What do propagandists say when defeat is at hand?

VICE PRESIDENT CHENEY, DECEMBER 2005

"On this, both Republicans and Democrats should be able to agree. The only way the terrorists can win is if we lose our nerve and abandon our mission," "

JOSEPH GOEBBELS NEW YEARS EVE 1943, ADDRESSING THE GERMAN PEOPLE

“A nation must fight courageously and intelligently for its existence..the main thing is that the leadership and people keep their nerve, stubbornly and persistently overcoming dangers and difficulties, letting nothing distract them from the continuation of the course that they once saw as correct…”

Joe Lieberman's Change of Heart

Senator Joe Lieberman took an interesting position on the Alberto Gonzales issue this week. He joined the majority of the Republicans in the Senate in voting against advancing the "no confidence" motion against Gonzales to the floor for a vote, effectively killing the measure. Senator Lieberman's reasoning;

“My vote against going ahead with more debate on this no confidence resolution is not an expression of confidence in Attorney General Gonzales,” Lieberman said on Monday. “It is an expression of opposition to spending any more time on a resolution that will accomplish nothing, instead of going ahead with the next item of business, which is energy legislation.”

The issue I have with his remarks has little to do with Alberto Gonzalez and everything to do with his position during the Republican push for the impeachment of President Clinton in 1999. Take a moment to review Senator Lieberman's positions at that time as reported by CNN;

Lieberman said if the findings didn't claim to convict the president of a crime but instead said that he had been misleading and acted to cover up his misconduct, "then I for one would be hard pressed to vote against it."

In a appearance on "Fox News Sunday," Lieberman also said that adjournment without a vote on the articles of impeachment "would prevent the president from claiming acquittal or an exoneration because there would be no final vote on conviction. And then we just state, without calling him a criminal ... (that) he has committed obstruction of justice ... that he has lied under oath."

I find it interesting that Senator Lieberman felt that he would be hard pressed to vote against a Republican political maneuver that would waste time and do little more than embarrass the President and his party. The issue at hand, the Presidents veracity, is exactly the issue in question regarding Attorney General Gonzales. He was in favor of wasting time to attack and embarrass a Democratic President, yet his attitude towards a Republican Attorney General who has unapologetically lied to Congress is the exact opposite.

James Carville Revealed??

James Carville's reputation as a left wing Democrat is in serious jeopardy. He may very well be a Democrat by label, but his recent actions bring his political inclinations into question. His criticism of the Bush Administration and their propensity for lying has been revealed as nothing but showmanship. The website "the smoking gun.com" is displaying a copy of a letter to Judge Walton requesting leniency in sentencing for Scooter Libby.

Most political strategist would agree that the most powerful politician is one who can plant spies amongst his enemies and control what appears to be the opposition. Carville is in the mainstream media almost daily crowing about the GOP and their shortcomings. He has made a very lucrative career out of framing himself as an aggressive pro-left pundit. It is now obvious that what we really have is a fox in the hen house. Carville strongly criticized the Bush administration for attacking Joe Wilson and revealing the identity of Valerie Plame. Now he requests leniency for the man designated by Dick Cheney to carry out that attack.

The obvious conclusion here is that James Carville is a GOP mole. The Democrats should act as they would with any other spy and completely severe ties with this man immediately. If this does not happen, the Party Leaders should be brought to task and their allegiance should also be questioned.

Maryland ACLU = Good / Dick Cheney = Bad

A Picture of yours truly with Susan Goehring, Maryland ACLU Executive Director.


Tonight, the furious blogger had a rare respite from the daily frustration of discovering yet another Bush administration felony. I had the great pleasure of attending the Maryland Affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union's 75th Anniversary at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore (Home of the Ravens).

ACLU National President Anthony Romero delivered his usual masterpiece with his trademark style of injecting paradoxical humor to make a deadly serious point. He used an anecdote which invoked the writings of a staunch opponent of the ACLU to point out the organization's value to our Democracy. He then smoothly transitioned into a speech which both invigorated the faithful and educated audience members with lesser knowledge of the ACLU's history and purpose.

Unfortunately, there are those who don't fully comprehend the value of the ACLU. Humor me while I drift off into one of my angry rants to make a necessary point:

Shortly after the Bush Administration seized power, Vice President Cheney had a meeting with a group of people to devise an energy policy for the United States. It was widely believed that the group included persons who stood to make significant financial gains if the policy were to steer this country towards a greater dependence on fossil fuels, particularly oil. When a request was made to make the documents and participants from the meeting public, Vice President Cheney argued that the American people did not have a right to know who was at the energy policy meeting or what was discussed. Several government watchdog groups fought a long legal battle and ended up losing when the Supreme Court ruled that, we the people, have no right to know what our leaders are doing, allegedly on our behalf. It was eventually discovered that officials from Exxon Mobil Corp., Conoco (before its merger with Phillips), Shell Oil Co. and BP America Inc. met in the White House complex and developed the national energy policy, parts of which became law.

Fast forward a few years and we have the Patriot Act, government electronic eavesdropping, and the warrantless opening of citizen's mail.

There is but one conclusion that can be reached. The Government now has an exclusive right to Privacy and the People have none. In a country where the exact opposite intention was spelled out plainly in the constitution, our rights have been turned inside out. We are now more dependent on fossil fuel and paying the highest price for it in this nations history. Yet we have no right to know who was involved or what was discussed at the meeting that got us here?

The Government has a right to privacy, we have none!

Regardless of what you think of the ACLU, take your chances with organizations that fight Government excesses, not the other way around.