These are the goals of the Communists, as updated in 1963:
1. U.S. acceptance of coexistence as the only alternative to atomic war.
2. U.S. willingness to capitulate in preference to engaging in atomic war.
3. Develop the illusion that total disarmament [by] the United States would be a demonstration of moral strength.
4. Permit free trade between all nations regardless of Communist affiliation and regardless of whether or not items could be used for war.
We received this by e-mail a few days ago:
Many will recall that on July 8, 1947, witnesses claimed that an unidentified object with five aliens aboard crashed onto a sheep and cattle ranch just outside Roswell, New Mexico. This is a well-known incident that many say has long been covered up by the U.S. Air Force and the federal government…
Markos (”Kos”) Moulitsas Zúñiga has recently become famous since founding the progressive website, the DailyKOS.
He was born and raised in Chicago, except for five years that he and his parents lived in El Salvador. His father is Greek and his mother is Salvadoran. His wife is Puerto Rican, and a former reporter; they have two children and now live in San Francisco. Their last name is Greek (”Moulitsas”), but he and his family often use his mother’s Hispanic name, “Zúñiga.” The name thing seems to bug him he doesn’t like explaining it but you can read why the names are like this here.
The family in El Salvador owns an upscale hotel in El Salvador and operates Baja Salt. The family receives large US government grants (at least $1 million this year according to OPIC) to promote CAFTA (the Central American Free Trade Agreement). According to some reports, the colorful history of the family includes ties to the death squads in El Salvador. Interestingly, one of Markos’ heros is Archbishop Oscar Romero who was assassinated by suspected death squad members. His other hero is Caesar Chavez.
Prior to founding the DailyKOS, Markos served in the army as an Enlisted Specialist 4th class (E4) , worked as a reporter , attended college (earning two undergraduate degrees in three fields and a J.D. from law school), and underwent some (possibly) paid interview time while applying to the CIA. According to him, before it was time for him to sign the contract, he backed out, preferring to work on the Howard Dean campaign.
Moulitsas is also a fellow at the New Politics Institute, a think tank of the New Democrat Network. The NDN’s stated purpose is to help elect “centrist” Democrats, and is considered by many to be a successor to the centrist Democratic Leadership Council (DLC), an organization that Simon Rosenberg resigned from in 1996.
Markos has a loyal following. The rabid KOS devotees love to jump all anyone who publishes anything remotely negative about their fearless leader, as evidenced by their attacks on Francis L. Holland, Esq at his blog since he first turned up all the negative information on Markos. Needless to say, he was immediately banned from the DailyKOS and his mirrored posts at MyLeftWing also came under attack. The attackers on Holland’s sites were considerably more circumspect with their language than what is often found on the DailyKOS site itself.
Markos, by his own admission, runs the DailyKOS with an iron fist; so he leaves little doubt that the hate-mongering and the name calling is not only seen but approved by him. Markos rarely responds to adverse comments posted elsewhere such as these, he prefers to direct his minions from afar.
In spite of his successes, Markos’ main problem seems to be the ambiguity of his personal statements. Here are some examples:
(from Gather) Markos: And I was offended by the lip service paid to national service when most Republicans couldn’t be bothered to wear combat boots. I voted for Bush in 1992, but that was the last time I voted Republican.
FACT: Most career soldiers vote Republican: “The traditional Republican lock on the military vote, coveted but rarely captured by Democrats…”
(from the DailyKos) Markos: “I subsequently received two bachelor degrees from Northern Illinois University (with majors in Philosophy, Political Science and Journalism)
NOTE: 1. Philosophy, 2. Political Science and 3. Journalism…three majors = two degrees…new math?
(from the Washington Monthly) Wallace-Wells quoting Markos: In November 2002, the Democrats lost seats in the midterm elections. Moulitsas had confidently predicted a big win, but in the aftermath of the disappointment, he became convinced that he understood the key to the party’s electoral failure. Republicans, he believed, had a “noise machine,”–a coalition of coordinated advocacy and opinion media outlets that pressured the mainstream media into reporting, and repeating, GOP-friendly spin. “The simplest fact about American politics,” he told me, “is that Republicans have a noise machine and we don’t.” Daily Kos, he decided, would become the Democratic noise machine, pressing the case against the Bush administration and the Iraq war in the strongest terms possible.
EDITORIAL COMMENT: Bwaa-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!!!
(from ABCNews) Markos: I was in the artillery. I was actually a fire direction specialist, which is kind of a headquarters position. You manage the logistical flow of the missile battery…It means that there’s three missile launchers. I was in a track vehicle. I was in charge of making sure that the vehicles were fueled — the launches were fueled, that the troops in the platoon were fed, that there was enough fuel, ammunition, that sort of thing. So making sure all the other details that make a platoon work.
OFFICIAL JOB DESCRIPTION: Skill Level 1 (Paygrades E1-E4). Records and transmits firing data using the fire direction system and voice radio. Operates fire direction systems, Platoon Leaders Digital Message Device, and Multiple Launch Rocket System communications equipment. Participates in gathering of operations and intelligence data. Plots using fire capability charts and friendly and enemy situation maps. Records ammunition expenditure, equipment serviceability, situation, firing point, target, and mission reports. Drives section vehicles, performs operator/crew maintenance on section vehicles, generators, and equipment.
Aids in collection and transmission of data. Installs, maintains, and operates radio wire communications, digital communications devices, and secure voice equipment.
SERIOUSLY: Anyone who has been in the service knows that a Specialist 4th class or PFC is never “in charge” of any thing. Markos likes to use words to inflate his own importance. Although he claims not to be into self promotion, his choice of words betray him and really give insight into his problem. Markos is a short 5’7” and he doesn’t like it. He was a soldier. Officers both commissioned and non-commissioned are “in charge;” the others simply follow orders!
Recently, at the YearlyKOS convention, Markos bragged that with his help, Lamont campaign, “kicked Lieberman out of the Democrat Party,” and also boasted, that “even the most powerful, entrenched forces can be dislodged by people-power.”
INTERESTING: Markos was strangely quiet when Lieberman went on to win as an Independent even after the massive smear campaign against him.
Markos has many other interests other than the pursuit of more money and more power. He plays the piano. You might say he trades 101 keys for 88. At least with the 88 he hits fewer sour notes. He also writes and publishes, and runs sports blogs (SportsBlogs, SB Nation, AthleticNation). In a recent ABCNews interview, he declined to specify his annual income, but proudly noted that he’d recently purchased a $150,000 Bosendorfer Grand piano, and purchased a home in Berkeley, CA.
(Discover The Networks): Zúñiga wields considerable influence within the Democratic Party. In addition to his work for the Dean campaign, he reportedly consults with staffers for Senator Harry Reid; confers with aides for Democratic Senators on a weekly basis; and worked with Democratic operatives to devise a strategy for the 2006 midterm elections. In 2004 the Democratic leadership invited him to speak to Senate Democrats about how they could better use the Internet as a fundraising tool.
This is the frightening part. People are listening to this man. In every interview his style of talking is mentioned. The rapid fire dumping of ideas. He tends to contradict himself, correct himself and be thinking out loud. His statements are often contradictory but so far he has been able to control his errors by choosing his words. He is a contradiction. The one thing that remains constant is his desire to elect Democrats. Markos announced in Oct 2006 that he is leaving KOS sometime in the next year in an interview with Ana Marie Cox (who just happens to work for the same publications his wife did) . It will be interesting to see if this occurs.
Don’t bet on it. He displays symptoms of the “short man” syndrome. He has tasted power and now hungers for it. His political acumen is a shell game. He should stick to playing the piano and composing because he is good at that.
Markos himself, said:
It’s scary to me that I could be the guy who gives advice, and someone takes it and flops…
Indeed. The fact that the Democratic leadership looks to you for advice and guidance speaks volumes on their grasp of reality.
Related articles (last updated 09/06/07):
Click here to read Part One, Part Two
In part one we discussed how there is a world movement to devalue the American currency, which is one front in the war on terrorism, and part of America’s struggle with globalism. In part two, we examined has China has been extending it’s financial sphere of influence worldwide. Now, we will explain China’s long term strategy, and what the strategy of the United States needs to be in order to protect the American economy.
It is important to understand how the money market works and that China has learned to control it. Financial policies within China are controlled by the People’s Bank of China:
The People’s Bank of China is to establish a monetary policy committee, whose responsibilities, composition and working procedures shall be prescribed by the State Council and shall be filed to the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress. The Monetary Policy Committee shall play an important role in macroeconomic management and in the making and adjustment of monetary policy.
(For more information about how the Chinese economy works, see SCID Working Paper No. 245 and IMF Working Paper No. 07/14)
Frank Shostak, of the Mises Institute explains:
What allows China’s central bank to sell US dollars at a subsidised rate is the massive stock of foreign reserves, which stood at US$875 billion in March this year versus US$169 billion in January 2001.
By directing its demand to dollar-priced commodities China has significantly contributed to their overvaluation versus other goods and services priced in US dollars. (Whilst China cannot print dollars and therefore lift prices of all the goods and services priced in US dollars, it can push prices of some goods relative to other goods).
If China were to appreciate its currency, as most experts advise, this, given loose money policy, will only reinforce demand for commodities from China. The recent hike in China’s interest rate is not the prelude for more interest rate increases.
According to Thomas P. Au, CFA, in his article, Why a Chinese Monetary Tightening Could be Followed by a Global Depression:
As the world’s largest holder of dollars, the People’s Bank of China is now the world’s de facto central bank. That’s a scary thought because China is a nouveau riche nation that is not ready for a principal role in global economy. But in 1929, the United States was similarly a parvenu, a country that held 50% of the world’s monetary reserves (in the form of gold) even though its central bank, the Federal Reserve Bank of the United States (or Fed for short), was all of sixteen years old; this adolescent outfit had been created only in 1913 after the passage of the 16th Amendment to the Constitution.
Moreover, China is facing the essentially same dilemma today as America did in 1929….Like a lot of other goods that Americans now import, the modern 1929 (or a somewhat better outcome), will have been “Made in China.”
Goods are not all that Americans are importing from China. Since the immigrations laws changed in the mid ’60’s, Chinese immigration has increased 10-fold. (Poston, 2006, p. 2)
China is a heavily regulated country. They lock up people for disagreeing with them. They send people who complain to “re-education camps”. Logically, why are they letting people emmigrate? Chinese immigrants now exert influence in more than 150 countries (Chinese Migration)
“The essential fact that migration is not just about numbers, but about control over wealth and ideas.”(Skeldon, Journal of International Affairs, Winter96, Vol. 49 Issue 2, p434, 22p)
While the United States’ attitude toward many other nations, including China in terms of immigration and trade has been quite accomodating, and laise fair, the Chinese strategy for financial world domination has been long-term and calculated. Country Studies’ China page on The Influence of Ideology explains:
According to Chinese leaders, China has pursued a long-term strategy is “definitely not swayed by expediency or anybody’s instigation or provocation.” In keeping with the view of Chinese foreign policy as constant and unvarying, Chinese pronouncements often describe their policy with words such as “always” and “never.”
So what does the United States need to do? Joshua Kurlantzick, of Foreign Policy in Focus, recently wrote, in Responding to China’s Charm Offensive:
The United States needs to comprehend exactly how China exerts influence. In part, this can be accomplished through efforts like Congress’s U.S.-China Engagement Act, which would create more American missions in China. But Washington also should take a page from its Cold War policy. During the Cold War, Washington had at least one person in each embassy who studied what the Soviets were doing on the ground in that country; today the United States should have one person in each embassy examining that nation’s bilateral relations with China — China’s aid policies, Chinese investment, China’s public diplomacy, Chinese leaders’ visits.
[…]
With a better understanding of China’s soft power, Washington can more systematically set clear limits — for itself, for China, and for other nations — and establish where it believes China’s soft power possibly threatens American interests.
[…]
To protect these interests, the United States must focus on rebuilding its soft power. Otherwise, it will face even more situations where citizens of democratic nations put pressure on their leaders not to cooperate with the United States. Indeed, unlike during the Cold War, as the world has become more democratic, America’s core interest — its national security — increasingly relies on wooing foreign publics.
As national elections are rapidly approaching, this is an issue of foreign policy which American voters need to address with their elected representatives. Do we really want another country controlling the U.S. economy?
Click here to read Part One, Part Three
In part one we discussed how there is a world movement to devalue the American currency, which is one front in the war on terrorism, and part of America’s struggle with globalism. Now, we want to look at some recent and current world events that point to who, indeed, is really pulling the purse strings in this battle.
Foreign Policy in Focus, in its March 9, 2007 article entitled China Provokes Debate in Africa, explains:
If not yet the biggest external player in Africa, China is certainly the most dynamic. It now accounts for 60% of oil exports from Sudan and 35% of those from Angola. Chinese firms mine copper in Zambia and Congo-Brazzaville, cobalt in the Congo, gold in South Africa, and uranium in Zimbabwe. Its ecological footprint is large, says Michelle Chan-Fishel of Friends of the Earth International, consuming as it does 46% of Gabon’s forest exports, 60% of timber exported from Equatorial Guinea, and 11% of timber exports from Cameroon.
Regarding Chinese influence in Africa, Steve Daley, of Spiked Online, explains how China is pulling Africa’s purse strings:
The potential rise of China as ‘lender of first resort’ fuels anxieties among G8 leaders that debt cancellation has unwittingly provided African elites with an escape mechanism from Western influence. Chinese lending and investment is widely seen as bypassing the rules that Western governments and institutions routinely impose on African countries. Furthermore, Ghana plans to issue bonds in the Eurobond market in July to raise upwards of $500million. Nigeria and other African countries look set to follow on the same path.
Africa is not the only place China is seeking financial domination. Back in 2000, Discerning the Times Digest and Newsbytes reported:
China has recently announced that it is establishing a First and Second Island Defense Lines within which it would consider its zone of influence. China has repeatedly defined that no nation can intervene in any way within its zone of influences. By announcing these lines of defense, China is establishing it as the power of this global region. (see map)
A little closer to home, Emily Schwartz Greco of the Institute for Policy Studies writes in, Chinese Influence on the Rise in Latin America:
In January and February [of 2005], Chinese Vice President Zeng Qinghong followed his boss’s visit with his own entourage of officials and top business executives. During these two aggressive trips to pursue investment in strategic areas, China stepped into potentially contentious turf when they signed an accord with Venezuela’s President Hugo Chávez for future Venezuelan oil and gas exploration. Zeng also offered Venezuela a $700 million credit line for new housing construction to help reduce Venezuelan poverty, ignoring U.S. whining over Chavez’s “authoritarianism.”
Also very close to home, at the end of 1999, the U.S. ceded control of “two ports at each end of the [Panama] Canal [to] Hong Kong’s Hutchison Whampoa company, run by Li Ka-shing, who is closely associated with the Beijing regime…[which gave] China’s Communist Party de facto control over the most strategic waterway in the West,” according to Thomas H. Moorer, former chairman of the [U.S.] Joint Chiefs of Staff.
So, we see China has been extending it’s financial sphere of influence worldwide. In part three, we will examine China’s long term strategy, and what the strategy of the United States needs to be in order to protect the American economy.
Click here to read Part Two, Part Three
The struggle for world (currency) domination is an important front in both the war on terrorism, and the American struggle with globalism. For some time now, we’ve been reading of the threats of the devalued American dollar to other world currencies. To eradicate America using military power would be suicide for any country that tried, but to destroy it economically would allow its enemies just to walk in and take over.
The Fars News Agency reported a couple of weeks ago,
Iran has been trying to persuade Asian buyers to make payments in non-US currencies to reduce its US dollar holdings, a move that is seen as a response to the dollar’s recent weakness and the pressure from Washington to limit Iran’s dealings with the US financial system.”
Ryan McGreal explained from Canada in RaiseTheHammer, that it’s not just Iran:
Iran is escalating its dollar counter-hegemony [via the petrodollar system] by reducing its dollar reserves and asking Japanese buyers to start paying for its oil in yen instead of dollars….Undermining dollar hegemony is only one aspect of this process. In a larger framework, Iran is building strategic alliances with Venezuela, China, Russia, and (to a lesser extent) India in a loose partnership that would engage the US not as a series of dependents but as a bloc with mutual interests and enough power to be taken seriously.
The Lyndon Larouch PAC reported that Russia wants a piece of the action:
Speaking July 21 to a summer camp meeting of the youth group Nashi, Russian First Deputy Premier Dmitri Medvedev said he thought the crisis of the U.S. dollar ‘may become general and global in nature.’ Interfax reported that Medvedev added, ‘A situation may arise where we, China, and some other Asian countries will talk about the emergence of a regional reserve currency. That may be the yuan, but it is in our interest that it be the ruble.’
Now, the Telegraph follows the money trail, and provides a little more insight as to where the battlefront for currency domination might actually be:
The Chinese government has begun a concerted campaign of economic threats against the United States, hinting that it may liquidate its vast holding of US treasuries if Washington imposes trade sanctions to force a yuan revaluation.
In part two and part three we will describe China’s role in world currency and how that affects the U.S. politics, then suggest what Americans need to do about it.
This is the third and final installment* of this series explaining why Conservatives need to become more active in the Web 2.0 environment. Part One discussed the generational gap, generally between liberals and conservatives online, while Part Two discussed the how this gap is creating an imbalance of information readily available online through a typical search engine query. We will finish this series by highlighting a few of the major figures supporting Web 2.0 financially, showing how their political leaning is further compounding the imbalance in the information war.
Online social networkers are familiar with Digg.com, the current top social bookmarking site, which has enjoyed unprecedented success in social networking, through its use of bookmarking and syndication, with over 15 million visitors per month.
Where does a site like Digg get funding? Who are its investors? Primarily Greylock Partners and the Omidyar Network. The Greylock Partner team is an international investor in primarily technology and medicine, with a special interest in Israel. The Omidyar Network “has invested in a variety of areas, including microfinance, participatory media, open innovation, open source and transparency in government.”
In addition to investing financially, the Omidyar Network is on mission: “Ultimately, we hope that people everywhere will constructively engage with each other to pursue what they care about most, resulting in a global society that is continually advancing social progress.”
If the name Omidyar rings a bell, it’s because Pierre Omidyar is the founder of e-Bay, a philanthropist who is #43 on Forbes’ list of billionaires, and a benefactor of a microfinance fund at Tufts University. Omidyar’s COO is Iqbal Paroo, a Shia Imami Nizari Ismaili, whose inter
ests involve complex healthcare and higher education. He has a long history of involvement with the Aga Khan Foundation (1977-2000), and “From 1977-1980, he served the Aga Khan Foundation as both director of commissioning for the initial phase of the Aga Khan University in Karachi, Pakistan,” which has “teaching and research programmes in Pakistan, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Afghanistan and the United Kingdom,” the university is billed as “an agent of change” and “an important force for pluralism.”
Omidyar and Paroo are champions for the left’s most sacred causes, and now their organization is one of the primary investors in the largest, most influential social-networking site on the web.
Where is the conservative counterpart?
*Special thanks to blogger 1389 for research assistance on this installment.
