There's No Rule of Law Here - Things Have Changed

At the time of the November 2008 elections someone filmed a pair of armed New Black Panther Party members blocking the entrance of a voting sight. Clearly, the intention was to intimidate voters. The clip was shown repeatedly on national television. Today we learned from one of the prosecutors that the federal government ordered the case dismissed (see story).

Tuesday, Bloomberg ran a story describing how Mexican gangs laundered hundreds of billions in illicit drug dollar with the complicity of  Wachovia and Bank of America (story here). The article describes the damage to the economy and pretty much leaves up to the imagination the amount of monetary gain realized by the banks. No significant official of either bank has been indicted. We know that billions of dollars went unaccounted for in Iraq during the Bush administration and now we know that billions of drug related dollars are currently being shuffled in and out of Afghanistan.

The country is changed. Corporations and interest groups, including the financial industry, have captured Congress. The financial industry basically controls the SEC, the Treasury (first Paulson, now Geithner), and the advisors to the President (Summers, Ruben). Lawyers representing unions draw up much of the incomprehensible legislation voted on by Congress and pushed by President Obama. This would include the Health Care Bill with respect to unions and the Financial Reform Bill with respect to banks.  In a late compromise to the latter, a bank tax will be dropped and surplus TARP money (yes, taxpayer dollars) will be substituted in its place.

Sadly, the dropped charges brought against the New Black Panther thugs shouldn’t surprise anyone. If you’ve paid any attention to the Rod Blagojevich trial, the relationships with shady figures in Chicago such as Tony Revco, Williams Ayers, are the hate-spewing preacher where the President attended church,  you know that Obama is up to his eyeballs in sleaze. In a fair, competitive system, cream rises to the top. In a cesspool, the heaviest turd sinks to the bottom.  Our President is the shit.

On the Cover of the Rolling Stone

 Whatever happened to investigative reporting? Its practically nonexistent.

America has been at war in Afghanistan for almost nine years; the longest war in the history of the country. Despite the length of the campaign and the enormous ongoing expenditures, most Americans don't have a clue what is going on, what the objectives are, or how the war is being fought.

We are now two months into what most likely is the worst environmental catastrophe the United States has ever encountered. Information has been limited and controlled by the two authorities involved; BP and the United States Government. Why can't news companies deliver in depth stories?

JP Morgan-Chase and Goldman Sachs spent the last two decades reshaping the policies that govern our financial system. Even after the financial storm on 2008-2009, these financial behemoths continued to loot the American taxpayer with impunity. There has been relatively little coverage and even less justice served.

Finally, there is one journalistic source doing its job to inform the nation. ABC news? Newsweek? CNN? Hardly. Perhaps the most relevant articles produced by investigative reporting in the past year was done by none other than The Rolling Stone.

Do the articles paint an accurate picture of reality? Is it quality reporting? I think so, but its difficult to assess as they seem to be about the only news entity that practices investigative reporting. If you have not yet read any of Rolling Stone's articles (linked below) you should. That is, if you give a damn about what is happening to your country.

The Runaway General
The Spill, The Scandal, and the President
Jefferson County: Democracy Now
The Great American Bubble Machine