My, my, Ms Matalin’s hubby thinks the Democrats wasted last night’s convention. No one attacked John McCain. No one exercised snidery or entered into attack mode. Surely a fatal waste of one evening of our lives.
And what was offered in place of a demolishing of John McCain? Well, nothing more than Michelle Obama talking about her life and that of her husband and how each of these lives has prepared her to be first lady and her husband to be President. We watched our screens enjoying—if we permitted ourselves—listening to a woman who is articulate, interesting, and would be a terrific friend. We learned some facts, absorbed a slightly new way of looking at human experience, and gained additional appreciation of a really galvanizing couple.
But, damn, she never talked about McCain’s houses or Cindy’s millions. Wot a downer.
Then we had Ted Kennedy, bloated with chemo and burnt with radiation, who still cared enough for the dream he and millions do not want to die. He went to Denver and gave a speech. Think you would have the passion and the discipline to do that with brain cancer? Senator Ted did.
But, damn, Michelle never tore into Kennedy over Chappaquidick or sniped at his Harvard days when he cheated on a Spanish exam. Wot a waste of time.
For the Carvilles of our world—including,alas, the Clintons—politics is a blood sport, a game to be won. The values of the country have no part at all in this game. And it has been coming to this since Ronald Reagan and his cadre of California PR folk made the journey to DC. The “city on the hill” has increasingly become Hollywood, not a metaphor for the United States. And the 4-year gathering to select a leader with a vision and an urge to make Americans better people has dwindled to a PR competition totally devoid of content, of spirit, of promise and aspiration.
No wonder Michelle and Barack Obama can gather some of us like breadcrums, longingly trying to find our way back to the country we love.
Most of us have read reports of the impact of the torture-ready Fox tv show 24 on the Administration’s reframing of interrogation guidelines and the rise of Jack Bauer among the fantasist policy makers in the Bush White House..
A recent (August 4, 2008) issue of Newsweek develops this scenario:
According to British lawyer and writer [Philippe] Sands, Jack Bauer—played by Kiefer Sutherland—was an inspiration at early “brainstorming meetings” of military officials at Guantánamo in September 2002. Diane Beaver, the staff judge advocate general who gave legal approval to 18 controversial interrogation techniques including waterboarding, sexual humiliation and terrorizing prisoners with dogs, told Sands that Bauer “gave people lots of ideas.” Michael Chertoff, the Homeland Security chief, gushed in a panel discussion on “24″ organized by the Heritage Foundation that the show”reflects real life.”
I don’t know how many viewers were initially intrigued by the concept of 24 and the theme lines that 9/11 made so immediate. I would like to know, even more, how many of these viewers gradually stopped watching the show as Jack Bauer summoned forth his electrodes and finger vises more and more regularly. More scarey still, how many young viewers learned by rote that torture in the name of one’s country is true and noble?
I began thinking about all of the above the other night as I was watching Discovery’s new crime channel which includes a fairly new show called Real Interrogations. The opening epigraph for the show pronounces proudly—over a background of detectives shrieking threateningly at huddled suspects—something like See how the police break those who break the law.
The goal of police interrogators is to break people? A person of interest is automatically a law-breaker? Screaming, threatening, waving fingers and arms, looming in the face of the befuddled is the function of the police? I have long thought that allowing police to flat-out lie to those they may deem suspicious ought to be made illegal. Given the understandable imbalance between he/she who is seated across from the good guy/bad guy dancers and the police personnel, I see no reason to brag about the latter “breaking” the former.
So far we save our most repellent forms of torture for those not like ourselves. But can we not notice that our treatment of each other makes intimidation, threats, and lies the standard way for officials to torment whomever they may decide is guilty.
Remember Ari Fleischer, as Bush’s press secretary, warned from the podium that this time (9/11) was not the time to be careless about one’s speech. Then we welcomed the Patriot Act, neither patriotic nor aimed at anything except bundling all power and rights into the paunches of the senile Oval Office denizens. The guys who worshipped Jack Bauer because they were not at risk for violence began an eight-year feast on the civil rights of others.
And so, every Barney Fife becomes a Dick Cheney, and bullying passes for keeping order.
From the Obama team:
Right now, vile smear-peddler Jerome Corsi is back with a new book of lies — this time about Barack Obama.
In 2004, Corsi helped launch the Swift Boat smear campaign with a book of distortions and lies he wrote about John Kerry. We’ll need the combined efforts of every member of the Action Wire to push back against this year’s vicious Republican attack book.
Corsi and his right-wing backers are counting on you not to fight back. Spreading these lies about Barack is their best chance to elect John McCain and continue George Bush’s failed policies for another four years.
Check out some facts about Corsi and his desperate fabrications in the DNC research document below. Forward this message to your friends and family or use this online form to push back with the truth:
http://my.barackobama.com/bookoflies
Together we’ll show Corsi and the right-wing smear machine that we won’t back down from a fight.
Thanks,
Obama Action Wire
The latest research on Jerome Corsi:
TOO CRAZY EVEN FOR SWIFTBOAT LIARS
Corsi Was Dropped From Unfit for Command Promotions Because of His Anti-Muslim, Anti-Catholic Comments. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette wrote in an editorial, “Consider the book “Unfit for Command,” put out by a collection of partisans who have now made it acceptable for veterans to attack each other’s war records. The current National Review carries a piece decrying the bookstores that fail to carry “John O’Neill’s book.” This is curious in that the volume has a second author, but Jerome Corsi has dropped from the marketing because he has been revealed as the author of religiously bigoted remarks published on a Web site. Corsi not only considers Muslims to be pederasts, but he took the trouble to slam Catholic priests and refers to the pope as senile. Rather than wonder whether a book written by such a man can be trusted, the marketing tactic has shifted to pretend Corsi doesn’t exist.” [Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Pennsylvania), 9/19/04]
O’Neill Tried to Minimize Corsi’s Role in Unfit for Command After Bigoted Comments Came to Light. “In a bit of historical revisionism, Swift Boat Veterans for Truth founder and Unfit for Command co-author John O’Neill distorted Jerome Corsi’s role in co-authoring the book. O’Neill’s backtracking comes on the heels of Media Matters for America’s documentation of Corsi’s history of posting bigoted comments. During appearances on MSNBC’s Scarborough Country on August 10 and CNN’s Wolf Blitzer Reports on August 11, O’Neill downplayed Corsi’s role in writing the book. When asked about Corsi’s involvement, O’Neill asserted, Corsi was “simply an editor and not really any sort of co-author.” But an MMFA item entitled “Unfit book materials show Corsi more than just an ‘editor,’” revealed Corsi to be much more than simply an editor of the anti- Kerry book. [Media Matters Press Release, 8/13/04]
“Anti-Kerry Book Author Apologizes for Slurs.” “One of the authors of a new anti-John Kerry book frequently posted comments on a conservative Web site describing Muslims and Catholics as pedophiles and Pope John Paul II as senile. In chat room entry last year on freerepublic.com, Corsi writes: ‘Islam is a peaceful religion - just as long as the women are beaten, the boys buggered and the infidels are killed.’ In another entry, he says: ‘So this is what the last days of the Catholic Church are going to look like. Buggering boys undermines the moral base and the lawyers rip the gold off the Vatican altars. We may get one more Pope, when this senile one dies, but that’s probably about it’.” [AP, 8/10/04]
ONE PARANOID BOOK OF LIES AFTER ANOTHER
Corsi Wrote a Book Saying Bush’s “Globalist Agenda” Is Leading to a North American Union. “The real reason behind President Bush’s push for immigration reform, says author Jerome R. Corsi, is to unite the United States, Mexico and Canada by erasing borders and creating a “North American Union.” That is the theme of Mr. Corsi’s new book, “The Late Great USA: The Coming Merger with Mexico and Canada,” which says the Bush administration’s ‘globalist agenda’ is leading to a merger of the countries through the implementation of policies and laws to open trade barriers and renovate the highway systems in anticipation of increased travel within the new megastate. Mr. Corsi said a growing number of Americans think the North American Union is being forced onto Americans. Government officials say the idea is no more than an unjustified conspiracy theory spread through the Internet. Mr. Corsi said the impetus of the plan was the creation of the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America, announced by leaders of the United States, Mexico and Canada at Waco, Texas, in 2005.” [Washington Times, 7/18/07]
Conservative Human Events Writer: Corsi Isn’t “Any More Worthy Of Being Taken Seriously Than Those Who Think Jews Rule The World Or The ‘Truthers’ Who Think President Bush Is Responsible For 9/11.” Under the headline “There Isn’t Going to Be a North American Union,” John Hawkins wrote, “Yesterday, Jerome Corsi was prattling on about the North American Union again after Michael Medved deservedly spanked him for spreading conspiracy theories. While I don’t think Corsi is any more worthy of being taken seriously than those who think Jews rule the world or the ‘Truthers’ who think President Bush is responsible for 9/11, I thought I would respond to him one last time. (I think that’s about the fourth time I’ve said that.) Now, why respond again? What’s the point? Well unfortunately, a lot of conservatives consider this conspiracy theory to be so preposterous that they believe it’s beneath them to even bother discussing it, and that leaves Corsi and his ilk to dominate the debate. And since there are a lot of conservatives being taken in by this North American Union nonsense, somebody has got to step up to the plate.” [Human Events Online, 1/10/07]
Editor of Human Events: “I Guess There Are People Who Believe In” Corsi’s North American Union Conspiracy, “But There Are People Who Believe In Bigfoot.” “Corsi plays on growing nationalist fears. He sees a scenario in which a North American Union is born and shares a currency, the “amero.” Even some right-wing standard-bearers regard the fears as over-blown. Jed Babbin, editor of the conservative newspaper Human Events, says: “I guess there are people who believe in [the plan for a North American Union]. But there are people who believe in Bigfoot.” [Newsweek, 12/10/07]
Corsi Wrote a Book Disagreeing With Most Scientists That There is a Limit to Oil. “All his life, Jerome Corsi’s been told that we’re running out of oil. “I remember driving with my dad in a 1952 Plymouth and listening to him talk about the end of oil,” says the 59-year-old New Jersey author. “Hasn’t happened yet, and it’s not going to happen.” What makes him so sure? He doesn’t buy the fossil fuel theory–that oil comes from dead plants and dinosaurs. He believes it comes out of the ground naturally, and that there’s more coming up all the time…Eighteenth century Russian scientist Mikhail Lomonosov found biological debris in oil and concluded that it must have biological origin. “I’m at the point where the dinosaur theory seems silly,” says Corsi. “You take a pile of cats and you bury them, dig them up 10 years later and you don’t get oil.” “The truth is that there is so much oil around the world that it’s been easy to find,” Corsi says. “We’re awash in oil. There’s more oil today in proven reserves than ever before in human history.” [Western Standard (Alberta), 2/13/06]
Corsi Wrote a Book Claiming Democrats Were Being Corrupted by Iranian Funding and Helping Iranians Get Nukes. “After their bitter campaign 2004 experience with the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, John Kerry and his fellow Dems aren’t waiting to be shot at again. Yesterday, aides to Sens. Kerry, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden and Ted Kennedy jumped all over literary mugger Jerome Corsi, co-author of the Kerry-bashing best seller ‘Unfit for Command.’ They knocked him to the ground and kicked him in the face (metaphorically, anyway) over his next Democrattrashing tome, ‘Atomic Iran: How the Terrorist Regime Bought the Bomb and American Politicians.’ The book - which Nashville’s Cumberland House Publishing won’t release till next month - claims Democratic pols are being corrupted by Iranian money and helping the nuke-seeking mullahs in Tehran.” [Daily News (New York), 2/24/05]
Corsi Wrote Unfit For Command Although He Was Not a Veteran. “Though not a veteran himself, Corsi co-authored “Unfit for Command: Swift Boat Veterans Speak Out Against John Kerry.” [Boston Herald, 1/25/05]
THE WRITINGS OF A PARANOID AND HATEFUL MAN
To read more of his posts, follow this link: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/user-posts?name=jrlc
HATRED AND INTOLERANCE TOWARD ISLAM
“Let’s see exactly why it isn’t the case that Islam is a worthless, dangerous Satanic religion? Where’s the proof to the contrary?”
“Islam is like a virus — it affects the mind — maybe even better as an analogy — it is a cancer that destroys the body it infects.”
ATTACKS ON JOHN KERRY…WITH NO MILITARY BACKGROUND
“First let’s undermine the US in Vietnam. Then we can go for gay marriage. When you get to be Pres. JFK-lite, there will be no end to how much of America we can destroy.”
“Just don’t let anybody put a tablet with the Ten Commandments in front of the school where that girl wants to wear a Muslim scarf — OH, No — then the RATS would complain. Anti- Christian, Anti-American — just like their Presidential Candidate — Jean Francois Kerrie.”
“After he married TerRAHsa, didn’t John Kerry begin practicing Judiasm? He also has paternal gradparents that were Jewish. What religion is John Kerry?”
“Kerry has a long history of Communist supporters.”
“Kerry offers a clear choice. Anti-American hatred.”
“John F-ing Commie Kerry and Commie Ted discuss their plan to hand America over to our nation’s enemies.”
DESPICABLE WRITINGS ON ISLAM SHOW BLIND HATRED
“The only good Mullah is a dead Mullah.” [12/21/01]
“Forget about democracy. Just get out the checkbook and put everybody in Iraq on the payroll. That’s all they want. Pay them first, democracy (or some b.s. Islamic version of it) will follow.” [6/18/03]
“Mohammed-al-Mohammed proclaiming guidance from his hate-god allah-i’ll-be-da*ned-allah kills another dozen women and children by convincing a teenager to blow him/her/self up for victory in another world. Haven’t we all had enough of this stupid “religion”?” [5/17/03]
“Another Mohammed-al-Mohammed Islam religion of hate maniac bites the dust. (Top Iraqi army official surrenders”) [5/17/03]
“Certainly can’t be one of the Islam is a Religion of Peace hijackers?” [Bus Hijacking Near Bremen, Germany] [4/25/03]
“One more Mohammed al-Mohammed el-Mohammed Mohammed iced — great. ” [Car Bomb Kills Egyptian Islamist in Lebanon Camp] [3/1/03]
“Let them build mosques — seems about all the Germans are worth these days.”( Germany’s Economic Woes) [2/6/03]
“Islam - the Legacy of Clinton.” (AFP: Two Chechens with belts of explosives stopped in Moscow) [12/24/02]
“Islam is like a virus — it affects the mind — maybe even better as an analogy — it is a cancer that destroys the body it infects. A throwback, Medieval, anti-modern, anti-science, anti-knowledge doctrine.” [11/26/02]
“Forget it — the only thing these Islamonazis understand is force — time to nuke the Temple of the Dome and send this “religion” back to Hell, the place it came from. ” [11/17/02]
“Go for the Oil Fields. Set the mad dog lawyers loose!!! Let’s ROLL!!! Take even the diapers from their heads. Remember — according to the Koran, Islam approves of lying as long as it is to non-believers. Saudis are lying killers who harbor killers.” [11/17/02]
“All-ah be damned. What took him so long?” [11/14/02]
“Islam is like a virus — it infects the minds of the believers. Islamonazis are, unfortunately, the logical extreme of the “religion.”" [11/13/02]
“Good plan — raise OBL from the dead every time we get ready to ice another Islamonazi — ON TO BAGHDAD. LET’S ROLL !!!” [11/13/02]
“Nuke the ISLAM-nazis and let’s move on. No more MUSLAMO-fascists!!” [11/10/02]
“Islam has declared World War III against everything non-Muslim. ” [10/28/02]
” When will the liberal media wake up to see that Islam has declared a World War against everyting non-Muslim. May Allah be damned to the hell Muslims wish to create on earth.” [10/25/02]
” Are there any Islamic “clerics” who aren’t violent?” [10/20/02]
” May Islam join the garbage heap of worthless religions we have grown beyond. Any believers of Hermes out there?” [10/13/02]
“Muslims regularly trash religious sites holy to others. Jerusalem has a series of sites the Muslims have wrecked (e.g., the bus station they placed below the “Golgatha” site honored by many as an alternative location for the Christ’s crucifixion). Seems like the Muslim principle that it is okay to lie to infidels. Very different mindset — no respect for anything non-Muslim” [9/30/02]
“ALL Arab MUSLIMS lie (the Koran endorses lying to infidels, namely us) — none of these names are real — Abdallah is really Mohammad Mohammad Mohammad readily altered to include Atta or Haj or whatever else they decide to call themselves for the moment.” [7/10/02]
“Gotta love this stupid religion, ISLAM — Makes the Nazis look like a Sunday stroll in the park. ISLAM — it’s gotta be straight from HELL. Just the Devil in disguise — that seems to about sum it up.” [6/14/02]
“Arabs lie. ISLAM preaches lying to Infidels. Fingerprints don’t lie. Boo-hoo — time to demand IDs to check into hotels and passport registration for all foreign nationalists who want hotel rooms. Also, ID checks and passport registrations for anyone renting an apartment.” [6/5/02]
“Let’s get rid of all the Saudi Arabians — that would have gone a long way to preventing Sept. 11.” [6/5/02]
“Yet another violent raghead named Mohammad. What’s new? Islam looks like a cancer, a plague, a deadly virus. No doctor worries about the free speech rights of cancer cells.” [6/5/02]
“Yet another Little Islamic Man of Hate. Is there any other kind?” [5/31/02]
“The only thing the Islamic world understands is force. Let’s destroy a few of these hate schools and start targeting these mad preachers of hate.” [5/22/02]
“Let’s see — who is it not politically correct to profile? Islam the “Peaceful Religion” whose Fundamental believers are insane, suicidal killers that hate America and all democratic societies? Or Arabs whose racial hatred of Jews drives them to create secret societies of terrorists sworn to eliminate Israel and all states who support Israel?” [5/20/02]
“Finally a way to end Jihad. Maybe the whole Arab world will blow itself up — live by the sword, die by the sword — seems an ancient formula. Bye, Bye Jihad.” [5/20/02]
“I repeat: Muslims, cancer cells. It’s hard to tell the difference. No doctor worries about the First Amendment rights of cancer cells. The therapy is to eliminate cancer cells so the body can go on living. Great to repeat it — keeps the thread going. Let the Muslims stop preaching terror and I’ll revise my view. Meanwhile, Muslims, cancer cells is an equation that works.” [5/20/02]
“May all these Arab maniacs explode and kill themselves — next time, maybe they will take Arab*RAT with them. Best solution to the homicide bombers is that they eliminate themselves, with as little loss to civilians as possible.” [5/20/02]
“I repeat: Muslims, cancer cells. It’s hard to tell the difference. No doctor worries about the First Amendment rights of cancer cells. The therapy is to eliminate cancer cells so the body can go on living.” [5/19/02]
“Muslims, cancer cells. It’s hard to tell the difference. No doctor worries about the First Amendment rights of cancer cells. The therapy is to eliminate cancer cells so the body can go on living.” [5/17/02]
“File under the category “Islam is a worthless, violent CULT, not a Religion.”[3/28/02]
CORSI HAS LOST TOUCH WITH EVEN THE FALSE REALITY HE LIVES IN
FALSE: “We find there is even uncertainty whether Stanley Ann and Obama Senior were ever married in a church.” [p. 44]
REALITY:CORSI ADMITS ON THE SAME PAGE THAT OBAMA’S PARENTS HAD A LEGAL AMERICAN MARRIAGE
TIME Reported On Obama’s Parents’ Divorce Records. TIME reported, “On Feb. 2, 1961, several months after they met, Obama’s parents got married in Maui, according to divorce records.” [TIME, 4/9/08]
Corsi Cites Time Story To Say “Divorce Papers Confirm…” Corsi wrote, “Other sources say divorce papers confirm that a civil ceremony was held on Maui, on February 2, 1961, when Ann was three months pregnant with Obama.” Corsi cites the April 9th, 2008 Time story for his reference to Obama’s parents’ wedding. [p. 44]
EVEN A LITTLE BASIC RESEARCH DISPROVES CORSI’S FABRICATIONS
FALSE: “Senator Obama could claim to be a citizen of Kenya, as well as of the United States. Obama can trace his heritage back to his mother, who was born in the United States and was an American citizen when he was born, and to his father, who was born in Kenya and was a Kenyan citizen when Obama was born.” [p 103]
REALITY: OBAMA CANNOT CLAIM KENYAN CITIZENSHIP
Kenya Does Not Allow Dual Citizenship Applications for People Over 21 Years of Age. The U.S. Office of Personnel Management writes of Kenya, “DUAL CITIZENSHIP: Not recognized except for persons under 21 years old.” The Kenyan Constitution writes, “A person who, but for the proviso to section 87 (1), would be a citizen of Kenya by virtue of that subsection shall be entitled, upon making application before the specified date in such manner as may be prescribed by or under an Act of Parliament, to be registered as a citizen of Kenya: Provided that a person who has not attained the age of twenty-one years (other than a woman who is or has been married) may not himself make an application under this subsection, but an application may be made on his behalf by his parent or guardian.” [U.S. Office of Personnel Management; Kenyan Constitution]
Even if Obama Had Applied for Dual Citizenship Before He Was 21–Which He Did Not–It Would Have Expired. “A person who, upon the attainment of the age of twenty-one years, is a citizen of Kenya and also a citizen of some other country other than Kenya shall, subject to subsection (7), cease to be a citizen of Kenya upon the specified date unless he has renounced his citizenship of that other country, taken the oath of allegiance and, in the case of a person who was born outside Kenya, made and registered such declaration of his intentions concerning residence as may be prescribed by or under an Act of Parliament.” [Kenyan Constitution]
INVENTING WILD CONSPIRACIES ABOUT ANYTHING HE CAN
Corsi Wrote a Book Claiming Democrats Were Being Corrupted by Iranian Funding and Helping Iranians Get Nukes. “After their bitter campaign 2004 experience with the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, John Kerry and his fellow Dems aren’t waiting to be shot at again. Yesterday, aides to Sens. Kerry, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden and Ted Kennedy jumped all over literary mugger Jerome Corsi, co-author of the Kerry-bashing best seller ‘Unfit for Command.’ They knocked him to the ground and kicked him in the face (metaphorically, anyway) over his next Democrattrashing tome, ‘Atomic Iran: How the Terrorist Regime Bought the Bomb and American Politicians.’ The book - which Nashville’s Cumberland House Publishing won’t release till next month - claims Democratic pols are being corrupted by Iranian money and helping the nuke-seeking mullahs in Tehran.” [Daily News (New York), 2/24/05]
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“I consider the government of the United States as interdicted by the Constitution from intermeddling in religious institutions, their doctrines, discipline, or exercises. This results not only from the provision that no law shall be made respecting the establishment or free exercise of religion, but from that also which reserves to the states the powers not delegated to the United States. Certainly, no power to prescribe any religious exercise or to assume authority in religious discipline has been delegated to the General Government. It must rest with the States, as far as it can be in any human authority.” (letter from Thomas Jefferson to Samuel Miller, Jan. 23, 1808)
Anytime you find yourself too hopeful that the far right rampage into civil rights will abate in 2008, check out the August 18 issue of Time and a piece on “The Global Ambition of Rick Warren.” Personally I give not a damn if folks want to see Warren as the new Billy Graham since BG was little more worthy of regard than is Warren. I give not a damn if some folks want to fill his coffers and his ego with money and adulation.
But I give a huge damn about one sentence in this report: “And on Aug. 16 he [Warren] will play the role of national inquisitor in a ‘civil forum’ featuring (consecutively, not in debate format) the two presumptive nominees for President, who will fly to Orange County, Calif., to be civilly grilled for an hour apiece.”
I would expect McCain to pander with the Warrenatics, but I hardly expected Obama to participate in the spiritual marblegame that marks America’s emergence as Taliban-in-Waiting.
And I am thunderstruck. Not myself religious, I have until late assumed that one’s beliefs are a personal matter and not subject to the curiosities of the world, much less to litmus tests by commercial enterprises. My sense of fairness is offended entirely by the fact that the privacy I would expect to extend to a believer in any religion is never extended to non-believers. And I am offended by beliefs becoming marketable among the political merchants.
And I am angry, disappointed, and despairing that our country means less to so many of us than does the fleeting satisfaction of making every public figure become a clown for a god he or she says is real.
If anyone find intellectual courage among our public figures, please post yur discovery here.
