View From The Left Coast

Seven years ago, when Dick Cheney seized power, I had a funny feeling that something was wrong. Bill Clinton, with his support of NAFTA, lies about Monica and amnesty to Mafia donors, didn’t do much for me, but like most Americans, I was becoming accustomed to crooks in power. But I thought there were still honest reporters, honest members of Congress, and honest judges to see that the Constitution protected us.

I was wrong.

I also grossly overestimated the ability of the American public to think for themselves, and not be stampeded like sheep to their own destruction. I had no idea that Cheney, Addington and Perle could so completely control the media, the Congress, and use fear to control a majority of Americans.

For six years, even congressional Democrats were only too happy to give Cheney carte blanche to lie, steal, murder, and turn the system of law on its head. In the seventh year, having gotten a mandate to put the brakes on this slide into fascism, Congress continued to roll over, approving domestic spying, torture, the slaughter of Iraqis for their oil, the abrogation of treaties. They did NOTHING on their own, and continued to collude in Cheney’s crimes.

Yet, amazingly, even many people I know, who oppose the so-called Patriot Act, oppose torture, oppose the Iraqi genocide, AND the murder of 3,900 Americans AND the disabling of tens of thousands more. . .these people are willing to vote for the very people who sold them down the river. Obama, Clinton and Edwards voted TWICE for the Patriot Act, for the legalization of Guantanamo, for domestic spying, and who are perfectly willing to invade Iran to take THEIR oil and kill a million of THEIR people, yet they lead the Democratic race for President. Dennis Kucinich, who voted twice AGAINST the Patriot Act is not considered worth troubling with, because he hasn’t gotten millions of dollars from corporate sponsors.

HUH?

That’s right. The guy who was one of six members of the house to vote against the New HUAC—the “Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act”. . .six out of 412. . .is not worth voting for, or even considering because “he can’t win.”

Now, I can understand Republicans, maybe even Libertarians, going along with the suspension of the Constitution indefinitely to “protect” us from the heathen hoards that threaten our women. But Democrats? I can understand ignorant, illiterate people watching Faux News, the official organ of the Cheney administration, and thinking “These liberal SOBs are undermining our President’s ability to fight terrorism.” But the rest?

If you don’t support the Patriot Act, domestic spying, suspension of habeas corpus, torture, mass murder and the wasting of trillions of dollars and tens of thousands of American lives, why would you vote for someone who DID support these things?

If Stalin had a chance to beat Hitler, and Lincoln was a longshot, would you back the favorite, so your vote would “count”?

Posted by Walt Frazer at 08:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

In an apparent attempt to prove they can keep up with the ER, the TS ran a column by Morton Kondracke that was right up there with O’Reilly at his raving best. The headline calls Democrats Bush haters, and does the usual equating freedom of speech with treason. He goes on to note that Bin Laden is still at large, and worries that the Democrats’ irrational doubting of Bush means planes are aimed at skyscrapers in Keokuk and Long Beach at this moment.

And this guy is the editor of Roll Call, the newspaper of Capital Hill. No wonder Congress is so screwed up.

But the Democrats, as he points out, have the temerity to ask that only methods of interrogation approved in the Army Field Manual can be used by the CIA. This would make “Waterboarding” (torture by drowning) illegal. Kondracke thinks banning this form of torture is an engraved invitation to Bin Laden to come and kill his wife and kids. His argument, and apparently Nancy Pelosi’s, since she approved waterboarding before, and voted for the “Patriot Act”, is that when it comes to the war on terror, any method of battle is not only justified, but required.

My question is, if waterboarding and other forms of “enhanced interrogation” are OK, where WOULD Kondracke and his ilk draw the line? Would bamboo shoots under the fingernails be fine? Chopsticks in the eardrums? The iron maiden? The rack? And when we’ve done all these things to get the evil SOBs to tell us who their friends are, remind me: how are we BETTER than they are?

Posted by Walt Frazer at 07:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The article in the Times-Standard, accompanied by a nice “grip and grin” photo, credited the owners of the Bear River Casino in Loleta with a $17,000 donation to the Salvation Army. But the thanks really should go to the locals who left many times that with the casino.

I don’t know how much the casinos make, or how much the local Indians give to the Mafia for helping them build and run them, but it’s more than you or I make in a year. “We had some extra funds,” said the rancheria chairman, “so we decided to donate it.” I’ve never been a big fan of gambling and lotteries, because it seems like the most regressive tax possible. Has anyone seen John Campbell or Rob Arkley at Cherae Heights lately? No, I think John and Rob have demonstrated they’ve got better things to do with their money than flush it down the toilet.

Like the War in Iraq that’s really about oil, but is supposed to be about freedom (for the one million dead Iraqis?) or the “medical” marijuana shops that are supposed to be about providing care for the sick or dying, but are really about big bucks from peddling dope, casinos on (or off) the reservations have nothing to do with Native American culture and everything to do with exploiting human weakness. The same with TPZs: those who don’t want the laws tightened know there’s a loophole they can turn to profit, so they’ll fight to protect it. They want to keep the tax break AND the right to subdivide. Follow the money.

So Merry Christmas to those who left their money at the casinos, enabling the Bear River Band to give a little back to several worthy charities that DON’T make profits.

Next time, though, why not skip the middle man?

Posted by Walt Frazer at 08:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

One would think that members of Congress who are Democrats would support peace, human rights, and the Consititution. But no.

Mike Thompson recently voted for a measure aimed at doing more spying on American citizens, has voted in favor of continued funding for the illegal occupation of Iraq, and has voted in favor of bills to enable the Bush administration to keep Guantanamo prison/torture camp open. Even though the Courts have ruled it is a violation of US law to do so. Last month Mike voted for a little thing called the “Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act” (Look it up. If you liked HUAC, you’ll love this) It was written by another Blue Dog Democrat, Jane Harman. While Mike SAYS he’s against the war, against torture, against spying on Americans, his voting record says otherwise. So why would Democrats vote for a guy who talks Democratic but votes (and works, as treasurer of the Blue Dog PAC) against Democratic values? Beats me.

On the other side of the spectrum is Dennis Kucinich. He’s a Democratic Congressman too, from Ohio. He was one of six Congress members (out of 406) to vote against the New HUAC. Kucinich hasn’t gotten a lot of press (he was just excluded from the Democratic debate in Iowa because his campaign manager had the gall to work out of his home) because he doesn’t have millions of dollars, isn’t a TV star, and had the effrontery to sponsor a measure to impeach Dick Cheney. Under our system, that means he’s toast politically. But if you want to take the trouble, look up Kucinich’s record, and compare it to Thompson’s. Then ask yourself who more closely reflects your values.

Kucinich is also the ONLY Democratic candidate who has consistently voted against the war, against domestic spying, against torture and against NAFTA and the WTO. Hillary and Obama have voted FOR the war, FOR domestic spying, and are in favor of invading Iran. Mike too.

And in the past seven years, can you name ANY humanitarian, human rights or peace measures that have passed through Congress? And how many Attorneys General who pushed for torture, how many invasions, surges, violations of treaties and kidnappings, murders and tortures have been committed in our name? Plenty.

So Mike and his friends are getting SERIOUS money from people who profit from war, drugs, and keeping health care unaffordable because they are all on the same team. And Kucinich gets to sit out the debate.

And the hole gets deeper and deeper.

Posted by Walt Frazer at 05:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

It was damage control time at Baywood these past two weeks after some 900 people were exposed to Norwalk virus there, over five days and a passel of gatherings of movers and shakers in HumCo. While the TS was making nice, it did seem odd to hear Baywood management trying to blame the customers for bringing this dread disease to them. As though that could happen for five days and a dozen or so banquets.

Obviously somebody in the kitchen was sick, and, being the Christmas season and not having sick leave, he or she played hurt and shared. And shared. There were a couple who ended up in the ER, but mostly it was 166 people just being miserably sick. It could have been a lot worse.

The NCJ was critical of the Health Department for not coming out earlier with the source of the sickness, but the only thing that could have been done differently would have been to start canceling banquets at least one day earlier when it became obvious the problem WASN’T going away. One or two days, especially on a weekend, is understandable, but as foodservice workers get hungrier, they’re going to work sick more, and this is going to happen again.

Posted by Walt Frazer at 05:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

This morning I was a little shocked at myself: I read a Bill O’Reilly column. . .and agreed with it. Kind of.

He was writing about Julia Roberts being followed as she drove with her daughter, so she swerved her car and drove the pursuer off the road, got out and gave him hell for violating her privacy and her daughter’s. O’Reilly’s point was well-taken, as far as it went. The paparazzi DO stalk and hound these people, and trying to make them stop takes a lot of time and money in our court system. "This collapse of privacy rights should disturb all Americans," he says. The right to privacy from government prying into our email, telephone calls or library books as it pursues “terrorists” is different, but we’ll let that pass.

The point O’Reilly and others don’t address is the other side of this harassment: if these critters didn’t get paid big bucks, they wouldn’t do this. And they get big bucks because millions of putatively normal people suck this garbage up. They love pictures of scantily-clad stars doing naughty things, they love stories, real or imagined, about the sex lives, psychological health and toilet habits of the stars. When people go on and on about Princess Diana, I wanna yell, “Know who killed her? YOU did!” If tomorrow people stopped buying vapid, mindless tabloids, the people who harass the stars would have to get real jobs. End of problem.

I suppose people have always thrived on gossip, and in this case somebody like Oprah is a person everyone spends an inordinate amount of time watching and thinking of as though she were a person they really know. A hundred years ago it was the cat lady down the street, the AC/DC police chief or the banker’s wayward daughter. But now because millions worship Oprah and follow her without question, she can pick the next president of the United States. Regardless of her intentions, her power is truly frightening. Imagine Eva Peron to the tenth power.

She may BE a nice person, and she may be right when she says Obama is wonderful, but why should we be so fascinated with stores about her weight and sex life? Surely we can find more constructive, important things to obsess about.

Like Bill O'Reilly and Ann Coulter hangin' on the Plaza smokin' their meds. . .

Posted by Walt Frazer at 12:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)