GDAE Podcast - Episode 40

The Right Critiquing the Right

Episode 40 - December 30, 2010

Part of the series on the left and right joining forces to challenge the establishment (See Below).

• Libertarian Critique of Republicans: "The Persistence of Red-State Facism," by Anthony Gregory.


• Prosecute Bush: Scott Horton on State Department cables that expose US
  obstruction of justice in Spain and Germany to suppress their
  investigations of extraordinary rendition, torture and illegal
  activities associated with the Guantanamo prisons.

Click to Download Episode 39.

Recent Series: Can the Populist Left & Right Unite to Challenge the Establishment and Regain Control of Our Republic?

The answer is "yes," as history has proven. Check out the 9-part GDAE Podcast series that explores how common people across the political spectrum can come to the aid of our democracy.

GDAE Podcast Episode 29

• Motivation for reaching out to the conservatives, from a progressive perspective

GDAE Podcast Episode 30

• The Power of Ordinary People

GDAE Podcast Episode 31

• Left & Right Populists Working Together: to fix our flawed democracy
• What is a "principled" conservative: Matt Taibbi of Rolling Stone magazine has some thoughts
• Audit the Fed: Bernie Sanders leads the Left & Right to push for Senate Unanimous vote on Amendment to "audit the Fed."

GDAE Podcast Episode 32

• Left & Right Populists: The American Populist movement of the 1800s with Jim Hightower (Bill Moyer's Journal).
• Left & Right United: The Tenth Amendment with Michael Boldin (Mother Jones Magazine).

GDAE Podcast Episode 33

• Principled and Unprincipled Conservatives: Will Bunch, Author of "The Backlash: Right-Wing Radicals, High-Def Hucksters, and Paranoid Politics in the Age of Obama," on the Tea Party movement and the recent primary elections.
• Principled and Unprincipled Liberals: Glenn Greenwald, former constitutional and civil rights litigator now writer and blogger.

GDAE Podcast Episode 34

• Conversation with Vince Tola: Perspectives on the potential of principled people on the left and right to join forces and reassert the power of the people over our democratic institutions. Vince is a public school teacher and Maryland Green Party organizer.

GDAE Podcast Episode 35

• Case-study from Electoral Politics: David Sirota on Tea-party-backed candidate for US Senate in Colorado, Ken Buck.
• Shared Left/Right Populist Anger: CNN interview with David Sirota explains Bush & Obama failure on Financial Bailout.

GDAE Podcast Episode 36

• Motivation for Reaching out to the Political Right on Issues of Common Concern: Preventing the Drift toward "Barbarism".
• Right-Wing TV/Radio Incitement: The case of Byron Williams who attempted to murder eleven people in San Francisco after listening to Glenn Beck and others.
• Walden Bello: A historical perspective on the Drift toward "Barbarism" and its relation to the Moviation to reach out to genuine conservatives.
• 2006 Conservative Essay: "Now Is the Time for a Left-Right Alliance: A rebel alliance already exists that could stop Bush administration attacks on the Constitution."

GDAE Podcast Episode 37

• History: Demagogues take advantage of bad economic times for political gains including the use of government to enrich themselves.
• Three economists see three futures: Pretty Bad, Very Bad and Absolutely Catastrophic.
• Call for unity among principled conservatives and progressives: Unite to counter-act dangers of demagogues during the coming hard times.

Source:

GDAEman.Com

Another JAG Hero: Colonel Morris Davis

You know. Sometimes the military gets a bad rap, and for good reason. But when it comes to the JAG Corps (Judge Advocate General’s), we are witnessing history in the making. Heroes in our lifetime.

A while back I wrote about a JAG defense attorney, Marine Lt. Col. Colby Vokey Vokey and Cerveny: True Americans.

Today we can proudly point to a JAG prosecution attorney, Air Force Colonel Morris (Moe) Davis.

In a recnet DemocracyNow! piece Davis exposes William Haynes' bias on the Military Commission trials:

“We can’t have acquittals.” Haynes said, “How can we explain holding these people for so long?” and “We have to have convictions.”

Haynes is the general counsel for the Department of Defense... the top legal position. What makes this devastating is that he is quoted by Morris Davis, the former top military prosecutor at Guantanamo. This isn't an idle claim by a partisan.

According to Scott Horton, international law expert and Harper’s magazine legal affairs contributor:

.. let me first say something about Colonel Davis. He is a very highly respected figure within the JAG court. I think a number of people saw him as someone who was likely to emerge perhaps ultimately as the Judge Advocate General of the Air Force, certainly one of the handful of candidates likely to move forward. And he’s hardly some civil libertarian. In fact, his attitudes are extremely conservative. He’s a prosecutor. The friction he had previously with the Pentagon was essentially over the fact that he was chomping at the bit, ready to go forward with these prosecutions.

But will this bombshell get legs? Nothing has gotten legs to bring down Bush. Only the weight of innumerable crimes if finally grinding him and the Republican party into a slow collapse. Nevertheless, we have to point out the fact that Haynes should be added to the growing list of Bush officials who should be prosecuted.

Background:

The following link is to a central Wall Street Journal article describing serious divisions among Guantanamo prosecutors. Article.

At issue was Davis' independence as the lead prosecutor.

"If someone above me tries to intimidate me in determining who we will charge, what we will charge, what evidence we will try to introduce, and how we will conduct a prosecution then I will resign," Col. Davis said in his written statement.

Davis eventually resigned.

Final note: Lt. Cmdr. Charles Swift is another JAG hero, worthy of a blog entry.

Update:

Haynes is out as of February 27, 2008.

Sources:

DemocracyNow! EXCLUSIVE: Rigged Trials at Guantanamo, February 20, 2008.

Credit for the update to Steve Clemons publishes the popular political blog, The Washington Note, picked up by the Huffington Post.