FLAG BANNER: Committee for Democracy, Corruption Updates 25
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CORRUPTION UPDATES 25

December 5th to December 8th, 2006

The CORRUPTION UPDATES reviews corruption in the news. News Stories from California, the Nation and the World are abstracted below, and followed by commentary and references.

 

 


CORRUPTION UPDATE 25

Previous Corruption Updates: Page 24

Next Corruption Updates: Page 26

1) THE ARTICLE ABSTRACTED BELOW WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE LA TIMES, 12-7-06:

Nevada judges can keep raising funds

The state's high court decides against one of several proposals to reform the judiciary.”

By Scott Gold, Times Staff Writer
December 7, 2006

http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-judges7dec07,0,6803182.story?coll=la-headlines-politics

CARSON CITY, NEV. — The Nevada Supreme Court has rejected a proposal to prohibit judges from personally soliciting or accepting campaign contributions.”

“In a hearing earlier this week, Chief Justice Robert E. Rose had called the measure a "serious proposal." But the court's seven justices ruled unanimously that the measure would impose an unconstitutional restriction on judges' right to free speech.”

Most states have such restrictions on their books, and several state courts have upheld the measures.”

THE COMMITTEE FOR DEMOCRACY CONDEMNS BRIBERY:

NEVADA HIGH COURT OKS JUDICIAL BRIBERY AS FREE SPEECH RIGHT

How the judge's “right” to free speech is impeded by preventing them from taking bribes is beyond understanding. It possibly limits the “free speech” of those who are bribing the judges. But that would be paid speech, when they pay the judges to say, and rule, the way they want them to.

The real issue at stake is the proper balance between everyone's free speech rights, the rights of the voter, and the need for an independent judiciary.

The Nevada Supreme Court failed to balance, or even protect, any of these necessary elements of a good judiciary. They actually added insult to the injury done by bribery, by elevating bribery to the status of a Constitutionally protected right, over the right of the voter to select their own representatives.

It is especially galling that this decision was taken in the glaring light of public exposure. Excellent reporting by the LA Times exposed the abuses going on within Nevada's rotten judiciary, which detailed the unsavory relationships between political contributors and the judges.

Our democracy is shamed by this decision of the Nevada Supreme Court to affirm and protect the open corruption of Nevada's Judges.

Other Articles on Nevada Judicial Corrution:

Buy a Judge,” Corruption Updates 1, last article on page.

LA Times shames Nevada into fake Judicial...Reform,” Corruption Updates 6, first article on page. (Fake Reform Predicted)

Corruption Updates 12, 2nd article on page, “Fake Reform Completed

Campaign Cash Mirrors High Court's Rulings,” Corruption Updates 14, 4th article on page.

Bribery and Corruption Engulfing Judicial Elections: Independent Judiciary a Joke,” Corruption Updates 19, last article on page.

Nevada debate on judicial bribery hinges on free speech.” Corruption Updates #22

Will Freedom of Speech be Used as a Cover for Judicial Bribery in Nevada,” CORRUPTION UPDATES PAGE 24, seventh article on page.

Other Articles on Judicial Corruption:

Bribery and Corruption Engulfing Judicial Elections: Independent Judiciary a Joke,” Corruption Updates 19, last article on page.

Campaign Cash Mirrors High Court's Rulings,” Corruption Updates 14, 4th article on page.

2) THE ARTICLE ABSTRACTED BELOW WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED BY AP, 12-8-06:

GOP senator says war may be 'criminal'

By MATTHEW DALY, Associated Press Writer

Last Updated 2:49 pm PST Friday, December 8, 2006

http://dwb.sacbee.com/24hour/politics/story/3442285p-12622941c.html

WASHINGTON (AP) - Oregon Sen. Gordon Smith, a Republican who voted in favor of the Iraq war in 2002 and has supported it ever since, now says the current U.S. war effort is "absurd" and "may even be criminal." “

In an emotional speech on the Senate floor Thursday night, Smith called for changes in U.S. policy that could include rapid pullouts of U.S. troops from Iraq. He said he never would have voted for the conflict if he had known the intelligence that President Bush gave the American people was inaccurate.”

"I for one am at the end of my rope when it comes to supporting a policy that has our soldiers patrolling the same streets in the same way, being blown up by the same bombs day after day," Smith said. "That is absurd. It may even be criminal. I cannot support that anymore. ... So either we clear and hold and build, or let's go home." ”

THE COMMITTEE SAYS:

US REPUB SENATOR FEARS WAR ILLEGAL

WHY DID IT TAKE THREE YEARS TO CONFRONT THE LYING AND INCOMPENTENCE THE WAS OBIVIOUS FROM THE BEGINNING?

A FEW ALTERNATIVE VIEWS ON THE LEGALITY OF THE RATIONAL FOR THE WAR IN IRAQ FOLLOW.

THE TWO ARTICLES ABSTRACTED BELOW WERE PUBLISHED ON ARABICNEWS.COM ON 12-30-06:

3) A> THE ARTICLE SAYS:

UK Archbishop: Iraq war 'flawed'

ArabicNews.com

http://www.arabicnews.com/ansub/Daily/Day/061230/2006123013.html

Iraq-UK, Politics, 12/30/2006

UK Archbishop-Iraq Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan William Friday criticized two main planks of Prime Minister Tony Blair's policy in the Iraq war and renewing Britain's nuclear weapons as a deterrent.”

“Repeating previous criticism that the decision to invade Iraq was "flawed," the head of the Anglican Church also suggested that he may yet regret not doing more to prevent the war as a religious leader.”

While visiting the Middle East last week, he also accused the UK government of placing Christians at risk through its actions in Iraq, which he described as "short-sightedness" and based on "ignorance."

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THE COMMITTEE SAYS:

ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY REASSERTS CRITICISM OF WAR

REGRETS NOT DOING MORE TO STOP WAR

4) B> THE ARTICLE SAYS:

Iraq deceit most shameful in British history: Duke of Buccleuch
Iraq-UK, Politics, 12/30/2006

http://www.arabicnews.com/ansub/Daily/Day/061230/2006123007.html

A Scottish duke, with ancestors related to Britain's royal family, Thursday castigated Prime Minister Tony Blair and other political leaders for refusing to accept the catastrophe caused in Iraq by the joint US-UK invasion in 2003.”

“ "However realistic the non-existent weapons of mass destruction might have been in the eyes of the Blair cabinet, and however unwise the Conservative leaders were to believe Mr Blair, there can be no excuse for all of them now failing to admit to being wise after the event," he said.”


“The hereditary peer, who is Britain's largest landowner, questioned whether anyone would be able to trust politicians to refrain the government from another "unprovoked act of aggression on a par with Hitler's invasion of Poland in 1939." "But for our backing in 2002, the US might have refrained from making the world a more dangerous place than ever before," he said in a letter to the Guardian newspaper.”

THE COMMITTEE SAYS:

ENGLISH LORD COMPARES HITLER'S INVASION OF POLAND WITH IRAQ WAR

DUKE OF BUCCLEUCH CHIDES TORIES AND LABOR FOR FABRICATING WAR RATIONAL

OUR DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC IS THREATENED MORE BY INTERNAL TRAITORS THAN FOREIGN “TERRORISTS”

With our attack on Iraq, the President committed a series of serious domestic and international crimes. Domestically, the President lied to Congress and the American people about why we went to war. Internationally, a war crime was committed when we launched an unprovoked, unjustified attack on Iraq.

If we look at the logic of this war from the street level, we can see that Bush's war justification offers a very bad example for our children, and the world community, on how to conduct ourselves.

I see a young man, standing before a judge being charged with murder. He is proposing the Bush justification for war. He tells the judge that he shot and killed his neighbor because he feared his neighbor “was a bad guy,” and had to be killed to prevent him from doing harm in the future.

The judge would dismiss this excuse for murder as crazy, and throw the book at the murderer. Any teacher in the schoolyard would punish a violent child for attacking his classmate because “he's a bad guy, and may hit me in the future.”

There is no ethical, moral, or practical level on which our logic for going to war makes sense, either when we went to war, or now. It was, and is, a continuing criminal act. We were lied to when we went to war.

The immediate consequence of the President's domestic political crimes, lying to Congress and the American people, is more criminal activity. In the pursuit of this illegal war the President decided our Constitution and laws were too restrictive for his tastes. Bush has continued to illegally expand Presidential authority to break all Constitutional restraints; Bush claims that the battlefield is not just in Afghanistan and Iraq, but actually spreads across the whole world.

Therefore, Bush reasons, his power as Commander in Chief gives him the exclusive power to decide who is an enemy and can be tortured, murdered, and kidnapped anywhere in the world. No judges, no warrants, no trials necessary. This power extends domestically. Bush claims the right (divine?) to selectively ignore the parts of our Constitution and laws he finds inconvenient.

Both of these claimed powers are illegal, violating both the letter and spirit of our Constitution, as well as the letter of the law itself.

The Committee finds plenty of corruption of the mundane sort to fight against. Yet the political crimes of buying and selling influence, or using political office for self enrichment, or defrauding the government and people of their money, pales in comparison to the scale and nature of corruption that is directly and openly attacking our Constitution, smashing the limitations on illegal authority that preserve our freedom.

When crimes are openly committed in direct violation of the clear meaning and intent of our Constitution, by those sworn to defend it, we are not just embroiled in a serious Constitutional crisis. We are involved in a battle for the very life of our Constitution against traitors on both sides of the aisle who long ago sold our Constitution down the river in the pursuit of power and wealth. Bush's path towards scorning of the Constitution was blazed by Dems and Repubs who long discarded the Constitution when it obstructs their goals.

Political campaigning has long been the training ground where politicians learn that power, wealth, and corruption are more powerful, and more important, than our Constitution. It was but a small step for Bush, and our country, to move from corrupting elections and politicians, to completely repudiating the Constitutional restraints on the Presidency.

Today we are seeing a virulent form of corruption that goes beyond the typical corruptions of the greedy. These are corruptions that exceed stealing elections, because they are stealing our democracy itself. These corruptions do not just rob us of our money, they aim to rob us of our most basic Constitutional rights and protections.

And our politicians, our press, and most Americans stand silent as our rights are trampled.

The toleration of these Presidential crimes, in turn, have led to a deepening of Congress' dereliction of duty, as they steadily fail to do their duty, and confront these Presidential crimes. It may be impossible for the parties to confront these crimes because both parties participated in their commission.

Congress sits in silence, submerged in its own corruption, as great crimes are committed in our name. They talk of forgoing the “free lunch,” and free corporate jet rides, but they are silent about the billions of dollars of special interest bribes they collect every year. They are silent about our illegal war and the trail of lies that brought us to this point. They are materially and spiritually corrupted.

Congress has failed to show America, and the world, that the President is not above the law, but must obey the law as any other citizen. The President has openly, and repeatedly, broken the law, and less than a handful of our representatives, and none of our corporate media, have raised the alarm.

The consequence of this illegal war is the utter breakdown of limits on the authority of the President. This is a serious blow to our system of checks and balances between the branches of government. The system that the founders designed to prevent the rise of a tyrant.

As the articles above demonstrate, social and political leaders in parts of the world friendly to the US are concluding that the US is engaged in a tyrannical, criminal war of aggression.

The reform of American political corruption is as necessary for people around the world as it is for the people of the United States.

BUSH'S CLAIMS TO UNLIMITED POWERS:

Corruption Updates 16, 1st article on page, October 5, 2006,BUSH TRAINING CONGRESS TO OBEDIENCE PROBLEM TEACHING THEM TO ROLL OVER WHEN THEY ARE ASLEEP”

Corruption Updates 22, 7th article on page, “Reid Threatens Bush with Oversight

Corruption Updates 23, 4th article on page, “Bush Claims to Unlimited Power Contested

Corruption Updates 23, 8th article on page, “Harmon Calls Wiretapping Illegal

Corruption Updates 23, 9th article on page, NYTIMES, 12-3-06: “TIMES SOFTPEDALS PRESIDENTIAL WAR CRIMES AND DOMESTIC CRIMES. LEAVE IT TO THE TIMES TO PUT LIPSTICK ON PIGS”

Corruption Updates 25, 2nd article on page, December 8, 2006, GOP senator says war may be 'criminal'”

Corruption Updates 25, 7th article on page, 12-6-06, “Italy Seeks Indictments of C.I.A. Operatives in Egyptian’s Abduction

Corruption Updates 25, 8th article on page, 12-6-06, “Senators rap FBI over domestic spying

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5) THE ARTICLE ABSTRACTED BELOW WAS PUBLISHED BY AP ON 12-6-06:

EPA may drop lead air pollution limits

By JOHN HEILPRIN, Associated Press Writer
Published 6:22 pm PST Wednesday, December 6, 2006

http://dwb.sacbee.com/24hour/politics/v-print/story/3440555p-12617377c.html

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Bush administration is considering doing away with health standards that cut lead from gasoline, widely regarded as one of the nation's biggest clean-air accomplishments.”

Battery makers, lead smelters, refiners all have lobbied the administration to do away with the Clean Air Act limits.”

The EPA says concentrations of lead in the air have dropped more than 90 percent in the past 2 1/2 decades.”

But Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., the incoming chairman of the House Committee on Government Reform, called on the agency to "renounce this dangerous proposal immediately," because lead, a highly toxic element, can cause severe nerve damage, especially in children.”

"This deregulatory effort cannot be defended," Waxman wrote EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson.”

The EPA has repeatedly missed the deadlines set under the Clean Air Act, incurring the legal wrath of environmental groups.”

In July, a Washington-based trade group for all U.S. lead battery makers wrote a top EPA air quality official to urge that the agency remove lead from its list of air pollutants.”

"That is not to say that air emissions of lead should be uncontrolled, or that no steps should be taken to address public health concerns arising from lead use," the Battery Council International said. "But many other regulatory vehicles exist for meeting these concerns." “

THE COMMITTEE OBSERVES THAT SPECIAL INTERESTS WILL BUY THEIR PROFITS FROM POLITICIANS WITH OUR BLOOD:

BATTERY LOBBY BRIBES ENDANGER HEALTH

BUSH REPAYS BRIBES WITH OUR HEALTH AND WELFARE BY ATTEMPTING TO KILL LEAD STANDARDS

Every special interest with two cents to rub together is trying to buy extra profits at the expense of our welfare, from “our” politicians. They want us to pay for the damages they do to the public and our environment. They want us to subsidize their profits by paying to clean up their messes. Since politics has become a game of money, more times than not, they will purchase their profits by sacrificing our blood, treasure, and safety. This must end.

There are many deadly compounds and activities that we use to pursue our lifestyle. Making sure that the businesses using these compounds and activities do not cause widespread harm in their pursuit of profit is a certain duty of our government.

But our government has been purchased by the special interests, and they have given up their duty to protect our basic safety and welfare for special interest bribes. Big bribes come in to our politicians from the special interests they are supposed to regulate. After election, the politicians fail to responsibly regulate the industries that bribed them.

The politician's reward for their treachery is a constant flow of bribes sufficient to maintain their political office, and a fat job with the special interests when they finish screwing the public.

The only way to stop this bribery is to stop it. We must stop the politicians from accepting any money from any source other that voters qualified to vote in their election. Only then we will have a chance to be able to elect representatives that will represent the local people, rather than the special interests. Only then will we get politicians that they will be able to formulate sensible, responsible regulations.

Regulations that will protect the responsible businesses who pay the cost of doing their business, while punishing those who injure the public, or pass their clean-up costs onto the public.

For other articles detailing the threats to the public by special interest bribery,

Corruption Updates 1, 2nd to last article on the page, “Big Oil Owns our Politicians

Corruption Updates 2, 6th article down, “Contribute to Win, Big Contribs try to Trump State Safety Laws

Corruption Updates 3, 2nd article on page, “Big Business Spends Lawmakers into Compliance

Corruption Updates 4, 1st article on page, “Checks in, Laws Out, It's that Simple

Corruption Updates 10, 5th article on page, “DO BRIBED POLITICIANS PROVIDE SAFE REGULATION OF PIPELINES, OR ANYTHING ELSE?” AP IN BEE.

Corruption Updates 16, 4th article on the page, "EPA STANDARDS WILL KILL YOU: SPECIAL INTEREST BRIBERY BRINGS AMERICA DEATH"

Corruption Updates 21, 9th article on page, “White House under Investigation for Censoring Science

Corruption Updates 24, 4th article on page, “ BIG OIL OWNS INTERIOR DEPARTMENT”

Corruption Updates 24, 5th article on page, NYTIMES, 12-3-06, LOBBYING BY TRUCKING INDUSTRY BRINGS DEATH TO NATION'S HIGHWAYS INSURANSE AND SAFETY LOBBIES HAVE INSUFFICIENT BRIBE MONEY TO STOP TRUCKING LOBBY FROM GUTTING SAFETY RULES

Corruption Updates 25, 5th article on page, AP, 12-6-06, BATTERY LOBBY BRIBES ENDANGER HEALTH BUSH REPAYS BRIBES WITH OUR HEALTH AND WELFARE BY ATTEMPTING TO KILL LEAD STANDARDS”

Corruption Updates 25, 6th article, AP, 12-6-06, FARM LOBBY BRIBES ENDANGER HEALTH GRASSLEY (R-IOWA) REPAYS BRIBES BY KILLING EPA REGULATION OF FARMS

Corruption Updates 32, 2nd article on the page, "BUSH TRIES TO KILL CHEMICAL RULES, SCIENCE, AND INTEGRITY IN ONE FELL SWOOP: INTEGERTY FALLS, RULES AND SCIENCE DAMAGED, BUT STILL STANDING

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The Latest Index of Political Bribery

 

previous indexes you may find interesting

Read Articles describing how the Democrats represent Corporations

Links: Bribing, Silencing, and politically Manipulating Science

Read more about political Censorship of Science

Articles about howBIG MONEY RUNS POLITICS

Our politicians sell our health

 

 

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6) THE ARTICLE ABSTRACTED BELOW WAS PUBLISHED BY AP ON 12-6-06:

Last minute move would delay EPA rule

By JOHN HEILPRIN, Associated Press Writer
Published 5:16 pm PST Wednesday, December 6, 2006

http://dwb.sacbee.com/24hour/politics/v-print/story/3440491p-12617213c.html

WASHINGTON (AP) - Farmers would be off the hook for costly air pollution cleanups under an obscure provision slipped into a tax bill that may be the last act of this Congress.”

Buried in the fine print of the bill filed Wednesday, the measure by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, would forbid the Environmental Protection Agency from applying the Clean Air Act to dust and soot from farms until 2012.”

Groups that have lobbied for the provision include the American Soybean Association, the National Pork Producers Council, the National Association of Wheat Growers, the National Turkey Federation and the National Cattlemen's Beef Association.”

THE COMMITTEE SAYS

FARM LOBBY BRIBES ENDANGER HEALTH

GRASSLEY (R-IOWA) REPAYS BRIBES BY KILLING EPA REGULATION OF FARMS

Now we get the privilege of paying for cleaning up the farm lobby's air pollution mess. What did this cost? Mr. Grassley's price to subsidize farm pollution was the $423,991 that the agricultural interests bribed him with.

This “investment” (bribe) by the Ag lobby likely brought them a return of tens of millions.

See: OpenSecrets.org, to find out who Mr. Grassley really works for.

Also see citations following the previous article, above, for more cases of our democracy, and therefore our public safety, compromised by bribery.

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7) THE ARTICLE ABSTRACTED BELOW WAS PUBLISHED BY THE NEW YORK TIMES ON 12-6-06:

Italy Seeks Indictments of C.I.A. Operatives in Egyptian’s Abduction

By IAN FISHER and ELISABETTA POVOLEDO

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/06/world/europe/06italy.html?_

r=1&oref=slogin&pagewanted=print

ROME, Dec. 5 — Italian prosecutors asked Tuesday for the indictment of the country’s former intelligence chief, along with 25 operatives of the Central Intelligence Agency, for their involvement in the kidnapping of a militant Egyptian cleric from Milan in 2003.”

Nicolò Pollari, the former chief of military intelligence, was replaced by the Italian government last month, possibly in anticipation of his indictment. On Tuesday, prosecutors in Milan asked for his indictment for what they said was his collaboration with American agents in the abduction of the cleric, Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr, known as Abu Omar.”

The indictment asks for the trials of 26 Americans, all but one of whom were C.I.A. agents, including two who were the top agency officials in Italy at the time. The other American cited in the indictment is an Air Force colonel at the American air base in Aviano, from which Mr. Nasr says he was flown to an American air base in Germany, then to Egypt, where he claims he was tortured.”

Mr. Pollari, 63, has maintained his innocence, claiming that he cannot defend himself adequately without breaching national security laws.”

Mr. Berlusconi has repeatedly denied any knowledge of the abduction. Intelligence experts say it is highly unlikely that American agents would have carried out the kidnapping without high-level approval in the Italian government because the American action would have violated the sovereignty of a close ally.”

The COMMITTEE Observes:

ITALY CHIEF OF INTELLIGENCE, 25 CIA OPERATIVES INDICTED FOR KIDNAPPING

CRIMES OF BUSH ADMINISTRATION TOLERATED IN US, BUT NOT IN ITALY

The repercussions of our country's criminal behavior around the world are coming home to roost. The same American sponsored kidnapping and torture that causes little problem when employed in Saudi Arabia, Syria, and Egypt, not to mention Guatemala and etc, is scandalizing Europe, and is causing a political crisis in Italy.

The real, immediate cost to America, is a loss of faith by the world in America's stated goals in global diplomacy, as well as the methods we use to pursue our goals. The real cost is a global loss of credibility, and the loss of the moral high ground that we had occupied for so long.

As we have changed how we pursue our goals, from public diplomacy, under the rule of law, to publicly claiming the right to employ secret kidnapping, torture, and open ended ended non-judicial (illegal) “detentions,” the governments and people of the world are adjusting their goals and methods accordingly.

Governments around the world are following our example, and openly using arbitrary violence, kidnapping and torture against their own people, and anyone else by simply labeling them as a “terrorist.”

Many would argue that this is nothing new. “Things have always been like this,” say the apologists. It is indisputable that America has supported a long line of tyrannical governments in Asia, South America, Africa, and the Middle East. But we denied authorship of our crimes. We disputed that the murders by death squad, the “disappearances,” and torture even existed, let alone were done with our direct knowledge and participation in these events. Those days are over.

Today, we openly acknowledge and defend the use of kidnapping, torture, and murder. The nature and the methods used by our unsavory allies are no longer held offshore, and at arms length from direct American involvement. Where we had always disavowed torture and kidnapping, and pretended the abuses we sponsored did not exist, we now claim the right to use these illegal tools ourselves.

Now, the previous wall of artificial separation between us and our crimes has fallen: Our government is using kidnapping and torture directly, at home and in the nations of our European allies, as well as our traditional third world torturing grounds. We have dropped the use of proxies, and now use kidnapping and torture ourselves.

This should be no surprise to us. It was foolish to think we could support and use other countries to do our dirty work, without getting dirty ourselves.

It was only a matter of time before we fell into the cesspool of illegal violence, torture, and terror that we have imposed on other peoples, and have encouraged and tolerated when used by dictatorships allied with the US.

We have fostered and preserved violent, undemocratic dictatorships in the middle east for decades. Our Arabic allies in the middle east are tyrannical, arbitrary governments who use American Military, economic and political power to repress their own people, with our consent. Their power is based on the use of violence, kidnapping, torture, and long illegal detentions paid for with American tax dollars, and carried out with American weapons and technology.

And now, we kidnap and torture too. A criminal American government has brought these illegal tools home, and is publicly defending these crimes, pretending to have a legal basis to commit crimes against humanity and our Constitution.

No such basis exists.

Bush = Criminal:

Corruption Updates 16, 1st article on page, October 5, 2006,BUSH TRAINING CONGRESS TO OBEDIENCE PROBLEM TEACHING THEM TO ROLL OVER WHEN THEY ARE ASLEEP”

Corruption Updates 21, 7th article on page, “Ex-judges: Detainee law unconstitutional

Corruption Updates 22, 7th article on page, “Reid Threatens Bush with Oversight

Corruption Updates 23, 4th article on page, “Bush Claims to Unlimited Power Contested

Corruption Updates 23, 8th article on page, “Harmon Calls Wiretapping Illegal

Corruption Updates 23, 9th article on page, NYTIMES, 12-3-06: “TIMES SOFTPEDALS PRESIDENTIAL WAR CRIMES AND DOMESTIC CRIMES. LEAVE IT TO THE TIMES TO PUT LIPSTICK ON PIGS”

Corruption Updates 25, 2nd article on page, December 8, 2006, GOP senator says war may be 'criminal'”

Corruption Updates 25, 7th article on page, 12-6-06, “Italy Seeks Indictments of C.I.A. Operatives in Egyptian’s Abduction

Corruption Updates 25, 8th article on page, 12-6-06, “Senators rap FBI over domestic spying

Corruption Updates 31, 1st article on page, 1-17-07, “AG criticizes judges for terror rulings

Corruption Updates 31, 2nd and 3rd articles on page, “Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Indefensible,” and “A Bush appointee's crude gambit on detainees' legal rights”

Corruption Updates 31, 6th article on page, 1-17-07,Secret Court to Govern Warrantless Taps”

Corruption Updates 31, 7th article on page, 1-19-07, “Pentagon Revises Its Rules on Prosecution of Terrorists”

Corruption Updates 31, 8th article on page, 1-19-07, “Pentagon sets rules for detainee trials”

Corruption Updates 32, 3rd article on page, “PRESIDENT TRIES END RUN AROUND CONSTITUTION:CLAIMS ACTIONS ARE SECRET, AND ABOVE OVERSIGHT”

Corruption Updates 34, 4th article on page, “BUSH KIDNAPPING ON TRIAL IN GERMANY: WHY IS GERMANY HOLDING US TO THE RULE OF LAW?”

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8) THE ARTICLE ABSTRACT BELOW WAS PUBLISHED BY AP ON 12-6-06:

Senators rap FBI over domestic spying

By LARA JAKES JORDAN, Associated Press Writer
Published 8:19 am PST Wednesday, December 6, 2006

http://dwb.sacbee.com/24hour/politics/v-print/story/3440115p-12615706c.html

WASHINGTON (AP) - Senators frustrated by scant details on the Bush administration's domestic eavesdropping program on Wednesday rapped FBI Director Robert Mueller for refusing to show how it has curbed terrorist activity in the United States.”

Mueller said he was unable to talk about the warrant less spying program because it is classified.”

His answer annoyed senators, who said their constitutionally protected oversight was being hampered by the administration's stonewalling.”

"When done poorly or without proper safeguards and oversight, data banks do not make us safer, they just further erode Americans' privacy and civil liberties," said Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., the panel's incoming chairman. He said the administration "has gone to unprecedented lengths to hide its own activities from the public, while at the same time collecting and compiling unprecedented amounts of information about every citizen." “

Later, Mueller also said the FBI could better fight terrorists if authorities had stronger subpoena power to determine if threats are valid, and if search and surveillance tools granted by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act court could be expanded.”

He was also scolded by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., for ranking violent crime prevention as less of a priority than public corruption and organized crime cases.”

"Gangs are killing more people in this country than organized crime ever did," Feinstein said. "And that's just a fact." “

Responding, Mueller said that if the FBI didn't go after crooked public officials and organized crime cases, "it will not be investigated." He called public corruption cases the FBI's "top criminal investigative priority," noting that more than 1,000 government employees have been convicted over the last two years with the FBI's help.”

THE COMMITTEE TAKES NOTE THAT:

FBI CHIEF DEFYS CONGRESSIONAL OVERSIGHT

REFUSAL TO DISCLOSE ILLEGAL PROGRAM REVEALS ONGOING CONSTITUTIONAL CRISIS: SENATORS, MEDIA SEEM UNAWARE OF DEPTH OF CRISIS

When governments commit crimes, they invoke “national security” to hide their crimes. It is natural for criminals to want to keep their crimes a secret. But few criminals have the power of the government to hide their crimes.

Usually, criminals hide their crimes from the government, rather than using the government to hide their crimes. Crazy times, but the clearly Unconstitutional nature of these government crimes reveals that the excuse of “national security” is being used as a cheap facade to cover criminal behavior in the highest offices in the land.

Don't believe a word said by our politicians and press on these illegal searches. Refer to, and Believe the Constitution.

The Constitution clearly states that,

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

Now let's be clear. The Constitution sets the standard of no “unreasonable” searches, and names the minimum standards for a reasonable search.

Many politicians and legal “experts” read the Fourth Amendment up to the term “unreasonable searches and seizures.” They then ignore the rest of the Amendment, which clearly defines the minimum standard of a “reasonable” search. These “experts,” and our politicians, have replaced the firm, clear standards of our forefathers with their own distorted interpretation of the 4th Amendment which neutralizes the clear intention of the Constitution to prohibit arbitrary searches.

No legitimate American Government has the right to search without warrant supported by probable cause issued by a judge.

The Committee defers to the wisdom of the Founders, and rejects the Unconstitutional actions of our presently corrupted government.

Do not pay any heed to those traitors who attack our basic Constitutional rights. Rather, we must realize these people are enemies of the Constitution they were sworn to protect, and they are enemies of the people's right to have security in their persons, possessions, and homes.

Our forefathers would be spinning in their graves if they knew our representatives stood by silently, if not aided, the government's repeal of the Fourth Amendment.

Our politician's illegal revisions of our Constitution make them illegitimate, and demonstrates the necessity of a through reform of our political system.

(See Link List at the end of the previous article)

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9) THE ABSTRACT PRINTED BELOW WAS PUBLISHED BY AP ON 12-6-06:

Nominee for Pentagon watchdog withdraws

By JOHN SOLOMON, Associated Press Writer
Published 3:07 pm PST Wednesday, December 6, 2006

http://dwb.sacbee.com/24hour/politics/v-print/story/3440405p-12616819c.html

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush's nominee to be Pentagon inspector general has withdrawn from consideration, meaning the Defense Department likely will start a second year without its chief watchdog even as the military spends billions a month in Iraq.”

The inspector general's office is charged with investigating waste, fraud and abuse inside the military, and it has been without a presidentially appointed leader for more than a year. The last inspector general, Joseph Schmitz, stepped down in August 2005.”

Career officials have been running the office, but the watchdog has been criticized for being slow to get staff on the ground to investigate issues in Iraq and for shying away from examining the National Security Agency's electronic surveillance program.”

The Committee notes that:

PENTAGON WITHOUT FRAUD WATCHDOG FOR 2ND YEAR AS IRAQ WAR FRAUD SPIRALS OUT OF CONTROL

WE WILL NOT GET AN INSPECTOR GENERAL UNTIL A HALLIBURTON EXECUTIVE, OR DEFENCE LOBBYIST, IS AVAILABLE

When our government breaks the law, you can be assured that they will not investigate, nor reveal, their own crimes. Heck, they will not hire investigators, and fire the ones they have.

The Presidency has exceeded its Constitutional limits, openly defying the Constitution and the Law. The Congress has failed to oversee, or check these crimes, becoming an accessory before and after the fact.

The “free” press sits silent, acting more like a lapdog of power, that a watchdog of freedom, while our country openly commits international and domestic crimes unprecedented in our history.

It is past time for good people to reassert the democracy our Constitution calls for. It is past the time for our people to force the government back within the Constitutional framework that gives our government legitimacy. It is past time for our people to demand the restoration of the free press.

It is time to require that our politicians be elected democratically, that our government operate Constitutionally, and that our press be freed from the corporate monopoly that has captured it.

Failure to take these steps puts the future of our freedoms at risk, and threatens free people and governments around the world.

Our choice is clear: Serve our ideals and our country, or be subservient to illegitimate wealth and political power.

Today, most Americans serve the illegitimate political power of the wealthy and powerful. Today, most Americans have chosen luxury over honor.

Tomorrow, when the costs of their dishonor comes due, they will regret their choice.

Also See:

Corruption Updates 13, 3rd article on page, “U.S. firm botching jobs...”

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10) THE ABSTRACT PRINTED BELOW WAS PUBLISHED BY THE NEW YORK TIMES ON 12-8-06:

Labor Presses for Measure to Ease Unionizing

By STEVEN GREENHOUSE

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/08/washington/08labor.html?pagewanted=print

Claiming a major role in the Democrats’ victory last month, labor leaders are pressing Congressional Democrats to enact a measure to make it easier for workers to unionize.”

Labor leaders see the measure as pivotal to stop a slide in union membership that has lasted decades. But many businesses and Republicans oppose the bill, which would allow employees at a workplace to unionize as soon as a majority sign cards expressing support to join a union.”

With the percentage of workers in unions sinking to 12.5 percent, the lowest in more than 60 years, labor leaders say the right to organize has been severely compromised, especially by aggressive antiunion campaigns that companies mount for organizing drives.”

Labor officials say relying on signed cards rather than the traditional secret-ballot elections will make it easier for workers to unionize. Such elections frequently turn into months of battles between management and labor, with union supporters often being fired.”

Charlie Norwood, a Georgia Republican who is chairman of the House Subcommittee on Workforce Protections, denounced the bill for card checks.”

In calling card checks unfair, Mr. Norwood said union thugs had used physical force to have workers sign pro-union cards. Opponents of card checks also say they are conducted so quickly that companies do not have a chance to explain to workers why they should not join unions.”

Pointing to the benefits of card checks, Larry Cohen, president of the Communications Workers of America, said his union had organized 22,000 workers at Cingular Wireless using them over the past two years. Mr. Cohen said a big problem with secret-ballot elections was that in the weeks leading up to them companies often terrorized pro-union workers by spying on them and firing or demoting them.”

THE COMMITTEE SAYS

CAN UNIONS BENEFIT FROM DEM VICTORY?

DEMS PROGRAM IS “FREE TRADE” AND FREE IMMIGRATION: CAN UNIONS SURVIVE IN THIS ENVIRONMENT?

For the last 30 years labor has been a party to its own destruction. Rather than fighting for fair working conditions, and the policies necessary to achieve them, the unions have drawn a circle around elite workers, abandoning everybody else to labor in third world wage and working conditions. The result is that wages have plunged, union membership plummeted, and the middle-class has been forced downward, toward third world peasant conditions.

Our jobs have been shipped to foreign countries, and foreigners have uncontrollably flooded the US, to fill jobs here because our politicians and special interests are more interested in lowering wage and benefit standards than protecting the general welfare of this country. And the unions sit silent.

The unions have drawn a circle around the only membership they have left: government workers, and a few elite trades. During a long history of sweetheart deals between the Unions and Democrats, government workers have gained excellent wages and benefits while the rest of us have been forced to third world wages and poverty. The elite trades have been dwarfed by the growth of non-union trade craft.

The unions have sold American Labor down the river in exchange for better conditions and wages for their narrow, elite memberships.

The political and demographic situation does not favor decent conditions for American labor, no matter which party is in power. The basic conditions both parties agree on is that American Jobs will be done by foreigners here or abroad.

The endless supply of cheap, subservient labor, both in this country, and around the world, assures that demands for wages and benefits that maintain American living standards can be ignored, and that conditions will continue to decline for our American working classes.

labor policy based on unlimited offshoring, and illegal immigration, assures that the children of the immigrants will continue to suffer under the abuses that their parents, and our bribed political leadership, brought to our working classes.

Until a political party actually advocates a fair immigration and labor policy that serves the general welfare of all of our country, rather than the desire of employers for cheap labor, labor policy will continue to favor unrestricted, irresponsible growth, and continue to damage the living and working conditions for American workers.

We can be assured the costs of bread, rent, electricity, water and land will continue to rise, while the wages of labor continue to drop. It is a simple function of supply and demand. We live in a flood of cheap labor, cheapening wages, while our resources diminish, vastly increasing costs, and corporate profits.

This is not good for the middle class. But it is excellent for those who are bribing our politicians.

And the unions will continue to be irrelevant for 90% of our workers, no matter which party is in charge.

 

11) THE ABSTRACT PRINTED BELOW WAS PUBLISHED BY THE NEW YORK TIMES ON 12-8-06:

Longtime Lawmaker, Under Cloud, Fights to Stay On

By ADAM NOSSITER

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/08/us/politics/08jefferson.html?pagewanted=print

NEW ORLEANS, Dec. 7 — One of the last undecided House races has played out here as the fierce bid for survival of a veteran politician whose career is threatened by a federal corruption investigation.”

On Saturday, for the second time in two months under Louisiana’s idiosyncratic runoff system, Representative William J. Jefferson has to present himself to the voters.”

...if Mr. Jefferson wins, his victory will have the potential to embarrass the Democrats and Louisianans eager to prove to federal aid officials that they have left behind the corrupt past.”

Having been rejected by his own state party and become a pariah to the financial establishment here, Mr. Jefferson is counting on his inner-city base to look past the F.B.I. accusations and rally around him as it has since he was first elected in 1990.”

Court documents depict Mr. Jefferson as trying to use his position to extract cash from a businessman whom he was helping win contracts.”

His connections to the poorest neighborhoods through allies, charities, community agencies and relatives run deep. Federal prosecutors are looking at the financing of minority-oriented charities with ties to the Jefferson family, state officials said several weeks ago.”


THE COMMITTEE OBSERVES THAT

POSTERBOY OF DEM CORRUPTION FIGHTS FOR SURVIVAL

JEFFERSION OF LOUISIANA STRUGGLES TO FEND OF BRIBEY CHARGES IN FINAL RUNOFF

The Democrats were thrown out, by Newt, for corruption. Now, the Republicans have been thrown out for their corruptions.

The parties have proven themselves equally corrupt, merely passing the gavel to the other party when the people throw out the majority party. Each party protecting their mutually shared system of bribery and corruption.

And the people still vote for one or the other. Stop that! Both parties are corrupt. Stop voting for “the lesser of two evils.” Vote for anyone except the party hacks who have stolen our democracy.

It is time for the people to wake themselves up, and stop this pendulum of corruption from endlessly swinging between the Democratic and Republican regimes of corruption.

It is time for the people to identify the shared foundation of corruption that has captured both parties, and destroy it before it completely destroys our country.

We must break the link of bribery between the special interests, the parties, and the politicians. Today, power flows from the top, from our rich and powerful people and special interests, downward to the parties and politicians, and then downward, onto the heads of our citizens.

We must break this unconstitutional, illegitimate hijacking of our democracy, and restore the citizen as the source of power and success for the politicians and parties. We must restore the upward flow of authority, from the people, to the politicians. Until we do, our government will continue to be illegitimate by our own Constitution's standards.

Until we do, our democracy will continue to be a mockery of itself.

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12) THE ABSTRACT PRINTED BELOW WAS PUBLISHED BY THE SF CHRONICLE ON 12-6-06:

Dems warn Bush on Iraq funding
New majority in Congress will seek to influence policy on conduct of war

- Edward Epstein, Chronicle Washington Bureau
Wednesday, December 6, 200

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/12/06/MNGQFMQAMH1.DTL

&type=printable

(12-06) 04:00 PST Washington -- House Democrats sent a strong signal to President Bush on Tuesday that they will attach conditions he is likely to find unpalatable, perhaps even unacceptable, to his anticipated request early next year for another $100 billion or more to pay for the war in Iraq.”

At the least, Speaker-to-be Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco and other leaders of the incoming Democratic majority said they will seek to enforce greater transparency for the billions of dollars in contracts that the Pentagon pays private firms to perform numerous functions in Iraq.”

One of her deputies, Rep. Rahm Emanuel of Chicago, said the debate over more money for Iraq "will be a turning point for a new direction for Iraq." “

Asked if that means calling for withdrawals, he said, "We are now at the beginning of figuring out those questions in the proper way." “

A good part of what the Democrats will do depends on what policy changes Bush makes. In addition to the Baker-Hamilton study group, the Pentagon is conducting a policy review that was started before Bush named Robert Gates to replace Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Gates said Tuesday at his confirmation hearing that the administration will consider all options because of the policy failures in Iraq. Gates may be confirmed as early as today.”

Among those who spoke to the Democratic caucus was Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., a longtime military booster and former Iraq war supporter who turned against the war more than a year ago. Murtha, who will chair the military appropriations subcommittee when the Democrats take control Jan. 4, promised vigorous oversight of how money for Iraq is spent.”

But there are divisions among the Democrats. Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, passed out a seven-page paper to his colleagues calling on them to vote against future funds for Iraq as a way to end the war. "The American people will have trouble understanding any of us who say we oppose the war and simultaneously vote to fund it," he said.”

Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, who has voted against past war appropriations bills, said she will vote against the next one.”

"The voters gave us our marching orders last month. They want this war to end," she said.”

And Rep. Lynn Woolsey, D-Petaluma, who also has been in the small minority to vote against war funds, said the House should call for withdrawal and tell Bush that it will not approve any further war supplemental spending bills.”

On that last point, there is wide agreement among the Democrats. They say that by removing the war funding from the regular appropriations process the administration has deepened the budget deficit and hidden the war's true cost.”

Democratic rule takes shape”

Rep. Nancy Pelosi announced the Democratic Party leadership's choices to run six top House committees. Confirmations are expected today. The six Democratic chairs are:”

Rep. John Dingell of Michigan -- Energy and Commerce Committee”

Rep. David Obey of Wisconsin -- Appropriations Committee”

Rep. Charles Rangel of New York -- Ways and Means Committee”

Rep. Barney Frank of Massachusetts -- Financial Services Committee”

Rep. John Spratt of South Carolina -- Budget Committee”

Rep. Louise Slaughter of New York -- Rules Committee”

THE COMMITTEE SAYS:

DEMS PRETEND TO RESIST WAR

LACK OF ANY UNIFYING POLICY/PLATFORM ASSURES DEMS WILL TALK, BUT NOT ACT, AGAINST CRIMINAL PRESIDENT AND CRIMINAL WAR

The Dems are giving out mixed signals. First, it's reported that Pelosi nixed impeachment moves, repealing the tax cuts, and withholding funds for Iraq. Then it's reported that the Dems are taking a hard line, and will impose strict oversight on the Executive branch.

What is clear, is that the Dems won the last election by standing silent while the Repubs self-destructed. They have stood silently while our Constitution has been shredded in public. And this dishonorable strategy brought them victory.

The Dems strategy of political victory by standing silent as our military and Constitutional crisis deepened, has now left them in legislative disarray. As they stood for nothing in the last election, they are having a hard time standing for anything after the election. They have no principal, policy, or plan to deal with our Constitutional and military crisis.

The Dems are apparently putting together a policy agenda on the fly, with no real idea of where they are, how good and evil differ, and what direction they are taking the country toward.

The Dems are too deeply involved in systematic political corruption to make anything but superficial changes in the system of bribery.

The Dems were too involved in supporting the lies that led to this war to oppose this war.

The Dems policy is only going to emerge in response to events, not as a product of any reasoned, or principled stand.

The Dems are giving no indications that they will conduct our business by firm Constitutional, or even basic ethical standards.

So look for a Democratic policy to emerge in response to the blowups and crisis we see approaching on the horizon, instead of having a plan, based on ethics or principals, that anticipates these upcoming problems and navigates around them.

As the Dems have no plan, nor ethics to guide their actions by, we can expect our international and domestic crisis will continue to deepen.

Corruption Updates 23, 4th article on page, “Bush Claims to Unlimited Power Contested

Corruption Updates 23, 9th article on page, “Times Soft pedals Presidential War and Domestic Crimes”

 

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