Tuesday, July 29, 2008

DRANT #314: FORECLOSURE ACT: PULL DOWN YOUR PANTS

Portions of this were previously sent as DRANT Number 304, June 21, 2008
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Congress has now passed the  "Foreclosure Prevention Act" that they say - ostensibly- helps all us just folks survive the current housing national Repossessacide. That is total BS, of course, and is designed to save the Banks, and the people who did this to us in the first place. They are gonna do what they alwaaaaaays do:  print more of our money, and hand the bill to our kids.
But even worse:
"Hidden deep in Senator Christopher Dodd's 630-page Senate housing legislation is a sweeping provision... with astonishing reach, and it was slipped into the bill just this week. Not only does it affect nearly every credit card transaction in America, such as Visa, MasterCard, Discover, and American Express, but the bill specifically targets payment systems like eBay's PayPal, Amazon, and Google Checkout that are used by many small online businesses. The privacy implications for America's small businesses are breathtaking."

So what does this mean ? It means that every-  I say every -- single transaction you make will be reported to the Government.
To repeat for the ones who slipped out for a tofuburger---
every -- single transaction you make will be reported to the Government.

It means that the law will require information reporting on payment card and third party network transactions. Payment settlement entities, including merchant acquiring banks and third party settlement organizations, or third party payment facilitators acting on their behalf, will be required to report the annual gross amount of reportable transactions to the IRS and to the participating payee. Reportable transactions include any payment card transaction and any third party network transaction. Participating payees include persons who accept a payment card as payment and third party networks who accept payment from a third party settlement organization in settlement of transactions. A payment card means any card issued pursuant to an agreement or arrangement which provides for standards and mechanisms for settling the transactions.

The contents of this agreement are despicable, but the method was far worse: secret drafting, hidden negotiations, no debate. Boom its over.
And, of course, bribes galore for everyone, including a big fat pacifier for the Vets.
So, we are either going to get our whining shoes on again, or do something.
You now know the facts. You know what They are planning.
Even Ron Paul is screaming about it.


What are ya gonna DO about it  ?
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http://www.freedomworks.org/newsroom/press_template.php?press_id=2571

June 19, 2008
Senate Housing Bill Requires eBay, Amazon, Google, and All Credit Card Companies to Report Transactions to the Government

Broad, invasive provision touches nearly every aspect of American commerce.

Washington, D.C. -  Hidden deep in Senator Christopher Dodd's 630-page Senate housing legislation is a sweeping provision that affects the privacy and operation of nearly all of America's small businesses. The provision, which was added by the bill's managers without debate this week, would require the nation's payment systems to track, aggregate, and report information on nearly every electronic transaction to the federal government.

FreedomWorks Chairman Dick Armey commented: "This is a provision with astonishing reach, and it was slipped into the bill just this week. Not only does it affect nearly every credit card transaction in America, such as Visa, MasterCard, Discover, and American Express, but the bill specifically targets payment systems like eBay's PayPal, Amazon, and Google Checkout that are used by many small online businesses. The privacy implications for America's small businesses are breathtaking."

"Privacy groups like the Center for Democracy and Technology and small business organizations like the NFIB sharply criticized this idea when it first appeared earlier this year. What is the federal government's purpose with this kind of detailed data? How will this database be secured, and who will have access? Many small proprietors use their Social Security number as their tax ID. How will their privacy be protected? What compliance costs will this impose on businesses? Why is Sen. Chris Dodd putting this provision in a housing bailout bill? The bill also includes the creation of a new national fingerprint registry for mortgage brokers.

"At a time when concerns about both identity theft and government spying are paramount, Congress wants to create a new honey pot of private data that includes Social Security numbers. This bill reduces privacy across America's payment processing systems and treats every American small business or eBay power seller like a criminal on parole by requiring an unprecedented level of reporting to the federal government. This outrageous idea is another reason to delay the housing bailout legislation so that Senators and the public at large have time to examine its full implications."

From the Senate Bill Summary:

Payment Card and Third Party Network Information Reporting. The proposal requires information reporting on payment card and third party network transactions. Payment settlement entities, including merchant acquiring banks and third party settlement organizations, or third party payment facilitators acting on their behalf, will be required to report the annual gross amount of reportable transactions to the IRS and to the participating payee. Reportable transactions include any payment card transaction and any third party network transaction. Participating payees include persons who accept a payment card as payment and third party networks who accept payment from a third party settlement organization in settlement of transactions. A payment card means any card issued pursuant to an agreement or arrangement which provides for standards and mechanisms for settling the transactions. Use of an account number or other indicia associated with a payment card will be treated in the same manner as a payment card. A de minimis exception for transactions of $10,000 or less and 200 transactions or less applies to payments by third party settlement organizations. The proposal applies to returns for calendar years beginning after December 31, 2010. Back-up withholding provisions apply to amounts paid after December 31, 2011. This proposal is estimated to raise $9.802 billion over ten years.



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Monday, July 21, 2008

DRANT # 313: USA - Third World Country

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US slips down development index

Americans live shorter lives than citizens of almost every other developed nation, according to a report from several US charities.

"We get in this report ... an evaluation of what the limitations of human development are in the US but also ... how the relative place of America has been slipping in comparison with other countries over recent years."
The US has a higher percentage of children living in poverty than any of the world's richest countries.
In fact, the report shows that 15% of American children - 10.7 million - live in families with incomes of less than $1,500 per month.
It also reveals 14% of the population - some 40 million Americans - lack the literacy skills to perform simple, everyday tasks such as understanding newspaper articles and instruction manuals.



The US report identifies obesity and the lack of health insurance for some 47 million Americans as the most significant factors in premature death.
It also provides a snapshot of the inequalities between the richest and the poorest Americans and between different ethnic groups.


The report found that the US ranked 42nd in the world for life expectancy despite spending more on health care per person than any other country.
Overall, the American Human Development Report ranked the world's richest country 12th for human development.
The study looked at US government data on health, education and income.
The report was funded by Oxfam America, the Rockefeller Foundation and the Conrad Hilton Foundation.
The report combines measurements of health, education and income into one measurement - the human development index - based on that used by the United Nations.
Health insurance
The report, Measure of America, identifies significant progress in the US in the last 50 years.
Life expectancy - which averages 78 - has risen eight years since 1960.
A district in Manhattan has the highest human development index in the US:

"Some Americans are living anywhere from 30 to 50 years behind others when it comes to issues we all care about: health, education and standard of living..."
Sarah Burd-Sharps
Author, Measure of America

"...Just as revealing as the figures provided by the Measure of America report is the response to it on the part of the American media and political establishment. The report was published by Columbia University, one of the most prestigious American colleges, and its co-authors held a press conference on Capitol Hill to announce their findings. But not a single major daily newspaper carried an account, nor was the study mentioned on any of the evening television newscasts.

The regional press in California reported the dismal last-place ranking for the 20th congressional district, but not the wider findings. And Talk Radio News Service, a web site serving the largely ultra-right talk radio industry, posted an item that turned the findings upside down, under the bizarre headline, 'Report: Most Americans doing better than fifty years ago."
Japan has the world's highest life expectancy - 82.1 years - according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
.."

The US report identifies obesity and the lack of health insurance for some 47 million Americans as the most significant factors in premature death.
It also provides a snapshot of the inequalities between the richest and the poorest Americans and between different ethnic groups.


"The Measure of America reveals huge gaps among some groups in our country to access opportunity and reach their potential," said the report's author, Sarah Burd-Sharps."Some Americans are living anywhere from 30 to 50 years behind others when it comes to issues we all care about: health, education and standard of living.
"For example, the state human development index shows that people in last-ranked Mississippi are living 30 years behind those in first-ranked Connecticut."
Asian males in the US were found to have the highest human development index score and were expected to live 14 years longer than African-American males, who had the lowest human development index rating.
African-Americans had a shorter lifespan than the average American did in the late 1970s.

More US babies die in their first year than in most other rich countries
The report further breaks down its findings into the US's 436 Congressional districts.
The 20th district, around Fresno, California, was ranked last - with people earning one-third as much as residents of the top-ranked US district,- in Manhattan, New York.
The US north-east has the highest overall ranking because people there earn more, are more highly-educated and have the second highest life expectancy.
West Virginia, Louisiana, Arkansas and Alabama are four of the five bottom states on the index. Mississippi is ranked lowest.
Among other findings:
Of the world's richest nations, the US has the most children (15%) living in poverty
Of the OECD nations, the US has the most people in prison - as a percentage and in absolute numbers. 25% of 15-year-old students performed at or below the lowest level in an international maths test - worse than Canada, France, Germany and JapanIf the US infant mortality rate were equal to first-ranked Sweden, more than 20,000 babies would survive beyond their first year of life.

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Friday, July 18, 2008

DRANT #312: FAUXBAMA; or The Obaminable Snowman

OK Evvybody ! Let's play da Name Game.

Obama mama fo fama fanana fana fo fama
Ooooobama !
Let's start with
FAUXBama.
The talk is that bygoshamighty, Barack is shifting to da Right !
Ashama.
He's a designated prop of the Tri-Lateral Commission and the DLC, anointed in 2004 (whocudfuggetit?) as the opening act for the Kerry "Reporting for Duty" tour, Fauxbama can't be shifting away from the Left, 'cause he wasn't never ON the Left.
He's the same kind of PR/pimp media concoction CNN regularly drags out to "balance" discussions on the Lou Dobbs Lynching Hour.
AS IF there is a real Opposition Party living and breathing anywhere within smelling distance of K Street.
AS IF he doesn't lipwalk for AIPAC, and doesn't think we need 80,000 troops and 160,000 Blackwaters picnicking in the Green Zone until the Tigris freezes over, and 10,000 more in Afghanistan.
AS IF the Fourth Amendment is not his personal Charmin Ultra.
AS IF Fauxbama would represent a CHANGE.
He's a corporate chameleonic sheep who rented his wolf's clothing just long enough to get the job. He posed as Superman, then quickly jumped into a handy phone booth, and out came - Dark Kent.
But- the Fauxbamification ain't HIS fault. It's OURS. We're BUYING this bullbleep.
We need so desperately to have HOPE, to be in touch with whatever sliver remains of our self-worth, that we have chosen Him as the object and the instrument of our self-delusion, the pusher who will help us maintain our addiction to our presumed decency, our perception that we are, after all, good people- who have been sadly led astray.
Baah baah baah.
The braying of the interminably flaccid "progressives" whose anguished cries betray yet another tragic disillusionment.
Oh please, for once, blame the disillusionEE not the disillusionOR.
It was US who are creating this Emperor, and WE who have put the clothes of righteousness on his back. We needed some political Prozac, and we chose a basically blank canvas on which to paint an effigy of our profound yearning for absolution and redemption.
All he did was tell us how great we are, what a great country, what great people, all we need to get back on the righteous path we had trod for lo these 250 years, and to show ourselves how very righteous we are, is to elect a Black Man as President.
Instant Karma, as John said.
Instant karmas gonna get you Gonna knock you right on the head You better get yourself together Pretty soon you're gonna be dead What in the world you thinking of Laughing in the face of love What on earth you tryin to do Its up to you, yeah you

As always, we don't haveta do very much atall. Simply remove him from the easy-open package, inflate him, float him, and poof, we're saved.
















Of course, as soon as he's elected, we can go back to the couch for another 4 year snooze, and he can messianize our problems away.

Annnnd- how about 'HO-Bama ?
Have you seen the list of his campaign contributors ?
'HoBama cashes checks from some of, no make that MOST of the biggest bastards in America.
The path is deep and wide from footsteps leading to HIS cabin, so Check it out.
What do you see ?
Fatwallet McLawyer, Nicky the Nuke, Clean Coal Willie, Warner Disney Redstone, Armistead Armsales, and enough Banks to keep the Mississippi in mud for generations.

'HoBama's biggest steadiest John ? The company that most epitomizes the deceitful manipulative rapaciousness** of Wall Street- Goldman Sucks. 600 grand so far and counting.
These guys are 'HoBama's biggest of the big spenders.
They have also sent some of their prime Alumni to run Bill and Bush's Treasury and The Fed. Nice job guys. Yeah, you can be sure big changes are coming from that direction.
Plus, of course, smaller fry like JP Morgan, UBS AG, and Lehman Brothers, at a mere 400K, with Morgan Stanley back in the crowd at 275.
Next- the lawyuhs that front for the worst of the worst. The ones who do the marinating and greasing for a long list of people-screwing corporate generational cannibals: Sidley Austin, Skadden Arps, Jones Day, Latham Watkins, Wilmerhale.
Warning: extended exposure to their client lists may cause vomiting or diarrhea.
'HoBama says he's gonna rationalize taxes, create corporate responsibility, fight for the middle class.
Well who you gonna believe ? Him or his lying checkbook ?

and OREObama: the black man who is sometimes but not sometimes and learned early on to "get along." He went to Harvard. Everybody liked him. UH OH.
What exactly did the Reverend Wright say that was untrue ? Any honest man would have stood up and told us - "he said it badly, but he said the truth".
OreoBama couldn't run fast enough to wash the shit off his shoes.
Jesse Jackson ? Its only too bad that he didn't mean to say it.
Of course O speaks down to black people. He speaks down to all of us.
OreoBama is black enough to once again make US feel good about Ourselves, but not toooo Black, to, umm, err, cause Trouble, ya know ?
And once again, many in the Black community are investing THEIR hopes and dreams and desperate needs in a blow-up doll.
Stampeding to congratulate ourselves on running a Black Man for President, we are setting ourselves up for something far worse than disillusionment.

Beware the Progressives' litany of apologia: how Obama is shifting Right, but we have no choice. We have to work within the two-party system. We have to vote for Obama or get McCain. We need to get Obama in there, and then work to move him back to where he said he was, and we thought he was, in the first place. That McCain would be much worse than even a flawed Obama, that we have to get rid of the people who did this to us.
But the truth is that Obama IS the people who did this to us. He works for them. He is paid by them. We just don't want to believe it.

I fear Obama much worse than I fear McCain.
McCain is The Enemy. Right there, out in the open. We KNOW who he works for.
Obama builds a shadow play of promises, hopes and dreams, and strenuously aided and abetted by the pimp corporate media, has created the fiction that he and McCain are different.
The Obaminable Snowman.




Ultimately, he is NObama.
A true straw man, invented, owned and run by the worst of us, chosen and created by them: for his gift for instilling hope in millions, for his charm and patina of integrity, and for his willingness to do or say whatever it takes or whatever he's TOLD, to win.
He scares me deeply because I know who he is, but I don't think HE does.

It is up to us.
It is up to us to look at ourselves and what we've done, and dedicate ourselves to making it right. We can't appoint a surrogate or messiah to do it for us, and we damn well can't participate in further self-delusion.
You want to vote for him, that's your business.
But confront what you're doing, and why.
It sure ain't for CHANGE. Unless what change means to you is what I think it means to you -- a rewind button to get back to the nineties, when we could afford two cars, and a second home, and didn't really need to notice the bombs we were dropping, or the ice caps drizzling down the window, gas was cheap, and our biggest worry was a blowjob.
You don't mean change, you mean comfort.

And one more thing- don't come to me whining about how you were fooled or how disillusioned you are.
You want to stand for real change ?
Vote for Nader or McKinney.
Better to vote for what you want and not get it, than to vote for what you don't want, and get it.
You want to feel good about yourself ? That you did the right thing ? That you're a kind and caring person ?
Then vote for FAUXbama.
You'll get what you deserve.
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**- GOLDMAN: These are the lovely guys who were deep into the public rape known as the "subprime crisis". 1- They had fabillions of their clients' bucks in all kinds of piƱata-like derivatives. 2- The Goldman partners had stenchillions of their own in it too. One day more than TWO YEARS ago, their chief financial brain called a secret clandestine emergency meeting. Uh oh, he says. This subprime crap is going to blow up. They came up with a plan. Quietly, steadily, so as not to let a whiff be detected, they took all of their own money out. Of course, they left all their clients' money in. And not only left their clients' money in, they kept selling the crap to other clients. Right up to the whacking of the Pinata.
Read more!!

Friday, July 11, 2008

DRANT #311: REPUBLICAN SENATORS DEMAND IMPEACHMENT



FROM: OpEdNews
July 11, 2008



Seven Republican Members of House Judiciary Call for Impeachment out of Duty to the Constitution

By Cheryl Biren-Wright

GOP Reps. Smith, Sensenbrenner, Coble, Gallegly, Goodlatte, Chabot, and Cannon after much deliberation put the Constitution and rule of law before politics. Rep. Lamar Smith stated, “As much as one might wish to avoid this process, we must resist the temptation to close our eyes and pass by. The president's actions must be evaluated for one simple reason: the truth counts.” Read their statements below.

Hon. Lamar Smith (TX) Phone 202-225-4236 . Fax: 202-225-8628
We should not underestimate the gravity of the case against the president. When he put his hand on the Bible and recited his oath of office, he swore to faithfully uphold the laws of the United States - not some laws, all laws.

As to the uniqueness of the office the president holds, he is a person in a position of immense authority and influence. He influences the lives of millions of Americans. When he took the oath of office, he swore to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States and to take care that the laws be faithfully executed.

When someone is elected president, they receive the greatest gift possible from the American people, their trust. To violate that trust is to raise questions about fitness for office. My constituents often remind me that if anyone else in a position of authority - for example, a business executive, a military officer or a professional educator - had acted as the evidence indicates the president did, their career would be over. The rules under which President Nixon would have been tried for impeachment had he not resigned contain this statement: "The office of the president is such that it calls for a higher level of conduct than the average citizen in the United States."

This will not be an easy task. In fact, it is a difficult ordeal for all Americans, but we will get through it. We are a great nation and a strong people. Our country will endure because our Constitution works and has worked for over 200 years. As much as one might wish to avoid this process, we must resist the temptation to close our eyes and pass by. The president's actions must be evaluated for one simple reason: the truth counts.

As the process goes forward, some good lessons can be reaffirmed. No one is above the law, actions have consequences, always tell the truth. We the people should insist on these high ideals. That the president has fallen short of the standard doesn't mean we should lower it. If we keep excusing away the president's actions we as a nation will never climb upwards because there will be no firm rungs.

Hon. James Sensenbrenner
(WI) Phone (202) 225-5101
…being a poor example isn't grounds for impeachment; undermining the rule of law is.

When Americans come to Washington, they see the words "equal justice under law" carved in the facade of the Supreme Court building. Those words mean that the weak and the poor have an equal right to justice, as do the rich and the powerful.

The framers of the Constitution devised an elaborate system of checks and balances to ensure our liberty by making sure that no person, institution or branch of government became so powerful that a tyranny could be established in the United States of America. Impeachment is one of the checks the framers gave the Congress to prevent the executive or judicial branches from becoming corrupt or tyrannical.

I do so with no joy but without apologies, just as those on this committee who voted to impeach President Nixon, 24 years ago, did. Watergate and the Nixon impeachment reversed the results of an overwhelming election and were extremely divisive to our country, but America emerged from that national nightmare a much stronger country and will do so again after this sad part of our history is over. What is on trial here is the truth and the rule of law.

Hon. Howard Coble (NC) Phone (202) 225-3065 . Fax: (202) 225-8611
Much has been made about the absence of bipartisanship on this issue, and I want to reiterate my position on that. Do not point accusatory fingers at Republicans or Democrats because there is disagreement. Assuming we vote our consciences and exercise sound judgment, little else can be asked.

...I take umbrage to charges that some are out to get the president...I take umbrage as well to those who claim that some approach this arduous task in a gleeful manner. I take no joy in discharging this duty before us, but it remains our duty nonetheless.

...I can't see that this is going to shut down the government or tie it up, assuming it does advance to the Senate.

Hon. Elton Gallegly (CA) Phone (202) 225-5811 . Fax (202) 225-1100
This has been a very trying time. In a democracy, there are few more serious acts than to consider the possible impeachment of a president. I can tell you in true conscience it has caused me many sleepless nights.

I wanted to hear the evidence that would prove the charges were false. I believed that was the only fair way to proceed, and it was also my solemn constitutional duty and immense responsibility. I waited, I read, and I listened.

Mr. Chairman, I'm not a lawyer -- one of the few on this committee -- however, everyone that knows me knows I believe in the rule of law -- believe the rule of law is fundamental to our society. A society without laws is anarchy. Societies that ignore the laws are condemned to violence and chaos.

That bothers me. My district is considered among the safest communities in the nation. We have fine police officers, which certainly helps, but every officer from the chief to the beat officer will tell you a low crime rate begins with citizens who obey the law. Every citizen must obey the law, every law.

He violated the Constitution. To condone this would be to condemn our society to anarchy. Mr. Chairman, I cannot and will not condone such action.

Hon. Bob Goodlatte (VA) Phone (202) 225-5431 . Fax (202) 225-9681
Mr. Chairman, this is a somber occasion. I am here because it is my constitutional duty, as it is the constitutional duty of every member of this committee, to follow the truth wherever it may lead. Our Founding Fathers established this nation on a fundamental yet at the time untested idea that a nation should be governed not by the whims of any man but by the rule of law. Implicit in that idea is the principle that no one is above the law, including the chief executive

Since it is the rule of law that guides us, we must ask ourselves what happens to our nation if the rule of law is ignored, cheapened or violated, especially at the highest level of government. Consider the words of former Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis, who was particularly insightful on this point. "In a government of laws, the existence of the government will be imperiled if it fails to observe the law scrupulously. For good or for ill, it teaches the whole people by its example. If government becomes a lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for the law. It invites every man to become a law unto himself."

Mr. Chairman, we must ask ourselves what our failure to uphold the rule of law will say to the nation, and most especially to our children, who must trust us to leave them a civilized nation where justice is respected.

If we truly respect the presidency, we cannot allow the president to be above the law. Millions of law-abiding Americans from all walks of life, including my constituents, put in an honest day's work, follow the rules and struggle to teach their children respect for the law and the importance of integrity. When a factory worker or a medical doctor or a retiree breaks the law, they do so with the knowledge that they are not above the law.

This same principle must also apply to the most powerful and privileged in our nation, including the president of the United States. To lose this principle devastates a legacy entrusted to us by our founding fathers and protected for us by generations of American families.

I have a constitutional duty to follow the truth wherever it leads. The truth in this case leads me to believe that the president knowingly engaged in a calculated pattern of lies, deceit and delay in order to mislead the American people…

The precious legacy entrusted to us by our founders and our constituents is a nation dedicated to the ideal of freedom and equality for all her people. This committee must decide whether we will maintain our commitment to the rule of law and pass this precious legacy to our children and grandchildren, or whether we will bow to the political pressure for the sake of convenience or expediency.

Hon. Steve Chabot (OH) Phone (202) 225-2216 . (202) 225-3012
Thank you. Mr. Chairman, every member of our committee recognizes that this is likely the most important vote we will ever cast, and all of us would prefer that the president's actions had not led us down this fateful path. However, we have sworn an oath to uphold the Constitution and we must fully accept that responsibility.

Back in 1974, Congresswoman Elizabeth Holtzman, who served on the judiciary committee during Watergate, said that she would vote to impeach President Nixon, in part, because -- and I quote -- "the presidential cover-up is continuing even through today."

The historic record, the law, and the Constitution tell us that the charges against the president do indeed rise to the level of impeachable offenses. They constitute serious violations of criminal law and fall squarely within our Founding Fathers' definition of "high crimes and misdemeanors."

Mr. Chairman, impeaching the president is an extremely serious matter. Throughout these proceedings, I've tried to keep an open mind, giving the president every opportunity to refute the facts that have been laid before our committee, but now all of the evidence is in and a decision is at hand.

It has become apparent to me that impeachment is the only remedy that adequately addresses this president's illegal and unethical acts. Allowing the president's actions to go unpunished would gravely damage the Office of the President, our judicial system and our country.

I have not reached this decision lightly. I have done my share of soul searching, I have listened carefully to the views of my constituents, and I've reviewed the evidence in excruciating detail. And much of it wasn't particularly pleasant, I can assure you. And I've been guided by our Constitution.

When we cast our votes, we are not voting as Republicans or Democrats, we are voting as Americans. Our allegiance does not lie with any one president but with our country. Our charge is not handed down from any one political party but from the Constitution. Every member of this body is duty-bound to put politics aside, follow our conscience, and uphold our oath of office.

Hon. Chris Cannon (UT) Phone (202) 225-7751 . Fax (202) 225-5629
We are at a defining moment in our history. What we do here will set the standard for what is acceptable for this and future presidents.

I believe profoundly that the behavior of this president is unacceptable because I agree with John Jay, one of our Founding Fathers, who said, "When oaths cease to be sacred, our dearest and most valuable rights become insecure."

[Quoting President John F. Kennedy], "I think you gentlemen should recognize the responsibility of the president of the United States. His responsibility is different from what your responsibility may be. In this country, I carry out and execute the laws of the United States. I also have the obligation of implementing the orders of the courts of the United States. And I can assure you that who's ever president of the United States, he will do the same, because if he did not, he would begin to unwind this most extraordinary constitutional system of ours. So I believe strongly in fulfilling my oath in that regard." And that regard means if he didn't fulfill his oath, the system would begin to unwind. It's inexorable.

I submit that in the spirit of our Founding Fathers and John F. Kennedy, that our first duty is to provide for the security of the fundamental rights of Americans.

To properly perform that duty, we must vote to impeach the president. Thank you.

The statements above are excerpts from transcripts of the House Judiciary Committee's impeachment hearings. December 10-11, 1998. Each congressman is a current member of the House Judiciary Committee.




Authors Bio: Writer/Photographer/Activist. An advocate for clean government, media integrity and civil liberties. Chair of the Progressive Democrats of America S. Jersey Chapter Impeachment Team and co-leader of the New Jersey Impeach Groups. Founder of the Strike08 campaign. Working to end the war in Iraq and prevent one with Iran. Writer and editor for OpEdNews.com. cherylbirenwright.wordpress.com

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Wednesday, July 9, 2008

DRANT #310: ACTA-- BEND WAAAAAY OVER !

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In DRANT # 304, I wrote about ACTA-
please check it out here.

Yesterday, the G-8 countries put it officially on the table.



The right to peer inside your iPod

An agreement on intellectual property rights to be ratified by the G8 heads of government highlights conflicts between ownership and privacy









Photograph: Nick Veasey/Getty Images

The heads of the G8 governments, meeting this week, are about to ratify the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (Acta), which - it's claimed - could let customs agents search your laptop or music player for illegally obtained content. The European Parliament is considering a law that would lead to people who illicitly download copyrighted music or video content being thrown off the internet. Virgin Media is writing to hundreds of its customers at the request of the UK record industry to warn them that their connections seem to have been used for illegal downloading. Viacom gets access to all of the usernames and IP addresses of anyone who has ever used YouTube as part of its billion-dollar lawsuit in which it claims the site has been party to "massive intentional copyright infringement".

It seems that 20th-century ideas of ownership and control - especially of intellectual property such as copyright and trademarks - are being reasserted, with added legal muscle, after a 10-year period when the internet sparked an explosion of business models and (if we're honest) casual disregard, especially of copyright, when it came to music and video.

But do those separate events mark a swing of the pendulum back against the inroads that the internet has made on intellectual property?

'A finger in the dyke'

Saul Klein, a venture capitalist with Index Ventures who has invested in the free database company MySQL, Zend (the basis of the free web-scripting language PHP) and OpenX, an open-source advertising system, is unconvinced. "In a world of abundance - which the internet is quintessentially - that drives the price of everything towards 'free'," he says. "People don't pay for any content online. Not for music, not for video. They get it, either legally or illegally."

Is that sustainable? "The model of suing your best customers and subpoenaing private information is doomed to failure," Klein observes. "It's putting a finger in the dyke. It won't change the macro trend, which is that there's an abundance of information. Copyright owners need to find new ways to generate income from their product. The fact is, the music industry is in rude health - more people than ever before are going to concerts, making it, listening to it. It's the labels that are screwed. The artists and managers are making money. The labels aren't.

"What is broken is the paid-for model for content, though it won't go away entirely. We look to invest in scarcity, where people will pay a premium for something not in abundance." He gives the example of Viagogo - a ticket-selling site that Index Ventures has invested in: "Selling tickets for Madonna or Prince capitalises on the public's interest in paying for scarcity." guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media Limited 2008
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G-8 Declarations on Economy, Environment

Read the Group of Eight's declarations on the world economy and the environment and climate change.
"Protection of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR)
17. Effective promotion and protection of IPR are critical to the development of creative products, technologies and economies. We will advance existing anti-counterfeiting and piracy initiatives through, inter alia, promoting information exchange systems amongst our authorities, as well as developing non-binding Standards to be Employed by Customs for Uniform Rights Enforcement (SECURE) at the World Customs Organization. We encourage the acceleration of negotiations to establish a new international legal framework, the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), and seek to complete the negotiation by the end of this year. We will promote practical cooperation between our countries to develop tools to combat new techniques in counterfeiting and piracy and spread best practices. We reaffirm our commitment on government use of software in full compliance with the relevant international agreements and call on other countries to follow our commitment."
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Public Knowledge - Blogging, Events, and Action Alerts
G8 Endorses ACTA: Great, so what’s in it?

Sherwin Siy
Today, 05:39 PM
In its “Declaration on the World Economy”, the G-8 included an endorsement of ACTA and ongoing efforts to “standardize” IP enforcement through customs organizations. “We encourage the acceleration of negotiations to establish a new international legal framework, the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), and seek to complete the negotiation by the end of this year,” the statement says.

So we have a major endorsement of ACTA from the leadership of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. And pressure to have this international legal agreement ready to roll at the end of the year. So what’s going to be in this critically important, possibly binding international agreement, to be completed in less than six months?

We have no idea.
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ACTA PUBLIC COMMENTS--One-Stop Shop
Ari Abramowitz
Today, 04:11 PM
We recently scanned all of the documents filed in response to the USTR’s request for public comments regarding the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA). They are presented below, if sometimes angularly, as well as on our issue summary page here. The USTR’s initial “fact sheet,” request for public comment, and the leaked “discussion paper” are also included.

• USTR’s Fact Sheet (October, 2007)

• USTR’s Notice for Public Comments (February, 2008)

• The Leaked “Discussion Paper” (leaked May, 2008)
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Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement
Webmaster
Thursday, 11:40 AM




ACTA is the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement being negotiated by the US, the EU, Japan, South Korea, Canada, Mexico, Australia, and New Zealand. The stated goal of the agreement is the international enforcement of strong intellectual property rights through increased cooperation and coordination among international governmental agencies. ACTA does not yet exist, though its ongoing discussions are confirmed by all of the participating governments.
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What Does NebuAd Know About You? What Doesn't It?
Art Brodsky
Yesterday, 10:00 PM
While the full United States Senate on Wednesday (July 9) takes up the subject of wiretapping by the government, the Senate Commerce Committee will take up the subject of wiretapping by private industry. It’s a tossup which one is more scary.

The Senate votes July 9 on the bill to grant the Executive Branch almost unlimited authority to wiretap private citizens without any judicial oversight. The Commerce Committee will hear testimony from Robert Dykes, the chairman of NebuAd, a controversial company recently in the news because his group came up with a novel way of getting detailed information about Internet users. NebuAd wasn’t satisfied to get information only from a customer’s use of one Web site. Instead, they want to see everything that a Web surfer does online.
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Tuesday, July 8, 2008

DRANT #309: STOMACH TURNING





Over caviar and sea urchin, G8 leaders mull food crisis

By Andrew Grice, Political Editor in Hokkaido
Tuesday, 8 July 2008

World leaders are not renowned for their modest wine selections or reticence at the G8 summit's cheese board. True to form, discussing the global food crisis – spiralling grocery prices in the developed world and starvation in Africa – was clearly hungry work that left their stomachs rumbling.

Shortly after calling for us all to waste less food, and for an end to three-for-two deals in British supermarkets, Gordon Brown joined his fellow G8 premiers and their wives for an eight-course Marie Antoinette-style "Blessings of the Earth and the Sea Social Dinner", courtesy of the Japanese government.


The global food shortage was not evident. As the champagne flowed, the couples enjoyed 18 "higher-quality ingredients", beginning with amuse-bouche of corn stuffed with caviar, smoked salmon and sea urchin pain-surprise-style, hot onion tart and winter lily bulbs.

With translations helpfully provided by the hosts, the starter menu (second course) read like a meal in itself. A folding fan-modelled tray decorated with bamboo grasses carried eight delicacies: kelp-flavoured cold Kyoto beef shabu-shabu, with asparagus dressed with sesame cream; diced fatty flesh of tuna fish, with avocado and jellied soy sauce and the Japanese herb shiso; boiled clam, tomato and shiso in jellied clear soup of clam; water shield and pink conger dressed with a vinegary soy sauce; boiled prawn with jellied tosazu-vinegar; grilled eel rolled around burdock strip; sweet potato; and fried and seasoned goby with soy sauce and sugar.

That was followed by a hairy crab kegani bisque-style soup and salt-grilled bighand thornyhead with a vinegary water pepper sauce. The main course brought the "meat sweats" – poele of milk-fed lamb flavoured with aromatic herbs and mustard, as well as roasted lamb with black truffle and pine seed oil sauce. For the cheese course, the Japanese offered a special selection with lavender honey and caramelised nuts. It was followed by a "G8 fantasy dessert" and coffee served with candied fruits and vegetables.

This was washed down with Le Reve grand cru/La Seule Gloire champagne; a sake wine, Isojiman Junmai Daiginjo Nakadori; Corton-Charlemagne 2005 (France); Ridge California Monte Bello 1997 and Tokaji Esszencia 1999 (Hungary).

The G8 leaders had earlier made do with a "working lunch" of white asparagus and truffle soup; kegani crab; supreme of chicken; and cheese and coffee with petit fours. The lubrication of choice, for those drinking, was Chateau Grillet 2005.

The TV cameras were sadly not allowed to loiter long enough to discover whether Mr Brown practised what he preaches by not wasting any of his food. The Prime Minister has been shocked by the finding that an average British household could save about £420 a year by not throwing away edible food.

It is a fair bet that much more than that was wasted last night at the opulent Windsor Hotel in Toya, 30 miles from the general public and with 20,000 special police officers for security. Sixty chefs were flown in for the occasion, foremost among them the Michelin-starred Katsuhiro Nakamura.

The total cost of staging the event on Japan's northern island of Hokkaido is estimated at £285m, enough to buy 100 million mosquito nets, and dwarfing the £85m Britain spent on the Gleneagles summit three years ago.

"If it costs this much for them to meet, they had better make some serious decisions to increase aid to poor countries," said Max Lawson, senior policy officer at Oxfam. "If they are just going to sit around and eat, while millions of people face starvation, that is not good enough. They must act– not eat."

While the dinner went on, officials from the G8 nations haggled late into the night over the summit declaration on aid to the poorest nations. Pressure groups fear the G8 is trying to water down the commitment it made at Gleneagles to double aid to poor countries to $50bn by 2010. They want the figure included in this week's statement, rather than a restatement that Africa will receive $25bn by then, and single out France and Italy for criticism. "It's 50-50," one aid campaigner said.

Andrew Mitchell, the Conservatives' international development spokesman, said: "Surely it is not unreasonable for each leader to give a guarantee that they will stand by their solemn pledges of three years ago at Gleneagles to help the world's poor. All of us are watching, waiting and listening."

Bush's prayer for end to tyranny

"I wish for a world free from tyranny: the tyranny of hunger, disease and free from tyrannical governments," was George Bush's wish, handwritten on a piece of parchment and tied to a bamboo tree as part of the Japanese Tanabata festival.

The annual ceremony, which this year coincided with Japan's hosting of the G8 summit, is based on the myth of two star-crossed lovers condemned to meet only once a year in the Milky Way on 7 July. Every summer Japanese people write prayers on thin strips of paper and hang them in bamboo branches in the hope their wishes will be granted.

"I wish for a world in which the universal desire for liberty is realised. I wish for the advance of new technologies that will improve the human condition and protect our environment. I wish God's blessings on all," Mr Bush concluded.

Gordon Brown, mindful of the third anniversary of the London bombings, sought an end to terrorism as well as to poverty.

©independent.co.uk
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Tuesday, July 1, 2008

DRANT #308: VETERANS : DON'T TAKE THE MONEY, START THE HEALING

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In a vast tragic irony, proudly exposing the bleeding sores that evidence our murderous national cancer, Bush spoke for all of Us today when he signed the latest bill funding the war
and said: "Our nation has no greater responsibility than to support our men and women in uniform..."

How terribly terribly painfully murderously true this is, and what a searing if totally unconscious commentary.
Its true: We don't have any greater responsibility. We can't even imagine a greater responsibility.
It's all about Us.
Once again, "our nation" -- which means me and you and your Aunt Betty too- has acted from pure self-interest.
Once again We all have acted as if We have "no greater responsibility" than to----- ourselves.
The War Funding Bill was brilliantly and purposefully packaged by a bipartisan coalition to democratically provide bribes for everyone. And we all took the bribes, and couldn't opt in fast enough.
Little we care, less we even notice, that we have made a pact to commit another year and a half of unspeakable murder and torture on others.
Why should we ? This is all about US, and we got OURS.
Bush definitely got his. He gets to go out in style, unopposed, and heave the dungpile on the next guy's lap.
The Congrassholes got theirs, cause now they can fly home in their private jets, and crow about how they supported the troops, and helped the poor, and the farmers, and created forceful anti-drug programs, and of course, sent money to rebuild the Katrina levees. Right on time, that one.

And We get Ours- cause we're going to get longer unemployment benefits, and we get to feel good about supporting our men and women in uniform, and we get paid for crops we couldn't grow, and dontcha forget the shameful "stimulus" hush money payments.
And the Veterans- they got theirs: a new complement of benefits and programs worth billions.
As the IAVA (Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America) said in an email blast today : "WE DID IT ! " Well, they sure did. We all did.

We have ALL of us made a helluva deal, and all we have to do is commit unspeakable acts on some unpronounceable Arabs for another year or so ? Hey, where do I sign up ?

Well, now that we got ours, and the Veterans got theirs - I wanna know- what are we going to do for the VICTIMS ?
If we think that our Troops suffer - from Post-Traumatic Stress, wounds, disease, destruction of family - what the hell do we think our victims suffer from ? Many of them are victims themselves, but ALL of them are perpetrators.
I am now asking all the Winter Soldiers to step up and put the same all-out effort into forcing Congress to put up billions in reparations -- and begin to make amends for all we have done. I am asking them, and I am asking you and me and all of us.
How perfect it is that we have rushed to the aid of our fellow perpetrators - and have lifted not an eyebrow for our real victims.
How indescribably vile it is that the Veterans' Benefits were appended to the very same bill that continued to fund the ongoing killing. And so, the Veterans supported the bill because THEY got THEIR money- while simultaneously facilitating the next 18 months of murder. And we all did nothing that stopped it.

We are ALL of us perpetrators: we who carried out their orders and did not refuse; who killed because we were told to, and did not refuse; who followed some genocidal testosterone-poisoned code of honor and protected or defended our fellow perpetrators, and did not refuse; who blamed somebody or something else- and did not stand up for ourselves and refuse; and above all others-
We The Complicit, who have achieved exactly nothing by our feeble efforts to stop six years of war and murder and torture, and have exercised no control over our employees in Congress who have taken OUR money and funded and aided and abetted the war and the murder and the torture.

The healing must begin NOW.
And that healing must itself begin with each of us taking full responsibility for what we have done, and dedicating our lives to making amends.
There can be and there will be no healing unless and until this happens.
Step number one: we must ALL refuse to take any of the money that this new bill bestows on us.
Every veteran must refuse to use the money he/she gets from this new bill - and give it instead to our victims.
The veterans can NOT accept the blood money they are getting for having done the killing, while perpetuating the funding of murder.
We need the veterans to show us the way- show Congress and each and every one of US- what we must do.
This can be their greatest and most redeeming mission of honor. This is their monumental and historic chance truly to change the course of the world. They can and must lead us -- to begin the enormous task of healing.
Taking money for evil deeds well done serves only to perpetuate the symbiosis of killing. Turning that money to healing can change the world.
Imagine- thousands of Vets- lining up in front of Congress, with their new benefit checks, announcing that they are taking the money to Iraq or Afghanistan- to bring aid to the victims. And then we see them board the planes. And then we see them re-building homes and hospitals and schools, and repairing the water and electrical systems, and delivering massive medical aid. And we may even see a few of them with individual victims - the very sons and daughters of people they killed or tortured or "detained."
And then, we must ALL join them. For we have not just failed to stop them in their killing, not merely been complicit- we have paid for it, and we have - all of us- been war profiteers- hoarding and spending the trickle-down pecuniary profits of the war economy on ourselves. We each of us, must take our OWN checks, and stand in front of Congress, and follow the model that the Veterans set-- and get the money to our victims.
It is clear that as things now stand, We The People will not rise up, will not stand up on our own, will not change the murderous and inhuman direction we have taken.
I pray that once that spark is lit, and we are shown the path, we will jump and run to follow it.
Please, let the healing begin.
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