Where’s the Outrage?

Every time that you think that this subject has been been beating down by the forces of good, then comes the forces of evil. A coalition of activists defeated the last effort of the Telecoms to get immunity. But that was then, this is yet another attempt to avoid lawsuits and possibly prosecution and jail time by the telephone companies. They unlawfully gave the Bush administration information that they should not have had. Information that may have been obtained with a court warrant but the Bush administration didn’t want to fool with anything as democratic as the courts.

Blogger Glenn Greenwald has been on this story for years. He has a great post on it. Here’s a small piece of his lengthy post (sadly, Democrats are as much to blame for the current push as Republicans, we have to push back.) -

It is now definitively clear that House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer is the driving force behind a bill — written by GOP Sen. Kit Bond — to vest the President with vast new warrantless eavesdropping powers and to vest lawbreaking telecoms with amnesty. Even as his office dishonestly denies that he is doing so, still more reports yesterday — this one from the NYT and this one from Roll Call (sub req’d) — confirm that a so-called “compromise” is being spearheaded by Hoyer and the House Democratic leadership. The ACLU and EFF are holding a joint call tomorrow to denounce Hoyer’s “compromise” as nothing more than disguised guaranteed immunity for telecoms and, further, because “the proposed deal could be used to authorize dragnet surveillance of Americans’ communications in violation of the Fourth Amendment.”

As a result, there is a major new campaign beginning today aimed at Hoyer and a handful of other key members of Congress who enable telecom immunity and warrantless eavesdropping. In order to raise as much money as possible for this campaign — far more than the $85,000 raised (and still being spent) in Chris Carney’s district as a result of his support for warrantless eavesdropping and telecom amnesty — we are working to create an alliance with numerous organizations and factions across the ideological spectrum which oppose civil liberties erosions, as well as with as many blogs as possible (modeled vaguely after the ideologically diverse alliance that has arisen in Britain in opposition to the sprawling and lawless surveillance state there). (more…)

Tags: Domestic Spying by ecthompson
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One of the great things about You Tube is priceless moments on the floor of the House or Senate can be brought to our attention. C-Span records the proceedings but someone else edits those 3 and 4 hour marathons down to 2 minutes of pure stupidity. Representative Darell Issa serves up tonight’s course.

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From TP:

ISSA: We are going to miss Tim Russert when it comes to the people on both sides of the issue of why we have $5 oil — $5 gasoline and $135 oil. I think Tim Russert would have been just the right guy to hold people accountable, who would talk about the 68 million acres that are, quote, inactive, while in fact 41 million are under current lease and use and are producing millions of barrels of oil and natural gas a day. […] (more…)

 

 Rep. Issa connects Tim Russert and off-shore drilling [1:53m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Tags: Big Oil, House of Representatives by ecthompson
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Barack Obama has been an Iowa filling sandbags. Where’s President Bush? The flooding in the Midwest appears to be some of the worst we’ve seen since the early 90s. Our president, is engaged in doing something important, I just don’t know what it is. Bush did get briefed today and spoke publicly about the flooding in the Midwest.

From AP:

The rising Mississippi River interrupted travel on two bridges between Iowa and Illinois and forced the helicopter rescue of more than a dozen people sandbagging a levee before it broke near the western Illinois village of Gulf Port.

The break also forced the closure of the Great River Bridge that connects Gulf Port to Burlington via U.S. Highway 34 and threatened to deluge farmland. (More…)

Tags: Domestic Issues, Environment by ecthompson
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My good friend, Timothy Johnson, Ph.D., was recently honored by the Buncombe County Republican party.  Timothy Johnson has been elected party chair.  It did not go unnoticed that he is the first black elected party chair in Buncombe County - Republican or Democratic.  In an interview with the Weaverville newspaper, Tim commented on how many blacks are “ignorant” of the bedrock beliefs of the Republican Party.  Dr. Johnson believes that the ideals of the Republican Party line up very well with the ideals of the Black community. 

Before I go on any further, I would like to say that no one and no party has cornered the market on ethics or morality.  There are bad and evil people that are motivated by greed and power in both parties.  But, with that being said, I think we can look over the past 40 years and honestly begin to evaluate which party truly benefitted Blacks and continues to benefit minorities and the underprivileged.  Let’s look at a few issues.

Civil rights.  This one is easy.  There is no contest.  In the 60s the Democrats stood with Blacks.  Southern Democrats who were opposed to integration did not like the direction of the party and slowly but surely left the Democratic Party and joined the Republican Party.  Were there individual Republicans who believed that integration was inevitable?  Were there individual Republicans who believed that segregation was an abomination?  I think the answer is yes on both counts.  Did the Republican party change their platform in 1964 and 1968 to appease Southern Whites?  Yes. 

The Economy.  Republicans like to talk about cutting government spending.  I lived in Texas most of my life.  Republicans rule in Texas.  I saw the state government cut so deeply that some regulatory agencies had to stop regulating.  They had to fire some government workers because there was no more money.  Republicans stood back and smiled but when you go to the DMV and have to wait 2 or 3 hours just to talk to someone before you can begin the process of getting your license?  Please think of those cuts.  When you get a brand new tatoo which gives you a skin infection or possibly even hepatitis because there was not enough inspectors to regularly inspect that parlor who’s smiling now? [Read more →]

Tags: Party Politics, Poverty, Race by ecthompson
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I’m sorry but it has been awhile since I’ve done my news Roundup. Work has been extremely busy.

• Let’s start in Iraq when the US government is negotiating with the Iraqi government over our terms for stay in Iraq. First of all, I find this relatively funny. Iraqis really didn’t ask us to come invade their country. The majority of Iraqis have ordered us to leave for some time. But yet we’re negotiating to stay. Iraqi officials are calling for a significant reduction in our scope and the number of troops that we have in Iraq. The Bush administration, of course, wants us to stay and do whatever we want for as long as we want.
• Car bomb in Baghdad kills 50. Again, it seems like we don’t have enough troops to do the job adequately. We can clearly control the battleground. Unfortunately, we don’t have enough troops to cover the whole country. Just yesterday, four civilians were killed in a suicide attack in northern Baghdad.
• The underbelly of the Republican Party continues to raise its ugly head. A campaign button has shown up at the Texas Republican convention which asked the question — if Obama is president will we still call it the White House. Now, tell me racism does not run rampant in the Republican Party.
• On the campaign trail, John McCain’s delegation has labeled Barack Obama’s approach to foreign affairs in terrorism as they “September 10 mindset.” The Barack Obama campaign has responded by sending Richard Clarke, former counterterrorism czar for Clinton and Bush. Richard Clarke does not seem to back down from anyone. Clark, again, restated Obama’s comprehensive antiterrorism plan which states that he is willing to act on actionable intelligence and even to pursue Al Qaeda into Pakistan. Remember that the Republicans recoiled when Obama said that more than six months ago.
• For reasons that are unclear, at least there are unclear to me, our veterans can’t get a break. It seems that our veterans are being asked to enroll in pharmaceutical drug trials but are not being told of all of the potential side effects of those drugs. First, let me say that actual patient trials, are extremely important in developing new drugs and testing old drugs. Secondly, patients should be and must be informed of all the known potential side effects. Then, let me go one step further, every side effect is not have equal risk. The wrists or the potential of a side effect actually happening to that person needs to be related. I understand the difficulty of informed consent. It is hard to inform a patient or a patient’s family when a patient is psychotic. Yet, every effort must be made.
• DNC continues to push for John McCain’s campaign to obey the campaign laws. They are pushing for an official investigation.

Tags: Domestic Issues, Election 2008, Iraq by ecthompson
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I guess it depends on which side of an issue you find John McCain on. It seems that some times he is a Maverick and other times he isn’t. The only problem is that I’m talking about the same issue.

If anything completely sinks John McCain in this election, it will be You Tube. In this clip, he is both for and against privatizing social security.

Tags: Domestic Issues, Election 2008 by ecthompson
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It seems that Al Gore and the internet will always be linked. Today, at least in my mind, the connect was different than you would think. I was going to post on Al Gore endorsing Barack Obama. There was a packed crowd in Detroit, Mi. As I sat down, to type my post, the internet went out. Unclear what the problem was. Charter swears it wasn’t their problem. I didn’t change anything and after talking to their automated computer, the problem is gone.

Anyway, Al Gore who was the original victim of Swift Boating (remember he was out of touch, he was elitist,etc.) stood and gave a very nice endorsement of Barack Obama. Now, the Democratic party is behind Barack Obama. Now, the ball is clearly in Obama’s court. The election is his to win or lose.

Tags: Election 2008 by ecthompson
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