So much is going on these days, that I find it hard just to keep track of things. As you’ve probably already noticed, I have added an “Impeach Bush” banner to the top right-hand of this site. Here’s my rationale for this: By condoning secret wiretaps on American citizens and sidestepping the FISA court, George W. Bush has violated our constitutional protections regarding unreasonable searches. As the President, he swore to uphold the Constitution. Since these actions are contrary to that oath, he must be removed. What I’m really dumbfounded about is how Clinton’s BJ ranked as a more serious threat to our nation than Bush’s current actions. As the right wing continues to melt down and crooks and liars are exposed for who they really are, I hope that this demand becomes more powerful. Even if we are unsuccessful in the actual impeachment, it is crucial that we try; someone like Bush, unlike Nixon (who, while a nut, did at least leave the country with a few good social programs,) will never resign.
Since I’m abroad, I am unable to watch the David Letterman show. I like Letterman. He’s got a wit about him that resonates with me. Well, I’m very sad I missed this live, but thanks to the wonders of the internet, I was able to view a segment of his show where he had Bill O’Reilly as a guest. O’Reilly, one of the Right’s most shrill shills, gets his ass handed to him on a silver platter by the king of late night. Enjoy the files in the following formats: (Windows Media – WMV Bittorrent – QuickTime Bittorrent) This is well worth the download – trust me!
I’d also like to announce some new sites that have been added to the Links section of this blog:
MadKane – I stumbled across this lady’s website while looking for limericks for my students. She is a talented humorist who makes political limericks and popular song parodies regarding current political events. Her site includes a blog, lyrics and a podcast.
White Rose Society – I’ve mentioned before that I enjoy listening to the Mike Malloy Show on Air America Radio. Since I’m far from the airwaves, and to listen live I’d have to get up at 6 a.m., I download the episodes from this site. Not only is the Mike Malloy show included, but you’ll find many other liberal talk radio hosts here. Superb service.
GLBT- A new category has been created for GLBT issues.
After Elton – This site discusses the portrayal of GLBT people in the mainstream media.
BlogActive – A very controversial blog, the goal of BlogActive is to illuminate anti-gay types who are found to be gay themselves. Considering that the Republican party is full of such individuals, there is always fresh content.
Uzbekistan – A new category has been created for issues relating to Uzbekistan.
Craig Murray – Mr. Murray was the UK’s former Ambassador to Uzbekistan. Known now as a whistleblower, he refused to keep quiet about the murderous regime of Islam Karimov which was being supported by the US/UK as part of the global “war on terror.” Mr. Murray has recently released some firsthand documents, called the Tashkent Memos – and will soon have a book out on the whole subject. Fascinating reading, and insightful about the dark and dirty side of this new “war.”
Eurasia Insight – This site features articles regarding civil society initiatives in the Central Asia / Caucuses region. This site is mostly sober and article based and offers a good starting point to those who wish to understand the complexities of the region.
neweurasia – This relatively new site is in the list because it purports to be student-run. Some interesting takes on current events.
Registan.net – Arguably the king of Central Asian / Uzbekistan sites, Registan.net provides extensive coverage (and linkage,) along with mostly sound commentary from a libertarian perspective.
In my American History classes, we are now up to World War II, and I’ve set aside the whole month (translation – four 50 minute periods) to study this subject. In my Culture and Civilization classes, we are discussing Iraq. So I decided to kill two birds with one stone and teach both classes the infamous Supreme Court case, Korematsu v United States (1944.) This case regards the internment of Japanese Americans from the West Coast during the war. The basic idea was that since some Japanese Americans may have retained loyalties to the Emperor of Japan, it was not safe to have such individuals living near the West Coast, where they might possibly assist the enemy. FDR approved of this, and the internment was carried out.
The majority opinion of the court agreed that this was Constitutionally valid. Here is some of what the judges had to say:
“Exclusion of those of Japanese origin was deemed necessary because of the presence of an unascertained number of disloyal members of the group… it was impossible to bring about an immediate segregation of the disloyal from the loyal… when under conditions of modern warfare our shores are threatened by hostile forces, the power to protect must be commensurate with the threatened danger.”
A strong dissent was also penned:
“That this forced exclusion was the result in good measure of this erroneous assumption of racial guilt rather than bona fide military necessity is evidenced by the Commanding General’s Final Report on the evacuation.. In it, he refers to all individuals of Japanese descents as “subversive,” as belonging to “an enemy race,” and as constituting, “over 112,000 potential enemies… at large today.” … No reliable evidence is cited to show that such individuals were generally disloyal.. to infer that examples of individual disloyalty prove group disloyalty and justify discriminatory action against the entire group is to deny that under our system of law individual guilt is the sole basis for deprivation of rights… [this is to] open the door to discriminatory actions against other minority groups in the passions of tomorrow.
Amazing, isn’t it? This was 1944. But if we were to substitute a few words, how easily does this translate into today’s “passions….” ? I think as a nation we suffer from historical amnesia. Maybe it’s because the idea of America is progress… out with the old and in with the new. We are so constantly moving away from where we have come, that the actions of the past seem almost irrelevant. Having been in Europe now for half a year, it is clear that the burden of the past, though spoken or implied, weighs heavily on all that is done. Bush often states that our “war on terror” began on 9/11. The absurdity of this statement is tremendous. 9/11 was not the beginning, it was, instead, a culmination. The world did not suddenly change after 9/11, rather American’s woke up to the fact that there is a larger reality beyond the borders of our cities and towns.
I lived for half a year in the country of Uzbekistan. Baring any radical changes, Uzbekistan is headed toward a bloody future. I’ve seen how repression twists people – kills them in a way. And I’m starting to understand why people who come from such situations may be willing to strap some explosives to their chest and give it the good college try. Our support of tyrants, given in the name of fighting terror, but in reality as a desperate measure to ensure that our liquid lifeline keeps flowing, makes us not only weak but also hypocritical. And with Bush in power, the level of these offences has reached a new high (or shall I say low,) and the rest of the world is not so stupid to get upset over the “war on Christmas.”
As Bush himself is fond of saying, these are difficult times. Let us respond to the challenge in the best way we can, first, by cleaning house. Only when those types of individuals who are currently in power are gone can we possibly hope to undo the damage already done, and then, perhaps, try to shape a world that is truly more free and just.
Hiya, Matt! I was swamped the last oh… half a year or so. Full time student, teaching a class, observing in other schools… I couldn’t even keep up with the foreign and independent cinema stream. Now that normalcy is somewhat reestablished, it’s time for job applications. Went to Turkey and Italy in July. (It was my first time overseas.) Other than that, it’s just been work, work, work for the most part, Trin. all over again, but much less free time, and I have to pay my own bills. Can’t wait to get on normal schedule and command a real salary. BTW, don’t get yourself so worked up about the Neocon. administration: despite any patriot act craziness, we’re all doing pretty much the same as we’ve been – an occasional spike in gas prices but nothing crippling. I’ll try and make a point of coming to your site more often. It’s really nice. 🙂
-Jon
I agree with pretty much everything you’ve said, as I would be delighted to see Bush gone. However, I think there is only one thing that can convince a person to strap on explosives, and that is primal, unappeasable religious zealotry.
The US didn’t just support tyrants in Vietnam, we went in and leveled the place. We bombed Cambodia. We messed with probably every third-world South American country there is to mess with, and yet to my knowledge, there hasn’t been one suicide attack carried out against us by South Americans. Why? Because, as justifiably angry as they are at us, they aren’t motivated by a faith – I should say interpretation of a faith – that promises them paradise for dead infidels.
The last time we experienced suicide attacks as a matter of enemy policy was World War II, in the form of the Japanese kamikaze fighters. They killed themselves because, once again, they thought they were serving a god, not a political figure. The Germans never did that. The Italians never did that. Even the Iraqi Army didn’t launch suicide attacks on us, because as feared and powerful as Hitler and Hussein were, they didn’t represent anybody’s shot at an afterlife.
Repression and injustice do unimaginable things to people, no question. But the kind of terrorism we’re dealing with today is fueled by religious fanaticism, and fanaticism doesn’t respond to “cleaning house”. Fanaticism doesn’t care.
As long as we support Israel and lead a culture of rights, tolerance and freedom – and you can read that as “gay rights, tolerance of Jews, and freedom of speech” – we will be a target. Not as much of a target, hopefully, if our elected officials can avoid pissing off the entire planet, but a target nonetheless.
The War on Terror in its current form is an embarrassment to all of us. But I think it needs to be recognized that there are some enemies who will never be satisfied with any amount of housecleaning we do. The fact that they are poor and carry Soviet-era rifles, and we’re rich and carry nuclear missiles, does not make their cause a just one. And the fact that Bush is an arrogant imbecile doesn’t make the need to deal with them any less real.
Hey Jon, good to hear from you again. I’ll say hi the next time I’m online.
Chris,
Well reasoned and said.
Thanks 🙂
If you are on WWII, don’t forget Rosie the Riveter and the movement she sparked, or call me, and I will come give your class a a good dose of uppity woman.
In a quick response to CRBS- I would just like to ask the (yes, rhetorical) question of how such intolerant religious zealotry can appeal to anyone to undergo such acts of faith, if you will, by committing suicide for their cause? Admittingly, the kamikaze had to convince themselves that their cause was just, but you must know that they had little choice either way- it was fly your plane into a ship or be shot. Kamikaze, for all involved, were an act of desperation, not one of wartime policy. The populace was convinced that if captured, they would suffer unimaginable torture and enslavement by the US. Furthermore, Japan’s defeat and subsequent rapid rise through industrial modernization has to a large extent agnosticized the country and turned people against religion as a matter of state policy (despite what China would have to say about it).
Where did religion itself originate? Could the cavemen have seen lightning and reason it as a static electrical discharge? Could the Mesopotamians suffered draught and famine and plague and attributed it to climate change or lack of generic-brand vaccines? No, all religion has stemmed from a need to explain the unexplainable – in short, from ignorance and destitution. Religion (and, I should mention, the US military’s recruiting offices) are quick to capitalize on the wealth of poor, hopeless and most of all ignorant young men and women who are looking for an answer, a job, a reason, whatever. The religious institutions are often the only sources of money in these regions, and they invest it for their causes shrewdly. Take a poor kid who’ll probably starve to death or work as a slave and fill his belly, give him a gun (or an explosive vest), and point at the enemy, and you’ve got your answer.
Now of course the counter argument to this is the whole “the 9/11 hijackers weren’t that poor, and you certainly have to have a little education to fly a plane into a building” schtick. I think this is a point where religious zealotry, combined with a hearty dose of ultra-nationalism, had brainwashed people into doing what they did. But watching the recent film “Munich”, the point of “doing anything for your country [whether that be actual or percieved]” was quite poignantly raised. What would YOU do if you thought the whole world was out to get you and kill all of your people? Just ask Mohammed Atta, or for that matter, Ariel Sharon.
Less Bush, more Romania, please. How is your day to day life living there?
estielmo(at)yahoo(dot)com