An editorial in today's LA Times:
The protracted partisan maneuvering in Washington cannot be allowed to conceal a lingering, fundamental question about Iraq: Where are the weapons of mass destruction that Bush administration officials insisted the United States needed to destroy because they so urgently threatened this nation?
I have this vivid picture of a red-faced, enraged Dick Cheney (played by a bald Jack Nicholson) getting right in the editorial writer's face, and screaming at him, spit flying: "YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH!"
What reallly made me gag, though, was the writer's sanctimonious take on an internal memo written by a Democratic aide on the Senate Intelligence Committee, which somehow was obtained by the Republican side and leaked to the press last week:
The memo ... indicates Democrats have already concluded that the investigation will not provide evidence the party hopes will embarrass the administration. That partisanship is outrageous. Intelligence failures are too important to be used for political gamesmanship.
This is very cute, given that the chairman of the committee, Sen. Pat Roberts, (R-Archer Daniels Midland), has been doing everything in his power to shift responsibility for the WMD fiasco away from the White House and towards the CIA -- a transparently political manuever if there ever was one.
I know, I know -- this is par for the media prostitute course. But it's also another small step in the delegitimization of the very idea that the out-of-power party has the right to oppose the party in power.
If you read the text of the memo itself, you'll see that it is, in fact, a rather pathetic attempt to think of a way to penetrate the stonewall the Republicans have been busy building around the White House. Roberts himself has been one of the stone masons, issuing a stream of misleading statements and/or flat-out lies designed to take as much pressure of the administration as possible.
The most vivid recent example of this came last Sunday, when Roberts told CNN the White House had agreed to give the Intelligence Committee access to all requested materials regarding its prewar WMD claims. "Every document we want will be made available," Roberts said. This got a lot of media coverage. The fact that his claim was a lie -- which Roberts himself admitted several days later -- did not.
I don't think it's a coincidence the Democratic staff memo was leaked the same day Roberts fessed up. The absolutely hysterical GOP reaction (New York Post: TREASON'S FIRST COUSIN) conveniently helped obscure the White House's continued evasions regarding what materials it will -- and will not -- provide the committee.
The leak itself was probably illegal, since the staff memo, like virtually every document the Intelligence Committee produces, was classified. But I suppose everybody understands by now that while leaks of classified information by Democrats are treasonous, leaks by Republicans are always in the public interest.
The staffer's big mistake wasn't proposing a strategy for investigating the administration's efforts to rig the intelligence process -- it was calling it a "Democratic" strategy, thus giving the GOP attack machine an easy target. The irony, of course, is that the Democrats on the committee are isolated in their efforts to get at the truth precisely because the Republicans have closed partisan ranks around their president.
The Republicans, naturally, can (and do) argue that in war time, everybody should close ranks around the president -- even if that president has taken each and every available opportunity to exploit the war for partisan advantage. That's how the game is played these days, I suppose. Bipartisanship is just another word for date rape.
But the corporate media appears to be getting quite comfortable with a universal double standard, in which near lockstep partisan conformity on the Republican side is taken for granted, but partisan opposition by the Democrats is regarded as, if not treason's first cousin, then at least a distant blood relative.
What the Republicans hope to gain out of this latest flap is obvious: They want to turn the Senate and its committees into virtual clones of the kinder, gentler concentration camp that is our Chamber of People's Deputies (sometimes still known as the House of Representatives.)
This means shutting down the Senate minority's limited ability to interfer with the smooth exercise of power by the Senate majority. Sen. Santorum (R-Bigotry) has made this very clear:
Santorum ... said that if Democrats expect cooperation from the White House in the investigation of intelligence failures that preceded the war in Iraq, "they've got to stop the politics." "If they don't, I think we have to change the whole [nonpartisan] nature of the committee," Mr. Santorum said.
In other words: If you expect us to cooperate with an investigation, stop trying to investigate. I don't think you can make it much clearer than that.
But the administration is doing its bit, too. The director of the White House Office of Administration, one Timothy A. Campen, has notified the House and Senate Appropriations committees that the executive branch will no longer even respond to questions from Democratic members -- unless they have been vetted by the panels' Republican chairmen:
The decision -- one that Democrats and scholars said is highly unusual -- was announced in an e-mail sent Wednesday to the staff of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees. House committee Democrats had just asked for information about how much the White House spent making and installing the "Mission Accomplished" banner for President Bush's May 1 speech aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln.
Campen: Accomplish this, assholes.
And that may be just the beginning:
Campen's e-mail wording suggests the policy may extend to other inquiries about the functioning of the Executive Office of the President...
So instead of "the people's right to know," we now have "the Republicans' right to know." And since they don't want to know anything, except when their next tax cut will arrive, small-d democratic debate effectively is being banished from the federal government.
The pattern that's emerging -- and it extends far beyond the U.S. Congress -- is for the GOP to exploit the existence of certain unwritten rules in the political system:
- California had a gubernatorial recall provision, but it was never used, because the unwritten rule said it should only be invoked in cases of egregious misconduct or incapacity. But not any more.
- Texas law allowed the legislature to substitute a new redistricting plan for a previously approved one, but nobody ever did it, because the unwritten rule said you only get one grab for the gold ring every decade. But not any more.
- The White House isn't legally required to respond to questions from the congressional minority, but it always has before, because the unwritten rule said it should. But not any more.
And so on. None of these changes are illegal, but I think they make it pretty clear that the GOP's ultimate objective is the consolidation of a one-party system in this country -- in fact if not literally in name.
The unwritten rules exist because both political parties accept the possibility they may one day be in the minority, and thus have a vested interest in preserving rights or privileges they themselves may need to exercise. But if one of the parties has no intention of ever losing again -- or at least, is willing to gamble on its ability to avoid ever losing again -- then it will no longer have an incentive to support minority rights, but will have every incentive to try to abolish them, if possible.
The next step is to start breaking the written rules, if and when you think you can get away with it. The Valerie Plame affair, and the leak of the Democratic staff memo from the Senate Intelligence Committee (just to mention a couple of the things we actually know about) suggest the Republicans have already reached that point.
It's a curious way for a democracy to die -- one small cut at a time, with the media (who should have a vested interest in preserving democracy) standing on the sidelines and cheering for the people who are gradually squeezing the life out of it.
But I suppose Col. Jessep -- the Jack Nicholson character in A Few Good Men -- was right: Some people really can't handle the truth. And they don't want anybody else to handle it, either.
billmon, don't call them the Republicans. Call them what they are: PRI
Partido Revolucionario Institucional
"Institutional revolution", permanent and forever.
DEAN FOR pRESIDENT!
Well, with those glorious new, recount-proof, electronic voting gizmos, they'll never have to worry about losing an election again!
I am dreading 2004....
Bill, Mon;
Perhaps a url to the armed forces's counter insurgency warfare indices would be helpful in combating the ol using the body of John Q Barleycorn Citizen at war to squash "Uppityness" at home; but it seems the link has during sometimes since 911 (maybe the telephone prefix for some members of congress jess no longer gets the same too good treatment as 1600 Penn. Ave.)has also become "classified" ...
No prob, Mon, short crib note to an A:
The gubmint should never get that unpopular in the first place....
This means shutting down the Senate minority's limited ability to interfer with the smooth exercise of power by the Senate majority. Sen. Santorum (R-Bigotry) has made this very clear:
*Chuckle*
I remember during Clinton's first two years in office, when the Dems controlled Congress, the Repubs were all moaning and groaning about living in an evil "one-party state." Funny how we don't hear that anymore.
we're all either Alice or Winston Smith, but as long as a whole bunch of us refuse to succumb to fear of rats, or mad hatters, we can still cause Big Brother and the Red Queen trouble
we do have to start operating within that frame of reference, however, because we have all most assuredly passed through the looking glass into Orwell's Wonderland
Jeebus...
I think I'm gonna be sick now.
So Democracy dies, not with a bang but a whimper. Just imagine what the 2004 election will bring with the Texas cowboy coming to town with tens of millions of dollars backed up by crooked voting machines and a party faithful that is looking more and more totalitarian. America the beautiful is becoming America the ugly as the old time injustices toward native americans and other minority groups swiftly implement this nation's collective karma. You can feel the force of the current of destiny strengthen perceptibly. Woe to this land, the home of the violent, the mendacious, the unfree.
the GOP is ripe for a rip-roaring defeat in '04, of a magnitude that could exceed the '94 surprise in the opposite direction -- but if all you curl up in little balls for the next year, it won't happen. pick up the phone. walk a precinct. do something -- and surprise everyone next fall.
while there is no reason to trust touch-screens without paper trails, if there were a significant cheat (there is minor manipulation all the time, alas), exit polls would look Really Fishy. if there's another 2000, where one guy wins the actual election but another is in the process of getting installed, I'll be at the barricades instead of cursing at home the way I did last time.
you all had better be, too.
If there's another 2000, where one guy wins the actual election but another is in the process of getting installed, I'll be at the barricades instead of cursing at home the way I did last time.
you all had better be, too.
Right with ya boss.
Krugman said that after 9/11 the Bushies were ruling out of strength -- yet now as things are unravelling in their perfect world, they are beginning to rule out of fear -- fear that there will be lots of investigations into the scandals that are just under the surface. The Bushies cannot afford to lose the next election. We cannot afford them to win. It will be a very, very nasty affair.
I decided awhile ago that I wasn't going to let them win without having a vigorous fight from me -- definitely greed, wcw. And I continue to watch to see if there are any patriotic Republicans left who will be brave enough stand up to this corrupt regime.
"definitely greed" => "definitely agreed". (sigh)
It's a curious way for a democracy to die -- one small cut at a time, with the media ... standing on the slidelines and cheering for the people who are gradually squeezing the life out of it.
This is no longer a lingering death. It is becoming a precipitous decline brought on by an unrelenting assault on our liberties, our traditions and our government institutions. Is there any question left that fascism has a new face and it is Republican?
I am enraged with the assorted lapdogs and hyenas in the media that abet the Republicans in their quest for a Thousand-Year Reich.
But the media's craven gutlessness is nothing compared to the milque-toast maunderings of our so-called representatives on the Democratic side of the Congressional aisles.
With few exceptions (Robert Byrd and Ted Kennedy come to mind), the Dems have simply caved every step of the way. Where are the filibusters? Where are the press conferences filled with honesty and rage, instead of mealy-mouthed whining? Why haven't they been able to peel a few of the moderate Republicans--misfits in their own party--over to their side? In their own damned self-interest they should recognize that hand-wringing and whimpers of "Please sir, I want some more..." only pushes them further into the abyss of irrelevance and impotence.
The electorate is begging to see some spine. Isn't that what Dean's candidacy is all about? You can argue about his tax policy, his foreign policy, his Confederate flag policy, or whatever. It doesn't matter to people who are desperate to see someone stand up to the beast that is this Administration.
Whether the nominee is Dean or Clark, I don't care. I want a guaranteed Democratic winner, who will win in a landslide that can't be stolen by Diebold's touchscreens or Jeb Bush's state troopers. Yes, I hate Bush. I hate him because he and his goons are stealing our country, our ideals, our history and our future. Bush, Cheney, Rove, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Perle, Rice and the rest are destroying the best hope in this world.
If there's another 2000, where one guy wins the actual election but another is in the process of getting installed, I'll be at the barricades instead of cursing at home the way I did last time.
You all had better be too.
"Right with ya boss."
Ditto by damn. Last chance!
If there's another 2000, where one guy wins the actual election but another is in the process of getting installed, I'll be at the barricades instead of cursing at home the way I did last time.
you all had better be, too.
Me too. I'll be the one with the mandolin.
So, a request from the Dems for info on the cost of the "mission accomplished" banner was the straw that broke the camel's back. The WH is stonewalling on the 9/11 inquiry and is frightened that the full extent of pre-war lying will be revealed.
This move is a sign of desperation. Give 'em enough rope . . .
This how the Democrats die Billmon...
Republican Senator makes a stupid threat and Democrats don't scream in at all by simply whine..."don't tell me I'm political, don't call me an obstrutionist."
lean something from Dean and get mad.
David Corn wrote that the Dem's didn't even need the other members of Republicans to investigate Bush, They need only 5 Democratic from the committee to subpoena Bush--THE DEMOCRATS ARE NOT DOING SHIT.
They better get serious. I would accuse Mr. Bill First of aiding and abetting what might well be an act of felony by this administration. If Bush cook intelligence, then it's a felony according the laws that Lawyer John Dean pointed out in one of his findlaw.
Maybe presciently, Morgan noted that the false statements statute even reaches "misrepresentations in a president's state of the union address." To which I would add, a criminal conspiracy to mislead Congress, which involved others at the Bush White House, could also be prosecuted under a separate statute, which makes it a felony to conspire to defraud the government.
They should take out a ad or some but they better fight back...this really is not something the Dem's can fold on. They should be insisting on the what is right.
We need to recall our liberal Senators-just they recalled Gray Davis...The Dem's better get off their damn asses and do something.
Republicans are acting like they have always acted and Dem's are acting like their dead.
Sorry, too many typos-I can't write when I'm pissed or when it's late.
This how the Democrats die Billmon...
Republican Senator makes a stupid threat and Democrats don't scream at all but simply whine..."Don't tell me I'm acting political, don't call me an obstrutionist."
The Dem's need to learn something from Howard Dean about getting mad. A good showing of outraged indignation. This memo is irrelevent, stop this investigation is crime.
David Corn wrote that the Dem's didn't even need the other Republicans members of this commission to investigate Bush, they only need 5 Democratic from the committee to subpoena Bush--THE DEMOCRATS ARE JUST NOT DOING SHIT.
They better learn to get serious. I would accuse Mr. Bill First of aiding and abetting what might well be an act of felony by this administration. If Bush cook intelligence, then it's a felony according the laws that Lawyer John Dean pointed out in one of his findlaw column.
Maybe presciently, Morgan noted that the false statements statute even reaches "misrepresentations in a president's state of the union address." To which I would add, a criminal conspiracy to mislead Congress, which involved others at the Bush White House, could also be prosecuted under a separate statute, which makes it a felony to conspire to defraud the government.
They should take out a ad or some but they better fight back...this really is not something the Dem's can fold on. They should be insisting on the what is right.
We need to recall our liberal Senators-just they recalled Gray Davis...The Dem's better get off their damn asses and do something.
Republicans are acting like they have always acted and Dem's are acting like they're dead.
Dean said we need new Democrats and I think we need to find people to pit against our own incumbents as well as Republicans in swing states.
That the thing about Terry McAuliffe is that he hasn't even looked for people to run against the Senators here in Arizona. The Democrats aren't doing anything and DNC isn't doing anything.
Perhaps naive as hell, I've spent much of the last half year or so wondring why senators like Snowe and Chafee haven't changed parties; oh well.
M. Tullius that right. What First is doing is so bad - it looks criminal.
This is like John Dean said.
Oops bad link, here
It would be nice if people decided to quit waiting on the Democratic party leadership to do the right thing. Where are the citizen suits? Where are the letter writing campaigns? Where are the phone calls and demonstrations?
Let's figure out what we can do to give the Dems the only thing that can possibly get them standing up: visible, tangible, public support. We can see how well it works by looking at a presidential nomination process that was practically moribund until massive grassroots support lit a fire under some of these guys. Let's think of ways to make our local parties stronger, and get things going. We can't keep hoping that 'someone else' will take care of things.
Get out and push, folks. Get out and push as though everyone else in the whole goddamn country was waiting for your signal.
I have just been reading Steve Gillards blog and why he dosn't think there will be some sort of dictatorshit in the US. Personally, I think he is looking for the wrong thing. He is looking for a traditional totalitarian state that lives in what is basically permanent martial law. Nah, I think it would be a lot more insidious and a lot less obvious than that.
Just remember, its disrespectful to the president.
Good thread. The biggest propblem with the US right now is that it has become a nation of soft, frightened not very intelligent people, governed by a pack of hyenas who treat their subjects with utter contempt. And the people have no tools, nor stomach, left with which to fight it.
They no longer seem to know what they want, or what they can want, or what, as free human beings they should want.
All they know is the possession of ever more trivial and mindless things peddled by ever more mindless streams of sound and pictures on their TVs.
Someone said on Kos that anything that takes three sentences to unfold is beyond the understanding of most Americans and is definitely outside the realm of political debate.
The people on these blogs are mostly literate and passionate and able to follow the thread of many paragraphs of unfolding, but plainly they are in a severe minority. In the past when civilisations collapsed I suspect something similar happened, but since the apparel of the collapse keeps changing it is much harder to see it for what it is.
What is going on in the US right now seems to me to be a collapse of the structures and processes and norms and laws and civility that sustains a society and keeps it from becoming Mugabe's Zimbabwe.
We are in a very dangerous time and there is not much of it left. The only real hope lies in the people of Iraq not giving up as softly and easily as their invaders, and right now there is an even chance that they wont. But what will happen to the US when that plays out is anyone's guess, and none of them good for Americans.
[] But not any more.
The most chilling words I've read...
The ONLY upside I see is that 50 percent of the electorate DOES disagree with BushCo. What we need is another One Percent! (Or two-plus for safety margin.) Anyway, all these voters aren't reading these details being discussed in [blogs]. We NEED one Push-Button Issue! It doesn't need to be a real issue, kinda like the "car tax vote" Gilmore got elected with in Virginia. What'll it be ?
Someone said on Kos that anything that takes three sentences to unfold is beyond the understanding of most Americans and is definitely outside the realm of political debate
This is where the "rule of the seventh mentioning" comes into useful play. The public doesn't hear what you are saying until it is repeated seven times...hence the repetitious sloganism used by Bush and his cronies. Repeat, repeat, repeat, ad infinitum -- or at least seven times if you want it to penetrate.
PS. I guess I ought to add for literacy, that it was the "NO CAR TAX" vote .. in Virginia.
What happened: Voter's said, "Yeah! Kill the CAR TAX". Governor Gilmore did just that. All the car tax money which went into the transportation funds disappeared.
Current: Just prior to our local elections, discussing senate candidates with owner of business in Great Falls,... he says "We still have a Car Tax! I just paid my car tax yesterday!! How can you tell me Gilmore repealed the Car Tax?" Guy doesn't know he paid his county car license plate fees. Is he dumb? Not really, he's like most folks - distracted. He only recalls THREE WORDS: No Car Tax. Push-button issues are the best. To vacate BushCo . . . One easy-to-say issue is ALL that's required.
What'll it be ?
This is where the "rule of the seventh mentioning" comes into useful play. The public doesn't hear what you are saying until it is repeated seven times...hence the repetitious sloganism used by Bush and his cronies. Repeat, repeat, repeat, ad infinitum -- or at least seven times if you want it to penetrate.
Bush is a miserable failure.
Bush is a miserable failure.
Bush is a miserable failure.
Bush is a miserable failure.
Bush is a miserable failure.
Bush is a miserable failure.
Bush is a miserable failure.
> Push-button issues are the best.
> To vacate BushCo . . .
>One easy-to-say issue is ALL that's required.
> What'll it be ?
Bush LIED, Americans DIED
Bush is a miserable failure.
Bush is a miserable failure.
Bush is a miserable failure.
Bush is a miserable failure.
Bush is a miserable failure.
Bush is a miserable failure.
Bush is a miserable failure.
No, no, Billon, you have to scatter it through the entire speech or article, kind of like redundant Burma Shave signs springing up at each curve to get their attention, lol, lol.
Count how many times Bush or one of his minions (or is he the minion?) says "terrorist" or "9/11" or "we" in a speech ("we" -- my ass!). These are the words Joe, Jane, Junior and Granny Sixpack hear. The rest of the words are just white noise.
By the way, the word "failure" is too good for Bush. I can think of a lot of other descriptive nouns more apropos.
Our current situation reminds me a lot of the Roman Revolution. The Republic was no democracy, but its laws and institutions favored the rule of law over the rule of monarchs, and a broad sharing of power.
But the unwritten rules were broken, and the written ones, and by the time of Augustus, the Republic was a dead letter.
I think that's the direction we're headed. But in the long term, I don't think that we will have a strictly Republican autarchy. The masses will continue to get tired of any ruling party that is too extreme for too long, and even when democracy falls apart, the will of the masses will still break through.
Billmon, these are some really incisive posts lately.
And what Deep Dark said.
Krugman said that after 9/11 the Republicans were ruling out of strength
True. But amazing. Amazing because it was surely the most massive "fuck up" in American history. I mean everything failed - intelligence, air defense, Bush. And he was able to turn it into political gold. How? The democrats and the media. They didn't call him on any of it, including his own behavior that day. This article by Eric Alterman raises all the obvious questions about what Bush, our commander and chief, was up to that day:
Here
All of this led to what I think could be the greatest disaster in history: the War on Terror, a long war with no "metrics" for winning or losing against a more or less unknown opponent. And of course, now Bush is a "war time" president. And the democrats fell for this hook, line and sinker.
Seems like I am really challenged when it comes to links.
To Eric Alterman
That "seventh mention" thing only applies in certain cases. I'm willing to bet any amount of money that a majority of Americans now believe that Jessica Lynch was raped even though they have only heard it once. Simple phrases ("Jessica Lynch was raped," "Saddam Hussein is the equivalent of Hitler") go into the brain immediately. It's the more complex truth that needs to be repeated over and over, and even then it's too big to shoehorn into brains the size of George Bush's (and 90% of Fox viewers).
...Yep!... "Ruther reminds one of some chestnut 'bout 'dems what fall out, 'n dem's what re-insert and use shorter strokes....