Stupid Politics From a Smart Administration
Sunday, November 28, 2010
The most important read of the day...perhaps of the year:
Power and the Tiny Acts of Rebellion
By Chris Hedges
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
Stupid Politics From a Smart Administration
Democrats are in the same business as Republicans: To serve their Corporate Masters.
I suggest that you consider Democrats and Republicans as working on the same side, as tag relay teams (or like siblings competing for parental approval). 'Good cop/bad cop'. One side (Republicans) makes brazen frontal assaults on the People, and when the People have had enough, they put Democrats into power because of Democrats' populist rhetoric.
Once in power, Democrats consolidate Republicans' gains from previous years, and continue on with Republican policies but renamed, with new advertising campaigns. They throw the People a few bones, but once Democrats leave office, we learn that those bones really weren't what We, the People thought they were.
Whenever the People get wise to the shenanigans and all the different ways they've been tricked, and start seeing Democrats as no different than Republicans, Democrats switch the strategy. They invent new reasons for failing to achieve the People's business.
Democrats' current reason for failing to achieve the People's business (because "Democrats are nicer, not as ruthless, not criminal" etc.) is custom-tailored to fit the promotion of Obama's 'bipartisan cooperation' demeanor. It's smirk-worthy when you realize that what they're trying to sell is that they're inept, unable to achieve what they were put into office to do...And their ineptitude,like that's somehow "a good thing".
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
Stupid Politics From a Smart Administration
I've been falling for that old canard and voting for the lesser of two ev!ls (DLC Democrats) since the DLC took over the Democratic Party in the late 1980s. And I was an old liberal then.
I have watched the DLC take the Democratic Party farther to the right each election cycle, promising change & reform, blaming the lack of it on voters for not electing enough Democrats liberals progressives, all the while the party leaders are bankrolling pro-corporate DINOs over true liberals & cooperating with Republicans in Congress.
Never are the party leaders using the bully pulpit of their offices to educate or inform the American people as to the great traditions of liberal Democracy & how the People have prospered under liberal Democrats.
Currently, this DINO of a president has continued just about all of the Bush-Cheney policies & gone Bush-Cheney one better in several areas. Civil rights abuses that Bush & Cheney could only fantasize about, never dare try, Obama's doing.
How does any Democratic voter defend Obama after he asserts he has the right to k!ll any American citizen without due process or oversight? And Obama's 'preventive detention'? And Obama's claims of 'state secrets' to deny courts even look at his a$a$ination program?
You really have to lose that "lesser of two ev!ls" argument because it's not true and it's helping to lull others into a l!e.
About Michael Moore
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
Jeffrey Rosen: TSA Pat-Downs And Body Scans Are Unconstitutional
Why would you try to defend this?
About Airport Security
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
Jeffrey Rosen: TSA Pat-Downs And Body Scans Are Unconstitutional
The scanners aren't safe, and TSA agents don't change latex gloves from search to search (the gloves are for their protection, not yours), risking the spread of lice, chiggers, bedbugs, and diseases like MRSA, sexually-t
As long as you put up with it, it won't be long before you won't be able to fly on an airplane unless you agree to this.
None of what's being done would have stopped any of the b0mbers, nor is it making you any safer here at home on the ground.
About Airport Security
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
Jeffrey Rosen: TSA Pat-Downs And Body Scans Are Unconstitutional
Corporations attempt all kinds of abuses that enable them to make money with no risk, but that doesn't mean that it's legal. That includes airline companies, and unless and until they are stopped through the courts, they get away with it. And as long as you put up with it, it won't be long before you won't be able to fly on an airplane unless you agree to this.
Right now, we have 2 branches of government that are colluding with the airline industry to do just that: To deny some people their Constitutional rights to travel freely (no-fly lists), and to deny other people Constitutional rights to be secure in their persons to travel freely, without restriction. Without probable cause, which does not mean "because some people have done it, it's ok to presume anyone could do it, so we can violate anyone's and everyone's 4th amendment rights".
Congress is passing some really cr@zy ch!t, and the executive branch (TSA) is coming up with some really violative unConstitutional directions
Congress is doing it for a couple of reasons, money being the first reason. After that, members of Congress are relieved that the onus is off them, that you won't throw them out of office for not making you feel safe (notice, you're not any safer, but you just think you are). Members of Congress are relieved that they've bought themselves some time by kicking the can down the road to the Courts. "Let the Courts decide that what we've done is unConstitutional; we're off the hook until then." Very few members of Congress fly commercial, so they aren't subject to these invasions into their privacy and health risks.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
Backbone, Please
Talk of Democratic politicians having no spines are greatly exaggerated, just like Obama's timidity is myth: He's plenty tough when it comes to standing up to the Democratic base.
Democratic voters have mistakenly believed that Obama and Democrats want what they want. The DLC-controlled Democratic Party gives lip service to all populist issues (like civil rights protections, restoring habeas corpus, ending the wars, public healthcare, Wall Street reform, environmental & energy issues, etc.).
If the Bush years taught us anything, it's that anyone can sell anything to Americans, if you're stolid and relentless in your sales pitch and tactics. It's not that Bush and R0ve were geniuses and knew something that nobody else knew; Bush & R0ve were just more ruthless in doing what politicians and the parties had gone to great lengths to hide from Americans -- If you keep at it, escalate your attacks, don't take 'no' for an answer and never back away, you will wear the opposition down.
Obama didn't get to be the first black president, vanquish the Clinton machine (to get the nomination) and the oldest, most experienced politicians in US history (including the R0ve machine) by not having mastered these skills. Nor do Democratic politicians (more incumbents than ever, in office longer) not know how to do it. How do you think Democrats managed to keep impeaching Bush and Cheney off the table, have us still reelecting them and not marching on Washington with torches and pitchforks?
Obama and Democrats know how to do it -- They don't want to do it.
The trick for them has been to keep the many different populist groups believing that they really do support our issues, but they're merely inept. And to get us to keep voting for them despite their failure to achieve our alleged shared objectives.
Getting Democratic voters (and Obama's 'most ardent supporters') to understand that Democratic politicians have been taking us all for suckers and patsies is the most immediate problem and the challenge.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
Stupid Politics From a Smart Administration
Democratic voters have mistakenly believed that Obama and Democrats want what they want. The DLC-controlled Democratic Party gives lip service to all populist issues (like civil rights protections, restoring habeas corpus, ending the wars, public healthcare, Wall Street reform, environmental & energy issues, etc.).
If the Bush years taught us anything, it's that anyone can sell anything to Americans, if you're stolid and relentless in your sales pitch and tactics. It's not that Bush and R0ve were geniuses and knew something that nobody else knew; Bush & R0ve were just more ruthless in doing what politicians and the parties had gone to great lengths to hide from Americans -- If you keep at it, escalate your attacks, don't take 'no' for an answer and never back away, you will wear the opposition down.
Obama didn't get to be the first black president, vanquish the Clinton machine (to get the Democratic Party's nomination) and the oldest, most experienced politicians in US history (including the R0ve machine) by not having mastered these skills. Nor do Democratic politicians (more incumbents than ever, in office longer) not know how to do it. How do you think Democrats managed to keep impeaching Bush and Cheney off the table, have us still reelecting them and not marching on Washington with torches and pitchforks?
Obama and Democrats know how to do it -- They don't want to do it.
The trick for them has been to keep the many different populist groups believing that they really do support our issues, but they're merely inept. And to get us to keep voting for them despite their failure to achieve our alleged shared objectives.
Getting Democratic voters (and Obama's 'most ardent supporters') to understand that Democratic politicians have been taking us all for suckers and patsies is the most immediate problem and the challenge.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
Latino Leaders Quietly Consider Forming 'Tequila Party' Movement
Democratic voters have mistakenly believed that Obama and Democrats want what they want. The DLC-controlled Democratic Party gives lip service to all populist issues (like civil rights protections, restoring habeas corpus, ending the wars, public healthcare, Wall Street reform, environmental & energy issues, etc.).
If the Bush years taught us anything, it's that anyone can sell anything to Americans, if you're stolid and relentless in your sales pitch and tactics. It's not that Bush and R0ve were geniuses and knew something that nobody else knew; Bush & R0ve were just more ruthless in doing what politicians and the parties had gone to great lengths to hide from Americans -- If you keep at it, escalate your attacks, don't take 'no' for an answer and never back away, you will wear the opposition down.
Obama didn't get to be the first black president, vanquish the Clinton machine (to get the Democratic Party's nomination) and the oldest, most experienced politicians in US history (including the R0ve machine) by not having mastered these skills. Nor do Democratic politicians (more incumbents than ever, in office longer) not know how to do it. How do you think Democrats managed to keep impeaching Bush and Cheney off the table, have us still reelecting them and not marching on Washington with torches and pitchforks?
Obama and Democrats know how to do it -- They don't want to do it.
The trick for them has been to keep the many different populist groups believing that they really do support our issues, but they're merely inept. And to get us to keep voting for them despite their failure to achieve our alleged shared objectives.
Getting Democratic voters (and Obama's 'most ardent supporters') to understand that Democratic politicians have been taking us all for suckers and patsies is the most immediate problem and the challenge.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
Lindsey Graham: 'Don't Ask Don't Tell Is Not Going Anywhere'
Democratic voters have mistakenly believed that Obama and Democrats want what they want. The DLC-controlled Democratic Party gives lip service to all populist issues (like civil rights protections, restoring habeas corpus, ending the wars, public healthcare, Wall Street reform, environmental & energy issues, etc.).
If the Bush years taught us anything, it's that anyone can sell anything to Americans, if you're stolid and relentless in your sales pitch and tactics. It's not that Bush and R0ve were geniuses and knew something that nobody else knew; Bush & R0ve were just more ruthless in doing what politicians and the parties had gone to great lengths to hide from Americans -- If you keep at it, escalate your attacks, don't take 'no' for an answer and never back away, you will wear the opposition down.
Obama didn't get to be the first black president, vanquish the Clinton machine (to get the Democratic Party's nomination) and the oldest, most experienced politicians in US history (including the R0ve machine) by not having mastered these skills. Nor do Democratic politicians (more incumbents than ever, in office longer) not know how to do it. How do you think Democrats managed to keep impeaching Bush and Cheney off the table, have us still reelecting them and not marching on Washington with torches and pitchforks?
Obama and Democrats know how to do it -- They don't want to do it.
The trick for them has been to keep the many different populist groups believing that they really do support our issues, but they're merely inept. And to get us to keep voting for them despite their failure to achieve our alleged shared objectives.
Getting Democratic voters (and Obama's 'most ardent supporters') to understand that Democratic politicians have been taking us all for suckers and patsies is the most immediate problem and the challenge.
About Don't Ask Don't Tell
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
Jeffrey Rosen: TSA Pat-Downs And Body Scans Are Unconstitutional
Let me see if I can try to explain this a little better.
Corporations attempt all kinds of abuses that enable them to make money with no risk, but that doesn't mean that it's legal. That includes airline companies, and unless and until they are stopped through the courts, they get away with it.
Right now, we have 2 branches of government that are colluding with the airline industry to do just that: To deny some people their Constitutional rights to travel freely (no-fly lists), and to deny other people what are Constitutional rights to be secure in their persons to travel freely, without restriction. Without probable cause (to suspect that they mean to
Congress is passing some really ch!t, and the executive branch (TSA) is coming up with some really cr@zy unConstitutional directions
Very few members of Congress fly commercial, so they aren't subject to these invasions into their privacy and health risks.
You really have to get a grip. You've destroying America.
About Airport Security
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
Jeffrey Rosen: TSA Pat-Downs And Body Scans Are Unconstitutional
I'm an old liberal Democrat and I know NO others of my kind who support this.
The comment thread that you're responding to is on an article by a liberal law professor.
Why are you making this about the left? Obama is not a liberal, nor was Clinton. This is about a fasc!st government using fear to accomplish its aims of a controlled culture.
About Airport Security
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
Jeffrey Rosen: TSA Pat-Downs And Body Scans Are Unconstitutional
If you're asserting that there were no people protesting the invasive and DANGEROUS TSA searches, you're wrong.
However, people tend to go unconscious, submit rather than cause a scene. We knew that was true from Stanley Milgram's work in the 1960s. Did you know that few J3ws protested going to their deaths in concentration camps, too?
We don't give up your Constitutional rights to get on an airplane.
In modern times, where people's jobs are dependent upon their being able to get from point A to point B in record time, or get home from vacations at a particular time in order to make it back to work on time, plane travel is a *have to*. Even if we didn't have to use planes to get from point A to point B, there is no more fundamental freedom than being able to travel unrestricted without having to produce identification, explain why, or strip down before boarding a vehicle. Not without probable cause.
Right after 9/11 (before, actually, when my family fell victim to an act of t3rr0r), I said that it's very easy for the government to keep Americans safe from terr0r attacks by locking everybody up into controllable quadrants, & by invading all of our privacy & restricting our freedom of movement. We'd all be living like the world was one great big prison (the rich, of course, would be exempt from this, able to fly in private jets & live behind gated communities with private security forces). To do that would have a chilling effect on our very nature & identities as free people.
By law, the government can't do it, nor is it necessary. Anyone running for public office who suggests it or resorts to it is the wrong person for the job. Every generation of this country has faced this sort of challenge and not shredded the Constitution to keep Americans' covenant with their government.
Nothing of the abuses being committed by our government have anything to do with keeping us safe. The reason for the scanners is to bilk taxpayers out of money to pay a manufacturer for these machines. We have these scanners because of a pay-off, a sweetheart deal with former Homeland Security secretary Michael Chertoff, who now has a private security consulting firm and whose client manufactures the scanners.
Scanners wouldn't have caught the "underwear bomber", or any of the other attempted bombers; none of the flights they were on originated in the US and foreign airports don't have scanners. It's about lending the illusion that we're safe, in order that commerce continues.
When are you going to wake up to the truth?
About Airport Security
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
Jeffrey Rosen: TSA Pat-Downs And Body Scans Are Unconstitutional
Actually, Americans ability to freely travel without government restriction is a Constitutional right. Airlines operate in public air space that We, The People own, just as we own the air waves and what can be broadcast over them. We give the airline industry broad or maximum operating freedom, and We The People subsidize the industry because we recognize the role that air travel plays in our economy.
Not only have we paid through the nose to keep airlines afloat, we also passed the Air Transportation Safety and System Stabilization Act in response to a severe liquidity crisis facing the industry in the aftermath of 9/11, i.e., we were the insurer of the airline industry, to keep the planes flying. We compensated airlines for both the cost of the 4-day federal shutdown of the airlines and the incremental losses incurred as a result of the terr0rist attacks.
Why would you possibly defend the airline industry over your own Constitutional rights?
About Airport Security
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
Jeffrey Rosen: TSA Pat-Downs And Body Scans Are Unconstitutional
Actually, airlines do not have any such right. They operate in public air space. We, The People own the air space, just as we own the air waves and what can be broadcast over them. We give the airline industry broad or maximum operating freedom, and We The People subsidize the industry because we recognize the role that air travel plays in our economy.
About Airport Security
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
TSA as a Metaphor
after last Christmas (underwear bomber) the public was screaming for scanners==========
Do you mean former Homeland Security secretary Michael Chertoff? The same Michael Chertoff who now has a private security consulting firm and whose client manufactures the scanners?
Scanners wouldn't have caught the "underwear bomber", or any of the other attempted bombers; none of the flights they were on originated in the US and foreign airports don't have scanners.
Why would anybody defend these people, these devices or these methods?
The scanners aren't safe, and TSA agents don't change latex gloves from search to search (the gloves are for their protection, not yours), risking the spread of lice, chiggers, bedbugs, and diseases like MRSA, sexually-t
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost Read more...
Jeffrey Rosen: TSA Pat-Downs And Body Scans Are Unconstitutional
after last Christmas (underwear bomber) the public was screaming for scanners==========
Do you mean former Homeland Security secretary Michael Chertoff? The same Michael Chertoff who now has a private security consulting firm and whose client manufactures the scanners?
Scanners wouldn't have caught the "underwear bomber", or any of the other attempted bombers; none of the flights they were on originated in the US and foreign airports don't have scanners.
Why would anybody defend these people, these devices or these methods?
The scanners aren't safe, and TSA agents don't change latex gloves from search to search (the gloves are for their protection, not yours), risking the spread of lice, chiggers, bedbugs, and diseases like MRSA, sexually-t
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost Read more...
Jeffrey Rosen: TSA Pat-Downs And Body Scans Are Unconstitutional
after last Christmas (underwear bomber) the public was screaming for scanners==========
Do you mean former Homeland Security secretary Michael Chertoff? The same Michael Chertoff who now has a private security consulting firm and whose client manufactures the scanners?
Scanners wouldn't have caught the "underwear bomber", or any of the other attempted bombers; none of the flights they were on originated in the US and foreign airports don't have scanners.
About Airport Security
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost Read more...
"Politics may be a bargain between beggars, but compromise between good and evil is never possible. God's work does not blend with power or greed. Your moral mortar is corrupt and the walls of your church will crumble and the roof will fall, and you and everyone who worships with you will be crushed. I would sooner live out the rest of my days feeding pigs at the monastery than feeding your ravenous ambition." -Prior Philip to Waleran, Pillars of the Earth
Read more...Jeffrey Rosen: TSA Pat-Downs And Body Scans Are Unconstitutional
No.
The gloves are for the protection of the TSA personnel, not for those they're searching.
About Airport Security
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
Jeffrey Rosen: TSA Pat-Downs And Body Scans Are Unconstitutional
The government gets away with doing this because travelers want to get on the planes and believe that it's just easier to go mentally blank, "lie back and think of England", than object.
Generally, people don't like to make trouble. And in the end, when you don't stand up to power and say, "NO!", the powerful continue taking liberties with you because they can. They know you're a patsy who has no b@//s.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
Jeffrey Rosen: TSA Pat-Downs And Body Scans Are Unconstitutional
Our "boys and girls" are in a war front in Iraq and Afghanistan to pillage on behalf of transnational corporations and the stock dividends got shareholders of energy and defense industry stocks.
These wars have nothing to do with American citizens' security. As a matter of fact, these wars are causing the risks to safety at home.
About Airport Security
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
Jeffrey Rosen: TSA Pat-Downs And Body Scans Are Unconstitutional
But the public seems less opposed to the scanners than civil libertarians had hoped.==========
That's because the public isn't well informed about the health risks that continuing these searches pose:
TSA agents often do not change their latex gloves between pat-downs! With these pat-down reaching into your pants, feeling your genitals, and sweeping bare armpits and buttocks, those latex gloves being worn by the TSA agents are obviously teeming with germs.The article doesn't discuss it, but risk of contracting MRSA (which is spread through contact to the skin) is great from these searches.
And yet TSA agents often don't change gloves between patting down passengers. They're often using the same gloves on you and your crotch as they were using on the previous passenger's exploratory crotch feel.
This means, of course, that the TSA is now engaged in extremely risky behavior that could spread sexually-transmitted disease, cold viruses, skin fungi (such as ringworm), and even contribute to a pandemic outbreak.
So now, while the TSA claims to be protecting your safety, they could actually be infecting you with pandemic disease at the same time.
The scanners are no safer.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost Read more...
Job-Based Health Care Threatened
The poor won't be having Medicaid for much longer.
States are required to share up to 50% of the costs of Medicaid. States are going bankrupt, and as a result, they're cutting Medicaid services, and considering opting out entirely. That will leave citizens of those states who are on Medicaid back to square one, without any medical care.
About Health Care
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
Job-Based Health Care Threatened
"There is no short-term prospect of enactment," former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, a leading Democratic adviser on health care. "However, in a tax reform (and) deficit reducing context in the long term, the prospects are much better," said Daschle. He opposes repealing the tax break by itself, but says he would be "willing to look" at it with other changes that improve access to quality health care while reducing costs.==========
Both Daschle and his wife are lobbyists for and with healthcare-related connections: He serves on the boards of Prime BioSolutions and the Mayo Clinic, among others, and his law firm lobbies for a number of industry clients, including CVS Caremark, the National Association for Home Care and Hospice, Abbott Laboratories and HealthSouth, while her firm lobbies for other healthcare-related corporations.
Why the F is Daschle in any position where he's "willing to look at" what is ultimately government policy?
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost Read more...
U.S. Asks WikiLeaks To Halt Document Release
Then you had better be calling for the heads of those within the US government who refused to work with Wikileaks to mitigate the damage:
Harold Koh, State Department legal advisor, said the publication of some 250,000 secret diplomatic cables by WikiLeaks, which is expected on Sunday, will "place at risk the lives of countless innocent individuals," "place at risk on-going military operations," and "place at risk on-going cooperation between countries."
"They were provided in violation of U.S. law and without regard for the grave consequences of this action," he said. Koh said WikiLeaks should not publish the documents, return them to the U.S. government and destroy any copies it may have in its possession or in computer databases.
Koh also said the U.S. government would not cooperate with WikiLeaks in trying to scrub the cables of information that might put sources and methods of intelligence gathering and diplomatic reporting at risk. He said the U.S government would not deal with WikiLeaks at all in determining what may or may not released.
It's hard to believe that any administration that was seriously concerned about lives being at risk if these documents became public would take such a position. Any responsible administration would do what it could to mitigate the damage that these cables' release might cause.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost Read more...
U.S. Asks WikiLeaks To Halt Document Release
"How do you presume that I'm uninformed exactly?"==========
You open your mouth, and say things like this:
"I happen to realize this is going to hurt alot more people than it helps, But you libs have never really been for helping people anyway, so it dosen't really bother you. You should be ashamed of this."
You're an id!ot.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost Read more...
U.S. Asks WikiLeaks To Halt Document Release
Julian Assange didn't obtain the documents that he's publishing on his Wikileaks' website -- PFC Bradley Manning is suspected of being the source for the documents.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
U.S. Asks WikiLeaks To Halt Document Release
Julian Assange didn't obtain the documents that he's publishing on his Wikileaks' website -- PFC Bradley Manning is suspected of being the source for the documents.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
U.S. Asks WikiLeaks To Halt Document Release
Your analogy is twisted.
What this is more like an abusive spouse using your email account, ordering criminal acts and diss'ing people, then signing your name. And you're now finally getting to see "Why do they hate us?"
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
U.S. Asks WikiLeaks To Halt Document Release
Then you had better be calling for the heads of those within the US government who refused to work with Wikileaks to mitigate the damage:
Harold Koh, State Department legal advisor, said the publication of some 250,000 secret diplomatic cables by WikiLeaks, which is expected on Sunday, will "place at risk the lives of countless innocent individuals," "place at risk on-going military operations," and "place at risk on-going cooperation between countries."
"They were provided in violation of U.S. law and without regard for the grave consequences of this action," he said. Koh said WikiLeaks should not publish the documents, return them to the U.S. government and destroy any copies it may have in its possession or in computer databases.
Koh also said the U.S. government would not cooperate with WikiLeaks in trying to scrub the cables of information that might put sources and methods of intelligence gathering and diplomatic reporting at risk. He said the U.S government would not deal with WikiLeaks at all in determining what may or may not released.
It's hard to believe that any administration that was seriously concerned about lives being at risk if these documents became public would take such a position. Any responsible administration would do what it could to mitigate the damage that these cables' release might cause.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost Read more...
U.S. Asks WikiLeaks To Halt Document Release
No liberal I know, me included, believes that.
What's significant is that in the greatest democracy in history, the nation that holds itself out as the model for all other 'people-determined governments', the secrets are from the 'People'.
You are living proof of what happens from an ig.nor.ant, ill-informed citizenry.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
U.S. Asks WikiLeaks To Halt Document Release
She's no Eleanor Roosevelt.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
U.S. Asks WikiLeaks To Halt Document Release
Harold Koh, State Department legal advisor, said the publication of some 250,000 secret diplomatic cables by WikiLeaks, which is expected on Sunday, will "place at risk the lives of countless innocent individuals," "place at risk on-going military operations," and "place at risk on-going cooperation between countries."==========
"They were provided in violation of U.S. law and without regard for the grave consequences of this action," he said. Koh said WikiLeaks should not publish the documents, return them to the U.S. government and destroy any copies it may have in its possession or in computer databases.
Koh also said the U.S. government would not cooperate with WikiLeaks in trying to scrub the cables of information that might put sources and methods of intelligence gathering and diplomatic reporting at risk. He said the U.S government would not deal with WikiLeaks at all in determining what may or may not released.
In other words, "We're going to eat worms."
It's hard to believe that any administration that was seriously concerned about lives being at risk if these documents became public would take such a position. Any responsible administration would do what it could to mitigate the damage that these cables' release might cause.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost Read more...
Anti-Incumbent Or No, Campaign Cash Was Handled By Old Pros
"Without money, what populist candidates do you think you'd ever hear about? And if you did come to learn about them, how would you know that they weren't stealth candidates? Look at Obama. As stealth as there ever was."
Yes you are right with all the buying of politicians any politician can be a stealth candidate like he is.
The answer remains with the people to do the hard work, but the time is not here yet.
It took almost 30 years from the first World War to the end of the second world war to slow the last movement of fascism. It could go faster this time due to technology but it will not be easy.
==========
With all the electronic toys and the technological advances for communicating, we are no better informed (worse, ironically) than our parents' and grandparents' generations about information directly relevant to our government and elected leaders. For example, I wonder who knows about this?
The very idea that any branch of our government is closed off from public view, and that we allow it (the Supreme Court's refusal to allow cameras in) makes a mockery of 'a people-determined government'.
CSpan needs to be nationalized and all of its channels need to come with basic cable. Ideally, every household should get basic cable services free of charge in the US. No American should have to pay to watch their government in action.
In the meantime, when people ask me, "What can I do?", I say, "If you want to make a difference, and probably in the only way possible these days, support Free Speech TV.
Do it now.
About Elections 2010
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost Read more...
'Decision Points' Review: 'New Yorker' Blasts George Bush Book
I agree. With all the electronic toys and the technological advances for communicating, we are no better informed (worse, ironically) than our parents' and grandparents' generations about information directly relevant to our government and elected leaders. I wonder who knows about this?
When people ask me, "What can I do?", I say, "If you want to make a difference, and probably in the only way possible these days, support Free Speech TV.
Do it now.
About George Bush Book
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
Anti-Incumbent Or No, Campaign Cash Was Handled By Old Pros
Since 80% of the population still has a job there is little hope at this time. We have a senate full of millionaires and billionaires who get on average $10 million / 4 years from just Wall Street.
It requires an act of a united Humanity to overcome this and we are not there yet.
A massive second dip or crisis could be the impetus to get it done.
==========
How would that make any difference?
Seriously.
Without money, what populist candidates do you think you'd ever hear about? And if you did come to learn about them, how would you know that they weren't stealth candidates? Look at Obama. As stealth as there ever was.
I
About Elections 2010
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
Anti-Incumbent Or No, Campaign Cash Was Handled By Old Pros
If we cut off the secret and/or private money we solve much of our problem.==========
How do you propose we do that?
About Elections 2010
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost Read more...
Administration Braces For Setbacks To Health Law
Where does this kind of BS come from?
Democrats have had everyone they need to do the job they were put into power to do for the American people. Such as get affordable, quality medical treatment for everyone & other populist policies made into law.
During the Bush years, Democrats said if the People wanted change, they had to put Democrats in the majority in Congress. So in 2006, we did.
Nothing changed.
NancyPelosi & HarryReid, & all Democrats in leadership positions took tools off the table for fighting BushCheney & beating Republicans back, among which were investigations, public hearings, oversight, forcing members of the Bush administration to testify under oath, and impeachment.
They said, "You have to give us more Democrats -- 60 in the Senate".
In 2008, we did. We gave them 60 for the DemocraticCaucus. And we gave them the WhiteHouse.
Obama came into office with the wind at his back. More people voted for him, a black man in good old r@c!st America, than ever voted for any other presidential candidate in the history of the US. They did it because of his ability to persuade that he was going to change the system, end the corporatocracy, lobbyism in government -- He was going to be the People's president, not a corporate t00I.
And no sooner did Obama get elected than he slammed the brakes on the momentum of his election & a filibuster-proof Senate (tentative yet, with 2 senators, Kennedy & Byrd, at d.e.a.t.h's door), Obama did a 180-degree turn on his promises & sloooooowed everything down. To "work in a bipartisan manner with Republicans", after Republicans had already announced they were going to block everything Democrats wanted to do, vote no on everything, in lockstep.
Obama went mute, & disappeared from public view for the most part during the HCR debate. His political team & machine disbanded the grass roots groups across the nation -- That was a de@d giveaway that the last thing these politicians want is an active populist movement.
Obama uses the bully pulpit to bash the base of the DemocratParty, and only bashed Republicans (and never by name) in the weeks before the midterms. In fact, all Obama's ever gone after is RushLimbaugh and SarahPalin. He puts his power behind moving the DemocraticParty even farther to the right-of-center than it already is, to attract those Republicans who are feeling disenfranchised from the TeaParty faction that's controlling the RepublicanParty. He does everything he can to PREVENT bringing pressure to bear on Republicans & the BlueDogs, beginning with blocking investigations & prosecutions into the crimes of BushCheney.
The only thing keeping us from real reform on all fronts are faux Democrats. It's time to cleanse them, the DLC, from the DemocraticParty. Long past it, actually.
About Health
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Anti-Incumbent Or No, Campaign Cash Was Handled By Old Pros
Yes. It's a catch 22.
About Elections 2010
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Anti-Incumbent Or No, Campaign Cash Was Handled By Old Pros
How does that happen when it's the politicians who are keeping Wall Streeters safe?
About Elections 2010
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Being Pragmatic in Securing Our Homeland
If you have been reading and watching news reports, these scanners wouldn't necessarily have prevented what you're so terr!fied of. There are serious questions about their safety, as well.
The invasive body searches also wouldn't prevent what you're so terr!fied of. The way that they're being perforjed are also not SOP, & aren't being performed correctly. They are NOT how 'pat downs' are supposed to be done, so the persons groping are either s3x offending id-jits or warped, twisted nvtcases practicing their own ideas for catching t3rror!sts. Nothing of what's going on is what we should expect of professional security services in the US. It's as if the Three Stooges took over the Department Of Homeland Security.
But without probable cause, 'pat downs' are illegal.
More importantly are the health risks that continuing these searches pose:
TSA agents often do not change their latex gloves between pat-downs! With these pat-down reaching into your pants, feeling your genitals, and sweeping bare armpits and buttocks, those latex gloves being worn by the TSA agents are obviously teeming with germs.
And yet TSA agents often don't change gloves between patting down passengers. They're often using the same gloves on you and your crotch as they were using on the previous passenger's exploratory crotch feel.
This means, of course, that the TSA is now engaged in extremely risky behavior that could spread sexually-transmitted disease, cold viruses, skin fungi (such as ringworm), and even contribute to a pandemic outbreak.
So now, while the TSA claims to be protecting your safety, they could actually be infecting you with pandemic disease at the same time.
The article doesn't discuss it, but risk of contracting MRSA (which is spread through contact to the skin) is great from these searches.
I really don't know what the h3ll these people are thinking or why we are allowing it.
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Being Pragmatic in Securing Our Homeland
We don't give up your Constitutional rights to get on an airplane.
In modern times, where people's jobs are dependent upon their being able to get from point A to point B in record time, or get home from vacations at a particular time in order to make it back to work on time, plane travel is a *have to*. Even if we didn't have to use planes to get from point A to point B, there is no more fundamental freedom than being able to travel unrestricted without having to produce identification, explain why, or strip down before boarding a vehicle. Not without probable cause.
Right after 9/11 (before, actually, when my family fell victim to an act of t3rr0r), I said that it's very easy for the government to keep Americans safe from terr0r attacks by locking everybody up into controllable quadrants, & by invading all of our privacy & restricting our freedom of movement. We'd all be living like the world was one great big prison (the rich, of course, would be exempt from this, able to fly in private jets & live behind gated communities with private security forces). To do that would have a chilling effect on our very nature & identities as free people.
By law, the government can't do it, nor is it necessary. Anyone running for public office who suggests it or resorts to it is the wrong person for the job. Every generation of this country has faced this sort of challenge and not shredded the Constitution to keep Americans' covenant with their government.
Nothing of the abuses being committed by our government have anything to do with keeping us safe. The reason for the scanners is to bilk taxpayers out of money to pay a manufacturer for these machines. It's about lending the illusion that we're safe, in order that commerce continues.
KEEP READING
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Being Pragmatic in Securing Our Homeland
Most Americans learn the truth about our government & what it does to others in our names the hard way: After losing a loved one through an act of terr0r.
When it happened to my family, I could no longer accept the standard description by talking heads covering these events as "attacks on innocent civilians". Because in a democracy, we are the government. We elect our leaders. We put them into office. What they do to others in other nations, they do with the awesome power of the US military that we have given them.
Our government has overthrown democratically elected governments in other countries and installed dictators who have brutalized & enslaved their people for the benefit of US (and now transnational) corporations. Most Americans live in blissful ig.nor.ance of these facts that are known by others around the world.
I have little doubt that if terr0r!sts could get to our leaders instead of us, they would. But Obama (and Bush-Cheney before him) don't fly commercial. As we're the ones that terr0rists can get to (& since We the People are ultimately the ones, theoretically, with the power in a democratic republic to change the policy & leadership), we become the targets.
The only reason that Bush-Cheney did anything after 9/11 was because of the effect 9/11 had on commerce. If you'll recall, within the first week, Bush told us that what We The People could do was "Go shopping." The purpose of attacking Afghanistan was to lend the illusion to the American people (and foreign nationals traveling to the US) that the US government was doing something about 9/11. As soon as Bush could feasibly do so, he dropped the hunt for Osama Bin Laden and used 9/11 as an opportunity to attack & occupy Iraq, and funnel taxpayers' resources into the pockets of defense contractors.
For those who aren't aware, Tom Carper is a card-carrying member of the DLC (the Republican wing of the Democratic Party); he's as 'Vichy' (collaborative) as it gets. He should be at the top of Democratic voters' 'Retire ASAP'-list (if we want a government that works for the People and not the transnational corporations).
About Airlines
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Iran Nabs Would-Be Hijacker On Plane Carrying Lawmakers
johnrandall The 1953 CIA overthrow of Iran's democratic government is one of the most egregious of America's foreign policy blunders and moral failures. The U.S. and British militarists and oil corporatists put us on the path to hell with that one. Every American should know just a few bits of Iranian-British-US history to get an idea of how we contributed to (or created) the mess in the Middle East. We have done nothing but dig the hole deeper since 1953.
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I don't know why this comment by johnrandall was scrubbed, but as I can see it in my social networking box, I wanted to reply about how few Americans know about this.
About Iran
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