Gitmo is Bush and Obama’s ‘law-free zone’

Posted on November 1, 2011 by oddmanout215

I thought it was the responsibility of professional American journalists to call attention to politicians who, after being elected, break promises they made on the campaign trail. And to write stories about the lies of former office holders whose illegalities while in office did great harm to the public good and the rule of law.

And yet the only new stories I’m seeing regarding presidential approval of torture and broken promises to close the Guantanamo Bay jail are coming out of European and Indian publications:

The former chief prosecutor for the US government at Guantánamo Bay has accused the administration he served of operating a “law-free zone” there, on the eve of the 10th anniversary of the order to establish the detention camp on Cuba. Retired air force colonel Morris Davis resigned in October 2007 in protest against interrogation methods at Guantánamo, and has made his remarks in the lead-up to 13 November, the anniversary of President George W Bush’s executive order setting up military commissions to try terrorist suspects.

Davis said that the methods of interrogation used on Guantánamo detainees – which he described as “torture” – were in breach of the US’s own statutes on torture, and added: “If torture is a crime, it should be prosecuted.”

Davis’s Crimes of War project is leading pressure on the administration of President Barack Obama during Guantánamo’s 10th anniversary, with firm reminders of Obama’s unequivocal pledges to abolish military commissions and close the camp. Professor Thomas Keenan, the head of the Bard College human rights programme, which staged the conference, said: “The president campaigned on a pledge to close down the jail at Guantánamo Bay, and to end the use of military commissions to try its inmates. How is it possible that, two years after he was elected, there are still more than 150 prisoners there, and this November, one of them will go on trial before one of those very commissions?”

Posted in Iraq war, liar, mainstream media, Obama, Politics | Tagged , , , , , , | 8 Comments

Music to haunt you on Halloween

Posted on October 31, 2011 by oddmanout215

There are at least three varieties of scary songs — novelty numbers, done for laughs; songs that have dark lyrics but aren’t all that scary; and songs (“compositions” is a better word) that actually sound scary and give you the creeps. Here are some that fit in the latter category, at least for me:

“Moonlight In Glory,” Brian Eno and David Byrne, My Life In the Bush of Ghosts. First there’s the retarded preacher’s sermon, then the young guy knocks on the old lady’s door…

“Bat Chain Puller,” Captain Beefheart, Shiny Beast (Bat Chain Puller). In case you want to hear what an army of zombies marching in lockstep sounds like.

“Farewell Ride,” Beck, Guero. A master of postmodern pop writes and sings a 12-bar dirge as spooky and sincere as something by Robert Johnson or Son House. Go figure.

“Clap Hands,” Tom Waits, Rain Dogs. “They all went to heaven in the little rowboat.”

“Rebel Music,” Bob Marley and the Wailers, Burnin’. Sounds like horrible things would be happening if everybody wasn’t so stoned.

“Broken English,” Marianne Faithfull, Broken English. The lyrics are troubling, the melody stark, but Faithfull’s broken voice is what’s scary.

“Always Crashing In the Same Car,” David Bowie, Low. World-weary, fatalistic, dreamy, chilling.

“O Superman,” Laurie Anderson, Big Science. This one scared the hell out of my best friend’s young son many years ago. Scared me, too.

“I Put a Spell on You,” Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, Frenzy. Yeah, it’s a novelty tune, but Screamin’ Jay was authentically, undeniably demented.

Posted in arts, humor, pop music | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Back in the saddle. Bike thief still at large.

Posted on October 30, 2011 by oddmanout215

I forgot to mention weeks ago that I finally found an affordable used bicycle to replace my Iron Horse, the theft of which left me in a funk not unlike Jimmy Stewart’s in Vertigo after he failed to save his fellow cop from plummeting to his death during a rooftop chase of a bad guy. My self-loathing was so severe, the doctors had to lock me in a padded room for weeks and play Mozart records until I snapped out of it…

Actually, I became angry and searched the neighborhood for a long time, hoping to blunder into the thief with the bike, or the bike by itself. I was ranting. Someone said, “If a stolen bicycle upsets you this much, how would you react if you found out you had terminal cancer?” I replied, “I would die, I guess. That’s a stupid question.”

My point was that a setback that seems minor to one person might seem earth-shaking to someone else. It depends on your hierarchy of needs and frame of mind. Years ago I suffered an ankle injury — torn ligaments — that kept me on crutches for three months. I was in a resilient frame of mind, so I reacted by doing a lot of upper-body exercises and speed-walking on crutches.

This time I wasn’t feeling resilient, and my mood didn’t improve until I was able to buy a new bike. At some point I re-watched Bicycle Thieves (also known as The Bicycle Thief), the old Vittorio De Sica movie about a poor man supporting his family with a job that requires him to have a bicycle. His bike is stolen and he steals someone else’s bike after a fruitless search for his own. He gets caught, of course, right in front of his son, and ends up feeling shame as well as outrage. Now that’s a setback.

The moral of Bicycle Thieves is don’t do something that might embarrass you in front of your son. Or don’t steal bicycles unless you’re a professional thief. Or don’t steal bikes that are so slow and clunky, you’ll get caught in the act.

There is no moral. Great stories don’t have a moral. De Sica’s movie is about coming to grips with the fact that opportunities are rare and second chances even rarer, especially if you’re poor. It’s about the difficulty of enduring mundane cruelties without becoming cynical or defeatist. There is a sociopolitical subtext to the movie, but De Sica was too artful to allow his story to become overtly polemical. There is no happy ending.

Footnote: You can watch the whole goddamn movie on YouTube!

Posted in arts, bicycling, humor, movies, The New Depression | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

More bad apples in NYPD? I’m shocked!

Posted on October 29, 2011 by oddmanout215

How many bad apples does it take to spoil the whole barrel?

Every week, all over the country, police misconduct takes place, much of it violent. Cops take heat if the misconduct is related to big stories — the tear-gas-and-rubber-bullets attack on Occupy Oakland that has left Scott Olsen with brain damage, the pepper-spray attack on women protesters in Manhattan by Deputy Inspector Tony Baloney — but most of their bad behavior is never challenged by the media or the general public.

Politicians laud cops as heroes, except for the “bad apples.” Once in a while, a reporter shines a light on some flagrantly illegal police action — sometimes violent, sometimes not. When this happens, police officials accuse the media of casting all cops as bad apples.

All of which is to preface the following — no big deal except insofar as it reminds us of the extent of the rot in the apple barrel:

Sixteen New York Police Department officers pleaded not guilty to charges of widespread fixing of traffic tickets as well as more serious crimes, in the second scandal to hit the force in a week. Five civilians were also netted in the nearly three-year undercover probe that involved the wire tapping of more than 10,000 phone calls and resulted in indictments containing some 1,600 misdemeanor and felony counts.

Although most charges were for relatively minor crimes of tampering with traffic tickets to help friends and relations, the probe bared an ugly side to New York’s so-called “Finest” just days after the arrest of officers in an unrelated gun-running scandal…

On Tuesday, eight serving or retired officers were among 12 people arrested on charges of conspiracy to smuggle assault rifles, handguns and other items worth more than $1 million…

Footnote: I think my anti-cop fervor flared after I read of how closely the NYPD is tied to the Wall Street robbers they should have arrested a few years ago.

Update: Even the NYT couldn’t help commenting on the NYPD’s arrogance: “A three-year investigation into the police’s habit of fixing traffic and parking tickets in the Bronx ended in the unsealing of indictments on Friday and a stunning display of vitriol by hundreds of off-duty officers, who converged on the courthouse to applaud their accused colleagues and denounce their prosecution.”

Posted in Goldman Sachs, Great Recession, mainstream media, movies, Occupy Wall Street, The New Depression, Wall Street | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Romney lies faster than I can type

Posted on October 28, 2011 by oddmanout215

Yesterday I wrote, “The pious Mr. Mitt has been telling a new lie each day concerning where he stands on workers’ bargaining rights.” This was in response to a story out of Ohio. I filed my blog entry and went about my real-world business.

Meanwhile, Romney was in my hometown, serving up a whopper to contradict his previous statements on another subject:

Speaking to a crowd in Philadelphia yesterday, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney (R) suddenly changed his position on whether humans contribute to climate change, insisting that “we don’t know what’s causing climate change on this planet.”

He added that “the idea of spending trillions and trillions of dollars to try to reduce CO2 emissions is not the right course for us.”

Romney’s comments might confuse those who listened in on him in June, when he told an audience in New Hampshire, “I believe that humans have contributed” to climate change.

“Trillions and trillions…” There should be a blog just for Romney’s lies and flip-flops. New material would be available every day, every time he made a public statement. We know where you stood on health insurance this morning, Mr. Mittens, I mean Mr. Romney. What’s your opinion this afternoon?

Posted in climate change, economic collapse, environmentalism, Great Recession, humor, mainstream media, Philadelphia, Politics | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Oops, I didn’t really mean to unleash the goons

Posted on October 28, 2011 by oddmanout215

It’s a sad commentary on her leadership skills, but I believe Oakland Mayor Jean Quan meant well. She doesn’t seem like someone who would tell weasel-y lies (hello, Mitt Romney) about her words and actions. Well, maybe one or two lies:

After a violent, nationally televised clash between police and Occupy Oakland protesters on Tuesday, [Quan] is facing a growing list of heated voices recommending — or demanding — that she step down…

… Quan, who was out of town at a meeting in Washington D.C. during the clash, authorized the morning raid of the Occupy Oakland campsite but has been stumbling over the incidents that occurred at the violent protest following night. “I don’t know everything,” she said at a press conference on Wednesday, when asked if she was satisfied with how police handled the incident…

… In response to the incident, MoveOn released a video showing clips of the protests and tear gas raids, climaxing with footage of the critically injured Iraq war veteran, Scott Olsen, being carried to the medic. A narrator asks, “Mayor Quan, is this your city? Is this how we treat free speech in the United States of America?”

For her part, Mayor Quan has been aggressively attempting to amend the situation. On Thursday, she granted the protesters access to Frank Ogawa Plaza. Later that day, she personally visited Olsen in the hospital, shook his hand, apologized and promised an investigation.

It seems Quan is simply in over her head and needs to take a crash course on our rights to assemble and petition without fear of attack from police departments that turn into goon squads when dispatched to protest sites.

Posted in economic collapse, Great Recession, mainstream media, Occupy Wall Street, Politics, The New Depression, unemployment | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Mr. Mitt goes to Washington? Let’s hope not.

Posted on October 28, 2011 by oddmanout215

David Brooks and Mitt Romney should get married. Brooks is the foremost weasel among pundits. Romney is No. 1 among politicians, and that’s saying something.

Latest example: The pious Mr. Mitt has been telling a new lie each day concerning where he stands on workers’ bargaining rights, which is exactly what we should expect from a guy who made a fortune putting thousands out of work:

In June, Romney expressed his support for SB 5, a law pushed through by Ohio’s Republican legislature and Gov. John Kasich that curtails workers’ bargaining rights. (Among other things, the law bans public-employee unions from bargaining over health insurance and makes public-employee striking illegal). Romney wrote on Facebook on June 18: “My friends in Ohio are fighting to defend crucial reforms that the state has put in place to limit the power of union bosses and keep taxes low. I stand with John R. Kasich and Ohio’s leaders as they take on this important fight to get control of government spending.”

Then yesterday, when visiting an Ohio phone bank in support of SB 5, which Ohio voters have a chance to repeal in a November referendum, Romney refused to take a position, saying he was “not terribly familiar” with the ballot initiatives.

And today? Another 180. Romney told reporters that he supports Gov. Kasich “110 percent.”

Posted in David Brooks, economic collapse, Great Recession, mainstream media, Politics, The New Depression, unemployment | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

The class war started 30-some years ago, Frank

Posted on October 27, 2011 by oddmanout215

Frank Rich’s recent article in New York magazine included an excellent capsule history of the Depression-era Bonus Army and a good summary of how corporate welfare boosted G.E. and other corporate monsters, but the headline on the story — “The class war has begun” — is misleading.

The modern-era class war by the super-rich against the other 99 percent of Americans began in the Reagan years, and was being schemed back in the 1970s. The aspect of the class war Rich refers to is the recent backlash by the 99 percent against the privileged few who’ve been waging war on them for decades.

Rich correctly points to the cynicism of politicians regarding class war, an attitude they couldn’t sustain without a lot of help from the corporate media:

Politicians in either party, of course, never use the term “class warfare” to describe what’s going on in America, unless it’s Republican leaders accusing Obama of waging it every time he even mildly asserts timeless liberal bromides about taxing the rich. Nor do most politicians want to talk about the depth of the crisis in present-day capitalism, since to acknowledge its scale would only dramatize how little they intend to do about it.

Posted in Congress, Great Recession, mainstream media, Occupy Wall Street, Politics, The New Depression, unemployment, Wall Street | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Manhattan D.A. chips away at protesters’ rights

Posted on October 26, 2011 by oddmanout215

Last night Keith Olbermann asked something I’ve wondered about since the police crackdown on Occupy Wall Street protesters began several weeks ago with beatings and arrests in Manhattan, and mass arrest-by-trickery at the Brooklyn Bridge:

“At what point did we all decide that you had to have a permit that designated where you could and could not protest?”

“We” never made this decision, as Olbermann knew before asking the question. Rather, issuance of permits is a law enforcement tactic increasingly being used to undermine our First Amendment rights of assembly and petition for redress of grievances. The tactic is often predicated on the notion that public parks and plazas and streets aren’t really public at all, except during those hours when police choose to allow people to use them.

Olbermann’s guest, attorney Yetta Kurland, noted the illegal containment methods used on protesters at the Republican National Convention in 2004 as a turning point in NYPD efforts to chip away at protesters’ rights.

Olbermann reminded viewers that cops around the country are using trumped-up anti-camping regulations to attack or intimidate OWS protesters, and he noted that Manhattan D.A. Cyrus Vance Jr. has come up with a new dirty trick to discourage protests. Vance has offered to drop charges against 340 people arrested during OWS protests if they don’t get arrested again within the next six months.

In short, anyone who hasn’t noticed democracy in America is in big trouble is either an idiot, a recluse, or too corrupt to care.

Posted in economic collapse, Great Recession, mainstream media, Occupy Wall Street, The New Depression, unemployment | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Occupy newsrooms. Use all those empty desks.

Posted on October 25, 2011 by oddmanout215

For as long as I can remember Gannett was known as an outfit that skimped on news coverage by using skeleton crews of reporters and editors, for no other reason than to further enrich the owners of the Gannett company.

Good job by David Carr in nailing Gannett and reminding us that reporters and editors who work for the corporate media, whether they realize it or not, are in the same predicament as the unemployed and underpaid who have taken to the streets:

Almost two weeks ago, USA Today put its finger on why the Occupy Wall Street protests continued to gain traction.

“The bonus system has gone beyond a means of rewarding talent and is now Wall Street”s primary business,” the newspaper editorial stated, adding: “Institutions take huge gambles because the short-term returns are a rationale for their rich payouts. But even when the consequences of their risky behavior come back to haunt them, they still pay huge bonuses.”

Well thought and well put, but for one thing: If you were looking for bonus excess despite miserable operations, the best recent example I can think of is Gannett, which owns USA Today.

The week before the editorial ran, Craig A. Dubow resigned as Gannett”s chief executive. His short six-year tenure was, by most accounts, a disaster. Gannett”s stock price declined to about $10 a share from a high of $75 the day after he took over; the number of employees at Gannett plummeted to 32,000 from about 52,000, resulting in a remarkable diminution in journalistic boots on the ground at the 82 newspapers the company owns.

Carr recounts similar bad news about The Tribune Company, owned by the execrable Sam Zell, who put thousands of journalists out of work and ruined some top-tier newspapers through his greed and stupidity, meanwhile paying out huge bonuses to remaining managers.

The story is only slightly different in Philly, where I live, and all over the country. Newspapers are having a tough time transitioning to the digital age, and their worst enemies are their owners.

As for Carr’s semi-facetious notion of “occupying” the newsrooms… Well, there certainly would be plenty of room in most newsrooms these days if protesters chose to camp out in them.

Posted in economic collapse, Great Recession, humor, mainstream media, New York Times, Occupy Wall Street, Philadelphia, The New Depression, unemployment, Wall Street | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments