Uppity Wisconsin

So we are now finding out the answers to some of our questions about which members of Congress actually represent We, the People...and which ones represent, Them, the Corporate Masters.

We have seen a Democratic Senator propose a policy that would put people in jail for not buying health insurance and a Democratic President who has taken numerous public beatings from those on the left side of the fence for his inability to ram something through a group of people...and yes, folks, the entendre was intentional.

But most of all, we’ve been asking ourselves: “why would Democratic Members of Congress who will eventually want us to vote for them vote against something that nearly all voting Democrats are inclined to vote for?”

Today’s conversation attempts to answer that question by looking at exactly how money and influence flow through a key politician, Montana’s Senator Max Baucus—and in doing so, we examine some ugly political realities that have to be resolved before we can hope to convince certain Members of Congress to vote for what their constituents actually want when it really counts.

William Greiter of The Nation has exposed yet another scam, an alarming one regarding Social Security.  Some highlights:

"Governing elites in Washington and Wall Street have devised a fiendishly clever "grand bargain" they want President Obama to embrace in the name of "fiscal responsibility." The government, they argue, having spent billions on bailing out the banks, can recover its costs by looting the Social Security system. They are also targeting Medicare and Medicaid."

".....These players are promoting a tricky way to whack Social Security benefits, but to do it behind closed doors so the public cannot see what's happening or figure out which politicians to blame. The essential transaction would amount to misappropriating the trillions in Social Security taxes that workers have paid to finance their retirement benefits. This swindle is portrayed as "fiscal reform." In fact, it's the political equivalent of bait-and-switch fraud."

K Street Washington lobbyist, GOP corruption king, and all-around sleezy guy, Jack Abramoff was sentenced to four more years in prison today.

He was shown some leniency for cooperating with the FBI to take down other corrupt GOPers like former Rep. Bob Ney, R-Ohio, former Deputy Interior Secretary J. Steven Griles and many top Capitol Hill assistants.

And like a good jailbird, he's gonna sing! Jackie boy's forthcoming book is due for publication later this month.

The title?

"The Perfect Villain: John McCain and the Demonization of Lobbyist Jack Abramoff."

My, oh my.

UPDATE: A warning, the book could be written to make McCain look like a savior, a fighter of lobbyist corruption. That would make Rovian sense. I have written the publisher to request an advance copy for reporting purposes. Stay tuned!

UPDATE: Author Gary Chafetz's response to a request for an advance copy of his book:

How about no more air-trips to Turkey for the Esperanza Unita's executive director, Robert Miranda, until Esperanza Unita pays their workers?

From today's MJS: Esperanza Unida's payroll problems continue under Miranda's administration:

Mark Freund, a former welding instructor and manager at Esperanza Unida, said he wasn’t in a position not to get paid, or to get paid late.

Well, maybe this Wisconsin Commerce Department travel scandal starring Secretary Jack Fischer isn't a pulp fiction story about sex, just incompetence.

"Jack Fischer's participation of the mission was not representative or positive for Wisconsin business," Frigo wrote in the evaluation, released to the Journal Sentinel under the state's open records law. "On several occasions during the trip I was embarrassed that he was our leader. His rambling speech during the embassy reception caused the premature end to the party as most of us were just warming up to the prospects."

In a few short minutes you can watch this and easily understand how Congress today shredded the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

If you don't know how important this is, for godsakes, click the link above and watch the video below.

The bottom line is that the government, with the help of telecommunication corporations, will be able to spy on Americans accused of no crime. Your email, your cell phone messages ... and there's no oversight to know how they're using the information. Will it be used against political enemies? Who knows!

This IS NOT tinfoil hat stuff, folks. 

UPDATE: The folks who will be doing the spying aren't equipped to keep classified information classified. Great! Now the government gives a more robust assist to identity theft on all U.S. citizens! Love it!

UPDATE: The U.S. military is being spied upon by politicians.

The U.S. Army has developed architectural drawings for a "Tigris Woods Golf and Country Club Resort" for a planned "zone of influence" in Baghdad, and the Boston Herald is reporting that the plans have the support of the Pentagon.

There are also plans for an amusement park.

There are many appaling questions that deserve answers about this given the lack of electricity, running water, civil war atmosphere, much less who will maintain security for people standing in line to ride a rollercoaster in a war zone.

Today is the innocent and jailed Wisconsin Navy veteran Keith Roberts' birthday.

And Roberts (1968-71) is celebrating it back in the general population in a federal prison in Minnesota, as his wife reports that he has been released from solitary confinement, and is working on a supplemental brief, ordered to be filed with the Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, while Roberts' parents, who are in their 80s and unable to travel to Minnesota, hope to see their son before they die.

Writes Mrs. Roberts in an e-mail: