Friday, August 20, 2004
George W. Carter, Please Go Home
It's Friday, another gorgeous day here in Wisconsin--far too fine to dwell on the bad stuff. Forthwith, a good-news edition of the Daily Aneurysm. Mostly.
You were probably disappointed when the California Supreme Court shot down the gay marriages performed in San Francisco earlier this year. But if you think about it, the decision is no defeat--just a minor stumble. Everybody not clutching the Bible and going icky icky ewww gross knows that culturally, gay marriage has gained a level of acceptance in the last year or so, and that it will, before long, become a fact of life. Mark Morford elaborates, saying: "The wheels are in motion. The sea change is under way. The strap-on has been, well, strapped on."
More good news: There's a school of political thought that says, far from being an up-all-night, lawsuit-ridden replay of 2000, the 2004 election might be a blowout win for John Kerry. Paul Waldman, editor-in-chief of the Gadflyer, has seen the same poll numbers we wrote about earlier this week, and they show more strength for Kerry than Kerry is getting credit for. The battleground states all seem to be shifting his way. Even in Florida things are looking good: anti-Bush forces are on the ground in staggering numbers, and new Democrat voter registrations outnumber Republicans by nearly two-to-one. James K. Galbraith makes a similar point in Salon: Bush is looking like Jimmy Carter these days, although:
Recommended Reading: You don't generally think of GQ as a news source, but it currently features an extraordinary article by Wil S. Hilton about Joseph Darby, the American soldier who alerted military higher-ups to the abuses at Abu Ghraib. You haven't heard much about Darby since his name came to light this past spring. There's a reason for that. Although he's back in the United States, he has been in protective custody with his family ever since his arrival. In fact, his family was hustled away from their Pennsylvania home shortly after his involvement in the story broke. And this is why:
It's Friday, another gorgeous day here in Wisconsin--far too fine to dwell on the bad stuff. Forthwith, a good-news edition of the Daily Aneurysm. Mostly.
You were probably disappointed when the California Supreme Court shot down the gay marriages performed in San Francisco earlier this year. But if you think about it, the decision is no defeat--just a minor stumble. Everybody not clutching the Bible and going icky icky ewww gross knows that culturally, gay marriage has gained a level of acceptance in the last year or so, and that it will, before long, become a fact of life. Mark Morford elaborates, saying: "The wheels are in motion. The sea change is under way. The strap-on has been, well, strapped on."
More good news: There's a school of political thought that says, far from being an up-all-night, lawsuit-ridden replay of 2000, the 2004 election might be a blowout win for John Kerry. Paul Waldman, editor-in-chief of the Gadflyer, has seen the same poll numbers we wrote about earlier this week, and they show more strength for Kerry than Kerry is getting credit for. The battleground states all seem to be shifting his way. Even in Florida things are looking good: anti-Bush forces are on the ground in staggering numbers, and new Democrat voter registrations outnumber Republicans by nearly two-to-one. James K. Galbraith makes a similar point in Salon: Bush is looking like Jimmy Carter these days, although:
To compare George W. Bush to Jimmy Carter is unfair to Carter, who showed his worth as a world citizen last week by upholding the plain fairness of the vote count in Venezuela. Carter was tough-minded and courageous in Caracas. He single-handedly forced the U.S. media--which in early stories was giving equal play to spurious claims of vote fraud--to fall in line with the truth. So let me apologize to that great American, a Nobel Peace laureate, for a parallel that, on a personal level, does him disservice.Gay people getting the same rights as the rest of us, and the wingnuts be damned? Bush going home to Crawford? Hot damn. Raise your glass, eat some barbecue, frolic in the yard, and smile. It's Friday afternoon in America.
Recommended Reading: You don't generally think of GQ as a news source, but it currently features an extraordinary article by Wil S. Hilton about Joseph Darby, the American soldier who alerted military higher-ups to the abuses at Abu Ghraib. You haven't heard much about Darby since his name came to light this past spring. There's a reason for that. Although he's back in the United States, he has been in protective custody with his family ever since his arrival. In fact, his family was hustled away from their Pennsylvania home shortly after his involvement in the story broke. And this is why:
It was no coincidence that Joe lived only a short drive from many of the men and women in those photos from Abu Ghraib. It was no coincidence that he knew Lynndie England and Jeremy Sivits, who lived just a few miles from his house. They were in his local unit, the 372nd Military Police Battalion. They trained together, deployed together, lived together on assignments, and when they finally came home on leave, passing through the streets of their small towns in Maryland, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia, the flags and banners that hung from storefront windows were there for all of them.Also recommended: Eric Alterman on the continuing rightward drift of PBS. It's getting worse. New at The Hits Just Keep On Comin': Thunder Road.
Outside these communities, in most of America, the pictures from Abu Ghraib met with instant outrage and contempt, and Joe Darby became a hero. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld praised his actions as "honorable and responsible." The House Armed Services Committee praised him for risking his career in pursuit of "what is right." But inside the little towns of Jenners and Somerset and Windber and Johnstown, many neighbors weren't so quick to celebrate. Abu Ghraib became a litmus test of the American mood; reactions split along political and economic lines. On campuses and in the halls of government, even within the upper echelons of the military command, few would question what Joe had done. But in his own hometown, plenty of people did. Some had seen the face of battle themselves and had made their own moral compromises, which were easier not to remember. Others had family members who served in the first gulf war and had a hard time feeling sorry for Iraqis. Still others had relatives in Iraq this time, some of whom would never come home. So if a few prisoners got beaten up, if they were humiliated or even abused, well, shit happens all the time. War is war. Joe Darby's decision didn't make him honorable; it made him a traitor.
