Friday, March 27, 2015

No 142 – March 26, 2015 – Blow Back from the JFK Assassination

by Melinda Pillsbury-Foster

Andrew Kreig, founder of the Justice Integrity Project, is not the first to point out the inconvenient truths surrounding the 1964 report of the Warren Commission. His continuing series of articles on the details contain a series of shocks which bring into high relief the falsehoods sold to the public by the major media. His book, Presidential Puppetry, has built out a picture of events both compelling and frightening.

Kreig has been thorough, building a monumental data base which, along with following the action, examines the impact of the assassination on American politics, those who report the news, and the many incidents following the death of JFK and continue to take place today.

Today most Americans, according to the polls, believe the Warren Commission Report mislead the public. The question of what happened on November 22, 1963 remains a hot topic, with between 1,000 and 2,000 books written on the subject.

People still care what happened. They still want to know; they still don't.

Bill O'Reilly was an ambitious young reporter when he lied about having been on George de Mohrenschildt's porch when the shots were fired which killed the man who was a friend of Lee Harvey Oswald. It was a dramatic claim disproved by audio tapes of only within the last several years.

Mohrenschildt was supposedly about to testify before congress that Oswald did not kill the President. Thereafter local authorities ruled the death a suicide. The chief counsel for the Congressional investigation, then ongoing, was replaced by one who deferred to the CIA. Bill O'Reilly also wrote a book, the best seller, Killing Kennedy. It accepts the facts as laid out by the Warren Commission.

From that day to now Kreig claims many parts of our lives have been impacted and the course of our history altered.

Now we know Oswald could not have acted alone. New forensic evidence indicates Kennedy was shot at least once from the front, twice from the back.
In 1963 Americans were more trusting of government. Americans, dissatisfied with what they get in print and on television seek news and facts online. Mislead on many issues a reaction has been building. This is one of the reasons the ratings for the Main Stream Media have been dropping.
Blow back is, “an unforeseen and unwanted effect, result, or set of repercussions.” Sometimes it is a long time coming, but it always arrives.

Thursday, March 19, 2015

No. 141 – March 19, 2015 – Jennifer MacLeod Asks Three Questions




by Melinda Pillsbury-Foster

In the late 90s, Jennifer Macleod,PhD, a retired marketing executive in Princeton spoke to a group of girl scouts on equality for women. Still active in the chapter of NOW Jennifer started at Princeton in the early 1970s the scouts learned the ERA had failed ratification in 1982. They were moved to action and asked Ms. MacLeod for a project they could do as part of their scouting related to the Equal Rights Amendment. 
 
Jennifer, one of the first women through the glass ceiling, an expert in polling, made up a short questionnaire. She showed the girls how polling must be done to accurately reflect the opinions of those polled. 
 
There were three questions. Jennifer expected to find a sizable percentage of Americans opposed equality for women. Shocked, she discovered in every category those polled by the girl scout troop affirmed equality by around 96%.

The three questions were simple, answered with a YES or NO. 
 
Question 1: "In your opinion, should male and female citizens of the United States have equal rights?"
Question 2: "As far as you know, does the Constitution of the United States make it clear that male and female citizens are SUPPOSED to have equal rights?"
Question 3: "In your opinion, SHOULD the Constitution make it clear that male and female citizens are supposed to have equal rights?" 
 
By the late 90s most Americans believed the ERA was ratified. They are still wrong today.
The Constitution, the highest law in the land, does not recognize the equality of women today. 
 
For equality to be more than a provisional privilege an amendment to the existing Constitution must be ratified by 2/3 of the state legislatures. 
 
In 1972 everyone expected the 38 states required would rapidly ratify. Instead, it became a political football linked to issues having nothing to do with simple equality. The effort for ratification fell three states short when the deadline tolled in 1982. 
 
On March 5 this year the Minnesota Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously approved a resolution asking Congress repeal the 1982 deadline. Other legislatures are following their lead. If Congress repeals the deadline the 15 states yet to ratify the ERA can consider the question anew and ratify. 
 
When that happens Americans will be finally be right about the ERA. Jennifer's questions and the girl scouts who asked the questions, are a big part of the reason this is happening now.

Friday, March 13, 2015

No. 140 – March 12, 2015 – Is It Spring Yet?



by Melinda Pillsbury-Foster

An exciting moment occurred when I went out to the car this morning and noticed the area where the snow had melted over night. Bending down to make sure my eyes were not deceiving me I saw....green grass. Several square inches of it. Amazing.

The tiny patch now visible was surrounded by extrusions of mud, which looked like mounds of chocolate. I learned when I was around 18 months that appearances in this regard can be deceptive. We all remember such moments, which teach us discernment. I looked closer. Definitely a new green, filled with life.

Since Ashtabula has been shrouded in snow which came down over and over again, each time leaving an uglier residue of brown and gray had I found myself wondering if spring would ever arrive – at least before the 4th of July. That faint touch of spring-green flattened, but triumphant despite the load of snow which weighed it down, provided the answer.

Spring comes in its own time, but it arrives bringing renewal of life and hope. Getting into the car I felt uplifted, as if a great weight had been lightened.

I know not to expect too much too soon. It will be some days before those first buds burst from the skeletal bushes and trees along the street. The dire piles of shrinking sludge must continue to melt into the soil and paving, sending water captured as snow many weeks ago on its way into the ground. But the Mud does not last for very long. Now, we can see past it to the rioting of flowers which seems to say, “all seasons bring gifts.”

When you see that first glorious daffodil you forget, like a mother after a three day labor first holding her baby close because what you hold is so essential to the journey of seasons, and years which comprises the whole of our lives as individuals.

Watching a flower bloom, first unfolding from the enclosing green to reveal its colors and scent touches us, reprising as it does, our own journey from someplace to here. Watching the full cycle of life, the wilting and curling into itself, also carries its message.

The whole of life carries in each part messages for each of us. What do you see first? What is your own experience? What have the seasons said, tiny whispers in your ear, as you discovered them?



Friday, March 6, 2015

No. 139 – March 5, 2015 – Visas, Terrorists, and a new book.



by Melinda Pillsbury-Foster

Andrew Kreig's book reviews are always to the point and chock full of carefully honed points bolstered with facts. You can count of this when reading his work because his training is both in law, he is a licensed attorney in Washington D.C., and journalism. Andrew takes up subjects many won't touch.
 
This being the case I ordered my copy of, “Visas for Al Qaeda: CIA Handouts That Rocked the World — An Insider's View,” by J. Michael Springmann, former State Department foreign service officer immediately. 
 
If Andrew says a book is going to be shocking and timely, and make a, “credible circumstantial case that ties the U.S. training of Islamic radicals to our nation’s major foreign policy disasters in the Mideast during the past quarter century,” it is a book to read, given how many emails on the subject are coming through my Inbox on the subject. 
 
Andrew's review provided direct quotes from author Springmann, former chief of the visa section of the U.S. Consulate located in Saudi Arabia, who last week launched his book tour at the prestigious National Press Club in D.C. 
 
Springmann said, ““It’s past time to expose murder, war crimes and human rights violations by the United States of American and its ‘intelligence’ services.” Continuing, Springman, said claiming “national security,” as a justification was dubious. 
 
These claims have been made by both the Central Intelligence Agency and National Security Agency (NSA). Springmann said these agencies were responsible for coups and destabilization acts around the world, “most notably,” in the middle east. 
 
Springmann says governments were overthrown, assassinations carried out and ordinary citizens murdered on their orders. This chain of events began, he continued, with the Carter Administration. These acts took place, Springmann says, with the knowledge of the president of the United States and the executive branch but also our two other branches of government,“from Libya to Iran.” 
 
Springmann knows because he personally saw “illegal visas issues to large numbers of U.S.-backed Islamic fundamentalists transiting through Jeddah from multiple Islamic nations so they could visit the United States for secret purposes.” Covert training took place at a CIA facility in Williamsburg, Virginia for “vagabond Islamic mercenaries, revolutionists and jihadists — an "Arab-Afghan Legion" — who could be unleashed on America’s enemies.”

Blowback was not taken into account but deniability was ensured. Today, when war has become continuous, this is a book you need to read.