issue. On Aug. 31, the County supervisors issued an order barring local Stockton Fire Fighters from administering advanced life support to the public, allowing only (privatized) AMR crews to do it.

The message for the public: If you get in an accident, have your credit card handy.

Obama Holds Carefully Scripted 'Discussion' To Preach Genocide

Sept. 13 (EIRNS)—President Obama held a meeting with small business leaders in suburban Fairfax County, Va., after meeting with a family in their home. The questions were clearly crafted to promote his pet programs, but Obama could not hold back from preaching mass murderous austerity to his selected audience. When asked how he will be able to work with the next Congress, which will likely be Republican-dominated, Obama invoked the example of his bipartisan deficit reduction commission (aka "Catfood Commission"), whose mandate is to get the deficits and debt under control. "And, by the way, they are going to be some tough decisions." Obama threatened. "People, I think, have a sense that somehow if we just eliminated a few pork projects and foreign aid, that somehow we would solve our debt. The big problem with our debt is actually the costs of Medicare and Medicaid. Our health-care system is by far the thing that is exploding faster than anything, and as the population gets older and it's using more health-care services, if we don't get control of that, we can't control our long-term debt" (emphasis added).

But health care is not the only way to kill people, said the President. "We've also got to look at everything from defense budgets to food stamps."

Dorgan's Proudest Moment: Warning Against Taking Down Glass-Steagall

Sept. 13 (EIRNS)— Retiring Democratic Sen. Byron Dorgan (N.D.) identified his proudest moment in the Congress as his fight against repealing Glass-Steagall in 1999, and his warning that repeal would bring disaster in ten years. Speaking on the NBC show "Exit Interviews," Dorgan was asked "What piece of legislation did you work on that made you the most proud?"

Dorgan replied, "One of the things I'm proud of, although I'm not proud of the circumstance under which it occurred, but in 1999, my exact quote on the floor of the Senate was that if you pass this legislation, within a decade you're going to see massive taxpayer bailouts. And that was about passing the Gramm-Leach-Bliley bill that took down the protections of Glass-Steagall and others. It turns out—not knowing it before that date—I was exactly right: a decade later, the most significant bailouts in the history of our country. Back then, I was one of only eight that voted against that, but I'm proud that I stood my ground and felt strongly about things and didn't care whether I was part of such a very small minority. I predicted what was going to happen and it happened, regrettably."