"Like all the great Russian monsters, like Stalin and Lenin and Brezhnyev and Andropov and a million other czars big and small, he died peacefully of natural causes while murders raged all around him, a piece of fat noiselessly clogging his heart while he slept in his stolen bed."
Matt Taibbi butchers Drinky McOligarch in the latest issue of Rolling Stone. The deeper source of his vitriol is the mass raping of the Russian state which occurred during the era of capitalist "shock treatment" in the 1990s, a pillaging symbolized by Yeltsin, and the ignorance and collusion of the western press, which tried to sum up Yeltsin obits by making him out to be some kind of 'conflicted reformer.' His image as a drunken bumbler actually belies the malice and avarice of his policies. But nonetheless, here's something to remember him by:
The Death of a Drunk [Rolling Stone]
So not only was this guy one of the key architects of the Iraq invasion. No, after that fuck-up he was given a lucrative and prestigious position at the head of a very important multilateral institution dating back to the Bretton Woods Accords, and proceeded to piss all over it. It's no secret that the US controls the World Bank (thank you, Mr. Stiglitz) but the least we could do is run it competently, or barring that, admit we're grossly incompetent and corrupt once we've been caught red-handed and resign with a shred of dignity. But Wolfie doesn't see it that way :
"allegedly on June 1st, Wolfowitz becomes eligible for some large
financial bonus -- for performance and time on the job. One estimate
puts this figure at about $400,000. Wolfowitz wants to make sure those
funds are credited to his private bank account before saying farewell
to an institution that has come to despise him.
....................................................................................................
Wolfowitz is angry at the Bank at all those other than his closest
spear-carriers. At one level, he does not want to resign and wants to
tear the World Bank apart by forcing escalation in this war."
The fact that this crew has no shame makes my embarrassment that much greater.
Wolfowitz Says He Won't Quit, Calls Charges Against Him 'Bogus' [Bloomberg]
Wolfowitz Resignation Deal in the Works [The Washington Note]
I was thinking about Obama for a while, and my mom is already a die-hard Edwards supporter. I was toying with the idea of voting Kucinich in the primaries, but after the debate it seems pretty clear: Mike Gravel is the candidate for me.
"What will make a difference in this campaign is not money, it's not
celebrity, it is a person who is prepared to tell the American people
the truth," he said. "The people are fed up and as president I will do
a 180 and move this country in the opposite direction."
That is exactly, exactly the kind of rhetoric I want to hear right now and I feel like there are a lot of voters who it will resonate with. I personally would love to see 2008 be the year of the outsiders. Gravel vs. Duncan Hunter, Kucinich vs. Ron Paul, bring it on man. Pull this ungainly and ossifying semi-hegemon out of its death spiral.
A Lieutenant Colonel in the US Army serving as the commander of a prison in Iraq has been charged with 'aiding the enemy.' Lt. Colonel Steele was running a maximum security prison, Camp Cropper, in Southern Iraq. Cropper apparently holds some of the most valuable prisoners, including alleged Al Qaeda fighters. The charges against him are basically:
- letting prisoners use an unmonitored cellphone
- improper handling of classified information
- having an affair with his Iraqi interpreter
- fraternizing with the daughter of an inmate
This is, I suppose, the polar opposite of the Abu Ghraib scandal. It's actually the second incident of its type,
The NYT cites an Army lawyer who says that these kinds of charges are hard to prove, and that for Steele to be convicted prosecutors would have to show that he intentionally tried to endanger US troops or missions. This seems much less like a case of cold-blooded sedition than it does an instance of poor judgment. The question is really how connected these separate incidents are. It could be an indication of some kind of sexual corruption/entrapment scheme--the Soviets were famous for pulling those---but Iraq ain't the USSR and Islamic sexual ethics being what they are this seems less likely. Or, the affair may have had nothing to do with the other charges and he could have been crooked, paid to provide the cellphones. Or, maybe he was just a sympathetic guy.
If you wanna earn your man, you gotta learn your man.
This clip from her public-access show went viral over the weekend thanks to coverage from Vice and Gawker, but by the time I tried to pass it on to my friends, some asshole had taken it off YouTube. Luckily, the footage is still up over at DevilDucky and I felt it was my public duty to post it.
AG Gonzales went down in flames during his testimony before the Judiciary Committee, leading Josh Marshall to conclude that "if Alberto Gonzales were a stock, we'd be at that point when those automatic trading halts kicked in because so many people are trying to sell." He then goes on to point out that Gonzales is really a secondary issue, as what got him in trouble to begin with was doing what the White House told him to do. Even if he resigns, it won't make much of a difference. If this were some kind of normal, sane, administration, they might feel compelled to nominate some kind of compromise candidate to replace him, you know, someone with some experience in the field who could begin to rebuild morale in the DOJ and help reform its image. But we are talking about Bush and Cheney, so, say hello to Attorney General Jeff Gannon. Seriously, I don't want to hear any of the excuses floating around about how this is not an option: Impeach The MotherFucker Already!!
I haven't written too much about the US Attorneys affair because there are so many professionals (ie Firedoglake, TalkingPointsMemo) who are doing it much better than I could. But I think Paul Kiel's post over at TPM about the latest explanation of the multiplicity of explanations for the Attorney firings deserves some parsing. So let us first introduce the cast of characters:
Alberto Gonzales: Attorney General of the Department of Justice (DOJ)
Kyle Sampson: Gonzales' Chief of Staff
Paul McNulty: Deputy Attorney General
Karl Rove:
David Iglesias
Margaret Chiara
John McKay
Carol Lam
Paul Charlton : People sacked in the "U.S. Attorney Purge"
H.E. "Bud" Cummins III
Daniel Bogden
Kevin Ryan
The nub of the scandal centers around why these eight were fired. Was it for performance reasons, as Gonzales has claimed, or was it because they weren't prosecuting the cases Gonzales wanted to (voter fraud cases against Dems, porn busts, etc) or, as in the case of Carol Lam, were going after people that the DOJ wanted to be left alone. The other question is whether this was an independent decision by the DOJ or a response to pressure from the White House (read, Cheney and Rove). McNulty has testified that only seven of the attorneys were asked to step down for performance reasons, saying that the eighth, Bud Cummins, was pushed out to make room for Tim Griffin, a former aid to Karl Rove. Cummins was fairly vocal about getting the heave-ho and was privately warned to shut up or face a character assasination at the hands of the GOP. Sampson, interestingly, denies this account and insisted that Cummins was also fired for performance reasons. (Gonzales meanwhile, is insisting that he doesn't know why Cummins was fired). Why would McNulty bring up the Rove, especially considering the fact that the R-word is like cryptonite for anyone who has been seriously following this scandal? This is an old interrogation strategy--you volunteer a small piece of information readily, in the hope that it will keep you from having to reveal a bigger information. Was McNulty trying to throw the investigators a bone by copping to the Cummins allegations in the hopes that this would keep him from having to discuss the rest of the cases (especially the Carol Lam case--Lam helped break the Abramoff/Duke Cunningham scandals just before she was sacked)?
Check out my piece on the French elections over at 3QuarksDaily. It's quite good.
David explained that when Genghis entered a defeated city he would call in the local headman and have him stuffed into a crate. Over the crate would be spread a tablecloth, and on the tablecloth would be spread a wonderful meal. “And then, while the man suffocated, Genghis ate, and he didn't even hear the man's screams.” David still stood on the couch, a finger in the air. “Do you know what that means?” He was thinking of Christ's parable of the wineskins. “You can't pour new into old,” David said, returning to his chair. “We elect our leaders. Jesus elects his.”He reached over and squeezed the arm of a brother. “Isn't that great?” David said. “That's the way everything in life happens. If you're a person known to be around Jesus, you can go and do anything. And that's who you guys are. When you leave here, you're not only going to know the value of Jesus, you're going to know the people who rule the world. It's about vision. 'Get your vision straight, then relate.' Talk to the people who rule the world, and help them obey. Obey Him. If I obey Him myself, I help others do the same. You know why? Because I become a warning. We become a warning. We warn everybody that the future king is coming. Not just of this country or that, but of the world.” Then he pointed at the map, toward the Khan's vast, reclaimable empire.
In the Middle Ages, the Shi'a Ismai'ili sect was known for getting impressionable young men hopped up on hash, filling their heads with visions of the gardens of paradise, and setting them loose to murder political rivals and accused heretics. But basketball and the King James Bible can work just as well.
Jesus Plus Nothing [Harpers]
The always amazing and informative Firedoglake has new updates on the state of affairs today. Some of the highlights:
* The DOJ refused to turn over thousands of pages of documents to the Senate Budget Committee. The Committee won't question Gonzalez(he was slated to appear on the 12th) until it reviews this information. His hearing before the Judiciary Committee is set for the 17th.
*The four top assistants to Minneapolis US Attorney Rachel Paulose have resigned in protest of what they describe as her "dictatorial" management style. Paulose is 34 years old and worked directly under Goodling."
[Update: more on Paulose at sepiamutiny]
Do people care about this, or is it too boring to draw attention? USA Today/Gallup polls show about 46% of respondents have been following the scandal (12% 'closely' 36% 'somewhat closely'). 53% of respondents think that the Attorneys were fired for political reasons, and 72% want Congress to investigate the involvement of Karl Rove the White House. People understand this scandal, and are angered by it, because it fits into a theme that you find in pop culture all the time. Call it the Elliot Ness mystique. How many cop show and lawyer shows and movies have that one scene, where the intrepid detective is called into his superior's office and told that his investigation is going too deep, that he should stop nosing around? That describes about half of the episodes of the X-Files right there. It's why Patrick Fitzgerald was chosen to prosecute the Libby Case--because he was a straight as an arrow, organized crime and terrorism fighting prosecutor. People love a good episode of Law& Order...
