Death of a Democracy & Other Political News

[xpgeek]

Inspired by a reply I made to another political subject, I've decided to make a continuing post here about a subject that interests me greatly. That subject being the slow death of our democracy and other crimes of the state in the United States and the United Kingdom.

I will be posting various articles and opinions here on this subject, all members should feel free to add their own or reply to any and or debate them.

Disclaimer : The views and opinions expressed here are those of individual members and in no way represent the opinions and or political stance of eXPerience Windows.

"Democracy is only really dead when people stop questioning it."

[xpgeek]

The U.S. does not own Space

From Yahoo News (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070119/ap_on_go_ot/us_china_test) :

"The United States criticized China on Thursday for conducting an anti-satellite weapons test in which an old Chinese weather satellite was destroyed by a missile.

The Bush administration has kept a lid on the test for a week as it weighs its significance. Analysts said China's weather satellites would travel at about the same altitude as U.S. spy satellites, so the test represented an indirect threat to U.S. defense systems."

A reasonable enough worry, but, this part bothers me;

In October, President Bush signed an order asserting the United States' right to deny adversaries access to space for hostile purposes. As part of the first revision of U.S. space policy in nearly 10 years, the policy also said the United States would oppose the development of treaties or other restrictions that seek to prohibit or limit U.S. access to or use of space.

So, the U.S. can do whatever the hell it wants in space, but other country's can't? Says who? Who died and made the U.S. boss of the entire world? We have our own (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ASM-135_ASAT) anti satellite weapons too by the way, and have for twenty years. Who are we to say they can't have the same weapon?

Now I hate to sound un-American, even thou I do much of the time lately, but who the hell do we think we are? We do not own this planet, and we do not own the space around it either. This is exactly part of the reason that the rest of the world hates us.

[xpgeek]

Article : The FBI's lawbreaking is tied directly to President Bush

"Multiple media outlets are focusing on the unsurprising story that the FBI seems to have been abusing its powers under the Patriot Act to issue so-called "national security letters" (NSLs), whereby the FBI is empowered to obtain a whole array of privacy-infringing records without any sort of judicial oversight or subpoena process. In particular, the FBI has failed to comply with the legal obligations imposed by Congress, when it re-authorized the Patriot Act in early 2006, which required the FBI to report to Congress on the use of these letters.

That the FBI is abusing its NSL power is entirely unsurprising (more on that below), but the real story here -- and it is quite significant -- has not even been mentioned by any of these news reports. The only person (that I've seen) to have noted the most significant aspect of these revelations is Silent Patriot at Crooks & Liars, who very astutely recalls that the NSL reporting requirements imposed by Congress were precisely the provisions which President Bush expressly proclaimed he could ignore when he issued a "signing statement" as part of the enactment of the Patriot Act's renewal into law. Put another way, the law which the FBI has now been found to be violating is the very law which George Bush publicly declared he has the power to ignore."

A good article here. A little long, but anyone who really claims to care about this country at all and their place in it, should take the time and read it in full.

Read the full article here (http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2007/03/09/fbi/index.html)

[xpgeek]

The Army is ordering injured troops to go to Iraq

"This is not right," said Master Sgt. Ronald Jenkins, who has been ordered to Iraq even though he has a spine problem that doctors say would be damaged further by heavy Army protective gear. "This whole thing is about taking care of soldiers," he said angrily. "If you are fit to fight you are fit to fight. If you are not fit to fight, then you are not fit to fight."

As the military scrambles to pour more soldiers into Iraq, a unit of the Army's 3rd Infantry Division at Fort Benning, Ga., is deploying troops with serious injuries and other medical problems, including GIs who doctors have said are medically unfit for battle. Some are too injured to wear their body armor, according to medical records.

On Feb. 15, Master Sgt. Jenkins and 74 other soldiers with medical conditions from the 3rd Division's 3rd Brigade were summoned to a meeting with the division surgeon and brigade surgeon. These are the men responsible for handling each soldier's "physical profile," an Army document that lists for commanders an injured soldier's physical limitations because of medical problems -- from being unable to fire a weapon to the inability to move and dive in three-to-five-second increments to avoid enemy fire. Jenkins and other soldiers claim that the division and brigade surgeons summarily downgraded soldiers' profiles, without even a medical exam, in order to deploy them to Iraq. It is a claim division officials deny.

Source and Full Article (http://www.salon.com/news/2007/03/11/fort_benning/)

[xpgeek]

Democrats back down on Iran

Top House Democrats retreated Monday from an attempt to limit President Bush's authority for taking military action against Iran as the leadership concentrated on a looming confrontation with the White House over the Iraq war.

Officials said Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other members of the leadership had decided to strip from a major military spending bill a requirement for Bush to gain approval from Congress before moving against Iran.

The Iran-related proposal stemmed from a desire to make sure Bush did not launch an attack without going to Congress for approval, but drew opposition from numerous members of the rank and file in a series of closed-door sessions last week.

"It would take away perhaps the most important negotiating tool that the U.S. has when it comes to Iran," she said of the now-abandoned provision.


Had a hard time coming up with my own title for this story, Democrats show complete lack of backbone might have been better.

And the fact that president Bush can go to war anytime he feels like it without the approval of the Congress is not an "important negotiating tool", it is a president having far too much power in this democracy, it is a scary fact, and it should be corrected.

Source (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070313/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_iraq)

[wawadave]

or next move for world domination

[Neo, Knock, Knock]

"Democracy is only really dead when people stop questioning it."
Have WE gotten there? I would hope not. Look forward to more of your posts on the subject.

[xpgeek]

Haven't gotten there yet, but its going fast.

Every time someone does stand up and speak out against the administration these days Cheney just calls em "un-patriotic", which is just a polite way of calling them traitors.

Does anyone else think Alberto Gonzales, U.S. Attorney General, should be fired too? This new scandal over replaced U.S. prosecutors has got quite a few Democrats, and even a Republican now, calling for his resignation. I say yes and its about time, hes been breaking the law left and right. And it would make the second high level administration official to be fired in just a few months time too. The administration is, finally, coming apart.

[wawadave]

or a democrat.

[xpgeek]

Personally I'm neither a Democrat or a Republican. I think both partys have become completely corrupt and have failed the people.

[xpgeek]

There are no prisoners at Guantanamo, which isn't a prison

SEVERAL weeks ago, I took the media tour at Guantanamo. From the moment I arrived on a frayed Air Sunshine prop-jet to the time I boarded the same plane to head home, I had no doubt that I was on an alien planet.

Along with two European colleagues, I was treated to two-plus days packed with site visits and interviews (none with prisoners) designed to "make transparent" Guantanamo and its manifold contributions to US national security.

Thanks to our military handlers, I learned a great deal about Gitmo decorum, as the military would like us to practise it. My escorts told me how best to describe the goings-on at Guantanamo, regardless of what my own eyes and previous knowledge told me.

Here, in a nutshell, is what I picked up:

1. Guantanamo is not a prison. The official term is "detention facility". Although the two most recently built complexes, Camps Five and Six, were modelled on prisons in Indiana and Michigan, it is not acceptable to use the word "prison" at Gitmo.

2. Guantanamo has no prisoners, only "enemies". As in "unlawful enemy combatants" or "detained enemy combatants".

3. Once an enemy combatant, always an enemy combatant. "Today, it is not about guilt or innocence. It's about unlawful enemy combatants," Rear Admiral Harry Harris, the commanding officer of Guantanamo, told us. "And they are all unlawful enemy combatants." This despite the fact that the Government also has a category for those deemed "no longer an enemy combatant", which was not mentioned. Nor was the possibility of mistaken detention.

4. No trustworthy lawyers come to Guantanamo. The handlers used the term "habeas lawyers" as a seemingly derogatory catch-all for those who are defending detainees.

Read More at Source (http://www.theage.com.au/news/opinion/no-prisoners-at-guantanamo-which-isnt-a-prison/2007/03/14/1173722553792.html)

[wawadave]

Freedom is a word with out meaning.

[xpgeek]

Evangelical Christians attack use of torture by US

The uncoupling of American evangelism from the administration of George Bush gathered pace yesterday when one of the largest national umbrella groups of socially conservative Christians issued a statement critical of US policy towards detainees and repudiating torture as a tactic in the war on terror.

The National Association of Evangelicals (NAE), which represents about 45,000 churches across America, endorsed a declaration against torture drafted by 17 evangelical scholars. The authors, who call themselves Evangelicals for Human Rights and campaign for "zero tolerance" on torture, say that the US administration has crossed "boundaries of what is legally and morally permissible" in the treatment of detainees.

Read More at Source (http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,2032616,00.html)

Hardcore Christian voters, used to be Bush's biggest supporters, now turning on him too.

[wawadave]

you know you may have hit on a form of torture that they would agree with. let them relentlessly preach at the prisoners.

[xpgeek]

lol. Better them then me.

[xpgeek]

Trump bashes Bush?

George W. Bush will be remembered as the worst US president ever, real estate mogul Donald Trump said Friday, adding that US Senator Hillary Clinton could be Bush's White House successor.

"Bush is probably the worst president in the history of the United States," Trump told CNN, lamenting the 2004 Democratic failure to stop Bush's reelection.

Source (http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070316/en_afp/uspoliticsvote2008)

Now, I don't like Bush, thats no secret, but I've got only two words for Mr. Trump here, SHUT UP!

Hes a hotel and casino owner, a "real estate mogul", whatever, and an incredibly lame TV star as of late, but, hes not a politician, hes not a journalist, so why in the hell does anyone care in the slightest what he thinks?

Go buy another hotel Donald, a better toupee already, and stay the hell out of political discussion.

[wawadave]

you may or may not agree with trump saying these things. but they do ring with a full measure of truth.

[xpgeek]

Yea I agree with what he says 100% actually, well hopefully not the Hillary part tho, but its just, its Donald Trump, who cares what he thinks about politics. What makes him a credible person to ask on the subject. I can't believe CNN would even ask him a question on this topic, or, well actually sadly I can because CNN's credibility has been going down the drain so fast lately its not even funny. They're just another Fox news now tho with a different agenda.

This of course just being my opinion, and I welcome all debate on it.

Actually, now that I've been doing this thread for a few days now, I feel I should ask, what do members feel about it? My wish with this thread just being to get some discussion going, to generate some talk, but if members are being generally annoyed by it I will put an end to it.

[wawadave]

keep it going till it gets out of hand or just fades away.

[xpgeek]

Introducing the iRack

[flash width=425 height=350:b3ca948b78]http://www.youtube.com/v/KM_MkWgbt3k[/flash:b3ca948b78]

[wawadave]

LOL tooo to true!!!!

[xpgeek]

White House OKs Rove, Miers interviews on U.S. attorneys

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The White House will allow the president's top political adviser, Karl Rove, and former White House counsel Harriet Miers to be interviewed by congressional committees investigating how the firing of several U.S. attorneys was handled.

But Miers and Rove will not testify under oath, the White House said.

Source n Full Story (http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/03/20/us.attorneys.firings/index.html)

Huh? I'm no lawyer and maybe just don't understand the significance here or whatever, but they don't have to testify under oath? So they don't have to swear in? Don't have to swear to tell the truth?

Well, then, to put it bluntly, then what the f*** is the point!

[wawadave]

not if bush gives him a licence to lie!!
like cia is personnel hit squad.

[xpgeek]

Bush Paves the Way for Martial Law: 2007 National Defense Authorization Act

"Gen. Tommy Franks says that if the United States is hit with a weapon of mass destruction that inflicts large casualties, the Constitution will likely be discarded in favor of a military form of government." -- NewsMax, November 21, 2003

In October 2006, Bush signed into law the John Warner National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2007. Quietly slipped into the law at the last minute, at the request of the Bush administration, were sections changing important legal principles, dating back 200 years, which limit the U.S. government's ability to use the military to intervene in domestic affairs. These changes would allow Bush, whenever he thinks it necessary, to institute martial law--under which the military takes direct control over civilian administration.

The new law requires the President to notify Congress "as soon as practicable after the determination and every 14 days thereafter during the duration of the exercise of the authority." However Bush, as he has often done during his presidency, modified this requirement in his signing statement, which declared, "The executive branch shall construe such provisions in a manner consistent with the President's constitutional authority to withhold information the disclosure of which could impair foreign relations, the national security, the deliberative processes of the Executive." In other words, Bush claims that he does not even need to inform Congress that martial law has been declared!

In 2002, the government created the new Northern Command. This is the first time since the Civil War that the U.S. military has been given an operational command inside the continental United States.

In 2005, the Washington Post reported that Northcom had developed battle plans for martial law in the U.S. One secret document, CONPLAN 2005, envisions 15 different scenarios where these plans could go into effect.

In 2006, the Military Commissions Act was passed which, in addition to legalizing torture, allows the president and military courts to declare anyone an enemy combatant without basic civil rights like habeas corpus.

Plans for massive detention centers are already being prepared. Pacific News Service reported that in early 2006, Kellogg Brown and Root (KBR) received a $385 million contract from the Department of Homeland Security to build detention and processing facilities to be used "in the event of an emergency influx of immigrants into the U.S. or to support the rapid development of new programs."

Would They Really Go That Far?

Read Full Article at Source (http://www.inteldaily.com/?c=117&a=1431)

Long article, above sections just excerpts, the really freakin scary parts. Would he really go that far? Bush? I haven't a doubt.

Think about it, worst case scenario; Another terrorist attack happens, something major, Bush declares martial law, having the military forces in place within the US itself, just goes ahead and carrys out a coup detat, seizing complete control of the government. Anyone opposed to him, is simply declared an enemy combatant. 1984 made a reality.

Completely paranoid? Yes. Actually possible? My god, Yes.

[FisionChips]

Loved the iRack vid - very good lol!

[wawadave]

"The executive branch shall construe such provisions in a manner consistent with the President's constitutional authority to withhold information the disclosure of which could impair foreign relations, the national security, the deliberative processes of the Executive." In other words, Bush claims that he does not even need to inform Congress that martial law has been declared!
Zigbush!!! Zigbush!!!! Zigbush!!!!

Plans for massive detention centers are already being prepared. Pacific News Service reported that in early 2006, Kellogg Brown and Root (KBR) received a $385 million contract from the Department of Homeland Security to build detention and processing facilities to be used "in the event of an emergency influx of immigrants into the U.S. or to support the rapid development of new programs."

The rapid deployment will be when his next term is up he won,t leave any one aposeing will be marched off to the extermination camps now being built full tilt!!

Will go that far?? well duh they are all ready going that far!!

Zigbush!!!

[xpgeek]

Yep, starting to reallyyy look that way. He gearing up to declare himself dictator and cancel elections.

It was even said during the last presidential election, that Bush did have the power to cancel the election in a time of war, but chose not to. (Because he knew he was going to win because he had it rigged anyway).

Will he cancel the next one, declare martial law, and put an end to democracy once and for all in this country? Would he go that far? In a second if he could.

[wawadave]

he can. but only if it looks like he won,t be able to rig against 70% negative opinion.

[wawadave]

LAWMAKERS WARN FBI ON SURVEILLANCE POWERS
Agency told it could lose broad spying authority after revelations of
abuses.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17705508/

wrist slapping time?
or a save face gesture?
or smoke screen for something more neferius?

[wawadave]

ITT to Pay $100 Million Export Fine
Restricted Night-Vision Data Given to Overseas Suppliers

By Alec Klein
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, March 28, 2007; Page D01

ITT Corp. agreed to plead guilty to illegally exporting night-vision technology to China and other countries and pay a $100 million fine, one of the largest penalties in a U.S. criminal prosecution, the Justice Department said yesterday.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/27/AR2007032702105.html?referrer=email

Cor-pirations and the need for greed!!! This is but a wrist slapping for a megga cor-p but its only technically just buying its way out!

[xpgeek]

From Crooks and Liars (http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/04/06/ann-coulter-plumbs-new-depths-of-inhumanity/) :

Ann Coulter Plumbs New Depths of Inhumanity

This is truly one of the most disgusting columns I have ever read. I refuse to link to any website from which she can benefit, but this hate-mongerer should be exposed for what she is, so I will link to the Salon post about her here (http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2007/04/05/coulter/index.html?source=rss). [..]Coulter's take on Darfur:

"These people can't even wrap up genocide. We've been hearing about this slaughter in Darfur forever - and they still haven't finished. The aggressors are moving like termites across that country. It's like genocide by committee. Who's running this holocaust in Darfur, FEMA?

This is truly a war in which we have absolutely no interest."

She's asking for a more speedy genocide. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the voice of the Republican Party. Never–ever–let them try to untie themselves from this abomination of a partisan hack.

[wawadave]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darfur_conflict

[wawadave]

Bush Admin. Pushes Spying Bill at Key Senate Hearing

We recently reported on a new spying bill that could, among
other things, threaten cases like EFF's against AT&T by
giving blanket immunity to companies for illegally
assisting the NSA spying program. After an initial delay,
the Senate Intelligence Committee's held a hearing on the
bill on May 1 with a completely one-sided panel -- only
Bush Administration officials were allowed to testify.

That means it's even more important for you to make your
voice heard. Congress needs to know that you oppose this
legislation and demand immediate investigations into the
warrantless spying program:
http://www.stopillegalspying.org

Fortunately, civil liberties groups including EFF were
allowed to submit written comments for the record -- you
can read EFF's statement here:
http://intelligence.senate.gov/070501/bankston.pdf