What do Cassandra, “Chicken Little,” the “Boy Who Cried Wolf” and David Walker, America’s Comptroller General and head of the U.S. Government Accountability Office, all have in common?

“The Roman Empire lasted 1,000 years, but only about half that time as a republic. The Roman Republic fell for many reasons, but three reasons are worth remembering: declining moral values and political civility at home, an overconfident and overextended military in foreign lands, and fiscal irresponsibility by the central government. Sound familiar?”

FOR MORE ON WALKER, SEE MY FILM IN DEBT WE TRUST

CALL FOR ACTION TO SAVE THE CONSTITUTION
MORE DETAILS ON MORTGAGE RIP-OFFS
BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN ON RADIO: IT’S NOWHERE

GONZALES IS GOING, WHAT IS COMING?

AP reported last night: “WASHINGTON - Moving quickly to replace Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, White House officials are considering five names that “have kind of emerged” as possible candidates to take over the beleaguered Justice Department, according to a senior Bush administration official.”

T/O: TIME TO OPEN THOSE CLOSETS:

Peter S. Canellos of The Boston Globe reports: “The departure of Attorney General
Alberto Gonzales could unlock the Bush administration’s legal closet, bringing new
details tumbling into the open about issues including the treatment of terrorism
suspects, warrantless surveillance of Americans, and the administration’s definition
of official secrets.”

The American Civil liberties wants you to take a stand on what may have “kind of emerged.”

Constitution Day — September 17th — just took on a whole new meaning: it will be Alberto Gonzales’ last day as Attorney General.

While the departure of one of the worst attorneys general in our nation’s history certainly gives us something to celebrate, we cannot rest for even a minute.

Thanks to you, we already have over 40,000 signatures on our “Don’t Let Congress Fail Freedom” petition to Senate Leader Reid and House Speaker Pelosi.

Now, we’ve set a goal of 100,000 signatures by Constitution Day — 100,000 signatures by the time Gonzales leaves office. You can help by asking your friends, family and colleagues to sign the petition. American Nightmare: Gonzales “wrong and illegal and unethical”

http://action.aclu.org/site/Ecard?ecard_id=4381&JServSessionIdr005=af92ytyz84.app26a

GREG PALAST LOOKS AT ONE SET OF CRIMES:

“What I’ve experienced in the last six months is the ugly side of the American dream.”

Last month, David Iglesias and I were looking out at the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island where his dad had entered the US from Panama decades ago. It was a hard moment for the military lawyer who, immediately after Attorney General Alberto Gonzales fired Iglesias as US Attorney for New Mexico, returned to active military duty as a Naval Reserve JAG.

Captain Iglesias, cool and circumspect, added something I didn’t expect:

“They misjudged my character, I mean they really thought I was just going to roll over and give them what they wanted and when I didn’t, that I’d go away quietly but I just couldn’t do that. You know US Attorneys and the Justice Department have a history of not taking into consideration partisan politics. That should not be a factor. And what they tried to do is just wrong and illegal and unethical.”

When a federal prosecutor says something is illegal, it’s not just small talk. And the illegality wasn’t small. It’s called, “obstruction of justice,” and it’s a felony crime.

REFLECTION ON KATRINA ON THE SECOND “ANNIVERSARY”

Writer Walter Mosely reflects in THE NATION
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20070910/mosley

We are coming up on the two-year mark since the Katrina debacle in Louisiana and Mississippi. I hesitate to
call this date an anniversary because the word implies,
in some way, a celebration, a birth. What we are
scratching on the calendar is more like a notch on a
raw gravestone, a count of the days and years that have
passed without a reckoning for those who died, those
who lost loved ones and for a city that is still in
critical condition.

Not only did our government fail to answer the call of
its most vulnerable citizens during that fateful
period; it still fails each and every day to rebuild,
redeem and rescue those who are ignored because of
their poverty, their race, their passage into old age.

The disaster named after the hurricane is not confined
to the areas affected. Every emergency room, empty bank
account and outsourced life’s work could be named. We
live in a country rife with ignored and condemned
poverty. The rich, high on their great corporate
steeds, ride over us believing that they are out of the
reach of global warming and its symptoms, of terrorism
and dwindling natural resources. When government
officials tell them to evacuate, they drive their cars,
board their corporate jets or simply climb to higher
ground with ease. At this very moment they are looking
down on Baghdad and New Orleans, Pakistan and Sudan,
you and me. The feeling of invulnerability that these
people have is unfounded, but nonetheless it makes them
reckless. They take chances and cut corners believing
that everything will come out all right. Their
delusions of grandeur and ultimate power put us in ever
more dire straits.

PLANS TO ATTACK IRAN UNDERWAY

AL JAZEERA REPORTS: AFGHAN OPIUM PRODUCTION UP