The Bush Decade – Ten Worst Things;
Or, the Rise of the New Oligarchs

A great article about the worst of the Bush years. Here are a few highlights. For more, read the whole article as it appeared on the NewsTrust.net website:

• 10. Stagnating worker wages and the emergence of a new monied aristocracy. Of all the income growth of the entire country of the United States in the Bush years, the richest 1 percent of the working population, about 1.3 million persons, grabbed up over two-thirds of it. The Reagan and Bush cuts in tax rates on the wealthy have created a dangerous little alien inside our supposedly democratic society, of the super-rich, with their legions of camp followers (sometimes referred to as ‘analysts’ or ‘economists’ or ‘journalists’). The new lords and ladies are the Dick and Liz Cheneys and the people for whom they shill. They are the Rupert Murdochs and the Richard Mellon Scaifes, and they are guaranteed to own more and more of the country as long as more progressive taxation (i.e. pre-Reagan, not pre-Bush) is not restored. They are the ones who didn’t want a public universal health option, did not want the wars abroad to end abruptly, did not want the Copenhagen Climate convention to succeed. They are driven by pure greed and narrow profit-seeking for themselves. They always get their way, and they always will as long as you poor stupid bastards buy the line that when the government raises their taxes, it is taking something away from you.
  Read the entire article 10 worst things about the Bush years here.
• 9. Health and food insecurity increased for ordinary Americans. Health care costs skyrocketed. Most Americans in the work force who have health care are covered via their employers. ‘From 1999 to 2009 health insurance premiums increased 132%” for the companies paying most of the costs of coverage to their employees. Euromonitor adds, “Average private health insurance premiums for a family of four in 1999 were US$5,485 per annum or 7.2% of household disposable income. 2008 premiums were estimated at US$12,973 per annum or 14.8% of average household disposable income.” By Bush’s last year in office, food insecurity among American families was at a 14-year high. About 49 million Americans, one in six of us, worried about having enough food to eat at some points in that year, and resorted to soup lines, food stamps, or dietary shortcuts. Some 16 million, according to the NYT, suffered from ‘“very low food security,” meaning lack of money forced members to skip meals, cut portions or otherwise forgo food at some point in the year.’
  Read the entire article 10 worst things about the Bush years here.
• 8. The environment became more polluted. The Bush administration was the worst on record on environmental issues. Carbon emissions grew unchecked, and the threat of climate change accelerated. In fact, Bush muzzled government climate scientists and had their reports rewritten by lawyers from Big Oil.
  Read the entire article 10 worst things about the Bush years here.
• 7. The imperial presidency was ensconced in ways it will be difficult to pare back. But note that its powers were never used against the oligarchs (unlike the case in Putin’s Russia), but rather deployed to ensure the continued destruction of the labor movement and the political bargaining power of workers and the middle class, and to harass and disrupt peace, rights and environmental movements. A part of this process was the abrogation of fourth amendment protections against arbitrary search, seizure and snooping into people’s mail and effects, and of other key constitutional rights…
  Read the entire article 10 worst things about the Bush years here.
• 6. The Katrina flood and the destruction of much of historic African-American New Orleans, and the massive failure of the Bush administration to come to the aid of one of America’s great cities.
  Read the entire article 10 worst things about the Bush years here.
• 5. The Bush administration’s post-2002 mishandling of Afghanistan, where the Taliban had been overthrown successfully in 2001 and were universally despised. The Bush administration’s attempt to assert itself with a big troop presence in the Pashtun provinces, its use of search and destroy tactics and missile strikes, its neglect of civilian reconstruction, and its failure to finish off al-Qaeda, allowed an insurgency gradually to grow…
  Read the entire article 10 worst things about the Bush years here.
• 4. The Iraq War, in which the US illegally launched a war of aggression that killed hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, displaced 4 million (over a million abroad), destroyed entire cities such as Fallujah, set off a Sunni-Shiite civil war, allowed Baghdad to be ethnically cleansed of its Sunnis, practiced systematic and widespread torture before the eyes of the Muslim Middle East and the world, and immeasurably strengthened Iran’s hand in the Middle East. All this on false pretexts such as ‘weapons of mass destruction’ or ‘democratization,’ for the sake of opening the Iraqi oil markets to US hydrocarbon firms– a significant faction of the oligarchic class.
  Read the entire article 10 worst things about the Bush years here.
• 3. The great $12 trillion Bank Robberry, in which unscrupulous bankers and financiers were deregulated and given free rein to create worthless derivatives, sell impossible mortgages to uninformed marks who could not understand their complicated terms, and then to roll this garbage up into securities re-sold like the
  Cheshire cat, with a big visible smile of asserted value hanging in the air even as their actual worth disappeared into thin air.
  Read the entire article 10 worst things about the Bush years here.
• 2. The September 11 attacks on New York and Washington by al-Qaeda, an organization that stemmed from the Reagan administration’s anti-Soviet jihad in the 1980s and which decided that, having defeated one superpower, it could take down the other. Al-Qaeda’s largely Arab volunteer fighters had confronted the Soviets over their occupation of a major Muslim country, Afghanistan. Bin Laden was himself a Neoliberal Oligarch, but he broke with the Gulf consensus of seeking a US security umbrella, thus creating a fissure within his powerful social class. Al-Qaeda viewed the US as only a slightly less objectionable occupier, though they were willing to make an atliance of convenience in the 1980s. But they were increasingly enraged and galvanized to strike, they said, by the post-Gulf-War sanctions on Iraq that killed 500,000 children, the debilitating Israeli occupation of the Palestinians, and the establishment of US bases in the holy Arabian Peninsula (with its oil riches that Bin Laden believed were being looted for pennies by the West, aided by a supine and corrupt Saudi dynasty).
  Read the entire article 10 worst things about the Bush years here.
• 1. The constitutional coup of 2000, in which Bush was declared the winner of an election he had lost, with the deployment of the most ugly racial and other low tricks in the ballot counting and the intervention of a partisan and far right-wing Supreme Court (itself drawn from or serving the oligarchs), and which gave us the worst president in the history of the union, who proceeded to drive the country off a cliff for the succeeding 8 years. And that is because he was not our president, but theirs. Read the entire article 10 worst things about the Bush years here…
  Read the entire article 10 worst things about the Bush years here.

Panel Finds Sarah Palin Abuses her Power as Governor

The chief investigator of an Alaska legislative panel, Stephen Branchflower, concluded Friday that Sarah Palin unlawfully abused her power as governor by trying to have her former brother-in-law fired as a state trooper. The politically charged inquiry jeopardized her reputation as a reformer on John McCain’s Republican ticket. A report filed by a bipartisan panel that investigated the matter found Palin in violation of a state ethics law that prohibits public officials from using their office for personal gain.

The finding is the result of a 263-page report on the so-called “Troopergate” scandal. The legislative committee concluded Friday that vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin abused her power as Alaska’s governor when she fired her former public safety commissioner.

I had this kind of ominous feeling that I may not be long for this job if I didn’t somehow respond accordingly.

Walter Monegan
Public Safety Commissioner

The inquiry looked into her dismissal of Walter Monegan, a Public Safety Commissioner who said he was fired from his job because he had resisted pressure to fire a state trooper involved in a bitter divorce with the governor’s sister. Palin claims that Monegan was fired as a result of a legitimate budget dispute.

Vindictive Vice-presidential Hopeful

The report concludes that Palin let the family grudge influence her decision-making even if it was not the sole reason Monegan was dismissed.

I feel vindicated. It sounds like they’ve validated my belief and opinions. And that tells me I’m not totally out in left field.

Public Safety Commissioner Walter Monegan
Illegally fired by Sarah Palin

Branchflower said Palin violated a statute of the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act.

The investigation also exposed that Palin’s husband, Todd (who is employed in by big oil), has extraordinary access to the governor’s office as well as her closest advisers. The report found that he had used that access to try to get trooper Mike Wooten fired. Mr. Branchflower laid blame on Sarah Palin for not taking any action to stop that. He also noted there is evidence the governor herself participated in the effort.

Incredibly, Palin and McCain’s supporters had hoped the inquiry’s finding would be delayed until after the presidential election to spare her any embarrassment and to put aside an enduring distraction as she campaigns as McCain’s running mate in an uphill contest against Democrat Barack Obama. It seems to me that these are exactly the kind of issues that need to see the light of day so that Americans can make a wise decision at the ballot box.

Unfortunately, the nearly 300-page report does not recommend sanctions or a criminal investigation.

Can you imagine this woman as the Commander in Chief of the United States of America? I think the photo above pretty much says it all.

Watch these men, considered the architects of the Bush Administration’s policy on torture, including the “legal” torturing of suspects’ children and the horrible act of being buried alive. Watch as they squirm and slither their way out of answering questions posed by a congressional committee. Truly awful human beings.

Your Tax Dollars Stolen By Gov’t Employees

Congressional auditors report that federal employees have used their government credit cards to charge millions of dollars for internet dating, tailor-made suits, lingerie, expensive dinners and other questionable expenses over a 15-month period.

A report by the Government Accountability Office examined spending controls across the federal government following reports of credit-card abuse at various governmental departments including the Defense Department, Homeland Security, and Veterans Affairs.

The review of card spending at more than a dozen departments from 2005 to 2006 found that nearly 41% of roughly $14 billion in credit-card purchases, whether legitimate or questionable, did not follow procedure. Either the purchases were not properly authorized or they had not been signed for by an independent third party as required in federal rules to deter fraud.

For purchases over $2,500, nearly half (48%) were unauthorized or improperly handled.

$1.8M out of $2.7M Unaccounted For

With purchases totaling $2,700,000, the government could not account for hundreds of iPods, computers, and digital cameras. In one case, the U.S. Army could not say what happened to computer items making up 16 server configurations, each of which cost nearly $100,000.

Agencies often could not provide the required paperwork to justify questionable purchases. Investigators also found that federal employees sometimes double-billed or improperly expensed lavish meals and Internet dating for many months without question from supervisors; the charges were often noticed only after auditors or whistle-blowers raised questions.

Breakdowns in internal controls over the use of purchase cards leave the government highly vulnerable to fraud, waste and abuse. The government-wide failure rate in enforcing controls is unacceptably high. This audit demonstrates that continued vigilance over purchase card use is necessary…

GAO Report

The report calls for the General Services Administration and Office of Management and Budget, both of which help oversee the government’s credit-card program, to improve accounting for purchased items, particularly small electronic equipment such as Palm Pilots, iPods and other items that could be easily stolen.

OMB and GSA were also urged to tighten controls over convenience checks, which are a part of the credit-card program, and to remind federal employees that they will be held responsible for any items if the purchases are later deemed improper.

In response, both OMB and GSA agreed with portions of the report. But GSA administrator Lurita Doan noted the vast majority of federal employees use their cards properly and that many oversight measures already are in place, though it is obvious that the entire system needs revamping. She acknowledged there is room for improvement but added that by using purchase cards the federal government saves about $1.8 billion in administrative costs each year. Which seems an odd thing to say, given the fact that all of the misappropriated funds add up

We agree that no level of abuse or misuse is acceptable

GSA administrator Lurita Doan

The GAO study comes amid increasing scrutiny of purchase cards, which are used by 300,000 federal employees and are directly payable by the U.S. government (i.e.: your tax dollars).

Last year, it is reported by the AP that Veterans Administration employees racked up hundreds of thousands of dollars in government credit-card bills at casino and luxury hotels, movie theaters and high-end retailers such as Sharper Image. Government auditors have been investigating these and similar charges, citing past spending abuses.

Investigators did not seek to determine the extent of fraud or waste at each agency. They cited numerous cases of questionable spending, which they said represented what could be found government-wide, including the VA.

“The purchase card is a useful tool for the government, and in no way are we suggesting it shouldn’t continue to be used widely,” said Gregory D. Kutz, GAO’s managing director of forensic audits and special investigations, in a telephone interview. “However, I would say these cases once again show that lack of internal controls cost taxpayers millions of dollars and thus continued focus is needed on improving these controls.”

Among the expenditures cited in the GAO report:

• An Agriculture Department employee fraudulently wrote 180 convenience checks for more than $642,000 to a live-in boyfriend over a six-year period. The money was used for gambling, car and mortgage payments, dinners and retail purchases that went unnoticed until USDA’s inspector general received a tip from a whistle-blower. The employee, who pleaded guilty to embezzlement and tax fraud charges, was sentenced last year to 21 months in prison and ordered to repay the money.
• U.S. Postal Service workers separately billed more than $14,000 to government credit cards for Internet dating services and a dinner at a Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse in Orlando, Fla., for 81 people at a cost of $160 each for steaks and crab. The dinner bill also included more than 200 appetizers and more than $3,000 worth of wine and brand-name liquor such as Courvoisier, Belvedere and Johnny Walker Gold.
• In the Internet dating case, a postmaster charged $1,100 over 15 months for two online services, including the Ashley Madison Agency. The expenses went unnoticed for more than a year even though he was under internal investigation for viewing pornography on a government computer. The postmaster was eventually told to repay the Internet charges but faced no disciplinary action.
• At the Pentagon, four employees purchased $77,700 in clothing and accessories at high-end clothing and sporting goods stores. The spending included more than $45,000 at Brooks Brothers and similar stores for tailor-made suits – $7,000 of which were purchased a week before Christmas. The credit-card holders said the items were for service members working at U.S. embassies with civilian attire. Pentagon rules allow purchases of civilian clothing when performing official duty, but generally only up to $860 per person.
• Justice Department and FBI employees charged $11,000 at a Ritz Carlton hotel for coffee and “light” refreshments for 50 to 70 attendees for four days, averaging about $50 per person. Seventy percent of the total conference cost of $15,000 was for the food and beverages, while audiovisual and other support services totaled only about $4,000, or 30 percent of the charges. It was not clear what action, if any, that Justice took in light of the conference expenses, which GAO deemed excessive.
• At the State Department, one credit-card holder bought $360 worth of women’s lingerie at Seduccion Boutique for use during jungle training by trainees of a drug enforcement program in Ecuador. One State Department official later agreed that the charge was questionable and stated that he would not have approved the purchase had he known about it.

Too many government employees have viewed purchase cards as their personal line of credit. When money that was intended to pay for critical infrastructure, education and homeland security is instead being spent on iPods, lingerie and socializing, we must immediately remedy the problem.

Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn.
Top Republican on Senate Homeland Security
subcommittee on investigations

“Although internal controls over government credit cards have improved, we still have a long way to go to stop the fraudulent use of these cards,” said Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., who chairs the investigations subcommittee.

For the New World Order, a world government is just the beginning.

Dear Friends

I have mixed feelings about forwarding this, but feel it has enough important info in it to make it worth watching.

To me, Alex Jones is unnecessarily antagonistic, and what the elite are trying to pull off is at least somewhat consistent with nature’s pattern of evolution: recursively reducing unmanageable complexities to higher level simplicities. (Subatomic particles form atoms, which form molecules, which form cells, which form organs, which form organisms, such as humans, who form tribes, villages, counties, states, countries, unions of countries, and inevitably it seems, World Government).

On the other hand, I feel Jones has a valid outrage about the elite’s win-lose, domination and control through secrecy and stealth, agenda. I favor Buckminster Fuller’s prescription for social evolution, as expressed in the purpose of World Game: “To make the world work for 100% of humanity, in the shortest possible time, through spontaneous cooperation, without ecological offense or the disadvantage of anyone.” He said the world will be changed by individuals of integrity freely joining in this effort. Instead, what we see happening appears to be an end run by the most powerful of the elite who are set on creating a world of super-privilege and ultra-longevity for their own offspring, with a dumbed-down servant class to provide their labor, and the elimination of everyone else as irrelevant.

W.

Alex Jones – Endgame

Watch the full-screen video here (will open in a new window or tab)

For the New World Order, a world government is just the beginning. Once in place they can engage their plan to exterminate 80% of the world’s population, while enabling the “elites” to live forever with the aid of advanced technology. For the first time, crusading filmmaker ALEX JONES reveals their secret plan for humanity’s extermination: Operation ENDGAME.

Jones chronicles the history of the global elite’s bloody rise to power and reveals how they have funded dictators and financed the bloodiest wars—creating order out of chaos to pave the way for the first true world empire.

• Watch as Jones and his team track the elusive Bilderberg Group to Ottawa and Istanbul to document their secret summits, allowing you to witness global kingpins setting the world’s agenda and instigating World War III.
• Learn about the formation of the North America transportation control grid, which will end U.S. sovereignty forever.
• Discover how the practitioners of the pseudo-science eugenics have taken control of governments worldwide as a means to carry out depopulation.
• View the progress of the coming collapse of the United States and the formation of the North American Union.

Part of their motivation is probably due to foreseeing the effects of global warming. It seems likely that there will be extensive displacement of major populations within this century as coastal cities flood, and current temperate zones become desert, while new temperate zones are pushed toward the poles. The rate of polar ice melting is accelerating at continually astonishing speeds. Today, glaciers are retreating twice as fast as just five years ago. Greenland is covered by about 636,000 cubic miles of freshwater ice, which is now hemorrhaging into the sea at a rate of seven billion gallons an hour. That means every day it loses as much fresh water as New York City consumes in a year. We may also be reaching a tipping point, where melting sea ice (reflectance .75) reveals enough polar water (reflectance .25) for the water to absorb enough solar heat (that is otherwise reflected back to space) to heat the water enough to melt more ice to reveal more water, etc, in a runaway feedback loop. This would further speed the acceleration of Greenland’s melting. If Greenland loses its entire ice covering, oceans will rise by 23 feet. We lose New York at 10 feet, and most of Florida at less than that. Plus, warmer oceans breed stronger and more frequent hurricanes. Even at today’s ocean level, a hurricane could shut down New York with major flooding. Then there’s Antarctica . . . In other words, global warming is advancing rapidly, and is likely to produce severe consequences that the elite are making secret provisions for, which include hundreds of concentration camps already built in the U.S., and plans to eventually eliminate 80% of humanity to make the earth again sustainable.

Anyway, enjoy the movie – and have a nice day.

W.

“Endgame” is an interesting study

Never before has a documentary assembled all the pieces of the globalists’ dark agenda. Endgame’s compelling look at past atrocities committed by those attempting to steer the future delivers information that the controlling media has meticulously censored for over 60 years. It fully reveals the elite’s program to dominate the earth and carry out the most wicked plan in all of human history.

Endgame is not conspiracy theory, it is documented fact in the elite’s own words.

Spies Like Us

I find it insane and outrageous the the Bush Administration continuously beats the drums of fear and mis-information in order to keep killing off democracy, stripping away civil liberties, while rampant large-scale corruption, big business cronyism, and the continued spying on ordinary U.S. citizens continues to blossom. Some democracy!

It’s for your own protection

We’re told that this nonsense is for our own protection. This is exactly the type of thing that was happening in Germany in the 1930’s when Hitler and his troop of deadly, lying pranksters were coming into power… It’s as if the Bush administration is using the Nazi play book, step by step. Painting by numbers, if you will… Painting it black.

More info on the ACLU website

Here’s a good article on the ACLU website that debunks Bush’s fear-mongering at his (final) State of the Union Address, where he keeps pushing for the gutting of current FISA laws in order to keep on illegaly wiretapping American phone lines. He must be stopped.

Contact Your Senators

They need to hear from you. Following this link will allow you to quickly, easily and securely send a message to your senators. Communicate with them. It does make a difference!

Top Ten Ways To Identify An Evangelical Republican

Number Ten:

• They’re opposed to sectarian conflict in Iraq but in favor of sectarian politics in the United States.

Number Nine:

• They’re opposed to homosexuality and same-sex relationships but they’ll vote for a presidential candidate who does drag and lived with two gay men if he can beat Hillary Clinton and her “typically” unfaithful heterosexual husband.

Number Eight:

• They wouldn’t dare vote for a Clinton given Bill’s disgraceful sexual antics in the White House but they’re happy to support a candidate who used New York City funds to carry on an adulterous affair.

Number Seven:

• They criticize Democratic candidates for suggesting they would only nominate pro-choice judges to uphold the law of the land while they require their own candidates to pass religious litmus tests in conflict with the law of the land.

Number Six:

• They’re in favor of abstinence only sex education even if it leads to more unwed teen pregnancies and more parent sponsored abortions (call it the evangelical version of NIMBY – not in my back yard; NIMBU – not in my babygirls uterus).

Number Five:

• They’re in favor of the separation of church and state if it involves opposing a congressional inquiry into the fundraising and spending habits of leading televangelists but opposed to the separation when it comes to selecting a presidential nominee.

Number Four:

• They support candidates who endorse more funding for AIDS in Africa while embracing a candidate who favored quarantining AIDS patients in America as well as having Hollywood fund AIDS research instead of the government.

Number Three:

• They tout Ronald Reagan as their political icon despite the fact that he was unable to acknowledge the toll of HIV on gays in America or even utter the word AIDS…while they and their church’s now run around talking about saving Africa from the ravages of HIV…as long as it doesn’t involve condoms.

Number Two:

• They talk about their Christian values while they favor denying health care treatment to the children of illegal immigrants. Family values apparently stop at the waters edge (that would be the Rio Grande river).

Number One:

• They’ll never make enough money to truly benefit from George Bush’s tax cuts for the rich or condemn his doubling of the national debt but they’re happy to call the Democratic candidates who supported an increase in minimum wage and favor a national health care system unacceptable tax and spend liberals.

Bonus Qualifier:

• They abhor the fact that Jesus was tortured, mocked, and condemned to death without due process but they’re damn sure in favor of waterboarding and disregarding the principle of habeas corpus while indefinitely imprisoning war on terror detainees.

As reported on the AlterNet website

This post, written by Daniel DiRito, originally appeared on The All Spin Zone

A country in which people cannot make airline reservations without the government’s permission is not a free country.

Paul Craig Roberts

Bush Regime Preaches Democracy, Proposes Tyranny

By Paul Craig Roberts

US citizens had best rethink the “war on terror” while they still have the liberty to do so. For all of President Bush’s blah-blah talk about bringing democracy to the world, the Bush administration has proved that it is no friend of liberty at home.

The Bush administration has violated constitutional principles, US law, and the Geneva Conventions as no previous administration has done. Here is a short list of the Bush administration’s crimes:

• Spying without court warrants on Americans in violation of both the US Constitution and the FISA statute.
• The denial of habeas corpus, attorney-client privilege, due process, and Geneva Conventions protections to those, American or foreign, designated without evidence as terrorists or enemy combatants.
• The justification and use of torture to coerce confessions and the kidnapping of foreign nationals who are sent to be tortured in foreign prisons.
• The initiation of military aggression against states based on intentional deception by the Bush administration of the US public and the United Nations, and the intentional fabrication of “evidence” to justify unprovoked aggression against sovereign states, which is a war crime under the Nuremberg standard established by the US.
• Violation of the oath of office to defend the US Constitution by practically every member of the Bush administration and Congress.
• Bush has assaulted the separation of powers and the rule of law with “signing statements” and “executive orders” that President Nixon’s White House Counsel John Dean says are commands that treat the co-equal branches of government and the electorate as subservient to executive authority. In April 2006, Boston Globe reporter Charlie Savage listed 750 laws “challenged” by the Bush administration. Not even the demonized president of Iran claims to be above the law.
• Genocide against the people of Iraq where one million Iraqis have died as a result of Bush’s invasion and several million Iraqis are displaced persons.
• Massive civilian casualties in Afghanistan, which is a form of genocide in which military force is routinely applied to unarmed noncombatants.
• Massive corruption in which no-bid contracts are issued to Republican corporations in exchange for kickbacks to political campaigns.
• The theft of two national elections as documented in books by Mark Crispin Miller and Greg Palast.

The Bush administration has even conducted Stalinist show trials against innocent Muslim charities as part of its propaganda to make the American people fearful that they are surrounded by hostile terrorists. In December 2001 President Bush declared the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development to be a “terrorist organization” and seized the charity’s assets. Bush put the charities’ officials on trial as terrorists. Six years later on October 22, 2007, after years of investigations and two months of testimony by who but “Israeli intelligence agents” (according to the New York Times), the US government’s case fell apart in the courtroom.

One of the jurors said that the case ” was strung together with macaroni noodles. There was so little evidence.”

Georgetown University professor of constitutional law David D. Cole said the case “suggests the government is really pushing beyond where the law justifies them going.”

While committing these unprecedented crimes, President Bush has claimed the moral high ground despite having lied to the American people and despite devastating two countries in the name of “making the world safe from terrorists.” When people in Iraq and Afghanistan are asked who are the terrorists, they answer that it is the Americans.

The Bush administration has not been held accountable for any of its crimes. By failing to hold government accountable to law, the Constitution, and the American people, the opposition party and the corporate media have abandoned their responsibility to protect freedom and democracy in the United States.

There can be no democracy where there is no government accountability, and there is no government accountability in the United States – except, of course, to the Israel Lobby.

Now the Bush administration wants to take away the American people’s freedom to travel within their own country by airplane. Not content with an 80,000 “no fly” list, a subset of a 500,000–750,000 “watch list,” the Bush administration’s Transport Security Administration has proposed new rules that will require Americans to get government permission 72 hours in advance prior to being allowed to board a domestic flight.

The TSA justifies this extraordinary violation of our constitutional rights on the grounds that 90 to 93 percent of all travel reservations are final by then.

So what?!

And what of the 7 to 10 percent of flights that the TSA estimates are not on the books 72 hours in advance? These are family emergencies and critical business deals. What does the TSA care if a member of your family dies while you await the government’s permission to fly?

Any agency of the government that can propose such a tyrannical regulation should be abolished. The TSA’s mentality shows it to be a far greater threat to Americans than are terrorists.

Even without the “permission to fly” rule, the TSA’s practices are ridiculous and unjustified. The confiscation of tooth paste and unopened bottles of perfume, the harassment of US military officers in uniform, the harassment of old people struggling with their walkers, of mothers struggling with small children – none of this makes any sense except in terms of getting Americans accustomed to harassment as a citizen’s duty to government and to train a cadre to conduct warrantless searches of fellow citizens.

The no-fly list itself is absurd. If a known terrorist were to show up at an airport, he would be arrested, not refused permission to fly. Anyone else who can clear security like other passengers has every right to fly.

Set aside the violation of the Constitution and the Soviet-style tyranny of the loss of the freedom to travel and consider merely the practical aspect of the proposal. What American wants his travel plans dependent on a government bureaucracy capable of putting US Senator Ted Kennedy on the “no fly” list and capable of issuing US visas to two of the alleged 9/11 hijackers six months after they allegedly died in the 9/11 events

If we believe the official story, 9/11 itself reveals a government totally devoid of any competence whatsoever.

The “war on terror” is fraudulent. The cruel war and the deceptive vocabulary that protects it are a cover for expanding US and Israeli hegemony in the Middle East and for constructing a functioning police state at home. A country in which people cannot make airline reservations without the government’s permission is not a free country.
———–
Paul Craig Roberts wrote the Kemp-Roth bill and was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration. He was Associate Editor of the Wall Street Journal editorial page and Contributing Editor of National Review. He is author or coauthor of eight books, including The Supply-Side Revolution (Harvard University Press). He has held numerous academic appointments, including the William E. Simon Chair in Political Economy, Center for Strategic and International Studies, Georgetown University and Senior Research Fellow, Hoover Institution, Stanford University. He has contributed to numerous scholarly journals and testified before Congress on 30 occasions. He has been awarded the U.S. Treasury’s Meritorious Service Award and the French Legion of Honor. He was a reviewer for the Journal of Political Economy under editor Robert Mundell. He is the co-author of The Tyranny of Good Intentions.

Dangers of a Cornered George Bush

By Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity & Dr. Justin Frank

Applied Psychoanalysis

As we watched the pressure build on President Bush, we looked toward the additional challenges we expect him to face over the next 18 months, and pondered his tendency to disregard the law and the Constitution of the United States, we felt very much in need of professional help in trying to estimate what kinds of decisions he is likely to make.

Intelligence Professionals and Dr. Justin Frank

Read the entire analysis at the excellent Information Clearing House