summerschild
summerschild's JournalMakes beheading look downright kindly, don't it?
One of the first things stressed to new Postal employees is the "sanctity" of the mail.
You can literally lose your job for picking up a stamp that has fallen loose to the floor if you pocket it. They are very serious about protecting the mail that has been entrusted to them. I've been out a few years now (retired) but the large offices used to have catwalks in the ceiling where postal inspectors could observe the workroom floor without being seen. They were used to prevent theft of and from mail.
Think Staples is going to take the same care?
We were typing at the same time, looks like!
Sorry I mis-remembered "Inslaw" so I misspelled it. I'll have to dig up my old files. There were some interesting (and still very contemporary) entities involved, including some wealthy (now) security companies.
i added Danny to my "suicided" file years ago.
It is a fascinating story and Danny was a very brave man.
Some of the players in the Anslaw case are still alive (Meese for one) and it's a shame no one was ever proven involved in his death.
When Snowden made his revelations about NSA systems I wondered if the Octopus might have been the beginning.
I look forward to learning more - and like Gary Web, I hope Danny has some peace. We need to value and protect our investigative journalists. It is a dangerous life, indeed.
Please don't overlook important points in the rest of the article.
I think in light of Ferguson and our most recent elections, in this country we are growing to understand "the illusion of democracy":
"His statement, however, is not unique to Mexico. The police in the United States are allowed to kill with impunity in order to hold down the most oppressed sectors of society, the very sectors that can threaten the stability of the status quo if mobilized. It is in the interest of the ruling class, whether in Mexico or the United States, to protect the capitalist system that allows them to exploit poor and working people.
We are taught that we can change our prospects through the ballot box because we live in a democracy. Our experiences have taught us that this is not true. Elections are an important arena of struggle for revolutionaries, but as we know them under this system we choose between puppets that represent no fundamental change – only maintain the illusion of democracy. This is a method used to impede the development of our consciousness. How is it beneficial for a homeless man to have the right to vote but not the right to a home?
Goldman is wrong. More drastic methods are entirely justified be used because literally the lives of our oppressed brothers and sisters across the world depend on it."
Certainly not calling for a revolution - just serves us a reminder of how revolutions are grown. We cannot continue to ignore what our people are justly calling for - we dash all hope of change at our own peril.
"Those who cast the votes decide nothing. Those who count the votes decide everything."
Ballots by mail have a lot going for them.
If you haven't read bradblog, you need to.
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=10929
2014 and 2016 may be the last real elections the U.S. ever has.
As I have watched Republicans (and the media) as our demographic future becomes more and more clear and the Republican reaction has become more and more entrenched in hate and more obvious in its racism, I have considered what we might expect in elections in years to come.
Sorry to say, but I believe when they can no longer win elections, they'll fall back on cheating and manipulating the system however they can to make themselves the winners. The voting machines have never been upgraded so they can't be manipulated for a reason - they may be needed to steal elections on a widespread or a selective basis. What we've seen on voting rights could be worse - look for them to break out the "electoral" changes if that seems necessary - or returning the citizen's vote to a congressman.
They will cheat. They will lie. And if they get any more of them on the Supreme Court we can hang it up. As much damage as they have done already, in fact, I don't even know that they need any more.
Don't you wonder how the pricing on Supreme Court Justices runs?
Bound to be pretty pricey, but I'm sure the Koch Brothers can afford it. And since it's Bush/oil country in the State of Texas, there's plenty more oil boys kicking in for the desired decision. The Republican Supremes probably secured their lifetimes financially with the Citizens United case, but of course they have to boost their assets for all the little grandbaby supremes, too, if they choose to.
They really should be seeing to that, since they are leaving such a hateful historical legacy. Ever wonder how this crop of Republicans will justify their undemocratic, discriminating asses to the next generation? Talk about rewriting history. I sure hope the historians nail Roberts with the truth.
The Sheriff of Wall Street is my pick, too!
But as noted, Democrats have dumped him for life. I've never understood why redemption is only for republicans. How many bankers could Eliot have put away by now?!
NEOCONS = PNAC (..... a rose by any other name ..... )
Will we let the government and the media continue this farce? It's driving me crazy that so many are running around wringing their hands like this is a brand new threat or this is the cold war warmed up for old reasons. The same people that brought us Iraq are bringing us this dangerous drama. And they only had to deviate slightly from their old map on their road to empire.
These are the same SOBs who navigated us into Iraq, the deaths of over 4000 servicemen and hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqis. Re-read their defining document “Rebuilding America's Defenses,” written in September of 2000, a full year before the 9/11 attacks, they acknowledged:
“Further, the process of transformation, even if it brings revolutionary change, is likely to be a long one, absent some catastrophic and catalyzing event - like a new Pearl Harbor. ...” They named their targets and they have not changed, except that Iraq has already been conquered and ruined.
We have all watched these scumbags parade and pretend to be experts: Wolfowitz, Kristol, Kagan, Cheney, Bolton - the list goes on and on. They grin and preen and roll in their bloody defense money. If there was any justice, they would all be in prison. Instead the little self-congratulatory shits pontificate and pursue their original evil intents. Their original list included Syria, Iran, Turkey, and North Korea and part of their strategy was fighting multiple wars simultaneously. The premise actually dates back to 1992, when "the Wolfowitz Doctrine" was produced for Dick Cheney as Sec. of Defense. That's how old these dreams are.
And now they are doing the same thing with the Ukraine - stirring up fear - goading - leading US citizens to believe military intervention is necessary for the safety of the U.S.
"Though I’m told the Ukraine crisis caught Obama and Putin by surprise, the neocon determination to drive a wedge between the two leaders has been apparent for months, especially after Putin brokered a deal to head off U.S. military strikes against Syria last summer and helped get Iran to negotiate concessions on its nuclear program, both moves upsetting the neocons who had favored heightened confrontations."
Obama knows what he was trying to accomplish by getting an agreement with Putin to help ease us into a peaceful existence with Iran rather than the war the Neocons want. I'd feel better about it if I had any confidence that Kerry was not aiding the neocons. He did vote to go to war in Iraq, and I don't see him supporting Obama here like he should.
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Member since: Wed Feb 23, 2011, 05:11 PMNumber of posts: 725
