My perspective -- What Constance thinks

1. Fortuitously, I ran into another author at my mechanic's this afternoon. She had written a book about her experiences in the Armenian community and her family's survival of "The Armenian Genocide."  The book, ORPHAN IN THE SANDS, is available by direct order to Virginia Haroutunian, P.O. Box 391, Bloomfield Hills, MI, USA 48303 ($15.00 plus $5.00 postage and handling or $20 flat).   The Armenians took serious persecution from the Turks around the time. Virginia Haroutinian, a Pontiac, Michigan public school teacher of Choral Education for 29 years, has written a book which is a local and beyond best seller. It has many fascinating insights into the Armenian genocide tragedy. Reportedly, that was an inspiration to Hitler for his later ethnic cleansing of Europe's Jewish and Gypsy populations. As we face a similar harsh climate for Christian believers to that Armenian Christians experienced I thought there were useful insights for us from her family recollections. Also of interest to me is that Virginia Haroutunian spent time in the 1960s in Spain. Armenia became the first Christian nation in 302 A.D.

It should make an interesting on-air discussion tomorrow: 2 p.m. Pacific time; 3 p.m. Mountain time; 4 p.m. Central time; and 5 p.m. Eastern time.

Please join us and stay tuned!

Javier Solana does not like being upstaged on European military and foreign policy issues. It currently appears that the Prime Minister of France, may be doing just that. Nicolas Sarkozy has made a number of unilateral moves that currently appear NOT to be part of the "Common Foreign and Security Policy" long since agreed to between the European nations. Recently Sarkozy has announced intentions to set up a French military base in Saudi Arabia. He has proposed setting up a Mediterranean Union. It is currently hard to tell whether he is doing this in tandem with Javier Solana or at cross-purposes with Solana's agenda. From my perspective, Nicolas Sarkozy appears to be a loose cannon.

At any rate, it should be interesting to watch whether Sarkozy, who was reported to have been drunk at the last G-8 meeting, will advance or burn out. Anything France does needs to be treated with concern. They are a member of the nuclear club. The fusion energy project, ITER, has been stationed at Cadarache, also the site of French nuclear facilities. Angela Merkel has warned in the past that Sarkozy's actions could split the European Union.

There are prophecy watchers out there who believe that nothing can come together until the European Union unites. Interestingly, the Daniel 10 toes prophecy tells us that these nations -- some strong, some weak -- will not cleave together. But the Revelation prophecy says that ten nations will hand their power to one man. It also says that man will put "three kings" down.

Who is it? When is it? Your guess is as good as mine. Javier Solana has had his hands more than full as of late. It appears he may well have outsmarted himself on his efforts to strip the Serbian Orthodox of their religious center by proposals to soon grant Kosovo its independence. Kosovo is the equivalent of Jerusalem to orthodox Serbs. It is my opinion that an important precedent was set with Kosovo -- its ok to take somebody's religious capital. Those interested in the future of Jerusalem, Mecca, Vatican City, and maybe even Salt Lake City should watch carefully, maybe even with alarm.

The Serbs have not taken all of this lying down. It appears to me that they have embarrassed Javier Solana by negotiating a Gazprom deal with Russia. It appears that Javier Solana forgot about that factor in his apparent haste to wean the Serbs of their religiosity.

While Sarkozy is talking seemingly brash about independent French militarizations, Javier Solana is pressing methodically for his 2010 headline goal of consolidation of EU military operations.

It will be very interesting, not to mention disturbing, to watch all of this play out. May the least malevolent man win!

Friends, I was questioning my own sanity and memory for awhile. I have carefully followed news on Javier Solana since November 22, 1995. Concurrent with that time, he was described in the various Spanish and world presses as being the grandson of a famous Spanish diplomat, Salvador de Madariaga. His own published bio was silent about any family ties apart from his wife (which I subsequently, per the European Voice, learned was estranged) and two children. Spanish sources subsequently furnished me with photographs of Nieves Mathews, the daughter of Salvador de Madariaga, said by my always reliable Spanish sources to be Javier Solana's mother.

Sometime after the commencement of what I term "the editing wars" on Wikipedia vis a vis, "the good doctor" Javier Solana (he has a doctorate in physics), a strange article was posted by the person known as "Squeakbox" on Wikipedia. He rewrote history and claimed that Javier Solana's mother was "the Obdulia Madariaga."

Above all, I wanted to be accurate and not guilty of passing on false information. I researched this "Obdulia Madariaga" and put the series of articles I was doing on this blogspot on hold until I could verify which was right. I went to Spanish stories and read that Solana was the "nieto" meaning "grandson" of Salvador de Madariaga, Nieves Mathew's father. Nieves' Italian language obituary included information that during World War II she had been married with two sons. It also revealed her to be a correspondent with New Age activist Fritjof Capra as well as her fascination with Sir Francis Bacon and "the invisible college." I obtained her Yale University published book and learned from her "Acknowledgments" that Osho, better known to Americans, as Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh had been her "teacher." Perhaps a better translation would be "guru." Nieves Mathews was in her old age a "sannyasin" of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. Perhaps this was from loneliness. Interestingly, he (Rajneesh/Osho) told her she was "pregnant with God."

After doing my own checking, as to the Spanish sources using the word "Nieto," I concluded that Salvador de Madariaga was the grandpa and Nieves Mathews had to be mom. I edited the article with the footnote that the Spanish source "Cidob" used the word Nieto and they were positioned to know.

A few short months ago, I again noticed that Nieves Mathews and Salvador de Madariaga had been distanced, again by Squeakbox, as immediate family to Javier Solana and his elder brother, Luis. This time, Squeakbox claimed his authority was the Spanish organization CIDOB. I went over there and sure enough that was what it was saying in an article sounding very much like the writing style of Squeakbox who lives in a Latin American country and has solid Spanish writing skills.

Well, today my office was visited by an elderly gentleman who once heard me speak and didn't have great computer skills. He wanted to view information I had archived on Javier Solana. I was busy with a client in my inner office, but I brought out my large notebook binders of hardcopied articles for him to peruse. Turning to a few things that I thought would interest him, I was dumbfounded to find my 2001 CIDOB archived articles. They clearly said, both in Spanish and their English translations that Salvador de Madariaga was Javier Solana's grandfather!

What kind of a man would disavow his own mother? What kind of a man would condone those who would write his own mother out of the history books?

If, in fact we all have the facts wrong on the parentage of Javier Solana, I submit that his current powers and planned future powers for "global governance" are such that we deserve to know about those aspiring to be at the helm, such as appears to be the case with Dr. Solana.

Or should we suspect the "lupus" ancestry of Damian? Only those who viewed "The Omen" might guess?

My educated guess. Javier Solana is the son of Nieves Mathews and the grandson of Salvador de Madariaga and his Scottish born wife, Constance Archibald. Why he might want to downplay such distinguished lineage is anybody's guess!

Stay tuned!

I have rescheduled the NSPD 51 program to Friday, January 25, 2008 at 5 p.m. God willing, we'll be live on the air then.

Constance

Tuesday January 22'd MY PERSPECTIVE on THEMICROEFFECT.COM

Urgent update: A reader commented on Naomi Wolf's past warnings. I just read the link and think that it is excellent preparation for today's discussion. We are indeed in potentially disturbing times! You may read it by clicking here.

Today Detroit area reporter friend Ron Siegel contacted me. He asked me if I had heard of NSPD-51. Per Ron, it was contingency plans that in the event of a national emergency could cancel elections. It was a “plan for continuity” in the event of an emergency. Ron directed my attention to analyses by another reporter, Ron Rosenbaum. Rosenbaum, who reported on similar potentially sinister plans made by the Nixon administration prior to the discovery of Watergate has made an analysis of NSPD-51 (National Security Presidential Directive 51) and you may read it for yourself by clicking here.

The actual directive may be read by clicking here.

Needless to say, given recent events, we need to be aware of this presidential directive and its possible application in the event of even a natural disaster As author Ron Rosenberg says, “there’s nothing wrong with planning for ‘continuity of government,’ . . . “ However, we the people certainly have a right to know what the perimeters are and how they could potentially affect us.

This will be the subject of tomorrow’s show and it will be an on air conversation between Ron Siegel and myself. I hope that as many of you as possible will plan to join us live on air, call 1-888-747-1968 with your questions, and join us, if possible in the chat room. The Paltalk Chatroom can be accessed for free by going to www.paltalk.com. You can donload the software for free and then access “Talk Radio” and then under the submenu, “TheMicroEffect.

Hope you will join us tomorrow as part of staying tuned!

# posted by Constance Cumbey : 10:14 PM  17 Comments Links to this post

January 14, 2007

Dear Friends:

Below is the revolting latest on the "Real ID Act." None of it appears good! I am reprinting the release verbatim from the EPIC Identification and Surveillance Project." I am reproducing it verbatim and I am attempting to line up its author for my radio program Friday afternoon. Holly Peters Pivec, Herb Peters' daughter, and the manager of the popular prophecy website, www.fulfilledprophecy.com will be on the air with me Tuesday afternoon and we will conducting the program conversation style rather than an interview format. You, of course, are cordially invited to join the conversation and Stay Tuned!

Update: The author of the posted article is suffering from laryngitis this week, but tells my secretary she will be delighted to join us as soon as recovered!

Sincerely,

CONSTANCE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 11, 2008
Contact:
Melissa Ngo
Director, EPIC Identification and Surveillance Project
(202) 483-1140 ext. 123
ngo AT epic.org

HOMELAND SECURITY DEPARTMENT ANNOUNCES DEEPLY FLAWED
REGULATIONS FOR NATIONAL ID SYSTEM

WASHINGTON, DC - Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael
Chertoff today released the agency's final regulations for REAL ID, the
national identification system. The law was passed in 2005 and will
require the states to make significant changes to the state driver's
license. EPIC and other civil liberties and privacy organizations have
objected to the federal identification system, which will include the
sensitive information of 245 million license and state ID cardholders
across the country.
The proposal has drawn sharp criticism from state governments, members
of Congress, civil liberties advocates, and security experts. The
Secretary scaled back some of the requirements, reduced the cost, and
extended the deadline for state compliance. However, Secretary Chertoff
also indicated that the REAL ID card would be used for a wide variety of
purposes, unrelated to the law that authorized the system, including
employment verification and immigration determination. He also indicated
that the agency would not prevent the use of the card by private parties
for non-government purposes. As part of the cost-saving effort, Homeland
Security has decided not to encrypt the data that will be stored on the
card.
Melissa Ngo, Director of the EPIC Identification and Surveillance
Project, said, "REAL ID creates a United States where individuals are
either 'approved' or 'suspect,' and that is a real danger to security
and civil rights."
The REAL ID proposal has been widely criticized. Seventeen states have
passed legislation against REAL ID, and Congress is debating its repeal.
The Department of Homeland Security has also been criticized for its own
poor security practices. In May 2007, a Homeland Security office lost
the personal data of 100,000 employees.
According to security expert Bruce Schneier, "Measures like REAL ID have
limited security benefit. Identification systems are complex, and the
unforgability of the plastic card is only a small part of the security
equation. Issuance procedures, verification procedures, and the
back-end database are far more vulnerable to abuse, and -- perversely --
a harder-to-forge card makes subverting the system even more valuable.
Good security doesn't try to divine intentionality from identification,
but instead provides for broad defenses regardless of identification."
EPIC is a public interest research center in Washington, D.C. EPIC was
established in 1994 to focus public attention on emerging civil
liberties issues and to protect privacy, the First Amendment, and
constitutional values. In 2007, EPIC led a grassroots coalition of
organizations and bloggers that urged the Department of Homeland
Security to withdraw the REAL ID plan.
More information is available at:
http://www.epic.org/privacy/id_cards
http://www.privacycoalition.org/stoprealid/

Dear Readers:

Because of pertinent questions I received on my comment section tonight, I am republishing this article which I originally published in April 2005. It is also easily found on a google or Yahoo search. It is originally found at http://cumbey.blogspot.com/2005_04_01_archive.html

I want to caution that there are good, sincere people doing excellent work at these same agencies, and much of their work is necessary, but the battle has been long, difficult, and insidious and I think people are entitled to know. After this "Denver Disinformation Conference" there were other efforts of which I became finally aware in 2006 to shut me out of my own work, excluding me from the "Discernment circles." As Tal Brooke and Jacob Prasch played prominent roles in part of that along with others even too painful for me to mention, but Tal Brooke's and Jacob Prasch's roles were public, I name them here. There are others I am keeping to myself.

Sincerely,

Constance E. Cumbey

Wolves in Sheep's Clothing? The 'Evangelical' Struggle to keep you from the truth

Equipping the Saints? Or Disarming them? You be the judge!

There have been enormous efforts and huge sums of money spent to keep the Christian world from knowing the size and extent of the New Age Movement and its growing powers. I have kept silent most of the time on most of what I know not because I wanted to keep people from the truth, but because of Jesus' clear warnings that the wheat and the tares would grow together until the time of the end and to do nothing about the tares because in pulling up the tares, one might also harm the wheat. It is only when I see the wheat itself harmed that I speak out. I believe for people to now know what is coming, that they know how insidious this battle has been.

When I started my work against the New Age Movement in 1981, I thought it would be very simple -- Christian vs. Lions. It wasn't quite that easy. Some of who I believed were US were either apathetic or THEM. Some of THEM repented and became staunchly US. Some of the lengths gone to suppress -- even blackball me and my work -- were truly amazing. A Seattle, Washington Christian (Logos Bookstore) was selling many New Age books on its shelves. My book, THE HIDDEN DANGERS OF THE RAINBOW, then a #1 best seller on the Christian best seller list, was sold under the counter. It was packaged in a plain brown paper wrapper, stapled shut with a critical article on my work from Christianity Today inside. Matthew Fox authored (a Catholic apostate theologian, later removed by the new pope as Cardinal Ratzinger acting in his position as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith) books were sold very openly.

I was asked to participate in a conference for Evangelical Ministries to New Religions at El Toro, California in December 1983. This was a time immediately after my father's death and I have detailed some of this in my second book, A PLANNED DECEPTION. In El Toro, I was asked to present my proofs on the existence of the New Age Movement. The panel behind me who was to comment on my work included CRI's Eliot Miller; Cornerstone Magazine's Eric Pement; Brooke Alexander of Spiritual Counterfeits Project; and Dave Hunt, who I then believed to be my ally.

In my main talk, I detailed the inroads Jeremy Rifkin had made in evangelizing evangelicals to the environmental paradigm shift of the New Age Movement. The question and answer period was truly amazing. I had no idea what would be thrown at me. I had packed one large book bag and it accompanied me that evening. Time after time I was accused both by members of the panel and members of the inquisitorial audience of taking the New Agers out of context. I would say, "well, let's read it together." I would pull the exact book from my briefcase.

That I had the proper books with me to defeat their claims of misquoting can only be attributed to either extreme luck or divine intervention. It was statistically impossible given a library of my size to have had it happen accidentally. Of course, I believe it to be the latter. I obviously had help!

The next major thrust against me was what I term the "Denver Disinformation Conference" which took place at the Denver Seminary on March 14-15, 1985 in Denver, Colorado. I was not invited. A few days before, a cult research by the first name of Hugh called me. He said he had called to register, left his credit card number with Dr. Gordon Lewis' secretary at the Denver Seminary. The Denver Seminary is a Conservative Baptist institution. Dr. Lewis was coordinating the conference. Dr. Vernon Grounds was the Chancellor. People from that seminary were to play a major role in a unity conference with New Age leaders in conjunction with Doug Coe in 1987, but this was 1985.

At any rate, Hugh, my caller, said that he asked the registrar, Dr. Lewis' secretary a natural question, given that this was the first recognition in the Evangelical world that the New Age Movement even existed outside of the imagination of yours truly. "Would Constance Cumbey be there?" He said that she replied as follows: "This conference was called on account of Constance Cumbey" and we will have security guards present, just in case she decides to show up."

This was hard for me to take. I started crying. I said, "this time they've gone to a new low." My caller said, "you know, you could go anyway." I said, " no, I practiced law long enough to know that if they would go to those lengths, they would go even lower. They would trump [up] a disturbance and blame me for it. They would like nothing better than for me to be in a Denver jail -- I'm not going to give them the satisfaction."

God's timing is very interesting. I have never had anything like this happen without getting confirmation shortly thereafter. The very next morning I had a phone call from a man identifying himself as a producer for a Denver professor who had a popular religion oriented talk show on Denver radio each and every Sunday morning. He said that they had planned to give the time for the Sunday after the conference to a participant -- hopefully Ronald Enroth. He went on to say, that he had the professor had been talking and wondered out loud why at last there was an Evangelical conference on the existence of something that had been long denied -- and that the most recognized Evangelical figure on the subject was not a part of the conference. I recounted something unpleasant that had happened to me concerning Ronald Enroth. Then I told him what I had just heard the night before -- about the security guards."Why I know the person in charge of security," exclaimed the producer. His name is Mark Roggeman and he's a local policeman. Let's get him in on this conversation."

Mark Roggeman joined the conversation in what became a three way conference call. He told me a most amazing story. Mark Roggeman was a Denver policeman who then and now was working on cult related issues. He is also a Christian. He said he was thrilled that after three years of denial, that finally there was Evangelical recognition of a New Age Movement problem. He heard they were seeking a Security Director and applied for the job.

He said that upon [being hired] hiring he was summoned into Gordon Lewis office and told his first, foremost and primary responsibility was to escort Constance Cumbey off the grounds, should she show up. Mark told me he said to Lewis, "that's how the cults operate." Lewis told him, "you want the job, that's the condition." Roggeman told me he decided to stick around and see what else they had up their collective sleeves.

"What else" included Dr. Gordon Melton, a rabid New Age follower in nearly all of its forms, including vampirism and Ramtha the 35,000 year old man deliver a paper, "A Christian Response to the Hidden Dangers of the Rainbow." He was wearing an ankh and selling his paper promoting astrology on the grounds.

I was offered radio time -- two national interviews -- on the Marlin Maddoux Show on the two days immediately preceding the conference. I gave the doings and their security guards more free advertising than they ever expected. I understand they ran around red faced and said it had not happend -- but it clearly happened.I say all of this now because Gretchen Passantino published prominently on the web, a paper on urban legends. She includes as one "urban legend" the security guard story. I'm sorry to say it but Gretchen Passantino was close enough to the action on this gang to know better. It is bluntly -- a lie!

http://answers.org/apologetics/fantasy.html
http://answers.org/bookreviews/painted_black_rev.html
http://www.equip.org/free/DC825.pdf

Equipping the saints? I would say this bunch was disarming the saints. That's all for now. Enjoy the balance of your weekend!

CONSTANCE E. CUMBEY

Just found this and thought it important to share with all of you.

Sincerely,

CONSTANCE


"Afghanistan Gov't Orders U.N., E.U. Reps Out of Country

"The Afghanistan government has ordered the U.N. and E.U. representatives in the country to leave, claiming that the two met secretly and illegally with senior Taliban officials.
"The government also accused the representatives of constituting a danger to Afghanistan's national security.
Source: Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, London, December 27, 2007


http://www.thememriblog.org/blog_personal/en/4295.htm>

Some wise words of caution from one of our blogspot participants. I agree with
him, the conveniences are nice, but the day may well come and sooner than we think that they are stripped from us. I offer you his comment as a post worthy of being a story by itself.

P.S. Be sure to tune in tomorrow at 5 p.m. Eastern Time, 2 p.m. Mountain to my internet radio version of "My Perspective." Our guest will be Prophezine's Ray Gano.

Stay tuned!
Constance

So what’s in your wallet?

While we owe a debt of gratitude to all those who are keeping track of the rise of anti-christ and the construction of his so-called “new world order”, all this information and research will be in vain if it is not used wisely? It is not sufficient to merely become aware of “the spider”, but we must also discern each and every thread of her web as well. What good will it do to reveal “the beast” if one does not also reveal the methods by which he (or she) seeks to entrap us? All of us, even now, are empowering the anti-christ system to have control over our lives. Are we addicted to our computers? Can we live without email? Are we in debt to one or more financial institutions? Do we live by the almighty debit card? Do we fear identity theft, the pollution of our credit scores, the repossession of our vehicles, homelessness, or other financial hardship so much that we will trade our very souls to maintain our comfortable lifestyles? Do we fear a terrorist bomb, a letter full of anthrax, or some other potential threat so much that we willingly trade what’s left of our already limited freedoms for the grand illusion of “peace and safety”?The mark of the beast is not something that will be forced on us, but rather it is something we will choose to accept because we are already entangled in his world. How many people think they can just live in the anti-christ’s system up to some specific point, then turn and walk away before having to make the ultimate compromise? Such thoughts are naive and dangerous! Please do not misunderstand me. I am not disparaging in any way the important work done by Constance, Rudi, or all you others out there who are busy tracking the rise of the anti-christ system. But I am beginning to question what our response should be to the information being gathered. We are to be salt and light, yes. Stupid, no.Personally, I do not promote adopting some kind of bunker mentality. We are in the world, but not of it. We should be looking up, not down. And if we who believe and trust in Christ are to suffer for our faith, so be it. But for a great many of us, our faith is weak, and from what I can see, may not be up to the challenge that is coming our way. I’ve talked to some who think that when the time comes they can escape the anti-christ’s system by moving to some remote corner of the country and survive by raising cows and chickens. They have not been keeping up with the one world government controls being put in place to “protect” our food supply from mad cow disease and potential bird flu outbreaks. I’ve talked with some who think they can move to a remote corner of Montana or Idaho and hunt elk to survive. These folks have simply not been keeping up with the wolf reintroduction program (designed to limit game stocks), nor are they aware of the massive increase in government policing powers. They also forget that millions of other gun toting American’s have a similar fantasy of becoming some kind of "Jeremiah Johnson" overnight. I am reminded of that earthly promise, “out of chaos, order”. Seems imminently significant to me.Excuse me for ranting, your responses are welcome

This is the second time I have attempted to interview Ray Gano, owner of the popular Prophezine website. Ray is an excellent bible scholar and an excellent reader of the signs of our times. I am looking forward to interviewing him. I am hoping you will join us and stay tuned!

The website to join us is www.themicroeffect.com. The chatroom is lively and popular and now it is accessed through www.paltalk.com. TheMicroeffect may have a link to it. The initial download is free if you want extended privileges to all radio stations and all chatroom on that site which includes videoconferencing capabilities, there is a small charge. I believe unlimited access to all sites and video conferencing is a little less than $60onst per year. But you can join us just fine by going there and accessing the free site.

Welcome aboard!

CONSTANCE

I truly wish Herb Peters were here to discuss this. I just made a fascinating online discovery of "Democracy Digest." It appears to contain insider information on the processes Herb and I were analyzing over the years. There has been considerable comment section talk about The European Neighbourhood Policy and possible prophetic ramifications. The following excerpted material from the Democracy Digest may shed further light on that and USA collaboration in "the Process."

"Democracy Promotion: EU-US Variations on a Theme
"Democracy promotion has never been a top foreign policy priority for the United States or European Union, but there is considerable scope for enhancing EU-US interaction in the field, according to a recent meeting of experts. Leading scholars and practitioners from both the US and Europe met for far-reaching discussion about the transatlantic dimensions of democratisation on October 4th and 5th [2004] at Stanford University's Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law.
"Signs of ferment within the societies and cultures of the broader Middle East have
imparted new vigour to such discussions within the transatlantic community about
what can and should be done to assist democrats in that region and elsewhere.
While the US has been engaged in democracy promotion since 1945, the EU's
engagement in the field is a recent post-Cold War phenomenon, the conference
heard.
But differing transatlantic concepts and instruments of democracy
promotion between the EU and US are due less to historical factors than to
varying geo-strategic needs, capacities and perceptions of threat, seminar
participants suggested. "The EU's military weakness and the pressing need to
engage its troubled periphery have prompted the EU to develop a common approach
or orientation based on concepts and instruments nurtured through EU
enlargement," says Amichai Magen, a CDDRL Fellow who with Yitzhak Rabin, a
Fulbright Scholar at Stanford Law School, initiated and organized the workshop.
The EU makes extensive use of positive “democratic conditionality” through two
main rewards to non-members: institutional ties (the strongest of which is the
promise of full membership); and financial and technical assistance to ease
transition to market economies, enhance administrative capacity and facilitate
subscription to liberal norms.
"Stanford conference participants discussed variations of US-EU interaction in the field. Firstly, greater “co-ordination” of US and EU institutional and delivery capabilities would help avoid divisive tactics used by countries such as Cuba, Russia and many Arab regimes that are eager to minimize external democratising influences. A second school of thought prefers “collaboration” to a tight co-ordination of policies they consider unrealistic, undesirable, or both. Collaboration generates greater participation by non-state actors that are better positioned to engage than national or international bureaucracies. Thirdly, “co-operation” can also involve flexible case-by-case interaction, avoiding overt or institutional EU-US association.
"The wide-ranging reforms (from economic liberalization to human rights'
compliance) required for countries even to be considered for EU membership have
provided a compelling imperative for democratisation along the EU's volatile
periphery. In this respect, the conference heard, the EU has become a “democratic
hub” or “gravity” model using normative pressures, trade, aid, democratic
conditionality and socialization mechanisms to promote reforms. The EU has been
less willing to use negative measures – i.e. withdrawal of aid and sanctions.
"Until political criteria governing eligibility for the Millennium Challenge Account were established, the US traditionally did not use ex ante conditionality.
By contrast, expert American commentators at Stanford could not define a similarly coherent “American strategy.” US democracy promotion activities were described as more fragmented, sporadic and heterogeneous, partly reflecting the diversity of
agencies involved. They also tend to be more narrowly defined (on elections,
institutions, civil society) compared with the EU's more holistic, consistent
and long-term strategy of building long-term relationships and generating
gradual, controlled change through “managed-compliance.” Nevertheless,
participants considered joint strategies for advancing mutually reinforcing
changes to be a potentially rich area for exploration.
"Participants identified four distinct regime types that present different challenges for the US and EU. In both “opening regimes” and “hybrid-regimes,” a major challenge is one of consolidation and preventing backsliding and the entrenchment of
illiberal democracy. Conditionality and aid have been effective in such cases,
as in most of post-communist central and eastern Europe. But they have been less
successful in a second regime type: those states and international protectorates
characterized by weak institutions and administrative capacities, as in Serbia
(including Kosovo), Bosnia-Herzegovina, Albania and Romania, where ruling elites
are attracted by external incentives but lack the judicial and administrative
capacity to effectively implement reform.
"China is probably the most important current example of a fourth regime type -- a “pre-transition” non-democratic country. But in geo-political terms the North African and eastern Mediterranean countries are a critical cluster, given the combination of strong US interests and European engagement through the Barcelona Process and European Neighbourhood Policy. Finally, a “hard core” of states, including Iran, Syria and Saudi Arabia, pose particularly complex and divisive challenges for the EU and US.
"Some European participants suggested that EU leverage in such societies requires distancing itself from a US that has become “radioactive,” especially in the Middle East. Others suggested that long before either the Iraq war or the Bush Administration, the EU, and especially France, already sought to define themselves in opposition to the US.
"Participants agreed that both the US and EU need to review, reconsider and
perhaps redesign their own institutional instruments and procedures for
democracy promotion. A project that identifies specific places or themes for
cooperation, as well as places where the EU and US should avoid open
competition, would clearly be of interest and use to democracy promoters on both
sides of the Atlantic.

If past experience is any guide, I suggest you archive this material together with all of its links immediately. I also point with interest Stanford University's role in this. Together with New York University, and the Brookings Institution, it appears to be a major player on both New Age and "Global Governance" networks.

Stay tuned!

Dear Friends: This is urgent information from Dorothy Margraf. Senator Obama evidently will play a critical role on whether this House of Representatives passed bill will live or die. Needless to say, the Iowa folk have a LOT OF INFLUENCE with Senator Obama presently. I urge Iowans to fax, email, and snail mail his office plus phone calls expressing their opinion on it immediately. Ditto for his home based state of Illinois. Ditto for those states with upcoming presidential primaries. I know enough about the process to know that electoral contact is pivotal!

My thanks to Dorothy Margraf for bringing this forcibly to our attention!

Constance

[I] was looking on linkfilter.net and came across this item which should prove to be of interest. Online policing of politically unreliable web sites (Senate Bill S-1959) will bring to the US internet what Yahoo has already brought to China: Internet related censorship services and jailed dissidents.

Why is the internet tech community so quiet about this issue? The bill, (S-1959) misleadingly called the Homegrown Terrorism and Violent Radicalization act of 2007 is a thought crime bill. The bill was passed in the house under a curious suspension of the rules usually reserved for non controversial issues like the naming of a post office. A Senate Vote is imminent. Obama sits on the Senate committee responsible for moving it forward or sending it back to nazi Germany.

As of December 27, 2007, Obama says he hasn't yet decided how he will vote.Obama's presidential campaign has been encouraged to contact Robert Scoble for his advice. But what will Scoble say to Senator Obama when he calls?

What if Scoble has been pre-emptively compromised by a web2 business opportunity in the censorship solutions sector of Silicon valley? Maybe Dave Winer can give Scoble a short tutorial on creeping fascism. This dangerous bill is being pushed by the Pentagon through it's favored think tank, the Rand Corporation. If passed it will be another step toward creating an internet policing apparatus complete with watch-lists and user profiles and all the follies associated with the suppression of civil liberties online.If you thought net neutrality was not high on the agenda you haven't read this bill (S-1959)...

Less

http://blip.tv/file/564528Video

along with the story isn't the greatest.

Dorothy
10:21 PM