The Party In Control Now
Everybody is surprised and shocked.
The government is caught paying a columnist $240,000 to promote a right-wing policy €“ a blatantly illegal act. Then another columnist is caught. Then another. Some Democratic members of Congress ask for an investigation. The Republicans refuse.
Now there’s a scandal about a right-wing operative caught with White House press credentials and leaked CIA memos. A Democratic member of Congress asks for an explanation. The Republicans will refuse.
And if by some miracle some agency of our government does launch an investigation into criminal acts by the Republican-controlled government we all know that a Federalist Society judge will find a way to shut it down:
€œThe North case reached the U.S. Court of Appeals in 1990 and the Poindexter case followed in 1991. Iran-contra special prosecutor Lawrence Walsh, a Republican himself, encountered what he termed “a powerful band of Republican appointees [who] waited like the strategic reserves of an embattled army.”Walsh recognized that many of the appeals judges held a “continuing political allegiance” to the conservative Federalist Society, an organization dedicated to purging liberalism from the federal courts.
“It reminded me of the communist front groups of the 1940s and 1950s, whose members were committed to the communist cause and subject to communist direction but were not card-carrying members of the Communist Party,” Walsh wrote. [For details, see Walsh’s Firewall.]
A leader of this partisan faction was Judge Laurence H. Silberman, a bombastic character known for his decidedly injudicious temperament. Silberman had served as a foreign policy advisor to Ronald Reagan’s 1980 campaign and had joined in a controversial contact with an emissary from Iran behind President Carter’s back. [See Robert Parry’s Trick or Treason.]€
That is what was going on 15 years ago, but we’re still shocked and surprised.
The Republican Party now controls or has sufficiently infiltrated every agency/branch/bureau of our government. There is “no controlling authority” that is capable of looking into crimes committed in the name of The Party and bringing those responsible to justice. It ain’t gonna happen. The Party will shut it down. Impunity.
We continue to be shocked and surprised and outraged. But what we don’t do is realize that times have changed, that America is not the America we know and love anymore. It has already happened here. Watch your backs.
February 9th, 2005 at 1:58 pm
This is not a trivial problem. It may be THE problem. Addressing it should be the centerpiece of whatever mix of ideology and practical politics emerges from the New New DNC. It is something that should be noted, in print and on air, by every Democrat at every opportunity.
February 9th, 2005 at 2:14 pm
In the immortal words of Grover Norquist: Anything short of placing snipers on the rooftops of D.C. would be an underreaction by the Left.
February 9th, 2005 at 2:41 pm
Everything is tipping. Democracy€™s Arrow by Joel S. Hirschhorn, February 7, 2005; The Greeks said that the peak is the moment of descent. … How soon can you know through experience that the peak has been reached? It requires awareness of decline. … Can Americans face facts about our democracy€™s decline and get democracy€™s arrow turned up again?
Global Warming: Has it already gone too far to reverse? When will my otherwise intelligent friends accept it as reality instead of controversial?
Peak Oil: Because of rapidly accelerating demand, the tipping point may already be on us.
Democracy in America: two consecutive stolen presidential elections, paperless electronic voting systems, restraints on corporations removed, lack of compassion for others (domestic and foreign), constantly finding the wrong ‘enemy’ to fight, Militarism, Controlled Media, Homeland Security, merging of Church and Corporate State, Rabid Nationalism … eventually you tip into Fascism.
Now go read Mapping The Global Future: National Intelligence Council’s 2020 Project. The people who wrote this report do not think like I do. Even so, the subject matter is what we’re all thinking about now, and this is an interesting report. When you wonder if there even is a future we’ll recognize in 2020, it’s fascistinating to read the words of people who think they will shape it.
February 9th, 2005 at 2:44 pm
Ahem. Corrected link:
Mapping The Global Future: National Intelligence Council’s 2020 Project
February 9th, 2005 at 2:55 pm
And the media. The corporate media are also controlled by (indeed, are indistinguishable from) the corporate right. Since this is the ultimate machinery of control of populuar perception and opinion it is the most important of all.
February 9th, 2005 at 7:08 pm
Come on guys (and gals), quit being so nice, so politically correct, to these pigs - the Plame leak was PILLOW-TALK! With a guy who pimps chronically underpaid so that’s why they do it military protitutes (apparently male).
Git MEAN!
February 10th, 2005 at 9:16 am
“Global Warming: Has it already gone too far to reverse? When will my otherwise intelligent friends accept it as reality instead of controversial?”
As soon as there is consensus in the scientific community–which is currently lacking. An alternative explanation from “American Scientist Online” is provided here: http://www.americanscientist.org/template/AssetDetail/assetid/39261;_j