THE RISE OF THE CORPORATE-AMERICAN [from TOM TOMORROW'S "MODERN WORLD" - published at Salon.com]

Here are the clones your U.S. Supreme Court truly elevated to the status of human beings in order to finally ensure that justice prevails – in other words, that Freedom of Speech and the political system can be bought and owned by the highest bidders. 

Now how soon do the other four seats on the court go up for sale?  Our corporations deserve to speak with one voice, and they now have the right ($$$) to make sure it’s the only voice heard!

Enjoy your democracy while it lasts, America.

Well if you are too young to remember the Watergate scandal, it almost tore America apart at the seams.  In fact, our country has never been as close to a Constitutional crisis as it was back in 1974, when President Richard Nixon was serving his second term in office.  With impeachment proceedings looming, Nixon was forced to resign as President of the United States for his participation in the Whitehouse’s cover-up of a burglary of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) offices in the Watergate office building in Washington, D. C. by Republican operatives at the direction of staff members of the Nixon Administration.

This is certainly not to insinuate that anything as remotely sinister as the Watergate scandal crimes against the country took place down in Louisiana near the end of January.  However, there are some very strange similarities that cannot be overlooked in respect to the Watergate burglars and the perpetrators of this political criminal escapade in Louisiana.

First, in both cases at least one of the men had a relatively cozy relationship to a U.S. intelligence agency.   E. Howard Hunt was a former C.I.A. officer, and one of the Whitehouse operatives who planned and helped execute the break-in of the offices of the DNC.  In the present case, it was reported today that Stanley Dai was the assistant director of the Intelligence Community Center of Academic Excellence program at Trinity Washington University, a small Catholic college in Washington D.C.,  – a program completely funded by the National Intelligence Agency.  Moreover, Dai was listed as the principle contact  for a symposium that featured officials of the National Intelligence Council, the National Counterterrorism Center, and the C.I.A. 

Second, in both cases one of the participants has a “relationship” to a federal law enforcement agency.  In Watergate, it was the still-infamous G. Gordon Liddy, a former F.B.I. agent who assisted Hunt in the planning and execution of the burglary.  In the Louisiana case, one of the participants is Robert Flanagan, the son of Shreveport-based acting U.S. Attorney Bill Flanagan.

Third, it should come as no irony that in each of these cases the actors were low-level political hacks obviously trying to infiltrate offices of Democratic party members and engage in politically-motivated espionage in order to win an election.  It should not be lost on anyone that for these petty criminals, democracy is far too dangerous to be left in the hands of the your political opponents.

Finally, the participation in the Louisiana case by one of the principles in the political “sting operation” to discredit ACORN - a molehill that looks bigger than a mountain to Glenn Beck’s deranged mind – should give a whole new meaning to political karma.

To James O’Keefe:  a word of advice - acting like a big pimp when you are just a little political whore will eventually catch up with you.

 

Newsweek’s Wealth of Nations blogs series latest entry can’t be BEAT – no pun intended. It is titled Daydreaming in Damascus: The Syrian Masturbation Epidemic by Dan Ephron.

If  you were worried about either the Swine Flu or Weapons of Mass Destruction bringing about the Apocalypse, this old affliction has been around for thousands of years, and nothing has ever been able to stop it – - not even prayer.  If this movement takes off, and spreads around the world it will come  to one final explosion of global ecstasy the likes of which will make The Book of Revelations look like amateur week.  It can cross borders and bring production to a halt quicker than a Worldwide Socialist Workers Strike. 

Viva la Revolution.

A 23 year old Syrian blogger derides the fact that “masturbation was spreading among the youths like wildfire” in his country, calling for a campaign to end the “secret habit”.  What occurred next was a rather tongue-in-cheek response from one of Syria’s leading bloggers, who called for a counter-campaign culminating in an “unprecedented Syrian Orgasm against absurdity, hypocrisy, and sanctimony.”  

And that was just the opening salvo.

Another Syrian Blogger suggests “a week of unbridled decadence and moral decay, including drugs, porn, and eating publicly on Ramadan.”  Two others then suggested “outright protests against tribalism and fossilized thinking.”   Finally, the last shot in this war was fired across the bow of Syrian parents, stating that, “While unsuspecting parents are watching  Bab El Hara [a popular television show in the Arab world], the boys are spanking their monkeys and the girls are beating their beavers.”

Look, I don’t know about you.  But if this is how Islamic Terrorists intend on taking over the world . . . I’m ALL IN!

That is until I see that cute little picture of that furry kitten, and I think to myself . . . oh, to Hell with it . . . . . . . . . . . . BANG!!!

First, let’s acknowledge how irresponsible it is to accuse any particular group for U.S. Census worker Bill Sparkman’s death.

However, the peculiar circumstances surrounding him being hanged from a tree – which law enforcement investigators in Kentucky have preliminarily ruled as a homicide – beg the question, why would anyone scrawl the word “FED” across his chest, and what would be their motive?

One could easily infer that it is possibly fear of government intrusion - see the video at the bottom of an article published today.  

Are Glenn Beck and Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann (R-Minn.) really that distressed over government invasion into our privacy?

Well, recall back in 2005 when the story broke regarding the fact that the National Security Agency (NSA), operating under the directives of the Bush Administration, had wiretapped millions of American citizens’ private phone conversations under the guise of  investigating possible links to terrorism.  This led to an investigation by Congress into the extent of the wiretaps, whether they were legal, and whether they were being properly targeted in order to protect national security as asserted by the Bush Administration.  

In order to assure the American public that the wiretaps were not directed at innocent citizens, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, in a White House press briefing, stated that these intercepts were only authorized when the government “has a reasonable basis to conclude that one party to the communication is a member of al Qaeda, affiliated with al Qaeda, or a member of an organization affiliated with al Qaeda, or working in support of al Qaeda.” and that one party to the conversation is “outside of the United States” [emphasis added].

When General Michael Hayden, former head of the NSA and then-acting Director of the CIA, was eventually called to testify before the Senate regarding allegations of unwarranted government intrusion into the lives of innocent American citizens, he unconditionally denied that the government was listening to private conversations that were not reasonably related to terrorist activity.  General Hayden stated, “[w]e are narrowly focused and drilled on protecting the nation against al Qaeda and those organizations who are affiliated with it,”

FACT:  some of the conversations were between American couples (even servicemen and their spouses/girlfriends) engaging in the most intimate communications that had nothing to do with national security.  That this is a gross invasion of privacy, and the most egregious form of governmental intrusion is beyond a shadow of a doubt.

Former NSA employee Adrienne Kinne, who was awarded an NSA Joint Service Achievement Medal in 2003, along with one of her fellow NSA peers, came forward in 2008 and pointedly criticized the NSA’s continued targeting of obviously innocent American citizens.  She proudly stated that sometimes the intercepts did result in information that may have interrupted potential terror attacks in Iraq, and therefore saved American lives. 

Yet, Kinne noted the problem was all of the wasted time and resources spent focusing on these innocent Americans, when it could have been directed towards finding the proverbial “needle in the haystack”.   As Ms. Kinne so poignantly stated, “[b]y casting the net so wide and continuing to collect on Americans . . .  it’s almost like they’re making the haystack bigger and it’s harder to find that piece of information that might actually be useful to somebody,” she said. “You’re actually hurting our ability to effectively protect our national security.”

So Glenn Beck and Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann. . . where was the outrage regarding government intrusion back then?

Subsequent to Representative Joe Wilson’s unconscionable outburst during the President’s speech on Health Care Reform to Congress, there is a pervasive sense of uneasiness rippling throughout the more sane quarters of the nation.  Americans are feeling insecure about the future, in spite of the fact that the economic and financial crisis has seemingly abated for the time being.  Moreover, with the rhetoric from The Far Right growing in intensity with each passing day, there can be little doubt that there is an undercurrent of racism attached to the daily bellowing by some of President Obama’s critics. 

The President has been dismissive of this “theory”, predicated in part by The Whitehouse’s unwillingness to be perceived as “playing the race card” – and rightfully so.  However, the reality has grown painfully more apparent from the very day The President was elected, and there is substantial evidence to support this claim.  President Obama and his advisers are naive to ignore this fact.

In the end, one cannot deny the not-so-subtle irony that the man who yelled out “You lie” to The President has a racist-tinged “vitae curriculum“.  He is a member of The Sons of Confederate Veterans, wherein he led a 2000 campaign to keep the Confederate flag waving above South Carolina’s state Capitol. 

Moreover,  in 2003,  Senator Strom Thurmond (R – S.C.), the patriarch of the South Carolina Conservative wing, and a “reformed” segregationist, passed away.   Joe Wilson was a former Senate page for Senator Thurmond.  When a black woman named Essie Mae Washington-Williams revealed that she was the illegitimate child of Senator Thurmond, Joe Wilson publically stated that he did not believe her (he was quoted in The State newspaper), that he was appalled that anyone would dare besmirch the reputation of such a great man, and that even if it was true, she should have kept that fact to herself, stating (in reference to both Strom Thurmond and Thomas Jefferson):

“It’s a smear on the image that [Thurmond] has as a person of high integrity who has been so loyal to the people of South Carolina . . . [s]ometimes these things just go on.  These are heroes of mine. I really hope these would be heroes to future generations of Americans. (The stories) are … a way to diminish their contributions to our country’s existence.”

When the story later turned out to be true, a public uproar ensured wherein Joe Wilson was forced to apologize to Ms. Washington-Williams.  However, he remained unrepentant in his belief that she should have kept the story to herself.

Yet, the most important fact is that Joe Wilson is not alone in this perspective – his supporters are right there with him in his way of thinking.  

Rational-thinking Americans – which constitute the majority of our nation’s citizens, be they Democrats or Republicans – can agree to disagree on many an issue.   However, if we choose to ignore the reality of these racist undertones directed towards The President, we do so at ours and the nation’s peril.

When President Obama gave his speech on the importance of education to American students today, many of them never had an opportunity to hear his words of encouragement and inspiration.  The reasons why are both varied and utterly irrational.  

Rumors swirled that the President would use this time to bolster support for health care reform, or otherwise forward some sinister Socialist or Communist political agenda.  In essence, inflamed by the excesses of a “lunatic fringe” political discourse gone rampant in recent months in this country, some parents either voluntarily withdrew their children from attendance in school today, or demanded that the local school districts not air the nationally televised speech.

Suffice it to say, the seeds of ignorance are sown by those who wallow in it’s misery.

In 1991, when the first President Bush gave a similar speech to schoolchildren, Newt Gingrich, the Republican Speaker of the House from of Georgia, asked, “Why is it political for the president of the United States to discuss education?”

Exactly! 

Alchemy was the medieval study of the chemical transmutation of lead into gold.  The purveyors of ancient alchemy falsely claimed that by mixing a chemical concoction with lead, they could turn the lead into gold; these men were the charlatans of that era - people believed them simply because they would through slight-of-hand, perform magical acts of mineral transformation.  The irrational notion that lead could be turned into gold caused people to believe that acquiring this somewhat common element would lead to unimaginable wealth.

Of course, we now know that lead cannot be transformed into gold by any chemical process.  In fact, the only way to cause a transmutation of lead into gold is through physics – by way of a nuclear reaction.  Of course, the energy necessary to turn lead into gold by this means far outstrips the value of the resulting gold.  In other words, the end result is completely irrational in relation to its cost, and makes no sense.

When something as benign as President Obama’s speech to the schoolchildren across America can be magically transformed into a looming political, social or cultural cancer, we have reached into the surreal realm of irrational political alchemy.  Now everything that President Obama says or does is ostensibly cloaked in the veil of an ominous agenda.  To so poison the very idea of a President telling children to stay and school and pursue the benefits of an education forebodes of something far more dangerous in regard to the law of unintended consequences.  In other words, the cost of the current trend of twisting truth into fiction will far outstrip any perceived value it may have claimed. 

Paradoxically, this next generation which is currently in school, will later look back at the first decade of the new millennium and judge harshly those forces presently at work that are designed to ensure that the truth is irrationally transformed into an evil fiction with just a few false words.  And all of it done with a perverse, reckless abandon. 

Publisher’s Note:  the image posted above, The Alchemist, was created by artist Nicole Cardiff, and can be found at http://www.fantasygallery.net/cardiff/art_2.html.

If there is any credence to the notion of political justice, we will actually see something akin to the picture above in due time.

The House Judiciary Committee’s investigation into Karl Rove’s role in the improper firing of nine former U.S. Attorneys for political reasons during the Bush Presidency has gained serious traction. 

Yesterday, the Committee released hundreds of pages of previously confidential material from Bush Whitehouse officials containing transcripts, documents and emails outlining events that led to the firing of former U.S. Attorney David Iglesias.  Rove has denied he did anything wrong, and political supporters of the Bush Administration will likely respond to the allegations by saying, “so what?”

However, this is an important step in revealing the level of deceit and political manipulation that Karl Rove and former U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales engaged in during their tenure in order to keep Republicans in power.  Most people do not really understand just how criminal this behavior was if, in fact, confirmed through this investigation and a subsequent prosecution. 

Much like Watergate during the Nixon Administration, it would demonstrate the extent of the political corruption that occurred inside of the Bush Whitehouse, and vindicate critics of that Administration who were calling for hearings into the issue.

Let’s just say, it’s not looking too good for Karl Rove – his continued denials are starting to unravel as the evidence mounts. 

Maybe karmic justice actually works in reality once in while.  We will see . . .

The Obama Administration is finally being tested on the foreign policy front – both here and abroad. 

In Iran, the post-election protests by reformist supporters who were convinced that voter fraud occurred was quickly quelled by the Conservative ruling party.  When Obama hesitated to respond, his critics in the U.S. insinuated that he was indecisive and weak.  The Administration’s explanation was that they were not going to interfere with internal political conflicts in other nations; however, neither would they acknowledge the legitimacy of governments who ignored basic principles of democracy. 

Then one of the United States’ most loyal allies in Latin America, Honduras, has a coup and overthrows a legitimately-elected President who had apparently moved “left” – much to the chagrin of the ruling-class in Honduras.  Obama’s critics here in the U.S. now insinuate that the Administration should keep it’s nose out of Honduran politics (support the coup) since the Honduran President in question aligned himself with Venezuela’s President Chavez.

Now I am not some Chavez sympathizer. 

However, therein lies the paradox, and the incongruous nature of past American Foreign Policy for the current Administration.  If Obama supports a democratic movement in another country that will topple a tyrannical leadership we do not like, we will back him up.   But if a democratic ally overthrows a legitimately-elected leader, albeit undesirable in our eyes, many of us want the President to not interfere, thus ignoring the obvious hypocrisy.

Democracy is not some fluid political theory that can be molded to fit the United State’s agenda.  If we are to remain the beacon of democracy, consistency is the key.  Tyrannical governments will most often try to crush democratic movements in their own country.   That is the nature of despots.  In turn, Democracies must respect democratic principles in order to assert legitimacy. 

Moreover, we now live in a global village that requires nuanced and carefully reasoned responses; we should have learned from the previous eight years that using carrots instead of sticks to change behavior (when possible) is generally the better way to approach foreign policy. 

If a tyranny quashes a democratic movement, they should be isolated and shunned by the democracies of the world.  In the same vein, if a democratic ally such as Honduras violates the most basic principles of democratic process – putting the proverbial cart before the horse by having the military remove the president at gunpoint, and then impeaching him – we cannot give legitimacy to their government by tacitly accepting the behavior.  The consequences for such action must be to “punish” them by breaking all diplomatic and economic ties in an effort to motivate them to adhere to the democratic process.  The reality of their actions, as reflected in both the response of the world and Honduras’ subsequent and swift isolation,  seems to have awakened Honduras to notion that they may have been mistaken in their “procedures”.  

If Honduras would simply reinstate President Zeleya, impeach and convict him, and then remove him from office, all would be forgiven, and the principles of democracy preserved.

The principle issue in American Foreign Policy in the post – WW II era has been the lack of consistency with which we have approached these problems.  This hypocrisy seems to have been lost on a significant portion of  American citizens over the years.  It is important to consider that merely taking a civics class in high school, waving an American Flag, celebrating the 4th of July, and watching cable news to “learn” how things work does not give one a sufficient understanding of the principles of constitutional democracy and foreign policy.  A well-educated and informed constituency is the key to democracy.

And like Hondurans, Americans should take heed, as well:  Self-reflection is always the first step to redemption.