A Good Start

I’ve written in earlier posts about the “We are the world” concept of the United States. This attitude of American exceptionalism can be found in many areas of our geopolitical stances. One of the great examples of this position has been the United States’ harboring of Luis Posada Carriles. He is a former CIA operative who has been accused by both Cuba and Venezuela of participating in the bombing of a Cuban airliner which killed seventy-three souls back in 1976.

Yet for years, Mr. Carriles has been living under our protection in Florida. For years, we have rejected the Latin American countries’ cries for his extradition.
But just look at what Bush said a few years ago: “If you harbor terrorists, you are a terrorist.” He used these words to justify the Afghanistan incursion. This was our excuse to bomb Afghanistan with impunity. We bomb Pakistan for the same reason. Think about it, we are killing innocent people in the name of that country being determined a terrorist state because of their harboring those we accuse of being terrorists.

Now think about Cuba or Venezuela creating their own “Manifesto” with the exact same words. They could then bomb Florida with impunity because we are harboring someone they consider to be a terrorist, since of course their newly created manifesto says we are now a “terrorist country” for harboring Mr. Carriles.

What I’m saying, of course, is patently absurd. Neither country would do such a thing. But that is exactly the point. The United States is so into its exceptionalist attitude that it cannot even conceive that another country would dare to attack us even for the exact same reasons we are bombing Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The good news is that, according to Thursday’s telecast of “Democracy Now!” Mr. Carriles has been indicted on charges of lying about his role in several 1997 bombings at tourist areas in Cuba. This is a positive step in moving away from our exceptionalism attitude.

We need to respect other countries’ positions on the world stage, and treat them as equals. If they determine that someone in the United States is suspected of terrorist activities, we should honor their position and investigate thoroughly. We should have that suspect extradited just as we would want that country to extradite someone we believe should be brought to trial on terrorist activities. We should not be the 800 pound gorilla in the (world) room, doing whatever we want at the expense of other countries and disregarding their rights to justice and equality.

Yeah...Really "Concerned"

From CNN (emphasis mine):

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner told CNN Thursday his department asked Sen. Chris Dodd to include a loophole in the stimulus bill that allowed bailed-out insurance giant American International Group to keep its bonuses.

In an interview with CNN's Ali Velshi, Geithner said the Treasury Department was particularly concerned the government would face lawsuits if bonus contracts were breached.

So, Geithner’s the man who created the loophole. This has to be one of the lamest excuses I’ve ever heard. Let me get this straight. The auto industry and others of its ilk force unions to rework their contracts to the detriment of the workers in order for the industries to be solvent. Yet the wealthy financial executives “scare” our government into thinking lawsuits will ensue if the bonus contracts aren’t honored to aid in their future solvency? Are you frakkin’ kidding me?

“Concerned” my a**. This is a spin job from the word go. Not a chance was “concern” EVER in the mix. Cronyism at its finest. I’m glad he confessed and got Dodd off the hook though I’m sure he had no choice, or he would have never admitted it.

Geithner should be tossed out on his ear.

No Fingerprints...No Accountability...No Joy

Of course, everyone is aware of what’s going on re the bonuses being given to AIG executives, even though they tanked the economy with their “expertise” in finance. But right now I’m really incensed about one part of the whole debacle.

There was a provision in the stimulus package that would have helped deter the huge bonuses. Somehow, that provision magically disappeared from the final bill.

Even more magically, no one is admitting to pulling the provision out of the bill. Here is what Ariana Huffington wrote about it:

The mystery over who killed a provision in the stimulus package that would have curtailed bonuses at bailed out companies is a disturbing D.C. whodunit. But even more disturbing is what it reveals about how our government is run. "It is the ultimate indictment of what Washington has become," Sen. Ron Wyden, co-sponsor of the eliminated provision told me. "It's a place where, again and again, the public interest is deep-sixed without any fingerprints." Wyden has no idea who killed the provision. And, so far, no one in the administration of a president who promised that transparency would be a "touchstone" of his presidency has demanded that whoever is responsible own up to it. We deserve better.

The key line for me in this quote is:

It is the ultimate indictment of what Washington has become… It's a place where, again and again, the public interest is deep-sixed without any fingerprints.

And there you have it, folks. This is our government today and for what I would say the last fifty years or so. The politicos come out on TV or Radio and say something like “The American people are not going to stand for this” or some such nonsense. As if they represent "the American people," when in fact they don't give a G*****n about "the American people." They’re doing everything behind the curtain to stab “the American people” in the back in order to further their own ends.

What scares me most is what have they been doing behind our backs that we don’t know about? Somebody blithely extracted that provision thinking nobody would be the wiser. Unfortunately for him or her, it’s blown into a huge mess. Hopefully, this person will be outed and ousted. He or she should be appropriately vilified for putting himself or herself ahead of the people and tossed out of office.

But that begs the larger question. Who lately has blithely forsaken the American people for their own self-interest, and we don’t even know about it…perhaps we’ll never know that something that could have greatly enhanced our lives was secretly eliminated because it was counter to the interests of a select privileged few.

We elected these charlatans, people! It’s time for a major housecleaning.

Birds of a Feather...

Well, how about this? President Obama invited all the mainstream media press “giants” to lunch today. Here’s the “Who’s Who” who attended:

NBC News: Brian Williams, anchor and managing editor, NBC Nightly News; David Gregory, moderator, Meet the Press.
ABC News: Charles Gibson, anchor, World News; George Stephanopoulos, chief Washington correspondent.
CBS News: Katie Couric, anchor and managing editor, CBS Evening News; Bob Schieffer, anchor, Face the Nation.
PBS: Jim Lehrer, executive editor and anchor, NewsHour.
FOX NEWS: Bret Baier: anchor of Special Report with Bret Baier; Chris Wallace, host Host, Fox News Sunday.
CNN: Wolf Blitzer, anchor, The Situation Room; John King, anchor, State of the Union.

So what’s the purpose of the lunch?

It gives the White House an opportunity to help shape the television coverage before and after the speech, which will be seen by millions of Americans. Along with the president, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs and senior adviser David Axelrod also were on hand.

So...where is “Democracy Now!” host Amy Goodman? Not on your life would she be invited. And if by some miracle she was, I bet she would demurely decline the offer. Or maybe she wouldn’t, if the administration granted her free reign on questioning the President. But I don’t see that happening in this lifetime.

This is so typical. The mainstream news media cozying up to the President and his administration. How can they possibly assume an adversarial position (which is what the fourth estate is all about) with an administration's policies if they're getting in bed with it?

I’m really, really sure that hard, penetrating questions were asked of the President during lunch. You betcha! Now just watch how these "journalists" rave about the speech tonight.

These TV "actors" are the stenographers of the policy spins that the administration spews, and God forbid that they lose access to the inside power if they were to criticize anything that's said.

Wimps...

The "Common Sense" Right to Take a DNA Test

Now this to me is outrageous:

The solicitor general's office has turned down a request by the Innocence Project to disavow a Bush Administration stance on prisoners' access to DNA evidence in postconviction proceedings. As a result, on March 2, Neal Katyal will make his debut as deputy solicitor general by arguing before the Supreme Court in support of the state of Alaska's view that prisoners have no constitutional right to obtain DNA evidence that might help them prove their innocence -- even if the prisoners pay for the DNA testing themselves. The case is District Attorney's Office for the Third Judicial District v. Osborne.

The quote above is from “The Blog of Legal Times,” February 20, 2009.

Excuse me? What on earth is going on in our justice system? Glenn Greenwald has posted previously on his blog about the “two-tiered justice system” whereupon the rich have one form of justice and the rest of the country a draconian one. For me, this is a prime example of what he's saying.

DNA testing should not be a "constitutional right." It should be an unequivocal basic right for all people. It's just common sense fairness to do everything we can to make sure that the right people, not the innocent ones, are locked up. If DNA can be used to determine the guilt or innocence of a person, it should be utilized immediately. Without question. No matter when the opportunity to obtain the DNA arises.

Now President Obama's solicitor general’s office is trying to deny those convicted of utilizing DNA to help prove their innocence, picking up where the Bush administration left off.

How can we as a society possibly reject outright the opportunity for a convicted felon to prove his innocence via a DNA test, especially if he’s willing to pay for it. What kind of down side is there? What kind of people are we?

With so many men on death row being proven innocent via DNA, imagine how many convicts not facing the death penalty are innocent.

There is absolutely no reason not to give these men and women the test. Absolutely none.

I posted an earlier blog right after the election that I was reserving judgment on Barack Obama. I believe both the Democratic and Republican parties are cut from the same cloth. Money greases the wheel of both; unfortunately at the expense of the citizenry.

Those who hailed Barack Obama as a messiah should take note of this and other issues he’s siding with the last administration. Like I said, the same cloth…

We definitely need a third, maybe even a fourth party.

What, Again? (Surprise, Surprise)

This truly amazes me. After the brouhaha about Citigroup going ahead with the purchase of a corporate jet subsequent to receiving taxpayer bailout money, then having to back off the buy when it received a somewhat less than cordial phone call from the White House, we discover Wells Fargo & Co. is going ahead with a 12-night Las Vegas junket at two expensive hotels. Despite the fact that their handling of a $25 billion taxpayer bailout is being heavily criticized.

As I pointed out in my last post, this is nothing but pure, unadulterated Arrogance. Another excellent example of my postulation that the corporate bigwigs think they are “The World” and anything they do should not be scrutinized. Of course, the corporate heads were aware of the Citigroup fiasco. Yet, they still plan on this expensive junket as if nothing is amiss.

Now that the Vegas plans are out in the open, the corporate bozos are “reconsidering” the expensive junket. One of my pet peeves about the press is that we never get specific names of these clowns who are treating the country like we’re interfering with their lavish lifestyles. I believe that every one of these stories comes with the name of the CEO and the top execs so we can identify those who believe they are above the “unwashed.” We need to hammer their names into the public conscience. A pox on all of them.

As I wrote last time, who knows how many of these unseen massive expenditures are being incurred at this moment? We must keep uncovering these corporate shenanigans every time. If they even think of spending frivolously, we should be on their butts hounding them to no end.

We need to pass a law (if that’s what it takes) that the U.S. can inspect every penny of any corporation that feeds at the trough of taxpayer money. To the last detail. The accounting expenditures and profits should be in the public domain for every citizen to peruse. No exceptions. They want our money, they pay that price.

One day, there will be a corporate straw breaking the back of U.S. citizens whereupon they will finally say “Enough!” Perhaps then we can totally rewrite the way corporations do business. The Washington political circle is absolutely in bed with these corporations, thus it will take a major protest of the people to enact changes. I hope it’s not too late.

Update: Wells Fargo has canceled its foray into Las Vegas. But as I wrote, no names of the deciders were given. Who made the original decision for the junket? Who exactly decided not to go forward with the trip? These executives cannot continue to be faceless. Let's get those names out in the open. We need to know who to target to get terminated from these positions.

Another thing I want to mention. I realize that these peccadilloes (junkets, salary bonuses, etc.) are not the meat of the problems the financial institutions are in the middle of. However, they are symptomatic of the institutions' overall egregious behavior. By keeping tabs on these smaller issues we are sending a message that I hope they will understand. Of course, with their "We are the world" mentality, I seriously doubt it. We need to oust these guys and bring in new blood.

We Are the World

I’m borrowing my topic header from Noam Chomsky. He uses it to refer to the United States and its allies (Britain, Israel and a few smattering countries) exclaiming such nonsense as “The World condemns country 'X' for its current policy regarding ‘Y.’” Of course, they aren’t speaking for the “World.” They are condemning country “X” for policies running counter to the interests of the U.S and its minority allies. Most of the “world” could either care less about “Y” or might be inclined to the opposite of the U.S. and its remarkably few allies’ opinion.

As far as I’m concerned, the financial institutions also view themselves as “The World” and nothing (or nobody) else matters. Take a look at the eighteen or so billion dollar “bonuses” that the financial institutions gave themselves last year in spite of the disaster the executives led this country into. President Obama called the bonuses “irresponsible.” I beg to differ. I call it arrogance. They don’t even think or care that it should matter what they did. Of course, once there is a major outcry, the Public Relations Departments (and various Spinners in favor of the corporations) start to do damage control.

I love this spin, as an example: Something to the effect that salaries are more tied in with bonuses in the financial sector than the industrial side of the work force. Give me a break. For my entire life, I’ve been under the impression that a “bonus” given at the end of the year represented a job well done. Not for running a company into the ground and needing taxpayer bailout money.

How about Citigroup signing off for a fifty million dollar corporate jet? Even after its multi-billion dollar bailout. It took a phone call from the White House (“We are not amused”) for Citigroup to “decide” to pass on the jet. One more time, this is not “irresponsibility.” It’s arrogance, plain and simple.

Finally, John Thain, former CEO of Merrill Lynch, spent over a million dollars for office “redecoration” and to hand out millions of dollars of bonuses a month earlier than usual in order to get the money out before Bank of America took over the corporation. He knew exactly what he was doing. He was gaming the system so his fellow corporate executives could get their millions before he relinquished control to BofA. Arrogance. Not irresponsibility.

What really scares me is what we are not seeing. I bet there are many such instances of arrogance and frivolous spending that is unseen. Recall that AIG tried to cover their "retreat" (spending hundreds of thousands of dollars) in Arizona after they got their bailout. What other corporations are hiding egregious spending such as this? It will be interesting to see what else these execs are doing behind our backs. Hopefully, we will be able to find out, though I believe most of the shenanigans will slip by.

These guys don’t give a frak about the U.S. or its people, many of whom are leading desperate lives. It’s about greed and the conception that they are “The World.” Until we can oust every one of these money-grubbing egoists and bring in those who think in terms that all of us are a part of this great country and all citizens should benefit from the resources that this great country has, we will have an ever widening (arrogant) upper and (exploited) lower class system.