The Birmingham News, or "The unofficial voice of the Alabama G.O.P. throughout the entire Siegelman affair" according to Harper's Scott Horton, has a whopper of an op-ed in yesterday's paper about the "political pollution" in the Bush Justice Department:
THE ISSUE: A new report released this week found that partisanship clouded the critical work of the U.S. Justice Department.
Just when you think the Bush administration can't possibly do Don Siegelman any more favors, along comes more news of political misdeeds in the agency that prosecuted the former governor.
A report released Monday charges that U.S. Justice Department officials under Bush broke the law by using political criteria to hire prosecutors, immigration judges and other government lawyers.
That's right folks, the Justice Department's Office of Inspector General and Office of Professional Responsibility found the Bush administration repeatedly broke the law by politicizing the Justice Department and The Birmingham News views it as yet another favor to former Governor Don Siegelman:
Siegelman has long blamed politics for the federal corruption case that ended with his conviction for bribery and obstruction of justice. The accusation would be almost laughable - were it not for other Justice Department antics like those mentioned above.
Right. Last year 44 former attorneys general petitioned Congress to look into the Siegelman case and then 54 former state attorneys general filed a brief in support of the former Governor's appeal. Then the 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals took the extraordinary step of releasing Siegelman from prison pending his appeal due to "substantial questions of fact and law" in his case. But Siegelman's accusations are "almost laughable"!!!
The only thing laughable is that The Birmingham News thinks itself a legitimate news outlet. Legal Schnauzer, who has broken news on so many Bush administration malicious prosecution's that he was personally targeted and wrongly terminated from his job, has much more on the op-ed including a wonderful list of "favors" the Bush administration has done for Don Siegelman:
They caused Siegelman to spend nine months in federal prison for crimes he didn't commit;
They cost Siegelman tens (probably hundreds) of thousands of dollars and brought him to the edge of financial ruin;
Glenn Greenwald rightfully takes issue with The Washington Post's Editorial Page lecturing Russia about "the rule of law." As Glenn points out, the US lost the right to lecture anyone on the rule of law long ago:
What we've done over the last seven years -- at least much of it -- isn't a secret. It's worthwhile to state frequently in clear, dispassionate terms what our country has done. Our Government has kidnapped people off the street and from their homes and sent them to places like Syria to be tortured for months (including completely innocent people) and then invoked National Security claims to bar them from holding our Government accountable in a court of law. We've disappeared others into secret prisons beyond even the reach of the Red Cross, or encaged them in a lawless black hole on a Cuban island. We've tortured them, sometimes to death, even with the knowledge that many were innocent. We attacked and completely demolished another country that couldn't attack us even if it wanted to. And our President openly declared that he has the power to break our laws, spy on U.S. citizens with no warrants, and indefinitely imprison even our own citizens with no process of any kind. Those are all just facts that aren't really subject to dispute or debate.
Worst of all, having done all of that -- not for weeks or months following the 9/11 attacks, but for years, still -- we've collectively decided, without much turmoil or debate, that it should all be forgiven, that none of it should be punished or even investigated, that it's best just to keep these crimes concealed and, when accidentally disclosed, to immunize the criminals. And all of that is being done right out in the open, so that our formal human rights reports are self-evident, almost laughable, farces, and even countries like Zimbabwe, when their governments want to engage in tyrannical acts, can and do rationally point to the U.S. as the leading example which they're following.
But the hits stopped coming because the link to the Snow video was suddenly pulled and I want to know why. I'm no expert about Wikipedia but would be much obliged if someone who understands the machinations of the site could investigate the matter. It seems to me that the unique video is newsworthy and helpful to understanding Snow. Incidentally, I reposted the link at 12:12 p.m. but that one was pulled as well.
The video which was clearly found offensive by some Wikipedia member follows...
My favorite former blogger, theBhc (aka Kenneth Anderson), who previously wrote amazingly in depth political commentary with a wicked sense of humor at Anything They Say, has finally launched his long awaited new site, SHOCKFRONT.ORG. Check out Ken's short but intense introductory video (1:08) below which is surely a sign of good things to come. And be sure to visit his new site and welcome him back.
Glenn Greenwald at Salon may be the best and most important political “blogger” on the internet today. Among other things he has been admirably leading the fight against the absurd and utterly shameful (not to mention anti-American) idea of granting retroactive immunity for past law breaking to the telecom industry in the currently being debated FISA bill.
Most of the telcos including AT&T and Verizon have been breaking the law -- since before 9/11 -- by helping the Bush administration spy on Americans. The one exception was Qwest which, rather coincidentally, subsequently lost major government contracts and had its CEO investigated for three years by the SEC and FBI before he was finally charged with insider trading.
While the immunity debate is ongoing and the outlook for the rule of law is not good, the fact that there has been any debate at all is largely because of bloggers like Greenwald and the good folks at fire dog lake who inspired the masses into taking action. To this point Greenwald writes words that every American should heed:
There is never any shortage of super-sophisticated cynics to come along and say how none of this matters, how it's so pitifully naive to think that any difference can ever be made, how the System is so Corrupted and the Deck So Stacked Against Us that everything is doomed and defeat is the inevitable option. And there is an element of truth to the premises of that defeatist mindset. The principal reason blogs exist, after all, is precisely because all other institutions intended to provide some adversarial check on what our government does -- the establishment media, the “opposition party,” the Congress -- typically do the opposite: they serve as enablers of it rather than checks on it. That's all true enough.
But what incidents such as this one conclusively demonstrate is that it is always possible, if enough citizen intensity is mustered and the right strategy is formulated, for citizens to disrupt and defeat the best-laid plans of our corrupt political establishment. There's a comfort and temptation in denying that truth. Those who insist that defeat is inevitable and All is Lost are relieved of the burdensome task of trying. But defeat occurs because the right strategy isn't found, not because it is inevitable.
So to borrow the catch phrase from the great progressive video site, Brave New Films: “psssst...Do Something!”
The chief of the DoJ's Civil Rights Division, Voting Section, John Tanner, who was thrust into the national spotlight after making absurd comments about minorities that were caught on videotape by yours truly and reported about by myself and Brad Friedman over at The Brad Blog in October, resigned today.
After Tanner's comments garnered some limited coverage from the mainstream media, Brad and Paul Kiel at TPM Muckraker kept up the pressure on Tanner by breaking new stories about other Tanner shenanigans. By the end of the month, Tanner was compelled to testify before the House Judiciary subcommittee where his dismal performance led the Washington Post to call him “one sorry man”.
And now Tanner's reign of disenfranchising Democratic leaning voters is over. Yet, my enthusiasm is tempered, like that of Barack Obama, who remains upset that Tanner was not fired but reassigned:
“It's unacceptable that the Administration is simply shuffling deck chairs by moving Mr. Tanner to another important position in the Justice Department. During his tenure, he made offensive, intolerant comments about minorities in an attempt to defend voter identification laws that threaten voting rights, and that's why I called on him to be fired. It's time we restore confidence in the Department by appointing public servants who are truly committed to upholding our civil rights.”
And we still do not know who will replace Tanner in the Voting Section at DoJ where his two top disciples remain. Still, this story is proof positive that a citizen journalist/blogger can make a difference. And I'd like to believe that a few more votes will get counted in 2008 as a result.
Wow! While it is truly an honor to be a finalist for Best Video Blog, will someone please throw some sympathy votes my way. I'd love to top 0.3% of the vote (see below) before all is said and done. Where is Diebold when you need them?
And while your voting (once a day per the rules!), might I suggest casting a vote for the hilarious conservative blogger, Jon Swift, who was nominated for Funniest Blog for the umpteenth time.
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!!!!!
*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.
*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?
*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.
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.
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe is a brutal dictator by any account. His government just signed into law the Interception of Communications Bill which allows his government to “eavesdrop on phone and Internet communications and read physical mail.” When human rights groups complained about the new law, Mugabe's Communications Minister Christopher Mushowe had his trump card waiting:
Zimbabwe is not unique in the world in passing such legislation, citing electronic eavesdropping programs in the United States, the United Kingdom and South Africa, among other countries.
And Afghanis look to Iraq to learn the techniques of suicide bombings. Iran looks to North Korea and Iraq and learns that the key to dealing with the US is nuclear armament. Venezuela and most of Latin America don't like what they see to the north and respond by electing socialist leaders (not necessarily a bad thing but certainly not what our government desires). US support for moderate candidates whenever free elections take place in the Arab world, almost universally result in victory by Islamic militants. These are just some of the repercussions of being a country whose leadership is universally despised by the rest of the world.
But these incidents also put to rest the lie that the US has lost its leadership role in the world. We may no longer be the leader of the free world, but our leadership role in the world of rogue nations, proclaimed enemies and the third world, has rarely been greater.
Sometimes, I will hear people say the darnedest things. Like, does propaganda work? The obvious reply is, of course, it works! Corporations wouldn't spend $250 billion a year on advertising if it didn't. Most people, though, don't really think of advertising as propaganda per se. I'm baffled as to why that is, but they don't.
See how propaganda can convince the American people that the troop “surge” in Iraq is working and more at Anything They Say
Once upon a time, it was easy to be a GOP propagandist.
Bill O'Reilly Equates DailyKos with Nazis and KKK
Up until the mid-1990s, Republicans could spew out lies all day long and rarely had to worry about any watchdogs holding them accountable. Oh sure, there were a few obscure leftist print publications here and there, but they had tiny circulations and were often difficult to come by.
Back then, the GOP propagandists certainly didn't have to worry about the corporate mainstream media keeping them honest. Indeed, the likes of CNN, The Wall Street Journal, and even The New York Times were quite happy to carry the GOP's water.
Bill O'Reilly attacks DailyKos again
With the dawn of the Web, it began to dawn on the GOP propagandists that they were no longer able to spew out lies without being challenged.
Suddenly, anyone could set up a Web site for relatively little cost and effort and instantly have a potential worldwide audience.
GOP propagandists like Rush Limbaugh and Bill O'Reilly soon discovered, to their horror, that they could no longer peddle their daily lies and bullshit and have no one to challenge them.
