ANWR - Faith-Tradition Meets Politics

photo credit - ensnewswire

"The Gwich'in believe that a bit of human heart is in every caribou - and that a bit of caribou is in every person. Any threat to the animal is a threat to the Gwich'in."

ANWR - Faith-Tradition Meets Politics

In Alaska, a faith-related political dilemma has been reported in the news. The Gwich'in are the northernmost Indian Nation living in fifteen small villages scattered across vast area extending from northeast Alaska in the U.S. to the northern Yukon and Northwest Territories in Canada. The Gwich'in are carrying out their longstanding responsibility given to them by the Creator to take care of the caribou herds in the ANWR region of Alaska. In Gwich'in villages, caribou provide 60 to 70 percent of their food.

It is being said that drilling in ANWR would violate the Gwich'in people's rights guaranteed by the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which was ratified by 154 countries, including the United States, in 1994 and the OAS charter, which is the treaty that founded the OAS shortly after World War II.

Excerpt from article in the Indian Country Today news:

"It represents who we are as a people," Beach said. "What happens to the caribou, happens to the Gwich'in."

Beach's comments came during the release of the new report, ''A Moral Choice for the United States: The Human Rights Implications for the Gwich'in of Drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.''

The report was released by the Gwich'in Steering Committee; Trustees for Alaska; the Episcopal Church; and Professor Richard J. Wilson, director of the International Human Rights Law Clinic at American University in Washington, D.C.

The Gwich'in Nation, with a population of about 8,000, said it is now fighting its toughest battle yet: to ensure that Congress does not open AMWR to oil drilling.

Beach said that unlike tribes in the lower 48 states, Gwich'in are able to subsist off the land and continue to rely on the caribou for food and survival....

.... ..... During a national telephone conference with the media on Oct. 25 to release the report, Bishop Mark MacDonald of the Episcopal Church said it is a moral issue. MacDonald said while the United States uses morality to justify its presence in Iraq and the war, the United States proposes drilling in ANWR and passes this off as progress.

This is a human rights issue - a moral issue - a faith issue - an issue of respect for a religious tradition of the people - an issue involving international treaties. What will Congress do?

Democrats Corzine and Kaine Win Governor's Seats

Democrats Corzine and Kaine Win Governor's Seats

Congratulations to Jon Corzine of New Jersey and Tim Kaine of Virginia for the wins in their respective state governor's races.

Here at home, congratulations go out to Matt Driscoll, who won a second term as mayor of Syracuse, NY.

Homeless in Chicago: "Far From Home"

Far From Home
Homeless in Chicago

The Chicago Coalition for the Homeless has marked its 25th anniversary.
Far From Home
Why - 25 years later - we are no closer to solving the homelessness in Chicago [pdf]

This progress report card is the kind that a frightened child might hide from his parents. It's nothing that we, as a moral society, should be proud of. Hurricane Katrina refocused national attention on the issue of homelessness. There is more public sympathy centered around the issue. Today, 40% of the homeless population is made up with families with children. Homelessness is affecting more people than just those with little or no income. A new class of "working poor" households is often paying more than 50% of its income for rent and is at high risk of homelessness.

Do you know that, in no state in the U.S. today does a full-time minimum wage job enable a family to pay fair market rent for a 2-bedroom apartment?

Did you know that, in 2000, 16.8% of full time workers working year round, earned less than the official poverty level for a family of four?


The causes and facts are many. Solutions do not come easy.

The federal government has drastically reduced its commitment to creating affordable housing and has mandated the demolition of public housing. The City of Chicago's 10-year plan to eliminate homelessness has had solid elements, but minimal resources to implement it.

The coalition expects to spend time battling proposed federal cuts to human services and pressing the mayor's office for more dollars for the city's own 10-year plan to end homelessness.

The coalition will continue organizing for its "It Takes a Home To Raise a Child" statewide housing campaign, which includes four basic components:

1. Family Homelessness Prevention Program – In 1999, the campaign successfully advocated for a program to provide rent, utility, legal and other assistance for families experiencing a short-term crisis. The campaign has successfully advocated for $5 million in funding for the program the past two years and continues to work to ensure that funding stays at that level.

2. Homeowner’s Stabilization Program – creates a program to provide housing counseling and loans to homeowner's who have fallen behind on their mortgage payments. The program could assist 2000 homeowner's at a cost of $5 million.

3. Rental Housing Support Program– provides longer-term rental assistance for 4,000 families through rental subsidies to current landlords.

4. New Homes for Families Program – creates a capital fund of $100 million for the development of affordable housing units targeted for homeless and extremely low-income families

Former vice presidential candidate John Edwards appeared in Chicago this past Sunday to discuss the "Far From Home" report and to discuss the issue of poverty.

TNR on General Pace and Dick Cheney

TNR on General Pace and Dick Cheney

At TNR's The Plank, Spencer Ackerman separates the 'perfect' men from the torture-loving boys.

So now on one side of the fight, we have Dick Cheney, whom The Washington Post recently described as the "Vice President for torture," and on the other side, we have one of the most respected officers ever to become senior military adviser to the president. (To say nothing of numerous State Department and Pentagon officials; ninety members of the Senate; a slew of retired officers; and sanity.) Unfortunately, the president Pace serves not only lies about torture committed by the United States, he's threatened to veto McCain's Pace-endorsed measure.

'Yes, They Lied' by Wm Rivers Pitt

Yes, They Lied
By William Rivers Pitt
t r u t h o u t | Perspective

A must-see.

Author's Note: I apologize in advance for the length of this essay. There is so much utter nonsense and outright disinformation flying around about Iraq right now that it takes 3,000 words to set things straight. Call this a fact-bomb, and put it to good use. - wrp

Being attacked for writing about Massey

Being attacked for
writing about Massey

Chip Atkinson is telling the world that Jimmy Massey is my "darling," simply because I wrote a piece on him. In my book, that is intellectual dishonesty. I realize that Mr. Massey's book has the right wing all a-twitter and that they are scrambling to make a liar out of him as quickly as they can. That's the way things go - let's not fool ourselves. I'll let them dance all around the story - but the story will still be there. Mr. Massey was disturbed by the fact that it was mostly civilians being killed by the units in which he was serving in Iraq toward the beginning of the Iraq war. A larger part of his story was trouble he saw with the methods of military recruitment and the fraud in which he observed and willingly participated while acting as a Marine recruiter.

If we only choose to scramble to find people to prove him a liar, we are biased reporters. If we choose to scramble to prove his statements true, we are biased. I was not biased when I wrote a summary of one of Mr. Massey's presentations. I simply reported on what he said.

Fair and balanced means finding two sides and putting them side by side. I blogged about Mr. Massey's story only. I got it straight from the horse's mouth. I'm not responsible for what you choose to do with a story like his, but I think it's important to give him an equal opportunity to speak. I don't get paid a thin dime for my reporting, so I'll choose what I wish to report and leave it up to you - the reader - to use your own critical thinking skills if you want to seek out alternatives to Mr. Massey's story.

Just don't sit there and call him "my darling" because I wrote a story about him. I interviewed a California Libertarian senatorial candidate last year - did that make him my darling? Of course not! Let's be accountable for the comments we thoughtlessly throw at each other. Mr. Massey is a man with a story - a story that he has been telling hundreds of people around the nation. He's news. Just because I chose not to shut him up and shut him out (as some of you might have liked me to do) does not mean that you or I have to agree with everything he says.

Rush Limbaugh starts jabber-jawing about Mr. Massey and knee-jerk tongues start lashing out at everyone in the line of fire. McCarthyism is still alive in the hearts of men who claim to cherish freedom, but act to cut the very head off of freedom.

You're not looking at Fox News here. You're looking at a blog - NOT written by some wild-eyed radical - but by an intelligent and fair fellow American citizen who is not paid for opining, who is far more centrist than you'd like to believe and who believes, firmly, in democracy and freedom of speech.

___________

That said, Ron Harris of the St. Louis Post Dispatch was embedded with Jimmy Massey's unit at the time Massey was there. Mr. Harris was interviewed about his embedded reporting in Iraq for STLToday.com:

Part of the Pentagon's thinking held that embedded reporters would bond with the service members with whom they shared rations, and danger.

Critics warned that embedded reporters would get too close to their subjects, with objectivity a casualty.

"I had an affinity for the Marines I covered," Harris says. "But I didn't feel I was a part of Lima Company. I was a journalist. In a way, it was like covering City Hall. You know people and like people -- but you're not part of the city government."

I'm sure his experiences would lead him to come away with a healthy respect for our fighting men and women, which is understandable. I read some of his commentary about Massey today, however, and sensed an urgent attempt to destroy his credibility - and when it's one lone man against a Marine corps, well - - it isn't difficult to understand that the one guy is never going to win. I prize objectivity, and I was a bit surprised when I read the transcript of Mr. Harris' appearance on CNN's American Morning.

The CNN appearance came upon the heels of an article that Harris has written - a damning article about Massey. Mr. Harris said this on the cable news network calling Massey a liar. When asked by CNN host Carol Costello: Why would this staff sergeant, Jimmy Massey, lie about these things, and say such terrible things about his own comrades?

Harris said:

Well, one of the things that has happened -- number one, Jimmy Massey, I don't know why, but I can just speculate (my emphasis) a couple of things. Number one, Jimmy Massey was honorably discharged for post- traumatic stress syndrome. The second thing, Jimmy Massey has profited off of this. He does have a book. He has a Web site in which he sells his story on a CD for a hundred dollars. I think it's called jimmymassey.com. So it's been profitable for Jimmy Massey to keep telling this lie.

That's not what Jimmy Massey said when I saw him speak. Here are some excerpts to answer these questions:

Re: The Book:

Jimmy's writing a book, not for fame or fortune, but to simply document what he considers to be war crimes and to keep track of the places in Iraq that he knows had been directly affected by depleted uranium.

Re: The PTSD diagnosis, which came along well after the fact:

Shortly after the checkpoint incident with the Red Kia,(the point where Jimmy says he "lost it"), Jimmy was relieved of his command, slipped some Zoloft and Ambien, and was medevaced back to the U.S.

Having seven years to go before retirement with the Marine Corps, he was offered a stateside desk job. Jimmy says he didn't want their money anymore. His deep remorse had ended his days as an economic conscript.

The Marines sent him to a shrink and they tried to label him a conscientious objector. Jimmy asked them in wonder, "Conscientious objector?! Just what are you smoking?" He had been a Marine for 12 years. He had willingly gone to war for his country, no questions asked. He says that he'd supported his president, who'd told him that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and that Saddam Hussein was an imminent threat to the free world.

It was only when he voiced his concern that he no longer felt right about killing innocent civilians that they suddenly wished to label him as a "conscientious objector". Unwilling to accept the label, knowing it could have landed him in jail, Jimmy secured Gary Myers (of My Lai trial fame) as his attorney. Jimmy says the military quickly "changed their tune" when Myers came on board.

Jimmy was diagnosed with Post-Traumatic Stress disorder (PTSD) and was given, by the VA, 100% disability with no retirement benefits.

____________

Stan Goff has written a compelling piece for Counterpunch:
"What a Difference Embedding Makes"
Jimmy Massey, Ron Harris and Ambush Journalism

* see comments on this post.

Phase II - Sen Pat Roberts' Dramatics Won't Work Anymore

Phase II - Sen Pat Roberts' Dramatics Won't Work Anymore

Josh Marshall was previewing a WaPo/Walter Pincus article which raises questions about how Phase II of the Senate Intelligence investigation will be conducted. Primarily , it deals with the right to interview top policymakers or speechwriters as part of the inquiry into whether the Bush administration exaggerated or misused intelligence in the run-up to the Iraq war. Josh was asking:

If what Roberts wants is really closer to last year's agreement than what Rockefeller is now pushing for, what was Rockefeller thinking last year when he agreed to it?

I was (obviously) disappointed with Senator Rockefeller's actions back in 2003, even though I realize that he was really trying to get an investigation off the ground in a politically smothering atmosphere. Back then, I had said:

"Congress is far, far more worried about polls and re-election than they are about the American people's damaged trust in the administration's decision to send of nearly 200 American troops to their death in Iraq."

I was disappointed in Senator Rockefeller's carelessness and actions surrounding a story about a stolen Democratic memo and Sen. Bill Frist Accusing Democrats of Undermining the Intelligence Panel (see Ken Guggenheim AP story). I had commented in 2003:

This is about a a Democratic memo leaked this week that outlines a strategy for exposing contradictions between intelligence reports and Bush's claims about Iraqi weapons programs.

The memo in question was apparently STOLEN...then leaked.

Jay Rockefeller's capability as an effective Senator has been in much doubt as of late, IMHO, judging from what I've seen from him on recent FOX interviews. Rockefeller was careless in allowing something like this staff-memo to fall by the wayside.

The paranoid Pat Roberts is whining that Democrats are "plotting against him". Roberts went on with his paranoid complaint (which may actually be a deceptive way to pull the plug on a decent investigation), saying: "The memo said that at some point the Democrats could 'pull the trigger'. When I read that, I felt like they're going to pull the trigger on me."


Drama Diva

Dirty business all around.

While Senator Pat Roberts played the injured drama diva of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Senator Rockefeller was nowhere near Robert's match. When a Senate Intelligence committee meeting was canceled because of the stolen Democratic political-strategy memo, and no other date scheduled, all that Sen. Rockefeller said was that he was "really disappointed" with the Republican action. "Whose advantage is it to derail asking the tough questions on prewar intelligence and the use and misuse of it?" he asked. [Iddybud 11/10/03]

"Really disappointed" was surely not dramatic or forceful enough, in light of the circumstances. Back in 2003, I truly felt that America was asleep at the wheel. If our political leaders could not have led by firm example, we could not expect the average American to have understood - or to be outraged by what was happening.

What Senator Rockefeller agreed to back in 2003 should be amended to fit the political atmosphere of today. This is no time to appeal to anyone to stick with a Gentleman's agreement. We Americans have been bruised - abused - screwed - by our leaders. Our trust is shattered. Times have changed. Those 200 dead American troops I mentioned in my 2003 excerpt above are now over 10 times the count. The majority of the public is convinced that there has been a serious misleading by the Bush administration. We know too much to turn back and hide our heads in the sand. If Republicans continue to stonewall a complete and bipartisan investigation, Americans will not trust them enough to vote for them in 2006 or 2008. That's what it all boils down to.

See Dick Lie

See Dick Lie

What did I tell you?
I KNEW something was fishy when I posted "Dick Cheney Denies Joe Wilson Three Times" on 9-14-03.
Take a look at this.

We now know, courtesy of the 22-page Libby indictment, that Cheney wasn't being truthful. Cheney did see the report; he knew full well who Wilson was. He also knew that the CIA arranged for Wilson to travel to Niger, and he personally sought out information about Wilson's trip to Niger, was briefed about the fact-finding mission, and even obtained classified information about Plame's covert CIA status. He also came to know one other important nugget: that Plame may have recommended her husband for the trip.

True Prophets?

True Prophets?

Do a Google search today on "true prophets".
Out of 4,150,000 hits, "iddybud" is the first hit you'll come across. Go figure. ;)

The Environment and Biblical Obligations

The Environment and Biblical Obligations



Progressive politics and spirituality go hand in hand. A quote from a NYT article by Michael Janofsky:

"We believe that we have a rightful responsibility for what the Bible itself challenges. Working the land and caring for it go hand in hand. That's why I think, and say unapologetically, that we ought to be able to bring to the debate a new voice."

- Richard Cizik, vice president for governmental affairs, National Association of Evangelicals

Iraq in the News

Iraq in the News

Khalilzad Left Hanging by Pentagon's Mistakes in Iraq

Jackson Diehl [WaPo] believes that sticking to the wrong course in Iraq without adequate planning or strategy has made the job of Bagdhad envoy Zalmay Khalilzad extremely tough:

Almost orphaned by a president who limits his public discussion of Iraq to brave democrats and evil terrorists, the ambassador [Zalmay Khalilzad] has worked with enormous energy to channel the complex and increasingly violent struggle for power among Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds into elections and negotiations. The mistakes of the past 2 1/2 years have made his job much harder: Iraqis are far more polarized along ethnic lines than they were in 2003, and the insurgency is deeply entrenched, thanks to the Pentagon's slowness in taking it seriously.

A Horrible Way To Die

In an article by Steve Fainaru in the WaPo, a soldier named Aaron drives home a point that few of us make here in the States. Soldiers know they are dying - not for America - but for Iraq - and if you imagine they are any less confused than you or me about the cause in which we are engaged, then I think you are wrong. What makes me very sad is to understand that these loyal young men and women - our children, fathers, sisters, mothers in Iraq - do what they have agreed to do, and in the end, they do it for the love and respect they have for one another as team members and blood brothers. It makes me want to scream all the louder: Send them home!

"Dying for Iraq is a horrible way to die," said Spec. Aaron Novak, 25, of Billings, Mont. "But to die for your buddies, that's the way I look at it. Iraq is going to be here a long time after we're gone."

At Press Conference, Senate Intelligence Committee Vice-Chairman Rockefeller
Calls For Thorough, Credible, and Prompt Phase II Report
“We owe the American people a full and honest accountability of the intelligence that was used to make the case for going to war.”



Senator Carl Levin (D-MI):

Newly Declassified Information Indicates Bush Administration's Use of Pre-War Intelligence Was Misleading

Edwards Updates at Science and Politics

Edwards Updates at Science and Politics

At Science and Politics: A roundup of recent news about Senator John Edwards.

French Riots - Could it Happen Here?

"People are under pressure, they feel the anger of no jobs and no chance to improve their lives until finally -- boom! -- it just explodes."

_____ ______
"Just allow us the dignity of good jobs and a chance to make better lives. Then the French will have nothing to fear from 'dangerous Muslims'."

________________________________


The French Riots -
Could it Happen Here?
If we create a new federal vision that will fully value and support moderate American Muslims, welcome new Arab-world immigrants, and make policy to support the poorest in our society and in the world, we'll decrease the chances that it will ever happen here.


- UK prime minister Tony Blair is having second thoughts about the anti-terror law he'd proposed, which would allow for detaining suspects for up to 90 days without trial. In a liberal society, he is coming to understand that the Tories will never stand for it. Compromise or negotiation will be in necessary in a liberal society, even though Blair favors the rule. Perhaps the riots in France are causing everyone in Europe to have second thoughts about how to govern in societies with large (and often poor) Muslim populations. [BBC News]

A radical new antiterrorism package unveiled by Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy giving the French government the right to deport residents summarily and to strip some Muslims who are deemed "radical" of their naturalized French citizenship is a "zero tolerance" policy which many say will politically play into the hands of militants and strip freedom further away from consideration in the French rule of law. Analysts warn that a western approach which lumps together all forms of Islamism and brands them "radical" or "hostile" could strengthen the appeal of extremists. [source: BBC News]

Mark my words. This new trend of Westen governments summarily stripping people of their citizenship and smothering their freedom of speech is going to reinforce an already-growing image of Western elitism in the Middle Eastern world that will weaken the war of Western ideas and strengthen the cause of extremists.

__________

The Price of Ignoring Pleas for Social Justice:
Idolizing the Wrong Heroes

Let's look at today's Boston Globe:

- What do Osama bin Laden and Rodney King have in common? They are both heros of a young man in France - the son of poor Algerian immigrants -

"One because he gives pride back to the Muslims," the young man asserted as he and a trio of friends stood near the charred ruins of a carpet shop. "The other because he was just a poor man, a 'nobody man' of color, but he caused a great city to burn."

So - this is how terrorism plays out in a permissive society which prides itself so much on equality that it doesn't keep statistics that separate one race or religion from another. Unheeded and silenced cries for social justice snowball into a burning mass of chaos. You haven't seen that level of violence and destruction happening here in America. Why not?

France's failure to ensure the social mobility of ethnic minorities is a likely contributor to their current troubles. The growing appeal of radical Islam is another major contributor. America is not immune from either of these factors - especially with the economic and foreign policies promoted by the current presidential administration and the Republican leadership that has blindly supported those policies. We've made big cultural strides - backwards - for the past five years. We're inviting what we see happening in France today, but it's not too late to find our vision and to once again show this world how to lead - instead of following them down the path of sure failure.


Equality without social justice is meaningless
What about America?

America's population of immigrants from the Arab and Muslim world can be seen as a matter of class and economic status more than Muslim culture. We've heard the message about The Two Americas - what about the glaring problem of the two Middle Easts? Poor Muslims are harder to find in America - and there are reasons which we don't often think about. We've tended to see Muslim immigrants succeeding here in America, often surpassing the economic status of the average American. The transient poor of the Muslim world have drifted toward European cities - and in France's case, they have been virtually ignored in the odd name of equality. Equality without social justice is meaningless.

One surprising conclusion drawn from data collected by the US Census Bureau in 2000 was that people of Arab descent living in the US are better educated and wealthier than the average American of non-Arab descent. See "Culture is not the Culprit in Arab Poverty" [Carnegie Endowment]

That immigrants generally do better than their compatriots back home is no surprise. What is far less common is for immigrants to out-perform the average population of their adopted home. This should prompt debates on issues such as the notion that cultural factors lie behind the Middle East 's widespread poverty...

....if cultural impediments are behind the Arab world's disappointing performance, what explains the success of people of Arab descent in America? One common perception is that Arabs who come to the US come from the wealthier Arab countries and are already better off. Another answer, of course, is that the US offers them better opportunities and institutions. Arabs in the US have ample opportunities to prosper and can rely on institutions to protect their civil and economic rights to do so.

Why there and not here?

Why are Arab immigrants in Europe worse off than those in the US? Why are leaders of Arab communities in France seeing social and racial tensions that have created a social and political time bomb? Moises Naim , editor in chief of Foreign Policy magazine, hits the nail on the head when he says:

Arab leaders should be ashamed when they see their emigrants prospering in the US while their own people are miserable. Europeans, too, should consider why their Arab immigrants lag so far behind those in America..... Americans need to ponder if the changes instituted after the terrorist attacks of September 11 2001 will make future generations of Arab immigrants look more like their disadvantaged European compatriots than like today's successful Arab-Americans.

Let's Value and Support our Muslim Communities Here in America
The Rhetoric of Fear, Political Abuse, and Mistrust Must End

Our moderate Muslim communities should be respected and our policies should support them and promote the immigration of more people from the Middle East - not less. If we believe in our ideas, then why not set policy to WIN the war of ideas?

We should appreciate and support the wonderful Muslim communities that exist in our country today, rather than seeing and hearing partisan right-wing pundits rhetorically beating on them and accusing them of failing to speak out against terror. They deserve our full support - not our fearful suspicion! They are Americans, like you and me.

A 2004 study by The Institute for Social Policy and Understanding (ISPU)has provided an interesting profile of the active Muslim in the Detroit, MI area. See report here.

The average participant in a mosque is 34, is married with children, is well-educated, is an immigrant or born to immigrants, makes more than $75,000 a year, is either progressive (38 percent) or traditional (28 percent) in religious practice. The average Muslim is also politically conscious (68 percent registered to vote), a bit ethnocentric — there is some evidence of ethnic clustering around mosques — and is a political liberal (supports affirmative action, universal health care and tough environmental protection laws) but is socially conservative (worried about sexual promiscuity).

The community issues that mattered most to the respondents were
1. Education
2. Schools
3. Work
4. Unity
5. Spiritual growth.

Some believe that because America has given the Islamic community so much freedom that we have undoubtedly made it easier for them to "seduce U.S. citizens to join jihadist groups and seek to kill their countrymen." I think that is the talk of fearful people - or people using "fear" to usurp political influence or power. When did all communities of Muslim immigrants and their cultural integrity become suspect of evil? I believe that if we allowed 9/11 to destroy our faith in the goodness of our fellow man as well as the freedoms within our democratic social fabric, we are lost. When we err on the side of false imprisonment and blanket discrimination based on a person's ethnicity, we are lost.

Victor Davis Hanson has written a recent article for Front Page magazine and insisted that America's "elite commitment to multiculturalism also hamstrings us from taking the needed security steps."

For 30 years, our schools have pounded home the creed that all cultures are of equal merit[...]Millions of Americans consequently aren’t sure whether radical Islam is just another legitimate alternative to the dominant Western narrative.

I think Hanson's argument is ineffective. The answer is not to take away a student's ability to make critical judgement for themselves by dulling the reality of thought that exists in diverse cultures. That will only breed ignorance. There were root causes stemming from the culture from which the 9/11 plot originated - and it will never help us, as a society and a member of the international community, to ignore every single factor that led to the sad occurrence.

French public schools promote equality and secular thought, and look at what is still happening there! Islamic unrest has been relayed in a much different way in France this week than in America on 9/11. When a society ignores the calls from its own citizens for social justice, the resulting backlash from too many years of complacency is often shocking. It isn't Muslim culture that is the proximate cause of the strife in France - it's a social justice issue.

Islamic leaders and social commentators insist that the root causes of the violence in France are economic, not religious. In their hopelessness, those living in poverty and feeling that there is no escape are turning to dangerous ideas and desperate measures. People feel that they've been isolated in poor neighborhoods with inadequate schools and few opportunities. This sounds too close to today's America for comfort, especially with the foreign policy put into play by the Bush administration.

How long before the fever in Europe is spread to the streets here in American cities with poor Muslim immigrant communities like Lackawanna, NY or Lodi, CA where the poorer Muslim communities are looked at with little more than suspicion?

From a Lackawanna newspaper in 2002:

To be a Muslim teenager is to grapple with conflicting identities and cultures, to search for halal buffalo wings and modest clothing that still looks good. While the Yemeni community in Lackawanna supports its youth through an Islamic school, a soccer league and a community center, life beyond the First Ward - the city's shabbiest area housing its minority residents before a drive over a bridge yields a gentrifying downtown - can pose challenges.

"White people call them towelheads or ragheads," said Ron Jones, a black lifelong resident of the First Ward. "The bridge divides us. This is supposed to be a ghetto." [S. Mitra Kalita]

After 9/11, we became a fearful and closed society. If anyone so much as mentioned the root causes of violence in the months following 9/11, they were labeled as traitors. Artists are being labeled as terrorist sympathizers to this day if they dare to generate anything other than the fear of Muslims in their art. (Sound like McCarthy-era America?)

Poverty alone did not cause the planners of the attack to do harm to America that morning. Hatred and indifference to innocent life grew from many years of a cancer that grew in the Middle East. No one knows what causes cancer, but it silently grows and spreads, until it takes over the life support system. The poor and uneducated are easily co-opted for recruitment to terrorist ideas - and errant hero-worship - and civil unrest - perhaps violent and destructive unrest.

We can do better in America. We have done better - until the Bush administration and Republican leadership turned us into a weaker and fearful America, lashing out in vengeance and hiding our fear behind pre-emptive and unilateral attacks on a nation that never had a link to 9/11. It has unnecessarily taken thousands of lives.

We must see a new direction. We have lost our vision. When we look at France this week, we may gloat and feel vindicated by our society because it hasn't happened here. But, in other parts of the globe, our errant and wrong-minded federal government has completely failed to take constructive measures that would give promise or hope to the poorest and most uneducated of this world - and the extremists will continue to recruit them to lash back at the West in anger as long as we fail to do our part to send out a clear vision of hope and trust.


_____________

-A Firsthand View and Opinion

* Kevin Drum refers us to a blogger named Jerome with some firsthand knowledge of one of the neighborhoods where the riots are taking place. An excerpt from Jerome's post:

What's real is that social budgets for these cités (those that allow the associations to run sport activities, literacy classes and the like) have been cut in the past 3 years, because, as always, this is the easiest thing to do politically.

What is real is that local police forces have been reduced (in Clichy, where it all started, the police has 15 officers vs 35 in the past) and replaced by national police who do not know the neighborood and are pretty aggressive in their behavior - and especially in their overuse of ID controls which target only people of color.

What is real is that France made a choice 30 years ago to preserve the jobs of those already integrated, and made it difficult to join that core. Thus unemployment, or unstable employment (temping, short term contracts, internships) touches only those that are not yet in the system - the young and the immigrants, or those that are kicked out - the older and less educated blue collar workers in dying industries. So in neighboroods where you have a lot of young immigrants, the problems are excerbated.

____________

-Additional note: A leading Muslim group -- the Union of Islamic Organisations in France (UOIF) -- issued a fatwa or formal instruction urging Muslims not to take part in acts of violence.

-For columnist Mark Steyn, it's all Black and White and Gloat and Hatespeak. If you can't go in like imperial stormtroopers and bomb cities and round up and detain all the dark-colored men without cause or trial; if you can't unilaterally wipe out a nation's regime in the name of democracy, you're just not cool in Steyn's book. In this blogger's opinion, he comes off sounding like a Euro-bashing horse's ass with plenty of political complaints and no solutions.

-See Why France Is Burning by Doug Ireland.

Paris Riots

Cars for Homes

Cars for Homes
A Habitat for Humanity program

Your car donation can help Habitat for Humanity build homes in partnership with families in need of decent, affordable shelter within the local community and around the world.

Donate a car, truck, boat, RV or other vehicle to Habitat's Cars for Homes vehicle donation program by calling 1-877-277-4344 or visiting www.carsforhomes.org

It's quick and easy and with your help, more low income families can have a decent place to call home, and the hope of a better life.

*Tip of the hat to Geoff at Word of blog
Bloggers: You can support the Cars for Homes Program by going here.

GOP "Values-Void" Left Behind in Hurricanes' Aftermath

GOP "Values-Void" Left Behind in Hurricanes' Aftermath

Bush crony/then-active FEMA appointee Michael Brown preened in his e-mails as New Orleans suffered.

- - What has happened to our commonly shared value of empathy - simple care, respect, and concern for others?


It took President Bush over two months to appoint an overseer for the Gulf Coast hurricane recovery efforts. Barbara Major, co-chairman of NOLA mayor Ray Nagin's commission said, "Y'all in the federal government need to come up with some continuity about what y'all are doing. There seems to be a real lack of coordination."

- - What has happened to our commonly shared value of acting quickly and effectively for the common welfare?


The Davis-Bacon act was suspended, then lifted when the Bush administration knew they couldn't politically win. One Republican-leaning editorial in the Charleston (WV) Gazette (reposted at FortWayne.com) said: "Thanks to a coalition of Democrats and a clutch of wishy-washy Republicans, taxpayers will pay millions of dollars more for the cleanup of Hurricane Katrina than they should." They call it "inflated wages." Workers call it fair pay for a tough job that's been well-done.

- - What has happened to our commonly shared value of expecting to recieve fair pay for a fair day's hard work?


New Orleans is seeking federal aid and new loans to ride out a $204 million budget shortfall caused by the expected loss of all property tax revenue in the short term. At the same time, Louisiana is slapped with a bill for a whopping $3.7 billion that the U.S. government says is its share of hurricane relief...using the excuse that simply because Federal law requires it. Think about that - the worst storm in U.S. history - and a Federal law is not examined for its fairness, in this extremely unusual situation.

--What has happened to our commonly shared values of trust, integrity, and common sense?


Immigrants Rights activist Emile Schepers writes that "A good many immigrant workers, documented and undocumented, from outside the [New Orleans] area are being hired by contractors to work in the cleanup. Various sources report that day labor agencies around the country can’t keep up with the demand for contingent cheap labor in New Orleans and the Gulf, while people washed out of the Ninth Ward still do not know what is going to become of them. And, no doubt, labor laws, including overtime and health and safety regulations, are being flouted by unscrupulous contractors."

"The only way we can recover is with living wage jobs that go to Louisiana workers first. We are not just rebuilding Louisiana, we are rebuilding lives,” said Sibal Holt, president of the Louisiana AFL-CIO at a recent rally of about 1000 for jobs, living wages, affordable housing and public services for south Louisiana. Gov. Kathleen Blanco, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney and the Rev. Al Sharpton were in attendance.


-- What has happened to our commonly shared values of community-building, compassion, and fair opportunity?

Too many leaders in today's Republican party are revealing, by their policies-in-action, that there a a void of common traditional values shared by most Americans. This "values-void" is betraying the empty rhetoric we've heard for the past five years. The devastating hurricanes, especially Katrina, proved that the Bush agenda is emptied out of nearly all of its values, and America is left visionless.

A change must surely come.

Tikkun Features NSP Founding Conference

Tikkun Features NSP Founding Conference

For Spiritual Progressives, the November/December issue of Tikkun magazine is priceless. Last July's founding conference for the Network of Spiritual Progressives in Berkeley, California is featured. The morning after the conference, Jim Wallis, writer of the book "God's Politics," and Rabbi Michael Lerner took questions and responded.

A second conference, called "Reviving the American Spiritual Left--Conference May 17-20 2006 Plus: Creation of a Network of Spiritual Progressives" - will take up where the first conference left off. It's scheduled for May 17-20, 2006 in Washington, D.C.

This is an extremely popular movement which has generated so much interest that hundreds of people had to be turned away from the first conference, so be sure to register early for the D.C. conference.

In February, 2006, HarperSanFrancisco will publish Rabbi Lerner's new book "The Left Hand of God" which presents a full vision of the ideas behind The Network of Spiritual Progressives.

Elizabeth Edwards Writing Memoir

Elizabeth Edwards Writing Memoir

"Throughout my life, community has held me up, lending quiet strength and steady hope. I want now to tell the story of how all the communities, great and small, that make up America have the power to enrich, nourish, and support us when we are in need."

- Mrs. Edwards, from a statement issued through Broadway Books

WaPo, Oct 27

I'm glad that Mrs. Edwards has decided to make our communities the focus of her book. The community is the heart of politics - and all that politics should be about. Our children's values are shaped primarily at home, but they are also shaped, inevitably, by all people within the respective communities in which they live.

On December 9th, Elizabeth Edwards will give the keynote speech at the WIMG (Women in Municipal Government) Luncheon, National League of Cities' 2005 Congress of Cities & Exposition, in Charlotte, NC. The schedule of events is here.

David Brooks Blows Flimsy Air of Conspiracy

David Brooks Blows Flimsy Air of Conspiracy

David Brooks uses satire in his column today in order to to make light of Harry Reid's demand for a prompt investigation into the White House abuse of intelligence leading up to the Iraq war. I found it to be insulting to our intelligence. It's a no-brainer that a general belief existed, prior to the war, that Iraq still may have had stockpiles of chemical and biological munitions and some believed they had the capacity to restart its production program in the wink of an eye. Yet, the voices of those who had very important views to the contrary were silenced, attacked, and/or buried in the back pages of mainstream newspapers while outright lies were plastered on the front news pages.

Reducing the matter to a conspiracy theory is intellectually dishonest. The public opinion, in a Zogby poll from last June, revealed that a large majority of Democrats (59%) said that they agreed that the President should be impeached if he lied about Iraq. Among President Bush’s fellow Republicans, a full one-in-four (25%) indicated that they would favor impeaching the President under these circumstances. 43% of Independent voters said that they'd favor impeachment if Bush lied.

In the very latest Washington Post-ABC News poll, 55% of the American people now believe Bush misled the country in taking us to war.

The public's trust has been materially shaken by this. I think anyone who's publically supported Bush on his myriad rationales for the Iraq war should be eating humble pie right now - not mocking those who want to look into the bottom of the rationale bag to root out the rotted goods for once and for all.

Our nation has been weakened by the perception that our President and his administration lied to the public. I would think the Republicans would welcome this investigation, if they believe the President will be exonerated and that trust can be restored.

I think David Brooks can do better than this. I don't see his flight of fancy as serving our national interest in a constructive manner.

Scott McClellan: The Million Dollar Question

Scott McClellan: The Million Dollar Question

Here's a new question for contestants on the television game show Who Wants to be a Millionaire:

After the Joseph Wilson/Valerie Plame Wilson incident, White House press secretary Scott McClellan's reputation is:


a. Sterling
b. Questionable
c. Down the crapper
d. Unable to comment while investigation continues

Crystal Balls and Karl Rove

Crystal Balls and Karl Rove



Iddybud gazes into her crystal ball - she sees an Oval Office - wait -wait - there's someone missing - - why........Karl Rove is nowhere to be found!

*Could be he's out groveling, wormlike, for forgiveness.

Quote of the Day - On the Filibuster

Quote of the Day - On the Filibuster

There's "....a greater likelihood that the Republicans could find themselves in a minority in 2007, and may wonder about the wisdom of getting rid of the filibuster just as they may need it."

- DHinMI - Next Hurrah

Runner-Up goes to Mark Schmitt:

"..one thing is for sure: the prospect of a "final showdown" in which Alito is confirmed by the Nuclear tactic is just not going to happen in a Senate effectively run by Harry Reid."

- TPM Cafe

Dems on Iraq War - Mistakes Were Made

Dems on Iraq War - Mistakes Were Made

Last week on Meet the Press, I was disturbed to hear Senator Charles Schumer tell Tim Russert that he had no regrets about voting for the Iraq resolution in 2002. He should have regrets and I don't know why he can't admit that he has them. If he really doesn't have regrets, I have to wonder about his sense of consistency and conviction. This just didn't seem to be consistent with anything he's said in his crticisms of the entire war, from the lead-up until today. Americans aren't stupid. They know when certain statements just don't jibe with the overall set of statements from particular political leaders. Here's another example from my blog in May, 2004, when I felt that John Kerry was sending a very confusing message. In March, 2004, I wrote another post about the same kind of confused message and a need for clearer and more inspiring vision.

In August, 2004, as the presidential election got closer, I had written about some advice I had for John Kerry, of whom I had hoped would clarify his message and extend a tone of regret about his "yes" vote on the Iraq resolution:

If the Iraq resolution were presented knowing what we all know today, would Kerry still have voted “yes”? If so, why? Sending congressional authority as a strong message to Saddam Hussein may have been a fitting reason back in 2002, but why is Senator Kerry afraid to say he’d never have voted for that resolution knowing what he knows today? Would any of you readers have voted for the resolution knowing what you now know? Personally, I wouldn’t have voted for it back then and certainly would reject it today.

Today, we are seeing expressions of regret. How forgiving will Democratic voters be? I think, if each respective political leader can show humility paired with a vision for the future that inspires, we will be surprised at how the public, overall, will understand and accept the respective expressions of regret. Asking for apology of these Democrats, in my opinion, is asking too much. I think that the Bush administration and the mainstream media, who gave front page harbor to all the pre-war lies while relegating debatable points of dissent to the back pages, should apologize before anyone else.

A sampling of regret:

John Edwards -

[John] Edwards and [Steve] Forbes briefly answered questions from the audience on the Iraq war, the weakness of the Democratic party and poverty.Link

Did anybody go to see Edwards speak at NKU tonight?
There was a Q&A where Edwards was asked whether he thinks the US should pull out of Iraq. He began by saying that voting for the Iraq war was a mistake.
He was then interrupted by thunderous applause! Link

Daniel S. at the Kentucky Democrat attended yesterday's 2005 Alumni Lecture Series at Regents Hall:

Senator Edwards said that he regretted his vote on the war. He has suggested a timetable for withdrawing the troops.

John Kerry -

Kerry admitted that his vote in favor of the invasion was a mistake. “There is, as Robert Kennedy once said, ‘enough blame to go around,’ and "I accept my share of the responsibility" for the Iraq war, he said. "The mistakes of the past, no matter who made them, are no justification for marching ahead into a future of miscalculations[..] Kerry described the Iraq war as "one of the greatest foreign policy misadventures of all time". "It is time for those of us who believe in a better course to say so plainly and unequivocally." Link

Dick Gephardt:

Dick Gephardt, now in private life, will not be running again. Which may be why he is speaking so candidly about his vote in favor of the war.

"It was a mistake. . . . I was wrong," Gephardt was quoted as saying recently in Seattle.

According to the blog The Next Hurrah, Gephardt also said: "We never comprehended the complexity of the undertaking. I didn't. None of us did. . . . The President has never been honest about the sacrifices required . . . the lives lost, the eyes blown out. Bush fails the first test of leadership: 'Can you be honest with the people you lead?'" - Roger Simon

A citizen gives advice -

"Events on the ground have shown that George Bush's Iraq war was a tragic mistake in judgement on his part, and it was a mistake to support it. I thought I was doing the right thing by the country at the time I voted in favor of the war." Along those lines.
Rich Man, Poor Man - Meet John Edwards, your next president

** A Blast From the Past on Mistakes:
General Zinni: The 10 Mistakes

I go away for a few hours & look what happens

I go away for a few hours & look what happens

While I was at work today, something happened (to say the least).

Are we finally going to get the investigation for which we've had to beg for over two solid years while these Democrat-hating partisans of the GOP covered up a presidential administration's lies which culminated in the rash, poorly timed, disastrously planned, strategically flawed, and terror-increasing war in Iraq? How could they - any of these Republicans in power - have done this to the American people and thought they could have gotten away with it? I suppose they thought they could keep talking happy talk about the war and that it would all blow over. Well - now it's blown UP.

For three years, I've gone to bed each night asking how this could have happened in a democratic society like America. Over 2000 troops gone. Over 2000 troops gone. Over 2000 troops - - far more than just numbers - - - gone.

How many more will have to die?

I wrote to my (Republican) Congressman James Walsh last June and have never gotten a response or even an acknowlegement. Why does he feel unaccountable to constituents?

Perhaps now we'll finally get the answers that Senator "I choose party-loyalty-over-America" Pat Roberts has denied us for so long (along with the President and Senate majority leader Bill Frist.)

And that seasoned journalist named Jeff Gannon (aka James Guckert) was right on top of the Pat Roberts story. Hmmmm....Who was feeding him these assignments - and why?

I said this in November, 2003:

Good People of this nation:
If you aren't outraged, you simply aren't paying attention.
*see:Frist Freezes Senate Probe of Prewar Iraq Data

I hope we'll all pay attention now.

Mark Schmitt called this a political 'tipping point.' [TPM Cafe]

The GOP cried "Politics!" every time they were close to getting caught in their lies. If they were lies that didn't matter, it would be different. Since those lies were the proximate cause of the death of 2000 troops and all the people who loved them, I think they are material lies. If not for the lies, partisan-political maneuvering, and deliberate omissions, we would not have gone to war the way we did; at the time that we did. It's high time for an investigation into the use/abuse of intelligence.

_____________
See Dave Johnson's blogpost.

On the politics within the Senate chamber -

Look for plenty of kvetching about how Harry Reid is schooling hapless Bill Frist, and how the Senate Republicans can't control the chamber. One day after the Alito nomination, which is interpreted as Bush's caputulation to his conservative base, that can't be overlooked. After all, the Republicans will only want a fight if they think they can win, and fewer and fewer Republicans will believe Frist can ever lead them to a procedural victory. - DHinMI

NYT - Democrats Force Senate Into Closed Session Over Iraq Data

Raw Story - Democrats detail times their efforts to examine intel were blocked

Next Hurrah Story on Chris Matthews/DNC/Alito

Next Hurrah Story on Chris Matthews/DNC/Alito

Flu - - SCHMLU! Fear mongering isn't my cup of tea, but I suppose it's a good way for the Bush administration to divert all the public's attention away from their many troubles.

DHinMI has the most interesting story of today:
Boneheads of the Day: The DNC

I don't know who ever deemed Chris Matthews the "Archbishop of Democratic Ethics," although I think it was probably Chris Matthews himself. According to this story, Mr. Matthews alleged, all day long yesterday on MSNBC, that there was an "unfair and distasteful attack" by the DNC on Judge Samuel Alito, thus spinning a negative talking point that will, inevitably, soon hurl out of control. Gee, what fair journalism, Chris Matthews. The minority has an ultraconservative Supreme Court nominee shoved down their throats and you make a hyperspeed attack upon the minority. Way to go, Captain Courageous. Come out of the gate beating up on the citizens who don't care to have an extreme ideologue taking the place of "swing-vote Sandra Day O'Connor." That's how mainstream journalism speaks to power these days, eh?

The point DHinMI is making, which is a far more fair and balanced point than that of Chris Matthews, is not just a call of unfair mainstream journalism toward Mr. Matthews. He asks you to "choose the biggest DNC bonehead of the day."

While I understand the spirit of his comments, I think that DHinMI is being a bit too generous by saying:

We can and should be angry about how the press reacts to stuff like this, but in a sense it's like getting angry at your dog for eatiing the pot roast you put on the garage floor. You have to prevent screw ups like this, because it's easily exploitable into a "story" or a "controversy." People can argue about whether the press would be as likely to jump on the GOP if the situation were reversed; maybe hey wouldn't, and maybe the deck is stacked against us. But it is what it is, and you can't complain too much about the media environment we operate in if it distracts you from attending to the details and making sound decisions.

I agree that screw-ups open the door to mainstream grousing. However, we Democrats have lost too much political ground by the creation of a false conventional wisdom by this type of disproportionate concentration of criticism by MSM. The values of the people who belong to the Democratic party are not adequately represented when hay is made of small (yet admittedly relevant) details. I'm angry at MSM for their yapping and I'm upset at the DNC for making any case for the yapping to continue. I'm SICK of my values, as a Democrat, getting completely lost in this flurry of bullshit.

Billmon comments:

"...I personally have nothing against slime if it's well done -- we're in a war here and the Rovians have already made it clear that they don't respect the Geneva Conventions. But if the DNC really wants spread the rumor that Alito is soft on the Mafia, there are hell of lot more intelligent ways of getting the job done."

(*partial excerpt - see link for full text.)

At Slingshot.org, Dave Meyer has a theory about the Committee for Justice being behind the smear.

Joseph Wilson Speech - National Press Club

Joseph Wilson Speech - National Press Club
See Joseph Wilson at the National Press Club in Washington D.C. in a speech from yesterday, October 31, 2005. [CSPAN]

Quotes:

The nature of his mission - "I don't "do" clandestine - I "do" diplomacy."

The focus of the mission- "This was not a WMD issue. This was a mining issue. Uranium yellowcake is not WMD."

Regarding Bob Novak's curiosity as to why the CIA would send Joe Wilson, a Democrat, to Iraq: Mr. Wilson's answer was that the CIA did not send "Joe Wilson - a Democrat," but as an American diplomat with a certain amount of expertise in Niger. Wilson said he was well-known by Republicans as charge d'affaire for GHW Bush and GWH Bush's ambassador to African countries.

On his experience during the first Gulf war - "What I brought to the table for my argument was not any sense of partisanship. I brought my experience in Iraq during the first Gulf war... When I had met with the Iraqi government day in and day out - where I had worked 20 hours a day on behalf of my fellow citizens and on behalf of the notion that we had to do everything diplomatically that we possibly could to get Saddam Hussein out of Kuwait rather than to have to use American military to drive him out of Kuwait."

On Regime Change (for the sake of regime change): "WMD, disarmament of Saddam Hussein, was a legitimate international objective and a worthy American objective. Regime change, for the sake of regime change, was a recipe for future problems."

'The Challenge' was not about WMD: "I did not ever challenge the question of WMD or whether or not Saddam had WMD or had a nuclear program. I challlenged the rationale for regime change - not for disarmament.."

The Politics of the Alito Nomination

The Politics of the Alito Nomination

Conservative judge Samuel A. Alito has been nominated for SCOTUS by President Bush.

Bush winds up looking weak, weak, weak (Oh- and did I say weak?)

The stiff ghosts of truth have been biting at the heels of GW Bush in the aftermath of Scooter Libby's indictment and Harriet Miers' rejection by the religious right. The newspapers are ripe with a plentiful harvest of stories about the way Bush has hit political "rock-bottom" - and the rightwing pundits talk their happy-talk about how it can be only "up from here" for Bush.

Like a good boy, Bush has sent the religious right back into their cages and has proved to American voters (all across the board - not just Democrats) that he (and his party) desperately need the Dobsonites and Falwellians to hold onto power.

Citizens' common values are once again cast aside for a far more narrow (bowling-alley-shaped) version of "values" - with only one or two hot-button issues in focus. What an insult to citizens! American values are about so much more than one or two issues!

Harriet Miers was a "religious woman" - an "evangelical Christian" - and she was not good enough for the far religious right. Why? She was not an extreme ideologue with a track record.


I believe that the Democrats on the "Gang of 14" were remiss when they agreed to the limiting compromise on the filibuster rules in the name of "bipartisanship". Perhaps they felt it was all they could do at the time (to avoid Frist's Nuclear Option,) and to me, that is only a tribute to their ineffective communication of conviction, values, and leadership. Democratic leadership can do so much better!

Because of this "Gang of 14" filibuster-suicide pact, a SCOTUS nominee's philosophical views must amount to "extraordinary circumstances" in order for a filibuster to be deemed as "justified" - - but it can only be related to questions of personal ethics or character - not ideology.

In other words, I don't doubt that Alito will get an "up or down" vote. The Dems will only risk the threat of Nuclear Option if they attempt to filibuster.

Last Spring, in the name of all Democrats, seven Democratic representatives gave up opposition to three of Bush's bench nominees in exchange for nothing but the promise of a "nuclear option" showdown somewhere down the line.

I said it (last May and last July, (see: Dems Shouldn't Have Compromised on Filibuster)
I think you will now see the chickens of Democratic political miscalculation come home to roost. It's pretty much a no-win situation. The goalposts on the showdown on the Nuclear Option were simply moved - and the return "gift" was Pryor, Brown, and Owen on the bench. (With gifts like that - who needs gifts, already?)

When our only hope is to have a Republican like John McCain act as "big hero" and join in with Dems on agreeing to the terms of a filibuster, it is McCain who comes out to be the big political hero for centrist voters of all stripes. Grrrr.

Think 2008.
I believe the seven Dems were suckered into making guys like McCain look like Superman - while they looked like soggy marshmallows.

_____

DemFromCT has a recommendation at The Next Hurrah to brush up on Kagro X's Nuclear Option series. He says that we're going to need it before we're done.

Update: At the Next Hurrah, DHinMI sees the glass half-full, where I have been more pessimistic about the political outcome I foresee when the smoke has cleared from the Alito nomination:

There's "....a greater likelihood that the Republicans could find themselves in a minority in 2007, and may wonder about the wisdom of getting rid of the filibuster just as they may need it." - DHinMI

I"m looking at this from the Republican mindset - with an eye always on the future. I still believe this is the perfect political posturing-opportunity for 2008, and John McCain will come out smelling like a rose, leaving Frist in the dust.

This and That

This and That

I cannot help but to question the dignity of seasoned journalist Mike Wallace after hearing him on the Don Imus show this morning - in an interview where he seemed mentally scattered - calling for the firing (or resignation) of Dan Rather. What a catty thing to suggest, especially since the media storm over the whole thing has now blown over. To me, it appears to be lacking in grace and collegiality.

Speaking of Fox News Sunday, Brit Hume, whether consciously or unconsciously, showed yesterday that he still links being black with the civil rights demonstrators in Birmingham, Alabama circa 1963. He looked at Juan Williams, didn't like what he was hearing from Mr. Williams, and loudly proclaimed, "Someone needs to hose you down." What a jerk.

According to Media Matters, Brit Hume recently made false statements that "..'no one was prosecuting' those who violated a Connecticut law that prohibited the use or provision of contraceptives, which was overturned in the U.S. Supreme Court's 1965 decision in Griswold v. Connecticut -- the case that established the constitutional right to privacy. He got a hearty (and blatantly false) agreement from Douglas W. Kmiec, a constitutional law professor at Pepperdine University (who also called CSPAN this morning crowing about Alito's nomination to the Supreme Court.) Misinformation abounds on Fox News.

Alito's nomination sends the Religious Right back into their cages. It just goes to show you that Bush would never have been President had it not been for the radical religious leaders who pull his strings. White evangelical Christians are catching on to the sham of the myth of "Bush as remaker of America in God's image." In the most recent Pew Research Center survey, there has been a significant decline in favorable ratings of the GOP among white evangelicals and Catholics.

The same Pew survey lists former Senator John Edwards as the least polarizing Democrat in the field of potential 2008 presidential candidates. See my One America guest-blogpost.

Wilson/Plame/CIA Leak - My Archives

"I believe that citizens in a democracy are responsible for what government does and says in their name."

- Joseph C. Wilson IV

Wilson/Plame/CIA Leak - My Archives

I have posted an archive of my many of my posts related to the outing of Valerie Plame (Wilson), wife of former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV. See American Street.

See the Statement of Ambassador Joseph Wilson with Respect to the Indictment of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby (at Citizens for Legitimate Government).

Our 27 Months of Hell by Joseph C. Wilson IV - LA Times

Hersh Interviews Ritter on Iraq Agenda

"..the best we can do is mitigate failure."

- Former UN Weapons Inspector Scott Ritter, on the Iraq War

Hersh Interviews Ritter on Iraq Agenda

Seymour Hersh and Scott Ritter discuss a hidden foreign policy agenda in the Middle East. Ritter says that "disarmament [of Saddam Hussein] was only useful insofar as it contained through the maintenance of sanctions and facilitated regime change. It was never about disarmament, it was never about getting rid of weapons of mass destruction. It started with George Herbert Walker Bush, and it was a policy continued through eight years of the Clinton presidency, and then brought us to this current disastrous course of action under the current Bush Administration."[...]

..by 1995 there were no more weapons in Iraq, there were no more documents in Iraq, there was no more production capability in Iraq because we were monitoring the totality of Iraq's industrial infrastructure with the most technologically advanced, the most intrusive arms control regime in the history of arms control. And furthermore, the CIA knew this, the British intelligence knew this, Israeli intelligence knew this, German intelligence, the whole world knew this. They weren't going to say that Iraq was disarmed because nobody could say that, but they definitely knew that the Iraqi capability regarding WMD had been reduced to as near to zero as you could bring it, and that Iraq represented a threat to no one when it came to weapons of mass destruction. [..] .. [Nation]

Mr. Hersh attended a panel discussion on "The Challenges of Reporting About Iraq" at the Associated Press Managing Editors annual conference in San Jose, California on Friday, Oct. 28, 2005 [see WaPo/Michael Warren].
He described a "perfect trifecta" of problems as the [Iraq] conflict unfolds -

..an Iran-friendly Shia regime in the south that is hostile to Sunni-led Arab governments in nearby countries, an independence-minded Kurd region in the north that may go to war with Turkey, and a war of attrition in the center of Iraq.

"The exit plan is really simple, folks _ you're going to see fewer troops and more bombs," Hersh said. "We don't control anything outside the Green Zone," the fortified district of Baghdad where most non-Iraqis stay.

Hersh also predicted that the new Iraqi constitution practically guarantees civil war.

"The religions and ethnic divisions there are not only deep and complicated, we don't know much about them, and we have to learn about them if we're going to be involved in the country, particularly as it breaks up," he said.

Owen Harries, veteran diplomat and senior fellow at the Centre for Independent Studies (Australia), writes about the failure of the Bush doctrine, stating that the notion that democratic values could be imposed by force was doomed from the outset.

I believe that the first great test of the Bush Doctrine in Iraq is also likely to be its last. Failure there will restore balance and prudence to American foreign policy. With reasonable luck, it will lead to the conclusion that the smartest way of being hegemonic is to be content with appearing to be primus inter pares in a concert of powers. [Age]

NOT QUITE DONE

"Truth is the engine of the justice system."

-Patrick Fitzgerald

FITZGERALD: "NOT QUITE DONE"

UPDATE: ROVE IS "OFFICIAL A"

In a press conference today, Special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald would say he's not quite done with his grand jury work, but he would not specify or detail his meaning. He said that no one would like to have the investigation over with as much as he, but that the investigation would not be over until he feels that it's been covered sufficiently. "Be patient," he asked the press corps.

"Truth is the engine of the justice system," said Fitzgerald, making the point that there is no different standard for those in higher office.

The legal process has been frustrated by I. Scooter Libby's lies and stonewalling, and I'm wondering how a new grand jury investigation could ever be considered to be "unfair," as I've heard some pundits have suggested? Fitzgerald was stopped from getting to the truth, which he obviously prizes and holds as priceless in the halls of justice.

Damage has been done to all of us in this case - not just damage to Joseph and Valerie Plame Wilson.

He commented that the dispute over Joseph Wilson and the Niger trip is "irrelevant to the investigation" and "not in focus."

He averred, unabashed, that damage has been done to all of us in this case - not just damage to Joseph and Valerie Plame Wilson. When asked what he'd meant by that statement, he focused on the CIA workers and the importance of the need for their IDs, covers, and information to be protected. Our CIA workers need to know nothing bad will happen to them and that every government official - especially those who hold the highest offices - should never work against those all-important interests. Our national security depends upon it.

Fitzgerald requested a respect for his silence on matters of law as to which he is bound, and a sense of dignity in the press reporting of the matter. He would (and could) only comment on matters regarding the specific indictment of I. Lewis Scooter" Libby, who resigned his position as VP Dick Cheney's chief of staff this morning.

While stating that he was surely not in favor of jailing journalists for failure to reveal sources, he was, disturbed in this case, that journalist Judith Miller was an eyewitness to facts that were material to the indictments on theis out-of-the-ordinary legal case.

Though Fitzgerald spoke as if he knew who the actual leaker was, he advised the press corps that even if he knew, he could not mention it, by law, if it's not contained in the indictment of Libby. He said that anyone who's been against the Iraq War who is looking for this case to confirm suspicions will likely be disappointed. This case is focused upon the Libby indictment - the Libby lies - and there were many in which Libby seems to have been caught. (See the video of Fitzgerald's opening statement at Crooks and Liars.)

Raw Story reports that Fitzgerald is expanding the probe, believing he can get Rove on more serious charges. Sources are lawyers directly involved in the case.

Sources say that Karl Rove is "Official A"

Think Progress has great coverage today, including the Full Text of the Libby indictment in PDF.

NEWSFLASH:

Deputy White House Chief of Staff Karl Rove was the mysterious 'Official A' named in the indictment of Vice President Dick Cheney's Chief of Staff, lawyers close to the case have told RAW STORY...Friday's indictment identified "Official A" as a "senior official in the White House who advised Libby on July 10 or 11 of 2003" about a conversation with conservative columnist Robert Novak about an upcoming column where Plame would be identified as a CIA employee

In the WaPo's "A New Moment of Truth For a White House in Crisis," Dan Balz and Juliet Eilperin show the political challenges that lie ahead for the president. They say that "there is little way for [Bush] administration officials to adopt the pose of business as usual with Libby under indictment."

The long leak investigation and the Libby indictment threaten to rekindle the debate over how the United States went to war, only this time with the administration, rather than Bush's opponents, on the defensive.

Libby Now - Karl Later?

Libby Now - Karl Later?

(Reuters) Legal sources said Fitzgerald has informed President George W. Bush's top political adviser, Karl Rove, that he will be spared indictment on Friday, although he will remain under investigation and in legal jeopardy. Rove's attorney, Robert Luskin, had no immediate comment. Legal sources said Libby appeared likely to be charged with making false statements to the grand jury...Some lawyers in the case said Fitzgerald may not be prepared at this time to bring charges against Rove and could keep the investigation open...It was unclear how Fitzgerald would keep the Rove investigation going since the current grand jury is scheduled to expire at the end of the day on Friday.

At Talk Left - Based upon this statement by one "non-legal" member of Rove's team, Jeralyn Merritt believes that Rove took a deal and Fitzgerald has agreed not to announce it immediately.

Borrowing from Andrew Sullivan:

If the New York Times' version is correct (a big 'if' these days), then it seems to me to be a pretty horrible scenario for the president. You have Libby indicted and Cheney thereby under suspicion, with a raft of potential questions heading his way; and you have Rove still under threat from the Grand Jury, fighting for his legal and political life, but required to stay mum (and understandably distracted) if the prosecution continues. You don't even get a clean break, and a chance to start over.

Murray Waas tells us that VP Dick Cheney and his chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, "overruling advice from some White House political staffers and lawyers, decided to withhold crucial documents from the Senate Intelligence Committee in 2004 when the panel was investigating the use of pre-war intelligence that erroneously concluded Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, according to Bush administration and congressional sources..."

According to Richard Sale, unnamed sources who are former senior and serving U.S. intelligence officials have said that the phone call revealing to I. Lewis Libby the identity of the CIA operative Valerie Plame defintely came from the State Department office of John Bolton, then the arms control chief of the department....and that Cheney still remains at the center of the probe. [tip of the hat to Sic Semper Tyrannus and Hunter]

Pete Yost reports that "leaving Rove in legal jeopardy keeps Bush and his team working on problems like the Iraq war, a Supreme Court vacancy and slumping poll ratings beneath a dark cloud of uncertainty."

The theme from the film "Titanic" comes to mind - and the Bush administration is a sinking ship, indeed....

It ain't over til Patrick Fitzgerald sings.



Near - - far - - wherever you are
I believe that the investigation goes on.
Once more we'll open the door
You'll be here in my court and -
this probe will go on and on.....

glllllrrrrggghhhh - - (*the sound of sinking)