Sherry Chandler

Juan Cole says good-bye to W

and reminds us that the fault is not in our stars but in ourselves:

Bush is my slightly older contemporary. I knew guys like W. in college, the frat boys who painted the local lighthouse windows red in the middle of the night after binging on cheap beer and chasing skirts instead of cracking their books. The guys who were rude and arrogant because they did not know how to wear their inherited wealth gracefully, the loudmouths who parroted Barry Goldwater and William F. Buckley without having the integrity of the former or the eloquence of the latter.

He asks a question that I ask frequently:

Why is it that wastrels who find faith are so insufferable?

And concludes:

W. wasn’t up to dealing with the Middle East. It is a complex, vital, fractious place and is notorious as the graveyard of modern presidencies. Carter was done in by Iranian hostage-takers. Reagan embroiled himself in Iran-Contra. Bush Sr. imprudently took on the Israel lobbies over loan guarantees for Israeli colonies on the West Bank, and that misstep helped cost him reelection.

W. is a frightful combination of ignorant, dull, and pigheaded when to succeed in the Middle East he needed to be well-informed, bright and intellectually agile.

Koshembos, I know all of this is well known. But if feels good to say it one more time.

And in the end, Juan brings it back to Shakespeare:

Our nation renews itself, and makes small revolutions with its political campaigns. We have the opportunity now, to choose truth over propaganda, responsibility over recklessness, compassion over brutality, altruism over self-interest, and ability over incompetence. We have the opportunity to repudiate the past 8 years, and to transcend them once and for all, to redeem ourselves as a nation. The persons we choose to serve us as first among equals in our republic can bring us shame or honor as a nation. But it is our choices as individuals that make us shameful or honorable in ourselves. We must never again allow a crew of crooked bullies to make us underlings, lest we be laid to rest in dishonorable graves.

Read all of Juan’s good-bye and good riddance.

On the need to return to a September 10 mindset

Juan Cole posts a guest editorial from Andy Worthington, author of The Guant�namo Files: The Stories of the 774 Detainees in America’s Illegal Prison:

During the election campaign, one of the sticks with which John McCain�s team attempted to beat Barack Obama was a claim that he was soft on terrorism, or, as Senator McCain�s national security director Randy Scheunemann declared to reporters in June, �Senator Obama is a perfect manifestation of a September 10th mind-set … He does not understand the nature of the enemies we face.�

…

And yet, a September 10th mind-set is exactly what is required to begin undoing the damage inflicted on America�s moral standing by President Bush and those closest to him, who were responsible for driving the country on a fear-filled journey to the �Dark Side.� Specifically, those most culpable are Vice President Dick Cheney, former defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld, and Cheney�s former legal counsel and now chief of staff, David Addington, all exponents of the �unitary executive theory� of government, for whom the declaration of a state of permanent war provided the perfect opportunity to grant the President dictatorial powers.

Amen.

Read all of it.

__________
Also, this is heartening.

CHICAGO — Chicago workers in the third day of a sit-in on the floor of their former workplace peered through the windows of a door Sunday, amazed by a mix of supporters, politicians and journalists who packed a foyer outside.

“We never expected this,” said Melvin Maclin, a factory employee and vice president of the local union that represents the workers. “We expected to go to jail.”

The 200 workers demanding severance and vacation pay have become a national symbol for thousands of employees laid off nationwide as the economy continues to sour. They occupied the plant of their former employer, Republic Windows and Doors, after the company abruptly fired them last week.

At a news conference Sunday, President-elect Barack Obama said Republic should follow through on its commitments to its workers.

“The workers who are asking for the benefits and payments that they have earned, I think they’re absolutely right and understand that what’s happening to them is reflective of what’s happening across this economy,” Obama said.