THOUGHTS FROM THE LIGHTHOUSE

By Brian Hannon

Last summer I found it increasingly difficult to observe America. I was blinded by the information overload of 24-hour cable television, shrieking talk radio, and celebrity gossip being passed off as news.

Hoping to get a different vantage point and improve my perspective, in September I packed up and moved to a little lighthouse on the coast of Scotland. The rain clouds sometimes get in the way, but using my Internet spyglass, I have a pretty good view of America. Here are some snapshot perspectives from an expatriate.

Caring for the People…
Some say the Bush administration mistreats the American public, but We the People are very well cared for at the moment. Not only are we sheltered from harm but also shielded from that ugliness known as the truth.

Don’t get me wrong; I’m overjoyed the United States is battling terrorists. What I don’t like is that, due to the tactics used, the rest of the world can accuse our otherwise fine nation—or more accurately, our horrible administrative branch—of breaking international law by kidnapping and secretly holding people without access to anyone’s legal system. And let’s not forget the various brands of torture employed, which would likely spark an invasion if another government routinely did this to Americans.

My detractors will say, “But they’re bad men and should be treated in kind.” Fair enough—just put them on trial and show me the evidence, and I’ll happily kick the cell door closed. But wait, putting them on trial would mean sharing government secrets with the public. Well, maybe it’s time the public heard some of this stuff. If this administration were more open, we might all feel better about letting the White House exert its will. Because at the moment it feels less like they’re being secretive as protection against the bad things others will do to us, and more like they’ve been doing bad things to others, and the secrets are meant to protect themselves from We the People.

Stop torturing my patriotism…
President Bush finally inked the John McCain–sponsored bill outlawing torture but also inserted a “signing statement” saying he would “construe [the law] in a manner consistent with the constitutional authority of the President” in order to protect America from terrorist strikes.

A New York University law professor saw this as Bush thumbing his nose at the statute: “The signing statement is saying ‘I will only comply with this law when I want to, and if something arises in the war on terrorism where I think it’s important to torture or engage in cruel, inhuman, and degrading conduct, I have the authority to do so and nothing in this law is going to stop me,’” David Golove told the Washington Post.

The Washington director for Human Rights Watch called it an “in-your-face affront” to Congress: “The basic civics lesson that there are three co-equal branches of government that provide checks and balances on each other is being fundamentally rejected by this executive branch,” Elisa Massimino said.

This basically sums up all my complaints about Bush, who appears to believe he can do as he pleases without answering to the elected lawmakers or even the law itself. Rather than the power guaranteeing the laws governing our great nation, he’s established himself as a great ruling power without need of the law. As the Nation stated in an editorial, “…no constitutional clause gives the President ‘because I said so’ authority.”

Any leader who asserts a right to circumvent statutes does not aspire to uphold democracy but rather to consolidate power in the manner of the Soviet empire Americans used to fear. Jonathan Schell of the Nation writes, “As in many Communist states, a highly centralized party, in this case the Republican Party, was beginning to forge a parallel apparatus at the heart of government, a semi-hidden state-within-a-state, by which the real decisions were made.”

It’s hard to imagine the founders approving. As former Congressman Martin Frost noted, America cast off the rule of one king named George, and Congress needs to rein in this “new King George” before he goes further with “actions that are inconsistent with the framework of liberty established by our founding fathers.”

From over here in the lighthouse, with the advantage of a British press that isn’t as sycophantic or jingoistic as mainstream American media, Bush seems like a president with a messianic complex who is completely removed from the real world and surrounded by toady yes-men bent on increasing their power even at the cost of thousands of lives and the social and economic future of the nation. The scary part is that none of this really surprises me anymore.

And now, ladies and gents, a little hypocrisy…
Late last year, Dick Cheney complimented the Democrats during a speech at a free, public event where he engaged with voters holding a wide variety of political views.

Just kidding. It was at another of those invite-only, double-your-mortgage-per-plate dinners, this one hosted by the Frontiers of Freedom Institute, where the VP told fellow conservatives that Washington Democrats claiming the administration knowingly invaded Iraq on shoddy intelligence had made “one of the most dishonest and reprehensible charges ever aired in this city,” adding that the critics numbered just “a few opportunists” who were “making a play for political advantage in the middle of a war.”

The idea of Cheney flinging charges of “dishonest and reprehensible” language is laughable. (This is the same man who in June 2004 told Sen. Patrick Leahy “go fuck yourself” on the floor of the Senate.) What could be more reprehensible than advocating torture? A New York Times editorial called Cheney “the dark force behind many of the administration’s most disastrous policies” who had exhibited “a remarkable set of priorities: his former chief aide was indicted, Mr. Cheney’s back is against the wall, and he’s declared war on the Geneva Conventions.”

Cheney attempted, thankfully in vain, to secure a torture exemption for “an element of the United States government” other than the Department of Defense. Where would that end? The CIA and NSA could torture. FEMA has clearly already tortured thousands in New Orleans. But could the Federal Reserve waterboard enemy economists? Would the Agriculture Department be allowed to sleep deprive noncompliant farmers? Could the Peace Corps twist a few arms, literally, to get those wells dug? I hyperbolize, but you get the point. Torturing another human being is not okay, Mr. Dick, even if you work for a favored government agency.

Liar, liar…
Bush was no better. An Associated Press story stated he “lobbied against a congressional drive to outlaw torture” and then two paragraphs later quoted Bush saying, “We do not torture.” It seems Orwellian doublespeak is alive and well.

As media critic Eric Alterman wrote in December, “our President is an almost comically brazen liar…. Indeed, it’s hardly controversial to say ‘Bush’ and ‘liar’ together anywhere but in the mainstream media.” Alterman noted that two-thirds of respondents to a Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll did not believe Bush was “honest and straightforward.”

It makes you wonder whether the third claiming a belief in his sincerity are all that honest themselves. At this point, anyone who says Bush is consistently sincere is either A) a hardcore Republican ostrich with his/her head contentedly buried in the GOP sands, B) the owner of a radio or television that only tunes to Rush Limbaugh or Fox News, or C) a complete moron. To my Republican friends and family back home, I wish you no ill will; you are all kindhearted, intelligent ostriches.

Sticks and stones…
Do my statements offend? Well, tough! Americans’ penchant for accusing each other of scandalous affronts has moved beyond amusing, straight through annoying, and landed squarely in boring. Grown men and women so frequently claim to be “offended” and “shocked” that it seems we’re a nation of people whose skins are too thin to join a junior high debate team.

Massachusetts Supreme Court Chief Justice Margaret Marshall was compelled to apologize following her Brandeis University commencement speech when, in a venue adorned with white and blue balloons, she joked, “No red states here.” Some lighthearted soul subsequently filed a complaint with the state Commission on Judicial Conduct.

Rather than a people confident in our freedom of speech, we’ve become a polarized country of whiners who can do nothing but solicit apologies from our political opponents. That is, when we’re not completely overreacting to terrorist fears.

Starting young…
Airline authorities followed procedure by holding Edward Allen for questioning when his name appeared on the national no-fly list during Christmas week. They also asked him for identification, but Allen was unable to produce any, being that he is four years old.

Mistakes happen, that’s understandable. (Ted Kennedy was initially on the no-fly list, although that was more likely some GOP payback.) What is inexcusable is when the climate created by “security” enables a LaGuardia ticket agent to tell the preschooler’s mother, “You’re lucky that we’re letting you through instead of putting you through the other process.”

What exactly would that “other process” be? Keeping the kid inside during recess? Taking away his Legos? Excluding him from the lesson on shoe tying?

Get a grip, America. If you want criminals, look no further than Washington, D.C.

Here’s the wind-up, he swings… it’s a grand slam!
Jack Abramoff. Tax-evading, bribing, conspiring Jack Abramoff. Oh, sweet Jack Abramoff. Facing up to eleven years in prison, Abramoff said during his guilty plea that hopefully “I can merit forgiveness from the Almighty….” How fitting he invoked Divinity. An Orthodox Jewish lobbyist with conservative Christian political ties and ungodly greed, Abramoff could become the fallen angel who cleanses Congress. Already-indicted former House Majority Leader Tom Delay looks to be sunk, while the Wall Street Journal reported Abramoff claimed to have information “that could implicate 60 lawmakers.”

I’m a liberal, but I’m more significantly an American who wants to see things done the right way. I won’t condemn the other party and then make excuses when my side is accused. I want a full investigation of every legislator or aide who took Abramoff’s largesse, followed by appropriate resignations, indictments, trials, and jail time, regardless of whether Republican or Democrat.

For Mom…
While exchanging e-mails with my mother, she expressed concern over my political ramblings. She’s sure my essays, combined with frequent transatlantic travel, have drawn the electronic eyes of some shadowy government agency.

It’s understandable; moms worry about their children at any age. She’s also a Republican, but in the Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins vein rather than the George Bush and Dick “Off with Their Heads” Cheney sort of way. (That characterization of the veep is exactly the stuff she’d like me to stop writing.)

But as I told her, the possibility I’m on a watch list is all the more reason to keep writing. Quoting from my message, “The American Constitution gives me the right to say these things, and I’m showing the bastards that I’m not afraid to exercise that right and say what I think even in the face of intimidation tactics. I’ve done nothing illegal—while they’ve done plenty that’s at the very least bordering on illegality—so I’ll speak my mind no matter who’s listening or watching. Of that, you should be proud because I wouldn’t be this way if you hadn’t taught me to speak up and be honest.”

They may or may not be monitoring me, but I’m certainly keeping an eye on them from my Scottish lighthouse.  

 

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