Big Day

As you've no doubt heard already, the Supreme Court rejected the right of the executive to torture and hold secret trials of their prisoners anywhere in the world. This is vastly good news for people who are Americans, and for people who believe in the rule of law and who support the notion of human beings behaving in a way consistent with civilization.

There are lots of good blogs and news stories out there. I won;t re-hash the details. But I will point out that this is a crucial fork in the road for American government.

I have referred to the Bush administration as the "Junta" because their power emanates not only from the executive, but from the executive's power to bully and coerce the Congress. They've been able to pursue a stupid, greedy, and bloodthirsty campaign at home and abroad with the acquiescence of their members of Congress.

Without a rubber-stamp Congress, most of their excesses would not have been possible.

But yesterday's decision reminds us that there is not one main branch of government with a sidekick, but actually three. And the Supreme Court came through.

They decided that the constitution must be respected as the law. The Geneva Conventions do, indeed, apply to all combatants, Iraqi, al Qaeda, or otherwise.

So here's the fork. We all know that the Junta does not respect the constitution as the law of the land. Will they respect the court's ruling? How deep into these lawless woods have we wandered?

Will Congress act to reassert its power over the executive, now given a boost - a reminder really - from the Supremes? Will the executive obey the law, as they've refused to do so often in the past?

My guess is that the tribunals will be disbanded and the prisoners simply kept in their current state as non-people for the next few years. It will be up to a Democratic Congress and President to do something about them (like try them in a real court).

The current rubber-stamp Republican congress may try to whip up some rules around trials, but anything smacking of actual justice will be rejected by their masters in the White House and fail.

But by keeping secret CIA detention centres and the Gitmo prison itself open, they are in breach of the law. Will that matter to them? Will they defy the courts?

Stay tuned.

Hate Thy Neighbor

This story from today's Globe & Mail is well worth a read. "Hateful Chatter Behind the Veil" is an in-depth look at the internet chat among the wives of the recently arrested terror suspects in Mississauga, Ontario. And it will, if you are a civilized person, chill you to the marrow of your bones.

If you want to know what it is we are fighting in the world, have a read. It is written in bold fiery letters.

"We hate Canada."

On homosexuals: "Look at these pathetic people, they should all be sent to Saudi, where these sickos are executed or crushed by a wall, in public."

"May Allah crush these Jews, bring them down to their knees, humiliate them. Ya Allah make their women widows and their children orphans."

In a May, 2004 post titled "Behold Your Enemy!" she posts multiple articles describing the humiliation of Iraqi prisoners at the hands of American soldiers. "Know what you will face one day," she warns fellow forum members. "Let them call you a terrorist, let them make you look like a savage, but know that THIS is the filth of the earth, the uncivilized destroyer of humanity."

"Know from this day that this is not an Iraqi problem, it is not an Afghani problem, it is not a Palestinian problem, it is not a Somali problem. IT IS YOUR PROBLEM!!!"

Ms. Jamal's zealousness for homegrown Muslim causes is matched only by her rejection of just about everything Canadian. As the June, 2004 federal election draws near, she repeatedly advises Muslim youth to completely avoid the process. Voting, she tells them, inherently violates the sovereignty of God, making it the most egregious sin against Islam.

"Are you accepting a system that separates religion and state?" she asks. "Are you gonna give your pledge of allegiance to a party that puts secular laws above the laws of Allah? Are you gonna worship that which they worship? Are you going to throw away the most important thing that makes you a Muslim?"

Those are my neighbors - in the Meadowvale area of the city of Mississauga. One woman wanted to establish in her pre-nap the right to divorce her husband if he refused to go on a violent jihad.

They hate Canada and all things Canadian. They want to kill me (as a Jew) and take away all rights from all people who don't believe exactly what they believe. That's not me saying it, it's their own words. Right next door.

What's to be done? Do we return their hate with our own hate? It's hard not to. I struggle with this, because reading those hateful words, I really want this woman to suffer some sort of reprisal. If she believes what she (and many others) write on this forum, they should not live in Canada. They should not be citizens of this great nation.

But I struggle. Do I descend to their level? Would it be suicidal not to fight this sort of violent backwardness?

But the bigger question is what is and has been done about radical Islam. So much of the ire that we hear is based on what's happened since 9-11. The anti-democratic Junta now ruling the once-great United States has created a far greater monster that we were bitten by in 2001.

Or perhaps they've just woken it up. Either way, it is the torture and murder of Muslims by the Bushistas that fuel their fire. There will always be bin Ladens - but must there always be Ms. Jamal?

However it was that these awful women arrived at their disgusting beliefs, they are there in our society - hating us. Now what do we do?

Monday

It's getting a lot of play on the "internets," but I'm getting worried about the Democratic response to the recent Republican boldness on their Iraq debacle. Karl Rove, who seems to have dodged the prosecutor's indictment (for now), is pressing ahead in his usual fashion, making a virtue out of a vice.

The vice, obviously, is the murderously bungled Iraq mess. It's a failure in every respect and an increasingly heavy albatross for an increasingly weak Repub party. But Rove loves to run on his weakness and the opponent's strength. It's his featured strategy. Once he beats you where you live, you have no chance against where he lives.

He does this, obviously, through lies. His lies are bold and, he trusts, unexamined by a useless media. Once his lies and your truth are just two party viewpoints, he wins. The arsonist and the fire-fighter become two viewpoints, with no moral perspective separating them.

Thus we have the Iraq war. The Junta is just as wrong today as they were three years ago, but now the war is gigantically unpopular. Americans are starting to understand what's been done in their name, and they don't like it.

So rather than run away, Rove is leading Repubs to say: "I support what the Junta is doing, and if you don't you're an al Qaeda sleeper agent." They're saying it loud and with the intensity that drowns out opposing voices.

Now, you would think that having your opponent shout transparent lies at the top of their voice would be a good thing. Not for Democrats. The volume scares them like field mice at a rock concert.

So they slink away and indulge in inter-party squabbles. Some think that's okay - having disagreements is what real Americans do. Real Americans aren't lock-step rubber-stamp brainwashing victims like the Repub party has become.

While I agree with the sentiment, I don't think that the Democrats can afford the indigence of being American just yet. The voting populace is accustomed to being told straightforward simplistic statements (lies, but whatever). If you have an honest debate, you are painted as 'indecisive.'

Democrats need to take a stand. But not a 'specific date for withdrawal' stand. More like a 'this is wrong and we will fix it' stand. The more they tie themselves to a specific policy, the more Rove will beat them with it. They need to say: "this is a Republican mess." Don't take ownership of it until the voters give you the power to change things.

Go on the attack. "They have no plan. They will be there forever."

And wait for troops to be withdrawn before the election in November to give Repubs a boost. Because no policy or life or country is as important as Repub politics.

Incredulity

I sometimes fear losing my righteous sense of incredulity. The ugliness perpetrated on a daily basis by the collection of semi-sentient greed monsters in Washington is just too outrageous. How can you stay outraged so long? Their bad acts seem without end.

And the really bad acts also serve to diminish the impact of the lesser bad acts, until you get caught up in their game or relativism. Something like the hurricane Katrina failure is so vast and devastating that it makes other more modest failures seem nearly successful.

And so it is with Gitmo. The Washington Post editorial board says that Gitmo isn't such a bad place any more - there are lots worse. But it should be closed for symbolic reasons - because it has come to symbolize the stunningly misguided American anti-terror policy. But there are a bunch of American detention facilities that are far worse. And that's the problem.

Isn't that sliding the rule the wrong way? Gitmo is excused because they're building new facilities, not taking new prisoners, and have made a much bigger mess elsewhere? Really? That makes it okay?

Secret detention facilities where prisoners are held indefinitely with no charges and no access to law and regularly tortured - all that is anti-American. It's against our laws and our beliefs. And our government is doing it right in front of us. The Germans - perpetrators of the Holocaust - are lecturing us about it.

To say that we need to establish real justice and stop torturing and allow the Red Cross in - isn't that where Americans are supposed to start?

It's where we used to start.

But the worst thing we can do now is allow our moral and ethical barometers to be recalibrated by the actions of the Junta. Don't stop being American and demanding American law just because the ruling Junta has lowered the standard to an unrecognizable depth.

Incredulity

I sometimes fear losing my righteous sense of incredulity. The ugliness perpetrated on a daily basis by the collection of semi-sentient greed monsters in Washington is just too outrageous. How can you stay outraged so long? Their bad acts seem without end.

And the really bad acts also serve to diminish the impact of the lesser bad acts, until you get caught up in their game or relativism. Something like the hurricane Katrina failure is so vast and devastating that it makes other more modest failures seem nearly successful.

And so it is with Gitmo. The Washington Post editorial board says that Gitmo isn't such a bad place any more - there are lots worse. But it should be closed for symbolic reasons - because it has come to symbolize the stunningly misguided American anti-terror policy. But there are a bunch of American detention facilities that are far worse. And that's the problem.

Isn't that sliding the rule the wrong way? Gitmo is excused because they're building new facilities, not taking new prisoners, and have made a much bigger mess elsewhere? Really? That makes it okay?

Secret detention facilities where prisoners are held indefinitely with no charges and no access to law and regularly tortured - all that is anti-American. It's against our laws and our beliefs. And our government is doing it right in front of us. The Germans - perpetrators of the Holocaust - are lecturing us about it.

To say that we need to establish real justice and stop torturing and allow the Red Cross in - isn't that where Americans are supposed to start?

It's where we used to start.

But the worst thing we can do now is allow our moral and ethical barometers to be recalibrated by the actions of the Junta. Don't stop being American and demanding American law just because the ruling Junta has lowered the standard to an unrecognizable depth.

Conference

I'm standing at the IBM cyber cafe (sans coffee) at the World Conference on Disaster Management. It's the one conference that I get to attend this year, and it's about a kilometer from my office.

I'm standing because there are no seats, presumably to get people to move on and not hog the computers all day. The luncheon is being served right now, but there aren't enough seats so many people are wandering aimlessly around with plates of food looking for a roosting spot for their feed.

And I've never been one for the feed call. I'd rather find my own Vietnamese noodle bowl somewhere than indulge in the limited though free delights of the industrial buffet.

The guy on my left just walked away after searching for a massage parlor or other form of transient companionship (not a word of a lie). The woman on my right is adding a photo to her blog entry on Blogger.

The conference itself has been somewhat lackluster. I was here two years ago and it was much worse, so you have to give them points for improvement. Their basic problem is that they can't decide whether they are a con for emergency first responders or a BCP group. They end up with an only marginally useful presentation for BCP people like me.

Many of the delegates are consultants or risk managers, and their interests are quite alien to me. I'll give you an example. I attended a workshop yesterday on crisis communications. It sounded like a good presentation - it was private sector, presented by BCP people from a Chicago FI, and asked the question 'what don't you know that you don't know you don't know?'

It turned out to be a long list of work-arounds for telecom, email, and web outages. But in my big corporate world, technical communications considerations are out of my hands. Phone and computer communications are strictly limited and regulated to protect our internal systems. None of it was helpful, no matter how enticing the description had been.

And this afternoon, there are at least three presentations that look spot-on. But they're all happening during the same time slot.

Of course, the whole thing "beats working," so I really shouldn't complain. I'm an absolute loss at networking, wanting nothing to do with my fellow delegates (and no doubt them with me).

I'm back here tomorrow and then in the office again for the last two days of the week.

It's odd to think that there are people here from 40 countries. I mean, people came from Australia for this. While I'd love to have the opportunity to travel a bit, I can imagine how disappointed I'd be if I'd flown in from Singapore for this.

The upside has been the parts dealing with the pandemic. There will, according to these experts, certainly be a pandemic of some sort in a reasonably short amount of time. It's the kind of thing that's almost impossible to plan for, so it helps to discuss it a bit.

Anyway, back to throwing fireballs at the Junta later.

Off They Go!

I'm doing it again. A couple (okay three) years ago, I was able to arrange a surprise for my staff: an afternoon Blue Jays baseball game. And today I'm doing it again. Not that all of them are particularly deserving of the trip, and a few I'm tempted to leave behind, but screw that. Even bad dogs get to lay in the sun every now and then.

The real treat is seeing their faces when you tell the, which is the part I'm going to miss. See, RBC has several buildings around the Rogers Centre (formerly known as SkyDome). So it's easy to say: "we're going down to 330 Front Street for a meeting" without raising suspicion.

When I brought the first group down to the RBC building in front of Roger Centre and then told them: "we're not going in, we're going to the ball game," their jaws hit the sidewalk. Priceless.

But my Supervisor is taking the first group this year. I'm taking the second group in August (I got to go twice last time). What was really funny was that the first group decided to keep the secret, so the second group really didn't know what they were in for two months later, and the surprise was fresh again. Nice.

So a quiet day for me, time to catch up. I've had to do long presentations all week, and I'm on (a really bad) course tomorrow.

Good News?

Today's WaPo headline: "Spate of Good News Gives White House a Chance to Regroup."

Excuse me?

What, exactly, is this good news that should help this group rebound from the unspeakable tragedies that it has unleash upon itself? What is this cure for all the self-inflicted wounds?

In a White House that had virtually forgotten what good news looks like, the past few weeks have been refreshing. A Republican won a much-watched special congressional election. President Bush recruited a Wall Street heavy hitter as Treasury secretary. U.S. forces killed the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq. And now the architect of the Bush presidency has avoided criminal charges.

Let's look at that. First: the congressional election. A narrow victory for a Republican in a solidly Republican district. The closeness of the vote shows how much trouble they're really in. When one of their 'safe' seats is up for grabs like a jump ball, it's not good news. When they are able to grab the tip, it's a momentary reprieve, but that's about it. That's like saying the team that gets that opening tip has momentum to win the basketball game. If that's what counts as good news these days, they really are in trouble.

But why was there a special election in the first place? Right. Duke Cunningham, confessed serial felon and bribe-taker, had to quit. And he's taking more parts of the corruption machine with him (hello Rep Lewis!).

That's certainly a breath of fresh air for them.

A "Wall Street heavy hitter" as Treasury Secretary? Do we all suddenly like Wall Street? And what's the real news there? Right. The news is that anyone would take the job. Georgie was scouring the hallways, offering the role to anybody he recognized (Georgie hates new people). And the rest of the Junta was pounding the streets looking for a financial player who would have anything to do with them, literally for years. John Snow was a widely recognized failure for a long time before they got anyone who could pass confirmation to agree to take the job.

Henry Paulson said yes! He said YES!

Right.

What else you got?

They killed Zarqawi. We're all glad of that, but is there anyone on the planet who thinks this will make any dent in the Iraq mess? Will it be less violent, dangerous, or outright stupid? The fight in Iraq is between the Sunni's, the Shi'ia, and the Kurds. Al Qaeda was a bit player, and will remain so under any leadership. It's nice that this bloodthirsty pig will no longer be sucking air, but will this really help Georgie? Really?

Which brings us to Karl Rove. Darth Rove won't be indicted, according to his lawyer. But prosecutor Fitzgerald isn't saying anything. And they won't reveal the letter he got, which leads to speculation that there's still another shoe to drop.

And even if he's off the criminal hook, there are still questions to be answered. He lied to the American people by categorically denying involvement. Georgie and Chicanery lied when they said Rove was clean. He did breach his security clearance to reveal the name to reporters. And they can't hide behind Fitz's skirt anymore; they can't just say "we won't comment on an ongoing case."

In a democracy, they'd have to talk. We'll see just how much is left of our tattered system when (if) the questions get asked.

All in all, where is the headline here? A few mildly positive stories which will lead to far more negative stories of corruption and malfeasance. Meanwhile, other stories tell of billions wasted in in the Katrina debacle by another inept arm of the Junta. Fraudulent claims were paid be FEMA even after the fraud was revealed to them.

Corruption and incompetence are the deadly combination that governs. And their media arm still vainly strives for "good news."

Nice try.

Rove Off

Karl Rove is off the hook. Prosecutor Pat Fitzgerals decided not to prosecute him for his involvement with the Plame-Wilson affair. So Scooter Libby will seemingly be the only one indicted for his lies in this mess.

And they've timed Scooter's trial perfectly. He'll go into the dock early next year. That means that it will be after the 2006 mid-terms, but leaving enough time for him to be convicted and then pardoned by Georgie.

But the matter is much larger than the lies told to prosecutors or the 'outing' of a key CIA operative working on WMD.

This case is about the revenge-seeking of the Cheney Junta against a truth-teller. When Joe Wilson returned from Niger with the truth that there was no Iraqi effort to buy uranium in that country, and then went public when the Junta tried to bury the results, he was a marked man. And no CIA operatives cover was cause to shy away from the effort to bury him.

The key is the lie. They wanted to tell the lie about Niger. They cooked up forged papers to support it - which have never been investigated.

But what do you call lies that lead the nation to an unjust and unnecessary war?

Treason.

That is what this is about. The Junta committed high treason in their run-up to their Iraq invasion. But there's no Americans left to call it what it is. Just a few voices in the 'blogsphere' who are called 'cranks' and 'nuts' and worse by a bought-and-paid-for media.

Welcome to what America now is in the 21st century.

Roethlisberger

Looks like Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger has been seriously injured in a motorcycle accident. What the hell was he doing riding a motorcycle?

Nevermind that he earns millions of dollars a year with his body. In his contract for his many millions it clearly states that he must not ride a motorcycle. Just exactly how stupid is he?

I hope he is okay and can recover quickly and painlessly - I'm not rooting against him anywhere but the football field. But I work for a living. Everyone I know works hard every day to force their ends to meet.

And I get very teed off at millionaire athletes who can do the simplest things to guarantee their lifetime fortune.

Simple? Yes. Stay off a motorcycle. Don't do drugs. Work out.

Sure, it's tough to tell kids on the street "don't do drugs," but what would they do if you told them: "don't do drugs and you will be a millionaire for life?" I imagine it would be a fairly quick rehab.

Or not. Either way, cycling is dangerous. Stay off the cycle, and you can be a millionaire of life.

DeLay For Sale

The thoroughly corrupt and reprehensible proto-sub-human who served as Majority Leader of the worst government in American history gave his farewell speech yesterday. It was, predictably, full of self-aggrandizement and justification for the ruin that his leadership has brought to a once-mighty nation.

DeLay brought two major initiatives to the detriment of all Americans. I say 'all' because even the stinking war profiteers and delusional social conservatives who he served were hurt by the destruction he caused. Whether they like it or not, the good that was defeated by DeLay was a good for all - even those who opposed it - and so they're losers, too.

When the budget is destroyed and social programs are eliminated and the environment is stripped and burned and soiled - we all suffer. I've often wondered about the polluter class- don't you think your kids and grandkids will want to have a clean planet?

But I digress. The first thing DeLay brought was a "For Sale" sign. I mention that first because it trumped all the other considerations he might have had, like any purported religious beliefs. Everything in Washington had a price sticker, and Tom was the cashier.

He made lobbying into a huge growth profession, because if you chose the Republican lobbyist that he demanded, you would be able to buy any legislation you wanted. And, of course, those are still the rules. Don't think that any of that has stopped just because DeLay crony Abramoff is going to the pokey.

While making Washington into a cash-and-carry capitol, he also brought a religious fervor to politics. This did two things. First, it elevated the most narrow-minded and least informed segment of the American population to a position of leadership and prominence. The "Mayberry Machiavelli's" made a virtue out of stupidity and helped the educationally-challenged feel better about not knowing anything.

Never understood science? Neither did we, so now the government will stop using science and rely on common sense and biblical wisdom. Who's the first witch to burn?

The other issue with this is that politics become faith, so positions on issues are no longer debatable. Instead of a democratic give-and-take, we now have a fascistic 'take whatever you can' government. When passing a bill becomes a tenet of your religion, you MUST PASS THE BILL.

So we see the ugly spectre of late-night votes and outright bribery to get horrible bills passed. Anything goes for the religious zealot.

Politics in a democracy is a debate. There never was a debate with DeLay - just tow the line and hide the cash in your mattress.

The nice thing to consider about these self-professed fundamentalists is that by their own standards (Christianity in any form) they are unrepentant sinners who will go to Hell. DeLay abused the poor and stole money. Even without a criminal conviction, he was a force behind the impoverishment of needy families, while helping nobody but the rich - and himself.

I don't believe in Hell, so I don't think he's actually going there. But if he's right, he burns.

See you in Hell, Bug Man.

More Arlen

Ooooo - Arlen's mad! Not at me of course, because he knows that when I said he was as soft as soggy puffed wheat, I was only being fair to his record. No, Arlen Spectre, Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee which, back in olden days, would oversee the Justice Department, is mad a Dick Cheney.

But to be fair, who's not mad at Dick Cheney? I mean, his dearest supporters would probably take a few good whacks if you threw a blanket over him and handed them a baseball bat.
But Cheney's been even more of a Dick lately. Since Spectre has had the most meagre possible glint of being an American and questioning all the illegal activities of the executive, he's a problem for them.

"One Republican with close ties to the administration, who was granted anonymity to discuss the thinking at the White House, said Mr. Specter had been increasingly nettlesome to the administration with his persistent criticism, especially of the surveillance programs."

"Nettlesome?" Because he's raised entirely toothless objections to wildly illegal activities? Because he's never failed to back down or tow the line? Cheney thinks that's "nettlesome?" It sure tells you what he thinks of real oversight.

Arlen was going to subpoena the telecoms to come to his committee and tell what phone records they illegally gave to the Junta. So Dick went to all the other Repubs on the committee (by the way, Republicans like to call the Democratic Party the "Democrat Party" so in the spirit of bi-partisanship I'm calling them the "Repub Party") and got them to agree not to call the phone companies. Without telling Arlen.

And oooooo! Arlen is madder than a debutante getting the wrong fork at her coming-out party. So he did what any two-fisted hunk of seething senior Senate committee Chairman would do.
He wrote a letter.

Oh. But he released it to the press! That's gotta count for something, right?

"I was surprised, to say the least, that you sought to influence, really determine, the action of the committee without calling me first, or at least calling me at some point," Mr. Specter wrote. "This was especially perplexing since we both attended the Republican senators caucus lunch yesterday and I walked directly in front of you on at least two occasions en route from the buffet to my table."

Yes, there was contact made at the buffet table, but no explanations were forthcoming.

But hey: let me stop for a moment and prove that I've got the journalistic chops to hold my own with the MSM guys. I'll get to the bottom of the story, and highlight the important aspects of the tale so that we can really get to the core of it. In other words, what did Spectre have at the buffet?

"In an interview, Mr. Specter described his relationship with Mr. Cheney as generally friendly and cordial. But he was clearly put out by the vice president's handling of the issue and his failure to pull Mr. Specter aside as he made several trips to the buffet for tuna salad and hard-boiled egg, salad dressing and fruit."

Hah! "Tuna salad and hard-boiled egg, salad dressing and fruit." You expect us to believe that? Please. They've really gone too far now.

Cheney and his Junta cronies think the constitution and the congress are a big joke. And when a limp noodle like Spectre even makes a faint meow, they go behind his back like the prom committee backstabbing the homecoming queen.

A closer examination of that lunch reveals that Arlen even eats soft. Just a sad spectacle of what degradation our great country has sunk to.

Arlen

This is a tough question for American political watchers these days, but just try it out and see what comes to you: is Arlen Spectre the biggest coward in Congress? This guy is hand-shy like a whipped dog. He's like a character out of a 70's sit-com. "Oh no! Please, Fonzie, don't take my lunch money!" This guy is a complete joke - but the joke is on us - he's the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Which means that when Georgie's Brownshirts go through your phone records or search your house without telling you or tap your phone without a warrant, Spectre's the guy who's supposed to do something about it. And yet, somehow, he's become a parody of the watchdog what our constitution mandates.

How about that warrentless wiretapping? The constitution expressly calls for a warrant for any search or seizure. Arlen sure talked tough at first. He was going to get to the bottom of it and get the Telco execs in front of the committee and everything. The Dick Cheney gave him the stink-eye.

Now, well, no hearings. No Telco execs. Just a completely whipped Senator.

And his answer to the illegal spying? Do a new law that makes it legal. Except that the White House doesn't want it. They just want his to go away. So away he goes.

How about the Justice Department planning to charge reporters over leaks based on the 1917 espionage act that's never been used - was never meant to be used - against the press? Will they answer to it? Nope.

How about the FBI's attempts to grab the papers of the late reporter Jack Anderson? Any comment? Nope.

In fact, Arlen doesn't think AG Gonzo will tell him anything about anything even if he shows up and testifies. Not under oath, though. They've made it clear that you can't put the Attorney General of the United States under oath because it's understood that he will lie about something in the course of his testimony.

Arlen used to be considered a moderate, but he's been Mr. Go-Along with the NeoCon putsch. He begged like a broke leper to keep his chairmanship after the 2004 election, and apparently Georgie got what he wanted from that episode: a Senate Judiciary Committee willing to look the other way while he shreds the Constitution.

Estate Idiocy

Sebastian Mallaby writes in today's WaPo that abolition of the Estate Tax would help entrench a permanent anti-competitive elite. To which I say: "where the hell have you been?"

But Sebastian proves in this piece that he's firmly part of the problem. His lede:

It doesn't matter if you are liberal or conservative, Democrat or Republican. There is no possible excuse for doing what Congress is poised to do this week: Abolish the estate tax.

Hold on a damn minute, Sebastian. Democrat? Liberal? Since when do Democrats and liberals get chucked on the estate tax pyre?

Further down he mentions four rogue Dems who may end up voting for some form of repeal, but come on. There is no way that this is anything but a NeoCon show from start to finish. For all the reasons Mallaby lists, it's an anti-progressive movement that no actual liberal or Democrat could possibly support.

Once again, there is this media cowardice that dictates that any story must be wedged into a false non-partisanship no matter what. Either the party affiliations of the wrong-doers are left out entirely, or some bogus effort is made to show bi-partisanship where there is none.

Estate Tax repeal is a Republican effort to save the fortunes of lucky kids like George Bush whose parents are loaded. Period. They've managed to lie to their easily-fooled constituency, making people think it's an unfair "death tax" that they may have to pay. The reality is that the vast majority won't leave enough money to trigger the tax. Period.

Why can't Mallaby just say "Republican?" Is he so afraid of the backlash? He knows, as we all do, that the Republican party is built on lies like the Estate Tax garbage. But they've become so big a bully that even the WaPo can't call them on it - even when they're exposing the lie.

We may get to toss these bums out in November, but it'll take a media with a hell of a lot more backbone to report the truth.

Don't worry, Mallaby, when the Democrats take the government back you can come out from under the bed and write without all that fear.

Whither the Democrats?

There seems to be an overall increase in Democratic Party navel-gazing these days, possibly in anticipation of congressional gains in November which, if there is a G-d, will give part of the government back to the American People. Much of this navel-gazing consists of a stern rejoinder to stop navel-gazing.

Here's my take on it. The Democratic Party is desperately in need of leadership. The leader doesn't have to be a steely-eyed Patton or a dynamic Tony Robbins, but he or she must believe deeply on the core values of the progressive Movement (such as it it) and unashamedly espouse them. Don't worry about the polls, and don't wait for the Republicans to die on their own (even though their suicide is quite entertaining).

By combining fierce and well-deserved criticism of the worst government (legislative and executive) in American history with real progressive values, we can take the country back.

Let's look at a couple of examples. Progressives (and a majority of Americans) believe in some form of universal health care. The Democratic Party and its leadership need to get up on their hind legs and start pushing it. It's a great cause, and great arguement to be made. And they need it in the Ozarks and in Alabama and in Texas.

When the HMO's start firing Benjamins at conservative groups to oppose it, you call them out.

This is a lot like Republican tax cuts. Voters don't really give a hoot about the tax cuts, because everyone knows they're just for the rich (hey, thanks for that twenty bucks, Georgie!). The reactionaries say tax cuts are good for the economy, but who really knows. Certainly not the vastly under-informed conservatives.

But they really really believe in the tax cuts, and they're part of the conservative baggage you have to vote for when you are really frightened and want a war-monger in the White House to protect you. So great. Tax cuts. I'll take the kids to McDonalds. Whatever.

But Health Care can be more than a whatever issue. It just takes the guts to make the stand.

Democrats can't change the country by being Republican-Lite. They need to take issues and put them out there - and fight for them. I remember that sinking feeling in my gut when I heard Kerry say "I voted for the war before I voted against it." You can't ever waffle. You must always fight.

To oppose organized crime like the Republican Party, you have to be unified and organized. The cops don't go after Capone without guns and uniforms - and the law.

So, for domestic policy: progressive taxation and tax relief for the working class, real health care reform, environmental policy for people - not corporations. An energy policy for people - including high gas mileage standards for cars and push for energy conservation.

Run on that, and run on the toxic greed and lies of the current administration. Put the crooks in jail.

And don't let the media re-write your talking points. How did the reactionaries steal the entire media apparatus of the United States? By force. With money and brass. They created an atmosphere where their talking points would be broadcast VERBATIM - OR ELSE.

Democrats need to have a similar standard - shout at that bastard anchor or Faux News moron who purposefully screws up your position.

The Rightists grew a powerful force of anger over many years because their ideas were ignored by people with any functioning brain cells. Their anger and willingness to sell out to corporate interests have produced a politically powerful but otherwise wholly deficient movement.

I say use the fire they've stoked to burn them out of their nests and restore our precious American democracy.

Security?

I was going to write a bit about Al Gore's wonderful and profoundly disturbing An Inconvenient Truth, as I bought the book last night and am about halfway through (no idea when the movie will hit Toronto).

But then I read this, and I couldn't let it pass without comment.

Homeland Security, the vast domestic safety group with the vaguely national socialist name, has slashed funding to, essentially, every place that may need defending in order to increase payments to places that will not, in fact, ever be targeted. It's the perfect Republican strategy.

It's almost funny. They're slashing their budgets for New York and Washington by over 40%. You know - those remote and inconsequential places that the 9-11 terrorists actually hit.

And get this:

New York's grant plummeted from about $207 million to $124 million. A DHS risk scorecard for the city asserted that the home of the Empire State Building and the Brooklyn Bridge has "zero" national monuments or icons.

Just an absolutely stunning display of warped non-reality acting as policy.

How did they get there? Well, since the payments have always been skewed away from the Northeast and other areas too smart to vote Republican, DHS changed their distribution rules.

Homeland Security's grant programs have drawn criticism from cities both large and small; many have felt slighted by what they maintained was a haphazard and unfair distribution plan. This year's round of grants was supposed to ensure that enough money goes to areas at highest risk of terrorist attack by employing risk scores, effectiveness tests and 17 "peer review" panels consisting of homeland security professionals from 47 states.

Obviously, these panels were a complete failure. So who was on them? What was their methodology?

The department refused to release the names of panel members or other details about the review boards.

Sorry, I was thinking for a moment that we were discussing Old America, the place where people were accountable for their mistakes and where citizens had a right to know what their government was doing.

And here we are in our Republican utopia. All decisions are either stupid or political or both. The 'war on terror' is there to generate votes, not to actually be fought in any way. New York can go suck an egg.

The really amazing thing is that the Republicans never run out of stupid people to put in vital jobs of great responsibility. I mean, they never even accidentally hire smart people. They are so ideologically married to stupidity in its many forms that they've generated advanced warning systems to prevent any rational person from joining their ranks.

How else could they put together a group of 'experts' who would call for cuts to New York and Washington? Who else would say that there are "zero national icons or monuments" in New York City? What sort of brain damage would a person need to suffer before they signed on to that?

And yet, there is no doubt that the Rubber Stamp Congress will soon give it all the big okey-dokey.

Do you feel safer yet?