A new fellow showed up on one thread yesterday, and proceded to forward nearly every possible cliche about the justifications for the war, about the goodness of the US and badness of France, and about Bush's clear-sightedness. It was talk-radio level of unreflection.
We have them up here too. A couple of years ago, while the Canadian government was setting up a gun registry, Charlton Heston came here to speak to our gun lovers. He got great cheers from the assembled when he said "Protect your GOD-GIVEN right to bear arms". Leviticus???????
Our histories show significant differences but display some similarties as well. Both have a strain of thought which distrusts and disparages the intellect and the life of the mind, elevating the 'practical' man who went to the 'university of life' or the 'school of hard-knocks'.
But America has this one in spades. It is a very weird and unfortunate twist. One can see some elements of its origins in the egalitarian hopes of the French and American revolutions, and in the campaign against both education and rationalism by the religious community over the last two centuries or so.
But that doesn't tell us much regarding why the US is both so militaristic and nationalistic. For example, one just does not ever hear or see the phrase 'anti-Canadianism'. It simply doesn't exist in usage, nor in thought.
It is a very curious irony (pathology?) that the US, the most powerful, influential and wealthy nation by huge margins, thinks it is so set upon and disadvantaged by outside forces that it must always circle the wagons and protect the special folks inside.
Good piece of writing, T, I agree. In fact you articulated a lot of what I was thinking, and put it better than I ever could.
Power to your pen.
Author unknown.
G.O.P. HISTORY DAY
Watergate Anniversary Brings Back Memories
The Most Criminal Party in U.S. History
And the Most Criminal Republics Of All?...
You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet!
June 17, 2002 marks the thirtieth anniversary of the Watergate break-in that eventually led to the downfall of Richard M. Nixon.
And here at MWO, June 17 is also G.O.P. History Day -- the day when we reflect on the annals of the most criminal national political party in U.S. history.
The party with the most national criminal scandals, the most convicted and jailed and disgraced White House officials.
Political corruption in American history has, as we all know, involved members of all parties.
The Democratic Party has had its city machine bosses, its Boss Tweeds and Jimmy Walkers, as well as its modern Koreagate and savings-and-loan finaglers.
But for real big-time criminality and convictions at the highest levels of American politics, the G.O.P. is the all-time, once and future champion.
And, as the decades have passed, it's only gotten worse.
Let's take a walk down memory lane...or, rather, a walk around the huge G.O.P. wing of the Politicians' Correctional Facility.
First, the Grant Administration. Although President Grant was personally honest, and has been underrated by historians, the corrupt and criminal Republicans around him came to define the sordid Gilded Age.
There was the Whiskey Ring, a conspiracy involving high federal officials to defraud the government of duties on whiskey. Among those involved: Grant's personal secretary, Oliver Babcock. Broken up in May 1875, the Ring yielded 238 indictments, the most ever in a federal corruption scandal, more than half of which led to convictions -- though (in part thanks to Grant's intercession) Babcock was acquitted.
There was also the Credit Mobilier of America scandal, involving insider trading and bribery of elected officials with railroad stock. Among those involved: Vice President Schuyler Colfax, Representative (and future President) James A. Garfield, and (the chief inside promoter) Massachusetts congressman Oakes Ames. The House eventually condemned Ames, considered impeaching Colfax, and published a list of names of all congressmen involved with Ames in the scheme.
And, of course, the Belknap scandal, when Secretary of War William Belknap was forced to resign from office in order to avoid impeachment over accepting bribes for the rights to sell supplies to Indian tribes.
And the Sanborn scandal, involving an irregular tax collection scheme in which Secretary of the Treasury William Richardson came under heavy fire, and eventually stepped down after the House Ways and Means Committee declared he deserved "severe condemnation."
After the Grant Administration, which takes up practically an entire bloc within the G.O.P. Correctional Wing, we come to the Harding Administration.
The biggest scandal involving Harding's so-called "Ohio Gang" was the Teapot Dome affair, involving the illegal leasing of federal oil reserves to private companies in exchange for favors and bribes. Secretary of the Interior Albert Fell took the fall, was fined, and convicted to a year in prison.
But compared with what was to come, the Grant and Harding criminal scandals were small potatoes.
After 1928, the U.S. enjoyed forty years of largely scandal-free federal government -- with, incidentally, Democrats in the White House for twenty-eight of those years. Then came Richard M. Nixon, and a cavalcade of major scandals and convictions, involving (among other things) such crimes against the state as political burglery, bribery, extortion, wiretapping, conspiracy, and illegal use of the C.I.A. and F.B.I. Most of these crimes are now lumped together under the collective heading of Watergate.
The results:
One presidential resignation.
One vice-presidential resignation.
40 federal officials indicted.
Attorney-General John Mitchell, convicted and jailed.
White House officials H. R. Haldeman, John Ehrlichman, Charles Colson, John Dean, convicted and jailed.
Howard Hunt and G. Gordon Liddy, "plumbers" and ex-White House officials, convicted and jailed.
James McCord, Committee for the Re-election of the President (CREEP), convicted and jailed.
The reaction to Watergate, and to Gerald Ford's pardon of Richard Nixon, brought the election of Jimmy Carter to the White House. Some relatively minor scandals here -- involving Bert Lance and Carter's wayward brother Billy -- brought embarrassment to the Carter Administration, but nothing on the scale of Watergate -- and nothing on the scale of what was to come.
Whereas Nixon had Watergate, Ronald Reagan had Iran-Contra -- a catch-all term for a wide assortment of crimes against the state, involving violation of federal law (the so-called Boland Amendment), perjury, and conspiracy to defraud the federal government.
Total number of officials convicted, indicted, subject to criminal investigations:
138 In terms of the numbers of top officials indicted, the worst record in American history.
Six of the most high-profile Iran-Contra indictments and convictions were aborted when outgoing Republican President George H.W. Bush issued his sweeping Christmas Eve pardons in 1992.
Among the more celebrated Iran-Contra cases:
National Security Adviser Robert McFarlane guilty of withholding information to Congress, fined, two years' probation, pardoned on Christmas Eve 1992 by outgoing President George H.W. Bush.
Lt. Col. Oliver North convicted on three criminal counts, fined, suspended sentence, set aside on technicality.
National Security Adviser John Poindexter convicted on five criminal counts, sentenced to six months imprisonment, set aside on technicality.
Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger, indicted on five counts for lying to Congress, pardoned on Christmas Eve, 1992 by outgoing President George H.W. Bush.
C.I.A.'s Clair E. George indicted for perjury, mistrial, pardoned on Christmas Eve 1992 by outgoing President George H.W. Bush.
Elliott Abrams, assistant secretary of state, guilty of withholding information, pardoned on Christmas Eve 1992 by outgoing President George H.W. Bush.
Duane R. Clarridge, C.I.A., indicted for misleading Congress, pardoned on Christmas Eve 1992 by outgoing President George H.W. Bush.
Alan D. Fiers, C.I.A., plead guilty to charge of withholding information from Congress, pardoned on Christmas Eve 1992 by outgoing President George H.W. Bush.
But Iran-Contra, like Watergate, was only a symptom of the criminality rampant in the Reagan White House.
In addition, there were the cases of:
-- Lyn Nofziger, top White House advisor, convicted on charges of illegal lobbying.
-- Michael Deaver, top White House advisor, convicted on charges of illegal lobbying, lying to Congress, fined one hundred thousand dollars and given three years probation.
Then there were these additional major scandals:
-- The Pentagon Procurement Scandal
-- The H.U.D. Scandals, involving massive fraud and losses of billions of dollars to taxpayers, unearthed only when Reagan left office.
-- The E.P.A. Scandals. E.P.A. Director Anne Gorscuh Burford resigned amid accusations she politically manipulated the Superfund money. Her appointee, Rita Lavelle, fired after accusing a senior EPA official of "systematically alienating the business community." Lavelle later indicted, tried and convicted of lying to Congress and served three months of a six-month prison sentence.
Quite a collection of convicts, jailbirds, and grateful pardonees, isn't it?
All part of the ignoble chronicle we commemorate on G.O.P. History Day.
Oh, and what about the Clinton-Gore Administration? The administration that one right-wing madman and liar, David Horowitz, once called "the most criminal, most corrupt, most cynical administration" of them all?
Well, in the Clinton-Gore years exactly no -- as in zero, zilch, nada -- top federal officials were convicted of any wrongdoing connected to their White House duties.
Webster Hubbell, assistant Attorney-General, was convicted of embezzling funds from the Little Rock Rose Law Firm, a crime that predated his coming to government and that involved the defrauding of the First Lady, Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Secretary of Agriculture Mike Espy was brought up on charges of corruption, but found innocent on all counts, after which the presiding judge admonished the prosecutors for bringing forward such a frivolous case.
Resulting from illegalities around a campaign event in 1996, two mid-level Democratic campaign officials were found guilty of violations of federal election laws.
Oh yes -- and President Clinton was impeached by the House of Representatives in a hard-line partisan proceeding following a perjury trap set up by the Office of the Independent Counsel -- but acquitted by a large margin in the Senate.
That's about it. The most investigated administration in American history (by far!) turns out to have been among the very cleanest.
Another point to remember on G.O.P. History Day.
But history shouldn't only be for looking backward.
For, it seems, the ever upward trend of G.O.P. criminality continues.
What, after all, in the annals of American political criminality, can compare with the stealing of an entire presidential election, as happened in 2000 -- complete with Republican goon squads shutting down the vote-counting in Florida, and a Supreme Court majority offering up the most transparently shameful political decision in the court's history since Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896 -- or maybe, even, since the Dred Scott decision of 1858?
And there's so much more to look forward to.
Enron.
The Cheney Energy Report.
The Bush 9/11 coverup scandal.
And, just in time for G.O.P. History day, there comes this in-depth report by the respected British journalist Ed Vulliamy, on the dark underside of Dubya's rise to power in Texas -- and where it might all lead, someday, in the courts:
"Dark Heart of the American Dream," London Observer Magazine, June 16, 2002
So, readers, give this black-letter day the reflection it deserves.
Not just for the 30th anniversary of the Watergate break-in. But for the whole grotesque history of G.O.P. crimes, over the past century and a quarter and more. Let alone the grotesque future of that criminality.
Observe G.O.P. History Day!
MWO Home
My goodness! I hope it's not a politically incorrect response to say Republicans are serious jerks. SERIOUS jerks.
WASHINGTON (AFP) - Oil services giant Halliburton, already under fire over accusations that its White house ties helped win a major Iraqi oil contract, has admitted that a subsidiary paid a multi-million dollar bribe to a Nigerian tax official.
Halliburton, once run by Vice President Richard Cheney, revealed the illicit payments, worth 2.4 million dollars, in a filing Thursday with the Securities and Exchange Commission (news - web sites) (SEC).
"The payments were made to obtain favorable tax treatment and clearly violated our code of business conduct and our internal control procedures," Halliburton said.
Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg Brown and Root (KBR), which paid the bribe, has been in the political spotlight since it was awarded a no-bid US government oil contract in Iraq (news - web sites) in March.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1503&ncid=1503&e=14&u=/afp/20030509/ts_afp/us_halliburton_ethics_030509175123
Tartarin
The Chalabi ties are from that well-worn mold labelled "How the US does foreign policy". Find a friendly ambitious crook, and pay him well.
But I think there is a real strategic danger to hinging an attack on the administration by using the WOMD issue. If such an attack was mounted, and began to gain success reflected in polling numbers, these boys would find the missing chemicals/viruses/delivery plans. That is...they would find a truck which smelled funny, or a hard-drive with the word 'antrax' (and some pornography for good measure) and the 'big lie' machine would plaster the story across the face of the moon.
As so many folks have now bought into the lie of imminent threat from barbaric freedom-haters, and the idiocy of 'they only understand force' (precisely the formula for right wing success in Israel), it's tough to know how to counter this. Pointing, whenever one can, to the instances of deceit and misrepresentation may not be enough, though we sell our souls if we don't do it.
There is no target for outrage, lying in the street screaming at the sky will get you nowhere ... maybe jail.
We have forgotten that freedom is for all ..... we think of freedom as an abstract instead of a right, so it is easy for our jailors to tell us that we must give up our rights to preserve them.
Freedom and civil rights are entwined, you cannot celebrate one without the other. These rights must be eroded slowly to avoid outrage ...... this erosion of America began on November 7th, 2000 and continues today as we stand about watching each bleed.
It is amazing how a foreigner can capture the essence of what is America.
posted 05/06, by Sandra Kay (viewed 694 times) | Scope : National
Popularity : 26 (30 encourage, 4 discourage)
Relevance : 1012
From a Romanian newspaper
We rarely get a chance to see another country's editorial about the USA. Read this excerpt from a Romanian Newspaper. The article was written by Mr. Cornel Nistorescu and published under the title "C"ntarea Americii meaning "Ode To America") on September 24, 2002 in the Romanian newspaper Evenimentul zilei("The Daily Event" or "News of the Day").
~An Ode to America~
Why are Americans so united? They would not resemble one another even if you painted them all one color! They speak all the languages of the world and form an astonishing mixture of civilizations and religious beliefs.
Still, the American tragedy turned three hundred million people into a hand put on the heart. Nobody rushed to accuse the White House, the army, and the secret services that they are only a bunch of losers. Nobody rushed to empty their bank accounts. Nobody rushed out onto the streets nearby to gape about. The Americans volunteered to donate blood and to give a helping hand.
After the first moments of panic, they raised their flag over the smoking ruins, putting on T-shirts, caps and ties in the colors of the national flag. They placed flags on buildings and cars as if in every place and on every car a government official or the president was passing. On every occasion they started singing their traditional song: "God Bless America!"
I watched the live broadcast and rerun after rerun for hours listening to the story of the guy who went down one hundred floors with a woman in a wheelchair without knowing who she was, or of the Californian hockey player, who gave his life fighting with the terrorists and prevented the plane from hitting a target that could have killed other hundreds or thousands of people.
How on earth were they able to respond united as one human being? Imperceptibly, with every word and musical note, the memory of some turned into a modern myth of tragic heroes. And with every phone call, millions and millions of dollars were put in a collection aimed at rewarding not a man or a family, but a spirit, which no money can buy.
What on earth can unite the Americans in such a way? Their land? Their galloping history? Their economic Power? Money? I tried for hours to find an answer, humming songs and murmuring phrases with the risk of sounding commonplace.
I thought things over, but I reached only one conclusion... Only freedom can work such miracles!
(I hope we never lose our freedom. That is why it is important to keep having discussions on ETP, to keep that from happening. Anything like the Patriot Act cannot happen to us again or little by little our freedom will be gone. Sandra)
Very surprised to find such a pro-American piece in these pages.
Waiting for the liberal distain...
America good ........ Bush scum that scum scrape off shoes because the evil that he does is premeditated as he paints himself as altruistic.
Distain? Is that something you can get out with bleach?
Gel--
Didn't mention Bush. I see alot of criticisms of America here, and didn't think a pro-American piece would last long without negative comments.
Hey Snood, no ... that would be 'datstain', 'distain' will only come out with a valid election.
Hey, maybe he's a duh-stain!
The President '''IS''' America and is somebody a citizen wants to be proud of.
This guy is hated all over the globe for some very good reasons.
