Impeach Gonzales
A new video from ImpeachGonzales.org, summarizing the lies and bull that comprised Gonzales’ testimony before the House and Senate subcommittees:
Technorati Tags: impeachgonzales, alberto gonzales, scandal, lies, politics
Sphere: Related ContentGonzales: One Redeeming Moment?
Via Mojo Blog:
Sphere: Related ContentToday, I found this entertaining tidbit from Comey’s testimony. Comey is speaking with Arlen Specter, senator from Pennsylvania.
SPECTER: Can you give us an example of an exercise of good judgment by Alberto Gonzales?
[Gap in testimony.]
SPECTER: Let the record show a very long pause.
COMEY: It’s hard — I mean, I’m sure there are examples. I’ll think of some. I mean, it’s hard when you look back. We worked together for eight months.
SPECTER: That’s a famous statement of President Eisenhower about Vice President Nixon: “Say something good.” “Give me two weeks.”
COMEY: Right.
Musings on Music, Religion and Politics
You get witch-hunts and wars
When church and state hold hands”*
Music is the place I go when I feel profound sadness, joy, confusion or anger. Someone once told me that people are either drawn to music for the lyrics or the melody, but rarely both. Not so for me — the most resounding tunes are the ones with resonating lyrics and melody. If one or the other is missing, the music is incomplete.
One artist who never fails to disappoint, and has something for every mood I happen to be in is Joni Mitchell. Despite an impressive discography and career spanning more than 40 years, her music has become a boutique offering on iTunes for fringe consumers like me who load up on Mingus, Coltrane, 70s classics with a smattering of fusion. Joni’s a little bit of all of that — her tunes are complex and her lyrics incredible.
The snippet of a lyric I started this post with is from what I consider to be one of her best albums, despite the fact that it hardly made a ripple on the music scene when it was released. Dog Eat Dog was a step onto the ledge for Joni. With razor-sharp lyrics, a rockier sound, and experiments with synthesized music, Dog Eat Dog represents her departure from the mellow jazzy feel of smoky bars into a harder-edged lyrical statement of life in the mid-80′s ‘me’ frenzy. 22 years later, the lyrics feel as fresh as they did when I was still married to the first husband, my first kid was 4 and we’d crank up the tunes in my bright orange VW Beetle while driving off to preschool.
“Tax Free” is Joni Mitchell’s push back on the “Religious Right”; targeting the Pat Robertsons and Jerry Falwells who were so vocal back then, raising voices of condemnation and judgment. What, you say? Back then? What about now? And yeah, isn’t it pathetic that 22 years later the lyrics and delivery of this song feel so fresh to me that they could have been published yesterday?
In “Tax Free”, Rod Steiger overlays Joni’s vocals as a fire-and-brimstone preacher who pronounces at the end that “we should turn the United States Marines loose on that little island south of Florida and stop that problem.” Sound familiar? It should, except now we have James Dobson playing Falwell’s role, proclaiming the demise of the family at the hands of the liberals and endorsing Newt Gingrich as the Republican candidate for president, school districts across the country fighting a them/us battle over allowing any mention of creationism in their curriculum, school libraries banning books, a Messiah College graduate taking the Fifth amendment in the US Attorney investigation, 3,482 American soldiers dead in Iraq and Afghanistan (as of 4/1) and a President resident in the White House who insists we’re doing the Lord’s work, bringing righteousness to the darkest corners of the world.
Politics and religion don’t mix in cocktail conversation in smoky bars or the hallowed halls of the White House. They need to be separated, because when they’re mixed, they create a noxious fizz that obfuscates issues and bestows a false sense of righteousness on the power-hungry hypocrites inhabiting the halls of the White House and Congress.
Let’s not limit it just to Christians. Rep. Dan Burton (R-IN), who routinely preaches his anti-vaccination gospel and pushes forward with the proven-false claim that vaccines lead to autism has deep ties to Sarah Elizabeth Clay, who is a board member for the Citizens Commission on Human Rights, a known front for Scientology and used to be his top aide. Burton is the chairman of the House Oversight Committee, one of the most powerful committees in Congress. Whether Burton himself is a Scientologist is up for grabs, but a look at his record certainly indicates like-mindedness with their anti-vax, anti-psychiatry stance.
No politician should be expected to leave his personal beliefs at the door to his office. At the same time, the decisions and policies that come from our government should be made because they are the right thing for those they govern, not out of misguided self-righteousness and religious zealotry. In Joni’s conclusion to Tax Free, she asks:
And he’s not heaven sent
How can he speak for the Prince of Peace”
When he’s hawk-right militant?*
Jesus understood that, too. That’s why he didn’t engage in the political tomfoolery leading up to his crucifixion. He left the intrigue to Pilate and Herod, knowing that engaging in the petty, backstabbing political games would dilute his message and distract him from His purpose. On this Good Friday, I choose to exercise my freedom of religion and First Amendment right to free speech by calling for our political leaders to lead and not preach, and our religious leaders to lead and preach apart from the political arena.
“Jesus said, ‘Feed my sheep.’” (John 21:17) He didn’t say “Legislate my sheep.” It’s time to stop confusing the two.
This post was written in solidarity with those blogging on this Easter weekend against theocracy. Read more here.
* “Tax Free” by Joni Mitchell 1985 (Dog Eat Dog)
Technorati Tags: blogagainsttheocracy, first amendment, politics, religion, theocracy, James Dobson, culture, Joni Mitchell
Josh Wolf Freed
I’ve written about Josh Wolf a couple of times on my personal blog in an effort to bring attention to the absurdity of his situation. Wolf has the unique distinction of being jailed for eight months for refusing to turn over his videotapes of a San Francisco street protest. In his own words:
When I was subpoenaed in February of last year, I was not only ordered to provide my unedited footage, but to also submit to testimony and examination before the secretive grand jury. Although I feel that my unpublished material should be shielded from government demands, it was the testimony which I found to be the more egregious assault on my right and ethics as both a journalist and a citizen.
Reading between the lines, I believe that the intent was to force Wolf to identify the protesters by name in order to provide the next lead to unraveling this little group of anarchists.
Wolf has published his unedited video. I have watched it. You should watch it, too. While I don’t agree with everything this group did or stood for, I respect their passion and also the fact that they initially complied with police requests to get out of the street. Unfortunately, as things escalated, so did they. There are some images that I will have difficulty forgetting — particularly the army of policemen armed in full riot gear marching behind this ragtag group.
Watch it for yourself. Post your reactions in the comments if you like. And if you agree that jailing Wolf for eight months in a Federal prison was an overreaction and overreaching abuse of power, consider making a donation to his defense fund. If you have difficulty loading from here, try the link on his blog. I suggest you stay away from the comments unless you enjoy mindless flaming — evidently Matt Drudge linked this from his site so there are lots of crazed Drudge Report flamers on there.
I suspect the US Attorney in Wolf’s neck of the woods is a ‘loyal Bushie’, since he wasn’t on the firing hit list of US Attorneys. And here I thought it was all about voting rights.
Technorati Tags: Josh Wolf, anarchy, protest, legal, civil rights, vblogging, US Attorney
(cross-posted from my personal blog)
Robert J. Elisberg on “The Party of Law and Order”
The attorney scandal is growing by leaps and bounds. As I suspected, the idea germinated somewhere on or around Karl Rove, who of course denies it all. Alberto Gonzales will go, but the buck shouldn’t stop there.
They continue to insist that the idea was first put forth to Gonzales by Harriet Miers. That would be the same Harriet Miers that Bush nominated to the Supreme Court. We should count ourselves lucky that the effort failed spectacularly, because if this idea did originate with her, it proves that she hates our justice system as much as Bush does.
As RJ Escow noted, this scandal will prove itself to be the equivalent of Nixon’s “Saturday Night Massacre”. Rove and Bush will continue to claim no recollection, but email trails will lead back to them eventually, and already point in that direction.
Robert J Elisberg points out that the Republican party and Bush Administration in particular has now proven themselves to be the enemy of prosecutors, defense attorneys, policemen and even juries. A wonderful quote here:
The Republican Party is no more the “party of law and order” than a kegger is a party of good manners and fine tea.
The next time a Republican struts around, puffing out his chest to make sure you see the plastic flag decal pinned there, and proclaims he’s in the party of law and order, ask whether you can join and if you should bring your toga.
Touche’, Mr. Elisberg.
Does it frighten you at all that we are facing the possibility of one more Bush appointment to the Supreme Court? It should.
Impeach Bush and Cheney now.
Technorati Tags: Prosecutorgate, Alberto Gonzales, Robert J Elisberg
Sphere: Related ContentCareful — Big Brother IS Watching You
Via CNet News, confirmation that those of us who share photos and videos online may be the next target of government scrutiny:
The Bush administration has accelerated its Internet surveillance push by proposing that Web sites must keep records of who uploads photographs or videos in case police determine the content is illegal and choose to investigate, CNET News.com has learned.
That proposal surfaced Wednesday in a private meeting during which U.S. Department of Justice officials, including Assistant Attorney General Rachel Brand, tried to convince industry representatives such as AOL and Comcast that data retention would be valuable in investigating terrorism, child pornography and other crimes. The discussions were described to News.com by several people who attended the meeting.
It makes me angry that a combination of ignorance and the constant whipping of the culture of fear in people, combined with our current administration’s bully tactics and the telcos’ pandering ways mesh together to write the Bush Administration a free ticket to spy on all of us. It should make you angry too, because it’s a waste of taxpayer money.
Keep in mind, they believe this should be a one-way street. They should know everything WE do on the Internet, yet protest when we use our cameras to hold them accountable. No, not just protest, but persecute.
We live in a country governed by a paranoid madman. When George Bush is compared with Richard Nixon, I believe you will see many, many similarities to their personality type, including lots of backchannel payoffs, out-of-control paranoia and megalomania, and an utter disregard for the rule of law.
If you think I’m exaggerating, consider this: The proposals put out by the Justice Department were not in writing and were made in a private meeting with ISP representatives.
I’m all for tracking terrorists and child pornographers, but not with a carte blanche permit, particularly when we have so many non-expert “experts” in law enforcement trying to use this stuff.
Until the DOJ comes out in public, specifies exactly what information they want ISPs to retain, for how long, and under what circumstances it must be disclosed, we should be holding our representatives accountable and expecting public discourse and discussion of how much of our privacy the government and our providers should be keeping and disclosing.
Cross-posted to my personal blog
Technorati Tags: DOJ, Internet privacy, photo sharing, video sharing, data tracking
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