Politics: So Much For

Our "shared Judaeo-Christian values." The WaPoo is reporting that the FBI investigation of Army Engineer David Tenenbaum was racially (religiously?) motivated.

Photo courtesy of Patricia Beck, Detroit Free Press

In other words, Tenenbaum was targeted because he is a practising Jew. Of course, it took the Pentagon 11 long years to exonerate the man. Eleven years of living under suspicion with the FBI tailing you, the press reporting it, and the nutbags crawling out of the woodwork to threaten your, and your family's, lives.

Does the right hand know in whose pants the left hand is rummaging? Half our congresscritters are owned body and soul by the rabid Likudnik hawks of AIPAC; yet our military and our intelligence agencies, while failing to unearth the recipients of AIPAC largesse, are running around harrassing ye regular olde citizenry.

Joe LIEberwhore is pole-dancing to AIPAC's tune, putting Israeli hawks' interests before those of his constituents' and being invited to speak at the Republican convention. Mr. Tenenbaum, a man with little power or influence and no lobbyist money connections, is followed, threatened, searched, harassed, and spied upon. The effrontery of the officials conducting the surveillance of Mr. Tenenbaum is shocking:

The examiner also threatened him, Tenenbaum said. " 'I want you to confess,' he was yelling at me," he recalled. "I've done other Jews before and gotten them to confess, and I'll get you, too."

What the fuck is this, the Third Reich reborn? Where do these people get off with comments like this?


Somebody needs a few whups upside the head with La Casa de Los Gatos' trademarked Golden Bat o'Clue. So hawkish AIPAC Jews with money get their ass kissed by all and sundry and religious practising ordinary Jews with no money or power get the third degree? Muslims who happen to be members of the Saudi Royal Family get their money laundered by the current Idiot-in-Chief's uncle, but Muslims who happen to be powerless ordinary guys get dragged into the White House interrogation chamber for roughing up and questioning because they're using an iPod?

Mr. Tenenbaum better get a nice long letter of apology from the fucking schmucks who have made his life a hell. And we the people need to crack down on these various "authorities" who are making all our lives hell, shooting our dogs and our wives, tasing our children and our friends, and sending our neigbours and our relatives to die in pointless foreign wars.

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Politics: Don't Go Away Mad

Just go away.



McClatchy poses the question today of whether Dumbfuck McBlotto, our (decidedly un)esteemed Escutcheon-blot in chief, is "going out with 'a whimper'." Frankly, McClatchy, who gives a fuck? We just want him to go, preferably to a narrow, cramped, poorly-lit prison cell where he can rub the heads of all the baldies he can get his hands on. The sooner the better.

While academics opine on Dim Son's astounding lack of popularity, the common people are watching basic food prices soar out of reach even as the value of their homes, the stability of their corporate employers and their financial institutions, and the value of their currency sink lower than a worm's arsehole.

So, as Maru over at WTF Is It Now? likes to say,

The popular war preznit has regained his footing... oh, I'm sorry, Mr Broder, make that [insert real-life stumblebum's latest stumble]

Considering that the pathetic, wretched little asshole can barely behave in public, it's hardly surprising that that fact seems to be registering with record numbers of his fellow-citizens.

Meanwhile, it's heartening to realize that there are some Republicans with ethics. Stephen Spoonamore, founder and CEO of Cybrinth LLC, an IT policy and security firm, has stepped forward to help an anonymous whistleblower prove that professional slime mold impersonators and cybervote machine manufacturers Diebold improperly interfered in Georgia's 2002 elections.

So we now know we have fucking Diebold to thank for that ambulatory turd, Saxby Chambliss. In case you didn't know, Chambliss prides himself on holding up monies to combat AIDS in Africa, as Cernig points out over on newshoggers. He also doesn't care much for SCHIP, The Endangered Species Act, the fight against global warming, women, life (except for "unborn children," i.e., fetii), environmentalism, science, civil rights, taxes for the rich, bankruptcy for the poor, education (except for school prayer), or pretty much anything except prisons and the death penalty.

In heartening news today, Iraqi PM Nouri al-Maliki announced his support for Barack Obama's plan for a phased withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq. In even more heartening news, Chimpy McDumbfuck's pathetic minions sent the news about Maliki's support to the press &mdash by mistake. In even more heartening news, Jowly McGrumpypants (thanks, Maru!) camp issued a succinct evaluation of this news: We're fucked, they said, which makes us really happy, since Gramps McSnarly is the last person to help this poor nation get back on her feet. Shoot, he's having trouble keeping his own. And, he's definitely showing signs of dementia or otherwise eroding mental function, not that his mental function was much to brag about in the first place.

It's also nice to know that McCain is exhibiting a level of fiscal stupidity that reinforces our suspicions about his dysfunction. And to no one's surprise, McCain's elderly, probably racist and certainly ill-informed supporters are displaying a lack of enthusiasm usually reserved for Matlock reruns. Really? It must rub salt in the wound to hear that art collectors believe McGrumpypants artwork is worth nothing, while Obama artwork is selling for tens of thousands of dollars, eh, McJowly? Of course, you'd have to be more than slightly off to find portraits of CottageCheesyJowls McSnarlfester remotely exciting, but hey.

McAncient's inability to keep his festering gob shut may have caused security problems for Obama: Blabberjowls McScarface apparently announced to the press that Obama is expected to be in Iraq this weekend. Hopefully, he'll be greeted with flowers by an adoring population, since he's the only candidate to espouse a definite timeline for the withdrawal of our troops. Of course, when someone else blabbed about a person being in Iraq, McCain was simply furious. But then, the subject of the blabment was his son, not his political rival.

The good news is coming thick and fast today: Multimillionaire whiner Phil Gramm, who just last week told us (before Starbucks announced it was closing a bunch of stores and laying off staff) that we were whiners suffering from a "mental recession," has stepped down from McAncient's campaign. Good. Goodbye, and good riddance, Phil. And quit whining.

Meanwhile, the Mighty Munchkin of Justice has decided to investigate Felon McChimperson and Snarly McCrashcart's minions' surveillance of harmless peace activists and expending much-needed taxpayer money on police officers to do so, instead of fighting crime. But then again, why bother to fight crime when you can turn prisons into a high-paying privatized industry, with the citizen taxpayers doing all the paying.

This is what happens when we elect Democrats, people. Sure, it's going slowly, slower than many of us would like. But let's not forget that the past eight years has been nothing but incompetence, fraud, lies, cheating, hypocrisy, deceit, and the tearing down of this great country. It's gonna take a while to fix the mess, and if we're going to try to hold anyone accountable, it must be done in a way that they cannot overturn. And that takes a little time.

For those who don't want to click the above link, it's to a Washington Post story about the current, Democratic governor of Maryland, who has reversed his Republican predecessor's policy of having the State Police conduct surveillance of peace activists and anti-death penalty protestors. What a waste of taxpayer money!

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Politics: FISA Roll Call

Blogger jazzfan76, over at DailyKos, has posted a list of the people who voted to give the telcos immunity for their illegal act of spying on you.

Just in case you want to contact the miserable sons of bitches and give them an earful.

Although it would probably be more useful to be able to contact their constituents.

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Politics: FISA

Grrr. That miserable ass-kissing creep, Steny Hoyer, has rolled over on the telco immunity for the FISA bill. McJoan at DailyKos has the agonizing details.

If you have any interest in knowing just how much the telcos spied on you, and what the government did with this information, please do as McJoan says and call these telephone numbers:

Call Barack Obama and urge him to make a public statement reiterating his opposition to telco amnesty. His opposition could kill this deal: Phone (202) 224-2854, Fax (202) 228-4260

Call Steny Hoyer and tell him this is a bad deal: Phone (202) 225-4131, Fax (202) 225-4300

Call Nancy Pelosi and urge her to pull the bill from the House schedule: Phone (202) 225-4965, Fax (202) 225-8259

Call your representative and tell them to vote no on the FISA rewrite tomorrow.

McJoan has the telephone numbers of the Blue Dog Dems who voted for this bill, and those who had the courage to vote for the better version. If you value your right to be free of intrusive Government surveillance, please go to the link and do as McJoan asks.

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Politics: Your Constitutional Rights

Raw Story tells us today that companies like Taco Bell and Mall-Wart hired a private security firm of ex-Secret Service officers to spy on American citizens throughout the 1990s and the year 2000. Among other things, these people were responsible for stealing documents and collecting phone records of members of environmental organizations, in which they also tried to plant undercover agents. Say what?

James Ridgeway, a reporter for Mother Jones, reveals the contractor (Beckett Brown International) collected confidential internal records -- donor lists, financial statements -- even Social Security numbers, for public relations outfits and "corporations involved in environmental controversies."

The company's client list includes:

• the Carlyle Group, the controversial DC-based investment company;
  
• the National Rifle Association;
  
• Gallo wine company
  
• Pirelli.
  
• Halliburton
  
• Monsanto

Among their victims:

• Greenpeace;
  
• the National Environmental Trust;
  
• the Center for Food Safety;
  
• Environmental Media Services;
  
• the Environmental Working Group;
  
• the U.S. Public Interest Research Group
  
• Center for Health, Environment and Justice, an organization run by Lois Gibbs, famous for exposing the toxic dangers of New York's Love Canal.

What was Taco Hell worried about? That people were going to protest their use of genetically-engineered corn not approved for human consumption.

Taco Bell is owned by Kraft. You might want to let their corporate marketing schlubs know how you feel about their fucking with your food and your heads. The only contact information we can find is:

If you have any questions concerning Investor Relations, you may call and leave a message at 1-847-646-5494 or send us an e-mail.
You may also write to us at:

Investor Relations
Kraft Foods Inc.
Three Lakes Drive,
Northfield, IL 60093

Note that Taco Bell are the same assholes who fought workers for three years before finally agreeing to pay an extra penny for each pound of tomatoes it buys from farm workers. So, was Beckett Brown giving Taco Bell free service? Because, yaknow, they coulda just paid the farmworkers that lousy extra penny by not spending the money on spying on people who might not want bioengineered corn not rated safe for human consumption in their food! Buncha fucknuts.

A pertinent excerpt from the article:

"As for BBI's principals," Ridgeway writes, "they are still operating. Tim Ward now runs a security firm called Chesapeake Strategies, which bills itself as 'a multinational security and investigative firm comprised of professionals with extensive security experience.' Jay Bly works there. Its website boasts that it maintains affiliated offices in Paris, Beijng, Tokyo, Qatar, and Kuwait and that 'many team members continue to hold Secret and Top Secret government security clearances.'

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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?

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Politics: If It's Legal, They Don't Need Immunity

Image from DailyKos

Chimpy McTardibus, L33b3r Ov T3H |=R33 WUR7d, assures the American People today that the telcos' spying on the American People was legal:

[...] Bush said. "What we asked them to do was legal, and now they're getting sued for billions of dollars."

Telephone and Internet providers like AT&T, Verizon and SBC are facing about 40 lawsuits from customers who say their privacy was violated as part of Bush's "Terrorist Surveillance Program" he says began after 9/11. Only if they are found to have violated privacy laws would these companies face the "billions of dollars" in penalties Bush warned against.

Well, if it's legal, they have nothing to worry about, Mr. Bush. So sign the existing FISA law.

No retroactive immunity for telcos! They have way more money than John and Jane Q. Public, and can well afford a day in court. Besides, they'll win anyway. Because spying on every man, woman, and child in America is LEGAL, dammit, legal, legal, legal.

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Politics: Martial Law

When, not if, says the FBI, martial law is imposed, businesses have the right to use deadly force to protect their portion of the infrastructure.

Waitaminnit, dudes. Are those portions not built with wealth created by the labour of the people? On whom is this deadly force to be used? American citizens, who created this infrastructure? Because you don't use private businesses &mdash possibly with the sole exception of Blackwater and such mercenaries, whose sole business is peddling private armed might &mdash to conduct a deadly-force response to well-armed terrorists. For that, you need the military and the police.

It sounds like the FBI wants businesses to either hire mercenaries or arm their workers to use deadly force against unarmed citizens. Can this be?

Rothschild's report details InfraGard, a program set up between the FBI and a number of businesses engaged in maintaining elements of "critical national infrastructure," such as agriculture, banking and finance, the chemical industry, defense, energy, food, information and telecommunications, law enforcement, public health, and transportation. The program's 23,000-plus members provide information to the FBI and in turn receive privileged information from the FBI on threats to infrastructure.

Raw Story has the details. The FBI denies it. However, thanks to Nixon and the lying scum who have succeeded him in the halls of power, plausible deniability has gone the way of the dinosaur.

What the hail is going on here? Is the FBI admitting that the military is broken and the police are not up to the task of guarding our infrastructure against terrorists? Or is it empowering corporations to kill and maim citizens with impunity? Does that, to quote George W. Bush, "goddamned piece of paper," the Constitution, carry any weight with anyone anymore?

Mind you, just yesterday the InnerTubes were ringing with talk about how the FBI is planning to create, at our expense, a billion-dollar biometrics database that will hold information about each and every one of us, down to the whiskers on our collective chinny-chin-chin, the schmucks.

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Politics: Your Tax Dollars At Work

Do you suffer from chronically low blood pressure? Feel dizzy when you stand up or get out of bed too quickly?

Now, there's a cure that doesn't require trips to the (unaffordable) doctor, expensive (unaffordable) medication, or even a (unaffordable) health care plan! Yes, even as the economy, national and personal, swirls around the toilet bowl of the Bush years, you can safely raise your blood pressure while planning &mdash and possibly even ensuring &mdash that tropical vacation you've always longed for! A paradise of fully taxpayer-funded health care and regular meals with plenty of privacy awaits you at Guantanamo Bay!

What, you ask, does this selling of snake oil on our part entail? Simple. Your taxpayer dollars are making it possible for the spy agencies of America to spend lots and lots of time on &mdash MySpace, YouTube, and the blogosphere.
Nice job, huh? Spend the whole day surfing the net, get health care, benes, a pension &mdash all at the expense of the very same people you're (probably) spying on. Let's face it, al Qaeda or some other loony terrorists might smuggle an occasional video clip on to YouTube, or put up a blog or set up a MySpace page, but quite honestly? We think they're way too busy schlepping explosives about, drawing up plans for the next site or person to bomb, putting their recruits through their paces, et cetera ad infinitum ad nauseam.

Mind you, the spy agencies are the same schmucks who want to set up a vast biometrics database that will cost $1 billion in taxpayer dollars (which if each of us got some of that sweet cash, we could afford, oh, maybe a half-caf decaf soy latte)?

"Bigger. Faster. Better. That's the bottom line," said Thomas E. Bush III, assistant director of the FBI's Criminal Justice Information Services Division, which operates the database from its headquarters in the Appalachian foothills.

We just hope this putz is not in any way related to the vast horde of other bushes who have been stealing the American public blind lo these forty years or so.

In the world's first large-scale, scientific study on how well face recognition works in a crowd, the German government this year found that the technology, while promising, was not yet effective enough to allow its use by police. The study was conducted from October 2006 through January at a train station in Mainz, Germany, which draws 23,000 passengers daily. The study found that the technology was able to match travelers' faces against a database of volunteers more than 60 percent of the time during the day, when the lighting was best. But the rate fell to 10 to 20 percent at night.

Nice to know, eh?

Mind you, these are the same dumb schmucks whose failure to cooperate with each other jeopardizes the very taxpayer whose pockets they're vacuuming.

Finally, here's a look at the FBI's IT system. It is to larf.

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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.

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World: Slipping Into The Fascist State

Image from ToddAlbert.com

Unlike parodist Jonah Goldberg, we do not throw the term "fascism" around lightly. Like the estimable Dorothy Parker, we would like to throw it aside with great force. Preferably into the rubbish pile of history.

Our dictionary defines fascism as:

NOUN: 1. often Fascism a. A system of government marked by centralization of authority under a dictator, stringent socioeconomic controls, suppression of the opposition through terror and censorship, and typically a policy of belligerent nationalism and racism. b. A political philosophy or movement based on or advocating such a system of government. 2. Oppressive, dictatorial control.

Over in the U.K., Scotland Yard is, presumably at the bequest of the authorities, engaged in electronic eavesdropping of a Labour Party MP whose sole claim to their attentions appears to be a boyhood friendship with an imprisoned constituent who is

accused of running a US-registered website in the late 90's that raised funds for the Taliban and for Chechen militants. He is being held by British authorities pending deportation, although there are no charges against him in that country.

The MP in question, Sadiq Khan, is an activist lawyer who had brought a series of controversial malpractice cases against London police. Khan has campaigned actively against the extradition.

We posit that the actions taken against Khan constitute suppression through terror and censorship, given that the bugging apparently

... violates a long-standing official policy against eavesdropping on members of Parliament.

If there are no charges in the U.S. against the imprisoned constituent Babar Ahmed, why is the British government attempting to deport him? Where are they deporting him? To the U.S.? Have they tried him in a court of law? Of what crimes has he been found guilty?

These questions trouble us. If we are not a nation of laws, if we do not respect our own laws, then what are we?

The movement from democracy and a rule of law to fascism, dictatorship, and a rule of men is a slow slide, not a rapid change. Germans would have risen as one against Hitler if he had immediately proposed a move from a nation grounded in law to a fascist dictatorship. The Munich Beer-Hall Putsch proved that, despite a disillusioned and beaten populace, mass confusion, poverty, and the bleak aftermath of defeat in war, people would not willingly renounce their civil liberties and accept an outright dictator. It took nearly a decade of lies, manoeuvering, chicanery, and an election before the fascistic Nazis could come to power.

We have lived through eight years of rule by an individual with all the mental wherewithal of a shrub. The UK has had his lapdog equivalent in Tony Blair. If we are to halt the slide towards fascism, we - all of us - must speak up and act as best we can.

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Politics: Presidents and Serial Killers

While rooting around in Watertiger's comments, today, we came across an interesting link which led us to this:



Does it bother you that the current occupant of the highest office in the land bears such an eerie resemblance to a famous serial killer?

A link on the site led us to this article in the Guardian about Bush. It's a good article, but we disagree with one premise, that Bush believes his enemies are evil. We don't think Bush believes anything. We think he is so consumed by rage and fear that he spends every minute of every day distracting himself from his inner landscape, so that he never truly has to think or feel. Because if he allowed a thought or feeling to escape from his tight control, all the rest would follow, and then that country-hick facade would crumble to be replaced by the terrified, empty, furious, worthless little man that he truly is. And he doesn't want anyone to see that. See what we mean?


Another thing: why do the British papers have so much better coverage of American news?

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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.

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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.

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Politics: Who Will Stand With Chris Dodd Against Cloture on FISA?

Image from Raw Story

Looks like the Republicans all want to give the telecoms companies retroactive immunity so they can keep spying on the American people and whine, "But the NSA told me to! I was only following orders!" - also known as the Nuremberg Defense - when they finally get busted for their misdeeds.

As for the Democrats, none of the top tier is bothering to get involved in this issue. Is this what we want from our next president? More illegal surveillance of Americans? The utter destruction of the Fourth Amendment's guarantee of

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

Looks like Chris Dodd is the only presidential candidate to speak out against retroactive immunity. The only one who cares about the constitution.

Senator Clinton, where are you? Senator Obama? Senator Biden, goddammit?

In all fairness, John Edwards and Romney, Giuliani, and Huckabee can't be there to filibuster this worthless piece of dreck bill.

But why isn't Senator McCain, self-proclaimed Defender of the Constitution, doing anything about this?

Watertiger has the list of politicians with the guts to stand with Chris Dodd against this despicable attempt to circumvent the law. To the endless shame of the Republican Party, they're all Democrats.

We'd spit on the gutless worms who won't stand with Chris Dodd on this, but it would be a waste of spit. Right now, Chris Dodd is looking more presidential than the lot of the rest. If your Senator isn't on the list, call their office now, dammit, and demand that they vote NO on cloture of the FISA bill.

And, to elevate your naturally low blood pressure, this exciting tidbit:

Dodd, a dark-horse candidate for the Democratic presidential nod, tried to put a "hold" on any FISA update with telecom immunity, but that request apparently has been ignored by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV).

Thanks a lot, Harry Reid, you miserable traitor. You had no problem honoring the Tom Coburn (Repulsive-OK?) hold on the Emmett Till bill which passed overwhelmingly in the House, did you? But that was a civil rights bill, designed to benefit victims of injustice. Whereas this is a bill designed to benefit big corporations that have repeatedly broken the law, using the Nuremberg Defense, and want to get off scot-free. You pathetic schmuck.

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Politics: Anyone Surprised?

Graphic from EFF

From Raw Story comes a report via an AT&T whistleblower that Shrubya the Lesser and his horde of mindless myrmidons were planning to eavesdrop electronically on yer grandmother and all her friends two weeks after taking office. Nearly a year before "9/11 changed everything."

Yes? Am I hearing howls of surprise? Outrage? Anybody home out there?

Wake up, sheeple. Whoever wins Iowa, Republican and Democrat, better make sure they're not going to wiretap you. Terrorists, my ass. They just want a peek in your underwear drawer.

Sheebus MacIntyre's Ghost. They're utterly shameless about flouting the law, aren't they?

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Politics: Impeachment Hearings

Yay for Robert Wexler. He's taking the impeachment resolution to the Web. Wanna impeach but can't because weak-kneed asskissers and weasels in Congress insist impeachment is "off the table"? Put it back on the table with Rep. Robert Wexler.

Raw Story has the details. For those too impatient to bother about the story, go directly to Rep. Wexler's impeachment site and let him know how you feel.

This round it's Cheney. Next round, if the Chimperor hasn't gone yet, it'll be his turn.

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Politics: FISA Passes, No Immunity

Wow. How much good news can I take before my head explodes? I'm a little under the weather today, so maybe this will keep me from getting sick before a long plane journey.

At any rate, Raw Story tells us that the House of Representatives passed the FISA bill requiring judicial oversight (yay! No more warrantless wiretaps! We hope.) and told the telcos that they've squeezed enough out of the ratepayers to afford their own goddamned lawyers. Yes!

On a 224-192 vote, largely along party lines, the House adopted its proposal to update the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. The measure, known as the RESTORE Act, would replace a temporary FISA update approved in August.

The bill does not include a provision to grant legal immunity to telecommunications companies that the Bush administration has demanded and it restores the role of the FISA court in approving surveillance methods used by the National Security Agency that could ensnare Americans.

In other news, the Senate is debating the bill currently, and their bill does grant immunity to the telcos, grrr. The only Senator who seems to ever stand up for the people, Russ Feingold, is planning to strip the telcos' immunity, but I'm sure Dianne "Brought My Own Lube, George" FeinSTAIN and Joe "Should I Bend Over And Spread 'Em Now, George?" LIEberwhore will fight tooth and nail to ensure that the people's rights get trampled in the rush to give the telcos whatever they fucking want. God I hate those two losers.

The vote was entirely along party lines, and man, am I glad we put more Democrats into office in 2006! Just looking back at the preceding six years and the plethora of civil rights abuses, corruption, scandal, rubberstamping - EESH!

Raw Story is working on the story right now, so pop by to toss them some dosh and catch the latest details.

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Politics: Guantanamo Bay Manual Leaked

Snarly McCrashcart's repulsive visage courtesy of Mimus Pauly

Oh, my. How most fortunate that there are still people in government service and out, who believe in the Constitutional guarantee of freedom of speech and their right to blow the whistle on a corrupt government.

Raw Story points us to a Wired expose on the leaking of a Guantanamo Bay manual on the InnerTubes. Yes!

The 238-page document, "Camp Delta Standard Operating Procedures," is dated March 28, 2003. It is unclassified, but designated "For Official Use Only." It hit the web last Wednesday on Wikileaks.org.

Wikileaks was set up by open-government activists to function as a clearinghouse for open disclosure. And a good thing, too.

A little sunshine will clean out the fetid swamp that the government has become. Nepotism, cronyism, bribery, corruption, prostitutes gay and straight, slave labour, lies, petty revenge, and secrecy. It's time for all of that to go. We're better than that.

We don't have to live in Darth Cheney's fantasy world of fear and nonexistent suitcase nukes. We don't have to live in Bubble Boy's propaganda world where everything you want is real if you only say it three times. We don't have to live in the hysterical, fearful world of the DHS and the NSA where every conversation and mouse-click must be spied on because somewhere out there among the 300 million or more, there could be one individual who might be dangerous. We're better than that.

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Politics: Judge Slaps White House With Restraining Order

Oh, my. At last, a judge has the gumption to stand up to the lying shills in the WH. According to a Cox Newspapers Washington Bureau report, the WH has been told to

“ ... preserve media, no matter how described, presently in their possession or under their custody or control, that were created with the intention of preserving data in the event of its inadvertent destruction,” wrote Kennedy in a Nov. 12 opinion in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

The order was sought by the National Security Archive, a public interest library at George Washington University, and the Washington-based watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.

Will we finally get to see what the crooks, liars, and thugs hiding in the White House have been up to all these years? Let's hope so.

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