Stump Lane
in the dirt since history began

President Holds Press Conference

Heheh. I love that as a headline. Stop the press! Big news, the President is actually holding a press conference. Which isn’t to say he’s going to answer any tough questions..

There were a few questions that challenged the President about Iraq, human rights, social security, the deficit, democracy, torture.. He, however, didn’t once rise to the challenge and directly answer ANY of them. His inept attempts at employing 1984 style “doublespeak” (I’ll call his version “bumblespeak”) were still effective enough to fill time without disclosing any meaningful information. (I’m here to say it didn’t go unnoticed.)

Of course, there was this exchange in follow-up to a question about Rice’s testimony and the misinformation used to start the Iraq war:

Q No reaction to the lying? No reaction? (Laughter.)

[I fear for this person.]

THE PRESIDENT: Is that your question? The answer is, no. Next.

Wow. No bumblespeak needed here.

On the lighter side, there was also this hilarious(?) exchange on social security:

THE PRESIDENT: ..if you have a child — how old is your child, Carl?

Q Fourteen years old.

THE PRESIDENT: Yes, 14. Well, if she were –

Q He, sir.

THE PRESIDENT: He, excuse me. (Laughter.) I should have done the background check. (Laughter.) She will — when she gets ready to — when she’s 50, the system will be broke..

Toward the end of the conference, as if it were planned, came the meatball questions. The real juicy ones; replete with loaded language. Leading questions sent to set the tone; that hit the talking points. The answers to which are not even necessary to illustrate the questioners’ complicity.

Q Thank you. Senate Democratic leaders have painted a very bleak picture of the U.S. economy. Harry Reid was talking about soup lines, and Hillary Clinton was talking about the economy being on the verge of collapse. Yet, in the same breath, they say that Social Security is rock-solid and there’s no crisis there. How are you going to work — you said you’re going to reach out to these people — how are you going to work with people who seem to have divorced themselves from reality?

Q Mr. President, Senator Ted Kennedy recently repeated his characterization of Iraq as a “quagmire” and has called it your Vietnam. And the questioning of Alberto Gonzales and Condi Rice in the Senate has been largely used by Democrats to criticize your entire Iraq program, especially what you’re trying to do postwar. I wonder if you have any response to those criticisms. And what kind of an effect do you think these statements have on the morale of our troops and on the confidence of the Iraqi people that what you’re trying to do over there is going to succeed?

Q Mr. President, we saw the Democrats yesterday devote nine hours to Ms. Rice. We may see something similar with regard to Judge Gonzales. There’s just simply a lot of anger on the Hill by Democrats at you, personally, and at your administration. And isn’t this going to dog your efforts at whatever you do down the line, from the Supreme Court to immigration to whatever?

Q Well, you had a Democratic Senator basically call your Secretary of State nominee a liar. That’s pretty harsh language coming from –

We are living in a farce. Or a nightmare.

The crushing propaganda machine rolls on churning the pulp of the public mind.

R. Robot is at it again. I try to ignore the inane rantings and criticisms of right-wing bloviators like R. Robot but I can’t resist this opportunity to point out the tactics being used, which have become, quite honestly, tiresome of late especially when I find myself in the crosshairs. Here is what R. Robot has to say about yours truly in a post titled The Chomsky-like insouciance of Montag

In the mind of Montag, it’s always President Bush’s fault.

One of the nattering criminals, Montag slanders Paul Wolfowitz. “This whole thing is bullshit,” he said. Grumble, grumble, grumble. The truth makes the funny little creatures who make up the calculated liberal elite resort to outrageously emotional insults and cries of “unconstitutional!”

Them’s fightin’ words! (Or are they?)

Typical of every conservative who has truly drank the kool-aid, Robot follows S.O.P.: change subject and attack. Well, in this case, I’m not even sure what subject he is referring to, so devoid of content is his rant. Nonetheless, he responds first with a meaningless misstatement and then a (quite weak) ad hominem fallacy, including the declaration that Your Montag is a criminal, and even worse, one of the elite. I will not dignify Robot’s words with a response. But I will state the need to develop a boiler-plate response to be used when faced with the ‘change subject and attack’ gambit. We can’t let them change the subject anymore!

Would any of these work?

“Don’t change the subject, defend your position!”
“Stop arguing in fallacies!”
“Do you think you might be in denial because your position is morally untenable?”
“I’m rubber and your glue..”
Or simply:
“This conversation is over. Put up your dukes.”

Comments?

Due to Alberto Gonzales’ involvement with the ‘torture memo’ and in light of his evasive testimony in front of the Judiciary Committee, I urge you to vote against confirming him as the next Attorney General.

As one of your constituents, I want you to be aware of the perception that: 1) Gonzales equals torture; and 2) a vote for Gonzales’ confirmation equals a vote to uphold torture. Furthermore, a vote to uphold torture is morally inexcusable.

Where you stand on this vote will be remembered and will carry a great deal of weight as I make the decision whether or not to support you in your next bid for re-election.

Higher Officials Unlikely to Be Tried – LA Times

“This is the guy that it seems easiest for us to blame,” said Beth Hillman, a specialist on military justice at Rutgers University School of Law Camden, N.J., of the low-level reservist who was sentenced to 10 years in prison. “That doesn’t mean there aren’t other people who should pay a price for their role in making this possible.”

“I’ve seen no convincing evidence that higher-ups authorized the forms of abuse that made Abu Ghraib the story it is,” said Peter D. Feaver, a political scientist at Duke University..

But we haven’t seen the White House Torture Memo by Gonzales yet. (Shhh! That’s a secret.) We’re not going to just see “convincing evidence”, we’re gonna have to uncover it. I am telling you, THIS GRANER ANIMAL IS NOT THE TOP DOG IN TORTURE. But, I’m guessing the investigation is going to stop with him anyway. Oh well, we gave it the old ‘college try.’

“The military has various ways to punish people,” said Eugene R. Fidell, a Washington lawyer and expert on military justice. It may be different for a senior officer than for a junior one. “An admiral or general may be forced into retirement or lose a pay grade,” he said.

Retirement (cruel and unusual!) To these guys, retirement probably means a lucrative consulting job in the private sector.

The job of leadership (think CEOs) is to create a ‘culture’ in which their subordinates are most likely to act in a prescribed way in order to achieve the goals of the organization.

Culture Formally Defined
A pattern of shared basic assumptions that the group learned as it solved its problems of external adaptation and internal integration, that has worked well enough to be considered valid and, therefore, to be taught to new members as the correct way you perceive, think, and feel in relation to those problems.

Organizational Culture & Leadership – Edgar H Schein

Like CEO’s, Administration and Pentagon officials, create the culture their subordinates (starting with the admirals and generals) draw from and within which they act. This culture encourages the behavior they want, without necessarily the need to give very specific orders. In this case they have created a culture where “softening” of prisoners for interrogation is encouraged as a means of solving the organizational “problem” of extracting information; and torture has become the proven and valid method of achieving this goal.

Which is not to say that there weren’t specific orders being given at some level by, perhaps, “military and civilian intelligence agents.”

By not going after the higher-ups in this case, the torture culture will survive. Only now with the caveat that: what that Graner fella did went too far; we’ll have to do something else to get the job done.

“The database is lonely.
You can help!
Visit the database every time
you spend time with any of our esteemed guests.
Tell the database about what fun conversation
you and your guests had.
…I realize it sounds rather cliche,
but we have ways of making you talk.”

Text: slideshow for new interrogators, Abu Ghraib
Taken from: Doctor’s Orders — Spill Your Guts

M. Gregg Bloche and Jonathan H. Marks
Los Angeles Times, Sunday, January 9, 2005, M1.

See also: “When Doctors Go To War,” New England Journal of Medicine vol. 352, no. 1 (January 6, 2005): 3-6.

“…even if we do not take things seriously, even if we keep an
ironical distance, we are still doing them.“

Slavoj Zizek, The Sublime Object of Ideology (London: Verso), 33.

The inauguration is upon us. I’m not going. Most of the balls and parties cost a small fortune to attend. Tickets to the Constitution Ball, for example are $795. Tickets to many of the balls cost the same, and several cost more than this. The elite will gather at these lavish celebrations to celebrate the inauguration of their leader, provider and protector. Meanwhile thousands are dying for their sake in Iraq, and thousands more are languishing in the devastation of the Tsunami.

Well, I can’t afford to go to the Constitution Ball, but I do feel compelled and duty-bound to contribute something to help with the Tsunami disaster. I can’t afford $10 million like Formula 1 racing driver, Michael Schumacher, nor can I afford $10,000 like the President. I’d like to somehow come up with $795 to symbolically snub the Constitution Ball, and simultaneously help those in need.

Which brings me to the reason for this post. Leave a comment below to pledge to contribute to some charity that is meaningful to you, and that reflects, hopefully, the priorities of regular Americans (those outside of the corporatist elites who direct government funding into things like wars and elaborate coronation ceremonies.) The goal here is to reach the symbolic $795. (This may prove to be a lofty goal considering the limited reach of this site. No guts, no glory, though.)

I pledge at least $200 (and will try to do more,) to Tsunami relief, though I don’t know yet which organization to go through.

So let’s go. Pry open those wallets and send some money to charity. Don’t send it to me, I can’t be trusted. The honor system will govern us in following through on our pledges.

As I heard on NPR once during one of their pledge telethons, “Don’t give until it hurts; give until it feels good.”

Graner, the suspected ringleader of the abuse, described himself as a by-the-book prison guard corrupted by superiors who ordered him to physically mistreat and sexually humiliate detainees.

He said he initially resisted pressure to mistreat prisoners, but his Army superiors made it clear to him that he was expected to obey the commands of the military and civilian intelligence agents who ran his part of Abu Ghraib.

Graner said a lieutenant in his unit told him: “If (military intelligence) asks you to do this, it needs to be done. They’re in charge, follow their orders.” He said he now knows that those orders were unlawful, but “at the time my understanding is that they were (lawful), or I wouldn’t have done them,” he said.

[Emphasis mine.]

Graner says he was ordered to abuse prisoners at Abu Ghraib – JAMAICAOBSERVER.COM

More found poetry from the headlines of the past days (a google news search for “ringleader”)..

Two charges dropped against Abu Ghraib abuse ‘ringleader’

Alleged Abu Ghraib abuse ringleader set for trial

Opening arguments scheduled for accused Abu Ghraib ringleader

Alleged Abu Ghraib Ringleader May Testify

Accused Abu Ghraib ringleader may testify at trial

Alleged ringleader at Abu Ghraib goes on trial

Alleged ringleader of prisoner abuse scandal goes on trial

Witness: ‘Ringleader’ Hit Detainee

Former colleagues testify against alleged ringleader of Abu Ghraib

Witness: Accused ringleader punched Abu Ghraib prisoner

Ringleader defends prisoner degradation

Jurors Decide Fate of Alleged Abu Ghraib Abuse Ringleader

Abu Ghraib ringleader found guilty

Abu Ghraib abuse ringleader found guilty

Ringleader convicted of abusing Iraqi prisoners

‘Ringleader’ still grinning

Once again we see that the media is in lockstep and really working the catchword of the week. This time it’s “ringleader.”

One question: If the prisoner abuse cases occurred in several places in Iraq as well as in Cuba and Afghanistan, how is it that an Army Specialist in Abu Ghraib prison is the “ringleader” of the whole thing?

Army Spc. Charles Graner Jr. was the “primary torturer,” one detainee testified. Graner merrily whistled, sang and laughed while brutalizing him, said Syrian prisoner Amin al-Sheikh, and forced him to eat pork and drink alcohol in violation of his Muslim faith.

No doubt this guy is a miserable piece of work and deserving of his punishment, but let’s try and not forget to hold the real ringleaders accountable because he aint it.

KOTV – The News on 6 – Soldier Said To Be A Laughing, Singing “primary Torturer” Convicted Of Abu Ghraib Abuse

Some articles that fall under the What the Fuck Are We Doing Over There, Anyway?! category..

Whoops! Here goes justification #1 (WMD)..

Search for Banned Arms In Iraq Ended Last Month

Whoops! Here goes justification #2 (Al Qaeda = Iraq) I mean, if the Al Qaeda-linked terrorists are now considered ‘foreign fighters’ because they were OUTSIDE of Iraq before the war.. aagh, forget it..

U.S. Said to Hold More Foreigners in Iraq Fighting

And now for the coup de grace..

Whoops! Here goes justification #3 (Saddam Evil)

The Salvador Option

[Maj. Gen. Muhammad Abdallah al-Shahwani, director of Iraq’s National Intelligence Service] said that the U.S. occupation has failed to crack the problem of broad support for the insurgency. The insurgents, he said, “are mostly in the Sunni areas where the population there, almost 200,000, is sympathetic to them.” He said most Iraqi people do not actively support the insurgents or provide them with material or logistical help, but at the same time they won’t turn them in. One military source involved in the Pentagon debate agrees that this is the crux of the problem, and he suggests that new offensive operations are needed that would create a fear of aiding the insurgency. “The Sunni population is paying no price for the support it is giving to the terrorists,” he said. “From their point of view, it is cost-free. We have to change that equation.” [Emphasis mine.]

Noam Chomsky wrote about what went on in El Salvador:

The Jesuits were murdered by the Atlacatl Battalion, an elite unit created, trained and equipped by the United States. It was formed in March 1981, when fifteen specialists in counterinsurgency were sent to El Salvador from the US Army School of Special Forces. From the start, the Battalion was engaged in mass murder. A US trainer described its soldiers as “particularly ferocious….We’ve always had a hard time getting them to take prisoners instead of ears.”

The Atlacatl Battalion was being trained by US Special Forces shortly before murdering the Jesuits. This has been a pattern throughout the Battalion’s existence-some of its worst massacres have occurred when it was fresh from US training…

…The results of Salvadoran military training are graphically described in the Jesuit journal America by Daniel Santiago, a Catholic priest working in El Salvador. He tells of a peasant woman who returned home one day to find her three children, her mother and her sister sitting around a table, each with its own decapitated head placed carefully on the table in front of the body, the hands arranged on top “as if each body was stroking its own head. The assassins, from the Salvadoran National Guard, had found it hard to keep the head of an 18-month-old baby in place, so they nailed the hands onto it. A large plastic bowl filled with blood was tastefully displayed in the center of the table.

According to Rev. Santiago, macabre scenes of this kind aren’t uncommon. People are not just killed by death squads in El Salvador-they are decapitated and then their heads are placed on pikes and used to dot the landscape. Men are not just disemboweled by the Salvadoran Treasury Police; their severed genitalia are stuffed into their mouths. Salvadoran women are not just raped by the National Guard; their wombs are cut from their bodies and used to cover their faces. It is not enough to kill children; they are dragged over barbed wire until the flesh falls from their bones, while parents are forced to watch.

This is ‘The Salvador Option.’