A Note

For anyone who has seen the dropoff in my posts recently. I had a job that I was laid off from today. I should be blogging more until I find another job. A slight mea culpa, but nothing compared to Bush's (insert dripping sarcasm)

Destroying the American Military

In case you are in a bubble and didn't realize we were in a war, there was a massacre of Iraqi civilians in Haditha with 24 dead at the hands of U.S. Marines. (Tangentially related, Paul Hackett, a Marine Iraqi veteran and candidate against Jean Schmidt and former Ohio Senatorial candidate, is defending a slighly related Marine in the incident's investigation. This incident describes in catastrophe how the war has been conducted. A U.S. Marine is killed in a roadside bombing and in retaliation, U.S. Marines go on a rampage killing 24 people. The reasons lie, predominantly in the overstretching of the U.S. military and the complete lack of planning (and plans) for the conduct of the (unnecessary) war. When there is no plan and a shortage of troops for adequate rotation, frustrations (with the military and the Iraqis) grow. If you keep re-enlisting the same troops (voluntarily or by stop-loss order), they build up a potential to massacre civilians because of the overstimulation and stress of the war zone. Since there is no concrete plan for how to extricate ourselves from Iraq, the frustrations come out of the barrel of the gun. While this is not a defense of the Marines responsible (they should be investigated and prosecuuted), it should alert the American people to the incompetence of the war planning and execution. Our soldiers are exhausted and should be withdrawn, for the sake of our military, our country and the international rule of law.

Gonzales to quit to support executive perogative

The NY Times reports today that Attorney General Gonzales has threatened to quit if the materials seized in the raids on Rep. Jefferson's (D-LA) office are returned to the Congress. This issue has raised some troubling questions about the real motives of Republican protests about the Justice Department's raids, the first on a member of Congress. As the Times notes, this is "largely a proxy fight for battles likely to come over criminal investigations into other Republicans in Congress". Republicans have time and time again demonstrated that, as long as Republican is in the White House, they don't care about the separation of powers. Their acquiecience in the NSA domestic spying program, the executive-branch led war in Iraq, to mention a few, demonstrates a crass political raison d'etre. If the Republican president is popular, they will support everything he does. However, if there is a chance that their offices will be raided in the future, they will stand behind a (likely) corrupt politician. It makes perfect sense. Even though Jefferson is a Democrat, the raid was related to a corruption probe, something the Representatives can easily identify with.

Don't let them conflate the two

Reuters reports today that the law firm Milberg Weiss Bershad & Schulman LLP that has been recently convicted of fraud in class action lawsuits it initiated donated almost exclusively to Democratic candidates, PACs and the DNC and the Congressional re-election committees. The summary ends with:

Republicans and Democrats have returned more than $200,000 in contributions from clients of lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who pleaded guilty in January in a wide-ranging investigation into possible attempts to bribe lawmakers.

Fraud is, quite obviously a serious breach of attorney responsibility and the law, but the fact that the firm gave to Democrats indicates no corruption in and of itself with the Democratic party or legislators. It merely signals another reason why turning politicians into prostitutes doesn't serve America. The key point in this last paragraph is that Jack Abramoff "pleaded guilty...into possible attempts to bribe lawmakers". There are no such allegations with Milberg Weiss. The only bribery going on (at least from what we know at this point), was the legalized bribery that is called campaign finance. The Abramoff affair was a corruption issue, while the Milberg Weiss scandal is one of a scummy law firm that happened to give to Democrats. They joined the party that supports peoples rights to sue corporations and probably saw the donations as ways to help ensure that class action law suits were still possible (of course, for them to exploit). It says nothing of any connection between the Democrats and the fraudulent law firm. To claim that this rebuts claims by Democrats that the Republicans are promoting a "culture of corruption" is ridiculous (according to the Reuters article, "Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia's Center for Politics, said Republicans would likely use the donations as ammunition in the November congressional elections and to blunt criticism about recent corruption scandals involving Republicans."). Of course, the Republicans will do this, but it is invalid. The main solution to what the Milberg Weiss case has highlighted is to eliminate corporate donations. All corporate donations do is buy off politicians and make them beholden to corporate interests, so they will be able to be re-elected. With public financing of campaigns (like they have here in Portland, Oregon), grass-roots candidates who are not corporate whores can get elected and they will enter office with no campaign financing ties to corporate interests (they may have preconcieved ties), but it would allow candidates to challenge the conventional wisdom of corporate dominance of politics. That is the main lesson to take from this incident. Do not be fooled by Republican talking points or the corporate purchase-hold on government will be continued.

A Chocolate City

The preliminary results have been announced for the Mayoral elections in New Orleans and Ray Nagin has come out on top. I think that is good because Nagin was not wrong in asserting that New Orleans should be rebuilt as 'a chocolate city'. While the term was significantly loaded in racial terms (i.e. New Orleans should be rebuilt with a predominantly black population), I think there should be a racial point made in the process. New Orleans has historically been a black city. In the 2000 census, New Orleans was less than 30 percent white (see page 9) (excluding the small population classified as other or mixed races, which makes up less than 7 percent of the total population). New Orleans should focus on repopulating black expatriates and reducing the poverty of those in the city. New Orleans was a very poor city, but now the spotlight is on it, it has the chance to be a golden city of black America, as long as the funding that was promised by Mr. Bush comes. It better not be cut short.

Racist bill makes English the "national language"

The Senate passed 63 to 34 a bill that "declare[s] English as the national language of the United States and to promote[s] the patriotic integration of prospective US citizens", The bill, although it doesn't officially change other laws, it could invalidate executive orders and court rulings that promote multi-lingual government services. The real aim of the bill is to throw a bone to the xenophobic racists who want to destroy any outreach to residents and citizens of America that speak other languages and tries to destroy the history of the country as one built by immigrants. The amendment stated that:

Unless specifically stated in applicable law, no person has a right, entitlement, or claim to have the Government of the United States or any of its officials or representatives act, communicate, perform or provide services, or provide materials in any language other than English. If exceptions are made, that does not create a legal entitlement to additional services in that language or any language other than English. If any forms are issued by the Federal Government in a language other than English (or such forms are completed in a language other than English), the English language version of the form is the sole authority for all legal purposes.

The bill is hugely damaging for the U.S.'s appearance of being a welcoming and accepting country of the immigrants that come here. It is another Republican move (aided by some cowardly Democrats) to denigrate the image of America.

The Senators who voted for the bill are:

Alexander (R-TN) (co-sponsor)
Allard (R-CO)
Allen (R-VA)
Baucus (D-MT)
Bennett (R-UT)
Bond (R-MO)
Brownback (R-KS)
Burns (R-MT) (co-sponsor)
Burr (R-NC)
Byrd (D-WV) (co-sponsor)
Carper (D-DE)
Chafee (R-RI)
Chambliss (R-GA) (co-sponsor)
Coburn (R-OK) (co-sponsor)
Cochran (R-MS)
Coleman (R-MN)
Collins (R-ME)
Conrad (D-ND)
Cornyn (R-TX)
Craig (R-ID)
Crapo (R-ID)
DeMint (R-SC)
DeWine (R-OH)
Dole (R-NC)
Dorgan (D-ND)
Ensign (R-NV)
Enzi (R-WY) (co-sponsor)
Frist (R-TN) (co-sponsor)
Graham (R-SC) (co-sponsor)
Grassley (R-IA)
Gregg (R-NH)
Hagel (R-NE)
Hatch (R-UT)
Hutchison (R-TX)
Inhofe (R-OK) (author of amendment)
Isakson (R-GA)
Johnson (D-SD)
Kyl (R-AZ) (co-sponsor)
Landrieu (D-LA)
Lincoln (D-AR)
Lott (R-MS)
Lugar (R-IN)
McCain (R-AZ)
McConnell (R-KY)
Murkowski (R-AK)
Nelson (D-FL)
Nelson (D-NE)
Pryor (D-AR)
Roberts (R-KS)
Santorum (R-PA)
Sessions (R-AL) (co-sponsor)
Shelby (R-AL)
Smith (R-OR)
Snowe (R-ME)
Specter (R-PA)
Stevens (R-AK)
Sununu (R-NH)
Talent (R-MO)
Thomas (R-WY)
Thune (R-SD)
Vitter (R-LA)
Voinovich (R-OH)
Warner (R-VA)

Jim Bunning (R-KY) did not vote, but was a co-sponsor

The CIA and Republican Turmoil

Well, the Republican Party is in crisis and I couldn't be happier. Those slimy bastards have dug their own grave and now the Congressional-Executive battle continues. With the resignation of former-Rep. Porter Goss from the head of the CIA (with questions being asked about his role in the Duke Cunningham Watergate prostitution scandal), the legislative and executive branches of the Republican Party are battling it out over the expected nomination of General Michael Hayden to Goss' former post. Goss burned a lot of bridges in the CIA and furthered the suspicion (not without justification, I might add) that the White House wants to sideline the CIA in favor of the Defence Intelligence Agency and the group of secret intelligence-fixing agencies under Don Rumsfeld's contol. The White House has mistrusted the CIA since it warned the Administration that the White House claims of WMD in Iraq and a tie between 9/11 and Iraq rested on shaky (if any) intelligence. However, Congress has begun to mistrust the White House because the War in Iraq (and the bunglings of said war), as well as the mismanagement of the war in Afghanistan, and the plunging poll numbers for Bush and Republicans generally. The NY Times reports today that:

Senior Republican lawmakers on Sunday criticized the probable choice of Gen. Michael V. Hayden to lead the Central Intelligence Agency, voicing concerns about his ties to a controversial eavesdropping program and about the wisdom of installing a military officer at the civilian spy agency.

All of Michael Hayden's cheerleading for the war in Iraq, which contrary to Republican claims is not going well. All the controversy spells good things for Democrats in the mid-term elections assuming they get their heads out of their ass and push for a withdrawl from Iraq so no more of our troops get killed in what is essentially target practice for the coming civil war in Iraq. But my assumption about Democrats is probably overly optimistic, but in the environs of Little Beiruit [named by George H.W. Bush] (i.e., the People's Rebublic of Portland, OR), we embrace the anti-war democrats like Earl Blumenauer (people in the 3rd district of the PR of Portland should vote to re-elect him, you have until May 16th to get your ballots in) .

Honor the dead
Heal the wounded
End the war
(from my parents' bumper sticker)

In other news, no grad school this year and I want to stay in Portland for a while, maybe go into politics instead of grad school. Anyone know if Erik Sten needs staffers?

My bands: The TNA Transparent Asphalt Highway Tourette's

Back in the U.S.S.R.

Dick Cheney had some harsh words for Russia in a speech in Lithuania that was seen to represent the Administration's position on Russia. While Cheney rightly criticized the Putin Administration's commitment to democracy, I have serious doubt about Cheney's commitment to democracy. Many of this Administration's tactics have verged on totalitarianism, especially the reaction to critical thinking within the Administration (on Iraq troop levels, economic policies and illegal domestic wiretapping) and criticism of the administration. This also is suspicious given that Bush "had looked into President Putin's eyes and 'got a sense of his soul.'" Back then, the Putin government had been supportive of the Bush administration so it seems funny that now that they will not toe the line on Iran, that now they are not democratic. Russia has not been very democratic in the fifteen years since the end of Communism, and it has been deteriorating since Putin took over in 2000. The recent criticism has (intentionally or not) coinsided with the takeover of Yukos, the large gas company run by the now-jailed oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky. Funny how democracy promotion follows hand-in-hand with efforts to secure American gas supplies for the Hummers and gas-guzzeling SUVs the Republicans drive, not to mention their prostitution on behalf of the oil and gas industries. I think that this is another instance in which democracy as a concept is paraded out in a deeper, more sinister effort to push the Bush imperialist doctrine (and I say that in the least Marxist way possible).