AG of Injustice

(Picture courtesy of en.wikipedia.com.)

For those of us who watched in horror as the previous administration destroyed the government’s proper function as the servant of the people, this is much too late.  Still, that in deposition for trial concerning crimes he committed, that Alberto Gonzales sees the crimes he committed as wrong is a small good thing.

Former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has said for the first time that “I am disappointed that I didn’t do things differently” to stop the politicization of the system of hiring career Justice Department attorneys through its honors program during his time in office.

“Obviously everyone is smarter in hindsight. In hindsight you wish you would do some things differently and … I feel disappointment in myself,” Gonzales said, according to filings this week in a pending suit filed on behalf of applicants who were rejected for the program for political or ideological reasons. “I, the attorney general, am ultimately responsible,” Gonzales also said.

(snip)

The suit as it now stands is based mainly on the Privacy Act, which bars the government from maintaining records about individuals’ exercise of First Amendment rights unless authorized by law.

It’s too late to deceive the rational any longer, but it seems that rejection by the voters can bring a little bit of reality into play for even the worst of the winger criminals.

The party of the right wing has moved from the Party of No, in opposing any and all Democratic proposals, to a party that fully embraces destroying public interests in service to corporate welfare.   With the Ryan plan for a totally evil budget, the right wing has emerged as the antithesis of democratic government.  From the effect on the public, it is  learning that at last voters are seeing the crimes it commits, giving them the name of ‘fiscal responsibility’.

Only by denying working people the right to their earned wages can the U.S. government take from citizens and give to the corporations and the very, very wealthy.   It is by taking from the wage earners that the right wants to finance its welfare system for the least needy.

With a Supreme Court ruling that allows corporations here and abroad to finance election ads, for awhile it seemed as if elections, and democracy itself, were a thing of the past.  Quite probably the excesses brought on by that ruling, a result of overconfidence that the public could be bought along with the right wing, have proved too much for an abused voter base.
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(photo via Atta J. Turk at Flickr)

The sentencing of Tom DeLay that occurred on Monday has good aspects, most especially that his wily scheming didn’t slip away altogether form the justice system.  In the end, the jury had to declare guilt because the amount DeLay raised from donors matched exactly the amount he pocketed for solidifying the Texas vote that gave him leadership powers.

The judge gave him a sentence of three years, when it could have been for all purposes, life (99 years).   Using powers of office to steal votes from the public just didn’t appear to this judge to be severe enough for meaningful penalties.  In the minds of early settlers in this country who fled from the effects of authoritarian government, their own say in their own government was worth their lives, and they gave them up for it.

In our present day, we look around and see that the country is slipping into authoritarian rule.   We see that the working class is increasingly being deprived of economic opportunity, and has slipped far below equitable income levels as the very rich spend their profits to gain increased power.   The use of power to consolidate power is epitomized by DeLay tactics.   We may soon become aware that by a mere slap of the hands, we’re letting our own power to vote in a government we can live with slip away, as well.

As John Nichols writes in The Nation; “It should be for a lot longer.”

No one did more to corrupt the public life of the country during the Bush-Cheney era than the cruelest and most crooked of their henchmen, Thomas Dale “Tom” DeLay, the Republican Majority Leader turned the U.S. House of Representatives into a cesspool of pay–to-play politics and the elections of his home state of Texas into empty charades.

“DeLay’s brand of politics was one of reckless disregard for the American people. By funneling illegal corporate money into Texas state elections, he helped elect Republican candidates to the Texas Legislature, which led to the tainted redistricting of his state,” says Tom “Smitty” Smith, the director of the Texas office of Public Citizen, which with the group Texans for Public Justice waged the long campaign to hold the former Majority Leader to account.

The evidence of DeLay’s wrongdoing was so clear, and the Republican fixer’s defense was so lame that there was never much doubt that he would be convicted.

In our present day, we look around and see that the country is slipping into authoritarian rule.   We see that the working class is increasingly being deprived of economic opportunity, and has slipped far below equitable income levels as the very rich spend their profits to gain increased power.   The use of power to consolidate power is epitomized by DeLay tactics.   We may soon become aware that by a mere slap of the hands, we’re letting our own power to vote in a government we can live with slip away, as well.

Immense amounts were spent in recent midterm campaigns, much of it from undisclosed sources.    The present majorities of wingnut representatives hold the power to redistrict their states – as a result of the recent census.  The example set by Texas in pushing for redistricting that shuts out their opponents will be of lasting value to the right.   With its political slant against the public, it can’t depend on that public for votes without massive financing for political misrepresentation and fraud.

The U.S. stands in stark contrast with the rest of the world in its low standing for education, wealth, health care and public service.   We are not losing the power of the vote that the DeLay tactics of manipulation manage just because of the other, corporate, side’s wish to keep its wealth safe from public needs.   It’s increasingly a matter of life and death.

photo: Charles Henry via Flickr

[Ed. note: Be sure to note the sizable deficit in Texas noted earlier today by diarist SocraticGadfly.]

The day before the election was an interesting time to drive from just a few miles short of the border with Oklahoma to just above the Big Bend, which rests along the Rio Grande and across the river from Mexico.  In my area, there are very many signs for Bill White for Governor.

When I got about 200 miles south of Fort Worth, I began to see the first signs for Rick Perry.  They were attached to businesses, with a very few actually in yards of houses.   For the entire trip, I may have seen ten Perry signs.  I continued to see signs supporting Bill White all the way.

The ads on television, of course, are non-stop.  Newspaper endorsements, like yard signs, though seem to have heard Bill White’s arguments and found them solid.  He has all the endorsements except the Waco paper.

The lack of real public support for Perry is hardly surprising,  as his connections with lobbyists and use of the taxpayers’ funds for his friends’ businesses is quite remarkable.  Several newspapers cited the use of business incentive funds for his friends’ businesses in their choice of Bill White.

The results of tomorrow’s elections should favor Bill White.  It will not be public votes for the incumbent governor that put him over if Perry wins.

Texas has a protocol for its roads that applies here.   When a driver finds another coming up at a speed exceeding his/her own, it is expected that the leading driver step aside by using the lane northeasterners consider the Parking Lane.  Out here, it’s wide enough for a car to pull onto to let others by.  Time for Perry to pull over and let the public elect a governor of their choice.

Today is November 1, the Day of the Dead.  A dead candidacy should leave now, and let the public be served.

Last night, Keith Olbermann had the temerity to put his neck on the scaffold for wingnuttery by speaking out against their race-baiting manipulation of facts to enrage their audience. His words were strong, and they should have been. The masquerade of news that is the right wing network does real damage to our society.

"…thanks to the perpetual fraud machine that is Fox news, and the scum that is this assassin Breitbart, there will be a portion of this country – the mindless, the hateful, the reactionary, the racist – to whom she is ever convicted and ever imprisoned. I have sat behind this desk for seven years and pushed back at these counterfeit journalists, as a man might stand at the shore and try to push back the tide.
(snip)
Let me make this utterly clear: what you see on Fox news, what you read on right wing websites, is the utter and complete perversion of journalism. And it can have no place in a civilized society."

While we on the liberal, rational, side of the internet hesitate to go to extremes in expressing distaste for lies and hatemongering, Keith Olbermann last night gave voice to something so true and so pressing that it has made itself into a threat against democracy.

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