The Raven' s Blog, Web Log of Eric Ferguson: First Half of February 2006 Archive

February 14
Allow me to contribute one original thought about Cheney's hunting accident. I think this tells us a lot. Think about how this was a "canned" hunt, a term new to me, which apparently means the animals are shipped in and released in a confined space. I'm guessing, giving the numbers of quail they killed, that there was no bag limit on private property. Think about the money it takes to have a hunt like this. Now think about the bloodlust of people who would sit in their cars and blast away at birds that can't defend themselves or escape. Now ask yourself what these people would do if given control of the US armed forces. What sort of foreign policy would they produce? Does the answer look a lot like we already have?

OK, one more thought. If the rest of us had told the deputies who came to talk to us after we accidentally shot someone to come back later, we would be met by a combination of scorn and handcuffs, followed probably by an alcohol test and an interview whether we liked it or not. Cheney arranged an interview for later, and got the secret service to tell the deputies at the door to go away. That's called privilege, and these guys just take it for granted. And to think, Kerry was seen as to aloof for the working class because he windsurfed. At least he did his own windsurfing.

February 7
Look at this quote from Torturer General Alberto Gonzales from yesterday's hearing:

"Think about the reaction, the public reaction that has arisen in some quarters about this program. If the president had authorized domestic surveillance, as well, even though we're talking about Al-Qaida-to-Al-Qaida, I think the reaction would have been twice as great. And so there was a judgment made that this was the appropriate line to draw in ensuring the security of our country and the protection of the privacy interests of Americans."

So Bush will do anything to protect Americans' security, unless the political reaction might be bad. But of course it's the Democrats who politicized the "terrorist surveillance program". Seriously though, if such surveillance would improve security, and that's the only consideration, then shouldn't it be taken? Take up these conservatives who proclaim they have nothing to hide at their word.

Another thought: since Gonzales lied at his confirmation when asked about this surveillance, could he not be lying now about there being no domestic surveillance? If I may indulge some speculation, and it's my blog so I may, Gonzales never did say why they couldn't use FISA except that some paperwork was an inch thick. No Bush apologist has ever said why FISA couldn't be used. Maybe it's because they did listen in on purely domestic calls. I think that's the most likely answer. Less likely but not to be dismissed, some of the spying was on domestic political opponents, just like the good old days of Hoover and Nixon.

Yet another thought for conservatives: you seem to think you don't need your 4th amendment rights when you have nothing to hide, so do you not need the 2nd amendment when you don't own a gun? It seems having a right does not depend upon needing it at the moment.

One last thing that ran through my head as Republicans expressed offense over a MoveOn ad comparing Bush to Nixon. The rehabilitation seems to have failed. All that crap I've heard my whole adult life and adolescence too about how every president did what Nixon but just didn't caught, and he was really good at foreign policy, seems to have been forgotten by Nixon's party. I think we got a glimpse of future scandals, when future troubled presidents (especially illegitimate acting presidents) will express offense at being compared to Bush.

February 5
If you've visited my quotes archive, the archive of the quotes over on the irght after I've replaced them with new ones, you might have noticed one called "other topics". It's gotten rather lengthy, so I've added more specific archives, civil liberties, Katrina, and Culture of Corruption. If you can't find a quote, it probably got moved.

Though the Take the Red Pill Award is nonsense believing religious fundamentalists, I've wondered if I should have included deniers of global warming, who are sometimes as in denial as the people who refuse to believe evolution. An instance comes from something of a man-bites-dog story. General Electric has come under pressure from an activist shareholder over its environmental policies. That wouldn't surprise me, since through most of the 80's and somelong way into the 90's liberals like me boycotted GE over its production of atomic bombs. The argument was that they were lobbying for more weaons systems and against ending the Cold War. With that background, a shareholder resolution against their environmental policies would be unsurprising except what this shareholder objects to is things like investing in the manufacture of wind turbines. Yes, Steve Milloy, portfolio manager at the Free Enterprise Action Fund, believes global warming is a hoax and doesn't want environmentally friendly investments by GE, which is currently run by a CEO who thinks green technologies will be good for business. According to their web site, activists are bad and they are anti-activist. This sure looks like plain old-fashioined activism to me. But gee, how dare those evil liberals use their shares to advocate for their idea of corporate responsibility. What do they think they are, owners? For those of you who don't know much about stocks, owning stock in a corporation does make you an owner, and you have the right to convince other owners representing a majority of the stock to change corporate poliices. Sadly, that's true even if you think only conservatives should be allowed to own anything and you believe the nonsense about global warming being a fraud. Maybe I need a Take the Green Pill Award.

Now for a real Take the Red Pill Award, to be given to the Muslims threatening death over the cartoons of Muhammad published by Morgenavisen Jyllands-Posten. A good background on the story was broadcast today by On the Media. Though I don't share their religious belief that it's blasphemy to portray Muhammad, it's their right to feel offended. It's their right to say they are offended as that is just free speech. They have the right to boycott the newspaper or the other newsppaers that published the cartoons as it's their money, even if I think their ire is sometimes misplaced. They even have the right to boycott all things Danish since it's still their money, and most Muslim countries have little in the way of a free press and so find it impossible to believe the Danish government, and the governments where other papers have published the cartoons, don't control the press. However, they need to take the red pill when they are angry with those who aren't publishing the cartoons to be funny, but to show what the story is about. Above all, there is no excuse for getting violent, like torching embassies and threatening death. It's the usual thing: there's no such thing as sin when you think God is on your side.

February 1
Last night in the minutes before the start of the State of the Union Address, CNN reported reported that Cindy Sheehan had been arrested for displaying a banner. It seemed like a lighter moment. In fact, CNN had it thoroughly wrong. Sheehan had worn a t-shirt with the number of US troops dead in Iraq War II. A banner would block some other spectators' views. A banner requires help. A shirt is a shirt. Seems like a big difference. Considering the spectacle her arrest and removal must have made, how does anyone get that wrong? Couldn't someone at CNN have asked how she displayed a banner single-handed and maybe spoken to someone who saw it instead of taking the word of someone who apparently lied? I recall at the moment that it seemed the reporters on camera were taking it somewhat lightly. I didn't see the rest of their coverage so I hope they corrected it, and I couldn't find a transcript nor have I seen the coverage again, so my impression could be and I hope is wrong, because it sure seemed like they were doing the typical Washington press corps thing of dismissing anyone who isn't commonly found in the corridors of power.

According to Sheehan's account, she was quite roughly handled. Understand, even if you suspect she's exaggerating her account, the bottom line is that someone with a valid ticket was arrested in the gallery of the US House of Representatives for wearing a shirt with a politically sensitive number on it. If you still don't get it, I suggest you reread the First Amendment.

"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.

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