"Lame Duck Still Quacks" by Jon Spitz

Jon’s back. After taking a few weeks off to work on local issues involving water rights, Jon is again writing columns for the Mendocino County Observer. 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. Since last October, I’ve featured several of his columns with links below.*

His most recent, "Lame Duck Still Quacks," is well worth reading. In the first paragraph he sets the tone by stating “…[T]here is still a bloody war going on in Iraq and …we still have a sitting president who is literally getting away with murder.”

Jon focuses on the underreported war in Iraq, the negative impact of the “surge,” and the likelihood the war will rage on regardless of who is nominated for president next November.

Not just one war. We may be on the verge of a second war. Excerpt: “With virtually no Congressional resistance to his war in Iraq, Bush felt empowered to spend much of his recent trip to the Middle East trying to drum up support from Islamic countries for his plan to bomb Iran. Unlike the cowering US Congress, however, the leaders of these countries did not bow down to the naked emperor, and Bush came away with no local Middle Eastern support for his lunatic plan. But such rejection means nothing to Bush and the bombing of Iran is still very much on his agenda.”

There are many more insightful comments in the article. In Jon’s concluding paragraph he warns, “…Bush is not gone, and in these perilous months before the November election he is still in a position to do a lot of damage. Public beware – this lame duck is still quacking.”

Related reading: Today’s post by Dan Froomkin, "Bush's Peace of Mind" (scroll down to the second section). It describes Bush’s sangfroid in the face of the disastrous Iraq war: “Yesterday, as the American military death toll in Iraq passed 4,000, Bush's first public appearance was at the annual Easter Egg Roll, where he appeared in high spirits. Today he participated in a photo op with two bass-fishing champions. ‘There's nothing better than fishing,’ he said.”

* Jon’s previous columns:
”ClintObamaInc.”
"Full-spectrum impotence"
"Don't look now, but here come the thought police"
"The Suddenly Impeachable Mr. Cheney"
"Frank Rich....and Jon Spitz...comment on the Mukasey confirmation"
"The collapse has begun"

(photo of Jon provided by him)

"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)

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.