White House Struggles To Get Its Lies Straight In Telling Bin Laden Fairytale

Some of the details relayed by John Brennan, right, have been modified by the White House. | AP Photo Close

By JOSH GERSTEIN & MATT NEGRIN | 5/2/11 11:37 PM EDT Updated: 5/3/11 4:38 PM EDT

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney on Tuesday publicly revised the administration’s account of the raid that killed Osama bin Laden, telling reporters that the Al Qaeda leader wasn’t armed during the assault and didn’t use one of his wives as a shield.
On Monday evening, the White House had backed away from key details in its narrative about the raid, including claims by senior U.S. officials that bin Laden had a weapon and may have fired it during a gun battle with U.S. forces.

Carney offers more on bin Laden

 

Carney: Even I’m confused

Brennan’s Monday briefing

Officials also retreated from claims that one of bin Laden’s wives was killed in the raid.

Carney read a statement to reporters Tuesday seeking to clarify discrepancies. He said bin Laden “was not armed.” When a U.S. “assaulter” approached bin Laden, the Al Qaeda leader’s “wife” rushed the assaulter. That woman was shot but not killed, Carney said.
“What is true,” Carney said, is that “we provided a great deal of information with great haste.”
“Obviously, some of the information was — came in piece by piece and is being reviewed and updated and elaborated upon,” he said.
Carney told reporters that “resistance does not require a firearm” but directed questions about how bin Laden “resisted” to the Pentagon.
Carney’s clarification came after a day when the administration’s account had appeared to change but had not been publicly corrected.
At a televised White House briefing Monday afternoon, Deputy National Security Adviser John Brennan had said bin Laden joined in the fight that several residents of the Abbottabad, Pakistan, compound put up against the Navy SEALs during the 40-minute operation.
“He [bin Laden] was engaged in a firefight with those that entered the area of the house he was in. And whether or not he got off any rounds, I quite frankly don’t know,” Brennan said.
At a Pentagon briefing earlier Monday, a senior defense official said bin Laden used a woman as a human shield so he could fire shots. “He was firing behind her,” the official said.
In another background briefing early Monday morning, a senior administration official also said bin Laden put up a fight. “He did resist the assault force. And he was killed in a firefight,” the official said.
However, during a background, off-camera briefing for television reporters later Monday, a senior White House official said bin Laden was not armed when he was killed, apparently by the U.S. raid team.
Another White House official familiar with the TV briefing confirmed the change to POLITICO on Monday night, adding, “I’m not aware of him having a weapon.”
“The bottom line is the team that entered that room was met with resistance and took appropriate action,” said a third American official.
The White House on Monday night declined to elaborate on the nature of the resistance bin Laden allegedly put up. However, an official confirmed that the Al Qaeda founder was shot twice, once in the head and once in the chest.

At the Monday evening briefing for TV reporters, a senior official also corrected what Brennan described earlier as “my understanding” that the woman who acted as a shield for bin Laden was one of his wives and was killed.
“A different guy’s wife was killed,” a different official familiar with the briefing for TV reporters said Monday night. Bin Laden’s wife was “injured but not killed,” the official said.

Another official familiar with the operation said it did not appear that any woman was used as a human shield, but that the woman killed and the one injured were hurt in the crossfire. The official said he believed Brennan had mixed up the episode involving bin Laden’s wife with another encounter elsewhere in the compound.

“Two women were shot here. It sounds like their fates were mixed up,” said the U.S. official. “This is hours old and the full facts are still being ascertained as those involved are debriefed.”
In another discrepancy, Brennan said during his on-the-record briefing that bin Laden’s son Khalid was killed in the attack. However, the official White House transcript had the counterterrorism adviser saying it was another son, Hamza, who perished in the raid.
The White House didn’t offer a reason Monday for any of the changes. However, Brennan noted during his televised briefing that his information came from reports from the scene as well as live video feeds of the raid. “I wasn’t there,” he said.
As Carney clarified the White House narrative Tuesday, he noted that there is a discrepancy in the number of floors in the compound that the team stormed.
“Even I’m getting confused,” Carney said.

Rand Paul: Is There A Connection Between The Killing Of Bin Laden & Raising The Debt Ceiling?

Fox News
May 3, 2011
Sen. Paul and Judge Napolitano talk about the debt ceiling and the War on Terror.

RASMUSSEN: No ‘Immediate Bounce’ for Obama

Tuesday, May 03, 2011

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Tuesday shows that 26% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as president. Thirty-six percent (36%) Strongly Disapprove, giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -10 (see trends).
The Presidential Approval Index is calculated by subtracting the number who Strongly Disapprove from the number who Strongly Approve. It is updated daily at 9:30 a.m. Eastern (sign up for free daily e-mail update). Updates are also available on Twitter and Facebook
Overall, 49% of voters say they at least somewhat approve of the president's performance. Fifty percent (50%) disapprove.
Daily updates are based upon nightly telephone interviews and reported on a three-day rolling average basis. As a result, two-thirds of the interviews for today’s update were conducted before news was released about the death of Osama bin Laden. Thursday will be the first update based entirely upon interviews conducted after that event. Results from the single night of data collected on Monday shows a modest improvement in the president’s Approval Index rating. However, there was no improvement in the president’s overall approval rating. Caution should always be used when interpreting a single night sample from a tracking poll.
The president’s job approval ratings have been remarkably stable over the past year-and-a-half when viewed on a month-by-month basis.
During the month of April, the number of voters unaffiliated with either major party grew for the fourth straight month.
Republicans continue to hold a modest advantage on the Generic Congressional Ballot.
The Rasmussen Employment Index gained some ground last month but is still down from the start of 2011. Nineteen percent (19%) of workers report that the employers are hiring while 24% still see lay-offs. It has been nearly three years since the number reporting hiring topped the number with lay-offs.
Rasmussen Reports is pleased to announce that we now have more than 100,000 Twitter followers. Sign up at twitter.com/RasmussenPoll.
(More Below)
 
A Wall Street Journal   profile called Scott "America's Insurgent Pollster." The Washington Post calls him "a driving force in American politics." If you'd like Scott to speak at your conference or event, contact Premiere Speakers Bureau. Follow Scott on Facebook.
In a book released last year, Scott observed that, "The gap between Americans who want to govern themselves and politicians who want to rule over them may be as big today as the gap between the colonies and England during the 18^th  century." He added that "The American people don't want to be governed from the left, the right, or the center. They want to govern themselves." In Search of Self-Governance  is available at Amazon.com.
MAD AS HELL: How the Tea Party Movement is Fundamentally Remaking Our Two-Party System,   by Scott Rasmussen and Doug Schoen, can be ordered atAmazon.com, Barnes and Noble, Borders and other outlets. It's also available in bookstores everywhere.
It is important to remember that the Rasmussen Reports job approval ratings are based upon a sample of likely voters. Some other firms base their approval ratings on samples of all adults. President Obama's numbers are always several points higher in a poll of adults rather than likely voters. That's because some of the president's most enthusiastic supporters, such as young adults, are less likely to turn out to vote. It is also important to check the details of question wording when comparing approval ratings from different firms.
(More Below)
 
Rasmussen Reports has been a pioneer in the use of automated telephone polling techniques, but many other firms still utilize their own operator-assisted technology (see methodology). Pollsters for Presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton have cited our "unchallenged record for both integrity and accuracy."
The Pew Center noted that Rasmussen Reports beat traditional media in covering Scott Brown's upset win in Massachusetts earlier this year: "It was polling-not journalistic reporting-that caught the wave in the race to succeed Massachusetts Senator Edward M. Kennedy."   Rasmussen Reports was also the first to show Joe Sestak catching Arlen Specter in the Pennsylvania Democratic Primary race last year.
Once again in 2010, Rasmussen Reports polling provided an accurate preview of Election Night outcomes. See how we did.
Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia, “This was one tough election to poll and forecast. Rasmussen Reports caught the major trends of the election year nationally and in most states.”
In December 2009, a full 11 months before Election Day. A Democratic strategist concluded that if the Rasmussen Reports Generic Congressional Ballot data was accurate, Republicans would gain 62 seats in the House during the 2010 elections. Other polls at the time suggested the Democrats would retain a comfortable majority. The Republicans gained 63 seats in the 2010 elections.
Rasmussen’s final 2010 projections were published in the Wall Street Journal.  Scott Rasmussen noted that “it would be wise for all Republicans to remember that their team didn't win, the other team lost. Heading into 2012, voters will remain ready to vote against the party in power unless they are given a reason not to do so.”    
In the 2009 New Jersey Governor's race, automated polls tended to be more accurate than operator-assisted polling techniques. On reviewing the state polling results from 2009, Mickey Kaus offered this assessment, "If you have a choice between Rasmussen and, say, the prestigious N.Y. Times, go with Rasmussen!"
In 2008, Obama won 53%-46% and our final poll showed Obama winning 52% to 46%. While we were pleased with the final result, Rasmussen Reports was especially pleased with the stability of our results. On every single day for the last six weeks of the campaign, our daily tracking showed Obama with a stable and solid lead attracting more than 50% of the vote.
We also have provided a summary of our 2008 state-by-state presidential results for your review.
In 2004 George W. Bush received 50.7% of the vote while John Kerry earned 48.3%. Rasmussen Reports polling projected that Bush would win 50.2% to 48.5%. We were the only firm to project both candidates' totals within half a percentage point by (see our 2004 results).
See also our 2008 state results for Senate and governor. 
See 2006 results for Senate and Governor. 
Daily tracking results are collected via telephone surveys of 500 likely voters per night and reported on a three-day rolling average basis. To reach those who have abandoned traditional landline telephones, Rasmussen Reports uses an online survey tool to interview randomly selected participants from a demographically diverse panel. The margin of sampling error for the full sample of 1,500 Likely Voters is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Results are also compiled on a full-week basis and crosstabs for full-week results are available for Platinum Members.
Like all polling firms, Rasmussen Reports weights its data to reflect the population at large (see methodology). Among other targets, Rasmussen Reports weights data by political party affiliation using a dynamic weighting process. While partisan affiliation is generally quite stable over time, there are a fair number of people who waver between allegiance to a particular party or independent status. Our baseline targets are established based upon separate survey interviews with a sample of adults nationwide completed during the preceding three months (a total of 45,000 interviews) and targets are updated monthly. Currently, the baseline targets for the adult population are 34.9% Democrats, 34.3% Republicans, and 30.3% unaffiliated. Likely voter samples typically show a slightly larger advantage for the Republicans.
A review of last week's key polls is posted each Saturday morning.
We also invite you to review other recent demographic highlights from the tracking polls. To get a sense of longer-term trends, check out our month-by-month review of the president's numbers.
ShareThis

Rasmussen Reports is an electronic media company specializing in the collection, publication and distribution of public opinion polling information.  We poll on a variety of topics in the fields of politics, business and lifestyle, updating our site’s content on a news cycle throughout the day, everyday.
Rasmussen Reports Platinum Members get an all-access pass to polling news, analysis and insight not available to the general public.
Scott Rasmussen, president of Rasmussen Reports, has been an independent pollster for more than a decade. To learn more about our methodology, click here.

Bin Laden’s Neighbour: “None Of This Is True”

Al Jazeera
May 3, 2011
A resident of Abbottabad who witnessed the raid says he believes it is simply not true that Bin Laden was hiding out in a compound within yards of his own home.

Forget Pakistan, US Knew Bin Laden’s Location All Along

US intelligence pinpointed terror leader’s precise location on numerous occasions and let him escape every time

Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet.com
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
The notion that the US was only aware of Bin Laden’s precise location for a matter of months before they executed their alleged raid of his compound in Pakistan is an insult to the truth, which is that the US knew the Al-Qaeda leader’s precise whereabouts before 9/11 and also protected him from capture on numerous occasions afterwards.
A year after the FBI had issued a global arrest warrant for Bin Laden following his alleged involvement in the 1998 Nairobi and Kenya embassy attacks, British tourists Alan and Cindy Thompson were traveling through Pakistan when they stopped off at a town called Zhob.
After driving for 11 hours on dirt roads they came to a checkpoint and were detained by armed Pakistani guards. The Thompsons later discovered that they were stopped because they had discovered the secret lair of Osama Bin Laden, before being told by American aid workers that the location had been visited by US consulate officers, British, Australian, and Swiss ambassadors, and that it was guarded by a team of US commandoes.
The aid workers also told them that they had been forced to move their offices because of a similar experience in Kandahar, where they ended up stationed right next door to Bin Laden.
After the couple were picked up by the British embassy they were invited to a garden party where all the British ambassadors and aid workers were bragging that they were stationed in the same area as bin Laden’s secret hideout.
The Thompsons tried to alert the FBI and Scotland Yard to the astounding information, but were completely ignored.
“We were gobsmacked,” said Cindy Thompson. “We found it incredible that we were offering to give first hand true information about the most wanted man in the world and the US embassy couldn’t even be bothered to get off their butts…it is about time that this story is told to the world to let the people know the truth…the hunt for bin Laden is a farce.”
The account was reported on at the time by Pakistan’s Dawn newspaper and the Thompsons later confirmed it to author Kenyon Gibson, who related the story in his book, Common Sense: A Study of the Bushes, the CIA and the Suspicions Regarding 9/11.
The account is important because it correlates with several instances where the U.S. had Bin Laden in their sights and deliberately ordered special forces soldiers to stand down or refused to launch air strikes.
In December 1998, Bin Laden was located in Kandahar but Bill Clinton refused to authorize military action.
In February 1999, Bin Laden stayed at a hunting camp in Afghanistan’s Helmand province for more than a week, but after US intelligence pinpointed the exact location, authorization for an assault never came.
US intelligence again located Bin Laden’s location in Kandahar in May 1999 but took no action.
According to the U.S. Senate, Bin Laden was “within the grasp” of the U.S. military in Afghanistan in December 2001, but that then-secretary of defense Rumsfeld refused to provide the soldiers necessary to capture him.
(ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW)

Stock up with Fresh Food that lasts with eFoodsDirect (AD)
In January 2004, Lt. Col. Bryan Hilferty told the Associated Press that the US military was “sure” that they would catch Bin Laden that year, clearly indicating they knew his location.
In October 2004, the San Bernadino Sun reported that, “The Pentagon knows exactly where Osama bin Laden is hiding in Pakistan,” according to 9/11 Commission member John Lehman, who said that his capture was being delayed because there were too many Taliban fighters in the area.
“There is an American presence in the area, but we can’t just send in troops. If we did, we could have another Vietnam, and the United States cannot afford that right now,” said Lehman.
“Look,” he said, “Musharraf already has had three assassination attempts on his life. He is trying to comply, but he is surrounded by people who do not agree with him. This is not like Afghanistan, where there was no compliance, and we had to go in.”
“We’ll get (bin Laden) eventually, just not now,” concluded Lehman.
In 2006, a French documentary also claimed that French soldiers had Bin Laden in their sights on two occasions in 2003, but authorization to kill or capture the leader was not forthcoming from US authorities.
Colonel Hunt subsequently wrote an article for Fox News in which he stated, “We know, with a 70 percent level of certainty — which is huge in the world of intelligence — that in August of 2007, bin Laden was in a convoy headed south from Tora Bora. We had his butt, on camera, on satellite. We were listening to his conversations. We had the world’s best hunters/killers — Seal Team 6 — nearby. We had the world class Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) coordinating with the CIA and other agencies. We had unmanned drones overhead with missiles on their wings; we had the best Air Force on the planet, begging to drop one on the terrorist. We had him in our sights; we had done it. Nice job again guys — now, pull the damn trigger.”
“Unbelievably, and in my opinion, criminally, we did not kill Usama bin Laden.”
Democrat Rep. Maurice Hinchey later told MSNBC that the Bush administration deliberately allowed Bin Laden to get away in order to justify the attack on Iraq.
Despite the fact that US intelligence knew Bin Laden’s precise location in Pakistan more than a decade ago and deliberately failed to apprehend the terror leader on numerous occasions in the years since, Pakistan itself is now being targeted with threats for that very same reason.
Bin Laden was allegedly shot dead in his compound at Abbottabad, which is virtually a stone’s throw away from an important Pakistani military academy. President Barack Obama’s counterterrorism adviser John Brennan told NPR that it was “possible” that members of Pakistan’s military knew Bin Laden was hiding in the compound.
Pakistan’s ISI intelligence agency is tied at the hip with the CIA, to the extent where it is basically a branch of the Central Intelligence Agency.
Bin Laden’s shocked neighbors have told the media of their disbelief that Bin Laden or his aides could have lived in the town without being noticed. Indeed, one man who lived next door to the compound raided by US Navy SEALS told Al Jazeera that residents in the area carry documents because they are constantly asked to identify themselves by military forces.
Talking points centering around the notion that Pakistan knew all along that they were sheltering Bin Laden are likely the culmination of a blackmailing process and in retaliation to massive unrest in Pakistan over the US Predator drone strikes which have killed hundreds. Saudi Arabia is also being blackmailed in light of the contrived “Arab Spring,” which has been hijacked by globalist interests and is now being used as a threat to destabilize the Saudi Kingdom.
The globalists could quickly isolate Pakistan and make them the next target of the ‘war on terror’ by claiming they were in league with Osama Bin Laden, when in reality Bin Laden’s whereabouts were well known to US intelligence all along because he was their prize asset.
*********************
Paul Joseph Watson is the editor and writer for Prison Planet.com. He is the author of Order Out Of Chaos. Watson is also a regular fill-in host for The Alex Jones Show.

Obama Traveling to Ground Zero Thursday

Associated Press
May 3, 2011
Still-secret photos of the dead Osama bin Laden show a precision kill shot above his left eye, a U.S. official said, as fresh details emerged of an audacious American raid that netted potentially crucial al-Qaida records as well as the body of the global terrorist leader.
President Barack Obama is going to ground zero in New York to mark the milestone and remember the dead of 9/11.
Read entire article
Photo: Obama’s predecessor at Ground Zero after the September 11, 2001, attacks.

The Coming Doctor Shortage

The Economic Collapse
May 3, 2011
The United States is going to experience an absolutely devastating doctor shortage in the coming years.  Even now it can be difficult to see a doctor in many areas, and if you are fortunate enough to see one you will probably pay through the nose.  Medical bills have gotten absolutely insane in this country.  Many Americans have gone to the hospital for a few hours, perhaps got to see a doctor for half an hour, and ended up being billed thousands of dollars.  Unfortunately, it is not the doctors that are getting rich from these nightmarish medical bills.  Rather, “the system” is set up so that “the middle men” are the ones raking in most of the cash.  In fact, thousands upon thousands of doctors are being chased out of the profession because being a doctor just isn’t worth the trouble anymore.  According to the American Association of Medical Colleges, we were already going to be facing a shortage of more than 150,000 doctors over the next 15 years even before Obamacare was passed. Obamacare is just going to make the doctor shortage even worse.  In fact, one poll found that 40 percent of all U.S. doctors plan to get out of the profession over the next 3 years.  Of course not all of those disgruntled doctors will end up leaving the profession, but even if 10 percent of them quit it is going to create a medical crisis of unprecedented magnitude in this country.
Look, it is no secret that I am not a big fan of the health care industry in the United States.  But if I get into a car accident or someone shoots me then I very much want someone to take me to the hospital and I don’t want to wait a couple of hours to see a doctor.
Unfortunately, the way that the health care industry is set up today is absolutely suffocating for doctors.  The government is trying to tell them how to treat patients, lawyers are constantly looking to sue them and most of the money ends up going to health insurance companies, big pharma and huge health care corporations.
In the old days, all you needed was a bed, a patient, a doctor and maybe a nurse.
After all, how much does it really cost for a doctor to look you over, ask you a few questions and patch you up?
Unfortunately, a whole host of bad guys have gotten between the doctor and the patient these days.  They have all carved out a little bit of “territory” and they all have to be paid.
The health care industry used to be about helping people.
Today it is all about greed, and the system is coming apart.
As the economy collapses, an increasing number of Americans are being forced to rely on programs such as Medicare and Medicaid.
For example, back in 1965 only one out of every 50 Americans was on Medicaid.  Today, one out of every 6 Americans is on Medicaid.
This is putting our doctors in a very difficult position.  According to The New York Post, treating Medicare and Medicaid patients is a huge financial strain on U.S. doctors…

Estimates suggest that on average physicians are reimbursed at roughly 78% of costs under Medicare, and just 70% of costs under Medicaid. Physicians must either make up for this shortfall by shifting costs to those patients with insurance — meaning those of us with insurance pay more — or treat patients at a loss.

You understand what all that means, right?
Medical bills have to be jacked up on all the rest of us to make up for the Medicare and Medicaid patients.
But that is just one example of how the system is failing.
Today, it is quite common for medical school students to rack up hundreds of thousands of dollars in student loan debt as they go through school.  Then it takes a number of years of really hard work before they become established and at a point where they can start making good money.  Meanwhile, lawyers are constantly circling them like vultures.  Malpractice insurance premiums are absolutely insane at this point and one really bad lawsuit can ruin a career that took decades to build.
In addition, now thanks to Obamacare and other ridiculous regulations that have been passed in recent years, the government has a tremendous amount of control over how medicine is practiced in the United States.  Doctors no longer have the complete freedom to treat their patients as they see fit.
Sadly, a significant percentage of U.S. doctors have had enough and now want to get out.
According to a Merritt Hawkins survey of 2,379 doctors for the Physicians Foundation that was conducted in August of last year, 40 percent of all U.S. doctors plan to “retire, seek a nonclinical job in health care, or seek a job or business unrelated to health care” at some point over the next three years.
When Obamacare was originally being debated perhaps we should have taken some time to ask our doctors what they thought about it first.
Now we could end up with a massive doctor shortage as our doctors vote with their feet.
Right now there are approximately 960,000 doctors in the United States.
What do you think our medical system will look like if even 100,000 of them bail out of the profession?
According to the same survey noted above, 74 percent of U.S. doctors plan to make “one or more significant changes in their practices in the next one to three years, a time when many provisions of health reform will be phased in.”
One big trend that we are seeing right now is the refusal to see certain kinds of patients.  Under our current system, some patients are much more “profitable” than others.  Many doctors have decided that they simply cannot afford to see many of the “unprofitable” patients any longer.
Our health care system is messed up beyond all recognition.  In America, we pay much more for health care than anyone else in the world and what we get in return is a system that is literally falling to pieces.
It would have been nice if we would have gotten some real health care reform, but instead what we got was Obamacare – one of the worst pieces of legislation that has ever been passed in all of modern American history.
An IBD/TIPP poll taken back in August 2009 found that 4 out of every 9 American doctors said that they “would consider leaving their practice or taking an early retirement” if Congress passed Obamacare.
Well, it passed anyway.
Now the doctor shortage is about to get a whole lot worse.
Survey after survey shows similar results.
According to a survey published in the New England Journal of Medicine, approximately one-third of all practicing physicians in the United States indicated that they may leave the medical profession because of the new health care law.
Are you starting to become alarmed yet?
We have a system that is broken and large numbers of doctors are now saying that they simply want to give up.
Sadly, Obamacare is also causing the cancellation of a lot of new hospitals.
According to the executive director of Physician Hospitals of America, the new health care law has already forced the cancellation of at least 60 doctor-owned hospitals that were scheduled to open soon.
Not that I am just getting on Obama and the Democrats.  Bush and the Republicans were a complete disaster when it came to health care as well.  Thanks to both political parties we have a health care system that is a joke.
Today, approximately 40% of all U.S. doctors are age 55 or older.  All of those old doctors are thinking about retirement.  They are too old to be putting up with all of this garbage.
It is an open secret that our health care industry has become a giant money making scam and that it is not favorable for either doctors or patients.
According to one doctor interviewed by Fox News, “a gunshot wound to the head, chest or abdomen” will cost $13,000 at his hospital the moment the victim comes in the door, and then there will be significant additional charges depending on how bad the wound is.
So how much of that $13,000 do you think the doctor gets?
Not a whole lot.
There certainly are some wealthy doctors out there, but the truth is that “the system” gets most of the money.
I am sure almost everyone reading this has a medical bill horror story to tell.
In America today, if you have an illness that requires intensive care for an extended period of time, it can be really easy to rack up medical bills that total over 1 million dollars.
In fact, most Americans are scared to even spend a single night in the hospital these days.
Stock up with Fresh Food that lasts with eFoodsDirect (Ad)
It is estimated that hospitals overcharge Americans by about 10 billion dollars every single year.  In fact, one trained medical billing advocate says that over 90 percent of the medical bills that she has audited contain “gross overcharges“.
Basically, hospitals charge whatever they think they can get away with.  Unlike most transactions, you don’t get to see a “price list” first when you go into the hospital.  You just ask them to take care of you and you trust them to bill you fairly later.
Why should it cost a half million dollars for a simple operation?
It’s not that complicated – the doctor cuts you open, carves something out and then sews you back up.
So why should it cost so much?
Am I missing something?
Sadly, it is those that don’t know how things work that get the worst of it.
It is not uncommon for insurance companies to get hospitals to knock their bills down by up to 95 percent, but if you are uninsured or you don’t know how the system works then you are out of luck.
You should always, always have health insurance if you can afford it.  If you do not have a health insurance company fighting the hospital then it can be really hard to have your medical bills knocked down to a reasonable level.
In any event, as doctors start leaving the profession in droves it may become difficult to find quality medical care at all.
Perhaps even more of us will start going out of the country for medical care.  According to numbers released by Deloitte Consulting, a whopping 875,000 Americans were “medical tourists” in 2010.

Circus Clowns And Sideshow Freaks

Brandon Smith
Infowars.com
May 3, 2011
In my worst nightmares, when the lights are swallowed by the smog of some nefarious gloom and the air itself becomes a stale sarcophagus into which I am entombed, and the grim hands of putrefied fate sink their wretched grip into the thick of my neck and all seems irrevocably lost, I merely recall that soon I will awaken to the horror of a terminal America infested by career criminals and certifiable morons, and suddenly, my off color dreams don’t seem so bad. Ultimately, there is nothing worse to me than a public majority that takes everything they hear from the mouths of political warlocks at face value. Even the fear of death is truly a pittance compared to the threat of being enveloped by a stampeding herd of frightened, stupid, human cattle.

Is this melodramatic? Not at all. When a man is aware, and by aware I mean honest with himself, he inevitably suffers the pain of being certain while the rest of the world enjoys the bliss of false assumptions. We live in a culture that inflicts great punishment on those who know, and lavishes enticing but short lived rewards on those who ignore. In such a place as this, meaning disappears, and countries die.
The first century satirist, Decimus Juvenalis, grief-stricken by the destruction of the Roman Republic at the hands of a succession of emperors and tyrants, wrote: “The people that once bestowed commands, consulships, legions, and all else, now meddle no more and long eagerly for just two things — bread and circuses.” At that time, the autocratic rulers of the empire were highly visible. Even celebrities. They played the hollow Roman Senate like a pipe organ and created elaborate events, moments of pageantry in the otherwise terrifyingly bleak lives of the citizenry, and of course, the people were thoroughly distracted while their economy, their government, and their land crumbled around them.
Today, our autocratic rulers in the form of a corporate oligarchy keep rather hidden from the prying eyes of the commoners, but they wield the same power as the emperors of old, with the same obvious results. America is ripping apart at the seams. Our currency has been destroyed. Our treasury is indebted beyond the point of any return. The cost of our daily survival is quickly rising beyond any average person’s means to pay. And, our political system is a never ending parade of googly-eyed muppets singing and dancing to the tune of the false left/right paradigm. Yet, where has our attention been lately…?

Apparently our impending doom is not as entertaining as the Osama Bin Laden Show, which has been written and choreographed like a bad Tom Clancy novel, or a contrived episode of ‘24’ (Jack Bauer finally shoots Bin Laden square in the head with his hawk-like vision and badass marksmanship while Osama in typical TV land fashion uses a woman as a human shield. Sorry to spoil the ending for you if you haven’t seen the final episode yet). Or how about the battle of “wits” (I say this knowing full well the irony) between Barack Obama and Donald Trump, two soulless rock-em’ sock-em’ robots in a fake duel for fake polls, fake votes, and a fake presidency. Let’s not forget about the “Royal Wedding”, the eagerly awaited international event that featured a throng of throwbacks from the Dark Ages prancing around in Nutcracker outfits and partying to the tune of millions in British taxpayer dollars.
Do any of these things really matter? Not in the slightest. How long must we endure this hokey carnival ride before we finally start focusing on legitimately important issues? That’s really up to us…
Day after day, we allow ourselves to be conned, befuddled, and frightened by a cast of clowns and freaks. Why do we do this? How can we stop the madness? First, we have to understand how the propaganda works, before we can diffuse it. Let’s examine some of the tactics of disinformation being used today, as well as the purpose behind some of America’s most prominent distractions.
“The Boogeyman Is Under Your Bed…”
A collapsing dollar, state funding on the brink, a still irradiated Japan, gasoline price spikes, and, the only thing that has lately been able draw people outside of their television and microwave fajita saturated cocoons is the orchestrated hoax of Osama Bin Laden’s death. No independently corroborated physical evidence? No independently corroborated video? Body dumped at sea in less than a day without independent verification of the identity (apparently to avoid his rising from the grave as the invincible Zombie Bin Laden)? No problem! We fully believe every word the Obama Administration says without question! Lets go do keg stands on the White House lawn, yeehaw!
A boogeyman is a very powerful tool for corrupt governments. In fact, every despotic regime in history has concocted one fantasy villain after another in order to maintain their psychological stranglehold on the populace. Killing one only means a replacement is soon to be introduced. While many Americans are intelligent enough to at least express some concerns about the obviously deceitful manner in which the Bin Laden death has been handled and promoted, there is still a significant swath of the population that has invested themselves so completely in the Bin Laden myth that they will support the official story without question.
Sadly, villains often become the drivers of history. Most events on the human timeline are merely reactionary movements of states and peoples to counter a dangerous antagonist, whether actual or fabricated. Very rarely do people act in concert to change the shape of their society or their surroundings without a symbolic devil to spur them on. This is not to say that there are not real ghouls to be dealt with in every generation, but problems surface when we become ADDICTED to the idea of villains. We become so lethargic when it comes to putting in the effort of determining our own destinies that soon we start to need monsters to inspire us to take action in life. We welcome governments to conjure enemies for us because it makes us feel as though we have purpose again. As though we are a “team”. Just look at the deluded lemmings that roamed D.C. enthralled at the unconfirmed and unsupported claim of Bin Laden’s death. A civilization caught in this circle of pure reaction usually devolves into something utterly pathetic; a people without principles feeding on each other for comfort.
Interestingly, the fermentation of amoral or destructive behavior is found most often in power structures, like governments and corporate institutions, where the desire for overt control can be satisfied. It is at the top of the pyramid that we find the bottom of the barrel in terms of humanity. So, it is not strange at all to consider the fact that elitists seek to create monsters out of thin air, like the “axis of evil”, terrorists, lone gunman, homegrown extremists, barter networkers, or Amish dairy farmers. They know that people seek out dragons to slay and so provide proxies and facsimiles. If they didn’t, the masses may turn their attentions towards a real threat, like the elites themselves.
Again, this is common sense and a consistent tactic, one which has been admitted to openly by establishment authorities for decades. The true boogeymen are not under your bed, they are not your next door neighbors who participate in activist groups, they are not right wing extremists, they are not even men in caves in Afghanistan or Pakistan. The only monsters worth so much attention and dedication are those that are closest to us. To find them, we have only to follow where all our money goes, where all our votes are misspent, and where all our decisions are made without our consent.
“If You Didn’t Vote, You Have No Right To Complain…”
Perhaps the most effective scam of all time is the construction of the false left/right paradigm. Anyone who does not understand this fundamental fallacy of our political system will never be able to understand the bigger picture of how our government works or why or “elected” officials do the things they do. If you cannot accept the fact that both major parties are essentially the same, supporting the same primary legislation and differing only in rhetoric, then you will probably attribute the constant failings of our leadership to “greed” or “stupidity”. This is simply not the case.
When Obama went back on his election year promises to end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and pull troops out (there are still thousands of troops and private contractors in Iraq too, for those that bought the second pullout lie), for instance, or when he decided to support the Patriot Acts after criticizing them, this was not because he has a bad memory, or even because he wanted to win your vote. He made promises and then nixed them because that’s HIS JOB; to perpetuate the false idea that the Democratic Party is anti-war, and different from the Republican Party.

• 
  
  

When Bush Jr. ran on a platform of limited government and conservatism, then tripled the size of the Federal Government, it was not because he is an idiot man-child. It is because it was his job to pretend as if he cared about traditional conservative values, while instituting socialist globalist programs under our noses.
When a hypocrite and a bottom feeder like Donald Trump, a confessed liberal on taxes, health care, and trade, a man who stooped to using eminent domain in an effort to steal an elderly woman’s home so he could pour a limousine parking lot on top of it, is suddenly presented as the new hope of the Republican Party and limited government, I think its time to pack up our preconceptions about there being any such thing as a two party system.
In the end, most political leaders are more like circus clowns, meant to amuse us. They bumble about the center ring spraying seltzer water at each other and cracking each other’s skulls with rubber mallets, but who really cares which clown wins this slapstick contest? They may make us feel as though we have a choice, and thus a voice, in our government, but at bottom, it is the ringmaster that decides the course of the show. The clowns are a sidenote. Not voting for either of them seems to be only the option left, or, voting with one’s conscience for a candidate that’s not an establishment favorite (aka Ron Paul).
“War Is Necessary To Perpetuate Freedom…”
War leads to many things, but rarely does it ever lead to people being more readily free. WWI (a fabricated war) led to the implosion of Germany and the subsequent rise of National Socialism (a banker fabricated political movement) which led to WWII, which then destroyed most of Europe making way for the construction of the EU (a banker fabricated supranational union), basically a more subversive and insidious form of socialism with even greater control and unaccountability. Most wars are planned like cross country vacations; you may deviate here and there, but eventually you’ll find yourself at the destination mapped out for you before hand. The vitriol brewing in the Middle East today is no exception.
Wars not only break down and then centralize sovereign systems, they also rally the masses to support governments they otherwise might oppose. Wars create fear, not to mention the thrill of tribal victory. Wars collectivize societies, dissuade and shame individualism, and bring everyone under a single banner and a single philosophy. Where I might be applauded today as a writer for speaking out against the nonsensical involvement of the U.S. and the EU in an internal civil war in Libya, I may be attacked tomorrow if a terrorist bombing occurs in Libya’s name. Where I might point out that only a year ago and despite his disturbingly violent nature Gaddafi was the globalist go-to man for the African Union, and supported widely by the UN for purchasing African Union memberships for poorer nations with Libyan oil money, others might say that I am undermining U.S. solidarity in the “war on terror” by being factual. Wars have the ability to turn the common man into a mini-tyrant, not to mention a censor for the establishment.
In the end, if you want to distract the public away from the horrifying strife of economic collapse or even hyperinflation, the only conceivable avenue is war. Nearly every engineered financial disaster in modern history has been followed by an engineered conflict to muffle the cries for new management. In America’s case, these wars are always preempted with calls for the “spread of democracy”, making the target country more than a target, but a monster (as discussed earlier) and making us the knight in shining armor off to rescue the poor helpless villagers of the planet. We play out the myth then find that we have again only furthered the aims of globalists, and weakened ourselves in the process.
The Show Must Go On
The world that we experience through what is often termed the “mainstream” is, quite simply, an illusion. The life many live is not real, but an elaborate production. A rented life. A life they do not own.
Is this not the stuff of “conspiracy”…? That is the wrong question. Is this the stuff of fact? THAT is what we should be asking ourselves.
It is time for the American people to stop fooling around with what is “probable”, or “more likely”. Occum’s Razor (the misinterpreted version of the principle) has never been applicable in terms of human systems, and especially not those dominated by a handful of men, as most usually are. The “simplest explanation” for a social situation is rarely the correct one, and is completely up for interpretation. I would replace the word “simplest” with the word “practical”. What I deem as practical (the influence of elite minorities over the flow of historical events) may be considered outlandish by others because their perception is skewed by their lack of knowledge. Perception changes with knowledge. Practical explanation changes with awareness. The underlying truth, after all is said and done, is constant. The truth does not change, we change.
Propagandists have always understood this condition, and the science of manipulating perception with diversion, bias, and fear, is ever present today. Whether it’s a faux attack on an Al-Qaeda compound containing a Bin Laden body we’ll never see first hand, a sham of an election with marionette candidates, or a war in Libya that is never officially categorized as a war, you will be lied to by government, and these lies, whether you accept it or not, will eventually hurt you, or someone you care about. Recognizing the distraction is the first step in dismantling disinformation. Knowing what we are facing is the key to undoing the damage done.
“The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. …We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of. This is a logical result of the way in which our democratic society is organized. Vast numbers of human beings must cooperate in this manner if they are to live together as a smoothly functioning society. In almost every act of our daily lives, whether in the sphere of politics or business, in our social conduct or our ethical thinking, we are dominated by the relatively small number of persons…who understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses. It is they who pull the wires which control the public mind.”
From ‘Propaganda’ by Edward Bernays (named one of Life Magazine’s 100 most influential people of the 20^th Century).
Brandon Smith’s article first appeared on the Alt-Market.com website.

Men Held as Possible Terrorists After Filming Nuclear Plant

Kurt Nimmo
Infowars.com
May 3, 2011
Following the supposed assassination of Osama bin Laden – who died in late 2001 – various governments and the corporate media are on the hunt for something they can remotely connect to terrorism and attribute to al-Qaeda retaliation.

British authorities arrested five men under the Terrorism Act a few hours after the big announcement that Navy SEALS had taken out Osama.
“They were detained near Sellafield — which handles highly dangerous nuclear material — yesterday afternoon following a stop check on a vehicle by officers from the Civil Nuclear Constabulary, who police the facility in West Cumbria,” Sky News reports. “The arrests come as the world braces itself for a bloody backlash after Bin Laden supporters vowed to avenge his death.”
How do we know they are terrorists? First, they are Asian. Second, they were taking photographs outside of the nuclear plant.
“Police sources said the men may have been taking photographs and the arrests were not intelligence led,” notes Sky News, a Rupert Murdoch operation.
The five were arrested under section 41 of the Terrorism Act 2000, which says a “constable may arrest without a warrant a person whom he reasonably suspects to be a terrorist.”
“The police have not confirmed the ethnicity of the arrested men, though they are believed to be from a Muslim background,” reports The Guardian.
The nuclear plant at Sellafield is responsible for decommissioning and reprocessing nuclear waste and manufacturing fuel on behalf of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority.

Iran TV: Israel prepares attack at US air base

Xinhuanet
May 3, 2011
Iranian state television said on Monday that the Israeli military aircraft were amassing at a US air base in Iraq for a possile strike on Iran.

Israel denied any knowlegde of such a plan and the Pentagon dismissed it as ridiculous.
Meanwhile, Israel, a staunch US ally, accused Tehran of using its nuclear reactor program to conceal a plan to develop atomic bombs that would threaten the Jewish state.
Israeli leaders, haven’t ruled out military action against Iran. However, there’s been NO recent and increased tension and no other information on Monday, to corro-borate the Iranian claim.

Obama Shamefully Exploits Bin Laden Fairytale In Transparent PR Stunt

Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars.com
May 3, 2011
Mirroring how George W. Bush stood on the rubble of the twin towers to perform a staged public relations stunt in the aftermath of 9/11 as he enjoyed a huge surge in popular approval, Barack Obama is attempting to pull off the same trick, invoking “9/11-style unity” and busily heading to ground zero tomorrow to shamefully exploit the Bin Laden fairytale his administration has crafted.

Obama addressed a bipartisan group of legislators before a dinner at the White House last night, invoking, “the same sense of unity that prevailed on 9/11,” before Republicans and Democrats alike slavishly applauded him.
Of course, just like in the aftermath of 9/11, which we were told was committed by terrorists who “hate our freedom,” the announcement of Bin Laden’s death has immediately led to the screws being tightened on our freedoms that bit further. Naked body scanners in airports are now set to increase, ridiculous rules about not being allowed to carry liquids on board an aircraft that were set to expire are to be extended, and commuters are already being subjected to increased warrantless searches and harassment.
Obama’s effort to recreate the intellectually castrated, zombie-like collective worship of government and the police state that ruled after 9/11 is a desperate and forlorn act given that nearly two thirds of the country aren’t even fully convinced that he’s a U.S. citizen.
Indeed, according to Alastair Newton, a political analyst at Nomura in London, the announcement of Bin Laden’s death will do nothing to resurrect Obama’s flagging re-election hopes.
“The immediate reaction in the US notwithstanding, ‘normal business’ will soon be resumed in US politics. There will be no change on the fiscal/debt polarization and contrary to some commentators’ reaction, definitely no election boost for Obama,” said Newton in an interview with CNBC on Tuesday.

• A d v e r t i s e m e n t
• 
  
  

Obama will undoubtedly get a temporary boost from the whole spectacle, but you cannot flog a dead horse. The only way Obama is getting a second term in the Oval Office is if the military-industrial complex stages a terror attack which he can then exploit and pose as the savior – and that’s precisely what numerous political strategists have openly yearned for.
Political strategist Robert Shapiro, a former senior advisor to Bill Clinton, mused last year that only “a 9/11 event or an Oklahoma City bombing” could restore Obama’s position as a credible leader.
As we pointed out at the time, Shapiro was just the latest in a long line of prominent people to highlight the usefulness of terror in achieving otherwise impossible political goals, while creating a chilling atmosphere that denounces any criticism of the President as being unpatriotic and extremist.
A few months later, Clintonite and Democrat operative Mark Penn told Chris Matthews’ Hardball that Obama needed an OKC bombing to regain his popularity and re-connect with the American people.
Given the reaction of many in places like Washington DC and New York, who hurried to the White House lawn and ground zero respectively to moronically chant “USA, USA” while waving plastic flags made in China, even as the U.S. economy crumbles under a mountain of debt as China itself prepares to overtake American as the leading economic superpower, the danger of the Obama administration exploiting a terror attack to elicit a more sustained injection of phony patriotism is clear.
In the hours after the Bin Laden announcement, Americans were bombarded with the assertion that retaliation attacks were all but certain, information gleaned from ever-reliable Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, a man who has been under constant torture for the past 5 years and has admitted to virtually everything under the sun, including being Jack the Ripper, the gunman on the grassy knoll and the Grinch who stole Christmas.
Stock up with Fresh Food that lasts with eFoodsDirect (Ad)
The fact that the Obama administration has feverishly moved to exploit the alleged assassination of Bin Laden in a transparent ploy to secure a second White House term only lends credence to the overwhelming indication that Bin Laden died many years ago and that Sunday’s dramatic raid was nothing more than a Jessica Lynch-style fabrication.
—
Paul Joseph Watson is the editor and writer for Prison Planet.com. He is the author of Order Out Of Chaos. Watson is also a regular fill-in host for The Alex Jones Show.

Obama Terror Advisor: Pakistan Linked to Osama

Kurt Nimmo
Infowars.com
May 3, 2011
In the video below, John Brennan, the chief counter-terrorism adviser for the globalists, tells us the government is looking into a connection between Pakistan and Osama and the scary terror group named after a Mujahideen database.

In fact, the connection between not only Pakistan but the United States and al-Qaeda is plain as day and has been so for over a decade. Our memory hole media just doesn’t report it.
Maktab al-Khidamat, or MAK for short, was the primary cash funneling tool for the Afghan war against the Soviets beginning in 1979 and continuing until the end of the 1980s. A CIA official involved in the Afghan war claimed that the CIA directly funded MAK.
Robert Gates said that in 1985 and 1986, the CIA “examined ways to increase their participation, perhaps in the form of some sort of ‘international brigade,’” and the result was MAK and the Afghan Mujahideen that would later splinter off into the Taliban and al-Qaeda, both supported by Pakistani intelligence.
Even the 9/11 white wash commission admitted that MAK was al-Qaeda’s precursor.
The Khost tunnel system, instrumental in protecting the Taliban after the U.S. invaded the country, was built with the assistance of the CIA, according to The Guardian, The Pittsburgh Pot-Gazette and other sources that have since found the memory hole.

• 

“MAK [is] nurtured by Pakistan’s state security services, the Inter-Services Intelligence agency, or ISI, the CIA’s primary conduit for conducting the covert war against Moscow’s occupation,” the corporate media reported in 1998, before everything changed.
Bin Laden moved to Peshawar explicitly to run MAK and linked up with opium smuggler Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, who is also in bed with the ISI and the CIA. This is reported by Le Monde in France three days after 9/11, but not a word of it in the U.S. media.
Hekmatyar and others were handpicked by Pakistani intelligence.
The brother of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, a suspected kingpin of the country’s booming opium trade, has been on the CIA payroll since 2001. U.S. troops routinely patrol opium fields in Afghanistan.
MAK was so instrumental in the war against the Soviets, it was allowed to open a branch office in Brooklyn. It was located inside the al-Farouq mosque and run in part by Jamal al-Fadl, a founding member of al-Qaeda. A Fort Bragg, North Carolina, military instructor, Ali Mohamed, met regularly with folks who would later be associated with al-Qaeda at the al-Farouq mosque.
The CIA worked hard to block any investigation of MAK’s operations in the U.S.


But now that we are expected to believe Obama bagged Osama, none of this matters. It is ancient history. It won’t be allowed to intrude on the feel-good flag-waving atmosphere as Obama gets ready to travel to Ground Zero on Manhattan to make his version of Bush’s September 14, 2001, speech.
History and reality are completely irrelevant.