DeRosaWorld

Do I Have To Hate Jeremy Scahill Now, Too?

One of my favorite and all around coolest liberal reporters is Jeremy Scahill. I hope this article from the Nation doesn't make the progressive blogosphere pull a Krugman on him.

"A senior foreign policy adviser to leading Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has told The Nation that if elected Obama will not "rule out" using private security companies like Blackwater Worldwide in Iraq. The adviser also said that Obama does not plan to sign on to legislation that seeks to ban the use of these forces in US war zones by January 2009, when a new President will be sworn in. Obama's campaign says that instead he will focus on bringing accountability to these forces while increasing funding for the State Department's Bureau of Diplomatic Security, the agency that employs Blackwater and other private security contractors.

Obama's broader Iraq withdrawal plan provides for some US troops to remain in Iraq--how many his advisers won't say. But it's clear that Obama's "follow-on force" will include a robust security force to protect US personnel in Iraq, US trainers (who would also require security) for Iraqi forces and military units to "strike at Al Qaeda"--all very broad swaths of the occupation."

Saint Senator Obama's (D-IL) response sounds a little too 'corporate' to me. I hope he isn't afraid of Blackwater. I hope he doesn't think he can 'come together' with mercenaries. I think the Obamamaniacs assume Barack is going to kick Blackwater's ass.

"...bringing accountability to these forces while increasing funding' sounds like bullshit to me, Senator.

"Why Are We Whispering?"

As many as a tenth of the Texans voting in the Democratic contests could be Republicans, and overwhelmingly they favor Obama, a first-term senator from Illinois, the polls show."

Genuine support of registered Republicans in a general election would be nice, but in the Democratic Primary?

I'm going to remember this in November. Let's hope those Obamacans aren't leading the Democratic Party into the lion's den in November.

Are We Allowed To Ask The President What Is Going On...Or Is That Still A No-No?

"A resurgent Taliban is back in charge over parts of Afghanistan, the chief U.S. intelligence official said Wednesday in an assessment that differed from the one made last month by Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

More than six years after the United States invaded Afghanistan, the Taliban has regained control of about 10 percent of the country, Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell told the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Just a few weeks ago, Gates touted NATO military success in Afghanistan in 2007 and said the Taliban controlled no land.

"The Taliban occupy no territory in Afghanistan on a continuing basis," Gates said during a Pentagon briefing in January.

Despite his less-optimistic assessment on that score, McConnell said the Taliban has suffered "significant degradation" in its leadership and is unable to successfully face off against U.S. and NATO forces."

This isn't a hockey game, sir. You are losing a war.

How are the poppy fields?

So when does the Media get to ask the hard questions? After the 2008 election?

William F. Buckley, Jr. Dies

William F. Buckley, Jr. has died.

I never bought anything this guy sold. (Except one of his spy novels when I was a teenager.)

If his legacy is the state of the nation today and if the triumph of conservatism in America is George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and the current Republican Party...R.I.P., sir.

Does TPM Think It Stands Above The Fray?

Talking Points Memo makes a confession...accidentally...sort of...

"In recent days, the Hillary campaign has audibly turned up the volume of its attacks not just on Barack Obama, but on the news media, too.

The sight of Hillary advisers attacking the press is suddenly everywhere -- and there's been a shift in the tone of the attacks that is striking. The suggestion is no longer merely that the coverage of Hillary is unfair and that the treatment of Obama is glowing, something that Hillaryland insiders have complained of for a long time.

Rather, the new suggestion is that the press is reveling in Hillary's downfall, and that this lust to see Hillary lose is driving coverage.

Yesterday, for instance, top Hillary adviser Howard Wolfson opined that "every time" the Obama campaign has leveled personal attacks against HIllary, "the press has largely applauded him." Another key Hillary surrogate, Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell, echoed this line, saying that the media has "relished" Hillary's "fall" with "glee."...

In other words, even if Camp Hillary's gripes about the press have some validity, it's unclear whether this counter-attack will do anything to allay the situation. Will the criticism result in more scrutiny of Obama by the press? Anything's possible, and today the Washington Post's Dan Balz did argue that perhaps it was time the press got tougher on her rival.

But it's also possible that, given the unfortunate reality of how our political press and the freak show function, the new, even more aggrieved tone the Hillary camp is striking might only exacerbate matters for her. And paradoxically, if this happens, this will further confirm that Hillaryland's critique of the media is right -- while also serving as yet another measure of just how bleak things are looking for Hillary right now.

I wish the smart people behind the A-list progressive blogs would explain to progressives like me why I should support Senator Obama...not why I should not support Senator Clinton, which is all I can find, but why I should support Obama.

I'm not there. I do not support Senator Obama's candidacy, so will someone help me out? Spend less time mocking Senator Clinton and more time explaining Obama.

Don't make me vote for Ralph Nader.

TV News Censorship in America, Brought To You By The Republican Party

Soviet-era style censorship in America?

The Republican Party has managed to do what The Soviet Union could not do during the Cold War, achieve what neither the Empire of Japan nor Nazi Germany could achieve during World War II.

The Republican Party has destroyed our industry, our economy, our Constitution, our electoral system, our Judicial system, and weakened our military...it makes me wonder which side actually did win World War II or the Cold War if this is our government at the beginning of the 21st century.

So a local TV station can black-out what the viewers see if it they think it is critical of Karl Rove and The Republican Party?

Censorship...in America. The folks in Huntsville, Alabama should take to the streets, and take-over the station. The airwaves belong to the people...right? Chase those responsible out of town.

"A television station in Huntsville, Ala., offered viewers nothing but a black screen for 12 minutes Sunday night — at the exact time that the CBS News program “60 Minutes” was broadcasting a report about potential political skulduggery involving the former Bush administration official Karl Rove in the conviction of a former Democratic governor of the state.

The interruption raised suspicions among some viewers, especially Democratic backers of Don Siegelman, the former governor, that partisan political interests might be behind the blackout.

Even some CBS executives wondered initially about the reasons for the disruption, though the general manager of the station, WHNT-TV, denied any ulterior motives, and immediately offered the report in its entirety on the station’s newscasts Sunday and Monday nights, as well as on its Web site.

“We know what our license means to us,” said Stan Pylant, the chief executive at the station. “There were no political motives in this.”

We need to start revoking licenses for this kind of censorship and dangerous news coverage. The 'equal-time' laws need to come back and be enforced. America has suffered enough at the hands of Republican-dominated, corporate infiltration of the news media.

The revolutionary spirit that created the United States of America needs to be resurrected to save America.

All We Have To Fear, Is Fear Itself: FDIC to Add Staff as Bank Failures Loom

From the Wall Street Journal...

FDIC to Add Staff as Bank Failures Loom

WASHINGTON -- The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. is taking steps to brace for an increase in failed financial institutions as the nation's housing and credit markets continue to worsen.

The FDIC is looking to bring back 25 retirees from its division of resolutions and receiverships. Many of these agency veterans likely worked for the FDIC during the late 1980s and early 1990s, when more than 1,000 financial institutions failed amid the savings-and-loan crisis."

So what have those Bush boys been up to? How about destroying the American economy.

"The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. is taking steps to brace for an increase in failed financial institutions as the nation's housing and credit markets continue to worsen.

FDIC spokesman Andrew Gray said the agency was looking to bulk up "for preparedness purposes." ...

The agency, which insures accounts at more than 8,000 financial institutions, is also seeking to hire an outside firm that would help manage mortgages and other assets at insolvent banks, according to a newspaper advertisement.
...
"Regulators are bracing for well over 100 bank failures in the next 12 to 24 months, with concentrations in Rust Belt states like Michigan and Ohio, and the states that are suffering severe housing-market problems like California, Florida, and Georgia," said Jaret Seiberg, Washington policy analyst for financial-services firm Stanford Group."

Bank failures? Can impeachment be on the table now?

How many times is the Bush Family going to be allowed to wreck the nation's economy? They are like a sci-fi movie from the 1950's. They are either aliens bent on taking over Earth, Soviet-era Communist plants that are now launching their Cold War initiatives to destroy America, or a left-over Nazi experiment from World War Two that is finally coming to fruition.

I'll get the tar, you get the feathers. Bring a cruficix and some holy water just in case.

It's The Oil Stupid

Fallenmonk sends us to a link I think I'd rather not see. Scriptoids lifted the rock that American diplomacy and empire lives under. Welcome to the military-petroleum complex...

"The US based AMBO pipeline consortium is directly linked to the seat of political and military power in the United States and Vice President Dick Cheney's firm Halliburton Energy. The feasibility study for AMBO's Trans-Balkan Oil Pipeline, conducted by the international engineering company of Brown & Root Ltd. [Halliburton's British subsidiary] has determined that this pipeline will become a part of the region's critical East-West corridor infrastructure which includes highway, railway, gas and fibre optic telecommunications lines.

And upon completion of the feasibility study by Halliburton, a senior executive of Halliburton was appointed CEO of AMBO. Halliburton was also granted a contract to service US troops in the Balkans and build "Bondsteel" in Kosovo, which now constitutes "the largest American foreign military base constructed since Vietnam"."

I think I'm so smart, so well-read and educated, so liberal, so progressive. There are forces in this country manipulating the world, killing people, getting rich, destroying the environment and laughing at me. I am so small.

I pay taxes and they spend them. It is all done in my name, as an American. I don't benefit from it if I am paying close to $4.00 per gallon to fill my car.

Oil. Halliburton on our side of the pond and Brown & Root, Ltd. on the British side. Camp Bondsteel and Kosovo, Serbia, Albania, Macedonia, et al. The Hellespont. Empire. Pipelines. Pipelines. Pipelines.

I voted for Al Gore in 2000 and it didn't count. I voted for Gray Davis in California and it didn't count. The Democrats took control of Congress in 2006 and it didn't matter. We have the first woman and first African-American winning primaries and getting close to the Presidency, but it won't matter. There will be no change.

There will be no change.

Maybe Americans will get some universal health care so we shut up for a while. If we all get sick and go bankrupt who will pay the taxes? But, the pipeline will still get built and anyone who lives in the way or stands in the way will move or die.

Dick Cheney does not care what I think or say or how I vote. My dreams are not his dreams. My future is not his future. My America is not his America. And he sets the rules.

I'm depressed as write this post. I feel so small as I read these blog postings and do my own research into this story.  I know I won't see any of this in the media. I will have no political knight in shining armor to come and help me.

America once had FDR, but he seems like ancient history now, an anomaly. JFK was shot in the head in Dallas, Texas for thinking about my future and daring to do something to make it better.  Same punishment for his brother, Bobby. President Clinton didn't fare much better. Political assassination evolved from guns to 24 hour talk-radio and TV news.

I'm on my own in America. I'm not sure what to do. Sometimes, I wish I was illiterate. Dumb, but happy.

Oscars

It's the pictures that got small.

Sunday Morning Music

Cassandra Wilson performing Neil Young's Harvest Moon.