The Mongrel Dogs Who Teach

Tag: politics

  • 2 out of 3 Republican candidates prefer dictatorship

    OK, so that’s not entirely fair. But Glenn Greenwald has a terrific piece on why it’s not entirely unfair, either. The short version: When asked if the President of the United States should have the power to detain indefinitely American citizens without any sort of review, Mitt Rommey said he couldn’t form an opinion without consulting some “smart lawyers” — despite the fact that it clearly violated the Contitution, the upholding of which is the sworn duty of anyone holding the office Rommey had decided to seek. But it gets better. Guiliani doesn’t need lawyers; he knows he supports this sort of power trip, although (hilariously) he hopes to exercise it only “infrequently”.

    How far we have sunk, in only six years! Who could have guessed that the American habit of liberty would prove so fragile?

  • Why We’re In the Mess We’re In

    Matthew Dowd, an adviser to President Bush, today said in an interview that he was disappointed by the President’s stand on the war, on the will of the public, and, well, just about everything. It’s clear that Mr. Dowd is conflicted in taking this public stance. Said Mr. Dowd:

    I really like him, which is probably why I’m so disappointed in things

    Those first four words are what have spelled our doom these past six years. More below the fold.

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  • Firing US Attorneys: Why This Matters

    I don’t have a lot of time to write, but luckily Josh Marshall has written a nice summary over at Talking Points Memo. I’d suggest taking a look if you’ve been wondering why the dismissal of 8 U.S. attorneys is such a big deal.

  • Framing the furor

    Just a quick break from my Lunacon doodlings to note an excellent post “The 5 Words Bush Wants Americans to Repeat” from a blog called Frameshop. Apparently, Frameshop focuses on how people frame the debate in political circles. This particular post parses the President’s performance (ahh, alliteration!) for the key concepts he wants to use to shift the debate, such as “resignation” versus “firing”. It’s a nice, concise, clear read.

  • Health of the Republic down, 4% to 25%

    The Health of the Republic bar has dropped another 4% in recent weeks. This is largely due to the unfolding three scandals at the Department of Justice:

    • The blatantly-political firing of eight US prosecutors
    • The new revelations about presidential interference in the internal DOJ audit of the warrantless wiretapping program
    • The rampant abuse of National Security Letters by FBI agents

    More below the fold.
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  • Review: Echelon

    Echelon
    a novel
    by Josh Conviser

    InstaRating: 2 out of 5

    This book\’s title caught my interest because I keep up with surveillance tech and its social implications, and ECHELON — the alleged US NSA electronic sifting program — is the monster of all surveillance programs. Although I knew this was a spy thriller, I thought there was a chance that it would delve deeply into some of the issues revolving around the invasive new technologies coming online. Alas, it didn’t pan out that way.

    More below the fold — warning: Spoilers to come.

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  • Health of the Republic down, 1% to 29%

    The Health of the Republic bar has shifted downward another percentage point. This follows the promulgation of a presidential decree that gives the White House a greater say over the issuance of policy guidelines by agencies. Previously most such documents were crafted by civil servants but now, they must pass through a politically-appointed gatekeeper (a so-called regulatory policy office) before they can be issued. The clear intent is for Bush to “regain control” over rogue agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency, which for some reason seems determined to ignore presidential philosophy and, you know, do its legally-mandated job.

    Not surprisingly, the new policy — demanding an aggregate estimate of costs and the determination of a “market failure” before any new regulation is promoted — was hailed by financial backers of the Bush administration, primarily businesses who find it irksome that regulatory agencies actually regulate.

    This is only a 1% drop because — believe it or not — this administration has done such other egregious damage to American freedoms, that this Kremlinesque gathering-in of economic control, in comparison, ranks as a relatively minor matter. How we lived in diminished times!

  • Saddan is Dead: Can We Go Home Now?

    Today, Iraqui President and dictator Saddam Hussein was executed by hanging after a conviction for atrocities committed in his name. Before going any further, let me clarify something so willfully obscured by some commentators on the right: Saddam Hussein was a Very Bad Man. He did terrible things and — while I am myself still uncertain of the ethics of state executions — he did receive a trial and was executed according to the laws of his nation. Opposition to this administration’s policies is not equivalent to admiring Hussein.

    All of which is prologue to the following: Now that George W. Bush has seen the conclusion of the twisted pyscho-drama that has occupied his presidency, will he now be able to cope, mentally, with the fact that the United States must move expeditiously to withdraw from Iraq?
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  • Signature Abuse

    A lot of attention lately has been focused on “presidential signing statements” — declarations by the President as to how he intends to interpret the statutues he signs into law. Though the signing statement has existed for the history of the Republic, the current President has grotesquely expanded its use. In a report by the American Bar Association, it is noted that, from the founding of the Republic through the inauguration of President George Walker Bush, the signing statement had been used fewer than 600 times. In President Bush’s six years, he has issued over 800 such signing statements. Moreover, he has aggressively used these statements to stake out his political position, to override Congressional intent, and to establish himself as the only arbiter of the constitutionality of his actions.

    What are the implications for the Republic?

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  • … If You Can Keep It

    It’s a truism that’s become so trite it hardly rises to the level of a bumper sticker: Freedom isn’t free. You see it slapped across the back of SUVs, taped to the windows in Circle-K’s. Some days, it seems everyone can mouth the words but nobody understands them. Freedom isn’t free. It has always carried a cost, demanded a sacrifice. In any society that claims to be free, that liberty must be purchased.

    Here I am not talking about, say, taxes. Taxes are not the price of liberty. I am not an anti-tax nut. I recognize, as Justice Holmes did, that “taxes are the price we pay for a civilized society”. Taxes pay for the police and the courts, the schools and the hospitals, for sanitation and water and roads. But that’s true for any civilization. Taxes make the modern American civilization possible. They do not make it free. One of the staggering lessons of history, quite unwelcome at the moment of triumph of global capitalism, is that the price of freedom is not set in dollars, or in yuan, or in barrels of petroleum, or in bullion.

    The price of freedom is blood.

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