Amen, Bill

Bill Mayer has a great essay at Salon.com today about why it's our patriotic duty to ridicule W., as in George, at every opportunity.
Note: I have a premium subscription to Salon.com. I don't know whether you need one to access this article in full or not.
Of course there is much to ridicule, almost too much. But, hey, if it's our patriotic duty....
Bush really is easy prey for jokesters and pundits. Still when the absurd is allowed to replace/displace the sane, it does behoove us to keep putting out that the absurd is NOT and should NEVER be accepted as either sane or normal, even when such absurdity seems to be all one sees.
So in the spirit of that, here's today's "Please say it isn't so" link. (You may need to be registered with the New York Times to access this.) It reminds me all too much of that fill in the blank gag format "You know you ____ when ____."
In this case, it's "You know you (have aggressiveness issues) when (you are more gung-ho than the U.S. military." Yup, Bush wants to authorize aggressive interrogation methods that the Pentagon has already rejected as too extreme.)
Let that sink in.
Bush wants to do things to people that the military, who make their living out of doing nasty things to people, are too sqeamish for. Or have principles and intelligence to know better than to attempt. When the Pentagon is more principled and intelligent than the leader of the free world... The free world is in serious trouble. But you knew that.
Oh. And Bush doesn't want those pesky activist judges to intervene when people are tortured. After all, where's the fun of spreading democracy to darkened parts of the world when pesky details like presumption of innocence, the right to face one's accusers and "checks and balances" (in "scare quotes") get in the way?

Keeping up the outrage

It's hard to keep up the outrage with everything the bush administration has done over the years. Yet one must. Now we have bush finally admitting to prison torture overseas.
Why hasn't this man been put on trial for war crimes yet? I have trouble figuring that one out. It's unjustifiable.
At least the government/s of Europe are appalled and at least express an intention of holding nations involved accountable.
If you are interested in some background on the American military and its use of torture in the ongoing "War Against Terror," Wikipedia has a lengthy entry on the subject.

Keeping up the outrage

It's hard to keep up the outrage with everything the bush administration has done over the years. Yet one must. Now we have bush finally admitting to prison torture overseas.
Why hasn't this man been put on trial for war crimes yet? I have trouble figuring that one out. It's unjustifiable.
At least the government/s of Europe are appalled and at least express an intention of holding nations involved accountable.
If you are interested in some background on the American military and its use of torture in the ongoing "War Against Terror," Wikipedia has a lengthy entry on the subject.

Heroes for the week just ended

My two heroes for the week just ended are U.S. Disctrict Judge Anna Diggs Taylor (wiki) who stood up to george w bush's wire-tapping escapades story here and Alfred Sirleaf (NYT registration required) who I read about here at Rebecca Blood's great blog.

Both Taylor and Sirleaf in their own ways are speaking truth to power. The former attempting to put a much-needed limit on one of shrub's many illegalities. The latter is doing his part, and then some, to educate and motivate those around him by making news accessible in words and symbols all can see and understand. I'm an old newshound/hen myself so it warms my heart to see someone so dedicated to the power of a free press and the idea of getting information to the people.

I'm still TVless, so haven't been able to tune in to hear how many times the phrase "judicial activist" has come up in right-wing commentary about Taylor, but I have a feeling that if I had a nickel for each time that phrase was solomnly intoned on the Sunday morning news shows today I could probably pay off my student loans. The poor woman is probably being swift-boated as I write.

My TV is supposed to be back tomorrow morning. Fingers crossed.

Ten TV-less Days

...and counting

No, it's not a new spiritual discipline or exercise in austerity. A storm scrambled my television's circuits so that all the set would pick was A) snow (not Tony) and B) MSNBC, one of the exceptionally few channels I never watch. In case anyone wonders, my sole non-temptation TV genres are poker tournaments, Korean soap operas and anything that stars jewelry on a revolving display stand.

I don't think I've ever been without Ye Olde Boob Tube for so long in my life, at least not in my adult life. There may be some distant childhood/teenage infraction that brought me the ultimate penalty of "No television for a month, young lady!" that so traumatized me that I've blocked it out of conscious memory.

Ten days without TV has changed my routine. It hasn't made me any more efficient, mind you. I just have to work harder to find ways to ways to waste the time I should be grading papers or writing my dissertation. Like starting a blog. Hmmm. I can sit and read in my easy chair without the One-eyed Monster whispering seductively at me. The remote, still present on the coffee table, has momentarily ceased its telekinetic habit of seeming to jump unheeded into my hand at regular intervals.

For a decade before I went to graduate school, I was a full-time journalist. I feel lost without constant news updates, no matter how depressing. Now instead of tuning to CNN compulsively, I go to its website. Compulsively. And, no, I don't (yet) have Pipeline. Now I get news without the innane banter. Or the commercials. (_____, apply directly to the forehead! _______, apply directly to the forehead!) Them I don't miss.

I have been getting more conscious the past few days about getting news from a variety of sources, such as bloggers who actually live in the Middle East like these folks or this guy. I also decided to check in on Afghanistan's news, lest we forget that trouble/d spot. But it wasn't just Afghanistan news. They also had a posting on JonBenet Ramsey's murder case, saying that a suspect had been arrested in Thailand. (You know Nancy Grace is going to be all over this tonight. It's got blonde. It's got cute. It's got dead.) Naturally, if my TV was present and operational, I'd have found this out through a "breaking news" bulletin. Instead, I hear about the little pagaent queen while trying to be a good citizen of the world and wheddle out international news that's not getting its due coverage here in the Land of Tabloid Celebrities.

I'm told the set should be home either Friday or next Monday. Naturally I expressed a strong preference for the former, pop culture junkie that I am. I would especially hate for Danieljackson and Co. to have to "dial up the gate" without me for a third straight week. And it's the 200th episode!! Maybe someone in Afghanistan will record it for me.