Op-Ed
AUSTIN, Texas -- I can't get over this feeling of unreality, that I am actually sitting here writing about our country having a gulag of secret prisons in which it tortures people. I have loved America all my life, even though I have often disagreed with the government. But this seems to me so preposterous, so monstrous. My mind is a little bent and my heart is a little broken this morning.
Maybe I should try to get a grip -- after all, it's just this one administration that I had more cause than most to realize was full of inadequate people going in. And even at that, it seems to be mostly Vice President Cheney. And after all, we were badly frightened by 9-11, which was a horrible event. "Only" nine senators voted against the prohibition of "cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment of persons under custody or control the United States." Nine out of 100. Should we be proud? Should we cry?
"We do not torture," said our pitifully inarticulate president, straining through emphasis and repetition to erase the obvious.
Maybe I should try to get a grip -- after all, it's just this one administration that I had more cause than most to realize was full of inadequate people going in. And even at that, it seems to be mostly Vice President Cheney. And after all, we were badly frightened by 9-11, which was a horrible event. "Only" nine senators voted against the prohibition of "cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment of persons under custody or control the United States." Nine out of 100. Should we be proud? Should we cry?
"We do not torture," said our pitifully inarticulate president, straining through emphasis and repetition to erase the obvious.
How many times can the Democrats get away with saying, "Faked intelligence! We're shocked, shocked! If we'd only known that, why, we might have come out against the war in . in. well, maybe by November 2004"?
The Democrats are now howling in Congress for yet another investigation into the fictions the Bush administration engineered to justify the attack on Iraq in 2003. This follows on their forcing of a "closed debate" in the Senate on the failure of Sen. Pat Roberts of Kansas to deliver the second part of his report on intelligence failures before the invasion.
I can understand why the Democrats are spinning their wheels in what must now be the most exhaustively documented chronicle of government deception in the history of the Republic. These endless investigations help them avoid the more challenging question of where they now stand on a war to which over 60 percent of the American people are now opposed.
As a matter of record, by the fall of 2002, the fakery about Saddam's supposed drive from the late 1990s to acquire nuclear weapons and the alleged alliance with Al Qaeda had been exposed as fictions.
The Democrats are now howling in Congress for yet another investigation into the fictions the Bush administration engineered to justify the attack on Iraq in 2003. This follows on their forcing of a "closed debate" in the Senate on the failure of Sen. Pat Roberts of Kansas to deliver the second part of his report on intelligence failures before the invasion.
I can understand why the Democrats are spinning their wheels in what must now be the most exhaustively documented chronicle of government deception in the history of the Republic. These endless investigations help them avoid the more challenging question of where they now stand on a war to which over 60 percent of the American people are now opposed.
As a matter of record, by the fall of 2002, the fakery about Saddam's supposed drive from the late 1990s to acquire nuclear weapons and the alleged alliance with Al Qaeda had been exposed as fictions.
AUSTIN, Texas -- As those silver-tongued poets at the Pentagon put it, we are in a target-rich environment. One cannot -- honestly, one simply cannot -- pass up the Brownie memos.
The e-mails sent to and from "Heckuva Job" Michael Brown, head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency during and after Hurricane Katrina, are too absurd, too please-tell-me-they-made-this-up awful. As Katrina sent a 30-foot wall of water toward Mississippi, Brownie, steeped in disaster relief work at his former job with the International Arabian Horse Association, asked a top aide the burning question: "Tie or not for tonight? Button-down blue shirt?"
Fashion was quite the FEMA priority under Brownie. On the day Katrina hit, his press secretary wrote of his appearance on television: "My eyes must certainly be deceiving me. You look fabulous -- and I'm not talking the makeup." Brownie replied: "I got it at Nordstroms. ... Are you proud of me?"
An hour later, he added: "If you'll look at my lovely FEMA attire, you'll really vomit. I am a fashion god."
The e-mails sent to and from "Heckuva Job" Michael Brown, head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency during and after Hurricane Katrina, are too absurd, too please-tell-me-they-made-this-up awful. As Katrina sent a 30-foot wall of water toward Mississippi, Brownie, steeped in disaster relief work at his former job with the International Arabian Horse Association, asked a top aide the burning question: "Tie or not for tonight? Button-down blue shirt?"
Fashion was quite the FEMA priority under Brownie. On the day Katrina hit, his press secretary wrote of his appearance on television: "My eyes must certainly be deceiving me. You look fabulous -- and I'm not talking the makeup." Brownie replied: "I got it at Nordstroms. ... Are you proud of me?"
An hour later, he added: "If you'll look at my lovely FEMA attire, you'll really vomit. I am a fashion god."
Apparently the new "ethics refresher course" at the White House is going to focus on reminding White House staff that classified information is not supposed to be told to reporters.
Ethics Part 2, to be taught in the Spring, will delve into the appropriateness of endangering the life of a woman and her colleagues because you're pissed off at her husband.
Those who opt for Graduate Level ethics refreshment will study the question of whether anger is justifiable if the object of that anger is guilty only of exposing you as a fraud and a liar.
And PhD candidates will be required to address the eternal enigma involved in the question: Is it morally good to aggressively attack another nation if you tell a bunch of lies about it first?
Students will be required to pay all library fines and parking tickets and hand in completed applications for presidential pardons prior to graduation. There will be an extra charge to have Ashcroft pour vegetable oil on you.
Seriously, who in the hell are they kidding? Themselves?
Ethics Part 2, to be taught in the Spring, will delve into the appropriateness of endangering the life of a woman and her colleagues because you're pissed off at her husband.
Those who opt for Graduate Level ethics refreshment will study the question of whether anger is justifiable if the object of that anger is guilty only of exposing you as a fraud and a liar.
And PhD candidates will be required to address the eternal enigma involved in the question: Is it morally good to aggressively attack another nation if you tell a bunch of lies about it first?
Students will be required to pay all library fines and parking tickets and hand in completed applications for presidential pardons prior to graduation. There will be an extra charge to have Ashcroft pour vegetable oil on you.
Seriously, who in the hell are they kidding? Themselves?
New Poll Shows Majority of Americans Support Impeachment; ImpeachPAC is Launched to Support Pro-Impeachment Candidates
By a margin of 53% to 42%, Americans want Congress to impeach President Bush if he lied about the war in Iraq, according to a new poll commissioned by AfterDowningStreet.org, a grassroots coalition that supports a Congressional investigation of President Bush's decision to invade Iraq in 2003.
The poll was conducted by Zogby International, the highly-regarded non-partisan polling company. The poll interviewed 1,200 U.S. adults from October 29 through November 2.
The poll found that 53% agreed with the statement:
"If President Bush did not tell the truth about his reasons for going to war with Iraq, Congress should consider holding him accountable through impeachment."
42% disagreed, and 5% said they didn't know or declined to answer. The poll has a +/- 2.9% margin of error.
By a margin of 53% to 42%, Americans want Congress to impeach President Bush if he lied about the war in Iraq, according to a new poll commissioned by AfterDowningStreet.org, a grassroots coalition that supports a Congressional investigation of President Bush's decision to invade Iraq in 2003.
The poll was conducted by Zogby International, the highly-regarded non-partisan polling company. The poll interviewed 1,200 U.S. adults from October 29 through November 2.
The poll found that 53% agreed with the statement:
"If President Bush did not tell the truth about his reasons for going to war with Iraq, Congress should consider holding him accountable through impeachment."
42% disagreed, and 5% said they didn't know or declined to answer. The poll has a +/- 2.9% margin of error.
The huge gap between Tehran and Washington has widened in recent
months. Top officials of Iran and the United States are not even
within shouting distance. The styles of rhetoric differ, but the
messages in both directions are filled with hostility.
While visiting Iran’s capital in early summer, during the home stretch of the presidential campaign, I was struck by paradoxes. From all appearances, most Iranians despise the U.S. government but love Americans. Repression, imposed from above, coexists with freedom taken from below. The press is largely dogmatic, but some media outlets show appreciable independence.
I was fascinated to observe a rally of 10,000 people who gathered in a Tehran stadium to vocally support a reform candidate for the presidency, Mostafa Moin. One speaker after another called for political freedom. The Tehran Times reported that Moin was promoting “a Democracy and Human Rights Front in Iran to defend the rights of all Iran’s religious and ethnic groups, the youth, academicians, women, and political opposition groups.”
While visiting Iran’s capital in early summer, during the home stretch of the presidential campaign, I was struck by paradoxes. From all appearances, most Iranians despise the U.S. government but love Americans. Repression, imposed from above, coexists with freedom taken from below. The press is largely dogmatic, but some media outlets show appreciable independence.
I was fascinated to observe a rally of 10,000 people who gathered in a Tehran stadium to vocally support a reform candidate for the presidency, Mostafa Moin. One speaker after another called for political freedom. The Tehran Times reported that Moin was promoting “a Democracy and Human Rights Front in Iran to defend the rights of all Iran’s religious and ethnic groups, the youth, academicians, women, and political opposition groups.”
Remarks for World Can't Wait Rally at White House, Wednesday, Nov. 2, 2005:
I don't know about the world, but certainly I can't wait any longer to end this war or to impeach this president. One more death, American or Iraqi, is too many.
Actually, what I said is not true. We do know something about the world. We know that polls that were done last year were unable to find another country on the planet that would have elected Bush or even made it close enough for him to steal.
Even in this country, we know that African Americans and Latino Americans and Jewish Americans and Female Americans and Unionized Americans and Urban Americans and Non-Military Americans and Non-Religious Americans voted against him. And we know that the Christian white guys, not to mention vets and military families, are coming around. Just look at how Harry Reid stood up yesterday and announced the birth of an opposition party in the United States Senate. George W. Bush is becoming a uniter, not a divider, after all. It's just that he's uniting the country against himself.
I don't know about the world, but certainly I can't wait any longer to end this war or to impeach this president. One more death, American or Iraqi, is too many.
Actually, what I said is not true. We do know something about the world. We know that polls that were done last year were unable to find another country on the planet that would have elected Bush or even made it close enough for him to steal.
Even in this country, we know that African Americans and Latino Americans and Jewish Americans and Female Americans and Unionized Americans and Urban Americans and Non-Military Americans and Non-Religious Americans voted against him. And we know that the Christian white guys, not to mention vets and military families, are coming around. Just look at how Harry Reid stood up yesterday and announced the birth of an opposition party in the United States Senate. George W. Bush is becoming a uniter, not a divider, after all. It's just that he's uniting the country against himself.
AUSTIN, Texas -- While it's still an open contest for Worst Legacy of the Bush Years, the destruction of goodwill for America around the world is definitely a contender.
In the days and weeks following Sept. 11, the United States enjoyed global sympathy and goodwill. All our old enemies sent regrets and offers of help. The most important newspaper in France headlined, "We Are All Americans Now." The most touching gestures and offers rolled in, wave and after wave -- nations offered their teams of rescue dogs to search for bodies; special collections were taken up by D-Day survivors in Normandy; all over the world, American embassies were surrounded by long lines of people coming to offer sympathy, write notes, leave flowers.
You could make a pretty good case that one root of the Bush administration's abysmal diplomatic record is simply bad manners. "We don't need any help" was certainly a true response. But, "Thank you" would have been better.
In the days and weeks following Sept. 11, the United States enjoyed global sympathy and goodwill. All our old enemies sent regrets and offers of help. The most important newspaper in France headlined, "We Are All Americans Now." The most touching gestures and offers rolled in, wave and after wave -- nations offered their teams of rescue dogs to search for bodies; special collections were taken up by D-Day survivors in Normandy; all over the world, American embassies were surrounded by long lines of people coming to offer sympathy, write notes, leave flowers.
You could make a pretty good case that one root of the Bush administration's abysmal diplomatic record is simply bad manners. "We don't need any help" was certainly a true response. But, "Thank you" would have been better.
AUSTIN, Texas -- Leap I lightly, with the grace of a gazelle, over such mundane news items as indictments at the White House and Supreme Court nominations. All the better to continue my crusade to focus attention not on what's wrong, but on how to fix it.
Forget, for a carefree and frivolous moment, the manifold failings of the only president we've got. Instead, let's see if we can figure out how to get out of this pickle. More than one pickle, I grant you -- this administration is a pickle factory. Thinking helmets on, team.
Before we even begin with some useful lists of "Let's stop doing this and try doing that, instead," we should salute the Values Crowd with the sincerest form of flattery. I suppose we could have a giant Values Debate, with Bill Bennett on one side and Bill Moyers on the other, but even values have fallen into the partisan pit these days. We need to go at our problems in some way that doesn't immediately set hackles up so that the only point of the exercise becomes to beat the other side.
Forget, for a carefree and frivolous moment, the manifold failings of the only president we've got. Instead, let's see if we can figure out how to get out of this pickle. More than one pickle, I grant you -- this administration is a pickle factory. Thinking helmets on, team.
Before we even begin with some useful lists of "Let's stop doing this and try doing that, instead," we should salute the Values Crowd with the sincerest form of flattery. I suppose we could have a giant Values Debate, with Bill Bennett on one side and Bill Moyers on the other, but even values have fallen into the partisan pit these days. We need to go at our problems in some way that doesn't immediately set hackles up so that the only point of the exercise becomes to beat the other side.
We learn much from how we present our heroes. A few years ago, on Martin
Luther King. Day, I was interviewed on CNN. So was Rosa Parks, by phone from
Los Angeles. "We're very honored to have her," said the host. "Rosa Parks
was the woman who wouldn't go to the back of the bus. She wouldn't get up
and give her seat in the white section to a white person. That set in motion
the year-long bus boycott in Montgomery. It earned Rosa Parks the title of
'mother of the Civil Rights movement.'"