US to use spy satellites to spy on Americans and “this is a development that all Americans should have great pride in!” As my good friend Bill O'Reilly likes to say, “oh, we've come along way, haven't we, haven't we?”
Wake-up America! This is 1984. Go read the book. And we have a moral responsibility to put a stop to this now. Silence is betrayal.
One hopes that with all the money the wealthiest 0.6% of Americans - who received 75% of $92 Billion in savings from Bush's generous tax policies on capital gains and dividends in 2005 - were able to get themselves a sweet second or third yacht. Of course, this is a double whammy for the other 99.4% of us who not only didn't see much benefit from Bush's tax cuts but now share in the responsibility of making up those lost revenues to the government. Some more fun stats from Citizens for Tax Justice:
*Half of all tax filers (67 million Americans) reported an adjusted gross income of less than $30,000 and received virtually NONE of the benefits from the tax cuts.
*0.6% reported incomes greater than $500,000 and received tax deductions averaging $81,204 and accounted for 73.4% of the total tax savings.
*13,776 tax filers with gross incomes greater than $10 million or 0.1% of all filers, received 28.2% of the total benefits averaging $1,876,280 each!!!!!
Read the two page report from CTJ (PDF)
Meanwhile,
*The number of Americans living in extreme poverty has grown 26% since 2000. In all, 37 million Americans, or about 12% of the country, now live with “low food security,” uh, poverty.
*2 out of 5 elderly Americans live on less than $18,000 a year including social security.
*Low income Americans with disabilities experienced 50% cuts in their housing programs.
*Half of all IRS audits are now conducted on Americans making less than $25,000 per year.
For more dismal statistics on the rich poor divide see one of my earlier BRAD BLOG posts.
Thankfully Bush recognizes a problem when he sees it and before leaving on his month long vacation stressed that we need a new round of corporate tax cuts to make sure US corporations stay competitive!
In all fairness, it takes huge balls and a lot of propaganda to convince anyone that what the country needs is more corporate giveaways to the rich. That is a tall order that will require great effort by Bush. And it will be essential for him to recharge his batteries over a long vacation before the big sell. And if it means that he crushes Ronald Reagan's two term vacation record with 17 months to go in office, so be it.
Plus, nobody wants to be in the Capital during the God awful month of August when temperatures regularly hit a humid 100 degrees. Perhaps it was the heat that allowed Congressional Democrats to pass the new FISA law - which seems to get worse and worse by the day - before leaving on vacation. But Washington heat ain't nothing compared to Baghdad heat, huh, Tony Snow:
“You know, it's 130 degrees in Baghdad in August.”
Which helps explain why the Iraqi parliament is taking the month off as well. Surely our troops, a record 162,000 strong in Iraq, will get the month off too, right? I mean, one suspects that with all their gear, outdoor work and combat, the misery index (weather, though both work) would be worse for our troops than say an air-conditioned Oval Office, uh, speed boat.
Actually, while George W. Bush smashes records for vacation days our troops are getting tours of duty extended from a year to 15 months. And it is a bit odd that Bush would take off so much time right before the crucial General Petreaus report on Iraq. Especially since we are amidst:
“the inescapable calling of our generation”
Oh, I almost forgot that the greater troop levels were the result of Bush's January “Surge” plan. You might recall that the new plan came after great deliberation and partying during which time hundreds of our troops lost their lives:
Ultimately Bush decided upon following neocon Fred Kagan's (fresh off a “very cool” chinook helicopter ride over the Potomac) “Surge” plan which called for an additional 50,000 troops, uh, 35,000, no, 30,000, wait, 50,000, no, 30,000, hold on, 31,500, stop, 20,000, then 35,000, oh, let's just say more troops.
But here's the thing, while Bush and the lawmakers are getting much needed R&R, our depleted troops are dying in the heat of the Iraqi desert by the droves. Long time reporters in Iraq write about the grim picture. According to our own ambassador in Iraq, electricity in Baghdad can be counted on for “an hour or two a day” which is down from six hours earlier in the year and 16-24 hours under Saddam. Even the Brits admit the Surge will not succeed.
But none of this or the rising troop deaths can dissuade the Bushies who have already kicked up the propaganda so many notches that Emeril Lagasse must be envious. Sadly, the American people continue to buy into it. And the real big propaganda push will not hit until September.
Sadly, the truth is that there is nothing that Petraeus could say that would change the course of the war. As Eugene Robinson wrote in the Washington Post:
But if you think Bush is going to care what Petraeus's report says in September, get out of the sun immediately and drink lots of water. You're delirious.
Clearly Bush will continue this unjust, horrific war until the end of his presidency. And nothing from escalating American and Iraqi body counts to American geopolitical strategy can change his decision which was made long ago. W. has even stated that his presidency will be judged on the long term outcome of Iraq. And since pulling out or significantly reducing troops is akin to failure, Bush ain't budging. In other words, he's passing the buck to the next president.
This alone is immoral and it is patently absurd that a decision of this magnitude should rest with a man with such an obvious conflict of interest. And since everyone knows this, it is also immoral for the American people to standby and leave the decision to Bush.
And that would be true even if Bush were a moral person. The fact that he is not just makes the situation that much clearer. Lest we forget that he:
*Continues to push legislation to further enrich the super wealthy at the expense of the most needy in society.
*Imposes anti-condom policies throughout Africa which has led to a remarkable rise in HIV/AIDS.
*Ordered the use of grotesque torture methods capable of causing severe psychological impairment on terror suspects.
*Signed a secret executive order authorizing the policy of “extraordinary rendition” which allows the CIA to kidnap any terror suspect from anywhere in the world and transfers them to prisons to be tortured and sometimes killed in countries like Uzbekistan and Egypt.
*Invades countries under false pretenses to further enrich the military industrial complex and his corporatist cronies.
Sick. Martin Luther King Jr. had it right when he said that “There comes a time when silence is betrayal.” How can anyone read that short list of transgressions above and not believe that time is now?
More pertinent words of wisdom from Martin Luther King Jr.:
*In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.
*When you are right you cannot be too radical; when you are wrong, you cannot be too conservative.
*Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
*Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.
*The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.
We Americans like to think ourselves noble and a country that has done great things for the world. We stopped Hitler for crying out loud. Yes, but that was a couple of generations ago. And by remaining silent, this generation is burying the memory of the “Greatest Generation.” And our lack of action, for whatever reason, is as immoral as George W. Bush's action.
It is imperative that we wake-up to our faults and correct them before it is too late. For example, a glance at the two pictures below describe a world turned upside down by American military spending and penchant for war and killing:
Nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral questions of our time; the need for mankind to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to oppression and violence. Mankind must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression, and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love.
Martin Luther King Jr.
More on these at Paulitics
We Americans seem to be the only ones oblivious to our faults. The entire world has been telling us we are ill for some time. The general consensus around the globe is that the US is a greater threat to world peace than even Iran and North Korea! And our best friends, the Brits, believe that only Osama bin Laden is a greater threat to world peace than the United States.
We are a sick country whose leaders continue to exploit our weakness. And our continued silence is immoral. We sit silently while our government exchanged our leader of the free world status with leader of rogue nations lambast. And if the people will not stand up united and force our leaders to listen to our will, we will become the “infamous generation” whose silence enabled George W. Bush and the corporate elite to destroy the Republic.
“Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed” (Jared Diamond)
“The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers” (Paul Kennedy)
*Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.“ --Martin Luther King Jr.
STOP THE SILENCE! SPEAK OUT NOW!
A closer reading of the new FISA atrocity reveals that even if Democrats let the bill expire per its 6-month Sunset provision, it would not do so until twelve days after Bush left office! The latest from Marty Lederman:
Thus, “acquisitions” authorized by Attorney General Gonzales will be permissible for one year, even if that period extends beyond the ostensible February 1, 2008 sunset date. I think it's fair to assume that the Attorney General will authorize a system of such acquisitions on or close to February 1, 2008, which will mean that the warrantless surveillance can continue until . . . February 1, 2009, or twelve days after the next President is sworn in.
Congress could, in theory, repeal section 6(d) if and when they enact a replacement statute. But it's safe to say this President would never sign a bill containing such a repeal. So it's likely the new surveillance will be in effect throughout the Bush Administration, even in the unlikely event that Congress lets the new Act “expire” on February 1, 2008.
Who needs enemies, foes or opposition when we have a Democratic Congress?
Just when you thought it couldn't get any worse for Democrats and the Democratic leadership comes this from the Washington Director of the ACLU, Caroline Fredrickson, responding to criticism that there was no organized lobbying against the new FISA bill that greatly expands Bush's power to spy on Americans:
Much of your criticism is unwarranted: we worked FISA and hard (and have been since December 2005). We reached out to Democratic leaders -- we met with Pelosi and with Reid -- we spoke with the staff from every leadership office. They did not listen to us. It was dem leadership who scheduled the vote on these particular bills. Why be mad at us and not at them? We met with them. They rebuffed our arguments.
We weren't notified that the bill was moving until 6 days before when Rep. Harman let it slip on Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer. We gave it the full court press: with action alerts, meetings with Members of Congress and Senators and their staff.
Pelosi and friends spent the entire week negotiating with the DNI and cut out ALL the civil liberties groups - not just the ACLU. Senator Rockefeller led the effort on the Senate side (with McConnell). The bill only passed because a) 41 dems crossed the line in the house, after the “liberal leadership” could NOT muster up its own party to assert its 30 seat majority, and b) most importantly, Pelosi, our “liberal leader” scheduled the bill in the first place. She could have put any bill on the schedule and she chose the Administration's. We worked this hard, and somehow you blame the ACLU?
Wow. Damning to say the least for Pelosi, et al. One wonders if Pelosi put impeachment back on the table which the House acted on and the Senate followed with convictions, would we notice any change in governing by our new president?
Henry Frankenstein: Dangerous? Poor old Waldman. Have you never wanted to do anything that was dangerous? Where should we be if no one tried to find out what lies beyond? Have your never wanted to look beyond the clouds and the stars, or to know what causes the trees to bud? And what changes the darkness into light? But if you talk like that, people call you crazy. Well, if I could discover just one of these things, what eternity is, for example, I wouldn't care if they did think I was crazy.
Doctor Waldman: You have created a monster, and it will destroy you!
How the right wing corporate controlled empire created a monster and why that might turn out to be a good thing...
John Kerry calls for the return of the fairness doctrine and for equal time requirements in the media. As if anyone needed any proof that an imbalance existed in the media, a recent study evidenced that conservative talk radio accounts for 91% of total talk radio programming. Again, nothing surprising.
But what is particularly interesting about this brief video is that it was posted on YouTube by MDRUDGE and has 180,000 views in one day -- much of them coming from the conservative blogosphere including Hugh Hewitt and Real Clear Politics. The base of the Republican party has always been overly sensitive to such accusations about the media because they actually believe the laughable propaganda about a liberal bias. This ridiculous notion, mind you, is not shared by those at the top of the party like Rich Bond (the former Republican party chair), Bill Kristol and Pat Buchanan, among others, who all admit the idea is rubbish.
Knowledge of the truth about media bias, of course, never stopped Kristol and his colleagues from continuously using the liberal media ploy to fool the rabid Republican base into backing their policies for war or voting for their pro corporate candidates for political office. After all, you don't cut off the hand that feeds you. And here is where our first monster was born.
As I blogged about here, corporations require year over year growth in revenues and profits or management risks losing $$$$ as Wall Street moves to better investments. This results in more corporate lobbying, bribery, corporate welfare, government give-aways, corporate tax breaks, cronyism and corruption than the previous year. Thus, every year the corporate whores that make up the media punditry, think tanks and Fox “News” must come up with more ridiculous incendiary rhetoric to rally the base whose skepticism grows with every scandal and as their quality of life worsens with higher energy prices, education costs, health care costs and lost jobs. At this point, the right has used every trick in the book from liberal media bias, racism, the faux liberal attack on religion and Christmas, anti-gay, xenophobia, anti-Muslim, creation of an evolution vs. creationism debate, etc. to stoke the fears of its base and rally the troops to overcome the greed and corruption of the corporate-government relationship.
Enter Immigration
“Talk radio is running America. We have to deal with that problem.” — Sen. Trent Lott (R-MS)
Trent Lott was speaking on June 15 about why Congress was unable to pass immigration reform. The problem was the rabid Republican base that he and his colleagues created to help line the pockets of corporations and themselves as well as win elections had grown into an independent force that was now derailing the corporate/government plans to secure cheap labor. And I can't stop my crocodile tears. Imagine encouraging the worst racist fears in people, not to mention, fear-mongering about the threat of terrorism, year after year for political gain and then crying foul when it comes back to haunt to you. Actually, you need not imagine it.
So now we are stuck with two monsters that must be killed. First, we have the ginormous corporations that must improve their bottom lines which requires even more heinous activity, usually with a government hand, than the year before. The amount of money at stake is so great that no human could help but be influenced by it, never mind, a member of Congress. Thus, we will continue to see more Enron's, Halliburton no-bid contracts, Big Oil billion dollar giveaways, Big Tobacco hundreds of billion dollar giveaways and a bigger portion of the country's tax bill paid by individuals rather than corporations - until this corporate monster is killed. For a current example the idea of allowing News Corp. to buy the Wall Street Journal borders on insanity but it would never be stopped by our government because so many politicians receive benefit from Murdoch's empire.
And we will continue to see more influence from the fringe but powerful group of hate first, irrational, radicals that make up the Republican base and have the power to kill legislation favored by up to 70% of the country. Trent Lott is right to realize the danger that this monster presents to the country. And as one might expect, conservative talk radio was none to happy about Trent's comments or John Kerry's remarks and will fight back hard and dirty. Which is hardly surprising considering the hate rhetoric leaders on the right have filled it with over the years. This monster is a powder keg that wants to blow.
And of all of this might be the best thing to happen to the country. On their own, each monster poses a real threat to the country which has already been severely weakened by six years of Bush policies. It is difficult to see how we reign in or kill either monster on their own considering the corporate monster controls much of Congress, the media and the courts but can't seem to control the radical monster. But, both monsters are showing a willingness to fight each other as evidenced by the Lott quote and reaction from the blogosphere.
We can only hope they fight to the death.
Pro-Gun Mythology: a Culture of Guns, Death and Violence is another standout post by The Existentialist Cowboy and a necessary read for, well, in light of the recent Virginia Tech tragedy, everyone. Because, despite what you may have heard on the radio, on TV or from the newspaper, gun ownership is not protected by the Second Amendment. We know this, because the Supreme Court told us so in the landmark case US v. Miller. It is actually a bit fun watching The Existentialist Cowboy utterly destroy the many absurd arguments traditionally offered by the N.R.A. and radical gun owners to justify our crazy gun policies.
This story has really freaked me out. Not that the Supreme's would curtail the opportunity for whistle-blowers to collect 25% of the funds that the government recoups as a result of their actions. That part will unquestionably limit future-whistleblowers and was entirely expected from our current crop of business first, second and always Justices. But, what truly took my breath away was that the Bush administration sided with the whistle-blower and against the interests of big business because, according to the article, “it was in the government's interest to encourage whistle-blowers.”
Unfotunately, the Bush administration's actions belie their stance since the Bushies have gone out of their way to attempt to destroy the lives of all whistle-blowers. Most recently we saw this played out publicly with Joe Wilson. They've also gone after Bunny Greenhouse, Sibel Edmonds, Karen Kwiatkowski, Richard Clarke, Paul O'Neill, and General Eric Shinseki to name but a few of the endless examples.
So what gives here? Perhaps the Bushies felt they could help influence the case more from the side of the whistle-blower. All I know is that something is rotten in Washington. You don' t go six years being on the wrong side of everything and then suddenly, without reason, stick up for accountability and the people. Clearly I am missing some angle.
Hopefully someone can set me straight because the very idea of being on the same side as the Bushies on anything is troubling to say the least.
Oh boy, it turns out that there is a second form of terrorism that we need worry about and this one is living within our borders. According to President Bush's newly appointed chief of the GSA, the inspector general of the US is wreaking havoc right here at home. The inspector general, by the way, is charged with conducting oversight and auditing government contracts. So, it's a bit surprising to learn, after six years of the biggest corporate government contract boondoggle in the history of the country, that the inspector general even exists, never mind be worthy of this statement by GSA Administrator Lurita Alexis Doan:
“There are two kinds of terrorism in the US: the external kind; and, internally, the IGs have terrorized the Regional Administrators”But that is exactly what the The Washington Post is reporting. My god, where do they find these people? It seems there is nothing, no matter how obvious the facts, that the Bushies will not say in the name of enriching the super wealthy at the expense of the country. Does a single day go by when we don't learn of some new suspect, shady or illegal government contract? In fact, one result of the Bush administration's largesse with our tax dollars has been record profits for corporations while most Americans are far worse off than when Bush came to office.
The saddest part about Doan's statement is that it is true. I have no doubt that the Bush administration views the inspector general as the enemy. In addition to providing a slight obstacle to egregious contracts, the inspector general has saved Americans billions of dollars and also acts independently of the executive branch. All of which must piss off the Bush's and Cheney's to no end. In fact, I have no doubt that the Bush administration has greater animosity towards the inspector general than it does for al-Qaeda or Osama. At least the latter two represent giant profit centers which might explain what really happened at Tora Bora.
Perhaps the greatest myth in America today is that the country still represents the land of opportunity. Conservative rhetoric will have us believe that financial success is available to everyone and merely a reflection of hard work. Failure to rise up the income ladder, on the other hand, is evidence of a character flaw like laziness since opportunity is just waiting to be grabbed. In truth, the deck has been so stacked against the poor and in favor of the rich that there are few slogans that ring more hollow than “the land of opportunity.”
Just last Friday Lou Dobbs reported that 35 million Americans (and rising) have problems putting food on the table. Close to 12% of the country goes to bed hungry despite the President talking incessantly about a booming economy. Check that, because of some creative name manipulation by the Bush administration, more than 1 in 10 Americans now lives in a state of “low food security” and not hunger.
Similarly, the July/August issue of Mother Jones had a startling two page list of bullet points that evidenced how the poor get screwed at every turn. Here are just a few examples:
