Posted inPolitics: National

A fear blankets the land

For the past two years, I’ve heard people say something new. Something new and troubling and chilling. They say in conversations, "For the first time in my life, I’m afraid for our country."

For the most part these aren’t partisans or even particularly political people. They are intelligent, engaged, worldly, successful in their own fields and, usually, of a certain age. Old enough to remember the nation that America once was, not so long ago. They read. They’re not talking about government terror alerts or that taxes might go up on the richest 1 percent of Americans. The statement comes up without prompting or coaching, and the words are almost always the same: "For the first time in my life, I’m afraid for our country."

In Republican John Sidney McCain III’s "home town" of Phoenix last week, I talked to people who are so upset about this election, they can hardly do their work. So upset that enough Americans will be misled by the Fox News echo chamber, passively being fed propaganda — won’t vote, under any circumstances, for a black man. Again, I hear this not from Obama campaign ops, but just intelligent people who have been paying attention.

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Posted inPolitics: National

Case closed — they want to believe

Constitutional lawyer Glenn Greenwald at Salon.com has been trying to push back against the media meme that the FBI has solved the anthrax case with the suicide of scientist Bruce Ivins. The government released its heavily redacted evidence today. It’s unclear whether it will answer questions raised by one of the few skeptical stories to appear, in the New York Times. Or the AP report of the high-pressure tactics the Feds used on Ivins and his family.

Let’s put this into context. We now know that the Bush administration fabricated intelligence to capitalize on the national trauma of 9/11 and to gain a pretext for war with Iraq. Even more evidence comes from a new book by Ron Suskind, who has been spot-on in reporting the inside intrigues of this White House. The head of Iraqi intelligence was working for the CIA and reported that Saddam had no WMDs. He was paid $5 million of your tax dollars to disappear before the invasion. Later, the CIA was pressured by the White House to fabricate a memo from the Iraqi spook saying that 9/11 terrorist Mohammad Atta had trained in Iraq (he hadn’t) and that Saddam was buying yellow-cake uranium in Niger (he wasn’t).

The Bush administration, with its unprecedented secrecy, power grabs, torture and rendition, had created a cottage industry of conspiracy theorists, notably about 9/11. Unfortunately, as facts keep emerging it’s clear that the skeptics aren’t all kooks. Skepticism should be mainstream. Do you believe we know all the facts behind 9/11? And why did the administration oppose creating an independent commission to study the attacks — then carefully steer it and ignore it?

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Posted inPolitics: National

A war against truth in the Iraq hearings

I wonder why news organizations are even covering, much less hyping, the testimony of Gen. David Petraeus before Congress this week. We know nothing will change. President Bush will do as he pleases. He has shown the president to be above the law on torture, eavesdropping of American citizens, environmental policy, etc. Why should the president be above common sense?

All three presidential candidates will be among the members of Congress questioning Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker. This, too, will be entirely predictable. McCain, why is slyly trying to conflate Sunni and Shia extremists for a gullible public, will proclaim that the escalation ("surge") is a success. Obama and Clinton will try to look presidential and tough without alienating the anti-war elements of their party.

Nothing will change until we have a new president and more Democrats in Congress. The only question is whether anyone has the guts to level with the American people about what the change will be.

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