In the waning days of an administration marked by a penchant for confidentiality, open government groups and Congress have redoubled efforts to ensure that the written record of the Bush presidency is not lost to history. They say recent developments show growing irritation with a president who has used national security concerns to draw a veil over the workings of the executive branch and to hoard power for the White House.
Those developments include the declassification of the nation’s intelligence budget and new recommendations that the president’s daily intelligence briefings be saved as presidential records.
"They’re getting exactly the open government results they labored to prevent, and in part because they so overreached," said Thomas Blanton, who heads the National Security Archive at George Washington University. "They could have gotten 90 percent of the extra power they wanted if they went to Congress and the public, but by going for 100 percent and doing it in total secrecy, they undermined their own legitimacy and left the presidency weaker than when they started."
Dick Cheney and his unilateral executive cronies seeded throughout the government should be awfully proud of themselves. They have further weakened the presidency, and so overreached with their delusions of non-existant candor that even erstwhile allies like Susan Collins are selecting public statements of independence to save their own electoral asses (thank you, Tom Allen!) over protecting the Cheney flanks. How’s that power-grubbing overreach working for you now, Dick?
For more on clumsy, half-assed Bush/Cheney Administration secrecy initiatives, see this from emptywheel on the FBI’s less-than-useful national security letters; some thoughts on oil syphoning at the public’s expense because of inadequate controls and public scrutiny the last few years based on a faux assertion of national security to cover Dick’s tracks; hide the torture tapes and find the burn bag redux; on back-up tapes, deleted e-mails, and the further adventures of rule of law subversion for ass-covering gain; and a whole lot more (Part I and Part II). Just for starters.
Which makes this WSJ editorial on increasing powers for the Bush Administration to misuse for domestic wiretapping by the NSA in contravention of the law all the more laughable as a pot-stirring attempt at planted narrative misinformation. Here’s an answer for you: get a warrant. No warrant? No third party review and oversight? No way. That simple enough for you?
Who in their right mind trusts the Bush Administration at this point not to overreach and misuse power? Or to respect the rule of law and balance of powers considerations? Anyone?
(A little Bill Withers for everyone this morning — "Ain’t No Sunshine.")
Related posts:
Spotlight
Support this site!
Subscribe to the newsletter
Advertise on Firedoglake
Send
us your tips
Make us your homepage
About Firedoglake
Advanced search
Mornin’ Christy
Sunshine is the best disinfectant, but for this administration some industrial strength bleach may be needed too.
Morning all
industrial sized bleached DOJ with a Subpoena pad (they exist, I think) as big as the Washington Monument. Some bleaching occurred on Friday in the Civil Rights Division where Tanner just got tanned. See me down below in conversation with Elliott or the Muck.
My @ 4 was meant for you.
I support the Party because it protects me from Osama.
This morning, the thought that Dick Cheney’s own actions and secrecy and overreach in some overarching lifetime plan to try an restore pre-eminance to the power of the executive branch…have only served to further weaken that power? Cracks me up.
Couldn’t resist highlighting this.
Just irritatingly woke up this morning to Carl Castle on NPR, blithely and unquestioningly reporting Bush’s latest attempts to rationalize a war with Iran. The Scary Speedboat Incident was referenced, with no mention at all that the whole sorry sham has already been debunked. The Iranian Nuclear Threat was brought up, with no mention at all that the IAEA has already debunked that threat.
Nothing like waking up in the morning to a bile inducing sense of rage.
Open government groups and Congress may have redoubled their efforts, but so far those efforts haven’t come to much. I’ll believe that the written record (and the emailed record) of the Bush presidency isn’t lost to history when I can see it. Perhaps the efforts should be re-re-re-redoubled, just to be sure.
Hopefully, the next president will have a will to mitigate the influence of the neocons and christianists who have infiltrated the DOD, the military, the judiciary, and the DOJ under Bush. Doing so will be a very tall order, and the best antidote to their pernicious influence would be absolutely open, transparent government.
Re; the WSJ editorial. Wow. just….Wow. Especially the bits about the fine upstanding telecom companies patriotically answering the governments call for help in our War on Terra. Until the bills don’t get paid.
And WTF is the “anti-antiterror left” ? Are they related to Islamofascists?
morning all. Go Colts. Coffee.
(ok, that’s the right order – slept in – off to read)
Fire every Bush appointee. It’s the only way.
Bill Withers
oooh, I’m in love with him.
Thanks for taking me back Christy, wow.
You keep thinking you have won because you get a lower court ruling in your direction. Ultimately a higher court will overrule. Ultimately, the Executive is NOT subserviant to the Judicial Power or the Legislative power except for impeachment. If you try impeachment, Go ahead, “make my day”…
Still, I fear unless the whole unilateral executive theory is ruled upon and widely understood to be a failed attempt to overthrow the Constitution, we haven’t gotten rid of the threat. Ditto, the use of signing statements for anything other than mere explanatory commnets. Oh, and there’s the reversion of the civil service into a partisan spoils system.
I’ll feel better when civics courses teach these examples in the same light as the Dredd Scott decision, Andrew Jackson’s statement about letting “Mr. Marshall” enforcing his opinion, and other aberrations.
If just one or two no-name Cheney/Bush lackeys are indicted and threatened with real prison time the cascade of “save my ass” information will be breathtaking.
And wouldn’t that be something to see…
How much longer in this administration? I just want our long national nightmare to be over. I feel like a kid on a car trip. How much longer, mommy? How much longer? Are we there yet?
And then what? An informed electorate.
Reports of the death of the unitary secrecy executive are greatly exaggerated. They’ve already destroyed many documents and will do their best to destroy the rest before next year. Then Hillary will take the crown & behave accordiingly.
Bill Withers
Lean on Me
always a Sunday morning sermon.
One year, one week, and an hour or two. (1-20-09 – says so right on my hat)
Good question. For the electorate to become informed, first the facts have to be available, and second they have to be disseminated (i.e., reported in the mass media). Both steps are crucial, and both are difficult.
Didn’t Hillary make some mumbling statement about how if elected SHE would decide which of Cheney’s power grabs she would “give back”
Ahem. I live in NYC, so if you believe what Hillary sez on giving up executive powers, I’ve got a bridge to sell you cheap.
What the foes of unitary secrecy executive are doing is much too little, much too late.
interesting – Timmeh is going after Hillary pretty hard. Kinda shooting my theory that GE/NBC/MSNBC is pushing for McCain/Hillary election… Maybe GE et al are pushing for McCain for prez running unopposed?
what a lovely way to start a Sunday.
thanks, Christy
It’s not about McCain, it’s about who they are gonna put in as his VP, who then to no one’s surprise will take over the presidency. After all, he was so old. Please please not Lieberman.
I tried to cover it “live” on Talking Heads thread so you can go back and see if my impressions match yours. (Press the Meat comes on at 8AM CST in San Antonio)
And then you have to make them pay attention.
Sorry for the OT but please pass the brain bleach, someone polluted my Cspans
Bush on Cspan 1 and Goldberg on Cspan 2 … Eeeuuuuuuuuu
Documents destroyed? Yes. Burned in the Veeps office. His ‘ceremonial office’. Which is of course, where the documents were stored.
Don’t know if has been mentioned before but Russert nailed Hillary on her Iraq votes. He noted that she had voted against an amendment by Carl Levin requiring Bush get a UN resolution sanctioning military action against Iraq. He had her tapdancing everything from a waltz to an Irish reel over it. Life would have been much simpler for her if she had just apologized or said she was wrong or mistaken. But nooo, so she has to go into these long convoluted and totally unbelievable explanations. It not only underlines her bad choices on Iraq but undermines her credibility and judgment.
It is so true that McCain’s VP choice is critical. Lieberman is the neocon DreamBoy and if old John allows him on the ticket he may as well paint a target on his back.
Actually, I thought her answer on the Levin Amendment was a good one. As a matter of principle, you can’t give the UN Security Council that kind of power over our national security decisions.
I had this blinding insight in summer of 04 or 05 on a long bicycle ride that W et al would destroy as many documents as they could before they left power. (I remember exactly where I was when I figured this out.) So far the evidence is on my side. Fire in Acting Prez Cheney’s office, CIA destroying torture tapes, missing emails, ignoring subpoenas from Congress, ignoring judges orders. Against all that we have a few people shaking fingers at them & saying you naughty naughty boys. Wow. Some progress. Some weakening of executive power. I can just see W’s & Vice’s smirks.
I don’t disagree with your reporting (I’ve only seen about half at this point – keep pausing the DVR). what I see is Hillary, as you say, refusing to be bullied, but in the process looking to be, umm, an unpleasant person.
Yes, she is not being left looking like roadkill, as was Willard, e.g., but she’s certainly playing against the warmer, fuzzier(?), more personally likable candidate image she projected in New Hampshire.
Into the second half now – she looks a little looser – less combative.
I hope nobody minds if I slip in a little more Bill Withers
Grandma Hands
and as a general observation – Timmeh is doing his best to keep the conversation in a Democrat versus Democrat vein – but she’s missed several opportunities to re-direct the conversation to Democrats versus Republicans.
Well, guess what, the government is subservient to We the People, and that includes the Executive Branch which, according to our Constitution has equal power as the other two branches.
bush family values–pardons all around. no administration felon left behind; watch it coming to a country near you in December 2008; just in time for the oscars.
otherwise, the dems had better get them some payback and start the prosecutions at DOJ. Make Waxman AG and watch the fur fly.
It’s the brazenness that blows me away. Right under our noses. And the corporate press asks no questions.
Packed pretty tight in here tonight!
Saturday Nights Alright for Fighting – Nickelback
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFUTcrQpq5I
Attacking Iraq had nothing to do with US national security – and the best arguments for it at the time (imo, the only respectable ones) were that Un resolutions needed to be enforceable to be credible. Hard to see how they’d have been weakened by the Levin amendments.
I agree with most all you said but let’s keep Waxman where he is.
Yep. They’re wll practiced bullies, who have always succeeded with their tactics, and will continue to use them. As long as impeachment’s off the table, there is no accountability in the executive. (Well, that’s an overstatement. They’ll throw bones, which the Ds will lap up like they got great victory. Like Mukasey’s alleged investigation of the destruction of the torture tapes.)
Nor are the Judicial and Legislative branches subservient to the Executive. Or what part of “Three co-equal branches” do you not understand?
That’s why the Judiciary and Legislative branches have this thing called “oversight” which allows for this other component called “checks and balances.”
As near as I can remember, Saddam Hussein complied with every UN resolution. He allowed unimpeded hot & cold running inspections & turned over all the documentation that showed that there were no WMDs. What do you think SH didn’t do?
Christy,
WRT to the WSJ editorial on FISA – what’re you hearing lately? Do you think there will be support for extending the current act for another 18 months?
otherwise, the dems had better get them some payback and start the prosecutions at DOJ. Make Waxman AG and watch the fur fly.
nice sentiment, BUT…
We’re stuck with Mukasey until the final day of the Bush administration. The president nominates the AG. A Dem president cannot nominate Waxman, or anybody else, as the new AG until well after Bush will have issued the pardons.
If I had heard anything concrete, you guys would know. At the moment, no one is saying much of anything substantive…thus, no news from me on that front until I nail a few things down from everyone who floating unsubstantiated talking point rumors.
Starting impeachment proceedings, even if it does not end in conviction, will prevent the President from being able to pardon anybody. It is the only way.
sorry I was unclear.
I expect pardons all around….
but if not, the dems should seize the day and start the trials.
So the Obama idea of no lobbyists is to have Tom Daschle
as a campaign advisor
every member of the Daschle family is a lobbyist
The Obama campaign is full of humorless gits. (and weak sisters Daschle and Kerry)
I just can’t imagine what other fuckery they have waiting for us during the remainder of the Bush/Cheney term….oh yeah, Cheney has no term limits…Ugh.
I have been against the Iraq War from the very beginning. I believe Hillary’s vote in 2002 was a mistake. My point concerning the Levin Amendment isn’t about Iraq per se, but about national sovereignity. Levin’s Amendment was simply a boneheaded idea.
Hearing Daschle on Wolfie makes me happy that Daschle is out of DC. What a wishy washy jerk.
So when are we going to challenge the conventional rightwing wisdom about spoiled 60’s brats who wanted to save themselves from going to war with the new meme about the arrogant 80’s brats who believed you could get something for nothing and drove around with ‘He who dies with the most toys wins’ bumper stickers and supported businesses at the expense of the middle class?
-G
Hillary’s answer about the UN was a dodge. The UN charter recognizes the right of nations to legitimate self-defense. The AUMF against Iraq goes to some lengths to cite UN resolutions to justify the use of force. So it is not like the importance of UN resolutions was not recognized. The problem with those cited in the AUMF is that they are all drawn from the first Gulf War.
So basically we could act if we had real reasons to feel threatened. Our hands were not tied but a UN resolution would have given an international stamp of approval to our actions in Iraq. It would also have spread responsibility for our actions to the international community as a whole and not left it just on us.
So in short, Hillary is blowing smoke and repeating a stance on the UN similar to Bush’s own, which is OTOH to dismiss it and on the other citing it as often as he can to justify his actions.
Poor Tommy, he hugs Bushie, compromises on all sorts of legislation, gets an anthrax assassination attack and then gets smeared as an obstructionist left-wing defeatocrat.
-G
Hillary totally wants that unitary executive for herself. She is not going to give it up, not one corner of it.
And that voice she found in NH? Not gonna be using it in DC.
Good story on that cliche. I was in Austin, TX about 20 years ago, in a taxi from the airport to meet with the TX state pension investment group. The (obnoxious) Wall St. salesmen with me was espousing just such sentiments. Without missing a beat, the taxi driver slightly turned his head and said, “The person who dies with the most toys still dies.”
I expect pardons all around….
but if not, the dems should seize the day and start the trials.
ok. With all due respect (and please pardon my pre-game crankiness)(have I mentioned – go Colts!) the “but if not” part is a pipe dream. Boosh is gonna pardon everyone who’s ever entered the White House at his, or Darth’s, behest.
And then he’ll *really* start getting serious about pardons – the list may end up being published in book form.
jmo, ymmv, etc.
gotta go stock up on game-snacks – back soon.
The textbook definition of a massochist?
I love a good working class mans smack down to arrogant businessmen. Love it!
-G
BG, are you saying that the voice Hillary found was Dick Cheney’s?:)
The Levin Amendment was voted down 24-75.
I’m sorry, but HRC is full of crappola. She said she was personally told by the WH that they would not use the AUMF for preemptive war.
The very fact that she trusted what the WH told her is absurd. Anyone with 2 braincells and was aware of the history of Bush/Cheney would know what they were up to, and she was onboard with it. It is that simple.
All of this squirming and reinventing herself sounds ridiculous to me.
Hillary “vast right-wing conspiracy” Clinton should have known better, and she did…she supported Bush, period.
What a crock.
OMG. Thompson is a real buffoon on the economy. But this is not a surprise. The surprise is his lack of any sense of embarrassment on what a dumkopf he is. Oh no, that’s not a surprise either. He’s a pol.
Good morning everyone :) :)
Sorry OT, I don’t know if this has been mentioned/discussed yet, but things really are getting interesting and there is is serious stuff coming into the open..
‘The Central Intelligence Agency, backed by bodies including the State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research and the Defense Intelligence Agency, determined in August 1974 that Israel had nuclear “weapons in being,” a “small number” of which it “produced and stockpiled.”
Israel was also suspected of providing nuclear materials, equipment or technology to Iran, South Africa and other then-friendly countries.’
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/943902.html
And your point is? If we had gotten a UN resolution authorizing the use of force, Iraq would not be our problem but the world’s problem. If we had not gotten it, we should not have gone in. We didn’t get it (and yes, we did try to get one despite the Levin amendment) and if we had then stayed out, we would be in a far better position both here at home and in the world than we are now. So what do the Levin numbers mean except that a warmongering Congress was eager to follow a warmongering President over the cliff?
Oh, that doesn’t really matter, because if he gets the nomination, he’ll pick Jeb as VP, and Jeb’s economic instincts will take care of everything. /s
Let’s see, that would be self-enrichment, right?
Fred is a font of Limbaughesque talking points. But he sure is handsome:)
-G
Just having some free fun. Thompson’s chances are like a snowball’s in hell.
Still, if I were to take U.S. democracy seriously, it would be very distressing that someone (or all the Rs separately & combined) running for prez knows so little about how the economy actually functions.
The timing and the link to South Africa have been known for years. I don’t know that much about an Iran connection. Iran and Israel had good ties under the Shah but I don’t know that they were that close. Also I am not sure exactly when we began exporting nuclear technology to Iran so it would have been about that time. So the ability of the Iranians to work with Israel in any substantive way was I think small.
Yep, handsome if you like bald heads, baggy eyes & sagging jowls. Just my type.
Ask Tweety if he smells good too.
me and lahoma got in around dawn this morning. My lady has been sleeping away. She tried to dance my legs off last night in OK. City. She failed. I don’t need much sleep, my girl does. It’s a glorious Oklahoma Sunday morning. I hear her stirring. Soooo…. I’m going to fix us each a cup of Postum, with 1/2 & 1/2 and sugar and then start breakfast. lahoma doesn’t know it yet, but she gets breakfast in bed. She loves that. And then I’m coming back here for politics. ;0)
Now, HRC was asked about the mortgage crisis, and Timmeh asked if the people who took better mortgage deals weren’t the one’s at fault…HRC answered saying “we are all at fault” (taxpayer bailout); rather than strictly going after the banks and lending companies that screwed the people. Go after the criminals. Don’t make everybody else pay for the corporate rip offs. Hold them accountable…they can afford it.
No, let Jeb pick what hedge funds he wanted to invest in and then cross those off the list.
But isnt he “Reagan-esque” and doesnt he have a Cheney working on his team?
this will only be true if this administration is held to account
if they are not, all will know that they can take what is not theirs and there will be no price to pay
this administration has taken not only power, not only intergrity, but the treasure of the middle class, the treasure of the middle east
their punishment will be their future generations will have more wealth then kings
they have taken, they have shown the template, they have shown there is no price to pay
so though it’s a nice thought that the presidency is left weaker, I sort of doubt it
My point is that it was a boneheaded idea that was never taken seriously by the United States Senate.
Joining Hillary in voting no were Senators Biden, Dodd and Edwards.
Good Morning Christy!
First thing I read this morning was the WaPo article. Interesting that it was carried down on the page. Vultures coming home to roost? No doubt the Prez and the 4th Branch can hold out a while longer but as you point out it is like when the Lone Ranger and Tonto ride over the ridge and down below a 1000 pissed off Indians are riding right at them and the Lone Ranger say to Tonto, “We are in big trouble”, and Tonto says to the Lone RAnger, ” What do you mean we White Man?”. Ya, the GOP rats are heading for the lifeboats. Of course, whether or no the 4th Branch has left any oars in the boats for the rats remains to be seen. They might be adrift for a long time.
Clusterfuck in Moslem country singin “Bomb bomb bomb- bomb bomb Iran”- using the recent incident in the straits as justification for some kind of undetermined “getting tough” against the country.
The correspondant who filed the story felt obligated to mention that the story of the incident was perhaps not as Bush described it- and that the timing just ahead of Bush’s trip is suspicious.
This fucker has ruined the credibility of the US Presidency.He’s out trying to get assistance from Arab states- but not even members of his own country- or even his own PARTY believe his lying ass.
Incredible.
I’m having fun too *g*…the problem, as I see it, is that Thompson may rise up out of his self-imposed Rovian ashes and kick the other Pukes butts in the end. Don’t rule him out…he’s laying low and playing dumb and slow…poker. He is ignorant of all facts though, that is obvious, but it won’t stop Pukes from nominating him. They obviously like that kind of leader….
Hillary did go after the fraud by the financial institutions, but not nearly enough. That should have been her first answer to Timmeh’s trying to scapegoat the victims. The fraud in this subprime mess will prove to be monumental & we have just seen the tip of the iceberg. Putting it front & center would have made Hillary seen like a leader. But then it would have pissed off her donors, so guess what tack she took.
Geez if Thompson is only “playing” dumb, he’s taken me in completely.
Clusterfuck’s in Arab states making public speeches villifying Iran…He’s asking for HELP- in his private meetings, he is bribin the greedy leaders with your money and mine. Will he get any to sign on?
and oh…the president, as far as our inteligence telling him to lay off Iran, he says he’s gonna do it his way no matter what the inteligence reads;
think progress
I think he’s over there pledging to these leaders that he’s gonna “take care of Iran” before he leaves office (if he ever really leaves office that is; because a war with Iran could cause enough chaos to claim a national emergency due to the economic disaster it would create).
High oil prices make his family and his minions all the richer, so it is in Bushco’s interests to attack Iran in the long run. They will do it if they can.
Bushco doesn’t give a sh*t about the price of gas, because they don’t drive and they are already wealthy and attacking Iran will increase their personal wealth.
Freaking criminals.
Impeach them now!!
Coffee . . . . . . . .
There is something to be said for firing all Bush appointees. It’s systemically toxic. That said, how does one/anyone sack the anointed? And would that booting on their bums included Bush’s appointments to the Supreme Court. Whose bright idea was it to make that a lifetime appointment? (sigh)
I can’t say that it makes a damned bit of difference which of the gooper Nuevo versions of Clusterfuck is the candidate. McCain, Romney, Rudy toot toot, and Thompson smell like they brush their teeth with “BUSHANUS” brand.
They’ll all promise to sign on, take U.S. money, & do nothing.
He’s not unintelligent. He is intellectually lazy. His “handlers” want him that way, because then he is less intimidating to the dumb pukes, who fear “elitist intellect”. He is an actor. An actor.
When and/if he stays viable throughout this campaign, he will seem more and more “informed”, but just informed enough to stay in the race. It is GWB43 all over again.
I guess doG must have given him some insight that US intelligence wasn’t party to.
Re “how much longer, Mommy?” from kids on a car trip like waiting for Bush administration to come to a conclusion:
Especially if one is in the throes of car sickness. Just sayin’.
If there’s a dem in the White House—undoubtedly would get rid of every Bush appointee who isn’t nailed down. You can’t trust ANY of these partisan no talent fuckers!
wdnt argue with a word of that … just wishing on a star.
Colts–not so much. see under Foxboro–new champions.
I see no evidence that any of the leading gooper candidates are stupid- although the Huckster is shockingly uninformed.
People can hold alternative opinions to me and not be stupid. I learned this with great difficulty many years ago.
On rare occasions I do something smart. About five years ago we sold our house in Cali and moved back home to OK. We bought a beautiful house here with some land. For $55,000. That’s not the down payment, that’s the total cost. Of course there are trade-offs. We have no credit card balances. My truck is twenty years old, and my lady’s PU is going on eleven. But we do okay. And so do our trucks.
Where does one draw the line between a recession and a depression?
Well put!!
He’s not unintelligent. He is intellectually lazy. His “handlers” want him that way, because then he is less intimidating to the dumb pukes, who fear “elitist intellect”. He is an actor.
I think this gets to the heart of the Bush persona. But it must gall him to be the butt of the body politic.
According to this article by the Federation of Atomic Scientists:
http://www.fas.org/nuke/guide/…..index.html
the CIA had concluded that Israel had begun producing nuclear weapons in 1968 based on conversations that Edward Teller had had with colleagues in Israel. As for nuclear test:
According to wiki, the US began nuclear cooperation with Iran in the 1950s. This led to a research reactor fueled by highly enriched uranium in 1967. In 1975 a contract was signed with a German firm to build a reactor at Bushehr but the Iranian revolution came along before it was completed. In 1976, Gerald Ford offered to Iran a complete fuel cycle including extracting plutonium from nuclear fuel but this never really went anywhere.
It wasn’t boneheaded. Getting international support never is. Didn’t most of the Senators vote for the AUMF? Now that was boneheaded.
This is a distinction that is usually made when you are about halfway down the cliff and the ground is coming up fast.
I agree, getting international support is always a good idea. And, yes, voting yes on the AUMF was a mistake. Our difference is simply that I believe the Levin Amendment was a poor idea.
Hi Christy,
In another “what a surprise” moment, I’m going to respectfully take exception to your shadenfreude over recent push-backs to the unitary executive power theory. Let’s use this quote as an example:
Thomas Blanton, who heads the National Security Archive at George Washington University:
I think the analogy that is apt here is that of a chess game. Blanton seems to see the White House’s ‘in nomine’ King (WHinK) in great jeopardy at this moment. I’m afraid Mr. Blanton doth protest too much. The People’s King (PeKing, i.e. open democracy, check & balance governance, transparency) remains equally if not more so in jeopardy in spite of the White House surrendering a couple of pawns. Concurrently, it has become apparent that there is a new aggresiveness at the formerly euphemized Department of Defense, which cognoscenti now call the Nominally Office of Defense (NOD).
Blanton suggests that the WHK should have played for acquiescence from Congress (the People’s Debilitated Queen, PDQ) in attempting to secure the board (political power, aka peepee), which would have meant that the courts, let’s label them the Bishops, would have had less recourse to reprimand the WHK.
What I see as Blanton’s huge mistake here is in viewing the board as being static, while what David Addington and the WH Office of Legal Counsel have been assiduously doing for the past 7 years is to create a worm hole in the time-law continuum and delivering by means of deceit and power plays an essentially unrecognizable playing board radically different from what we all thought we were watching in 2000. Whodathunkit then that today we’d be debating which portions of international law regarding torture, kidnapping and aggressive war are now legitimate postions on the chess board?
Essentially, what the WHinK has done is to recreate the chess board, while the slow elk among the herd are still tilting at windmills as if they are still on the same board we recall from the salad days of the halcyon ’90s.
So, Blanton really misses the point about how the WHinK went about grabbing more power. Sure, it could have been done through old fashioned legislation on the old chess board, but what is going on here is that the WHK is engaging in agressive over-reach fully cognizant that there will be opposition and the WHinK team will sacrifice pawns and possibly knights (Sacrifical Libbys Offered as Bribes, i.e. SLOBs) for the sake of dominating the newly created reality on the wormhole warped board.
In conclusion, I think we’re still in deep shit, though I’m also observing that WHinK and NOD seem to enjoy and get away with raining peepee on PeKing and the Bishoprics PDQ whilst simultaneously succoring the home team’s SLOBs.
How many here believe (this being an act of ‘faith’) that either Clinton or Obama would truly seek to lessen the power of the new, ‘all-powerful’
Presidency?
Or, that they would even honestly share with the rest of us what they might discover about its abuses under Bush should they become the ‘most powerful person on Earth’ if (and it is still a very significant ‘if’)
they assume the reins of Presidential power?
Both are slick, well-coached politicians with fragile egos (really!) and overweening ambition, not saints. Neither of them exhibit evidence of having a clue (really!) that everyone else’s lives are just simply hostage
to the greed, arrogance and appalling stupidity of political, insurance and corporate interests. Indeed, their life-philosophies require that they regard the rest of us as bit-playing, cheering extras in their important and singularly meaningful lives.
Of course, the R-thugs consider us toys or frogs to be broken or blown-up
at their pleasure.
Tell me folks, from your perspective, are things looking ‘good’?
Who amongst you are sanguine regarding our future and collective fate?
Are you planning your victory parties yet?
Prediction: Clinton and Obama will behave little differently from the R-thugs; given power politicians ALWAYS use it to their own personal advantage. If the ‘people’ benefit (in any meaningful fashion) it is either accidental or of much, much lessor importance (’a few bones to the dogs …’ so that when you kick them later, they’ll crawl back with their tails between their legs, begging for more, bones and kicks: we are speaking of a very destructive ‘relationship’ between ‘leaders’ and the ‘people’, think Pelosi for example, and her famous quote, “We are the leaders, they are the advocates’ and all that that implies).
Last question: How much longer will the rest of the world tolerate us and our destructive behavior?
Answer: Only as long as they are AFRAID of us.
Ray, I have been enjoying your comments for some time. The depth of your anaysis and the number of sources you share are remarkable. Your presence here is a great addition to the heavy-hitters often here in residence. Much appreciation.
at the entrance to the gated community?
a bad actor with an incom
prehensibleparable act that’s hard to followDoggone it. I was moments away from throwing in the towel. FDL has a reputation as one of the premiere progressive blogs. And the information presented in the home team’s thread headers is often remarkably well researchd and insightful. But the comments section is quite unworkable for someone who attempts to do more than throw monkey’s feces at the screen.
This morning was exceptionally frustrating. By the time I’d created something worth reading, the herd had evacuated this thread and was off in la-la land wasting their 2-minute hate on henpecking Tweety Bird.
I’m not sure where to turn. I attempted to found my own blog last spring and found that I was flummoxed by the daunting task of upgrading my skills to include site administration. And this comments thing at FDL isn’t working for me, and DailyKos is dreadful in that the management there has cavalierly censored any discussion of the obvious fraud surrounding the 9/11 official story.
So, I’m open to suggestions here about a new home for my talents. Maybe I’ll check out Democrats.com or DemocraticUnderground. Or, what I’d really love is to find a solid progressive board tha is solidly anti-corporatist, and openly opposed to the two-wing corporatist party racket that is ruining this nation.
Oh, well, what’s a writer to do?
Thanks, again, for your kind words.
Hi pups. Icky afternoon here, the way it’s supposed to be in winter. I like that.
Hope all are doing well.
I’ll just hang around awhile, hopefully not spewing any more bad bumperstickers, & see if peteyperp walzes up ready ta’ dance.
Kiddo. I spec. you could take him on with one hand tied behind ya, but you better hustle along with that postum and waffles & syrup, you divil you. heh.
-uh- Kiddo? You got s’more o that warm postum handy.
Emergency in aisle 115. Do what you can. Just don’t make him dance.
Ah, Ray writers are a threatened species.
We invest great thought, effort and feelings in our endeavors, our very souls, in fact, and receive but little.
We’d best prepare ourselves for even more of the same; reading is not a primary activity for most people and many commenters on even the best ‘progressive blogs’ don’t really read what others are saying.
For what it is worth, your efforts are outstanding and deliciously funny, deserving wide-spread appreciation and acclaim. Personally, I consider that they by now should have rendered you famous and wealthy.
Of course, Ray, if you were a right-winger you’d already have been cannonized, have your own teevee shew and lifelong sinecure at a thinkle tank.
As a progressive, you must do it simply for the love of doing it, whatever it may cost you, in terms of love or money or peace of mind.
You’ve my sympathy, my appreciation and my ongoing spiritual-intellectual encouragement. Writers must hang together, elsewise (as they say) we shall surely hang alone.
“This morning, the thought that Dick Cheney’s own actions and secrecy and overreach in some overarching lifetime plan to try an restore pre-eminance to the power of the executive branch…have only served to further weaken that power? Cracks me up.”
I just hope you’re right. I’ll feel more like Snoopy-dancing when court cases and legislation smacks down the over-reaching executive power grabs.
Thanks for your tireless work on this!
Bob in HI
Bob,
Are you familiar with the Ghost Dancing craze on the Great Plains in the late 19th Century. Christy’s post was far too reminicent of Ghost Dancing for my tastes. Funnily enough, I see conspiracy to confuse at work here.
Ray, tell me more about this ‘progressive board’. Mayhap you should just announce its potential existence and see what results. The ‘next’ step for meaningful change requires just such potential posibilities. I would be very interested in what you suggest.
My only question is this. Clearly there are not two parties, just one: Does it have an elephant’s head and a jackasses’ rear end or is the donkey to the fore whilst the ‘phant brings up the rear?
For my own amusement I made drawings of both, strange critters, indeed.
Re:
Frankly, I’d much prefer doing the threatening.
Re:
Basically I try to answer one of life’s perpetual questions, “what kind of fresh Hell is this?”
Re:
Next thing you’ll be telling me that I can get lessons from David Brock. Don’t worry, I’ve been thinking that David Horowitz, Michael Weiner (Savage) and Brit Hume are all on to something. I was astonished to learn that Hume in his youth was a writer for, of all things, Ramparts Magazine. Even the loquacious wordsmith Christopher Hitchens seems to have secured a sinecure and pension prospects by going all neocon on us.
Re:
That’s not what I want.
Re:
We’re thinking about doing a tabloid here for the election season. Haven’t get the title quite worked out. I live in Bend, OR so one friend suggested “The Bent Oregonian” as a send-up to the Portland paper of record.
As you may know, the masthead on the New York Times reads “all the news that’s fit to print”. Ours will read, “all the news that gives you fits”.
If you would like to have your cartoons published, send me an email at rayd85 at yahoo dot com. Thanks for your interest.
LOL, but of course I know what ya want.
After all it is nothing less than you deserve!
But please consider the loss to the rest of us, the fact that you (as yet) are neither very wealthy nor a household name has meant that the rest of have been deprived for years (I suspect) of your insight and capacity to educate merrily on topics which would have done us all a world of good!
Just think, were voices such as yours (and yours in particular) being heard and heeded, America, today might be well-regarded and even happily pointed to as a role-model.
I shall be in touch, Ray, thanks for your address.
Ray, I was under the impression that the NYT masthead had been changed, subsequent to the Downing Street Memo, to read: ‘All the news that is “fitted” to print.’
Re:
Touche!
Kentucky’s toothless, Giuliani’s work for Oxy-Contin, Bloomberg’s conflict of interest , junk foods and medications from same sources,laser theft ,Economic Stimulus Plan
1) Senator McConnell should read this story in the NYT, Dec.24,07 :” In Kentucky’s teeth,toll of poverty and neglect” were we find out that Kentucky has the highest level of toothless people,from chewing tobaco ,lack of hygiene, lack of Health Insurance and Education, hundreds of thousands of Kentucky’s citizens spend their whole lifes without a denture, without a flipper to let them chew and look like normal human beens, in the USA in 2008 !!! and while the Senator sends 12 billion dollars a month to Iraq and Afghanistan to feed the Military and Security Contractors,his Hedge Funds ( ….and the 400 Pentagon Generals that retired to Senior VP positions in the War Contracting Business, and that’s another story to COURT MARTIAL, because will the young officers in the Pentagon expose the corrupt ones pushing the war to go on for more contracts ? SHAME ON THE PHONY PATRIOTS !!!! ) …..anyway, going back to Senator McConnell , his people are toothless, how can he let his own people down like that ? how ?
2) in the NYT,Dec.28,07:”Under Attack,Drug Maker Turned to Giuliani for Help”, where we find out that thanks to Giuliani and his team,all the neocons running this drug racket got only probation and fines,even after many deaths of overdose, no jail!!! and we got kids locked up for a lot less and without violence !!! and Giuliani and team made 2 to 3 million dollars in fees, we dont know exactly how much, that’s why it’s imperative that Congress releases the full list of customers of Giuliani and his advisers Podhoretz and Michael Mukasey , the 3 partners , and if there is no criminal activity, why not let the taxpayers know who they have worked for ? who?
3) Bloomberg continues to work with his Bloomberg PLC ( or LLC?) terminal from his desk at City Hall, he continues to talk,e-mail,give orders and do deals while mayor ,with his private company and on City time and with City Information ,this is illegal and fraudulent, if anyone does that, he or she gets fired and indicted, why not Bloomberg? why does he get a special treatment? and he wants to be VicePresident with Obama,Clinton, anyone, just to get in and then take over ? and America must put up with this fraud ? why ?
4) President Bush and Congress can launch right away a Stimulus Plan:
a) Solar factory plants in 4-6 states and training of carpenters,plumbers,electricians,architects and roofers to install cells,concentrators,thermal tubes, insulation and turbines-batteries and the grid links , this could create one million jobs in 18 months,
b) install electric plugs , ethanol E-85 as well as hydrogen pumps in 50.000 of the 172.000 gas stations in the land, this could create hundreds of thousands of new jobs,
c) in the South and with the ethanol industry, start planting sugar-cane,jatropha and weeds for ethanol, putting farmers,inmates and students as well as temporary guest workers to work full time, creating more growth
d) in Montana and around it, and with the Canadians,first plants to convert coal into liquid diesel,capturing 95% of the carbon dioxide,as well as sand and shale oil plants,all avoiding underwater toxic spills, it can be done well and clean !
e) geothermal in the West is a fact, every state with one pilot plant as well as wind turbine farms,testing new materials and batteries,this is vital !!!
f) all along the Atlantic as well as the Pacific , under water turbine farms,and testing the 3 basic methods available,to see which one generates more electricity
g) fusion and hydrogen fuelcells need a super kick, the President can do this right away….
h) take the nuclear waste and re-process the stuff , work on it until we get it right, if the french and russians can, we can too !…
or the President can ,with the Congress, continue to listen to the Oil and Neocon Lobby ,that wants the USA addicted to Oil and the Middle East forever, and so justifying sending billions to Saudi Arabia and Israel every day and letting these 2 abuse their neighbours ( Israel ) stealing their lands, and opressing their own people ( Saudi Arabia while financing the worst terrorists) , fear and violence is the best tools to justify opression, look at the neocons Chertoff ,Bodman and Mukasey talking only about more ID control, more security, more spying and more repression and only oil , they are doing to the USA what Saudi Arabia and Israel do in the Middle East: control , repression and abuse : the worst enemies of the USA Constitution.
5) the Senate is about to take up this House Bill introduced by R.Harman, one of the top AIPAC-Mossad operative in the House, and this monstruosity, disguised as an anti-terror bill would turn Free Speech upside down….per example , this post could be considered terrrorist talk ! the House Bill is HR 1955, lets see what the phony patriots do about it ! , America is becomming a Colony of Saudi Arabia and Israel,while 40 % of the christian men are busy watching the players and eating hot dogs….
6) The media , controlled by the neocons, is set on blocking out John Edwards and Ron Paul, keeping Obama and Clinton for the final stretch, then A FABRICATED MILITARY CONFLICT WITH IRAN OR SYRIA WILL LAUNCH A CONSTITUTIONAL CRISIS AND STATE OF EMERGENCY AND THE VOTERS WILL BE PUSHED UNDER TOTAL NATIONAL PARANOIA TO VOTE FOR MCCAIN AND LIEBERMAN OR ANY CANDIDATE with BLOOMBERG, THEN THE PRESIDENT WILL HAVE AN ACCIDENT OR SCANDAL AND THE LIEBERMAN-BLOOMBERG TEAM AND ITS ARMY OF ISRAEL WILL TAKE OVER THE WHITE HOUSE, ITS A FIXED SCRIPT …..WHILE THE CHRISTIAN MEN get busy WATCHING THE GAMES PLAYERS , EATING HOT DOGS AND ANTI-ACID MEDICATION AND WONDERING WHERE THEIR COUNTRY WENT …SHAME !
7) about the food in America : we have the 2 biggest junk food makers , Nabisco and Kraft merging and under the control of the orthodox israeli-american Yrene Rosenfeld of Philip Morris Tobacco experience and based in Switzerland, and this junk foods is in most schools, ,and as people are calling c-span about,most Hospitals and Madicare-Medicaid programs prescribe pharmaceuticals made by TEVA of Israel, is that normal ? and all the food has the symbol of kosher,which is a tax and control,why ? why this abuse? and where is Congress? where are the country leaders? where are the patriots? why we dont have genetic labeling and chemical labeling in all our foods ? but we do have a foreign tax-control symbol in most of our foods? where are the patriots and elected politicians ? with an israeli flag up their —–? where are they ? this is high treason and criminal fraud, and when a country can’t even control its own foods,its over ! , we need John Edwards and Ron Paul and 300 million honest patriots to bring down this crime and abuse and save America from this racket ! because this is organized criminal racketeering ! they sell our kids and us the junk foods and the medications, America ! don’t you see it ?
8) and to see McCain now kissing up to Lieberman,one of the architects of the Iraq disaster, how can he do that? too much HGH? a total lack of honesty ? , we must remember that it was Lieberman,Lantos,Harman,Schumer,Ram Emanuel , Bloomberg,Murdoch,Safire,Perle,Feith,Libby,Fleischer,Mehlman,Ullman,Coleman,etc. the ones pushing America to start bombing Iraq, every day on the media, and now,that same media wont even mention it !!!!,they blame Bush ,Cheney,and a few other christian exclusively, what a bunch of baloney !!!! liars and traitors! this racket is the worst enemy of America ! ……but to no avail, 40% of the christian men in the USA are busy watching the players shake their ——- up in the air,and nothing ELSE matters to them,what a shame !
9) BAE System is buying MTC Technologies which provides Intelligence to the Intelligence Community,they will get access to key networks and steal data and facts, a total dodo !!!!! , and BAE Systems is also into providing laser anti-missiles to aviation, this is an old fraud story, in 1999, the Clinton Adm. with Summer,W.Clark,Rubin,W.Cohen,Fischer, etc., in place started to transfer laser technology and chip-radio-radar-etc. technology to Israel, a massive theft , but since they controlled to Media,there was no scandal , and now that same laser tech. is coming back to the Pentagon ,the same tech.stolen from the USA is now being sold back to the USA Pentagon and commercial aviation, WHAT A CRIMINAL ENTERPRISE ! COULD MAYBE ONE,JUST ONE PERSON IN THE PENTAGON OR ANYWHERE ELSE IN D.C./ARIZONA/NEWMEXICO/LONDON STAND UP AND EXPOSE THE CRIME ? ANYONE ?….. NOTHING !!!!! they will steal again and again and again,and no one will say a word ! …of course, Bush still could fire all the traitors and criminals today , set the country free from oil and save America, will he ?
http://thomas.loc.gov/
http://www.senate.gov/legislat…..vote=00407
http://www.solardecathlon.org/
http://www.blueegg.com/
http://www.fuelcells.org/
http://www.iter.org/
“Who in their right mind trusts the Bush Administration at this point not to overreach and misuse power? Or to respect the rule of law and balance of powers considerations? Anyone?”
I’m sure there’s at least one senator from Connecticut who does.
“Are you familiar with the Ghost Dancing craze on the Great Plains in the late 19th Century. Christy’s post was far too reminicent of Ghost Dancing for my tastes. Funnily enough, I see conspiracy to confuse at work here.”
That’s a very interesting thought. Please elaborate, because I don’t quite see what you’re getting at, even though the answer to your question is yes.
Bob in HI
Yes. But, all those preznidenshul records are going into the black hole of His Shrubbiness’ private library. And just as Poppykins papers, while according to the actual law passed by Congress are accessible now, by Preznidenshul Fiat they are not.
There is only the beginning of a glimmer of possible sunshine into the actual papers and documentation of the current occupant of the White House and his evil henchman who lives up on Observatory Hill.
We still do not have non-political, effective restraint on Natl Security Letters.
We still have not seen the minutes, etc for Darth’s Daisy Chain with the Oil Executives that produced
hisshrubbie’s “Energy Plan”.We still have not seen the recovery of the White House emails.
The official White House emails that went through the RNC servers have not surfaced yet.
The Torture Video tapes are still “destroyed”.
The Torture Memos are still classified.
The Secret Service entry/exit Logs were ordered to be released… seen them yet? (i.e. “How many Divisions do the Courts have?” )
Not one of the Preznidenshul Signing Statements has been repudiated or revoked.
David Addington has not been indicted for treason.
Congressional subpoenas of White House Aides have not been complied with.
The list goes on and on…
While there have been a few small openings into Fortress Shrub. The walls have not been breached and everything of real value is safely locked away inside.
Shrubbie can not bear to lose. He will lie, cheat, and steal. He will change the rules of the game until the game is unrecognizable. But, He Can Not Lose. Allowing anyone outside the gates of his fortress to see into the workings of his court would be losing. The game is not over. We have not heard the last of His Shrubbiness on the application of glorious rays of sunshine to his administration. He would darken the entire world rather than allow that to happen.