BUSHCO Has - GAGGED And THREATENED - Telcoms With Prosecution

[kpete]

Don’t Gag Ma Bell
By: emptywheel Sunday February 10, 2008 6:35 pm

I've been dissing my Congressman John Dingell by not pointing to the letter he, Bart Stupak (also from Michigan) and Edward Markey sent their colleagues about the FISA bill. But it raises an issue that deserves more attention. After discussing the rationales for telecom immunity, they point out,

For the past five months this Committee has asked, in a bipartisan manner, the phone companies and the Administration to explain whether they acted outside the bounds of the law and what would justify Congress telling a Federal judge to dismiss all lawsuits against the phone companies. The phone companies respond that the Administration has gagged and threatened them with prosecution if they respond to our inquiries. When the Committee requested that the Administration either remove the gag or provide the Committee with the relevant information, the Administration repeatedly refused. Surprisingly, even at this late date, the Administration has not deemed it important enough to respond to our repeated inquiries or even to brief the Committee Members in closed session.
http://www.eff.org/files/nsa/dingell.pdf

Understand, John Dingell is a long-time friend of the telecoms (and can muster an awesome lecture to constituents on telecom history on demand). And this is the crowd in the House that legislates on telecoms more generally.

Yet the Administration won't let Ma Bell talk to them--at least not about her overwhelming need for immunity. The Republicans claim that, unless Ma Bell gets immunity, she'll go out of business. But they won't let her tell that to the legislators who know the telecom business best.

So it's not just the Administration's justifications for their illegal spying program they'll show to only 20 or so members of Congress in each house. They won't even let Ma Bell make her case herself.

more at:
http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2008/02/10/dont-gag-ma-bell/

[bdamomma]

1. this administration is using its mafia tactics.

[madokie]

2. Oh the web we weave when first we wish to deceive

[zanne]

3. Isn't it amazing that we've become numb to this sort of thing?

I guess that's what happens at the beginning of a fascist state. At first, everybody is outraged and calls for action. After awhile, though, repeated refusals by the government, vetoes, signing statements. etc. wear the populace down.

Now we're waiting for a new president who may never come.

[warren pease]

7. Part of the problem is the role that failed institutions play in keeping us numb...

Aside from the fact that the US has the absolute worst public educational system in the industrialized world -- measured statistically, anecdotally or just by observing its products -- it's also the overwhelming leader in religiosity.

According to a 2003 University of Michigan study, 46 percent of American adults attend church at least once a week, not counting weddings, funerals and christenings, compared with 14 percent of adults in Great Britain, 8 percent in France, 7 percent in Sweden and 4 percent in Japan.

So what? Well, another study on religiosity and its effects on issues like social strife and cohesiveness, this one from 2005 and published in The Journal of Religion and Society, brings up some interesting results and demonstrates the disconnect between American assumptions and objective reality. For example:

The study shows a direct correlation between religiosity and dysfunctionality, which if nothing else, disproves the widespread belief that religiosity is beneficial, that secularism is detrimental, and that widespread acceptance of evolution is harmful.

Surveys show that many Americans agree "their church-going nation is an exceptional, God blessed, 'shining city on the hill' that stands as an impressive example for an increasingly skeptical world." This assumption flies in the face of the actual statistical evidence that (study author Gregory S.) Paul examined.

And this:

All of the subsequent results that compare religiosity against dysfunctionality show a basic correlation between the two, though anomalies exist. Paul’s second figure (Figures 1 and 2 here) shows a positive correlation between religiosity and homicide rates.

The United States is a strong exception, experiencing far higher rates of homicide than even (strongly theistic) Portugal, while Portugal itself is beset by much more homicide than the secular developed democracies. Hardly a "shining city on a hill" to the rest of the world, Paul writes that, "The most theistic prosperous democracy, the U.S., is exceptional, but not in the manner predicted.

The United States is almost always the most dysfunctional of the developed democracies, sometimes spectacularly so, and almost always scores poorly." This deviates immensely from what most Americans consider to be common wisdom: that religion is beneficial. "But in the other developed democracies religiosity continues to decline precipitously and avowed atheists often win high office, even as clergies warn about adverse societal consequences if a revival of creator belief does not occur."

Now, what the hell does all this have to do with the numbing of America and its amazing indifference to the daily outrages perpetrated on us and the rest of the world by the thieves, liars and murders occupying the white house?

Well, I think that if your educational system fails to teach you anything but how to pass through a metal detector and gain a lifelong taste for grease burgers; and your dependence on religion for wisdom and guidance gives you a bunch of bad information and resolves nothing; and your critical thinking skills have been destroyed by public education, religion, PR and advertising; and your alleged free press is composed of cheerleaders for the status quo and propagandists for wealth and power; and the primary economic organizing unit -- the corporation -- is shown time and again to be a soulless, malevolent money-making machine with zero regard for its debt-slave workers; and your government has become a thoroughly corrupt bribocracy loyal only to their corporate paymasters, completely controlled by those same amoral corporations and in place exclusively to promote corporate well-being and eliminate anything whatsoever that could threaten profitability...

When this is your reality -- and I think it's a fair description of life in modern America for all but the wealthy elite -- it gets pretty hard to keep paying attention when you know every single day is going to be a bit worse than the day before and that there are no institutions left to turn to for help or sanity or comfort.

I stay current because I'm an information junkie and because I've been expecting something like the BushCo implosion for a long time. It's kind of fascinating to watch as my most cynical speculations about the American future become today's news.

But people who are wired differently than me, those who prefer to avoid bad news rather than confront it, have a pretty good point. You've got to be a bit of a fatalist to watch your own country come apart at the seams and not avert your eyes from the carnage.

Hope this helps. Gawd knows it's long enough.


wp


On edit: a couple of revisions for clarity (as if it's clear now).

[zanne]

8. Verrrry interesting, War and Pease.

I've bookmarked the linked website. It should make for good reading.

[Donnachaidh]

4. I'm suspicious of this sudden revelation

Because the Telecomm's WIN if they play Martyr (Ohh -- the big bad bullies in Washington won't LET us talk) and the Congressional people WIN because (yet again) they allow Bush and his cronies to get away with something. It's far easier for the Congress to throw up it's hands because it's *all Bush's Fault* - and then THEY can allow the Telecomms their immunity.

Continuation of the *dog ate my homework* story being told by all three sides involved. The only loser is the CONSUMER. Bush has his way, Telecomms get immunity, and Congresscritters STILL get their corporate donations after the smoke clears.

This guy had better tell the Telecomms to put up or shut the hell up. :grr:

[Orsino]

5. Ah. So telecom immunity means immunity to all but *'s law. n/t

[alfredo]

6. The only thing that will save bush is if he resigns, then have cheney

pardon him, then have cheney resign and have his replacement pardon him.

Of course neither will be able to travel outside the country without fear of arrest.

[RuleOfNah]

9. "The Republicans claim that, unless Ma Bell gets immunity, she'll go out of business."

The Republicans claim that, unless (THIEVES) gets immunity, (THEY)'ll go out of business.
The Republicans claim that, unless (RAPISTS) gets immunity, (THEY)'ll go out of business.
The Republicans claim that, unless (PEDOPHILES) gets immunity, (THEY)'ll go out of business.
The Republicans claim that, unless (MURDERS) gets immunity, (THEY)'ll go out of business.
The Republicans claim that, unless (TRAITORS) gets immunity, (THEY)'ll go out of business.

I knew Republicans hated rule of law but I didn't realize how deeply Republicans hated rule of law.