Just how many jobs do you think Dick Morris ever created?

The draconian tax increases on the segment of the population that pays most of the taxes, generates most of the jobs, employs most of the workforce, and accounts for much of the consumer spending will chill whatever small warmth the stimulus package can generate.

This guy needs to join Karl Rove on a long vacation to the other end of the world.  Preferably without internet access. 

Together they make up the world’s worst political consulting gurus.  If the idea that you get paid what you are worth is at all valid, that there is any semblance of merit within our system, neither one would be complaining that they aren’t part of the 95% of Americans who will get a tax cut because they make too much money.

Sad to think that there are so many equally deluded conservatives roaming Washington DC who will never get the chance to get paid to write nonsensical prose — almost.

John Cole asks a thought provoking question:

You know, I keep wondering- was the opposition party this petty and stupid during the great depression? When FDR proposed his budget, did some rich prick with a fake tan get up in front of microphones an hour after it was proposed (mind you, this is the same guy who whinged he did not have enough time to read the stimulus bill after a month, but an hour was sufficient time to read the budget), and say “OH MY GOD THE ERA OF BIG GOVERNMENT IS BACK!” Was there a John Boehner of that time period? And this is a serious question- was our politics always this stupid, and were we always suffering from morons like this?

During the depression, were there organizations of idiots running around having little tea parties and chanting porkulus? Or are we as a nation intent on proving Darwin wrong?

From what I can glean, the answer is an unsatisfactory, “Yes, and No.”  Roosevelt did not seem to face any significant opposition just for the sake of appearances at the onset of his administration, but by the time he took office in March of 1932 the economics of the Depression and humiliation of the Republican Party were complete and all but irreversible.  Economically, today, we’re not there yet, and hopefully we won’t dive that deep - but it’s getting close.

When things were “only” as bad as they are today, there was still a lot of political posturing and the usual nonsense.  By the time FDR was sworn in, things were much worse than now — primarily due to an administration that took the political/ideological games seriously and was on the wrong side of the argument while the nation sank into despair for over three years.  If we had another 2-3 years of George W. Bush doing nothing to look forward to, there would barely be a country to hand off to Barack Obama.  That’s was Hoover’s gift to Franklin Roosevelt.

Historical parallels are never exact, but often instructive.  Consulting my handy 6 volume collection by James Truslow Adams, The March Of Democracy, at least this contemporary historian notes no significant obstructionists to FDR’s initiatives at the beginning of his presidency.  The attitude of the population had undergone a remarkable transformation between the Crash and FDR assuming office and Congress reflected that change.  From Adams, Vol. IV, Pg. 338:

In 1928 we had been told we were within sight of perpetual prosperity and the abolition of poverty.  By 1932 we seemed to see nothing but poverty and to be faced by stark ruin on every side.  Few nations, if any, have ever had to drop with such appalling swiftness from superhuman hopes to blank despair.

This was a different time, the nation was in full-blown panic.  The day FDR took office, the national banks of New York and Pennsylvania were added to an ever growing list of financial institutions whose doors were shuttered.  This was fully 3-1/2 years after the infamous stock market crash of 1929 during which the Hoover administration was exposed as inept, Congress completely discredited and the Wall Street types we hate today were even more hated then. 

Institutions familiar even now like National City Bank of New York and Chase National Bank were found to be scandalously mismanaged by their front offices, leading to “collosal losses” just coming to light at the beginning of 1933.  Back then, there was no New Deal era device to protect depositers like the FDIC.  The panic was real, the losses palpable and real hysteria did not need to be pumped up by bloviating pundits and Congressional leaders for political exploitation.

FDR’s Cabinet was approved without committee hearings by 6:00 pm on Inauguration Day, March 4, 1933, including Cordell Hull, the first southerner serving as Secretary of State since John C. Calhoun in 1845, and the first woman Cabinet official, Frances Perkins, Secretary of Labor.  Less than a week later, during a special session after only 40 minutes of “debate” the House passed by acclimation the President’s banking initiatives, conferring peace-time financial regulation authority previously only considered legal under war conditions through the Trading with the Enemies Act.  The measure passed the Senate 73-7 after considering the act only three hours. 

This was more than a mere reflection of the Democratic Party’s gains from the election four months earlier.  There was a new psychology at work, an acknowlegement that something, anything must be done — and done right then and there.  Yes there were substantial critics, vocal groups and editors who fought FDR every step as the commentors at Balloon Juice point out — Father Caughlin and the Liberty League for example — but no truely effective opposition on Capitol Hill at that point.

This was a stark reversal of the previous years’ political battles.  In 1932, “The debates over the problem of meeting the hitherto unheard-of deficit in the Treasury by taxation became so wild and acrimonious that Congress had to be adjourned for tempes to cool and reason to reassert itself.“  While electorally, we are now in the post-inauguration after-glow/honeymoon period — the carnival and trade-show atmosphere at CPAC notwithstanding — economically it’s 1930, and hopefully we can steer a different course than Hoover.

In a way, we should point to the nonesense from Republicans like Boehner, Cantor, and, Jindal as a healthy sign.  If things were really as bad as they were when FDR took over, they would have already shut their yap.

With the tsunami of Washington DC Journalist inundating Twitter along with a flurry of Senators, CongressCritters and political has-beens getting in on the act, there is growing speculation that the cute little social media engine may be in danger of “Jumping the Shark.”  It may well be true, it certainly has changed what once was a bulletin board for bloggers and chat room for friends. 

Now that it’s a phenomenon, it’s making news more and more, and certainly that is evolving the culture — it’s own and ours — which is true of any social entity as it dynamically adds members.  Indeed, I don’t think it would survive without growth.  No organization thrives without growing and evolving.

That said, one worries about the fate of some early adopters like the original Wonkette, Ana Marie Cox, who is as responsible for the style and snark found there as anyone.  Not to fear as she promises to live-blog her own demise as long as she retains enough strength in her thumbs to type on her iPhone before they pry it from her cold-dead hands. 

Cox’s 95,862 followers are relieved beyond belief — and aren’t buying the idea that legislators tweeting the “NOT” State of the Union Address was THE moment when Twitter Jumped the Shark Fail Whale.  They all know better since she pinpointed the event days before.

anamariecox: At 3:15pm on MSNBC @davidgregory will demonstrate the precise trajectory for jumping a shark. Also he will teach someone how to use Twitter.

As interviewed by The Talking Dog:

Darrel Vandeveld is an attorney and former military officer, who, in civilian life is a prosecuting attorney in Erie, PA. In the military, he attained the rank of Lt. Col. in the Army Reserve, serving, among other places, in Bosnia, Iraq, Afghanistan and Africa, as well as serving as a senior prosecutor for the military commissions prosecuting Guantanamo detainees. Last year, he became the seventh attorney to resign as a prosecutor from the military commissions.

[snip]

The interview is long but well worth it. Fascinating to see what pressures this moral man came under as he tried to make sense of an immoral situation. I’ve posted part of Vandeveld’s conclusion:

So, my advice to President Obama reduces to this: if trials in Article III courts are determined to be imprudent, time-consuming, or to involve too many Constitutional uncertainties, then reform the Commissions by the following: supplement your initial Executive Order with a more specific, imperative directive that ALL evidence be assembled on each detainee immediately, no matter the resources required to do so. Countenance no claims that the task is unattainable. Replace the current Convening Authority, Chief and Deputy Chief Prosecutors, whose failures are undeniable and who, in any event, no longer posess a shred of credibility. Instruct the military services’ top lawyers or “TJAGs” to conscript the most qualified prosecutors available, from whatever source (most probably the reserves, many of whose members are highly-experienced civilian prosecutors). Order the service TJAGs to relocate the entire operation to GTMO (currently, the prosecution and defense have offices in Northern Virginia!). Further, mandate that the Military Judges assigned to the Commissions be relocated to GTMO for the duration as well, holding court proceedings as rapidly as equity allows (before the President’s EO, the Commissions would meet at GTMO perhaps once a month – an unacceptably glacial pace), and to endeavor, consistent with the modified Commissions law and regulations, to complete all trials no later than 21 January 2010. Refuse to release any military personnel from active duty until the mission is complete. Knowing the soldier’s life as I do, this last step will instill the requisite urgency and effort all but abandoned in the preceding seven years. Finally, I would advise the President that after the fair, equitable and just trials are completed, to order the prison camps at GTMO destroyed — bulldozed to the ground, not in an attempt to erase the past, but as a means of recognizing the abandonment of our American values that took place there. Put a decisive end to GTMO.

In sum, if the detainees cannot be tried in US federal courts, replicate the intelligent, reasoned, and highly-regarded Nuremberg trials to the extent possible at GTMO. Restore America as a force for good in the world. Complete the mission at GTMO, with honor and expeditiousness – not dishonor and expediency.

(Link via Kevin Hayden of American Street)

Update: Center for Constitutional Rights reports:

Currently at Guantánamo, the majority of detainees are being held in conditions of solitary confinement in one of two super-maximum facilities – Camps 5 and 6 – or in Camp Echo. The conditions in these camps are harshly punitive and violate international and U.S. legal standards for the humane treatment of persons deprived of their liberty. Solitary confinement, sensory deprivation, environmental manipulation, and sleep deprivation are daily realities for these men and have led to the steady deterioration of their physical and psychological health. In addition, detainees are subjected to brutal physical assaults by the Immediate Reaction Force (IRF), a team of military guards comparable to a riot squad, who are trained to respond to alleged “disciplinary infractions” with overwhelming force. Detainees have also been deprived of virtually all meaningful contact with their families, and have suffered interference with and abuse related to their right to practice their religion.

Contrary to statements by the military, conditions at Guantánamo have not improved for the majority of detainees and are still in violation of the law. In this report, we describe the current conditions of confinement for the men at Guantánamo and make recommendations for bringing Camps 5, 6 and Echo into immediate compliance with “all applicable laws” governing the conditions of confinement of detainees, as required by President Obama’s Executive Order.

The descriptions of ongoing, severe solitary confinement, other forms of psychological abuse, incidents of violence and the threat of violence from guards, religious abuse, and widespread forced tube-feeding of hunger strikers indicate that the inhumane practices of the Bush Administration persist today at Guantánamo, despite President Obama’s Executive Order, and should be remedied immediately.

They have a pdf report and copies of letters from detainees.

Why did anyone in the Bush administration think this was a good idea? A torture camp? Did they not study history? Not watch any WWII movies? Or did they always cheer for the Nazis and imagine people cowering before their awesome superbly tailored uniform and shiny goose-stepping boots?

Well, now even the guards are coming forward and talking. Soon we’ll hear exactly which one of the perverted group in the Bush cabal pushed this torture program into existence. Maybe we’ll even get to hear their dank depraved polluted soup of excuses as to why.

Remember. Some in the Bush administration actively pushed for torture and went down and watched.

I’ll quote myself from this post I did in 12/07:

It’s torture, Georgie. Why did your administration decide to call the Geneva Conventions quaint? Why did you want torture ‘on the table’? Why were you so adamant to have these torture techniques employed? Why was Abu Gonzales asked to find a legal way to activate torture? Why was Rumsfeld scrawling notes about how easy it was to stand for eight hours and that it wasn’t enough? Why was there an overheard conversation (Richard Clarke?) between high-ranking White House staff in the days after 9/11 happily discussing torture techniques to use on al-Qaeda and Iraqis? And we’re supposed to believe all those dog leashes and glow sticks used on prisoners at Abu Ghraib are part of the everyday equipment of soldiers?

And when Rumsfeld became incensed over the photos of Abu Ghraib, he wasn’t upset by the torture. He was upset by the existence of the photos. The acts didn’t disturb him, the fact that the world now knew disturbed him.

You opened this door and are now trying to pretend that what was done with your okay and in your name hasn’t happened. The truth will out and we will get to hear all the horrible details, if not now, soon. This administration thought that torture would make people be in shock and awe of them. All this did was announce to the citizens of Iraq and the United States and to the world that this administration was cowardly, craven, inept and incompetent. Losers use torture. Wise men don’t need to.

And don’t drag out that stupid excuse that everything changed on 9/11. Nothing changed on 9/11 except we finally joined the rest of the world in dealing with terrorists. Not every country dealing with terrorism turns into a police state and tortures people. Not every government uses such a blow to undo everything that they can’t stand in the Constitution and in our laws. But your administration did, Georgie.

I bet you and your pals have watched the CIA torture tapes. Or, as you demanded of Saddam Hussein to produce proof that he did not have WMDs, prove that you haven’t.

Because, by the way you are denying things and shifting times to prove you didn’t know anything about anything, we’re assuming you have.

crossposted at Rants from the Rookery

Maybe the economic crisis will lead to true progress in our semi-civilization.

I’d take it further, making it mandatory. Especially for perpetual dicks with wee ones.

It’d be nice if the Talking Dog compiled these interviews and wrote THE book about Gitmo. His dogged pursuit of insider views and his relentless pursuit of real justice has been extraordinary, and the latest interview adds the personal perspectives and motives of an attorney who went in with the best of intentions and left on the strength of the same moral beliefs that took him there.