The Heretik

Hey, What Century Is this? Is 2005 The Year after 1933?

2005 or  1933?

THIS IS YOUR PRESIDENT.  THIS IS WHAT YOUR PRESIDENT SAYS:
"If this were a dictatorship, it would be a heck of a lot easier, so long as I'm the dictator."


From: Obsidian Wings.

All Ideas (that I agree with) Are On the Table via Marshall Repeatedly since his re-election, President Bush has said he's willing to listen to "all ideas" about how to reform Social Security.

AND WHERE DO WE AMERICANS FIND OURSELVES NOW?

from Reuters: SENATOR ROBERT BYRD ON TUESDAY compared Republican threats to change Senate rules to outlaw procedural hurdles that have blocked 10 of President Bush's judicial candidates to Hitler jamming legislation through the German Reichstag.

"Hitler never abandoned the cloak of legality; he recognized the enormous psychological value of having the law on his side," the Democrat from West Virginia said. "Instead, he turned the law inside out and made illegality legal."

SENATOR RICK SANTORUM of Pennsylvania, a member of the Republican leadership, said in a statement, "Senator BYRD'S INAPPROPRIATE REMARKS  comparing his Republican colleagues with Nazis are INEXCUSABLE."

ADL Director Abraham Foxman said: "It is HIDEOUS, outrageous and OFFENSIVE for Senator Byrd to suggest that the Republican Party's tactics could in any way resemble those of Adolf HITLER and the Nazi Party."

Republican Party Chairman Ken Mehlman said, "Senator Byrd's invocation of Hitler's Germany ... is REPREHENSIBLE  and beyond the pale."

SOME COMPARISONS ARE BEYOND THE PALE?  WHAT IS MORE OFFENSIVE? THE ACT OR THE RESPONSE?  WHO IS BEING ASKED TO SHUT UP? WHO IS UNAMERICAN?

No Dogs In In Fight for Truth on Torture

Bad Faith
How The White House Bends the Truth About Torture with a Straight Face
What follows is a sad and all too brief analysis of how the press doesn't get the story on torture and extraordinary rendition, even when one reporter dogs the question.  The Heretik's sad analysis and conclusion in red.

from White House PressConference 2/28/05 with White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan

 

Q Has the President ever issued an order against torture of prisoners? And do we still send prisoners to Syria to be tortured?

 

A direct question has been asked.

 

MR. McCLELLAN: The President has stated publicly that we do not condone torture and that he would never authorize the use of torture. He has made that --

 

Stated publicly, but what about privately?  Do we still send prisoners to Syria direct question unanswered

 

Q But has he issued an order?

 

The question about Syria and torture asked again.

 

MR. McCLELLAN: -- statement very publicly, and he's made it clear to everybody in the government that we do not torture.

 

He has made that statement very publicly, but what about privately.   He's made it very clear to everybody that we  do not torture.  He has made it very clear.  There is no denial in this.  McClellan here sounds more like a public relations agent rather than someone addressing the press Bush says he  respects.

 

Q Well, why do we still hear these stories then?

 

Another question, less direct.  Grasp of the subject is tiring for the reporter.  Why not ask: Scott, why have you not answered my question?

 

MR. McCLELLAN: If there are allegations of wrongdoing, then the President expects those allegations to be fully investigated and if there is actual wrongdoing that occurs, then people need to be held to account. The President has made that very clear.

 

If  . . . then construction allows McClellan to sound like he is answering  the question forthrightly.  If the allegations, however are never acknowleged, there is no full investigation, no actual wrongdoing found, no one held to account.  This is where the deceit takes place.

 

Q Well, do you deny that we still send prisoners to other countries to be tortured? Is that a denial?

 

Reporter regains strength.  Direct question about extraordinary renditions.

 

MR. McCLELLAN: Judge Gonzales testified previously that we have an obligation not to render people to countries that we know would torture them.

 

Second critical point.  Acknowleging an obligation is not the same as honoring the obligation.

 

Q He did not rule out torture.

 

Reporter points out the question has not been answered.

 

MR. McCLELLAN: Go ahead, David.

 

Press Secretary and other reporters move on. The following mainstream reporter is not interested in pursuing truth here, he is looking for access to McClellan .

 

Q Scott, you said this morning that for Iran . . .

The White House could not get away with this cynical strategy of divide and conquer if the press were not so willing to stand divided.  Getting to the deeper truth regarding extraordinary rendition is predicated upon the White House's knowlege that the press willingly divides itself.  He's done that question,  I'm not following up on it.  I need my own turf, my stake. So the press is complicit in its own conquest.

The reality that the White House limits its skirmishing dog fights with the press to a minimum has been acknowleged. The implications have not.  So long as members of the mainstream media given access to the President in the Age of Guckert/Gannon do not press for real answers, the American people will continue to suffer the illusion that the founding principles of this country are not floundering and drowning in a sea of shame abroad. 

While there is much whining in the established media complaining about the pack dog mentality of "those damn bloggers who do not check their facts," the dogged truth is that bloggers have their dogs in this fight and others do not, not so much.  The mainstream media doesn't want to appear to be a wolf pack hungry for truth.  Too bad. A polite dog never wins the bone.

Access to sources means more than getting to truth from the same sources.  It is a sad commentary on a sad situation.  Prisoners, legal and otherwise, will continue to be tortured while reporters torture themselves over how they will look to liars and thieves.

Uppity Woman: A Continuing Appreciation for Sophie Scholl

Ignorance and evil are commonplace.  How many know much else about Hannah Arendt but for her succinct comment on “the banality of evil?”  Evil, banal or otherwise, simple in its brutality or complex in its machinations, surrounds us now, a foul vapor that chokes the spirit. What is the role of a citiizen?  How are we to respond?

The real damage is done by those millions who want to 'survive.'The honest men who just want to be left in peace. Those who don’t want their  little lives disturbed by anything bigger than themselves. Those with no sides and no causes. Those who won’t take measure of their own strength, for fear of antagonizing their own weakness. Those who don’t like to make waves—or enemies. Those for whom freedom, honor, truth, and principles are only literature.

Out in the open darkness descends with crushing weight.  A light flickers in what looks to be a house.  Best to find comfort from the chill and the dark and silence.  Find it in that small house, with a small light.
      

Those who live small, mate small, die small. It’s the reductionist approach to life: if you keep it small, you’ll keep it under control. If you don’t make any noise, the bogeyman won’t find you.

Ours is an anonymous age.  If there is a problem, let someone else deal.  Nuance unneeded, details dispatched, death, destruction, and destiny await only others or those who deserve their fate.  Don’t people only get what they deserve?

But it’s all an illusion, because they die too, those people who roll up their spirits into tiny little balls so as to be safe. Safe?! From what?

I am searching now for one uppity woman.  Yes.  Needed now: one uppity woman.  An uppity woman would confront these dragons, fight them all with a more fierce flame, send them all flameless back to their caves.  I am searching now for my own Sophie Scholl.

Life is always on the edge of death; narrow streets lead to the same place as wide avenues, and a little candle burns itself out just like a flaming torch does. I choose my own way to burn.

I have found my Sophie Scholl, but only in the pages of history.  From those pages yet she speaks to me. . She is the  white rose undying,  even in defeat undaunted. The wisdom of a spirit withers not nor wilts.   

And Sophie would look at me and say: What you would find in me you must instead find in yourself.

A brief not before continuing.
All entries by The Heretik on Uppity Women were inspired by a piece by : James Wolcott.

Additional entries on Uppity Women can be found here and here (a shorter appreciation of Sophie Scholl, her brother and a friend).  This piece incorporates some of the shorter appreciation.

Thanks to my friend Bad Tux for continuing the story and from whom I found Sophie's quote above.  Bad Tux is a very Snarky Penguin.  Visit him on his ice floe.

Thanks to Bruderhof as source of quote and white rose pic.

But back to Sophie.

Putin Uncowed By Bush: Mooooo!

 
Putin to Bush: I'm sure you'll kick ass in the final round of Jeapordy, George.  Just try not to blow us all up, okay?

NTodd  has a Russian friend who says when Bush sanctimoniously lectured Putin on  democracy,  Putin pushed back a lot more than revealed in the White House transcript of their meeting in Constitution Hall in Bratislava Castle in Bratislava, Slovakia.

Said Putin in response to Bush's belabored hectorings on Russian shortcomings as an emerging democracy: 

Ch'ia by korova mychala, a tvoya molchala = Whose cow would moo, while yours would be silent = The pot calling the kettle black.

Those crazy poetic Russians with those nutty aphorisms.  Nothing like this appears in the official White House version of the meeting.

While I don't speak Russian yet (and unless I have an exorcist, speaking in tongues moment, I never will), this may or may not be the moment NTodd's friend is talking about.  Maybe not:

PRESIDENT PUTIN:  First of all, what do you mean when you say, I keep silent -- or we keep silent about this or that problem?  First of all, I'm not the minister of propaganda.

I am not, what about you, George?

Bush also made the following comments without the slightest touch of irony:

On Putin :on Iraq.  He didn't kind of hedge.

Isn't kind of hedge a kind of hedge?

On how he deals with like um everything: I'm perfectly comfortable in telling you, our country is one that safeguards human rights and human dignity, and we resolve our disputes in a peaceful way.

Bush on the press: I think it's important any viable democracy has got a free and active press.

On the press again : But no question, whether it be in America or anywhere else, the sign of a healthy and vibrant society is one in where there's an active press corps.  Obviously, there has got to be constraints.  There's got to be truth.  People have got to tell the truth, and if somebody violates the truth, then those who own a particular newspaper or those who are in charge of particular electronic station need to hold people to account.  The press -- the capacity of the press to hold people to account also depends on their willingness to self-examine at times when they're wrong.  And that happens on occasion in America.  And that's -- that's an important part of maintaining a proper relationship between government and press.

I can assure you that the folks here are constantly trying to hold me to account for decisions I make and how I make decisions.  I'm comfortable with that.  It's part of the checks and balances of a democracy.

Full White House Version here

Finally I find it interesting that when Bush is in the most formal occasions with foreign leaders, he always refers to them by their first names.  Vladimir, this, Vladimir, that. While it makes him sound like the two of them are such good buds, it also makes it sound like Bush thinks Putin is his houseboy.

Bush's homie Putin (Vlad, can I call you Vlad?) sounds like he isn't  playing that game.

 

 

Wanted: More Uppity Women

The world needs more uppity women, women who see the evil in the world and have the courage to poke the devil in the eye. James Wolcott writes often of the plight of the "ice queen" and "castrating bitches"  of the world.  But The Heretik says if it takes a challenging cut or two to change the world for the  better, let the balls drop where they may.  February 22, 1943 is the seventysecond anniversay of the death of Sophie Scholl, a lifetime away.  Here let her story live a moment longer.

Hans Scholl, Sophie Scholl, Christoph Probst
note: Hans wears the Wehrmacht uniform.

ON FEBRUARY 22, 1943, SOPHIA MAGDALENA SCHOLL, HANS FRITZ SCHOLL, AND CHRISTOPH HERMANN PROBST FACED DOWN THE MACHINE OF DEATH IN NAZI GERMANY FOR THE LAST TIME.  IN LOSING THEIR LIVES, THEY RECLAIMED  A SMALL PART OF THE SOUL OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE.

Distributing The White Rose Letters in opposition to a monstrous Nazi regime in leaflet form, the Scholls and Probst challenged evil in a battle, a part of a seemingly endless war. They did not succumb to their fears, but pressed on in a fight impossible to win in fact, but one they knew must be won in spirit.

All of them brave, Sophie was perhaps most courageous in the face of the court, in the face of death.  To the illegally constituted court that convicted her, she spoke in a strong voice words without a wavering, she spoke with a simple vision and wisdom courage alights on the brave:

SOMEBODY, AFTER ALL, HAD TO MAKE A START. WHAT WE WROTE AND SAID IS ALSO BELIEVED BY MANY OTHERS. THEY JUST DON'T DARE TO EXPRESS THEMSELVES AS WE DID.

For their courage in seeing the corruption of evil that corrodes the human spirit, for fighting a battle that could not be won that day, Hans Scholl, Sophie Scholl, and Chrstoph Probst were murdered by the Nazis on February 22, 1943.

Oscar Voters Will Stuff the Ballot Box for Martin Scorcese!

 

BUT DON'T HIS CHARACTERS SAY FUCK A LOT?

Fuck, yeah!
Leonardo? 
The Aviator?
The reason to give Scorcese the Oscar for Best Director this year is for what he did twentyfive years ago?
Hey, that shit happens all the time. The guy just kicks ass,fucking ass. Musical. Documentary.
Raging Bull. A Number 1, Top of the Heap.
Nuff Effing Said.

Thanks to : Out of Focus

Karl Rove: Shoot the Grandparents Now!

WARNING: Objects That Appear Straight
On May Actually Tilt To The Right
As reported in from all the usual sources in the Free
Republic of Blogostan (3 martini, AmericaBlog,
Daily Kos Kossack Imp of the Perverse, Digby,
and Crown Prince Atrios himself), Karl Rove has
sent out another Kill Order.  From the people who
brought you the Swift Boat Veterans and other
infamies, it's time to kill the messenger again. 

Shoot the grandparents!  Get the geezers in a
shotgun blast that mixes fact with fiction! 
Do those old bastards and bastardettes think
they have any right to comment on Medicare
legislation or on that abomination Tom Scully? 
AARP commenting on prescription drug prices? 
And not agreeing with us? 
We'll give them a bitter pill to swallow!

To the boats, Swift Boat Veterans,
to the boats!  Another target has been found!
Smear them! Smear them! Smear the queers!
Smear the queers and the geezers now!

Update 9:30PM EST February 21, 2005

 

Compiled by The Heretik's Research Assistant
February 21, 2005 8:30 PM  EST Updated Often!

"Abu Ghraib in Brooklyn"
 

A Lament for A Fallen Hero here

W W W W W W W W!!!!!! here

here
 

Missing Pieces in the Puzzle
of John Negroponte  here
 

MALCOLM X here

The Iraq War Comes Home Before the Soldiers

HORRORS HIT HOME FRONT

MORE FROM THE TWILIGHT ZONE
NO GREYS, ONLY BLACK AND WHITE
MOSTLY BLACK

Follow the Progression: Gitmo, Abu Ghraib,
Gulag ghost ships, extraordinary rendition
of prisoners to Syria and Egypt, but
it happened first in Brooklyn.
From: New York Daily News

Maybe there is hope.  This isn't being reported out here in The Blogostan Daily News.  It's The New York Daily News, jeebus.

Great Commentary from: Juan Cole at Informed Consent

Bush Would Bomb Iran in June 2005

02/19/05 --United for Peace of Pierce County (WA) - -Scott Ritter, appearing with journalist Dahr Jamail yesterday in Washington State, dropped two shocking bombshells in a talk delivered to a packed house in Olympia’s Capitol Theater. The ex-Marine turned UNSCOM weapons inspector said that George W. Bush has "signed off" on plans to bomb Iran in June 2005, and claimed the U.S. manipulated the results of the recent Jan. 30 elections in Iraq.

New War Slogan
Another Front in the War on Everything (tm)

From Information Clearing House: Scott Ritter Says U.S. Plans June Attack On Iran.