GAO, Pentagon's IG Investigate "Pentagon Pundits"

I suspect the GAO is dragging the Pentagon IG, kicking and screaming, to investigate the propaganda program the Pentagon launched in their media psyop to promote the Iraq invasion.

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How telecoms are attempting to buy amnesty from Congress

Lobbyist disclosure forms and campaign contribution records illuminate the sleazy process by which our key laws are written.

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Bush Power Grab Since 911 - Democratic Underground

Unitary Executive theory is ahistorical and undemocratic.

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Center For Media and Democracy: Sheldon Rampton @ Google

Cops with rifles to hit streets this summer: More, Bigger Guns For Peace

Metropolitan PD officials said yesterday patrol officers will be issued assault rifles by the summer, after policies on their use are released this month. The Wash Times reported Wednesday that the department is arming the officers with the rifles as part of a national trend to protect them from criminals with increasingly powerful weapons.

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White House denies Army radio report on plan to attack Iran

Army Radio had quoted a top official in Jerusalem claiming that a senior member in the entourage of President Bush, who concluded a trip to Israel last week, had said in a closed meeting here that Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney were of the opinion that military action against Iran was called for.

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Tom Ricks's* Inbox [Please note correct possessive form]

A sad epilogue to an Inbox from January.

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An epidemic of extinctions: Decimation of life on earth

Scientists estimate that the extinction of more than 25% of all living species on earth in the last 35 years represents an acceleration by a factor of 10,000 of the normal rate in the history of the planet.

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Voter ID Battle Shifts to Proof of Citizenship

The battle over voting rights will expand this week as lawmakers in Missouri are expected to support a proposed constitutional amendment to enable election officials to require proof of citizenship from anyone registering to vote.

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That's What I Thought They Were Saying, Too!

Jeffrey Feldman has a brilliant post on Alter Net entitled, "The Violent Language of Right Wing Pundits Poisons Our Democracy," in which he states:

Most right-wing pundits see the power of the state as residing ultimately in the monopoly over violence, an idea that comes from the writings of German philosopher Max Weber. This, however, is not the political philosophy that guided the framers of the U.S. Constitution. In other words, violent rhetoric is not just a question of linguistic style, but a sign that a political philosophy in conflict with American deliberative democracy has captured the imagination of many right-wing pundits.

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The Mistake

James Carroll writes in yesterday's Boston Globe:

Let's call this repeated insanity the mistake of "supermilitarism," choosing war over diplomacy, and expecting order to follow, instead of chaos. The mistake was made at the beginning, in the middle, and is being repeated now, in what should be the end. The mistake is so deeply rooted in American structures of imagination, economy, and government that it isn't even perceived as a mistake by those in power. And it threatens the future as much as it burdens the past.

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