Fitzgerald "Irony" or "poke-in-the-eye"?

Back in late 2008, the most popular question posed on President-Elect Obama's Change-dot-Gov web-Question Box, in 'round 2, came from Bob Fertik, of New York City, which read:

Will you appoint a Special Prosecutor (ideally Patrick Fitzgerald) to independently investigate the gravest crimes of the Bush Administration, including torture and warrantless wiretapping?

According to the July/August 2010 Mother Jones magazine, Fitzgerald has been assigned to investigate the CIA and torture. Unfortunately, the investigation is targeted not at the torturers, but at human rights investigators whose trails led them to CIA operatives.

You see, if, as a human rights attorney, your trail leads you to CIA personnel, and you put pictures of them in photo line-ups for your torture-victim clients to identify... then maybe you're exposing the identity CIA personnel even if you don't expose the person's name. Yes, as predicted by George Orwell and others, it's a wicked web that has been woven by the powers-that-be.

But it strikes me... is this simply irony that Fitzgerald would be given this assignment, or is it a poke-in-the-eye of the people calling for a full investigation of the US torture activities?

Sources:

Mother Jones Magazine, July/Aug. 2010.

Christina Applegate: Get well, Stay Well

Christina Applegate, famous as the ditzy cutie on Marred with Children, has been diagnosed with breast cancer. She is 36-years old. Her mother apparently battled cancer too.

From what little I pick up of pop culture, I hear she's a gifted actor and intelligent, informed person. She defies convention and speaks her mind about social issues, even when it isn't popular to do so.

Count me as one who hopes she gets well and stays healthy for many decades to come.

Donate to the American Cancer Society. Sometimes criticized for being one of the largest non-profit organizations. They are also criticized for using some of their funds to promote general access to medical care. I consider the latter goal worthy, and related to the larger mission of dealing with cancer; until we have a "cure," or can prevent cancer, early screening remains a key to successful treatment, and access to medical care is key to early screening and treatment.

General Strike November 6, 2007

Why "strike" against the Iraq war and for upholding the Bill of Rights?

Garret Keizer, who suggests a general strike in the October issue of Harpers magazine puts it this way:

The strikers remind their overlords—and, equally important, themselves—that the seemingly perpetual machinery of daily life has an off switch as well as an on.

Do we have overloards in this day and age? As the former Defense Secretary would say, "you bet." Not only establishment people, but inhuman establishment corporations serve as modern day overlords

Keizer, himself inspired by poet César Vallejo, inspires us to break from the norm of our daily lives:

A young man goes to Walter Reed without a face. Shall I make an appointment with my barber? A female prisoner is sodomized at Abu Ghraib. Shall I send a check to the Clinton campaign?

On November 6, 2007 we need to send a message to the establishment: Ordinary people are not stupid. We are getting organized to re-establish power into the hands of the people.

Both Republican and Democratic parties, and their joint corporate backers, need to be put on notice: No more business as usual. The ground swell is building.

Specific Suggestion: Don't go to work on Tuesday November 6, 2007, or wear a black arm band and be prepared to say it is in support of the Bill of Rights.

Be prepared to give examples:

• Threats to habeas corpus (Military Commissions Act applies to US citizens)
  
• Military databases of peace protesters,
  
• Warrant less surveillance (e-mail captured by ATT, phone taps, sneak-and-peek)
  
• Torture memos of the US Justice Department
  
• Presidential Signing Statements saying Bush will not follow some laws
  
• Secrecy through executive privilege
  
• Blocking judicial processes via "state secrets" "Privilege"

The list goes on. Memorize some points and be ready to rattle them off on November 6.

Sources:

Garret Keizer, Specific Suggestion: General Strike, Harpers Magazine, October 2007 Issue

United States: International Dictatorship

Are we so totally desensitized that the notion of "Secret US Prisons" elicits no ground swell of condemnation?

Joanne Mariner of Human Rights Watch asks, "where are these 39 people now, and what's happened to them since they 'disappeared'?"

"Disappeared." I thought that's what dictatorships did... make people disappear. Actually, knowing the recent history of Central America, I know that the US has a history of making people dissapear; Chile's Pinochet was supported by the US. And, actually, it's corporate power, which runs the US, that is behind the dictatorial behavior of the US government.

We're told we don't live under a dictatorship. That might be technically true domestically, but the United States of America is behaving like a dictator internationally.

Some have theorized that the US dictatorial behavior cannot be stopped from within the United States. They argue that it will have to be stopped from the outside. If so, it would be critical to have a massive internal movement linked with the external one to avoid a major war.

Sources:

Associated Press, "Report: 39 Secretly Imprisoned by U.S." RAPHAEL G. SATTER, June 7, 2007.