Can we call it fascism yet?

A truly appalling revelation from the New York Times today: they concealed, at the request of the Bush administration, the fact that the president of the United States authorized the National Security Agency to monitor the international phone calls and international e-mails of hundreds -- perhaps thousands -- of people living inside the United States.

Wiretaps on Americans without judicial approval. And the Times held back the report for a year.

Fortunately, I see that even reaction from Congressional Republicans has been swift:

A key Republican committee chairman put the Bush administration on notice Friday that his panel would hold hearings into a report that the National Security Agency eavesdropped without warrants on people inside the United States.

Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., said he would make oversight hearings by his panel next year "a very, very high priority."

"There is no doubt that this is inappropriate," said Specter, a Pennsylvania Republican and chairman of the Judiciary Committee.

Other key bipartisan members of Congress also called on the administration to explain and said a congressional investigation may be necessary.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., appeared annoyed that the first he had heard of such a program was through a New York Times story published Friday. He said the report was troubling.

Do you feel safer from terrorism yet, knowing that your government may be eavesdropping on you?

Today, Senate debate begins on the reauthorization of the USA Patriot act. Senator Russ Feingold will filibuster, with the support of GOP Senator Chuck Hagel and others.

Perhaps some sanity can be restored to the cause of civil rights. We'll have to watch this outcome to know for sure.

Update (today) : The Senate rejected the extension, 52-47, with these Republicans voting against: Hagel, Murkowski, Sununu, Craig, and in a last-minute switch to take advantage of a parliamentary tactic (so that he could call the question again at any time), majority leader Frist.

Gammage files for Governor

As of this morning, the Texas Democratic Party will have a legitimately contested gubernatorial primary in March:

Bob Gammage today filed paperwork with the Texas Democratic Party, officially becoming a candidate for Texas Governor. Below is the text of his of his remarks.

“Good morning. Thank you all for coming. In the weeks to come we will have a formal announcement that addresses specific issues and goals. Today I will just make a brief statement about why I am running.

“This campaign is about reform. It is about opening state policy-making to public scrutiny. It is about restoring the public trust.

“When I first entered public life as a newly minted freshman member of the Texas House some years ago, the people of Texas faced a crisis of political corruption. Our lawmaking process and our entire state government were dominated by an authoritarian system, controlled by lobbyists, special interests and power elites who ran rampant in our halls of government, and who ran roughshod over the public interest. I soon became a proud member of the Dirty 30 - a bipartisan group of 19 Democrats and 11 Republicans in the Texas House - who stood up to the power brokers and, with the help of an outraged citizenry, beat that corrupt political machine.

“Today, unfortunately, our state government has come full circle. Once again we desperately need the citizens of Texas to take charge of their state government.

“Today there is a corrupt political machine which stretches from Washington, D.C. all the way to Austin. Tom DeLay and his cronies are at one end, and Rick Perry and his pals are at the other. The money flows both ways. It has corrupted our politics, corrupted our government and, more importantly, corrupted public policy and betrayed the public trust.

“Public office is a public trust. I am running against today's corrupt political machine. I am standing up for reform. I am determined to do everything in my power to restore the public trust and the integrity of the political system. Sometimes good citizenship requires you to put your personal interests aside and just do what's right.

“In an ideal world, the governor of Texas should denounce the shenanigans of Tom DeLay and his twisted, unethical schemes. But Rick Perry is too weak and too dependent on the wealthy, powerful and ruthless special interests that both he and DeLay work for.

“The sad truth is that bad values and weak character at the top produce bad policies for the rest of us. We've seen it time and again -- a leadership that preaches character and commonly held values while practicing neither. On virtually every important issue - funding our public schools, the tax burden on middle-income families, health care for our children, preserving our environment, funding for our public colleges and universities, and how we choose our elected officials -- the men at the top do not fight for the common good, but for the privileged power elite who bankroll their campaigns and keep their machine rolling.

Let's hope for the sake of ridding ourselves of Rick Perry that this doesn't turn into an expensive knockdown dragout that weakens our eventual nominee. Gammage sounds capable of taking the fight to the GOP, and he offers a clear choice between old guard and New Mainstream.

To be clear: if Gammage wins the primary in March I'll gladly support him.

But I'll support my former Congressman and friend Chris Bell in the primary, and I'm still waiting for Bob -- or anyone else -- to answer some questions for me.

Update (12/16) : Yesterday morning, I e-mailed the Gammage campaign the questions I asked in the blog post linked immediately above, and last night I attended the Harris County Democratic Party holiday party, where Bob Gammage coincidentally was a late arrivee. As I made my way over to introduce myself, his associate John Effinger intercepted me and -- being familiar with my questions -- brushed them aside with a curt "There's nothing there".

Well John, in the holiday spirit I chose not to make our intial meeting confrontational, but that answer just won't wash.

I'll keep asking them, and it might be wise if you suggest that Bob consider answering them straight.

Moneyshot Quote of the Week: Viggo Mortensen

King Aragorn has spoken:

“I’m not anti-Bush; I’m anti-Bush behavior,” Mortensen told Progressive magazine. “In other words, I’m against cheating, greed, cruelty, racism, imperialism, religious fundamentalism, treason, and the seemingly limitless capacity for hypocrisy shown by Bush and his administration.”

Mortensen also blasted the administration’s handling of Hurricane Katrina and discussed why he supported anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan, who has protested the war in Iraq since her son was killed there. “Cindy Sheehan and how badly Katrina was bungled are two shots to the heart,” he said. “I hope the beast does fall down soon."

Sorry been sick

... and posting's been light.

Finally seem to have gotten the blood glucose and the blood pressure back into some semblance of normal with the help of Big Pharma, so I'll catch up with the following quickies...

** I spent some time on a bloggers' conference call this morning with former CIA director Vincent Cannistraro and Elisa Massimino, the Washington director of Human Rights First, an organization recognized for leading the battle to end U.S.-sanctioned torture. Cannistraro and more than two dozen former CIA operatives and analysts are signers to a letter to the Senate, urging them to keep the McCain amendment intact.

(It may be that you are unaware that Vice President Cheney has lobbied John McCain to make exceptions to his amendment banning mistreatment of detainees, and redefines techniques such as waterboarding a form of 'enhanced interrogation', and exempt from the amendment. I'll probably have a lengthier post on this in the future, when I can tether myself back on the other side of the Looking Glass.)

** Bob Novak says Bush knows who the Plame leaker is:

"I'm confident the president knows who the source is," Novak told a luncheon audience at the John Locke Foundation in Raleigh on Tuesday. "I'd be amazed if he doesn't."

"So I say, 'Don't bug me. Don't bug Bob Woodward. Bug the president as to whether he should reveal who the source is.' "

So do you think Novak might actually be telling the truth? And if he is, do you wonder --as do I -- why the President hasn't fired that person?

** People Get Ready has some pretty funny photos of deceased refrigerators in New Orleans.

I promise I'll get wordier later.

"Christmas has nuclear weapons"

"I'd like to get back to the operational ties between Santa Claus and al-Qaeda."

Watch the video or read the transcript.

What's your role in the War on Christmas?

Defender, Protestor, or Victim?

Go take Doonesbury's poll.

Richard Pryor and Eugene McCarthy, and racism and war

The passing of two prominent men, each of whom could be described by the same word, 'anti-establishment', is reported today.

Richard Pryor and Eugene McCarthy had a lot in common, but came at the American psyche from completely opposite directions. And because they were hardly two guys who traveled in the same circles, there's more than a small measure of irony that they proceed side-by-side to the hereafter.

Pryor made racism in America something white and black people could laugh at together -- the first time that may have happened (some would say Redd Foxx was ahead of him).

Eugene McCarthy made an increasingly unpopular war a seminal moment for the Democratic Party (and the nation).

And while the issues they tackled were -- are -- far from resolved, their places in history are safe simply by the impact they each had in shifting the conventional thinking of the time.

Pryor released an album while I was in high school in the mid-'70's called "That Nigger's Crazy". We rode around drinking beer listening to it and laughing our AO --and I grew up in small east Texas town where the Klan had a bookstore on Main Street. He later did a movie, one of my favorites, with Jill Clayburgh and Gene Wilder -- "Silver Streak" -- which started a long cinematic collaboration with Wilder. A couple of years later when I was in college, a racially mixed group of my friends went to see "Stir Crazy" and we cracked up all over again.

I was too young to be much aware of Senator McCarthy's influence on the political landscape; I was getting ready for Boy Scout camp in the summer of '68 when McCarthy's anti-Vietnam war campaign forced LBJ out of the race for the White House. McCarthy's campaign splintered an already fractious Democratic party that election year, and the American racial divide was on full display on the ballot that November with George Wallace, (I).

And that's how we got Nixon (and many more years of war and death and dirty political tricks and lies and high crimes).

I doubt whether McCarthy and Pryor ever met and discussed their respective influences on American pop and political culture, but it pleases me that they are somewhere tonight -- outside the pearly gates, or maybe some place warmer -- talking about it and having a chuckle.

Rest in peace, gentlemen.

Update (12/11) : Digby's got a great reminiscence of Pryor posted.

Bible-thumping approaches thunderous roar

Lifted entirely from the Benquirer, and offered for your reading pleasure without editorial comment:

WASHINGTON, D.C. – As the outcry from religious groups intensified following the White House decision to sign its holiday cards “Have a Happy Holidays,” it would appear as though Bible-thumping levels across the nation are approaching near-deafening levels.

Members of the Christian Right are promoting a period of “prolonged Bible-thumping” in the wake of the President's holiday card decision and have moved in for the kill in the self-proclaimed War on Christmas.

This new war has taken precedence over the other, harder-to-spin and much bloodier war in Iraq. Supporters are now arguing that saving impossible-to-prove religious symbolism and rehashed Kerri Underwood Christmas sing-along CDs are more important to the future of humanity than a terrorist-making factory in the Middle East.

...

“We’ve done near worn out 12 Bibles just this week so it’s a good thing that, as God-fearing Christians, we keep an ample supply by taking the ones from the nightstands at all the hotels we stay at,” said Mary Joe Joe, a Catholic. “And who could not love Christmas trees and presents? It was all in the Bible after all, wasn’t it?”

It would be so much more funny if I didn't actually know people like this.

DeLay and Abramoff and the Sopranos

Reported by me previously, the story of Jack Abramoff's wiseguys getting a recalcitrant business deal moved forward in their favor by bumping off the recalcitrant business owner has taken a turn for the worse (if you're the bad guys, that is):

According to an article just posted in the (South Florida) Sun-Sentinal, Adam Kidan looks set to flip and testify against Abramoff in the SunCruz case down in Florida.

A "change of plea" hearing has been set for December 15th.

Here's something I don't quite get, though. As we've noted many times before, there's at least some very suggestive evidence that Kidan played a role in the death of Gus Boulis, the guy he and Jack bought SunCruz from.

Even that is a bit generous: Kidan was in a feud with Boulis that had already led to one physical altercation between the two men. Then or around that time Kidan, who has a history of Mafia associations, puts three known mobsters on the SunCruz payroll, hiring them as either caterers or 'security consultants' or both. Then those three guys mow Boulis down in a gangland-style hit.

You know, call me suspicious.

That is Josh's summary, but the Sun-Sentinel article has a bit I want to excerpt just for the nicknames:

By November 2000, Kidan had contacted an old friend, Anthony "Big Tony" Moscatiello. Moscatiello had signed a contract with SunCruz to be a "catering consultant" at $25,000 a month, according to court records. Kidan said he thought Boulis was going to kill him, according to statements Moscatiello gave police. Moscatiello, a known associate of the late crime boss John Gotti, promised to smooth things over.

Moscatiello put Kidan in touch with Anthony "Little Tony" Ferrari, who ran "Moon Over Miami Beach," a company that, among other things, is described in records as a security firm. One of the men who worked for Ferrari was James "Pudgy" Fiorillo. In September, Moscatiello, Ferrari and Fiorillo were indicted in Boulis' murder. Kidan has not been charged in the case.

Frankly, David Chase has written better subplots.

So, if you're caught up with your reading, you now know that Jack Abramoff, someone whom Tom DeLay has described as one of his "closest and dearest friends", has been implicated in a mob hit, and the mobster who 'allegedly' ordered the hit is about to flip.

I think we're out of popcorn. Will these mixed nuts do?

Culberson thinks al-Qaeda caught, in W. Texas jail

Hilarious. Tom DeLay's towel boy, John Culberson, was on Hannity and Colmes in November and announced that a member of al-Qaeda had been captured by the Brewster County sheriff's department. Too bad for him it wasn't true:

Local Republican congressman John Culberson took to the Fox News airwaves last month to raise the alarm about illegal immigration.

Two West Texas sheriffs, he said on Hannity & Colmes, "confirmed for me that they had an Al Qaeda terrorist…in the Brewster County jail."

To which the two sheriffs in question have answered, in essence, WTF?

One of the sheriffs, Brewster County's Ronny Dodson, told The Big Bend Sentinel that he had jailed one person "who had drawn a picture on his pants of Osama Bin Laden, and we don't know if that was a joke or not." He said Culberson must have been confused somehow by hearing various stories from border agents.

Tony Essalih, Culberson's press secretary, says there's no confusion. Two other aides of the congressman were present when the sheriffs told them of the terrorist prisoner, he says.

"We really haven't figured out where the communication breakdown was. What he said on the show was what he was told by the sheriffs," Essalih says.

Both sheriffs have been avoiding the non-local media since the story broke, but one staffer at the Brewster County Sheriff's Department said Culberson's people "were lying through their teeth…I told them if they'd bring me an Al Qaeda I'd slap him four times, make him pick up cigarette butts; you know, something really mean. But no, no Al Qaeda [here]."

David Murff, one of Culberson's challengers in CD-07 and who has joined the blogranks, has more.

DeLay: Marianas dealings may be his worst crimes

Jesse Lee at the Stakeholder, via Josh Marshall, links to the Marianas Variety, which reports that the recently-elected head of state has turned state's witness:

Governor-Elect Benigno R. Fitial says he will cooperate with federal authorities in the ongoing investigation of Rep. Tom Delay and former Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff, whom he once described as his “close friends.”

You should go here and read the entire, tangled, complicated thing, but here's the moneyshot:

As Jesse points out, interference by Congress in the internal elections of territories such as the Marianas Islands is illegal. Rep. George Miller (D-CA) took an interest in DeLay's involvement in the Marianas some years ago, and as ranking Democrat on the House Resources Committee repeatedly asked Republican Chairman (and Abramoff implicatee) Richard Pombo to investigate. Pombo stonewalled but eventually co-signed a letter to the Department of Justice asking them to expand the Abramoff probe to include the Marianas Islands. The following excerpt -- one of the letters Miller wrote to Pombo -- summarizes:

I wrote that in 1999, two men associated with then-Majority Whip Tom DeLay - Ed Buckham, a one-time chief of staff who later became the head of ARMPAC, and Mike Scanlon, a DeLay spokesman - were reportedly involved in an effort to influence the election of the Speaker to the CNMI House of Representatives. I have since learned of additional evidence to suggest these two men may have traded political favors to sway the election in favor of a candidate most likely to renew a contract with lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

There's more, naturally.

Popcorn?

Deep progressive thoughts

The group of bloggers at Think Progress are simply doing all the good work lately. Here's from one of their posts on ScAlito:

==============================

Throughout the confirmation process, Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito has had difficulty standing by his words and taking responsibility for his actions.

For example, when he was nominated to a federal appeals court in 1990 he promised the Senate that he would recuse himself from any case involving the investment firm Vanguard because of his substantial investments with the company. In 2002, he ruled on a case involving Vanguard anyway.

Instead of taking responsibility for his actions, Alito has made excuses. In a letter sent to Alito yesterday, Sen. Ted Kennedy documented six different excuses Alito has floated to avoid taking responsibility. Here’s a summary:

1. It wasn’t really a promise. He was free to dissolve his responsibility at anytime.

2. It was an oversight.

3. It was OK because the specific investments he owned were not at issue.

4. It was OK because he “voluntarily” recused himself once a complaint was filed.

5. It was a “harmless error.”

6. It didn’t matter because the defendant was representing herself.

These excuses are contradictory and irrelevant. But biggest concern is not that his excuses are bad but that he’s taken the time to make so many. It is essential for Supreme Court justices accept accountability for their words and actions. Alito has shown he has trouble doing either.

=============================

And another:

=============================

The right’s latest campaign to build public support for Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito? Convincing you he’s the Christmas candidate.

The right-wing Commitee for Justice yesterday began airing a radio ad in Colorado, Wisconsin, and West Virginia, trying to convince conservatives that he will lead the fight against the so-called “War on Christmas.” As slingshot.org notes, the Committee was formed at the behest of Sen. Trent Lott (R-MS) and Karl Rove to funnel business money into the Supreme Court fight. From the ad:

It’s the season when Americans celebrate our traditions of faith … and once again religious freedom is under assault. … Some courts and judges have supported this radical agenda, but not Judge Sam Alito, President Bush’s nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court. Throughout his career, Judge Alito has consistently upheld the Constitution’s protection of free religious expression. [Listen to the ad here]

Right-winger Jay Sekulow, who has helped the White House with its Supreme Court nominee strategy and chief counsel at the American Center for Law and Justice, has created his own Christmas resource center and hints that more ads pairing Alito and Christmas and attacking Alito’s critics as “anti-God” may be forthcoming:

This is going to be the dominant theme on the Alito nomination until the end of the year-the convergence of a Supreme Court nomination, the Christmas season, and a judge who has a well-staked-out position on support for religious expression.

Evidently the “well qualified” conservative argument wasn’t working well.

==============================

And from an interview with Rep. David Obey (D-WI), the ranking member on the House Appropriations Committee, Rep. David Price (D-NC), and Rep. Tom Allen (D-ME), on Congressional ethics:

==============================

THINK PROGRESS: Our last question – why isn’t Roy Blunt as effective a leader as Tom DeLay?

OBEY: Well, there was a reason Tom DeLay was referred to as “The Hammer” because Tom didn’t just lead by persuasion, he led by intimidation, he led by muscle. I mean, this is a man who would bring in outside lobby groups in and trade associations and tell them that if they wanted attention and access, they had better hire Republicans in their operation. He created a marriage between K Street lobbying operations and the Capitol and Pennsylvania Avenue and that made him very formidable even as it gutted what democracy was supposed to be able to produce.

ALLEN: I would say it’s too early to say how effective Roy Blunt is, but clearly, the ruthlessness of a Tom DeLay has had a huge impact on the way the House has been run. Of course, right now, Roy Blunt’s going to deal with the fact that opinions of this Republican Congress are in the tank, and there are Republicans who, just as I said before, are really anxious, they’re afraid they’re going to lose their own elections – so it’s a hard group to manage. This is all the result of an underlying philosophy that we’re not going to deal with Democrats, we’re only going to rely on Republicans, and we’re going to force cohesion when it doesn’t even exist in many cases.

PRICE: Roy Blunt’s got his hands full. I mean, this is an agenda – a terrible way to try to start out a leadership career, cutting food stamps, and Medicaid, and student loans, and child support, while you’re at the same time giving tax breaks for dividends and capital gains – goodness, that’s a nightmare, for any leader. And the notion that Tom DeLay could pull this off, I’m not sure is correct. But, anyway, it’s Roy Blunt’s bad luck to be coming in just as President Bush’s popularity goes south, and conservatives are trying this power play to do all these draconian cuts to the most vulnerable people in society and Roy Blunt’s being asked to deliver on this. He’s guilty of, if nothing else, of bad timing, of trying to pull this off. But the notion that DeLay could come in here and do it – I’m not sure even DeLay could manage this.

==============================

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