Mandamus, Steel, Spying, Unending War on a Global Battlefield

In his 1803 opinion in Marbury vs. Madison, 1 Cranch 137 (1803), Chief Justice John Marshall set the mission of the US Supreme Court, to interpret the Constitution and strike down acts of congress and the president if they exceed their constitutional authority.

In 1952, President Harry Truman tried to seize steel mills to prevent an labor action under what his administration claimed was an implied power to protect national security interests during the Korean War. The power was said to be generally implied from presidential power vested in the president by the Constitution and as President of the United States and Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces. Mill owners argued that the president went beyond his authority as the Constitution gives the power to make laws expressly and exclusively to the legislature.

The Supreme Court had the final word, as it shall under Marbury vs. Madison, on the issue of whether or not President Truman acted within his constitutional authority in seizing the steel mills in Youngstown Co.. v. Sawyer, 343 U.S. 579 (1952). Justice Black wrote the opinion of the court and said that the President did not have the authority as Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces because seizing private property to settle a labor dispute is not within the "theater of war". Basically, the President's powers as Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces does not make the President Commander in Chief of the entire country.

Justice Black further maintained that the President had no broad generally implied powers to seize the mills because the President is not a lawmaker, but is supposed to see that the laws are "faithfully executed".

Justice Jackson, delivered the most famous quote regarding the case in his concurring opinion wherein he stated:

When the President takes measures incompatible with the expressed or implied will of Congress, his power is at its lowest ebb, for then he can rely only upon his own constitutional powers minus any constitutional powers of Congress over the matter. Courts can sustain exclusive presidential control in such a case only by disabling the Congress from acting upon the subject. Presidential claim to a power at once so conclusive and preclusive must be scrutinized with caution,for what is at stake is the equilibrium established by our constitutional system.

Here is a very good summary of the steel seizure case.

In this legal context, came the case against President Nixon's domestic surveillance program. In United States v. United States District Court, 407 U.S. 297 (1972), commonly known as the Keith case, the Supreme Court ruled that warrantless surveillance of domestic organizations was unconstitutional under the Fourth Amendment and that the national security concerns do not justify "a departure from Fourth Amendment standards" requiring judicial approval. In his opinion for the Court, Justice Powell stated:

These Fourth Amendment freedoms cannot properly be guaranteed if domestic security surveillances may be conducted solely within the discretion of the Executive [407 U.S. 297, 317] Branch. The Fourth Amendment does not contemplate the executive officers of Government as neutral and disinterested magistrates. Their duty and responsibility are to enforce the laws, to investigate, and to prosecute. Katz v. United States, supra, at 359-360 (DOUGLAS, J., concurring). But those charged with this investigative and prosecutorial duty should not be the sole judges of when to utilize constitutionally sensitive means in pursuing their tasks. The historical judgment, which the Fourth Amendment accepts, is that unreviewed executive discretion may yield too readily to pressures to obtain incriminating evidence and overlook potential invasions of privacy and protected speech.

All this and much more was discussed Friday evening when attorney and President of the National Lawyers Guild, Michael Avery, spoke to the Illinois chapter of the National Lawyers Guild. Avery is representing lawyers for the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) in their suit against Bush over the domestic spying program. Avery talked about the national security state we are allowing to be created in the United States. Avery said that secrecy is the hallmark of a national security state. Bush's use of secrecy to curb free speech and freedom from search and arrest without probably cause, move us away from particularity in search and arrest that has historically prevented the government from going on fishing expeditions against people and the attempt to place limits on judicial review are fast making the US over into a national security state. Bush's concept of the War on Terror as unending war on a global battlefield is nothing more than an attempt to avoid the Supreme Court rulings in Youngstown and the Keith Case described above.

Avery pointed out that Bush and his crew are in overdrive working to end the old and venerable law created by Marbury vs. Madison giving the Supreme Court the power to interpret the Constitution over the acts of the president and the legislature. With his signing statements maintaining that he can choose to conform or not with the law at his will, Bush is saying that the president interprets the constitution, ad hoc, as and when he chooses.

Bush chose to disobey the FISA law, created by congress after the Keith case to specifically set forth the circumstances under which the executive branch may conduct warrantless searches against foreign organization because the Keith case expressly stated that it did not apply to foreign surveillance. According to Avery, he's admitted to 40 FISA violations and has had time since that admission to violate it several more times. The Fourth Amendment was controlling on domestic surveillance. So, it is clear that Bush has violated both FISA and the Constitution, continues to violate both FISA and the Constitution and flaunts the violations.

Bush has managed to get some people to agree to these violations through the use of their fear and ignorance of the law. The government's position in CCR v. Bush is that NSA spying cannot even be discussed, the case must be dismissed and the court cannot rule, because such discussion alone puts the US at risk. The Bush administration argument is that now that we have unending war on a global battlefield, what they say goes and they don't even have to actually say it.

If we accept the premise of the Bush Administration that we are in unending war on a global battlefield, we will be handing our Constitution and our Country over to Bush and giving up all of our recourse on every subject matter from the environment, to education, to taxation, to war. Avery doesn't thing we should just sit around and wait for the Democrats to come up with a better candidate. We have to demand change. One way to start is to demand your Illinois state representative join Rep. Karen A. Yarbrough and 17 of her collegues in sponsoring House Joint Resolution 125 (HJR0125) calling on the US Congress to impeach George W. Bush. For more information on how they can and why they should, go here.

A Friday Skit

W: Condi, would you come in here?
Condi: Sir?
W: Sit here.
Condi: Sir, you have me sitting at a typewriter.
W: Certainly, Condi. I need you to type up some bills.
Condi: Type, sir?
W: Type, Condi.
Condi: Sir, first of all I am Secretary of State, not your secretary and I don't type. I have a secretary for that and even she gets a PC, not a typewriter.
W: Secretary of State is MY SECRETARY (ask Colin) and Condi, didn't your mother teach you that a person...well...of your standing, should always know how to type?
Condi: Sir?!
W: I need you, Condi.
Condi: Well, ok, but what about a PC, sir. A typewriter...and carbon paper.... It will take hours...
W: I don't like computers. I don't even have email Condi. I just don't like computers. You never know whose spying on you. They might read your personal stuff. I know I would...actually, I do.
Condi: Well, sir. This is going to go slowly. I haven't typed in years.
W: We have 3 years. Condi. I haven't been able to accomplish what I want. Haven't left my legacy. We need to write some bills.
Condi: Sir, Congress does that...according to the Constitution, Congress makes the laws.
W: Never mind that, Condi. I've gotten around that Goddamned Piece of Paper. I write my own laws now. Let's start with Social Security.
Condi: Sir, Social Security reform is dead. It didn't even get introduced, sir. How are you going to get away with writing a bill and signing it.
W: I have a mandate! I can do what I want. Type!!!
Condi: What should I type?
W: Social... Security... is... very... bad... I think it's in the bible.
Condi: Sir?!
W: Jesus said the sleek...the sneak... well, somebody... probably somebody rich, huh? ...will inherit the world.
Condi: oh brother.... Vice President, Cheney! Why don't you come in and help us?!
W: Oh, Uncle Cheney. I'm writing social security reform!
Cheney: That's nice, George.
Condi: What's wrong?
Cheney: It's Karl. He still wants to use the inner circle, presidential bathroom in the West Wing when the rules clearly say after you're a target....
W: You're demoted to the pay toilet on the first floor. hee hee... Karl's in trouble... and everyone thought it would be me... He shouldn't have talked to that Chicago traitor US attorney.
Cheney: Scooter too.
W: He has to use the Lincoln out house, I bet. hee hee
Cheney: What are you two up to?
W: We are writing laws. I'll have my legacy. Social Security reform. I'll end the EPA, EEOC, OSHA, FCC, FTC, FEMA and all that commie stuff about helping people. Ha...they need to help themselves, or better yet, help Kenny Boy... and me. Illegal gay marriage! Illegal abortion! Illegal Democrats! Illegal free speech! Illegal protesting! Illegal Constitution! Hey, can you amend the Constitution to end the Constitution?
Cheney: I'm sure if anyone can, George, it is you. All congressional inquiry into everything has been stopped just for you, George.
W: The SBC will be the government and the SBA will stop small business instead of helping it.
Cheney: Quite a few goals, George, but we have more important things to talk about. We have another war to plan. The people are a little more suspicious about this one, but gas is expensive (nice touch from my pals at Exxon) and folks are still generally scared, so I'll bet we can sell it. We are right on track for escalating the situation with the latest House Bill. They still buy into it in Congress. They're afraid of looking weak, no matter what we do.
Condi: Start with Sanctions...end with mushroom cloud. Iran sure won't be allowed to make fools out of us like Iraq did.
W: Weren't you supposed to be helping me type up my legacy, Condi.
Condi: Well...I guess I can do this for a while. I'll be rewarded, right? tick tick tick...
W: Secretaries' Day was last week, Condi.

Cooling down the road runner..beep beep

Senator Robert Byrd made a speech on Monday that you can read here. Byrd described the essence of the Senate by telling a story about Jefferson and Washington disagreeing about the need for a two chamber legislature (called a bicameral legislature). Washington favored the two houses and explained his position as he observed Jefferson pour his coffee into a saucer to cool. Washington pointed out to Jefferson that the Senate's job would be to pour out legislation and allow it to cool. As Byrd points out, there is no evidence that the Washington/Jefferson story is true, but it is true that the purpose of a bicameral legislature is to cool down and slow down legislation to make sure it is properly considered before passage.

I know a lot about slowing things down because it's part of my job. If a matter gets to me that means it has to be slowed down and carefully considered. I have to ignore the heat of the moment, the pushing and rushing, gather the evidence and consider all the applicable law. I don't know how many times I've said, "I'm slowing this way down."

The bandwagon for the Iraq war began to heat up and speed ahead in the fall of 2002. On October 8, 2002, Mark Kirk made his now infamous Owl Speech supporting the Iraq War. He talked about the Civil War, Lincoln, World War I and being an owl rather than a dove or hawk, and he went on to list reasons to speed ahead on an invasion of Iraq. He cited a lot of supposed facts about "chemical and biological delivery vehicles" and "a large nuclear weapons complex" and "20 secret facilities dedicated to producing nuclear, biological and chemical weapons" we now know were at best supposition being passed off as fact or perhaps just plain old lies. He concluded that Iraq was a "growing present danger to the United States" and that non-military action would not work, citing the experiences of that old expert on Iraq, Woodrow Wilson. He said he was an owl, but he was really a road runner rushing to the notion that the threat posed by Iraq was present when it was really more like maybe one day in the future, but maybe not.

Where was the Senate? They failed to cool down and slow down the house rush to invasion just as the coyote always failed to slow the road runner with his ACME products. Why? Because part of the republican strategy was to eliminate the checks and balances of the bicameral legislature. Iraq was a pet project of the administration and it was going to happen no matter what and they schemed to make sure it happen fast because they knew that if anyone actually considered it carefully, they would see the folly. republicans gave the country the bums rush on Iraq and the Patriot Act, and both houses bought into it for fear of looking like they were unable to act quickly. We ended up with Acme Government.

In his speech on Monday, Byrd refered to efforts to "modernize" the Senate by forcing it to speed up, but remained positive on the Senate's ability to hang onto it's slow and purposeful past with power of advice and consent over the executive, and yes, the power to serve as the court of impeachment. Robert Byrd warned the administration on Monday referring to the Senate's power as the court of impeachment:

...you better believe it, Mr. President. The Senate can send you home.... As my statements in the weeks ahead--Lord willing, God willing--will suggest, the distinctive features of the Senate have survived for so long because they have purpose and will endure as long as they serve the good of the Nation.

I think Senator Byrd was talking about the new rush to invade Iran even more than he was talking about the Senate or impeachment. He was calling for the Senate to reject the misnamed "modernization" that really means abdicating its responsibility to advise and consent. The people, the voters, need to rid our legislative bodies of road runners posing as owls, hucksters with their fake lists of weapons and inapplicable Woodrow Wilson stories and look for just plain thoughtful people who know that you have to cool things down and slow things down to get the facts and made the best decisions with them. We need real leaders to gather, examine and consider the facts, not followers of yet another rush to war. We don't need an ACME government.

Mark Kirk's World of Walls

More than 260 people died trying to cross the Berlin Wall between 1961 and 1989. In 1962, Time Magazine called it the Wall of Shame in a cover story decrying its dividing of families and communities. In 1963, JFK went to Berlin and declared "I am a Berliner" (or a jelly donut depending on how you heard him) to show solidarity with the folks on the east side of the wall and their families in the west. Even Ronald Reagan got into the spirit when he told Gorby to tear it down in 1987. That is still cited as Reagan's greatest moment.

The Berlin Wall divided families and communities. It created a group of economic haves separated from the have nots and led to an economic situation in the east for which Europe is still paying. That wall clearly had to come down despite the seemingly sensible sounding arguments made for dividing East and West Germany after WWII.

Now, Mark Kirk wants to build new walls and this time the walls will tear families apart on our own continent. Tuesday, Kirk reiterated his support of the Border Protection, Antiterrorism and Illegal Immigration Control Act to a group in Waukegan's 7th Ward. The controversal House bill would criminalize US citizens for helping illegal friends, family members and business associates. Saddest of all is the divide it will create between illegal parents and their legal children. Even the Catholic church has voiced concern over the Bill with language so vague that it is unclear exactly what actions are felonies thereunder and church leaders fear it would criminalize church humanitarian efforts in the immigrant community. The bill does nothing to help the economic situation in Mexico that requires families to divide in order to eat and live and causes the immigration problem in the US.

Kirk has also supported security walls separating Israelis and Palestinians rather than helping them work through differences and become at least tolearable neighbors. I know that there are people in the district that support those walls and I argue to them that walls are not the basis for a lasting peace in Israel. It creates haves and have nots and the Judiasm that I know is not about economic injustice. Economic injustice breeds mistrust, hate and violence in the long run and no people know that better than those in the worldwide Jewish community. As Dan Seals points out in his paper on Israel, having recently returned from the country, there is a Hebrew phrase "Tikkun Olam". It means repairing the world and represents the Jewish commitment to social justice, ecological sanity, and world peace. The idea of Tikkum Olam (even if the phrase was not specifically used then) was the basis for the Jewish participation in the civil rights movement in the US that Seals credits for much of his own achievments in life. Seals had this to say discussing the joint efforts of the Jewish-American and African-American communities in the civil right movement:

Some of the proudest moments in recent American history have occurred as a result of the collaboration of the African-American and Jewish communities. These connections and ties are still very much alive today. The communities share the common values of equality and faith and the common goals of peace and justice. I will proudly honor those common values and common goals as a Member of Congress, and do all I can to “repair the world.”

The question is whether or not the Tenth District wants Kirk's world of walls separating families, communities and economies into their own separate worlds of hurt caused by injustice (as even the have is diminished by the plight of the have not) or a world where we can all begin to learn to work together for conomic and social justice and the peace that it brings. I hope the District goes for the spirit of Tikkun Olam and rejects Mark Kirk's walls.

June plewie in the desert...a gamble for Nevada brides

On September 8, 2002, CNN's Wolf Blitzer was hanging on Condi's every word in this exchange:

BLITZER: Based on what you know right now, how close is Saddam Hussein's government -- how close is that government to developing a nuclear
capability?

RICE: You will get different estimates about precisely how close he is. We do know that he is actively pursuing a nuclear weapon. We do know that there have been shipments going into Iran, for instance -- into Iraq, for instance, of aluminum tubes that really are only suited to -- high-quality aluminum tools that are only really suited for nuclear weapons programs, centrifuge programs.

We know that he has the infrastructure, nuclear scientists to make a nuclear weapon. And we know that when the inspectors assessed this after the Gulf War, he was far, far closer to a crude nuclear device than anybody thought, maybe six months from a crude nuclear device.The problem here is that there will always be some uncertainty about how quickly he can acquire nuclear weapons. But we don't want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud.

What Rice didn't tell Wolf (and he would not have dared to ask or question her in any meaningful way in the media drive to support the Iraq war) was from where the mushroom cloud was coming. Turns out, it's going to be in Nevada and we are the ones who are going to be creating it. Yup, your federal government is going to be using your tax dollars (the ones you just paid them a week or so ago), to blow up Nevada. No one is paying attention much, except the folks who sell those quicky Vegas weddings. They are not sure whether it will be bad for business or good for business.

Remember, this isn't the first time we've blown up Nevada. It was a popular nuclear testing ground back in the 50s, so it seems to me that soil they are going to kick up with 700 tons of explosives could be contaminated. Well, I'm no nuclear engineer, so I have no idea of the risk, but nuclear material does have a long shelf life. They are still working on conpensating the workers from the original Nevada test site nuclear explosions for the cancer contracted, so now Harry Reid will have to add all the Elvis impersonators, Celine Dion, and, of course, Wayne Newton, to his worries. Ah, maybe that explains why they again want to bomb Nevada...no, not because of Wayne, but because of Nevada Senator Harry Reid, the Democratic minority leader...ok, maybe it's a little bit because of Celine too.

Why the test, really? They are supposed to be testing the effectiveness of conventional bunker busters. Many are suspicious that the test, while it will be conducted with conventional weapons, is really a simulation of the effects of small nuclear weapon on underground bunkers like the ones housing the nuclear program in Iran. The concerns came after comments made by James Tegnelia, director of the Pentagon's Defense Threat Reduction Agency, that indicated a cavalier attitude toward a so-called "mushroom cloud of dust". Now, the Pentagon denies any connection between the test and earlier reports of an intent by the Bush administration to use nuclear bunker busters on Iran, but who knows. Before the Pentagon denial, the Federation of American Scientists claim that their review of Pentagon budget requests since 2002 indicate that the bomb is supposed to be a simulation of a low-yield nuclear weapon.

I guess it depends on how much you trust Bush






and Rumsfeld.

Ah, June brides might want to re-think that Vegas wedding and move it to Paris or Tuscany or the Antarctic, where the weather has been practically balmy.

Here's some detail on the program under which the Nevada test is being conducted.

Government by for and under the Oil Companies

Here's some information from Greg Saunders at This Modern World.

Gas Prices :









Oil Company Stock Prices :











Their Campaign Contributions :













According to Kevin Phillips, author of American Theocracy, our government as been steeped in oil politics since whale blubber was used for city street lighting, but the Bush administration has turned it into an artform. In a press conference last week, Bush blamed high prices on increased use by India and China, changes from winter to summer blends, and Americans driving more because of the nice weather. What Phillips discusses, and Bush leaves out, is that Washington is controlled by former oil company executives and government policy has supported the status quo in energy use and rejected any meaningful investiment in conservation and alternate fuels for decades.

In October 2005, Mark Kirk voted for the Gasoline for Americas Security Act, Bill HR 3893. This was the bill drafted in response to the hurricanes of last summer that damaged oil refineries and pipelines. Rather than coming up with a sensible energy strategy, the republican congress decided to take advantage of the hurricane turmoil to give more away to their oil friends. The act opened up Federal lands for construction of new oil refineries and approved the Energy department to enter into new contracts for the construct or restore new refineries that use crude oil or coal to produce gasoline or other fuel and with minor conservation hat tips. This was one of those votes that was held open for 50 minutes by republican house leadership to get votes for passage through pressure and payoffs and the bill is nothing more than welfare for the oil companies.

Time is far overdue for telling our congressmen that we reject oil company welfare and its associated short sighted energy policy.

Okay, everybody off!

"Okay, everybody off!" the earth shouts in today's Mutts comic strip. Click on the title link to see it. Make sure the date is set to April 22.

I've known that global warming is real for a long time because my cousins live in Juneau, Alaska and I watched the Mendenhall Glacier melt over time. Now, it looks like there is no room left for denial, so it must be bad.

I've been reading American Theocracy by Kevin Phillips. The first part of the book concentrates on oil history and politics and therein he discusses various religious interpretations of our duty to the planet. Some religious observers believe that we are stewards of the planet while others believe that the directive in the bible to have dominion over the earth means that we can wreck it. I have dominion over my car, but that doesn't mean I want to wreck it, so I have no idea what the latter group is thinking about. Democat has dominion over me, so I certainly hope that she doesn't belong to that group.

Some rapture groups are said to have little worry about the future of the earth because there is no future. Signs of global deterioration are signs of the coming end of times to which they look forward. Some Christian fundamentalists say that is nonsense and only liberals say that Christians really believe in environmental destruction in order to make them look bad.

Nonetheless, we are still in trouble on this too toasty earth and many have know it for a while. Al Gore wrote this:

Yet President Bush and his advisers continue to oppose suggestions that the United States offer leadership in organizing a global response to the crisis, ostensibly because they are not yet convinced there is a problem. After standing in front of Boston Harbor, pledging to be "the environmental president" and promising to "confront the greenhouse effect with the White House effect," President Bush spent the first two years of his term arguing that no action on global warming was necessary or advisable until the completion of a major international scientific study of the problem then under way. But when the study's long-awaited conclusion called for bold world action on an urgent basis, the president claimed that yet more study was needed before any substantive action was advisable.

Gore wrote that in 1992 in his book Earth in the Balance and was writing about George H.W. Bush. The current Bush in office says that we are addicted to oil, and that is precisely what his father's and his current administration wants. Today, Bush promoted hydrogen cars and said there was nothing he could do about high oil prices as his friends at Exxon rack up the profits. Seems Bush didn't mention anything about ending oil imperialism wars. Did you know that the first cars were made to run on corn alcohol gasoline? It was dubbed the fuel of the future in 1925. Between then and now, the oil and auto industries conspired to keep us addicted to oil. Maybe that is why Cheney is now known as Billion Dollar Cheney.

Wonder what would have happened if everyone listened to Jimmy Carter back in 1977 when he had his "unpleasant talk" about energy shortages and called for conservation. republican think tanks worked on overdrive to make us think Carter was wrong and his proposals would cost more than the energy saved. Had we listened to Carter, industry might have worked even harder to replace fossil fuels and we'd be ahead of the game now and making good money from it, so the repubs weren't so smart for business either. All they are ever good for is their own quick and easy profits.

What will you do with your billions, Mr. Cheney, when the earth says "Okay, everybody off!"

How do you say "Human Rights" in Chinese

Mark Kirk met with China's president Hu on Thursday. He told Frank James of the Tribune's The Swamp site that he was going to discuss intellectual property theft. Chinese dissident turned American freedom activist, Harry Wu, spent 19 years in a Chinese forced-labor camp during the 1960s and 1970s and was detained yet again in 1995. He wants to know why Americans want to do business with China so very badly when we are critical of other communist regimes like Cuba.

What got Wu into such trouble that he lost 19 years at forced labor? He was in a student group that was interviewed by government officials and said that he did not think that the communist party worked to the benefit of the people.

The force labor from the camp that imprisoned Wu, and others like it, still exist and make many of the cheap products that we purchase from China . Kirk wants more of this type of trade, no questions asked.

In an interview with FrontPage.com, Wu had this to say of America's current relationship with China:

The U.S. policy toward China is dominated by interests of cooperation. This short-sighted policy is actually rebuilding another communist superpower. The money and technology from the West may benefit the average Chinese person, but it also largely serves as a blood transfer to a dying communist regime. Why don’t we tell the Beijing government that there will be “No Free Lunch?”

I wish people were more aware today that while China is moving toward capitalism, it is state-controlled, and not free capitalism. And that capitalism does not necessarily entail freedom and democracy.

I would prefer to see a free, democratic and prosperous.

My take on Kirk's U.S.-China Working Group is that it seeks to make business deals between the US and China at any human cost. He has said repeatedly that issues of concern about China are not the concern of the U.S.-China Working Group which will focus only on the intellectual property issue. He defends this attitude by saying that the IP issue is the only concern of American exporters in China. He doesn't mention the slave laborers and probably has not asked their opinion.

I also wonder if Hu asked Kirk about Kirk's leader's wish to nuke Iran, an energy provider to China. Wu might take pleasure in the notion that Bush is sort of out-crazy-dictatoring him these days. How would Mark respond to that? He'd probably tell Hu all about teacher background checks, stop signs in Wheeling and the North Central line train schedule. Kirk might suggest to Hu that China develop it's own Suburban Strategy.

You can keep up with conditions in China through these two websites of organizations led by Harry Wu: the Laogai Research Foundation and the China Information Center. You won't hear from Kirk about Chinese forced labor camps and the atrocities that occur therein like child labor and the selling organs from deceased prisoners, but he is working on legislation to fund Chinese language training in the US. Apparently, Kirk has not learned how to say "Human Rights" in Chinese.

Wanted: Sociopath

Scotty blew it. He actually got fired from a job in the Bush Administration inner circle, a job that is for the most part very hard to lose.

You don't have to be honest; you actually cannot be honest. You have to lie stick to the lies and be very good at sticking to the lies manufacturing more lies to cover the old ones as you go along.

You don't have to excel at what you do, or more precisely, you don't have to excel at what you are supposed to do, and you really don't have to be all that good at the stealing and coniving either because few have really gotten into real trouble for getting caught as it remains to be seen what will happen to Libby in the legal sense.

You don't have to work hard. You only have to say you work hard and repeat it all the time.

Caring about others would be a huge liability.

All you really have to do in the Bush Administration is put on a show and maintain it, keep up with the lies (I often wonder if they manage the lies using a relational database of lies...how else could one keep them straight), and stay completely poker faced. Scotty's job was creating that very show, and he lost control. His poker face wasn't good enough and maybe that is to his credit. Not bizaar enough for this bizarro administration.

That got me thinking about what it takes to be a successful press secretary in the Bush Administration. How do you find a replacement for a job like that; a job that requires constant lying and defense of lies completely poker faced and always maintaining the demeanor of someone who actually believes what he is saying and maybe even creating a state of mind wherein he really believes it? What type of want ad do you run for this job?

WANTED: SOCIOPATH

This is one description of sociopath that I found that the job recruiter can use. Seems to fit the bill:

There are ten general symptoms:

• not learning from experience
• no sense of responsibility
• inability to form meaningful relationships
• inability to control impulses
• lack of moral sense
• chronically antisocial behavior
• no change in behavior after punishment
• emotional immaturity
• lack of guilt
• self-centeredness

A national race from a suburban strategy

Not interested in the Tenth District Congressional race? Think about this:

Remember Mark Kirk's idea to have a congress of mayors; that we no longer need a national congress now that we have a president that is unitary and plenary (he is the decider, after all, read post below)?

Kirk's point is that while the republican national agenda is crumbling all around him, he and others similarly situated (republicans in congress or seeking congressional seats in suburban districts that are not nearly as extreme as the national republican party) can run by simply ignoring their own party's national agenda while supporting it on the stealth. Vote how the party wants you to, but for heaven sakes, don't talk about it. No one pays attention to the votes. All you have to do is talk about child safety, potholes, traffic lights and train schedules and use your incumbency to get high school students to create PSAs on topics on which everyone agrees so you can get free television campaign ads.

Mark Kirk is working to develop this as the 2006 national republican strategy for suburban districts. He calls it the Suburban Strategy and has formed a "suburban strategy caucus" among House Republicans, done polling on top subterfuge issues and is generally working to help all at-risk house republicans create campaigns of deception by omission. This makes the Illinois Tenth District Congressional race a true national race that deserves national attention.

We need to send a message to the national republican party that we don't want to be fed campaign literature on how many stop signs there are between the train station and the dry cleaners and how large the McDonald's sign on Main Street can be when we have a budget deficit larger than the number of burgers sold, energy bills that are putting the small businesses on Main Street out of business, a failing war strategy, bodies still being found in New Orleans, seniors unable to pay for their now more expensive prescription drugs, and now a potential nuclear war.

Kirk may have a few not so small problems with his Suburban Strategy. He'll have to explain the $3.50/gal gasoline that the exurban people whose entire lifestyle is based on cheap gas will be paying by this summer and a mess of a new Metra schedule that in Vernon Hills alone added 15 minutes to each trip hurting parents needing to get to day care and pick up their kids. Ultimately, he'll have to explain Bush's nuclear war in Iran to lots of suburban parents of the children who will have to fight the consequential war and eventually clean up the mess. Heckofasuburbanstrategy Marky Rooster.

All eyes should be on the Illinois Tenth Congressional race.

A Poem

I am the Decider
by Roddy McCorley

I'm the decider.
I pick and I choose.
I pick among whats.
And choose among whos.

And as I decide
Each particular day
The things I decide on
All turn out that way.

I decided on Freedom
For all of Iraq.
And now that we have it,
I'm not looking back.

I decided on tax cuts
That just help the wealthy.
And Medicare changes
That aren't really healthy.

And parklands and wetlands
Who needs all that stuff?
I decided that none
Would be more than enough!

I decided that schools
All in all are the best
The less that they teach
And the more that they test.

I decided those wages
You need to get by
Are much better spent
On some CEO guy.

I decided your Wade
Which was versing your Roe
Is terribly awful
And just has to go.

I decided that levees
Are not really needed.
Now when hurricanes come
They can come unimpeded.

That old Constitution?
Well, I have decided
As"just goddam paper"
It should be derided.

I've decided gay marriage
Is icky and weird.
Above all other things,
It's the one to be feared.

And Cheney and Rummy
And Condi all know
That I'm the Decider -
They tell me it's so.

I'm the Decider
So watch what you say
Or I may decide
To have you whisked away.

Or I'll tap your phones.
Your e-mail I'll read.`
cause I'm the Decider -
Like Jesus decreed.

Yes, I'm the Decider
The finest alive
And I'm nuking Iran.
Now watch this drive!

George W. Bush, the great uniter

A girl can dream, can't she?

Thanks to Stevo from Ohio for the pic.

See here too.

Is there insurance to insure you that your insurance company will pay claims?

We are always told that it is important to have insurance. Lenders require evidence of homeowners insurance before they will fund purchase money and refinance loans. We are also told by insurance companies that they will go to great lengths to pay claims and I remember seeing a slew of commericals after last year's hurricane season showing smiling claims adjusters driving around paying claims to smiling hurricane victims at all hours of the night.

After hearing about two people we know in Florida, however, I'm not sure what the insurance is worth. My mom's 95-year-old aunt was living in a condominium in Florida that was hit by a hurricane last year. She is still living in temporary housing (a condominium unit) and has not received a cent of insurance and is not sure that her condominium association has yet received a cent of their insurance either. We are wondering if they noted her age and the age of the other residents in the development and are just waiting for them to die. Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood believes that insurance companies are intentionally dragging their feet in his state. He's concerned that the insurance companies see benefit in dragging out claims to push off the liability onto the federal and state relief funds. The insurance industry complains that increased storm activity will put them out of business, but the same industry reported "$44.8 billion profit last year even after accounting for the claims of policyholders wiped out by Hurricane Katrina and the other big storms of 2005...an 18.7 percent increase over the previous year."

A friend of our family also owned a condominium in southern Florida that was also hit by hurricane. She is in the same boat as our aunt except for her ownership of a home up here in northern Illinois that keeps her free of temporary housing. The roof was blown off by the hurricane and she has received several very high condominium special assessments to pay for the damage, but no work about the insurance purchased by the owner's association and no word for her own insurance company for the internal damage to the unit and its contents.

Now, I have heard that flood damage may not be covered by typical homeowners and even special hurricane policies and I have heard that before so I'm not surprised, but now I am hearing that some hurricane insurance does not cover damage from water driven by wind. See here too. Well, what the heck is a hurricane if it's not water driven by wind?

State Farm says it will pay for damage caused by water driven by wind.

A Mississippi court just upheld the exclusion for coverage for floods caused by hurricanes.

Both women are wondering if they should continue to pay their premiums. They both feel more like they are donating to insurance executives childrens' college funds than purchasing risk coverage for themselves. It seems to me that if a person lets the insurance lapse they will have a far harder time getting their claim paid, but it's hard to tell two elderly women to pay high premiums for what is looking like nothing. I'm just not sure on this one and am deferring to insurance counsel, but I have 4 little words for them that might be valuable: BAD FAITH CLAIMS HANDLING. That tends to wake up insurance companies under normal situations, but the assertion might be a big yawn to insurance companies hit with 2005 season hurricane claims; been there, heard that.

Here are Money Magazine's tips for making insurance claims. I'd add that you should not keep your pictures or videos of your home inside your home. Here's a little FAQ on hurricane insurance relative to Katrina.

With current information of global warming increasing the intensity of storms, the best advise might be to stay up here in good old blue Illinois rather than retiring down to Jeb Bush's Florida.

Kirk's big idea

Kirk thinks he knows how to solve issues concerning Iran's nuclear capability. He wants to place an embargo on gasoline headed to oil rich, but gasoline poor Iran. Oxford Analytica, an independent strategic-consulting firm, doesn't think it's such a hot idea:

In the short term, there would be economic pain. However, Tehran could ignificantly increase gasoline prices and curb consumption. Furthermore, Iran's porous borders would ensure that a ban on gasoline imports would be of limited effectiveness.

Iran also subsidizes gasoline prices of less than 40 cents a gallon, so Kirk's embargo could just give it an excuse to raise prices and blame it on the Americans. It also fails to take into account Russia and China's interest in continuing good relations with Iran and other sources from which Iran could purchase gasoline including our new best nuclear friend, India. Kirk's plan also ignores the fact that a military blockade is pretty close to a declaration of war itself.

Kirk believes that everyone is looking too simplistically at Iran, yet he never mentions diplomacy or the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, which if we stuck to it ourselves, would bring world opinion against Iran's nuclear pursuits.

Kirk recently told Newsweek's Christopher Dickey that he thinks hundreds of thousand of unemployed Iranians on the streets is a good idea.

Spinning their scenario forward, Kirk told me he imagines the gasoline quarantine would have effects “so severe it would cripple the [Iranian] economy in weeks.” He imagines “several hundred thousand people going into the streets [of Iran], wondering why an obscure debate over someday having nuclear power means they are out of work right now.

I don't think so, Mark. Economic injustice for the people of Islamic nations is likely the largest part of our failures in the Middle East and Gulf Regions. Hundreds of thousands of unemployed, economically crippled Iranians driven to the streets would break every last ounce of good will that young Iranians have toward the West. It is more likely to backfire on you (and us) the way lying about Iraq WMD and greeting us as liberators backfired on your chief (and us). Oh, and by the way, it seems that the decision to go to war with Iran may have been planned a bit early, like back in 2003, and Kucinich says that military action in Iran is already under way. Sounds familiar, huh? What's Iran, but Iraq with an 'N".

Kirk lives in a world where lies substitute for common sense readjustment of failed plans. His party's government has no restraint and cannot be trusted to keep control of a sensitive situation like the global game of chicken he proposes. Maybe Mark's first idea was right. He should stick to his suburban issues like traffic signals and train schedules. He's not cut out for international diplomacy. Our district should be represented by someone who is.

Not political in a political world

I just finished the book Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden. It is the story of Sayuri, a famous Japanese Geisha who ended up living on Park Avenue in New York. My co-worker recommended the book to me. She thought I would like it because of my background working as an attorney for a Japanese lawfirm. The book was interesting and written skillfully and poetically, but the story was disappointing. I thought it was going to be an uplifting story of a woman who learned how to take control of own life, but it really wasn't. She just made the best of the life her owners and masters made for her.

The book begins with Sayuri looking at her present life as a little old Japanese lady surprising modern day New Yorkers by walking down the streets in traditional Japanese clothing. Then, she goes back in time to her childhood in a small Japanese fishing village. She explains that she really didn't know what was going on in the world, depression era and pre-WWII Japan. She said she was not political.

Sayuri starts out life as little Chiyo, an orphan girl of 9 years, sold to a Geisha house by a man who knew her dying parents and thought he was being kind. The depression had hit Japan hard and her father did not even have a new robe for her mother to die in. He might have even sold her for the price of that new robe.

Chiyo's life in the Geisha house is terrible between hard work, starvation and beatings, and it's all about money. Chiyo is stunned to learn that she is not only a slave, but was expected to pay back the price of her purchase to the Geisha house. She laments for a world where father's do not sell their daughters into slavery, but she's, of course, not political.

It is all about money. Chiyo is sent to Geisha training because an senior Geisha promises the head of the house a good return. Upon her debut, Chiyo's name is changed to Sayuri and she says of it that she saw Sayuri kill Chiyo that day. Soon, at 15 years old, her virginity is sold to the highest bidder, a creepy old doctor who turns out to have a very strange fetish, and then she is marketed around to various men for money and favors, particularly food and supplies, increasingly unavailable as the war heats up. The worst of it is that she never sees a cent of the money she makes as it all goes back to the Geisha house.

Sayuri has dreams for her life, but not dreams of or for herself. Her dreams are mostly dreams of the man she'd prefer to be master rather than the man her owner's intend her for. Sayuri's dream man is a person who showed her brief kindness during the darkest hours of her childhood. Eventually, Sayuri takes action to find her dream and she gets it for the most part. Although, one could argue that her dream was altogether too humble.

As the events of the early 20th century swirl all around Sayuri like the cherry blossoms during a Kyoto spring, she simply adapts to their effects on her life. The depression destroyed her family, so she becomes an obedient slave and the war destroys the geisha career she had built so she hides herself away at the kimono factory until she is called back to the Geisha house by her owner and a potential master. Sayuri does not speak up much, after all, she is not political. She never dreams she has a say even when that potential master shouts at her that she has to take control of her life, if only to fulfill his dreams of winning her.

I found Sayuri's life to be very sad, not so much because of the circumstances of her birth, sale and slavery, but because she never rises above the idea that she has no control and it never seem that she even thinks she should. She ends up living in luxury in New York, but only because her presence in Japan with their illegitimate child, was adversely affecting the family life of her master. He needed her gone, and she was lucky he had the money to exile her in style.

The point of the story is supposed to be that one act of kindness in a world devoid of kindness can change a person's life, but Sayuri's life is not changed much by the limited kindness to which her world thought she was entitled. Sayuri does not think she has the power to really control her destiny and never dreams that she should, so her destiny leads her around. She's not political, after all.

Over the years of talking politics and canvassing, I have found several people, mostly women who don't want to hear it. They say they are not political. The world is swirling around them like cottonwood seeds during a Deerfield spring and the policies of our right-wing extremist president, judiciary and congress are surely affecting them. It's only gas prices, stagnant wages, lack of affordable housing and a jobless recovery now, but who knows what consequences the senseless foreign policy will bring to us in the future.

The world is swirling around us and it's time for all of us to take control of our destinies and be political.

Investment in our future and in people

On Wednesday in Chicago Markos Moulitsas Zuniga identified the 3 basic core values of Democrats across the country:

1. fairness
2. opportunity
3. Investment in our future and in people

Yesterday, I got to see number 3 up close and personal. An architect friend of mine gave me a tour of a public housing rehabilitation on the North Side of Chicago on which he is working. It is becoming mixed use Section 8 and conventional rental. He and the president of the resident's association proudly showed me the difference in lighting that changed the dungeon-like appearance to a warm, happy home environment. He also explained how the elevators are now staggered by computer to make sure they arrive timely. The old gray paint has been replaced with warm, happy colors, there is new modern tile and new carpeting, wall coverings in the elevator lobbies that upgrades the class of the entire building. There is also new wiring, new air conditioning (there was no air conditioning before), new security that funnels everyone who enters the building through the front entrance and there are new rooms, a community room for parties and after-school play, a senior room so the seniors are not trapped in their units, and a fitness room. The next stage of the project is to remodel the kitchens of all the units.

The greatest part of this project is that it was inspired and completed under the leadership of the residents association. They bought the building, found the financing and managed the all-union work.

Here's the thing. They can use our help. They need computers for the study room, exercise equipment for the fitness room and rec-room games for the community room. If you have recently upgraded your computer and don't know what to do with your old one, email me. If you're kids have grown up and you have their old games crowding up your basement, email me. If you have fitness equipment you are using to hang up clothes on, email me. It's an investment in the low income people of Chicago and their children who are our future and goes to the very core of our values. Thanks.

MarKOS

Met Markos Moulitsas Zuniga today. He appeared in Chicago as a speaker at a People for the American Way event. Julie Sweet talked me into buying Markos' book as a donation to PAW. It didn't take much talking as PAW is a terrific organization. I'm not too excited about having another book to read though. Sheesh. As if there isn't enough on the net to worry about.

Markos seems nice enough. He was signing books and talking to folks. He knew all about us here in the IL Tenth and about Kirk.

Markos is originally from Chicago and made the obligatory Chicago weather and Cub fan jokes. As a Cub fan, he should be used to losing, but he's sick of it when the Democrats lose.

Markos is committed to a progressive Democratic majority and is optimistic...not about 2006 or 2008, but he's feeling great about 2014...if we last that long, I'm thinking.

Markos' book, Crashing the Gate, is all about what he and co-writer Jerome Armstrong learned on a road trip they took visiting Democrats across the country. They decided that the state Democratic parties are doing fine and the problem is with the DC Democrats. The DC Democrats, with all the control and money of the national party, are stuck in a cycle of doing the same thing over and over despite it's lack of success. Markos said that the urgency we all feel to retake the country from right-wing extremists is just not there in DC. Markos believes that the DC Dems go on working, go on living, go on partying and basically having their nice upper-class lives whether or not Democrats win or lose. There are no consequences to them. Could it be that control of the government by wealthy republicans keeps wealthy Democrats happy enough? I don't know if I agree. I've spoken to Hillary Clinton, Ted Kennedy and John Kerry and I don't think they don't care and I know Howard Dean is trying to change things, but they aren't the tight knit group of 8 media folks and 8 research folks that keep switching jobs among them of which Markos speaks.

Markos also talked about the lack of modern consulting in the national party. People are with the Democrats on the issues, but are not sure what the party stands for because they go from election to election rather than having a long term plan and the void that is left between elections is filled with special interest groups that might be correct on their particular issues, but do not create a unified message and snipe at each other too much.

Markos told us to be prepared because if anything happens to increase Democrat's success it's going to happen with us. He said, "It's your movement." But we have known that for years in the Illinois Tenth. In 2003 when we joined together as a district, we said, We are the Democratic Party and if anything happens with the Democrats in the Illinois Tenth, it will be because we made it happen.

I asked Markos the burning question we've had in the northern suburbs. Why are Democrats protesting Melissa Bean while Mark Kirk goes unprotested? Markos said that he sees no sense in attacking Bean because at the end of the day, we are all better off if Democrats are in control of Congress. He added that Bean does what she feels she has to do to represent her district. He also added that we have to look at the broader issues. One Democrat might not agree with us on every issue, but they are far better than the republican counterpart. That might not always have been true, harkening back to the '70s when folks were concerned about purety of message (and, incidentally, when we laid the foundation for losing), but now, when there is no compromise, no negotiation and no sense or reason coming from the republican party, we have to work together better, disagree in our primaries, then come together for the general election. He does not want to see Democrats become like republicans in lock step, but he says we absolutely have to come together for the general election.

Markos identified 3 core values of Democrats across the country:

1. fairness
2. opportunity
3. Investment in our future and in people

Democrats agree about more than we disagree and the rest of the country agrees more with us than with the republicans. It's time to return government to the people and the best way to do that is to elect Democrats. They are us and we are them (except possibly for the 16 DC guys Markos talked about).

What they mean when they discuss nuking Iran

Watch the title link from the Union of Concerned Scientists.

Take this job and...

Long, long day at work and I've been thinking how very hard it is to attract good people for the very responsible jobs there are in my industry and at my place of employment. We need people who are very trustworthy, very detail oriented, very communicative and very effective and it's a huge problem finding and keeping them.

If you have any sort of supervisory position or own your own company, you probably know what I am talking about. So, what would you say if I told you about this employer. It hires not based on skill and background suitable for the position, but on friendships and money. It's not what you know. It's who you know. You are given difficult and often dangerous assignments. You cannot even brag about how cool your job is to anyone because no one can know what you do. You serve well and loyally, but if you or someone you associate with grows out of favor, even if it's for telling the truth, your career is over. I'm not just talking about being fired or made miserable enough to quit. I'm talking the jig is up. You are revealed and given no protection. You or your associates could be killed.

Pretty bad job at any salary, huh?

That is the job given to then abruptly taken away from Valerie Plame. Plame was investigating WMD and could have been very instrumental in helping us deal with Iran. However, she was deemed expendable so Bush and Co. could lie their way into an invasion and occupation of Iraq so they could mishandle that as well and move on to Iran...with nukes, yet.

From any perspective, war, peace, national security, and even humanity, the handling of Iraq, Joe Wilson, her husband who had served valiantly in Iraq during the first Gulf War, and Plame herself was terrible. From the perspective of employment, the situation is no better. How do you think we end up with guys like Alberto Gonzales, Michael Chertoff and Brownie in high level positions? The administration cannot attract and keep good people because it is simply a really bad boss.

Kirk makes fun of constituent

Kirk was interviewed by The Hill on April 4, 2006. They asked: What is your craziest constituent request?
Kirk: To remove the helicopters, which were sending laser beams into one of my constituents' heads. The helicop-ters were following her, and they were sending messages to her. ... [Laughter.] Luckily we have a helicopter-removal person on staff.

Did he even have the passing thought that this person might need some help. Was she living alone? Was she living in filth? Did she have food? Were there any children or pets affected by this person's possible mental illness?

I once worked on a case where the defendant made similar allegations--hearing voices in a computer chip the government implanted in her head. She went to prison and then got out and was even more mentally ill and helpless and ended up committing another crime and went back to prison. It's not funny stuff.

Open Secrets and Play Acting

Found an article at the title link that reminds us of the abandoned search for Osama bin Laden. Remember Kirk wrote the bill that increased the reward to $25 million. No one bit, or no one was intended to. It's pretty much an open secret that no one is really looking from bin Laden, no one who has the power to find him. Does Kirk ever tire of being played the fool by the Bush administration, or is he just in on it?

Another open secret was that we had to go to Iraq because they had weapons of mass destruction. No one I knew believed it. I don't think most of the Congressmen who actually voted for the war resolution believed it either. Some were probably playing along because of the old "what If". What if Saddam really had WMD and I was the one to vote against the war...and so on. I always thought that was how Kerry felt. He couldn't vote no on the original war resolution because there was that chance it was true and the war resolution did require discretion on the part of the administration...they just didn't have any. Others, like McCain, did not care if there were WMD or not. They just wanted the power security for the GOP that came from the war.

Another open secret is that we all have to pretend that Bush is really acting as president when everyone really knows it's Cheney. Shouldn't there be a law against someone other than the person who was elected (OK, that's another open secret...Bush was probably never really elected and most know that too.) has to be the real, acting president, particularly with a supreme court that holds to unitary and plenary presidential power. First we had Edith Wilson secretly acting as president for her sick husband and then Nancy Reagan for Ron who we all knew had alzheimers back then, but it was another open secret we had to play act around. Now, Dick Cheney gets to be president and shoot someone in the face while drunk and get away with it because we have to pretend that did not happen too.

More? Yup. The Bush administration leaked Plame's identity. Of course they did. It's just another game of pretend we have to play to be surprised as the information comes out of Fitzgerald's office.

My question is whether we be required to play act around the latest open secret that the Bush Administration wants a war with Iran despite their play acting around a diplomatic solution. How far do we have to go to be in their game? Can we end it before it becomes nuclear?

Wondering what is going on...

...with the Democat?
...in the Illinois Tenth?
...to irritate me each day that might just irritate you too?

...with your email updates of Ellen's Tenth CD blog that you no longer get?

We don't know what happened with Bloglet, but the Democat thought we should switch to FeedBlitz. I switched you over if you already subscribed.

Haven't signed up for the free subscription? Sign up here:

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I won't send you any other emails or sell your email address to the campaign to re-elect Mark Kirk or anyone else, but who knows what the Democat will do. Good thing she's not the greatest typist.

How are your gardening skills?

Spring is trying to spring in Chicago (although I am still freezing) and it's all quiet in the north loop while huge crowds are expected south near the federal building today.

Millions of immigrants are taking to the streets to protest immigration legislation that criminalizes them and even legal family members, friends, clergy or anyone else for helping them, while Americans still seem unable to muster much of a crowd at all to protect their supposed constitutionally protected rights. Yawn--what's a few warrantless searches among friends. Do the immigrants know more about freedom then we do or is it that only economic interests spark the attention of anyone anymore?

Folks are protesting Melissa Bean's Schaumburg office today, while Mark Kirk's offices, remember Mark, the guy who actually said that racial discrimination is ok, go unprotested at least as far as the news is reporting. Sheesh. This is a topsy-turvy world.

Fox News wants to Nuke Iran, but the White House is backing off. Seems the product isn't playing much better than New Coke did. Pants-on-fire Scotty McClellan says they are still working on diplomacy, but they said that about Iraq too, didn't they? Well, Fox News does have that wacky security force that Bill O'Reilly uses to threaten mothers and their kids, but that would come into play only if the President of Iran actually mentioned Keith Olbermann's name in one of his anti-semitic tirades, wouldn't it?

Now that I think about it, there should be a big sign on the US side of the US/Mexican border reading "Welcome to the funny farm. Cross at your own risk as we have given the country over to the loonies." Listing Bush's accomplishments during his presidency on a large placard at the border including the portion of the national debt that can be attributed to each family should be enough to keep immigrants out. I cannot help but think we should be nicer to the Mexican immigrants because we don't know that one day we won't be the ones sneaking across the border into their country looking for work and food. How are your gardening skills?

Right wing extremist war mongers do not own the arts

...and the Dixie Chicks, of all chicks, say so... Remember the story? They were embarrassed by Bush and his elective war, embarrassed that he was from their home state of Texas. What thinking person from Texas or not wasn't?

OK, now something I thought I'd never say in a million years: We need to support the Dixie Chicks in their comeback. Here is a link to hear the new song and see the video for free. It's pretty good. I might actually go out and buy the CD when it comes out in late May 2006 and it would be my first and only country album ever.

Here is an excerpt:

I made my bed and I sleep like a baby
With no regrets and I don’t mind sayin’
It’s a sad sad story when a mother will teach her
Daughter that she ought to hate a perfect stranger
And how in the world can the words that I said
Send somebody so over the edge
That they’d write me a letter
Sayin’ that I better shut up and sing
Or my life will be over

I’m not ready to make nice
I’m not ready to back down
I’m still mad as hell and
I don’t have time to go round and round and round

It’s too late to make it right
I probably wouldn’t if I could
‘Cause I’m mad as hell
Can’t bring myself to do what it is you think I should

In years past I was irritated by the Dixie Chicks for ruining a perfectly good Stevie Nicks song. I forgive them.

Killing freedom in art with really flattering lighting

There is a web site called the Virtual Museum of Political Art. It was created by Dr. Patrick Horvath, M.A.I.S., and Dr.Werner Horvath. Werner Horvath is an artist from Austria whose style is called New Constructivism, a philosophy of art that is based on the idea that reality is not all that real, but created by the observer. Patrick Horvath is a professor of Advanced International Studies at the Diplomatic Academy of Vienna in Austria. The Virtual Museum is a site displaying works from their private collections. I got the impression from the site and their writings that they are not huge George W. Bush fans. Here is Patrick's Thesis. The image above is by Werner and is called George Bush is Killing Freedom.

Patrick's thesis compares the National Security Strategy of the United States of America (the "Bush doctrine") and the European Security Strategy (the "Solana doctrine"). He quotes Robert Kagan's notion that the US is Hobbesean, seeing theirs as a struggle for power of good over evil in a world of anarchy while Europeans seem more complexity following more of a Kantian philosophy of love and peace (which Patrick seems to believe comes from their relative weakness). Kirk might be interested in the part where Patrick discusses the US relationship with China. The US is far more interested in a relationship with China than is Europe as it sees more overlapping interests.

The Virtual Museum has a collection called Totalitarian Art and features works from the Soviet Era with a style called Socialist Realism that was supposed to glorify Soviet leaders and communist ideals. Another collection called Nationalsocialist Realism did the same for the German Nazis. It mostly depicts scenes flattering to each political philosophy in really flattering light. The National Socialist section of the Virtual Museum has this interesting caveat:

It is not the intention uf the museum to stir up conflicts; therefore only few pictures are shown in this section. In Europe Nationalsocialist dictatorship is a historical fact, which is emotionally discussed until now. Nevertheless it is necessary, to show the impact of this ideology on art.

There are also pictures depicting Iraqi art under Saddam Hussein which include, well, mostly pictures of Saddam Hussein in really flattering lighting.

I found this website while looking for information on the influence of politics and art while thinking about radio payola. It seems that payola has made a comeback since the 1960s and the few radio conglomerates that control most of the airwaves are again tightly controlling which artists get airtime, and consequently the big record contracts, based on payoffs, leaving the local, independent artists out in the cold. While the public cries out for more variety on the radio, we end up with the same old Ashlee and Jessica Simpson stuff over and over until music radio is un-listenable. Feingold introduced S 2058, the Radio and Concert Disclosure and Competition Act of 2005, last year but it was buried by republicans in the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.

I was thinking that the resurgence of payola and the monopoly of media conglomerates might have something to do with the lack of good anti-Bush, anti-war songs. However, there is a new song by Pink called Dear Mr. President. It was given an Explicit rating by iTunes meaning that it contains strong language, depictions of violence, sex or drug abuse. I read the lyrics here and have no idea what they are talking about except that in our new Bush- controlled world, not too different from Socialist or Nationalsocialist Realism, talking about the homeless, taking away our daughters' rights or simply disagreeing with Bush is considered "Explicit". Here are a couple of verses:

How do you sleep while the rest of us cry
How do you dream when a mother has no chance to say goodbye
How do you walk with your head held high
Can you even look me in the eye
Let me tell you bout hard work
Minimum wage with a baby on the way
Let me tell you bout hard work
Rebuilding your house after the bombs took them away
Let me tell you bout hard work
Building a bed out of a cardboard box
Let me tell you bout hard work
Hard work
Hard work
You don't know nothing bout hard work
Hard work
Hard work

Oh How do you sleep at night
How do you walk with your head held high
Dear Mr. President
You'd never take a walk with me
Would you

So, if we do not throw off this yoke of Bushism through election or impeachment, will all our art become nothing more than bland happy songs about the wonder and glory of war, spying on citizens and corporate written laws with paintings of Dick Cheney drunk, hunting quail and rich old white guys, all in really flattering lighting?

Fess up to the lies that created the mess and...

Bush's poll numbers have sunk to the point of turning Texas blue, Delay's case is going so badly for him he had to cut and run from his congressional seat taking his campaign donations to fund his defense, the Iraq war is going badly and losing support, Libby fingered Bush himself as a leaker, things are going badly in several GOP congressional campaigns....so it must be time to...........

1. Fess up to the lies that created the mess and clean up the house? NOPE
2. Fess up to the lies that created the mess and bring the troops home and help Iraq rebuild? NOPE
3. Fess up to the lies that created the mess and bring sanity back to setting a national budget? NOPE
4. Fess up to the lies that created the mess and restore Constitutional protection? NOPE
5. Fess up to the lies that created the mess and place appropriate controls on corporations in labor, consumer safety and advertising, SEC filings.? NOPE
6. Fess up to the lies that created the mess and restore separation of Church and State? NOPE
7. Fess up to the lies that created the mess and restore controls on and trust in our voting and vote counting system? NOPE
8. Fess up to the lies that created the mess and bring Osama Bin Laden to justice and break up Al Qaeda? NOPE
9. Fess up to the lies that created the mess and help create a real peace in the middle east? NOPE
10. Fess up to the lies that created the mess and stop leaks of CIA agent identities and other recent and relevant classified military information? NOPE
11. Fess up to the lies that created the mess and restore the fairness doctrine and our watchdog press? NOPE
12. Fess up to the lies that created the mess and really stop prisoner torture and stop blaming young, lowly clerks for the problem? NOPE
13. Fess up to the lies that created the mess and legislate real campaign finance reform? NOPE
15. Fess up to the lies that created the mess and stop oil price gouging? NOPE
16. Fess up to the lies that created the mess and fire Donald Rumsfeld? NOPE
17. Fess up to the lies that created the mess and finish the job in Afghanistan before the drug lords become as rich as the oil sheiks? NOPE
18. Fess up to the lies that created the mess and bring us back to 21st century science? NOPE
19. Fess up to the lies that created the mess and bring Americans back to their traditional values of truth, justice and liberty? NOPE
20. Fess up to the lies that created the mess and impeach this president who we never elected anyway? NOPE

NOPE NOPE NOPE

The GOP and the administration have a better idea! Let's start a war! Bring 'em on!

Here are the talking points:

It will be cheap, quick and easy. The enemy has weapons of mass destruction. The enemy practices a religion that is fundamentalist, just not our brand of fundamentalist. They have oil that we can use to fund their reconstruction. The people will be glad to see us and rejoice as we enter their cities as their heros.

Note to GOP: If a strategy you used before did not end up working so well for you, you might try to fess up to the lies that are about to create this mess, and work with the rest of the country and the rest of the world on a real solution.

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Here are some facts we all need to consider before jumping on the War is Patriotic, War is American, War will help Israel (the Mark Kirk) bandwagon:

1. Iran is big with well over 2 1/2 times the populaton of Iraq and some say has a better military capibility.
2. Iran's nuclear facilities are under ground and will not be easily destroyed by bombing.
3. According to Joe Cirincione of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Iran might be years away from a nuclear weapon. He believes while the situation is serious, it is not imminent.
4. Cirincione has further stated that a "military strike would consolidate the hold of the Islamic government, not loosen it."

The traditional GOP now has to decide if keeping these non-traditional, non- conservative fake republicans in power is worth it to them to create this new war bandwagon. The Democrats have to decide if they are willing to seek and find the truth and act on it rather than fear of agressive right wing campaign tactics. (If you ask John Kerry today if he wished he hadn't supported the war in any way to begin with, he might actually say yes.) The rest of us have to decide if we are actually more willing to take the consequences of another Bush war than take the time and effort to pay attention to what our government is doing.

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Some guy named Harry Taylor said it all Thursday right to the president's face Video-WMP. Below is a partial transcript. Read the rest here if the white house keeps it up on the web.:

Q You never stop talking about freedom, and I appreciate that. But while I listen to you talk about freedom, I see you assert your right to tap my telephone, to arrest me and hold me without charges, to try to preclude me from breathing clean air and drinking clean water and eating safe food. If I were a woman, you'd like to restrict my opportunity to make a choice and decision ab