Double standards: a brutal shift of morality in the 'new normal' US

[muriel_volestrangler]

In a lecture under the auspices of "Justice" on Monday, Mary Robinson - former president of the Irish Republic and former UN high commissioner for human rights - pointed out the telling coincidence that on the same day that the Americans spat on the UN inquiry's report, China, for the first time, opened its prisons to allow in international human rights inspectors. And yes, they were able to talk to the prisoners.

This does not mean that China has suddenly become a country that firmly adheres to all human rights principles, but it does demonstrate a depressing trend. As many countries with historically poor human rights records are being persuaded to relax their restrictive regimes and treat those under their control, including detainees, better, the US is travelling in the other direction. This is not to deny that there are still many worse governments in the human rights league (Zimbabwe, Belarus, Cuba and a lot more), but to trace the decline of the US.
...
I think it is more serious than just ceding the moral heights. What I believe may be happening is not just a proportionate adjustment to new circumstances, but a shift in a nation's fundamental morality. The changes started with the US government and have trickled down insidiously to the people.

It isn't just the disdainful way the administration treats its critics, whether they be the UN, other governments, or individuals. Nor is it the actual legal and administrative measures taken in the name of the so-called war against terrorism. Bad laws, after all, can always be reversed. What worries me more is attitudes. There is an awful description in use about the present situation - the "new normal". It means that life after 9/11 is not the same as before and, by implication, can never be the same again. The new normal encompasses a diminution of human rights, the relegation of the rule of law, not caring whether or not individuals against whom state action is taken are innocent, and the acceptance of personal restrictions and impositions that were once the hallmark of less civilised nations. Anything goes and everything is permissible - in the cause of war.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,1736501,00.html

[Peace Patriot]

1. Writers like this--who extrapolate Bush/corporate immorality to the

American people as a whole--are doing the work of the war profiteering corporate news monopolies, one of whose purposes is to make the members of American's great progressive majority feel like they are in the minority, by giving the minority rightwing a Big Trumpet with which to promulgate their views way out of proportion to their numbers.

These sort of writers may not be doing it consciously--some are, some aren't--but, in any case, they are talking through their hats. They presume that what is being "talked about" (from Rovian/rightwing 'think tank' "talking points") in the war profiteering corporate news monopoly press is a reflection of American public opinion. Nothing could be further from the truth.

"Anything goes and everything is permissible - in the cause of war," for instance, is a Bushite (i.e., minority) view. Ordinary Americans repeatedly and overwhelmingly reject this view. For example, 63% of Americans oppose torture "under any circumstances" (May 04), and have stuck to their ethical, moral, lawful view on this matter despite relentless fear-mongering and propaganda.

"The changes started with the US government and have trickled down insidiously to the people." Where is the evidence of this? If you watch CNN or Fox News or read the NY Times, you might think Bushite views are widespread. But not if you consult the American people, which such writers simply don't do. What are these "changes" that have "trickled down" from Bush to us? SEVENTY PERCENT of the American people disapprove of Bush. Nearly SIXTY PERCENT opposed his rotten war on Iraq way back before the invasion, in Feb. '03--and it's well over that today (80%, I think). Half of them now want him impeached! Bush and Bushites have failed to "trickle down" ANYTHING to ANYONE, except debt and death. The whistleblowers, and the objectors, and the patriots, are too numerous to count.

It's what I call flabby talk--aka, flapdoodle. Talking through your hat. Hard facts, like what's REALLY wrong with the U.S., don't enter into it.

What's wrong with the American people is NOT that we have become fascist greedbags, murderers, torturers and traitors, and amoral hypocrites of "the new normal," like the operatives of the Bush junta. What's wrong with the American people is that we have been disempowered, and, above all, DISENFRANCHISED, and the cause of THAT can be precisely described and identified--thusly...

Two rightwing Bushite corporations--Diebold and ES&S--gained control of the tabulation of the nation's votes during the 2001-2004 period, using "TRADE SECRET," PROPRIETARY programming code in the new electronic voting systems, with virtually no audit/recount controls--the work of the two biggest crooks in Congress, Tom Delay and Bob Ney, who pushed through the $4 billion "Help America Vote Act" boondoggle, the intent of which was the corrupt and destroy the US election system, which is exactly what it did.

And if these private, rightwing, and highly partisan peddlers of hackable voting systems HADN'T 'counted' the votes behind a veil of secrecy in 2004, the flapdoodlers would be fladoodling about the "new morality" of the Kerry administration, and how billion dollar "no bid" military contracts were a thing of the past, and caring for the poor was the thing of the future; and how torturing prisoners of war was a thing of the past, and the rebirth of the Geneva Conventions and the rule of law were the thing of the future.

And when American Revolution II DOES occur--that is, when Americans realize what has been done to their election system, and rise up and throw Diebold and ES&S election theft machines into 'Boston Harbor'--a phenomenon that has already begun*--you are going to hear a lot of flapdoodle about the "new honesty" and "new transparency" and "new accountability" in government, as if these things were a fashion trend, and not the direct result of POWER and WHO HOLDS IT: the people or the fascists.

----------

Some resources for American Revolution II:

Breaking--just announced today: www.VoterAction.org is suing the state of California and 18 Calif county registrars on behalf of 25 California voter/plaintiffs, on the Diebold "certification".
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2180496


www.votersunite.org (MythBreakers - easy primer on electronic voting--one of the myths is that HAVA requires electronic voting; it does not.)
www.verfiedvoting.org (great activist site)
www.votetrustusa.org (news of this great movement from around the country)
www.UScountvotes.org (statistical monitoring of '06 and '08 elections)
www.solarbus.org/election/index.shtml (fab compendium of all election info)
www.freepress.org (devoted to election reform)
www.bradblog.com (also great, and devoted to election reform)
www.TruthIsAll.net (analysis of the 2004 election)* :patriot: :applause: :patriot:
Sign the petition (Russ Holt, HR 550, great bill-has 169 sponsors). http://www.rushholt.com/petition.html
www.votepa.us (well-organized local group of citizen activists in Pennsylvania, where important legal issues are at stake, including state's rights over election systems)

www.debrabowen.com (Calif Senator running for Sec of State to reform election system)
www.johnbonifaz.com (running for Massachusetts Sec of State on strong election reform and antiwar platform)

*Some tributes to TruthIsAll, who is very ill:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x417007
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x417231
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x675477

Also of interest:

Bob Koehler (-- four recent election reform initiatives in Ohio, predicted to win by 60/40 votes, flipped over, on election day, into 60/40 LOSSES!--the biggest flipover we've seen yet; the election theft machines and their masters are now dictating election policy!)
www.tmsfeatures.com/tmsfeatures/subcategory.jsp?file=20051124ctnbk-a.txt&catid=1824&code=ctnbk

Bob Koehler's latest: "Take this box and stuff it" (3/16/06)
http://commonwonders.com/archives/col337.htm

Amaryllis (Diebold, ES&S, Sequoia lavish lobbying of election officials - Beverly Hilton, Aug. '05)
www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x380340

------------------------------------------------

Throw Diebold, ES&S and all election theft machines into 'Boston Harbor' NOW!

:think: :patriot: :woohoo: :patriot: :think: