The House That Wouldn’t Bend Over
You Go Democrats! For the next two weeks at least, America’s telecom executives will be just as accountable to the law as the other 300 million of us. What a concept! Why should a few VIPs have a law that specifically prevents them from ever being sued? I don’t know anybody who has that kind of permanent protective cocoon wrapped around them. Do you? We’re a nation of laws; well, for two more weeks anyway.
It didn’t exactly take an act of blind courage for Congress to stand up to a cerebrally-challenged alcoholic president with single-digit approval ratings. But still, with all the bending and gyrating this Congress has been doing, it’s a huge relief that, for one fleeting moment, they actually stood up and said “No!”
Savor the moment. There's no doubt, our petulant child king will be bringing this subject back for another vote, and another vote, again and again and again until he gets his way. You can't say “No” to a scion of the Bush Crime Family. It’s just not done.
I forget where I read this, but somebody was making an excellent point: there's something huge going on behind the scenes that’s making these Conservatards keep pushing and pushing and pushing and grandstanding and pleading and shouting for retroactive telecom immunity. Our bribery system doesn’t usually work like this. Generally, a congressperson gets a bribe from a certain industry, and he/she is instructed to vote accordingly. And that’s all.
Getting bribed isn't supposed to require months and months of pleading and threatening and foaming at the mouth every time a TV camera appears. WTF is going on here? Probably a lot more than we’ll ever know.
This other story is sort of along those same lines — government secrecy, things we’re not supposed to know, etc. The Pentagon has completed a study which shows there was no connection whatsoever between Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda. Uh, that was one of our main reasons for invading Iraq five years ago (along with those non-existent Weapons of Mass Destruction). For a full year before the invasion we heard nothing but “Saddam al Qaeda Hussein bin Laden 9/11 Iraq Saddam bin Laden Iraq al Qaeda…”
And now that there’s a Pentagon report showing that there was no connection between Saddam Hussein and the
Move along. Nothing to see here.
cross-posted at Bring It On!
Labels: Pentagon report Iraq al Qaeda, retroactive telecom immunity, September 11th Reichstag Fire
posted by Tom Harper @ 3:46 PM
14 Comments:
The people need a lobby. Maybe we can all kick in a few bucks to pay the pricks to do something for us for once eh?
Bunny~N~Early: True, it might have to come to that. But theoretically our congresspeople and senators are supposed to be representing everybody, not just the people who bribe them. Nice theory anyway.
I wonder if I’d get immunity from speeding tickets if I claimed I was doing it in the name of national security – and in my continued efforts to thwart terror. The fucks. How dare they. And this administration’s response to that Pentagon report? Criminal. What’s more astounding than the shit this administration has gotten away with is the fact that there are so many people, er sheep, blind to it all. That, Mr. Harper, is frightening.
Perhaps we should sail across the ocean and start a new country based on this theory. The United States of Non-Republicans, but something more catchy. We can print up bumper stickers and everything.
I just fear that if a Dem gets in AND Bush actually leaves the White House, that that'll be the end of any queries and investigations, for 'moving on/healing' purposes.
The all encompassing Patriot Act and all the many violations it now protects is everything I feared it would be from the begininng. I did not support its enactment then (wrote my congressman) and I certainly don't now. This act singularly circumvents our constitutional framework all under the guise of "national security." Right now, I'm more afraid of my government than I am of al Queda.
Any day now I fear I'll hear the clicking cadence of hundreds of thousands of jack boots parading down Main St, USA.
Carlos: Yes, we should all get blanket immunity for anything we've ever done or might do in the future. Almost anything can be rationalized by claiming "national security." I say either nobody can pull this shit, or we all can.
Randal: "Moving on" is all well and good, but we also need to remember "those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it." And the first step in learning from history is to find out exactly WTF happened during Dumbya's reign.
Rockync: It's good that you wrote your congressman, but if your letter wasn't accompanied by a 6-figure campaign contribution, it probably didn't do any good :)
Yup, the Patriot Act, Military Commissions Act and God knows how many other Acts -- it's a scary thought that maybe the groundwork is being laid for a totalitarian takeover. I'm not into guns at all myself, but at times like this I'm glad there are millions of armed households in America.
This is truly astounding and ... scary.
Okay, now back to the NY sex scandal.
Candace: Yup, back to basics. Client #9, the Britney meltdown...
Carlos, there was a state representative from NE Oregon who got caught speeding by the Oregon State police because he was doing something like double the speed limit... and he tried to claim immunity because he was an elected official. He is a Republican, naturally... but in our "red" east-of-the-Cascades part of the state it didn't make a bit of difference. He still won by 66% to 32% over the Democrat.
The admimistration SUCKS. They want to keep EVERYTHING secret from us, because the more we know, the more angry we get, and the more angry we get, the more difficult it will be for them to get us to bend over.
I like Randal's idea, but I think instead that we need to have a bunch of wealthy Democrats, or maybe grass-roots regular people like most of us probably are, pony up to buy some islands somewhere like way out in the Indian Ocean or maybe in the South Pacific, and ship the Republican leaders down there. The talkbots can scream and get all teary about it, and say the bad liberals are "putting Republicans in camps" or whatever, but hey... let them start their own nation. That way the handful of them that is trying to fuck up America can have their own little kingdom, or fiefdom if you will. All their devoted ditto-whatevers can follow them down there. It will be like a mini-"rapture" of sorts. They can all just go away, and live happily without having to worry about screwing the rest of us over any more. They can call it "Republica". Heh... Bunch of buck-toothed mouth-breathers.
As far as fear, I am decidedly in Rockync's camp. I have to wonder when the "national emergency" is going to happen. I think we will see some manufactured "incidents" that won't lead to an attack on Iran between now and the election... it will be enough to drive up the fear in the voters. But whether or not that would work to the advantage of the right or the left wouldn't make much difference to Bush-Cheney, because they would probably just wait until Thanksgiving or Christmas to get the next war going, then declare their "state of emergency". The president-elect, whoever it is, would become the president-in-waiting and would be lucky to ever see any time in office.
Sure that's pessimistic and probably sounds paranoid, but hey, like William S. Burroughs said, "A paranoid is someone who knows a little of what's going on." Heh! Sure, when it comes to being a "liberal elitist", I will admit to being one of the worst of the worst... but I am just not sure America is collectively smart enough anymore to prevent something like a total Bush-Cheney takeover.
Snave: Don't you just love these people who think they're above the law? Whether it's a politician who thinks he shouldn't get a speeding ticket, or a telecom executive who think he's immune from the legal process -- we're supposed to be a nation of laws. Equal protection and all that.
It's too ironic that Dumbya and his ilk want to spy on us any time they want, but we aren't supposed to know anything about what they're doing. Wingnuts probably aren't smart enough to see the irony, but it's there.
I say we ship all the neocons to some remote outpost in the hottest part of Saudi Arabia. They'll suddenly develop an interest in global warming.
I like Carlos' and Snave's idea. Can Congressman King from Iowa be the first to go?
I was watching NOW on PBS and there was a piece about the wiretapping issue. Somehow, I blame the media for not informing the populace. Nixon must be turning in his grave with the things Bush has gotten away with. O how America has changed.
Jo
Jo: Yeah, King would be among them, that's for sure. I definitely blame our lapdog "media" for everything Bush has gotten away with. Nixon never would've gotten caught if he had the corporate "media" lapdogs that we have now. I'm sure Nixon is fuming from the grave: "Fuck! I had Woodward and Bernstein hounding me 24/7, and now all the media ever talks about is baseball players on steroids and blonde girls who go missing."
It gives me pause these days when any politician takes a stand. The behind the scenes activities would probably curdle my blood. One thing for sure is that it always involves money and favors.
Ken: Yup, money and favors, that seems to be the driving force behind governments everywhere. And fear...
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