So we are charging Edward Snowden with Espionage. How come we haven’t charged Dick Cheney with espionage? Cheney did more than Snowden to put American agents in danger and to help any foreign government when he instructed his aides Scooter Libby and Karl Rove to leak the identity of CIA agent Valarie Plame, in a fit of pique over the actions of her husband Joseph Wilson for writing an article for the NY Times in which he established that Iraq wasn’t getting uranium from Niger, a fact that was rather embarrassing to the White House who were then claiming that Iraq was amassing weapons of mass destruction.
In outing Plamne, Cheney and his butt boys truly put an American agent in danger of her life and in so doing also put any other agent or contact of hers, in mortal danger. If that wasn’t espionage than nothing that either Snowden or Bradley Manning even thought of doing comes close. Where’s the justice Barak? Is this really the way you want to run America?
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And while we’re speaking about the espionage act which dates back to the First World War, how come it isn’t applicable to the news sources like the NY Times, The Guardian and Der Spiegel which published the documents in question. Why aren’t they guilty and if they are, then what about free speech. Obama has used the act eight times so far. It was used three times by the previous seven presidents. The only whistleblower it was used against previous to Obama was Daniel Ellsberg who’s case was thrown out because the Nixon flunkies, like Halderson, Ehrlichman and John Dean were so busy committing felonies to get him convicted, that the case became a joke.
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Why is it that the GOP is so worried about protecting fetuses while in he womb when they are perfectly willing to let the little buggers starve as soon as they are out in the world?
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On Wednesday, Michael Froman was confirmed as The U.S. Trade Representative. This is an important job, even though most people never heard of it. He is currently involved in negotiations with eleven Pacific countries for the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal, which for some reason he has decided to keep very hush hush. When confronted on his lack of transparency he became even more opaque.
What’s the big deal Mike? If American persons of interest can’t find out what you are doing, you aren’t representing the American people. Why is it that every government official thinks that he is doing only need to know business? Even if he is doing the right thing by the country, Froman’s attitude leads one to believe he is either screwing up and hiding it or doing something downright dishonest. How does this guy know what the American people want in a trade agreement if he doesn’t tell them what he is doing and get feedback? The answer is he doesn’t and he doesn’t care. He is interested only in serving the special interests that are shoving him money under the table.
Froman can cry foul about that statement but before he does he should consider that it is his secrecy and lack of opacity that prompts it. He shouldn’t be hiding what he is doing if he has nothing to hide.
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I understand all the aspects of the intern rebellion in the entertainment industry but I find it more than a little affected for those same people who begged for intern jobs to now be suing the people who gave them to them. No one forced these people to work for nothing. Many of them received college credit for what they did, while many others, those who did a good job during their internship, were rewarded with paying jobs on subsequent projects.
Not just film, but also theatre, which has used apprentice programs since the middle ages have always functioned on the young proving themselves and being rewarded for it.
Sure there will always be producers who will take advantage of the young and willing to get free labor but there are many ex-interns who got their start in the industry because they were willing to prove their worth before they got paid.
This does not mean that the studios, huge companies that make hundreds of millions a year should be hiring unpaid interns but it also doesn’t mean that a young man or woman who agreed, even sought, to work for nothing to get on a small film should now turn around a sue the producer who gave them their start.
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George Stephanopolis interviewed Julien Assange a couple of weeks ago and tried to pick holes in Assange’s position on what he, Bradley Manning and Edward Snowden had done but Assange had a logical answer for every one of Stephanopolis’ questions or comments or accusations. Then as if to cap off the discussion we were treated to a BP commercial extolling the benefits that BP had brought to the Gulf coast. This was just to put a period on the question of who was paying Stephanopolis and the other talking heads on Sunday mornings.
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Watched John McCain interviewed about what we should be doing about intercepting any plane that might be taking Edward Snowden from Russia to a nation that will except him for exile. McCain showed himself to be a lot smarter than those idiots at NSA and other government branches who don’t seem to understand that the less said about Snowden the better for them.
Through their stupidity and big mouths and bumbling interference, employees of NSA and various politicians, have turned a situation that the government could have controlled into a monumental international issue, interfering with the President of Bolivia’s plane when Snowden wasn’t even on it and carrying out Snowden’s goal of getting the American public involved in what NSA was doing, for him.
The Snowden leak could have been controlled. Lucky for the nation, the NSA is too incompetent to make that happen, which only proves that giving them the information that they are now stealing from the American people is giving hem a tool that they are not capable of handling.
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Now that Darrell Issa has seen his phony IRS investigation disappear into the other equally false scandal pile that the Right has tried to conjure up against the Obama administration maybe it’s time to give the degenerate Senator from California a taste of his own medicine. Police and court records from Ohio and Michigan show a series of weapons offenses and car thefts from his early years, all covered up by Issa’s daddy’s money. Maybe the House should launch an investigation into Issa’s criminal background and how he was able to buy and bribe his way out of going to jail .
Sure it’s phony bullshit, just the kind of messes that any young, high spirited guy could get himself into but on paper it looks more egregious than anything Issa came up with against the IRS and in this case unlike Issa’s claims, it’s all true,
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THE STUDENT LOAN BILL WENT DOWN IN FLAMES IN THE SENATE TODAY. THAT MEANS THAT INSTEAD OF PAYING 3 OR 4% ON LOANS FOR WHICH THEY ASHOULD BE PAYING THE SAME .05% THAT BIG BANKS PAY, THE STUDENTS WILL BE PAYING 6.8%. THIS IS OUTRAGEOUS AND ALL THE SENATORS WGHO VOTED AGAINST IT SHOULD BE SUBJECT TO IMPEACHMENT.
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It can’t get any weirder than this, even in Texas. At a recent rally over women’s rights and the new abortion bill that they are trying desperately to pass through the Texas legislature, guards at the Texas State Capital, where anyone can enter carrying a gun, confiscated tampons from the women’s purses.
It seems that Rick Perry the pro-life governor who has executed over 250 people during his reign has some pretty kinky fetishes. Knowing Perry to be as dumb as he is, who would have thought that he had the imagination to come up with something as bizarre as collecting women’s sanitary napkins? What do you suppose he does with them?
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Lindsey Graham is at it again. Not satisfied with having everyone know he’s a moron, Lindsey needs to prove it every time he opens his mouth. This time it’s his hair-brained idea to boycott the Olympics in Russia because they are holding Edward Snowden there and not turning him over to the U.S.
Yeah, Lindsey, that’ll make them come around. Giving them a chance to win everything once the American athletes are no longer able to compete will really put the pressure on them. Depriving our athletes of a chance to live out their dream will certainly make Putin bow to your demands.
Doesn’t this brain dead fool ever think before he speaks or is it just that he so desperately needs face time on TV that he will say anything to get it. Having guys like Graham in congress is why their rating is slightly lower than that of North Korea.