Ex-Reagan official- Dubya uses spying to blackmail media & Dems

[JohnyCanuck]

ABout the author:
Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration. He was Associate Editor of the Wall Street Journal editorial page and Contributing Editor of National Review. He is coauthor of The Tyranny of Good Intentions.He can be reached at: [e-mail]

Who Will Save America?
My Epiphany

By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS

SNIP

We have reached a point where the Bush administration is determined to totally eclipse the people. Bewitched by neoconservatives and lustful for power, the Bush administration and the Republican Party are aligning themselves firmly against the American people. Their first victims, of course, were the true conservatives. Having eliminated internal opposition, the Bush administration is now using blackmail obtained through illegal spying on American citizens to silence the media and the opposition party.

Before flinching at my assertion of blackmail, ask yourself why President Bush refuses to obey the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. The purpose of the FISA court is to ensure that administrations do not spy for partisan political reasons. The warrant requirement is to ensure that a panel of independent federal judges hears a legitimate reason for the spying, thus protecting a president from the temptation to abuse the powers of government. The only reason for the Bush administration to evade the court is that the Bush administration had no legitimate reasons for its spying. This should be obvious even to a naif.

SNIP

Many patriotic readers have written to me expressing their frustration that fact and common sense cannot gain a toehold in a debate guided by hysteria and disinformation. Other readers write that 9/11 shields Bush from accountability, They challenge me to explain why three World Trade Center buildings on one day collapsed into their own footprints at free fall speed, an event outside the laws of physics except under conditions of controlled demolition. They insist that there is no stopping war and a police state as long as the government's story on 9/11 remains unchallenged.

They could be right. There are not many editors eager for writers to explore the glaring defects of the 9/11 Commission Report. One would think that if the report could stand analysis, there would not be a taboo against calling attention to the inadequacy of its explanations. We know the government lied about Iraqi WMD, but we believe the government told the truth about 9/11.

http://www.counterpunch.org/roberts02062006.html

[Botany]

1. Oh my!

:popcorn:

Looks like the natives are getting restless.

A Reagan republican now calls bush what he is a crook.

[helderheid]

2. He also wrote this: Evidence of a Stolen Election

http://www.lewrockwell.com/roberts/roberts140.html

Evidence of a Stolen Election


by Paul Craig Roberts

As coincidence would have it, Mark Crispin Miller’s new book, Fooled Again (Basic Books), documenting the Republican theft of the 2004 presidential election, arrived in the same mail delivery with the January 12 edition of the Defuniak Springs Herald, the locally owned weekly newspaper in a Florida panhandle county seat.

The Florida panhandle is thorough-going Republican. Even Democrats run as Republicans. Nevertheless, the newspaper’s editor, Ron Kelley, believes that American political life is measured by something larger than party affiliation. In his editorial, "The shepherds and the sheep," Kelley reports that two Florida counties have banned any further use of Diebold voting machines after witnessing a professional demonstration that the machines, contrary to Diebold’s claim, are easily hacked to record votes differently from the way in which they are cast by voters.

The pre-election statement by Diebold’s CEO that he would work to deliver the election to Bush was apparently no idle boast. In five states where the new "foolproof" electronic voting machines were used, the vote tallies differed substantially from the exit polls. Such a disparity is unusual. The chances of exit polls in five states being wrong are no more than one in one million.

Miller describes considerably more election fraud than voting machines programmed to count a proportion of Kerry votes as Bush votes. Voters were disenfranchised in a number of ways. Miller reports incidences of intimidation of, and reduced voting opportunities for, poorer voters who tend to vote Democrat.

<snip>


January 19, 2006

Dr. Roberts is John M. Olin Fellow at the Institute for Political Economy and Research Fellow at the Independent Institute. He is a former associate editor of the Wall Street Journal, former contributing editor for National Review, and a former assistant secretary of the U.S. Treasury. He is the co-author of The Tyranny of Good Intentions

Lots more at the link at the top

[FreedomAngel82]

30. Called me really shocked!

Has he done anything to help the stolen election? I wish he could use his influence to help.

[GreenPartyVoter]

3. I'll bring the drinks

:toast:

[MADem]

4. No wonder his 'deddy' ain't speakin' to him

Christmas in Crawford was likely because Christmas in Kennebunkport would have come to blows--mano a mano, and all that.

Not that Poppy and Reagan were all that chummy, but politically, they were at least in the same chapter, if not on the same page. Monkeyboy isn't even in the damn book, fachrissake~

[Crunchy Frog]

7. To be fair,

he's been consistently calling out the Bushies for the last few years. I remember sending him an appreciation email a couple of years ago, and I even got a reply back from him. His critiques of the Bush administration are among the most devestating I've seen, and often make liberal critics look tame and timid in comparison.

[tblue37]

54. Yes, and in the essay on spying

he compares Bush and the neocons to Hitler and his cabal.

I sent him an email begging him to try to influence tools like Kansas' Senator Roberts.

[KoKo]

60. Remember Tom DeLay's Extra Rooms for Entertainment?

Plus there have been articles that never got any traction about Sex stuff going on in DC for years. Gay and Hetero-Sex.

There's no doubt in my mind that not only Repugs but also Dems have been caught up in something there. Remember Jimmy/Jeff's allusion to Biden when he was first "outed." There was a lot of info about it all here on DU when it happened that's gone down the "memory hole" and the Washington Times (Conservative Mooney) even exposed a whole scandal in the Bush White House where there was a Gay Group involved inside the Executive Branch.

That's the only thing that's ever explained to me the "spinelessness" of not only our Dems but many Repugs who wouldn't have stood for what the Bushies have been doing decades ago. :shrug:

[ellenfl]

8. and former wsj editor . . . they really ARE getting restless. eom

[LittleClarkie]

64. Not just that. Did you ever think you'd see a Republican refer to MIHOP?

I didn't.

[marmar]

5. I think even a lot of the Reagan Republicans are saying...

that this administration is full of extremists. Except, of course, the leftover neocons who have such a prominent place in the current regime.

:yoiks:

[hootinholler]

12. In Nixon's and Ford's admins they were called

"The Crazies" We need to note who the Jr. level staffers are and leave lists for our children so this doesn't happen again.

-hoot

[Pithy Cherub]

6. They need to put pressure on the bushbots in the senate protecting

Emperor George W, the Naked!

When they get some of their elected officials to act like they are upholding the constitution and not being Emperor George W, The Naked's valets, then they will have done well for America.

Until then...:popcorn:

[jackster]

9. A call to arms.....

Roberts does it again and again. This should be plastered on every streetcorner!

[OneBlueSky]

10. "Anyone who depends on print, TV, or right-wing talk radio media . . .

is totally misinformed. The Bush administration has achieved a de facto Ministry of Propaganda."

the bottom line is that most people simply don't know the truth about what is going on in this nation and across the planet . . . why? . . . because nobody's told them! . . . since they get their information from media conglomerates aligned with BushCo, they are uninformed, ill-informed, and/or misinformed about damn near everything! . . .

and unless and until leaders who people respect and will believe start telling the truth, they're going to stay that way . . .

[seafan]

11. "Bush is committing America to a path of violence and coercion.."

A number of readers have asked me when did I undergo my epiphany, abandon right-wing Reaganism and become an apostle of truth and justice.

I appreciate the friendly sentiment, but there is a great deal of misconception in the question.

When I saw that the neoconservative response to 9/11 was to turn a war against stateless terrorism into military attacks on Muslim states, I realized that the Bush administration was committing a strategic blunder with open-ended disastrous consequences for the US that, in the end, would destroy Bush, the Republican Party, and the conservative movement.

snip

The United States is undergoing a coup against the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, civil liberties, and democracy itself. The "liberal press" has been co-opted. As everyone must know by now, the New York Times has totally failed its First Amendment obligations, allowing Judith Miller to make war propaganda for the Bush administration, suppressing for an entire year the news that the Bush administration was illegally spying on American citizens, and denying coverage to Al Gore's speech that challenged the criminal deeds of the Bush administration.

snip

One certainty prevails. Bush is committing America to a path of violence and coercion, and he is getting away with it.

[caligirl]

13. This is a must read article. Bush is now turning against the American

people in his lust for power.

[Just Me]

31. I've been saying for years that the BushCO/neoconster regime's exploiting,

,...their own people, their own nation.

I don't know whether to cry or scream, sometimes, because,...there are so damn many people WHO DO HAVE THE POWER, at their immediate disposal, to call these assholes out: loudly, succinctly, persistently. There are so damn many people who have a media presence and can expose these exploitative, criminal traitors. They are too damned scared!!! They're too scared to save their country from the "bad guys".

Geez.

[Pachamama]

44. Why when I think of that, I suddenely have a flash that * won't be leaving

after '08? :eyes:

Seriously - I read what you just said and the image flashed in my mind's eye of the fact that he has no intention of relinquishing his power....

[in_cog_ni_to]

14. This is what I have been saying all along! They were ALL bugged/wiretapped

and are being BLACKMAILED with that info.

[blm]

16. Remember when the Senate building was closed for so long after anthrax?

I always felt that BushInc was rummaging through every office and wiring the place from top to bottom.

[mzmolly]

18. Wow.

Interesting thought.

[in_cog_ni_to]

28. YES! They had free access to the Hart Senate building. That's what they

were doing. I also think the anthrax was sent as a warning ...straighten up and toe the line...or we will send you more potent anthrax. Why haven't they ever caught the anthrax sender?:crazy: The journalists and congress people who are being blackmailed, they need to join forces and take these people DOWN. NOW.

[Just Me]

34. They've had a complete plan for a coup in place since Bush I,...

,...refused to adopt their insanity. Your proposition would totally fit such a plan,...a plan to retain power, indefinitely.

[seafan]

36. And why not? BushCo eavesdropped on the UN Sec. Council pre-war.

Home phones and mobiles of UN Sec Council members were infiltrated. It was how * knew he was not going to get the second UN resolution voted his way to stampede into Iraq. So he never went back to the UN for the vote. He dispensed entirely with it, with dirty tricks that would amaze Nixon.

And look where we are today.

I don't doubt for a nanosecond that * spied on political enemies. There have been too many instances where it would have been accomplished easily... the anthrax scares that emptied out Capitol Hill buildings for hours/days; the computer tampering in the Dem judiciary offices, stealing info re: Dems' strategy for fighting bad judicial candidates(a member of Orrin Hatch's office admitted to that)... listening in on Christiane Amanpour to get at her husband, who was a highly placed foreign policy advisor to Kerry during his campaign...

And it's easy when you have the likes of Sen. Roberts to stonewall any and all intel investigations into manipulated intelligence..... Sen. Specter to run blocks for any chance of putting *-friendly witnesses under oath..... Sen. Lindsay Graham, taunting Senators who were concerned about the radical views of Judge Alito, to "tell 'em to bring it on, we'll clean their clock!"..... ad infinitum.


What we have, ladies and gentlemen, is a hostile takeover of our country by a nest of vipers.

[blm]

55. Poppy Bush used to blackmail other Repubs for Nixon - no doubt his spawn

would use that tactic. The blackmail network has probably been in place for 4 decades.

[mzmolly]

15. "The United States is undergoing a coup against the Constitution ... "

Indeed.

Recommended

The years of illegal spying have given the Bush administration power over the media and the opposition. Journalists and Democratic politicians don't want to have their adulterous affairs broadcast over television or to see their favorite online porn sites revealed in headlines in the local press with their names attached. Only people willing to risk such disclosures can stand up for the country.

Boy, does this make sense.

[EFerrari]

17. And the problem with "people willing to risk" such disclosures

is that truth travels at a rate much slower than lies do.

Everyone knows Rove excels at smearing. So, even clean, honest people are at risk.

[Skidmore]

20. Well, now is the time to sacrifice for the nation.

Lots of these guys have tons of money on their own. What we are going to lose is much greater than any office they hold presently. They are not doing much good now in those capacities.

[EFerrari]

25. Yep. Most of them are wealthy. But they all seem to be

terrified of the media like most people are of public speaking.

That's why Dean was so attractive in the first place.

And in the second place. :)

[Caretha]

48. You said a mouthful

Lots of these guys have tons of money on their own

The signers of the Declaration of Independence and the founders of our country were wealthy landowners who forfeited their security and money. I don't believe we're going to find that kind of patrotism or courage in the bowels of Congress. It will have to come from outside of DC, from people who have both wealth and power. I've given up on it coming from the Democratic party excluding a very small handful who remain consistant.

[mzmolly]

21. Very true.

And imagine if senators have a kid who say, called sex lines, or dabbled on various internet sites?

JC - no wonder some are a bit "timid."

This administration knows no bounds. They make John Gotti look like the kid who stole the neighbors bike.

[EFerrari]

26. Or a kid who is just a kid. They'd make him into a werewolf

in a heartbeat if they needed to.

No bounds is right.

[mzmolly]

27. That's right.

What teen age kid doesn't check out nudy pics on the internet?

[AndyTiedye]

41. None of It Even Has to Be Real. None of the Swift Boat Stuff Was.

If you're so squeaky-clean that they can't find ANYTHING on you,
they'll just make something up! Just like they did to Kerry!
Love him or hate him, Kerry IS Mr. Clean.
They never could find a damn thing on him.
So the Swift Boat Liars went to work and the rest is history.

[KittyWampus]

49. Apparently, it's easy enough to plant porn or manufacture photos

if you have the resources. And even if you were to dispute them.. the Mediawhores would play the "Cockfight" scenario and give ample time to the smear.

[glitch]

52. Indeed. Very easy to do to anyone.

Gore and Kerry were smeared not just as enemies, but as examples to the rest of the herd.
What will work is for the herd to stand up together.

This reminds me of an old Farside cartoon, of a single passionate sheep standing out in the herd proclaiming, "Look, we don't have to be sheep!", with the other sheep looking on, both sleepy and startled.

[mzmolly]

57. Absolutely.

And now that they have access to our personal information - making stuff up becomes a bit more credible.

You can BET they are using their newfound self appointed authority to tap democrats running for office. Hilary is said to be "overly emotional" these days. HUH?

[immoderate]

19. Roberts' analysis of no fly list. This is good!

Consider the no-fly list. This list has no purpose whatsoever but to harass and disrupt the livelihoods of Bush's critics. If a known terrorist were to show up at check-in, he would be arrested and taken into custody, not told that he could not fly. What sense does it make to tell someone who is not subject to arrest and who has cleared screening that he or she cannot fly? How is this person any more dangerous than any other passenger?

If Senator Ted Kennedy, a famous senator with two martyred brothers, can be put on a no-fly list, as he was for several weeks, anyone can be put on the list. The list has no accountability. People on the list cannot even find out why they are on the list. There is no recourse, no procedure for correcting mistakes.

I am certain that there are more Bush critics on the list than there are terrorists. According to reports, the list now comprises 80,000 names! This number must greatly dwarf the total number of terrorists in the world and certainly the number of known terrorists.

How long before members of the opposition party, should there be one, find that they cannot return to Washington for important votes, because they have been placed on the no-fly list? What oversight does Congress or a panel of federal judges exercise over the list to make sure there are valid reasons for placing people on the list?

This is from the Counterpunch link in the OP. I agree this article is a must read. Lots of anti-Bush ammo, and from a Reaganite.

--IMM

[seabeyond]

32. raising hand, agent mike i want to be on the no fly list.....

please..... by march 10th please, wink

[leftchick]

22. this is excellent and I just gave it to my husband to read

he is on the fence about getting the hell out of here and I hope this pushes him over. We are fucked.

[caligirl]

23. I just gave it to my 17 year old son to read, hubby will get it tonight.

[Arkham House]

24. In a sane society--

--Roberts would be the honored leader of our opposition, a genuine conservative. Things being as they are--he's our ally against these *&^%$&* running the country, and I'm damned glad to have him here. He has more guts and integrity than most of the Dems on Capitol Hill all rolled into one...

[FreedomAngel82]

29. Nice article

Only I don't believe what they told me about 9/11.

[malaise]

33. An amazing article

Damn what an indictment.

[Stephanie]

35. Thanks! Just sent to my only Republican friend.

He's starting to see the light - this will help. When I asked him yesterday how he felt now about his good friend George Bush, he just shook his head in disgust. First time ever. Usually he argues with me. The tide has turned.

We can sort out the sane Republicans from the Bushian lunatics and split the party. They're not all stupid.

[Odin2005]

37. Oh My God.

:scared: :nuke: :wow:

[Cats Against Frist]

38. PCR reminds me how fucking stupid freepers are

I read a thread at FR where some freepturd wrote that, "Actually, Roberts is a conservative, but he's drank the isolationist kool-aide."

I just about lost my fucking mind -- does this idiot not know that conservatism IS isolationist, and what the neocons have sold the freepers is a whole bill of LIBERAL nation-building ideas??? You have to be short more than a couple of bricks to not understand that very simple concept. I just about choked in the SOTU, when Bush was calling for "rejecting isolationism."

And the neocons just laugh at them. They know they could feed them a slimy corn shit, as long as it came with a side of fear, and they'd eat it straight up.

[Poiuyt]

39. So Bush is blackmailing the media? My first thought is that they've got

something on:

[MaraJade]

40. Deja Vu all over again. . .

I was around when Watergate broke. I am having such feelings of Deja Vu on this whole
domestic spying thing. '

If the congress turns over at the next election (highly likely) I BET we get the straight
dope on the Chimp's activities. The January 30th Newsweek Magazine highlighted cases where
domestic surveillance was being brought to bear on anyone who protested the War in Irag or who
was against the Shrub agenda.

Terrorist surveillance, my big ass. . . enemies lists are REALLY what this is all about. Just
a high tech version of the Watergate break-in.

Stand by on this one, folks. . .

[Tsiyu]

42. When Dems make these claims, the media mock us

Thank you, Paul Craig Roberts.

Keep up the good work....

[fearnobush]

46. Im sure some big exec's of M$M are getting payola and bribed

handsomely to suppress the real news. Its quite obvious why Bush put squeaky voice Gonzales in the AG seat and I'd bet a million bucks that Rove and his NSA apparatus have all kinds of scandals in the making for any Dem or Repuke that crosses the Neo Conn line. This so called war on terror is just like NSA 68 (Google it), the top secret domestic campaign war waged against communism after WWII.

[AntiFascist]

43. I fear that other WSJ types may be supporting Bush...

because they feel that if we can force Iran to continue propping up the petrodollar and selling us its oil, either through initimidation or overthrowing its regime, then it will keep the economy from falling hard, at least in the short-term. I wonder how Paul Craig Roberts would respond to them?

[Tigress DEM]

45. ..we believe govt truth about 9/11 --- not so much.

We just haven't pushed it hard enough because there is so much other criminal activity that is going on. Hard to get it all on the dance card.

But even if 9/11 happened as they say it did, that isn't a reason to deprive Americans of the protections of FISA. FISA was enacted in response to abuse of Presidential Power during war.

Geeze. All FISA is is a Courtesy NOD to the Fourth Ammendment. If they had REAL reasons for spying on US, it wouldn't be a prob.

[JohnyCanuck]

47. kick n/t

[KittyWampus]

51. Some friends & I were discussing the need for Old School Cons To

step up to the plate.

The same way Rational Christians, Jews, Muslims need to do with the Radical Fundies.

[EFerrari]

58. WHERE did the real Conservatives go? It's like they were

airlifted by the mothership or something. Look at the debt, at expanding government, at all the trade imbalances, wars a plenty.

Where are they? :shrug:

[Leopolds Ghost]

61. George Will David Brooks?

if they could be Turned, milord, they would be a powerful ally.

[NNN0LHI]

50. Yea that anthrax will do wonders too n/t

[WyLoochka]

53. I have emailed the Sunday Talk Shows

To ask them to invite the last real conservative - Paul Craig Roberts - to their panel gab fests. I haven't seen him on one of those shows in years, but he used to be on fairly frequently.

The political talk shows, both broadcast and cable, not only substitute DLC corpo whore, right of center sell outs for true liberals and then call them "liberals" - they substitute radical neo cons for real conservatives and falsely label them "conservatives."

This practice, bought and paid for in general by commercial "sponsors" with the "vested interest" that more greed is better, has so severely distorted public dialogue about what the issues are really about, it's no wonder people who depend on these shill fests for "analysis" of public policy are lost in the fog.

Let's see some real liberals and some real conservatives on these shows!

[nolabels]

56. Sometimes them Ex-Reagan officials even made sense

Ketchup as a vegetable aside.

[myrna minx]

59. Wow. Just wow.

:wow:

[Nothing Without Hope]

62. Important to note his comments about 9/11 and lack of Bushie credibility:

From the excerpt in the opening post:

Many patriotic readers have written to me expressing their frustration that fact and common sense cannot gain a toehold in a debate guided by hysteria and disinformation. Other readers write that 9/11 shields Bush from accountability, They challenge me to explain why three World Trade Center buildings on one day collapsed into their own footprints at free fall speed, an event outside the laws of physics except under conditions of controlled demolition. They insist that there is no stopping war and a police state as long as the government's story on 9/11 remains unchallenged.

They could be right. There are not many editors eager for writers to explore the glaring defects of the 9/11 Commission Report. One would think that if the report could stand analysis, there would not be a taboo against calling attention to the inadequacy of its explanations. We know the government lied about Iraqi WMD, but we believe the government told the truth about 9/11.

[spanone]

63. Thanks a very powerful and scary piece.

[Kolesar]

65. How the hell did this happen?

I am forming a thesis that the broadcasters are a power unto themselves. They are a huge lobby that has power beyond what they spend. They seem to control what people talk about, even when they are not watching tv. It is no surprise that they got bought out by big business as soon as that was authorized. PCR's next?

[Beam Me Up]

66. .

:kick:ass article

[tlsmith1963]

67. And This is From a *Republican*!

More Republicans need to speak out & tell the truth about the neocons. It will hurt their party in the long run if they continue to associate themselves with a gang of fascists. There are probably people here who would love it if the Republican Party ceased to exist, but I really don't feel that way. A democracy allows for more than one point of view. My problem with the Republicans isn't that they believe differently than I do. My problem is that they are allowing fascists to control their party. And these fascists are threatening the future of my country. So speak out, Republicans! Save your party & the country before it is too late!

Tammy