Later On

Right now the GOP is simply not worth commenting on: they are obstructive, incoherent, stupid, willfully ignorant, and have absolutely no interest in governing the country. The whole idea seems to be to get in, make as much money as you can helping large corporations, and get out: it’s a personal enrichment scheme. In the rare event that some member of the GOP says something rational, I’ll try to note it, but really that party has become hopeless. They can’t even lie well—Ike Skelton of Missouri Rep. Paul Broun (R-GA) admitted that the Bush bailouts and tax cuts had added to the debt, but he blamed on the the Secretary of the Treasury, Hank Paulson, whom he said was a Democrat. He’s not. He’s as Republican as you can get. [Sorry for the error: It was Ike Skelton who said that the military should not end DADT because then children might ask about the event and it would be very uncomfortable to explain to them. See this video:]

And Rubio, who has been blasting the government for ages as worthless, incompetent, and wasteful, wants the government to come to Florida to help them recover from the spill—the very government that he… it’s hard to write about these worthless pieces of shit, I find.

And now the Chamber of Commerce (and John Boehner, majority leader of the House) think that the “government” (i.e., you and me and all the other taxpayers) should pay the costs of the clean-up from the BP spill. Why is that? You guys don’t like the government doing things in the first place, and you hated the stimulus plan and bailout, but now you want the government—the taxpayers—to pony up millions to pay the costs of BP’s own operation? So far as I’m concerned, BP can pay the entire cost and do what they can to recover from Halliburton and Deepwater Horizon. The government should bill BP for all its expenses as a result of the spill. There is no reason for the public to pay for BP’s errors.

And the endless string of Republicans who call the spill an Act of God—it isn’t. It’s an act of BP, which has responsibility for the entire mess.

And the Democrats are little better, though some good legislation seems to be getting passed. But Obama’s record on civil liberties is absolutely abysmal—he’s as bad as Bush, and no reason to be. Take a look at what Daniel Ellsberg has to say. Among other things:

Ellsberg: Also, the recent US indictment of Thomas Drake.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Drake was a former senior official with the National Security Agency (NSA) who provided reporters with information about failures at the NSA.

Ellsberg: For Obama to indict and prosecute Drake now, for acts undertaken and investigated during the Bush administration, is to do precisely what Obama said he did not mean to do — “look backward.” Of all the blatantly criminal acts committed under Bush, warrantless wiretapping by the NSA, aggression, torture, Obama now prosecutes only the revelation of massive waste by the NSA, a socially useful act which the Bush administration itself investigated but did not choose to indict or prosecute!

Bush brought no indictments against whistleblowers, though he suspended Drake’s clearance. Obama, in this and other matters relating to secrecy and whistleblowing, is doing worse than Bush. His violation of civil liberties and the White House’s excessive use of the executive secrecy privilege is inexcusable.

It’s inexcusable, irrational, unjust, and infuriating, but it does show a lot about Obama the man, who seems to have become crazed for power already.

And take a look at this, by Scott Horton:

Last week we learned from an interview with former Argentine president Néstor Kirchner that former president George W. Bush touted war as a cure to a nation’s economic ills. Bush has not contested that account. Moreover, yesterday he clarified his role in the torture of prisoners at CIA black sites. For two years, Republicans have argued against any inquiry into the torture practices of the Bush-Cheney administration, but apparently all it takes to get Bush to discuss the issue is a fat speaking fee. In a keynote address before the Economic Club of Grand Rapids, he spoke glibly about waterboarding:

Sure, we waterboarded Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, former President George W. Bush reportedly said on Tuesday. And he would “do it again to save lives.”

A group of thirteen retired admirals and generals meeting in Philadelphia to discuss national security issues, speaking through former CENTCOM commander General Joseph Hoar, responded:

Waterboarding is torture. John McCain has said it’s torture. We have prosecuted foreign and American military personnel for waterboarding. We even prosecuted a sheriff in Texas for waterboarding. Waterboarding is torture and torture is a crime. It cannot be demonstrated that any use of it by U.S. personnel in recent years has saved a single American life. To the contrary, the misguided belief that torture saves lives has cost America dearly. It is shocking that former President George W. Bush said he would use waterboarding ‘again to save lives.’ When he authorized it the first time he sent America down the wrong road, battering our alliances, damaging counterinsurgency efforts, and increasing threats to our soldiers.

Bush’s statement amounts to an admission of his role in a serious crime. He can speak and act without concern because the Obama White House has announced its intention not to enforce American domestic law, under which this conduct was a felony, and not to comply with the unequivocal treaty commitments of the Convention Against Torture, under which the United States is unconditionally obligated to undertake a criminal investigation. In this way, the sins of one regime have been assumed by its successor.

Obama has Bush’s back. Great.

I am stepping aside from politics for now. I see the country as having totally lost its way, lurching toward a plutocracy, with Congress controlled by large companies, with the government pouring money into the hands of private industry instead of doing the government’s job. I think the decline, when it comes, will be remarkable.