Calling It What It Is

From Andrew:

Even the word "torture" can be too vague and abstract a term. So let us state in plain English how Bush, Cheney, Tenet, et al. actually got information. They did it by subjecting prisoners to repeated drowning, or freezing, or heating, or sadistically long sleeplessness, or shackling or crucifying them until the pain could be borne no longer, or beating them until they pleaded for mercy, or threatening to kill or torture their children or wife or parents. Or all of the above in combination, in isolation, and with no surety of ever seeing the light of day again, with no right to meaningful due process of any kind, sometimes sealed off from light and sound for months at a time, or bombarded with indescribable noise day and night in cells from which there was no escape ever. This is what "under coercive conditions" actually means. It drove many of the victims into become mumbling, shaking, insane shells of human beings; it killed dozens; it drove others still to hunger strikes to try to kill themselves; and it terrified and scarred and "broke" the souls of many, many others. For what? Intelligence that cannot be trusted, and the loss of the sacred integrity of two centuries of American history. Did it save lives? We do not know. We do know that the people who are claiming it did have been unable to bring any serious case to justice based on their original claims, and are the people who are criminally responsible for the torture they have committed. Why would they not say it saved lives? And yet we have no other way to know. And we have the terrifying possibility that false information procured by torture provided a pretext to torture others in a self-perpetuating loop in which any ability to find out the actual truth is lost for ever. That, after all, is how some of the flawed intelligence that took us into Iraq was procured.

This paragraph tore my heart open.  Andrew includes a picture that I cannot bring myself to post here.  It is too profane.  Is this us?  Is this how we defend ourselves?  Is this what we condone?  I've written before about torture.  Pragmatically.  But to see it so graphically depicted...

What have we done?

Shot Callers?

Jodi Cantor at The New York Times profiles friend-in-chief Valerie Jarrett:

To the outside world, Ms. Jarrett became an all-purpose ambassador. Before the Iowa caucuses, Ms. Jarrett tried to persuade black leaders that Mr. Obama could prevail; afterwards, she had to deal with their jitters. At one nerve-racking meeting last summer, Ms. Jarrett met in New York with black leaders, including the hip-hop moguls Sean Combs and Russell Simmons; Mr. Simmons grew so anxious that he had to leave the room, Ms. Jarrett said. They were worried that Mr. Obama was failing to fight back against attempts to stereotype him in racial terms.

“She could have told the room, You’re right, I will talk to Senator Obama,” said the Rev. Al Sharpton. Instead, Ms. Jarrett was blunt. “There are those who are going to fight the race gap, but that’s not our role,” she said, telling the leaders to channel their energy into concrete tasks like voter registration.

Well, that's a bracing revelation.  Sean Combs and Russell Simmons are considered Black Leaders; enough to merit inclusion in a meeting with other Black Leaders including Rev. Al and Ms. Jarrett.

Not that I'm not impressed by Messrs. Combs and Simmons and their successful business models.  It's more than I've done.  But would I honestly want either of them to have an opinion with sway in what Obama should do?  Ms. Jarrett answered correctly.

Brother Old School Regales The Day

Here's a missive from Brotha Old School.  I've included links, most of which are from Wikipedia.

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Not since the late 60s, with the rise and fall of the Panther Party, the demise of the process, (the use of chemicals, lye being the main ingredient, to conk or straighten the Black man's hair) and the birth of the natural (aka the Afro), have I seen such a great display of Black pride and unity.  Marvin Gaye sang "What's Going On," Tricky Dick was in the White House and Cheech and Chong were making light of things.

Back in the day, Blacks referred to each other as my brotha or my susta and tried greeting each
other with Muslim and Swahili exchanges.  Although, more often than not, they were mispronounced and their interpretations rarely understood; like "assalamu alaikum" or "bunny-gunny brotha."  Both phrases were greetings expressed along with a raised clinched fist symbolizing the Black Power sign.  It didn't matter whether you said it right or not.  It was more of a fun and friendly gesture not to be taken too seriously.  It was a rare era, when no matter what was your status quo, being Black, was the thing to be.

Now, all this Blackness, unity, and pride didn't set so well with J. Edgar and crew.   So they craftily circumscribed, infiltrated, then meticulously set about dismantling, from within, most of the major Black movements that promoted such pride and unity.  Reasoning?  They just didn't favor our militant flavor.

But this new found sense of pride and unity generated today is of a cleaner, non-toxic, environmentally friendlier fuel that makes no indication for revolution.  It's just the pure sweet simple joy found in witnessing this day of evolution.  The enormity of the transition for recognition of the Black man's role evolving from the past couple of centuries is not just to be looked upon by America but by the entire world.

A new day?  To say the least.   A new millennium!  A new world!  Undeniably, a new era.  Let me put a lil-some-um out there to ya about myself to shed light on my view about things.  Understand that I, in no way, have ever been one to be politically inclined.  Now, two years shy of 60, I find myself convalescing some shame for allowing my youthful inner city baggage to carry so far into my adulthood.  I was one of them brothas more concerned with trying to hook--up with an Angela Davis look-alike in mini skirt and go-go boots, while on the constant hunt for some Acupulco Gold (the bomb weed of the day).  My world was only as big as the Hollywood night life and the avenues off the Crenshaw strip.  What went on beyond those boundaries, I mistakenly felt had nothing to do with my mama's baby boy.

Today, in following this election, I gotta tell ya, I've learned more about politics and the differences between the major parties than I care to admit.  The excitement in watching history unfold, even for a piss-po-ass-excuse for a student like I've always been, has re-energized the few remaining brain cells that survived the frying of the 60s.  Along with this rejuvenation came the flash backs to those times before the Bloods and the Cuz when brothas got along.  When there was genuine comaraderie.  Sadly, something this new generation has never seen.

Understandably, it took the collective effort of all races in America to elect the nation's first Black President.  But what was such a a reassuring sense of pride and unity, was to see Black people come together as a body nearly as a whole, to stand behind the brotha.  That was a double whammy inducement of pride.  Pride for the brotha and pride for the people standing with him.

Throughout history, when ever a Black man has petitioned the White world's arena, it has never been enough to merely be equally qualified with his game.  He's always had to be better. It is without question that the whole world knows that for a Black man to ever even be considered as a serious contender for the office of the President of the United States of America, he has to be bringing one hellava extraordinary game!  So the fact alone the he was able to win, is enough of a resume in itself to state his qualifications.  You just can't be Black and get that far and not be qualified.  White people never have, nor ever would, allow such a thang.  Beleeve dat!

So, again, I point out it was the collective effort of all the races in America to bring about this day.  Understanding that point, I offer this insight to the Black experience, America tried to oppress Black pride and that's why some on the other side got it twisted with what the soon to be first lady meant when she said this was the first time in her adult life she was really proud of her county.  I've revived the chant to James Brown's, "Say It Loud" to how it now can be expressed today:

Say it loud! 

I'm Black and I'm proud!

Say it loud! 

I'm Black and I'm proud!

Say it loud!

Caint-cha unda-stand!

I'm Black and I'm proud!

To be Ameri-can!

Let's Hear It For The Girl!!!!

Via Ta-Nehisi Coates:

Government Runs How?

Since I know little more about the various governmental departments and offices, I thought that whenever I encounter info about it, I'd post it here.  It'll help me and help you.

Per Marc Ambinder at The Atlantic:

Barack Obama has tapped CBO director Peter Orszag to be director of the Office of Management and Budget, my collegues at National Journal report today.

He's a youngish overachiever, just 40, and subscribes to the theory of what he once called "cool-headed, warm-hearted" economic policy. Judging by his blog, Orszag has smart and interesting things to say about the intersection of psychology and economics, the long-term vs. short-term effects of climate change legislation, honest budgeting and accounting, and lots more.

OMB is the executive branch's budgetary arm and management oversight evaluator. The director serves as a key presidential adviser on the economy and is responsible for projecting the fiscal consequences of any presidential decision. OMB would figure out how much Barack Obama's health care plan will cost, for example, as it gets introduced in Congress. It'll score every bill that Congress sends to Obama. It's the repository of policy, responsible for official statements. More to the point, though, is that OMB will administer Obama's transparency agenda. Regulatory reform will originate at OMB. 

Good man to keep track of.

Shelby Steele

Gawd, this man bugs me.  The man is Shelby Steele and he crawls under my skin like a rash.

I can't embed it, so take a moment and watch this video interview between Steele and Peter Robinson, writer for the conservative website National Review Online.  (Note what a denizen of NRO I've become -- they fascinate me.)

Done?

Okay, several things to notice.  First, at no point during the interview does Mr. Steele refer to black people in the possessive.  It's all about "they" and "them."  From an argument's standpoint, as to him arguing the premise of his book -- entitled by the way "A Bound Man:  Why We Are Excited About Obama and Why He Can't Win" (heh heh heh) -- cold reasoning takes a certain amount of disconnect from the inhabitants of the argument.  I get that.  But it makes me wonder, and not for the first time, if Mr. Steele is aware that he is black.

Second, he offers the idea that black people wear masks and as example, he names two black men -- horn players.  Louis Armstrong, he says, wears a "bargainer" mask but what I distinctly perceived in his explanation, though he didn't say it outright, is that Armstrong is basically an Uncle Tom.  Miles Davis, he says, wears a "challenger" mask.  The angry black man.  Both, he posits, got where they got to be by wearing a mask to make white people feel good about themselves and thereby acquiring a measure of success for themselves; Armstrong by tomming and Davis by scowling and making the white people LIKE it.

I don't disagree with his concept of masks.  Anyone black who has watched an older friend or relative completely change in the presence of white people knows the ritual of the wearing of the mask.  Hell, to some extent, most people of color don a mask at some point.  Where I diverge from Mr. Steele's logic is that how white people feel about themselves enters into the equation.  I don't think white people's self-worth is a chip in the game.  White's feelings of self-worth is a secure given regardless of how much Satchmo grins or Miles grimaces.  In the end, it's merely about being able to do what one does.

Third, and this is a tent pole of much of Steele's philosophy, that black agency promotes and fosters white guilt thereby rendering it a driving force in the success of any black person in America, specifically Obama as agent and recipient.  That Obama may have offered an alternative path to the American electorate weary of lies and subterfuge, doesn't seem to enter his argument.  I may be wrong in that since I have not yet read his book about how Obama can't win.

Last, Steele says in this interview, "White America has made tremendous moral progress since the '60s... And they've never given themselves credit for that."  I'm firmly in the Chris Rock school of philosophy on this matter; you don't get credit for what you're supposed to do.  And really, white folks don't need to give themselves credit when Shelby Steele is there to do it for them.  Who is it then, honestly, stroking white folks' guilt?

This man just bugs.

Imagine Them Being Them At The Corner

I read The Corner, National Review Online's conservative group blog, but it is no easy task.  They can be the "base" the Republican Party genuflects to and they can be the intelligentsia the Republican Party needs.  I've learned from reading The Corner that The Right is not monolithic.

One thing most noticeable about The Corner is that they just hate Barack Obama.  No.  Hate may be too strong a word for most of them.  They are not impressed.

My immediate reaction to their not being impressed is admittedly racially paranoid.  I really do believe that if you take the same Barack Obama and the only changes to him was he was white and his name was Bob Miller, these guys and many others would be kvelling at what an impressive guy he was.  They may not agree with his politics, but there would be nothing but respect.

That can never be proved.

So I read The Corner...so you don't have to!  I also stick my nose in at Free Republic where the Freepers run wild.  Believe me.  You don't want to go there unless you have to.

Here, at The Corner, is Byron York completely missing the point.

Everything Is Relative

I have a great little space here.  I get to glurg up what ever I want to glurg about, I e-mail a velvet steamroller message to family and friends, every so often I get to guest blog at Spencer's and writing and thinking life is great.

But I have no illusions.  The post immediately before this one spoke of simple vs. complicated thinking.  I am at the "simple" end of a score of blog sites where people post and comment about things so intricately intelligent that often I feel like a neanderthal contemplating infinity.  I comment on occasion at these sites, but my comments are usually ignored.  I've e-mailed these professional thinkers demurely pimping my blog and have been roundly ignored.

Of course my mind fills in the empty space where a response would be with "since I don't know this chick, better to not say anything."

But for some reason, I keep writing here.

Which brings me to my thanks to you who do read what I glurg up here.  Thank you.

President-Elect Obama's 60 Minutes Interview

The whole thing.  In three parts.  With commercials I believe.

UPDATE:  The CBS News 60 Minutes site is down, so these can't be seen right now as of 9:18 p.m. on 11/17/08.

Part 1 - Obama and the Presidency

Watch CBS Videos Online

Part 2 - The Personal Transition

Watch CBS Videos Online

Part 3 - A Father's Promise


Watch CBS Videos Online

Good God, it's good to have a coherent thinking person in the Presidency.  I never watched GeeDub because I thought him too simple for the position.

A little personal aside here, because the word "simple" makes me think of something.  BOS accused me of being so high minded that it was beyond me to understand simpler concepts.  I resisted responding "F U!  Is that simple enough for you?"  Our exchanges got, um, heated shall we say, though primarily from me.  BOS really was amusing himself by getting my goat.  That said, he was getting my goat by relating how "simply" he thinks about things and that's good enough for him and, according to him, a whole nother slew of folks that I apparently cannot relate to.

Perhaps.  But that belief, that simple thinking is good enough, is a sure-fire way to stay mired in mediocrity.  It doesn't challenge one to consider the possibilities.  To consider the possibilities and how they can broaden and better and enrich one's existence.

President Bush was perfectly content being a simple-thinking man.  He was proud of it.  It is no secret that many who voted for him in 2000 and 2004 voted for him because they could relate to him...his simple way of thinking.  He was just like them.  They could have a beer with him, the old saw goes.

But the world is a complicated place with complicated problems.  Foreign intra-hostilities cannot be solved by a simple "Hulk Smash!!"  Allies cannot be assuaged by a back rub.  You cannot look into a leader's eyes, see his soul and base foreign policy upon it.

It takes considered logical practical thinking to be a president.  When our president walks into a room (or sit across the table from those designing to cause harm), people should feel secure that he's the smartest one present.

A simply thinking president should not be the bellwether.

This Post Has No Title

I read somewhere and I wish I had bookmarked or saved it, a comment on a blog or a blog entry about torture.  The point was that torture should not be a condoned legalized method of interrogation in U.S. policy.  That is not to be so naive as to think that torture by U.S. entities would disappear.  It won't.  But, and the comment said as much, by making it an illegal tactic in U.S. intelligence gathering, it would thereby assure that torture would be the last tactic employed with full knowledge and acceptance of the responsibility of its illegality, and not a regular course of action.

It has shamed me that my country at the hands of the neocons has legalized things I was taught to believe were wrong.  Torture is wrong.  It's wrong and information obtained is, more often than not, unreliable.  This amazing read in the New Yorker written by Jane Mayer is case in point.  (Via Glenn Greenwald.)

Without more transparency, the value of the C.I.A.’s interrogation and detention program is impossible to evaluate. Setting aside the moral, ethical, and legal issues, even supporters, such as John Brennan, acknowledge that much of the information that coercion produces is unreliable. As he put it, “All these methods produced useful information, but there was also a lot that was bogus.

So what has been the purpose of the "enhanced interrogation techniques" employed by our government since 9/11?  Has it been to root out Al Qaeda?  How can that be when we purposefully ignored Al Qaeda's Hole-In-The-Wall, Afghanistan, in favor of attempting to create a shining the beacon of democracy in Iraq.

I'm trying to come to a purpose here.  It's bothering me.  Why has it been imperative that torture be employed?  Why have laws and ideals been decimated for so few bits of knowledge?  What was the reason?  It's going to continue to bother me because there is no law separating me from others who know nothing of Al Qaeda.

I'd love to end this haphazard screed by tying up all my haphazard points, but I can't.  It was just something I have been thinking about.  Good news, though.  President-Elect Obama says that he is closing Gitmo and ending the U.S. sanctioned practice of torture.  I sincerely hope that he can and does.

Via ThinkProgress and Huffington Post.

Governator Logorrhea

Since I've had this political awakening this election, I am now also going to try and concern myself with my home state of California politics.  In 2003, there was in California a recall vote of Gov. Gray Davis.  I voted against that recall because I believed, as limited and shallow my reasoning may have been, that Gov. Davis was being scapegoated for a California energy crisis.  I felt that he was the elected official and if the good citizens of California, who voted him governor in the first place, felt that he should not be in the office, then they could bloody well vote him out at the end of his term.  

I also felt that Arnold Schwarzenegger was the benefactor of a cult of personality that unfairly eclipsed the aptly named Gray.

Anything deeper, I sheeplishly admit here I knew nothing of.

I was in the minority on that opinion because Californians threw the bum out and elected Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Arnold is definitely a majority portion personality and what's left over, I am not sure is good thinking or opportunism.  I haven't paid enough attention to judge.  I will henceforth, however.

What I do know about him is something that the good governor from Alaska should take pointed notice of.  This is how it's done.

Arnold knows how to talk excessively and mostly on point.  He's informed enough to finesse anything that is not directly on point, somehow rolling it into making more than a bit of sense.  Anything left over is muscled (heh) by with charm.  It's like magic.

Stop Me Before I Cute Again

I keep finding stuff Obama stuff online that I cannot resist posting.  Yes, it is gratifying beyond measure to realize that our 44th president is a black man.  I still can't believe it.

So...this picture is beyond cute, with her little afropuffs.

H/t Girls4Obama via Jack & Jill Politics

I'm Standing Right Here

Not that I am particularly anxious for the GOP to get its bearings any time soon, but this clip is telling about what is wrong with the party.

The country is different than it was during the heyday of the GOP.  Yet, they are still clinging (yeah, I said "clinging") to these ideals they speak of.  Pat Buchanan, who I think is one of those racists who are perfectly fine with being so, sets forth the old party line.  Mike Paul, republican strategist, offers up new thinking, and Buchanan can barely speak of it.

On election night, as me and my two friends looked at the electoral map of blue and red, red dominating the South, including Louisiana and Mississippi, two states the GOP watched drown, we all said the same thing..."Slave states."  Their Southern Strategy of appealing to older male white conservatives disdainful of the colored people, is a losing proposition.  I will go out on a limb and say that in 2012, if Obama has his game as tight as this election, more of those states (in addition to Virginia, North Carolina and Florida) will go blue as well, particularly if the GOP has old southern white male conservatives stuck in the glory days calling the plays.

...And Beyond

My mother made me and my sister late for school to watch men fly into space.  I took it for granted and was irritated that I would be late.  Why didn't I see it as wondrously as it should be seen?

Any Excuse To Watch Barack And Fam

It's a little early but...