Book: Jimmy Carter targeted by US and foreign assassins

Potential assassins have threatened the life of Jimmy Carter multiple times since he left the White House in 1981, making the one-term Georgian the most threatened former president in history, according to a new book about John F. Kennedy and his assassination 50 years ago.

In "The Kennedy Half Century: The Presidency, Assassination, and Lasting Legacy of John F. Kennedy," Carter told author Larry J. Sabato that he has faced at least three home-grown assassination attempts since returning to Georgia and is constantly warned by the U.S. Secret Service of personal threats during his frequent overseas travel.

"I have had two or three threats to my life after I came home from the White House," Carter said in the highly-anticipated book due out October 22. "When I go on an overseas trip almost invariably, I get a report from the Secret Service that where I'm going is very dangerous," he added in the book provided in advance to Secrets.

Carter also told Sabato: "Sometimes they [Secret Service] ask me not to go, and I go anyway. They and I both just laugh about it. So I have been more concerned about my safety in doing the Carter Center's business overseas than I ever was in the White House." Read more >>

Real March Unemployment Rate: 11.6%

Today, we got the laughable news that the unemployment rate declined even as those not in the labor force grew by over 660,000, while the total civilian non-institutional population grew by just 167,000 to 244,995, meaning the actual labor force declined by 496,000. Which is precisely the issue: fudging the labor force participation rate is how the Obama administration has managed to maintain the myth the economy has grown under his leadership for the past 4+ years.

It hasn't, and in fact if one renormalizes for the recent long-term average participation rate of 65.8%, one gets a very different number. How different? A difference that is now at a record compared to what is reported. As the chart below shows, a "renormalization" process indicates a massive and record 4% difference between the reported unemployment rate of 7.6%, and what the real unemployment rate is assuming normal growth of the labor force, which in March was 11.6%, up from 11.3% in February, and the highest since August 2012 when it was 11.7%. More importantly, as the real unemployment chart shows, the economy has not improved by one bit since 2009! Read more >>

White House legalizing MARTIAL LAW

Image via Wikipedia

Chuck Baldwin
Council Of Governors Takes Shape

Regular readers of this column will doubtless recall my recent column in which I reported on the new Council of Governors (CG) that President Barack Obama has created. See my column at:

http://www.chuckbaldwinlive.com/c2010/cbarchive_20100119.html

Well, Obama’s CG is quickly beginning to take shape. According to the Associated Press (AP), “President Barack Obama has selected Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon to serve on an advisory council for defense and national security issues.

“Nixon was one of 10 governors named Thursday [February 4, 2009] by Obama to the newly created Council of Governors.”

The 10 governors (and one of them is not even a State governor) selected by Obama are:

*Governor James Douglas (R-Vermont) *Co-chair
*Governor Chris Gregoire (D-Washington) *Co-chair
Governor Brad Henry (D-Oklahoma)
Governor Jay Nixon (D-Missouri)
Governor Martin O’Malley (D-Maryland)
Governor Janice Brewer (R-Arizona)
Governor Bob McDonnell (R-Virginia)
Governor Michael Rounds (R-South Dakota)
Governor Beverly Perdue (D-North Carolina)
Governor Luis G. Fortuno (R-Puerto Rico)

As I have already written, the creation of a CG should be of serious concern to all liberty loving Americans. That more of us are not as concerned as we should be can be traced to the mistaken belief that the American people have nothing to fear from an overreaching federal government. This is pure folly! As I have said many times, we have far more to fear from Washington, D.C., than from Iran, Iraq, North Korea, or any other potential terrorist state. It is Washington, D.C.,–and Washington, D.C., alone–that has the power, opportunity, and propensity to squash our freedom and sell us into tyranny.

As Kurt Nimmo reports, “In other words, with the stroke of a pen, Obama significantly increased the ongoing effort to federalize the states and take control of the National Guard in violation of the now more or less moribund Posse Comitatus Act. Posse Comitatus was effectively annulled by the 2006 John Warner National Defense Authorization Act. The act provides the president with power to declare martial law under revisions to the Insurrection Act and take charge of United States National Guard troops without state governor authorization. Parts of the act were repealed in 2008.”

See the report at Infowars.com:

http://tinyurl.com/council-gov-nixon

What most Americans fail to realize (thanks to a national propaganda press corps that refuses to reveal the conspiratorial machinations of America’s ruling class, which, by and large, is totally disconnected from–or unaccountable to–elected officeholders: especially those in Congress) is that the subdivision of the United States into a 10-region country (thereby minimizing or even negating the sovereignty and authority of the 50 independent and autonomous states) goes all the way back to the Richard Nixon administration.

In response to pressure from the United Nations, President Richard Nixon issued Executive Order #11647 on February 10, 1972, which carved up the United States into 10 “standard Federal regions.”

For the doubters out there, Wikipedia has a rather detailed web page mentioning the federal 10-region breakdown of the United States.

See the Wikipedia entry at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_regions_of_the_United_States

See the map at:

http://tinyurl.com/US-std-fed-regions-map

Still not convinced? Try a casual web search of the 10 US regions and you will quickly discover that each major federal agency, such as the EPA, OSHA, DOT, FEMA, etc., has their agency already divided into these 10 regions. As an example, here is the official district map for FEMA:

http://www.fema.gov/about/contact/regions.shtm

Commenting on the creation of the 10 “super” regions initiated by President Nixon, CuttingEdge.org director David Bay very astutely said, “This regional system is also apparently a military structure.” This is a very insightful observation, because I’m sure this was said long before President Obama took office, yet, that is exactly what his CG accomplishes. It grants federal executive power to these 10 governors–with the specific responsibility of providing leadership and direction to the National Guard and related homeland military activities. And is it any coincidence that the number of governors appointed to this new CG is exactly 10? Even more telling is the fact that the 10 governors come from each US region (the governor of Puerto Rico represents Region 2), except for Region 5, and guess what? Region 5 is President Obama’s region!

Now, get this: the only region that has two governors represented on the CG (making up for Region 5’s lack of a representative–who will be Obama himself, no doubt) is Region 3. And put this in your pipe and smoke it: the two governors from Region 3 are from Maryland and Virginia, which are the two states that border Washington, D.C. But all of this is mere coincidence, right?

See the map on the EPA web site at:

http://www.epa.gov/region4/landrevitalization/images/us-regions.gif

So, here is the list of the Council of Governors, as it coincides with the respective 10 regions. If you know anything about what is going on, you should easily be able to see the logic of how and why these governors were selected. Obviously, the two basic criteria would be 1) The location of necessary government infrastructure, facilities, personnel, etc., combined with 2) The compliant attitude and overall disposition of the governor selected. Here is how it looks:

Region 1: Governor Douglas of Vermont
Region 2: Governor Fortuno of Puerto Rico
Region 3: Governor O’Malley of Maryland and Governor McDonnell of Virginia.
These are necessary, as these are the two border states of Washington, D.C.
Region 4: Governor Perdue of North Carolina
Region 5: President Barack Obama of Illinois
Region 6: Governor Henry of Oklahoma
Region 7: Governor Nixon of Missouri
Region 8: Governor Rounds of South Dakota
Region 9: Governor Brewer of Arizona
Region 10: Governor Gregoire of Washington State

And while it is true that President Jimmy Carter revoked President Nixon’s “Federal Regional Council” (what Nixon’s Executive Order created in 1972) in 1979, the concept never died. It was merely incorporated into other Executive Orders. And there can be no question that President Obama’s CG certainly builds on Nixon’s initial “Regional Council” model.

Neither is it a coincidence that Missouri Governor Jay Nixon is included in the list of 10 governors appointed to the CG. Why? Does anyone remember the MIAC flap in the State of Missouri last year? I sure do, because I (along with Ron Paul and Bob Barr) was listed in the MIAC report as being a potential dangerous militia member or terrorist. And anyone who supported or voted for the three of us was similarly maligned in the MIAC report. Plus, the report also targeted people who opposed any of the following as being potential dangerous militia members:

The New World Order
The United Nations
Gun Control
The violation of Posse Comitatus
The Federal Reserve
The Income Tax
The Ammunition Accountability Act
A possible Constitutional Convention (Con Con)
The North American Union
Universal Service Program
Radio Frequency Identification (RFID)
Abortion on demand
Illegal immigration

Remember, this was an official Missouri State Police report that was distributed to all Missouri State law enforcement officers. And Governor Jay Nixon authorized and strongly defended the MIAC report!

Later, of course, Governor Nixon and other State leaders were forced to withdraw the report, due to immense public pressure from both the citizens of Missouri and angry Americans all across the country.

I have a web page set aside with all the pertinent information regarding the MIAC fiasco, including the most recent updates, at:

http://www.chuckbaldwinlive.com/MIACreport.html

Plus, here are my previous 3 columns regarding the MIAC report:

http://www.chuckbaldwinlive.com/c2009/cbarchive_20090317.html

http://www.chuckbaldwinlive.com/c2009/cbarchive_20090324.html

http://www.chuckbaldwinlive.com/c2009/cbarchive_20090327.html

Now we learn that President Obama has appointed this very same Governor Jay Nixon to the newly formed Council of Governors. Doubtless, Nixon’s support for the MIAC report brought him into the good graces of this Marxist President, who, in his inaugural address, pledged to “remake America.” Without a doubt, the newly established Council of Governors is helping Obama do just that.

Of course, the big question is not, Is America being “remade”? It most certainly is–and it started long before Obama moved into the White House. The question is, Will this “remade” America be something we can live with?

Obama headed for the most spectacularly failed presidency since Woodrow Wilson

Image by jmtimages via Flickr

Geoffrey P. Hunt
Barack Obama is on track to have the most spectacularly failed presidency since Woodrow Wilson. In the modern era, we've seen several failed presidencies--led by Jimmy Carter and LBJ. Failed presidents have one strong common trait-- they are repudiated, in the vernacular, spat out. Of course, LBJ wisely took the exit ramp early, avoiding a shove into oncoming traffic by his own party. Richard Nixon indeed resigned in disgrace, yet his reputation as a statesman has been partially restored by his triumphant overture to China 20.

But, Barack Obama is failing. Failing big. Failing fast. And failing everywhere: foreign policy, domestic initiatives, and most importantly, in forging connections with the American people. The incomparable Dorothy Rabinowitz in the Wall Street Journal put her finger on it: He is failing because he has no understanding of the American people, and may indeed loathe them. Fred Barnes of the Weekly Standard says he is failing because he has lost control of his message, and is overexposed. Clarice Feldman of American Thinker produced a dispositive commentary showing that Obama is failing because fundamentally he is neither smart nor articulate; his intellectual dishonesty is conspicuous by its audacity and lack of shame.

But, there is something more seriously wrong: How could a new president riding in on a wave of unprecedented promise and goodwill have forfeited his tenure and become a lame duck in six months? His poll ratings are in free fall. In generic balloting, the Republicans have now seized a five point advantage. This truly is unbelievable. What's going on?

No narrative. Obama doesn't have a narrative. No, not a narrative about himself. He has a self-narrative, much of it fabricated, cleverly disguised or written by someone else. But this self-narrative is isolated and doesn't connect with us. He doesn't have an American narrative that draws upon the rest of us. All successful presidents have a narrative about the American character that intersects with their own where they display a command of history and reveal an authenticity at the core of their personality that resonates in a positive endearing way with the majority of Americans. We admire those presidents whose narratives not only touch our own, but who seem stronger, wiser, and smarter than we are. Presidents we admire are aspirational peers, even those whose politics don't align exactly with our own: Teddy Roosevelt, FDR, Harry Truman, Ike, and Reagan.

But not this president. It's not so much that he's a phony, knows nothing about economics, and is historically illiterate and woefully small minded for the size of the task--all contributory of course. It's that he's not one of us. And whatever he is, his profile is fuzzy and devoid of content, like a cardboard cutout made from delaminated corrugated paper. Moreover, he doesn't command our respect and is unable to appeal to our own common sense. His notions of right and wrong are repugnant and how things work just don't add up. They are not existential. His descriptions of the world we live in don't make sense and don't correspond with our experience.

In the meantime, while we've been struggling to take a measurement of this man, he's dissed just about every one of us--financiers, energy producers, banks, insurance executives, police officers, doctors, nurses, hospital administrators, post office workers, and anybody else who has a non-green job. Expect Obama to lament at his last press conference in 2012: "For those of you I offended, I apologize. For those of you who were not offended, you just didn't give me enough time; if only I'd had a second term, I could have offended you too."

Mercifully, the Founders at the Constitutional Convention in 1787 devised a useful remedy for such a desperate state--staggered terms for both houses of the legislature and the executive. An equally abominable Congress can get voted out next year. With a new Congress, there's always hope of legislative gridlock until we vote for president again two short years after that.

Yes, small presidents do fail, Barack Obama among them. The coyotes howl but the wagon train keeps rolling along.

Margaret Thatcher: "The trouble with Socialism is, sooner or later you run out of other people's money."

"When you subsidize poverty and failure, you get more of both." - James Dale Davidson, National Taxpayers Union

"The more corrupt the state, the more it legislates." - Tacitus

"A Liberal is a person who will give away everything he doesn't own." - Unknown

Brzezinski: U.S. Should Attack Israeli Jets if They Attack Iran

Jake Tapper with ABC News writes:

The national security adviser for former President Jimmy Carter, Zbigniew Brzezinski, gave an interview to The Daily Beast in which he suggested President Obama should make it clear to Israel that if they attempt to attack Iran's nuclear weapons sites the U.S. Air Force will stop them.

"We are not exactly impotent little babies," Brzezinski said. "They have to fly over our airspace in Iraq. Are we just going to sit there and watch? ... We have to be serious about denying them that right. That means a denial where you aren’t just saying it. If they fly over, you go up and confront them. They have the choice of turning back or not. No one wishes for this but it could be a 'Liberty' in reverse."

Russian President Dmitriy Medvedev told CNN that Israeli President Shimon Peres assured him that Israel would not attack Iran.

"This is the worst thing that one can imagine," Medvedev said. "What would happen afterwards? A humanitarian catastrophe, a huge number of refugees. And Iran would want revenge, and not only over Israel, but over other countries as well. The events in the region would become completely unpredictable. I think the scope of such a disaster would not be comparable to anything. Therefore, before taking the decision to launch any attacks, you need to think the situation through. It would be the most irrational way to deal with the situation. But my Israeli colleagues told me they do not plan to do that. And I trust them.`