The Raven' s Blog, Web Log of Eric Ferguson: First Half of December 2005 Archive

December 15
I guess it must be getting taken for granted that everyone knows Bush lied about the war. Polls show a majority think so, but a sizeable minority must think they own the Brooklyn Bridge. That's why when evidence comes out that Bush lied it should get more attention. In hopes of helping remedy that, here's another piece. A French intelligence official says France warned Bush as far back as 2001 that the documents indicating Iraq tried to buy uranium from Niger were forged. These are the same documents the CIA sent Joseph Wilson to investigate, and the same ones Bush used in his 2003 State of the Union address. What this specifically indicates is that Wilson wasn't the only one who reported that the documents were forged, so the notion the Bush administration didn't know becomes more implausible.

A bit of good news, thinking long term to the 2008 election. Sen. Russell Feingold, D-WI, the only senator to oppose the Patriot Act and my preference for president right now, has become a leader of the opposition to the act's renewal, and he has gained a lot of support. Enough to defeat it? I doubt it, but it must be gratifying to a man who voted alone on a bill rushed through in a successful effort to use 911 to attack our own civil liberties.

December 14
Here's an interesting quote by Chris Carney, one of the veterans of the current wars running for the US House as a Democrat: ''I don't know how we go from a country as united as it was on Sept. 12, 2001, to one as divided as we are today. That is what is propelling me in this race." The article is about veterans running for Congress, and it's interesting eight out of nine are running as Democrats, and that's without mentioning Colleen Rowley, who had a career in the FBI that gives her credibility running on national security, and Paul Hackett, running for Senate (though if he;d run for that House seat again, I have a feeling Jean Schmidt isn't the strongest candidate).

The reason that quote is interesting is a big subject but I can't resist touching upon it. It gets to why the "angry left", as Republicans like to call the left, is angry towards the acting president. It's not the only reason, maybe not even the main reason for most of us, but I believe it's the reason that underlies everything else. Like Carney said, we went from being a unified country to being divided. I doubt he was being literal when he said he didn't know how, because we all know it's the politicization of 911.

How big a change occurred after 911? After 911, the country was more united than at any time in its history except maybe right after Pearl Harbor (even then, I suspect many on the left had to bite their tongues to not say to the right "we told you so" about the threat of fascism). The acting president got his 90% approval rating based solely on being in office. If only we had seen the school video right away. So with the country behind him, giving him a mandate undreamed of by other presidents, especially those who lost their election and got placed in office by a partisan Supreme Court (I'm not holding out much hope on the Texas redistricting case), he launched the war in Afghanistan, the only war besides World War II where the public was nearly unanimous in support. Then he attacked Iraq on false premises, and the sad part was war opponents said before the war that the evidence wasn't holding up yet couldn't overcome the propaganda. Bush and the neocons pushed the Patriot Act through a credulous Congress. We had upper class tax cuts during a time of war. The result of a president abusing the willingness of Americans to rally during crisis in order to push a far right agenda, start a war on a campaign of lies, and destroy our country's reputation for respecting human rights, is the current division of the country that is not only the sharpest since the Vietnam War, but one of the sharpest divisions in our history.

OK reader, maybe you don't agree we were lied to (swampland salesmen must love you), and maybe you don't think Iraq War II was a stupid idea. Maybe you've bought the right wing myth that the right wanted to fight Hitler and the left didn't get it (please go read up on the isolationist movement), or you think the tax cuts were smart or that torture is OK if the victims are terrorists which of course they all are or they wouldn't be tortured. What I'm telling you is this is the view on the left. This is why the country is divided. If you don't want to just seethe at liberals and ignore the plain truth, but really want to put the country back together, then you need only read the proceeding to know what you must address.

December 12
There's nothing for celebrating the season like a Take a the Red Pill Award for the people who seriously believe there's a War on Christmas in progress. The people leading it are engaging in agitprop, a word I haven't used since last year. What was the occasion? Oh right, last year's imaginary War on Christmas. I expect there is a lot of cynical manipulation of credulous Christians just like Ralph Reed got caught doing. I ask the people who want to boycott any store whose ads say "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas" if they really want their religious symbols appropriated for commercial use. Beyond just using Christmas to get people to spend more and spend there, think of the possibilities if Christians have to see their beliefs reflected in their ads: "We're crucifying high prices!"; "We three kings of orient are...going mad for the great bargains!"; "O Little Town of Bethlehem Outlet Mall". So if you take the War on Christmas seriously, be sure to leave room under the tree for your Take the Red Pill Award.

December 4
This is a pattern. I'm referring most prominently to the story about the Pentagon hiring a PR firm to plant stories in the Iraqi press, but it's hardly just that. It's not that different from video press releases that posed as news stories to be planted in local TV news broadcasts. Readers remember I'm sure how the Bush campaign screened the crowd at his campaign appearances, and how it worked so well he did it on his Social Security privatization tour. Perhaps you also recall hiring pundits to shill for Bush's programs, and fake journalists to throw softball questions at press conferences. Now there's the political screening of scholars participating in State Department exchange programs. The common thread of course is the attempt to manipulate perceptions and information. It's all a piece to make sure Bush has an audience that will applaud his nonsense and let TV viewers seeing the clips think there's really a widespread opinion Bush is making sense; to have supposedly credible pundits giving what appears to be an honest opinion when it's actually paid for; to pretend propaganda is objective news; and in the last instance, to give the impression to the outside world that American scholars back Bush.

So let me put this plainly: honest people have no need to resort to these tactics. Conservatives might respond by pointing out that Reagan and Nixon did some of the same things, to which I respond "thank you for proving my point." Some apologists for the acting president are saying the Iraq propaganda operation is justified by the war, to which I have a couple responses. First, the rest of the examples of this lying were aimed at Americans or friendly countries, and in some cases selling domestic policy, not Iraq War II. Second, I heard a defense saying that the US planted articles in enemy media during World War II, but may I point out that this propaganda was aimed at people we're trying to win over as friends. It's one thing when you find your enemy has deceived you because after all, you were at war. Deceiving your friends, however, is less likely to win their support than to make them question their choice of friends.

To those who blame the messenger, claiming all would have been OK if only the operation hadn't been blown, I ask how anyone could be so stupid as to think this wouldn't come out. Then I recall that these same idiots expected to be greeted with flowers at the end of a quick war. These same idiots thought they could let the Baghdad museum could be looted of antiquities while only the oil ministry was guarded, and no one would think the war was about oil. So no wonder they didn't think they would get caught. Your mediocre burglar thinks the same thing.

If these utter fools in the pentagon or white house or wherever this decision was made can find a rational moment, they might reflect on this: never again will an Iraqi news story that puts the war or the US in a positive light be believed, even if true.

December 3
Back to politics in a moment, but first let me tell you about a neat impromptu protest yesterday, one entirely apolitical.

During my rush hour drive home, I go through a piece of freeway where US 218 blends in to eastbound Minnesota 62. Twin Cities freeways aren't as clogged as what I experienced recently in Houston or when I worked in the suburbs of Chicago, but this stretch is bad. At the point I describe, two lanes merge into one, with the left doing the merging, with signs posted stating that, and normally there's a long line of cars in the right lane. Every day, some jerks stay in the left lane and buzz to the end before cutting in, making everyone in the right stop for them which is why it moves so slow. I recently saw the vehicle ahead of me in that right lane pull into the left to block the jerks, one of whom stated honking to no effect. I held my place in the right so the blocking vehicle could move back in.

Last night, I wasn't willing to block the left because I'd rather be aggravated than bashed, but I did move part way into the left in hopes other drivers would get the message. A pickup a few vehicles ahead had the same thought and also partially blocked the left. The jerks did not get the message however, and just moved around us. However, the vehicles in between figured out what we were doing and joined in, so there were about five vehicles partially blocking the left, and we got brave enough to seriously pinch off the space. One jerk tried moving right in hopes of passing that way before seeing there was no space, and gave up. Now, I have no idea whether the jerks cutting in were conservatives or liberals. I don't have a clue how the other protesting drivers voted for president. Maybe no more than one or two cutters were blocked, but it was quite satisfying to have five drivers, in the same situation but not in communication, take a collective action to protest and impede bad behavior.

This is a similar story in a way, because it's about the value of speaking up, and it's also a little kudo to one of the local dailies, the St. Paul Pioneer Press. You may recall I wrote to the Pioneer Press to ask why they hadn't covered the stories about the 9/21/01 PDB and Bush considering bombing Al-Jazeera, and I asked readers to also contact a media outlet that hadn't covered these stories, especially the PDB story. The Pioneer Press wrote back and it was an individual response. They explained that they were going to print the Al-Jazeera story when something judged more important broke. The news judgement is arguable depending on what else could have been cut, but they apparently had that argument and their position is defensible. The individual who wrote to me hadn't heard the PDB story, so I regretted not having included a link, but I did send a reply with links to the story on the National Journal which broke it, and to MSNBC to show a mainstream outlet had picked it up. We may wish it were otherwise, but often a story is judged unimportant if other media don't carry it and the people in power don't talk about it.

I'll warrant many editors and reporters in the mainstream media still haven't heard the story. You can help them. It gets attention if you write and ask why a story wasn't covered, and in this case send the links: The National Journal; MSNBC.

"You don't care about me."
16 year old Guantanamo detainee Omar Khadr, when he realized the Canadian agent he thought had come to take him out of Hell and home to Canada was just another interrogator.

"Allow the President to invade a neighboring nation whenever he shall deem it necessary to repel an invasion, and you allow him to do so whenever he may choose to say he deems it necessary for such purpose, and you allow him to make war at his pleasure. Study to see if you can fix any limit to his power in this respect, after having given him so much as you propose."
Abraham Lincoln in 1848, during the Mexican War, expressing why allowing a president sole discretion to decide when to invade another country is dangerous to the liberty of his own country.

"The OPR [the Justice Department's Office of Professional Responsibility]also has been far behind in producing required annual public reports summarizing its activities. Last month, it released its report covering fiscal year 2005. That means many investigations undertaken during the tenure of former Atty. Gen. Alberto R. Gonzales remain under wraps."
LA Times reporter Richard B. Schmit, in an article written in July 2008, on how the OPR is hiding the results of investigations --- assuming they actually are investigating.

"Mr. Chairman, I think the number's actually higher than that now. Last time I checked it was 108, and the total number that were declared homicides by the military services, or by the CIA, or others doing investigations, CID, and so forth � was 25, 26, 27."
Lawrence Wilkerson, Colin Powell's former chief of staff, on the number of detainees killed in Bush's prisons in Iraq, Afghanistan, and locations still secret.

"Democracy works, but sometimes churns slowly. Time is short. The 2008 election is critical for the planet. If Americans turn out to pasture the most brontosaurian congressmen, if Washington adapts to address climate change, our children and grandchildren can still hold great expectations."
James Hansen, on the 20th anniversary of his testimony before Congress where he informed them global warming was now certain, and how little time remains to prevent catastrophes.

"Who will chair the commission investigating the secrets of warrantless spying, years from today? Will it be a young senator in this body today? Will it be someone not yet elected? What will that senator say when he or she comes to our actions, reads in the records how we let outrage after outrage after outrage slide, with nothing more than a promise to stop the next one? I imagine that senator will ask of us, 'Why didn't they do anything? Why didn't they fight back? In June 2008, when no one could doubt anymore what the administration was doing---why did they sit on their hands?'"
Sen. Chris Dodd, in his speech on the Senate floor opposing the FISA bill and retroactive immunity.

"We had the worst natural disaster in the history of this country Katrina, and there wasn't a drop of oil spilled."
Sen. Norm Coleman, proposing more offshore oil drilling. There was actually enough oil spilled to match the Exxon Valdez. Whether Coleman is lying, or ignorantly repeating Republican talking points, is unknown.

"I'll go back to square one on this: We squandered a lot of gifts. Human beings were given a lot of great gifts. We were given the ability to reason, this extra-large brain, walking erect, having binocular vision and the opposable thumb, and all of these things, and we had such promise, but we squandered it on goods and superstition. We gave ourselves over to the high priests and the traders, and they are the ones we allow to control us."
George Carlin, in an interview with Salon, on how he became a disappointed idealist.

"To date, seven long years after we scooped up our first detainees in Afghanistan, not a single one of them has faced evidence, his accusers, or anything remotely resembling a legal court hearing on his guilt or innocence."
Joseph Galloway, military correspondent for McClatchy, on how responsibility for war crimes goes right to the top, despite efforts to confine consequences to the bottom, in light of the recent McClatchy series on detainees.

"As I was leaving the UN food distribution center in Damascus, Layla Atiya, the widow with seven children, touched my arm. 'Can you tell me one thing?,' she pleaded. 'Why did America do this to us? What did we do to America to make her hate us so?'"
Medea Benjamin, cofounder of Code Pink, writing about her visit to Iraqi refugee camps.

"So we're sitting here and, for example, Ramzi bin al-Shibh, who said that he wanted to be a martyr on 9/11, make no mistake about it --- he said that he just couldn't get a visa --- launched into a description of what kind of psychotropic drugs he's taking here at the prison camp, or being given here at the prison camp. And the media monitors hit the white noise button. We didn't get to hear what exactly he's being given and we didn't exactly hear his explanation about why he's on medication.

And one of the escorts here explained that this was HIPAA protection, the Health and Information Protection Act on a place where the Bush Administration says the Constitution doesn't apply."
Miami Herald reporter Carol Rosenberg, on the restrictions placed on the press and mistreatment of detainees.

"If the conservative majority on the U.S. Supreme Court was really concerned about fairness, it could have simply asked the Florida Supreme Court to devise a universal standard, appoint a judge to enforce it, and then extend the state's meaningless 'safe harbor' deadline to make it possible to complete the recount. It did not do so because it was not interested in counting the votes. It wanted George W. Bush to win."
Gary Kamiya, Salon writer at large, in a review of the HBO's "Recount", on how the Supreme Court stole the election for Bush.

"Convicting and imprisoning Paul Minor on corruption charges could be a powerful way to curtail contributions to the local Democratic Party."
U.S. House Judiciary Committee report on political prosecutions by the Bush DOJ. Minor was a vital contributor to the Mississippi Democratic Party.

"Where does the madness end? Where do words lose their meaning? Al-Qa'ida is not being defeated. Hizbollah has just won a domestic war in Lebanon, as total as Hamas's war in Gaza. Afghanistan and Iraq and Lebanon and Gaza are hell disasters � I need no apology to quote Churchill's description of 1948 Palestine yet again � and this foolish, stupid, vicious man is lying to the world yet again."
Robert Fisk, columnist and resident of Lebanon, responding to remarks by Bush that show he hasn't the least understanding of the region he's mucking up.

"The short version: Republicans in Congress, McCain included, have slashed the United States budget for wind energy since Carter was president, which is why McCain has to speak at a Danish turbine manufacturer instead of an American one."
Mother Jones reporter/blogger Jonathan Stein, noting that McCain made his climate change speech in a Danish wind turbine factory after repeatedly cutting funding for wind development here.

"We get off on warfare."
Rev. Rod Parsley, McCain's spiritual advisor, who calls for mass murder, in a snippet of a sermon in a video by Mother Jones and Brave New Films. That line of Christian charity comes about 1:25 into the video.

Quotes Archives