Eli – and how about some accountability for THIS: McCain has now endangered not only Barak Obama, but other senators traveling with him, his security detail, and military personnel who would probably be providing other security for him on his trip. I think in the US this is a chargeable offense called ‘reckless endangerment’?
“I believe that either today or tomorrow — and I’m not privy to his schedule — Sen. Obama will be landing in Iraq with some other senators” who make up a congressional delegation, McCain told a campaign fund-raising luncheon.” http://www.huffingtonpost.com/…..13682.html

Oh yeah, I love that. Not only is that appalling behavior by McCain, it’s also appalling and possibly criminal behavior on the part of whoever leaked that to him.

(Unless that’s something everyone in the Senate knew, with the assumption that no-one would be stupid enough to actually blab it out there like that…)

Well, I ain’t got that swing in my dotage, so give me some politics like this discussion of fake market discipline.

It don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that threat of real financial consequences, doo-wop doo-wop doo-wop doo-wop doo-wop…

Please tell me that no-one’s here because they’re all at Netroots Nation, and not because I have just written The Stupidest Post Of All Time…

—-
One of the most amazing characteristics of modern conservatives is their absolute refusal to be bound by such petty trifles as “laws” or “regulations” (or “facts,” or “common decency,” or…).
—-

Yes, they believe the authority figure they follow has the right to break laws and rules if needed in his role as protector. However, authoritarian followers believe they must obey the rules set by their and stay loyal to their AF or they will be punished.

—-
If a company sells tainted food or unsafe toys or takes foolish risks, it will be punished in the marketplace, so regulations are unnecessary.
—-

Not only that, but they believe in “the buyer beware.” So, it’s the consumer’s fault if they weren’t careful and purchased from the wrong vendor. That’s why they don’t care how many caskets come home from Iraq. They believe those who volunteered to serve should have known what they were getting into.

If you really want to understand their mindset, you can download some great free PDFs here:

http://www.rockridgeinstitute.org/thinkingpoints

- Tom

correction:

However, authoritarian followers believe they must obey the rules set by their AF and stay loyal to their AF or they will be punished.

I think the “buyer beware” principle applies to elections as well. It’s not *their* responsibility to give the voters accurate information.

Not a stupid post at all, Eli.

Could easily be Norquists blue print of how to drown the middle class… and their liberties.

Eli, as we saw from Chaffee’s comments about the meeting with Cheney after the election…lying is OK; it’s expected. “We manipulate people” is their MO. As long as they win, they don’t care. They only get upset when they get caught or when they don’t win.

Thanks, I was getting worried.

To me it’s their blueprint for breaking the law (in both senses of “break”) with impunity while pretending that they’re upholding some kind of lofty, or at least rational, market principle.

The marketplace of ideas and information isn’t exactly free either.

Freddie’s not getting bailed out, according to the Decider, because Freddie will still have stockholders. That would be a buyout, of course, not a bailout, which is exactly what is happening. Additionally, the stockholders’ equity is being diluted by five billion dollars of newly issued equity holdings (probably to be purchased by Heliocopter Ben) so, in fact, it really is kind of a buyout. As well as a bailout.

Hi Eli. Accountability has to be demonstrated. I had a thought round fourth of July that pelting certain public officials with rotten veggies could be a good middle age traditiont to bring back into style.

I always find your posts thought provoking, though often I’m reading them hours later or even the next day.

The bottom line is whether the government is intervening in such a way as to prevent an inevitable failure. They were a little more subtle about Bear Stearns, but it was the same end result.

O Dear: Not the stupidest. I think we have reached such a point of nausea and saturation. Stories today on a big Rove role in messing up the Ohio machines,the Fitz story, faulty equipment that endangered our troops, the Dean panel (online) covering all the unconstitutional acts of our Unitary Pres. who misused signing statements in a most outlandish,
authoritarian fashion.

I am sure there is good news out there; yet, what more damage can these rogues do? Not stupid at all: tragic.

Might Makes Right, Eli.

You must always take into account the world in which we live.

Thank you, I really do appreciate that.

As for the rotten veggies, I reckon the veggie-hurlers themselves would be shown some accountability with extreme prejudice…

Well, I almost always think my posts are crap, so I was afraid that maybe this was the one where everyone would finally agree with me.

It *has* been a pretty ugly month so far, but I could say the same of the last 90 or so.

OK Digg is open so get the shovels Digging Pups..

Don’t forget:

WARNING: Due to Presidential Executive Orders, WITH CONGRESSIONAL APPROVAL, the National Security Agency may have read this email without warning, warrant, or notice. They may do this without any judicial or legislative oversight. You have no recourse nor protection save to call for the impeachment of the current President, 69 members of the Senate and 293 members of the House of Representatives.

4th Amendment Hit Squad from http://www.bluetidalwave.com/2…..-list.html

On Wednesday July 9, 2008 our U.S. Constitution, specifically the 4th amendment was officially torched by the U.S. government. The Democratic leadership in control of the 110th Congress lighted the definitive match to burn up every citizen’s civil liberties while a giddy unpopular President George Bush and his highly voter despised rubber stamp Republican caucus held the gas can in bravado glee.

The world would be a better place if Bush was as an effective leader of the globe as he is at whipping the Congressional Democrats in legislative battles.

Twenty One Senate Democrats voted to give final approval today to broadening the government’s spy powers and providing legal immunity for the phone companies that took part in the illegal Bush wiretapping program.

It isn’t just Republicans that get hives at the mention of accountability. As we are seeing more and more, the Democrats who helped them or stood by and did nothing are not eager for accountability either.

As for the free market, that’s just talk for rubes on the upside of a bubble. Need for market stability is how they justify the bailout on the downside.

(dirt flying behind me)…done.

It isn’t just Republicans that get hives at the mention of accountability. As we are seeing more and more, the Democrats who helped them or stood by and did nothing are not eager for accountability either.

Sad but true. I’m never entirely sure how much of the oversight, subpoena/contempt/sternly-worded-letter-but-no-decisive-action dance is kabuki and how much is just simple fecklessness.

Aw come on Eli… no way this is a stupid post in fact is is just calling it like it is. For Republicans nothing is OFF limits and they can do no wrong. On the other hand if a Democrat had said bo about some Rethuglian’s trip abroad ti would be called treason as we are in a time of WAR!

I like to see DIRT especially when it is the Rethuglians getting buried by their own dirt!!

Of course you are right. I guess Im really tired because that very thought (yes, 90) makes me weep.

I guess there is some hope on the horizon now that a consensus is accepting that this all has been a disaster. A real pushback/get the guy on Rove would be delightful; he’s earned it.

The world would be a better place if Bush was as an effective leader of the globe as he is at whipping the Congressional Democrats in legislative battles.

Or if the Congressional Democrats opposed Dubya as vigorously as they oppose us. Or if they cared as much about looking tough on Republicans as they do about looking tough on terror.

I wasn’t worried that I was wrong so much as I was worried that I was stating the bloody obvious and not really adding anything new.

Well, the thought was put into my mind because the Gov of VT – a rethug lite, a Bush-lite-wannabe, was “pied” during the fourth of July parade in Montpelier, the state capitol. All the newspapers reported him as “pied”, using pie as a verb. The kind of bizarro, only in Vermont or perhaps Texas part was that after a Santa clad guy pied the governor, the mayor of the neigboring large town/sister city of Barre, enraged apparently, chased the Santa through the crowd, grabbed him by the neck and threw him down. The Santa fought back, elbowing the mayor, and shouting, “you’re hurting me!” – whereupon, the mayor is quoted as saying that THEN he got angry and started kicking the Santa and generally beating him to subdue him.

I know what parade I’m going to next summer.

By the way, it was a cream pie.

Wow. That’s… spectacular. Epic, even.

The beat go on and on and on. rethuglians no if they are ever really held accountable in any way they would be in jail at the most and at the least they will be out of office… Which I feel is too good for them as they would get their retirement… damit!

Sad but true. I’m never entirely sure how much of the oversight, subpoena/contempt/sternly-worded-letter-but-no-decisive-action dance is kabuki and how much is just simple fecklessness.

i’m going with kabuki – if it was only fecklessness, why bother with elaborate stage props (hearings, subpoenas, letters, etc)?

I don’t believe that anything short of jail time will be an effective deterrent to future Republican criminals. “So I eventually get voted out of office? Boo hoo, I guess I’ll just have to make six or seven figures as a lobbyist.”

Yes. Vermont FDLer’s: anyone? Youtube?

Gotta keep the paperholders happy, too — and for Freddie and Fannie, that’s lotsa folks in Beijing and Tokyo.

I agree JAIL is the only place for them somewhere like Folsom and put them in the general population where they can work their magic /s

Possibly because they simply don’t know how to close the deal, or don’t want to look too partisan or aggressive, or they can’t believe that the Republicans will be so dismissive of the law and congressional authority (although if they haven’t figured that out by now…), or they want to expose the Republicans’ contempt for law and oversight…

But it probably is kabuki. Or it could be that some of the chairs *are* serious, but getting hamstrung by Pelosi and/or Hoyer and/or Rahm.

now that is the kind of independence day i could really celebrate.

Gramm quits McPains election committee ha ha ha…

Yes. I have to say I love it here, Eli. For politics alone. The will of the people, like it or not.

Yeah. A return to the old days I guess. Real radicals. I see it spreading.

But it probably is kabuki. Or it could be that some of the chairs *are* serious, but getting hamstrung by Pelosi and/or Hoyer and/or Rahm.

but then who’s hamstringing the senate committee chairs? unless none of them are serious?

Now I’m picturing something like the ending of V For Vendetta, but with Santas…

Former Enron Senator Phil Gramm has quit Johnny McTeleprompter’s campaign. He says he’s leaving because of his “whiner” comment. I think he’s leaving because after Johnny leaked when Barack Obama was going overseas, ole Philly can’t trust Johnny to keep all HIS SECRETS secret.

Eli, here’s further proof of your basic premise… Investigation of Iraq IG Ends With No Charges…

The federal government has dropped two investigations into the office of the inspector general overseeing Iraq reconstruction projects, according to a lawyer for the IG.

In a July 3 letter, federal prosecutors said they had closed the criminal investigation of Stuart W. Bowen, the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, according to Bowen’s attorney Bradford Berenson.

“The U.S. attorney’s office informed us that the investigation related to Mr. Bowen had been terminated without any charges being brought,” Berenson said yesterday. “Mr. Bowen is gratified that this inquiry has concluded without any finding of wrongdoing on his part.”

Reid? Don’t they need votes by the full Senate to get anything done, like Inherent Contempt?

If they need a majority vote in the House or Senate to pass Inherent Contempt, then I can see why it hasn’t happened.

Lovely. So is that a corrupt IG getting off the hook, or an honest IG finally freed of harassment?

Wow, is there YouTube?

That’s not too far off.

Vermont was recently showcased on front page of Wall Street Journal – an article about nudity in VT – in Brattleboro, a police officer approached a naked man at a creemee stand. The man was surprised, didn’t realize there was any law against being naked. And until recently in brattleboro there wasnt. Now, a small fine. And in most towns, not. Recently in Montpelier, some kind of a naked race. In Burlington, our big city, former home of former Socialist Bernie Sanders, an annual naked bike ride.

Picture people showing up naked at the Grand Union, with a long beard or dreadlocks’ next to a guy in Carharts just off the tractor for the day, and that’s what you’ve got here.

It’s really good.

Well, he was only being investigated for improprieties he was accused of doing against staff members… But, how come he hasn’t leveled any serious charges against anybody for the missing billions, or the shoddy work ‘performed’ by KBR, Bechtel, Blackwater… ad nauseum…?

That’s awesome. At least, in theory.

That’s what I want to know.

I guess he figured it would be a waste of time because no-one would do anything about it and he’d get his head chopped off.

Or possibly that was the condition for dropping the investigation against him…

You no the answer CT…. he is a Rethuglian and has his get out of jail card in his back pocket.

LOL.

Reid?

i have trouble picturing him hamstringing anyone. pelosi, otoh, i can see. here’s a blast from the past (march, 2006):

Although Nancy Pelosi is not a member of the Senate, she decided to pipe up and discipline Russ Feingold for daring to challenge the hegemony of the GOP:

Three time is the charm — I bet he’ll be back aboard the Stray Cock Express before Labor Day. I don’t think there’s anyone more disagreeable than Phil Gramm, except possibly John McCain. They’ll bring him back just to make McCain look cheery.

family time. see you cats.

If not actively hamstringing, then they probably at least know that he’s going to give them the minimum possible in the way of help. I.e., his usual, “Here’s how I’m voting, y’all do what you want.”

Eli, Great post. Will the Repubs hold McSame accountable for his comments on Obama’s Iraq plans? How many troops did McSame, now known as McAss*, endanger just by his idle speculation. His preaching his support of the troops is thin.

Doesn’t the ‘Hammer’ Delay and Mr Toobz Stevens run a close second or third to Gramm…? ;-)

Rather a cold place to brazen outdoors naked, or were these summertime incidents?

Republicans? Hell, I don’t think even the Democrats will. Although if someone leaked the info to him, they should really look into that…

NO!!!

Heh, Teddy has a post upstairs on that very subject…

Also, Teddy gets bonus points for using “brazen” as a verb.

Eli, thanks for the provocative post. I wanted to ponder it before responding right away, since it got to me on an emotional level. There is something enervating about your or anyone’s acknowledging profound pathetic bottom line reality.

“Being conservative is never having to say you are sorry.” The country is still willing to kick the “DFH-left” to the curb, though we have been right about Bush since Day 1. Have been right about so much since Viet Nam. And yet listening to the contempt for the righteousness of the left, post-FISA, …. of people finding being a “centrist” far more “sane and balanced” than being “too” left. I see left as the land of “wakefulness.”

I used to wonder how people who voted for Bush could stand to look themselves in the mirror in the morning. I don’t think it is a problem.

And the loyal Repubs are willing to get on the “we are winning the Iraq war” train. The “surge” can be spun and memory of the launching of the wrong-headed, immoral, greed-inspired, patriotism exploited Iraq war is not acknowledged. They are on the brink of “celebration” some of them?

Not only is there no evidence of “ethical conscience” with the Republicans, but the awesome hubris to ERASE illegal behavior with retroactive immunity. We all got to see so recently the gross tilt of the floor with FISA and the moneybags to be competed with.

We witnessed the stealing of the Florida election, and I keep hearing more and more about hard evidence of mucho dirty tricks in the Ohio election in 2004.

And the MSM is incapable of conscience. It obsesses on gamesmanship. Accountability? Well, only when it is “perp walk” time and then they will haul out the “democratic” schadenfreude.

Just heard about 283 electrical fires in 6 month-period in KBR-contracted constructed housing for our troops with 13 deaths. Accountability? I guess we are lucky just to hear that it happened. Anyone expect there to be accountability with this? I think this is what brings so much despair and erodes renewed capacity for intense outrage. Too many fresh hells. Too many devils on the loose.

Listening to Jane Mayer who wrote “On the Dark Side” talk about how David Addington and John Yoo were giving their legal stamps of approval to throwing out the Geneva Convention mandates. Cheney telling Russert so long ago, well for the war on terrorism we will have to spend some time “on the dark side.”

When I heard that the prosecutor of the ICC of the Hague was filing war criminal charges against al-Bashir because of genocide in Sudan, the 300,000 people dead, thousands of rapes, used as a chronic tool of war, etc. and through the protests and the jitteriness by many in the outside world… I thought… finally…someone wants to fight for accountability … please, go for it.

If you liked this one, I’m sure you’ll looooove the ones about how (and why) Republicans hate the law…

http://firedoglake.com/2008/04…..nstitution

http://firedoglake.com/2008/05…..te-the-law

I appreciate your channel, Eli. Thanks. Will take a deep breath and continue to raise or sustain my consciousness. :)

Eli, periodically I check back with this list, too.

Dr. Lawrence Britt has examined the fascist regimes of Hitler (Germany), Mussolini (Italy), Franco (Spain), Suharto (Indonesia) and several Latin American regimes. Britt found 14 defining characteristics common to each:

1. Powerful and Continuing Nationalism
2. Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights
3. Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause
4. Supremacy of the Military
5. Rampant Sexism
6. Controlled Mass Media
7. Obsession with National Security
8. Religion and Government are Intertwined
9. Corporate Power is Protected
10. Labor Power is Suppressed
11. Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts
12. Obsession with Crime and Punishment
13. Rampant Cronyism and Corruption
14. Fraudulent Elections

Lucky us, we hit the, uh, fourteenfecta.

And, of course, there’s this list…

Excellent post. The CheneyBush administration in two hundred words, with a precis of the GOP/corporate alliance thrown in. Fighting that is one thing that motivates and binds progressives. It’s one thing that makes us fearful of a new President who will use us to win office, but leave us at the altar — or the bedside (choose your analogy) — without the ring or the right tip.

The progressive agenda would upset a lot of applecarts. It’s a varied program that promotes the interests of those who buy in “the marketplace”, not those who sell in it. It would upset all of the Villagers and eviscerate the modern GOP. It would scare the toupees off corporate media, and frighten the Democratic machine more than having their lobbyists disclose their in-kind contributions.

So pause and think. What made Mr. Smith and Mr. Deeds and John Doe, heck, what made Andy Hardy, Mr. Chips and George Bailey successful? It wasn’t Clarence, though he helped. It was friends and neighbors with a shared community and future. Defiance, not fear. Hope, a sense of proportion and personal responsibility.

The President claims he’s an optimistic guy. He thinks his job is to sell, regardless of what’s inside the bottle or whether it matches what’s on the label. That’s not statesmanship or leadership and we all know it. He’s selling snake oil and fear, and a faux security meant to keep us complacent, not safe. We can do better, but not without each other.

So well said! Frank Capra couldn’t have said it better! Thank you.

What is the story about the 100 monkeys? Once the hundredth monkey “gets it” the whole monkey nation then gets it. It is getting the idea through to the 100th monkey that takes the patience and the fortitude.

Wow… and I thought Dennis K. had a juicy list…. thanks!