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In a superb new book, entitled The Cult of the Presidency: America's Dangerous Devotion to Executive Power, Gene Healy documents the multiple ways our political system has been corrupted by an out-of-control, unchecked Executive that could not be any more antithetical to the "presidency of limited powers and modest goals the Framers gave us in 1787." As Healy demonstrates, allowing the President to transmute into some central, omnipotent figure of authority -- as Bush/Cheney have done and as McCain seems to embrace -- "is the source of much of our political woe and some of the gravest threats to our liberties," and -- more significantly still -- this model (as the Founders recognized) virtually guarantees a state of ever-expanding militarism and endless war:

Throughout American history, virtually every major advance in executive power has come during a war or a warlike crisis. Convince the public that we are at war, and constitutional barriers to action fall, as power flows to the commander in chief.

Little wonder, then, that confronted with impossible expectations, the modern president tends to recast social and economic problems in military terms . . . . Martial rhetoric often ushers in domestic militarism, as presidents push to employ standing armies at home, to fight drug trafficking, terrorism or natural disasters. And when the president raises the battle cry, he can usually count on substantial numbers of American opinion leaders to cheer him on.

As the amazing commenter Pow Wow repeatedly documents here (see here for one typically excellent example), Congress has "increasingly deferred, dangerously and slavishly, to the presidency, which today very much resembles a monarchy," a state of affairs which -- for the reasons Healy describes -- makes endless war and imperial behavior almost inevitable. As Pow Wow puts it: "The choice for Americans today . . . is between Empire and Republic. We cannot have both."

The central truth of the 2008 election is that, with the exception of a few relatively inconsequential and symbolic matters, John McCain enthusiastically embraces the Bush/Cheney worldview in every way that matters. His ludicrous speech yesterday -- actually complaining that it is the judiciary that wields too much power and is excessively limiting presidential powers -- simply leaves no doubt about that.

-- Glenn Greenwald

Yes, we all know what happens to Iraq-war movies in the marketplace of ideas. But forget about that for the moment, because Nick Broomfield's "Battle for Haditha" -- a largely improvised fictional docudrama whose cast includes ex-Marines and Iraqi refugees -- is the closest thing this conflict has produced to a "Paths of Glory" or an "All Quiet on the Western Front." It's a full-tilt, pulse-pounding war movie that resists moralism or easy stereotypes, and depicts the November 2005 "Haditha massacre," in which a group of enraged Marines killed 24 unarmed Iraqi civilians, as a prodigiously tragic example of war's universal tendency to dehumanize everyone it touches. (The movie opens this Friday at Film Forum in New York, with other engagements to follow.) -- Andrew O'Hehir

Banners from Egyptian Facebook groups calling for the May 4 Strike.

After little less than a month following the April 6 strike in support  
of the textile workers in Mahalla City, during which a number of  
prominent Egyptian bloggers and internet activists were arrested,  
preparations for the next round of a planned general strike to mark  
the 80th birthday of President Hosni Mubarak, on May 4, 2008, are  
currently spreading all over the blogosphere and the Internet. And  
like the preparation for the April 6 strike, the internet has a vital  
role to play in mobilizing for the upcoming protest. SMS, email,  
blogs, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter: almost all of these outlets are  
used by Egyptian Internet activists in their campaign the May 4 event.  
We’ve even seen a Facebookist Movement to Overthrow Mubarakbeing  
created. Another group entitled “We don’t want Muslim Brothers” is  
calling for the strike but without participation of the Muslim  
Brotherhood, who recentlydecided to join May 4 protest.

Logo of the Egyptian Facebook group “Facebookist Movement to Overthrow  
Mubarak“

This approach of politicising the internet is not taking place without  
concerns being raised not only by pro-government and state-run  
newspapers (who recently waged a campaign against web 2.0 services  
like Youtube, Blogger and Facebook used by online activists) but even  
by opponents of Mubarak’s regime and outspoken bloggers. And while the  
Al-Gomhuriya daily called for a “boycott [of] Youtube and Facebook  
websites” and the weekly Rose El-Youssef portrayed the former website  
as “a secret room aimed at running Egypt”, blogger Hossam el-Hamalawy,  
an outspoken Egyptian blogger, wrote, in \ a blog post titled “I do  
NOT endorse the May 4th General Strike Call” criticizing what he  
described as a call “coming from the cyberspace by bloggers, “Facebook  
activists” and the Islamist-leaning Labor Party whose leaders have  
declared themselves more or less as some “provisional govt” in cyber-
exile”, that:

> We, the Egyptian bloggers, have always prided ourselves on the fact  
> that we have one foot on the ground and the other in the cyberspace…  
> But this time, it seems some have thrown both their feet as well as  
> brains in the cyberspace and are living some virtual reality,  
> mistakenly believing (helped by the media sensationalist coverage of  
> the “facebook activism“) that they are the ones behind the events in  
> Mahalla…

Blogger and activist Nora Younis was kind enough to agree to this  
interview over email. Nora shares some of her ideas with us about the  
role of Internet in Egypt as a platform for political activism.

Sami Ben Gharbia: What was the role of internet in mobilizing Egyptian  
citizens to participate in the April 6 strike and do you believe that  
the kind of Facebook Group, with its 71,200 members, has an effect on  
the street?

Nora Younis: Internet was the main tool in mobilizing for the 6 April  
strike. It’s true a tiny fringe of Egyptians have access to Facebook  
but the 70,000+ members of the group acted as strike advocates in the  
society and took the debate from PC screens to taxis, workplaces,  
dinner tables and breadlines. This forced the topic on the independent  
main stream media. The second tool in mobilizing for the strike was  
SMS. People I have known for years with no relation to politics or  
public participation were circulating messages advocating the strike.  
The word “strike” has never been uttered and repeated that much in  
Egypt during my lifetime. However, we should not forget that what gave  
April 6 its weight was the labor movement uprising and their struggle  
for a dignified minimum wage. Internet alone, without the popular  
base, wouldn’t have led to the successful strike we witnessed April 6.

Sami: we’ve seen an anti-strike Facebook group formed to counter the  
pro-strike group and it seems that the political battle is taking  
place on blogs and on social networking websites. How do you describe  
this new development and do you believe that the Egyptian government  
or the ruling party is behind the aforementioned group?

Nora: Young members of the ruling party have initiated blogs and  
Facebook groups to polish the regime’s image and counter the call for  
dissent. Such pages are probably encouraged by party officials,  
because when it comes to content they lack the passion. Furthermore,  
they remain unable to attract members and visitors.

Sami: It seems that the Egyptian regime is trying to calm down the  
situation. During the last week many of the previously arrested  
activist and bloggers have been released such as Khaled Hamza Salam  
the editor-in chief of Ikhwanweb, and blogger Mohamed Sharkawy and  
Esraa Abdul Fattah. How do you assess the situation in Egypt at this  
stage?

Nora: The Egyptian regime took preemptive measures to abort the April  
6 strike by arresting activists early morning from their homes, and  
taping their calls days before. After the day was over and with the  
rising riots in Mahalla measures were taken to contain and calm the  
situation, as a way to weaken the planned May 4 strike. A government  
delegation headed to Mahalla, met some 2000 textile workers, and  
promised bonuses and privileges. Government statements have alienated  
Mahalla workers from the riots. Popular bloggers-activists have been  
released. All seems to be in attempt to calm the situation before May  
4 - the president’s 80th birthday.

Sami: The use of web tools has caused the arrest of some of those  
activists, but it also helped release the American student James Karl  
Buck who was arrested while photographing the 6 April demonstration.  
His Twittered message ‘ARRESTED‘ through his cell phone alerted the  
world about his arrest. Who do you believe is going to win this new  
kind of battle information?

Nora: On April 5 the number of my Twitter update followers was 90. On  
April 6 it was 130, and today it is 180. Only because I was Twittering  
strike and detainees updates. James Buck gained wide support through  
his Twitter SMS. More people are joining the blogsphere, Facebook, and  
Twitter by the hour. I don’t think this could ever be reversed. There  
is a techie, passionate, frustrated generation now on the  
playground….and one could only expect more to come. In few years time  
there will be no need for registration of political parties. Like-
minded people will organise and will be heard.

PHILADELPHIA — Hillary Rodham Clinton said her Pennsylvania primary victory is for everyone who's been counted out.

Still the underdog, the New York senator told a spirited rally in Philadelphia on Tuesday night that the "tide is turning" in her Democratic presidential nomination contest against Barack Obama. He would have all but knocked her from the race if he'd been able to pull off a win in Pennsylvania.

Instead, Clinton savored another big-state victory and prepared to pivot to Indiana and North Carolina for the next round. Former President Bill Clinton joined his wife on the primary night stage for the first time since Super Tuesday on Feb. 5, and the two shared a long embrace.

Coretta Scott King: Nonviolence

Janet Kinosian 2004 interview, HuffPost

[excerpt]

I don't know how it's going to happen, but I believe the nonviolent philosophy as lived out by MLK Jr. can become a reality because at this point with the spiral of violence I just don't see any other way out.

We didn't know how it was going to happen in the world at large. I can point to South Africa, where we really had no idea. They thought it was going to be a bloodbath. And there was one Nelson Mandela languishing in a South African prison for 27 years while the transformation was taking place. At the same time, we were concerned about the Soviet Union, and before our eyes it was dismantled. There are many other instances. There's the Berlin Wall. We were concerned about Marcos in the Philippines, and they disposed him without firing a shot.

I don't know what God's plan is, but I have to believe there's a plan, and we have to allow ourselves to be used as part of God's will and purpose, whatever and whoever is willing to do that. Maybe I'll live to see it, maybe I won't. But those of us who believe have to keep on believing and working.

WINTER SOLDIER BLACKOUT CONTINUES: Look in the Mirror America!!!!!

By Kevin Stoda, Kuwait

As there are reports across the globe of a USA-wide blackout of major media news from the WINTER SOLDIERS presentations or soldiers’ testimonies on the  Iraq and Afghanistan War at the Labor College outside of Washington D.C. this week, it is time to recall that only one week earlier, George W. Bush told American soldiers in Afghanistan that if he was 20 or 30 years younger he’d love to join them. HOGWASH!

What a ludicrous claim, eh?  The man did everything he could to stay out of Vietnam in the 1960s and 1970s—i.e. when the original WINTER SOLDIER hearings took place.

http://www.wintersoldierfilm.com/

Has George Orwell’s predicted-world come fully into reality in the U.S.A. in 2008?

Only the independent media, like REAL NEWS NETWORK  http://therealnews.com/web/index.php

  , is doing its job. 

Otherwise, only the Huffington News seems to have noticed this gaping absence, despite complaints appearing all over the web, like on YAHOO discussion lists.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeff-cohen/iraq-winter-soldier-heari_b_91776.html

Even the BBC’s coverage has not been as good as one would expect from a respected international news network.

http://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/2008/03/16/bbc-coverage-of-winter-soldier/

This week’s sad and truthful testimonies from Iraqi and Afghanistan during the 5th anniversary of George W. Bush’s illegal pre-emptive attack on Iraq in 2003 should be on the evening news in America for ten minutes a day all this week—or all month till Bush is impeached and the boys and girls of America are called home. 

The silence from America is deafening. 

No corporate U.S. media was on hand in 1971 for the original WINTER SOLDIER in Michigan. But, why repeat that error?

Now the world’s-most-expensive media conglomerates, like CNN, FOX, ABC, NBC, and CBS are missing the aircraft carrier of truth in our nation’s harbor

http://www.democracynow.org/

Thank goodness for Democracy Now (which has added over 400 stations since this war on Iraq was revealed as planned by it’s new reporters in  August 2002)--and other independents, like Alternet http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/79789/

Well, America, I plead with you to spend at least one hour watching some of the hour-long recordings of those presentations. 

Go on the web and get hooked on to the biggest news story of 2008 and the most important stories of the past decade—the real stories of our new heroes, WINTER SOLDIERS 2008.

Penny Coleman says, “If America listens to what they say, the war would be over tomorrow.”  http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/79789/

Make these wars over today, America! http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/79865/

Occupy the congressional offices till the troops are brought out of those quagmires.

Cruelty Begins at Home

Some Americans may grieve about the tortures of Abu Grahib. A number of Germans may remember the sins committed at Auschwitz. A few Catholics might regret becoming Altar Boys.

They believe the specific crimes against humanity as originating in a particular time and place. This is not true. Cruelty is a universal affliction.

In Israel we see cruelty on a massive scale every day. It may have started out as a noble Zionist endeavor. At first there was the fear the Arabs would eventually outnumber us.
As we suppressed them, the cruelty spread nationwide to include Jewish inhumanity to Jews.
It has become a national characteristic a blot on the Jewish tradition. Many people are abusive within the family and without.
Perhaps half the population has been abused verbally, physically or sexually.
The ones who don't participate are the heroes, deviants and whistle blowers. Lord knows we save our worst punishments for them.
Although I come from a very different culture, I know the trials and tribulations of native Americans, of Naomi Wolf and of Sibel Edmonds to name but a few.
Fascists begin life watching dad beat up mom. It goes downhill from there.