Tannishblog

I wish I said this…

The incompetence at the highest levels of government in Washington has
undermined the U.S. troops who have fought honorably and bravely in Iraq, which is why the troops are now stuck in a murderous quagmire. If a Democratic administration had conducted a war this incompetently, the Republicans in Congress would be dusting off their impeachment manuals.

Sweet and to the point. Love it!

I keep thinking about this article: Why the American Press Remains Paralyzed at Axis of Logic. Particularly this passage:

The release of the “Downing Street Memos,” for many Americans, stood in sharp contrast to their memories of the religious fervor of the Bush administration in hyping the American people for a war against Saddam Hussein, his WMD and his al Qaida connections, a war that the Bush administration had already declared. The war against Iraq was immoral before the fact, and now everyone knows it was immoral after the fact. Cheney’s projected American self-concept as “Liberators” walking victoriously down the flower-petaled streets of Baghdad, is no longer an option.

Nothing like this has ever happened in America. Never before have the American people been told overt lies and led into unprovoked war against other people. That would be bad enough but then there is the aftermath of the Bush administration’s actions in Iraq, the massive human death toll, the massive social disruption and the massive cost of it all in creating a breeding ground for additional terrorism. There is the massive loss of respect for America in the eyes of the educated world and there is the fact that Osama bin Laden, the majority of 9/11 hijackers and the majority of Iraqi insurgents are home-grown in Saudi Arabia.

Despite efforts to make the Crime of the Century into a national issue deserving national action (manifest as calls for impeachment of the entire Bush administration), little of substance has and can be accomplished without the assistance of the American press.

The press properly serves as the people’s primary source of factual information relevant to comprehension and decision-making. This is not the kind of information that the American press has been providing the people. In the face of the “Crime of the Century,” the American press remains paralyzed from the neck up.

The question is this, “Why is the American press paralyzed?” The answer is this, “The press is confronted by the Crime of the Century.”

While much is said about this so-called crime, I think back to the first bubblings in the media about the possibility of fabricated truth and I recall that the Bush administration had ample warning from Clinton’s people about a the possibility of an imminent terrorist attack in the spring of 2001. At that time, BushCo just laughed it off. Now, in the lamplight of Downing Street, it seems to me that they might have been hoping for that to happen. After all, GWB had wanted to attack Iraq even before his presidency, as remarked by his biographer. What happier news could he have imagined? If, as I suspect, Bush failed to respond to intelligence from the Clinton-era CIA becuase he was hoping for justification for his deamed-of war, then that would be the true Crime of the Century; that GWB and cronies would let Americans die to help him create the war he always intended on waging.

Doesn’t that fit the emerging pathology of this administration? We already know they will stop at nothing to further their causes.

As usual, Orcinus is at the top of his game. Dave Niewert explains the mechanics behind Karl Rove’s outburst of last week and explains why he needn’t apologize like the democrats are made to do: Eliminationism has been quietly fed to us for the past few years, and the Republican Propaganda Machine is (no surprise) well-oiled. Read about the hunting of liberals.

This explains something I’ve been missing in my last post re: David Horowitz. Hmmm…

My righty friend got me going again, darn her! If you’ve bothered to peak at my comments section lately, you would have noticed I’ve been having a tense set of discussions with her. You’d never guess that we’ve known each other for many years, but somehow before this we’ve never talked politics. That may have been a good thing.

Anyhow, she posted a quote from David Horowitz regarding the proper etiquette for criticizing the war, and as usual, I couldn’t let it stand. The post is too long for this blog, so I relegated it to Left of Center:

The question it begs: Will she still respect me in the morning?

Perusing the righty blogs and I can’t help but notice the Conservitive T-shirt ads. (hey, I’m a guy, what do you expect.) I’m just wondering why they don’t have African-American women sporting their tees. There’s lots of black models out there. Hmm…

This is fun. An Italian judge has order the arrest of CIA agents in connection with a kidnapping of an Egyptian Imam. This is evidence that the global community is backing away from the American Holy War Against Terrorism.

“Our belief is that terrorist suspects should be investigated through legal channels and brought to a court of law - not kidnapped and spirited away to be tortured in some secret prison,”

Yep. One cannot fight terrorism by becoming a terrorist, yet that is what our country has become in the eyes of the common global citizen. Governments are slow to change, but when enough of the world’s citizens state their outrage at human rights abuses and psychological warfare by the Americans, those bodies must follow. Expect to see more anti-American backlash in the next few years while our Moron-in-Chief remains doggedly on his path.

I don’t pretend to hope that what a judge in Italy does will have any effect on our administration’s Unilateral Policy of Defiance, at least not more than a quiet chuckle. Our collective arrogance is beyond such paltry displays. No, we’ll continue to bully our way and commit atrocities in the name of democracy, continue our tailspin of deceit and defiance.

After all, America was built on the attitude of “no-one is going to tell me what to do.” We have all kinds of “rights” in America, even the right to be wrong.

I can’t for the life of me understand the Republican agenda, wherein they cut even more taxes for millionaires and fail to fund our nations schools. So much for No Child Left Behind. Today the House passed H.R. 3010 by a party line vote. Jan Schakowski (D-IL) voted against it, here’s why:

H.R. 3010 is one of the most important bills we will consider this year, providing next year’s funding for health care, education, job training and workplace safety. The funding level in this bill is not only completely inadequate, it is a $1.6 billion cut from the current FY 2005 funding level. Because the Republican budget resolution insisted on providing $106 billion in new and extended tax cuts mostly to millionaires, this bill shortchanges children, students, workers, senior citizens, and health care consumers.

I supported the Democratic alternative which would have invested an additional $11.8 billion in priority job training, education and health problems and provided $11.8 billion for deficit reduction, paid for by reducing next year’s average tax cuts for millionaires from $140,000 to $36,500. Unfortunately, the Republican leadership would not even allow that amendment to be debated in the House of Representatives.

The Democratic staff of the House Appropriations Committee has prepared a detailed description of the bill (Click here to view report), but here are some key problems:

Many children are left behind:

• The No Child Left Behind Act has been underfunded by $39 billion since President Bush signed it into law. In today’s bill, funding is cut by $806 million from its FY05 level. The overall budget shortfall for Illinois in FY06 would be $557 million.
• The federal share of special education costs will actually drop from 18.6% to 18.1% because funding is $3.9 billion below promised levels under the 2004 IDEA Improvement Act. Illinois would lose $20 million.
• The Child Care Block Grant is frozen at current levels, the fourth years in a row it has been frozen or cut while parents cannot find safe and affordable care for their children.

Health care access and quality is jeopardized:

• National Institutes of Health funding is increased by 0.5 percent – the smallest increase in 36 years.
• 10 out of 12 health professions training programs are eliminated and nurse education is frozen.
• Despite growing needs, cuts are made in the Maternal and Child Health Block Grant, mental health services and grants to care for the uninsured. The $100 million contribution to the Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS, Malaria and TB is eliminated.

Job training is cut while 7.6 million Americans remain uninsured:

• Job Corps – which successfully places 85% of at-risk youth into skilled jobs or college – is cut by $10 million
• U.S. Employment Service Office is cut by $116 million, eliminating job search assistance to 2.5 million people
• Adult Training Programs are cut by $31 million, to the lowest funding level in 10 years, while grants under the Community College Initiative are cut in half and training for 100,000 eliminated

How can people think they are good representatives of the people and set up our laws this way? It’s no wonder that Americans don’t bother to vote. We aren’t being represented anyway.

Because my household income is less that $100K, my government does not look out for me. Because my child needs to go to public schools, my government is not looking out for her. Because our President is trying to reinvent social security, trying to play with my investments, I feel less secure about my future. Finally, because our government is too busy fighting a war they cannot win, alienating the world in the process, I feel less secure about the future of humanity.

Will somebody please tell me I’m wrong?

OK. So Dick Durbin apologized (the wimp). He did exaggerate a bit, and that cost him some points. God help anyone willing to stand up to the status quo, being drawn and quartered is more fun. This ain’t the sixties, you know, when people of conscience could publicly oppose an unjust war. Dick’s exaggeration aside, the lesson to be learned is you just can’t say the “N” word these days. Not that N-word, the other N-word. Well, you can’t say either these days, I guess.

But it’s OK to call a majority of American citizens a “traitor.” That’s a safe word.

That’s what Karl Rove calls anyone who is a bit queasy about the war - traitors. If you happen to vote Democratic, you’re right there alongside the Saddam-ites (pun intended) tolling for the destruction of all things stars-and-stripes. Once all thinking Americans are linked with Al Jazeera, as Karl has done with Senator Durbin, the Department of Homeboy Scrutiny can haul their collective asses to Gitmo or points further east for more questioning, and we all know what that entails.

After all, we are only out to “put troops in danger, ” with our comments. Not just the donkeys, but most Americans. Any American, in fact, who chooses to question our administration on its wanton warmongering.But since he didn’t say the N-word (either of them), it’s OK.

As far as putting troops in danger goes; I distinctly remember crating up a couple of troops myself. They didn’t want to get in the crate, but I persevered. Boy did they scream when I nailed the lid down, I might have hurt one, I don’t know. And do you have any idea what the postage is for 300 lbs. of prime soldiery first-class from Chicago to Iraq? I’ll be paying off that card for years. No return postage, though. If the Bushies do what they’re best at, these troops will be coming home in a different box.

I’m sure that makes me a traitor in someone’s eyes for just saying that.

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I’m watching from the sidelines as this Downing Street saga plays out. I have mixed feelings about this issue. First, I have little confidence that our administration will be held accountable for its criminal actions in Iraq. I say criminal, because the Iraqis had almost nothing to do with the attacks on America on September 11, 2001. Saddam was a bad guy, yes, but he was no worse than many still in power in the world. The urgency in invading Iraq is just GWB’s personal vendetta.

Also, I fear the Democratic Party cannot hope to overcome the big money support of the Republicans. Not only do they need a strong candidate (yet to be seen), and a unified platform (non-existent), they need the funds to deliver. Since most Democrats are not among the extremely rich, and since the Democratic philosophy has so far maintained most of its ethical standards (they’re not yet being bought wholesale), the money problem is going to be tough.

This means that although we are starting to cut the break lines on the Republican machine, I despair at our ability to fully capitalize on the Downing Street Memos.

We’ve had some good luck this year, as the over-reaching arrogance of the Christian right, stumbled in its own greed, America can see glimpses of just what the United States of God would be like. It seems the worst we can do to the Republican Machine is being done from within.

There are so many dedicated bloggers out there pushing the Big Brass Alliance into national prominence, many of whom have many more readers/clout than my humble offerings. I hesitate to compete with all the excellent noise they’re making. Night Light urges us to reframe DSM into a crime story, which it is, to gather more eyeballs and titillate readerships. Working For Change is covering DSM with help from Molly Ivins, how can I top that?

As a newbie, I don’t want to just echo great coverage of others. I’ll report something if I think I have a new angle, or if I really get worked up. Until then, I’ll resume my post as an Internet wallflower.