29 February 2008

Bush lies about motivations for litigation on telecom lawbreaking

President Bush outright lied...again...flagrantly, smugly (with his nauseating little smirk and heh-heh)... in his press conference yesterday, when he claimed that "trial lawyers" with an interest in making a lot of money, were behind litigation to uncover telecom lawbreaking in connection with the still-unkown scope of illegal surveillance by the government in the period between 2001-2003.

The reality, of course, is that ACLU and other public interest lawyers who have pursued this litigation operate on the most meager of shoestrings, from storefront offices, and are paid barely living salaries, as President Bush probably knows perfectly well. (Although it's always dangerous to assume he knows anything at all).

It is absolutely amazing that our so-called media have next to no interest in finding out what happened, and are either so mendacious, or so stupid, that they can't grasp that without the ability to bring lawsuits against telecoms who (apparently admittedly, per Dick Cheney) violated FISA and other Federal laws, the American people will never know the scope of this administration's now quite patently obvious felonious conduct.

I'm still shaking my head, but nothing changes.

See Greenwald today:
The telecom lawsuits are the last hope for finding any of this out. They're the last hope for ever having this still-secret behavior subjected to the rule of law and enabling the American people to learn about what their Government did for years in illegally spying on them. That's why -- the only real reason -- the White House is so desperate for telecom amnesty. That's what George Bush means when he says that amnesty is urgent "because the litigation process could lead to the disclosure of information about how we conduct surveillance." In a functioning democracy, when high political officials break the law, such behavior is actually supposed to be "disclosed," not concealed.

14 February 2008

Ad update

Back in November, I suggested a Clinton v. Giuliani advert for the general election, since it still seemed like Rudy and Hillary were the frontrunners. The ad would apply equally well to Obama (or Clinton) v. McCain.

Million Dollar Question

Assuming Obama continues his roll, ending up with a clear majority of elected pledged delegates, will Hillary step aside rather than slog it out with the superdelegates and try to steal the nomination at the convention? (Which isn't till LABOR DAY, thereby giving McCain ALL SUMMER to tear at the divided Democrats).

And the $500,000 follow up: How nervous should we be that (admittedly pretty meaningless) early national polls are showing even Obama within the margin of error when pitted against McCain? (And how can that be? Democrats should win with historic landslides in a recession year and in the wake of the most disastrous administration in modern history, by any reasonable standard, on the Republican side).