Classic Jon Stewart

I stand applauding -- absolutely classic.

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Rolling Stone: The Great Iraq Swindle

Power to the Rolling Stone for a little hard rock journalism - the work most American journalists aren't willing to do.

This searing expose pretty well lays it all out. Time to peel those patriotic bumper stickers off our cars and figure out how we plan to return to the good old days of 'Government of the People.'

We do have candidates that 'get it;' Kucinich, Edwards, Paul and probably Gravel... maybe even Huckabee, although he is keeping a low profile. McCain definitely gets it, as he pretty well described it for us in detail during his interviews for the movie 'Why We Fight.'

Now we just have to get one of them elected, rather than their corporate, media favorites. Somehow we have to get the news around to all Americans: this isn't some sort of war between 'us and them,' or even 'liberals and conservatives.' This is now a question of law vs. corruption and whether your kids will grow up in a Democracy... or something hideous.


read the story | digg story

Welcome to the Banana Republic

“There’s something awfully fishy about this whole prosecution. It just doesn’t smell right. It smells like politics.”

Just when I think it can't get any worse... it does! Or it did.

I just read about the latest (for me anyway) scandal in Birmingham. Not sure how I missed this one, but then -- who can keep track these days?

Karl, Karl... is there no end to your devious destructiveness? And now it appears you will be investigated by your fellow banana, Alberto Gonzales. I can see justice will be served once again under this administration.

Has there ever been a collection of sociopaths quite like these?

Here is the story:

The Rovie and his GOP hit squad wanted to take back the governorship of Alabama. Unfortunately there was a Democratic governor in the way.

No problem! Rovie and his pack did what they usually do -- they perverted the law, and accused Governor Don Siegelman of corruption; then set a Bushie prosecutor on the task of putting him away for 30 years!

Siegelman's alleged crime? Steering donors to pay down the debts of an organization that lobbied for a state lottery. You know - the kind of stuff Rovie does every day, with Jack (Abramoff.)

The case quickly got ugly, and the stink is now wafting North - perhaps as far North as Washington.

Maybe... just maybe this is the real reason Karl left the Presidential Palace willingly and without handcuffs. That, or the fact that Abramoff is preparing to sing.

Perhaps Rovie will be wearing those metal cuffs sooner than we had hoped.

As per Harpers:

At the center is an affidavit which exposes a Republican political cabal aimed at using the machinery of prosecution to bring down the Democratic governor as the first step in an effort to retake the Statehouse in Montgomery for the GOP.

Now they have an affidavit from a lawyer who says she heard a top Republican operative in Alabama boast in 2002 that the United States attorneys in Alabama would “take care” of Mr. Siegelman. The operative, William Canary, is married to the United States attorney in Montgomery, Leura G. Canary. Mr. Canary, who heads the Business Council of Alabama, was an informal adviser to Bob Riley, a Republican, who defeated Mr. Siegelman in 2002. Earlier, Mr. Canary worked in the White House under President Bush’s father and has close ties to Karl Rove, Mr. Bush’s top political strategist.

In the affidavit, the lawyer, Jill Simpson, said Mr. Canary’s remark was made in a conference call with her and Rob Riley, Governor Riley’s son and campaign manager. Ms. Simpson said Mr. Canary assured the younger Mr. Riley that “his girls would take care of” Mr. Siegelman before he had a chance to run for the governor’s seat in 2006 and identified “his girls” as Leura Canary and Alice Martin, the United States attorney in Birmingham.

Neither Ms. Martin nor her office have offered much by way of retort to these explosive accusations, and, of course, they stack up perfectly against a pattern which has now been demonstrated all across the country – the prosecution by Steven Biskupic in Milwaukee of a key Wisconsin civil servant, which also had the subtext of attempting to bring down a Democratic governor, for instance. That case also produced a conviction, but was unanimously reversed by the Seventh Circuit, with its prominent Reaganite chief judge calling the whole case “preposterous.” And as the facts of the case were spelled out, any reader wonders not just how a jury could convict, but how and why a prosecutor would bring such a charge.

Ms. Martin’s handling of the case was a cakewalk no doubt, because in these days just about anyone is prepared to accept the suggestion that a politician is corrupt. Indeed, it’s the conventional wisdom. The presumption of innocence is a quaint notion which has never, practically speaking, had much effect in our courts. To the contrary, it is quite overwhelmed by confidence in the impartiality and integrity of the federal prosecutor. Or at least it was.

Ah, life in the Banana Republic: never a dull moment. Although occasionally even a Bushie will slip on a peel.

Ha! They've got Ted Stevens!!

Breaking news (and yes, I'm dancing around my desk... this is a major victory for the environment. TAKE HIM DOWN!)

Sen. Stevens Told to Keep Records for Graft Probe
By Paul Kane
The Washington Post

Thursday 07 June 2007

Sen. Ted Stevens, the longest-serving Republican in the Senate, disclosed in an interview that the FBI asked him to preserve records as part of a widening investigation into Alaskan political corruption that has touched his son and ensnared one of his closest political confidants and financial backers.

Stevens, who is famous for bringing home federal earmarks for Alaska when he was Appropriations Committee chairman, was not previously known to be linked to the Justice Department's probe, which has uncovered evidence that more than $400,000 worth of bribes were given to state lawmakers in exchange for favorable energy legislation.

Investigators have used secret recording equipment, seized documents and cooperating witnesses to secure the indictments of four current and former state lawmakers, including the former state House speaker, shaking the core of Alaska's Republican Party.

Two executives of a prominent energy company have pleaded guilty to bribery and extortion charges and are cooperating with the inquiry, which is being run by the Justice Department's Public Integrity Section and includes two federal prosecutors and FBI agents based in Anchorage.

"They put me on notice to preserve some records," Stevens said in a brief interview about his legal team's discussions with the FBI. He declined to say what kinds of records were involved but confirmed that he had hired lawyers and that his son, former state Senate president Ben Stevens, "is also under investigation."

That Card is played out

Andy Card was roundly booed by both students and faculty when he took the stage to receive an honorary degree at UMass.

And get this: Card was awarded an honorary doctorate in public service!

Good God - no wonder they nearly rioted. The day 'public service' includes bullying a sick man in a hospital room in an attempt to subvert the Constitution... oh never mind. UMass students and faculty took care of business.

Apparently democracy and open discourse are alive and well on the UMass campus (and it's obvious they have all been watching Jon Stewart!)

The protesters - actually, that included nearly everyone in the room, save the bozo who decided that honoring Card would be a good idea in the first place - waved signs, hoisted banners and shouted their disgust for nearly two minutes straight. What a catharsis. Its fun just watching it. Graduates even wore anti-Card signs pinned to their gowns and caps.

Neocons now on the run... perchance the sleeping giant has awakened at long last?

Its the corruption, stupid (and the war!)

The bell tolls for the GOP

Hey you - yes you, sulking in the corner there...all wrapped up in your American flag and clutching your bible. You still don't get it, do you?

Oh you 'get' that Americans are leaping off the sinking GOP ship at an alarming rate (a realistic rate, when you consider how angry we are out here.) The number is now especially high in the military, where polls show that 46% now lean Republican (down from 60%,) and the number is in a 'free fall. Returning troops are spreading the word that the Iraq war cannot be won, and more and more are openly outraged with Bush and his surge.

But as long as you allow Bush to remain in power - and his corruption continues unchecked by you Republicans yourselves (the Democrats are all over this now;) the GOP will slide right off the approval cliff.

Fix it yourselves

I believe the only hope you have of surviving as a viable party, is to remove Bush and Cheney from the White House yourselves; via Impeachment (or the threat of it.)

If you wholeheartedly embrace reality -- the Constitution, the rule of law, the will of the American people, and bipartisan cooperation -- you can save your party. If you continue to stand by Bush and support this war, and condone the many illegal deeds that are finally surfacing under unflinching Democratic probing, you will lose. And lose big. Perhaps even permanently (or until the Democrats become the next tyrannical power-brokers.)

The country would be better served if it had two reasonable parties, accountable to the people. These parties should act as oversight over one another, so as to maintain some equilibrium in politics. Any party that becomes too powerful will become a pawn for special interests - our government is now completely infested with corporate lobbyists, and they are equal opportunity employers.

Absolute power corrupts absolutely - and absolute power has eaten the GOP alive.

Getting a new 'brand'

Sadly - but of course, predictably - the GOP pundits are still asking the wrong questions.

How to restore the GOP brand? "That's what we're struggling with, honestly," said Rep. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.). "Do you positively brand yourself, or do you negatively brand the other side?"

I hate to break it to you Shelley, but its a little late to 'negatively brand the other side'... not while Bush is in the White House. And we are sick to death of your smear campaigns, your 'swift-boating,' and your hate-spewing Coulter-geists.

Americans are turning against smear campaigns, especially in light of the background information we all have on how the GOP plans their attacks. We know what you're up to Rove... hell, everyone now knows: now that your papers are leaking out, we even know the order in which you plan to wage your attacks.

Its not working anymore. It's disgusting. We aren't hate-filled partisans like you, and we're sick of receiving hate mail directed at the representative we just elected -- that guy who's finally listening to us.

Just ask the residents of Jerry McNerney's district (California's 11th: formerly Oilslick-Pombo's neck of the woods.) These poor people are now subject to an endless stream of McNerney-bashing leaflets - stuffed right into their mailboxes - and in spite of the fact that McNerney (#3 on Rove's attack list,) only took office in January.

I received this email from the McNerney campaign yesterday:

"It’s only March, 2007. But it might as well be November, 2008.

Yesterday, our campaign got hit with a one-two punch. First, a scandalous House hearing unearthed a secret document from a deputy of Karl Rove revealing that the GOP “architect” is targeting me as #3 on his political hit list.

Then, the National Republican Congressional Committee carried out Rove’s hit yesterday with “The Real Jerry McNerney” -– launching a slick Swift Boat-style web site that smears my record of service to you in Congress. The NRCC plans to promote this deception site by spamming voters in our district with over 100,000 e-mails."

This is exactly this sort of behavior that will sink the GOP like a rock. Slander doesn't work anymore Karl; it just pisses people off, and they will turn on you. Harassing us - and the candidate we elected to office - makes us angry. Seriously -- it does. Stop doing it. Just stop.

Getting that minority vote

"We have to win back the confidence we lost in '06 from swing voters and ticket splitters," said Mehlman. "The way you do that, in part, is by being a party that is less reliant on white guys and expands its support among Hispanics, among African-Americans."

Once again, this racist thing. As though simply buying the votes of Hispanics and African-Americans will do the trick - its not like you have to actually represent them.

So many of you GOP truly do not get it yet. Perhaps you cannot get it. You are so conditioned to the 'show' that you forgotten what real integrity even looks like: or why you'd even want integrity if it doesn't serve partisan positioning or help the 'bottom line.'

Hispanics and African Americans are never going to vote GOP - who do you think has been hit the hardest by Katrina and those GOP budget cuts? Guys -- you blew that one last year, and blew it on a massive scale. Right now, the only voters you can really count on are those 5% of the rich, White guys to whom you gave the tax cuts.

Until you consider - really consider - becoming a party with ethics, we want no part of you. Until you stop defending and enriching only the already wealthy and fat corporations at our expense, we want no part of you. Until you stop covering up for this maniacal and renegade president and his rampant corruption, not to mention his illegal occupation of Iraq, torture and those secret camps - we want no part of you. Until you choose to tell the truth, on the first try, without subpoenas to drag it out of you - we want no part of you. Until you start to at least see the Middle Class, and admit that our nation needs both Middle Class and working class to remain strong, healthy and able to dream some sort of American dream (or at least survive here;) we want no part of you. Until you stop creating wars for profit, and condoning partisan corruption in your ranks, we want no part of you.

We liked Ike

I suggest you take a look at Eisenhower. I suggest you look back through your party's history to another time; a time before you were completely compromised by greed and corporate interests. I suggest you remake yourself in earnest... not just in appearance. Appearance isn't going to fly this time. Too many skeletons clacking around in White House closets and GOP legislative offices, with more emerging every day.

Oh, and if you really want to win friends and influence people before 2008... remove Bush and Cheney from office.

That's right, you heard me: remove them. Impeach them. Toss them out. Don't leave this for the Democrats, because they will gain support each day those men remain in the White House. They aren't going to Impeach - not if they can grow in strength and contributions by showing Bush and Cheney for what they are, and still leave them there to draw our ire.

You know this, you just lack the will to 'eat your own.'

But think about it... haven't they been eating you this entire time? Do they care about your re-election hopes? Do they really care about your party, any more than they care about the will and welfare of the American people? Have they ever consulted with you before starting wars or making sweeping policy changes? Do they share intelligence with you, converse honestly with you (or anybody else?)

Of course not. You are partisan pawns - nothing more.

Cut them loose, and you may... may yet float back up to the top.

Daily GOP Follies

I read the news today - good grief

Today is a milestone day, in our democracy's headlong plunge from grace. It appears there are now only 666 days until our national nightmare is over. Make of that what you will.

Bill Maher (see video I posted yesterday) was right in his assessment of our struggle - our confusion as we even attempt to keep track of the rash of scandals coming out of the White House. If you expand to include the entire GOP, its unbelievable. Well almost unbelievable... although this time, they've really gone over the edge.

Remember not so long ago... Newt Gingrich (the same guy who was having an affair while pointing an accusing finger at Bill Clinton - that Newt Gingrich;) was riding high, on a white horse, talking about how he and his 'family values' were going to save America? I believe he called it the 'Contract with America.' More like a contract on America.

Truly... these are your family values in action, Newt? Really? If these are family values, we'd like a few less helpings, thank you. In fact, we'd like to leave the table now. And if you have the audacity to even consider running for president, we will happily ignore you when we aren't too busy laughing.

What are these crooks doing when they aren't lying under oath, cheating somebody, hiring unqualified cronies, robbing the treasury - or robbing little old ladies as they cross the street? I don't mean to indict all of Republicans of course - Senator Lugar, Senator Specter and Senator Hagel, you are excluded; but damn few others.

While conservatives are crying - and obsessing - over what they perceive to be that lost, 'Reagan greatness,' it is really a shame that they won't or cannot realize that this is exactly when their fall from decency (and fiscal reality) began in earnest.

Their 'face of Reaganomics,' John Stockton was just indicted for defrauding investors. Like Newt, it turns out he was just another political shyster picking our pockets, finding ever better ways to steal from the people - and our treasury - in the interest of his powerful, wealthy friends.

Same ol stuff, different year.

By the way, two quotes (about Stockton) that ran side by side in the Washington Post, when put together, say everything we need to know about Reaganomics:

"It's a shame that a guy who made such a great contribution as a member of Congress and the Reagan administration has this happening to him," said M.B. Oglesby, a former deputy chief of staff to Reagan. "He was the driver in the whole budget process in the beginning of the administration that set the tone for the tax cuts and the budget cuts."

"I have vivid memories of his misusing and misstating data and using obviously phony economic forecasts," said veteran budget analyst Stanley E. Collender. "You wonder if those were habits that stuck with him when he became a Wall Street dealmaker."

Yes, it was those pesky 'bad habits' again. Those bad habits that set the tone for years of GOP rule in America.

By the way - remember the Iran Contra scandal? Seriously - does anyone still remember Iran/Contra? It apparently doesn't exist; it seems to have fallen right out of history, because no one ever paid a price. No one linked it to the top, to the beloved 'Gipper' himself.

It is up to us - the people - to make sure that no more presidential scandals fall through the cracks, or we'll be doomed to an endless stream of this 'garbage rule' we see today.

Face it neocons - the looting party is over. If you really want to rejoin the American populace (and be allowed to continue in American politics,) your party must look back even further, to a clean and decent time... say Eisenhower.

Ike was a great American and a great president. You could do a lot worse. In fact... you have done so very much worse, during your plunge into the depths of depravity and corruption. We tried to believe that Nixon was an aberration, but now you give us Bush and Cheney. Always trying to up the ante! I ask you in all honesty, why would we trust you again, EVER, with our highest office?

Maybe it would be a nice chance of pace for you, if you took a new tack... consider it, give it some thought.

I know the American Enterprise Institute will be up in arms at the very idea of a 'reasonable' and 'non partisan cooperation' between parties, not to mention giving up their imperial and dictatorial ambitions. Heaven forbid that any of us should ever get along, when they are so right and everyone else is so wrong. *Cough.* But really at this point - what have you got to lose that you haven't already lost?

If I were you, I'd tell AEI to take a hike, and toss the religious right wingnuts, Ann Coulter and Karl Rove from a fast moving train. Dig yourselves out this morass, and look inside for some vestige of that long buried sense of patriotism and decency.

Ike is your ticket. Ike is a fabulous place to start. The man was an honest statesman and a national hero. He was honorable. He was honest. He even warned the nation about the rise of the military industrial complex. So, have you got one of those - anywhere - within your ranks?

How about Chuck Hagel? I hear Ike was one of his political heroes. That seems like a hopeful sign, don't you think?

Again... what have you got to lose? Because really, can it get much worse... and when it does (with a few more news days like today) will there be anything left to salvage?

I read the news today, oh wow:

1. The White House was using outside email accounts to correspond about White House business, which violates the Presidential Records Act. Of course, they were using Republican National Committee email accounts... of course...
   

2. A Gonzales aide is already invoking the 5th amendment (amazing how quickly they have come back to the Constitution, like hapless prodigal children. Damn handy slip of paper, isn't it?) It appears she can't answer any questions at an upcoming Senate hearings concerning the fired prosecutors, because literally anything she says will incriminate her. Hmmm.

3. Although we're probably not terribly shocked to hear this, it now appears Alberto Gonzales lied to the Senate Judiciary Committee when he said he wasn't involved in the firing of the procescutors. Emails say otherwise.

   Stopping short of demanding Gonzales' resignation, Sen. Arlen Specter cited a Nov. 27 calendar entry placing the attorney general at a Justice Department meeting to discuss the dismissals. Those documents "appear to contradict" Gonzales' earlier statements that he never participated in such conversations, said Specter, top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee that oversees the Justice Department.

   "We have to have an attorney general who is candid, truthful. And if we find out he has not been candid and truthful, that's a very compelling reason for him not to stay on," said Specter, R-Pa.

4. This one came from right field... but it appears federal prosecutors announced conspiracy and securities and bank fraud charges against Reagan-era budget director David A. Stockman. They are accusing him of misleading investors about the finances of a troubled Michigan auto parts company.

5. One of the eight former U.S. attorneys fired by the Bush administration stated yesterday that White House officials questioned his performance in 'highly partisan political terms' only three months before he was dismissed from his job.
   
   John McKay of Washington state, who had decided two years earlier not to bring voter fraud charges that could have undermined a Democratic victory in a closely fought gubernatorial race, said White House counsel Harriet Miers and her deputy, William Kelley, "asked me why Republicans in the state of Washington would be angry with me."

6. Have you ever heard of the 'Hatch Act?' No? Apparently Lurita Alexis Doan hasn't heard of it either. Doan is the Chief of the General Services Administration and - shocker - a deputy in Karl Rove's political affairs office at the White House. Rove is everywhere! Apparently, Doan joined in a videoconference earlier this year with top GSA political appointees, and discussed ways in which "targeted public events, such as the opening of federal facilities around the country" could be used to help Republican candidates.
   The Hatch Act, as it turns out, is a federal law that restricts executive-branch employees from using their positions for political purposes... although when you think about it, this law could easily be used to clean out the entire working populace in the White House

   (save perhaps the chef and a few of the waiting staff.) Oh - Doan is also accused to trying to give a no-bid job to a friend and professional associate last summer, and the committee plans to investigate Waxman's charge that she "intervened" in a troubled technology contract with Sun Microsystems that could cost taxpayers millions of dollars. Shocking.

7. Republican Senator Pete Domenici of New Mexico is now under investigation by the Senate Ethics Committee after a watchdog group accused him of trying to pressure David Iglesias, (one of the now fired prosecutors, then the U.S. attorney in Albuquerque, N.M.,) to rush a corruption probe against Democrats in an effort to sway the 2006 elections. Domenici has now hired Duke Cunningham's lawyer Lee Blalack to defend him. Er, good luck with that. I'm sure 'Cryin Duke' will save ya a spot at his table in the prison mess hall.

8. The President seems truly attached to Guantanamo and to torture in general. He defends it with a self-righteous vengence that is truly inexplicable. Or is he once again deferring to that Cheney on his shoulder? When his own Secretary of Defense Robert Gates - with the backing of Condi Rice - suggested that perhaps, just maybe, it is time to close down this abomination and bring these guys to America, Cheney and Gonzales quashed all further discussion. And so once again we have to ask... who is running this country? Sir George, or Sir Dick? My bet is on Sir Dick.

   Kangaroo courts, secret prisons and torture are for banana republics sir - not for this American democracy. Everyone seems to 'get that' except for you. But then - you still don't seem to grasp that you aren't a King, and that America is not your little GOP fiefdom. And so far, no one in our Congress has given you much reason to believe otherwise. But the people sir... the people are growing restless. Its no wonder that you hate us so, and spy on us at every turn. We are the real wildcard in your imperial plans, aren't we? A restless populace is not a good thing (as I recall, Southern slave owners lived in constant fear of their own slaves.) Eventually the people will grow so outraged - fed up - that they will actually succeed in pressuring their reluctant, foot-dragging, corporate-owned representatives into action. And Congress will again begin to worry about the votes. And maybe, just maybe, you will finally pay the price for your royal assumptions, and your blatent disregard for America's guiding principles of freedom, justice and the rule of law.

9. Aides to President Bush are being warned today, not to destroy any emails (like they haven't already... please.) Waxman, who is proving quite adept at ferreting out GOP sneakiness, has already made the same warning to the Republican National Committee. It appears there is a history in this White House of using RNC email accounts for correspondance that is 'off the public record.' Translation: illegal, immoral and corrupt in nature (and we can't let anyone find out about this.) Apparently this use of RNC email accounts was discovered during the Abramoff investigation.

   In one instance, Mr Abramoff, who is serving a 70-month sentence on corruption charges, sent an e-mail to Susan Ralston, executive assistant to Karl Rove, the president’s chief political strategist, on her RNC account about a gaming-related decision by the department of the interior.
   
   When the e-mail was forwarded to another official in the White House e-mail system, Mr Abramoff was warned by an associate who said the official “said it is better not to put this stuff in writing in their e-mail system because it might actually limit what they can do to help us”.
   
   Mr Abramoff responded: “Dammit. It was sent to Susan on her RNC pager and was not supposed to go into the WH system.”
   
   ”We are reviewing it and taking appropriate action,” the RNC said yesterday.

   
   

   Right-o.

10. Former Army Sgt. Sam Provance was the only uniformed military intelligence officer at the Iraqi prison to testify about Abu Ghraib abuses during the internal Army investigation - and it didn't take him long to realize that the Pentagon was scapegoating low-level personnel, sacrificing them to save the chain of command.
    
    For refusing to shut up and play along with an obvious cover-up, Provance was tossed out of the US military.

    The Pentagon went forward with its plan to pin the blame for the sadistic treatment of Iraqi detainees on a handful of poorly trained MPs, not on the higher-ups who brought the lessons of "alternative interrogation techniques" from the Guatanamo Bay prison to Abu Ghraib.

    To hear Sam Provance's own story, in his own words, is to realize just how bad things really are. And they are very, very, very bad.
    

Lincoln warns of 'corporations enthroned'

"We may congratulate ourselves that this cruel war is nearing its end. It has cost a vast amount of treasure and blood. It has indeed been a trying hour for the Republic; but I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. As a result of the war, corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed.
I feel at this moment more anxiety for the safety of my country than ever before, even in the midst of war. God grant that my suspicions may prove groundless."

- letter from Lincoln to (Col.) William F. Elkins, Nov. 21, 1864.