The Broad View

RJ is brilliant...again

This is a MUST READ!

An excerpt:

You probably remember Rumsfeld's line: "Democracy is messy." But you may not remember when he said it. It was in response to widespread looting of banks, offices, and museums. That says a lot. To this crowd, "democracy" is a violent mob. Representative government is an unpleasant necessity, not a value or an ideal. The rest of us think "war is too important to be left to the generals." They think self-government is too important to be left to the voters.

To some extent this is nothing more than greed and lust for power, the misuse of conservatism as a cover for naked self-interest. But it also reflects a difference in political philosophy that goes back to Locke and Hobbes. Their equation of democracy with mob rule, so clearly mirrored in Rumsfeld's comment, helps explain why they feel morally entitled to lie, cheat, and steal votes. To them, voters aren't reflections of a democratic ideal. They're suspects, threats, enemies. They're the Iraqi mob looting the Museum of Antiquities.

"Because he's black"

H/T to Andrew Sullivan for this extraordinary video of the AFL-CIO's Richard Trumka speaking on racism and Obama. As Sully says, "Something truly profound could happen in this election, if we want it to."

I weep for us...for our poor, broken country

Glenn Greenwald: "Today's coverup of surveillance crimes and Barack Obama — The Democratic nominee's support for this bill speaks volumes about what he is and isn't."

Read it and you'll weep too.

Obama the Octopus? Superdelegates take note!

The "other shoe" keeps dropping.

Just how many legs and feet does Obama have, and thus how many more shoes are there to drop? As I wrote to a friend, an Obama supporter, "What's next? Asking Joe Lieberman to be his running mate?"

Put another way, a question I put forward in a much earlier post: Just how many progressive principles is Obama willing to sacrifice in order to achieve "post-partisanship"? We are beginning to get the answer.

Consider his recent stance on FISA; the pandering to the right with his proposed augmentation of Bush's "faith-based initiative;" the obfuscations of his position on ending the war in Iraq; and his, uh, restatement of just what it means for a woman to have a "right to choose."

To my fellow-progressives, my fellow-liberals, those of you who giddily parroted Obama's "change" mantra, projected your own "hope" onto a blank screen, confused style with substance -- how are you feeling today about your candidate?

I know that the FISA business has caused a great stir on the listserves and in the comment area of Obama's website. But that may not be enough.

It may be time for serious re-thinking. It's not too late for superdelegates to change their minds. All it would take is a caucus, and a vote for Hillary, and the nomination could be hers after all.

That's what superdelegates are all about...being the grown-ups who keep the Democratic Party from being hijacked. And make no mistake, it is being hijacked, by a charismatic orator whose only ambition is for himself and who has now proven that he will say anything and do anything, including sacrificing family, friends, surrogates, supporters -- and the bedrock principles of the Democratic Party -- if they get in his way.

Toobin on Obama says it all

Today on The Situation Room (made palatable by the absence of Wolf Blitzer, with John Roberts replacing him) -- Jeffrey Toobin had the last word. He turned to a fellow panel-member and said,

I'm old enough to remember when Barack Obama was a Democrat.

Whitewash and hogwash

As long as I'm talking about corporations, Republicans and branding, I'd like to segue to the related issue of image manipulation and control.

Corporations have learned to use image advertising to effectively change the public's perception of the corporation's business and reputation. (Since most corporate types are Republicans, the Party has naturally adopted the same techniques.)

There are two commercials currently being broadcast widely that I find galling. Every time I see one, I literally yell at the tv and whoever's in the room.

The first, and most infuriating, is the ad for the PPA -- the Partnership for Prescription Assistance. It opens with a string of ordinary slobs expressing their heartfelt thanks to the PPA for enabling them to get their prescriptions, i.e., to remain alive. Then we get spokesman Montel Williams cheerily informing us that through the goodness of America's pharmaceutical industry, poor people around the country who had difficulty affording their prescriptions are now getting free meds. Then we see the PPA Bus trundling over the countryside presumably dropping anti-depressants and statins off the back to the grateful groundlings.

This is image manipulation on a world class scale. The rapacious pharmaceutical companies know that news stories about poor people suffering and dying because they can't afford their meds -- anywhere from $155 to $398 for a month's supply of Advair or $31 to $82 for Lovastatin -- would be the end of their sweet deal. Not even their trained seal legislators would be able to withstand the public roar for draconian regulation. This must be avoided at all costs.

So even though the blood-sucking pharmaceuticals will get those extortionate prices from Americans who can somehow afford it, they manage to avoid the worst publicity by giving medicine away to the poor to shut them up. It's just good business for them, the same as buying friendly congressmen and senators or taking doctors on lavish junkets so they'll remember your pills and potions when they take out the Rx pad. And in the end, given the obscene profits the pharmaceuticals rake in, giving pills away and bribing people is small change.

Meanwhile, those of us with prescription insurance coverage rarely hear or see the actual list price for the drugs we buy. Sure, we know the co-pays have gone up precipitously and may be killing us at $35 a pop for brand names, but we can hardly fathom that some drugs cost a king's ransom. And many don't make the connection between outrageous drug costs and premiums rising at double-digit rates.

But hey -- we've got Montel Williams to soothe us with tales of pharmaceutical philanthropy.

The second ad is one of those commercials with lush photography, romantic images, intimate music and a sentimental, feel-good narrative -- all saying exactly nothing about the product. Behold "The Human Element":

Quite a stretch from the Dow Chemical of my youth, the loathed manufacturer of napalm. The despoiler of our nation's air and waterways. The negligent corporate parent of Union Carbide, the company responsible for the disaster of Bhopal, still toxic after more than twenty years.

It's so sad. "The Human Element" is a lovely series of images and sentiments. It's obscene that it's in the service of a transparent whitewash.

It's not that we don't understand that chemical manufacturing is an indispensible part of our lives. It's not that we don't appreciate the chemical products that make our lives better. But none of that excuses crimes against our planet and criminal neglect. To Dow Chemical though, it's easier to manipulate public opinion through a pretty ad than to clean up their act.

And there are others -- the ads for the extractive industries that tell us how much they care about the environment as if they did more than the bare minimum to comply with regulation. My favorite is BP with the sunny flower logo. We're supposed to applaud because they're researching alternative energy technologies now. Yay! It would be rude to remind them that they're also part of the global oil racket that is determined to keep pumping and selling at ever-higher prices until there's not a drop left. Bah.

The ACLU has a blog!

Here!

"A sign of profound desperation"

The Times has a story up that should make us weep, or rage; I'm not sure which. One thing seems certain, though: This country has entered an economic and political landscape that is uncharted, and who the hell knows where we'll end up.

BEND, Ore. — Last month, right after he had the heart attack and then the heart surgery and then started receiving the medical bills that so far have topped $200,000, Melvin Tsosies joined the 91,000 other residents of Oregon who had signed up for a lottery that provides health insurance to people who lack it. [...]

Despite the great hopes of people like Mr. Tsosies, only a few thousand of Oregon’s 600,000 uninsured residents are likely to benefit from the lottery anytime soon. The program has only enough money to pay for about 24,000 people, and at least 17,000 slots are already filled.

Let's consider this for a moment: Health care by lottery. It sounds like the plot of a dystopian movie, perhaps "Mad Max: Beyond Medicaid."

“There’s so much need that there’s really no way you can meet it,” said Chris Coon, the outreach manager for the Community Clinic of Bend....

“Using a random process to decide who gets health care is a sign of profound desperation,” Mr. Coon said.

This is in the United States in 2008, a mere 63 years after we vanquished enemies in two hemispheres and strode the earth as the richest, most enlightened and most powerful nation the world had ever seen. How do we find this even remotely tolerable?

Methinks he doth protest too much

Wow. I happened to catch a break in the Spitzer Scandal and Totally Tanking Economy news coverage: Emperor Bush commanded some live teevee time for a little barking from the bully pulpit on the House Dems' "partisan" FISA bill. Let me tell you, he's trying to sound pissed but it's looking more and more like panic to me.

Anyone who believes Bush is merely an inarticulate clod hasn't seen him when he's really focused and right now he's totally focused on getting telecom immunity. In just a few minutes, he pulled out every bogus argument, hammered each at least twice, implied that House Dems would rather embolden terrorists and trial lawyers than keep your children safe, vowed to veto the House bill and demanded they pass his bill before Easter break. He then turned and stalked off.

I don't expect the craven Dems to hold the line against this. They have no idea how to counter Bush's version of reality. They're too frightened of President Twenty Percent to see or even care that in this we've finally found his Achilles' heel.

Bush knows these telecom suits will pry open the doors of his administration's dungeon and that he could be found criminally liable. I believe there is no issue more important to Bush right now. From now until next Jan. 20 the White House will do everything to shred, burn and bury the evidence of eight years of high crimes and misdemeanors.

The miserable Pelosi may have taken impeachment off the table but there's no reason Bush couldn't be indicted in criminal court or sued in civil court once he's an ordinary citizen again. (Here I must admit to a small irrational fear that Bush and Cheney will engineer the October surprise to end all October surprises, such that elections are "postponed" indefinitely.) The idea -- no, the certainty that Bush and his criminal gang will walk is intolerable.

Update: Kagro X over on DKos is feeling more sanguine about the House Dems' ability to resist Bush:

Every time Congressional Dems actually slow down and take stock of the situation -- from Senator Chris Dodd's brave (and lonely and seemingly futile) stand, to the cautious maneuvering of House Dems today -- new revelations arise that should make all Americans who value our freedoms glad they did. [...]

Every time the Congress seems ready to give in on FISA, we find out more about how crazy Bush is, the deal falls apart, and the Constitution wins back a few inches of turf.

No one will be happier to be wrong about the House Dems than I. If enough of them rediscover their backbones -- with a little help from blogosphere activism -- to defy Bush's demands, I will do a happy dance. Update 2: Glenn Greenwald has more.

Tools of the Trade

The corruptions of political speech are legion and never-ending. Caesar Bush has grounded his deceptions in the language of the CEO, the accountant, the technocratic fixer. Today's corrupted word is "tools". Here's Caesar Bush in his radio address last Saturday, explaining why he vetoed the intelligence authorization bill:

[...] Al Qaida remains determined to attack America again. Two years ago, Osama bin Laden warned the American people, "Operations are under preparation, and you will see them on your own ground once they are finished." Because the danger remains, we need to ensure our intelligence officials have all the tools they need to stop the terrorists.

Unfortunately, Congress recently sent me an intelligence authorization bill that would diminish these vital tools. So today, I vetoed it. And here is why:

The bill Congress sent me would take away one of the most valuable tools in the war on terror -- the CIA program to detain and question key terrorist leaders and operatives. [...]

Caesar changes it up with "techniques", "procedures" and "methods" -- it's all so antiseptic and professional. Americans should never need to think about the blood, the vomit, the urine and feces, the sweat of one-on-one terror practiced by our government representatives on captives who've been effectively removed from the face of the earth and hidden from the eyes of the law. Let's be clear. Here are the tools of the trade:

Rest assured, the CIA isn't the only government agency in need of more and better tools. In an earlier broadcast from what the Times calls "Radio Fear America," Bush castigated the House for delaying passage of the "Gut the Fourth Amendment Protect America Act":

The Senate passed a good bill that would have given our intelligence professionals the tools they need to keep us safe. But leaders in the House of Representatives blocked a House vote on the Senate bill, and then left on a 10-day recess.

Some congressional leaders claim that this will not affect our security. They are wrong. Because Congress failed to act, it will be harder for our government to keep you safe from terrorist attack. At midnight, the Attorney General and the Director of National Intelligence will be stripped of their power to authorize new surveillance against terrorist threats abroad. This means that as terrorists change their tactics to avoid our surveillance, we may not have the tools we need to continue tracking them -- and we may lose a vital lead that could prevent an attack on America. [...]

At this moment, somewhere in the world, terrorists are planning a new attack on America. And Congress has no higher responsibility than ensuring we have the tools to stop them.

Oh. My. God. Quick! Take my rights and keep me safe! For the tools of the NSA's trade, start here. After browsing there, you could try a (monitored) phone query to AT&T about that secret room in San Francisco.

Of all the contemptible aspects of the Bush Regime, the complete and total Orwellian corruption of language ranks up near the top in my opinion. The Clinton campaign tends to indulge in the same "up-is-down" equivocating and distortion. Every time I hear a patently false proposition from Hillary or her minions -- "this state isn't important" or "I have foreign policy experience" -- they pound another nail in the coffin of her arguments to be our president.