Watching Rove bait the media with eco-activists' lives
author: a medic
So I think of my innocent friend sitting in jail on false charges and I think of
all the other innocent eco-defenders the Administration used this morning in
latest success in diverting attention from impeachable offences
and international human rights crimes.
And I look forward to the day when the breaking story is about the indictments of Bush Cheney Ashcroft Gonzales Woo et al - in the Hague.
Most of all, I look forward to the day that the accused eco-activists are acquitted.
But between now and the impeachment/war crimes trials, I expect to see more show
arrests, more sudden "terrorist" announcements during awkward hearings, and more ecocide.
|
This morning Congressional Democrats had scheduled
"unofficial" hearings into the Preznit's illegal and impeachable
warrantless wiretap program as well as the Preznit's delusions of unfettered executive power. The hearings were broadcast live on my local
Pacifica affiliate, for which I am grateful.
CSPAN also carried the hearings.
The hearings may as well have been held on a raft off Vanuatu.
The Preznit's personal lawyer, Alberto "tortureman" Gonzales put on his Attorney General's costume to grab the spotlight with the "eco-terror" investigation press conference. The Rovians in the DOJ artfully scheduled the Torturer General's press conference for just before the start of the wiretap hearings.
The White House's dog and pony show worked. It totally bounced even a mention of
the unofficial hearings off the noon hourly news summaries at NPR and at
least one of the commercial broadcast networks (and possibly two, but
I was losing track of the streams). Neither the NYT nor LA Times front web pages even mention the hearings for the evening news feed tonight.
And why should the out-of-towners care when the locals can't be bothered? Heck, at noon PDT the Washington Post's website didn't even mention
the hearings even as Pacifica broadcast them. What the hell, it's only a
story about a collision of constitutional powers - maybe a bit of
yawner in a hometown where the local industry is er....fighting about
power.
Until recently, my home town was Santa Monica...half way between Malibu
and Beverly Hills. In those communities, the local industry is media.
That's why the White House's little show this morning would bring a
smile to the southern California PR men and car dealers who carried
Nixon and Reagan to the White House and stayed on to wreak havoc.
Those guys - cause that's what they were - affluent males - they knew
how to spin.
So if this were all just a sidebar in Variety, the political pros
could stand back and admire Rove's slight of hand and the corporate news
greyhound could keep pounding down the track after that killer leak -
keep running after the source, don't bite the feeding hands (not the
manicured ones). Elsewhere the public could watch the dog and pony
show "Look honey - new threats: elections must be coming"; and the
threat levels could begin their biannual migration to scarlet.
But this isn't a sidebar (well, 'ceptin whatever the Preznit has
stashed away about the ranch or the White House).
This is the world in which the emotionally labile cognitively impaired
Oedipally* enmeshed resident of the Oval Office asserts that anyone
anywhere can be abducted, kidnapped, tortured, imprisoned and killed
at his whim. This decade, the justification is
terrorists. [Prior boogeymen have included: Communists in Eurasia;
Gangs (without power suits and lobbyists); Drugs (well some drugs);
Communists Near Our Southern Borders (hordes of revolutionaries plot
to bore southern Texans to death with readings of Das Kapital].
This is the world in which the delusional ideology of infinite growth
has obscured the finite realities of physics and biology - well,
almost obscured.
Even the most anthropocentric have started to notice the profound
increases in the incidence of malignancies, reproductive disorders,
and developmental and neurological disorders ... all proving that
nature bats last, and that poisoned earth sky and water leads to
poisoned food, sperm, eggs, and babies. Poisons, acids, and the waste
heat of human industry have altered the composition of the skies and
oceans, imperiling all life. Species and whole eco-systems are
perishing.
And this is the living world which eco-activists all over the planet
protect when they put their bodies, health and lives at risk in the
forests and seas and so many other places. The eco-activists - and
the values and perspectives they understand - threaten the delusion of
infinite growth. The eco-activists and their view - my view - of a
finite living world is a great threat to a fantasy held dear by
economic ideologues.
The eco-activists are not a threat to any living thing.
The delusion of infinite economic growth and the ecological destruction
inherent in that fallacy really do threaten every living being on this
planet.
Today I heard the unctuous Torturer General proclaim that illegal
deeds must be punished, regardless of the motives behind them.
The Torturer General did not announce he will be seeking an independent
counsel to investigate his boss for ordering illegal wiretaps and
torture, much less for the homicides resulting from that torture. He
didn't mention indicting those his boss appointed to conspire with
industry to allow more poisons to be spilled upon the public.
Today I did hear the Torturer General announce a whole mess of charges
of property destruction bundled up under the rubric "eco-terrorism".
Well, another triumph for the PR guys - here "eco-terrorism" started
out life as a slogan from a flack for timber and mining interests, and
now it's all dressed up and hobnobbing with a member of the Cabinet
and the directors of FBI and the BATF.
I never knew a timber flack's slogan could be stretched to obscure a
whole White House full of impeachable offences. Karl Rove obviously
knew better, hence the shut out on the airwaves this morning.
But I do know some of this nation's long sordid history of tarring
non-violent activists whose clear vision saw through to the lies of
power and whose strong voices compelled attention to the crimes they
saw. I do know that those who oppose economic power by advocating the
protection of human health or living beings have been met with false charges of violence and conspiracy for the past centuries. And I do know that even in the last decades, forest activists have been falsely charged with bombings and other crimes -
and some of those responsible for the false charges were themselves
found responsible in civil court.
So I think of my innocent friend sitting in jail on false charges and I think of
all the other innocent eco-defenders the Administration used this morning in
latest success in diverting attention from impeachable offences
and international human rights crimes.
And I look forward to the day when the breaking story is about the indictments of Bush Cheney Ashcroft Gonzales Woo et al - in the Hague.
Most of all, I look forward to the day that the accused eco-activists are acquitted.
But between now and the impeachment/war crimes trials, I expect to see more show
arrests, more sudden "terrorist" announcements during awkward hearings, and more ecocide.
I hope to see more and more support for the direct action
environmental community. I hope that support will come from the
direct action community's "natural allies" among those who love the
living world and the creatures dwelling in it.
I also hope to see support for accused eco-activists from the larger
progressive communities...and perhaps even from those who may have
different views on economic or social issues, but who share concern
about profound abuse of police powers to suppress legitimate activity.
Because today, after decades of saying that one imperiled creature or
another is the "canary in the coal mine", the non-violent direct
action environmental community has become the new canary.
(OK - a wild and free canary briefly joining the earth pillagers in hope
of elevating their sordid values.)
Put it this way: today the non-violent direct action community sits astride the
canary's perch in the Constitution mine.
The Northwest eco-activist community has been credited as one factor
in the success of the efforts of civil society to oppose corporate
rule during the 1999 WTO protests. For this reason and others, I
believe the same repressive legal tools turned against eco-activists
today will be used against civil society activists in the months to
come. As killing in Iraq continues and more Bush crimes are revealed,
the need for excuses for the wiretapping and distractions from the war
will only grow.
I hope those concerned about abuse of executive and police
power under Bush will join those concerned for the living world and
support the eco-activists accused today and earlier, as well as
those already convicted and/or imprisoned and those who will be subpoenaed, harassed,
arrested and indicted in the months to come.
And I hope the PR guys are watching from their own cells when Karl,
Shrub, and the rest of the torturers are doing the perp walk in the
Hague. As for the rest of us - especially the accused eco-activists -
I hope we'll be outside and free, enjoying the air and sky on the earth
so many love, cherish, and seek to protect.
[* Nope, not a Freudian here.....but even a broken clock is right twice a
day]
|
add a comment on this article
add a comment on this article
discussion from this article
|
