Nixon on pot and gays (and of course Jews)

"You know, it's a funny thing, every one of the bastards that are out for legalizing marijuana is Jewish. What the Christ is the matter with the Jews, Bob? What is the matter with them? I suppose it is because most of them are psychiatrists."

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Northern California, he says, has gotten so "faggy" that "I won't shake hands with anybody from San Francisco."

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re: the sitcom, All in the Family:

"Archie is sitting here with his hippie son-in-law, married to the screwball daughter. . . . The son-in-law apparently goes both ways."

Another character in the show, Nixon reports, is "obviously queer. He wears an ascot, and so forth."

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"I don't want to see this country to go that way. You know what happened to the Greeks. Homosexuality destroyed them. Sure, Aristotle was a homo, we all know that, so was Socrates."

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"Do you know what happened to the Romans? The last six Roman emperors were fags. . . . You know what happened to the popes? It's all right that popes were laying the nuns."

"That's been going on for years, centuries, but when the popes, when the Catholic Church went to hell in, I don't know, three or four centuries ago, it was homosexual. . . .Now, that's what happened to Britain, it happened earlier toFrance. And let's look at the strong societies. The Russians. Goddamn it, they root them out, they don't let 'em hang around at all. You know what I mean? I don't know what they do with them."

"Dope? Do you think the Russians allow dope? Hell no. Not if they can catch it, they send them up. You see, homosexuality, dope, uh, immorality in general: These are the enemies of strong societies. That's why the Communists and the left-wingers are pushing it. They're trying to destroy us."

Attack of the Chickenhawks

Over the last couple of days I have noticed an explosion of web interest in the mysterious phenomenon of known physical cowards in high places who somehow find a blustery bravery while crouching behind the teenage sons and daughters of others. I'm of course referring to our draft-dodging Republican leadership. I am routinely (as in every election cycle and every military action) amazed that this scandal doesn't cause the right wing at the least to be exiled from power, if not to die in a spectacular implosion from the weight of their own contradictions. However this issue is finally getting more attention than just beery me haranguing my war loving friends about the hypocrisy of the current regime. And the present examination is demonstrating that these aren't a couple of isolated instances, rather these cases betray an epidemic pathological narcissism in the once and future ruling class.

Hall of Shame

Another list of traitors

Yet another compendium of cowards

An insane Tom Delay's excuse:

So many minority youths had volunteered for the well-paying military positions to escape poverty and the ghetto that there was literally no room for patriotic folks like himself.

Tom Tomorrow asks:

I'd be curious to get some feedback on this from those of you in uniform. Are the men and women you serve with in any way troubled by this-- that so many of the politicians who are so eager to send you into harm's way did everything possible to avoid risking their own lives during the conflicts of their youth?

Well, I myself never served (too young for Vietnam, too old for everything else, whew) but my father spent most of his life in the Army. He was the one who alerted me to this problem during the reign of Bush I, specifically citing then Secretary of Defense Cheney as uniquely unqualified for his position and noting his comment that he "had other priorities" was particularly offensive. Many of those who were drafted surely had things on their to-do list ahead of "miserable jungle death". My dad was also incensed at a comment by Newt Gingrich that since he had two small children, it would have been "insane" for him to go to Vietnam. My dad had two small children and a pregnant wife at that time. And he volunteered. For combat. Twice. Dad's problem with this issue wasn't personal though, he was a career officer who had made a choice to be where he was. His problem was with the children of elites finding easy routes out of harm's way, while the poor and politically disenfranchised were being shot at daily in a struggle of dubious import to the security of the nation. He knew this contributed in no small measure to the legitimate opposition to the war on the homefront and a thouroughly demoralized corps on the real front. In his eyes, the galling ethical duality of people like Cheney, Bush, Quayle, Gingrich et. al. is staggering. They putatively supported the Vietnam war, and now seize every martial opportunity that comes their way, rendering their own combat avoidance pure cowardice and hubris. My dad would contrast these men with the political opponents of the war, many of whom were imprisoned, whose refusals to serve were acts of conscience and yes courage. Of course, this is all anecdotal narrative of one admittedly maverick soldier and doesn't demonstrate any breadth of resentment in the armed forces and hardly answers Tom's question. But I can't help but think that if this scandal was given the relentless media blitzkrieg that Oval Office blow jobs received then the American people would come to realize how truly unfit is the present leadership of this nation.

US to export raw material for global torture industry

The US has been secretly sending prisoners suspected of al-Qaida connections to countries where torture during interrogation is legal, according to US diplomatic and intelligence sources. Prisoners moved to such countries as Egypt and Jordan can be subjected to torture and threats to their families to extract information sought by the US in the wake of the September 11 attacks.

The normal extradition procedures have been bypassed in the transportation of dozens of prisoners suspected of terrorist connections, according to a report in the Washington Post. The suspects have been taken to countries where the CIA has close ties with the local intelligence services and where torture is permitted.

According to the report, US intelligence agents have been involved in a number of interrogations. A CIA spokesman yesterday said the agency had no comment on the allegations. A state department spokesman said the US had been "working very closely with other countries - It's a global fight against terrorism".

"After September 11, these sorts of movements have been occurring all the time," a US diplomat told the Washington Post. "It allows us to get information from terrorists in a way we can't do on US soil."

"It allows us to get information from terrorists in a way we can't do on US soil." There's a reason you can't get information that way on US soil, dipshit. Changing the venue of this practice does not change its morality or lack thereof.

Bush watches Army "exercises"

When I first saw this story in my local paper I read the headline and skipped it thinking that the President was watching routine Red team v. Blue team stuff. However, the "enemy" in these maneuvers were anti-American street demonstrators:

Kicking up dust amid the explosions and commotion, an MH-6 "Little Bird" helicopter fired blanks into the crowd that shook sticks at Bush and chanted "Go home U.S.A.! Go home U.S.A.!"

As Bush watched, special forces went room-to-room in an adjacent building using explosives and machine guns to root out rioters where they hid. Army Rangers kept watch from nearby rooftops, and a refueling plane passed overhead, its gas lines tethered to two helicopter.

After about 15 minutes, Bush radioed to the commander that the battle was over. Bodies and shells littered the ground as silence fell over "Pineland."

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You've probably noticed the sporadic nature of reporting on the Westerby Report of late. There exist a multitude of reasons for my negligence in attention. A major one is lack of time due to work. This reason should evaporate in a few short weeks. However there still exists another reason that has borne on the productivity of this journal in the past and which may or may not in the future. Jerry Westerby (a psuedonym, for anyone who hasn't read the critically underappreciated, John LeCarre, chosen because it is uniquely appropriate to my background) is converting to the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church. Yes, after a Protestant childhood followed by decades of atheism, and recent months of intellectual struggle, I've been converted by an intense study of Ignatius of Loyola, Origen, Jacques Maritain, Gabriel Marcel, Leon Bloy, Charles Peguy, Gustavo Gutierrez, Leonardo Boff, and Walker Percy among many others to numerous to mention (and as well as, interestingly, the Nag Hammadi writings and the Kabbalah). It should be noted that despite my recovered faith, I will take my place as a dissident within the Church, possibly a heretic, maybe even (dare I dream?) an excommunicate. But at least I will no longer be an apostate. Anyway, regarding this weblog: when this report continues, its politics will remain unchanged. On that I confidently swear. Actually the politics will probably be more vigorously leftist and the rhetoric much more shrill, maybe even apocalyptic, now that God is on my side and He will smite morally corrupt governments collaborating with evildoing capitalists to enslave our brothers born with Adam.... Excuse me. Despite the above, the purpose of this post is not to make a public confession of faith, but to explain my dereliction and to thank the loyal readers who keep visiting daily despite the lack of new content. I shall soon return.

Irish protest Henry Kissinger as war criminal

Former US Secretary of State Dr Henry Kissinger denied he was a war criminal yesterday, saying it was an insult to human intelligence for protesters in Cork to compare him to Slobodan Milosevic.

I have to agree. The parochial thug Milosevic cannot be compared to the monstrous Kissinger and his global reign of terror.

Curtis White on Paul Virilio on the permanent and Pure War

Beyond Total War is Pure War. In Pure War the state is on an implicit war footing even in times of "peace." (I suppose we know this condition best as the Cold War.) Technology, the media, industrial production, the economy and certainly politics are first about a war so diffuse and ubiquitous that few people even recognize it for what it is.

Hence, the trompe l'oeil in our current situation is the appearance that the hot war in Afghanistan is categorically different from the "peace" which preceded it. This, of course, means that we are asked to believe that we are still citizens of the nineteenth century and that our campaign against Afghanistan is purely tactical. This is a description of a poverty of imagination with the most dire consequences because it commits us to continue on a course that all but assures that there will be future terrorist tragedies on our own ground.

Perhaps the most frightening aspect of this situation is the near dead certainty that not only are our middleclass flag wavers living in utter misrecognition, but it is likely that the leaders of our country (from George II to Teddy K) are every bit as deluded and, moreover, impotent. Randy Hayes of the Rainforest Action Network once told me of a talk he had with the uber-CEO of the Mitsubishi Company. Hayes said he was able to convince this CEO that Mitsubishi's program of global devastation for short-term profit was not in the long-term interest of either the planet or the company. Hayes achieved this moment of clarity only to have it followed by a far larger and more monstrous clarity for both himself and the Mitsubishi head: Mr. Mitsubishi had no idea how to change the practices of the company because the logic that drove the company was both systemic and autonomous. This system at which even CEOs must look with apocalyptic horror is part of the ecology of Pure War and is not available for political discussion, let alone democratic debate. In short, it is not responsive to the will or the interests of the human beings living within it. Virilio calls this situation the "State as Destiny."

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