The 'Deep State' Rolls with the Entrenched Power of Wall Street, the Military and the Government

Former Washington Congressional staffer Mike Lofgren talks on Bill Moyers about the "Deep State" which is operating relentlessly in plain sight. 


This is real power, the untouchable, the unaccountable combination of corporations siphoning tax money; military and government operatives flexing unprecedented spending and sprawl, and the crushing of humans and democracy beneath its steel tracks. 


Lofgren for years had a perfect if uneasy perch from which to see these inexorable machinations in action and how this machinery gets a pass from laws and decency.


Please click any text on this page to read Lofgren's essay. 

Blackburn Moves to the Head of the Crass

It's not as if we Tennesseans did not already have enough crazy and injustice to worry about -- the legislature is in session, and you know what Mark Twain said about that.  Tennessee made network news infamy again this week -- I noticed on ABC's web site right there with Jessica Simpson's weight loss and protests in Ukraine -- thanks to state senator Brian Kelsey's bill to allow restaurants and other proprietors to refuse service to gay people.  


With manufactured consent of the governed at a high and the public's grasp of reality at a low, here comes Bill Maher reminding us how awful our members of Congress are.  Maher is pledging to drive out a terrible member of Congress in this election year, and there are so many to pick from.  They are calling it #flipadistrict, and they are soliciting:  http://www.real-time-with-bill-maher-blog.com/index/2014/1/31/test


Just in time for this topic of throwing the bums out, here comes Marsha Blackburn to thrust herself to the top -- surely -- of Maher's worst-in-show derby.   That Blackburn went on Meet the Press to "debate" Bill Nye about climate change should be a spoof headline in The Onion -- except it's not.


Blackburn is in TV ascent by default, anyway, now that Michele Bachmann is going back to Minnesota to gay-bust with husband Marcus and Palin is in Alaska cooking moose chili for Inside Edition.  


As such, Blackburn is heir apparent to Bachmann as the leading female tea party nut job in the House, and who better than Blackburn to fill those Palinesque slots on Fox?   Blackburn's tenure on Fox goes way back, when she first got in Congress in 2003 and Bush and Cheney used her as a female face to talk up the benefits of torture, wiretapping and bombing Iraq.

Check out older posts on www.ByeByeBlackburn.com while visions of a Blackburn-free Congress dance in your head.  Just to get you warmed up, watch this: “We’re not going to cry ‘emergency’ every time we have a Katrina:”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_xnUVrJx1I&list=PL0ABE56D3C78276E0&index=6
 
I encourage you who are like-minded to make some noise about all of this, as this is at least an opportunity to bring attention to one of the worst political hacks in the country and a blight upon Tennessee.

Here is a Top 10 (or bottom--there is so much more) we posted on Maher's blog:

She’s the “Queen of Mean.”  Robin Hood in reverse.  Heir apparent to Michelle Bachmann as the dingbat of the House.   Speaking of Marsha Blackheart (aka Blackburn), of course, 7^th district Tennessee.

Being a bought-and-paid-for political whore does not distinguish a congressman nowadays, but consider my Top 10 Blackburn blacklist:

1—“We’re not going to cry ‘emergency’ every time we have a Katrina, every time we have a tsunami,” Blackburn told a Congressional committee July 22, 2009.  Later, she voted against flood relief bill within days after her district experienced record flooding in May, 2010.

2—Twice named one of the “Most Corrupt Members of Congress” by CREW (Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington).    Blackburn admitted in 2008 she misplaced or misreported almost a half million dollars in campaign money, more than $300,000 of which went to her daughter and son-in-law.  She took a grand from convicted felon and fellow House member Randy ‘Duke’ Cunningham, and she gave to Tom Delay’s defense fund.

3—Wants to be called “Congress-man.”  Sponsored bill to abolish family planning, joined bill to redefine rape.

4—During Bush terms she voted for two unfunded wars, unfunded tax cuts for the wealthy, unfunded no child left behind, unfunded Medicare part D, while Bush increased spending by 88% and added $4 trillion to the national debt.  Since Bush, she has been all over Obama’s awful debt run-up and reckless spending on health care and moochers and disaster victims.

5—Got caught trying to pilfer the emails of a Republican primary opponent in 2008, then put out a mailer that said he was for “free healthcare for illegals.”

6—Took a family vacation at taxpayer expense to Oslo, Norway, in 2009.

7—Voted against health care for 9-11 First Responders and the Made in America Act in 2010.

8—Never debates an opponent.  Never needs to.  She has never even been quoted as uttering the name of a Democratic opponent.  She doesn’t have to do squat for the people of her district she is so comfortably Gerry-mandered. 

9—Served as Bush-Cheney TV lapdog and front woman to promote bombing Iraq, wiretapping, torture on Fox, etc., as soon as she got to Washington in 2003.   Infamously got her “talking points” out of order one day and the Fox host went, “no, no, no…”

10—Wants to abolish Social Security, Medicare, Department of Education, Environmental Protection Agency, National Public Radio, HUD, Department of Labor, Planned Parenthood, FCC, student loans, breakfast for poor kids, etc….hates the unemployed, the poor, sick people, American workers, Big Bird.

BONUS ROUND:

11—Watch Blackburn dance as puppet in witch hat and pointy shoes:  “Whose Side is Marsha Blackburn On?”  (2010)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNLA_w3QKww&list=PL0ABE56D3C78276E0&index=8

12—Introduced her Orwellian-named “Internet Freedom Act” to hand the U.S.-government developed Internet to her large sponsors, AT&T, Comcast and Verizon.  Wants to de-fund FCC.

13—“Birther" Blackburn screeched non-stop that Obama was born in Kenya.  June 2009, Blackburn sponsored bill to make presidential candidates show their birth certificate.

14—Pushes to allow med insurance corporations to operate across all 50 states so they can cut costs, jack profits and all move to the state which courts them with the most lax laws in the land.  Somewhat like corporations forming in Delaware for the softest laws and credit card companies moving to South Dakota. 

15—Rudely showed her Mississippi upbringing in a committee hearing March 15, 2013, when she repeatedly cut off Tennessee native and “Deadly Spin” author Wendell Potter while she was “questioning” him (grandstanding herself), allowing him a total of 20 seconds to “answer” within her five minutes of grandstanding.   Blackburn used Mr. Potter as a Pinata, asking him questions but then quickly cutting him off so that she could continue her fake rant.  Of Blackburn's five minutes to have the floor, she ranted for all but 20 seconds -- 20 seconds worth of Mr. Potter trying to get out a response to Blackburn's bombastic whine.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZK9_YseHhc

16—A dim bulb herself, Blackburn in 2011 sponsored the "Better Use of Light Bulbs (BULB) Act."  Blackburn ranted like it would be the end of the world if incandescent bulbs were phased out, saying things like “save the bulbs” and fluorescent bulbs “don’t save any energy.”

OTHER VIDEO LINKS:

“Rep. Marsha Blackburn Traitor and Corporate Shill”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRjuGfFBrHg


“Whose Side is Marsha Blackburn on?” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNLA_w3QKww&list=PL0ABE56D3C78276E0

  “Protestors at Backburn’s office, Channel 5:”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSSeOlaqMz8

  “Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) Filibusters her Witness…” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZK9_YseHhc&list=PL0ABE56D3C78276E0


“Blackburn calls for individual social security accounts”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtebyu2S93I&list=PL0ABE56D3C78276E0

 “Blackburn makes an ugly face: Freedom Dies”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L35-gStS-Ks

“Bye, Bye Blackburn – Hello Rabidoux” (2010 Election)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VkdEQgPLGKE

 “‘Bye, Bye Blackburn,’ sing her Williamson County Neighbors”

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MB7_AGvbNkA&list=PL0ABE56D3C78276E0

“Rep. Marsha Blackburn Traitor and Corporate Shill”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRjuGfFBrHg

Koch-Funded Christie Hid Way More Than Roadblocks

Greg Palast digs it out as few can.  Christie has some black holes on his schedule, days when he was neck deep with Koch brothers and other billionaires who want to corrupt the system and rule the world--and theirs are the only rules.  As corruption goes, Christie's roadblock is small potatoes.  Read Greg's story for a look at how politicians are bought by their puppet masters.

America's Secret War in 134 Countries

Looking for a growth industry in the U.S.?  Think the economy is still floundering and not working for many of us?  Consider the exploding military industry, from Homeland Security to militarization of local police to military bases all over the world to secret special ops forces. 
Nick Turse goes where mainstream America's head just doesn't.