[Vision2020] NYT Paul Krugman "Just Trust Us"
Tom Hansen
thansen@moscow.com
Wed, 12 May 2004 07:34:39 -0700
Hey Pat -
Could you do us all a favor and post your list of names here on V2020 Friday
afternoon. It may take some time to prepare, as long as it may be, but
stick with hit, ok? A long list like that for such an honorable cause is a
major motivator.
Thanks,
Tom Hansen
Just another liberal elitist loose in the Palouse
"Vote Republican. It's easier than thinking."
> -----Original Message-----
> From: vision2020-admin@moscow.com [mailto:vision2020-admin@moscow.com]On
> Behalf Of Dan Carscallen
> Sent: Wednesday, May 12, 2004 7:20 AM
> To: vision2020@moscow.com
> Subject: RE: [Vision2020] NYT Paul Krugman "Just Trust Us"
>
>
> Pat's gonna have one helluva list. I figured it'd get long around here.
>
> DC
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: vision2020-admin@moscow.com [mailto:vision2020-admin@moscow.com]
> On Behalf Of Carl Westberg
> Sent: Wednesday, May 12, 2004 7:12 AM
> To: vision2020@moscow.com
> Subject: Re: [Vision2020] NYT Paul Krugman "Just Trust Us"
>
>
> Pat, if you would be so kind, please add me to that list, also. Thanks.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Carl Westberg Jr.
>
>
> >From: "JSullivan" <jsullivan@moscow.com>
> >To: "Pat Kraut" <pkraut@moscow.com>, "vision2020"
> ><vision2020@moscow.com>
> >Subject: Re: [Vision2020] NYT Paul Krugman "Just Trust Us"
> >Date: Tue, 11 May 2004 20:43:52 -0700
> >
> >I concur with Ms. Pall 100%. So add me to your list Pat.
> >
> >Janesta Carcich Sullivan
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: Pat Kraut
> > To: vision2020
> > Sent: Tuesday, May 11, 2004 8:02 PM
> > Subject: Re: [Vision2020] NYT Paul Krugman "Just Trust Us"
> >
> >
> > You would.
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: Linda Pall
> > To: vision2020@moscow.com
> > Sent: Tuesday, May 11, 2004 8:59 AM
> > Subject: [Vision2020] NYT Paul Krugman "Just Trust Us"
> >
> >
> > Dear Visionaries,
> >
> > I thought this column was right on the money.
> >
> > All the best,
> > Linda Pall
> >
> >
> >-----------------------------------------------------------------------
> >-----------------------------------------------------------------------
> >-----
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >-----------------------------------------------------------------------
> >-----
> >
> > May 11, 2004
> > OP-ED COLUMNIST
> > Just Trust Us
> > By PAUL KRUGMAN
> >
> >
> > idn't you know, in your gut, that something like Abu Ghraib would
> >eventually come to light?
> >
> > When the world first learned about the abuse of prisoners,
> >President
> >Bush said that it "does not reflect the nature of the American people."
>
> >He's right, of course: a great majority of Americans are decent and
> good.
> >But so are a great majority of people everywhere. If America's record
> is
> >better than that of most countries - and it is - it's because of our
> >system: our tradition of openness, and checks and balances.
> >
> > Yet Mr. Bush, despite all his talk of good and evil, doesn't
> >believe
> >in that system. From the day his administration took office, its slogan
> has
> >been "just trust us." No administration since Nixon has been so
> insistent
> >that it has the right to operate without oversight or accountability,
> and
> >no administration since Nixon has shown itself to be so little
> deserving of
> >that trust. Out of a misplaced sense of patriotism, Congress has
> deferred
> >to the administration's demands. Sooner or later, a moral catastrophe
> was
> >inevitable.
> >
> > Just trust us, John Ashcroft said, as he demanded that Congress
> >pass
> >the Patriot Act, no questions asked. After two and a half years, during
>
> >which he arrested and secretly detained more than a thousand people,
> Mr.
> >Ashcroft has yet to convict any actual terrorists. (Look at the actual
> >trials of what Dahlia Lithwick of Slate calls "disaffected bozos who
> watch
> >cheesy training videos," and you'll see what I mean.)
> >
> > Just trust us, George Bush said, as he insisted that Iraq, which
> >hadn't attacked us and posed no obvious threat, was the place to go in
> the
> >war on terror. When we got there, we found no weapons of mass
> destruction
> >and no new evidence of links to Al Qaeda.
> >
> > Just trust us, Paul Bremer said, as he took over in Iraq. What is
> >the
> >legal basis for Mr. Bremer's authority? You may imagine that the
> Coalition
> >Provisional Authority is an arm of the government, subject to U.S. law.
> But
> >it turns out that no law or presidential directive has ever established
> the
> >authority's status. Mr. Bremer, as far as we can tell, answers to
> nobody
> >except Mr. Bush, which makes Iraq a sort of personal fief. In that
> fief,
> >there has been nothing that Americans would recognize as the rule of
> law.
> >For example, Ahmad Chalabi, the Pentagon's erstwhile favorite, was
> allowed
> >to gain control of Saddam's files - the better to blackmail his
> potential
> >rivals.
> >
> > And finally: Just trust us, Donald Rumsfeld said early in 2002,
> >when
> >he declared that "enemy combatants" - a term that turned out to mean
> >anyone, including American citizens, the administration chose to so
> >designate - don't have rights under the Geneva Convention. Now people
> >around the world talk of an "American gulag," and Seymour Hersh is
> exposing
> >My Lai all over again.
> >
> > Did top officials order the use of torture? It depends on the
> >meaning
> >of the words "order" and "torture." Last August Mr. Rumsfeld's top
> >intelligence official sent Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller, the commander of
> the
> >Guantánamo prison, to Iraq. General Miller recommended that the guards
> help
> >interrogators, including private contractors, by handling prisoners in
> a
> >way that "sets the conditions" for "successful interrogation and
> >exploitation." What did he and his superiors think would happen?
> >
> > To their credit, some supporters of the administration are
> >speaking
> >out. "This is about system failure," said Senator Lindsey Graham, a
> >Republican from South Carolina. But do Mr. Graham, John McCain and
> other
> >appalled lawmakers understand their own role in that failure? By
> deferring
> >to the administration at every step, by blocking every effort to make
> >officials accountable, they set the nation up for this disaster. You
> can't
> >prevent any serious inquiry into why George Bush led us to war to
> eliminate
> >W.M.D. that didn't exist and to punish Saddam for imaginary ties to Al
> >Qaeda, then express shock when Mr. Bush's administration fails to
> follow
> >the rules on other matters.
> >
> > Meanwhile, Abu Ghraib will remain in use, under its new commander:
> >General Miller of Guantánamo. Donald Rumsfeld has "accepted
> responsibility"
> >- an action that apparently does not mean paying any price at all. And
> Dick
> >Cheney says, "Don Rumsfeld is the best secretary of defense the United
> >States has ever had. . . . People should get off his case and let him
> do
> >his job." In other words: Just trust us.
>
> _________________________________________________________________
> FREE pop-up blocking with the new MSN Toolbar – get it now!
> http://toolbar.msn.com/go/onm00200415ave/direct/01/
>
> _____________________________________________________
> List services made available by First Step Internet,
> serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994.
> http://www.fsr.net
> mailto:Vision2020@moscow.com
> ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
>
>
>
> _____________________________________________________
> List services made available by First Step Internet,
> serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994.
> http://www.fsr.net
> mailto:Vision2020@moscow.com
> ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
>