Month: December 2008

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Blackwater Indictments

This is, as Rachel Maddow might say, an underreported story.  The storyof the indictments of  the five Blackwater employees for killing civilians in Iraq should be big news, but it has been overshadowed by the arrest of Illinois Governor, Rod Blagojavitch.

Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis have died while we were occupying their country and “protecting ” them and they all can’t be prosecuted.  However small, I think this is a step in the right direction.  Now Blackwater the Company, and those at the Departments of State and Defense who were responsible for hiring civilian contractors to do the job our soldiers should have been doing need to join these five on trial. 

The New York Times reported the story  on December 8.  Jeremy Scahill wrote the same day for The Nation.

For more than five years, the Bush administration’s mercenary force of choice, Blackwater Worldwide, has operated on a US government contract in Iraq in a climate that has wed immunity with impunity. Today the Justice Department took the first concrete step to hold accountable the individuals responsible for the single greatest massacre of Iraqi civilians at the hands of an armed private force deployed in Iraq by the US government.

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The Nisour Square killings propelled Blackwater to international infamy and sparked demands from the US-installed Iraqi government for Blackwater to be expelled from the country. The Bush administration rejected those calls and in April renewed Blackwater’s Iraq contract for another year. Blackwater, the largest US security contractor in Iraq, has worked on a US government contract since August 28, 2003, when it was hired on an initial $27.7 million no-bid contract to protect the head of the Coalition Provisional Authority, Ambassador L. Paul Bremer. To date, Blackwater has been paid over a billion dollars for its “security” work for the State Department.

No oversight, no accountability (until now) and all that money.  No wonder the Iraqis wanted to be able to prosecute contractors.

And in case you want to hear him as well as read him,  Amy Goodman  interviewed Jeremy Scahill for one of her shows.

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More Thoughts on Prop 8

In her The Last Word Column  in the November 24 issue of Newsweek Ann Quindlen wrote about gay marriage and the decision in Loving v. Virginia.

One of my favorite Supreme Court cases is Loving v. Virginia, and not just because it has a name that would delight any novelist. It’s because it reminds me, when I’m downhearted, of the truth of the sentiment at the end of “Angels in America,” Tony Kushner’s brilliant play: “The world only spins forward.”

I also wrote about Loving in my post Marriage in Massachusetts.  It is also one of my favorite decisions as well as a wonderful story.

The world is going to continue to spin forward.  The denial of Constitutional rights to a specific group can never last.  There may be one step forward (see Connecticut and New Jersey) and two back (California and other other states which have adopted anti-gay marriage statutes recently), but we will keep moving forward.

And then there is this great Jack Black video.  It has been out there for a while, but it is always worth seeing.

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Obama Polls and Senate Seats

So many stories, so little time.

There is the most recent NBC poll  that shows that

Two out of three respondents say they’re pleased with Obama’s early appointments and three-fourths believe that the level of his involvement in making policy has been exactly right.

Another two-thirds view the president-elect in a positive light — a rating that’s more favorable than the numbers Bill Clinton and George W. Bush received 1992 and 2000.

There is the arrest of Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich.  I think he lives in a world of his own.  It is not clear if he really talked to anyone about a price for the Obama Senate seat or if he was simply speculating outloud.  I guess we have to wait and see how this unfolds.  So far it seems unlikely that the President -Elect or anyone on the Transition Team was involved.

And will Caroline Kennedy be appointed to Hillary Clinton’s senate seat?  Ruth Marcus had an interesting take in the Washington Post yesterday.  Marcus writes, ” before getting all huffy about Caroline Kennedy’s qualifications for the job, let’s take a breath and remember Jesse Ventura and Sonny Bono. ”   Kennedy has written a number of books, worked with the New York City Schools, and is a lawyer – not terrible qualifications.

Those Senate seats seem to be creating lots of problems.  The Governor of Delaware appointed someone who is widely acknowledged as a caretaker until 2010 when Beau Biden might run for the seat.  That was controversial in Deleware.  I thought replacing Biden, Clinton, and Obama was supposed to be a piece of cake.  Guess not.

 

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The Real Value of Dustin Pedroia

I hope that the contract extension that was negotiated between the Boston Red Sox and Dustin Pedroia is a sign of good things to come.  We need to end the craziness of the huge smounts of money being paid to sports stars.  I’m not saying that $7 Million a year is chicken feed, but Dustin signed for less than he could have gotten so he can have contract security (through 2015) and stay in a place he loves.  And Boston is happy to have you, Dustin.

Tony Mazzarotti wrote in the Boston Globe the other day

Clearly, Dustin Pedroia could have held out for more. Maybe he should have. But in an age when professional athletes are criticized for making decisions based solely on money, we cannot possibly pass judgment on a deal that seems, in a word, reasonable.

He goes on to quote Pedroia

“I understand all that stuff,” Pedroia said when asked about giving up some of his long-term leverage. “I knew if I had gone year to year I would have made more money. I understand that without a doubt. But I’m in a place where they me treat me and my family unbelievable. I’m happy with this.

“I want to be here. I want to play for the Red Sox,” Pedroia added. “I don’t want to play for anybody else. It seemed right to do something.”

Now if the Sox can only find a catcher.

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Challenge to Obama’s qualifications

The Supreme Court has been asked to take a case which questions whether  Barack Obama is Constitutionally qualified to be President.  At issue is the fact that his father was not an American citizen even though his mother was and he was born in Hawaii after it was granted statehood.  The allegation is that he is not  a “natural born citizen.”

NBC has an interesting take on the situation concluding that it is unlikely the Supreme Court will intervene.  Politico.com adds an interesting piece of information:  Clarence Thomas is the one asking that the Court consider taking the case.

The U.S. Supreme Court will decide Friday whether to take up a case over president-elect Barack Obama’s citizenship — one of a few around the country seeking to nullify his election, but this one has an interesting lineage. It was referred to the high court by Justice Clarence Thomas, the court’s only African-American justice.

Maybe Thomas is just returning the favor — putting through a case that questions whether Obama should be president, after Obama said he wouldn’t have picked Thomas for the high court.

Can I believe that Thomas could be so petty?  You betcha!

A decision is expected on Monday.

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More on Mumbai

In my last post I asked for a motivation for the terrorists who took over parts of Mumbai for 3 days.  Then, on the Rachel Maddow show was the answer.

Richard Engel explained it all with maps and graphics.  The idea is to draw the Pakistani army away from the Afgan border toward India which leaves vunerable the mountains where the Tailiban and others have been operating.

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Post Thanksgiving Random Thoughts

President Elect Obama has named a large percentage of his Cabinet already including some surprises.  I really didn’t expect Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State.  I think it is a smart move, however.  Get the Clintons inside the tent.  I was also a little surprised that Larry Summers was not named to Treasury.  The reason circulated was that this was due to his insensitive remarks about women and our ability to do math and science made while he was President of Harvard. (He also managed to offend many who taught in the Henry Lewis Gates’ Institute for Black Studies.)  If this is true, it shows a surprising sensibility which bodes well for the Obama administration.  On the whole, I feel good about the fact that he is surrounding himself with smart people and expects them to express differing points of view.

Bob Herbert wrote in his column today

Will this new Obama team, as brilliant as it appears to be, begin addressing on day one the interests of those who are not rich and who have not had the ear of those in power?

I think that question hits the nail on the head.  It will be difficult to turn things around after 8 years of benefit only for the rich and powerful and only an illusion for the rest of us.

And what is up with those kids in Mumbai?  They never bargained for a the lives of any hostages or made any political statement or demands.  What did they want?  What cause did they think they were advancing?  It seems to me that they just wanted to act out some violence like in the movies.

Our tree is up although not yet decorated.  I have cards to address and presents to wrap.  Time to try to occupy one’s mind with something other than the current sorry state of the world with hope for the future.