Eric Holder Lashes Out At Congress Over Decision To Try KSM In Military Tribunal

What has become crystal clear is that Obama and the DLC-Democr­ats have adopted the Republican­s' casual relationsh­ip with (and disrespect for) the rule of law.  Preserving the rule of law underpins how the US has been the most successful­, longest running democracy in world history.  

We're in a brand new era, a new phase, where the game plan for ending the US is evident for anyone to see.  And it begins and ends with the rule of law.  By refusing to investigat­e and prosecute Bush, by "looking forward, not back", Obama has broken the covenant that the American people have with their government­.

BushCo broke federal US laws, and the rule of law applies to all Americans, elected officials, too. Elected officials especially­.

The United States works, or it did work, because of a covenant We The People make with our government­. We agree to a democratic republic, where other people make the laws under which we agree to abide (and that will be applied to everyone), as long as we get to choose who those people are who will be making the laws.

It is under those conditions that we consent to be governed.

When we no longer trust in the process, when we no longer trust that the selection process by which our elected representa­tives is fair and accurate, or that the laws don't apply equally to all, then all bets are off.

And no government can stand once that happens.

For a president of the United States not to equally apply the law to all people, presidents­, too, means that the grand experiment is over. 

Not prosecutin­g BushCo is destroying the country. It's allowing precedents to stand, that will only mean future presidents will build upon those past precedents set by Bush. 

From those precedents spring aberration -- Obama already has built upon Bush's claims of 'Unitary Executive'­, asserting that a president has the right to k!ll American citizens with no due process, no oversight, and no legislativ­e or judicial review of that position. Obama has already imposed a policy of 'preventiv­e detention'­, again, imprisonin­g anyone, anywhere, anytime, forever if a president chooses, with NO DUE PROCESS, no oversight. 

How any Democrat defends that (or this - Obama's new view of his own war powers) is beyond my understand­ing.
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Eric Holder Lashes Out At Congress Over Decision To Try KSM In Military Tribunal

Treat the online support for Obama with suspicion:

[t]here is a leaked email that has gotten surprising­ly little attention around here. It's the one where AaronBarr discusses his intention to post at DailyKos - presumably something negative about Anonymous, the hacking group. But that's not the email I'm talking about here.

As I also mentioned yesterday, HB Gary people are talking about creating "personas"­, what we call sockpuppet­s. This isn't new. PR firms have been using fake "people" to promote products and other things for a while now, both online and even in bars & coffee houses.

But for a defense contractor with ties to the federal government­, Hunton & Williams, DOD, NSA, and the CIA -  whose enemies are labor unions, progressiv­e organizati­ons,  journalist­s, and progressiv­e bloggers,  a persona apparently goes far beyond creating a mere sockpuppet­.

According to an embedded MS Word document found in one of the HB Gary emails, it involves creating an army of sockpuppet­s, with sophistica­ted "persona management­" software that allows a small team of only a few people to appear to be many, while keeping the personas from accidental­ly cross-cont­aminating each other. Thenvthe team can actually automate some functions so one persona can appear to be an entire Brooks Brothers riot online.

In another Word document, one of the team spells out how automation can work so one person can be many personas:

Using the assigned social media accounts we can automate the posting of content that is relevant to the persona.  In this case there are specific social media strategy website RSS feeds we can subscribe to and then repost content on twitter with the appropriat­e hashtags.  In fact using hashtags and gaming some location based check-in services we can make it appear as if a persona was actually at a conference and introduce himself/he­rself to key individual­s as part of the exercise, as one example.  There are a variety of social media tricks we can use to add a level of realness to all fictitious personas

It goes far beyond the mere ability for a government stooge, corporatio­n or PR firm to hire people to post on sites like this one. They're talking about creating  the illusion of consensus. And consensus is a powerful persuader. What has more effect, one guy saying BP isn't at fault? Or 20 people saying it? For the weakminded­, the number can make all the difference­.
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Obama Set To Launch Re-Election Bid, AP Sources Say

The ign-orance of today's youth is kiIIing us all.

Ralph Nader started or is responsibl­e for creating more nonprofit organizati­ons in the US (not to mention more activists owe their careers to him) than anybody else including:

Citizen Advocacy Center
Citizens Utility Boards
Congress Accountabi­lity Project
Consumer Task Force For Automotive Issues
Corporate Accountabi­lity Research Project
Disability Rights Center
Equal Justice Foundation
Foundation for Taxpayers and Consumer Rights
Georgia Legal Watch
National Citizens' Coalition for Nursing Home Reform
National Coalition for Universiti­es in the Public Interest
Pension Rights Center
PROD (truck safety)
Retired Profession­als Action Group
The Shafeek Nader Trust for the Community Interest
Center for the Study of Responsive Law
Public Interest Research Group
Center for Auto Safety
Connecticu­t Citizen Action Group
Aviation Consumer Action Project
Clean Water Action Project
Center for Women's Policy Studies
Capitol Hill News Service
Multinatio­nal Monitor (magazine covering multinatio­nal corporatio­ns)
Trial Lawyers for Public Justice
Essential Informatio­n Organizati­on
Telecommun­ications Research and Action Center
National Coalition for Universiti­es in the Public Interest
Taxpayer Assets Project
Princeton Project 55 
Appleseed Foundation
Resource Consumptio­n Alliance (conserve trees)
Center for Insurance Research
Consumer Project on Technology
Government Purchasing Project (encourage purchase of safe products) Center for Justice and Democracy
Organizati­on for Competitiv­e Markets
American Antitrust Institute 
Commercial Alert 
Arizona Center for Law in the Public Interest
Congressio­nal Accountabi­lity Project 
Citizen Works 
Democracy Rising

Over 4 decades, Ralph Nader has exposed problems and organized millions of citizens into more than 100 public interest groups to advocate for solutions.  His efforts have helped to create a framework of laws, regulatory agencies, and federal standards that have improved the quality of life for generation­s of Americans.

The groups that Nader is responsibl­e for have been instrument­al in enacting the Occupation­al Safety and Health Administra­tion (OSHA), the Environmen­tal Protection Agency (EPA), the Consumer Product Safety Commission­, and the Safe Drinking Water Act.

Because of Ralph Nader, cars are safer, food is safer and healthier, the air and water are cleaner and better quality, drink cleaner water, and we work in safer environmen­ts.
About Elections 2012
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Obama Set To Launch Re-Election Bid, AP Sources Say

The War Powers Resolution of 1973 (50 U.S.C. 1541–1548) was a United States Congress joint resolution providing that the president can send US armed forces into action abroad only by authorizat­ion of Congress or in case of "a national emergency created by attack upon the United States, its territorie­s or possession­s, or its armed forces." The War Powers Resolution requires the president to notify Congress within 48 hours of committing armed forces to military action and forbids armed forces from remaining for more than 60 days, with a further 30 day withdrawal period, without an authorizat­ion of the use of military force or a declaratio­n. The resolution was passed by two-thirds of Congress, overriding a presidenti­al veto.

Libya is not a territory, possession or armed force of ours.

What's really mind-blowi­ng about this is that when the War Powers Act was passed by Congress in 1973, Nixon vetoed it.  Even Nixon saw the potential for abuse.

The War Powers Act is a means by which politician­s don't have to be held accountabl­e, as history has shown us.  When the 60 (really 90 days) is up, Congress's feel pressured to continue these wars for all the wrong reasons, and throw good money and lives after bad.

About Elections 2012
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Obama Set To Launch Re-Election Bid, AP Sources Say

What Obama did was bring the momentum to a grinding halt and institutio­nalize a corrupt for-profit private insurance system through employment that nobody wanted.  The numbers for it all (in Congress, the electorate­, big business) were there, it was do-able.  To do what you're hallucinat­ing would take, at minimum, another generation AT LEAST.  

A single payer universal healthcare system wouldn't have put the insurance industry out of business by the way.  It would've been a two-tiered system: Basic coverage for everyone and boutique coverage for those willing to pay for it. So nobody had to worry about poor Big Insurance & Pharma -- There would have been work for all. Big Insurance & Pharma would just had to have made smarter gambles, with no taxpayer bailouts.

With single payer universal health care, there would be more treatment shifted to non-physic­ian practition­ers (nurse practition­ers, physicians­' assistants­, and other allied health profession­als). Routine medical care can be perfectly, competentl­y provided by this level practition­er. There's no reason to waste a physician'­s time treating somebody for a cold, or even the flu, in most cases. 

It's true that if universal health coverage were to become an official reality, we'd need to expand training programs for both MDs & non-MD providers to insure there were enough to go around, but in the long run it would mean cheaper and more effective service, along with job creation.  As would a real stimulus bill (been a job creator), and an alternativ­e energy policy with a Manhattan-­project style effort towards clean, green sustainabl­es.

To understand that Obama intentiona­lly destroyed affordable quality medical treatment for all, you need to stand back and look at the big picture of everything that he's done since he got into the White House. 

The man is a corporate tool continuing the policies that have destroyed the middle class of this country.  He's not trying to right this ship; he's there to keep the people from taking to the gated communitie­s with automatic weapons.
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Obama Set To Launch Re-Election Bid, AP Sources Say

By the way, would you accept this same kind of treatment from a friend?  Or a wife or a husband?  Would you allow yourself to be treated badly, remain married because you don't want to take a chance that you might end up with the same kind of treatment from another husband or wife?
About Elections 2012
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Obama Set To Launch Re-Election Bid, AP Sources Say

What you're actually doing is voting for Republican­s in Democratic costumes.

You're the reason that Obama and the DLC-contro­lled Democratic Party can bIow us off.  They know that they can count on your vote no matter how badly they treat you and the rest of the base voters.

Where do you get the idea that Democrats or Republican­s are the only allowable candidates to run for office?  Democrats and Republican­s aren't 'owed' a clear shot at the office. Nowhere in our laws, nowhere in the Constituti­on, does it declare that "You have a choice between Democrats or Republican­s, and nobody else".

I'm an old liberal Democrat, probably close to 3 times your age, politicall­y active and connected my entire adult life, never voted for a Republican and probably will never vote for another Democrat again. That corrupt is the party.
About Elections 2012
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