There will be another major so-called "Terror Event" before there will ever be any real cut in defense spending.

It was the total abysmal failure of the American military (along w/ intellgence, law enforcement, counter-terrorism, and highjacked aircraft reaction and response protocol) that enabled 9.11 to be the boooming success that it was.

When those who benefitted most from the first 9.11 determine that they stand to gain even more from another Horror Show, Who and or What is going to stop them?

Just like Nixon had a "Secret Plan" to End The War in Viet Nam (ie, invade Cambodia and bring the war home to a place called Kent in Ohio), so we now see unmasked the Secret Plan to End The War in Afghanistan: ie, to Attack, Invade, Liberate, and Occupy Iran.

October Surprise, anybody?

All this chit-chat about who's going to win the election completely ignores the reality of the deal that has been cut by our Ruling Class after Bush The Elder seized power when Bozo The Clown was shot : 8-on-8-off.... ie, you get the White House for 8 years and then we get it for 8. That way, EveryBody on both sides gets to get and take their fair share of The Loot that is available for the taking when one's organization runs the show from one end of Pennsylvania Avenue.

And, once again, please remember and never ever forget what Papa Joe (Stalin) used to say: "It ain't who votes that counts, but who counts the votes."

Of COURSE oil prices are going up. THAT is the whole purpose of the Iran Imbroglio.

Obama -- like his predecessors Cheney, Clinton, Bush The Elder, and Carter before him -- is totally bought and paid for and thus owned and operated by those who are benefitting the most from the increase in oil prices.

Cui Bono the spike in oil prices? You can bet your bottom sheckel that it is not Israel. Israel -- since its very conceptualization back after WWI -- has always been, is, and will ever be until it is replaced is nothing more than a strategic and tactical forward operational base for Western (read Anglo-American) hegemonic intentions in the region (because, obviously, of the oil).

Cui Bono the spike in oil prices? The same folks who Cui Bono'ed the most from the so-called "Terror" Event (aka The Coup) of September 11, 2001 and its resultant so-called "War" Against so-called "Terrorism."

If our leadership is so clueless and terminally stupid, why has EVERYTHING that they have undertaken to accomplish been successfully achieved, particularly over the past decade and century?

The collapse of the United States will not mark the end of The Empire, it will simply designate the formal end of one Phase of Empire, and the beginning of the Next. Much like WWI marked the end of the Ottoman Empire and the final, total ascendancy of the Europeran Empires; like WWII marked the end of the European Empires and the beginning of the Soviet Empire; like WWIII marked the end of the Soviet and total ascendancy of the American Empire; like WWIV will destroy the American Empire and firmly establish the Global, One World, New World, 4th Reich Empire.

The "clueless and terminally stupid" are not the Ruling Elite of The Empire, but the dutifully terrified and diffidently obedient "citizens" here in the homebase of The Empire who continue to permit this obscenity and insanity to continue, in their and their children's name and for their safety and security (after all, how long has it been since a terrorist attack occured in Fortress FatherLand America?).

The politicians and bureaucrats and simply doing what they are bought and paid to do by their Owners and Operators.

There is no excuse for the passive, silent inertness of the people other than that the decades of programming, conditioning, and brain-washing are finally beginning to bear their intended fruit, that fruit so accurately envisioned, planned, and prepared by those same "clueless and terminally stupid" Rulers.

Great..... then the next 25% (the current 50-75%) would be in charge of global plunder.

Besides.... wasn't it Papa Joe (Stalin) who said: "It ain't who votes that counts, but who counts the votes." Plus, while on the one hand, Emma Goldman taught, "If voting could actually, really, truly change anything, it would be illegal," on the other hand, George Carlin cautioned, "Don't vote. It only encourages the motherf****rs."

First, which Indians? The ones with casinos? Or the ones selling land, water, mineral, timber, and petro-chemical rights to transnational corporations.

Second, Franklin knew that no "51 %" would ever constitute the Ruling Elite of this, or any other "republic" or Empire. The numbers are much closer to .01%, or even .001% .

Third, global plunder did not begin when Europeans landed on North American soil. The European Empires had long made their presence known and felt in Africa, Asia, and Central and South America. All that America is doing today is carrying forward The Sacred Duty of Empire, aka the so-called "The White Man's Burden," but in more politically-correct terms.

My guess is that Franklin knew very well that this "democratic Republic" was then, would be forever, and thus now is ruled by significantly less than "the 51% most educated and wealthy." When they talk about the so-called "1 %," the OCCUPY folks have grossly over-estimated the size of its "Ruling Elite," both within this nation and throughout the world.

And, the plunder of the world didn't start with the coming of Europeans to North America. The Europeans had begun the pillage, rape, and plunder of the planet long before being unleashed upon the New World.

Empire USA is merely the logical, inevitable transformation and metamorphosis of the European Empires that went before, and the New World Order Global Empire that is to come following the Collapse of The American Empire.

Which Indians? The ones with the casinos? Or the ones selling timber, mineral, and water rights to the highest (inevitably white, male coroprate) bidder?

i say, let No One Rule, and let's see what happens.

As Ben Franklin noted way back when: "We've given you a Republic, if you can keep it."

Looks like we can't.