Politics

Remember Bush’s trip to Africa last month?

Today I was forwarded this letter, originally by an anonymous Senegalese woman, giving her impression of our esteemed President’s visit — and the impression of America and Americans it left behind.

Dearest friends,

As you probably know, this week George Bush is visiting Africa. Starting with Senegal, he arrived this morning at 7.20 PM and left at 1.30 PM. This visit has been such an ordeal that a petition is being circulated for this Tuesday July 8th be named Dependency Day.

Let me share with you what we have been through since last week.

1. Arrestations: more than 1,500 persons have been arrested and put in jail between Thursday and Monday. Hopefully they will be released now that the Big Man is gone.
2. The US Army’s planes flying day and nigh over Dakar. The noise they make is so loud that one hardly sleeps at night.
3. About 700 security people from the US for Bush’s security in Senegal, with their dogs, and their cars. Senegalese security forces were not allowed to come near the US president.
4. All trees in places where Bush will pass have been cut. Some of them have[an age of] more than 100 years.
5. All roads going downtown (where hospitals, businesses, schools are located) were closed from Monday night to Tuesday at 3 PM. This means that we could not go to our offices or schools. Sick people were also obliged to stay at home.
6. National exams for high schools that started on Monday are postponed until Wednesday.

Bush’s visit to the Goree Island is another story. As you may know Goree is a small Island facing Dakar where from the 15th to the 19th century, the African slaves to be shipped to America were parked in special houses called slave houses. One of these houses has become a Museum to remind humanity about this dark period and has been visited by kings, queens, presidents. Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton, and before them, Nelson Mandela, the Pope, and many other distinguished guests or ordinary tourists visited it without bothering the islanders. But for “security reasons” this time, the local population was chased out of their houses from 5 to 12 AM. They were forced by the American security to leave their houses and leave everything open, including their wardrobes to be searched by special dogs brought from the US.

The ferry that links the island to Dakar was stopped and offices and businesses closed for the day.

According to an economist who was interviewed by a private radio, Senegal, a very poor country, has lost huge amount of money in this visit, because workers have been prevented from walking out of their homes.

In addition to us being prevented to go out, other humiliating things happened also. Not only [did] Bush not want to be with Senegalese but he did not want to use our things. He brought his own armchairs, and of course his own cars, and meals and drinks. He came with his own journalists and ours were forbidden inside the airport and in places he was visiting.

Our president was not allowed to make a speech. Only Bush spoke when he was in Goree. He spoke about slavery. It seems that he needs the vote of the African American to be elected in the next elections, and wanted to please them. That’s why he visited Goree.

Several protest marches against American politics have been organized yesterday and even when Bush was here, but we think he does not care.

We have the feeling that everything has been done to convince us that we are nothing, and that America can behave the way it wants, everywhere, even in our country.

Believe me, friends, it is a terrible feeling. But according to a Ugandan friend of mine, I should not complain because in Uganda, one of the countries he is going to visit, Bush does not intend to go out of the airport. He will receive the Ugandan President in the airport lounge.

Nevertheless, I think I am lucky, because I have such wonderful American friends. But there are now thousands of Senegalese who believe that for all Americans the world is their territory.

This is the message we’re sending to the rest of the world. America Über Alles.

Last month, John Gilmore was booked on a flight from San Francisco to London via British airways. Unfortunately, displaying his political views caused a bit of a stir…

My sweetheart Annie and I tried to fly to London today (Friday) on British Airways. We started at SFO, showed our passports and got through all the rigamarole, and were seated on the plane while it taxied out toward takeoff. Suddenly a flight steward, Cabin Service Director Khaleel Miyan, loomed in front of me and demanded that I remove a small 1\” button pinned to my left lapel. I declined, saying that it was a political statement and that he had no right to censor passengers’ political speech. The button, which was created by political activist Emi Koyama, says “Suspected Terrorist”. Large images of the button and I appear in the cover story of Reason Magazine this month, and the story is entitled “Suspected Terrorist”.

The steward returned with Capt. Peter Hughes. The captain requested, and then demanded, that I remove the button (they called it a “badge”). He said that I would endanger the aircraft and commit a federal crime if I did not take it off. I told him that it was a political statement and declined to remove it.

They turned the plane around and brought it back to the gate, delaying 300 passengers on a full flight.

His story was noted by Lawrence Lessig, and posted to his weblog. Much commenting ensued.

Saturday, Lessig posted John’s reply to the comment thread, and he raises some excellent points in his response.

The button is not a joke. It’s a serious statement which one may agree or disagree with. The point that people seem to be missing is that a “suspected terrorist” is not the same as a “terrorist”. Yet, that’s exactly the conflation that has occurred: treat every citizen like a suspect, and every suspect like a terrorist.

[…]

Let me also say in my defense that I seldom fly these days, so I am not used to life in a gulag. I had zero expectation that my refusal to doff a button would result in the captain returning the plane to the gate. But even if I did fly often, my response would be the same: to constantly push back against the rules that turn a free people into the slaves of a totalitarian regime. I push back using the rights granted me by the constitutional structure of the country, plus my own intelligence and resources. Way too many of you readers are like the Poles who, under orders from swaggering bullies, built the brick wall around their own ghetto, as shown in the award-winning movie “The Pianist” (which I watched on the Virgin Atlantic flight). The US is currently filling the swaggering bully role at home, in Iraq, and in the rest of the world. (Come out to free countries and ask around, if you disagree.)

John also included a list of other, related incidents which really should be looked at.

• Dr. Bob Rajcoomar gets a settlement and formal apology from TSA — only after suing with help from ACLU. Dr. Rajcoomar, a U.S. citizen and Lt. Colonel in the United States Army Reserve, is of Indian descent. After an in-flight incident involving an unruly passenger, Air marshals handcuffed Dr. Rajcoomar without explanation and took him into the custody of Philadelphia police. His wife Dorothy, who was also on the flight, was given no information on what had happened to her husband. Because the authorities confiscated Dr. Rajcoomar’s cellular phone, she had no way to contact him. After four hours of detention, TSA personnel told him that he had been detained because air marshals on board the flight did not “like the way he looked.” The agency’s official explanation for Dr. Rajcoomar’s treatment is that while on board, Dr. Rajcoomar had been observing the actions of the air marshals “too closely”!
• ACLU sues four airlines over ejecting passengers because of their race. Subsequent news in these lawsuits is that at least three of them have survived the airlines’ “motion to dismiss”, i.e. the court thinks there is a real injury to these peoples’ rights.
• Passenger detained for speaking with journalist about a NASA nuclear rocket project, while waiting for his airplane.
• TSA’s CAPPS 2 will track every passenger by their date of birth, home address, home phone, and full name — and stop or search anyone based on secret criteria. The TSA’s August 1 announcement makes every airport a “law enforcement checkpoint” which you cannot pass through without having your “papers in order”.
• TSA publishes rules demanding ID on passenger boats. (TSA and cruise lines have already been requiring these IDs, but under unpublished regulations. Ditto for Amtrak trains and long-haul bus lines.)

This is all very real, very scary stuff, going on as we speak in our “freedom loving” country. Don’t assume that “it can’t happen to me” — it can, and if this continues unchecked, sooner or later, it will.

Tom Tomorrow pointed out this jaw-dropping exchange in the midst of the President’s press conference from a couple days ago:

Thank you, sir. Since taking office you signed into law three major tax cuts — two of which have had plenty of time to take effect, the third of which, as you pointed out earlier, is taking effect now. Yet, the unemployment rate has continued rising. We now have more evidence of a massive budget deficit that taxpayers are going to be paying off for years or decades to come; the economy continues to shed jobs. What evidence can you point to that tax cuts, at least of the variety that you have supported, are really working to help this economy? And do you need to be thinking about some other approach?

THE PRESIDENT: Yes. No, to answer the last part of your question. First of all, let me — just a quick history, recent history. The stock market started to decline in March of 2000. Then the first quarter of 2001 was a recession. And then we got attacked in 9/11. And then corporate scandals started to bubble up to the surface, which created a — a lack of confidence in the system. And then we had the drumbeat to war. Remember on our TV screens — I’m not suggesting which network did this — but it said, “March to War,” every day from last summer until the spring — “March to War, March to War.” That’s not a very conducive environment for people to take risk, when they hear, “March to War” all the time.

Well, gee, you’re right, that attitude doesn’t contribute to a safe, healthy, stress free environment. Especially when you’re the idiot pounding those war drums every chance you get.

Unbelievable.

Unfortunately, the rest of the press conference is just as bile-inducing.

Wow — Tony Blair’s in trouble, and the British press are taking no prisoners.

Finally, one British reporter shouted out: “Have you got blood on your hands, Prime Minister? Are you going to resign over this?”

Blair froze. He stood uncomfortable and silent at the lectern for what must have seemed like the longest 30 seconds of his political career, until Koizumi called a merciful end to the press conference.

If only the American press corps had as much gall and backbone when questioning our leaders as the British press does when questioning theirs.

(via Daily Kos and Lane)

Pentagon officials says Americanizing Iraq is difficult because Iraqis have had little to no reliable information for the past 35 years, and have lived on a diet of innuendo, rumor, conspiracy theories, fear, and propaganda. Sounds like the problem is they’re too Americanized.

— Bill Maher (No permalink, July 29^th^ entry)

It looks to me like Bill’s weblog is using MovableType. Who can we contact to at least get him (or his webmaster) to turn on permalinks?