https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.html

First, I want to thank you for the laudable work you have done for our country. Your responses to my previous correspondence are appreciated.

There are two points I would like to bring to your attention:

1) George Mitchell has shown to be an extremely capable representative of our country and an effective advocate for peace. Surely you know of his successes in Ireland. Please do what you can to insure his nomination thru the House for his appointment as Middle East Peace Envoy.

2) Regarding a national healthcare plan, I strongly urge you to attend a conference to be held by Physicians for a National Health Plan. The forum is on Wed. Feb 25th, and the focus will be on the "National Lessons from State Health Reform: A Massachusetts’s Case Study". The forum will consider the most recent health care overhaul this country has seen.  I hope you and your health legislative assistant make time to attend. This is one issue all Americans need to be informed and active.

It is on Wednesday February 25, 2– 4pm, 2226 Rayburn House Office Building.

Thank you so much for your time...

They have stolen the words: God, patriotism, 'for the good of the country', pro-life, special interests, democracy, 'jealous of our freedom', 'freedom of speech', 'right to assemble', 'free (not fair) market', et. al.

They use these words not to tell the truth but to win elections. They con religious and patriotic people by saying they stand for these words which actually stand for nothing more than mass marketing, saying what people want to hear and nothing more. They work not for the people but the corporations that benefit from your tax dollars and the lives of our soldiers.

Intellectual and intelligent are words that they have vilified to act as if they are just one of us.

Who are they?

Those in the corporate structure which allows for immoral and criminal actions to go unpunished. War is profitable for them, those that do the financing are the same people that neither pay the sacrifice nor are they held accountable. Former Lockheed Martin CEO Norman Augustine predicted that by 2054, the Defense Department will only be able to afford one aircraft. The 2008 funding for the DOD: $459.3 billion. Funding the two wars is totally separate. These profiteers are the ones that pay the politicians, that finance the candidates' election campaigns; they write the bills the legislators pass thru congress for who's benefit? These are the ones that lay-off thousands of employees and profit when the stock bounces up a dollar; these are the ones that manufacture cars that guzzle gas and destroy the air we breath. This is the pattern which continues and only increases everyday. In Eisenhower's fairwell address to congress, he original planned to say "the military/industrial/congressional complex because of the proliferation of contracts going to so many congressional districts. In the corporate structure, profit and greed replace morality and ethics. This is nothing new but it's getting kind of old.

.. ..

As John D. Rockefeller in the 1800 and early 1900's used his size to drive out competition by underselling in local markers, Duane Read did it in Manhattan in the 1990's. In certain areas they would setup stores on two consecutive blocks killing individually owned pharmacies nearby just as John D. did in the petroleum industry. In the Duane Read case, by the end of the nineties,  they declared bankruptcy and were taken over by a capital finance group. What cherry picking. They now had a brand name with reduced competition. Who benefits. The consumer? Not! DR buys brand names in quantity but not the pharmaceutical drugs. The is done by a wholesale buyer who takes a profit margin paid for by the consumer. Some insurance companies have dropped from coverage such basic necessities as blood pressure medication. Price: over $300 for 30 days. Maybe you have heard of the elderly having to decide between food or prescriptions. Or of Catholic churches in Queens that organize bus tours to Canada so senior citizens can buy their medicines at affordable prices. It's worth the trip.

Funny, when G. Bush and Company passed his much heralded medicare plan for prescription drugs, it forbade buying drugs on bulk by the feds. I guess he wanted to save that for the 'free market'. Don't want the government interfering with profits taken from peoples' well being. As long as I can afford it, it's ok. Right? What happened to "for the people."

Did I miss something?

In this article July 1 2008 WaPo says Iranian nuclear bomb project was cancelled in 2003 as detailed in the National Intelligence Estimate of December 2007.

The story is actually about a former CIA operative (someone in the field) that was able to develope an informant privy to the Iranian nuclear project. When the operative filed his report, he was told by the CIA to lie and change it or not file the report. He refused to do so leading to his being fired. There seems to be a pattern developing here. This is the same type of contention the led to Sibel Edmonds being fired. They are not the only ones. Read the 2005 Vanity Fair article  or the London Times article Jan 6 2008 title For Sale: West's Deadly Nuclear Secrets http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article3137695.ece
or Dandelion Salad posted as Luke's blog post where there are links to listening here or read the transcript here of Edmonds talking about the Times article.

This being the case, why the hell would the US be attacking Iran. Why isn't the press asking why. And why isn't the public screaming bloody murder? It ain't common knowledge. Spread the word. Maybe there is a conscience out there.

Thomas Jefferson described the problem in a letter to Edward Carrington in 1787. "If once [the people] become inattentive to the public affairs, you and I, and Congress and assemblies, Judges and Governors, shall all become wolves. It seems to be the law of our general nature, in spite of individual exceptions."

That quote is from The Democracy Foundation. Started by Sen. Mike Gravel back in 2001, it supports the idea that the average voter should be making the laws that run this country, not irresponsive legislators. They have a myspace site if you wanna check it out. They're listed as one of 'my friends'.  Not sure I'm into it. Let's just leave it open to debate and discussion, hmmmmm? But I digress...

OK, the article link below maybe not be fun unless either you have a somewhat macabre sense of humor or you like watching train wrecks. Hey! Back in the late 1800's they staged a train wreck as a promotional for new train route. Guess where. That's right, Texas. They actually ran two locomotives into each other which drew quite a crowd and made quite a bang! First time that ever happened and the last. I think some spectators got hurt.

Not exactly a train wreck, but lobbies are still with us and another Texas invention, Jim Hightower is of a different sort. He's a Texas liberal, not quite as entertaining as Molly Ivens maybe, but no dimwit to be sure. If you've a mind for the details of sordid government you might enjoy this one from www.Dandelionsalad.wordpress.com

Lawmakers Cash In As Lobbyists By Jim Hightower

Bush's Top General Quashed Torture Dissent - Mark Benjamin, Salon

New evidence shows that despite warnings from across the military, former Gen. Richard Myers shut down legal scrutiny of brutal interrogation tactics.

By Mark Benjamin

June 30, 2008 | WASHINGTON

[excerpt]

…

In the preface of a recent report on U.S. abuse of detainees by Physicians for Human Rights, retired Maj. Gen. Tony Taguba, the man the Army enlisted to conduct an initial investigation into the abuse at Abu Ghraib, railed against the Bush administration. "The Commander-in-Chief and those under him authorized a systematic regime of torture," Taguba wrote. "After years of disclosures by government investigations, media accounts, and reports from human rights organizations, there is no longer any doubt as to whether the current administration has committed war crimes. The only question is whether those who ordered the use of torture will be held to account."

….

[and what happened to General Myers?]

For a variety of complicated political and legal reasons, few in Washington think any high-level Bush administration officials will ever face a judge because of their actions. "It is not likely there are going to be prosecutions," said Tom Malinowski, Washington advocacy director for Human Rights Watch. But he hopes that one day there will be a fact-finding commission that will expose the full truth. "There is definitely a story that needs to be told," he said.

Richard Myers retired from service on Oct. 1, 2005. Bush awarded Myers with the Presidential Medal of Freedom the following month. Myers was elected to the boards of two major U.S. defense contractors, United Technologies and Northrop Grumman, in 2006.

A timeline to Bush government torture

What Rumsfeld knew

The Senate will vote on this July 8 2008, and it doesn't look good...

AT&T Whisteblower: Spy Bill Creates 'Infrastructure for a Police State'

Wired

By Ryan Singel June 27, 2008 | 1:14:59 PMCategories: NSA 

Mark Klein, the retired AT&T engineer who stepped forward with the technical documents at the heart of the anti-wiretapping case against AT&T, is furious at the Senate's vote on Wednesday night to hold a vote on a bill intended to put an end to that lawsuit and more than 30 others.

{Klein:}[Wednesday]'s vote by Congress effectively gives retroactive immunity to the telecom companies and  endorses an all-powerful president. It's a Congressional coup against the Constitution.

The Democratic leadership is touting the deal as a "compromise," but in fact they have endorsed the infamous Nuremberg defense: "Just following orders." The judge can only check their paperwork. This cynical deal is a Democratic exercise in deceit and cowardice.

Klein saw a network monitoring room being built in AT&T's internet switching center that only NSA-approved techs had access to. He squirreled away documents and then presented them to the press and the Electronic Frontier Foundation after news of the government's warrantless wiretapping program broke.

Wired.com independently acquired a copy of the documents (.pdf) -- which were under court seal -- and published the wiring documents in May 2006 so that they could be evaluated.

The lawsuit that resulted from his documents is now waiting on the 9th U.S. Appeals Court to rule on whether it can proceed despite the government saying the whole matter is a state secret. A lower court judge ruled that it could, because the government admitted the program existed and that the courts could handle evidence safely and in secret.

But the appeals court ruling will likely never see the light of day, since the Senate is set to vote on July 8 on the FISA Amendments Act of 2008, which also largely legalizes Bush's warrantless wiretapping program by expanding how the government can wiretap from inside the United States without getting individualized court orders.

Klein continues:

"Congress has made the FISA law a dead letter--such a law is useless if the president can break it with impunity. Thus the Democrats have surreptitiously repudiated the main reform of the post-Watergate era and adopted Nixon's line: "When the president does it that means that it is not illegal." This is the judicial logic of a dictatorship.

The surveillance system now approved by Congress provides the physical apparatus for the government to collect and store a huge database on virtually the entire population, available for data mining whenever the government wants to target its political opponents at any given moment—all in the hands of an unrestrained executive power. It is the infrastructure for a police state."

Neither the House nor the Senate has had Klein testify, nor have telecom executives testified in open session about their participation.

The bill forces the district court judge handling the consolidated cases against telecoms to dismiss the suits if the Attorney General certifies that a government official sent a written request to a phone or internet provider, saying that the President approved the program and his lawyers deemed it legal. Judge Vaughn Walker of the California Northern District can ask to see the paperwork, but would not be given leeway to decide if the program was legal.

Bet this won't get printed in the Times...

While hopes for peace accords between Israel and Palestinians must be approached with caution, optimism must always be used. To think otherwise would be to give up any hope of peace. Further, the ongoing talks with Syria have been very slow in developing, but it's important to note that those discussions were started by two non-governmental individuals, one being an ex-employee of the Mosad, Israel's intelligence force. So Israel is taking a more determined direction towards peace.

What is just as striking is that the usual sources of Israeli support(AIPAC, et.al.)have been noticeably silent; that should come as no surprise. What is rarely if ever mentioned is that those more noticeable organizations represent the Likud Party position in Israel's policies giving the impression that if one is 'pro-Israel' one must be for attacking Lebanon, developing settlements on the West Bank, and treating any Islamic citizen or Palestinian as if they were chattel. So AIPAC and their minions have shaped the issues as if there were one opinion in Israel, as if George Bush and Donald Rumsfeld expressed the political spectrum of the United States.

Gush Shalom (gush-shalom.org) would be a good start to see some diversity of opinion and action. And on their website, go to links and find how many organizations are working not only for peace, but for justice in what has been a highly inequitable institutionalize bigotry against Arabs within Israel and the occupied territories. One must see the extent to which this is true and what is not being covered by the media. Progressive Israelis recognize the problem and are taking action, but there is no media coverage.

Peace in the Middle East, peace for Israel and most probably any hope for peace in the world must start with an equitable solution between Israel and the Palestinians. The war of attrition that has been going on has brought about an unacceptable existence for all sides and ultimately will be unsustainable. Injustice is unsustainable and the lengths to which it is used will ultimately determine any government's fate.

Prince William police eye start of illegal immigrant crackdown
Associated Press
February 26, 2008
http://www.dailypress.com/news/local/virginia/dp-va--illegalimmigratio0226feb26,0,1609931,print.story

MANASSAS, Va.

Prince William County police will begin enforcing a crackdown on illegal immigrants next week.

The entire 530-member police force is amid training to understand their new duties under the policy, which was put in place by the county's board of supervisors.

The new policy that takes effect Monday has received national attention as one of the most aggressive in the U.S. It directs police to check the immigration status of anyone who is detained if the officer has probable cause to believe the person is an illegal immigrant.

Opponents of the measure say that despite police assurances, the policy will lead to racial profiling.

Copyright © 2008, Newport News, Va., Daily Press

This is a stab at fortune telling I will indulge myself: If you follow any media outlets the name of Vickie Iseman will be cropping up quite a bit. The extra-marital talk is a distraction, because a politician that claims to be a virgin to lobbying interests has got bigger stakes than sexual conquest.

The question is whether McCain is clean of lobby effluence, and influence. Then who is Rick Davis? Who is Lowell W. "Bud" Paxson. Who is Charlie Black? Maybe the press will mention Iseman, too.

The following is from Christy Hardin Smith Friday February 22, 2008:

Top DC Lobbyist and McCain campaign "senior advisor" Charlie Black explains to Faux[Fox] News why John McCain is an "outsider."  The jokes just write themselves...

That the McCain campaign is sending out Charlie Black to be their rebuttal point man on the "don't stand so close to me" lobbyist story is beyond amusing.

When you think about Charlie Black, think of him in terms of Jack Abramoff's political reach, connections and influence -- only much, much more so -- with that same odious level of using it to the furthest extent to suck money out of clients who pay-to-play from K Street. 

Only Charlie Black isn't a dolt like Abramoff, and he hasn't been caught doing anything illegal.  Oh, and did I mention he lobbies for Blackwater and AT&T, among many, many other corporate clients?

[Then from the FOX video:]

"The founder and current head of BKSH is Charlie Black, whose ties with the Bush family go back to 1972, when he and Karl Rove were jockeying for control of the College Republicans in a campaign so dirty that George H.W. Bush, then head of the Republican National Committee, had to step in and sort matters out. Black then worked for Ronald Reagan's and George H.W. Bush's presidential campaigns from 1976 to 1992. He served as an adviser to George W. Bush's campaigns in 2000 and 2004 and is often quoted in news stories as an unofficial White House spokesman."

"BKSH was representing Iraq exile Ahmed Chalabi as early as 1999 and continued doing so until the invasion of Iraq. An international con-man found guilty in absentia in Jordan for bank scams, Chalabi is most widely known for being one of the key pre-Iraq war intelligence propagandists who supplied skewed information to support the Pentagon's ultra-secretive Office of Special Plans and the now-discredited pre-war reporting of Judith Miller for the New York Times. During 2004, Francis Brooke of the Rendon Group, which had represented Chalabi since the early 90's, was working on contract in Baghdad for BKSH. Then in the summer and fall of 2005, Lincoln Group, which had been tasked by the Pentagon with providing pro-US stories to Iraqi media, was subcontracting the work to BKSH, as the same time as BKSH was registered to represent the government of Iraq as its US lobbyist."

There's more! Go to http://firedoglake.com/

The following is from Boston.com on January 5, 2000 [excerpted]

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2000/01/05/mccain_pressed_fcc_in_case_involving_major_contributor/

Days before Senator John McCain joined hands with Senator Bill Bradley last month to decry the noxious influence of special interest campaign donors, McCain pressured the Federal Communications Commission to vote on an issue that cleared the way for a major contributor to his presidential campaign to buy a Pittsburgh television station.

McCain, in his bluntly worded Dec. 10 letter to the FCC, did not urge a vote favoring the contributor, Paxson Communications. But he acted at the request of the company's lobbyist, during a period when he used Paxson's corporate jet four times to travel to campaign events - where he almost always attacks monied special interests.

McCain's intervention in the case drew a speedy, scolding response from William E. Kennard, the FCC chairman, who deemed the Senator's letter ''highly unusual'' and suggested it was inappropriate. The Senate Commerce Committee, which McCain heads, oversees the FCC. [In Jan, 2000, the Dems still had the Chairman FCC position]

Angela J. Campbell, the attorney who represents opponents of the sale to Paxson, went much further, asserting in an interview yesterday that McCain's action was improper, unethical, violated FCC rules barring such contacts on pending FCC matters, and appeared designed to assist a major contributor.

''Senator McCain said, `Do it by December 15 or explain why,' and the commission jumped to it and did it that very day. The senator's intent was for the FCC to grant the'' transfer of the TV license, said Campbell, a Georgetown University law professor. McCain's intercession, she added, ''may well have tipped the decision.''

The following is from Alternet on February 22, 2008 by Christy>:

http://www.alternet.org/election08/77496/

Rick Davis will be taking over as campaign manager. Who is he? Fittingly for the most lobbyist-infested campaign in the race (on either side), Davis is yet another lobbyist. Davis founded Davis, Manafort & Freedman, Inc., through which he served clients ranging from Nigerian dictator Gen. Sani Abacha to "mafia-like" Argentine legislator Alberto Pierri.

Davis has had a long association with McCain -- one tangled up in webs of special influence. In 1999, while Davis was working for McCain, two of his firm's clients, COMSAT and SBC, "had major (and controversial) mergers pending before the Federal Communications Commission in 1999, and both mergers were approved." The FCC was under the legislative oversight authority of McCain's Commerce Committee, yet McCain refused to recuse himself from the proceedings.

Davis was also a central figure in McCain's Reform Institute scandal, an under-reported affair in which the "Maverick" Senator used a nonprofit, tax-exempt "reform" organization to trade political favors for corporate cash.

In 2000, when McCain set out to seek the Republican Party's presidential nomination, his campaign charter jet landed in New Hampshire early on with some lobbyists aboard.

David Broder, dean of the political writers, was aboard that plane. And he duly noted the presence of Ken Duberstein, the lobbyist and former chief of staff for Ronald Reagan, aboard the plane of the senator running as the anti-establishment candidate.

Yours truly was on that plane, too, and duly noted the presence of Tom Panza, a Florida-based lobbyist for GTech, the lottery-management company that has mopped up contract after contract in the states running lotteries and provided lucrative employment for a lot of former state workers in the process.

[excerpted from CNN News Feb 22, 2008]

One of McCain's senior advisers, Charlie Black, said that information and documents provided to the paper disputes suggestions McCain tried to use his influence to help Iseman.

Black accused the Times of being a liberal newspaper that was printing "rumors and gossip," and he called the article a partisan attack on the conservative McCain.

The newspaper endorsed McCain as the GOP nominee in the 2008 presidential race.

CNN's Dana Bash and Scott Bronstein contributed to this report.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/02/22/mccain.lobbyist/

[bold print above is added by Malcolm]

And stay tuned for another chapter in days of our lives...