Thursday, July 10, 2008

Shhh, they’re listening…

A bitch is disturbed by the bill Bush has signed into law that extends immunity to telecom companies that helped the Bush administration spy on Americans.

I read the news right after reading this article about the death of Ruth Greenglass and somehow I think that’s how it was meant to be.

Ruth Greenglass, along with her husband David, provided key testimony that sent Ethel Rosenberg to her death for treason.

David, Ethel’s brother, later revealed in a book that he had lied on the stand and that his wife…Ruth…had probably done the typing that sent Ethel to her death. In an interview with 60 Minutes II, Greenglass claimed that the infamous Roy Cohn made him lie on the stand.

Cohn went on to be Joseph McCarthy’s weapon of choice as he destroyed careers and lives in the name of national security.

Sigh.

Over 50 years have gone since the Red Scare and once again we are a nation trembling in a corner, handing over our civil liberties to questionable caretakers without so much as a whimper all for the appearance of national security.

And I can't get over how Ethel Rosenberg died in the electric chair at the age of 37 while Ruth Greenglass most likely died in her sleep at the age of 84...or stop feeling that, in an environment where rumor convicts and information can be lethal, we've just delivered the weapon to the suspect.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

If this story isn't an example of why there should be no death penalty, then I don't know what is.

billie said...

me too.

Anonymous said...

I'm disappointed that Senator Obama broke a campaign promise to filibuster this bill and, along with all the Republicans and a few conservative Democrats, instead voted for cloture.

Anonymous said...

Yeah.. this is ridiculous. By the way, I love your blog. Keep up the great work!!! :]

Anonymous said...

Excellent post.

soopermouse said...

I am utterly disapointed that Shark Fu fails to acknowledge the role Senator Obama had in the passing of that bill. It would have been nice to seeit, but I guess it won't happen. Which is sad.

Shark-Fu said...

Oh, for the love of...

I fully acknowledge the vote...twas a vote and not just a role...cast by Senator Obama, which went against the expressed wishes of the Democratic leadership and contributed to this fucked up shit passing.

My post, however, was about the impact of this law and a history we shouldn't be forgetting.

But hey, if you just want to read this bitch writing that Obama cast a fucked up vote...well, there it 'tis.

soopermouse said...

I just found it incredibly disingenous that you failed to mention it and analyze it, the same as you do with everything else. Precisely because I have (or had) a great deal of respect for you, I find that the way you have framed this issue is disingenuous at best.
Yes, your post was about the impact ohf this law. But I think you owe it to yourself and your readers to acknowledge that the law didnt write or vote itself. That the candidate you support to the extent where you have remained quiet on most if not all of his questionable and mysogynist issues is part of the problem you are talking about.

That you USED to care about anti woman and anti choice measures and attitudes, but you keep quiet about those of Senator Obama.

I don't know what happened to your intellectual honesty. I miss it.

Shark-Fu said...

Clearly you are under the misunderstanding that I am or have ever been an Obama surrogate.

I'm not and since I'm not I sometimes enjoy exploring issues without looping in the presumtives. I did the same thing in 2006 (gasp!)

I'm having a hard time seeing how that indicates a complete loss of integrity.

Unless this is some sort of assumtive thing...like Shark-Fu must be giving Obama a pass because...what?

I know the man? Can't be, 'cause I don't.

I'm working for his campaign? Nope - that's not the case.

Sigh.

I'm at a loss and frankly more than a little insulted.

soopermouse said...

And that is a red herring if I ever saw one. I never, at any point, implied that you were an Obama surrogate. However, I did question your reasons to NOT address his various missteps and faults.

You can be willfully blind without being in an official position with his campaign, and this is what you appear to have been for the past months or so.

It is a massaive loss of integrity because you have addressed similar issues in the past, when they were comitted by other candidates. I am yet to find one post on this blog in which you took senator Obama to task for any of his questionable positions. Not even one.

So, where is your outrage on his FISA vote? Constant Mysoginy? "Some control"? Brand new abortion positions?

Ask yourself whether you would have given a pass to any other candidate. I am not in a position to know what you think, but I can notice your deafening silence.

INtellectual honesty says that you owe it to yourself to ask these questions. I do not KNOW why you are giving Obama a pass. It is obvious that you do, and I am asking you a question about that.

Maybe I should ask "Who are you and what did you do to the real Shark Fu"?

Shark-Fu said...

No soopermoose, that was the wrong thing to ask.

How dare you? The gall of your position blows me away.

I took a break from Presidential election coverage...which I have every bloody right to do and honestly needed after the emotional turmoil of the primary...to discuss other things on this blog.

You have no idea what I intend to cover and, given your acknowledgement that I have delivered solid coverage of candidates before, no reason to assume that I will not keep it real when I return to covering the election.

None.

What you should have done, rather than attack my dedication and the legitimacy of my activism, is send me an e-mail and ask me what's what...how about "how are your doing?" or "why haven't you covered this or that?"

Others have.

You didn't.

And I'd like to know why you chose this route rather than communicating from a position of respect.

Fuck it all...

Anonymous said...

Someone needs to tell me what it is you need to have said about obama's 'misogyny' and everything else to make the likes of mousie here happy with you... or perhaps s/he can just write your blog for you?

soopermouse said...

Respect is something that one earns. your coverage of the 2008 elections has lost you mine.

"You have no idea what I intend to cover and, given your acknowledgement that I have delivered solid coverage of candidates before, no reason to assume that I will not keep it real when I return to covering the election."

The fact that you haven't delivered it this election season is pretty telling as to where you will.

You migth want to put down the intellectual dishonesty and cognitive dissonance and have an actual look at yourself. If you were honest before all this, you'd be ashamed of yourself.

It is not a matter of you taking a break. You have failed to call Obama on his shortcomings all this electiosn season. There is not one post from you acknowledging that they exist. And since you have shown that you are capable of seeing it in OTHER candidates, the answer is simple: you CHOOSE to not see it in Obama. The fact that you need to dole out poor excuses as to why you haven't done it shows clearly that you are aware that you are doing it, just unable to remove that huge blindspot you have developped.

Barack OBama has already chipped at your rights, and you don't even have the courage to acknowledge it. Congratulations, by not calling him out on his faults and mysoginy, you are now an accomplice to them. Go reward yourself for falling neatly in line, you good woman, you.

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