Bush guilty of war crimes and Twitter is embattled

My latest posts to the Bill of Rights Defense Committee (BORDC) blog page are now online.

The first one concerns George W. Bush and eight of his cronies being found guilty of war crimes at a tribunal in Malaysia. What's interesting, though totally unsurprising, is that the Mainstream Media don't have a whisper of this monumental moment. At least, I can't find anything. Other media are writing about it, however. The prosecutor has expressed hopes that other countries will hold these men accountable as well. In addition, the tribunal is turning over its findings to the United Nations.

The second post talks about Twitter's fight to keep the feds from accessing account information from its users.

A New York judge has ordered Twitter to comply with a government’s request to turn over account information from one of its users.

Twitter is asking the court to reconsider its position.

Buy this drug that doesn't "diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease"!

Lately, I've been seeing a commercial touting the wonderfulness of Ocuvite, an "eye care" product. I quote "eye care" because after all the hoopla about the "benefits" of the product, the company issues this disclaimer:

The statements above have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.

Then WTF should one be taking this stuff? Especially if it's not intended to, well, basically do anything? It's bad enough that drug companies will manipulate tests to get the FDA to approve a drug with a potential worth of billions or promote a product for uses not approved by the FDA, but we're also supposed to take the word of a giant, super profiteering mega-drug corporation that this is GOOD FOR YOU?

In addition to Vitamin C, Vitamin E, Zinc, Copper, Lutein and Zeaxanthin (whatever the heck L and Z are), this magic pill contains Lactose monohydrate, gelatin, Crospovidone, magnesium stearate, titanium dioxide(!), silicone dioxide, yellow #6 and Blue #2!  And yet, this drug will not "diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease." How many reading this post actually know how half of these ingredients affect the human body?

Does one really want to put this into one's body on the say so of a drug company whose only concern is to make a profit? Believe me, they're not looking out for our interests. Like they really care about us, right?

Besides, we all got along without this "miracle" drug before its production, didn't we? These pharmaceuticals  are trying desperately to find the most obscure maladies to the point of creating new ones in order to whip up "curative" or ":relief" drugs to increase their profits. My favorite malady over the years has been "Restless Leg Syndrome." I love it!   

And you gotta love the models in the commercial are blue-eyed. You just know the advertising agency for the pharmaceutical had different commercials with models having different eye colors, and the focus groups they showed the differing spots to indicated blue as the most positive. I don't know this at all, but I bet when they move into the Asian market (if they haven't already), you won't see a blue eye in the commercial.


Of course, this also goes along with the fact that only the United States and New Zealand allow Direct to Consumer advertising. Don't you just love the pretty pictures and gentle music on the commercials as they tell you the drug may KILL YOU and other horrible side effects that "may occur"? And the drug companies make billions.We are truly a nation of idiots...

We are in two-party hell

I find Matt Taibbi's take on what's going on in this year's presidential race excellent:

Obama and Romney feels like a contest between two calculating centrists, fighting for the right to serve as figurehead atop a bloated state apparatus that will operate according to the same demented imperial logic irrespective of who wins the White House.

 Boy, howdy, amen. As Taibbi says, this could be one of the most boring elections ever. Many people I know are either disillusioned or uncaring about the election and are telling me that they're not even going to vote.

I differ with that opinion. They should be voting for a third party candidate. There is no message to "The Powers That Be" by not voting. The more who vote for another candidate, the more telling it is to the politically elite how dissatisfied we are.

Who they vote for is less important than who they do not. So if you're disillusioned by both candidates (and well you should be), don't just stay home. Vote for someone else and show these power figures that you care. Not for them, but for our country.

Our political system is rigged to maintain the status quo of a two-party system (which, in essence, has morphed into a one-party system over the decades). Until we eliminate that stranglehold,  we will be stuck in this 99% v. 1% hellhole.

The deal breaker on voting for Obama

I've said this before, but I'll repeat myself, and keep on repeating it. The deal breaker for me, regardless of all the other horrible stuff President Obama has done (giving up single-payer before the health care debate has even begun, not prosecuting the Bush Administration's human rights violations, catering to Wall Street at the expense of the 99%, claiming to ending the Iraqi war when he only did because the Iraqis would not give American soldiers immunity, extending tax cuts for the rich, etc.), is that I will NEVER vote for someone who believes he has the authority to murder American citizens (let alone 16-year-old boys) without due process. No human being should be able to decide to KILL someone without being held accountable. Who does that person think he is? A god?

And I'm not buying the mealy-mouth response from Attorney General Holder that there's a difference between "due process" and "judicial process." That's nothing but sleazebag logic. Nor am I buying into the Obama is a "good man" argument. We can "trust" him to make the right and noble decisions. Puh-leeze.

That's the trouble with us these days. We take truisms that have been ingrained in us since the beginning of our country's history (torture is illegal, due process for everyone according to the Constitution of the United States) and now create "debatable points." To wit: torture was an absolute crime, no doubt about it, until the Bush Administration turned the term ( and use) into a "debatable point" as to what torture is/is not. Then our "fearless leader" Obama runs with the ball by not holding anyone accountable for once was considered a crime.

I will not vote for either the Democratic or Republican candidate. I'm not sure who I will vote for in the coming Presidential election, but definitely not these political elitists sucking up to the 1%. We need a strong third party candidate who represents the average citizen to oppose both these empty suits. They are one and the same.

Have we lost our sense of decency forever?

Below are my latest posts to the Bill of Rights Defense Committee (BORDC) web blog site entitled The People's Blog for the Constitution.

The first one discusses how there are those brave and persistent souls who keep trying to hold Bush and his cronies accountable for the obvious human rights violations they perpetrated on mankind. It is incomprehensible that these jokers have not been indicted and tried for such egregious behavior. There is a great picture within the article of a wanted poster that has Bush's face on it and the headline "War Criminals Not Welcome Here!" I love it!

 It is astounding to me that Bush's cronies like Jose Rodriguez, "the high-ranking CIA official who ordered the destruction of 92 videos showing the agency’s interrogation of Terrorist suspects," can not only get away with such major criminal behavior but can write books and go on national TV to promote themselves! That is just sick.

My second post concerns the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA). I've linked to two articles. One explains basically what CISPA is, why should we care, etc., and the other posits that without corporate influence the bill is likely to pass. Real quickly,

The act, sponsored Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., and Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger, D-Md., would make it easier for private corporations and U.S. agencies, including military and intelligence, to share information related to “cyber threats.”

The bottom line is that, once again, if something adversely affects the ordinary citizens of this country, they just don't have the pull to counter those with money and influence who want passage of a bill. Even if there is a marked majority of the citizenry against it! The weak, mealy-mouthed members of Congress are just content to take the money and run with the votes, regardless of the actual benefits or hindrances of the bill.

If we ever right this ship called the United States of America, what will our descendants have to say about this era? Truly we are living in an "Alice in Wonderland" existence at this time. I can never understand how the people of this great country can be so blase about issues that are tremendously antithetical to the decency of us all.

On bypassing the Fourth Amendment and burying a toture memo

Here are my two posts at the BORDC this week.

The first one: Bush and co. tried to bury internal memo condemning torture

Number two: Leave your Fourth Amendment rights at the border

On cell phone tracking and free speech suppression

I've been writing articles on the Bill of Rights Defense Committee web site for about two and a half years now. I thought I'd put up the links to the latest posts of mine, in case anyone was interested.

The first concerns local authorities playing fast and loose with cell phone tracking. I seems that law enforcement officials are disregarding any oversight into their methodology.

The second pertains to Arizona's passing an electronic free speech suppression law. Here is an example of what this law can potentially lead to:

...it appears that the Arizona law could criminalize… any random atheist saying, ‘There is no god’ — provided some official was prepared to conclude it was done with the intention of annoying believers.

As I say in my post, who are these people that thinks these things up?

The more things change, the more they stay the same