Wow. Ralph Nader Was in Baltimore? Really?

http://indyreader.org/content/ralph-nader-speaks-2640-space-charles-village-%E2%80%94-eric-imhof-october-9th-2008-audio-tech-erich

So I guess Ralph Nader was in Baltimore at the 2640 Space in St. Paul St.
On Oct. 1st. Damn, Not only did I not hear anything about it but I didn't even know until almost a month later.
Too bad. I've been a Nader supporter (not so much for president though) for a while now.
Where was the news that this event was happening? Did you know? Did you care?
It's nice to hear a voice come out every election cycle to tell us the same thing and always correct in it: No matter who wins this election (2 party election) the people still lose.
In the future can we get some more notice when events like this take place? Please?

Adlai Stevenson. Meet Barak Obama:

1952 Journal photographer William M. Gallagher's picture of Democratic presidential candidate Adlai E. Stevenson (right) and Michigan Gov. G. Mennen Williams would have been just one more picture of a politician until Stevenson crossed his legs, displaying a hole in the sole of his shoe. The flawed shoe was totally out of character for the aristocratic, intellectual Stevenson, who was having difficulty establishing himself as a candidate of the people in his race against Dwight D. Eisenhower. Gallagher’s shot — taken with camera held at arm's length so Stevenson wouldn't realize what was happening — became one of the great political photos of all time and winner of a Pulitzer Prize in 1953. Gallagher was a Journal photographer from 1941 until his death in 1975, at age 52.THE FLINT JOURNAL FILES / WILLIAM M. GALLAGHER



I believe this photo is for the baby boomers. Great savvy photo.

Obama Sucks and So Do You! Wake UP!

I don’t care if the FISA debate is a week old and no longer relevant (you wish), I can’t stop talking about this one. By now you may have heard (unless your news agency is owed by big telecom) that congress has voted to extend the FISA wiretapping “law” and make it legal for telecom to spy on “terrorists” (have a closer look at the term “terrorist” and you will find yourself in there somewhere) without impunity as well as making it impossible for citizens to sue telecom for invasion of privacy as well as retroactively hold the president not accountable for any wrongdoing in previous wairetappings.
Does this sound legit? Did this really happen? Did Obama vote to pass it? You bet. And not only did the “change we can believe in” vote to pass this bill in a 69-28 Senate vote creating legislation that the American Civil Liberties Union describes as "a Constitutional nightmare," Obama voted to silence debate on the FISA bill. Yes, shortly after they voted to pass the bill they also voted to end debate on the issue. HE VOTED TO KILL DEBATE ON THE ISSUE!

What issue is that? Well, much of it is classified. Then how can we properly vote on it? Uh…uh… Now I’m not versed in congressional voting and whatnot but wouldn’t it be easier to vote on a matter if you knew what it was really about?
No, wait, it would actually be harder because you would have to be burdened with the time it takes to read a bill. Yea, what was I thinking?

But one person who does know about the classified sections of the FISA program is big Wis senator Russ Feingold. Check out what he has to say about it.

Feingold: "I sit on the Intelligence and Judiciary Committees, and I am one of the few members of this body who has been fully briefed on the warrantless wiretapping program. And, based on what I know, I can promise that if more information is declassified about the program in the future, as is likely to happen either due to the inspector general report, the election of a new president or simply the passage of time, members of this body will regret that we passed this legislation. I am also familiar with the collection activities that have been conducted under the Protect America Act and will continue under this bill. I invite any of my colleagues who wish to know more about those activities to come speak to me in a classified setting. Publicly, all I can say is that I have serious concerns about how those activities may have impacted the civil liberties of Americans. If we grant these new powers to the government and the effects become known to the American people, we will realize what a mistake it was, of that I am sure."

Classified information? Congress is voting to extend the FISA program but much of the program information is off limits to them. And not only are they voting to pass the bill but they are voting against further discussion of the bill. Obama voted for silencing debate while McCain did not vote at all and Clinton voted to continue debate.
Unfortunately, while Obama once promised to work with Feingold, he wasn't listening when the Wisconsin senator explained to his colleagues that granting retroactive immunity to the telecommunications corporations would effectively block the ability of Congress and the courts to address not just massive corporate wrongdoing but attacks on the privacy rights of Americans (that's you and I).

And if you were listening to NPR this morning in your groggy 6:30am state you would have heard that …”Since Sept. 11, the number of spying warrants approved by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court has more than doubled, according to statistics the Justice Department releases each year.
At the same time, the number of criminal indictments against people associated with Islamist extremist groups has dropped by more than half, according to a recent study by the group Human Rights First.” http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=91968094

So what does this mean? It means that they’re just gathering information. That’s probably what they will continue to do for a long time. And what are you gonna do about it? Legally you can do nothing. You just lost those freedoms to protest your information being gathered and potentially used against you. Oh, but if you’re not a terrorist then you have nothing to fear. Define terrorist. Do you like recycling? Do you like animals? Do you shop online? Have you ever traveled outside the US? If you answered yes to any of these than you might be defined as a “terrorist”. But you’ll never know until it’s too late.

Your Service Provider is No More Your Friend Than Your President Is

http://www.truthout.org/article/democrats-legalize-bushs-crimes

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi claims that a key positive feature of the new wiretap "compromise" is that the bill reaffirms that the President must follow the law, even though the same bill virtually assures that no one will be held accountable for George W. Bush's violation of the earlier spying law.

So you heard about the new wiretap law passed by congress, right? Basically it lets the Bush administration get away with all the taps that they have already made, allows them to do more in the future, and does not hold internet/telecom service providers accountable for complying with wire taps
Beyond the breathtaking scope of this new authority, the Bush administration also snuck in a clause that granted forward-looking immunity from lawsuits to communications service providers that assisted the spying.
That removed one of the few safeguards against Bush's warrantless wiretaps: the concern among service providers that they might be sued by customers for handing over constitutionally protected information without a warrant.
So basically it’s gov. AND telecom/internet providers teaming up against our freedoms.

In short, the "Protect America Act" made warrantless surveillance legally cost free for a collaborating service provider, tilting the scales even further in favor of the government's spying powers.
And we let it happen. I am among this “we” as I received 3 different emails from public outcry organizations and I just let them go. But now that I see the aftermath I am almost shocked. This was a great erosion of our freedoms of both privacy and ability to air grievances in court.
I wonder how the service providers will act now that they know they have a green light for spying and the protection of the government. Now they too are above the law and we are at the mercy.
You think this doesn’t include you? This law applies not just to terror suspects abroad who might communicate with Americans, but to anyone who is "reasonably believed to be outside the United States" and who might possess "foreign intelligence information," defined as anything that could be useful to U.S. foreign policy.
That means that almost any American engaged in international commerce or dealing with foreign issues - say, a businessman in touch with a foreign subsidiary or a U.S. reporter sending an overseas story back to his newspaper - is vulnerable to warrantless intercepts approved on the say-so of two Bush subordinates, the Attorney General and the Director of National Intelligence. Will this include overseas internet transactions? EBay? Chat lines and message boards? Where do you fit in all of this?
We lost something here. Sadly, we won’t really know what we lost until it is personally used against us. I may have to reconsider that anti-Israeli post I was going to blog about. It may be read by someone in Damascus. If you don’t hear from me for a while you’ll know why. Don’t ask any questions though or you’ll be joining me, wherever I happen to be held.