The Exploitation Memorial

Jon Stewart nails it oh so well, yet again, another topper:

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God bless America.

The Silence of 9/11

Best tribute I've found yet, a New York City man filling that amazing monument and tying us together again in honest grief, with a song nearly 50 years old:

Unifying, as America was on that day and the first few weeks, months that followed. And then this.

Remembrance

Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) remember a selfless American hero at demagogue Rep. Peter King's (R-NY) unAmerican activities hearing:



Self-styled anti-terrorism crusader Peter King has been a terrorism supporter himself in the past -- he fully supported the IRA and denied they killed civilians.

The Main Man

President Barack Obama once again flipped the story around with his now patented strong finish, closing out this session of Congress with a flurry of wins that have him looking pretty darn strong again. His press conference today was excellent, the best in ages, as he touted the wins, spreading the credit and dropping the type of answers we didn't hear in the previous eight years, including this one in response to a Jake Tapper question regarding the future of marriage equality in light of DADT repeal:

As I've said, my feelings about this are constantly evolving. I struggle with this. I have friends, I have people who work for me, who are in powerful, strong, long-lasting gay or lesbian unions. And they are extraordinary people, and this is something that means a lot to them and they care deeply about. At this point, what I've said is that my baseline is a strong civil union that provides them the protections and the legal rights that married couples have. And I think that's the right thing to do. But I recognize that from their perspective it is not enough. And I think this is something we're gonna continue to debate, and I personally am gonna continue to wrestle with going forward.

I'll take that as a yes. For the record, here's a list of some of his biggest accomplishments in just two years, with the latest being DADT repeal, START missile treaty ratification and the 9/11 responders bill passage (two of those much thanks to the also underestimated Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) who just got a nice NY Times piece on her accomplishments).

Here's our President and VP Biden with the emotional audience at the DADT repeal signing:



And, as a final treat, this incredibly moving video of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) both when he received Lt. Dan Choi's West Point ring in July and today, after passing the bill, he gave it back:



God bless America.

Liebersave

I've certainly criticized him (roundly) in the past, but Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) has been the biggest mensch on DADT repeal, even beating back the GOP attempt to slip a mickey into the defense appropriations bill.

Credit where credit is due. I don't expect Joe to be on my side for a lot else, but this could be enough to earn him reelection. It makes for good politics but he certainly didn't seem to be playing politics, at least none of the posturing of the other side, including his buddy, John McC.

Meanwhile, could Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) be more cruel and political on the 9/11 Responders bill?

Beware the Winter Cannibals.

Credit for GOPers

Two Republicans have shown themselves to be true Americans in the best sense of the word -- tolerant, sensible, respectful of the Constitution. One is 9/11 widower and former Bush Administration Solicitor General, Ted Olson, who also recently co-led the case against the heinous Prop 8 here in California, coming out in favor of what President Obama said regarding the Cordoba House near Ground Zero:

The other, and it ain't easy for me to give credit here but it is richly deserved, is MSNBC's Former GOP Congressman Joe Scarborough, who is not only pounding on Newt Gingrich for that parasite's demagoguery on the issue, but also has Pat - yes - Buchanan chiming in with him against the current Republican Tea Party line on the site:

Bravo, gents. You've both earned kudos in my book, and I'll have to go a little easier on Joe the next time he says something I disagree with.

Big Stuff

None of these items may eventually play out exactly as I'd like, but all are potentially big news:

• The Senate is moving ahead with a healthcare reform bill resulting from merging with the House version. On the face of it, it appears that key Dem concerns have been addressed, and full steam ahead to the floor. Any filibuster, hello reconciliation.

• A House panel has approved curbs on "Too Big to Fail" banking firms. About time.

• China appears to be ready to cooperate with President Obama and the U.S. on curbing global-warming emissions.

• Attorney General Eric Holder goes before Congress to reiterate and explain the decision to try the 9/11 masterminds in NYC where the crime was committed, showing more spine than all the conservative fear-infected detractors put together.

And meanwhile, in the alt reality that is The Sarah Palin Network a.k.a. FNC, her book-signing crowd sizes are being inflated, once again, by using footage from other events...a.k.a. bald-faced lying.

Rude-a-loodle-oo

As John Amato points out:

50 million bucks gets Ghouliani 1 delegate so far. What an amazing story…

Suh-weet! There's talk of Rudy endorsing McCain tomorrow, surely angling for Attorney General (VP?) where he can run his House of Fascism the way he likes. But the pleasure right now is in the fall, i.e. The New York Times:

...Just three months ago, Anthony V. Carbonetti, Mr. Giuliani’s affable senior policy adviser, surveyed that field and told The New York Observer: “I don’t believe this can be taken from us. Now that I have that locked up, I can go do battle elsewhere.”

In fact, Mr. Giuliani’s campaign was about to begin a free-fall so precipitous as to be breathtaking. Mr. Giuliani finished third in the Florida primary on Tuesday night; only a few months earlier, he had talked about the state as his leaping-off point to winning the nomination...

...The more that Republican voters saw of him, the less they wanted to vote for him.

It's icing on the cake to see his equally self-entitled wife, Judith Nathan, who surely had pretensions to First Lady in keeping with her reported Queen-like tendencies, accompany him on the fall. Her face has actually fallen, clearly struggling to endure while Rudy is all triggerish bonhomie, with that crazyman laugh of his. She and his habit of charging his adultery with her to city agencies is surely responsible for much of his freefall. Let Tom Brokaw explain it to you as he explains all of Rudy's baggage to the once-fawning Chris Matthews.

Per Joe Biden, all Rudy really campaigned on was "A noun, a verb and 9/11." He was dubbed by the media, "America's Mayor" for his calm demeanor during that fateful day while George Bush ran like a frightened mouse and President Cheney was about to shoot more planes out of the sky. But so many of the casualties in 9/11 might have been escaped had Rudy not made his selfish decision to locate the anti-attack command and control center under the World Trade Center -- the one structure on American soil that had ever previously been attacked by foreign terrorists.

America's Mayor? Maybe if you repeat it enough times:



Toodles, Rudles.

Busted

The walls are starting to cave in on former NYC Mayor Rudolph Giuliani's bid for the Republican Presidential nomination.

Back in the day when Rudy was running for reelection, a friend of mine -- the wife of a close buddy -- told me there was no way she was going to vote for "that fascist." Indeed, Rudy did his NYC clean-up with a lot of force, also his opening up to real estate developers, but was absolutely terrible on race relations (eventually alienating even those who had supported him earlier) and even tried to use his office to censor works of art and punish the museum for their noteworthy British "Sensation" show:

Giuliani asserted that he found a portrait of a black Virgin Mary splattered with elephant dung and photographs of genitalia to be the most offensive. Other works that outraged the mayor include a bust of a man made from his own frozen blood, the use of dead pigs and cows sliced from head to tail in a tank of formaldehyde, and a painting depicting the murder of children that took place in England in the 1960s.

Although threatening to withhold public funds for the Brooklyn Museum, he only succeeded in making British artists Damien Hirst, Chris Ofili et al the most famous contemporary artists.

So inside of the authoritarian, that one trait which most endears him to the average Republican voter, does it necessarily go hand-in-hand that he would cheat on his wife, and let her and her kids learn that he was divorcing her from the television set in Gracie Mansion?

It's a man who's only in it for himself, of course. His own ego. His sexual gratification. His yearning for power.

Hence no surprise that, while still married to second wife Donna Hanover and engaging in an affair with eventual third wife Dr. Judith Nathan, he had people on the city tab squiring around his mistress like it was his own kingly taxi service, all on the public dime.

It's the same thing that took down NY State Comptroller and mayorial hopeful Alan Hevesi. It's a felony.

None of it any surprise. Rudy's fatal flaw is actual more about his legal background, and how he lies like the bad lawyers that make people hate all of 'em. He just says whatever he wants to bolster his rhetoric, like it's the College Republican club, a vicious advocate who cheats on the facts. Anything to win.

I'm guessing that since he was coming off a "rumored" longterm affair with his press secretary, Cristyne Lategano, imagining that much of their erotic time would have been spent alone in workplace settings, it was probably second nature to integrate his new affairlette into his official life and quarters. After all, he was a very busy man.

So what if maybe he made them build the terrorism command center, against expert recommendations, close enough to City Hall that he could go down there and shag with Dr. Nathan. Busy men have to be efficient with their time.

Giuliani isn't the first executive politician who thinks he's popular enough that he owns the city or the state enough to take liberties for personal pleasure. But what's been so dissonant during this run up to the GOP primaries is how flagrant he was with his amorality, yet it's gotten virtually no play among the party faithful. Media blackout, maybe. Narrative interference (Mr. 9/11), maybe. Willful self-delusion, certainly.

The key indicator to watch during this scandal is Fox News, run by Giuliani's very own ex-campaign manager, Roger Ailes. If they show people in the heartland giving up on Giuliani based on what they're learning about the real Rudy during these next few news cycles, his goose is cooked. But they'll be his staunchest hagiographers to the end.

Watch Rudy sink like a rock in the upcoming GOP polls. He was wearing badly last night in the Florida debate, and the party faithful are breathing a sigh of relief that Mike Huckabee appears ready for primetime.

All that's left is face-saving so he can duck back into the private sector and keep the brand intact enough to get clients. Expect him to drop out by March. New affair twelve months hence.

America's Mayor.

The Devil and Rudy Giuliani

Far rightwing Christianist Pat Robertson just endorsed an overjoyed Rudy Giuliani. What exactly is the common appeal?

Blaming liberals for 9/11.

Pro-torture. (Read: Crusade.)

Fascist capitalism.

"Southern" Strategy.

Ed Kilgore puts Robertson's waiving of all supposed "principles" (in light of Giuliani's previous support of abortion rights, gay tolerance, infidelity and divorce record) in a perspective that folks on my side of the line can understand:

I've tried to think of a Democratic analog for the unlikeliness of this particular endorsement, and the best I can come up with is Cindy Sheehan joining Hillary Clinton's campaign out of admiration for her energy proposals.

I wouldn't hold my breath on that one.

Hijacked

Just a quick note from New York City where I'm spending most of the week. It's easy to lose sight of what happened on 9/11/2001 from sunny Southern California when so much of the actual comprehension of the attack has been obfuscated by the Cheney/Bush Administration's perversion of that event for naked partisan gain.

But when on the streets of Manhattan, looking to orient myself, I glance over where the World Trade Center used to be, the southern tip of the island, and when I see only empty sky, it all comes rushing back and I utter under my breath, "You bastards."

We shouldn't forget that we were attacked, nor the need to take measures to prevent a future attack. We did strike back, definitively and with both bi-partisan and worldwide support, when we went into Afghanistan.

How tragic that we failed to finish the job -- Bin Laden escaped under George Bush's direction, any permanent fix abated due to the Cheney/Bush/Rumsfeld/Neoconservative misdirection into Iraq, their complete undermining of favorable world opinion and U.S. "soft power" by their war atrocities and illegal renditions.

There is no way to overstate how much this villainous Administration has abused the memory and emotion engendered by the attacks.

That alone is worthy of a treason trial, if not ruling.

Repuglicans

How screwed up is the GOP right now? I mean, more than I've already covered this week?

This was a banner day.

It turns out Rudolph Gall-iani will literally say anything he thinks will get him elected, especially if it involves climbing on the corpses of 9/11 victims or the shoulders of those who cleaned up afterwards:

Speaking to reporters in Cincinnati, Giuliani said, "I was at ground zero as often, if not more, than most of the workers... I was there working with them. I was exposed to exactly the same things they were exposed to. So in that sense, I'm one of them."

Do those workers agree with him?

Fire Captain and Giuliani foe James Riches, whose firefighter son died on 9/11:

"That's insulting and disgraceful. He's a liar. I was down there on my hands and knees looking for my son."

Queens paramedic Marvin Bethea:

"I personally find that very, very insulting," he said..."Standing there doing a photo-op and telling the men, 'You're doing a good job,' I don't consider that to be working."

Ironworker Jonathan Sferazo who spent a month at ground zero:

"He's not one of us. He never has been and he never will be. He never served in a capacity where he was a responder," Sferazo said.

Oh, he's tried to backtrack. So sad, so lame.

An isolated incident of exaggeration? Not so, per Wayne Barrett in The Village Voice:

Rudy Giuliani's Five Big Lies About 9/11:

1. 'I think the thing that distinguishes me on terrorism is, I have more experience dealing with it.'

Turns out he lies about the minimal, unsuccessful terrorism prosecutions he even touched when he was a U.S. Attorney.

2. 'I don't think there was anyplace in the country, including the federal government, that was as well prepared for that attack as New York City was in 2001.'

No, turns out NYC was much worse than the Pentagon, no unified command, no high-rise plan, bad communications killed firefighters, lackadaisical response to 1993 WTC bombing.

3. Don't blame me for 7 WTC, Rudy says.

(Do.)

4. 'Democrats do not understand the full nature and scope of the terrorist war against us.'

The worst kind of typical GOP scummy smearjob.

Clinton was the President who ordered daily briefings on Al Queda and other terrorist threats. Bush cut them down, missed "Bin Laden determined to attack inside the United States." 9/11 happened on Bush, Cheney, Rice and Rumsfeld's watch. Then they blew our lead in Afghanistan by attacking Iraq, with Rudy's full and continued support. This after Rudy blew the preparations in NYC.

Meanwhile the Dems consider terrorists criminals rather than soldiers, meaning you don't do asymmetrical warfare and get your ass handed to you by an enemy you often can't see, who can disappear into a population...like a criminal.

Rudy understands...nothing.

5. 'Every effort was made by Mayor Giuliani and his staff to ensure the safety of all workers at Ground Zero.'

Ask them.

Will this cave in on Rudy? Who the heck else do the GOP have to go with? McCain is polling below Obama amongst Iowa Republicans. Mitt's fundraiser are johns or crooks. In fact, "None of the Above" is leading the GOP field in Iowa:

None of the Above has polled higher than Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney, Fred Thompson, and all the other Republican presidential candidates, reflecting a lackluster field that isn’t catching on with the American people.

What else is there to loathe about the GOP?

- David Brooks reveals that no one likes the current President -- even Republicans.

- Bush and Giuliani want to regress our tax system further.

- They are traitors who leak secrets when politically advantageous for them.

- They will have to bring back the Draft.

Oh, and their President Cheney is desperately trying to plunge us into WWIII.

Prediction:

Newt Gingrich will enter the race, solely on the basis that he has the smarts, nerve and ego to run against the current President. He will wipe out at least two of the three supposed contenders now, maybe even go head-to-head with Rudy. Whichever one wins will not win the General Election, unless there is some act of violence which tips the equation.

Newt will, however, unleash a huge Republican rank & file rage against the current Administration, and he may be able to ride that wave to a nomination.

The trick will be to blame the officeholders and not the overall Republican ideology, but GOP faithful will want to be fooled into that, and are probably laying the groundwork already. Bifurcate the leadership away from Karl Rove. Scoop 'em up.

It's the only strategy that can take on and beat None of the Above.

Tony America

Home stretch. I've been asked what do I think will happen in the final episode, and while I've been reading some predictions, imaginable ones, I only want to comment on this week's penultimate Sopranos episode.

It seems to me that the Presidential failure of George W. Bush was a godsend of metaphor for series creator/executive producer David Chase. There have been hints of the family's political leanings along the way, like when Carmela and Tony said thank God Bush was President during and after 9/11, with Carmela reading Fred Barnes' nincompoop sycophantic Rebel in Chief in bed, but never was the connection made more obvious than in this episode's comparison of the War in Iraq with Tony's long-gestating mob war.

The gimme is when A.J. comes down for breakfast and switches on Bush's war on the high-def TV, blasting the volume. His mother and sister are too intimidated by his recent suicide attempt to ask him to turn it down. Instead, the unpleasant violence of the war invades their home, all that continuing horror a direct consequence of supporting this President but something kept off the TV, outside the walls, under the rug. Even "compassionate" Meadow, who's book smart enough about oppression, doesn't care to hear it, a nuisance to her young bourgeois adulthood. And Carmela's been psychologically blocking the bloodshed that has perpetuated her lifestyle for years.

Now here's Tony, architect of his own decimation, his best soldiers gunned down dreaming of an America in the past that never exactly existed, just the narcissistic philosophical underpinning of their violent practices. Tony not only brought the war on himself with an overreaction to a slight of honor in which he attacked a tangental enemy, not the one actually perpetrating the violence against his crew, but the result has been nothing but loss for him. Just like Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld, his flawed leadership leads to his team botching an impossible mission, and in the end he's holed up in a stasis-like retreat, his forces markedly diminished, his weaknesses rather than his strength revealed to his enemy, left contemplating a shrinking range of very bad options.

It was salacious biographer Kitty Kelley who said in 2004 (Salon):

...nothing will stand in the way of these people winning. Nothing. You start out looking at the Bush family like it's "The Donna Reed Show" and then you see it's "The Sopranos."

In some ways Tony is the combo Bush/Cheney, with the latter's bullish bearing and the former's incapacity for taking personal responsibility. But the real difference between the two Bosses is that one's run ends next the Sunday.

The other's...not soon enough.