One American Who Isn't For Sale by Robert Scheer

[xchrom]

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/06/11

So it's true, as filmmaker Michael Moore once warned us, the Carlyle Group is Big Brother. That's the $176 billion private equity firm that once employed former President George H.W. Bush, his Secretary of State James A. Baker III and a host of political luminaries that would put any other list of America's ruling elite to shame. Plenty of Democrats too, including former President Bill Clinton's Chief of Staff Mack McLarty and Arthur Levitt, the man Clinton appointed to head the SEC during the creation of the housing bust.

t is also the firm that owns Booz Allen Hamilton Inc., which, thanks to the revelations of one of its employees, whistle-blower Edward Snowden, we now know collects and stores much of the government's immense PRISM database spying on the lives of this nation's citizenry. This is systematic snooping through the telephone and Internet records of hundreds of millions of Americans conducted by Snowden and others in Booz Allen's employ who had the highest access to our most private personal data while working at a for-profit company.

Our data is their commerce, and ever since 9/11, observing us has become mega lucrative. "Booz Allen Hamilton," The New York Times reported Sunday, "has become one of the largest and most profitable corporations in the United States almost exclusively by serving a single client: the government of the United States." The word "serving" might be pushing it here, since 98 percent of the firm's revenue of $5.8 billion last year came from the taxpayers, who are the same folks being spied upon.

Heck, Booz Allen knows all about those taxpayers, since back in 1998, during the Clinton presidency, the firm was hired to "modernize" the IRS. "We made some very dramatic changes in the way the IRS is organized," Booz Allen's CEO claimed at the time. How perfect: Make tax collection more efficient and less painful, so the suckers might not notice when you scoop up the loot at the other end.

[burnodo]

1. kick

[unhappycamper]

2. The BFEE resurfaces..

[xchrom]

3. indeed. nt

[darkangel218]

4. Not everyone is for sale.

Thank whatever god(s) is out there. Is what keeps my faith in humanity.

[fasttense]

5. And that's what they hate about whistle blowers, they can't buy them off as easily

as they do government officials and Supreme Court Justices.

Capitalism has run a muck. It's now buying absolutely everything. AND if it can't be bought, it must be defamed and discredited.

[ReRe]

9. Can you say...

...Pri-va-tiz-a-tion, boys and girls? That's right, boys and girls, privatization!

I learned something during the first half hour or so of DemocracyNow.

Wait a while, as it hasn't loaded yet, but check it out at
http://www.DemocracyNow.org
later, maybe around noon? I don't know how long it takes for it to load up.

[kentuck]

6. "...since 98 percent of the firm's revenue of $5.8 billion last year came from the taxpayers,"

Incredible!

[JHB]

11. Bring that up next time someone's complaining about someone on food stamps...

...using cash to buy beer, or buying some sweets for their kids.

Ask them why a 6-pack gets their blood pressure up but they're A-OK with 6 billion to snoop -- to just one company.

For all the complains about bureaucratic bloat and mission creep, it looks like all that really happened was it got contracted out: more money plus near-guaranteed profit margin. How much would we save by just eliminating the middleman?

[pangaia]

7. EXACTLY..

We are paying these guys to...'spy' on us! WTF??

[WillyT]

8. K & R !!!

[dgibby]

10. Just when I thought it couldn't get any worse,

now I find out the Caryle Group is also involved. Wonder where the Koch brothers fit into this scheme.

[snagglepuss]

12. k&r

[SHRED]

13. K & R