Misadventures In Congressional Capitulation

It’s beginning to appear inevitable that Congressional Democratic leaders are going to screw their constituents — and every other single American — by caving into President Bush’s demands that retroactive immunity be given to telecoms who participated in the illegal spying. That means America will never know the extent of the lawbreaking done by the president, which is what president Bush wanted all along.

Just when you thought Congress was going to do the right thing and stand up to the abuses of the law committed by the president, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Silvestre Reyes went on CNN this past weekend and meekly expressed his willingness to give what he called full ‘blanket immunity’ to telecoms this week. Video of the pathetic interview can be seen on the Crooks and Liars web site.

Not, as noted by Salon News and a few other sites, that it comes as a big surprise. Since Democrats took over Congress a couple years ago, they have done whatever they’re told to do by the White House — putting all the corruption of this administration above the lives and rights of every American citizen.

The Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA) — who represent some of the biggest companies in the computer and communications industry — sent a letter (PDF) to the U.S. House of Representatives protesting retroactive immunity for the telecoms.

After pretending to be concerned with American’s civil liberties and the rule of the law, Congress is once again on the verge of capitulating to the president, showing their lack of political principles. Capitulating to the president could end up having adverse political affects on the Democratic party, especially since Congress has never once stood up to the lawlessness of the Bush administration. More citizens are getting angrier over the wanton display of complicity conducted by Congress and the judicial system in aiding and abetting president Bush.

Why Is Impeachment Off The Table?

Noted by Counter Punch in an article titled ‘The Mukasey Conspiracy – A Bi-Partisan Attack on the Constitution,’ today in America the executive branch can falsely prosecute, frameup, and imprison members of Congress and governors of states at will, but itself cannot be held accountable to law.

Too many times House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has declared impeachment of Bush to be off the table, effectively releasing the Bush administration from any accountability. Not impeaching would effectively throw away Congress’ only remaining authority to prevent the tyrannical rule of the Bush administration, meaning every future president will be above impeachment.

Also noted by Counter Punch:

“The Democrats naively believe that just one more year and the Bush Regime horror will be gone. But that is not the case. No matter who is the next president, the Bush Regime has established that the executive branch is no longer a co-equal branch of government. It is the primary branch, armed with unaccountability and the discretion to consult with other branches of government if it so wishes. The US Congress cannot give up the powers it has given up during the Bush years and ever expect to get them back.

The Bush Regime, with the complicity of Congress and the judiciary, has destroyed the American constitutional system. For the brownshirt Republicans only THE AGENDA is important. Law, Constitution, separation of powers, truth, decency, honor–all of these things and any others in the way of THE AGENDA are dispensable.

The only power the House has left is impeachment, and Pelosi is too frightened to use it. Why is the Speaker of the House afraid to use the power the Constitution gives her to remove from office a president who deceived Congress and the American people, who violated US and international law, and who is a clear and present danger to American liberty, to the US Constitution, and to peace and stability in the world?”

America has a right to know why the House, the Senate and the judicial system have turned America into a lawless democracy while corporately owned media — those owned by News Corp., GE, AOL and Disney to name a few — continues to allow it to happen by ignoring it. Nothing, including the possibility of blackmail by the Bush administration, would come as a surprise given all the other illicit activities of this administration.

It’s time to take a long hard look at Lawmakers and Judges who have no regard for the law, the oaths they swear to or the people they were elected to serve and replace those who have participated in the destruction of Democracy. Contact your Congressperson and tell them how you feel.

Links to More Information

Below are the links used in the information above as well as several other links to and snippets of articles of interest:

House Democratic leadership: not just complicit but also self-destructive article by Glenn Greenwald from Salon News

Potential Deal Could Assure Retroactive Immunity article from Hold Fast Blog

Late Edition: Silvestre Reyes Says The House Is About Ready To Approve Fisa Bill With Immunity article and video from Crooks and Liars

Big Brother Is Listening, Too article from LewRockwell.com

FISA: The Worst of Times article from The Seminal

Bush denying access to “the dustbin of history?” article from Crooks and Liars:

“The Bush administration’s Executive Order 13233 underscores the new fact that presidential legacies, once the domain of academic historians and parlor game aficionados, have become a serious business – so much so that a president has mounted a Kremlinesque campaign to stifle the free dissemination of information. The Bush administration is playing for keeps.

Bush’s Executive Order 13233 could change history – literally – by restricting historians’ access to materials that help them document and ultimately judge a president’s actions, lapses, and principles.

Executive Order 13233 gives ex-presidents nearly unlimited discretionary authority to prohibit the release of their papers, and allows them to name designees who can act in their stead. Moreover, a sitting president may also prevent the release of a predecessor’s papers – as Bush has already done with some of Ronald Reagan’s papers – even when the predecessor has authorized his papers’ release. These are radical encroachments on the public’s access to documents that were produced in the public interest, at public expense, by officials elected by the public. Citizens can challenge these decisions in court, but the expense and time commitment will discourage most people from trying.”

Washington Politicians Are Gutting America Like A Fish article from WhiteHouser.com

FISA Fight: Communications trade group opposed to amnesty article from Daily Kos

Letter (PDF) sent to the members of the U.S. House of Representatives by The Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA) opposing retroactive immunity for the telecoms

The Mukasey Conspiracy – A Bi-Partisan Attack on the Constitution article from Counter Punch

We are Powerless..Or Are We? article from George Washington Blogspot

Contact your Congressperson in the U.S. House of Representatives

Bush: Americans ‘Ought To Say Thank You’ To Telecoms For ‘Performing A Patriotic Service’ article and video from Think Progress

Bush continues pushing for retroactive immunity for ‘patriotic’ telecoms in his usual twisted, delusional way.

Wiretap Compromise in Works article from The Washington Post

McCain Suggests He Won’t Investigate Bush Corruption article and video from The Huffington Post:

There’s a shocker! Maybe it’s because he’s just like Bush and plans to do the same exact thing. It’s a shame what the Republican party has been reduced to.

“I do not agree with your sentiment that there has been widespread corruption. I just don’t accept that. And by the way my friends do you think it would be nice if the President of the United States got a little bit of credit for the fact that there has not been another attack on the United States of America since 9-11? I think he deserves some credit for that. I really do.”

The Gaza Bombshell article from Vanity Fair:

“After failing to anticipate Hamas’s victory over Fatah in the 2006 Palestinian election, the White House cooked up yet another scandalously covert and self-defeating Middle East debacle: part Iran-contra, part Bay of Pigs. With confidential documents, corroborated by outraged former and current U.S. officials, David Rose reveals how President Bush, Condoleezza Rice, and Deputy National-Security Adviser Elliott Abrams backed an armed force under Fatah strongman Muhammad Dahlan, touching off a bloody civil war in Gaza and leaving Hamas stronger than ever.”

More Nuclear Problems at Minot article from In From the Cold Blogspot

Major Tom on “Actionable Fraud” and More article from Election Fraud News

Congressional oversight office at NSA headquarters sits empty article from The Raw Story:

“With lack of requests from Congress, GAO staff would ‘twiddle their thumbs.'”

The dunce article from Salon News:

George Bush was a very bad student. Some things never change:

“His former Harvard Business School professor recalls George W. Bush not just as a terrible student but as spoiled, loutish and a pathological liar.”

Mukasey’s Paradox article from The Los Angeles Times:

“When you think about it, his manipulations are a beautiful, twisted thing.”

Misreading the Surge Threatens U.S. Army’s Conventional Capabilities article from The World Politics Review

Cheney accused of leaking Khadr tape article from Canada.com

The U.S. Military’s Assassination Problem article from Mother Jones

Boyle: Feds Were Behind Anthrax Attacks article from The Free-Market News Network

White House Dodges Anthrax Questions article from Judicial Watch:

“Bush Administration Stonewalls On Production of Documents Concerning Decision to Put Staff on Cipro Beginning September 11, 2001.”

Why we sued the phone company article from The Chicago Tribune

The First Fifteen Minutes of September 11th article from CommunityCurrency.org:

“Within three hours of the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, Robin Hordon knew it was an inside job. He had been an Air Traffic Controller (ATC) for eleven years before Reagan fired him and hundreds of his colleagues after they went on strike in the eighties. Having handled in-flight emergencies and two actual hijackings in his career, he is well qualified to comment on what NORAD should have been able to achieve in its response to the near simultaneous hijacking of four domestic passenger carriers on the morning of September 11th, 2001.

“There had to be something huge to explain why those aircraft weren’t shot down out of the sky. We have fighters on the ready to handle these situations twenty-four-seven. We have NORAD (North American Aerospace Defense Command) monitors monitoring our skies twenty-four-seven. We have a lot of human beings, civilian and military, who care about doing their jobs.”

9/11 Truthers are Nuts! Or are they? Let’s take a look article from TruthNews.us

Tape of Air Traffic Controllers Made on 9/11 Was Destroyed article from The New York Times (2004):

“At least six air traffic controllers who dealt with two of the hijacked airliners on Sept. 11, 2001, made a tape recording a few hours later describing the events, but the tape was destroyed by a supervisor without anyone making a transcript or even listening to it, the Transportation Department said Thursday.

The taping began before noon on Sept. 11 at the New York Air Route Traffic Control Center, in Ronkonkoma, N.Y., where about 16 people met in a basement conference room known as the Bat Cave and passed around a microphone, each recalling his or her version of the events of a few hours earlier. The recording included statements of 5 or 10 minutes each by controllers who had spoken by radio to people on the planes or who had tracked the aircraft on radar, the report said.”

What motivated the 9/11 hijackers? See testimony most didn’t video from YouTube

911 Commission – Trans. Sec Norman Mineta Testimony video from YouTube:

Secretary of Transportation testifying before 9/11 commission that Cheney watched the plane approach the Pentagon from at least 50 miles out.

Leading To War – See where the truth lies – information from LeadingToWar.com

White House guts Intelligence Oversight Board article from Think Progress

Disappearing Act: Rendition by the Numbers article from Mother Jones

Operation Northwoods video from YouTube

Bin Laden Innocent on 9/11 video from YouTube

Straight from the lips of Dick Cheney.

Who has access to your personal data? Everyone-except you article from Scholars and Rogues:

“Last month the Associated Press cast a harsh light on a dark secret of many big public industries–that workers have far  too much access to personal data of customers, and misuse and abuse it accordingly.

Vast computer databases give curious employees the ability to look up sensitive information on people with the click of a mouse. The WE Energies database includes credit and banking information, payment histories, Social Security numbers, addresses, phone numbers, and energy usage. In some cases, it even includes income and medical information. Experts say some companies do little to stop such abuses even though they could lead to identity theft, stalking and other privacy invasions. And companies that uncover violations can keep them quiet because in many cases it is not illegal to snoop, only to use the data for crimes.

This ties in with findings from a new report by Chris Hoofnagle, formerly with the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) and senior fellow for the Berkeley Center for Law and Technology. Hoofnagle analyzed data compiled from the FTC’s consumer fraud complaint list and found that the world’s biggest banks and telecom companies are the largest trouble spots for cases of identity theft and fraud.”

Worker snooping on customer data common article from Yahoo! News / The Associated Press

The USA PATRIOT Act Was Planned Before 9/11 article from TruthOut (2002)

Bush Needs Torture and Terrorism article from OpEdNews

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