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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
Farewell prince?
It is hard to go.
It is hard to stay. Respect?
I remember it well. The headlines in 96 pt type:
NIXON SACKS COX
(Well, only in my college newspaper, but still...)
"You can see, can't you Kitty, that I'm full to bursting? And now something else. You've known for a long time that my greatest wish is to be a journalist, and later on, a famous writer. We'll have to wait and see if these grand illusions (or delusions!) will ever come true, but up to now I've had no lack of topics. In any case, after the war I'd like to publish a book called The Secret Annex. It remains to be seen whether I'll succeed, but my diary can serve as a basis."
After having brought up the indomitable Anne Frank, I couldn't resist including this bit from her into the conversation. Off topic, but, so be it.
I don't see any value in treating these "people" as reasonable conversational partners. They are propagandists, and by treating them as anything else, their speech is legitimized.
-- jojo++
Shoots his mouth off is terrified of me, or so he says.
Mona... Among other things, he is so stoopid he thinks *I* am a Democrat.
Everyone has their limits.
Playing with Tony Snow's band. I caught a glimpse of that stache. How sad.
http://beatsworkinvirginia.com/_wsn/page2.html
He's also really friendly with Crazy Curt Weldon. A high IQ will not protect you from neocoprophilia.
Jake is a troll's troll. There is no point whatsoever in responding to him, except to elucidate the brutal barbarity at the heart of the BushCo mind. At this point, citing Korematsu as if it were good law is morally, historically and legally but a hop-skip-and-jump away from citing Plessy or Dredd Scott.
From where I live, I can look out my windows and see Terminal Island and the Palos Verdes Penninsula, where Japanese Americans were removed from their land, which was then stolen from them by patriotic "real Americans." It's not abstract to me. I can see where it happened. And anyone at all can see how similar it was to what happened to some of my relatives at the hands of Nazis in the very same war. Oh, sure, we were much more civilized. We didn't kill them outright. But, then, we had a lot farther to fall from our high ideals than the Germans of Weimer Germany.
Jake's a troll and traitor, all right. And there's nothing the least bit academic about it.
It is plainly evident that A.G.Gonzales is a political hack for the Bush2WH. Comey's testimony just one more addition to an already long list that supports that view. The odd thing about this Bush2WH is how they continue to plod along as tho there will be no Jan.2009 moment for them. The Iraq Debacle will not have gone away. The multiple examples of reckless and heedless law ignore,law non-abide and law break will not be sustainable past late Jan.2009. The next president and WH may well choose to start turning the lights on all this Bush2WH law abuse and mockery. What then? Will Tony Snow still be shoveling the crap he seems so at ease doing? Will Cheney,Gonzo and Rove and the entire cast of miscreant hacks that comprise this Bush2WH still be able to shape the why,when,what and who narrative? Of course not. It is truly bizarre how this bunch goes on day to day,week to week and month to month as if Jan.2009 will never come around.
The Bush2WH has pretty much put in place ethics/law abide conduct that has few red lights, fewer yellow lights and an endlessly expansive greenlighted core of moral,ethical and political waywardness and shabby conduct. A.G.Gonzales is a standout example from all this Bush2WH greenlighted conduct. Quite the accomplishment. Jan.2009 will come for this Bush2WH. It will be a long awaited event for many,many Americans.
To follow this narrative, it helps to know that
1. The OLC is "a kind of mini Supreme Court".
2. The OLC changed hands in 2003.
3. The new guy, Goldsmith, reversed some of Bybee's opinions.
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/11079547
By Daniel Klaidman, Stuart Taylor Jr. and Evan Thomas
NewsweekFeb. 6, 2006 issue
. . . Addington was just getting started. Minimizing dissent by going behind the backs of bureaucratic rivals was how he played the game. A potentially formidable obstacle, however, was the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel. The OLC is the most important government office you've never heard of. Among its bosses—before they went on the Supreme Court—were William Rehnquist and Antonin Scalia. Within the executive branch, including the Pentagon and CIA, the OLC acts as a kind of mini Supreme Court. Its carefully worded opinions are regarded as binding precedent—final say on what the president and all his agencies can and cannot legally do.
. . . [In 2003, after Bybee left the OLC,] Jack Goldsmith, a law professor who was working in the general counsel's office at the Pentagon, was the eventual compromise choice to head the OLC. Goldsmith seemed like a natural fit. He was brilliant, a graduate of Oxford and Yale Law School, and he was conservative. Like Yoo, he was tagged a "New Sovereigntist" for his scholarly argument that international laws including prohibitions on human-rights abuses should not be treated as binding law by the U.S. courts.
But somehow, in the vetting of Goldsmith, one of his important views was overlooked. Goldsmith is no executive-power absolutist.
. . . Addington soon suffered pangs of buyer's remorse over Goldsmith. There was no way to simply ignore the new head of the OLC. Over time, Addington's heartburn grew much worse. In December, Goldsmith informed the Defense Department that Yoo's March 2003 torture memo was "under review" and could no longer be relied upon. It is almost unheard-of for an administration to overturn its own OLC opinions. Addington was beside himself.
. . . It was Goldsmith's job to advise the A.G. on the legality of the ["Terrorist Surveillance"] program.
. . . The White House was told: no reauthorization.
Now, here comes the part where Newsweek got steered wrong in 2006.
[USDOJ and OLC] imposed tougher legal standards before permitting eavesdropping on communications into the United States.
- - Newsweek, Feb. 6, 2006
Technically, that sentence is true, but what actually happened, as confirmed today, is that the White House kept going anyway, even without permission from the OLC. The White House continued the "T.S.P." -- without making any concessions to "tougher legal standards" -- even after the USDOJ and OLC had told the White House that the "T.S.P." was illegal.
Much of the initial coverage about Fort Hood turned out to be wrong. Is there anything wrong with that?
The accountability imposed by another country for the CIA's kidnapping and torture reveals much about our own.
Fox News' morning show plays to type, talking about whether Muslims in the Army should face "special debriefings"
The survivor and author is upset about comparisons some on the right are making to genocide
Once seen as a lunatic fringe, reactionary anti-women groups are courting respectability
Salon headlines in your mailbox
