Senate hypocrisy: NSA-lover blasts CIA (video)

Wisdom Quarterly; Nermeen Shaikh, DemocracyNow.org, 3/12/14; Phillip Muldari (KPFA)

DARPA created Net for military, uses social media to spy. NSA helps steal our nude images.

 
The spat between the CIA and its congressional "overseers" (actually overlookers since they overlook so much misbehavior) has intensified after California Senator Dianne Feinstein took to the Senate floor to directly accuse the CIA of spying on her overisight committee.

Why was the CIA conducting homeland spying in violation of its charter? It was in an effort to undermine a probe of the CIA’s torture and rendition program by Chairperson Feinstein's Senate committee, the Senate Intelligence Committee.

• AUDIO: Feinstein burned by the CIA she always protected
• War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death (Norman Solomon/RootsAction.org)
• Made Love, Got War...America's Warfare State

Is the CIA going to brainwash me again? - What, Feinstein?

Its report has yet to be released but reportedly documents extensive illegal abuses and a cover-up by CIA officials. Feinstein says the CIA broke the law by secretly removing more than 900 documents from computers used by panel investigators. She also accuses the CIA of intimidation in its request of an FBI inquiry of the panel’s conduct. 

America tortures with CIA help and cover-ups

Current CIA Director John Brennan rejects Feinstein’s allegations. Meanwhile, former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor Edward Snowden has weighed in by accusing Feinstein of hypocrisy for criticizing alleged CIA spying on U.S. senators but condoning government surveillance of ordinary private citizens. 

Julia Angwin

Democracy Now! hosted a roundtable discussion with three guests: former FBI Agent Mike German, former CIA Analyst Ray McGovern, and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Julia Angwin, author of the new book, Dragnet Nation: A Quest for Privacy, Security, and Freedom in a World of Relentless Surveillance. More 

• Dragnet Nation: Julia Angwin’s quest for privacy and Ray McGovern on FISA Court’s "raw take" order
• Canadian military finally pulls out of Afghanistan today 
• War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death
• Made Love, Got War: Norman Solomon on Close Encounters with America's Warfare State
• Peeping Webcam? With NSA help, British spy agency intercepted millions of Yahoo Chat images
• Spying on lawyers: Snowden documents show NSA ally targeted U.S. law firm
• Julian Assange on being placed on NSA "Manhunting" list and secret targeting of WikiLeaks supporters 
• Attorney for Edward Snowden interrogated at U.K. airport, placed on "inhibited persons list" 
• War Made Easy: From Vietnam to Iraq by Norman Solomon
• Is any plastic safe? Industry tries to hide SCARY new evidence on BPA-free bottles and containers being worse than BPA 
• Angela Davis on prison abolition, the War on Drugs, and why social movements shouldn’t wait on Obama

"Super Committee" FAILS (cartoons)

Wisdom Quarterly

The two party "Super Committee" is a Super Congress tasked with deficit reduction -- making cuts to pull the US out of debt. There is enough money in the country to not have this dilemma. It is a problem, like so many problems, of allocation.

• VIDEO: legislators fail to reach deficit deal

We could tax the rich (at low pre-Bush Era rates). Or we could assess corporations more than their current effective-rate of zero. Or we might consider sending less money into the abyss of the "military-industrial complex" (Pres. Eisenhower), which as part of the "shadowy government" (Sen. Inouye), has its own funding anyway. But no.

The lines divide in another way: Democrats want to protect MediCare and social programs, whereas Republicans insist they have to protect the super rich and corporate personhood.

Given that both parties are largely corrupt, who would take the side of the bailed out, largely untaxed, welfare-siphoning super rich?

The "trickle down" theory of economics (the idea that if we give more and more money to the super rich, some of it will eventually fall down to the rest of the 99%) is a fiction that ignores the human needs of most American, even though they cost much less to provide than more tax breaks for the rich.

How deluded or insensitive must one be to imagine him or herself a beneficiary of so unfair a system?

Whatever happens after this catastrophic failure to reduce the deficit, at least country music superstar Taylor Swift's award for "artist of the year" is safe. At least we have that. (*Sigh*).

• Super Committee Fails, but Obama campaign machine rolls on
  
• Insight: Super committee had glimpse of elusive compromise
• US Congress Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction...
• "Super committee" fails to reach agreement (CNN)
• What's next after "super committee" failure? (CNN)
• Obama to veto any attempt to roll back automatic cuts after...

Republicans Committee prefers bondage sex

RNC spent $2K at sex themed nightclub with topless dancers
BONDAGEGATE: Finance documents show that the Republican National Committee spent nearly $2,000 last month at "a bondage-themed nightclub featuring topless women dancers imitating lesbian sex." That is one of the many incredible expenditures reported by The Daily Caller, a conservative Web site. The Daily Caller's piece outlines the high-spending ways of RNC Chairman Michael Steele. More>>

• Fallout from RNC nightclub scandal grows
• Judge hands down adverse ruling in the case of the gay divorcees
• Secret documents are "tipping point" in Catholic abuse scandal
• Catholic Church abuse allegations ripple across the globe

Dalai Lama barred by South Africa

8/21/96 file photo of the Dalai Lama, right, greeting Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu in Cape Town South Africa. South Africa said today (3/23/09) it wanted to avoid being the source of bad publicity about trading partner China. It ended up itself the target of sharp criticism for barring the Dalai Lama from a peace conference in Johannesburg later this week. Friday's conference is now the target of a boycott by retired Cape Town Archbishop Desmond Tutu, former president F.W. de Klerk, and members of the Nobel Committee who had been expected to be among Nobel laureates, Hollywood celebrities, and other dignitaries discussing issues ranging from combatting racism to promoting sports to bring people and nations together (AP/Sasa Kralj/file).

• Tibet Tense One Year After Riots

JOHANNESBURG – South Africa barred the Dalai Lama from a peace conference in Johannesburg this week, hoping to keep good relations with trading partner China but instead generating a storm of criticism.

PLAY VIDEO

Friday's peace conference was organized by South African soccer officials to highlight the first World Cup to be held in Africa, which South Africa will host in 2010.

But because the Dalai Lama isn't being allowed to attend, it is now being boycotted by fellow Nobel Peace prize winners retired Cape Town Archbishop Desmond Tutu and former president F.W. de Klerk as well as members of the Nobel Committee. More>>