War Room Scribbles
by digby
If you haven’t been checking in over at Salon, among many really great articles by others, you will have missed these posts by lil’ old me:
The AP Sticks It To Obama
The UN Confronts A Moral Hazard
Who Is Baghdad Bergner (And Where’s His Little Beret?)
Poor Kids Don’t Vote, So Why Are We Talking About Them
E. coli Conservatism Blows Up Manhattan
Y’all come back now, heah? There’ll be more fun at Hullabaloo too.
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Joe ‘N Jane College
by digby
Most of you have probably already seen this, but if you haven’t come across Max Blumental’s latest cinematic treat, you’re missing out on life:
They are idiots, but don’t underestimate them. The modern Republican party is the party of the College Republicans. All the rightwing revolutionary jackasses got their start there and they are still going strong. Why, I saw Ralph Reed the notorious Christian backstabber just the other day on TV again. (The only time these people disappear from the political scene is during their jail terms.)
Back in a more innocent time (two years ago) when I was still young and naive, I wrote about them:
Jack Abramoff, Ralph Reed and Grover Norquist came together as a power in the College Republicans during the Reagan years. Blackwell, Rove, Atwater, and many other powerful operatives and strategists had cut their teeth there, as well, but these guys came in at the beginning of the heady Reagan years and they were fueled by the belief that they were on the permanent winning side of history. The triumverate of Norquist, Abramoff and Reed is legendary — and they are all implicated in the burgeoning Jack Abramoff/Tom DeLay scandal.
They have come to represent the three most important wings of the modern conservative movement — the Christian Right (Reed), the movement ideologues (Norquist) and the big money boys (Abramoff.) They are the Republican party. And they are all corrupt.
Reed is a total phony. I had long assumed, as most people probably did, that he came up through the Christian Right, a conservative Christian who got into politics through religion. He sure does look the part, doesn’t he? This, of course, is not true. He wasn’t “born again” until 1983, long after he had committed himself to Republican politics and proved himself to be a ruthless, unprincipled operative. He helped to create the Christian Coalition, it didn’t create him. In fact, the Christian Right doesn’t really exist independently of the Party, it is a wholly owned subsidiary, consciously created and nurtured as a Republican voting block.
(Morton Blackwell famously gave the Moral Majority its name.) Ralph Reed is now entering electoral politics himself, making the big move. He’s probably the most dangerous Republican in America.Norquist, as most people know is a great admirer of Stalin’s tactics. He’s quoted as saying to Reed back in the College Republican days:
[Stalin] was running the personnel department while Trotsky was fighting the White Army. When push came to shove for control of the Soviet Union, Stalin won. Trotsky got an ice ax through his skull, while Stalin became head of the Soviet Union. He understood that personnel is policy.
To that end, Norquist more than anyone else has ensured through carefully constructed alliances that movement ideologues like himself peppered the Republican power structure to the extent that over time, they have come to define it. This is why people like John Bolton, who has no more business being a diplomat than the Rude Pundit does, have become mainstream Republicans, even though they are clearly radical. He has made sure that Republicans are interdependent on each other through money and influence and that the money and influence flow through him and his allies.
Norquist is the truest of true believers, but he understands the importance of certain other inducements to keep people in line. Tom DeLay and Norquist created the K Street project and it’s been a rousing success. Abramoff and DeLay were the guys who offered those needed inducements when true belief and solidarity weren’t enough. Delay wielded the hammer and Abramoff (among others) offered the goodies. This is how they hold the GOP majority together. Ask Nick Smith how that works.
It’s not surprising that Abramoff is the weak link in this. He was the front man back in the college Republican days, but he doesn’t seem to have been a real strategist in the way that Reed, with his ruthless single mindedness was or Norquist with his long term Soviet style political vision. In fact, the strangest thing about Abramoff is his almost decade long movie producing career that resulted in only two movies being made — Dolph Lundgren’s “Red Scorpion” and “Red Scorpion II” — both of which were co-produced by his brother, a successful show business attorney. This is an odd chapter in Abramoff’s life. It’s hard to know why he was unable to parlay himself a real career in Hollywood, except to wonder if maybe Hollywood, for all its faults, just isn’t as easily bought off as his pals in the conservative movement. After all, these kind of perks are just standard in the Entertainment industry and can’t buy you much of anything at all…
Abramoff came back to Washington when his pals came to power in 1994. They suddenly had it all; their triumphant public leader, Newt Gingrich, was even considering a run for the presidency in 1996. (The ever humble Newt was quoted as saying, “Am I going to have to get into this thing?”) This was the time to put into place their plans for a permanent Republican establishment (“personnel is policy”), with the power of big money behind them. The problem is that Abramoff got greedy, and so did his little college republican friends. Both Norquist and Reed have been named in the various scandals, right along with Delay. Everybody seems to be hold their breath waiting to see if this thing takes down The Hammer, but the undercurrent of excitement is really whether it will render Norquist, Reed and others impotent over time as the scandal unfolds. It’s possible. These guys have always had the problem of hubris and premature triumpalism. They operate on a very emotional level that is a weakness. And they are, of course, incredibly greedy.
Much of this information can be found in Nina Easton’s fine book “The Gang of Five” which you should read if you are interested in learning about the relationship between the players in this DeLay/Abramoff scandal. She thought in 2000 that these guys had already overreached, but clearly she was ahead of herself. And it should be noted that even if all three go down, the momentum of the conservative movement will only slow, not reverse itself. Barring a very serious crisis, it’s going to take a long time and a gargantuan effort to turn that ship around, if we can do it at all.
But if these guys are irreparably discredited as a result of their own arrogance and avarice, it will be the final nail, I believe, in the Nixon legacy. These are his political heirs, raised and nurtured on the mother’s milk of corruption and dishonesty, scarred while very young by the ignominious downfall of their political father; driven to wreak revenge and recapture what they perceived as their rightful ownership of American politics. They are the spawn of Watergate resentment and this country will never be healthy until this group of radicals are removed from positions of power.
And I didn’t even talk about Nixon’s own proteges Cheney and Rove.
There is something about the conservative movement that appeals to a particular kind of arrogant, aggressive nasty jerk. And a good number of them join the college Republicans where they are trained to become the Karl Roves and Grover Norquists of tomorrow. That is where they pass down the beloved GOP rituals of smears, character assassination and personal destruction. It’s a kind of finishing school for dorky political sociopaths.
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This Is Why We Revile Them
by digby
Marc Ambinder at the Atlantic defends the Edwards haircut story and condemns the undue coverage of Romney’s make-up thusly:
The centerpiece of Edwards’s campaign is his anti-poverty efforts; he presents himself as a dedicated messenger for the cause, and he likes expensive haircuts, bought a gimungous house, etc. etc. His credibility as a messenger comes into question when he spends money ostentatiously. (The haircut was inadvertently billed to the campaign, a spokesman later said).
There is a difference in the political reality: fairly or unfairly, a healthy chunk of the national political press corps doesn’t like John Edwards.
Fairly or unfairly, there’s also a difference in narrative timing: when the first quarter ended, the press was trying to bury Edwards. It’s not so much interested in burying Romney right now — many reporters think he’s the Republican frontrunner.
I honestly don’t quite know what to say. Plenty of effort has already been expended reminding people that you don’t have to be poor to advocate for the poor — and that historically some of the most ardent advocates were quite wealthy. The press corps really needs to examine whether they truly believe that the rich are required to be selfish jackasses who care about nothing but the stock market and tax cuts and only poor people can care about poverty. Perhaps that’s a country they want to live in, but most of the rest of us aren’t so keen on it.
But that’s not the part of this post that’s startling. Ambinder says right out that “fairly or unfairly” the press can’t stand John Edwards and so they are going to bury him. This is, of course, not unprecedented since we saw what they did to Al Gore for the same reason. The matter-of-factness of his statement still made my head spin a little, but I appreciate the candor. At least we now know what we are dealing with. (And there is no question about whether it’s fair. It most certainly isn’t.)
Now, I am not especially surprised that the press corps doesn’t like John Edwards. Many of these people probably didn’t like guys like him in high school either and one thing we know about the political press corps is that they have never matured beyond the 11th grade. (See: chilean bass stupidity.) But I have to ask, once again, just who in the hell these people think they are and why they think they are allowed to pick our candidates for us based upon their own “feelings” about them? I don’t recall electing them to anything. (But, hey, maybe we should just poll the kewl kidz and find out which candidate they “like, totally, like” and we can cancel the election and save a lot of time and money.)
This is exactly this kind of thing that makes people like me laugh when I get lectured by professional journalists about “objectivity” and “ethics.” At least I put my political biases up front. These phonies hide behind a veil of journalistic conventions so they can exercise their psychologically stunted desire to stick it to the BMOC, or the dork or whoever these catty little gossips want to skewer for their own pleasure that day. Please, please, no more hand-wringing sanctimony from reporters about the undisciplined, unethical blogosphere. Their glass houses are lying in shards all around their feet.
Each time they’ve pulled this puerile nonsense in the last few years, it’s resulted in a mess that’s going to take even more years to unravel. And they learned nothing, apparently, since they are doing exactly the same thing in this election. If the press really wants to know why they are held in lower esteem than hitmen and health insurance claims adjusters, this is it.
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Blogosphere Day
by digby
I’m stealing this from Daily Kos, but I don’t think they’ll mind. It’s for a good cause:
Today, on the 4th annual Blogosphere Day, I’m proud to join with you to celebrate democracy at its very best: Americans from coast-to-coast joining together, thanks to the power of the Internet, to change the direction of our great nation. I’m a believer in the power of progressive blogs, and I’ve blogged about the need to build and fund the progressive blogosphere. Messages coordinated and distributed by blogs play are playing an important role in changing the debate in Washington; helping us fighting back against the right-wing narratives pushed out by the White House and carried by the press. I’ve also watched the blogosphere rally together to support key candidates against incredible odds. You don’t have to look any farther than my new colleague, Jim Webb, to see what a difference the blogs have made in Washington. The progressive blogosphere — and ActBlue, which sent nearly $1 million to his campaign — played a critical role in his upset victory over Sen. George Allen in Virginia.
That’s why I’m happy to join with many others today in saluting ActBlue, an engine of the online progressive movement. ActBlue enables Democrats from all across America and all walks of life to work together, pooling their enthusiasm and financial support to elect candidates who share their progressive values. In the past three years alone, ActBlue has sent $25 million to 1700 Democratic candidates from more than 200,000 individual contributors, a critical factor in our ability to take back Congress in 2006. Today, on the 4th annual Blogosphere Day, we celebrate the many important ways that progressive blogs have changed our democracy for the better — while also making sure we nurture and invest in the blogosphere, making it an even greater force for positive change in the months and years ahead. That’s why I hope you’ll support ActBlue. By building our online Democratic infrastructure today, especially ActBlue, we’re creating a platform that will support all of our candidates, our activists, and our ideas in 2008 and beyond. ActBlue has already done so much to help our progressive movement — now it’s time for us to help them. ActBlue is on its way towards raising $100 million for Democrats this election cycle. But reaching that amazing number isn’t automatic — we need to make sure that ActBlue has the resources and support it needs, right now, to provide a strong financial platform for the progressive blogosphere and all of our Democratic candidates over the long 16 months ahead. Please support ActBlue today! I’m proud to stand with ActBlue — and all of you — in this fight for the future of America. On this 4th annual Blogosphere Day, I join you in taking a moment to celebrate the progress we’ve made, while also recommitting ourselves to the work that lies ahead. The issues are on our side. The American people are on our side. Now let’s make sure we have the platform we need to get our message out and help Democratic candidates win in 2008. Please support ActBlue today! — Dick Durbin
Here it is, take it
by Dover Bitch
At 9:30 ET this morning, the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee will hold a hearing to discuss a bill that would federalize immigration for the Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI). It should be available via webcast.
Why is this hearing important? After all, it’s not on the evening news. It’s not even scheduled to be broadcast live on C-SPAN.
The truth is, this hearing is only important to people who believe that America shouldn’t be a place like this:
Using its immigration authority, the Commonwealth has created an economy that relies upon the wholesale importation of low-paid, short-term indentured workers. Foreign workers pay up to $7,000 to employers or middlemen for the right to a job in the CNMI. When they finally reach the Commonwealth, they are assigned to tedious, low paying work for long hours with little or no time off. At night they are locked in prison-like barracks. If they complain, they are subject to immediate deportation at the whim of their employer. Some arrive in the islands only to find that they were victims of an employment scam. There are no jobs waiting for them, and no way to work off their bondage debt.
That’s from a February 2000 press release, issued by Sen. Daniel Akaka (D-HI) to announce the unanimous passage in the Senate of a bill that would put an end to the “system of indentured immigrant labor [that] is morally wrong, and violates basic democratic principles.”
It’s not hard to understand how the Senate came to unanimity on the issue in 2000. The Department of the Interior had issued a report that highlighted horrors like “forced abortions and that women and children were subject to forced prostitution in the local sex-tourism industry.”
Congress, itself, had heard testimony so gut-wrenching, I honestly can’t bring myself to quote it here.
Of course it was a unanimous vote. Who could vote against ending forced abortions? Who could vote against stopping children from being forced into prostitution… On American soil, no less? It just breaks your heart thinking about it.
That is, if you have a heart. Akaka’s celebratory press release ends with this: “S. 1052 now moves to the House of Representatives for action.”
And that’s where Tom DeLay took over. That’s where Jack Abramoff’s money went. That’s where Don Young’s convicted felon aide and former CNMI labor secretary worked. That’s where a decision was made to allow the rape and slavery continue. DeLay called it “a perfect petri dish of capitalism.”
For years, the House of Representatives was a place where these victims — on American soil legally — could seek no relief. That can all change right now, if good Americans decide we won’t let this oppression continue on U.S. soil.
It’s really that simple. Either we convince a Democratic Senate and Congress to stop it right now, while the issue is in front of them, or the Senate will move on to other things and the horrors will continue. The TV isn’t telling you that, but that’s what the blog-o-sphere is for, right?
Blogger Dengre is attending the hearing. He has brought with him the testimony of thousands of CNMI workers praying for S.1634 to pass (with amendments to make it stronger). The testimony was gathered by human rights advocate Wendy Doromal, who travelled to CNMI specifically to help these victims have their voices heard.
DeLay, Abramoff and their cohorts have prevented Congress from restoring human rights and human dignity to the indentured servants and oppressed women of the Marianas. The universe has finally aligned to give us the opportunity to rescue people who need help. If we squander this opportunity to do what is obviously the right thing — stopping this abuse — it will be to our everlasting shame.
Here are the senators on the committee. Please contact yours and urge them to support S.1634. Dengre suggests the following changes:
1. Create a pathway to Citizenship for Guest Workers who have been on the CNMI for more than five years—and a Green Card for all workers with children who are US Citizens.
2. Outline a clear appeals process for any worker denied Immigration Status and/or other rights by the local CNMI Government through new or existing Federal systems of appeals.
3. Mandate that all CNMI entry visa programs—both work and tourist—are run by the Federal Government. (To allow the local CNMI Government to run a tourist visa program is to allow human trafficking.)
4. Mandate random, spot check interviews of guest workers and tourists as they arrive and leave the CNMI to ensure that they were (and are not) victims of abuse.
Sometimes it’s hard to find solutions to the worst problems on earth. This one has been handed to us on a silver platter. Let’s not miss this chance to do something tremendous.
UPDATE: The hearing is over. The most interesting part was learning that a similar bill was introduced in the House.
The Freshmen!
by digby
Summoning the ghost of Harry Truman, the Senate’s freshman Democrats on Wednesday called for the creation of an independent, bipartisan commission to investigate wartime profiteering in Iraq.
Truman was a freshman senator from Missouri in 1941 when he led an inquiry into waste and abuse in government contracting during World War II.
Under the 2007 version of his effort, spearheaded by Sens. Claire McCaskill of Missouri and Jim Webb of Virginia, the proposed commission would investigate the mismanagement of private contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan, which has resulted in $9 billion in taxpayer dollars unaccounted for.
McCaskill, a former state auditor who uses Truman’s old Senate desk, said at a press conference of freshmen lawmakers, “I realized we had the same problem in this war that Harry Truman found in World War II, except that it’s on steroids. It’s out of control.”
Truman subsequently became vice president and the nation’s 33rd president in 1945 upon the death of President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Webb said the plan to revive the Truman committee’s work would create an eight-member Commission on Wartime Contracting, which would focus on the government’s increasing reliance on private contracting during war.
He said it wouldn’t create a new bureaucracy but would expand the role of the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction by adding oversight of Afghanistan reconstruction and private contracts for security and logistical support to its portfolio.
The commission would issue a report after one year, a final report after two and then shut down.
The Los AngeIes Times reported this month that Iraq has more private contractors than U.S. troops. More than 180,000 individuals are working under Department of Defense and State Department contracts, compared with 160,000 members of the military.
McCaskill noted that even the security detail guarding Gen. David Petraeus, the American commander in Iraq, was composed of private contractors.
Between 2003 and 2006, the United States spent more than $300 billion to help stabilize and reconstruct Iraq, according to the Government Accountability Office.
“Government accountability was a major issue in all of our campaigns,” Webb said of the freshmen lawmakers. “There’s been remarkably little accountability. We’d like to help the taxpayers of this country get their money back.”
Many of us have been pushing this idea for a while, no one more than Robert Greenwald, who made the film Iraq For Sale. (I urge you to click that link if you haven’t seen the movie.)
The Dems tried to convene this committee back in 2005 and were thwarted by the Republicans, but now is the time to get it done. I’m especially glad that Jim Webb is taking on the Truman role. It suits him.
This is a big subject and one that I believe will resonate with the American people. War profiteering happens in all wars. But this administration has made a fetish out of cronyism and patronage on an unprecedented level, even in places like the Department of Education and the FDA. Can you imagine the amount of fraud and theft they have perpetrated in the Defense Department? It staggers the imagination.
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More Of Me
by digby
If you can’t get enough of my blogospheric stylings, I’ve got a few other posts up over at Salon’s war room today, talkin’ bout Tom Friedman and the PNAC, Cheney’s unitary energy task force farce, The Dukestir, and an unusually good Wapo article this morning on the NIE.
Now I’m going to have a beer.
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Tuck’s Nuts
by digby
Rarely do you see the poor lil’ conservo-dudes expose their insecurities so obviously — and with so little self-awareness:
GEIST: Well, I think the metaphor in this next story, Tucker, is pretty clear. So I will just report the straight facts. The newest collector’s item on the presidential campaign trail is a Hillary Clinton nutcracker. They’re going like hot cakes in Rochester, Minnesota, where the idea for the nutcracker was hatched.
It’s a Hillary doll with serrated stainless steel thighs that, well, crack nuts. If you can’t make to it Minnesota to pick one up, you can go to HillaryNutcracker.com and that could be yours for the low, low price of $19.95. They’ll also throw in a bag of Hillary nuts for five bucks. Now, I don’t know what they’re getting at here, Tucker. What do you think they’re saying about Hillary?
CARLSON: I don’t know, but that is so perfect. I have often said, when she comes on television, I involuntarily cross my legs.
GEIST: I know you do.
CARLSON: I’m getting one, by the way
I don’t even want to think about what he’s going to do with it. He’s very confused.
This is one thing about Hillary Clinton’s candidacy that I’m really enjoying. She scrambles the patented wingnut “Dems=gay” narrative so badly that they are chasing their own tails. Go ahead Tucker, keep crossing those fine “dancing with the stars” gams and turn Hillary into a liberal Iron Lady. Works for me.
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The Ongoing Adventures Of The Eunuch Caucus
by digby
Greg Sargent calls them WINO’s. Harold Meyerson dubs them Spineless Sages. I’m fond of my own moniker from back in 2006, the Eunuch Caucus. They all add up to the same thing — congressional GOP jellyfish who wring their hands and rend their garments about the war and other failures of the Bush administration and yet can never seem to actually vote against anything the administration wants or for anything they don’t. The worst cases, like McCain, Graham and Warner make a big show of being “elder statesmen” or “mavericks” and then turn around and engineer legislative atrocities like the Military Commissions Act.
This is one reason why I really hate calling the Democrats spineless. It’s true that they sometimes are, but compared to their single cell invertebrate comrades on the other side they are super-heroes. The Republicans laid down for Dick Cheney’s Unitary executive like a bunch of cheap hookers during fleet week with nary a thought for the constitution or even their own prerogatives. As I wrote back in ’06:
I am dumbstruck by the totality of the Republicans’ abdication of their duty. These men who spent years running on Madisonian principles (“The essence of government is power; and power, lodged as it must be in human hands, will ever be liable to abuse”) now argue without any sense of irony or embarrassment that Republican Senators are nothing more than eunuchs in President Bush’s political harem. They have voluntarily rendered the congress of the United States impotent to his power.
I’ve watched this invertebrate GOP caucus since 2000 as they submitted themselves to this lawless administration again and again, shredding every bit of self respect, every figment of institutional pride, every duty to the constitution. The look in their eyes, which is somehow interpreted as strong and defiant by the equally servile media, is actually a window to empty little men who have given up their manhood to oblige their master. The only reward they seek is unfettered access to the taxpayers money for their own use.
We are looking at fifty-five of the most powerful people in the country. Collectively the Republican Senators represent almost a hundred and fifty million citizens. And they have allowed a callow little boy like George W. Bush along with his grey eminineces Karl Rove and Dick Cheney to strip them of their consciences, their principles and their constitutional obligations. What sad little creatures, cowardly and subservient, unctuously bowing and scraping before Karl Rove the man who holds their (purse) strings and dances them around the halls of congress singing tributes to their own irrelevance at the top of their lungs. How pathetic they are.
And it continues to this day, even as their great leader has nearly destroyed their party and ruined the country.
Never make a bet that Republicans will do the right thing. You can’t even count on them to act in their own self-interest — witness their just tanking the immigration bill that will probably sink their chances of a real majority for many years to come. Their only purpose in government is to steal from the taxpayers, help their rich friends, cover up their leaders’ crimes and destroy Democrats. That’s it. That’s all they do.
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Rotting Fish
by digby
People Magazine reports that former Vice President Al Gore’s youngest daughter, Sarah Gore, 28, married businessman Bill Lee at the Beverly Hills Hotel earlier this month. For the rehearsal dinner, at Beverly Hills’ Crustacean restaurant, executive chef Helene An prepared a six-course menu that included Chilean sea bass.
One problem, says Rebecca Keeble, program manager for Humane Society International.
Chilean Sea Bass is “arguably one of the world’s most threatened fish species” who says the selection indicates “only one week after Live Earth, Al Gore’s green credentials slipped.”
Writing in the Daily Telegraph today (LINK), Keeble points out that “Working with non-government organisations, the Humane Society International’s focus is now on pursuit of illegal fishing operators who, in the rush to cash in on the highly valued species, plunder stocks with no regard for sustainability.”
Tom Brokaw, among others, has covered how this delicious fish’s popularity is leading to problems (LINK) with its population.
Is Gore to be chastised for every fish that shows up on his plate? It’s not as if he was eating a Bald Eagle. (Whoops — weren’t those just taken off the Endangered Species List!)
On the other hand, could this be seen as the environmentalist version of Sen. David Vitter’s public santimony/private enjoyment of love with a red-lit glow?
Unless somebody at the wedding was schtupping the fish wearing a diaper, I’m not sure I see the analogy.
It’s also worth noting that not all Chilean Sea bass are endangered and that Jake Tapper and his bitchy little wingnut gossip pals should have checked to see where Ms Gore’s caterer got the fish. Whole Foods, the scourge of environmental liberal fascism last I heard, sells the stuff:
Chilean sea bass have returned to our Seafood Departments after a seven year hiatus. In 1999, it became clear that this popular species (also called Patagonian toothfish) was being overfished at an alarming rate, threatening its extinction. In accordance with our strict sustainable seafood policy, Whole Foods Market stopped selling Chilean Sea Bass in August, 1999.
The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC), an independent non-profit body dedicated to sustainable fishing practices and ocean health, recently certified a fishery operating out of South Georgia Island for the sustainable harvesting of Chilean sea bass. This island is near the South Sandwich Islands located in the extreme southern Atlantic, where harsh prevailing weather conditions and active volcanism make it difficult for fishermen. While poaching remains a serious threat to Chilean sea bass in other areas, this remote fishery has proven itself to be a responsible one dedicated to sustainable practices as documented by the MSC.
I can’t believe we have to deal with this nonsense.
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