Monthly Archives: May 2008

Our Troops Deserve Better Than This

Since the beginning of the ‘Iraq War,’ President Bush has said he supports the troops. His actions though, have repeatedly shown a completely different story. Below are a few examples of Bush’s support — soldiers being prevented from leaving the service, multiple tours of extended duty, affects of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), inefficient care for the badly wounded, being poisoned by the military to name a few — and how it has affected our Iraq and Afghanistan veterans and the rest of us.

Since the invasion of Iraq, despite the declaration of “mission accomplished” amongst highly choreographed fanfare, Bush has never had a plan for pulling out of Iraq. His war appears to have been intentionally designed to make sure it never ended so the illegal occupation of Iraq would continue indefinitely.

A series of calculated lies and phony (and illegal) military propaganda was utilized by the Bush administration to gain support — while brazenly spreading more lies and misinformation to continue support — of a war with Iraq. Defense contractors, mercenaries and other companies such as Halliburton have continued getting wealthier while Americans, Iraqis and our troops have continued paying high prices.

President Bush and the G.I. Bill

A recent editorial from The New York Times explains how President Bush opposes a new G.I. Bill of Rights that would pay college tuition for veterans who served four years, worrying that if the traditional path to college for service members since World War II is improved and expanded, too many people will take it and leave the service.

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Perilous Pitfalls of Secret Government

An article by Christopher Ketcham, originally published in Radar Magazine, details information about a database of 8 million Americans targeted for detention in case of a declared national emergency. Dubbed “Main Core,” the database began in the 1980s when the Reagan administration began its “Continuity of Government” planning — which was unconstitutionally perfected to suit the needs of the Bush administration by illicitly removing the system of checks and balances of the legislative and judicial branches of the U.S. government — conveniently implemented after the attacks of 9/11 and remaining in effect today. Several examples of the damage caused by the illicit shadow government of the Bush administration can be found below.

‘MAIN CORE’ caused mutiny in the Bush administration when then Attorney General John Ashcroft and his deputy James Comey objected to the program on Constitutional grounds which led to a dramatic confrontation between Ashcroft and Comey on one side and Alberto Gonzales and Andrew Card on the other while Ashcroft laid ill in an intensive care unit.

A senior government official who served with high-level security clearances in five administrations says a database (Main Core) exists of Americans, who, often for the slightest and most trivial reason, are considered unfriendly, and who, in a time of panic, might be incarcerated. 8 million Americans are now listed in Main Core as potentially suspect. In the event of an emergency, these people could be subject to everything from heightened surveillance and tracking to direct questioning and detention.

The government uses software that makes predictive judgments of targets’ behavior and tracks their circle of associations with “social network analysis” and artificial intelligence modeling tools. Data used to make these ‘predictions’ include financial information from banks, credit card companies and credit agencies, illegal wiretapping and e-mail surveillance, and data gathered from ISPs and cell phone companies.

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FISA Surveillance Compromise Circulating

Negotiations between Democratic House Leaders and their Senate counterparts on a new surveillance bill seem to have concluded. The immunity issue demanded by President Bush is still unresolved. Congress would like to get the bill resolved before their Memorial day break.

House Democratic leaders have a bad history of capitulation problems. House Speaker Pelosi has said repeatedly that impeachment is off the table and there is a nasty rumor going around regarding her capitulating again, possibly pushing (quietly) for retroactive immunity. Madam Speaker needs to think about the consequences of caving into the Bush administration again — enough people are paying attention to make sure certain Congress persons are replaced at election time. This country has had enough already.

There are those in Congress who have gone out of their way to make sure the Bush administration could roll along void of any law or oversight — possibly believing the Bush administration is above the law — who are just as guilty those they complicitly allow to destroy Democracy.

Either way, giving immunity to those corporations who illicitly aided the Bush administration would be a bad mistake. Between the lines below is a short article from the Electronic Frontier Foundation regarding Republican leader John Boehner and below the article are a few links to more information regarding the ongoing FISA update battle.

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The Terrorization of America

An article from the Washington Post details how the “war on terror” has created a culture of fear in America — a three-word mantra that has undermined America since the attacks of 9/11, which were preventable and are still shrouded by unanswered questions — and had a pernicious impact on American democracy, America’s psyche and on U.S. standing in the world.

With the usual stupidity and corruption that we’ve all grown to know and loathe since he was illicitly appointed to the presidency in 2000, the ‘war on terror’ has actually been used against Americans while undermining our ability to effectively confront real challenges we face from those who may use terrorism against us. Though in retrospect, that may have actually been the plan all along. Terrorism is not an enemy. It’s a technique of warfare — political intimidation through the killing of unarmed non-combatants.

Apparently those three little words — ‘war on terror’ — were deliberately calculated by the Bush administration. It has resulted in fear-mongering and terrorism being intentionally used against Americans by the Bush administration.

When you use fear against the American public, it intensifies emotions and makes it easier for corrupt politicians in Washington to mobilize the public on behalf of the policies they want to pursue. If the attacks of 9/11 hadn’t been allowed to happen, all the lies leading up to the illegal occupancy and destruction of Iraq wouldn’t have come to fruition.

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The Steady Destruction of Democracy

A lot of secrecy has surrounded the most controversial presidential administration, woefully, the first ever to be appointed by the ‘Supreme Court,’ that has led to the serious degradation of America and those who live here. The closer these eight years of hell caused by the ‘Supreme Court’ come to ending, the more corruption conducted by the Bush Administration comes to light — corruption justified by immense delusions, flawed rationale and illegality.

Why our elected officials in Washington continue doing little or nothing to stop or prevent it raises serious issues pertaining to level of corruption in Congress. Both the Justice System and the Judicial System have shown blatantly gross derelections of duty, condoning and obstructing justice while contributing to the downfall of this once great country.

Corporate media has also neglected to perform their responsibilities and duties, complicitly allowing grossly illicit activities by the Bush administration to go unnoticed and unreported. America and the Middle East have paid heavy prices for events that never should have happened in the first place. Large corporations — that in all actuality, have run this country for years — continue getting greedier and richer while continuously screwing those who have attributed to their wealth and success.

Below you will find examples of political corruption, delusional leadership geared towards trying to convince people that giving government unlimited power with no oversight is in their best interests, a Vice President that actually believes he’s impune, political corruption in the military, an errant Supreme Court ‘Justice’ who honestly believes torture is ok, and a few other tidbits regarding political corruption, all caused by a terrorist attack that could have been prevented.

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A New Twist In The FISA Fight

In August of last year, Congress passed an amendment to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) of 1978 known as the “Protect America Act of 2007,” — which some say is a misnomer since a more appropriate name for the amendment would be the “Police America Act” — that gives the President virtually unlimited power with no oversight whatsoever. Very bad idea, as the past seven plus years have shown.

Fortunately, the amendment was set to expire in six months. When it came up for renewal this past February, Congress was deadlocked so they tried to extend the expiration date before it expired, but President Bush vetoed it. It expired amongst false, terror-filled cries intended to make everyone believe we were all going to die, or ‘Al-Qaeda’ was going to attack us…the usual B.S. The House is again trying to reach a compromise with the Senate, but it could take a while.

The Senate passed a bill containing retroactive immunity for Telecoms who cooperated with the Bush administration’s post-9/11 surveillance authorized by President Bush. Fortunately, The House was smart enough — after receiving tremendous pressure from the public not to pass it. As usual, House Republicans and the rest of the Bush propaganda team are up to their usual lies, deceptions and scare tactics to try to force their version through the House.

More than 40 lawsuits against the Telecoms are pending, basically being stalled until Bush has scared Congress and the public enough that Congress is willing to pass the legislation granting retroactive immunity to the Telecoms. In reality, retroactive immunity would be granted to the Bush administration for blatantly breaking multiple laws and would keep every illicit activity covered up so no one would ever know the truth, when the illegal activities actually started, or the depth of illegality. Again, very bad idea.

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