Month: December 2007

Lynchin’ Meat

by digby

Well, it looks like it’s going to be a disgusting race to the bottom on immigration. According to this Democracy Corps poll (pdf), a majority of Americans, not just Republicans, quite intensely loathe all immigrants now and want to deport all the illegals because they are stealing all of our hard earned health care and other services. Greenberg and friends have determined that Democrats must be encouraged to run as hard as they feel they need to against the illegal hordes, pushing “enforcement only” rhetoric and generally pimping racist, xenophobic attitudes with everything we’ve got or they will lose the election. They call this letting the people know they “get it.”

They make a few feints toward some sort of flaccid “path to citizenship” and maybe these “people” should be allowed some brief emergency treatment in a hospital if they’re bleeding all over the sidewalk, but they don’t advise Dems to make too much of it because so many people believe that the Mexican invasion is at the heart of all their problems and it will just confuse them. (But lest you think they aren’t going to hit Republicans too they very explicitly say that the Democrats should excoriate Bush for letting all those awful Mexicans in here in the first place, so that’s good.)

Get ready, my friends. This is going to be an ugly, despicable racist campaign the likes of which we haven’t seen in many, many moons. It shouldn’t surprise us. The Republicans are cornered and don’t have anything to fall back on except tickling the bigot id, so they’ve successfully used their wingnut tom-toms to pump this issue into full fledged paranoid, nativist hysteria.

The Democrats are advised by people whose imaginations stalled back in 1980 when they woke up one morning and discovered that a lot of angry white guys wouldn’t vote for a party that allowed black people in it. The highly successful Democratic politics they’ve run over the past 25 years have been devoted to getting them back. (And it’s worked out very well, you must admit. Why fix what ain’t broke, eh?)

And, of course, the political candidates themselves have signed on to the “don’t make trouble” strategy so they’ll be happy to ape even the most heinous GOP talking points if it will keep them from having to take even the slightest risk. (That’s what the Democratic consultants term “winning a mandate.”)

The fact that all these enforcement-only measures (which our politicians are advised to flog with the zeal of converts) will alienate and suppress the Latino vote in certain contests that are likely to be close is apparently not even a practical consideration. Neither is the idea that we might try to educate people to the truth that immigrants, legal and otherwise, actually contribute far more than they take out of our system. Far be it for leaders to try to educate and set the record straight. Certainly they should never be expected to set an example or stand by their principles or even be decent human beings when they can just ride the demagogic themes being pimped by right wing talk radio gasbags — and win!

Seriously, imagine what this thing is going to sound like after six months of the two parties trying to one-up each other on who’s “tougher” on immigration. I’m literally getting queasy about this.

Update: David Neiwert has been documenting some of the “enforcement” that’s already taking place around the country. Here’s just one. More at the link.

On Tuesday, July 26, between 30 and 35 children, some as young as three months old, were left stranded when federal agents arrested 119 immigrant workers at the Petit Jean Poultry plant in Arkadelphia, Arkansas. No provisions were made for these children as their parents were carted 70 miles away to a detention center to await deportation.

Many of these families, now forcibly torn apart, had lived and worked at the company for years. Of those detained, 115 were from Mexico, two were from Honduras and the other two were from El Salvador and Guatemala.

This surprise raid caught the town’s mayor, the Clark County sheriff, and the plant manager by surprise, and no provisions were made to care for the children or to alert relatives. The federal agents failed to even contact the Department of Human Services, the agency that is usually responsible for abandoned children.

“A lot of those families had kids in day care in different places, and they didn’t know why Mommy and Daddy didn’t come pick them up,” Arkadelphia Mayor Charles Hollingshead told the Associated Press.

An Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman claimed Friday that every one of the immigrants had lied to the agents, telling them they had no children. He later changed his story, admitting that the detainees did tell the agents that they had children left behind. Still, the agents did not allow the detainees to contact their families to make arrangements for their children.

Jose Luis Vidal told the Associated Press that his sister and brother-in-law left behind children aged ten, five and one when they were deported to Laredo, Mexico

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I suppose a country that celebrates torture and indefinite imprisonment for suspected enemies should also be expected to go this route. Why wouldn’t it?

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I Heart Bush Dogs

by digby

While I agree with Michael Shaw that the Bush Christmas card is revoltingly hypocritical even for them, I have to disagree about the Barney Christmas Cam.

Barney and Miz Beazley are the only good Bush Dogs in the government, imo, and the only thing I’ll miss about the Bush administration.

And here’s a question: when did the first family get a cat? And why haven’t they ever mentioned it? (Fleaber wants to know…)

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Pox This

by digby

One of the kings of the FoxDemocrats, lubriciously polishing Roger Ailes’s shiny apple, says:

Fox political analyst Bob Beckel mourned last night that Sen. Joe Lieberman’s endorsement of John McCain is “the price…us Democrats pay for MoveOn.org and others who drove Joe Lieberman out of the party,” said Beckel. “They campaigned against him actively and raised money against him and he was beaten in the Democratic primary. … Now we’re paying the price and all I can say is ‘a pox on their house.’”

Yeah, it’s a real loss.

But Beckel speaks for a lot of Villagers, not just the one’s who are directly paid by Rupert Murdoch. Even sitting senators who buck the complacent “don’t make trouble” party line are dismissed as irrelevant:

Reid spokesman Jim Manley said the decision had nothing to do with the efforts of Dodd and his allies

Right. The fact that Dodd was willing to hold up the business of the Senate all the way through Christmas if he had to (and some others decided to act like United States Senators instead of potted plants) had nothing to do with it. Ok, Harry, if that makes you feel better.

Both FDL and Greenwald have done in-depth tick-tocks and post-mortems which are well worth reading. I do think it’s worth repeating however, in case any of you don’t know this, Jane Hamsher was the one who got this ball rolling when she asked Dodd, out of the blue, on the radio if he’d filibuster the bill if it didn’t have immunity. When Dodd said yes there was a palpable feeling of excitement at the possibilities. Naturally, everyone hoped it wouldn’t come to that, and a lot of people worked very hard to that end. But the idea that a Democratic senator might stand up on this was electrifying.

This is a tough issue for politicians because it requires explanation and it’s easily spun by lying demagogic Republicans:

After the House passed surveillance legislation that did not include retroactive immunity, the National Republican Senatorial Committee accused House Democrats running for the Senate of “putting the rights of known terrorists ahead of the safety and security of Americans.”

That’s the message that’s going to be out there so it’s not really surprising that politicians don’t relish parrying such attacks with the necessary long explanations about what really happened and the fourth amendment and domestic switching stations etc. That’s not to say that they shouldn’t fight it, but we should at least grant that it’s a challenge. When someone like Dodd stands up as he did, and others follow, you actually have to give them extra kudos — and you have to let them know that despite all the caterwauling from Villagers like Beckel, there is some benefit for them in doing the right thing: namely our ongoing gratitude and support.

During the last election, when Governor Dean’s campaign sputtered, I immediately thought that it was great idea to promote him for Democratic Chair. It had long been nothing more than a big donor fund raising machine and needed to become something with at least some attachment to actual Democratic voters if the Democratic party was going to function as an actual … party. The Dean campaign and his subsequent election to chair the party was the first real sign of the new progressive movement “crashing the gates,” and it was an extremely important one.

I think the same thing is true for this moment with Chris Dodd. He ran for minority leader some years back and lost to Tom Daschle by one vote. He has the ambition and the ability, clearly, and has received the support of many of his peers in the past. It makes much more sense to have the leadership hail from solid blue states so that they aren’t constantly having to look over their own shoulders as they try to shepherd (or obstruct) legislation. So I agree with many others in the blogosphere that Chris Dodd would be an excellent majority leader and his election to that spot would send a very strong message to people like Bob Beckel that if they insist on wishing a pox on our house, they are wishing a pox on the mainstream of the Democratic Party.

Rupert will happily pay his salary anyway — he’s vying for the coveted Pat Cadell asskisser award anyway — but nobody but the crotchety old men who watch Fox News will pay any attention to him. Over time, as they further withdraw to their wingnut ghettoes, we may even find that the Republicans no longer send the Democrats scurrying for cover whenever they call up a hissy fit. It could happen.

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Nobody Wants To See That

by digby

Rush sez:

Now, this theory of mine based on this Drudge picture of Mrs. Clinton, with the headline: “The Toll of a Campaign.” Now, it could well be that that’s a sympathy photo, too, to make people feel sorry for how tough the campaign trail is. Now, I want to preface this by saying I know it’s going to get out there. Media Matters is going to get hold of this and they’re going to take it all out of context. We can expect that. It’s a badge of honor when this happens, but for the rest of you, I want you to understand that I am talking about the evolution of American culture here, and not so much Mrs. Clinton…

There is this thing in this country that, as you age — and this is particularly, you know, women are hardest hit on this, and particularly in Hollywood — America loses interest in you, and we know this is true because we constantly hear from aging actresses, who lament that they can’t get decent roles anymore, other than in supporting roles that will not lead to any direct impact, yay or nay, in the box office…

We know that the presidency ages the occupants of that office rapidly… But men aging makes them look more authoritative, accomplished, distinguished.

Sadly, it’s not that way for women, and they will tell you… Look at all of the evidence. I mean, I’ve just barely scratched the surface with some of the evidence, and so: Will Americans want to watch a woman get older before their eyes on a daily basis?

Of course not. I don’t think aging women should even be allowed out in public, personally, much less should anyone have to look at their revolting faces on television. There is no reason that handsome, virile chick magnets like Rudy Giuliani, Fred Thompson, John McCain should have their aesthetic environment polluted with such hideousness.

Via HuffPo

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A Good Day

by digby

Gov. Jon S. Corzine signed into law a measure repealing New Jersey’s death penalty on Monday, making the state the first in a generation to abolish capital punishment.

Mr. Corzine also issued an order commuting the sentences of the eight men on New Jersey’ death row to life in prison with no possibility of parole, ensuring that they will stay behind bars for the rest of their lives

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Can I Get A Big Old Yeeeeaaarrrgh!?!!

by digby

Harry Reid has pulled the FISA bill until after the recess. It seems senators were getting uncomfortable with all the attention being drawn to their sickening sell out to big corporations.

And I frankly suspect that Feingold’s speech this morning in which he says that half of what the administration told them in classified session was bullshit may have had an impact.

The Republicans also acted like asses, as usual, which may have soured some of the Democrats who were trying to give them everything they wanted and yet they wouldn’t take yes for an answer.

Whatever the case, while the “Lieberman for Lieberman” senator from Connecticut may have spent the day preening all over the television shilling for war and Republicans, the Democratic senator from Connecticut, Chris Dodd, was acting like a patriot.

Thank you Senator.

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Join The Filibuster

by digby

As long as Dodd and his fellows have breath to keep talking, The Young Turks are going to stay on the air and keep talking too.

Watch Here

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The Revenge Wing

by digby

A conservative commentator says he “gets it:”

It took this recent post by Digby and this morning’s column by Krugman for me to “get it.” If you are a conservative, you should read the two pieces, not to criticize them nor ridicule them, but to understand their perspective. As briefly as possible, Krugman and Digby are speaking for the ‘Revenge Wing’ of the Democratic Party. “The GOP and big corporations are evil incarnate and we need to be ready to rumble, willing to do “what it will take to turn a progressive agenda into reality.” These 21st Century Savonarolas believe that the next (Democratic) president must be willing to take the fight the enemy (the Republicans) and be willing to do whatever is necessary. Thus when Digby says:

And so the new Democratic president will be nearly paralyzed, standing there like a deer caught in the headlights when the Republican Semi bears down on him or her, horns honking and whistles blowing.

It’s clear what she means: what the country needs is a Democratic president willing to plant an IED underneath that Republican Semi and blow it to kingdom-come. Matt Stoller at Open Left also says “fight, fight, fight:”

Clinton and Obama both think that you can sit down and negotiate with these people [GOP and corporations], that they are reasonable and data-driven and deal in good faith. But they are not. They operate from a calculus of raw power, and evidence doesn’t matter to them. Iraq and our corporate dominated state is a systems problem requiring a realization that the different social norms reinforce each other. Without a leader willing to fight …

I don’t deny that I desire a president who would hold Republicans accountable for lawbreaking and unconstitutional governance. I think the unitary executive is a form of dictatorship and I believe many of the activities of the Bush administration have been illegal and immoral.

But nowhere in my piece do I even come close to saying that I think we should exact “revenge” by “any means necessary” such as metaphorically “planting an IED under the semi and blowing it to kingdom come.” (Jesus, these people can’t stop with the terrorist metaphors…) I’d just like for the drivers of that truck to be cited for reckless driving and have their licenses suspended until they learn how to drive like law abiding citizens.

In fact, my rather depressing piece was actually about how the Republicans and the press will hold the Democrats responsible for the sins of the Republicans and that perversely Washington will be “cleaned up” only by Democrats being investigated and disgraced for trumped up charges that only resemble the real crimes committed by Bush.

This isn’t the only conservative fellow who has commented on my post. This one wrote that my post was just a preemptive whine that the Democrats won’t be allowed to get away with doing the things that the Republicans have, and he’s having none of it. He even issued a warning that I should scrub my posts for “hypocritical” objections that will get me in trouble when I defend Democratic lawbreaking in the future.

Again, my post was not about the Democrats being unfairly denied their opportunity to govern unconstitutionally. I generally don’t care for shredding the constitution no matter who does it. What my post pointed out was the fact that all the arguments that Democrats have used, impotently and to no effect, against the Republicans these last seven years, will be marshaled to keep them from governing legally and holding the previous administration liable for their crimes.

Mark Kleiman explains it more clearly than I:

* Rove, Ashcroft, and Gonzales used the prosecution as a weapon against political adversaries; in the feeble minds of the Beltway chattering class (as prompted by the right-wing noise machine) that will make any attempt to prosecute the multiple crimes of the previous eight years look like political persecution.

* The Bushoids have shamelessly abused the merit system to purge honest civil servants and “burrow in” their crooked and incompetent allies, including all those Regent University Law School grads now in civil-service jobs at the Justice Department. Any attempt to undo that damage will be greeted with howls of protest about how the new President is abusing the merit system.

* All of the scientific advisory committees have been stacked with reactionaries and industry shills; any attempt to unstack them will bring charges that science is being further politicized.

I actually don’t mind being called the “Revenge Wing” of the Democratic Party. It somewhat amuses me that these manly conservative warriors are all trembly at the idea of the avenging left forcing their leaders to have a taste of their own nasty medicine. But the truth is that we are actually just the same old civil libertarian, constitution loving, safety net promoting, tolerant, pluralist liberals we’ve always been. The problem is that the conservative movement went way too far these last 15 years or so and now the country needs to sort out the terrible mess they’ve made.

And to that end, I’m entirely with Kleiman on his prescription for this problem:

It seems to me that the right first step is obvious (though it was obvious to Mark Schmitt before it became so to me. The new President should ask Congess to create a Truth and Reconciliation Commission, empowered to subpoena records and witnesses, hold public hearings, and dismiss officials guilty of misconduct in office or appointed by improper means. And the Commission should have power to inquire into Congressional as well as Executive behavior, and to refer Congressional misconduct back to the Houses for appropriate disciplinary action. (That avoids the “speech and debate” problem.) The key is using the criminal law only as a backstop: the Commission should be able to offer complete immunity from criminal prosecution for anyone who testifies fully and frankly, but impose complete liability for perjury or obstruction on anyone who fails to do so.

I don’t want revenge (although I can’t say it would bother me much to see somebody pay a legal price for this disgusting torture regime.) But over the course of the last three decades, the modern conservative movement made a calculation that accruing ever more power in the executive branch will benefit them. They defend it when they are in power and then use every means at their disposal to strip legitimate power from a president of the other party. I don’t think that’s good for the country, and I think most people agree. We aren’t subjects, we are citizens and we have a right to know what has gone on these past eight years.

Nobody has to go to jail, but this must be aired out and examined and the public must be allowed to decide for itself whether that is the sort of government they want. It’s not revenge. It’s democracy, which I realize is anathema to the impeachment for blowjobs/election stealing/dictator(aslongasI’mthedictator) wing of the Republican party, but it’s something I think a good many Americans still value.

Update: Let me point out that I have zero expectations that Democrats will do anything like this. They will instead, as I originally posted, be battered about like abused dogs, trying to gain the approval of those who abuse them and biting the hand of anyone who tries to interfere. They will pay the price for what the Republicans did and they allowed — they are sin-eaters.

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‘We the People’ Must Save Our Constitution

by digby

If Senator Dodd needs something relevant to say, this speech, which Al Gore made on Martin Luther King Day, 2006, could be worth making again:

Congressman Barr and I have disagreed many times over the years, but we have joined together today with thousands of our fellow citizens-Democrats and Republicans alike-to express our shared concern that America’s Constitution is in grave danger.

In spite of our differences over ideology and politics, we are in strong agreement that the American values we hold most dear have been placed at serious risk by the unprecedented claims of the Administration to a truly breathtaking expansion of executive power.

As we begin this new year, the Executive Branch of our government has been caught eavesdropping on huge numbers of American citizens and has brazenly declared that it has the unilateral right to continue without regard to the established law enacted by Congress to prevent such abuses.

It is imperative that respect for the rule of law be restored.

So, many of us have come here to Constitution Hall to sound an alarm and call upon our fellow citizens to put aside partisan differences and join with us in demanding that our Constitution be defended and preserved.

It is appropriate that we make this appeal on the day our nation has set aside to honor the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who challenged America to breathe new life into our oldest values by extending its promise to all our people.

On this particular Martin Luther King Day, it is especially important to recall that for the last several years of his life, Dr. King was illegally wiretapped-one of hundreds of thousands of Americans whose private communications were intercepted by the U.S. government during this period.

The FBI privately called King the “most dangerous and effective negro leader in the country” and vowed to “take him off his pedestal.” The government even attempted to destroy his marriage and blackmail him into committing suicide.

This campaign continued until Dr. King’s murder. The discovery that the FBI conducted a long-running and extensive campaign of secret electronic surveillance designed to infiltrate the inner workings of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and to learn the most intimate details of Dr. King’s life, helped to convince Congress to enact restrictions on wiretapping.

The result was the Foreign Intelligence and Surveillance Act (FISA), which was enacted expressly to ensure that foreign intelligence surveillance would be presented to an impartial judge to verify that there is a sufficient cause for the surveillance. I voted for that law during my first term in Congress and for almost thirty years the system has proven a workable and valued means of according a level of protection for private citizens, while permitting foreign surveillance to continue.

Yet, just one month ago, Americans awoke to the shocking news that in spite of this long settled law, the Executive Branch has been secretly spying on large numbers of Americans for the last four years and eavesdropping on “large volumes of telephone calls, e-mail messages, and other Internet traffic inside the United States.” The New York Times reported that the President decided to launch this massive eavesdropping program “without search warrants or any new laws that would permit such domestic intelligence collection.”

During the period when this eavesdropping was still secret, the President went out of his way to reassure the American people on more than one occasion that, of course, judicial permission is required for any government spying on American citizens and that, of course, these constitutional safeguards were still in place.

But surprisingly, the President’s soothing statements turned out to be false. Moreover, as soon as this massive domestic spying program was uncovered by the press, the President not only confirmed that the story was true, but also declared that he has no intention of bringing these wholesale invasions of privacy to an end.

At present, we still have much to learn about the NSA’s domestic surveillance. What we do know about this pervasive wiretapping virtually compels the conclusion that the President of the United States has been breaking the law repeatedly and persistently.

A president who breaks the law is a threat to the very structure of our government. Our Founding Fathers were adamant that they had established a government of laws and not men. Indeed, they recognized that the structure of government they had enshrined in our Constitution – our system of checks and balances – was designed with a central purpose of ensuring that it would govern through the rule of law. As John Adams said: “The executive shall never exercise the legislative and judicial powers, or either of them, to the end that it may be a government of laws and not of men.”

An executive who arrogates to himself the power to ignore the legitimate legislative directives of the Congress or to act free of the check of the judiciary becomes the central threat that the Founders sought to nullify in the Constitution – an all-powerful executive too reminiscent of the King from whom they had broken free. In the words of James Madison, “the accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.”

Thomas Paine, whose pamphlet, “On Common Sense” ignited the American Revolution, succinctly described America’s alternative. Here, he said, we intended to make certain that “the law is king.” read on…

He concluded with this:

Freedom of communication is an essential prerequisite for the restoration of the health of our democracy.

It is particularly important that the freedom of the Internet be protected against either the encroachment of government or the efforts at control by large media conglomerates. The future of our democracy depends on it.

I mentioned that along with cause for concern, there is reason for hope. As I stand here today, I am filled with optimism that America is on the eve of a golden age in which the vitality of our democracy will be re-established and will flourish more vibrantly than ever. Indeed I can feel it in this hall.

As Dr. King once said, “Perhaps a new spirit is rising among us. If it is, let us trace its movements and pray that our own inner being may be sensitive to its guidance, for we are deeply in need of a new way beyond the darkness that seems so close around us.”

People like Al Gore and Chris Dodd and Martin Luther King are out of fashion these days. People laugh at passionate men of principle in this time when principles are considered something for chumps and fools. There’s no angle on principle, no immediate political upside in saving the constitution when the Republicans are spending every minute of the day preaching fear and bloodlust and superficial political gossip rules our discourse. But they stand up anyway and suffer the taunts and jeers of people who think they are naive or narcissistic or crazy, because they believe in something. And I am exceedingly grateful for it.

Gore quoted a fellow in his speech who knew something about fear and bloodlust. And about leadership too:

“Any who act as if freedom’s defenses are to be found in suppression and suspicion and fear confess a doctrine that is alien to America.” —Dwight D. Eisenhower

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Mr Dodd Goes To Town

by digby

Today, Chris Dodd is going to show the Senate what integrity looks like. It’s probably going to be quite shock. It’s a rare thing these days.

As you all probably know, the illustrious Senate Majority leader is insisting on allowing the bill that contains retroactive immunity for huge wealthy corporations to be the basis for debate on the new FISA legislation. (I won’t go into all the arcane details, but suffice to say that he’s making it impossible for an alternative bill, which doesn’t contain immunity, to pass, which he doesn’t have to do.)

Chris Dodd signaled his intention some time ago that he would place a “hold” on such legislation, which is Senate speak for tying a bill up indefinitely. Republicans do it all the time — the latest example is Huckleberry Graham’s hold on the new anti-torture legislation that would have required the CIA to adhere to the Army Field manual. Senator Reid is honoring that hold as he has honored every other hold Republicans have put on legislation.

For reasons that can only be speculation about, Reidis not honoring Dodd’s hold. Therefore, Dodd is going to filibuster. A real Jimmy Stewart style filibuster, not the “signal of intent to filibuster” that is done these days to keep the Senate moving. Reid has not required any Republicans to do this despite the fact that they are setting records for filibusters in this congress.

Dodd needs help. He’s going to be talking a long time and he could use some suggestions from average people about what to talk about. If you have a special historical speech or literary passage you think might be relevant, that would be great. leave them in the comments here and I’ll collect them. (Links would be useful.) You can also express your support for Dodd filibuster here. They will be collecting the comments and putting them on the front page for the press and others to see.

Senator Dodd is prepared to stand up and talk and talk and talk as long as his voice holds out. He will have a little help from his friends, Feingold and Kennedy (bless the old Lion.)

He could also use some help from his fellow Senators. Courtesy of FDL, here are the phone numbers of the 14 Senators who promised to support Dodd. Give them a call today if you have the time and ask them to go to the floor and give Dodd a breather.

Name Fax Phone

Feingold (202) 224-2725 (202) 224-5323
Dodd (202) 224-1083 (202) 224-2823
Obama (202) 228-4260 (202) 224-2854
Sanders (202) 228-0776 (202) 224-5141
Menendez (202) 228-2197 (202) 224-4744
Biden (202) 224-0139 (202) 224-5042
Brown (202) 228-6321 (202) 224-2315
Harkin (202) 224-9369 (202) 224-3254
Cardin (202) 224-1651 (202) 224-4524
Clinton (202) 228-0282 (202) 224-4451
Akaka (202) 224-2126 (202) 224-6361
Webb (202) 228-6363 (202) 224-4024
Kennedy (202) 224-2417 (202) 224-4543
Boxer (415) 956-6701 (202) 224-3553

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