AmeriKKKa Is Sinking Deeper Into Fascist Quicksand
AmeriKKKa Is Sinking Deeper in Fascist Quicksand “The mainstream media is dominated by a handful of mega corporations who control what many of us hear, read, and believe. The propaganda masters are censoring and suppressing the truth from the American people. There are many reporters who know the truth but dare not talk or write about it, and what some report they don't even believe themselves. Those who are courageous enough to stand up to the establishment are often ridiculed, intimidated, and blocked by editors and producers who are acting as gatekeepers to the truth. There have been calls for the arrests and even death of those who criticize the government. You know you have slipped into a fascist dictatorship when those who dissent are treated like traitors, terrorists, and enemies of the state. We are being brainwashed with all the propaganda that we are subjected to in our everyday lives in an effort to control our minds and shift us into massive groupthink. We are being told that we are spreading democracy around the world while our own freedoms are being systematically taken away.” Fake News and Propaganda: Shaping Our Reality by Dana Gabriel http://stoplying.ca/articles/07/nov/112707_dana_fake_news_propaganda.php
Tim Russert’s sudden death witnessed the rallying and coalescing of the of the media prostitutes and elites to defend and praise one of their top reality shaping sycophants and disinformation gatekeepers. Russert was hailed and canonized as a valiant journalist and a tough interviewer by the very people he allowed to lie and set the nation on a course for wreck and ruin without as much as a whimper of protest or criticism. It was an exercise in collective self-aggrandizement and Orwellian revisionism. The media gatekeepers had to deify Russert because he was one of the top sycophants and megaphones for the New World Oder. He was given ample air time and used it to promote the ruling elites' nefarious agenda to a gullible and unsuspecting audience. For this Russert was given accolades and was richly rewarded. They called him a “nice guy”, they said he was kind and compassionate. He may have been in his personal life; but professionally he was an agent who uncritically promoted war, fascism and global imperialism.
Possibly Russert was a nice guy. Such descriptions and accolades are relative, depending upon one’s frame of reference, values and experiences. Maybe Russert was a genuinely likable guy. Maybe they just said it because compared to so many other’s he seemed like a decent person or because white people don’t like to say anything bad about a dead person. The media gatekeepers weld enormous power and influence and often it goes to their heads. Some don’t need a microphone or camera to pump them up or entice them to say or do something outrageous, they are already wacky. In the era of shock jocks and Jerry Springer type “reality show” incivility and whack behavior are promoted and handsomely rewarded. The media talking heads are no exception. For example, recently Michael Reagan the son of former president Ronald Reagan who makes his living as a nationally syndicated “conservative” talk show host actually called for the death of Mark Dice and activist who disagreed with or dissented against the party line of the ruling elites. He called for Dice’s murder because he questioned the veracity of the government’s story about 9-11. He said, “We ought to find the people who are doing this, take them out and shoot them. Really. You take them out, they are traitors to this country, and shoot them. You have a problem with that? Deal with it. You shoot them. You call them traitors, that's what they are, and you shoot them dead. I'll pay for the bullets. How about you take Mark Dice out and put him in the middle of a firing range. Tie him to a post, don't blindfold him, let it rip and have some fun with Mark Dice,” Reagan then had the video of this rant pulled from You Tube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdJO-kUINMs . As you can see it is no longer available. Reagan subsequently apologized but he is still on the air. Imagine what would have happened to a conscious black talk show host who said something like that on the air? The FCC would be all over him and the station would have been censored or worse. But because Michael Reagan is a white boy related to the phony fascist hero of the NeoCons, nothing was done.
Joseph Goebbels , Hitler’s cunning Minister of Propaganda would have been tickled pink. Reagan isn’t the only NeoCon who has uttered vitriolic verbiage at a guest or caller. Bill O’Reilly the king NeoCon shill at Fox is noted for his abuse of guests who disagree with him, he tries to intimidate anyone who doesn’t toe the fascist warmongering line on his program. But this is nothing new. AmeriKKKa has always been intolerant and hard on those who dissented against their policies of group think and wickedness. Whites ran Ida B Wells out of Memphis for daring to run an anti-lynching newspaper campaign when lynching was sport and a community past time for whites. Southern Democrats hauled Paul Robeson and Langston Hughes before the House Un-American Activities Committee because they disapproved of their essays, poetry, singing, acting and political activities. Now they are trying to browbeat Michelle Obama because of her comments about AmeriKKKa. The notions about freedom of speech, freedom of the press and freedom of assembly are a bunch of bs!
AmeriKKKa is sinking deeper into moral quicksand as the mind control apparatus defines and shapes the psyches of the masses who uncritically consume ever more pervasive media. The mass media shapes our reality and values. The programmers are masters of psychological manipulation. None of us are immune to the devastating impact of the ruling elites’ ongoing campaign of psychological warfare and menticide directed towards us.
“It is through propaganda that our minds are being shaped and molded. A mass conditioning is taking place through the media, television shows, commercials, and video games. It is being used as a tool to control, program, and manipulate our minds through the power of suggestion and repetition. Our values are constantly being shaped and re-shaped, and at times our subconscious minds are unable to distinguish between fact and fiction. Ideas and premises are stored in our memory banks, and when they do become reality, we will have already accepted or at least warmed up to such scenarios. Television, radio and print media dictate to us what is important, what is in fashion, what are the latest trends, what to eat, read, and watch. To many, what they see on TV becomes their reality. There is definitely a correlation between the dumbing down of the population, the moral meltdown, and the amount of television being watched. One need not look any further than reality TV, where we are being desensitized to endless degrading acts on shows like Big Brother. These shows are inundated with sexual content, vulgarity, and humiliating, conniving, and backstabbing acts. Today’s television is destroying our very moral fiber and what is left of our values. When we are subjected to the true reality TV like the Iraqi prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib, where is the outrage? We have become a decadent society and are on the decline, being made to accept things like torture. Many television shows, such as 24, openly advocate torture and it seems as if art is imitating reality. America is the new Rome, and we aren’t that far away from so-called terrorist and other enemies of the state being abused and even killed for our viewing pleasure.” Fake News and Propaganda: Shaping Our Reality by Dana Gabriel
Unlike a totalitarian government where the dictators’ minions control the media, AmeriKKKa is a fascist oligarchy where the corporate elites own and control the media and the corporate directors and their flunkies dictate the content tone and tenor of the programming. AmeriKKKa is a fascist state and is becoming more repressive daily. The ruling elites have mastered the technique of making people think we live in a “democracy”, that we have some say over our lives when in fact every day they are scheming and conspiring to take away more and more of our “liberties”. We are kept distracted and the distractions are so pervasive we don’t realize what is going on. Even when some of us do wake up we tend to be overwhelmed by the enormity of the system oppressing us and awed by the apathy of our peers.
“What are its mechanisms of control? The use of telecommunications technologies for surveillance is obvious. So are willful alteration of computer data for public reportage, manipulation of television news for opinion-shaping, and use of microwave-emitting weapons for crowd control. Less obvious are what could be called ‘inverted mechanization’ whereby citizens blindly accept the march of technological development as an expression of a very inexact, some would say erroneous, concept of ‘progress.’ One mechanism propagating such blindness is the U.S. government’s invisible role as regulatory handmaiden to industry, offering little-to-no means for citizen determination of what technologies are disseminated; instead we get whatever GMOs and nuclear plants corporations dish out. A glaring example is the Telecommunications Act of 1996 that, seeking to not repeat the ‘errors’ of the nuclear industry, offers zero public input as to health or environmental impacts of its antennae, towers, and satellites – the result being that the public has not a clue about the very real biological effects of electromagnetic radiation. Inverted mechanization is thrust forward as well by unequal access to resources: corporations lavishly crafting public opinion and mounting limitless legal defenses versus citizen groups who may be dying from exposure to a dangerous technology but whose funds trickle in from bake sales.” Techno-Fascism Every Move You Make By CHELLIS GLENDENNING www.counterpunch.com/glendenning06192008.html
We live in challenging times. The CREATOR and ancestors are urging us on to rise to the occasion, shake off the lethargy and cowardice, tap into our innate genius and potential, reconnect with our African mind and SPIRIT, actualize our greatness, redeem and transform ourselves and restore Ma’at to planet earth. Now is the time. The word is depending upon us.
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Rusert's death Gives US Media Some Breathing Room
Russert’s Death Gives US Media Breathing Room “The notion that Russert asked the 'tough questions' of those he interviewed, advanced by a host of former colleagues on a tribute broadcast this Sunday in place of “Meet the Press,” is absurd. During the run-up to the war, Russert, along with the rest of the media, provided a platform for Vice President Dick Cheney and others to present their lying claims about Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction without seriously calling any of them into question. On March 16, 2003, only days before the US-led invasion of Iraq, Russert virtually handed his program over to Cheney, providing the latter with a propaganda opportunity in front of a large national audience, much of it skeptical about the administration’s claims. Russert’s particular role here was to politely raise certain doubts and allow Cheney to allay them.” www.wsws.org/articles/2008/jun2008/russ-j16.shtml
The sudden transition of corporate shill Tim Russert of NBC has given the US mind control apparatus some much needed breathing room. The corporate media has come under fire in recent months for its handling of the presidential primaries, the pass they give the Bu$h administration and the decline of open minded analysis and hard hitting investigative reporting. The media is supposed to have a liberal bias but in truth it is fascist and right wing in nature. Scott McClellan’s recent book took the corporate media to task for being sock puppets for George W Bu$h’s preemptive invasion of Iraq. McClellan’s book put the big time media talking heads in an extremely awkward position. There were no WMDs, Saddam Hussein was not involved in 9-11 and the invasion and occupation has not been a “cakewalk” as the Bu$h-Cheney administration and the corporate media repeatedly told us. Most AmeriKKKans have by now deduced we were snookered by the Bu$hites with the blessings and cooperation of the mainstream media. Folks are taking their revenge out on the corporate media; both newspaper readership, network and cable news viewing has declined precipitously. More people now get their news from the Internet ,short wave radio and the foreign press now than ever before. Disingenuous sycophants and shills like Tim Russert were the catalyst for these changes.
Russert died last Friday of a heart attack while at work in the NBC Washington Bureau office. His death provides a respite from the scrutiny and scorn McClellan’s book and recent events have refocused on the US media. The news and cable channels took a hit during the contrived controversies they created during the recent presidential primaries. McClellan’s book provided additional fuel for the fire. The media talking heads were all back peddling denouncing McClellan as a crass opportunist sell out who betrayed his former long time friend and associate George W Bu$h rather than owning up to their role in selling an illegal war.
But most AmeriKKKan’s knew the Bu$h administration conducted a prolonged propaganda campaign to dupe us into going along with his plans for imperialist wars beginning with the US invasion of Haiti, Afghanistan and then Iraq. Some of us have even pointed out the corporate media has given Bu$h a free pass on every major issue since he announced his candidacy for the presidency in 2000. It was the corporate media who refused to grill Bu$h on his AWOL status during the Vietnam war, his inexperience on foreign affairs, his shady business history, the economy or the inconsistencies about the official government accounts of 9-11 or the obvious white wash and cover up of the 9-11 Commission!
Russert was a flunky, a functionary of the corporate elites doing the bidding of his fascist masters. The ruling elites use the Sunday morning “public affairs programs” like
Meet The Press to promote their fascist agenda and Russert was a willing shill albeit one who occasionally exposed his guest’s inconsistencies and contradictions. But Russert was no threat to the status quo. If he were, he would never have been given the position at NBC on Meet The Press nor the wide latitude and free hand he was at MSNBC and CNBC. Russert was the quintessential company man and he was well paid for it.
But at his death, Russert’s contemporaries in the mainstream media went out their way to portray him as a sainted news hound. On MSNBC they were touting his devotion to Catholicism, how he contemplated going into the priesthood. On PBS he was canonized. It was sickening to see the talking heads sitting on stage reconstructing and making up history to make Russert a hero. In essence they were using Russert’s death to take the pressure off of themselves. By heaping praise on him they were using him to vicariously absolve themselves of their crimes of warmongering and deceit. His death gave them an opportune break from having to rationalize being sycophants and cheerleaders for Bu$h’s fascist agenda that time has shown to be one of the colossal, costly and bone headed misadventures of this nation’s history.
While he portrayed himself as a blue collar guy from Buffalo New York, Russert was actually a political insider having worked as the Chief of Staff for New York Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan’s senatorial campaign as well as press secretary for Mario Cuomo’s campaign for New York governor. His experiences and political connections helped him land a job at NBC. From there he parlayed his connections, skills and willingness to shill for the power elites to become host of NBC’s
Meet The Press. Make no mistake Russert was no blue collar working class radical. He was one of the good ol’ boys as far as toeing the line for the corporate oligarchy. “
Russert became a household name during the period of the severe decline of the American media, when ignorance, superficiality and cynicism became the hallmarks of all that passed for news and analysis. It is worth noting that in its original format ‘Meet the Press’ had a single guest and a panel of questioners. It went through various permutations, until ‘Under Russert,’ as one commentator notes, ‘the show was expanded to one hour, and became less of a televised press conference and more focused on Russert, with longer interviews and Russert hosting panels of experts.’” Tim Russert and the decay of the American media By David North and David Walsh 16 June 2008 www.wsws.org/articles/2008/jun2008/russ-j16.shtml
In the Orwellian New World Order a shill and propagandist like Russert is painted by his colleagues as a tough minded interviewer and reporter.
“CBS News ‘Early Show’ Co-Anchor Harry Smith: ‘Man did Tim Russert love politics. He ate it, lived it and breathed it. His knowledge of it was organic, internal and genetic. It showed in his every broadcast, in his every debate appearance. He was not afraid, nor was he intimidated. And because he was so good at what he did, we were the beneficiaries. He was in that chair for us, and we were damned lucky he was.’” www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/06/13/politics/main4180701.shtml
The media is using Russert’s demise to take the pressure off of themselves, restore order and regain the initiative in the ongoing psychological war they are waging against the AmeriKKKan people. Russert himself admitted he wasn’t forceful in probing the administrations claims about the war on Terror and WMDs. Perhaps that’s why so many Washington insiders and media talking heads are singing Russert’s praises at a time when the corporate media has lost all credibility. They are cheering him on just like he cheered them and their polices that now have AmeriKKKa on the brink of fiscal collapse and moral ruin.
In fact the media’s coverage of Russert’s passing also allows the corporate media to keep the news of Congressman Dennis Kucinich introduction of thirty five articles of impeachment against George W Bu$h and the failure of the Democratic Congress to take serious action on it off the front pages or the TV news! The massive coverage of Russert’s death also allows all the news media to ignore the US Senate’s recently released report documenting Bu$h and Cheney lied about the threat of Saddam Hussein and Weapons of Mass Destruction, thus validating McClellan’s charges and Kucinich’s articles of impeachment . We certainly can’t have that can we? S now we see how the game is played; even in death Tim Russert is still performing useful service for his fascist masters.
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Major Corporate Media Cover Up
Another Major Corporate Media Cover Up “ 10/06/08 Belfast Telegraph - Former Democratic presidential contender, Dennis Kucinich, has called for the impeachment of George W Bush claiming that the president set out to deceive the nation, and violated his oath of office with the Iraq war. The Ohio representative yesterday introduced 35 articles of impeachment against Bush on the floor of the US House of Representatives. Kucinich unveiled a list of alleged illegal and improper acts by Bush, including war crimes. He accused Bush executing a "calculated and wide-ranging strategy" to deceive citizens and Congress into believing that Iraq posed an imminent threat to the United States. He went on to say that Bush and Cheney lied to Congress and the American public about the reasons for invading Iraq in 2003 and abused their offices in order to conduct the ‘War on Terror’ following the 9/11 attacks.” http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article20061.htm
While the corporate mind control apparatus vainly attempts to make a case for Hillary Rodham Clinton being Barack Obama’s vice presidential running mate, the biggest story since Scott McClellan’s new book revealed the Bu$h administration engaged in an ongoing and systematic propaganda campaign to deceive and dupe the AmeriKKKan public into going along with an illegal preemptive invasion of Iraq, the corporate media is deliberately ignoring an equally important story; the introduction of a thirty-five count articles of Impeachment against George W Bu$h. The so called “liberal media” (which is actually controlled by right wingers) either buried the story on the back pages or totally ignored it altogether. Dennis Kucinich considered by many of the cowards and crooks in Congress as a wild eyed idealist, has done what his colleagues should have done at least two years ago when the Democrats took control of the US House of Representatives. Back then Nancy Pelosi who became the first woman to be elected Speaker of the US House of Representatives arbitrarily took impeachment off the table even before she was sworn into her new position. ( I wonder what all the white feminists who supported Hillary Rodham Clinton a shout about female leadership have to say about that?)
While for me Kucinich’s actions are too little too late, and this is compounded by the fact he hasn’t received any backing or support from his spineless, morally deficient Congressional colleagues, at least one Congress person went on record saying enough is enough, its time Bu$h be held accountable for his crimes by the AmeriKKKan people. Even though Nancy Pelosi and the rest of the puppets, sell outs and cowards in Congress will not uphold their oaths, at least the Congressional record and history will reflect that one lone Congressman threw caution to the wind, obeyed his conscience and his sworn duty to defend and protect the US Constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic.
It is quite telling that his colleagues are missing in action on this issue, even John Conyers who made such a big deal prior to the 2006 election about making impeachment proceedings one of his top priorities. The NeoCons and fascists within the Democratic Party got to Conyers early on threatening to withhold the Chairmanship of the House Judiciary Committee from him if he didn’t stand down on the impeachment issue. Conyers acquiesced, shut up, took the position and rationalized his inaction by saying the votes weren’t there. So what if the votes weren’t there? At least let the people know you stand for something, let the citizenry know
you know right from wrong that there are some members of Congress who have integrity and have put honor and doing the right thing above going along to get along!
I find it ironic the corporate media is now on their heels, awkwardly back peddling in a defensive posture because of Scott McClellan’s revelations about the media’s complicity in promoting the Iraq War. They spend their time gigglin’ and jivin’ trying to spin the story McClellan is the one who should be ashamed, that he is the money grubbing mercenary who sold Bu$h out for a lucrative book deal. Yet here is an important follow up story with all kinds of political implications staring them in the face and the corporate media is giving the Kucinich impeachment story no play or traction whatsoever. But anyone who says the media is part and parcel of an ongoing campaign of class warfare, disinformation, distraction and deceit is mocked and derided as a “conspiracy theorist”. Despite the fact the Pentagon recently admitted it employed retired military personnel to act as resource persons and talking heads to regurgitate their talking points to help sell the war and occupation of Iraq, anyone who points out this obvious collusion is dismissed as a nut.
If you bring up Operation Mockingbird a post WW II program whereby the newly created CIA schemed to infiltrate the media and have prominent journalists on their payroll, you are dismissed as a kook despite the fact Operation Mockingbird is now in full effect! There are some people who actually cannot connect the dots, who think the media doesn’t have a socio-political agenda, that “we the people” own the airwaves?! I beg to differ. The corporate media does the bidding of its owners and their shareholders. Their goal in this predatory capitalistic society is to make a profit, however; like their counterparts in totalitarian regimes, their job is to brainwash us, dummy us down and keep us bamboozled and discombobulated.
We are witnessing the results of a major conspiracy, to deceive, defraud and rob the AmeriKKKan people of our sons and daughters and our wealth via perpetual war. FYI, the legal definition of the word conspiracy is: “a combination of two or more persons to commit a criminal or unlawful act, or to commit a lawful act by criminal or unlawful means; or a combination of two or more person by concerted action to accomplish an unlawful purpose, or some purpose not in itself unlawful by unlawful means.” Barron’s Law Dictionary Fourth Edition. The mass media in concert with the Bu$h administration conspired either through verbal agreement or concerted action to dupe the AmeriKKKan people into supporting illegal invasions of Haiti, Afghanistan and Iraq.
Now the corporate media is engaged in a massive cover up of their culpability. To accomplish this they must trivialize, ignore or suppress the news, analysis and follow up of Congressman Dennis Kucinich’s introduction of articles of impeachment against their co-conspirator George W Bu$h. The question is what are we going to do about it? I’ve done my part by bringing this to your attention. You can do you part by writing calling, faxing of E-mailing your Congressional representative and asking him or her to support Kucinich in this effort!
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George W Bu$h Be Tried As A War Criminal?
Will George W. Bu$h Be Prosecuted As A War Criminal? “Under the Nuremberg standard, Bush is definitely a war criminal. The US Supreme Court also exposed Bush to war crime charges under both the US War Crimes Act of 1996 and the Geneva Conventions when the Court ruled in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld against the Bush administration’s military tribunals and inhumane treatment of detainees. President Bush and his Attorney General agree that under existing laws and treaties Bush is a war criminal together with many members of his government. To make his war crimes legal after the fact, Bush has instructed the Justice (sic) Department to draft changes to the War Crimes Act and to US treaty obligations under the Geneva Conventions. One of Bush’s changes would deny protection of the Geneva Conventions to anyone in any American court.” Bush Seeks Retroactive Laws To Protect Himself From War Crimes Prosecution by Paul Craig Roberts http://www.lewrockwell.com/roberts/roberts169.html
As imbecilic as some in the alternative media portray him and as out of it as most of his inner circle depict him in their memoirs, George W. Bu$h is really sly like a fox. He knowingly launched an illegal invasion and occupation of three nations (if you count Haiti) that posed no threat to the US, he ordered torture and sanctioned all kinds of inhumane treatment of civilians and supposed “enemy combatants” and he has deliberately violated the US Constitution at will. After invading and occupying Afghanistan and Iraq, in the second half of 2006 Bu$h ordered his Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to find ways to circumvent Geneva Convention rules and absolve him of any culpability as a war criminal. Bu$h even went to great lengths to seek out members of Congress to ask them to pass retroactive legislation that would protect him and members of his cabinet from being tried as war criminals under existing US codes and protocols of the Geneva Convention. Does that sound like Bu$h is an idiot, oblivious to the consequences of his actions?
Despite his media contrived image as a “man of God”, Bu$h knows he is a war criminal but he also knows as a sitting president the US Constitution protects him from indictment or arrest. He knows once he leaves office things will change and he is fair game. As his popularity and approval rating sank precipitously and remained at the lowest level of any sitting president, Bu$h is keenly aware many are chomping at the bit to bring charges against him and his cronies in an international tribunal, or the International Criminal Court once he leaves office.
As Bu$h’s imperialist occupations drag on with no end in sight, as revelations about atrocities mount, even the gullible and comatose US public is beginning to sense something is amiss; that AmeriKKKa is heading in the wrong direction. Despite the incessant jingoism and militarist propaganda that is the bedrock of Bu$h’s bogus War on Terrorism, after five grueling years of war in Afghanistan and Iraq, AmeriKKKans are becoming extremely war weary. As we see the debilitating consequences of these wars on our daily lives, staggering inflation, gas prices souring, record military spending, corruption and waste trumping domestic needs, government effectiveness and credibility evaporating as a compliant Congress rubber stamps Bu$h’s military misadventures over the wishes of the people, people are now considering the need for justice. Sensing this, in 2006 Bu$h moved to protect himself and his administration from prosecution for war crimes.
“The Bush administration has drafted amendments to a war crimes law that would eliminate the risk of prosecution for political appointees, CIA officers and former military personnel for humiliating or degrading war prisoners, according to U.S. officials and a copy of the amendments. Officials say the amendments would alter a U.S. law passed in the mid-1990s that criminalized violations of the Geneva Conventions, a set of international treaties governing military conduct in wartime. The conventions generally bar the cruel, humiliating and degrading treatment of wartime prisoners without spelling out what all those terms mean. The draft U.S. amendments to the War Crimes Act would narrow the scope of potential criminal prosecutions to 10 specific categories of illegal acts against detainees during a war, including torture, murder, rape and hostage-taking. Left off the list would be what the Geneva Conventions refer to as ‘outrages upon [the] personal dignity’ of a prisoner and deliberately humiliating acts -- such as the forced nakedness, use of dog leashes and wearing of women's underwear seen at the U.S.-run Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq -- that fall short of torture. ‘People have gotten worried, thinking that it's quite likely they might be under a microscope,’ said a U.S. official. Foreigners are using accusations of unlawful U.S. behavior as a way to rein in American power, the official said, and the amendments are partly meant to fend this off.’” http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/08/AR2006080801276_pf.html
In 2006 the Democrats sold “we the people out” by taking impeachment off the table; so now the only recourse for justice is trying the Bu$h cabal as war criminals. Scott McClellan’s new book as well as statements by Paul Wolfowitz and numerous former Bu$h administration members and NeoCons provide ample evidence Bu$h should indeed be hauled into court and tried as a war criminal as soon as he leaves the White House.
“The United States already has a statute on the books relevant to US criminal acts in repeated abuse of Iraqi prisoners in violation of the Geneva Conventions; the question is, how can that statute be made to work, particularly in light of inhuman treatment of so many Iraqi prisoners in US custody - in some cases resulting in death. Legal scholars and experts in International Criminal Law are presently researching the idea of a legal brief that sets forth the potential for criminal/legal liability on the part of top Bush Administration officials including President Bush himself. Such a brief will define the need for an independent, non-Justice Department-led investigation which will educate the press, the public, and Congress to the point where enough pressure builds for serious investigations to begin. Members of Congress, for example, could call on disclosure of information about the President’s knowledge and authorization of illegal Iraqi interrogations. For example, when was Bush informed about the Iraqi prisoner abuses, and what did he do to stop the abuse, and did he ever authorize the torture of prisoners. Congress could also call upon the appointment of a Special Prosecutor to investigate the President. Under such auspices key members of the Bush administration will be questioned about non-disclosure on Bush’s authorization of illegal Iraqi interrogations; likewise the Attorney Generally will be formally questioned about the appointment of a Special Prosecutor and the official's own statements concerning Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq in tandem with questions concerning prisoner abuse in Iraq and other outstanding questions relating to International Criminal law.” Bush Administration War Crimes in Iraq http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Bush_Administration_War_Crimes_in_Iraq
The article quoted above is about international war crimes, not the domestic crimes Bu$h has committed such as illegally spying on all AmeriKKans without warrant or reason or his clear violations of the US Constitution and US Bill of Rights. These crimes need to also be addressed! The question is, will justice prevail? Is it possible to get true justice and if so when will Bu$h and his fellow sociopaths be held accountable for their mendacity, genocide and other high crimes and misdemeanors?
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Rating Services Cover Their Asses
Ratings Services Cover Their Asses “NEW YORK (Reuters) - Standard & Poor's in a sweeping move on Monday that rocked markets cut ratings on a number of major U.S. securities firms including Lehman Brothers Inc and said outlooks on the large U.S. financial institutions are now mostly negative. Other major firms downgraded were Merrill Lynch & Co Inc and Morgan Stanley.” http://www.reuters.com/article/ousiv/idUSN0246031620080602
In a long overdo and shocking move this past Monday, Standard and Poor’s rating service lowered the ratings on several of Wall Street’s heaviest hitters. I suspect they are doing so to prevent further damage and trauma to investors but more so to protect themselves from future lawsuits and litigation. In a major economic crisis such as we are experiencing now, there are numerous culprits responsible for the massive mortgage and credit collapse that are rocking the US domestic markets and global economy. The Federal Reserve Bank a collection of privately owned banks that Congress gave permission to set US monetary, interest and credit policies is the prime perpetrator. But the collapse wouldn’t be this pervasive without the active participation and collusion of players such as Wall Street, the mortgage companies and brokers, insurance companies, the bond rating agencies, the media and the US government.
One of the most crucial players in the massive fraud that has propped Wall Street in recent years has been the bond and financial rating services such as Standard and Poor’s, Moody’s and Fitch who colluded with Wall Street investment and brokerage houses and the shadow banking system (which is made up of unregulated hedge funds, derivatives and other exotic sounding schemes) to trick individuals and institutional entities such as mutual, pension and hedge funds into pouring their money in extremely risky investment vehicles. The rating companies have helped defraud millions of individual and institutional investors (mutual, pension and hedge funds) out of their hard earned money by giving companies and investment banks like Enron or Bear Sterns, for example, favorable ratings when they knew full the accountants, bean counters and CEOs were using what even an idiot like George W Bu$h called “fuzzy math”. They knew the books were cooked and the loans were high risk yet they turned a blind eye and deaf ear and gave them favorable ratings so they could get their commissions and fees.
It is the job of the rating companies to analyze the ability of companies to meet their financial obligations, earn a profit and insure their investors get a good return on their investment. This means doing due diligence, researching and investigating the company’s, industry’s or government’s past history, its current financial status and projecting how well it can fulfill its responsibilities to its shareholders and investors.
“Some financial analysts, called ratings analysts, evaluate the ability of companies or governments that issue bonds to repay their debts. On the basis of their evaluation, a management team assigns a rating to a company’s or government’s bonds, which helps them to decide whether to include them in a portfolio. Other financial analysts perform budget, cost, and credit analysis as part of their responsibilities. Financial analysts use spreadsheet and statistical software packages to analyze financial data, spot trends, and develop forecasts. Analysts also use the data they find to measure the financial risks associated with making a particular investment decision. On the basis of their results, they write reports and make presentations, usually with recommendations to buy or sell particular investments.” http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos259.htm
These reports are the life blood of the ratings service, and an important tool for investors. If the rating services say a company, industry, government or a country is a good risk, a sure thing, it sends a signal that it is ok for investors to invest in that company, industry or government. The current mortgage crisis could never have been as widespread as it is, without the active collusion of the major bond rating companies. These companies knowingly abdicated their professional responsibilities and gave dubious bond offerings such as the shaky subprime mortgages and other loans (auto, student and speculative ventures the Wall Street investment firms subsequently repackaged, bundled and sold around the world) the highest ratings which prompted investors to buy them. The Triple A ratings these services gave and their potential for high returns are what induced many individuals and institutional investors such as pension, mutual and hedge funds and commercial banks to buy them. The bonds and loans were shaky from the jump but the ratings services didn’t care. The name of the game was to get the suckers to buy, buy, buy.
The Fed started it all by lowering interest rates to record levels to stimulate massive borrowing and consumption to keep the US economy afloat following the dot.com bubble’s collapse and the recession of 2000. The Bu$h administration promoted home ownership and “the AmericKKKan Dream” especially to lower class folks and the media pumped it up via advertising and the talking heads on the financial programs. The rating companies got into the act by giving high risk debt packages triple A ratings, for which they got paid handsomely. The mortgage companies, insurance companies and bankers sold people loans they couldn’t afford, bundled them together and sold them as bonds and securitized debt. Duped and unsuspecting suckers bought them to the tune of trillions of dollars.
Now the whole system is coming unraveled. The culprits are scurrying like rats on a sinking ship. Everyone is trying to cover their ass. The Fed and the US government are desperately trying to put together a bail out package that will save Wall Street but under the guise of helping homeowners facing default and foreclosure. Don’t believe the hype, it is a scam to put the onus on taxpayers instead of the banks and speculators! It will be a redo of the Saving and Loan scandal. Now the rating agencies and Bond insurers who faced a crisis of their own this summer, are scrambling to avoid wholesale litigation from institutional investors and the blue bloods who lost billions in the mortgage scams because they believed the ratings were legit and valid.
Keep your eyes and ears open, 2009 will be a year of massive litigation as more and more institutional investors (governments, pension funds, mutual funds etc) lose money because the housing, bond and credit markets continue to contract. It will be a big mess, which will exacerbate the recession. Federal, state and local courts will get involved due to an avalanche of litigation. I predict the courts will side with the bankers and rating companies because money talks and judges like politicians are being bought off yearly. The courts will side with Wall Street, the insurance companies and rating services because if they don’t, the resulting losses in restitution, pay outs and punitive damages will be in the trillions. Joe and Jane Sixpack will get no relief from the courts. Wall Street, the banks and rating services are in deep trouble already and can’t afford that kind of public spanking. So they will collude with the US Congress to bail them out, or the courts will look out for the class interests of the financial elites. As usual the little guy will get shafted.
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