- Amanda Marcotte: Who needs files on prisoners? (Pandagon) – “Many of us were mildly sad, though unsurprised, that Obama didn’t just immediately release all the political prisoners with the understanding that we relinquished our right to try them when we relinquished our responsibility to uphold their basic human rights. I’m sure many of them are guilty of something, but we can’t put them in jail because the Bush administration flubbed this one. The Obama administration put the tribunal on hold (and it’s understood that it’s most likely going to be shut down) and hung onto these prisoners to figure out what to do with them, all in good faith. The assumption is that the Bush administration had some reason to maintain this no man’s land political prison. But with this discovery, I’m inclined to think that we’re going to find out even more unsavory realities about who got sent to Gitmo on what little evidence. Maybe in the end, they’ll just have to do what human rights groups have been asking and let the prisoners go.”
- Melissa McEwan: Oh, Snap! (Shakesville) – “My Congressional Boyfriend, Rep. John Conyers, has subpoenaed Karl Rove, ‘requiring him to testify regarding his role in the Bush Administration’s politicization of the Department of Justice, including the US Attorney firings and the prosecution of former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman.’ [...]“That whole ‘executive privilege, schmexecutive schmivilege’ thing is going to get real relevant real quick, Shakers.”
- Digby: “Boy, If Only Life Were Like This” (Hullabaloo) – “They want the recession to painlessly fix itself, which would keep their philosophy relevant. They cannot wrap their minds around the fact that all their ideas have failed and that they have absolutely nothing to offer in this time of crisis. So they are resorting to magical thinking, as usual.”At least Andrew Mellon was honest back in the 1930s when he said, “Liquidate labor, liquidate stocks, liquidate the farmers – purge the rottenness from the system.” Republicans back in that day were willing to court economic devastation and possible revolution in the name of free market capitalism and they admitted it. The modern conservatives, on the other hand, are still in love with the crazy notion that the more taxes that are cut on the wealthy the more money the government will have to give back in tax cuts to the wealthy — and then we’ll all be rich. Why is anyone even giving them the time of day at this point?”
- Digby: Torture Shock (Hullabaloo) – “The government tortures innocent citizens into unconsciousness, on camera, in United States courtrooms. They use them on prisoners and on motorists and on political protesters and on mentally ill people. Why on earth would any of us think they wouldn’t torture terrorist suspects? [...]“America’s torture problem is much bigger than Gitmo or the CIA or the waterboarding of Khalid Sheik Mohamed. The government is torturing people every day and killing some of them. Then videos of the torture wind up on Youtube where sadistic freaks get their jollies watching them. It’s sick.”
- Tristero: The Problem (Hullabaloo) – “The problems remain. To this day, those who got it wrong – perhaps even worse, those who gave the incompetent bullshit-slingers a free ride – retain their access to important media. [...]“Now, there were people who said the Bush/Iraq war was crazy back in February, 2003, before it happened. And we said it loudly. Millions of us, here in the US and around the world. But we weren’t merely dismissed as dirty fucking hippies, and serious journalists like Lemann didn’t simply ignore us. No. We were literally erased from American public discourse (scroll down to the post entitled “The Incredible Shrinking Protests”.)
“…in February of 2003, Lemann was quite irresponsible. After describing to us some of the craziest foreign policy ideas any American president has ever seriously entertained, Lemann went beyond failing to note the obvious: he rhetorically admitted these nutso notions to the realm of serious discussion.
“Today, Lemann still can’t admit, or perhaps discern, the true nature of mainstream American political discourse. It is a tale told by idiots, signifying catastrophe. It’s not that he’s unobservant. Rather, he works in a media environment in which it would never occur to him to challenge, let alone, ignore people so foolish and/or compromised as to compare Bush to Lincoln. And it never occurred to him or anyone else in the mainstream, until it was too late, to pay serious attention to those of us who, from the getgo, rightly compared Bush to Ed Wood.”
- Dday: Post-Partisan Pain (Hullabaloo) – “It was a good week, with a lot of progress packed into it, and many hoped that would be the pattern of this next Administration. However, there’s enough data to map out an alternate scenario, one where President Obama tries to keep his personal approval ratings high by placating Republicans and stiffing Democrats. [...]“They’re including [in the stimulus bill] ineffective giveaways to industry for no reason but to seem bipartisan. By the way that bipartisan support won’t be coming, leaving a bunch of tax breaks in there for no reason. And there is a cost. By contrast, mass transit and rail spending really IS a tiny fraction of the whole bill, in fact pathetically tiny, at a time when ridership is up but funds are down. [...]
“The stimulus isn’t a horrible bill, and there’s a lot to like in there, particularly in the energy and health care provisions. But it’s certainly Chamber of Commerce-friendly at a time when their member organizations are laying off tens of thousands. Obama has maintained this sugar plum fairy vision of bipartisanship, yet his bill manifestly does NOT value “what works” over ideology. Quite the opposite. It makes room for ideology, conservative ideology, and pre-empts provisions that would work much better in bringing back the economy. Despite a mandate for major new social and economic programs from the public, Obama is still playing small ball. He’s responding to Republican hissy fits and teaching them that all they have to do to wring a concession is scream for a day or so and let their media allies whip up a frenzy. He’s offering half-measures when they won’t do the job.”
I’m starting to hope the Republicans DO make the stimulus bill go down in flames so that we can put the mantra of bipartisan cooperation (which requires Dems to work with Repubs but not vice-versa) behind us.
The Links for January 27th from 11:10 to 12:11 by Lee Salazar, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License. Terms and conditions beyond the scope of this license may be available at leesalazar.com.