On Tue, 20 Jan 2009, ken hanly wrote:
> Watching all the hoopla re the inauguration and all the marketing hype
> re Obama as president and the mass uncritical acceptance of Obama I am
> reminded of all the criticism in the west of the Stalin and Mao cult of
> personality.
On a slightest alarmist note, Patricia Williams thinks at a lot of it can be attributed to:
<quote>
a kind of Wizard
of Oz-ish fizzy relief about George W. Bush's exit--as in Ding Dong,
the Wicked Warlock is melting into a nice little past-tense puddle.
There's a giddily celebratory sweeping out of the indubitably,
absolutely, completely, very worst president in our history. So many
bad things have happened in the past eight years that it's hard to
keep them all in one's head at one time. Another friend says he hung
a list in the hallway of his apartment building, tabulating all the
really awful things he blames Bush for. Other neighbors added to it.
At first, he said, he was going to use it to host an inauguration
party at which people would knock back a shot for each phenomenally
inept executive flub. But then, he says, "I realized we'd all be
drunk for a year."
In any event, it's a great list; the sheer length of it reminds one
how dizzyingly mismanaged the executive office has been. Here are a
few of the highlights, to get you in the mood of groveling gratitude
for the new course we are about to embark upon:
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20090202/williams
Pax Americana and the aspiration to consolidate a global American
empire. The Bush Doctrine of pre-emptive warfare. Hurricane Katrina
and "heckuva job, Brownie." The explicit rejection of the Geneva
Conventions. John Yoo's and Alberto Gonzales's redefinition of
torture. Paul Wolfowitz as head of the World Bank subsidizing his
girlfriend. Ahmad Chalabi. The FCC allowing greater consolidation of
media. The outing of Valerie Plame. The manipulations asserting that
there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. The addled handling
of Harriet Miers's nomination to the Supreme Court. Opposition to
stem cell research. The looting of the National Museum of Iraq, and
the burning of Baghdad's National Library. Donald Rumsfeld's remarks
that rioting in Iraq was the sign of a liberated people and that
Iraq was no more violent than some American cities. Stacking the
Civil Rights Commission with conservatives, like Abigail Thernstrom,
who want to overturn sections of the Voting Rights Act. The shooting
death of Italian intelligence officer Nicola Calipari and injury of
journalist Giuliana Sgrena at the hands of American soldiers. The
appointment of ultraconservatives John Roberts and Samuel Alito to
the Supreme Court. Cheney filling his friend with birdshot. The USA
Patriot Act. Doing away with habeas corpus. The National Security
Agency's warrantless wiretapping of citizens' phone calls and
e-mails. The notion of an unchecked, unaccountable "unitary
executive." The failure to keep official numbers of dead Iraqi
civilians. The forbidding of photographs, or even visibility, of
American military dead. The multilayered, high-level lying about how
football hero Pat Tillman was killed in Afghanistan. Halliburton
taking kickbacks from Kuwaiti oil suppliers. Paul Bremer dispensing
billions of dollars for contracts in Iraq, which disappeared, never
to be accounted for or recovered. Blackwater mercenaries accused of
murdering Iraqi civilians. "Military tribunals" established outside
the military justice system, with no due process or right to an
attorney or to cross-examination or even to know the charges. The
silly disparagement of the national anthem sung in Spanish. Bush
talking directly to God. Abu Ghraib. Profiling Arab, Muslim and
Latino immigrants. Guantánamo. Extraordinary rendition. Lousy
veterans' benefits. Lousy veterans' hospitals. The failure to
provide soldiers with reinforced armored vehicles ("You go to war
with the army you have," explained Rumsfeld). The refusal to
recognize post-traumatic stress disorder as a legitimate condition.
Monica Goodling's political litmus tests in hiring for nonpolitical
posts in the Justice Department. Expelling Helen Thomas from the
White House press room and putting in fake reporter "Jeff Gannon" to
throw adoring softball questions. John Ashcroft's draping of
bare-breasted sculptures in the Justice Department. His subpoenas of
more than 2,500 records of abortions performed at public hospitals.
Gonzales firing US Attorneys around the country for political
reasons. Oh, and did I forget the economy?
<end excerpt>
Michael