Was the Military Industrial Complex Involved in this Fascist Betrayal?

[radio4progressives]

This is a question to be researched carefully, but dollars to donuts, I bet we will see emerging an interesting pattern among those who voted for cloture yesterday (in most of the states) and undo benefits/favors from DoD/Pentagon and the Military.


Posted on TruthOut, here are the list of Democratic Senators who voted Yes on Cloture:

http://forum.truthout.org/blog/?op=displaystory;sid=2006/1/30/192745/105

Daniel Akaka (Hawaii),
Daniel Inouye (Hawaii),

Jeff Bingaman (N.M.),

Robert Byrd (W. Va.),
John D. Rockefeller (W. Va.)

Maria Cantwell (Wash.),

Thomas Carper (Del.),
Joseph Lieberman (Conn.),

Kent Conrad (N.D.),
Byron Dorgan (N.D.),
Tim Johnson (S.D.),

Max Baucus (Mont),
Ken Salazar (Col.),
Herb Kohl (Wis.),

Ben Nelson (Neb.)
Bill Nelson (Fla.),
Mary Landrieu (La.),

Mark Pryor (Ark.),
Blanche Lincoln (Ark.),


Can we get some researchers or those who know what kind of kickbacks, or windfalls, or promises of jobs for these Senators?

This an interesting pattern, because these are not all "fly over" states. Hawaii have military bases and operations, what's going on in Arkansas? Interesting that both Dakotas, Montana and Wisconsin (!) Senators were leaned on.

TruthOut list these names in election year categories, i listed these names by states for the purpose of this line of inquiry.

But I think that as is important to find candidates to run against these Senators, to learn why and how these Senators were being leaned on, is there a connection to the Military Industrial Complex, among other incentives?

[Democrats_win]

1. Wouldn't be surprised. Rove has made this tactic an art form.

[liberalmike27]

2. Really

I'm surprised at Robert Byrd. Perhaps he thought he'd die before the filibuster was done.

[radio4progressives]

4. Senator Byrd and his little Red Book

I am truly, truly disappointed with Senator Byrd..

He completely betrayed all trust in him as the lead fighter and defender for the Constitution, and the level of seriousness and committment to his Oath of office to protect it from all those who would destroy it .

But on the other hand the situation points to the fact that every elected official holding office is but a mere human being subject to fear, intimidation and corruption.

It's too bad.

But isn't it interesting how our attention was never focused on Rockefeller?

Now why is that do you think?

[TahitiNut]

11. Byrd is a long-time conservative.

He has received the bulk of his campaign funding from Leadership PACs and Labor, but the $10,000 he has received from the United Mine Workers is overshadowed by the $27,000 he's received from corporate mining interests. When we look at the Leadership PACs supporting him, we see political cronyism.

CHRIS PAC (Affiliate: Chris Dodd (D-Conn)) $5,000
Cmte for a Democratic Majority (Affiliate: Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass)) $10,000
DAKPAC (Affiliate: Kent Conrad (D-ND)) $5,000
DASHPAC (Affiliate: ex-Sen Tom Daschle (D-SD)) $5,000
First State PAC (Affiliate: Thomas R. Carper (D-Del)) $10,000
Glacier PAC (Affiliate: Max Baucus (D-Mont)) $10,000
Great Plains Leadership Fund (Affiliate: Byron L. Dorgan (D-ND)) $5,000
Green Mountain PAC $2,000
HILLPAC (Affiliate: Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY)) $10,000
Holding Onto Oregon's Priorities (Affiliate: Ron Wyden (D-Ore)) $5,000
Hope Fund $4,200
Keeping America's Promise $4,200
Leadership in the New Century $1,000
Moving America Forward $2,000
Narragansett Bay PAC $4,200
New Jersey United (Affiliate: Jon Corzine (D-NJ)) $5,000
New Leadership for America $1,000
PAC for a Change (Affiliate: Barbara Boxer (D-Calif)) $20,000
Prairie PAC (Affiliate: Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill)) $10,000
Progressive Patriots Fund $1,000
Searchlight Leadership Fund (Affiliate: Harry Reid (D-Nev)) $10,000
Summit PAC $1,000

[radio4progressives]

13. On another list, I saw a report that MoveOn.org gave $800,000 to Byrd

and i read that Barak Obama raised a considerable sum for Robert Byrd in recent weeks of campaigning events.

MoveOn was the highest donor on the list... i don't have it handy but the website was posted here a few days ago.

[TahitiNut]

14. Interesting that you remember it as ten times larger than it was: $88,615

Here's the list:

1 Moveon.org $88,615
2 Homestar Bank $12,000
3 Wells Fargo $10,500
4 Intl Brotherhood of Electrical Workers $10,250
5 AFL-CIO $10,000
5 American Bankers Assn $10,000
5 American Fedn of St/Cnty/Munic Employees $10,000
5 Carpenters & Joiners Union $10,000
5 Cmte for a Democratic Majority $10,000
5 Communications Workers of America $10,000
5 Credit Union National Assn $10,000
5 First State PAC $10,000
5 Glacier PAC $10,000
5 HILLPAC $10,000
5 Laborers Union $10,000
5 Machinists/Aerospace Workers Union $10,000
5 PAC for a Change $10,000
5 Plumbers/Pipefitters Union $10,000
5 Searchlight Leadership Fund $10,000
5 Sheet Metal Workers Union $10,000
5 United Mine Workers $10,000
5 United Transportation Union $10,000


Quite a few tied for 5th place.


It's also interesting that Business PACs outcontribute Labor PACs.
Business $280,850 (41.8%)
Labor $204,500 (30.4%)
Ideological/Single Issue $187,175 (27.8%)

[radio4progressives]

16. What i read was also quoted exactly..

Interesting. I wonder if it was a typo the first time?

[pocket]

3. is there anything it's NOT involved in?

it permeates our whole society.

[radio4progressives]

5. Yes, every single state ...

so every Senator and Congress member is subjected to bribery, fear and corruption by the Military Industrial Complex along with the Energy Industry.

[Greeby]

6. Hmm, but Feinstein is way deeper in the pocket of the MIC

And yet supported the filibuster :shrug:

[FreedomAngel82]

7. Which is weird

I think she did because of pressure and she didn't want to lose her seat.

[radio4progressives]

8. Senator Feinstein is especially villified because of her publisized

connections, and associating with the GOP, is called out in public, a War Profiteer, and finally is being challenged on these policies and her conflict of interest. Protest demonstrations in front of her office in San Francisco, (where she lives) is a re-occuring event.

People in the Bay Area have not been silent with their disgust and dismay with her GOP support and War positions, and her office is now being challenged. a Socialist running on the Green Party has officially tossed his hat in the ring, did that in December in front of her S.F. office (holding full court press)and Cindy Sheehan has almost as much name recognition as DiFi has, if not more.

When Cindy challenged DiFi last week on the filibuster, and then DiFi switched her position on the filibuster, no one can tell me there wasn't a direct connection - DiFi is finally feeling the heat, and rightfully so.

[newswolf56]

9. In Cantwell's case, it is probably simple pre-election cowardice:

She is a fanatical anti-gunner in a state that though Democratic -- with a strong undercurrent of pro-socialist sentiment -- is also at least 70 percent in favor of the right to keep and bear arms; she spat in the face of organized labor by voting for outsourcing and forcible wage-reduction via CAFTA; and now she is opposed in the primary by a genuinely progressive, pro-labor, New-Deal Democrat, Mark Wilson, whose website is here:

http://votemark.org/

My suspicion is that Cantwell is pandering to the hard-core Christian fundamentalist vote, in Washington a small but disproportionately powerful, lockstep-disciplined minority who have made the state Republican Party their own private Fourth Reich. How this would influence Cantwell's vote is unclear until we realize that the key issue in the Alito appointment (a fact deliberately censored by the corporate media) is that his record proves beyond any doubt he will open the door to genuine theocracy -- undoubtedly the REAL reason for his appointment. Thus by voting for cloture (I have not yet been able to determine how Cantwell voted on the appointment itself) she protects herself against fundamentalist accusations of "obstructing the will of god" -- accusations that might well also resonate with other conservative though non-fundamentalist Christians. Thus (though she cannot ever win the fundamentalist vote) she protects herself from the seepage of fundamentalist poison into the larger electorate.

Moreover, as medieval as this may sound, it is merely a taste of things to come:

http://www.motherjones.com/toc/2005/12/index.html

and

http://www.yuricareport.com/Dominionism/DirectoryRiseOfDominionismInAmerica.html

Very soon and specifically because of fundamentalist empowerment we secularists will be persecuted here just as secularists were persecuted by the Taliban in Afghanistan -- though unlike the Afghan secularists, we have no Red Army to come to our rescue (the real reason for the Soviet "invasion" of Afghanistan). Nor do we have any other protection: the true, mostly unrealized horror of the appointment of Alito is that his presence on the court guarantees the imposition of theocracy -- which is precisely what the ruling class wants: religion not only as the opiate of the masses, but as the flail to beat us into submission and guarantee our eternal enslavement.

Thus too -- given overwhelming corporate support of fundamentalism as the ultimate key to a "disciplined" (i.e., hopelessly servile) workforce -- Cantwell protects herself against the potential ire of her true masters: hence her vote for cloture.

Speaking as the investigative reporter I once was, I believe it would be a very worthwhile quest to scrutinize the other pro-cloture (and therefore pro-Alito) Democrats for evidence of similar fundamentalist influences. From the very beginning, theocracy was the real hidden issue in the Alito appointment, though only one advocacy group -- Americans United for Separation of Church and State -- seems to have grasped its significance.

[radio4progressives]

15. Dominionists are the American Taliban

There is obviously an urgent necessity to bring this reality into the public fora.. Very few Americans realize the extent of this since the fascists corporate media will not, it will be up to each and every one of us to "be the media" on this and other critical issues.

Sunday night, while listening to the Young Turks program (filibustering the filibuster) when Brad Friedman was guest hosting, he had Larissa Alexandrovna from Raw Story for a while and she reminded me of a creative tactic in this regard. Print important articles, such as these at the Yurica and Mother Jones link, and then go to Libraries and bookstores, and slip these articles into the magazines and books on the shelves.

Also take the materials to laundromats, doctors offices etc.

I know it seems like a insignificant action, but if organized but if more and more people directed their political activism at the media and at being the media, we'd have a fighting chance to counter veil the evil, fascists message of the American Taliban.

[Taoschick]

10. No

That's a hell of a reach. It takes us into the realm of fantasy.

I believe some people are forgetting that Senators represent their states and their constitutuents. They have an obligation to them FIRST and the rest of us last, if at all. If the majority of their constituents support Alito, we're screwed. We seem to be expecting Senators to tell their voters to fuck off so they can sniff the skirts of a group of people incapable of voting them in or out of office. LOOK AT THE NUMBERS! We just couldn't rally enough VOTER support against Alito. We lost because we sat on our asses and expected the Senate to heed the wishes of a minority. That's right...a minority of voters who did not support Alito.

[radio4progressives]

12. If you think the Fourth Reich is the "Realm of Fantasy"...

you're not paying attention.

And if you think that Alito, is honestly supported by the American citizens, who did not get to vote, or even be honestly well informed of the issues at concern, then the reader is in the realm of fantasy.

Also, the U.S. Senate has an obligation not only to it's own constituents, but also to the entire country.

Their oaths and pledge to PROTECT and DEFEND our Constitution, comes ABOVE ALL OTHER CONCERNS.

[Taoschick]

17. Disagreement with you doesn't equal stupidity

Do you have any idea how much of a turn off it is to the American people when we or any other group stands up on high and piously declares that the voters are much too stupid and uninformed to be trusted with such an important decision as whether or not a Supreme Court nominee is qualified? That's what you're saying. The voters just "don't get it" and they're not well enough informed.

As for the Senate's obligation, Senators first and foremost have an obligation to their STATES. That's the way it was designed and if we don't like it, perhaps the Senate should be changed and the elections should be nationwide. Until that time, my senator's job is to protect the interests of my state by acting as a check on the executive and judicial branch. My senator actually went against the wishes of his electorate by voting against Alito. Hopefully, that's going to be forgotten next year but if it's not...how does it help me and other people in this state to lose another Senate seat to Republicans?

[newswolf56]

18. With all due respect, it's not the voters' fault they're ill-informed...

and the poster with whom you differ did not imply it was.

The deliberate suppression of political coverage by corporate media (ostensibly because advertisers don't like it) is one of the cornerstones of the Fourth Reich: the underlying reason (along with deliberately dumbed-down corporate-run public schools) that the American public is demonstrably the most badly educated, ill-informed and therefore ignorant public in the industrial world. For an inside look at one of the underlying causes, read Doug Underwood's When MBAs Rule the Newsroom, a book price-censored at $70-plus per copy specifically to keep it out of public hands. You may be able to find it at your local library.

Ignoring the issue of the deliberately dumbed-down public serves the powers that be, but you're right, in a sense, that acknowledging it can have the same affect: doubly ironic since it is the most pivotal political issue of the day -- the deliberately imposed sickness that is the infection from which all other American political ailments flow. The one context in which it could be discussed without giving offense is the context of class-struggle, the historical truth that explains not only the methodical victimization of Americans but all the peoples of earth, the missing link that even the U.S. alternative press dare not acknowledge, lest it be accused of "spreading Marxism."

Trouble is, now that capitalism has again unleashed its Inner Tyrannosaur (the corporate equivalent of the Inner Child), Marx is now more relevant than ever.