Politics USA: Politics, the Government, etc.

Visiting websites and attending protests are two different things.

Yes and no.

How do they find out exactly who is attending a protest? I would imagine some of it has to do with websites. My grandmother has attended dozens of protests, all of which were organized on websites. Many of those you signed up to attend to be able to get buses to the site and hotel rooms. I would certainly not be surprised if such websites were used in creating these files.
 
This week the Massachusetts Pharmacy board requires (actually it was already a written law) ALL Massachusetts pharmacist to fill birth control and emergency contraception precriptions. This resulted from a lawsuit filed by three women against wal-mart for stocking and selling emergency contraception. I just can't imagine being a woman who was either raped or a victim of incest and then being denied emergency contraception. She only has three days for it to be effective and she has to spend it going from pharmacy to pharmacy trying to find the morning after pill?? Of course, this is just me.
 
welcome to the militarization of George Bush's America, people. bend over and kiss your freedom goodbye.

why do they care what people are looking at on the internet? are they going to arrest 13 year olds for accidentally stumbling on some website they shouldn't be looking at? it seems that as each day goes by, our lives are being catalogued and monitored more and more.

i realize that they'd like to find out who's looking at kiddie porn and who's researching how to make bombs. however, those that are looking up how to make bombs, for example, not all of those people are terrorists and not all of those people intend to do anything with that knowledge. that's the beauty of curiosity.

i can't wait till someone kicks big brother Bush out of the White House so i can get back to life as usual.
 
Yeah I think it is very insane how we are watched these days. The new government is the worst ever, and I hope America fights back for its freedoms that we are sending our troops to die for. I hope that the ignorance soon stops and we get rid of the GOP and take back the White House and the Capital
 
Sweet irony, thy name is AT&T.





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(For those of you who are a little slow on the irony side of things, read what AT&T wrote on the front of the envelope. You'll recall that AT&T is one of three companies alleged to have voluntarily helped the NSA spy on its customers.)
 
*sigh*

Just when you think it can't get any more brazen and criminal....


BARRONS SAYS: IMPEACH FOR WIRETAPPING

Google %3Dsearch=Search+the+Web

Barron's Wall St. - A few months back the NYSE trade journal reported that an internal investigation on the exhange had returned indications of insider trading. The NYSE house investigation determined that information used for the scam could only have come from government data mining. A criminal investigation has not been reported to the MSM, but Barron's of Wall St determined that evidence of insider trading pointing to the NSA and FBI was sufficient grounds to recommend impeachment.


BTW - Barron's is not "liberal" media.
 
You should really make this a separate post. I think it deserves it's own topic line.


Now for some moral outrage!

3...

2...

1...

Gosh darn it. Who, what, when, where, why, how?

Sorry if that's a little strongly worded, but I warned you.

Seriously, if it weren't for all the outstanding warrants, and Interpol reports I would so run for political office, not to actually win or anything, but just to publicize this felgercarb. How many people do you think actually know about this?

frackin pathetic!
 
Rejoice! Rejoice! Rejoice my friends; good ladies and fellows one and all! :laughbounce:

<Breaks into a snazzy, well choreographed dance complete with cane and top hat, while singing to the tune of "The Wicked Witch is Dead" from The Wizard of Oz> :happydance:

Ding Dong DeLay is Gone. Which DeLay?
Tom DeLay! Ding Dong Tom DeLay is gone!

Wake up - sleepy head, rub your eyes, get out of bed
Wake up - Tom DeLay is gone!
He's gone where the demagogues go,
Below, below, below, below. Back to the exterminating biz.

Ding dong the merry-oh, sing it high, sing it low.
Let them know that Tom DeLay is gone!


:busted:


And it couldn't happen to a more deserving asshole! :rotflmao:

He is going to make some cellmate VERY happy! :blowakiss:

Zzap!

P.S. Just try and defend him! Come on! Bring it on! :makefun:
 
Yep, the corrupt right wing house of cards continues to fall.

Good times. :D

And as you pointed out, it couldn't have happened to a more deserving asshole.

Now hopefully "insider trading" Frist is the next asshole to go down.

Michael Schiavo is also gunning for these creeps for turning what should have been a personal ordeal into a media circus. He vowed on Keith Oberman's show last week to do everything in his power to bring them down for what they did. Looks as if they're bringing themselves down though thanks to their own hubris.

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Smug prick posing for his mug shot as if he's sitting for a glamour shot. There's satisfaction in knowing all his underlings are being convicted one after another and singing to the prosecutors and his pal Abramhoff is contributing to the reverbarations shaking the GOP nationwide. And the next pic of DeLay hopefully will be like this:

delay_mug_hammer.jpg


The long nightmare is slowly ending.
 
The only reason I liked Tom DeLay is that he's a strong supporter of embryonic stem cell research. This is also the reason why many Repubs don't like him. :lol:
 
The United States will join European leaders in their talks with Iran on its nuclear program if Iran stops enriching uranium, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said last Wednesday.

"To underscore our commitment to a diplomatic solution and to enhance prospects for success, as soon as Iran fully and verifiably suspends its enrichment and reprocessing activities, the United States will come to the table," the secretary said in remarks delievered at the State Department.



Condi on a table shaking her ass would be good too.
 
Well, this circumstance that Harry has placed himself into shouldn't be a big surprise. A politician taking gifts from someone that makes it seem his influence is for sale has been going on for a looooong time.

It still sucks though.

Shame on Harry Reid. He should know better.

article..............
Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid accepted free ringside tickets from the Nevada Athletic Commission to three professional boxing matches while that state agency was trying to influence him on federal regulation of boxing.

Reid, D-Nev., took the free seats for Las Vegas fights between 2003 and 2005 as he was pressing legislation to increase government oversight of the sport, including the creation of a federal boxing commission that Nevada's agency feared might usurp its authority.

He defended the gifts, saying they would never influence his position on the bill and was simply trying to learn how his legislation might affect an important home state industry. "Anyone from Nevada would say I'm glad he is there taking care of the state's No. 1 businesses," he told The Associated Press.

"I love the fights anyways, so it wasn't like being punished," added the senator, a former boxer and boxing judge.

Senate ethics rules generally allow lawmakers to accept gifts from federal, state or local governments, but specifically warn against taking such gifts — particularly on multiple occasions — when they might be connected to efforts to influence official actions.

"Senators and Senate staff should be wary of accepting any gift where it appears that the gift is motivated by a desire to reward, influence, or elicit favorable official action," the Senate ethics manual states. It cites the 1990s example of an Oregon lawmaker who took gifts for personal use from a South Carolina state university and its president while that school was trying to influence his official actions.

"Repeatedly taking gifts which the Gifts Rule otherwise permits to be accepted may, nonetheless, reflect discredit upon the institution, and should be avoided," the manual states.

Several ethics experts said Reid should have paid for the tickets, which were close to the ring and worth between several hundred and several thousand dollars each, to avoid the appearance he was being influenced by gifts.

Two senators who joined Reid for fights with the complimentary tickets took markedly differently steps.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., insisted on paying $1,400 for the tickets he shared with Reid for a 2004 championship fight. Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., accepted free tickets to another fight with Reid but already had recused himself from Reid's federal boxing legislation because his father was an executive for a Las Vegas hotel that hosts fights.

In an interview Thursday in his Capitol office, Reid broadly defended his decisions to accept the tickets and to take several actions benefiting disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff's clients and partners as they donated to him.

"I'm not Goodie two shoes. I just feel these events are nothing I did wrong," Reid said.

Reid had separate meetings in June 2003 in his Senate offices with two Abramoff tribal clients and Edward Ayoob, a former staffer who went to work lobbying with Abramoff.

The meetings occurred over a five-day span in which Ayoob also threw a fundraiser for Reid at the firm where Ayoob and Abramoff worked that netted numerous donations from Abramoff's partners, firm and clients.

Reid said he viewed the two official meetings and the fundraiser as a single event. "I think it all was one, the way I look at it," he said.

One of the tribes, the Saginaw Chippewa of Michigan, donated $9,000 to Reid at the fundraiser and the next morning met briefly with Reid and Ayoob at Reid's office to discuss federal programs. Reid and the tribal chairman posed for a picture.

Five days earlier, Reid met with Ayoob and the Sac & Fox tribe of Iowa for about 15 minutes to discuss at least two legislative requests. Reid's office said the senator never acted on those requests.

A few months after the fundraiser, Reid did sponsor a spending bill that targeted $100,000 to another Abramoff tribe, the Chitimacha of Louisiana, to pay for a soil erosion study Ayoob was lobbying for. Reid said he sponsored the provision because Louisiana lawmakers sent him a letter requesting it.

Abramoff, a Republican lobbyist, has pleaded guilty in a widespread corruption probe of Capitol Hill. Reid used that conviction earlier this year to accuse Republicans of fostering a culture of corruption inside Congress.

AP recently reported that Reid also wrote at least four letters favorable to Abramoff's tribal clients around the time Reid collected donations from those clients and Abramoff's partners. Reid has declined to return the donations, unlike other lawmakers, saying his letters were consistent with his beliefs.

Senate ethics rules require senators to avoid even the appearance that any official meetings or actions they took were in any way connected with political donations.

Reid broadly defended his actions, stating he would never change his position because of donations, free tickets or a request from a former-staffer-turned-lobbyist.

"People who deal with me and have over the years know that I am an advocate for what I believe in. I always try to do it fair, never take advantage of people on purpose," he said.

Asked if he would have done anything differently, the Senate Democratic leader said his only concern was "the willingness of the press ... to take these instances and try to make a big deal out of them."

Several ethics experts said they believed Reid should have paid for the boxing tickets to avoid violating Senate ethics rules.

Bernadette Sargeant, a former House ethics lawyer, said the Senate would have to examine the specific facts to determine whether Reid violated the gift ban. She said the clearer ethics issue involved Reid's obligation to avoid the appearance that the free tickets and his official duties were connected.

"From what you are describing, it is such a huge risk that a reasonable person with all the relevant facts would say this creates the appearance of impropriety," she said. "The more cautious thing, the more prudent thing would be to either pay the tickets or fair market value or not accept the tickets in the first place."

Andrew Herman, a Washington lawyer who frequently works with Congress, agreed. "I think it is pretty clear what Sen. McCain did in the current atmosphere in Washington was certainly the more prudent thing."

"I think if you are receiving anything of value from anyone that has matters before the federal government and matters under your purview that you have to be very careful with your conduct," Herman said.

Attorney Marc Elias, who has represented Democrats in ethics cases and was asked by Reid's office to call AP, said he believed Reid should not be penalized for trying to help his state. "There are varying degrees of gift givers," Elias said. "There is a difference between a gift from a state entity and a gift from a savings & loan."

Marc Ratner, executive director of the Nevada Athletic Commission when Reid took the free tickets, said one of his desires was to convince Reid and McCain that there was no need for the federal government to usurp the state commission's authority. At the time, McCain and Reid were pushing legislation to create a federal boxing commission.

"I invited him because I was talking with his staff" about the legislation, Ratner said. "This was a chance for all of my commissioners, who are politically appointed, to interact with them. It was important for them to see how we in Nevada did things.

"I am a states rights activist and I didn't want any federal bill that would take away our state rights to regulate fights," he said, adding that he hoped McCain and Reid, at the very least, would be persuaded to model any federal commission after Nevada's body.

Reid said he remembered talking to Ratner briefly at the fights and knew Ratner was working with his Senate staff on the federal legislation.

McCain's office said the Arizona senator felt an obligation to pay for the ringside tickets he got from the Nevada commission to attend the Oscar De La Hoya-Bernard Hopkins championship match in September 2004.

"Sen. McCain has always paid for his own tickets to boxing matches and sees no reason to change that," aide Mark Salter said.

Ensign's office said he attended one fight in the last couple of years with Reid and accepted the free tickets from the commission. But his office said Ensign already had removed himself from the boxing legislation that would have affected the Nevada commission.

"He did not have anything to do with it because at the time he recused himself," Ensign spokesman Jack Finn said of the legislation.

Kathleen Clark, a Washington University of St. Louis congressional ethics expert, said Congress should re-examine the exemption allowing gifts by state and federal and local governments because they too can have interest in influencing federal lawmakers like Reid.

"I think he would want to be above approach even when it's from a state commission and not a private lobbyist," Clark said. "I don't think we should make any assumption about a government. The fact is government agencies can act as proxies for different interests. Here it happens to be the Nevada boxing commission, and I would guess it is aligned with certain industry groups."
 
USA is one FUCKED UP countrie!!
I know. In a recent letter to the American people, the Iranian president puts it more eloquently. He does a wonderful job balancing courtesy and stressing the gravity of the current US foreign policy. If only our government and nation took this letter as seriously as its original intention, it could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship with the Middle East and an end to the War on Terror.
 
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