Congress

video link

Over the last few weeks there have been a series of posts at different websites that have documented the latest variations of the conjunction of the military and anti-terror industrial complex with our government. I'm going to call it the Fear Industrial Complex because to be boxed in into the Military Industrial Complex would be inaccurate and wouldn't even come close to defining the collusion of 1) the military wing, with 2) the security wing, with 3) the Congressional wing, with 4) the Presidential wing and lastly 5) the media wing of the complex . There are so many links that if I tried to put them all in one post it would take several hours to put together and would shortshrift them all and be a disservice to the thought-provoking information.

With that, here's the first post by Frida Berrigan, with an intro by Tom Engelhardt in the link. I'm posting the entire thing because things like this have a way of disappearing

America’s Global Weapons Monopoly

End the Afghan War

On Thursday, March 4, Rep. Dennis Kucinich plans to introduce his privileged resolution to end the Afghan War. The resolution requires that the House debate the continuing war in Afghanistan, now the second longest war in American history. Let’s make our voices for peace heard!

Last night, March 2, Rep. Kucinich recorded a special message for PDA members. Click here to listen to the Message from Dennis Kucinich. (Select the second recording.)

Please contact your member of Congress

and ask them to be an original co-sponsor of the Kucinich resolution.

The Destabilization of Haiti

"Washington seeks to reinstate Haiti as a full-fledged US colony, with all the appearances of a functioning democracy. The objective is to impose a puppet regime in Port-au-Prince and establish a permanent US military presence in Haiti. 

Edit: On second thought, the song I embedded, No Woman No Cry is too upbeat for the tone of the post. It's a great song with a positive message, but that kind of gives an excuse to the immoral and gluttonous elites who've ravaged these people for centuries. At the same time, I think this section of the song is a subtle political statement against the colonialist economic overlords. I think at the time, Bob Marley knew he couldn't be overt in this message, but the people who knew -- knew what he was saying

Youtube - No Woman No cry

Said, said, said, I remember when we used to sit
In a government yard in Trenchtown,
Oba - obaserving the hypocrites as they would
Mingle with the good people we meet,
Good friends we have, oh, good friends we've lost
Along the way, In this bright future called life,
you can't forget your past

Below, is a devastating indictment by Chris Floyd on the economic elite's colonialist policies on the People of Haiti

Help Haiti: The Unforgiven Country Cries Out

(UPDATED BELOW)

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-kuttner/a-wake-up-call_b_426467.html

Robert Kuttner on the present, messy status of Obamacare:

How could the health care issue have turned from a reform that was going to make Barack Obama ten feet tall into a poison pill for Democratic senators? Whether or not Martha Coakley squeaks through in Massachusetts on Tuesday, the health bill has already done incalculable political damage and will likely do more.

Kuttner lays out what Obama's and Rahm's sweetheart-dealmaking with the corporations has done to the career of, ironically, one of the more liberal senators:

It has already brought down Senator Byron Dorgan of North Dakota, a fighter for health care and other reforms far more progressive than President Obama's. Dorgan championed Americans' right to re-import cheaper prescription drugs from Canada, a popular provision that the White House blocked. Dorgan, who is one of the Senate's great populists, began the year more than twenty points ahead in the polls of his most likely challenger, North Dakota Governor John Hoeven. By the time he decided to call it a day, Dorgan was running more than twenty points behind. The difference was the health bill, which North Dakotans oppose by nearly two to one. The fact that Dorgan's own views were much better than the Administration's cut little ice. He was fatally associated with an unpopular bill.

There's a lot more to this than meets the eye

There were a lot of warnings that were overlooked and a lot of strange things had to line up in order for the attempted bombing to take place and left a lot of questions begging to be answered ... for instance these ten. Then there was the unrelated (?) strange story that Police ‘forgot’ to take explosives off a flight to Dublin

More to come ...

The Yemen Hidden Agenda: Behind the Al-Qaeda Scenarios, A Strategic Oil Transit Chokepoint

By F. William Engdahl~Global Research

On December 25 US authorities arrested a Nigerian named Abdulmutallab aboard a Northwest Airlines flight from Amsterdam to Detroit on charges of having tried to blow up the plane with smuggled explosives. Since then reports have been broadcast from CNN, the New York Times and other sources that he was “suspected” of having been trained in Yemen for his terror mission. What the world has been subjected to since is the emergence of a new target for the US ‘War on Terror,’ namely a desolate state on the Arabian Peninsula, Yemen. A closer look at the background suggests the Pentagon and US intelligence have a hidden agenda in Yemen.

The Unconstitutional Filibuster
By Kevin Drum | Mon Jan. 11, 2010 10:32 AM PST
Mother Jones

I happen to think the filibuster is unconstitutional. This is a minority view, and also a quixotic one since the Supreme Court will never allow itself to get involved in this, but I still think it's true. So I was naturally happy to see Tom Geoghegan tilt at the filibuster windmill in the New York Times this weekend and lay out the constitutional argument explicitly. The filibuster, Geoghegan says, has probably always been unconstitutional, but in its current form, where no actual floor debate is required and it's been morphed into a routine requirement for 60 votes to pass any bill, it's super duper unconstitutional. He lays out three reasons: [1]

[Several websites where the following info was drawn from listed at end.]

Where We are Now – A Summary

The Senate Bill will go through the “reconciliation process” with the House version that was passed in November.

Both houses will vote on it and the President will try to sign off on it by the time of the State of the Union address in late January.

The President is leaning it is said toward the Senate rather than House bill, especially in terms of the funding. [tax on middle class insurance benefits rather than on wealthy income.]

Under the radar, Obama pushes for Patriot Act renewal

Feingold expresses frustration over Senate version

Richard Moore
Investigative Reporter

With key sections of the U.S. Patriot Act set to expire Dec. 31, the Obama administration - essentially tiptoeing through the corridors of Congress and using the raucous health care debate as cover - has quietly maneuvered for renewal of the controversial provisions, which he opposed as a senator.

Perhaps the most contentious measure is the business records provision, also known as the library provision, which allows the government to seek a court order forcing private entities such as banks, hospitals, and libraries to hand over "any tangible thing" - from library circulation records to medical records - officials think is relevant in a terrorist investigation.

That is patently false a bald-faced lie by the government; the implied message is that this is only used in terrorism investigations and is used judiciously, and fairly, ... which it has not. And the contention that there are court orders involved in what they want to do, is an insult to our intelligence: National Security Letters, and their abuse

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
The Word - Spyvate Sector
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Economy

ACLU: What you should know

On December 31, 2009, three provisions of the Patriot Act will sunset. This is the perfect opportunity for Congress to examine all of our surveillance laws and amend those that have been found unconstitutional or have been abused to collect information on innocent people, including last year's changes to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) and the Attorney General Guidelines (AGGs).

Click the 1st pic for a slideshow and the second for an interactive map
.

Peter Morici via Ian Welsh

You got to admit President Obama obfuscates embarrassing facts and pays off his supporters as well as any politician since Huey Long.

He slams health insurance companies, while endorsing heath care reforms that would compel thirty more million Americans to buy their policies or face a poll tax.

Now he slams the bankers for paying themselves $140 billion in bonuses.

Those bonuses were "earned" trading derivatives and other engineered products [watch these two videos] with the more than $2 trillion in cheap credit provided by the Federal Reserve, TARP and other Washington largess. Meanwhile, bankers denied worthy homeowners opportunities to refinance mortgages and solid small businesses credit.

How much is $140 billion?

Pa.thet.ic. Pelosi allowed a grand total of one amendment to this bill and it wasn't the Kucinich Amendment to allow states like California to pass their own Single-Payer bill

Saturday Night Special: "Historic" Vote Kills Health Care Reform for Another Generation

Written by Chris Floyd

Sunday, 08 November 2009 21:22

What did you do last Saturday night? Head out for dinner and a movie? Take in a show? Hit the clubs? Get cozy on the couch with your main squeeze? Well, here's what the U.S. House of Representatives did: they passed an "historic" health care bill which will put the kibosh on any genuine, equitable, sensible health care reform for many and many a year.

Related: Senate Passes $636 Billion Military Bill"

ABC News: Is the U.S. Preparing to Bomb Iran?

DoD Contracts for Oct. 2, 2009

McDonnell Douglas Corporation of St. Louis, Missouri was awarded a $51,900,000 contract to provide Massive Ordnance Penetrator Integration on B-2 test aircraft. At this time $32,150,000 has been obligated. 708 ARSG/PK, Eglin Air Force Base, Florida is the contracting Activity. (FA8681-09-C-0280,P00002)

Massive Ordnance Penetrator Integration = Bunker Busters

Pepe Escobar: It's Bomb, Bomb, Bomb Iran Time

Connecting the Dots: The Axis of Evil Closes in on Iran's Nuclear Sites, while the G20 stamps on our Civil Rights

In the great global chess match, the Axis of Evil exchanges pieces with Russia towards a check-mate on Iran, while Afghanistan is set to be the proving ground of an open-ended military strategy.

The G20 crowns itself queen of the global economy, as our civil liberties are pawned off the board for the illusion of security.

If the audience is the human masses, they seem blithely disinterested in the high-stakes moves on the board and only vaguely aware that beneath the board itself Mother Nature is shaking the table, rattling the Earth and making waves.

September was yet another episode in the slow motion collision of humanity's tragic history and reality.

"Don't know much about history"

~ Sam Cooke

Mr. Panetta Needs a History Lesson

CIA director Leon Panetta implied Sunday that the "reality of 9/11" excused the unconstitutional and criminal acts of the Bush administration:

The country was frightened, and political leaders were trying to respond as best they could. Judgments were made. Some of them were wrong.

Panetta makes it sound like all of the illegal decisions were made after 9/11, in response to that horrific event.

But as I've previously pointed out:

* The government's spying on Americans began before 9/11 (confirmed here and here)

* The Patriot Act was written before 9/11 [*note below*]

* The Afghanistan war was planned before 9/11

* The decision to launch the Iraq war was made before 9/11

* The decision to launch a war against Iran was made before 9/11

* Cheney advocated strengthening the powers of the White House to the point of monarchy before 9/11

In addition, while the decision to torture appears to have been made after 9/11, it appears to have been made for the purpose of creating a false linkage between Iraq and 9/11 in order to justify the Iraq war. In other words, the post-9/11 decision to torture appears to have been made to rationalize the pre-9/11 decision to invade Iraq.

Moreover, it was known long before 9/11 that torture doesn't work to produce accurate intelligence.

Click the header to read the links

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[**] The link for the article on the Patriot Act being written prior to 9/11 is dead, but I found a reprint and will reprint it in it's entirety below

The USA PATRIOT Act Was Planned Before 9/11

[For an idea on why Tim Geithner's inept plan for "regulating" derivatives is wrong - read this - Myron Scholes Intellectual Godfather of Credit Default Swap: ‘Blow ‘em all up’. Seriously, watch the two videos, and read what Myron Scholes (Nobel Prize winner in Economics) said about blowing them up]

Hearings on Independence of the Federal Reserve, and Derivatives This Week

One of the friends of TBP on Capitol Hill sent a note yesterday about two important hearings before the House Financial Services Committee:

“Lots of interesting hearings coming up in the next month (next Monday is one on Too Big to Fail and one on Insider Trading by Government Officials). It’s a very critical month; Barney wants to get regulatory restructuring done by the end of July, so this is going to be an extremely heavy legislative session. This week has (among other things) hearings on the independence of the Federal Reserve and on derivatives on Friday (with Geithner). The links are below.”

[...]

Friday at 10am (7am Pacific): A Review of the Administration’s Proposal to Regulate the Over-the-Counter Derivatives Market

http://www.house.gov/apps/list/hearing/financialsvcs_dem/hrfc_081009.shtml (Live video at link)

[...]

In terms of derivatives, a joint Financial Services-Agricultural Committee hearing will be held Friday. There may be over a hundred members of Congress and one witness: Tim Geithner. As many of you know, I have been very critical of Geithner and his pandering to Wall Street. I continue to believe that the loans to AIG are in violation of the FRA because they are not fully collateralized and thus not sell-liquidating.

I asked the HFSC to explain the rational for having Secretary Geithner as the only witness for the joint hearing on OTC derivatives:

“Why is Chairman Frank only inviting Geithner for the OTC hearing? Aside from the fact that he is a puppet of JPM/GS/SIFMA, he does not really understand the subject matter!”

A senior staffer replied: “Ha! Answer: because Geithner appears to have forgot what happened to Icarus, although that is a more-global problem for him than just this one hearing.”