The Biggest Scandal in American History, and What is the Response? Silence

There have been many scandals throughout the history of this country, but none have been have posed the threat to our freedom that the current NSA wiretapping scandal poses.

To really understand the full extent of how serious the current situation is we must first look back at the events that led up to the current assault on our freedom.

Before September 11th the Bush administration sat by silently unconcerned about terrorism, but looking for a way to bring this country into a war with Iraq. When they were warned that Bin Laden was determined to strike in the US they just let Bush continue on his vacation. When the towers were struck they let him continue reading "My Pet Goat" while there were still planes in the air which were being hijacked by terrorists.

When the attacks were over however they suddenly got tough. All of a sudden Bush had a 90% approval rating, and he knew he had been handed an enormous gift. He had already said in the past "Things would be a heck of a lot easier in a dictatorship, just so long as I'm the dictator", and after the attacks he saw an opportunity to turn himself into a dictator.

All he had to do was tell the people that they were under attack, and that he needed the power to act in wartime without oversight. He intimidated people into silence by telling us that if we were not with him we were with the enemy. To ensure we were not "the enemy" he illegally set up a massive surveillance system which we now know tracked the phone calls of virtually every American, and we are still waiting to see how our internet communications are being monitored.

As he spied on us he was also plotting up ways to spread his power around the globe, and to do that he knew he needed to secure Iraq's oil wealth. He had a great deal of help in setting up the case to go to war with Iraq from people like Ronald Reagan and Donald Rumsfeld, who had in earlier years supported Saddam Hussein by providing him with chemical weapons to use against the Kurds. After Saddam committed enough atrocities for their liking however they suddenly turned on him, and Bush's father brought our country into the first Gulf War by pretending that Saddam was our enemy all along, knowing full well that our lapdog media would not question their past support. After the war and years of economic sanctions Saddam had no power left, yet because Saddam used to have WMD's they were able to pretend that he did have power. Bush knew full well that the media would lap up the story of Saddam's threat to the nation, but there were some people who were thorns in his side. When Joe Wilson came out and told the nation that Bush was lying about Saddam's supposed WMD's Bush's people retaliated by outing his wife as a covert agent of the CIA. Bush thought he could get away with this action because he knew that the media would ignore his crimes, and for quite some time he was right. Bob Novak outed Wilson's wife for Bush, and the corporate media paid no attention at first. Fortunately however bloggers on the internet started questioning whether a crime was committed, some of you may remember that this story was on DU a couple months before the corporate media was forced to report on it.

So how does this relate to the NSA wiretapping story? Well the truth is that the lies that led up to the war, the outing of Valerie Plame, and the NSA wiretapping scandal are not separate scandals but rather are all intertwined as one enormous effort to spread the power of powerful interests around the world while keeping tabs on dissent at home so that it may be neutralized. The truth is that no world leader has done this much to expand their own power since Adolf Hitler. I know some people will get angry at me for making that comparison, but I think those people would have a very difficult time naming another person who has spied on their people and used their military without provocation in order to expand their own power to the extent that Bush has.

Our country is falling into fascism, it is time to stop the media blackout and focus on the real issues instead of Brittany Spear's pregnancy.

blackout, and how to find some spines for those Dems who apparently don't care about our interests.

the media will have to be regulated...if and when the Dems come back to power....these companies will have to be broken apart like Ma Bell was back in the day.....The media has absolutely no credibility...and they don't care...

his career as brutally sabotaged by the media. (With Gephardt's help)

The media that exist are controlled. They cannot do what they want. They must do as they are told. We must create some privately-owned media.

Media used to be privately owned. Long time ago. Privately-owned newspapers were very different from the ones that were part of bigger businesses. The shift has been gradual. Was gradual, I should say, until the deregulation under Clinton. Then the media just went bye-bye.

Until someone somewhere starts some privately-owned media, all this -- energy spent is just energy ... spent. I don't mean lost, it's just preaching to the choir, in a way.

Forgive me for being a -- wet blanket. Warm CO2 blanket? Ha ha.... Silly me.

But, of course, no one wants to look at that one.

Hrumph.

Edit: Sorry, I meant this to be in reply to the OP.

9/11 is part of this scandel, a very big part. We should not pretend we know exactly what happened on 9/11 but it is clear that the offical story is full of holes.

We need to treat the media blackout and their other shortfalls like a dual generator failure on a B-727. Before we go trying to get those generators (read MSM) back on line, we must protect essential sources .. in this case the internet. We must "protect essential" like our lives depend on it. Otherwise we might as well be in a B-727 on a dark and stormy night with no electrical power at all.

We cannot and must not let them screw with the internet. If we can protect the internet, we can use it to get other "circuits" back on line. A Democratic win in November will be like restoring one of those two failed generators on our B-727. That will get us home safely where the mechanics (the new Democratic Congress) can fix that other generator.

Captain KVAR

Excellent post!

You aren't going to get much of an argument here. We have been railing against the rise of this dictator for 6 long years. There is no mass media that carries what we used to think of as "news". As they say, "the revolution will not be televised". They are compromised, bought off. The consolidation of the big media companies has neutered the kind of competition that used to keep them hungry and hunting for the truth.

We have to be the media now. There is no one else to tell the people

Repubican-controlled Congress. They refuse to investigate it, that's all she wrote.

The outrage should be on the part of us, the citizens, demanding that our representatives investigate this matter.

I ain't blaming the media. I'm blaming us for being do-nothings and letting them get away with it.

What was Walt Kelly's Pogo's famous line?

"We have met the enemy, and he is us?"

Walt Kelly was right.

It's us.

Not the media.

Us.

Why is it that we are hardly hearing about the NSA wiretapping program on the evening news, despite the fact that it is the biggest spying scandal in American history? There is certainly no shortage of stories about it on DU, how could it be our fault that the corporate powers that be are ignoring it, and when they do mention it it is referred to as the "terrorist surveillance program" as if every American with a phone was a potential terrorist?

Sure we could all do more, but ultimately it is the media that has not done their job as well as the Republican Congress who acted as a rubberstamp and the weak Democratic Congress members who have not done their job as an opposition party and seriously questioned this administrations actions. Remember the lack of support Feingold (who is one of the only Senators who has even attempted to do his job) introduced his censure resolution? Most Democrats ran away even though a plurality of Americans supported Feingold's resolution.

so I beg to differ with your interpretation. If I learned about it that way - and I did - it was there for others to read.

It's not about what's on DU, because this is just a small drop in a vast ocean, no matter how affectionately we hold DU in our esteem; it's about people taking responsibility and reading about things that happen and then taking action.

I'm not blaming the media, sorry. The coverage was comprehensive and extensive, right down to the reporting of the Congressional decision not to investigate.

It is us.

Pure and simple.

It is us.

Despite the fact that it covered all Americans and not just terrorists, the media kept repeating the Bush spin. They ran a fake poll that made it falsely appear as if 2/3 of Americans supported the illegal wiretapping, and then when polls came out that showed most opposed it they suddenly stopped talking. There were so many lies and so much spin in the media that they must be held to account.

That does not absolve us of any responsibility, we could all do more to stand up but lets not trick ourselves into pretending that we are the real problem.

You are so wrong about the coverage, and your conclusions are faulty. The Congress stopped it all. It's that simple, and it was reported very accurately and completely in the newspapers I read on a daily basis, so, please, do not put it on "polls," which mean nothing. This was not spun, and I can testify to that. The facts were simple.

Take responsibility for your reading habits, and if you're not willing to step away from the keyboard and start working on a very grassroots level to take back America, that's certainly your choice.

We are the problem. We're always the problem, no matter how hard you try to blame someone else. The media is not without its own sins, but on the NSA matter, it's us - all the way.

The information is there, even in the mainstream media, if people would take the time. I'm well aware that people - it's startling to encounter it here on DU - want to be spoonfed information, rather than going out and finding out for themselves.

They're sheep, and they're the ones who will end up grazing, and ultimately, choking on the grass.

Me, I'd rather be out there, working on the grassroots, trying to take back my country.

Now, I must leave your blame game, because reality beckons, and there's far too much to do. Sitting around blaming gets nothing done.

I wish you every good luck.

You are free to disagree, but I read the news and I saw a huge amount of spin. If you read the newspapers don't tell me you never saw the words "Terrorist Surveillance Program" those words imply this program was aimed merely at terrorists, and yet the media keeps repeating those words.

I am not saying we should not work from the grassroots, but the grassroots did not authorize this program and I take offense to being blamed for something that I am speaking out against at this very moment. If we want to take this country back we must point fingers at the guilty parties.

In reality, there was massive reporting in great detail in the Washington Post, my daily paper, and not one I hold in high regard these past few years, at least editorially. Their news reporting has, though, been exemplary, a quite schizoid fact of life of the Post.

You saw spin because you might be reading the wrong newspapers. Or are you just reading online reports? Because that will screw you up every time, in my opinion.

No, the media hardly keeps repeating those words. I see "NSA surveillance programs" described in great detail, and with the ensuing lawsuits by good people who still believe in the Fourth Amendment, among others, it's been repeated over and over.

You are making claims that are not credible, sorry.

Point fingers all you want. It accomplishes nothing, especially when the basis for the fingerpointing is so specious.

Adieu, and good luck. I hope your grassroots experience teaches you some about how this government works and how much hard work it is. More than sitting at a keyboard.

Don't tell me I have never done anything, yes I could do more but I do not own the media. I can do all the grassroots work I want but if the media does not cover me my power has limits. They control the airwaves and that gives them a lot of power I do not have. I will say there has been some excellent reporting on the issue, but there has been a lot of bad reporting as well. That bad reporting does a lot of damage.

You are free to disagree with me, but please don't insult me. You know nothing about me, and yet you keep attacking me personally rather than the issues. If you think the media's coverage is fine than that is your opinion, but please do not dismiss everyone who disagrees with you.

It was the poll that was conducted overnight with a very horribly worded question that claimed the government did not listen in on calls (with no evidence to support the claim aside from the administrations word). They then conducted the poll overnight before many Americans had even heard the news. I work for a survey research company, I have taken classes in research methodology, I know how these polls work. I know the work that goes into them, and I know the difference between good methodology and bad methodology. The Washington Post's methodology was bad, and I can guarantee you they knew it was bad because they know a thing or two about polling as well. Yet they conducted the poll and ran it on their front page anyways, that is propaganda.

I'm disappointed in the Dems' overall response to the NSA spying. I'm hoping they are playing close to the vest until the Nov elections. If the elections go well, I hope they open the biggest can of whup-ass we've ever seen. If they don't go well, I still hope they raise mortal hell.

But, I fear that most Dems are just as power-lusting as most Repubs and will do, or not do, anything to keep that seat.

We can pray for the charismatic Democrat who is blessed with:

1. a spine;
2. a realistic and compelling message;
3. a voice that will not lower, will not be silenced;
4. a lot of rich backers;
5. courage not to back down when Swiftboated, but to turn the attack around and go after the scoundrels;
6. our backing - in every way.

So far, I haven't seen anyone who meets all those criteria. I'm still hoping, though.

Dems included.

Dems especially.

I am growing to loathe all of the spineless weasels we know as "Democrats In Congress."

Of course it's aided by a willing Congress, you know the Congress that approved Hayden without much ado. It's truly pathetic. That's where the news comes from --

48 Senators Vote Against Hayden or Filibuster! or Hayden Defeated in Senate

But no, can't have that...




Vote Summary - United States Senate

Question: On the Nomination (Confirmation General Michael V. Hayden, U.S. Air Force, to be Director of the Central Intelligence Agency )

Vote Number: 160 Vote Date: May 26, 2006, 09:24 AM

Required For Majority: 1/2 Vote Result: Nomination Confirmed

Nomination Number: PN1552

Nomination Description: General Michael V. Hayden, United States Air Force, to be Director of the Central Intelligence Agency
Vote Counts:

YEAs 78
NAYs 15
Not Voting 7

More than 1/2 of our party joined the opposition

are going to fight and then they just roll over....

stop hanging out with them, stop relying on them, dump them after the 2nd or 3rd time it happened.

I don't get it. Not very reliable folk, if you know what I mean, and I know you do:evilgrin:

FDR trying to provoke a war with Nazi Germany with that nice Mr. Hitler?

Lying to get re-elected while conspiring to murder hundreds of thousands of Americans?

All while aiding that war criminal Winston Churchill.

Against that nice Mr. Hitler?

THAT was a scandal

Of course we don't mention that 'cause history proved him right

..............wait........wait.....Brittany is pregnant again? OM-fucking-G ! ! ! !

By far.

There's never been anything like it in extent, in influence on the political landscape, in shaping of America's direction as a sovereign nation.

Nothing even comes close. The closest EVENT in American history to it is the Civil War, and that was a war, not a scandal.

I should have mentioned it in the original post, but the truth is the theft of our electoral system is tied in with this unprecedented power grab.

...means to maintain it (stolen election 2004).

I like to say that, after all this corruption, arguing that 2004 wasn't stolen is the equivalent to arguing that global warming does not exist. It's a distorted form of "will to power" that looks more and more ridiculous.

people even realizing it.

to the Greatest Page.

Keep on posting, MN Against Bush. :)

The problem is Americans. They think that only criminals have anything to fear from such things as wire taps. The problem is that the press in dealing with sources and big money has to protect themselves and people that have no where else to turn. Bush locked down on the press by allowing the NSA to spy on everyone. And then not only did he do that there was proof that he would go after sources as we learned in the media. Basically sending the message to the media, don't say a damn thing about what is going on or else.

The ACLU: Don't Spy on Me

A way to take action.

'The FCC has the authority and the obligation to investigate the NSA spying scandal, despite their wrong-headed refusal to act. Add your name to the public record and support our formal demand'

'If you live in a state where we are filing a complaint with local regulators, we will also add your name to our local demand for action.'


https://secure.aclu.org/site/SPageServer?pagename=DTT_FCC_spies_off_line

"According the Kübler-Ross model, there are five stages that a dying person goes through when they are told that they have a terminal illness. The five stages go in progression through denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance."

especially when the media keeps telling them that Bill & Hil's relationship is more important than having every one of their phone calls taped. A HUGH percentage of the citizenry loved life in Hitler's Germany right up until the bombs fell on Berlin. Life in the Shah's Iran was perfect for the ruling class.

Our children cannot even find iraq on a map. Most of them can't even find Louisiana on a map. 80% of Americans don't know who their Congressman is. More people choose to vote for the American Idol than President. Our problem is obvious.

they're actually starting to BELIEVE that the misinformation they've strewn and the excuses they've made are, in fact, reality . . .

and that the myths they've created about themselves are, in fact, who they REALLY are . . . (I have no doubt that Bush actually believes that he served his country honorably in uniform -- or that Cheney actually believes that his shooting victim was responsible for the accident) . . .

and this all constitutes one hell of a dangerous (and very scary) state of affairs, imo . . .