Democracy or Duoracy?

If hubris could pay off our national debt and power our automobiles, the US would be the most prolific nation in the history of the planet. I am awestruck by the recent statements made by John McCain, George Bush, and Condoleezza Rice regarding the military action between Russia and Georgia. The utter gull of these people to vilify Russia over responding to an aggressive act by one of its neighbors propels hypocrisy to an unforeseen high. There must be a secret class Republicans are required to complete-Bull shit 101 perhaps, that allows them to stand before cameras condemning others for taking actions similar to those of this government has taken on numerous occasions.

Russia is dealing with regional political challenges not unlike the US claimed to be doing while invading Panama, Cuba, and Grenada. Russia asserts its right to protect its citizens as we did the medical students in Grenada. In the case of Panama and Cuba, the US could hardly make such a claim. Our reason for taking such egregious action was regime change, as it was in respect to our Iraq debacle. Russia’s response to our ‘cowboy’ approach to regional diplomacy (Cuba notwithstanding) was muted in part due to Russia’s respect for the regional nature of the disputes.

John McCain’s belligerent statements must be troubling to world leaders in a post-Bush era. Is there any other inference possible, besides McCain being a VSOP (very special, old pale) version of George Bush? John McCain’s assertions that he has the leadership chops to run a country based on his military service and years in the Senate, to my mind ring hollow. If his recent chest-thumping, bellicose statements are an example of the importance of a candidates’ having more diplomatic experience, then Barak Obama becomes our planet’s best hope for positive political change. It is time we got our democracy back.

Copyright & copy; 2007, Tnasiti Speaks. All rights reserved.

What the Flyck?

Mention anything positive about the United States in a multi-national social setting and you are likely to get an acrimonious response, once their eyes return from a roll around their heads that is. The principals we once stood for-equal justice under the law, fair play, rooting for the underdog-have been upended by the current administration. There were problems and inequities before the cheat ‘em and beat ‘em boys came to town, but there was at least an attempt at living up to our national ideals.

Every war since our last declared war (World War II) has been an exercise in futility. Of the non-shooting wars-the war on crime, the war on drugs, and the war on poverty, the opposite of the intent became the reality. The war on crime succeeded only in cramming our prisons full with minor criminals themselves victims of the failed wars on poverty and drugs. In each case a financial windfall went to private prison operators and their suppliers, or managers and contractors of programs ostensibly for the poor. The winners of this dubious bizarro-world cast of nefarious characters were the drug cartels that influence sovereign governments (including our own), and murder or maim bystanders, while amassing billions of dollars to support an extravagant, hedonistic lifestyle.

In America the larger the theft amount, the smaller the judicial sanction. Corrupt CEO’s and other corporate con-artists steal millions of dollars from average Americans but often receive short Country Club sentences. These thieves are even allowed to keep a portion of the tainted proceeds. White-collar criminals are then allowed months to set their affairs in order before reporting to prison. Contrast this with the guy convicted of shoplifting to support a drug habit (courtesy of the cartels and open borders). This guy is likely to receive more time than the embezzler of millions, and will have to arrange his affairs from cell block D. He can expect to be ushered to the jail bus before the sound of the gavel finishes echoing off the courtroom walls.

One could argue that the shoplifter is a career criminal and thus deserves a harsher sentence. But I would counter that the embezzler has made a career of preparing for his breech of trust and theft of millions. It is the out-of-whack matter of scale that is completely anachronistic to the equal justice we as a nation espouse. Another example of this bizarro world scale of justice are the laws governing crack and powdered cocaine. The typical white defendent possessing five times the amount of powdered cocaine can expect to do only one fifth the time in prison versus the typically black defendent caught with crack. Same drug, different demographic. This sentencing disparity is currently being addressed but it is unclear how any changes will affect the skewed sentences of the past.

Copyright & copy; 2007, Tnasiti Speaks. All rights reserved.

By Mark Green

Scott McClellan's book What Happened has been a feast for cable talk shows. ANewYork Times columnist Bob Herbert, who wrote that the issue is not the author but a "scandal and a crime" called Iraq. So since it's not flake McClellan but commander-in-chief Bush with the power of war and peace, life and death over Americans and the world, let's now focus on George, not Scott.

Karl Rove went on Fox to say that McClellan "sounds like a liberal blogger." Well...yes! In fact the liberal community -- Air America, MoveOn, the Nation, the Huffington Post and scores of others -- has been completely vindicated on Iraq and Rove et. al. completely discredited.

And on the question of Bush’s veracity generally, again we need only stipulate what scores of books, articles and probes have shown. As Lincoln once said of a rival, "he has such a high regard for the truth he uses it sparingly."

It's not only McClellan but also a slew of books on Iraq (Fiasco, Hubris) and other administration memoirs and articles (Tenet, O'Neill, Clarke, Dowd)) which confirm that Team Bush misled the press and public by using propaganda to stampede America into a war that's spurred more terrorism and led to hundreds of thousands of lost lives and limbs. This is now the majority view. And if some 25% of Americans disagree, it's probably the same quarter that believe that NASA staged the moon landing. The verdict is in.

But now what? How can we hold Bush, Cheney, Rice, Rumsfeld, Feith, Wolfowitz, Ashcroft, Gonzales, Woo and all of them accountable? For what we have here is not just a normal failed administration or even one Nixonian Watergate but a systematically corrupt group of people who shamelessly and serially lied and violated the law.

America needs to make sure that some future administration doesn't assume that they too can dissemble and cheat since W got away with doing it for two terms and retired to a life of relaxing at the ranch and being feted by AEI and the Petroleum Club of Houston.

*Vote Big. Americans have to use the franchise to reject Bushism by significantly increasing the Democratic majorities in the House and Senate and electing a Democratic President with a big mandate. That's a recipe that the Republican Right will understand.

*Shame 'em. The mainstream media has to stop coddling this group and not allow them to escape scrutiny with a smile and a spin

*Sue. While legal rules about "standing" have so far made it hard to legally uncover all the illegalities of this regime, the Federal False Claims Act allows individual citizens to sue (it's called "Qui Tam"). If the government spent money fraudulently (Haliburton), claimants could get a percentage of any recovery. Indeed, I'd guess that a private for-profit group could raise funds to create a law firm with the sole purpose of bringing False Claims Acts against federal agencies and complicit individuals.

*Create a Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). This worked in a very different historical situation of South Africa and can work here as well. There, South Africans who engaged in murder and violence were given amnesty if they confessed under oath to their crimes and knowledge...but would be prosecuted if they didn't. Of some 7110 seeking amnesty, 849 were granted it for "politically motivated" crimes...which in turn provided evidence to pressure and prosecute others. The largely successful effort led to both truth and reconciliation.


In 2009 a new President could choose a new Attorney General who similarly announces that s/he will prosecute past officials for unlawful acts unless they first come forward and testify under oath. Because Bushies took literally their oaths to "faithfully execute the laws," their record amounts to a near executive coup d'etat (see Charles Savage's Takeover and my Losing our Democracy, chapters 2 & 3). Such examples include:

• condoning torture;
• ignoring the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act;
• assigning officials to politically campaign in open violation of the Hatch Act;
• spending money for propaganda as the Pentagon did in gathering former brass to hit the airwaves;
• violating contracting rules by giving lucrative contracts to favored firms,
• engaging in cronyism and coercion to influence prosecutions in the U.S. Attorneys.

Based upon past illegalities, imagine how much more may come out when a new administration turns over 43's (Bush) rock of corruption?

A TRC for the Bush-Cheney administration would be unprecedented for the U.S. But so is a government of crooks and liars who misled us into a calamitous war and openly violated the U.S. Constitution. Or is it only consensual sexual misconduct by a president that warrants the attention of investigators? The way to deter the "culture of deception" in McClellan's subtitle is a combination of voters, lawyers, prosecutors and a Truth Commission -- to vote against it, sue it, prosecute it, or expose it. Do we believe in the Rule of Law or only the 'Law' of Rule?