America’s Concentration Camps category archive
Lacking in the Bushes 0
Bob Barr, who, you may recall, led the move to impeach President Clinton, is not impressed with George the Worst’s memoir.
Many Republicans and conservative talk-show pundits are swooning over Bush’s re-emergence into public life; but it is difficult to grasp why any of them would have nostalgic feelings toward man who largely is responsible for his party’s electoral defeats in 2006 and 2008. What’s more, Bush’s demonstrated contempt for free markets, individual liberty, and the Constitution are counter to what the Republican Party supposedly believes in.
Coming from Barr, the word, “supposedly,” in the last sentence of the excerpt is telling.
“Move Along, Nothing To See Here” 0
Nothing in the latest Wikileaks release not already known or suspected.
The Great and Glorious Patriotic War for a Lie in Iraq was conceived in mendacity and deceit, which propagated themselves with greater wrongs.
It was evil, sin, done in our name.
The Water Cure 1
From the BBC. Follow the link for a video report.
The Bush legacy is a legacy of sin in our name.
Breaking: Kids Can Be Annoying 0
I’m listening to this show right now through the magic of my podplayer (listen at the link):
This morning, the Chicago Tribune featured this column, which manages to be both amusing and disturbing as it considers some of the existential pressures on parents:
These and other stories like them were sparked by a long article in New York Magazine, which explores this proposition:
In other surprising news, hurricanes tend to happen during hurricane season.
The flaw in the reasoning is assuming that
- having children is supposed to bring “happiness” (whatever that is), that
- “happiness” is a goal of life, and that
- “having fun” produces happiness. (It isn’t and it doesn’t, though they overlap.) Therefore
- rearing children must be a fun-filled goal-oriented endeavor.
Watching your kid hit a homer in Little League or play trombone while marching with precision in the university marching band can be fun, but fun and happiness are not the same thing, though they can overlap. (Furthermore, if one views rearing children as a goal-oriented endeavor, one cannot learn whether the endeavor be successful unless one outlives one’s children and sees the end, in which case the outcome will likely be considered unsatisfactory.)
The whole damn kerfuffle is a waste of time built on error. (And it’s got me wasting my time with it right now. My bad.)
God knew that kids can be annoying. That why he made sex pleasurable.
The issue isn’t feeling good, for heaven’s sake; it is doing good. The latter produces the former, not versy vicey.
Swampwater 0
According to the story, they got drunk, defied orders to remain within their base or whatever they call it, went for a joyride, and killed two persons.
For now, the mercenaries remain in the dock:
U.S. District Judge Robert G. Doumar quickly dismissed that notion.
“You’re asking that he be sent back to Afghanistan” to face charges there? Doumar asked Cannon’s lawyer. “Is that what you really want?”
“That’s not an option for this court,” said Assistant Federal Public Defender Larry Dash, one of Cannon’s lawyers.
More at the link. The story isn’t real clear, but, based on the excerpt above, the defense strategy seems to be that no one has jurisdiction.
Journamalism (Updated) 0
Glenn Greenwald exposes the double-standard of American reporting, pointing out how it’s torture only when someone else does it.
Addendum:
When the Government Went Crazy 0
Thoreau caps it off.
The Rule of Law Unraveled 0
If the law is not the same for everyone, we do not have rule of law.
Keith Olbermann described the importance of the rule of law last night while criticizing the willingness of John McCain (and others) to throw out the liberties of some.
Here is the key part of the transcript. It’s a good description of the importance of the rule of law:
This man — whatever other reprehensible thing he appears to be — is an American citizen!
And if you can decide that he shouldn’t have the same rights we would give to the man who shot President Reagan, or to serial killers, or to Bernie Madoff, then the precedent that you set can some day end thusly:
Some day, for some reason, somebody will be able to arrest you, Mr. McCain, and declare that you are not entitled to your Miranda rights, and that perhaps you should be tried by a military court.
While you pander to a group that tries to dress up its bitching about paying its fair share of taxes as “the government is taking away freedom,” you propose that the government should take away… freedom.
You shame yourself in the eyes of American Patriots, and in the eyes of your fellow veterans who sacrificed, and the honored dead who gave their lives, to protect the freedoms and the laws you have today suggested should be optional!
For practical purposes, the law is not the same for everyone. Shoplifters with public defenders do not face the same odds as Wall Street banksters with $1500-an-hour defense lawyers.
Nevertheless, a thread in the story of America has been the struggle to make the law the same for everyone; now, at least, that shoplifter does get a public defender.
To rip that thread from the fabric of the story for some would be to do so for all.
The portion quoted above starts about 55 seconds into the video:
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Lies, Lying Liars, and Republicans 0
Speaks for itself:
(snip)
Colonel (Lawrence–ed.) Wilkerson, who was General Powell’s chief of staff when he ran the State Department, was most critical of Mr Cheney and Mr Rumsfeld. He claimed that the former Vice-President and Defence Secretary knew that the majority of the initial 742 detainees sent to Guantánamo in 2002 were innocent but believed that it was “politically impossible to release them”.
Via Thoreau.
Roundups 0
There is an probably apocryphal quote from the 1930s which I have seen attributed to Winston Churchill and others whose names I forget. I have tried several times to track it down have not yet succeeded:
Q. Will America have fascism?
A. Yes, but they will call it anti-fascism.
Mithras dissects the McCain-Lieberman Bill mandating military detention of American citizens suspected (not guilty, suspected) of terrorism. In order to preserve America, they propose to destroy it.
Unreasonable Suspicion 0
John Cole points out that what’s missing in the noisy discussion of the prisoners at Guantanamo is acknowledging that many of them are innocent.
Constitutional Deficiency Anemia 0
The American Bar Association on Liz Cheney’s ad about lawyers representing Guantanamo detainees:
The point of having Constitutional rights–and the reason for the Bill of Rights–is that rights should not be only for persons we like. And persons should be deprived of rights because they have done something to forfeit them, not because of what they are suspected or accused, but not proven, to have done.
Anyone can accuse based on anything . . . or nothing. (Sen. Joe McCarthy, q. v..)
It’s called “justice” and the “rule of law.” It’s the alternative to tyranny.
The Cheneys and their acolytes have never understood that.
As Mithras Says 0
One down, 214 to go.
Justice Is Not the Fog 0
It doesn’t come on little cat feet. Nor does it hide behind the torturer’s hood and snivel in the corners in fear.
It comes only in the clear light of day.
