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» Wednesday, June 29, 2005

Bush's Speech on Iraq

Bush Speech : More of the same...
    I just can't force myself to watch the evil little man any longer.   I prefer to just take in the reaction which in most cases confirms my theory that it is not worth the time.   There are many reviews already that rank from boring to medeocre which yet again is par for the course.   I am fairly impressed with Reid's statement much the same as Atrios and Kos.     - fc

Atrios' Eschaton   ::   So, What'd I Miss?

Amazing that the best place to avoid seeing Bush's speech was DC. Anyway, did he wear a cool new Star Trek uniform?


Harry Reid's Statement   ::   Reid's Website

Tonight's address offered the President an excellent opportunity to level with the American people about the current situation in Iraq, put forth a path for success, and provide the means to assess our progress. Unfortunately he fell short on all counts.

There is a growing feeling among the American people that the President's Iraq policy is adrift, disconnected from the reality on the ground and in need of major mid-course corrections. "Staying the course," as the President advocates, is neither sustainable nor likely to lead to the success we all seek.

The President's numerous references to September 11th did not provide a way forward in Iraq, they only served to remind the American people that our most dangerous enemy, namely Osama bin Laden, is still on the loose and Al Qaeda remains capable of doing this nation great harm nearly four years after it attacked America.

Democrats stand united and committed to seeing that we achieve success in Iraq and provide our troops, their families, and our veterans everything they need and deserve for their sacrifices for our nation. The stakes are too high, and failure in Iraq cannot be an option. Success is only possible if the President significantly alters his current course. That requires the President to work with Congress and finally begin to speak openly and honestly with our troops and the American people about the difficult road ahead.

"Our troops and their families deserve no less."

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» Tuesday, June 28, 2005

Kos & Atrios testify at FEC

FEC
    The FEC and it's hearing and the much anticipated rulings and regulations have been of extreme importance to all of us, I along with many others do wish Kos and Atrios good luck in their effort to make a difference.   - fc

DailyKOS   ::   link

I'll be testifying at the FEC today. Wish me (and Atrios) luck.


Business Week   ::   Bloggers fighting government regulations

JUN. 28 2:38 A.M. ET Bloggers who built their Internet followings with anti-establishment prose are now lobbying the establishment to protect their livelihoods from federal regulations.

Some are even working with lawyers, public-relations consultants and a political action committee to do it.

A survey by the Pew Internet & American Life Project found that just over one-third of U.S. adults went to the Internet during the 2004 elections to get political news, share their views on candidates or issues, volunteer for a campaign, or make a political donation.

Acknowledging the Internet's growth, a federal judge last year ordered the FEC to extend some of the nation's campaign finance and spending limits to political activity on the Web.

Bloggers fear that will mean new, unique limits on their activities, even though several of the commission's six members have indicated they have no desire to go beyond what the judge has ordered them to do.

The FEC plans this summer to decide how far to go. Bloggers view whatever happens at the commission as just the first step in their quest to remain free of government oversight.

Federal Election Commission

BLOGpac.org   •   BLOGpac.org :: Ohio

DailyKOS   •   Atrios' Eschaton

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» Monday, June 27, 2005

DSM to Hit House Floor June 28th

Downing Street Minutes to Hit House Floor June 28th
    Email them tonight or tomorrow even if it is late when you see this.   As noted below, hopefully it will be covered on C-Span...   - fc

SarahLee's diary :: DailyKOS   ::   link

Congressman John Conyers, Congresswoman Maxine Waters, and Congresswoman Barbara Lee are asking their colleagues in the House of Representatives to join them on the evening of June 28 to discuss the Downing Street Minutes on the floor of the House.

They need our help.

Please contact your Congress Member right away and ask them to contact the Judiciary Committee staff and commit to taking part. Phone: 1-877-762-8762

or use this Quick eMail tool from Democrats.com

Brought to you by: After Downing Street dot Org

Note: It is not yet showing up on the C-Span Schedule, but they should be covering it.

Remember, you can submit a public event that you think C-SPAN should cover via events@c-span.org

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General admits to secret air war

BBA Blogswarm
    - fc

The Sunday Times - Britain   ::   link

THE American general who commanded allied air forces during the Iraq war appears to have admitted in a briefing to American and British officers that coalition aircraft waged a secret air war against Iraq from the middle of 2002, nine months before the invasion began.

Addressing a briefing on lessons learnt from the Iraq war Lieutenant-General Michael Moseley said that in 2002 and early 2003 allied aircraft flew 21,736 sorties, dropping more than 600 bombs on 391 "carefully selected targets" before the war officially started.

The nine months of allied raids "laid the foundations" for the allied victory, Moseley said. They ensured that allied forces did not have to start the war with a protracted bombardment of Iraqi positions.

If those raids exceeded the need to maintain security in the no-fly zones of southern and northern Iraq, they would leave President George W Bush and Tony Blair vulnerable to allegations that they had acted illegally.


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» Sunday, June 26, 2005

Taking The Fight To Karl

American Service Men and Women Mad at Karl Rove
    From a link at DailyKOS comes news of this site which shows the reaction of some of our military people to the latest Rovian Propoganda offending the liberals' feelings concerning Sepember 11, 2001.

Taking The Fight To Karl   ::   Welcome

This is a site set up for the purpose of receiving email from men and women serving currently in the United States military or veterans who are angry at Karl Rove's recent comments. I do not serve in the military myself, but I have a friend who is currently fighting in Iraq, my father served in Vietnam and my grandfather served in WWII--all good liberals.

Let Karl Rove know that when it comes to defending the USA, there are no Democrats or Republicans, just Americans.

Here is what one father of two soldiers who wrote to Markos from Daily Kos had to say today:
Listen, I'm pissed as hell at Rove. I am a democrat and have been forever. (I'm 54) ... my two kids who just happen to be in the US Army serving are also democrats. My son and daughter both joined as soon as they possibly could after 9/11. So far they are both safe from harm (no thanks to Rove...).

My son and daughter both emailed me last night wanting to know just who in the hell the Rove guy is. They both want to plaster his face everywhere around the bases they are stationed. It seems that Rove didn't know that a good percentage of enlisted folk were Democrats. They like to say around the bases that republicans don't volunteer.

Note: Please visit this site if you are interested in emailing your comments.   ::   link

I left a comment on the blogroll page to be added as a site that supports this effort.   There was a comment from Steve Gilliard as well, so I am sure this page will get plenty of attention from the blogosphere.   The original heads up from kos will make it so...   As I stated in my comment, I will be glad to mirror their blogroll as I do for the Indy 500 and the Big Brass Alliance.   I will add a permalink in the sidebar to this post as this develops.   - fc

Taking The Fight To Karl :: blogroll link

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Stand Up To Rove

Dish it back to them...
    There has been any number of reasons to stand up to the neocons in the last few months.   The revelation that there were no WMD's and that Saddam was no threat to us, marginalizing the illegality of the use of torture, along with many more come to mind.   With the blogs pushing the Downing Street Memo to the front pages, things have been looking better for those of us in the reality based community.   The same old same old from Rove has hopefully pushed the opportunity to confront the neocons into prime time, big time.   As digby reflects, the time for some reality on the part of our national leadership is now.   - fc

Hullabaloo by digby   ::   Limp
(snip...)
Now, how you respond is the real question. I would like to have seen some Democrats say "Karl, why don't you say that to my face." I'd like to see women like Hillary and Pelosi pull out the ferocious mother card and angrily say "how dare you say that I would recklessly put America's children at risk the way you people have done!" No demands for apologies --- veiled threats. Bring it on.
(snip...)
This is ultimately about simple leadership archetypes. (The "gender studies set" will know what I'm talking about --- king, warrior, lover blah, blah, blah.) And we are failing to embody them on a very basic level. Asking for an apology is better than nothing. Hitting back in simple ways that convey strength and conviction is even better. If we could come up with something more sophisticated that would work, I'd be all for it. But ignoring it is the guaranteed wrong thing to do.

Republicans are very successful at connecting with the primal instinctive feelings voters have about people in charge. We aren't. It is their greatest weapon against us and it has nothing to do with policy or positioning or demographics. It has to do with the fact that a lot of people make their decisions about leadership on the basis of who looks the strongest. It's primitive shit. And the Republicans strip it down even more simply than it has to be. There is some room for experimenting with this in innovative ways if we would just accept that it exists and work within it.

It's very hard for me to believe that a party led by limp, myopic chickenhawks and closet cases is getting away with this, but they are. And they have for a long time. We are fools if we let it continue.

the rest of this article...   be sure to check out the comments also...

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» Saturday, June 25, 2005

Gitmo docs, ACLU, KOS, Wiki...

mobilizing the masses...
    As has ben stated before, organizing liberals is kinda like herding cats.   Thanks to the motivating force created by the neocons, that may be slowly changing.   DailyKOS community and dKOSopedia are taking it to another level.   It's too bad that it has taken the killing of innocents, the torture of prisoners and the sacrifice of our young people in the military, to bring it about.   - fc

Wired.com: Politics   ::   Wiki Reviews Guantanamo Docs

A group of volunteers has begun using collaborative wiki software to expedite the process of perusing thousands of pages of complex documents related to detainees held by the U.S. government at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.

The group, which has coalesced through the influential liberal blog, Daily Kos, has taken it upon itself to vet documents about Gitmo detainees the American Civil Liberties Union received as a result of a 2003 Freedom of Information Act request. The organization has been slow to review the documents itself due to a lack of manpower.

The tentative plan, Phillies explained, is to publicly post the project's results --including key findings that are critical of the government's actions at Gitmo, as well as some that are not. Project participants will also try to place stories in the mainstream media about cases of what the volunteers feel are prisoner abuse.

Of course, this isn't the first time volunteer labor has been used to solve a big problem. During World War II, it took a large number of volunteer analysts to break Germany’s super-secret Enigma cipher machines. And more recently, collaborative efforts were used to help IBM take on SCO -- a company that has become notorious for aggressively asserting its legal claim to the Unix operating system in suits against IBM and other companies that use Linux.

But to Clay Shirky, an adjunct professor in NYU's Interactive Telecommunications Program, the initiative to tackle the ACLU documents is groundbreaking.

They're "changing the way leverage is applied," Shirky said. "The historical dilemma of democracies is that it's very hard to get large groups organized. So, paradoxically, the more widely distributed an opinion is, the harder it is to turn its adherents into an interest group."

Befitting a project that was born on a technologically innovative website, Hu and Phillies and their team are employing wikis -- web pages that can be edited by anyone -- to process the results of their document reviews. The wiki displays each document's review status, and ensures that participants are on the same page, can see each others' progress and can be certain work is not unintentionally duplicated.

Shirky thinks Hu and Phillies have created a model to which others should pay attention.

"They are lowering the costs to get large groups coordinated," he said. And by "providing a template and instructions for a good post, they are not just undertaking this effort, but also providing a master template for other groups who want to do similar things."

dkosopedia : List of Documents

dkos project mainpage


fc

» Friday, June 24, 2005

Rovism

Immoral and Pathological
    Finally an accurate assesment of Karl Rove.   It is mind boggling to realise how such a personality has dominated our current political landscape.   - fc

Hullabaloo by digby   ::   Rovism

I'm going to be very rude here and quote an entire post from Glen Smith on BOP. (Do click over to read the comments.) I think it's important that people think about this:
Karl Rove's un-American attacks on those who disagree with him deserve the condemnation they're receiving. I've known him for 20 years, and I'm not surprised he said them. He's a socially inept but patient thug whose willingness to haunt the nation's dark political alleys for years, waiting for the right time and the right victims, is too often taken for unparalleled political intelligence.

Being attacked by Rove is a little like being criticized by the Boston Strangler. At least you know you're alive. If we want to understand Rove, maybe we should get an FBI profiler.

Rove's a hack. His strength comes from his immorality. There are no barriers. If power didn't corrupt, Rove would have corrupted it.

I've been on the road in America for much of the last two years. I'm asked all the time about the need for Democrats to find their own Karl Rove. If we ever find such a monster in our midst, we should exile him.

I like the black hat Rove wears, but it troubles me that so many people believe he really is a political genius. He's just pathological.

For years I've suspected that Rove is stuck in an adolescent rage, taking revenge upon the Civil Rights marchers (whose courage he couldn't match), the anti-war organizers (who beat him), and those who believe in and struggle for democracy (who drove off Nixon).

I don't recommend therapy for Bin Laden. But Rove might give Dr. Laura a call.

I am currently working on a project about Rove and have done a lot of research on how people perceive him as compared to his actual success. I agree with the assessment above. He is highly overrated as a strategist --- indeed Democrats have imputed to him almost magical powers to shape events in the most complicated ways. It's much simpler than that.

He is just someone who has no limits. And he has a client and a party that are willing to do as he advises. That is a powerful thing, but it is not genius. It is useful in elections, but it is a disaster in governance, as we are seeing. Brute force cannot accomplish every task, as any plumber or mechanic can tell you.

But barring a total meltdown, which is unlikely, Rove is going to be running the Republican party for some time to come. We need to start looking at this man realistically. The key is that the Republicans think he's magical too.

Bravo to Peter for telling it like it is. (And nice new re-design too. Check it out.)

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» Thursday, June 23, 2005

USA PATRIOT Act 2005:

Big Brother is Watching

    We have to do more than vote every four years... - fc

Moving Ideas   ::   On The Hill
The USA PATRIOT Act became law only a month after September 11, 2001 -- with little review and amid an atmosphere of fear. The law gave the government sweeping surveillance powers without including accountability and oversight. Certain provisions are set to expire this year and Congress has begun the process of reauthorizing and possibly expanding the PATRIOT Act.

Civil liberties groups have challenged a number of PATRIOT Act provisions as unconstitutional. These groups argue that Congress should never have given the government the ability to:
  • Search your home without informing you
  • Secretly access your records -- educational, medical,
    library, sales, financial, etc. -- without probable cause
  • Monitor your emails and what Internet sites you visit
  • Wiretap you without your name being on the warrant
  • Take away your property without a hearing
  • Share your information with the CIA so they can spy on you
  • Indefinitely incarcerate non-citizens

Urge Congress to
Fix Flaws
in the
PATRIOT Act,

ACLU
In 2003, the Justice Department called for expansions to the PATRIOT Act's powers, dubbed PATRIOT Act II. Some legislators would like to see expanded powers from PATRIOT Act II included in the reauthorization bill. Civil liberties groups are calling for Congress to curtail powers the government already has by reversing some of the original PATRIOT Act provisions.

While it is important that the government have the ability to conduct investigations into terrorism and other criminal activities, there needs to be a balance that also protects citizens' civil liberties and offers accountability and oversight. Take action to urge your legislator to support corrections to the USA PATRIOT Act.

Resources:
fc

» Wednesday, June 22, 2005

The Age of Nixon

By Stirling Newberry
tpm cafe   ::   link

One of the most influential books in American history was written by a very young Arthur Schlesinger Jr. - "The Age of Jackson". Andrew Jackson is, rightfully, an iconic figure in the Democratic Party, creating the second pillar of what would become the party's philosophy: a public mandate for a public government. Jefferson had been at least as much a small "r" repbulican as a small "d" democrat. Jackson was a democrat with both upper and lower case first letter.

The age of Jackson ran from 1828, when he seized control of the political discourse, through 1859, when the party he constructed finally fell into a deep morass, sickened by its corrupt bargain with slavery. It is time to realize that when the history of late 20th century and early 21st century America is written, the it will be "The Age of Nixon".

Nixon, not Reagan, is the architect of modern American politics and the road to power. While he built upon changes made to American Democracy and politics by others, it was he who synthesized the means of taking and manipulating power. It was a very near thing. Nixon ran three times, and only once managed to get a majority of the vote, and never won either House of Congress with his coat tails. It would be to others to complete his architecture. In this sense it would seem impossible to compare him to Jackson, the man who swept all opposition before him, and his right hand man Martin vanBuren. For those whom analogies are found in elections, Reagan, at best, is the Jacksonian figure. A man who won two terms, had a working majority in Congress most of that time, and left his Vice-President in charge of the White House to mind the store.

But this misses the greater point, and the larger reason why the 1828-1859 period lived in the shadow of "Old Hickory". Namely, it was Andrew Jackson who brought with him, not only a new kind of party organization, but a new group of people to run the government, and a new system, dubbed the "spoils system", to staff the government.

Jackson was also instrumental in establishing what would be the monetary order of the period - and it is here that there is the second important parallel with Nixon. Jackson would end the Bank of the United States, essentially an early central bank, and effectively unhinge the American monetary system from a hard silver basis in the form of "Free Banking". From then until Lincoln would tax private notes, money was a free market caveat emptor commodity.

Nixon's unhinging of the US Dollar from an international gold standard had the same effect. From that point on, the regulation of currency would largely be from the supply and demand of the market place. In the wake of this creation of a free floating currency regime, very similar effects were seen, most specifically, a huge land rush.

As importantly Jackson and Nixon pursued the creation of a very similar electoral strategy - an alliance of the agarian West and plantation South against the industrial cites. Both alliances grew more defined with time, and progressively more dominated by the Southern wing at the expense of the populists. Both began with significant presence in the North-East which eroded to almost non-existence by the end of the period.

In both Nixon and Jackson then created the dominant means for people to advance themselves, and created the dominant presidential coalition. Jackson's coalition would win 1828, 1832, 1836, 1844, 1852 and 1856 - 6 of 8 elections. One could even argue that Tyler governed more as a Democrat than as a Whig after he was tossed out of his own party. Nixon's coalition took the White House in 1968, 1972, 1980, 1984, 1988, 2000 and 2004 - 7 of 10 elections.

The element of decentralization power would carry both coalitions - both were elected in reaction to political orders which had promised a centralized economy, and were perceived of as not having delivered the opportunity for the working man that had been promised.

- - -

But more importantly, both President's built on the mandate left by a more Federalist successor - John Quincy Adams and Lyndon Baines Johnson - to create a Presidency with more power, and a more contentious relationship with the other branches, including the Surpreme Court. It is in this paradox - of an imperial Presidency that claimed to be moving power out of Washington DC, that the tension in both coalitions rested. The reason for this tension can be seen in the men who were to transform the coalitions in both cases. In the Age of Jackson, that man was Polk - who went to war with Mexico, and as a result cemented an expansive Texas and expanded United States. In the Age of Nixon, it was Ronald Reagan. Both men were enormously successful and pushing through their programs and enormously popular in their own moment.

And both took a semi-coherent coalition, and forged it into a more unified and consistent one, one more firmly rooted in the South and the need for land expansion that the Southern economy relied upon.

And this too indicates the parallel of ending. The Jeffersonian policy of westward expansion was coopted by the need for slave states to move new areas for slave agriculture. Slavery and Free Soil expansion grew increasingly at odds with each other. Gradually, the entirety of the future lands to be settled were put in the reach of becoming slave states.

Nixon's land expansion was implosive, not explosive. The Age of Nixon grew the suburbs and expanded into the areas that had been sleepy rural villages or upscale bedroom communities. The claim made on the future in the Age of Nixon was an increasing claim on the flow oil. Oil to make gasoline, gasoline which allowed the ever increasing distances to transport and drive.

The Age of Jackson collapsed when the morality of the industrial cities -which was against chattel slavery, if not against economic servitude - combined with the free soil vision of expansion untethered to the slave economy. And if the Nixonian coalition is to fall, it will be because of a similar coalition - the metropolitan economy which is increasingly opposed to foreign adventurism to secure oil supplies, and the rural need for liquidity untethered to the military complex that feeds that adventurism.

In short, Jackson spawned, in the near term, a Democratic Party which became addicted to slavery, and even as it rose to be the dominant party, lost its moral fabric. The collapse of this version of the Democratic Party has left history viewing Jackson's accomplishments in the postive light of the expansion of the franchise, the creation of the political party appartus as an open structure for political participation, and the Presidency as a resiliant and active agent in government.

Nixon's age has followed a similar course, addicted to the easy money of post-Bretton Woods currency, land expansion tied to a violent substratum, and the increasing alienation of the industrial economy from the dominant coalition.

While Rove's hypnotization on numbers is often reported, the trend which was present in the run up to the Civil War is also happening in the present: namely the dealigning of the center from the dominant political coalition. Both the late period Democratic Party of the antebellum era, and the recent Republican Party, have relied upon a split between the day laboring and capital sectors of the vote. In the antebellum era this was expressed as a split between the early Republican Party and the "American" or anti-immigrant party. In the recent past, it is the split between the two varieties of centrism - populist centrism as expressed by Perot which is protectionist and anti-immigration much as the American Party was, and technocratic centrism. The disintegration of the Whig Party and the failures of the present Democratic Party can be traced to essentially the same root cause - the inability to establish a coherent basis for a coalition between these two wings of politics.

In our present it is the technocratic centrists who have most often been willing to desert the Democratic Party ideologically, just as the abolitionists were in the antebellum period, but it is the populist centrists who are most willing to desert the Democratic Party electorally, just as they were willing to back the Liberty Party and Free Soil Party in the antebellum period.

The Civil War and rebellion codified the idea of "the Union" in the minds of these two wings. It had been an idea which was increasingly important in the 1850's - after not having been heard since Jefferson's day - partially because the increasing polarization of the parties in was finally being accepted. In the same way, the great bipartisan consensus period - which began with FDR in 1933 - is still the psychological standard by which politics is measured. Both Jacksonian and Nixonian politics looked back at a monopartisan politics, even as they pursued increasingly bitter partisan warfare.

Whether there is some idea or factor to replace "Unionism" in the minds of the modern day anti-Nixonian political sphere is unclear. While the Nixonian coalition is dealigning, it must be supplanted with a new idea to create realignment.

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» Monday, June 20, 2005

The White House's White-Out Problem

Bringing Morals and Ethics to the White House
    Well worth the read to see just how they have slaughtered science under the Bush Administration.   Excusing pollution and the magacorps that do it, to the detriment of all americans.   Truely sad to think that we are starting the 21st Century by turning back the clock on progress...   Thanks for the work at Think Progress in documenting the blatant disregard for the health of our people and the environment we inhabit.   - fc

Think Progress   ::   link
The Bush administration has gotten into the nasty habit of doctoring its reports whenever the facts don't match its preconceived agenda. Here are some instances of the White House's magic pen at work:

Major Catagories
Stem Cells Ground Water
Climate Change Air Quality at Ground Zero
Toxicology of Mercury Effectiveness of Condoms:
Drilling on the Arctic Refuge: Abortion
HIV-AIDS Cancer
Cattle Grazing Hog Farming

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» Sunday, June 19, 2005

British-American Coalition : DSM

That is what is needed...
    When Kevin Drum (Political Animal) wrote about the neocon slant that the DSM is fake, The All Spin Zone reacted with his perception that something needs to be done to counter.   A comment from PoP of 'Blonde Sense' to Richard Cranium suggests that a British/American Coalition to keep the DSM in the spotlight would be appropriate.   I agree.   I think that is exactly what is needed.   Keep the offensive and not be allowed to fall back into the reactionary mode that so many times has proven to be a loosing position.

The All Spin Zone   ::   link
The wingnutosphere's been relatively silent on the Downing Street Memo until today. And now, the corporate media's lack of tenacity in pursuing this story starts to make a bit more sense.

The Rovians have pulled out their only option - start screaming "FAAAAAAAAAAAAKE". After being burned on Rathergate and Newsweekgate, I supposed it's at least (grudgingly) understandable why much of the media has taken a "wait and see" attitude on the DSM. There's a reason that the Bushies have gone all out to neuter the press.

pissed off patricia wrote:

We need to team up with the people of England who are feeling the same way we are. Two countries can raise more hell together than either can alone.
Political Animal   ::   link
DOWNING STREET DELUSIONS....The wingnuts are getting desperate. Captain's Quarters, in a nostalgic attempt to recreate the glories of Rathergate, suggests that the Downing Street Memos aren't real. Why? Because Michael Smith, the reporter who got hold of them, had them retyped to protect his source and then returned the originals. Jonah Goldberg feverishly calls CQ's revelations a "must read."

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» Saturday, June 18, 2005

The Daily Pulse: Corporatism and Theocracy

by dhonig at MyDD
    Upon reading the below introduction to the Daily Pulse, I realized the defining point to the whole idea is to understand corporatism in the context of Bush's Amerika.   When I plugged that word into wikipedia, the complexity of the frame that is Bush's ideology became quite evident to me.   Following key words that are referenced throughout the wiki, one finds a wealth of talking points that quickly turn the ideology of theocractic right wing control freaks that Bush panders to, into pure un-aldulterated corporate whoremongering on the part of the neocons, to the detriment of the majority of americans.

    Bush uses the wingnut fundies as a lightening rod/smoke screen for his true purposes of total corporate control and imperialistic militarism by means of which not only this country is maniputalted but the whole world would be placed into neocon domination.   The good news is... "The best laid plans of mice and men" the neocon agenda has ran into several pitfalls that they did not anticipate, thankfully.   Their restructuring of the middle east has met with no greater success than any other imperialistic attempt to control the region.   I have heard many times lately that "they do not learn from their mistakes" in reference to Bush, aka the neocons.   This eventually will be the cause of their downfall.   They were not happy until they got their hands on Saddam's oil and now that they have, they are finding that the oil is unusable due to the contamination of the blood of thousands that have died and the thousands more that are willing to die to make sure that it stays that way.

The lack of understanding by the neocons of "Know your enemy" has been one of my main points of dissent since becoming energized by Bush's Amerika.   9-11 instantly gave us an enemy that is easy to stereotype and even easier to manipulate the american people with.   As evidenced by the recently enacted anti-lynching bill, this country, as reflected by the less than 100% endorsement by the senate, is still capable of being racially motivated.   The bait and switch psy-op of the Rove-neocon propoganda machine turned the focus from the actual enemy to the easily hated face of Saddam Hussain.   With swollen breasts from Nationalistic pride, a great deal of this country did not think twice about falling in step with the neocon warmaongers, thereby, in their eyes, validating their methods and objectives.

As the smoke screen has slowly disipated and the new anti-war, anti-corrupt government movement has materialized through the utilization of the internet, people finally started to see.   The patriots, their families and the masses of the country that were conned into believing it would be a "War on the cheap" quickly started to pay attention as more and more of the coffins of dead american soldiers were, by the cover of night, slipped back under the radar for their final trip home.   The home that they were fighting for has turned into a dark, suspicious place.   Shrouded in secrecy, enabled through conspiracy and excused by the naive trust placed in the Bush Administration.

Like all conspiracies, the innate requirement of the many to secrecy, spells its own downfall due to the nature of good and righteous people to question purposes, analyze the agenda and realistically pursue the truth.   There is nothing more founded in human nature than for us to want to understand how the collective of humanity works.   When the good of the many are jepordized by the corruption of the few, it is only a matter of time before the masses rise up and retake control.   The lone human spirit that drives the process of evidentuary enlightenment, not only redeemes himself, but reconstitutes humanity back into a more civilized state.

    Thanks to the recent revelations of the Downing Street Memos, the lies are coming to the light of day.   The important questions have begun to be asked.   A process has begun that can not be stopped until the truth is known.   Finally having the right questions to ask will make the rest of our journey that much easier.   - fc

http://www.mydd.com/story/2005/6/17/12937/3868
The Bush Administration is the most corporatist in our history. We fear theocracy, and it is a dangerous possibility, but the REAL power is corporatism, feeding Christ to the masses in exchange for unfettered profit. The tobacco roll-over is the most obvious example this week, though our "energy policy" and the sale of war to Halliburton go on every day.
Corporatism   ::   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporatism
Historical meaning of the term

Historically, corporatism or corporativism (Italian corporativismo) is a political system in which legislative power is given to corporations that represent economic, industrial and professional groups. Unlike pluralism, in which many groups must compete for control of the state, in corporatism, certain unelected bodies take a critical role in the decision-making process. This original meaning was not connected with the specific notion of a business corporation, being a rather more general reference to any incorporated body. The word "corporatism" is derived from the Latin word for body, corpus.

Ostensibly, the entire society is to be run by decisions made by these corporate groups. It is a form of class collaboration put forward as an alternative to class conflict and was first proposed in Pope Leo XIII's 1891 encyclical Rerum Novarum, which influenced Catholic trade unions which were organised in the early twentieth century to counter the influence of trade unions founded on a socialist ideology. Theoretical underpinning came from the medieval traditions of guilds and craft-based economics.
Contemporary meaning of the term

Today, corporatism or neo-corporatism is used as a pejorative term in reference to perceived tendencies in politics for legislators and administrations to be influenced or dominated by the interests of business enterprises (limited liability corporations). The influence of other types of corporations, such as labor unions, is perceived to be relatively minor. In this view, government decisions are seen as being influenced strongly by which sorts of policies will lead to greater profits for favored companies. In this sense of the word, corporatism is also termed corporatocracy. If there is substantial military-corporate collaboration it is often called militarism or the military-industrial complex.

Corporatism is also used to describe a condition of corporate-dominated globalization. Points enumerated by users of the term in this sense include the prevalence of very large, multinational corporations that freely move operations around the world in response to corporate, rather than public, needs; the push by the corporate world to introduce legislation and treaties which would restrict the abilities of individual nations to restrict corporate activity; and similar measures to allow corporations to sue nations over "restrictive" policies, such as a nation's environmental regulations that would restrict corporate activities.

In the United States, some [1] claim that Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal programs were an unprecedented jump towards a corporate state. However, this ignores the long history of narrow economic interests controlling the decision-making process in America. In recent times, the profusion of lobby groups and the increase in campaign contributions has led to widespread controversy and the McCain Feingold act. American corporatism is evidenced in the close ties between members of the Bush Administration and many large corporations, such as Halliburton.
Theocracy   ::   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theocracy
Theocracy is a form of government in which a religion and the government are allied.

The word "theocracy" comes from the Greek theos which means "god," and kratein which means "to rule." Hence, theocracy literally means "rule by god."

In the most common usage of the term theocracy, in which some civil rulers are identical with some leaders of the dominant religion (e.g., the Byzantine emperor as head of the Church), governmental policies are either identical with or strongly influenced by the principles of a religion (often the majority religion), and typically, the government claims to rule on behalf of God or a higher power, as specified by the local religion. However, unlike other forms of government, a theocracy can be unique in that the administrative hierarchy of government is often identical with the administrative hierarchy of a religion. This distinguishes a theocracy from forms of governments which have a state religion or from traditional monarchies in which the head of state claims that his or her authority comes from God.

A more literal term for what is commonly meant by "theocracy" is "ecclesiocracy," which denotes the rule of a religious leader or body in the name of God, as opposed to the literal rule of God.
http://www.corporatism.org/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capitalism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperialism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military-industrial_complex
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_economy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Militarism

Blogs linking to dhonig's article :: Technorati Cosmos Links Index Technorati Cosmos : Search The Blogs
fc

» Friday, June 17, 2005

US lied to Britain over use of napalm in Iraq war

Action and Reaction
    Two points that interconnect?     What is the action that is starting to be taken in regards to our lying to them about MK77 firebombs.   How are the memos going to affect this newest development in the complicity of Britain with regards to possible illegal activity by our highest officials?   Bush lied to us, the world and Britain.   As has been pointed out, it is no big news to most of the world that he lied.   It's just that now we have the information to prove it.

    I have read little but the current firestorm of information about the DSM with regards to the attention is was getting.   The Conyers Hearing catapulted the issue into the Main Stream Media and now it has reached critical mass and not an issue in waiting any longer.   Googling Downing Street Memo now takes you to page after page of national and international links as well as the primary base of information in the blogs.

    New questions will start to be asked due to the revelation of our lying to Britain and the world over our use of illegal weapons (to the rest of the civilized world they are illegal, anyway --- napalm - oh... it is ok to use it if they have military uniforms which it can stick to and burn them to death...).   Weapons which were outlawed through the ratification by Britain of the 1980 Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW), which the United States did not.   The British Paraliment may seek accountability regarding the use of the weapons against civilians, which is stipulated by the Convention as compared to their previously authorized use against military targets.

    As noted in the article in The Independant uk, The Iraq Analysis Group, which opposed the war at the start, reacted with this statement: "The US has used internationally reviled weapons that the UK refuses to use, and has then apparently lied to UK officials, showing how little weight the UK carries in influencing American policy."   Ouch!!!  

It will be interesting to see how the chain of events unfold in the short term for both our countries due to these new dynamic developments...   - fc

US lied to Britain over use of napalm in Iraq war
Technorati Cosmos Links Index :: Technorati Cosmos
Search for The Blogs who link to this story
fc

» Thursday, June 16, 2005

Conyers' Hearing : DSM

Wake Up Call... America...
DSM HearingAfter watching the hearing on C-Span3, I am convinced that there is hope for this country.   Mrs Sheehan of Gold Star Families for Peace, former ambassador Joseph Wilson, former CIA analyst Ray McGovern and John Bonifaz of AfterDowningStreet.org all made excelant use of this opportunity made possible by Rep John Conyers Jr (D MI) to present to the american people their case that the memos demand investigations into the legality of Bush's pre-war actions.   Bush will be held accountable by this country and history will not look on his reign of terror very favorably...   The M$M has quite a ways to go to bring the current revelations of the build up for war in Iraq to the light of day, but there always has to be a starting point.   The Downing Street Memo, Conyers' Hearing and the republican re-election reality of 2006 are coming together as a focal point for action from Democrats and Republicans alike...   Finally the neocons will be put on the defensive and eventually defeated...   - fc

International
Bloggers' 'victory' over Iraq war memos
Democrats call for inquiry into 'Downing Street Memo'
Memo Raises Iraq War Doubts
Congressman Tries to Renew Focus on US Justifications for War in Iraq
Bush policies blocked as US mood on Iraq sours
Democrats Question U.S. Pre-War Actions
Congressmen probe Iraq war memo
Congress discusses secret Downing St memos
U.S. Main $tream Media
What's the Deal With the Downing Street Memo?
Democrats Question U.S. Pre-War Actions
The Latest Downing Street Memos
Democrats Urge Inquiry on Bush, Iraq
Antiwar Group Says Leaked British Memo Shows Bush Misled Public on His War Plans
The 'I' word By Ralph Nader and Kevin Zeese
The Alternative Media
Big Brass Alliance Blogger united in support of AfterDowningStreet.org
Tom Paine.com   |   Democracy Now   |   Awaken the Media : DailyKOS
fc

» Wednesday, June 15, 2005

The new Downing Street documents

From 'The Raw Story'
Document Person/Dept Title Key point(s)
The Iraq options paper - pdf Overseas and Defense Secretariat, Cabinet Office


Iraq: Options Paper
March 8, 2002



"Continue to make clear (without overtly espousing regime change) our view that Iraq would be better off without Saddam. We could trail the rosy future for Iraq without him in a 'Contract with the Iraqi people' [...]"
Building an Iraq legal case - pdf Legal advisors of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office Iraq: Legal Background
March 8, 2002
"In the UK's view a violation of Iraq's obligations which undermines the basis of the cease-fire [...] can revive the authorization to use force [...]. The US [...] maintains that the assessment of breach is for individual member States. We are not aware of any other State which supports this view."
Condi pledged regime change in 2002 - pdf David Manning, Blair foreign policy advisor Letter to the Prime Minister on dinner with Condoleezza Rice
March 14, 2002

"I said that you would not budge in your support for regime change but you had to manage a press, a Parliament and a public opinion [...]"

"Condi [Rice]'s enthusiasm for regime change is undimmed."

"Bush has yet to find the answers to the big questions: [...] what happens on the morning after?"

British ambassador: 'The need to wrongfoot Saddam on the inspectors' - pdf

Christopher Meyer, UK ambassador to the U.S. Note on Sunday lunch with Paul Wolfowitz, to David Manning

"We backed regime change, but the plan had to be clever and failure was not an option. It would be a tough sell for us domestically, and probably tougher elsewhere in Europe."

"...As the conversation developed, it became clear that Wolfowitz was far more pro-INC than not. He said that [Chalabi] had a good record in bringing high-grade defectors out of Iraq. The CIA stubbornly refused to recognize this. They unreasonably denigrated the INC because of their fixation with Chalabi."

Brits knew Iraq WMD program stalled - pdf

my copy (html)
Peter Ricketts, Blair political advisor Letter to Jack Straw
March 22, 2002
"For Iraq, "regime change" does not stack up. It sounds like a grudge between Bush and Saddam. Much better, as you have suggested, to make the objective ending the threat to the international community from Iraqi WMD [...]."
Foreign Secretary indicates Britain knew Iraq case weak - pdf

my copy (html)
Jack Straw, British Foreign Secretary Letter to the Prime Minister
March 25, 2002
"We have also to answer the big question - what will this action achieve? There seems to be a larger hole in this than on anything. Most of the assessments from the US have assumed regime change as a means of eliminating Iraq's WMD threat. But none has satisfactorily answered how that regime change is to be secured, and how there can be any certainty that the replacement regime will be better."

The new Downing Street documents :: Technorati Cosmos Links Index Search Technorati Cosmos

A Little Left of Centrist : images of memos :: Technorati Cosmos Links Index Search Technorati Cosmos
fc

» Tuesday, June 14, 2005

Bushism

Mumbo Jumbo Dumbo...
    I still can't believe this man is our POTUS... The Rude Pundit pointed me to this interview with Cavuto, and yes he did say "Baby Bombers"... One of the few times he has opened his mouth and the truth has come out... It would actully be funny if it were not for the fact that this man leads the most powerful nation on the face of the planet... - fc

Neil Cavuto   ::   link
Bush on Social Security ---
Baby Bombers like me are getting ready to retire

Bush about grade point avg's ---
"You know, I've always tried to lower expectations, and I feel like if people say, well, you know, maybe, you know, I don't think you handle the tough job, and when you do, it impresses people even more."

Bush on Gitmo prisoners ---
"I first of all want to assure the American people that these prisoners are being treated in accordance with the Geneva Convention. I say in accordance with because these weren't normal, you know, military-type fighters. They had no uniforms. They had no, you know, government structure. These were terrorists... I will tell you that we treat these prisoners in accordance with international standards."
Bushism of the century...
"See, in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda." --- George W. bush
fc

» Monday, June 13, 2005

Republican White Elephants

Hush, Children, What's That Sound...???
    In an earlier blogpost I wrote Howard Dean I Can't Hear You... This week I finally heard the Howard Dean that America needs to hear. Someone willing to stand up to the Republican Noise Machine and be heard over the resounding thunder of the Republican Herd of White Elephants. Howard, I can hear you now, bud...

MyDD   ::   link
Republicans: 1.2% Minority Representation
by michael in chicago

From the diaries--Chris

Boy, the talking heads on the Sunday Funnies are determined to demonize Dean's comment about the Republican Party being a "pretty much a white, Christian party" just because he dared mention this White Elephant about their party. Never mind his point or the truth of it. How dare he say the Emperor has no clothes! The depth to which the Republican Party is naked on this issue is pointed out by William Rivers Pitt, at Truthout. I thought Dean was correct from the start. But I didn't know he was this correct:
Dean Was Right By William Rivers Pitt - t r u t h o u t | Perspective   ::   link

Of 3,643 Republicans serving in state legislatures across the country, only 44 of them are minorities, amounting to 1.2%. Texas, with a minority population of 47%, has 106 Republicans in the state legislature. There are exactly zero African Americans and exactly zero Hispanics serving in that body as Republicans. In Washington, 274 of the 535 elected Senators and Representatives are Republican. Exactly five are minorities.

Of course, there are ethnic and religious minorities within the rank and file of the GOP, but every demographic analysis of the party's makeup clearly shows the vast majority of Republicans fit exactly into the description offered by Mr. Dean. His point, by the way, was not that white Christians are bad people. His point was that, in this pluralist society made up of so much diversity, the Republican Party does not represent the true face of this country.
Let's get this straight everyone: 98.8% of the Republican Party state representation is white. Why aren't the talking heads discussing the hypocracy of this simple fact? Even more confounding to me, why aren't the Democrats backing Dean up by citing these numbers? You want minorities to doubt the Republican Party, tell them that they only have 1.2% representation within its ranks.

It's time we stopped worrying about offending people, and told them the truth. The Emporer and his party have no clothes.
Howard Dean   ::   link
"My view is FOX News is a propaganda outlet for the Republican Party and I don't comment on FOX News," Dean said. That was in response to vice president Dick Cheney calling Howard Dean "over the top" on Fox News on Sunday.

Howard Dean Speaks For Me!!!!   ::   link

Does Howard Speak for you?
If so go and sign the petition to support him.


"I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth."

-- Revelation 3:15-16

fc

» Sunday, June 12, 2005

More than one 'Memo'

Several More...
    Seems like MI6 is has come un-glued at the seems. There evidently has been several more "Memo's" released in England that could spell stormy weather here in the United States...

Washington Post   ::   link
Memo: U.S. Lacked Full Postwar Iraq Plan
Advisers to Blair Predicted Instability

By Walter Pincus
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, June 12, 2005; Page A01

A briefing paper prepared for British Prime Minister Tony Blair and his top advisers eight months before the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq concluded that the U.S. military was not preparing adequately for what the British memo predicted would be a "protracted and costly" postwar occupation of that country.
...

The eight-page memo, written in advance of a July 23, 2002, Downing Street meeting on Iraq, provides new insights into how senior British officials saw a Bush administration decision to go to war as inevitable, and realized more clearly than their American counterparts the potential for the post-invasion instability that continues to plague Iraq.
...

The July 21 memo was produced by Blair's staff in preparation for a meeting with his national security team two days later that has become controversial on both sides of the Atlantic since last month's disclosure of official notes summarizing the session.
...

Now, disclosure of the memo written in advance of that meeting -- and other British documents recently made public -- show that Blair's aides were not just concerned about Washington's justifications for invasion but also believed the Bush team lacked understanding of what could happen in the aftermath.
timesonline.co.uk   ::   link
Ministers were told of need for Gulf war 'excuse'

The Downing Street memo burst into the mainstream American media only last week after it was raised at a joint Bush-Blair press conference, forcing the prime minister to insist that "the facts were not fixed in any shape or form at all".
...

John Conyers, the Democratic congressman who drafted the letter to Bush, has now written to Dearlove asking him to say whether or not it was accurate that he believed the intelligence was being "fixed" around the policy. He also asked the former MI6 chief precisely when Bush and Blair had agreed to invade Iraq and whether it is true they agreed to "manufacture" the UN ultimatum in order to justify the war.

Cabinet Office paper: Conditions for military action
Copy of the newest memo...

U.K. Memo Said to Question Postwar Plan
Story by the AP

fc

» Saturday, June 11, 2005

Bush Scandals of the week

June 6 - 12 --- 2005
    From a post at MyDD comes the weekly scandals of the Bush Administration as documented by the CarpetBagger Report.

The Carpet Bagger Report   ::   link
I'd like to point out what we've learned about the Bush White House -- not since January 2001, but from just this week.
  • The Bush White House let a former lobbyist for the American Petroleum Institute re-write a government report on global warming, editing out scientific conclusions he didn't like.
  • Bush's Interior Department offered to overpay a wealthy Republican donor for oil and gas rights on Everglades land that the government apparently already owns, overruling the advice of career officials.
  • The Pentagon's inspector general released a report on a lucrative Air Force contract for Boeing that cost too much for planes the military didn't want. Bush, who has enjoyed generous campaign contributions from Boeing, was involved with the contract, personally asking White House aides to work out the deal and dispatching Chief of Staff Andrew Card to participate in the contract negotiations. When the inspector general's report came out, 45 sections were deleted by the White House counsel's office to obscure what several sources described as references to the Bush gang's involvement in the lease negotiations and its interaction with Boeing.
  • Documents from the U.S. State Department published this week show that the president backed away from the Kyoto global warming treaty after being pressured by ExxonMobil, the world's most powerful oil company, and other industries.
  • Bush officials at the Justice Department inexplicably decided to reduce its settle request with the tobacco industry from $130 billion to $10 billion, and urged government witnesses to soften their recommendations about sanctions.
Again, these stories were published just this week -- and the week's not over yet. Just as importantly, this isn't a particularly unusual week by Bush standards.
In the above referenced post at MyDD, we are asked to document further bush scandals in the comment section and use this thread as a point from which to link to.   MyDD   ::   link
There are some very interesting comments to this post on friday, already... A Bush Scandals page is only appropriate for this group in washington right now... - fc
fc

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