Blackwater Black Eye

Documents from 2005 have surfaced that demonstrate that the State Department knew of Blackwater's fraudulent accounting and billing practices -- looting the American taxpayer for millions of dollars -- yet continued to sign contracts with the firm for years to come. Just like her boss, Secretary of State Rice isn't fit to be a greeter at Wal-Mart.

21 December 2007

Huckabee: Evil for Jesus

It often seems that our most prominent Christian leaders in this country, and here I actually mean "Christian," turn out either to be snake oil salesmen or downright evil bastards. Republican Presidential candidate Mike Huckabee (R-AR) certainly proves the rule. Beyond the fact that he's wholly unprepared to be president, he's just a divisive, holier-than-thou a$$-hole. As an example, take a look at this article. This stuff is just scary!

19 December 2007

Democracy: Victory & Defeat

This week saw both victory and defeat for our democracy and its ideals. The victory came via the leadership of Senator Chris Dodd (D- CT). Senate Majority "Leader" Harry Reid (D-NV) brought two competing FISA bills to the floor. One from the Intelligence Committee provided for retroactive immunity for telecommunications companies for their cooperation with the Bush Administration while spying on Americans illegally for the last five years. The other from the Judiciary Committee provided no such immunity. Dodd made it clear that he would filibuster the Intelligence Committee bill, hopefully ensuring that it will never see the light of day. Reid blinked and pulled both bills until after the holiday break.

The victory may be short lived, however. For a filibuster to truly work, its main proponent will have to have support. He or she cannot talk and talk and talk forever. He must be spotted. Dodd may or may not get this support. One question that I have is whether it will come from Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY), Senator Barack Obama (D-IL), and/or Senator Joe Biden (D-MD). All three professed their support for Dodd's cause, yet only he returned to Washington from the presidential campaign trail to actually lead. It would seem that on a matter of such importance to the nation -- and make no mistake, this issue goes to the very core of who we are as a people -- it would be a good showing of what sort of president one would make by doing the job for which one had already been elected... no? And on that note, it might behoove us all to take a harder, longer look at the presidentail ambitions of Chris Dodd.

The defeat for America, and it was a significant one, came at the hands of the FCC. By a vote of three (Republicans) to two (Democrats), the FCC changed the media ownership rules to allow both a television station and a newspaper within one media market to be owned by the same entity. This is something that has never been allowed before on any level. We already have far, far too much media consolidation in our country. It has only dumbed down our national discourse on basically all topics. It has provided for far fewer and less diverse voices being heard both nationally and locally. And, most insidiously, it has helped to ensure that the viewpoints expressed are filtered through the wants and needs of these (corporate) media owners and the political powers that be. Those wants and needs are, to be sure, far different from those of the people at large. A democracy cannot stand such a state for long. History has taught us this and America will prove no different. There was a reason that freedom of the press was put in the First Ammendment. We are just too stupid, too passive to remember it.

19 December 2007

The 'Huckabee Panic'

So starts a story by Steve Benen over at TPM:

It may be an exaggeration to say conservatives are having a major-league freak-out over the prospects of Mike Huckabee winning the Republican Party's presidential nomination, but only slightly.

...

It's pretty obvious why the left is frightened by the notion of a Huckabee presidency -- we've already seen the results of electing a nutty southern governor who doesn't know anything about policy, who runs on his charm, his evangelical religion, and his appeal to far-right activists -- but what's up the right's apoplexy?

The whole story is worth a read.

15 December 2007

Baseball & Steroids

Former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell, hired by commissioner Bud Selig to examine the "Steroids Era," released his report today. It was damning to MLB, to the players' union, and certainly to the players themselves. All professional sports are facing a crisis when it comes to performance enhancing drugs, but perhaps none more so in the US than is MLB. It needs to clean up its house and the methods that it uses must be draconian in relation to the mamby-pamby nature of its rules heretofore. To me, the players and their deeds who are implicated in steroid use simply do not exist. They have been erased from history, erased from the record books. It is just sad.

For more on the report, see MSNBC and ESPN.

13 December 2007

FISA Filibuster Needed

From Will Easton of Working Assets on an imminent vote on the FISA bill that would give retroactive immunity to telecom companies who have, at the behest of the Bush Administration, trampled upon the Fourth Amendment rights of Americans.

We filibuster or we lose.

The White House does not often lose a fight that really matters. But public outrage and some smart organzing by liberal groups have so far prevented the Senate from granting a "get out of jail free" card to telecom companies who helped Bush spy illegally on Americans.

So far.

Why does Bush want amnesty for AT&T and Verizon? Retroactive immunity for the telecom companies would thwart telecom customer lawsuits that threaten to expose Bush's own violations of the original Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. If these lawsuits aren't allowed to go forward, we may never know the extent of the Bush administration's illegal efforts to spy on American citizens without the required warrants.

Time is short and we must act now.

The Bush administration is fighting back. This time, with a version of FISA that lets the telcos off the hook by making the federal government the defendant in pending cases instead of the telecom companies. We must act now before key democrats cave to the White House and approve this measure. A vote is expected as early as tomorrow.

Our best hope is a filibuster. Senator Dodd has pledged to filibuster any bill that gives amnesty to the telecom companies. But to prevail he needs 40 senators to support him. The choice is clear: our senators can stand with the constitution, or help Bush and his cronies cover up their lawbreaking

Tell your senators to support Senator Dodd and filibuster any FISA legislation that lets AT&T and Verizon off the hook.



This vote will happen as early as tomorrow, as stated, so let your Senators know that you oppose the measure and that it should be filibustered. You can use the form located here to do so.

12 December 2007

Matthew Shepard Act Blocked

An e-mail from Joe Solmonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign, provides the details.

As I write this, I am filled with both deep disappointment and gratitude. I am disappointed because our fight for a hate crimes bill has been derailed, but grateful for the historic advances that we were able to achieve this year.

As you all know, we have made momentous advancements this year by moving the federal hate crimes legislation the closest it has ever been to becoming law. For the first time ever, in one year we were able to pass the fully-inclusive legislation through both chambers of Congress – a truly historic feat.

If you recall, the Matthew Shepard Act first passed the House of Representatives back in May as a stand-alone piece of legislation. It then moved to the Senate, where it passed 60 to 39 in September as an amendment to the Department of Defense Authorization bill. Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA) and Senator Gordon Smith (R-OR) attached the Matthew Shepard Act to the Department of Defense Authorization bill because President Bush had announced that he would veto a free-standing hate crimes bill. By amending hate crimes to this larger bill, Senators Kennedy and Smith thought that we had a better chance of getting the president’s signature. After all, Bush would have to veto the entire piece of legislation – hate crimes AND programs for his war in Iraq – to reject hate crimes protections.

But in a frustrating move yesterday, during the very last legislative step – a conference committee working out the differences between the House and Senate versions of the bill – we received word that the Matthew Shepard Act would be dropped from the final version of the bill. The hate crimes veto threat issued by the White House and organized opposition by House Republican Leadership cost significant numbers of votes on the right. Iraq-related provisions, which many progressive Democrats opposed, cost votes on the left. Moderate Democrats, many of whom voted for the hate crimes bill in May, did not want to test the President’s veto threat and risk a delay in increased pay for military personnel. All of these factors resulted in insufficient votes to secure passage of the bill with the hate crimes provision.

...


Despite the anger we all feel that we fell short so close to the finish line, we cannot lose sight of the fact that we did succeed in moving hate crimes legislation the closest it has ever been to hitting the President’s desk for signature. And rest assured, the Human Rights Campaign is not done fighting. We are not giving up on efforts to find another legislative vehicle, in the second half of this Congress, to move the Matthew Shepard Act. Yes, we made historic advancements, but we will not be satisfied until we get a President who will use his or her pen to enshrine into our federal law books that violence against the GLBT community will not be tolerated in this country.


...

This was indeed a great opportunity to move American forward in this are of civil rights, putting us more in line with the enlightened world. That day will have to wait a little while longer. We need better, more conscientious leaders to move forward, especially such a leader in the White House.

7 December 2007

December Impeachment Reminder

Last August, I called for the impeachment of both President Bush and Vice President Cheney. At that time, I asked you to join me in writing letters to several members of the House of Representatives. I noted that I would continue to send such letters until such time as my call was heeded or these men left office. I have made good on my claim by again sending my letters. This is simply a reminder in the hope that you will do the same. For information on the entire matter, as well as sample letters and recipient contact information, see my original blog post here.

2 December 2007