Enemy Combatant
Monday, January 31, 2005
This Summer, Be Sure To Go See The Rocky Mountains
while you still can.
Deja Rue (Or, We've Been Down This Road Before)
"United States officials were surprised and heartened today at the size of turnout in South Vietnam's presidential election despite a Vietcong terrorist campaign to disrupt the voting. According to reports from Saigon, 83 percent of the 5.85 million registered voters cast their ballots yesterday. Many of them risked reprisals threatened by the Vietcong. A successful election has long been seen as the keystone in President Johnson's policy of encouraging the growth of constitutional processes in South Vietnam."
-- Peter Grose, in a page 2 New York Times article titled, 'U.S. Encouraged by Vietnam Vote,' September 4, 1967.
Thursday, January 27, 2005
More Tricky Gnosis From Unsavory Bork
In a new Washington Post article entitled "A War The Courts Shouldn't Manage," former Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork proves why the Senate did a wonderful, courageous thing in rejecting him in 1988. The Bearded One criticizes the U.S. Supreme Court and lower federal courts for “judicial overreaching” in their decisions on cases concerning “America’s war against radical Islamic terrorists.” Hamdi v. Rumsfeld “left unclear” how the opportunity for a detainee to contest his status as an enemy combatant “could be exercised, and it is difficult to see how it could be without calling witnesses from the combat zone, a procedure that would divert American soldiers from waging war.” Rasul v. Bush was a “disaster” for the war effort because “captured alien combatants held by the U.S. military anywhere in the world can henceforth litigate their status in federal court.” Two district court decisions, Hamdan v. Rumsfeld and Omar Abu Ali v. Ashcroft, also “encroached upon the president’s war powers.” Bork argues that “the executive branch’s extensive prerogatives in foreign affairs are grounded in its unique expertise, information and unitary nature,” and that improvements to detainee policies should be the province of the executive branch, not the judiciary.
Because the Senate rejected Bork, Reagan eventually nominated (and the Senate approved) Anthony Kennedy -- not the greatest Justice, mind you, but a damn site better than the regurgitated kneejerk FoxNews hysteria that passes for legal analysis by The Federalist Mitch Miller.
What Befalls Those Who Refuse To Learn From History?
The propaganda poster above was commissioned by the U.S. government in 1942. Look familiar?
As the blog Reality Based Nation succinctly puts it, "America is now in the business of endorsing what we used to condemn."
Too bad the Republicans have lost the ability to feel shame, eh?
If, By The Grace Of Diebold, The Democrats Ever Return To Power In D.C.
and the FCC Chairmanship is still vacant (the Bush appointee to succeed Michael Powell having his/her confirmation held up by, let's say, concurrent indictments by multiple grand juries, or the Hague), I suggest that we name Ted Turner to the post:
On Fox News: While Fox may be the largest news network [and has overtaken Turner's CNN], it's not the best, Turner said. He followed up by pointing out that Adolph Hitler got the most votes when he was elected to run Germany prior to WWII. He said the network is the propaganda tool for the Bush Administration. "There's nothing wrong with that. It's certainly legal. But it does pose problems for our democracy. Particularly when the news is dumbed down, leaving voters without critical information on politics and world events and overloaded with fluff," he said.
I'd just love to see someone like Turner push a re-enacted Fairness Doctrine down Rupert Murdoch's throat.
Monday, January 24, 2005
Left My Eagle Sore
Juan Cole deconstructs the first line of Preznit Btfsplk's re-inaugural speech, graphically depicting (with helpful references to the Bill of Rights) the chasm between the rhetoric and the reality.
Think of it as a pictorial Bill of Impeachment.
Sunday, January 23, 2005
Still Not My President: An Inaugural Retrospective You Probably Didn't See
Saturday, January 22, 2005
Pulp Ben McFiction
All I've got to say is, somebody making TV spots for McDonald's in Israel sure likes Quentin Tarantino.
Friday, January 21, 2005
If We Had A Fourth Estate With More Than A "Groundhog Day" Historical Perspective (And Some Courage)
it might be reminding us of this, right about now:
"This so-called ill treatment and torture in detention centers, stories of which were spread everywhere among the people, and later by the prisoners who were freed . . . were not, as some assumed, inflicted methodically, but were excesses committed by individual prison guards, their deputies, and men who laid violent hands on the detainees."
-- Rudolf Hoess, SS commandant at Auschwitz, testimony before the Nuremburg tribunal, April 15, 1946
Wednesday, January 19, 2005
New CNN Poll: Nation Split On Whether Bush "Uniter" Or "Divider"
As David Letterman says, "Sometimes these jokes just write themselves."
Democracy? Bring It On!
Democracy Lesson #1 (as delivered by the U.S. military): Rules is rules.
"I Really Hope That You Will Refrain From Impugning My Integrity"
I believe the approximate retort in the 'hood is, "Negress, please!"
Dr. Rice, if you ever had any integrity, it must be buried somewhere, alongside Saddam's WMDs.
Friday, January 14, 2005
Dragging George Around The Black History World Tour
Everyone remember, a few years back, when Bush was roundly lambasted for allegedly asking Condi Rice, "They've got blacks in Brazil?"
Well, now that Black History Month is coming around again shortly (after MLK Day Monday), I thought I'd try to save Americans further embarrassment from this provincial hick, and try to edumacate the Crawford Cretin about the worldwide African Diaspora -- which, I contend, is more far-flung than its next two rivals, the Irish and the Jews. (Of course, like Venn diagrams, there are points of overlap -- say, the Afro-Irish of Montserrat, or the Falashas of Ethiopia).
But just where in the world - other than Africa and America -- can you find black people?
First off, everywhere there was an African slave trade. Which means the New World -- not only the United States, but pretty much all of South and Central America. Bush ought to be aware, though, that there are longstanding communities of African descent all over North America, as well, including Afro-Canadians in Nova Scotia, and the descendants of shipwrecked Africans in Mexico's Costa Chica region.
Not many people, however, are aware of the even-older Asian trade in African slaves. Seldom do you hear about the Siddis of the Indian subcontinent , nor of the Afro-Iraqis, who have lived in the Basra region for a thousand years; Afro-Palestinians have been around about as long.
In Europe, the black slave trade was small, relatively speaking -- but that didn't prevent African bloodlines from ending up in the most influential families -- the Medicis and the House of Windsor, to name two. There were sufficient numbers of "Negars and blackamoores" in London by 1601 for the Virgin Queen to decree their expulsion. Nowadays, given more liberal immigration policies nearly everywhere, there are black communities all over Europe -- Germany, France, Britain, the Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Italy. Athens, Greece, has a black city councilwoman who was born American; heck, even the Swedish Parliament now has three black members. Communities of African descent can be found in Japan and Australia, too.
In short, George, if you see a black person anywhere in the world in your travels, please: Pull your jaw off the floor and keep your mouth shut.
You don't want to look like a tourist.
Wednesday, January 12, 2005
The Life Narcotic, with Bill Safire
He's smoking something -- or maybe it's just the Kool Aid:
We also see the mark of character, or lack of it, in political parties. The Republican Party today is characterized by a mission to defeat terror while exporting freedom abroad, and a policy to restrain taxes while increasing social spending at home.
Doggerel of Dostoyevskian Desperation
Pee in the punch bowl
Egg the limousine
This is the worst administration
We have ever seen
Nothing ever shames them
No lie can cause a blush
From Bush's ass the line's direct
To Hannity and Rush
Our flag is full of shit stains
Our honor's in the can
Is there not left one honest judge
To rid us of this man?
We tried to vote him out of there
But Diebold owns the box
The truth is what they say it is
The Moonie Times and Fox
The media won't save us
The war cannot be won
Democracy does not flow from
the barrel of a gun.
And yet we blog
And comment
Link and cut and paste and hope
of the day when madness falls away
and hanging on a rope
is the corpse of the last neo-con
who led us down this path
and turned the world's respect
into unforgiving wrath.
-- catalexis, in comments at Eschaton - 01.11.05 - 1:19 pm
Tuesday, January 11, 2005
Booyah Kashaah!
Yo, lissen up! Sheila Samples lays da ultimate smackdown on John Kerry, over at smirkingchimp.com.
Respeck.
Monday, January 10, 2005
Apparently We're Not Descending Into Hell Fast Enough
so the new, shiny happy brilliant BushCo plan for Iraq? Death squads.
I mean, Negroponte's already "in country," right?
Wednesday, January 05, 2005
And Now For Something Completely Cosmic
I missed this story when it first came out, several months ago, but it deserves mention in today's context:
Frame Dragging Confirmed
(Oct 22, 2004) When developing his General Theory of Relativity, Albert Einstein predicted that the Earth should drag space and time around with it as it rotates on its axis. NASA's Gravity Probe B spacecraft was launched earlier this year to help confirm this prediction, but an international team of researchers has beaten the spacecraft to a conclusion. By carefully tracking the position of the LAGEOS and LAGEOS 2 satellites - beachball-sized spheres covered in mirrors - they discovered that their orbit is being shifted by about two metres a year by this dragging effect by the Earth's gravity, almost exactly what was predicted [in 1918] by Einstein.
That's right -- "frame dragging" was predicted by Einstein 86 years ago. Something he figured out in his head -- and that (clearly worded and explained in detail during a three-day seminar on astrophysics) wouldn't have been understood by 99.9% of the world's people in his day, and maybe could be understood by a handful more of the populace today.
In comparison, BushCo's prediction that we would find WMDs in Iraq -- of about 2-3 years' vintage -- looks to be a thoroughly discredited conclusion, even now.
Of course, the "forward-leaning" people in Einstein's day, and in Einstein's neighborhood, would have put him to death -- for being a Jew.
Thank goodness the world has changed, eh? Nowadays, he'd just be thoroughly discredited, ignored in the mainstream press, and ridiculed by lesser scientists on Fox News -- for being a leftist kook!
Josh Marshall Finds The Smoking Gun Memo
on Social Security demolition -- uh, "reform:"
This entire debate is about ideology -- between people who believe in the benefits Social Security has brought America in the last three-quarters of a century and those who think it was a bad idea from the start.
Damn, but that boy can investigate -- not to mention write.
Tuesday, January 04, 2005
My Sentiments Exactly: "Stand Up, Senator!"
The difference this time politically for any Senator who stands up is that this fight is not about and must not be about replacing Bush with Kerry. This is about making sure that the greatest democracy in the history of the world lives up to that title.
Look, we're not being "unrealistic" here. What this parliamentary maneuver buys us, effectively, is a two-hour joint-session-of-Congress hearing, in the white-hot media spotlight, about how rotten the state of our democracy has become. (Given the Bolsheviki parliamentary maneuvers lately of the GOP Congress -- by which Democrats have been effectively cut out of the lawmaking process entirely -- we can argue that this was our only remaining venue for airing our grievances.)
Yes, it's a "suicide mission." Go ask Nathan Hale about those, and about his only "regrets" in that regard.
Sunday, January 02, 2005
"No Empathy, No Competence And No Limits"
Explain to me why BoBo the Narcissistic Wingnut has a column in the New York Times, while Digby, who labors over at the blog Hullabaloo, doesn't? Especially when you compare and contrast their columns on the tsunami and its aftermath:
Here's Digby: "I wonder just when [Dubya] would have come forward if Bill Clinton hadn't been asked about it on a BBC radio show and answered like a normal human being, thereby forcing the Republicans' right knees to jerk convulsively and hit them right between the eyes."
Here's BoBo: "This is a moment to feel deeply bad, for the dead and for those of us who have no explanation."
Yes, by all means -- let's "feel deeply bad" for talentless wingnut columnists like Brooks, "who have no explanation" for the arbitrary harm dispensed by the natural world. After all, we need a sense of perspective, for the real victims here, don't we?
