The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age
    we are stardust's picture

    These Things Suck. And a link to the livestreaming of the Catfood Commission Presser

    By we are stardust on Wed, 11/10/2010 - 1:22pm |

    Unsurprising news comes that Obama is about to start running back his targeted date for beginning to withdraw our troops from Afghanistan.  He is, also unsurprisingly, going with a 2014 date to assess things…again.  Seems Petraeus was right all along, and I am shocked to discover what power he wields for the MICC.

    http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/11/09/103468/obama-administration-moving-away.html

     The five-year statute of limitations ran out yesterday for the prosecution of Jose Rodriguez who destroyed taped evidence of torture by CIA operatives.  US Attorney John Durham, Special Prosecutor in the case, reported through a spokesman that they had completed an “exhaustive investigation” of the matter, and he would not seek charges. 

    Attorney for Rodriguez, Bob Bennett, said this: “"This is the right decision because of the facts and the law. Jose Rodriguez is an American hero, a true patriot who only wanted to protect his people and his country."  In other words, he destroyed evidence of torture to protect interrogators from possible harm if the tapes were leaked.   A**holes.

    http://www.politico.com/blogs/joshgerstein/1110/DOJ_no_charges_in_destruction_of_CIA_interrogation_videos.html

    As the Federal government is busy claiming that shrimp and other seafood from the Gulf of Mexico are safe to eat, independent labs using more rigorous testing are reporting that that’s not true, and much tainted seafood has already been shipped for distribution.  Two labs secured the samples along the way:

    http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/11/activist-lab-tests-show-dangerously-toxic-substances-present-gulf-shrimp/

    The Catfood Commission is holding a presser right now; FDL will try to livestream it; leaked recommendations don’t look good; but then we already knew they wouldn’t:

    http://fdlaction.firedoglake.com/2010/11/10/catfood-commission-presser-livestreaming-at-1pm-et/  

    Comments

    “Finally, give a thought to a subject almost no one has wanted to talk about this autumn. The nation is in the 10th year of its longest war and in what has been for American forces the deadliest year of that war. Do not assume that all freshman Republicans will support the current strategy and objectives – whatever they are – in Afghanistan.”

    Noticed this at the end of a recent piece by George Will titled “Congress can keep Obama in check.” Any chance some conservatives may be rethinking the expenditures of war? 

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/05/AR2010110505213.html

    I also spotted this a few days ago at redstate.com.

    http://www.redstate.com/daveoconnor/2010/11/07/defense-a-right-wing-sacr...


    by Watt Childress on Wed, 11/10/2010 - 4:28pm

    Discouragingly, a mere 3% of voters in polls cited the wars as important in their votes; though it wasn't as if one Party or many up for election were touting anything but the status quo.  Will has been consistently anti-interventionist.  When he and Arianna would agree on This Week, they would laugh and laugh.  Oh, ho ho ho.

    I get that Republicans can advocate for Defense trimming; Dems, too.  But so much of it comes down to where and what to cut, and too many have states and districts directly affected by Defense pork projects and spending.

    And tomorrow is Veteran's Day.  And 59 million Americans are without health insurance, according to the CDC.


    by we are stardust on Wed, 11/10/2010 - 5:25pm

    There's no denying that so much sucks.

    I'm sure you've heard that Obama turned down the invitation to join five of his fellow Nobel Peace Laureates, including the Dalai Lama, at a nuclear-disarmament conference in Hiroshima next weekend. He'll be in Japan, but too busy focusing on economic issues.

    When things get this bad, my imagination kicks in. Perhaps it's some sort of fail-safe mechanism.

    Here's a fantasy that's been toying with my mind a bit. What if Obama has deeply profound convictions and is really a master at three-dimensional chess? What if he's playing the role of corporate puppet to the hilt in order to fully expose how screwed-up Washington is? Maybe he plans to keep doing that for the next two years, using a kind of industrial-strength political cleanser to wash away any false hope for the current system.

    "Primary me," he's saying to us. "Or run a third-party candidate. Just do it, for God's sake, I beg you."

    Then he'll pull out the secret weapon he's been carrying all along. A sword, upon which he'll fall during the campaign. Status quo sepuku.

    Or not. Think I'll go for a bike ride. Been spending way too much time in front of the screen.

     


    by Watt Childress on Wed, 11/10/2010 - 6:41pm

    LOL!  Too much time, son!  Yer trippin'!

    Although: isn't Obama working hard on Start II?  Quite a legacy it could be... It's just all the other war things: his attorneys in court still defining killing Americans (abroad) in executive, unilateral decision as LEGAL.  When one says: please prove I deserve it, the Obama folks say: "Sorry; can't do it; it would/might give away State Secrets...."  I despair.

    http://ccrjustice.org/   


    by we are stardust on Wed, 11/10/2010 - 9:19pm

    Another thing that sucks: Tim Geithner as Treasury Secretary. Here's a concise spot-on post on the subject from the editor of redstate.

    http://www.redstate.com/erick/2010/11/10/why-does-tim-geithner-still-hav...

     


    by Watt Childress on Thu, 11/11/2010 - 2:12am

    When Erick son of Erick is both concise and spot on ... you KNOW stuff is sucky.


    by kgb999 on Thu, 11/11/2010 - 2:50am

    LOL!  But look at the comments below; most seem to have the fingers of blame pointed in sorta skewed directions: George Soros killing capitalism, etc., and calling the shots; TARP as all-Obama, 'Stimulus all going to UNION jobs', turning the country 'socialist', la la la.  And you might not get one of them to agree that upper incomes HAVE to pay more taxes.  That buggery about the wealthy creating jobs hasn't been discredited yet.  It's an easy theory to tell and thus believe  I guess.

    Since Americans have no royalty, we seem to adore the splendor of our faux royals, and tend to believe that they became wealthy, they deserve to be, and don't owe America nuttin'.  It's pretty hard to get some 'liberals' even to understand how tax policy and government spending promoted that accrual of wealth.  Odd.


    by we are stardust on Thu, 11/11/2010 - 8:32am

    I am the first to admit that I am one liberal who is undoubtedly a little thick in the head. After all - from a macro sense - I just can't quite wrap my arms around the idea that we "human resources" must make sacrifices like surrendering our social safety nets (SS, Medicare, pensions, unemployment compensation, etc.), and reduce our wages, and accept a steady decline in our standard of living, and work longer hours  - all in support of the growth and overall health of the economy. We all want a vibrant economy, don't we? Well, don't we?

    I guess I find something missing in that argument.

    But who knows? If we would all just take our places as day laborers, sitting on a park bench sucking cheap wine out of a brown paper bag, we might just get the best goddam economy you ever saw! Wouldn't THAT be grand!


    by SleepinJeezus on Thu, 11/11/2010 - 9:04am

    Amen, Sleepin.  I'm not seeing many jobs for day laborers anymore, either.  But, hey, all it takes are tax cuts for everybody.  You'll see.  The jobs will be back. 

    I suppose you're wondering why those tax cuts for the top 2 percent didn't create jobs in the last decade? That's the trouble with you people.  You think too much.  You ask too many questions.  That's why everybody hates liberals.


    by Ramona on Thu, 11/11/2010 - 9:37am

    So the 2012 Obama strategy is to cave in now, then blame Republicans. "See, we did it their way again and loook what happened, no jobs. We need real change this time."


    by Oxy Mora on Thu, 11/11/2010 - 10:05am

    Trouble with that theory is that if the economy deteriorates even more, and jobless rates rise, as most sane economists predict, Obama won't have a prayer, and he'd be primaried, though opinions differ about it being from the left or the right.

    And if from the Right, I'd guess it will be because the more fervent War Hawks have their way even further.  (Iran, Yemen, Pakistan, who knows?)  But that thought is possibly fallacious, since I've been reading perhaps too much on the wars and foreign policy than is good for me in my current brain-state.  At the very least, I think the Dems might choose a general as Veep candidate.

    Replace Geithner?  Cripes; we don't even know who Obama will appoint to replace Summers yet; though the floating names are all big bank and business ones.  Melissa Bean to head the CFPB?  Did she even lose yet?  Her website says they won't even count the remaining 4,000 ballots until later in the month.  What's up with THAT? 

    IF, and it's a big IF, Obama is getting what he wants in terms of policy and outcomes in the financial sector, and endorses ANY cuts to social programs, and keeps extending the wars and de facto wars, I think a lot of his supporters are going to start challenging his Democratic credentials, though they/we should have by now, anyway, IMO. 

    We have to remember that the Catfood Commission is Obama's baby, and that Simpson and Bowles held the Bad-cop presser while Obama was out of the country, and without advising the White House ahead of time has great meaning, and one possibility is that he created a MOnster he couldn't control, and the other is that their report suits his agenda of leading with the horrific, then negotiating cuts to some level he can sell as sane. 

    There doesn't seem to be any front on which there isn't panic, demagoguery, lying, obfuscation, conspiracy, and confusion, whether on the domestic front, currency, trade, or tax policy and finance.  I don't see where rational thinking or explanation prevails soon.  And as I said, it may just be because I am feeling so outside of the mainstream once again, but centrist Dem patience ain't gonna get us even close to where we need to get, and the passionate arguments we need to save the non-2% of Americans in the short run, let alone the long one.

     

     


    by we are stardust on Thu, 11/11/2010 - 10:38am

    The argument about tax breaks for the rich has been badly framed. It's not about what their role is, we know they are whores, so we are simply discussing price. And they are not all that good at what they do so why overpay them?


    by Oxy Mora on Thu, 11/11/2010 - 10:16am

    Thanks for that ref. I'm trying to imagine the downside of cashiering Geithner and can't think of one. What's odd to me is that the rabble themselves aren't calling for his head to roll, like Boehner was doing a while back.


    by Oxy Mora on Thu, 11/11/2010 - 9:57am

    Aw, quityerbitchin' and repeat after me:

    "I pledge allegiance, to the flag, of The Banana Republic that used to be America, and to the corporations for which it stands. One nation, under siege, with Liberty and Justice for those who can afford it."

    There. Feel Better?

     


    by SleepinJeezus on Wed, 11/10/2010 - 6:17pm

    Thank you, Jeezus!  (as they say.)  I'll name my next kid Banana Republic.    Tongue out


    by we are stardust on Wed, 11/10/2010 - 6:59pm

    I'm really glad to see you back in real form. Don't have much to add to the thread, except that the war extention is not passing the smell test. Is this more budget than bullets? After all if we continue, but in a leaner and meaner fashion, we can kill more bad guys with drones and also stretch out the payments, like a car loan refinance. Compensate for all that tax revenue we are going to give away.


    by Oxy Mora on Wed, 11/10/2010 - 7:30pm

    Ah, Oxyme-dear; can i come back soon?  I gotta get dinner on the table, and it was Bread Day, fix the f'ed-up computer day, solve the New Kid Crisis Day...and now it's Hoist a Couple Cheap Vodka-shots Time.  I luvs ya; and I shall return.

    Meanwhile: killing bad guys with drones is seriously not working to our advantage.  Or theirs (meaning civilians.)


    by we are stardust on Wed, 11/10/2010 - 7:48pm

    Oxy, the last chart the Generals presented with a timeline for Afghanistan had three possible scenarios graphed; it was obvious to all which was the preferred one: the timeline sorta stretched out past 2020, and got a little wobbly.  At that point, the remaining troops may have been 60,000+, but don't trust my crap memory.  Too many reasons to stay, inclusing Silk Roads, Pipelines, Bases and more Gigantic Bases, a huge new prison complex and airport.  Some journalists say that  Bagram is a major city now, though all military, and is ample evidence that we ain't leavin'. 

    So Obama is in India, trying to placate them over 'terrorists' in Pakistan, more drone strikes there making more enemies.  Can't think what our foreign policy amounts to in Iran or Af/Pak; it seems so incoherent.  And so immoral, which is the part we too often skirt around in our eagerness to justify pre-emptive wars and the continuation of same, I think.


    by we are stardust on Wed, 11/10/2010 - 10:01pm

    Since each and every decision Obama and his administration are making seems to be rooted in re-election strategy -- however terminally flawed -- I think it's time we buy into the program, which means presentation, rather than substance, tag lines rather than concern for bread lines. Therefore, I recommend the following tagline for Obama 2012:

    "Change Concession/Compromise We He Can Believe In"


    by wws on Wed, 11/10/2010 - 7:49pm

    I'd agree on the Bumper Sticker, but look at the war extensions, both in Afghanistan AND Iraq (didn't post that one, as per Gates Read: new SOFA, fuck 'em) but it's INSANITY as far as re-election strategy goes.  Earth to Obama: only the Masters of War like your wars!!!!!  No, people are distracted by other matters, like no jobs, no insurance, including health, families are 'food-insecure' to a great degree. Shrunken pensions, shopping carts and Hefty Bags as our retirement plans...what the fuck?

    You and Jeezus may be seeing it the right way:  ask for the Soma, take The Pledge to the Banana Republic.  I would, I think, were it not for my grandbabbies.  I'd been trying to help toward finishing the walk-out basement of this tiny, tight, solar house to accomodate other generations, but hell; there's no work here.  Some days it feels like we're trading the same twenty dollar bills around...  Oops.  Vodka talking here, and a little bit o' self-pity.   Sealed

    Wish I knew WTF he does believe in, wws.  Sleep well tonight: Your Catfood Commission Is Awake!


    by we are stardust on Wed, 11/10/2010 - 9:08pm