Of all the malfeasances of William Jefferson Clinton the one that would have most justified a removal from office was not the Monica hijinks, even with the attendant lying under oath and absurd parsings of the word "is," but the pardoning of Marc Rich -- the billionaire international commodities trader and mammoth contributor to, er, Clinton. Luckily for Bill, this action occurred on the last day of his presidency, making anything like impeachment moot, even though it was an example of political corruption that would have made Boss Tweed envious.
...Until, on January 20, 2001, literally in the final minutes of his presidency, Rich was granted a pardon by Clinton, a pardon pushed through a reluctant judge on the determined "recommendation" of then-Deputy Attorney General Eric Holder.
Yes, that's the same Eric Holder who lectures us about race and calls Americans "cowards." In reality, he was a political bagman, a low rent consigliere whose unquestioning obedience to power was evidently appreciated by Barack Obama and rewarded with the full position of attorney general. Obama knew what he was getting for our number one law enforcement official. With that background, no wonder Holder investigates nothing, leaving "Fast & Furious," the IRS, Benghazi, all the scandals, untouched, stonewalled or deliberately obfuscated. He was chosen to be a "Good German" and he was one. He spent most of his time inveighing against what he perceived to be racial injustice.
Now I have a theory about the etiology of Holder's fixation on race. When you know deep down you're a dishonest person, when you have had to eat the bitter pill of your own corruption who knows how many times (even Clinton finally admitted that he had gone too far pardoning Rich and damaged his own reputation), you have to invent a narrative for yourself to justify your activities. So over may years Holder developed what I have called elsewhere a "nostalgia for racism." No matter that racism was diminishing in our culture, he had to keep racism alive, believe it was alive. If racism were going away, he would no longer have a raison d'tre, an excuse for his biased behavior, an excuse, as it turned out, to go beyond the law, act unilaterally and punish political enemies.
#1
He's doing this now so his replacement can go through the 'lame duck' senate, prior to the new senators coming in in January.
Expect a really bad nominee.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
09/26/2014 8:13 Comments ||
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#2
Now, if only the first Muslim president would step down.
[DAWN] IN the fight against militancy, a military operation in North Wazoo Agency was always considered a necessary step and blowback in Pakistain proper a likely price that would have to be paid. Now, with the military's Operation Zarb-e-Azb ..the Pak offensive against Qaeda in Pakistain and the Pak Taliban in North Wazoo. The name refers to the sword of the Prophet (PTUI!)... well into its fourth month, the blowback that did not immediately materialise appears to have finally arrived, and possibly may rapidly escalate.
The suicide kaboom on a senior commander of the Frontier Corps in Beautiful Downtown Peshawar ...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province), administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire. on Tuesday has indicated just how potent the Taliban threat still remains: from target selection to reconnaissance to pairing jacket wallah with munitions, the TTP still has all the elements necessary to cause much damage.
It is possible to point to the escape of the senior FC commander as a sign that the TTP threat is waning, but in the world of terrorism an essential truth is that the turbans only need to succeed once in many attempts to land a massive psychological blow.
Yet, to definitively succeed against terrorism and militancy, the state will need a wide-ranging strategy involving many arms of the state, not just the armed forces. The weakness of the present strategy was underlined yet again on Tuesday as the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee vowed to eradicate terrorism in the country and to work tirelessly to develop and execute an effective strategy against terrorism.
That sentiment may be noble, but to what extent does it reflect reality? The military can operate in Fata, where it is waging a counter-insurgency with nearly 200,000 troops, and it can operate under the protection of Article 245 in the cities, doing selective counterterrorism operations. But does the fight against militancy need a military-led strategy or a civilian-led one? No military strategy can tackle the roots of the problem of militancy nor can any militancy strategy change the social dynamics that make violent ideologies so appealing to sections of the public.
Moreover, with some doubts about whether the long-standing policy of the security establishment of differentiating between good and bad turbans has truly been abandoned, is the state really poised to effectively fight militancy?
Unhappily, while the focus is on military-led approaches, the civilian set-up remains ill-equipped to even understand the dimensions of the militancy problem. The previous PPP-led government was clear in its language, but more than just ambiguous in its actions.
Now, the PML-N is often accused of tolerating or even collaborating with turban elements to keep the peace in Punjab -- a misguided notion of peace given that it has only allowed the infrastructure of jihad (the mosque, madressah and social welfare networks) to grow without any oversight or control. Surely, where brave soldiers fight on the front lines in the war against militancy, their courage and sacrifices should be recognised and applauded. But the fight against militancy will not be won with guns alone.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/26/2014 00:00 ||
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Link ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[DAWN] IN the fight against militancy, a military operation in North 
