Mojowire for 6/14
ED NOTE:
MUSIC WILL BE -Intro/Hendrix, Star Spangled Banner
S9/ Eat Static, Crash and Burn
Exeunt/WildChild, Renegade Master
J. Good morning, and welcome to The Mojowire... I’m Mojo...
S. And I’m Sean, it’s Saturday, June14, and here’s the news for the week gone-by...
J. Brought to you by Mojohaus-fine journalism, afflicting the comfortable since 1988. Now headlines, from Mojohaus:
S. It is one thing for administration officials to disregard those from outside their circles when it came to the hunt for the dreaded Iraqi Weapons of Mass Destruction, but it is quite another when their own gang was telling them that the whole “imminent threat” reason for war in Iraq was sheer fantasy, then ignore them and still send hundreds of young Americans to their deaths. Even worse, they now want to pretend that they never knew. Is it time for the Special Prosecutor yet?
J. Pop quiz: Since when does the house majority leader make a major policy break with a popular sitting President of his own party? Answer: When it’s a poisonous little thug like Tom Delay. Last week, the Texas Fasci...errr Republican... told W to blow it out his ear when it came to tax breaks for the poor. We engage in a little Monday morning quarterbacking and ask the question: are the President’s coattails becoming a bit tattered?
S. This week, Strychnine brings us the joyous news of how you -- that’s right *you* -- can serve your nation in the glorious struggle against the evil doers, and not in some symbolic namby-pamby buy-war-bonds, save-kitchen-fat-for-glycerin, refusing-to-eat-french-fries way... No, you too can pick up a weapon and stand a post and show those dirty, long haired hippy so-and-sos what a real American does when confronted with evil. (Well, actually they vote progressive, but that’s another rant.)
J. Now let me get this straight...on the one hand our Justice Department wants all world governments to bend to our every whim when it comes to extraditing anyone we call a terrorist, as well as providing our resources to some of the most arguably criminal regimes on earth as long as they do our bidding. But then Rummy threw a shoe (again) last week because the rest of the world wants Americans to be held to the same standards we demand of everyone else.
S. Finally this morning, we give our weekly update on the Presidential Primary season. Things heated up a bit this week, with the first big media buy of the season going to our boy former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, meanwhile Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich brought the serious anti-war rhetoric to Congress this week and gernerated some ink for his incipient campaign, and John Kerry is set to unveil a energy plan soon and we have a quick preview.
J. So stand by to stand by and let’s kick this pig...
J. First this morning...For weeks now, we have been casting aspersions on the whole Iraqi Weapons of Mass Destruction issue. From the ruminations of Team Blix on the nature of poorly forged documents purporting to show an Iraqi nuclear weapons program to unsubstantiated reports from Iraqi dissidents of vast quantities of VX nerve gas and warriorized anthrax.
Unfortunately, we were hardly being original in our critical takes and skepticism. It turns out that the people with the Central and Defense Intelligence agencies, contrary to how their reports were spun to the masses, were telling the Bush Administration as early as last Sept. the very same things.
Reprehensible does not even begin to describe it. These people ordered hundreds of young American men and women to their deaths, accompanied by the deaths of God only knows how many thousands of Iraqis because Saddam Hussein and the Legion of Doom were being pimped as some sort of pro-wrestling villain, bent on world domination by the administration’s tools at Fox News and the Weekly Standard.
And what were we telling them at that time? If you go, pray to God you find those weapons, because if you don’t it’s your butt. Literally.
Well, its been what, how many days since hostilities have ceased? 20, 30, 40? Where are they guys? And now it appears they *knew* the evidence of weapons they used to justify this adventure was utterly bogus. So it appears that it is time to dust off those house and senate committee subpoenas and warm up the old rhetorical question: “What did you know and when did you know it.”
And of course, we can already hear the answers: “I’m sorry Senator, I can’t recall.”
Let’s bring it right up front here: this from a report by the Defense Intelligence Agency last Sept., recently leaked to Bloomberg News “There is no reliable information on whether Iraq is producing and stockpiling chemical weapons, or whether Iraq has -- or will -- establish its chemical warfare agent production facilities.”
Meanwhile, Rumsfeld was told Congress on Sept. 19 of last year, after this report was released, that Iraq has “amassed large, clandestine stockpiles of chemical weapons, including VX, sarin and mustard gas.'”
Sec. Rumsfeld, that’s lying to Congress. And if you will be reminded of what happens to people who lie to Congress.
S. One of the funnier-slash-sadder aspects of this little charade has been the backpedaling of the Administration, especially Rummy, Connie Rice, the president’s National Security Advisor and Sec. of State Colin Powell, whom we still believe may have been an unwitting dupe in some of this.
First they dismissed the reports, then they said that WMD were not the major justification for the war, and when that clearly didn’t fly, now they are blaming the CIA and DIA for not forwarding the information to them in a timely fashion.
This has been either the most mendacious act on the part of an Administration since evil gnomes blew up the Maine in Havana Harbor, or one of the most monumental screwups in American foreign policy history.
Let’s put politics aside for a moment. First, the contention is that everybody in the intelligence services knew that the West African memo detailing an Iraqi uranium buying binge was a forgery and that what happened was that someone forgot to CC the Vice President in an email. In times past, the failure to accurately describe the threat status of a foreign nuclear power could have turned the earth into a smoldering cinder and radioactive ashes.
And this is also after the administration swore on the King James Bible that they would fix every single defect in the flow of intel from analysts to decision makers. They based the largest governmental reorganization in our history just to solve that very problem.
If you subscribe to that theory, then this administration is the most incompetent gang of slope-headed morons in the modern age.
The situation would appear to be one where the insiders on the President’s starting team, that’s Rummy, Rice, Powell and a few select others like Paul Wolfowitz wanted this war so much, that they convinced themselves of the reality of the weapons and then rationalized the use of information they knew to be bad or false, to sell this lemon, thinking it would all work out in the end.
Either that, or they knew that their only recourse to sell a war that no one wanted was to spin up a completely fabricated threat, in order to justify the invasion. The problem with this theory is that they did such a terrible job at it.
The child-geniuses and idiot savants bunkered down in Mojohaus craft services could have cooked up a better mythology than this, and we would have assured that the “weapons” would have been there, when we got there, instead of just clicking our heels together three times and opening our eyes, unshakable in our faith that a magic pile of death machines would mystically appear before us.
And now, the best they can come with is to cast the blame on the people who told them they were wrong in the first place. We at Mojohaus have very little patience for the blame the spooks at Arlington Hall and Langley for this one.
And let’s make no mistake folks, if this is, as we skeptics at the Mojohaus suspect it might be, that this administration deceived the American public intentionally, then it’s time to announce the sequel, Ken Starr II, Attack of the Clone. It might be time to haul the Vice President of the United States into the Well of the Senate and have senators crawl up into his colon with a microscope and subpoena power.
J. And while were on the subject of sycophants and toadies, this brings us to our analysis of why Rep. Tom Delay of planet Texas, the White House’s chief knee-breaker in the House of Representatives, decided to tell the President in no uncertain terms that when it comes to tax breaks for the poor, then W can just go pound sand.
Now before we attempt to answer why, it is important to review the real relationship here. When W wants something from Congress, Chief of Staff Andy Card’s first two calls are to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and House Majority Leader Darth Delay.
Moreover, when it comes time to raise money, Tom Delay is one of the elite go to guys on the court for *guaranteed* phat stax of mad bank. This means that the President has to show a modicum of deference to Delay, and in completing the circle of life in this unholy symbiosis, Delay’s own power is in turn backed by the support of the President.
So it was a little surprising when Delay told the President -- and Senator Frist for that fact -- what they could with their tax credit extension to the poor. This is not the sort of high profile policy issue where Republicans usually start knifing each other in the back.
We here at the wire have three essential theories on this and why each might prove to be important.
First, the theory is that it is all a set up. That it is staged political theater and that Delay and W are staging a little tiff in order for the President to make himself look more moderate fending off the vicious flesh eating rodent that is Tom Delay and his never ceasing campaign to put the poor back in workhouses and farm camps.
This theory has two parts that recommend it. One, the President is really starting to look like a doofus for how the tax cut thing went down and now he needs to look like his “compassionate conservatism” is actually worth something. Secondly, Tom Delay has no need to look like a hero, while at the same time can still push the President’s *real* tax cut agenda without the President getting his hands dirty in the bargain.
Which brings us to theoric the second: That Delay is enough an ideological zealot and drunk enough with power, that he honestly believes that he is running the show. He has convinced himself that the President is merely his own personal stooge and that he will now get his way all the time no matter what.
There has been more than enough documented history of Tom Delay acting like this to make it plausible. For instance, anyone (not technically in the chain of command, by the way) who believes it appropriate to order the nation’s Homeland Security apparatus to track down political opponents is someone who probably should not be in a position of power in a Republic in the first place.
And his ideology? Conservative doesn’t begin to describe it. As one of the central figures in the Clinton Impeachment, he is once reported to have said that he pursued Clinton because the nation’s horn-dog in chief did not share Delay’s ideas about using the U.S. government to promote a “biblical worldview.” This is the same guy who refers to the EPA as “The Gestapo.”
S. Which brings us to our third, and statistically most likely scenario. In the past couple of weeks, the high gloss sheen has started to fade off our glorious freedom fighters’ victory over the forces of evil, and the President’s approval rating has plummeted lower than Axel Rose sipping a triple sec-tequila and quualude milkshake while listening to Morrisey as he reclines in the intensified gravity of the planet Jupiter.
This might lead some career pols, like Delay, a man not known for his far reaching political sight, to jump like a frog on a hot plate to rudimentary stimulus. Or more succinctly, he, and many others like him might just be wondering if the President’s coattails are as sturdy as they were six months ago.
This combination of factors would certainly lead a Delay-like creature to want to do something to inoculate himself, immediately. At the end of the day, this would be a combination of something he believes in to begin with, while staking out a position where he can paint himself as “More-Republican-Than-Thou” when it comes time to start counting noses after the President’s political train wreck slides to a halt.
Bottom line, the lucky duckies, many of whom have been chasing down the Phantom Menace in Iraq won’t get any kind of tax relief in this coming year thanks to Tom Delay. So no matter how you parse Tom Delay’s motivations, the bottom line is that all this guy does is pimp for the wealthy and his ideological masters and everybody else can just go suck the pipe.
This is a vivid illustration of what these people really believe. If your wealthy God loves you, if your poor God hates you. These people don’t want to take us back to the 19th Century, they want to take us back to the 15th Century, when the politics of Europe were soaked in the blood of those who fought wars over minor theological differences.
Those who don’t remember history are doomed to choke on it, and our favorite poisonous little thug is trying to muscle everyone else out of the way to be first at the buffet line.
And now the music is telling me that we have an incoming transmission from the redoubtable Dr. S9…
J. That’s right. It is time once again for our regular contributor Dr. Strychnine, reporting from his super-secret, ultra-dope, mega-cool, extra-jiggy, Mojohaus spy satellite of love high in geosynchronous orbit above Baghdad by the Bay…take it away S9…
S9 Greetings, fellow spacers, breakabouts, deadheaders and ablebodies. This is your morning reveille. It is 15:45 hours UTC, and you are *late* *for* *watch*. Drop yer chocks and grab yer socks; now is the time for all good men, and all that-- your country is calling for a few good boys and girls, and... Uncle Sam Wants *You*!
Remember back in mid-February? When millions of long-hair hippee freakbots marched in cities all across America, Europe and the rest of the world in protest against the U.S. build-up for preventive war on Iraq? Remember how you worried that such public displays of sympathy for the Iraqi regime would prompt the Butcher of Baghdad to think he might yet prevail by continuing to stall the UNMOVIC weapons inspections? Remember how you were offended by all those dirty
shoeless peaceniks, and their angry slogans that bashed the U.S. military and how they clearly did *not* support the troops?
More to the point-- do you remember how you wished that you could go to Iraq yourself and stand alongside our glorious fighting men and women, and help them achieve victory over the tyrant of Iraq and assist in the liberation of the Iraqi patrimony? Well, NOW'S YOUR CHANCE!
That's right. According to an article in Monday's edition of USA Today, the Army Reserve and the Army National Guard are beginning to have trouble meeting their recruiting targets. As of April 30, the Guard was short by 20% of their target for enlisting new soldiers. The Reserve is doing better: they're short by only about 3.5%, but the problem isn't with the full-time career groundpounders. The problem is recruiting the part-timers.
Rummy's new lean, mean, red-white-and-blue, fighting machine relies *heavily* on a large volunteer force of part-timers to provide logistical and even combat support to the main active duty forces. So, if you've been looking for a way to show your support for the troops and take pride in America's effort to disarm Iraq of its weapons of mass destruction, there is really no better way for you to do that than to march right down to your local recruiting station and sign up.
An awful lot of National Guard troopers have been mobilized in the global war on terrorism and Operation Enduring Freedom. More than 15,000 guardsmen have had their active duty extended for a second consecutive year, which hasn't happened since the Viet Nam conflict. Some units have been on active duty practically since September 11, 2001.
Much is required from the service of reservists. Military police and civil affairs units are right this minute on patrol and doing other duty in Iraq, helping the peace-loving people liberated from the brutal regime of Saddam Hussein rebuild their nation. And they clearly need your help.
Since the President jacked the Abraham Lincoln off the coast of San Diego to congratulate the armed forces for ending the "major combat operations" phase of Enduring Freedom, at least 47 American soldiers have been killed in Iraq. That's almost a quarter of all coalition deaths since the beginning of the War, and CENTCOM commanders say there will be more fighting ahead. Troopers all over Iraq are coming under daily attack, and America is losing almost one soldier a day at the current rate.
As the fighting continues to escalate-- just yesterday, almost 100 Iraqi fighters were killed in two separate incidents north of Baghdad, and Paul Bremer reports that remnants of the Iraqi regime loyal to Saddam are sabotaging oil pipelines, electric transmission networks and other critical infrastructure in the country-- your support for the troops is crucial to America's strategy for winning the war against terror and preventing the world's worst regimes from threatening us with the world's worst weapons.
What's that? You're too busy? You have other priorities in your life right now? You have a bad back? All the positions seem to be filled by minorities, and it doesn't look like there's room for patriotic folks like yourself? Military service is just not what you're about at this point? Can't afford to take time off from your job for a weekend a month?
No problem. Welcome to the anti-war movement, brother. Fill out these forms, and stand in that line over there. After a few simple questions, you'll be issued your 'No War!' bumper-sticker, your
open-toed sandals and your tie-dyed T-shirt. We'll have you shaped up and shipped out in no time. And no, you don't have to get a tattoo unless you want one.
J. Last week we broke it down for you regarding the horror that is the plan to weaken oversight of extradition and international law enforcement cooperation. To recap briefly: The Patriot Act II, or the John Ashcroft Manhood Enhancement Act, would allow the U.S. to extradite alleged criminals and terrorists with very little review by our elected officials -- such as they are.
This could lead to U.S. agents acting as proxy secret police for some of the most hideous regimes on earth. The act would also give greater latitude for the U.S. to work overseas and we are already starting to take the initiative in working overseas without the knowledge or permission of hosting governments, all in the name of the war on terror.
You would think that in that sort of environment that the administration would be anxious for stronger international bodies to bring the guilty to justice. Well, normally they might be but for one small little problem: You see those folks, many of whom are cheese eating surrender monkeys from old Europe, rudely insist that Americans be held accountable for their actions on the international stage of jurisprudence.
The first sign of intransigence came this week when many of the usual suspects, such as Vice President “Dick” -- may I call you “Dick” Mr. Vice President? -- Cheney and others complained loudly and bitterly when the UN considered not extending immunity for US citizens charged with war crimes in the International Criminal Courts.
Word around the water cooler was that the U.S. would shut down international peacekeeping missions, if the American GIs staffing those missions were held to internationally accepted and practiced standards of conduct.
The ICC came into being in 2002 with what was called the Rome Statute. However, several nations did not ratify the statute, including the United States, and now they are claiming that because they didn’t want to be part of it, then Americans should not be bound by it. That of course is insane. That’s like saying that because I never personally signed off on any of our nation’s laws, then I am not bound by them. Whoo Hoo! Party Time!
Then Rummy got into the act late last week when he threw a shoe (again) regarding Belgium’s laws that allow the people to file suit in their country against non-citizens for abuses of civil and human rights.
According to Rummy, if Americans are going to be held accountable for war crimes, then maybe Brussels just doesn’t get to be NATO headquarters anymore...so there! You know, is it us, or does Rummy have all the grace and deportment of an eight-year-old thug with a gland problem.
This guy is treating foreign relations and international rule of law with all the sensibilities of an elementary school recess.
S. Our real problem with this is the continual moralizing and chest pounding on the part of the administration and their minions regarding international cooperation in the war on terror and bringing terrorists to justice, where ever they may reside. Remember, 9-11 changed everything, the old rules can’t apply anymore.
And when you look at it, strengthening international law enforcement makes a lot of sense if you want to fight stateless terror organizations that don’t correspond to traditional notions of how nation states mix it up in the ring.
But then again, maybe 9-11 didn’t change that much after all. For instance, almost immediately, moves to tighten international banking security and regulations were bitterly opposed, especially by American companies who have an iconoclastic view on the evils of any regulation whatsoever and of course, this administration will roll right over for them, in spite of the fact that we know that loopholes in those laws allow terror organizations to fund themselves.
These sorts of examples really damage our credibility in the world. Our credibility is all we as a nation have to trade on, it is the key to our ability to lead, to market, to fight, to make peace and right now, the United States’ credibility is hovering somewhere between used car salesman and Enron stock trader.
How can we ask the world with a straight face, to take our lead, do our bidding and create the international protocols necessary to fight the world’s most dire supervillains, only to turn around and tell them we are too good -- or perhaps too bad as the case may be -- to be held to account by their puny laws.
Moreover, how long can we expect the world to continue to do what we say in the face of that kind of arrogance and double dealing. You ask people around the world and they will tell you that the perception of the United States has changed. Once it was the land people associated with fairness and justice, even if our politicians went a little strange sometimes. Our nation’s reputation for plain dealing and honesty is being quickly evaporated under the harsh glare of the TV lights any time Rummy or the Count Ashcroft emerge from the Deep-13 bunkers to speak.
A lot of this speaks to the basic ideology of this administration, a group of people that has absolutely no use for international institutions unless they are shilling for the U.S. all day every day. Megalomania doesn’t begin to do them justice. Moral and philosophical problems aside there are the numerous practical problems with trying to be both isolationist and international control freaks all at the same time, many of which we are going to start feeling in our economy soon.
And at the same time, the stories coming out of the military of U.S. service members being complicit in war crimes continue to circulate, as Strychnine so elegantly brought to light a couple of weeks ago.. We are not particularly confident regarding this Defense Department’s political willingness to try war crimes.
J. This week in our Presidential roundup, the Democrat attack elf Dennis Kucinich introduces the chair leg of truth in the House, Governor Dean seizes the initiative in Iowa, and Senator Kerry reportedly will introduce an energy plan for energy independence that (shock, awe) focuses on energy alternatives rather than enriching oil companies.
First, the Kerry plan. According to the Kerry camp: The Democratic presidential candidate said he would set a goal of energy independence within a decade by helping to subsidize the development of more fuel-efficient cars and trucks, raising fuel-efficiency standards and investing royalties from drilling rights into research and development of alternative energy sources.
Among his goals, he said, would be for the country to produce 20 percent of its electricity from alternative energy sources by 2020.
Imagine, an energy policy that is focused on reducing the dependence on dangerous and dwindling fossil fuels, and moves the country forward to an energy future where we are not required to dump poison in our air and water? Pretty wacky, huh?
The Kerry plan could offer a new dimension of attack on the Bush Administration, whose idea of an energy policy is to drill for a pittance of oil in a pristine wilderness. We await the new energy policy from Team Bush where Americans are reclaimed for their water and forced to wear stillsuits in the dreadful desert created by their addiction to pollution.
Next., Presidential Candidate and Congressman Dennis Kucinich introduced a Resolution of Inquiry to force the Administration to come correct on what intelligence they had to support their prophecies of WMD Doom.
“The Administration urged action against an imminent threat. So Congress voted, only weeks before the 2002 election. Some Democrats voted for it thinking there would be an opportunity to refocus on domestic issues. Instead national security and Iraq's so-called imminent threat became the divisive issue in the election. The question became: who as patriotic and who wasn't.
S. He continued: “Now it is becoming apparent that there were no massive stockpiles of WMD in Iraq. There was no imminent threat. The Administration capitalized on the fears of Americans. They misrepresented the nature of the Iraqi threat. They misled Congress. They misled the American people. By pushing for a quick vote before the election they changed the election and manipulated the outcome of the 2002 election. The Resolution of Inquiry will establish the truth once and for all.”
Now, the odds at this point of a Republican House passing this bill is low to say the least. But it does offer a glimpse of the growing pressure in Congress on the Administration to address the rising criticism regarding their rationale for War.
A long shot candidate like Kucinich can help move the debate forward from his secret base on the outer rim of the fight for the nomination, keeping it in the news and on the radar of Congress. Now if we could only get him to stop singing the National Anthem...
Next, Governor Howard Dean is planning on an interesting new strategy in Iowa. Despite the early date, the Dean campaign has bought a series of ads that will run through July 2, targeting those key Iowa Democrats.
According to the Associated Press, “The ad features the former Vermont governor looking into the camera while he delivers an abridged version of his stump speech, including criticism of President Bush's foreign policies, a brief description of his health care plan and his assessment that the Democratic Party has abandoned its traditional values.”
Now, Governor Dean is not currently polling above 5% in the latest polls. The strategy seems designed to do a few things. First, generate some name recognition and excitement for Governor Dean in Iowa.
Some momentum from Iowa could help him considerably going into a tight race in the New Hampshire primary with Senator Kerrry. Also, it is an attempt to raise the Governors profile to generate campaign contributions. We will keep you posted on how effective these ads are in these goals.
J. So our patriotic thought for the day: The international rule of law means the Terrorists win... or as John Ashcroft says... “You will all taste my loving wrath...robots, SEIZE THEM!”
S. And that’s all for this week, tune in again soon for another exciting installment, unless, of course, we are declared enemies of the state.
And remember, you can now email the Mojowire at Mojohaus@hotmail.com, that’s M-O-J-O-H-A-U-S@hotmail.com.
J. This has been the Mojowire, brought to you by Mojohaus...Mojohaus-fine journalism, afflicting the comfortable since 1988, and produced by our super funky fly producer Mike Payne and the Darkling Eclectica, here on KUCI, 88.9...
