Comments on: A Few Words Against Keeping Your Powder Dry

By: james

james — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 18:48:22 +0000

Re your remark about good wages “going to be a thing of the past?” They’re a thing of the past already and have been going that way since ‘73 when the all out attack on organized labor began in this country.

As far as where this country is going let’s also amend that last line–shit happens and then hope that you die.

By: Mary

Mary — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 17:57:12 +0000

51 – EPU territory, but remember Jon Stewart doing a piece with “I’m a PC” John as his global advisor, explaining to Bush and the audience the differences between Pakistan and India. He had a globe or a map, and one was colored pink, with the other yellow. Maybe when he’s not getting TDS up to speed, he could moonlight on explaining civics to Senators?

By: timr

timr — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 17:46:42 +0000

This is only to be expected. The MSM is owned body and soul by corporations. The news that we get from network TV is censored by the owners. The millionaire anchors will say that they are not censored, but at the same time they know damn well what their owners expect from them and they will do nothing to rock their boat. At any rate we get all of 5-7 min of hard news, the rest of the network newscasts are just fillers. I no longer watch any network news program, nor do I watch CNN or Foux news. The corporations own congress and any person who attempts to fight against that ownership is doomed to failure thru false stories in the “news” and by the new age “journalists” who get their “facts” from drudge and politico. We have become what futurists have been writing about for years. Our govt is quickl;y becoming a wholy owned subsidiary of multinationals. The Iraq is a good example of this. Next thing you know we will be going to war to give raw materials to corps who desire them-Iraq and the oil companies, only 1 of which is an american corp. I give our present form of govt no more than 20-50 years until it is a hollow shell with authoritarians running govt at the beck and call of multicorps. I believe we are too far gone to change things now. We were too far along this path 20 years ago. We are all replaceable cogs. The gilded age of corporate ownership is fast approaching, the middle class is dying. We will soon belong to a corp for life or until we can no longer work. Good wages are going to be a thing of the past, as are benefits.
Remember the mantra. Shit happens, then you die.

By: Christy Hardin Smith

Christy Hardin Smith — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 17:24:31 +0000

Maybe we could work something up with dancing jelly beans in the spirit of Easter. *g*

By: Christy Hardin Smith

Christy Hardin Smith — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 17:23:50 +0000

FYI folks — I’ve got some people coming on to chat about these issues on Thursday. More details on that as I firm it up, but wanted to give you a heads up that we’d have some live chat on this later in the week…

By: james

james — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 16:56:01 +0000

My thoughts exactly.

By: TarheelDem

TarheelDem — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 16:54:24 +0000

Whatever happened to recess appointments?

By: tejanarusa

tejanarusa — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 16:52:42 +0000

Oops, forgot to attribute the quote to the TPM piece linked to by Christy, above.

By: tejanarusa

tejanarusa — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 16:50:48 +0000

Koh’s nomination is still pending before the Senate Foreign Relations committee, and a source there says it’ll be a while before they get around to holding hearings.)

WTF? Pardon my French, but what is wrong with “our” Senate “leaders?”

Really, I suspect some of the Obama Admin’s missteps are due to lack of staff and high departmental posts, such as Koh’s and Johnsen’s.
So why the heck aren’t the Senate committees moving fast on confirmations?
Aaargh.

By: Mary

Mary — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 16:43:32 +0000

What’s really interesting is that the Republicans who are so concerned about Koh and Johnsen apparently have no problem or issue with the continued service of Jay Bybee as a Circuit Court judge, despite his investigation for war crimes participation.

I have never heard any kind of linkage offered by the Koh detractors as to how it is that they think he can do anything to affect the interpretation of the US Constitution from a position outside of DOJ and outside, even, of any domestic impact agency. Just how is gen counsel for the Sec of State going to impact US constitutional law? It’s not like Taft’s memos explaining that we couldn’t ignore the Geneva Conventions affected US policy in Afghanistan and Iraq.

So
a) Republicans are much more concerned with someone who is against the commission of war crimes being appointed to OLC than they are with someone who may have participated in war crimes serving on the Circuit bench, and
b) Rebublicans who suppoted DOJ’s rejection of input from Taft on even the application of the Geneva Conventions overseas, when he served as general counsel for Powell, are now concerned that somehow the general counsel for the Sec of State will be setting US domestic constitutional law agendas and applications.

Re b - has anyone explained to them that the Dept of State isn’t the Dept of Justice? Maybe something in the nature of a diagram with pretty pictures and little emoticons that dance and jeer when they click on the right answer?