Sidney Blumenthal (The Guardian): Ridicule and contempt

[Jack Rabbit]

From The Guardian Unlimited (London)
Dated Thursday May 4

Ridicule and contempt
An imperial president is smothering the system of checks and balances, imperiling free speech
By Sidney Blumenthal

The most scathing public critique of the Bush presidency and the complicity of a craven press corps was delivered at the annual White House Correspondents' Association dinner on Saturday by a comedian. Bush was reported afterwards to be seething, while the press corps responded with stone-cold silence. In many of their reports of the event they airbrushed out the joker.

Stephen Colbert performed within 10 yards of Bush's hostile stare and before 2,600 members of the press and their guests. After his mock praise of Bush as a rock against reality, Colbert censured the press by flattering its misfeasance. "Over the last five years you people were so good - over tax cuts, WMD intelligence, the effect of global warming. We Americans didn't want to know, and you had the courtesy not to try to find out ... Here's how it works: the president makes decisions ... The press secretary announces those decisions, and you people of the press type those decisions down. Make, announce, type. Just put 'em through a spellcheck and go home ... Write that novel you got kicking around in your head. You know, the one about the intrepid Washington reporter with the courage to stand up to the administration. You know - fiction!".

The day after Colbert's performance, the New York Times published a front-page story on the latest phase of the administration's war on the press. Bush is weighing "the criminal prosecution of reporters under the espionage laws". Since the Washington Post exposed the existence of CIA "black site" prisons holding detainees without due process of law and the New York Times disclosed the president's order to the National Security Agency to engage in domestic surveillance without legal court warrants, the administration has applied new draconian methods to clamp down.

"Has the New York Times violated the Espionage Act?" asks an article in the neoconservative journal Commentary by Gabriel Schoenfeld, a senior editor, that lays out the case for prosecution. When the Post and Times won Pulitzer prizes for their stories, William Bennett, a former Republican cabinet secretary and now a commentator on CNN, said: "What they did is worthy of jail."

Read more.

[yurbud]

1. since Democrats won't act, there will be a moment like in V

when the public sees what these guys are doing and turns on them and acts on the spot.

In the movie, it was a scene where the secret police started beating a little girl for vandalizing a poster of the chimp equivalent in the movie.

[Jack Rabbit]

2. I haven't seen V, but that's an interesting thought

My own thoughts go more to mass protests demanding regime change (impeachment of His Imperial Incompetency and Cheney) through the summer accompanied by further revelations of why the regime should be ousted. His Imperial Incompetency's approval ratings slide into the twenties and all he can do is rattle his saber at Iran. The world knows that Iran cannot develop a nuclear weapon for several years and makes it clear that war will not be tolerated. Zungzwang. He's out of good moves. Not even Diebold can save the Republicans now.

[november3rd]

4. WMD & Diebold

On the contrary, nuclear weapons and Diebold will "save" the GOP. Although as Howard Zinn says, even the executioners are victims in the power-exploitation theory of history.

BushCo has the Pentagon over a barrel--the so-called War on Terror. With their forces so vulnerable and everyone's career on the line, the Chiefs are going to play it loyal to the end. Otherwise tanks would already have surrounded the Mall and escorted the relevant Republicans to jail.

But that's not going to happen until after the Homeland Security police are turned upon the mobs of protesters you predict are coming to Washington.

Bring 'em on. The change the People should effect will take great sacrifice. But if we don't do it soon, then it's America the Empire a la Starship Troopers and 1984.

The thing about V is, the hero was able to lead unselfishly, even to the point of sacrificing his life, and sacrificing the old system--including Parliament itself--which implied a willingness to commit to a whole lot of hard work in order to create a new, improved, more just society and government.

How many of us are willing to take the time out from our careers and pursuit of pleasure to make a similar commitment?

There's the catch.

[Jack Rabbit]

5. I disagree

His Imperial Incompetency and his court have three problems:

Problem number one: Who is going to believe anything Bush or his aids say? The jig is up for these guys. It's incredible to watch them try to manipulate there way into war with Iran exactly the same way they manipulated their way into a war with Iraq. That may have worked once, but we're a lot wiser now. People who were fooled last time aren't being fooled again. That is one biggest reasons Bush's approval rating in yesterday's Gallup Poll is 30%. Even if Iran could produce a bomb tomorrow, who would believe Bush if he said so?

Problem number two: Iran is not an immediate threat. Even assuming the Iranians have every desire to build a bomb, they will not be able to do this for years. There is no urgency to solve the problem of Iran now. In time should be used to pressure Iran into cooperating with the IAEA. If that fails, then the issue of miltary action against Iran to prevent her from building a bomb can be revisited. However, by that time, we will hopefully have competent people in power in Washington who will be less likely to bungle diplomacy and prevent a war and less likely to bungle a war if that is necessary.

Problem number three: There is no reason to believe Iran and al Qaida are in an alliance. What is the connection between Osama, who is supporting the Sunni extremist Zarqawi against the Shia majority in Iraq, and Iran, which supports the Shia cause in Iraq?

Putting the three problems together, His Imperial Incompetency and his court will not be able to paint Iran as an immediate threat the way he painted Iraq as one three years ago. And unless you believe one of the wackier conspiracy theories in which September 11 was really a staged event, it would only be by chance that a terrorist attack will inadvertently come to Bush's rescue a second time. Barring a terroist strike that could be firmly laid at Iran's doorstep, he won't be a war. Frankly, I don't think the Iranians are that stupid.

Otherwise, it all sounds very familiar. A nation that is at worst in danger of becoming a threat sometime years from now is being painted as an immediate threat and that nation is also being portayed as having a relationship with al Qaida that is, in fact. doubtful. Ironically, Iran really is a greater threat than Iraq. Iran may really have a nuclear weapons program and she really does have a working relationship with terrorists oranizations, although al Qaida is not among them.

[Jack Rabbit]

3. Discussion also open in GD

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