This Is Your Congresswoman on Steroids

Roger Clemens, indicted for lying to Congress about using steroids.

He did that lying to Congress in 2008, to a committee on which Virginia Foxx took a prominent (and howlingly embarrassing) public role, in effect suborning that perjury. You can refresh your memory of that whole clown-show here.

How ya like Roger Clemens now, Congresswoman?

What's In It For Me?

A comment post down-column by Anonymous: "Why should I pay anything for someone else's recreation?"

Oh, I don't know ... maybe you'll get bit by that awful virus generosity and become (gasp!) civic-minded:

civic-minded (adjective) -- having, showing, or actively carrying out one's concern for the condition and affairs of one's community; public-spirited

Or maybe you'll review the "social contract" that built the greatness of the country from the Declaration of Independence forward, that we owe one another the advantages of community even if we personally chose to eat our bitter bread in strict isolation from our fellow citizens, hating every last one of them for having fun at our expense.

Or -- again, I don't know -- maybe you'll even come within hailing distance of the words of Jesus in the New Testament:

Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. Matt. 25:40

H.L. Mencken defined "Puritanism" as "the haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy." The Tea Party in America of 2010 seems like nothing so much as a gaggle of Puritans, absolutely obsessed that someone else may be enjoying the benefits of community, the fruits of the Social Contract, a banquet of Christian charity. Rather than that, they smell shit every waking hour, and it shows on their faces.

I've never been able to bring myself to resent paying taxes. It's obviously a deep moral flaw. I don't mind paying for schools, and better schools, and newer schools, even though I don't have children in them. I don't mind paying for public swimming pools or public gymnasiums, even though I'll never swim or shoot baskets in them. I don't mind, even, paying for the Medicare and Social Security that a large proportion of the Tea Party obviously draw on. I feel it's part of the tacit contract I share with my fellow citizens.

The "what's in it for me" crowd produces its fair share of political candidates, of course, and history shows that a sizable number of them, if they manage to get into "public service," mainly serve themselves. Virginia Foxx has doubled her own wealth during the three terms she's "served" in the U.S. House.

The Tea Party and its politicians are entitled to their views, of course, but if their views prevail, it'll be no country for old men, nor for old women either.

Goss & Tarleton Gain Headwaters Campaign Endorsement

Received this afternoon from our friend Dan Besse, who is both a Winston-Salem City Councilman and chair of the Headwaters Campaign:

...Whether you call him Senator Goss or Reverend Goss, Steve Goss (Senate District 45) is an individual seen by those who know him as so beyond reproach that he has been named the Senate Chair of the Joint Legislative Ethics Committee. That helps explain why a conservative mountain district has twice elected this moderate Democrat to represent them in Raleigh.

As both a legislator and a minister, Goss takes his responsibilities to his community seriously. As he explains, "In committee meetings I would often mention our senior citizens who should never have to make a choice between buying medication or food because of spiraling costs or lack of insurance coverage." Goss understands that his legislative mission includes addressing concerns ranging from unemployment, to the costs of fuel and electricity and the cost of a college education, to the well-being of our natural world.

State Representative Cullie Tarleton of Watauga County (House District 93) also puts a high value on educational and economic opportunity for all, and protection of our air, water, land, and public health. Among his leadership efforts, Tarleton was a primary House sponsor of the School Violence Prevention Act, which requires public schools to adopt strong policies against bullying and harassment, including bullying based on race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, disability, or other factors. Tarleton's leadership posts include chairing House committees on water resources, commerce, and the environment.

Both Goss and Tarleton received high marks on the Conservation Council of North Carolina's 2009 environmental legislative scorecard. Together, they teamed up to add ecologically important tracts of mountain land to our state parks system.

For more information on these legislative leaders, and how to help their campaigns, go to http://www.headwatersnc.org/hwendorsements.html.

Hooteninnies

A little YouTube to cheer you up on a rainy Thursday.

Appropriate, actually, on the day after Fox News owner Rupert Murdoch announced he was giving $1 million to the Republican Party (well, actually the Republican Governors Association. But whatever). That tiny corporate donation was only the natural honey-chile of The Supremes decision in Citizens United v. FEC which promised to escalate the corporate domination of every American brain cell not already permanently addled by reality TV.

As important as Fox News is already -- the official-unofficial propaganda arm of the GOP -- this is only the tip of a menacing block of floating ice that will sink any ship it brushes. The Republican Governors Assn. had already collected $1.48 million from the Michigan Chamber of Commerce and another $1 million from the head of Koch Industries, a huge chemical conglomerate headquartered in Wichita, Kan.

I will not be able to applaud when Democrats start mining the same veins of corporate ore. I'll understand why, but I won't applaud it.

American electoral democracy ... sunk by big money.

Let Us Now Praise Famous Republicans

At his press conference yesterday afternoon, Watauga County Commission Chair Jim Deal named some prominent local Republicans who agree with him about the wisdom of passing the referendum to raise local sales taxes by 1/4th of a penny: Joe Miller, Dale Greene, Rob Holton, Kenneth Wilcox.

In this current context of Tea Party extremism, that mention by Jim Deal suddenly redefined those gentlemen as "moderate" Republicans. Believing that one of the noble activities of government is to increase the public's ownership of infrastructure which enhances the lives of the people through education and recreation has become official heresy to the Watauga GOP. So we guess that as of approximately 4:45 p.m. yesterday afternoon, Miller, Greene, Holton, and Wilcox are now officially heretics.

Men like Miller, Greene, Holton, and Wilcox don't run the local Republican Party. The people currently running it owe their allegiance to the kind-hearted philosophy of Virginia Foxx, though they appear to be taking their actual local marching orders from tea partiers and from one government-hater in particular. All the energy roused up against the 1/4th of a penny hike in sales taxes is due to the organizing and agitating talents of Deborah Greene, who for whatever reasons changed her party affiliation on March 22nd of this year from "Republican" to "Unaffiliated." It is somewhat paradoxical that the longest running Energizer bunny behind the local GOP is actually not now a registered Republican. (Oh right: the Tea Party "is not a partisan movement." Got it!)

The anti-tax forces also owe David Blust as a prime organizer, and he's very much a face of the local Republican Party (as well as the face of the local Tea Party -- so much for that non-partisan claim). Commission Chair Deal mentioned Blust's name twice yesterday during his press conference. It was Blust who essentially got tagged with the "misinformation, legitimate questions, wild rumors, and outright lies" that Mr. Deal said were being deliberately bandied about in an effort to sink any possibility of a county recreation center and an eastern community center in the Deep Gap area. Blust (for the record) also opposed and voted against the new high school when he had an opportunity to do something constructive for the citizens (and actual power as a County Commissioner in 2005 and 2006), and he was, incidentally, also deeply involved in the attempted Templeton takeover of the Boone Town Council in 2007.

In other words, Blust has quite the reactionary record to run on this year, as he tries to rewarm that seat on the County Commission. He thinks loud opposition to building the infrastructure of Watauga is his ticket back into office.

Mr. Deal spent a good deal of time yesterday correcting the misinformation, unfounded rumors, and outright lies of the David Blust/Deborah Greene anti-tax insurgency, and he did a clear and concise job of it. Not that half the audience was even listening. They were mentally preparing their own verbal rejoinders, accusations, and slogans to hurl back, and when Mr. Deal did not give them that formal opportunity, they shouted and stomped their feet anyway and cried that it wasn't fair that a press conference called by Mr. Deal did not include opportunities for them to proclaim their own reality.

Watauga Democrat account of the press conference is here. A much more detailed account is on GoBlueRidge.

"What Am I Doing About Jobs? Next Question"

Well, at least he holds townhall meetings open to all the residents of the 10th Congressional District.

Unlike Madam Foxx, who is mainly running around other districts of NC raising money for other Republicans.

Democrat In Name Only

Not that we ever thought Patrick McHenry was vulnerable this year in the NC-10.

But, ah, the spectacle of Jeff Gregory.

Inside the Green Zone

The Matt Damon Iraq-War political thriller "Green Zone" turned out to be an inadvertent corollary to "The Most Dangerous Man in America," so far as the American progressive belief goes that if an awful government secret can just be gotten to the New York Times, all will be well. Or at least better.

"Green Zone" is a highly fictionalized (and percussively directed by "Bourne Supremacy" / "Bourne Ultimatum" genius director Paul Greenglass) version of a very powerful non-fiction book, "Imperial Life Inside the Emerald City: Inside Iraq's Green Zone" by Washington Post reporter Rajiv Chandrasekaran. The Matt Damon character is based on the real-life soldier who led the US search for WMD, Monty Gonzalez, who, of course, finds no WMD.

In the "Green Zone" movie, the gung-ho searcher for WMD becomes first suspicious of cooked intel and then an overt exposer of lying liars in the Pentagon and the Bush administration, and then the heroic whistle-blower who exposes everything to the New York Times. Which, of course, is what led to the American public putting a stop to the Bush War, once they knew the truth of how we were manipulated.

As if!

We're still there, and probably half the American public willfully believe that Saddam masterminded 9/11.

While "Green Zone" is totally watchable and wholly timely (featuring as it does a woman reporter based very obviously on Judith Miller, the NYTimes -- ahem -- writer who willingly pedaled the Bush administration's cooked-up propaganda on WMD), its heroic message about perilous whistle-blowing rings hollow, given the reality of the last seven years.

Whereas the example of Daniel Ellsberg, O my brethren, still inspires.

In Praise of Daniel Ellsberg

Watched the new(ish) documentary, "The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers," and I was deeply absorbed by the presentation of that whole Vietnam War & Richard Nixon history, perhaps because I lived through it and had forgotten some of those hair-raising details or didn't know other facts at all nor how they fit the overall tapestry of government's lying us into another devastating (and pointless) war.

It took three Democratic presidents (Harry S. Truman, John F. Kennedy, and Lyndon Johnson) and one Republican (Ike) to produce, maintain, and expand the initial tissue of lies that got us bogged down in Southeast Asia. It took a final Republican president, Richard M. Nixon, to practically drive us over the edge. At one point, Nixon is heard on those infamous "White House tapes" saying to Henry Kissinger that he wanted all the Vietnam dikes bombed -- "That'll drown 200,000, right?" -- and then saying he wanted a good-sized nuclear bomb in the center of Hanoi as an option. Kissinger is heard demurring: "I don't know if that would be a good idea, Mr. President," and Nixon taunting him back, "You don't like the idea of nuclear bombs, Henry?" At another point on those tapes, Nixon practically pounds the table: "I don't give a good goddamn about civilian deaths."

Aside from the obvious lesson of American history, that an executive who's exempted himself from checks and balances is a rouge elephant capable of pulling down the whole temple of democracy, there are two other indelible lessons in "The Most Dangerous Man in America":

1. It's possible to change. Daniel Ellsberg himself went from war apologist and Pentagon insider, who actually fed material to Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara which McNamara used to convince Johnson to escalate the bombing of North Vietnam, to the most successful whistle-blower in American history.

2. A single man can do much to change history, if he has access to information and is willing to suffer whatever consequences come. Ellsberg reached that moment when he met a young draft resistor who said he was prepared to go to jail. That simple declaration by a "nobody" American college student changed Daniel Ellsberg's life.

Those are lessons I like.

Daniel Ellsberg is by no means the only such brave American we can celebrate. He just happens to have been sitting on 7,000 pages of top secret truth that the American people didn't know and needed to know. I think of others, most instantly of Ollie Combs, the Knott County, Ky., woman who sat down in front of a bulldozer and refused to budge, because the dozer's owner was planning to strip mine the ridge directly above her fragile homeplace. Or for a more recent example, I think of the four Connecticut public librarians who refused to cooperate with the USA Patriot Act in surrendering records of patrons' book-borrowing records.

There are a lot more, going all the way back to John Peter Zenger. We need to remember them. We need to celebrate their bravery. This documentary film about Daniel Ellsberg does that.