SOU — pffft!

The SOU … which I caught the last five minutes of when I returned from the Edwards rally … was considered “flat” by the pundits and worse by the op/ed writers. The Emperor’s been nekkid before but this time his hiney was hanging out so far that even the nonpolitical sneered like never before. Commentators noted that he’d “phoned it in,” giving the impression that he’d rather be elsewhere … Texas, for instance. That can’t be any surprise — when, oh-when, has this man EVER stayed around to clean up his messes? He did his worst, now its the traditional time for him to move along — and obviously, the public did that last year but Bubble Boy didn’t notice.

Charlie Rose had a group of journalists and historians on to discuss this latest offering and weigh in on Dub’s “legacy” … they all offered dismal projections, but I agree with the guy who said Bush presided over and assisted the decline of America is a viable superpower. Yep. He sure as hell did.

Here are articles that would make a grown man cry [if he read them, which he doesn’t] and links — and DO read the last, the usual delightful offering by Swami Beyondananda this time of year, with the 2008 State of the Universe address. Just before that, Bob Cesca did a liveblog of the SOU with some amusing lines — he has a keen eye [read it from the end up, it’s easier.]

I’ve been collecting Dubby psychological breakdowns since the recent [and early] flock of end-of-reign books made their way into print — I’ll post that one of these days, they’re always fascinating; but a good student of psychology can see the disturbing mannerisms without much help. [Tic, twitch.] The one that puts me off the most is Bush’s inappropriate use of the smile. He talks about Darfur, he smiles. He talks about Iraq, he smiles. WTF? I find that disturbing in commentators too, but they’re cult of personality types, schooled to be cheerful and upbeat … hence, plastic. Hmmmmm…

So yes, we can all agree — Bush is a bobblehead. We know, we’re more than ready to move on but we’re tethered — we still have long months ahead to see what else he can muck up. His psyche is uncontrollable … and unpredictable. Still, the collection below shows the jig’s up with this Decider … all of them good reads; open the links for more, if you have time.

Report: Last night the Edwards rally was held in a union hall — before John showed up, with the room packed and standing-room only, somebody help up a sign saying “We know the state of the union, don’t we!” It got loud cheers and titters. Edwards mentioned Bush once and the SOU once, prompting loud boos and hisses. A friend I went with said he’d heard Kennedy when he was a kid and this was the first time he’d felt that same sense of hope for the little guy; he’s a fightin’ Irishman, and a past Union president, so Edwards is a fit for him. Me, I read energy — my hackles and solar plexus give me the info I look for.

Edwards believes everything he says — he’s genuine. Now, I’m a sucker for a Gemini, that’s my pattern, but I also know that energy inside and out; John’s got a stellium of Gem planets but once he’s taken a wrong stand, as he did with the war, he has the ability to change his mind and own his error. Think about how unusual that is in politics. And even as the road was showing on him, lining his face, his enthusiasm was contagious and his disgust with ‘as is’ politics palpable.

The crowd was enthusiastic and responsive — he got standing ovations and thunderous welcome. I was on my feet too, especially when he mentioned restoring the Constitution. He’s clearly the man of the working class, he knows what they want. The wave of Obama popularity could conceivable put him second eventually, if he can afford to stay in awhile longer [his on-line contribution is up sharply.] His performance in South Carolina, although discouraging, showed something interesting, I think — he got the majority of male Dem vote. Sadly, I think that’s a default position for those who will not vote progressively on issues of race or gender … but those are the facts on the ground. We’ll have to see how that plays out.

With Caroline Kennedy [and Uncle Teddy] backing Barack, his phenom continues to sweep like a tornado, leaving Hil behind … although BO’s astrology takes a downturn mid-summer that may impact and/or reflect some stumbles; it’s his to lose, now.

Meanwhile, the Onion gives John a backhanded [thanks, Eileen] and Mother Jones reports Bob Novak pushing interesting gossip about Edwards as the Obama pick for AG.

My take on the evening is that I was greatly encouraged to hear ANYONE talk plainly about our SOU, propose common sense alternatives and discuss the criminality of the corporate persona; when I got home, I watched the brief TV coverage and had my nanosecond of local fame, clearly visible seated behind Edwards — I got high-fives from the family. I think his message is too powerful to win him the nod, but you never know in these surprising times … and I wouldn’t want to do without his powerful populist voice, now that Dennis is gone and scrambling to be reelected in Ohio.

Note: Stunningly … and thank you, Senator McCaskill … we blocked the cloture vote yesterday, not giving Cheney what he demanded in the FISA deal; the Pubs made it all or nothing [to give Dubby the chance to make Dems look like obstructionists in his speech last night] and when we confirmed it would be nothing, they pointed the finger at all us unpatriotic types. Uncle Dick, of course, has told everyone that we’re in the middle of WWIII and it’s all going to explode any minute so not giving them immunity is clearly a national security disaster. The topic is up again today on the Hill and the Dems are asking why the Pubs would be so unpatriotic as not to take what protections they can get if its such an all-fired emergency. Meanwhile, nothing is expiring anytime soon and the urgency is moot.

Jude

The Beginning of the End
William Rivers Pitt, TruthOut
Tuesday 29 January 2008

And when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour.

- Revelations 8:1, King James Bible

George W. Bush’s State of the Union (SOTU) speeches have been the basis for a new kind of drinking game for several years now, basically because the things have always needed some kind of actual substance from somewhere, and because it was a good way to dull the pain of it all. The rules: 1. When he says the word “terra” or “terra-ists,” take a drink. 2. When he says “tax cuts,” take a drink. 3. When he says “Iraq,” take a drink. 4. When he says “nook-yuh-lerr,” take a drink and a shot and a good swift kick to the head. Et cetera.

But that’s just one night out of the year. Reality has proven to be far more alcoholic in nature. For seven years now, the whole phenomenon of this government has been one long drinking game played out each and every day. The rules of this game? 1. Say the words, “George W. Bush is in charge of the country.” 2. Turn off the TV. 3. Just drink.

Sounds familiar, right? Just about everyone has played that game a time or two by now. We have endured seven Bush SOTU speeches as of last night. Seven years worth of lies, carnage, greed, disgrace, failure, ignominy, calamity heaped upon calamity heaped upon calamity for more than two thousand five hundred days now, with three hundred and fifty seven more days still to go.

Seven speeches. Seven years.

No more.

The final deal went down in DC last night, wreathed in all the pomp and circumstance of political theater and media spectacle. The first tangible evidence this long national and planetary nightmare is actually beginning to come to an end was served up live on network television, for the viewing pleasure of a thoroughly disgusted and entirely disinterested American public.

If Bush’s lips are moving, it means he must be lying; so it has been for all those days, and so it was again on Monday evening. Some 75 percent of the citizenry believe this country to be “on the wrong track,” and since the gomer giving the speech last night is seen as being largely responsible for putting us all on this “wrong track” to begin with, a vast American majority pretty much didn’t give a fig about what he had to say.

All that most people cared about was the historic significance of the night itself. It was The Last Bush SOTU Speech Ever.

Seven speeches.

Seven years.

No more.

Remember Bush’s SOTU speech from January 20 of 2003? That was the one when he told America Iraq was in possession of 6,000 liters of anthrax, 38,000 liters of botulinum toxin, 500 tons of sarin, mustard and VX nerve agent - for those without calculators, 500 tons equals 1,000,000 pounds - plus around 30,000 munitions to deliver these agents, mobile biological weapons labs and uranium from Niger for use in a robust nook-yuh-lerr weapons program.

Take your drink. Take your shot. Don’t forget your kick to the head: Each and every single one of those comprehensively-debunked claims can still be found on the White House web site.

Five American soldiers died in Iraq during the afternoon preceding Bush’s SOTU speech on Monday. They were patrolling the city of Mosul and were struck by a roadside bomb that was followed up with lethal gunfire. There have now been 36 American soldiers killed in Iraq during the month of January, and 3,940 killed in total since Bush gave that January 2003 SOTU address and thus signed the death warrants for our fallen troops.

We don’t do body counts, so there’s no accurate way to assess how many tens or hundreds of thousands of Iraqis have been killed and maimed since that 2003 speech. Last Wednesday, 60 Iraqis were killed and 280 others were wounded when a huge bomb exploded in Mosul. The casualties, according to a New York Times report, were “mostly children, women and the elderly.”

“Americans are still dying at the rate of one every day,” wrote Chicago Tribune columnist Steve Chapman last week. “And violent civilian Iraqi deaths, according to the independent web site Iraq Body Count (iraqbodycount.org), have averaged about 1,000 a month since September. That’s far lower than last January, but it’s no better than in 2005, and it’s well above the levels of 2004 - when Iraq was already in the grip of bloody chaos. To pronounce that reduction a success is like driving your car into a lake and then bragging when you pull it halfway out.”

Bush managed all this with just the one 2003 SOTU speech. He’s given seven of the things now, so adjust the body-count mathematics accordingly. Seven speeches. Seven years.

No more.

Monday night’s speech was almost breathtaking in its lack of substance. He promised to bring the 9/11 perpetrators to justice, again. He promised to bring democracy to the Middle East, again. He talked up tax cuts for the financially solvent, again. He threatened Iran, again. He massaged the debacle known as “No Child Left Behind,” again. He mispronounced “nuclear” at least three times, again. Basically, Bush could have just as easily been replaced by one of those high-school-chemistry-class projection screens showing some random video snippets from his other six SOTU addresses. Nobody would have noticed the difference.

There was no there, there. Again.

We have to put up with this man and his people for less than a year, or so most people believe. A story on today’s Washington Post front page by Michael Abramowitz, however, reeled off a laundry list of pre-speech challenges for Bush that was capped by this line:

“That is the problem Bush faces as he prepares to deliver his seventh and probably final State of the Union address tonight.”

“Probably final”?

“Probably final”?!

Drink.

Our one-way trip to disaster
James Carroll, Boston Globe
January 28, 2008

YOU AND everyone you love are riding on a large bus. The bus driver, unskilled and careless, drives too fast, ignores traffic signals, and barrels off the road occasionally. Because the bus is huge, other vehicles swerve to get out of its way, with cars crashing repeatedly. But your driver just keeps going, leaving carnage in his wake. Naturally, you are terrified - but your reactions are irrelevant.

Finally, the bus itself crashes, killing many. Miraculously, you and your loved ones climb out of the wreckage. A second bus is standing by, and you gratefully scramble aboard. The engine starts up, but then the bus lurches dangerously onto the road, going too fast. Only then do you see that this new bus has the same driver, and he has learned nothing.

Welcome to the United States of America. And welcome to the annual State of the Union address.

Every year, the nation looks up from the wreckage, only to see that the same unskilled and careless driver is still at the wheel, bombing along. Each January, he explains himself. You already know what he will say. His one admirable quality is that, over the years, he has always said exactly what to expect. A review of the Bush speeches has an “I told you so” quality, going back to the start. That raises the question, Why have you repeatedly been surprised?

It was, after all, in his 2002 State of the Union address that President Bush defined the purpose to which he has been dedicated ever since. “Evil” was his constant point of reference, and he claimed the mantle of one who would end it. America’s enemies were an “axis of evil,” while America’s friend was God, who, Bush told us, was “near.”

In such a cosmic moral struggle, normal standards of restraint did not apply. That you could not imagine yet the wreckage of law and decency - torture, wiretapping, concentration camps, treaty betrayals - that would follow from this course does not detract from your obligation to acknowledge that it was openly set by Bush’s first statement of purpose. Your bus was being driven by St. George, the dragon slayer. And why should mere rules of the road apply to him?

In 2003, the State of the Union address was, in effect, a declaration of war against Saddam Hussein. Bush could not have been more direct in stating his intentions, asserting absolutely that Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction were a present danger.

Bush promised that Secretary of State Colin Powell would immediately go before the United Nations to prove it. (To Bush’s credit, the 2003 speech also unveiled the “Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief,” his administration’s one positive accomplishment.)

When Bush drove the United States into full-blown Middle East war two months later, he was only following the plan he had already laid out.

In 2004, Afghanistan was a smoldering ruin, and Iraq was under the bus. Yet Bush declared victory right and left. “The boys and girls of Afghanistan are back in school,” he said. As for Iraq, we were only dealing with “a remnant of violent Saddam supporters.” He was still saying that Hussein had had weapons of mass destruction.

In the 2006 State of the Union address, Bush repeated that “we will never surrender to evil,” but now he was explicitly associating it with what he called “radical Islam.” This careless labeling took the bus into the mine field of religious war.

What is most notable about the 2006 speech, however, is that New Orleans, still reeling from Hurricane Katrina, barely appeared in it. That the United States of America has abandoned that great city and its people to this day - surely to rank as the Bush administration’s most notable act of domestic policy - should have been no surprise to anyone who heard him then.

Last year’s State of the Union address was historic. Because of the antiwar mandate of the November elections, and the cover offered him by the consensus around the Baker-Hamilton commission, Bush had a golden opportunity to change the disastrous war course he had set.

Instead, with the so-called surge, he gunned it.

“This is not the fight we entered in Iraq,” he said, “but it’s the fight we’re in.”

That’s like the driver saying, “This is not the road I thought it was,” as he leaps to safety just as the bus goes off the cliff. We are a nation in free fall. The final insult is that, one more time, the driver gets to lecture us.

Smirk of the Union
Rick Perlstein, OurFuture
January 29th, 2008

[open link for references]

A small and beaten man spoke to Congress and the nation last night, convinced in his own mind he’s a hero. Snoopy battling the Red Baron. Walter Mitty, imagining himself dying bravely before a firing squad.

For those who missed it, here’s the Big Con run-down. Let me start with the facial expressions. Because, more than any of the words, they told the sad story.

The entrance: He raises both eyebrows puckishly, like the frat boy he is.

Introduced by Speaker Pelosi, he reacts curiously to the wave of applause: he blushes. He actually thinks this applause is for him×?’they love me!!×?’and not a perfunctory gesture of respect for the office. He still thinks he is a great man, and that others think he is a great man. He looks about a thousand years old. He begins: “Seven years have passed since I first stood before you at this rostrum.” Or that’s what the transcript says he said. If you missed it live, what he actually said was, “…stood before yuh at this rostr’m….”

John Wayne taking on the desperadoes.

Then, the arrogant bastard, he makes a joke: “These issues”×?’he’s named “peace and war, rising competition in the world economy, and the health and welfare of our citizens”×?’”deserve vigorous debate. And I think history will show we’ve answered the call.” He gives the chamber that famous smirk, to let them know it’s OK to laugh, even amid all the pomp: get it? These people keep insisting on debatin’ with me.

Washington! Bicker, bicker, bicker.

Then, he obliquely announces the speech’s theme, also with a smirk: Bush’s greatest hits. A golden trip down memory lane. He says, of public servants’ job to “carry out the people’s business,” that “it remains our charge to keep.” Dog whistle: this is the Methodist hymn that by which entitled his campaign book. Because remember: George Bush is a Christian Unleashing the “armies of compassion.” Or it it this “army of compassion”?

Which brings up one of the creepiest features of the speech: “more than 2,600 of the poorest children in our Nation’s Capital have found new hope at a faith-based or other non-public school. Sadly, these schools are disappearing at an alarming rate in many of America’s inner cities.” I didn’t know×?’and perhaps the Constitution has something to say on this×?’it was the job of the U.S. government to fret over the disappearance of “faith-based” institutions. Well, our president now proposes we shore them up with “Pell Grants for Kids.” Senator Clayborn Pell, a great man, now unfortunately suffers from Parkinson’s disease, and probably lacks the wherewithal to slap the president in the face for the insult to his great progressive legacy.

I suppose we should also attend to the words, because this pathetic washout happens to be the most powerful man in the world, so the words he uses are important.

He repeated the Great Republican Lie of 2007, implying that the Democrats in the 110th Congress is obstructionist×?’”Let us show them that Republicans and Democrats can compete for votes and cooperate for results at the same time,” he piously intoned.×?’when it’s really himself and the Republican minority who are willfully obstructing, with an aggressiveness unmatched in modern history. He still trumpets his own disastrous Ownership Society rhetoric (How disastrous? See here)

and barely acknowledges the massive economic pain Americans are feeling and our about to feel ×?’ and only then to issue one more obstructionist threat, on the stimulus package: “The temptation will be to load up the bill. That would delay it or derail it.” Mafia words: my way, or else.

But back, again, to the facial expressions. The most fulsome smirk came, I think, winding up to his promise, “If any bill raising taxes reaches my desk, I will veto it.” He said something interesting, perhaps referring to the remarkable poll results consistently showing a majority of Americans believe Bush’s tax cuts were not worth it, or that they would be glad to pay higher taxes if it meant healthcare for all Americans.

Such national maturity×?’indeed any occasion to call Americans to some higher sacrifice×?’can only but be mocked by the smug bastard running our country. He said this: “Others have said they’d be happier to pay higher taxes. I welcome their enthusiasm. The IRS accepts both checks and money owners.”

Cheney joins his smirk.

What else? There was his promise of an executive order canceling earmarks not voted out in the open×?’because, of course, now that the Democrats run Congress, procedural irregularity and pork-barrel spending has suddenly become a national crisis.

There was some fairy dust about making “health care more affordable and accessible for all Americans. The best way to achieve that goal is by expanding consumer choice, not government control.” The Republicans’ barks of approval at that one are guttural. He add that medical decisions must be “made in the privacy of your doctor’s office, not in the halls of Congress.”

About medical decisions made in callous insurance company cubicles, of course×?’which is to say, most medical decisions×?’he has nothing to say.

“Six years ago, we came together to pass the No Child Left Behind Act, and today no one can deny its results.” No one can deny they suck. Read this.

“To keep America competitive into the future, we must trust in the skill of our scientists and engineers and empower them to pursue the breakthroughs of tomorrow”? Only if those breakthroughs accord with conservative dogma. Read this.

Perhaps later, I’ll give you more on the fairy tales he’s propounding our nation on its place in the world. I’ll leave you with this one peace of jargon: “protective overwatch mission.” That’s the new Bushism for “We’re staying in Iraq for ever.” You’ll be hearing it much more in the days ahead.

The Man Who Learned Too Little
In his final State of the Union, Bush makes more empty promises.
Fred Kaplan, Slate
Monday, Jan. 28, 2008

The sad thing about President George W. Bush’s final State of the Union address is that he seems to have learned so little about the crises in which he’s immersed his nation so deeply.

His first words on foreign policy in tonight’s address reprised the theme of previous addresses: “We trust that people, when given the chance, will choose a future of freedom and peace.” He cited, as “stirring” examples of this principle, the “images” of citizens demanding independence in Ukraine and Lebanon, of Afghans emerging from the Taliban’s tyranny, of “jubilant Iraqis holding up ink-stained fingers” to celebrate free elections.

One waited for the president to invoke the lamentable flip side of these images, the retreats and retrenchments that followed (perhaps the “challenges” ahead?)×?’but he didn’t. Is he still living in the dream world of the spring of 2004? It’s a pleasant world, but it had gone up in smoke by that summer. If we were truly serious about promoting freedom, it would be useful to explore the lessons of those hopes as they were not only stirred but then crushed. As with his previous State of the Union addresses, this was not seen as a time to face reality.

The president, once more, depicted the complex conflicts of our time as one-dimensional struggles between the forces of light and darkness. In the war on terror, he proclaimed, “there is one thing we and our enemies agree on: In the long run, men and women who are free to determine their own destinies will reject terror and refuse to live in tyranny. That is why the terrorists are fighting to deny this choice to people in Lebanon, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the Palestinian Territories.”

The question comes to mind, as it has come to mind in all of these speeches when Bush recites this argument: Does he believe what he’s saying? Does he believe that the violent battles for power in these lands really come down to freedom vs. tyranny? If so, no wonder this government has had such a hard time getting a handle on these dangers, much less trying to engage them.

He went on, “And that is why, for the security of America and the peace of the world, we are spreading the hope of freedom.” Has he ever wondered why so few people in the world×?’not least those he aspires to help×?’see us that way? It is a horrible shame, a dreadful legacy of this administration, that the majority of people in so many once-allied (or at least not-unfriendly) nations, particularly in the Middle East and Asia, regard America as a bigger threat than Iran and Osama Bin Laden. To think seriously about why these views exist, to address the perception in a serious way, doesn’t mean accepting their validity. Not to think seriously about this question is to perpetuate our bad image and diminish our real security.

Maybe the president believes that saying something makes it close to true. (Some of his former aides have told me they suspect this is the case.) For instance, toward the end of the address, he said that protecting the nation’s security “requires changing the conditions that breed resentment and allow extremists to prey on despair. So America is using its influence to build a freer, more hopeful, and more compassionate world.” The first sentence is true, the second encouraging. What’s his follow-up×?’what are some examples of America using its influence to this end? “America is opposing genocide in Sudan,” he said. (That’s nice. What are we doing?) “And supporting freedom in countries from Cuba and Zimbabwe to Belarus and Burma,” he added, without saying how we’re doing that or in what way any of those countries is central in the war on terrorism.

“In the Holy Land ×?� we have new cause for hope,” the president said. His evidence: “Palestinians have elected a president who recognizes that confronting terror is essential to achieving a state where his people can live in dignity and at peace with Israel.” He did not mention the election of a parliament whose leaders believe otherwise. (This is not to suggest that the Fatah president’s views are worth nothing; but failing to acknowledge the Hamas-led parliament×?’which was also installed in power by free elections×?’glosses over the real complexities of the “popular will” in territories or countries without democratic institutions.)

On Iraq, Bush had some genuinely good news to tell, but he overstated it and distorted its implications. The past few months have witnessed a dramatic decline in casualties (civilian and military, Iraqi and American). The “surge”×?’which Bush ordered into effect nearly a year ago, in the face of much skepticism×?’is indisputably one cause of these trends. But it is just one cause, and the effects being celebrated, salutary as they are, are not the effects that were intended.

Certainly the additional 25,000 troops that the surge has brought to a few areas of Iraq×?’along with Gen. David Petraeus’ more aggressive strategy of using them (putting troops out on the streets instead of retreating to the superbases)×?’has increased security in the areas they’ve been able to occupy.

However, much of the reduced violence is related to the “alliances of convenience” between U.S. forces and Sunni insurgents against the common enemy of al-Qaida in Iraq. These alliances were initiated by the Sunnis and antedate the surge. There is also the matter of Muqtada Sadr’s moratorium on violence (which, in fairness, might be due in part to the surge). And there is the simple fact that U.S. forces are paying insurgency groups not to attack them (a wise use of money, until it runs out).

More to the point, Gen. Petraeus said at the beginning that there is no strictly military victory to be had in Iraq; that the point of the surge was to provide “breathing space” to Iraq’s political leaders, so that, amid improved security in Baghdad, they might settle their sectarian disputes. This political settlement does not appear to be happening; the political objectives of the surge are not being met.

President Bush said the proof of our strategy’s success is that “more than 20,000 of our troops are coming home.” (The congressional crowd went wild with applause.) These are the 20,000 troops that were sent over as part of the surge. The simple fact is that, by the summer, the 15-month deployment tours of the last of these surge brigades will have run out. There are no brigades ready to replace them. So, they will come home×?’and this would have been the case, no matter what had happened in the past year. The surge has always been short-term; that’s why they called it a surge.

As for the prospect of future withdrawals, Bush said, “Any further drawdown of U.S. troops will be based on conditions in Iraq and the recommendations of our commanders.” He added, “Gen. Petraeus has warned that too fast a drawdown could result in the disintegration of the Iraqi security forces, al-Qaida in Iraq regaining lost ground, a marked increase in violence.”

Don’t bet on any more troops coming home for good before Christmas. And if a reduction from 160,000 to 140,000 puts the situation back on the precipice, below which further cuts trigger disaster, then the situation cannot be considered at all stable.

“America is a force for hope in the world because we are a compassionate people,” he said toward the end of his address. We know this to be true, at least in principle. It will take another president to demonstrate it.

The sad, sorry State of the Union
Bush’s final State of the Union was just more of the same
DOUG THOMPSON, Capital Hill Blue
January 29, 2008

The snake-oil salesman tried once again Monday night to sell his illusions to a skeptical audience that stopped listening to him years ago.

George W. Bush’s final State of the Union speech marked a sad, pathetic footnote to a failed Presidency: a dismal, clueless exercise in fear-mongering and falsehood; a monument to arrogance and bluster; and a testament to the depths to which this nation’s government has sunk.

For the most part, this seventh and last SOTU was pure Bush: a mixture of unreality and unrelenting hyperbole, delivered in the stilted, halting style of a failed orator.

He tried to convince an skeptical Congress to become more of a co-conspirator to his failed polices, urging the House and Senate to make his failed programs permanent as a lasting monument to his corrupt legacy.

Congress must, he said, make his tax cuts permanent — a move certain to deepen the record deficits that he will leave to the next President.

It must, he demanded, legalize his warrantless wiretapping bill to make government spying on American citizens the alw of the land — cementing his destruction of the Constitution and destroying what little is left of the freedoms we once thought were bedrocks of the American way of life.

It must continue to send billions off to pay for his failed war in Iraq and support a military presence there that will last well into the next decade if not much, much longer.

But even Congress knows a lame duck when it sees one and, with one eye on the approaching November elections, few — Democrat or Republican — are willing to listen to the ravings of George W. Bush.

As Larry Markasak of The Associated Press reports:

A lame duck president called again for immigration reform, an end to lawmakers’ pet projects, control of Social Security spending and making tax cuts permanent. Democrats have rejected those Bush initiatives before.

And, in a sign that the dominant political battles will not be in Congress, many in the House chamber kept an eye during the speech on Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton ×?’ bitter rivals for the Democratic presidential nomination. They sat close to each other, but managed not to shake hands.

Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, who hours earlier had endorsed Obama over Clinton, reached out to shake Sen. Clinton’s hand when she came near.

Delivering the televised Democratic response, Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius urged Bush to work with a Congress controlled by her party.

“The last five years have cost us dearly ×?’ in lives lost, in thousands of wounded warriors whose futures may never be the same, in challenges not met here at home because our resources were committed elsewhere,” she said. “America’s foreign policy has left us with fewer allies and more enemies.”

Bush’s time has, indeed, passed and many in Congress and among the American public, wish it was a time that had never happened. His legacy will be a failed, corrupt Presidency that drove this nation to the brink of the abyss and could yet plunge America into it. He has, after all, nearly a year left to complete his dismantling of the Constitution and final elimination of what little integrity is left of the office of President.

In usual Bush style, he twisted facts, played the terrorism fear card and claimed credit for successes that don’t exist. He claims of success in Iraq came on a day when five American soldiers died — the bloodiest death toll for our troops in a long time.

He continues to claim America’s economy is sound at a time then millions have lost their homes, a record number of Iraq vets are homeless and this country slides deeper into recession.

Yes, the President of the United States gave Congress and America his view of the State of the Union Monday night. As he has six times before, he presented a view obscured by illusion, illogic and incoherence.

America is in a sorry state…and it sailed into those dangerous waters with George W. Bush at the helm of the ship of state. But this captain will not go down with his ship. He will walk away and leave others to try and save the sinking U.S.S. America.

THE STATE OF OUR CORRUPT CORPORATE UNION
Bruce K. Gagnon, OpEdNews
January 29, 2008

The things that stood out most in Bush’s last (thank god) State of the Union speech last night were the ties he and Cheney were wearing. One was red and the other blue. Someone gets paid to coordinate their wardrobe.

Nancy Pelosi had on a faded purple dress and alternated from jumping up and clapping for various Bush statements, particularly the ones about we are going to kick terrorists behinds, to then slumping down in her seat looking bored and half asleep.

After the speech it was very interesting to see Bush work the line of Republicans and Democrats asking for his autograph on the booklet containing his speech. “Look honey, I got the autograph of the worst president in the history of the country! How much do you think it will be worth on e-Bay?”

For those of you who didn’t watch here is what you missed:

Bush promised the nation he would “stay on offense” which of course means more war.

The economy is entering a period of “uncertainty.” Thus Congress should make “tax relief” permanent for the rich.

He threatened Iran again.

He pointed out our “hero troops’ in the audience.

We are “spreading the hope of freedom” around the world. This of course means we are using our military to bust the chops of countries not submitting to the authority of corporate globalization.

Then he smiled his way through a mind numbing list of his old standards:

“No child left behind” is the greatest thing in the world.

We need privatization of education so our kids can learn to read.

More free trade agreements signed (he nodded his thanks to the Democrats).

Faith based volunteerism, or as he called them “Armies of Compassion”, will solve our social problems. Everything gets militarized these days, including our compassion. Be sure to snap to attention and salute before you hug anyone or hand them food at the local soup kitchen. And don’t forget to say, “Sir Yes Sir” instead of “you are very welcome.”

Our poor Pentagon needs more money because all their toys are broken from the noble war in Iraq.

More stuff like that but I ran out of room on my note pad.

Watching the speech with me was a former Navy officer who was assigned to Aegis destroyers during Bush’s “shock and awe” invasion of Iraq in 2003. This particular person, now thankfully out of the Navy, was the officer on the deck when her ship launched the first cruise missile used in the attack. She told me it was routine to drive the Navy ships (always in a convoy) through the Straits of Hormouz and when they did it was “standard operating procedure” for Iran or the United Arab Emirates to scramble little boats that would watch the U.S. Navy ships. She became quite animated talking about how Bush “blew out of proportion” the recent incident as a way to demonize Iran.

It is always very interesting to see a person, who has had a personal experience otherwise, recognize how a politician is misleading the nation. This young former Lieutenant will be forever changed by that experience.

So all in all the whole Bush speech was a bore and another sad moment for America.

Why don’t we ever see one Democrat stand up and say, “Bush you are full of shit!” That would be the real state of the union.

State of the Union, Post-Mortem
Joan Z. Shore, HuffPo
January 29, 2008

There were only two words required of George W. Bush when he stepped up to make his State of the Union address last night: “Mea culpa.”

Okay — stretch it into three words, for a five-second soundbite: “Mea maxima culpa.”

It would have been the most truthful thing he could possibly have said.

The president is guilty on all counts, and by all accounts: Lying to his countrymen, spying on his countrymen, plunging America into unprecedented debt, dissing and dismissing our allies, empowering and enriching his cronies, waging an unjustifiable war that has killed and maimed and displaced over a million people, vetoing bills, ignoring facts, promulgating fear, disregarding the Constitution, and subverting his own oath of office.

He has turned his back on the environment, on education, on health care, on veterans, and on the people of New Orleans. He has lost the futile War on Drugs, and the so-called War on Terror.

And now, his administration is trying to put a Band-Aid on the failing economy by shelling out a few hundred dollars to middle-income people and more tax benefits to corporations….when the poor, the unemployed, and the homeless are ignored.

Incredibly, the most repeated word in this State of the Union address was “trust.” (”Trust me,” says the con man, as he slips a joker out of his sleeve.) The American public has blindly trusted this president and his administration far too long, even handing him a second term in office.

So can we even trust our own sanity?

Robert Wexler, a Democrat from Florida, has been trying to initiate impeachment proceedings against Vice President Cheney. And why not against President Bush as well? House Speaker Pelosi said it would be “a diversion” and a waste of time. Nonsense!

Instead of fiddling around with investigations into steroid use (now there’s a waste of time!), our Congress could be flexing its moral muscle on a really important issue: The abuse of power in the two highest offices in the land. Even if it’s coming late in the day, simply passing such a resolution would give some credibility to our elected representatives, and ensure that this president goes out in shame, as Richard Nixon did.

Nixon’s actions shook America; Bush’s actions have destabilized the entire world. He should not be allowed to leave office with a victorious bang, but with a disgraceful whimper.

Bush struggles for relevance in last state of the union
Suzanne Goldenberg, Guardian

Bush tries to show that he’s still on the job
Susan Page, USA Today

Liveblogging The State Of The Union
Bob Cesca, HuffPo
January 28, 2008

10:50PM
Wait! One last thing. Brian Williams just said the president’s eyes filled with tears several times tonight. Which address was Williams watching?

10:45PM
That’s all for tonight. The next major shpeech for the president will be at the Republican Convention this Shummer, then that should be it. The trucks that are usually tasked with driving through his pregnant pauses will now be deployed elsewhere. Thanks, everyone! Comments will remain open below…

10:36PM
The Romney Unit on CNN with Anderson Cooper. *raise taxes* Talking about illegal immigration. *raise taxes*

10:35PM
Mitch McConnell on FOX News. Has anyone checked to see if McConnell and Steve Forbes are the same person?

10:34PM
Senator Obama with Olbermann: “It was a warmed over past State of the Union speech.”

10:28PM
WHAH! On MSNBC, John McCain looks like a Wal-Mart smiley-face sticker tonight. That was shocking.

10:23PM
You know what’s awesome about Governor Sebelius? She’s a Democratic governor — from Kansas. AND, you can use her head as a straight-edge.

10:19PM
Governor Kathleen Sebelius making with the Democratic response.

10:12PM
Zoinks! Velma from Scooby-Doo is on MSNBC!

10:08PM
Just flipped over to FOX News. Fred Barnes: This speech “will be forgotten pretty much. Haha!”

10:07PM
There’s a gigantic bald man — or the Cloverfield monster — talking to the president and asking for an autograph. Seriously, I know the president is short but this bald dude was 12 feet tall.

10:05PM
Olbermann mentioning something similar to my observation below regarding the Iranian nuclear enrichment program.

10:04PM
“Let us set forth to do their business.” By “their” he means the telecoms. And… he’s done with his last Shtate of the Union shpeech.

10:00PM
I’m staggered by this president’s nerve in talking about liberty and “We, the People.” He supports an amendment banning gay marriage.

9:59PM
Bob Dooooooolle!

9:56PM
“Congress must pass liability protection for companies believed to have assisted in efforts to defend America.” Believed to have assisted?

9:53PM
“Ballishtic mishils.”

9:50PM
Dick Lugar has the same skin tone as a Krispy-Kreme.

9:48PM
The Iraqi government passed de-Baathification. No they didn’t. That’s a lie. Up next, the Iraqi government rides unicorns and poops rainbows!

9:45PM
20,000 troops are coming home. But of course they were supposed to come home because their deployments ended.

9:43PM
The surge is so awesome we couldn’t even imagine it. And now he’s mixing Bin Laden and Iraq even though Bin Laden’s al-Qaeda is totally different. “Some may deny the surge is working.” Someone just yelled out “YOU ROCK!” I wonder if that guy was paying attention when the president mentioned Bin Laden — who STILL HASN’T BEEN CAPTURED.

9:36PM
9/11 mentioned! Rudy’s polling numbers in Florida just jumped 10 points. And the president is spreading the hope of freedom someplace. No-one is sure where. Oh, I know. A year from now, Bushie will be free from having to read any more shpeeches.

9:35PM
“Building a prosperous future for our citizen (singular).”

9:33PM
There’s an object that looks like a shuttlecock in front of Cheney. Make up your own jokes.

9:30PM
“The Constitution means what it says.” Cool. Then he’ll reverse the Military Commissions Act and reinstate Article I, Section 9 of the Constitution: “The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in cases of rebellion or invasion the public safety may require it.”

9:26PM
“Slow or reverse the growth of greenhouse gasses.” Cheney clapped. But he was probably thinking about the baby orangutan he ate for dinner.

9:24PM
Both houses of Congress are asleep. John Dingell is comatose.

9:20PM
Only slightly less ridiculous than mentioning nookular materials is mentioning No Child Left Behind. He should be mentioning the awesomeness of scalp eczema next.

9:18PM
The “epidemic of junk medical lawsuits *weird facial tic*”

9:16PM
He’s going to sign an Executive Order that directs federal agencies to reject earmarks that weren’t voted on in Congress. I’m noticing that he’s jovial tonight. Like a kid on the last day of school. “No more shpeeches after tonight! Yay!”

9:13PM
Boehner looks especially orange tonight. Oh — here comes Principal Vernon. “Any tax increases reaches my desk I will veto it.”

9:09PM
He sounds extra slurred tonight. Mention of A Charge To Keep — which is a painting about a horse thief.

9:07PM
Senators Obama and Kennedy sitting next to each other.

9:05PM
Here comes the president for the last time.

8:59PM
If something awful happens, we’ll have President Dirk Kempthorne. Kempthorne is the Secretary of the Interior and was the cabinet member chosen to stay home tonight. His name is “Dirk Kempthorne” which almost as awesome as his undersecretary “Chest Rockwell.”

8:55PM
The president is going to ask Iran to suspend nuclear enrichment even though it’s been verified to be for energy and not weapons purposes. You’d think that after the 17 words he’d stay the hell away from bullshitting about nuclear weapons.

8:47PM
I was thinking about the president’s final year and this being his last State of the Union (we hope). Remember how previous presidents used to do prime time press conferences? President Bush hasn’t done any of those. Meanwhile, on MSNBC, Mary Katharine Ham is the worst person in the world for not remembering that 24-hour news networks existed in 1998, and therefore President Clinton got a pass during the Lewinsky insanity. Seriously, Ham?

8:39PM
CNN showing a cavalcade of old white men entering the senate chamber while on MSNBC Olbermann notes that there is yet to be an arrest in the anthrax attacks. You remember those — they were one of the terrorist attacks on American soil that happened since 9/11 on the president’s watch.

8:23PM
It sounds like the president is going to crack down on congressional earmarks tonight. According to the OMB website, in 2005: “there were 13,492 earmarks totaling $18,938,657,000.” That was a Republican Congress and the president signed everything that was dumped on his desk. If Hastert dropped a Polish sausage on the White House lawn, the president signed it.

8:19PM
I’m skimming through the policy initiatives here and I’ve determined that tonight’s shpeech is going to be really damn boring. But who knows. Maybe he’ll surprise us all and throw in something about human-animal hybrids.

7:59PM
President Bush makes with the mumbling, shpeech-making one hour from now. I’m wondering if we’re going to see the pissy high school principal Bush that scolds the Democrats and hands out Breakfast Club detentions while flashing that Longhorns finger gesture.

Swami Beyondananda’s 2008 State of the Universe Address
Swami Predicts Heart Times Ahead

Every year at this time, I am asked to make predictions, and each time I politely refuse because I don’t want to jeopardize my nonprophet status. But this year is different. With 2012 just one quantum leap year away, we humans might finally be ready for a quantum leap of our own. The message is coming in loud and clear. Time to shift or get off the pot.

In order to upshift our karma into surpassing gear, however, we must shift our awareness downward from the static of the head to the ecstatic of the heart. If we are to have an awakening instead of a wake, I predict heart times ahead.

Disheartenment in the Heartland

Heartenment, after all, is just the thing to counteract the disheartenment in the heartland. Take the economy — please! After years of untreated Deficit Inattention Disorder, the U.S. dollar is now worth less than a dollar of Monopoly money. As the most recent Greenspan report tells us, the average American family barely has enough green to span the average month. Meanwhile, trickle down economics has proved true to its name, leaving a growing class of pee-ons at the bottom.

Then there’s electile dysfunction. Instead of transparency around how votes are cast and counted, we have an apparent trance. The secret ballot has been taken to the next level, and now voting machines with secret software count the votes in secret. This is called “faith-based” vote counting. Hey, some of those new “smart” voting machines are so smart, that they don’t even need voters! This makes perfect sense because government of, by and for the people has now been efficiently transformed to government of, by and for the very, very few people. Talk about minority representation. We are now governed by a smaller minority than ever in our history!

Even when we do manage to get an election, the body politic still suffers from impotence. As we learned after the 2006 election, just because we vote for someone doesn’t mean they are going to vote for us. Instead of canceling the Iraqi Horror Picture Show, the Democratic misleadership has gone along with the same basic neocon con, only with a cosmetic makeover ×?’ sort of a wolfawitz in sheepawitz’s clothing.

Though the upwising continues, irony deficiency and truth decay still plague the body politic. Instead of forums that shine light on political issues, the media has encouraged againstums where incendiary phrases spark heated arguments. So, while red tribe Republicans and blue tribe Democrats argue whether it’s wronger to kill the born or the unborn, the born keep dying while the not-yet-born are stuck with the bill. No wonder our moral compass has gone south.

As if global warring isn’t enough to worry about, now there’s global warming. It would be sad indeed to have come this far, only to see the headline: “Human Race Ends In a Dead Heat.”

No wonder so many people are scared shiftless. The good news is, this is the State of the Universe Address and I am happy to report that the state of the Universe is copasetic ×?’ ever changing, same as always. This is particularly heartening when we realize that that universal state is also our own.

Universe Knows Best

When it comes to universal wisdom, you can’t beat the Universe. First of all, the Universe is everywhere all at once. Talk about being on top of things. Even as it keeps expanding, the Universe has it together — which means, as part of the universe, a part of us has it all together too. We are inextricably connected to the Universe. It is inescapable. Without the Universe, we’d be nowhere.

Here is more amazing news. We are all descended from the same Big Bang! When the Big Bang went boom, all of the Universe’s parts departed from one particle. And that includes us. So, we might as well proclaim it proudly. “The Big Bang is my pop. Well, I’ll be a son of a gun!”

The Big Bang is everybody’s pop, which means we are all related. If we are indeed a fractal chip off the old block, Universe-wise … then somewhere we must be as wise as the Universe. For millennia, spiritual teachers have told us to look inside for this universal wisdom. It turns out, they were right. The real spiritual pilgrimage is actually a journey of about twenty-four inches, roughly the distance from the head to the heart.

The Heart of the Matter is the Matter of the Heart

Yes, everyone is equipped to attune to universal wisdom because everyone has been given a heart. And yet, the heart seems to be the last gift we open. The most underdeveloped resource on the planet is the treasure inside our own treasured chest! Given all the craziness in the world, maybe if we invested in expanding our hearts, we’d have less need to shrink our heds.

And less of a need to be so all-consumed by consumerism. We have learned to spend so much energy pursuing happiness that we never stop to think what would happen if we actually caught it — or rather, if it caught us. With all this hot pursuit, we have left real happiness in the dust. It is sad indeed that we end up jealous that someone else’s happiness might be bigger than our own. Freud called this “happiness envy.”

As the saying goes, money can’t buy happiness, although it can buy anti-depressants. But if you are seeking more out of life than not being depressed, the key to happiness is to grow your own. Every one of us should be asking, “What good am I?” What good can I add to the greater goodness? Maybe if we had greater goodness, we’d need fewer goods. As human beings, our biggest asset is love, so now is the time to get up off our big fat assets, and practice supply-side spirituality. Because we aren’t here to earn God’s love, we are here to spend it. We are here to re-grow the Garden from the grassroots up, and have a heaven of a time doing it!

Heartland Security

Now while the solution is simple, no one said it was going to be easy. Just as the human potential movement has made great gains over the past 25 years, the inhuman potential movement has more than kept up. Everywhere I go, the little David’s I meet all ask the same question: How can we get Goliath to go lieth down? I have good news and I have other news, and they are both the same: It’s up to us. We must lead ourselves out of the bewilderness. Yes, we’ve been politically abused, so the first step is to disabuse ourselves. We must start overseeing instead of overlooking.

By overlooking what we should have been overseeing, we have become enablers for the lowest common dominator. Whether it’s called globalization or gobble-ization, it’s the same old mining operation — that’s mine, that’s mine, that’s mine. Because we’ve allowed ourselves to imagine that someday that “mine” will be ours, we have agreed to a “don’t
ask, don’t tell” policy with our government. We promise not to ask them what they are doing, and they promise not to tell us. That way, we can pretend to believe we are invading a country to keep the peace, when we are really there to keep the pieces.

Meanwhile, back at home, they’ve given last rites to the Bill of Rights, and newspeak has become the new spoken language of the mainstream media. Now before we just shrug and say, “Orwell, what can we do about it?” we need to see the only way to overgrow Big Brother is with bigger brotherhood — and even bigger sisterhood. Time to heal our spiritual dyslexia, and realize our natural state is sacred, not scared. The scared masculine and the scared feminine have given us the dysfunctional dance of abusers and enablers. Now we must empower the sacred masculine and sacred feminine to come together and conceive what has been inconceivable ×?’ the truly evolved human.

We need to amplify the love and light to counterbalance the darkness and fear, and that is why we need a nongovernmental Department of Heartland Security to secure the heartland and let the powers in power know in no uncertain terms, “Bigger brotherhood is watching you.”

To do that, we must migrate en masse –regardless of political or spiritual affiliation — to the land of the heart. Instead of squabbling over the differences that separate us, we must cohere around the heart-core values we share in common. That is the only way we can trade our insecurity for inner security. No matter where we stand on climate change, one thing is clear. Global heartwarming is bound to change the political climate for the better.

Whatever the problems, we have the wherewithal to address them. Now all we need is the aware-with-all. Whether you call yourself a creationist or an evolutionist, or take the simplest approach of all to the Great Unknown — not knowing — one thing is undeniable: We are all one with the same One. The story of separation, survival of the fittest, and lowest common dominator — that is the old story.

Only we have the power to close the book on the old story once and for all, by declaring: And they all lived happily ever after.

And happily ever after begins now.

“So keep fightin’ for freedom and justice, beloveds, but don’t you forget to have fun doin’ it. Lord, let your laughter ring forth. Be outrageous, ridicule the fraidy-cats, rejoice in all the oddities that freedom can produce. And when you get through kickin’ ass and celebratin’ the sheer joy of a good fight, be sure to tell those who come after how much fun it was.”
~ Molly Ivins, 1944 - 2007

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1 comment January 29th, 2008

FISA and SOU: rule of law v. lame duck

We have a sort of gestalt thing happening in Congress, finally … a culmination of all our hard work on blogs and lists [and thanks to Senator Dodd.] We actually seem to be making a difference — although the odds, as always, are against us. CALL/FAX today, even if you’ve done it before. My own Dem moderate Senator is in the obstructionist position with this … she needs to hear again and again that she wasn’t sent there to play games, but to UPHOLD THE CONSTITUTION.

Still, the Congress seems to suddenly realize we’re out here and we’re PISSED.

Dubby has threatened to veto any attempt to change the FISA plan, he wants it as is, permanent and even bigger. And … evidently … he’s still deluded enough to think we CARE what he wants. He will deliver his State of the Union tonight calling Dems obstructionists putting the country in danger, even though letting the program sit in limbo will not have any real consequence.

George is picking his reality — I’m picking mine; I’ll be missing his grand [and last] estimate of our well being because I’m going to hear John Edwards, campaigning in the nearest city. I want to hear sane conversation about accountability and reform … whatever occurs on the toob tonight will be the last tired wail of a loon.

I’ll report on John tomorrow.

Here’s the current state if our push for the return to rule of law … and you are NEEDED to let the players know your concerns, even if you’ve done it before. We’ve got traction … push harder!

Last piece is a rant on the SoU … it resonates big time for me, perhaps you too.

Jude

FISA Action: Calls And FAXes Needed
Christy Hardin Smith, FireDogLake
January 28, 2008

Quick reminder to everyone: keep those calls and FAXes coming to your Senators. Tell them to stand up for the rule of law and for the balance of powers between Congress and the executive branch — and to vote NO on Sen. McConnell’s cloture motion today.

Glenn has background on why this is important — and the games the Bush Administration is playing (and on how gullible Mike Allen is with an utter failure to fact check):

…The administration explicitly admits that the President won’t allow an extension because he wants to repeat the success of last August — when Congressional Democrats capitulated to every Bush demand because they were told they had to act within a matter of days, i.e., before their recess, lest they cause us all to be killed by The Terrorists.

“They need the heat of the current law lapsing to get this done,” said a senior administration official, courteously granted anonymity by The Politico’s Allen to issue these threats.

This veto threat is one of the President’s most brazen acts ever, so nakedly exposing the fun and games he routinely plays with National Security Threats. After sending Mike McConnell out last August to warn that we will all die without the PAA, Bush now says that he would rather let it expire than give Congress another 30 days. He just comes right out and announces, then, that he will leave us all vulnerable to a Terrorist Attack unless he not only gets everything he wants from Congress — all his new warrantless eavesdropping powers made permanent plus full immunity for his lawbreaking telecom partners — but also gets it exactly when he wants it (i.e., now — not 30 days from now)….

We have a President, not a king — and in this nation, the rule of law is sovereign, not a petulant little man and his behind-the-scenes manipulative number 2, bent on creating a unilateral executive empire borne of a grudge nursed since the Nixon Administration. Just say no.

True leaders understand the need to balance civil liberties concerns with national security needs. They are not, nor should they be, mutually exclusive. Let’s get to work!
[… open link to finish article]

The FISA Follies, Redux
The New York Times Editorial
Sunday 27 January 2008

The Senate (reportedly still under Democratic control) seems determined to help President Bush violate Americans’ civil liberties and undermine the constitutional separation of powers. Majority Leader Harry Reid is supporting White House-backed legislation that would expand the administration’s ability to spy on Americans without court supervision and ensure that the country never learns the full extent of Mr. Bush’s illegal wiretapping program.

The 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA - which Mr. Bush decided to ignore after 9/11 - requires a warrant to intercept telephone calls and e-mail messages between people in the United States and people abroad.

It needed updating to keep pace with technology, and the technical fixes were included in a bill that Congress passed last summer. The problem was that Mr. Bush managed to add measures that sharply undercut the court’s role in monitoring eavesdropping. Fortunately, lawmakers gave them an expiration date of Feb. 1.

The House has passed a reasonable new bill - fixing FISA without further endangering civil liberties. But Mr. Bush wants to weaken FISA as much as he can. And the Senate leadership has been only too happy to oblige.

With the help of Republican senators and the misguided chairman of the Intelligence Committee, Jay Rockefeller, the White House got a bill that, once again, reduces court supervision of wiretapping. It also adds immunity for telecommunications companies that cooperated with the illegal spying.

Mr. Bush says without amnesty, the government won’t get cooperation in the future. We don’t buy it. The real aim is to make sure the full story of the illegal wiretapping never comes out in court.

Mr. Reid - who is still falling for the White House’s soft-on-terrorism bullying - set up deliberations in a way that ensured that a better Judiciary Committee version of the bill would die a procedural death and that the Intelligence Committee bill would pass.

The Judiciary bill died this week, with the help of other bullyable Democratic senators like Mr. Rockefeller, Claire McCaskill, Mary Landrieu and Ben Nelson. The Republicans repaid them by announcing they would block any further attempts to reach a compromise.

It is now up to the House to protect Americans’ rights. Mr. Bush has already started issuing the ritual claims that if his bill is not passed instantly, Osama bin Laden will be telephoning his agents in the United States and no one will know. Let us be clear, Mr. Bush has always had the authority to order emergency wiretaps - and get court approval after the fact. That has never been the problem with FISA.

The House should vote to extend last summer’s flawed rules for at least 30 days and go on recess, forcing the Senate to do the same thing, and then bring the whole matter to a conference committee. There will then be plenty of time for a real debate.

Lawmakers and the rest of the nation should bear this in mind: Mr. Bush’s version of this law does not make intelligence-gathering more robust. Opponents like Senators Christopher Dodd and Patrick Leahy want to spy on Al Qaeda, too. They’re just not willing to do it in a way that undermines the very democracy that the spies, Congress and the president are supposed to be protecting.

More Disruptions to The Cheney/Rockefeller FISA Plan
Glenn Greenwald, Salon
Saturday, January 26, 2008

Regardless of the ultimate outcome of the FISA and telecom immunity conflict, there is something quite unique about how things have proceeded that I think is worth noting. Telecom immunity and warrantless eavesdropping powers are exactly the types of issues that normally generate very little controversy or debate. Identically, the bill advocated by Dick Cheney, Jay Rockefeller and Mitch McConnell is the type of bill that is normally passed, quickly and quietly, by Congress without any trouble. That isn’t happening this time, and it’s worth looking at why that is. [emphasis added - j]

The establishment media has virtually ignored these matters from the beginning. Most establishment-serving pundits who have paid any attention — the David Ignatiuses and Joe Kleins and Fred Hiatts — have done so by advocating, as usual, the Establishment position: retroactive immunity and warrantless eavesdropping powers are the right thing to do. Although there is no citizen-constituency whatsoever crying out for telecom immunity or new warrantless eavesdropping powers, the forces behind those provisions are the ones which typically dictate what Congress does: namely, the largest corporations and their lobbyists, who have been working, as always, in the dark to ensure that the law they want is enacted.

That’s typically the way Washington works — the most significant laws are seamlessly enacted with little real debate or attention, driven by corporations and lobbyists working in secret with Senators, cheered on by the Serious media pundits, with bipartisan pools of lawmakers silently and obediently on board. And once those forces line up behind any measure, it is normally almost impossible to stop it — not just stop it, but even disrupt it at all. That’s the insulated Beltway parlor, virtually impervious to outside influences, least of all the opinions of the
citizen-rabble.
* * * * *

All of those standard Beltway forces are squarely lined up behind telecom immunity and new eavesdropping powers, and yet, things are not proceeding smoothly for them at all. Back in December, Harry Reid, Jay Rockefeller and Mitch McConnell scheduled just a couple of days for the FISA debate because they assumed that was all that would be needed to deliver quickly and quietly to the President everything he demanded.

But when Chris Dodd and others impeded that plan by obstructing and filibustering, Reid just cynically assumed that once Dodd was out of the presidential race, he would cease with the “grandstanding” and allow the Senate to function the way it is supposed to: collegially delivering to the Establishment what it wants, without disruption.

But Dodd’s commitment to impede these corrupt and lawless measures is clearly authentic and was not grounded in cynical political concerns — as was obvious to anyone uninfected by the jaded Beltway Virus. Dodd’s willingness to join Russ Feingold in single-mindedly pursuing what are considered extreme and alienating steps in the Senate to stop this bill — holds, filibusters and withholding of unanimous consent agreements — along with Dodd’s increasingly eloquent and relentless advocacy on behalf of the Constitution and the rule