It’s a question of whether we actually even believe in that piece of paper

From Friday’s Democracy Now! interview with Glenn Greenwald regarding the murder or Awlaki:

JUAN GONZALEZ: Glenn, what can people who are concerned about this extraordinary extension of the powers of a president to basically ignore any kind of due process with our American citizens, what can they do?

GLENN GREENWALD: Well, one thing that is obvious, is that voting for Democrats as opposed to Republicans doesn’t help. In fact, if you read The New York Times article from 2010 confirming that Awlaki is on the hit list, it makes clear that there’s been no instances where George Bush ordered American citizens targeted for assassination, that this is extraordinary and perhaps an unprecedented step under the Democratic president. What people in the Arab world did, when their leaders did things like imprison them, let alone kill them, and their fellow citizens without trials, is they went out into the streets and protested and demanded that it stop. Continue reading “It’s a question of whether we actually even believe in that piece of paper” →

And you thought Bush was a bad dude?

No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation. (Taken from some quaint document)

Anwar al-Awlaki is dead, murdered by Barack Obama. There was no due process, no burden of proof. Just a cold-blooded murder. Obama now sits aside Dick Cheney, George W. Bush, Donald Rumsfeld as a state terrorist. He too deserves to be at the business end of a rope, feet a-twitching their final twitches.

It’s so much worse than just killing one man – it’s the whole of this nonsense of American victimhood. “Al Qaeda” is insignificant, hardly something to lose sleep over. Whatever they were before 9/11, and that wasn’t much, they (along with thousands of innocent Afghans) were wiped out in October of 2001. But their threat is deliberately overstated to keep the premise for American terror and aggressive war alive and well. An American citizen is far more likely to drown in a bath tub than die by the hand of a “terrorist.”
Continue reading “And you thought Bush was a bad dude?” →

Only in America

When WIN wins, patients lose
America is indeed the land of opportunity. A Wyoming health insurance company, WINhealth Partners, saw an opportunity to stick it to a woman, and jumped on it.

Kimberly Shaffer’s physicians recommended breast reduction surgery due to neck and back pain. Her insurer, Great West Healthcare, covered the surgery. She notice signs of infection later, and indeed she had methicillin resistant staphylococcus aureus, a life-threatening bacteria that required aggressive treatment to save her life.
Continue reading “Only in America” →

Hiking the spectacular Iranian high country

Has anyone else noticed that not one American news outlet has referred to the two Americans released from Iranian prison yesterday as anything other than “hikers”?

Don’t get me wrong. It’s not conspiracy theorizing. But the idea that they might be spies when our government says they are hikers … during a time of high tension when the US is openly threatening Iran and running covert ops and having recently spent $400 million to disrupt their elections … well, the notion that these might just maybe not be hikers … well … that notion never even occurs to them. That’s kind of their job, like good puppies, never pottying on the carpet.

And they might really be hikers. It’s just an odd place to trek. It’s fishy. It would not hurt to be a tad suspicious but that quality does not exist in American journalism. It’s been bred out. The ones left really think that lack of curiosity is a virtue. That’s quite an accomplishment.

Obama is in campaign mode again

This from Matt Taibbi:

Listening to Obama talk about jobs and shared prosperity yesterday reminded me that we are in campaign mode and Barack Obama has started doing again what he does best — play the part of a progressive. He’s good at it. It sounds like he has a natural affinity for union workers and ordinary people when he makes these speeches. But his policies are crafted by representatives of corporate/financial America, who happen to entirely make up his inner circle.

The amazing and sad thing to watch is how his schtick works. It’s a stupid country, and The One does to even have to try hard to fool people. It’s that easy.

Harry Callahan speaks out

These people who are making a big deal out of gay marriage? I don’t give a f*** about who wants to get married to anybody else! Why not?! We’re making a big deal out of things we shouldn’t be making a deal out of.**

They go on and on with all this bullshit about ‘sanctity’ — don’t give me that sanctity crap! Just give everybody the chance to have the life they want.
(Clint Eastwood being a BAMF while discussing same-sex marriage in GQ’s October edition.)

**It’s called “wedge politics,” Harry.

h/t Meg, Cognitive Dissonance

Do minds ever change?

So Dave Budge has taken a break from blogging. (His ‘hanging it up’ post disappeared, so he’ll be back. No link available.) It’s a familiar scene. We write, for me every day, and then a cloud descends, and from deep inside comes a voice asking why. Why put yourself through this? We try to be thoughtful, but I look at the number of readers, impressive, but comments are few. Any mining of the numbers only discourages. In my case, a post I wrote about Vince McMahon, of XFL fame, draws hit after hit, thank you Google. Really, it’s only a few people.

Rob Natelson offers homage to Budge in this post, and writes about a trip to Columbus, Montana from Missoula, about four hours, to talk to a small group of people. On arrival, he finds that he has to pay the gate fee of $40, and worse yet is limited to a ten minute talk! That is like asking Krakatoa to have just a little eruption.

Continue reading “Do minds ever change?” →

Organization works

I am only going to have one thought today. This is it:

There has been a lot of discussion here about the nature of power – why do people with money affect government policy, while people who vote don’t?

The answer is organization. Corporations and wealthy people, with the exception of “Hollywood,” do not simply throw money at candidates and hope for the best. They assemble it in large quantities, and use it as a lever. They have many other tools at their disposal, but I’ll stick to that.

Organization is effective. That’s why the notion of labor unions is so distasteful to powerful people. They don’t want working people to have real power. They want workers to vote for either party, as their whims dictate, and otherwise not meddle.

Obama = ‘W’2

It’s going to be a long fourteen months, and I intend to ignore partisan politics. That means light traffic – the party-politics frenzy will suck up all the oxygen. Obama will win reelection easily, as he will have more money than anyone else, and so can buy more ads. That’s all that really matters. As 2008 showed us, he’s got really good advertising people behind him. His turd will blossom.

I won’t vote for him or any opponent, nor will I allow campaign rhetoric to replace reality. Elections do not affect public policy.

I did not listen to Obama’s speech on Thursday. I know he gives good speech, but there is seldom much content. I did read a summary of the “jobs” program in the Financial Times. It had some trial balloons, and one good thing – $85 billion in aid to state governments. That might help.

Continue reading “Obama = ‘W’2” →

He’s very good at his job

A serious man
I watched Steven Colbert interview Tom Brokaw this evening. It was quite disgusting. The normally irreverent Colbert turned serious, and the always pompous Brokaw profundicated. Tom is a serious guy who fancies himself a “journalist.” He talked about 9/11 and the people who were harmed that day.

There’s going to be a whole lotta profound breast beating this weekend as we head into the tenth anniversary of 9/11. It’s going to be ugly. I would watch football, but all of those moments of silence are going to be too annoying.

If I were Colbert, I would ask Brokaw what it was like to be an Iraqi in Baghdad in March of 2003 when the US launched its unprovoked attack, blowing up buildings, killing innocent people. Or ask him what he thought of the mass killing spree the US went on after that day.

Brokaw, of course, would have no clue. That is his job.