There is some more good news about the Washington Post article on our bloated, inefficient intelligence corporation. It means that the probability of conspiracy theories being true has increased dramatically. This will be a boom to novelists, Hollywood and Alex Jones. The downside is that if you work abroad in any capacity the odds are you will be seen as an American agent.
Marco Rubio, the first candidate adopted by the teabaggers, says that we have to unleash the power of the free market and that corporations have plenty of money to invest but are uncertain because of new Washington regulations. Forgetting for a moment the horrendous record of our corporations in creating jobs for the past decade, I propose a total tax moratorium for two years for all U.S. corporations in return for the creation of 15 million jobs. If they can't do this, then the government seizes them. That's fair.
Charles Cook has some new numbers of how low George W. esteem is and how voters prefer Obama's treatment of the economy better than W's. In fact, astonishingly 65% of Republicans do not believe GOP will return to these policies. Suckers! However, over the weekend, several Republican leaders emphatically argued that we have to return to these policies on the economy. In other words, the Marco Rubio line now is the standard GOP argument. Forget how the global economy collapsed and how many hundreds and hundreds of thousands of jobs were lost running up to the election of Barack Obama. The whole Karl Rove corporate branch of the GOP, America at the Crossroads, is running ads against Democrats recalling year X, when the unemployment rate was low and then comparing it to now. So vote Republican. I thought John Boehner's America was supposed to be the 1950s but I guess it was the W years.
My apologies to the baby-boomers, there will be no retirement. Scott Thill at Alternet posted a scary article a few days ago. One out of 3 Americans do not have retirement savngs beyond Social Security and about 35% of those over 65 rely almost totally on Social Security. And then factor in that anyone 40 or under will not have a pension. Dallas Salisbury of Alliance for Investor Education and the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) broke down the remaining 2/3rds of Americans as follows: 27% report less than $1,000 in savings; 16% between $1,000 and $9,999, 11% between $10,000 and $24,999, 12% between $25,000-$49,999, and 36% $50,000 or more. He recommends saving 25% of your gross income for retirement but does say the biggest risk with this is that fund-managers tend to squander your savings. So good luck. The other finding was that older Americans will have to continue some type of work until they die. So the bottom-line is that no Baby Boomers or any one younger can retire. We are now the post-retirement society.
Glenn Beck told a Salt Lake City audience that he will be blind in a year from macular dystrophy, which I take to be a type of macular degeneration. It's a horrible thing even to happen to a horrible man. Having talked over the years to Johns Hopkins about this illness because my mother suffered from it, I can report some progress has been made but not enough. The last time I asked the Doctor told me to literally eat carrots, which they found amerliorated the situation. Who knew? I thought that was an old wives tale.
Glenn Beck said on a recent show: " The policies that are being enacted in Washington are not enemies of ours. They are enemies of God, because God is about freedom." What can you say to that?
Gallup has released a monster poll where they surveyed more than 90,000 adults nationwide for Obama's approval rating. Obama averaged 49% nationwide since January, compared to 57% over the entire previous year. To give you some idea of how stable the rating is, today's Gallup tracking poll had him at 48%.
So Obama tops out at 85% in Washington, D.C. because he goes to Ben's Chili Bowl and Hawaii, which thinks he was born there, is 68%. He ranks high in Delaware at 62%. (Note here: it's widely assumed Mike Castle, the moderate conservative Republican, will win the Democratic Senate seat in November. Watch this space because with this number taht might change.) Maryland, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Illinois and Vermont as well as California top out the top 10. In California, he has a 56% approval rating. (Watch this space whether this aids Jerry Brown and Barbara Boxer in the Fall.)
With the exception of New Hampshire, we don't really care if the bottom ten states leave the union. His lowest rating is Wyoming at 29% followed by Utah, West Virginia and Idaho at 34%. Oklahoma, Alaska and Montana round out the 30s. Then Arkansas, Kentucky, Tennessee, New hampshire, Alabama and Missouri at 40-41%.
In Texas--given the race for governor there, he ranks a 47% approval rating.
Barack Obama's approval rate surpasses disapproval in 31 out of the 50 states. None of the remaining states have any significant weight in terms of the electoral college if you're looking at 2012.
If you're a GOP operative, looking at these numbers you realize that Obama will take every state with a significant Latino population. That's why we are seeing the re-emergence of Jeb Bush on the political scene. Jeb showed up for a fund-raiser for Rand Paul this past week. The reasoning is that all the potential candidates for the GOP are pro-Arizona state law and anti-Latino. Jeb is married to a Latino and his son is an active political player in the Florida Latino community. So this little trial balloon of whitewashing W's record may have more to do with paving the way for Jeb, rather than with any serious policy implications.
Nate the Great Silver at www.fivethirtyeight.com has redone his Senate projects with a slight uptick to the Republicans. So Democrats hold the Senate with 53.5 seats. Contrary to today's Wall Street Journal piece today, which argues the GOP can take back the Senate, Nate puts it at a 6% possibity but higher to 18% possibility if Crist caucuses with the GOP.
Making a contribution to our political dialogue is the Constitutional Accountability Center, which today published a paper "Setting the Record Straight: The Tea Party and the Constitutional Powers of the Federal Government". See www.theusconstitution.org They promise to have a watch list of constitutional boners said by tea party candidates. This project is important because people are now referring to the tea baggers as populist constitutionalists, giving them more gravitas than they deserve.
For an antidote to the Washington Post piece on the military/ terrorist state, I recommend Bruce Fein's American Empire Before The Fall (Campaign for Liberty, 2010,paperback). I always view Bruce Fein as the canary in the mine shaft. If something is a problem with constitutional issues, he will be the first to holler. I believe he beat the ACLU to the punch on the Patriot Act and was the only conservative to testify for the impeachment of George W. Bush. While he seems to have become more of a libertarian than I remember, Fein's book is an excellent reminder that we really did not want an empire and we can't afford one. He promises in his introduction to offend everyone with the book but he remnds us how far we've gone away from the American ideals. He is also tough on Obama for retaining much of the national security apparatus created by W and Dick Cheney.
In reference to a few posts back, I talked about Detroit as the "arsenal of Nazi Germany". This was in reference to Ford and General Motors building so much of the German war machine. In Ford's case, it is particular to the influence Henry Ford had over Adolph Hitler, who hailed in the first edition of Mein Kampf Henry Ford's refusal to bow down to the Jewish financiers. With our experiment in ethnic cleansing in Arizona and the revival of the neo-nazis and white supremacists in the United States, it's useful to remember what a powerful influence America played in the rise of Nazi Germany and its racial theories. In a small--160p--book entitled Nazi Nexus--America's Corporate Connections to Hitler's Holocaust,Edwin Black summarizes his various works on the Holocaust and American corporations into easy-to-use chapters. Stefan Kuhl, a sociology professor at the University of Munich,works backwards from Nazi Germany to the U.S. to discuss the enormous influence American racial theories and eugenics played in the development of German National Socialism in The Nazi Connection-Eugenics, American Racism and German National Socialism. (Oxford, 1994)
Showing posts with label Bruce Fein. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bruce Fein. Show all posts
Monday, July 19, 2010
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Happy Bastille Day
Bruce Fein, the former Solicitor General under Reagan and constitutional scholar, appeared this morning on NPR to discuss his new book American Empire Before The Fall. He decried the massive expansion of presidential power and the fact that the use of military forces abroad no longer requires congressional approval. He pointed to the recent confirmation of General Petraeus, noting that no Senator asked him why we were in Afghanistan and when we were coming home. He quoted the Founding Fathers' about the dangers of perpetual war. On the show as a Georgetown University professor who claimed that the real dangers facing our constitutional order occurred under George W. Bush and that Fein was reacting to the election of President Obama. That's not fair to Fein, who testified before Kucinich's committee urging the impeachment of George W. Bush on the abuse of power. David Frum also appeared and made very rational arguments about why the United States really can't be called an Empire and insisted that the ppowers of the presidency are nothing like they were during the Cold War. David's arguments really need research because he argued that Cold War Presidents could wire-tap anyone without a court order and had almost total power when it came to war. He says that only with George W and Obama have the powers of the presidency come back close to their Cold War situation. Fein countered that the rule of law was being subverted by the powers being acquired by the post-2001 presidency and the insistence we are at war against a tactic--terrorism--than any nation-state. Therefore, since there is no standards for victory, we are committed to a perpetual war and even American citizens are targeted for assassination by the President without due process. He was referring to the American Muslim in Yemen.
In the afternoon, I moderated a panel on encouraging democratic change in Iran. Some of the discussion raised issues I posted before concerning pro-democracy programs. Members of Congress spoke about the need for Americans to speak out on human rights issues in Iran and to express solidarity with Iranians trying to change the nature of the government. One member recalled the efforts of the United States to support democratic change within the East Bloc and the Soviet Union. What struck me about the remarks was how ad-lib the efforts were to encourage democratic change then. Organizations used the kitchen sink approach with considerably less money than allocated to democracy assistance programs today and the local groups and civil society organizations controlled their own agenda when receiving this assistance. In other words, they owned the process more than emerging democrats do in the many efforts made over the last 10 years. The general conclusion was that negotiation, engagement are not incompatible with efforts to support Iranian democrats within the country.
The best moment for me was introducing civil rights legend John Lewis, who gave a rousing speech for human rights activism and the need for solidarity with all those oppressed in the world today. Lewis recited the various beatings and jailings he endured during our civil rights movement and urged the audience, "Never Give Up! Never Give Up!"
On that note, there is one positive development on our political landscape--the creation of the coalition of 175 groups under the umbrella name of "One Nation". After several months of internal negotiations, trade unions, civil rights groups, Hispanic advocacy organizations and other progressive movements finally recognized that there was too much at stake in this year's elections and beyond to allow the teahadists to dominate the discussion. Whether they can make the difference this year remains to be seen. But what makes them distinct from the teahadists, the coalition represents organizations and groups with vast grass-roots and community constituencies. It is the progressive answer to Obama's Coalition for America, which also has re-invented itself for the struggle in November. This is the way politics has to be done if one's ideas are going to succeed.
The NAACP passed a resolution asking that the teahadists remove the racists from their midst. You'll recall the teabaggers spitting at John Lewis and calling him racial epithets during the healthcare debate. The racist undertone of the tea party rallies has been obvious to any sane observer. What the NAACP asked is what any organization does--expel and denounce the extremists. This happened when the Republican Party was forced to denounce David Duke when he re-invented himself from Klansman and white supremacist to a conservative Republican. It also happened when yesteryear's conservatives booted out the John Birch Society from iits midst. But the NAACP resolution was met by Sarah Palin demanding an apology to the tea party. Right Wing radio has been non-stop racist rants from just prior to the election of Barack Obama and even yesterday Rush Limbaugh denounced the late George Steinbrenner for making African Americans millionaires. Apparently, it's now OK to be a racist.
Bruce Fein said something this morning that even if a majority voted away due process, that doesn't make it right. The Founding Fathers were deeply concerned about the majority oppression of the minority.
Meanwhile Senate Republicans continue to play little games with the Kagan nomination to the Supreme Court. Now they want her to pledge to recuse herself from any case having to do with the healthcare bill. Maybe Clarence Thomas should recuse himself because his wife runs a teabagger foundation with two large donors footing the bill.
A CBS poll says that only 13% of Americans believe Obama's policies have done anything for them. I am one of them. I got a tax cut this year--most who received a tax cut claim their taxes increased. Through streamling the FACSA process for applying for college aid, I got grants and loans equivalent of 20% of my son's education. With the Credit Card reform bill, my credit cards no longer have been jacking up my percentages as they did almost every month in 2008 and now they have to send me a bill giving me about 3 weeks to pay, instead of the 2 weeks of 2008 and 2009. This helps cash flow. I could refinance my house at rock bottom interest rates. The lost equity in my house has come back by 2/3rds. Under healthcare, I can cover my son until he is 26. If the full healthcare bill is implemented, I can't be denied coverage for pre-existing conditions and I will not go bankrupt if I have any serious illness. And, for my personal enjoyment, President Obama made the largest government grant for scientific research and development in the history of the world. So, thank you President Obama!
Another poll came out today that shows that the top priorities of the American People are 20% the economy, 20% jobs and only 5% the deficit. American people support tax hikes on the rich, and adopting the McColm plan of raising the cap on social security taxes. From the pundits and the media, you would think Americans are obsessively concerned about the deficit and the national debt.
A University of Michigan study just came out that showed that it really doesn't matter what the facts are--people will continue to believe what they want to believe. One example used was a question asked of Americans after Reagan severely cut the inflation of the Carter years. People were asked whether inflation has gone down or risen. The supermajority believed it had risen, despite this being one of the headline issues of the day. The Michigan study also showed that people who are shown to be wrong factually will double down on their original beliefs. So much for honest debate.
And with that we leave you with Mitch McConnell's insistance that tax cuts to the rich brought in vast government revenues during the Bush years. Ezra Klein debunked this myth as has the OMB. Challenged with the OMB findings, McConnell insisted on his original statement. Michigan researchers were right.
In the afternoon, I moderated a panel on encouraging democratic change in Iran. Some of the discussion raised issues I posted before concerning pro-democracy programs. Members of Congress spoke about the need for Americans to speak out on human rights issues in Iran and to express solidarity with Iranians trying to change the nature of the government. One member recalled the efforts of the United States to support democratic change within the East Bloc and the Soviet Union. What struck me about the remarks was how ad-lib the efforts were to encourage democratic change then. Organizations used the kitchen sink approach with considerably less money than allocated to democracy assistance programs today and the local groups and civil society organizations controlled their own agenda when receiving this assistance. In other words, they owned the process more than emerging democrats do in the many efforts made over the last 10 years. The general conclusion was that negotiation, engagement are not incompatible with efforts to support Iranian democrats within the country.
The best moment for me was introducing civil rights legend John Lewis, who gave a rousing speech for human rights activism and the need for solidarity with all those oppressed in the world today. Lewis recited the various beatings and jailings he endured during our civil rights movement and urged the audience, "Never Give Up! Never Give Up!"
On that note, there is one positive development on our political landscape--the creation of the coalition of 175 groups under the umbrella name of "One Nation". After several months of internal negotiations, trade unions, civil rights groups, Hispanic advocacy organizations and other progressive movements finally recognized that there was too much at stake in this year's elections and beyond to allow the teahadists to dominate the discussion. Whether they can make the difference this year remains to be seen. But what makes them distinct from the teahadists, the coalition represents organizations and groups with vast grass-roots and community constituencies. It is the progressive answer to Obama's Coalition for America, which also has re-invented itself for the struggle in November. This is the way politics has to be done if one's ideas are going to succeed.
The NAACP passed a resolution asking that the teahadists remove the racists from their midst. You'll recall the teabaggers spitting at John Lewis and calling him racial epithets during the healthcare debate. The racist undertone of the tea party rallies has been obvious to any sane observer. What the NAACP asked is what any organization does--expel and denounce the extremists. This happened when the Republican Party was forced to denounce David Duke when he re-invented himself from Klansman and white supremacist to a conservative Republican. It also happened when yesteryear's conservatives booted out the John Birch Society from iits midst. But the NAACP resolution was met by Sarah Palin demanding an apology to the tea party. Right Wing radio has been non-stop racist rants from just prior to the election of Barack Obama and even yesterday Rush Limbaugh denounced the late George Steinbrenner for making African Americans millionaires. Apparently, it's now OK to be a racist.
Bruce Fein said something this morning that even if a majority voted away due process, that doesn't make it right. The Founding Fathers were deeply concerned about the majority oppression of the minority.
Meanwhile Senate Republicans continue to play little games with the Kagan nomination to the Supreme Court. Now they want her to pledge to recuse herself from any case having to do with the healthcare bill. Maybe Clarence Thomas should recuse himself because his wife runs a teabagger foundation with two large donors footing the bill.
A CBS poll says that only 13% of Americans believe Obama's policies have done anything for them. I am one of them. I got a tax cut this year--most who received a tax cut claim their taxes increased. Through streamling the FACSA process for applying for college aid, I got grants and loans equivalent of 20% of my son's education. With the Credit Card reform bill, my credit cards no longer have been jacking up my percentages as they did almost every month in 2008 and now they have to send me a bill giving me about 3 weeks to pay, instead of the 2 weeks of 2008 and 2009. This helps cash flow. I could refinance my house at rock bottom interest rates. The lost equity in my house has come back by 2/3rds. Under healthcare, I can cover my son until he is 26. If the full healthcare bill is implemented, I can't be denied coverage for pre-existing conditions and I will not go bankrupt if I have any serious illness. And, for my personal enjoyment, President Obama made the largest government grant for scientific research and development in the history of the world. So, thank you President Obama!
Another poll came out today that shows that the top priorities of the American People are 20% the economy, 20% jobs and only 5% the deficit. American people support tax hikes on the rich, and adopting the McColm plan of raising the cap on social security taxes. From the pundits and the media, you would think Americans are obsessively concerned about the deficit and the national debt.
A University of Michigan study just came out that showed that it really doesn't matter what the facts are--people will continue to believe what they want to believe. One example used was a question asked of Americans after Reagan severely cut the inflation of the Carter years. People were asked whether inflation has gone down or risen. The supermajority believed it had risen, despite this being one of the headline issues of the day. The Michigan study also showed that people who are shown to be wrong factually will double down on their original beliefs. So much for honest debate.
And with that we leave you with Mitch McConnell's insistance that tax cuts to the rich brought in vast government revenues during the Bush years. Ezra Klein debunked this myth as has the OMB. Challenged with the OMB findings, McConnell insisted on his original statement. Michigan researchers were right.
Thursday, February 19, 2009
The Empty Overcoats
Well, that didn't take long. The Republican Governors of Texas, Mississippi, Lousiana, Alaska, South Carolina and Idaho yesterday expressed reservations about accepting any simulus money. As we saw with Sarah Palin's behind-the-scenes machinations, the smell of mendacity was pungent. By this morning. Governor Sanford of South Carolina just reneged on his refusal to take the funds. It will be interesting to see what Rick Parry of Texas does since he is the one questioning any strings attached by the federal government.
Poor Representative Cao of Lousiana is facing a recall campaign because of his opposition to the stimulus bill. Cao ran without any party identification on his campaign literature since he faced Rep. Jefferson. Apparently, his constituents didn't have conservatism in mind when they voted.
My son wants The Republicans to keep quiet for awhile. He's tired of their screaming. But what Ed Rollins pointed out, this screaming is a way for them to preserve their funding base--not their political base. The super fatcats, who oppose anything Obama will do for the economy, will stay with the Republicans if they seem to fight Obama. That this leads to future electoral defeats is not an issue for them.
Meanwhile Karl Rove is still out and about, racheting up his complaints that Obama is just adlibbing everything large and small. For his part, Obama made 510 campaign promises and has only fulfilled 80 of them in the last three weeks. He has to pick up the pace.
So Allen Stanford--no relation to Leland--has been under investigation by the feds for 15 years. The fugitive bunco artist was the largest employer on the island of Antigua-Barbuda and a major contributor to both parties. John McCain said he would donate his contribution to charity, the Texas Republicans said they would keep their loot. Stanford is alleged to have been a money-launderer for the Mexican drug cartels. But if he has been under investigation for 15 years, that's usually a tip-off he was involved in spook business. One wonders how much of the financial meltdown and ponzie schemes are spook creations.
Conservative constitutionalist Bruce Fein, the former Deputy Attorney General for President Reagan, is not too happy with Obama for failing to move against the unitary executive. While it's too early in my book, Fein, who testified in favor of impeaching George W. Bush, urges Obama to send the right signals concerning Presidential powers by modifying the Surveillance Act of 2008, which eviscerates the Fourth Amendment, and to void the Military Commissions Act of 2006. Fein is the author of Constitutional Peril: the Life and Death Struggle for our Constitution and Democracy. On the op-ed pages of the Washington Times, he urged the prosecution of Bush Administration officials for torture and other war crimes. We will know more next week as Eric Holder visits Gitmo to examine both the situation of the detainees and the interrogation techniques.
Investigators into the whole Bush Administration policy on torture and black sites indicate the culprits are Richard Addington, Dick Cheney's lawyer, John Yoo, William Haynes, the Pentagon lawyer, and "Fredo" Gonzalez. Most agree that the architectural brains behind all the torture memos and the rationale for the policy was actually Richard Addington and that John Yoo was the ideologue who could formulate it into legalese.
Nancy Pelosi claims that Karl Rove, Harriet Meirs and Josh Bolton will be prosecuted for their failure to testify before Congress. I doubt it.
Meanwhile President Obama signed the Stimulus Bill, unveiled his mortgage plan, bailed out the auto industry and visited Canada. He also seems to have picked his long-time supporter and friend, Kansas Governor Kathleen Sibelius to be the Secretary of Health and Human Services. Sibelius is a popular Governor in a Republican state and was one of the first major political figures to back Barack Obama and campaigned widely and effectively for him. She was on the short-list for the Vice-Presidency.
It seems to have been a slow week for the White House. I failed to mention the ramp up in military forces sent to Afghanistan--a subject we will discuss in the future.
Poor Representative Cao of Lousiana is facing a recall campaign because of his opposition to the stimulus bill. Cao ran without any party identification on his campaign literature since he faced Rep. Jefferson. Apparently, his constituents didn't have conservatism in mind when they voted.
My son wants The Republicans to keep quiet for awhile. He's tired of their screaming. But what Ed Rollins pointed out, this screaming is a way for them to preserve their funding base--not their political base. The super fatcats, who oppose anything Obama will do for the economy, will stay with the Republicans if they seem to fight Obama. That this leads to future electoral defeats is not an issue for them.
Meanwhile Karl Rove is still out and about, racheting up his complaints that Obama is just adlibbing everything large and small. For his part, Obama made 510 campaign promises and has only fulfilled 80 of them in the last three weeks. He has to pick up the pace.
So Allen Stanford--no relation to Leland--has been under investigation by the feds for 15 years. The fugitive bunco artist was the largest employer on the island of Antigua-Barbuda and a major contributor to both parties. John McCain said he would donate his contribution to charity, the Texas Republicans said they would keep their loot. Stanford is alleged to have been a money-launderer for the Mexican drug cartels. But if he has been under investigation for 15 years, that's usually a tip-off he was involved in spook business. One wonders how much of the financial meltdown and ponzie schemes are spook creations.
Conservative constitutionalist Bruce Fein, the former Deputy Attorney General for President Reagan, is not too happy with Obama for failing to move against the unitary executive. While it's too early in my book, Fein, who testified in favor of impeaching George W. Bush, urges Obama to send the right signals concerning Presidential powers by modifying the Surveillance Act of 2008, which eviscerates the Fourth Amendment, and to void the Military Commissions Act of 2006. Fein is the author of Constitutional Peril: the Life and Death Struggle for our Constitution and Democracy. On the op-ed pages of the Washington Times, he urged the prosecution of Bush Administration officials for torture and other war crimes. We will know more next week as Eric Holder visits Gitmo to examine both the situation of the detainees and the interrogation techniques.
Investigators into the whole Bush Administration policy on torture and black sites indicate the culprits are Richard Addington, Dick Cheney's lawyer, John Yoo, William Haynes, the Pentagon lawyer, and "Fredo" Gonzalez. Most agree that the architectural brains behind all the torture memos and the rationale for the policy was actually Richard Addington and that John Yoo was the ideologue who could formulate it into legalese.
Nancy Pelosi claims that Karl Rove, Harriet Meirs and Josh Bolton will be prosecuted for their failure to testify before Congress. I doubt it.
Meanwhile President Obama signed the Stimulus Bill, unveiled his mortgage plan, bailed out the auto industry and visited Canada. He also seems to have picked his long-time supporter and friend, Kansas Governor Kathleen Sibelius to be the Secretary of Health and Human Services. Sibelius is a popular Governor in a Republican state and was one of the first major political figures to back Barack Obama and campaigned widely and effectively for him. She was on the short-list for the Vice-Presidency.
It seems to have been a slow week for the White House. I failed to mention the ramp up in military forces sent to Afghanistan--a subject we will discuss in the future.
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