Irene's Weblog

This is the full text of my article from The Daily Censored. Feel free to check out all the other stories at The Daily Censored as well.

When 9/11 first occurred, many people were devastated. Speculations ran around in the early days, but the American government assured us that it was masterminded by Osama bin Laden who had hired and trained Saudi nationals to complete the task. Eventually, it was claimed that Saddam Hussein was also involved and that we needed to invade Iraq, leaving us fighting two fronts in Iraq and Afghanistan. A few years later, after we’ve captured Hussein, we’re told bin Laden isn’t all that important and that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is the evil mastermind behind 9/11. He was, apparently, part of al-Qaida, so there was still a need to capture bin Laden, but Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is the person who is responsible for the entire mess we have gotten ourselves into. He has now confessed to numerous plots ranging from the Daniel Pearl murder to the Richard Reid shoe bombings.

Since 9/11 we have seen the shift in responsibility for the event shift to suit the needs of those in power in the American government. First, we went into Afghanistan because that’s where we were told Osama bin Laden was. Next, we moved on to Iraq because there was some convoluted claims about a connection between bin Laden and Saddam Hussein. Anyone who understood the region and the people involved knew this was not true, but the story was sold to the American people and the United States invaded and overthrew the Iraqi regime.

Now that we have pulled out of Iraq, at the request of the Iraqi government, the American government feels the need to shift the blame of 9/11 yet again to its newly perceived enemy, Iran. This past week, a New York judge found that Tehran is liable in the 9/11 attacks.

On Thursday, Judge George Daniels in Manhattan signed a default judgment finding Iran, the Taliban and al-Qaida liable in the 2001 attacks. The ruling came in a $100 billion lawsuit brought by family members of victims.

The findings also said Iran provides al-Qaida members a safe haven.

Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has repeatedly denied any Iranian connection to the Sept. 11 attacks or to al-Qaida.

CBS News has more details on the findings.

Daniels signed findings of fact saying the plaintiffs had established that the 2001 attacks were caused by the support the defendants provided to al Qaeda. The findings also said Iran continues to provide material support and resources to al Qaeda by providing a safe haven for al Qaeda leadership and rank-and-file al Qaeda members.

During last week’s open-court hearing, family members of Sept. 11 victims sat through a four-hour presentation from attorneys who cited evidence supporting their claims that Iran actively assisted the hijackers of planes that crashed into the World Trade Center towers, at the Pentagon and into a field in Pennsylvania. Former members of the Sept. 11 Commission and three Iranian defectors also spoke.

The judge accepted as fact the Plaintiff’s evidence solely because the other party, in this case the country of Iran, did not show up in court. Iran has repeatedly stated that they have no involvement with al-Quaida.

Saudi Arabia had been knocked out of the lawsuit, but lawyers filed papers on Thursday to reinstate Saudi Arabia as a defendant.

Saudi Arabia. The home of 15 of the 19 9/11 hijackers. Why was it knocked out of the lawsuit? Why is there no responsibility placed on Saudi Arabia?

The story is now out there. Just how many countries are ultimately going to be responsible for 9/11?Will the American people blindly accept these findings or will they actually question what is happening before the United States gets itself involved in another war?

With the SOPA bill and Congress, yet again, blocking nearly all opposition voices, it is abundantly clear that the government doesn’t give a shit about us. Everything that actually needs reform isn’t taken seriously, if at all, but piracy, yeah that’s a major problem in the world that needs to be addressed before anything else. It’d be a lot easier if Congress would just admit that the companies who support SOPA have deeper pockets than us and that’s why SOPA is important.

We have had one attempt to fix health care in this country. That turned out to be a joke after any meaningful changes were stripped from the bill before it was voted on to become a law. Most folks are worse off than before, including myself as I am now prevented from seeking health care elsewhere simply because my job offers me a health care plan. It doesn’t matter that it’s one of the shittiest plans on the planet. It’s what I have to take.

No one on Wall Street has been prosecuted for the criminal acts they’ve performed in robbing the American public. Many have been rewarded with better jobs. The banking industry is a complete mess, but no one is trying to fix it because the bankers have politicians in their back pockets. All this money floating around has thoroughly corrupted Washington to the point that, if you don’t have the cash, politicians aren’t going to listen to you.

Why haven’t we legalized or, at least, decriminalized pot yet? Oh right, because then we’d have to stop shelling out money to people on the war on drugs.

The TSA continues to expand despite the fact that they have never caught a single terrorist. They do find drugs and weapons, just as they did before, but no terrorists. Their ineptitude is shown every single time they deploy some new machine that’s supposed to make us safer. It doesn’t. It just lines the pockets of their friends. In the meantime, the TSA turns into Animal Farm more each day. No one is exempt. Pilots are exempt. Then children are exempt. Then “trusted” travelers. Now families. We’re all equal, except some are more equal than others.

These are all concerns that should be looked at in earnest. Instead, we have Congress busying themselves with some new online piracy legislation once the previous one is defeated. Homeland Security apparently feels that shutting down websites is far more important than finding terrorists. Maybe, just maybe with the international community starting to take notice, SOPA will be defeated. Unfortunately, we’ll just see it turn up again in six months as some new insidious legislation and the fight will start over again. After all, Congress is claiming that SOPA will protect our troops. You want our soldiers to be safe don’t you?

No one in Washington cares about individual citizens. They care about themselves and how much money they are going to get. Once individual citizens get enough cash together, then they’ll listen. Until then, we’re just politely told to fuck off.

via reddit.

This is the full text of my article from The Daily Censored. Feel free to check out all the other stories at The Daily Censored as well.

Over the past few years, Facebook has garnered a lot of publicity, concern, and backlash for its numerous privacy issues. The most current concern is a recent patent filing to track its users offsite as well as actually helping the government with surveillance. Earlier this week, Facebook created its own Political Action Committee (PAC).

The move is the latest in a series of maneuvers boosting the Palo Alto company’s political profile in recent years, joining a steady rise in lobbying spending, several high-profile fundraisers and the failed statewide candidacy of one of its key officers for attorney general last year.

Much like Microsoft and Google before it, Facebook’s meteoric rise has been followed by a boost in political activity across the board.

Federal records show the company has more than tripled its federal lobbying spending since 2009, from about $200,000 to more than $730,000 this year. Much of Facebook’s recent lobbying activity has focused on net neutrality and privacy issues.

Facebook is not entirely unfamiliar with lobbying either. It first began lobbying at the state level last year.

The company has expanded its footprint in Sacramento, too, spending more than $50,000 on lobbying through the first two quarters of this year and nearly $80,000 last year, when it hired its first state-level lobbyist.

Among the bills it lobbied were a measure that would have required stringent reporting for sex offenders on social networking sites and bills related to privacy and carpooling benefits.

Although Facebook appears concerned about childrren and sex offenders, the other privacy issues with the website lead many to believe that Facebook is only playing lip service to “thinking of the children.”

With all the information Facebook collects about individuals both on and off their site, how long will it be before private information about politicians is collected, stored, and used against them? What happens when a politician visits a website a sexual fetish or other controversial issue and it has a “like” button or other type of cookie on the site, whereby Facebook now knows where the politician is surfing to? What if this politician is on a congressional committee deciding on legislation that Facebook wants passed?

One particular privacy issue currently facing Congress is the need for better legislation on how long websites must store data for before it is erased. German citizens have already taken advantage of a European law that requires Facebook to turn over all the information they have on an individual when a written request from the individual is made. Many Germans discovered that there were up to 800 pages of personal data stored on Facebook’s severs. While many argue that companies should not have so much power to attempt to control Congress, the fact remains that many companies are legally allowed to do so. They continually pressure Congress into enacting legislation in their favor with their disproportionate influence in Washington.

Despite what many believe, Facebook’s PAC will not represent its users. It will be representing Mark Zukerberg and the interests of Facebook as it continues to expand. Considering Facebook’s history of privacy violations, it is likely that their new PAC will focus on loosening privacy laws, in order to further spy on their users.

As Americans we should step up and put pressure on Congress to stop allowing PACs. PACs make the government weaker and do not allow citizens’ voices to be fully heard. A citizen does not have the money or leverage required to get a politician’s attention in solving issues.

When we allow corporations, companies, and websites access to our private information for free, we become the product they are selling in order to make a profit. Our sense of privacy will, eventually, come into conflict with this.

It is never too late to delete your Facebook account. If you keep your Facebook account, you should be proactive in keeping as much of your personal information private as possible. Take steps to prevent Facebook from tracking you on other websites. Support organizations, such as EFF and EPIC, who fight against large corporations and websites who, generally, really don’t care about you. It’s your personal information. Make sure you understand how it’s being used and how to prevent it from spreading because Facebook won’t.

Mother Jones has an interesting article, along with a chart, showing the intertwined relationship between K Street and Capitol Hill.

This pattern has played out for years, but as a recent report from the Center For Responsive Politics details, the revolving door between K Street and the Hill is spinning faster than ever. In the 2009-2010 session of Congress, 60 former lobbyists were hired to fill key staff positions; in the current session, more than twice the number ex-lobbyists have been hired.

These people have no interest in the rest of America and they don’t represent you. They represent whoever is lining their pockets with dollar bills. This is why we have so many problems in Washington despite every president claiming they are going to do something to curb the influence and power of lobbyists.