But wait a minute, is Aimi Eguchi even real?

Is This Girl Real or Virtual?

[W]hat if a virtual person was passed off as real? Or what if a real person was thought to be virtual? That's exactly what is happening in Japan. Located in Japan's geek heaven Akihabara, AKB48 is the country's most popular female pop group ... Its latest member is Aimi Eguchi, who has rocketed from obscurity to become the poster girl for a Japanese ice candy, Ice no Mi.

Cynical as ever, Japanese netizens have been quick to pounce, noting that Eguchi's photos appear to be doctored ... so doctored that netizens are drawing comparisons between them and photos that appear on bait-and-switch Korean massage parlors.

Netizens believe that Eguchi's appearance is a composite of the most popular AKB48 girls—real girls that appear in the Aisu no Mi ad.

Eguchi does appear to be somewhat stiff in the commercial, and her mouth movements appear off. But maybe she's nervous. Or maybe it's because she was created in a hard drive to sell this snack. As one Netizen notes, her first name "Aimi" (愛実) could be a wordplay on "Aisu no Mi" (アイスの実). The name of the song AKB48 sing in the snack commercial is "Aisu no Kuchizuke" or "Ice Kiss".

Believers say Eguchi is real, pointing to her profile listing on the official AKB48 site, and bat away cynical notions that she was created simply to drum up publicity. "Hollywood can't even create CG this good," wrote one individual.

Japan has created virtual idols in the past, such as Kyoko Date in the late 1990s and, more recently, Miku Hatsune. With Kyoto Date, there was an effort to pass her off as "real"—though everybody knew she was a computer creation. Uncanny Valley territory, it wasn't. With Aimi Eguchi, those clear distinctions are being blurred.

In what should be no surprise (coming out of the shallow pop culture), Aimi Eguchi is a computer-generated fake.

Japan's newest popstar outed as CGI creation

To thousands of Japanese teenagers she was the ultimate pop idol.

With picture-perfect teeth and hair, shiny, flawless skin and a sweet singing voice, Aimi Eguchi embodied everything that teenage girls wished for.

However, dig a little deeper, and not everything was quite as it seemed.

Miss Eguchi, who told fans on her website that she was a normal 16-year-old from Saitama Prefecture, north of Tokyo who enjoyed track and field sports, was anything but.

In fact, she was not human at all - but a clever computer-generated composite of six other members of the popular girl band AKB 48.

Miss Eguchi was also part of a wily marketing campaign, created by a confectionery company that had hired the band to front an advertisement for one of their chocolates.

HT - Japanese Pop Star Not Real, Computer Composite

Fake virtual pop stars are hardly unique to Japan. Remember the made-for-TV band The Monkees? How about something more recent, like Hannah Montana or Lemonade Mouth? And if we only could forget that seemingly endless list of manufactured "boy bands" ...

There is so much wrong with the music industry that I wouldn't even know where to begin. Perhaps fostering artistic expression instead of pumping out formulaic product might do them some good. Anyways, enjoy the following video by another virtual band, the Gorillaz.

Fake popstars. Fake politicians. Our world is becoming one big illusion.

The Making of a Popstar is a post from: The Classic Liberal Blog

The Bilderberg Group is one of the most influential organizations in the world. Similar to the Davos economic forum and G8 summit, the annual Bilderberg meeting brings together royalty, politicians, high-level government bureaucrats, heads of major corporations, elite journalists and other major players to "discuss" the future.

The economist Adam Smith summed it up perfectly a long time ago saying:

People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices.

It hardly shocking to say that large corporations will work to create cartels in order to gain/maintain market domination. Nor should it shock anyone to say that these companies lobby the government in order to create laws and regulations that effectively crush their competition too. Since advocating purely for their own benefit won't get them very far, it only makes sense that they fund various public interest groups, "think tanks," forums, and other various fronts to provide intellectual merit and grassroots advocacy for whatever it is they want to achieve.

One only needs to look at the guest list of this year's meeting to realize how much influence the Bilderberg Group has on the decision making processes and institutions in the United States and beyond. Yet, despite heavy media coverage of the other major forums where big corporate players and politicians meet, like the Davos economic forum and G8 summit, there is a virtual conspiracy of silence regarding the most secretive forum of them all - the annual Bilderberg conference.

Wouldn't it be nice to know what these makers and shakers of world finance and government policy are up to? Don't you think it might just be important to us?

Zero Hedge recently reported that the Federal Reserve is still bailing out foreign banks.

The Fed's $600 Billion Stealth Bailout Of Foreign Banks Continues At The Expense Of The Domestic Economy

Courtesy of the recently declassified Fed discount window documents, we now know that the biggest beneficiaries of the Fed's generosity during the peak of the credit crisis were foreign banks ... Having been thus exposed, many speculated that going forward the US central bank would primarily focus its "rescue" efforts on US banks, not US-based (or local branches) of foreign (read European) banks ... we present that not only has the Fed's bailout of foreign banks not terminated with the drop in discount window borrowings or the unwind of the Primary Dealer Credit Facility, but that the only beneficiary of the reserves generated were US-based branches of foreign banks (which in turn turned around and funnelled the cash back to their domestic branches) ...

[C]ash held by foreign banks jumps from $308 billion on November 3, or the official start of QE2, to $940 billion as of June 1: an almost dollar for dollar increase with the increase in Fed reserve balances. In other words ... one can argue that the whole point of QE2 was not so much to spike equity markets, or the proverbial "third mandate" of Ben Bernanke, but solely to rescue European banks!

What this observation also means, is that the bulk of risk asset purchasing by dealer desks (if any), has not been performed by US-based primary dealers, as has been widely speculated, but by foreign dealers, which have the designation of "Primary" with the Federal Reserve.

Notice the names representing foreign "Primary" dealers and other interest groups here on the Bilderberg guest list. Take a look at the private equity underwriters who attended this year's Bilderberg conference too. Interestingly, a number of high-profile names from the internet industry attended this year.

Are the Bilderbergs Plotting to Control the Internet?

After a quick glance at this year's Bilderberg attendee list, it is not difficult to surmise that a key focus of the elitists is the internet. PEU Report has pulled the names of those directly tied to the internet industry that were invited to the conference this year:

Kroes, Neelie, Vice President, European Commission; Commissioner for Digital Agenda

Bernabè, Franco, CEO, Telecom Italia SpA

Reisman, Heather, Chair and CEO, Indigo Books & Music Inc. Center, Brookings Institution

Alexander, Keith B., Commander, USCYBERCOM; Director, National Security Agency

Bezos, Jeff, Founder and CEO, Amazon.comHoffman, Reid, Co-founder and Executive Chairman, LinkedIn

Hughes, Chris R., Co-founder, Facebook

Mundie, Craig J., Chief Research and Strategy Officer, Microsoft Corporation

Schmidt, Eric, Executive Chairman, Google Inc.

Lévy, Maurice, Chairman and CEO, Publicis Groupe S.A.

Löscher, Peter, President and CEO, Siemens AG

Cebrián, Juan Luis, CEO, PRISA

PEU dug deep and found that Varney was on the board of Ryder Systems. According to Ryder, when she was a private sector attorney with the heavy-hitter law firm of Hogan & Hartson, she lead, guess what, "the Internet Law practice group for the firm."

PEU adds:

Adding to Bilderberg intrigue is the IMF's report of a serious cyber attack by a nation state. The attack occurred May 14...The computer attack attempted to install software that would provide an insider digital presence. The IMF waited until a meeting of global tamperers to reveal a "major cyber attack." Did Mark Penn or Karen Hughes craft the narrative? It vectors well with Bilderberg's apparent cyber focus. Even Bill Gates turned out for a Bilderberger.

What they were "plotting" or if they were "plotting" at all is anyone's guess. The meetings are too secret for us to get all the details. But when you consider that public officials, crony capitalists and other highly influential people gather each year in a cloak of secrecy, to not be skeptical is a fool's errand.

Is Bilderberg Building a Global Government?

Jon Ronson wrote an article for the Guardian paper in which he managed to interview key members of the Bilderberg Group for an exposé on the organization, attempting to dismantle the "conspiracy theories" surrounding the secrecy of the meetings. However, through his interviews, important information regarding the social importance of the group continued to emerge. Ronson attempted to contact David Rockefeller, but only managed to reach his press secretary who told Ronson that the "conspiracy theories" about Rockefeller and "global think-tanks such as Bilderberg in general" left David Rockefeller "thoroughly fed up." According to his press secretary, "Mr. Rockefeller's conclusion was that this was a battle between rational and irrational thought. Rational people favoured globalisation. Irrational people preferred nationalism."[53]

While dismissing "conspiracy theories" that Bilderberg "runs the world," Ronson did explain that the Bilderberg members he interviewed admitted, "that international affairs had, from time to time, been influenced by these sessions." As Denis Healey, a 30-year member of the Steering Committee, himself pointedly explained:

To say we were striving for a one-world government is exaggerated, but not wholly unfair. Those of us in Bilderberg felt we couldn't go on forever fighting one another for nothing and killing people and rendering millions homeless. So we felt that a single community throughout the world would be a good thing... Bilderberg is a way of bringing together politicians, industrialists, financiers and journalists. Politics should involve people who aren't politicians. We make a point of getting along younger politicians who are obviously rising, to bring them together with financiers and industrialists who offer them wise words. It increases the chance of having a sensible global policy.[54]

Will Hutton, the former Editor of the Observer, who had been invited to Bilderberg meetings in the past, once famously referred to the group as "the high priests of globalization."[55] Hutton has said that "people take part in these networks in order to influence the way the world works," and to create, as he put it, "the international common sense" of policy. The Chairman of the Bilderberg Group, Viscount Etienne Davignon, stated that, "I don't think (we are) a global ruling class because I don't think a global ruling class exists. I simply think it's people who have influence interested to speak to other people who have influence."[56]

G. William Domhoff is a professor of Psychology and Sociology at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and has written about the Bilderberg Group. In an interview, he discounted the notion that the study of such groups is relegated to the realm of conspiracy theory, and instead explained that he studies "how elites strive to develop consensus, which is through such publicly observable organizations as corporate boards and the policy-planning network, which can be studied in detail, and which are reported on in the media in at least a halfway accurate manner."[57]

[53] Jon Ronson, Who pulls the strings? (part 2), The Guardian, 10 March 2001:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2001/mar/10/extract
[54] Ibid.
[55] Mark Oliver, The Bilderberg group, The Guardian, 4 June 2004:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/2004/jun/04/netnotes.markoliver
[56] BBC, Inside the secretive Bilderberg Group, BBC News, 29 September 2005:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4290944.stm
[57] Chip Berlet, Interview: G. William Domhoff, New Internationalist, September 2004:
http://www.publiceye.org/antisemitism/nw_domhoff.html

It's doubtful that Bilderberg represents a group of secret plotters with a singular goal, which is controlled by a handful of "puppet-masters." But that said, Bilderberg does represent a group of like-minded, self-interested world leaders who meet in secret at public expense. And they certainly aren't angels meeting for a weekend of tea and crumpets.

It would be a dangerous delusion were a confidence in the men of our choice to silence our fears for the safety of our rights: that confidence is every where the parent of despotism; free government is founded in jealousy and not in confidence; it is jealousy & not confidence which prescribes limited constitutions to bind down those whom we are obliged to trust with power ... in questions of power then, let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the constitution . -- Thomas Jefferson, The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Volume 30: 1 January 1798 to 31 January 1799 (Princeton University Press, 2003), 536-43

Stefan Molyneux of Freedomain Radio interviewed by Jake Kettle on the prospects and possibilities of one world government

2011 Bilderberg Plot is a post from: The Classic Liberal Blog

Bilderberg is an especially secretive group that employs very intensive security, so who knows? But here's a look at some of this year's reports. Click through to each for a lot more information (and pictures).

Bilderberg 2011: All aboard the Bilderbus

[I]n Switzerland, Henry Kissinger and his brave band of corporate CEOs, high-wealth individuals and heavyweight thinktankers will lock arms with Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands and David Rockefeller, and stand their ground against the economic contagion.

The last thing a bunch of bank bosses and multinational executives wants is for the nation-states of Europe to collapse, allowing their assets to be bought up on the cheap. Right?

Besides, if anyone can lay claim to fathering the EU, it's Bilderberg. Sixty years ago, Europe was a mere Bilderbaby, conceived in a solemn ceremony on Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands' mattress. It grew into a fine young Bilderboy, but the years have caught up with it, and now it seems its knees are creaking and its heart is weak.

Bilderberg 2011: The polished blue line

Anna Caprez, a journalist from Radio Rumantch, the Swiss radio station. She's putting together a series of reports about the conference. "It's a big story", she says. "But only in March or April did we realize what Bilderberg is, or even that there is a Bilderberg conference."

She says it's unusual to have the press descend on St Moritz like this. "We're used to letting people do what they want here in the valley, in the Engadine. St Moritz is a special place. VIPs can be incognito, we're used to famous people – who cares? – they can act and react without the press crawling over them. But this is different. This is important. And the media in Switzerland has finally woken up to it. The Swiss TV are coming, Swiss Radio, the Italian media. And it is thanks to him."

Anna nods towards a man smoking a cheroot, enjoying a rare glimpse of alpine sun.

"We put pressure on the media, we ask: "Why aren't you reporting this?" – and now at last they have started. Of course, some of what they write is the usual, you know: just a meeting of some old guys sitting round, having a cup of tea." He snorts his derision: "Come on! A four-day cup of tea, with heads of global companies, heads of state, EU commissioners, leaders of Nato, bank CEOs, people with a full schedule. They are not here for a cup of tea!"

"We asked and asked again: who is paying for all this? If we are to have a huge police force protecting a private meeting, as usual, then who is paying? The taxpayer? We made it a political problem."

And the pressure seems to have paid off.

And it's true – at first glance, this year's conference could hardly be more different from Spain 2010 or Greece 2009. We're standing, unharrassed, on a pavement not 50 metres from the hotel. Last year, in Sitges, the press was kept a kilometre away, at the business end of a machine gun. In Vouliagmeni the cordon was even wider, maybe a kilometre and a half, with (literally) hundreds of pumped-up policemen strip searching and camera snatching. St Moritz may be further from the beach, but apart from that it's a gigantic improvement. "This is Switzerland!" explains Manfred. "That sort of thing cannot happen here. This is a democracy."

More and more people are starting to realize that the Bilderberg Group is not only real, but something that needs to be taken very seriously.

Now of course, members of the Bilderberg Group aren't puppet-masters, wielding magical powers with which they can control the world. But they are indeed extremely influential people, who swing big sticks and affect government policy directly.

[David Aaronovitch] is cheerleader-in-chief of the cup of tea brigade: "To have a strong belief in the Bilderberg Group means believing in a fantasy," he says. "It replaces the intolerable thought that there's nothing at work at all, that the world is chaotic. It may be a form of therapy but it has people believing in an anti-scientific message."

Blimey. What I find most extraordinary about those remarks is not so much their appalling ignorance, it's more that Aaronovitch appears to be making a quasi-religious statement. It's an expression of faith: faith in there being "nothing at work at all" in the world – faith that the world is "chaotic" through-and-through.

A fairly extreme position, one could almost call it fundamentalist. What then is history? Stones being shaken in bucket? Has ever a human influenced the course of events? Are the attendees of Bilderberg in any sense influential? And if not, what on earth have they been doing all their lives? They might as well have sat jibbering on a rock rather than becoming secretaries of state and finance ministers, for all the good it'll do them.

We can expect more of this fantasy/"old farts playing golf" spin over the next several days. (I can't wait for David Frum's annual scoff piece). But it sounds more and more detached from reality with every passing year.

Let me put it this way ... The entire Tea Party movement doesn't exert as much influence on the United States government as do the small handful of global elitists that make up the Bilderberg cabal. Nevertheless, we're supposed to just close our eyes and pretend they are angels meeting (behind walls of secrecy and heavily-armed guards) for our global "common good."

Yeah, right.

Elite Bilderberg 2011 Meeting Draws Scrutiny

The shadowy organization — made up of about 120 central bankers, top CEOs, academics, European royalty, big bankers, high-ranking politicians and even representatives of the establishment media — has been getting together once a year since the mid-1950s. The group of "leading citizens," as attendees are described on the group's purported official website, gets its name from the Bilderberg Hotel in Holland where the first meeting was held in 1954.

Until recently, almost the entire international media establishment maintained an apparent information blackout of the yearly gatherings. Despite the fact that representatives of some of the world's largest news outlets are always present at the conference, the vast majority of event coverage has generally come from the alternative press.

The rise of the Internet and widespread media choice, however, appear to have had a major effect. This year, the Bilderberg conference is attracting far more scrutiny than past gatherings — in line with a steady trend over the last few years of increasing awareness surrounding the affair.

While very little information is ever publicly released following the conferences, general topics on the agenda have been compiled on an official website cited by numerous media outlets. In 2007, for example, the first item on the list was "The New World Order." And with some of the most powerful people on earth attending the meeting, most objective analysts realize that the group wields enormous collective influence.

Though Bilderberg touts itself as a sort of forum where attendees can discuss ideas freely without the spotlight of the press, anecdotal evidence suggests that there is much more going on. Consider: Then-Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton attended the 1991 Bilderberg conference. He was virtually unknown at that time. The following year, Clinton was elected President.

Numerous other relatively obscure figures who have attended the meetings have ended up meteorically rising to power in a spectacular fashion. Tony Blair is another good example. Both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama were reported to have attended the 2008 Bilderberg meeting in Chantilly, Virginia. Current Treasury Secretary Timothy "TurboTax" Geithner and Federal Reserve boss Ben Bernanke were there that year, too.

The attendee lists for the meetings consist of the veritable “who’s who” of the global elite from across the political spectrum. Bilderberg luminary David Rockefeller, for example, who admitted in his autobiography of conspiring to erect a global economic and political system, is intimately involved with the formal organizational structure. Former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, who constantly and openly advocates what he calls a "New World Order," is almost always there too.

But this year, Kissinger and other members of the world elite are attracting some unwanted attention for the conference. A senior center-right Swiss lawmaker from the nation's largest political party sent a letter to prosecutors asking them to consider arresting Kissinger — and George W. Bush and French President Nicolas Sarkozy, if they attend — for war crimes. The legislator also requested that prosecutors consider applying the charge of treason for Swiss attendees.

Other critics of the cabal have also argued that Americans who attend should be arrested by U.S. authorities. Citing the Logan Act, which makes it a felony for Americans to formulate government policy with foreign officials, Bilderberg opponents have called for the prosecution of Texas Gov. Rick Perry — who will reportedly also attend the 2011 meeting — and many other American officials.

The Full Official Bilderberg 2011 Attendee List.

Bilderberg 2011: The curtains are drawn

Now of course, when I describe what's gone up as a "security fence", what I actually mean is "privacy fence". It's a shower curtain, not a ring of steel. And of course, by "privacy" what I actually mean is "shame". It's a shame fence. A massive white fence of embarrassment. Privacy is what the delegates get when they close the door of their conference hall. Privacy is a Chatham House agreement not to discuss in public what was discussed at the various presentations and seminars of Bilderberg.

But this isn't privacy. It's hiding. It's a child hiding behind the curtains in case the monsters see it, and I find it weirdly infantile. Oddly unconfident. Grown-ups, happy in what they're doing, don't slide down in their car seats and slip in through side doors. You've got the world's most powerful people sneaking around like naughty kiddies. Naughty kiddies with secret service spotters on their hotel roof, and armed men on motorbikes flanking their limousines.

This is the bit about Bilderberg that I really don't get. It's an old chestnut, but let's just take another bite at it. Let's just say, for the sake of argument, that Bilderberg benefits us all. The citizens of the world are made safer, or happier, or healthier, or better off as a result of this meeting. Let's just say that the head of Deutsche Bank spends four days with the head of BP in order to improve our lives.

Let's suppose, shall we, that the amiable hosts – David Rockefeller, Henry Kissinger, and the Queen of the Netherlands – have the interests of the general public written in big red letters at the top of their conference agenda.

Suppose all that. Then why the fence? Why do delegates fling themselves across the back seats of their limousines rather than be seen attending this helpful gathering? Why the blacked-out windows and the newspapers held in front of their faces? And why the big white fence? I don't get it.

Why isn't Josef Ackermann, the CEO of Deutsche Bank, waving benignly to the crowds? Why aren't the excited participants pausing at the hotel gates to speak to the invited press? "Yes, thank you, we're hoping to solve Europe's financial crisis this year – so finger's crossed!" Why are German plane clothes policemen following members of the public around Swiss streets...? Sorry – different question. Important, but different.

Secret Meeting of Global Elite Disrupted by Pringles Can.

Bilderberg 2011: For he's a jolly good Rockefeller

Bilderberg's favourite power couple were spotted: Henry Kravis, head of private equity giant KKR (assets $60 billion) and his wife, Marie-Josée (Hudson Institute; International Advisory Board of the Federal Reserve). Then in swept Washington's hawkish 'Prince of Darkness', Richard Perle (Hudson Institute; PNAC; Hollinger; former Gaddafi adviser – etc. etc. etc.).

Around teatime, a massive helicopter flew up the valley, and landed at the tiny local airport. It was one of the few arrivals there today, due to bad weather. A couple of private jets did make it in; their passengers were whisked off the tarmac, straight out of the gates. Not a passport shown, a bag searched, or a body scanned. "All arranged in advance," we were told. I must remember to arrange that in advance the next time I go on holiday. Such a timesaver.

Best moment of the day was the arrival of everyone's favourite Bilderberger, Papa Bear himself – the undisputed King of the Club – David Rockefeller.

Of course, as David himself has said: "We cannot be idealistic. Capital must be invested in countries which have the political stability to guarantee a fair deal for the businessman." And with his ping-pong partner, Henry Kissinger, the master of realpolitik (and the topspin backhand) at his side on Bilderberg's top table, it is hard to imagine much 'idealism' pervading the group. Beyond the heartwarming goal of guaranteeing a fair deal for the businessman.

Which would be all be fine and dandy if the Bilderberg attendees didn't include quite so many elected officials. Our own chancellor, George Osborne, was a serial attendee (2006-2009); our own prime minister, David Cameron, sat through the seminars in 2008 before taking office. And don't forget Tony Blair attended. Not that he likes to admit it (he preferred lying to parliament about not going).

Politicians from the host country are usually pretty thick on the ground, so it was no surprise to see the stately arrival of Barbara Janom Steiner, head of the justice department of the local Swiss canton.

The politicians get to rub shoulders and polish policies with Bilderberg businessmen like W Edmund Clarke, President & CEO of Canada's second largest bank, Toronto-Dominion (total assets in 2010: 619.5 billion Canadian Dollars), and member of the conference Steering Committee.

Bilderberg 2011: George Osborne attending as chancellor

On the 2011 delegate list, Osborne appears thus:

Osborne, George, Chancellor of the Exchequer.

I've just spent the entire day trying and failing and failing and trying again to get an official confirmation that Osborne is attending the St Moritz conference, and if so, in exactly what capacity he's here.

At long last the Treasury Press Office gave me a straight answer, but it wasn't the answer I was expecting: "George Osborne is attending the Bilderberg conference in his official capacity as Chancellor of the Exchequer" – and he's coming along "with a number of other international finance ministers." Any Treasury staff? "Probably not more than one."

So – ok – you mean we're paying for Osborne to be here? You mean he's on Treasury business? You mean this is an official summit? You mean he's talking economic policy with the Chairman of Royal Dutch Shell, the CEO of Airbus, and Russian oligarch Alexey Mordashov, the billionaire CEO of Severstal? And Henry Kissinger? In secret? Behind a police cordon?

Official business? And all this time I thought just mentioning the word Bilderberg was enough to have one certified crazy. Go figure.

Move along. Nothing to see here. Leave our benevolent angels alone. Hey, look! Over there! It's Anthony's Weiner!

Bilderberg 2011: The opposition steps up

The size and seriousness of the 'outside' is finally starting to befit the size and seriousness of the conference itself. The image and understanding of Bilderberg is changing, and people are changing around it. Every year it gets better.

Two years ago, in Greece, it was a shambles. A few determined bloggers getting strip-searched. A few scraped-together reports in the alternative media. And the Greek police were an absolute disgrace. I, for one, was harassed, arrested, followed, bullied, arrested again, rearrested, followed to Athens, wrestled with, lied to and scared out my tiny mind.

With scrutiny comes responsibility, and questions require answers. This will mean the conference changing the way it relates to the world, certainly – they might find it awkward, at first, to exchange CIA snipers for press officers – but I feel, in a sense, relieved for Bilderberg: because once the organization accepts its new status as a serious political meeting – one of the most important summits in the western political calendar – it can start relating to the world in a serious political fashion. It can relax. Normalize. And finally, look us in the eye.

There was a time, not so many years ago, when it was a sign of full-blown crackpottedness even to suggest that such a thing as "Bilderberg" existed. To insist that it was an important international summit, not the figment of a lizard's imagination, was lunacy. It was a meeting, scoffed the scoffers, held by the Loch Ness Monster in Narnia's most luxurious conference centre.

It's easy to dismiss something you don't know about; one can rest contentedly in the solipsism of ignorance: "I don't know about x, therefore x doesn't exist".

But as ever more information about Bilderberg edged its way into das Gehirn der Welt – sorry, slipped into German there for a moment – so yes, the more the world found out about Bilderberg, the harder it became to deny not just its existence, but its importance. Until we're where we are today: with the Chancellor of the Exchequer and a team from the Treasury attending a 4-day summit of international finance ministers and businessmen, including the assorted chairmen of Fiat, Nestlé, Goldmann Sachs International, and Coca-Cola, the Group Chairman of HSBC Holdings plc, the Executive Chairman of Google, the President of the European Council, and the co-founder of Facebook.

And it's just been leaked that Angela Merkel has arrived. And the Secretary-General of Nato, Anders Rasmussen. And Zapatero, the Spanish PM.

Bilderberg 2011: Lord Mandelson's nature walk

Bilderberg has had some bad ideas in its time (a European superstate, anyone?) but Lord Mandelson's nature walk has to be the worst. What were they hoping for? Had they not seen the 200 activists camped opposite the hotel gates?

Out of the bus stepped Erich Schmidt, the executive chairman of Google, and Franco Bernabè, the CEO of Telecom Italia, followed by China's vice-minister of foreign affairs, Ying Fu, with her amazing hair.

Then came the Swedish billionaire banker and industrialist Jacob Wallenberg, and the dapper CEO of Airbus, Thomas Enders. More of him later.

Mandelson led the way, locked in conversation with Sir Richard Lambert, a global non-executive director for Ernst & Young and the former editor of the FT. The Tory MP Rory Stewart trotted behind.

The lady in white led her band of Bilderberg bigwigs and billionaires along the charming Swiss byways, across bridges over gentle streams ... and straight into a pack of 50 baffled activists, who were milling around outside a community hall during a break in a symposium.

One activist, Ali Aslan, walked alongside Enders, the Airbus boss, and asked him what was being discussed at this year's conference. "Nothing bad," said Enders. "We are just making our agendas." (This was the German word used: agenda – the same as in English).

"I don't understand," said Alsan. "There are politicians inside. Why are we not allowed to know what you're talking about?"

Enders smiled and said: "I don't have to tell you, and you don't need to know." And with that, he and his fellow delegates ducked beneath the security cordon, into the blessed safety of Bilderberg.

So, what were the Bilderbergers plotting this year? We'll take some educated guesses tomorrow.

Bilderberg 2011 is a post from: The Classic Liberal Blog

Key Internet summit to discuss online rules

The world's most powerful Internet and media barons gathered in Paris on Tuesday in a show of strength to leaders at the G8 summit, amid rows over online copyright, regulation and human rights.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy kicked off the gathering in Paris, hailing the assembled players as the leaders of the "Internet revolution", but warning that with their power comes great responsibility.

He hailed the role of the Internet in helping protestors organise recent Arab uprisings such as the revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt, but insisted it must be underpinned by "values" and "rules."

And, while acknowledging the net's power as a force for freedom elsewhere, western countries differ on how to harness or curb it on their own doorsteps.

That's right. Western Rulers are looking to "curb" the Internet's "power as a force for freedom ... on their own doorsteps."

What are they afraid of? Simple.

First of all, the Internet has made it increasingly difficult for governments to control the flow of information. Second, the Old Media corporatist donors who run the state organs are losing market share.

Sarkozy woos Web giants, urges state role

French President Nicolas Sarkozy urged Internet leaders gathered in Paris on Tuesday to work with governments and share fairly the benefits of a revolution he compared to the discoveries of Columbus, Galileo and Newton.

Sarkozy, widely mistrusted in the online world ... maintained governments have a role in setting ground rules to limit the abuses and excesses of the Internet, citing in particular privacy and intellectual property, as well as voicing a concern over monopolies forming online.

The debates at the forum, whose conclusions ... pit passionate advocates of two opposing views of the Internet against each other.

One, espoused by Silicon Valley companies such as Google and Twitter as well as many academics, favors a hands-off approach to allow innovation and freedom of information.

The other, embraced by many established media companies, privacy advocates and governments in Europe, favors more regulation to cope with the broad changes to business and society brought on by the web.

News Corp, whose Chief Executive Rupert Murdoch is among the speakers at the forum, has led a movement to stem the flood of free information online by charging readers and viewers for content on the Web.

John Perry Barlow, a founding member of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which campaigns for Internet civil rights, said: "It's about the revenge of the mass media."

Of course this is about revenge. Well, revenge and power.

Let's take a look at how "rules" and regulations play out in the real world.

White House Adds New Position to Deal with Unfavorable Online Media

The White House has named Jesse Lee to a new position within its communications department titled Director of Progressive Media & Online Response. According to The Huffington Post, Lee will essentially be responsible for building up Obama’s online presence as he prepares for his reelection bid, and squashing any negative stories ...

If you’re going to post something online about Obama that isn’t true, Lee is going to be the one to handle you. Considering that Lee’s first tweet about his new position included a picture of The Terminator, we suggest you watch what you say OR BE DESTROYED.

Nice, huh?

Senate debates president's power during cyber-attack

The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee held a hearing on the administration's legislative proposal, announced two weeks ago, that would rely on a pre-World War II radio emergency law to provide the president with authority to protect key computer and communication networks — like those mainly in private hands that run power grids, phone systems and banking services — from a cyber-attack.

At issue is one of the more controversial elements of any new cybersecurity law — what powers the president should have over the Internet in the event of a catastrophic attack on vital U.S. assets.

"Clearly, if something significant were to happen, the American people would expect us to be able to respond and respond appropriately," said Phillip Reitinger, Homeland Security undersecretary for infrastructure protection, during the hearing.

"Different people have different views about how the government ought to be empowered and what the constraints on the government exercise of authorities ought to be," responded Mr. Reitinger, adding he hoped "there would be further discussions" with Congress "to figure out the right set of mechanisms, if any, that were necessary to move forward."

It appears that Internet control will soon be added to the ever-expanding list of Executive Branch powers. Great.

We're slipping down that slippery slope.

Feds Seize 8 More Domains in Piracy Crackdown

The seizures, first reported by TorrentFreak, came as Congress is mulling dramatically increasing the government's legal power to disrupt and shutter websites "dedicated to infringing activities."

The sites seized are:

Re1ease.net

• Watchnewfilms.com
• Dvdcollectionsale.com
• Dvdscollection.com
• Dvdsetsonline.com
• Newstylerolex.com
• Mygolfaccessory.com
• Overbestmall.com

DHS's Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency began seizing the domains last year in a program known as "Operation in Our Sites."

Hey, at least we get to "elect" our own dictator.

G8 Internet Summit and Unfavorable Online Media is a post from: The Classic Liberal Blog

Bolivia has drafted a United Nations treaty giving "Mother Earth" human rights, and also establishes a Ministry of Mother Earth.

That's right. Our favorite big rock hurling through space even gets it's very own ombudsman!

UN document would give 'Mother Earth' same rights as humans

UNITED NATIONS — Bolivia will this month table a draft United Nations treaty giving "Mother Earth" the same rights as humans — having just passed a domestic law that does the same for bugs, trees and all other natural things in the South American country.

The bid aims to have the UN recognize the Earth as a living entity that humans have sought to "dominate and exploit" — to the point that the "well-being and existence of many beings" is now threatened.

That document speaks of the country's natural resources as "blessings," and grants the Earth a series of specific rights that include rights to life, water and clean air; the right to repair livelihoods affected by human activities; and the right to be free from pollution.

It also establishes a Ministry of Mother Earth, and provides the planet with an ombudsman whose job is to hear nature's complaints as voiced by activist and other groups, including the state.

Don't laugh. Remember that the United Nations already has an Office for Outer Space Affairs, complete with a paid physicist in the post of Ambassador to Aliens. I mean, once you're talking to aliens, "rights" for Mother Earth is hardly a stretch.

And nevermind that a rock can't have rights, or that these people believe the silly notion that rights are granted by rulers. Because like, you know, they've got "10 commandments" and stuff. We "need to end capitalism," dontcha know?

In a 2008 pamphlet his entourage distributed at the UN as he attended a summit there, 10 "commandments" are set out as Bolivia's plan to "save the planet" — beginning with the need "to end capitalism."

Reflecting indigenous traditional beliefs, the proposed global treaty says humans have caused "severe destruction . . . that is offensive to the many faiths, wisdom traditions and indigenous cultures for whom Mother Earth is sacred."

It also says that "Mother Earth has the right to exist, to persist and to continue the vital cycles, structures, functions and processes that sustain all human beings."

In indigenous Andean culture, the Earth deity known as Pachamama is the centre of all life, and humans are considered equal to all other entities.

Well, I suppose the "10 commandments" sorta makes sense. After all,

It’s Official: Environmentalism Is the New Religion!

The tenets of the Church of Earthalujah are based on the view that:

…these freak storms and tsunamis and flocks of blackbirds are not a coincidence—it’s the Earth talking to us. The Earth’s physical systems are in revolt.

Their faith is practiced both in church:

Every Sunday we have a devil and a saint, and the holy writ is the Earth. We have sermons and songs. Scientists give talks.

And on the street:

Friends give us soil from mountains that have been strip-mined and we go into bank lobbies like Chase and Union Bank as if we’ve been invited by an art curator and we sculpt dirt peaks and sing, then exorcise the demon out of the ATMs.

Let's see here ...

We've got Gaia the "Earth Goddess," the Earth deity Pachamama, and the Church of Earthalujah. Doesn't this mean then, that all government environmental policies violate separation of church and state?

Tell me again. Why do American taxpayers fund the United Nations?

The lunatics have truly taken over the asylum.

See also:

• Bug huggers
• Tree Huggers Rejoice! UN Treaty Will Give “Mother Earth” Same Rights as Humans…
• Bolivia Passes Law to Make Poverty Permanent
• But it wouldn’t apply in parts of Africa, the Middle East, North Korea, etc.
• UN Environuts Want to Give Mother Earth and Bugs Same Rights as Humans

United Nations: Law of the Rights of ‘Mother Earth’ is a post from: The Classic Liberal Blog