Time to Call Bush on Law breaking

NSA Has Massive Database of Americans' Phone Calls
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/051106J.shtml
The National Security Agency has been secretly collecting the phone call records of tens of millions of Americans, using data provided by AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth.

Government Monitoring About 200 Million Americans' Calls
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/print?id=1948927
USA Today Reports That NSA Wiretapping Is More Far-Reaching Than Thought
NSA has massive database of Americans' phone calls http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-05-10-nsa_x.htm

Time to Call Bush on Lawbreaking
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/051706J.shtml
"The Fourth Amendment of the Constitution protects the privacy and liberty of Americans. It says the government can't search or seize you without a warrant issued on probable cause to believe you are involved in a crime. This right," writes Jesse Jackson, "is the line between a democracy and a police state, where the state can search or seize at will. That is the line that the NSA program erased."

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Lapdogs: How the Press Rolled Over for Bush (Hardcover)
by Eric Boehlert
BUZZFLASH REVIEWS

"...it took a federal prosecutor to pry this information from Woodward.
Boehlert quotes a media observer as calling it "Watergate in reverse."

"Boehlert, as we are, is aghast at how the mainstream media
-- through the collusion of its big multi-billion dollar corporate parents --
has joined the military-industrial complex in an ongoing effort
to prop up a failed administration, guilty of illegalities, deception,
fraud, negligence and gross failure."

------------ article follows:

When Dwight Eisenhower left office with his now famous admonition to Americans to be wary of the growth in power of the military- industrial complex, he didn't foresee one additional partner to the non-elected power block: big media.

The old expression, of course, is that a fish rots from the head down. But if you look at most of the mainstream media -- particularly television -- you would think that the Bush Administration rots everywhere but in its head, meaning Bush in the White House.

Eric Boehlert, in his must read new book "Lapdogs: How the Press Rolled Over for Bush," begins his book with this lamentable irony. Bob Woodward, one of the heroes of exposing "Watergate," has now become the role model of the Bush-GOP protective press corps that prevents the exposure of current scandals. In fact, Woodward sat on vital information relating to the Valerie Plame case for two years before he was forced to disclose that he was told about Plame before other reporters.

But it took a federal prosecutor to pry this information from Woodward. Boehlert quotes a media observer as calling it "Watergate in reverse."

Despite public opinion polls that show two thirds of the American public disapprove of Bush's presidency, despite failed wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, despite chronic lying that defies belief, despite a spending spree putting the nation on the precipice of bankruptcy, despite massive corruption, despite gross conflicts of interest, despite blatant war profiteering and cronyism, despite an administration that has put us at the brink of WW III, the mainstream press generally still continues to treat Bush with credibility.

Boehlert, as we are, is aghast at how the mainstream media -- through the collusion of its big multi-billion dollar corporate parents -- has joined the military-industrial complex in an ongoing effort to prop up a failed administration, guilty of illegalities, deception, fraud, negligence and gross failure.

America's media used to be a key shaper of public policy by providing reasoned analysis and more-or-less balanced reporting. Now, it is a daily public relations machine for Bush and the Republican Party. Its role is generally to enable and support the power base of the GOP, particularly the Bush Administration.

There are myriads of reasons for this and Boehlert explores them. But, moreover, he details the professional malfeasance of the mainstream media in becoming a de facto extension of the White House communications office. Most BuzzFlash readers will recall many of the mainstream media transgressions as they served as cheerleaders for ruinous Neo-Con visions. Boehlert puts them in context and adds new details and nuance that only will enrage you more at how news has become a public relations / advertising / propaganda commodity.

Of course, the military-industrial complex Eisenhower warned us against was -- and is -- based on a mutually beneficial relationship in which the growth of the military benefits the makers of weapons systems and military supply contractors (does the name Halliburton ring a bell) so that war becomes necessary in order to create a need for more production, as weapons of war are depleted and need to be replenished. In short, wars are no long necessarily fought because they are in our national interest; they are fought because the military-industrial complex can't profit if no wars are fought.

Similarly, big media is really just a subsidiary of the big mega- corporate conglomerates that are part of the shadow government that has worked to fix the free market system to benefit the few large companies at the top. Big media is the public relations arm of these companies -- and you can be sure news will be slanted to protect the business interests of the parent companies, who know that the Bush Administration butters their bread in regulations and laws that give them near-monopoly powers.

It's all very insidious, very clubby, and very, very anti-democracy and anti-free market.

"Lapdogs" is not a theoretical book (a lot of the above analysis is BuzzFlash value added). Boehlert, who writes for Salon, rolls up his sleeves and documents his case. Any patriotic political junkie worried about the future of democracy and the disgrace of the modern mainstream media must read this book.

It will make you angry that the people who are delivering the nightly news are helping to "fix the facts" for the Bush Administration. They are PR flaks, not journalists.

The fish rots from the head down, and the news media rots from the CEOs and boards of the parent corporations on down to the transcribers who masquerade as reporters.

---------- related article:

Poll: 2004 Election Was Stolen;
according to viewers of all news networks except Fox News
by Rob Kall
http://www.opednews.com

"Less than 2% of Democrats favor Fox news, while it's the favorite for 75% of Republicans
and 34% of independents. For Republicans and independents, Fox is the network
that is first choice. CNN is viewed as first choice by Democrats, with 38% choosing it."

Who are these Fox viewers. OpEdNews gives you the details.

In the first poll of its kind, (using First choice of TV news network as a demographic variable) OpEdNews.com, in the second OpEdNews/Zogby People's poll has learned that except for viewers of right wing news show, Fox News, poll respondents believe that the 2004 presidential election was stolen.

Overall, the poll of Pennsylvania residents found that 39% said that the 2004 election was stolen. 54% said it was legitimate. Shortly after the election, the NY Times suggested that a few fringe extremists and bloggers were concerned about the theft of the election.

But let's look at the demographics on this question. Of the people who watch Fox news as their primary source of TV news, one half of one percent believe it was stolen and 99% believe it was legitimate. Among people who watched ANY other news source but FOX, more felt the election was stolen than legitimate. The numbers varied dramatically:

Here are the stats by network listed as first choice by respondent and whether the respondent thought the election was stolen or legitimate. Network Stolen Legitimate ABC 56% 32% CBS 64% 31% CNN 70% 24% FOX .5% 99% MSNBC 65% 24% NBC 49% 43% Other 56% 28%

The poll asked people which was their favorite source of TV news. Among the 689 people in the poll who answered this question, 37% watched Fox news, more than any other single network. CNN came in second with 21% with MSNBC third, with 13%. It makes sense for these three 24/7 news networks to be the top in this category, since the others air news for limited parts of the day.

A lot more information on Fox News viewers :

After Fox news, the second choice for news network among Fox viewers is ABC 38% and MSNBC 37%, followed by CNN with 27%, NBC with 19% and CBS with 6%.

74% of it's viewers are married. 15% are single and 10% are divorced, widowed or separated. Whether they are fair and balanced, is up for debate. But they appear to be THE family channel, at least for Republicans. 64% have children. 85% of them come from non-union families. Among churchgoers, half go to church, temple or mosque rarely, never or just holidays. But for Fox News Viewers half go frequently. Among NBC viewers, 67% go most frequently. NBC has the most religious viewers. More born-agains watch NBC; 54% to 46%, and Born Agains are least likely to watch ABC: 95%/5%, MSNBC 78%/22%, CBS 76% to 24% and CNN 65%/35%. More Catholics, Protestants and Born- agains watch Fox news than any other news network.

82% of people who identify themselves as conservative and 80 of those who consider themselves very conservative watch Fox News. Zero liberal or progressives watch Fox News as their first choice, and 42% of moderates chose FOx news as their first choice. The first choice of progressives (very liberal) is Other, assumingly C-Span and the like. The first choice of Liberals is CNN.

Fox news is the favorite of suburban, small city and rural dwellers. CNN is the first choice of large city dwellers.

Among immigrants Fox news is the top favorite.

46% of men and 30% of women watch Fox news.

Less than 2% of Democrats favor Fox news, while it's the favorite for 75% of Republicans and 34% of independents. For Republicans and independents, Fox is the network that is first choice. CNN is viewed as first choice by Democrats, with 38% choosing it.

The OpEdNews.com/Zogby People's Poll, with 42 questions, also found that the PA US Senate Race, with Rick Santorum, is not at all like other polls have reported. While Casey Has a 47-37% lead. He has spent millions of dollars to get it. His opponents Chuck Pennacchio and Alan Sandals are both within similar range, with 45% and 43% with Pennacchio having spent under $100,000 and Sandals having spent under $500,000. Both the current and a previous OpEdNews/Zogby people's poll found, that after respondents were given position information on the candidates, that Casey's lead disappears and he pulls a smaller percentage than either Pennacchio or Sandals.

We are waiting on further crosstab analysis of the data. We believe that we will find that if you pull out Fox viewers, the rest of America has a far different view of America and the Bush Administration

This poll was run May 9th through 10th, in Pennsylvania, by the Zogby organization.

Methodology statement from Zogby:

Zogby International conducted interviews of 707 likely voters online. Panelists who have agreed to participate in Zogby polls online were invited to participate in the survey. The online poll ran from 5/9/06 through 5/10/06. The margin of error is +/- 3.8 percentage points. Margins of error are higher in sub-groups. Slight weights were added to party, age, race, religion, and gender to more accurately reflect the population.

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Rob Kall is executive editor and publisher of OpEdNews.com, President of Futurehealth, Inc, and organizer of several conferences, including StoryCon, the Summit Meeting on the Art, Science and Application of Story and The Winter Brain Meeting on neurofeedback, biofeedback, Optimal Functioning and Positive Psychology. He is a frequent Speaker on a wide range of subjects. See more of his articles here and, older ones, here.

Notable Quotables:

"Back in 1938, when fascism was sweeping Europe, legendary investigative reporter George Seldes observed that "it is possible to fool all the people all the time-when government and press cooperate." Unfortunately, we have reached that point. "
- Gary Webb - Investigative reporter for 19 years, he won a 1990 Pulitzer Prize,
received the 1997 Media Hero award, and in 1996 was named Journalist of the Year.
Taken from Mass Media Cover-up at http://www.wanttoknow.info/buzzsaw10pg
which features excerpts from the book Into the Buzzsaw
(Details at http://www.intothebuzzsaw.com - check also
http://www.cjr.org/archives.asp?url=/02/2/porter.asp)

"Fascism should rightly be called Corporatism as it is
a merge of state and corporate power."
- Benito Mussolini, the archetypal fascist

MONOPOLY MEDIA GOES MAINSTREAM
In 1983, 50 corporations controlled the vast majority of all news media in the U.S. At the time, Ben Bagdikian was called "alarmist" for pointing this out in his book, The Media Monopoly. In his 4th edition, published in 1992, he wrote "in the U.S., fewer than two dozen of these extraordinary creatures own and operate 90% of the mass media" -- controlling almost all of America's newspapers, magazines, TV and radio stations, books, records, movies, videos, wire services and photo agencies. He predicted then that eventually this number would fall to about half a dozen companies. This was greeted with skepticism at the time. When the 6th edition of The Media Monopoly was published in 2000, the number had fallen to six. Since then, there have been more mergers and the scope has expanded to include new media like the Internet market. More than 1 in 5 Internet users in the U.S. now log in with AOL Time-Warner, the world's largest media corporation. Source at Media Reform at http://www.corporations.org/media/

"Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country."
- Reichsmarshal Hermann Goering, President of the Reichstag, Nazi Party,
and Luftwaffe Commander in Chief, from Nurenberg Diary, (1947).
New York: Signet
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