tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4983334520933101277.post56378105168869911..comments2024-02-16T06:29:33.587-08:00Comments on Welcome to " The Math UnderGround " -- Seattle & Washington State: Letter to Barack Obamadan dempseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15536720661510933983noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4983334520933101277.post-27382355257074594882008-07-03T15:45:00.000-07:002008-07-03T15:45:00.000-07:00http://theboard.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/11/02/out-t...http://theboard.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/11/02/out-to-sea-on-law-of-the-sea/<BR/><BR/>The strange campaign for the Republican presidential nomination took another weird turn this week when every major Republican candidate spoke out against the Law of the Sea Treaty, which was approved by a 17-4 committee vote and may soon come to a vote on the Senate floor.<BR/>This lemming-like rush to denounce a 25-year-old treaty that commands support from President Bush, the military and major business interests means that there is not a single Republican — not the former mayor of New York, Rudy Giuliani, not the former Governor of Massachusetts, Mitt Romney, not Senator John McCain, and not the TV actor and Watergate interrogator, Fred Thompson — who is willing to stand up to the party’s right-wing fringe, which is where the opposition to the treaty resides.<BR/>The law, approved by the United Nations in 1982, and amended to fix flaws that bothered the United States in 1994, sets rules governing the military and commercial use of the oceans. The military likes it because it would guarantee mobility and latitude, including rights of passage<BR/>through key strategic waterways. The oil companies like it because it provides certainty on how the ocean floor will be divvied up and how royalties will be paid. The environmentalists like it because they hope it will provide new leverage over lawless and destructive overfishing by huge industrial fleets on the high seas.<BR/>But because the treaty was written (horrors!) under the auspices of the United Nations, and because a lot of important decisions will be made by committees composed of many nations, the right wing has always seen the treaty as a diabolical plan to undermine American sovereignty. Never mind that the United States will need to ratify it to have a seat at the table when the time comes to lay claim to the apparently huge natural resources that lie buried under the Arctic Ocean. The critics would be perfectly happy if we had no seat at all.<BR/>Until recently, only Mike Huckabee had taken a stand against the treaty. But in recent days the rest have fallen into line. Mr. Thompson: The treaty “threatens U.S. sovereignty and gives a U.N. affiliated organization far too much authority over U.S. interests.” A spokesman for Mr. Romney: “He believes giving unaccountable international institutions more power is a serious problem.” Mr. McCain: “I do worry about the U.S. sovereignty aspects of it and would probably vote against it in its present form.” Mr. Giuliani (completing the field): “The treaty is fundamentally flawed. I cannot support the creation of yet another unaccountable international bureaucracy.”Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4983334520933101277.post-37531082456378545062008-07-03T15:36:00.000-07:002008-07-03T15:36:00.000-07:00This is a link to the Aspen Institutehttp://www.as...This is a link to the Aspen Institute<BR/><BR/>http://www.aspeninstitute.org/site/c.huLWJeMRKpH/b.639475/<BR/><BR/><BR/>and this is an article from Accuracy in Media (2006) and I was searching for Walter Isaacson, so I'm not far off.<BR/><BR/>http://www.aim.org/aim-column/mccain-soros-and-the-new-global-order/<BR/><BR/>It's not the kind of endorsement that a Republican presidential candidate should welcome. But former Clinton State Department official and alleged Russian dupe Strobe Talbott says that Senator John McCain and Democratic presidential candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are all "moderate pragmatists" in foreign policy "with the demonstrated ability to reach across party lines."<BR/><BR/><BR/><BR/>This is a better explanation of the relationship between Talbott and Isaacson and it explains why we're hearing all the weirdness from McCain while Obama has managed to stay out of the limelight.<BR/><BR/>McCain comment: We need to stay in NAFTA to keep the Canadians in Afghanistan. (weird, but not when you're getting advice from the Aspen Institute)<BR/><BR/>http://www.postchronicle.com/cgi-bin/artman/exec/view.cgi?archive=62&num=136215<BR/><BR/>Another of Talbott's close friends, named in the article, is Walter Isaacson of the Aspen Institute and formerly of Time magazine. It was at Time that Talbott penned a column promoting world government as the solution to mankind's problems. Talbott and his parents were members of the World Federalist Movement. They believe U.S. sovereignty should be submerged into a world federation. It is shocking that someone with these views could become a top State Department official. But Talbott and Bill Clinton were close friends and Rhodes Scholars together. Talbott's main booster in the U.S. Senate was Republican Senator Richard Lugar, another Rhodes Scholar.<BR/><BR/><BR/>So choose your poison!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4983334520933101277.post-46977832446587481002008-07-03T15:20:00.000-07:002008-07-03T15:20:00.000-07:00On the board of Aspen Institute is Nina R. Houghto...On the board of Aspen Institute is Nina R. Houghton, chairman of the Wye Institute. <BR/><BR/>On the Aspen History page, Arthur Houghton Jr. [Nina's father?] is mentioned as donating land on Wye River. <BR/><BR/>http://www.aspeninstitute.org/about/about_history.htmlc <BR/><BR/>Arthur Amory Houghton Jr. shows up on the CFR and Trilateral Commission lists. <BR/><BR/>[In 1950], [Walter] Paepcke created what is now the Aspen Institute. He was a trustee of the University of Chicago...<BR/>http://www.watch.pair.com/aspen.html<BR/><BR/>In 1979, Corning Glass industrialist and philanthropist Arthur A. Houghton, Jr. donated to the Aspen Institute a thousand-acre parcel on the Wye River on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. <BR/><BR/>The location now hosts the Aspen Wye River Conference Center.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4983334520933101277.post-63944203473054972972008-07-03T15:14:00.000-07:002008-07-03T15:14:00.000-07:00Under the auspices of NAFTA, Century and Keegan re...Under the auspices of NAFTA, Century and Keegan represent two sides of the same coin. <BR/><BR/>Low academic standards via poor textbooks and privatization of school services using fiscal incentives (bribery and extortion by denying services). <BR/><BR/>Staff development amounts to indoctrination and by nationalizing public education our leaders have essentially created a corporate fascist state that won't be accountable for either civil rights abuses or outright mismanagement.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com