2008 Elections: Today's Mail From Clinton

We've previously stated that we wrote Clinton expressing our admiration for her way back when she first declared her presidential ambitions. Bad mistake. As a result of an error of judgment (ours), we have been plagued, daily, by pieces such as this in our emailbox:

"Maggie Williams, Hillary Clinton for President" wrote:

Dear [name],
Help in IN and NC

The volunteers who make calls into primary states have made a huge difference for our campaign. The calls they made were a big part of our tremendous victory in Pennsylvania.

Now we're just one day away from critical primary races in Indiana and North Carolina -- and every voter matters. We need volunteers making as many calls as they can -- you are a part of our plan for victory.

Can you join the tens of thousands of people making calls for Hillary today?

Click here to make calls to Indiana and North Carolina.

When you talk to a voter one-on-one and tell them why you're supporting Hillary, it increases the chances that they will support our candidate. The more people we call, the more people are going to go to the polls in Indiana and North Carolina and vote for Hillary.

Even if you can only spare a couple of hours, you can have a big impact. Our calling tool is so efficient that one person can make dozens of calls in a very short time.

The Indiana and North Carolina primaries are tomorrow. Hillary needs you to be her voice.

Click here to make calls to Indiana and North Carolina.

Thank you for everything you do and have done to help Hillary make sure America has the president it needs to face the challenges of the future.

Sincerely,


Maggie Williams
Campaign Manager
Hillary Clinton for President

Paid for by Hillary Clinton for President
Contributions to Hillary Clinton for President are not deductible for federal income tax purposes. Corporate contributions are prohibited by law.

All content © 2008 Hillary Clinton for President
4420 North Fairfax Drive, Arlington, VA 22203

Today, we wrote back in an access, as it were, of wrath:

I will never be part of your plan.

• Hillary praised McCain while disparaging Obama, her Democratic rival.
  
• Hillary threatened to "obliterate" a nation of 70 million women, children, and men in retaliation for an impossible hypothetical situation.
  
• Hillary voted to let George Bush start a war that has drained the U.S. Treasury and caused undeniable suffering to millions of American taxpayers and death and suffering to millions of innocent Iraqis.
  
• Hillary is the queen of pork, with a million dollar plan for a Woodstock museum (oh, puh-leez).
  
• Hillary is pandering to the ignorant by offering a gas tax scam that she cannot possibly implement for at least a year, more likely a decade.
  
• Hillary sat down with Richard Mellon Scaife, chief funder of the Vast Rightwing Conspiracy.
  
• Hillary wasted over $100 million dollars in her campaign and has only $15 million in debt to show for a limping pathetic run.
  
• Hillary stiffed her small vendors who assisted her campaign, including her own employees for whose health insurance she failed to pay timely.
  
• Hillary has lied repeatedly, pandered repeatedly, claimed to be friends with a man who openly stated her daughter was the "ugly" product of her lesbian relationship with Janet Reno.
  
• Hillary Clinton the supposed feminist had the gall to insult feminist New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark, and has yet to apologize for that nasty, misogynistic remark.

Hillary Clinton - and Bill Clinton - will never, ever get any support from me. Ever.

Of course, La Clinton will never read it herself. That's what her "little people" are for. That, and operating her coffee machines.

Yes, we're well aware that they're all politicians. But for a brief moment there, one of those politicians had begun to awaken a glimmer of hope &mdash after eight years of stupefied hopelessness &mdash in the heart of the nation.

Personally, we sincerely hope she vanishes into a well-earned obscurity. She crossed the line, for us, when she insulted Helen Clark. A more sincere and thoughtful woman, by all accounts, than La Clinton will ever be.

Till now, we've been offended by her on a daily basis, yet unable to resist the strong pull of more than two decades of loyal support for her and her husband. Now, it's really over. We can't bring ourselves (still!) to insult her. But never again will we support her in any way, shape, or form. She has irretrievably, irredeemably, alienated us forever. Goodbye, Hillary. It's very hard, and very sad, to let you go. But we're done.

Stumble It!

Constitution: NSA Craps On It

Looks like every organization in every arm of this current Misadministration takes its cue from Chimpy McDunce. If he's going to wipe his butt on the Constitution, they feel obliged to rush to do the same, in an attempt, we suppose, to prove their bona fides.

Today, for example, Raw Story tells us that the NSA is "quietly" expanding their surveillance of U.S. citizens.

"According to current and former intelligence officials, the spy agency now monitors huge volumes of records of domestic emails and Internet searches as well as bank transfers, credit-card transactions, travel and telephone records,"

states an article by Siobhan Gorman in the Wall Street Journal. Note: You need to register to read the article.

The article goes on to say:

"The NSA receives this so-called 'transactional' data from other agencies or private companies, and its sophisticated software programs analyze the various transactions for suspicious patterns. Then they spit out leads to be explored by counterterrorism programs across the U.S. government, such as the NSA's own Terrorist Surveillance Program, formed to intercept phone calls and emails between the U.S. and overseas without a judge's approval when a link to al Qaeda is suspected."

Note: Our emphasis, Ed. Since no one is monitoring the NSA's scrutiny of your information, we have no idea how they determine that a "link to al Qaeda" should be "suspected." Is it like Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon? If your roommate in college had a penpal who married a cousin of a German of Turkish origin whose grandfather came from the same village as a woman who is married to a man whose cousin-in-law is a member, are you automatically a suspect?

Bearing in mind that the U.S. Government currently has imprisoned some one per cent of its own citizens, and the privatization of prisons has proceeded apace, making the imprisoning of people a lucrative industry, do you really trust that your government is able and willing to search for terrorists without infringing on your Constitutional rights? After all, they're scrutinizing every damn thing you do, including your credit card transactions.

Is there anyone so virtuous among us that they can cast the first stone at transgressors and offenders and say to the spies, examine everything I've ever done, you won't find a trace of something even slightly illegal? And even if you are, you paragon of virtue, do you want your government going through all your private stuff? Your health records? Your email to you girlfriend or mistress? Your private slutty chats with guyfriends or girlfriends about the hot sex you had with that borderline perv you once knew? Are you sure that among the people you dated, or your friends or colleagues or neighbours there is absolutely no one who might have a criminal record? Whose conversations with you could be misconstrued?

"The NSA's enterprise involves a cluster of powerful intelligence-gathering programs, all of which sparked civil-liberties complaints when they came to light," she continues. "They include a Federal Bureau of Investigation program to track telecommunications data once known as Carnivore, now called the Digital Collection System, and a U.S. arrangement with the world's main international banking clearinghouse to track money movements."

[...]

If a person suspected of terrorist connections is believed to be in a U.S. city -- for instance, Detroit, a community with a high concentration of Muslim Americans -- the government's spy systems may be directed to collect and analyze all electronic communications into and out of the city.

[...]

Two current officials also said the NSA's current combination of programs now largely mirrors the former TIA project. But the NSA offers less privacy protection. TIA developers researched ways to limit the use of the system for broad searches of individuals' data, such as requiring intelligence officers to get leads from other sources first. The NSA effort lacks those controls, as well as controls that it developed in the 1990s for an earlier data-sweeping attempt.

[...]

NSA gets access to the flow of data from telecommunications switches through the FBI, according to current and former officials. It also has a partnership with FBI's Digital Collection system, providing access to Internet providers and other companies. The existence of a shadow hub to copy information about AT&T Corp. telecommunications in San Francisco is alleged in a lawsuit against AT&T filed by the civil-liberties group Electronic Frontier Foundation, based on documents provided by a former AT&T official. In that lawsuit, a former technology adviser to the Federal Communications Commission says in a sworn declaration that there could be 15 to 20 such operations around the country.

The budget for the NSA's data-sifting effort is classified, but one official estimated it surpasses $1 billion. The FBI is requesting to nearly double the budget for the Digital Collection System in 2009, compared with last year, requesting $42 million. "Not only do demands for information continue to increase, but also the requirement to facilitate information sharing does," says a budget justification document, noting an "expansion of electronic surveillance activity in frequency, sophistication, and linguistic needs."

So we're paying over one billion dollars to scrutinize every Web site visit, telephone conversation, and email of Americans within the United States, and the FBI wants that budget doubled.

Wouldn't it be cheaper and more effective &mdash and less intrusive &mdash to monitor email, conversations, and Web sites to and from countries with known terrorist presences? And leave internal monitoring to that supervised by courts tasked with protecting the civil liberties of Americans? And we're not referring to the FISA courts, which have rubberstamped every request by the government for permission to spy on anybody. We're referring to some real goddamned respect for the Constitution.

Either it is our founding document and we obey it faithfully, or it's just a "goddamned piece of paper," per Chimpy McDunce, and we throw it away and start all over again. Which will it be, peoples?

Stumble It!

Politics: FISA and You

Do you ever wonder if the telcos handed your phone records and other information to which they might have had access, to the spy agencies? Sure, you do. You and most other Americans probably have a low-level stress alert set on FISA, because we know damned well those bastards have been spying on all of us since March of 2001. For the date- or history-impaired, that would be six months before the incidents of 11th September.

The FISA votes have been wending their constipated way through the Legislature for years now. A little movement here, a little squeeze there, while we all sit and fume and wonder what the fuckers are up to now.

AP tells us that the Chimperor is determined that telcos will have immunity for their illegal acts in aiding spying on American citizens. One way he's doing this is to order his rage of hunchmen (yes, Frank Zappa coined that phrase) to do everything they can to delay the so-called "stimulus" package in return for FISA concessions. This will make it look as though the Democrats in the Legislature are failing to give money to the suffering masses.

First off, the chutzpah of this boondoggle just fucking blows our socks off here at La Casa de Los Gatos. Even the gatos' tiny white socks have been blasted to various corners of the universe by this unholy level of total fucking cheek.

What they're trying to do, the Republican legislators and the Chimpidiots, is ensure that you can never find out whether you were spied on. No, really. If these telco pigs get their proposed "immunity," you can't force them to disclose whether they handed your records to anybody. They're immune from prosecution.

This also means you can't find out whether any other shenanigans were going on - you know, like, did the Misadministration funnel millions in taxpayer money to the telcos specifically for acts that violate the FISA laws or the constitution? Did they encourage violation of the constitution by, say, tapping the phones of attorneys talking to clients (that is ANY attorney talking to ANY client, like, oh, your divorce lawyer, or your spouse's patent lawyer; your bankruptcy lawyer - lots of potential for ugly right here).

Did they hand over for future use to intelligence agencies damaging information gleaned from illegal surveillance - like, were you, an elected official, bopping your boyfriend on the taxpayers' time? Or were you, a person with hopes of running for office someday, exchanging incriminating communications with your homo-, bi-, or generally queer-sexual partner or fling? Or a Young Republican engaging in sexual shenanigans of which your church, family, community, and state would thoroughly disapprove?


If Darth and Idiot Boy get telco immunity, you're screwed - we're all screwed. We won't be able to find out what they've got on us, when they started collecting it, what laws they violated - we probably won't even be able to get them to stop, or to turn over the information (not that that would do much good. That which has been seen cannot be unseen).

Already, our slimy AG, Michael Mucousy, has sent a letter to Harry Reid warning of the proposed veto.

In ten days' time the current FISA law will expire. Thus, the Republicans and the Misadministration are going all-out to ensure that the version that passes will protect their good buddies at the telcos, and, incidentally, screw the people. We're only good for paying taxes and working and spending to keep the economy going so these crooks and liars can spend our money making themselves and their friends rich.

If not for Senator Chris Dodd, we'd already be screwed.

So hie thee over to McJoan's excellent post on who you need to call and what you need to tell them. Because if you don't pressure your whiny sad-assed legislators to protect you, you better start purchasing lube by the gallon.

Oh, you might want to send these to your legislator. They've long since proved they haven't got any.

Stumble It!

Politics: FISA and Retroactive Immunity

Okay, we're not going to give Harry Reid much-deserved hell for failing to support Senator Chris Dodd's principled stand on the FISA bill and retroactive immunity for the telcos who assisted the Bush crooks and liars in illegally spying on the American people. At least the little creep is finally standing up on his hind legs and listening to Chris Dodd and the two out of three Americans who want the telcos to face up to their crimes and shenanigans.

Lookit, folks, these telcos are the same scumballs who cut the FBI off for failure to pay timely - not failure to pay at all, just failure to send the next whopping check on time. So they don't really give a sideways flying shit if terrorists show up tomorrow and bomb us all to smithereens. All they care about is (a) making money, and (b) NOT paying for their criminal acts. So why exactly would we want to give them immunity?

At any rate, the Senate will soon begin voting on the retroactive immunity issue, so if you have a moment to spare, call your congresscritter and make sure that they stand with Senator Dodd and the 60+ per cent of us who think if the telcos want to make big profits off the American taxpayer, they'd better be answerable to that same irate taxpayer.

Whatta buncha schmucks.

Stumble It!

2008 Elections: Iowa Decided Nothing!

Disclaimer: While we prefer Edwards to all other candidates, we believe every single candidate should have a place at the table until all voters have had the chance to register their opinion.

So why is ABC dropping Gravel, Hunter, and Kucinich from the debates? That is just unacceptable. The people have the right to hear all the candidates, regardless of how much ABC or the other corporate-owned fawning bootlicking media dislike any individual candidate.

If you feel that politics in this country has been debased into a sideshow, perhaps you should let ABC know that Hunter, Gravel, and Kucinich belong in the debate. You can contact them here.

Further disclaimer: We at this fine establishment can't stand Hunter. But in the interest of a well-informed populace that is the very foundation of democracy, he must be heard.

Raw Story has the details, and informs us also that Chris Dodd and Joe Biden have dropped out of the race. Pity. We really like and respect Dodd, and he stood up for the Constitution as few others have.

Stumble It!

2008 Elections: FISA Bill

Well, Chris Dodd did his bit for us and for the Constitution. Now it's our turn to do our part. That's what the words "a government of, by, and for the people" mean, folks. It's of us - we have to take office or vote into office those whose political positions make sense to us. It's by us - we have to educate ourselves on every issue and keep an eye on those we elect, so that we remove any incentive on their part to lie to us, hoodwink us, and rob our treasury. And it's for us - it's made up of the people that we elect and appoint and get to know and talk with, to act in our best interests. Not theirs. Not the lobbyists'. Not the corporations. Us. The People.

That's you and your family and your friends and your neighbours, and their families and friends and neighbours and so on unto the very last man, woman, and child on these shores. But to make it real, we all have to work. We have to read, and listen, and watch, and educate ourselves.

Chris Dodd did his part, but the FISA bill is only in temporary reprieve. Harry Reid will bring it back to the floor of the Senate next year. You have these intervening months to find out what that bill really means. What it means for you - can they listen in to every phone call you make or receive? Can they read every single email or web click?

To find out more, visit Firedoglake, where the ever-inspiring bloggers have, with Glenn Greenwald, put together a petition to let Harry Reid know that his craven compliance with the Misadministration's surveillance of Americans is unacceptable and to request him to join with Senator Chris Dodd in crafting and passing amendments that protect the civil rights of Americans.

If you don't have a subscription to Salon, consider getting one as a Christmas present to yourself - it's worth it for the pleasure of reading Glenn Greenwald.

And now, a word of thanks to those of you who helped, from Senator and 2008 Presidential candidate Chris Dodd:



Thank you, sir! Wanna say "Thank you, Senator Dodd?" Go here.

Stumble It!

2008 Elections: Dodd For President!

By gum, he did it. And all of you who called your Senators helped.

Chris Dodd has succeeded in denying retroactive immunity to the telecoms companies.

YAY!!!!

Senator Dodd, you are my hero. A million thanks.

Stumble It!