The road to redemption
The decision to execute of Tookie Williams makes me think of another
murderer who redeemed his life, and in the process the lives of many others,
Louisiana inmate Billy Wayne Sinclair, has been in that state's prison
system for 40 years. Sinclair reminds us that all efforts to change the
world-or, more realistically, small parts of it-spring from a fundamental
respect for the dignity of human beings, starting with our own sense of
self, then expanding to encompass everyone else.
Sinclair's essay was written for The Impossible Will Take a Little While: A Citizen's Guide to Hope in a Time of Fear, edited by Paul Rogat Loeb (Basic Books, $15.95), named the #3 political book of 2004 by the History Channel and American Book Association. See www.theimpossible.org
Paul Loeb
Sinclair's essay was written for The Impossible Will Take a Little While: A Citizen's Guide to Hope in a Time of Fear, edited by Paul Rogat Loeb (Basic Books, $15.95), named the #3 political book of 2004 by the History Channel and American Book Association. See www.theimpossible.org
Paul Loeb
At the gates of San Quentin
No buzzards were gliding overhead, but several helicopters circled,
under black sky tinged blue. On the shore of a stunning bay at a
placid moment, the state prepared to kill.
Outside the gates of San Quentin, people gathered to protest the impending execution of Stanley Tookie Williams. Hundreds became thousands as the midnight hour approached. Rage and calming prayers were in the air.
The operative God of the night was a governor. “Without an apology and atonement for these senseless and brutal killings, there can be no redemption,” Arnold Schwarzenegger had declared. Hours later, a new killing would be sanitized by law and euphemism. (Before dawn, a newscast on NPR’s “Morning Edition” would air the voice of a media witness who had observed the execution by lethal injection. Within seconds, his on-air report twice referred to the killing of Williams as a “medical procedure.”)
But at the prison gates, there were signs.
“The weak can never forgive.”
“No Death in My Name”
“Executions teach vengeance and violence.”
Outside the gates of San Quentin, people gathered to protest the impending execution of Stanley Tookie Williams. Hundreds became thousands as the midnight hour approached. Rage and calming prayers were in the air.
The operative God of the night was a governor. “Without an apology and atonement for these senseless and brutal killings, there can be no redemption,” Arnold Schwarzenegger had declared. Hours later, a new killing would be sanitized by law and euphemism. (Before dawn, a newscast on NPR’s “Morning Edition” would air the voice of a media witness who had observed the execution by lethal injection. Within seconds, his on-air report twice referred to the killing of Williams as a “medical procedure.”)
But at the prison gates, there were signs.
“The weak can never forgive.”
“No Death in My Name”
“Executions teach vengeance and violence.”
Bush's troubles
Disregard the momentary uptick in his approval rating, and ask yourself, was there ever a president in worse shape a year after reelection than George Bush? Nixon, maybe. Was there ever a president more fortunate in the quality of the party opposing him? Bush wins that one in a walk. These days, the only Democrat who sounds like Sam Ervin is John Murtha, and if his fellow Democrats had cold-shouldered Ervin the way they have Murtha, Nixon would have served out his second term.
The list of Bush's adversities scarcely needs repeating. On every front he's in trouble: the unpopularity of the war; the onslaught by fellow Republicans on the rendition flights and secret torture centers; the humiliation of Condoleezza Rice in Europe; the abandonment of New Orleans amid the surfacing of more incriminating e-mail traffic from the White House in the early days of the emergency. Even Haley Barbour, former chairman of the Republican National Committee, said in early December that the Bush administration was failing to live up to its obligations.
The list of Bush's adversities scarcely needs repeating. On every front he's in trouble: the unpopularity of the war; the onslaught by fellow Republicans on the rendition flights and secret torture centers; the humiliation of Condoleezza Rice in Europe; the abandonment of New Orleans amid the surfacing of more incriminating e-mail traffic from the White House in the early days of the emergency. Even Haley Barbour, former chairman of the Republican National Committee, said in early December that the Bush administration was failing to live up to its obligations.
Pre-procrastination Christmas booklist!
AUSTIN, Texas -- Pre-procrastination Christmas booklist! Look at this, fellow procrastinators -- almost two weeks before the actual day, and here I am to solve all your shopping problems with the annual one-stop, hit-the-bookstore with less than 24-hours-to-go, all-purpose Procrastinator's List.
Now, the only challenge is to hang onto the list long enough to get to a bookstore, lest we ONCE AGAIN wind up as the last customer at the Jiffy Mart at 11:45 p.m. Christmas Eve, trying to decide whether our nearest and dearest would prefer a nice jug of STP 40W or the new hemorrhoid cure.
For a terrific read and a great political yarn, "An Unreasonable Woman: A True Story of Shrimpers, Politicos, Polluters and the Fight for Seadrift, Texas" is my nomination for best surprise book of the year.
Now, the only challenge is to hang onto the list long enough to get to a bookstore, lest we ONCE AGAIN wind up as the last customer at the Jiffy Mart at 11:45 p.m. Christmas Eve, trying to decide whether our nearest and dearest would prefer a nice jug of STP 40W or the new hemorrhoid cure.
For a terrific read and a great political yarn, "An Unreasonable Woman: A True Story of Shrimpers, Politicos, Polluters and the Fight for Seadrift, Texas" is my nomination for best surprise book of the year.
The bogus blurring of terrorism and insurgency in Iraq
With public support for the Iraq war at low ebb, the White House is
more eager than ever to conflate Iraq’s insurgency with terrorism.
But last week, just after President Bush gave yet another speech
repeatedly depicting the U.S. war effort in Iraq as a battle against
terrorists, Rep. John Murtha debunked the claim. His refutation
deserved much more news coverage than it got.
“You heard the president talk today about terrorism,” Murtha told reporters at a Dec. 7 news conference. “Every other word was ‘terrorism.’” Speaking as a lawmaker in close touch with the Pentagon’s top military leaders, he went on to confront the core of the administration’s current argument for keeping American soldiers in Iraq.
“Let’s talk about terrorism versus insurgency in Iraq itself,” Murtha said. “We think that foreign fighters are about 7 percent -- might be a little bit more, a little bit less. Very small proportion of the people that are involved in the insurgency are terrorists or how I would interpret them as terrorists.”
“You heard the president talk today about terrorism,” Murtha told reporters at a Dec. 7 news conference. “Every other word was ‘terrorism.’” Speaking as a lawmaker in close touch with the Pentagon’s top military leaders, he went on to confront the core of the administration’s current argument for keeping American soldiers in Iraq.
“Let’s talk about terrorism versus insurgency in Iraq itself,” Murtha said. “We think that foreign fighters are about 7 percent -- might be a little bit more, a little bit less. Very small proportion of the people that are involved in the insurgency are terrorists or how I would interpret them as terrorists.”
The iron fist of Jesus
The Inmates are Running the Asylum
How much damage will men like George Bush, James Dobson, Pat Robertson, Sam Brownback, Ralph Reed, and Rick Santorum inflict before reason prevails and they are unmasked as the twisted, malevolent charlatans that they are? Fundamentalist Christians, adherents to a nauseating perversion of Christianity (conjured from their twisted imaginations and their distorted interpretations of the Bible) wield a significant amount of power in the United States, socially and politically. Fund-raising, promotional, and organizational skills have enabled these Corpora-Fascist Capitalists masquerading as practitioners of the Christian faith to gain pervasive influence over the Republican Party. Despite recent blows, Republicans still control the Executive and Legislative branches of government, and are well on their way to dominating the Judicial branch by appointing judges who zealously rule in ways which promote the Social Darwinism, elitism, bigotry, property rights, and corporate power the Christo-Fascist Fundamentalist Christians crave.
How much damage will men like George Bush, James Dobson, Pat Robertson, Sam Brownback, Ralph Reed, and Rick Santorum inflict before reason prevails and they are unmasked as the twisted, malevolent charlatans that they are? Fundamentalist Christians, adherents to a nauseating perversion of Christianity (conjured from their twisted imaginations and their distorted interpretations of the Bible) wield a significant amount of power in the United States, socially and politically. Fund-raising, promotional, and organizational skills have enabled these Corpora-Fascist Capitalists masquerading as practitioners of the Christian faith to gain pervasive influence over the Republican Party. Despite recent blows, Republicans still control the Executive and Legislative branches of government, and are well on their way to dominating the Judicial branch by appointing judges who zealously rule in ways which promote the Social Darwinism, elitism, bigotry, property rights, and corporate power the Christo-Fascist Fundamentalist Christians crave.
Eugene McCarthy, prophet with honor
Former Senator Eugene J. McCarthy’s death is a subtle reminder to Americans of everything that he represented to our political system. McCarthy’s legacy will be twofold: that he gave the United States a chance to abandon the two-party system, an opportunity the country wasted, and that his refusal to adopt Madison Avenue-style political tactics left him behind the curve in the television era.
Rumsfeld’s handshake deal with Saddam: history out of media bounds
Christmas came 11 days early for Donald Rumsfeld two years ago when
the news broke that American forces had pulled Saddam Hussein from a
spidery hole. During interviews about the capture, on CBS and ABC,
the Pentagon’s top man was upbeat. And he didn’t have to deal with a
question that Lesley Stahl or Peter Jennings could have logically
chosen to ask: “Secretary Rumsfeld, you met with Saddam almost
exactly 20 years ago and shook his hand. What kind of guy was he?”
Now, Saddam Hussein has gone on trial, but such questions remain unasked by mainstream U.S. journalists. Rumsfeld met with Hussein in Baghdad on behalf of the Reagan administration, opening up strong diplomatic and military ties that lasted through six more years of Saddam’s murderous brutality.
Now, Saddam Hussein has gone on trial, but such questions remain unasked by mainstream U.S. journalists. Rumsfeld met with Hussein in Baghdad on behalf of the Reagan administration, opening up strong diplomatic and military ties that lasted through six more years of Saddam’s murderous brutality.