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You're reading it right now.
I'm calling it WII (WHY?), which stands for Washington Insights & Indictments.
Enjoy it.
It's likely to be a single issue.
While calling out crooks and criminals on Wall Street is dangerous enough, calling out criminal behavior by the highest powers in the United States will get me: 1) audited by the IRS; 2) phone-tapped by the Justice Department; and 3) a trip to Guantanamo (if I don't get "droned"), because obviously anybody questioning the powers-that-be is a threat to national security.
Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not an Obama-basher. I liked him. Once upon a time...
I believed in "change" and that Obama was a good guy. I was elated when he won the first election. But I was deflated when he won a second term; deflated because my hopes and expectations for positive changes had been sucked dry.
The only real change I've seen in America since Obama took office is a frontal assault on the Constitution. Most politicians use the backdoor method.
Here's why I'm really angry and afraid, for myself and you.
It came out last week that the Justice Department took it upon itself to seize phone records (and faxes) and may have tapped, listened into, and recorded thousands of phone conversations between Associated Press journalists, their editors, their sources (some of whom are definitely confidential sources), and anybody and everybody they spoke to over at least a two-month period.
The Justice Department is run by Eric Holder. Holder authorized the subpoenas to get the phone records, and if phones were tapped, he authorized it. No judge was involved.
Usually a federal judge would have to sign off on the surveillance of journalists and news media people. At least, it works that way in 40 states and should be the law of the land.
But it doesn't work that way at the federal level if the matter involves "national security."
And that's what makes me so angry and what should - and maybe will - be the straw that breaks the back of this President and his administration.
Don't get me wrong. The IRS scandal will be Obama's Watergate. But the AP scandal will be his Waterloo.
Forget the bigger issues that are seeing the light of day here, like "separation of powers" issues. Justice stooges were tapping into conversations that took place between Congressmen and AP reporters. That means the executive branch was spying on the legislative branch.
The issue that really frightens me, because I'm a journalist, is that our First Amendment rights (abridging the freedom of speech, infringing on the freedom of the press), which should stand on their own, but are brilliantly backed-up (just in case) by the Fourth Amendment (which guards against unreasonable searches and seizures, along with requiring any warrant to be judicially sanctioned and supported by probable cause) have just both been trampled - simultaneously.
How? Because it was a matter of "national security."
Here's the thing. Besides being sick and horrified that "national security" is increasingly a trumped-up reason to hack the Constitution to near death, the so-called national security threat that Justice invoked was over, gone, the cat was out of the bag. There was no national security threat.
You see, AP reporters got information about a bomb threat to be carried out on the anniversary of the killing of Osama Bin Laden (May 2). They were asked not to report it until after the threat had been neutralized. They complied. There was a plot, and it was foiled.
Only the President wanted to be the one to come out and announce it before the press beat him to it. Why? He didn't want another Benghazi timing issue to make him look stupid.
But why tap the phone lines, really?
It's the same reason the IRS was targeting parties opposed to the President and his administration.
This Administration, under the President's leadership, is executing a program of intimidation, harassment, and trampling of civil liberties, and they're getting away with it.
I'm frightened, and you should be too.
If I start seeing a new order of freedom-bashing zealots parading the American flag as a banner against all national security threats, I'm going to renew my NRA membership.
Is this what we've become?
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About the Author
Shah Gilani boasts a financial pedigree unlike any other. He ran his first hedge fund in 1982 from his seat on the floor of the Chicago Board of Options Exchange. When options on the Standard & Poor's 100 began trading on March 11, 1983, Shah worked in "the pit" as a market maker.
The work he did laid the foundation for what would later become the VIX - to this day one of the most widely used indicators worldwide. After leaving Chicago to run the futures and options division of the British banking giant Lloyd's TSB, Shah moved up to Roosevelt & Cross Inc., an old-line New York boutique firm. There he originated and ran a packaged fixed-income trading desk, and established that company's "listed" and OTC trading desks.
Shah founded a second hedge fund in 1999, which he ran until 2003.
Shah's vast network of contacts includes the biggest players on Wall Street and in international finance. These contacts give him the real story - when others only get what the investment banks want them to see.
Today, as editor of Hyperdrive Portfolio, Shah presents his legion of subscribers with massive profit opportunities that result from paradigm shifts in the way we work, play, and live.
Shah is a frequent guest on CNBC, Forbes, and MarketWatch, and you can catch him every week on Fox Business's Varney & Co.
Thats where you belong, with the NRA and the other wing nuts. The right has been wrong about all their predictions and you are wrong on yours. If you want to find some criminality in the white house go back 8 years..
Mr Gilani, unfortunately the press has brought this upon itself. Where was this concern and indignation when this and the previous administration of Mr Bush was trampling on the privacy rights of the citizens of this country under the guise of "national security"?
Well done! Now you are on a list somewhere. Anyone who's not on a list by now, should be ashamed. Speak out!
Thank you for the good read.. In my opinion if you're not worried you're not aware. Bush took away liberties with the patriot act. Obama is doing the same with the attack on guns, NDAA and more… Forget the democrats and republicans.. Support libertarians… Like Randall said, "Speak out!"
Hi Shah,
Great article. There's a lot of people who agree with you. In fact, The Philadelphia Trumpet magazine had a great article in its March 2013 issue titled "The Hidden Cause of Society's Deadly Decline" that brings up the whole U.S. constitutional issue beginning with the "enormous smear campaign" by democrats and other liberals against Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork in 1987. The article from this fine religious magazine can be viewed online at http://www.theTrumpet.com (just look for the March 2013 issue). Keep up the great work Shah!
Steve Murphy has a major problem and so do most of you left – right wing guys. Both sides are crooks and supported by the same financial interests. U.S needs an independent Libertarian in the white house and that might not even be enough. Ultimately Obama and Bush speak a different rhetoric but follow the same final corporate to big to fail agenda.
It's the public sector unions behind it all. Both parties have sold us out and are representing government unions instead. How long did yout hink this could go on till they'd try taking over? Many are signed members of the "Oath Keepers" organization. But what good is that? They signed an oath to do exactly the same thing that they were sworn to do when they took office! "To protect and defend the Constitution from enemies both foreign and domestic." We all know about the "Evil Democrats" and their designs to destroy capitalism, liberty, and growing the size of government! Why is it that Republicans have sat silently by and allowed it to happen? Here's how & why.
The Republican Party often attacks and blames Democrats for supporting unions that have contributed to the economic mess we are now experiencing, but fiscal conservatives know better. Republicans are every bit as guilty as Democrats for supporting union expansion into government. For example, The Teamsters broke with traditional support for Democratic nominees and the AFL-CIO when Nixon accepted the Teamster's offer from imprisoned union president James "Jimmy" Hoffa to use their infrastructure and chain of command to organize his reelection campaign. As well as deploy their muscle aka; union thugs and striker teams, to put down anti-war protesters. They even roughed-up Abbie Hoffman at Nixon's request.
Hoffa had been convicted of jury tampering, attempted bribery and fraud in 1964, and began serving his 13 years sentence in 1967. He wanted a Presidential pardon and release from prison. However, Nixon enjoyed the working relationship that developed with Frank Edward Fitsimmons, who Hoffa had appointed, acting president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters from 1967 to 1971. So Nixon blocked Hoffa from union activities until 1980 as part of the pardon agreement, and Fitsimmons became the Teamsters' president from 1971 to 1981.
Nixon and Fitsimmons soon discovered that they both could expand their power and control by using both their offices to influence changes that would benefit each other. Fitsimmons got to expand union membership and dues collections into new areas like law enforcement and other critical government positions that were considered too sensitive to allow union activities that could compromise the public's interests and the people's trust in government. While Nixon could exercise more command and control over the departments and agencies under expanding union control. Thus he could avoid publicly requesting the National Guard to put down protesters every time a problem arose and circumvent the US constitution.
Nixon then began expanding the various Departments of Law Enforcement turned over to union control. In a special message to Congress, On July 14, 1969 President Nixon identified drug abuse as "a serious national threat." Citing a dramatic jump in drug-related juvenile arrests and street crime between 1960 and 1967, Nixon called for a national anti-drug policy at the state and federal level before officially declaring a "War on Drugs" in June 1971. Then he created the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to coordinate the efforts of all other agencies in July 1973.
The working relationship that the Teamsters Union and the Republican Party had didn't end with Nixon's subsequent impeachment from office. In 1980, Ronald Reagan forged a close political relationship with Jackie Presser. Presser would later become president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters from 1983 until his death in 1988. He was closely connected to organized crime, and became president of the Teamsters based on the approval and support of the Cleveland Mafia.
During Reagan's 1980 campaign for president, Presser served as one of Reagan's hosts at a private luncheon for Teamsters and other union leaders and escorted Reagan to private meetings with Teamster officials. Reagan was highly regarded by union leaders because he had served as union president of the Screen Actors Guild from 1947-1952 and 1959-1960. He also served as a key negotiator through eventful years that were marked by labor-management disputes, such as the Taft-Hartley Act, House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) hearings and the Hollywood blacklist era.
The Teamsters endorsement of Reagan in 1980, created such a furor within the American labor movement that when the second Reagan endorsement came in 1984, Vice President George H. W. Bush accepted the endorsement in person. The Teamster endorsement was the only large labor union endorsement Reagan received. In gratitude, Reagan named Presser to the second Reagan transition team as a labor advisor.
The media soon reported that Presser was reputed to have links to organized crime and financial malfeasance. Reagan and his advisors claimed to have been unaware of the accusations, and Presser denied having any ties to organized crime. New Jersey State Police witnesses testified that Presser was the primary contact for the DeCavalcante crime family of New Jersey and the Patriarca crime family of Boston whenever crime figures needed loans from Teamster pension funds.
When PATCO, the tiny union of federal air traffic controllers with only about 25,000 members that also endorsed Reagan in 1980, went on strike in the summer of 1981, violating a federal law prohibiting government unions from striking. Reagan declared the situation an emergency as described in the 1947 Taft Hartley Act. He said that if the air traffic controllers "do not report for work within 48 hours, they have forfeited their jobs and will be terminated." They did not return and on August 5, with Teamster's permission, Reagan fired all 11,345 air traffic controllers who had ignored his order, and used supervisors and military controllers to handle the nation's commercial air traffic until new controllers could be hired and trained.
The PATCO affair didn't stop unions from expanding their control, infact both Reagan and Presser knew it was all just a means to an end. Reagan used the opportunity to give himself the appearance of being tough on unions. And all the while, as everything went according to plan, the "new hires" were subsequently absorbed into the union, and guess what happened then? PATCO was soon at full strength again! So he made it appear that he took action when in reality he didn’t do anything but throw some magic dust into the air to confuse voters. Mission accomplished; Reagan and conservatives were free to claim victory over unions, while the "liberal" Ronald Reagan and government unions got their way.
On 27 October 1986, Reagan signed a drug enforcement bill that budgeted $1.7 billion to fund the War on Drugs and specified a mandatory minimum penalty for drug offenses. By so doing, he expanded law enforcement and correctional departments and their corresponding unions exponentially. It also expanded the Department of Justice (DOJ) and added another 200,000 workers to federal payrolls. Trillions of dollars later, it's now just another great financial burden for Americans. The Teamsters anticipating the new law had already positioned themselves so they would benefit the most among all public sector unions when it passed.
The amount spent to fund the "War on drugs now exceeds $40 billion annually and still continues to grow, thus the ground work had already been layed when the 911 attacks occurred on Sept. 11, 2001. The process was completed when the Homeland Security Act, Border Security Act, and both Patriot Acts had passed through both Republican controlled houses of congress and were signed into law by Republican President George W. Bush. These laws have transformed the US into an American police state.
Therefore, it's already too late, you fell for it folks; while you were drinking the "Kool-Aid" both parties, Democrats and Republicans, tricked you into funding the very government agencies that would one day enslave you, "government police unions." We can no longer claim liberty or freedom. The only thing left for them to do is take our guns away! Once they've accomplished that, it is just a matter of time till we transform into the fascist dictatorship they envision for us!
They will not take our guns away all at once but, neighborhood by neighborhood, street by street, one city and county at a time, until all the guns are gone. Nixon deinstitutionalized mental patients and since then the "nuts" have been shooting up the place. Now the government has come up with the solution to fix the problem that, "once again they themselves created." How convenient it is for them, to take our right to own fire arms away, than it is to "lock up" or "terminate" the violent and/or criminally insane offenders.