Thursday, July 10, 2008

Who Cares?

Has anybody noticed what's in the news today? Or should I say, what's NOT in the news today? Neither of today's online editions of the New York Times nor the Washington Post had an article on Bush's new FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) victory. Yesterday most of the same people who swore to protect, defend and uphold the Constitution overwhelmingly betrayed it.

The Bush Administration and its corporate telecom buddies have succeeded in snatching their get out of jail free card from Congress.

It's the new American way. Break the law, and then bully your way to make it legal retroactively.

This is troubling in many ways.

It is more than possible that a significant number of the surveillance targets of the Administration are Democrats. J. Edgar Hoover proved this to be a useful tool of the American Reich. That could account for such a massive rollover.

And of course, there's all that telecom money going into the politicians' re-election funds.

Maybe the American people learned about this travesty by watching the news on television.

Or more likely they did not.

Corporate media TV hardly covered this destruction of the Fourth Amendment any better. They found an old story about a murdered white girl to be more important and vital to the nation's interest. The same formula works every time. Isn't America better off now that we know who didn't kill that little girl?

The FISA capitulation is a sad indication of what Obama would do if he somehow wins the election. (I still believe the fascists will steal the presidency again.) Obama would be pressured by his own party to stay on the corporatist reservation. He will be pressured by the Reich wing to continue expanding the police state. If Obama is elected and wants to keep his job, he will have to be a company man. He will be a corporatist or face consequences.

The corporate media will be the pit bulls dogging him to comply with their masters.

We can only hope Obama can delay the fascist bastards. I don't know how he can reverse the damage, especially if the Bush Administration's crimes are not called out as crimes. The new FISA is all about covering up and "legalizing" Bush's crimes of illegal wiretapping. And congress is covering up its own complicity as well.

You say FISA is only about snooping on foreigners? So we can trust them, right?

THEY ARE CROOKS!

The best case I see is revocation of some of Bush's worst directives, and maybe appointing moderate Supreme Court nominees. This is, now more than ever, of crucial importance.

The creeping fascism is becoming institutionalized and will follow its track unless it is disclosed and checked.

Bush's cronies illegally hired only loyal right wingers into the Department of Justice. US Attorneys were fired for not following the Reich wing political agenda. The Justice Department is dragging their feet when it comes to Rove, Meirs, and others' contempt of Congress. It is corrupted for a long time and we cannot expect much "justice" from them.

Loyalty and unaccountability are apparently their only rules.

It's bleak when 90% of the Republicans and 50% of the Dems are going along with the police state agenda.

It's only more difficult when the corporate media are in cahoots with the corporate government. They will suppress the obvious truth of the criminal behavior. With their "fair and balanced" style they give the lie as much time as the truth. Then they suggest that the truth must be "somewhere in the middle". Journalism is dying under the thumb of right wing corporatism. Propaganda is now their business.

The media NEVER say Bush committed crimes. As if his bloody eternal war is not evidence of his war crimes...

The indifferent lack of reporting on the FISA sham only helps prove that big media are also in bed with the telecoms. And big business is in bed with the government. There you have it. Combine this power with aggressive militarism and that's fascism, by definition.

And do American citizens even care?

Are we too stupid, intimidated and complacent as a population?

Are Americans no different than the “Good Germans” of the 1930's?
*****
Update:

The Washington Post earlier featured a FISA article, but was buried away from the headlines. Stories were posted later at both the New York Times and Washington Post.

But again, who cares?

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

HEIL ! oh, I misspelled that - should have been hail. No, through apathy we have them our rights. Some in Iraq even continue to give their lives. I think part of this is due to how they have 'maintained' a sort-of status quo for the majority in this country while slipping the rugs out from underneath. And now, they will have their way with us. I expect next year we will have a draft and everything will be in place to quelch the rebellion which will flicker and then go to Quantanamo.

Naj said...

Americans are no different than Good Germans of the 1930's.

Bravo!
I wish this line of thinking was also more invoked by the polipundits ...

Mauigirl said...

Dave, I agree - this is a very concerning situation. I can only hope that Obama, if elected, will work to reverse some of the worst abuses of this legislation, as he has said he would. But can we really trust anything anyone says anymore? I hope we can. But I reserve judgment...

jmsjoin said...

It really sucks! Americans or should I say average Americans should care already as their old life style and America they wanted to pass on is destroyed.
Unbelievably to me most still do not get what Bush has done to us or how bad it is going to get especially once Iran is attacked and this really gets going.
This manufactured perfect storm is about to come to a head at the perfect time and it is going to suck!