Fortune’s Pawn

This morning I read a piece by David Brooks in the Times. In his usual manner Mr. Brooks tries to come off as gracious before dropping in to his standard patronizing “when will these liberals learn?” mode.

He starts out with an interesting bit, comparing Kerry to Shakespeare’s Henry V. I think Brooks must have been influenced by Anna DeaVere Smith’s Op-Ed from yesterday:

I couldn’t help myself and penned this response:
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Dear Editors;

David Brooks writes, in “All Things to All People” (column, July 31, 2004), “I almost expected John Kerry to mount the stage in full body armor and recite the war speech from `Henry V.’” While Mr. Brooks rightly reports the candidate’s, and the convention’s, focus on war, security and defense, he also notes the delegates’ countervailing beliefs.

Perhaps the delegates would have preferred the speech of William (act IV, sc. i), confiding to a disguised King Henry the soldiers’ true feelings:

But if the cause be not good, the king himself hath
a heavy reckoning to make, when all those legs and
arms and heads, chopped off in battle, shall join
together at the latter day and cry all ‘We died at
such a place;’ some swearing, some crying for a
surgeon, some upon their wives left poor behind
them, some upon the debts they owe, some upon their
children rawly left. I am afeard there are few die
well that die in a battle; for how can they
charitably dispose of any thing, when blood is their
argument? Now, if these men do not die well, it
will be a black matter for the king that led them to
it; whom to disobey were against all proportion of
subjection.

It feels to many of us, Democrats or otherwise, that the present administration behaves more like the counselors of war from another of Shakespeare’s plays; Richard III (act IV, sc iv):

Either be patient and entreat me fair,
Or with the clamorous report of war
Thus will I drown your exclamations.

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And another thing!

For those who thought that the Supreme Court had decided, in Hamdi vs. Rumsfeld, that Guantanamo Bay detainees have a right to due process, the Bush administration still doesn’t think so.

This has been simmering for a while:
http://www.fff.org/comment/com0407h.asp

but is now really bursting to the surface:
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/31/politics/31gitmo.html?pagewanted=print&position=

Here is an excerpt from a briefing given yesterday by Navy Secretary
Gordon England:

Q: In this notification of the habeas corpus, it says that these
prisoners can have their, quote, personal representatives for
advice or explanation. But these personal representatives are not
legal people at all. In fact, the personal representatives in
these hearings are not legal representatives. How do they get
advice of any legal rights if these personal representatives have
no legal knowledge, military law and that kind of stuff?

SEC. ENGLAND: Well, this is not a legal proceeding. This is an
administrative proceeding. So, this is an administrative
proceeding, fact-based administrative proceeding to determine they
are or are not enemy combatants. So, this is an admini — this is
not a legal. This is not a trial. This is fact-based
determination of you’re an enemy combatant. Separate from that is
habeas corpus review.

Q: What if they have questions of their personal representatives on
the right to habeas corpus review? Is the Justice Department
moving to get these people legal representation?

SEC. ENGLAND: Charlie, I’ll have to refer you to the Justice
Department. I am in a very narrow — not necessarily narrow –
but in a very specific area. Two administrative reviews, annual
review, and the tribunal’s determination of enemy combatants.
Justice Department is handling the habeas because that’s a legal
aspect. I’m handling the administrative side.
(you may find the briefing in its entirety here:
http://www.defenselink.mil/transcripts/2004/tr20040730-1064.html)

Perhaps this is what John Kerry had in mind when he claimed that “I will appoint an Attorney General who actually upholds the Constitution of the United States”

Here is some analysis of the actual decision
From Frontpage Magazine:
http://frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=14225
From FindLaw’s Marci A. Hamilton, at CNN:
http://www.cnn.com/2004/LAW/07/01/hamilton.terror.cases/
And from PolitInfo.com:
http://www.politinfo.com/articles/article_2004_07_1_2321.html

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“Field for Republican replacement is wide open” Writes Kevin McDermott of the Saint Louis Post-Dispatch:

Wanted: Candidate to lead a fractured, scandal-ridden party in a late-starting campaign against a strong, well-financed opponent. Prefer wealthy applicants willing to spend heavily with no return and little chance of victory. Boring sex life a must.

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Apparently this has Mike Ditka all lathered up. The Sun Times writes:

Ditka ‘getting excited‘ about Senate run:

He takes W’s dumb-is-beautiful approach to a new level: “In the WGN interview Ditka admitted, `I’m not a genius. I’m pretty common sense. I’m just a guy.’”

You too can get involved at http://www.draftditka.com

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This from the Boston Globe:
Ron Reagan to address Democrats at convention

This upsets Bob Novak (oh darn!):
http://www.townhall.com/columnists/robertnovak/rn20040712.shtml

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Tom Oliphant exquisitely summarizes the obvious in a Boston Globe piece:

Dick Cheney is a net-negative for President Bush, which means that
while you will see Edwards wooing businessmen and fellow Southerners and
rural-ites, you won’t see Cheney in Harlem or in TV ads. That may not
mean everything, but it certainly means something.

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If you think Fahrenheit 9/11 will have an impact, Robert Greenwald (“Uncovered” and “Unprecedented” ) may have some more news for you. Here is a review of his newest film,
“OutFoxed: How Rupert Murdoch Is Destroying American Journalism”

http://alternet.org/stories/19199/

I heard an interview with Greenwald on PRI’s “On The Media” this week which grabbed my interest.

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Lastly, it seems as thought the heat may finally get turned up on the corrupt politics and finances of our favorite, Tom DeLay:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A43219-2004Jul11?language=printer

In May 2001, Enron’s top lobbyists in Washington advised the company chairman that then-House Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) was pressing for a $100,000 contribution to his political action committee, in addition to the $250,000 the company had already pledged to the Republican Party that year.

DeLay requested that the new donation come from ‘a combination of corporate and personal money from Enron’s executives,’ with the understanding that it would be partly spent on ‘the redistricting effort in Texas,’ said the e-mail to Kenneth L. Lay from lobbyists Rick Shapiro and Linda Robertson.

The e-mail, which surfaced in a subsequent federal probe of Houston-based Enron, is one of at least a dozen documents obtained by The Washington Post that show DeLay and his associates directed money from corporations and Washington lobbyists to Republican campaign coffers in Texas in 2001 and 2002 as part of a plan to redraw the state’s congressional districts.

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For those of you who love Dick Chaney so much that you want his words immortalized on your loved one’s chest, your dog’s back or your own crotch (suggested placements, your mileage may vary) check out this site:

http://www.cafeshops.com/vpquote

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Last night’s Kerry/Edwards fund raiser at Radio City Music Hall in New York City brought some interesting headlines. How’s this from the New York Post:
JERKY JOKESTER WHOOPI IN DIRTY DISS AT DUBYA:

http://www.nypost.com/news/nationalnews/24791.htm

Or this from ABC-News:

POTTY-MOUTHED KERRY/EDWARDS/DNC FUNDRAISER at Radio City Music Hall:
Whoopi Goldberg wins the award for making the remarks that could make a candidate or two squirm a bit. Other than repeatedly referring to John Edwards as “kid,” the comedian also played off of the President’s surname in a bawdy manner. Goldberg talked of how much pleasure “bush” has provided in her life and that her “bush is smarter” than the President. She went on to say that it is time to return “bush” to its “rightful place and it’s not in our government.”

Equally entertaining was this response from Bush/Chaney campaign
spokesman Steve Schmidt:

It is a great example of John Kerry’s priorities that on the day he said he did not have time to receive his intelligence briefing on threats to America, he found time to attend a Hollywood fundraiser, filled with enough hate and vitriol to make Michael Moore blush.

Leaving aside the fact that Radio City Music Hall is in New York, not Hollywood, I would think that given the Veep’s recent outburst on the Senate floor, the Red State party would think twice before condemning Whoopi Goldberg’s comments.

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Since “Homeland Security” Secretary Tom Ridge seems no longer allowed to actually raise the “Threat Level”:

http://abcnews.go.com/wire/Politics/ap20040709_412.html

It appears that he has taken to wearing color coded ties to telegraph to the American people what the real threat level is:

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