iroots.org

Last night, a good friend kidnapped me and forced me to watch the new Superman movie and, by the way, except for the terribly done CGI tornado scene, it’s a decent flick. While watching the scenes featuring the expected military personnel staring at computer screens, I found myself wondering, “When will the first movie come out that takes into account the recent revelations about NSA spying?”

Like the fact that, according to Sen. Rand Paul and other sources including Edward Snowden, they are recording data on a billion American phone calls every day–and he is privy to secret briefings on the program. Remember when Senator Paul made that strange remark that the government was listening to “gazillions of phone calls” last year? Turns out he was forced to say that because he was legally gagged from revealing the truth.

I don’t know about you, but the scariest thing about this whole unfolding story is we are now witnessing the new normal. The baseline…and our president is still calling the whole thing “transparent!”

Welcome to the new normal which, of course, means MEMES:

May I suggest “I’ll Be Watching You” by the Police while you peruse:

Continue Reading →

An article by Robert Kuttner has been causing a stir on the liberal blogs. Here’s a synopsis from the far-left website, DailyKos:

I’m sorry to say, but this cynical anti-government message is going to start resonating with more and more people, unless the Democratic Party boldly casts aside the center-right path of Barack Obama and embraces a new progressive revival. People want middle class jobs, not Big Brother listening to your phone calls and reading your emails. They want student loans, not bailouts for an obscenely wealthy investment banking industry. They want increased funding for health care and education, not cuts to Social Security and Medicare.

Too many Democrats have a smug assurance that the younger generations will automatically keep voting Democratic; that “demographic change” will condemn the GOP to permanent minority status in just a couple decades. But if the American people elect Democrats and then those Democrats keep cutting government services for the poor, elderly, and disadvantaged, while continuing to expand the military-industrial-security state and serving the Wall Street lobbyists that people were actually voting against, why are they going to bother to vote for Democrats again? “Because they have no other choice,” right? I don’t think that’s going to work much longer.

The GOP is not stupid. There is a rising libertarian wing of that party, led by Sen. Rand Paul, which seeks to appeal to young voters who have given up on the promises of Democrats who talked the talk but didn’t walk the walk – young liberals who would seriously consider voting Republican if only the GOP would cut the military, end the domestic spying, the Wall Street bank bailouts, and the war on marijuana. Do you really think the Democrats have these pissed-off young voters locked in their column for life? Do you really think the Republicans are never going to try to rebrand their party to appeal to young Democrats who saw all their political hopes and dreams slip away under the weak, centrist, corporate-dominated, too-similar-to-Bush administration of Barack Obama? Think again.

Here’s a peak at the original article as posted on Huffington Post.

I remember a time when liberals were the people who used government as a democratic counterweight to the abuses of capitalism, and conservatives were those close to big business who wanted to limit government. Liberals also recognized, with the Framers of the Constitution, that government had to be strong enough to protect the rights of the weak. Conservatives didn’t like the power of the state, but were fine with concentrated private power.

http://onlifeliving.com/

Yes, there were inconsistencies and exceptions on both sides, but there was a philosophical coherence to it. And when regular people got mobilized and attractive candidates appeared, we could even elect leaders who would direct government for the public good.

But, lately the lines have blurred. The old, stylized picture of what liberals and conservatives want of government doesn’t mean much, especially to younger Americans…

Consider: An administration currently run by supposed liberals thinks that it’s ok for government to secretly seize phone and Internet records of citizens, without the kind of explicit search warrant contemplated by the Fourth Amendment. The conservatives who controlled the federal government in the Bush administration were even more cavalier about trampling citizen rights. You have to go to the libertarian right (Rand Paul) and the progressive left (Bernie Sanders, Jeff Merkley) to find support for containing the national security state…

Robert Kuttner

Co-founder and co-editor, ‘The American Prospect’

If the following source is accurate, and it appears to be, President Obama is lying to the American people. (Scroll down.)

And remember when he said this?

As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals.  Our Founding Fathers, faced with perils we can scarcely imagine, drafted a charter to assure the rule of law and the rights of man, a charter expanded by the blood of generations.  Those ideals still light the world, and we will not give them up for expedience’s sake…

Recall that earlier generations faced down fascism and communism not just with missiles and tanks, but with sturdy alliances and enduring convictions.  They understood that our power alone cannot protect us, nor does it entitle us to do as we please.  Instead, they knew that our power grows through its prudent use; our security emanates from the justness of our cause, the force of our example, the tempering qualities of humility and restraint. – President Barack Obama 2009 inaugural address

BREAKING: The National Security Agency has acknowledged in a new classified briefing that it does not need court authorization to listen to domestic phone calls.

Rep. Jerrold Nadler, a New York Democrat, disclosed this week that during a secret briefing to members of Congress, he was told that the contents of a phone call could be accessed “simply based on an analyst deciding that.”

If the NSA wants “to listen to the phone,” an analyst’s decision is sufficient, without any other legal authorization required, Nadler said he learned. “I was rather startled,” said Nadler, an attorney and congressman who serves on the House Judiciary committee. Continue Reading →

Okay, maybe the title is a bit over-the-top? However, I am curious–if we had a time machine–would 2006 Biden impeach 2013 Obama? If you watch the second video, I think the answer is a clear, “Yes.”

GENUINE MUST-WATCH: the 2006 version of Biden debates the 2013 version of Obama on NSA phone record collection https://t.co/ByRWQl9QQb

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) June 14, 2013

Let’s jump in our time machine and ask Biden about impeaching Obama over intervention in Libya and, now, Syria combined with NSA spying:

Nothing like a little war to keep the public’s eye on (or off) the ball–depending on your perspective.

WASHINGTON— (Today, President Obama announced) a U.S. military proposal for arming Syrian rebels also calls for a limited no-fly zone inside Syria that would be enforced from Jordanian territory to protect Syrian refugees and rebels who would train there, according to U.S. officials.

Asked by the White House to develop options for Syria, military planners have said that creating an area to train and equip rebel forces would require keeping Syrian aircraft well away from the Jordanian border.

To do that, the military envisages creating a no-fly zone stretching up to 25 miles into Syria which would be enforced using aircraft flown from Jordanian bases and flying inside the kingdom, according to U.S. officials….(WSJ)

It looks like the president, McCain and Graham inc. are going to get their little war…will it stay little?

There is this little issue: Syrian rebels pledge loyalty to al-Qaeda Continue Reading →