"All President Obama is doing is playing for time, saving his thunder for his own political agenda. The White House is, alas, a political operation of the highest order. There's no getting around that fact, and the President's hired a teachable operative in Rahm Emanuel. I believe that his campaign for re-election has already begun, but we never saw it coming. There has been no 100-day agenda at all! Karl Rove's idea of a 'permanent campaign' was no exaggeration. The only difference is that the Obama administration will work for the good of the citizens rather than exclusively for the corporations and the wealthiest. Everybody does well when the middle class makes out well. The wealthy will benefit far more, of course, because they own everything."

James Carville said he had no business with a job in the White House, as his function was to elect Bill Clinton. Period. Yet we have David Axelrod as a "senior advisor," or some similar horse-hooey. I am not happy that there is a new "permanent campaign," well before anything in the first campaign has been achieved. I am all but done with Obama on the civil rights/unitary executive/NSA violations/torture prosecution/transparency issues. Support the ACLU!!

nor do I think that we have ever provided a decent model of ANYTHING to the rest of the world--unless you count stuffing your face and lying your ass off for personal gain as a viable way of getting through the universe.
___________________________________

That's a hell of a way to describe Conferring the Blessings of Civilization Upon the Persons Sitting in Darkness!*

* h/t to Samuel Clemens, aka Mark Twain

Not that this is a pile on. First, I think that the world's view of the US is pretty schizophrenic. That's especially true in South East Asia, which by all rights should hate our guts--if anyone had a good reason to knock down one of our skyscrapers, it was Cambodia or Vietnam. But yet, nary a peep.

Second, I think you could walk down the street in any third world capital, picking people at random, and they would all have their own nuanced way of looking at the US, some of it positive, some of it negative, most of it mixed--and like most Americans, contradictory and confused. I think in general, our institutions are admired but sort of like the way a poor man looks at the millionaire, thinking that the rich can't appreciate wealth. People like our easy sex and obesity-generating 24 hour party culture, of course, and who can blame them.

To be honest, I actually don't care what the world thinks of the US; nor do I think that we have ever provided a decent model of ANYTHING to the rest of the world--unless you count stuffing your face and lying your ass off for personal gain as a viable way of getting through the universe. The only thing stopping people from already living that lifestyle is that we use up all the drugs, slutty sex and electronic and combustible media that they need to achieve the goal.

What I mean to say at 10:49 pm, is that the idea that we were a light unto nations has always been a largely bullshit construct used like a an ice-pack to salve the hang-over of super-affluence.

Though, I would add, its never too late to start setting a good example.

I'm glad your campaign was successful. There is so little good news these days.

It is not just the Right that we cannot reason with... lots of ordinary, otherwise progressive people really don't want to hear or read about Torture, because it is so distasteful to them... as if it were not also distasteful to those bothering to post about it, or read about it, or comment on it.

You merit much more than an Izzy for being willing to spend so much time not just holding the media accountable, but also for trying to hold the DOD, the CIA and the former administration accountable... not to mention the current one.

. . . has a legal right not to be tortured to death:

The Charleston (W.Va.) Gazette:
http://wvgazette.com/News/200906290401

June 29, 2009

Greenbrier turkey plant worker sentenced for animal cruelty

A worker at a West Virginia turkey plant was sentenced [...]
[...] Scott Alvin White of Second Creek
[...] indicted on felony charges in February
[...] pleaded guilty to two animal cruelty misdemeanors in April.
[...] sentenced June 8 to a year in jail.

- - The Charleston Gazette, June 29, 2009

__________

I generally like your essays (you know, the funny ones) but really, once I re-read your post and determined you weren't being sarcastic, I had to wonder whether you've ever been out of the country. I mean, Americans showing up meant the beatings would stop? Where? Central/Latin America? Southeast Asia? Greece? The Middle East? The only place in living memory is perhaps Bosnia. What you're describing is a short period in our history immediately following WWII. It didn't take long for the world to realize that the Pax Americana ADDED to the beatings and the misery. The word most often employed is "bully." (I would agree with antineocon that the turning point came around Vietnam). I live in Europe and the sentiment you describe about Sept 11 is hardly the dominant one. Many people think and say that America got what it deserves.

By the Red Cross, I assume you mean the International Committee of the Red Cross? They will never rebut Rush Limbaugh. They are a neutral observer, their report was leaked, they would not have published it. Damage that, and they won't be able to get access to the worst places in the world. Since they're often the only ones getting in to those places, that might condemn people to death, or worse. Let them do what they do, and be glad somebody is doing it.

Mark Danner or the ACLU should rebut them. But not the Red Cross.

Unfortunately, things are still going not very well in Iran, and there is some belief that they may go worse. Newsweek's jailed reporter made an on TV confession, there are government figures calling for harsh treatment, the streets are still flooded with security forces, there are still, by some estimates, thousands of people imprisoned or otherwise unaccounted for, there is still a major blackout on getting information out of the country.

Avaaz.org has a couple of campaigns going, one is to help fund alternative internet set-ups for communications.

This is the time, if history serves, when bad things can happen. The protests are still active, the force is still in place, and the news media have found other things to do, or shinier baubles to put on the front page. So this is when people who are watching need to keep watching. If you don't believe in it, that's fine, but if you started watching, you should stay until the party's over. Huffpo is still carrying liveblogging as is The Lede at NYTimes. It's probably too soon to reset Twitter time zones away from Tehran time. AFAIK they still need servers and anonymity methods.

http://www.amnesty.org/en/appeals-for-action/iran-must-recognize-the-right-to-peaceful-protest

http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2009/06/23/iran-violent-crackdown-protesters-widens

http://www.rsf.org/spip.php?page=article&id_article=33626

On another note, it is possible that there will be some kind of competency session in court tomorrow involving Aafia Siddiqui's lawyer's appointed psychiatrist. I've also heard Friday, or on July 6th (which was supposed to be her trial date and is now a final competency date). There's pretty much no news printed on it in the U.S. much anymore, so it's hard to figure out from conflicting reports in other countries what's happening. Maybe that helps one sympathize on the people trying to get news in and out of Iran.

http://www.app.com.pk/en_/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=80339&Itemid=2

Next month, it will be one year since she was shot in Afghanistan and rendered to Brooklyn. I tracked down the origin of that very tired looking photograph of her in the black shawl. It was taken by the Governor of Ghazni, the day before she was shot (so right after the Afghans took her into custody). The blue cloth in the foreground is a burqa, that she had not wanted to take off because of the camera.