People Power and other stuff

One of the many sites I visit daily is The Mahablog: Home blog of the American Resistance. Barbara O'Brien is the blog proprietor and I really enjoy her writing. She does long thoughtful postings, incorporating rich, disparate material. I confess that I often skim articles (not just hers but at many sites) but when I take the time to peruse I am always rewarded.

She has a few current postings that I wanted to invite my visitors to take a look at.

In "The Secret History of the Impending War with Iran" she points to an article in Esquire that exposes the Bush maladministration's long-standing lust for war with Iran. Maha writes that:

What comes through in the article is how Iran and other countries in the Middle East have been making overtures to the US for years, to solve the regions’ many problems and its differences with the United States.

Needless to say, the Bushies will have none of it.

An excellent article ("Moral Relativism") follows on the issue of waterboarding and Rudy Giuliani's inability to call it torture outright. Maha quotes John McCain (who has this one right no matter how much respect he has lost in the past couple of years):

“All I can say is that it was used in the Spanish Inquisition, it was used in Pol Pot’s genocide in Cambodia, and there are reports that it is being used against Buddhist monks today,” Mr. McCain, who spent more than five years in a North Vietnamese prison camp, said in a telephone interview.

Of presidential candidates like Mr. Giuliani, who say that they are unsure whether waterboarding is torture, Mr. McCain said: “They should know what it is. It is not a complicated procedure. It is torture.” [from the NY Times]

Can you imagine Giuliani saying it depends on who does it and under what circumstances? Oh. My bad. Given that it is Rudy, of course you can imagine it. Can you imagine it without disgust and moral repugnance? I thought not.

Thirdly, Maha presents us with a post on Naomi Wolf on “The End of America.”

As Maha says, "Wolf argues that the language, images, and manipulations that despots used in the past to break down democracies have a consistent pattern, and are being employed here and now." I urge you to click above and read the whole thing. I love the final quote from Wolf:

What the Founders intended was for ordinary Americans, ordinary people to assume the patriot’s task and lead the fight to restore democracy, and to see themselves as leaders.

Bearsy Bob says, Check it out.
--the BB