The Political Junkies
UPDATED: JUN 27, 2007
OF CONSTITUTION AND MEN
After some thirty years, the CIA releases documents of its post Cold War activities. While a substantial amount of the activities had been revealed by historians and researchers over the years, the documents provide the broad parameters of activities that provide a chilling reminder of how fragile constitutional democracy can be.
The CIA declassified nearly 700 pages of secret records Tuesday recording its illegal activities during the first decades of the Cold War, publishing a catalog of adventures that run the gamut of spy movie clichés from attempts to kill foreign leaders and intercept Americans’ mail to garden-variety break-ins and burglaries.
“Most of it is unflattering, but it is CIA’s history,” the CIA’s director, Gen. Michael Hayden, said last week in announcing plans to release the documents, which had been considered so sensitive that they were known internally as the agency’s “family jewels.”
The documents were compiled beginning in 1973 at the order of then-CIA Director James Schlesinger, who wanted to be prepared for congressional investigations he expected in the wake of disclosures that arose during the Watergate scandal. Schlesinger’s successor, William Colby, was outraged at much of the material, which he collected in a report to President Gerald Ford in 1975.
Much of the material had previously entered the public record through nearly 30 years of requests by academics, authors and journalists under the Freedom of Information Act. But many new details emerge in a review of the documents by MSNBC.com, including the never-before-disclosed news that CIA Director Allen Dulles personally approved the agency’s plot to assassinate Cuban President Fidel Castro in 1960 and 1961.
This is a must read for all citizens interested in preserving constitutional democracy in the United States.
Dr. Steven Jonas, TPJ’s Contributing Author, opens a critical two part series on Bush and constitutional democracy in his section of TPJ. Dr. Jonas’ view of the Republicans under Bush leads to a compelling reminder that our forefathers clearly understood that constitutional protections are the defense to those who would wield power of government to abridge the rights of citizens.
FINALLY, MAINSTREAM MEDIA EXPOSES DICK CHENEY
[By Allen L.
Roland]
Barton Gellman and Jo Becker, two Washington Post Staff Writers, finally shed some light on the dark world of the most powerful and dangerous person in our government ~ Dick Cheney.
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Cheney as Vice President ( Click on and watch this 3 minute photo narrative which confirms Cheney's iron grip on the decisions and direction of this corrupt administration )
Finally, the mainstream media is beginning to see the light, or should I say the darkness of Dick Cheney, and have produced a revealing four part series called ANGLER / THE DICK CHENEY VICE PRESIDENCY along with two narrated two minute photo galleries covering the Cast of Characters, Cheney's Life & Career and Cheney as Vice President. Barton Gellman and Jo Becker , Washington Post Staff Writers , The Cheney Vice Presidency: 'A Different Understanding With the President' finally shed some light on the dark world of the most powerful and dangerous person in our government ~ Dick Cheney.
Wash post Excerpt: “Over the past six years, Cheney has shaped his times as no vice president has before. This article begins a four-part series that explores his methods and impact, drawing on interviews with more than 200 men and women who worked for, with or in opposition to Cheney's office. Many of those interviewed recounted events that have not been made public until now, sharing notes,e-mails, personal calendars and other records of their interaction with Cheney and his senior staff. The vice president declined to be interviewed. Two articles, today and tomorrow, recount Cheney's campaign to magnify presidential war-making authority, arguably his most important legacy. Articles to follow will describe a span of influence that extends far beyond his well-known interests in energy and national defense. "
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Allen L Roland is a practicing psychotherapist, author and lecturer who also shares a daily political and social commentary on his weblog and website allenroland.com He also guest hosts a monthly national radio show TRUTHTALK on www.conscioustalk.net
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UPDATED: JUN 24, 2007THE PINCH
Americans are feeling the economic pinch (emphasis added).
A new Gallup Poll will only reinforce those who claim that while the
rich get richer most Americans don't feel they are sharing in the growth in
our economy. The stock market may be climbing and the unemployment remains
relatively low, but 7 in 10 Americans believe the economy is getting
worse -- the most negative reading in nearly six years.
Only one in three Americans rate the economy today as either excellent or
good, while the percentage saying the economy is getting better fell from
28% to 23% in one month.
Gallup adds: "For the first time this year, a majority of Americans are
negative about the employment market, saying it is a bad time to find a
quality job."
The 70% negative rating is up 10 points since April. Also, just in the past
month, there has been a significant five-point drop, from 28% to 23%, in the
percentage saying conditions are getting better.
"When asked about the most pressing financial problems their family faces
today, Americans mention healthcare costs, lack of money or low wages, and
oil and gas prices," Gallup reports. "Healthcare costs are mentioned by 16%
of Americans while 13% say low wages and 11% say oil and gas prices. These
percentages are virtually unchanged from last month."
One analyst observes:
Housing starts declined in May for the first time in four months. Building permits were up slightly, but this one piece of good news was more than offset with ABC Consumer Confidence which was a -14 after last month's -13. . . .
The markets seem to be waking up to the fact that the housing market is nowhere near the bottom. Borrowers are being squeezed by the treasury market's recent sell-off, which has increased 30-year mortgage rates the most since 2004. The National Median Home price is poised for its first annual decline since the Great Depression. An executive at the giant bond fund PIMCO said it best: "It's a blood bath. We're talking about a two- to three-year downturn that will take a whole host of characters with it, from job creation to consumer confidence. Eventually it will take the stock markets and corporate profit." The U.S. housing market has provided the economy with support through the creation of wealth and the seemingly endless ATM of price increases. The recent increase in yields, along with the subprime mortgage meltdown, is going to kick this support right out from under the economy, and the dollar is going to be drug down along with it.
Question for Americans, “Had enough?”
REPUBLICAN LEADERSHIP
Rolling Stone is releasing a major story based upon a thorough investigation of Republican policy on global warming. The thrust of the Rolling Stone’s findings can be summarized by this set of quotes from one government insider:
Bush's do-nothing policy on global warming began almost as soon as he took office. By pursuing a carefully orchestrated policy of delay, the White House has blocked even the most modest reforms and replaced them with token investments in futuristic solutions like hydrogen cars. "It's a charade," says Jeremy Symons, who represented the EPA on Cheney's energy task force, the industry-studded group that met in secret to craft the administration's energy policy. "They have a single-minded determination to do nothing - while making it look like they are doing something."
Christine Todd Whitman, former Bush head of the EPA, confirms the extent of Republican efforts to block any action on global warming:
Even former White House insiders were shocked by the vice president's see-no-evil performance. "I don't see how he can say that with a straight face anymore," Christine Todd Whitman, who clashed privately with Cheney over climate policy during her tenure as the administration's first chief of the Environmental Protection Agency, tells Rolling Stone. "The consequences of climate change are very real and very negative, but Cheney is not convinced of that. He believes - not quite as much as Senator James Inhofe, that this is a 'hoax' - but that the Earth has been changing since it was formed and to say that climate change is caused by humans is incorrect."
Cheney's statements were the latest move in the Bush administration's ongoing strategy to block federal action on global warming. It is no secret that industry-connected appointees within the White House have worked actively to distort the findings of federal climate scientists, playing down the threat of climate change. But a new investigation by Rolling Stone reveals that those distortions were sanctioned at the highest levels of our government, in a policy formulated by the vice president, implemented by the White House Council on Environmental Quality and enforced by none other than Karl Rove. An examination of thousands of pages of internal documents that the White House has been forced to relinquish under the Freedom of Information Act - as well as interviews with more than a dozen current and former administration scientists and climate-policy officials - confirms that the White House has implemented an industry-formulated disinformation campaign designed to actively mislead the American public on global warming and to forestall limits on climate polluters.
The Rolling Stone article offers important details to Republican policies that are already well known. But, it extends far beyond the single issue of global warming.
Even as the vast majority of scientists are warning Bush that global warming is a serious threat to mankind, Bush’s minions are “scrubbing” the truth from government reports:
Republican consultant Frank Luntz, concedes the party has ‘lost the environmental communications battle’ and urges its politicians to encourage the public in the view that there is no scientific consensus on the dangers of greenhouse gases. ‘The scientific debate is closing [against us] but not yet closed. There is still a window of opportunity to challenge the science,’ Mr Luntz writes in the memo, obtained by the Environmental Working Group, a Washington-based campaigning organization. ‘Voters believe that there is no consensus about global warming within the scientific community. Should the public come to believe that the scientific issues are settled, their views about global warming will change accordingly. Therefore, you need to continue to make the lack of scientific certainty a primary issue in the debate. The phrase ‘global warming’ should be abandoned in favor of ‘climate change’, Mr Luntz says, and the party should describe its policies as ‘conservationist’ instead of ‘environmentalist’, because ‘most people’ think environmentalists are ‘extremists’ who indulge in "some pretty bizarre behavior... that turns off many voters’.” -- Guardian Unlimited
According to the Luntz’ “game plan,” Bush administration officials ordered sections of an EPA report “scrubbed” of references to global warming – even conclusions in scientific reports sponsored by Bush. Public reports from June 2003 document the White House’s involvement: -- TPJ, “A Blind Eye – Deadly Ignorance” The New York Times editorially admonished Bush for repeatedly censoring official government reports. – TPJ, “Missing The Point.”
The range of censorship is not just limited to science; but history and public records. Bush administration officials censored a government web site to remove material that would embarrass the administration.
“It's not quite Soviet-style airbrushing, but the Bush administration has been using cyberspace to make some of its own cosmetic touch-ups to history.
White House officials were steamed when Andrew S. Natsios, the administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, said [in 2003] that U.S. taxpayers would not have to pay more than $1.7 billion to reconstruct Iraq -- which turned out to be a gross understatement of the tens of billions of dollars the government now expects to spend.
[T]he government has purged the offending comments by Natsios from the agency's Web site. The transcripts, and links to it, have vanished.” – TPJ, “Lying To Conceal The Truth”
Bush’s administration even “scrubbed” text books for Iraqi school children: -- Christian Science Monitor
Pressured for time, and hoping to avoid political controversy, the [Iraqi] Ministry of Education under the US-led coalition government removed any content considered "controversial," including the 1991 Gulf War; the Iran-Iraq war; and all references to Israelis, Americans, or Kurds. "Entire swaths of 20th-century history have been deleted," says Bill Evers, a US Defense Department employee, and one of three American advisers to the Ministry of Education.
Advancing Fringe Theories.
It is not just censorship alone. While scrubbing scientific research, Bush administration officials substitute their political fringe theories. Over the past eight years hundreds of examples have been reported. The example below demonstrates the scope of Republican efforts:
“Ignoring recommendations by its own senior scientist to withdraw approval for a creationist book now being sold in park facilities, the National Park Service appears to be supporting religious doctrine over sound science, according to documents released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER).” – Bush Greenwatch (citations omitted).
Silencing Dissenting Views
The views that the Bush administration cannot control or for which it cannot substitute its views, the administration advances stratagems to chill dissenting views. Using laws enacted during his administration that impose embargos on Iran, Iraq, Sudan, Libya and Cuba, US Treasury agents informed American book publishers that they may not “edit” books from these countries for publication in the United States.
Although publishing the articles is legal, editing is a "service" and the treasury department says it is illegal to perform services for embargoed nations. It can be punishable by fines of up to a half-million dollars or jail terms as long as 10 years. – Democracy Now
Simply stated, by creating uncertainty over peer review and the absurdity of precluding simple editing, the Bush administration hopes to put a “chilling effect” on publications from the proscribed nations.
Bush is removing scientists and intellectuals from government service in favor of neoconservatives.
“President Bush . . . dismissed two members of his handpicked Council on Bioethics -- a scientist and a moral philosopher who had been among the more outspoken advocates for research on human embryo cell - In their places he appointed three new members, including a doctor who has called for more religion in public life, a political scientist who has spoken out precisely against the research that the dismissed members supported, and another who has written about the immorality of abortion and the "threats of biotechnology." - The turnover immediately renewed a recent string of accusations by scientists and others that Bush is increasingly allowing politics to trump science as he seeks advice on ethically contentious issues.” —Washington Post
It should not surprise one that the scientific and intellectual community has become alarmed. In a wide-ranging and damning report signed by 60 leading scientists including 20 Nobel laureates, the prestigious Union of Concerned Scientists charged the Bush administration with manipulating "the process through which science enters into its decisions." Among the offenses they cite:
1. Placing people who are professionally unqualified or who have clear conflicts of interest in official posts and on scientific advisory committees,
2. Disbanding existing advisory committees,
3. Censoring and suppressing reports by the government’s own scientists, and
4. Simply not seeking independent scientific advice. – Union of Concerned Scientists
Bush and the Republicans have consistently embarked on a course that is an assault on intellectual freedom. More importantly, it is an assault on the American public’s right to know and is designed to subvert meaningful public discourse, including dissent to public policy, which is the polestar of our republic. In an even broader sense, Bush’s record exemplifies an open hostility to “intellectualism.” Truth and the principles of civic debate and dissent are meaningless to the neoconservative agenda. It is one of the most important issues of our time.
It is the greatest threat to the future of the American civil politic and America’s greatness.
Last Update: 06/30/2007