Tag: Obama

May 16 2009

Dystopia 8: The Touch

“There stands, my friend, in yonder pool

An engine called the ducking-stool;

By legal power commanded down

The joy and terror of the town.

If jarring females kindle strife,

Give language foul, or lug the coif,

If noisy dames should once begin

To drive the house with horrid din,

Away, you cry, you’ll grace the stool;

We’ll teach you how your tongue to rule.

The fair offender fills the seat

In sullen pomp, profoundly great;

Down in the deep the stool descends,

But here, at first, we miss our ends;

She mounts again and rages more

Than ever vixen did before.

So, throwing water on the fire

Will make it but burn up the higher.

If so, my friend, pray let her take

A second turn into the lake,

And, rather than your patience lose,

Thrice and again repeat the dose.

No brawling wives, no furious wenches,

No fire so hot but water quenches.”

—Benjamin  West  1780

[Note from the author:  Okay…I know this is out of order.  Sorry about breaking tradition, but I just couldn’t get what I wanted out of the next Utopia chapter so I am still working to make it better.

In the mean time I had this pretty well cooked.  So here is the 15th chapter of the Utopia/Dystopia series.]

May 15 2009

Obama: Keeping Bush’s Secrets

Rachel Maddow and John Turley – May 13, 2009





May 15 2009

THIS is GOOD! FREEDOM or FEAR!

From Freedom or Fear!  I had planned a different post entirely, but I received this and I think it is quite good!  I think you’ll agree!  

I think you’ll have to agree that this is very well put together!  Music is good, too!

(P.S.  I still plan on doing the one I had in mind!)

May 04 2009

The Henny Penny Acid Kool-Aid Tea Party




Photobucket

ONCE UPON A TIME…

May 03 2009

Boston Globe under threat of closure if unions don’t concede to management.

In a report by Editor and Publisher via the Associated Press, talks to keep the Boston Globe newspaper operating while extorting concessions from union employees are being extended.

Deadline on Talks for ‘Boston Globe’ Cuts Extended

Published: May 02, 2009 11:00 AM ET

BOSTON Negotiations between unions at The Boston Globe and its owner, The New York Times Co., will continue after the company agreed to extend its midnight deadline for the newspapers’ employees to make $20 million in concessions.

“Because there has been progress on reaching needed cost savings, The Boston Globe will extend the deadline for reaching complete agreements with its unions until midnight Sunday May 3,” Globe spokesman Robert Powers said in a statement.

Leaders of the Boston Newspaper Guild, the Globe’s largest union, asked for an extension of Friday’s deadline after discovering what they called a $4.5 million accounting error. The Guild, which has been asked to come up with $10 million of the $20 million in concessions, said ownership mistakenly was counting the salaries and benefits of 80 people who have left their jobs at the Globe since the beginning of the year.

“We have given the New York Times Co. and Globe management proposals for deep cuts in our members’ pay and benefits that we believe will save The Boston Globe,” Daniel Totten, Guild president, said in a statement. “We are awaiting the company’s response.”

The concessions sought by the Times Co. could include pay cuts, a reduction in pension contributions and the elimination of lifetime job guarantees for some senior employees. Those guarantees state that the staffers cannot be let go without cause.

The Globe, like many newspapers, is struggling with declines in circulation and advertising. The Globe’s operations lost $50 million last year and are projected to lose $85 million this year.

The Times Co. announced in April that it would close the Globe unless the concessions were met.

Talks are expected to resume Saturday.

Apr 27 2009

Nothing’s changed. Bush got his third term, and that’s why there will never be prosecutions.

(Cross-posted from www.progressive-independence.org.)

Paul Krugman says that prosecuting the previous regime for war crimes is about recovering America’s soul, and as usual he’s absolutely right.

the only way we can regain our moral compass, not just for the sake of our position in the world, but for the sake of our own national conscience, is to investigate how that happened, and, if necessary, to prosecute those responsible.

What about the argument that investigating the Bush administration’s abuses will impede efforts to deal with the crises of today? Even if that were true – even if truth and justice came at a high price – that would arguably be a price we must pay: laws aren’t supposed to be enforced only when convenient. But is there any real reason to believe that the nation would pay a high price for accountability?

For example, would investigating the crimes of the Bush era really divert time and energy needed elsewhere? Let’s be concrete: whose time and energy are we talking about?

Tim Geithner, the Treasury secretary, wouldn’t be called away from his efforts to rescue the economy. Peter Orszag, the budget director, wouldn’t be called away from his efforts to reform health care. Steven Chu, the energy secretary, wouldn’t be called away from his efforts to limit climate change. Even the president needn’t, and indeed shouldn’t, be involved. All he would have to do is let the Justice Department do its job – which he’s supposed to do in any case – and not get in the way of any Congressional investigations.

I don’t know about you, but I think America is capable of uncovering the truth and enforcing the law even while it goes about its other business.

Still, you might argue – and many do – that revisiting the abuses of the Bush years would undermine the political consensus the president needs to pursue his agenda.

But the answer to that is, what political consensus? There are still, alas, a significant number of people in our political life who stand on the side of the torturers. But these are the same people who have been relentless in their efforts to block President Obama’s attempt to deal with our economic crisis and will be equally relentless in their opposition when he endeavors to deal with health care and climate change. The president cannot lose their good will, because they never offered any.

Apr 21 2009

Emperor Obama has banned torture

Hail Obama! Our new Emperor has banned the torture of captives. This means that for four or eight more years there will be no torture. Then we must hope that the next Emperor will reach the same decision. The people know that the word of the Emperor (officially known as the President) is supreme. That is why the Emperor’s spokesmen tell us to put our minds at ease. All that matters is the Emperor’s will. The law may provide amusement or employment for many earnest people, but when it comes to matters of state, it is the Emperor who decides, for he is the guardian of our national security.

When did the American President become an emperor? Was it on September 11, 2001? Was it during the rule of FDR, or Lyndon Johnson, or Nixon? Nobody can quite remember. But everyone agrees that Imperial leadership is emotionally gratifying. There is something stirring in the bold figure and inspiring words of Emperor Obama. He rises above the petty bickering of the legislature and commands the respect and admiration of his devoted citizens. Here is a great leader! When comes such another?

Apr 20 2009

The Verdict

Summation



.

.

.

The following are excerpts from comments at RawStory today

on Jeremey Gantz’s story It’s official: No U.S. prosecution of Bush officials

Apr 19 2009

An Epistle To The Dharmaniacs From A Traveler

Dearest Dharmanic friends in the Blogosfera,

In 1999 I was traveling in India when Columbine happened.  Everywhere I went, and I went to some pretty remote places, people I met, well at least those who had televisions, wanted to know one thing.  That one thing, loosely translated, is WTF is wrong with the US anyway?  What kind of crazy batshit country produces these kinds of homicidal maniacs?  And why?  I didn’t have a good answer.  If we had a few beers or got to know each other a little, I would might have a chance to begin to try to explain it, but I couldn’t.  And that’s not because I’m inarticulate.  It’s because there is no satisfactory answer.

And now this.  Tuesday I’m traveling to Ireland.  And you know what?  Everywhere I go, and I will go to some pretty rural places, people I meet will want to know one thing.  That one thing, loosely translated, is WTF is wrong with the US anyway?  What kind of crazyland country has black sites, extralegal extraditions, Gitmo, Bagram, waterboarding, torture, Abu Ghraib AND, and this is the important AND, AND announces that nothing should be done about those who tortured or ordered torture or wrote bogus “legal” memos to justify torture?  And what kind of country that does all of that has the chutzpah (that is a revered Irish word) to lecture other countries about human rights? Isn’t that against the law in the US, to torture prisoners?  Isn’t that against International Law, to torture prisoners, and then also to fail or refuse to prosecute the torturers?  Isn’t that what the US prosecuted various Japanese soldiers for about 60 years ago?  Didn’t the US say that the excuse of “just following orders” just wasn’t good enough to keep you from hanging?  Trust me on this.  On Tuesday evening, when I am sitting comfortably in a pub in Dublin, bemused by my good fortune and friendships, slowly working my way out of jet lag and into a reverie about James Joyce and looking greedily at the bottom of a pint, somebody will smile and ask me the question. And, of course, I don’t have a good answer.  How could I? I’m not inarticulate. I will buy a round from time to time.  But for heaven’s sake, WTF am I supposed to say about this?  There really isn’t a satisfactory answer.

Well, Mr. My Friend, I could begin, that’s quite a question you’re asking me.  I’m as enraged and unhappy about this as anyone, well, almost anyone.  I’m not nearly as enraged and unhappy as the people who were tortured or their families, but aside from them.  I haven’t got a f*cking clue why immunity or lack of action this was so prominently announced, and while we’re at it, I have no idea WTF you or I or anybody else can do about it at this point other than raise a ruckus.  Not at all.  And, Mr. My Friend, a first step toward making a ruckus is that you really need to visit the torture petitions and sign them, one and all.  And then, and only after yo do that, let’s have another pint and see what kind of ruckus we can create.

Your pal,

davidseth

cross posted from The Dream Antilles    

Apr 19 2009

Poverty causing people to snap, commit violence.

Cross-posted from www.Progressive-Independence.org

I was perusing a certain kind of ideological web site when I came upon the following article by Nicole Colson.

ONE AFTER another over the last month, the reports of terrible incidents of violence kept coming:

— A Vietnamese immigrant in Binghamton, N.Y., increasingly paranoid about police and upset after losing his job, kills 13 people at a center for immigrants before committing suicide.

— An Alabama man who had struggled to keep a job kills 10 people in a shooting spree before committing suicide.

— A Pittsburgh man, recently unemployed and afraid that the government would ban guns, opens fire on police responding to a domestic disturbance call, killing three.

These are just some of the recent eruptions of violence to make the headlines in U.S. newspapers. In the 30-day period between March 10 and April 10, there were at least nine multiple shootings across the U.S., claiming the lives of at least 58 people.

The individual motives and stories differ widely, but there’s a common thread among these incidents–the worsening economic crisis is becoming a factor in pushing some people who are already on the edge over it.

It seems nearly everyone is concerned with the ever-shrinking middle class, but almost no one is willing to discuss the social class those middlings are being tossed into: the POOR.  The platform, speaking for the poor, that John Edwards ran on during last year’s presidential election primaries resulted in his marginalization and eventual banishment from the public discourse as the elite weeded out those candidates who dare point out the disease of poverty.  But just because the messengers were silenced does not mean the larger problem went away; it continues to fester, with disastrous social consequences.

Apr 17 2009

To Give Obama Some Small Credit Where Due

Crossposted from Antemedius

Yesterday was a very dark day. Most who know me know how hard and unmercifully I slammed Obama and Holder, but Obama especially since he is Holders superior, for their excusing and shielding of CIA torturers from prosecution based on nothing more than the universally repudiated Nuremburg defense of “just following orders”. Many may even think that I was and am being too inflexible in my criticisms and direct comparison of Obama to Bush over this matter with my opinion that he is also shielding Bush and Cheney with his actions.

Protecting and shielding war criminals.

That remains my opinion, and will remain my opinion unless and until a Special Prosecutor is appointed and George Bush and Dick Cheney are sitting in a prisoners dock charged with war crimes for which there is more than ample evidence, above and beyond their own public confessions and gloating, that they committed.

To be honest I really don’t care whether the CIA Interrogators are ever prosecuted. They will have to live with what they did, and they will probably be shunned for the rest of their lives by anyone with any remnants of humanity left in their souls.

It is one thing to shield the followers of orders. It is an entirely different thing to shield and protect the issuers of those orders. To do so is to be complicit in the crimes and no better and in fact worse than the perpetrators, in my opinion.

But to give Obama some small credit where due, he and Holder did leave themselves an opening, and in fact not only left an opening but created that opening with their actions yesterday. We can even speculate that perhaps did what they did yesterday they did in an attempt to create enough public anger and drum up enough public support to make it politically possible to prosecute Bush and Cheney.

If, and it’s a very big if that still appears very doubtful, If Obama and Holder did what they did yesterday as setup for future prosecutions of Bush and Cheney then they will earn a little of my respect back.

Bush and Cheney must be prosecuted.

Glenn Greenwald this morning:

In the United States, what Obama did yesterday is simply not done.  American Presidents do not disseminate to the world documents which narrate in vivid, elaborate detail the dirty, illegal deeds done by the CIA, especially not when the actions are very recent, were approved and ordered by the President of the United States, and the CIA is aggressively demanding that the documents remain concealed and claiming that their release will harm national security.  When is the last time a President did that?  

Apr 17 2009

Another Nobel-winning economist says it: we’re screwed

Joseph Stiglitz joins fellow Nobel-winner Paul Krugman in calling out the Obama administration. Both agree that the Obama plan will not work; Stiglitz is to be admired for stating in plain and unadorned language exactly why it won’t work.

http://bloomberg.com/apps/news…

April 17 (Bloomberg) — The Obama administration’s bank- rescue efforts will probably fail

because the programs have been designed to help Wall Street rather than create a viable financial system, Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz said.

“All the ingredients they have so far are weak, and there are several missing ingredients,” Stiglitz said in an interview yesterday. The people who designed the plans are “either in the pocket of the banks or they’re incompetent.”

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