« The Last of the Clique Resigns | Main | Finished with Doan, Bloch Turns to Rove »

June 16, 2007

Comments

I guess I'll have to go buy Harpers this month. Sounds like Silverstein did a very interesting piece and investigation. Your last bullet point is the one that kind of jumps out though.

Information shared from the State Department, NSC, and intelligence agencies.

Makes those AIPAC allegations that all kinds of people (like Rice) were telling them basically the same things as Franklin - that much more credible.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull&cid=1143498894351

I won't be waiting for the Congressional investigation, what with everyone in the same bed. Makes me that much sadder and more depressed about the choices the media is foisting on us for next year - Hillary v. Fred McRomniani

Mary

Yeah, that was one of the things I thought of too. What AIPAC is on trial for is all included in this, and for all its faults, the AIPAC case raises really important questions about where to draw the line on the influence industry.

now this is interesting.

thanks for the cite.

EW - yep, AIPAC should be getting all kinds of input and analysis, but it is buried. I think bc what it highlights, no one in the power structure wants to discuss, and the fact that the lobbyist/foreign national agents snagged just so happened to be AIPAC with the situation in Israel makes it that much more of a hot potato.

A gazillion:

hugely important, intertwined, grey area, no right answers lots of wrong answers, complex issues, simple issues, complex solutions, simple solutions, dirty laundry, necessary business, first amendment, national security, globalization, propagandizing, international relations, law v. authority, law v. law, authority v. law, authority v. authority -

issues are wrapped into the AIPAC suits, and there's barely a whisper to be heard.

This is a really interesting article. One of the main reasons lobbyists can be effective the small countries like Turkmenistan, and others cited in the article like Jonas Savimbi in Angola and Equatorial Guinea, is that nobody knows anything about them. So, the first person to talk about them is going to be able to set the frame for future discussions.

With the better known countries, either discourse is poisoned, or we just adopt a black-white test, for us or against us. These are both childish responses. Other nations have their own interests and their own cultures, sometimes they are with us and sometimes not. Or our interests may be at angles to each other.

Too bad there aren't any grownups left.

The best antiseptic is a lot more sunshine. Thanks to Silverstein and EW, a few clouds are shifting slightly.

I think the trick will be to convince the Democratic majority in '09 that support for them hinges on their not sitting on the fence or replicating this abomination, but hosing it out with a lot of water and more bleach.

Any time I see a forum on C-SPAN hosted by AEI, CSIS, Heritage, or any other, I know that they are spinning something that I don't agree with. What they say is not designed to develop real discussion or advance knowledge, but simply to provide cover for their allies in Congress.

More and more I'm having the feeling that the best thing to do with the inside-the-beltway gang is to send them on a permanent cruise in the Bermuda triangle. Or buy them tickets halfway to Tahiti. (I'd been considering diverting the Potomac through the Mall, but that would damage the museums, and far too many of the people who need to be removed aren't likely to be going down to the Mall.)

More seriously, I think that there needs to be at least a two year ban on going from governemnt to a lobbying group (of any kind), and former Congresscritters need to have their visitation privileges restricted, if not revoked, when they go to work for a lobbying group. (Restriction, here, should be read as 'no visiting privileges as long as you're working for the enemy'.)

And A*P*C and the Aspen Institute need their exemptions from lobbying restrictions removed.

Over and over again the Right Wing complains that Americans are lazy and lack the moral fibre to sustain a counter-campaign against Islamic terrorism. (Example here.) I don't share that view; I think it is the leadership that is incompetent in this country, not the people, particularly in realistically articulating what is worth fighting for (in the broadest sense) about the US, and how to actually live our ideals at home and abroad.

I also think we are in much greater danger from all the capitalists who would sell out their country for a few hundred thousand bucks, including affiliating us with murderous dictators. In this anything-for-profit category I include the folks like Blackwater who are running their own private war in Iraq at our expense and in our name, poisoning our relations with other countries and limiting the choices available to any serious American President.

And Harpers" is worth it--it has some of the best writing around.

earlofhuntingdon, your suggestion is excellent. Sunlight, water and bleach in '08. The new red, white and blue.

Early in 2001, On The Media interviewed an American woman who was in charge of Taliban PR efforts here. She was notable as a western woman doing PR for a government not noted for its liberal policies towards women. As I recall, during the interview she explained how all that was actually an okay thing. And the Taliban weren't such bad guys.

I was always disappointed that after 9/11, On The Media didn't follow up with her and her firm to see if she wanted to talk more about the influence of money.

Ken Silverstein will be interviewed this evening on PBS by Bill Moyers.

sillimanite frenchman ocypodan whitfinch inostensible coquina notidanid unregretted
Tools for Clay
http://www.daitem.com

The comments to this entry are closed.

Where We Met

Blog powered by Typepad