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Thursday, February 6, 2014
FULL ARTICLE… Benjamin Fulford Weekly 2-4-14…”Expect the fireworks to begin after the Lunar New Year’s celebrations end”
Wednesday, February 5, 2014
Vince Foster and Travelgate - 18 Years Later and Nothing Has Changed
Wed Jul 20, 2011 at 01:00 PM PDT
Vince Foster and Travelgate - 18 Years Later and Nothing Has Changed
Vince Foster died 18 years ago today, and the GOP is still employing the
same dirty tricks it used back then.
In his autobiography My Life, Bill Clinton wrote of his childhood friend
Vince Foster:
And I used to play in the backyard with a boy whose yard adjoined mine.
He lived with two beautiful sisters in a bigger, nicer house than ours.
We used to sit on the grass for hours, throwing his knife in the ground
and learning to make it stick. His name was Vince Foster. He was kind to
me and never lorded it over me the way so many older boys did with
younger ones. He grew up to be a tall, handsome, wise, good man. He
became a great lawyer, a strong supporter early in my career, and
Hillary's best friend at the Rose Law Firm. Our families socialized in
Little Rock, mostly at his house, where his wife, Lisa, taught Chelsea
to swim. He came to the White House with us, and was a voice of calm and
reason in those crazy early months.
Hillary Clinton recalls him as well in her autobiography, Living History:
Vince was one of the best lawyers I've ever known and one of the best
friends I've ever had. If you remember Gregory Peck's performance as
Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird, you can picture Vince. He
actually looked the part, and his manner was similar: steady, courtly,
sharp but understated, the sort of person you would want around in times
of trouble.
"Those crazy early months" is a bit of an understatement. Back in 1993,
David Shaw of the Los Angeles Times wrote "but perhaps never in our
nation's history--certainly not in its recent history--has a President so
early in his term been subjected to a greater barrage of negative media
coverage than Bill Clinton endured in his first 239 days in office" and
quotes an earlier Washington Post story: "The pundits have stuck a fork in
this Administration and decided it's very nearly done." In this time of
permanent Republican obstructionism and the Teabagger Days of Rage, it’s
easy to forget how relentless and unprecedented the assaults on the Clinton
administration were, and how they created the template for what’s happening
to the Obama administration.
One of the opening salvos was the Travelgate scandal, which seems pretty
small potatoes, and in retrospect astonishing in how much coverage this
story, which affected a whopping seven federal employees, received in the
press.
The White House Travel Office is responsible for making travel arrangements
for the members of the media who follow the President around, then bills the
media organizations accordingly. For years, it had been in a state of
disarray; as far back as the Reagan administration financial misdeeds were
alleged but nothing had been done. Vince Foster ordered an audit by the
firm KPMG Peat Marwick. The firm investigated but was unable to actually
do an audit since the Travel Office barely had anything that you would
recognize as bookkeeping and piled a decade’s worth of records in the
closet. A KPMG representative called it an "ungodly mess". There was no
competitive bidding and the Office’s director, Billy Dale, relied on a
single charter company. Office money was going in and out of his personal
bank account and some five figures were unaccounted for. The Clinton
administration asked the FBI to investigate. What happened next seems
perfectly obvious and reasonable. New presidential administrations
typically clean house (the Obama administration is still trying to get
positions filled!) and any organization or business in any field would also
typically clean house when confronted with such mismanagement. So the seven
employees of the White House Travel Office were all fired.
Unfortunately, what should have been clear cut was muddied by the
involvement of two Clinton supporters in the travel business who agitated
for reorganization of the travel office: Catherine Cornelius, a distant
cousin of Bill Clinton whose World Wide Travel briefly took over the Travel
Office, and Harry Thomason, a Clinton friend and supporter who was a
partner in the air charter company TRM. This gave the GOP the opportunity
to create a scandal out of this, which they took with relish. But for this
to be a scandal you have to first insist that no person or business ever
lobby the government for personal gain. You might think that’s a positive
goal,but that goal certainly isn't what motivated the GOP, who expertly and
constantly indulge that practice. (One of many examples: John Boehner
handing out checks from tobacco lobbyists on the floor of the House of
Representatives.) The GOP generally claims to be in favor of eliminating
government waste and financial impropriety and for opening up government
operations to competitive bidding. All of which was achieved by the Clinton
administration in this case. Nothing was rigged as the winning bidder was
American Express Travel Services. So what was an outcome that should have
been pleasing to the GOP instead prompted them to move in for the kill. This
was aided and abetted by the press, who narcissistically over-covers any
story having to do with themselves. Some members of the press also had a
personal fondness for some of the fired employees (prominent ABC anchor Sam
Donaldson and other journalists even testified as character witnesses at
Billy Dale’s trial) and enjoyed perks provided by the Travel Office like
primo accommodations and how easy they made it to bring back stuff through
customs. David Shaw highlighted an example illustrating how obsessed the
press became with this story:
At one briefing, they asked 169 questions about the travel office firings.
Neither Bosnia nor the President's deficit-reduction package, both major
news stories at the time, received a fraction of that attention that day.
Out in front with knives drawn was the Wall Street Journal's editorial page.
Even before Rupert Murdoch bought the paper, the editorial pages of the WSJ
served as a prototype for Fox News-style character assassination. They
personally targeted Foster in a series of editorials in the summer of 1993,
starting with "Who is Vincent Foster?", a two column whine, long on
text but short on substance, which consisted of mostly sinister
insinuations and snide complaints that he didn't jump to attention every
time the newspaper called him on the phone.
Targeting lone individuals for character assassination is one of the most
distasteful aspects of what we call today, thanks to former right-wing
character assassin David Brock, the right-wing noise machine. There’s plenty
of examples: pro-lifers stalking and harassing (and occasionally quite
literally assassinating) doctors who provide abortions, twelve year old
Graeme Frost and the obsession with his parents’ counter tops, Bernard
Goldberg singling out some obscure teacher for an obscure book about
teaching children she wrote and holding her up as one of the 100 People Who
Are Screwing Up America in a bestselling polemic. These people don’t have
large media platforms and can’t fight back effectively. Even supposedly
powerful presidential appointees like Van Jones, hamstringed in what they
can say by their positions and lacking access to a 24-hour news channel, are
relatively powerless in the face of this. Vince Foster was a powerful
corporate lawyer with decades of experience, but even he was unprepared for
this relentless hate machine. He was also suffering from depression and
anxiety; he started taking Trazadone, but too late for it to be effective.
He wrote a letter, which was later found torn into 27 pieces in his
briefcase:
I made mistakes from ignorance, inexperience and overworkI did not knowingly violate any law or standard of conduct
No one in The White House, to my knowledge, violated any law or standard
of conduct, including any action in the travel office. There was no
intent to benefit any individual or specific group
The FBI lied in their report to the AG
The press is covering up the illegal benefits they received from the
travel staff
The GOP has lied and misrepresented its knowledge and role and covered
up a prior investigation
The Ushers Office plotted to have excessive costs incurred, taking
advantage of Kaki and HRC
The public will never believe the innocence of the Clintons and their
loyal staff
The WSJ editors lie without consequence
I was not meant for the job or the spotlight of public life in
Washington. Here ruining people is considered sport.
On July 20, 1993, Vince Foster shot himself in Fort Marcy Park. Even after
his deaths the attacks continued, and hacks like Al D'Amato (once called
"The Worst Senator in America" by Playboy) and Dan Burton, who had no
concern for Foster as a person, claimed that his suicide was "suspicious"
and used it as a pretext to conduct bizarre investigations into the Clinton
administration. Burton even shot a pumpkin or watermelon in his backyard to
prove some kind of point about Foster's death. ("It was nutty," Bill
Clinton later wrote. "I could never figure out what Burton was trying to
prove.") Investigations by the United States Park Police, the Department
of Justice, the FBI, the United States Congress, Independent Counsel Robert
B. Fiske, and Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr (who obviously was not
inclined to be friendly to the Clinton administration) all concluded that
Foster committed suicide, but that didn't shut up anyone on the right. Even
today, conspiracy theorists who couldn't care less about Foster are
manipulating his tragic death for their own ends.
same dirty tricks it used back then.
And I used to play in the backyard with a boy whose yard adjoined mine.
He lived with two beautiful sisters in a bigger, nicer house than ours.
We used to sit on the grass for hours, throwing his knife in the ground
and learning to make it stick. His name was Vince Foster. He was kind to
me and never lorded it over me the way so many older boys did with
younger ones. He grew up to be a tall, handsome, wise, good man. He
became a great lawyer, a strong supporter early in my career, and
Hillary's best friend at the Rose Law Firm. Our families socialized in
Little Rock, mostly at his house, where his wife, Lisa, taught Chelsea
to swim. He came to the White House with us, and was a voice of calm and
reason in those crazy early months.
Vince was one of the best lawyers I've ever known and one of the best
friends I've ever had. If you remember Gregory Peck's performance as
Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird, you can picture Vince. He
actually looked the part, and his manner was similar: steady, courtly,
sharp but understated, the sort of person you would want around in times
of trouble.
No one in The White House, to my knowledge, violated any law or standard
of conduct, including any action in the travel office. There was no
intent to benefit any individual or specific group
The FBI lied in their report to the AG
The press is covering up the illegal benefits they received from the
travel staff
The GOP has lied and misrepresented its knowledge and role and covered
up a prior investigation
The Ushers Office plotted to have excessive costs incurred, taking
advantage of Kaki and HRC
The public will never believe the innocence of the Clintons and their
loyal staff
The WSJ editors lie without consequence
I was not meant for the job or the spotlight of public life in
Washington. Here ruining people is considered sport.
Originally posted to zagrobelny on Wed Jul 20, 2011 at 01:00 PM PDT.
Also republished by Community Spotlight.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/
CBI Is Changing
Conference of the Iraqi Bank in Dubai (video) IT'S IN ARABIC BUT I WOULD LIKE YOU TO LISTEN TO 38 MINUTE MARK IT IS IN ENGLISH.SIGNIFICANT CHANGE IS COMING TO THE CBI.
http://www.alsharqiya.com/?p=
http://www.alsharqiya.com/?p=
Direct Intel
PER CONVERSATION WITH AGENCY CONTACT, THE BAD GUYS ARE GOING DOWN, LOOK FOR MORE FOREX TRADERS TO BE FIRED AND RESIGNING VIA THE GLOBAL FX PROBES (CURRENCY MANIPULATION) AT MORE LARGE BANKS. ADDITIONALLY, MANY OF MEMBERS OF CONGRESS WHO WILL NOT BE RETURNING ARE TIED TO THE FX PROBES DIRECTLY & INDIRECTLY IN ONE WAY OR ANOTHER.
IF ALL GOES AS PLANNED THE GENERAL PUBLIC SHOULD EXCHANGE WITHIN THE NEXT 24-48 HOURS AND THIS IS TIED DIRECTLY TO IRAQ GOING INTERNATIONAL & IT IS NOT TIED TO THE PRIVATE PLACEMENT CONTRACT & AGREEMENT OF THE UNITED STATES WITH THE IRAQI DINAR CURRENCY.
IF ALL GOES AS PLANNED THE GENERAL PUBLIC SHOULD EXCHANGE WITHIN THE NEXT 24-48 HOURS AND THIS IS TIED DIRECTLY TO IRAQ GOING INTERNATIONAL & IT IS NOT TIED TO THE PRIVATE PLACEMENT CONTRACT & AGREEMENT OF THE UNITED STATES WITH THE IRAQI DINAR CURRENCY.
Tony
Tony
Rates of 3.77 are showing on the executive forex boards. We have four confirmations that they are live and just a matter of time before they come out. Why are they showing up there and why lower than what we heard they were going to be? The answer is because the administration isn't doing it. That is something Iraq is doing on their own. If Iraq pushes out their rate internationally, we will be able to exchange at that rate but we will not get the contract rates. So, we would prefer for this to be released in the US now. [Have you gotten any rates on the dong?] Yes, as of the a.m. $.71. I am looking for this to happen this week, the question is, is our country gonna do the right thing with the contract rate to us.
Travelgate
Travelgate
- Travelgate Articles
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The topic Travelgate is discussed in the following articles:
Clinton
-
Hillary was criticized on other matters as well, including her role in the firing of seven staff members from the White House travel office (“Travelgate”) and her involvement in legal maneuvering by the White House during the Whitewater investigation. As the 1996 election approached, she was less visible and played a more traditional role as first lady. Her first book, ...
Starr
-
...into the suicide of White House counsel Vincent Foster, a longtime friend of the Clintons, but the matter was eventually closed. He subsequently was directed to investigate what came to be known asTravelgate, involving the firing of longtime White House workers, and Filegate, pertaining to FBI files on Republicans that were found in the White House. In 1998, however, allegations of an affair...
Notations dealing with 'Travelgate
Vince Foster committed suicide July 20, 1993. In the spring and early summer of that year 'Travelgate' erupted. It was one of a series of problems and 'scandals' Foster was confronting - not only in his role as deputy White House counsel but - as in the case of Whitewater - in his role as personal lawyer for the Clintons. It all took a toll on Foster, and his wife and friends sensed his gathering despair.
Before clicking here for the notations from Foster's journal, the following brief background on Travelgate is helpful in understanding the notations:
Harry Thomason, a close friend of the Clintons, and Thomason's partner Darnell Martens, had helped the Clinton campaign by providing charter air service. After the election, Harry was everywhere in and around the White House, working on improving the First Couple's image. His most disastrous meddling came when his partner Darnell told Harry he'd heard rumors that the White House Travel Office was corrupt, and worse, disloyal to the First Family. (This happened in the time frame of the leaks about marital discord in the White House and everyone was ultra sensitive.) So Harry began pressing Hillary, telling her that the travel office people were "a bunch of crooks" and that "we've got to get our people in there."
Hillary, in turn, pressed Vince Foster and David Watkins (who in her opinion were already failing her because of leaks, the secret service, etc,). Quickly, the whole messy and silly 'Travelgate' episode was in full swing.
The FBI was called in. A young cousin of Clinton's appointed herself undercover agent in the Travel Office and started sneaking memos away in the dark of night. Harry Thomason kept asking Watkins what was being done. Hillary kept asking Vince Foster what was being done. The FBI showed a disconcerting willingness to help find some evidence of wrongdoing (though none of them had any solid basis for suspicion except for those 'rumors.')
In the end, seven staffers in the Travel Office were fired. But the staffers had pals in the press who wrote their story and suddenly Congress is talking about an investigation into the firing.
Suddenly, the White House (it's now May-June-July 1993) is on the defensive, trying to explain itself. At a press conference, George Stephanoupolos says the FBI had evidence the travel office people were crooks - an assertion that the FBI disputes.
And then came the inevitable self-inquiry, led by White House lawyer John Podesta, which was aimed at pointing the finger some place besides at Hillary and her meddling friend, Harry Thomason. In the end, David Watkins and, to a degree Vince Foster got the blame.
All of this made Foster quite sick. He was integrally involved in Travelgate, having been consulted by Watkins because he was a White House lawyer. He'd overseen the 'investigation' of the seven Travel Office employees (though he'd always been cautious about acting precipitously). He'd participated in meetings with the FBI. And most importantly, he'd discussed the problem with Hillary - who had impatiently asked him "what's being done" about those crooked, disloyal Travel Office people.
Over the course of several weeks, Foster, in his careful, lawyerly, increasingly distressed fashion, laid out his case in a private chronology he kept in a spiral notebook. He'd write down his memory of events, consult his calendar, add things here and there. And then, he'd write it all down again, over and over, narrowing, broadening, editing - obsessing, in other words. He plainly feared embarrassment and public humiliation in a Congressional hearing that he believed was coming. Through it all, he was clearly motivated by his pointed intention to protect HRC - the Client.
Read the notations from his journal:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/arkansas/etc/foster.html
NEIL KEENAN UPDATE: THE CABAL IS IN CHECK!!! CHECKMATE COMING!
The Rumor Mill News Reading Room
NEIL KEENAN UPDATE: THE CABAL IS IN CHECK!!! CHECKMATE COMING!
Posted By: Lymerick [Send E-Mail]
Date: Wednesday, 5-Feb-2014 19:15:01
Date: Wednesday, 5-Feb-2014 19:15:01
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I received this write up from an HOA (POA, COA, etc.) homeowner advocate from Florida and thought their view and knowledge should be shared concerning the basis for the abuses inflicted by some HOA's on innocent homeowners in America.
Too many innocent homeowners are homeless due to no fault of
their own.
They were in the wrong HOA, etc., at the wrong time, or
someone on their board, or associated with their board didn't like them,
or was jealous of them, or they were the easiest to get financially due to
family/gender status, or as an elder, or disabled homeowner, or they had a lot
of equity in their home, and/or they stumbled over some type of criminality, or
wrongdoing within the association and they sought accountability for it.
Please take the time to look at the decades of cases of
innocent homeowners and how their lives, families and rights have been
violated, while their finances and health have been devastated and their
homes have been stolen. There needs to be legitimate investigations
in every state of these groups and who the perpetrators
are. No matter who they are, or who they know, they should be
prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
cs
"Nationwide, there are 300,000 H.O.A. corporations,
governing more than 60 million Americans who pay $50 billion (with a “b”) in
H.O.A. dues per year. It is an enormous industry. H.O.A. corporations are among
the least regulated businesses in America. Consumer protections rules are
non-existent or not enforced. Embezzlement and other financial crimes are
occurring in epidemic proportions. And American home owners have been losing
their 1st, 2nd, 4th, 5th, 7th, and 8th Amendment rights under the “repressive libertarianism” guise
of contract law, because H.O.A.s are private corporations not bound by the
United States Constitution.
For decades, municipalities have been requiring the creation
of H.O.A. corporations as a condition of granting building permits to developers.
The local governments get to collect taxes for goods and services – e.g., road
maintenance, utilities, trash removal, open space, recreational facilities,
etc. – that they no longer provide. As a result, homeowners in H.O.A.s end up
being double-taxed; once by the government and again by their H.O.A.
corporation. The growth of H.O.A.s has been supply-driven to benefit developers
and governments, not
demand-driven by consumers.
demand-driven by consumers.
Two-thirds of H.O.A. residents have a negative view of
H.O.A.s, with 1/5 saying they “have been in what they call a ‘war’ with their
H.O.A.” These are tens of millions of Americans, a large constituency that
has been ignored by our policy-makers and pundits. Yet “free-marketeers”
have nothing but praise for H.O.A.s, lauding them as a desirable model
of corporate governance by private contract. Something is obviously wrong
with their socioeconomic theories.
For years, our legislators have been offering the illusion
of reform, deferring to H.O.A. corporations instead of individual home owners,
while doing nothing to remove the perverse incentives and moral hazards built
into the collective ownership of your private property. H.O.A. boards engage in
destructive litigation against their involuntary members for trivial amounts and
reasons, hiding behind the corporate veil, collecting and spending other
people’s money to use against them. Meanwhile, Community Associations Institute
(C.A.I.) attorneys profit greatly by feeding off of American home owners. “It’s
called capitalism. It’s the free market,” they say."
AS, Homeowner advocate, Florida
Note: The advocate stated: " H.O.A.s are private
corporations not bound by the United States Constitution. I think they meant to
say:
"HOA's are private corporations, who act like
they are not bound by the United States Constitution."
I am awaiting a response from the advocate on this, but I
wanted to get this out, so I am sending it the way it was written.
cs
HOLLOW EARTH NETWORK
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Video: Obamacare Dismantled in Less Than Five Minutes
Video: Obamacare
Dismantled in Less Than Five Minutes
Guy Benson | Feb
05, 2014
Recommend this article 
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"The product is good," President Obama intoned during a bizarrely triumphal Rose Garden photo-op three short weeks into the Obamacare roll-out debacle. "It's high quality, and it's affordable," he said, adding that early participants were "thrilled" with the results. Just prior to departing for his Hawaiian Christmas escape in December -- amidst roiling controversies suffocating his signature program -- Obama pronounced the law "working." And on Super Bowl Sunday, he assured Bill O'Reilly that Obamacare's much maligned web system is functioning "the way it's supposed to." What to make of these assertions? Is the president so out of touch that he believes them to be true, or is he putting on a brave face to defend an historic technological and policy failure that bears his name? Democrats have made endless promises to the public throughout the healthcare debate, the highest profile of which haven't panned out -- which is why the law remains deeply unpopular. Conservatives predicted nearly every one of these betrayals, often with remarkable precision. The law is a mess that has shattered the well-known pledges upon which was sold. Its authors and defenders lack credibility. And the new policy is hurting real people. What follows is a digestible, but by no means comprehensive, video dissection of Obamacare, using only supporters' words, press accounts, and testimonials from impacted citizens:
Many thanks to my colleagues Emily Bruce, Sarah
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