Comments on: A Heavy Thumb On The Scales http://firedoglake.com/2006/12/31/a-heavy-thumb-on-the-scales/ Firedoglake weblog Thu, 16 Feb 2012 05:52:01 -0600 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.2 By: Carlyle Moulton http://firedoglake.com/2006/12/31/a-heavy-thumb-on-the-scales/#comment-438548 Carlyle Moulton Mon, 01 Jan 2007 10:50:02 +0000 http://www.firedoglake.com/2006/12/31/a-heavy-thumb-on-the-scales/#comment-438548 <p>About the execution of Saddam.<br /> I am against the death penalty, but if it is to exist, Saddam is certainly one of the cases where it is less unacceptable. However it seems to me that Saddam’s execution has been handled with indecent haste. I suspect that this is mainly for the convenience of the current US administration because it will now abort those other human rights trials in which Saddam is the defendant but in which Saddam could have raised US collusion with the creation of the chemical weapons he used. </p> About the execution of Saddam.
I am against the death penalty, but if it is to exist, Saddam is certainly one of the cases where it is less unacceptable. However it seems to me that Saddam’s execution has been handled with indecent haste. I suspect that this is mainly for the convenience of the current US administration because it will now abort those other human rights trials in which Saddam is the defendant but in which Saddam could have raised US collusion with the creation of the chemical weapons he used.

]]> By: Carlyle Moulton http://firedoglake.com/2006/12/31/a-heavy-thumb-on-the-scales/#comment-438547 Carlyle Moulton Mon, 01 Jan 2007 10:15:47 +0000 http://www.firedoglake.com/2006/12/31/a-heavy-thumb-on-the-scales/#comment-438547 <p><b>A comment from a long distance observer of US politics in Australia.</b><br /> It is naive to expect the Democrats subsequent to their November 2006 victories and even if they win power in the US in 2008 to reverse the misuses of executive power by G W Bush. The fact is that the Democrats are only slightly lesser in the dimension of right-wing fanaticism than the Republicans. The criminal disenfranchisement of so many poor, black and Hispanic would be voters who predominantly favor the Democrats, has pushed politics to the right. The Democrats are afraid that if they are too vigorous in distancing themselves from G W Bush policies they will lose the so called moderate republican voters they need to make up for the lost feloniously disenfranchised. In addition many of the “centrist” candidates that the Democrats have chosen in recent years such as for example Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton are really Republicans lite.</p> A comment from a long distance observer of US politics in Australia.
It is naive to expect the Democrats subsequent to their November 2006 victories and even if they win power in the US in 2008 to reverse the misuses of executive power by G W Bush. The fact is that the Democrats are only slightly lesser in the dimension of right-wing fanaticism than the Republicans. The criminal disenfranchisement of so many poor, black and Hispanic would be voters who predominantly favor the Democrats, has pushed politics to the right. The Democrats are afraid that if they are too vigorous in distancing themselves from G W Bush policies they will lose the so called moderate republican voters they need to make up for the lost feloniously disenfranchised. In addition many of the “centrist” candidates that the Democrats have chosen in recent years such as for example Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton are really Republicans lite.

]]> By: Carlyle Moulton http://firedoglake.com/2006/12/31/a-heavy-thumb-on-the-scales/#comment-438542 Carlyle Moulton Mon, 01 Jan 2007 09:19:05 +0000 http://www.firedoglake.com/2006/12/31/a-heavy-thumb-on-the-scales/#comment-438542 <p>The Bush administration has by now held some inmates in Gulag Guantanamo for more than 5 years. I question whether now it can afford the humiliation of a result other than conviction and long sentences for any of them and in respect of Australian Guantanamo inmate David Hicks the Australian Government is in the same position. </p> The Bush administration has by now held some inmates in Gulag Guantanamo for more than 5 years. I question whether now it can afford the humiliation of a result other than conviction and long sentences for any of them and in respect of Australian Guantanamo inmate David Hicks the Australian Government is in the same position.

]]> By: Ralph http://firedoglake.com/2006/12/31/a-heavy-thumb-on-the-scales/#comment-438213 Ralph Mon, 01 Jan 2007 03:49:55 +0000 http://www.firedoglake.com/2006/12/31/a-heavy-thumb-on-the-scales/#comment-438213 <p>Christy, I am very proud of you, and I am with you all the way. Thank you for your wondrous courage.</p> Christy, I am very proud of you, and I am with you all the way. Thank you for your wondrous courage.

]]> By: deadissue http://firedoglake.com/2006/12/31/a-heavy-thumb-on-the-scales/#comment-438198 deadissue Mon, 01 Jan 2007 03:24:21 +0000 http://www.firedoglake.com/2006/12/31/a-heavy-thumb-on-the-scales/#comment-438198 <p>Making it up as they go along…a TRUE military operation!</p> Making it up as they go along…a TRUE military operation!

]]> By: dead last http://firedoglake.com/2006/12/31/a-heavy-thumb-on-the-scales/#comment-438004 dead last Mon, 01 Jan 2007 00:02:07 +0000 http://www.firedoglake.com/2006/12/31/a-heavy-thumb-on-the-scales/#comment-438004 <p>“…explain how it is that a President who swore an oath to uphold the Constitution and the rule of law as a part of his primary duties at the helm of this nation can so contemptuously dismiss that duty without so much as a backward glance? “</p> <p>Easy, he issued a signing statement disregardng the Constitution. But no one dares ask this fuck if such a signing statement is constitutional.</p> “…explain how it is that a President who swore an oath to uphold the Constitution and the rule of law as a part of his primary duties at the helm of this nation can so contemptuously dismiss that duty without so much as a backward glance? “

Easy, he issued a signing statement disregardng the Constitution. But no one dares ask this fuck if such a signing statement is constitutional.

]]> By: The Oracle http://firedoglake.com/2006/12/31/a-heavy-thumb-on-the-scales/#comment-437954 The Oracle Sun, 31 Dec 2006 23:17:13 +0000 http://www.firedoglake.com/2006/12/31/a-heavy-thumb-on-the-scales/#comment-437954 <p>This Gitmo fiasco reminds me of another period in U.S. history when people were thrown into jail on the whim of a U.S. president and held in jail until that president finally left office.</p> <p>John Adams, Alien and Sedition Act, people jailed under this partisan act finally released after Thomas Jefferson succeeded Adams as president.</p> This Gitmo fiasco reminds me of another period in U.S. history when people were thrown into jail on the whim of a U.S. president and held in jail until that president finally left office.

John Adams, Alien and Sedition Act, people jailed under this partisan act finally released after Thomas Jefferson succeeded Adams as president.

]]> By: Ed*ard Teller http://firedoglake.com/2006/12/31/a-heavy-thumb-on-the-scales/#comment-437839 Ed*ard Teller Sun, 31 Dec 2006 21:24:10 +0000 http://www.firedoglake.com/2006/12/31/a-heavy-thumb-on-the-scales/#comment-437839 <p>Rayne,</p> <p>Yeah, I’ve seen wingnuts quote Jon Swift cold and true, as if….</p> <p>He’s a true J.C. Christian, Jr.</p> Rayne,

Yeah, I’ve seen wingnuts quote Jon Swift cold and true, as if….

He’s a true J.C. Christian, Jr.

]]> By: Rayne http://firedoglake.com/2006/12/31/a-heavy-thumb-on-the-scales/#comment-437833 Rayne Sun, 31 Dec 2006 21:07:22 +0000 http://www.firedoglake.com/2006/12/31/a-heavy-thumb-on-the-scales/#comment-437833 <p>Ed*ard Teller — read this bit of what I think is supposed to be <a href="http://jonswift.blogspot.com/2006/02/10-arabic-speakers-too-many-in-state.html">hardcore snark</a>…it made me cringe to think that among us walk Americans, numbering in double digit percentages, that subscribe to this as something other than snark.</p> <p>aliasofwestgate — I had my own breakthrough when watching the original “Three Men and a Baby” (<i>Trois hommes et un couffin</i>, literally, Three men and a baby carriage or cradle). I’d had a couple of years of French in high school, watched the occasional French movie in French, but watched this one subtitled. I was SHOCKED at how much of the story line and the humor was not captured in the subtitling, cracked my head wide open about this gap. The original movie was so tender, some of the best parts intimate and emotionally exposed, none of it revealed in the subtitling. And then the crappy remake caught even less of that original tenderness in all of its American excess, heavy handed macho slapstick substituted for humor borne of emotional vulnerability; somehow it actually captured the essence of the worst of what is American.</p> <p>Changed my perception of everything that I read afterwards in foreign languages. I have NO faith that we Americans as a whole can adequately grasp the subtleties conveyed in Asian languages, let alone those of Eurasia. We need at least a generation of active coaching in this respect, and the time is well past due when we are already immersed in an asymmetrical war for energy resources.</p> Ed*ard Teller — read this bit of what I think is supposed to be hardcore snark…it made me cringe to think that among us walk Americans, numbering in double digit percentages, that subscribe to this as something other than snark.

aliasofwestgate — I had my own breakthrough when watching the original “Three Men and a Baby” (Trois hommes et un couffin, literally, Three men and a baby carriage or cradle). I’d had a couple of years of French in high school, watched the occasional French movie in French, but watched this one subtitled. I was SHOCKED at how much of the story line and the humor was not captured in the subtitling, cracked my head wide open about this gap. The original movie was so tender, some of the best parts intimate and emotionally exposed, none of it revealed in the subtitling. And then the crappy remake caught even less of that original tenderness in all of its American excess, heavy handed macho slapstick substituted for humor borne of emotional vulnerability; somehow it actually captured the essence of the worst of what is American.

Changed my perception of everything that I read afterwards in foreign languages. I have NO faith that we Americans as a whole can adequately grasp the subtleties conveyed in Asian languages, let alone those of Eurasia. We need at least a generation of active coaching in this respect, and the time is well past due when we are already immersed in an asymmetrical war for energy resources.

]]> By: oddball http://firedoglake.com/2006/12/31/a-heavy-thumb-on-the-scales/#comment-437820 oddball Sun, 31 Dec 2006 20:51:16 +0000 http://www.firedoglake.com/2006/12/31/a-heavy-thumb-on-the-scales/#comment-437820 <p>Not (never). In. My. Name.</p> <p>NO!</p> <p>NEVER.</p> <p>When will justice truly be done? Let the calls and faxes begin on 01/02/07 and let us never look back.</p> <p>Five simple words to fax.</p> <p>NOT.</p> <p>IN.</p> <p>MY.</p> <p>NAME.</p> <p>NEVER!</p> Not (never). In. My. Name.

NO!

NEVER.

When will justice truly be done? Let the calls and faxes begin on 01/02/07 and let us never look back.

Five simple words to fax.

NOT.

IN.

MY.

NAME.

NEVER!

]]>