From Volume 36, Issue 43 of EIR Online, Published Nov. 6, 2009

United States News Digest

Obama Policy: The More It Changes, the More It Stays the Same

Nov. 1 (EIRNS)—When it comes to court cases against the old Cheney domestic wiretapping policy, the Obama Administration's policy is looking more and more the same as Dick Cheney's. The Administration claims it has a much stricter review process for deciding whether or not to invoke the state secrets claim, a privilege that was invoked numerous times by the Bush-Cheney Administration to protect its unconstitutional programs, but the decisions that have resulted look remarkably similar. In response to a San Francisco lawsuit, brought by people who say that the government illegally monitored their communications, Attorney General Eric Holder argues that the lawsuit must be dropped, saying that the review process convinced him that "there is no way for this case to move forward without jeopardizing ongoing intelligence activities that we rely on to protect the safety of the American people."

Kevin Bankston, a lawyer for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which is pursuing a similar lawsuit, told the Associated Press that "The Obama Administration has essentially adopted the position of the Bush Administration in these cases, even though candidate Obama was incredibly critical of both the warrantless wiretapping program and the Bush Administration's abuse of the state secrets privilege."

LaRouche: Only 'Damned Fools' Think Obamacare Is Not Nazi

Oct. 30 (EIRNS)—"It's only damned fools who think that the [Obama] Administration doesn't have a Nazi policy," Lyndon LaRouche remarked today. He was pointing to the recent article by Washington Post columnist Fred Hiatt, which stated that the bill produced by the Senate Finance Committee, chaired by Sen. Max Baucus, doesn't include an independent Medicare Commission—modeled on Hitler's T-4 program—or a tax on "cadillac" (high premium) health-care plans offered by some employers.

"People are speaking like idiots," LaRouche said. "Hiatt is an idiot to say that these Nazi features aren't in the bill."

In fact, writing on his blog Oct. 26, a fuming Office of Management and Budget director Peter Orszag immediately responded to Hiatt, labelling him a "naysayer," and insisting that the two features Hiatt mentioned are absolutely included in the Senate bill. These are important "cost constraining" measures, he asserted, not "hypothetical pie in the sky."

People have to understand, LaRouche said, that Orszag "won't back down or take the heat off, even at the risk of emphasizing that [the bill] is a Nazi policy."

100,000 'Bioethics' Murders Per Year in U.S.A.

Oct. 29 (EIRNS)—Ron Panzer, president of the Hospice Patients Alliance, estimates that 100,000 patients are murdered by medical personnel in the United States each year. Panzer says that nurses and others have been educated in this murder policy over decades by pro-euthanasia agencies that now dominate medical schools, hospitals, the nursing home business, and government.

In an interview with EIR, Panzer reported that medical staff members are often overheard saying, or even blurt out directly to patients or their families, statements like, "I am the new Jack Kevorkian," referring to the convicted mass-murder-by-assisted-suicide.

Panzer told EIR that, in his view, the Obama Administration's health-care reform program would merely formalize as official policy a murder regimen that is already practiced en masse in the United States.

Panzer's group, the Hospice Patients Alliance (HPA), looks favorably upon the original institution of hospices, that were sanctuaries for the dying, commonly run by religious organizations. But the group has systematically gathered evidence from patients showing case after case of murder. A nurse may even inform the family of an aged patient, "Your father will die in three days," having no way of knowing of such a timetable, except by planning to kill the patient through terminal sedation or other means.

Obama Depression-Buster: Green Jobs Program Scores 400

Oct. 26 (EIRNS)— President Barack Obama traveled to Arcadia, Fla., on Oct. 27, for the christening of one of the nation's "green jobs" success stories. The local utility, Florida Power and Light, has invested millions (and supposedly came in under budget) in a "solar power plant," which in the last year created a grand total of—tada!—400 new jobs. The FP&L field is an array of 90,000 panels, which will produce 25 megawatts of electricity, enough to heat 3,000 swimming pools, and soon, go for a program of 75 MW.

While the panels are currently shipped from San Francisco, enterprising Floridians see no reason why they can't make them themselves. Good thing, too, since one report had it that, after the hot construction phase, the number of ongoing green jobs—to watch the sunbeams being collected—will be exactly: one.

The pattern is precisely what green-iacs have admitted to EIR: "green jobs" are dead-end jobs, which terminate as soon as the temporary construction project is completed, and then throw workers back onto the unemployment rolls. Contrast that with FDR's job creation programs, such as the TVA, which not only provided infrastructure for generations ahead, but educated thousands for future development.

Not to mention the fact that the solar project itself, billed as the largest such project in the Western Hemisphere and part of the lunatic "smart grid" being created on the East Coast, is a costly boondoggle, that is already raising utility rates to subsidize its construction, and will turn a section of Florida into a virtual desert.

Kerry Attacks McChrystal Plan, Seeks Four Power Cooperation on Afghanistan

Oct. 26 (EIRNS)—Sen. John Kerry, chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, today said that the current debate over Afghanistan "is completely at odds with reality," charging that playing politics "has reduced an extraordinarily complex country, an extraordinarily complex region, and a difficult mission to a simple, headline-ready yes-or-no on troop numbers."

While falling short of EIR's call for a Four Power-plus (including Pakistan and Iran) conference to stabilize Afghanistan, Kerry did call for the U.S. reach out to Russia, China, India, Central Asia, and Iran. "We should explore ways to cooperate with each of them," he said, "because each of them has direct interests in Afghanistan.

Throughout his speech at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington today, Kerry, who has played a critical role on foreign policy with the State Department, stressed the importance of civilian, as well as military authorities providing their assessment before any more troops are sent to Afghanistan. His intervention occurred as President Obama held the sixth of his National Security Council strategy sessions on Afghan policy, amidst a British-sponsored push for a new massive troop deployment into the "graveyard of empires."

Because of "the gross mishandling of this war by past civilian leadership, there are not great options for its handling today," Kerry emphasized at the outset of his remarks. Absent any good choices, Kerry said, we should ask what is possible to do.

We don't have enough troops to launch a broad, nationwide counterinsurgency campaign in Afghanistan, Kerry said, nor do we need to. "We don't need to control every hamlet and village, particularly when non-Pashtun sections of the country are already hostile to the Taliban," Kerry stated. He added that he is particularly concerned about Americans being seen as foreign occupiers, and pointed out that, "as our footprint has increased, so have the number of insurgents."

Kerry declared that Gen. Stanley McChrystal's current plan "reaches too far, too fast," because we don't have "the critical guarantees of governance and of development capacity, the other two legs of counterinsurgency." Any decision must be informed by three conditions: (1) "Are there enough reliable Afghan forces to partner with American troops, at what rate, and eventually take over responsibility for security?" (2) "Are there local leaders that we can partner with.... We have to be able to identify and cooperate with tribal, district and provincial leaders who command the authority to help deliver services and restore Afghans' faith in their government." (3) "The civilian side, which must be ready to follow swiftly with the development aid that brings tangible benefits to the local population ... They must see their lives improve."

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