Intellectual freedom is the only guarantee of a
scientific - democratic approach to politics, economic development, and
culture.
-Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov-
They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.
-Benjamin Franklin-
Mark Adams is [in no particular order] a Lawyer, Restauranteur, Husband, Father, Grandfather, Landlord, Singer, Guitarist, Political Scientist, Amateur Historian and Rhetorician with no sense of reverence for anything except the freedom to speak one's mind. To visit Mark's Family Law Website
BUDAPEST (Reuters) - "Boys, if you vote for the liberals, I'll strip," a girl in jeans and a revealing shirt teases Hungarian voters in a mock advert for the European elections. It was filmed for a joke during the shooting of the liberal Free Democrats official broadcast, in which the girl features, campaign coordinator Gabor Horn told Hungarian news portal index.hu. The Web site has posted the seven-second clip at www.index.hu/cikkepek/0406/szdsz.mpa. The short ad is a lighter moment in an increasingly bitter campaign for the June 13 elections in which the ruling party Socialists and opposition Fidesz sling mud at each other.
Of course I am expected to chafe when the words "Greatest" and "Reagan" are used in the same sentence. I don't because I've been hearing it for nearly two decades. There is no disuading the faithful in their belief, whether it be the sancity of Jesus, Mohammed, or Reagan. I do believe I understand the phenomena, however. For those of us who were born after 1960, Reagan had, perhaps, the "greatest" influence on our world and political beliefs.
Ronald Reagan was the first President I got the chance to vote against, twice, at least where it counted. I remember in first grade waving a Humphry sign and being absolutely appalled that my classmates, when polled, chose Wallace over him or Nixon. And no, I didn't move to Ohio from south of the Mason-Dixon line. Reagan was President while I studied political science and law, and was the influential center of all topical discussions I had in or out of class during those years.
While there seems to be general agreement that as a person, Reagan the man and Reagan the communicator was extraordinary, and his place in history at the very least as a better than average if not one of the top dozen chief executives is secure.
There is a list of things Reagan did wrong, where he just outright blew it. A longer list of things he neglected or never got around to addressing. But his optimism, love of country, faith in the better nature of mankind and infectious humor made me hate him. As a young man devoted to standing against his policies, I hated him not because he was bad, but because he was so damn good.
He truly was amazing, the sine qua non of True Hollywood Stories.
President Reagan had an effect on us all. Not all of us hold him in the god-like esteem that he seems to have obtained over the years, but of course if you cannot say anything nice, and being respectful, now is certainly not the time to dredge up old grievances or rehash ancient debates. Reagan, above all, loved his country, and never hesitated to act for what he believed was the betterment of us all, here and throughout the world.
I am positive that George W. Bush (43) sees himself as a continuation of the Reagan legacy. As much as I disagreed with so many of Reagan's policy decisions, I had a grudging respect for old Ronnie, the way he could turn a phrase, his presence and the dedication of his followers. I was equally uncomfortable with George H. W. Bush's (41) policies at times, but I had even more respect for him in his mastery of foreign affairs, life-long service to this country, and just plain competence.
Our current President is not qualified to shine Reagan's cowboy boots in his ability to lead or to speak, let alone come up with an original idea and following through in a way that was designed to benefit us all as opposed to merely looking good for reelection. As for a comparison to his father, it stops at the name.
D-Day and Reagan's passing remind us of the greatest struggles of the twentieth century. In one 24 hour period we can celebrate our victories against the Nazis and Commies, while commemorating those who sacrificed so much to bring us a world that is safer with those threats eliminated.
Or is it?
POTUS has been invoking memories of WWII and comparing them to our conflict against terror. The analogy is forced and seems as contrived as claims of Nigerian yellow-cake uranium hidden in Saddam's spider hole. As Tom Regan said so well in the Christian Science Monitor, the War on Terror isn't a replay of the struggle against the Nazi's any more than than it is another Vietnam, although the lessons of each can in some ways be applied to Iraq.
His analysis of the failure of current events to equal the WWII is not exhaustive, nor is it meant to be, any more than William Greider's comparison last April of Vietnam and the "little Tet" of the Iraqi insurrection of which he complains. However, Greider's latest article, paints with a broader brush and judging by Tom Regan's meek glance at the subject of not just Iraq, but the whole War on Terror being akin to the Cold War, tells me that Greider just might be on to something.
Tom Regan mentions it, but fails to connect the dots like Greider. POTUS wants to be just like Dad and Uncle Ronnie, but he didn't have an enemy. What is as tragic as his failure to even be a quarter of the president his two republican predecessors were, who tried to put an end to conflict. POTUS, in his quest for a strong image and heroic legacy, went out of his way to create an ideological conflict on a grand scale where only a minor irritant grew before.
Where we were reluctant warriors in WWII, only engaging after a prolonged debate and then having been attacked, and like WWII and George H.W.Bush's (41) Iraq war, the cold war was won in consort with a plethora of allies, we have behaved exactly in the opposite manner that Reagan or Bush Sr. or even Roosevelt and Churchill would have advised: alone and impetuously.
Reagan is considered by so many as an American hero. A hero of the Cold War which was won without a shot being fired. Reagan faced an ideological enemy as we do now. However the cold war was not won because we lost Vietnam and came to a truce in Korea, but because we had leaders who would lead before they would shoot, gain consensus before they would invade, look at the big picture and not just their own legacy, and won the battle of ideas at home before they began to export their crusade.
I never thought I'd even think this, but I wish Ronald Reagan, even on his bad days, was president right now.
Statement from John Kerry on the Death of Ronald Reagan
"Ronald Reagan's love of country was infectious. Even when he was breaking Democrats' hearts, he did so with a smile and in the spirit of honest and open debate. Despite the disagreements, he lived by that noble ideal that at 5pm we weren't Democrats or Republicans, we were Americans and friends. President Reagan and Tip O'Neill fought hard and honorably on many issues, and sat down together to happily swap jokes and the stories of their lives. The differences were real, but because of the way President Reagan led, he taught us that there is a big difference between strong beliefs and bitter partisanship."
Adam Smith's Progressive Capitalist has a couple of inciteful points on the forgotton war, the one on drugs, here and here. Peter at Kick The Leftist has yet another absurd example of the futility of this obvious hypocricy and political grandstanding. The "war" ebbs and flows, but the end is nowhere in sight.
A fight against a a social or cultural phenomenon is not something that can be "won" by government edict. Gerald Ford shined up cute buttons with "WIN" for Whip Inflation Now in his ill fated war on high prices. That went over well, didn't it? Gas was about 87 cents then wasn't it? Wasn't there a war on poverty even before that? I can only hope that Bush's war on gays works out as well.
I knew we were in trouble when I noticed the subtle transformation by the Ministry of Propaganda White House from a War on Terrorists became the War on Terror, a much more vague and broad term. This allows the perpetual war to be perpetrated upon just about anyone with no possibility of a final "victory."
Ambiguity serves this administration well. You cannot call someone a liar when the argument is over the definition of terms and not the consequences of actions.
These guys learn the lesson of Clinton's "is-speak" all too well.
This story from Reuters, (Prime U.S. contractors wary about Iraq transition) reminded me that you just can't get away from lawyers, even when anarchy dominates like in present day Iraq. We are indeed a strange lot, lawyers. Only an attorney would even think about the liability of mercenaries "security contractors" under the "sovereign" Transitional Authority. Must be something they serve in the lunch rooms at law schools.
LAS VEGAS (Reuters) - Some prime U.S. contractors in Iraq are wary of the U.S. handover on June 30 and say there are still too many unanswered questions, from the status of private security guards to import tariffs. While their contractual obligations remain with the U.S. government, which funds their work, some big companies doing work in Iraq voiced apprehension over elements of the handover to an interim Iraqi government. Speaking on the sidelines of an Iraq rebuilding conference that ended late Thursday in Las Vegas, Perini procurement specialist John Chisholm said his main concern was the legal status of staff if there were any problems, and in particular private security workers who protect them.
This next is the real gem.
"For example, what is their (security guards') relationship with the Iraqi police? Do they have to register with anyone? That has not been answered yet," said Chisholm from the Massachusetts-based company.
Is it just me, or is this just downright absurd? In a country where there are 24 million weapons for 22 million people, and where the native security forces can count on brand new shiny AK-47 from the US of A when they sign up, the NRA loving members of Haliburton's private army want to know were they are supposed to register their guns. Too weird.
There are also legal questions such as whether a staff member who had an accident and hurt an Iraqi would be tried in an Iraqi court or handed over to U.S. authorities. "We need to know how the laws of the country apply to us," he said. "We need to be able to plan."
And you thought only Soldier of Fortune had a neat help wanted section dedicated to folks that wanted to go to Iraq to earn their kid's college tuition. Next month's American Bar Association Journal is bound to have some unique opportunities for ambulance chasers willing to travel light and don't mind desert heat.
On the issue of private security, British retired Brig. Tony Hunter-Choat, security director for the U.S.-led authority's procurement office in Iraq, said Iraq's Interior Ministry would probably issue weapons permits and register security companies. James Cartner, vice president of Iraqi operations for construction giant Fluor , which has three projects along with its British partner AMEC Plc worth $1.6 billion, said many issues were still unanswered but he was confident. "We think common-sense will prevail," said Cartner.
This guy's dreaming. If commonsense prevailed in Iraq nowadays, there would be no need for an occupation force, or even the war itself. In fact, if commonsense prevailed, why would there ever be a need for lawyers in the first place.
My Contracts professor once said that contracts were made to be broken. This twisted piece of logic makes sense because if people were actually good for their word, why would a contract have to be written down, let alone prepared by a lawyer who is trained to think of all the possible ways to break the contract, and the consequences thereof.
Lawyers, we prepare for the worse and hope that we thought of all the bad things possible. Hoping for the best is for politicians.
Please, please, please tell me that soon to be former CIA Director George Tenant will be opening his big mouth and blasting this administration loudly and clearly for trying to scapegoat him and his Agencies (As DCI and Director of CIA he IS the clearinghouse for what intelligence gets to POTUS, except for the stuff Cheney and Rumsfeld glean from MI). I don't want to know the secrets, I just want the truth about what they can tell us. I want Tenant to do the same thing he did at Georgetown and clear the CIA's name so it won't be the whipping boy for the neo-cons anymore.
It won't happen. Tenant will become the latest to be smeared by the hit-squads directed by Rove & Co., so he might as well blast the bastards from the convention floor in Boston.
It's not working! : US President George W. Bush (news - web sites) is caught in a sudden rain storm with a faulty umbrella while walking from Marine One to Air Force One at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland. (AFP/Tim Sloan) Reference: Yahoo! News - AFP Top Photos
You've undoubtedly heard original Patriot, Ben Franklin's famous take on the Patriot Act and our War on Terra:
They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty or security
Maybe our paranoid brethren on the right will listen to their hero Ronald Reagan:
You and I are told increasingly that we have to choose between a left or a right. There is only an up or down: up to man's age-old dream -- the ultimate in individual freedom consistent with law and order -- or down to the ant heap of totalitarianism. And regardless of their sincerity, their humanitarian motives, those who would trade our freedom for security have embarked on this downward course. Ronald Reagan, Republican National Convention, 1964
America is populated by idealists. Indeed our vision of the World affects our vision of ourselves. That is why there is such dissonance about the Abu Ghraib scandal. The realities on the ground are completely at odds with our perception of who we are and what we strive to be.
No, we are not as bad (read evil) as some would announce, but we certainly are no angels. Indeed our confidence in ourselves is shaken even more when our Justice Department shows it's complete lack of faith in the Justice System by holding someone like José Padilla without being confident that the overwhelming evidence they have of his guilt will suffice to put the guy away. In fact, the complete abrogation of this man's basic rights due to the government's paranoia of what he might do if freed, may be the very instrument used to unlock his cage. This would be a hell of a price to pay for learning that the Constitution protects everyone, even the most heinous among us.
Dalmer was responsible for a lot of murders, more than Padilla, so was Terry Nichols and Tim McVie. They all got fair trials and access to legal counsel. The list of monsters for whom our system can and does afford continued respect of their basic human and civil rights is legion. Just because we can label such a monster a "terrorist" makes him no less human and entitled to the protections we idealistic Americans believe in. Before John Ashcroft, this Nation would take pains to protect a criminal's rights, mainly to make sure that the menace could not go free on a "technicality," another word for a government blunder.
Now, when the "blunder" is intentional, colored by the legality of expedience and patriotism, it is all the more important that this callous disregard for all our protected rights be found totally un-American, and if Padilla and other's like him must be released so that Mr. Ashcroft realizes the limits of his power, so be it. Terrorist can kill and injure and destroy if freed, but they cannot defeat us or our way of life. However, when we act to undermine the very freedoms and rights that define us as Americans, they win without even leaving their 10 by 10 foot cells.
Can we be perceived as anything less than barbarians after this kind of thing gets out on top of all the rest that has happened?
Yahoo! News - Army Probing Assaults, Thefts by U.S. Troops in Iraq WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Army is investigating reports of assaults against Iraqi civilians and thefts of their money and jewelry by U.S. troops during patrols, raids and house searches, defense officials said on Monday.
The probe by the U.S. Army's Criminal Investigation Division, or CID, suggests that a major scandal over abuse of Iraqi prisoners by Americans goes beyond detention centers into the homes and streets of the troubled country. "There are a number of criminal investigations by the Army into allegations of assault, theft and other issues that extend beyond the investigations into activities at detention facilities," Defense Department spokesman Bryan Whitman said.
You might not want to be thought of as a conquering cowboy with the scruples of Ghengis or Attilah. Think again America, because that's what so many think of you. Go ahead, stay the course and reinforce everyone's perception. My god, I'd support Pat Buchanan just to get rid of this S&M show living in the White House. It's that bad, really.
