Jerry Bowles

Al Sharpton is a Big Fat Hypocrite

2007-04-09T15:22:00.000-04:00

There is something both comical and tragic about Don Imus trotting over to Al Sharpton's radio program today to apologize, yet again, for some trash talk street culture remarks that if they had been made by any black person in America would have elicted a chuckle and then been quickly forgotten. A few decades from now when we are all chocolate and habloing in Amerirexian, when the Obamas are the rule, not the exception and the bottom-feeding race exploiters like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton have exhausted their pools of fake outrage, this sort of thing will go away. And not a moment too soon.

For those of you too young to remember, let me tell you a story about real racism. Back in 1987, a 15-year-old black girl named Tawana Brawley disappeared and was found four days later covered in dog feces with racial slurs written on her body. She claimed that at least two and possibly six white men, one of them carrying a badge, had repeatedly raped her in the woods in upstate New York. She refused to meet with prosecutors and Sharpton and a couple of now disbarred radical lawyers named Alton Maddox and Vernon Mason took up her cause. According to the Associated Press, Sharpton and Brawley's lawyers asserted "on 33 separate occasions" that a local prosecutor named Steven Pagones "had kidnapped, abused and raped" Brawley.

There was absolutely no evidence to support this charge and a grand jury investigation concluded in late 1988 that Brawley "was not the victim of forcible sexual assault" and that the whole thing was a hoax. She had smeared herself with dog shit and written the racial epithets herself in an attempt to fool her hot-tempered stepfather about her whereabouts. Several witnesses testified that they had seen her at various parties during the time she was supposedly being held against her will.

Not to be outdone, Sharpton and Maddox and Mason accused then state Attorney General Robert Abrams of "masturbating" over Brawley's crime scene photographs. The whole Brawley affair was one of the ugliest episodes of race baiting of the last half-century and the whole thing was based on a lie that Al Sharpton must have recognized as such at the time.

Pagones' life was ruined and it took more than a decade for his defamation suit to come to trial. In 1998, a jury finally found Sharpton, Maddox and Mason liable for defaming Steven Pagones and ordered them to pay hefty fines.

To this day, Sharpton has never apologized to Pagones or anyone else for his part in this sordid business. There may be lots of people to whom Don Imus owes an apology. But Al Sharpton isn't one of them.

Full disclosure: I knew Don Imus pretty well back in the early 70s, hung out with him a lot, and once wrote an article about him. He is one of the most color blind people I've ever known. If he's a racist, I'm a martian.

We're Back!

2006-12-07T09:51:00.000-05:00

Sorry about yesterday, folks. The host server where Best of the Blogs resides got extremely confused and served up some six month old items. This internet thing is going to be great once we get the details worked out.

Shrub, the Wedge

2006-11-02T11:08:00.000-05:00

Does anybody but me get the feeling that if common sense does return to the Republic next week it will because Junior has done such a magnificent job of rallying our base?

Uncommon Sense from the Right

2006-10-25T12:34:00.000-04:00

Frederick W. Kagan, writing in today's Washington Post:

The current crisis in Iraq is no more just an Iraqi problem than it has ever been. The U.S. military destroyed Iraq's government and all institutions able to keep civil order. It designated itself an "occupying force," thereby accepting the responsibility to restore and maintain such order. And yet U.S. Central Command never actually made establishing order and security a priority. Its commander throughout the insurgency, Gen. John Abizaid, has instead repeatedly declared that America's role is primarily to train Iraqi forces to put down their own rebellion and maintain order.

By allowing violence and disorder to spread throughout the country, the Bush administration has broken faith with the Iraqi people and ignored its responsibilities. It has placed U.S. security in jeopardy by creating the preconditions for the sort of terrorist safe haven the president repeatedly warns about and by demonstrating that no ally can rely on America to be there when it counts.

Cry, My Beloved Country

2006-09-28T20:21:00.000-04:00

I am 63-years-old and I have never been as ashamed of my government.

It's really a shame that Mouhammed Atta didn't go for the Capitol Building instead.

Osama's Mission Accomplished

2006-09-24T11:26:00.000-04:00

Whether Osama bin Laden is still dead or alive is a matter of passing interest but it is no longer a critical factor in bringing resolution to the tragic events of September 11, 2001. Thanks to the misguided, disasterously overblown response of the Bush administration, a spectacular criminal act by a small band of determined international outlaws has become exactly what its creator wanted it to be: a clash of Western and Islamic civilizations that will rage for many years and possibly trigger a global war or certainly an endless series of regional ones.

Not in his wildest dreams could Osama have forseen that Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld and their merry band of pipedreaming neoncons would play right into his hands by using the 9/11 attacks as a pretext to invade a soverign and uninvolved Arab nation...and be dumb enough to believe that doing so would produce a grateful populace and a budding democracy. By "liberating" the majority Iraqi shites, Bush Co. has simply created another Islamic republic that will ultimately be controlled by radical fundamentalists.

Most important of all, the administration's heavy-handed response has divided Americans into warring camps, revealed to the world that when it comes to fundamental human and legal rights we lack the courage of our convinctions, and has vastly expanded the number of Muslims who hate us and would be willing to die in harebrained suicide schemes.

The world is much more dangerous place today than it was before we invaded Iraq and we are less--not more--safe from terrorists than we were before 9/11.

Dead or alive, Osama can rest in peace. His mission has been accomplished.

The Real Clash of Civilizations is Here

2006-09-19T15:48:00.000-04:00

If you had told me in the spring of 2001 that all it would take to destroy every principle that has made this country a symbol of liberty around the world was a single, spectacular, hail Allah attack by a small band of determined religious fanatics, I would have thought you were as crazy as Dick Cheney or Osama bin Laden.

I have since learned to my great sadness is that there is a substantial minority of Americans who feel their lives are so out of control that they yearn to live in a locked-down authoritarian state. They are so scared of the boogeymen that the Bush fascists have unleashed that they are willing to give up on ideals I once naively believed that most Americans considered the bedrock of the our notion of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Forget being a nation of laws, not men. Forget the right to a fair trial in an impartial court, to hear the evidence against you, to defend yourself. Forget habeus corpus and personal privacy and all those apparently optional legal niceties that have made our country a beacon of freedom. Forget about international laws, and Christian injunctions, about torture. The brown people are coming. The brown people are coming. Give me liberty or give me death has suddenly become kill 'em all and let God (the Christian one) sort 'em out.

Not all of these people are stupid or evil. But, they are frightened of a world that seems to be spinning into chaos. Maybe it's because they've lost control of their children and think it's because liberals won't let Jesus into the classrooms. Maybe it's because they are bored with a lifetime of tedium, going to work every day in meaningless jobs, watching "reality" shows on TV instead of getting a real life, spending more than they have on useless crap at the mall. Maybe it's the constant, mind-numbing dumbness of cable news and its unseemly fascination with missing and probably raped white women and its cursory attention to really important issues--like the fiasco in Iraq and an economy in which the rich are getting richer and the middle class doesn't understand it is they who are paying for it with their support of politicans who only want to scare and exploit them.

We are told that we have give up our liberties because 9/11 changed everything and that the challenge we face today is "unprecedented." That is an outrageous lie. Human beings long ago ran out of evil things they can think of to do to each other. There is no barberous act, no sneak attack, no massacre, no genocide that is left unprecedented in the long and sordid annals of man's stay on this earth.

What was unprecedented is a single country that was able--with admittedly some mistakes along the way--for nearly 250 years to hold itself to a higher standard of civilized behavior. I'm afraid all that is lost forever.

Blame Bush: Joe Scarborough Sees the Light

2006-09-17T09:01:00.000-04:00

Conservative commentator Joe Scarborough writing in today WaPo:

How exactly does one convince the teeming masses that Republicans deserve to stay in power despite botching a war, doubling the national debt, keeping company with Jack Abramoff, fumbling the response to Hurricane Katrina, expanding the government at record rates, raising cronyism to an art form, playing poker with Duke Cunningham, isolating America and repeatedly electing Tom DeLay as their House majority leader?

How does a God-fearing Reagan Republican explain all that away?

Easy. Blame George W. Bush.

Bush Confesses to War Crimes

2006-09-07T07:45:00.000-04:00

We have reached the bottom when an American president admits to maintaining secret torture chambers around the world that violate every principle of international law, American decency, and simple Christian humanity. The admission is compounded by the fact that he is only doing say to provide red meat to a neanderthal base of moral and mental midgets. This is a truly sad day for Americans who believe in liberty, the rule of law, and due process.

The Wildlife Strike Back - Adios, Mate

2006-09-05T13:00:00.000-04:00

The Australian government is seriously thinking of having a state funeral for its native son, the TV nature buffoon Steve Irwin, who was killed yesterday by a sting ray, one of the most passive animals in the sea. It was kind of a sweet piece of irony considering that Irwin had built a career on annoying seriously dangerous animals that should have been left alone in the first place simply for his own entertainment, and ours. One can't help regretting that it wasn't a giant crocodile that did the deed. The footage would have been so much more entertaining.

Thank You, Mr. Karr. Your 15 Minutes Are Up.

2006-08-29T11:08:00.000-04:00

Polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs arrested in Las Vegas

Young girls and sex. Another chance to watch your big time "media" at work.

Obama. Now.

2006-08-28T19:51:00.000-04:00

It is impossible to watch the news films of Senator Barack Obama in Kenya and the extraordinary outpouring of love he has engendered without coming to grips with the realization that not only is the rock star the Democrat Party sorely needs standing right in front of them; Obama is exactly the breath of fresh air we all need to regain our sense of pride and hope after eight miserable years of relentless division and fearmongering. When is the last time we all had a chance to do something historic and unprecedented and to feel proud of ourselves for doing the right thing. We can't afford to wait for Hillary to lose in 2008 (or 2012 if she squeaks through this time). There is too much at stake. Obama. Now.

The Iraq War is Over. We Lost.

2006-08-21T10:16:00.000-04:00

With more than 100 Iraqis dying every day in what is, by any definition, a civil war, only the 30 percent or so of truly dumbass Americans who believe that Iraq is overflowing with good news but the liberal media is suppressing it continue to keep the faith. These are the same 30 percent who believe that we were attacked by Iraq on September 11, 2001, there really are flying angels, and John Mark Karr and Jon Benet were dating and he killed her when a little harmless rough sex got out of hand. Move on Jake. It's Chinatown.

Michael R. Gordon, as honorable and honest a war correspondent as can be found on the planet, puts devastating lie to the "as Iraqi troops stand up, we'll stand down" spin. In a piece in the New York Times magazine called An Army of Some, Gordon writes:

Officially, the Bush administration’s strategy is: Clear, hold and build. But with limited American forces to do any clearing, the war in western Iraq looks much more like hang on and hand over. Hang on against an insurgency that seems to be laying roadside bombs as quickly as they are discovered, and hand over to an Iraqi military that is still a work in progress.

If, as the administration has long claimed, Iraq is the central front on the war on terror, we have suffered a stunnning defeat. Even if you still believe that the war was a good idea, you have to admit that the Bushies have bungled it. Big time. It's long past time to bring this unwinnable fiasco to an end and hold those responsible for it accountable.

Macaca This, George

2006-08-16T09:38:00.000-04:00

You might think that George Allen merely stumbled across a nonsense word that just happens to be a French slur for North Africans and did not know (as he claims) what it means. You might think that until you learn that his mother is a French Tunisian and that, despite the good ole boy act, he speaks very good French. Somebody here has a problem with brown people or, maybe, just mother issues.

Bobbies Foil Terrorist Plot

2006-08-10T08:13:00.000-04:00

The news that British police have foiled the latest terrorist plot to blow up airliners (and did so using good old-fashioned ear-to-the-ground tactics) should be instructive to the Bush administration and to anyone who believes the best way to fight the war on terror is to terrorize the Middle East through a "muscular" display of American military force (i.e., the Cheney Doctrine). Coupled with the Canadian plot thwarted by the Mounties a few months back, the latest incident (and there will be lots more) shows what should have been obvious since 9/11--good, local, know-your-neighborhood law enforcement works. If we had spent half as much money beefing up police and port and border security as we've poured down the Iraq rathole, America would be a lot safer today.

Joltin' Joe Refuses to Go Away

2006-08-09T07:58:00.000-04:00

Mixed bottom line in Connecticut, I fear. True, our prissy Ivy League twit won the upset but not by a margin that is likely to induce the kind of ephiphanous moment we had hoped in Bush lite Democrats. On the other hand, the disappearance of the mentally unstable Cynthia McKinney from the national stage will be a blessing for all concerned.

Is This Man an Idiot or Does He Just Play One in Real Life?

2006-08-07T16:51:00.000-04:00

“You know, I hear people say, Well, civil war this, civil war that. The Iraqi people decided against civil war when they went to the ballot box.” Shrub at a news conference today.

Pentagon Lied About 9/11 Reaction

2006-08-02T08:13:00.000-04:00

From today's Washington Post:

For more than two years after the attacks, officials with NORAD and the FAA provided inaccurate information about the response to the hijackings in testimony and media appearances. Authorities suggested that U.S. air defenses had reacted quickly, that jets had been scrambled in response to the last two hijackings and that fighters were prepared to shoot down United Airlines Flight 93 if it threatened Washington.

In fact, the commission reported a year later, audiotapes from NORAD's Northeast headquarters and other evidence showed clearly that the military never had any of the hijacked airliners in its sights and at one point chased a phantom aircraft -- American Airlines Flight 11 -- long after it had crashed into the World Trade Center.

Memo to Democrats: It's the lying, stupid.

Neocons to Condi: You Gotta Go, Girl

2006-07-26T11:44:00.000-04:00

The neocons are said to extremely unhappy with what they perceive as Condoleezza Rice's newfound preverence for diplomacy over belligerence and her seeming lack of fervor for unleashing the dogs of war on Tehran and Damascus now. This afternoon, if possible. Having learned absolutely nothing from the misguided Iraq adventure, the crazies are--the Carpetbagger Report reports--using Reverend Moon's lunatic fringe Insight magazine to circulate articles questioning Condi's competence and character and to suggest that she will be dumped after the midterm elections.

Sounds like wishful thinking to me. 9/11 gave the crazies a singular opportunity to test their democracy at the point of a gun theory in Iraq and the Bush administration blew it. Big time. Most Americans agree with the newly re-centered Condi; it's time to give reality a chance.

Even Christians and Commie Fighters!! The Patriot Act Disaster known as “Material Support”

2006-07-14T16:20:00.000-04:00

Guest post by Evelyn Keyes
Someone should just take away the crayons and colored pencils used by the neandrathal Repug bill writers who crafted the 2001 USA Patriot Act, who no doubt after great consideration and judicious review with their more experienced colleagues threw into the legislation a provision known as "material support."

Basically, "material support" is the provision that denies political asylum to any individual who gives "material support" to armed terrorists.

Leaving aside the fact that the definitions for "material support” and "terrorist" could include anyone in this country who sent a dollar to the NRA, or fed the cat of a drug dealer, the consequences of the application of this qualification nullifies the eligibility of just about anyone who is escaping armed conflict, just the kind of person, in fact, for whom the U.S. has been in the business of providing asylum for oh, the last seventy years or so.

This piece in TNR this week by Anna Husarska makes a compelling case for overturning the provisions. I also just returned from visiting Burmese refugees in Thailand, who basically live in hopeless conditions with--since 2004--diminished expectations of ever returning to their mined and dangerous homelands. Resettlement to a third country offers their best hope for a future, and traditionally, this country has been the largest provider – and arguably – beneficiary of worldwide refugee resettlement. From Einstein to Andy Grove, to a large part of the graduating classes of Ivy League schools, refugees and their descendants have used their talents and energies to contribute mightily to our nation.

But in yet another example of paranoid wingers eating their own, "material support" is being used to exclude even Cubans, CIA-supporting Montagnard tribespeople, and Christians like the Burmese, which may be the best hope for having this onerous exclusion at least getting some attention on the Hill. But if you are a refugee waiting for your family to join you, don’t hold your breath.

Kill 'em All. Let God Sort Them Out.

2006-07-11T15:40:00.000-04:00

The loonies have come up with a way around all these Geneva Conventions and Supreme Court niceties--just don't take any prisoners. Kill every last person standing on the battlefield even if they have dropped their arms and are waving a white flag. Presumably, the same rules would apply to Americans who were trying to surrender on battlesfields of the future. If you didn't already think that John Hinderaker was one psychotic motherfucker, this should do it for you.

The Aspirational Terrorist

2006-07-10T07:43:00.000-04:00

In the stampede to embrace social media as a great tool of individual empowerment, we sometimes forget that there is a dark underside to the web and that these obstentibly neighborly technologies can also be used for evil purposes. The announcement that the FBI had gotten wind of a half-baked plot to blow up a tunnel between Manhattan and mainland America by listening in on internet chat room conversations is a reminder that the web is equalitarian in its gifts; it empowers both good people and bad.

The fact that this plot–like the one that snared the hapless homeless guys in Miami a couple of weeks ago–was what the government has been calling “aspirational” and what the rest of us might call “bananas” is telling, but nobody can fault the Feds for an abundance of caution. After 9/11 and the bombings in Madrid and Bali and London, all such threats have to investigated, even those made by terrorist-wannabes who are so dumb they make plans in an internet chat room or think that terrorists wear uniforms.

What doesn’t have to happen, of course, is the huge ballyhoo that is made over these arrests which only encourages other crazies–the “aspirationals,” let’s call them–to channel their fantasies and prejudices toward the now fashionable meme of jihad. But, the mind control games of Washington are another topic.

The larger point is that if we are going to use social media to build online relationships we–the good guys–are going to have to develop some safeguards that protect the innocent and the merely curious from the predators and the plotters. You don’t hear a lot of talk about it from the industry booster side but we all know the “undernet” is filled with thieves and pedophiles and those who want to use technology to make their particular crimes more efficient. If we don’t find better ways to police ourselves, then politicians and big businesses will do it for us. In fact, it is fairly obvious that a lot of law enforcement resources are already being directed toward the web and especially toward social media. This is not a good thing. Like most people of a liberatarian bent, I am absolutely convinced that explicit formal government regulation would be the beginning of the end of the participatory media movement. To paraphrase Marlon Brando in On the Waterfront, “we gotta look out for each other more.”

Blow Up the Holland Tunnel? Ho Hum.

2006-07-07T11:55:00.000-04:00

I live about a half mile from the Holland Tunnel but I can't say I'm much concerned by the news that our crackerjack FBI has thwarted a "plot" to blow up one of our main arteries to New Jersey. In fact, would it be cynical of me to suspect that this announcement might be part of a carefully orchestrated plan to rachet up the fear factor before November's elections. Would it be a terrible of me to suspect that New York Republican representative Peter "Send the New York Times to jail" King was fronting cheap political points for Karl Rove? Would I be a horrible person if I suggested that maybe there is less than meets the eye to this story and the people involved were about as hapless as that incredibly scary gaggle of homeless people they rounded up in Miami a couple of weeks ago?

As If People Mattered

2006-07-06T16:06:00.000-04:00

In the process of teaching myself how to work with Word Press (with the thought of maybe switching this site over from Blogger sometime because WP is so far superior), I built a new site called Practical Widgets. I wrote a piece there today called Small is Beautiful: E.F. Schumacher and Web 2.0. If you like geeky leftist polemics, you might enjoy it.

Tell 'em Kenny Boy is Dead

2006-07-05T15:50:00.000-04:00

Let's see if the Bushes have the common decency to send the widow a card.