Back in Cold War days, we in the West often speculated on the shadowy personalities and cabals inside the Kremlin walls. Similarly, it's increasingly difficult to discern exactly who is making US policy. Examining today's "beacon of democracy", erstwhile Kremlinologists might have a better expertise at penetrating the contemporary layers of secrecy that have accreted in our own government. I would very much like to know what they could show us about ourselves now. Kremlinologists often seemed to discern much from the periodic power struggles that rocked the Kremlin, and so perhaps should US citizens too, at least those interested in making out who specifically runs this country. There is an intense power struggle going on right now in Washington between the Bush Administration and older Republican leadership, along with most other institutions of government. If such struggles were actual warfare, leaks could be considered the light-weapons fire- Not that indicative of the strategic situation, but certainly indicative that something's definitely going down. Leaks are now unseating high advisors to the President. Multiple scandals are being just barely controlled involving deceptive war-mongering, illegal domestic spying, illegal foreign lobbying, and media control on the part of this White House. One or more is bound to spin out of control for the White House soon. Deep inside our embatled white kremlin, there must soon be either a negotiated or forced change of unseen command soon, because the situation is untenable- not just because of election cycles, but because of the larger arc of inside power. Many of the publicly-visible architects (Feith, Wolfowitz, Libby, etc) of this President's radical policy departures being exposed and discredited. That means that deeper and bigger fish could be making moves detectable at the surface soon. Let's watch carefully. It takes some interpolation to make out who may be calling the shots from the deep. Certainly regarding Mideast policy it is not a domestic interest, but rather a foreign one (Israel) who holds the greatest influence of all. But recently AIPAC and the neocons have come under considerable and unprecedented scrutiny. -From somewhere. Who is it? Not the public pressuring Congress. So many Americans seem blissfully ignorant of these issues, and the major media is loathe to educate and awaken them. So who specifically is doing the pushing to stop the noconservative crusade? I suspect we may ironically find our democracy rescued and protected by elements of our highest military leadership and intelligence community, because the public is unlikely to get informed and act politically. Senior military officials may be highly disciplined and loyal, but occasionally their anger has been heard beyond the walls of power. Within those walls the sound and fury must now be deafening. I remember General Tommy Frank once calling Doug Feith "the stupidist Bastard I have ever met". Other comments here and there from the military, intel, and diplomatic professions indicate serious dissent from the present leadership, and I wish them success. But still we should use this coming chaotic opportunity to glimpse our true rulers. They may fleetingly show themselves, if sufficiently unbalanced. I'll be watching.
ja lets look again...... *He has launched an aggressive war ("war of choice," in today's euphemism) on false grounds. *He has presided over a system of torture and sought to legitimize it by specious definitions of the word. *He has asserted a wholesale right to lock up American citizens and others indefinitely without any legal showing or the right to see a lawyer or anyone else. *He has kidnapped people in foreign countries and sent them to other countries, where they were tortured. *In rationalizing these and other acts, his officials have laid claim to the unlimited, uncheckable and unreviewable powers he has asserted in the wiretapping case. * *He has tried to drop a thick shroud of secrecy over these and other actions There is a name for a system of government that wages aggressive war, deceives its citizens, violates their rights, abuses power and breaks the law, rejects judicial and legislative checks on itself, claims power without limit, tortures prisoners and acts in secret. It is dictatorship (Jonathan Schell) so ahh cmon congress lets impeach
And also try and reveal exactly who has been pulling the strings. George W. Bush surely did not mastermind the high crimes/misdemeanors you list.
oh schell goes on to say...... Even within the executive branch itself, Bush seemed to govern outside the normally constituted channels of the Cabinet and to rely on what Secretary of State Colin Powell's chief of staff has called a "cabal." Former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill reported the same thing. Cabinet meetings were for show. Real decisions were made elsewhere, out of sight. Another White House official, John DiIulio, has commented that there was "a complete lack of a policy apparatus" in the White House. "What you've got is everything, and I mean everything, being run by the political arm." As in many Communist states, a highly centralized party, in this case the Republican Party, was beginning to forge a parallel apparatus at the heart of government, a semi-hidden state-within-a-state, by which the real decisions were made. With Bush's defense of his wiretapping, the hidden state has stepped into the open. The deeper challenge Bush has thrown down, therefore, is whether the country wants to embrace the new form of government he is creating by executive fiat or to continue with the old constitutional form. He is now in effect saying, "Yes, I am above the law-I am the law, which is nothing more than what I and my hired lawyers say it is-and if you don't like it, I dare you to do something about it. (Jonathan Schell) heh
to hell with the "cabal" i want bush. he is a bad bad man. bad! very bad! hype the military has zero influence on anything even their wars were planned by civilians i see congress stepping up to the plate they asked for a report card on the war they pushed the toture bill thru they will review and reform the patriot act what else?
Y'all are funny! Y'all talk/imply that the government could actually do any of that "take-over the world" crap, yet ...think about it... can the government actually stick its finger in it's own ass with both hands and with complete instructions?? Shit, they can't even send a few troops with food and water down to New Orleans, for god's sake ....and y'all think that they can take over the world??? That's a huge laugh! Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Baron Max
silly little max it is called nuclear weapons it ensures world domination know this we can if we want to Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
Today on fox news i saw one republican saying the GOP is corrupt and needs to be completely replaced (the highest offices held). Then a second republican came on, i had never seen these two befor but it was quiet interesting. I had always viewed the republican party as loyal to bush 100% but now that polls have been slipping and staying down it apears tides are turning. Not for democrats but against the current Republican leadership. Who knows where it will end up but after hearing what i heard today on the news (first time in my life) i wouldnt be suprised if there was a major power struggle. I guess we will find out soon enough.
Obviously a momentous power struggle is underway. It's quite a crisis of leadership, because as disrupted as the Republicans may be, Democrats were already in complete disarray, and they still can't focus on any message. It's astounding enough when the President can't form a coherent sentence- but this is the entire Democratic Party. Somehow along with the War on Terror we lost all other national vision besides kick ass and take on empire. Now that that agenda is becoming a stupendous flop, I'm hoping that in this widening vacuum, we will catch a glimpse of exactly who runs this country. George W. Bush is just their intellectually-challenged little front-man. What rats will now be jumping ship, to infest another?
Sure enough. There is a segment of the Republican party that, though they are fairly ruthless in their own right, are getting REAL nervous about the people currently holding the reins. Republicans are taking a cold look at what they traditionally stood for - smaller government, freer markets, a strong military, civic duty, patriotism, and so on. They look at these values, and then look at what the neoconservatives are up to, and are unable to avoid the contradictions. We don't need to enumerate the contradictions at this point. There's got to be a cadre of more or less centrist Republicans who are scared shitless at losing power through association with the madmen calling the shots. Moderate Republicans are in fact starting to appear - see http://moderaterepublican.net/id1.html. They were always the bedrock of the party until Reagan came along and swept the neoconservatives into power. The question now is whether or when the centrist Republicans will align themselves with centrist Democrats to form a coalition force. It would be so easy, and it would totally rock the Washington establishment. I think that Hype is right - a combination of intelligence officers and retired military, along with sympathetic active-duty military and the aforementioned centrists could save the situation. I wonder what the trigger would be. An impending nuclear attack on Iran? If such a thing were contemplated, I wonder if a palace coup would be possible? Are there enough disaffected people in the government to sweep the neocons out of power? Would the country stand for it?
