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This has got to be the final straw! We have absolutely NO say in what happens in this country! All of our "leaders" have sold their souls to the big corporate interest that run and have been running this country for a long time now. Almost 60 years now according to Rockefeller:“We are grateful to the Washington Post, The New York Times, Time Magazine and other great publications whose directors have attended our meetings and respected their promises of discretion for almost forty years. It would have been impossible for us to develop our plan for the world if we had been subjected to the lights of publicity during those years. But, the world is now more sophisticated and prepared to march towards a world government. The supranational sovereignty of an intellectual elite and world bankers is surely preferable to the national auto-determination practiced in past centuries.” - David Rockefeller at Bilderberg Meeting… Baden-Baden, Germany 1991
FUCK YOU ROCKEFELLER! I would rather die than to have some ignorant, in-bred pussy like you telling me how I should live! Now they are not even trying to hide the fact that they are subverting the Constitution and the will of the people to put their new slavery system into effect. If you don't know by now you should really be ashamed, but the House passed the new FISA bill which gives the Telecoms who participated in the BCS wiretapping scheme well before 911 blanket immunity against all lawsuits and even expands the "spying on American citizens provisions. " From Crooks & Liars:
By: John Amato @ 10:20 AM - PDTThe vote just went down. As expected, the House passed the disgraceful Steny Hoyer led capitulation bill passed 293-129 I believe…It now goes to the Senate to debate next week.
What this bill means to the Telecoms: The lawsuits they face could be dismissed by a court if the Telecoms proved that they had received directives from the administration that said warrantless wiretapping was legal. They already have that evidence so basically they have been give immunity against all lawsuits with this bill. MORE!
I knew I made the right decision when I voted against Hoyer the last time he was up for re-election and from this day forward I will be doing everything in my meager power to try to get him on the unemployment rolls along with all of the other Democrats that have sold out to the MIC (Military Industrial Complex), the Corporate Media and the BCS (Bush Crime Syndicate)!
Where the Hell is the new Democratic leader on all of this?! Barack is supposed to be about change but he has kept real quiet on this issue, guess he just wants to change the drapes and furniture in the WH! I can't say I blame him, if I was the new president to be I would want all the new executive powers and law breaking ability the Shrub has too...However I recently came across this and it is rather disturbing. From Unqualified Offerings:
***UPDATE: From Crooks & Liars:June 19, 2008
The Odd Assity of Hope
I agree with my man Thoreau that telecom immunity is a genuine test of Barack Obama’s bona fides on civil liberties. It’s also a genuine test of the liberal side of any liberal-libertarian fusionism.
I think it’s very possibly a test that Obama has already failed. I have a sneaking suspicion that, as the de facto leader of the Democratic Party, Obama could have kept the bill from getting even this far with a quiet word or two. Nothing stopped him from dragging Steny Hoyer and Harry Reid into the same corner where he buttonholed Joe Lieberman. If the House and Senate leadership really did sneak the bill past him last week, which I’m not inclined to believe, still nothing stopped him from shutting them down this week. Except if he either doesn’t consider it important enough to be worth his time and credibility, or if he’s just as happy that the measure might pass. MORE!
UPDATED 1: Obama has come out with a statement via Glenn Greenwald:
Given the grave threats that we face, our national security agencies must have the capability to gather intelligence and track down terrorists before they strike, while respecting the rule of law and the privacy and civil liberties of the American people. . . .
After months of negotiation, the House today passed a compromise that, while far from perfect, is a marked improvement over last year’s Protect America Act. . . It does, however, grant retroactive immunity, and I will work in the Senate to remove this provision so that we can seek full accountability for past offenses.
It is not all that I would want. But given the legitimate threats we face, providing effective intelligence collection tools with appropriate safeguards is too important to delay. So I support the compromise, but do so with a firm pledge that as President, I will carefully monitor the program, review the report by the Inspectors General, and work with the Congress to take any additional steps I deem necessary to protect the lives -– and the liberty –- of the American people.
He says he will work to remove amnesty from the bill, but once that fails, will vote for the “compromise.” Obama has obviously calculated that sacrificing the rule of law and the Fourth Amendment is a worthwhile price to pay to bolster his standing a tiny bit in a couple of swing states. The full Obama statement is here.
UPDATED 2: Digby says:
Roy Blunt and Steny Hoyer are practically tongue kissing on the floor right now and congratulating each other on their mutual fabulousness in negotiating the rape of the constitution this morning. It’s quite a love fest. MORE!
Barack could have killed this bill and didn't! I guess that change he was talking about is in his pockets! SMGDH! Some are calling this a compromise, but there was no compromise at all as Russ Feingold notes, “The proposed FISA deal is not a compromise; it is a capitulation." From Crooks & Liars:
By: John Amato @ 9:00 AM - PDT
Jonathan Turley comes on KO once again to blast the umpteenth version of the
compromiseFISA bill that is being shoved down our throats. This time the Hoyer/FISA rollover bill is attached to the new GI Bill and extending unemployment benefits bill. Please don’t forget to chip into our FISA Actblue page so we can take a stand against all atempts at subverting our rights. Anyway, it’s being debated today so we’ll let you know what happens.Turley: They repeatedly tried to cave it in to the White House only to be stopped by civil libertarians and bloggers and each time they would put it on the shelf, wait a few months, they did this before, reintroduced it with Jay Rockefeller’s support and then there was another great dust up and they pulled it back. I think they’re simply waiting to see if public’s interest will wain and we’ll see that tomorrow because this bill has no quite literally public value for citizens or civil liberties. It is reverse engineering. Th type of thing the Bush administration is famous for and now the Democrats are doing. That is to change the law to conform to past conduct. It’s what any criminal would love to do.
As usual Russ Feingold isn’t happy.
“The proposed FISA deal is not a compromise; it is a capitulation. The House and Senate should not be taking up this bill, which effectively guarantees immunity for telecom companies alleged to have participated in the President’s illegal program, and which fails to protect the privacy of law-abiding Americans at home. MORE!
I know I will be canceling my Verizon cell phone account because I will not pay those criminal corporate f*cks to spy on me and my phone calls! That is where we can get them back at it is the only way we can make them pay apparently. Everyone should cancel their accounts with them since the only thing they care about is making more money and trampling the people's rights.
This issue really has me pissed off, because we voted the Dem majority in 2006 to stop this type of bullshit and they are the ones who have made it all possible for this madness to continue, from taking Impeachment off the table to this latest soul sale on FISA! Time for revolution is coming fast folks I hope your prepared! I need to move on...
Seems our man "Beam Me Up Scotty" made it to his congressional hearing unscathed, physically that is and while he wouldn't come out and just SAY IT he did leave some doubt as to whether this whole issue has been fully disclosed. From McClatchyDC:
McClellan: White House still avoids scrutiny in Plame affair
By David Lightman | McClatchy Newspapers
WASHINGTON — Former White House press secretary Scott McClellan says he has little if anything new to say about the Valerie Plame affair and the White House role in the matter.
"I do not know whether a crime was committed by any of the administration officials who revealed Valerie Plame's identity to reporters," McClellan told the House Judiciary Committee Friday morning. Plame, a former CIA agent, had her identity revealed by administration officials--the committee wants to know if President Bush or Vice President Cheney were involved.
MCClellan would not say. "Nor do I know if there was an attempt by any person or persons to engage in a cover up during the investigation," he says. "I do know that it was wrong to reveal her identity, because it compromised the effectiveness of a covert official for political reasons."
He left open the notion that the full story is not yet known, though. MORE!
Still there is nothing ground breaking in Scotty's testimony, we already knew the things he is hinting at. What's next?!
U.S. says exercise by Israel seemed directed at Iran
WASHINGTON: Israel carried out a major military exercise earlier this month that American officials say appeared to be a rehearsal for a potential bombing attack on Iran's nuclear facilities.
Several American officials said the Israeli exercise appeared to be an effort to develop the military's capacity to carry out long-range strikes and to demonstrate the seriousness with which Israel views Iran's nuclear program.
More than 100 Israeli F-16 and F-15 fighters participated in the maneuvers, which were carried out over the eastern Mediterranean and over Greece during the first week of June, American officials said.
The exercise also included Israeli helicopters that could be used to rescue downed pilots. The helicopters and refueling tankers flew more than 900 miles, which is about the same distance between Israel and Iran's uranium enrichment plant at Natanz, American officials said.
Israeli officials declined to discuss the details of the exercise. A spokesman for the Israeli military would say only that the country's air force "regularly trains for various missions in order to confront and meet the challenges posed by the threats facing Israel."
But the scope of the Israeli exercise virtually guaranteed that it would be noticed by American and other foreign intelligence agencies. A senior Pentagon official who has been briefed on the exercise, and who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the political delicacy of the matter, said the exercise appeared to serve multiple purposes.
One Israeli goal, the Pentagon official said, was to practice flight tactics, aerial refueling and all other details of a possible strike against Iran's nuclear installations and its long-range conventional missiles.
A second, the official said, was to send a clear message to the United States and other countries that Israel was prepared to act militarily if diplomatic efforts to stop Iran from producing bomb-grade uranium continued to falter.
"They wanted us to know, they wanted the Europeans to know, and they wanted the Iranians to know," the Pentagon official said. "There's a lot of signaling going on at different levels." MORE!
I am going to cut this weeks (C)Wrap-Up real short this week because I am really tired and my head is hurting from caffeine withdrawals not to mention the latest bullshit from the Corporate Congress...I do want to leave you with this little reader submit (edited) from Cafe Talk over at the Muckraker:
...Incensed, the young college student immediately retorted, "What, so you're equating my Grade Point Average, an objective assessment of my effort and abilities within the context of a college curriculum, with actual material wealth and property? You're saying that my straight A average is the academic equivalent of your vastly swollen bankbook? Is that it?"Now, there are people... and mind you, I know 'em... who would take enormous umbrage at this characterization of every hard working Republican as basically being inherently corrupt scions of privilege who started out with huge advantages due to the circumstances of their births, and who
"Of course," the conservative father said, nodding smugly. "It's exactly the same. Remember how you insisted on not taking a dime from me because you wanted to get through college on your own? You worked hard for scholarships and got a work study job and studied hard for your grades and resent the idea that someone who hasn't done the same amount of work as you do should get a free ride on your superior talents and greater effort. Well, I've worked hard for the
success I enjoy, and like all decent, right thinking, hard working men and women everywhere, I think it's just crazy that I should be expected to give up part of my just earnings to support those who are too lazy to go out and make the same effort to do as well as I have!"
The daughter raised her eyebrows. "Dad, you honestly see no difference between your status in life at the present time and mine? You think they are exactly equitable?"
"Exactly," her father said with assurance. "You've worked hard to get where you are, I've worked hard to get where I am. You deserve your success and I deserve mine. No freeloaders need apply for handouts around here. If your friend Audrey wants a 4.0, she can get off her lazy ass and work for it, just like you did."
"I see," the young woman said. "And similarly, if that homeless man living in a cardboard box in the alley behind the supermarket wants to own his own business like you do, well, he can
build a time machine out of old tin cans, travel back to before he was born, and arrange for his mother to marry someone with a million dollar athletic shoe company, so he can start out there as a Vice President when he's 25 and assume control of the whole thing when his dad retires!"
"Wait," the father began to bluster. "That's not...young lady, I worked hard... my grades in college...I graduated near the top of my class...I went to the Harvard School of Business...my management skills when I came into this firm saved us hundreds of thousands of dollars the first year I was here..."
"Daddy," the daughter said, more or less patiently, "you got into Harvard because grampa bought them a new library, and they didn't throw you out when you kept getting drunk and high in your fraternity because grampa bought them three new dorms and a new gymnasium with a pool. You got high grades in most of your classes because you picked really easy classes and hired smart but poor kids to write your papers and take your exams for you. You saved hundreds of thousands of dollars for grampa's shoe company your first year by firing all your American workers and replacing them with kids from Indonesia who did just as good a job for 12 cents an hour."
"But," her father tried to say. His daughter was having none of it; she went on relentlessly, "Daddy, there is no comparison between the way I earn my grades and the way you've 'earned' your success in life. I got into a good school based only on my own grades and SATs, which I got the hard way, by working. I pay my own tuition. I get all A's in college because I work my ass off. Remember how you offered to get me into Harvard by endowing some new faculty lounge for them? That's how you do things. I didn't need you to do that for me; I got into my school fair and square. And where you do things like send your hot new 25 year old trophy wife to sleep with Senators for government contracts, then sell shoes to the military for $2,000 a pair that cost you $1.50 each because they're put together in a South Korean sweatshop and made out of pressed cardboard, I actually study and actually turn in my work and actually get perfect scores on my exams because I'm smart and I work hard."
The girl's father looked up alertly as that. "Say, hon, speaking of sleeping with Senators for government contracts, you don't look so bad in a black cocktail dress yourself. I was wondering..."
The young woman flashed her father a furious glare which stopped him dead. She took a
breath, then went on, "Plus, I can't understand why you get so pissy about so called 'high taxes on the wealthy' anyway, when you pay your accountant six figures a year to make sure most of your real income and property go through offshore accounts and you end up paying less income tax than a public school teacher!"
"It... I..." the father looked baffled for a moment -- then shrugged and spread his hands. "Honey,that's just how the real world works. Some day you'll understand." "I understand now, dad," she said. "I understand that your wealth and success and social status all derive from the labor of other people who work for you, whom you pay as little as you possibly can to maximize your own profits. I understand that you cheat, steal, lie, bribe, exploit, and connive at every opportunity to maximize your own assets at the expense of everyone around you. I understand this very well, because I hacked your computer last weekend and have all of this on disc and in hard copy, and I've already sent it all over to the IRS and the FBI, and I think I passed a couple of guys with warrants on my way up to your office today. They should be knocking on your door any second now."
The father's eyes went wide. "What? What? Well...well, that's ridiculous! It's not fair! I have rights! That's an illegal search! You've invaded my privacy!"
The wise... far too wise... daughter sighed. "Yeah, dad. Welcome to the Democratic Party."
have employed any means, fair or foul, to advance their own personal agenda and maintain and increase their own personal wealth ever since.
Here's what I say to that : there may well be honest, hard working Republicans in America. However, when the leadership of the Republican party is indeed, and inarguably, almost entirely comprised of inherently corrupt scions of privilege who started out with huge advantages due to the circumstances of their birth and who have employed any means, fair or foul, to advance their own personal agendas and maintain and increase their own personal wealth for their entire
adult lives and throughout their careers in so called 'public service'... well... the honest, hard working Republicans, whoever they may be and wherever the hell they may be hiding, are just going to have to sit down and shut up for a while. I have no sympathy.
If there are conservatives or Republicans out there who aren't corrupt, venal, evil, hypocritical sonsofbitches -- they need to stop voting for the corrupt, venal, evil, hypocritical sonsofbitches.
It's as simple as that. By Doc Nebula
I hope you all have a great weekend in spite of the Corporate Congress and silent democratic presidential nominee on FISA! The fight is not over yet it still has to go to the Senate but it doesn't look good. We need to seriously start to consider boycotting Verizon, AT&T and the Corporate Congress Critters that have sold us out yet again!
The Revolution Is Near!
10-acious_D
The New Defenders Against Democratic Fuckery!
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