After reading Robert Parry on Consortium News

[lyonn]

it appears that we in America have been duped for so long that the powers that be in Washington realize how easy it is to make laws that are counter to the well being of America since we out here listening to the nightly news are fed stuff we just eat up, no questions.

From Nixon and all of his arrogance and control to the Repub. back room, out of country deals to make Carter look like an idiot and flagrantly had the U.S. hostages in Iran released minutes after Regan's swearing in ceremony. Then Reagan's swell CIA dirty dealings in S. and Central America and Iran, and China nuclear info exchange (which later was blamed on Clinton!) while he was in control and smiling and lying (could be he didn't really know what was really happening, like bush II) with absolutely no one investigating. Investigations were stopped in their tracks. That is what total govt. control allows. Then Clinton gets trashed to the max and all the questions concerning Iran contra, CIA, get back room trashed for political purposes, one being Clinton's economic legislation. Parry is convinced that Clinton screwed up when he didn't follow through investigating Reagan and Bush, that the repubs took full advantage of it and screwed Cinton royally with the likes of Starr. Since then the Dems have been on the defensive and the repubs have run roughshod over them/us.

After reading many of Parry's articles dating back to 1999 it seems obvious we need a clean sweep of the House and Senate. The whole system is basically corrupt.

The Deans, Fingolds, Boxers, the Dem. from Ohio that just got told to step aside and let another Dem. run for Senator, sorry, his name escapes me, anyway they stand no chance against the powers in Washington. Whew, just had to vent.

[grasswire]

1. thanks for the post

It is, indeed, a sad realization when one comes to know that much of our experience as Americans has over the last few decades been based on lies from those who hold the public trust. Even Bill Clinton sold us out on issues of trade and regulations. It's heartbreaking to be fully informed about all this. People like Parry have been blacklisted and shunned for telling the truth. Maybe there's a place in hell for those who abuse the public trust. But some blame has to lie on those citizens who've succumbed to apathy and the opiate lure of material comfort, too.

[lyonn]

4. Blacklisted?

It seems he has the goods on how this democracy has been and is being run. When I want research on the latest news I go to his site. Who and how is he blacklisted? Since he isn't quoted much I have wonder why. He seems to know who's who in the zoo.

[blm]

5. Parry was the top investigative reporter on IranContra which also led to

BCCI. Bush1 kept pressuring Newsweek to dump him saying he was out of control and acting out a personal vendetta against Bush. Very weird reasoning, but it eventually wore down Newsweek.

Kerry was ostracized in DC throughout those investigations. He has always been slandered by the DC powerstructure insiders - GOP and Dems.

Gary Webb exposed the CIA drugrunning - Kerry, pretty much alone, stood with Webb and his story. Webb lost his job and soon after the election in 2004 committed "suicide"...???......he was counting on Kerry taking office and opening the books on the government corruption they all worked to expose.

[blm]

12. Parry sure could have used it if Clinton had opened the IranContra books

and the BCCI books. It would have proved all those reporters were dead on and no Bush would have ever been allowed NEAR the White House.

[plusfiftyfive]

2. Actually, I have been thinking ...

About how we should just flush all 535 members of the House and Senate, send them home without any more pay, no pensions, no health care benefits other than those the Medicare folks get, and sue them all for back wages for a job they never performed, i. e. representing us!

Unfortunately, without a change in the laws, two thirds of the Senate would remain, so I am beginning to think we need a revolution... I am just so sick of the Dems and Reps appearing on TV trying to look like they really represent us!

If they had any sense and any brains they would.

1)
Eliminate any corporate finance of campaigns.
2)
Require all TV stations and networks to come up with a few hours every year for political campaigning....free airtime.

OH, and.......

3 Impeach Bush, Cheney and the whole crew and send them over to the FBI and Justice Department to face multiple charges for crimes and misdemeanors.

[lyonn]

3. No. 1 and 2 make all kinds of sense

No. 3 is a no brainer.

At one time in my voting life I thought that experience in govt. was a good thing. Course I also voted for repubs, duh. But there are so many games being played in Washington that it looks like John and Jane Q. public are forgotten 'cause we don't understand the ramifications of govt. and policy. But the biggest problem with our country is corporate rule, plain and simple.

[blm]

6. Your 1 and 2 were part of Clean Elections Bill by Kerry and Wellstone

back in 97. They had few standing with them. McCain-Feingold was the bill that ended up getting all the media attention.

[leftofthedial]

7. the entire system, repukes and dems alike, currently serves

corporations, not the people

[blm]

11. If you read Parry's work you would know that statement isn't true.

The problem is also that TOO MANY don't discern the important work and efforts of those anti-corruption lawmakersn who also seek to hold the corporations involved accountable.

They also don't know who are the few lawmaker advocates for public financing of campaigns.

[blm]

8. K&R - Because everyone should read Parry.

And, just to keep the story straight - Kerry was pretty much on his own when he looked into IranContra and especially after BCCI and again on CIA drugrunning.

You would be disheartened to find that at the time the Gov of Vermont supported Reagan's contra policies - many centrist Dms did - and you can't name many senators who helped Kerry on BCCI in the late 80s and 90s, or CIA drugrunning in the mid90s.

Imagine what our government would be like today if other powerful governors and senators chose to help Kerry expose all that government corruption and global terror networks instead of looking the other way and shunning his efforts.

Everything happening today is rooted in the people and events surrounding IranContra, BCCI and CIA drugrunning.

[karynnj]

9. I was surprised that Clinton was also pro-contra

I first read it in Stephanopolis' book when he was listing pros and cons in working on Clinton's 1992 campaign.

[blm]

10. Did Steph mention in his book why Clinton wouldn't open BCCI books?

I found it VERY strange that Clinton - a known political animal - wouldn't even MENTION one word about BCCI in his book.

[karynnj]

13. I don't think it was mentioned

Even the contra thing was in the beggining of the book when GS was considering which candidate to work for. That was one of the "cons" for Clinton. I was really surprised to read that because over time I forgot that he was a pretty conservative Democrat. There is no mention of BCCI - that I could find - in Clinton's humongous biography.

Between BCCI and Contra drug running - I almost wonder if it weren't just Hillary's future that may have made Clinton seem not too unhappy when Kerry lost. Even if Kerry did nothing on those issues - which would surprise a lot of us - his being President would lead to at least some biographies. A serious biography of Kerry's Senate career could expose Clinton deficits that are currently not apparent.

[blm]

15. Considering that Clinton won because of bad IranContra and BCCI headlines

throughout Bush1's term, it really becomes an oddity that Clinton never even mentions BCCI in his book, and gives IranContra only passing references while using about 2 sentences to say he COULD have done more with the investigations but chose to give Bush1 a peaceful retirement.

What a crock. It is just too unbelievable.

[karynnj]

16. It does seem kind of odd

and likely ties in with his strang ambivilence in describing why he supported Kerry over Weld. That he was the Democratic President and should want all the seats he can get should have sufficed. In listing Kerry's strengths he ignores the POW/MIA committee and opening Vietnam (which in other sections Clinton takes credit for), foreign policy and his investigations. (In a book coming out a month before Kerry's convention)

I actually begin to wonder if Clinton feared a Kerry Presidency damaging his reputation as much as the Bushes did.

[radio4progressives]

17. hmm.. interesting. The Clintons are part fo the CFR gang...

CFR / BCCI /IMF etc..

hmm...

[blm]

22. Steven Spielberg once said he was angry at how the entertainment industry

didn't embrace someone like John Kerry who he felt they should have done more for in 2003 and 2004. I wonder if the Clinton influence downplayed Kerry in that community, too.

[radio4progressives]

19. Neo Liberalism /NAFTA = Neo Imperialism/Neo Colonialism / Neo Fascism.

Same as Neo Conservatism - only with a sweet smile instead of a smirk.

[burrowowl]

14. NOOO! Really!

"it appears that we in America have been duped for so long that the powers that be in Washington realize how easy it is to make laws that are counter to the well being of America since we out here listening to the nightly news are fed stuff we just eat up, no questions."

Let's just say the T. Roosevelt was the first U$ imperialist, I highly recommend Howard Zinn's: A People's History of the United States.

My Mexican relatives have witnessed first hand the effect of U$ imperialism from way back.

[radio4progressives]

18. Actually our Imperalism goes back a hundred years before

T. Roosevelt, but of course T. Roosevelt certainly took the manifest destiny to the extremes.

Must look pretty freaking lame to see a bunch of Gringos suddenly feel the pain of Neo Fascist oppression, that's been unleashed against indiginous peoples all over the world, and most especially right here in the Americas. I think about that a lot.

Unfortunately, still not enough see or feel the pain themselves yet, to get it.

[burrowowl]

20. Yes you are

the Monroe Doctrine!

[Robeson]

21. It's gone on far longer than that....

...almost since the inception of the nation.