Brooks bubble

2005-02-20T20:01:00.000-08:00

This blog is still alive. I've got some a new posts which will be posted soon. In addition to that Brooksbubble will hosting an audioblog series with some of the leading players in the creative commons and free culture movement. So see you soon loyal readers and listeners.

Also this Jeff Gannon/Guckurt story is really amazing. He's feeling the heat now but I think he may be able to start a political consulting firm providing fake news outlets for republican candidates. At Gannon associates we provide you with a highly skilled team of male escorts who know how to frame questions that help achieve your strategic objectives. Just a thought.

no, no, no none of that

2005-01-28T15:02:00.000-08:00

Human Rights First is leading the fight against Alberto "Geneva Conventions aren't such a big deal" Gonzales. A vote against Gonzales is profoundly important for a number of reasons. It is certainly a moment of truth for the Democratic party and whether our party's elected officials will hold the line against the corrosion of our country's commitment to due process and human rights (and to their great credit all Democratic members of the Judiciary Committee did just that). If we are to maintain any credibility in the eyes of the world we must not promote anyone complicit in torture. What more can be said. Watch this video from Human Rights First and sign their petition

http://www.humanrightsfirst.org/us_law/etn/video/index.htm

Dayton on Rice

2005-01-27T09:49:00.000-08:00

Well, Condi was confirmed this morning. Of course this is no surprise as we have been repeatedly told over the past several weeks that her confirmation was assured. Completely assured, yet the Republicans were deeply annoyed that the Democrats managed to delay Rice's confirmation and take to the senate floor to debate the merits of her nomination. Watching Barbara Boxer, with her awkward visual aids, lay out Condi's dishonesty and incoherence had a sad quality to it. I was already playing out the Republican attacks on Boxer as being "obstructionist" "bitter" "liberal" for her taking her constitutional role, not to mention the future credibility of the United States, seriously. Boxer wasn't the only one to rise in healthy defiance of Rice's elevation. Byrd, Kennedy and surprisingly, DLC commando Evan Bayh drew a healthy line in the sand. In my view the award for best floor statement goes to Minnesota's Mark Dayton. I'm gonna let him close this post.

SADLY, THE ATTITUDE OF TOO MANY OF MY COLLEAGUES ACROSS THE AISLE IS: OUR PRESIDENT WRONG, WRONG, OR WRONG. THEY DEFEND HIM. THEY PROTECT HIM. AND THEY ALLOW HIS TOP ADMINISTRATION OFFICIALS TO GET AWAY WITH LYING. LYING TO CONGRESS, LYING TO OUR COMMITTEES, AND LYING TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. IT'S WRONG. IT'S IMMORAL. IT'S UN-AMERICAN. AND IT HAS TO STOP.
IT STOPS BY NOT PROMOTING TOP ADMINISTRATION OFFICIALS WHO ENGAGE IN THE PRACTICE, WHO HAVE BEEN INSTRUMENTAL IN DECEIVING CONGRESS AND THE AMERICAN PEOPLE, AND REGRETTABLY THAT INCLUDES DR. RICE.
DR. RICE STATED IN A TELEVISION INTERVIEW ON DECEMBER 8, 2002, AS THE ADMINISTRATION WAS LAUNCHING ITS CAMPAIGN TO SCARE THE AMERICAN PEOPLE AND STAMPEDE CONGRESS ABOUT SADDAM HUSSEIN'S SUPPOSEDLY URGENT THREAT TO OUR NATIONAL SECURITY. SHE SHREWDLY INVOKED THE ULTIMATE THREAT THAT HE POSSESSED OR WOULD SOON POSSESS NUCLEAR WEAPONS. SHE SAID THAT DAY -- QUOTE -- "WE DON'T WANT THE SMOKING GUN TO BE A MUSHROOM CLOUD."

He has a great closer.

I DON'T LIKE TO IMPUGN ANYONE'S INTEGRITY, BUT I REALLY DON'T LIKE BEING LIED TO REPEATEDLY, FLAGRANTLY, INTENTIONALLY. IT'S WRONG. IT'S UNDEMOCRATIC, IT'S UN-AMERICAN, AND IT'S DANGEROUS. IT IS VERY, VERY DANGEROUS. AND IT IS OCCURRING FAR TOO FREQUENTLY IN THIS ADMINISTRATION. AND THIS CONGRESS, THIS SENATE MUST DEMAND THAT IT STOP NOW.
MY VOTE AGAINST THIS NOMINATION IS MY STATEMENT THAT THIS ADMINISTRATION'S LYING MUST STOP NOW. I URGE MY COLLEAGUES TO JOIN ME IN THIS DEMAND, DEMOCRATS, REPUBLICANS, INDEPENDENTS; WE ARE ALL, ALL OF US, FIRST AND FOREMOST AMERICANS. WE MUST BE TOLD THE TRUTH, IF WE'RE TO GOVERN OUR COUNTRY AND TO PRESERVE OUR WORLD, AND THAT'S WHY WE MUST VOTE AGAINST THIS NOMINATION.

I would like to thank the honorable gentleman from Minnesota.

talking liberty drilling for tyranny

2005-01-24T15:34:00.000-08:00

The words liberty and freedom ran so profusely out of the President's mouth during his inaugural address that it caused me to wonder whether Mr. Bush assigns some sort of magical property to these words. He and his entire cabinet have repeated them often in these post September 11 years we are all familiar with the most memorable including "they hate freedom" and "we are liberators." The administration is so taken with the language of liberation and the neo-con ideology of scud missile induced democracy that even after the horrible results of the war in Iraq some in the administration are still eyeing Iran and North Korea as targets of regime change.

Many critics have pointed out the discrepancies between the rhetoric of democracy and human rights and the Bush record of coddling selected regimes with horrible human rights records; not to mention the on going revelations of torture carried out by American forces in Iraq and Guantanamo Bay. Indeed, brutally beating Iraqi prisoners and establishing close ties with Uzbekistan are hardly Amnesty International actions. As Michael Moore illustrated in Fahrenheit 911 with the footage of a public beheading, our key ally the House Of Saud hardly practices the politics of the enlightenment. Oil is of course a big part of the Saudi story and its fusion of despot governance with astonishing oil revenues is not unique; in fact one would be hard pressed to find a counter example of democratic governance built on a crude pipeline.

This brings us to Bush's energy policy. It is a policy which only deepens our reliance on oil. The consequences of it are obviously deeply detrimental to the environment, but it also has a devastating effect on democracy around the world. Oil entwines our fate with many of the world's most vile regimes, including some that support terrorism. We must consider that the rapid implementation of new energy technologies would not only would have a profound effect on the environment but also and human rights and democratic governance. Bush is talking liberty but drilling for tyranny.

busy man lazy blog

2005-01-19T19:41:00.000-08:00

I have been unable to blog for the past couple of days. I will resume tommorow

empty

2005-01-14T20:27:00.000-08:00

I was in meetings most of day involving a nifty organization called the Valley Arts Project on whose board I sit. I promise a real post tomorrow. Meanwhile take a look at the site

http://www.valleyartsproject.org/

a few bad apples

2005-01-13T14:53:00.000-08:00

From the laptops of Bush's legal advisors to the cells of detention centers the subject of torture keeps coming up. Starting with Symour Hersh's reports on Abu Ghraib and continuing through revelations of detainee abuse at Guantanamo Bay an exceptionally disturbing story is playing out in front of us. A story of seemingly systemic abuse apparently thought to be an appropriate tool in the "War On Terror" by top administration officials. Perhaps most importantly we see a Congress which while airing concerns of such brutality has by and large not seen fit to really do anything about it. As many a more astute observer than I have noted it seems that crazed Republican partisanship and all to common Democrat timidity has made Congresses response to the torture issue sluggish at best.

That's why I wish to pass all of my readers (Elisha, Mom, Dad, handful of other friends) to the invaluable Nat Hentoff's recent piece in the Village Voice on Congress and torture and also to Body and Soul blog for its eloquent denunciation of congress's laziness. After reading these great pieces call your congressional delegation and tell them that you know the torture scandal it is not simply made up of a few "bad apples" and must be fully responded to before the whole barrel rots.

http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0502,hentoff,59889,6.html

http://bodyandsoul.typepad.com/

Blair & Brown

2005-01-12T11:33:00.000-08:00

Across the pond, the second of half of the George "Walker Texas Ranger" Bush and Tony "I Want to give a Churchill speech" Blair duo has been having some trouble. While Iraq has been causing both men a lot of grief the greater part of the misfortune has fallen on Blair. There are many reasons for this. Blair has made some of the most dramatic statements on Saddam's reputed weapons of WMD capabilities, his country (and for that matter his party) never fully supported his march to battle and most importantly the British public has been very aggressive in it's criticism of unsubstantiated weapons claims. Of course the WMD debacle is in some sense an old story that both Blair and Bush have weathered a fair amount of success. One need look no further than Bush's defeat of John Kerry and Blair's continuing hold on power. This leads me to the recent flair up between Blair and Gordon Brown, who as Chancellor of The Exchequer the second most powerful man in the Labor government.

Put most bluntly, the issue is power; namely when will Blair step aside and allow Brown to take his place? According to the commonly accepted story their conflict dates back to 1995 when Blair out- maneuvered Brown for leadership of the Labor party. Apparently, Blair and Brown held a summit in an upscale London restaurant in which Blair vowed that Brown would have control over economic policy in the incoming labor government and that after two terms Blair would step aside and endorse Brown as his successor. Needless to say, this arraignment has produced much tension and political jockeying since 1997 and the election of Labor. This rivalry has only been intensified by Blair's intention to seek a third term as Prime Minister, leaving Brown in the lurch and causing such public spectacles as the two holding simultaneous press conferences on African Poverty.

I take an interest in this, not only because I have an unnatural curiosity concerning British politics, but also because of Blair's role in Iraq. While the war has never been named as an issue between Blair and Brown and, of course, as a senoir minister Brown professed support for the government's policy, he was never a key player in the promotion and execution of the Iraq invasion. This makes me root for a Brown takeover. While their dispute is not directly related to Iraq, who can have any doubt that Blair's fanaticism on the issue has helped lead to his sinking popularity in Britain. While no one can predict what Brown's potential Iraq policy would be we do know who got Britain there in the first place and for that Blair should fall.

new brooks

2005-01-11T18:16:00.000-08:00

With the reelection of Bush the catastrophe in Asia and the story broken by Newsweek that the Administration is considering a "Salvador option" in Iraq I, Michael Brooks have chosen to start this blog. I don't know if I will add anything particularly important to the shouting multitudes of Internet punditry, in fact my prediction is that this blog will stay in some tiny corner of the web only occasionally to be viewed by a family member or friend who I have harassed into viewing my offerings. Of course I should acknowledge at the outset that I dream of great stardom in the left-wing blogosphere and it is one of my fondest wishes that this little blog will lead me to rub digital elbows with the greats: Wolcott, Atrios, Kos whose blogs remind me every day that am not the only one who spends in inordinate amount of time worrying about the makeup of Democratic consulting firms. So stay tune to this web for regular offerings on everything from Iraq to why Chris Rock's new HBO special is f**king awesome (I love the way blogs have formalized ADD).
All ironic distancing aside I am still young and on the idealistic side and like all other idealistic liberals of all ages I found great inspiration in the success of Senator Barack Obama. While of course this blogs contents will not be singularly devoted to the gentleman from Illinois I do hope to promote the vision he has articulated for the Democratic party. I am of course far from being the first person to march in the Obama brigade nonetheless it was his speech at the DNC and subsequent election that makes me the most optimistic abou the chances for Democratic politics to succeed in the coming years.
Stay tuned.