Letters to the Editor
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adnoto
I'm not sure you completely understand my point...
I believe the emphasis behind Democrats right now is something of a populist agenda. There were rumblings of nationalized health care, and a lot of rhetoric in PA lately about helping the middle class and all that. So yes, in some sense, the current Democratic presidential candidates are "somewhat populist".
Besides for that, a truly progressive/populist candidate (Kucinich, Edwards, or in some sick sense even Ron Paul) will not stand a chance in the general election. Even if one of them could win, there is no way the machine could be dismantled in four, or even eight years. This will take several presidents to fix.
I think you said we wouldn't have another corporate slut President if there were no Bush. If I read you correctly, then you misunderstand entirely. If we never have another corporate slut for a President, it will be in part because of someone like Bush. Were it not for Bush turning the wheel all the way to the right, there would be fewer people trying to turn it to the left.
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accountability is personal
While it's true that there's a danger of making Yoo and his ilk into scapegoats so that the rest of the cabal and the system itself can continue to go about their business, on some level any real accountability has to be personal. If the people responsible for torture and other war crimes are accepted back into society as if they'd done nothing wrong, then that says a lot about what we as a society value. These folks should be pariahs, and every company, organization, and neighborhood should treat them as such.
Right now most of these folks leave government and go straight to lucrative jobs in the private industry. Chevron just hired as one of its top lawyers William "Jim" Haynes, the former General Counsel at the Pentagon who was one of the key architects of the Bush Administration torture program ( http://www.newsweek.com/id/130611 ). Haynes was the main villain in Jane Mayer's brilliant New Yorker article "The Memo" which made Alberto Mora a widely known hero for his efforts to stop abuses at Guantanamo ( http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2006/02/27/060227fa_fact ).
So now when Chevron is trying to get out their responsibility for cancer, birth defects, and deaths in Ecuador, they are paying Haynes a fortune to slander the environmental activists who helped to bring the case (even smearing the Goldman awards for giving them a prize). I guess he's got the right skills for the job. Mark Fiore has a great new animation about this, which you can watch here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNjWA3-UGJM
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Silash
I'm not sure you [adnoto] completely understand my point...
-- SilashAnd I'm sure that you don't understand adnoto's point, which that he doesn't want to understand your point. Adnoto is not big on being able to contemplate perspectives or viewpoints other than his own.
If he were, he would realize that after Bush anyone who doesn't advocate emptying the US treasury into the pockets of the wealthiest 1% of Americans and when the treasury is empty then borrow 3.5 trillion dollars against the credit of the US to put in the same place looks like a populist. Anyone who doesn't propose to put more and more families below the poverty line or reduce the median income of the middle class comes off looking like William Jennings Bryan. Anyone who doesn't intend to have a Commerce Department that advises corporations how to avoid paying overtime comes off looking like John L. Sullivan or Samuel Gompers.
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A simple misunderstanding? Doubtful.
I think you said we wouldn't have another corporate slut President if there were no Bush.
No, we would (and will) most definitely have another "corporate slut president" regardless of Bush. Bush has little to nothing to do with it. We swallow what we are served. Some folks like LWM (and you?) are glad to do it, believing it amounts to some change (and apparently no amount of evidence, experience or common sense will shake that "belief").
If we never have another corporate slut for a President, it will be in part because of someone like Bush.
Again, Bush has little to nothing to do with it. Acquiescent Americans everywhere, have everything to do with it.
Were it not for Bush turning the wheel all the way to the right, there would be fewer people trying to turn it to the left.-- Silash
Left? What "left?" I think what you meant to say was "turn it back toward the left?" Or, more accurately, to the preferred state of American "democracy" - "turn it back to the placating, faux moderate, corporate owned, center right." Is that what you meant? Populism ain't what it used to be.... but then, when it was successful, it was a movement. You know, marked by action and a true "we ain't taking this shit anymore" attitude.
Anyway...Kucinich would have been a decent choice but we were told he wasn't allowed and we agreed. Most of us had a date with American Idol and/or the UT comments section after all. The American people get precisely what they deserve. I no longer consider myself a participant in this farce but I just can't stand to see people like LWM run their mouths unchecked.
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What?
...anyone who doesn't advocate emptying the US treasury into the pockets of the wealthiest 1% of Americans and when the treasury is empty then borrow 3.5 trillion dollars against the credit of the US to put in the same place looks like a populist.
Good natured laughing here (sincerely).
And this is helpful how? Looking like a populist is helpful? It changes what? Do me a favor and wake me up when these "populists" actually change something.
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Sandy Yago
-Terrorists are by logical necessity war criminals so if someone wants to lower them head fist into a bucket of shit, god bless him.-
You can substitute 'republicans' for 'terrorists' and you I'd be on board.
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@adnoto
Look at it this way if it makes you feel better.
Without George Bush, there would be no Glenn Greenwald, Billmon, Atrios, Digby, Chris Floyd, (insert your favorite DFH blogger here) etc.