Good Night, America?

"I don't want to kill him. I want him in jail. You understand? In jail. In a cell. Behind bars. Locked, stopped, strapped--and alive. He'll get up when they tell him to. He'll eat what they give him. He'll move when he's told to move and stop when he's told. He'll walk to the jute mill, when he's told, and he'll work as he's told. They'll push him, if he doesn't move fast enough, and they'll slap his face when they feel like it, and they'll beat him with rubber hose if he doesn't obey. And he'll obey. He'll take orders. He'll take orders!"

With the eleventh-hour passing on Friday of a mammoth 1300 page “Cap and Trade” bill in the House of Representatives -- which we know not a single Representative read, given that the bill appeared in their hands only a day before the vote -- and with it all but certain to be passed in the Senate and utterly certain to be signed into law by Lord Obama, Voldemort heir to the D.C. throne, we, the "muggles" (in Harry Potter parlance) who exist outside that world of witchcraft and sorcery, enter a new phase of American history, one that the “Death-Eaters” have come to rule.

I can hardly resist the parallel of Obama to Potter’s nemesis Lord Voldemort – I know of no better example of an over-the-top power-lusting villain in literature who can compare to the over-the-top power-lusting man now occupying the White House. The closest example is Ellsworth Toohey in Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead – but more on that shortly.

“Cap and Trade” is another in a series of coups that now confront us, beginning with Obama’s own election. That he is a committed Marxist (as I have long argued) few can reasonably doubt now -- he has seized control of the White House and demonstrated that fact time and again with the assistance of a collective of lesser marxists (small ‘m’) in the Congress and Executive and Judicial branches. The evil they are perpetrating right now is to thoroughly and effectively transform America into Amerika, and though many are involved in the murder of the American achievement – the first government in history that enshrined individual rights -- the blood of immediate responsibility is primarily on Obama's hands. He himself is merely the heir to a long succession of illegitimate intellectual fathers and killers, but however it all plays out, the symphony of destruction we are now witnessing is being brilliantly and frighteningly orchestrated by Obama himself.

Observe, for instance, the masterful way he distracted the country with the ABC television networks’ faux health care “debate” -- while slipping the Cap and Trade joker under the political poker table. Or the way he appeared to oppose the nationalization of GM – only to take the same 60% share that Hugo Chavez has taken in every nationalized Venezuelan company.

You can’t put everything at the feet of Obama, of course, but the dominoes were certainly set up for him to have “Cap and Trade” passed once he got in office. Observe how only a few months before he took office 5 members of the Supreme Court lined up at gunpoint – the guns in their own hands -- and voted to allow the EPA to regulate every single aspect of of every single American life in the name of controlling “greenhouse gases”. A remarkable conclusion founded on no valid or even believable constitutional interpretation and even more dubious scientific assertion. Even if you don’t subscribe to conspiracies of ideas or otherwise, at least you have to marvel at the scope of it all.

But if you do lean that way, you might wonder if John McCain’s own candidacy and gullibility was a part of the Obama plan. Could there have been a more perfect candidate to “oppose” Obama? McCain was not just an intellectual bumbler and an incoherent fool, but an older, less charismatic and more watered-down version of Obama himself. One has to wonder how much added support McCain was given to achieve his nomination and thereby provide Obama the maximum elective advantage. Not that McCain hadn’t worked for years to be nominated, and in a field of mostly contemptable candidates he had a good shot without any help -- but one does have to wonder why he scored the nomination so handily.

If you really want a conspiracy (don’t run away now), observe the timing of the economic collapse only weeks before the election – most economists have dismissed that possibility with contempt, but whether the timing was an accident or not (certainly the preconditions were in place), I always have to return to the Goldfinger principle: once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, three times is enemy action. The timing of that collapse gained Obama at least 5 to 10 points at a moment in the election when he needed it.

Put aside the conspiracies. Before the election some people told me Obama was nothing more than an opportunist and pragmatist, simply using the vehicle of Leftist politics to gain office. They said he would soften and modify his positions once in power. But if you at least accept a conspiracy of ideas and fellow travelers, observe that since his election, every single action taken by Obama has been to deepen the crisis and expand it. He has mercilessly used the crises he’s inherited, and not let up one iota on his legislative agenda -- including Cap and Trade and Health Care, no matter the unarguable harm they will do.

Is Obama a simple pragmatic power luster without strong intellectual ideals? I see no evidence for it. In fact, he has lived up to and beyond my worst fears and expectations. He is much worse: he is a committed and talented Left-wing ideologue who will do anything to promote his convictions.

For a more serious example, I'm strongly reminded of Ellsworth Toohey in The Fountainhead. Toohey, the arch power-lusting Marxist, is nemesis to hero Howard Roark, and near the novel’s end, he makes a speech stating his motives, methods and goals that is prophetically relevant to events going on today in Washington. For that reason, it bears quoting at length. If my interjections annoy, ignore them, but at least read each line by Toohey himself and relate it to what’s unfolding today, if you want to understand Obama’s own immediate goals, means and ultimate ends. Do it for no other reason than your own self-preservation.

In the novel, a pretentious mediocrity par excellance, Peter Keating, has been helped his entire career by Toohey, to serve Toohey's ultimate end of destroying the independent men represented by Roark. At the juncture of Toohey’s speech, Roark faces trial and jail because of actions he was forced to take because of Toohey. Keating’s own life is now in tatters after falling from Toohey’s grace, and only now has he come to realize Toohey's motives in helping him build a fraudulent career founded on lies and Toohey’s influence. Keating has never been a man to confront facts, but in his shock, he asks Toohey a rare honest question:

"Why do you want to kill Howard?"

This was the 1930’s. In our world today, the statists and collectivists in Washington (Obama, Pelosi, Reid, Waxman, Gore, ad nauseum, and unfortunately I include far too many Republicans under that “ad nauseum” part) for the first time have virtually unbridled authority over us. Is their goal really to help us "conserve energy", "save the environment", "ensure affordable health care" or any number of other so-called lofty ideals? Or something else? Toohey answers that question in his reply to Keating:

"I don't want to kill him. I want him in jail. You understand? In jail. In a cell. Behind bars. Locked, stopped, strapped--and alive. He'll get up when they tell him to. He'll eat what they give him. He'll move when he's told to move and stop when he's told. He'll walk to the jute mill, when he's told, and he'll work as he's told. They'll push him, if he doesn't move fast enough, and they'll slap his face when they feel like it, and they'll beat him with rubber hose if he doesn't obey. And he'll obey. He'll take orders. He'll take orders!"

This is the real motive of those pushing "Cap and Trade", "Health Care Reform" and other big government remedies -- especially the motive of the behind-the-scenes operators: the humanitarians, "social activists" and intellectuals of the altruist status quo. All too many average people today, like Keating, don't grasp that.

"Ellsworth!" Keating screamed. "Ellsworth!"

"You make me sick. Can't you take the truth? No, you want your sugar-coating. That's why I prefer Gus Webb. There's one who has no illusions."

Gus Webb was a thug of sorts in the novel, who was only one step removed from those who would simply crack your skull open to get what they want. Obama is a thug like Webb, but he is enabling the other kind, who are now beginning to crawl out from under their rocks.

"You're a complete success, Peter, as far as I'm concerned. But at times I have to want to turn away from the sight of my successes."

Keating stood by the dresser, his shoulders slumped, his eyes empty.

What Toohey means by "success", of course, is far different than the achievements of the giants who made America, whom men like Keating have betrayed. Every member of Congress who voted for the Cap and Trade Bill, or who voted to nationalize GM, or who will vote for National Health Care is either a Toohey or a Keating. There’s no middle ground. None of them are giants -- their role model is the lilliputian.

"...So that's what he's done for you--and this is what you do in return....No, I take back the insults, Peter. You had to do it. Who are you to reverse the laws of history? Do you know what this paper is? The impossible perfect, the dream of the centuries, the aim of all of mankind's great schools of thought.

In the novel, “this paper” is a contract between Keating and Roark that incriminates both in the destruction of a housing complex Roark designed, which Keating took credit for and Toohey corrupted. Think of “this paper” as any act of legislation that shackles the independent man to his masters in Washington. Call it “Cap and Trade”, “TARP”, the income tax amendment, the Federal Reserve Act -- or the New York Times.  Call it any other four letter word; they all serve the same purpose:

"You harnessed him. You made him work for you. You took his achievement, his reward, his money, his glory, his name. We only thought and wrote about it. You gave a practical demonstration. Every philosopher from Plato up should thank you. Here it is, the philosopher's stone--for turning gold into lead.

You can be sure Obama and company know how to turn gold into lead: they don’t want you to succeed; they want you shackled, even if it ultimately means their own death. (See Galt’s speech in Atlas Shrugged for a full explanation of this “death premise”.) Their goal is the destruction of America because it is successful, and good. As Ayn Rand said, their’s is a “hatred of the good for being the good.”

The Left has a host of motives for this – hatred of achievement, hatred of strength, hatred of virtue, hatred of independence, hatred of happiness. The common theme is hate -- and the goal of any hate is the destruction of that which you hate. The United States of America made possible achievement, strength, virtue, independence and happiness – so the goal of the Left is the destruction of the United States. (Which, as an aside, may eventually be achieved literally via Obama’s other goal -- unilateral disarmament, an agenda now well underway – stay tuned.)

" ...You make me sick," said Toohey. "God, how you make me sick, all you hypocritical sentimentalists! You go along with me, you spout what I teach you, you profit by it--but you haven't the grace to admit to yourself what you're doing. You turn green when you see the truth. I suppose that's in the nature of your natures and that's precisely my chief weapon--but God! I get tired of it. I must allow myself a moment free of you. That's what I have to put on an act for all my life--for mean little mediocrities like you. To protect your sensibilities, your posturings, your conscience and the peace of the mind you haven't got. That's the price I pay for what I want--but at least I know that I've got to pay it. And I have no illusions about the price or the purchase."

"What do you...want...Ellsworth?"

The cashing in is when Toohey reveals the essence of his lust:

"Power, Petey." ...Toohey was smiling, almost indifferently.

"You...always said..." Keating began thickly, and stopped.

"I've always said just that. Clearly, precisely and openly. It's not my fault if you couldn't hear. You could, of course. You didn't want to. Which was safer than deafness--for me. I said I intended to rule. Like all my spiritual predecessors. But I'm luckier than they were. I inherited the fruit of their efforts and I shall be the one who'll see the great dream made real. I see it all around me today. I recognize it. I don't like it. I didn't expect to like it. Enjoyment is not my destiny. I shall find such satisfaction as my capacity permits. I shall rule."

As he says, they've said it all along, but very few have been willing to fully believe it, much less the implications. Apologists for Obama have attempted to whitewash his ambitions with good intentions, but whether it’s his presidency or the next, the reality is that the jackboots are coming. They have to. Power is of little use to power lusters unless they can use it.

They have a method of achieving it. Obama might not be willing to reveal that method (though many have noted his allegiance to Saul Alinsky), but Toohey willingly states it -- what intellectuals and moralists since Kant have taught:

"...It's the soul, Peter, the soul. Not whips or swords or fire or guns. That's why the Caesars, the Attilas, the Napoleons were fools and did not last. We will. The soul, Peter, is that which can't be ruled. It must be broken. Drive a wedge in, get your fingers on it--and the man is yours. You won't need a whip--he'll bring it to you and ask to be whipped. Set him in reverse--and his own mechanism will do your work for you. Use him against himself."

Emphasis mine. Look at the legions of executives who traveled to Washington to grovel for TARP money, who trumpet their sacrifices in support of "Green" initiatives and service to the public. Ask if Toohey's approach hasn't worked. They shamelessly embrace his moral code -- the creed of self-immolation – and they do it, at least in part, because they fail to understand Toohey’s method, even while accepting his ideal:

"Want to know how it's done? See if I ever lied to you. See if you haven't heard all this for years, but didn't want to hear, and the fault is yours, not mine. There are many ways. Here's one. Make man feel small. Make him feel guilty.

What Ayn Rand called the "sanction of the victim". You see it everywhere around us today.

"Kill his aspiration and his integrity. That's difficult. The worst among you gropes for an ideal in his own twisted way. Kill integrity by internal corruption. Use it against itself. Direct it toward a goal destructive of all integrity. Preach selflessness. Tell man that he must live for others. Tell men that altruism is the ideal. Not a single one of them has ever achieved it and not a single one ever will. His every living instinct screams against it.

If you want to know the seed of the United States’ destruction, it’s in the hypocrisy of too many people who live their lives as they should, for themselves – because there’s no other way to live – while consciously and publicly upholding altruism, when their every living instinct screams rightfully against it.

"But don't you see what you accomplish? Man realizes that he's incapable of what he's accepted as the noblest virtue--and it gives him a sense of guilt, of sin, of his own basic unworthiness. Since the supreme ideal is beyond his grasp, he gives up eventually all ideals, all aspiration, all sense of his personal value. He feels himself obliged to preach what he can't practice. But one can't be good halfway or honest approximately. To preserve one's integrity is a hard battle. Why preserve that which one knows to be corrupt already? His soul gives up its self-respect. You've got him. He'll obey. He'll be glad to obey--because he can't trust himself, he feels uncertain, he feels unclean.

To understand this, look at the posture of almost every businessman who testifies before Congress: on his knees. For instance, when the automobile executives testified after apologizing for flying corporate jets to D.C.

"That's one way. Here's another. Kill man's sense of values. Kill his capacity to recognize greatness or to achieve it. Great men can't be ruled. We don't want any great men. Don't deny the conception of greatness. Destroy it from within. The great is the rare, the difficult, the exceptional.

The goal of almost every history curriculum in schools today is to destroy all greatness by either ignoring it, or by finding feet of clay. Either is just as effective.

"Set up standards of achievement open to all, to the least, to the most inept--and you stop the impetus to effort in all men, great or small. You stop all incentive to improvement, to excellence, to perfection. Laugh at Roark and hold Peter Keating as a great architect. You've destroyed architecture. Build up Lois Cook and you've destroyed literature. Hail Ike and you've destroyed the theater. Glorify Lancelot Clokey and you've destroyed the press. Don't set out to raze all shrines--you'll frighten men. Enshrine mediocrity--and the shrines are razed.

Ever noticed how children in schools these days are praised for the most insignificant achievements, and often not even that – simply for trying? And often, not even for trying.

"Then there's another way. Kill by laughter. Laughter is an instrument of human joy. Learn to use it as a weapon of destruction. Turn it into a sneer. It's simple. Tell them to laugh at everything. Tell them that a sense of humor is an unlimited virtue. Don't let anything remain sacred in a man's soul--and his soul won't be sacred to him. Kill reverence and you've killed the hero in man. One doesn't reverence with a giggle. He'll obey and he'll set no limits to his obedience--anything goes--nothing is too serious.

Watch Comedy Central or SNL or Letterman to understand that one.

"Here's another way. This is most important. Don't allow men to be happy. Happiness is self-contained and self-sufficient. Happy men have no time and no use for you. Happy men are free men. So kill their joy in living. Take away from them whatever is dear or important to them. Never let them have what they want.

Do you see how the method works? Applied to any issue on the Left’s agenda, Cap and Trade or otherwise, the approach and implementation is simple: mock them for any achievement or virtue, take whatever they have, never let them have more, and above all, don't let them be happy.

"Make them feel that the mere fact of a personal desire is evil. Bring them to a state where saying ‘I want' is no longer a natural right, but a shameful admission. Altruism is of great help in this. Unhappy men will come to you. They'll need you. They'll come for consolation, for support, for escape. Nature allows no vacuum. Empty man's soul--and the space is yours to fill.

In this world, there are three kinds of people: those who want to rule (a small minority), those who want to be ruled (unfortunately, a majority at this epoch in time), and those who want neither. Obama is of the first kind, and his legions are of the second kind – those whose empty souls he has filled with promises of “hope” and “change”.

"I don't see why you should look so shocked, Peter. This is the oldest one of all. Look back at history. Look at any great system of ethics, from the Orient up. Didn't they all preach the sacrifice of personal joy? Under all the complications of verbiage, haven't they all had a single leitmotif: sacrifice, renunciation, self-denial? Haven't you been able to catch their theme song--'Give up, give up, give up, give up'?

There you have the essence of the creed of “energy independence”.

"Look at the moral atmosphere of today. Everything enjoyable, from cigarettes to sex to ambition to the profit motive, is considered depraved or sinful. Just prove that a thing makes men happy--and you've damned it. That's how far we've come. We've tied happiness to guilt. And we've got mankind by the throat. Throw your first-born into a sacrificial furnace--lie on a bed of nails--go into the desert to mortify the flesh--don't dance--don't go to the movies on Sunday--don't try to get rich--don't smoke--don't drink. It's all the same line. The great line. Fools think that taboos of this nature are just nonsense. Something left over, old-fashioned. But there's always a purpose in nonsense.

Far too many people on the Right take altruism seriously (the neo-Cons most notoriously, but not at all exclusively), and this is why they lose every battle or simply and openly ally with the enemy. As Ayn Rand has noted (once again), in any battle over basic principles, the most consistent will always win. (John McCain and the Republicans, are you listening?) Toohey now comes to his mea culpa:

"Don't bother to examine a folly--ask yourself only what it accomplishes.

Remember what I said about Obama: every action he has taken has been to deepen and expand the economic crisis -- and he hasn’t let up on his legislative agenda one iota, even though it will deepen and expand the crisis. Don't bother to examine a folly--ask yourself what it accomplishes.

"Every system of ethics that preached sacrifice grew into a world power and ruled millions of men. Of course, you must dress it up. You must tell people that they'll achieve a superior kind of happiness by giving up everything that makes them happy. You don't have to be too clear about it. Use big vague words. 'Universal Harmony'--'Eternal Spirit'--'Divine Purpose'--'Nirvana'--'Paradise'--'Racial Supremacy'--'The Dictatorship of the Proletariat.' Internal corruption, Peter. That's the oldest one of all.

"The farce has been going on for centuries and men still fall for it. Yet the test should be so simple: just listen to any prophet and if you hear him speak of sacrifice--run. Run faster than from a plague. It stands to reason that where there's sacrifice, there's someone collecting sacrificial offerings.

How does Lord Obama talk about getting through this economic crisis? How does his wife speak of AmeriKorp? One word: sacrifice.

"Where there's service, there's someone being served. The man who speaks to you of sacrifice, speaks of slaves and masters. And intends to be the master.

Think about that one for a long minute: it’s crucial to understanding Obama and his “death-eaters”: The man who speaks to you of sacrifice speaks of slaves and masters. And intends to be the master.

"But if ever you hear a man telling you that you must be happy, that it's your natural right, that your first duty is to yourself--that will be the man who's not after your soul. That will be the man who has nothing to gain from you. But let him come and you'll scream your empty heads off, howling that he's a selfish monster. So the racket is safe for many, many centuries.

That man is the third kind I mentioned.

There is a deeper level to Toohey’s method that even Obama and his minions probably don’t even grasp – because they are themselves pawns in a much bigger game, one run by the intellectuals who long ago seized control of every institution of higher learning, including Obama’s alma mater, Harvard:

"...you might have noticed something. I said, 'It stands to reason.' Do you see? Men have a weapon against you. Reason. So you must be very sure to take it away from them. Cut the props from under it. But be careful. Don't deny outright. Never deny anything outright, you give your hand away. Don't say reason is evil--though some have gone that far and with astonishing success. Just say that reason is limited. That there's something above it. What? You don't have to be too clear about it either. The field's inexhaustible. 'Instinct'--'Feeling'--'Revelation'--'Divine Intuition'--'Dialectic Materialism.' If you get caught at some crucial point and somebody tells you that your doctrine doesn't make sense--you're ready for him. You tell him that there's something above sense. That here he must not try to think, he must feel. He must believe. Suspend reason and you play it deuces wild. Anything goes in any manner you wish whenever you need it. You've got him. Can you rule a thinking man? We don't want any thinking men."

That is, eliminate them by undermining their uniquely human faculty: their conceptual ability. Make them congenital dependents born of state-run schools and they will accept any charismatic father-figure as Der Fuhrer.

Rarely has the results of this method been more eloquently demonstrated than when the TARP was willingly pulled over so many businessmen who simply rolled over like lap dogs under the tent of government largesse and relegated their judgment to the White House, the Congress, the Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve, in the hope that they would stop the economic collapse caused by the White House, the Congress, the Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve.

"...Peter, you've heard all this. You've seen me practicing it for ten years. You see it being practiced all over the world. Why are you disgusted? You have no right to sit there and stare at me with the virtuous superiority of being shocked. You're in on it. You've taken your share and you've got to go along.

And so they are, while taking the rest of us along for the ride on this insane Evil Kneivel jump across the Grand Canyon of Unreason in Washington. Where are we going? How will we get there? What greets us on the other side?

"...I'll tell you. The world of the future. The world I want. A world of obedience and of unity. A world where the thought of each man will not be his own, but an attempt to guess the thought of the brain of his neighbor who'll have no thought of his own but an attempt to guess the thought of the next neighbor who'll have no thought--and so on, Peter, around the globe. Since all must agree with all. A world where no man will hold a desire for himself, but will direct all his efforts to satisfy the desires of his neighbor who'll have no desires except to satisfy the desires of the next neighbor who'll have no desires--around the globe, Peter. Since all must serve all.

"A world in which man will not work for so innocent an incentive as money, but for that headless monster--prestige. The approval of his fellows--their good opinion--the opinion of men who'll be allowed to hold no opinion. An octopus, all tentacles and no brain. Judgment, Peter! Not judgment, but public polls. An average drawn upon zeroes--since no individuality will be permitted.

"A world with its motor cut off and a single heart, pumped by hand. My hand--and the hands of a few, a very few other men like me. Those who know what makes you tick--you great, wonderful average, you who have not risen in fury when we called you the average, the little, the common, you who've liked and accepted those names. You'll sit enthroned and enshrined, you, the little people, the absolute ruler to make all past rulers squirm with envy, the absolute, the unlimited, God and Prophet and King combined. Vox populi. The average, the common, the general.

"Do you know the proper antonym for Ego? Bromide, Peter. The rule of the bromide. But even the trite has to be originated by someone at some time. We'll do the originating. Vox dei. We'll enjoy unlimited submission--from men who've learned nothing except to submit. We'll call it 'to serve.'

"We'll give out medals for service. You'll fall over one another in a scramble to see who can submit better and more. There will be no other distinction to seek. No other form of personal achievement. Can you see Howard Roark in the picture? No? Then don't waste time on foolish questions. Everything that can't be ruled, must go.

"And if freaks persist in being born occasionally, they will not survive beyond their twelfth year.

Toohey means, beyond twelve, a child’s intellect will be subverted by his teachers (read Ayn Rand’s novelette “Anthem” to understand), but as I said in a previous essay, give it time and something more sinister could be threatened. That one is probably not for Obama’s time, but when shortages get really severe down the road, you will hear calls to control birth-rates (as in England, today), and when starvation hits – calls for more. The Chinese government is good at this one.

"When their brain begins to function, it will feel the pressure and it will explode. The pressure gauged to a vacuum. Do you know the fate of deep-sea creatures brought out to sunlight? So much for future Roarks. The rest of you will smile and obey. Have you noticed that the imbecile always smiles? Man's first frown is the first touch of God on his forehead. The touch of thought. But we'll have neither God nor thought. Only voting by smiles. Automatic levers--all saying yes...

Smiles -- Obama’s most famous attribute. The smile that won an election, along with a lot of Hope and Change – about a billion dollars worth of change, actually, in nickels and dimes he found laying about in furniture and clothes dryers overseas.

"...Peter, my poor old friend, I'm the most selfless man you've every known. I have less independence than you, whom I just forced to sell your soul. You've used people at least for the sake of what you could get from them for yourself. I want nothing for myself. I use people for the sake of what I can do to them. It's my only function and satisfaction. I have no private purpose. I want power. I want my world of the future. Let all live for all. Let all sacrifice and none profit. Let all suffer and none enjoy. Let progress stop. Let all stagnate. There's equality in stagnation. All subjugated to the will of all. Universal slavery--without even the dignity of a master. Slavery to slavery. A great circle--and a total equality. The world of the future."

There you have the essence of Obama’s ultimate purpose, and the purpose of “Cap and Trade” in particular: the destruction of all progress, of all technology, of all human achievement, of all human happiness.

"Ellsworth...you're..."

"Insane? Afraid to say it? There you sit and the world's written all over you, your last hope. Insane? Look around you. Pick up any newspaper and read the headlines. Isn't it coming? Isn't it here? Every single thing I told you? Isn't Europe swallowed already and we're stumbling on to follow?

It has, it is, we are.

"Everything I said is contained in a single word--collectivism. And isn't that the god of our century? To act together. To think--together. To feel--together. To unite, to agree, to obey. To obey, to serve, to sacrifice. Divide and conquer--first. But then--unite and rule.

Lot’s of calls for “unity” today, and collectivism, yes, that is his ideal, but as Leonard Peikoff said in The Ominous Parallels (circa 1980), the practical result is that this country is headed towards fascism – state control of everything while preserving the appearance of property rights. Exhibit A: GM and a Chavez-sanctioned 60% government stake. Others have been criticized as crazy for making the comparison, but there is more than an eerie similarity to the rise of the Nazis in Weimar Germany.

"...Remember the Roman Emperor who said he wished humanity had a single neck so he could cut it? People have laughed at him for centuries. But we'll have the last laugh. We've accomplished what he couldn't accomplish. We've taught men to unite. This makes one neck ready for one leash. We found the magic word. Collectivism. Look at Europe, you fool. Can't you see past the guff and recognize the essence? One country is dedicated to the proposition that man has no rights, that the collective is all. The individual held as evil, the mass--as God. No motive and no virtue permitted--except that of service to the proletariat. That's one version.

"Here's another. A country dedicated to the proposition that man has no rights, that the State is all. The individual held as evil, the race--as God. No motive and no virtue permitted--except that of service to the race. Am I raving or is this the cold reality of two continents already?

Remember, this was written during the rise of the Nazis and the communists. If you think the “Thousand Points of Light” Republicans offer an alternative to the Left, however, think again. When both sides embrace the same principle,

"Watch the pincer movement. If you're sick of one version, we push you into the other. We get you coming and going. We've closed the doors. We've fixed the coin. Heads--collectivism, and tails--collectivism. Fight the doctrine which slaughters the individual with a doctrine which slaughters the individual. Give up your soul to a council--or give it up to a leader. But give it up, give it up, give it up. My technique, Peter. Offer poison as food and poison as antidote. Go fancy on the trimmings, but hang on to the main objective. Give the fools a choice, let them have their fun--but don't forget the only purpose you have to accomplish. Kill the individual. Kill man's soul. The rest will follow automatically. Observe the state of the world as of the present moment. Do you still think I'm crazy, Peter?"

The response you can expect from the Keatings in America to the falling dominoes of Cap and Trade, National Health Care, ad infinitum, is: evasion, incipient nervous breakdown and potential psychosis, driven by an unwillingness to confront what they have betrayed, and an inability to let go their own destroyers:

"Keating sat on the floor, his legs spread out. He lifted one hand and studied his fingertips, then put it to his mouth and bit off a hangnail. But the movement was deceptive; the man was reduced to a single sense, the sense of hearing... Keating lifted his head. His voice had the quality of a down payment on terror; it was not frightened, but it held the advance echoes of the next hour to come:

"Don't go, Ellsworth."

Toohey stood over him, and laughed softly.

"That's the answer, Peter. That's my proof. You know me for what I am, you know what I've done to you, you have no illusions of virtue left. But you can't leave me and you'll never be able to leave me. You've obeyed me in the name of ideals. You'll go on obeying me without ideals. Because that's all you're good for now....Good night, Peter."

Unless people wake up right now to oppose what’s being done to them, wake up and defend their rights to exist, prosper and pursue their own happiness as free individuals -- it will soon be good night, America.

Government Motors

http://despair.com/gomo.html

I've always found this to be a hilarious website, and I couldn't resist adding my own 2009 interpretations to some of their other posters.

Robb

The Treasury Department and TARP:

Government that will save us, and their past accomplishments:

Team Obama in action:

The Public Response:

Geithner in action:

The Executive branch on the job:

Congress on the job:

The American Business community supporting Obama:

Hard-working Americans under the Obama Plan:

General Motors under the Obama Plan:

The Democrat view of Capitalism:

The Republican Response:

Anyone who believes the Government is here to help:

Washington's approach to the American Dream:

Their approach towards the rest of us:

Their Plan to save us:

Their actual ability:

Their highest real job qualification (and maybe not even that):

Their Best Efforts:

...and the result:

Their attitude towards responsibility:

Our individual prospects for the future:

Our prospects as a nation so long as people believe government is the solution:

Bedtime for Bongo meets the Banana Republic

When longtime dictator Omar Bongo died last week, he left behind at least 66 bank accounts. The first family owned 45 homes in France, including at least 14 in Paris and 11 on the French Riviera. And they boasted of 19 or more luxury cars, including a Bugatti sports model that cost the Republic of Gabon $1.5 million. But most of the country Bongo governed for 41 years is still covered in jungle. A third of its people live in poverty so dire that some dig through the trash dump to feed their children. The contrast makes it all the more striking that hundreds of thousands of those people lined the streets of the capital this week to bid goodbye to the 73-year-old ruler who bled their country dry.

This is what happens when the people of a country possess, or acquire, a tribal mentality. (See Ayn Rand's essay, "The Missing Link", in her collection, Philosophy: Who Needs It.)

''The Gabonese... point of reference is the village -- and in the village, no one questions the chief,'' said Anges Ratanga Atoz, a political science professor at Libreville's Omar Bongo University. ''And after all, what did Bongo do that was so bad? Did he kill anyone? No.''

It takes a village, alright, to make the standards of approval so abysmally low:

An estimated 400 families spend their days digging with bare hands through the valley of trash... ''If we find a piece of meat, we shake it off, take it home and give it to our wives to cook,'' said 41-year-old Crepin Edou, one of the scavengers who was born the year Bongo took office.

When asked about the president's massive wealth abroad, he shrugged. Overall, Bongo was a good ruler, he said, pointing out that unlike many other African countries, Gabon has never had a civil war.

''We may be poor,'' he said, ''but at least I have the right to dig through the trash in peace without worrying about a bullet hitting me.''

This is what we can expect from many in the cult of personality surrounding Obama, illustrating that there is a certain danger in the strategy of electing the worst possible candidate in the hope of galvanizing opposition to his ideas by means of his failures. (Although some might argue McCain was our own worst possible candidate... it depends on your timeframe and a host of other factors.) Maybe they prefer the man to his failures? Maybe they prefer the intangibles of a man's perceived "leadership" to the tangibles of freedom and a robust economy? There are other precedents. Cuba and Castro. Or even FDR.

''I have a place to sleep. And I have just enough to eat,'' she offered as an explanation. ''He was the only president I knew -- so he was like our father.''

How can it happen here?

With each passing decade, he consolidated power. He turned his country into a single-party state. Until 1990, he was the only candidate in elections. When opposition parties formed, he allegedly had supporters bussed from town to town to vote multiple times. In 2003, Bongo changed the constitution to get rid of term limits so he could continue running for life.

Kind of sounds like the ACORN playbook, doesn't it? Have a banana. That's the kind of republic we're turning into.

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/06/20/world/AP-AF-Gabon-Death-of-a-Dictator.html

June 20, 2009

'Gabon Weeps' for Strongman Despite Lost Riches

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Filed at 10:44 a.m. ET

LIBREVILLE, Gabon (AP) -- When longtime dictator Omar Bongo died last week, he left behind at least 66 bank accounts. The first family owned 45 homes in France, including at least 14 in Paris and 11 on the French Riviera. And they boasted of 19 or more luxury cars, including a Bugatti sports model that cost the Republic of Gabon $1.5 million.

But most of the country Bongo governed for 41 years is still covered in jungle. A third of its people live in poverty so dire that some dig through the trash dump to feed their children.

The contrast makes it all the more striking that hundreds of thousands of those people lined the streets of the capital this week to bid goodbye to the 73-year-old ruler who bled their country dry. Women wept and waved signs that said, ''Merci Papa'' -- thank you, father. Businesses put up billboards with messages of loss, such as: ''Gabon weeps.''

On a continent that has seen more than its share of presidents-turned-dictators, Gabon is perhaps one of the best examples of what analysts call ''the chief complex.'' So long was Bongo in power that his countrymen came to view him as a hereditary chief, a man whose authority is unquestioned.

The acceptance raises the question of what will happen now in a nation that calls itself a democracy but has in fact never known one. Gabon -- where Bongo won election six times in a row -- will hold its next elections within 90 days. And already, several of the estimated 30 children he fathered are rumored to be jockeying for power.

''The Gabonese don't know what democracy looks like. Their point of reference is the village -- and in the village, no one questions the chief,'' said Anges Ratanga Atoz, a political science professor at Libreville's Omar Bongo University. ''And after all, what did Bongo do that was so bad? Did he kill anyone? No.''

In the village, each family is expected to turn over a share of their harvest to the chief, who uses the grain to feed his people in times of drought. But if the chief also builds himself a brick-and-mortar house while everyone else lives in grass huts, no one says anything. And when he dies, the people mourn.

Masses of Gabon's 1.5 million people waited outside the airport last week for the convoy carrying Bongo's body on a special flight back from Spain. Several thousand white and red roses were flown in from France for the funeral, and the coffin was placed inside the presidential palace, surrounded by cascading bouquets.

Thousands of people made pilgrimages to pay their respects. Some even slept on the pavement outside the palace, including 42-year-old Agathe Niengui.

It took Niengui five days to finally make it there with a group of market women. The women had taken a collection among themselves to pull together the funds for a meager offering. They placed a small wreath of plastic flowers -- the only kind they could afford -- at the foot of the coffin.

By the time they got to the palace, so many wreaths of long-stemmed roses had been placed in and around the coffin that there were dozens of crushed roses underfoot. Each one of the imported flowers costs around $10 -- as much as Niengui earns in a week selling bananas from a plate on her head.

It doesn't strike her as unfair.

''I have a place to sleep. And I have just enough to eat,'' she offered as an explanation. ''He was the only president I knew -- so he was like our father.''

Bongo, the world's longest ruling head of state when he died, was only 30 in 1966 when he was tapped to become vice president. The deal was reportedly brokered by France, the country's former colonial ruler intent on maintaining its influence over Gabon. When President Leon M'Ba died of cancer a year later, Bongo took office.

With each passing decade, he consolidated power. He turned his country into a single-party state. Until 1990, he was the only candidate in elections. When opposition parties formed, he allegedly had supporters bussed from town to town to vote multiple times. In 2003, Bongo changed the constitution to get rid of term limits so he could continue running for life.

Bongo's rise to power coincided with the country's oil boom. In his first decade in office, oil production jumped 10-fold, even as prices rose because of the 1973 Arab oil embargo. In just one year, Gabon's national budget tripled.

But as the money poured in, Bongo ignored basic infrastructure in exchange for grand projects. He spent a reported $800 million to build the sea-facing presidential palace and 52 villas to house his guests during a four-day summit of African heads in 1977, according to John Ghazvinian, an expert on Africa's oil economies. By 1985, Libreville held the world record for per capita champagne consumption.

While much of the country still has no paved roads, Bongo spent 14 years and an estimated $4 billion to build a train. He diverted its route at a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars to reach Franceville, the capital of his native province. Since its opening, the train has required a $60-million-a-year subsidy to stay running.

Ghazvinian compared Gabon's recent history to a person of modest means winning the lottery.

''What happens when you're not educated and you don't have a lot of money and you win the lottery? I think you'll see that most people don't end up investing the money. They spend it on prestige and ostentation -- as Gabon did,'' he said.

In 1999, the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations launched a probe into Bongo's U.S. accounts. The inquiry revealed that at least $130 million had moved through the president's Citibank accounts, including $49 million in six months.

Bongo asked the bank to convert $1.6 million into cash for a single family trip in 1995 to New York. On another occasion, a third party withdrew $100,000 from Bongo's account, saying it would be delivered to his son.

When pushed to justify the source of these funds, Citibank told investigators that 8 percent of Gabon's budget -- around $110 million -- is set aside each year for discretionary use by the president's office. Bongo's personal banker said couriers were sent to bring suitcases of cash back from the oil companies operating in Gabon.

''It annoys me to no end when I see the Gabonese lining up to cry in front of his coffin,'' said Gregory Ngbwa Mintsa, one of Bongo's few critics, who was jailed after signing a lawsuit by anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International attempting to recover Gabon's stolen riches. ''The problem is that everyone aspires to be like him. We are in a system that has lasted 40 years. Even the poorest person now thinks that it's normal for people in power to steal.''

As the number of heirs to Bongo's fortune increased, so did palace politics.

Bank documents showed increasingly frenetic activity by his numerous children and grandchildren. In 2006 and 2007, the president's granddaughter Nesta Ping opened six bank accounts in France. Another relative -- believed to be Bongo's adopted son -- spent $5.7 million to buy himself two homes and two apartments in France in 2005, including one in Paris with 13 garage spaces.

Gabonese now worry the president's family will siphon off the country's remaining wealth, including money from the safe that takes up one wall of Bongo's former office.

''The children have emptied out the president's safe,'' whispered one member of the late president's protocol, who did not give her name for fear of reprisal. ''We are worried there won't be enough money to pay our salaries.''

A diplomat at the Gabonese embassy in Madrid said the scene played out at the president's deathbed is a sign of what is to come. In May, Bongo -- already seriously ill with what is rumored to have been cancer -- was flown to Spain and checked into a clinic in Barcelona, where he died June 8.

His children and his closest advisers traveled to Barcelona, but were only allowed as far as the basement waiting room of the Quiron Clinic, said the diplomat, who asked to remain anonymous because of the sensitivity of the matter. The president's eldest daughter -- Pascaline Bongo, who was his chief of staff and is married to the country's foreign minister -- did not allow anyone to see her father, said the official.

''Even his other children couldn't get in to see him,'' he said. ''She's the executor of his will, so draw whatever conclusion you wish.''

The billboards in the capital repeat their messages of adoration even in the places that are the most egregious examples of Bongo's misrule -- like the road leading to the capital's dump.

An estimated 400 families spend their days digging with bare hands through the valley of trash, skirting piles of medical waste from a nearby hospital including coils of tubing and bags of blood. They are looking for empty bottles to sell -- and food to eat.

''If we find a piece of meat, we shake it off, take it home and give it to our wives to cook,'' said 41-year-old Crepin Edou, one of the scavengers who was born the year Bongo took office.

When asked about the president's massive wealth abroad, he shrugged. Overall, Bongo was a good ruler, he said, pointing out that unlike many other African countries, Gabon has never had a civil war.

''We may be poor,'' he said, ''but at least I have the right to dig through the trash in peace without worrying about a bullet hitting me.''

Get Ready for Great Depression 2

"President Barack Obama is ready to roll out an overhaul of the intricate rules and systems that govern America's troubled financial institutions, proposing the most ambitious revision since the Great Depression... the regulatory changes set to be announced Wednesday are designed to be permanent. They could result in a major realignment of power and authority among government agencies...

And then there's the usual sanction of the victim from the Mr. Mowen's and other vermin villains found in Atlas Shrugged and now, all too often, in real life:

''On a macro-basis, we're very supportive of reform,'' said Tim Ryan, president and chief executive of the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association... ''The Obama administration -- because they're working in a more realistic environment -- are into the art of the possible,'' Ryan said.

The operative principle with the guys in D.C. is simple: There is no course of action they won't take that doesn't vastly increase their power. There's many reasons why they won't let businesses like GM fail, but think about the most obvious one: it's an excuse to increase their power. Then multiply that times every struggling business, or every business that will be struggling in the years to come, and ask how much power will they accumulate? In 4 years, Lord Obama and his Death Eaters might even give us an election like the one they just had in Iran, with the same consequences for the opposition.

(See http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/15/world/middleeast/15webiran.html?hp... "Dozens of reformist politicians were said to have been arrested at their homes overnight, according to news reports on Sunday ...Turnout was a record 85%... The landslide victory for Mr. Ahmadinejad ...was said to have won by large margins even in his opponents’ hometowns. ...Ayatollah Khamenei closed the door to any appeals for intervention in a statement issued on state television on Saturday afternoon, congratulating Mr. Ahmadinejad on his victory." )

Substitute 'Obama' for "Ahmadnutjob' and 'Sotomayor' for 'Khamenei', and the parallel gets entertaining. Whether that scenario is realistic or simply wildly hyperbolic, there's plenty to speak up about against these thugs, in many colorful ways.

Robb

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/06/14/us/politics/AP-US-Meltdown-Overhaul.html

Obama Eyes Tighter Controls on Banks, Wall Street

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Published: June 14, 2009

Filed at 8:32 a.m. ET

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama is ready to roll out an overhaul of the intricate rules and systems that govern America's troubled financial institutions, proposing the most ambitious revision since the Great Depression.

The goal is to prevent a recurrence of the economic crisis that erupted in the United States and exploded last fall with devastating consequences still reverberating around the world.

Unlike the government's temporary ownership stake in automakers and major financial companies, the regulatory changes set to be announced Wednesday are designed to be permanent. They could result in a major realignment of power and authority among government agencies that set the rules for banking, lending and investing and touch American lives through daily transactions, from credit cards to mortgages and mutual funds.

The proposals already are the source of a spirited debate in Congress over whether Obama's measures will prove too timid or place too heavy a hand on the levers of capitalism.

At issue is a 21st century system of high-stakes swaps and trades, bets and losses where trillions of dollars worth of investment products have grown too intricate for a 20th century regulatory structure.

Imagine today's financial transactions as an athletic contest where the referees have lost their vantage point. Plays occur out of their sight and fouls go undetected. Some referees halt play while others let it go on.

Even the players have had enough.

''On a macro-basis, we're very supportive of reform,'' said Tim Ryan, president and chief executive of the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association.

In devising new regulations and oversight, the administration is looking to address four perceived weaknesses in the current system:

--The lack of an all-seeing federal entity to detect institutional stresses that threaten the financial system, and the government's inability to step in and unwind large institutions before they choke the system. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. can do this with banks. But the government lacked the power to do the same with a behemoth such as the insurer American International Group Inc.

--The undercapitalization of large financial institutions. Heading into the financial crisis, too many banks were leveraged with significantly more debt than equity. ''If you give people enough leverage, they can lose an unbelievably large amount of their own money and that of their clients,'' Obama's chief economic adviser, Lawrence Summers, said last week.

--The emergence of large, lightly regulated markets, such as hedge funds, and of big insurers, such as AIG, without a federal overseer. The administration wants large private investment funds to register with the Securities and Exchange Commission and is weighing the creation of a federal charter for insurance firms.

--Consumers and lenders whose unwitting or reckless credit and borrowing decisions placed families under staggering debts and contributed to the instability of the financial system. Obama is likely to recommend creating a financial services consumer protection body with oversight powers over mortgages and credit cards and other consumer financial products.

Internally, the administration has vacillated over whether to streamline the vast array of regulatory agencies.

At one point, Treasury and White House officials floated the idea of a single financial services regulator to oversee banks and certain insurers. But it didn't get a warm reception from the chairman of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee or the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee.

The administration backed away from the idea.

But last week, Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., a key player in financial issues, called on Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner to include a single banking regulator in the administration's overhaul plan. House Republicans want streamlining, too, but would take power away from the Federal Reserve and the FDIC.

The administration considered merging the Securities and Exchange Commission, the powerful stock market regulator, and the Commodities Futures Trading Commission, which oversees commodity futures and some options markets. But the move would have meant congressional and regulatory turf battles. At a dinner two weeks ago, Geithner told key lawmakers he would not propose the merger.

''The Obama administration -- because they're working in a more realistic environment -- are into the art of the possible,'' Ryan said.

One way or another, the Fed could be a winner in the administration's plan.

The administration and Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke would like the central bank to be the overarching ''systemic risk'' regulator, lording over the financial system in search of flaws and weak stress points. Such a role would give the Fed exceptional authority as both the manager of monetary policy and the overseer of the enterprises with the biggest financial footprint in the country, if not the world.

Industry officials now expect Obama and Geithner to propose a system that makes the Fed a supervisor of systemic risk assisted by a council of regulators that would advise the central bank about potential dangers.

Also in the debate is how to handle failing institutions that pose a threat to the entire financial system. The administration wants a beefed up FDIC to carry out that function provided such intervention is triggered by Fed or Treasury regulators.

Republicans prefer that companies be restructured or liquidated in bankruptcy court.

Alabama Rep. Spencer Bachus, the top Republican on the House Financial Services Committee, urged lawmakers to reject a regulatory system ''that depends on the infallibility of the government regulators, who have so far shown themselves unable to anticipate crisis, let alone prevent them.''

In a speech Friday to the Council on Foreign Relations, Summers offered the administration's counterpoint: ''Any financial institution that is big enough, interconnected enough or risky enough that its distress necessitates government writing substantial checks, is big enough, risky enough or interconnected enough that it should be some part of the government's responsibility to supervise it on a comprehensive basis.''

Life Beats the Living Daylights out of Art

"Local politicians believe the city must contract by as much as 40 per cent, concentrating the dwindling population and local services into a more viable area. ...Having outlined his strategy to Barack Obama during the election campaign, Mr Kildee has now been approached by the US government and a group of charities who want him to apply what he has learnt to the rest of the country."

The friend who sent this to me said "straight out of Atlas Shrugged", but in truth, I can't recall anything this bad even in Atlas. Obama and company are completely out of control. I'm waiting for them to order the execution of every third person to save resources.

That's kidding.

I hope.

( Remember the old Star Trek episode "Conscience of the King"? -- Kodos the Executioner.)


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financetopics/financialcrisis/5516536/US-cities-may-have-to-be-bulldozed-in-order-to-survive.html


US cities may have to be bulldozed in order to survive

Dozens of US cities may have entire neighbourhoods bulldozed as part of drastic "shrink to survive" proposals being considered by the Obama administration to tackle economic decline.


By Tom Leonard in Flint, Michigan
Published: 6:30PM BST 12 Jun 2009

The government looking at expanding a pioneering scheme in Flint, one of the poorest US cities, which involves razing entire districts and returning the land to nature.

Local politicians believe the city must contract by as much as 40 per cent, concentrating the dwindling population and local services into a more viable area.

The radical experiment is the brainchild of Dan Kildee, treasurer of Genesee County, which includes Flint.

Having outlined his strategy to Barack Obama during the election campaign, Mr Kildee has now been approached by the US government and a group of charities who want him to apply what he has learnt to the rest of the country.

Mr Kildee said he will concentrate on 50 cities, identified in a recent study by the Brookings Institution, an influential Washington think-tank, as potentially needing to shrink substantially to cope with their declining fortunes.

Most are former industrial cities in the "rust belt" of America's Mid-West and North East. They include Detroit, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Baltimore and Memphis.

In Detroit, shattered by the woes of the US car industry, there are already plans to split it into a collection of small urban centres separated from each other by countryside.

"The real question is not whether these cities shrink – we're all shrinking – but whether we let it happen in a destructive or sustainable way," said Mr Kildee. "Decline is a fact of life in Flint. Resisting it is like resisting gravity."

Karina Pallagst, director of the Shrinking Cities in a Global Perspective programme at the University of California, Berkeley, said there was "both a cultural and political taboo" about admitting decline in America.

"Places like Flint have hit rock bottom. They're at the point where it's better to start knocking a lot of buildings down," she said.

Flint, sixty miles north of Detroit, was the original home of General Motors. The car giant once employed 79,000 local people but that figure has shrunk to around 8,000.

Unemployment is now approaching 20 per cent and the total population has almost halved to 110,000.

The exodus – particularly of young people – coupled with the consequent collapse in property prices, has left street after street in sections of the city almost entirely abandoned.

In the city centre, the once grand Durant Hotel – named after William Durant, GM's founder – is a symbol of the city's decline, said Mr Kildee. The large building has been empty since 1973, roughly when Flint's decline began.

Regarded as a model city in the motor industry's boom years, Flint may once again be emulated, though for very different reasons.

But Mr Kildee, who has lived there nearly all his life, said he had first to overcome a deeply ingrained American cultural mindset that "big is good" and that cities should sprawl – Flint covers 34 square miles.

He said: "The obsession with growth is sadly a very American thing. Across the US, there's an assumption that all development is good, that if communities are growing they are successful. If they're shrinking, they're failing."

But some Flint dustcarts are collecting just one rubbish bag a week, roads are decaying, police are very understaffed and there were simply too few people to pay for services, he said.

If the city didn't downsize it will eventually go bankrupt, he added.

Flint's recovery efforts have been helped by a new state law passed a few years ago which allowed local governments to buy up empty properties very cheaply.

They could then knock them down or sell them on to owners who will occupy them. The city wants to specialise in health and education services, both areas which cannot easily be relocated abroad.

The local authority has restored the city's attractive but formerly deserted centre but has pulled down 1,100 abandoned homes in outlying areas.

Mr Kildee estimated another 3,000 needed to be demolished, although the city boundaries will remain the same.

Already, some streets peter out into woods or meadows, no trace remaining of the homes that once stood there.

Choosing which areas to knock down will be delicate but many of them were already obvious, he said.

The city is buying up houses in more affluent areas to offer people in neighbourhoods it wants to demolish. Nobody will be forced to move, said Mr Kildee.

"Much of the land will be given back to nature. People will enjoy living near a forest or meadow," he said.

Mr Kildee acknowledged that some fellow Americans considered his solution "defeatist" but he insisted it was "no more defeatist than pruning an overgrown tree so it can bear fruit again".

Waterboarding the Left

I searched for background on the Cuban State Department spies in that last post I sent out. (Kendall Myers and his wife) and came up with a State department press release that offers fascinating stuff on how spies work. It's worth reading to expose the naive to the real world. Even in this electronic age, these guys were using the old hidden shortwave receiver in their home. And not just shortwave radios -- James-Bond like code names, swapped shopping carts, furtive trips abroad, secret visitors, etc.

For anyone who regards my commie conspirializing as just the fantasies of a loon, I've personally been exposed to the intrigues of the spy business and reporting them to the FBI. In my case it wasn't commies, though it first appeared to be. (I think... it had to do with Yugoslav's sending missile components to the Soviets, through Belgrade, but in hindsight years later, I'm fairly sure it must have been Israeli intelligence trying to compromise someone I know, through me. But you never know.)

But if you want to I.D. such spies, you really need to go further than dead-drops and secret radios. Often, a cursive look into their past, their friends, their schools will turn up a completely revealing pattern.

Note that Myers was recruited almost immediately upon joining the State Dept. in '77, and his wife was actively involved as soon as marrying him in '80. These guys were clearly communists from the get-go, probably cultivated in American universities, or by communist parents, like Comrade Barack. Very little on his background, except,

Adjunct Professor -- Johns Hopkins Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies

I have deep suspicions of any school that bills itself "International Studies", and problems in particular with Nitze himself, who worked under both Democrat and Republican administrations, and was intimately involved in nuclear disarmament treaties and ridiculous statements such as:

"Based on a detailed investigation of all the facts and supported by the testimony of the surviving Japanese leaders involved, it is the Survey's opinion that certainly prior to 31 December 1945 and in all probability prior to 1 November 1945, Japan would have surrendered even if the atomic bombs had not been dropped, even if Russia had not entered the war, and even if no invasion had been planned or contemplated."

But I digress. As I said, Myers and wife almost certainly would have been recruited by family or teachers -- that's the way it's usually done. I tried finding where he graduated. No luck. A look at his transcripts would quickly chase down the professors most likely responsible.

Here's something interesting -- quotes from 2006 by Myers, before getting caught (http://www.ladlass.com/intel/archives/011065.html <http://www.ladlass.com/intel/archives/011065.html> ):

"The last prime minister to resist American pressure was Neville Chamberlain who was a much more brilliant figure in British diplomacy [than Winston Churchill]."

You pretty much have to be a Soviet apologist to make such an absurd statement.

Useful background on Myers is quickly disappearing from the web, but here's a cached quote buttressing that point (http://www.voanews.com/english/archive/2003-12/a-2003-12-17-49-1.cfm?moddate=2003-12-17 <http://www.voanews.com/english/archive/2003-12/a-2003-12-17-49-1.cfm?moddate=2003-12-17> ):

Kendall Myers says the recent World Trade Organization summit in Cancun, Mexico, proved that these countries together can have a lot of leverage on global politics. Furthermore, he says, after more than a decade of painful transition, Russia is beginning to recover its global influence: “And it would be someone with a very short historical memory who would write off Russia because of its own internal problems. It will not be long before Russia is back on the stage again.”

There's not much difference here from most of the American Left. It doesn't make most of them communist, but at some point, what's the difference?

Tracking down Myers' cronies would make an interesting activity for a spy hunter. Here's something intriguing from a contributer (Peter Burke, I think) to a collection of academic essays in a book titled "The State, Critical Concepts":

I have benefited very much from the as yet unpublished writings of Kendall Myers on this subject. Myers's manuscript entitled "Appeasement and Nazi Germany--Regional Blocs or Universalism" was the basis of a seminar held at the Lehrman Institute in New York. ...The issue, of course, is fundamental to the radical and Marxist critique of capitalism."

These guys swim in a fetid and incestuous intellectual pool, so you see, when you dive deeper, you almost always find rotting carcasses sticking to concrete galoshes, and a long rap sheet that connects to Left-wing accomplices.

By the way, Myers is a "complexity worshipper" (in the words of Leonard Peikoff). One quote:

“In spite of our ‘unipolar’ ambitions, the United States faces the reality of a much more plural world, much more squirming complex world, than we have known in the past.”

"Complexity worship" -- the inability to see fundamental principles and universal truths in anything -- is almost the raison d'etre of the Left, and a very good Red flag of deeper convictions (as well as self-loathing, often expressed as loathing of America and it's founding principles). Why that is true deserves an extensive analysis in itself (partly ideological, partly psychological), but I'll let it ride for now.

Robb

Full press release from the Department of Justice on the Arrest of Kendall Myers:

(http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2009/June/09-nsd-554.html <http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2009/June/09-nsd-554.html> )

A former State Department official and his wife have been arrested on charges of serving as illegal agents of the Cuban government for nearly 30 years and conspiring to provide classified U.S. information to the Cuban government.

The arrests were announced today by David Kris, Assistant Attorney General for National Security; Channing D. Phillips, Acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia; Joseph Persichini, Jr., Assistant Director for the FBI's Washington Field Office, and Ambassador Eric J. Boswell, Assistant Secretary of State for Diplomatic Security.

An indictment and criminal complaint unsealed today in the District of Columbia charge Walter Kendall Myers, 72, a.k.a. "Agent 202," and his wife, Gwendolyn Steingraber Myers, 71, a.k.a. "Agent 123," and "Agent E-634," with conspiracy to act as illegal agents of the Cuban government and to communicate classified information to the Cuban government. Each of the defendants is also charged with acting as an illegal agent of the Cuban government and with wire fraud.

The Myers, both residents of Washington, D.C., were arrested yesterday afternoon by FBI agents. They made their initial appearances today in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Wire fraud carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, while serving as an illegal agent of a foreign government carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and conspiracy carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison.

"The clandestine activity alleged in the charging documents, which spanned nearly three decades, is incredibly serious and should serve as a warning to any others in the U.S. government who would betray America's trust by serving as illegal agents of a foreign government. We remain vigilant in protecting our nation's secrets and in bringing to justice those who compromise them," said David Kris, Assistant Attorney General for National Security. "These arrests are the culmination of an outstanding counterespionage effort by many agents, analysts and prosecutors who deserve special thanks for their extraordinary work."

"This case demonstrates the care we must take in protecting our nation's valuable secrets, and shows the dedication and perseverance of the men and women investigating this crime who never tired in finding those now charged with betraying our country," said Acting U.S. Attorney Channing D. Phillips.

"Intelligence services from around the globe continue to steal what information they can from the United States," said Joseph Persichini, Jr., Assistant Director for the FBI's Washington Field Office. "Vigilance must be matched with patience to successfully bring their agents to trial. I would particularly like to thank the men and women in my office who worked on this case and who work on other espionage investigations. They work without accolades; silently protecting the safety and security of the United States and its citizens."

Assistant Secretary of State for Diplomatic Security Eric J. Boswell stated, "The U.S. Department of State is jointly investigating this matter with the FBI, and will continue to aggressively pursue any and all breaches of national security. The Department's Bureau of Diplomatic Security works closely with its law enforcement colleagues in the FBI and other agencies to uncover and prosecute any breath of security within its ranks. Any compromise of classified information is a serious threat to the security of our nation, and the State Department will aggressively investigate any such activity to the fullest extent possible."

U.S. Government Employment:

According to an affidavit in support of the criminal complaint, Kendall Myers began his work at the State Department in 1977, initially serving as a contract instructor at the Department's Foreign Service Institute (FSI) in Arlington, Va. After living briefly in South Dakota, he returned to Washington, D.C., and resumed employment as an instructor with FSI. From 1988 to 1999, in addition to his FSI duties, he performed periodic work for the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR).

Kendall Myers later began working full-time at the INR and, from July 2001 until his retirement in October 2007, he was a senior analyst for Europe for INR, where he specialized in intelligence analysis on European matters and had daily access to classified information through computer databases and otherwise. He received a Top Secret security clearance in 1985 and, in 1999, his clearance was upgraded to Top Secret / SCI.

Gwendolyn Myers moved to Washington, D.C., in 1980 and married Kendall Myers in May 1982. She later obtained employment with a local bank as an administrative analyst and later as a special assistant. Gwendolyn Myers was never granted a security clearance by the U.S. government.

Recruitment:

According to the affidavit, Kendall Myers traveled to Cuba in December 1978 after receiving an invitation from an official who served at the Cuban Mission to the United States in New York City. His guide while in Cuba was an official with Cuba's Foreign Service Institute. This trip provided the Cuban Intelligence Service (CuIS) with the opportunity to assess or develop Myers as a Cuban agent, according to the affidavit.

Approximately six months after the trip, the Myers were visited in South Dakota by the official from the Cuban Mission in New York and, according to the affidavit, Kendall and Gwendolyn Myers agreed to serve as clandestine agents of the Cuban government. Afterwards, the CuIS directed Kendall Myers to pursue a job at either the State Department or the CIA. Kendall Myers, accompanied by his wife, then returned to Washington, D.C., where he resumed contract work at the State Department and later obtained a State Department position that required a Top Secret security clearance.

According to the affidavit, during this time frame, the CuIS often communicated with its clandestine agents in the United States by broadcasting encrypted radio messages from Cuba on shortwave radio frequencies. Clandestine agents in the United States monitoring the frequency on shortwave radio could decode the messages using a decryption program provided by the CuIS. Such methods were employed by defendants previously convicted of espionage on behalf of Cuba. According to the affidavit, the Myers have an operable shortwave radio in their apartment and they told an FBI source that they have used it to receive messages from the CuIS.

Undercover Operation:

According to the affidavit, in April 2009, the FBI launched an undercover operation to convince the couple that they had been contacted by a Cuban intelligence officer and to ascertain the scope of their activities for the CuIS. On April 15, 2009, an undercover FBI source posing as a Cuban intelligence officer approached Kendall Myers in Washington, D.C., stating that he had been sent to contact Myers by a named CuIS official in order to obtain information. The FBI source also congratulated Kendall Myers on his birthday and offered him a cigar. Myers agreed to meet the source later that day at a nearby hotel and volunteered to bring his wife along to the meeting.

During the meeting later that day, the couple agreed to meet the source again and to provide information on U.S. government personnel with responsibility for Latin America. According to the affidavit, the couple also made a series of statements about their past activities on behalf of the CuIS, including acknowledging having received coded messages from the CuIS via shortwave radio, meeting CuIS officials in Mexico, and being alert to surveillance. "We have been very cautious, careful with our moves and, uh, trying to be alert to any surveillance," Kendall Myers allegedly told the FBI source.

In subsequent meetings with the FBI source, the Myers allegedly agreed to provide information on the April 17-19, 2009 Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago, as well as to use specified code words, signals and encryption programs to transmit information via email during future interactions with the source. They also asked the source to "send special greetings...and hugs" to certain CuIS officials.

In addition, the couple allegedly made further statements to the source about their past activities for the CuIS. According to the affidavit, the defendants discussed how they were first recruited by the CuIS and how codes had been used for each of them in messages, including "123" for Gwendolyn Myers and "202" for Kendall Myers. The Myers also stated that they had traveled to meet Cuban agents in Mexico, Trinidad and Tobago, Argentina, Brazil, Ecuador, Jamaica, New York City and other locations.

The Myers also discussed how they had passed information to CuIS agents, with both agreeing that the most secure way was "hand-to-hand." According to the affidavit, Gwendolyn Myers said her favorite way of passing information to CuIS agents involved the changing of shopping carts in a grocery store because it was "easy enough to do."

According to the affidavit, Kendall Myers told the source that he typically removed information from the State Department by memory or by taking notes, although he did occasionally take some documents home. "I was always pretty careful. I, I didn't usually take documents out," he said. According to the affidavit, he also acknowledged delivering information to the CuIS that was classified beyond the "Secret" level. He further stated that he had received "lots of medals" from the Cuban government and that he and his wife had met and spent an evening with Fidel Castro in 1995.

Additional Evidence:

According to the affidavit, the FBI collects high frequency messages broadcast by the CuIS to its agents and has identified messages that it has determined were broadcast to a handler of Kendall and Gwendolyn Myers. Furthermore, the FBI has confirmed trips by the couple to Mexico, Trinidad and Tobago, Argentina, Brazil, Ecuador and Jamaica that correspond to statements made by the defendants. In addition, the FBI has identified emails to the couple in 2008 and 2009 from a suspected representative of the CuIS in Mexico who was allegedly requesting that the couple travel to Mexico.

The affidavit further indicates that an analysis of Kendall Myers' classified State Department work computer hard drive revealed that, from August 22, 2006, until his retirement on Oct. 31, 2007, he viewed more than 200 sensitive or classified intelligence reports concerning the subject of Cuba, while employed as an INR senior analyst for Europe. Of these reports concerning Cuba, the majority was classified and marked Secret or Top Secret, the affidavit alleges. An FBI review of Kendall Myers' State Department security files further revealed numerous false statements by him to conceal the couple's clandestine activities on behalf of the CuIS, the affidavit further alleges.

According to the affidavit, neither Kendall Myers nor Gwendolyn Myers ever provided notification to the Attorney General that either of them was acting as an agent of a foreign government, as required by law.

Finally, the affidavit alleges that Kendall Myers engaged in a scheme to defraud the State Department and the United States by means of false pretenses and caused the U.S. government to lose property, specifically money in the form of salary payments. By not disclosing his clandestine activity on behalf of the CuIS and by making false statements to the State Department about his status, Kendall Myers allegedly defrauded the State Department whenever he received his government salary. Gwendolyn Myers is also criminally liable for this alleged wire fraud scheme.

This investigation was conducted jointly by the FBI's Washington Field Office, and the State Department's Bureau of Diplomatic Security. The prosecution is being handled by Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Harvey, from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia, and Senior Trial Attorney Clifford I. Rones, from the Counterespionage Section of the Justice Department's National Security Division.

The public is reminded that criminal complaints and indictments contain mere allegations and are not evidence of guilt. A defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.