Former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell Found Guilty In Corruption Trial & McDonnell found guilty on 11 corruption counts 4SEP14

EVERYONE who follows politics knew they were guilty, the question was whether the government prosecuters would prove it to the jury and if the jury would have the courage to find the mcdonalds guilty once presented the facts. Now to see if the judge has the courage to really sentence them for their crimes. From +NPR and the +Washington Post .....

Former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell Found Guilty In Corruption Trial

by Chris Hopkins and Krishnadev Calamur

September 04, 2014 3:15 PM ET

Former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell leaves the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia with his son Bobby (right) on Thursday in Richmond, Va.

Alex Wong/Getty

Updated at 3:38 p.m. ET
A federal jury in Richmond, Va., has found former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell guilty on 11 of 14 charges in his corruption trial. His wife, Maureen, was found guilty on nine of 14 charges, including obstruction of justice.
Our partners at member station WAMU report that the McDonnells were found guilty "of conspiracy to commit honest-services wire fraud for accepting gifts and loans from Jonnie Williams," the owner of Star Scientific, a nutritional supplement company.
The Richmond Times-Dispatch reports that the McDonnells sobbed openly, but quietly as the verdicts were read. Their family members and supporters also wept, the newspaper reported. It added that the verdict was likely to be appealed.
The jury of seven men and five women heard testimony from 67 witnesses and deliberated over three days before arriving at today's decision. Sentencing has been set for Jan. 6, 2015.
The trial has been a humiliating blow for the onetime rising GOP star who was elected governor in 2009 and just a few years ago was considered a possible running mate for Mitt Romney.
Shortly after he left office in January, McDonnell and his wife were accused of taking more than $165,000 worth of gifts and loans from Williams.
Attorneys for the McDonnells argued that as a result of the couple's disintegrating marriage, Maureen McDonnell craved attention and developed a crush on the Star Scientific owner, who testified that the couple accepted and solicited gifts from him.

C-SPAN/YouTube

"Well, the former governor, when he ran for governor, represented his family as essentially the Cleavers — bustling and wholesome," Richmond Times-Dispatch columnist Jeff Schapiro told All Things Considered. "And five years later, now running for his life, his lawyers are depicting the McDonnells as the Louds — bitter and dysfunctional."
On the day he was indicted, Bob McDonnell told reporters, "I have apologized for my poor judgment, and I accept full responsibility for accepting these legal gifts and loans. However, I repeat again, emphatically, that I did nothing illegal for Mr. Williams in exchange for what I believe was his personal friendship and his generosity."
McDonnell said the loans had been "repaid with interest" and the gifts had been returned. He also has said that despite appearances of impropriety, there was no quid pro quo — that part of the role of governor is to support the state's businesses.
And Schapiro said there's some truth that this could be considered business as usual in Virginia.
"One wonders, given Virginia's long tradition of a business-friendly government, if perhaps some of these things took place and no one really noticed," Schapiro said. "Because for a long time, Virginia's government, like so many Southern governments, was controlled by a handful of like-minded conservative white guys. They looked out for business; business financed the political organization; the legislator came through with friendly laws and light regulation. This has been the pattern in the commonwealth for a long, long time."
McDonnell's status as a GOP luminary was cemented when he was chosen to deliver the Republican response to President Obama's State of the Union speech in 2010.
But the corruption scandal that erupted in McDonnell's final months as governor killed what was left of his political career, says Virginia politics expert Larry Sabato.

National/global news alert  •  Thu., Sep. 4, 2014 3:13 pm

McDonnell found guilty on 11 corruption counts

Former Virginia governor Robert F. McDonnell has been found guilty of 11 corruption counts. He has been found not guilty of falsifying loan documents. Maureen McDonnell has been found guilty of 8 corruption counts as well as obstruction of justice. She has also been found not guilty of falsifying loan documents. The McDonnell family was sobbing in the courtroom as verdicts were read. Follow our liveblog for the latest.

Live updates: Jury reaches verdict in McDonnell corruption trial

Former Virginia governor Robert F. McDonnell walks to the courthouse in Richmond on Wednesday. (Bill O’Leary/The Washington Post)

Jurors in the public corruption trial of former Virginia governor Robert F. McDonnell and his wife, Maureen, have reached a verdict. The McDonnells are facing a 14-count indictment that alleges that they lent the prestige of the governor’s office to a Richmond area businessman and that, in exchange, the businessman lavished them with gifts and money.
 Quiz: 10 questions | Interactive: McDonnell gifts list | Bob vs. Jonnie | Twitter: Latest | Previous days: The trial | Indictment

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McDonnell attorney vows to appeal verdict

Surrounded by reporters as he left the courthouse, Robert McDonnell defense attorney Hank Asbill said he “didn’t expect” the verdict.
“I’m obviously very disappointed,” he said. “We will appeal.”

Matthew Zapotosky

3:47 pm

McDonnells get into separate cars as they leave

Robert and Maureen McDonnell left the courthouse at the same time, getting into separate cars as they left.
Maureen said nothing as she was whisked out amid a huge media crowd.
But Robert, who was surrounded by the media scrum, thanked reporters “for the way you’ve handled this.”
“All I can say is my trust belongs in the Lord,” Robert McDonnell said before he ducked into his car.
Just before Robert McDonnell got in his car, a spectator shouted, “We still love you!”
Jurors were swept out a back door and declined to comment. One juror said, “I just want to go home,” according to the Associated Press.

Laura Vozzella

3:45 pm

What comes next for the McDonnells

The verdict read, U.S. District Judge James R. Spencer calmly expressed his gratitude to jurors for their time and attention, saying, “I know it has been a difficult task, but I thank you for your sacrifice.” As the group walked out, Robert F. McDonnell stood, but he did not look up at them.
Spencer asked the former governor and his wife to sit, then mildly asked the lawyers in the case if they were available for a Jan. 6 sentencing hearing. All said they were.
“We’ll get started at 10 o’clock,” Spencer said.
Spencer then asked the McDonnells to stand again and explained what will happen next. Before their sentencing, he said, someone from the probation office would reach out to discuss the case and various aspects of their background which might affect the sentence they will receive. He said if they choose to participate in the process, they could have their lawyers present. At the end of it, he said, a report would be generated.
“That completes this matter,” he said. “We’ll take a break and get back into the civil case.”

Matthew Zapotosky

3:43 pm

Gov. McAuliffe: 'Deeply saddened'

Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, who took over the office previously held by Robert F. McDonnell in January, released a statement a short time after the verdict was announced.
“I am deeply saddened by the events of the trial that ended in today’s verdict, and the impact it has had on our Commonwealth’s reputation for honesty and clean government,” McAuliffe (D) said. “Dorothy and I will continue to pray for the McDonnell family and for everyone who was affected by this trial.”

Mark Berman

3:37 pm

McDonnell wept as verdict was read

The moment the first guilty verdict was read, Robert F. McDonnell closed his eyes tightly, shaking in his seat as he wept.
Maureen McDonnell seemed to cry, too, though with her back to the courtroom, her tears were less obvious. In the wooden bench directly behind her, daughter Cailin McDonnell Young hunched forward and sobbed, her husband, Chris Young, hugging her as she did so.
As the eighth guilty count was read, Bob McDonnell buried his face in his hands. By the end, he was slumped in his chair, still crying.
The former governor did not look up as jurors each answered “yes” in turn to affirm their verdict. One juror appeared to be upset, and fidgeted in her seat.

Matthew Zapotosky

3:25 pm

Count by count verdict

Here’s the verdict, count by count, in the Robert F. and Maureen McDonnell corruption trial:
Count 1: Conspiracy to commit honest services wire fraud
Maureen G. McDonnell: Guilty
Robert F. McDonnell: Guilty
Count 2: Honest services wire fraud: $15,000 wedding check
Maureen G. McDonnell: Guilty
Robert F. McDonnell: Guilty
Count 3: Honest services wire fraud: MoBo $50,000
Maureen G. McDonnell: Guilty
Robert F. McDonnell: Guilty
Count 4: Honest services wire fraud: MoBo $20,000
Maureen G. McDonnell: Not guilty
Robert F. McDonnell: Guilty
Count 5: Conspiracy to obtain property under color of official right
Maureen G. McDonnell: Guilty
Robert F. McDonnell: Guilty
Count 6: Obtaining property under color of official right: $50,000 in 2011 to MGM
Maureen G. McDonnell: Guilty
Robert F. McDonnell: Guilty
Count 7: Obtaining property under color of official right: $15,000 wedding check
Maureen G. McDonnell: Guilty
Robert F. McDonnell: Guilty
Count 8: Obtaining property under color of official right: $2,380 Kinloch 5/29/2011
Maureen G. McDonnell: Guilty
Robert F. McDonnell: Guilty
Count 9: Obtaining property under color of official right: $1,424 Kinloch 1/7/2012
Maureen G. McDonnell: Not guilty
Robert F. McDonnell: Guilty
Count 10: Obtaining property under color of official right: $50,000 MoBo
Maureen G. McDonnell: Guilty
Robert F. McDonnell: Guilty
Count 11: Obtaining property under color of official right: $20,000 MoBo
Maureen G. McDonnell: Not guilty
Robert F. McDonnell: Guilty
Count 12: False statement to Townebank on 10/03/2012
Maureen G. McDonnell: N/A
Robert F. McDonnell: Not guilty
Count 13: False statement to PenFed on 02/01/2013
Maureen G. McDonnell: Not guilty
Robert F. McDonnell: Not guilty
Count 14: Obstruction of an official proceeding
Maureen G. McDonnell: Guilty
Robert F. McDonnell: N/A

Mark Berman

3:20 pm

Sentencing set for Jan. 6

With no fanfare, U.S. District Judge James R. Spencer set sentencing for Jan. 6 at 10 a.m.
Robert McDonnell, who sobbed throughout the proceeding, walked out with his head down. Maureen McDonnell hugged a friend at length in the aisle of the court.

Matthew Zapotosky

3:16 pm

The verdict: Guilty

A federal jury Thursday found former Virginia governor Robert F. McDonnell and his wife, Maureen, guilty of public corruption — sending a message that they believed the couple sold the office once occupied by Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson to a free-spending Richmond businessman for golf outings, lavish vacations and $120,000 in sweetheart loans.
After three days of deliberations, the seven men and five women who heard weeks of gripping testimony about the McDonnells’ alleged misdeeds acquitted the couple of several charges pending against them — but nevertheless found that they lent the prestige of the governor’s office to Jonnie R. Williams Sr. in a nefarious exchange for his largesse.
The verdict means that Bob McDonnell, who was already the first governor in Virginia history to be charged with a crime, now holds an even more unwanted distinction: the first ever to be convicted of one.
He and his wife face decades in federal prison, although their actual sentence could fall well short of that.

Rosalind S. Helderman

3:08 pm

Guilty on corruption, not guilty on falsifying loan documents

Robert F. McDonnell has been found guilty of 11 corruption counts. He was acquitted of falsifying loan documents.
Maureen McDonnell has been found guilty of eight corruption counts as well as obstruction of justice. She has also been found not guilty of falsifying loan documents.
The McDonnell family is sobbing in the courtroom.

Rosalind S. Helderman

3:06 pm

Maureen McDonnell guilty on eight corruption counts

Maureen McDonnell guilty on eight corruption counts and obstruction of justice.

Rosalind S. Helderman

3:04 pm

Robert McDonnell guilty on 11 counts

Robert F. McDonnell has been found guilty of 11 counts — all corruption charges.

Rosalind S. Helderman

3:04 pm

McDonnells found guilty on at least one charge

Mark Berman

2:59 pm

McDonnells walk to the courthouse

Robert F. McDonnell walked a half block down Broad Street in front of the courthouse, arm in arm with his son Bobby and alongside his sister Eileen with the priest trailing. The serene-looking former governor repeatedly said, “Okay, thank you all,” when asked how he was doing by the gaggle of press and cameramen surrounding him and his supporters.
The group was followed in quick succession by Maureen McDonnell and her entourage. She held hands with her daughters, stared straight ahead and said nothing.
— Jenna R. Portnoy

Mark Berman

2:58 pm

Video: The corruption trial, by the numbers

Mark Berman

2:51 pm

Looking at the indictment, timeline

The jury’s verdict will be read aloud in the courtroom shortly. In the meantime, here are two key resources to help you catch up on how we got here:

• The indictment: Filed in January, the indictment runs down the counts facing the McDonnells — jointly and alone — as well as the history of the relationship between Robert F. and Maureen McDonnell and businessman Jonnie R. Williams Sr.
• The timeline: This runs down the history of the trial, from jury selection on through to the jury deliberations.

Mark Berman

2:49 pm

McDonnell gifts list

As we await the verdict in the McDonnell trial, now might be a good opportunity to revisit some of the case’s other details.
Here is an interactive depicting the gifts that the McDonnells received from businessman Jonnie R. Williams Sr.

Mark Berman

2:34 pm

Statistics on the case

The McDonnells are now gathering with their lawyers to hear the verdict of the jury in the federal corruption trial of the former Virginia governor and his wife.
Some statistics about the case so far:

• The jury of seven men and five women deliberated for more than 17 hours over three days. They submitted not a single question to the judge that could be used to discern the direction of their conversations.
• The jury heard testimony from 67 witnesses over five weeks — 48 for the prosecution and 19 for the defense, of whom 15 testified for Robert F. McDonnell and four for Maureen McDonnell.
• Businessman Jonnie R. Williams Sr. spent 15 hours on the witness stand, spread over parts of four days.
• Bob McDonnell spent 24 hours on the witness stand, spread over five days. Of that time, 8.5 hours was cross-examination by prosecutors. The rest came as he answered questions from his own lawyers or those for his wife.
• The couple jointly face 14 counts. They each face 13. Of those, 11 are corruption related. They share one count of lying on financial documents related to omitting liabilities from Williams on a loan application submitted on Feb. 1, 2013. Bob McDonnell is charged alone with a second count of lying on financial documents stemming from a personal financial statement he submitted to a bank on Oct. 3, 2012. Maureen McDonnell is charged alone with one count of obstruction of justice, related to returning a box of clothes Jonnie had purchased for her in March 2013, along with a note in which prosecutors allege she falsely indicates he loaned them to her. That was after her interview by Virginia State Police.

Meet the Sandy Hook truthers 9JAN13

PROVING the need to increase scrutiny of people who may want to buy guns consider the  pathetic and outrageous claimes by the "Sandy Hook Truthers" who are spreading rumors the mass murders of students, teachers and the shooters mother was a plot planned and carried out by the government to outrage the nation and bring about stricter gun control laws. This from Salon....

(Credit: Reuters/Eric Thayer)

Yes, there really are Newtown truthers.

But in the crazy world of Sandy Hook conspiracy theories, this one may be the worst yet. (Maybe you’ve already heard some of the others, like the one about fantasy ties between the gunman’s family and the LIBOR banking scandal and a related theory about the Aurora shooting and the “Dark Knight Rises.”) Most of the theories are really pieces of a larger meta-theory: that the Sandy Hook shooting was a hoax, perhaps by the Obama administration, designed to stir demand for gun control.

In the latest angle, theorists think they have found “absolute proof” of a conspiracy to defraud the American people. “You reported in December that this little girl had been killed,” a reader emailed Salon in response to a story. “She has been found, and photographed with President Obama.”

The girl in question is Emilie Parker, a 6-year-old who was shot multiple times and killed at Sandy Hook. But for conspiracy theorists, the tears her family shed at her funeral, the moving eulogy from Utah’s governor, and the entire shooting spree are fake. Welcome to the world where Sandy Hook didn’t really happen.

There are dozens of websites, blog posts and YouTube videos extolling the Emilie Parker hoax theory. If you Google her name, the very first result is a post mocking her father for crying at a press conference after the shooting. One popular video, which already has 134,000 views, was made by the producers of a popular 9/11 Truther film. “Just as the movie ‘Operation Terror’ shows the 9/11 attacks were a made-for-TV event, so too were the mass shootings … There can be no doubt that Sandy Hook was a staged event,” the narrator intones. He goes on to say that the adults who participated in the media coverage of the shootings “should be prosecuted as accessories after the fact in a mass murder” — i.e., the parents whose children were murdered in the massacre should be thrown in prison.

The crux of the theory is a photograph of Parker’s sister sitting on President Obama’s lap when he visited with the victims’ families. The girl is wearing the same dress Emilie wore in a pre-shooting photograph of the family shared with media, so she must be Emilie, alive and well. “BAM! I cannot believe how idiot these people are [sic]… That’s her,” one YouTuber exclaims as he watches the two images superimposed on each other. (Apparently missed by these crack investigators is the possibility that the sister wore Emilie’s dress and that they look alike because they are sisters, after all.)

The supporting details to the hoax theory explanation are reminiscent of the arcana of any well-developed conspiracy theory. What about the car? What about the rifle? Why does someone off camera allegedly tell Parker’s father to “read the Card” (as in a cue card) before he goes on CNN? Why is he laughing? Who is the guy running into the woods? Why is there police audio referring to multiple shooters? Why does one boy who survived the shooting tell Dr. Oz it was like “a drill”? Why was the principal quoted by a local paper after she died? Why do some of the parents look like some of the victims of the Aurora shooting — are they “all actors”? All of these questions have simple explanations, but in each case, the theorists have sided more with less likely, but more nefarious possibilities.

One man has taken it upon himself to catalog all of the theories at SandyHookHoax.com. By way of credentials, creator Jay Johnson explains: “I am the only person in the world to solve LOST,” he writes (yes, the TV show).

In an email exchange with Salon, Johnson said he initially “wanted to help the kids express their feelings and memorialize the victims … But then I saw how the local paper interviewed the principal after she was dead, and I realized it was 99% odds another psychological operation that was going on,” he explained.

Noting that he started the website on “12/21/12” he explained, “since I am the New Age Messiah, with my Look Your Heart in the Mirror™ as the new revelation from the Goddess Tefnut, aka Ma’at, of Egypt, I thought the date was significant.”

But the hoax theory has even earned the backing for some presumably more credible sources. James Tracy, a tenured professor of communications at Florida Atlantic University, sparked controversy this week after he wrote a blog post suggesting the parents were “crisis actors.” “While it sounds like an outrageous claim, one is left to inquire whether the Sandy Hook shooting ever took place — at least in the way law enforcement authorities and the nation’s news media have described,” he wrote.

Websites owned by Alex Jones, the conspiracy theory pundit who helped start the 9/11 Truther movement and has millions of readers, are a virtual one-stop shop for Sandy Hook “false flag” miscellanea. So far, mainstream conservative figures haven’t hopped on board, though Gun Owners of American head Larry Pratt told Jones this summer that he thought there was a good chance the Aurora massacre was perpetrated by government agents.

Then there’s just the downright bizarre subgenre of theories. One posting on the community forum of Jones’ website connects Sandy Hook and Emilie Parker to Satanism, postulating that the school was a “recruiting center” for the Church of Satan. There’s even a low-budget slasher flick called “Sandy Hook Lingerie Party Massacre” — could that be connected?

Whether there is a connection or not, we can count on the Internet’s conspiracy theorists to find one, even if it means denying the legitimacy of the mourning families’ grief.

Alex Seitz-Wald is Salon's political reporter. Email him at aseitz-wald@salon.com, and follow him on Twitter @aseitzwald.MORE ALEX SEITZ-WALD.http://www.salon.com/2013/01/09/the_worst_sandy_hook_conspiracy_theory_yet/

Prosecutor: Campaign Worker's Arrest Not Obama's Watergate from MOTHER JONES 26JAN12

CONSPIRACY nuts are having a field day with this story, using it to spread fear, hate and racism of Pres Obama. How pathetic, and sad that so many Americans, especially Christian Americans, will believe them and spread this around the net, voluntarily forgoing the truth. From Mother Jones.....

—By Nick Baumann

But how do we know that the Clintons aren't behind all of this? The Death of Vince Foster/Screenshot

On Friday, Zachary Edwards, who worked as the Iowa new media director for President Barack Obama's 2008 campaign, was arrested in Des Moines and charged with attempting to impersonate Matt Schultz, Iowa's Republican secretary of state. Edwards, who had been working for a Des Moines political consulting company with close ties to Iowa Democrats, was promptly fired.
To several right-wing news sources, not only was Edwards' guilt immediately obvious, so was the fact that his arrest likely represented one small piece of a conspiracy reaching straight to the top. "Much like Watergate, which began with a seemingly simple (if puzzling) burglary and ultimately unraveled the Nixon administration, it is impossible to say how far the trail of criminality will go," wrote Powerline's John Hinderaker.
"The big question is how far up it goes," pondered the notoriously conservative editorial board of Investors Business Daily, before speculating about Edwards' supposed ties to "the secretive rich-man's club known as The Democracy Alliance, and the loud crazies of MoveOn.org, both funded by socialist billionaire George Soros" and "a conspiracy to defraud democracy" involving "some of the highest political crimes ever."
Newsbusters, the site dedicated to "exposing and combating liberal media bias," speculated that the lack of coverage of the Edwards story meant it wasn't "safe" for the mainstream media to cover and insinuated that the Associated Press had purposely "avoided the damning details." (Glenn Reynolds, a.k.a Instapundit, promoted Newsbusters' coverage of the story.) And Hot Air wondered "what connections Edwards has to Democratic Party leadership" and "how many more Zach Edwards we can expect to find in Barack Obama's campaign this time around."
Since every journalist worth his salt would love to expose something "much like Watergate," I decided to try something the right-wingers hadn't thought of: reporting. The criminal complaint against Edwards (PDF) has a case number associated with it, so when I couldn't hunt down a number for Edwards himself, I tried the Polk County court clerk's office and Edwards' bail bondsman to see if he had an attorney. As it turns out, it was a dead end—Edwards apparently hasn't hired a lawyer yet or had one appointed for him. No one, at least, has made court appearances on his behalf.
But I didn't have to go to a defense attorney to find out that Edwards probably isn't part of a grand conspiracy. John Sarcone, the county attorney in charge of prosecuting the Edwards case, couldn't say much about the details because of Iowa ethics rules. But when I told him what Hinderaker and IBD had been saying about Edwards, he laughed. "People have got imaginations, I'll tell you that," he said. "I don't think that's the case at all. They ought to give those jobs to creative writers, because that's fiction."
The White House and the Obama 2012 campaign declined to comment as to whether the president might be involved in an obscure campaign worker's alleged plot against the Iowa secretary of state. I smell a coverup!
Front page image: Pete Souza/White House

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Nick Baumann

News Editor

Nick Baumann covers national politics and civil liberties issues for Mother Jones' DC Bureau. For more of his stories, click here. You can also follow him on Twitter and Facebook. Email tips and insights to nbaumann [at] motherjones [dot] com. RSS | Twitter

Mormon Prophecy Behind Glenn Beck's Message by DANA MILBANK 5OKT10

IF the Constitution is hanging by a thread I'll take my chances with how things will shake out rather than look to the likes of glenn beck and orrin hatch to save the nation. Where were they when the Constitution was really being threatened by george w bush? Mormons riding to the rescue??? NO THANK YOU....we are a republic, not a theocracy, and we certainly aren't going to live under the racist, prejudiced, anti-semitic rule of the Mormon church, especially the church that reflects the mind blowing ignorance of glenn beck! As long as the leadership of the Mormon church doesn't condemn glenn beck for the hate, lies, deception and perversion he spews daily one can only conclude they approve of his opinions  and attitudes. Rescue us? HA! I don't think so....but thanks for the warning Mr. Milbank. From HuffPost....
 
In one of his first appearances on Fox News, Glenn Beck sent a coded message to the nation's six million Mormons -- or at least those Mormons who believe in what the Latter-day Saints call "the White Horse Prophecy."
"We are at the place where the Constitution hangs in the balance," Beck told Bill O'Reilly on November 14, 2008, just after President Obama's election. "I feel the Constitution is hanging in the balance right now, hanging by a thread unless the good Americans wake up."
The Constitution is hanging by a thread.

Most Americans would have heard this as just another bit of overblown commentary and thought nothing more of it. But to those familiar with the White Horse Prophecy, it was an unmistakable signal.

The phrase is often attributed to the Prophet Joseph Smith, founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or Mormon Church. Smith is believed to have said in 1840 that when the Constitution hangs by a thread, elders of the Mormon Church will step in -- on the proverbial white horse -- to save the country.

"When the Constitution of the United States hangs, as it were, upon a single thread, they will have to call for the 'Mormon' Elders to save it from utter destruction; and they will step forth and do it," Brigham Young, Smith's successor as head of the church, wrote in 1855.

Was it just a coincidence in wording, or was Beck, a 1999 Mormon convert, speaking in coded language about the need to fulfill the Mormon prophecy? A conversation on Beck's radio show ten days earlier would seem to rule out coincidence. Beck was interviewing Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah, also a Mormon, when he said: "I heard Barack Obama talk about the Constitution and I thought, we are at the point or we are very near the point where our Constitution is hanging by a thread."

"Well, let me tell you something," Hatch responded. "I believe the Constitution is hanging by a thread."

Days after Beck's Fox show started in January 2009, he had Hatch on, and again prompted him: "I believe our Constitution hangs by a thread."

Large numbers of Mormons watch Beck, but likely an even larger number of his viewers and radio listeners are evangelical Protestants who have no idea that Beck is preaching to them an obscure prophecy of the Latter-day Saints -- a faith many conservative Christians malign as a cult. In addition to the coded allusions to the White Horse Prophecy, he often brings Mormon theology into his broadcasts (he touts the thinking of late church president Ezra Taft Benson and he frequently promotes the work Mormon conspiracy theorist Cleon Skousen) but without identifying them with the LDS church.
Before the Mormons went west, Smith traveled to Washington seeking help for his oppressed followers and received nothing but frustration. Rather than turning on the government, however, "They considered themselves the last Real Americans, the legitimate heirs of the pilgrims and Founding Fathers," Pat Bagley wrote in the Salt Lake Tribune. "And, they believed, the very survival of the Constitution depended on the Saints. From Smith on, LDS leaders prophesied the Constitution would one day hang by a thread, only to be saved by Mormons."

A compilation of church leaders' statements over the years by the journal BYU Studies shows this strain of thinking. Though there are doubts about whether Smith actually wrote the phrase "hang by a thread," his successors left no doubt about the theology behind it. Orson Hyde, a Smith contemporary, wrote that Smith believed that "the time would come when the Constitution and the country would be in danger of an overthrow; and said [Smith]: 'If the Constitution be saved at all, it will be by the elders of this Church.'"
The church's fifth presiding bishop, Charles Nibley, believed that "the day would come when there would be so much of disorder, of secret combinations taking the law into their own hands, tramping upon Constitutional rights and the liberties of the people, that the Constitution would hang as by a thread. Yes, but it will still hang, and there will be enough of good people, many who may not belong to our Church at all, people who have respect for law and for order, and for Constitutional rights, who will rally around with us and save the Constitution."
The prophecy was renewed with each generation of church leadership. "The prophet Joseph Smith said the time will come when, through secret organizations taking the law into their own hands . . . the Constitution of the United States would be so torn and rent asunder, and life and property and peace and security would be held of so little value, that the Constitution would, as it were, hang by a thread," church apostle Melvin Ballard said in 1928. "This Constitution will be preserved, but it will be preserved very largely in consequence of what the Lord has revealed and what this people, through listening to the Lord and being obedient, will help to bring about, to stabilize and give permanency and effect to the Constitution itself. That also is our mission."
And now it is Beck's mission. Secret organizations? Tramping on liberties? Breakdown of law and order? Shredding the Constitution? Betraying the Founders? This is the core of Beck's message, in his own words: "Some people in the government seem to have a problem, you know, shredding the Constitution." And: "You're trying to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States, friends. It's in trouble." And: "He" -- that would be Obama -- "is going to bring us to the verge of shredding the Constitution, of massive socialism."
But there is a Beckian twist in his version of the prophecy. Unlike the church leaders' versions, Beck's vision carries the possibility of a bloody end. On the night of Feb. 24, 2009, Beck outlined this prospect for his viewers. People who "don't trust the government," he said, would "see the government as violating the Constitution, and they will see themselves as defenders of the Constitution. Not a good mix. Then they take matters into their own hands."
It was Glenn Beck in a nutshell: White Horse Prophecy meets horsemen of the apocalypse.
Adapted from Tears of a Clown: Glenn Beck and the Tea Bagging of America, released October 5, 2010 by Doubleday.
Ed Note: This blog post originally stated that Charles Nibley was the Mormon Church's fifth leader. He is actually the church's fifth presiding bishop, and the text has been changed to reflect this.

Attempted mass murder - on FOX's hands 12OKT10

WORDS do have consequences, and national figures like glenn beck and national media like fox "news" need to accept responsibility for their actions, for the rhetoric they broadcast. 

Fox News has inspired at least one person to attempt mass murder — a new report removes any doubt.^[1]

Three months ago, a heavily armed man named Byron Williams was on his way to kill people at two non-profit organizations in San Francisco, when he got into a gun battle with police before they eventually arrested him. Now, in an interview from jail, he's said that Fox News' Glenn Beck was a major inspiration:

"Beck will deny everything about violent approach, deny everything about conspiracies, but he'll give you every reason to believe it ... I understand what he's doing."^[2]

If you needed any more evidence that Fox News is dangerous, this is it. It's time to do everything we can reduce Fox News' influence and stop them from spreading divisive propaganda and inciting violence. I've joined the Turn Off Fox campaign and I'm asking businesses and public places in my community to stop playing Fox News. Will you join me? It just takes a minute:

http://www.turnofffox.org/580/?id=2067-1289343&pr=cr

Byron Williams came frighteningly close to killing people at offices of the ACLU and the Tides Foundation in San Francisco. He was stopped by police on the highway in Oakland just a few miles from his targets, and shot at them for about 12 minutes (injuring two of them but thankfully killing no one) before they finally could arrest him.^[3]

While many Americans are aware of the ACLU, the Tides Foundation is an organization that most people had never heard of — until Glenn Beck started demonizing and spreading false information about them. Since Beck’s show premiered, he has pushed conspiracy theories involving Tides on nearly 30 episodes. During the same time period, Tides was never mentioned on other news channels.^[4,5]

Williams survived the gunshots police used to bring him down — and now, he’s told us about his motives. According to an interview with Williams recently released by Media Matters, he was driven by a bizarre and false conspiracy theory involving Tides Foundation that Glenn Beck pushed multiple times on his TV show.^[6]

Click here to watch a video about Williams' attempted killing spree (and its connection to Glenn Beck's conspiracy theories) — and to sign the petition calling on businesses and public places to stop playing Fox News:

http://wwww.turnofffox.org/580/?id=2067-1289343&pr=cr

Here are some more quotes from Byron Williams that show what he thought about Glenn Beck:

• "I would have never started watching Fox News if it wasn’t for the fact that Beck was on there ... It was the things that he did, it was the things he exposed, that blew my mind."
• "Anything that you do is going to be considered promoting terror attacks or promoting violence. So now they’ve got Beck labeled as a guy that is trying to incite violence. And what I say is that if the truth incites violence, it means that we’ve been living too long in the lies."^[7]

Williams is the clearest example we have of someone who was motivated by Fox News to engage in political violence — but he's part of a consistent pattern of violence from far-right extremists that was likely motivated at least in part by the hateful rhetoric and misinformation that's commonplace on Fox News and in other far-right media. Many of those who have planned or carried out violence (including Byron Williams) held racist and anti-Semitic views and were angry at the fact that our country has a Black president.

• In April 2009, a white supremacist named Richard Poplawski shot and killed three police officers that were called to his house. Poplawski hated Jews and Black people, and believed in right-wing conspiracy theories that say the Obama administration is gearing up to take away peoples' guns and institute a police state. Glenn Beck has consistently implied that the Obama administration is taking away our rights and moving us towards a fascist dictatorship or police state. Poplawski once posted a Youtube clip of Glenn Beck — in which he discussed a conspiracy theory about FEMA concentration camps — to the white supremacist website Stormfront.^[8]
• In May 2009, abortion doctor George Tiller was gunned down in his church by an anti-abortion terrorist after being demonized for years by Fox's Bill O'Reilly as "Tiller the Baby Killer." O'Reilly had compared Tiller to the Nazis and to Al-Qaeda. He said that Tiller had "blood on his hands" and that he wouldn't want to be Tiller "if there is a Judgement Day."^[9]

There's a very real danger of political violence from the far-right — and Fox News fans the flames every day. It's no longer a hypothetical question whether the conspiracy theories, bigotry, violent rhetoric on Fox can lead to real-world violence. It's already happened. Thankfully, police were able to stop Byron Williams before he committed a massacre. But we might not be so lucky with the next killer inspired by Glenn Beck and Fox News.

We can't allow Fox News to stoke the kind of fear, division and hatred that leads to violence. It's time to ask our friends, our neighbors, and our communities to turn off Fox. Please join me:

http://www.turnofffox.org/580/?id=2067-1289343&pr=cr

Thanks.

References

1. http://act.colorofchange.org/go/464?akid=1621.1239195.YB-5qO&t=7
2. http://act.colorofchange.org/go/464?akid=1621.1239195.YB-5qO&t=9
3. http://act.colorofchange.org/go/465?akid=1621.1239195.YB-5qO&t=11
4. http://act.colorofchange.org/go/466?akid=1621.1239195.YB-5qO&t=13
5. http://act.colorofchange.org/go/467?akid=1621.1239195.YB-5qO&t=15
6. See reference 1.
7. See reference 1.
8. http://act.colorofchange.org/go/468?akid=1621.1239195.YB-5qO&t=17
9. http://act.colorofchange.org/go/395?akid=1621.1239195.YB-5qO&t=19

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Confessions of a Tea Party Casualty Why GOP Rep. Bob Inglis is looking for a new job. from MOJO 3AUG10

 THIS man lays it right on the line, especially with this statement (in the article below) 
I refused to use the word because I have this view that the Ninth Commandment must mean something. I remember one year Bill Clinton—the guy I was out to get [when serving on the House judiciary committee in the 1990s]—at the National Prayer Breakfast said something that was one of the most profound things I've ever heard from anybody at a gathering like that. He said, "The most violated commandment in Washington, DC"—everybody leaned in; do tell, Mr. President—"is, 'Thou shall not bear false witness against thy neighbor.'" I thought, "He's right. That is the most violated commandment in Washington." For me to go around saying that Barack Obama is a socialist is a violation of the Ninth Commandment. He is a liberal fellow. I'm conservative. We disagree...But I don't need to call him a socialist, and I hurt the country by doing so. The country has to come together to find a solution to these challenges or else we go over the cliff.

By David Corn | Tue Aug. 3, 2010 3:00 AM PDT

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It was the middle of a tough primary contest, and Rep. Bob Inglis (R-S.C.) had convened a small meeting with donors who had contributed thousands of dollars to his previous campaigns. But this year, as Inglis faced a challenge from tea party-backed Republican candidates claiming Inglis wasn't sufficiently conservative, these donors hadn't ponied up. Inglis' task: Get them back on the team. "They were upset with me," Inglis recalls. "They are all Glenn Beck watchers." About 90 minutes into the meeting, as he remembers it, "They say, 'Bob, what don't you get? Barack Obama is a socialist, communist Marxist who wants to destroy the American economy so he can take over as dictator. Health care is part of that. And he wants to open up the Mexican border and turn [the US] into a Muslim nation.'" Inglis didn't know how to respond.
As he tells this story, the veteran lawmaker is sitting in his congressional office, which he will have to vacate in a few months. On June 22, he was defeated [1] in the primary runoff by Spartanburg County 7th Circuit Solicitor Trey Gowdy, who had assailed Inglis for supposedly straying from his conservative roots, pointing to his vote for the bank bailout and against George W. Bush's surge in Iraq. Inglis, who served six years in Congress during the 1990s as a conservative firebrand before being reelected to the House in 2004, had also ticked off right-wingers [2] in the state's 4th Congressional District by urging tea-party activists to "turn Glenn Beck off" and by calling on Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) to apologize for shouting "You lie!" at Obama during the president's State of the Union address. For this, Inglis, who boasts (literally) a 93 percent lifetime rating from the American Conservative Union, received the wrath of the tea party, losing to Gowdy 71 to 29 percent. In the weeks since, Inglis has criticized Republican House leaders for acquiescing to a poisonous, tea party-driven "demagoguery [3]" that he believes will undermine the GOP's long-term credibility. And he's freely recounting his frustrating interactions with tea party types, while noting that Republican leaders are pushing rhetoric tainted with racism, that conservative activists are dabbling in anti-Semitic conspiracy theory nonsense, and that Sarah Palin celebrates ignorance.
The week after that meeting with his past funders—whom he failed to bring back into the fold—Inglis asked House Republican leader John Boehner what he would have told this group of Obama-bashers. Inglis recalls what happened:

[Boehner] said, "I would have told them that it's not quite that bad. We disagree with him on the issues." I said, "Hold on Boehner, that doesn't work. Let me tell you, I tried that and it did not work." I said [to Boehner], "If you're going to lead these people and the fearful stampede to the cliff that they're heading to, you have to turn around and say over your shoulder, 'Hey, you don't know the half of it.'"

In other words, feed and fuel the anger and paranoia of the right.

During his primary campaign, Inglis repeatedly encountered enraged conservatives whom he couldn't—or wouldn't—satisfy. Shortly before the runoff primary election, Inglis met with about a dozen tea party activists at the modest ranch-style home of one of them. Here's what took place:

I sat down, and they said on the back of your Social Security card, there's a number. That number indicates the bank that bought you when you were born based on a projection of your life's earnings, and you are collateral. We are all collateral for the banks. I have this look like, "What the heck are you talking about?" I'm trying to hide that look and look clueless. I figured clueless was better than argumentative. So they said, "You don't know this?! You are a member of Congress, and you don't know this?!" And I said, "Please forgive me. I'm just ignorant of these things." And then of course, it turned into something about the Federal Reserve and the Bilderbergers and all that stuff. And now you have the feeling of anti-Semitism [4] here coming in, mixing in. Wow.

Later, Inglis mentioned this meeting to another House member: "He said, 'You mean you sat there for more than 10 minutes?' I said, 'Well, I had to. We were between primary and runoff.' I had a two-week runoff. Oh my goodness. How do you..." Inglis trails off, shaking his head.
While he was campaigning, Inglis says, tea party activists and conservative voters kept pushing him to describe Obama as a "socialist." But, he says, "It's a dangerous strategy to build conservatism on information and policies that are not credible...This guy is no socialist." He continues:

The word is designed to have emotional charge to it. Throughout my primary, there were people insisting that I use the word. They would ask me if he was a socialist, and I would always find some other word. I'd say, "President Obama wants a very large government that I don't think will work and that spends too much and it's inefficient and it compromises freedom and it's not the way we want to go." They would listen for the word, wait to see if I used the s-word, and when I didn't, you could see the disappointment.

Why not give these voters what they wanted? Inglis says he wasn't willing to lie:

I refused to use the word because I have this view that the Ninth Commandment must mean something. I remember one year Bill Clinton—the guy I was out to get [when serving on the House judiciary committee in the 1990s]—at the National Prayer Breakfast said something that was one of the most profound things I've ever heard from anybody at a gathering like that. He said, "The most violated commandment in Washington, DC"—everybody leaned in; do tell, Mr. President—"is, 'Thou shall not bear false witness against thy neighbor.'" I thought, "He's right. That is the most violated commandment in Washington." For me to go around saying that Barack Obama is a socialist is a violation of the Ninth Commandment. He is a liberal fellow. I'm conservative. We disagree...But I don't need to call him a socialist, and I hurt the country by doing so. The country has to come together to find a solution to these challenges or else we go over the cliff.

Inglis found that ideological extremism is not only the realm of the tea party; it also has infected the official circles of his Republican Party. In early 2009, he attended a meeting of the GOP's Greenville County executive committee. At the time, Republicans were feeling discouraged. Obama was in the White House; the Democrats had enlarged their majorities in the House and Senate. The GOP seemed to be in tatters. But Inglis had what he considered good news. He put up a slide he had first seen at a GOP retreat. It was based on exit polling conducted during the November 2008 election. The slide, according to Inglis, showed that when American voters were asked to place themselves on an ideological spectrum—1 being liberal, 10 being conservative—the average ended up at about 5.6. The voters placed House Republicans at about 6.5 and House Democrats at about 4.3. Inglis told his fellow Republicans, "This is great news," explaining it meant that the GOP was still closer to the American public than the Democrats. The key, he said, was for the party to keep to the right, without driving off the road.
Inglis was met, he says with "stony" faces: "There's a short story by Shirley Jackson, 'The Lottery.'" The tale describes a town where the residents stone a neighbor who is chosen randomly. "That's what the crowd looked like. I got home that night and said to my wife, 'You can't believe how they looked back at me.' It was really frightening." The next speaker, he recalls, said, "'On Bob's ideological spectrum up there, I'm a 10,' and the crowd went wild. That was what I was dealing with."
Inglis acknowledges he's intimately familiar with extreme politics. He was part of the GOP gang that went after Clinton and impeached him for the Lewinsky affair:

I hated Bill Clinton. I wanted to destroy him. Then I had six years out [after leaving Congress in 1999] to look back on that, and now I would confess it as a sin. It is just wrong to want to destroy another human being and to spend so much time and effort trying to destroy Bill Clinton—some of it with really suspect information. We went on and on about Whitewater. We had talked about the strange things about Vince Foster's death. The drug dealing at Mena airport. So in the six years I was out, I looked back and realized, "Oh what a waste."

When he returned to the House in 2005, Inglis, though still a conservative, was more focused on policy solutions than ideological battle. After Obama entered the White House, Inglis worked up a piece of campaign literature—in the form of a cardboard coaster that flipped open—that noted that Republicans should collaborate (not compromise) with Democrats to produce workable policies. "America's looking for solutions, not wedges," it read. He met with almost every member of the House Republican caucus to make his pitch: "What we needed to be is the adults who say absolutely we will work with [the new president]."
Instead, he remarks, his party turned toward demagoguery. Inglis lists the examples: falsely claiming Obama's health care overhaul included "death panels," raising questions about Obama's birthplace, calling the president a socialist, and maintaining that the Community Reinvestment Act [5] was a major factor of the financial meltdown. "CRA," Inglis says, "has been around for decades. How could it suddenly create this problem? You see how that has other things worked into it?" Racism? "Yes," Inglis says.
As an example of both the GOP pandering to right-wing voters and conservative talk show hosts undercutting sensible policymaking, Inglis points to climate change. Fossil fuels, he notes, get a free ride because they're "negative externalities"—that is, pollution and the effects of climate change—"are not recognized" in the market. Sitting in front of a wall-sized poster touting clean technology centers in South Carolina, Inglis says that conservatives "should be the ones screaming. This is a conservative concept: accountability. This is biblical law: you cannot do on your property what harms your neighbor's property." Which is why he supports placing a price on carbon—and forcing polluters to cover it.
Asked why conservatives and Republicans have demonized the issue of climate change and clean energy, Inglis replies, "I wish I knew; then maybe I wouldn't have lost my election." He points out that some conservatives believe that any issue affecting the Earth is "the province of God and will not be affected by human activity. If you talk about the challenge of sustainability of the Earth's systems, it's an affront to that theological view."
Inglis voted against the cap-and-trade climate legislation, believing it would create a new tax, lead to a "hopelessly complicated" trading scheme for carbon, and harm American manufacturing by handing China and India a competitive edge on energy costs. Instead, he proposed a revenue-neutral tax swap: Payroll taxes would be reduced, and the amount of that reduction would be applied as a tax on carbon dioxide emissions—mainly hitting coal plants and natural gas facilities. (This tax would be removed from exported goods and imposed on imported products—thus neutralizing any competitive advantage for China, India, and other manufacturing nations.)
Here was a conservative market-based plan. Did it receive any interest from House GOP leaders? Inglis shakes his head: "It's the t-word." Tax. He adds, "It's so contrary to the rhetoric we've got out there, to what Beck, Limbaugh, and others are saying."
For Inglis, this is the crux of the dilemma: Republican members of Congress know "deep down" that they need to deliver conservative solutions like his tax swap. Yet, he adds, "We're being driven as herd by these hot microphones—which are like flame throwers—that are causing people to run with fear and panic, and Republican members of Congress are afraid of being run over by that stampeding crowd." Inglis says that it's hard for Republicans in Congress to "summon the courage" to say no to Beck, Limbaugh, and the tea party wing. "When we start just delivering rhetoric and more misinformation...we're failing the conservative movement," he says. "We're failing the country." Yet, he notes, Boehner and House minority whip Eric Cantor have one primary strategic calculation: Play to the tea party crowd. "It's a dangerous strategy," he contends, "to build conservatism on information and policies that are not credible."
Asked if there are any 2012 GOP contenders who can lead the party in a more credible direction, Inglis points to Rob Portman, a former House member who was President George W. Bush's budget director. But Portman is now running for Senate in Ohio. He's not 2012 material. What about Sarah Palin? Inglis pauses for a moment: "I think that there are people who seem to think that ignorance is strength." And he says of her: "If I choose to remain ignorant and uninformed and encourage people to follow me while I celebrate my lack of information," that's not responsible.
After winning six congressional elections since 1992, Inglis is now a politician without a party, a policy maven without a movement. And in a few months, he will be without his present job. He has no specific plan yet for his future. He mentions looking for "private sector opportunities" in a sustainable energy field—or an academic or think tank position. Becoming a lobbyist is another option he has started to mull.
Inglis is a casualty of the tea party-ization of the Republican Party. Given the decisive vote against him in June, it's clear he was wiped out by a political wave that he could do little to thwart. "Emotionally, I should be all right with this," he says. And when he thinks about what lies ahead for his party and GOP House leaders, he can't help but chuckle. With Boehner and others chasing after the tea party, he says, "that's going to be the dog that catches the car." He quickly adds: "And the Democrats, if they go into the minority, are going to have an enjoyable couple of years watching that dog deal with the car it's caught."

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Source URL: http://motherjones.com/politics/2010/08/bob-inglis-tea-party-casualty

Links:
[1] http://www.cqpolitics.com/wmspage.cfm?docID=news-000003688244&cpage=1
[2] http://online.wsj.com/article/NA_WSJ_PUB:SB10001424052748704792104575264471489833504.html
[3] http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2010/07/09/gop_leaders_let_demagogues_set_tone_lawmaker_says/
[4] http://www.adl.org/rumors/bilderberg.asp
[5] http://www.businessweek.com/investing/insights/blog/archives/2008/09/community_reinvestment_act_had_nothing_to_do_with_subprime_crisis.html

THE RIGHT WING CONSPIRACY NUTS ARE ALL UP IN ARMS OVER THE POST AMERICAN WORLD

THIS is so typical of the racist, tea-bagging right wing political fanatics, and it is pathetic. I received this e mail from a right winger who can't be bothered to do a little research and find out the truth because it is easier to be fed this kind of bullshit from the likes of glenn beck and fox 'news'. People who have forgotten how to use their minds, or who are too lazy to, are the real threat to our great country. But anyway, check this out, laugh at the stupidity of it, and click the header to go to the posting on Snopes and see the Wikipedia write up about the book, and if you are really interested click the link below to go to Newsweek and read  an excerpt from it.First the email from the neo-con nut jobs......

This photo will stun you

If each person sends this to a minimum of twenty people on their address  list, in three days, all people in The United States of America  would have the message. I believe this is one proposal that really should be passed around.________________________________________________________________ THIS WILL CURDLE YOUR BLOOD AND CURL YOUR HAIR The name of the book Obama is reading is called: The Post-American World,  and it was written by a fellow Muslim.   "Post"   America  means the world After   America !  Please forward this picture to everyone you know, conservative or liberal.  We must expose Obama's radical ideas and his intent to bring down our beloved America !  The Post-American World From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Post-American_World The Post-American World   Author Fareed Zakaria Country United States Language English Subject(s) Current affairs, international relations, globalisation Genre(s) Non-fiction Publisher W. W. Norton & Company Publication date May 2008 Media type Print (Hardcover & Paperback), Audiobook Pages 292 pp. ISBN ISBN 039306235X (10) & ISBN 9780393062359 (13) OCLC Number 181139415 Dewey Decimal 303.49 22 LC Classification CB161 .Z34 2008 The Post-American World is a non-fiction book by Indian American journalist Fareed Zakaria. It was published in hardcover and audiobook formats in early May 2008 and became available in paperback in early May 2009. In the book, Zakaria argues that, thanks to the actions of the United States in spreading liberal democracy across the world, other countries are now competing with the US in terms of economic, industrial, and cultural power. While the US continues to dominate in terms of political-military power, other countries such as China and India are becoming global players in many fields. The book peaked at #2 on the The New York Times non-fiction hardcover best-seller list and at #47 on the USA Today Top 150 Best-Selling Books list. Reviewers commented that Zakaria's writing was intelligent and sharp, yet accessible to general audiences. A few reviewers also wrote that the book was similar to an extended essay with journalistic style writing. Contents [hide] 1 Background 2 Synopsis 3 Style and comparisons 4 Publication and sales 5 Reception 6 References 7 External links [edit] Background At the time of publication author Fareed Zakaria was a 44 year old married man living in New York City and working as an editor for Newsweek International. Zakaria had immigrated to the United States from India during his university career. He graduated from Harvard University with a Ph.D. in political science in 1993 after earning a B.A. from Yale University. He worked as the managing editor of Foreign Affairs magazine before accepting the editor position at Newsweek. Labeled a liberal hawk,[1] Zakaria's political views have shifted from supporting Reagan's pro-democracy agenda to Clinton's pro-market stances and to the point where Zakaria felt that the US was "unstoppable".[2] In subsequent years, he watched as other countries set records for the tallest building, largest factory, largest refinery, and richest person. Meanwhile, he watched the US get bogged down in Iraq. In 2003, his book The Future of Freedom: Illiberal Democracy at Home and Abroad, in which he examines the necessary conditions for liberal democracy to survive, was published. While he initially supported US intervention in Iraq, Zakaria criticized the Bush Administration's methods of nation-building and for trying to force Iraq into a liberal democracy without the preconditions of economic liberalisation and rule-of-law.[2] Over the next few years, Zakaria developed his theory on shifting global power as he contributed or wrote articles profiling emerging national powers and participating in economic forums and organizations.[3][4] [edit] Synopsis The content is divided into seven chapters. The first chapter introduces the thesis of the book: that a 'post-American' world order is emerging in which the United States of America will continue to be the most powerful nation but its relative power will be diminished. He believes that there have been three power shifts in the last 500 years: a shift of power to the West during the Renaissance, a shift of power to the US making it a superpower, and now a shift to several surging countries, especially China and India, and to non-governmental organizations. Zakaria believes that international organizations are not adapting well to emerging challenges and that there is too much focus on problems arising from potential market failures or general crises (e.g. terrorism) at the expense of focus on problems stemming from success (e.g. development causing environmental degradation, or rising demand creating high commodity prices). The world is moving from anger to indifference, from anti-Americanism to post-Americanism. The fact that new powers are more strongly asserting their interests is the reality of the post-American world. It also raises the political conundrum of how to achieve international objectives in a world of many actors, state and nonstate. Fareed Zakaria, The Post-American World, pages 36–37. The second and third chapters examine factors that led to the current power balance. Power shifted to the West because it fostered trade with foreign peoples and developed superior labour productivity per capita. Power shifted to the US because of its strong democracy and capitalist market. Zakaria argues that the success of the US in promoting free market capitalism and globalization has led to power being dispersed to several other countries. Economies have been surging for decades, in part due to large new players entering the global market place. He compares this era's economic growth to the economic surges of the 1890s and the 1950s which also saw new players become global powers. At the same time, Zakaria sees attitudes in the US becoming insular and distrustful of foreigners. The fourth chapter focuses on China. Its strategy of small, gradual reforms have allowed it to quietly modernize. It has become the second most powerful nation, but still unlikely to match the US for decades to come. China's strengths include a philosophy that reflects Confucian ideals of practicality, ethics and rationalism. Its non-combative foreign policy is more appealing, most notably in Africa, over interventionist Western-style policy that demands reforms in other countries. China's weakness, though, is a fear of social unrest. The fifth chapter focuses on India. Contrasted to China, India has a bottom-up democratic political system constantly subject to social unrest but which only results in few politicians losing an election. Its political system is characterized by strong regionalism — often placing high priority on regional interests rather than national. Zakaria lists India's advantages: independent courts that enforce contracts, private property rights, rule of law, an established private sector, and many business savvy English-speaking people. The sixth chapter compares the American rise to superpower status and its use of power. He draws parallels between the British Empire in the 1890s and starting the Boer War with the US in the 2000s and starting the Iraq War. The difference between them is that the British had unsurpassed political power but lost its economic dominance, whereas the US, in the 2000s, had huge economic power but faltering political influence. Zakaria defends the US from indicators that suggest American decline but warns that internal partisan politics, domestic ideological attack groups, special interest power, and a sensationalistic media are weakening the federal government's ability to adapt to new global realities. The final chapter outlines how the US has used its power and provides six guidelines for the US to follow in the 'post-American world' envisioned by Zakaria. Zakaria's guidelines for the US in the 'post-American world' Guideline Notes 1 Choose Choose priorities rather than trying to have it all 2 Build broad rules, not narrow interests Recommit to international institutions and mechanisms 3 Be Bismarck, not Britain Maintain excellent relations with everyone, rather than offset and balance emerging powers 4 Order à la carte Address problems through a variety of different structures (e.g. sometimes UN, sometimes NATO, sometimes OAS) 5 Think asymmetrically Respond to problems (e.g. drug cartels, terrorists, etc.) proportionately and do not respond to bait (i.e. small attacks meant to draw attention) 6 Legitimacy is power Legitimacy creates the means to set agendas, define crises, and mobilize support [edit] Style and comparisons The Post-American World, at 292 pages long, was described as "a book-length essay"[5] and a "thin book that reads like one long, thoughtful essay".[6] Written with an optimistic tone, it features little new research or reporting, but rather contains insights and identification of trends.[5] The reviewer for the The Wall Street Journal described the tone as "infectious (though not naive) sunniness...but without Panglossian simplicity".[1] The American Spectator reviewer noted that the prose had a journalistic style[7] while the reviewer for The Guardian noticed the writing sometimes displayed "news magazine mannerisms".[8] Zakaria's view on globalisation was said to be similar to journalist and author Thomas Friedman.[9][10] Friedman reviewed The Post-American World and called it "compelling".[11] The review in American Conservative compared this book with Rudyard Kipling's poems "Recessional" and "The White Man's Burden", both written at the height of British power and warning against imperial hubris.[12] The American Spectator review listed it as adding to similar themed books, comparing it to Oswald Spengler's The Decline of the West (1918), Arnold Toynbee's A Study of History, Paul Kennedy's The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers (1987), and Robert Kagan's The Return of History and the End of Dreams (2008).[7] Kagan labeled The Post-American World as "declinist";[13] however, Martin Woollacott of The Guardian labeled Zakaria an exceptionalist.[8] The Commentary review added the works of Samuel P. Huntington and Francis Fukuyama to the list of comparisons and suggested there is now a sub-genre of books that consider the decline or demise of American hegemony.[14] CLICK THIS LINK TO GO TO NEWSWEEK AND READ AN EXCERPT OF THE BOOK http://www.newsweek.com/2008/05/03/the-rise-of-the-rest.html