Well, why not? He’s a Republican, isn’t he? And don’t they always walk?

MCM

John Ensign Ethics Complaint Dismissed
SHARON THEIMER

WASHINGTON – The Federal Election Commission has dismissed a complaint against Sen. John Ensign over a $96,000 payment his parents made to his former mistress and her family.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a campaign finance watchdog group, announced Friday that the commission had dismissed its complaint against Ensign, his parents, his campaign and his political action committee over the money paid to Cynthia Hampton, with whom the Nevada Republican has admitted having an affair. CREW contended it amounted to an illegal political donation to Ensign.

Read more.

Josh Mitteldorf to Steve Benen

(re: http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2010_11/026737.php):

Dear Steve,

I think you’re on to something. To judge from the GOP behavior, they certainly are trying to wreck the economy. But I think your take on their motives is actually too generous.

Your hypothesis is that they want to wreck the economy and then blame Obama for the nation’s suffering, all to enhance the probability of electing a Republican president in 2012. But look at what they did while Bush was president: They cut jobs for the middle class. They lied about future financial consequences to push through a tax cut for the rich. They lied about future financial consequences to push through the Medicare giveaway to drug companies. They undermined public education with “No child left behind”, blaming schools for having to serve needy, desperate populations, and diverting their meager resources to for-profit experiments.

They invested only in military and “security”, while neglecting infrastructure, energy, transportation, and education – all sectors that (1) are vital to the nation’s future and (2) produce far more employment per Federal dollar than military spending. Eliot Spitzer told us that they did not just look the other way while banks appropriated the American real estate market and repackaged each mortgage into two, three or more
different bonds backed by the same income stream – they actively thwarted regulatory efforts to stop the scandal in its early stages.

Is it paranoid to think that these people are more than kleptocrats – that they want to wreck America not just to enrich themselves but for the sake of wrecking America? Consider that Bush Père launched the neo-Con Revolution while still a VP candidate in 1980, by traveling to Iran and negotiating behind Jimmy Carter’s back to assure that American hostages would not be released. Consider the undermining of
democracy by privatizing the vote count and monopolizing the print and broadcast media. And consider the creation of a “war on terror” as an excuse for rolling back Constitutional rights, concentrating power in the Executive, and expanding our military presence, seeking to “liberate” peoples who want nothing more than
to get the US the hell out of their country.

If you took the helm in 2001, and were hellbent on taking a wrecking ball to a thriving American economy and replacing democracy with secret, authoritarian rule, could you have done so any more efficiently than BushCo did in their 8-year rule?

Naomi Wolf is right.

There is a deliberate campaign to close down a free society, to destroy democracy in America and the
American middle class.

Josh Mitteldorf

From Jeff Cohen:

Dear Friend,

We can make a best-seller out of David Swanson’s powerful book, “WAR IS A LIE.” It’s a great holiday gift.

Publication date is this Monday (Nov. 22). If we all buy a copy (or copies) on Amazon.com on Monday, this book could rise to the top like David’s previous book, “Daybreak,” which reached #1 on Amazon/nonfiction.

Getting to the top of Amazon motivates bookstores to order copies — and helps word of mouth. Need more motivation? If we succeed, we’ll be knocking a Glenn Beck book out of the #1 slot in nonfiction/politics.

David is a brave peace advocate, intrepid researcher (and friend). You will learn a new fact about U.S. history and the history of war on every page. More info on the book (and bulk purchasing) is at http://warisalie.org

Want to get your book through your local indy bookstore? That’s fine too.

WAR IS A LIE thoroughly refutes every major argument used to justify wars — with a focus on those wars that have been most widely defended as just. You may not agree with every argument in the book, but you’ll sure be ready to debunk future lies and war-mongering like the soon-to-be-intensified threats against Iran. — jc

Chapters
1. Wars Are Not Fought Against Evil
2. Wars Are Not Launched in Defense
3. Wars Are Not Waged Out of Generosity
4. Wars Are Not Unavoidable
5. Warriors Are Not Heroes
6. War Makers Do Not Have Noble Motives
7. Wars Are Not Prolonged for the Good of Soldiers
8. Wars Are Not Fought on Battlefields
9. Wars Are Not Won, and Are Not Ended By Enlarging Them
10. War News Does Not Come >From Disinterested Observers
11. War Does Not Bring Security and Is Not Sustainable
12. Wars Are Not Legal
13. Wars Cannot Be Both Planned and Avoided
14. War Is Over If You Want It

FDR, Reagan, and Obama
by Paul Krugman

Some readers may recall that back during the Democratic primary Barack Obama shocked many progressives by praising Ronald Reagan as someone who brought America a “sense of dynamism and entrepreneurship that had been missing.” I was among those who found this deeply troubling – because the idea that Reagan brought a transfomation in American dynamism is a right-wing myth, not borne out by the facts. (There was a surge in productivity and innovation – but it happened in the 90s, under Clinton, not under Reagan).

All the usual suspects pooh-poohed these concerns; it was ridiculous, they said, to think of Obama as a captive of right-wing mythology.

But are you so sure about that now?

Read more.

None Dare Call It Sabotage
by Steve Benen

Consider a thought experiment. Imagine you actively disliked the United States, and wanted to deliberately undermine its economy. What kind of positions would you take to do the most damage?

You might start with rejecting the advice of economists and oppose any kind of stimulus investments. You’d also want to cut spending and take money out of the economy, while blocking funds to states and municipalities, forcing them to lay off more workers. You’d no doubt want to cut off stimulative unemployment benefits, and identify the single most effective jobs program of the last two years (the TANF Emergency Fund) so you could kill it.

You might then take steps to stop the Federal Reserve from trying to lower the unemployment rate. You’d also no doubt want to create massive economic uncertainty by vowing to gut the national health care system, promising to re-write the rules overseeing the financial industry, vowing re-write business regulations in general, considering a government shutdown, and even weighing the possibly of sending the United States into default.

Read more.

Evidence for Informed Trading on the Attacks
of September 11
by Kevin Ryan

Just after September 11th 2001, many governments began investigations into possible insider trading related to the terrorist attacks of that day. Such investigations were initiated by the governments of Belgium, Cyprus, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Monte Carlo, the Netherlands, Switzerland, the United States, and others. Although the investigators were clearly concerned about insider trading, and considerable evidence did exist, none of the investigations resulted in a single indictment. That’s because the people identified as having been involved in the suspicious trades were seen as unlikely to have been associated with those alleged to have committed the 9/11 crimes.

Read more.

A worrisome addendum, from Michael Green, to Michael Collins’ item on the TSA.

MCM

Mark,

Because you posted Michael Collins’s article on TSA, I am forwarding the email that I sent to him.

The USG intelligence community stated that it deliberately decided to let Abdulmutallab board the plane in the service of a greater security operation. The only newspaper reporting the relevant Congressional testimony of Patrick Kennedy was the Detroit News. No other media went near it. The News retracted its facts without explanation the next day.

First, the facts (below). For the (forced) retraction see the attached. (Detroit News Article)

As Assange opined recently at the Oslo media forum, the charm of a centralized electronic memory bank is that history may be seamlessly rewritten with no trace of that ugly glue which

Stalin had to use when he insisted that the Soviet Encyclopedia enlarge its entry on the Bering Straits after what’s-his-name (Beria) passed into oblivion.

Best,
Michael Green

—– Original Message —–

From: Michael Green

To: Collins, Michael

Sent: Friday, November 19, 2010 7:03 PM

Subject: The Bizarre Tale of Graft and Sleazy Political Opportunism That Brought Us the ‘Porno Scanners’ : Information Clearing House: ICH

From Michael Collins’ piece:

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article26871.htm

Would Scanners Have Stopped Abdulmutallab?

We know that federal law enforcement quietly allowed the Haskells’ story to stand through the statement to Brian Ross. Since key elements of the story have not been formally investigated, we don’t know if Abdulmutallab went through normal check-in or if, as witnessed and indicated, he somehow bypassed normal security requirements. We don’t know who the sharp dressed man is. We don’t know the full extent of the system breakdown that allowed all of this to happen.

Michael Green adds:

But we do, and there was no breakdown.

Amid media blackout

Congressional hearing reveals US intelligence agencies shielded Flight 253 bomber
By Alex Lantier
3 February 2010

A January 27 hearing of the House Committee on Homeland Security established that US intelligence agencies stopped the State Department from revoking the US visa of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab. The Nigerian student, whom US officials suspected of being affiliated with the Yemeni terrorist group Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, attempted to set off a bomb on Northwest Flight 253 into Detroit on Christmas Day. Revocation of Abdulmutallab’s visa would have prevented him from boarding the airplane.

The hearing was reported in a brief article posted January 27 on the web site of the Detroit News, headlined, “Terror Suspect Kept Visa to Avoid Tipping Off Larger Investigation.”

The revelation that US intelligence agencies made a deliberate decision to allow Abdulmutallab to board the commercial flight, without any special airport screening, has been buried in the media. As of this writing, nearly a week after the hearing, the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post and Los Angeles Times have published no articles on the subject. Nor have the broadcast or cable media reported on it.

Read more.

An invaluable summation by Dave Griscom:

http://impactglassman.blogspot.com/2010/11/fair-and-balanced-questions-what-is.html

MCM

Think tank: 92% of Afghans never heard of 9/11
By Daniel Tencer

Fewer than one in 10 Afghans are aware of the 9/11 attacks and their precipitation of the war in Afghanistan, says a study from an international think tank.

A report (PDF) from the International Council on Security and Development (ICOS) shows that 92 percent
of those surveyed had never heard of the coordinated multiple attacks on US soil on September 11, 2001.

It also shows that four in 10 Afghans believe the US is on their soil in order to “destroy Islam or occupy Afghanistan.”

Read more.