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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
From the A Tiny Revolution post:
President Bush praised Yugoslavia for handing over Milosevic, saying the move showed the Balkan nation wants to turn away from ''its tragic past and toward a brighter future.''
Absurdly, the current argument is that the Bush administration should not not be prosecuted because the United States needs to look "away from its tragic past and toward a brighter future" so as not to become victim of unproductive partisan bickering.
Regarding the snubbing. I recommend you take a look at Michael Shaw's (BAGnewsNotes) deconstruction of the clip shown on American television in the context of a much larger bit of film. It is Shaw's contention that Bush was neither engaging nor receiving a snub. It appears that Bush was looking for his marks on the floor - as illustrated in the same behavior exhibited by others, doing the same thing. It was a carefully staged photo op.
— bystander
Then it is encouraging that there are world leaders who find it possible to shake hands and chat with others even while looking for their marks. Or was Bush the designated mark-finder, leaving others free to interact normally with their contemporaries?
I'm glad you mentioned the bombing of the Al Jazeera station. I'm not sure there even is another power that has done something like that as consistently to observers of conflicts (the China Embassy bombing in Kosovo) as the US and her allies in these international coalition shindigs.
But this?
I'm both entirely unsurprised and basically undisturbed
I'm thinking you went a bit too far in the jaded prescience department. I expected no less from Obama as well. But I am disappointed and disturbed. And so are you, otherwise you wouldn't be writing this.
`Please. No waste another $1.98.
Buy double mint chewy bubble gum.
`bump. stick upon your sweet lips.
`But all art is senual and poetry particularly so...
`It doesn't declaim or explain, it presents,- William Carlos Williams.
~
Joseph Conrad:`The artist appeals to the part of our being which is not dependent on wisdom...
She speaks to our capacity for delight and wonder; to the sense of mystery surrounding our lives; to our sense of pity, and beauty and pain.... ethics_professor, You know you are a wonder to behold.
Best to you,
and everybody.
That somehow adherence to the rule of law and conformance with the very basic tenets of the constitution are a somehow a left/right wing issue. They are not. They are a bedrock definition of acceptable behavior in a civil, democratic society. You cannot be either left or right wing in a civil, democratic society if you don't accept those constraints on your behavior. Those who do not accept those constraints cannot be a part of a civil, democratic society; they are a part of a fascistic society.
We need to stop treating fascism as if it were part of the mainstream of a civil, democratic society.
A transcript of Mukasey's remarks for last night's speech at the Federalist Society, during which he collapsed and was taken to the hospital, has been posted by CBS and can be found here: http://tinyurl.com/569ql8
Here is a passage I found particularly interesting:
I focus on these types of criticisms not because they are so extraordinary, but because they are unfortunately so typical of people who substitute their policy views for any serious legal analysis and who would turn a good-faith legal disagreement into a battle over the purported existence or non-existence of the rule of law. The irony, of course, is that the law requires a serious analysis of text, precedent, and history, and it does not serve the rule of law to substitute a smug sense of outrage for that kind of analysis.
In fact, this Administration has displayed a strong commitment to the rule of law, with all that entails and I suspect, and I admit it is a suspicion tinged with hope, that the next Administration will maintain far more of this Administration's legal architecture than the intemperate rhetoric in some quarters would seem to suggest.
Mukasey is railing against the "casual" accusations that the Bush administration has had disdain for the Constitution and the rule of law. This passage comes off to me as simple projection, because anyone who has read UT over the last several years will see that it is the Bush administration that is substituting policy views for legal analysis. As the Salon radio interview with Scott Horton documented so well, the accusations against Bush and his minions are not hysterical, they are based on straightforward readings of the Constitution and Geneva Conventions.
Did the cognitive dissonance lead to his collapse?
I sincerely hope his prediction that Obama will leave much of the "legal architecture" in place is as wrong as the rest of his reasoning.
...as Michael Shaw's apologist. That's unfortunate because Shaw deserves better.
Frankly, my dear, ... Was Bush the only one who entered studying the floor and not shaking hands with those already on the first riser? From examining the clips Shaw has, I can't honestly say. It did appear to me that Bush did acknowledge, and was acknowledged by, some on that first riser, although, clearly, no handshakes were exchanged. I imagine one would have to still the film and examine it frame by frame to see where eye contact might have been made, or words exchanged. I think it's fair to argue that the cropped version of the film supports a theme many would want to accept. And, IMHO, by using a longer bit of film, Shaw makes a credible case for a different interpretation.
I'm trying hard to remember that not only are we going into this next administration with the same congressional Democrats that we had with Bush, but the same media as well. Perhaps I'm over sensitive to the notion that it might suit the media's interests to portray Bush poorly at this point.
Could you please give some understanding as to how you determined the "left/right instead of central" implication of GG's article?
Much of the initial coverage about Fort Hood turned out to be wrong. Is there anything wrong with that?
The accountability imposed by another country for the CIA's kidnapping and torture reveals much about our own.
Fox News' morning show plays to type, talking about whether Muslims in the Army should face "special debriefings"
The survivor and author is upset about comparisons some on the right are making to genocide
Once seen as a lunatic fringe, reactionary anti-women groups are courting respectability
Salon headlines in your mailbox
