The Political Intelligence Industry

[Octafish]

This wonderful phrase sheds light on the cockroaches who brought you the Military-Industrial Complex.



A bit of background on how the well-connected turn a buck with a secret:

House Passes Bill Banning Insider Trading by Members of Congress

By ROBERT PEAR
The New York Times
Published: February 9, 2012

EXCERPT...

“We need to stop the insidious practice of insider trading, giving members of this body an unfair advantage over Americans who sent us here to represent them,” said Representative Kathy Hochul, Democrat of New York. “Let us begin the long process of restoring the faith of the American people in this institution.”

Representative Louise M. Slaughter, Democrat of New York, who has been pushing ethics legislation since 2006, said, “It appears that the House Republican leadership could not stomach pressure from the political intelligence community, which is unregulated and unseen and operates in the dark.”

SNIP...

Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa, who wrote the proposed disclosure requirement, denounced “the chutzpah” of House Republican leaders, who he said had “wiped out any chance of meaningful transparency for the political intelligence industry.” He said he would fight to restore the requirement.

SNIP...

The chamber’s Democratic leader, Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, said the House-passed bill had “serious omissions” and was “much diminished” from the Senate version. She supported it as a way to advance the legislation, but said, “I don’t want anyone to interpret the strong vote for it to be a seal of approval.”

CONTINUED...

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/10/us/politics/house-passes-bill-banning-insider-trading-by-members-of-congress.html

The rest of the story shows how our esteemed Congress, led by John Boehner and Eric Cantor, took out the parts in the bill that made it illegal for them and their fellow Congressmen and Congresswomen to share "insider information" with Wall Street.

For the 1-Percent and their Toadies in government, Political Intelligence Industry "sums" it up perfectly.

[Octafish]

1. 6 Shocking Revelations of Wall Street's Secret Government

Top officials willfully concealed the true extent of the 2008-'09 bailouts from Congress and the public.



http://www.alternet.org/story/153274/6_shocking_revelations_about_wall_street%27s_%22secret_government%22

Top Dollar for Top Secret kick.

[countryjake]

2. K&R!

[Octafish]

3. Thanks, countryjake! Hey! Didya hear about Wall Street's Spy Center?

Pam Martens writes:

Not only is it unprecedented for corporations under serial and ongoing corruption probes to be allowed to spy on law abiding citizens under the imprimatur of the largest police force in the country, but the legality of the operation by the NYPD itself is highly questionable.

CONTINUED...

http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/02/06/wall-streets-secret-spy-center-run-for-the-1-by-nypd/

[countryjake]

4. Oh yeah, gives CBS's hit "Person of Interest" a shock of reality!

I read that CounterPunch article last week when it came out and couldn't help but be reminded of the machine in that new tv show, and actually, after I watched the premier of that new series last Fall, it brought to mind the 60 Minutes from only a few weeks earlier which had gleefully shown us how "protected" NYC is now with its shiny Surveillance Coordination Center. And also the star character on Person of Interest, the mysterious billionaire, who surreptitiously gleans info from his creation to further his plot, quite tidily fits in with the Wall St. connection of the real thing. And the entire premise, the clincher, is that they are fighting the "bad guys" with their "good" intentions.

So, is multi-media quietly trying to innure us to the reality of such covert operations, preparing us for future expansion and further use against citizens by combining fantasy tv programming with the stark facts of what they already have in place? Of all the other outrageous things they have gotten away with during the past decade, under the pretenses of guarding against "terrorism", the use of tax monies for this joint Wall St/NYPD surveillance system seems to me to be one of the worst.

Call me paranoid, but this 1%/Big Brother watching scheme makes "police state" seem like a pretty weak description of the entire set-up!