Editorial

Sarah Palin debate flowchart

Guilty as charged:  even though I said that Sarah Palin only exists to distract us from the "how many pockets did Paulson pick?" question, this was just too fun to ignore.

courtesy of http://adennak.com/blog/wordpress/?p=92

Satan to Speak at Republican Convention

by Ian Gurvitz

The horned one's speech will lay out the Republican Party platform, which includes:

Continuing the Iraq war for 100 years, bombing Iran, re-igniting Cold War fear of Russia, plunging the nation further into debt, buggering the Earth until it bleeds oil into the oceans, not fixing McCain's teeth so that his smile frightens newborn infants back into their mothers' wombs, fucking the poor and middle class until they're jobless, homeless, and hopeless, passing a Constitutional amendment defining marriage as something that may only occur between a man and a woman, or a woman and a closeted gay Republican, renaming Gitmo "Motel 666" and generally continuing the Bush administration's march toward Armageddon...

read the rest

Halberstam: TV ignores issues

published September 25, 1984 in the Boulder Daily Camera
By Sheila Casey

Television networks have turned this year's presidential election into a media event that ignores real issues at a critical moment in history, author David Halberstam said Monday at the University of Colorado. 

Halberstam, who wrote "The Powers That Be," and "The Rise of Modern Media," said the nation is making a permanent shift from the easy affluence of the post-World War II era.  He "fears for the country" because candidates are not adequately discussing economic concerns.

"The political process is now a TV process," Halberstam told about 500 people at Macky Auditorium.  "National issues have been trivialized because they have to fit on the evening news, and how do you explain the Salt Talks in a minute and ten seconds?"

He likened the television news process to an Old Testament writer saying:  "Famous Hebrew leader Moses came down from the mountain today with ten commandments, of which the first two are..."

He called President Ronald Reagan "Dr. Feel-Good...not since Eisenhower has anyone done so much to make so many feel so good."

He referred to Mondale as "The Incredible Shrinking Man," but noted that he has done much to promote fishing and boating in northern Minnesota. 

And he called the campaign "a disaster."  He said citizens should be ashamed for treating the election as "the selling of Coca-Cola."

"These feely-good ads have that smell that came from the Olympics -- the smell of false patriotism.  Do you know how shabby we looked waving all those flags?" 

He senses a nation that is nervous and scared -- one that knows the critical problems are not being addressed, but settled instead for politicians who will make them simply "feel better."

If the right Democratic challenger had been able to voice the true concerns of Americans, they would have listened, Halberstam said.

"But Mondale campaigns like this is 1948," he said.

In the 1988 election, voters will demand answers to the dilemmas of the future, Halberstam said.

Al Gore running? Music to my ears.

Bill Robinson blogs at the Huffington Post that of course Al Gore is running:

Let's get real. Of course he's running.

Are we to believe that a man who has spent most of his life in public office, like his father before him, is happy to turn away at the very moment the country -- nay, the world -- is clamoring for him to step into the breach?

Are we to believe that such a man is perfectly content to walk away from the table, with his last campaign forever emblazoned in textbooks as the biggest miscarriage of justice in electoral history?

Are we to believe that this man, with his Oscar nominated documentary, his Time magazine cover, his # 1 Bestselling book, his tv network, and, oh yeah, a 2007 Nobel Peace Prize nomination, would rather not rule the most powerful nation on earth?

Al is running the smartest campaign we've ever seen: the anti-campaign. As long as he's not a candidate, he gets to be a stateman. As long as he hasn't announced, we're begging for it. He's in the driver's seat and enjoying every moment. He's not gonna blow it this time. After what he went through, what he lost so cruelly back in 2000, he's not taking any chances.

The nation is smarter now, too. Hopefully we won't hear any blather this time about whether a candidate seems like a "great guy to have a beer with." Since 99.99% of us will never have a beer with POTUS, let's focus on something that does matter, like can said candidate actually run a country?

Al got knocked down last time for seeming too nerdy and bookish. Now, after eight years of Bush, we're longing for a prez who knows a few things. (Things that can be verified by the reality-based community.)

Run Al run!

Why the GOP loves having an open border

A friend wrote me today, apoplectic with rage over the swelling numbers of illegal immigrants in the US. My reply:

More than anything, this gives the lie to the idea that the GOP protects us best from terrorists. They care nothing for cutting off the cheap labor which flows over the open border, cause business owners LOVE having a pool of virtual slaves who will never complain, never file a sexual harrassment suit or any other kind of suit, and work for nothing. And big business put the GOP in office. So ultimately that trumps all the hot air about protecting us from the evil doers.

These people don't come here for our scenery-- they come here for jobs. If we made sure you had to be here legally to get a job, it would all be over in an instant, with no need for a fence. But that will never happen, cause business just doesn't want it.

And, I might add (to you, not to him) in George Bush's America, what business wants, business gets.

Michael Moore's indictment of the US healthcare industry: Sicko

Here's the trailer. Coming June 29, I can't wait.

Wasn't me, say Goodling, Gonzales, McNulty, Sampson

Who actually compiled the list of the eight fired US attorneys?  Weeks of Congressional testimony have us only marginally closer to the truth.  All we know is what we don't know:  that it wasn't Gonzales, Goodling, Sampson, or McNulty.  Jon Stewart concludes that it must have been an Immaculate Termination, a mystery beyond human comprehension. 

Why did the Judiciary Committee let Monica Goodling get away with taking the Fifth and refusing to say who compiled the list?  She had already been granted immunity from prosecution.  Aren't there any lawyers over there?

Time now to haul Rove, Miers and yes, POTUS (President Of The United States) before Congress for some questions. Maybe all on the same day so they can't endlessly blame someone who isn't present to defend themselves.

I have an atty friend who works in the Justice Dept and insists that none of this matters. I can see where that is a pragmatic position to hold, career-wise. But for those of us not blinded by a big salary, and more concerned with the fate of the nation, it is abundantly clear that Bush et al care only for maintaining power.

Power can be used for many things: power to bring peace, power to make a more just world, but these uses of power don't interest our current POTUS. His legacy is to make the poor poorer, the super-rich much richer, the world more violent and dangerous, Mother Earth running scared, and many, many tears shed for untimely and unnecessary deaths.

Jon Stewart almost abandons the pretense of doing a comedy show and just gives us some straight journalism in this clip about Goodling's squeeky-voiced, rusty-brained testimony:

Jon Stewart, I hope you have a good bodyguard

Remember the old TV spot, "Is it soup yet?"  We ask a similar question these days of our government, "Is it fascism yet?"  Fortunately, no.  I know we don't have fascism yet cause Jon Stewart is still on the air.  Jon, I hope you never travel anywhere alone.  You are a thorn in the side of this administration, hallelujah!

Jon was in top form last night, this clip is genius.  The best part is when CA Rep. (D) Maxine Waters asks Gonzales to turn over the documents the investigators have requested.  He replied that he has nothing to do with "production," that's not his area.  Rep. Waters calmly asks him to direct his subordinates to turn over the requested documents.  He replies that he can't do that, he's recused.  Why are you recused?  she asks.  With zero awareness of the irony, he replies:  "Because I'm being investigated."

So he cannot assist with the investigation into his own conduct...because he is being investigated.  This idiocy sounds vaguely familiar, where have I heard this before?  "All pigs are equal, but some pigs are more equal than others," from George Orwell's Animal Farm, a great satire of the double-talk politicians resort to, to keep the underlings down under and the goodies for themselves.

Bill Richardson as a job applicant in new TV ad

Give him credit for doing something different and being willing to look, gasp, unpresidential. 

Major General John Batiste: Protect Our Troops

It's only the retired or fired generals who get to speak the truth.  While they're actually employed by the Army or Marines they're expected to toe (tow?) the party line.

Thank you John Batiste for speaking out.  But what took you so long?

Fascist America, in 10 easy steps

Naomi Wolf writes today in Guardian Unlimited:

If you look at history, you can see that there is essentially a blueprint for turning an open society into a dictatorship. That blueprint has been used again and again in more and less bloody, more and less terrifying ways. But it is always effective. It is very difficult and arduous to create and sustain a democracy - but history shows that closing one down is much simpler. You simply have to be willing to take the 10 steps.

As difficult as this is to contemplate, it is clear, if you are willing to look, that each of these 10 steps has already been initiated today in the United States by the Bush administration.

The ten steps Wolf lists (and explains in detail) are:

1. Invoke a terrifying internal and external enemy

2. Create a gulag

3. Develop a thug caste

4. Set up an internal surveillance system

5. Harass citizens' groups

6. Engage in arbitrary detention and release

7. Target key individuals

8. Control the press

9. Dissent equals treason

10. Suspend the rule of law

Wolf continues:

"The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands ... is the definition of tyranny," wrote James Madison. We still have the choice to stop going down this road; we can stand our ground and fight for our nation...

I have nothing to add to that, we all know it's happening. Her article is well worth reading.

Sen. Whitehouse's chart of DOJ-White House communications

Slate magazine on Whitehouse's chart:

One of the finest moments comes when Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., busts out a big, big chart. Which happens after almost everyone has gone home. The chart compares the Clinton protocol for appropriate contacts between the White House and the DoJ on pending criminal cases with the Bush protocol. According to Whitehouse, the Clinton protocol authorized just four folks at the White House to chat with three folks at Justice. The chart had four boxes talking to three boxes.

Out comes the Bush protocol, and now 417 different people at the White House have contacts about pending criminal cases with 30-some people at Justice. You can just see zillions of small boxes nattering back and forth. It seems that just about everyone in the White House, including the guys in the mailroom, had a vote on ongoing criminal matters.

Sen. Pat Leahy, D-Vt., calls this "the most astounding thing" he's seen in 32 years.

Now Bush Debates Old Bush on the Daily Show

Jon Stewart got one of the loudest, longest reactions from his studio audience that I've ever seen with this bit:  it's terrific and pointed.  First term Bush debates second term Bush on the topic of timetables--time for the sanctions against Iraq to work (prior to the war) vs. time for them to stand up so we can stand down.  Love it!

Bush All Smiles About Gonzales Testimony

Jon Stewart's staff has put together a lovely little montage capturing the full glory and beauty of Alberto Gonzales' testimony. 

Today, President Bush said that Alberto's performance on Thursday had actually increased his confidence in the Attorney General:

"This is an honest, honorable man, in whom I have confidence," Bush said. Bush spoke about Gonazales during an Oval Office meeting with Gen. David Petraeus, commander of the Iraq war. "The attorney general went up and gave a very candid assessment, and answered every question he could possibly answer _ honestly answer _ in a way that increased my confidence in his ability to do the job," Bush said.

Why d'ya suppose that Bush loved this testimony that everyone else thought abysmal?  Because it accomplished the only thing Bush cares about:  covering the trail that leads to himself, Rove and Miers.  Never mind that the whole world thinks Gonzales is as dumb as a box of hair, he took the bullet for his Lord and Master, and that's one heckuva job.

Gonzales can not possibly be that stupid

In his testimony yesterday, Alberto Gonzales came off as an obsequious lapdog with marginal intelligence and a brain like a sieve. Can a man running an organization with 110,000 employees possibly be that stupid? I think not.

His testimony simply made no sense. He claims to not remember much of anything about why he dismissed these eight US attorneys, but is sure he did it for all the right reasons.

What is even more remarkable is that he was prepping for this performance for a month. What was he doing--practicing saying "Senator, I don't recall," over and over?

Gonzales' testimony is like a Gordian knot that refuses to untie. Blissfully unperturbed by the contradictions in his testimony, Gonzales soldiers on, with a "that's my story and I'm sticking to it," fortitude.

Only one thing can explain this: the list was compiled by the White House, possibly by Karl Rove and Harriet Miers. Rove gave the list to Gonzales (or Sampson) told them to fire these attorneys, and they did, no questions asked. So of course Gonzales doesn't know why they were axed--the decision was made elsewhere. But "of course" the axings were done for all the right reasons, for they were decreed by the Great and Powerful Rove.

Like the loyal Bushie he is, Gonzales will protect his only patron, Bush, till the end. So he twists himself into a Gordian knot attempting to justify the unjustifiable.

The Senate Judiciary Committee must push forward with subpeonas for sworn, public testimony under oath from Rove and Miers. If they're going to lie, let them do it under oath, for all the world to see.

Gore Goes Solar

There's a certain contingent who love to hate Al Gore--despite the fact that he's been right about nearly everything. 

He saw our current Iraq miasma back in 2003, and was against the war when nearly everyone was for it.  He's been a lone voice crying in the wilderness about global warming for decades.  He was funny on Jay Leno in November, when he talked about releasing the uncensored version of his film, to be called "Global Warming Goes Wild," with hot glacier on glacier action. He even has decent comedic timing, as evidenced by his non-announcement for prez on The Academy Awards.

 

But mention Gore and the Faux News contingent will immediately spout statistics about his home energy use.  Are they really suggesting that all of Gore's efforts mean nothing because he has a big heating bill?  Now even that slender arrow has been snatched from their quiver.  According to The Boston Herald,   Gore is installing 33 solar panels on the roof of his 70 year old mansion.

  Gore already buys enough energy from renewable energy sources such as solar, wind and methane gas to balance 100 percent of his electricity costs. He is also upgrading the furnace, windows, and light switches, as well as installing new floor radiant heat and solar vents, to improve the home’s energy standards, said Kalee Kreider, a Gore spokeswoman.     The home bought by Gore in 2002 is more than 70 years old and illustrates the challenges of renovating an older home to conserve more energy, Kreider said.

84% of local DOJ investigations target Dems

Link: Department of Injustice - New York Times.

Two retired professors, Donald Shields and John Cragan, have tried to answer the question: Is the Dept of Justice harder on Democrats than Republicans? They compared corruption investigations and found that, although on a national and state level, the numbers were roughly equal, at the local level Democrats are the overwhelming target of the DOJ.

Per Kevin Drum at Political Animal:

In statewide and federal cases they found a total of 66 investigations. Here's the breakdown:

Democrats: 36

Republicans: 30

This is roughly what you'd expect. Democrats are slightly overrepresented compared to their actual numbers, but only by a bit. There's nothing fishy. But the numbers for local cases paint a very different story. They found 309 investigations, broken down as follows:

Democrats: 262

Republicans: 37

Independents: 10

New York Times columnist Paul Krugman notes that Molly Ivins alerted her readers last year to a curious pattern during Karl Rove's time in Texas: an FBI investigation of a sitting Democrat always seemed to pop up during an election year, only to fade away when the election was over. Paul Krugman reminds us of the investigation of Bob Menendez last year, which for a time looked like it would cost him the election--and would have cost Democrats control of the Senate.

Krugman continues:

Fortunately, Mr. Rove's smear-and-fear tactics fell short last November. I say fortunately, because without Democrats in control of Congress, able to hold hearings and issue subpoenas, the prosecutor purge would probably have become yet another suppressed Bush-era scandal -- a huge abuse of power that somehow never became front-page news. Before the midterm election, I wrote that what the election was really about could be summed up in two words: subpoena power. Well, the Democrats now have that power, and the hearings on the prosecutor purge look like the shape of things to come. In the months ahead, we'll hear a lot about what's really been going on these past six years. And I predict that we'll learn about abuses of power that would have made Richard Nixon green with envy.

Even with all these investigations of Democrats, even with the GOP controlling the White House, the Congress and the Supreme Court, Dems still managed to win both houses of Congress in November. We do still have a democracy, but not for want of trying by the Dept of Justice.

The knee-jerk defenses from the guilty now have no more credence than the whining of a mosquito. When confronted with the deplorable conditions at Walter Reed, Lt. Gen. Kevin C. Kiley dismissed The Washinton Post's fine investigative story as "yellow journalism." Alberto Gonzales' first reaction to the scandal that will cost him his job was to call it "an overblown personnel matter." Former GOP strategist Matthew Dowd, who has publicly broken with Bush, is now labeled "emotional," with "personal problems."

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales testifies to Congress on Tuesday, April 17. Expect the whining to continue.

Lies in Attorneygate Keep Piling Up

Link: For Gonzales, More Records, and Questions - New York Times.

Getting lost amid the miasma of lies surrounding the firing of eight US attorneys? The NY Times provided this helpful summary of the main lies so far:

"Justice Department officials first said the White House approved the ouster plan only after it was initiated by Justice, but e-mail messages have shown that officials at the White House initiated the effort, shortly after the 2004 elections.

Justice Department officials at first gave no reasons for the firings, then cited performance problems with the prosecutors, and finally, acknowledged that performance could not be cited in each of the cases as the rationale for the firings.

Officials have said that politics played no role in the firings. But they later acknowledged that they had received repeated telephone calls from one Republican senator who sought the ouster of the New Mexico prosecutor, and that a second United States attorney, in Arkansas, was dismissed to make room for a former aide to Mr. Rove.

Mr. Gonzales...said “I never saw documents. We never had a discussion about where things stood.”

This directly conflicts with documents released late Friday, which show he headed an hour-long meeting on the ouster plan with key members of his senior staff 10 days before the firings.

Incredibly, the White House keeps spinning this as no great problem.

White House officials...repeated their charges that Congressional Democrats were “playing politics” with the issue. They said the new batch of documents — released late Friday — would not further harm Mr. Gonzales’s credibility and expressed confidence that he would survive the controversy.

Dream on, Bushies! I predict he's gone within the week.

Salon Person of the Year: S.R. Sidarth

Link: Salon.com | Salon Person of the Year: S.R. Sidarth.

Lesson for politicians: never make racist, demeaning remarks to someone aiming a camcorder at you.

Psychiatric Patients Prefer Bush

Link: ctnow.com: Bush Nuts.

Christopher Lohse, a social work master’s student at Southern Connecticut State University, says he has discovered a direct link between support for GW Bush and mental illness.

Lohse launched a program to register psychiatric patients to vote and then help them get to the polls. He later discovered that a majority of the patients are Bush supporters.

The thesis draws on a survey of 69 psychiatric outpatients in three Connecticut locations during the 2004 presidential election. Lohse’s study, backed by SCSU Psychology professor Jaak Rakfeldt and statistician Misty Ginacola, found a correlation between the severity of a person’s psychosis and their preferences for president: The more psychotic the voter, the more likely they were to vote for Bush.

and

The study was an advocacy project of sorts, designed to register mentally ill voters and encourage them to go to the polls, Lohse explains. The Bush trend was revealed later on.

The study used Modified General Assessment Functioning, or MGAF, a 100-point scale that measures the functioning of disabled patients. A second scale, developed by Rakfeldt, was also used. Knowledge of current issues, government and politics were assessed on a 12-item scale devised by the study authors.

“Bush supporters had significantly less knowledge about current issues, government and politics than those who supported Kerry,” the study says.

Lohse says the trend isn’t unique to Bush: A 1977 study by Frumkin & Ibrahim found psychiatric patients preferred Nixon over McGovern in the 1972 election.