George W. Bush Wins Again

Scott McClellan has answered like two questions today and I have been sitting here for almost 3 hours now. This is because the House has been "debating" and voting to give the telecoms immunity for spying on us.

Goodbye 4th Amendment. If "the terrorists" wanted to destroy our way of life (you know... freedom), they have done a hell of a job scaring Congress into becoming their best allies.

The House of Representatives-the saner of the two branches- passed this gift to the Bush administration today. Let's hope Chris Dodd keeps his promise and stops this from going through the Senate in the coming days.

Every single member of the House of Representatives is up for re-election in 2008. That idea of voting out all incumbents is looking better to me all the time.


*Added Later* - After watching Scott McClellan's testimony, not much more than what was revealed in the book was revealed at the hearing. However, there will be some great sound bites from this hearing that might make it clearer to the undecided public that "untruths" were told in the "marketing campaign" run by the Bush administration to "sell" us into going to war. No big news though, and no questions about Karl Rove's "mailings". Oh well. That's Congress for ya.

McClellan's Testimony: What I'm Watching For

This is how I know that I have a serious addiction to politics. I am in Doolin, a beautiful city in Ireland, and I will be spending my last day in this city watching Scott McClellan testify in front of the House Judiciary Committee via CSPAN's internet feed*.

Strange thing to do. I know. But I have a reason for doing so.

I just finished reading Scott McClellan's frustrating but revealing book What Happened, which gives Scott McClellan's excuses for the Bush administration's destructive and (I believe) criminal behavior and Scott McClellan's excuses for being a part of it. For the most part, it seems that that media has done a decent job of highlighting the most important revelations in McClellan's book, which include that President Bush personally authorized the selective declassification of 2002's NIE (without informing the majority of his staff), that Karl Rove and Scooter Libby leaked Valerie Plame's employment as an undercover CIA agent to the media, and that the Bush administration sought to surround the President with as many yes-men (and women) as possible.

There will surely be some fascinating questions and answers regarding these issues that I want to see.

However, there is one comment that Scott McClellan made in his book that I have not yet heard addressed by anyone in the media. I'm hoping John Conyers, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, noticed this too.

Towards the beginning of the book (pg. 73), Scott discusses when he met Karl Rove. It was in 1992 while working on a campaign in Texas. Scott McClellan said that he met Karl Rove during this time but didn't work closely with him as Karl Rove was mainly in charge of "the mailings."

My regular readers and fellow Congressional hearing junkies might recall a few months back when Monica Goodling (the pretty blond Republican who worked for Alberto Gonzales in the Justice Department) let it slip that Karl Rove's protege, Tim Griffin, was in charge of the "caging" in 2004. (Ordinarily, I'd explain what caging is, but I'm paying by the minute here for internet access, so please click here for more information if this is a new term for you.) After this revelation, John Conyers visited with Greg Palast, the BBC reporter who originally exposed the caging of voters by Republicans in 2004, and collected the list of people who were caged.

Here's what I'm thinking: Scott McClellan knows something about Karl Rove and "mailings" from his past campaigns. John Conyers is aware of allegations of "caging" by Karl Rove's operatives in 2004. Scott McClellan was the White House Press Secretary, deeply involved in the campaign and working closely with Karl Rove, in 2004. If I know about Monica Goodling's slip-up and John Conyer's trip to visit Greg Palast, I'm thinking Scott McClellan (the former White House Press Secretary with a grudge) would too. There is more than a little contempt expressed for Karl Rove in both Scott McClellan's book and in his television interviews. He quite openly blames Rove (and Libby) for the destruction of his credibility. Could he have added this possibly-not-so-little detail to his book wanting to be questioned about it?

After all, it's not squealing if he's asked about it by Congress under oath. He could just say that he swore to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

But here's the thing: did anyone on the House Judiciary Committee pick up on this? Will Scott McClellan even be asked about what he knows?

In my mind, this is as much, if not more, a test for Congress tomorrow as it is a test of honor for Scott McClellan. I'll let you know how they do.

*The House Judiciary Committee hearing will begin Friday, June 20 at 10am EST. It will be broadcast on CSPAN radio. The network (CSPAN, CSPAN-2, or CSPAN-3) is still to be determined. Hearings, however, are usually shown on CSPAN-3.

One Election Down, One More to Go

I wanted to wait to write this post until I knew for sure that Hillary Clinton was officially out of the Democratic nomination race. It’s one of those ‘I’ll only believe it when I see it’ type of things since every time I thought ‘She has to admit she has lost the race now’, she got up on stage and mustered up enough cajones to claim that she was winning. Now that reality has sufficiently wacked Hillary Clinton upside the head, I want to thank my neighbors – the people of the United States of America- for giving me a day when I’m so proud to be an American.

I’m back in Europe, this time with no earthly possessions except for the items in my backpack, watching the election unfold from overseas. For the first time, I am here in Europe and it feels safe to be openly proud to be from the USA. The country that scared the world when it pledged its allegiance to the President last time I was here just 5 years ago has woken up fast enough to kick start our democracy again, and even after all the fear mongering before President Bush’s Invasion of Iraq, we have successfully elected Barack Hussien Obama to be the Democratic Party’s nominee.

Ahh… we’re growing up nicely.

One of the big reasons I wanted to see Barack Obama as the nominee is because I know Hillary Clinton and John McCain are members of what I call “The Club” (the group of people that have hijacked our country for the benefit of the already powerful). I feel hopeful now that my future will be brighter because we have just delivered a nice blow to The Club.

The Party never saw it coming. The Clintons never saw it coming.

In terms of the Democratic Party, and the corporate media, Hillary Clinton was supposed to be the nominee. They gave her all the time and patience they could in order to let her assume her position. Imagine if Chris Dodd had pulled the same type of crap that she did –how long would Chris Dodd have been taken seriously by the media and Party leaders if he had pretended to be the winner of Iowa despite not winning Iowa? He’d be laughed out of the race in about 30 minutes. But not Hillary Clinton. She could claim to be winning while losing all she wanted because she was an insider (code-word: “experienced”). She was a big-time name. She had a big-time “war chest” before the election began. She had a big-time former President as her head cheerleader.

She was unbeatable.

But we beat her.

We Americans shocked the hell out of the Party and the money sources that control it by donating small amounts en masse to force a new person – the guy with the cooperative attitude who spoke beautifully in 2004 about the United States I'd rather know – to be allowed into the game.

Barack Obama is a wild card, but there is a chance that he really is one of us.

He started as a community organizer- not a corporate bottom line protector.

He collected his campaign money in small donations from over 3 million of us- not from big business and/or the war industry.

He knew the war was bullshit – and he said it out loud, right away.

I’m too jilted by the last 7 years to say I believe in him. I’ve learned enough in my CSPAN studies of the last year to know that it’s democratically healthy to distrust anyone who wants to assume the throne of the most powerful Executive Branch in United States history. But with Barack Obama as the nominee, I really feel that there is a chance that my generation's future is not one filled with war, corporate slavery, disasters, and general poverty.

Belief in a chance will have to do for now.

I have thought of a way that he could prove himself to me though and it starts with his choice for Vice President. #2 is a bigger decision than we give it credit for. The White House currently operates out of the Vice President’s office and, although I hate to say it out loud, the shadows of departed Kennedys are lurking too closely for me. I think he should let this choice be ours.

There are plenty of ways to do this. Barack Obama could let us know our choices and then his amazing staff could set up caucuses in the same way they set up living room parties in the beginning of the campaign. Or they could arrange for a paper ballot vote. Or they could find some techie nerd to set up an internet vote.

I don’t know. The main point though is that we could be a part of this decision- the exact opposite of what we’re used to.

And the whole time, the news would be covering the Obama campaign’s Vice Presidential election instead of digging up dirt, inventing drama, or covering John McCain.

Euronews – the English language news station in Berlin- is reporting today that Barack Obama has said “he will not be pressured into any rush decisions” in regards to his VP pick. How about proving to us that he will be the President who looks to the people to make the big decisions?

We have a chance of changing course. We have a chance to get health care. We have a chance to be energy efficient. We have a chance to stop waging wars. We have a chance to be a partner, not a threat, to the world. We have a chance to get our democracy back.

We have a chance to live in peace.

But if Barack Obama’s candidacy causes the way we do things to start changing right now, if I can see a positive change before the election even happens, then I will believe that Barack Obama is offering up more than just a chance.

That would motivate me to vote for him in the election. That would motivate me to try to convince others to do the same. And he’s going to need every vote he can get.

Due to the energy being currently dedicated towards the restoration of our democracy, the guy that might be one of us actually has a chance of winning… but it will not be easy.

Due to the unobstructed construction of the Republican election-engineering-apparatus which has been set up during George W. Bush’s presidency, election fraud is going to happen this year and it is going to happen on a large scale. Karl Rove is no longer just using the media – now he is the media, appearing on Fox News and writing for Newsweek. Voting machines, instead of paper ballots, are collecting and screwing with our votes all over the country. The Justice Department has been purged of the Bush-appointed people that were not loyal enough to the Republican Party. The Supreme Court is even more extreme than when it ruled in favor of Bush in 2000 because doing otherwise would cause “irreparable harm” to his campaign. No justice has been served for the fraud of 2000 and 2004, and they have been able set up with no oversight for 2008.

Barack Obama has promised to investigate Bush Administration crimes if he becomes President. These guys won’t just go quietly to prison. We can expect them to use every dirty trick they know to elect another Republican and therefore cover their asses.

This means we will need a huge voter turnout for Barack Obama in order to overwhelm the votes that will be lost to Republican cheating.

Did anyone see the pictures of the Obama rally in Portland, OR?

I think an overwhelming turnout is a possibility. But after 2004, we have to make damn sure.

We have a chance of peace.

But first, our chance needs to win.