Sleep Walking Through History. Willing Participants in Our Own Demise– “Scoop”/Collins

[kpete]

Sleep Walking Through History. Willing Participants in Our Own Demise – “Scoop”/Collins


Thanks once again to “Scoop” for all the support they give our efforts here.


From: http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0704/S00062.htm

Sleep Walking Through History

Willing Participants in Our Own Demise

Michael Collins
“Scoop” Independent News
Washington, DC

The Essential Myth

The shocked reaction to the abrupt dismissal of eight U.S. Attorneys points to the essence of our current political problems. The broad based political reaction to the Gonzales firings contains one critical assumption: this is an aberrant act. Something terribly wrong has taken place and the political establishment rises to defend the system.

That’s the set up and that’s the story. The set up is a lie. The firings are normal procedure. The bipartisan reaction is not so much to the injustice of it all. It’s a reaction to the total absence of art and discretion.

The system wasn’t abused so much as exposed.

How did the story emerge? Eight U.S. Attorneys are fired on December 7, 2006. We don’t hear much until early March when one of them, David Iglesias, speaks up and cries foul. After his complaints, the sacked eight speak up to varying degrees and its game on.

The story ignited when the fired attorneys complained. Before that, there was no outcry, little attention, and no Republican demands for the head of Alberto Gonzales. With a bit more skill and a better retirement package in place, there may well have been no complaints and no story.

After all, they only had to take care of eight people. But they didn’t and the controversy arose. Now we have a huge scandal posing as a threat to the system; a scandal that arose as a personnel matter (I didn’t deserve to be fired!). If this is such an outrage, why the lag time to outrage?

Under normal conditions, the story would have a gratifying final act. Gonzales would be censured in some way, retire himself, and then be replaced by someone who would do exactly the same things he’d been doing, but in a more discrete fashion. There’s just one problem. We don’t have business as usual with the Bush-Cheney junta. Their profound arrogance and self-centeredness leads to the sloppy implementation of standard operating procedure which gives the system a lot of bad press.

The Justice Department is just a small fragment of the larger picture of the administration's political strategies that use the federal bureaucracy to advance their goal driven agenda of power and control.

The Hatch Act regulating the political activity of federal employees is clear:

These federal and DC employeesmay not:
• use official authority or influence to interfere with an election
• engage in political activity while: on duty; in a government office; wearing an official uniform; or using a government vehicle.

Real Evidence of a Real Scandal or Business as Usual?

The General Services Administration (GSA), an independent federal agency, exists to “help federal agencies better serve the public by offering, at best value, superior workplaces, expert solutions, acquisition services and management policies.” One key function is buying, building and running federal facilities. Why would the chief administrator and the regional directors care about the 2006 midterm election results and the impact on Republicans? What does this have to do with administrating personnel, contracts, and physical plant? Nothing.

Yet Lurita Alexis Doan, (Photo) GSA Chief, held a teleconference for her key administrators who heard a White House political operative present an analysis of the 2006 election results. According to multiple accounts, the White House speaker suggested methods to leverage Republican advantage in 2008 by linking new GSA facilities to incumbent and prospective Republican candidates. This was not a secret presentation at the Bohemian Grove or a confidential e-mail handled by a private Republican information service provider. It was a routine part of the political process. No big deal: until Cong. Henry Waxman (D-CA) made an issue out of it recently.

Will this be treated as another threat to the system? Will the system be saved by replacing Ms. Doan with a truly independent chief for the independent federal agency, GSA? Or is this just business as usual?

The focus on particular illegal acts, the latest scandals, masks routinely illegal uses of government. The Hatch Act regulates political activity by federal employees. It is well known. Political appointees like the White House presenter at GSA are no less aware than career federal employees. Violating it in a significant way is an act of informed choice. The casual and routine violation of this clear set of prohibitions shows how little the rules actually mean to those in power.

Same Story, New Actors

The abuse of the federal system for coordinated efforts that have nothing to do with the people’s business has been going on for decades.

The federal government and workforce has become a prime vehicle to
promote right wing interests over the past four decades.

Nixon was not one to miss a political opportunity. His relentless pursuit of victory in the 1972 campaign included his old ]dirty tricks of defamation and polarization. Incumbency allowed his true inclinations to surface through his willingness to use federal employees, appointed or careerists, as though they were personal rather than public servants.

After rolling to victory over war hero and peace advocate George McGovern, Nixon’s narcissism was florid. He demanded and got the resignations of cabinet members and key staff, then rehired those he chose to keep shortly thereafter. This made the point perfectly clear. They all worked at the pleasure of the president; an offensive notion that reduces the federal employee to the role of a courtesan.

How many times have you heard someone say that your government, the one you legitimize through your votes and support through your taxes, belongs to whomever happens to occupy the White House; that they can use it at their sole discretion. They don’t need to say it. This assumption is now embedded in our political environment. It’s tacitly accepted.

Influencing Elections

All of the following acts have influenced elections. They all involved the use of federal employees. They were all deceptive and misleading on one level or another. And none of them truly benefited the people. Only those in power benefited from the policies that generated political and financial support. Here are the products of election driven politics:

• Use of the Secretary of the Treasury to strong arm campaign contributions.
• Hasty attempts to settle the Viet Nam War Paris negotiations right before the 1972 elections and the deadly consequences when the efforts failed.
• Willful overestimation of Soviet strength and resilience in the early 1970’s when intelligence reports argued for just the opposite interpretation.
• Deregulation, biased regulation and other industry specific financial benefits in anticipation of or as payment for campaign contributions (e.g., savings and loans, financial services, securities; transportation, etc.).
• Starting the Iraq war based on information known to be false.
• Hiding and censoring scientific information critical to public safety and health.
• Preventing a full, rigorous, and well funded investigation of 911.
• No bid, no performance contracts in the billions of dollars provided to aid New Orleans and other areas hit by Katrina and the chaos that persists.

Each of these actions had a specific political benefit tied to an election. They perpetuated the power of those committing the violations of law, trust and decency.

While outrageous and pervasive, the actions just listed are a routine Hatch Act violation: the use of official authority or influence to interfere with an election. The financial cost to the citizens of the United States from just this partial list is in the trillions of dollars. The human costs are incalculable.

“Thousands of low-income, working-class, African American families have
been displaced by the Housing Authority of New Orleans (HANO) in favor of several
big corporate developers' desire to cash in on the tragedy following Hurricane Katrina
through building mixed income housing.” Stop Evicting Katrina Survivors

Many lower income families are now without a home, despite
HUD's $3.8 billion in renovation contracts in 2006. The 200 thousand evacuees are still away
from home and unable to vote. http://tinyurl.com/33uvzv">Who benefits? Photograph

Back to the Fired U.S. Attorneys: The True Scandal Writ Small with Citizens as the Chorus

The April 1, 2007 Washington Post reiterated the official set up story: “No other administration in contemporary times has had such a clear pattern of filling chief prosecutors' jobs with its own staff members, said experts on U.S. attorney's offices.”

No other administration … had such a clear pattern are the operative terms. They all had clear patterns. In fact, just from the partial list of high crimes presented earlier, it’s obvious that the patterns of most administrations were quite clear. You do a major industry segment a big favor and they return the favor by providing big contributions. You start a big war based on outright lies and you win elections because Who will oppose a war president? You create a crime out of nothing, the 24 incident voter fraud fiction. Preventing the nonexistent crime requires regulations that deny the votes of hundreds of thousands of minority citizens. You say you’re preventing a crime as you commit the worst of crimes. You own the system. Even contested elections do little good because we’re simply replacing one set of willing actors with another.

We’ve reached the point where the fictions enabling political and election fraud have become accepted reality. Citizens are given no choice but to take these events as a legitimate part of the political dynamic. Warily we react as if there might really be a reason to invade Iraq. The presentation of such outrageous lies as truth plus the recursive support of a captive corporate media make it seem like there are two sides to the issue. Maybe there is some connection between Saddam and Al Qaeda? Even the president’s denial of his own lie about weapons of mass destruction has no impact on the larger fiction. The process is grinding and relentless based on theatrics, repetition, and emotionally charged, fear based lies.

We become actors in the process of deceiving ourselves by simply having the decency to assume no one would be monstrous enough to, for example: start a war based on lies; deliberately let the citizens of New Orleans starve for days and suffer years of exile and deprivation; conceal the full story of 911; deregulate business in a way that causes direct harm to the public; withhold scientific information vital to individuals and the public at large, etc.

We’ve become so jaded that we accept the corruption of political leadership as being just the way things are, denying even a productive role for cynicism and doubt. It’s an elegant and deadly trap. There’s either a reason for the malfeasance or the malfeasance is an inevitable part of the system. Just accept it. We are both intended and willing victims of the system.

It’s time to say the obvious. The misuse of the federal government and federal employees to influence elections and maintain power pervades the entire political process. The individual scandals that come forward with such flourish are somehow handled to preserve the system. They are, in fact, the way the system routinely operates from top to bottom. Government authority and resources are used to maintain and perpetuate power for those who take from the many and give to the few; with full knowledge of the benefits reaped by a chosen few.

This is totally unacceptable to a civilized people. We deride banana republics yet we slip on our own peels again and again. It’s time to stop sleep walking. The corporate media has not and will not go beyond the bounds of contrived fiction and staged kabuki drama. It’s left to citizens to spread the word.

We don’t need to save this system. We need to end it and begin again with policies that benefit all Americans and provide fair and accurate elections. Elections free of corporate money, machines, and machinations are the best path to elected officials who understand and obey the law, no matter how tempting or convenient the opportunities for fraud might seem.

ENDS

Many thanks to The Scholar for his contributions to the basic concept of this article.

Permission to reprint granted provided there is a link to this article in “Scoop” and attribution of authorship.

[redqueen]

1. But how to end it and start anew?

Great piece... thanks for posting it.

Does make one feel somewhat hopeless about it all, though. Since there really is no way to end it that I can see.

[autorank]

7. HI, have hope. The first step is getting at the truth...(not that I know the truth)

But I do know that we need to call foul when the denizens of power central trot out their excuses for
the system riddled with self interest, greed, and indifference by the haves for the have-nots.

Just look at that picture of the Katrina survivors. They were evicted! Not for failing to pay their rent but for a new development. Good housing, people willing to work, and what's the reward -- "Take a hike!" Now put this in the context of, what, $50 billion in aid. 200 thousand still exiled, evicting people paying their rent.

So when * is evacuated himself in whatever way it takes and the pious come on the tee vee and say, "This shows how the system works" or when you hear people say "that's just the way it is," the response is "Bull Shit, don't even go there" because it is BS. We can do a lot if more and more of us just call it as it is.

The A.G. crisis is no exception, this is a poorly done version of business as usual. It has to stop and it will when the sorry apologies for outrageous behavior are mocked and derided by "We the people."

Have hope, I do, because seeing the way things really operate is the first step to change.

[FogerRox]

13. Yeah this is foul alright, like stink on a Gorilla

Kn damned "R".

[Me.]

40. This Group Of Ego Maniacal Incompetents

Wi il ultimately self-destruct. We just have to help them do so. Light the match to the Bonfire of the Vanities they've built.

[Oldtimeralso]

2. Where is the so called liberal media? n/t

[autorank]

9. That's one of the essential myths, thanks for the reminder.

I really should have included that somewhere. They're the "straw that stirs the drink." They're also just "doing their jobs" but it's a source of great hope that few trust corporate media and fewer and fewer are using it.

Citizens are providing their own information sources and cherry picking the corporate folks. Plus there are some damn good reporters out there who have not given up, like the McClatchy Newspapers. Look at what's happened to McCain. He still gets the same glowing press he's always gotten but John & Jane Q Citizen have him figured out. He's dropping off significantly. The same will happen to Rudy G. It will be his turn soon!
[br />

[blm]

42. Liberal media' was an invention to distract from reality that fascists bought control of most media

in the 80s and 90s.

[Oldtimeralso]

50. Amen Brother!!!! N/T

[Mnemosyne]

3. Excellent! Thanks for posting this kpete. autorank rules! n/t

[autorank]

10. :)

:hi:

[Mnemosyne]

17. :)

:hi:

[hfojvt]

28. are you the author, or the scholar?

The author used Chalmers title without saying anything about it, or about Chalmers' book
http://www.amazon.com/Sleepwalking-Through-History-America-Reagan/dp/0385422598

[autorank]

55. I'm the author.

I didn't read the book but had I, I would have put it in quotes. Thanks for pointing that out.

[poorinnaples]

4. Problem is...

It's been going on for more than a few decades. More like since the Whig party morphed itself into the Republican party. It's always been the party of corporate monarchists, & elitists, since it's founding. The whole "small government", "limited government", "against taxes" is nothing but window dressing. The SOBs invented a massive, federal government, that rules all. Hamiltonian monarchists, through & through. Nothing's changed.

Bottom line, you'll never turn a turd, into a gold nugget, no matter how hard you try.

[truedelphi]

44. But it's been proven that in B*'s hands, a turd

Can become a turd blossom

[poorinnaples]

49. Absolutely...

And the Republican Party's been a turd, since birth...

[autorank]

5. Thanks kpete! You're the best!!!!! n/t

[Kurovski]

6. k&R.(nt)

[passy]

8. K&R

Great article, should be compulsory reading for anyone stupid enough to trust the elections.

[rumpel]

11. oh oh

I'll be back to continue reading
- gotta go cook for the dogs - they started requesting (it gets really noisy - they are not as well behaved as I wish)

meanwhile a k&r

[kster]

12. KNR

Book marked for a closer read. Got to run.

[bleever]

14. This is really a test to see what America is made of.

Rudyard Kipling wrote a story titled "The Mother Hive", in which a beehive is corrupted from within by waxmoths, which insinuate themselves into the structure and operations of the hive with blandishments, displacing the healthy functions until the system is irrevocably broken and corrupted.

I can't help feeling that this is a similar situation in that, if they are allowed to change what Constitutional government means, they can destroy it.

Great work, autorank.


:yourock:

[Old and In the Way]

15. Another home run, Autorank!

This is a very good overview of the structural corruption and how we are reaping the fruits of the seeds sown 40 years ago.

Assuming we win in 2008 and have control of the Executive/Congressional Branches of government (I know, that is no guarantee)...we cannot become complacent and let ourselves be lulled into thinking, "OK, the crisis is over". I think that happened when Clinton got elected and many of us got distracted raising families, doing the career thing, etc. No, this time it has to be different. The election has to mark a beginning, not an end. We need to double the efforts and turn the heat up on a variety of fronts:

1) A new vision of national energy/security policy not grounded in the agenda of Big Oil.
2) A serious purging of neo-cons and Republican moles who will be dedicated to slowing/obstructing the institutional changes needed in Justice, CIA, Pentagon, and the various Federal Departments. We have to be as ruthless and doctrinaire about this as the Republicans have been over the past 40 years.
3) We have to investigate the past crimes in every facet of our government, bring the perps to trial, and make them pay. For revenge? No. To send a message to future criminals that we will not accept using our federal government as an opportunity to exploit the taxpayer and provide cover for RICO-class crimes.
4) Restore fair and equitable taxation.
5) Address the need for Universal Healthcare/coverage
6) Reregulate business
7) Re-institute the Fairness Doctrine
8) A voting process that everyone can have complete confidence in...nothing is more corrupting to democracy more than not being able to trust our election process or insure the majority interests are protected.


I sincerely believe we came this close || to losing our institutional democracy....and we aren't really out of the woods yet. But we've got to finally deal with the political malignancies that threaten to kill our commonwealth. It won't be easy, it won't be pretty...but we cannot allow the same cancer to go dormant, only to reappear much stronger in another decade or so. Vigilance and participation in the political process is the price to live in a free and just society.

[autorank]

16. I recommend this reply!

Thank!

I'm bookmarking this list, because it is THE LIST.

Here are my favorites:

1) A new vision of national energy/security policy not grounded in the agenda of Big Oil.

-> This is our Great Gyramid with functionality for centuries. I suspect strongly that we could
develop an alternate system of energy in about 3 years with about 1/3rd of what we spent on Iraq.
One of the great and undermining canards of the somnambulists is there's really no alternative eneergy
program available for cars and industry. What a crock. There's never been a really serious and
focused effort to do so. The absense of an effort is taken as the lack of potential. How foolish
do they think we are. The Manhattan Project took how many years? Not that many. What are we waiting
for? Just the opportunity to start. It's an absolute crime that we're sitting on our hands.

3) We have to investigate the past crimes in every facet of our government, bring the perps to trial, and make them pay. For revenge? No. To send a message to future criminals that we will not accept using our federal government as an opportunity to exploit the taxpayer and provide cover for RICO-class crimes.

-> Why have rule if you're not going to enforce them? Why allow people to break the most fundamental
rules in the most cynical way? This is one message that must be sent. You don't get to trash the
house and just walk away. This would be a way to focus the public on real law and order, not the
sensational garbage the cable networks put out.

Thanks!

[Old and In the Way]

21. A great post deserves a thoughtful response.

We've been living with these bastards for many, many years....lots of us have got these bastards figured out. It's all inter-related - energy / security / the domestic economy / the political class who stifles progress by looking after the interests of the energy producers

[truedelphi]

45. You did hit this out of the park, Auto!

What a service you are doing for all of us.

And Old and in The Way, very well-written.

[Richard Steele]

18. Kicked and recommended!

[galloglas]

19. K and R !!

Autorank channels Edward R. Murrow!!

And I hear Mr. Murrow saying, "The Emperor has no clothes!"

Think about this.

Let's turn Henry Waxman into a daytime panel show host and name it, "To Tell the Truth", after that old 1950s show.

We could have the various parasitic apparatchiks, that are still alive, brought up and questioned! But we should update it for the 21st Century. You know, with hoods, electrodes, abusive brown shirts... all that good Abu Ghraib stuff.

For Jove's Sake!, let's give the citizens a Circus. Circus Maximus!

I am sure the nation is ready for that (I know the parasitic bastards that daily, and nightly, suck our blood, have earned it!)

Bring on the Lions!!

[scarletwoman]

20. another k & r... Thanks, kpete!

[Raksha]

22. Excellent piece, good thesis.

The biggest propaganda triumph of all is making the corruption and evil so commonplace that it seems inevitable, like an "act of God." Well, it is ISN'T inevitable! I hope the American people soon wake up to the fact that we enable the criminals more by accepting evil as inevitable than in any other way. I have become very suspicious lately of the tired old "both sides do it" cynicism for just reason--even if it's true! That just feeds the inevitability myth.

[autorank]

26. Very well said!

I agree with all of what you said. I thought of "both sides do it" and I think I have an idea why it's bothersome. "Both sides" means two, which is like "there's always two sides to an argument." Well, there are many sides and many perspectives to argue from. This attachment to duality really hems us in. Even if "both sides do it" the question is, to what degree. Gore - Bush (there is a clear choice) Kerry - Bush (another clear choice). Gore and Kerry don't have to be 100% "good" to choose them because, without a doubt, it's difficult to find anything redeeming about Bush.

It's time we come out of the trance and face reality. There's a lot of work to do.

:hi:

[Raksha]

32. Thanks...your compliment means a lot,

considering that you're the author of the OP. I'm happy for the confirmation that I understood what you're saying. I try to avoid prefabricated thinking as much as possible, including such trite truisms as "both sides do it" and "there are two sides to every story." Another poisonous cliche (when two opposing POVs come into conflict) is: "The truth probably lies somewhere in the middle."

But what if one side is telling the truth and the other side is LYING? Does the truth still lie "somewhere in the middle"? That would make it, at the very best, a half-truth, and more likely just another lie. Sometimes the truth DOES NOT lie "somewhere in the middle." Sometimes it's all on one side.

As you said, there is also the matter of degree when "both sides do it." Somebody on DU used the phrase "equating the Republican mountain with the Democratic molehill." I thought that was a very good description for what right-wing pundits spend a lot of their time doing and I always remembered it.

[glitch]

23. K & R for excellence. nt

[ClayZ]

24. Kick!

:kick:

[puebloknot]

25. K&R Exceptionally eloquent, Mr. Collins. Thank you! nt

[autorank]

27. Thank you.

We will get only so many wake up calls before we sleep through our opportunity to change things. Kerry was excellent in discussing the challenge of the environment. We don't have much time. Wow, how much time do we have? And what debt are we paying off, as a population of the earth not just the USA, to have such a collection of delusional bumblers in charge, I'm awe struck by the irony and horror of it all.

[puebloknot]

48. Another strong reason for impeachment NOW!

We don't really know what another two years of sleeping through serious environmental devolution is going to do. Tipping point; point of no return! Those phrases frighten me.

How hard is it to just make laws that every American citizen has to do the simple things Al Gore pointed out in An Inconvenient Truth to favorably impact the environment? First, we have to get the inmates out of the White House and the Congress and back in the asylum.

[vickitulsa]

29. Highly recommended! This one should end up at the top on the GP

for sure, and I hope a hefty percentage of DUers read (and then rec) it!

I don't think I've ever read such a well thought out piece that gets to the heart of the problem and makes the central concept so very clear.

I am 57 years old, so I've seen a lot of government in this country over the decades. I knew when I was a young adult that there was a lot of corruption in the U.S. government and that certainly those comfortably ensconced in positions of power in Washington D.C. were misusing those positions for political purposes.

But I swear it was nowhere near as bad four decades ago as it is today!

Yet really all that seems to have happened is that the people have very slowly given up on reining in the abuses in Washington and, as this most excellent article notes, accepted all the corruption and rule-breaking as routine, and therefore somehow "acceptable"!

At the very least, if we haven't already been doing this, I think we should all start taking it upon ourselves to mention in every conversation of a political nature the basic truths described in this piece.

It wouldn't be that difficult to do. We can sum it up in one sentence that would point out to the sleepwalkers how shocking it really is that things have grown this bad right under our noses, while serving to remind others who are more aware of the problems that we're doing ourselves no favors by trying not to think about it.

I honestly believe the mood of the country right now is one of very disturbed sleep and a rising sense of dread about where our "leaders" are taking us and our country -- and indeed the world.

Maybe the time is at last right to do something that was advised against in the past: Wake the sleepwalkers!

It's certainly better than watching them walk off a cliff!

[Raksha]

31. Someone on another forum used the phrase "learned helplessness"

in a completely different context, but it seems appropriate for this one.

Re >>Yet really all that seems to have happened is that the people have very slowly given up on reining in the abuses in Washington and, as this most excellent article notes, accepted all the corruption and rule-breaking as routine, and therefore somehow "acceptable"!<<

This fatalistic acceptance of corruption and abuse is a kind of learned helplessness on the part of the general public, maybe not all of them but a big enough percentage of them. It's been conditioned into them and it's very dangerous--probably the biggest threat to our democracy that we face.

[vickitulsa]

37. I was trying to remember that very term! "learned helplessness"

-- for sure, that's what it is for so many people.

As I was writing my response above, I knew there was a phrase for what I was thinking about, but I could only recall "helplessness" without the "learned," and that's the key part. It derives from another area of human interaction where the central theme is ABUSE, right? As in abuse of a partner or a child, most often in a family setting.

The ones in a family who are constantly picked on, beaten or even tortured, as well as sexually abused, sometimes do learn their role as the victim so well that they cannot even conceive of defying the abuser within that situation. The abuser seems all powerful, although he is really not.

I think it's even been used as a defense at trial for wives who may have killed an abusive husband, with the explanation that the abuse was pushed too far for the victim to bear, but she did not know how to reach out for help before an explosive episode because of learned helplessness.

Obviously if a victim of severe abuse in a family situation can "explode" at some point even when s/he has learned a role of helplessness, then the American people could also be expected to "go ballistic" at some point when they're fed up enough with the abundance of corruption and political wrongdoing.

There's a reason they call us the "electorate," right? But if our voice through elections is stolen from us, then we'll have to find other ways to make our will imposable!

I was an abused child -- in fact I was the focus of most of my father's abuse, and that may well have been because I was the only one in our small family of four who defied and stood up to Dad. Yet I seemed somehow resilient and refused to just accept the unacceptable status quo that even my mother took as a given.

Much later, others told me, to my great chagrin, that I was a lot like my dad! Not with respect to abuse, however, but I finally recognized that I am indeed strong willed and determined (some call it stubborn).

I've worked hard to make sure these traits are turned to a positive use in my life, and perhaps the American people can find a way to do the same on a large scale. Surely there is something short of a torch-and-pitchforks REVOLUTION that will accomplish this and restore our government!

What I see as a critical problem is the way the money interests have so much control in our government now. It's easy to learn helplessness when our daily lives are controled by companies that we cannot escape doing business with.

Our local news did a piece last night on gas prices at the pump rising fifty cents in just the last six weeks, and some drivers interviewed said they had accepted the high prices as inevitable now. One man in particular did not, however, and he gave a great little speech about it which I hope a lot of Tulsans heard. "We're in real trouble, and they need to FIX IT," he said.

Surely the awakening of the sleepwalkers is the first step, and a required one. Next phase, TAKE ACTION!

[autorank]

51. vickitulsa, Thanks so very much.

It's been a long ride form wondering why they did atmospheric nuclear tests in Nevada in the 50's when I was a tyke in the Sierra Nevada's during the summer to the huge lies we've seen from the Selection 2000 right through whatever lie * and company told today.l They won't stop. But they're liars and now everybody who can know it, does know it. Time to wake up is right.

Cheers:hi:

[althecat]

30. Cheers autorank....

.. this is something of an eye-opener for a Kiwi. Under our law the only political appointees are people in governance positions - i.e. on boards of governors or corporate boards.... all senior public servants are appointed by a special independent organisation called the State Services Commission which also sets their salaries.

Our judges are appointed by the Attorney General who is a political officer, but they are appointed on the advice of the Solicitor General - a public servant - who in turn consults with senior lawyers and the law society.

[autorank]

52. althecat, that's a very good mode.

We used to use the American Bar Association to vet some judicial positions, informal arrangement, but it was not nearly that objective. We've still got a bit of the Wild West to squeeze out. Might even happen in time to save us from our folly.

Thanks again!

[Raksha]

33. K & R - forgot to recommend it earlier. Fixed that.

:kick:

[Land Shark]

34. Yup. and Sleepwalking through our fundamental rights intead of frequently consulting them nt

[autorank]

53. The cramdown is nearly complete, they think.

But then, again, they're wrong.

Keep hammering them :evilgrin:

[Joe Chi Minh]

35. That was the first thing that struck me, Mike. DUers were blithely,

quite uncritically citing the term, "at the President's pleasure", almost as if they felt a vicarious frisson of pleasure at its latent decadent overtones.

Why? Why? Why, do so many DUers accept insane but longstanding conventions (pardons for imprisoned political supporters is another one), which are unambiguously, palpably, corrupt, farcical and a disgrace to modern Western civilisation?), as though they were chiselled in stone. Brought down by Moses from Mt Sinai, after receipt of instructions from God?

They are man-made rules, in the case of the political pardons, I believe, unique in the Western world, and doubtless everywhere else), and a certain recipe for never-ending, anti-democratic corruption.

I'll need to check it, but I believe Saddam Hussein was granted an amnesty by the leader he later had murdered, though I don't believe the amnesty was pursuant to a convention. And HE WAS AN ENEMY!

[vickitulsa]

38. I've heard that story about Saddam too. If true, it just shows

how dangerous it is to excuse the unacceptable behavior of some individuals.

I know a great many Americans are embarrassed beyond words at the disdain and wrath that this administration has brought down on us all. I can only hope they are angered enough about it to do something.

Possibly because of the history we have in this country, Americans seem to believe their basic rights would never be abridged to the extent they are these days. What's happening is a rude, cold, slap in the face, and I do think our citizens are sick and tired of it.

Whether they can regain their sense of power and take the risks involved in re-asserting control of our government is another matter.

Seems to me that those in power now who are abusing their power and us should take careful note of the restive attitude of U.S. citizens. The storm of unrest is reaching Category Three or Four right now, and the big blow is coming, is what I think....


Totally agree with you about the political pardons, too!

[Joe Chi Minh]

46. It cries out to be tackled, doesn't it? It's reassuring to read your input.

[autorank]

54. "at the pleasure of the president" or "pleasuring the president' in a figurative sense.

Thanks for taking note of that. It's so offensive to hear people like Gonzales say that. What a wimp. I think that phrase is the cousin to "I was just following orders."

Ahoy'!!!

[stellanoir]

36. wows

One of your best effort EVER.

And this line nails it totally. . ."pleasure of the president; an offensive notion that reduces the federal employee to the role of a courtesan."

Thanks & K & R'd

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

39. As ever dear kpete, thank you for posting this and autorank, for waking me up to it! Literally!

MSM seems to have willfully ignored the Doan's hearing and how serious the implications are concerning the GOP's insidious use of our government departments for their own purposes.

How can We The People be outraged, if the complicit media doesn't inform? I can't recall, but was this even shown on C-Span? I believe I viewed it at the Committee's webcast link.

[galloglas]

41. A Swatch of the Cloth from the Devil's Coat Tails

is this marvelous You Tube of Ms. Doan...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VePqzIrR-ao

If there is a "Poster Girl" for this OP, Ms. Doan is it.


And a breathe of hope for us all in this extra clip... (listen to Ms. Doan freak out about "fingerprints on her glass" about 25 seconds into this)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WmyEhIRSJw

[autorank]

56. Did she say "finger prints, they got me totally paranoid"

What a charmer;)

[earth mom]

43. Excellent! K & R!

:applause:

[CJCRANE]

47. Great post.

IMO the Bush administration is the culmination of the acceptance of business as usual practices BUT unlike Nixon who knew when it was time to quit - they have no shame, no honor, no sense of patriotism or duty.

I would go further though and speculate that they have actively (through their thinktanks) studied how to push the system beyond any level of checks and balances or viable democracy (my belief is that they've studied how Ruling Parties maintain permanent dominance in certain third world "democracies").

If we consider how detailed their imaginings and preparations were for the "new Pearl Harbor" (as per PNAC), the "searing" and "molding" event that could shape a "public myth" (as per Philip Zelikow's theories) then it's likely that they have put just as much thought and planning in to how to hold onto their newfound power and implement their "draconian measures, scaling back civil liberties, allowing wider surveillance of citizens, detention of suspects, and use of deadly force" (Philip Zelikow again).

"The first obstacle to imagination is resignation. The prospects may seem so dreadful that some officials despair of doing anything useful". Philip Zelikow said this about being ready for the "catastrophic event" but I would say it applies equally to the official who finds themself mired in what looks like this business as usual corruption but is in fact much, much worse.

[bobthedrummer]

57. Kick-and a sidebar

from CREW bloggers:
"gwb43.com scandal profiled in LA Times"
http://www.citizensforethics.org/node/27530