Bits and pieces

PR FOR DICTATORS
A New York Times' piece explores efforts by the world's worst dictator, Equatorial Guinea's Teodoro Obiang Nguema, to refashion his image.


OILY JUDGES
On January 20, 2009, most of America rejoiced at the end of the error that was the Bush/Cheney regime. However, the effects of the oil men's reign was always going to last far more than eight years. The BP/Gulf of Mexico oil cataclysm is the logical consequence of the Bush/Cheney/Tea Party ideology of letting industry regulate itself without the meddling of 'liberty snatching' government. An Associated Press analysis points out another consequence: the majority of federal judges in the Gulf coast have financial connections to the oil and gas industry. These are the judges that would hear lawsuits relating to the oil catastrophe.


PUNDITOCRCACY CONTINUES TO SUFFOCATE JOURNALISM
I've frequently commented on the manner in which the punditocracy suffocates the practice of journalism... specifically how polls, speculation and horse race crap is replacing the real news reporting. In defending this, corporate media types piously claim that it's not because the horse race crap is easy, lazy stuff but that they are just giving the people what they want. The Washington Post's excellent media critic Howard Kurtz gives lie to that claim. In a Tweet, he pointed out that 5 pct. of people were interested in last week's primaries but they got 18 pct. of the news coverage.


SHOULD HETEROSEXUALS BE ALLOWED TO ADOPT KIDS?
CNN reports on a quarter century long study published in the journal Pediatrics concluding that kids of lesbians have fewer behavioral problems than their powers. This will surely have no impact on the opinions of the far right, the Catholic Church and other groups who reject scientific analysis on principle. But it begs the question: should heterosexual adoption be banned? For the well-being of the children, of course.


WORLD CUP STARTS TODAY!
And the world's most important sport event in its most beloved sport starts today. From now until July 11, the soccer World Cup will be held in sites throughout South Africa. For one month out of every four years, soccer fans in America get to be as insufferable as fans of the boring pointyball are for the other 47 months. My predicted semifinalists are Argentina, Spain, the Netherlands and Nigeria (though watch out for dark horses Serbia, Uruguay and Cameroon), with Spain beating the Netherlands in the final. The US plays the hated England tomorrow at 2:30p ET, Slovenia next Friday and Algeria the following Wednesday. The full World Cup broadcast schedule can be found here. C'mon USA!

Bruno, Cheney come out

I see that former New York Senate majority leader Joe Bruno has come out in favor of same sex marriage. Bruno, who describes himself as a "conservative Roman Catholic," refused to allow the same-sex marriage bill come to a vote when he was majority leader. Though he did allow passage of the Sexual Orientation Non-Discrimination Act in 2002. Bruno's comments came not long after former vice-president Dick Cheney also came out as being in favor of gay marriage.

While Bruno is in embroiled legal troubles and Cheney certainly ought to be, it's quite remarkable that these two conservatives are to the left of President Obama on this key civil rights issue.

The "omissions, exaggerations and misstatements" of Dick Cheney

You remember the good old days when then-Vice President Dick Cheney was rarely seen or heard? Now that he's no longer holed up in his famous undisclosed location, the as-yet-unindicted former vice-president won't shut up. He's been on a media blitz in recent weeks, launching an impassioned defense of the Bush administration's anti-civilization policies.

If lack of truthiness, as Stephen Colbert would call it, were a legally recognized disability, Cheney could easily get one of those blue handicapped parking spot tags for his limo.

Two journalists from McClatchy offer a detailed analysis of the many "omissions, exaggerations and misstatements" (their words) found in a speech Cheney gave yesterday.

According to the piece, Cheney distorted comments from the director of national intelligence Adm. Dennis Blair to defend "enhanced interrogation techniques" (torture), even though Blair said there was no evidence that such techniques were necessary.

Cheney's often claimed that torture has saved American lives. Strangely, he did not quote from the CIA director general or from the FBI director who both said there was zero evidence to back up such fantasies.

Cheney claimed that revealing torture techniques would allow America's 'enemies' to better prepare their combatants, even though Adm. Blair approved the release of the torture memos because they would be prohibited under Obama and because "we do not need these techniques to keep America safe."

The piece also pointed out that some of the most critical information about the 9/11 attacks were obtained from the very first al-Qaeda operative captured; the information was obtained through 'traditional' (civilized, non-torture) methods. The agent who obtained the information told a Senate subcommittee that the use of torture "was one of the worst and most harmful decisions made in our efforts against al-Qaida."

Cheney stated "the key to any strategy is accurate intelligence." A strange comment considering how much Cheney and other far right neo-cons relied on dubious information supplied them from Iraqi exile groups to mislead the public into supporting the aggression against Iraq. Even back in Machiavelli's time, they knew not to trust the exiles. I'd be surprised if Cheney really cared at the time if the information was accurate. He knew it served his purposes.

Cheney claimed that only "ruthless enemies of this country" were kidnapped and sent to secret prisons. A 2008 McClatchy Newspapers investigation, however, found that the vast majority of Guantánamo detainees captured in 2001 and 2002 in Afghanistan and Pakistan were innocent citizens or low-level fighters of little intelligence value who were turned over to U.S. officials for money or because of personal or political rivalries.

Cheney claimed that after 9/11, the administration had to take seriously "dictators like Saddam Hussein with known ties to Mideast terrorists." The last State Department report on international terrorism to be released before Sept. 11 said Saddam's regime "has not attempted an anti-Western terrorist attack since its failed plot to assassinate former President [George H.W.] Bush in 1993 in Kuwait." And according to a Pentagon study released last year, Saddam's security services had "no direct operational link" with al-Qaeda.

Is Cheney willfully dishonest or so self-delusional as to be that divorced from reality? Anyone can speculate but only he knows for sure. But at least former president George W. Bush has had the grace to fade quietly into the sunset without harming America's reputation any further.

Thoughts from an undisclosed location

I noticed this article in TIME about Dick Cheney. For eight years, when he actually had power and theoretical accountability, the man barely said two words (thank heaven for small miracles). Now, the as-yet unindicted former vice-president won't shut up.

I imagine the Democrats can barely contain their glee.

Bush's fraud, America's shame

If you support a progressive agenda, then support a progressive candidate.

It shouldn't surprise anyone that President Bush's so-called Freedom Agenda has proven to be a massive fraud. It was pretty obvious even when it was being enunciated that it was nothing more than a smokescreen to launch our own wars of aggression (against Iraq, for example) and to support others (Ethiopia's against Somalia, for example). The only winner of these wars has been the military-industrial complex.

This piece in The New Republic shows how global authoritarianism has been skyrocketing the last several years despite, or more likely because, of the Bush administration's choices.

Even places that had been moving forward, like Lebanon, have now seen that progress disintegrate, if not worse. The Trotskyists in the White House said that once freedom bit Iraq, it would spread through the region like a plague. There's been a plague, to be sure, but it's been that of chaos and instability.

But some BushCheneyCo's actions have served as an inspiration for others.

The BBC reported on Africa's Guantanamo, located in Ethiopia. It's been reportedly used by the CIA to import kidnapees from all over and 'interrogate' them outside the jurisdiction of the US Supreme Court and those other pains in asses that demand, you know, things like legality and justice.

Just say the phrase: Africa's Guantanamo.

In past generations, when people wanted a shorthand for evil, they would use phrases like 'Auschwitz' or 'The Gulag.'

Now when they want an analogy for the unspeakable, they refer to something run in the name of those of us who claim to live in the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave.

This is the legacy St. John McCain wants to continue.

Of the many legal and moral crimes of the BushCheneyCo administration, their jihad against American values, their dismantling of everything we say we hold sacred, is perhaps the most damning of all.

Cheney spits on troops

It's well-known that Vice President Dick Cheney is the most arrogant public figure in this country. But despite his legendary pomposity, his gall continues to astonish even those observers who thought they had gotten use to it.

Cheney started off by insisting that the biggest burden of the Iraq war was carried by George W. Bush. A man who lives in an air-conditioned mansion with taxpayer-funded four-star chefs, with the greatest security detail of any man alive, who jaunts around the world in a luxurious jumbo jet and who will retire comfortably to his ranch in 10 months time.

According to Cheney, Bush carries a far greater burden than the soldiers braving roadside bombs and suffering in the 120 degree heat or their spouses back Stateside trying to raise families alone or veterans maimed in combat vaillantly trying to rehabilitate themselves.

If poor Bush ever feels the burden is too much to handle and wants to get some rest and relaxation, he should feel free to swap jobs with a GI in the Sunni Triangle.

Cheney also pooh-poohed complaints by soldiers who are being deployed repeatedly to Iraq and risked being burnt out. They should really just shut their yaps because it's a volunteer army. Besides, they probably wanted to be sent back to the hellhole three and four times.

In a previous essay entitled 'The astonishing arrogance of the clueless privileged,' I referred to President Bush as a twat, a word I'd never used before in this blog. And yet both that title and that description could just as easily apply to the vice-president.

Independents increasingly turning on Bush

I was interested to see some poll results conducted by the American Research Group. (Kudos to my friend Mark for pointing them out)

The discovered that respondents were almost even split (45% yes, 46% no) on whether the House should begin impeachment proceedings against President Bush and that a majority (54%) believed they should do so against Vice-President Cheney.

64% of all respondents disapproved of President Bush's commutation of Scooter Libby's prison time and 84% would oppose an eventual pardon for the vice-president's former chief of staff.

Apparently, most Americans don't buy the administration's mind-numbing Snow Job that the commutations 'strengthen the rule of law and increase public faith in government.'

Not surprisingly Democrats tended to support impeachment and oppose the clemency for Libby with vice versa being true for Republicans.

Bush obtained a massive 27% overall approval rating (67% disapproval).

But what interests me is the tendency among independents (by which I presume the pollsters include BOTH members of smaller parties and members of no party).

A majority of independents support impeachment for both Bush (50% for, 30% against) and Cheney (51% for, 29% against).

Independents are actually MORE opposed to Libby's commutation than Democrats (80% to 76%).

Independents are significantly MORE opposed to a potential pardon for the convicted felon than Democrats (97% to 82%).

Some have criticized House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for taking impeachment 'off the table.' It was a political decision, not a justice-related one. Can you blame her? The cardinal rule of politics is that when your opponent is commiting suicide, stay out of the way.

The fact that such a huge portion of independents have turned against Bush and Cheney has to be a serious worry for the 2008 GOP presidential contenders.

It also demonstrates that dissatisfaction with everything about the administration can hardly be blamed on partisan Democrats.

The governmental equivalent of Gitmo

The Washington Post has a chilling piece on the frightening amount of power accumulated by Vice-President Dick Cheney. It seems Cheney de facto has a good chunk of the powers of the presidency while avoiding most of the media scrutiny and resisting all attempts at accountability.

A telling quote on Cheney's belief in impunity:

His general counsel has asserted that "the vice presidency is a unique office that is neither a part of the executive branch nor a part of the legislative branch," and is therefore exempt from rules governing either.

In other words, the vice-presidency is the governmental equivalent of Guatanamo Bay: a sort of limbo, a legal black hole asserted for the purpose of avoiding respect for the law and American values.

Judging from his actions during the last six years, it's no surprise to read that Cheney doesn't believe in the law or the Constitution since he hasn't shown much respect for either. It's just surprising to hear this admitted publicly.

Update: Apparently some in Congress thought it would be a good idea to call Cheney on his b.s. Some House Democrats tried to strip him of his executive branch budget. Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee suggested that if Cheney were in fact part of the legislative branch, as president of the Senate, then that would mean the same body could also expel him. The vote to follow Cheney's contention to its natural conclusion failed 209-217.