Put a lid on it

The Squirrel Nut Zippers

Weekend Link Blast - October 21

• Iraqi President blocks release of civilian casualty figures
  The fine line between sectarian violence and civil war is hard to see through the huge piles of bodies.
  
  
• Kansas Moderates Abandon Republican Party
  Nine former Republicans will be on the November ballot as Democrats.
  
  
• Florida's Guardian of Democracy
  Fighting to keep elections free and fair, and threatened with firing for doing it.
  
  
• New American Space Policy claims ownership of universe
  "We reserve the right to protect peace and justice by launching orbital death stars."
  
  
• More signs of Progressive surge in America?
  Right wing big media cheering section FOX plummeting in ratings, CNN and MSNBC up.
  
  
• Canadian Public Servant fights for right to discriminate in performance of his duties.
  "The right to violate the rights of others is sacred."
  
  
• Republican Death Spiral?
  As goes AOL, so goes America?
  
  
• Peter McKay: Schmuck
  And never forget, he was not elected PC leader with a mandate to destroy the Progressive Conservative Party, in fact he explicitly promised not to do so in writing, and then bent over for Stephen Harper at the first opportunity. And he acts like a petty schmuck to his ex.

Neocons Scramble for the Lifeboats

They are building a lifeboat for their reputations. The task is urgent. It is no small thing to find oneself on the wrong side of an argument when the debate is about the biggest disaster in British foreign policy since Suez; no small thing to have handed Iran a final, undreamt-of victory in an Iran-Iraq war that we thought had ended in the 1980s; no small thing to have lost Britain her credit in half the world; no small thing — in the name of Atlanticism — to have shackled our own good name to a doomed US presidency and crazed foreign-policy adventure that the next political generation in America will remember only with an embarrassed shudder.

It is no small thing to have embellished the philosophy, found the prose and made the case for the most almighty cock-up in politics that we are ever likely to witness...

The Ugly Truth

Froomkin on Bush:

The Bush White House (and its press corps) often confuse tactics, strategy and goals. Tactics are what you use in the service of the strategy you choose to achieve your goal. Even the best tactics, in pursuit of an ill-chosen strategy, will not achieve the desired goal.

Bush's goal is a stable, secure, democratic Iraq. His strategy is for American troops to stay there until that happens. The tactics are getting those troops killed.

And while the president has been talking about adjusting tactics lately, he can't accept that his strategy may need changing -- or even his goal. At least not yet.

Zip Gun Bop

Royal Crown Revue

Repugnican Scandal Clusterbombs

• Republican attack ad uses information illegally taken from law enforcement database.
  
  
• Republican Congressional Candidate likely responsible for vote suppression scare letter sent to Latinos. His own party thinks he's guilty.
  
  
• Republican under investigation solves problem by firing investigators.
  
  
• Nevada Republican Gubernatorial candidate accused of threatening rape and murder.
  
  
• Rolling Stone outlines the Worst congress ever.

Of course these are simply today's updates to the Abramoff/Ney/Foley /Reynolds /Hastert/Allen/Weldon scandal rolecall. I'm pretty sure I missed a few too.

Short of a second North Korean Nuke test - which some Republicans seem almost gleefully hoping for - I don't see how they can reverse this kind of a juggernaut of a media narrative in the time they have left. That said, here are the objective similarities and differences between the environment for Republicans on November 7 2006, and for the Democrats before the Rout of November 7 1994.

Lois Lane gets Waterboarded

On Smallville tonight, Lois Lane gets captured by private security contractors and waterboarded for information. She's deliberately drowned into unconciousness as we watch.

The bad guys were torturing her, you see. That's what the bad guys do.

America's entertainment media are now more honest about reality than America's news media.

Olbermann to Bush: 'Your words are lies, Sir.'

Once again Keith Olberman seems to be the only member of the American Mainstream Media speaking truth to power.

This President now has his blank check.

He lied to get it.

He lied as he received it.

Is there any reason to even hope, he has not lied about how he intends to use it, nor who he intends to use it against?

"These military commissions will provide a fair trial," you told us yesterday, Mr. Bush. "In which the accused are presumed innocent, have access to an attorney, and can hear all the evidence against them."

'Presumed innocent,' Mr. Bush?

The very piece of paper you signed as you said that, allows for the detainees to be abused up to the point just before they sustain "serious mental and physical trauma" in the hope of getting them to incriminate themselves, and may no longer even invoke The Geneva Conventions in their own defense.

'Access to an attorney,' Mr. Bush?

Lieutenant Commander Charles Swift said on this program, Sir, and to the Supreme Court, that he was only granted access to his detainee defendant, on the promise that the detainee would plead guilty.

'Hearing all the evidence,' Mr. Bush?

The Military Commissions act specifically permits the introduction of classified evidence not made available to the defense.

Your words are lies, Sir.

The entire thing is a download here at Crooks and Liars, when it shows up at YouTube I'll embed it because these words need to be heard.

Killing the Wheat Board continued...

In response to a comment to my last post on the subject:

If the Wheat Board is so bad why is the government trying to avoid holding the vote by farmers required by the act forming the board before killing it? Why would the Conservative Party, champions of greater democracy, liberty and good government be trying so hard to avoid holding the vote required by law?

This act alone virtually guarantees that the government would lose any court challenge to its proposed changes, much like its reactionary three strikes proposal will. Why would we want the government we pay taxes to, to wantonly throw away our money like that?

Why has the Alberta government felt it necessary to have spent so much money trying to undermine the Wheat Board? In the marketplace of ideas, why does "Wheat Board bad" require massive government subsidization in order to survive?

Why if its so unpopular with farmers - the small minority just this side of the border situated to take advantage of spot prices at least - why is the government so terrified of getting the opinion of the majority of farmers on the subject?

Why is seemingly any attempt to promote the opposite viewpoint subject to furious censorship attempts?

Why should a bargaining entity that benefits a majority be dismantled for the advantage of a slim minority? Against the will of the majority?

Does it represent the core values of the Conservative Party of Canada to suppress dissent and suppress democracy?

Hold the vote. Let the farmers themselves decide. The minority opinion accepting the will of the majority in the form of a democratic vote is the cornerstone concept of this country - not 'fuck you Jack, I've got mine.' as you may have heard.

400,000 to 800,000 Iraqis Dead

After an initial flurry of shock when the John Hopkins study first came out it is now being studiously ignored since the mainstream narrative pronounced it 'flawed'. The President took it upon himself to declare that 'their methodology has been pretty well discredited' which, amazingly enough, turns out to be completely untrue. So, in all likelihood, the Iraq War has killed more Iraqis than the American Civil War killed Americans.

It's still not a Civil War in Iraq though, Bush says so.

In completely unrelated news, Iraqi Prime Minister al-Maliki politely and quietly suggests that it would be best if the Americans left his country sooner rather than later.

An Alright Guy

Todd Snider on Austin City Limits

They actually say this, as if it were a bad thing.

Both Democrats and Republicans see a potential loss by rightwing Christianist Senator Rick Santorum in Pennsylvania as a signifier of loss of power and influence for social conservatives in the GOP.

Even if Santorum gives social issues short shrift on the campaign trail, conservative leaders understand what is at stake. They stand to lose a powerful spokesman for their agenda. Some worry that Santorum's defeat would also be a body blow to the influence of social conservatives within the GOP.

"You would then start to see party apparatuses say things like, 'We're not sure we want to support a candidate whose conservatism is as deeply rooted as Sen. Santorum's,' and they will begin casting about for moderate conservatives," Hanna said.

Santorum, some of you may remember, compared homosexuality to man on dog sex, fought tooth and nail against gay marriage, and indeed any basic human rights for gays and is anti-evolution. Columnist Dan Savage choose to honor him for his statements on homosexuality by...making his name stand for - something else.

A loss for Santorum would be a sign of a possible sea change in American politics - something possibly already on the way purely as a function of demographics.

Baker Commission rules out victory in Iraq

The Presidential Commission into Iraq run by George Bush SR's Secretary of State James Baker has concluded that victory is no longer an option and the only decision left is stabilization or withdrawal:

Currently, the 10-member commission headed by a secretary of state for President George H.W. Bush, James Baker is considering two option papers, "Stability First" and "Redeploy and Contain," both of which rule out any prospect of making Iraq a stable democracy in the near term.

More telling, however, is the ruling out of two options last month. One advocated minor fixes to the current war plan but kept intact the long-term vision of democracy in Iraq with regular elections. The second proposed that coalition forces focus their attacks only on Al Qaeda and not the wider insurgency.

Instead, the commission is headed toward presenting President Bush with two clear policy choices that contradict his rhetoric of establishing democracy in Iraq. The more palatable of the two choices for the White House, "Stability First," argues that the military should focus on stabilizing Baghdad while the American Embassy should work toward political accommodation with insurgents. The goal of nurturing a democracy in Iraq is dropped.

Once again of course these conclusions, leaks aside, won't officially be made public until after the mid-terms. How many lives will be lost before it's politically possible to accept defeat?

The Political Value of Anger

Once again Glenn Greenwald hits the nail on the head:

Anger and passion are indispensable weapons for overcoming indifference and motivating political action. Particularly in a non-presidential election -- but, really, always -- people need a reason to care about the outcome. If a political party can't even muster enough conviction in its own views to articulate clear ideas -- if candidates like Joe Sestak had listened to the listless, fear-based advice from consultants "not to talk about pulling troops out of Iraq, arguing it would only encourage the image of Democrats as weak on national security" -- then Democrats are not going to motivate anyone to even care enough if they succeed, let alone take action to promote that outcome. Why would anyone?

This applies here in Canada as well of course, the mushy mainstream middle offered by the top Liberal leadership candidates does not offer a real viable energized alternative to the ideological right wingers of Harper's Conservatives.

The End of Habeas Corpus

How has Olbermann not been locked in Gitmo yet?

The Damage Done

The Other Side

David Gray

The next arrivals on Bush's enemy list

Ecuador's citizens go to the polls today and the front runner is Rafael Correa a leftist economist who thinks Bush is 'temendously dimwitted' and has close ties with Hugo Chavez. Next month Reagan's old hate fixations Daniel Ortega and the Sandinistas are poised to win in Nicaragua.

While the US has been embroiled in Iraq Latin America has inexorably swung leftward and away from the Washington Consensus on Globalization.

List of Demands

Saul Williams

Killing the Wheat Board

The zeal Conservatives have, for the idea of holding the Wheat Board's head underwater, is based purely and soley on ideology. The pragmatic observer asks why, if it's such a bad deal for farmers why have the Americans tried so hard to kill it in trade negotiations? Why do so many farmers, supportive of the Conservatives traditionally, oppose the moves to kill the Board.

Why Conservative governments have had to spend millions on undermining it.

Why the government openly packed the commission into it's future with opponents of the Board. Sneered Agriculture Minister Chuck Strahl:

it would be pointless to have people in favour of the status quo on the panel.

Why the Wheat Board employees have been forbidden from speaking out for their employer and the job it does.

Its such a blatant and brute piece of bullying and suppression of dissent. Farmers are about to learn that their support is taken for granted by this government, and get another taste of being screwed over by free market ideologues pursuing a long term sovereignty sell out plan.

The Conservatives may be following the same path of their ideological soulmates to the south and leaving their supporters behind.