The Telecoms, FISA, And Amnesty For Illegal Spying

  This has got to be my pet peeves, I think. It just galls the fuck out of me that I, and you, have been paying our phone providers every month just for them to spy on us and turn all of our records over to the Bush Crime Syndicate! I use to have cell service with Verizon but canceled it over a bill dispute so I went to ATT. Was that a big mistake or what? But you and I did not know, at the time that I changed providers, that we were be eaves-dropped on. That our SMS's were being read or that our emails were being stored in someone's database somewhere. Rumor has it that a bill is supposed to be introduced this month, by Republicans, that would make it okay for our government to monitor the entire Internet! This would be passed due to worries that cyber-terrorist might destroy our banking system somehow or some other large financial institutions. Of  course, The rumor is also that the Internet would become a playground for the U.S. Military. Do we really need this? I think not.

  Back to the telecoms and the Bush administration.

There simply is no separation between these corporations and the military and intelligence agencies of the Federal Government. They meet and plan and agree so frequently, and at such high levels, that they practically form a consortium. Just in Nacchio's limited and redacted disclosures, there are descriptions of numerous pre-9/11 meetings between the largest telecoms and multiple Bush national security officials, including Paul Wolfowitz, Condoleezza Rice, NSA Director Gen. Michael Hayden and counter-terrorism advisor Richard Clarke.

The top telecom officials are devoting substantial amounts of their energy to working on highly classified telecom projects with the Bush administration, including projects to develop whole new joint networks and ensure unfettered governmental access to those networks. Before joining the administration as its Director of National Intelligence, Mike McConnell spearheaded the efforts on behalf of telecoms to massively increase the cooperation between the Federal Government and the telecom industry.

The private/public distinction here has eroded almost completely. There is no governmental oversight or regulation of these companies. Quite the contrary, they work in secret and in tandem -- as one consortium -- with no oversight at all.   Source

  If you wish to learn a little bit more about the FISA/amnesty bill and its impact on you, then I suggest reading THIS from the ACLU and/or this concerning one of the lawsuits against AT&T.

    More:   Later On      Reclaim the Media    FISA     Protect America Act

Technorati Tags: FISA, telecom amnesty, NSA, Congress

John McCain

  As many of you know, the GOP is now bound and determined to have Senator McCain as their next leader, which is their right. However, it is not within their right to set this man up as the leader of our country. If they want this old man as a president, then they might as well keep Bush in, since it would be the same old song and dance for another four years. It might even be worse. Much worse.

   The media is making a big deal of McCain's war record and his stint as a Prisoner Of War. He did his thing in service to our country, which is all well and good. That does not guarantee that he will be a good president. Just look at Bush as an example. He went to the better schools and all of that bullshit and even got himself an M.B.A.  at a grade of " c." The better schools,and daddy's money still did not make him any smarter. Most of you know that pretty much every business that Bush has ever been involved with has been a failure, just like his time in the White House has been a failure. Does this country really need/want more of this shit? I know that I do not. I really do not care for either of the Democrats that we have to choose from either. Once again, the media and the corporations have given you and I our choices. The Democratic choices are once again the lesser of two evils. What a choice. I seriously doubt that we even get to choose among our chosen ones any more. I think that our next president has already been decided and that you and I get to vote anymore just to make us feel like we have a say in the matter.

  Back to Senator McCain. I would have actually voted for this man back in 2000 and I have supported him up until the he and Bush agreed on the torture ban.

McCain said.

"We've sent a message to the world that the United States is not like the terrorists. We have no grief for them, but what we are is a nation that upholds values and standards of behavior and treatment of all people, no matter how evil or bad they are," McCain said. "I think that this will help us enormously in winning the war for the hearts and minds of people throughout the world in the war on terror."      Source

  As we all know, this agreement on the torture bill turned out to be nothing more than show for the public as McCain pretty much went along with Bush on everything that Bush said to go along with. McCain was doing nothing but playing theatre with the American public.

  Another reason that McCain should not be the president is, simply, that he is to damned old! We do not need another old fart who is near his end to be sitting in the White House running our country. Come on now! Let's get a younger person in the chair for once. I don't mean Obama or Clinton as I have no use for these two either. McCain is just to old to be sitting in the White House, getting hot-headed and impatient and having to make quick decisions on important matters.

   Did I say hot-headed?

    McCain's political colleagues, however, know another side of the action hero - a volatile man with a hair-trigger temper, who shouted at Senator Ted Kennedy on the Senate floor to "shut up", and called fellow Republican senators "shithead ... fucking jerk ... asshole". A few months ago, McCain suddenly rushed up to a friend of mine, a prominent Washington lawyer, at a social event, and threatened to beat him up because he represented a client McCain happened to dislike. Then, just as suddenly, profusely and tearfully, he apologised.  

Many Republicans who have had dealings with McCain distrust him (not just conservatives but traditional Republican moderates too). While taking rightwing positions on social issues such as abortion and gay marriage, his simmering resentment of Bush led him virtually to caucus with the Democrats in early 2001 (before September 11). Then, abruptly, he rushed to embrace Bush.      Source

    Though McCain can still get up and move around, he has lost something in his life. That would be the life itself. he's gotten older and it shows when you look at him closely while he is giving a speech. He is distant and this country does not need some like this inside the White House. Plus, he will always be tied to George Bush and his policies. Enough is enough.

   Do what is best for this country John McCain. Go back to Arizona, retire, and have a few drinks because you did very well while you could.

Technorati Tags: John McCain, republicans.president, White House