Posted by msrb on March 7, 2009
Posted in crimes against humanity, genocide, illegal wars, iraqi occupation, torture | Tagged: George W. Bush, Leahy, senate judiciary committee, Sheldon Whitehouse, war crimes | Leave a Comment »
Posted by msrb on January 3, 2009
December 26, 2008
Government Without Law
By Ralph Nader
Over thirty years ago, a book came out titled “How the Government Breaks the Law, by Jethro K. Lieberman.” Even then it was old news and the examples cited seemed small compared to today’s chronic law-breakers in the White House and at many federal departments and agencies. Many recent books have been written on the expansive outlaw behavior of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney.
Less attention has been devoted to the explosion of unauthorized actions by the Executive in recent years. What should be the most frequent question by reporters to government officials — namely, “By what authority are you acting?” – is the rarest of inquiries.
A two part series on Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. in the Washington Post by David Cho in late November brought this point out in a stunningly frank admission by the Corporate bailout czar himself.
Speaking of the takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, as well as other megaseizures of failing Wall Street firms, Mr. Paulson expressed these anarchic words: “Even if you don’t have the authorities – and frankly I didn’t have the authorities for anything – if you take charge, people will follow.”
Whew! There you have it! He becomes the law and the law is what he says it is because no one – neither a rubber-stamping President, nor a supine Congress, nor any citizen, deprived of any standing to sue, is going or can do anything about it.
Reporter Cho goes on to write: “Senior government officials said Paulson helped craft rescue programs for financial firms, though he was not sure he had an unquestionable legal basis for the initiatives including the bailouts of the failing investment bank Bear Stearns in March and the wounded insurance giant American International Group (AIG) in September.”
Mr. Paulson went further. Playing Congress, he backed the Federal Reserve – already a government within a government funded by banks– to unprecedented unilateral expansion of its powers and its self-made assets. The Post reported that officials from the Treasury and the Fed “never knew whether they had the legal authority to interfere with the market for such derivatives but did so anyway because the opaque trading threatened the wider financial system.”
Unauthorized Executive Branch actions tend to be contagious. Noticing that the crisis left Wall Street on its knees and willing to unilaterally assume over $8 trillion in a variety of loan, subsidy and capital obligations, the Bush regime kept making more of its powers all by itself. Why not, they may have been thinking? Look what they’ve gotten away with in the areas of military and foreign policy actions.
Weekend gigantic corporate bailouts – a more recent one being the $300 billion plus assumption of Citigroup’s financial risks – engineered by Citigroup co-boss, Robert Rubin–were very secret affairs.
The more public grab of power was the $700 billion goliath to rescue the casino capitalists on Wall Street which was submitted in only 3 ½ pages of proposed legislation to Congress by Paulson and Ben Bernake, the Fed’s chairman in September.
This was too much for the ideologies of House Republicans who beat it on the first round. Even the spineless Democrats thought the requested authority was too much of a blank check. So what happened? Bush told Paulson to give various members of Congress “sweeteners” such as pork and tax breaks for favored lobbyists to get the required votes. Consequently, Paulson was granted staggering discretion to spend the $700 billion when, where and to whom he wanted under whatever conditions or no conditions at all. All in the name of socialism saving capitalism from massive collapse. Ironic.
Mr. Paulson came away from Capitol Hill with Congress in his hip pocket – not exactly what the framers of our Constitution had in mind in 1787.
Thus embolden, Paulson initiated a unilateral, administrative repeal of a Congressional enactment in the tax code – section 382 – to give the banks a huge windfall of about $140 billion. George K. Yin, former chief of staff of the Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation, rejected the legality of the Treasury Department’s decision. He told the Post: “I think almost every tax expert would agree that the answer is no. They basically repealed a 22-year-old law that Congress passed [and Reagan signed] as a backdoor way of providing aid to banks.”
Section 382 of the Tax code “sharply restricts a company from using the tax losses of a company it acquires to reduce its own tax liability,” according to the respected Citizens for Tax Justice.
The Treasury’s two-page notice generated a brief specialized display of outrage from members of the Tax writing committees in Congress and a hundred national, state and local organizations signed a joint letter to Congress demanding the legislators reverse the Treasury’ unauthorized edict.
So what did the House of Representatives do? It passed, later rejected by the Senate a provision in the auto bailout bill, a provision that would have extended the unauthorized Treasury ruling to the automobile industry!
What is going on here is a revolutionary coup d-etat of our legal system by executive branch diktats.
Is the organized legal profession through their bar associations in challenge mode? Are law professors churning over this mockery of the legislature and executive branch administrative law? Are conservative groups – always upset about judicial activism – going into high gear against the new monarchy in and around the White House in downtown Washington, D.C.? Are all those futurists worried enough about the trillions of debt dollars being piled on our children and grandchildren to protest and act? Not really.
Obviously, all this is a developing story. Stay tuned, unless you are willing to be turned out.
Posted in Congress, Federal Reserve, Henry M. Paulson, Wall Street | Tagged: Dick Cheney, George W. Bush, government, Government Without Law, law | Leave a Comment »
Posted by msrb on December 15, 2008
“This is a goodbye kiss from the Iraqi people, you dog.” An Iraqi reporter shouted in Arabic as he threw his shoes at George W. Bush on Sunday, spoiling his “farewell” visit to Baghdad.
In this image from APTN video, a man throws a shoe at President George W. Bush during a news conference with Iraq Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki on Sunday, Dec. 14, 2008, in Baghdad. The man threw two shoes at Bush, one after another. Bush ducked both throws, and neither man was hit. (AP Photo/APTN). Image may be subject to copyright.
“Throwing shoes at somebody is a supreme insult in the Middle East. One of the shoes sailed over the president’s head and slammed into the wall behind him and he had to duck to miss the other one. Maliki tried to block the second shoe with his arm.”
“It’s like going to a political rally and have people yell at you. It’s a way for people to draw attention … I don’t know what the guy’s cause was. [You don't? Try the genocide of 1,284,105 souls!] I didn’t feel the least bit threatened by it.” Bush said.
Posted in "dog" in Arabic, Maliki, farewell visit, illegal war, iraqi occupation | Tagged: Baghdad reception, Bush news conference, George W. Bush, insulting Bush | Leave a Comment »
Posted by msrb on September 25, 2008
President [sic] George W. Bush leaves the podium after his final address to the U.N. at the 63rd United Nations General Assembly at U.N. headquarters in New York September 23, 2008. REUTERS/Mike Segar. Image may be subject to copyright.
Posted in Unpolitics, inhumanity, unenvironmnet, ungovernment | Tagged: George W. Bush, ROW, sociopath, UN | Leave a Comment »
Posted by msrb on July 31, 2008
“Ships, aircraft and industrial equipment burn huge quantities of fossil fuel, causing greenhouse gas pollution, yet President Bush stalls with one bureaucratic dodge after another,” said Brown a two-term California governor in the 1970s and 1980s.
Official portrait of Jerry Brown as Governor of California, from the California State Capitol Museum.
Image credit: Governors of California Portrait Gallery, California State Capitol Museum; via Wikipedia
“Because Bush’s Environmental Protection Agency continues to wantonly ignore its duty to regulate pollution, California is forced to seek judicial action,” he said.
“[The lawsuit] is certainly typical of the attorney general of California,” an EPA spokesman said.
“If they don’t like how we make a decision on something, they sue and hope the courts will mandate toward their position. It works sometimes and sometimes it doesn’t work,” he said.
California and 17 other states sued the EPA in April for failing to limit greenhouse gas emissions from new cars and trucks despite a ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2007 that the agency had the power to take action.
California and 12 other states again sued the EPA in May, claiming it violated the Clean Air Act because its ozone pollution standards were ineffective.
“Brown said California would likely be joined in the latest lawsuit against the EPA by Connecticut, Oregon, New York City, the California Air Resources Board, the South Coast Air Quality Management District and a coalition of environmental groups.” Reuters reported.
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Posted in 6th Great Extinction, Connecticut, New York City, Oregon, the California Air Resources Board, the South Coast Air Quality Management District | Tagged: Arnold Schwarzenegger, california, California governor, epa, fossil fuels, George W. Bush, greenhouse gas emissions, Jerry Brown, state Attorney General | 5 Comments »
Posted by msrb on June 16, 2008
About 18,000 operators of construction machinery went on strike in South Korea on Monday demanding cheaper fuel and higher pay, joining thousands of truckers who began their strike last week.
South Korean President Lee Myung-bak. Lee may be forced to resign in the coming weeks.
The strikers are also angry over the policies of the new President Lee Myung-bak, who came to office amid a landslide victory in December, but has since become increasingly unpopular because of a decision to resume imports of U.S. beef.
Protesters chant slogans at a candlelight vigil on a street leading to the U.S. embassy and the presidential Blue House in central Seoul June 10, 2008. REUTERS/Lee Jae-Won. Image may be subject to copyright. See PRO Fair Use Notice!
There have been waves of street protest in the recent weeks demanding the government to repeal of the U.S. beef deal. The South Koreans are concerned about the threats of mad cow disease associated with the US beef.
Adding to the pressure, the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions is expected to call on its 600,000 members to stage a walkout against Lee’s privatization and pension reform plans, Reuters reported.
The strikes have so far cost Korea $3.5 billion, the commerce ministry said.
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Posted in Bush, Energy, Global Warming, collapse, ecosystems, environment, government, money, politics, war | Tagged: big oil, biofuel, boneheads, BP, Brent crude, cabal, catastrophe, CEO, Chevron, China, Colombia, Congress, ConocoPhillips, construction machinery operators, corn, corporate racketeering, corporations from hell, energy riots, ethanol, Exxon Mobil, Exxon Valdeez, feedlots, free market my foot, gas-guzzling cars, gasoline prices, George W. Bush, Gulf, House of Representatives, hypocrisy, inflation, insanity, Iran, Iraq occupation, Justice Department, Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, Lee Myung-bak, lifestyle, lynch mob, mad cow disease, Middle East, Mobil, niger delta, Nigeria, oil, OPEC, Pinheads, politics, Public Citizen, Ralph Nader, red heifer, renewable energy, Rep. Kagen, Rocky Mountains, runaway economy, Saudi Arabia, senate, Separation of Oil and State, sheeple, shell, South Korea, Speculators, StatoilHydro, Steve Kagen, supply and demand, truckers, truckers strike, uncertainty, Uncle Sam, US, USD, van der Veer, Venezuela, Wall Street, Weak dollar, White House, Wisconsin | Leave a Comment »
Posted by msrb on June 13, 2008
Two truck drivers were killed in fuel protests in Spain and Portugal, while a third driver received serious burn in a suspected arson attack.
The imapct of haulers’ strike is now being felt throughout the Spanish and Portuguese economies.
In Spain the country’s 18 car factories are running out of parts and fuel. The car industry accounts for about 5 percent of Spain’s GDP.
As the blockade continues in the European nations, consumers rush to stockpile food and fuel causing severe shortages in some areas.
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msrb
Posted in Bush, Energy, Global Warming, collapse, ecosystems, environment, government, money, politics, war | Tagged: big oil, biofuel, boneheads, BP, Brent crude, cabal, catastrophe, CEO, Chevron, China, Colombia, Congress, ConocoPhillips, corn, corporate racketeering, corporations from hell, energy riots, ethanol, Exxon Mobil, Exxon Valdeez, feedlots, gas-guzzling cars, gasoline prices, George W. Bush, Gulf, House of Representatives, hypocrisy, inflation, insanity, Iran, Iraq occupation, Justice Department, lifestyle, lynch mob, Middle East, Mobil, niger delta, Nigeria, oil, OPEC, Pinheads, politics, Public Citizen, Ralph Nader, red heifer, renewable energy, Rep. Kagen, Rocky Mountains, runaway economy, Saudi Arabia, senate, Separation of Oil and State, sheeple, shell, StatoilHydro, Steve Kagen, supply and demand, uncertainty, Uncle Sam, USD, van der Veer, Venezuela, Wall Street, Weak dollar, White House, Wisconsin | Leave a Comment »
Posted by terres on May 28, 2008
UPDATE: May 30, 2008 – The Army announced that 115 soldiers, including 22 National Guard and Army Reserve troops, killed themselves last year. That marked a 12.7 percent rise from the 102 suicides recorded in 2006. There were 85 Army suicides in 2005. (Source)
[Crocodile Tears!] A tear glistens in the corner of US President George W. Bush’s eye as he makes remarks during Memorial Day ceremonies at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia, May 26, 2008. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst (UNITED STATES). Image may be subject to copyright. See Fair Use Notice!
[Bush and Co heavily camouflaged by the massive flags!] President Bush delivers his remarks at Arlington National Cemetery Memorial Day commemoration, Monday, May 26, 2008, in Arlington, Va. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta). Image may be subject to copyright. See Fair Use Notice!
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Posted in Energy, collapse, environment, government, money, politics, war | Tagged: Afghanistan, crocodile tears, George W. Bush, Invasion, Iraq, iraqi occupation, Massacre, WMD | 2 Comments »
