Come out, come out, wherever you are!

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Friday January 28, 2005 · 10:09 PM PST

2005/01/28 · 22:09

Last Sunday, Tacoma Narrows posted a diary asking "What are your controversial opinions?" My answer was I watch American Idol.

Turns out, that's not so much what Tacoma Narrows was looking for. The diary was for controversial political opinions.

Well, folks I've had a loooong week of torture and abuse and future directions (and that's only covers what happened at home), so I don't really give a rodent's patootie about your political opinions on a Friday night.

Nooooo. I want to know your controversial personal confessions. Read More

Abu Gonzales is not the beginning nor the end

hono lulu

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Wednesday January 26, 2005 · 9:36 PM PST

2005/01/26 · 21:36

He is not even the beginning of the end. Gonzales is the latest and most blatant actor in the United States' long and abominable participation in the use of torture.

From the final report of the United Nations International Conference on Torture:

The use of torture to extract confessions was not uncommon in the United States 60 years ago. This was especially true for black criminal suspects in the south. In one death sentence case the Supreme Court found that the confession had been obtained under torture and stated forcefully that such methods violated the fundamental guarantees of Due Process in the US Constitution. However, notwithstanding this official condemnation, abuses of custodial interrogation by police officers, often referred to as the "third degree", were a common feature in American criminal justice practices well into the 1960s. The Supreme Court developed a jurisprudence in which confessions that were not "voluntary" were not admitted as evidence, but abusive interrogation practices continued to be commonplace throughout the United States.

hono lulu

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Monday January 24, 2005 · 11:20 PM PST

2005/01/24 · 23:20

The fearsome, word-and-thought-defying banality of evil. ~ Hannah Arendt

This is probably more appropriate for a Friday or Saturday night diary, but, then again, this is supposedly the most depressing day of the year. Maybe it's all the torture talk. Maybe it's the words and images of the horrors that we as humans can inflict on one another. Whether it be through war or greed or just cold, indifferent neglect.

How, I want to know, can we do such evil to one another?

Atrocities in Plain Sight -NYT Book Review

hono lulu

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Sunday January 23, 2005 · 2:49 PM PST

2005/01/23 · 14:49

Today's front page of the NYT Book Review features a review by Andrew Sullivan on The Abu Ghraib Investigations edited by Steven Strasser and Torture and Truth: America, Abu Ghraib, and the War on Terror by Mark Danner.

I haven't read either book. To be honest, I could barely get through the review. I am not including excerpts describing the torture and abuse to which detainees were subjected. At the end, Sullivan comments on this aversion to horror when he wonders why Kerry never brought the issue up in the campaign:

John F. Kerry, the ''heroic'' protester of Vietnam, ducked the issue out of what? Fear? Ignorance? Or a belief that the American public ultimately did not care, that the consequences of seeming to criticize the conduct of troops would be more of an electoral liability than holding a president accountable for enabling the torture of innocents? I fear it was the last of these. Worse, I fear he may have been right.

But Sullivan also does not flinch from drawing the lines of responsibility right through the Secretary of Defense and on up to the Oval Office. Read More

Greg Palast on the "Oaf of Office"

hono lulu

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Friday January 21, 2005 · 1:30 PM PST

2005/01/21 · 13:30

But, dear Reader, there's one cold statistic Kerry voters must face. The fact that Republicans monkeyed with the votes in swing states doesn't wash away that big red stain: 59 million Americans marched to the polls and voted for George W. Bush.

If Osama doesn't scare you, THAT should.

We have met the enemy, and they are us.
Palast points out something that I have avoided thinking about. The Red/Blue dichotomy not only makes a visual statement, it also allows us to imagine that we blue voters occupy a different political imaginary than red voters. From Palast's viewpoint from the other side of the Atlantic, there is no Red and Blue. There are only, as Obama also pointed out, Americans.

As is often the case, the view from afar elicits some of the most acute and biting analysis. Any of the observations that Palast makes are worthy talking points. I'll post a few of my favorite excerpts, but I urge you to read the whole thing here.
Read More

Tyranny v. Terror--Obama knows the difference

hono lulu

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Wednesday January 19, 2005 · 12:18 AM PST

2005/01/19 · 00:18

...the concern that I have here... is the conflation of tyranny and terror.

There's a lot of justified whooping and hollerin' over Barbara Boxer's intrepid performance on Tuesday.

But watching CSPAN, I got to catch the new freshman senator from Illinois take his place on the main stage. Besides holding the administration's feet to the fire on its unfulfilled promises to fight HIV/AIDS in Africa, Senator Obama eloquently called her out on the administration's bait and switch tactics on Iraq.

MLK day reading list

hono lulu

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Monday January 17, 2005 · 2:50 AM PST

2005/01/17 · 02:50

Dreams
Hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.

Hold fast to dreams
For when dreams go
Life is a barren field
Frozen with snow.
-Langston Hughes

There have been many diaries already honoring Dr. King. One of the ways that I thought we could also honor him was by sharing some books that reflect those times as well as this amazing person. There are also writers and scholars who have preceded and followed him who are part of this struggle that should have ended long, long ago.

Many suggestions have already been made by other posters. Here's some of them. I've included the poster's name in parentheses. My apologies, for any I've missed. I hope you'll add them below.

*William Pepper Orders to Kill (Progressive)
*William Pepper Act of State (Granny Helen)
*Taylor Branch Parting the Waters (Roddy McCorley)
*James H. Cone Martin & Malcom & America, A Dream or a Nightmare (DianeL) Read More

What does $40 million buy?

hono lulu

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Saturday January 15, 2005 · 12:52 AM PST

2005/01/15 · 00:52

The 4-day Republican love-in known as the inauguration is almost upon us. 3 candlelight dinners, 9 balls, "lectures and seminars," and, of course, a prayer service will all be part of the hoopla.

Who's ponying up the big bucks for all this? While there are no laws regulating contributions to the inauguration, there is a "voluntary cap" of $250,000 and disclosure is mandatory. So the website of the 55th Inauguration has a handy dandy list of donors.

Update [2005-1-15 12:33:42 by hono lulu]: Here's a link for contributors to Clinton's 1997 inauguration. Not a whole lot of overlap. Read More

In a Manner that Must Shame God Himself

hono lulu

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Friday January 14, 2005 · 3:00 PM PST

2005/01/14 · 15:00

Soon after that sorry first Tuesday of November, a friend gave me a copy of an article written by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. for Harper's Magazine. It was his report on the Republican National Convention. In Miami Beach. In 1972.

My friend is in her 70's, a generation ahead of me. I think she meant to comfort me with this. Sometimes history does that. Gives us some perspective. And as the Vietnam parallels multiply with each passing day, perhaps there is solace in thinking if we survived Nixon/Kissinger, surely we can muddle through Bush/Rice.

But the glimpse into the past can also be disheartening. Have we learned nothing? Or, worse, have we learned it too well?

One thing is certain. Vonnegut always shakes us up, takes us outside of ourselves, and asks the questions that need asking.

Below the fold are excerpts from the essay. Read More

Now they're calling up GRANDFATHERS

hono lulu

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Tuesday January 11, 2005 · 10:57 AM PST

2005/01/11 · 10:57

Among the latest Hawaii Guard soldiers to be mobilized to Afghanistan is 47 year old Sgt. Lee Michael Lleeces, who held his granddaughter Reianna at a mobilization ceremony yesterday. According to the Honolulu Advertiser, Lee is not even the eldest of his group. Sgt. 1st Class Curtis Matsushige who has been a teacher for 25 years and Master Sgt. Curtis Lum are both 50 years old.

As reported in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin last Friday, Major General Bob Lee, commander general of the Hawaii Guard, told members of the Chamber of Commerce that the only unit he has left is the band. 88% of the Hawaii National Guard has been called to active duty -- the highest ratio of reservists and National Guard soldiers of any state in the country. Read More

2005 Predictions from Pointy-Head Academics w/Quiz

hono lulu

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Monday January 10, 2005 · 3:43 PM PST

2005/01/10 · 15:43

The January 7, 2005 edition of the Chronicle for Higher Education included predictions from some academics around the country. In keeping with the spirit of back to school week, here are some of their predictions in quiz form. Match the prediction with the academic.

You may now turn your papers over... Read More

Pass the f---ing Prozac

hono lulu

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Monday January 03, 2005 · 11:02 PM PST

2005/01/03 · 23:02

PLEASE.

What a day on dKos. Did EVERYBODY forget their medication? Keerist on a corndog. You keep this up, people, some warm and fuzzy new age type is gonna suggest we have a group hug and then I'm really going to have to leave the room.

Where's the snark, I ask you? This has been an unbelievably snarkless day. Really bad things happen if I don't get my daily dose of snark. Look, Marcos went off. So what? Big surprise, folks--he's a human bean just like the rest of us. (Bean was a joke--the level has sunk so low, I'm explaining jokes, now). Worse, ARMANDO's gotta play statesman. No, no, no. I want Armando behind his 357 magnum of a mouth, challenging people to make his day.

Tomorrow, the only thing I'm reading is Cheers and Jeers and anything by Pastor Dan.

More below if anyone is still awake... Read More

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