Paul Craig Roberts

The new president of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro, is cast in Chavez’s mold. On May 4, he called US president Obama the “grand chief of devils.”

Obama, who has betrayed democracy in America, unleashing execution on American citizens without due process of law and war without the consent of Congress, provoked Maduro’s response by suggesting that Maduro’s newly elected government might be fraudulent. Obviously, Obama is piqued that the millions of dollars his administration spent trying to elect an American puppet instead of Maduro failed to do the job.

If anyone has accurately summed up Washington, it is the Venezuelans.

Who can forget Chevez standing at the podium of the UN General Assembly in New York City speaking of George W. Bush? Quoting from memory: “Right here, yesterday, at this very podium stood Satan himself, speaking as if he owned the world. You can still smell the sulphur.”

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by Michael Collins

The citizens of this country are in no mood to see U.S. military involvement in Syria. Of course, it has already begun. Consultation, secret assistance, and money given for "communications" (which allows other money for weapons) all contribute to the military effort. For months, Hillary Clinton demanded that Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad leave the country. He hasn't cooperated. What does the toughest guy on the block do when you won't cooperate?

It's time for Syria to take a serious beat down. Others need to see how things are done. This will make things much easier when Hillary is (s)elected in 2016. She can simply issue edicts and mandates from the White House and sovereign nations will obey without question. The job of president is stressful enough. Maximum Leader Hillary won't need push back from any quarter, including domestic dissent. (Is there a drone in your future?)

There's just one problem. Citizens are not cooperating. Look at these polling numbers from Reuters-Ipsos (May 1). A huge majority opposes U.S. military involvement when asked a general question - 10% favor - 61% opposed. When given the choice of a yes for involvement if the Syrian government uses chemical weapons, there is still a majority opposed to intervention - 27% favor - 44% opposed.

But we know how this will work out.

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Michael Collins
The president and the mainstream media, along with the capital in-crowd, celebrate their wonderfulness each year at the White House Correspondents Association Dinner. The format consists of an invited comedian who pokes fun at the president and press with some shtick from the current leader of the free world. The event is by invitation only, no common folk allowed.

After watching the dinner on C-Span, I have just one question. What's so funny Mr. President?

The president will never be asked that question. But if just one of those White House correspondents hosting the event had the courage, the answer would be in two parts.

How can the president and the press get together and yuck it up when we're in such a dreadful state of affairs. The nation is in an economic dead calm. Millions of jobs left the country in the past decade, probably for good. Many more jobs were lost due to the ongoing recession. Not many were created to take their place, unless we count minimum wage jobs at Walmart (with benefits from Medicaid).

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Eric Zuesse

The American public are confused, and President Obama doesn't even try to persuade them of his viewpoint; he instead negotiates with Republicans in order to produce a mythical "compromise," which lies in some unseen place at the bottom of the deep ideological canyon that separates the two Parties, someplace between the positions that he ran on and the positions at the opposite side, which is far away and without any bridge or airplane to reach it.

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Michael Collins
Not many people like the messes Congress makes but everybody should see how they're made.

This article takes a close look at the legislation just passed by Congress and signed by President Obama allowing the Secretary of Agriculture to issue executive orders that bypass regulations, safety, and science for the purpose of speeding genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and genetically engineered seeds (GE) and crops to market. The way the law is written, Secretary Tom Vilsack can lift restrictions on GMOs for a set period and, it appears, do so without hindrance from the courts.

Are genetically modified organisms (GMOs), seeds, and crops safe for human consumption? How has the scientific testing of these seeds been conducted and what are the results? Is there undue influence of the government and legislative process to fast track the delivery of GMOs to market? Who benefits from that influence, if it is present, and how are the benefits derived?

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Michael Collins
(Washington, DC 3/22) Yesterday we found out that President Barack Obama put Medicare and Social Security in the budget deal mix; timely but not thoughtful. What a profile in cowardice. Maybe not. Let's give him the benefit of the doubt and assume that cutting these two programs is part of the Obama Money Party agenda. That's the elegant explanation and explained below.

Here's what Bloomberg reported (thanks to Lauren Hallahan's list for the tip):

"President Barack Obama told Senate Democrats that they should be open to changes in entitlement programs to achieve a long-term budget deal, according to several lawmakers who attended a meeting with him on Capitol Hill today." Bloomberg, March 21

Social Security does not contribute to the deficit. In fact, without the annual appropriation of Social Security funds , cash flow for the government would experience serious cash flow prolems. Each year, Treasury takes Social Security tax revenues to fund the general budget. Treasury leaves an IOU promising to repay beneficiaries down the road. The promise is guaranteed by the "full faith and credit of the United States of America." Who would take the word of the (s)elected "crooks and liars" given all the betrayals we see on a regular basis?

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By Michael Collins

General Karl W. Eikenberry was right in November 2009 when he urged less support for an Afghanistan ruled by President Hamid Karzai. President Obama and Generals Stanley McChrystal and David Petraeus all wanted a surge. The policy failed. The general won't say it but he told them so in a second opinion solicited by Obama. Look at the facts. (Image)

The Bush administration hand-picked Hamid Karzai to be the first ruler of Afghanistan. Following the axiom, nothing good comes out of the Bush administration; is it any surprise that Karzai oscillated between less than effective and a near disaster? Lately, he's gone nonlinear.

On February 25, Karzai ordered United States Special Forces out of three provinces claiming that Afghan troops tied to the U.S. command were torturing their fellow citizens. As U.S. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel arrived in Kabul on March 11, Karzai accused the U.S. of "colluding with the Taliban." He added the odd notion that the Taliban sought a prolonged U.S. presence in Afghanistan.

Retired Army colonel David Maxwell of Georgetown University remarked: “I cannot see how we could work with such an apparently delusional leader much longer, but unfortunately I do not know if we have any other good options.” Bloomberg, Mar 11

It didn't have to be this way.

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Michael Collins

May you have incompetent, offensive enemies.

President Obama and the congressional Democrats have the luck of the Irish, truly. They've already won the Battle of the Fiscal Cliff due to the good judgment of the people. That judgement takes facts into consideration. The sequestration process is a blunt instrument wielded by a Frankenstein process that accounts for nothing sensible in terms of solving the main concern of the public; the seriously flawed, destructive economic cycle that is dragging us to a place nobody sensible wants to go. The PEW survey to the left shows that a majority think the economy in general (60%) and the military in particular (55%) will suffer due to this pathetic process of histrionic policy making.

That puts the wisdom of the people in line with the judgement of over 95% of leading economists surveyed recently who say that "growth is likely to be negatively affected by the automatic federal spending cuts that are scheduled to kick in Friday." It makes sense. The economy is weak, unemployment, all those out of work seeking work, is around 22%, and many citizens are one paycheck away from their own fiscal cliff.

Here are some highly revealing polls and headlines from around the country late Wednesday, early today.

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