Prison Ships and Prison Hulks the Irony Isn't Lost

According to the Guardian the U.S. military has apparently been holding terror suspects on prison ships to keep the suspects away from prying eyes:

The United States is operating "floating prisons" to house those arrested in its war on terror, according to human rights lawyers, who claim there has been an attempt to conceal the numbers and whereabouts of detainees.

This is more than a bit ironic since the historic basis of our country treating prisoner of war decently started with George Washington who was appalled at the treatment of American POWs including being held in prison hulks

The Bush Administration has this uncanny ability to tear apart the very foundations that has made the United States an example of democracy and a force for good to much of the world. It almost seems like they are doing in on purpose.

Neville Chamberlain

What did you think of when you saw the post title: Neville Chamberlain? What if I through in the word "appeasement?"

Why am I asking? Well first some background. Apparently President Bush is attempting to slap Barack Obama (not explicitly mentioning his name mind you) with the label of appeaser based on Obama's desire to talk with Hamas to help make some settlement to bring peace between the Palestinians and Israel. He even made a comparison between Obama and Neville Chamberlain appeasing Hitler. You can check out the video here (via Crooks and Liars) along with some commentary from MSNBC talking heads.

So back to the question. I asked it because a GOP operative trotted out the Republican talking points of calling Obama an appeaser like Chamberlain on Hardball with Chris Matthews. Now, I'm not a Chris Matthews fan but I was impressed when he asked the guy what Chamberlain did that made him an appeaser. The GOP operative was of course clueless because they didn't include that information in his talking points for the day.

I was enjoying the roasting of the GOPer when I thought to myself what DID Chamberlain do exactly to get the label of appeaser. I wracked my brain for a second and then I thought "I think it was let Hitler get away with invading Czechoslovakia with out any consequences." Well I was at least very close. Then I wondered how many Americans could really come up with the guess I did and would just say "Yeah appeaser." with no thought to what it really meant.

Chamberlain was an appeaser because he allowed Hitler to take and take with no repercussions. Negotiating with an opponent is obviously NOT appeasement. It is a way to solve problems as Bush well knows (cough) North Korea (cough) Axis of Evil (cough). Sometimes the hypocrisy of the Bush administration drives me crazy.

Actually Republicans DO Have Horns Growing Out Of Their Heads They Just File Them Down

or Overheard At The Coffee Shop

I like to write at coffee shops. Getting out of the house or the office helps me focus on my writing instead of the television, chores that need to be done or other distractions.

Coffee shops can also provide a good source of material for rants, blog posts, fiction and articles. Today, for example I was sitting at Zeitgeist in Pioneer Square just drinking my latte (no I don't wear Birkenstocks) and doing a little bit of writing when three guys sat down at the next table and started talking a bit too loudly. I was doing a pretty good job of ignoring them until one of them said...

"...a Republican and you don't have horns growing out of your head."

That got me thinking, and you know what... Republicans DO have horns growing out of their head most of them just file them down. For example:

FOX News: Files their horns down with "Fair and Balanced"
Bill O'Reilly: "No Spin Zone"
John McCain: "Straight Talk Express"
George W. Bush: Good ol' boy, man of the pepple, werkin' at his ranch
Dick Cheney: ...wait you can actually SEE his horns if you squint just right.

My point is that Republicans get upset when people see them as evil bastards but they don't do anything to disavow themselves of the elements of their party that are either pretty damn evil or are evil enablers; you know "the guy who runs in to the convenience store to get Satan a pack of cigarettes."

Truth, Justice and the American Way

I just finished reading a story. Well ok I’ll admit it- a comic book – a Superman comic book. It was published in January of 2001, well before the events of 9/11 that fundamentally changed the United States of America.

Superman has always been a fighter for good. Unlike many superheroes like Batman, Wolverine and other vigilantes, he has always tried to work within the system and not around it. He has been called a “boy scout” and unrealistic because of this, but its one of the things I most respect about the character. From the beginning Superman has been one of, if not the most powerful beings on his Earth. He chose not to use that power to enforce HIS will upon people; he chose to use it to serve the people and THEIR will.

The saying goes,”absolute power corrupts absolutely.” In Superman we have a character that defies this truism and instead voluntarily limits himself to be ruled by the will of the people (the government of the US.) Instead of hunting down Lex Luthor and tossing him out into space once and for all, he lets our system of justice rule the day. Does Luthor keep coming back? Yes. And Superman keeps bringing him to justice. Is it hard to keep fighting the bad guys day after day when you could just end it? I’m sure it is.

Being the good guy is hard. You have to follow rules, you have to listen to other people’s opinions, and you have to lose sometimes even when you know you could have won by cheating or looking the other way just this once. If being good was easy; everybody would be wearing a white hat. The guys wearing the black hats have more fun. They get to do whatever they want. They don’t like the way you look they kill you. They want your car? They take it and you are lucky they didn’t kill you. They don’t care. They just do. They feel they have the right to do anything they can get away with.

Since 9/11 the United States has slowly been losing its iconic white hat. We used to be kind of the Superman of the world at least symbolically, and now we are turning into a vigilante at best, the evil black hat at worst. I’m not naïve. I know that the U.S. government has always done things that are not 100% above board and law abiding. But it used to be that the government would have to hide the extraordinary rendition, the illegal wire tapping or the unlimited detainment of people under a haze of plausible deniability. If they didn’t the People would rise up, expose the problems and they would have to at least release some people or stop some project or another. I guess what I mean to say when someone ferreted out that the government was breaking the law – we the People had some recourse to stop it. Now, the government pretty much just DOES stuff and if they get caught they say “So What?”

I liked the fact that we were Superman, and I think we are in danger of going past the point where we can never get out white hat back again.

I'm Back!

Ah... it has been a long time since I have updated Turpentine (Note: my old blog) and lots of things have happened since. So to bring everybody up to date:

In mid-October 2004 I was diagnosed with Carpal Tunnel Syndrome so I was forced to give up much of my typing and since I have to do some at work...this blog had to suffer.

In early November 2004 - Bush was declared the winner of an election that had MORE irregularities than the last one he was declared the winner of in 2000. Not to mince words - this fucking depressed the hell out of me. To compound my depression Kerry basically gave up without a fight. He reneged on his promise to make sure every vote was counted; he really screwed the folks in Ohio.

This depression/funk lasted through Retail HELL Season (Christmas) when we store owner work 7 days a week 12 hour days, and towards the New Year when we STILL didn't have a governor here in Washington.

Then Christine Gregoire (D) was determined to have won the election for Governor by less than 150 votes after 3 counts. This gave me some hope for the future of Washington even though this result is still being disputed by the Republicans. In some of the thickest political irony I've ever seen they want to have a REVOTE. Can you see the bloody murder they would be screaming if the Democrats had suggested such a think if Rossi had won? (Not to mention Bush.)

But what finally snapped me out of my funk was Howard Dean being elected to the chair of the DNC. Now I have hope that the Democratic Party is not going to swerve to the Right to try and get votes from people that will never vote for them anyway. I think that I would rather have us fail and be true to our values and ideas than try to squirm and weasel our way into victory.

Coincidentally, my carpal tunnel symptoms seem to have lessened so I can type now. I even got another letter to the editor published in the Seattle PI, this one about how the Republicans are trying to twist FDRs words into an endorsement for their "private/personal" Social Security accounts. The letter I was responding to is here.

Thanks for stopping by...see ya soon.

Scott

First Debate to Kerry

Thursday's debate was pretty important, especially for the leaners and undecideds in the country. I think that Kerry showed that he could be a strong confindent leader, not the wishy-washy flipflopper that Bush tries to make him out to be.

This debate should have been Bush's to dominate. Foreign policy is his ONLY strength in the polls. (Ok people would rather have a beer with him but he's a teetotaler so that doesn't count.) Instead of coming out on the attack he basically just stuck to his normal stump speech points - Kerry flip-flops and Iraq wasn't a mistake. His first point is wrong but can easily be made to appear correct if you edit the footage correctly. The second point is so incredibly wrong that you wonder if Bush is in the sam universe as the rest of us. I mean obvioulsy he can't say "I made a mistake." But I really don't think he has any concept of how screwed up Iraq is. He blew his best chance to score big and grab a lead that Kerry couldn't come back from, so Kerry gets the Win for this one.

That said, I think that Kerry could have done better. He did well to get Bush on the defensive right at the start, but he kind of fumbled in the middle. If Bush hadn't been making faces at Kerry like a petulant 6 year old and unable to think on his feet, I think the debate would have been a tie more than the grand victory the Dems and most media outlets have declared it to be

Help Free Illegally Detained Iraqis

Kerrie sent me this link from Amnesty International. Many men, women and children are being held in Iraq by the new govenment in horrifying conditions for no apparent reason.

Amnesty International is trying to get people to write letters to the new Prime Minister. Read more below or just check it out via the link above.

Seriously... if you believe in really helping Iraqis be free you should send a letter.

-------

Thousands of men, women and children are still held without charge or trial in detention facilities in Iraq, including Abu Ghraib, after the official end of the occupation on 28 June 2004. Some detainees are housed in tents, and are suffering under the intense heat of Iraq's summer.

The cases of Nahla Hafez Ahmad, a mother of four, and her sister Huda are typical. Nahla was detained by US troops in the al-A'dhamiya neighbourhood of Baghdad in November 2003; when Huda went to look for her, she too was taken into detention. Others in their family are also believed to have been detained, including their brother Ayad, who reportedly died in custody in December 2003. Nahla, whose health is said to be fragile, and Huda were not seen by a lawyer for more than six months. Although Huda and Nahla were released on 17 July, thousands of others remain in detention without charge or trial.

The Iraqi authorities must act now to address the injustices inflicted on Nahla, Huda and all those illegally detained in Iraq.


Take action!

Write to the Iraqi government, urging that it respects the human rights of those held in Abu Ghraib and other places of detention across the country. You could base your letters on the following example:

Dear

I am deeply concerned that, weeks after the transfer of power to your government, thousands of people are still held without charge in your country.

Your government must ensure that all prisoners and detainees in Iraq are informed promptly of the reasons of their detention; that they are brought promptly before an independent judicial authority; that they have access to their relatives, lawyers and doctors without delay; that all complaints of torture are promptly, impartially and effectively investigated and that the methods and findings of such investigations are made public.

Thank you for your attention to this matter and I look forward to your response.

Sincerely,

Please send appeals to: *


Dr. Iyad ‘Allawi
Prime Minister
Interim Government of Iraq
Convention Centre (Qasr al-Ma’aridh)
Baghdad
Iraq


Salutation: Your Excellency

Unpublished Letter to the Editor

Editor,

John Kerry has been repeatedly tagged as a flip-flopper by President Bush and his supporters by taking his statements out of context. A great example of this is his supposed flip-flop on maintaining the troop strength in South Korea.

On August 1st on 'This Week', Sen. Kerry said, "If the diplomacy that I believe can be put in place can work, I think we can significantly change the deployment of troops, not just (in Iraq), but elsewhere in the world. In the Korean peninsula perhaps, in Europe perhaps."

On Wednesday, Kerry said that he was concerned about Bush's "hastily announced" plan because it would be "withdrawing unilaterally 12,000 troops from the Korean Peninsula at the very time that we are negotiating with North Korea, a country that really has nuclear weapons"

Is there a flip-flop here? No. Kerry said that he would perhaps pull troops out of South Korea if he could use diplomacy to defuse the situation there. He is worried that Bush is pulling out troops out and weakening our hand against the threat of North Korea without first defusing the situation. Sounds pretty consistent to me.

Sincerely,

Scott M Taylor