As a huge fan of the X-Files and with the new movie coming out I decided that a fun thing to write about would be real life government conspiracies.

If you've never seen the X-Files you're missing out! It will take the normal, every day person and turn them into a paranoid questioner reciting "Trust No One!" Most times when you hear about government conspiracies they are wrapped in myths about martian rays, the tin-foil hats that protect you from them, government mind control, black helicopters, aliens in Roswell, New Mexico, the JFK Assassination, the list could go on forever.

The increasing erosion of our constitutions, civil rights and democracies as they are being gradually subjugated by Authoritarian Security Surveillance States. The bloating no-fly lists and terrorist watch-lists. The continuing inhumane and barbaric renditions, "enhanced interrogations" and indefinite detentions - of children, teenagers and adults alike. The continuing standing of Military Commissions, which are nothing more than politically-driven, rigged, kangaroo courts. The seemingly unending wars of choice and occupation in Afghanistan and Iraq - both based on lies to justify a vengeance operation for 9/11 and the securing of foreign oil resources. The ever mounting toll of civilian deaths, displaced refugees and soldier casualties.

This is the overall state of things today with regards to our so-called "Western civilization" - especially with regards to the U.S.A., the U.K. and Canada.

We've been having this ongoing conversation about better access to our government both as a form of transparency and as a way to connect with our Representatives who both serve and ... represent us in Congress. We've even watched as John Culberson (R-TX) and Tim Ryan (D-OH) battled it out in real time over the Energy Bill on Twitter.

This week Culberson has waged his own mini-war against the House for shutting down his twitter activity.

On July 8th Culberson Tweeted

1. " I just learned the Dems are trying to censor Congressmen's ability to use Twitter Qik YouTube Utterz etc - outrageous and I will fight them."

Crossposted from Left Toon Lane, Bilerico Project & My Left Wing


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Way back 1912, when Hiram Johnson founded the Progressive Party, the jewel of their platform was initiative and referendum, most prominently implemented in California, allowing a sufficient number of voters to unite and write propositions directly onto the ballot. This populist triumph was supposed to be all about "good government," but it wasn't.

It was all about money.

(Cross posted from Docudharma)

I was born at the tail end of 1951.  My father was a soldier who served in WWII and Korea.  His brother came back from Korea so psychologically devastated that he never recovered.  He lived nearly fifty of his seventy years haunted by the horror of what he witnessed in the Korean War.  He was not alone.  Every war produces more casualties than are accounted for in the body counts.  My uncle died just a few years ago but it was the Korean War that killed him.  

A new fun viral video takes the Kansas GOP and national republicans to task for some of the failures we are seeing and urges folks to register to vote.

In this decision, the supreme court ruled on a case where the president had ordered Texas to obey the treaty obligations of the Vienna Convention, which states that a nation must be informed when one of its citizens is charged with a serious crime by another nation.

Texas disobeyed, and the court agreed with Texas, saying that the president had no power to order Texas to obey the law.

Lest you think that five years of bloodshed in Iraq, with perhaps a million dead and 4 million more displaced from their homes, has given The Decider any pause, today he said the war is "noble, necessary, and just." Some pertinent excerpts from his speech today at the Pentagon on the first day of Year 6 in Iraq:

cross-posted from EENR blog and Daily Kos

Welcome to the latest diary in my series on the Democratic primary campaign in Iowa's third Congressional district.

Today's topic: will progressive Democrats vote for the candidate who is closest to them on the issues, or will other concerns push them toward the incumbent?

As the presidential campaign gains momentum in favor of change, it would appear that the neo-cons, the hierarchy of the status quo, remain curiously calm. The Democratic frontrunners and the National Committee would collectively commit a grave error by breathing any sigh of relief upon the departure of Karl Rove from his perch in the Oval Office.

Tuesday we encountered the full Iowa Caucus experience.

We left our adventures in Des Moines and headed to Council Bluffs. We checked in with the John Edwards headquarters and immediately started making calls to leaning Edwards supporters. It was then that I encountered much of this midwestern sensibility that I adore so much. All the while the final Edwards ad began to air on Iowa TV.

The Washington Bus has just left the station. According to an email announcing the launch of their website, the recipient of the west coast Go Grant, has taken to stirring up trouble by getting young people involved in politics.

Modeled off of their sister to the south's org the Oregon Bus Project, the WA Bus is offering similar programs including Trick or Vote, Rebooting Democracy, and enacting young people powered politics.

Reading back into Putin's recent political manipulations, and then, even further back, at how Putin seized, consolidated, and has used power in Russia, it is apparent that Putin will shortly seize power in Russia.

Near the end of the 1990s, many spoke of the "bridge to the 21st century" - the expression evoking images of greater enlightenment, of enhanced rationality, of increased wisdom, of greater maturity and responsibility, of widespread peace, prosperity and democracy ... of a brave, new and better world awaiting all of us just around the corner, if we would but take the first, resolute step to make its promises a reality.

Instead, we decided that it was too uncertain, too much effort or not quick enough in coming - consequently, we chose instead to retreat within our self-centered selves, rejecting knowledge and reason in favor of fear, ignorance, truthiness and superstition.

Welcome to our Semi-Dark Ages.