ClintObama Inc.

February 5th is "Super Tuesday." Twenty-two states, including California and New York, will be holding their primaries at which 50.9% of the Democratic delegates will be selected.

So what’s the big deal? According to Jon Spitz,* it’s no big deal whether Senator Hillary Clinton or Senator Barack Obama win. Hey dude! We have a woman and an African-American running for office. Isn’t this a big deal? According to Spitz, yes and no.

The physical differences between them are obvious, and as Jon states in his article, ClintObama Inc., “This [neither contender is a white man] is indeed an unprecedented situation in US presidential politics and I think generally deserving of the attention it gets.”

But Spitz thinks it “…[W]ould be a big mistake to believe that either of these two candidates, Senator Hillary Clinton of New York or Senator Barack Obama of Illinois, really represent any great change from the corporate controlled government we have long suffered.”

Read the whole article here.

*I’ve posted links to Jon’s previous articles here, here, here, here, and here)

(photo of Jon Spitz provided by him)

"Full-spectrum Impotence" by Jon Spitz

One of the highlights of 2007 was discovering Jon Spitz. For the past two years, he has written a bi-monthly column for the Mendocino County Observer, published in Laytonville, a very small town in northern California.

In late October, former Congressman Dan Hamburg sent me Jon’s "The Collapse Has Begun." I was so impressed that I called Jon up and asked if I could link to all of his upcoming articles. It’s a pleasure working with Jon. I’ve featured his columns here, here, here, and here.

Jon’s current column, "Full-spectrum Impotence" is so well researched and written that I urge you to read the whole thing. Starting with the May, 2000 U.S. Defense Department’s "Joint Vision 2020," which espoused full spectrum military dominance, Jon describes how the Bush regime has attempted to implement this policy and the results of these efforts.

I look forward to working with Jon in 2008. Jon’s columns and our e-mail exchanges have deepened my understanding of the “fault lines” that lie below the surface news.

(photo on Jon on the Pacific Coast)

"Don't Look Now, But Here Come the Thought Police"

Today the Mendocino County Observer of Laytonville, California (population 1,301) is publishing Jon Spitz’s "Don't Look Now, But Here Come the Thought Police"

Three previous articles by Jon published by the Observer are linked here, here, and here.

The article came with the following e-mail message from Jon: “Attached is my latest column about Bush’s police state. What is happening is so horrible that I found this piece very hard to write. I have nightmarish visions of Hitler’s rise to power in the ‘30s. It’s chilling yet riveting.”

I, too, have been watching what I describe as the Bush administration’s getting “all its ducks in a row” to declare martial law. I’m relieved that Jon has written about this daunting issue because I couldn’t find the time and energy to tackle it.

In "Don't Look Now..." Jon walks us through what might trigger the imposition of martial law then proceeds to list the “ducks,” i.e., the various laws and executive orders that are now in place, notably the Military Commissions Act of 2006, the John Warner Defense Authorization Act of 2007, the National Security Presidential Directive 51, and the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act, currently making swift passage through Congress.

Jon also describes the “unconstitutional secret operations” either conducted by the Bush Administration or with its approval.

As I read Jon’s article in preparation for posting, I caught this statement in reference to the Military Commissions Act of 2006: “With the so called ‘war on terror’ as his justification Bush, unilaterally claimed the authority to name anyone he chooses as an ‘enemy combatant’ and to then secretly abduct and detain them indefinitely without any legal right to challenge his detention (the human right known as habeas corpus).”

I thought, “Wait a minute!” I recall that the Military Commissions Act states that ‘alien’ unlawful enemy combatants will be tried by military commissions, where the right to apply for a writ of habeas corpus has been removed, and citizen unlawful enemy combatants will be tried in US courts and therefore will retain the right to apply for a writ of habeas corpus.

I called Jon and told him I thought his statement was too sweeping. He sent me a link to "Bush's Chilling New Definition of 'Unlawful Enemy Combatant," by Elliot D. Cohen, published in Buzzflash shortly after the Act was passed. This paragraph supported Jon’s assertion that citizens are also susceptible to being detained with no right to apply for a writ of habeas corpus “In chapter 948c ('Persons Subject to Military Commissions'), the Act does stipulate that 'any alien unlawful enemy combatant engaged in hostilities against the United States or having supported hostilities against the United States is subject to trial by military commission...' (my italics). However, any student of elementary logic knows that, from ‘All A are B it does not follow that All non-A are non-B.’ In other words, this does not mean that someone who is determined by the President or the Secretary of Defense to be an ‘unlawful enemy combatant,’ but who also happens to be an American citizen is therefore automatically off the hook.”

I still believe that citizens who are determined to be unlawful enemy combatants have the right to apply for a writ of habeas corpus, but agree that there’s some ambiguity in the Military Commissions Act. Also, there are other laws and executive orders that may preempt citizens' rights to challenge their incarceration. Then, too, my concerns aren’t limited to citizens. I believe habeas corpus should be available to all people regardless of citizenship.

What is refreshing is that Jon and I could disagree yet still work together with the goal of getting the bigger message, the possibility of the imposition of martial law before the 2008 election, out to the public.

(photo of Jon Spitz)

"The Suddenly Impeachable Mr. Cheney"

This is my third post featuring an article by Jon Spitz, who has written a column for The Mendocino County Observer for a couple of years. Jon consistently rights well on a variety of subjects, as is evident here and here.

”The Suddenly Impeachable Mr. Cheney,” published today in The Mendocino County Observer, is the best description I’ve seen of what happened in the House of Representatives on November 6th when Representative Dennis Kucinich introduced H. R. 333, calling for the impeachment of Vice President Richard Cheney. The resolution is now H. Res. 799.

Jon clarifies the confusing trail of votes resulting from the maneuvering by both Republicans and Democrats. The end result is that the House voted to refer the resolution to the House Judiciary Committee. The resolution had already been submitted to the committee by Rep. Kucinich last April, but Rep. John Conyers, chair of the committee, did not act on it by initiating an investigation.

Jon also describes the three articles of impeachment in H. Res. 799, compares them to the articles on impeachment against Nixon, and suggests additional articles that the House Judiciary Committee should add to H. Res. 799. In Jon’s opinion, these articles would have a better chance of being accepted by the House than the ones Rep. Kucinich came up with.

Because there’s no deadline for the Judiciary Committee to act on H. Res. 799, Jon ends his article with a call to action. Otherwise, he, along with many others including myself, believes that H. Res. 799 will never get to the House floor.

I urge you to read the full article.

(photo of Jon in front of his home)

Columnists Frank Rich of The New York Times and Jon Spitz of the Mendocino County Observer comment on the Mukasey confirmation

From New York City (population 8,214,426) to Laytonville, California (population 1,301), the confirmation of Judge Michael Mukasey as our 81st Attorney General has our best columnists hopping mad.

Most of you know Frank Rich. Jon Spitz (photo) isn’t quite so well known, but I’m working on it. My first of what I hope are many posts featuring Jon’s columns appeared on October 23rd.

You may have already read Rich’s column, "The Coup at Home." He links Musharaff’s arrest of judges, lawyers, and human rights activists in Pakistan last week to Mukasey’s confirmation:

"Constitutional corners were cut in Washington in impressive synchronicity with General Musharraf’s crackdown in Islamabad."

You won’t read what Jon says about it unless you happen to buy The Mendocino County Observer this Thursday in Laytonville or go here. Titled “Truth or Dare,” Jon describes the awkward position Mukasey found himself in when asked if waterboarding is torture. His inability to answer this straightforward question didn’t bother six Democrats, who joined with the Republicans to confirm Mukasey last Friday.

There’s a lot more to Jon's column, and it’s as interesting and as well written as Frank Rich’s.

"The Collapse Has Begun"

A couple of days ago, I received a news item via e-mail from former Congressman Dan Hamburg (1st Dist., CA). Dan scours the news and comes up with so much worthwhile stuff that I try to look at all of it. This one was titled "The Collapse Has Begun." I thought it might be by Noam Chomsky, but no, it was written by Jon Spitz for the Mendocino County Observer. Amazing! The Observer is the weekly newspaper in Laytonville, California, a town of 1,301 residents that straddles U.S. 101 one hundred and sixty miles north of San Francisco.

The article is a carefully researched and written analysis of the factors that leads to the inevitable conclusion that the U.S. economy is heading for a serious recession. I highly recommend you read the whole thing. Spitz concludes, “It looks to me like the post ‘Peak Oil’ socio-economic system being constructed by Bush is going to be like a feudal system of serfs and lords. The multi-billionaires who now own most of America will use their unprecedented levels of accumulated national wealth to buy the allegiance of mercenaries who will be used to keep all the rest of us under control.”

I was so intrigued by who this Jon Spitz is that called him. By the end of our conversation, I decided that along with the redwood trees that grow in Mendocino County, Jon is a national treasure.
Jon amid the redwood trees

Jon told me that he’s writing from a “lonely outpost,” publishing an article every other week or so for the Mendocino County Observer, a “mom and pop” operation run by Jim and Susan Shields, who do everything with a little help from their daughter, Jama, and Jim’s mother, Lois.

Jon writes on a wide variety of subjects, e.g., election fraud and Scooter Libby, and is grateful that the Shields give him a forum for his opinions on issues that aren’t typically covered in a small town newspaper.

I’m looking forward to featuring Jon’s articles in future posts.