connecting*the*dots

10 Responses to “The Literate President”  

1. 1 texastentialist Mar 24th, 2006 at 8:28 am

   An extraordinary human being? I believe the people of Haiti, Somoza and East Timor might take exception to that characterization.

   It’s nice he’s speaking out now and helping low-wage folks get houses, but how much good needs to be done now to answer for adding genocide?

   from our friend Noam..

   “And how can a reporter blandly refer to Christopher’s work “promoting human rights” under the Carter Administration? Recall that Haitians were then fleeing from the terror of Washington’s friend Baby Doc, hence unqualified for political asylum and barred from our shores, deported, and harshly treated (if they did not die at sea). Or recall 1978, when the spokesman for the “dirty dozen,” Indonesia, was running out of arms in its attack against East Timor, then approaching truly genocidal levels — so that the Carter Administration had to rush new armaments to its bloodthirsty friend. Or 1979, when the Administration sought desperately to keep Somoza’s National Guard in power after it had slaughtered some 40,000 civilians, finally evacuating commanders in planes disguised with Red Cross markings (a war crime) and reconstituting them as a terrorist force on the border under the direction of Argentine neo-Nazis. Or take Iran, where the Administration sought to foist useless high-tech arms on another favored torturer, assuring the Shah that there would be “no linkage” between arms sales and human rights. Or Wilmington North Carolina, where prison terms of 282 years were imposed on Ben Chavis and other civil rights activists in a fraud that was an international scandal, but the Administration declared itself unable to utter a word.”

2. 2 Sean Coon Mar 24th, 2006 at 9:21 am

   well, i’d bet that chomsky would hold you accountable to the bush regime due to your active participation of increasing the value of a large corporation whose owner is a major contributor and supporter of the republican party.

   or i could just call you an extraordinary human being and call it a day.

3. 3 texastentialist Mar 24th, 2006 at 9:36 am

   I’m a drone and Noam is supportive of people that work witiin a larger system of corruption especially if they say nice things about freedom of thier buddy’s blog.

   I don’t govern the policy of the corporation. And as I recall, we’re not abetting slaughter. But if I was, and we were, I would agree that I would be anything but extrodinary in any positive way.

   I give you that he’s doing good at this stage of his life, but in light of what transpired under his watch and that he paid no price (aside from being defeated in an election) I just can’t give him a pass. Maybe a decade or so at Leavenworth might make me a little more sympathetic…

4. 4 Sean Coon Mar 24th, 2006 at 10:54 am

   i dig chomsky. we can learn a lot about organizational and human behavior through his deconstructionism and ridiculous handle of various degrees of historical perspectives. the guy is like a cubist historian.

   but i also know that leadership ain’t as simple as the spelling of the word, especially within the machinations of our capitalist system of government and production.

   is carter a saint? no, but none of us are. name me another president in the last 50 years that you would consider for sainthood. when you get behind the steering whell of a top heavy, narrow wheel based system, already going 90 mph on a winding, mountainous road, shit is bound to happen “on your watch.”

   at least carter wasn’t a fucking drunken driver.

5. 5 texastentialist Mar 24th, 2006 at 3:48 pm

   Granted, next to Bush Carter is Jesus and Stephen Hawking. Buy I hink that’s more due to Chimpy McCokehead’s plunging of the bell curve more than Carter’s majesty.

   I’m not willing to grant the “I’m just the leader, how do I know what’s going on?” excuse to Carter any more than I was to Reagan or Ken Lay. If somethig happens once and they crack-down to make sure it doesn’t happen on thier watch again, that’s one thing.

   To see it over and over displayes a matter of policy.

6. 6 Sean Coon Mar 24th, 2006 at 3:58 pm

   i feel you baron. i want *instant accountability* more than anyone… maybe i have a soft spot for carter because he was my first president — at least the one i can remember anything about. my political perspective of presidents began with reagan, so you have a visceral edge on me there… you old coot!

7. 7 texastentialist Mar 24th, 2006 at 5:49 pm

   Freshman year of High School I remember we had a mock political convention for Carter’s first run and I remember making a hand made sign reding “Carter will win by a smile” (had an ear for the facile slogan even then). Being reaised with my stay at home grandmother and welder grandad made me a yellow dog democrat.

   Chomsky, Zinn et. al. allowed me to do somethig the Bush zombie bregade can’t bring themselves to do..look beyond any one party (or man) to the use of power and my reponsibility more broadly. I’m ruined as a strict party man.

   As far as instant accountability, I just want some relevant accountability in the persons lifetime. No man is above the law or it’s all just bullshit.

   It send a bad message to the kids doncha know, sonny.

8. 8 texastentialist Mar 24th, 2006 at 5:50 pm

   How is it that the damn blog changes while I’m writing!?

9. 9 Sean Coon Mar 24th, 2006 at 6:00 pm

   it’s killing me. i don’t know. i upgraded wordpress to 2.0.2 and then upgraded to the k2 beta2 r167 and it’s still acting funky… i’m working on it.

   as for the above, yeah, i haven’t been a registered jackass since 2000. i’m officially “unaffiliated” in NC (there’s no independent party). by the time you introduced me to chomsky, i was primed.

   and i’d take accountability in any form, but the swifter it is, the more powerful the message to potential fuck ups lying in wait. it’s the difference between sentencing that 85 year-old klansman to jail 50 years after he helped in the killing of those 3 civil rights worker kids in mississippi and locking him up that very same year. his redneck retard bretheren are all probably thinking, “shit, the state penn ain’t a bad place to re-tire!”

10. 10 texastentialist Mar 24th, 2006 at 6:12 pm

    Agreed, the swifter the better. Outside of that I’ll take justice at all when it comes to the accountability of poweful people.

    The Klan (or as we call them in Texas, Christians) are people that give rednecks a bad name. Molly Ivins, Jim Hightower and myself are working on that