On Sabbatical

By now you've noticed I've not blogged for the past week, aside from poppin' in every now and then to comment or remove the occasional troll post. My email has also languished, so apologies to those with correspondence in the stack. For the time being, think of me as the harmless, cleaned-up town drunk who disappears and falls off the wagon for days or weeks at a time only to re-emerge and proclaim everything "just fine."

I expect to be posting with less less frequency and, apparently, urgency, and maintain a more open thread kind of thing until I can get back on the trail of my wayward whimsy.

Thoughts on the Nature of the Beast

Progressive politics are over.

Viva la oligarchy.

It would be a lie to say I don't find its brevity depressing, but most disheartening is that five years of turbo-charged theofascism continues being met with a shrug and a sigh.

I've long used The Script as a term to describe the structured, unthinking manner in which we function in and as a society, but I had wrongly assumed we were capable of deviating from it under extraordinary circumstances. As it turns out, the more extraordinary the circumstances, the more we rely on The Script. This is what I find so surprising.

And now I'm realizing, finally, that today's amorphous Left is a laughable role player and useful tool for the soul-scavenging hyenas it ostensibly endeavors to oppose. This is on full display every day in Left Blogsylvania. We all hit our marks, make our speeches and the curtain closes. Then we get up and do it again. This routine seems no less addictive than nicotine or sugar, and about half as useful.

Whether America - or, for that matter, what many of us think of as The Civilized World - will ever awaken from its slumber is an open question, if only because "ever" is a long time. I'm convinced I won't see it, but I thought there would at least be resistance. The individual spheres of isolation in which we live our lives make resistance exceptionally difficult, much more so than during the social movements which peaked during the Sixties and early Seventies. A progressive movement is not impossible, but it is increasingly implausible. I don't presume to know, given our current and foreseeable sociopolitical environment, what could serve as a catalyst for such a dynamic.

As the potential for a progressive movement is strangled by the rapacious appetite of human capitalism, amplified by a factor of a thousand in these hyper-materialistic United States, it stands to reason people have put all their eggs in the rotten basket of electoral politics. Yet, left to function in a vacuum, politics is a terribly destructive organism. It appears we have bought into a circular cycle of cannibalism which seems virtually impossible to break.

As a political creature by nature, thirty years of closely watching politics is an exceptionally hard habit to break, but, alas, this is clearly emerging as a significant personal challenge. I'm at an intersection and am unsure how to proceed. More of the same would amount to intellectual rubbernecking. But there's no denying Spartacus is right when he recommends looking at the stars, and that's exactly what I'm going to do.

Lather. Rinse. Repeat.

Apologies to those who have read numerous versions of the following post in recent weeks or months. Think of it as my futile but imperative campaign against the scourge of conventional wisdom afflicting The Left.


Its original context can be found as the first missive in an exchange at American Street. I've completely lost patience with pretty much everyone making statements such as "Let's hope our party wakes up." Cluephone: The party isn't asleep. It's dead. And winning midterms by default won't bring it back to life.

And, yes, I know I'm tilting at windmills, but American Street has a pretty good signal to noise ratio in terms of readership and sometimes just I can't help myself.

Five years and no opposition party.

Five years of complicity.

Five years of spelling out “what the Democrats need to do…” on every grassroots outlet on the freaking internet and every halfway decent Left-leaning ‘zine should raise a red flag, but, alas, most of us still Don’t Get It.

But what the fuck. Allow me to spell it out in detail because rank & file Dems are the slowest goddamn learners on the planet.

Beltway Democrats are not going to magically start taking advice from the people who send them to the House and Senate. Why? Because the people who send them to the House and Senate don’t exact a price from those who betray our most basic values and principles.

It’s that simple.

As things stand now, as long as there’s a (D) after a candidate’s name, by golly, that’s the only thing that matters.

Only it isn’t.

What the Left completely refuses to consider is that appeasers - and we all know who they are because it’s damn near the whole team - have to be punished. Rejected. Sent home packing. We could - if we had the will and the vision - pool resources to rid the Democratic Party of those who consistently undermine it. We have the ability to influence elections in states that send these weaklings to Congress, and until we realize that ability, we have nothing.

A party that cannot summon the strength to function as an effective opposition party cannot lead.

Democrats had better get serious about primaries and dislodging the pigs at the trough because they aren’t going to suddenly spring into action like reincarnations of Paul Wellstone or Harry Truman or whoever your idea of a fighter is. They’re going to feed and feed and feed every single time they’re sent back to do a job they’re not suited to do.

They do not share our values.

They do not care about you or me or anyone else without a PAC, a TV Studio or a column in a major daily. They are an unprincpled lot, ill-suited in ability and temperment to resist the onslaught of theofascist extremism.

Listen closely: The Democrats in Congress now are Not. Going. To Change. PERIOD. EVER. We are losing to petty tyrants because the people we have sent to Congress are more like our enemies than ourselves.

If we want fighters, we’ll send fighters to Congress. No more holding our noses to cast a vote for someone simply because there’s a (D) after their name. You know where that’s gotten us? Where we are right now. Where we’ve been since before 2000.

“Throw the bums out.” They’ve earned it. If we lose in the short term, we are still strengthening the character of our party. There is no task more important than that.

The NeoCon Revolution will continue with or without Karl Rove. With or without Democratic majorities in the House and Senate. With or without a Democrat in the White House. This is nothing short of a generational struggle that will last for decades to come. Do we have the heart for it? It remains to be seen, but it doesn’t look encouraging. We continue looking to the Next Election for salvation, but that’s not how salvation - if it comes at all - will be delivered.

Risk averse Dem voters had better realize we are in a new era of politics, and it is not strictly a numbers game. Does anyone here really believe if Dems were to take back the House & Senate during mid-terms that anything other than the most superficial changes would occur? If so, you’re dreaming. It would be Iran-Contra redux because we have not even begun to change the nature of the Democratic Party. That can only be accomplished by expelling our weak links and coming to terms with this counterintuitive reality: A strong minority party is infinitely more useful than a weak majority party. Our enemies realized it a long, long time ago. Will we? Ever? Our failure to awaken to post-Constitutional politics will bring further disaster on a scale we cannot even begin to imagine. The clock is ticking.

If all this sounds alarmist and over the top, well, fine. But don’t keep crying about it and expecting a sympathetic ear. In the end, we really do get the leadership we deserve. We aren’t victims. We’re co-conspirators because we refuse to get a fucking clue. If we don’t have the wherewithal and vision to do whatever is necessary to change the character of the Democratic Party, it’s not going to be easy pinning the blame on “those spineless Democrats” like we’ve been doing for the last five years.

Don’t make me say I told you so, Grassroots. There’s no pleasure in it with stakes this high.

In case you're a masochist, the rest of the discussion is here.

Bush Loyalists: A Nation of Traitors

And they all sound like David Keene, chairman of the American Conservative Union, on last week's Diane Rehm Show. (requires Real Player)

I got no love for the thugs comprising the CIA, an organization which surely ranks as one of the most flagrantly evil gangs to ever scar the planet. If the United States wasn't so hellbent on subjugating the world for our own exclusive benefit - undermining & otherthrowing governments, corporate espionage, stealing resources and swapping access to illicit drug markets for intelligence - well, we probably wouldn't need 'em. But we are and we do and, unfortunately, as things currently stand, we are forced to depend on them for our security.

As much as Bush's fascist hordes have thrown around the word traitor for the last five or so years, there is absolutely a perverse joy in watching Karl Rove, Lewis Libby and The Boy King himself squirming as revelations about the Plame affair come to light. (It bears repeating, though, that expectations of justice will only lead to disappointment.) As mentioned earlier here and elsewhere, it won't be the least bit surprising if John Bolton also emerges as a player in this story. And, aside from the occasional impromptu Bush gaffe (such as closing Abu Ghraib or Camp X-Ray), everyone with a brain knows who has been pulling Bush's strings since Day One of his fake presidency. Nothing of any consequence goes on in the Cheney Administration without Dick's knowledge, which certainly explains his invisibility of late. When Cheney isn't making the rounds of television's Beltway bloviators, spewing unchallenged lies like a pantry full of botulism infected soup cans, something is amiss.

Less amusing is the spectacle of neoCon automatons reciting, verbatim, Ken Mehlman's talking points on the Plame affair. It's all Joe Wilson's fault. Riiiight. But that's what we can always expect of the Bush drones. They get an email or a blastfax and it's off to the races. Accountability is confined to frisky Democrats, outspoken celebrities and the occasional journalist endeavoring to commit journalism (no, I'm not referring to the laughably martyred Judith "Chalabi" Miller). Expecting today's Republican gangs to think with the tiniest grain of critical examination is woefully naive. They're ticket-takers and nothing else. Since well before Bush's installment by the United States Supreme Court, they have acted as a hive of killer bees, maniacally intent on strangling national dialogue like Ted Bundy on a hot date. This is what they do, and they do it well because theirs is a world of absolutes devoid of the shades of gray infusing the experience of the rest of the adult human race.

How ironic that Bush kicked off his presidency with Vincent Bugliosi's Bush v. Gore book "None Dare Call It Treason" making the rounds, and here we are, five and a half years later, talking about treason again.

One would think George W. Cheney would be content to leave a legacy of implementing a theofascist state, destroying the national economy and waging an unprovoked, illegal war against a sovereign nation. Who wouldn't be?

Their footsoldiers' dedication to All Things Conservative, to an America darkened by the long shadow of Fascism, has been on blinding display since Antonin Scalia stopped the counting of legally cast ballots in Florida, depriving thousands of Floridians and, by extension, the nation itself, of the right to choose its own president. Critics of that decision -- we who were commanded by lapdog media and RNC henchmen and the dreggs of our own gutless, unprincipled Democratic Party to Get Over It - - we knew what Bush v. Gore foreshadowed and we weren't wrong. It was the begining of the end of the rule of law, that lofty concept invoked by Clinton hunters again and again as they sought to reverse the will of the people. The Rule of Law, under George W. Cheney, became whatever they said it was, period. And the right wing squealed with a fervor once reserved for young girls at an Elvis concert. And they squeal today, always the angry victims of some imagined liberal wrong.

Where will it end? With a presidential pardon, of course, assuming the USSC doesn't get an opportunity to whitewash this whole episode. They've certainly gotten away with worse. There's not a dime's worth of difference between the USSC's Dirty Five and the democracy-haters at Little Green Footballs and Free Republic (sorry, no links to the fascist goon squads). It's Conservatives versus America, and they've been winning for a long time now.

At least Senator Frank Lautenberg called it what it is: Treason.

Lautenberg's statement, shocking for its honesty, is pretty much everything that passes for hope among the disillusioned, leaderless Left. At the end of the day, it isn't much to hang one's hat on, is it?

In the interim, it will be business as usual. Corporate looting. Wave after wave of disinformation. More killing and dying. More Them and Us. More whackjobs on the federal bench and, now, the Supreme Court. A nation divided by religion, politics, class and culture. And for this, the normalization of official crime, we can thank our Democratic "leaders" - many of whom are the same ones who refused to fight for the American voter in 2000 and 2004. They will refuse doing their duty until they are punished for their negligence.

Police State: The War on Children

Lifted from Mark Crispin Miller's News From Underground

US police pursue girl over stone

An 11-year-old girl who threw a stone at a group of boys pelting her with water balloons is being prosecuted on serious assault charges in California.

Maribel Cuevas was arrested in April in a police operation which involved three police cars and a helicopter.

She has since spent five days in detention, in which she was granted one 30 minute visit by her parents, and has spent a month under house arrest.

Her lawyer accuses the authorities of criminalising childhood behaviour.

"They're treating her like a violent parole offender," Richard Beshwate said. "It's not a felony, it's an 11-year-old acting like an 11-year-old."

This does not happen - it could not happen - in a nation, state or city where people truly value freedom.

And some people wonder why I call it Pig Nation, USA.

http://www.FreeMaribel.org

Seventies Nostalgia

From Meanwhile, back at the ranch...:

Now, just for the hell of it, the few visitors I get, I would like to hear a best of and worst of the 70s memories. I hate the 70s and see this AM where someone at Heretik’s comments linked to a site of 70s night life pics NY Studio 54 style. I graduated from high school in 1975 and the world felt like it had all gone to rancid seed. The music, the clothes, everything, awash in slime. I personally remember just wanting to be in any world but that belonging to the late 70s. Tarentino has dressed it up, but there was nothing wonderful about it while it was going on, at least not while I was there. And it’s an unfortunate era I don’t like to revisit. But I imagine there are people with good memories from the 70s.

My cross-posted response:

I was in first grade in ‘68, so life didn’t really start happening for me until the mid to late 70s.

When I think of that era, the first thing which springs to mind is the original Texas Jam, a cringe-worthy event for which I and twenty or so peers (my friends, then as now, were few) had excitedly spent the night in my parents’ backyard rolling an even hundred joints in preparation for the show. Some of the performers included Head East, Little River Band, Journey, Van Halen and Ted Nugent, none of whom - you’ll be glad to hear - I would walk across the street to hear today.

What I liked about the Seventies is the same thing I hate about it: the reckless self-indulgence which gave us arena rock, cocaine, disco, punk and Ronald Reagan like moldy manna from heaven.

For those of us with a complete and utter abhorrence of fashion - we whose idea of dressing up rarely extended beyond a pair of jeans and a t-shirt - it was an effortless time. But, then, I never understood fashion. The line separating self-expression from social indoctrination is too blurry for me to derive any pleasure from it.

In the Seventies, cops were still cops, but they didn’t operate as paramilitary goons the way they do now. People still had an expectation of privacy, a notion that seems quaint and totally unrealistic in contemporary America. The home was truly sacrosanct, which was a pretty good value to hold dear if you weren’t being victimized by a parent or spouse.

Even late in the decade, we were still seeing the glimmer of generosity and selflessness that infected the Sixties. We shared our weed and pills and blotter, our gasoline and our time. It was still grossly uncool for anyone other than full-time dealers to sell states of mind within one’s social circle. Unlike today, the street pharmacy, much of which was copped directly from Big Pharmacy USA, was both pervasive and impressive.

The cannabis sativa pouring across the Mexican border was incredible and affordable. Acapulco Gold, Panama Red and the exotica of Thai Sticks provided a soundtrack of laughter for much of that aimless, drifting period. Today, pure sativa which rises above the level of ditch weed is nearly non-existent, but we were up to our eyeballs in it throughout the Seventies, and, in keeping with free market principles, it was very affordable. Today’s indica-dominant herb — grown in closets, basements and warehouses across America and the world — is wonderful smoke, strong and flavorful, but often stupefying and ill-suited for socializing. And it’s a far cry from the tropical bliss of high quality, sun-drenched sativa grown throughout Central America during the Sixties and Seventies.

For all its air-headedness, the Seventies was the last decade in which society placed a greater premium on personal experience and social interaction over the poisoned fruits of materialism and isolation. I’m not a person who spends much time looking back, but I do find myself wondering if America will ever rediscover that aspect of the past. I suspect so, but the catalyst for such a shift in our collective conscience probably isn’t something to look forward to.

On Terror and Youth

In case you missed it:

A World of Jonestowns

We talk about the desperation of battle-trashed nations and what grows in their soil. But when I think of kids living in West Yorkshire going BOOM I think instead, man, even if no one else saw it there’s not just a lot of rage there, that’s a lot of self-hatred. That’s taking your self-hatred and making it really work for you, making sure you don’t waste your life that you suspect isn’t worth anything more than a few cents worth of blood and guts. Or that’s someone else tapping into your self-hatred and vulnerable 18-24 year old media sponge brain and making it work for them.

An insightful and tragic essay.

Excuses, excuses.

Scott Rosenberg: He shall not be moved.

But I'm willing to bet that, in fact, Rove is around for the long haul. He's President Bush's friend and closest adviser -- the man hailed in quasi-Biblical terms by his foremost beneficiary, after last November's elections, as "The Architect" of right-wing triumph.

If Democrats controlled Congress, they could perhaps make trouble for a public official caught so flat-footedly and foolishly in the machinery of a legally dubious political revenge play. But they don't. They have no leverage. And the record of the Bush White House is one of digging in heels in the face of moral culpability and ethical collapse.

My response:

Rove is impervious to resignation or prosecution. The Republicans running this country into the ground - which is all of them - believe in a nation of men, not laws.

I disagree - fervently - that Democrats "have no leverage" and would need a majority to obtain Rove's head on a plate. The leverage is there. It's called "truth" and Democrats could bring pretty much everything to a screeching halt by relentlessly flogging this issuebefore the American people. The problem isn't one of leverage. It isone of solidarity, principle and salesmanship.

I'm damn tired of Democrats using their minority status as a lameass excuse for not standing up to the brazen incompetence and malice of the unaccountable Bush White House.

Why is it that when Republicans were a minority in the Senate, theywere able to dictate the terms of the national dialogue on any number of issues, yet Democrats don't even try? Because they had and continue to have something Dems don't: Resolve.

Upon further reflection, it's not impossible Rove could be take a bullet for Bush by stepping down or face prosecution, but we all know how a conviction would ultimately shake out. As a subsequent commenter, Thomas J. Mertz, points out, "Remember Ollie North is now considered by many to be a national hero."

Libertarians and Liberty

Another cross-post which, like the last one, can be found at Agitprop's din of dissidence.



As much as the trained seals of the GOP display endless rank hypocrisy, their post 2000 infatuation with Big Government and Foreign Adventure, we knew, was entirely predictable.

But I'll tell you who I've enjoyed watching expose themselves beneath the Bush White House bedroom windows: Libertarians. Anyone who - during and after King Bush's rule - describes themselves as a Libertarian deserves to be mercilessly ridiculed and poked with sharp sticks until they crawl away with tears running down their cheeks.

The Randroid crowd gets huffy when accused of being a second wing of the Republican Party. I always considered them whores who would sell the corpse of Ayn Rand for a tax break (probably the only thing I have in common with them), but their days of pretending to be Above It All are over. They've aligned themselves with the Jesus Freak Right - and there's no disguising it - all for a tax break.


To any Libertarians out there, I would just like to say Thank You.

Thanks for the death of civil liberties, the burgeoning surveillance society, the reckless foreign misadventures, the steroidal growth spurt in the size of the federal government, debt as far as the eye can see and the implementation of theofascist rule from Washington, D.C.. You guys (and girl?) are the greatest! The greatest bunch of fucking frauds ever seen in the history of American politics.

Your Own. Personal. Jihadist.

Methamphetamine: The GOP's Secret Weapon

"It is just so devastating when you've raised your child and you know that you've done all the things that you could," Gilbert said. "And then they get to be an adult and they walk totally away from what they've been taught. You go through so many emotions - where did I fail?"

Her search for answers led her to Mothers Against Methamphetamine, a national organization that began in Alabama in 2002 and now has more than 60 chapters across the country.

The groups preach a faith-based approach for families coping with meth addiction. The six women and one man in the Garland chapter meet every Wednesday evening for mutual support and group prayer.

And members believe their prayers are taking effect.

One look at Bush's America shows us what happens when the prayers of fundie Christians are answered.

I may be a freak - okay, well, I am a freak - but that doesn't mean I fail to appreciate the significance of kicking meth, that insidious drug which leaves a swath of psychotic destruction and all the rot, often criminal and dental, that follows a severely degraded state of mental health.

Nonetheless, we're not talking about swapping cigarettes for jellybeans.

The prospect of former meth heads joining the Jesus Freaky Right by the tens of thousands sends a chill down my spine. "Militant" doesn't begin to describe the tweaker who finds religion.

The meth epidemic could turn out to be the most efficient Republican assembly line since COPS.

The USSC Script, Part I

Well, thank goodness The King really is seeking the advice and consent of Democrats. For a while there, I thought he might nominate a MAN! What a relief. We would've really been screwed.

I *could* be in trouble.

Yikes. I just saw "WEBTV.NET" on my Sitemeter. That can only mean one thing, because there's only one person on the globe who insists on using WEBTV: My mother.

If she saw any any jokes referencing acid or mushrooms, I'm in trouble. Thank goodness my brother is already in the family doghouse. It only accommodates one dog, and it's far too early for him to be paroled.

It is too soon for that, isn't it, Mom?

Why The NeoC Revolution is Far From Over

I don't often cross-post, but there's no use reinventing the wheel. The following was posted at the fine blog of Agitprop. Its original context can be found here, in a discussion about wingnut reaction to Hillary's "Alfred E. Neuman" comment about the Bush White House. Subsequent commentary there turned to electoral politics, hence my post.

(A different, surlier version - and, no, I don't usually do retreads, but it seemed to fit at the time - can be found at The Bulldog Says... in response to a discussion about King Bush's USSC nominee.)



Democrats with a voting record like Hillary's need to be expelled from the party, period.

The GOP is a slab of ass-whoopin' extremism, and Dem "moderates" (i.e. the Republican wing of the Democratic Party) are relics of a bygone era.

Sadly, Dem rank & filers refuse to acknowledge this. They're not willing to risk sending a Republican to Congress, and will vote for anyone - no matter how rightward leaning - so long as there's a (D) after their name. If we were putting some real effort in the primaries, this wouldn't pose nearly the problem as it does now. But that's not being done.

As long as DINOs [democrats-in-name-only] continue to be rewarded by voters, the character of the Democratic Party will never - that's right, never - change. Because of this, the advances Dems manage to make in electoral politics will serve as a finger in the dyke of a dam which - when it breaks - will make now seem like the Clinton Years. Few on the Left are buying what I'm selling - which is fine - but I sure as hell don't want to hear any belly-achin' about it in 2012. There's no comfort in saying I told you so with stakes this high.

Too many on the Left believe a powershift in the next midterm election spells an end to the NeoConservative Revolution. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Until the character of the Democratic Party changes, we are royally fucked. Because The Left remains reactionary instead of visionary - and refuses to admit hard choices must be made in the short term - we're going to keep getting sold down the river by accommodationist losers, and beaten about the head and shoulders by fascists.

Such is the nature of the beast.

BTW, I agree Democratic pols are adrift. Unfortunately, they're nowhere near angry enough.

Learning The Wrong Lesson

As we all know by now, celebrities are supposed to forego the rights and responsibilities of American citizenship and just keep their damn mouths shut. So goes the conventional wisdom of The Flying Monkey Right, at least when the flying monkeys aren't all misty-eyed as they salute the wit and wisdom of James Woods, Dennis Hopper, Patricia Heaton and other Republican luminaries in the entertainment world.

Maggie Gyllenhaal, who stars in The Great New Wonderful, Oliver Stone's new film about people living in New York in the aftermath of the terror attacks, didn't get the memo. Now, she's feeling the heat.

The 27-year-old actress, who stars in a film about the 2001 terror attacks on the World Trade Center, said in an interview last April that the United States was "responsible in some way" for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

She later issued a statement through her publicist saying that Sept. 11 was "an occasion to be brave enough to ask some serious questions about America's role in the world."

"I was so surprised by the way it was misunderstood, and the disdain that came back at me was a real shock," Gyllenhaal told the Daily News for an interview published Sunday. "I regret what I said, but I think my intentions were good."

Poor Maggie. Like Dick Durbin, now, she'll be castigated by wingnuts and the very people who share her point of view. So let's get busy!

No, Maggie. "Misunderstanding" is hardly the correct word to use for the backlash you're experiencing. It's called willful ignorance and it's apparently that element of DNA which binds today's NeoConservative hordes. You're supposed to refrain from criticizing your country for one simple reason: America is never wrong. Ever. Okay, well, it might be wrong about some things - not the important ones, mind you - but it's never as wrong as its critics, no matter who they are or what they have to say.

"...Neither the red carpet nor an interview about a movie is the right place to talk about my politics. I realize I have to be careful, because it's very easy to misunderstand a complicated thought in a complicated world."

So, even if the film is about the survivors of 911 -- an event which cannot be separated from politics (and is shamelessly exploited at every opportunity by the rabid badgers populating the Right) -- the lesson she's learned is to refrain from expressing political opinions publicly, even in the context of her work.

Maggie, neither the world nor the opinion you expressed are as complicated as the Fascist Right is vicious and simple-minded. Subservience - acquiescence to rightwing extremism - is to be rewarded and critical examination punished in King Bush's America. It's as uncomplicated a lesson as there is.



You might also want to check out the infinitely entertaining insight of James Wolcott:
Oliver Stone and Steven Spielberg: The Doublemint Twins of Treason

Kill! Kill! Kill! Faster! Faster! Faster!

Kathy at Liberty Street directs our attention to a Washington Post editorial opposing a proposed bill which would transform habeas corpus from a legal right to just another sliver of dead Latin:

For a great many capital cases, the bill would eliminate federal review entirely. Federal courts would be unable to review almost all capital convictions from states certified by the Justice Department as providing competent counsel to convicts to challenge their convictions under state procedures. Although the bill, versions of which differ slightly between the chambers, provides a purported exception for cases in which new evidence completely undermines a conviction, this is drawn so narrowly that it is likely to be useless -- even in identifying cases of actual innocence.

It gets worse. The bill, pushed by Rep. Daniel E. Lungren (R-Calif.) in the House and Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) in the Senate, would impose onerous new procedural hurdles on inmates seeking federal review -- those, that is, whom it doesn't bar from court altogether. It would bar the courts from considering key issues raised by those cases and insulate most capital sentencing from federal scrutiny. It also would dictate arbitrary timetables for federal appeals courts to resolve habeas cases. This would be a dramatic change in federal law -- and entirely for the worse.

Kathy neatly sums up the motivations behind this bill:

Believe it or not, the bill's sponsors say its purpose is to solve the problem of convictions being overturned after new evidence proved the defendant's innocence. Great solution, right? People are starting to have doubts about the death penalty because of all these cases where late-breaking evidence showed the conviction was a dud; so we'll just keep those defendants from telling the federal courts about the new evidence.

Another fine example the Republican "Culture of Life." It's as transparently bogus as every other NeoConservative machination we've been beaten over the head with for the last five and a half years, from Clear Skies Initiative to No Child Left Behind. What will they call this bill? I'm betting on The Innocent Death Row Felons Initiative.
________________________________________________________

Post Script: I weren't payin' attention, were I? Must be Blogger's Attention Deficit Disorder. I prefer my own name for the bill, but Streamlined Procedures Act of 2005 is appropriately deceptive.

Chasing Our Tails

Our colleague & frequent Carnival mark, Skookum's Spartacus, reflects on the dearth of thoughtful dialogue - and subsequent action - among Lefties populating the blogosphere.

I was reflecting this morning on how few locations there are in blogdom where thoughtful discussion takes place, when I made a note to myself that what mostly passes for chronicling the present madness, is--in both tone and presentation--largely an expression of hysteria. Facts without analysis.

...I believe that despite the nightmare we are now immersed in as a result of the Cheney administration, this inability to get their minds around the mindset of their enemies, still--forty years since the John Birch style Minutemen first appeared on the scene--is what hamstrings the believers in the promise of democracy from isolating this social disease. And I am dismayed by the fact that arrogance and ignorance are not solely the domain of the Far Right in our country, but rather so widespread as to suggest that we have yet a long ways to fall before we can put things right.

But then, I think, self-indulgence in bewilderment is part of the problem--not the solution.

Man, does he ever have a point.

And even when there is analysis, action is a rare commodity.

This is something I frequently struggle with. It's easy to point to a flaming building and say "Look! The building's on fire!" But evacuating occupants and grabbing a firehose requires consideration, courage and effort - and serious risks are involved.

It's way past time to take opposition to the next level. Spartacus has much to say about organization and action, and we'd damn well better start paying attention to those who are eager to share their knowledge, experience and vision with those of us who don't know beans about street action.

Bruce Dixon, associate editor of the laser sharp and appropriately cantankerous Black Commentator, agrees. BC's cover story dated July 1st is It's Time to Build a Mass Movement. Read it. Consider it. And let's all realize that political blogging is not an end to itself. Until we begin working on ways of joining each other in action, we will remain at the mercy of the malevolent forces of neoconservative dogma. Each day without a mass movement takes us a step further from freedom.

Dixon's views clearly comport with my own with regard to docile protests. Dixon writes:

Mass movements are against the law

Mass movements exist outside electoral politics, and outside the law, or they don’t exist at all. Mass movements are never respecters of law and order. How can they be? A mass movement is an assertion of popular leadership by the people themselves. A mass movement aims to persuade courts, politicians and other actors to tail behind it, not the other way around. Mass movements accomplish this through appeals to shared sets of deep and widely held convictions among the people they aim to mobilize, along with acts or credible threats of sustained and popular civil disobedience.

No more moo-cow demonstrations, please. It's past time to get serious. Do we have what it takes - really - to engage the proponents of fascism? As the dead but indestructible Bill Hicks said: "Life sucks! Get a fucking helmet, alright?" We might consider taking his advice - literally.

Dog Poo Flags Hit America

But unlike the Germans, who, gosh darn it, just can't seem to catch the culprits, the campaign on our shores is headed by a longtime mark here at the Carnival of Horror. I'm not sure where in the U.S. these flags might be seen, but it's possible one of the perpetrators or sympathizers might just swing by here to tell us.

Bolton + Rove = Treason

King of Zembla points us to a fascinating, connect-the-dots post by John at Blogenlust:

The way she [Huffington] relays how Rove and Libby got their information on Wilson from the State Department is rather matter of factly, isn't it? If this is indeed true, then the State Department is the location of the original source. And who was at the State Department at this time?

John Bolton, Under Secretary, Arms Control and International Security.

My wild speculation about Bolton yesterday doesn't seem so wild today. I think the key to connecting Bolton to the Plame investigation is whether Wilson or Plame show up in any of the NSA documents that the White House is keeping from the Senate. Remember, the Democrats have asked the White House to reveal whether the documents contain intelligence on intercepted conversations relating to about 36 people. The big question now is whether Plame or Wilson are one of those people. If they are, it wouldn't be too hard to imagine that information gleamed from those intercepts resulted in the leak to the White House. After all, Plame's area of expertise is precisely the area for which Bolton was responsible.

London Attack round-up

No need for me to expound when others are doing it so well.

• Maggie at m-pyre: Spinning London From Washington
• Guerilla dulcimerist Bing Futch has some excellent advice
• King of Zembla casts a useful fishnet of commentary & reports
• Meanwhile, back at the ranch: Blood and Words

A lot of people are asking the question of Who Benefits. The answer demonstrates the perverse interdependence of Al Qaeda and the administrations of George W. Bush and Tony Blair. I consider them all on the same team.

The Cycle of Death Continues

The Guardian is running a blog to track developments on the London train bombings.

George Galloway: "We argued, as did the security services in this country, that the attacks on Afghanistan and Iraq would increase the threat of terrorist attack in Britain. Tragically Londoners have now paid the price of the Government ignoring such warnings."

And which American political leaders will bravely speak this unspeakable truth when America is attacked again?

To our stoic friends across the pond, we can only offer our condolences and support.

Hey, *there's* one

Nice to see a group of physicians putting the screws to psychologists participating in America's latest preoccupation, torture:

The report said that psychologists may not engage in torture or cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. But in seeming to refer to the situations reported at Guantánamo, which might fall short of torture or cruel treatment, it said only that they "require special ethical consideration."

Leonard S. Rubenstein, executive director of Physicians for Human Rights, said the report is not explicit enough in setting ethical boundaries.

"It says psychologists shouldn't engage in torture, but we know that rhetoric like that is not effective," he said. "In view of what has happened at places like Guantánamo, we need clarity, and what's lacking here is an explicit commitment not to participate in coercive interrogations."

How's this for a Reality Check: The same "professionals" in Gitmo and elsewhere may well be providing care for you or one of your loved ones in the not too distant future. The next time you bump into a healthcare provider, ask him or her if they approve of their peers helping Uncle Sam torture detainees. Thanks to American policy, it's a valid question and the simple act of asking that question may well cause them to take a stand. It also might piss them off because they're such an arrogant lot, but fuck 'em. The bottom line is this: Do you really want torture afficionados attending to the safety and welfare of your family? No, I didn't think so. It's up to you to make sure that never happens.

Benedict Karl

Over at The Goddess, Morgaine re-illuminates an interesting aspect of Karl Rove intentionally blowing the cover of Valerie Plame for political advantage.

Let's think this through for a minute. Karl Rove allegedly outed a CIA operative working on weapons of mass destruction while we are at war. Everyone is talking about him committing perjury when interviewed by the investigators. What about treason? Does he automatically get a pass on that because he's Bush's Brain? He demonstrably impeded the war effort and put agents and others in harm's way.

A Man For All Treason
How many died - literally - for his crimes?

We all know - don't we? - that KKKarl Rove, like Bush himself, is above the law. Still, that doesn't recuse us from the obligation to demand justice. The Betrayed a CIA Agent During Wartime meme needs to be relentlessly hammered in letters to the editor, blog entries and casual discussions about this incident.

Governor Jewboy?

Kinky Friedman thanks you for not getting all PC on my ass.

Kinky Friedman for Texas Governor.
Yes, he's serious.

There may be hope for Texas yet. And if there's hope for Texas, there's damn sure hope for America.

Ye Olde Qualifier: There are a few things I don't like about Kinky Friedman, and they're more than a little worrisome. He's far too fond of Governor Whatshisname of Gulliphoneya, not to mention the fact the sumbitch voted for George W. Bush in 2004. I don't consider him well-informed when it comes to politics, although I seriously doubt his opponents are any better in this regard. Frankly, one would have to be shit thick to miss the fact that Iraq was in no way related to what James Wolcott calls "the war on an abstract noun." Iraq was and is George W. Bush's personal pinata, and how anyone could not comprehend this is, well, frustrating, to put it mildly.

That said, the fact that I, a raging Leftist, still consider The Kinkster's candidacy a blessing should tell you something about Texas politics. The last thing I want to see is Scott McClellan's wildebeast of a mama, Carol Keeton Rylander Strayhorn Whoever-I-Am-This-Week, parking her sorry bag o'bilious bones in the Governor's Mansion, and I'm sad to report the crooked old hag is most assuredly dangerous enough to win. Choosing between Rick "Governor Good Hair" Perry & Strayhorn is like choosing between monkey brains and dog meat for dinner.

Pardon me for facing the screeching music: No Democrat is going to win the race for Texas Governor in 2006. Chris Bell, the guy who filed the ethics complaint against Tom Delay, may well be a principled politician whose views better comport with my own, but Bell doesn't have a prayer in this profoundly fucked up state.

Of course, Governor Kinky would make a terrible mess of a state even messier, but at least he won't be firing up theofascist crowds and directing them to put the heads of liberals on pikes for display at the city limits. That's no small thing where I live.

I guess the reason I don't just walk away from the whole thing is because, at the very least, Kinky Friedman is essentially a humanitarian and that's not something one will find among the legions of professional Texas pols. He has said a moratorium on the death penalty would be a distinct possibility should he win. He did the Peace Corps thing, and his sister's a pro in the NGO humanitarian arena. He founded Utopia Rescue Ranch in 1998. He's a decent human being.

The odds are a million to one that he could pull it off - hell, he couldn't even win a seat as Justice of the Peace a few years back - but like his campaign slogan says: Why the hell not? Texas can do much, much worse than Kinky Friedman. At least the man has a beating heart, and that's a hell of a lot more than Strayhorn or Perry will ever be able to demonstrate.

If nothing else, getting Kinky elected would be worth it just for the memoir. God knows I could use the humor.

Gets to me every time.

Mother, mother,
there's too many of you crying
Brother, brother, brother,
there's far too many of you dying
You know we've got to find a way
To bring some lovin' here today, hey

Father, father,
we don't need to escalate
You see, war is not the answer,
for only love can conquer hate
You know we've got to find a way
To bring some lovin' here today, oh

Picket lines - sister
and picket signs - sister
Don't punish me - sister
with brutality - sister
Talk to me - sister
so you can see - sister
Oh, what's goin' on
what's goin' on,
what's goin' on
what's goin' on
Heah, what's goin' on
what's goin' on
oh, what's goin' on
what's goin' on
Ah ah - ay-ay-ay-ay-ay
right on
right on
ay-ay-ay-ay-ay

Mother, mother,
everybody thinks we're wrong
Oh, but who are they to judge us
Simply 'cause our hair is long
Oh, you know we've got to find a way
To bring some understanding here today, oh oh oh

Picket lines - brother
and picket signs - brother
Don't punish me - brother
with brutality - brother
Come on, talk to me - brother
so you can see - brother
Now what's goin' on -
what's goin' on, yeah,
what's goin' on
what's goin' on
Tell me what's goin' on
what's goin' on,
I'll tell you now what's goin' on
what's goin' on
Ooooh - right on
right on - ay-ay-ay-ay-ay

In 1970, Benson, inspired by a police brutality scene he had witnessed in San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury district, penned the lyrics for the song that became Marvin Gaye's classic "What's Goin' On."

Benson, having realized that the serious nature of the song wouldn't work for the upbeat Four Tops, turned it over to Gaye, who went on to make it one of the most celebrated cultural statements in pop music history, despite protests from Gordy, who initially believed that it would never sell.

Even the covers of this song bring a tear to my jaundiced eye.

Farewell, Obie. And thanks for the groove, Brother.

A Physician Speaks Out

Washington Post: The Stain of Torture

Having served as a doctor in the Army Medical Corps early in my career and as presidential physician to George H.W. Bush for four years, I might be expected to bring a skeptical and partisan perspective to allegations of torture and abuse by U.S. forces. I might even be expected to join those who, on the one hand, deny that U.S. personnel have engaged in systematic use of torture while, on the other, claiming that such abuse is justified. But I cannot do so.

It's precisely because of my devotion to country, respect for our military and commitment to the ethics of the medical profession that I speak out against systematic, government-sanctioned torture and excessive abuse of prisoners during our war on terrorism. I am also deeply disturbed by the reported complicity in these abuses of military medical personnel. This extraordinary shift in policy and values is alien to my concept of modern-day America and of my government and profession.

From AMA's Code of Ethics

E-2.067 Torture

Torture refers to the deliberate, systematic, or wanton administration of cruel, inhumane, and degrading treatments or punishments during imprisonment or detainment.

Physicians must oppose and must not participate in torture for any reason. Participation in torture includes, but is not limited to, providing or withholding any services, substances, or knowledge to facilitate the practice of torture. Physicians must not be present when torture is used or threatened.

Physicians may treat prisoners or detainees if doing so is in their best interest, but physicians should not treat individuals to verify their health so that torture can begin or continue. Physicians who treat torture victims should not be persecuted. Physicians should help provide support for victims of torture and, whenever possible, strive to change situations in which torture is practiced or the potential for torture is great. (I, III)

Issued December 1999.

Physicians taking part in Gitmo torture will never individually be called upon by their peers to explain their actions. If there's one thing American doctors are exceptionally good at it, it's looking the other way when one of their own is implicated in a crime or an act of negligence.

Happy Birthday, Motherfucker

Outrage is Cheap

A summer of endless Supreme Court Fun!

I won't be writing much about it. Maybe a graphic here or there to slay a demon, but that's it.

Although I get caught up in the minutae of daily politics as much as anyone else, I do so out of habit, not hope. I don't see any reason to fret about the theofascist dirtbags Bush appoints to replace O'Connor. Or Rehnquist, who will likely be next - and soon. Or Stephens, who, at 86, cannot be counted upon to outlive the Bushioso.

The die has been cast.

Do I care? Yes. Is there anything I can do about it? Nope. I know the malevolent nature of George W. Bush, the servile nature of the senators who routinely betray their oaths to the Constitution, the vigor with which theofascists defend and promote their own. Can't you already hear the desperate call to CONTACT YOUR SENATOR, as if there's a snowball's chance in hell your senator gives a righteous shit what a nobody like you thinks. Bone up on your well-honed indignation. It is, after all, an integral part of The Script. Just don't expect it to amount to much.

The carnival, as everyone knows, is not a place to get rich. I don't expect anyone to pay me just so I can maintain a few shards of sanity and a little peace of mind, nor do I stick my hand out for donations and pretend I provide a vital service. Some do and I don't begrudge them that. Others don't but think they do, which I find more sad than anything else. But where there's money, there are obligations. When there are obligations, there are constraints. When there are constraints, truth increases in value because it's just a little harder to make itself known.

And the truth is, we've been fucked - one hundred percent, unequivocally fucked - for a long time. Because the many tentacles of the NCR (NeoConservative Revolution) emerged so long ago, it's hard to pinpoint where we could've and should've awakened to the true nature of what was going on around us. I suspect our last chance to derail the train was Clinton's impeachment. We let a minority of scared little men and women defy the national interest by attempting to reverse an election. By the time Bush v. Gore rolled around, I knew exactly what it portended, and part of that is what we have now.

Our economy continues its rocky decline.

Torture is officially and socially sanctioned.

We're now the most hated nation on earth.

Cops use Tasers to electrocute - and sometimes, in effect, execute - people because they don't move fast enough or won't sign a speeding ticket or refuse to provide a urine sample. That's torture, too, and it's happening every day - with much spectacle and precious little concern - in Pig America.

Election theft is carried out in broad daylight using little black boxes designed and controlled by theofascist idealogues.

Anyone who criticizes George W. Bush's cult of non-personality is a traitor.

The real scandals belong to those who refuse to drink the Republican Kool-Aid.

People are sitting in prisons without any due process whatsoever.

Half the nation is literally brainwashed.

We send our fellow citizens away by the thousands to kill and be killed, to inflict and sustain wounds, so that George W. Bush - and all he represents - can be deified and mythologized accordingly.

Theofascists control all three branches of government AND news media, yet LIBERALISM is The Problem. The conspicuous lack of accountability, on the other hand, is not.

Five and a half years of George W. Bush and there's still no opposition party.

The rest will come later.

Go right ahead. "Defeat" a Bush nominee to the Supreme Court (that may be part of the script, as well) and then crack open the champagne and celebrate to your heart's content as if it actually matters. There are thousands, if not millions, of zealots - all equally qualified - ready and willing to replace the hapless token victim of obstinate dems. It will be a miracle if the incompetent buffoons who comprise the Democratic Party leadership are capable of hitting the meticulously arranged marks that are part and parcel of this whole charade, not that it matters at this late date.

Perpetual war abroad. Perpetual war at home. War against the poor, the weak, the powerless. They've got a war for everything and everybody.

If you're not one of Them - the incestuous orgy of amoral crusaders dictating how the rest of us are to live every single facet of our lives - then you're a scab on a buzzard's ass and Will Be Dealt With Accordingly. The courts are going to see to it.

This is what happens when we reject courage and sacrifice in favor of the peaceful transition of power, that mantra by which infotainment "journalists" frenetically masturbated during the presidential inauguration five and a half years ago.

Don't even think about comforting yourself with talk of overreaching or that stupid pendulum theory so many liberals cling to like a lone airplane seat bobbing in the Atlantic. The NCR is just getting warmed up, my friends. The best is yet to come.

We didn't ask for tyranny, but we didn't reject it, either. And we still aren't. The cold, hard truth is that Americans will be forced to submit to theofascism until we accept what is necessary to destroy it. Whatever the tools of liberation may be, they won't be found in a Diebold voting machine.