Dying Republic

Another good piece of writing has surfaced over at Empire Burlesque by Chris Floyd. It is a definite must read.

Here is a sample;

There is no third way here, no other option, no wiggle room, no ambiguity. The much-belated exposure of George W. Bush's warrantless spy program has forced the Bush-Cheney Regime to openly declare what they have long implied -- and enacted -- in secret: that the president is above the law, a military autocrat with unlimited powers, beyond the restraint or supervision of any other institution or branch of government. Outed as rank deceivers, perverters of the law and rapists of the Constitution, the Bush gang has decided that their best defense -- their only defense, really -- is a belligerent offense. "Yeah, we broke the law," they now say; "so what? We'll break it again whenever we want to, because law don't stick to our Big Boss Man. What are you going to do about it, chump?"

Divine Resolution

Mark Morford has posted a must read New Year's article here. It, is as usual, a smashing piece of writing and wrapped in all the great prose is a strong message. As the New Year comes, we on the progressive/liberal/relaity-based side of the river need to gird ourselves for another year and possibly three more years of this Godforsaken, soul killing administration. We have watched our beloved county and it's ideals dragged through the streets behind the neocon pickup truck and it is dirt caked and bloody but it is not dead. The fires of compassion, respect and love for our fellow man are still burning and can be rekindled into the fire that once burned as a beacon of hope for many in the world. I know I sometimes find it hard to keep my eye on the future and a positive mental state when I see the destruction, lies and rot that is devouring my country but somehow I keep thinking that tomorrow will be the turning point and we will see the sun rise again on our dreams. I am only going to make one resolution this year and it is to try even harder to keep the voices of reason, compassion and liberty alive.

Here is a teaser of Mark's work;

[snip]

Because gosh look, just look outside, right now: Do you see it? It's a whole new year, all lined up and facing into the wind and waiting to play with you like an eager puppy, like a supple French hooker, like a shimmering glass of God's own tequila just sitting on the counter of possibility waiting for you to tip your head back and let that white-hot firewater slide down your throat like a snake of temptation straight into your undernourished id. Are you ready? Because get this: You need to be.

[snip]

So then, as the new year races to engulf us all, perhaps this is what you can choose, this is what you resolve to understand: that the Great Battle continues. The great surge toward enlightenment and evolution must go on, will go on, can't not go on, as those of us who choose to see it understand that we are already reeking gleaming teeming brimful with all the divine juicy godhead we will ever need. It is merely waiting to be, quite literally, turned on.

It is, after all, all about subtle energy, shifts in awareness, the decision to move forward no matter what. It is all about focusing on micro to affect macro. This much you probably already know. In which case, this year you can simply resolve to, well, continue. To keep on, even when it all seems bleak and fraught and impossibly constricted. Because, sometimes, merely refusing to stop cultivating an unquenchable lust for beauty and truth and orgasmic life is the most profound and important thing you can resolve to do.

See Other Side

There is an old trick you can play on someone where you write "See Other Side" on both sides of a piece of paper. When you hand this paper to someone you wait and see how many times they blindly follow the instructions and dutifully turn the paper over just to see the same message. Most people catch on pretty quick.

The responses from the non-reality based right on the new Rasmussen Reports remind me of this old joke.

The poll results say that 64% "believe the National Security Agency (NSA) should be allowed to intercept telephone conversations between terrorism suspects in other countries and people living in the United States."

The usual suspects are harping on and on about how this poll shows that the whole NSA domestic spying issue is just some "whacko liberal" knee jerk thing and most Americans realize that Bush and company are doing them proud.

What is very carefully NOT mentioned is the glaring ommission from the question asked. How about including some phrase like " in violation of the law and/or without obtaining search warrants from a court" and see how the numbers play?

I am 100% for keeping tabs on terrorists and all of their communications in or outside the country. I just want it done under the rule of law and with appropriate control and oversight. How hard is it for these idiots to understand? We are not concerned about wiretaps and eavesdropping but about ILLEGAL wiretaps and eavesdropping.

There is a huge distinction in the two and the right seems to want us to ignore it. We won't.

Others discussing this: Glenn Greenwald, Ezra Klein, ,Barabara O'Brien

You Get Fleas

With apologies to the dogs, what we have here is a perfect example of the old saw...If you lay down with dogs you get up with fleas.
Bush and company's playing fast and loose with FISA, the 4th Ammendment and Article II are producing just exactly the results one could have predicted if some serious reflection and outside consultation had been done before the law was ignored.

ReddHedd over at Firedoglake and Jeralyn at TalkLeft both have good overviews of the shitstorm that is brewing over the illegal domestic wiretaps by the NSA.

The short of it is that this "cowboy" spying on everyone and everybody has, in turn, threatened every terrorist investigation and legal proceeding currently underway and in the future. The government prosecutors are now faced with defending their actions in light of the fact that some or all of the defendants are potentially affected by the illegal wiretaps. The prosecutors must prove that nothing was illegally acquired and that all evidence has been turned over in discovery including any that was gathered in secret or illegally.

Some of the people spied on and currently detained or under prosecution are likely dirty but the actions of Bush's band of busybodies will probably give them the chance to go free.

We do not yet jail people in this country on secret or illegally obtained evidence. It will be very interesting to see this play out in the courts.

Full-on Loon PayMe-PlayMe

If you haven't read Jane's piece on the Pantload Media over at Firedoglake then wander over there and do so. I have been a constant reader of Firedoglake since it's inception and Jane just gets better and better. With the addition of the ReddHedd the blog is now one of the must reads on a daily basis. This is especially true if you want to stay on top of the Plame affair.

Here is a snip of Jane's prose on the Pantload Media.

When the wingnuts chant their talking points like a bunch of tambourine-beaters at the airport, they want to be paid for their efforts. And Pajamas Media was set up to do just that. They received by some accounts $7 million dollars to subsidize 70 right wing bloggers, and if you look at their sites there are no ads, many don't even identify their affiliation with a logo. Look at some full-on loon like the Confederate Yankee who earns his/her 800 hits a day by having seizures over Google's attempts to mock Christmas with Jesus butt plugs. The General will easily draw twenty times the traffic with his rapier-witted takedown, but the Confederate Yankee probably earns a lot more money than the General. These illiterate zeros are being paid out of principal, not out of any ad revenues. They are all Armstrong Williams.

Third World Dictator Wannabe

Howard Kurtz had an interesting revelation in yesterday's column and it just goes to show that Bush really, really wants to be another third world dictator. The latest is secret meetings, off the record, with the publishers of major news organs such as the NY Times and Washington Post. There is actually nothing wrong with the President meeting with such folks until it is forced into the "off the record" category. One has to wonder in these circumstances just what he said that that should not be "on the record".

President Bush has been summoning newspaper editors lately in an effort to prevent publication of stories he considers damaging to national security.

The efforts have failed, but the rare White House sessions with the executive editors of The Washington Post and New York Times are an indication of how seriously the president takes the recent reporting that has raised questions about the administration's anti-terror tactics.

When the President of the United States uses his office to try and influence the fourth estate in secret we are looking at nothing more than an effort to suppress or distort the truth. There can be no other reason.

Odd Christmas

Back safe and sound from the wilds of Virginia. It is really strange going for three days with no cell phone and no instantaneous access to the internet. I did discover that one of my Mom's neighbors had an unsecured wireless network and yes I did use it do a little surfing. If it will make you happy, I did feel bad for stealing the bandwidth but not that bad. If the unknown contributor to my delinquence didn't want to share his/her network then he/she should have secured it.

Anyhow, nice quiet Christmas. I did some cooking in the tiniest kitchen you can imagine and didn't ruin anything. Christmas was the classic prime rib and Yorkshire pudding even. Of course all food stuffs were imported from here and Whole Foods. The only "real" grocery left within about 40 miles is Wal-Mart and I will starve before I shop there. The quality of food you get at Whole Foods is such a level of wholesomeness above the industrial foods at Wal-Mart that is not even a valid comparison.

We did get to meet my Mom's new suitor. Dad finally succumbed to MS about 6 years ago and since that time my Mom has been pretty much a home body. She spent the better part of 30 years taking care of him while he slowly died from the ravages of MS and the attendant problems that come with immobility. Anyhow, she now has a new beau and it is rather shocking to see a 76 year old woman act like a school girl in a lot of ways, and let me tell you that it takes some getting used to to see your Mom playing lovebird with someone not your father. The guy seems nice enough and apparently dotes on Mom but it still is a little hard to deal with. We shall see where this all leads. The only thing we are going to have to deal with is that he is a deacon in the Baptist church I am going to have to really watch my heathen mouth around him. I am quite sure he is already a little freaked that he sat at the same table on Sunday with someone who was drinking a very nice Bordeaux with the prime rib. I did spend almost a $100 on that hunk of beef and I sure as hell was going to honor it's sacrifice with all proper due. Great beef(properly cooked I might add) deserves only the best wine. The potatoes Lyonnaise did go over well though. I did feel a little guilty about the menu when he mentioned the 5 bypasses and the pacemaker. Mom might not forgive me for toasting her new beau on the first day. There was only a half stick of butter and a pint of cream in the potatoes after all. I did serve a salad and I greased the pan for the rolls with margarine. It was light in it's own way.

Barely snuck out this morning ahead of the snow. Only occasional bands of light snow from just south of Bluefield, WVa until we got south to Knoxville but no real problem.
Glad to see home and all the familiar stuff. My Mom's house is actually one half of a duplex and not very roomy, not to mention that my mother is one of the worst housekeepers in the world. The clutter and well....yes dirt make Mrs. Fallenmonk insane and she usually starts cleaning the moment we arrive and continues right up until departure. So my Mom's kitchen is measurably cleaner. I don't think I killed her new squeeze and I didn't have a 10 hour drive home in the snow. A strange but interesting holiday interlude if you know what I mean.

Happy New Year.

Too Much

Merry Christmas. Turned on the laptop this fine, but raining, Christmas morning and it turns out one of my mother's close neighbors has an unguarded wireless network and here I am. I know I am stealing someone's bandwidth but they must want to share so I feel only a little guilty.

Anyhow, I made my quick tour around and hit Digby, of course, and what do I find but something about the Feds searching for radiological signatures around Moslem places like mosques and stuff. There is a reference to Glenn Greenwald's blog where he makes the convincing argument that this is just another smokescreen to try and take the heat off the NSA thing.

I think both Glenn and Digby are right and that the administration is going to the well a little too often on the dirty bomb business. People are just beginning to accept the premise that the terrorists are out there and we will just have to deal with it.

Looks like they need another fear trigger(fnord) to condition us with.

Off for Christmas

Off bright and early this morning for "Wet and Wild" West Virginia to spend the Christmas holiday with Mom. I say West Virginia but my Mom actually lives in Virginia but if you miss the turn to the town off the main highway the next place to turn is in West Virginia. Car is loaded with food, wine and other stuff so off we go. Going to stop for the night in Asheville and see the Biltmore house all decorated for Christmas. I wouldn't normally spend $44 a piece for tickets to see Christmas decorations but periodically Madam Fallenmonk must be humored. Using Marriott points (which I have a ton off) for the hotel so at least that is not costing me anything. It does break the trip in half which is my consolation.
Talked with Mom yesterday morning and was a nipple pointing 9 degrees but at least no snow. I've been caught a few times with snow over the holidays and it is not easy escaping from the mountains when that happens. My Hyundai XG350 has new tires and front wheel drive and handles pretty well in ice and snow but not even Jeeps can always negotiate some of the hills when it is icy. The mountains are really pretty in the snow and being trapped for a day or so is not a disaster anyway. My Mom lives along Wolf Creek right before it empties into the New River and it is quite nice.
I hope all of you have a wonderful holiday, whatever you choose to call it. Let's keep our fingers and toes crossed that the holidays are peaceful and that the coming year will bring us back towards our Amerian ideals. Love and Peace can win the day.
No idea what kind of Internet availability I will have so I will see you when I see you.

Merry Christmas,
Fallenmonk

No Compromise

There is a lot of good discussion on the lefty blogs about the domestic spying that Bush and company have admitted to and say they will continue. NTodd has an excellent post that is worth reading but the short of it is...

The line has been drawn. Either you are for America's ideals, or you are against them. I invite Republicans of conscience to join us, the true Patriots, and defend what this nation truly represents. If you defend Bush in any capacity, I condemn you as history will condemn you: collaborationists who refused to answer the call and stood with the real enemy.

Peter Daou has a post up that suggests how this whole thing will play out and it is not encouraging.

(snip)

7. A few reliable Dems, Conyers, Boxer, et al, take a stand on principle, giving momentary hope to the progressive grassroots/netroots community. The rest of the Dem leadership is temporarily outraged (adding to that hope), but is chronically incapable of maintaining the sense of high indignation and focus required to reach critical mass and create a wholesale shift in public opinion. For example, just as this mother of all scandals hits Washington, Democrats are still putting out press releases on Iraq, ANWR and a range of other topics, diluting the story and signaling that they have little intention of following through. This allows Bush to use his three favorite weapons: time, America's political apathy, and make-believe 'journalists' who yuck it up with him and ask fluff questions at his frat-boy pressers.

8. Reporters and media outlets obfuscate and equivocate, pretending to ask tough questions but essentially pushing the same narratives they've developed and perfected over the past five years, namely, some variation of "Bush firm, Dems soft." A range of Bush-protecting tactics are put into play, one being to ask ridiculously misleading questions such as "Should Bush have the right to protect Americans or should he cave in to Democratic political pressure?" All the while, the right assaults the "liberal" media for daring to tell anything resembling the truth.

9. Polls will emerge with 'proof' that half the public agrees that Bush should have the right to "protect Americans against terrorists." Again, the issue will be framed to mask the true nature of the malfeasance. The media will use these polls to create a self-fulfilling loop and convince the public that it isn't that bad after all. The president breaks the law. Life goes on.

10. The story starts blending into a long string of administration scandals, and through skillful use of scandal fatigue, Bush weathers the storm and moves on, further demoralizing his opponents and cementing the press narrative about his 'resolve' and toughness.

Peter Daou may be right and this may be how it all plays out but I am going to invest my soul with NTodd. There is no middle ground when it comes to allowing civil liberties to be compromised. None. This is another example of the extreme right nibbling away at our hard won freedoms under the guise of protecting us from "the terrorists". It has to stop here and now. If you want to cower in your closet and let Bush and Cheney and the rest take away your liberty then you cannot claim to be a patriot. You are a coward. A life lived in fear at the expense of freedom is not worth living and I sure as hell don't want any part of it. Patriotism means standing up for what America is supposed to stand for and "Give me liberty or give me death" is our marching song. Bush and his cronies are a cancer on all that makes America great and are mocking all that have died to preserve the ideals we so cherish. You are a coward and a traitor if you excuse their treason.

Update: Mustang Bobby and I are thinking alike today. He makes a call for "Raising the Shire" on this.

Jane Part Two

Well, Jane Hamsher of Firedoglake fame has posted part two of her Image rant and boy is it a doozy. The lady is focused and on target and taking no prisoners. I am glad I have managed to stay on her good side so far. Hell hath no fury as they say. Go read it.

Dollars for Digby

Digby is not feeling loved and that is a bad thing. Digby is one of the most important voices of liberal blogtopia and needs to know that we need that voice to continue. Anything you can spare will be appreciated.
I only wish I had the time, intelligence and way with words that Digby brings. It is a must read site and the ideas generated there are repeated again and again across the web and many don't realize where the original thoughts and ideas have come from.
It is not the best time of year to ask for support but keep Digby in mind.

It Is Image

Don't miss Jane's excellent post on the necessity of managing the image over at Firedoglake. It is one of her best.

Sample:

Even though Katrina and other recent events offered the Democrats the perfect opportunity to say "the village is on fire," it's still hard to put that across in a way that will not be countered by the message machine of the right as sounding negative and down on America. But the fact is the village is on fire, and people are awakening to that fact. It's time to seize the "Republicans are crooks and bullies" meme, invest in some long term strategies and become a meaningful opposition party. It's the third act, Ma's fed up because the thieves are stealing her crops and she can't feed the kids, the audience is emotionally ready for her to grab the shotgun and run 'em all off so Pa will have something to come home to.

It's incredibly hoakey but it's a quite fundamental dramatic truth and until the Democrats like Joe Biden stop licking David Brooks's boots on national TV and competing for the title of Biggest Pussyman in the Democratic Party (yes I said that too, and I mean it) there will be no effective challenge to the GOP tyranny we now live under. Russ Feingold is looking awfully strong right now for having voted against the Patriot Act. The Democrats would do well to remember that and stop reaching for Dubya's prop codpiece.

Just read it.

Why A Criminal Act?

I've been trying for a couple of days now to understand exactly why the President's clan would overtly and knowing commit a criminal act not just once but 30 or more times and then admit it and tell us that they are going to do it again. This is very difficult to understand since there arelegal and ways to do the domestic spying in use and very effective. You can even spy and get permission later under the FISA rules.
What would require the President to avoid using the legal method? What if he and his cohorts were sure the FISA court would not approve of the targets? It would seem likely to me that that would be the only reason to break the law and sidestep the FISA court.
Holden beat me to it and published a list of some of the targets that would probably not have been approved by the FISA court.

The following is an incomplete list of individuals whose telephone calls and e-mail messages were monitored by the National Security Agency pursuant to an executive order signed by George Bush allowing surveillance of American citizens without a warrant.

Joseph Wilson
Valerie Plame
John Kerry
John Edwards
Howard Dean
Nancy Pelosi
Harry Reid
Al Gore
Bill Clinton
Hillary Clinton
Richard Clarke
Colin Powell
John McCain
Chuck Hagel
Michael Moore
Cindy Sheehan
Brent Scrowcroft

I believe he missed a few names though. Just off the top of my head...Ted Kennedy, Patrick Fitzgerald, Jimmy Carter, Russ Feingold to name a few. How many others do you think are on the list that FISA wouldn't approve?

ELINT is a Waste of Time

Thanks to a comment from Grace of Scriptoids, I realized that I do actually have something to add to the discussion of the NSA spying that was not authorized by FISA but authorized by the Prez.

I spent 8 years in Naval Intelligence and for a lot of that time I was tasked directly by NSA. I spent a lot of time on domestic intelligence under the guise of the 'War on Drugs' and I don't recall anything of import in all those mounds of data we collected. We heard a lot 'kiss and not tell' and a lot of boring 'I love you... I love you too' but very little 'intelligence'.
We did quite a bit of 'play acting', pretending to be the commies and seeing what we could learn by spying on ourselves which, in all honesty, proved very helpful and enlightening. I believe my efforts did tighten up our own communication security.

Let's get honest with ourselves. ELINT (electronic intelligence) is cool stuff and there has been a lot written about it even before 9/11. Pretty much everyone that can use a spoon has heard of 'Carnivore' and post 9/11 we heard all the news reports of how we were just slow translating ELINT or we would have had those guys. The '411' is that anyone that wants to keep a secret in this country does not use the public airwaves. You can assume that everything on the Internet, cellular networks, and landline telephone/telegraph are monitored continuosly. If you are a 'terrerist' and use the public communication channels to exchange secret stuff then you are dumber than a box of rocks. Granted we have to maintain our oversight just to keep everyone honest but that, in itself, guarantees that no serious operator is going to use the public channels to do his or her dirty deeds.

So, not only did Herr Bush violate any number of laws and the Constitution he probably did it for no reason. This only goes to show that not only is he a criminal but he and his staff are dumber than a box of rocks as well.

Criminal, No Question

I am not going to spend any time on the domestic intelligence crime. I need only say that there were legal ways to get the job done that were put in place specifically for cases like these. There was no reason for the actions the President took other than to thumb his nose at the Congress. He has admitted doing it and it is an impeachable offense and far, far worse than lying about an extramarrital affair for Goddess' sake. We have to draw the line somewhere and this is about as good a place as any.
ReddHedd and Jane at Firedoglake and Jeralyn at TalkLeft are far better at relaying the nuances of all this than I am. I do agree with Ezra Klein though, and think is was a 'Screw You, I'm the Prez and don't you forget it' moment when Bush admitted the crime.

Quoting Ezra:

This is Bush's "fuck you" moment. He lost on the PATRIOT Act, lost on Social Security, is losing on the war, leaking popularity, lacking political capital, and finding his second term to be a series of very hard punches to the face. The mounting failures and multiplying blows finally became too much for him and so, finally, he's dispensed with political strategy and high-polling pretense and finally said what he'd been wanting to say all along.

Fuck you.

It's been the message rumbling beneath his administration for months now. The belligerence on torture, the hysteria on the PATRIOT Act, the McCarthyism against the war critics. But each time, at that last crucial moment, Bush backed down. Right when he seemed ready to let loose a flurry of invective, his handlers would coax him off the roof. He backed down before McCain's anti-torture legislation, started appending disclaimers affirming the patriotism of his critics too his speeches. He didn't crack. He kept following the strategists, calling for tactical retreats. Till now.

Nuff Said.

Up and Down

Then again

WASHINGTON - The House called for construction of a fence along parts of the U.S. border from the Pacific Coast to the Gulf of Mexico as a bill aimed at shutting down illegal immigration moved forward Thursday.

The two-layered fence, about 700 miles long, would be built in parts of California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. The provisions, passed 260-159, put priority on construction near Laredo, Texas. The city is across the border from Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, where warring drug cartels have been blamed for more than 140 murders this year.

I should stop reading while I am ahead.

Hope Still There

In spite of all the bad news we are constantly deluged with I still sometimes find sparks of hope that we are able to rise above the muck we are in. The Senate today refused to extend the Patriot Act. Thanks Goddess!

WASHINGTON - The Senate on Friday refused to reauthorize major portions of the USA Patriot Act after critics complained they infringed too much on Americans' privacy and liberty, dealing a huge defeat to the Bush administration and Republican leaders.

In a crucial vote early Friday, the bill's Senate supporters were not able to get the 60 votes needed to overcome a threatened filibuster by Sens. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., and Larry Craig, R-Idaho, and their allies. The final vote was 52-47

Typepad Hosed?

Looks like somebody restored and old archive of Typepad. Looks like it is from the 10th or so.

I thought is was me for a moment. Then again,maybe it is me.

Vitamins or Sex

This is interesting...

Scientists said yesterday that they have discovered a tiny genetic mutation that largely explains the first appearance of white skin in humans tens of thousands of years ago, a finding that helps solve one of biology's most enduring mysteries and illuminates one of humanity's greatest sources of strife.

The work suggests that the skin-whitening mutation occurred by chance in a single individual after the first human exodus from Africa, when all people were brown-skinned. That person's offspring apparently thrived as humans moved northward into what is now Europe, helping to give rise to the lightest of the world's races.

So the real question is why did losing the dark skin coloration have an advantage for those that moved North? Was it because of Vitamin D and the lighter skin provided for more more production in an environment that required more clothing and had less sun or was it because the lighter skin had some other advantage such as sexual attractiveness?

Seems to me the Vitamin D angle would make more sense.

For you proponents of ID (Ignorant Design) this, of course, is a silly question since everyone knows that God is white.