Political Amnesia

Majority of the population is affllicted with a very malignant disease. Its called "Political Amnesia". We are unable to remember significant events from even a few months/days ago. The general media strategy appears to be to sensationalize the current scandal/war, beat it till its dead, and then promptly switch to the next scandal/war intentionally avoiding any rational discussion. No continuous coverage of any event is even thinkable. This creates a vicious cycle between the media and the amnesiac. The victims have no idea what the current scandal means, have no idea why the next war is fought, forget an event almost immediately and are unable to make any connections between one event and the next. The net result is complete, utter indfference to everything that happens around them. Life (or what's left of it) staggers along from one disconnected moment to another. Political corruption, secret energy plans, elite 2-party systems, forged pretexts for war, bellicose UN ambassadors, billion dollar scandals, "just" wars, oil wars, wiretapping, torture, genocide ... all of these don't matter, what matters is the latest celebrity magazines. mindless fashion, stock prices going up and down, sensational tabloids, reality shows. This is truly a hellish situation. To help somewhat, this is the first in a series of entries summarizing (with links for detailed info) some of the the political scandals that have rocked America in recent years.

Memogate

Meeting minutes transcribed during the British Prime Minister's meeting on July 23, 2002. The decision to invade Iraq was a foregone conclusion. To sell it to the public, the "The intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy"

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Energy Taskforcegate

In his second week in office George W. Bush created the task force with Dick Cheney as chairman. The materials of this Task Force remain mostly classified. On 5 March 2002 the US Government was ordered to make a full disclosure; this has not happened, pending appeal. In the Summer of 2003 a partial disclosure of these materials was made by the Commerce Department. What was obtained were maps and charts, dated March 2001, of Iraq's, Saudi Arabia's and United Arab Emirates' oil fields, pipelines, refineries, tanker terminals and development projects. One of the projects disclosures was entitled "Foreign Suitors for Iraqi Oilfield Contracts". Anyone still doubt that energy is calling the shots ?

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Yellowcakegate

"The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium (yellowcake) from Africa". This claim was one of the political justifications for the 2003 invasion of Iraq (subsequently debunked). Retired ambassador Joseph C. Wilson wrote a piece in the NYT in which he explained the nature of the documents and the government's prior knowledge of their unreliability for use in a case for war (subsequently leading to --- PlameGate)

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Plamegate

The Plame affair refers to the political controversy surrounding allegations by critics of the Bush administration that White House officials deliberately leaked Valerie Plame's identity as an undercover U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) operative as political retaliation against her husband, retired ambassador Joseph C. Wilson (see Yellowcakegate)

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Abramoffgate

Jack A. Abramoff is an American lobbyist, Republican activist and businesman who has been involved in several political scandals (one of which involves corruption of public offficials, but theres plenty more). Prominent Republican politicians have close ties to Abramoff.

Sordid details here

Gannongate

James Dale Guckert (1957) worked under the pseudonym Jeff Gannon as a White House reporter between 2003 and 2005, representing Talon News. After Guckert came under public scrutiny, in particular for his lack of a significant journalistic background and involvement with various homosexual escort service websites using the professional name Bulldog, he resigned from Talon News on February 8, 2005

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Enron: The Bush Connection

We all know about Enron, but what about the connections of Bush with Ken Lay, the founder of Enron ? (affectionately called KennyBoy). KennyBoy is a big financial backer of Bush. Conflict of intrerest ?

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