Washington Politicians Are Gutting America Like A Fish
Published by Fred Soto• March 3rd, 2008
RSS News Feed
George W. Bush has created the path for American fascism, he’s all but made the American Presidency and our Democratic system of governance a sham. He’s not alone, however. In addition to the neo-conservative movement, we’ve seen the rise of cowardice in Congress. Democrats and moderate Conservatives have failed to stand up for justice and the Constitution. In the view of Americans who actually give a damn, the two-party system has failed and Democrats and Republicans may as well be working together as they’ve allowed Bush to get away with murder, so-to-speak.
Since Bush was inaugurated, all of the problems with his administration have been under the microscope. The majority of the issues started as early as 2001 — illegal surveillance, international relations problems, above-the-law action. Other issues have arisen since then, including FEMA’s response to Katrina, politicization of the Justice Department, disenfranchising voters, and providing fat contracts to his friends in corporate America.
Despite the fact that many details of wrongdoing are coming to light, Democrats have been unable to do anything about the issues. Now it appears that they are going to cave on protecting American rights to defend themselves against invasive government and illegal corporate acts. Is there any good news to be had? Is the promise of hope and restoring faith in American government in our near future or is it all talk and no action as Hillary Clinton has said?
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
President Bush has on numerous occasions had the opportunity to explain clearly what his plan is in the middle east. He has been given ample opportunity to correct the U.S. international reputation that was damaged as a result of the Iraq invasion. The only arguments coming out of the White House and his supporters with respect to these glaring problems is “liberals have BSD” and “only liberals would care what terrorists think, they hate our country!”
Contrast the approach taken by Republicans on the issue of our declining reputation overseas. Barack Obama was recently asked what he would do if he were President and how he would handle the growing struggles and tension between Americans and Muslims throughout the world.
Barack Obama talks about U.S. relations, peace and world affairs
As president of the United States, I will directly address the people of the Muslim world to make it clear that the United States is not at war with Islam, that our enemy is al-Qaeda and its tactical and ideological affiliates, and that our struggle is shared. In this speech, I will make it clear that the United States rejects torture — without equivocation, and will close Guantanamo. I will make it clear that the United States stands ready to support those who reject violence with closer security cooperation; an agenda of hope — backed by increased foreign assistance — to support justice, development and democracy in the Muslim world; and a new program of outreach to strengthen ties between the American people and people in Muslim countries.
I will also make it clear that we will expect greater cooperation from Muslim countries; and that the United States will always stand for basic human rights — including the rights of women — and reject the scourge of anti-Semitism. Simply put, I will say that we are on the side of the aspirations of all peace-loving Muslims, and together we must build a new spirit of partnership to combat terrorists who threaten our common security.
In one breath, Barack Obama brought up the difference between Muslims and fundamentalist extremists, he rejected torture, and promised to close down Guantanamo. He also denounced violence, urged cooperation between nations of the world, promoted justice and wants to help mend the harm done to our relationship with the Muslim world under President Bush’s leadership. You can call it mere rhetoric or “all talk and no action” but it is effective in helping to quell problems that have arisen out of our poorly conceived attack on Iraq.
ARTICLES OF IMPEACHMENT FOR VICE PRESIDENT DICK CHENEY
The anger over President Bush’s handling of the Iraq War has millions of Americans and people throughout the world praying for impeachment and removal of President Bush and Dick Cheney. Now, the latest news is that Dick Cheney’s articles of impeachment has more co-sponsors than Nixon’s impeachment ever did.
Congressman Dennis Kucinich’s resolution to impeach Vice President Dick Cheney now has more cosponsors signed onto it than any resolution to impeach President Richard Nixon ever had. But separate resolutions to impeach Nixon, some with a handful of cosponsors, many with no cosponsors at all, were filed by the dozens. Today, Kucinich’s resolution stands alone…
A group of citizen activists from around the country has been meeting with members of Congress and their staffers to argue a case for recreating what they are calling the Nixon flooding plan. If, they argue, just the 30 or 40 members who are currently pushing for Cheney’s impeachment were to file their own resolutions, the impact would be far greater than simply adding more names to Kucinich’s bill or to a Dear Colleague letter. All that is needed, in other words, to move impeachment forward in the House might be for those who already claim to support it to put their printers where their mouths are and crank out a couple of dozen new bills.
POLITICIZATION OF THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT
While impeachment may have growing momentum behind it, we can’t get too excited just yet. Attorney General Mukasey’s recent shielding of the Executive against legislative accountability could be an issue, because again it appears that the Justice Department has become a political tool of the executive.
Mr. Mukasey said the chief of staff, Joshua B. Bolten, and the former counsel, Harriet E. Miers, were right in refusing to provide Congress with White House documents or to testify about the firings of federal prosecutors.
“The department will not bring the Congressional contempt citations before a grand jury or take any other action to prosecute Mr. Bolten or Ms. Miers,” Mr. Mukasey wrote to the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi.
Though, Nancy Pelosi is often under fire from Democrats over failure to impeach the President and Vice President, she is doing her part to insist that the legislature not be undermined by the Justice Department. She sent a letter to Attorney General Mukasey, in part it read as follows:
There is no authority by which persons may wholly ignore a subpoena and fail to appear as directed because a President unilaterally instructs them to do so. Even if a subpoenaed witness intends to assert a privilege in response to questions, the witness is not at liberty to disregard the subpoena and fail to appear at the required time and place. Surely, your Department would not tolerate that type of action if the witness were subpoenaed to a federal grand jury. Short of a formal assertion of executive privilege, which cannot be made in this case, there is no authority that permits a President to advise anyone to ignore a duly issued congressional subpoena for documents.
ABOVE THE LAW MENTALITY
You can read the American Constitution Society’s blog on topic: “Mukasey orders attorney to ignore contempt citation.” The initial reaction of partisans is to argue that this is a PR stunt and insist that Democrats stop playing games, but Pelosi cited the law in support of her remarks, 2 U.S.C. § 194 governs in such instances. General Mukasey continued to defy the House Speaker, as Democrats thought would happen when they resisted appointing this man to the bench last fall. Here’s what he said:
“the contempt of Congress statute was not intended to apply and could not constitutionally be applied to an Executive Branch official who asserts the President’s claim of executive privilege.” The letter also cites Harriet Miers’s “constitutional immunity from compelled congressional testimony.”
And off to court we go! It is not surprising that a legal confrontation is imminent, but it is disappointing to see the executive continue to shield its interests over those of the people. House speaker Nancy Pelosi informed Attorney General Mukasey that his response was expected and legal action would be taken. Here are her words:
“Anticipating this response from the Administration, the House has already provided authority for the Judiciary Committee to file a civil enforcement action in federal district court and the House shall do so promptly. The American people demand that we uphold the law. As public officials, we take an oath to uphold the Constitution and protect our system of checks and balances and our civil lawsuit seeks to do just that. “
In case you’re not thoroughly disappointed and depressed at this point, let me help push you to the edge!
LOSING FAITH IN GOVERNMENT AND THE ELECTORAL SYSTEM
The Diebold corporation that has been in the media often for negative reasons is the target of a possible acquisition by a Defense contractor. Among the issues that are troubling include problems with voting machine security and malfunctioning as well as a lack of a paper trail to resolve disputes of fraud. You would think that the Diebold corporation should be in the gutter of corporate acquisitions, but instead they were offered a bid of $3 billion dollars. Apparently, the U.S. Defense contractor “United Technologies” felt it was necessary to secure the young voting corp. and I couldn’t think of worst suitor to safeguard the future of our U.S. Elections and combat voter fraud.
To make matters worse, some of our tax dollars are paying for this and somehow Diebold is having “accounting issues,” not to be confused with fraud and other illegal acts. The United Technology corporation that made the unsolicited offer for Diebold’s holdings, happens to be a frequent contractor for the Department of Defense. This should send the conspiracy theorists into a frenzy over motives behind this acquisition and it’ll at least make the more skeptical among us feel a little uncomfortable as we move forward.
SPYING OF AMERICAN CITIZENS - TELECOMMUNICATIONS IMMUNITY
Finally, FISA immunity may be back with a vengeance. After I gave positive marks to the House last week for standing up for justice and accountability at the highest levels of our government, it sounds like they are going to back down. The House, like the Senate, will no longer look after the interests of American citizens because for whatever reason it has become inconvenient to them to continue this fight.
The Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Silvestre Reyes (D-TX), said on Sunday that a deal was in the works to pass a controversial extension of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, as early as this week. Speaking on CNN’s “Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer,” Reyes said that the House is moving closer to approving a bipartisan Senate passed extension of the law, which contains immunity for telecommunications companies that have previously assisted the government in listening in on potential terrorists’ communications.
And with that final bit of news, perhaps I’ll go join you on the ledge, the United States is no longer “of the people” and “for the people.” Way to sell out our country, Democrats. I’d castigate the Republicans too, but they sold out long ago.
tags:Bush, constitution, FISA, illegal, Impeaachment, Iraq, Law, Mukasey, News
Fred Soto is an Attorney and Entrepreneur from the Silicon Valley.
Email this author | All posts by Fred Soto
[...] a couple years ago, they have done whatever they’re told to do by the White House — putting all the corruption of this administration above the lives and rights of every American [...]
Washington Politicians Are Gutting America Like A Fish | politikly.com…
\r\nThe American Presidency and our Democratic system of governance is sham, thanks to President Bus…
two words, you nazi.
f u c k y o u
if it weren’t for the right, you leftist ball flicking communist fuck heads would have destroyed the country a long time ago.
Wow Yarg,
These words you use, I dont think they mean what you think they mean.
All it says to me is that you you either lack the mental ability to understand whats happening, or you’re complicit and started name calling because you dont have any other weapon to combat the truth with.
Either way, your post = epic fail.
Yarg, apparently you have no idea how the original government of the United States is suppose to function through checks and balances. Apparently you like your government to run roughshod over the constitution of the united states. Apparently you are a douche who does not like to read history or study anything at all. You are as bad as congress, democrats and republicans who are continually bending over the constitution and/or not standing up for it.
Yarg, are you a republican? ha ha..
It’s so awesome that you in one post embodies the entire right wing movement;
“FUCK YOU if you dont agree! You are a terrorist! WE ARE RIGHT!”
Well, we are not scared anymore! Since, well you have created more evil than the terrorist ever could!
This Fred Soto is unbelievable, how is his worthless commentary getting airtime?
This on Whitehouser.com, where WEIGHT LOSS ads are more important than Fred Soto Commentary… because they know their democratic audience.
A Democratic audience that wants some pill to fix their fat problems. It’s not THEIR fault they are fat, a pill is needed so they can blame it when it doesn’t work.
Yarg, the brainless troll… It’s a miracle he can operate a computer. (Probably took a lot of time typing with one index finger, though.)
At least he should have looked up the definitions. As it was mentioned: fail. On all counts.
Hi Fred — Thank you for publishing this honest and well thought-out piece on the sham that is our government today. Disregard the illiterate harangues of morons like Yarg. They’re the kind of folks that don’t see what the fuss is all about when Marines throw helpless puppies over cliffs for fun.
I have posted this article on my Facebook page.
Thanks again!
Conservatives when presented with inconravertible facts start name calling, you see it all the time.
@yarg
eloquent…why bother with facts, supporting evidence, or logic when you have venemous hate with more than a dash of ignorance and misinformation.
Enjoy the country you’re building for yourself, I’ll be immigrating to the UK if another republican steals the white house
Way to generalize, guy using FredSoto as name. you are a huge douche.
So Democrats, is it finally time?
Are there enough watchful and engaged Americans now to finally call it like it IS, and recognize that Rebuplicans and Democrats are simply different arms of the same Liberty-smashing thug?
Ron Paul ran on the Elephant ticket, but he’s far more aligned with the Libertarian and US Constitution parties than either of the powerhouse “choices”. He doesn’t have the delegates, but he got a lot of people to wake up.
I’m waiting for the day Americans will have the great epiphany that our “two party system” is nothing more than a cooperative cartel that serves the elite at our expense. Time to ELIMINATE this cartel and begin to look elsewhere for leadership. If there is actually any time left.
More to the point, I’m asking if Democrats finally have enough proof to abandon their wrecked party, as I abandoned the Republican party long ago. The current Administration could not possibly give the Democrats any better, more compelling, or victory-assured reasons to go full offense. And what do the Dems do, repeatedly? FAIL. WAFFLE. HEM-HAW. DO NOTHING. And we wonder why.
It’s because they don’t give a shit about you, or any other American citizen one iota more than the Republicans. They are ALL purchased tools of big money interests. Before you fall for another idealistic line from any Democrat or Republican, remember that actions mean everything. Words are nothing. If the Democrats do not DO what they babble needs to be done, then tear that Donkey patch off your sleeve and get real about what it’s going to take to fix our nation.
Right on… My thoughts exactly.
That’s what the conservative left is a bunch of fascists hell bent on making the US the Next Nazi Germany.
Haven’t you learned the lessons of WW2? Where are your heads? You think by throwing away our libertities to the Grandson of a know fascist who tried to bring down our government and replace it with a fascist one pre WW2 (http://www.cracked.com/article_15974_7-insane-conspiracies-that-actually-happened.html) First one or 7th one.
Interesting!
This is no longer the land of the free nor the home of the brave! It is now the land of the scared and the home of the afraid who willingly throw away the liberties our forefathers fought so hard and sacrificed so much for.
As Ben Franklin said “thoughts who would sacrifice liberty for the elution of peace deserve neither liberty nor peace”
That is what our country is coming to, one that deserves neither liberty or peace.
A sad statement of how far our nation has fallen.
Yarg,
that was brilliant! You keep those kind of
arguments up, and the rest of us don’t have to worry any more. Btw, read a book.
I agree with “AboutTime”.
The god of fascism has failed. The god of communism has failed.
And now the god of democracy has failed. With one jolt all the laws, rules of hundreds of years (Magna carta ~ 800 years?) were dumped. The false god dropped all the pretenses.
The people cannot believe the god of democracy and capitalism has failed. They feel the priest is bad. They hope that a new priest will be able to revive this god.
I tell you my friends these false gods/idols have no power and no amount of sprinkling holy water by Mr. McCain/Obama will revive this god.
Peace
RAH
The god of fascism was the nation state. The priests of fascism said this god will bring peace and prosperity. But the false god only brought mass death to both its enemies and to its supporters.
The god of communism was the dictatorship of the proletariat. The high priests of communism said this god will bring equality, justice and prosperity. But the false god only brought mass death.
The twin idols of capitalism and democracy was promoted by its priests to bring wealth, peace and prosperity. The people fought WW1 under this idol which the high priests declared as the war to end war. The loss of some 20-30 million people in WW1 lead to deaths of 50+ million in WW2.
The chief supporter of this god managed to wipe out whole cities with hundreds of thousands of women and children (Nagasaki / Hiroshima / Dresden). The high priests claimed that killing hundreds of thousands of civilians was actually done to save lives. Amazing as this statement was many worshippers believed such lies.
These gods have brought death and destruction. Their faces dripping with more death and destruction than anything done by the Spanish conquistadores people are afraid if they abandon these gods they will lose everything.
So many innocents have been sacrificed at the alters of Fascism, Communism, Capitalism and Democracy yet the people are afraid what will happen if these religions are abandoned.
Rah
ALL ROADS LEAD TO ISRAEL
I - European citizen, immigrated to the States in 1960 and definitely left in 1964.I could even then see the present situation coming.
One question from a dumb foreigner: Do the American people exist at all ? A nice, peaceful demonstration in Washington by one million people might set a few things straight, one million Americans are just one third one one percent of the total population. And if not even that tiny percentage can be moved to stand up and be counted,why should those bastards in Washington act differently ?
It is very likely that while you & I were arguing over
Bush’s claim to the presidency in 2000, Karl Rove was reading every background file for every person that they feared, in congress, the military and all government employees. If you speak up, and the result is that your entire career is over, or a member of your family is smeared….most people become a lot less vocal. There is nothing in the current political landscape that makes a convincing argument against this suspicion. These people are the most vicious types to appear since the Nazis.
You’re totally clueless!
Zionist Organized crime controls the US Government, the Media, Hollywood, the School system, the Publishing Houses, Wall Street and, most importantly, the Federal Reserve Bank.
Think not?
Just ask any Israeli, or any Jew for that matter.
Don’t ever forget these words!
“I want to tell you something very clear, don’t worry about American pressure on Israel, we, the Jewish people control America, and the Americans know it.” — Ariel Sharon to Shimon Peres, October 3rd, 2001, as reported on Kol Yisrael radio.
Forgive me for sounding vulgar but Bush is a piece of swaggering bovine excrement that this cowardly congress won’t flush away.
Who has benefited from the 9/11/01 murders? Look at the Israeli/Massad agents who publicly stated on Israeli television that they had traveled to New York to “document the event”. How does one document an event without having foreknowledge of the event? A 9/11/01 witness saw them dancing on the roof of a moving van laughing and cheering as the WTC building’s collapsed and reported the suspicious activity to the local police. Shortly afterward, New York policemen observed this van on a bridge and pulled it over. After finding C4, explosive residue and large amounts of cash inside the van, the suspects were detained for questioning and investigation. Much to the dismay of the arresting officers, their release from custody was ordered (possibly from Michael Chertoff who is a dual Israeli-American citizen) from “higher ups” and they were allowed to leave the US. Curiously, members of the Bin Laden family were also allowed to leave the US during a time when all of our commercial flights were grounded.
Considering the Bush administration’s nefarious track record of at least 935 documented lies (Center For Public Integrity) during that 2 year period, how could anyone know if Osama Bin Forgotten ever had anything to do with 9/11? Look at who Pelosi has been trying to protect and consider Bush’s recent rash of “signing statements” he has made in an effort to cover his sorry butt. The neocrud’s bizarre behavior speaks for itself.
Now, consider who is sending our children to die in illegal and immoral proxy wars of aggression. Anti-AIPAC = Anti-Semitism? Give me a break! Zionists have less claims on Judaism than than the KKK has on Christianity. Both are racist, morally bankrupt elements that exploit someone else’s religion as a shield for it’s moral turpitude. Zionism = Atheism. Period. Take a good look outside the Zionist owned “corporate lametream media” and one can clearly see the unbridled hatred they harbor for true Christianity.
Now look at who is occupying whom in the Mid East. Who has more nuclear weapons than anyone else in that turbulent part of the world? Who is violating whose human rights with racist apartheid tactics? Who is sending our children to die in illegal proxy wars for corporate greed? Take a good look at who hijacked the US media’s integrity and follow the dirty money trail.
Rove’s modus operandi is plagiarized from the Nazi’s “playbook”. Very predictable. The nefariously warped agendas are always the same, genocidal mass murder and global domination through lies, fear and hate. When confronted with the truth, they like to use “anti-semitism” as a shield for their corrupted moral turpitude when the truth is that they have less claim to Judaism than the KKK has to Christianity. Zionists/Nazis are capable of anything, including another “9/11″ false flag. Be alert and monitor them carefully, including Bush’s bitch, Pelosi but ignore the sycophantic knuckle draggers like “yarg”.
Bill Shultz has nailed it. At any rate most of you believe that it is ok to provide services at the end of a gun (some thing the government does on a daily and probably hourly basis). You are all forcing the government on people who live in the land called America. Most of us just want to lead our lives and be left alone and to engage in services with others on a PURELY voluntary basis. But no you all tell us to leave if we don’t like it because you are foolish and think that governments exist to protect you. Start taking on responsibilities like god damn adults and stop demanding that government do everything for you.
Damn, you nailed it right on the head.
P.S. Yarg, obviously has lost sight of what this great country is suppose to embodie. He is dead….
So why don’t you tell people how they can seize control of the government for free? It’s much easier than you think, a few thousand folks just need to be told how…learn for yourself at powervotenow.com
# yarg on March 5th, 2008 at 10:30 am:
two words, you nazi.
f u c k y o u
if it weren’t for the right, you leftist ball flicking communist fuck heads would have destroyed the country a long time ago.
No F U C K Y O U.
You are about the dumbest fuck in the world.
Have you been living under a rock the last 7 years or your mothers basement.
This country has been around for over 200 years and Bush has almost destroyed it in 7.
Why are republican minds always on the penis.
“ball flicking communist”
Are you a Larry Craig Supporter.
I just feel fucking sorry for you brainwashed mother-fucking cocksucking son-of-a-bitch.