.
Taking a little time out...
While I'm away, watch Dylan Ratigan on MSNBC's the Morning Meeting.
He's asking the right questions and cutting through the chaff.
And if you can't find it for yourself without a linky, then I do think Western Civilization as we know it is doomed....
'Cause the outrage is what's legal in this country...and how much We, the People tolerate it....
Demand better. Of your President, of your Senators and Congressman. Your Governor and state legislators. And yourself.
.
Showing posts with label Politics of Accountability. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Politics of Accountability. Show all posts
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Sunday, February 8, 2009
One Is the Loneliest Number
.
Lots of talk these days about some pretty big numbers. Deficits, stimulus bill price tags, tax cut giveaways to appease "centrist" Republicans, votes in the Congress....yep, they all have three or four or nine or... digits, these numbers.
So it's pretty easy to talk numbers and forget about people. Suck it up you folks who might benefit from the Democratic plan, says South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford this morning on CNN. Ten thousand jobs here or a bazillion foreclosures there? pffft. Piffle. You got yourself in this mess. It's gonna be tough getting out, guess you're gonna be one of the collateral damage.
And his rationale is the same entities that screwed up Katrina would screw things up if we go down the Democratic path. And John King just lets him spew that spin unchallenged. Unauthenticated.
For one thing, George Bush isn't at the top of the entities, having his minions and cronies seed everything with the corrupt incompetent ideologues who were in charge the last eight years.
The Republicans are in lockstep now, with few exceptions. Standing against the will of the American people. Standing against the needs of the American people. Standing against the interests of the American people.
Because for John "Bagman" Boehner (remember him handing out those tobacco lobby checks on the floor of the Congress? No? Well no wonder the country's in such dire straits) and Mitch McConnell and Richard Shelby and Rush Limbaugh and the rest of the Republican leadership, it's all about scoring points against the new President. It's all about roughing him up..."Welcome to Washington"...it's all about carrying water for the same elite insiders that drove us into this quagmire the last eight years.
And they're not going to give up...heck, they're going full bore with their talk radio partners in propaganda still.
This week, President Obama is reaching out to the American people. Going to town halls to talk directly to the American people.
While the Congress meets in their cloakrooms and closets and caucus retreats and talks to each other. And their willing watercarriers in the media.
And in northern Minnesota, here in tall timber country, the foreclosure listings fill the paper. The business news is the layoffs at Teamworks.
And in Akeley, Minnesota, the Paul Bunyan Grocery is going out of business because the owner cannot afford the losses any longer.
So tell that little eighty-year-old widow lady in Akeley who depended on that Grocery because she doesn't drive and the nearest "big" town of Walker is some ten miles away. And it's 20 below and the wind chill's even colder.
Tell that lady to suck it up, because the posturing and preening of the demigods for those who line their pockets is so much more important than passing an economic stimulus bill that will put America back on track.
.
Lots of talk these days about some pretty big numbers. Deficits, stimulus bill price tags, tax cut giveaways to appease "centrist" Republicans, votes in the Congress....yep, they all have three or four or nine or... digits, these numbers.
So it's pretty easy to talk numbers and forget about people. Suck it up you folks who might benefit from the Democratic plan, says South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford this morning on CNN. Ten thousand jobs here or a bazillion foreclosures there? pffft. Piffle. You got yourself in this mess. It's gonna be tough getting out, guess you're gonna be one of the collateral damage.
And his rationale is the same entities that screwed up Katrina would screw things up if we go down the Democratic path. And John King just lets him spew that spin unchallenged. Unauthenticated.
For one thing, George Bush isn't at the top of the entities, having his minions and cronies seed everything with the corrupt incompetent ideologues who were in charge the last eight years.
The Republicans are in lockstep now, with few exceptions. Standing against the will of the American people. Standing against the needs of the American people. Standing against the interests of the American people.
Because for John "Bagman" Boehner (remember him handing out those tobacco lobby checks on the floor of the Congress? No? Well no wonder the country's in such dire straits) and Mitch McConnell and Richard Shelby and Rush Limbaugh and the rest of the Republican leadership, it's all about scoring points against the new President. It's all about roughing him up..."Welcome to Washington"...it's all about carrying water for the same elite insiders that drove us into this quagmire the last eight years.
And they're not going to give up...heck, they're going full bore with their talk radio partners in propaganda still.
This week, President Obama is reaching out to the American people. Going to town halls to talk directly to the American people.
While the Congress meets in their cloakrooms and closets and caucus retreats and talks to each other. And their willing watercarriers in the media.
And in northern Minnesota, here in tall timber country, the foreclosure listings fill the paper. The business news is the layoffs at Teamworks.
And in Akeley, Minnesota, the Paul Bunyan Grocery is going out of business because the owner cannot afford the losses any longer.
So tell that little eighty-year-old widow lady in Akeley who depended on that Grocery because she doesn't drive and the nearest "big" town of Walker is some ten miles away. And it's 20 below and the wind chill's even colder.
Tell that lady to suck it up, because the posturing and preening of the demigods for those who line their pockets is so much more important than passing an economic stimulus bill that will put America back on track.
.
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Dereliction of Duty
.
Day by day, the disclosures of the what-should-be-criminal misconduct of the ideologues in the Bush Administration are being brought out of the shadows into sunshine. And it's an ugly sight.
Yesterday, a House hearing on the failure of the SEC to investigate the Bernie Madoff ponzi scheming—despite voluminous filings by Harry Markopolos, a Boston accountant. Markopolos, it seems to me, was overly generous in attributing the failure to turf wars between New York and Boston. But he went further:
A lot of fingerpointing is going on these days, and it's not a pretty sight. But more and more the nature of the mess that we've all inherited from the worst administration ever is one of ideology and bungling over pragmatism and competence.
Dick Cheney, the magic man behind the preening President, has emerged from his disclosed McLean VA location to talk to Politico. Evidently he's decided he's found the right [in all definitions of "right"] venue to replace Meet the Press as his go-to place for spewing his scaremongering. Maybe some will quiver and shake in their brush-cutter boots, but the more Dick talks, the more the rest of us see his inner Dr. Strangelove in control.
The frustration of the American people is palpable. We voted for change, and yet we see the new President ensnared by the same ol' same ol' posturings and spin, putting party before country. Party before we, the people.
Maybe McConnell needs to spend a little time back home in ol' Kentucky helping his homies get the lights back on. And a little less time trying to tear down the progress the country needs.
Some say there should be trials for all the ideologues and warmongers and profiteers and embeds throughout the government whose mission du jour was to destroy the country to save it in their own likeness.
Surely the militaristic among 'em would recognize the phrase "dereliction of duty." Even if they don't want to understand the compelling case for applying it to the former commander-in-chief on down through his ranks. In the civilian world, it's recklessness, negligence, malpractice.
The revealing SEC hearing yesterday is like a boulder in the Stonehenge [yes, I did watch Sunrise Planet Earth this morning, why do you ask?] of evidence building up in the case against the Bush Administration.
But there's also this matter of the urgency of cleaning up the mess, getting the country back on the right track, pulling back from the abyss of financial ruin.
So I've got a proposition. We'll apply their very own standard on them. Round up every member of al BushCo suspected of being linked to the egregious dereliction of duty that led to this financial and confidencial ruin of our country. Bush, Chee-knee, Norquist, Rove, Rush, Condi, Chris Cox, Alberto Gonzales, Don Rumsfeld, Goodling....feel free to fill in your own nominees...and let's send 'em all to Gitmo.
After all, they tell us, Gitmo's a grand place. Surely they won't mind languishing there a decade or two while we tidy up the cesspool they left us. We'll keep the case files handy and well-organized. Promise.
Waterboards optional.
How's that legacy thing working out, George?
.
Day by day, the disclosures of the what-should-be-criminal misconduct of the ideologues in the Bush Administration are being brought out of the shadows into sunshine. And it's an ugly sight.
Yesterday, a House hearing on the failure of the SEC to investigate the Bernie Madoff ponzi scheming—despite voluminous filings by Harry Markopolos, a Boston accountant. Markopolos, it seems to me, was overly generous in attributing the failure to turf wars between New York and Boston. But he went further:
In his testimony yesterday, a frustrated Markopolos said the SEC is "captive to the industry it regulates and it is afraid of bringing big cases against the largest, most powerful firms." He added, "Clearly the SEC was afraid of Mr. Madoff."Kind of the meta-theme of the entire George Bush era. The crooks have been running the country and cowardly, quaking BushCo did nothing to stop it.
A lot of fingerpointing is going on these days, and it's not a pretty sight. But more and more the nature of the mess that we've all inherited from the worst administration ever is one of ideology and bungling over pragmatism and competence.
Dick Cheney, the magic man behind the preening President, has emerged from his disclosed McLean VA location to talk to Politico. Evidently he's decided he's found the right [in all definitions of "right"] venue to replace Meet the Press as his go-to place for spewing his scaremongering. Maybe some will quiver and shake in their brush-cutter boots, but the more Dick talks, the more the rest of us see his inner Dr. Strangelove in control.
The frustration of the American people is palpable. We voted for change, and yet we see the new President ensnared by the same ol' same ol' posturings and spin, putting party before country. Party before we, the people.
Maybe McConnell needs to spend a little time back home in ol' Kentucky helping his homies get the lights back on. And a little less time trying to tear down the progress the country needs.
Some say there should be trials for all the ideologues and warmongers and profiteers and embeds throughout the government whose mission du jour was to destroy the country to save it in their own likeness.
Surely the militaristic among 'em would recognize the phrase "dereliction of duty." Even if they don't want to understand the compelling case for applying it to the former commander-in-chief on down through his ranks. In the civilian world, it's recklessness, negligence, malpractice.
The revealing SEC hearing yesterday is like a boulder in the Stonehenge [yes, I did watch Sunrise Planet Earth this morning, why do you ask?] of evidence building up in the case against the Bush Administration.
But there's also this matter of the urgency of cleaning up the mess, getting the country back on the right track, pulling back from the abyss of financial ruin.
So I've got a proposition. We'll apply their very own standard on them. Round up every member of al BushCo suspected of being linked to the egregious dereliction of duty that led to this financial and confidencial ruin of our country. Bush, Chee-knee, Norquist, Rove, Rush, Condi, Chris Cox, Alberto Gonzales, Don Rumsfeld, Goodling....feel free to fill in your own nominees...and let's send 'em all to Gitmo.
After all, they tell us, Gitmo's a grand place. Surely they won't mind languishing there a decade or two while we tidy up the cesspool they left us. We'll keep the case files handy and well-organized. Promise.
Waterboards optional.
How's that legacy thing working out, George?
.
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Going Washington
.
The short, unhappy nonconfirmation process of Tom Daschle was a cautionary tale. The system worked...ugly. Will the lesson take? Yet to be determined.
One thing we did discover. We know a whole lot less about those who represent us, back home here in "the sticks" than we think we do.
The disclosures that came out, not just about the unpaid taxes for the driver, but the multimillion dollar fees from the healthcare industry, make me think that for all the ugliness of Daschle's determination to stick it out until he couldn't any more, we dodged a bullet.
There's an entitlement among too many Senators and Representatives and others who sign on to work in DeeCee that after a while they lose touch with what brought them there in the first place.
[Disclaimer: I don't think the Bush ideologues who trashed the place for the past eight years ever had any other agenda than trashin' the place. But then that's me....]
But even the best of them, at their Super Bowl parties or in their caucus lunches or wherever, tell each other how the little people just don't understand how hard they're working for them. Don't appreciate just how important they are.
Oh, they probably don't put it quite that crassly....
But they posture and sometimes preen and find each other the most awesomest, wonderfullest, honestest....
And the rationalization becomes easier. And that's the slippery slope that avalanched right over Obama and his vetting team this week. Chock-full o'Daschle and the deniers and the demigods.
They become "they," not "we," "the people."
They lose touch...with their constituents, their states, their country,
...and whatever brought them to Washington in their dusty ol' cars, still married to their home state wives and their principles.
...And themselves.
.
The short, unhappy nonconfirmation process of Tom Daschle was a cautionary tale. The system worked...ugly. Will the lesson take? Yet to be determined.
One thing we did discover. We know a whole lot less about those who represent us, back home here in "the sticks" than we think we do.
The disclosures that came out, not just about the unpaid taxes for the driver, but the multimillion dollar fees from the healthcare industry, make me think that for all the ugliness of Daschle's determination to stick it out until he couldn't any more, we dodged a bullet.
There's an entitlement among too many Senators and Representatives and others who sign on to work in DeeCee that after a while they lose touch with what brought them there in the first place.
[Disclaimer: I don't think the Bush ideologues who trashed the place for the past eight years ever had any other agenda than trashin' the place. But then that's me....]
But even the best of them, at their Super Bowl parties or in their caucus lunches or wherever, tell each other how the little people just don't understand how hard they're working for them. Don't appreciate just how important they are.
Oh, they probably don't put it quite that crassly....
But they posture and sometimes preen and find each other the most awesomest, wonderfullest, honestest....
And the rationalization becomes easier. And that's the slippery slope that avalanched right over Obama and his vetting team this week. Chock-full o'Daschle and the deniers and the demigods.
They become "they," not "we," "the people."
They lose touch...with their constituents, their states, their country,
...and whatever brought them to Washington in their dusty ol' cars, still married to their home state wives and their principles.
...And themselves.
.
Monday, February 2, 2009
Daschle Must Man Up and Do the Richardson
.
Josh notes over at Talking Points Memo the synchronicity of Obama and Daschle. That Daschle's Senate seat loss in 2004 opened a wealth of staff for the freshly elected Obama. In sum, says Josh, it'll take a lot for Obama to "pull the plug" on Daschle's nomination.
Which is exactly why Daschle should do the honorable thing himself and withdraw.
All the political capital or likability or loyalty in the world doesn't justify going forward with this nomination. Daschle is not just tainted by tax problems, he's drenched. We're supposed to be better than the Republicans. Not just as weaselly.
.
crossposted at firedoglake's Oxdown Gazette
Josh notes over at Talking Points Memo the synchronicity of Obama and Daschle. That Daschle's Senate seat loss in 2004 opened a wealth of staff for the freshly elected Obama. In sum, says Josh, it'll take a lot for Obama to "pull the plug" on Daschle's nomination.
Which is exactly why Daschle should do the honorable thing himself and withdraw.
All the political capital or likability or loyalty in the world doesn't justify going forward with this nomination. Daschle is not just tainted by tax problems, he's drenched. We're supposed to be better than the Republicans. Not just as weaselly.
.
crossposted at firedoglake's Oxdown Gazette
Friday, December 19, 2008
In Ordinary Times...
.
Anybody else spew their coffee this morning listening to The Worst President In American History lecture and scold that "in ordinary times..." corporations should have to pay a price for their failures?
Well, at least Dumbya finally recognizes these are not ordinary times...tho' he still has to be dragged kicking and screaming into a bailout for the auto industry and American workers' jobs.
The irony of having to pay a price for failure seems to've escaped the Crown Prince of the Bush family political dynasty. But I digress....
There is a possible silver lining in what Boy George announced this morning, for all the angst of the chess match that's recently played out as politicians pontificated and postured of matters such as "organized" bankruptcies [huh?] vs. fears that this was all a strategerie to kill the unions, once and for all.
Big 3 Auto companies have until March to get their schiess together and come up with a viable business plan that matches the foreign car companies, scolds Bush. Oh, and don't blame me while I'm in legacy mode and kicking the can down the road to Obama's team.
Starting with the outsize and outrageous executive compensation plans and other financial gizmos of Wall Street that suck the lifeblood from corporations to feed the financial vampires and restoring responsible productivity and profit models would be a good idea.
And putting the product back in the hands of the designers and the engineers instead of bean counters who've lost their beans so they actually develop a product people will want to buy without a bazillion dollars of glitzy media advertising to brainwash 'em, that would be a good start, too. I mean, who needs DVD players on every seat rest? Or those idiot shiny object tires? I want safety, fuel efficiency, universal design....
For starters....
Update: speaking of Wall Street gizmos, Josh at Talking Points Memo points the way to this Krugman column opining that all of Wall Street and the financial industry are Madoff now.... Nobel prize-winning economist Paul Krugman is must reading...and the comments he generates are must reading as well.
.
crossposted at firedoglake's Oxdown Gazette
Anybody else spew their coffee this morning listening to The Worst President In American History lecture and scold that "in ordinary times..." corporations should have to pay a price for their failures?
Well, at least Dumbya finally recognizes these are not ordinary times...tho' he still has to be dragged kicking and screaming into a bailout for the auto industry and American workers' jobs.
The irony of having to pay a price for failure seems to've escaped the Crown Prince of the Bush family political dynasty. But I digress....
There is a possible silver lining in what Boy George announced this morning, for all the angst of the chess match that's recently played out as politicians pontificated and postured of matters such as "organized" bankruptcies [huh?] vs. fears that this was all a strategerie to kill the unions, once and for all.
Big 3 Auto companies have until March to get their schiess together and come up with a viable business plan that matches the foreign car companies, scolds Bush. Oh, and don't blame me while I'm in legacy mode and kicking the can down the road to Obama's team.
Starting with the outsize and outrageous executive compensation plans and other financial gizmos of Wall Street that suck the lifeblood from corporations to feed the financial vampires and restoring responsible productivity and profit models would be a good idea.
And putting the product back in the hands of the designers and the engineers instead of bean counters who've lost their beans so they actually develop a product people will want to buy without a bazillion dollars of glitzy media advertising to brainwash 'em, that would be a good start, too. I mean, who needs DVD players on every seat rest? Or those idiot shiny object tires? I want safety, fuel efficiency, universal design....
For starters....
Update: speaking of Wall Street gizmos, Josh at Talking Points Memo points the way to this Krugman column opining that all of Wall Street and the financial industry are Madoff now.... Nobel prize-winning economist Paul Krugman is must reading...and the comments he generates are must reading as well.
.
crossposted at firedoglake's Oxdown Gazette
Sunday, November 9, 2008
To Be Resolved
.
The ongoing saga of the Judas Senator trying to keep his cadaverous fingers tightly clutched around the Homeland Security Committee chairmanship continues this weekend, thanks to articles like the homestate Hartford Courant piece which has stirred up more ire among those who wonder why there is even any question about Joe-the-Backstabber retaining any chairmanship or seniority in the Democratic caucus. Politico and Josh both have discussion worth reading.
The collegiality of the good ol' incumbent-cy boys seems to rear its head in Dodd's comments. Sorry, Chris, not buyin' it.
And then there's the Lieberman aide attributed with the insistence that national security depends on his Senator holding on to "his" chairmanship. Yeah, 'cause he did such a great job of it already, eh?
It took a commenter in the Politico thread to remind me, though, that Lieberman didn't just fail--deliberately, some say--to perform the oversight responsibilities of Homeland Security. Lieberman didn't just run against the Democratic-endorsed candidate for US Senate in Connecticut with strong Republican help in '06. Lieberman didn't just endorse and support McCain.
Not only did Lieberman actively, aggressively, gleefully, enthusiastically, scurrilously campaign against Barack Obama for the office of President.
He also campaigned for Minnesota Republican Norm Coleman over Democratic candidate Al Franken for the Wellstone seat in the U.S. Senate. Did he campaign in other Senate races, too?
The square is complete...the four sides enclosing one politician who eagerly embraced the opposition as he broke his word and campaigned in both Presidential and Senate races against the party he now thinks should bow and scrape before his Lieberliness.
Give me a frackin' break. Now more than ever, Joe Must Go.
.
(crossposted at firedoglake's Oxdown Gazette).
Saturday, November 8, 2008
The Understated Symmetry of Harry
The word leaking out that Harry Reid offered Joe Lieberman the chairmanship of Veterans Affairs has generated a lot of heat. Mine included.
Lots of us are signing the online petition saying that Joe Must Go. For three prime reasons that can be summed up "The Kiss," Katrina, and the Kampaign....
And while I for one have no room in heart or mind for any accommodation for Joe the Backstabber and Breaker of Pledges, I do see a certain stark beauty in Reid's offer to Lieberman of the chairmanship of Veterans Affairs.
Let him see what he has wrought. Let him deal with the families of the dead and the wounded. Let him tour the hospitals and rehab centers. Let him walk side by side with the soldier learning to walk on steel and computer technology instead of a leg. Let him see the face of the man blinded and burned by an IED.
Let him face himself. If he has the courage.
.(crossposted at firedoglake's Oxdown Express)
Friday, November 7, 2008
Lieberman the Extortionist
.
Show him the door, Senate Dems...
enough's enough.
If the Republicans think having a double-dealing, self-aggrandizing, egomaniacal traitor in their midst is a plus, well, that's just more seats for Dems to pick off in 2010 and 2012.
.
Show him the door, Senate Dems...
enough's enough.
If the Republicans think having a double-dealing, self-aggrandizing, egomaniacal traitor in their midst is a plus, well, that's just more seats for Dems to pick off in 2010 and 2012.
.
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Joe The Quisling
.
Today Joe Lieberman met with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, and word is, Lieberman was told: no chairmanships for you.
Lieberman is now trying to play a public game of you can't touch me, you need me, you really really need me.
Except we don't.
America has spoken loudly and clearly in this election, and all the Republican obstructionism in the world won't change that fact for the next four years.
Could he be the magic 60th? Well, yeah, but that doesn't mean he's needed.
Because right now what's really needed is to send a message that the same ol' same ol' doesn't work any more and the Democratic Senate will not be a pushover.
Lieberman crossed the line time after time when he went beyond supporting McCain and actively, even giddily, collaborated in the assault on Barack Obama with tactics of fear and smear and lies.
Now the man who bore those lies, who collaborated in their spreading, who smirked and grinned his way through scurrilous betrayal of his own pledges of conduct, that man must be called to account. Because a line was irretrievably crossed by Lieberman in this election.
And he must know that cannot stand. And those who would contemplate doing likewise must know that cannot stand. As betrayers down through history and fiction have known. Brutus, Judas, Benedict Arnold, Tessio...Quisling.
This cannot stand.
.
You'll find a posting to the online petition, Strip Joe, over at Jane's Firedoglake
.
.
Today Joe Lieberman met with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, and word is, Lieberman was told: no chairmanships for you.
Lieberman is now trying to play a public game of you can't touch me, you need me, you really really need me.
Except we don't.
America has spoken loudly and clearly in this election, and all the Republican obstructionism in the world won't change that fact for the next four years.
Could he be the magic 60th? Well, yeah, but that doesn't mean he's needed.
Because right now what's really needed is to send a message that the same ol' same ol' doesn't work any more and the Democratic Senate will not be a pushover.
Lieberman crossed the line time after time when he went beyond supporting McCain and actively, even giddily, collaborated in the assault on Barack Obama with tactics of fear and smear and lies.
Now the man who bore those lies, who collaborated in their spreading, who smirked and grinned his way through scurrilous betrayal of his own pledges of conduct, that man must be called to account. Because a line was irretrievably crossed by Lieberman in this election.
And he must know that cannot stand. And those who would contemplate doing likewise must know that cannot stand. As betrayers down through history and fiction have known. Brutus, Judas, Benedict Arnold, Tessio...Quisling.
This cannot stand.
.
You'll find a posting to the online petition, Strip Joe, over at Jane's Firedoglake
.
.
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