Obama Convicts Loughner Before Trial

Somebody didn't vet President Obama's milquetoast Arizona Daily Star op-ed on gun control last weekend:

"But one clear and terrible fact remains. A man our Army rejected as unfit for service; a man one of our colleges deemed too unstable for studies; a man apparently bent on violence, was able to walk into a store and buy a gun.

He used it to murder six people and wound 13 others. And if not for the heroism of bystanders and a brilliant surgical team, it would have been far worse." -- Barack Obama, Arizona Star, March 13, 2011.

Hmm.... one of the first things I was taught in Journalism 101 is that you never, ever categorically state that someone committed a crime.  You write something to the effect of "Joe Blow was arrested on charges of public lewdness"  or "Barry allegedly passed on the right, causing the accident."

Obama just succeeded in tainting any jury pool called to consider the fate of Loughner.  This could be a gift to his defense lawyer.  How could anyone get a fair trial once the President of the United States has already declared him a murderer?

I give props to MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell for pointing out the op-ed's glaring faux pas on his show last night. I am really surprised it hasn't been picked up by any other media outlets -- at least I haven't seen it reported anywhere else in all my internet news travels.

This all leads me to believe that Obama didn't even write this plodding, talking-pointy, bullet-pointy op-ed. He may not have even read it.  As a graduate of Harvard Law, he should have caught the mistake. 

Sounds like a few heads need to roll besides that of a State Department spokesman who speaks out against the inhumane treatment of Bradley Manning.

Chasing the Devil Out of Chase

A group of ministers stormed JP MorganChase on Park Avenue in New York on Friday to both perform an exorcism and close their accounts.  Although they waved their crucifixes with aplomb, and sprinkled holy water in an attempt to cast out the devil of greed, the banking behemoth was still standing as of Monday. No credible reports of CEO Jamie Dimon suffering attacks of pea-soup projectile vomiting or head-spinning have yet been received.



Jamie Demon Dimon

Chase, the nation’s third largest mortgage servicer, has modified the loans of only six percent of the New Yorkers requesting such relief in the past year. Out of more than a thousand city homeowners seeking help from Chase under the federal government’s Home Affordability Modification Program, more than 80 percent of the applicants never even got a reply from Chase.  Lloyd Blankfein. of that other mega-bank, Goldman Sachs, once infamously said that his Wall Street house was doing the "Lord’s work." But now the people who are really doing the Lord’s work are as mad as hell, and they aren’t taking it anymore.

It’s common wisdom that not only has HAMP been a bust , but the big banks are still acting like Mafia shakedown artists in foreclosing illegally and utterly thumbing their noses at the struggling homeowners the program was designed to help. Documents released today by the hacking group “Anonymous” reveal that Bank of America has been running a scam which forces its own expensive insurance on mortgagees without their knowledge.  Emails provided by a BofA whistleblower seem to indicate an effort to cover up the scam from the prying eyes of auditors.  A nonpartisan, populist activism group called Ampedstatus.com has recently morphed into a social networking site to organize anti-Wall Street demonstrations and nonviolent resistance against the oligarchy.  Protest events at several branches of the Federal Reserve are being planned for later this month.

Our government is not watching out for our interests, so somebody has to. President Obama is not about to come out on the side of the people when his White House is stuffed to the rafters with Wall Street insiders. His new chief of staff, Bill Daley, is fresh from a stint as one of the head honchos of JPMorgan Chase. So what if he temporarily divested himself of his bank stock?  That revolving door from government to the Military Industrial Complex and K Street is spinning apace, and the boundaries between private and public have become so blurred as to be nonexistent.

The small group of church people and their followers sang “We Shall Overcome” and quoted Martin Luther King before they peacefully performed their symbolic exorcism, entered the bank and closed out their accounts.  Rev. Allen Ramirez of the Brookville Reformed Church passionately shouted, “We are here to sprinkle holy water on the Evil Empire!"

The Hell That Fraud Has Created (Dore engraving from Dante's Inferno)

That there is a special place in hell reserved for banksters is not a new idea. Dante assigned the penultimate recess of his fiery pit – the Eighth Circle – to the greedy and the fraudulent. One of its denizens is Geryon, the demon of avarice. He has a smiling human face, so we don’t immediately notice his grasping claws and stinging scorpion tail. Dante knew his banking industry, all right.  It hasn’t changed in the 700 years since he lived and without regulation, it never will. This is Medievalism Redux.

The only cure for avarice is outside intervention. Exorcism, of course, has some pithy symbolic value. It’s a nice theatrical segue to the mass demonstrations, recalls, elections, public exposure and relentless drumbeat of discontent that grows ever louder with each passing day.

We. Have. Had. Enough.

A Garden of NeoCon Horrors*

You’d think Paul Wolfowitz would have the good sense to keep quiet, but as Maureen Dowd wrote in her column on Sunday, he has no shame. Neo-Cons, like all fanatics and preachers of moral rectitude, do not know silence, nor do they have the remorse chromosome in their genetic codes. They are not known for the qualities of soul-searching and self-examination. If they ever admitted they were wrong about Iraq, their heads might explode.

And, as long as complicent cable news outlets and newspapers are willing to give Wolfowitz and his cohort free airtime and space, they will never be silenced. They may have left public office, but they still wield inexplicable power in the court of public opinion. Like their cousins in radical conservatism, the Tea Partiers, the Neo-Cons thrive on fear-mongering and outright lies. They make millions of dollars on their ghostwritten fictional memoirs, and rise to the top of bestseller lists. Somebody out there is buying what they sell.

For example, Wolfowitz told CNN’s Fareed Zakaria last Sunday that the families of the Pan-Am bombing victims had demanded money during the Bush Administration's negotiations with Libya over its removal from the official terrorism list. Wolfowitz admitted he had no proof to back up his claim, but he said it anyway. (The Pan-Am families, of course, have vehemently denied his allegations). But no matter – Wolfowitz and other relics of the Bush era seem to have a peculiar talent for staying front and center. Do you suppose it’s because we are all so in awe that none of them has ever been prosecuted for war crimes, and we are irresistibly drawn by the sheer chutzpah of career criminals who get away with it?. Or, does the mainstream media still remain convinced now, as they were then., that Iraq was a grand adventure and a rousing success despite a few “setbacks?”

Now. Wolfowitz is calling for aggressive military intervention in Libya, and was given valuable Wall Street Journal op-ed space to make his case.  Several months ago, he and Bush torture enabler John Yoo lambasted the decision to try terrorists on our soil, or to close Gitmo, in a high-profile New York Times op-ed piece.   Somebody obviously listened to them. Attorney General Holder long ago walked back on plans for New York City trials as perfect symbolic venues for 9/11 terrorism payback. Gitmo is still very much there. All trials will now be by military tribunal, not in civilian courts.

 Maureen Dowd suggested in her column that Wolfowitz should just go away and take up horticulture. Any NeoCon Garden would surely include the toxic herb Wolfbane, which is an apt name and has the unpleasant side-effect of causing too much nervous excitement ( I think W. might have been given an infusion of that particular herb to psych him up for invading Iraq).

 And Wolfowitz has always cultivated bleeding hearts, which look lovely, but their pretty name belies the fact that every part of them is poisonous. The Bush crowd sold the nation on its bleeding heart doctrine in the run-up to invasion - by ginning up a lie about WMDs and then spreading vaunted, unwanted and nonexistent Democracy where it smelled money to be made for the Military Industrial complex.

Of course, there's always been a fair amount of the noxious Dumbcane in the NeoCon botanica. That's another toxic weed that is the devil to get rid of once it takes hold. Just when you think you it's gone, it keeps popping up, year after year.  It  thrives especially well in the moist unhealthy air and swampy soil around Washington, D.C. 

 * This post was originally submitted as a "comment" to the NY Times. It was rejected, probably because it was deemed too abusive.  How can you be too abusive to Paul Wolfowitz?  Other posts openly called for his demise.  Wow, life is so unfair.  

Bullies and Pulpits



"Commander in Cute" - This is Getting Scary




Lately, Barack Obama has been acting more like the president of the PTA than the president of the United States.  Instead of leader of the free world  he’s been in Daddy in Chief mode, frenetically hopping from one school to the next to push for public/private partnership in his “Race to the Top” initiative.  Instead of leading the battle of the budget, he’s talking about dealing with playground bullies.  Instead of condemning the Republican assault on unions and the McCarthyesque hearings against Muslims, he's sent out an email called “Commander in Cute.” The official White House photo Thursday was of Barack hoisting an adorable four-month-old in the air. It was a parody of a campaign photo. This guy has never stopped running. On average, he spent every other day on Air Force One last year, crisscrossing the country for town halls and backyard schmoozes.



And we thought George Bush was not up for the job with all his brush-clearing jaunts to the Crawford ranch.  Where the hell is Obama?  This week, he’s played a game of football in the Oval Office with the Australian prime minister. Today he’s hosting a White House Conference on Bullying with Michelle. Don’t get me wrong, I hate bullying.  One of my children was a bullying victim 15 years ago, when it was still considered just a normal part of growing up, and my complaints were not taken seriously by school administrators. Now that cyberbullying has started causing kids to actually kill themselves, we are finally addressing it on a national level. But is it necessary for the President to devote what seems like an entire day to it? 



He Likes to be the Only Adult in the Room



I am beginning to think of the President as a figurehead or a public relations front guy. He is kind of like Prince William or Prince Charles, appearing at one charity event, one factory, one school, one photo-op after the other.  He is a Royal who poses, but does not truly govern. He does not lead. His own Party is beginning to complain about his total failure to deal what appears to be an imminent government shutdown.

“President Obama is the only person in the country with the clout to reframe the debate on public sector unions in a more sensible manner, and he seems to have wrapped himself in a radio silence,” writes Sasha Abramsky today in Salon.com. “….he’s not only the president, he’s also a first rate orator with an almost preternatural ability to get people to see things his way when he really wants them to.”

When he wants them to…. There’s the rub. I don’t think Obama really wants people to see anything any particular way, unless it has to do with him or the corporations which he serves.  Remember his groundbreaking speech on race during the 2008 campaign, after the Rev. Jeremiah Wright kerfuffle?  That wasn’t really about his concern over racial inequality. That was Barack, soaring rhapsodic, to save his own candidacy. We have not heard one thing about race from his lips since he became president. Not one word about poverty, even though a quarter of all children are officially poor. Not one word about gun control since the Tucson Massacre two months ago. Not one word about the illegal vote in Wisconsin destroying collective bargaining. Not one word since Feb. 17  when he made a non-committal remark that Governor Walker appeared to be assaulting the unions. I rejoiced when I heard that the Organizing for America wing of the Democratic National Committee had gotten involved in the Madison protests. I despaired when I heard that Obama caved when House Speaker Boehner demanded that he back off, and he obliged by angrily ordering his renegade organizers away from the scene.

So, when Abramsky writes: “Mr. President – Use the Damn Bully Pulpit!” I can only reply that Obama will never do any such thing. Theodore Roosevelt coined that phrase when he was president, and he was referring to the use of the White House as a platform from which to advocate policies and agendas. A century ago, “bully” had a different meaning than it does today. Far from being a perjorative term for an abusive person, it used to mean “great” or “superb.”



The Original Bull Moose



Obama fits neither definition of the word.  He is not an in-your-face bully in the vein of Teddy, or Chris Christie, or LBJ. Nor is he superb.  He's an empty suit in front of twin teleprompters, uttering so much canned pablum that even infants in photo-ops and his staunchest supporters are beginning to tire of it.

Down the Memory Hole

Maureen Dowd has a column in today's NY Times about Joshua Foer, a 20-something who is getting big bucks for memorizing useless things. It's a typical Dowd book report of a piece, puffing up the latest pop culture/pseudo-intellectual phenom, who memorizes stuff, in part, by imagining his relatives having sex. My "comment" in response was rejected, so for what it's worth, here it is:

And the cynics said you couldn’t be a millionaire, and that the American dream was dead! This must be what President Obama means when he talks about entrepreneurship being the job-replacing wave of the future. If you’re a millennial and out of work, there’s no reason to retire to your parents’ basement. Just memorize decks of cards and other useless stuff while you wallow in porn, then enter a contest and voila! you are the lucky winner of a million dollar book and movie deal.

Of course, it helps if your mother is in public relations and your other relatives are in publishing -- which brings me to a bone to pick. Dowd writes in the column (which I have not yet managed to forget) that Foer’s mother is “president of a public relations firm whose parents were Holocaust survivors.” So... public relations firms not only have parents, but parents who were Holocaust survivors! Instead of shelling out some hard earned money for this wunderkind’s classic, somebody needs to go online and bone up on Strunck. It's free.

Curioser and Curioser.....My Parents Actually Having Sex!

I think we should remind ourselves to skip this book with the too-cute-by-half title "Moonwalking with Einstein." While I was waiting for the comments box to open, I checked out the reviews on Amazon. The first thing I noticed is that this newly-published tome has only seven reviews (all five-star raves -- highly suspect) and it's already half price, which should tell you something right there. Only I can’t remember what. Oh, it’s coming back to me. On his Amazon page, Foer says his book will not help you remember where you put your car keys. So forget about it!

I think I will stick with Proust’s “Remembrance of Things Past” and not worry about grocery lists and phone numbers. I am too old to care about this stuff. And anyway, I prefer my memories to be misty and water- colored and evoked by the sweet aroma of a madeleine.

International Woman in the Hood

 


Official White House Photo Totally Captures International Female Empowerment 

 


  While Hillary Clinton and Michelle Obama talked up female empowerment at an International Woman's Day press confab in Washington today, the First Lady made sure to thank visiting Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard for hanging out and playing catch with her husband on Monday, so she wouldn't have to. 


According to "West Wing Week", that really fun daily email somebody sends me  to let me know about all the inside info in the White House, the zany World Leader duo dropped by a local elementary school for "Show and Tell" after the game. First, they sang "Happy Birthday" to the teacher, and Obama giggled about how he and his new pal had almost knocked over the Lincoln Bust in the Oval from all that fooling around. But no way did that football crack any ceilings!  Then Ms. Gillard shared a veggie spread recipe with the kids. 

Today, Ms. Gillard shared the stage with Hillary and Michelle, and gabbed, air-kissed and hugged at the heavy-security, invitation-only power hour. Michelle told Julia she and Barack hoped to drop by Australia to do lunch, but that the schedule wasn't up to her.  She's already had to cancel twice because of volcanic ash, or an oil spill, or a monthly vacation or something, and doesn't want to disappoint yet again. But not to worry, Hillary will get there, because that's her job.

Oh. That Empowering Feeling


  Meanwhile, Barack was in Boston, at about his 14th school in a week, to give yet another speech about Winning the Future, because the present so totally sucks.  Back in Washington, even his own Party is starting to wonder about this guy.  Senator Joe Manchin loudly complained on the Floor that he just isn't leading on the budget. Senator Sherrod Brown, ever the polite one, offered that they would always welcome the president actually doing his job or even saying something, not that he's being critical or pushy or anything. It could always be that the intoxicating fumes of kindergarten paste have been getting to the president. Maybe it's time for a friendly intervention from some fellow Democrats.

The Peter King Hearings: Another Republican Fear Tactic

The Republicans are in panic mode.  They don't have a viable candidate for 2012, and the polls are indicating that Obama is unbeatable. So the GOP is doing what it does best: using a little Psy-Op theater to scare the crap out of people and once again, fool them into voting against their own economic interests.

Pew Polls over the past year indicate that while most people feel Islam is a non-violent religion, more and more people are coming to believe the president is a Muslim. So what better way to chip away at his favorables than by changing public opinion about Islam itself?  Why not hold made-for-cable public hearings on the looming threat of Muslim terrorism and home-grown Muslim radicalization? It'll be a circus, and undoubtedly receive all the stenographic mainstream media coverage that politicians have come to expect as their due.

Peter King is a two-bit political hack, a Torquemada wannabe with a dash of Archie Bunker,  and as head of the Homeland Security investigative committee, he is finally getting his moment in the sun.  To get his audience in the mood for the real purpose of the hearings, his cohort Mike Huckabee went on the radio last week and casually mentioned that Obama grew up in Kenya.  He knew it was a lie, of course, but it achieved the objective of casting just a smidgen more doubt on the president's allegiance and bona fides. And it received coverage galore.  Repeat a lie often enough, and the facts don't matter.  Allow the lies to go unchallenged and uncondemned and the truth is no longer important.

The problem the Republicans have with Obama, of course, is that he is not liberal enough. He doesn't attack them enough.  He is way too reasonable and willing to compromise.  Their ideas - cutting the deficit, getting those entitlements on the table, fighting endless wars, kowtowing to Wall Street - are his ideas.  He is really one of them.  He might as well be a Republican.

He is not playing by the rules.  So they have to make stuff up and create problems where none existed before. Investigating American Muslims will stir up the hornet's nest, both here and abroad.  It will take our minds off the real terrorists - the oligarchic cartel that brought down our economy, got rewarded, and continues on its merry way, looting the treasury and destroying what is left of our middle class.

Maybe if President Obama traveled to Wisconsin to show some solidarity with the unions, all the media attention would be deflected away from Peter King's ridiculous, McCarthyesque show hearings. Maybe Obama should give the Republicans something to really sink their teeth into.  Maybe he could turn into a real Democrat.