Gonzo goes back to Texas – Tail between his legs
I used to think that I would celebrate the moment when Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez would be revealed for the partisan destructor jurisprudenciae he is. But somehow, I just feel queasy. We came way too close to a Dictatorship under his watch to simply celebrate his return to Texas. Instead, we need to take this opportunity to make sure such a thing NEVER happens again.
First, we need to stop with this complacent attitude that the only way to maintain our freedom is to submit to police state. Nothing shouts out “totalitarianism” like random searches.
Second, we need to stop with the knee-jerk response to any criticism as an attack on our principles. This country is a plurality, not the uni-brain of a collective of thirteen year olds who think they’re grownups. Criticism is not only necessary for betterment, it is an essential element of the democratic process. Have we all forgotten about “redress of grievances”?
Third, we need to stop listening to the TV pundits who rely on their viscera rather than there intellect, and whose tiny, tiny bits of information cannot be extrapolated into a universal truth. If their knowledge were butter, all bagels would be dry, dry, dry.
Fourth, we have to get rid of the Lobby as the Fourth Branch of Government. It is simply disgusting that Healthcare and Pharma Companies dictate to the Congress, rather than the other way around. How do we do this? Let’s THINK about it. THINK.
Fifth, we have to stop acting like we’re as rich as the Inexplicably Celebrated of Hollywood, thus running up or debt as we rush to dress, act, talk, walk and live like people who are not entirely real.
Lastly, let us never again allow a man such as Gonzalez to eviscerate the Judicial Branch, bleeding it
of respectability and the balance intended by the Constitution. Let us never again allow One Party to begin to form, amoeba-like, seizing power and money and all the while attempting to convince us that the only way to be free is to submit.
We deserve better, Gonzo. We deserve the Judiciary to uphold the Constitution.
Tags:
Alberto Gonzalez, Bush White House Blunders, destructor jurisprudenciae, fascism, Gonzalez scandals
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Posted on 8/28/2007
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The big talk in the news today has been the recent confrontation between Senator Clinton and Robert Gates at the Pentagon. For those who missed it, it went like this:
Clinton, as a member of the Armed Services Committee, sent a request to Gates (or, Uncle Dick’s Private General) asking if the Pentagon had developed any strategies for withdrawal from Iraq (read the text of her letter on her .com website blog: http://www.hillaryclinton.com/blog/ ) Of course, Gates didn’t deign to answer her, rather he had Eric Edelman, Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, respond to her request.
In a response that can only be viewed as the tip of the very authoritarian iceberg to come and to wreck this ship of state, Gates told Ms. Clinton that Congressional Oversight will “embolden enemies”, and he alluded to the Executive Branch’s position that Congressmen like Clinton “aid and abet” the enemy. Thus, there will be no Congressional oversight, nor will Congress be informed of the planning and strategies, not the spending of monies, nor the realities on the ground.
Dear citizens, you must realize that what we are looking at is not just another election cycle, it is not just the pendulum swinging, it is not just the status quo in the Capitol. It is the very thing that the Founding Fathers feared – failure to hang on to Democracy. The paradox we are facing is the installation of a legally sanctioned authoritarian regime in order to preserve the democracy. It’s not that the Emperor is naked. No, he has poked out our eyes.
To Quote Benjamin Franklin: Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.
People, you are the witnesses to the birth of the modern Caesar.
Tags:
authoritarian state, Benjamin Franklin, Eric Edelman, Evil Uncle Dick Cheney, Fascism, Gates, Hillary Clinton, our fascist state
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Posted on 7/20/2007
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For those of you who dared to dream that the Halls of Justice were not the personal property of the Frat Boys running this country, today was a good day. It seems that lying, cheating and threatening are no longer the Teflon tools of this administration. Perhaps the ruling in this high-profile case (centered on the outing of a Bush opponent’s CIA spouse) will give future leakers pause. Putting aside the lack of morality exercised by Bush & his cohorts, and putting aside the administration’s disregard of laws and civil rights, this ruling can be seen as a scathing indictment of the recent spate of absentmindedness as a defense, first used by Regan and perfected under Bush. No one in this administration seems to remember much. It must be the White House water. All Grand Juries can expect to hear these days is a parade of witnesses who can’t seem to remember anything. What a great strategy for this modern version of poisoning.
Watching this all go down, it was striking, the change in Libby’s demeanor, from the grinning crony secure in his legal defense, to the wilted and bewildered convicted perjurer, about to be toted off to jail. If ever bravado and self congratulation drained instantly out of a man, it was there for us to see en vivo today. It was an impressive wilt, as if Libby had never even considered this trial a real game. It was in fact as if this had been make believe all along, and he was just waiting there, for someone from his cadre of so-called friends to pluck him from the scene and take him away to safety. But that did not happen, and the Grand Jury to which he lied and the American Constitution, upon which he shat, and the American People, upon whom he spat, can now have some modicum of respect for The Justice Department of Gonzalez.
But before we dance in the street to celebrate that the balances of Justices have been recalibrated, we must all remember that Bush is likely to pardon his rattled friend, to leave office with a sigh while performing that peculiar political act of benevolence, parallel to the Annulment of a Catholic marriage. It’s not the fact of consummation that is “forgiven”, but rather its intent. Bush is likely to “forgive” Libby, not for having committed perjury, but rather for failing to forget himself out of it.
Sad indeed has been the condition of this nation’s moral compass. Not only has the Bush Administration built an empire based on the notion that the ends justifies the means and that might makes right, it has also subscribed to the notion that the rest of us are dumbasses. Perhaps this ruling will be a caveat for those strategizing against the system. (Uh, Carl, Dick & friends….) Also, let us hope that this Scooter disaster has put chinks in the Rovain Armored Dream, his notion of this country as a meritocracy based on his own skewed vision of right, wrong, truth and lies. It may be too late for old Scooter, but Rove.. oh, never mind. He'll never get it.
Tags:
breaking the law, Bush, Dick Cheney, Libby, Rove, Rovian dream, Scooter Libby goes to jail
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Posted on 6/5/2007
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I must admit, the recent implosion of Uncle Dick’s Playhouse has been both fun and terrifying to watch. (Teddy Vargas – you are on the right track with The Museum of Intolerance.)
It is fun, for instance, to see former lackeys refuse to be the press & public’s whipping boys (I am thinking of Tenet, Comey & the Terminated 8). Even Ashcroft has come out looking good – who cannot feel some sympathy and even admiration for a man who refused to sign (while on his sickbed, even) the Evil Domestic Spying Plans of Alberto Gonzalez. Not that the lack of a signature meant that Al & Dick did not refuse to proceed with said nasty plan, anyway.
Uncle Dick’s plans to invade Iraq, take over the oil, install Halliburton as preferred vendor, subcontract security and law enforcement details to rinky-dink ad hoc companies, and so on, have fallen apart. Still, the scales refuse to fall from the eyes of Bush and those who desperately wish that he was the fine Manager of the Country that he promised to be, not the wooden dummy of Dick “Talks from Both Sides of His Mouth” Cheney.
Yes, we all did enjoy Tenet making the rounds of the chat shows, talking about how his words and those of others were duly twisted for the purpose of launching an invasion whose only objective was corporate revenge, greed, Malthusianism and the desire of a fake Texan to play cowboy at the expense of others.
It seems that no one, including “Good Old Brownie” from the Katrina Times, really wants to be hung out to dry, with nothing more than an “I don’t recall,” “I didn’t read that memo”, “the email was deleted”. Cheney and his cadre of truly-evil-doers have destroyed the lives of many people, and ruined many personal lives, all in the name of killing off the enemy (here defined as anyone in opposition to their very narrow-minded, anti-constitutional objectives).
So, it is fun to see these Hellhounds all falling over themselves to claim that their honor, their fides atque auctoritas have besmirched by well-placed adjectives and deceptive responses, if not outright lies. Yes, in fact, outright lies. Their deception has been so bold that they don’t even care if the ROC knows. No moral compass, no ethics, no real love Democracy (unless of course it is going exactly their way).
The terror I feel comes from knowing that we have come so close to a totalitarian state, that our checks and balances and civil rights have been severely mauled and partially amputated by the rabid manner in which Uncle Dick and the Bloom School have grasped at the reigns of power, have whipped people and institutions into submission, have reactivated the dead Goering School of Thought on Government.
To continue with this theme, the Big Business lobby has now secured its Guest Worker program, creating the needed Second Class person & future Scapegoat class that every totalitarian government needs. Vigilance is the only way to prevent the totalitarian state from emerging in the guise of “Right Wing Democracy”.
Tags:
Alberto Gonzalez, Bush, Dick Cheney, George Tenet, Goering and Cheney, guest worker program, Hellhounds, Justice Department, totalitarianism
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Posted on 5/18/2007
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Watching C-Span live does have its rewards.
When Al Gore was there last week to speak on the topic of global warming, Imhofe (Republican Senator from creationist state of Oklahoma) tried to choke the speaking-air right of Gore by asking him questions and then not letting him answer. He even told GOre he was "full of crap" and that global warming was the equivalent of the propaganda of the Third Reich.
I was stunned - not because a Senator could behave so badly, they do it all the time, but rather because Inhofe was so willfully ignorant of everything in the universe and in world history, and he just couldn't help himself from putting it on record (an thus on Youtube.com).
The best part of the broadcast was when Barbara Boxer smacked Inhofe down, telling him he had to follow the rules of order and let Gore answer. Then she reminded the Dummkopf from Oklahoma that SHE was now Chairperson of the committe, a result of the Democratic process in the United States, and that he was nt making up the rules of committe.
It was great to watch and was no doubt just a preview of what we have to look forward during the upcoming election season.
Tags:
Al Gore, congressional foreplay, Imhofe as Dummkopf
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Posted on 4/3/2007
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