Bush Doesn't Trust America
In a spot on editorial, WaPo's Eugene Robinson says:
[A]ssume that the president has the best of motives, then the problem is that he wants to protect the American people but doesn't trust us.
An incredible argument for me, Robinson says simply that all of the things presently occurring are being done behind the backs of American citizens. Assuming the necessity of such drastic measures to keep mushroom clouds out of NYC, L.A., D.C. or even Hollywood, the president should be honest with America.
Their argument of course is that it alerts the terrorists as to what we're doing in order that they take other measures. That doesn't stop the president however from Congress and asking for a wider latitude in his executive powers as opposed to just trumpeting "war on terror, war on terror" and procceding to get Alberto Gonzalez to say a few words, sprinkled with legal, Constitution and 'Congress authorizing use of military force' and everything be hunky dory.
[Source: http://www.www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/26/AR2005122600516.html]
Until you acknowledge and develop the ability to be self-supportive, you cannot alter your reality in the world.
Iyanla Vanzant
Bush Pressuring Post and Times
From SusanG at Daily Kos:
Last week, we learned that Bush summoned New York Times editors to the Oval Office in an effort to kill the NSA domestic surveillance story.
Now we can add another summons to the list ... according to tomorrow's WaPo, Bush put pressure on the Post as well to kill its CIA secret prison story.
Neither newspaper complied.
[http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/12/25/23527/569]
Barron's Article Link
The
Barron's article link.
A Very Important Article
As reported by most in the left blogosphere, an article in the widely read and respected business magazine Barron's is discussing what heretofore has been discussed only by us, the impeachment of George W. Bush. I will quote extensively:
"[W]e picked up our New York Times and learned that the Bush administration has been fighting terrorism by intercepting communications in America without warrants. It was worrisome on its face, but in justifying their actions, officials have made a bad situation much worse: Administration lawyers and the president himself have tortured the Constitution and extracted a suspension of the separation of powers."
The article goes on to say that it was not surprising that the government would intercept international calls after 9-11, that the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Survrillance Act allows warrantless intercepting in emergencies for 72 hours, that the USA Patriot Act makes allowances for warrantless wiretaps for up to 15 days and that even the authority given the president by Congressional reolution on 9-14-2001 to pursue terrorists may have also given the president latitude but not for the president to allow this four years later.
He also says that in the four years since 9-11 and since the enacting of this program, Congress has debated this issue and that administration officials have been before committees seeking to extend the president's authority and the law has been written and set. But now, the White House is claiming to be bound neither by FISA or USA Patriot Act and that Congress has no power to restrict the president.
"Putting the president above the Congress is an invitation to tyranny. The president has no powers except those specified in the Constitution and those enacted by law. President Bush is stretching the power of commander-in-chief of the Army and Navy by indicating that he can order the military and its agencies, such as the National Security Agency, to do whatever furthers the defense of the country from terrorists, regardless of. whether actual force is involved.
Surely the "strict constructionists" on the Supreme Court and the federal judiciary eventually will point out what a stretch this is. The most important presidential responsibility under Article II is that he must "take care that the laws be faithfully executed." That includes following the requirements of laws that limit executive power. There's not much fidelity in an executive who debates and lobbies Congress to shape a law to his liking and then goes beyond its writ.
Willful disregard of a law is potentially an impeachable offense. It is at least as impeachable as having a sexual escapade under the Oval Office desk and lying about it later. The members of the House Judiciary Committee who staged the impeachment of President Clinton ought to be as outraged at this situation. They ought to investigate it, consider it carefully and report either a bill that would change the wiretap laws to suit the president or a bill of impeachment."
The article continues with the declaration that an impeachment case would not be about wiretapping, it would be about Congress enacting law and the president refusing to follow the law.
The article then takes to task those congressmen who were informed, although inadequately, about the wiretapping and that their reticence to do anything because they were
"scared of being called names, as the president did last week when he said: 'It was a shameful act for someone to disclose this very important program in a time of war. The fact that we're discussing this program is helping the enemy.'
Wrong. If we don't discuss the program and the lack of authority for it, we are meeting the enemy -- in the mirror"
A must read.
Until you acknowledge and develop the ability to be self-supportive, you cannot alter your reality in the world.
Iyanla Vanzant
Merry Christmas
Merry Christmas to everyone. I hope Santa brings you what you wanted for Christmas. I told Santa I wanted my gifts in 2006 and 2008 so give my shiny red bike to the next kid, I have work to do.
Merry Christmas (or Bill O'Reilly will get me) and Happy Holidays.
German Chancellor Repairing Ties with U.S.
From a Reuters article on the "mistaken detention" of German Khaled el-Masri and a coverup by the German authorities at the request of the U.S.:
"The suggestion that a German minister and other members of Schroeder's government may have been involved in a cover-up to protect Washington from embarrassment comes at a sensitive time for the new chancellor, Angela Merkel.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrives in Berlin late on Monday for talks with German and other European leaders where the topic of the CIA's treatment of prisoners is one of the main items to be discussed.
Merkel has been in office for less than two weeks at the head of a power-sharing "grand coalition" with her former rivals. She is trying hard to repair ties with Washington, which never forgave Schroeder for his vocal opposition to the U.S. invasion of Iraq."
Two things. One, Washington never forgave the head of Germany for not going along with the Iraq invasion, for following his assessment of the intelligence, his advice from his cabinet, his instinct and he turned out to be right. That is ridiculous.
Two, I take issue with the term "mistaken detention." You can't mistakenly detain. You can hold the wrong person for months and months, for years and years, without them seeing thwir family, having the right to a lawyer and in the case of extraordinary rendition, flown to secret prisons where the guards may not necessarily following Geneva Conventions and other safeguards against human rights abuse.
[Source: http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/1205-09.htm ]
Bush "Delivers" Economy Speech
I say "delivers" in quotations because the president seems to be ever increasingly speaking more and more poorly. That aside, I have a couple of tiny observations.
Iraq Tentacles Continue
The consequences of the Iraq invasion continue to be both damaging and internationally far reaching. From the AFP via Truthout:
The United States was facing mounting embarrassment as allegations continued to emerge of a shadowy network of both secret prison camps and CIA "torture flights" carrying undeclared detainees through European and other countries.
In the latest such report the British newspaper The Guardian said Thursday it had seen navigation logs showing that more than 300 flights operated by the US Central Intelligence Agency had passed through European airports, as part of a network that could be involved in the clandestine detention and possible torture of terrorism suspects.
The claims have emerged since November 2, when the Washington Post newspaper reported that "black site" prisons were, or had been, located in eight countries including Thailand, Afghanistan and "several democracies in Eastern Europe" since the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.
The paper also said that the CIA had used planes to send more than 100 suspects to the hidden global internment network, not including prisoners picked up from Iraq.
It must be said that making the war on terrorism above the law has resulted in a lot of negative outcomes. When one refuses to say that we don't torture, when one refuses to sign legislation prohibiting torture to not tie Bush's hands and when you write defenses allowing the US to torture, this is the result. International confusion. All of this without mention that the concept of 'detainee' as this new supercategory of prisoner and the fallout will be seen for a generation.
[Source: http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/120205C.shtml]
Daily news stories reiterate the maon points concerning Iraq. One of these points is that we cannot fix Iraq. From UPI via Truthout:
Retired three star Lt. Gen. William Odom, writing for NiemanWatchdog.org, wrote that while President George W. Bush wants to bring democracy and stability to the Middle East, the only way to achieve that goal is for the US armed forces to get out of Iraq now.
Odom, one of the most respected US military analysts and a prominent figure at the conservative Hudson Institute in Washington, wrote, "We have seen most of our allies stand aside and engage in Schadenfreude over our painful bog-down in Iraq. Winston Churchill's glib observation, 'the only thing worse that having allies is having none,' was once again vindicated.
"There is no chance that our allies will join us in Iraq," he wrote. "... Iraq is the worst place to fight a battle for regional stability. Whose interests were best served by the US invasion of Iraq in the first place? It turns out that Iran and al-Qaida benefited the most, and that continues to be true every day US forces remain there."
This is just one of many military experts including those that are conservative that are iterating this position. Can the president consider this? Politically no but I wouldn't presume to assume the president's intentions or his motivation because thatwould make me O'Reilly, Hannity, Limbaugh, et. al.
[Source: http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/120205A.shtml]
Iraq's the Thing
I took a break from blogging to revamp, rededicate and make some decisions but decided that I needed to cover Iraq, talk about Iraq and keep Iraq at the forefront.
Iraq is significant for a number of reasons. Yes, there are people that are happy that Iraq is continuing to be a source of poison for the Bush administration. They might even argue, as taboo as it would be to do so, that Iraq not getting better, however tragic, will result in ridding the US of Bush and ultimately that is good for everyone.
Ends justifying already quagmired means. I'm not one of them.
And yes there are pundits that believe that the majority or many Democrats are happy that Iraq is a quagmire but these pundits aren't capable of even dealing with the facts on the ground as reported by all of the top military brass. They desperately need to be right because pride is at stake. They are so married to the ideology of the right that can't bear to be wrong and they will clench, white knuckled to any whitewashed progress report, quote or feel good phrase uttered by the commander-in-chief.
Iraq, however, is vital for real and far more quintessential reasons than those. First, we are members of a world community whether some of our jingoistic and delusioned fellow citizens, politicians and mouthpieces care to either realize or acknowledge. Invading Iraq and not finding the stockpiles of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons has damaged us far beyond any short term solution. We have both cried wolf and brazenly told the entire world that we are right and everyone else is wrong. We will ignore international law because we are right. We will weaken the United Nations because they won't do what we say. Terrorism cannot be fought without global intel cooperation and we have damaged, damaged, damaged that cooperation, good will and community spirit. That is most important.
Secondly, we have damaged a sovereign nation. Will Iraq eventually be better off than it was under Saddam Hussein. Most likely. But wouldn't the rape and murder in Sudan cease if we invaded? We have been unable to restore electricity after almost three years. Reports this week of torture by Iraqi troops while American companies are complicit. Reports of Iraqi troops being infiltrated by individuals seeking to punish a different ethnic group.
Third, we have killed a lot of Iraqi citizens. It is unfortunate and one may argue necessary but the fact remains that we have killed a lot of Iraqi civilians. What has been troubling is that we have no idea how many have been killed. This is troubling because the numbers can be exaggerated in either direction. Legends have a way of continuing to fuel fire for generations.
Finally, we are losing American lives. I saved this for last because many have omitted the lost of life other than that of Americans. This is unthinkable. Morality or law is irrespective of nationality. A life is a life. That said, we are losing the lives of our American brothers and sisters and although it can be argued concerning necessity, it can certainly be equally argued that necessity and subsequently cost benefit analysis has to take into account the fact that with the number of troops occupying Iraq, we cannot secure Iraq period let along long enough to train Iraqi forces. If we cannot debate that possibility, we cannot be civilized and the entire political arena is a waste. The present punditry and position of the president makes this republic of ideas moot. For shame.
