"4 more years" (shades of Nixon) to erode civil liberties

A small minority of Republican negotiators hammered out a “compromise” to extend the Patriot Act—under which all manner of unconstitutional domestic surveillance is legitimized to “fight terror”—for “only” 4 more years, instead of the 10 originally sought. This is bad law and intentional erosion of civil liberties, under the guise of “keeping us safe”, at which the Bush Administration has proven singularly incompetent—see the findings of the 9/11 Commission. It’s no consolation that the Act is supposed to expire in 4 years instead of 10—that 4 years still gives the Bush White House the opportunity to target political opponents for domestic spying (shades of the “ratfuckers” of CREEP), and another year during which they can guarantee pardons for themselves—shades of Ford pardoning Nixon.

 

HUAC under McCarthy in the early 50s used “domestic security” as excuse for all manner of illegal and unconstitutional invasion of privacy; Nixon did it in the early 70s; now Bush/Rove are doing it. It’s always the same: external threats are magnified in order to justify internal spying, repression, and illegality. Now we’re including torture and character assassination. Those bastards are going to have a lot to answer for, and I’d guess there will be multiple indictments, on both the Hill and in the White House.

Excellent TPM blog comments which address the 37% in TX who still support DeLay

This is really very articulate, thoughtful, and accurate commentary about the sociology, cosmology, and thinking processes of hard-core conservative, fundamentalist, Bible-literalist Texans. What’s not so clear is that a lot of them are actually decent people…but they’re very very provincial, the big outside world (diverse, contentious, changeable, skeptical) deeply intimidates them, and they are comforted by cynical politicians who will mouth insanely simplistic platitudes to reassure them. DeLay is just the same kind of selfish, cynical, nepotistic, opportunistic, greedy, hypocritical asshole as the city fathers in Lubbock.

 

 

speaking of fanatics...

There’s not much question that NYT wants Mel Gibson’s new project on the Holocaust to seem like the work of a fanatic. Gibson’s acting offends me, his opportunistic pandering to the White House for We Were Soldiers and Passion of the Christ disgusts me, and his gutless, whiny, and spiteful response to those who tell him he makes bad films amuses me, so I’m not sorry they’ve chosen a shot designed to make him look like a homeless street preacher (with top-class hair-piece). But it seems cheap.

I’d expect it from CNN, but NYT should do better.

Evangelicals turning on Bush for insufficient fanaticism

Now the radical fundamentalist right is pissed at the Shrub because his Xmas cards leave off any reference to Jesus. But it’s all bullshit really: they’re not really angry: they’re just sending a message to remind him that he has to pander to their agendas if he wants their continued support.

 

He’s exploited cynical fanatics to get into office; he can hardly be surprised when the fanatics turn on him.

War-crimes coming home to roost

A German national of Arab ethnicity, represented by the ACLU, is suing the CIA (including George Tenet) after he was allegedly detained without indictment, denied legal counsel, and tortured. The war crimes are coming home to roost. Here’s hoping Tenet (and Cheney, and Rumsfeld, and Gonzales, at the very least) are brushing up on their Dutch and building their legal defense funds.

This is heart-breaking. One prays that cowardice, if not conscience, will push these criminals to reverse criminal and inhumane policies.

I love it when they whine...

Donald Rumsfeld, the self-described “toughest man in Washington” (who never served in uniform), is now whining about the MSM’s coverage of the Iraq War. To anybody with any historical memory, this is a blackly comic reminiscence of the way Westmoreland would exhort Vietnam-era journalists (who are the ones who uncovered the secret invasion of Laos, the bombing of Cambodia, the My Lai massacre, and so on) to “quit being so negative” and “get on the team.”

 

One-armed pushups don’t make you tough, Don. And whining doesn’t make you right.

 

GWB as "post turtle"

A doctor and an old Texas rancher were talking about George W. Bush being in the White House. The old Texan said, "Well, ya know, Bush is a 'post turtle'." Not being familiar with the term, the doctor asked him what a 'post turtle' was. The old rancher said, "When you're driving down a country road and you come across a fence post with a turtle balanced on top, that's a post turtle." The old man saw a puzzled look on the doctor's face, so he continued to explain, "You know he didn't get there by himself, he doesn't belong there, he doesn't know what to do while he's up there, and you just want to help the dumb bastard get down."

 

 

Arlen mouths off again. Credibility = still 0

Arlen Spector says “Alito's personal views won't drive rulings.”

C’mon, Arlen: why should we trust your statements of opinion? You thought that there might be an anti-trust case to be made against the Eagles because they fired Terrell Owens’s obnoxious ass.

Arlen: shut up. You’re a relatively decent and moderate Republican, but your credibility is not much better than the nominal head of your party.

AS decides he ought not be an ASS about TO

From the Sports Illustrated website:

“Sen. Arlen Specter on Tuesday backed off a threat to have a Senate subcommittee investigate whether the NFL and the Philadelphia Eagles violated antitrust laws in their handling of Terrell Owens.

Specter, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said he talked to lawyers in the Department of Justice about the issue.

"I think it's more a matter for them than us because we've got ... a lot of matters which take precedence over this for our own time," said Specter, R-Pa.”

You’re right, Arlen: the Senate has other concerns which ought to “take precedence” over defending this arrogant jackass.

If you want to get into defending an “arrogant jackass”, why not look to the head of your own Grand Old Party?

staggeringly brilliant Bush/Cheney Monty Python parody

From comments on www.huffingtonpost.com

The wise Sir Cheney was the first to join King Bush's
Chickenhawks, but other illustrious names were soon to follow:
Sir Rummy the almost Brave; Sir Delay the ImPure; and Sir Frist the
Not-quite-so-brave-as-Sir-Rummy who had nearly fought the Squawb
Of Baghdad, who had nearly stood up to the vicious Turkey of Teheran
and who had personally wet himself at the Battle of the Hill; and
the aptly named Sir Not-a man Rice. Together they formed
a band whose names and deeds were to be retold throughout the minutes,
the Chickenhawks of the not so Round Table.

Commuting murder

The Buddhist precepts say "Don't kill." They also accept the occasional necessity of "gentle violence", and the resulting bad karma, in order to prevent greater suffering or more death. A good Buddhist is not necessarily someone who refuses to kill under any circumstances. Rather, a good Buddhist is one who recognizes the terrible, lasting, uncountable negative impact of killing, and who yet may, in certain circumstances, willingly take on that negative karma to prevent further suffering.

Taking life is a terrible thing--and to do it knowingly, intentionally, or pre-meditatively is worse. And it is a terrible thing whether an individual or the state does it. As Lenny Bruce said, "The Commandant doesn't say 'Thou shalt not kill except.'"

Virginia governor Mark Warner has granted clemency to Robin Lovitt, who otherwise would have been the 1,000th person executed since the Nixon Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment in 1976. Regardless of Warner's motives, it was the right choice, even if a very painful one for the relatives of the murdered Clayton Dicks.

Let us hope that others in a position to grant clemency take heart from this example.

Arnold, are you listening?

Prayers for all affected.

Ol' Dave Letterman can still crack the whip

"President Bush, is on his Asian tour now.  He'll visit Japan, China, South Korea, Mongolia.  Once again, he's skipping Vietnam."
---David Letterman

Tom Englehardt's "Losing the Fear Factor: How the Bush Administration Got Spooked"

Fantastic Mother Jones article articulating just how and why language reveals that the Bush/Cheney oligarchy is coming apart at the seams. Maybe the Democrats will even grow sufficient guts to take back Congress in ’06.

 

cjs

"What could be more bigoted than to claim you have a monopoly on God?"

Rabbi Eric Yoffie asks the right question.

The bravest man in Congress

Representative John Murtha of Pennsylvania, a former Marine and a Vietnam vet, has called for immediate withdrawal from Iraq. His 8-minute video segment on the CNN website is the most cogent, damning, and bravest response to the Bush-Cheney madness so far offered by a member of Congress. What the cowards and shills at CNN left out was Murtha's response to a reporter's citation of Cheney and Hastert questioning his (Murtha's) patriotism:

"I like guys who've never been there that criticize us who've been there. I like that. I like guys who got five deferments [Cheney] and never been there and send people to war, and then don't like to hear suggestions about what needs to be done."

They are evil men and he has called them out. It's damning him with faint praise to call him "The bravest man in Congress," but he is.

Cultural Diversity in Music Education

Off to OZ in the AM. Long trip: Lubbock-Dallas-LAX-(Hawaii)-Brisbane. Leave Tuesday AM, arrive Thursday AM.

Presenting a workshop at the conference "Cultural Diversity in Music Education" on use of indigenous teaching methods for teaching diverse musics: "Trusting the Tradition." Look for a chapter on the philosophical and pedagogical bases for this in the forthcoming conference proceedings.

Also a chance to hook up with Down-Under Irtradders and my old friend from Bloomington Gerardo Dirie.

Will post travel snaps.

Setting the bar for academic engagement: Howard Zinn

One of my great heroes. b1922 in Brooklyn, a decorated WWII vet, author of the People's History of the United States, chair of history at Spelman college and an advisor to SNCC during the Freedom Rides.

Howard Zinn said:

"I would encourage people to look around them in their community and find an organization that is doing something that they believe in, even if that organization has only five people, or ten people, or twenty people, or a hundred people. And to look at history and understand that when change takes place it takes place as a result of large, large numbers of people doing little things unbeknownst to one another. And that history is very important for people to not get discouraged. Because if you look at history you see the way the labor movement was able to achieve things when it stuck to its guns, when it organized, when it resisted. Black people were able to change their condition when they fought back and when they organized. Same thing with the movement against the war in Vietnam, and the women's movement. History is instructive. And what it suggests to people is that even if they do little things, if they walk on the picket line, if they join a vigil, if they write a letter to their local newspaper. Anything they do, however small, becomes part of a much, much larger sort of flow of energy. And when enough people do enough things, however small they are, then change takes place."


If the nation survives, it will be because of heroes like them. And him.

FW: brilliant parodies: "If Fox News Had Been Around Throughout History"

http://mysite.verizon.net/vze1ldyn/id2.html

My faves:

NEGROS ATTACK POLICE, DEMAND SPECIAL RIGHTS.

Wallace defiant: “We will not negotiate with terrorists.”

TERRORISM IN BOSTON HARBOR

Terrorists seize B.E.I. tea. King George: “They Hate America.”

Pass ‘em on!

Say goodnight, Ken

Kenneth Tomlinson, the Republican appointee who used public funds to commission political analyses seeking "bias" in the work of Bill Moyers--the man who helped invent the Corporation for Public Broadcasting--has been fired from the CPB board, after having been forced out as Director. There's a Senate-commissioned audit/analysis coming which is going to confirm all of Tomlinson's exploitative, cynical, opportunistic, and vicious political maneuvering. Say goodnight, Ken. Go make your millions in the private sector, and leave the short bread and clean ethics of public broadcasting to those who actually have a conscience.

One more Bush/Neo-con appointee bites the dust. And he won't be the last.

Another Gilded Age

Though I'm not an American political history specialist, a parallel has occurred to me, in an attempt to make sense of the current political environment and the sense that, although the country is skidding ever-more toward oligarchic totalitarianism, there was another era to come.

I'm reminded of the Gilded Age (Mark Twain's term), that period between post-Civil War Reconstruction and the onset of the Spanish-American war. It was the period of America's greatest industrialization to date, a period that saw the mushrooming power of huge "trusts" (vast monopoloistic corporations) and of their murderous repression of labor organizing (murder, torture, violations of civil liberties), the period of America's first massive imperial and colonial aspirations (Cuba, Puerto Rico, Haiti, Panama Canal, Hawaii, etc). Corporations owned government; politicians were controlled by corporations; the wealthy were enriched; the poor were repressed and the social safety net (barely in existence) was constantly attacked. External bugaboos ("Bolsheviks," "Jews," etc) were used to justify the erosion of domestic civil liberties, activists were jailed and deported without trial.

But it also led to the Wobblies (the "One Big Union"), American progressivism in Greenwich Village and North Beach, the first public hospitals and libraries, and the "trust-busting" of Teddy Roosevelt.

So what follows a "Gilded Age"? Revulsion: when the middle class who really dictate long-erm social change reject the greed, chauvinism, and naked imperialism of the oligarchy. It takes a long time--but it works.

Slate agrees.