Day: June 6, 2008

GOP Strategy For November

The Republican Party and its presidential candidate Senator John McCain are preparing to wage their 2008 campaign on the same essential issue that the Republicans have used to contest the last three national elections: terror.

This is scarcely surprising, as the so-called “global war on terrorism” and the events of September 11, 2001 have provided the essential ideological framework for virtually all of the Bush administration’s policies for nearly seven years. It is a framework that the ostensible political opposition, the Democratic Party, has accepted, voting to fund wars of aggression abroad and approve domestic spying and the curtailment of democratic rights at home.

With widespread predictions that the Republicans face a devastating defeat at the polls in November, the attempt to breathe new life into this campaign to terrorize the American public with the supposedly ubiquitous threat of terrorism is assuming an increasingly desperate character.

Appearing Monday before AIPAC, the largest US pro-Israel lobby, Senator McCain managed to mention terror, terrorism or terrorists 15 times in his brief speech. He recycled the old pretexts for war against Iraq—the supposed danger posed by a regime with “weapons of mass destruction” and terrorist ties—to justify a policy of aggression against Iran.

At the same time, he invoked the threat of terror as an argument for continuing the five-year-old war and occupation of Iraq. A US withdrawal, he claimed, would create a “terrorist sanctuary” that “would profoundly affect the security of the United States.”

The drumbeat over terrorism has a very definite purpose. The 2008 elections are being held under conditions of bitter divisions within the US ruling elite itself over the future of American policy. Sharp opposition has emerged within ruling circles to a continuation of the course set by the Bush administration, particularly in the Middle East. This finds its political expression in the groundswell of support for Democrat Barack Obama both in the foreign policy establishment and on Wall Street.

JUst when you thought it was safe to listen to the candidates–but if that is all you have why not use it?

The Deterrence Strategy Of Homeland Security

When the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) refers to its new deterrence strategy, the agency is not talking about nuclear arsenals, missile defense, or border security. For DHS, deterrence is a strategy of immigration control that relies on what U.S. law enforcement does best: imprisonment.

The United States has more people in jail—2.3 million—than any other nation. Although the United States has less than 5% of the world’s population, it holds almost a quarter of the world’s prisoners. One of every 100 adults in the “land of the free” is locked up.

Immigrants are the fastest-growing sector of the U.S. prison population. The DHS agency Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detains 300,000 immigrants annually, with some 32,000 immigrants in ICE detention centers on any given day. ICE’s budget for its Detention and Removal Operations has jumped from $959 million in 2004 to $2.3 billion today.

The rise in the number of immigrants detained or incarcerated by the federal government for immigration-related offenses dates back to the mid-1990s when Congress passed the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act and the Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act.

The combined effect of the two acts was to dramatically expand the definition of a “criminal alien” to include immigrants—legal and illegal—who falsify their identity documents and Social Security numbers, or who have been convicted of any misdemeanor or crime, as minor as shoplifting or disturbing the peace.

An immigrant who does not appear at a scheduled immigration hearing is labeled a “fugitive alien” and is subject to immediate detention and deportation, or, as ICE’s Homeland Security deterrence strategy increasingly kicks in, possibly sentencing, imprisonment, and then “removal.”

From the start DHS adopted military terminology—security, surges, protection, operations, deterrence, etc.—for its immigration initiatives and strategies. As part of the department’s strategic plan, the newly created Detention and Removal Operations (DRO) set forth its Operation Endgame strategy. DRO is component of ICE.

The DRO strategic plan “sets in motion a cohesive enforcement program with a 10-year time horizon that will build the capacity to “remove all removable aliens,” eliminate the backlog of unexecuted final order removal cases, and realize its vision.”

Operation Endgame sees the detention and removal of aliens as a fundamental component of a national security strategy: “Moving toward a 100% rate of removal for all removable aliens allows ICE to provide the level of immigration enforcement necessary to keep America secure.”

The Iraq War Was Wrong

This is what is being said:

The long-awaited report, the last in a series published over the past several years by the committee, found that Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, in particular, frequently made assertions in the run-up to the war that key intelligence agencies could not substantiate or about which there was substantial disagreement within the intelligence community.

“In making the case for war, the administration repeatedly presented intelligence as fact when in reality it was unsubstantiated, contradicted, or even nonexistent,” the Committee chairman, Sen. Jay Rockefeller, said on releasing the 172-page report. “As a result, the American people were led to believe that the threat from Iraq was much greater than actually existed.”

The Senate issued this report.  Now may I see a show of hands of the people that did not know this already?  my question is why are they wasting time on crap like this–it is common knowledge.  Surely, there are more important things that they could be addressing–I don’t know—maybe health care, ending the war or how about education or something as mundane?  (sarcasm intended)

SEIU: Stern Wins Fight Over Power

Andy Stern, the president of the Service Employees International Union, went into its convention under heavy fire from one of its largest locals, but he emerged stronger — overwhelmingly re-elected for another four years and with his power consolidated.

At the convention in San Juan, P. R., which ended on Wednesday, the nearly 2,000 delegates followed Mr. Stern’s lead and voted to give the union’s top officials more power to bargain with large, nationwide employers, somewhat reducing the role of individual locals in negotiations.

Mr. Stern has repeatedly argued that as employers grow larger and operate at a national and even international level, unions must do the same. To help deal with these ever-larger employers, he persuaded the delegates to create nationwide industry bargaining councils.

In an unusual move, Mr. Stern said, “I pledge we will, before the next convention,” gain legislation “that guarantees affordable health care for every man, every woman and every child.” He also pledged that Congress would pass legislation to make it easier to unionize millions of additional workers.

Now these are ambitious promises and hopefully the rank and file will hold them to their promises.  If not then, make them pay.

McCain: Who Will The VP Be?

Ok the primaries are over and the Dems are still making headlines and the pundits are succeeding in making the whole process as confusing as they possibly can.  So, I move on to the Repubs–Who will the VP be?

Recently McCain had a BBQ at his mountain retreat and invited Louisiana’s Gov. Jindal, Florida’s Gov. Crist and Mitt Romney.  All was reported that this was not a meeting of possible VP candidates, that it was just a BBQ.  Personally, I think it WAS a meeting of possible VP candidates.

Jindal was there as a meet and greet, bascially an introduction to the RNC and its workings.  Yes, Jindal is a bit popular in his home state, but do not see him as the VP, maybe in a couple years as he expands his influence within the party, but not this time.

Gov. Crist would be a good choice.  He is very popular and successful Southerner, something that would help McCain fight for the South.  But IMO, I say he will not be the VP—why?  Easy–he is a bachelor.  With the mentality of the American people–his every move would be photo graphed and reported–his dates would be nightly news.  McCain would be moved to the background as he was upstaged by his VP.

Now that leaves Romney–he is my bet–he would help with Michigan, Massachusetts, and he would be the best person to sure up McCain and his economic message.

OK, one big draw back–McCain and Romney do not like each other, but that has never stopped the parties from running people.  Plus, Romney wants to be Pres and this would give him the inside tract in 2012.