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
Friday, December 17, 2004
I wonder how long it will take before we really get to see anything on the Poison Pill Presidency: our Feckless Fuhrer, Bushbob Dirtypants.
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestne...
Dallas police found more than the drugs they expected during a raid on an East Mockingbird Lane apartment. They uncovered evidence from one of the most famous murder cases in U.S. history.
Inside Michael Roppolo's apartment was a trove of Kennedy assassination memorabilia, including an authentic Dallas police fingerprint card bearing the infamous name Jack Ruby.
One of the fingerprint boxes is blank, reflecting Mr. Ruby's missing left index finger, which he lost when a guitarist bit it off in a fight. "Amp. 1st Joint," it says.
Police say the JFK items appear to be authentic: items marked as trial evidence including pictures of Mr. Ruby shooting Oswald and what appears to be a drawing of a map containing important assassination-related locations, such as Dealey Plaza and the street in Oak Cliff where Officer J.D. Tippit was shot.
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.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestne...
Dallas police found more than the drugs they expected during a raid on an East Mockingbird Lane apartment. They uncovered evidence from one of the most famous murder cases in U.S. history.
Inside Michael Roppolo's apartment was a trove of Kennedy assassination memorabilia, including an authentic Dallas police fingerprint card bearing the infamous name Jack Ruby.
One of the fingerprint boxes is blank, reflecting Mr. Ruby's missing left index finger, which he lost when a guitarist bit it off in a fight. "Amp. 1st Joint," it says.
Police say the JFK items appear to be authentic: items marked as trial evidence including pictures of Mr. Ruby shooting Oswald and what appears to be a drawing of a map containing important assassination-related locations, such as Dealey Plaza and the street in Oak Cliff where Officer J.D. Tippit was shot.
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, December 16, 2004
Sent ot me by Claudia:
http://www.salon.com/opinion/blumenthal/2004/12/16/imperial_presidency/
Honoring failure
How to run an imperial presidency: Reward those who have failed. Otherwise, the whole charade will be exposed.
- - - - - - - - - - - -
By Sidney Blumenthal
Dec. 16, 2004 How President Bush will handle the vexing difficulties of imperial management has already become apparent in the early days since his reelection.
For months the United Nations' oil-for-food program for Iraq has been a target of conservative media. The U.N. itself has appointed a commission headed by former Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker to investigate past abuses. With the election over, the administration began its finger-pointing with U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who had called the invasion of Iraq "illegal." News was leaked that Annan's son had been a consultant to a company involved with the oil-for-food program, though Annan said he knew nothing about it. The outgoing U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, John Danforth, was sent out to declare that Annan's resignation was a live issue.
The relevant facts about the program were pushed to the side. James Dobbins, the former U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, wrote in the Washington Post: "American outrage over the diversion of U.N.-supervised Iraqi oil-for-food money seems to miss three salient points. First, no American funds were stolen. Second, no U.N. funds were stolen. Third, the oil-for-food program achieved its two objectives: providing food to the Iraqi people and preventing Saddam Hussein from rebuilding his military threat to the region -- and in particular from reconstituting his programs for weapons of mass destruction." But these calm points were far removed from the administration's objective.
Then the Post reported that the United States was wiretapping Mohamed ElBaradei, director general of the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency, in an operation to discover whether he was secretly helping Iran hide its nuclear weapons program. In fact, ElBaradei was successfully working with the Europeans to negotiate a resolution with the Iranians. It was this diplomacy that neoconservatives within the administration were seeking to discredit. Compliance by Iran with internationally monitored nuclear development isn't the objective of the neocons; they want regime change, an Iraq redux. The Europeans can't be frontally attacked, so ElBaradei was put in the cross hairs. The techniques of the permanent campaign, especially negative attacks, recently applied in the reelection contest, are being transferred seamlessly and shamelessly to international relations.
In part, the slash-and-smear campaign against Annan and ElBaradei is the Bush administration's effort to subjugate international civil servants and organizations to its central command. But this episode also reflects the rolling coup of the neocons as they struggle for power, position and policy in a second Bush term. Behind the scenes, they are scraping for new appointments in the national security apparatus. And in the wake of the catastrophe in Iraq, they are trying to foster a new conflict with Iran. Even Karl Rove, Bush's political strategist, plays in this arena, with his very own Iran advisor -- Michael Ledeen, a sleazy operator on the fringes who was involved in the Iran-Contra scandal (in which even Oliver North suspected him of skimming money).
At the least, the attacks on the United Nations serve as a political distraction from Iraq, where 178 U.S. soldiers have been killed since Bush's reelection. (The indispensability of the U.N. in arranging the elections in Afghanistan and Iraq goes unmentioned.) But America's front-line troops have not been distracted from the reality of carnage. On Dec. 8, they greeted Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld with blunt questions about the failure to provide sufficient armor for their vehicles. Rumsfeld replied: "As you know, you go to war with the army you have. They're not the army you might want or wish to have at a later time." He added that the soldiers who were rigging their own armor might be killed anyway. "It's interesting ... if you think about it, you can have all the armor in the world on a tank and a tank can be blown up. And you can have an up-armored Humvee and it can be blown up."
Never before has a U.S. defense secretary been rebuked by the troops; never has a defense secretary insulted them. Two Republican mavericks, Sen. John McCain and Sen. Chuck Hagel, called for Rumsfeld's resignation, but they might as well have been whistling in the dark. Rumsfeld's disasters are Bush's. They are of such monumental dimensions that to lose Rumsfeld is to admit failure. Rumsfeld cannot be thrown overboard. It's better to blame the troops.
On Tuesday, Bush gave out honors for failure with his bestowal of the Presidential Medal of Freedom on Tommy Franks, the former CentCom commander, who allowed Osama bin Laden to escape at Tora Bora by not deploying U.S. troops to entrap him; George Tenet, the former CIA director, who jumped on the bandwagon for the Iraq war, enthusiastically informing Bush that the claims about weapons of mass destruction were "a slam-dunk"; and L. Paul Bremer, former chief of the Coalition Provisional Authority, who, among other blunders, disbanded the Iraqi army, clearing the path for chaos and violence. These awards are signs that failure will be celebrated as success.
The farcical unraveling of the nomination of former New York police commissioner Bernard Kerik as secretary of homeland security further illuminates the administration's methods. The fact that Kerik neglected to pay taxes on a nanny who was an illegal immigrant was a most convenient alibi. Beyond his multiple extramarital affairs, secret marriage and love nests, Kerik appears also to be married to the mob -- involved with members of the Gambino crime family. Yet Bush had been attracted to Kerik's Rambo-like aggression in the first place; the White House vetting process seems to be as credulous as the Mickey Mouse Club, and the impulse to cover up instant. The fall guy in this scenario is former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Kerik's patron and partner. Inadvertently, Giuliani's tainting eliminates him as a moderate Republican pretender to the throne in the future. If only Kerik's foibles had passed beneath the radar, he might have been honored for any calamity. Thus the risks and rewards in Bush's imperial capital.
- - - - - - - - - - - -
About the writer
Sidney Blumenthal, a former assistant and senior advisor to President Clinton and the author of "The Clinton Wars," is writing a column for Salon and the Guardian of London.
http://www.salon.com/opinion/blumenthal/2004/12/16/imperial_presidency/
Honoring failure
How to run an imperial presidency: Reward those who have failed. Otherwise, the whole charade will be exposed.
- - - - - - - - - - - -
By Sidney Blumenthal
Dec. 16, 2004 How President Bush will handle the vexing difficulties of imperial management has already become apparent in the early days since his reelection.
For months the United Nations' oil-for-food program for Iraq has been a target of conservative media. The U.N. itself has appointed a commission headed by former Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker to investigate past abuses. With the election over, the administration began its finger-pointing with U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who had called the invasion of Iraq "illegal." News was leaked that Annan's son had been a consultant to a company involved with the oil-for-food program, though Annan said he knew nothing about it. The outgoing U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, John Danforth, was sent out to declare that Annan's resignation was a live issue.
The relevant facts about the program were pushed to the side. James Dobbins, the former U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, wrote in the Washington Post: "American outrage over the diversion of U.N.-supervised Iraqi oil-for-food money seems to miss three salient points. First, no American funds were stolen. Second, no U.N. funds were stolen. Third, the oil-for-food program achieved its two objectives: providing food to the Iraqi people and preventing Saddam Hussein from rebuilding his military threat to the region -- and in particular from reconstituting his programs for weapons of mass destruction." But these calm points were far removed from the administration's objective.
Then the Post reported that the United States was wiretapping Mohamed ElBaradei, director general of the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency, in an operation to discover whether he was secretly helping Iran hide its nuclear weapons program. In fact, ElBaradei was successfully working with the Europeans to negotiate a resolution with the Iranians. It was this diplomacy that neoconservatives within the administration were seeking to discredit. Compliance by Iran with internationally monitored nuclear development isn't the objective of the neocons; they want regime change, an Iraq redux. The Europeans can't be frontally attacked, so ElBaradei was put in the cross hairs. The techniques of the permanent campaign, especially negative attacks, recently applied in the reelection contest, are being transferred seamlessly and shamelessly to international relations.
In part, the slash-and-smear campaign against Annan and ElBaradei is the Bush administration's effort to subjugate international civil servants and organizations to its central command. But this episode also reflects the rolling coup of the neocons as they struggle for power, position and policy in a second Bush term. Behind the scenes, they are scraping for new appointments in the national security apparatus. And in the wake of the catastrophe in Iraq, they are trying to foster a new conflict with Iran. Even Karl Rove, Bush's political strategist, plays in this arena, with his very own Iran advisor -- Michael Ledeen, a sleazy operator on the fringes who was involved in the Iran-Contra scandal (in which even Oliver North suspected him of skimming money).
At the least, the attacks on the United Nations serve as a political distraction from Iraq, where 178 U.S. soldiers have been killed since Bush's reelection. (The indispensability of the U.N. in arranging the elections in Afghanistan and Iraq goes unmentioned.) But America's front-line troops have not been distracted from the reality of carnage. On Dec. 8, they greeted Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld with blunt questions about the failure to provide sufficient armor for their vehicles. Rumsfeld replied: "As you know, you go to war with the army you have. They're not the army you might want or wish to have at a later time." He added that the soldiers who were rigging their own armor might be killed anyway. "It's interesting ... if you think about it, you can have all the armor in the world on a tank and a tank can be blown up. And you can have an up-armored Humvee and it can be blown up."
Never before has a U.S. defense secretary been rebuked by the troops; never has a defense secretary insulted them. Two Republican mavericks, Sen. John McCain and Sen. Chuck Hagel, called for Rumsfeld's resignation, but they might as well have been whistling in the dark. Rumsfeld's disasters are Bush's. They are of such monumental dimensions that to lose Rumsfeld is to admit failure. Rumsfeld cannot be thrown overboard. It's better to blame the troops.
On Tuesday, Bush gave out honors for failure with his bestowal of the Presidential Medal of Freedom on Tommy Franks, the former CentCom commander, who allowed Osama bin Laden to escape at Tora Bora by not deploying U.S. troops to entrap him; George Tenet, the former CIA director, who jumped on the bandwagon for the Iraq war, enthusiastically informing Bush that the claims about weapons of mass destruction were "a slam-dunk"; and L. Paul Bremer, former chief of the Coalition Provisional Authority, who, among other blunders, disbanded the Iraqi army, clearing the path for chaos and violence. These awards are signs that failure will be celebrated as success.
The farcical unraveling of the nomination of former New York police commissioner Bernard Kerik as secretary of homeland security further illuminates the administration's methods. The fact that Kerik neglected to pay taxes on a nanny who was an illegal immigrant was a most convenient alibi. Beyond his multiple extramarital affairs, secret marriage and love nests, Kerik appears also to be married to the mob -- involved with members of the Gambino crime family. Yet Bush had been attracted to Kerik's Rambo-like aggression in the first place; the White House vetting process seems to be as credulous as the Mickey Mouse Club, and the impulse to cover up instant. The fall guy in this scenario is former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Kerik's patron and partner. Inadvertently, Giuliani's tainting eliminates him as a moderate Republican pretender to the throne in the future. If only Kerik's foibles had passed beneath the radar, he might have been honored for any calamity. Thus the risks and rewards in Bush's imperial capital.
- - - - - - - - - - - -
About the writer
Sidney Blumenthal, a former assistant and senior advisor to President Clinton and the author of "The Clinton Wars," is writing a column for Salon and the Guardian of London.
Tuesday, December 14, 2004
From: http://rising-hegemon.blogspot.com/2004/12/batting-practice.html
From Holden at First Draft via Portal Pulpit comes this picture that for lack of a better expression (those are wasted on the pictures themselves) is to captioning, what an 80 mile an hour fastball down the middle of the plate is to "flaxseed-oiled" Barry Bonds:
Let's see, 90 Seconds what I can come up with:
GO!
"Ambidextrous George, able to be pitcher and catcher simultaneously"
"Mission Accomplished, I'll SAY!"
"Triple Sexpresso"
"It's not the size of the boat, it's the motion of that giant-assed ship behind me"
"Now THIS is a Man-Date!"
"When I said I wanted blow, that is not what I meant"
"Now this is the kind of Mr. Salty YOU can choke on"
"The Insurgents...are in my pants"
Whew, feel the burn.
Go ahead and add your own.
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
From Holden at First Draft via Portal Pulpit comes this picture that for lack of a better expression (those are wasted on the pictures themselves) is to captioning, what an 80 mile an hour fastball down the middle of the plate is to "flaxseed-oiled" Barry Bonds:
Let's see, 90 Seconds what I can come up with:
GO!
"Ambidextrous George, able to be pitcher and catcher simultaneously"
"Mission Accomplished, I'll SAY!"
"Triple Sexpresso"
"It's not the size of the boat, it's the motion of that giant-assed ship behind me"
"Now THIS is a Man-Date!"
"When I said I wanted blow, that is not what I meant"
"Now this is the kind of Mr. Salty YOU can choke on"
"The Insurgents...are in my pants"
Whew, feel the burn.
Go ahead and add your own.
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, December 12, 2004
MoveOn to Democratic Party: 'We own it'
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2004/12/09/moveon_to_democratic_party_we_own_it/
By Sam Hananel, Associated Press Writer December 9, 2004
WASHINGTON --Liberal powerhouse MoveOn has a message for the "professional election losers" who run the Democratic Party: "We bought it, we own it, we're going to take it back."
A scathing e-mail from the head of MoveOn's political action committee to the group's supporters on Thursday targets outgoing Democratic National Committee chairman Terry McAuliffe as a tool of corporate donors who alienated both traditional and progressive Democrats.
"For years, the party has been led by elite Washington insiders who are closer to corporate lobbyists than they are to the Democratic base," said the e-mail from MoveOn PAC's Eli Pariser. "But we can't afford four more years of leadership by a consulting class of professional election losers."
Under McAuliffe's leadership, the message said, the party coddled the same corporate donors that fund Republicans to bring in money at the expense of vision and integrity.
"In the last year, grass-roots contributors like us gave more than $300 million to the Kerry campaign and the DNC, and proved that the party doesn't need corporate cash to be competitive," the message continued. "Now it's our party: we bought it, we own it, and we're going to take it back."
Pariser urged MoveOn supporters to help support a DNC chair with a bold vision to represent Democrats outside Washington. Democrats will vote at their February meeting in Washington on a successor to McAuliffe.
DNC spokesman Jano Cabrera declined to engage in a tit-for-tat with MoveOn, but praised McAuliffe's efforts.
"Call me crazy, but I think the fact that for the first time in party history we outraised the Republicans, and did so primarily through grass-roots fund raising is something to be proud of," Cabrera said.
Among those vying for the party chairmanship is former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, an early darling of MoveOn's cybernetwork of activists when he ran for the Democratic presidential nomination.
© Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company
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, November 29, 2004
The Politics of Victimization
http://mathewgross.com/blog/archives/001041.html
[Mel Gilles, who has worked for many years as an advocate for victims of domestic abuse, draws some parallels between her work and the reaction of many Democrats to the election.-- Mathew Gross]
Watch Dan Rather apologize for not getting his facts straight, humiliated before the eyes of America, voluntarily undermining his credibility and career of over thirty years. Observe Donna Brazille squirm as she is ridiculed by Bay Buchanan, and pronounced irrelevant and nearly non-existent. Listen as Donna and Nancy Pelosi and Senator Charles Schumer take to the airwaves saying that they have to go back to the drawing board and learn from their mistakes and try to be better, more likable, more appealing, have a stronger message, speak to morality. Watch them awkwardly quote the bible, trying to speak the new language of America. Surf the blogs, and read the comments of dismayed, discombobulated, confused individuals trying to figure out what they did wrong. Hear the cacophony of voices, crying out, “Why did they beat me?”
And then ask anyone who has ever worked in a domestic violence shelter if they have heard this before.
They will tell you, every single day.
The answer is quite simple. They beat us because they are abusers. We can call it hate. We can call it fear. We can say it is unfair. But we are looped into the cycle of violence, and we need to start calling the dominating side what they are: abusive. And we need to recognize that we are the victims of verbal, mental, and even, in the case of Iraq, physical violence.
As victims we can’t stop asking ourselves what we did wrong. We can’t seem to grasp that they will keep hitting us and beating us as long as we keep sticking around and asking ourselves what we are doing to deserve the beating.
Listen to George Bush say that the will of God excuses his behavior. Listen, as he refuses to take responsibility, or express remorse, or even once, admit a mistake. Watch him strut, and tell us that he will only work with those who agree with him, and that each of us is only allowed one question (soon, it will be none at all; abusers hit hard when questioned; the press corps can tell you that). See him surround himself with only those who pledge oaths of allegiance. Hear him tell us that if we will only listen and do as he says and agree with his every utterance, all will go well for us (it won’t; we will never be worthy).
And watch the Democratic Party leadership walk on eggshells, try to meet him, please him, wash the windows better, get out that spot, distance themselves from gays and civil rights. See them cry for the attention and affection and approval of the President and his followers. Watch us squirm. Watch us descend into a world of crazy-making, where logic does not work and the other side tells us we are nuts when we rely on facts. A world where, worst of all, we begin to believe we are crazy.
How to break free? Again, the answer is quite simple.
First, you must admit you are a victim. Then, you must declare the state of affairs unacceptable. Next, you must promise to protect yourself and everyone around you that is being victimized. You don’t do this by responding to their demands, or becoming more like them, or engaging in logical conversation, or trying to persuade them that you are right. You also don’t do this by going catatonic and resigned, by closing up your ears and eyes and covering your head and submitting to the blows, figuring its over faster and hurts less is you don’t resist and fight back. Instead, you walk away. You find other folks like yourself, 56 million of them, who are hurting, broken, and beating themselves up. You tell them what you’ve learned, and that you aren’t going to take it anymore. You stand tall, with 56 million people at your side and behind you, and you look right into the eyes of the abuser and you tell him to go to hell. Then you walk out the door, taking the kids and gays and minorities with you, and you start a new life. The new life is hard. But it’s better than the abuse.
We have a mandate to be as radical and liberal and steadfast as we need to be. The progressive beliefs and social justice we stand for, our core, must not be altered. We are 56 million strong. We are building from the bottom up. We are meeting, on the net, in church basements, at work, in small groups, and right now, we are crying, because we are trying to break free and we don’t know how.
Any battered woman in America, any oppressed person around the globe who has defied her oppressor will tell you this: There is nothing wrong with you. You are in good company. You are safe. You are not alone. You are strong. You must change only one thing: stop responding to the abuser. Don’t let him dictate the terms or frame the debate (he’ll win, not because he’s right, but because force works). Sure, we can build a better grassroots campaign, cultivate and raise up better leaders, reform the election system to make it failproof, stick to our message, learn from the strategy of the other side. But we absolutely must dispense with the notion that we are weak, godless, cowardly, disorganized, crazy, too liberal, naive, amoral, “loose”, irrelevant, outmoded, stupid and soon to be extinct. We have the mandate of the world to back us, and the legacy of oppressed people throughout history.
Even if you do everything right, they’ll hit you anyway. Look at the poor souls who voted for this nonsense. They are working for six dollars an hour if they are working at all, their children are dying overseas and suffering from lack of health care and a depleted environment and a shoddy education. And they don’t even know they are being hit.
Mel Gilles at 07:31 PM on November 07, 2004
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://mathewgross.com/blog/archives/001041.html
[Mel Gilles, who has worked for many years as an advocate for victims of domestic abuse, draws some parallels between her work and the reaction of many Democrats to the election.-- Mathew Gross]
Watch Dan Rather apologize for not getting his facts straight, humiliated before the eyes of America, voluntarily undermining his credibility and career of over thirty years. Observe Donna Brazille squirm as she is ridiculed by Bay Buchanan, and pronounced irrelevant and nearly non-existent. Listen as Donna and Nancy Pelosi and Senator Charles Schumer take to the airwaves saying that they have to go back to the drawing board and learn from their mistakes and try to be better, more likable, more appealing, have a stronger message, speak to morality. Watch them awkwardly quote the bible, trying to speak the new language of America. Surf the blogs, and read the comments of dismayed, discombobulated, confused individuals trying to figure out what they did wrong. Hear the cacophony of voices, crying out, “Why did they beat me?”
And then ask anyone who has ever worked in a domestic violence shelter if they have heard this before.
They will tell you, every single day.
The answer is quite simple. They beat us because they are abusers. We can call it hate. We can call it fear. We can say it is unfair. But we are looped into the cycle of violence, and we need to start calling the dominating side what they are: abusive. And we need to recognize that we are the victims of verbal, mental, and even, in the case of Iraq, physical violence.
As victims we can’t stop asking ourselves what we did wrong. We can’t seem to grasp that they will keep hitting us and beating us as long as we keep sticking around and asking ourselves what we are doing to deserve the beating.
Listen to George Bush say that the will of God excuses his behavior. Listen, as he refuses to take responsibility, or express remorse, or even once, admit a mistake. Watch him strut, and tell us that he will only work with those who agree with him, and that each of us is only allowed one question (soon, it will be none at all; abusers hit hard when questioned; the press corps can tell you that). See him surround himself with only those who pledge oaths of allegiance. Hear him tell us that if we will only listen and do as he says and agree with his every utterance, all will go well for us (it won’t; we will never be worthy).
And watch the Democratic Party leadership walk on eggshells, try to meet him, please him, wash the windows better, get out that spot, distance themselves from gays and civil rights. See them cry for the attention and affection and approval of the President and his followers. Watch us squirm. Watch us descend into a world of crazy-making, where logic does not work and the other side tells us we are nuts when we rely on facts. A world where, worst of all, we begin to believe we are crazy.
How to break free? Again, the answer is quite simple.
First, you must admit you are a victim. Then, you must declare the state of affairs unacceptable. Next, you must promise to protect yourself and everyone around you that is being victimized. You don’t do this by responding to their demands, or becoming more like them, or engaging in logical conversation, or trying to persuade them that you are right. You also don’t do this by going catatonic and resigned, by closing up your ears and eyes and covering your head and submitting to the blows, figuring its over faster and hurts less is you don’t resist and fight back. Instead, you walk away. You find other folks like yourself, 56 million of them, who are hurting, broken, and beating themselves up. You tell them what you’ve learned, and that you aren’t going to take it anymore. You stand tall, with 56 million people at your side and behind you, and you look right into the eyes of the abuser and you tell him to go to hell. Then you walk out the door, taking the kids and gays and minorities with you, and you start a new life. The new life is hard. But it’s better than the abuse.
We have a mandate to be as radical and liberal and steadfast as we need to be. The progressive beliefs and social justice we stand for, our core, must not be altered. We are 56 million strong. We are building from the bottom up. We are meeting, on the net, in church basements, at work, in small groups, and right now, we are crying, because we are trying to break free and we don’t know how.
Any battered woman in America, any oppressed person around the globe who has defied her oppressor will tell you this: There is nothing wrong with you. You are in good company. You are safe. You are not alone. You are strong. You must change only one thing: stop responding to the abuser. Don’t let him dictate the terms or frame the debate (he’ll win, not because he’s right, but because force works). Sure, we can build a better grassroots campaign, cultivate and raise up better leaders, reform the election system to make it failproof, stick to our message, learn from the strategy of the other side. But we absolutely must dispense with the notion that we are weak, godless, cowardly, disorganized, crazy, too liberal, naive, amoral, “loose”, irrelevant, outmoded, stupid and soon to be extinct. We have the mandate of the world to back us, and the legacy of oppressed people throughout history.
Even if you do everything right, they’ll hit you anyway. Look at the poor souls who voted for this nonsense. They are working for six dollars an hour if they are working at all, their children are dying overseas and suffering from lack of health care and a depleted environment and a shoddy education. And they don’t even know they are being hit.
Mel Gilles at 07:31 PM on November 07, 2004
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
Sunday, November 28, 2004
Some things to Do Before the presidential inaugural in January:
1. Get that abortion you've always wanted
2. Drink a nice clean glass of water
3. Cash your social security check
4. See a doctor of your own choosing
5. Spend quality time with your draft age child/grandchild
6. Get that gas mask you've been putting off buying
7. Hoard gasoline
8. Borrow books from library before they're banned -- Constitutional law books, Catcher in the Rye, Harry Potter, Tropic of Cancer, etc.
9. If you have an idea for an art piece involving a crucifix, do it NOW
10. Come out of the closet then -- QUICK! GO BACK IN!
11. Jam in all the stem cell research your can
12. Stay out late before the curfews start
13. Go see Bruce Springsteen before he has his "accident"
14. Go see Mount Rushmore before the Reagan addition
15. Use the phrase: "You can't do that! This is America!"
16. If you're white, marry a black person. If you're black, marry a white person
17. Take a walk in Yosemite without being hit by a snowmobile or a base-jumper
18. Enroll your kid in an accelerated art or music class
19. Start your shcool day WITHOUT a prayer
20. Pass on the secrets of evolution to future generations
21. Learn French
22. Attend a commitment ceremony of your gay friends
23. Take a factory tour anywhere in the USA
24. Take a photograph of animals on the endangered species list
25. Visit Florida before the polar ice cap melts
26. Visit Nevada before it becomes radioactive
27. Visit Alaska before "The Big Spill"
28. Visit Massachusetts while it is still a state
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
1. Get that abortion you've always wanted
2. Drink a nice clean glass of water
3. Cash your social security check
4. See a doctor of your own choosing
5. Spend quality time with your draft age child/grandchild
6. Get that gas mask you've been putting off buying
7. Hoard gasoline
8. Borrow books from library before they're banned -- Constitutional law books, Catcher in the Rye, Harry Potter, Tropic of Cancer, etc.
9. If you have an idea for an art piece involving a crucifix, do it NOW
10. Come out of the closet then -- QUICK! GO BACK IN!
11. Jam in all the stem cell research your can
12. Stay out late before the curfews start
13. Go see Bruce Springsteen before he has his "accident"
14. Go see Mount Rushmore before the Reagan addition
15. Use the phrase: "You can't do that! This is America!"
16. If you're white, marry a black person. If you're black, marry a white person
17. Take a walk in Yosemite without being hit by a snowmobile or a base-jumper
18. Enroll your kid in an accelerated art or music class
19. Start your shcool day WITHOUT a prayer
20. Pass on the secrets of evolution to future generations
21. Learn French
22. Attend a commitment ceremony of your gay friends
23. Take a factory tour anywhere in the USA
24. Take a photograph of animals on the endangered species list
25. Visit Florida before the polar ice cap melts
26. Visit Nevada before it becomes radioactive
27. Visit Alaska before "The Big Spill"
28. Visit Massachusetts while it is still a state
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.onlinejournal.com/Commentary/112504Goya/112504goya.html
Is America heading toward fascism?
By Susan Goya
Online Journal Contributing Writer
November 25, 2004—Tom Sine, wrote a book in 1981, "The Mustard Seed Conspiracy," encouraging Christians to take an active role in working for the betterment of all in the world. In what may turn out to be words of prophecy, he said:
The hot-button word in this quote is "fascism," a word guaranteed to evoke an emotional response. What is fascism, and is America headed toward fascism? It turns out that a lot of people are wondering the same thing. It's hard to find a definition acceptable to both the right and the left. Fascism falls somewhere on the conservative side of the political continuum. It is reactive, nationalist, militaristic, unilateralist and often racist. It comes in many forms. Fascism is hawkish and tends to rely on a leader who projects a charismatic and authoritarian style. Fascism in a nation seeks to modify the basis of international relationships. The belief that the group has an historic destiny trumps thoughtful reason. It is pretty clear what a mature fascism looks like; it is not so clear what picture an emerging fascism would present.
The possibility of a constructive debate on whether fascism is emerging in America is further hindered by the fact that conservatives are likely to take it personally, and lash out at their "attackers" as "unpatriotic," while these same "attackers" defend the debate as necessary and, ultimately, a very patriotic attempt to protect traditional American ideals and freedoms. So both sides believe themselves to be the true patriots.
What scares some Americans is that the basis for waging war unilaterally seems to be a belief that the American way is superior, that the rest of the world acknowledges that superiority, and that Americans and the rest of the world should therefore blindly follow America's leader. Thoughtful Americans found Bush's statement in the second debate that he "just knows how the world works" incredibly revealing, while the rest of the world finds such a statement from the leader of the most militarily powerful country in the world downright frightening.
According to the most authoritative writer on the subject, Robert Paxton:
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 - Thomas Jefferson
Is America heading toward fascism?
By Susan Goya
Online Journal Contributing Writer
November 25, 2004—Tom Sine, wrote a book in 1981, "The Mustard Seed Conspiracy," encouraging Christians to take an active role in working for the betterment of all in the world. In what may turn out to be words of prophecy, he said:
"Perhaps the most serious threat of 'galloping conservatism' is that in a time
of crisis it could easily be transformed into full-blown fascism. When people
are afraid, they are susceptible to trading away their civil liberties to
protect their 'things'. One of the archapostles of conservative economics,
Milton Friedman, has already said that, given the choice between preserving
American constitutional freedoms and the economic freedom to make a dollar
without interference, he would choose economic freedom hands down (Friedman,
1980, Free to Choose, Avon Books, p. xvi). How tragically ironic it would be if
conservative Americans bartered away their constitutional liberties to preserve
their affluent lifestyles!" (Sine, 1981, 56).
The hot-button word in this quote is "fascism," a word guaranteed to evoke an emotional response. What is fascism, and is America headed toward fascism? It turns out that a lot of people are wondering the same thing. It's hard to find a definition acceptable to both the right and the left. Fascism falls somewhere on the conservative side of the political continuum. It is reactive, nationalist, militaristic, unilateralist and often racist. It comes in many forms. Fascism is hawkish and tends to rely on a leader who projects a charismatic and authoritarian style. Fascism in a nation seeks to modify the basis of international relationships. The belief that the group has an historic destiny trumps thoughtful reason. It is pretty clear what a mature fascism looks like; it is not so clear what picture an emerging fascism would present.
The possibility of a constructive debate on whether fascism is emerging in America is further hindered by the fact that conservatives are likely to take it personally, and lash out at their "attackers" as "unpatriotic," while these same "attackers" defend the debate as necessary and, ultimately, a very patriotic attempt to protect traditional American ideals and freedoms. So both sides believe themselves to be the true patriots.
What scares some Americans is that the basis for waging war unilaterally seems to be a belief that the American way is superior, that the rest of the world acknowledges that superiority, and that Americans and the rest of the world should therefore blindly follow America's leader. Thoughtful Americans found Bush's statement in the second debate that he "just knows how the world works" incredibly revealing, while the rest of the world finds such a statement from the leader of the most militarily powerful country in the world downright frightening.
According to the most authoritative writer on the subject, Robert Paxton:
- The following mobilizing passions are present in fascisms, though they may sometimes be articulated only implicitly (parentheses are mine, not Paxton's and contain recent examples of each characteristic):
The primacy of the group, toward which one has duties superior to every right, whether universal or individual (the shutting down of the freedom of speech such as when friends tell friends that criticizing Bush is unpatriotic, or that no true Christian would vote for Kerry). - The belief that one's group is a victim, a sentiment which justifies any action against the group's enemies, internal as well as external (like when Bush, in one debate, justified the war in Iraq with, "They attacked us.")
- Dread of the group's decadence under the corrosive effect of individualistic and cosmopolitan liberalism (accusing people of treason for having reasonable misgivings about the war).
- Closer integration of the community within a brotherhood (fascio) whose unity and purity are forged by common conviction, if possible, or by exclusionary violence if necessary (by demonizing anyone who disagrees with them, by a lack of willingness to provide reasoned evidenced for their positions, by a belief that their views are synonymous with God's views).
- An enhanced sense of identity and belonging, in which the grandeur of the group reinforces individual self-esteem (the idea that Bush supporters are the only Americans who cherish American freedoms).
- Authority of natural leaders (always male) throughout society, culminating in a national chieftain who alone is capable of incarnating the group's destiny (exactly how Bush supporters feel about him, even to the point of denying incontrovertible evidence).
- The beauty of violence and of will, when they are devoted to the group's success in a Darwinian [dominance of the most powerful] struggle (the idea that protesting the conduct of the war "denigrates our brave soldiers").
As one observer has noted, "This is extremely dangerous talk, and not merely because it is divisive. It actually threatens to simultaneously harden the growing alliance between extremist and mainstream conservatives, and create a milieu in which violence against dissenters becomes acceptable. It is when we see this kind of coalescence that we are in real danger of seeing fascism blossom in America" (
David Neiwert,www.cursor.org).
In a review of Paxton's latest book, "The Anatomy of Fascism," published by Knopf in 2004, Amazon.com reviewer N. Ravitch wrote:
This book admirably summarizes a vast literature on Fascism and highlights a few
key points which can be kept in mind when the threat of Fascism is imagined or
raised.
Fascism cannot be understood only from its ideologues, it needs to be
looked at in practice.
The practice of Fascism, as indeed the rise to power of Fascism, requires collaboration and support from the much older, stronger, and more respectable conservative and establishmentarian foundations of any society.
Because Fascism is designed to prevent leftist revolution it is profoundly conservative, but because its means are radical it cannot really remain conservative in practice.
Because Fascism is conservative it does not require much in the way of terror, intimidation, or violence to capture the acquiescence and cooperation of large segments of society, particularly of "respectable" society. It does its evil under the cover of the good and the conventional.
Therefore Fascism's evil can be hard to discover until it is too late.
The Fascist label can be used indiscriminately and falsely, but it is possible that at the present time it ought to be used more insightfully.
In 1998, Paxton advised asking of today's neo- or protofascisms: "Are they becoming rooted as parties that represent major interests and feelings and wield major influence on the political scene? Is the economic or constitutional system in a state of blockage apparently insoluble by existing authorities? Is a rapid political mobilization threatening to escape the control of traditional elites, to the point where they would be tempted to look for tough helpers in order to stay in charge? It is by answering those kinds of questions . . . that we may be able to recognize our day's functional equivalents of fascism"
Back in1981, Tom Sine perceived that while several mainline denominations sympathize with the political left, "it is often impossible to get even a piece of tissue paper between the views of the political right and the new fundamentalist religious right . . . their agendas are the same" (Sine, 1981, 58). People self-identified as committed Christians should develop viewpoints informed more by "the mind of Christ" than a political party. The trite WWJD (What Would Jesus Do) never applied more than it does in today's American political scene. The Golden Rule is still one of the best statements of moral values ever formulated.
Source of Paxton quotes: (Paxton, "The Five Stages of Fascism," The Journal of Modern History 70 (March 1998) p. 6,7, 22, 23).
Claudia D. Dikinis
http://starcats.com/ >^..^< Political & Personal Astrology for a New Millenniumsic 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 - Thomas Jefferson
Tuesday, November 23, 2004
Report: US discussing strikes on Iran
Douglas Davis,
THE JERUSALEM POST
Nov. 21, 2004
LONDON - Pentagon officials are said to be discussing possible militaryaction to neutralize Iran's nuclear weapons threat, according to areport inLondon's Observer. US administration sources are quoted assaying that airstrikes - "either by the US or Israel" - to wipe outIran's fledgling nuclearprogram would be difficult because of a lack of clear intelligence aboutwhere key components are located.
Instead, sources quoted by the paper said the Pentagon is consideringstrikesin support of regime change, including attacks on theleadership, as well ason political and security targets.
The new "modeling" at the Pentagon, with its shift in emphasis fromsuspectednuclear sites to political target lists, is said to be causingdeep anxietyamong officials in Britain, France, and Germany, who lastweek appeared tohave negotiated a deal with Teheran to cease work thatcould contribute to anuclear weapons program. But Washington is said tobe skeptical about thedeal.
This article can also be read at
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1101010793582&p=1078113566627
Claudia D. Dikinis
http://starcats.com >^..^<
Political & Personal Astrology for a New Millennium
HEADS UP: The greatness of every mighty organization embodying an idea inthis world lies in the religious fanaticism and intolerance with which,fanatically convinced of its own right, it intolerantly imposes its willagainst all others: Adolf Hitler (German chancellor, leader of the Naziparty, 1889-1945)
"By words the mind is winged." - Aristophanes
"Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty" -- Thomas Jefferson
Douglas Davis,
THE JERUSALEM POST
Nov. 21, 2004
LONDON - Pentagon officials are said to be discussing possible militaryaction to neutralize Iran's nuclear weapons threat, according to areport inLondon's Observer. US administration sources are quoted assaying that airstrikes - "either by the US or Israel" - to wipe outIran's fledgling nuclearprogram would be difficult because of a lack of clear intelligence aboutwhere key components are located.
Instead, sources quoted by the paper said the Pentagon is consideringstrikesin support of regime change, including attacks on theleadership, as well ason political and security targets.
The new "modeling" at the Pentagon, with its shift in emphasis fromsuspectednuclear sites to political target lists, is said to be causingdeep anxietyamong officials in Britain, France, and Germany, who lastweek appeared tohave negotiated a deal with Teheran to cease work thatcould contribute to anuclear weapons program. But Washington is said tobe skeptical about thedeal.
This article can also be read at
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1101010793582&p=1078113566627
Claudia D. Dikinis
http://starcats.com >^..^<
Political & Personal Astrology for a New Millennium
HEADS UP: The greatness of every mighty organization embodying an idea inthis world lies in the religious fanaticism and intolerance with which,fanatically convinced of its own right, it intolerantly imposes its willagainst all others: Adolf Hitler (German chancellor, leader of the Naziparty, 1889-1945)
"By words the mind is winged." - Aristophanes
"Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty" -- Thomas Jefferson
Saturday, November 13, 2004
http://www.consortiumnews.com/2004/111304.html
You might think that the major media that got suckered by George W. Bush’s Iraqi weapons-of-mass-destruction claims just last year would show some humility about its own fallibility.
But, no, the elite U.S. news media is now criticizing common citizens who have raised questions about voter fraud in the Nov. 2 election. The New York Times has joined the Washington Post and other major news outlets in scouring the Internet to find and discredit Americans who have expressed suspicions that Bush’s victory might not have been entirely legitimate. The New York Times' front-page story was entitled, “Vote Fraud Theories, Spread By Blogs, Are Quickly Buried.” [Nov. 12, 2004.]
As odd as these attacks might seem to some, this pattern of protecting the Bush family has a history. It actually dates back a couple of decades, as the major media has either averted its eyes or rallied to the Bushes’ defense when the family has faced suspicions of lying or corruption. [This pattern is detailed in my new book, Secrecy & Privilege: Rise of the Bush Dynasty from Watergate to Iraq.]
That was the case in the 1980s when then-Vice President George H.W. Bush was implicated in a string of scandals, starting with the clandestine supplying of Nicaraguan contra rebels.
When one of Oliver North’s secret supply planes was shot down over Nicaragua in October 1986, the surviving crew member, Eugene Hasenfus, correctly named Vice President Bush's office and the CIA as participants in the illegal operations. But for years, the big media accepted Bush’s denials and dismissed Hasenfus’s claims.
After the Nicaraguan contras were implicated in cocaine trafficking – when Vice President Bush was in charge of drug interdiction – again the New York Times and other leading publications pooh-poohed the stories. They even put down then-freshman Sen. John Kerry when he investigated. However, the charges again turned out to be true, as CIA inspector general Frederick Hitz concluded in a little-noticed report a decade later. [For details, see Consortiumnews.com’s “Kerry’s Contra-Cocaine Chapter.”]
Arming Saddam
When George H.W. Bush was linked to the misguided strategy of covertly arming Iraq’s Saddam Hussein in the 1980s, again major U.S. news outlets – with the exception of the Los Angeles Times – did little to dig out the truth. Even today, after the junior George Bush has sent more than 1,100 U.S. troops to their deaths to clear Iraq of non-existent WMD stockpiles in 2003-04, the U.S. news media won’t tell the American people about the senior George Bush’s role in helping Hussein build a real WMD arsenal in the 1980s.
During the eight-year Clinton-Gore administration, shoddy reporting from the New York Times and the Washington Post – about President Clinton’s Whitewater “scandal” and about Al Gore’s supposed exaggerations in Campaign 2000 – helped pave the way for the Bush Family’s restoration. [See Consortiumnews.com’s “Al Gore vs. the Media” or “Protecting Bush-Cheney.”]
The big news organizations couldn’t even get the stories straight about their own Florida recount in 2001. After examining all legally cast votes in Florida and finding that Al Gore should have won that crucial state – regardless of what chad standard was used – the New York Times and other news outlets buried the lead that Gore – not Bush – deserved to be president.
Since these unofficial recount results were released in November 2001 – after the Sept. 11 attacks – the news organizations apparently thought it was best not to clue in the American people to the fact that the sitting president had really lost the election. So the news organizations spun their stories to Bush’s advantage by focusing on a hypothetical partial recount that excluded so-called “overvotes,” where voters both checked a box and wrote in the candidate’s name, legal votes under Florida law.
After reading those slanted “Bush Won” stories, I wrote an article for Consortiumnews.com noting that the obvious lead should have been that Gore won. I suggested that the news judgments of senior editors may have been influenced by a desire to appear patriotic at a time of national crisis. [See Consortiumnews.com’s “Gore’s Victory.”]
The article had been on the Internet for only an hour or two when I received an angry phone call from New York Times media writer Felicity Barringer, who accused me of impugning the journalistic integrity of then Times executive editor Howell Raines. I was surprised that the mighty New York Times would be so sensitive about an Internet article that had questioned its judgment.
Professional Pressures
Having worked in mainstream Washington journalism for much of the last quarter century, however, I certainly understood – and even sympathized – with the pressures that reporters and editors face.
Especially when challenging Republicans and conservatives, journalists can expect to be accused of lacking patriotism, undermining national unity or having a “liberal bias.” Beyond those ideological assaults, there's also the formidable pressure that the Bush family’s gold-plated connections can bring down on a journalist’s head.
Yet, while it may be understandable for national journalists to go easy on the Bushes, that pattern over the years has eroded public confidence in the media’s fairness and integrity. Millions of Americans now flatly don’t trust the national news media to tell the truth when the Bushes are involved.
That perception, in turn, has led rank-and-file Americans to step forward via Web sites to lend whatever knowledge and expertise they have to investigate this powerful family. As amateurs, these Americans are sure to make mistakes or jump to conclusions that aren’t well supported by facts.
But the big media has no moral foundation upon which to criticize these shortcomings by common citizens. If the professional journalists focused more on doing their jobs, rather than protecting their careers, the American people would be far better served.
Robert Parry, who broke many of the Iran-Contra stories in the 1980s for the Associated Press and Newsweek, has written a new book, Secrecy & Privilege: Rise of the Bush Dynasty from Watergate to Iraq. It can be ordered at secrecyandprivilege.com. It's also available at Amazon.com.
Claudia D. Dikinis
http://starcats.com >^..^<
Political & Personal Astrology for a New Millennium
It's time to overthrow the Tali-Baptist insurgency in America, reinstall a democratic government and hold free and honest elections. -- Claudia D. Dikinis
"By words the mind is winged." - Aristophanes
You might think that the major media that got suckered by George W. Bush’s Iraqi weapons-of-mass-destruction claims just last year would show some humility about its own fallibility.
But, no, the elite U.S. news media is now criticizing common citizens who have raised questions about voter fraud in the Nov. 2 election. The New York Times has joined the Washington Post and other major news outlets in scouring the Internet to find and discredit Americans who have expressed suspicions that Bush’s victory might not have been entirely legitimate. The New York Times' front-page story was entitled, “Vote Fraud Theories, Spread By Blogs, Are Quickly Buried.” [Nov. 12, 2004.]
As odd as these attacks might seem to some, this pattern of protecting the Bush family has a history. It actually dates back a couple of decades, as the major media has either averted its eyes or rallied to the Bushes’ defense when the family has faced suspicions of lying or corruption. [This pattern is detailed in my new book, Secrecy & Privilege: Rise of the Bush Dynasty from Watergate to Iraq.]
That was the case in the 1980s when then-Vice President George H.W. Bush was implicated in a string of scandals, starting with the clandestine supplying of Nicaraguan contra rebels.
When one of Oliver North’s secret supply planes was shot down over Nicaragua in October 1986, the surviving crew member, Eugene Hasenfus, correctly named Vice President Bush's office and the CIA as participants in the illegal operations. But for years, the big media accepted Bush’s denials and dismissed Hasenfus’s claims.
After the Nicaraguan contras were implicated in cocaine trafficking – when Vice President Bush was in charge of drug interdiction – again the New York Times and other leading publications pooh-poohed the stories. They even put down then-freshman Sen. John Kerry when he investigated. However, the charges again turned out to be true, as CIA inspector general Frederick Hitz concluded in a little-noticed report a decade later. [For details, see Consortiumnews.com’s “Kerry’s Contra-Cocaine Chapter.”]
Arming Saddam
When George H.W. Bush was linked to the misguided strategy of covertly arming Iraq’s Saddam Hussein in the 1980s, again major U.S. news outlets – with the exception of the Los Angeles Times – did little to dig out the truth. Even today, after the junior George Bush has sent more than 1,100 U.S. troops to their deaths to clear Iraq of non-existent WMD stockpiles in 2003-04, the U.S. news media won’t tell the American people about the senior George Bush’s role in helping Hussein build a real WMD arsenal in the 1980s.
During the eight-year Clinton-Gore administration, shoddy reporting from the New York Times and the Washington Post – about President Clinton’s Whitewater “scandal” and about Al Gore’s supposed exaggerations in Campaign 2000 – helped pave the way for the Bush Family’s restoration. [See Consortiumnews.com’s “Al Gore vs. the Media” or “Protecting Bush-Cheney.”]
The big news organizations couldn’t even get the stories straight about their own Florida recount in 2001. After examining all legally cast votes in Florida and finding that Al Gore should have won that crucial state – regardless of what chad standard was used – the New York Times and other news outlets buried the lead that Gore – not Bush – deserved to be president.
Since these unofficial recount results were released in November 2001 – after the Sept. 11 attacks – the news organizations apparently thought it was best not to clue in the American people to the fact that the sitting president had really lost the election. So the news organizations spun their stories to Bush’s advantage by focusing on a hypothetical partial recount that excluded so-called “overvotes,” where voters both checked a box and wrote in the candidate’s name, legal votes under Florida law.
After reading those slanted “Bush Won” stories, I wrote an article for Consortiumnews.com noting that the obvious lead should have been that Gore won. I suggested that the news judgments of senior editors may have been influenced by a desire to appear patriotic at a time of national crisis. [See Consortiumnews.com’s “Gore’s Victory.”]
The article had been on the Internet for only an hour or two when I received an angry phone call from New York Times media writer Felicity Barringer, who accused me of impugning the journalistic integrity of then Times executive editor Howell Raines. I was surprised that the mighty New York Times would be so sensitive about an Internet article that had questioned its judgment.
Professional Pressures
Having worked in mainstream Washington journalism for much of the last quarter century, however, I certainly understood – and even sympathized – with the pressures that reporters and editors face.
Especially when challenging Republicans and conservatives, journalists can expect to be accused of lacking patriotism, undermining national unity or having a “liberal bias.” Beyond those ideological assaults, there's also the formidable pressure that the Bush family’s gold-plated connections can bring down on a journalist’s head.
Yet, while it may be understandable for national journalists to go easy on the Bushes, that pattern over the years has eroded public confidence in the media’s fairness and integrity. Millions of Americans now flatly don’t trust the national news media to tell the truth when the Bushes are involved.
That perception, in turn, has led rank-and-file Americans to step forward via Web sites to lend whatever knowledge and expertise they have to investigate this powerful family. As amateurs, these Americans are sure to make mistakes or jump to conclusions that aren’t well supported by facts.
But the big media has no moral foundation upon which to criticize these shortcomings by common citizens. If the professional journalists focused more on doing their jobs, rather than protecting their careers, the American people would be far better served.
Robert Parry, who broke many of the Iran-Contra stories in the 1980s for the Associated Press and Newsweek, has written a new book, Secrecy & Privilege: Rise of the Bush Dynasty from Watergate to Iraq. It can be ordered at secrecyandprivilege.com. It's also available at Amazon.com.
Claudia D. Dikinis
http://starcats.com >^..^<
Political & Personal Astrology for a New Millennium
It's time to overthrow the Tali-Baptist insurgency in America, reinstall a democratic government and hold free and honest elections. -- Claudia D. Dikinis
"By words the mind is winged." - Aristophanes
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