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Open Letter To German Chancellor Angela Merkel

Angela Merkel SC Open Letter to German Chancellor Angela Merkel

Dear Madame Chancellor:

We strongly recommend that Germany reject the entrance of Croatia to the EU. However, if Germany determines it is willing to take on the financial and political risks of admitting Croatia into the EU, then we urge you to require conditions. Absent these conditions, it would be a mistake to admit Croatia into the EU and provide over €11 billion (2014-2020) in EU and German taxpayer funds to the country.  The recommended conditions are as follows:
1. Croatia agrees to accept foreign visiting judges and prosecutors from strong rule of law nations to be empowered with official duties. There are precedents for this in the Balkan region and in Commonwealth nations.
2. With the above assistance, the government of Croatia recovers illicit financial outflows of over €11.4 billion in crime, corruption and tax evasion (during 2001-2010) and confiscates the wealth illicitly amassed by Croatia’s politicians, government officials, and their private partners in crime and pays it back into Croatia’s treasury.
With a politically influenced judiciary, Croatia cannot effectively deal with rampant corruption. Foreign judges and prosecutors will be able to address the illicit outflows and illicit enrichment, and assist in establishing an independent judiciary with a proper foundation of the rule of law. Croatia’s corrupt politicians and their private partners in crime should be prosecuted; their assets in Europe and beyond should be frozen; and they should be barred from all EU offices and European parliamentary seats.
BackgroundThe EU is closing its eyes to organized crime and massive corruption in Croatia. By prematurely accepting Croatia as its 28th member, the EU would not only fail Croatia’s citizens, but also expose EU taxpayers to costly bailouts. In the meantime, an unreformed Croatian government is unlikely to use EU structural funds as intended.

Dr. Daniel Kaufmann’s study, completed at the Washington, DC-based Brookings Institution, with excerpts published in The Wall Street Journal, found that Greece’s crisis was due to rampant corruption and opaque public finances. Croatia is on the path to becoming the next Greece.

For the past two decades, Croatia’s two major political groupings have rotated power while politicians enriched themselves. While engaging in rampant corruption, politicians have blocked judicial reforms, interfered with the judiciary, failed to strengthen the rule of law, encouraged a dysfunctional economy, held fraudulent elections, and brought the government debt down to junk status. Under these circumstances, investors with honest intentions avoid the country.
Investors have no legal certainty and lack the fundamental protection of property rights. According to the 2013 Index of Economic Freedom for Croatia, published by the Heritage Foundation and The Wall Street Journal, “Judicial corruption continues to undermine the rule of law. The court system is cumbersome and inefficient, and backlogs cause business disputes to drag on for years.”
  
Twelve Reasons for Concern

1.  $15.2 Billion in Illicit Financial Outflows (2001-2010) Via Crime, Corruption, Tax Evasion and Illicit  Enrichment Since 1991

Based on the research by Washington, DC-based Global Financial Integrity, Croatia experienced an illicit outflow of $15.2 billion (€11.4b) during 2001-2010 via crime, corruption and tax evasion. Croatia’s government has not yet answered the questions of theOpen Letter of February 21, 2013 co-signed by members of the European Parliament Monica Macovei—Romania’s former justice minister—and Roger Helmer (UK) and Adriatic Institute’s leadership.
Moises Naim, a scholar at the Washington, DC-based Carnegie Endowment for International peace and the author of “Mafia States,” explains: “In mafia states, government officials enrich themselves and their families and friends while exploiting the money, muscle, political influence, and global connections of criminal syndicates to cement and expand their own power.” Croatia fits the description.

2.  Corruption and Money Laundering Related to Hypo Alpe Adria Group (HAAG)

While German taxpayers were bailing out Bayerische LB with €3.75 billion connected to the “losses” of the Hypo Bank in the Balkans, the accounts of corrupt Croatian politicians and criminals remained safe, protected by Liechtenstein’s banking secrecy and its new owner Prince Michael von Liechtenstein. Prior to Bayerische Landesbank’s purchase of the HAAG shell in 2007, Hypo Consultants Group, a lucrative real estate arm of the HAAG owning a portfolio of real estate in Croatia and Serbia, allegedlyestimated at €1.6 billion, was divested. The HAAG branch in Liechtenstein was excluded from the purchase. Germany’s Honorary Consul to Croatia, RobertJezic, who allegedly received HAAG’s loans, was also a lobbyist for HAAG in Croatia.

Over the last 22 years, illicit gains from bribes, phony privatization schemes, illegal trade, and arms and oil smuggling left Croatia and allegedly landed in secret HAAG bank accounts in Austria and Liechtenstein. Part of that money was laundered back to Croatia, and invested in the real estate. The only individual held responsible was Mr. Sanader, Croatia’s former prime minister, who was sentenced to 10 years in prison for the multiple bribery cases. One of the cases involved Austria’s HAAG. Mr. Sanader is currently appealing the court’s decision.
 
3.  Extradition of Ex-General Vladimir Zagorec, and Public Assassinations in Zagreb
Vladimir Zagorec, Croatia’s former defense assistant minister and ex-general indicted for embezzling diamonds worth $5 million during the Balkan wars of the 1990s, was extradited from Austria to Croatia on October 2, 2008. According to published media reports, during the war in Croatia, Mr. Zagorec transferred about $450 million to secret accounts in HAAG, which he used as a deposit for his construction projects. Jorg Haider, an Austrian politician who spearheaded Hypo’s foray in the Balkans, and whose wealth of EUR45 million was found in Liechtenstein foundations, was killed in a car accident on October 11, 2008.Prior to his extradition from Austria, Mr. Zagorec allegedly announced that he would reveal 77 secret accounts belonging to politicians in Austria and Liechtenstein. On October 6, 2008, Ivana Hodak, the 26-year-old daughter of a lawyer defending Mr. Zagorec, was executed in front of her apartment, shot twice in the head. On October 23, 2008, a bomb explosion in Croatia’s capital killed Ivo Pukanic, a publisher of an independent weekly Nacional, and another company executive, Niko Franjic. Mr. Pukanic was one of the key witnesses against Zagorec.

Vladimir Zagorec was sentenced to seven years in prison in Croatia. He has not yet publicly revealed the names of politicians withsecret foreign accounts in Liechtenstein and Austria.4.  Ministry of Interior’s Obstruction of Investigations

Tomislav Karamarko, a former intelligence head (currently party leader of HDZ political party, which is under investigation for corruption and for siphoning around €9.5m for HDZ party slush funds used by senior party officials) was hand-picked by Mr. Sanader to immediately replace the Minister of Interior after the assassinations of Ms. Hodak, Mr. Pukanic, and Mr. Franjic.  The only result of the investigations under Mr. Karamarko’s authority was that a homeless person was jailed for allegedly killing the lawyer’s daughter. Tomislav Karamarko eventually appointed his people to police departments.
Croatia’s current Minister of Interior, Ranko Ostojic, has an apparent conflict of interest, having worked for, and resided in a Zagreb apartment owned by, Nino Pavic, a media tycoon. Mr. Pavic is the  owner and founder of EPH, with 50% of the print media market share. As reported by Washington, DC-based Freedom House, Mr. Pavic has not yet been charged in the HGAA corruption scandal, which was allegedly discarded by Croatia’s main prosecutor, Mladen BajicMr. Pavic also has been mentioned as one of the alleged owners of Hypo Consultants Group.  German Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung (WAZ) is a 50% owner of EPH in Croatia.

5.  Persecution of  Journalists and Independent Voices
Just two weeks ago, the Croatian state-run broadcaster’s HRT executive editor Denis Latin and his colleagues were removed from their positions. OSCE expressed concern about the treatment of journalists “following criticism from the country’s Prime Minister Milanovic” and it called “the government and the HRT management to refrain any action that could lead to censorship and threaten editorial independence.”  OSCE also stated, “This action can undermine media freedom in the country…”  According to media reports, HRT’s director, Goran Radman serves on the supervisory board of Hypo Alpe Adria Bank in Croatia and is tied to alleged conflict of interest cases.
TomislavKaramarko, former head of Croatia’s intelligence and minister of interior, and currently HDZ party leader, was called out by journalists and anti-corruption activists for harassment.
Under the title, “Judicial Harassment of Zeljko Peratovic Must Stop,” Reporters Without Borders released this statement, “As he already tried to do last year, [Tomislav] Karamarko probably hopes to be able to convince the court to ban Peratovic from publishing information for an indefinite period, thereby preventing him from working as a journalist, whether writing for his blog or for other media.”
Police protection was denied to media publisher Ivo Pukanic, who was assassinated in a car bomb explosion in October 2008. Those who ordered Mr. Pukanic’s murder have not been found. The assassination attempts on Dusan Miljus, a journalist who has been covering corruption and its ties to organized crime, and Igor Rađenović, director of Zagreb Roads who allegedly unearthed corruption in a company owned by the city of Zagreb, have never been resolved. Journalists on the state-run television HTV have been exposed to constant harassment.

6.  Involvement In the The Balkan Route
Croatia lies on the “Balkan Route,” which originates in Afghanistan/Pakistan via Iran and is used by criminals and terrorist networks to smuggle heroin, weapons, and young women and children into Europe. In the arrest of several Balkan criminals in Spain in February 2012, all possessed official Croatian passports. Further investigations led directly to Croatia’s Ministry of Interior and a record of illegal sale of passports since 2006. This corruption has emboldened Balkan criminals to run an international criminal enterprise and the Balkan Cocaine Ring with direct access to the EU. No high-level official was held responsible in Croatia.
The Balkan Route’s heroin trade is estimated at $20 billion annual market value. The Western Balkans, which includes Croatia, is included in Europol’s organized crime threat assessment.
 
7.  Fraudulent Elections and Other Political Abuses:  One Million Illegal Voters for a Nation of Four Million
In spite of the reports on Croatia’s electoral fraud by Brussels-based The Parliament, a Written Question to the European Commission by Daniel Hannan, member of the European Parliament from UK, and in BBC’s live interview with Stefano Sannino, the European Commission’s director general for enlargement, in December 2011, the EU failed to include Croatia’s democratic deficiency in its monitoring reports. Croatia’s current Minister of Administration, Arsen Bauk, finally admitted in May 2012 that in his country of just 4.2 million people, “over 1 million surplus voters” were on the electoral list in 2011 December’s parliamentary elections.  These illegal votes had a potential to determine more than 70 seats in Croatia’s 151-seat parliamentary assembly.
Croatia’s 2011 parliamentary elections and the January 2012 EU referendum were decided on the basis of more than one million illegal votes. The upcoming elections for the European Parliament and Croatia’s local elections in May of 2013 will be decided through the same fraudulent electoral list.
Sasha Radović (72), retired colonel and anti-corruption activist, was arrested on November 17, 2011, the very day he announced his candidacy in the December 2011 elections. In his many books, Mr. Radovic had exposed political corruption and unexplained wealth of top state leaders, including cabinet ministers and a military general. Extortion charges against Mr. Radović were brought by Ivan Cermak, an ex-general and alleged war-profiteer whose wealth has been investigated by journalists and anti-corruption activists but ignored by Croatia’s authorities. Mr. Radovic is currently appealing the decision of two years of jail time through Croatia’s court system.
Croatia’s current foreign minister, Vesna Pusic, and the Croatian People’s Party (HNS) she heads, forged a coalition with HDSSB political party of Branimir Glavasconvicted of war crimes and serving jail time in Bosnia. Croatia’s electoral commission, presided by the president of Supreme Court Branko Hrvatin, approved Mr. Glavas’ leading the HDSSB list in the 2011 parliamentary elections despite his serving the sentence. Three members of HDSSB were reported for murder threats and a physical attack on a journalist. According to published reports, Mr. Glavas is alleged to have threatened a judge and journalists.

8. State Prosecutor Mladen Bajic’s Blocking of Corruption  Investigations
The current Prime Minister, Zoran Milanovic, investigative journalists, and whistleblowers have accused Croatia’s Chief State Prosecutor Mladen Bajic of blocking corruption investigations. The EU’s Comprehensive Monitoring Report on Croatia, released on October 10, 2012, urged that “further attention should be paid to the system for checking on dismissals of criminal cases by the prosecutor. The current system does not provide for independent checks on decisions by State prosecutors to dismiss reports of crime.”
9. Conflicts of Interest and Abuse of Office
The media have reported conflicts of interest and the abuse of public office. However, those allegedly involved generally have not been prosecuted. Allegations have been made against Croatia’s current Prime Minister Zoran MilanovicPresident Ivo Josipovic; deputy prime minister and minister of foreign and European affairsVesnaPusicfinance ministerSlavko Linic; former tourism minister of the current government Veljko Ostojic; former interior minister Tomislav  Karamarko; former finance minister Ivan Suker; former economy and defense minister BrankoVukelic; former transportation minister BozidarKalmeta; former minister of public works, construction and reconstruction Marina Matulović Dropulicformer minister of foreign affairs Miomir Zuzul; former speaker of the house and currently president of the anti-corruption parliamentary committee Vladimir Seks (who has not yet been charged for alleged war crimes); former minister of public works, construction and reconstruction RadimirCacicformer Prime Minister Jadranka Kosorformer minister of foreign affairs Mate Granic; Istria county prefect and IDS president IvanJakovcic; former foreign minister KolindaGrabar-Kitarovic; chairman of the state-owned oil company, Petrokemija, JosipJagust; and a host of other politicians in Croatia.
The EU’s comprehensive monitoring report from October 10, 2012 stated, “Croatia has not fully implemented the conflict of interest legislation and has overturned the previous provisions on the criteria for membership of supervisory and management boards of public companies.” Vesna Pusic’s attempt to appoint HNS party secretary-general Srecko Ferencak to the supervisory board of a state-run oil pipeline operator, after he was sentenced for embezzlement, would be considered highly problematic in rule of law nations.In sharp contrast to the record in Croatia, Monica Macovei, former Minister of Justice, Romania and member of the European Parliament stated through the EU’s post-accession monitoring mechanism, “1,000 [Romanian] public officials ended up behind bars for corruption.” Based on evidence, Ms. Macovei recently advocated for “the establishment in Croatia of a post-accession mechanism to evaluate the track record of conflict of interest, corruption and organized crime cases as well as the implementation of the judiciary reform action plan.”

10. Abuse of Private Property Rights 

Individual property rights are trampled on, and, according to the US State Department, the adjudication process in expropriation cases is an area of potential concern for investors. Croatia’s legislature ensured inherent conflicts of interest in the legislative framework for the restitution and compensation of the property confiscated during communism. According to the EU report from 2010, “This strategic move by the Croatian Government and legislature places the rule of law and the rights of people entitled to restitution or compensation in jeopardy.”
11.  Arms Sale to Syrian Groups, in Violation of EU’s Embargo
Croatia was recently reported to be selling arms to Syria. The unanswered questions remain: Where did these arms come from, how were they originally purchased, to whom were they sold, who is getting the proceeds from the sales, and why has the EU not reacted in light of the EU’s embargo?
12.  Depressed Economy
As a consequence of corruption and poor policies, including high taxes, Croatia’s government budget has been drained; business and consumer confidence has been lacking; the economy has been in recession since 2009; unemployment has been growing for years and is now at 22%; youth unemployment has been around 45% since October 2012; public debt and budget deficits are unsustainable; people are suffering from poverty; and people are leaving the country.
………
We look forward to your positive response and leadership in blocking Croatia’s EU accession or requiring the conditions described above.

Sincerely,

Natasha Srdoc
Co-Founder and Chairman, Adriatic Institute for Public Policy
Co-Founder and Co-Chair, International Leaders Summit
Honorable Maurice McTigue, QSO
Co-Chair, Executive Advisory Board, Adriatic Institute for Public Policy
Advisor to US Members of Congress, US Administrations, US State Governors
New Zealand’s Former Cabinet Member, Member of Parliament and Ambassador
Joel Anand Samy
Co-Founder and Trustee, Adriatic Institute for Public Policy
Co-Founder and Co-Chair, International Leaders Summit
Boris Divjak
Senior Fellow, Adriatic Institute for Public Policy
Founder and Board Member, Transparency International, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Cc:
Norbert Lammert, The President of the German Bundestag
Mark Rutte, Prime Minister, The Netherlands
Elio Di Rupo, Prime Minister, Belgium
Helle Thorning-Schmidt, Prime Minister, Denmark
Frederik Reinfedlt, Prime Minister, Sweden
Jyrki Katainen, Prime Minister, Finland
David Cameron, Prime Minister, United Kingdom
François Hollande, President, France
Jean-Marc Ayrault, Prime Minister, France
John Kerry, US Secretary of State
Chuck Hagel, US Secretary of Defense
Eric H. Holder, Jr., US Attorney General
Janet A. Napolitano, US Secretary of Homeland Security
Carl Levin, US Senator
John McCain, US Senator
Jeff Sessions, US Senator
Tom Coburn, US Senator
Bob Corker, US Senator
Ben Cardin, US Senator
Jeanne Shaheen, US Senator
Kelly Ayotte, US Senator
Mark Begich, US Senator
Susan Collins, US Senator
Jeff Flake, US Senator
Tim Kane, US Senator
Tedd Cruz, US Senator
Marco Rubio, US Senator
John Boehner, Speaker of the US House of Representatives
Ed Royce, US Congressman
Eliot L. Engel, US Congressman
Christopher H. Smith, US Congressman
Adam Smith, US Congressman
Howard P. McKeon, US Congressman
Frank Wolf, US Congressman
Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, US Congresswoman
Joe Wilson, US Congressman
Martin Schulz, President of the European Parliament
Monica Macovei, Member of the European Parliament, Romania
Roger Helmer, Member of the European Parliament, U.K.
Daniel Hannan, Member of the European Parliament, U.K.
Geoffrey Van Orden, Member of the European Parliament, U.K.
Herman Van Rompuy, President of the European Council
Jose Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission
Catherine Ashton, Vice-President, European Commission
Viviane Reding, Vice-President, European Commission
Štefan Füle, EU Commissioner for Enlargement
Photo credit: arne.list (Creative Commons)

What Difference Does It Make…?

Media Protests What difference does it make...?

Author’s Note - I began my most recent post with the following:

“I never imagined that I’d find myself quoting Bill’s one-time heart throb (okay, eons of time ago), but using her just happens to suit my purpose. (Guess Bill and I aren’t so different after all….)”


Due to an inadvertent title change (the title was to have been the same as this one’s), readers were no doubt puzzled by this. Hopefully, this will clear things up.


Anyone who registers even the faintest EKG response realizes that the “Mainstream Media” isn’t mainstream. So if you felt your not insignificant intelligence was being insulted…and therefore didn’t dive headlong into the piece, I’d ask you to reconsider, as I believe our perception of the establishment media (which almost no one in this audience either reads or watches) is at the very root of all that ails us…and I mean that with absolute sincerity!


Note that I did not say that the endangered media is the problem, but that our perception of it is. Hear me out….


Every national Conservative pundit I know, with the exception of Rush Limbaugh (who has famously – and accurately – dubbed them the “Drive-by” or “Endangered Media”), Michael Savage, and Joseph Farah (who both refer to them as the “so-called ‘mainstream’ media”), mindlessly refers to them as the “mainstream” or “MSM” – freely bestowing upon them the highest of both compliments and credibility!


Would we have called the Communists’ Pravda (far more conservative today than our own state-controlled press!) the Soviet Union’s “mainstream” media? Of course not! It was nothing more than a state-owned organ of propaganda…and while George Soros may not own the New York Times outright (or even in part), it is clear that he, his allies, and his pawns are in lockstep with its entire agenda. (Obviously everything I have said about the networks applies to the so-called “Newspaper of Record,” as well as to its counterparts from coast to coast – whose viewership and coffers are also universally, and happily, “on the brink.”)


To put this in perspective I will recount an experience I had last spring, when AZ State Representative Carl Seel took me by to introduce me to then Speaker of the House, Andy Tobin. It was a Friday afternoon, perhaps 2:00 or 3:00, and the Speaker had gone for the week, as it turned out. His secretary dutifully wrote down my name and phone number, however, promising to have him call me…which, of course, he never did. I knew little about the Speaker at that time, but have since learned all I need to know: he’s a “Republican” – not a Conservative, and a “politician” – not a Statesman, as best I can tell. (It’s difficult, of course, to know any of our “representatives” well when they refuse to respond to their constituents!


As I left his office that day, and passed through the deserted anteroom, there on a freshly-polished inlaid-Mahogany desk, positioned with almost reverential deference it seemed, was a symbol of everything that was wrong with our “veto-proof” Republican Legislature, buoyed up (?) by our Republican (CINO) Governor. There, as a voice from the past, lay the day’s copy of the once-great, once-revered Arizona Republic – no doubt in a far-distant time, the voice of the People of the Great State of Arizona…but no longer.


Like every other “news” outlet and major establishment newspaper in America, it had long since ceased to speak for the People, but had become a pointed instrument through which the errantly-named “servants of the People” could oppress them (in the name of “the oppressed”), and deprive them of their God-given, and at one-time Constitutionally-protected, rights.


Yet how are The Republic and its ideological counterparts nationwide referred to by virtually everyone on our side to this day? As the “mainstream media” – the theoretical “voice of the People.”


In truth, however, almost none of us reads The Republic any more (I know of no one personally); and its circulation attests to that; but as long as the politicians (our putative representatives) do – and as long as they mindlessly accept that the rest of us do – it will continue to inform their every emotional impulse. (I almost said “every thought,” but would have missed the mark in so doing!)


Make no mistake about it, John McCain, Jon Kyle (formerly), and now Jeff Flake have no doubt that The Republic speaks both FOR and TO the citizens of Arizona…although nothing could be further from the truth. (Circulation today is 275,622 daily, and 483, 556 on Sunday, out of a population of 4,289,323, or some 1,578,471 households; thus making the portion of households receiving The Republic 31% on Sunday, but only 17% during the week.


As long as they (our elected officials) believe that The Republic speaks for (and to) the citizens of Arizona, however – and they no doubt will continue to do so until we drive them from office for failing to represent us – they will continue to rule over us with disdain and disregard for our sovereignty and for our rights.


While they may well know that these outmoded organs no longer represent the views of the People, they simultaneously know that they DO represent the views of the elite Ruling Class…and towards the latter is clearly where their loyalty lies! (There are exceptions among elected officials, but they are just that…and rare indeed!)
Our president’s mentor Saul Alinsky said this: “Always remember the first rule of power tactics: Power is not only what you have but what the enemy thinks you have” (pp. 126-127, Rules for Radicals).


As long as we the People – and our “leaders” – continue to accept that the OEM (Obsolete Establishment Media) either represents the People, or is being listened to by the People, they will continue to be considered the voice of authority, the FINAL word on what WE want or believe.


And yet, they have ONLY the power which WE, the People, give them…and no more. (Those whom we employ to represent us may choose to follow the lead of the OEM, but as their employers we can terminate their employment when we finally rise up and do so (John McCain being the perfect place to start!).


This all begins, of course, with an understanding of the true strength of our position, and the abject weakness of theirs! (That is what this entire article has been about.) We needn’t mindlessly and obsequiously grant them a status and an authority which not only belie reality, but are completely undeserved!


So here is a tip for all of us: Turn them off! Don’t buy, watch, or read them…and refer to them no more as the “mainstream media” or “MSM”! You wouldn’t consciously give money to the DNC (or perhaps even the RNC at this point!), so why would you give money to, or otherwise support, those who trumpet their failed message to the world, in defiance of the voice of the majority of the American People?


Enough is enough! We don’t need to “tune in” in order to know what they are up to! (If you couldn’t write their every story, giving their every officially-approved party line – on any subject, on any given day – then, with respect, you haven’t been paying attention!) Any one of us could write for any one of their publications starting tomorrow…or sooner! All we’d need to do is lip-sync their anemic platitudes…and cease to engage in rational thought. Like you, however, I’m afraid I can’t – and won’t- do that!

To be continued….

Tom Ballantyne is the author most recently of Uncommon Sense…Apparently! A Call To Arms, and Oh Really, O’Reilly! – both available at Amazon.com and at his website: www.UncommonSenseNow.com.  You may email Tom with comments at ThomasMBallantyne@gmail.com.

Flake Predicts GOP Contender Backing Gay Marriage

Republican Elephant 2 SC Flake predicts GOP contender backing gay marriage

 

WASHINGTON— Republican Sen. Jeff Flake says it is “inevitable” that his party will see one of its own run for president while supporting gay marriage.

The Arizona lawmaker on Sunday said the shifting political landscape will eventually yield a candidate who backs same-sex marriage and predicts that candidate would find support within the GOP.

Read More at OfficialWire .

Photo Credit: Donkey Hotey (Creative Commons)

Obama’s Outrages

Angry Obama SC Obamas Outrages

As if it isn’t glaringly obvious, the America-Destroyer-in-Chief has ramped up his attacks exponentially since he got away with the massive voter fraud that gave him the election. He’s continued his policy of nominating far-left, incompetent crooks and extremists to important positions of power, a policy that couldn’t work without the complicity and connivance of the Republican Establishment. And that is just for starters.

The tactic of nominating America-hating radicals has resulted in Sonia Sotomayor (a racist and radical feminist) and Elena Kagan (a probable lesbian, radical feminist, and political hack as justices of the Supreme Court); avowed communist Van Jones as “Green Jobs Czar”; radical wackos Cass Sunstein and John Holdren; and dozens of other “Czars” – a total of 45 of ‘em – sticking their noses and greedy leftist fingers into the people’s business and getting paid $158,000 per year and up of the taxpayers’ money to do it. The Republican Establishment has done nothing to rid us of these unconstitutional human monkey wrenches. The silence has been deafening.

To make bad worse, one of these “Czars,” John Brennan, who at best is an Islamist extremist sympathizer and promoter and at worst is a genuine closet radical Muslim, was just approved as new head of the CIA by the spineless parasites in what used to be the United States Senate, but now is just a rubber-stamp for the Marxist in the White House. Voting for this disaster-in-the-making were some of the usual dither-and-cave RINOs – John McCain (R-AZ), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Susan Collins (R-ME), Bob Corker (R-TN), Lamar Alexander (R-TN), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Orrin Hatch (R-UT), Mark Kirk (R-IL), Dan Coats (R-IN), and Richard Burr (R-NC). But joining this shameful throng were some supposed conservatives – Tom Coburn (R-OK) and Tea Party heroes Jeff Flake (R-AZ) and Marco Rubio (R-FL).

Rubio and Flake also voted to confirm traitor John Kerry as Secretary of State of Disarray, as did all but three Republicans. Only four Republicans voted to confirm leftist Chuck Hagel as Secretary of Surrender, but one of them was the Great Conservative Hope, Rand Paul (R-KY). Paul and Flake also voted to confirm Jack Lew, the originator of the Sequester, as Head Looter…er…um…Treasury Secretary (FYI, Ted Cruz of Texas is the only Senator who has voted No on all of Obama’s nominations). Orrin Hatch was quoted as saying, “I am bending over backwards to show deference to the president’s nomination, and I hope that doesn’t go unnoticed”; and this seems to sum up the “thinking” of Republicans in the Senate.

Taking their cues from the Fraud in the White House, Kerry and unindicted felon Eric Holder both pushed the outrage envelope even further. The State of Disarray Department, in cahoots with Michelle Obama, was caught trying to give the prestigious International Woman of Courage award to Samira Ibrahim, a known anti-American and anti-Semitic activist from Egypt. When this was exposed, they backed off and withdrew the offer – for now. And Eric Holder had to be brow-beaten into conceding that murdering American citizens who posed no imminent danger on American soil, without any due process, was unconstitutional. However, the government recently claimed that their drone technology can tell if a person is carrying a weapon. Thus, after the fact, they can claim that the victim was armed and therefore a legal target. Again, hardly a peep of outrage from Republicans. To his credit, Rand Paul did publicly protest. But, to their ever-growing shame, John McCain and Lindsey Graham proclaimed murder by dictatorial fiat to be something they approved of.

Obama’s pals and supporters in the “mainstream” Fifth Column media, Congress, and elsewhere showed exactly where their politics and sympathies lie in their reaction to the death of communist dictator and Obama role model Hugo Chavez. Democrats in Congress issued statements of sympathy and praise; and two Democrat congressmen – one sitting and one former – actually attended the funeral, as did wastes of food Jesse Jackson and Sean Penn. Disgraced former Democrat President Jimmy Carter broke new America-hating ground with a statement lauding the dead thug that topped all his previous public stupidity by a significant margin. Obama, portrayed by the Fifth Column as the leader of the Democrat Party, said nothing to the contrary and thus gave his approval of this despicable show of anti-Americanism.

On a much more ominous note, the brilliant foreign policy of Obama, the confused and inept actions of the State of Disarray Department, and the totally mixed messages coming from the Department of Surrender have pushed and enabled desperate and deranged dictator Kim Jong Un of North Korea to seriously threaten to launch a nuclear attack on America. The good news is they are only capable of hitting wacko leftist West Coast cities like San Francisco and Los Angeles. But combined with Iran being inches away from having their own nuclear weapons, it is almost certain that the erstwhile Nobel Peace Prize winner is about to drag us into another war, this time a nuclear one.

Where is the outrage?

Photo credit: SS&SS (Creative Commons)

Limited Martial Law…in Tucson, AZ!

Tucson SC Limited Martial Law...in Tucson, AZ!

This action tells us two things: what the Federal Government will try to do, and what local governments are willing to allow their own ruling party to get away with!  While the pretext for this seems innocuous enough (allowing military planes to fly over an urban area), the much more salient point is that the Obama Administration is pushing to see how far it can go. Beyond that, they are conditioning citizens to accept such overreaches as normal and expedient. As Tip O’Neal famously noted, however, “There are no coincidences in politics.” In other words, there is a reason behind everything that politicians do.

What starts out as a seemingly innocent and necessary infringement (like, say, a “background” check) leads to consequences never envisioned by most people, but which were the ultimate design of the politicians all along. This is the way Constitutions are rendered meaningless. The People (and even well-meaning elected officials…if there still are such folks) simply start allowing “small” things that are not authorized; and eventually, they don’t even bother to consider the issue as the precedent (of performing unconstitutional and thereby illegal “official” government acts) has long been set.

MOST of what our government does today – literally, the vast majority of it – is completely outside of the very limited authority (specifically enumerated powers) granted to it by the sovereign People under the Constitution – the Supreme Law of the Land. Our system has been so turned on its head by our oligarchic rulers that while overreaching without our permission, and in opposition to the chains of the Constitution that were intended to bind their hands from committing such abuses into nearly every aspect of our lives, these petty tyrants (Congress, Executive, and Courts) also refuse to do the few things that they are authorized and expected to do under the authority of the Constitution: protect our lives (those of the unborn, as well as the living via our ever-so-porous borders), our liberties (which they now abuse by regulating us to a degree that would have scarcely been imaginable to the founders), and our property (which they now take at will through the extra-legal theft and cavalier redistribution of the fruits of our labor to those who choose not to work). But it is even worse than that….

When we here in Arizona sought to do what the federal government has flatly refused to do – protect our borders – the absurdly-named “Justice” department filed suit to prevent us from exercising our God-given right of protecting ourselves and our property. When states have sought to preserve the sanctity of the vote from blanket abuse and fraud – something no doubt required under federal law – Eric Holder has once again gone to court to prevent virtually every obvious, commonsense measure duly enacted by the People’s authorized representatives. Never have we witnessed or experienced such an egregious and brazen abuse of power since the days of King George, and his own abuses paled in comparison to those of our current illegitimate and “unenlightened” monarch!  The result is that we no longer live under the Rule of Law. We are today, in fact, being governed by both an illegal executive and an oligarchic and unaccountable Congress and judicial system.

It should outrage every citizen of this nation that we are often told as voters that while even overwhelming majorities favor certain actions (such as the establishment of Term Limits and the abolition of the once-illegal Income Tax) those measures will “never pass.”  (See my book Uncommon Sense…Apparently!)  How can that be in a nation where the representatives of the People are commissioned to make the laws that the People desire?  Short answer:  It cannot; thus proving that those whom we hire and pay to represent us simply do not.  They are obviously beholden to someone other than ourselves!

Now that the sanctity of the vote has been rendered utterly meaningless by the absurd manufactured ruse of minority voter suppression (requiring voter ID – i.e. a driver’s license), our near-final recourse has been swept away. What is next? The elimination of our Second Amendment right to protect ourselves against a tyrannical government. Any wonder that this God-given, Constitutionally-protected right is now under direct assault? The Germans never imagined that Austrian-born Adolf Hitler would go as far as he did…but he did it one illegal (but no doubt “essential” and even “benevolent”) step at a time – until it was too late to stop him. That is the very chronicle of government throughout all of world history…not the exception.  The exception is a country in which the People are the ultimate authority. We were the exception; but today, our authority has been swept aside under the guise of protecting us and guaranteeing our “equality.” Nothing, of course, could be further from the truth! As famously observed by George Orwell (in Animal Farm): “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others!” The People are barred from working, and millions are added to the welfare rolls while the Obamas and their enormous entourage vacation all over the world (between golf outings by the “chief executive”) at unprecedented expense to those whose standard of living the Administration simultaneously disparages and assaults!

So what will we do about it? The first thing we can and must all do is to speak openly about the now blatant disregard for both our sovereign authority as a People and the inalienable rights guaranteed us by our Constitution. Next, we must recognize that the two parties in power have no real interest in restoring our freedoms by honoring their oaths of office. Seen any Republicans doing that lately? John Boehner? John McCain? Jeff Flake, et al.? No, you haven’t.

If you saw five-term veteran Senator John McCain last week, jovially proclaiming to a Cuban-born American that Barack Obama had done “nothing” that rose to the level of impeachment, or you happened to be present when I confronted now-Senator Jeff Flake at the Red Mountain Tea Party a year ago and heard him say precisely the same thing, you realize that what these politicians say while campaigning has almost no bearing on what they do once they’ve secured another term. Did you notice that after re-electing the entire Republican Congress in November, to go out and counter the wholesale destruction of our rights by this Administration, they turned around and re-installed John Boehner as their (our!) “leader”?

As long as such self-serving men and women occupy the highest offices in the land, as well as those in our statehouses, we will continue to witness the destruction of our country and Constitution and the evisceration of our rights. And as long as they are allowed to remain in their highly-profitable sinecures indefinitely – without the enactment of long-overdue Term Limits – we will continue to have them. Only when the suffering of the People becomes acute enough will they finally rise up and cast aside the one party that claims to be the champion of true American principles and values…and I’m not talking about the now fully-Marxist party of the American Left.  (At least we now see them for who and what they really are.)

Sadly, however, most Conservatives have still not seen their own party of choice for what it really is…and with 100 years of continuous compromise (and worse) under its belt, it is not about to change! Notice that the “solution” of those firmly in control of the party (did you see your own preferred candidate nominated in this last presidential election?) is to dilute or “soften” our message, rather than to openly and unabashedly stand up for the  principles and values which the majority of the American People still hold dear – skewed polling data to the contrary notwithstanding!  Meanwhile, acquiescence and compromise are the genetic footprint of the once “Grand” and now only “Old” [Republican] Party!

 

Tom Ballantyne is the author of three books.  The last two, Uncommon Sense…Apparently! and Oh Really, O’Reilly! are both available at Amazon.  Uncommon Sense compares the Marxist Progressivist philosophies of the Obama/Soros Administration and its party “loyalists” to those of the Founders. Mr. Ballantyne can be contacted with comments or for speaking engagements at ThomasMBallantyne@gmail.com. 

Photo credit: jimmywayne (Creative Commons)

Senator Jeff Flake Follows The Pattern…

…of never having worked outside of the Government, and as such he cannot relate to the American people…

How Obama Literally Hypnotized America-Part 1

Obama Saves SC How Obama Literally Hypnotized America Part 1

THE EVIDENCE IS HERE: This document contains over 60 pages of evidence and analysis proving Barack Obama’s use of a little-known and highly deceptive and manipulative form of “hack” hypnosis on millions of unaware Americans, and reveals what only a few psychologists and hypnosis/NLP experts know.

Barack Obama’s speeches contain the hypnosis techniques of Dr. Milton Erickson, M.D. who developed a form of “conversational” hypnosis that could be hidden in seemingly normal speech and used on patients without their knowledge for therapy purposes. Obama’s speeches intentionally contain:

- Trance Inductions

- Hypnotic Anchoring

- Pacing and Leading

- Pacing, Distraction and Utilization

- Critical Factor Bypass

- Stacking Language Patterns

- Preprogrammed Response Adaptation

- Linking Statements/ Causality Bridges

- Secondary Hidden Meanings/ImbeddedSuggestions

- Emotion Transfer

- Non-Dominant Hemisphere Programming

Obama’s techniques are the height of deception and psychological manipulation, remaining hidden because one must understand the science behind the language patterns in order to spot them. This document examines Obama’s speeches word by word, hand gesture by hand gesture, tone, pauses, body language, and proves his use of covert hypnosis intended only for licensed therapists on consenting patients. Obama’s mesmerized, cult-like, grade-school-crush-like worship by millions is not because “Obama is the greatest leader of a generation” who simply hasn’t accomplished anything, who magically “inspires” by giving speeches. Obama is committing perhaps the biggest fraud and deception in American history.

Obama is not just using subliminal messages, but textbook covert hypnosis and neuro-linguistic programming techniques on audiences that are intentionally designed to sideline rational judgment and implant subconscious commands to think he is wonderful and elect him President. Obama is eloquent. However, Obama’s subconscious techniques are shown to elicit powerful emotion from his audience and then transfer those emotions onto him, to sideline rational judgment, and implant hypnotic commands that we are unaware of and can’t even consciously question. The polls are misleading because some of Obama’s commands are designed to be triggered only in the voting booth on November 4th. Obama is immune to logical arguments like Wright, Ayers, shifting every position, character, and inexperience, because hypnosis affects us on an unconscious and emotional level. To many people who see this unaccomplished man’s unnatural and irrational rise to the highest office in the world as suspicious and frightening and to those who welcome it, this document uncovers, explains, and proves the deceptive tactics behind true “Obama Phenomenon” including why younger people are more easily affected.

Skeptics will surely doubt the information provided in this document with four specific oppositions – each of which this document disproves.

These certain oppositions answered in this document are:

1. Hypnosis isn’t real – hypnosis wouldn’t / doesn’t work on me. Trance states of mind and enhanced suggestibility happen to everyone every day; driving in your car, in the elevator, watching T.V., or listening to music. This mild hypnotic state is all that is needed for Ericksonian techniques to implant hypnotic commands you are unaware of.

2. Obama isn’t intentionally using mass hypnosis. This document contains over a hundred examples of Obama’s specific language patterns and hypnosis techniques that follow textbook Ericksonian principles and characteristics too much to be coincidence.

3. Obama’s popularity is not attributable to his use of hypnosis. Young people and more educated people actually have lower hypnotic subconscious suggestibility thresholds for scientific reasons explained. Popular perceptions of Obama are provable as inconsistent with his accomplishments, history, background, and even what is heard from him consciously – however, they match perfectly with the messages he is caught sending intending to be received only subconsciously. People are admittedly mesmerized by him. The irrational rise to power of and uncanny passionate support for a logically unaccomplished and questionable man based on his speaking alone like the “Obama phenomenon” is widely accepted – only the rational explanation for it is missing. Finally, he would not continue to use these deceptive techniques if he did not believe they work.

4. There is nothing unethical about Obama’s use of hypnosis. The techniques used by Obama are the most deceptive forms of communication known to man. They sideline rational judgment and implant subconscious commands that change how people feel and behave without any awareness of the manipulation. Obama’s techniques overcome the will without convincing the judgment through trickery. Obama often says one message that you are aware of, meanwhile implants a different message hypnotically with double or hidden meanings. He conjures up emotions by talking about your children, and JFK, and then is caught transferring those feelings onto him with hidden hand gestures. He hides what he is doing and brazenly uses these techniques in front of millions of people over and over. Once explained, Obama’s actions can be shown to be the height of manipulation and deception.

IT IS STRONGLY RECOMMENDED THAT YOU READ THIS DOCUMENT IN ORDER, FROM BEGINNING TO END, AS DEFINITIONS ARE BUILT ON TOP OF ONE-ANOTHER, AND UNDERSTANDING OF THESE DEFINITIONS IS NECESSARY TO FOLLOW LATER INTERPRETATIONS AND ANALYSIS

Foreword and commentary:

The level of deception involved in Obama’s use of covert hypnosis, and his presumption that he has the right to use hypnosis on us to gain votes is just unconscionable. It is not a connection to another person that he can deny. It is Obama’s own highly deceptive actions, provable once explained, on video, playable over and over. Obama is sidelining rational judgment and using undue influence to win over voters applying psychological subconscious manipulation like never before in American history.

No other argument against Obama can fundamentally change the way people feel about him deep down inside, EXCEPT, proof that precisely the way they feel about him deep down inside is because of Obama’s own deception and use of hidden hypnosis. This is because exposing Obama’s use of hypnosis takes the people who are entranced by him subconsciously and emotionally, and puts the issue of why they feel that way on a conscious rational level where they can analyze it. It is the one thing that can fundamentally change the game, and shatter Obama’s magical immunity to all of his other faults, logical disqualifications, and deceptions. This can include the media changing their mind about Obama once they see who he really is and also helping to expose what Obama is doing in the interests of democracy. Many people do wake up from the effects of hypnosis once you tell them they have been hypnotized and explain what has happened to them. To a lot of people, it is just a missing piece of the puzzle that makes everything else make sense – almost as if it were the missing piece they were somehow even looking for on some level. (1)

PART 1 – HYPNOSIS BASICS

You must understand the basics of Ericksonian hypnosis to see what Obama is doing

Almost nobody realizes what Obama is doing. These techniques are nearly impossible for an untrained person to detect. With the exception of a few trained experts in hypnosis, nobody understands even what to look for. It sounds in every way like ordinary powerful speech.

Hypnosis is not sleep, nor what is portrayed in movies. In order to spot what Obama is doing, one must first understand covert hypnosis and conversational hypnosis, and know how the science works. Only by knowing how hypnosis works will you see that Obama’s speech often diverges from normal and logical speech patterns, and clearly uses the non-logical, clearly artificial and intentional patterns of hypnotic trance induction, and hypnotic critical factor bypass as taught in the field of covert and conversational hypnosis. This document will explain what Obama is precisely doing and how it works by explaining hidden hypnotic language patterns and other hypnosis techniques, and pointing out these patterns and techniques in Obama’s speeches.

Obama is using textbook, clinical trance inductions in his speeches. Obama’s hypnotic techniques work on a subconscious level, and are designed so that people watching him in an audience or on TV are completely unaware of his techniques and their effects. Obama is using clear hypnotic anchoring, pacing and leading, and numerous other hypnosis techniques designed to take away our rational judgment in deciding for whom to vote in November. Not only is this the only explanation that makes sense for the amazing rise and “Obama phenomenon” sweeping our nation, but the evidence is undeniable.

To say Obama’s amazing following and rise to power is simply because he is a great speaker is not logically sufficient. Even if Obama were the greatest speaker to come along in 30 years, it still would not explain why even being simply a great speaker would cause people to say he is the greatest “leader” of a generation, or “sent by g-d” or “JFK” and why that he should be trusted to make decisions like he has never made in his life, or that he will bring change when he hasn’t really changed anything in his 46 years. What he has done does not logically fit how he is perceived. In fact, the gulf is too wide to be random unexplained phenomenon. As shown, he does, however, use clever hypnosis techniques while discussing e.g. JFK to subconsciously transfer feelings conjured up in his audience onto him through, e.g. flashed hand gestures which appear innocent to uncritical observation.

Real “hypnosis” explained

Most people are hypnotized and fall into trance every day of their lives. (2) It is a common, every day occurrence, whether for a brief second, or minutes or longer. A very basic example is when you are driving a car while in deep thought, and you suddenly realize you are much further along with no memory of driving the whole distance. Another example, is when you are on an elevator watching the numbers change and go into trance, and when everyone else gets off, you take that as a nonverbal suggestion to get off, before you “wake up” and realize it is not your floor. This elevator example is an example of mass hypnosis, where the close rapport with the hypnotist is not necessary, because many people are both hypnotized partly by whatever is causing the trance, and partly by the fact that you are being “paced” or also hypnotized by everyone else in the elevator doing the exact same thing as you. The reason you cry from reading sad book simply by reading ink on paper is because of the mind’s interaction with that information, which is also a hypnotic process. (3)

Two separate definitions of “hypnosis”:

1. First, hypnosis, is “a particular altered state of hyper-suggestibility brought about in an individual by a combination of relaxation, fixation of attention, and suggestion.” (4)

2. Second, hypnosis is also “bypassing the ‘critical factor’ and setting up acceptable selective thinking.” (5)

The “critical factor” is the conscious part of the brain that you think with that has the ability to make rational logical judgments about what information is received. (6) The critical factor acts as a filter, determining what can pass into the subconscious mind which is a non-rational computer-like system which accepts everything in it as absolute truth. (7) That is why sidelining it is so dangerous.

Milton Erickson, had a broader definition of the unconscious mind, described as, “both the functioning of the dominant hemisphere of the brain that occurs below the level of awareness, as well as the functioning of the non-dominant hemisphere.” (8)

Ericksonian trance induction has three dimensions which we will return to often and compare to Obama’s language patterns. They are: (9)

1. Pacing and distraction of the dominant (language) hemisphere;

2. Utilization of the dominant hemisphere, language processing which occurs below the level of awareness;

3. Accessing of the non-dominant hemisphere;

This above three part process is extremely important to later analysis. Essentially, hypnosis is an altered and common state of mind involving intense focus, sidelining or disassociation of the rational critical thinking, and the state of hyper-suggestibility brought about while the subconscious mind is the dominant player. (10) It happens while reading, listening to music, and even while hearing a great speaker. (11)

However, the power of such methods is what is difficult to grasp. What we are talking about is “transformational linguistics” – language that literally changes who you are at your deepest levels, your deepest passions, drives, and emotions while you are completely unaware.

Under Freud, there is the conscious mind that you think with, called the “ego.” You also have a conscience, called the “super-ego.” Then, there is the largest part of the psyche, the id, which is the back-end of all our memory, our most basic instincts and drives, emotions, and suppressed desires. (12) “The unconscious mind is the source of our energy, and no amount of conscious reasoning can override it. The unconscious mind is un-critical, it accepts as absolute truth any idea that is allowed to enter its computer-like system” (13) The messages of hypnosis, including mass hypnosis, can be far more powerful than just someone’s conscious thoughts, as it affects their most basic biological drives and instincts. (14) That is why many of Obama’s followers are so passionate for him, why they are fainting in his presence, comparing him to Jesus, and supporting him like no other candidate before.

The origins of “covert hypnosis” and “conversational hypnosis” aka “black ops” hypnosis

Dr. Milton H. Erickson, also known as the father of modern hypnosis method, was the single greatest practitioner of hypnosis, having dramatically advanced the field. (15) Dr. Erickson is internationally acclaimed as the leading practitioner in the field of hypnosis (16) for his understanding of the science of both inducing and utilizing hypnotic states. (17)

Dr. Erickson discovered while working as a therapist, that he could hide therapeutic hypnosis within the normal content of an inconspicuous conversation with the patient, and avoid much of the patient’s conscious resistance that normally accompanied hypnotherapy. (18) Dr. Erickson realized the subconscious mind was always listening, and understood better than anyone before how to access it, and implant suggestions into it. What Dr. Erickson did was figure out how to put people into trance and hypnotize them and implant suggestions with seemingly normal conversation. He discovered that people could achieve this heightened state of hyper-suggestibility without the traditional difficultly-induced coma-like state traditionally associated with hypnosis. Though his pioneering understanding, he was able to do the same and much more often with simple plays on words and embedded meanings in a single sentence.

The entire field of “covert hypnosis”, or “conversational hypnosis” is based on Dr. Erickson’s techniques, and is now primarily used by hypnotists and psychiatrists. (19) Conversational hypnosis is often referred to as Ericksonian hypnosis. The word “hypnosis” is never mentioned and there is nothing overt to give away that hypnosis is being used. It is impossible to detect unless you know precisely what to look for. Hack versions of these techniques are unfortunately taught to be used as persuasion tools for salespersons, and even more unfortunately also for men looking to enhance their success picking up and seducing with women.

The reason this is so unfortunate, is because covert hypnosis is designed to sideline rational judgment. That is fundamental to how it works; to bypass the dominant hemisphere and critical factor. It essentially tricks the subconscious mind into accepting commands as absolute truths which include not only those approved by the conscious mind, but outside commands from a hypnotist who can implant any suggestion he wishes. Dr. Erickson was adamant that only doctors be allowed to practice his techniques because of how strongly he felt about how dangerous such science could be in the wrong hands.

Subconscious suggestions are more powerful than even what the subject believes consciously – as such suggestions become parts of their deepest psyche. Because covert hypnosis is hidden in ordinary speech, and the subject is not aware that it is being used, it is even more powerful than ordinary hypnosis. Since the conscious mind is not even aware of the messages being sent, conscious scrutiny and resistance is eliminated. (20) The subject cannot even question the messages being sent – they are simply implanted by the hypnotist as the subject’s most fundamental beliefs. Then, even the subject’s own rational mind cannot overpower them.

Bypassing the dominant hemisphere’s rational judgment (“critical factor”)

The critical factor is the part of the mind that logically analyzes and scrutinizes all information like a filter, and decides what information is allowed to pass into your subconscious mind and become part of what your mind accepts as unquestionably true, like your deepest and most powerful emotions, drives, and instincts. (21) It is the primary cognitive defense that usually stops all information and rationally analyzes it, whether consciously or unconsciously. It keeps your computer-like subconscious mind from literally believing that you are a chicken when someone calls you a “chicken”, and keeps you from literally believing that you are a square (box) when somebody calls you a “square”, and keeps you from literally believing you are a (snow or cereal) flake when somebody calls you a “flake.” you don’t consciously ponder it when someone calls you a chicken, your critical fator stops that information below the level of awareness.

The critical factor is the cognitive function best analogized to a security guard (critical factor) who searches every person (information) entering into a nightclub looking for weapons. (and stops all information that is questionable) (22) The critical factor stops all information and allows your thinking and rationality to determine whether it is acceptable to the subconscious mind or not.

Hypnosis uses language patterns, visual tricks, body language, voice, tone, and other aspects of communication to get “suggestions” past the critical factor part of the brain and directly into the listener’s subconscious. (23) This is wonderful if the command is to be free of a phobia, or quit smoking. The reason hypnosis is used for such psychological change, is that the critical factor allows in only what it accepts as true. Without bypassing the smoker’s critical factor, a smoker has a difficult time quitting because they have a difficult time accepting as absolutely true the information that they are a nonsmoker, because their critical factor and conscious mind knows differently and doesn’t let the information through.

How one might simplify this point, is, in normal everyday life, calling someone a “chicken” will not cause them to literally believe they are a chicken and act like one. This is because the critical factor stops this information from passing into the subconscious. So how can a hypnotist get a subject to cluck like a chicken believing they are one? The hypnotist knows how to get the hypnotic suggestion that the subject is a chicken past the critical factor part of the consciousness, and get the subconscious mind to accept it as unquestionably true.

Part 2 discusses what Obama is actually doing.

Read Parts 3-5 here

Footnotes:

1 “The only thing you need to do to break a negative hypnotic spell that has been cast on you is begin to think rationally, to begin to think critically. And if you decide that you choose this message as one that’s good for you, by all means sit back, relax, and enjoy the ride. But, if you decide that this is not something you want to have in your life, just simply analyze it, criticise it, ridicule it, and say “Hey, that’s not how the world works.” And you’ll have protected your mind from taking on board something which you really dont need.” The Power of Conversational Hypnosis, Clifford Mee and Igor Ledochowski, re the section entitled “The Dark Side of Hypnosis.”

2 Erickson maintained that trance is a common, everyday occurrence. For example, when waiting for buses and trains, reading or listening, or even being involved in strenuous physical exercise, it’s quite normal to become immersed in the activity and go into a trance state, removed from any other irrelevant stimuli. These states are so common and familiar that most people do not consciously recognize them as hypnotic phenomena. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milton_H._Erickson

3 The Power of Conversational Hypnosis, Clifford Mee and Igor Ledochowski

4 Modern Hypnosis, Theory and Practice, Masud Ansari, Ph.D.

5 Killer Influence Secrets of Covert Hypnosis, by David X, Part 1, David X’s educational video, “How to Hypnotize with Covert Hypnosis and Hypnotic Language” See video online, such as at: http://www.revver.com/video/834827/how-to-hypnotize-withcovert-hypnosis-and-hypnotic-language/

6 Killer Influence Secrets of Covert Hypnosis, by David X, Part 1

7 Killer Influence Secrets of Covert Hypnosis, by David X, Part 1

8 Patterns of the Hypnotic Techniques of Milton H. Erickson, M.D. Volume 1, p13.

9 Patterns of the Hypnotic Techniques of Milton H. Erickson, M.D. Volume 1, p13.

10 The Religion of Psychology by Marty Wilson, http://www.mychristiansite.com/personal/shilohcomes/hd.html

11 Roy Hunter, MS, CHt, cited at http://www.mychristiansite.com/personal/shilohcomes/hd.html

12 Modern Hypnosis, Theory and Practice, Masud Ansari, Ph.D., Ch3, Unconscious Mind and Hypnosis

13 Modern Hypnosis, Theory and Practice, Masud Ansari, Ph.D., Ch3, Unconscious Mind and Hypnosis, p43

14 The International Law of Propaganda, By Bhagevatula Satyanarayana Murty, discussing I.P. Pavlov, Conditioned Reflexes, an Investigation of the Physiological Activity of the Cerebral Cortex. (Such mass hypnosis is compared in psychological effect to “evoking responses that satisfy the drives of biological instincts.”

15 Milton E. Erickson, often looked at as the father of modern day hypnosis understanding, was founding president of the  American Society for Clinical Hypnosis and a fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, the American Psychological Association, and the American Psychopathological Association. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milton_H._Erickson He felt very
strongly that the field of hypnosis should only be allowed to be studied by doctors because of its power.

16 Patterns of the Hypnotic Techniques of Milton H. Erickson, M.D. Volume 1, p1.

17 Patterns of the Hypnotic Techniques of Milton H. Erickson, M.D. Volume 1, p1.

18 Patterns of the Hypnotic Techniques of Milton H. Erickson, M.D. Volume 1, p25 “by communicating indirectly, Dr. Erickson avoids the issue of resistance to a large extent.” “Erickson believed that the unconscious mind was always listening, and that hypnosis could be used whether the patient was aware of it or completely oblivious to the fact that a hypnotic technique was being
used. Erickson would see if the patient would respond to one or another kind of indirect suggestion, and allow the unconscious mind to actively participate in the therapeutic process. In this way, what seemed like a normal conversation might induce a hypnotic trance, or a therapeutic change in the subject. Andre M. Weitzenhoffer (1976) Introduction/forward in Hypnotic
Realities Erickson & Rossi. It is called conversational hypnosis because the subtleties are slipped into a conversation and the other person would not consciously realize it, while the tactics could have a very real subconscious effect.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milton_H._Erickson

19 Sometimes the field is called “black-ops” hypnosis.

20 Patterns of the Hypnotic Techniques of Milton H. Erickson, M.D. Volume 1, p25 – “by communicating indirectly, he avoids the issue of resistance to a large extent.”

21 Killer Influence Secrets of Covert Hypnosis, by David X, Part 1 David X’s educational video, “How to Hypnotize with Covert Hypnosis and Hypnotic Language” See video online, such as at: http://www.revver.com/video/834827/how-to-hypnotize-withcovert-hypnosis-and-hypnotic-language/

22 Analogy used in The Power of Conversational Hypnosis, Clifford Mee and Igor Ledochowski

23 Patterns of the Hypnotic Techniques of Milton H. Erickson, M.D. Volume 1, p129 “voice, tone, body movement” in addition to the linguistic aspects.

 

Behold, The Man…(That Traitor, Ken Bennett)!

ken bennett Behold, the man...(That Traitor, Ken Bennett)!

At the risk of appearing sacrilegious, I here employ the phrase used by Pontius Pilate to mock Christ shortly after He had been scourged by his Roman captors. I do so not to compare the person of whom I will here speak with the Redeemer of Israel, but for the same reason Pilate employed the phrase – to mock its intended recipient.  Indeed, Ken Bennett, has been anything but a “redeemer” in his accidental-but-potentially pivotal role. In fact, the far more apt comparison would be with the man who misguidedly first uttered the phrase: Pontius Pilate.  Behold the man!

The comparisons are significant.  Firstly, Pilate did not wish to be in the role in which he found himself.  It was thrust upon him by circumstances.  He was not a brave man, and he had no desire to step into the breach. Perhaps that could be said of most men, but unlike Pilate and his contemporary Sonoran Secretarial counterpart, true men throughout history have stepped forward and done what needed to be done – in spite of any initial reluctance to do so – either on their part or that of others…perhaps even all others!

As for the Answer from Arizona, having been in on the notorious email chain from its outset, I can attest firsthand that his reluctance was predictable.  Some on the feed were optimistic as a result of his willingness to engage, and to take any action at all, but I had little doubt from his responses that it was pure (impure, actually) political posturing. Albeit we continued to supply him with ample documentation from the Hawaii Revised Statutes, state and federal Rules of Evidence, and a September 2000 report by the Federal Government’s own Health and Human Services, Office of the Inspector General (entitled Birth Certificate Fraud) in support of both his right and his responsibility to require proof of eligibility from the State of Hawaii for its obviously-favorite son.

Admiral William F. “Bull” Halsey has famously noted that “There are no great men. Just great challenges which ordinary men, out of necessity, are forced by circumstances to meet.”  He might also have noted that those who fail to do so might indeed be considered “ordinary”, but can in no way be considered “great”…or be considered men at all, for that matter.

James Allen, in his classic monograph, As A Man Thinketh, correctly observed that “Circumstances do not make the man.  They reveal him to himself.”  (He had apparently read the Greek philosopher Epictetus who had observed the same thing some eighteen centuries before.)  So neither Pilate the Prefect, nor Bennett the Secretary (somewhat befittingly) can place the blame for their classic failures elsewhere.

Secondly, both Pilate and Bennett sought to wash their hands of their responsibility in their pivotal roles, or at the very least to minimize the significance of their betrayals. Pilate, of course, did so literally, becoming the classic example of any such futile attempt at self-acquittal.  In the case of the man who would be Arizona’s next governor, however, it didn’t stop there. The State of Arizona’s CAA (Chief Administrative Assistant) apologized that he’d even had to be involved, or been responsible, for his state’s involvement!

Let’s see if we can sort this out. The “secretary” does what he feels compelled to do because enough of his “constituents” (defined as such only by his overly inflated political ambitions) urge him to do something far more substantive than he would ever dream of doing on his own (actually require tangible proof of candidate Obama’s eligibility). But then, while saying “I did all that I could do, legally!” he goes on to apologize to the rest of his “constituents” (other prospective voters) if he has “in any way embarrassed the state” by his actions.

So, unlike his 33 AD Roman counterpart, our contemporary prefect, alleging an inability to do anything to stop the obvious injustice, only regrets that he may have “embarrassed the state” by even pretending to be concerned over the matter!  Translation:  unlike Pontius Pilate, Ken Bennett’s ultimate concern hasn’t so much been with feigning that he did all that he could, but rather, with letting “reasonable (read uniformed) folks” know that he never seriously intended to do the right thing in the first place!

The irony, of course, is that Pilate knew that he had condemned an innocent Man, while Bennett was and is fully aware that he has allowed an obvious fraud (and, therefore, felon) to walk free. Make that to be placed on his state’s sacred ballot to once more seek to attain and occupy the most powerful position on Earth, where he can continue to dismantle both the country and the Constitution which Mr. Bennett has sworn to support and defend!  As with Prefect Pilate, Bennett’s hands were never so unclean….

Against this backdrop, the secretary recently addressed Republican Legislative District 12 at their June 14th meeting.  One can view a YouTube video of the meeting at the Western Center for Journalism, in which the Secretary remarkably begins with: “I think this is very important what happens in this country over the next few months…. As I think of where this country is headed, it scares me to death – what my children and grandchildren; I have two grandsons…and what’s happening is just very very scary.”

He then even more absurdly goes on to quote Barack Obama, as he references the sign on former President Harry Truman’s desk that read “The buck stops here!”  He finishes quoting the man he could have legally kept from occupying the AZ ballot – and ultimately the Oval Office – with: “America has…a failure of leadership!  Americans deserve better!” And then adds “Yes we do!”  I, of course, couldn’t have agreed more, so I immediately fired off the following email to Mr. Bennett:

Dear Ken,

My next writing about this will be available on-line, but [I] wanted to give you a heads up.  The preposterous suggestion that some of us were asking you to “demand that the State of Hawaii deliver Mr. Obama’s original birth certificate to your office” is a complete fabrication.  As the person who spearheaded that whole chain of emails, Ken, and the one who did provide chapter and verse of the Rules of Evidence, which clearly indicate that when there is “probable cause” to suspect that copies of documents are fraudulent, examination of the original is the (obvious) legal recourse [I can easily document what we (and I) specifically requested].

So, unless you are simply of less-than-average intelligence, Ken, you clearly misrepresented the facts, in order to make it appear that you had done all that you could legally do…while “fearing for the future of our nation,” and bemoaning the “failure of leadership” on the part of Mr. Obama himself.  With “respect,” as you put it, Ken, your own “failure to launch” has been on a scale which I have not seen rivaled in my own “brief” lifetime.  I will agree with you, however, that your grandchildren have much to fear…but perhaps for reasons other than those you suggested.

In your defense, Ken, as you are obviously far more Republican than Constitutionalist, your complete lack of grasp of this entire matter is not entirely surprising.  Meanwhile, for the record, the clear reason why Sheriff Joe and Mike Zullo used the carefully selected terms “probable cause to suspect forgery” is that this isn’t there (sic) first rodeo, and they know better than to supply evidence of “prejudging” the investigation before its conclusion; not that there was ever any doubt as to the “authenticity” of the forgery…but I digress.

Tom Ballantyne – Informed Citizen (with Excellent Recall….)

Finally, the illustrious AAS (Administrative Assistant of State) has in recent days bemoaned the denial of the Supreme Court of “Arizona’s request for a stay from the 9th Circuit Court’s ruling that federal voter-registration law supersedes Arizona’s voter registration requirements.”  The irony here is staggering. The press release from the Secretary himself continues:

Arizona filed the request in advance of the forthcoming appeal to the ruling in which the 9th Circuit struck down Arizona’s requirement that residents provide proof of citizenship when they register to vote on the federal form. (Emphasis added.)

Mr. Bennett concludes with this gem:

There isn’t a corner of this state where people are not concerned with voter fraud [How about identity fraud, Ken, in order to appear on the state’s ballot in the first place?] and opposition to the simple act of providing proof that you are legally eligible to participate in our elections is hard to fathom. [Indeed it is, Ken; indeed it is!] (Emphasis added.)

What’s hard to fathom, Ken, is that you would simply take the word of the State of Hawaii when it clearly refused to answer your request (although I don’t recall ever actually seeing it published to date) that it “verify” that the document at WhiteHouse.gov is the same as the one in their archives, stating only that “the information…matches the original record in our file.”  (Astonishingly, the “verification” from Alvin Onaka, Hawaii’s State Registrar, does not even include baby Obama’s date of birth!)

Without going into it in great detail here, here is the preface to Article IX, Rule 901 of the Federal Rules of Evidence:  “(a) In General. To satisfy the requirement of authenticating or identifying an item of evidence, the proponent must produce evidence sufficient to support a finding that the item is what the proponent claims it is.”

In the “Notes” included with the rule itself we read:  “Wigmore describes the need for authentication as ‘an inherent logical necessity.’ [John Henry Wigmore (1863-1943) was the author of Treatise on the Anglo-American System of Evidence in Trials at Common Law.] (Emphasis added.)

Continuing with Rule 901 we read (for those who require further “evidence”!):

(b) Examples. The following are examples only — not a complete list — of evidence that satisfies the requirement:

(7) Evidence About Public Records. Evidence that:

(A) a document was recorded or filed in a public office as authorized by law; or

(B) a purported public record or statement is from the office where items of this kind are kept.

(8) Evidence About Ancient Documents or Data Compilations. For a document or data compilation, evidence that it:

(A) is in a condition that creates no suspicion about its authenticity;

(B) was in a place where, if authentic, it would likely be;

I will begin to wrap this up by stating that it is obvious to all (and an “inherent logical necessity,” according to the country’s foremost expert on trial evidence in its history) that the need for authentication of evidence – and in this case evidence in the form of a document – is itself self-evident.  I will also note that anyone who could authenticate the veracity of key evidence in support of a claim would hasten to do just that, thereby removing all doubt as to its authenticity.

Least I forget, however, our friend Mr. Bennett added one further absurdity to his apparently gleeful and immediate acceptance of the “verification” that he received from the Hawaii Department of Health when addressing the local Republican District meeting a few weeks back.  He noted, while assuring all present in Breitbart-like fashion that he was “not a birther,” and that he “believe[d] that he [the alleged president] was born in Hawaii.” [Like every other in-the-tank Republican - John McCain, Jeff Flake, et al. - the good secretary gives no legal or even reasoned basis for this fully-undocumented assertion in the face of overwhelming (and fully-documented) evidence to the contrary.  He just "believes it" or accepts it - purely on faith, apparently!]

He went on to state with both (zealous?) prescience and the kind of legal acumen that one would hope to find in the man who, on behalf of the citizens of Arizona as well as those of the nation, was seeking to establish legal verification of the eligibility of the man seeking the highest office in the known world, that he “actually believe[d] he [Mr. Obama] was fibbing [!] when he said he was born in Kenya, when he was trying to get into college, and doing things like writing a book, and on, and on, and on…so if there was weird stuff going on, I actually think it was back in his college days because I think he has spent one and a half, or two million dollars, through attorneys, to have all of the college records, and all of that stuff sealed.  So if you’re spending money to seal something, that’s probably where the hanky panky was going on.  If you’re sending your attorneys out to Hawaii to get a copy of the certificate and posting it on your website, perhaps…or I actually think he was born in Hawaii.” [How utterly brilliant!]

So, the president, his handlers, and his surrogates can sleep well, knowing that at least in the case of the hapless Arizona Secretary of State, their ploy of spending several thousand dollars of taxpayer money to fly their attorney to Hawaii to pick up a document that can be both copied and mailed for $10 worked to convince this Einstein that the document she (Attorney Judith Corley) “physically” picked up and brought back with her had to be real-all of the proof to the contrary, produced by the Cold Case Posse within mere blocks from his office, notwithstanding! 

And for the record, Ken, the millions of dollars spent on attorneys were for covering up not just his college records, as you so cleverly suggest, but for covering up virtually his entire past. And that included in large measure keeping any hard-copy certified birth certificate, with a raised seal, from ever seeing the light of day. (And one Savannah Guthrie of NBC handling a hard copy of something, in a room full of his supporters, er, “reporters,” proves little…notwithstanding her nifty promotion a few days ago.)

Ken Bennett is not alone, however.  He is the very picture of today’s Republican Official. He is virtually indistinguishable from John McCain, Jon Kyl, Jeff Flake, John Boehner, Eric Cantor, even Jan Brewer…and I could go on naming names indefinitely – all Republicans and all apparently afraid of their own shadows.  Interestingly (and sadly), this even includes such AZ candidates as Wil Cardon, Matt Salmon, and Kirk Adams, all Republicans running as Washington “outsiders” while caving on this issue!

Until the once “Grand” but definitely “Old” Party gets the memo that the most powerful constituency in its ranks, the Tea Party, is no longer willing to compromise on either the Constitution or the Rule of Law, the GOP will continue its inexorable slide into oblivion. And we, the true mainstream of America, will not be a part of it much longer (because we don’t have much longer!)

Mitt Romney will clearly be better than his opponent, if elected, but if he feels the continuing need of virtually all party loyalists to appease the enemies of all that we hold dear, he may be the last Republican to get that chance!  Meanwhile, Mr. Bennett needn’t waste either his time or his money entertaining any aspirations of being Arizona’s next governor. What he has become of late is the poster-boy for the Peter Principle…and I’m afraid there’s nowhere else for him to hide!

Meanwhile, I’m still awaiting your response to my latest email, Ken.  As offered on many occasions previously, a number of us would still be happy to sit down and discuss this with you face to face….


Tom Ballantyne is the author of three previous books:  The Secret of Life Series, Uncommon Sense…Apparently!, and the just-released, recently-updated Oh Really, O’Reilly!  

Oh Really, O’Reilly! “The Spin Starts Here…Apparently!” is available in full, or in Part I of II,  and Part II of II at Tom’s website:

www.UncommonSenseNow.com

Photo credit: Gage Skidmore (Creative Commons)

Past Lobbying Becomes Issue In Arizona Senate Race

Jeff Flake 2 SC 300x225 Past Lobbying Becomes Issue In Arizona Senate Race

Since his first House campaign a dozen years ago, would-be Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake has worked diligently to cast himself as a conservative gadfly, willing to buck GOP leaders and even a Republican president.

But as a result of the six-term congressman’s work as a lobbyist two decades ago for a Namibian uranium operation with ties to Iran, a GOP primary opponent and Democrats are portraying him as a Washington insider who should not get to succeed retiring Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz.

Well before Flake was a leader in the campaign to eliminate the pet projects and grants that lawmakers add to spending bills, he was a registered foreign agent who represented Namibia and a uranium mine in the southern African nation that gained independence in 1990. Flake has since received $100,000 in contributions from mining interests and voted a number of times against penalties on Iran.

In Washington’s revolving-door climate, it’s not unusual for lawmakers and lobbyists to switch back and forth.

Rep. Jason Altmire, D-Pa., for example, began his political career as a congressional aide, then lobbied on behalf of hospitals for a decade before winning election to the House in 2006. Several lawmakers have worked as lobbyists between service in Congress, including Sens. John Thune, R-S.D., and Dan Coats, R-Ind., and Rep. Dan Lungren, R-Calif.

Read More at OfficialWire. By Jeri Clausing.

ForgeryGate: An Open Letter To My Uncooperative Congressman Jeff Flake (AZ)

Jeff Flake SC ForgeryGate: An Open Letter to My Uncooperative Congressman Jeff Flake (AZ)

Dear Jeff,

You may recall our most recent meeting at the Red Mountain Tea Party, on April 2nd…but then again, you may not.  So let me take just a moment to go over what took place.

You possibly recall my asking “What does your oath, to defend and protect the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic, mean to you?”

I must say that I found your response to be quite revealing, to wit:  “It means that I will support…policies…that give effect to that oath which I’ve taken; that I won’t do anything that…would…put me in a position where I’m violating that oath.  That’s what it means to me.”

In order to be fair, Jeff, perhaps we could review together exactly what that oath contains.  Here it is:

I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter: So help me God.

Oops!  Looks like I misspoke, Jeff.  I said “defend and protect,” when it actually reads “support and defend”!  How clumsy of me…but the meaning, of course, is identical!  There’s obviously more to it – “that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same,” for example, and I presume that that is what you were referencing in your eloquent answer.

My question, however, clearly went to the first stipulation of that sacred oath (which you have now had administered to you by various Speakers five times over the past ten years.)  So I didn’t ask if you yourself would “support…policies…that give effect to that oath,” Jeff, but rather, “What…your oath, to defend and protect the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic, means to you….”

I don’t know if you were “reading ahead,” anticipating where I was going with that question, and thus avoided answering directly…or whether you had simply not considered that critical component of your oath…”So help [you] God.”   I’m sure you know the history of the oath you took, Jeff, starting with the oath taken by the very first Congress in 1779, but we’ll review it just the same.

The stipulation for such an oath was, of course (and still is, of course) contained in Article VI of the Constitution itself.  Here it is:

The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution….

Being very particular to follow the recently ratified Constitution, the first Congress which had sufficient Representatives present by April 1, 1789, to form a quorum, appointed a committee on April 6 to draft a bill on how the oath of office was to be administered.  It was entitled An Act to regulate the Time and Manner of administering certain Oaths, and was signed into law on June 1, 1789, becoming “Statute I,” the first official law in the “Laws of the United States.”  Here is the original language contained in the oath:

I, A. B. [a Representative of the United States in the Congress thereof,] do solemnly swear or affirm (as the case may be) that I will support the Constitution of the United States.

Apparently, the position held by the various parties taking the oath was added at some point for clarification.  This oath remained intact until the time of the Civil War.  From the Senate website (referenced and quoted earlier) we find:

The outbreak of the Civil War quickly transformed the routine act of oath-taking into one of enormous significance. In April of 1861, a time of uncertain and shifting loyalties, President Abraham Lincoln ordered all federal civilian employees within the executive branch to take an expanded oath. When Congress convened for a brief emergency session in July, members echoed the president’s action by enacting legislation requiring employees to take the expanded oath in support of the Union. This oath is the earliest direct predecessor of the modern oath.

The first qualification added was that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.”  While I wasn’t actually there, Jeff, that part seems to stick in my mind of late…. I wonder why?

Now that we have thoroughly refreshed our memories as to the origin and evolution of the oath that you swear before both God and man, let’s look at your “conclusions” regarding the Arpaio Investigation, or that of Mike Zullo and the Cold Case Posse.  Let’s dispense with the nicities at this point and state the obvious, shall we?

Neither you, nor Jon Kyl, nor John McCain have even troubled yourselves to watch either of the fully-recorded press conferences on March 1 and March 31, 2012.  If by some bizarre stretch of the imagination that you have, then of necessity, you are alleging that Sheriff Arpaio and his posse are guilty of prevarication (a fancy word for “lying”) on this most serious issue of historic national import.

This, of course, raises an issue which pretty well sums up the truth of the whole matter, Jeff, and it is this:  Given the seriousness of the charges, if there were substantive points raised by the posse’s investigation, which could be contested, we would have seen that as the immediate response from the White House and its army of attorneys and media cohorts, would we not?  But what did we hear instead?  Alinsky 101:

5) Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon (Alinsky 1972: 128).

13) Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it (Alinsky 1972: 130).

Having watched both press conferences (and attended the second of the two as well), I am keenly aware – as should you and your own AZ contingency of “representatives” of the People (I’m referring to the Republicans) – of the stark contrast between the questions asked by “ordinary” people, citizens, and the vapid attack dogs apparently in the full-time employment of the state.  Curiously, Jeff, your response mirrored that of the latter in substance…or, that is, in the glaring lack thereof.

Your first response was potent, even menacing:

I’m the number one opponent in the House or the Senate of the president’s agenda, so I do not think much of the president’s agenda. I think that he’s going in the wrong direction on the economy and a number of issues…

You came out swinging, Jeff, but in the end, you sounded like a junkyard poodle, lacking both bark and bite…not to mention either facts or reason:

but I think that he is our president; I think he was duly elected , and I believe he is a citizen; and I do believe it is a distraction…and my job…my job…my job is to make sure that we beat him in November.  If we do that….

I’ll stop you here again, Jeff, just as I did when we last met…on tape.  I assume you are, at least, of average intelligence, although admittedly I have no basis for that assumption,other than, perhaps, wishful thinking.  In any case, I would expect that – at a minimum – someone of your rank, distinction, or class would base his opinions or beliefs on something…anything, Jeff.

So what is it that has convinced you that “he’s a citizen”?  If you had bothered to watch even the preliminary results of the posse’s six-month investigation presented at either of the Arpaio Press Conferences, you would have seen clearly that the man whom you pretend to oppose (but so strenuously “support and defend” ) lacks the most fundamental of all identifying documents– a real, certified (hard copy) birth certificate…not a digitally-created virtual image thereof.

Like both the brilliant and tenacious judges, Michael Malihi of Georgia and Jeff Masin of New Jersey, who without any supporting evidence whatsoever (or witnesses – including the court-defying defendant, Barack Hussein Obama, in the Georgia case), unilaterally proclaimed the most enigmatic president in all of American history “born in Hawaii.”  (In an unprecedented as well as uncharacteristic show of judicial restraint, however, the two prescient jurists stopped short of affirming his virgin birth…which would have been problematic in any case.)

Having heard enough of your woefully unsubstantiated defense of the most undocumented occupant of the People’s House (when not off at a five-star resort in some exotic vacation spot or golf course) in the two hundred and twenty-three year history of the country, I did what you may never have done, Jeff, and asked the People:

“How many of you would like to see Congress investigate the president?  Please stand up if you can!”…at which point the vast majority of those present stood up, amidst cries of “impeach him,” etc.  A mutual friend of ours, Jeff, upon watching our encounter via the Internet (along with tens of thousands of other voter/constituents) said to me:  “You kind of put Jeff between a rock and a hard spot”…to which I replied, “No, Jeff did that to himself!”

To which I will only add, Jeff, that next time – if there is a next time, or a next term – I suggest that you and every other public “servant” named herein take a second look at your sacred oaths of office and recall vividly what it entails…especially the preeminent first and final points:

I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic…. So help me God.

Perhaps we’ll meet again soon, Jeff.  Until then….

 

Sincerely,

Tom Ballantyne – A Constituent (one of those you are also sworn to represent)

 

P.S.  While I am, in fact, indignant over your failure to stand up for the obvious and irrefutable truth here, Jeff – apparently for fear of retribution from the Ruling Class, in both the establishment media and the “leadership” of your own party – I am sincere in my hope that my standing for the truth, no matter how uncomfortable that may be to some, will cause you to reflect seriously on your one and only authorized, and therefore legitimate role…that of upholding, as well as defending, our sacred and God-inspired Constitution.

 

Author of Oh Really, O’Reilly! and Uncommon Sense…Apparently!

 

www.NewVoiceOfAmerica.com

www.UncommonSenseNow.com