It occurs to me as I watch television news that Republicans spent trillions of dollars over decades to demonize phrases and words like “Liberal” and “The Hard Left.” Without a single member of the main stream media nor a single member of the political estabilishment actively doing anything to make it happen, we suddenly find ourselves in a political environment after two elections where “moving to The Right” is a phrase Republicans find themselves defending against. . . to members of their own party.
These are some strange times. . .
Remember after 9-11? Re3member all those good things we said we were going to do in the world? You know, all that stuff we didn’t do? Well, the swine flu problem we’re facing right now is nowhere near that level of concern just yet – so far, the only people who need to be iced down in this country appear to be our media – but perhaps we can use this moment to do things our last great moment of trial failed to muster from our elected leaders.
We know, for example, that the members of our community affected most gravely will be our children and elderly. If nothing else, perhaps this is a wake up call to get children’s health and senior health initiatives off the ground in this country. Maybe this is the wake up we need to pass comprehensive health care reforms, to make sure that hospitals are prepared and that vital vaccines are always in supply.
Meanwhile, much of the world’s squalor is either created by or antagonized by U.S. corporate interests. Such squalor presents as much of a national security threat as any terrorist cell, when you look at where this flu and others like it are originating from. Clearly, not every fetid sewer is our fault. But just because we don’t deserve the blame for everything does not mean that we can’t get some credit for healing some of the environmental problems that exist around our nation’s foreign operations.
And if you ask a doctor what might help ease the suffering and lessen the potential of flu attacks in poorer parts of the world, they would tell you that fresh drinking water is the key. Just look at the situation in the Mexican village where the first reported case of swine flu hit: they’ve been complaining for months about pig farm waste leeching into their water supplies. If the United States pledged to build a UN coalition to provide clean drinking water to the world, the world would be a remarkably healthier place.
I’m sure there’s more to be done. Right?
Innerspace Boy checks in to ask, “is there anybody out there?” We’re with you, IB. Investigations must proceed.
Not that it’s anything new for him, necessarily, but it’s great writing. This is the mainstream talking.
I’m surprised I need to make this distinction, but allow me to point out that there is a difference between accepting history with all it’s warts and accepting contemporary crimes as simply a matter of historical fact. As the torture story continues to evolve in the media, we find that many people, particularly Pat Buchanan and Joe Scarborough, want to simply dismiss the acts committed in the Bush Administration as part of a larger historical fact of life which cannot be helped. For example, let’s review the TPM “Day in 100 Seconds” from yesterday:
The fire bombing of Dresden was indeed a nightmarish and shameful act. The dropping of atomic bombs on Nagasaki and Hiroshima were the most egregious acts of war in the history of mankind, it’s fair to say. And in both cases, while we may argue around the particulars, these acts were done in the heat of a war when generals did not believe other alternatives remained. Sherman’s march to the sea also comes to mind.
But those things are in the past. We might have done something different at the time, but we did not. And in the animal nature of man and the horrors of war, these things do happen repeatedly throughout history. We cannot condemn all of our history – or that of mankind – as simply evil because of the evil acts contained in that history. All of this is true. Yet that hardly justifies or excuses criminal acts of war committed in our recent past, still subject to criminal investigation. Neither justifies, excuses those acts, nor releases us from the duty to prosecute those acts.
Put simply, the question is this: because Jesse James killed a lot of people and robbed a lot of banks, does that mean we have to accept that bank robbers and murderers operate in our midst currently? Or do we hold the present to a different standard than the past? By Morning Joe’s standards, there is no particular reason to seek out Osama bin-Laden, since after all, terrorists have always existed. Or how about Bernie Madoff? Thief is probably as old an occupation as whore, don’t you think?
Friend of the website MP sent me a link to TheConsumerist.com where they used my photo to illustrate an article about Time Warner’s new habit of cutting off users they deem as using too much of their Internet connection they paid for. Actually, they used my photo of someone else’s sign protesting Time Warner’s Internet cap proposal.
It’s fun and gratifying to give out my photographic work as Creative Commons Share Alike works. Having had my stuff catch the eye of a big national blog like this is especially gratifying.
Readers of this website know I have made no secret of my support for President Barack Obama. That support remains unflagging to this point. But politicians have one set of agendas, and the people another, so there is a time for all of us to break with our supported politicians and pressure them to do things they don’t want to do. I say this not as an apologia, but because the media’s insistence on a purely dualistic world of supporters and detractors completely obscures the meaning of the term “loyal opposition.” Opposition to your president does not necessarily presuppose hateful invectives.
Such is the case with the torture investigations. Clearly, Obama is not in favour of going forward with them. And as a practical matter, I don’t necessarily blame him: he’s not just the president, he is also a president, which means he has the power to make or break precedent in the Oval Office and so does his next successor. The precedent set here might be that a sitting president can prosecute a former president for misdeeds in office. Presidents have generally been very reluctant to do this for a simple reason: regardless of the justness of a given prosecution, the precedent leaves itself open to politically-motivated abuse down the line. Just as many of us have argued in the cases of eavesdropping and other violations of civil rights under the Bush Administration, the justness of motivation does not always outweigh the potential for abuse in the future.
And mindful as I am of that dangerous precedent, there has to be some point at which the potential threat of abuse is outweighed by the clear danger presented by the violations of the former administration. In this case, we’re not dealing with illegal actions that lived in a bubble, cut off from effect the moment President Bush left office. What we have is, again, a dangerous precedent that says that when a president wants to do something, all he needs is a few pliable lawyers to write grade-school legal justifications and he’s off to the races. And not just “something.” We’re talking about torturing human beings. . . on top of wrongful incarceration and illegal wiretapping of U.S. citizens. Taken as a whole, the Bush Administration opened up a little slice of totalitarianism that must – must – be closed, nailed shut and boarded up forever.
And what’s more, I think that there is also a political reality right now that cannot be ignored and in this one case, should not be ignored. The same wave of realization and needful correction that brought Barack Obama to power also drives the need to redress this most awful of crimes against the American consciousness. He cannot turn that tide back without crushing himself in the process.
Between the American public’s obvious need for self-correction and the institutional need for justice, the need to break with the president and make him do something unprecedented is overwhelming. And for the first time, we see Barack Obama being overtaken by the wave rather than riding it. This is what it means to be president, sometimes. This is what it means to elect one, too. As troublesome as the situation is and as dangerous as the path before us may be, for the benefit of our president and our nation, we must continue to push him to investigate the torture policies instituted by the Bush Administration.
This upcoming week is Rochester Local Restaurant Week, which features special meals at a ton of local restaurants for $20.09 each. Sarah and I have been looking forward to this for a while now. There’s so many places on the list and so many great deals, I think our plan of attack for this week is going to be inevitably random.
However, check out Great Northern Pizza Kitchen’s spread for an impressive twenty dollar meal. No, it’s not haught cuisine. But damned if they don’t make a good pizza. And Peter Guyer Steak House is offering one incredible deal: salad, filet, and cheesecake at a place where I know the steak is at least $22 by itself. Remington’s is swingin’ the shrimp scampi plus appetizer and salad for your dining pleasure. The Winfield went all in on the entrees, offering two really decadent specials, especially for them.
There’s so much stuff, man. I’m excited. Can you tell?
Not to pretend that either Left or Right, Republican or Democrat actually holds the morel high ground as an intrinsic quality. Far from it. But we keep hearing over and over again on the news that the pressure to investigate torture is coming from the Left. As if the shit-storm we’re seeing right now could possibly be generated by the relatively small group of independents on the Left.
We know that the media loves to drive the Right-Left Bloodsport story, but the idea that a bunch of cigarette-smoking, absinthe-drinking, goatee-wearing bongo-playing poet intellectuals have driven the story of Americans torturing perceived enemies into the tops of all the headlines is simply absurd. This story is being driven by a genuine outrage across a large section of the American public over – call me over sensitive – genuinely outrageous stuff.
And for fuck’s sake, people, does it not matter to anyone in the MSM that crimes appear to have been committed? Politics be damned. Optics be damned. Crimes committed in a nation of laws need to be prosecuted, even if you think they were justified; justification is a question for opinion makers, immaterial to the proper prosecution of laws.
Even more frustrating about the conversation – and even more of a measure of the psychosis that the War on Terror has thrown a large portion of our nation’s power structure, as reflected by the media that bathes itself in that power – is the idea that, because there’s a war going on, we cannot stop to examine our mistakes. This is simply not the case and there is simply no precedent for that type of heedlessness in our history. Plenty of prosecutions have happened in war time, from the Revolutionary War right up to the present day.
I would like someone in the media to patiently explain to my obviously ignorant ass what, precisely, about the United States of America continuing to prosecute it’s laws would embolden the enemy? What about the United States of American proving that it’s laws can withstand it’s institutions and it’s institutions can withstand it’s laws makes us weak?
We derive our strength from our laws. Crimes appear to have been committed. A proper investigation, even if no prosecutions or convictions proceed from it, is the only strategic move.
StopTheCap.com reports that an Austin customer was cut off from his Internet connection because he was using “too much” of his Internet connection. Apparently, this random abuse is actually part of Time Warner’s usage policy, which I guess makes everything OK.
Hey, Chuckie S! You listening? This is what your temporary halt got you and will doubtless soon get your constituency.
