In Memoriam

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Did the FBI raid Jefferson's office and seize evidence to protect Cheney?

I have my suspicions as to why the FBI targeted Representative Jefferson's office to raid and yet never raided and siezed documents from Tom Delay's office, or Duke Cunningham's office. However, there may be a more sinister reason as suggested by the Wayne Madsen Report:

Nigerian connections to political bribes ultimately linked to U.S. oil industry. According to informed sources, the $90,000 found in Louisiana Rep. William Jefferson's freezer by the FBI had its origins with Nigerian politicians who include two 2007 presidential hopefuls, current Vice President Atiku Abubakar and former President Gen. Mohammadu Buhari, as well as former Nigerian President Gen. Ibrahim Babangida.

The Nigerian Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is looking at the three politicians and evidence that they have been used by foreign oil companies to launder money into the coffers of Nigerian and foreign politicians, including Jefferson. The Louisiana congressman is being investigated for receiving over a half million dollars in bribes from iGate, Inc., a Louisville, Kentucky-based company that was using Jefferson to promote its Internet and wireless business in Nigeria, Ghana, and Cameroon. In the case of Nigeria.

Jefferson allegedly attempted to double dip by receiving a finder's fee from iGate for an introduction to Nigerian political leaders and company officials of Nigeria's Netlink Digital Television of Nigeria and also receive direct sales commissions from Netlink. Netlink's lawyers blew the whistle on Jefferson's illegal gambit.

The Nigerian bribery scandal involving Jefferson is also linked to previous bribes paid to Nigerian politicians by U.S. oil companies, including $180 million in bribes paid by Halliburton, while Dick Cheney was its chairman, to Nigerian officials in return for a gas liquefaction plant contract in Nigeria.

The FBI's raid on Jefferson's office may have had more to do with eliminating evidence involving U.S. oil companies in Nigerian bribery schemes (and, therefore, protect Cheney) than in nailing Jefferson. >>>More

Hastert tells President Bush FBI raid was unconstitutional

The Hill reports:

House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) told President Bush yesterday that he is concerned the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) raid on Rep. William Jefferson’s (D-La.) congressional office over the weekend was a direct violation of the Constitution.

Hastert raised concerns that the FBI’s unannounced seizure of congressional documents during a raid of Jefferson’s Rayburn office Saturday night violated the separation of powers between the two branches of government as they are defined by the Constitution.

“The Speaker spoke candidly with the president about the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s raid over the weekend,” Hastert spokesman Ron Bonjean said yesterday in confirming his boss’s remarks.

Hastert told reporters yesterday that he understands the reasons for the investigation but objected to the manner in which the raid was conducted. >>>More

I have questions for Hastert, who is so upset aboutthe infringement of Congress' right to a "co-equal" status with the Executive Branch who launched the raid. (Thank you Thom Hartmann for asking these questions Thursday on Randi Rhodes' show):

Where were you when we lost the liberty of the separation of powers on Sept. 15, 2001, when congress abdicated its oversight responsibilities of the President of the United States giving Bush carte blanche to declare war on anybody anywhere?

Where were you on Sept 21, 2001 when the rights of immigrants in an open democracy where slammed shut because the chief immigration judge ordered deportation proceedings closed? No more open trials.

Where were you when October 11, 2002 when John Ashcroft generated a memo reducing government compliance with freedom of information requests...simply just ignoring the law...?

Where were you on October 26, 2001 when the Patriot's Act was passed?

Thom Hatrmann also asks:

"Where was Denny Hastert with his overblown concerns about separation of powers when our privacy rights were knocked out with the Patriot Act? Expanding wiretap provisions, reducing judicial review, allowing law enforcement to indefinately detain non-citizens based on SUSPICION of terrorism. Authorizing "sneak and peek" searches without a warrant; defining domestic terrorism as something that allows them to bust people who are protesting outside a local fur shop; and sharing information with intelligence agencies that can conceivably lead to a coup within the United States."

Congress and The Justice Department At Odds

As I read more and more about the FBI raid on Representative William Jefferson's office, due to an FBI sting where Jefferson reportedly was caught red handed with the FBI sting cash, I can't help but express my disbelief at the executive branch's arrogant show of bullying and disregard for the separation of powers in this matter. (Side note: I know Jefferson is a Democrat and Black...could that be the reason the FBI and Gonzalez chose HIS office to raid and not Delay, or Cunningham or Abramoff's?) Yet, how ironic that now GOP Congressmen are upset that THEIR (collective) Constitutional rights have been abridged.

Those Congressmen yelling the loudest are the same men that gave this president carte blanche to slowly eviscerate the rights of the average American citizen when they approved the Patriot Act (who's name, by the way, implies that if you disagree with the Act you are NOT a patriot)...how Orwellean is that? Not to mention the wiretapping; data-mining; voting rights infringements brought on by voting machines that clearly work in favor of Bushco; detention camps; etc.

NOW Hastert, et al are screaming that THEIR rights have been violated, meanwhile, attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, the F.B.I. director, Robert S. Mueller III, and senior officials and career prosecutors at the Justice Department told associates this week that they were prepared to quit if the White House directed them to relinquish evidence seized in a bitterly disputed search of a House member's office, government officials said Friday. >>>More

This should be an interesting development. Stay tuned...

Top 10 Signs of the Impending U.S. Police State

In the last five years, we, the citizens of the United States of America have watched this country slide down a very dangerous and slippery slope toward a fascist society.

ALTERNET has an article in their "Rights and Liberty" section by By Allan Uthman, Buffalo Beast entitled: Top 10 Signs of the Impending U.S. Police State.

1. The Internet Clampdown
One saving grace of alternative media in this age of unfettered corporate conglomeration has been the internet. While the masses are spoon-fed predigested news on TV and in mainstream print publications, the truth-seeking individual still has access to a broad array of investigative reporting and political opinion via the world-wide web. >>>More

2. "The Long War"
This little piece of clumsy marketing died off quickly, but it gave away what many already suspected: the War on Terror will never end, nor is it meant to end. It is designed to be perpetual. >>>More

3. The USA PATRIOT Act
Did anyone really think this was going to be temporary? Yes, this disgusting power grab gives the government the right to sneak into your house, look through all your stuff and not tell you about it for weeks on a rubber stamp warrant. >>>More

4. Prison Camps
This last January the Army Corps of Engineers gave Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg Brown & Root nearly $400 million to build detention centers in the United States, for the purpose of unspecified "new programs." >>>More

5. Touchscreen Voting Machines
Despite clear, copious evidence that these nefarious contraptions are built to be tampered with, they continue to spread and dominate the voting landscape, thanks to Bush's "Help America Vote Act," the exploitation of corrupt elections officials, and the general public's enduring cluelessness. >>>More

6. Signing Statements
Bush has famously never vetoed a bill. This is because he prefers to simply nullify laws he doesn't like with "signing statements." Bush has issued over 700 such statements, twice as many as all previous presidents combined. >>>More

7. Warrantless Wiretapping
Amazingly, the GOP sees this issue as a plus for them. How can this be? What are you, stupid? You find out the government is listening to the phone calls of US citizens, without even the weakest of judicial oversight and you think that's okay? Come on -- if you know anything about history, you know that no government can be trusted to handle something like this responsibly. One day they're listening for Osama, and the next they're listening in on Howard Dean. >>>More

8. Free Speech Zones
The authors of this article write: I know it's old news, but... come on, are they fucking serious?

9. High-ranking Whistleblowers
Army Generals. Top-level CIA officials. NSA operatives. White House cabinet members. These are the kind of people that Republicans fantasize about being, and whose judgment they usually respect. But for some reason, when these people resign in protest and criticize the Bush administration en masse, they are cast as traitorous, anti-American publicity hounds. >>>More

10. The CIA Shakeup Was Porter Goss fired because he was resisting the efforts of Rumsfeld or Negroponte? No. These appointments all come from the same guys, and they wouldn't be nominated if they weren't on board all the way. Goss was probably canned so abruptly due to a scandal involving a crooked defense contractor, his hand-picked third-in-command, the Watergate hotel and some hookers. >>>More

Just a heads up...this administration started its "master plan" to quash the Constitution of the United States for some time prior to Bush's "selection". Look at this video called "Unconstitutional - The War On Our Civil Liberties". How the "Patriot Act" became law.

More on the Patriot Act in a later post.

NFL or NBA?

Are these stats from the NFL or NBA?

1. 36 have been accused of spousal abuse
2. 7 have been arrested for fraud
3. 19 have been accused of writing bad checks
4. 117 have directly or indirectly bankrupted at least 2 businesses
5. 3 have done time for assault
6. 71, repeat 71 cannot get a credit card due to bad credit
7. 14 have been arrested on drug-related charges
8. 8 have been arrested for shoplifting
9. 21 currently are defendants in lawsuits, and...
10. 84 have been arrested for drunk driving in the last year

So, are these stats from the NBA or NFL?

Neither, it's the 535 members of the United States Congress.

(See earlier posts of: GOP Docket and GOP perverts and criminals.)