Is the Phone Hacking Scandal the UK's Watergate?

The recent mega-scandal over dodgy "journalistic practices" has exposed a rot so deep it borders on calamitous.  None of this will come as a surprise to long standing critics of Fox News, often jokingly referred to as "Fox Noise" or "Faux News". But this time the fish really does seem to be rotting from the head first, the Head of UK Government that is. British Prime Minister, David Cameron, appears to be in it up to his neck and trying very hard to place a fire-break between himself and the now disgraced and defunct NoW crew.

This past week has seen a flurry of developments as reported:

1) Sunday: The arrest of former Chief Executive, Rebekah Brooks means that she now has the ability to hide behind a "veil of silence" due to the pending criminal inquiry.

2) Monday: The "death" of NoW whistleblower, Sean Hoare,  means that whatever he knew about Andrew Coulson and his connection between Cameron and phone hacking have died with him. His most timely death raises major questions as to how far up the chain this all goes but it is looking more and more like Cameron wanted Coulson on his team because of his "expertise in journalistic practices", including one might surmise those currently under scrutiny.

3) Tuesday: The Murdochs testimony before the U.K. House of Commons where the elder Murdoch, looking sad and sullen, claimed he had no knowledge of the actual hacking, which is not surprising given that all CEO's claim to rarely know the details of the actual activities of their underlings. He is, after all, only the boss.

4) Wednesday: The PM's assertion that that he had not had "one inappropriate conversation"  with Murdoch's team at News Corp regarding the BSkyB deal, looks like an attempt to cover-up a quid-pro-quo.

5) Thursday: Accusations that the younger Murdoch had given apparently perjured testimony in his Tuesday appearance before the UK Parliament in an attempt to protect not only his father and his own inheritance but also it now appears, the current PM.

4) Friday: Revelations that Andy Coulson was being investigated for perjury, while serving under Mr. Cameron.

The plot changes, the rot from the top, the high level resignations of people around the PM, the back room dealings and the timely deaths of informants has all the earmarks of a scandal big enough to bring down a sitting head of state. It harkens back to our own Watergate and leaves one asking of the current PM the age old question, "What did he know and when did he know it"?

As we all know the Cover Up is always worse than the original crimes and it looks now as though David Cameron is running for cover wherever he can find it. Let's hope, for the sake of us all, that further investigation does not reveal that Cameron's team hacked into the phone mail of political adversaries, which now appears to be a real possibility, nor that murder is hidden under that dark cover!

Republicans Play a Dangerous Game

As the latest talks to raise the debt limit collapse at the hands of the dogmatic Republicans the public is not amused. As everyone is by now very much aware, failure to raise the debt limit would cause a catastrophic plunge into depression from which the US would be unlikely to escape any time soon. It would be devastating for the country, not to mention President Obama's reelection hopes. But the Republicans could find that their "No New Taxes" mantra could come back to haunt them should they take back the White House in 2012.

This entire financial collapse was caused by an unprecedented redistribution of wealth from the hard working middle class to the wealthy capitalists via a government sanctioned ponzi-scheme, namely, the US securities markets. Securities markets create nothing of value but merely act as an intermediary between those with excess capital (savers/investors) and capital seekers. What seems to be lost in the shuffle (or cleverly hidden therein) is that capital seekers are not just corporations looking to grow or expand their business but they are also wealthy individuals, who by their very nature consume more than middle class folks and need exorbitant amounts capital to support their excessive lifestyles.

Thus, a significant portion of all the money earned by hard working individuals from production of goods and services is redistributed up to the Titans of Finance and their friends through deceptive inventions such as 401K's and other retirement and investment vehicles. These markets make people rich but not by adding anything to the economy or producing something of real value. It is only by taking the money from real producers and concentrating it into their own hands that they become rich. They live off the hard work of others and provide nothing of real value to the community. For Republicans to now say they are not willing to have a fair and balanced redistribution of these assets back into the hands of those who created them is nothing short of pure greed and upper-class arrogance!

The Republicans are intentionally trying to ruin the economic recovery merely to recapture the White House and further erode the middle-class for their capitalist patrons. Their experiment in right wing social engineering, which began under Reagan, has led to the collapse of the US both economically and socially. Now they want to take it even further down the path of destruction.

If the Republicans push the US over the proverbial cliff by not raising the debt ceiling and forcing the US into economic ruin, they will have let al-Qaeda and Osama-bin-Laden win the war against the US. Osama and his team learned from the US, that the way to cause the collapse of the Soviet Union was to bleed them dry financially through impossible military adventures. They took this lesson to heart and used it against the US and now it looks as though they may actually succeed in bringing down the US via the same tactics. This is evident in the resurgence of state government divisiveness and disrespect for federal power that has plagued several of the US states over the past few years.

What is one to do?

Republicans need to learn a new mantra. They would do well to remember the words to the preamble of the US Federal Constitution, which they love to quite so often:

     "We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."

Democrats need to flex a little muscle and push the Republicans hard. The American public knows exactly who is to blame for a do nothing Congress. Democrats hold the winning hand they just have to be willing to play it.

Both parties need to stop playing games with peoples lives and livelihoods and work together in order to avoid delivering the US into the hands of its enemies.

Failure to do so would truly be a shame on both houses!

Will Thai Elections Result in the Return of Thaksin?

The pure majority win by the politically inexperienced sister of the former PM now turned fugitive gives the Reds an opportunity to negotiate a much desired pardon for her brother. The question still remains, will he actually return to Thailand once the pardon or amnesty is granted. The answer is most likely, a huge 'Yes'!

Yet, the larger question remains, "will the Thai public see his return as a unifying factor or will they see it as a provocation and incitement to more protests and clashes in the streets, airports, and commercial centers of the much beleaguered country". Here the views appear to be quite mixed.

The general mood here seems to be a feeling of even greater uncertainty in the short run. While many people are happy to see Abhisit gone because of his connection will the repression of street protests in April of last year, still others are very concerned that the return of Thaksin would only serve to deepen the rift in the county's already fractured society.

The recent news of his potential appointment as "Trade Envoy" a mere two days after that election and prior to his sister actually being confirmed as the nation's first female PM was met with skepticism and a sense that the Reds are not even letting the change settle in before starting to stoke the flames of hostility and trouble.

Many Thais I speak to liked Thaksin but agree that he is a divisive figure in Thai politics, not to mention a convicted fugitive running from justice, and that rewarding such behavior with a cabinet post given the current unstable atmospherics would serve as a poor example of reunification and appreciation for the rule of law. Instead, it would only serve to enflame passions on both sides and further exacerbate the much held belief that the Thai people do not believe in the rule of law but instead are a country of corrupt, money grubbing, crooks, which is very far from the truth.

Quite to the contrary most Thais have strongly held ethical beliefs which are far more closely aligned with those of Americans and the French then with other more corrupt countries.

Yinluck needs to tread lightly with her new found fame and not over-read the elections results. She may find that the Reds merely won a protest vote against Abhisit and that the election does not actually provide her with a mandate broad enough for her fugitive brother to sneak into the country under.

Things are getting very interesting, indeed!