This entry first appeared on Eric Alterman's blog, Altercation.
I did a blog on Friday, here, that got a little lost. In the meantime, let's take a moment and play catch-up on the long weekend.
1) If Jose Padilla lives in a police state, then so do you. According to Adam Liptak in the invaluable, but frequently infuriating, New York Times,
"When Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales announced last week that Jose Padilla would be transferred to the federal justice system from military detention, he said almost nothing about the standards the administration used in deciding whether to charge terrorism suspects like Mr. Padilla with crimes or to hold them in military facilities as enemy combatants.
...
The upshot of that approach, underscored by the decision in Mr. Padilla's case, is that no one outside the administration knows just how the determination is made whether to handle a terror suspect as an enemy combatant or as a common criminal, to hold him indefinitely without charges in a military facility or to charge him in court. Indeed, citing the need to combat terrorism, the administration has argued, with varying degrees of success, that judges should have essentially no role in reviewing its decisions. The change in Mr. Padilla's status, just days before the government's legal papers were due in his appeal to the Supreme Court, suggested to many legal observers that the administration wanted to keep the court out of the case. "The position of the executive branch," said Eric M. Freedman, a law professor at Hofstra University who has consulted with lawyers for several detainees, "is that it can be judge, jury and executioner."
Tell me, what is the relevance of the U.S. Constitution to such a process? And if the Constitution has no relevance for Mr. Padilla, who is after all, a U.S. citizen, how can you be sure it will be there for you? First they came for the gypsies...
2) Perhaps the most depressing account of all during this past-weekend with regard to Mr. Bush and company is Sy Hersh's New Yorker piece, here. Quote of the Day:
"The President is more determined than ever to stay the course," the former defense official said. "He doesn't feel any pain. Bush is a believer in the adage 'People may suffer and die, but the Church advances.'"
The air war will kill even more innocent Iraqis than before, making us more hated, more a terrorist target and more insecure than we have been as a nation in our history. Bush apparently believes he was sent by God, but I got a feeling his origins, if they be supernatural, lie elsewhere.
3) Torture is Us. According to David Luban, professor at Georgetown University Law Center and a visiting professor this year at Stanford University Law School:
Consider the cases of Abed Hamed Mowhoush and Manadel Jamadi. Mowhoush, an Iraqi general in Saddam Hussein's army, was smothered to death in a sleeping bag by U.S. interrogators in western Iraq. Jamadi, a suspected bombmaker, whose ice-packed body was photographed at Abu Ghraib, was seized and roughed up by Navy SEALS in Iraq, then turned over to the CIA for questioning. At some point during this process, according to an account in the New Yorker magazine, someone broke his ribs; then he was hooded and underwent "Palestinian hanging" until he died. The CIA operative implicated has still not been charged, two years after Jamadi's death. And the SEAL leader was acquitted, exulting afterward that "what makes this country great is that there is a system in place and it works."
He got that right. Shamefully, it is a system that permits cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, smudges long-standing lines about what is and is not permitted in routine interrogations -- and then expresses hypocritical horror when soldiers and interrogators cross the blurry line into torture and murder. Here.
4) Nobody with a reputation left to risk wants to work for the guy: Here.
5) Quote of the Day II:
"Bush's reputation in at least the academic community is about as low as you can imagine," said William A. Niskanen, who was a member of the council during President Ronald Reagan's first term and is now chairman of the Cato Institute, a libertarian research group. "A lot of people would not be willing to give up a good tenured position for a position in the White House."
6) "President Bush was told in a highly classified briefing that the U.S. intelligence community had no evidence linking the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein to the attacks and that there was scant credible evidence that Iraq had any significant collaborative ties with Al Qaeda." Here.
7) Hurricanes may be caused by global warming, maybe not, I dunno. I do know, however, that liars, ideological extremists, and incompetents who run our government cannot be trusted to deal with this issue any more than any other requiring an honest brokering of evidence, costs and benefits. "The nations of the world will meet in Montreal this week to start discussing the next step in combating the global warming problem, hoping to devise a successor to the Kyoto Protocol that was scorned by the Bush administration in 2001. But the United States is saying it doesn't want to talk." Here.
8) Right-wing Republicans call themselves "pro-family," and complain about middle-class moms who chose to work outside the home. Apparently, though, it's not merely OK for mothers to work outside the home for poor women. It's necessary. And the minimum they demand is 40 hours. To hell with their families and their children... Just look at this new welfare bill they are trying to sneak into the budget process.
For states to avoid federal sanctions, most recipients would have to spend 40 hours a week in activities out of the house.
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Moreover, the larger budget bill's cuts to food stamps and Medicaid could add still more financial pressure as welfare recipients transition to the ranks of the working poor.
Quote of the Day, III:
"What kind of bureaucracy is going to be set up to make sure you're out of the house 40 hours a week, and who's going to pay for the child care?" asked Helen Blank, director of public policy at the National Women's Law Center. "It's punitive. It's crazy."
[Col. Ted] Westhusing, 44, was no ordinary officer. He was one of the Army's leading scholars of military ethics, a full professor at West Point who volunteered to serve in Iraq to be able to better teach his students. He had a doctorate in philosophy; his dissertation was an extended meditation on the meaning of honor.
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A few weeks before he died, Westhusing received an anonymous complaint that a private security company he oversaw had cheated the U.S. government and committed human rights violations. Westhusing confronted the contractor and reported the concerns to superiors, who launched an investigation.In e-mails to his family, Westhusing seemed especially upset by one conclusion he had reached: that traditional military values such as duty, honor and country had been replaced by profit motives in Iraq, where the U.S. had come to rely heavily on contractors for jobs once done by the military.
10) Democrats wise up; Run war vets
Remember, according to Thursday's WSJ:
A majority of U.S. adults believe the Bush administration generally misleads the public on current issues, while fewer than a third of Americans believe the information provided by the administration is generally accurate, the latest Harris Interactive poll finds.
We have won the war for the American people, but they are powerless to stop this car before it truly rolls off the cliff.
Alter-reviews by Sal, T-Rex reissues and Elton John, "Peachtree Road," deluxe.:
Rhino Records has just released a handful of T.Rex deluxe editions which are identical to the British versions that were released on the Edsel label a few years back. These records are the post-"Electric Warrior" (the 1971 classic with "Bang A Gong" and "Jeepster") releases and for the most part, are weak and for Marc Bolan completists only, with the exception of "The Slider."
"The Slider" was the follow-up to "Electric Warrior" and in many ways is a far superior record. A glam-rock staple, this record could easily match up song for song with Bowie's "Ziggy Stardust," Sparks' "Kimono My House," and Mott The Hoople's "All The Young Dudes." Chunky guitars, big Phil Spector-like choruses, and tons of British cool, "The Slider" is essential.
"The Slider," as well as the other two releases, "Dandy In The Underworld" and "Zinc Alloy" (two mostly unlistenable forays into disco-glam) contain a bonus disc of alternates, demos, and b-sides, which, maybe, you'll play once. Nice packages, but "The Slider" is all you need. Songlist here.
A new Elton John album 30 years past his prime, and 20 years since his last good one, is not exactly an event. But, 2004's "Peachtree Road" was a fantastic return to form, criminally ignored by both fans and critics. Reminiscent of earlier masterpieces such as "Tumbleweed Connection" and "Madman Across The Water," "Peachtree Road" is light on string-laden sappy production, and "Lion King-like" ballads, and gives us some solid songwriting, memorable hooks, and simple yet effective production.
Now, as labels are wont to do, the album has been expanded and rereleased, with 3 bonus tracks and a live DVD. I can't say that the extra material makes much of a difference here. The three bonus audio tracks are songs Elton had written for the British musical "Billy Elliott," and just don't belong in this package. The DVD contains live footage of Elton performing 9 "Peachtree Road" tracks. Seeing Elton perform these songs, as well as some seldom played classics, with a 200 piece orchestra and a choir at Radio City Music Hall was one of the most memorable concerts of the last 10 years. THAT would have been a nice DVD. But if you don't own "Peachtree Road," and you're a fan of Elton's brilliant work in the 70's, this new package is a great addition. Here's the songlist.
Sal
NYCD
Correspondence corner:
A friend writes:
[Link] I've read this story before. Usually, it contains someone saying, "He was a nice young man and it looked like a great opportunity. How was I to know there was no oceanfront property in the Ozarks? Now I've lost everything."