"An' that's been corrobiated by The Minstry of Truth!!"
Monday, July 31, 2006
The only thing Krugman has wrong is assuming this to be a democracy with a free press!
Hey Folks,
When you get through the last paragraph below, stop and consider what EXACTLY "democracy" IS in this land. NOT what you and I think is meant by "democracy," but what it actually IS in practice under this system.
Hint: To get started, first consider the nature of the "democracy" Dubya is "spreading" in foreign lands.
The notion of a "free press" is just as laughable, but I'll address that at a later date.
- Uke Man
July 28, 2006
Reign of Error
By PAUL KRUGMAN
(a ukethanks to Phyll)
Amid everything else that’s going wrong in the world, here’s one more piece of depressing news: a few days ago the Harris Poll reported that 50 percent of Americans now believe that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction when we invaded, up from 36 percent in February 2005. Meanwhile, 64 percent still believe that Saddam had strong links with Al Qaeda.
At one level, this shouldn’t be all that surprising. The people now running America never accept inconvenient truths. Long after facts they don’t like have been established, whether it’s the absence of any wrongdoing by the Clintons in the Whitewater affair or the absence of W.M.D. in Iraq, the propaganda machine that supports the current administration is still at work, seeking to flush those facts down the memory hole.
But it’s dismaying to realize that the machine remains so effective.
Here’s how the process works.
First, if the facts fail to support the administration position on an issue — stem cells, global warming, tax cuts, income inequality, Iraq — officials refuse to acknowledge the facts.
Sometimes the officials simply lie. “The tax cuts have made the tax code more progressive and reduced income inequality,” Edward Lazear, the chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, declared a couple of months ago. More often, however, they bob and weave.
Consider, for example, Condoleezza Rice’s response a few months ago, when pressed to explain why the administration always links the Iraq war to 9/11. She admitted that Saddam, “as far as we know, did not order Sept. 11, may not have even known of Sept. 11.” (Notice how her statement, while literally true, nonetheless seems to imply both that it’s still possible that Saddam ordered 9/11, and that he probably did know about it.) “But,” she went on, “that’s a very narrow definition of what caused Sept. 11.”
Meanwhile, apparatchiks in the media spread disinformation. It’s hard to imagine what the world looks like to the large number of Americans who get their news by watching Fox and listening to Rush Limbaugh, but I get a pretty good sense from my mailbag.
Many of my correspondents are living in a world in which the economy is better than it ever was under Bill Clinton, newly released documents show that Saddam really was in cahoots with Osama, and the discovery of some decayed 1980’s-vintage chemical munitions vindicates everything the administration said about Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction. (Hyping of the munitions find may partly explain why public belief that Saddam had W.M.D. has made a comeback.)
Some of my correspondents have even picked up on claims, mostly disseminated on right-wing blogs, that the Bush administration actually did a heck of a job after Katrina.
And what about the perceptions of those who get their news from sources that aren’t de facto branches of the Republican National Committee?
The climate of media intimidation that prevailed for several years after 9/11, which made news organizations very cautious about reporting facts that put the administration in a bad light, has abated. But it’s not entirely gone. Just a few months ago major news organizations were under fierce attack from the right over their supposed failure to report the “good news” from Iraq — and my sense is that this attack did lead to a temporary softening of news coverage, until the extent of the carnage became undeniable. And the conventions of he-said-she-said reporting, under which lies and truth get equal billing, continue to work in the administration’s favor.
Whatever the reason, the fact is that the Bush administration continues to be remarkably successful at rewriting history. For example, Mr. Bush has repeatedly suggested that the United States had to invade Iraq because Saddam wouldn’t let U.N. inspectors in. His most recent statement to that effect was only a few weeks ago. And he gets away with it. If there have been reports by major news organizations pointing out that that’s not at all what happened, I’ve missed them.
It’s all very Orwellian, of course. But when Orwell wrote of “a nightmare world in which the Leader, or some ruling clique, controls not only the future but the past,” he was thinking of totalitarian states. Who would have imagined that history would prove so easy to rewrite in a democratic nation with a free press?
When you get through the last paragraph below, stop and consider what EXACTLY "democracy" IS in this land. NOT what you and I think is meant by "democracy," but what it actually IS in practice under this system.
Hint: To get started, first consider the nature of the "democracy" Dubya is "spreading" in foreign lands.
The notion of a "free press" is just as laughable, but I'll address that at a later date.
- Uke Man
July 28, 2006
Reign of Error
By PAUL KRUGMAN
(a ukethanks to Phyll)
Amid everything else that’s going wrong in the world, here’s one more piece of depressing news: a few days ago the Harris Poll reported that 50 percent of Americans now believe that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction when we invaded, up from 36 percent in February 2005. Meanwhile, 64 percent still believe that Saddam had strong links with Al Qaeda.
At one level, this shouldn’t be all that surprising. The people now running America never accept inconvenient truths. Long after facts they don’t like have been established, whether it’s the absence of any wrongdoing by the Clintons in the Whitewater affair or the absence of W.M.D. in Iraq, the propaganda machine that supports the current administration is still at work, seeking to flush those facts down the memory hole.
But it’s dismaying to realize that the machine remains so effective.
Here’s how the process works.
First, if the facts fail to support the administration position on an issue — stem cells, global warming, tax cuts, income inequality, Iraq — officials refuse to acknowledge the facts.
Sometimes the officials simply lie. “The tax cuts have made the tax code more progressive and reduced income inequality,” Edward Lazear, the chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, declared a couple of months ago. More often, however, they bob and weave.
Consider, for example, Condoleezza Rice’s response a few months ago, when pressed to explain why the administration always links the Iraq war to 9/11. She admitted that Saddam, “as far as we know, did not order Sept. 11, may not have even known of Sept. 11.” (Notice how her statement, while literally true, nonetheless seems to imply both that it’s still possible that Saddam ordered 9/11, and that he probably did know about it.) “But,” she went on, “that’s a very narrow definition of what caused Sept. 11.”
Meanwhile, apparatchiks in the media spread disinformation. It’s hard to imagine what the world looks like to the large number of Americans who get their news by watching Fox and listening to Rush Limbaugh, but I get a pretty good sense from my mailbag.
Many of my correspondents are living in a world in which the economy is better than it ever was under Bill Clinton, newly released documents show that Saddam really was in cahoots with Osama, and the discovery of some decayed 1980’s-vintage chemical munitions vindicates everything the administration said about Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction. (Hyping of the munitions find may partly explain why public belief that Saddam had W.M.D. has made a comeback.)
Some of my correspondents have even picked up on claims, mostly disseminated on right-wing blogs, that the Bush administration actually did a heck of a job after Katrina.
And what about the perceptions of those who get their news from sources that aren’t de facto branches of the Republican National Committee?
The climate of media intimidation that prevailed for several years after 9/11, which made news organizations very cautious about reporting facts that put the administration in a bad light, has abated. But it’s not entirely gone. Just a few months ago major news organizations were under fierce attack from the right over their supposed failure to report the “good news” from Iraq — and my sense is that this attack did lead to a temporary softening of news coverage, until the extent of the carnage became undeniable. And the conventions of he-said-she-said reporting, under which lies and truth get equal billing, continue to work in the administration’s favor.
Whatever the reason, the fact is that the Bush administration continues to be remarkably successful at rewriting history. For example, Mr. Bush has repeatedly suggested that the United States had to invade Iraq because Saddam wouldn’t let U.N. inspectors in. His most recent statement to that effect was only a few weeks ago. And he gets away with it. If there have been reports by major news organizations pointing out that that’s not at all what happened, I’ve missed them.
It’s all very Orwellian, of course. But when Orwell wrote of “a nightmare world in which the Leader, or some ruling clique, controls not only the future but the past,” he was thinking of totalitarian states. Who would have imagined that history would prove so easy to rewrite in a democratic nation with a free press?
Sunday, July 30, 2006
The Uke Man is Going to California !!
Hey Folks,
Breaking News:
The Uke Man will be traveling to California in early October to play two shows and visit my nephew Nate!! And I’m so very pleased and excited about all three parts of this adventure.
I haven’t seen much of Nate, my brother John’s son, since he moved to the land of tall timber; now we can make up for lost time. I once gave Nate an old electric guitar I had and later gave him a ukulele – I’ll soon find out if he can play it.
Breaking News:
The Uke Man will be traveling to California in early October to play two shows and visit my nephew Nate!! And I’m so very pleased and excited about all three parts of this adventure.
I haven’t seen much of Nate, my brother John’s son, since he moved to the land of tall timber; now we can make up for lost time. I once gave Nate an old electric guitar I had and later gave him a ukulele – I’ll soon find out if he can play it.
He lives in Arcata, up near the top of California – says his “town park” consists of those giant redwoods we all saw in the Star Wars movie as the home of the Ewoks. He also lives within walking distance to the Pacific Ocean where surfers play among the sharks.
I look forward to the reunion: Nate, the water, and the trees.
I look forward to the reunion: Nate, the water, and the trees.
While in Arcata, I’ll be playing an entire evening at the Six Rivers Brewery, which Nate tells me is THE watering hole in that part of the world.
There’s a chance too of doing a local radio interview/studio performance at KHUM ( it streams at: http://www.khum.com/fsetstream.html). Great fun!!!
There’s a chance too of doing a local radio interview/studio performance at KHUM ( it streams at: http://www.khum.com/fsetstream.html). Great fun!!!
After my time at Nate's, it's off to Santa Cruz for a second reunion with my pal Andy Andrews and the Ukulele Club of Santa Cruz ( http://www.ukuleleclub.com/ ).
Not only is Andy a warm and generous guy (a humane lefty like me – it must run in the Uke Family), but he’s famous as well (as is his club) – just recently interviewed on NPR!!!
Give a listen:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5584525
Not only is Andy a warm and generous guy (a humane lefty like me – it must run in the Uke Family), but he’s famous as well (as is his club) – just recently interviewed on NPR!!!
Give a listen:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5584525
In 2004 I met Andy when band mates Peter English, Ty Barnes and I played Uke-Fest West ( http://www.ukefestwest.com/ ) in Santa Cruz, put on by Andy and the Santa Cruz Club and held in the beautiful Cocoanut Grove facility.
Since then we’ve stayed in touch and got together a bit in New York City during the 2006 NY Uke Fest, where Andy invited me to visit when I could.The rest will soon be history!!
Thanks, Andy.
I’ll report more, folks, as it develops.
- Uke Man
Since then we’ve stayed in touch and got together a bit in New York City during the 2006 NY Uke Fest, where Andy invited me to visit when I could.The rest will soon be history!!
Thanks, Andy.
I’ll report more, folks, as it develops.
- Uke Man
The Ukulele Club of Santa Cruz
is proud to present
Recently escaped from
a Red State!
The Ukulele Man
Tom Harker
Thursday October 12
A Pox on Bush & Co.
Hey Folks,
The Herbert column (below) made me keep remembering how obvious all of what he says about Bush and the Neo-Coneheads was from the start - from lo0ng ago!!
It's really sad that it took all this destruction and tragedy to make significant numbers of Americans admit it.
More and more I see this "faith-based," "guessing," blind "Hero/savior worship" (as opposed to self-reliance and acceptance of personal responsibility) as the mechanism that brought us here - in the face of OBVIOUS, overwhelming, objective indications of the regime's incompetence.
I agree that the harm will be very, very long in addressing; the world we have come to know growing up may be gone for good.
I'm glad I'm old. A pox on the fools running things and upon the blind worms squeeking their "Leaders" praises.
-Uke Man
July 27, 2006
Failure Upon Failure
By BOB HERBERT
(a ukethanks to Phyll)
Imagine a surgeon who is completely clueless, who has no idea what he or she is doing.
Imagine a pilot who is equally incompetent.
Now imagine a president.
The Middle East is in flames. Iraq has become a charnel house, a crucible of horror with no end to the agony in sight. Lebanon is in danger of going down for the count. And the crazies in Iran, empowered by the actions of their enemies, are salivating like vultures. They can’t wait to feast on the remains of U.S. policies and tactics spawned by a sophomoric neoconservative fantasy — that democracy imposed at gunpoint in Iraq would spread peace and freedom, like the flowers of spring, throughout the Middle East.
If a Democratic president had pursued exactly the same policies, and achieved exactly the same tragic results as George W. Bush, that president would have been the target of a ferocious drive for impeachment by the G.O.P.
Mr. Bush spent a fair amount of time this week with the Iraqi prime minister, Nuri Kamal al-Maliki. There was plenty to talk about, nearly all of it hideous. Over the past couple of months Iraqi civilians have been getting blown away at the stunning rate of four or five an hour. Even Karl Rove had a tough time drawing a smiley face on that picture.
“Obviously the violence in Baghdad is still terrible,” said Mr. Bush, “and therefore there needs to be more troops.”
One did not get the sense, listening to this assessment from the commander in chief, that things would soon be well in hand. There was, instead, a disturbing sense of déjà vu. A sense of the president at a complete loss, not really knowing what to do. I recalled the image of Mr. Bush sitting in a Sarasota, Fla., classroom after being informed of the Sept. 11 attacks. Instead of reacting instantly, commandingly, he just sat there for long wasted moments, with a bewildered look on his face, holding a second-grade story called “The Pet Goat.”
And then there was the famous picture of Mr. Bush, on his way back from a monthlong vacation, looking out the window of Air Force One as it flew low over the destruction wrought by Hurricane Katrina. “It’s devastating,” Mr. Bush was quoted as saying. “It’s got to be doubly devastating on the ground.”
I’ll tell you what’s devastating. The monumental and mind-numbing toll of Mr. Bush’s war in Iraq, which is being documented in a series of important books, the latest being Thomas Ricks’s “Fiasco.” Mr. Ricks gives us more disturbing details about the administration’s “flawed plan for war” and “worse approach to occupation.”
Near the end of his book, he writes:
“In January 2005, the C.I.A.’s internal think tank, the National Intelligence Council, concluded that Iraq had replaced Afghanistan as the training ground for a new generation of jihadist terrorists. The country had become ‘a magnet for international terrorist activity,’ said the council’s chairman, Robert Hutchings.”
Saddled with one failure after another, the administration seems paralyzed, completely unable to shape the big issues facing the U.S. and the world today. Condoleezza Rice is in charge of the diplomatic effort regarding Lebanon. She’s been about as effective at that as the president was in his response to Katrina.
But Dr. Rice is still quick with the scary imagery. Her comment, “I have no doubt there are those who wish to strangle a democratic and sovereign Lebanon in its crib,” recalls her famous, “We don’t want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud.”
It might help if she spent less time giving us provocative metaphors and more time on the very difficult nuts and bolts of trying to maintain or bring about peace.
It may be that a hamstrung Bush administration is a better bet than the same crew being free to act as it pleases. Imagine how much better off we’d have been if Congress had found the wisdom and the courage to prevent the president from invading Iraq.
In two years and a few months Americans will vote again for president. I hope the long list of tragic failures by Bush & Co. prompts people to take that election more seriously than some in the past. If you were about to be lifted onto an operating table, you’d be more interested in the competence of the surgeon than in his or her personality.
Mr. Bush’s record reminds us that similarly careful consideration should be given to those who would be president.
The Herbert column (below) made me keep remembering how obvious all of what he says about Bush and the Neo-Coneheads was from the start - from lo0ng ago!!
It's really sad that it took all this destruction and tragedy to make significant numbers of Americans admit it.
More and more I see this "faith-based," "guessing," blind "Hero/savior worship" (as opposed to self-reliance and acceptance of personal responsibility) as the mechanism that brought us here - in the face of OBVIOUS, overwhelming, objective indications of the regime's incompetence.
I agree that the harm will be very, very long in addressing; the world we have come to know growing up may be gone for good.
I'm glad I'm old. A pox on the fools running things and upon the blind worms squeeking their "Leaders" praises.
-Uke Man
July 27, 2006
Failure Upon Failure
By BOB HERBERT
(a ukethanks to Phyll)
Imagine a surgeon who is completely clueless, who has no idea what he or she is doing.
Imagine a pilot who is equally incompetent.
Now imagine a president.
The Middle East is in flames. Iraq has become a charnel house, a crucible of horror with no end to the agony in sight. Lebanon is in danger of going down for the count. And the crazies in Iran, empowered by the actions of their enemies, are salivating like vultures. They can’t wait to feast on the remains of U.S. policies and tactics spawned by a sophomoric neoconservative fantasy — that democracy imposed at gunpoint in Iraq would spread peace and freedom, like the flowers of spring, throughout the Middle East.
If a Democratic president had pursued exactly the same policies, and achieved exactly the same tragic results as George W. Bush, that president would have been the target of a ferocious drive for impeachment by the G.O.P.
Mr. Bush spent a fair amount of time this week with the Iraqi prime minister, Nuri Kamal al-Maliki. There was plenty to talk about, nearly all of it hideous. Over the past couple of months Iraqi civilians have been getting blown away at the stunning rate of four or five an hour. Even Karl Rove had a tough time drawing a smiley face on that picture.
“Obviously the violence in Baghdad is still terrible,” said Mr. Bush, “and therefore there needs to be more troops.”
One did not get the sense, listening to this assessment from the commander in chief, that things would soon be well in hand. There was, instead, a disturbing sense of déjà vu. A sense of the president at a complete loss, not really knowing what to do. I recalled the image of Mr. Bush sitting in a Sarasota, Fla., classroom after being informed of the Sept. 11 attacks. Instead of reacting instantly, commandingly, he just sat there for long wasted moments, with a bewildered look on his face, holding a second-grade story called “The Pet Goat.”
And then there was the famous picture of Mr. Bush, on his way back from a monthlong vacation, looking out the window of Air Force One as it flew low over the destruction wrought by Hurricane Katrina. “It’s devastating,” Mr. Bush was quoted as saying. “It’s got to be doubly devastating on the ground.”
I’ll tell you what’s devastating. The monumental and mind-numbing toll of Mr. Bush’s war in Iraq, which is being documented in a series of important books, the latest being Thomas Ricks’s “Fiasco.” Mr. Ricks gives us more disturbing details about the administration’s “flawed plan for war” and “worse approach to occupation.”
Near the end of his book, he writes:
“In January 2005, the C.I.A.’s internal think tank, the National Intelligence Council, concluded that Iraq had replaced Afghanistan as the training ground for a new generation of jihadist terrorists. The country had become ‘a magnet for international terrorist activity,’ said the council’s chairman, Robert Hutchings.”
Saddled with one failure after another, the administration seems paralyzed, completely unable to shape the big issues facing the U.S. and the world today. Condoleezza Rice is in charge of the diplomatic effort regarding Lebanon. She’s been about as effective at that as the president was in his response to Katrina.
But Dr. Rice is still quick with the scary imagery. Her comment, “I have no doubt there are those who wish to strangle a democratic and sovereign Lebanon in its crib,” recalls her famous, “We don’t want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud.”
It might help if she spent less time giving us provocative metaphors and more time on the very difficult nuts and bolts of trying to maintain or bring about peace.
It may be that a hamstrung Bush administration is a better bet than the same crew being free to act as it pleases. Imagine how much better off we’d have been if Congress had found the wisdom and the courage to prevent the president from invading Iraq.
In two years and a few months Americans will vote again for president. I hope the long list of tragic failures by Bush & Co. prompts people to take that election more seriously than some in the past. If you were about to be lifted onto an operating table, you’d be more interested in the competence of the surgeon than in his or her personality.
Mr. Bush’s record reminds us that similarly careful consideration should be given to those who would be president.
Saturday, July 29, 2006
A Nation of Men Not Laws
Hey Folks,
We've all heard it proudly stated some time or other that we are "a nation of laws, not men." What a laugh.
It never has been that. The "law" has ALWAYS been selectively enforced - not to mention selectively constructed - to help out the ruling class.
Dubya, however, has taken disrespect for the law to such a high level and so blatantly that it's pinching the ginks at the top a bit too.
When THAT happens - THEN - we hear squeeling from the "vigilant" press.
You see, the law is designed to pinch US !! Not them.
Lou Dobbs (below) says, "Why is the president ignoring our laws?" What he really is asking is, "Why has the president started ignoring the law in new ways? What's wrong with ignoring it the usual way?"
You see, the law has always been ignored in order to help the few men at the expense of the many people. Dobbs is squeeling because part of that "few" suspect they are being thrown in with the rest of us - the masses who already (since "civilization" began) have been getting shafted by selectively crafted laws and selected enforcement of those laws.
Think about it. It's true.
- Uke Man
p.s. Dobbs makes a fairly good argument (though suspiciously heavy on the immigrant aspect), but where have he and his brother clowns/clones been in the memorable past??
Dobbs: Why is the president ignoring our laws?
Bush, feds flout the Constitution by finding ways around laws
By Lou Dobbs CNN
(a ukethanks to Steve)
NEW YORK (CNN) -- With upraised right hand and left hand on the Bible, each of our presidents, from George Washington to George W. Bush, has solemnly sworn to "preserve, protect and defend" the Constitution of the United States.
The American Bar Association claims President Bush has violated that oath by issuing hundreds of "signing statements" to disregard selected provisions of the laws that Congress passed and he signed.
A bipartisan, 11-member panel of the ABA found that President Bush is not only disregarding laws but using such signing statements far more than any president in history. In fact, Bush has used signing statements to raise constitutional objections to more than 800 provisions in more than 100 laws. All of the presidents combined before 2001 had issued only 600.
The ABA asserts that signing statements cannot be a substitute for a presidential veto and that such an assertion of presidential power amounts to a line-item veto, which the Supreme Court already has ruled unconstitutional.
The matter will likely be resolved in court. But it stands as a metaphor for a 21st century America that is no longer secure in the claim to be a nation of laws.
The federal government is failing to enforce our laws on a wide range of issues. Trade agreements such as the North American Free Trade Agreement, which is clearly a treaty, have not been approved by two-thirds of the Senate as required by the Treaty Clause of the Constitution.
That clause states the president "shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur." And why has the Senate not been required to approve these treaties? Because the last three presidents have claimed these trade deals are executive agreements rather than treaties.
But if these so-called free-trade agreements are not to be considered treaties, then they are clearly within the power of Congress, not the president. Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution gives Congress the power to "regulate Commerce with foreign nations." But Congress has given up its exclusive constitutional authority to negotiate and regulate trade agreements by ceding "fast-track authority" to the executive branch.
The president's fast-track authority is set to expire next year, more than 30 years after its passage. It is no coincidence that the United States has now posted a trade deficit for 30 consecutive years.
The federal government is also undermining the rule of law in this country when it comes to enforcement of our immigration laws and securing borders and ports.
The Bush administration in its first four years was responsible for 318 fines against employers who hired illegal workers, an average of fewer than 80 each year. That's down from 5,587 fines against illegal employers during the eight years of the Clinton administration, according to the Congressional Immigration Reform Caucus, an average of 698 each year. And the problem is getting worse; in 2004 only three employers received fines for illegal hiring.
Work site arrests have fallen even more drastically under this president. From 1995 to 1998, there were between 10,000 and 18,000 work site arrests of illegal aliens each year. But during the Bush administration, work site arrests fell to just 159 in 2004.
Apprehensions along the border averaged 1.05 million from fiscal year 2001 to 2004, according to the independent, progressive group Third Way, down from 1.52 million from 1996 to 2000. Border apprehensions have plummeted more than 30 percent, despite a doubling in the number of Border Patrol agents over the past decade and the rising number of attempted crossings.
It is not only the federal government that had diminished our claim to be a nation of laws. More than 70 U.S. cities, including New York, Los Angeles, California, and Chicago, Illinois, have set up "sanctuary" policies that offer safe haven from the law to illegal aliens and their families.
"It most certainly is a blatant violation of the law," says Rep. Tom Tancredo, a Republican from Colorado. "There is a provision of the 1996 Immigration Act that is very clear: It says states and localities can't do this. The unfortunate thing is there are no teeth in it."
As Abraham Lincoln said, if bad laws exist they should "be repealed as soon as possible, still, while they continue in force, for the sake of example they should be religiously observed." President Lincoln devoutly believed that rule of law assured that ours would continue to be a government of the people, by the people and for the people.
And that should be the first demand of every American today.
We've all heard it proudly stated some time or other that we are "a nation of laws, not men." What a laugh.
It never has been that. The "law" has ALWAYS been selectively enforced - not to mention selectively constructed - to help out the ruling class.
Dubya, however, has taken disrespect for the law to such a high level and so blatantly that it's pinching the ginks at the top a bit too.
When THAT happens - THEN - we hear squeeling from the "vigilant" press.
You see, the law is designed to pinch US !! Not them.
Lou Dobbs (below) says, "Why is the president ignoring our laws?" What he really is asking is, "Why has the president started ignoring the law in new ways? What's wrong with ignoring it the usual way?"
You see, the law has always been ignored in order to help the few men at the expense of the many people. Dobbs is squeeling because part of that "few" suspect they are being thrown in with the rest of us - the masses who already (since "civilization" began) have been getting shafted by selectively crafted laws and selected enforcement of those laws.
Think about it. It's true.
- Uke Man
p.s. Dobbs makes a fairly good argument (though suspiciously heavy on the immigrant aspect), but where have he and his brother clowns/clones been in the memorable past??
Dobbs: Why is the president ignoring our laws?
Bush, feds flout the Constitution by finding ways around laws
By Lou Dobbs CNN
(a ukethanks to Steve)
NEW YORK (CNN) -- With upraised right hand and left hand on the Bible, each of our presidents, from George Washington to George W. Bush, has solemnly sworn to "preserve, protect and defend" the Constitution of the United States.
The American Bar Association claims President Bush has violated that oath by issuing hundreds of "signing statements" to disregard selected provisions of the laws that Congress passed and he signed.
A bipartisan, 11-member panel of the ABA found that President Bush is not only disregarding laws but using such signing statements far more than any president in history. In fact, Bush has used signing statements to raise constitutional objections to more than 800 provisions in more than 100 laws. All of the presidents combined before 2001 had issued only 600.
The ABA asserts that signing statements cannot be a substitute for a presidential veto and that such an assertion of presidential power amounts to a line-item veto, which the Supreme Court already has ruled unconstitutional.
The matter will likely be resolved in court. But it stands as a metaphor for a 21st century America that is no longer secure in the claim to be a nation of laws.
The federal government is failing to enforce our laws on a wide range of issues. Trade agreements such as the North American Free Trade Agreement, which is clearly a treaty, have not been approved by two-thirds of the Senate as required by the Treaty Clause of the Constitution.
That clause states the president "shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur." And why has the Senate not been required to approve these treaties? Because the last three presidents have claimed these trade deals are executive agreements rather than treaties.
But if these so-called free-trade agreements are not to be considered treaties, then they are clearly within the power of Congress, not the president. Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution gives Congress the power to "regulate Commerce with foreign nations." But Congress has given up its exclusive constitutional authority to negotiate and regulate trade agreements by ceding "fast-track authority" to the executive branch.
The president's fast-track authority is set to expire next year, more than 30 years after its passage. It is no coincidence that the United States has now posted a trade deficit for 30 consecutive years.
The federal government is also undermining the rule of law in this country when it comes to enforcement of our immigration laws and securing borders and ports.
The Bush administration in its first four years was responsible for 318 fines against employers who hired illegal workers, an average of fewer than 80 each year. That's down from 5,587 fines against illegal employers during the eight years of the Clinton administration, according to the Congressional Immigration Reform Caucus, an average of 698 each year. And the problem is getting worse; in 2004 only three employers received fines for illegal hiring.
Work site arrests have fallen even more drastically under this president. From 1995 to 1998, there were between 10,000 and 18,000 work site arrests of illegal aliens each year. But during the Bush administration, work site arrests fell to just 159 in 2004.
Apprehensions along the border averaged 1.05 million from fiscal year 2001 to 2004, according to the independent, progressive group Third Way, down from 1.52 million from 1996 to 2000. Border apprehensions have plummeted more than 30 percent, despite a doubling in the number of Border Patrol agents over the past decade and the rising number of attempted crossings.
It is not only the federal government that had diminished our claim to be a nation of laws. More than 70 U.S. cities, including New York, Los Angeles, California, and Chicago, Illinois, have set up "sanctuary" policies that offer safe haven from the law to illegal aliens and their families.
"It most certainly is a blatant violation of the law," says Rep. Tom Tancredo, a Republican from Colorado. "There is a provision of the 1996 Immigration Act that is very clear: It says states and localities can't do this. The unfortunate thing is there are no teeth in it."
As Abraham Lincoln said, if bad laws exist they should "be repealed as soon as possible, still, while they continue in force, for the sake of example they should be religiously observed." President Lincoln devoutly believed that rule of law assured that ours would continue to be a government of the people, by the people and for the people.
And that should be the first demand of every American today.
Faith (fantasy) v. Reality - Again!!
Hey Folks,
I’m sorry if I sound like a broken record, but here it is again (see Mo below).
As Kurt Vonnegut pointed out:
Human beings have had to guess about almost everything for the past million years or so. The leading characters in our history books have been our most enthralling, and sometimes our most terrifying, guessers…
But the guessers, in fact, knew no more than the common people and sometimes less, even when, or especially when, they gave us the illusion that we were in control of our destinies. http://www.ukuleleman.net/2006/07/faith-and-reason.html
As I’ve pointed out ( same link) it’s a lot EASIER to have faith, put our own intellect in storage; and rely on God, Jesus, or the “great leader.”
The problem is that, at best, the guessers are just guessing; at worst, they KNOW – and NOTHING will challenge that “knowledge,” not even the destruction of everything we hold dear. So it is with Dubya.
We COULD just lie back and enjoy it, singing all-together:
“Put your hand in the hand of the man who spread democracy; put your hand in the hand of the man who made us free.”
God bless the child emperor!!
- Uke Man
July 26, 2006
The Immutable President
By MAUREEN DOWD
(a ukethanks to Phyll)
Washington
It’s too bad President Bush spurns evolution — both in his view of the universe and his view of himself.
Scientists see more and more evidence that human evolution not only exists but is ongoing, as people adapt to changing circumstances with shifts in everything from skin color to the protein structure of sperm.
But with W., it’s more a matter of survival of the stubbornist.
If you turn on TV, you see missiles flying, bodies lying, nuclear missiles unleashed and a slaughterhouse in Iraq. But don’t despair, because yesterday President Bush announced the establishment of “a joint committee to achieve Iraqi self-reliance.” He called it a “new partnership,” as if it were some small business.
Isn’t it a little late, in July 2006, to be launching a new partnership for such an old mess? Isn’t it a little late to realize that Baghdad, a city where 300 garbage collectors have been killed in the last six months, according to press reports, has spun out of control?
In a press conference at the White House with his rogue puppet, the Iraqi prime minister, Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, Mr. Bush explained that “our strategy is to remain on the offense, including in Baghdad.” Then why, after three and a half years, does our offense look so much like a defense?
The president sounded like a Jon Stewart imitation of himself when he assured reporters that Mr. Maliki had “a comprehensive plan” to pacify Iraq. “That’s what leaders do,” W. lectured, in a familiar refrain. “They see problems, they address problems, and they lay out a plan to solve the problems.”
If only the plan were a little less robbing-Peter-to-pay-Paul, and a little more road-to-Damascus epiphany. Taking troops out of Anbar Province, where the insurgency is thriving, to quell violence in Baghdad doesn’t inspire confidence that the plan is truly “comprehensive.”
And despite W.’s praise of Mr. Maliki’s leadership, the plan to start from scratch, in essence, stabilizing neighborhood by neighborhood in Baghdad is, as The Times’s Michael Gordon writes, “an implicit acknowledgment of what every Iraqi in Baghdad already knows”: the prime minister’s “original Baghdad security plan has failed. In the past two weeks, more Iraqi civilians have been killed than have died in Lebanon and Israel.”
Mr. Bush also sent Condi Rice to lay out a plan to the Arabs and Europeans about the destruction and refugee flight in Lebanon, but the plan turns out to be a plan to do nothing until Israel has more time to kick the Hezb out of Hezbollah.
W. says he supports more diplomacy, but it’s the diplomacy of sanctimony. He now grudgingly notes that “the violence in Baghdad is still terrible,” but doesn’t seem to grasp the tragic enormity of an occupation that is sliding into civil war and constricting his leverage to deal with all the other crises crackling around the world. The U.N. reported last week that in May and June no less than 5,818 Iraqi civilians were killed.
Although he talked about whether America could be “facile” and “nimble” enough to change with the circumstances in the Middle East, in fundamental ways, he has not changed his attitude at all.
Newsweek’s Richard Wolffe says he conducted four “freewheeling” interviews with the president last week, and concluded: “Bush thinks the new war vindicates his early vision of the region’s struggle: of good versus evil, civilization versus terrorism, freedom versus Islamic fascism. He still believes that when it comes to war and terror, leaders need to decide whose side they are on.”
The president sees Lebanon as a test of macho mettle rather than the latest chapter in a fratricidal free-for-all that’s been going on for centuries. “I view this as the forces of instability probing weakness,” he said. “I think they’re testing resolve.”
The more things get complicated, the more W. feels vindicated in his own simplified vision. The more people try to tell him that it’s not easy, that this is a region of shifting alliances and interests, the less he seems inclined to develop an adroit policy to win people over to our side instead of trying to annihilate them.
Bill Clinton, the Mutable Man par excellence, evolved four times a day; he had a tactical and even recreational attitude toward personal change. But W. prides himself on his changelessness and regards his immutability as the surest sign of his virtue. Facing a map on fire, he sees any inkling of change as the slippery slope to failure.
That’s what’s so frustrating about watching him deal — or not deal — with Iraq and Lebanon. There’s almost nothing to watch.
It’s not even like watching paint dry, since that, too, is a passage from one state to another. It’s like watching dry paint
I’m sorry if I sound like a broken record, but here it is again (see Mo below).
As Kurt Vonnegut pointed out:
Human beings have had to guess about almost everything for the past million years or so. The leading characters in our history books have been our most enthralling, and sometimes our most terrifying, guessers…
But the guessers, in fact, knew no more than the common people and sometimes less, even when, or especially when, they gave us the illusion that we were in control of our destinies. http://www.ukuleleman.net/2006/07/faith-and-reason.html
As I’ve pointed out ( same link) it’s a lot EASIER to have faith, put our own intellect in storage; and rely on God, Jesus, or the “great leader.”
The problem is that, at best, the guessers are just guessing; at worst, they KNOW – and NOTHING will challenge that “knowledge,” not even the destruction of everything we hold dear. So it is with Dubya.
We COULD just lie back and enjoy it, singing all-together:
“Put your hand in the hand of the man who spread democracy; put your hand in the hand of the man who made us free.”
God bless the child emperor!!
- Uke Man
July 26, 2006
The Immutable President
By MAUREEN DOWD
(a ukethanks to Phyll)
Washington
It’s too bad President Bush spurns evolution — both in his view of the universe and his view of himself.
Scientists see more and more evidence that human evolution not only exists but is ongoing, as people adapt to changing circumstances with shifts in everything from skin color to the protein structure of sperm.
But with W., it’s more a matter of survival of the stubbornist.
If you turn on TV, you see missiles flying, bodies lying, nuclear missiles unleashed and a slaughterhouse in Iraq. But don’t despair, because yesterday President Bush announced the establishment of “a joint committee to achieve Iraqi self-reliance.” He called it a “new partnership,” as if it were some small business.
Isn’t it a little late, in July 2006, to be launching a new partnership for such an old mess? Isn’t it a little late to realize that Baghdad, a city where 300 garbage collectors have been killed in the last six months, according to press reports, has spun out of control?
In a press conference at the White House with his rogue puppet, the Iraqi prime minister, Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, Mr. Bush explained that “our strategy is to remain on the offense, including in Baghdad.” Then why, after three and a half years, does our offense look so much like a defense?
The president sounded like a Jon Stewart imitation of himself when he assured reporters that Mr. Maliki had “a comprehensive plan” to pacify Iraq. “That’s what leaders do,” W. lectured, in a familiar refrain. “They see problems, they address problems, and they lay out a plan to solve the problems.”
If only the plan were a little less robbing-Peter-to-pay-Paul, and a little more road-to-Damascus epiphany. Taking troops out of Anbar Province, where the insurgency is thriving, to quell violence in Baghdad doesn’t inspire confidence that the plan is truly “comprehensive.”
And despite W.’s praise of Mr. Maliki’s leadership, the plan to start from scratch, in essence, stabilizing neighborhood by neighborhood in Baghdad is, as The Times’s Michael Gordon writes, “an implicit acknowledgment of what every Iraqi in Baghdad already knows”: the prime minister’s “original Baghdad security plan has failed. In the past two weeks, more Iraqi civilians have been killed than have died in Lebanon and Israel.”
Mr. Bush also sent Condi Rice to lay out a plan to the Arabs and Europeans about the destruction and refugee flight in Lebanon, but the plan turns out to be a plan to do nothing until Israel has more time to kick the Hezb out of Hezbollah.
W. says he supports more diplomacy, but it’s the diplomacy of sanctimony. He now grudgingly notes that “the violence in Baghdad is still terrible,” but doesn’t seem to grasp the tragic enormity of an occupation that is sliding into civil war and constricting his leverage to deal with all the other crises crackling around the world. The U.N. reported last week that in May and June no less than 5,818 Iraqi civilians were killed.
Although he talked about whether America could be “facile” and “nimble” enough to change with the circumstances in the Middle East, in fundamental ways, he has not changed his attitude at all.
Newsweek’s Richard Wolffe says he conducted four “freewheeling” interviews with the president last week, and concluded: “Bush thinks the new war vindicates his early vision of the region’s struggle: of good versus evil, civilization versus terrorism, freedom versus Islamic fascism. He still believes that when it comes to war and terror, leaders need to decide whose side they are on.”
The president sees Lebanon as a test of macho mettle rather than the latest chapter in a fratricidal free-for-all that’s been going on for centuries. “I view this as the forces of instability probing weakness,” he said. “I think they’re testing resolve.”
The more things get complicated, the more W. feels vindicated in his own simplified vision. The more people try to tell him that it’s not easy, that this is a region of shifting alliances and interests, the less he seems inclined to develop an adroit policy to win people over to our side instead of trying to annihilate them.
Bill Clinton, the Mutable Man par excellence, evolved four times a day; he had a tactical and even recreational attitude toward personal change. But W. prides himself on his changelessness and regards his immutability as the surest sign of his virtue. Facing a map on fire, he sees any inkling of change as the slippery slope to failure.
That’s what’s so frustrating about watching him deal — or not deal — with Iraq and Lebanon. There’s almost nothing to watch.
It’s not even like watching paint dry, since that, too, is a passage from one state to another. It’s like watching dry paint
Friday, July 28, 2006
Somebody throw a bucket of water on her !!
Condi’s Flying Dutchman
By MAUREEN DOWD
Washington - As USA Today noted about summer movies, the hot trend in heroines “is not the damsel in distress. It’s the damsel who causes distress.”
Uma, Oprah. Oprah, Condi.
The more W. and his tough, by-any-means-necessary superbabe have tried to tame the Middle East, the more inflamed the Middle East has become. Now the secretary of state is leaving, reluctantly and belatedly, to do some shuttle diplomacy that entails little diplomacy and no shuttling. It’s more like air-guitar diplomacy.
Condi doesn’t want to talk to Hezbollah or its sponsors, Syria and Iran — “Syria knows what it needs to do,’’ she says with asperity — and she doesn’t want a cease-fire. She wants “a sustainable cease-fire,’’ which means she wants to give the Israelis more time to decimate Hezbollah bunkers with the precision-guided bombs that the Bush administration is racing to deliver.
“I could have gotten on a plane and rushed over and started shuttling, and it wouldn’t have been clear what I was shuttling to do,” she said.
Keep more civilians from being killed? Or at least keep America from being even more despised in the Middle East and around the globe?
Like Davy Jones, the octopus-headed creature who had to keep sailing Flying Dutchman-like without getting to land in the new “Pirates of the Caribbean,’’ Condi had a hard time finding an Arab port in which to dock.
The Arab street, declared prematurely dead by the neocons after the Iraq invasion, is so incensed over scenes of mass graves, homeless children and Israeli ground incursions into Lebanon that Egypt spurned Ms. Rice’s bid to meet next week in Cairo. (Her only consolation is that at least the autocratic Egyptian president, Hosni Mubarak, is listening to the Arab street as she has been harping on him to do for more than a year.)
The Arab allies, who agreed to meet her and European envoys in Rome, clearly did not want to be used as a stalling tactic on Arab turf, with Condi miming diplomacy to buy time for Israel. Maybe, like Jack Sparrow, they can at least bring a jar of Arab turf with them.
In a twist that illustrated the growing power of Shiites and Iranians, even the Shiite Iraqi prime minister broke with the Bush stance and denounced Israeli attacks on Lebanon. Is there no honor among puppets?
Condi was as cool as ever in the State Department briefing room yesterday,perfectly groomed in a camel-colored suit with an athletic white stripe. Like her boss, she does not show any sign of tension over the fact that all of theirs chemes to democratize the Middle East ended up creating more fundamentalism,extremism, terrorism and anti-Americanism. Having ginned up the idea that AlQaeda was state-sponsored terrorism backed by Saddam, now W. and Condi have to contend with the specter of real state-sponsored terrorism.
Like a professor who has grown so frustrated with one misbehaving student that she turns her focus on another, Condi put aside the sulfurous distraction of Iraq and enthused over the need to make the fragile democracy in Lebanon a centerpiece of the “new Middle East.”
She said that the carnage there represented the “birth pangs of a new Middle East, and whatever we do we have to be certain that we are pushing forward to the new Middle East, not going back to the old one.” Yet everything in the Middle East seems to be reeling backward in a scary way, and neocons are once more mocking W. as a wimp who should blow off the State Department and blow up Syria and Iran.
Having inadvertently built up Iran with his failures in Iraq, W. is eager now to send Iran a shock-and-awe message through Israel.
The Bush counselor Dan Bartlett told The Washington Post that the president“mourns the loss of every life, yet out of this tragic development he believes a moment of clarity has arrived.”
W. continues to present simplicity as clarity. When will he ever learn that clarity is the last thing you’re going to find in the Middle East, and that trying to superimpose it with force usually makes things worse? That’s what both the Israelis and Ronald Reagan learned in the early 1980’s when they tried disastrously to remake Lebanon.
The cowboy president bet the ranch on Iraq, and that war has made almost any other American action in the Arab world, and any Pax Americana that might have been created there, impossible. It’s fitting that Condi is the Flying Dutchman, since Lebanon represents the shipwreck of our Middle East policy.
By MAUREEN DOWD
Washington - As USA Today noted about summer movies, the hot trend in heroines “is not the damsel in distress. It’s the damsel who causes distress.”
Uma, Oprah. Oprah, Condi.
The more W. and his tough, by-any-means-necessary superbabe have tried to tame the Middle East, the more inflamed the Middle East has become. Now the secretary of state is leaving, reluctantly and belatedly, to do some shuttle diplomacy that entails little diplomacy and no shuttling. It’s more like air-guitar diplomacy.
Condi doesn’t want to talk to Hezbollah or its sponsors, Syria and Iran — “Syria knows what it needs to do,’’ she says with asperity — and she doesn’t want a cease-fire. She wants “a sustainable cease-fire,’’ which means she wants to give the Israelis more time to decimate Hezbollah bunkers with the precision-guided bombs that the Bush administration is racing to deliver.
“I could have gotten on a plane and rushed over and started shuttling, and it wouldn’t have been clear what I was shuttling to do,” she said.
Keep more civilians from being killed? Or at least keep America from being even more despised in the Middle East and around the globe?
Like Davy Jones, the octopus-headed creature who had to keep sailing Flying Dutchman-like without getting to land in the new “Pirates of the Caribbean,’’ Condi had a hard time finding an Arab port in which to dock.
The Arab street, declared prematurely dead by the neocons after the Iraq invasion, is so incensed over scenes of mass graves, homeless children and Israeli ground incursions into Lebanon that Egypt spurned Ms. Rice’s bid to meet next week in Cairo. (Her only consolation is that at least the autocratic Egyptian president, Hosni Mubarak, is listening to the Arab street as she has been harping on him to do for more than a year.)
The Arab allies, who agreed to meet her and European envoys in Rome, clearly did not want to be used as a stalling tactic on Arab turf, with Condi miming diplomacy to buy time for Israel. Maybe, like Jack Sparrow, they can at least bring a jar of Arab turf with them.
In a twist that illustrated the growing power of Shiites and Iranians, even the Shiite Iraqi prime minister broke with the Bush stance and denounced Israeli attacks on Lebanon. Is there no honor among puppets?
Condi was as cool as ever in the State Department briefing room yesterday,perfectly groomed in a camel-colored suit with an athletic white stripe. Like her boss, she does not show any sign of tension over the fact that all of theirs chemes to democratize the Middle East ended up creating more fundamentalism,extremism, terrorism and anti-Americanism. Having ginned up the idea that AlQaeda was state-sponsored terrorism backed by Saddam, now W. and Condi have to contend with the specter of real state-sponsored terrorism.
Like a professor who has grown so frustrated with one misbehaving student that she turns her focus on another, Condi put aside the sulfurous distraction of Iraq and enthused over the need to make the fragile democracy in Lebanon a centerpiece of the “new Middle East.”
She said that the carnage there represented the “birth pangs of a new Middle East, and whatever we do we have to be certain that we are pushing forward to the new Middle East, not going back to the old one.” Yet everything in the Middle East seems to be reeling backward in a scary way, and neocons are once more mocking W. as a wimp who should blow off the State Department and blow up Syria and Iran.
Having inadvertently built up Iran with his failures in Iraq, W. is eager now to send Iran a shock-and-awe message through Israel.
The Bush counselor Dan Bartlett told The Washington Post that the president“mourns the loss of every life, yet out of this tragic development he believes a moment of clarity has arrived.”
W. continues to present simplicity as clarity. When will he ever learn that clarity is the last thing you’re going to find in the Middle East, and that trying to superimpose it with force usually makes things worse? That’s what both the Israelis and Ronald Reagan learned in the early 1980’s when they tried disastrously to remake Lebanon.
The cowboy president bet the ranch on Iraq, and that war has made almost any other American action in the Arab world, and any Pax Americana that might have been created there, impossible. It’s fitting that Condi is the Flying Dutchman, since Lebanon represents the shipwreck of our Middle East policy.
And No One but Grunts Will Ever Pay a Price
Group: U.S. military urged abuse in Iraq
By DAVID B. CARUSO, Associated Press Writer
NEW YORK - The group Human Rights Watch said in a report released Sunday that U.S. military commanders encouraged abusive interrogations of detainees in Iraq, even after the Abu Ghraib prison scandal called attention to the issue in 2004.
Between 2003 and 2005, prisoners were routinely physically mistreated, deprived of sleep and exposed to extreme temperatures as part of the interrogation process, the report said.
"Soldiers were told that the Geneva Conventions did not apply, and that interrogators could use abusive techniques to get detainees to talk," wrote John Sifton, a senior researcher at Human Rights Watch.
The organization said it based its conclusion on interviews with military personnel and sworn statements in declassified documents.
A Pentagon spokesman, Cmdr. Greg Hicks, said he wasn't aware of the report, but noted the military is reviewing its procedures regarding detainees following a Supreme Court ruling that the Geneva Conventions should apply in the conflict with al-Qaida.
The Bush administration had previously held that certain enemies, including terrorists, were illegal combatants and not protected by those rules.
The conventions prohibit "outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment."
Human Rights Watch focused much of its report on a detention facility called Camp Nama at Baghdad International Airport.
One soldier, whose name was withheld from the report, described a suspected insurgent being stripped naked, thrown in the mud, sprayed with water and then exposed to frigid temperatures in an attempt to soften him up for interrogators.
Commanders, the soldier said, seemed confident that their treatment of prisoners was legal.
He described computerized authorization forms that had to be filled out before subjecting detainees to strobe lights, loud music, extreme heat or cold, or intimidation by barking dogs.
The allegations of abuse at the camp were first reported in March by The New York Times.
By DAVID B. CARUSO, Associated Press Writer
NEW YORK - The group Human Rights Watch said in a report released Sunday that U.S. military commanders encouraged abusive interrogations of detainees in Iraq, even after the Abu Ghraib prison scandal called attention to the issue in 2004.
Between 2003 and 2005, prisoners were routinely physically mistreated, deprived of sleep and exposed to extreme temperatures as part of the interrogation process, the report said.
"Soldiers were told that the Geneva Conventions did not apply, and that interrogators could use abusive techniques to get detainees to talk," wrote John Sifton, a senior researcher at Human Rights Watch.
The organization said it based its conclusion on interviews with military personnel and sworn statements in declassified documents.
A Pentagon spokesman, Cmdr. Greg Hicks, said he wasn't aware of the report, but noted the military is reviewing its procedures regarding detainees following a Supreme Court ruling that the Geneva Conventions should apply in the conflict with al-Qaida.
The Bush administration had previously held that certain enemies, including terrorists, were illegal combatants and not protected by those rules.
The conventions prohibit "outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment."
Human Rights Watch focused much of its report on a detention facility called Camp Nama at Baghdad International Airport.
One soldier, whose name was withheld from the report, described a suspected insurgent being stripped naked, thrown in the mud, sprayed with water and then exposed to frigid temperatures in an attempt to soften him up for interrogators.
Commanders, the soldier said, seemed confident that their treatment of prisoners was legal.
He described computerized authorization forms that had to be filled out before subjecting detainees to strobe lights, loud music, extreme heat or cold, or intimidation by barking dogs.
The allegations of abuse at the camp were first reported in March by The New York Times.
Dubya's Résumé
GEORGE W. BUSH
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Washington , DC 20520
EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE
LAW ENFORCEMENT
I was arrested in Kennebunkport, Maine , in 1976 for driving under the influence of alcohol. I pled guilty, paid a fine, and had my driver's license suspended for 30 days. My Texas driving record has been "lost" and is not available.
MILITARY
I joined the Texas Air National Guard and went AWOL. I refused to take a drug test or answer any questions about my drug use. By joining the Texas Air National Guard, I was able to avoid combat duty in Vietnam
COLLEGE
I graduated from Yale University with a low C average. I was a cheerleader.
PAST WORK EXPERIENCE
I ran for U.S. Congress and lost. I began my career in the oil business in Midland , Texas , in 1975. I bought an oil company, but couldn't find any oil in Texas . The company went bankrupt shortly after I sold all my stock.
I bought the Texas Rangers baseball team in a sweetheart deal that took land using taxpayer money. With the help of my father and our friends in the oil industry, including Enron CEO Ken Lay, I was elected governor of Texas .
ACCOMPLISHMENTS AS GOVERNOR OF TEXAS
I changed Texas pollution laws to favor power and oil companies, making Texas the most polluted state in the Union . During my tenure, Houston replaced Los Angeles as the most smog-ridden city in America .
I cut taxes and bankrupted the Texas treasury to the tune of billions in borrowed money.
I set the record for the most executions by any governor in American history.
With the help of my brother, the governor of Florida , and my father's appointments to the Supreme Court, I became President after losing by over 500,000 votes.
ACCOMPLISHMENTS AS PRESIDENT
I am the first President in U.S. history to enter office with a criminal record.
I invaded and occupied two countries at a continuing cost of over one billion dollars per week.
I spent the U.S. surplus and effectively bankrupted the U.S. Treasury.
I shattered the record for the largest annual deficit in U.S. history.
I set an economic record for most private bankruptcies filed in any 12-month period.
I set the all-time record for most foreclosures in a 12-month period.
I set the all-time record for the biggest drop in the history of the U.S. stock market.
In my first year in office, over 2 million Americans lost their jobs and that trend continues every month.
I'm proud that the members of my cabinet are the richest of any administration in U.S. history. My "poorest millionaire," Condoleeza Rice, had a Chevron oil tanker named after her.
I set the record for most campaign fund-raising trips by a U.S. President. I am the all-time U.S. and world record-holder for receiving the most corporate campaign donations.
My largest lifetime campaign contributor, and one of my best friends, Kenneth Lay, presided over the largest corporate bankruptcy fraud in U.S. History: Enron.
My political party used Enron private jets and corporate attorneys to assure my success with the U.S. Supreme Court during my election decision.
I have protected my friends at Enron and Halliburton against investigation or prosecution.
More time and money was spent investigating the Monica Lewinsky affair than has been spent investigating one of the biggest corporate rip- offs in history.
I presided over the biggest energy crisis in U.S. history and refused to intervene when corruption involving the oil industry was revealed.
I presided over the highest gasoline prices in U.S. history.
I changed the U.S. policy to allow convicted criminals to be awarded government contracts.
I appointed more convicted criminals to administration than any President in U.S. history.
I created the Ministry of Homeland Security, the largest bureaucracy in the history of the United States government.
I've broken more international treaties than any President in U.S. history.
I am the first President in U.S. history to have the United Nations remove the U.S. from the Human Rights Commission.
I withdrew the U.S. from the World Court of Law. I refused to allow inspectors access to U.S . "prisoners of war" detainees and thereby have refused to abide by the Geneva Convention.
I am the first President in history to refuse United Nations election inspectors (during the 2002 U.S. election).
I set the record for fewest numbers of press conferences of any President since the advent of television.
I set the all-time record for most days on vacation in any one-year period. After taking off the entire month of August, I presided over the worst security failure in U.S. history.
I garnered the most sympathy for the U.S. after the World Trade Center attacks and less than a year later made the U.S. the most hated country in the world, the largest failure of diplomacy in world history.
I have set the all-time record for most people worldwide to simultaneously protest me in public venues (15 million people), shattering the record for protests against any person in the history of mankind.
I am the first President in U.S. history to order an unprovoked, pre-emptive attack and the military occupation of a sovereign nation. I did so against the will of the United Nations, the majority of U.S. citizens, and the world community.
I have cut health care benefits for war veterans and support a cut in duty benefits for active duty troops and their families-in-wartime.
In my State of the Union Address, I lied about our reasons for attacking Iraq and then blamed the lies on our British friends.
I am the first President in history to have a majority of Europeans (71%) view my presidency as the biggest threat to world peace and security.
I am supporting development of a nuclear "Tactical Bunker Buster," a WMD. I have so far failed to fulfill my pledge to bring Osama Bin Laden [sic] to justice.
RECORDS AND REFERENCES
All records of my tenure as governor of Texas are now in my father's library, sealed and unavailable for public view.
All records of SEC investigations into my insider trading and my bankrupt companies are sealed in secrecy and unavailable for public view.
All records or minutes from meetings that I, or my Vice-President, attended regarding public energy policy are sealed in secrecy and unavailable for public review. I am a member of the Republican Party.
PLEASE CONSIDER MY EXPERIENCE WHEN VOTING IN THE 2006 MIDTERM ELECTIONS.
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Washington , DC 20520
EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE
LAW ENFORCEMENT
I was arrested in Kennebunkport, Maine , in 1976 for driving under the influence of alcohol. I pled guilty, paid a fine, and had my driver's license suspended for 30 days. My Texas driving record has been "lost" and is not available.
MILITARY
I joined the Texas Air National Guard and went AWOL. I refused to take a drug test or answer any questions about my drug use. By joining the Texas Air National Guard, I was able to avoid combat duty in Vietnam
COLLEGE
I graduated from Yale University with a low C average. I was a cheerleader.
PAST WORK EXPERIENCE
I ran for U.S. Congress and lost. I began my career in the oil business in Midland , Texas , in 1975. I bought an oil company, but couldn't find any oil in Texas . The company went bankrupt shortly after I sold all my stock.
I bought the Texas Rangers baseball team in a sweetheart deal that took land using taxpayer money. With the help of my father and our friends in the oil industry, including Enron CEO Ken Lay, I was elected governor of Texas .
ACCOMPLISHMENTS AS GOVERNOR OF TEXAS
I changed Texas pollution laws to favor power and oil companies, making Texas the most polluted state in the Union . During my tenure, Houston replaced Los Angeles as the most smog-ridden city in America .
I cut taxes and bankrupted the Texas treasury to the tune of billions in borrowed money.
I set the record for the most executions by any governor in American history.
With the help of my brother, the governor of Florida , and my father's appointments to the Supreme Court, I became President after losing by over 500,000 votes.
ACCOMPLISHMENTS AS PRESIDENT
I am the first President in U.S. history to enter office with a criminal record.
I invaded and occupied two countries at a continuing cost of over one billion dollars per week.
I spent the U.S. surplus and effectively bankrupted the U.S. Treasury.
I shattered the record for the largest annual deficit in U.S. history.
I set an economic record for most private bankruptcies filed in any 12-month period.
I set the all-time record for most foreclosures in a 12-month period.
I set the all-time record for the biggest drop in the history of the U.S. stock market.
In my first year in office, over 2 million Americans lost their jobs and that trend continues every month.
I'm proud that the members of my cabinet are the richest of any administration in U.S. history. My "poorest millionaire," Condoleeza Rice, had a Chevron oil tanker named after her.
I set the record for most campaign fund-raising trips by a U.S. President. I am the all-time U.S. and world record-holder for receiving the most corporate campaign donations.
My largest lifetime campaign contributor, and one of my best friends, Kenneth Lay, presided over the largest corporate bankruptcy fraud in U.S. History: Enron.
My political party used Enron private jets and corporate attorneys to assure my success with the U.S. Supreme Court during my election decision.
I have protected my friends at Enron and Halliburton against investigation or prosecution.
More time and money was spent investigating the Monica Lewinsky affair than has been spent investigating one of the biggest corporate rip- offs in history.
I presided over the biggest energy crisis in U.S. history and refused to intervene when corruption involving the oil industry was revealed.
I presided over the highest gasoline prices in U.S. history.
I changed the U.S. policy to allow convicted criminals to be awarded government contracts.
I appointed more convicted criminals to administration than any President in U.S. history.
I created the Ministry of Homeland Security, the largest bureaucracy in the history of the United States government.
I've broken more international treaties than any President in U.S. history.
I am the first President in U.S. history to have the United Nations remove the U.S. from the Human Rights Commission.
I withdrew the U.S. from the World Court of Law. I refused to allow inspectors access to U.S . "prisoners of war" detainees and thereby have refused to abide by the Geneva Convention.
I am the first President in history to refuse United Nations election inspectors (during the 2002 U.S. election).
I set the record for fewest numbers of press conferences of any President since the advent of television.
I set the all-time record for most days on vacation in any one-year period. After taking off the entire month of August, I presided over the worst security failure in U.S. history.
I garnered the most sympathy for the U.S. after the World Trade Center attacks and less than a year later made the U.S. the most hated country in the world, the largest failure of diplomacy in world history.
I have set the all-time record for most people worldwide to simultaneously protest me in public venues (15 million people), shattering the record for protests against any person in the history of mankind.
I am the first President in U.S. history to order an unprovoked, pre-emptive attack and the military occupation of a sovereign nation. I did so against the will of the United Nations, the majority of U.S. citizens, and the world community.
I have cut health care benefits for war veterans and support a cut in duty benefits for active duty troops and their families-in-wartime.
In my State of the Union Address, I lied about our reasons for attacking Iraq and then blamed the lies on our British friends.
I am the first President in history to have a majority of Europeans (71%) view my presidency as the biggest threat to world peace and security.
I am supporting development of a nuclear "Tactical Bunker Buster," a WMD. I have so far failed to fulfill my pledge to bring Osama Bin Laden [sic] to justice.
RECORDS AND REFERENCES
All records of my tenure as governor of Texas are now in my father's library, sealed and unavailable for public view.
All records of SEC investigations into my insider trading and my bankrupt companies are sealed in secrecy and unavailable for public view.
All records or minutes from meetings that I, or my Vice-President, attended regarding public energy policy are sealed in secrecy and unavailable for public review. I am a member of the Republican Party.
PLEASE CONSIDER MY EXPERIENCE WHEN VOTING IN THE 2006 MIDTERM ELECTIONS.
Thursday, July 27, 2006
Stagecoach BBQ - Tonight
Hey Folks,
For some good food and good, free live music; stop in at Stagecoach BBQ & Blues tonight (Thursday)!!!
Every Thursday my friend John Locke (“An Englishman Abroad”) hosts an open stage at the Stagecoach. A lot of talent from around central Ohio do their stuff, and you won’t be disappointed (I’ll do a few myself).
AND!!!! the food is FANTASTIC and reasonably priced!! Great beer too!!
The music starts a little after 6:00 and ends at 9:00 when the restaurant closes.
The BBQ is in South Bloomfield on Route 23 (S. High Street) about 15 minutes from 270 - map & menu & more at: http://www.stagecoachbbq.com/ .
See you there.
- Uke Man
For some good food and good, free live music; stop in at Stagecoach BBQ & Blues tonight (Thursday)!!!
Every Thursday my friend John Locke (“An Englishman Abroad”) hosts an open stage at the Stagecoach. A lot of talent from around central Ohio do their stuff, and you won’t be disappointed (I’ll do a few myself).
AND!!!! the food is FANTASTIC and reasonably priced!! Great beer too!!
The music starts a little after 6:00 and ends at 9:00 when the restaurant closes.
The BBQ is in South Bloomfield on Route 23 (S. High Street) about 15 minutes from 270 - map & menu & more at: http://www.stagecoachbbq.com/ .
See you there.
- Uke Man
Anna and The Annadroids: The Robots' Dream Tour - update
Hey Folks,
Here's a chance to see Anna and The Annadroids: The Robots' Dream Tour before it leaves for New York City in early August.
The information is below, lifted from the Anatomical Scenario web site ( http://www.anatomicalscenario.com/ ). Visit the website or click on the blue entries for further information.
- Uke Man
- Anna and The Annadroids: The Robots' Dream Tour - work in progress
The Ohio State Summer Concert SeriesThursday July 27 (first half of our NY-bound, evening-length concert)Friday July 28 (second half of our NY-bound, evening-length concert) Sullivant Hall Auditorium 8 pm $10
The Ohio State Summer Dance Concert Series organizers have graciously invited Anatomical Scenario to present the entire concert that we are taking to the New York International Fringe Festival in August, but there's a hitch.
You have to come out both nights to get to see it all. Because this series features works and works-in-progress created by a variety of local Columbus dance artists, we will be staging Anna and The Annadroids: The Robots' Dream Tour in two sections.
Other local dancers will perform duirng the first half of this OSU program, and we will be performing the first half of our show on Thursday and the second half on Friday. See what's going on in the dance scene this summer and also get a sneak preview of our production as we polish it up for its run in New York.
Sullivant Hall Auditorium 1813 North High Street, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 43210. Located just across the plaza from the Wexner Center and Mershon Auditorium Yahoo map & directions .
Here's a chance to see Anna and The Annadroids: The Robots' Dream Tour before it leaves for New York City in early August.
The information is below, lifted from the Anatomical Scenario web site ( http://www.anatomicalscenario.com/ ). Visit the website or click on the blue entries for further information.
- Uke Man
- Anna and The Annadroids: The Robots' Dream Tour - work in progress
The Ohio State Summer Concert SeriesThursday July 27 (first half of our NY-bound, evening-length concert)Friday July 28 (second half of our NY-bound, evening-length concert) Sullivant Hall Auditorium 8 pm $10
The Ohio State Summer Dance Concert Series organizers have graciously invited Anatomical Scenario to present the entire concert that we are taking to the New York International Fringe Festival in August, but there's a hitch.
You have to come out both nights to get to see it all. Because this series features works and works-in-progress created by a variety of local Columbus dance artists, we will be staging Anna and The Annadroids: The Robots' Dream Tour in two sections.
Other local dancers will perform duirng the first half of this OSU program, and we will be performing the first half of our show on Thursday and the second half on Friday. See what's going on in the dance scene this summer and also get a sneak preview of our production as we polish it up for its run in New York.
Sullivant Hall Auditorium 1813 North High Street, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 43210. Located just across the plaza from the Wexner Center and Mershon Auditorium Yahoo map & directions .
Wednesday, July 26, 2006
Joseph Smith, killed by an angry mob
lynch: to put to death by mob action without legal sanction - Webster's Seventh Collegiate Dictionary
So!! What are we to make of all this??
Hey Folks,
The story below presents an interesting situation. We are told that the Smithsonian planned an exhibit to "pay tribute to influential Americans," but that two Washington churchgoers and two of their congressmen "complained that it portrayed Mormon church founders in a negative light"; specifically they objected to the text saying Joseph Smith was "lynched" and Brigham Young was a "tyrant."
The museum made changes.
Now here is the interesting part: WAS Smith "lynched" and WAS Young a "tyrant"? Important questions!! and ones the reporter should have investigated.
If the two leaders have been misrepresented, then the objection is justified, and the Smithsonian's capitulation is honorable.
But if Smith WAS lynched and/or Young WAS a tyrant the museum's action is a disservice to truth and history - and, indeed, the future; just one more mundane example of the rampant sacrifice of reality on the altar of "let's pretend; it makes me feel much better."
My guess (and fuzzy recollection) is that Smith WAS lynched. The word is pretty precise, and the onus of any lynching is on the mob, not the victim. I find it beyond disgusting when a national repository of history, culture, and science warps the truth because a few ignoramuses either don't understand the language or are afraid of the truth.
And this is nothing new; the Smithsonian has done it before.
- Uke Man
Complaints prompt change in Mormon exhibit
SALT LAKE CITY - AP - Smithsonian Museum curators changed a new gallery exhibit after two Utah congressmen and others complained that it portrayed Mormon church founders in a negative light.
The National Portrait Gallery's American Origins display pays tribute to influential Americans from 1600 to 1900, including Joseph Smith, founder of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and Brigham Young, the second leader of the faith, who led the emigration into what would become Utah.
The text accompanying portraits of Smith and Young offended at least two Washington-area church members who got a sneak preview of the display. The text reportedly said Smith was "lynched" and Young was a "tyrant."
The church members notified Republicans Sen. Bob Bennett and Rep. Rob Bishop, whose offices contacted the museum.
Bethany Bentley, spokeswoman for the National Portrait Gallery, confirmed that changes were made based on the complaints.
"It's very common (to make changes) and it happens with many of our labels," she said.
Bentley said changes were under way before Bennett's office called and that all were made before the gallery opened July 1.
The story below presents an interesting situation. We are told that the Smithsonian planned an exhibit to "pay tribute to influential Americans," but that two Washington churchgoers and two of their congressmen "complained that it portrayed Mormon church founders in a negative light"; specifically they objected to the text saying Joseph Smith was "lynched" and Brigham Young was a "tyrant."
The museum made changes.
Now here is the interesting part: WAS Smith "lynched" and WAS Young a "tyrant"? Important questions!! and ones the reporter should have investigated.
If the two leaders have been misrepresented, then the objection is justified, and the Smithsonian's capitulation is honorable.
But if Smith WAS lynched and/or Young WAS a tyrant the museum's action is a disservice to truth and history - and, indeed, the future; just one more mundane example of the rampant sacrifice of reality on the altar of "let's pretend; it makes me feel much better."
My guess (and fuzzy recollection) is that Smith WAS lynched. The word is pretty precise, and the onus of any lynching is on the mob, not the victim. I find it beyond disgusting when a national repository of history, culture, and science warps the truth because a few ignoramuses either don't understand the language or are afraid of the truth.
And this is nothing new; the Smithsonian has done it before.
- Uke Man
Complaints prompt change in Mormon exhibit
SALT LAKE CITY - AP - Smithsonian Museum curators changed a new gallery exhibit after two Utah congressmen and others complained that it portrayed Mormon church founders in a negative light.
The National Portrait Gallery's American Origins display pays tribute to influential Americans from 1600 to 1900, including Joseph Smith, founder of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and Brigham Young, the second leader of the faith, who led the emigration into what would become Utah.
The text accompanying portraits of Smith and Young offended at least two Washington-area church members who got a sneak preview of the display. The text reportedly said Smith was "lynched" and Young was a "tyrant."
The church members notified Republicans Sen. Bob Bennett and Rep. Rob Bishop, whose offices contacted the museum.
Bethany Bentley, spokeswoman for the National Portrait Gallery, confirmed that changes were made based on the complaints.
"It's very common (to make changes) and it happens with many of our labels," she said.
Bentley said changes were under way before Bennett's office called and that all were made before the gallery opened July 1.
Have you heard of Sen.Sam Brownback? He's nuts
Hey Folks,
Check out the yo-yo on the frayed string.
- Uke Man
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5GHTZDEtZA&feature=Views&page=5&t=t&f=b
Check out the yo-yo on the frayed string.
- Uke Man
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5GHTZDEtZA&feature=Views&page=5&t=t&f=b
Tuesday, July 25, 2006
American Values
Hey Folks,
The reaction Leonard Pitts Jr. reports below demonstrates the racism too many people harbor. These weak-witted cowards feel compelled to attack Pitts' to divert attention from themselves.
They strenuously resist the notion that rich white people instituted American slavery, that the wealthy and the middle class exploit Blacks, and - especially - that whites have anything to do with the present difficulties Blacks face.
Appallingly, many see murder of black kids as black problem only
Monday, July 17, 2006
LEONARD PITTS JR.
We begin with the obvious: Florida is an American state. Miami is an American city. And Sherdavia Jenkins, who died in Miami just over two weeks ago after being struck by random bullets, was an American child.
So I would have thought it uncontroversial to observe, as I recently did, that her death and the indiscriminate slaughter of American children – in Miami or anywhere else – qualified as "an American problem." Apparently, I was wrong. That is, at least, the feeling of dozens of folks who’ve written in correction and rebuke.
True enough, they say, Florida is an American state and Miami an American city, but Sherdavia was an "African"-American child. Her suspected killers also were black. Therefore, her murder was not an American problem. It was, rather, a black problem, and only a black problem, born of black dysfunctions for which black people, as Bill Cosby has recently said, bear the onus.
To say I’m appalled is to understate.
I suppose the first thing that needs saying is that these individuals are wrong on the facts. Like it or not, we live interconnected lives on a small planet. Take the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks as illustration. They grew out of grievances half a world away to which most Americans would have told you on Sept. 10 they had no connection. We now know better.
Similarly, even those who live on the good side of town, far from the grimy inner city where Sherdavia died, are affected by conditions there, if only through higher police costs, the loss of businesses from the inner city, the disintegration of families, the decimation of the tax base, the failure of schools and the resultant proliferation upon our streets of undereducated, poorly socialized young women and men who have known little but privation and violence all their lives. You think that proliferation doesn’t endanger you? You’re living in fantasyland.
For all that, though, what appalls me most isn’t the inaccuracy of what people said, but the niggardly coldness of it.
A few years ago, this nation suffered a spate of random school shootings in places including Conyers, Ga., West Paducah, Ky., Pearl, Miss., Santee, Calif. and Littleton, Colo. Virtually all the shooters were white, as were the majority of the victims. The anguished reporting of news magazines, newspapers and cable news anchors clearly identified this as an American crisis. I don’t recall anyone contradicting them, don’t remember any black activist, preacher or columnist arguing that since it was white boys doing the killing and white kids doing the dying, it was white people who had the problem.
How callous such a statement would have been.
Apparently, there is a different standard where black children are concerned. Then, some of us feel free to disclaim involvement, concern or simple human empathy and to preach to people sick with grief from the Gospel of Cosby.
I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: I’m not mad at Bill Cosby. Not only do I support much of what he has said in recent years about the need for blacks to take ownership of their own problems, but I was saying it publicly before he was. It is painfully obvious to me that many blacks have failed to pick up the gauntlet of the civil-rights movement, failed to confront the myriad dysfunctions of our communities.
But here’s the thing: As culpable as we are for failing to confront those dysfunctions, we did not create them. They were created for us by our white countrymen. For criminy sake, read a history book! I’m sorry, but black poverty didn’t just happen. Black unemployment didn’t just happen. Black self-loathing didn’t just happen. Black urban misery didn’t just happen. The murder of Sherdavia Jenkins didn’t just happen.
No, the roots of these obscenities go deep. And wide.
So yes, people, the indiscriminate murder of black children is an American problem.
Too bad ignorance is, too.
Leonard Pitts Jr. is a columnist for the Miami Herald.
lpitts@herald.com
The reaction Leonard Pitts Jr. reports below demonstrates the racism too many people harbor. These weak-witted cowards feel compelled to attack Pitts' to divert attention from themselves.
They strenuously resist the notion that rich white people instituted American slavery, that the wealthy and the middle class exploit Blacks, and - especially - that whites have anything to do with the present difficulties Blacks face.
Hence: "Oh, no!! This is an 'African-American problem' not an 'American problem.' "
People often use the term "ignorance" in one of two ways: to mean "lack of knowledge" or to mean "stupidity."
Pitts says ignorance is an American problem. I agree, and I mean that in the second sense.
- Uke Man
Appallingly, many see murder of black kids as black problem only
Monday, July 17, 2006
LEONARD PITTS JR.
We begin with the obvious: Florida is an American state. Miami is an American city. And Sherdavia Jenkins, who died in Miami just over two weeks ago after being struck by random bullets, was an American child.
So I would have thought it uncontroversial to observe, as I recently did, that her death and the indiscriminate slaughter of American children – in Miami or anywhere else – qualified as "an American problem." Apparently, I was wrong. That is, at least, the feeling of dozens of folks who’ve written in correction and rebuke.
True enough, they say, Florida is an American state and Miami an American city, but Sherdavia was an "African"-American child. Her suspected killers also were black. Therefore, her murder was not an American problem. It was, rather, a black problem, and only a black problem, born of black dysfunctions for which black people, as Bill Cosby has recently said, bear the onus.
To say I’m appalled is to understate.
I suppose the first thing that needs saying is that these individuals are wrong on the facts. Like it or not, we live interconnected lives on a small planet. Take the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks as illustration. They grew out of grievances half a world away to which most Americans would have told you on Sept. 10 they had no connection. We now know better.
Similarly, even those who live on the good side of town, far from the grimy inner city where Sherdavia died, are affected by conditions there, if only through higher police costs, the loss of businesses from the inner city, the disintegration of families, the decimation of the tax base, the failure of schools and the resultant proliferation upon our streets of undereducated, poorly socialized young women and men who have known little but privation and violence all their lives. You think that proliferation doesn’t endanger you? You’re living in fantasyland.
For all that, though, what appalls me most isn’t the inaccuracy of what people said, but the niggardly coldness of it.
A few years ago, this nation suffered a spate of random school shootings in places including Conyers, Ga., West Paducah, Ky., Pearl, Miss., Santee, Calif. and Littleton, Colo. Virtually all the shooters were white, as were the majority of the victims. The anguished reporting of news magazines, newspapers and cable news anchors clearly identified this as an American crisis. I don’t recall anyone contradicting them, don’t remember any black activist, preacher or columnist arguing that since it was white boys doing the killing and white kids doing the dying, it was white people who had the problem.
How callous such a statement would have been.
Apparently, there is a different standard where black children are concerned. Then, some of us feel free to disclaim involvement, concern or simple human empathy and to preach to people sick with grief from the Gospel of Cosby.
I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: I’m not mad at Bill Cosby. Not only do I support much of what he has said in recent years about the need for blacks to take ownership of their own problems, but I was saying it publicly before he was. It is painfully obvious to me that many blacks have failed to pick up the gauntlet of the civil-rights movement, failed to confront the myriad dysfunctions of our communities.
But here’s the thing: As culpable as we are for failing to confront those dysfunctions, we did not create them. They were created for us by our white countrymen. For criminy sake, read a history book! I’m sorry, but black poverty didn’t just happen. Black unemployment didn’t just happen. Black self-loathing didn’t just happen. Black urban misery didn’t just happen. The murder of Sherdavia Jenkins didn’t just happen.
No, the roots of these obscenities go deep. And wide.
So yes, people, the indiscriminate murder of black children is an American problem.
Too bad ignorance is, too.
Leonard Pitts Jr. is a columnist for the Miami Herald.
lpitts@herald.com