Peace Rant

Episode 20: Faux News - We alarm, you go hide

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Fear, trepidation, alarm, dread, panic, anxiety, paranoia.  Film at 11:00.

Off script

Following is a transcript of King George's weekly Saturday radio address.  He's kicking the Democrats because his beloved Protect America Act -- his Get Out of Jail Free card -- has expired.  This is a taste of what's coming in the week or two ahead.

The transcript has been edited for the sake of clarity.

Members of Congress will soon be returning to Washington and they have urgent business to attend to. They left town on a 10-day recess without passing vital legislation giving our intelligence professionals the tools they need to quickly and effectively monitor foreign terrorist communications phone calls made by Americans.

Congress' failure to pass this legislation was irresponsible astonishing, quite frankly. They've rolled over to my every demand so far, even with my ratings in the toilet.  So, yeah, I was stunned.  It will leave our nation telecom giants increasingly vulnerable to attack lawsuits. And Congress must fix this damage to our national my security immediately.  Man, if one of those lawsuits gets into a court, the stuff that might come out about what else I've been doing could ruin me!

The way ahead is clear. The Senate has already passed a good bill caved in to the corporations by an overwhelming bipartisan majority. I particularly want to thank Dianne Feinstein, so-called Democrat of California, for supporting this gift to the corporate titans. This bill has strong bipartisan support in the House of Representatives, and would pass if given an up-or-down vote. But House leaders are blocking this legislation, and the reason can be summed up in three words: class-action lawsuits rule of law.

The Senate bill would prevent plaintiffs' attorneys from suing companies believed to have helped defend America trampled on the civil liberties of Americans after the 9/11 attacks. More than 40 of these lawsuits have been filed, seeking hundreds of billions of dollars in damages from these companies. It is unfair and unjust to threaten these companies with financial ruin, only because they are believed to have done the right thing and helped their country been pressured into cooperating under the threat of being denied lucrative government contracts.  But the highest cost of all is to our national security my criminal liability. Without protection from lawsuits, private companies will be increasingly unwilling to take the risk of helping us with vital intelligence activities I'm screwed.

After the Congress failed to act last week, one telecommunications company executive was asked by the Wall Street Journal how his company would respond to a request for help. He answered that because of the threat of lawsuits, quote, "I'm not doing it ...I'm not going to do something voluntarily.  They're just going to have to threaten my children and dog. Again."

In other words, the House's refusal to act is undermining our ability to get cooperation from private companies. And that undermines our efforts to protect us me from terrorist attack the threat of exposure.

Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell recently explained that the vast majority of the communications infrastructure we rely on in the United States is owned and operated by the private sector. And, as a result of the Republican deregulation jihad, the telecoms and other corporations are exempt from serving any social benefit.  Ravenous pursuit of profit is their only responsibility.  Because of the failure to provide liability protection, he says, private companies who have "willingly helped us in the past, are now saying, 'You can't protect me. Why should I help you?'"  (Which is what I'll soon be saying to Musharraf.)

When Congress reconvenes on Monday, members of the House have a choice to make: They can empower the trial bar uphold the Constitution — or they can empower the intelligence community. They can help class action trial lawyers sue for billions of dollars uphold the Constitution — or they can help our intelligence officials protect millions of lives.

They can put our national security in the hands of plaintiffs' lawyers uphold the Constitution — or they can entrust it to the men and women of our government who work day and night to keep us safe. As they make their choice, members of Congress must never forget: Somewhere in the world, at this very moment, terrorists my political advisers are planning the next propaganda attack on America. And to protect America from such attacks, we Congress must protect our telecommunications companies from abusive lawsuits impeach and convict me as soon as possible.

Thank you for listening.

Nothing to hear but fear itself

Dust off the old Paranoia Meter, we're getting deep into fear season again.  The Republican scare machine is at full throttle over the Protect America Act.  That's the bill in Congress to "reform" the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) to allow the administration to continue eavesdropping on our phone calls and email while granting retroactive immunity to the giant telecoms for their previous illegal assistance in illegal wiretapping.

The previous FISA reform expired last Saturday.  The Senate bought into the White House fear-mongering and passed a new bill before taking a President's Day break, but the House, amazingly enough, didn't give in to White House's frantic hand-wringing.  For the time being, at least, it appears the House Demos are holding firm against giving the telecoms immunity.

So the Republicans are dealing the fear card again.

House Republicans have launched a new website that has a nifty little counter to tell us how many days, hours, and minutes it has been "Since America Went Blind to New Terrorist Plots."  (6 days, 14 hours, 7 minutes as of this moment.)  I kid you not.

The site also features a doozy of a fear-mongering video ad, as well.  Check this out, but keep the lights on and don't watch it alone:

Are you cowering under your bed like a good little American?  Well, fear not.  A clever graphics designer by the name of Lee Stranahan has whipped up a nice video response to the Repuglicans.  This video is much more truthful:

I love it!

It took him seven years, but now he gets it. Or not.

From a press conference following Bush's tour of the genocide museum in Rwanda:

Q Thank you. Mr. President, Bill Clinton came here and said he regretted that he wasn't able to do more to stop the genocide here. You have seen the memorial here today, and I'm wondering, what would you tell your successor about America's obligations and also its ability to stop genocide?

PRESIDENT BUSH: I would say it's like -- as I explained to this fellow here -- that one of the lessons of the genocide in Rwanda was to take some of the early warnings signs seriously.

Secondly, a clear lesson I learned in the museum was that outside forces that tend to divide people up inside their country are unbelievably counterproductive. In other words, people came from other countries -- I guess you'd call them colonialists -- and they pitted one group of people against another. And an early warning sign was -- and it's hard to have seen it, I readily admit, but I'm talking earlier than 1994, and earlier than the '90s -- was the fact that it become a habit to divide people based upon -- you know, in this case, whether they were Tutsi or Hutu, which eventually led to exploitation.

Secondly [sic], I would tell my successor that the United States can play a very constructive role. I would urge the President not to feel like U.S. solutions should be imposed upon African leaders. [Transcript]

Colonialist.  Imperialist.  Idiot.

Recap of tonight's presidential campaign results

Obama wins.  Speaks eloquently about hope.

Huckabee and Clinton vow to keep campaigning, hoping for a miracle.

Fidel withdraws.  Personified hope for half a century.

It's not a war, it's a jobs program

This doesn't really need comment.  Bush was interviewed on NBC's Today show yesterday morning.  The interviewer, Ann Curry, asked him about the economy and the war:

Ann Curry: “You don’t agree with that? It has nothing do with the economy, the war — spending on the war?”

President Bush: “I don’t think so. I think actually the spending in the war might help with jobs…because we’re buying equipment, and people are working. I think this economy is down because we built too many houses and the economy’s adjusting.”

Episode 19: Super duper democracy (2/16/08)

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The Democrats have a problem -- an exciting presidential race with no apparent winner.  This is a job for Super Delegate!

Be careful, you just might get what you wish for

Riding a wave of anti-immigrant fever in Arizona, politicians there recently passed some of the most draconian anti-immigrant laws in the nation.  Most of the new laws targeted employers who might hire the undocumented.

The actions by these demagogic politicians seemed to pay off in the short-run -- in terms of their popularity.  But they've had another pay-off, one that should have been easily foreseen:  they're wrecking Arizona's economy, which depends heavily on immigrant labor.  About 11% of the Arizona workforce is estimated to be comprised of undocumented workers.

This is a story the rest of the country should follow closely as immigration "reform" continues to be a hot topic in the presidential contest.  Just what would happen if the US was actually able to cast out all the undocumented workers?  Economic collapse, that's what.

Arizona Seeing Signs of Flight by Immigrants  (NY Times, 2/12/08)

PHOENIX — The signs of flight among Latino immigrants here are multiple: Families moving out of apartment complexes, schools reporting enrollment drops, business owners complaining about fewer clients.

The Arizona economy, heavily dependent on growth and a Latino work force, has been slowing for months. Meanwhile, the state has enacted one of the country’s toughest laws to punish employers who hire illegal immigrants, and the county sheriff here in Phoenix has been enforcing federal immigration laws by rounding up people living here illegally.

“It is very difficult to separate the economic reality in Arizona from the effects of the laws because the economy is tanking and construction is drying up,” said Frank Pierson, lead organizer of the Arizona Interfaith Network, which advocates for immigrants’ rights and other causes.

An earlier article in the Times cited the growing problem back in December, before the law even took effect on January 1, 2008.  Fear is ruling the day.

. . . economists say the law could damage the economy.  “If you take 12 percent of the work force away, that is going to be a problem,” said Dawn McLaren, an economist at Arizona State University, adding that people not currently working could never make up the difference. “The largest group to join the work force was during World War II, and that was a big motivator. I don’t think patriotism is going to drive this one.”  (NY Times, 12/14/07]

A companion piece of legislation, this one passed by voter initiative, denied undocumented students from getting in-state tuition rates at Arizona's colleges and universities.  Predictably, thousands have dropped out, either unable to afford the out-of-state tuition rate or for fear of being deported.  Or both.

Reading these articles reminded me of a small exchange I had a few years back at the Tucson airport, appropriately enough.  While waiting in line to board my flight, the man standing directly in front of me abruptly turned around and started in on a diatribe against the "illegals."  Why he assumed I might share his racist opinions is beyond me.

He was holding a cup of coffee and a donut.  I asked him, "Who served you the coffee and donut?  Did you check their documents before accepting them?  How much more are you willing to pay Starbucks for a grande, anyway?  Do you ever go to restaurants?  You're in Arizona, for crying out loud.  Your economy would collapse if you actually threw out all the immigrants."

He huffed and turned his back on me again.  I'd like to finish that conversation with him now.

Episode 18: It's the oil, habibi (2/9/08)

Orwell Was An Optimist
A Video Blog

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George Bush may be an incompetent president, but he sure knows how to take care of his friends.

Update:  Juan Cole, featured in this video,  linked to Orwell from his fabulous blog, Informed Comment.  Orwell's home base at Blip.tv is getting a ton of new viewers as a result!

Check in the sock drawer

The Army has been sitting on a report from the RAND Corporation that heaps scorn on just about everyone connected to the invasion and occupation of Iraq.  The report is now over two years old and has never been allowed to see the light of day.

The Army is acting like a schoolchild who has gotten a bad report card and attempts to keep it from the parents by hiding the report in a sock drawer.

The New York Times got hold of an earlier draft version of the report and covers the story on the front page today.  Army Buried Study Faulting Iraq Planning, NY Times, 2/11/08

Among the more damning findings of the study, which was solicited by the Army to help them improve their actions "the next time", were:

A review of the lengthy report — a draft of which was obtained by The New York Times — shows that it identified problems with nearly every organization that had a role in planning the war.

The study chided President Bush — and by implication Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who served as national security adviser when the war was planned — as having failed to resolve differences among rival agencies. “Throughout the planning process, tensions between the Defense Department and the State Department were never mediated by the president or his staff,” it said.

Gen. Tommy R. Franks, whose Central Command oversaw the military operation in Iraq, had a “fundamental misunderstanding” of what the military needed to do to secure postwar Iraq, the study said.

The Times story quotes from the report about the selling of the war.

“Building public support for any pre-emptive or preventative war is inherently challenging, since by definition, action is being taken before the threat has fully manifested itself,” it said. “Any serious discussion of the costs and challenges of reconstruction might undermine efforts to build that support.”

Got that right.  And that's the same reasoning behind the Army's deep-sixing of this report.  The report was released in November 2005, just as Bush was trying to sell the public on his so-called surge plan.  So the decision was made to keep yet more information from the American people.  We're not to be involved in any serious discussion, especially life-or-death decisions such as the decision to send the country to war.

What, you thought we lived in a democracy or something?  Sorry, the Bush mob has hidden democracy away in the sock drawer.  Who knows what we'll find in there when they finally move out of their room.