We've all heard the phrase, usually uttered with a sneer of disdain or condescension, "Conspiracy Theorist."

It crops up wherever someone points out that something doesn't seem right, usually with our government. Too many things look suspicious; too many things don't add up. But unless there is solid evidence, the so-called "smoking gun," the 'someone' who has unearthed the disturbing information is promptly labeled as a nutcase, always looking for wrongdoing where none exists.

But what if the theories are real? What if the person exposing them is a highly respected career investigative reporter? What if, as it turns out, there really is collusion behind the scenes, say between the two political parties that claim to be at odds with each other? What if there really are big money interests behind both parties, and our system of government has become a sham, using trillions of tax dollars to pad the bloated, overstuffed pockets of a handful of elitists while everyone else struggles?

What if Washington really is a modern day Sodom and Gomorrah where an incestuous mélange of public officials, lobbyists, bureaucrats and yes, even the media, are lined up at the public feeding trough and spend entire careers manipulating and expanding both the sources of tax dollars, and their share?

Washington, D.C., based journalist and lawyer Andrew Kreig, in his just released book Presidential Puppetry, Obama, Romney and Their Masters, brings to light story after story of insider manipulation and corruption in the nation's capital and elsewhere, but contrary to the often dismissed conspiracy theories, he does it with facts, hundreds of them.

Kreig applies the lessons learned through a distinguished career as investigative journalist, making sure that every single scandal he exposes is documented. Kreig makes extensive use of both 'on-the-record' witnesses, and painstakingly cataloged footnotes often referring to previously published reports that received scant attention from the "mainstream media," at the time of original publication.

For instance, while much of Presidential Puppetry is focused, as the title suggests, on Mitt Romney's presidential bid, Kreig also asserts that President Barack Obama has far more in common with former President George Bush – both of them – than differences. The common thread is the nation's intelligence community, which shockingly, Kreig notes, knew of and had dealings with Obama decades before he emerged on the national political scene.

For instance, Kreig reports that Obama worked at Business International Corporation, which gave Obama his first job "after his 1983 graduation with a bachelor's degree from Columbia University." Kreig writes that BIC had been exposed several years earlier as a CIA front company but adds, "the most striking aspect is how few in the media or anywhere else even dare to ask questions publicly abut Obama's former employer …"

Similarly, while Kreig dismisses the "birther" claims that Obama was born outside the US, there is significant evidence that Obama's mother renounced his US citizenship in the late 1960s when she moved to Indonesia to join her second husband, Obama's stepfather. The rationale behind this claim is that Obama could benefit from attending Muslim schools, which required that he be a citizen of Indonesia, and not hold dual citizenship.

Apparently, political operatives believed it would be easier to deny birther claims, than to explain how and when Obama's US citizenship was restored.

Kreig also reports extensively on members of past administrations and how they are still connected to the current administration, and how those connections are not necessarily beneficial to the general public.

Among the themes Kreig gives particular attention is the under-the-radar scandal involving vote counting hardware and software. Kreig writes that Karl Rove, former chief of staff for President George Bush is at the center of the vote-counting industry. Kreig avers that Rove has amassed a vote-counting "empire" that can alter the outcome of any election from local to national.

Rove isn't the only national figure with vote counting connections in his resume. Prior to entering politics Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel was CEO of American Information Systems, a vote-counting firm which had tabulated votes in Nebraska elections and elsewhere. Hagel became Nebraska's senator after his 1996 upset victory in the state's GOP Senate primary, and then defeating Democrat Ben Nelson, who was heavily favored. Both victories came in elections using machines from AIS, which Hagel left shortly before announcing his candidacy, Kreig reports.

Another subject of interest is closeness of relationships between government officials, bureaucrats and the media. Presidential Puppetry is replete with instances of spouses who work both sides of the fence, either in the media, as bureaucrats or office holders, all making money off the public trough, and often influencing where taxpayer dollars go.

For serious students of government excess, spanning a century from the administration of Woodrow Wilson to the president day, Kreig has compiled a comprehensive collection of evidence pointing out that the US government – or more accurately, those who comprise the US Government, do not always work in the best interests of the country.

And while some may dismiss Presidential Puppetry as just another "conspiracy theory," it again should be stressed, Kreig has meticulously sourced the entire book, involving dozens, if not hundreds of verifiable sources. And it should also be pointed out, that the legal definition of a conspiracy requires only two participants – far more than can be found living, working and yes, conspiring, inside the DC Beltway.

PRESIDENTIAL PUPPETRY OBAMA, ROMNEY, AND THEIR MASTERS 

© 2013 By Andrew Kreig

Publisher: Eagle View Books

ISBN: 978-0-9886728-1-9

www.presidentialpuppetry.com