Exit Karl Rove, everybody's useful demon
The uproar over Karl Rove's resignation as George Bush's political advisor is stupendous, but in truth he was no great shakes as Svengali, and his exit is of scant consequence.
Though they profess joy that the nation has been freed at last from his malign supervision, the Democrats have lost one of their most useful alibis. By inflating Rove into a blend of Walsingham and Svengali, a nonpareil political genius, they sought to explain how they failed to stop a mediocre Texas governor and incoherent campaigner from capturing the White House in 2000, and holding on to it in 2004.
Al Gore fought a wretched campaign in 2000, and in the grand finale it was not Rove but five Republican justices on the U.S. Supreme Court who gave Bush the White House on Dec. 12, 2000, refusing to let Gore get a conclusive count of the missing ballots in Florida.
Though they profess joy that the nation has been freed at last from his malign supervision, the Democrats have lost one of their most useful alibis. By inflating Rove into a blend of Walsingham and Svengali, a nonpareil political genius, they sought to explain how they failed to stop a mediocre Texas governor and incoherent campaigner from capturing the White House in 2000, and holding on to it in 2004.
Al Gore fought a wretched campaign in 2000, and in the grand finale it was not Rove but five Republican justices on the U.S. Supreme Court who gave Bush the White House on Dec. 12, 2000, refusing to let Gore get a conclusive count of the missing ballots in Florida.
USDA cracking down on “organic” factory farms country's largest dairy likely to lose certification
CORNUCOPIA, WI: The Cornucopia Institute has learned that the USDA appears about to revoke the organic certification of the nation's largest industrial dairy operator, Aurora Organic Dairy, with corporate headquarters in Boulder, Colorado.
Aurora operates several giant factory dairies milking thousands of cows each in semi-arid areas of Colorado and Texas. The company has been the subject of a series of formal legal complaints filed with the USDA by The Cornucopia Institute. The complaints from the Wisconsin-based farm policy group filed in 2005 and 2006, called for a USDA investigation into allegations of numerous organic livestock management improprieties on Aurora’s facilities.
“After personally inspecting some of Aurora’s dairies in Texas and Colorado, we found 98% of their cattle in feedlots instead of grazing on pasture as the law requires,” stated Mark Kastel, Cornucopia’s senior farm policy analyst. Cornucopia also found that Aurora was procuring cattle from a non-certified organic source in apparent violation of the law. “Our sources tell us that the USDA’s investigators found many other violations when conducting their probe of Aurora.”
Aurora operates several giant factory dairies milking thousands of cows each in semi-arid areas of Colorado and Texas. The company has been the subject of a series of formal legal complaints filed with the USDA by The Cornucopia Institute. The complaints from the Wisconsin-based farm policy group filed in 2005 and 2006, called for a USDA investigation into allegations of numerous organic livestock management improprieties on Aurora’s facilities.
“After personally inspecting some of Aurora’s dairies in Texas and Colorado, we found 98% of their cattle in feedlots instead of grazing on pasture as the law requires,” stated Mark Kastel, Cornucopia’s senior farm policy analyst. Cornucopia also found that Aurora was procuring cattle from a non-certified organic source in apparent violation of the law. “Our sources tell us that the USDA’s investigators found many other violations when conducting their probe of Aurora.”
DaFazio, Homeland Secuirty Committee leaders again refused access to continuity of government information
WASHINGTON, DC-Congressman Peter DeFazio (D-Springfield) today issued the following statement in response to the White House's official denial of access to classified annexes to National Security Presidential Directive-20 (NSPD-20). NSPD-20 lays out the government's plan for continuity of the Federal government in the aftermath of a catastrophic national emergency.
"If the Administration has a plan for the continuity of government, they should share it with the Congress. We are a co-equal branch of the government charged with oversight responsibilities for the execution of laws and expenditure of federal funds. Lacking any other information, I can only assume that this denial means one of three things:
1) There is no plan. There are other instances where the Administration failed to meet deadlines for developing emergency plans;
2) They have a plan but it over-reaches and is either extra-constitutional or unconstitutional;
3) This is another example of the obsessively secretive Administration that refuses to share information with a co-equal branch of the government.
"If the Administration has a plan for the continuity of government, they should share it with the Congress. We are a co-equal branch of the government charged with oversight responsibilities for the execution of laws and expenditure of federal funds. Lacking any other information, I can only assume that this denial means one of three things:
1) There is no plan. There are other instances where the Administration failed to meet deadlines for developing emergency plans;
2) They have a plan but it over-reaches and is either extra-constitutional or unconstitutional;
3) This is another example of the obsessively secretive Administration that refuses to share information with a co-equal branch of the government.
It really is a Democratic Congress
Should it go without saying that the current Congress is Democratic? The Democrats have the majority, control the agenda, and chair and hold a majority on every committee. But does that make the Congress Democratic?
Liberal commentators averse to criticizing Speaker Nancy Pelosi have begun flailing around for a reasonable explanation for the behavior of her Congress. Matt Stoller has latched onto the idea that, even though there are more Democrats in the House than Republicans, the Republicans secretly have a majority. This is an appealing proposition, since all of us on the left view the Republicans as worse than the Democrats. We'd like to be able to blame them for everything, not just most things. And, as an added bonus, this theory transports us into the enjoyable realm so often inhabited by those on the right, the realm of thoughtless belief in utter nonsense.
Stoller's argument is basically that the conservative, or "blue dog" Democrats insist on voting with the Republicans. True enough. But that's not the whole story. Stoller also acknowledges in passing a couple of other problems:
Liberal commentators averse to criticizing Speaker Nancy Pelosi have begun flailing around for a reasonable explanation for the behavior of her Congress. Matt Stoller has latched onto the idea that, even though there are more Democrats in the House than Republicans, the Republicans secretly have a majority. This is an appealing proposition, since all of us on the left view the Republicans as worse than the Democrats. We'd like to be able to blame them for everything, not just most things. And, as an added bonus, this theory transports us into the enjoyable realm so often inhabited by those on the right, the realm of thoughtless belief in utter nonsense.
Stoller's argument is basically that the conservative, or "blue dog" Democrats insist on voting with the Republicans. True enough. But that's not the whole story. Stoller also acknowledges in passing a couple of other problems:
GENERAL STRIKE IN USA on Sept. 11, 2007 – 9/11 “No School * No Work * No Shopping. Hit the Streets”
This is our country. And our world. We just have to stand up. A general strike is proposed for the United States on September 11, 2007, the sixth anniversary of the 9/11/2001 attacks on New York City and Arlington, Virginia. The general strike movement has no clearly named leadership. It’s described as an Internet viral effort. Wikipedia defines viral efforts on the Internet as:
An object (or an idea) is viral when it has the ability to spread copies of itself or change other similar objects to become more like (it) when those objects are simply exposed to the viral object. General strikes, more common in Europe, are events that shut down the normal operations of a city, state, or nation for a period of time. These strikes aim to force awareness and action on a single issue or broader set of concerns. The 9/11/07 General Strike has a central location - Strike 911 - on the Internet, which is linked to and reproduced on a variety of other internet sites. The site states the rationale for the effort:
An object (or an idea) is viral when it has the ability to spread copies of itself or change other similar objects to become more like (it) when those objects are simply exposed to the viral object. General strikes, more common in Europe, are events that shut down the normal operations of a city, state, or nation for a period of time. These strikes aim to force awareness and action on a single issue or broader set of concerns. The 9/11/07 General Strike has a central location - Strike 911 - on the Internet, which is linked to and reproduced on a variety of other internet sites. The site states the rationale for the effort:
Commenting on the black commentator
I've been a reader and contributor to the Black Commentator since it began, as well as to the Black Agenda Report, which split off from it. The July 23rd sit-in in Congressman John Conyers' office, in which I took part, has led to quite a brouhaha in both publications. Last week the Black Agenda Report printed a column I wrote about that action, and the Black Commentator published a column by Rev. Lennox Yearwood who also took part, as well as a response from Larry Pinkney criticizing our efforts and specifically denouncing me as racist and arrogant. This morning the Black Commentator published various readers' responses, more opinion from Pinkney, and an article of mine about impeachment (despite my arrogant racism, I guess). Also last week, Rev. Yearwood and I discussed this topic on the Pacifica Radio show "Voices of Vision," and this morning Pinkney and I are scheduled to discuss it again on the same program.
Disciples of Yossarian
Following on the heels of his flirtation with violent "decisiveness" toward Pakistan, Barack Obama got twisted up even further in the conflicting loyalties that complicate the lives of Democratic presidential candidates and the people who vote for them. Pretty soon the other candidates were in there with him, like cats in the yarn.
After declaring in a speech last week that he might order military strikes on Pakistan border areas to take out suspected al-Qaida camps, he was asked by an AP reporter if he’d use nuclear weapons against al-Qaida in Pakistan.
I pause here a moment to ponder the insanity of this question, or what I might call the "Yossarian moment" it produces, referring, of course, to Joseph Heller’s notorious central character in the World War II novel "Catch-22," whose everyman sanity stood in constant amazed contrast to the routine insanities of war, like people all the time trying to kill each other. This is a Yossarian moment on steroids, reporter to almighty-deity-in-chief wannabe: When killing thine enemies, sir, would you be inclined to take ’em out 50,000 at a swath? A hundred thousand? A million?
After declaring in a speech last week that he might order military strikes on Pakistan border areas to take out suspected al-Qaida camps, he was asked by an AP reporter if he’d use nuclear weapons against al-Qaida in Pakistan.
I pause here a moment to ponder the insanity of this question, or what I might call the "Yossarian moment" it produces, referring, of course, to Joseph Heller’s notorious central character in the World War II novel "Catch-22," whose everyman sanity stood in constant amazed contrast to the routine insanities of war, like people all the time trying to kill each other. This is a Yossarian moment on steroids, reporter to almighty-deity-in-chief wannabe: When killing thine enemies, sir, would you be inclined to take ’em out 50,000 at a swath? A hundred thousand? A million?
How the Democrats blew it in only eight months
Led by Democrats since the start of this year, the U.S. Congress now has a "confidence" rating of 14 percent, the lowest since Gallup started asking the question in 1973, and five points lower than what the Republican-controlled Congress scored last year.
The voters put the Democrats in to end the war, and it's escalating. The Democrats voted money for the surge in Iraq and the money for the next $459.6 billion military budget. Their latest achievement has been to provide enough votes in support of Bush to legalize warrantless wire tapping for "foreign suspects whose communications pass through the United States." Enough Democrats joined Republicans to make this a 227-183 victory for Bush.
The voters put the Democrats in to end the war, and it's escalating. The Democrats voted money for the surge in Iraq and the money for the next $459.6 billion military budget. Their latest achievement has been to provide enough votes in support of Bush to legalize warrantless wire tapping for "foreign suspects whose communications pass through the United States." Enough Democrats joined Republicans to make this a 227-183 victory for Bush.
Radioactive "bailout-in-advance" opens fierce new war over nuke reactors
After fifty years of what Forbes Magazine long ago called "the largest managerial disaster in business history," the nuke power industry is demanding untold billions in a federal "Bailout-in-Advance."
Congress will decide on these proposed loan guarantees for new nukes in its September conferences over the new Energy Bill.
Both sides are gearing up for the new war over the irradiation of our energy future.
As usual, it's vital to "follow the money."
The industry once promised that atomic energy would be "too cheap to meter." But after a half-century of proven failure, Wall Street won't invest in new nukes without federal support. So buried in the Senate version of the new Energy Bill is a single sentence authorizing the Department of Energy to underwrite virtually unlimited loans for still more nukes. The sentence was slipped into the bill by industry backers without open debate.
Both sides are gearing up for the new war over the irradiation of our energy future.
As usual, it's vital to "follow the money."
The industry once promised that atomic energy would be "too cheap to meter." But after a half-century of proven failure, Wall Street won't invest in new nukes without federal support. So buried in the Senate version of the new Energy Bill is a single sentence authorizing the Department of Energy to underwrite virtually unlimited loans for still more nukes. The sentence was slipped into the bill by industry backers without open debate.
Let us now praise an infamous woman -- and our own possibilities
The problem with letting history judge is that so many officials get away with murder in the meantime -- while precious few choose to face protracted vilification for pursuing truth and peace.
A grand total of two people in the entire Congress were able to resist a blood-drenched blank check for the Vietnam War. Standing alone on Aug. 7, 1964, senators Ernest Gruening and Wayne Morse voted against the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution.
Forty-three years later, we don’t need to go back decades to find a lopsided instance of a lone voice on Capitol Hill standing against war hysteria and the expediency of violent fear. Days after 9/11, at the launch of the so-called “war on terrorism,” just one lawmaker -- out of 535 -- cast a vote against the gathering madness.
“However difficult this vote may be, some of us must urge the use of restraint,” she said on the floor of the House of Representatives. The date was Sept. 14, 2001.
A grand total of two people in the entire Congress were able to resist a blood-drenched blank check for the Vietnam War. Standing alone on Aug. 7, 1964, senators Ernest Gruening and Wayne Morse voted against the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution.
Forty-three years later, we don’t need to go back decades to find a lopsided instance of a lone voice on Capitol Hill standing against war hysteria and the expediency of violent fear. Days after 9/11, at the launch of the so-called “war on terrorism,” just one lawmaker -- out of 535 -- cast a vote against the gathering madness.
“However difficult this vote may be, some of us must urge the use of restraint,” she said on the floor of the House of Representatives. The date was Sept. 14, 2001.