Up Yours Rogers! Greenwald Wins Polk Award for NSA Reporting

That very nasty scowl that is permanently affixed to the fat face of Congressman and House Intelligence Committee head Mike Rogers, the thug shoved down the entire country’s throats by voters in Michigan’s 8^th congressional district is about to get even worse. In breaking news today the “thief” Glenn Greenwald who is the target of Rogers’ latest vendetta just won the prestigious George Polk Award for his reporting on the Edward Snowden story.  Along with Greenwald fellow reporters who also worked on the stories of the former government contractor turned NSA whistleblower - Ewen MacAskill and Laura Poitras as well as the Washington Post’s Barton Gellman - were honored. This is a triumph for the now on life support concept of freedom of the press in the darkest days of Obama’s war on journalism. They along with Snowden himself have all done this country a great service by outing the criminal rats at Fort Mead Stasi headquarters along with their oath breaking enablers in the most corrupt Congress in the nation’s long history.

Rogers in particular has got to be furious over this and he and his fellow usurpers of the Constitution had better tread carefully if Greenwald chooses to "force the issue" and return to the U.S. to pick up his Polk come April. According to a recent "exclusive"piece in Salon he seems to intend to do such a thing:  “I’m going to go back to the U.S. for many reasons, but just the fucking principle is enough … On principle I’m going to force the issue”. God forbid that any serious journalist dare to have principles in these sorry days of careerism, sensationalism, panty-sniffing, celebrity worship, tabloid drivel, dead child stories and acting as stenographers for the same crooked government figures that the they are supposed to be holding to account per the First Amendment. Christ knows that we certainly couldn't have accountability in this collapsing lemming colony. 

It will be time for Rogers to put up or shut up since the state-corporate media refuses to call him on his bullshit about Snowden being a Russian spy and Greenwald being a thief. If Rogers and his ilk are able to push Obama and his ruthless hatchet man Eric Holder into actually going full fascist and arresting Greenwald it may finally be that tipping point that will trigger a chain reaction against this now thirteen year running coup d’etat that started with George W. Bush and Dick Cheney. There is much sentiment for stringing Greenwald up by his heels in some dank CIA torture gulag and if that is allowed to occur then we might just as well abandon any idiotic babble about ‘freedom’ and ‘checks and balances’ because it will be a sign that Orwell was dead on about that “boot stamping on a human face.. forever”.

From the moment that he first revealed that meeting with Snowden in a Hong Kong hotel room and then began writing on the material provided Mr. Greenwald was an enemy of the state. He had already incurred the wrath of the corrupt political class when he was targeted several years ago by corporate wet work artists HBGary Federal as a supporter of Wikileaks in aftermath of the Bradley (now Chelsea) Manning's whistleblowing, particularly of the huge embarrassment that was the "collateral murder" video that showed our imperial stormtroopers indiscriminately firing on Iraqi civilians. Greenwald isn't easily intimidated and it is about damned time that someone who is a public figure took a principled stand against this scum. He has a king-sized chip on his shoulder which is what it takes when going up against Leviathan, a recent Rolling Stone magazine article  entitled "Snowden and Greenwald: The Men Who Leaked the Secrets" quotes Greenwald who is openly gay:

"I decided to wage war against this system and institutional authority that had tried to reject and condemn me," he says. "It was like, 'Go fuck yourselves. Instead of having you judge me, I'm going to judge you, because I don't accept the fact that you're even in a position to cast judgments upon me.'"

That is something for Mike Rogers to suck on as it will be his move if Greenwald indeed chooses to "force the issue". 

Congratulations to all of the Polk Award honorees for their courageous reporting on the Snowden material despite incurring the full fury of the U.S. and British power structure and their well paid presstitutes by daring to report on the truth of just how bottomless that the snakepit has become. 

(Image: The Guardian) 

Time to Let the American Enabling Act Expire

In an all too rare display of chutzpah in post-September 11, 2001 America which has been hammered home incessantly as 'the day when everything changed' for nearly twelve and a half years by fascist opportunists there is a growing move to pushback against Obama's NSA Stasi and its illegality. Without delving into the depths of speculation and conspiracy trafficking it is apparent that the USA PATRIOT Act was to 9/11 what the Enabling Act was to the Reichstag Fire in the terms of historical analogies. While admittedly less ostentatious than the depraved Nazi regime and their orgy of state sanctioned thuggery and oppression, this anti-American piece of legislation has largely served the same purpose in empowering a criminal state to act with impunity. With the firewall of the surveillance state and all of its proctor - like the unhinged fascist demagogue Mike Rogers who is popping off today about stringing up journalist Glenn Greenwald by his balls for doing his job - flying like antibodies to protect a diseased system against any attempts to implement even the most tepid of controls over the NSA spying monstrosity which are destined to fail. The corruption is just too deeply entrenched and there is too much money and power at stake to expect a failed political system to function by implementing the now laughably outdated term of 'checks and balances'. So it is now being proposed to just let the American enabling act expire which would be a good start, having a national holiday every September 10th to celebrate the public burning of this fascist travesty and toast the trial and imprisonment of all who have foisted it upon us would be ideal.

That being said and according to a story in The Guardian (the state media is too busy performing necrophilia on the corpse of Phillip Seymour Hoffman to be bothered with covering actual news) members of the House Judiciary Committee boldly challenged Obama/Holder lackeys from the Justice Department. In demanding that the NSA bulk collection of telephone "metadata" be reigned in and the USA FREEDOM Act be supported that the most insidious piece of legislation in the lifetimes of all Americans currently alive be allowed to simply expire come renewal time in June of 2015 -  a mere decade after a sunset clause was to have rid of us all of this abomination. The "metadata" phone collection also does not cover the actual content collection which the Obama regime and the filth like Mike Rogers are so desperate to keep secret therefore the regular "two minutes hate" sessions denouncing Greenwald and former government contractor turned NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden who are both rising to the top of that kill list that El Presidente presides over. That it is Congressman James Sensenbrenner, a father of the PATRIOT Act himself who is now one of the most vocal opponents is telling, it is his very own Frankenstein monster careening through the village today.

I excerpt from the Guardian piece, entitled "House committee urges US government to get behind NSA reform bill":

Members of Congress who want to end the National Security Agency's mass collection of Americans’ phone data sharply warned the Obama administration on Tuesday to get behind a bill to end the controversial practice, or risk losing the counter-terrorism powers provided by the post-9/11 Patriot Act.

Deriding the paucity of legislative alternatives after President Obama's announcement last month that he wants to transfer the responsibility for bulk collection out of the NSA, congressman Jim Sensenbrenner, the co-sponsor of the USA Freedom Act, told deputy attorney general James Cole at a House judiciary committee hearing that "you will get nothing" if the administration does not endorse the bill.

AND -

John Conyers, the ranking Democrat on the panel, warned that permitting bulk data collection to continue unabated risked congressional support for the entire portion of the Patriot Act the government claims authorizes it, known as Section 215, a provision set to expire on 1 June 2015. "We should address bulk collection today, or we risk losing all of Section 215 this time next year," Conyers said.

AND -

Much as support for bulk surveillance is a bipartisan position in the House intelligence committee, opposition in the judiciary committee is bipartisan. Liberal Democrat Zoe Lofgren and conservative Republican Darrell Issa, both of California, probed Cole to say on the record that the NSA phone records trove includes legislators' call records, something the NSA has been hard-pressed to deny on the record.

"202-225 and four digits. Do you collect it?" Issa asked Cole, referring to the prefix of office numbers for members of the House of Representatives.

"Probably we do," Cole answered.

Issa rejoindered that he had been in touch with the deputy prime minister of Lebanon after accusations emerged that the official had given money to Hezbollah, warning that a senior member of Congress was only two degrees of separation from terrorists.

It is about damned time that Congressman Issa stopped pissing away taxpayer dollars on politically motivated witch hunts and devoted some time and effort towards getting these fascists not only under control but stripped of their God mode power to spy on everything that millions of law abiding American citizens do. Not only that but to also address the ongoing data-mining and exactly why that massive NSA facility sitting in a remote area of Utah is needed if the American Stasi is NOT collecting content for future persecution of dissidents. The USA PATRIOT Act should be stricken from the law of the land and the Constitution restored. All that it is going to take is a bit of effort from a failed and feckless Congress but at least there are signs of life albeit they are faint.

Were this to be allowed to happen I would be the first one to volunteer to kick in some money to deport Mike Rogers to a country where they have a similar contempt for journalists - Egypt seems to be a prime location these days and if that doesn't work there are plenty of other authoritarian regimes that would love to have a deranged swine like this guy as a key member of their intelligence service goon squads.  As I have previously noted, he conjures up valid comparisons to  the similarly minded thug Reinhard Heydrich and would very fittingly have belonged in a prior historical era given his blatant and constant state of venomous contempt for anything other than the most tyrannical of political systems.

There will be no stopping this ongoing use of the Constitution as so much toilet paper until the USA PATRIOT Act is revoked and relegated to our national history as the shameful attempt to eliminate our very cherished freedoms that it has always been. 

(Image: Dees Images) 

Blowhard Mike Rogers Can’t Back Up Russian Spy Charges

With the Sunday morning appearance of the two members of Congress that are the most derelict of their official duties to uphold and protect the Constitution Mike Rogers and Dianne Feinstein both accusing Edward Snowden of essentially being a Russian spy the system continues to fail. Despite these serious allegations, more likely than anything the part of a rapidly growing narrative to paint the former government contractor turned NSA whistleblower as an enemy of the state there has been absolutely no effort from the state-corporate media to confront either of the two NSA toadies for actual proof of the charges. Sunday morning TV is among the worst forums for state propaganda ever invented and each week continues to plumb the depths to protect the corrupt system and provide high visibility for those who are responsible for destroying America to spew their lies.

The most reliable weapon in the NSA Stasi’s arsenal has always been Über fascist Michigan Congressman Mike Rogers, the mac daddy of the House Intelligence Committee. Rogers, a former FBI thug who managed to slither his way into office has set his sights on supplanting Senators McCain and Graham as the most strident voice on the Sunday morning bloviation circuit. The lunatic Rpgers blasted Snowden as he appeared on NBC’s Meet the Press with David Gregory as a “thief” who had foreign assistance while DiFi tut-tutted to the delight of the always oily beltway ass-kisser David Gregory. Rogers then popped up on CBS’s Face the Nation to spout that “This wasn’t a random smash and grab, run down the road, end up in China, the bastion of internet freedom, and then Russia, of course the bastion of internet freedom”. He conveniently omits the same sarcastic reference to our very own land of desecrated privacy rights which he of course has been instrumental in stealing away.

While Rogers was spewing his crap, Texas Republican Michael McCaul Chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee appeared on ABC's This Week where he accused Snowden of being “cultivated by a foreign power” and “helped by others”. This is all just more of the same distractions meant to wave the blessed flag which is now serves primarily as a symbol designed to be desecrated by the scum like Rogers and McCaul who wrap themselves in it while then destroying the very principles that this country is supposed to stand for. By attempting to smear Snowden as a Russian spy they deftly turn the conversation from the true outrage which is the very existence of these unrestrained and unconstitutional surveillance programs.

Obviously seeing the writing on the wall that a manipulation of public opinion would green light his state sanctioned murder which many are braying for Snowden himself surfaced to defend himself. In an interview with Jane Mayer published by The New Yorker online the prey of the fascists who run The Homeland not only rebutted the accusations but pointed out the obvious which I excerpt from Mayer’s piece:

“It’s not the smears that mystify me,” Snowden told me. “It’s that outlets report statements that the speakers themselves admit are sheer speculation.” Snowden went on to poke fun at the range of allegations that have been made against him in the media without intelligence officials providing some kind of factual basis: “ ‘We don’t know if he had help from aliens.’ ‘You know, I have serious questions about whether he really exists.’ ”

Snowden went on, “It’s just amazing that these massive media institutions don’t have any sort of editorial position on this. I mean these are pretty serious allegations, you know?” He continued, “The media has a major role to play in American society, and they’re really abdicating their responsibility to hold power to account.”

It should be noted that this corrupt media has allowed the country to be lied into two illegal and immoral wars of choice since September 11, 2001 and continues to agitate for more attacks on countries such as Syria and Iran on hearsay, innuendo, propaganda and trumped up ‘evidence. This media has also completely abrogated its collective responsibility (as put forth in the First Amendement) to hold power accountable. Consequently our economy has been gutted by high rolling, politically connected gamblers playing with house money that is pumped into Wall Street casinos to the tune of $85 billion a month, there is NO recovery only lies and propaganda and the living standard of the average American continues to get worse while the corrupt media is out shilling for wars and engaging in tabloid panty-sniffing. The media has stood by while our civil liberties have been stripped away, torture that would have had one hung at Nuremberg codified and covered up and Habeas Corpus eliminated and most of it done in secret, approved by secret courtes and all on the basis of lies and hide behind the biggest lie of all which is providing equal time to both sides of any given story even if one side’s arguments are nothing but lies. So yeah, basically fuck the media.

I do give some credit for Mayer whose piece specifically cites followup done on those who make and allow such claims that Snowden is a Russian spy with zero evidence. Excerpting again from the New Yorker piece:

Asked about this, George Stephanopoulos, the host of ABC’s “This Week,” defended the coverage. Stephanopoulos pointed out that when the congressman Michael McCaul, a Texas Republican and the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, alleged that Snowden was “cultivated by a foreign power” and “helped by others,” Stephanopoulos pressed him for details, twice. “I did two follow-ups,” Stephanopoulos said, “and got as much as the congressman was going to give up.”

AND

Asked today to elaborate on his reasons for alleging that Snowden “had help,” Congressman Rogers, through a press aide, declined to comment.

An aide to Senator Feinstein, meanwhile, stressed that she did no more than ask questions. “Senator Feinstein said, ‘We don’t know at this stage.’ In light of the comments from Chairman Rogers, it is reasonable for Senator Feinstein to say that we should find out.”

As the saying goes - we get the government that we deserve - but the vast majority of Americans did not vote for either Feinstein or Rogers to be put into critical oversight positions and then to act as elements of a relentless fifth-column bent on eradicating every principle that is embodied within the Constitution.

It would be nice to see the voters in the State of California and the Eighth Congressional District in Michigan to be good Americans and vote those two enemies of the republic out of office as it is the only way that we can be saved from this madness.

Michigan voters, you are now on the clock.