I am noticing it a lot lately. I am noticing it about the issues surrounding the Iraq War. Congress can put a stop to the dying by defunding the war, which is their constitutionally given power. Not a pretty thought, but it is part of their job description. The spin around it is almost unbearable. They say can't stop it until Republicans get on board. That is really not the case.
Third Way is telling them not to use that power. Feingold has powerful words.
Who's advising Congress not to use their constitutional power of the purse?Russ Feingold: ....."The Constitution gives Congress the explicit power “to declare War,” “to raise and support Armies,” “to provide and maintain a Navy” and “to make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces.” In addition, under Article I, “No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law.” These are direct quotes from the Constitution of the United States. Yet to hear some in the Administration talk, it is as if these powers were written in invisible ink. They were not. These powers are a clear and direct statement from the founders of our republic that Congress has authority to declare, to define and, ultimately, to end a war.
There has been very little honesty in another issue as well. Florida"s Democratic leaders used propaganda to damage the role of the DNC and to hurt it's fundraising. They unfortunately did a very good sales job on the Young Democrats and many of the Florida bloggers. I have lost friends at least temporarily over this issue.
"Primary bully Florida ought to be ashamed"...four articles catch on to Florida's primary ploy.Friday, August 31, 2007
It's not a very proud time to be a Floridian.
We're looking bad again - and deservedly so. It's over voting. (Surprise!) And this time, a purely self-inflicted
Unfortunately, there's no good way to honey-coat this. Florida's transgression is something that people can understand, even if they have no interest in politics. It's one of those things you learn in kindergarten: Don't cut in line.
In this case, the national political parties have created a lineup of state primaries, spacing out the state-by-state votes on a schedule designed to be politically beneficial to the parties. Does it make sense? You could make the argument that the early-voting states, Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada serve as a kind of spring-training season, where candidates gain credibility, or lose it, before the bigger states with lots of electoral votes weigh in.
The wisdom of the lineup, though, is beside the point. What's important is that without the national parties imposing some kind of order, there would be the kind of anarchy you see at a supermarket when a new cash register opens and a swarm of shopping carts collide trying to get there first.
The party leaders are pitting the people of the party against Howard Dean and the DNC in a pretty obvious effort to hurt his influence. Some are catching on to the ploys, but any are not.
Those are not the only lies and partial truths still going on. Candidates pledged to the four early states they would not campaign in Florida and Michigan....again partial truths and downright lies in some cases.
And to me the most vital and most outrageous thing of all. The candidates who refuse to take responsibility for their vote to invade a sovereign country, assassinate the leaders' son, put their bodies on public display, hang the country's leader and gloat about it....they should be ashamed.
This is a new low for our country. We openly bombed innocents and called it shock and awe, and our leaders mostly remained silent.
This episode from Matt Bai's recent book where he is discussing the Democracy Alliance, DA, shows a very angry Bill Clinton when questioned about Hillary's vote for the war. Since he once openly said he defended Bush against the left, he should have been more careful in his answer. It is not a proud episode.
Battle for party's soulIn the end, Bill Clinton frames Matt Bai's book
In probably the book's most riveting scene, former President Bill Clinton shows up as a surprise guest at the Austin DA confab. After Clinton's usual smooth presentation, Guy Saperstein, one of America's most successful trial lawyers and a DA expert in foreign affairs and healthcare, rose to ask a question. Saperstein mentioned that John Edwards had already apologized about voting to authorize the Iraq war. "Why shouldn't every Democrat who voted for the war -- including presumably Hillary Clinton -- do the same thing? How were Democrats supposed to have any credibility if they wouldn't admit when they had been so calamitously wrong."
Clinton quickly went ballistic: "He leaned forward belligerently and pointed a finger at Saperstein. 'You're wrong,' he said. 'Everything you just said is totally wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.'" He went on to explain away Hillary's vote on the war and tell Saperstein he wasn't productive. "Only in this party do we eat our own. You can go on misrepresenting and bashing our own people, but I am sick and tired of it."
Clinton later apologized and realized he had made an error, but it was too late for many of the people in Austin. On the surface, the exchange had been about the war, but it symbolized much more: "It had been about Clintonism itself and the centrist governing ethos that had led the party to this place in its history." To the progressives, Clinton's desire to remake the Democratic Party "had stripped the party of its moral authority."
Bai documents Clinton's attempts to patch up what almost all attendees perceived to be a defensive reaction from the former president. Some sensed deeply that the exchange represented the chasm between the more issue-oriented and anti-war progressives -- probably a majority of the DA -- and the "pragmatic" insiders who prefer to steamroll dissent.
Saperstein's question was fair. It should have been answered properly.
Our party has a lot of issues to work through right now. I am fearful that in the process of getting over the fear of the right wing...that we will attack and diminish the voices who in their courage in speaking out helped bring us this far toward taking back some power in this country.
It is being done now in Florida to one of those voices. It is being done by a man who never really stood up for much of anything, yet he is mounting a campaign against the man many progressives consider their leader.
Too many convenient half truths, too many actual lies, too much propaganda.
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