Sen. Shelby Tries To Play Revisionist Historian, Fails

Senator Shelby went on Fox News to talk about bank bailouts yesterday, but he mysteriously forgets that last fall when the President approved of bank bailouts, it was Bush, not Obama who started doling out hundreds of billions to the banks.

Even Boehner Admits Bush Administration Tortured

While John Boehner came out to trash the Obama Administration for disclosing the Bush memos outlining how authorities should torture alleged terrorists, he let his personal views on the "techniques" slip. Being a member of the GOP, most of his statements today were seriously misguided and harmful to having an open government in our country. Nevertheless, at least he affirmed that what Bush and his cronies did was torture.

From The Huffington Post:

While cable news outlets and major newspapers continue to use euphemisms such as "harsh interrogation tactics" to describe the Bush administration's approach to intelligence gathering, House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) used a more succinct term Thursday: "torture."

"Last week, they released these memos outlining torture techniques. That was clearly a political decision and ignored the advice of their Director of National Intelligence and their CIA director," Boehner said at a press conference in the Capitol.

Of course the press on hand had to follow up and Boehner's spokesman tried to walk back the comments:

Regarding the Boehner's use of the T-word, Boehner spokesman Michael Steel writes, "It is clear from the context that Boehner was simply using liberals' verbiage to describe these interrogation techniques. The United States does not torture.

Nice try Michael. Someone in a position like Boehner's should know the difference between the truth and a GOP talking point. Perhaps it was a subconscious slip but at least it was evidence that Boehner could tell at least one truth among the empty partisan rhetoric that came out of his mouth today.

Like Schumer Says: Investigate Torture

It is always encouraging to hear a notably moderate Democratic senator say something that a lefty like me agrees with, especially when it comes to the practice of torture committed by the Bush Administration. It's even better when the senator is my own, senior Senator Chuck Schumer. Schumer called on the new Department of Justice under Eric Holder to do something about the damning Red Cross report.

From RawStory:

In light of the startling revelations that came to light this week with the publishing of a Red Cross report, which documented in gruesome detail interrogation practices such as suffocation by water, beating by collar and prolonged nudity, Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) told MSNBC's Rachel Maddow that he would support a Department of Justice investigation into the reported torture.

"President Obama said he doesn‘t want to spend all his time looking back. Fair enough. But he has also said egregious violations should be prosecuted," said Schumer, who is a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee. "The most logical, best place to start is the Justice Department. They haven‘t said if they are going to do it or not ... If they won‘t do it, someone else is going to have to do it. But they should be given the first crack."

That is the tough talk we need to hear. Of course tough action needs to immediately follow, but that is a good start. Schumer is an important man in the senate and what he says carries a considerable amount of weight. I must say that Chuck has been trending to left as of late. Perhaps it is for his upcoming re-election, but I'll take it on an issue as important as this. Justice will find George Bush and his fellow criminals, one way or another.

Rep. Conyers Does What Sen. Leahy Was Too Afraid Of

This past week a group of Vermont citizens found out that their senior senator had failed them in seeking out justice and accountability for the crimes committed by the Bush Administration. Not only did Leahy not demand those accused to be tried in court, he couldn't muster the courage to call for a phony "Truth Commission" that would air out all the dirty laundry of the past eight years. Thankfully though we have a fighter in House that is willing to go above and beyond Vermont's weak-kneed senator.

From The Public Record:

On Thursday, House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers quietly released the final draft of an extensive report he first unveiled in January documenting the Bush administration’s “unreviewable war powers” and the possible crimes committed in implementing those policies.

In order to determine whether Bush officials broke laws, Conyers has recommended that Attorney General Eric Holder appoint a special prosecutor to launch a criminal inquiry to investigate, among other things, whether “enhanced interrogation techniques” used against alleged terrorist detainees violated international and federal laws against torture.

“The Attorney General should appoint a Special Counsel to determine whether there were criminal violations committed pursuant to Bush Administration policies that were undertaken under unreviewable war powers, including enhanced interrogation, extraordinary rendition, and warrantless domestic surveillance,” Conyers’s report says. “In this regard, the report firmly rejects the notion that we should move on from these matters.” An earlier draft of the report contained a similar recommendation, but the final version includes additional evidence that has surfaced since January to support Conyers's reasoning s for a special prosecutor. The updated version “highlights significant source materials and Judiciary Committee accomplishments, and accounts for the final days of the Bush Administration.”

Now the ball is in Attorney General Holder's court. Far from the Bush sycophant that former A.G. Mukasey was, Holder has a much higher regard for the rule of law. Of course he still actually has to go through with appointing a prosecutor, so he has to prove he's worthy in the eyes of the law. Hopefully Obama and his top man at the Justice Department will have the agency live up to its' name for the first time in over eight year.

Leahy's "Truth Commission" Fails (As Expected)

Not that this is too surprising, but Senator Leahy's much-touted "Truth Commission" has failed to get off the ground. The senator from Vermont had promised us some sort of closure for the many injustices committed by members of the Bush Administration since 2001 but apparently that isn't going to happen. Many people on the left had called for prosecutions of the various criminals (from Bush and Cheney on down) but Leahy couldn't even get that far. Now his "compromise" solution won't even go anywhere.

From ThinkProgress:

In a meeting on Monday with Vermont citizens, Sen. Pat Leahy (D-VT) admitted that the truth commission he has advocated to examine Bush administration crimes like torture most likely won’t happen. Reporter Charlotte Dennett writes that Leahy said political opposition was too strong to overcome:

Halfway through the allotted 30 minute meeting (with him taking up much of the time explaining why he was not generally opposed to prosecution, since he had been a DA for eight years and had the highest conviction rate in Vermont), he told us that his truth commission had failed to get the broad support it needed in Congress, and since he couldn’t get one Republican to come behind the plan, “it’s not going to happen.”

But Leahy didn't like that there was so much negative press following his statement, so he retorted with this:

Emphasizing that Leahy takes seriously his commitment to defend the Constitution, Leahy’s aide Chip Ross told the group, “He’s all you’ve got.” However, Leahy’s office sent an e-mail to reporters today objecting to “reports circulating on the internet” and claiming Leahy is “continuing to explore” the idea of a truth commission:

In contrast to reports circulating on the Internet, Leahy said he is continuing to explore the proposal.

“I am not interested in a panel comprised of partisans intent on advancing partisan conclusions,” Leahy said. “I regret that Senate Republicans have approached this matter to date as partisans. That was not my intent or focus. Indeed, it will take bipartisan support in order to move this forward. I continue to talk about this prospect with others in Congress, and with outside groups and experts. I continue to call on Republicans to recognize that this is not about partisan politics. It is about being honest with ourselves as a country. We need to move forward together.”

This sounds like a standard cop out for being yet another weak-kneed Democrat. Leahy fails (willingly or not) to recognize that he will never get a Republican to support him on anything that would resemble any form of accountability or dare I mention justice for the criminals inside the Bush Administration. Ain't. Gonna. Happen.

The only way we move forward together is if we put the rule of law above individual people who just so happen to be Republicans. It really is simple as that. And if Leahy doesn't want a group of partisans to exact justice on the accused, then he should have all of them brought before an international court. Don't worry Senator, the courts outside our borders would love to try them for all the damage they've done to the world.

A Tortured Confession

This doesn't come directly from the Bush Administration, since they consistently say they did not or have not tortured but from a judge in the Pentagon. Judge Susan Crawford, perhaps feeling comfortable at the end of the Bush Presidency, came out and told the world the truth we already knew but still, it is good to see it aired out.

Justice Dept Finally Cares About Civil Rights Laws...For Whites

With a week to go in the Bush Administration, the Justice Department has finally decided to act on defending civil rights. Ironically though, it isn't to help combat the racial prejudice against minorities but to sue the city of Gary, Indiana for not hiring white EMTs. Perhaps this is one last hurrah and tip of the cap to the social conservatives still out there that would love to go back to the pre-civil rights reform era.

From RawStory:

The suit alleges that the city told applicants that offers of employment would be based on the order they were ranked. But the city seems to have ignored their own ordering and instead hired several African American applicants who placed lower than the white applicants.

Each of the six who were hired ranked lower than the highest-ranking white applicant, the Justice Department wrote.

OMG! This must be a case of affirmative action to the nth degree and a concerned citizen brigade's worst nightmare come true. It is but one example of the systematic persecution of whites in this country and it must be stopped here in Gary. Oh wait a sec, what, you want to know what Gary officials are saying?

Gary's corporate counsel, Hamilton Carmouche, told a local paper the list was prepared by the city's previous mayor, and gave preference to applicants who lived in Gary.

"We hire not on the basis of any race, but on the basis of residency," Carmouche said.

Shocking! Gary wants to hire people from within the community. Terrible isn't it?

Seriously though, for the last eight years the Justice Department has all but forgotten about standing up for civil rights in this country. Unless it was to protect a corporation in need or help a loyal Republican operative, the DoJ has been MIA. Spare us this phony discrimation crap and slowly exit the building before the grownups from the Obama camp arrive.

Rachel Maddow Sheds Light On OSHA Abuses

Rachel Maddow, doing what she does best, this time with the Bush Administration's failed (and deliberative) attempt to effectively manage OSHA:



It hasn't even been four months since she started her show and has already made quite an impact on cable news.

Joe Scarborough Put In His Place By Brzezinski

Joe Scarborough is one of my more tolerable conservative hacks, but he is still overly misguided on how the world works. Perhaps because of his years in Congress or just loyalty to the GOP, Joe came to MSNBC to do commentary with heavily distorted glasses on. Sometimes he does alright, but others he needs to be smacked into reality by his elders.

From Crooks and Liars:

Download | Play Download | Play

I've always had a tremendous amount of respect and admiration for Zbigniew Brzezinski. And after this epic smackdown of the eminently ignorant and simple-minded Joe Scarborough, I know that affection was well-placed.

Scarborough: "You cannot blame what's going on in Israel on the Bush administration."

Brzezinski: "You know, you have such a stunningly superficial knowledge of what went on that it's almost embarrassing to listen to you."

Who knows if Joe does any research before his shows (not counting the daily downloads of right wing talking points) but when it comes to the I/P conflict he clearly doesn't have a clue. The Bush Administration, while not the pre-eminent reason for the current mess, has done nothing positive in the last eight years in order to diffuse tensions. If anything, they made it much worse.

Cheney Exits, Just As Delusional As He Came In

Dick Cheney's interview with his hometown paper yesterday was a sad testament for those in power who are clearly intoxicated from it. Mr. Cheney has been in Washington and out of Wyoming for many years and has clearly added to the corrosiveness of American politics that we all unfortunately know too well. Cheney is one of the most unpopular elected officials of all time, yet he seems not to care, nor even knows why.

From RawStory:

Vice President Dick Cheney, during an interview with the Casper Star-Tribune in his home state of Wyoming, defended his decisions during his two terms and dismissed the low poll numbers that have followed his administration with the continued occupation of Iraq and the tanking economy. He told his interviewer that a politician can't change his policy every time a new poll comes out.

"My experience has been over the years that if you govern based upon poll numbers, upon trying to improve your overall poll ratings, people I’ve encountered who do that are people who won’t make tough decisions," he said. "And the job the president has and those who advise him is to make those basic fundamental decisions for the nation that nobody else is authorized or able to make."

"My own experience has been," he added, "in the administrations I've served in, for example Gerald Ford, a man who made a very, very tough decision when he decided to pardon Nixon, something that was extremely unpopular, universally condemned, but 30 years later he was praised as having done the right thing. So I think you need to have that kind of approach to it rather than watch the polls on any given day."

"I think the facts are that we were faced with a unique set of circumstances in the aftermath of 9/11," he continued, "and we had to make some very tough decisions that not everybody agreed with. But I think they were the right decisions, especially in terms of defending the homeland.

There is nothing wrong with making decisions that go against the grain, leaders do do that from time to time. Yet they still lead with the consent of the governed and Cheney has made it consistently clear he has no regard for the citizens of this country. He proved it from the start of the Administration when he had secret policy meetings with big corporations and excluded advocacy groups, he proved it when he helped send soldiers to war where he literally profited as a beneficiary of Halliburton activities and he proved it when he promoted and condoned torture.

Cheney's list of impeachable and lesser offenses goes on and on, but one thing that remains the same is the size of the deluded bubble that he rode into the Naval Observatory on.

Perino Gets Ahead Of Herself With The Obama Administration

Dana got a little ahead of herself today at the White House Press gaggle. Dear, Obama as much a we all want Obama in there now, he still has a thirty-nine days and change until the transition team becomes the Administration.

Ah, The Many Crimes Of The Bush Administration

Keith Olbermann covers the top three scandals within the White House and what is going on with each. Particularly interesting is that the Feds are actually showing some signs about doing something about the felonious Alberto Gonzales!

Bush Trying His Best To Eliminate Endangered Species

Does it tear at your heart when the news reports there are only 1,600 pandas left in the world or that the habitat of a rare bird is being encroached upon by developers. Well for George Bush, something like that only emboldens him to make endangered species permanently extinct as fast as he can. With only two months to go in his Presidency, they are working on gutting the Endangered Species Act and his chief official hack White House Press Secretary is busy spinning away the consequences.

From ThinkProgress:

The Associated Press reports today that, as part of its long-fought campaign to gut the Endangered Species Act (ESA), the Bush administration is pushing a last-minute regulatory change that would significantly weaken the ESA:

The rules would eliminate the input of federal wildlife scientists in some endangered species cases, [by allowing] the federal agency in charge of building, authorizing or funding a project to determine for itself whether a project would be likely to harm endangered wildlife and plants.

At today’s White House press conference, a reporter asked if the Associated Press had accurately described the proposed regulatory change. Perino responded first by saying she didn’t have the documentation with her, but suggested that the rule change would have little effect because the ESA doesn’t help protect “any species, including ours” anyway:

PERINO: I don’t have [the documentation] with me. I know conceptually what we support. And I know that the Endangered Species Act is a tangled web that doesn’t actually help support any species, including our own. …

Q: (Laughter) So you’re proposing eliminating it?

PERINO: No.

TP has more in their article, but basically Perino is lying her ass off about the ESA. Scientists and biologists would be taken out of the equation and only political stooges left to decide the fate of our biosphere.

Sometimes I wonder how Dana's soul handles what her mouth spews out but then I remember, it was a prerequisite to sell it before getting her current job.

Bush Administration Official Broke The Law For McCain

The Republicans are doing whatever they can to stay in power and breaking the law is no big deal in order to achieve those ends. We already know that the McCain/Palin campaign is going as nasty and negative as possible in order to smear Barack Obama and swing Independents to their side. Now with less than two days until election day, they are employing the Bush Administration to attack Obama with his aunt's status in the United States. Let us be clear, revealing this information is a crime and the Bush Administration knows it.

From TPM:

You may have noticed that the AP is reporting that Barack Obama's aunt (who he does not seem to have a relationship with) was denied asylum in the US four years ago and is now living illegally in Boston. Convenient timing, ain't it?

The real story, though, is down in the third paragraph of the AP story ...

Information about the deportation case was disclosed and confirmed by two separate sources, one of them a federal law enforcement official. The information they made available is known to officials in the federal government, but the AP could not establish whether anyone at a political level in the Bush administration or in the McCain campaign had been involved in its release.

That's about as transparent a red flag as an outfit like the AP is usually willing to give. And there you have it. Quite likely working in concert with the McCain campaign, a Bush administration official is leaking details on an immigration case to try to help McCain three days before the election. It's shades of Bush I's riffling through Bill Clinton's passport files just before the 1992 election in a desperate last minute gambit as they were swirling down the drain.

The always incredible and brilliant Dr. Cornel West was on Bill Maher on Friday night and he made a great point. That is we are experiencing the desperation of the conservative movement in all its vicious glory. All of these attacks are as ugly and spiteful as they can be in order for them to hold onto the control of the government. Fighting each and every one, especially by helping to get out the vote for Obama is the way we win this.

This is the most important election in a long time, if not the most important in the history of our nation. So get out there and use any free time you have for the next 52 to 54 hours and knock on doors, make phone calls and help your local Democratic campaign office. We are all sick of the way Republicans politicize government agencies for their own selfish means. A little hard work now will go a long way for the next four to eight years for our country. Get to it now!

Paulson Takes His Cue From Nigerian Scam Artists

Almost everyone with an email box has received spam messages that offer too-good-to-be-true proposals that "guarantee" millions in profit. All you have to do is send a small amount of money to Mr. So and so from xxx bank and you are on you way to living like a millionaire. I feel bad for the few unfortunate suckers that actually believe that garbage and lose money. Of course, it'll be nowhere near as devastating if Congress believes the junk that just showed up in their inbox.

From RawStory:

Dear American:

I need to ask you to support an urgent secret business relationship with a transfer of funds of great magnitude.

I am Ministry of the Treasury of the Republic of America. My country has had crisis that has caused the need for large transfer of funds of 800 billion dollars US. If you would assist me in this transfer, it would be most profitable to you.

I am working with Mr. Phil Gram, lobbyist for UBS, who will be my replacement as Ministry of the Treasury in January. As a Senator, you may know him as the leader of the American banking deregulation movement in the 1990s. This transactin is 100% safe.

This is a matter of great urgency. We need a blank check. We need the funds as quickly as possible. We cannot directly transfer these funds in the names of our close friends because we are constantly under surveillance. My family lawyer advised me that I should look for a reliable and trustworthy person who will act as a next of kin so the funds can be transferred.

Please reply with all of your bank account, IRA and college fund account numbers and those of your children and grandchildren to wallstreetbailout@treasury.gov so that we may transfer your commission for this transaction. After I receive that information, I will respond with detailed information about safeguards that will be used to protect the funds.

Yours Faithfully Minister of Treasury Paulson

Those of us that use our cerebral cortex would hit the delete button instantly, yet Congress is actually taking its time on this crap. If they are seriously that dumb, I'm going to draft my own Nigerian letter, stash a billion or two in my bank account and retire to some place tropical. This bailout/giveaway/scam has no business being on the table for discussion.

Congress should get a group of real, independent economist and draft a proposal that will put the American people first and the bankers who put us in this mess dead last, where they belong. Actually, they probably belong in jail. I wouldn't mind some of my taxpayer dollars going to keep them in lockup, far from being able to influence the financial markets.

Andover Law Ponders Bush Admin. War Crimes

From the moment the Bush Administration began skirting the law and basic tenets of human decency, a few citizens began pondering what to do about the Administration's illegalities. Should they be impeached, tried at the Hague or simply wait to administer justice until after they were out of power? Well since the Congress has done almost nothing about the issue and is only beginning to learn how to exercise their power of oversight, independent groups are taking matters into their own hands. This isn't about a mob mentality to take down the powerful, but for those with decades of legal training to carefully examine the actions of the Administration and determine what should be done. Experts at Massachusetts' Andover School of Law hoped to do just that this morning.

From RawStory:

Saturday morning, the dean of Massachusetts School of Law at Andover will convene a two day planning session with a single focus: To arrest, put to trial and carry out sentence on criminals in the Bush Administration.

The conference, arranged by Lawrence Vevel, cofounder of the Andover school, will focus on which of Bush's officials and members of Congress could be charged with war crimes. The plan also calls for "necessary organizational structures" to be established, with the purpose of pursuing the guilty "to the ends of the Earth."

"For Bush, Richard Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, and John Yoo to spend years in jail or go to the gallows for their crimes would be a powerful lesson to future American leaders," Velvel said in a media advisory.

Mentioning Bush, Cheney and "the gallows" in one sentence is a very powerful statement for anyone to make, especially so for a distinguished law professor. In our highly-charged partisan society, half of us will immediately see this as a cheap trick by the liberal elite with nothing to back it up. Those critics would be wrong though, because this goes beyond party and straight to the heart of our democracy.

If our leaders are allowed to subvert the rule of law and commit ghastly crimes without fear of retribution, what is there to stop any future President from doing the same thing? It doesn't matter what someone's party is if they condone torture, start illegal wars or strip the rights of American citizens. Holding Bush and his cohorts accountable is the only way to show that America is serious about holding up its ideals and not simply whither away like the Roman Republic did two thousand years ago.

If Ballooning Debt Were A Good Thing, Bush Would Be A Great President

Of course rising national deficits and skyrocketing national/personal debt is a terrible thing for all of us, and is one of the many reasons that George Bush is a horrific President. He had claimed recently that his plans of reducing taxes on the rich and giving less to the poor was working. Too bad for him, the facts get in the way of that ridiculous assertion.

From RawStory:

President George W. Bush is leaving taxpayers with more than just a spate of scandals, tax cuts and warrantless wiretapping. He's also leaving the American people with a massive $438 billion deficit next year -- some 8 percent worse than this year, at $407 billion.

The $438 billion deficit next year does not include any accounting for Fannie Mae of Freddie Mac, the mortgage giants the US just took into receivership, and whose loans US taxpayers are now responsible for.[...]

President Bill Clinton left office with a federal budget surplus of $127 billion in 2001. That surplus was $200 billion in 2000.

What a difference eight years makes. I can't even imagine how much worse it would look if McCain got to take over for another four or (gasp!) eight. As the article notes, no matter who is President next year, there is no way that they can get around the massive deficits and piling debt that George Bush has given the United States during his term. The difference between McCain and Obama is that the former will keep piling on and the latter will work to reduce it.

Bush's Mismanaged FDA Endangers Our Health

dConservatives claim today that George Bush isn't really one of their own because the country has fallen so precipitously in so many regards. However, Bush does govern as a conservative and a radical one at that. Giving the government's responsibility to protect the people over to private industry has happened more rapidly in the last eight years than Reaganomics could hope for in the 1980s. Back then it was about giving back taxes to the wealthy and away from the programs to help the poor.

Now in 2008 the reforms of the 1930s and the progressive movement as a whole are under full-frontal assault. There are plenty of examples of this, the defense industry, airline safety and energy regulation to name a few. Every single sector of de-regulation is a serious national matter, but when it comes to the food we eat most Americans assume that the FDA and the USDA are looking out for our safety, but they'd be wrong. It isn't because the inspectors don't care, the reason is that there just aren't enough of them.

From US News:

From the first reports of a salmonella outbreak this spring, it took a full 89 days before jalapeño and serrano peppers correctly came under suspicion as the culprit. During that period, as more than 1,440 victims trickled in to hospitals, federal officials struggled to trace the source of the outbreak, erroneously singling out tomatoes for weeks before homing in on peppers. No sooner had that outbreak tapered off than the high-end Whole Foods Market was forced to launch a massive recall of E. coli-infested ground beef.

The incidents prompted renewed calls for reform and stricter oversight of food safety. Some lawmakers are even suggesting stripping the Food and Drug Administration and the U.S. Department of Agriculture of their inspection duties and giving them to a new agency. Yet the FDA in particular has long been starved of funding and understaffed. Its workload, meanwhile, is rapidly expanding as the global food chain grows larger, more complicated, and less transparent, all of which adds to the agency's already overcrowded plate.

Congress is under pressure to take up major food-safety legislation this fall that would offer sweeping proposals for regulatory change. The country's appetite for reform, however, is likely to collide with an uncomfortable reality: The responsibility for food safety, as it works today, lies heavily in private hands. Even as bacterial outbreaks have become more high-profile and the financial fallout from recalls more severe, the government has been handing off many food-safety responsibilities to industry. Food safety today is a business—and a booming one at that.

Now strict economic conservatives should deem this a good thing. Less government regulation means that private industry will step in and help keep our food safe. The problem is that like most of conservative ideology, the market doesn't care about our safety, it only cares about one thing, profit.

The counter-argument is that you can only profit if you keep selling food and that food has to be safe in order for people to buy it. Not so fast though, the evidence in the last few years has shown that these agribusiness giants have taken plenty of missteps at our expense and when people get sick (and some that die) the FDA is used as a scapegoat, but the real problem lays at the feet of the conservative policies in the last eight years and back during the eighties that helped to cripple the agency.

The market only cares about how to stay profitable and like the article states, retailers pay for inspections for crops that have had problems beforehand, not potential problems in the future. Here's an example. Say squash had a 0.01 percent chance of becoming diseased and that disease would kill 40 percent of the people that ate it. Meanwhile, spinach has a twenty percent chance of becoming infected but only harming ten percent of those that ate it and wasn't fatal. Retailers will spend the money on the spinach inspection because of the higher chance for an outbreak and not on the squash because ultimately the market deals looks at risk in the same manner as insurance companies set rates for clients. It always comes back to the profit motive, not the human-safety motive.

Now government regulation backed up by a strong budget to enforce it doesn't just go after past problems, it looks for all problems. The government is in place for the people (theoretically) and must respond to their wishes. Collectively we want our food to be safe, not just particular problem spots here and there around the farm. That is why Congress shouldn't go off and create a new agency, they should stick to the one they've got and make it effective again.

Our Increasingly Secret Government

Barack Obama consistently talks about how McCain and Palin will bring more of the same to Washington. When it comes to government secrecy, he is absolutely correct (among many other reasons). It was found yesterday that Governor Palin had over 1100 emails hidden from the people of Alaska while charging the state for her family's travel to and fro the capitol and their home in Wasilla, despite being paid $125,000 a year for her position. Basically, the self-labeled reformer is full of it and clearly has something to hide from her state and as a VP nominee, every single American in the other forty-nine states as well. So if you are a fan of secrecy, then she is an excellent choice to help McCain with more of this:

A new “secrecy report card” by OpenTheGovernment.org finds that by almost every measure, government secrecy is rising. Some of the report’s indicators:

– “The government spent $195 maintaining the secrets already on the books for every one dollar the government spent declassifying documents, a 5 percent increase in one year.”

– “18 percent of the requested Department of Defense (DOD) acquisition funding is for classified, or ‘black,’ programs. Classified acquisition funding has more than doubled in real terms since FY 1995.”

– “Federal surveillance activity under the jurisdiction of the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court has risen for the 9th consecutive year — more than double the amount in 2000.”

The report credited Congress with attempting to increase government transparency, while at the same time Bush has tried to block such measures.

McCain has become more secretive with the press now that the Bushie lobbyists are on his team. Palin has the secrecy thing down and now I realize that the Republicans are right, she is clearly experienced....at being a corrupt Republican. As far as governing goes she is horrendous but to McCain and the Republican leadership, campaigning for power is the only thing that matters, not the quality government that the American people deserve.

While Palin Is Wrapped In Controversy, Biden Goes After Bush

Alaska's Governor Sarah Palin has had a rough few days since she started off as McCain's VP choice, in fact rumors are swirling that she could be dropped. While the GOP plays defense over Palin's record (or lack there of) and her atrocious behavior, Obama's number 2 is not sitting back. In fact, Joe Biden is going after the Bush Administration, and we aren't just talking about in the rhetorical sense.

From ABC News:

Looking to the future but with one eye on the past, Biden also promised that an Obama-Biden government would go through Bush administration data with "a fine-toothed comb" and pursue criminal charges if necessary.

"If there has been a basis upon which you can pursue someone for a criminal violation," he said, "they will be pursued, not out of vengeance, not out of retribution - out of the need to preserve the notion that no one, no one, no attorney general, no president, no one is above the law."

That is a sentiment not shared by the current President nor the Vice President. Bush and Cheney are aware of the laws but they most certainly think they are above them. Biden frames the issue perfectly by saying that it isn't about partisan attacks (something the GOP cares about solely, party above country always) but accountability for the actions of those that govern and their crimes against the governed. Biden is well aware of the crimes that the current Administration has committed, but he talks in the manner of someone that wants to take this matter seriously and leave no room for the die-hard partisans on the right to claim that this is anything but the quest for justice.

It is nothing more, nothing less.