TODAY'S TOPICS: Social Security Myths, Debt Society, Pakistan, Feinstein, Hillary, Corporate Media, Fuel Efficiency, Code Pink
GOOD NEWS: Feinstein buckled, and voted in favor of an eavesdropping bill that did NOT include immunity for the telecomm industry...it just made it out of committee too...so perhaps she's getting the message from the grassroots and the "censure" campaign.
QUOTES...
Really, what an offensive statement Clinton made to the millions of American and Mexican workers who lost their jobs and saw their wages destroyed thanks to NAFTA - a deal pushed by the Clinton administration (for some more data on NAFTA, see this report from the Economic Policy Institute). You want to talk about showing how utterly out of touch you are, that’s how you do it - you laugh and say you barely remember the debate over the very trade deal that is destroying America’s middle class. And then after you stop laughing, you go to the Senate floor to vote to expand NAFTA, as Clinton says she’s going to in the next few weeks.
-- David Sirota on last night’s Hillary answer on trade…more bullshit…but the pundits love her! According to these “experts” she dominated and won…unless you’re someone that cares about facts, history, and truth
Me on the debate: Another thing that struck me as very strange last night was the way the audience was packed with loud Hillary backers. My question: Did Hillary fill the debate hall with “plants” just like her campaign has been doing at town halls?? I mean, no matter what drivel she said people erupted, and when Obama and Edwards pointed out FACTS about her record they got BOO’D!!! That’s unprecedented in my experience watching these. So clearly, those were Hillary plants…and boy did it help frame the debate..
And not only that, the LAST question of the debate was to Hillary...and what you ask was it? Whether she preferred “diamonds or pearls” of course!! Not only is this a gift to Hillary, its offensive and moronic to air at a national presidential debate!!
And guess what? Apparently, Maria Luisa, the UNLV student who asked Clinton the question wrote on her MySpace page this morning that CNN forced her to ask the frilly question instead of a pre-approved query about the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository.
She wrote: “Every single question asked during the debate by the audience had to be approved by CNN. I was asked to submit questions including “lighthearted/fun” questions. I submitted more than five questions on issues important to me. I did a policy memo on Yucca Mountain a year ago and was the finalist for the Truman Scholarship. For sure, I thought I would get to ask the Yucca question that was APPROVED by CNN days in advance.”
Within a minute of the debate ending the the media had thrown their clothes off and were asking her hand in marriage! My God does the corporate media want another Clinton v. Republican race for President! They can barely stand it...CNN even has former Bill Clinton campaign advisers doing commentary ON WHO WON THE DEBATE for Christ's sake! Ratings and sleaze baby...and that's what a Clinton v. Repub would be!! Of course, the media will then like nothing more than to destroy her...when the time comes...yet another reason I don't want her as the nominee.
To me Kucinich stood out...of course, 20 minutes would go by between opportunities for him to speak...
END
U.S. forces backed by aircraft killed 25 suspected insurgents in operations targeting al Qaeda militants near the Iraqi capital Baghdad, the U.S. military said on Thursday."
-- Reuters, 11/15/07
VERSUS
"Iraqi officials said Thursday they were investigating whether American troops had mistakenly killed some two dozen anti-al Qaeda fighters earlier this week north of Baghdad."
-- CBS News, 11/15/07
Dick Cheney just spent a day shooting up pen-raised birds. Some hunters liken the sport -- killing tame animals that offer no resistance -- to having sex with a blow-up doll.
-- Martha Rosenberg, AlterNet
DEBUNKING SOCIAL SECURITY MYTHS (A long term right wing propaganda campaign): THERE’S NO CRISIS!!
Unfortunately in Obama’s desperation to catch Hillary (and Edwards too), the phony “crisis” of Social Security has reared its ugly head again (note: though I agree raising the cap on payroll taxes is a good idea when needed….).
From Mark Weisbrot, Co-Director and co-founder of the Center for Economic and Policy Research:
...there is not the least bit of urgency regarding Social Security, and it would be best to take the issue off the table entirely until we have at least a few years of public education…According to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, Social Security can pay all promised benefits (to ALL BABY BOOMERS) even longer, until 2046. By either date, most baby boomers will be dead, and almost all of the rest retired, before there is a problem.
SNIP
Even accepting that there could be a shortfall after 2046, it is not much to lose sleep about. The projected shortfall over Social Security's whole 75-year planning period is less than what we fixed in each of the decades of the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s.
In fact, even if nothing were ever done to close the projected gap - and that is a wildly implausible scenario - Social Security would, after 2046 still have enough money to pay, indefinitely, a bigger benefit than it does today. That's in real terms, adjusted for inflation. Of course, this benefit would be less than what seniors in the distant future would be entitled to, so we will eventually make some adjustments.
SNIP
The fact that a major Democratic presidential candidate could attack the front-runner in 2007, for not proposing a solution to a problem that is so relatively small and uncertain and nearly four decades away, is testimony to the power and durability of well-financed right-wing propaganda - especially when there is no matching effort on the other side. The right spent more than two decades, and millions of dollars, discrediting Social Security with nothing more than verbal and accounting tricks - they never even bothered to make their own projections to compete with Social Security's Trustees. Some of the money that altered public opinion came straight from Wall Street financial firms who stood to make a fortune from privatization.
These efforts should be regarded as one of the most successful disinformation campaigns in modern history. These people managed to convince tens of millions of Americans that they are never going to see their Social Security benefits, an event about as probable as the United States disappearing from the political map. This is especially impressive, given that Social Security is not like some country halfway around the world that most Americans could not find on a map. Social Security is an immensely popular program, and one that delivers a check each month to about one-sixth of the population.
END
VIDEO SECTION…
Stat of the week: in 2005 120 war veterans a WEEK are committing suicide…gee…wonder if Iraq has something to do with that?
A recent Veteran Affairs Department estimate says some 5,000 ex-servicemen and women will commit suicide this year, largely as a result of mental health issues, and Keteyian says, "Our numbers are much higher than that, overall."
Veteran suicides covered by CBS…depressing yes…but known by Americans? No…
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/11/15/cbs-news-investigates-shocking-rate-of-veteran-suicides/
This is the flip side…Olbermann covers the video of a really moving reuniting of a boy and his father fighting in Iraq. The child didn’t know he was home…to say it makes the eyes well up is an understatement:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/11/16/countdown-welcome-home/
Code pink… denied access into Canada…I mentioned this frightening Big Brother story a few weeks back…watch Hightower discuss the latest…and be afraid:
http://alternet.org/blogs/video/67893/
Defining progressivism in a new ad campaign: clever…it’s been too long that we’ve been defined by the right wing…most mind numb Americans don’t even realize on the issues THEY’RE PROGRESSIVE TOO!!
http://alternet.org/blogs/video/67987/
More on the Giuliani-Kerik-Regan-Fox News scandal from Olbermann:
http://alternet.org/blogs/video/67934/
ARTICLE SECTION
AMERICA’S DEBT SOCIETY…(READ THIS!)
There are a handful of issues or trends to watch in this country that I can guarantee will only get more important, and certainly represent key indicators as to whether our nation is going to make it or instead collapse on itself. One of those – still largely below the corporate media radar – is the emergence of a dept society/economy.
Clearly, this is a very complex story to be told, but a critical one to understand, particularly how we’ve gone from being a nation with a strong middle class, decent upward mobility, and only a moderate disparity between the rich and poor to what we are now…
A few clips from this excellent manifesto:
How did America, collectively and as individuals, become a nation addicted to debt, pushed to and over the edge of bankruptcy? The savings rate hangs below zero. Personal bankruptcies are reaching record heights. America's total debt averages more than $160,000 for every man, woman, and child. On a broader scale, China holds nearly $1 trillion in us debt. Japan and other countries are also owed big.
SNIP
America gets goods from China. China gets dollars from the U.S. In order to keep the value of their currency low so that exports stay cheap, China doesn't spend those dollars in China, but buys us assets like bonds. China now holds some $900 billion in such U.S. IOUs. This massive borrowing of money from China (and to a lesser extent, from Japan) sent us interest rates to record lows.
Now the hamster wheel really gets spinning. Cheap borrowing costs encouraged millions of Americans to borrow more, buying homes and sending housing prices to record highs. Soaring house prices encouraged banks to loan freely, which sent even more buyers into the market -- many who believed the hype that the real estate investment offered a never-ending escalator to riches and borrowed heavily to finance their dreams of getting ahead. People began borrowing against the skyrocketing value of their homes, to buy furniture, appliances, and TVs. These home equity loans added $200 billion to the U.S. economy in 2004 alone.
It was all so utopian. The boom would feed on itself. Nobody would ever have to work again or produce anything of value. All that needed to be done was to keep buying and selling each other's houses with money borrowed from the Chinese. On Wall Street, private equity firms played a similar game: buying companies with borrowed billions, sacking employees to cut costs, and then selling the companies to someone else who did the same. These leveraged buyouts inflated share values, minting billionaires all around. The virtues that produce profit -- innovation, entrepreneurialism and good management -- stopped mattering so long as there were bountiful capital gains.
But the party is coming to a halt.
http://alternet.org/story/66634/
PAKISTAN/MUSHARRAF: THE REAL “ENEMY”?
Ted Rall dispenses some serious red pills with yet another expose of the real Musharraf record…adding new information (at least for me) about his past relationship with the Taliban and Osama Bin Laden. In fact, Rall raises a question I hadn’t heard before: Pakistan was actually a much more logical target after 9/11 than Afghanistan…but that wouldn’t have served the purposes of the corporatocracy and the Bush administration.
A few clips:
Perhaps now, with thousands of journalists, lawyers and political opponents imprisoned and Pakistan under martial law, Americans will take notice that he’s no better than Saddam. There’s no such thing as a “moderate dictator.”
Actually, Musharaff is worse than Saddam. Despite occasional kowtowing to fundamentalists in Iraq’s Koran Belt, he was a secular socialist who jailed radical Islamists. Musharraf’s political prisoners, on the other hand, are journalists, judges, lawyers, artists and peace activists. “The first people to be arrested after the imposition of emergency were not the leaders of Pakistani Taliban, nor their sympathizers in Islamabad,” wrote Mohammed Hanif, head of the BBC’s Urdu service. “There was no crackdown on sleeper cells that have orchestrated a wave of suicide bombings across Pakistan.”
SNIP
If U.S. officials had wanted to catch Osama bin Laden, all they had to do was call Musharraf. On 9/11, the Al Qaeda leader was laid up in a Pakistani military hospital in Islamabad. If the dictator refused, invading Pakistan–if you’re into that sort of thing–would certainly have been more justifiable than Afghanistan or Iraq. A Pakistan War could have neutralized the world’s most dangerous nuclear threat, established a valuable strategic American foothold between India and China, and–if we worked with the UN–scored us popularity points for restoring democratic rule.
Such a war would have been far more justifiable than Afghanistan or Iraq. No country was more responsible than Pakistan for 9/11. Pakistan hosted Al Qaeda’s headquarters in Kashmir. Most of its training camps were in Kashmir and Pakistan’s Tribal Areas–not Afghanistan. On July 22, 2004, The Guardian reported that General Mahmoud Ahmed, chief of the ISI under Musharraf, had sent $100,000 to Mohammed Atta, the lead 9/11 hijacker. The Wall Street Journal confirmed that Pakistani intelligence had financed 9/11, but the 9/11 Commission decided not to investigate our “strategic ally in the war on terrorism.”
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/11/14/5230/
Ever since Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf declared a state of emergency, he has been "the most unpopular figure in the country." But "running a close second" is "his ally: President Bush." "[W]hy isn't the U.S. standing up for Pakistan when we need it most?" asked Islamabad resident Parveen Aslam. "We are calling them Busharraf now. They are the same man."
SOME GOOD NEWS!!!
COURT REJECTS BUSH'S FUEL EFFICIENCY STANDARDS: Yesterday, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals struck down White House-backed fuel standards for SUVs, minivans, and light trucks, "arguing that the new rules are inadequate in part because they fail to properly assess the risk of global warming." The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration rules required SUVs and light trucks to increase their fuel efficiency from the current 22.2 miles per gallon standard to only 23.5 mpg by 2020. In response, 11 states, four environmental groups, New York City, and Washington, DC, filed a lawsuit arguing that the rules were far too lenient. Rep. Edward Markey (D-MA) said the court's ruling "is just the latest in a long line of rebukes to the president and the automobile industry in their quest to block meaningful progress on energy independence and climate change." Markey also noted that the energy bill pending in Congress would mandate a 35 mpg standard by 2020.
"Some government scientists" charge "that officials at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History" ordered last-minute changes to an exhibit on the Arctic to add "scientific uncertainty" about climate change because of "global-warming skeptics in the Bush administration."
EXAMPLE 1: MEDIA IDIOCY
This is the epitome of what’s wrong with today’s media…NPR is no exception. Anyone that has paid attention to their programming knows this too:
NPR Offers Program “Is Waterboarding Torture?”
I’ve got some ideas for future documentaries too:
“Is the World Really Round? Some disagree.”
“Does the earth really revolve around the sun? Some say no.”
“Is stabbing someone to death legal? We report, you decide.”
More from me:
The fact that we actually have “news journalists” STILL doing pieces debating things like whether global warming is real, intelligent design is science, and if fuc**** waterboarding is torture (hint: look up international AND domestic laws banning it!!!!) sometimes makes me literally wonder if I’m on the show ‘Punk’d’ (for older readers think "candid camera")…and someone is going to jump out one of these days and go “Surprise Zack, the last 10 years of your life have been a joke!!! There’s really no such thing as “neo cons”, Bush, Cheney, the religious right, corporate media, the modern Republican Party, the OJ and Anna Nicole trial coverage, or Fox News!! Psyche! You’ve been Punk’d!"
Here’s a good breakdown of NPR’s hard hitting debate over something that was already decided back in the Spanish Inquisition…that waterboarding is torture:
FROM C&L:
“Lord, save us from the idiots that are still unsure about this. I have an idea: how about any person that hasn’t yet figured this out line up to experience it? I’m pretty sure once you’ve got up close and personal with a near-drowning, it won’t be too hard to come down one way or the other on the issue.”
MediaBloodhound:
A recent segment on WNYC, New York’s flagship National Public Radio (NPR) station, underscored not only the level to which public broadcasting standards have degraded during the Bush years, increasingly adopting the same intellectually dishonest frames and “fair and balanced” debate as those aired on commercial media networks, but also how, simultaneously, public broadcasting deceptively benefits from, and is protected by, its vaunted and entrenched reputation for providing quality information.
You know, I expect this kind of stuff from the Fox Networks, but man, how can you not grieve for NPR?
END
$19.5 million: Amount PhRMA spent from July 1, 2006, through June 30, 2007, aimed at killing legislation to speed the availability of less expensive generic drugs.
Friday, November 16, 2007
Thursday, November 15, 2007
TODAY'S TOPICS: Edwards, Giuliani Scandal, Blackwater, Olbermann, Censure Feinstein, Energy v. War Funding
“How could it be, at the end of World War II, we were the most honored, powerful nation in the world? ‘Honored’ is the key word. Today we are the most despised. How come? The American public itself has no memory of the past. Gore Vidal uses the phrase ‘United States of Amnesia.’ I say, United States of Alzheimer’s. What do we know about it-why are we there in Iraq? They say, when you attack our policy, you are attacking the boys. On the contrary, they’re defending those boys. Welcoming them back home with their families. The war is built upon an obscene lie. We know that now. This lack of history has been denied us.”
-- Studs Terkel
EDWARDS INGENIOUS HEALTH CARE IDEA (can this help him win Iowa???…which he absolutely MUST do to have a chance at the nomination)
Edwards told radio talker Ed Schultz, "There's no excuse for politicians in Washington to have heathcare, but America doesn't have healthcare, and I think we have to shake this place up a little bit. What we would do is we would submit legislation saying if universal healthcare is not passed by this summer, that the Congress and members of the administration would lose their healthcare coverage."
That may just be true. As blogger Ezra Klein noted: "The idea behind this bill is that it will ratchet up political pressure for change, creating a situation in which congressmen come to the table because they fear losing their seats if they don't. It's a strategy based on the application of political pressure, not legislative finesse." Edwards promised Ed Schultz that if he's elected and Congress doesn't pass his bill, "I'm going to go as president into their congressional district, into their Senate states and say your senator or your congressmen is supporting healthcare for himself and against healthcare for you."
From Joshua Holland of Alternet: “It's a beautiful piece of populism -- a message that appeals to an American Main Street that polls show to be as disdainful of Congress as it is hurting from spiraling healthcare costs in the face of stagnant wages. It's a campaign that can showcase how much lawmakers appreciate the kind of coverage they receive and just how hard they'd fight to keep it, and, importantly, will make it that much harder for opponents to mouth the inevitable blather about the perfidy of "government-run," "socialized healthcare" with a straight face.”
VIDEO SECTION
Oh Blackwater…you’re so evil…but, you’re also busted…again. Watch Olbermann cover yet another mind bender of a revelation of Blackwater crimes and government complicity. Wow…
First, from Jeremy Scahill:
“The Bush administration has overseen a radical privatization of the U.S. war machine. There are now more private contractors in Iraq — tens of thousands of them armed — than U.S. troops. At the same time, the White House has militarized the State Department’s Bureau of Diplomatic Security, staffing it with private warriors from Blackwater, DynCorp International and Triple Canopy. This force, conceived as a small-scale bodyguard operation for U.S. diplomats, now constitutes a paramilitary squad thousands strong, seemingly accountable to no one.
Although Blackwater’s operatives must be held accountable, this is not just a case of rooting out “bad apples.” These forces were deployed without any accountability structure or effective oversight; their mission was to keep U.S. officials alive by any means necessary. Blackwater has done that job, but we may never know how many Iraqis have died as a result. The investigation must determine which operatives killed the Iraqis on Sept. 16, but it can’t stop there. It must extend to those who hired them and deployed them, armed, dangerous and apparently above the law.”
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/11/14/countdown-blood-is-thicker-than-blackwater/
GIULIANI, KERIK, FOX NEWS SCANDAL...
Well, this is one of those “I told you so’s” that are fun…because unlike so many of my predictions of ominous future events and results that will take place that are proven true, this was a prediction that I made that would be a very, very “good thing”. This of course was, starting years ago, my continual “just wait until Giuliani runs and then the truth about him will start to come out.”
And here is yet another! How much better can you get than a scandal involving Fox news covering up affairs by Giuliani’s right hand man in a room built for 9/11 workers while trying to buy the woman off to keep her mouth shut as they constantly promote Giuliani as President? And of course, Kerik was Giuliani’s pick to run out entire NATION’S Homeland Security. Oh yeah, Kerik is also charged with mob ties, tax evasion…Christ, you get the picture.
Watch some coverage of this “made for a tv movie” scandal:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/11/14/judith-regan-said-news-corp-wanted-her-quiet-about-kerik-to-protect-giuliani/
More on the fun side…and let’s face it…it is kind of fun to watch Bill O’Reilly’s slow descent in madness…and Olbermann’s continued use of him as a human and intellectual piñata. I do think, on a more serious note, that such comedy and satire IS also a strong political weapon, and of considerable value. When Olbermann simply shows us the near comical hypocrisies, bigotry, and all the rest coming from the right…be it Limbaugh, Hannity, Coulter, O’Reilly, and the many others, it is a powerful tool. Now the latest from Keith:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/11/14/mark-cuban-challenges-bill-oreilly-to-face-him-on-countdown/
This is why Brian Williams sucks so bad…
Eric Boehlert at Media Matters explains the double standard:
"Searching for more proof that celebrity Beltway journalists enjoy warm, friendly relations with Republican presidential hopefuls? Look no further than last week’s cozy sit-down between NBC News anchor Brian Williams and GOP front-runner Rudy Giuliani.[..]
I watched the Giuliani interview last week and was busy taking notes when I wasn’t picking my jaw up off the floor. That was partly because of the forced, old-friend vibe that permeated the interview, but mostly because Williams never asked Giuliani a single uncomfortable question. The treatment stood in stark contrast to the relentless and often factually challenged grilling Williams and his NBC News colleague Tim Russert unleashed on the Democratic front-runner at the Philadelphia debate two weeks ago. Not to mention the type of loaded, contentious questions Williams posed to Democrats when he moderated their debate (solo) in South Carolina in April."
Watch...have a barf bag nearby:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/11/14/brian-williams-hearts-rudy-giuliani/
War versus Energy Spending Graph:
“Accrued liabilities for U.S. federal employees’ and veterans’ benefits now total $4.5 trillion. Indeed, our debt for veterans’ health and disability payments has risen by $228 billion in the past year alone…The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the interest payments on the money borrowed to finance the Iraq war will total $264 billion to $308 billion.”
That $2,000,000,000,000? Well, that amount of money could’ve built solar thermal plants here that would have provided energy for 2/3rds of our nation’s energy demand: http://www.solarpowerrocks.com/solar-politics/how-far-could-68b-go-in-securing-our-energy-independence-pretty-dam
See graph:
http://cosmicvariance.com/2007/11/14/1482/
DEM'S SHOULD CENSURE FEINSTEIN!
Only 29% of Californians—and just 9% of California Democrats—approve of the president, but Senator Feinstein has sided with him on key issues.
Last week, every member of the Senate had a chance to take a stand against torture. Most Democrats did—they opposed the nomination of Michael Mukasey for Attorney General because he left the door open to torture. He wouldn't, for example, say whether water-boarding—an interrogation technique that simulates drowning—constituted torture.
But Senator Feinstein wasn't with the majority of Democrats—she actually cast a pivotal vote in the Senate Judiciary Committee to confirm him.
On Torture: Senator Feinstein recommended Michael Mukasey for Attorney General, despite his refusal to call the practice of water-boarding "torture."1
On Judges: Senator Feinstein was the deciding vote to confirm Judge Leslie Southwick,2 even though Southwick had ruled that a white employee couldn't be fired for using a demeaning and offensive racial slur towards an African-American co-worker. Southwick also took custody of an eight-year-old girl away from her mother, because the mother was living with another woman in a "lesbian home."3
On Wiretapping: Now Senator Feinstein says she is going to support immunity for phone companies that helped the Bush administration illegally spy on the phone calls and emails of innocent Americans.4
When Senator Feinstein sides with President Bush and the Republicans on key issues like these, she not only goes against what a majority of her constituents want—she gives cover to other weak Democrats, too. This means it's even harder for Congress to make progress on the critical issues that so many voters care about.
Senator Feinstein isn't up for election again until 2012, but we can't afford another 5 years of this. She needs to hear from Californians that she needs to start siding with them—not George Bush.
A censure from the California Democratic Party is the strongest way to send that message.
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=3163&id=11668-1187820-htsFoM&t=1
AMERICANS SUPPORT FUEL EFFICIENCY
(Another plea to cowardly democrats…both elected officials and wannabe “pundits/consultants: Don't fear taking on Detroit!!!" If we don't drastically raise fuel efficiency standards we have NO CHANCE of averting the very worst global warming scenario. Period. Dot.)
POLL NUMBERS:
Fuel economy for cars is also polling very well. A bipartisan poll conducted last week found that voters connect better fuel efficiency with national security. Pollster Mark Mellman said: "The overwhelming support for CAFE standards cuts across all the traditional demographics in this country." Overall, 86 percent of voters said they support requiring automakers to increase fuel economy - 90 percent of Democrats, 83 percent of independents and 83 percent of Republicans. Only health care costs and the Iraq war show similar levels of concern at 79 percent and 72 percent respectively.
UH OH...ANOTHER REPUBLICAN BUSTED...
As far as I know—he campaigned for Orrin Hatch and is on the executive committee of the Utah Republican Party.
Salt Lake Tribune:
A 3rd District judge this week scuttled Republican leader Ozwald Balfour’s efforts to disqualify the Salt Lake County District Attorney’s Office from prosecuting him for allegedly groping, or attempting to grope, four women. Four sex assault cases filed against Balfour in 2005 were still unresolved last fall when he threw his support - and the free services of his two media consulting companies - to Republican district attorney candidate Lohra Miller.
He is charged with three second-degree felony counts of forcible sexual abuse and one count of attempted forcible sexual abuse, a third-degree felony…read on
The SL Weekly said on 06/21/07:
Only in Utah can a man accused of sexual assault and awaiting trial retain a position of prominence in the GOP without so much as a raised eyebrow from the party known for its family values and moral rectitude…read on
END
ARMY MEMO REITERATES BAN ON WATERBOARDING TO CLEAR UP 'CONFUSION' FROM MUKASEY'S TESTIMONY: On Nov. 9, the Senate voted to confirm Michael Mukasey as Attorney General, despite concerns about his consistent refusal to declare waterboarding torture. But according to the AP, three days earlier, on Nov. 6, the Army issued a memo to "senior leaders" reiterating that the technique is prohibited by the Army. The memo was to be relayed to soldiers' families and employees in order to "eliminate any confusion that may have arisen as a result of recent public discourse on the subject." Waterboarding "is specifically prohibited by Field Manual 2-22.3 and is not a sanctioned interrogation technique in any training manual or any instructions to soldiers in the field," read the statement. The CIA reportedly used waterboarding on three different prisoners before 2003. Last week, Reps. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) and William Delahunt (D-MA) introduced legislation requiring "that interrogations comply with the standards set forth in the Army Field Manual, to all government agencies."
The Bush administration has "had more turnover than any administration in recent history, going back to the Kennedy administration," with at least 150 former administration officials now working as lobbyists. "In its early years, the administration was estimated to have hired about 100 lobbyists."
The deaths of at least 14 of the 17 Iraqis killed by Blackwater guards in a Sept. 16 shootout were "were unjustified and violated deadly-force rules in effect for security contractors in Iraq," according to portions of the FBI investigation now under review by the Justice Department.
“How could it be, at the end of World War II, we were the most honored, powerful nation in the world? ‘Honored’ is the key word. Today we are the most despised. How come? The American public itself has no memory of the past. Gore Vidal uses the phrase ‘United States of Amnesia.’ I say, United States of Alzheimer’s. What do we know about it-why are we there in Iraq? They say, when you attack our policy, you are attacking the boys. On the contrary, they’re defending those boys. Welcoming them back home with their families. The war is built upon an obscene lie. We know that now. This lack of history has been denied us.”
-- Studs Terkel
EDWARDS INGENIOUS HEALTH CARE IDEA (can this help him win Iowa???…which he absolutely MUST do to have a chance at the nomination)
Edwards told radio talker Ed Schultz, "There's no excuse for politicians in Washington to have heathcare, but America doesn't have healthcare, and I think we have to shake this place up a little bit. What we would do is we would submit legislation saying if universal healthcare is not passed by this summer, that the Congress and members of the administration would lose their healthcare coverage."
That may just be true. As blogger Ezra Klein noted: "The idea behind this bill is that it will ratchet up political pressure for change, creating a situation in which congressmen come to the table because they fear losing their seats if they don't. It's a strategy based on the application of political pressure, not legislative finesse." Edwards promised Ed Schultz that if he's elected and Congress doesn't pass his bill, "I'm going to go as president into their congressional district, into their Senate states and say your senator or your congressmen is supporting healthcare for himself and against healthcare for you."
From Joshua Holland of Alternet: “It's a beautiful piece of populism -- a message that appeals to an American Main Street that polls show to be as disdainful of Congress as it is hurting from spiraling healthcare costs in the face of stagnant wages. It's a campaign that can showcase how much lawmakers appreciate the kind of coverage they receive and just how hard they'd fight to keep it, and, importantly, will make it that much harder for opponents to mouth the inevitable blather about the perfidy of "government-run," "socialized healthcare" with a straight face.”
VIDEO SECTION
Oh Blackwater…you’re so evil…but, you’re also busted…again. Watch Olbermann cover yet another mind bender of a revelation of Blackwater crimes and government complicity. Wow…
First, from Jeremy Scahill:
“The Bush administration has overseen a radical privatization of the U.S. war machine. There are now more private contractors in Iraq — tens of thousands of them armed — than U.S. troops. At the same time, the White House has militarized the State Department’s Bureau of Diplomatic Security, staffing it with private warriors from Blackwater, DynCorp International and Triple Canopy. This force, conceived as a small-scale bodyguard operation for U.S. diplomats, now constitutes a paramilitary squad thousands strong, seemingly accountable to no one.
Although Blackwater’s operatives must be held accountable, this is not just a case of rooting out “bad apples.” These forces were deployed without any accountability structure or effective oversight; their mission was to keep U.S. officials alive by any means necessary. Blackwater has done that job, but we may never know how many Iraqis have died as a result. The investigation must determine which operatives killed the Iraqis on Sept. 16, but it can’t stop there. It must extend to those who hired them and deployed them, armed, dangerous and apparently above the law.”
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/11/14/countdown-blood-is-thicker-than-blackwater/
GIULIANI, KERIK, FOX NEWS SCANDAL...
Well, this is one of those “I told you so’s” that are fun…because unlike so many of my predictions of ominous future events and results that will take place that are proven true, this was a prediction that I made that would be a very, very “good thing”. This of course was, starting years ago, my continual “just wait until Giuliani runs and then the truth about him will start to come out.”
And here is yet another! How much better can you get than a scandal involving Fox news covering up affairs by Giuliani’s right hand man in a room built for 9/11 workers while trying to buy the woman off to keep her mouth shut as they constantly promote Giuliani as President? And of course, Kerik was Giuliani’s pick to run out entire NATION’S Homeland Security. Oh yeah, Kerik is also charged with mob ties, tax evasion…Christ, you get the picture.
Watch some coverage of this “made for a tv movie” scandal:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/11/14/judith-regan-said-news-corp-wanted-her-quiet-about-kerik-to-protect-giuliani/
More on the fun side…and let’s face it…it is kind of fun to watch Bill O’Reilly’s slow descent in madness…and Olbermann’s continued use of him as a human and intellectual piñata. I do think, on a more serious note, that such comedy and satire IS also a strong political weapon, and of considerable value. When Olbermann simply shows us the near comical hypocrisies, bigotry, and all the rest coming from the right…be it Limbaugh, Hannity, Coulter, O’Reilly, and the many others, it is a powerful tool. Now the latest from Keith:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/11/14/mark-cuban-challenges-bill-oreilly-to-face-him-on-countdown/
This is why Brian Williams sucks so bad…
Eric Boehlert at Media Matters explains the double standard:
"Searching for more proof that celebrity Beltway journalists enjoy warm, friendly relations with Republican presidential hopefuls? Look no further than last week’s cozy sit-down between NBC News anchor Brian Williams and GOP front-runner Rudy Giuliani.[..]
I watched the Giuliani interview last week and was busy taking notes when I wasn’t picking my jaw up off the floor. That was partly because of the forced, old-friend vibe that permeated the interview, but mostly because Williams never asked Giuliani a single uncomfortable question. The treatment stood in stark contrast to the relentless and often factually challenged grilling Williams and his NBC News colleague Tim Russert unleashed on the Democratic front-runner at the Philadelphia debate two weeks ago. Not to mention the type of loaded, contentious questions Williams posed to Democrats when he moderated their debate (solo) in South Carolina in April."
Watch...have a barf bag nearby:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/11/14/brian-williams-hearts-rudy-giuliani/
War versus Energy Spending Graph:
This is about as telling a graph as you'll see...highlighting the gross ilogic of spending trillions to fight wars for oil on the other side of the globe instead of investing in renewable energy, conservation, and energy efficiency (including vehicles). No...instead less lose lives, money, our climate and environment, our morality and souls, by fighting wars, occupying sovereign nations and increasing terrorism!
One clip before you see the graph:“Accrued liabilities for U.S. federal employees’ and veterans’ benefits now total $4.5 trillion. Indeed, our debt for veterans’ health and disability payments has risen by $228 billion in the past year alone…The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the interest payments on the money borrowed to finance the Iraq war will total $264 billion to $308 billion.”
That $2,000,000,000,000? Well, that amount of money could’ve built solar thermal plants here that would have provided energy for 2/3rds of our nation’s energy demand: http://www.solarpowerrocks.com/solar-politics/how-far-could-68b-go-in-securing-our-energy-independence-pretty-dam
See graph:
http://cosmicvariance.com/2007/11/14/1482/
DEM'S SHOULD CENSURE FEINSTEIN!
Only 29% of Californians—and just 9% of California Democrats—approve of the president, but Senator Feinstein has sided with him on key issues.
Last week, every member of the Senate had a chance to take a stand against torture. Most Democrats did—they opposed the nomination of Michael Mukasey for Attorney General because he left the door open to torture. He wouldn't, for example, say whether water-boarding—an interrogation technique that simulates drowning—constituted torture.
But Senator Feinstein wasn't with the majority of Democrats—she actually cast a pivotal vote in the Senate Judiciary Committee to confirm him.
On Torture: Senator Feinstein recommended Michael Mukasey for Attorney General, despite his refusal to call the practice of water-boarding "torture."1
On Judges: Senator Feinstein was the deciding vote to confirm Judge Leslie Southwick,2 even though Southwick had ruled that a white employee couldn't be fired for using a demeaning and offensive racial slur towards an African-American co-worker. Southwick also took custody of an eight-year-old girl away from her mother, because the mother was living with another woman in a "lesbian home."3
On Wiretapping: Now Senator Feinstein says she is going to support immunity for phone companies that helped the Bush administration illegally spy on the phone calls and emails of innocent Americans.4
When Senator Feinstein sides with President Bush and the Republicans on key issues like these, she not only goes against what a majority of her constituents want—she gives cover to other weak Democrats, too. This means it's even harder for Congress to make progress on the critical issues that so many voters care about.
Senator Feinstein isn't up for election again until 2012, but we can't afford another 5 years of this. She needs to hear from Californians that she needs to start siding with them—not George Bush.
A censure from the California Democratic Party is the strongest way to send that message.
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=3163&id=11668-1187820-htsFoM&t=1
AMERICANS SUPPORT FUEL EFFICIENCY
(Another plea to cowardly democrats…both elected officials and wannabe “pundits/consultants: Don't fear taking on Detroit!!!" If we don't drastically raise fuel efficiency standards we have NO CHANCE of averting the very worst global warming scenario. Period. Dot.)
POLL NUMBERS:
Fuel economy for cars is also polling very well. A bipartisan poll conducted last week found that voters connect better fuel efficiency with national security. Pollster Mark Mellman said: "The overwhelming support for CAFE standards cuts across all the traditional demographics in this country." Overall, 86 percent of voters said they support requiring automakers to increase fuel economy - 90 percent of Democrats, 83 percent of independents and 83 percent of Republicans. Only health care costs and the Iraq war show similar levels of concern at 79 percent and 72 percent respectively.
UH OH...ANOTHER REPUBLICAN BUSTED...
As far as I know—he campaigned for Orrin Hatch and is on the executive committee of the Utah Republican Party.
Salt Lake Tribune:
A 3rd District judge this week scuttled Republican leader Ozwald Balfour’s efforts to disqualify the Salt Lake County District Attorney’s Office from prosecuting him for allegedly groping, or attempting to grope, four women. Four sex assault cases filed against Balfour in 2005 were still unresolved last fall when he threw his support - and the free services of his two media consulting companies - to Republican district attorney candidate Lohra Miller.
He is charged with three second-degree felony counts of forcible sexual abuse and one count of attempted forcible sexual abuse, a third-degree felony…read on
The SL Weekly said on 06/21/07:
Only in Utah can a man accused of sexual assault and awaiting trial retain a position of prominence in the GOP without so much as a raised eyebrow from the party known for its family values and moral rectitude…read on
END
ARMY MEMO REITERATES BAN ON WATERBOARDING TO CLEAR UP 'CONFUSION' FROM MUKASEY'S TESTIMONY: On Nov. 9, the Senate voted to confirm Michael Mukasey as Attorney General, despite concerns about his consistent refusal to declare waterboarding torture. But according to the AP, three days earlier, on Nov. 6, the Army issued a memo to "senior leaders" reiterating that the technique is prohibited by the Army. The memo was to be relayed to soldiers' families and employees in order to "eliminate any confusion that may have arisen as a result of recent public discourse on the subject." Waterboarding "is specifically prohibited by Field Manual 2-22.3 and is not a sanctioned interrogation technique in any training manual or any instructions to soldiers in the field," read the statement. The CIA reportedly used waterboarding on three different prisoners before 2003. Last week, Reps. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) and William Delahunt (D-MA) introduced legislation requiring "that interrogations comply with the standards set forth in the Army Field Manual, to all government agencies."
The Bush administration has "had more turnover than any administration in recent history, going back to the Kennedy administration," with at least 150 former administration officials now working as lobbyists. "In its early years, the administration was estimated to have hired about 100 lobbyists."
The deaths of at least 14 of the 17 Iraqis killed by Blackwater guards in a Sept. 16 shootout were "were unjustified and violated deadly-force rules in effect for security contractors in Iraq," according to portions of the FBI investigation now under review by the Justice Department.
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
TODAY'S TOPICS: Obama Speech, Reagan Revisionism, Edwards, Kucinich, Iran, Trade Debate, Watada Wins!, Olbermann
The White House, isolated and reviled at home and abroad, believes it is on a higher mission to save the world from itself. The instability in the Middle East could undermine Gates and his generals. A limited Israeli strike on suspected Iranian nuclear production facilities, currently under discussion in Jerusalem, could trigger retaliatory strikes by Iran on Israel and U.S. targets in Iraq and the Persian Gulf. The clamor for revenge, fueled by a rapacious right-wing media, coupled with our feelings of collective humiliation, could sweep aside all reasoned objections to war with Iran. It happened after the attacks of 2001. It can happen again.
-- Chris Hedges (I have his whole epic column in the article section)
In the wake of all the fluvial funereal obsequies that the media attached to Ronald Reagan's earthly departure, I felt obliged to remark that he had been the most overrated president in American history and the second most ignorant.
--Norman Mailer (the late)
And as for the most ignorant President of all time...its official, he's also now the most "strongly disapproved" of in history:
From Dr. Frank Newport of Gallup: Of those who disapprove (almost two-thirds of us, or all those with a functioning Central Nervous System) 14% somewhat don't like him while 50% flat out hate his sorry ass…that’s the highest in US history…
END
REAGAN'S RACISM REVISITED...FIGHTING HISTORICAL REVISIONISM
First, a few words from yours truly. You have all heard me write often about the Matrix's insatiable desire to re-write history...changing it to suit its present and future desires. Of course, this doesn't happen in a vacuum. The Matrix only really gears up for a "reboot" of a historical event or individual if there are real powers behind this revision. Indeed, there has been no greater effort to re-write history in the past 15 years than that orchestrated to transform the bumbling, corrupt, racist, corporatist, and imbecile Ronald Reagan into some kind of mythic figure of American virtue and ethics.
And of course, as one would expect, as each line of reality is erased from the Matrix data banks about this criminal's true legacy, we are left with a false image and icon that only serves the purpose to perpetuate the myths and the agenda of an extremist, right wing, and largely fascist movement in this country. As I said, this hasn't been happening in a vacuum. Behind this non stop effort to "reload" Ronald Reagan in our collective memories are the usual suspects: right wing think tanks, Republican pundits, politicians, media elites, and all those trying to benefit from such a "myth".
Well, in the past few weeks just such a clash has been underway at the NY Times between Paul Krugman and Bob Herbert - versus David Brooks and other right wing historical revisionists. The argument in question is Reagan's real legacy on civil rights, and the effort to gloss over it, as with all his crimes against humanity.
Remember...don't let time soften our minds and make us forget. I hear far too often (from Democrats no less), that somehow because Bush and Cheney are admittedly the worst administration in history (as I have said, factually, they are sociopathic terrorists) - this means that Reagan "wasn't that bad". I'm sorry, but because someone isn't "as bad" as the worst to have ever walked the halls of the White House doesn't make someone "okay", it simply means they weren't "as bad"...which is saying nothing. Getting punched in the face isn't as bad as getting hit with a base ball bat...that doesn't make it okay or "good".
Let us not forget facts, deeds, and the truth of his actions...not the shallow, glossed over revisionism we are being spoon fed of a jolly grandpa figure who meant no harm.
So with no further ado, here are Herbert and Krugman breaking down the real Reagan "race" legacy...similar truths could be told on nearly EVERY issue about this scumbag:
From Herbert:
Everybody watching the 1980 campaign knew what Reagan was signaling at the fair. Whites and blacks, Democrats and Republicans - they all knew. The news media knew. The race haters and the people appalled by racial hatred knew. And Reagan knew.
He was tapping out the code. It was understood that when politicians started chirping about “states’ rights” to white people in places like Neshoba County they were saying that when it comes down to you and the blacks, we’re with you.
And Reagan meant it. He was opposed to the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964, which was the same year that Goodman, Schwerner and Chaney were slaughtered. As president, he actually tried to weaken the Voting Rights Act of 1965. He opposed a national holiday for the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He tried to get rid of the federal ban on tax exemptions for private schools that practiced racial discrimination. And in 1988, he vetoed a bill to expand the reach of federal civil rights legislation.
Congress overrode the veto.
Reagan also vetoed the imposition of sanctions on the apartheid regime in South Africa. Congress overrode that veto, too.
Throughout his career, Reagan was wrong, insensitive and mean-spirited on civil rights and other issues important to black people. There is no way for the scribes of today to clean up that dismal record.
-- Bob Herbert, NY Times
From Paul Krugman:
So there’s a campaign on to exonerate Ronald Reagan from the charge that he deliberately made use of Nixon’s Southern strategy. When he went to Philadelphia, Mississippi, in 1980, the town where the civil rights workers had been murdered, and declared that “I believe in states’ rights,” he didn’t mean to signal support for white racists. It was all just an innocent mistake.
Indeed, you do really have to feel sorry for Reagan. He just kept making those innocent mistakes.
When he went on about the welfare queen driving her Cadillac, and kept repeating the story years after it had been debunked, some people thought he was engaging in race-baiting. But it was all just an innocent mistake.
When, in 1976, he talked about working people angry about the “strapping young buck” using food stamps to buy T-bone steaks at the grocery store, he didn’t mean to play into racial hostility. True, as The New York Times reported,
The ex-Governor has used the grocery-line illustration before, but in states like New Hampshire where there is scant black population, he has never used the expression “young buck,” which, to whites in the South, generally denotes a large black man. But the appearance that Reagan was playing to Southern prejudice was just an innocent mistake.
Similarly, when Reagan declared in 1980 that the Voting Rights Act had been “humiliating to the South,” he didn’t mean to signal sympathy with segregationists. It was all an innocent mistake.
In 1982, when Reagan intervened on the side of Bob Jones University, which was on the verge of losing its tax-exempt status because of its ban on interracial dating, he had no idea that the issue was so racially charged. It was all an innocent mistake.
And the next year, when Reagan fired three members of the Civil Rights Commission, it wasn’t intended as a gesture of support to Southern whites. It was all an innocent mistake.
Poor Reagan. He just kept on making those innocent mistakes, again and again and again.
PS: It has been pointed out to me that Reagan opposed making Martin Luther King Day a national holiday, giving in only when Congress passed a law creating the holiday by a veto-proof majority. But he really didn’t mean to disrespect the civil rights movement - it was just an innocent mistake.
--Paul Krugman, NY Times
CORPORATE TRADE DEBATE (full article follows in article section)
Contrary to most of the reporting on the (corporate “free”) trade front, none of this is about whether the Democrats have an adequately "big tent." It goes beyond ideological diversity; these issues get to the core of what it's supposed to mean to be a Democrat: Are you or are you not working for the good of the majority? In a very important sense, the specifics of all of these trade deals are irrelevant. The real question that all political candidates should answer is this: Are you in favor of using all of the immense diplomatic and economic power of the United States to coerce foreign countries into accepting binding treaties, effectively written by corporate lobbyists, that limit their ability to manage their economies as they see fit and further concentrate wealth here at home?
-- By Joshua Holland, AlterNet
VIDEO SECTION...
Well, if Obama becomes our only hope of defeating Hillary, then this barn burner of a speech can only be a great, great development. This is his most impassioned and articulate speech to date...even better than the one he gave at the 2004 Democratic Convention. And, its not by accident he's moving up in the polls and finally eating into Hillary's lead (Edwards still superior on the issues though...and has my vote). Watch this!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tydfsfSQiYc&eurl=http://www.politicstv.com/
Watch Edwards new ad on health care…now this is something I’m really, really for:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/11/13/john-edwards-threatens-congresss-health-care-to-give-everyone-universal-health-care/
Another classic Olbermann dismantling of Fox News…this time with guest, and documentary filmmaker Robert Greenwald:
http://alternet.org/blogs/video/67733/
Redefining “privacy”…watch Jack Cafferty pose the question: why should we change its definition after a successful 200 plus years!!! According to the principal deputy director of national intelligence we should…
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/11/13/the-cafferty-file-redefining-privacy/
From C&L: On today’s Countdown, Keith Olbermann aired a somber and enraging segment on the sad state of affairs for our veterans on this Veteran’s Day. Talking with Paul Rieckhoff from Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America on Anti-War Veterans Barred from Long Beach Veterans Day Parade…while 18 Veterans Arrested for Protesting War at Boston Parade...
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/11/12/countdown-on-veterans-day-bush-goes-awol-vets-silenced-marlboro-marine-jobless/
Watch Kucinich interviewed by Amy Goodman on impeachment!!! Oh man is he good!
http://alternet.org/blogs/video/67574/
And finally, thanks to Olbermann again to let us laugh, as best we can, at those that we find ourselves truly at "war" with...from our own country. Welcome to "Worst Persons...from Delay to Limbaugh...
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/11/13/countdowns-worst-persons-clueless-republicans-edition/
ARTICLE SECTION: IRAN, TRADE
WAR WITH IRAN: WHAT’S AT STAKE
Chris Hedges can write! Read and learn...and be very, very concerned about Iran, where it seems, ironically enough, the real battle line being drawn, and where this potential war will be decided, is between Cheney and company and the military itself. Meaning, we are in such a precarious situation we have to root FOR THE MILITARY to stop a war!!
A few clips:
We do not know where all of Iran’s nuclear facilities are. And it is probable that an Iranian response against American targets, such as the Green Zone in Iraq, as well as Iranian-sponsored terrorist attacks on American soil, would follow. Shiites in the region would interpret an attack as a war on the Shiite community and would unleash unrest, terrorism and violence against us and our allies from Lebanon to Pakistan.
The battle is between the Cheney camp, which would like to carry out strikes on Iran before Bush leaves office, and Gates and his senior generals. Cheney, who has always been able to push aside the feckless Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, is having a tougher time with the military. Fallon, for example, was successful in his attempt to block efforts by Cheney to move a third aircraft carrier into the Persian Gulf earlier this year and bluntly said that “there would be no war against Iran” as long as he was chief of CENTCOM.
SNIP
Iran has not attacked the United States. The U.S., as a party and signatory to the U.N. charter, would be in clear violation of international law and the laws enshrined in the Constitution if it went to war with Iran. If the citizens and their representatives in Congress refuse to resist and uphold the rule of law, perhaps the military can be prodded to halt our slide into despotism. It is not the best option, but it may be the only one left.
We live now at the mercy of events. A provocation by Iran, aided by a bellicose White House, could plunge us into another war. It could unleash the primitive chant for violence and revenge that rises up from a population that feels vulnerable, uncertain and afraid. There are forces in our society ready and willing to fan the blood lust for a wider circle of war and mayhem. The Iranians, like us, are cursed by their leadership. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is as primitive, inept and paranoid as George Bush. They are the perfect dance partners for a waltz into Armageddon.
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/11/12/5164/
CLINTON AND OBAMA SELL OUT ON TRADE
This a VERY informative article on the myth of "free" trade, who is really behind these corporate written agreements, and why just enough Democrats seem to support them to ensure passage. In this case, Clinton and Obama support the Peru trade agreement...another example why he isn’t my first choice. Meanwhile, for instance, Edwards is pushing for patent reform on pharmaceuticals, he’s against the Peru deal, and he has a stronger predatory lending stance…among many other specifics in which he’s better on…still, if Obama is the only person that has a chance of beating Hillary, let us hope he can...
A few clips:
I asked Todd Tucker, research director of Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch, who really stands to benefit from the deal. He didn't hesitate before rattling off a dozen multinationals including Citigroup, Occidental Petroleum and Wal-Mart, all of whom, according to Tucker, have "put their full might into getting the Peru deal passed, including showering millions in congressional campaign donations since January alone." Tucker told me their wish list includes "privatized social security systems for Citi, rainforest-destroying oil extraction for Occidental, and a push to Wal-Mart's efforts to buy out Peru's retail sector, just as they did in Central America just days after Bush signed [the Central American Free Trade Agreement]."
In addition, General Mills, (and the Grocery Manufacturers Association PAC, which supports it) wants the deal to go through because it grows most of its canned veggies in Peru (decimating onion, asparagus and pea farmers in the United States) and is now moving its processing facilities down there. Citibank, along with other financial services firms, wants the deal because it would allow the firm to sue the Peruvian government for damages if progressive activists succeed in reversing a disastrous social security privatization scheme that's screwed over millions of Peruvian retirees.
SNIP
The deal's significance is not in its impact on American workers -- those who say it will kill jobs here don't appreciate how insignificant our trade with Peru is in the big picture -- but the opportunity it gives us to take a hard look at where the candidates stand on the model itself. Clinton said she'd oppose the next deals coming down the pike: treaties with Panama, Colombia and South Korea. Given that they are all substantially similar -- the Panama deal, in particular, is basically identical to the Peru agreement -- I asked democratic strategist and columnist David Sirota if he had any insight into what game she was up to. "What's going on here," he said, "is that she is endorsing the NAFTA trade model, but saying that she has problems with certain countries' specific behaviors. And that's what's really telling. She is saying she has no problem with trade deals rigged to crush American and foreign workers on behalf of Wall Street, and that the only real reason to ever oppose that model is if there are other problems/complications with the specific country in question."
SNIP
Given the political landscape and the very significant policy issues raised by labor and environmental groups, there's no reason in the world to support these deals. Accept, that is, for the campaign contributions that corporate America can generate. So while there exists a solid body of empirical research that's shown that most people's perception of the relationship between campaign cash and politicians' votes is overstated -- that there's no clear quid-pro-quo -- it's hard to see any other explanation for supporting a deal like the Peru FTA. The treaty itself is unlikely to hurt Americans all that much, so the calculus must be that they can make some donors happy without paying a price.
http://alternet.org/workplace/67680/
LT. EHREN WATADA WINS!!! (FOR NOW...i said this could happen way back...no "double jeopardy"!)
“Leading this year’s Active Conscience-on-Duty Day parade should be First Lt. Ehren Watada, the first commissioned officer to refuse deployment to Iraq. “To me,” Watada told a court earlier this year, leading soldiers into battle in Iraq “means to participate in a war that I believe to be illegal.”
Last Thursday a civilian judge handed Watada a victory against those in the military who would like to see him silenced, convicted and locked up.
SNIP
On November 8, Judge Benjamin Settle agreed: “The same Fifth Amendment protections are in place for military service members as are afforded to civilians…To hold otherwise would ignore the many sacrifices that American soldiers have made throughout history to protect these sacred rights,” he wrote.
But Army officials aren’t giving up. In a statement, they said they will file briefs in U.S. District Court to try to prevent the injunction from becoming permanent. Now is the time for all moral men and women in uniform to stand up — not just behind Lt. Watada, but at his side. So far, not one other officer has followed in the lieutenant’s footsteps.
According to the Army more than 10,000 soldiers have deserted since the Iraq invasion started. Every year, the number of deserters has gone up. Official statistics say 3,196 went AWOL last year, compared to 2,543 the year before. Based on the calls they received, groups like Iraq Veterans Against the War put the real numbers at ten times that.”
-- Laura Flanders is the host of RadioNation
END
'Hidden Costs' Double Price Of Two Wars
The economic costs to the United States of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan so far total approximately $1.5 trillion, according to a new study by congressional Democrats that estimates the conflicts' "hidden costs"-- including higher oil prices, the expense of treating wounded veterans and interest payments on the money borrowed to pay for the wars.
-- Josh White in the Washington Post -- 11/13/07
The White House, isolated and reviled at home and abroad, believes it is on a higher mission to save the world from itself. The instability in the Middle East could undermine Gates and his generals. A limited Israeli strike on suspected Iranian nuclear production facilities, currently under discussion in Jerusalem, could trigger retaliatory strikes by Iran on Israel and U.S. targets in Iraq and the Persian Gulf. The clamor for revenge, fueled by a rapacious right-wing media, coupled with our feelings of collective humiliation, could sweep aside all reasoned objections to war with Iran. It happened after the attacks of 2001. It can happen again.
-- Chris Hedges (I have his whole epic column in the article section)
In the wake of all the fluvial funereal obsequies that the media attached to Ronald Reagan's earthly departure, I felt obliged to remark that he had been the most overrated president in American history and the second most ignorant.
--Norman Mailer (the late)
And as for the most ignorant President of all time...its official, he's also now the most "strongly disapproved" of in history:
From Dr. Frank Newport of Gallup: Of those who disapprove (almost two-thirds of us, or all those with a functioning Central Nervous System) 14% somewhat don't like him while 50% flat out hate his sorry ass…that’s the highest in US history…
END
REAGAN'S RACISM REVISITED...FIGHTING HISTORICAL REVISIONISM
First, a few words from yours truly. You have all heard me write often about the Matrix's insatiable desire to re-write history...changing it to suit its present and future desires. Of course, this doesn't happen in a vacuum. The Matrix only really gears up for a "reboot" of a historical event or individual if there are real powers behind this revision. Indeed, there has been no greater effort to re-write history in the past 15 years than that orchestrated to transform the bumbling, corrupt, racist, corporatist, and imbecile Ronald Reagan into some kind of mythic figure of American virtue and ethics.
And of course, as one would expect, as each line of reality is erased from the Matrix data banks about this criminal's true legacy, we are left with a false image and icon that only serves the purpose to perpetuate the myths and the agenda of an extremist, right wing, and largely fascist movement in this country. As I said, this hasn't been happening in a vacuum. Behind this non stop effort to "reload" Ronald Reagan in our collective memories are the usual suspects: right wing think tanks, Republican pundits, politicians, media elites, and all those trying to benefit from such a "myth".
Well, in the past few weeks just such a clash has been underway at the NY Times between Paul Krugman and Bob Herbert - versus David Brooks and other right wing historical revisionists. The argument in question is Reagan's real legacy on civil rights, and the effort to gloss over it, as with all his crimes against humanity.
Remember...don't let time soften our minds and make us forget. I hear far too often (from Democrats no less), that somehow because Bush and Cheney are admittedly the worst administration in history (as I have said, factually, they are sociopathic terrorists) - this means that Reagan "wasn't that bad". I'm sorry, but because someone isn't "as bad" as the worst to have ever walked the halls of the White House doesn't make someone "okay", it simply means they weren't "as bad"...which is saying nothing. Getting punched in the face isn't as bad as getting hit with a base ball bat...that doesn't make it okay or "good".
Let us not forget facts, deeds, and the truth of his actions...not the shallow, glossed over revisionism we are being spoon fed of a jolly grandpa figure who meant no harm.
So with no further ado, here are Herbert and Krugman breaking down the real Reagan "race" legacy...similar truths could be told on nearly EVERY issue about this scumbag:
From Herbert:
Everybody watching the 1980 campaign knew what Reagan was signaling at the fair. Whites and blacks, Democrats and Republicans - they all knew. The news media knew. The race haters and the people appalled by racial hatred knew. And Reagan knew.
He was tapping out the code. It was understood that when politicians started chirping about “states’ rights” to white people in places like Neshoba County they were saying that when it comes down to you and the blacks, we’re with you.
And Reagan meant it. He was opposed to the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964, which was the same year that Goodman, Schwerner and Chaney were slaughtered. As president, he actually tried to weaken the Voting Rights Act of 1965. He opposed a national holiday for the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He tried to get rid of the federal ban on tax exemptions for private schools that practiced racial discrimination. And in 1988, he vetoed a bill to expand the reach of federal civil rights legislation.
Congress overrode the veto.
Reagan also vetoed the imposition of sanctions on the apartheid regime in South Africa. Congress overrode that veto, too.
Throughout his career, Reagan was wrong, insensitive and mean-spirited on civil rights and other issues important to black people. There is no way for the scribes of today to clean up that dismal record.
-- Bob Herbert, NY Times
From Paul Krugman:
So there’s a campaign on to exonerate Ronald Reagan from the charge that he deliberately made use of Nixon’s Southern strategy. When he went to Philadelphia, Mississippi, in 1980, the town where the civil rights workers had been murdered, and declared that “I believe in states’ rights,” he didn’t mean to signal support for white racists. It was all just an innocent mistake.
Indeed, you do really have to feel sorry for Reagan. He just kept making those innocent mistakes.
When he went on about the welfare queen driving her Cadillac, and kept repeating the story years after it had been debunked, some people thought he was engaging in race-baiting. But it was all just an innocent mistake.
When, in 1976, he talked about working people angry about the “strapping young buck” using food stamps to buy T-bone steaks at the grocery store, he didn’t mean to play into racial hostility. True, as The New York Times reported,
The ex-Governor has used the grocery-line illustration before, but in states like New Hampshire where there is scant black population, he has never used the expression “young buck,” which, to whites in the South, generally denotes a large black man. But the appearance that Reagan was playing to Southern prejudice was just an innocent mistake.
Similarly, when Reagan declared in 1980 that the Voting Rights Act had been “humiliating to the South,” he didn’t mean to signal sympathy with segregationists. It was all an innocent mistake.
In 1982, when Reagan intervened on the side of Bob Jones University, which was on the verge of losing its tax-exempt status because of its ban on interracial dating, he had no idea that the issue was so racially charged. It was all an innocent mistake.
And the next year, when Reagan fired three members of the Civil Rights Commission, it wasn’t intended as a gesture of support to Southern whites. It was all an innocent mistake.
Poor Reagan. He just kept on making those innocent mistakes, again and again and again.
PS: It has been pointed out to me that Reagan opposed making Martin Luther King Day a national holiday, giving in only when Congress passed a law creating the holiday by a veto-proof majority. But he really didn’t mean to disrespect the civil rights movement - it was just an innocent mistake.
--Paul Krugman, NY Times
CORPORATE TRADE DEBATE (full article follows in article section)
Contrary to most of the reporting on the (corporate “free”) trade front, none of this is about whether the Democrats have an adequately "big tent." It goes beyond ideological diversity; these issues get to the core of what it's supposed to mean to be a Democrat: Are you or are you not working for the good of the majority? In a very important sense, the specifics of all of these trade deals are irrelevant. The real question that all political candidates should answer is this: Are you in favor of using all of the immense diplomatic and economic power of the United States to coerce foreign countries into accepting binding treaties, effectively written by corporate lobbyists, that limit their ability to manage their economies as they see fit and further concentrate wealth here at home?
-- By Joshua Holland, AlterNet
VIDEO SECTION...
Well, if Obama becomes our only hope of defeating Hillary, then this barn burner of a speech can only be a great, great development. This is his most impassioned and articulate speech to date...even better than the one he gave at the 2004 Democratic Convention. And, its not by accident he's moving up in the polls and finally eating into Hillary's lead (Edwards still superior on the issues though...and has my vote). Watch this!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tydfsfSQiYc&eurl=http://www.politicstv.com/
Watch Edwards new ad on health care…now this is something I’m really, really for:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/11/13/john-edwards-threatens-congresss-health-care-to-give-everyone-universal-health-care/
Another classic Olbermann dismantling of Fox News…this time with guest, and documentary filmmaker Robert Greenwald:
http://alternet.org/blogs/video/67733/
Redefining “privacy”…watch Jack Cafferty pose the question: why should we change its definition after a successful 200 plus years!!! According to the principal deputy director of national intelligence we should…
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/11/13/the-cafferty-file-redefining-privacy/
From C&L: On today’s Countdown, Keith Olbermann aired a somber and enraging segment on the sad state of affairs for our veterans on this Veteran’s Day. Talking with Paul Rieckhoff from Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America on Anti-War Veterans Barred from Long Beach Veterans Day Parade…while 18 Veterans Arrested for Protesting War at Boston Parade...
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/11/12/countdown-on-veterans-day-bush-goes-awol-vets-silenced-marlboro-marine-jobless/
Watch Kucinich interviewed by Amy Goodman on impeachment!!! Oh man is he good!
http://alternet.org/blogs/video/67574/
And finally, thanks to Olbermann again to let us laugh, as best we can, at those that we find ourselves truly at "war" with...from our own country. Welcome to "Worst Persons...from Delay to Limbaugh...
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/11/13/countdowns-worst-persons-clueless-republicans-edition/
ARTICLE SECTION: IRAN, TRADE
WAR WITH IRAN: WHAT’S AT STAKE
Chris Hedges can write! Read and learn...and be very, very concerned about Iran, where it seems, ironically enough, the real battle line being drawn, and where this potential war will be decided, is between Cheney and company and the military itself. Meaning, we are in such a precarious situation we have to root FOR THE MILITARY to stop a war!!
A few clips:
We do not know where all of Iran’s nuclear facilities are. And it is probable that an Iranian response against American targets, such as the Green Zone in Iraq, as well as Iranian-sponsored terrorist attacks on American soil, would follow. Shiites in the region would interpret an attack as a war on the Shiite community and would unleash unrest, terrorism and violence against us and our allies from Lebanon to Pakistan.
The battle is between the Cheney camp, which would like to carry out strikes on Iran before Bush leaves office, and Gates and his senior generals. Cheney, who has always been able to push aside the feckless Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, is having a tougher time with the military. Fallon, for example, was successful in his attempt to block efforts by Cheney to move a third aircraft carrier into the Persian Gulf earlier this year and bluntly said that “there would be no war against Iran” as long as he was chief of CENTCOM.
SNIP
Iran has not attacked the United States. The U.S., as a party and signatory to the U.N. charter, would be in clear violation of international law and the laws enshrined in the Constitution if it went to war with Iran. If the citizens and their representatives in Congress refuse to resist and uphold the rule of law, perhaps the military can be prodded to halt our slide into despotism. It is not the best option, but it may be the only one left.
We live now at the mercy of events. A provocation by Iran, aided by a bellicose White House, could plunge us into another war. It could unleash the primitive chant for violence and revenge that rises up from a population that feels vulnerable, uncertain and afraid. There are forces in our society ready and willing to fan the blood lust for a wider circle of war and mayhem. The Iranians, like us, are cursed by their leadership. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is as primitive, inept and paranoid as George Bush. They are the perfect dance partners for a waltz into Armageddon.
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/11/12/5164/
CLINTON AND OBAMA SELL OUT ON TRADE
This a VERY informative article on the myth of "free" trade, who is really behind these corporate written agreements, and why just enough Democrats seem to support them to ensure passage. In this case, Clinton and Obama support the Peru trade agreement...another example why he isn’t my first choice. Meanwhile, for instance, Edwards is pushing for patent reform on pharmaceuticals, he’s against the Peru deal, and he has a stronger predatory lending stance…among many other specifics in which he’s better on…still, if Obama is the only person that has a chance of beating Hillary, let us hope he can...
A few clips:
I asked Todd Tucker, research director of Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch, who really stands to benefit from the deal. He didn't hesitate before rattling off a dozen multinationals including Citigroup, Occidental Petroleum and Wal-Mart, all of whom, according to Tucker, have "put their full might into getting the Peru deal passed, including showering millions in congressional campaign donations since January alone." Tucker told me their wish list includes "privatized social security systems for Citi, rainforest-destroying oil extraction for Occidental, and a push to Wal-Mart's efforts to buy out Peru's retail sector, just as they did in Central America just days after Bush signed [the Central American Free Trade Agreement]."
In addition, General Mills, (and the Grocery Manufacturers Association PAC, which supports it) wants the deal to go through because it grows most of its canned veggies in Peru (decimating onion, asparagus and pea farmers in the United States) and is now moving its processing facilities down there. Citibank, along with other financial services firms, wants the deal because it would allow the firm to sue the Peruvian government for damages if progressive activists succeed in reversing a disastrous social security privatization scheme that's screwed over millions of Peruvian retirees.
SNIP
The deal's significance is not in its impact on American workers -- those who say it will kill jobs here don't appreciate how insignificant our trade with Peru is in the big picture -- but the opportunity it gives us to take a hard look at where the candidates stand on the model itself. Clinton said she'd oppose the next deals coming down the pike: treaties with Panama, Colombia and South Korea. Given that they are all substantially similar -- the Panama deal, in particular, is basically identical to the Peru agreement -- I asked democratic strategist and columnist David Sirota if he had any insight into what game she was up to. "What's going on here," he said, "is that she is endorsing the NAFTA trade model, but saying that she has problems with certain countries' specific behaviors. And that's what's really telling. She is saying she has no problem with trade deals rigged to crush American and foreign workers on behalf of Wall Street, and that the only real reason to ever oppose that model is if there are other problems/complications with the specific country in question."
SNIP
Given the political landscape and the very significant policy issues raised by labor and environmental groups, there's no reason in the world to support these deals. Accept, that is, for the campaign contributions that corporate America can generate. So while there exists a solid body of empirical research that's shown that most people's perception of the relationship between campaign cash and politicians' votes is overstated -- that there's no clear quid-pro-quo -- it's hard to see any other explanation for supporting a deal like the Peru FTA. The treaty itself is unlikely to hurt Americans all that much, so the calculus must be that they can make some donors happy without paying a price.
http://alternet.org/workplace/67680/
LT. EHREN WATADA WINS!!! (FOR NOW...i said this could happen way back...no "double jeopardy"!)
“Leading this year’s Active Conscience-on-Duty Day parade should be First Lt. Ehren Watada, the first commissioned officer to refuse deployment to Iraq. “To me,” Watada told a court earlier this year, leading soldiers into battle in Iraq “means to participate in a war that I believe to be illegal.”
Last Thursday a civilian judge handed Watada a victory against those in the military who would like to see him silenced, convicted and locked up.
SNIP
On November 8, Judge Benjamin Settle agreed: “The same Fifth Amendment protections are in place for military service members as are afforded to civilians…To hold otherwise would ignore the many sacrifices that American soldiers have made throughout history to protect these sacred rights,” he wrote.
But Army officials aren’t giving up. In a statement, they said they will file briefs in U.S. District Court to try to prevent the injunction from becoming permanent. Now is the time for all moral men and women in uniform to stand up — not just behind Lt. Watada, but at his side. So far, not one other officer has followed in the lieutenant’s footsteps.
According to the Army more than 10,000 soldiers have deserted since the Iraq invasion started. Every year, the number of deserters has gone up. Official statistics say 3,196 went AWOL last year, compared to 2,543 the year before. Based on the calls they received, groups like Iraq Veterans Against the War put the real numbers at ten times that.”
-- Laura Flanders is the host of RadioNation
END
'Hidden Costs' Double Price Of Two Wars
The economic costs to the United States of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan so far total approximately $1.5 trillion, according to a new study by congressional Democrats that estimates the conflicts' "hidden costs"-- including higher oil prices, the expense of treating wounded veterans and interest payments on the money borrowed to pay for the wars.
-- Josh White in the Washington Post -- 11/13/07
Monday, November 12, 2007
TODAY'S TOPICS: Moyers, Pakistan, Rich, F*** the FCC, Impeachment, Waterboarding, Schooling the Media
Don't ask me why I'm posting on a day off...its short though :)
"The text of our amendment contained nothing -- nothing -- that could be construed as a green light for an attack on Iran."
-- Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT), 11/8/07, on criticism of the Kyl-Lieberman amendment (and remember, this is EXACTLY what Hillary says too)
VERSUS
"Use of all instruments of United States national power in Iraq, including diplomatic, economic, intelligence, and military instruments, in support of the policy" against Iran.
-- Text of the Kyl-Lieberman amendment, 9/25/07
“Here’s a little song I wrote the other day while I was out duck hunting with a judge…It’s a new song, it’s dedicated to the FCC and if they broadcast it, it will cost a quarter of a million dollars.” Fuck You FCC.’
--Eric Idle, Monty Python
VIDEO SECTION
Want to better understand what happened last week with Kucinich's attempt to force an impeachment vote on Cheney?? Then watch David Swanson of AfterDowningStreet.org analyze all the sordid details…from what I gather, its not "off the table yet"!
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/11/09/open-thread-628/
For a “sanity break”, watch Bill Moyers talk more sense, again, on his groundbreaking investigative news show…this on Pakistan and our "friend" and dictator (yet another) Musharraf:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/11/10/bill-moyers-on-democracy-for-pakistan/
ARTICLE SECTION
Frank Rich writes a brilliant piece on A. What's really going on in Pakistan. B. What it says about Bush's belligerent, hypocritical and incompetent foreign policy. C. And most importantly, how it all relates to what's happening in our own, "democratic" country.
A few clips of this must read:
A memorable highlight of our special relationship with this prized “ally” came in September 2006, when the general turned up in Washington to kick off his book tour. Asked about the book by a reporter at a White House press conference, he said he was contractually “honor bound” to remain mum until it hit the stores - thus demonstrating that Simon & Schuster had more clout with him than the president. This didn’t stop Mr. Bush from praising General Musharraf for his recently negotiated “truce” to prevent further Taliban inroads in northwestern Pakistan. When the Pakistani strongman “looks me in the eye” and says “there won’t be a Taliban and won’t be Al Qaeda,” the president said, “I believe him.”
SNIP
But there’s another moral to draw from the Musharraf story, and it has to do with domestic policy, not foreign. The Pakistan mess…is not just another blot on our image abroad and another instance of our mismanagement of the war on Al Qaeda and the Taliban. It also casts a harsh light on the mess we have at home in America, a stain that will not be so easily eradicated.
In the six years of compromising our principles since 9/11, our democracy has so steadily been defined down that it now can resemble the supposedly aspiring democracies we’ve propped up in places like Islamabad. Time has taken its toll. We’ve become inured to democracy-lite. That’s why a Mukasey can be elevated to power with bipartisan support and we barely shrug.
SNIP
More Machiavellian still, Mr. Bush has constantly told the world he’s championing democracy even as he strangles it. Mr. Bush repeated the word “freedom” 27 times in roughly 20 minutes at his 2005 inauguration, and even presided over a “Celebration of Freedom” concert on the Ellipse hosted by Ryan Seacrest. It was an Orwellian exercise in branding, nothing more. The sole point was to give cover to our habitual practice of cozying up to despots (especially those who control the oil spigots) and to our own government’s embrace of warrantless wiretapping and torture, among other policies that invert our values.
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/11/11/5156/
And an issue near and dear to my heart - media reform - is deftly detailed here by Danny Schechter of media channel. In short, we've got a little good news to report from the FCC - they're going to start doing something about cable monopolization and skyrocketing costs. The bad news is we need to start gearing up for another big fight - because the FCC is still run by corporate fascists (3 of the 5 members that is) that would still love nothing more than to INCREASE consolidation of ownership over all media - leaving all information we receive under the watchful eyes of a few mega corporations (mostly owned by defense contractors and right wing zealots...wonderful).
A few clips:
At the same time, what the Republican dominated Commission giveth with one hand, it may take away with the other. Chairman Martin is at the same time thought to be promoting other new rules that will lead to more, not less media concentration. Nearly a thousand people came to a hearing in Seattle last week to denounce that maneuver…“FCC Chairman Kevin Martin has made it clear that he doesn’t care one bit. The White House-appointed chairman of the five-member commission is one of Washington’s dwindling class of hard core Bush loyalists, and he plans to remove some of the last remaining media ownership limits before the end of the year. Seven years ago, Martin was a 33 year-old GOP attorney sent by Team Bush to lead the Florida recount. His wife is a former senior counselor to Vice-President Cheney, and now serves as a deputy assistant to President Bush.”
SNIP
So the battlelines are being drawn once again. This time around, media activists are better organized then they were the last time media rules promoting consolidation were passed. But they/we are still up against powerful media companies who have a full court press on to see the ownership restriction eased or eliminated.
At the same time, a new media environment has old media on the wane and may open a door to the kinds of changes that have been needed for so long. The fight for media reform is moving onto the front burner. No matter what your main issue is-the war, or the environment, or economic justice-media change has to be on your front burner too. It’s time once again to let your voice be heard. Tune in-or be tuned out!
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/11/12/5174/
TORTURE...
Not that this is really news anymore...but another expert from the military says yes, waterboarding IS torture (the earth also revolves around the sun and is round not flat). Strange actually, EVERY expert I've heard talk say the same things: torture doesn't work, its immoral, it endangers american soldiers, and hurts our global credibility.
Nonetheless, the media finds these chickenhawks to "debate" the issue with experts day in and day out, giving the false impression that there is indeed, a real question as to whether America should make torturing its policy...which is illegal both domestically and globally. Funny, isn't our government and all these "moral crusaders" always saying what a bad example hollywood, or rap, or you name it, sets for children...and how breaking the law should be punished with long and harsh jail sentences...yet here they argue to not only break the law, but one that has to do with torturing helpless human beings (many who are innocent).
You just have to sit back in awe over what our species is capable of...(I struggle to view myself as part of the same species as right wingers, but until I can prove I'm not...it reflects on all of us)
NAVY INSTRUCTOR: 'WATERBOARDING IS TORTURE,' SHOULD BE BANNED: Testifying to the House Judiciary subcommittee yesterday, Malcom Wrightson Nance, a former Navy instructor of prisoner of war and terrorist hostage survival programs, unequivocally stated, "Waterboarding is torture, period." Nance called the technique a "terrifying, painful, and humiliating tool" and said that it often results in subjects lying to interrogators to make the torture stop. "Contrary to popular opinion, it is not a simulation of drowning. It is drowning," he said. The subcommittee had also called on Lt. Col. Stuart Couch, a former Guantanamo Bay prosecutor, to testify about his observations of interrogations at the prison camp, but Pentagon counsel William Haynes blocked his testimony at the last minute. Nevertheless, following the hearing, Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), the subcommittee chairman, and Rep. William Delahunt (D-MA) introduced a bill mandating that all U.S. interrogations -- including those run by the CIA -- conform to the Army Field Manual on Interrogation, which explicitly bans waterboarding and other forms of torture.
WHITE HOUSE CITES 'PRIVILEGE,' BLOCKS INQUIRY INTO 'EVISCERATED' GLOBAL WARMING TESTIMONY: Last month, Centers for Disease Control (CDC) officials revealed that the White House "eviscerated" the congressional testimony of CDC President Julie Gerberding on the "Human Impacts of Global Warming." Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) subsequently wrote to President Bush "requesting a full accounting of what occurred during that review process." Appearing on MSNBC yesterday, Boxer said the administration has stonewalled her efforts. Bush "gave our letter to Fred Fielding, the chief counsel over there," Boxer said. He "said 'executive privilege, I don't have to tell you what she wrote.'" Fielding claimed that "the request by its very nature seeks communications involving pre-decisional deliberative materials relating to an inter-agency review process...it is clear that the request implicates core Executive Branch interests and raises separation of powers concerns." Despite the administration's refusal to explain what it is hiding, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino maintains Gerberding's testimony "was not watered down."
And for a little enjoyment, check this little story of an Iowa waitress putting the corporate, idiotic, childish media in its place over pushing a fake story about Hillary not leaving a tip (I kid you not).
This from Carpetbagger reports:
Waitress tells campaign reporters: ‘You people are really nuts’
November 9th, 2007
It’s hard to say for sure when the “silly season” started in the media’s coverage of the presidential campaign. If there was a “serious season,” it was exceedingly short. I’m afraid I missed it. But yesterday was unusually inane. A waitress at an Iowa diner noted that Hillary Clinton and her campaign aides had recently stopped by, but didn’t leave a tip. NPR picked up on the “story,” the New York Times called it a “potentially embarrassing mini-scandal,” and Drudge blared it above the fold. Soon after, NBC News and ABC News were trumpeting the story.
Clinton didn’t leave a tip? Does she hate working people? Is she out of touch? What does this say about her economic plan? What do her rivals think about this? Why won’t Barack Obama attack her over the issue? Is it too soon to put a poll in the field gauging the public’s reaction? All of this breathless fascination was for naught. It turned out Clinton’s campaign did leave a tip with the manager for the entire serving staff. Clinton’s individual waitress didn’t know that, so there was a simple misunderstanding.
Reporters ended up contacting the waitress, Anita Esterday, at her home in Iowa yesterday. Ms. Esterday said she did not understand what all the commotion was about.
“You people are really nuts,” she told a reporter during a phone interview. “There’s kids dying in the war, the price of oil right now — there’s better things in this world to be thinking about than who served Hillary Clinton at Maid-Rite and who got a tip and who didn’t get a tip.”
Thank you, Anita Esterday. “You people are really nuts” may actually be the most helpful and poignant media criticism I’ve seen this year. It has the added benefit of being true.
Don't ask me why I'm posting on a day off...its short though :)
"The text of our amendment contained nothing -- nothing -- that could be construed as a green light for an attack on Iran."
-- Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT), 11/8/07, on criticism of the Kyl-Lieberman amendment (and remember, this is EXACTLY what Hillary says too)
VERSUS
"Use of all instruments of United States national power in Iraq, including diplomatic, economic, intelligence, and military instruments, in support of the policy" against Iran.
-- Text of the Kyl-Lieberman amendment, 9/25/07
“Here’s a little song I wrote the other day while I was out duck hunting with a judge…It’s a new song, it’s dedicated to the FCC and if they broadcast it, it will cost a quarter of a million dollars.” Fuck You FCC.’
--Eric Idle, Monty Python
VIDEO SECTION
Want to better understand what happened last week with Kucinich's attempt to force an impeachment vote on Cheney?? Then watch David Swanson of AfterDowningStreet.org analyze all the sordid details…from what I gather, its not "off the table yet"!
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/11/09/open-thread-628/
For a “sanity break”, watch Bill Moyers talk more sense, again, on his groundbreaking investigative news show…this on Pakistan and our "friend" and dictator (yet another) Musharraf:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/11/10/bill-moyers-on-democracy-for-pakistan/
ARTICLE SECTION
Frank Rich writes a brilliant piece on A. What's really going on in Pakistan. B. What it says about Bush's belligerent, hypocritical and incompetent foreign policy. C. And most importantly, how it all relates to what's happening in our own, "democratic" country.
A few clips of this must read:
A memorable highlight of our special relationship with this prized “ally” came in September 2006, when the general turned up in Washington to kick off his book tour. Asked about the book by a reporter at a White House press conference, he said he was contractually “honor bound” to remain mum until it hit the stores - thus demonstrating that Simon & Schuster had more clout with him than the president. This didn’t stop Mr. Bush from praising General Musharraf for his recently negotiated “truce” to prevent further Taliban inroads in northwestern Pakistan. When the Pakistani strongman “looks me in the eye” and says “there won’t be a Taliban and won’t be Al Qaeda,” the president said, “I believe him.”
SNIP
But there’s another moral to draw from the Musharraf story, and it has to do with domestic policy, not foreign. The Pakistan mess…is not just another blot on our image abroad and another instance of our mismanagement of the war on Al Qaeda and the Taliban. It also casts a harsh light on the mess we have at home in America, a stain that will not be so easily eradicated.
In the six years of compromising our principles since 9/11, our democracy has so steadily been defined down that it now can resemble the supposedly aspiring democracies we’ve propped up in places like Islamabad. Time has taken its toll. We’ve become inured to democracy-lite. That’s why a Mukasey can be elevated to power with bipartisan support and we barely shrug.
SNIP
More Machiavellian still, Mr. Bush has constantly told the world he’s championing democracy even as he strangles it. Mr. Bush repeated the word “freedom” 27 times in roughly 20 minutes at his 2005 inauguration, and even presided over a “Celebration of Freedom” concert on the Ellipse hosted by Ryan Seacrest. It was an Orwellian exercise in branding, nothing more. The sole point was to give cover to our habitual practice of cozying up to despots (especially those who control the oil spigots) and to our own government’s embrace of warrantless wiretapping and torture, among other policies that invert our values.
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/11/11/5156/
And an issue near and dear to my heart - media reform - is deftly detailed here by Danny Schechter of media channel. In short, we've got a little good news to report from the FCC - they're going to start doing something about cable monopolization and skyrocketing costs. The bad news is we need to start gearing up for another big fight - because the FCC is still run by corporate fascists (3 of the 5 members that is) that would still love nothing more than to INCREASE consolidation of ownership over all media - leaving all information we receive under the watchful eyes of a few mega corporations (mostly owned by defense contractors and right wing zealots...wonderful).
A few clips:
At the same time, what the Republican dominated Commission giveth with one hand, it may take away with the other. Chairman Martin is at the same time thought to be promoting other new rules that will lead to more, not less media concentration. Nearly a thousand people came to a hearing in Seattle last week to denounce that maneuver…“FCC Chairman Kevin Martin has made it clear that he doesn’t care one bit. The White House-appointed chairman of the five-member commission is one of Washington’s dwindling class of hard core Bush loyalists, and he plans to remove some of the last remaining media ownership limits before the end of the year. Seven years ago, Martin was a 33 year-old GOP attorney sent by Team Bush to lead the Florida recount. His wife is a former senior counselor to Vice-President Cheney, and now serves as a deputy assistant to President Bush.”
SNIP
So the battlelines are being drawn once again. This time around, media activists are better organized then they were the last time media rules promoting consolidation were passed. But they/we are still up against powerful media companies who have a full court press on to see the ownership restriction eased or eliminated.
At the same time, a new media environment has old media on the wane and may open a door to the kinds of changes that have been needed for so long. The fight for media reform is moving onto the front burner. No matter what your main issue is-the war, or the environment, or economic justice-media change has to be on your front burner too. It’s time once again to let your voice be heard. Tune in-or be tuned out!
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/11/12/5174/
TORTURE...
Not that this is really news anymore...but another expert from the military says yes, waterboarding IS torture (the earth also revolves around the sun and is round not flat). Strange actually, EVERY expert I've heard talk say the same things: torture doesn't work, its immoral, it endangers american soldiers, and hurts our global credibility.
Nonetheless, the media finds these chickenhawks to "debate" the issue with experts day in and day out, giving the false impression that there is indeed, a real question as to whether America should make torturing its policy...which is illegal both domestically and globally. Funny, isn't our government and all these "moral crusaders" always saying what a bad example hollywood, or rap, or you name it, sets for children...and how breaking the law should be punished with long and harsh jail sentences...yet here they argue to not only break the law, but one that has to do with torturing helpless human beings (many who are innocent).
You just have to sit back in awe over what our species is capable of...(I struggle to view myself as part of the same species as right wingers, but until I can prove I'm not...it reflects on all of us)
NAVY INSTRUCTOR: 'WATERBOARDING IS TORTURE,' SHOULD BE BANNED: Testifying to the House Judiciary subcommittee yesterday, Malcom Wrightson Nance, a former Navy instructor of prisoner of war and terrorist hostage survival programs, unequivocally stated, "Waterboarding is torture, period." Nance called the technique a "terrifying, painful, and humiliating tool" and said that it often results in subjects lying to interrogators to make the torture stop. "Contrary to popular opinion, it is not a simulation of drowning. It is drowning," he said. The subcommittee had also called on Lt. Col. Stuart Couch, a former Guantanamo Bay prosecutor, to testify about his observations of interrogations at the prison camp, but Pentagon counsel William Haynes blocked his testimony at the last minute. Nevertheless, following the hearing, Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), the subcommittee chairman, and Rep. William Delahunt (D-MA) introduced a bill mandating that all U.S. interrogations -- including those run by the CIA -- conform to the Army Field Manual on Interrogation, which explicitly bans waterboarding and other forms of torture.
WHITE HOUSE CITES 'PRIVILEGE,' BLOCKS INQUIRY INTO 'EVISCERATED' GLOBAL WARMING TESTIMONY: Last month, Centers for Disease Control (CDC) officials revealed that the White House "eviscerated" the congressional testimony of CDC President Julie Gerberding on the "Human Impacts of Global Warming." Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) subsequently wrote to President Bush "requesting a full accounting of what occurred during that review process." Appearing on MSNBC yesterday, Boxer said the administration has stonewalled her efforts. Bush "gave our letter to Fred Fielding, the chief counsel over there," Boxer said. He "said 'executive privilege, I don't have to tell you what she wrote.'" Fielding claimed that "the request by its very nature seeks communications involving pre-decisional deliberative materials relating to an inter-agency review process...it is clear that the request implicates core Executive Branch interests and raises separation of powers concerns." Despite the administration's refusal to explain what it is hiding, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino maintains Gerberding's testimony "was not watered down."
And for a little enjoyment, check this little story of an Iowa waitress putting the corporate, idiotic, childish media in its place over pushing a fake story about Hillary not leaving a tip (I kid you not).
This from Carpetbagger reports:
Waitress tells campaign reporters: ‘You people are really nuts’
November 9th, 2007
It’s hard to say for sure when the “silly season” started in the media’s coverage of the presidential campaign. If there was a “serious season,” it was exceedingly short. I’m afraid I missed it. But yesterday was unusually inane. A waitress at an Iowa diner noted that Hillary Clinton and her campaign aides had recently stopped by, but didn’t leave a tip. NPR picked up on the “story,” the New York Times called it a “potentially embarrassing mini-scandal,” and Drudge blared it above the fold. Soon after, NBC News and ABC News were trumpeting the story.
Clinton didn’t leave a tip? Does she hate working people? Is she out of touch? What does this say about her economic plan? What do her rivals think about this? Why won’t Barack Obama attack her over the issue? Is it too soon to put a poll in the field gauging the public’s reaction? All of this breathless fascination was for naught. It turned out Clinton’s campaign did leave a tip with the manager for the entire serving staff. Clinton’s individual waitress didn’t know that, so there was a simple misunderstanding.
Reporters ended up contacting the waitress, Anita Esterday, at her home in Iowa yesterday. Ms. Esterday said she did not understand what all the commotion was about.
“You people are really nuts,” she told a reporter during a phone interview. “There’s kids dying in the war, the price of oil right now — there’s better things in this world to be thinking about than who served Hillary Clinton at Maid-Rite and who got a tip and who didn’t get a tip.”
Thank you, Anita Esterday. “You people are really nuts” may actually be the most helpful and poignant media criticism I’ve seen this year. It has the added benefit of being true.
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