I’ll start with the three group blogs I mentioned the other day: Our Word, Cosmic Variance, and The UnCapitalist Journal.
From there, we head off to Blue Meme, which is both smart and funny, like most of the blogs on my blogroll, each in its own unique and wonderful way.
Next stop: A Brooklyn Bridge, which is yet another blog that I should have added long ago. (I’m sorry for the delay, Glen.)
Then onto The Curmudgeonly Crab, who offers commentary, essaylets, sacred cow tipping, miscellany and eclectia from a bleeding heart crustacean.
And finally, Driftglass, whose rants will have you in stitches, unless you’re an uptight asshole.
Tell me who else I’m forgetting, overlooking, should check out, etc. in comments. I’m always happy for recommendations, and don’t be shy about promoting yourself.
(Always remember, Shakespeare’s Sister is the Official Home of the Encouraged Blogwhore!)
Friday Blogrollin'
Patriot Act Renewed
The House of Representatives reauthorized the Patriot Act yesterday by a margin of 257 to 171, with 44 Dems supporting it and 14 Republicans opposing it. I feel guilty that I didn’t pay enough attention to this issue leading up to the vote, but it looks like even if the blogosphere’s best efforts had managed all of the turncoat 44 Dems to oppose it, it still would have passed. We would have needed to convince 43 Republicans to oppose it, too, which seems like an impossible task, considering the tone of the debate in the House. (My math was stinky. Nevermind.)
In response, Dems on the House Judiciary Committee have prepared a 70-page dissent opposing the reauthorization.Republicans repeatedly argued throughout the 11-hour debate that the latest explosions in London showed how urgent and important it was to renew the law.
"Passage of the ... act is vital to maintaining the post-9/11 law enforcement and intelligence reforms that have reduced America's vulnerability to terrorist attack," Wisconsin Republican James Sensenbrenner told lawmakers.
Republicans also added a new provision to apply the federal death penalty for terrorist offenses that resulted in death and another establishing a new crime of narco-terrorism to punish people using drug profits to aid terrorism. These offenders will now face 20-year minimum prison sentences.
[...]The Senate judiciary committee voted unanimously to recommend its own version of the act on Thursday, which included only four-year renewals of these two clauses. The full Senate is expected to take its bill up in the fall.
The House also passed an amendment requiring the director of the FBI to personally approve all requests for library or bookstore records and a number of other amendments designed to add civil liberty safeguards to the bill.
[…]
Leading opposition from the left, the American Civil Liberties Union said the bill gave the FBI extraordinary power to obtain personal records, search individuals' homes or offices without their knowledge and to use a secret court to obtain personal date on ordinary Americans.
Unlike some Democratic opposition, those decrying the Patriot Act include a diverse panoply of voices: 389 communities and seven states have passed resolutions opposing parts of the PATRIOT Act, representing over 62 million people, they note.Raw Story’s got more.
The Patriot Act, I’m afraid, is a losing battle while both the House and Senate are controlled by the GOP. Our best plan for getting rid of this and other associated encroachments on our civil liberties is to keep pushing on the criminal activities of the current occupants of the White House and work our tails off to bring in new leadership who believes that there’s more to fighting terrorism than restricting civil liberties, preemptive strikes, and mistreating detainees—things instead like developing a comprehensive alternative energy plan and creating a strategy to implement comprehensive public transportation for Americans, even those who don’t live in cities.
Instead, major oil companies are posting record profits and “enjoying one of the biggest windfalls in [the oil industry’s] history.” Isn’t that amazing?
Action Items
1. Tune in to C-SPAN 2 (if you can) in about 10 minutes where you'll see a Dem hearing on the leak. More info on the hearing here.
2. On July 21, 2005, Congresswoman Barbara Lee (Dem., Calif.) introduced - along with 26 co-sponsors - a Resolution of Inquiry in the House of Representatives which, if passed, will require the White House and the State Department to "transmit all information relating to communication with officials of the United Kingdom between January 1, 2002, and October 16, 2002, relating to the policy of the United States with respect to Iraq." The text of the Resolution, H. Res. 375, and a list of current co-sponsors, is here. Ask your Congresspeople to support Lee's efforts; find out more information here.
And while I'm at it, my apologies to those who emailed me about last ditch efforts re: The Patriot Act. I dropped the ball.
A Deeply Sad Story
There are a lot of upsetting news stories these days.
Some of them simply make me shake my head in disbelief; some make me angry; and some make me incredibly sad. This is one of those stories that makes me so sad that the regret and despair seem to sink down under my skin and rattle my very bones:
Two gay Iranian teenagers -- one 18, the other believed to be 16 or 17, were executed this week for the "crime" of homosexuality, the Iranian Student News Agency (ISNA) reported on July 19. (The ISNA report is in Farsi, and was translated into English by the British gay rights group OutRage!, which released its report today--ISNA also provided the terrifying photos of the teens' last moments you see on this page.) The two youths -- identified only by their initials as M.A. and A.M., were hanged in Edalat (Justice) Square in the city of Mashhad in north-eastern Iran, on the orders of Court No. 19. The hanging of the teens was also reported by the National Council of Resistance of Iran.
...And Outrage, in its release about the gay teens' execution, noted that, "according to Iranian human rights campaigners, over 4000 lesbians and gay men have been executed since the Ayatollahs seized power in 1979. Last August, a 16-year-old girl was hanged for 'acts incompatible with chastity.'"When I read something like this, I just want to scream. The only time in my entire life that what hole someone (consensually) chooses to stick his or her bits into has made a fucking sliver of a difference is when I’m one of the people doing the sticking or being stuck. I just can’t wrap my head around why anyone thinks what other people do with their private parts is any more their business than what other people do with their private property. If I want to put my foot through my television, there’s not a bloody uprising about it, so why it is any different who I want to put parts of their body into mine (or vice versa)?
In the case of the two teens hanged in Mashhad, "They admitted having gay sex (probably under torture) but claimed in their defense that most young boys had sex with each other and that they were not aware that homosexuality was punishable by death," according to the ISNA report as translated by Outrage. "Prior to their execution, the gay teenagers were held in prison for 14 months and severely beaten with 228 lashes."
Big Brass Blogger JJ commented earlier today in response to the earlier post about what’s wrong with conservatism, leaving his favorite quote:
"The belief that there is only one truth, and that oneself is in possession of it, is the root of all evil in the world."Conservatives would undoubtedly respond to that by suggesting that someone like me holds just as firm a belief that I am in possession of the One Truth, but a story like this dramatically illustrates the difference between the conservative and liberal ways of thinking. Liberals believe that there are many ways to live one’s life, and that there will be some people who are homosexual, some who are heterosexual, some who are celibate, some who are bisexual, and every variation thereof across an entire spectrum—and thusly, we seek to create a society and a set of laws which allow each individual to express him- or herself in whatever way he or she sees fit, so long as they express it with a consenting partner of age. As liberals see it, is that there is no such thing, really, as the One Truth, and so we make room for every story to be told.
I want to hear an orchestra of human experience around me—and when I am faced with the reality of fundamentalist thinking, the attempt to silence those who diverge from the One Truth as laid out by a group who claims rightness at all cost and makes no exception, no matter what the loss to the rest of the musicians, I grieve for us all.
(Hat tip to Pam, who’s got the Freeper reaction to this story, if you can bear it.)
Clickity-Click
Skippy needs less than 4,000 hits to reach a million. Can we help him out, Shakers?
Click!
Leaky Leaky Leaky
Bob Brigham over at Swing State Project got a hold of the GOP’s talking points on SCOTUS nominee Roberts. If it weren’t so likely that this guy’s going to be making decisions that affect all of our lives very soon, it would almost be kind of funny.
I am very annoyed, however, that not one liberal has even attempted to bring me in on the nasty whispering campaign the GOP says we’re going to orchestrate:
[T]he likely basis for a whispering campaign against Roberts, is that he is a practicing Catholic and therefore predisposed to advancing the social policies of the Catholic Church through judicial opinions.They so don’t get that we just don’t work that way. Sigh.
Conservatism
Former conservative Mimus Pauly on the problem with conservatism:
Conservatism, by definition, is about preservation -- what's at issue is whatever needs to be preserved…Read the whole thing; it’s good.
The thing is, when the preservation of your own little world is your chief concern, you invariably look on those who do not share your concern as enemies. And because your interests are that personal and that selfish, you develop a "guilty until proven innocent" mindset toward your perceived enemies. Which, of course, opens the door to all manner of flagrant abuses of basic human decency -- just give that Amnesty International report I keep excerpting a glance. Or go back to those photos from Abu Ghraib. And ask yourself what, exactly, it is you endeavor to preserve.
(Hat tip to The Fixer at Alternate Brain.)
Big Brass Alliance Reminder and Request
As I posted last week, the "anniversary" of the meeting at #10 Downing Street that gave birth to the Downing Street Memo is coming up this Saturday, July 23rd.
(It's a precocious little kid... gets into a lot of sticky situations. But with some love and attention, I think it can grow up to be a real troublemaker.)
There are several events going on to mark the occasion; take a look at the post if you need a reminder.
With the Rove Carnival 'o Fun, the Supreme Court Nominee from Mattel, and the second attack in London, there's a lot going on in the news right now. The Memo has been pushed to the end of the line... not forgotten, but definitely edging towards the lip of the memory hole.
I'm calling upon all Big Brass Alliance members and other bloggers to please mark tomorrow, Friday the 22nd as the day you will write at least one post on the Downing Street Memo. Enough outcry has landed Rove's fat & sweaty tuckus in the hotseat; the same can be done with the DSM.
If it weren't for us, the DSM story could have conceivably died once it came out. It was our constant noise that made the comatose MSM sit up and take notice. We did it before, we can do it again.
Blogging the DSM on Saturday is, of course, just fine... but the possibility of it vanishing into the ether during the weekend is very high. Let's make Friday our day to remind everyone about the Downing Street Memo.
Besides, those "Inside the Blogs" people really need the help.
MAKE SOME NOISE.
(She blinded me with Cross-Posts...)
Condi’s Hypocrisy in Sudan
I heard about this on the NPR this morning, and I honestly couldn’t believe my ears, but apparently it’s true:
US officials and press accompanying US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on a trip to Sudan said they were "manhandled" by security staff at President Omar al-Beshir's residence.The way that the press was treated is an unbelievable outrage—and I’m glad that Rice got pissed about it in no uncertain terms.
US officials said the security men tried to prevent them and the press from entering the meeting, and tried to confiscate tapes from a National Public Radio reporter, before Rice's spokesman Sean McKormack and others intervened.
Jim Wilkinson, senior adviser to Rice, said he was grabbed and thrown against the wall at the entrance to the residence before he bulled his way through with Rice's personal assistant in tow behind him.
[…]
When the second press group finally entered for a photo op with Rice and Beshir, NBC reporter Andrea Mitchell tried to ask a question about why Khartoum should be believed in its promises to crack down on militias in its western Darfur region, but she was cut off and pushed away by the Sudanese.
Wilkinson again angrily intervened, and said "don't ever touch our journalists again".
An enraged Rice came to talk to the press on the plane before taking off for the restive region of Darfur and apologised to Mitchell, saying she was demanding an immediate apology from the Sudanese.
"They had no right to manhandle my staff and the press," Rice said. "It makes me very angry to be sitting there with their president and have this happen."
But the thing that bothers me is why she is outraged about the way the Sudanese government tries to block the press from doing its job in Sudan and not outraged about the stonewalling and manipulation of the press going on in America. Is it really so much worse to have reporters physically intimidated and stopped from doing their jobs than to covertly threaten them with lack of access, refuse to answer questions based on a ludicrous premise (see: “ongoing investigation”) that wasn’t applicable when the administration wanted to defend its members but is now of prime concern since its members have been implicated in a criminal act, and misdirect the press with diversionary leaks of bad information? What about paying the press to write favorable stories about the administration’s policies? What about letting gay male prostitutes with dubious journalistic credentials into the press corps to lob softball questions when things get hot? Don’t any of these things bother Rice?
Or would those things only be a problem if it weren’t
Pam’s on it, too.
W is for Women: Part of a Continuing Series (of Complaints) about How the World’s Women Suffer Under the Bush Regime
A working draft of Iraq's new constitution would cede a strong role to Islamic law and could sharply curb women's rights, particularly in personal matters like divorce and family inheritance.There is, of course, more.
The document's writers are also debating whether to drop or phase out a measure enshrined in the interim constitution, co-written last year by the Americans, requiring that women make up at least a quarter of the parliament.
The draft of a chapter of the new constitution obtained by The New York Times on Tuesday guarantees equal rights for women as long as those rights do not "violate Shariah," or Koranic law.
The Americans and secular Iraqis banished such explicit references to religious law from the interim constitution adopted early last year.
The draft chapter, circulated discreetly in recent days, has ignited outrage among women's groups, which held a protest on Tuesday morning in downtown Baghdad at the square where a statue of Saddam Hussein was pulled down by American marines in April 2003.
One of the critical passages is in Article 14 of the chapter, a sweeping measure that would require court cases dealing with matters like marriage, divorce and inheritance to be judged according to the law practiced by the family's sect or religion.
Under that measure, Shiite women in Iraq, no matter what their age, generally could not marry without their families' permission. Under some interpretations of Shariah, men could attain a divorce simply by stating their intention three times in their wives' presence.
Article 14 would replace a body of Iraqi law that has for decades been considered one of the most progressive in the Middle East in protecting the rights of women, giving them the freedom to choose a husband and requiring divorce cases to be decided by a judge.
The interesting thing about this article to me is that the “liberation” of Iraq at our hands has in fact not liberated Iraqi women at all, but seems instead likely to roll back rights they have been guaranteed for decades. And if Americans had the foggiest idea of what made Iraqis different from Afghanis, for example, and what life was really like before the war for the average Iraqi, which, despite what you’d think if you listened to the American media and our government, consisted of (shockingly!) the full spectrum of human experience and more than just 24 hours a day of rape rooms and torture chambers, they’d be outraged about what is now happening to Iraqi women. But to be outraged about what they’ve lost, people would have to be aware of exactly what that is, and they don’t know, and they don’t care.
I’m honestly too pissed about this to write anything especially thoughtful.
The Heretik, however, has a great post and a round-up of women (and yes, so far it’s all women) who are blogging about this. Check it out.
I Like It
Big surprise—the reason everyone was running around researching Edith Clement leading up to Bush’s announcement of John Roberts as his SCOTUS nominee is because the press was likely Spun Silly by the White House:
Did the Bush team put out misinformation on that crazy Tuesday to steer reporters away from John Roberts?Atrios responds:
We can't answer the question definitively because the journalists involved have a Matt Cooper problem -- they promised their sources anonymity, regardless of motive. But I can tell you that some of them are ticked and feeling misled.
I really missed the memo when we were told that journalists who promised confidentiality to their sources were obligated to maintain that confidentiality even after learning that they'd been lied to. This isn't about keeping promises, it's about maintaining access …Great idea. I extend the same offer, not that I think anyone with access to the White House reads this blog, lol.
Here's a deal - no need to lose your access. Feel free to email me your source, and I'll promise confidentiality.
But just in case there is, and you’re itching to bare your soul, expose the spin machine, and help take down the Bushies, let me know. I can keep a secret—and you’ll keep your access.
Citizen of the Year, Bobo-Style
Whatever you do, don’t move to Hominy, Oklahoma, because the irony will literally kill you:
A resident of Hominy, Okla., walked into a local diner Tuesday afternoon and allegedly shot a pregnant waitress, 26-year-old Becky Clements, in the head, then shot her again in the stomach and chest. Sheriff Ty Koch said the motive is apparently a recent letter to the editor of the Hominy newspaper, the News Progress, written by the woman.Because Clements was 11 weeks pregnant, authorities are seeking two first-degree murder charges. My feelings on that decision notwithstanding, I hope Westbrook friggin’ rots. What an incredible asshole.
[…]
The letter from the dead woman had said local vandalism is done by prominent citizens and referred to spray-painted graffiti on a rental home owned by [63-year-old Roy Westbrook], although it did not name him. The letter did say the spray-painting was done by the owner.
Westbrook was trying to evict the victim's sister from the building.
When the shooting occurred, there were about 50 people inside the diner. Owner Chad Filali said, in a local TV report, "I heard pops. I didn't know if they were guns or not to tell you the truth until people came out and said 'there's a shooting inside, there's a shooting inside.'"
Just this past January, the Hominy News Progress gave Westbrook an award for his generosity to the community.
London Underground Emergency
Two weeks to the day after 56 people were killed by suicide bombers in London, three tube stations have been evacuated. Emergency crews have been dispatched to the Warren Street, Shepherds Bush, and Oval stations. I also heard on the radio that there may have been an incident on a bus in another part of town, as well. No casualties have been reported so far.
Karl Rove: The #1 Dirtbag Jagdork in the Nation
The news is not good.
Not for Turdblossom, anyway.
The U.S. Senate Democratic Policy Committee and the U.S. House Government Reform Committee Minority have announced they will conduct a joint hearing this Friday to explore how a covert CIA agent's name was leaked and examine the national security consequences of disclosing the identity of a covert intelligence officer. Apparently, since the GOP majority doesn’t seem to give a rat’s ass that national security was compromised in the administration’s quest for unlimited power, the Dems have decided to take matters into their own hands.
Meanwhile, Mark Morford’s recent column in the San Francisco Chronicle describes Rove as “America’s Big Malignant Tumor,” “perhaps the slipperiest and sweatiest and most powerful adviser of a major world leader since an invisible purple demon hissed sweet nothings into Mussolini's ear,” “Grand Overlord Puppetmaster,” “the most powerful and brilliant and deeply unlikable political thug most people have barely heard of because he's just that kind of secretive nefarious genius the likes of which makes women recoil and flowers wilt and moderate politicians break out in hives,” and as having a “meager education and porcine sheen and this-one's-for-all-the-girls-who-shunned-me-in-high-school revenge demeanor.” Seriously—you must read this column. It’s priceless. Not only is it dripping with the appropriate level of caustic contempt for a man who’s turned American politics into a sick joke, but it’s also dead-on in its assessment of what this whole mess is really all about.
Meanwhile still, Barbara Boxer invoked Nixon and Watergate in a statement released demanding a White House explanation of the CIA outing, even being so bold as to relate Nixon’s “not a crook” bullocks to Bush’s recent “if someone committed a crime they will no longer work in my Administration” double-bullocks. Boxer suggests the buck stops at Bush’s desk. I agree.
And meanwhile still, CNN reports that in a statement to Congressional leaders, eleven former intelligence officers have said that the Plame leak may have damaged national security and the government’s ability to gather intelligence. Ouch.
If the plan was to distract attention away from Rove’s shenanigans, I think it’s back to the drawing board. Hey—maybe President Bush can fall off his bike again.
UPDATES: Ray McGovern pulls no punches, and the State Department Memo on Plame was clearly identified as classified. (Thanks to Shakers Soccer Mom and RSchewe, respectively.) And Shaker Rob says: "It's worth noting that the list of former intelligence officers includes Vincent Cannistraro, who knows more about the Middle East and terrorism than anyone in the administration could ever hope to." Read more about Cannistraro in McGovern's article.
Also, Oddjob points us to a great Seatlle Post-Intelligencer Editorial, Leaking Standard: No pal left behind.
Bwaaaahahahahahahaha!!!
Coulter caught plagarizing.
If you must write prose or poems
The words you use should be your own
Don't plagiarise or take "on loan"
'Cause there's always someone, somewhere
With a big nose, who knows
And who trips you up and laughs
When you fall
Who'll trip you up and laugh
When you fall
-- The Smiths, Cemetry Gates
Group Sex
Okay, not really. As it turns out, this post is about Group Blogging, but I wanted to get your attention, because these blogs deserve it.
First up: OurWord, whose contributors describe it as “a community where women's voices are valued and respected, a space for telling the truth of women’s lives and working together to improve them. This site is owned by all members who post here. It is the aggregate of all of our words, all of our ideas, all of our experiences.” It’s a great site (and men are welcome, too!); the content is stellar, and it looks gorgeous to boot. Definitely check it out.
Second on the list: Cosmic Variance, which is a group blog authored by five physicists and astrophysicists, including Shaker and former Preposterous Universe blogger Sean Carroll. They’re delving into all kinds of fascinating stuff over there, so you should head on over—you’re sure to find something you like.
And last but certainly not least: The UnCapitalist Journal, which features commentary and perspective on international economy, trade, corporations, labor, poverty, and social justice, and was formed by some of my favorite bloggers, including Agitprop, Charles Norman Todd, The Dark Wraith, Gretchen Ross, Lindsay Beyerstein, and Richard Blair, plus a few others with whom I’ll soon become acquainted. Head on over and say hello. Big things will come from the UnCapitalists.
Sneaking it through while they sleep
("Sleep" in the "They Live" sense, of course.)
Very busy today; the blog is suffering because of it. So much for my blogshares. Sell! Sell!
(By the way, congratulations to John on his 10,000th hit. When I get 5,000 hits one of these days, I think my eyes will pop out in sheer amazement.)
Anyway, energy dome tip to Crooks & Liars for pointing me to yesterday's TalkLeft article pointing out the new damaging information about Rove. Take a look; it's short. Gee, who knew. He's getting caught up in his lies. (Apologies if this is old news to all of you.)
Quick! Make with the Supreme Court Distraction!
(Who likes cross-posts? We like cross-posts!)
What Have You Done For Me Lately?, Part II
Last week, I wrote about the problem of the Democratic Party losing black* voters, as the GOP begins to peel off black Christian Conservatives, using gay marriage as a wedge issue. It’s a big issue, and important issue, and we shouldn’t be afraid to talk about it. Pam writes about it a lot, and I highly recommend checking out her series (which, come Koufax time, I will be nominating for best series, not only because it is deserving, but also in the hope that tons of people will read it).
Anyway, one of the issues that irks me, as a person of empathy, and, rather cynically, from a political perspective, too, is the Dems’ unwavering tendency to take for granted their black constituency, hence the title of the post. An article I read this morning brought home how little our government has done, irrespective of who’s running it, to ensure equal opportunities for all children, regardless of race.
The article addresses a plan to incorporate Ebonics into a new school program, designed to help keep black students—who are the lowest-achieving group in the district, go to college the least, and have the most dropouts and suspensions—interested in school. I’m not going to get into examining whether this is a good or a bad idea, because I’m frankly not sure; I’ve read a lot on the subject, both in Ebonics integration and English as a Second Language programs, and one can find opinions, anecdotal evidence, and statistics that support both sides of the issue. What really caught my eye in the article was this (emphasis mine):
Mary Texeira, a sociology professor at Cal State San Bernardino, commended the San Bernardino Board of Education for approving the policy in June.Linguistics can be a tricky thing, and a subjective thing; there’s not a definitive consensus on when a dialect stops being just a dialect and becomes its own language. There are areas within the United States—a small island off the east coast (the name of which escapes me at the moment) where the inhabitants speak a strange mix of German and English, certain remote enclaves in Appalachia, as examples—where the form of English spoken is so unique as to have spawned endless debate about whether it’s truly a rare American dialect or a language all its own. When one reads about these idiosyncratic tongues, in America or elsewhere, the thing that their native speakers have in common is geographical isolation.
Texeira suggested that including Ebonics in the program would be beneficial for students. Ebonics, a dialect of American English that is spoken by many blacks throughout the country, was recognized as a separate language in 1996 by the Oakland school board.
"Ebonics is a different language, it's not slang as many believe,” Texeira said. "For many of these students Ebonics is their language, and it should be considered a foreign language. These students should be taught like other students who speak a foreign language.”
Texeira said research has shown that students learn better when they fully comprehend the language they are being taught in.
Ebonics speakers are not geographically isolated—not in the same way residents of a small coastal island are, anyway. This dialect, or language, depending on the linguist or sociologist to whom you are speaking, is instead the result of cultural isolation. Whether Ebonics started and/or developed strictly due to immersion in a community of like speakers, or as a result of a search for unique cultural identity, or a combination of both, or different factors altogether, really doesn’t matter in terms of this discussion. The point is that a wholly distinct dialect, which has developed divergently from all other dominant regional dialects to the point of being recognized in some quarters as its own language, happened within a community that has not been given full equality in our society. This should be a wake-up call to anyone who's become complacent about the state of equal opportunity, in all its possible applications, in America.
So, what are Dems going to do about it? Continue to take black voters for granted as large swaths of their community languish at the margins, or do something about bringing them in from those margins? We can’t pretend full inclusion exists, when segments of our population are learning to speak a whole other language—which is, sadly, an appropriate metaphor in addition to its painful truth.
-------------------
* For anyone who questions my regular use of the term “black” as opposed to African-American, it’s because I know blacks who are not of African descent and who feel it doesn’t represent nor encompass their Caribbean heritage (for example), so I don’t use it.
Rove and Roberts: Two Peas in the Same Political Pod
It might not seem on its face like Karl Rove and SCOTUS nominee John Roberts have much in common, but there’s one very important attribute they both share—they’re both political hacks. They’ve served their GOP master in different ways, but in the end, neither of them is any more than a political operative who fulfills a certain ideological role within the party. I could tell you all about Roberts’ history with the Republicans, but what difference do specifics make? He’s been a judge for two years, and the rest of his career has been spent in the pockets of GOP power players. This is, in the end, just more of the same from Bush & Co.
And could we really have expected any different? Of course not.
There will no doubt be plenty of debate across the blogosphere over the next few days about whether Rove or Rogers should command our collective attention, but it’s not really an either-or proposition. Whether it’s the Downing Street Memos revealing that the administration was fixing facts and intelligence around the policy, or senior administration officials using their media operatives to discredit a critic (and compromising national security in the process), or an announcement of a GOP hack SCOTUS nominee politically timed to distract from an official investigation of the administration’s misdeeds, it’s all part of the same ugly picture. Our country’s leadership is corrupt. They place ideology before truth, before international law, before national security, before justice. It’s just more of the same.
The GOP with Bush at the helm is interested in one thing and one thing only: holding onto power. And the best way they’ve found to maintain their chokehold on the entirety of our government is to stack every position, stuff every crevice of it, with political hacks. The best thing we can do is keep our eyes on bringing them down—instead of taking the bait to bicker about their decision to do something that should, at this point, be entirely expected.
It’s just more of the same.
And guess what? Behind Roberts, there are 10 more waiting just like him, or worse. More and more and more of the same—until we stop them in their tracks.
