As I recently pointed out the Obama presidency has shaped up to be a large disappointment.

Two recent examples:

1. One of the big complaints about the Bush administration was the grab of Executive power. Unchecked, unbalanced and preemptive. The Bush “doctrine” was indeed one of preemptive war. We also saw extraordinary renditions where people suspected of crimes where grabbed and moved out of US legal jurisdiction to be tortured elsewhere. Guilty until proven innocent. And if the US is wrong, too bad.

So clearly one of the big expectations was for Obama to get back on the track of the principles of the US Constitution and legal frameworks.

Turns out: Not such luck. Even while he gives pretty speeches Obama makes the case for arresting and indefinitely detaining people who might engage in terrorist activity. Not in the process, but people who are suspected…

Say what?

Preemptive arrest. Thought crime?

Obama is not only losing the left quickly, but also independents. Even liberal Rachel Maddow has had enough apparently:

2. The additional troop commitment in Afghanistan is flabbergasting to many of his supporters. Michael Moore had this to say:

“I simply can’t believe you’re about to do what they say you are going to do,” documentary filmmaker Michael Moore said in an open letter to Obama posted on his Web site. Moore warned that Obama would tarnish his legacy, turn away his supporters and effectively crown himself the new “war president” by escalating the war in Afghanistan.

“With just one speech tomorrow night you will turn a multitude of young people who were the backbone of your campaign into disillusioned cynics,” Moore wrote. “Your potential decision to expand the war … will do more to set your legacy in stone than any of the great things you’ve said and done in your first year.

“For the sake of your presidency, hope, and the future of our nation, stop. For God’s sake, stop,” Moore wrote.

Stop is what many of his supporters will likely do when they are asked to donate again, or enter the voting booth the next time.

Obama’s chief economic advisor apparently went all in on Harward’s endowment fund against all advice…resulting in major losses:

Mohamed El-Erian, would later sound the same warnings to Summers, and to Harvard financial staff and board members.

“Mohamed was having a heart attack,’’ said one former financial executive, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of angering Harvard and Summers. He considered the cash investment a “doubling up’’ of the university’s investment risk.

But the warnings fell on deaf ears, under Summers’s regime and beyond. And when the market crashed in the fall of 2008, Harvard would pay dearly, as $1.8 billion in cash simply vanished. Indeed, it is still paying, in the form of tighter budgets, deferred expansion plans, and big interest payments on bonds issued to cover the losses.

Combined with the “dream team” of Geithner and Bernanke this is not exactly confidence inspiring. But it explains a lot in terms of recent policy.

They doubled down on debt in order to jump start the economy. It’s a gamble by an economic advisor who has a track record of gambling with other peoples’ money and losing…..

The US has been in Afghanistan since 2001. Eight long years and no end in sight. President Obama has been pondering his next move for months now and is expected to announce a decision this week.

There appears to be a total lack of honesty in the public debate.

A brief history: The war, begun under the Bush administration following the September 11 attacks, was aimed at destroying Al-Qaeda. After a strange reluctance by the US to commit full forces at Tora Bora, Osama bin Laden and key followers managed to escape into Pakistan. Shortly thereafter President Bush withdrew special forces and redeployed them to Iraq. The war in Afghanistan was allowed to linger, with limited forces and billions spent on building a supposed democracy in one of the most backward countries on earth.

The lack of commitment allowed the Taliban to regroup and regain control of large portions of the country. US casualties have been increasing in recent months. Quite an amazing feat for the Taliban considering they have no air force, no missiles, no satellites, no tanks, etc. Yet this lack of resources did not prevent Afghan fighters from pushing out invading Soviet forces in the 80’s.

So here we are, running multi-trillion dollar deficits, hugely in debt and President Obama is likely announcing the commitment of additional troops.

Why?

What is the goal? According to Secretary Clinton it is to get rid of Al-Qaeda.

Consider me confused since US Generals have already stated that Al-Qaeda is virtually not present in Afghanistan.

“I want all the foreigners to leave our country” is what one Taliban fighter is quoted in the ABC report below, which gives a good overview of the situation on the ground:

And that is the problem isn’t it? Any time you have foreign troops engaged in a war on your soil resistance will thrive. Kids that were 8-10 years old at the beginning of this war are now of fighting age and have known nothing but foreign troops in their country. Prime recruiting material for the Taliban.

The US had a job to do in 2001, with specific goals and targets. The fact that this engagement has lasted longer than World War II speaks to the failure of the US effort.

Increasing spending for this war now seem preposterous. For one, we can’t afford it. Furthermore, what is the goal, what’s the endgame, how do we measure success? How many lives and dollars are we willing to commit to combat an enemy that has no desire or ability to invade US soil (the Taliban). All questions that should have been asked in 2001, but nobody bothered.

So what is the real motivator here?

Several possible factors to consider:

1. A proposed oil/gas pipeline to be build through Afghanistan to provide direct access to the Indian ocean.
2. Afghanistan is the world’s leading producer of opiates which are also needed for drug manufacturing.
3. US 2010 congressional elections. Democrats tend not to want to look weak on national defense. A retreat in Afghanistan would potentially give Republicans an opening in the upcoming elections.

I suspect those reasons will not be brought up by Obama this week, but rather the usual pablum such as “must finish the job”, “must fight terrorists”, etc..

And so the multi-billion dollar open ended drain continues. Those who voted for change must really be wondering what exactly they voted for….

“Contained” has been the most popular phrase used by government officials in the past few years to put lipstick on the pig that is the fundamental picture of the American economy. In a way I understand why they are doing it. In their mind, their job is to prevent a total meltdown and encourage consumers to spend. Consumer consumption, after all is 70% of GDP. The goal of inflating 401Ks through an increase of equity assets via devaluation of the dollar has been largely accomplished. People will feel better and more optimistic and spend more. That’s the theory. The problem is many people are not better off, just some are.

In fact we are facing a catastrophe:

A program once scorned as a failed welfare scheme now helps feed one in eight Americans and one in four children.

Poverty in America is rising rapidly. With the contraction of credit and increase in the number of distressed consumers you will not have a sustainable recovery. Keep in mind that the majority of GDP growth currently is due to government spending.

The election of Barack Obama held a lot of promise for a lot of people. “Hope” and “Change” were the big buzz words. After eight years of an abysmal Bush administration that resulted in unprecedented public debt, endless and unproductive wars, unlimited increase in government power, lobbyists run amok, and lax regulation of corporate power and abuse, a new dawn was about to begin.

Here we are a year after the election and what has demonstrably changed? Preciously little. In fact, in many ways things are much worse.

On the economy:

Granted Mr. Obama inherited a mess. Years of deficit spending had driven the public debt to the highest levels since World War II (as a % of GDP). The poorly handled financial crisis and rescue packages had further compromised the federal budgets. And the Federal Reserve, a principle culprit of the economic mess via injection of excess liquidity into the economy for years, was up to its old tricks. Chairman Bernanke, a supposed scholar of the great Depression, decided to combat the economic meltdown caused by excess debt by, you guessed it, introducing more debt.

So what has Obama done? He promoted Geithner from the New York Fed to Treasury Secretary and kept Bernanke, in essence he kept the same team in place. Bernanke of course, was infamous for being totally behind the curve on the impending economic disaster..

Since becoming president, Obama’s fiscal record has become even worse than Bush’s. Both deficit and debt have spiraled even higher with no end in sight as trillion dollar plus deficits are now projected for the next 10 years.

The stimulus measures have produced no notable effect on unemployment, in fact 10.2% are officially unemployed with the shadow statistics indicating a figure around 17.5% and growing.

On the wars:

Status quo. No troops have been removed from Iraq and Afghanistan looks to be ramped up even further. Gitmo is still in place, gays are still being fired, and the military budget machine continues unabated.

Now clearly, some things take time, yet evidence of concrete measures with promise of results are woefully missing.

In fact, the greatest victim in all this is the truth. Americans are not being leveled with. There is an utter lack of transparency of information.

The two party system is indeed behold to one primary constituency: Those who pay the most. Banks paid millions in form of donations and have arguably gotten the most benefit. Lobbyists from health and pharmaceutical companies have ensured that the most expensive healthcare system stays that way. It is no accident that MRIs cost $1,700 in the US, but only $160 in Japan (NPR). Too many vultures at the trough.
Will military spending ever be cut? Both parties ensure that it won’t. Americans spend $700 Billion per year on the military, 7 trillion dollars per decade. Is it any surprise that health care and education seem unaffordable?

So Americans are subject to an instigated theater of emotion with precious few facts. It does not matter who is in charge. Republicans and Democrats have monopolized a political system that is based on the flow of money. He with the most money wins. Hence, change is only visible at the narrowest of margins, while the country heads toward financial oblivion.

Americans have been had. And many of them know it.

The inauguration was a beautiful event for America and for a moment we got a glimpse of America’s future. Not its past, but its future. The millions gathered as colorful as they come, cross sections of society. But the old, the legacy of the past still rears its ugly head. The reality of a dismal economic situation and the ghosts of partisan, raw power politics are still found at every corner.

Never, it seems, has a president hit the ground running as smoothly and quickly as Obama. The one blemish appears to be the appointment of Timothy Geithner as Treasury Secretary. His tax troubles are not cavalier. I know they are not cavalier because you and I would be in serious trouble if we had committed the same offense. “But the country needs quick action”.  Funny, but that seems to be the same ticking bomb scenario used to justify torture isn’t it? In any event, Geithner is confirmed and on we go. To what?

Not clear, trial balloon rumours are being floated to create a bad bank to take on all the toxic assets of the other banks. Since we already have plenty of bad banks I’m not sure what the value is of creating another. I know the argument to clear the dirt of the existing banks make them look pretty and move the waste over here. What is over here? You are over here. The tax payer. And you are getting dumped with a bunch of garbage. Nice. Unless we understand what the terms are I can only shudder what might be coming down the pike.

Fact is unemployment continues to skyrocket, corporate earnings are collapsing at record pace and the equity markets continued 2009 like 2008 ended. Down. As of today the S&P is down 6.5% on the year already.

The stimulus plan was passed by the House. It’s not perfect. How could it be? Nobody really knows what needs to be done. It’s guess work. Everybody knows that. So Republicans covered their asses and voted against it. So much for country first and putting an end to partisanship. No, this vote was purely strategic to prepare for the 2010 congressional elections. In case this plan fails, Republicans look good and voters will eat it up. Who are Republican voters these days? The ones that seem to matter are the least educated and most gullible. Joe the Plumber types, people who listen to the stupefying propaganda of a Sean Hannity or a Rush Limbaugh. Republicans crawl at their altars as they control the mindless masses apparently.

What hypocritical nonsense is spewed on the airwaves and in print. A good example can be viewed as Rush Limbaugh is held called out by Mark Haynes:

Just as the thought of World War III would be frightening to the entire world the notion of another Bush as president leaves me queasy.

On “Fox News Sunday,” former President George H. W. Bush said he’s ready for another Bush in the White House. He hopes his son Jeb runs for Senate in Florida and one day for president.

“I think he’d be an outstanding senator … I’d like to see him be president some day,” Bush said.

Useless as usual:

The United States late Saturday blocked approval of a U.N. Security Council statement calling for an immediate cease-fire in the Gaza Strip and southern Israel and expressing concern at the escalation of violence between Israel and Hamas.

U.S. deputy ambassador Alejandro Wolff said the United States saw no prospect of Hamas abiding by last week’s council call for an immediate end to the violence. Therefore, he said, a new statement at this time “would not be adhered to and would have no underpinning for success, would not do credit to the council.”

France’s U.N. Ambassador Jean-Maurice Ripert, the current council president, announced that there was no agreement among members on a statement. But he said there were “strong convergences” among the 15 members to express serious concern about the deteriorating situation in Gaza and the need for “an immediate, permanent and fully respected cease-fire.”

And they squabble on….

Well, at least Bush managed to get consensus on one thing: He’s management of Iraq was an utter disaster. He is still not willing to acknowledge it, but American voters made that judgement, global political elites made the same judgement and so, apparently, do Iraqi political elites:

Former U.S.-installed Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi has denounced the policies of President George W. Bush as an “utter failure” that gave rise to the sectarian venom that ravaged his country.

In an interview published on Saturday in the pan-Arab newspaper Asharq al-Awsat, Allawi found fault with American management of Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003 as well as the government of present Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.

Allawi ruled Iraq for almost a year after U.S. occupation officials handed power to him in 2004 as prime minister of an interim government. He was selected by a council hand-picked by Washington after the 2003 invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.

“Yes, Bush’s policies failed utterly,” said Allawi, describing the U.S. administration that once backed him. “Utter failure. Failure of U.S. domestic and foreign policy, including fighting terrorism and economic policy.”

“His insistence on names like ‘democracy’ and ‘open elections’, without giving attention to political stability, was a big mistake. It cast shadows on Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and Egypt, and I believe this will be remembered in history as President Bush’s policy,” he said.

Maybe David Gregory can take some notes and ask Bush about his style…ure

I was hopeful that David Gregory would be a good choice for heading Meed the Press. I am now sorely disappointed and maybe that’s my own fault. But I was hopeful after seeing him in clips like these. His recent interviews, however, have been very softball. This clip below with Chris Matthews though makes it perfectly clear as to why: He’s an apologist. Apparently he views the media to have a role in asking questions and taking notes. No follow-up, no challenge on the facts, no debate, no pointing out of factual errors or lies. Whose role is that? Apparently you the citizen. Are you kidding me? David, seriously why did you go to journalism school? We, the American people, NEVER have the chance to ask questions or confront our leaders. We can vote ever so often but we depend on you, the media, who have access to hold those in power accountable to the truth.

One of the key reasons that the Bush administration got away with so much bullshit over the past 8 years is precisely because you guys wouldn’t dig, wouldn’t challenge enough. It’s pathetic. Your view seems to be that journalism is intended to give those in power a platform with which to spew their propaganda unchallenged. Classic example is the 2nd clip below: Question 1: Your approval rating is low, why is that: Bush: bla bla bla that doesn’t address the question or the truth. Follow-up question by Gregory: Let me ask you about your style. Please, what seriously is the value of an interview like this? None, whatsoever. Gregory and others like him in the media should resign. We need a demanding media who watches out for the public and challenges the powerful. A good example is the third clip, when an Irish reporter asks Bush some difficult questions.

Most people know this intrinsically, but the religious dogmatists in the Bush administration made the US taxpayer spend $200 million per year on it anyway. Worse, the idiocy of the programs puts teens further at risk of transmitted diseases since their parents also don’t believe in the use of condoms. Why would they? Churches are often against it and the Vatican is raising doubts against their effectiveness. The effect: Millions of kids are being manipulated and lied to by their parents. What for? To avoid a natural impulse and fulfill a religious goal. The end result: Uneducated kids exposed to diseases and teenage pregnancies. Nice. Can people please grow up?

A new study of a federal survey taken in the 1990s finds that teens who took virginity pledges are just as likely as other teens to have sex before marriage. Importantly, when the pledgers broke their vows they were less likely to use birth control, including condoms.

“Taking a pledge doesn’t seem to make any difference at all in any sexual behavior,” said Janet E. Rosenbaum of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, whose led the study. “But it does seem to make a difference in condom use and other forms of birth control that is quite striking.”

“Five years after the pledge, 82 percent of pledgers denied having ever pledged,” the researchers write in the January issue of the journal Pediatrics.

“Pledgers are less likely to protect themselves from pregnancy and disease before marriage,” the scientists write. “Virginity pledges may not affect sexual behavior but may decrease the likelihood of taking precautions during sex. Clinicians should provide birth control information to all adolescents, especially virginity pledgers.”

This is no Hollywood movie with easily identifiable good guys and bad guys. In this production they all suck. In the end Hamas got what it wanted: An Israeli strike and war. Arguably they got more this time than they bargained for. Yes, Israel cannot tolerate rockets flying into its territory every day. But where is the perspective? Hamas is obviously hapless as these rocket attacks  result in minimal casualties. Yes, you can argue any casualty is too much, but let’s be honest here: More Israelis die in car crashes than from Hamas rocket attacks. “Rocket attacks” sounds dramatic but in reality they haven’t produced much at all. So what’s the response? Shock and awe and over a thousand casualties in a matter of days, but hey we have an election to win. Sorry to be so cynical, but the basic truth that everyone in the world knows is this: These people are all incapable of solving their problems.

How many US presidents, conferences, peace treaties, UN resolutions, negotiations have produced exactly what? Nothing. The region is in the the same state since Jewish settlers declared Israel an independent state after spending decades of (initially) covertly buying land.

What’s so valuable about the land? Nothing really, but three major religions claim major roots here so on we go and go with no end in sight. Nobody seems to have a solution. Well I have one:

Since both Israelis and Palestinians act like children they need to be treated as such and the entire border dispute will need to be resolved by a UN mandate. Both parties should be disenfranchised from any decision authority. The UN should draw the map for a two state solution with a 5 year mandatory military enforcement commitment. If Israelis and Palestinians don’t like it, well tough. The world is sick of your crap.

Side notes:

1. Why did Israel attack now? Well for one Obama is not in power yet, but more importantly Congress approved the sale of bunker busting bombs to Israel in  September. Delivery just took place in early December. So let’s be clear whose bombs are killing Palestinians.

2. Despite Arab protests across the region a lot of the regional powers are actually pleased. Oil has jumped from $34 to $40 in a matter of two days. Little known problem: Saudi Arabia and Kuwait can’t meet their budgets of oil stays below $50 and $42 per barrel respectively.

3. After the military action is complete how long will it take for Hamas to reconstitute its military capabilities? 6 months? Will the recent Israeli action result in anything useful long term? Nope.

In order to have a political debate that produces actually positive results and improvements we need to acknowledge reality. What are we good at, what are we lacking in, where can we make progress. You cannot train for a race thinking you are the best when in reality you are not. You will fail with this approach. Sadly, we have too many people in this country believing that the United States is some sort of God chosen country that is a shining light on a hill. That sounds nice, but it is not. The simple truth is much blander. The United States does many things well, and excels in certain fields, but it is also a country that has made shockingly little progress in many areas, and worse, is falling behind the rest of the world in many others.

This post then is a beginning of a series aimed that showing factually how the Unites States compares to the rest of the world. This is not an attempt to slander or diminish, but rather to establish a baseline of reality. Only when you understand where you need to improve can you then make then an attempt to improve.

My goal is to continue to post as data becomes available. So readers please forward reliable and verifiable data to me.

So first up: Women in politics. Hillary didn’t make it. Palin (thank goodness in this case) didn’t either. Britian had Thatcher, Germany has Merkel, even Pakistan had a woman president once. She is of course dead now after her assassination recently. Where does the US rank compared to other countries with women in politics? See for yourself:

Is it me, or was he struggling to keep a straight face?

I’m sensing he’s trying to outdo Clinton with his instant classic.

The last few years have not been kind to the notion that all is well with the US economic and political system. Far from it. We endured various corruption/fraud scandals such as Enron, Worldcom, questionable elections, hanging chads, automated voting machines with doubtful accuracy, voter intimidation. Now we are dealing with Madoff, Blagojevich, a financial system based on a house of cards, corruption seems rampant. Congress continues to operate with all time low approval ratings and general trust in the political system and our leaders is low. No wonder Obama ran on a platform of change.

How ugly the corrupt influence of money is, can be seen in former President Clinton’s disclosure of his donor lists. Clinton, of course, was forced to release the list in order to make way for his wife to become Secretary of State. The flow of money and favors is mind boggling, and it is just absurd to think that people that contribute these obscene amounts of money do not wield influence.

This is, unfortunately, not a unique practice. President Bush is already busy seeking contributions for his library and “legacy”. How can one not wonder what favors are dished out in advance in order to ensure payment at a later date? Absurd you say? Why, after seeing scandal after scandal over the years how can one not be cynical? Read this:

For instance, mining financier Frank Giustra gave Clinton between $10 million and $25 million along with a donation of $1 million to $5 million from his private foundation.

In 2005, Giustra flew Clinton to Kazakhstan on his private jet, where the ex-prez sang the praises of the Central Asian nation’s autocratic leader. Giustra then won a lucrative uranium mining contract.

Homegrown billionaires weren’t shy to open their wallets either. Stephen Bing, an old “Friend of Bill” and real-estate heir, handed over between $10 million and $25 million, as did New York’s independent political power broker Thomas Golisano and Chicago media mogul Fred Eychaner.

Barbra Streisand, Steven Spielberg and Cameron Diaz donated as well. Songwriter Denise Rich gave between $250,000 and $500,000 and saw her tax-cheating husband, Marc, pardoned in 2001.

More modestly, US sugar baron Alfonso Fanjul Jr., the man who famously called Clinton in the Oval Office when Monica Lewinsky was hanging out, gave between $50,000 and $100,000.

Among other big donors are TV producer Haim Saban, who splits his time between California and Israel and gave between $5 million and $10 million. And American Israel Public Affairs Committee board member and Slim-Fast founder S. Daniel Abraham gave in the $1 million-to-$5 million range.

Now any ex president has the right to make a living. But these are obscene amounts of money and I don’t think anyone is naive enough to believe these people give that much money out of the goodness of their hearts. Yet there is no transparency. Who is looking out for the voter and the country? Where is the oversight?

Let’s face it, our system is a sham. And looking at the shambles that is our entire current economic system we can’t really be surprised, or can we?

Well at least it’s out in the open. Some people are perfectly content to use blowtorches on suspected prisoners. Whatever it takes. And the hypocrisy on top: It’s ok if Americans do it, but it’s wrong for others to do it to Americans.

We’ve discussed this torture issue at length here and here.

No discussion of the possibility that the unspeakable could be done against innocents. Given the track record of incarcerating innocent victims in Gitmo you would think that some might pause to think. But they don’t care. They buy into the simple minded and stupefying argument of the ticking bomb which, of course, has no practical relevance in the first place. It’s a hypothetical, and it’s wrong. Torture does not work. Despite how many times they argue that is does, it doesn’t. It’s immoral, it’s unethical, it’s illegal, it’s barbaric, and it’s stupid. I cant make it any clearer than that.

This clip gives a good overview of the arguments:

Alright then, here’s Obama’s first misstep. By selecting Rick Warren to give his invocation Obama is giving a green light to a hack. Clearly a political move to appear bi-partisan it is nevertheless elevating further a man who, in my book, has one principle agenda: Himself. Wrapped in “moderate” clothing Warren is a wolf nevertheless, a Christian only by self description, not by word. Specific recent examples:

Equating gay marriage with rape and incest:

He went on to say he’s opposed to gay marriage the same way he is opposed to a brother and sister marrying (that would be incest), a man marrying a child (that would be statutory rape), or someone having multiple spouses (that would be polygamy). Pressed by Waldman, Warren said he considered those crimes equivalent to gay marriage

Claiming that gay marriage would impede free speech:

Warren claimed he supported Proposition 8 because of a free-speech issue — asserting that “any pastor could be considered doing hate speech . . . if he shared his views that homosexuality wasn’t the most natural way for relationships.”

What a crock!

Rick Warren surely is busy on the political front. Gay marriage is tremendously important apparently. What about things like torture? Surely a Christian pastor would be actively engaged against this?

WARREN - Well, and you know what - some of the stuff I saw looking at Guantanamo looks like clearly it was torture. To me, if you torture someone, you put yourself no better than the enemy. We must maintain the moral highground. You have no right to condemn the immoral actions of others if we’re doing the same thing. And we should expect that others will torture our people if we’re torturing them.

BELIEFNET- Did you ever talk to President Bush to try to convince him to change his policy?

WARREN - No. No.

BELIEFNET- Why not?

WARREN — Never got the chance. I just didn’t. In fact, in the first place, I’m a pastor, and people might misunderstand - I don’t deal with policy issues with Barack Obama or President Clinton or John McCain. I just don’t. that’s not my role. My role is to pastor these guys. As a leader I understand stress.

And even when I disagree with positions they hold, they’ve got plenty of political advisors. They don’t need me to be a political advisor. I’m not a pundit. I’m not a politician and that’s why I don’t take sides. But I am a pastor. And I can deal with “how’s your family doing? How’s your stress level doing?”

I thought so…AWOL…To be clear, in regards to torture, it’s not his business, he doesn’t deal with policy issues…but two people of the same sex loving each other and wanting to get married, that deserves his full attention…

The lack of rigor regarding torture is a telling sign, especially when viewed in the context that the symbol of the religion he espouses is that of a man tortured to death. One would think it might enter his mind when speaking to the person who authorized it all. Would Warren have kept silent with Pilate? “Oh I won’t bother you about that guy Jesus in your custody, how’s your family? Anyone gay?”

Pathetic.

Must. Sell. Books.

Ah surely the Bible teaches: Thou shall not kill. So assassinations out of question right? No:

Last night, on Fox News, Sean Hannity insisted that United States needs to “take out” Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Warren said he agreed. Hannity asked, “Am I advocating something dark, evil or something righteous?” Warren responded, “Well, actually, the Bible says that evil cannot be negotiated with. It has to just be stopped…. In fact, that is the legitimate role of government. The Bible says that God puts government on earth to punish evildoers. Not good-doers. Evildoers.”

Of course we, the good ones, get to decide who is evil and who is not. We decide who gets assassinated and who does not. God is with us.

This is all pseudo Biblical hogwash that has precious little to do with the spirit of the Jesus Christ of the New Testament. But, hey, he’s sold 25 million books and presides over the 4th largest church in the country, so he’s mainstream and acceptable.

Sorry, but preaching exclusion and hatred are never mainstream, especially not from a hypocrite. Rick Warren is a marketing package, a sales man, but as so often, an empty shell behind the glitter. Another pretend Christian. And that’s who Obama chose for his invocation. Disappointing.

While Germany had officially no role in the Iraq invasion (in fact the government was opposed to it publicly) it turns out that the country provided important intelligence support via two intelligence agents placed in Baghdad. The details are quite eye opening:

On that day, Johannes H., the BND agent (or “resident”) in Baghdad at the time, sent an extremely important message to his counterparts with the Iraqi intelligence service. The core of the message consisted of only one sentence, but it was practically an ultimatum: “The United States and Great Britain consider Iraq’s refusal to destroy the Samud II missiles to be a casus belli.”

When the Iraqis hesitated, the BND agent told them that the Latin term means “cause for war.” Suddenly they understood the message. “Both men seemed very concerned,” the station chief noted in a memo for BND headquarters. The Iraqis had suggested that their boss was likely to “take the message directly to IRQ President Saddam Hussein.”

The delivery of this explosive news was one of the resident’s last official actions. After that, the new special team took over the BND’s Baghdad operations. The two new agents were trained soldiers. Mahner was a lieutenant colonel and had served in the German Air Force, and Heinster was a paratrooper. The BND duo began making reconnaissance trips. Using a secure satellite line, they transmitted about 130 reports, including photographs and GPS data, to BND headquarters. They reported sandbag positions and machine gun nests and, after reporting the positions of Iraqi troops near their own location, they requested that “Special Forces be used to fight these troops; no rockets, and definitely no artillery.”

While some German officials continue to deny a critical support role, their American counterparts have a different view:

The Americans interviewed by SPIEGEL could tell the Bundestag committee a different story about the relevance of the BND reports. In their view, these reports even played a role in critical combat decisions, such as that relating to commencement of the ground offensive.

Several members of General Marks’ staff remember the reactions triggered by the German reports.

“The March 5 report was especially important to us,” says a senior member of the oil reconnaissance team, who works for a security agency today and therefore wishes to remain anonymous. The reports and the increased monitoring of the facilities that ensued, he says, resulted in substantial changes to and acceleration of the war plans. …..Centcom Commander Franks agreed. A few hours later, he gave 140,000 coalition troops their marching orders. As a result, the ground war began earlier than planned, and Franks’ decision went down in US military history as “G before A,” or “ground before air.” By March 21, the US Marines reported that their mission had already been accomplished. They had crossed the border without encountering significant resistance, and had taken control of Iraq’s central oil fields. “The Germans and their reliable information played a significant part in the war beginning earlier than planned,” says Marks.

For years Bush kept reciting, like a parrot really, the phrase “free market principles”. With the phrase “free market principles”, or its related buzz word “deregulation”,  everything was justifiable: Lowering taxes on the wealthy to keep jobs going, avoiding mandatory health insurance coverage to avoid imposing taxes on employers, basically anything that would hurt businesses. Never mind, that some segment in the population would always get the short end of the stick.

Well game over. Another one of the mindless platitudes this president has inundated the American people with over the past 8 years has been exposed as empty rhetoric:

“I’ve abandoned free-market principles to save the free-market system,” Bush told CNN television, saying he had made the decision “to make sure the economy doesn’t collapse.

As with the war, or anything else, it came down to ideology. The phrases balance, or broader perspective never entered the vocabulary.

What a disgrace. In the final month of his presidency Bush had now to abandon the one principle Republicans have liked to cling to since Reagan: Free market principles. What a disaster that it took a scorched United States economy to realize that pure free market principles don’t work. As Ronald Reagen used to say ” Trust but verify”.

On the record, on tape, on video, Vice President Cheney admits his involvement in rendering the US Constitution invalid and authorizing war crimes. Torture is a war crime. The US has signed the Geneva Convention.
Anyone who claims that the “enhanced interrogation” techniques were not torture is encouraged to go through the techniques themselves. I doubt they could handle them without screaming for them to stop. Shy of that opportunity I would encourage Americans to read Nazi Germany’s Gestapo manual on “sharpened interrogation”. Proud of the company we kept? This is the America of freedom, democracy, the shining light? The America that defeated Nazism without resorting to these methods? Notice no water boarding was authorized. We took that from Pol Pot and the Spanish Inquisition.

More background here:

The Iraq war was a major strategic blunder that cost thousands of lives and over half a trillion dollars. The Bush administration pursued a particular angle to convince the American people that the war was necessary. That angle was principally based on the threat of WMD. Even Karl Rove admitted that the war would not have take place without the belief that weapons were there.

Now we are witnessing an amazing case of attempted historical revisionism, or more bluntly, a pack of lies. Vice President Cheney now claims that we would have gone to war even if he had known there were no WMD. Oh really? What was the ultimatum based on? Give up WMD’s or we attack. That was the argument.  Disarm from what? Would we have stated an ultimatum in the first place? On what basis would we have attacked? How could Saddam have avoided war? The entire argument is absurd, and it has to be. It is not based on the facts. The facts are that WMD, in particular the stated threat of a nuclear attack on the United States was used as the central premise to justify an invasion.

Chris Matthews does a good job here of challenging Frank Gaffney on the facts, well worth watching. Gaffney bases his entire argumentation of on woulda, coulda, shoulda.. Of course he did not risk his family’s lives on that premise, but he states the American troops did have to die. Just unbelievable. Either they have no conscience or they are in denial:

Amazing video of twisted logic expressed by President Bush. First he makes the argument that Iraq needed to be invaded since it has been a “major theater against Al-Qaeda”. When the reporter confronts him with the reality that it only became an Al-Qaeda theater after he invaded, Bush responds with: “So what?”.

How dumb does he think the American public is? Seriously.

The analogy would be to say:

” Hey we needed to operate to prevent an infection from spreading.”

“But there was no infection prior to the operation”

“So what?”

From torture to real time events, Bush’s instinct seems to be to deny reality. The latest incident in the form of an Iraqi journalist throwing shoes at him is symptomatic. This pool report of the President’s interview with reporters on the way to Afghanistan is a very good example:

Q Well, not to belabor the point too much, on this man, but I have a serious question about it. Obviously he’s expressing a vein of anger that exists in Iraq, and —

THE PRESIDENT: How do you know? I mean, how do we know what he’s expressing? Who —

Q We had a translator who said he shouted about the widows and orphans.

THE PRESIDENT: I don’t know. I’ve heard all kinds of stories. I heard he was representing a Baathist TV station. I don’t know the facts, but let’s find out the facts. All I’m telling you, it was a bizarre moment.

Q I wanted to ask something broader.

THE PRESIDENT: I don’t think you can take one guy throwing shoes and say this represents a broad movement in Iraq. You can try to do that if you want to. I don’t think it would be accurate.

Q Well, then, separately from him —

THE PRESIDENT: That’s exactly what he wanted you to do. Like I answered on your question, what he wanted you to do was to pay attention to him. And sure enough, you did. Now, look, I’m not suggesting you can’t avoid it. But it —

He can’t even acknowledge the obvious and well known fact: Many people in Iraq hate him. They don’t view him as a liberator, they view him as someone who has brought death to tens of thousands of their family members. This is why his presidency has been such a disaster. The complete inability to seek out and acknowledge a comprehensive view of reality. He only believes what he wants to believe, and based on that notion he makes decisions. Decisions with deadly and disastrous consequences.

Heck of a job Brownie.

I should add here that the entire pool report shows no critical questions for Bush, no mention of the Senate report on torture and Bush’s obvious public statements contrary to the known truth inside his administration. Once again the press is utterly useless, but I’m glad they got some giggles and laughter with the president.

A bipartisan Senate report released last week leaves little doubt that the Bush administration lied from the top down as the scandal unfolded. The detailed report is here.

Dan Froomkin has outlined a detailed analysis here.

A couple of highlights:

The abuse of detainees in U.S. custody cannot simply be attributed to the actions of ‘a few bad apples’ acting on their own,” the report finds. “The fact is that senior officials in the United States government solicited information on how to use aggressive techniques, redefined the law to create the appearance of their legality, and authorized their use against detainees. Those efforts damaged our ability to collect accurate intelligence that could save lives, strengthened the hand of our enemies, and compromised our moral authority.”

The report notes that in early 2002, not long after the Defense Department legal counsel’s office started exploring the application of the sorts of abhorrent practices later documented at Abu Ghraib, Bush signed a memo exempting war-on-terror detainees from the Geneva Conventions. “[T]he decision to replace well established military doctrine, i.e., legal compliance with the Geneva Conventions, with a policy subject to interpretation, impacted the treatment of detainees in U.S. custody,” the report states.

And the report concludes: “The abuse of detainees at Abu Ghraib in late 2003 was not simply the result of a few soldiers acting on their own. Interrogation techniques such as stripping detainees of their clothes, placing them in stress positions, and using military working dogs to intimidate them appeared in Iraq only after they had been approved for use in Afghanistan and at [Guantanamo]. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld’s December 2, 2002 authorization of aggressive interrogation techniques and subsequent interrogation policies and plans approved by senior military and civilian officials conveyed the message that physical pressures and degradation were appropriate treatment for detainees in U.S. military custody. What followed was an erosion in standards dictating that detainees be treated humanely.”

Attempts by senior officials to portray [the bad apples scenario] to be the case while shrugging off any responsibility for abuses are both unconscionable and false. Our investigation is an effort to set the record straight on this chapter in our history that has so damaged both America’s standing and our security. America needs to own up to its mistakes so that we can rebuild some of the good will that we have lost.”

The report and article provide detailed and factual back-up. There is no doubt that there was a planned effort to legalize torture under President Bush. And he authorized it. And then he lied about it repeatedly. There is only one purpose to exempt prisoners from the Geneva convention. It is to torture. And this will be one of his legacies. An American President who betrayed the US Constitution and the American people.

How to explain these actions from a President who claims to be a man of faith? Andrew Sullivan has an interesting take:

This Christianist president has a hard time with actual Christianity. He is of the fundamentalist psyche that holds that since he is on the side of the angels, he cannot do evil. And so even when presented with indisputable evidence of his own acts, his own memos, his own staff’s decisions, he cannot own the consequences. He asked for memos from apparatchiks saying it wasn’t torture, as if this guaranteed it wasn’t torture. He reacted to the tangible consequences of his own decisions as if someone else had been president, or someone else’s signature was on those memos, or someone else’s vice-president had publicly embraced torture as a “no-brainer.”

A fitting end to Bush’s presidency. Making a “farewell” trip to Iraq, Bush has to duck a pair of  shoes thrown at him by an Iraqi journalist, a customary gesture of discontent:

Video here.

Another proud moment in US legislative history:

Totally absurd.

Update: Anyone notice how there is talk of a new Bill of Rights at the end of the clip?

Man, just scanning the headlines these days it’s hard not to get the sense that everything is rigged, corruption is rampant and the world is filled with hustlers. A quick scan:

Siemens to settle corruption charges

Hospital CEO pleads guilty in fraud

The Madoff scandal

The Blagojevich scandal

And now even chess players are doping!

But hey, at least we always have Michael Jackson!

The Internet is filled with videos of Taser abuse by the hands of trigger happy police. Who can forget the horrible and unnecessary death at the Vancouver airport?

Promoted as a safer way to handle difficult arrest subjects Taser use has exploded since its introduction. With deadly consequences: Over 400 people have now known to have died from Tasers. Not death row convicts, but often people have died for very minor infractions, including this latest nightmare:

Despite the rather old news that Tasers can kill, the news media continue to be littered with reports of trigger-happy Taserers, many of whom should be relieved that their victims lived. This week in Oklahoma, police Tasered a man who had gone into diabetic shock while driving, which caused him to spin out of control on the road

The fact is Tasers can be deadly. As such, they should only be used in the rarest of circumstances and not as a first resort instead of reason. I mean seriously:

Another non-confidence inspiring development: The Fed refuses to identify the recipients and the terms of conditions under which $2 trillion dollars in emergency loans were handed out. Government for the people and by the people…not so much:

Bloomberg filed suit Nov. 7 under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act requesting details about the terms of 11 Fed lending programs, most created during the deepest financial crisis since the Great Depression.

The Fed responded Dec. 8, saying it’s allowed to withhold internal memos as well as information about trade secrets and commercial information. The institution confirmed that a records search found 231 pages of documents pertaining to some of the requests.

“If they told us what they held, we would know the potential losses that the government may take and that’s what they don’t want us to know,” said Carlos Mendez, a senior managing director at New York-based ICP Capital LLC, which oversees $22 billion in assets.

This doesn’t sound good does it? Since when does the national financial system get the same treatment as CIA black ops sites in foreign countries?

So Republican Governor Crist got married. To a woman. That in itself was the surprise. The open secret is that the governor is gay. I personally don’t care that he is gay. It has no bearing on his job performance. But one’s credibility is being shot when one commits a fraud on the voter. And that is clearly what this marriage is. Don’t take my word for it, ask his wife:

Crist kissed Rome briefly at the end of the ceremony — perhaps too briefly. She put her hands on his face and kissed him again. Afterward, the couple walked out of the church and addressed waiting reporters.

Why does Crist feel he needs to perpetrate this fraud? Because he is a Republican with ambition. And many Republicans these days think that being gay is an abomination, a choice made by sinful people. So they lie about their homosexuality. Ted Haggard, Larry Craig, Ted Foley, Bob Allen, etc, etc.

The tragedies abound. For one, there is the hypocrisy of these people promoting anti-gay agendas when they themselves are gay. But the real sadness is that Republicans live in a culture where homosexuals can’t even admit to themselves that they are gay. And then of course are the innocent victims, the spouses and even children who are forced to live the lies. And then there are the willing accomplices who know the truth (most likely even Crist’s wife), yet  who support the lies due to their own agendas, which invariably include power and greed.

And then there is the American public, which still sentences people with certain characteristics or beliefs to political death. If you are gay, Muslim, or atheist (or imagine you are two out the three) you are political poison in most of the country. So hence people live lies, people support lies, and lies is what the American voter gets.

Absurd.