Putrid Purchasable Politicians are Making Meaningful Reform Impossible
Bill Lindner
October 13, 2009
The days of this country's government working for the people died many decades ago -- as the political puppetry in Washington that is owned by Wall Street, numerous other large monopolistic corporations from various industries and lobbies, the Israeli lobby in particular, has repeatedly proven -- and the concept of meaningful reform in modern day Washington has in essence become virtually impossible.
The days of government of the people, for the people and by the people are long gone. The U.S. government sold its constituents out long ago in exchange for money and political favors that aid a few at the expense of many others. Instead of working for and with the people, the government spends a lot of time purposely hiding information from the public and covering it up. The concepts of freedom and Democracy are a misnomer that died when George W. Bush was appointed to the presidency by the U.S. Supreme Court during the 2000 presidential election. America's mainstream media, once the watchdog of the people, has become the lapdog for corrupted politicians in Washington. Instead of reporting the truth, they either lie about or hide pertinent information and provide a multitude of disinformation for their masters in Washington.
More than 151 members of Congress reportedly have up to $195 million invested in major defense contractors that are earning profits from the U.S. military occupations in Iraq and Afghanistan. There's no need to wonder why any type of reform is currently impossible and why Democrats have done nothing to stop the illegal occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan. Until we get rid of the corrupt, bought and paid for trash in Congress that has been there for entirely too long, nothing is going to change.
America's corrupted two-party political system won't change things -- for obvious reasons, so it's up to the people of this country to do it. Despite all the damage this country has endured courtesy of political corruption, our Congress is committed to enriching themselves and those that bribe them and making sure that actual reform doesn't happen.
Financial fraud conducted on Wall Street brought this country, and the rest of the world to a screeching halt last September. Has anyone on Wall Street and in Congress that has been responsible for the greatest depression since 1929 been held accountable? No. Instead, our government decides to bail out the banks and Wall Street firms to the tune of several trillions of dollars courtesy of American taxpayers. Wall Street is still playing their fraudulent games with derivatives and hoarding money from the public so that their 'management' can get richer regardless of the costs and devastation. America's depression isn't over. Until something is done to correct the same actions that are currently defrauding this country once again, another economic collapse in imminent regardless of the lies being fed to the public by our government.
Terrorism Threat Greatly Exaggerated for Political Reasons
As noted by Philip Giraldi from Campaign for Liberty, the fact is that the threat from terrorism has been greatly exaggerated for political reasons to create a sense of fear that has enabled Democrats and Republicans alike to aggrandize power in the federal government. The U.S. government has committed more acts of terrorism against its citizens than terrorists have. Once the Federal government illegally and unconstitutionally usurps powers -- albeit it illegally -- it rarely if ever relinquishes those powers, which has led to the dilemnas that we face today.
Bush's former Attorney General -- Michael Mukasey, the last one he used to keep all of his crimes hidden -- threatened America in a Wall Street Journal propaganda piece aimed at trying to convince America to give up their civil liberties now or to get ready for authoritarianism later. The Bush cabal did their damnedest to turn America into an authoritarian state by using the same lies along with committing multiple acts of terrorism and treason against U.S. citizens. As with many other members of the Bush cabal, Mukasey has dual Israel-American citizenship.
I've covered problems with Mukasey in the past. Former Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff also tried to persuade the U.S. to give up their rights for many of the same reasons. Quite frankly, both Mukasey and Chertoff are full of shit and they both belong behind bars for their involvement in Bush's crimes.
The problems facing this country arose from the complicitness of the most corrupted presidential administration this country ever had the displeasure of having to deal with. Giving up civil liberties and rights has, in many ways, turned a Democracy into a dictatorship, which was Bush's intention all along. With the aid of the 5 Supreme Court 'Justices' that appointed him to the presidency, Bush almost succeeded. Illegally creating 'laws' to cover up all of your illegal acts does not make it legal. The illegality carried out by our government has been extended under the leadership of President Obama.
One example of power being illegally and unconstitutionally usurped with no intention of ever relinquishing it can be found in President Obama's request to renew factions of the egregious 'PATRIOT' Act dealing with spy powers that have constantly been abused by the NSA and the FBI. Mr. hope and change wants to extend the provisions and his enablers in Congress are doing little if anything to stop or reform it. The PATRIOT Act is 'legislation' that was written long before the attacks of 9/11 that illegally turns the U.S. into a police state. More on that can be found a little further below. Instead of fixing problems, the government, aided by the mainstream media, resorts to fear mongering and lies to justify covering up a plethora of crimes they've committed. Congress and the President have no intention of even trying to reform the egregious PATRIOT Act or FISA and that needs to change.
Illegal Surveillance Conducted with no Oversight and no Accountability
The PATRIOT Act was forced on the public right after the attacks of 9/11, courtesy of our cowering Congress and is set to expire on December 31 of this year. President Obama's Justice Department wants to extend 'key provisions' of the PATRIOT Act. The key provisions that are expiring grant sweeping surveillance powers to U.S. intelligence agencies. Unsurprisingly, these sweeping surveillance powers have been abused by these U.S. 'intelligence' agencies.
The Obama administration wants to extend section 206 of the PATRIOT Act that provides for roving surveillance, Section 215, dubbed the 'library provision' by civil liberties groups, that allows Federal agents to obtain business, medical, library and other records by presenting a 'National Security Letter' -- which has been grossly misused by the FBI -- and a section that authorizes intelligence gathering against any non-citizen, regardless of whether or not the individual in question is suspected of being linked to a foreign government or terrorist organization.
Of course, since the attacks of 9/11 were allowed to happen, the U.S. government has viewed every American citizen as a suspect, but all these egregious, unconstitutional 'laws' don't apply to the government, just American citizens. Every American citizen is a terrorist in the eyes of the government. All of these 'surveillance' methods are conducted with no oversight and no accountability, aided by a complicit Congressional 'watchdog.' More on the Obama administration's intentions to renew the PATRIOT Act and the problematic discrepancies between U.S. intelligence agencies can be found in this article from The World Socialist Web Site.
The U.S. Supreme Court -- especially in recent years -- as noted by the Centre for Research on Globalization, has never had the establishment of justice as a principal concern even though the Constitution lists it as one of the six goals the nation was meant to achieve. Bad decisions by the Supreme Court are quite common.
Judges, as is becoming more evident, decide cases according to their own personal prejudices and foibles, or in the case of Bush v. Gore, for political affiliations and who knows what else. As written by Justice Benjamin Curtis, if the theoretical opinions of individualsl are allowed to control the Constitution's meaning, we have no longer a Constitution; we are under the government of individual men who for the time being have power to declare what the Constitution is, according to their own views of what they think it ought to mean. Allowing corrupted politicians to appoint corrupted Supreme Court Justices needs to be stopped and dealt with accordingly.
Supreme Court Decides Cases Based on Personal Prejudices and Foibles
As also noted by the Centre for Research on Globalization, when Justices on the Court discovered that they could decide cases 'according to their own personal prejudices and foibles,' the Court became the de facto totalitarian oligarchic government of the nation from which there is no appeal. Willfully subverting the Constitution has resulted in betrayal of the American people.
More information on how the Court has employed a number of fallacious practices can be found in the article from The Centre for Research on Globalization. As I've said before, the problem with passing illegal 'laws' and illegal Presidential power grabs is the fact that they're illegal and something needs to be done about that.
A year ago, the U.S. Congress passed the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 which established the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) which in effect authorized a $700 billion dollar bailout -- although the actual figure is in the trillions -- from American taxpayers to fund the banking and finance industry after it defrauded Americans of billions. The Congressional Watchdog that was responsible for the oversight of the financial industry knew there were problems and rampant fraud, but as usual, didn't do anything to stop it. Hardly surprising when you realize that most of Congress is owned by the banking and finance industry.
You would think that after having to 'bailout' the financial fraudsters, there would be some sort of reform to make sure problems that caused the fraudulent financial meltdown don't happen again. However, you would be wrong.
TARP enabled the largest plundering of the taxpaying public in the history of the United States. Despite rosey reports from mainstream media, the recession is far from over. Many working Americans were financially devastated and unemployment remains at the highest levels it has incurred since the 1930s and will remain high for years to come.
Congress has Profited Greatly at America's Expense
In the usual government tradition, fear mongering and propaganda were used to ensure passage of the TARP legislation. The fraudulent bailout of Washington's elite Wall Street Masters was aided by then President Bush going on national television insisting that if Wall Street didn't get the bailout, America would slip into a financial panic. For Bush, it was Mission Accomplished. Contrary to the B.S. fed to the public, the bailout didn't aid Main Street. It aided Wall Street. Being the good little bought off 'lawmakers' they are, Congress wholly embraced the fraudulent financial shenanigans that aided their puppet masters on Wall Street. More can be found in this article from The World Socialist Web Site.
The problems plaquing financial reform are similar to the ones that are plaquing health care reform -- lobbyists working for both industries are paying off politicians en masse not to change a thing. Congress has profited greatly while the rest of the country has paid for it. When the Federal Reserve is confronted with being audited and held accountable for its fraudulent actions, it resorts to blackmail and threats in an effort to prevent that.
Nothing has changed since Wall Street became the recipient of America's fraudulent financial bailout. Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and some others are reportedly once again betting big on bonds, commodities and exotic financial products. Goldman Sachs is still manipulating and creating bubbles that are going to inevitably burst -- bubbles that the American public will once again be forced to pay for. Wall Street has been manipulating the markets for years. Nothing, aside from rising unemployment, has changed and nothing is going to change until America realizes that its two-party political system is corrupt and in need of change. There is very little difference between Democrats and Republicans.
70% to 80% of Americans want a public option -- depending on which poll you look at. More than 50% of bankruptcies are caused by overinflated health bills. Many Americans are finding that they're paying several thousands of dollars a year for health coverage that could end up denying coverage or being cancelled if they get sick and need it. Insurance companies have admitted that they have no qualms about cancelling your coverage as long as they make big profits. Many in Congress that are paid off by Wall Street are also paid off by large Health and Insurance companies.
With so much disinformation and so many variations of proposed health care reform, it's virtually impossible to gauge if it will ever happen. Basic 'reform' designed to make Insurance companies more money while forcing the public to obtain insurance isn't reform. It's extortion. So far it's not known if a single payer or public option will even appear in the final legislation. As noted by Open Left, Americans want a radical change of the health care system, but politicians do not. Politicians receive the best health care possible courtesy of the American taxpayers and they get 'contributions' amounting to millions of dollars from health care and insurance companies. Why would they want radical change?
Washington's Culture of Corruption Making Meaningful Reform Impossible
America's current political system is badly damaged and in need of repair. Corporations pay off politicians -- Congress people who are allegedly the voice of the people -- to get what they want regardless of what the people want or what is good for the people. Congress and appointed Federal and Supreme Court 'Justices' have no term limits, regardless of how politically corrupt they are.
Presidents can pardon criminals for their actions, whether it's right or wrong, and as the past eight and a half years have shown, politicians consider themselves impune from their criminal actions, resulting in the nation having two sets of 'laws.' We the people need to make some major changes to our political system, be it through elections or constitutional/article 5 conventions and the pardoning of major war criminals and traitors needs to cease.
Democrats have lied repeatedly over the years, doing nothing to correct the current situation despite having the White House and the majority in Congress. Republicans are only interested in seeing Obama fail so they can regain control of the White House and Congress. Americans are stuck in the middle being screwed by the current political system that is only interested in looking after itself.
It's not just politicians that are corrupt. The Pentagon -- which still has more than $2 Trillion unaccounted for -- has been running Washington's endless war machine itself for too long now instead of following orders given by the President. The Pentagon's insubordination could be considered Treason.
America needs to hold those who have sold out the American public responsible for their actions. Until we put an end to the militarism, wars, the U.S. government's attempts at creating an authoritarian dicatorship, restore the rule of law, rights and freedoms and fix our political system, the culture of corruption in Washington will continue making any type of meaningful reform impossible.
The days of government of the people, for the people and by the people are long gone. The U.S. government sold its constituents out long ago in exchange for money and political favors that aid a few at the expense of many others. Instead of working for and with the people, the government spends a lot of time purposely hiding information from the public and covering it up. The concepts of freedom and Democracy are a misnomer that died when George W. Bush was appointed to the presidency by the U.S. Supreme Court during the 2000 presidential election. America's mainstream media, once the watchdog of the people, has become the lapdog for corrupted politicians in Washington. Instead of reporting the truth, they either lie about or hide pertinent information and provide a multitude of disinformation for their masters in Washington.
More than 151 members of Congress reportedly have up to $195 million invested in major defense contractors that are earning profits from the U.S. military occupations in Iraq and Afghanistan. There's no need to wonder why any type of reform is currently impossible and why Democrats have done nothing to stop the illegal occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan. Until we get rid of the corrupt, bought and paid for trash in Congress that has been there for entirely too long, nothing is going to change.
America's corrupted two-party political system won't change things -- for obvious reasons, so it's up to the people of this country to do it. Despite all the damage this country has endured courtesy of political corruption, our Congress is committed to enriching themselves and those that bribe them and making sure that actual reform doesn't happen.
Financial fraud conducted on Wall Street brought this country, and the rest of the world to a screeching halt last September. Has anyone on Wall Street and in Congress that has been responsible for the greatest depression since 1929 been held accountable? No. Instead, our government decides to bail out the banks and Wall Street firms to the tune of several trillions of dollars courtesy of American taxpayers. Wall Street is still playing their fraudulent games with derivatives and hoarding money from the public so that their 'management' can get richer regardless of the costs and devastation. America's depression isn't over. Until something is done to correct the same actions that are currently defrauding this country once again, another economic collapse in imminent regardless of the lies being fed to the public by our government.
Terrorism Threat Greatly Exaggerated for Political Reasons
As noted by Philip Giraldi from Campaign for Liberty, the fact is that the threat from terrorism has been greatly exaggerated for political reasons to create a sense of fear that has enabled Democrats and Republicans alike to aggrandize power in the federal government. The U.S. government has committed more acts of terrorism against its citizens than terrorists have. Once the Federal government illegally and unconstitutionally usurps powers -- albeit it illegally -- it rarely if ever relinquishes those powers, which has led to the dilemnas that we face today.
Bush's former Attorney General -- Michael Mukasey, the last one he used to keep all of his crimes hidden -- threatened America in a Wall Street Journal propaganda piece aimed at trying to convince America to give up their civil liberties now or to get ready for authoritarianism later. The Bush cabal did their damnedest to turn America into an authoritarian state by using the same lies along with committing multiple acts of terrorism and treason against U.S. citizens. As with many other members of the Bush cabal, Mukasey has dual Israel-American citizenship.
I've covered problems with Mukasey in the past. Former Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff also tried to persuade the U.S. to give up their rights for many of the same reasons. Quite frankly, both Mukasey and Chertoff are full of shit and they both belong behind bars for their involvement in Bush's crimes.
The problems facing this country arose from the complicitness of the most corrupted presidential administration this country ever had the displeasure of having to deal with. Giving up civil liberties and rights has, in many ways, turned a Democracy into a dictatorship, which was Bush's intention all along. With the aid of the 5 Supreme Court 'Justices' that appointed him to the presidency, Bush almost succeeded. Illegally creating 'laws' to cover up all of your illegal acts does not make it legal. The illegality carried out by our government has been extended under the leadership of President Obama.
One example of power being illegally and unconstitutionally usurped with no intention of ever relinquishing it can be found in President Obama's request to renew factions of the egregious 'PATRIOT' Act dealing with spy powers that have constantly been abused by the NSA and the FBI. Mr. hope and change wants to extend the provisions and his enablers in Congress are doing little if anything to stop or reform it. The PATRIOT Act is 'legislation' that was written long before the attacks of 9/11 that illegally turns the U.S. into a police state. More on that can be found a little further below. Instead of fixing problems, the government, aided by the mainstream media, resorts to fear mongering and lies to justify covering up a plethora of crimes they've committed. Congress and the President have no intention of even trying to reform the egregious PATRIOT Act or FISA and that needs to change.
Illegal Surveillance Conducted with no Oversight and no Accountability
The PATRIOT Act was forced on the public right after the attacks of 9/11, courtesy of our cowering Congress and is set to expire on December 31 of this year. President Obama's Justice Department wants to extend 'key provisions' of the PATRIOT Act. The key provisions that are expiring grant sweeping surveillance powers to U.S. intelligence agencies. Unsurprisingly, these sweeping surveillance powers have been abused by these U.S. 'intelligence' agencies.
The Obama administration wants to extend section 206 of the PATRIOT Act that provides for roving surveillance, Section 215, dubbed the 'library provision' by civil liberties groups, that allows Federal agents to obtain business, medical, library and other records by presenting a 'National Security Letter' -- which has been grossly misused by the FBI -- and a section that authorizes intelligence gathering against any non-citizen, regardless of whether or not the individual in question is suspected of being linked to a foreign government or terrorist organization.
Of course, since the attacks of 9/11 were allowed to happen, the U.S. government has viewed every American citizen as a suspect, but all these egregious, unconstitutional 'laws' don't apply to the government, just American citizens. Every American citizen is a terrorist in the eyes of the government. All of these 'surveillance' methods are conducted with no oversight and no accountability, aided by a complicit Congressional 'watchdog.' More on the Obama administration's intentions to renew the PATRIOT Act and the problematic discrepancies between U.S. intelligence agencies can be found in this article from The World Socialist Web Site.
The U.S. Supreme Court -- especially in recent years -- as noted by the Centre for Research on Globalization, has never had the establishment of justice as a principal concern even though the Constitution lists it as one of the six goals the nation was meant to achieve. Bad decisions by the Supreme Court are quite common.
Judges, as is becoming more evident, decide cases according to their own personal prejudices and foibles, or in the case of Bush v. Gore, for political affiliations and who knows what else. As written by Justice Benjamin Curtis, if the theoretical opinions of individualsl are allowed to control the Constitution's meaning, we have no longer a Constitution; we are under the government of individual men who for the time being have power to declare what the Constitution is, according to their own views of what they think it ought to mean. Allowing corrupted politicians to appoint corrupted Supreme Court Justices needs to be stopped and dealt with accordingly.
Supreme Court Decides Cases Based on Personal Prejudices and Foibles
As also noted by the Centre for Research on Globalization, when Justices on the Court discovered that they could decide cases 'according to their own personal prejudices and foibles,' the Court became the de facto totalitarian oligarchic government of the nation from which there is no appeal. Willfully subverting the Constitution has resulted in betrayal of the American people.
More information on how the Court has employed a number of fallacious practices can be found in the article from The Centre for Research on Globalization. As I've said before, the problem with passing illegal 'laws' and illegal Presidential power grabs is the fact that they're illegal and something needs to be done about that.
A year ago, the U.S. Congress passed the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 which established the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) which in effect authorized a $700 billion dollar bailout -- although the actual figure is in the trillions -- from American taxpayers to fund the banking and finance industry after it defrauded Americans of billions. The Congressional Watchdog that was responsible for the oversight of the financial industry knew there were problems and rampant fraud, but as usual, didn't do anything to stop it. Hardly surprising when you realize that most of Congress is owned by the banking and finance industry.
You would think that after having to 'bailout' the financial fraudsters, there would be some sort of reform to make sure problems that caused the fraudulent financial meltdown don't happen again. However, you would be wrong.
TARP enabled the largest plundering of the taxpaying public in the history of the United States. Despite rosey reports from mainstream media, the recession is far from over. Many working Americans were financially devastated and unemployment remains at the highest levels it has incurred since the 1930s and will remain high for years to come.
Congress has Profited Greatly at America's Expense
In the usual government tradition, fear mongering and propaganda were used to ensure passage of the TARP legislation. The fraudulent bailout of Washington's elite Wall Street Masters was aided by then President Bush going on national television insisting that if Wall Street didn't get the bailout, America would slip into a financial panic. For Bush, it was Mission Accomplished. Contrary to the B.S. fed to the public, the bailout didn't aid Main Street. It aided Wall Street. Being the good little bought off 'lawmakers' they are, Congress wholly embraced the fraudulent financial shenanigans that aided their puppet masters on Wall Street. More can be found in this article from The World Socialist Web Site.
The problems plaquing financial reform are similar to the ones that are plaquing health care reform -- lobbyists working for both industries are paying off politicians en masse not to change a thing. Congress has profited greatly while the rest of the country has paid for it. When the Federal Reserve is confronted with being audited and held accountable for its fraudulent actions, it resorts to blackmail and threats in an effort to prevent that.
Nothing has changed since Wall Street became the recipient of America's fraudulent financial bailout. Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and some others are reportedly once again betting big on bonds, commodities and exotic financial products. Goldman Sachs is still manipulating and creating bubbles that are going to inevitably burst -- bubbles that the American public will once again be forced to pay for. Wall Street has been manipulating the markets for years. Nothing, aside from rising unemployment, has changed and nothing is going to change until America realizes that its two-party political system is corrupt and in need of change. There is very little difference between Democrats and Republicans.
70% to 80% of Americans want a public option -- depending on which poll you look at. More than 50% of bankruptcies are caused by overinflated health bills. Many Americans are finding that they're paying several thousands of dollars a year for health coverage that could end up denying coverage or being cancelled if they get sick and need it. Insurance companies have admitted that they have no qualms about cancelling your coverage as long as they make big profits. Many in Congress that are paid off by Wall Street are also paid off by large Health and Insurance companies.
With so much disinformation and so many variations of proposed health care reform, it's virtually impossible to gauge if it will ever happen. Basic 'reform' designed to make Insurance companies more money while forcing the public to obtain insurance isn't reform. It's extortion. So far it's not known if a single payer or public option will even appear in the final legislation. As noted by Open Left, Americans want a radical change of the health care system, but politicians do not. Politicians receive the best health care possible courtesy of the American taxpayers and they get 'contributions' amounting to millions of dollars from health care and insurance companies. Why would they want radical change?
Washington's Culture of Corruption Making Meaningful Reform Impossible
America's current political system is badly damaged and in need of repair. Corporations pay off politicians -- Congress people who are allegedly the voice of the people -- to get what they want regardless of what the people want or what is good for the people. Congress and appointed Federal and Supreme Court 'Justices' have no term limits, regardless of how politically corrupt they are.
Presidents can pardon criminals for their actions, whether it's right or wrong, and as the past eight and a half years have shown, politicians consider themselves impune from their criminal actions, resulting in the nation having two sets of 'laws.' We the people need to make some major changes to our political system, be it through elections or constitutional/article 5 conventions and the pardoning of major war criminals and traitors needs to cease.
Democrats have lied repeatedly over the years, doing nothing to correct the current situation despite having the White House and the majority in Congress. Republicans are only interested in seeing Obama fail so they can regain control of the White House and Congress. Americans are stuck in the middle being screwed by the current political system that is only interested in looking after itself.
It's not just politicians that are corrupt. The Pentagon -- which still has more than $2 Trillion unaccounted for -- has been running Washington's endless war machine itself for too long now instead of following orders given by the President. The Pentagon's insubordination could be considered Treason.
America needs to hold those who have sold out the American public responsible for their actions. Until we put an end to the militarism, wars, the U.S. government's attempts at creating an authoritarian dicatorship, restore the rule of law, rights and freedoms and fix our political system, the culture of corruption in Washington will continue making any type of meaningful reform impossible.
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