Chai's Analysis

Wow. Maureen Dowd's column in the NYT was amazingly written and poignant. Though registration in free, here is the article:

August 10, 2005
Why No Tea and Sympathy?

By MAUREEN DOWD
WASHINGTON

W. can't get no satisfaction on Iraq.

There's an angry mother of a dead soldier camping outside his Crawford ranch, demanding to see a president who prefers his sympathy to be carefully choreographed.

A new CNN-USA Today-Gallup poll shows that a majority of Americans now think that going to war was a mistake and that the war has made the U.S. more vulnerable to terrorism. So fighting them there means it's more likely we'll have to fight them here?

Donald Rumsfeld acknowledged yesterday that sophisticated bombs were streaming over the border from Iran to Iraq.

And the Rolling Stones have taken a rare break from sex odes to record an antiwar song called "Sweet Neo Con," chiding Condi Rice and Mr. Bush. "You call yourself a Christian; I call you a hypocrite," Mick Jagger sings.

The N.F.L. put out a press release on Monday announcing that it's teaming up with the Stones and ABC to promote "Monday Night Football." The flag-waving N.F.L. could still back out if there's pressure, but the mood seems to have shifted since Madonna chickened out of showing an antiwar music video in 2003. The White House used to be able to tamp down criticism by saying it hurt our troops, but more people are asking the White House to explain how it plans to stop our troops from getting hurt.

Cindy Sheehan, a 48-year-old Californian with a knack for P.R., says she will camp out in the dusty heat near the ranch until she gets to tell Mr. Bush face to face that he must pull all U.S. troops out of Iraq. Her son, Casey, a 24-year-old Army specialist, was killed in a Sadr City ambush last year.

The president met with her family two months after Casey's death. Capturing W.'s awkwardness in traversing the line between somber and joking, and his love of generic labels, Ms. Sheehan said that W. had referred to her as "Mom" throughout the meeting, and given her the sense that he did not know who her son was.

The Bush team tried to discredit "Mom" by pointing reporters to an old article in which she sounded kinder to W. If only her husband were an undercover C.I.A. operative, the Bushies could out him. But even if they send out a squad of Swift Boat Moms for Truth, there will be a countering Falluja Moms for Truth.

It's amazing that the White House does not have the elementary shrewdness to have Mr. Bush simply walk down the driveway and hear the woman out, or invite her in for a cup of tea. But W., who has spent nearly 20 percent of his presidency at his ranch, is burrowed into his five-week vacation and two-hour daily workouts. He may be in great shape, but Iraq sure isn't.

It's hard to think of another president who lived in such meta-insulation. His rigidly controlled environment allows no chance encounters with anyone who disagrees. He never has to defend himself to anyone, and that is cognitively injurious. He's a populist who never meets people - an ordinary guy who clears brush, and brush is the only thing he talks to. Mr. Bush hails Texas as a place where he can return to his roots. But is he mixing it up there with anyone besides Vulcans, Pioneers and Rangers?

W.'s idea of consolation was to dispatch Stephen Hadley, the national security adviser, to talk to Ms. Sheehan, underscoring the inhumane humanitarianism of his foreign policy. Mr. Hadley is just a suit, one of the hard-line Unsweet Neo Cons who helped hype America into this war.

It's getting harder for the president to hide from the human consequences of his actions and to control human sentiment about the war by pulling a curtain over the 1,835 troops killed in Iraq; the more than 13,000 wounded, many shorn of limbs; and the number of slain Iraqi civilians - perhaps 25,000, or perhaps double or triple that. More people with impeccable credentials are coming forward to serve as a countervailing moral authority to challenge Mr. Bush.

Paul Hackett, a Marine major who served in Iraq and criticized the president on his conduct of the war, narrowly lost last week when he ran for Congress as a Democrat in a Republican stronghold in Cincinnati. Newt Gingrich warned that the race should "serve as a wake-up call to Republicans" about 2006.

Selectively humane, Mr. Bush justified his Iraq war by stressing the 9/11 losses. He emphasized the humanity of the Iraqis who desire freedom when his W.M.D. rationale vaporized.

But his humanitarianism will remain inhumane as long as he fails to understand that the moral authority of parents who bury children killed in Iraq is absolute.

I completely agree with her characterization of Bush. And I am flabbergasted at the way he is dealing with this woman's situation.

posted by Chai at 5:24 PM | 0 people analyzed.

I'm watching "Black in the '80s" and a commentator said something that...I don't know..want to discuss. Do black social music only come about when their backs are against the wall? Like Grandmaster Flash's "Message" was created because no one was talking about the things that were happening in the cities. So does music, particularly black music represent the struggle and that if you do become "pop" you are abandoning the black culture and society? Is Kanye trying to bring it back to social causes with "Diamonds (from Sierra Leone)" as a blend between pop and global social culture (though the video is powerful, his lyrics don't make any sense with the video)?

Please comment. Let the masses hear.

posted by Chai at 1:19 PM | 0 people analyzed.

The million dollar question: Who is John Roberts? Besides his two year stint on D.C. Circuit, we don't know much about him. And why is it important that we know who Mr. Roberts is? His opinions, life views, and ideas are going to influence the way our lives, views, and ideas of our nation and world. His employment record includes being a Solicitator General office. The SG office is the office that whispers sweet nothing into the Supreme Court justices' ears. Really. Their opinions about their client, the United States, is too important to just dismiss. The Los Angeles Times have uncovered some of his work.

Together, Starr and Roberts pressed a strongly conservative legal agenda for 3 1/2 years. They argued for limiting the scope of civil rights laws, ending race-based affirmative action, restoring some prayers to public schools and overruling Roe vs. Wade, the case that established a woman's right to abortion.

Hmmm...well, I am all about civil rights, for affirmative action, not a big fan of state establishing religion in public schools, and Roe v. Wade is good. So, Mr. Roberts, you and I have different views on many, many things.

In 1991, Roberts personally argued a case along with lawyers for Operation Rescue. The protesters had been sued in Virginia over their abortion clinic blockades. The women who sued relied on the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871, which made it illegal for a group to conspire to deprive individuals of their rights.

Roberts began by saying that he was not defending the actions of the protesters. Rather, he argued, the 19th century civil rights law did not apply to their conduct. The law only applied when people were singled out for discrimination, as blacks were by the Klan, Roberts said.
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(The Supreme Court is set to hear a similar case this fall involving blockades at abortion clinics. Lawyers for the National Organization for Women won a suit against leaders of Operation Rescue for using violence and threats against doctors and patients. The court will hear an appeal from the antiabortion advocates, who say a federal extortion law does not apply to such protests.)

Wow. Though he is young, and he can change his views from his appointment president, I do think this man may not be the right choice. Yeah, he helped out a prisoner who was beat up even though the prisoner was shackled and handcuffed. That is probably only thing I have seen as a glimmer of hope. But, it makes me really uneasy that he is very close to Starr.

posted by Chai at 12:41 PM | 0 people analyzed.

Close your eyes for a moment. Now imagine yourself back in elementary school. Remember how you looked, what you weighed, and what mattered to you the most. You didn't want to be different. You wanted to be the same. You didn't want to be teased. And when you are teased, what did you do? Did you fight back? Did you say mean things to the bully? Did you hurt the bully sometimes? When you look back, do you see childhood events in your life that you are apologetic for? Open your eyes.

After you thought of your childhood events, did you ever do something that may have gotten you arrested? Oh, I don't know, like hit a person for hitting you. Or doing something that was so irrational, but you never got in trouble? In Fresno, there is a child who is facing felony charges because she threw a rock at another kid, reacting to his taunts and after he threw a water filled balloon.

In April, police arrested the Fresno girl on suspicion of felony assault after Elijah Vang was hit with a rock. She spent five days in Juvenile Hall, then was placed under house arrest and forced to wear a monitoring anklet for 30 days. She is expected to stand trial in Juvenile Court today. If the allegation is found true, the fourth-grader could spend the next four years incarcerated. LA Times

Four years in jail because she threw a rock back at the kid? Yeah, probably not the smartest thing to do, but again, remember how old she is: ELEVEN. The prison industrial complex has taken over our country and we need to stop it. Charging kids with felony assault because of this is one example, but there are hundreds of these cases as of late. And it is a shame that our country can and will do this. I agree with her attorney.

"What we have here is just kids being kids," said Richard A. Beshwate Jr., the girl's lawyer. "Somebody got hurt and it's unfortunate, but this behavior does not rise to the level of criminal activity."

But, following my mantra, I am try to find a silver lining in every negative action. The silver lining:

Last Friday evening, a multiracial coalition that included Muslim and Christian leaders, immigrant groups and civil rights organizations held a vigil at Juvenile Hall in support of Maribel. Carrying placards that read "Stop Police Brutality," the group said Maribel's treatment was typical of how authorities police minority neighborhoods in Fresno.

And neither another example of why there needs to be coalition building among all groups of color: Elijah is Hmong, Maribel is Latina. They live in a working-class neighborhood of Lations and Asians. Like Rev. Al Sharpton said yesterday, having a coalition among these groups can ease the possibility of racial, cultural bias and crimes. At the very least, having a coalition can educate the communities of various differences. I will continue to keep track of this case and I'm sure you will too.

posted by Chai at 11:59 AM | 0 people analyzed.

Haloscan commenting and trackback have been added to this blog.

posted by Chai at 5:04 PM | 0 people analyzed.

I'm frustrated. When you think about diversity, do you think solely of the African-American and Latino/a groups? Why is it that Asian groups, leaders, individuals, issues are not included when we discuss diversity?

LOS ANGELES (AP) - The Rev. Al Sharpton announced Monday he was forming a coalition to promote racial unity between blacks and Hispanics in the city, hoping to ease a long-running rivalry over jobs, housing and schools.

I understand that Asian Americans, (stereo) typically, are viewed as having jobs, going to successful public or private school (sans le voucher), and own houses in nice parts of Los Angeles. Yet, these are all stereotypes we hold against Asian American. During the Rodney King riots, who were the most affected groups? Korean Americans. I don't understand why these stereotypes persist in other minority communities. Is it because the Asian American community fails to reach out with other groups of color? Is it because Asian Americans are still considered "others" or "foreigners" or "less American" and therefore other groups of color have no desire to make a connections?

Isn't it interesting that if we continue to believe in fighting for the small piece of the pie, we will go no where? Or was this new coalition a political move by both communities to buy each other's votes?

Franklin D. Gilliam Jr., a political scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles, said the formation of the group was another sign of growing alliances between blacks and Latinos. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, the son of a Mexican immigrant, was elected in May after stripping significant black support from incumbent James Hahn.

posted by Chai at 4:41 PM | 0 people analyzed.