Op-Ed
AUSTIN, Texas -- It's the All-American Blame Game! A
Finger-Pointing festival. A perfectly circular firing squad of, "Told you
so." Bureaucrats perfecting their CYA moves. Politicians jumping on the
opportunity to make points against the other guys. And so's your old man.
U.S. officials quickly blamed a Canadian plant for touching off the mess. Mel Lastman, the clearly sleepless and exhausted mayor of Toronto, replied bitterly: "Tell me, have you ever heard the United States take blame for anything? This is no different."
It would be a refreshing change, would it not, if somebody just stood up and said, "My fault."
The early book has the great power outage of '03 beginning with FirstEnergy of Akron, Ohio.
But there has been no shortage of warnings that the grid was elderly, frail, inadequate, could short out, would short out, should short out at any time.
U.S. officials quickly blamed a Canadian plant for touching off the mess. Mel Lastman, the clearly sleepless and exhausted mayor of Toronto, replied bitterly: "Tell me, have you ever heard the United States take blame for anything? This is no different."
It would be a refreshing change, would it not, if somebody just stood up and said, "My fault."
The early book has the great power outage of '03 beginning with FirstEnergy of Akron, Ohio.
But there has been no shortage of warnings that the grid was elderly, frail, inadequate, could short out, would short out, should short out at any time.
Contrary to media cliches about “the silly season,” this is a time
of very serious -- and probably catastrophic -- political maneuvers.
From California to the U.N. building in New York City to the sweltering heat of Iraq, the deadly consequences of entrenched power are anything but humorous.
Can you remember watching a movie when some calamity is happening on the screen, and laughter ripples across the darkened theater? You might wonder why people are chuckling at the grievous misfortunes of others. To comfortable viewers, a disaster can seem quite amusing.
The market is hot for Hollywood extravaganzas that fill screens at multiplexes. The spectacles of high-tech weapons and cinematic bloodshed are experienced as just so much viewing pleasure. The unreality, we’re told, is just for diversion -- people understand the difference between movie posturing and the real world.
But this summer, news outlets are agog with real-life versions of what could be called “Pulp Nonfiction.”
From California to the U.N. building in New York City to the sweltering heat of Iraq, the deadly consequences of entrenched power are anything but humorous.
Can you remember watching a movie when some calamity is happening on the screen, and laughter ripples across the darkened theater? You might wonder why people are chuckling at the grievous misfortunes of others. To comfortable viewers, a disaster can seem quite amusing.
The market is hot for Hollywood extravaganzas that fill screens at multiplexes. The spectacles of high-tech weapons and cinematic bloodshed are experienced as just so much viewing pleasure. The unreality, we’re told, is just for diversion -- people understand the difference between movie posturing and the real world.
But this summer, news outlets are agog with real-life versions of what could be called “Pulp Nonfiction.”
AUSTIN, Texas -- Hang in there, Texas Eleven. You are not
forgotten.
Gov. Goodhair Perry says the AWOL senators are holding up "issues of great importance to the people of Texas." That's funny. There has been one and only one item of business on the agenda for both special sessions called by the guv (at a cost of $1.7 million each): the crass rejiggering of congressional distric lines in order to elect more Republicans out of Texas. Using taxpayer money for partisan political purposes, period.
Really Bad Idea of the Week: Attorney General John Ashcroft is now investigating judges. He is requiring prosecutors to report cases where the judge hands down sentences that are less than the federal guidelines suggest. This is part of a concerted effort by both Congress and the Justice Department (part of the executive branch) to pressure judges to follow rigid sentencing guidelines. When last consulted, the Constitution still said there are three co-equal branches of government -- the executive is not assigned to intimidate the judiciary.
Gov. Goodhair Perry says the AWOL senators are holding up "issues of great importance to the people of Texas." That's funny. There has been one and only one item of business on the agenda for both special sessions called by the guv (at a cost of $1.7 million each): the crass rejiggering of congressional distric lines in order to elect more Republicans out of Texas. Using taxpayer money for partisan political purposes, period.
Really Bad Idea of the Week: Attorney General John Ashcroft is now investigating judges. He is requiring prosecutors to report cases where the judge hands down sentences that are less than the federal guidelines suggest. This is part of a concerted effort by both Congress and the Justice Department (part of the executive branch) to pressure judges to follow rigid sentencing guidelines. When last consulted, the Constitution still said there are three co-equal branches of government -- the executive is not assigned to intimidate the judiciary.
DUBLIN, N.H. -- What a summer for national credulity fitness. My
credulity gets a lot of exercise, since I cover Texas politics. Like Alice
in Wonderland's White Queen, years of practice have enabled me to believe as
many as six impossible things before breakfast. But here we are with a
perfect feast of mind-bogglers, everyone's credulity stretching and
straining in a giant national workout session.
Arnold Schwarzenegger as governor of California. Well, sure, I can handle that one. Manna from heaven for political humorists of all stripes. I'm afraid the joke will begin to wear thin, however. I know we all like to make fun of California as the epicenter of nuttiness, but in fact that big, beautiful state is in terrible trouble. A $36 billion deficit is not amusing. Teachers are being fired, programs to help the most helpless -- the oldest, the youngest, the most frail -- are being cut.
Arnold Schwarzenegger as governor of California. Well, sure, I can handle that one. Manna from heaven for political humorists of all stripes. I'm afraid the joke will begin to wear thin, however. I know we all like to make fun of California as the epicenter of nuttiness, but in fact that big, beautiful state is in terrible trouble. A $36 billion deficit is not amusing. Teachers are being fired, programs to help the most helpless -- the oldest, the youngest, the most frail -- are being cut.
Thought you might be interested in these two items:
* The ombudsman at National Public Radio has written a piece that’s partly a response to a recent column I wrote about media attacks on Rep. Jim McDermott for going to Baghdad and questioning the veracity of President Bush. The NPR ombudsman’s piece is at: www.npr.org/yourturn/ombudsman/2003/030730.html
* I was in a live debate on CNN today that included a discussion of the California recall and Iraq-related events. The transcript is posted at: www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0308/08/nfcnn.04.html
Best wishes,
Norman Solomon
* The ombudsman at National Public Radio has written a piece that’s partly a response to a recent column I wrote about media attacks on Rep. Jim McDermott for going to Baghdad and questioning the veracity of President Bush. The NPR ombudsman’s piece is at: www.npr.org/yourturn/ombudsman/2003/030730.html
* I was in a live debate on CNN today that included a discussion of the California recall and Iraq-related events. The transcript is posted at: www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0308/08/nfcnn.04.html
Best wishes,
Norman Solomon
CAMDEN, Maine -- Let us stop to observe a few mileposts on the
downward path to the utter degradation of political discourse in this
country.
A recent newspaper advertising campaign by "independent" groups supporting President Bush shows a closed courtroom door with the sign, "Catholics Need Not Apply," hanging on it. The ad argues that William Pryor Jr., attorney general of Alabama and a right-wing anti-abortion nominee to the federal appeals court, is under attack for his "deeply held" Catholic beliefs.
Actually, Pryor is under attack because he's a hopeless dipstick. That he also happens to be Catholic and anti-abortion has nothing to do with his unfitness for the federal bench. The only person I know who believes one's closely held religious and moral convictions should make one ineligible for the federal bench is Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. Scalia argued last year that any judge who is opposed to the death penalty should resign, on account of it is the law.
A recent newspaper advertising campaign by "independent" groups supporting President Bush shows a closed courtroom door with the sign, "Catholics Need Not Apply," hanging on it. The ad argues that William Pryor Jr., attorney general of Alabama and a right-wing anti-abortion nominee to the federal appeals court, is under attack for his "deeply held" Catholic beliefs.
Actually, Pryor is under attack because he's a hopeless dipstick. That he also happens to be Catholic and anti-abortion has nothing to do with his unfitness for the federal bench. The only person I know who believes one's closely held religious and moral convictions should make one ineligible for the federal bench is Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. Scalia argued last year that any judge who is opposed to the death penalty should resign, on account of it is the law.
AUSTIN, Texas -- There are messy-desk people and there are
clean-desk people. I'm a major messy. About every six months, I am seized by
a desire to Get Organized, so I start doing archaeological excavations into
the midden heap on my desk. The result this time was a sort of time-lapse
photography of where the country is headed.
Going through stacks of old newspaper articles, speeches, reports, studies and press releases at a high rate of speed left one overwhelming impression: deception ... government by deception. I'd like pass along some of what I found without the usual journalistic standards of sourcing because I want to recreate the impression it all left -- rather like leafing through a book rapidly, catching sentence here and there. Leaving aside the missing weapons of mass destruction (hey, we found the oil), I found so many little things that fit the same pattern.
Going through stacks of old newspaper articles, speeches, reports, studies and press releases at a high rate of speed left one overwhelming impression: deception ... government by deception. I'd like pass along some of what I found without the usual journalistic standards of sourcing because I want to recreate the impression it all left -- rather like leafing through a book rapidly, catching sentence here and there. Leaving aside the missing weapons of mass destruction (hey, we found the oil), I found so many little things that fit the same pattern.
Freep Hero
Gregory Palast
Thank God for freedom of the press. At least it’s working in Britain. The Freep honors Gregory Palast, a British journalist, as its hero. Palast’s reporting on the Bush family finances, their staged CIA-style demonstration elections in Florida and Bush, Sr.’s worldwide intervention for western corporations which then results in kickbacks to Jr.’s campaign coffers, are better than anything you’ll read in the U.S. press. Of course, U.S. corporate conglomerates, their CEOs, CFOs, directors and officers are precisely the people that Palast has been outing in his articles for the London Observer and other media outlets. Check him out at gregpalast.com.
The Free Press Salutes
Governor Taft
Gregory Palast
Thank God for freedom of the press. At least it’s working in Britain. The Freep honors Gregory Palast, a British journalist, as its hero. Palast’s reporting on the Bush family finances, their staged CIA-style demonstration elections in Florida and Bush, Sr.’s worldwide intervention for western corporations which then results in kickbacks to Jr.’s campaign coffers, are better than anything you’ll read in the U.S. press. Of course, U.S. corporate conglomerates, their CEOs, CFOs, directors and officers are precisely the people that Palast has been outing in his articles for the London Observer and other media outlets. Check him out at gregpalast.com.
The Free Press Salutes
Governor Taft
The corporate Democrats who
greased Bill Clinton’s path to
the White House are now a bit worried. Their influence on the party’s presidential nomination process has slipped. But the Democratic Leadership Council can count on plenty of assistance from mainstream
news media.
For several years leading up to 1992, the DLC curried favor with high-profile political journalists as they repeated the mantra that the Democratic Party needed to be centrist. Co-founded by Clinton in the mid-1980s, the DLC emphasized catering to “middle class” Americans — while the organization filled its coffers with funding from such non-middle-class bastions as the top echelons of corporate outfits like Arco, Prudential-Bache, Dow Chemical, Georgia Pacific and Martin Marietta.
For several years leading up to 1992, the DLC curried favor with high-profile political journalists as they repeated the mantra that the Democratic Party needed to be centrist. Co-founded by Clinton in the mid-1980s, the DLC emphasized catering to “middle class” Americans — while the organization filled its coffers with funding from such non-middle-class bastions as the top echelons of corporate outfits like Arco, Prudential-Bache, Dow Chemical, Georgia Pacific and Martin Marietta.
I opposed the war in Iraq because I
thought it would lead to the peace
from hell, but I’d rather not see my prediction come true and I don’t think we have much time left to avert it. That the occupation is not going well is apparent to everyone but Donald Rumsfeld. If this thing turns into Vietnam simply because that man is too vain and arrogant to admit that Gen. Eric Shinseki was right when he said we would need “several hundred thousand soldiers” over there, I hope Rumsfeld rots in a hell worse than the one he’s making.
Now is not the time to stand back timidly hoping it will work out well in the end. The population of Baghdad is broiling through the 115-degree summer without electricity or water for much of the time. Given the background poverty and generally hideous conditions, the place is a major riot waiting to happen.
Now is not the time to stand back timidly hoping it will work out well in the end. The population of Baghdad is broiling through the 115-degree summer without electricity or water for much of the time. Given the background poverty and generally hideous conditions, the place is a major riot waiting to happen.