http://www.juancole.com/2005/01/mixed-story-im-just-appalled-by.html
Sunday, January 30, 2005
A Mixed Story
I'm just appalled by the cheerleading tone of US news coverage of the so-called elections in Iraq on Sunday. I said on television last week that this event is a "political earthquake" and "a historical first step" for Iraq. It is an event of the utmost importance, for Iraq, the Middle East, and the world. All the boosterism has a kernel of truth to it, of course. Iraqis hadn't been able to choose their leaders at all in recent decades, even by some strange process where they chose unknown leaders. But this process is not a model for anything, and would not willingly be imitated by anyone else in the region. The 1997 elections in Iran were much more democratic, as were the 2002 elections in Bahrain and Pakistan.
Moreover, as Swopa rightly reminds us all, the Bush administration opposed one-person, one-vote elections of this sort. First they were going to turn Iraq over to Chalabi within six months. Then Bremer was going to be MacArthur in Baghdad for years. Then on November 15, 2003, Bremer announced a plan to have council-based elections in May of 2004. The US and the UK had somehow massaged into being provincial and municipal governing councils, the members of which were pro-American. Bremer was going to restrict the electorate to this small, elite group.
Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani immediately gave a fatwa denouncing this plan and demanding free elections mandated by a UN Security Council resolution. Bush was reportedly "extremely offended" at these two demands and opposed Sistani. Bremer got his appointed Interim Governing Council to go along in fighting Sistani. Sistani then brought thousands of protesters into the streets in January of 2004, demanding free elections. Soon thereafter, Bush caved and gave the ayatollah everything he demanded. Except that he was apparently afraid that open, non-manipulated elections in Iraq might become a factor in the US presidential campaign, so he got the elections postponed to January 2005. This enormous delay allowed the country to fall into much worse chaos, and Sistani is still bitter that the Americans didn't hold the elections last May. The US objected that they couldn't use UN food ration cards for registration, as Sistani suggested. But in the end that is exactly what they did.
So if it had been up to Bush, Iraq would have been a soft dictatorship under Chalabi, or would have had stage-managed elections with an electorate consisting of a handful of pro-American notables. It was Sistani and the major Shiite parties that demanded free and open elections and a UNSC resolution. They did their job and got what they wanted. But the Americans have been unable to provide them the requisite security for truly aboveboard democratic elections.
With all the hoopla, it is easy to forget that this was an extremely troubling and flawed "election." Iraq is an armed camp. There were troops and security checkpoints everywhere. Vehicle traffic was banned. The measures were successful in cutting down on car bombings that could have done massive damage. But even these Draconian steps did not prevent widespread attacks, which is not actually good news. There is every reason to think that when the vehicle traffic starts up again, so will the guerrilla insurgency.
The Iraqis did not know the names of the candidates for whom they were supposedly voting. What kind of an election is anonymous! There were even some angry politicians late last week who found out they had been included on lists without their permission. Al-Zaman compared the election process to buying fruit wholesale and sight unseen. (This is the part of the process that I called a "joke," and I stand by that.)
This thing was more like a referendum than an election. It was a referendum on which major party list associated with which major leader would lead parliament.
Many of the voters came out to cast their ballots in the belief that it was the only way to regain enough sovereignty to get American troops back out of their country. The new parliament is unlikely to make such a demand immediately, because its members will be afraid of being killed by the Baath military. One fears a certain amount of resentment among the electorate when this reticence becomes clear.
Iraq now faces many key issues that could tear the country apart, from the issues of Kirkuk and Mosul to that of religious law. James Zogby on Wolf Blitzer wisely warned the US public against another "Mission Accomplished" moment. Things may gradually get better, but this flawed "election" isn't a Mardi Gras for Americans and they'll regret it if that is the way they treat it.
posted by Juan @ 1/30/2005 04:02:14 PM
Claudia D. Dikinishttp://starcats.com >^..^<
Political & Personal Astrology for a New Millennium
sic transit gloria mundi [so passes the glory of this world.]
HEADS UP: The greatness of every mighty organization embodying an idea in this world lies in the religious fanaticism and intolerance with which, fanatically convinced of its own right, it intolerantly imposes its will against all others: Adolf Hitler (German chancellor, leader of the Nazi party, 1889-1945)
"By words the mind is winged." - Aristophanes
"Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty" -- Thomas Jefferson
Monday, January 31, 2005
Sent to me by Claudia:
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2005_01/005541.php#430779%20
Sadly, nothing has changed since the 1930's. Not the rhetoric, goals or tactics. Here Roosevelt is referring to the American Liberty League an ultra-rightist think thank which tried to recruit General Smedley Butler to overthrow the presidency in a coup d'état.
They seek the restoration of their selfish power. They offer to lead us back round the same old corner into the same old dreary street.
Yes, there are still determined groups that are intent upon that very thing. Rigorously held up to popular examination, their true character presents itself. They steal the livery of great national constitutional ideals to serve discredited special interests. As guardians and trustees for great groups of individual stockholders they wrongfully seek to carry the property and the interests entrusted to them into the arena of partisan politics. They seek - this minority in business and industry - to control and often do control and use for their own purposes legitimate and highly honored business associations; they engage in vast propaganda to spread fear and discord among the people - they would gang up against the people's liberties…
Our resplendent economic autocracy does not want to return to that individualism of which they prate, even though the advantages under that system went to the ruthless and the strong. They realize that in thirty-four months we have built up new instruments of public power. In the hands of a people's Government this power is wholesome and proper. But in the hands of political puppets of an economic autocracy such power would provide shackles for the liberties of the people. Give them their way and they will take the course of every autocracy of the past - power for themselves, enslavement for the public.
Their weapon is the weapon of fear. I have said, The only thing we have to fear is fear itself. That is as true today as it was in 1933. But such fear as they instill today is not a natural fear, a normal fear; it is a synthetic, manufactured, poisonous fear that is being spread subtly, expensively and cleverly by the same people who cried in those other days, Save us, save us, lest we perish.
Franklin RooseveltJanuary 3, 1936
Posted by: bellumregio on January 29, 2005 at 11:58 PM PERMALINK
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2005_01/005541.php#430779%20
Sadly, nothing has changed since the 1930's. Not the rhetoric, goals or tactics. Here Roosevelt is referring to the American Liberty League an ultra-rightist think thank which tried to recruit General Smedley Butler to overthrow the presidency in a coup d'état.
They seek the restoration of their selfish power. They offer to lead us back round the same old corner into the same old dreary street.
Yes, there are still determined groups that are intent upon that very thing. Rigorously held up to popular examination, their true character presents itself. They steal the livery of great national constitutional ideals to serve discredited special interests. As guardians and trustees for great groups of individual stockholders they wrongfully seek to carry the property and the interests entrusted to them into the arena of partisan politics. They seek - this minority in business and industry - to control and often do control and use for their own purposes legitimate and highly honored business associations; they engage in vast propaganda to spread fear and discord among the people - they would gang up against the people's liberties…
Our resplendent economic autocracy does not want to return to that individualism of which they prate, even though the advantages under that system went to the ruthless and the strong. They realize that in thirty-four months we have built up new instruments of public power. In the hands of a people's Government this power is wholesome and proper. But in the hands of political puppets of an economic autocracy such power would provide shackles for the liberties of the people. Give them their way and they will take the course of every autocracy of the past - power for themselves, enslavement for the public.
Their weapon is the weapon of fear. I have said, The only thing we have to fear is fear itself. That is as true today as it was in 1933. But such fear as they instill today is not a natural fear, a normal fear; it is a synthetic, manufactured, poisonous fear that is being spread subtly, expensively and cleverly by the same people who cried in those other days, Save us, save us, lest we perish.
Franklin RooseveltJanuary 3, 1936
Posted by: bellumregio on January 29, 2005 at 11:58 PM PERMALINK
Sunday, January 30, 2005
Iran is courting China and China is happy to be wooed. The
Great Dragon is going to swallow the American Eagle in one gulp and people just
don't "get it."
BTW, Condom-leeza Rice is talking about how the
Iraqi elections are going better than expected. Well, if a nuke had gone off
wiping out half the middle east she'd still say the same thing. -- CDD
Associated Press
Venezuela and China Sign Oil Agreements
01.29.2005, 07:27 PM
http://www.forbes.com/home/feeds/ap/2005/01/29/ap1791428.html
President Hugo Chavez and Chinese Vice President Zeng Qinghong signed several agreements Saturday concerning oil, agriculture and technology, officials said.
Chavez, whose relationship with the United States has deteriorated recently, has sought to forge new trade and political ties with foreign powers including China and Russia.
"Each (agreement) will turn into a thousand things," Chavez said after the signing ceremony at the presidential palace.
Zeng arrived in Venezuela on Friday as part of a tour of several Latin American and Caribbean countries. His delegation includes 125 officials and business representatives who discussed bilateral investments with Venezuelan business leaders on Saturday.
During their meeting, Chavez and Zeng signed a total of 19 agreements after discussing technological cooperation, as well as mining, oil and gas projects, according to a statement issued by the information ministry.
On a visit to Beijing last month, Chavez signed agreements boosting Chinese investment in Venezuela's rich oil and gas resources. The deals also involved the construction of a railroad in eastern Venezuela, the purchase of a satellite to improve telecommunications in the South American country, and the purchase of radars to tighten security along its border with Colombia.
Venezuela expects trade with China to reach US$3 billion this year due to the trade deals signed in December. Zeng is to leave for Trinidad and Tobago on Sunday.
Claudia D. Dikinishttp://starcats.com >^..^<
Political & Personal Astrology for a New Millennium
sic transit gloria mundi [so passes the glory of this world.]
HEADS UP: The greatness of every mighty organization embodying an idea in this world lies in the religious fanaticism and intolerance with which, fanatically convinced of its own right, it intolerantly imposes its will against all others: Adolf Hitler (German chancellor, leader of the Nazi party, 1889-1945)
"By words the mind is winged." - Aristophanes
"Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty" -- Thomas Jefferson
Thursday, January 27, 2005
This Pollyanna army
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1399501,00.html
Bush will not admit that his troops are too exhausted to sustain his vengeful global missions
Sidney Blumenthal
Thursday January 27, 2005
Guardian
The most penetrating critique of the realism informing President Bush's second inaugural address, a trumpet call of imperial ambition, was made one month before it was delivered, by Lt Gen James Helmly, chief of the US Army Reserve.
In an internal memorandum, he described "the Army Reserve's inability under current policies, procedures and practices ... to meet mission requirements associated with Operation Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom. The Army Reserve is additionally in grave danger of being unable to meet other operational requirements and is rapidly degenerating into a broken force".
These "dysfunctional" policies are producing a crisis "more acute and hurtful", as the Reserve's ability to mobilise troops is "eroding daily".
The US force in Iraq of about 150,000 troops is composed of a "volunteer" army that came into being with the end of military conscription during the Vietnam war. More than 40% are National Guard and Reserves, most having completed second tours of duty and being sent out again.
The force level has been maintained by the Pentagon only by "stop-loss" orders that coerce soldiers to remain in service after their contractual enlistment expires - a back-door draft.
Re-enlistment is collapsing, by 30% last year. The Pentagon justified this de facto conscription by telling Congress that it is merely a short-term solution that would not be necessary as Iraq quickly stabilises and an Iraqi security force fills the vacuum. But this week the Pentagon announced that the US force level would remain unchanged through 2006.
"I don't know where these troops are coming from. It's mystifying," Representative Ellen Tauscher, a ranking Democrat on the House armed services committee, told me. "There's no policy to deal with the fact we have a military in extremis."
Bush's speech calling for "ending tyranny in all the world" was of consistent abstraction uninflected by anything as specific as the actual condition of the military that would presumably be sent scurrying on various global missions.
But the speech was aflame with images of destruction and vengeance. The neoconservatives were ecstatic, perhaps as much by their influence in inserting their gnostic codewords into the speech as the dogmatism of the speech itself.
For them, Bush's rhetoric about "eternal hope that is meant to be fulfiled" was a sign of their triumph. The speech, crowed neocon William Kristol, who consulted on it, was indeed "informed by Strauss" - a reference to Leo Strauss, philosopher of obscurantist strands of absolutist thought, mentor and inspiration to some neocons who believe they fulfil his teaching by acting as tutors to politicians in need of their superior guidance.
'Informed" is hardly the precise word to account for the manipulation of Bush's impulses by cultish advisers with ulterior motives.
Even as the neocons revelled in their influence, Bush's glittering generalities, lofted on wings of hypocrisy, crashed to earth. Would we launch campaigns against tyrannical governments in Pakistan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, or China?
Of course, the White House briefed reporters, Bush didn't mean his rhetoric to suggest any change in strategy.
Unfortunately for Condoleezza Rice, such levels of empty abstraction could not glide her through her Senate confirmation as secretary of state without abrasion.
With implacable rigidity, she stood by every administration decision. There was no disinformation on Saddam Hussein's development of nuclear weapons of mass destruction; any suggestion that she had been misleading in the rush to war was an attack on her personal integrity. The light military force for the invasion was just right. And it was just right now.
Contrary to Senator Joseph Biden of the foreign relations committee, who stated that there are only 14,000 trained Iraqi security forces, she insisted there are 120,000. Why, secretary of defence Rumsfeld had told her so.
Then, implicitly acknowledging the failure to create a credible Iraqi army, the Pentagon announced that the US forces would remain at the same level for the next two years. Rice's Pollyanna testimony was suddenly inoperative.
The administration has no strategy for Iraq or for the coerced American army plodding endlessly across the desert.
Representative Tauscher wonders when the House armed services committee, along with the rest of the Congress, will learn anything from the Bush administration that might be considered factual: "They are never persuaded by the facts. Nobody can tell you what their plan is and they don't feel the need to have one."
On the eve of the Iraqi election, neither the president's soaring rhetoric nor the new secretary of state's fantasy numbers touch the brutal facts on the ground.
Sidney Blumethal is former senior adviser to President Clinton and author of The Clinton Wars
sidney_blumenthal @yahoo.com
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005
Claudia D. Dikinishttp://starcats.com >^..^<
Political & Personal Astrology for a New Millennium
sic transit gloria mundi [so passes the glory of this world.]
HEADS UP: The greatness of every mighty organization embodying an idea in this world lies in the religious fanaticism and intolerance with which, fanatically convinced of its own right, it intolerantly imposes its will against all others: Adolf Hitler (German chancellor, leader of the Nazi party, 1889-1945)
"By words the mind is winged." - Aristophanes
"Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty" -- Thomas Jefferson
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1399501,00.html
Bush will not admit that his troops are too exhausted to sustain his vengeful global missions
Sidney Blumenthal
Thursday January 27, 2005
Guardian
The most penetrating critique of the realism informing President Bush's second inaugural address, a trumpet call of imperial ambition, was made one month before it was delivered, by Lt Gen James Helmly, chief of the US Army Reserve.
In an internal memorandum, he described "the Army Reserve's inability under current policies, procedures and practices ... to meet mission requirements associated with Operation Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom. The Army Reserve is additionally in grave danger of being unable to meet other operational requirements and is rapidly degenerating into a broken force".
These "dysfunctional" policies are producing a crisis "more acute and hurtful", as the Reserve's ability to mobilise troops is "eroding daily".
The US force in Iraq of about 150,000 troops is composed of a "volunteer" army that came into being with the end of military conscription during the Vietnam war. More than 40% are National Guard and Reserves, most having completed second tours of duty and being sent out again.
The force level has been maintained by the Pentagon only by "stop-loss" orders that coerce soldiers to remain in service after their contractual enlistment expires - a back-door draft.
Re-enlistment is collapsing, by 30% last year. The Pentagon justified this de facto conscription by telling Congress that it is merely a short-term solution that would not be necessary as Iraq quickly stabilises and an Iraqi security force fills the vacuum. But this week the Pentagon announced that the US force level would remain unchanged through 2006.
"I don't know where these troops are coming from. It's mystifying," Representative Ellen Tauscher, a ranking Democrat on the House armed services committee, told me. "There's no policy to deal with the fact we have a military in extremis."
Bush's speech calling for "ending tyranny in all the world" was of consistent abstraction uninflected by anything as specific as the actual condition of the military that would presumably be sent scurrying on various global missions.
But the speech was aflame with images of destruction and vengeance. The neoconservatives were ecstatic, perhaps as much by their influence in inserting their gnostic codewords into the speech as the dogmatism of the speech itself.
For them, Bush's rhetoric about "eternal hope that is meant to be fulfiled" was a sign of their triumph. The speech, crowed neocon William Kristol, who consulted on it, was indeed "informed by Strauss" - a reference to Leo Strauss, philosopher of obscurantist strands of absolutist thought, mentor and inspiration to some neocons who believe they fulfil his teaching by acting as tutors to politicians in need of their superior guidance.
'Informed" is hardly the precise word to account for the manipulation of Bush's impulses by cultish advisers with ulterior motives.
Even as the neocons revelled in their influence, Bush's glittering generalities, lofted on wings of hypocrisy, crashed to earth. Would we launch campaigns against tyrannical governments in Pakistan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, or China?
Of course, the White House briefed reporters, Bush didn't mean his rhetoric to suggest any change in strategy.
Unfortunately for Condoleezza Rice, such levels of empty abstraction could not glide her through her Senate confirmation as secretary of state without abrasion.
With implacable rigidity, she stood by every administration decision. There was no disinformation on Saddam Hussein's development of nuclear weapons of mass destruction; any suggestion that she had been misleading in the rush to war was an attack on her personal integrity. The light military force for the invasion was just right. And it was just right now.
Contrary to Senator Joseph Biden of the foreign relations committee, who stated that there are only 14,000 trained Iraqi security forces, she insisted there are 120,000. Why, secretary of defence Rumsfeld had told her so.
Then, implicitly acknowledging the failure to create a credible Iraqi army, the Pentagon announced that the US forces would remain at the same level for the next two years. Rice's Pollyanna testimony was suddenly inoperative.
The administration has no strategy for Iraq or for the coerced American army plodding endlessly across the desert.
Representative Tauscher wonders when the House armed services committee, along with the rest of the Congress, will learn anything from the Bush administration that might be considered factual: "They are never persuaded by the facts. Nobody can tell you what their plan is and they don't feel the need to have one."
On the eve of the Iraqi election, neither the president's soaring rhetoric nor the new secretary of state's fantasy numbers touch the brutal facts on the ground.
Sidney Blumethal is former senior adviser to President Clinton and author of The Clinton Wars
sidney_blumenthal @yahoo.com
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005
Claudia D. Dikinishttp://starcats.com >^..^<
Political & Personal Astrology for a New Millennium
sic transit gloria mundi [so passes the glory of this world.]
HEADS UP: The greatness of every mighty organization embodying an idea in this world lies in the religious fanaticism and intolerance with which, fanatically convinced of its own right, it intolerantly imposes its will against all others: Adolf Hitler (German chancellor, leader of the Nazi party, 1889-1945)
"By words the mind is winged." - Aristophanes
"Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty" -- Thomas Jefferson
Wednesday, January 26, 2005
Associated Press
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/050126/world_forum_china_5.html?
Economist: China Loses Faith in Dollar
Wednesday January 26, 4:37 pm ET
By Edith M. Lederer, Associated Press Writer
China Has Lost Faith in Stability of U.S. Dollar, Top Chinese Economist Says at World Forum
DAVOS, Switzerland (AP) -- China has lost faith in the stability of the U.S. dollar and its first priority is to broaden the exchange rate for its currency from the dollar to a more flexible basket of currencies, a top Chinese economist said Wednesday at the World Economic Forum.
At a standing-room only session focusing on the world's fastest-growing economy, Fan Gang, director of the National Economic Research Institute at the China Reform Foundation, said the issue for China isn't whether to devalue the yuan but "to limit it from the U.S. dollar."
But he stressed that the Chinese government is under no pressure to revalue its currency.
China's exchange rate policies restrict the value of the yuan to a narrow band around 8.28 yuan, pegged to $1. Critics argue that the yuan is undervalued, making China's exports cheaper overseas and giving its manufacturers an unfair advantage. Beijing has been under pressure from its trading partners, especially the United States, to relax controls on its currency.
"The U.S. dollar is no longer -- in our opinion is no longer -- (seen) as a stable currency, and is devaluating all the time, and that's putting troubles all the time," Fan said, speaking in English.
"So the real issue is how to change the regime from a U.S. dollar pegging ... to a more manageable ... reference ... say Euros, yen, dollars -- those kind of more diversified systems," he said.
"If you do this, in the beginning you have some kind of initial shock," Fan said. "You have to deal with some devaluation pressures."
The dollar hit a new low in December against the euro and has been falling against other major currencies on concerns about the ever-growing U.S. trade and budget deficits.
The U.S. currency came under some pressure Wednesday, drifting lower versus most currencies including the Japanese yen and the euro, as dealers mulled the Chinese official's statements.
Fan said last year China lost a good opportunity to do revalue its currency, in July and October.
"High pressure, we don't do it. When the pressure's gone, we forgot," Fan said, to laughter from the audience. "But this time, I think Chinese authorities will not forget it. Now people understand the U.S. dollar will not stop devaluating."
Asked how speculation about revaluation could be curbed, he noted that China imposed a 3 percent tariff on Chinese exports.
Some Chinese experts say that perhaps inflation can be reduced this year, "but I'm not that optimistic," Fan said, noting that fuel prices keep rising.
"So maybe China (will) have 4-5 percent inflation in 2005," he said.
Fan, whose nonprofit institute specializes in analyzing the Chinese economy, stressed that the country's development is a long-term process that will take decades, maybe a century.
Since China's economic modernization began over a decade ago, 120 million rural laborers have moved into cities, but another 200 million or 300 million people need to move into the cities from the countryside to spur development, he said.
"The income disparity is huge, and income disparity will stay with us for a long time, as long as those 200 to 300 million rural laborers stay in the countryside," Fan said.
Nonetheless, William Parrett, chief executive of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, told the panel that Chinese companies are making significant progress in becoming global giants, led by state-owned companies.
"It's probably at least 10 years before the objective of the government of 50 of the largest 500 companies in the world being Chinese" is achieved, he said.
Claudia D. Dikinishttp://starcats.com >^..^<
Political & Personal Astrology for a New Millennium
sic transit gloria mundi [so passes the glory of this world.]
HEADS UP: The greatness of every mighty organization embodying an idea in this world lies in the religious fanaticism and intolerance with which, fanatically convinced of its own right, it intolerantly imposes its will against all others: Adolf Hitler (German chancellor, leader of the Nazi party, 1889-1945)
"By words the mind is winged." - Aristophanes
"Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty" -- Thomas Jefferson
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/050126/world_forum_china_5.html?
Economist: China Loses Faith in Dollar
Wednesday January 26, 4:37 pm ET
By Edith M. Lederer, Associated Press Writer
China Has Lost Faith in Stability of U.S. Dollar, Top Chinese Economist Says at World Forum
DAVOS, Switzerland (AP) -- China has lost faith in the stability of the U.S. dollar and its first priority is to broaden the exchange rate for its currency from the dollar to a more flexible basket of currencies, a top Chinese economist said Wednesday at the World Economic Forum.
At a standing-room only session focusing on the world's fastest-growing economy, Fan Gang, director of the National Economic Research Institute at the China Reform Foundation, said the issue for China isn't whether to devalue the yuan but "to limit it from the U.S. dollar."
But he stressed that the Chinese government is under no pressure to revalue its currency.
China's exchange rate policies restrict the value of the yuan to a narrow band around 8.28 yuan, pegged to $1. Critics argue that the yuan is undervalued, making China's exports cheaper overseas and giving its manufacturers an unfair advantage. Beijing has been under pressure from its trading partners, especially the United States, to relax controls on its currency.
"The U.S. dollar is no longer -- in our opinion is no longer -- (seen) as a stable currency, and is devaluating all the time, and that's putting troubles all the time," Fan said, speaking in English.
"So the real issue is how to change the regime from a U.S. dollar pegging ... to a more manageable ... reference ... say Euros, yen, dollars -- those kind of more diversified systems," he said.
"If you do this, in the beginning you have some kind of initial shock," Fan said. "You have to deal with some devaluation pressures."
The dollar hit a new low in December against the euro and has been falling against other major currencies on concerns about the ever-growing U.S. trade and budget deficits.
The U.S. currency came under some pressure Wednesday, drifting lower versus most currencies including the Japanese yen and the euro, as dealers mulled the Chinese official's statements.
Fan said last year China lost a good opportunity to do revalue its currency, in July and October.
"High pressure, we don't do it. When the pressure's gone, we forgot," Fan said, to laughter from the audience. "But this time, I think Chinese authorities will not forget it. Now people understand the U.S. dollar will not stop devaluating."
Asked how speculation about revaluation could be curbed, he noted that China imposed a 3 percent tariff on Chinese exports.
Some Chinese experts say that perhaps inflation can be reduced this year, "but I'm not that optimistic," Fan said, noting that fuel prices keep rising.
"So maybe China (will) have 4-5 percent inflation in 2005," he said.
Fan, whose nonprofit institute specializes in analyzing the Chinese economy, stressed that the country's development is a long-term process that will take decades, maybe a century.
Since China's economic modernization began over a decade ago, 120 million rural laborers have moved into cities, but another 200 million or 300 million people need to move into the cities from the countryside to spur development, he said.
"The income disparity is huge, and income disparity will stay with us for a long time, as long as those 200 to 300 million rural laborers stay in the countryside," Fan said.
Nonetheless, William Parrett, chief executive of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, told the panel that Chinese companies are making significant progress in becoming global giants, led by state-owned companies.
"It's probably at least 10 years before the objective of the government of 50 of the largest 500 companies in the world being Chinese" is achieved, he said.
Claudia D. Dikinishttp://starcats.com >^..^<
Political & Personal Astrology for a New Millennium
sic transit gloria mundi [so passes the glory of this world.]
HEADS UP: The greatness of every mighty organization embodying an idea in this world lies in the religious fanaticism and intolerance with which, fanatically convinced of its own right, it intolerantly imposes its will against all others: Adolf Hitler (German chancellor, leader of the Nazi party, 1889-1945)
"By words the mind is winged." - Aristophanes
"Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty" -- Thomas Jefferson
Thursday, January 20, 2005
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3449870/
God Bless America. We're Going to Need It.
by Eric Alterman/MSNBC
What is one to say about today? To the horror of its well-wishers across the world, the United States—once the “last, best hope of mankind”- is re-inaugurating the worst president in its history; one who has exploited an attack, the success of which its own incompetence helped enable, in order to execute an extremist agenda that is killing thousands, costing trillions and leaving all of us far more insecure than when it began. Before November 2, we could argue it was all a mistake; the guy ran as a “compassionate conservative,” misrepresented his record, Nader screwed everything up, and we actually voted for Gore anyway. It took the Republicans on the Supreme Court—two of whom were appointed by the guy’s dad—to stick the country with this regime filled with ideological fanatics and corrupt incompetents. Now, what are we to say? Fifty-nine million members of our nation do not mind that we were deliberately misled into a war that has drained our blood and treasure to create nothing but hatred and chaos; and that the very people who were at fault have been rewarded and promoted, encouraged to look for new targets to spread their hubristic malevolence. It defies all logic and truthfully, my ability to explain or even fully understand it. One thing is for certain: Based on an virtually unanimous unwillingness to consider its past mistakes and learn from them, things are going to get far, far worse before they get better. Thousands more will die. (Twenty six yesterday.) Trillions more will be squandered. Millions more will grow to hate and revile the name of the United States of America and prepare to attack us in ways for which our government is resolutely unwilling to prepare. Avoidable catastrophe awaits this nation and its victims during the next four years as we will undoubtedly reap what we have sown.
One thing’s for certain, none of this would have been possible without the enthusiastic cooperation—if not cheerleading—of the nation’s mainstream media.Thomas Friedman, considered a liberal opponent of the Bush administration who nevertheless advocated for its mendacious arguments vis-à-vis Iraq and then explicitly excused its willingness to lie because, after all, Hussein was a vicious dictator, cannot help but recognize the damage the administration has done to the nation’s good name the world over. Still, he once again chooses to empower its worst instincts vis-à-vis yet another abominable adventure in Iran by finding what? A single Oxford student in Paris. And pronouncing on the basis of this intrepid bit of investigative reporting that Iran is a “Red state” by extension, would welcome an American invasion of the type outlined by Seymour Hersh in The New Yorker. Four years from now we will be assessing the fallout from that catastrophe undoubtedly in dead Americans, Iranians and additional hatred—and terrorists—bred the world over. God Bless America. We are going to need all the help we can get.
Claudia D. Dikinis
http://starcats.com >^..^<
Political & Personal Astrology for a New Millennium
sic transit gloria mundi [so passes the glory of this world.]
HEADS UP: The greatness of every mighty organization embodying an idea in this world lies in the religious fanaticism and intolerance with which, fanatically convinced of its own right, it intolerantly imposes its will against all others: Adolf Hitler (German chancellor, leader of the Nazi party, 1889-1945)
"By words the mind is winged." - Aristophanes
"Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty" -- Thomas Jefferson
God Bless America. We're Going to Need It.
by Eric Alterman/MSNBC
What is one to say about today? To the horror of its well-wishers across the world, the United States—once the “last, best hope of mankind”- is re-inaugurating the worst president in its history; one who has exploited an attack, the success of which its own incompetence helped enable, in order to execute an extremist agenda that is killing thousands, costing trillions and leaving all of us far more insecure than when it began. Before November 2, we could argue it was all a mistake; the guy ran as a “compassionate conservative,” misrepresented his record, Nader screwed everything up, and we actually voted for Gore anyway. It took the Republicans on the Supreme Court—two of whom were appointed by the guy’s dad—to stick the country with this regime filled with ideological fanatics and corrupt incompetents. Now, what are we to say? Fifty-nine million members of our nation do not mind that we were deliberately misled into a war that has drained our blood and treasure to create nothing but hatred and chaos; and that the very people who were at fault have been rewarded and promoted, encouraged to look for new targets to spread their hubristic malevolence. It defies all logic and truthfully, my ability to explain or even fully understand it. One thing is for certain: Based on an virtually unanimous unwillingness to consider its past mistakes and learn from them, things are going to get far, far worse before they get better. Thousands more will die. (Twenty six yesterday.) Trillions more will be squandered. Millions more will grow to hate and revile the name of the United States of America and prepare to attack us in ways for which our government is resolutely unwilling to prepare. Avoidable catastrophe awaits this nation and its victims during the next four years as we will undoubtedly reap what we have sown.
One thing’s for certain, none of this would have been possible without the enthusiastic cooperation—if not cheerleading—of the nation’s mainstream media.Thomas Friedman, considered a liberal opponent of the Bush administration who nevertheless advocated for its mendacious arguments vis-à-vis Iraq and then explicitly excused its willingness to lie because, after all, Hussein was a vicious dictator, cannot help but recognize the damage the administration has done to the nation’s good name the world over. Still, he once again chooses to empower its worst instincts vis-à-vis yet another abominable adventure in Iran by finding what? A single Oxford student in Paris. And pronouncing on the basis of this intrepid bit of investigative reporting that Iran is a “Red state” by extension, would welcome an American invasion of the type outlined by Seymour Hersh in The New Yorker. Four years from now we will be assessing the fallout from that catastrophe undoubtedly in dead Americans, Iranians and additional hatred—and terrorists—bred the world over. God Bless America. We are going to need all the help we can get.
Claudia D. Dikinis
http://starcats.com >^..^<
Political & Personal Astrology for a New Millennium
sic transit gloria mundi [so passes the glory of this world.]
HEADS UP: The greatness of every mighty organization embodying an idea in this world lies in the religious fanaticism and intolerance with which, fanatically convinced of its own right, it intolerantly imposes its will against all others: Adolf Hitler (German chancellor, leader of the Nazi party, 1889-1945)
"By words the mind is winged." - Aristophanes
"Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty" -- Thomas Jefferson
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/20/politics/20sponge.html?adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1106258953-CxRmyStmzW29ZnKmZqfoVQ
Conservatives Pick Soft Target: A Cartoon Sponge
By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK
Published: January 20, 2005
ASHINGTON, Jan. 19 - On the heels of electoral victories barring same-sex marriage, some influential conservative Christian groups are turning their attention to a new target: the cartoon character SpongeBob SquarePants.
"Does anybody here know SpongeBob?" Dr. James C. Dobson, the founder of Focus on the Family, asked the guests Tuesday night at a black-tie dinner for members of Congress and political allies to celebrate the election results.
SpongeBob needed no introduction. In addition to his popularity among children, who watch his cartoon show, he has become a well-known camp figure among adult gay men, perhaps because he holds hands with his animated sidekick Patrick and likes to watch the imaginary television show "The Adventures of Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy."
Now, Dr. Dobson said, SpongeBob's creators had enlisted him in a "pro-homosexual video," in which he appeared alongside children's television colleagues like Barney and Jimmy Neutron, among many others. The makers of the video, he said, planned to mail it to thousands of elementary schools to promote a "tolerance pledge" that includes tolerance for differences of "sexual identity."
The video's creator, Nile Rodgers, who wrote the disco hit "We Are Family," said Mr. Dobson's objection stemmed from a misunderstanding. Mr. Rodgers said he founded the We Are Family Foundation after the Sept. 11 attacks to create a music video to teach children about multiculturalism. The video has appeared on television networks, and nothing in it or its accompanying materials refers to sexual identity. The pledge, borrowed from the Southern Poverty Law Center, is not mentioned on the video and is available only on the group's Web site.
Mr. Rodgers suggested that Dr. Dobson and the American Family Association, the conservative Christian group that first sounded the alarm, might have been confused because of an unrelated Web site belonging to another group called "We Are Family," which supports gay youth.
"The fact that some people may be upset with each other peoples' lifestyles, that is O.K.," Mr. Rodgers said. "We are just talking about respect."
Mark Barondess, the foundation's lawyer, said the critics "need medication."
On Wednesday however, Paul Batura, assistant to Mr. Dobson at Focus on the Family, said the group stood by its accusation.
"We see the video as an insidious means by which the organization is manipulating and potentially brainwashing kids," he said. "It is a classic bait and switch."
Claudia D. Dikinishttp://starcats.com >^..^<
Political & Personal Astrology for a New Millennium
sic transit gloria mundi [so passes the glory of this world.]
HEADS UP: The greatness of every mighty organization embodying an idea in this world lies in the religious fanaticism and intolerance with which, fanatically convinced of its own right, it intolerantly imposes its will against all others: Adolf Hitler (German chancellor, leader of the Nazi party, 1889-1945)
"By words the mind is winged." - Aristophanes
"Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty" -- Thomas Jefferson
Conservatives Pick Soft Target: A Cartoon Sponge
By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK
Published: January 20, 2005
ASHINGTON, Jan. 19 - On the heels of electoral victories barring same-sex marriage, some influential conservative Christian groups are turning their attention to a new target: the cartoon character SpongeBob SquarePants.
"Does anybody here know SpongeBob?" Dr. James C. Dobson, the founder of Focus on the Family, asked the guests Tuesday night at a black-tie dinner for members of Congress and political allies to celebrate the election results.
SpongeBob needed no introduction. In addition to his popularity among children, who watch his cartoon show, he has become a well-known camp figure among adult gay men, perhaps because he holds hands with his animated sidekick Patrick and likes to watch the imaginary television show "The Adventures of Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy."
Now, Dr. Dobson said, SpongeBob's creators had enlisted him in a "pro-homosexual video," in which he appeared alongside children's television colleagues like Barney and Jimmy Neutron, among many others. The makers of the video, he said, planned to mail it to thousands of elementary schools to promote a "tolerance pledge" that includes tolerance for differences of "sexual identity."
The video's creator, Nile Rodgers, who wrote the disco hit "We Are Family," said Mr. Dobson's objection stemmed from a misunderstanding. Mr. Rodgers said he founded the We Are Family Foundation after the Sept. 11 attacks to create a music video to teach children about multiculturalism. The video has appeared on television networks, and nothing in it or its accompanying materials refers to sexual identity. The pledge, borrowed from the Southern Poverty Law Center, is not mentioned on the video and is available only on the group's Web site.
Mr. Rodgers suggested that Dr. Dobson and the American Family Association, the conservative Christian group that first sounded the alarm, might have been confused because of an unrelated Web site belonging to another group called "We Are Family," which supports gay youth.
"The fact that some people may be upset with each other peoples' lifestyles, that is O.K.," Mr. Rodgers said. "We are just talking about respect."
Mark Barondess, the foundation's lawyer, said the critics "need medication."
On Wednesday however, Paul Batura, assistant to Mr. Dobson at Focus on the Family, said the group stood by its accusation.
"We see the video as an insidious means by which the organization is manipulating and potentially brainwashing kids," he said. "It is a classic bait and switch."
Claudia D. Dikinishttp://starcats.com >^..^<
Political & Personal Astrology for a New Millennium
sic transit gloria mundi [so passes the glory of this world.]
HEADS UP: The greatness of every mighty organization embodying an idea in this world lies in the religious fanaticism and intolerance with which, fanatically convinced of its own right, it intolerantly imposes its will against all others: Adolf Hitler (German chancellor, leader of the Nazi party, 1889-1945)
"By words the mind is winged." - Aristophanes
"Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty" -- Thomas Jefferson
Friday, January 14, 2005
Happy talk
http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,3858,5103210-103677,00.html
Bush's inaugural address next week will be full of his administration's ideological fantasies that now substitute for reality
Sidney Blumenthal
Friday January 14, 2005
Guardian'Metrics" is one of secretary of defence Donald Rumsfeld's obsessions. In October 2003, he sent a memo to his deputies and the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff: "Today, we lack metrics to know if we are winning or losing the global war on terror." Rumsfeld demanded precise measurements of progress, including the "ideological". By the "war on terror" he meant Iraq as well as Afghanistan. A study was commissioned by the JCS and conducted by the Institute for Defence Analyses, a military thinktank. In utterly neutral terms, the IDA report detailed a grim picture at odds with the Bush administration's rosy scenarios. Not only has Rumsfeld suppressed the report, but the Pentagon has yet to acknowledge its existence.
In the invasion of Iraq, Rumsfeld applied his doctrine of using a light combat force against the advice of the senior military. General Eric Shinseki, commander of the army, was cashiered and publicly ridiculed for suggesting that a larger force would be required. But it was assumed by Rumsfeld and the neocons that there would be no long occupation because democracy would spontaneously flower.
In April 2004 the Strategic Studies Institute of the Army War College produced a report on the metrics of the Rumsfeld doctrine: Toppling Saddam: Iraq and American Military Transformation. It concluded that the swift victory over Saddam was achieved by overwhelming technological superiority and Iraqi weakness, and therefore using operation Iraqi Freedom as "evidence" for Rumsfeld's "transformation proposals could be a mistake". The Pentagon has refused to release the study.
"Intellectual terrorism" prevails through the defence establishment, a leading military strategist at one of the war colleges, who deals in calm, measured expertise of a nonpartisan nature, told me. Even the respected defence research institute, the Rand Corporation, is being "cut out of the loop", denied contracts for studies because the "metrics" are at odds with Rumsfeld's projections.
President Bush clings to good news and happy talk, such as the number of school openings in Iraq. Those with gloomy assessments are not permitted to appear before him. The president orders no meetings on options based on worst-case scenarios.Military strategists and officers are systematically ignored. Suppression of contrary "metrics" is done in his name and spirit. Bush makes his decisions from a self-imposed bunker, a situation room of the mind, where ideological fantasies substitute for reality.
"I think elections will be such a hopeful experience for the Iraqi people ... And I look at the elections as a ... as a ... you know, as a ... as ... as a historical marker for our Iraq policy," Bush said last week. His statement was prompted by Brent Scowcroft, his father's national security adviser and alter ego. Fired as chairman of the Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, Scowcroft aired his views at a lunch sponsored by a Washington thinktank. The Iraq election, he said, has "deep potential for deepening the conflict", acting as an impetus to "civil war". He reflected sadly that being a "realist" has become a "pejorative". "A road map is helpful if you know where you are," he said.
Scowcroft was joined by Zbigniew Brzezinski, President Carter's national security adviser, who spelled out the minimal metrics for winning the Iraq war - 500,000 troops, $500bn, a military draft, and a wartime tax - and then it would take at least 10 years. Unwillingness to pay this price while continuing on the current path would be a sign of "decadence".
Bush speaks of the Iraqi election as though it is the climax of democracy. But by failing to provide for Sunni presence in the new government - proportional representation would easily have accomplished this - it is as ill-conceived a blunder as invading with a light force, disbanding the Iraqi army, attacking Falluja, halting the attack, and finally destroying the city in order to save it, Vietnam-style. The British had proposed local elections, beginning in southern Iraq, but Bush's Coalition Provisional Authority rejected this. According to former CPA official Larry Diamond: "One British official lamented to me, the 'CPA [officials] didn't want anything to happen that they didn't control'."
Bush, meanwhile, works on his second inaugural address, to be delivered next week, where his speechwriters can be counted on to produce a bravura speech filled with high-flown patriotism and evangelical codewords, a paean to can-do optimism. "They're not code words; they're our culture," his chief speechwriter, Michael Gerson, explained recently.
This rhetoric summons purity of heart ("written in the human heart"), divine blessing ("God is not neutral"), and the power of faith ("there's power, wonder-working power, in the goodness and idealism and faith of the American people").
As Bush draws the sword of righteousness against the forces of darkness, the enemy being evil itself ("evildoers ... axis of evil"), he ascends on messianic imagery. "Do you not think an angel rides in the whirlwind and directs this storm?" he said in his first inaugural, quoting a letter written by a Virginian friend to Thomas Jefferson during the American revolution. "This story goes on," said Bush. "And an angel still rides in the whirlwind and directs this storm."
That particular verse originates in the book of the prophet Nahum. It contains no "angel", but the Lord, "a jealous and avenging God ... full of wrath ... The Lord is long suffering, and great in power, and will by no means clear the guilty; The Lord, in the whirlwind and in the storm is His way, And the clouds are the dust of His feet ... Woe to the bloody city! It is all full of lies and rapine ... Thy crowned are as the locusts, And thy marshals as the swarms of grasshoppers ..."
These metrics continue for several more verses: "There is no assuaging of thy hurt; Thy wound is grievous ..."
· Sidney Blumenthal, a former senior adviser to President Clinton, is Washington bureau chief of www.salon.com
sidney_blumenthal@yahoo.com
Claudia D. Dikinishttp://starcats.com >^..^<
Political & Personal Astrology for a New Millennium
sic transit gloria mundi [so passes the glory of this world.]
HEADS UP: The greatness of every mighty organization embodying an idea in this world lies in the religious fanaticism and intolerance with which, fanatically convinced of its own right, it intolerantly imposes its will against all others: Adolf Hitler (German chancellor, leader of the Nazi party, 1889-1945)
"By words the mind is winged." - Aristophanes
"Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty" -- Thomas Jefferson
http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,3858,5103210-103677,00.html
Bush's inaugural address next week will be full of his administration's ideological fantasies that now substitute for reality
Sidney Blumenthal
Friday January 14, 2005
Guardian'Metrics" is one of secretary of defence Donald Rumsfeld's obsessions. In October 2003, he sent a memo to his deputies and the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff: "Today, we lack metrics to know if we are winning or losing the global war on terror." Rumsfeld demanded precise measurements of progress, including the "ideological". By the "war on terror" he meant Iraq as well as Afghanistan. A study was commissioned by the JCS and conducted by the Institute for Defence Analyses, a military thinktank. In utterly neutral terms, the IDA report detailed a grim picture at odds with the Bush administration's rosy scenarios. Not only has Rumsfeld suppressed the report, but the Pentagon has yet to acknowledge its existence.
In the invasion of Iraq, Rumsfeld applied his doctrine of using a light combat force against the advice of the senior military. General Eric Shinseki, commander of the army, was cashiered and publicly ridiculed for suggesting that a larger force would be required. But it was assumed by Rumsfeld and the neocons that there would be no long occupation because democracy would spontaneously flower.
In April 2004 the Strategic Studies Institute of the Army War College produced a report on the metrics of the Rumsfeld doctrine: Toppling Saddam: Iraq and American Military Transformation. It concluded that the swift victory over Saddam was achieved by overwhelming technological superiority and Iraqi weakness, and therefore using operation Iraqi Freedom as "evidence" for Rumsfeld's "transformation proposals could be a mistake". The Pentagon has refused to release the study.
"Intellectual terrorism" prevails through the defence establishment, a leading military strategist at one of the war colleges, who deals in calm, measured expertise of a nonpartisan nature, told me. Even the respected defence research institute, the Rand Corporation, is being "cut out of the loop", denied contracts for studies because the "metrics" are at odds with Rumsfeld's projections.
President Bush clings to good news and happy talk, such as the number of school openings in Iraq. Those with gloomy assessments are not permitted to appear before him. The president orders no meetings on options based on worst-case scenarios.Military strategists and officers are systematically ignored. Suppression of contrary "metrics" is done in his name and spirit. Bush makes his decisions from a self-imposed bunker, a situation room of the mind, where ideological fantasies substitute for reality.
"I think elections will be such a hopeful experience for the Iraqi people ... And I look at the elections as a ... as a ... you know, as a ... as ... as a historical marker for our Iraq policy," Bush said last week. His statement was prompted by Brent Scowcroft, his father's national security adviser and alter ego. Fired as chairman of the Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, Scowcroft aired his views at a lunch sponsored by a Washington thinktank. The Iraq election, he said, has "deep potential for deepening the conflict", acting as an impetus to "civil war". He reflected sadly that being a "realist" has become a "pejorative". "A road map is helpful if you know where you are," he said.
Scowcroft was joined by Zbigniew Brzezinski, President Carter's national security adviser, who spelled out the minimal metrics for winning the Iraq war - 500,000 troops, $500bn, a military draft, and a wartime tax - and then it would take at least 10 years. Unwillingness to pay this price while continuing on the current path would be a sign of "decadence".
Bush speaks of the Iraqi election as though it is the climax of democracy. But by failing to provide for Sunni presence in the new government - proportional representation would easily have accomplished this - it is as ill-conceived a blunder as invading with a light force, disbanding the Iraqi army, attacking Falluja, halting the attack, and finally destroying the city in order to save it, Vietnam-style. The British had proposed local elections, beginning in southern Iraq, but Bush's Coalition Provisional Authority rejected this. According to former CPA official Larry Diamond: "One British official lamented to me, the 'CPA [officials] didn't want anything to happen that they didn't control'."
Bush, meanwhile, works on his second inaugural address, to be delivered next week, where his speechwriters can be counted on to produce a bravura speech filled with high-flown patriotism and evangelical codewords, a paean to can-do optimism. "They're not code words; they're our culture," his chief speechwriter, Michael Gerson, explained recently.
This rhetoric summons purity of heart ("written in the human heart"), divine blessing ("God is not neutral"), and the power of faith ("there's power, wonder-working power, in the goodness and idealism and faith of the American people").
As Bush draws the sword of righteousness against the forces of darkness, the enemy being evil itself ("evildoers ... axis of evil"), he ascends on messianic imagery. "Do you not think an angel rides in the whirlwind and directs this storm?" he said in his first inaugural, quoting a letter written by a Virginian friend to Thomas Jefferson during the American revolution. "This story goes on," said Bush. "And an angel still rides in the whirlwind and directs this storm."
That particular verse originates in the book of the prophet Nahum. It contains no "angel", but the Lord, "a jealous and avenging God ... full of wrath ... The Lord is long suffering, and great in power, and will by no means clear the guilty; The Lord, in the whirlwind and in the storm is His way, And the clouds are the dust of His feet ... Woe to the bloody city! It is all full of lies and rapine ... Thy crowned are as the locusts, And thy marshals as the swarms of grasshoppers ..."
These metrics continue for several more verses: "There is no assuaging of thy hurt; Thy wound is grievous ..."
· Sidney Blumenthal, a former senior adviser to President Clinton, is Washington bureau chief of www.salon.com
sidney_blumenthal@yahoo.com
Claudia D. Dikinishttp://starcats.com >^..^<
Political & Personal Astrology for a New Millennium
sic transit gloria mundi [so passes the glory of this world.]
HEADS UP: The greatness of every mighty organization embodying an idea in this world lies in the religious fanaticism and intolerance with which, fanatically convinced of its own right, it intolerantly imposes its will against all others: Adolf Hitler (German chancellor, leader of the Nazi party, 1889-1945)
"By words the mind is winged." - Aristophanes
"Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty" -- Thomas Jefferson
Sunday, January 09, 2005
The yes man
Ever faithful to his boss, George W. Bush, Alberto Gonzales dodged his Senate critics Thursday with the company man's eternal defense: See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil.
http://www.salon.com/opinion/conason/2005/01/07/gonzales/
By Joe Conason
Jan. 7, 2005 Genial and mild-mannered yet insistently evasive, Alberto Gonzales yesterday did what tainted presidential nominees often do when facing a turbulent confirmation: He denied, denied, denied what everyone knows is true -- and he forgot everything else that might be inconvenient to remember.
Chosen to serve as attorney general by the newly reelected George W. Bush, and graced with an inspiring rise from working-class Latino poverty to the White House, the man known as "Judge Gonzales" was understandably confident that he would win approval by the Republican majority (and most Democrats) in the Senate. His only potential pitfall is the same personal characteristic that spurred his climb to prominence. Gonzales is a company man who always and instinctively provides the answers his boss wants to hear. Whether the subject is execution of a Texas felon or torture of foreign prisoners, he raises no discomforting issues and erases all embarrassing problems.
He is the kind of counselor that this president prizes most highly. He is the ultimate yes man.
Gonzales did his ingratiating best to "yes" all of his inquisitors at the Senate Judiciary Committee, too. He deplored the abuses at Abu Ghraib prison, which have stained the honor of the United States. He denounced the use of torture and promised to prosecute any officer guilty of that offense. He endorsed the Geneva Conventions, traditional civil liberties, civil rights and even abortion rights as "the law of the land."
What Gonzales did not do, however, was dispel the doubts about his role in crafting the Bush administration policies that have permitted and even encouraged abuse of prisoners. He carefully distanced himself from the notorious "torture memo" of Aug. 1, 2002, authored by Jay Bybee who then served in the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel and is now a federal judge. The Bybee memo defined "torture" to mean only the most extreme pain comparable with "organ failure or death." As Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., noted Thursday, it served as the template for an official Pentagon document that later blurred legal prohibitions against such practices.
Asked repeatedly whether he had endorsed the Bybee opinion, Gonzales insisted that it wasn't his job to shape or even comment on legal memoranda from the Justice Department. His only purpose was to transmit the opinion, which he had requested, to the president. Rather implausibly, he claimed not to recall whether he agreed with Bybee's views at the time -- and he noted that the memo was withdrawn (after it was leaked to the press). Indeed, the Justice Department officially withdrew the Bybee memorandum last week, in an act traditionally known on Capitol Hill as a "confirmation conversion."
The nominee's bland evasions conform perfectly to his role as the yes man of the torture scandal. As White House counsel, Gonzales convened meetings to deliberate on the issue, and according to the Washington Post, he purposely excluded lawyers from the State Department and the Army who might dissent from such radical findings -- as they eventually did with great vehemence. Again, Gonzales knew what his boss wanted and he delivered.
This yes-man routine requires an intimate knowledge of the boss's preferences and prejudices. It functions most smoothly when someone like Gonzales can sweep away any awkward facts and dissenting opinion. Exactly how this process works was revealed in a brief exchange between Gonzales and Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., who asked him about legal briefs he had prepared for then-Gov. Bush on death-penalty cases in Texas. Specifically, Feingold asked about an infamous case concerning an inmate whose court-appointed attorney had mostly slept during his trial. The dozing lawyer was central to the convict's appeal and remained highly pertinent up to the day he was executed. Yet somehow the governor's counsel had omitted any mention of that issue in his brief on the man's request for a stay of execution, which Bush of course rejected.
Gonzales said he couldn't recall the details of that case or whether he might have mentioned the sleeping lawyer to his boss. But the obvious truth was that this faithful servant knew his master's preferences. He was well aware that the boss wouldn't care and didn't want to know.
The capacity to ignore unpleasant realities is fundamental to this role. During his seven hours of testimony, Gonzales repeatedly proved how adeptly he pretends to not see what everyone knows is there. Despite voluminous accounts of torture and even homicide inflicted on prisoners in Guantánamo, Afghanistan and Iraq, he suggested that the entire problem is no more widespread or serious than a few poorly supervised soldiers on the "night shift" at Abu Ghraib. And he accepted no responsibility for what he had set in motion by undermining the application of the Geneva Conventions and traditional military observance of international law.
Perhaps the most eloquent rebuke to the Gonzales method came from Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who once served in the Army's Judge Advocate General Corps. On this matter, Graham speaks like a true conservative, expressing the outrage felt by so many military officers at the disgrace inflicted on their institution by Bush, Gonzales and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.
The South Carolina senator warned that "when you start looking at torture statutes and you look at ways around the spirit of the law, you're losing the moral high ground." He added that "once you start down this road … it is very hard to come back. So I do believe we have lost our way, and my challenge to you as a leader of this nation is to help us find our way without giving up our obligation and right to fight our enemy."
The passive Gonzales has shown no sign of providing that kind of leadership, and he never will. He has done the opposite for his entire career, but no matter. The Judiciary Committee will vote to confirm him, as will the full Senate. And whatever laws, rights and traditions the president may wish to eviscerate in his second term, there will be an attorney general who can be depended upon to say yes.
- - - - - - - - - - - -
About the writerJoe Conason writes a weekly column for Salon. He also writes a weekly column for the New York Observer. His new book, "Big Lies: The Right-Wing Propaganda Machine and How It Distorts the Truth," is now available. Join Joe Conason along with Ann Richards, David Talbot and others on the Salon Cruise
Claudia D. Dikinishttp://starcats.com >^..^<
Political & Personal Astrology for a New Millennium
sic transit gloria mundi [so passes the glory of this world.]
HEADS UP: The greatness of every mighty organization embodying an idea in this world lies in the religious fanaticism and intolerance with which, fanatically convinced of its own right, it intolerantly imposes its will against all others: Adolf Hitler (German chancellor, leader of the Nazi party, 1889-1945)
"By words the mind is winged." - Aristophanes
"Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty" -- Thomas Jefferson
Ever faithful to his boss, George W. Bush, Alberto Gonzales dodged his Senate critics Thursday with the company man's eternal defense: See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil.
http://www.salon.com/opinion/conason/2005/01/07/gonzales/
By Joe Conason
Jan. 7, 2005 Genial and mild-mannered yet insistently evasive, Alberto Gonzales yesterday did what tainted presidential nominees often do when facing a turbulent confirmation: He denied, denied, denied what everyone knows is true -- and he forgot everything else that might be inconvenient to remember.
Chosen to serve as attorney general by the newly reelected George W. Bush, and graced with an inspiring rise from working-class Latino poverty to the White House, the man known as "Judge Gonzales" was understandably confident that he would win approval by the Republican majority (and most Democrats) in the Senate. His only potential pitfall is the same personal characteristic that spurred his climb to prominence. Gonzales is a company man who always and instinctively provides the answers his boss wants to hear. Whether the subject is execution of a Texas felon or torture of foreign prisoners, he raises no discomforting issues and erases all embarrassing problems.
He is the kind of counselor that this president prizes most highly. He is the ultimate yes man.
Gonzales did his ingratiating best to "yes" all of his inquisitors at the Senate Judiciary Committee, too. He deplored the abuses at Abu Ghraib prison, which have stained the honor of the United States. He denounced the use of torture and promised to prosecute any officer guilty of that offense. He endorsed the Geneva Conventions, traditional civil liberties, civil rights and even abortion rights as "the law of the land."
What Gonzales did not do, however, was dispel the doubts about his role in crafting the Bush administration policies that have permitted and even encouraged abuse of prisoners. He carefully distanced himself from the notorious "torture memo" of Aug. 1, 2002, authored by Jay Bybee who then served in the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel and is now a federal judge. The Bybee memo defined "torture" to mean only the most extreme pain comparable with "organ failure or death." As Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., noted Thursday, it served as the template for an official Pentagon document that later blurred legal prohibitions against such practices.
Asked repeatedly whether he had endorsed the Bybee opinion, Gonzales insisted that it wasn't his job to shape or even comment on legal memoranda from the Justice Department. His only purpose was to transmit the opinion, which he had requested, to the president. Rather implausibly, he claimed not to recall whether he agreed with Bybee's views at the time -- and he noted that the memo was withdrawn (after it was leaked to the press). Indeed, the Justice Department officially withdrew the Bybee memorandum last week, in an act traditionally known on Capitol Hill as a "confirmation conversion."
The nominee's bland evasions conform perfectly to his role as the yes man of the torture scandal. As White House counsel, Gonzales convened meetings to deliberate on the issue, and according to the Washington Post, he purposely excluded lawyers from the State Department and the Army who might dissent from such radical findings -- as they eventually did with great vehemence. Again, Gonzales knew what his boss wanted and he delivered.
This yes-man routine requires an intimate knowledge of the boss's preferences and prejudices. It functions most smoothly when someone like Gonzales can sweep away any awkward facts and dissenting opinion. Exactly how this process works was revealed in a brief exchange between Gonzales and Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., who asked him about legal briefs he had prepared for then-Gov. Bush on death-penalty cases in Texas. Specifically, Feingold asked about an infamous case concerning an inmate whose court-appointed attorney had mostly slept during his trial. The dozing lawyer was central to the convict's appeal and remained highly pertinent up to the day he was executed. Yet somehow the governor's counsel had omitted any mention of that issue in his brief on the man's request for a stay of execution, which Bush of course rejected.
Gonzales said he couldn't recall the details of that case or whether he might have mentioned the sleeping lawyer to his boss. But the obvious truth was that this faithful servant knew his master's preferences. He was well aware that the boss wouldn't care and didn't want to know.
The capacity to ignore unpleasant realities is fundamental to this role. During his seven hours of testimony, Gonzales repeatedly proved how adeptly he pretends to not see what everyone knows is there. Despite voluminous accounts of torture and even homicide inflicted on prisoners in Guantánamo, Afghanistan and Iraq, he suggested that the entire problem is no more widespread or serious than a few poorly supervised soldiers on the "night shift" at Abu Ghraib. And he accepted no responsibility for what he had set in motion by undermining the application of the Geneva Conventions and traditional military observance of international law.
Perhaps the most eloquent rebuke to the Gonzales method came from Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who once served in the Army's Judge Advocate General Corps. On this matter, Graham speaks like a true conservative, expressing the outrage felt by so many military officers at the disgrace inflicted on their institution by Bush, Gonzales and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.
The South Carolina senator warned that "when you start looking at torture statutes and you look at ways around the spirit of the law, you're losing the moral high ground." He added that "once you start down this road … it is very hard to come back. So I do believe we have lost our way, and my challenge to you as a leader of this nation is to help us find our way without giving up our obligation and right to fight our enemy."
The passive Gonzales has shown no sign of providing that kind of leadership, and he never will. He has done the opposite for his entire career, but no matter. The Judiciary Committee will vote to confirm him, as will the full Senate. And whatever laws, rights and traditions the president may wish to eviscerate in his second term, there will be an attorney general who can be depended upon to say yes.
- - - - - - - - - - - -
About the writerJoe Conason writes a weekly column for Salon. He also writes a weekly column for the New York Observer. His new book, "Big Lies: The Right-Wing Propaganda Machine and How It Distorts the Truth," is now available. Join Joe Conason along with Ann Richards, David Talbot and others on the Salon Cruise
Claudia D. Dikinishttp://starcats.com >^..^<
Political & Personal Astrology for a New Millennium
sic transit gloria mundi [so passes the glory of this world.]
HEADS UP: The greatness of every mighty organization embodying an idea in this world lies in the religious fanaticism and intolerance with which, fanatically convinced of its own right, it intolerantly imposes its will against all others: Adolf Hitler (German chancellor, leader of the Nazi party, 1889-1945)
"By words the mind is winged." - Aristophanes
"Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty" -- Thomas Jefferson
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)