Wednesday, May 17, 2006
Moral Degeneracy in Congress
Aaah, the dismemberment of the first amendment. Are free speech zones really necessary for just 100 protestors? Why not just arrest any protestors that get out of hand? Then again, this is Oklahoma we’re talking about.
The Bush administration has agreed to full oversight of the NSA spying programs. This, however, hardly changes their legality. I also question the quality of testimony congress will receive from an administration that has been so secretive and deceptive before.
Lawbreaking must be punished, not merely stopped. What is the moral of the story if it is not? You only have to accede to congressional oversight if you get caught breaking the law? It’s OK the break the law for years as long as you inform congress afterward?
How about the US government subsidizing alternative energy? We gave billions in subsidies to the traditional energy industry just last summer. Can you imagine if a similar amount of money was given to subsidize ethanol manufacturers to start up?
Meanwhile, the Washing press core are being their usual probing and combative selves. Malveaux and Henry of CNN praised Tony Snow’s “honesty” and “bluntness” even as he misrepresented or deliberately lied about several issues.
Have White House correspondents not degenerated into ass-licking sycophancy? You have to be kidding me. Snow spins his ass off on his first day and they sing his praises like he’s the reincarnation of Mother Theresa.
The bar for honesty in Washington has been set incredibly low. The MSM isn’t doing it’s viewers any favors by swallowing administration lies whole, regurgitating them onto the airwaves, and then praising the administration for its “honesty.” Just check out the links on the MSM over at mediamatters.org.
Chris Durang writes a decent article about Arlen Specter’s capitulation to the “conservatives” on his committee. Note how unequivocally Specter said that the NSA program was illegal. So he admits the president broke the law, but now is throwing up a roadblock that would prevent people from challenging it.
This is Specter’s dilemma: he knows the president broke the law, but didn’t even have the courage to start an investigation. He just called Alberto Gonzales to testify and then didn’t even put Gonzales under oath. Quite the “maverick.”
I won’t even explore the positions of the “conservative” members of his committee who have unequivocally opposed enforcing laws with regards to the operations of the White House. They are beneath contempt. They are also too numerous to mention, seeing as they comprise the entire Republican Party. We might as well make an official note of republican Sens. Chuck Grassley (Iowa), Jon Kyl (Ariz.), Jeff Sessions (Ala.), John Cornyn (Texas) and Tom Coburn (Okla.)
Sessions, Cornyn, and Coburn have been roasted on this blog before, on this and other subjects of great importance. I’m not even talking about disastrous and deceptive supply-side, sleight-of-hand economics: I’m talking about basic US law.
A perusal of my memory and the internet reveals Cornyn as one of many republicans who tacitly accused Russ Feingold of treason when he said Feingold’s censure resolution would amount to “aiding our enemies in a time of war.” Note the utter lack of a defense of the president’s lawbreaking. In the party that Newt founded it is SOP to just attack like a crack-fueled wolverine when you or an ally is accused of wrongdoing. Cornyn is up to his ears in the Jack Abramoff scandal, with several emails between Ralph Reed and Abramoff talking about thanking Cornyn for his help and considering asking him for more. Cornyn was the mastermind of the stunning false binary “civil liberties don’t matter much after you’re dead.”
Tom Coburn I recall vividly as the Frist-like doctor who used his amazing powers of remote diagnosis to assure John Roberts that Roberts was clearly telling the truth in his confirmation hearings. Coburn is simply unhinged, in fact. He’s advocated the death penalty for doctors who perform abortions and has said that homosexuality is the biggest threat to America. According to Coburn, global warming is “just a lot of crap,” not supported by any “hard evidence.” Coburn was busy on a crossword puzzle at the beginning of Robert’s hearings. He paused from his pastime to decry partisan politics while choking back a sob, a scene of utter absurdity that was parodied by The Daily Show in one of the most hilarious pieces that show has ever done.
Jeff Sessions was one of the vocal proponents of the “Nuclear Option” to erase parliamentary procedures and allow republicans to break democratic filibusters at will on judicial nominees, as Bush’s 95% rate of confirmation of his batshit-crazy judicial nominees just wasn’t good enough. At a pro-war rally held as a response to an anti-war rally the day before (amusing note: the anti-war rally drew 100,000 people. The pro-war rally drew 400) he said he didn’t “know what [anti-war protestors] represent, other than blame America first.” Sessions is very conservative religiously, but that didn’t stop him from opposing the McCain’s anti-torture amendment. Sessions has said that the NAACP and the ACLU are “un-American” and “Communist inspired.”
Compare these men to the ones who voted against McCain’s anti-torture amendment and you will have an excellent window into the worst of the republican senators in the Senate.
# posted by BitterHarvest @ 4:59 PM 
