While in DC for Take Back America, I had a chance to go to the Hip Hop for Habeas concert sponsored by the ACLU, Amnesty International and the HipHop Caucus. It was a special treat to get to see Mystic sing The Life and I wanted to share a little taste with you. The whole evening was a powerful experience – the club – 9:30 on V St – was sold out, the crowd a marvelous mix, all gathered to say “No to Torture” and demand the restoration of Habeas.
We talk about Habeas a lot … and Guantanamo … and extraordinary renditions … but the artists and the crowd that night made it real. They spoke of the loss of Habeas as a direct, immediate threat to our lives and moved the message from abstract civic concept to a living call for an end to the abuse of this administration. Captured in the images flashing behind the DJs – the people of NOLA mixed with the prisoners in Guantanamo and reminded us all that we must stand up.
On Tuesday, June 26 people will gather and lobby Congress to restore Habeas … if you can travel to DC, please join them. And for all who can’t get to DC, you can sign the petition which will be presented on that day.
Since then I’ve been thinking a bunch about how easy it is to get wrapped up in analysis and theory and miss “the life.” While our media tries to distract us, our government works hard to hide the human reality of their policies from us. This week, thanks to a link sent along by markfromireland, I began to read the Diary of Saad Eskander whose account of his daily life in Baghdad cuts through all the abstraction and distraction. Eskander is the director of the Iraq National Library and Archive.
The diary is an extraordinary glimpse of life in Baghdad – Eskander writes of his struggles with the bureaucracy, the experiences of the INL staff under the occupation and of his work to save and revive the INL – but he also tells us about the birth of his second child, the intricacies of finding a safe route to work each day when the streets are a battlefield and the simple logistics of getting fuel for the family’s generator so they can run the A/C a few hours a day in 108F heat. After one particularly bad day, Eskander writes:
I have come to realise that nowadays in Baghdad, the perfect human being would be one who can switch off all his senses. To be blind and deaf is not a curse anymore, but a blessing in disguise.
But he never does “switch off” and reading him helps us remember – as Mystic sings:
…its the life, your life, my life, (our lives)
For more life tales, take a look at Ciff Shecter’s post today about two of the very few Iraqis who have been let into the US and Dubhaltach of GorillasGuides’ recent link to three life stories from Iraq in the Financial Times.
h/t to Rachel Perrone of the ACLU.
Related posts:
- Kennedy: “Have Some Positive Impact on People’s Lives”
- Trickle-Down Lives at the New York Times
- Rikyrah: Opt-Out States Are “Where the Majority of the Black Population in This Country Lives”
- DeMint: Breaking Obama More Important than American Lives, Wallets
- Ted Kennedy: Health Care “Has Been the Passion of My Life”
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Hello, Siun!
Siun!
#2?
I’ll tell the pups that you’re up.
zed?
Hey gang … surrounded by moving boxes but I’m singing The Life nonstop these days.
Really pretty song.
Somewhat OT..Gonzo has been getting maligned..
From TPM
For example, we’ve long believed that Gonzales was responsible for the infamous memo that dismissed the Geneva Conventions as “quaint,” and characterized Colin Powell as a defender of “obsolete” rules. Today’s piece explains that Gonzales didn’t even write his own memo; Cheney general counsel David Addington did.
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/014808.php
allow me the inevitable beatle referance if you don’t mind;
This really belongs in the last thread probably, but…
http://www.thenewpolitics.com/…..geon_1.jpg
Siun @ 6
Great post Siun. Your article is following in the great traditions of journalism that started when the media refused to play along in Vietnam and showed americans the horrors of war FOR ORDINARY PEOPLE of lands caught in the crossfire. I felt then that the tipping point was NOT the body bags and flag draped coffins, but the naked five year old girl running screaming at the camera, her back covered with burning napalm who, IIRC, then died in the photog’s arms.
That MSM is gone, eaten by the boardrooms of Viacom, NewsCorp, GE and so forth. But WE are here, and posts like yours continue this essential tradition. The drums of truth are calling us to intellectual and political war, and by making your posts you are enlisting in the new army of truth.
And this is not snark. I mean it.
How would you like to be a Palestinian for just a day? These men who run these wars from Washington in Iraq, Afghanistan and Gaza are monsters.
Steve @ 8
He put his name on the thing. Zero points removed just because he is also a figurehead. We already knew that (his field was REAL ESTATE LAW people. A good profession when done honestly, but NOT AG material in normal times.)
Do not join the military. Force these armchair warrior’s hand.
Alfred Kelgarries @ 13
Abu was as qualified to be AG as Bush was to be president.
Alfred Kelgarries @ 11
I had seen this elsewhere but per wiki, she’s alive, married, and living in Canada
Alfred – I agree in many ways – and the pictures are available for Iraq but the resistance, even amongst out friends, to seeing them is high.
We shy away from looking – eyes wide open – at what we are doing.
But diaries like Eskanders really do take you inside Baghdad … and we need to do so.
In addition to the petition, why don’t those of us that can’t make it to Washington DC call (and encourage others to call) our reps, in tandem with the petition and in-person lobbying? This three-pronged effort might be more effective, than just either the petition or the in-person efforts?
Loo Hoo. @ 15
More so. AG ran a successful, if not massively lucrative, law practice IIRC. Chimpy lost money in multimillion dollar quantities in every business he ran. And anyone who thinks he “earned” his Yale and Haaaavaahd degress is deluding themself.
Mr. Sandman @ 18
My rep has an office just a few miles from my house. Right on a main street. Often wondered why no one pickets/protests there.
I can’t be there , which I could but I would like to give some advice;
progressives need to put a personal face on what habeas protection means, they can’t just say things like “it’s unconstitutional”, they can’t leave it at “it goes against the fabric of what makes this country what she is”
we have to put a face on the ramifications when habeas protections are suspended.
things like this must be said:
“we can’t allow depraved authorities the ability to make up laws in their own head that never existed in order to imprison a person who poses no threat”
“a person has to be able to prove the charges against them were made up in someones head and they have only been supporters of this country”
I don’t know the best way to put it but we have to phrase the discussion beyond the legal terms, we have to place the person we’re talking to in the situation these people are found
dakine01 @ 16
REALLY? Well well. That almost gives me hope! Thank you, dk!
This week is a beginning of some serious action about restoring Habeas … but the timing of legislation seems to be … well … ambiguous. So it would be great if folks started calling on their reps and asking them when they are going to reinstate the Constitution.
Alfred Kelgarries @ 22
According to the write-up, she was expected to die but survived after something like 14 months in the hospital.
It’s time to take it to the streets.
Bush never earned a dollar. He never did a days work in his life. He’s a rich spoiled brat.
Oklahoma kiddo @ 26
OK. Now we’ve agreed three times in a single day. Someone take my temperature please.
TexBetsy // TexB @ 27
;0)
TexBetsy // TexB @ 27
I just did. 98.6 degress snarkenheit. You’re fine. And I want cake for late night. I haven’t had a chance to go and get any more frozen cheesecake.
Alfred Kelgarries @ 13
My comment was snark..but the real issue is who is pulling the strings. Most if not all of the people getting the top billing in this disaster aren’t bright enough to do the heavy thinking. That includes Cheney who damn near put Hallibuton into bankruptcy because of his stupidity.
Alfred Kelgarries @ 29
TxB @ 31:
blockquotes ate your comment. can you edit at your end (my ability seems to work about half the time…)
Steve @ 30
Mellon Scaife. That man is the real Richelieu behind chimpy, and bush I for that matter. He also funded almost the entire attempted lynching of the clintons. Nice piece of work.
David Addington, John Yoo and Jay Bybee do not like the Geneva Convention. These monsters gave legal consent to torture. They are psychopathic criminals who will be punished one way or the other.
Dad sends greetings from Baghdad Siun. Thanks for mentioning “Guides”
Dubhaltach .. thank you so much for the greetings and the amazing work the whole team does at Guides.
You tell these stories daily – more importantly you live them – and keep going.
I’m not sure if folks here know but the Guides team lost two members this week … when are we going to stop the madmen so these honorable people can live their Lives?
So … we are all incensed at Gonzo and Addington and Yoo.
Let’s see a show of hands – have you signed the petition yet? if not … get over there and sign.
Are you in DC? if so, are you planning on joining the lobbying effort Tuesday?
Let’s make stopping them a part of our lives.
Siun @ 35
Oh sh*t. My condolences to all, because that’s a truly God-awful mess there, and worse, the US government seems to want it that way.
(I wish the people in Israel and elsewhere who think this is such a great way to ‘fix’ their problems could stand back and really see what they’re doing. To me, they’re becoming their grandparents’ enemies.)
Siun @ 37
I signed the aclu petition.
Did you see the preemptive petition for Iran?
Here is another petition – impeach VPcheney. Poll attached = 99.2% for, 0.8 against.
http://www.usalone.com/cheney_impeachment.php
Siun @ 36
That is bad news. I hadn’t heard.
I signed the petition, Siun, but I may have signed it earlier too. Hard to keep the petitions straight, you know?
Yoo:
http://www.law.berkeley.edu/fa…..?facID=235
I really like the fact that the coalition on Tuesday will be hand carrying our signatures to the halls of Congress … special delivery for our demand to return to the rule of law.
Siun @ 37
Hand is raised.
Raw Story is leading with the discovery that AG has been LYING TO CONGRESS AGAIN, this time over hiding the request from the head of the security oversight unit to force Darth to comply with the security oversight requirements that have led to Darth suggesting he is the “Death Star” branch of government. Bottom line; Waxman is on it. linky.
Yay Frank and Kathryn and tw3k!
Let’s get some more!
Siun @ 43
Yes, I wish I could be there for that!
tw3k @ 47
Can you do a vblog of it, maybe with a cell phone! Would be great to post around the progressive blogs…
They have organized buses from all over – if I weren’t packing and moving this week (argh) I’d be on one.
Signing the ACLU petition is a good start and if you can, join the ACLU and become a proud card carrying member.
Alfred – good idea!
I’ll check in with Rachel at ACLU and see if someone can arrange something.
Siun – Thanks for this. I can’t imagine what it must be like to be both sentient and sane and living in Baghdad. Yikes.
And now, because I was living my life today and was late to the party, I’m gonna take the last post’s invite and blogwhore my opening post/manifesto at mutantpoodle.com. If you like, check a few more out.
And now, back to the brownies…
Loo Hoo. @ 42
I think it’s time for Joanie Caucus Redfern to lead some demonstrations against her alma mater to get rid of Yoo. All Boalt grads should be ashamed that he is teaching there.
The Iran petition isn’t working right now; there is a message to try again in 30 minutes, tw3k.
Dubhaltach @ 35
Dubhaltach- and all the very best to you and your bride. xxoo
Well… it’s just about time to go to the Aunties for the night. She’s 99 and to make matters more interesting she’s a Cherokee. And as sharp as they come. If you think my political day is done, you’ve got another think coming. The old girl will be rarin’ to go. Unless I miss my guess, she’ll have found someting in that big old Sunday newspaper to grill me about. And of course I’ll have to hear about how good the Democrats are and how bad the Republicans are. I’ll be lucky to get to bed by two. But I love her.
Siun @ 51
Let me know if you need any help on the tech end. I do this for a living (no, for my granddaughter’s texting charges and concert tickets. self honesty here, please. :)) Jane and Suzanne (the lnite mod) have my email addy.
Alfred Kelgarries @ 48
I’m, at least, a good 12 hours away from DC.
Steve @ 50
BTW for the NSA monitors I’m #64504855
Valley Girl – that’s bride and *twins* !!!!
pretty awesome family there!
…and I’ve signed the petition, which I assume is different from the card I sent, via the ACLU, to Habeas Corpus on its birthday a few weeks ago.
God, 18 months of these clowns left.
Loo Hoo … sorry I missed your comment. So YAY LooHoo and Mutant Poodle too!
Loo Hoo. @ 54
Weird, I signed that one a few days ago.
Oklahoma kiddo @ 56
heh, good for you, tell her I said Hi!
Steve @ 59
####################################################### MESSAGE FROM CARNIVORE ###########
########## THE INVERSE OF THAT ###########
########## NUMBER IS NOW YOUR ###########
########## CREDIT SCORE. HAVE A ###########
########## NICE DAY. COMMUNIST. ###########
#############################################
Mutant Poodle – read Eskander’s diary … what strikes me there and in the writings and work of folks like the team at Guides is that these are regular people – like us – who don’t quit and don’t back down in the face of such disaster.
They keep on … doing what’s right over and over even knowing the cost.
We have a lot to learn.
Mutant Poodle @ 52
Hey! I want a brownie. I am proud to be the first commenter on MP’s blog.
Dubhaltach @ 64
:D
Loo Hoo. @ 68
I’m holding out for cake from TexB on Late Night, personally….
No Quarter has a WONDERFUL graphic :)
Bye, OKK. Give auntie our love!
Lindy @ 71
707! SPEW! ROTFLMAO!
And it’s a Baptist Church for the luvvaghod! To quote the famous Tang Emperor of China, Jeff Wong: “DIS IS NOT GOOD!”
dakine01 @ 53
Neo-con Doug Feith is at Georgetown University. The neo-con who turned the 9-11 Commission into a Cover-up is Philip Zelikow, who is at the University of Virginia.
I will not tell the students at Georgetown or U. of Va. what to do. But the kids at the World Bank purged their neo-con, Wolfie Wolfowitz.
Steve @ 59
They know, Steve. They know.
Alfred Kelgarries @ 66
09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0
OT Part II of Darth world is up
tw3k @ 63
Maybe they need to do tech work because of so many signatories!
Alfred Kelgarries just for you:
Ever wanted to rearrange the letters to make your own church sign?
Lindy @ 71
TOO FREAKING FUNNY!!
thinking … I do know a certain family with a particular appreciation of Baptists …
oh my oh my
Alfred Kelgarries @ 73
Loo Hoo. @ 78
Now that would be a good sign!
tw3k is playing bingo, now. What next?
Hmmm..lost my text on #82.
I was sayin’ that Prairie Home Companion last night had a character in the Guy Noir sketch who was a Unitarian converted from Baptist – full of doubts but very insistent about them.
Dubhaltach @ 64
Sliocht sleachta ar shliocht bhur sleachta, Dubhaltach.
Loo Hoo. @ 68
And it’s nice to be read and commented upon. Thankee…
I write about healthcare and advocacy. I blogged about two haunting pictures that portray Bush’s culture of death – Collateral Damage.
I am also very, very worried about pandemic flu, and I have been lobbing criticism at HHS for it’s Katrina planning policy. Michael Brown and Michael Leavitt are indistinguishable. But bloggers to the rescue – a hot off the pdf press citizen’s guide to pandemic flu preparation has been published for mass and massive consumption. Please click on my post about it and download the pdf linked guide for your own use. Make plenty of copies for your friends in the community who don’t have intertubes access.
And now, really, back to the brownies. Have a good evening, all…
N=1 – that’s an interesting post. The photo is one that has been haunting me since I first saw it.
Thanks for the link.
N=1. Thank you very much.
“Shukran” Dark Black or “Tusind Tak” if you’d prefer me to speak my other native language unfortunatley Gaelic isn’t one of the languages I have but a quick message to “athair” results in me being able to say:
“Go raibh mile maith agat”
Alfred – a few threads back (when you were getting biblicly scifi) I went off to Google and almost never came back. But I thought this was great fun, and a bit easier on the digestion than your stuff.
To keep this comment on-topic, check out the Onion’s take on Gonzo’s amnesia.
Have to say … I looked for a good excerpt from Eskander’s diaries to include above but the flow of his just simple day to day reports didn’t lend itself to a quick grab. I can’t recommend reading him highly enough. It’s the little details that I find most important … like bringing a new baby home and worrying about getting fuel to cool just the baby’s room as Baghdad bakes to 100 plus …
we just don’t think about those small facts of life.
Dubhaltach @ 79
Ya got me. But it’s cute anyways….:>
Loo Hoo. @ 84
heh, yeah, look at second image down.
Sonas ort, Dubaltach…My Gaelic, filtered through the dust of long ago, is no doubt the poorer – so I will close the attempt with Nár lagaí Dia do lámh as a wish for your family’s work.
Mutant Poodle @ 82
There are Baptist churches and then there are Southern Baptist churches. In the Bible Belt, even the Southern Baptists are mainstream compared to all the permutations of Pentecostals.
Mutant Poodle @ 82
My wife and I were ADDICTED to PHC. I have dozens of hours of it recorded on my computer.
Dubhaltach @ 79
First saw that on Norbizness. He had it read like a schedule, ending with “Fri night Bingo and Crack”.
In the same vein … markfromireland has shown me photos of moms in Iraq getting water for their children from a spigot in a communal yard … my reaction was “how awful!” until he pointed out that they were lucky to have a source of water at all in Iraq today.
GordonM @ 93
My stuff is hard to take. I really don’t like talking about it except to my dad and my boss, whose ideas make mine seem positively innocuous. But I woke up in a “what the heck” mood and so responded to the original post.
Hope you found some useful stuff, and thanks for the link! I’ve added it to my link vault.
Alfred!
Demi, here.
What? How can you listen to PHC and still be your Atheist self?
(with a sweet grin.)
N=1 @ 88
Tangential to this, I’ve found something on the fact that Indonesia may keep the IP on bird flu to themselves. Probably to ensure that they can afford the subsequent vaccine, but an interesting twist on the US’s nasty IP laws.
dakine01 @ 77
to go along with that:
Is WaPo at war over Cheney?
by mcjoan
Sun Jun 24, 2007 at 06:43:13 PM PDT
Laura Rozen has a fascinating insight from a reader and newspaper editor friend in response to the Post’s Cheney piece:
A careful reading of the story of Cheney’s coup against a feeble executive reveals that paragraphs 7 through 10 were written and inserted in haste by a powerful editorial hand. The banging of colliding metaphors in an otherwise carefully written piece is evidence of last-minute interpolations by a bad editor whom no one has the power to rewrite….
That in turn suggests that this piece has been ready to run for some time. Insertions like the one about the veep’s office not being part of the executive branch and seriatim “softenings” show that jamming it into the paper at the end of June, when only cats and the homeless are around the read the paper, was made at the last minute….
This series is a landscape of an internal war. Parts of it are still smoking and some reputations are visibly dying–anonymously, for the moment. The journalistic graves registration people will go in later and tag the corpses.
…….
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/6/24/214027/649
It’s funny the things that hit people. Crooks and liars linked to that post by Gordo but the posting that hit the all time traffic high was one on the old site. “Abdullah Yassin Wept Alone” it still gets visitors and we still get email about it.
demi @ 103
FUNCTIONAL Atheist, demi. We are all our own divinity, existing at a level of spacetime so far up our best instruments can only guess at it. There is no Great GoogglyMoogly up there running everything. There is only us. But we are enough! The trick is to learn how to be omniscient, omnipresent, and onmibenevolent ALL TOGETHER AT ONCE. That’s what we are here to learn, IMHO.
Have a cold cut! (sweet smile back)
Al-
Having Chicken Fajitas tonight.
Which Cold Cut were you referring to?
Damn, the omniscient part is where you loose me.
demi @ 108
I am having deli beef, deli ham and deli chicken from a cold box out of sams, drinking ozarka water almost frozen cold, with Vlasic crisp dill pickle spears. You can have all you want!
Hi Siun, very late to your thread tonight — just wanted to let you know that I’ve signed the ACLU petition :-)
Alfred Kelgarries @ 102
Sometime I’d love to spend an evening with a bottle or 3 of the good stuff, picking your brains or whatever’s left of them. As a tease – how many Math majors do you know who’ve read Beelzebub’s Tales 3 times?
LoudounLib @ 110
:)
I SO LOVE those pickles.
(you had me at pickles, dearheart.)
And, although the early service went well…by the time I left my dad’s convalescent hospital, I wasn’t in such a good mood.
Pickle, please…
Thank you….:)
OT..
By ANN SANNER, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 14 minutes ago
WASHINGTON – It might have been 80 degrees outside but it was snowing inside Ford’s Theatre on Sunday, where President Bush attended a taping of an ABC holiday program.
ADVERTISEMENT
Country singer Wynonna opened the show by performing “Winter Wonderland” on a stage decorated with white lights, Christmas trees and a sleigh. She asked Bush if he had done his Christmas shopping yet.
By ANN SANNER, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 14 minutes ago
WASHINGTON – It might have been 80 degrees outside but it was snowing inside Ford’s Theatre on Sunday, where President Bush attended a taping of an ABC holiday program.
ADVERTISEMENT
Country singer Wynonna opened the show by performing “Winter Wonderland” on a stage decorated with white lights, Christmas trees and a sleigh. She asked Bush if he had done his Christmas shopping yet.
……………..
I am sure Bush was thinking “Damn it’s a warm December”
GordonM @ 111
Two. But they vanished mysteriously on trips to Karatas. I TOLD them not to go, but did they listen? Nooooo! :> And most of my friends only have 2 brains; me I’m making do with about 1/2.
Maybe we can do it in the SL place we’re working on…
Yay LoudounLib!
Any one else?
demi @ 113
here, an extra snappy one. and the second part of the hit piece on Darth is out and I’m gonna dissect it for the lake crowd tonight. Bring an umbrella, it’s gonna get messy! :>
Tak for det darkblack
boing – simple but elegant swan dive
g’evening, everyone. Siun, another excellent post (and I signed the petition)
Alfred Kelgarries @ 117
I’ll put on a raincoat…a black, shiney one!
Siun @ 116
I think I must have signed about 8 already but would be glad to sign that many more.
ahhh … I begin to understand Alfred just a little … Gurdjief eh?
Siun @ 116
Looks like the zig is strong tonight.
Lovely dive Suzanne – and lovely signature!
Thanks Twain!
I have a zed on the late night thread.
Siun @ 122
So thats what cheney is doing!
Siun @ 122
No, unfortunately, I was teasing GordonM with my knowledge of the tome(s). My stuff is far less involved, but equally incomprehensible. (Cognitive Zip Files, as it were..)
Not that Gurdjief isn’t fascinating, of course…
Siun @ 122
Well, that was me that brought it up, but he recognized it, so he’s at least as bad.
Whenever I check the G-Guides, the right side margin bleeds into the script and I simply can’t read it.
IS there something that needs to be done on my end?
-GSD
Alfred – I was rather fascinated by Gurdjief at one time .. it passed but the idea of being conscious throughout the day did stick (though remains difficult in practise.)
GSD – what browser, etc do you use?
I have no problem with firefox on a pc (I know, I know but work requires and supplies it) but maybe someone can sort that out.
Siun @ 130
I use a different reference system than he does, but we do mostly end up at the same places.
BTW, TeddySanFran
is upstairs.
What browser are you using GSD?
Siun,
Hey!
I have a PC with Firefox and GG is the only website the I have ever had this problem with.
Much to my chagrin.
-GSD
Dublhatch too.
How are ya?
-GSD
Sounds to me like you have a fontsize set in your options. Because that’s definitely not a problem for firefox on my machine. We develop for firefox first and use it as our baseline browser. We introduce all the crud for IE later and then check it hasnt messed up firefox. Try hitting and – a few times to see what happens – or read us by feed.
I’m enjoying being back home from my regiment and getting to know my two new sons GSD. Erdla’s mother is a doctor and she recorded their heartbeats and breathing and bunged them off to me along with photos which was nice but not as nice as actually holding them. All in all life is pretty good at present :-)
DH,
Congrats. Great to hear.
See you around.
-GSD
You too :-)
Thanks all … and sign those petitions!
(mumbling off to pack more moving boxes…)
Siun @ 139
Good luck with the move Suin!
Petition signed already!
Siun thanks for highlighting the story about the Visa & work permit limbo. I get the feeling it’s worse than the limbo created by the Vietnam war (& at least the French and Catholic church were willing to step in then before Ted Kennedy/Carter did, non?) Kudos to Cliff Schechter for picking it up too.