As many people are slowly learning, Kevin Martin is the man behind the moves by the FCC to overturn local municipal authority and grant the telecom corporations free reign in their moves towards greater market consolidation and the next step in the re-merging of AT&T and the rise of the duopoly control of the telcom giants over our information systems.

Well it seems the neo-con ideology of ‘market based’ privatization of everything and belief in the dominance of the corporation as a player in governance runs deep in the family with FCC Commissioner Martin. His wife Catherine has some interesting connections, as you can read about here on these websites…

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2002/12/20021213-5.html

http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6410235.html

Its all in the family for the mafia of the corporate state.

More Here from the Media General News Service, with this profile/puff piece on FCC Chairman Kevin Martin.

“Rumors are rife that Martin, a Harvard-trained lawyer, may use the FCC as a stepping-stone to politics with a capital “P” in North Carolina. Insiders point to his crackdown on indecency on television as an issue that plays well with the folks back home.”

How about a crackdown on the indecent and profane use of policy to benefit one’s personal donors and political cronies over the good and necessity of the public welfare?

Here’s more…

FCC Chairman’s Wife Testifies in Libby Trial

Cathie Martin, wife of Federal Communications Commission chairman Kevin Martin, testified Thursday at the perjury trial of I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, offering a version of events that appeared to undermine her former colleague’s defense.

Libby Trial Offers Insight Into Media ‘Manipulation’

Speaking of “Media Manipulation”, why have there been so few articles about Cathie Martin’s testimony mentioning that she is the wife of Kevin Martin, Chairman of the FCC? I guess media manipulation runs in the family. Also missing is the fact that she seems to now be working in the White House for Karl Rove, as far as folks can figure at the moment. Where are all of the indignant investigative reporters and bloggers on this one?

Please remember that James Baker represented/defended the Saudi government against the lawsuit filed by the survivors and family members of the 9/11 attack. So do not expect anything of substance or in the best interest of America coming out of the Iraqi Baker Commission as chartered by President Bush.

- Posted by Michael Boetjer, Fort Wayne, Indiana

(And that is not the half of it when it comes to Baker and his history as consigliere for the Bush syndicate. The credibility factor here is pretty limited. - Andy; USTV Media)

Cenk Uygur pretty much sums it up here on The Huffington Post.

How long can we as a nation continue to tolerate this fraud? Of course, the sycophantic courtiers of the media are the ones I would most personally like to hold to account for this whole sorry state of affairs, but there is a lot of responsibility to go around.

Read The Full Post

This is a real gem. A contributor to Josh Marshall’s Talking Points Memo details his encounter with Neil Bush, brother of George W. Bush, trying to sell his so-called educational software program “Ignite” to his school. Also of note is this list of some of the contributors to Neil Bush’s company. These people are just astounding really.

Read The Post

Greg Palast explains here why and how Bush and Cheney broke numerous laws regarding criminal investigations, and why they should be charged with numerous felonies on those counts. Its just inconceivable that they should be allowed to walk free after it has become clear they have deceived and deterred the work of a federal grand jury.

Read The Full Report

All hail King George!

President Bush has quietly claimed the authority to disobey more than 750 laws enacted since he took office, asserting that he has the power to set aside any statute passed by Congress when it conflicts with his interpretation of the Constitution.

Among the laws Bush said he can ignore are military rules and regulations, affirmative-action provisions, requirements that Congress be told about immigration services problems, “whistle-blower” protections for nuclear regulatory officials, and safeguards against political interference in federally funded research.

I seem to have a vague memory of some statement that once said something about refusing ‘his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public Good…. He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers’…and on and on…

Read The Full Article Here

A detailed report from Jason Leopold for Truthout reports that with the guilty verdicts against Lay and Skilling on numerous counts of accounting fraud, conspiracy, and dozens of other charges, perhaps Enron should be remembered as - in addition to a symbol of greed - the first in what has become a long list of scandals that can be directly linked to the White House.

By the way, do you remember that it was a private Enron corporate jet provided personally to W by Kenny Boy that flew Bush to his January inaugural in Washington? Enron was Bush’s biggest political bankroller up to the time of the companies collapse in 2001.

Read The Complete Essay

This relates to something we at USTV have expressed our concerns about for some time. That has the Bush cabal begins to disintegrate, its overriding, in fact, singular principle will come to play; the preservation and sustainment of power at any cost. And with most delusional regimes, that means ANY cost.

The carefully layered walls of Bush’s bubble are closing in as the outer layers of purchased politicos are beginning to peel away, revealing the core ideologues of the cabal.

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The real danger is in the mindlessly callous manner the Bush regime has set the bulk of the world against our nation by acting on their manufactured mandate to conquer. Their aggressive and violent expansionism has provoked lesser equipped nations to unconventional defenses in support of basic expressions of liberty and self-determination, which the Bushites false authority disregards as mere threats to their consolidation of power.

Read Ron Fullwood’s he Piece Here

Remember this golden moldie? Kinda puts things in perspective as to why we are where we are these days.

The aide said that guys like me were ‘’in what we call the reality-based community,'’ which he defined as people who ‘’believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.'’ I nodded and murmured something about enlightenment principles and empiricism. He cut me off. ‘’That’s not the way the world really works anymore,'’ he continued. ‘’We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you’re studying that reality — judiciously, as you will — we’ll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that’s how things will sort out. We’re history’s actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.'’

- Ron Suskind, NY Times writer, quoting a senior Bush administration official, summer of 2002

I never cease to be amazed at the cosmic hubris that prompted someone in the administration to make such a palpably ridiculous assertion. This administration wouldn’t know reality if it smacked them upside the head with a cat-o-nine-tails soaked in jellyfish venom, which I suspect is about to happen, but the public may receive the backlash. Their idea of reality is a numbered account in a tax-free foreign bank. The longer they stay in charge, the greater the odds of them taking us down with them when they go.

- Ed Lacy
UnCommon Sense TV Media

Josh Marshall posted this interesting photo on TPM. Seems like our friends the Goss’, Bushs’ and Mr. Negroponte go back aways. Nothing like small bands of fraternity brothers running our so-called democracy.