Category: Politics

Gives New Meaning to the Term “Standing for Election”

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A Sex Party has been formed in Canada, which is committed to the liberalization of sex laws and regulations and to to combat the stigmatization of sex in the political process in North America:

The monster in question is ‘erotophobia‘. “Running amok through the North American psyche – like a deranged yet invisible King Kong – are deeper antisex attitudes that produce stale marriages, anti-prostitution legislation, laws against public nudity, government classification of pornography, cautionary – not positive – sex-education classes, media censorship, homophobia, and the biggest bugaboo of all: guilt.”

This follows the formation of similar political organizations in Australia and the UK.

I actually think that puritanical attitudes about sex, and the alarmist attitudes about the juxtaposition of sex and race in the United States, have created a truly delusional mindset on the part of the right wing, and the emergence of a truly pro-sex movement in the US would therefore be a good thing.

Signs of the Apocalypse

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It’s by Lanny Davis, a Washington, DC insider, and the guy who accused people supporting Ned Lamont in 2006 against Joe Lieberman of “Liberal McCarthyism“, and he is calling for the criminal prosecution of Dick Cheney for authorizing torture:

I have agreed with President Obama on the need to look forward, not backward.

But … I have changed my mind about the need to indict former Vice President Dick Cheney for complicity in illegal torture.

…

Even more, they seem to be an in-your-face dare by Mr. Cheney to the U.S. criminal justice system: “I am Dick Cheney, I approved violations of the law in the name of the war on terror, and what are you going to do about it?”

It reminds me of Gary Hart’s reaction in the early days of his 1988 presidential campaign to the rumors of his womanizing. …..

So as to Mr. Cheney: I think it is time to take him up on his implicit dare and indict him for violating the 1994 federal law against torture.

This is as big a Beltway Blowhard™ as they come, and he called for Dick Cheney to be prosecuted, and got it published in the Moonie Times (Link is to The Hill, which republished it.

I don’t think that he is suggesting this out of any real moral imperative, it’s just that he feels that Dick Cheney is, to paraphrase Bull Durham, “Calling the umpire a called the guy a c$#@sucker,” which offends his genteel Beltway sensibilities.

Pelosi/CIA Update

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It turns out that some of the people’s notes on the briefings could not have been made contemporaneously, as the term enhanced interrogation techniques (EITs) was used extensively throughout, and this term was not used before 2004, and the briefing was given in 2002.

This does not mean that anyone at the CIA is lying, though my guess is that some of them are, but it means that the notes used are not those made at the time.

So, you have every Dem who was briefed on that day saying that the CIA did not say then that it was torturing, and you have numerous errors in attendance, staffers being called present, Rep. David Obey challenging the accuracy of the documents, and notes that Porter Goss was briefed along with members of Congress after he became head of the CIA.

As Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman would say, “This one’s busted.”

Pelosi Says that CIA Is Lying

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I’m inclined to agree, since, as I have already noted, both Senators Rockefeller and Graham confirm her account of CIA briefings.

In any case, Nancy Pelosi has upped the ante now, and she has specifically called the CIA out as liars:

At a contentious news conference Thursday, Mrs. Pelosi said that during the 2002 briefing, “we were told that waterboarding was not being used.” Mrs. Pelosi acknowledged that as the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, she was briefed on Sept. 4, 2002, about waterboarding, a form of simulated drowning that critics, including President Barack Obama, call torture. But she said CIA officials told her and other lawmakers only that the Justice Department had concluded the procedure was legal.

This is interesting, because it may force Obama, whether he likes it or not, to put his support behind an investigation of the torture issue, as opposed to his desire to cover it up put it behind us.

It would be amusing if ‘Phant attacks on Pelosi end up precipitating a full investigation of this matter.

Snake Oil?

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So, Barack Obama has gotten the medical industry to promise $2 trillion in health care savings over the next 10 years, by limiting medical inflation to “only” 4.7% a year.

I think that it’s clear that the medical industry is lying, but I have no clue as to what Obama is up to, except perhaps that this is a preemptive strike to prevent the public option from being discussed…I’m not smart enough to figure out another reason.

Me, I’d bank on the fact that almost everyone hates their insurance company, and wage Jihad against them, but that is just me.

Maybe there is some sort of Obam jujitsu going on here, and I just don’t see it.

Senate Democrats Define “Loyal Democrat”

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Well, Arlen Specter just got pwn3Ð (owned) by the Democratic Senate caucus, which denied him seniority.

I don’t blame Specter for the joke about wanting Coleman to win, but the idea that he would get full credit for his seniority rankled the people who were a few years behind him, and then on Sunday he said that he would not be a loyal Democrat on MTP.

Notwithstanding Harry Reid’s reported promise that Specter would keep his seniority, the Democratic caucus had other plans on this.

I am not sure who is more amused by this, Republithugs, or Democrats.

When the Rude Pundit Isn’t

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He isn’t rude, that is, at least after the first paragraph, where he compares Republicans to fattie amputee midget S&M fetishists who draw a line when someone sends them links to child porn:

Some conservatives have actually gotten queasy with the release of the torture memos and the Senate Armed Services Committee report on the same. Maggie Gallagher, who has lived for years now off the lucre she makes from her hatred of gay marriage, once praised the illegal data mining that Bush’s NSA did: “When exposed to information about efforts like this by President Bush, I am not outraged. I’m deeply grateful. And worried now about who might die now that The New York Times has published this information.” Now, in the National Review Online (motto: “Is anyone still reading this sh$# beyond bloggers who need something to argue with?”), Gallagher writes, “I personally believe torture is wrong. We shouldn’t do it. Even if it means me, my husband, and my two sons get blown up. Seriously, if I had to choose I’d say: Death is common to us all; torture is a choice.” It’s as impassioned an anti-torture statement as anyone on the Left has made.

($#@ of swear words mine, as is the emphasis)

He’s right. Maggie Gallagher gets it.

Go read the rest.

Specter Switches Parties

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This is obviously the big news of the day, which is that Arlen Specter is changing parties, and becoming a Democrat.

The immediate effect is that Coleman-Franken goes on for another year, because now when Franken gets seated,* the Dems have the votes necessary for cloture.

If you read his official statement, he does not say that he is becoming a Democrat, just that he will be running in the Democratic primary, which is a less than sterling endorsement of the party, though his statement that, “The Republican Party has moved far to the right,” is no endorsement of them either.

Personally, it’s nice having a 60th vote for cloture, whenever the damn Minnesota recount is done,* but fundamentally, I see this as being all about Arlen Specter.

He squeaked out a primary victory in 2004 against wingnut Pat Toomey, and realized that, with moderates increasingly changing party affiliations to independent or Democrat, he had no chance of winning.

As a final thought on him: Quoth the Atrios, who was quoting Harry Reid, “Arlen Specter’s with us except when we need him.”

He’ll be a weasel, and will remain so.

I expect this to continue, particularly with regard to the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) labor legislation, which he says he will continue to oppose, despite sponsoring it a few years back.

*Please, just make it stop…..This recount is going on forever!!†
†Why yes, that little self-destructing man will continue to be a part of my Minnesota recount coverage.

Just in Case You Were Wondering How Tied Into Wall Street Geithner Is….

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The New York Times has a rundown of his ties, and the behavior that this has engendered:

Timothy F. Geithner, who as president of the New York Federal Reserve Bank oversaw many of the nation’s most powerful financial institutions, stunned the group with the audacity of his answer. He proposed asking Congress to give the president broad power to guarantee all the debt in the banking system, according to two participants, including Michele Davis, then an assistant Treasury secretary.

The proposal quickly died amid protests that it was politically untenable because it could put taxpayers on the hook for trillions of dollars.

“People thought, ‘Wow, that’s kind of out there,’ ” said John C. Dugan, the comptroller of the currency, who heard about the idea afterward. Mr. Geithner says, “I don’t remember a serious discussion on that proposal then.”

But in the 10 months since then, the government has in many ways embraced his blue-sky prescription. Step by step, through an array of new programs, the Federal Reserve and Treasury have assumed an unprecedented role in the banking system, using unprecedented amounts of taxpayer money, to try to save the nation’s financiers from their own mistakes.

And more often than not, Mr. Geithner has been a leading architect of those bailouts, the activist at the head of the pack. He was the federal regulator most willing to “push the envelope,” said H. Rodgin Cohen, a prominent Wall Street lawyer who spoke frequently with Mr. Geithner.

There is no failure in Wall Street that Geithner does not think should be subsidized by the taxpayer, or as Yves Smith says, “Geithner is a creature of the financial establishment.”

What is important here is that this was page 1 on the New York Times, which is a recognition by the main stream media that this is a problem, and they used his calendar while President of the New York Fed, showing private meetings and lunches with Wall Street executives, as a part of this.

The use of the calendar is very competent shoe leather journalism, and as Ms. Smith notes, it is exceedingly rare to see it used in a story.

If you scroll down toward the bottom of the story, you discover that the bill drafted to give the Treasury the authority to take over large institutions was drafted by Wall Street lobbyists, literally.

The draft bill sent to Congress sent contained metadata that showed it was from a law firm that represents lobbyists.

Seriously, if the problem is that the banking industry and its ethos are dysfunctional, and I believe this to be the case, you could not find a worse steward of this crisis.

And the MSM is beginning to notice,

Bybee Broke the Law Because He Wanted to be a Judge

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Friends of one of the torture memo authors have been waging a campaign to rehabilitate him by explaining his motives, which is, unfortunately, at the end of the article:

“The whole idea that the Constitution is based on a kind of wariness of mankind’s tendency to grab power, that is an idea I got from Jay,” McAffee said. “So the whole idea of uninhibited executive power, from him, does seem passing strange.”

Bybee’s friends said he never sought the job at the Office of Legal Counsel. The reason he went back to Washington, Guynn said, was to interview with then-White House counsel Alberto R. Gonzales for a slot that would be opening on the 9th Circuit when a judge retired. The opening was not yet there, however, so Gonzales asked, “Would you be willing to take a position at the OLC first?” Guynn said.

Being unable to answer for what followed is “very frustrating,” said Guynn, who spoke to Bybee before agreeing to be interviewed.

Gee, he was a movement conservative who thought he deserved a Federal judgeship, so he authorized torture, even though he knew that it was wrong.

That does not make his circumstances better, it makes them even more indefensible.

He did it because he was a career Apparatchik, not out of any conviction or perceived need.

Bonus video:

John Podesta calls for Bybee’s impeachment.

Lockheed Martin Rolls Over on F-22 Cancellation

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This is an unexpected but welcome development:

A top Lockheed Martin executive says the company will not oppose the Department of Defense’s proposal to halt F-22 production. The company stands to lose production lines for the F-22 and the VH-71 presidential helicopter under fiscal year 2010 budget proposals announced by Secretary of Defense Robert Gates on 6 April.

I can’t imagine what gun that they are holding to LM’s head to make them do this, but it needs to used across the entire Pentagon procurement process.

Obama Now Comes Out Against Truth Commission

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What the hell is wrong with everyone in Washington?

Meeting with the Democratic leadership on Wednesday night, Mr. Obama said a special inquiry would steal time and energy from his policy agenda, and could mushroom into a wider distraction looking back at the Bush years, people briefed on the discussion said. Mr. Obama, they said, repeated much the same message on Thursday at a bipartisan meeting with Congressional leaders.

The Senate majority leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, and other top Senate Democrats endorsed Mr. Obama’s view on Thursday, telling reporters at a news conference at the Capitol that they preferred to wait for the results of an investigation by the Senate Intelligence Committee expected late this year.

It should be noted that senior Senators on the Intel Committee have already been described as having signed off on torture, and as such Rockefeller, Feinstein*, Roberts, etc. have a vested interest in burying this.

The fact is that the American public wants this, the Republicans are going to fight you every step of the way on your agenda anyway, but still, you are determined to kick the can down the road long enough that people will forget.

This is not partisan politics, it is, as Krugman says, a battle for America’s soul, and it appears that the folks inside the Beltway just don’t give a damn

And the only way we can regain our moral compass, not just for the sake of our position in the world, but for the sake of our own national conscience, is to investigate how that happened, and, if necessary, to prosecute those responsible.

What about the argument that investigating the Bush administration’s abuses will impede efforts to deal with the crises of today? Even if that were true — even if truth and justice came at a high price — that would arguably be a price we must pay: laws aren’t supposed to be enforced only when convenient. But is there any real reason to believe that the nation would pay a high price for accountability?

Tim Geithner, the Treasury secretary, wouldn’t be called away from his efforts to rescue the economy. Peter Orszag, the budget director, wouldn’t be called away from his efforts to reform health care. Steven Chu, the energy secretary, wouldn’t be called away from his efforts to limit climate change. Even the president needn’t, and indeed shouldn’t, be involved. All he would have to do is let the Justice Department do its job — which he’s supposed to do in any case — and not get in the way of any Congressional investigations.

Why this scramble not to investigate. It makes no sense.

*Full disclosure, my great grandfather, Harry Goldman, and her grandfather, Sam Goldman were brothers, though we have never met, either in person or electronically.

Props to Senator Pat Leahy

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He is saying that he will not allow bipartisanship to be used as an excuse to delay an investigation into torture:

Sen. Patrick Leahy pledged today that if he cannot get the votes to create a bipartisan commission to investigate U.S. torture policy under former President George W. Bush — and regardless of calls by President Obama that any inquiry be bipartisan — he’ll conduct his own partisan inquiry in the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Leahy’s comments after a press conference on Capitol Hill today exposed a growing rift between Democrats in Congress and the White House on how to seek accountability from Bush-era Justice officials for condoning torture in the aftermath of 9/11.

Leahy is right, and Obama is wrong, morally, legally, and politically.

When you do not prosecute, these people keep coming back, which is why you had so many Watergate and Iran-Contra alums in Bush’s staff and cabinet.

A Mindset that Bob Gates and His Successor Need to Break

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SecDef Gates is looking to insource acquisition expertise into the Pentagon, hiring 4,100 people in this area by 2010, and 9,000 by 2015.

This is a good idea, but the mindset in this article shows why it will be hard, starting with the title, Top Talent Won’t Pick Pentagon for Pay.

The first assumption is that junior hires, “they won’t know enough to make much of a difference for at least six or seven years,” is simply wrong.

A good person can be online and doing good work in under 6 months, one who is merely competent can do the same in 18.

What’s more, with the expansion of internal positions at the Pentagon, the job prospects for outside consultants shrink accordingly, which will both bring new people in, and dissuade people who have done a few years in there from moving into outside positions.

It’s not going to be easy, but it will be much better than what we have now.

D’oh! I Miss the Obvious!

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And the Shrill One, Paul Krugman, catches it

So the market was greatly reassured when Tim Geithner declared that the “vast majority” of banks are well capitalized. Count me as baffled. …..

After all, there are a lot of banks in America. There are 1,722 institutions on the Fed’s list of “large commercial banks”. And I have no doubt that most of these banks — indeed, the vast majority — are in fine shape. That’s because they’re regional institutions that never got into the risky games played by the big guys.

But the big guys are where the money is. ….

The construction of the statement was odd, and I noticed it, but missed the connection, that about 20 banks control something in excess of ¾ of the assets out there. If 17 of those banks are insolvent, only 1% of the banks would be in trouble, but a majority of bank holdings would be wiped out.