not watching television

Legitimizing horror . . .

Via American Leftist comes a link to article in the New England Journal of American Medicine.
on the parts played by medical professionals in the atrosities carried out against prisoners at Abu Ghraib. Citing the failures of medical personnel to report the injuries and perhaps deaths that resulted from torture at Abu Ghraib and elsewhere, author Rober J. Lifton, MD, suggests that:

Even without directly participating in the abuse, doctors may have become socialized to an environment of torture and by virtue of their medical authority helped sustain it. In studying various forms of medical abuse, I have found that the participation of doctors can confer an aura of legitimacy and can even create an illusion of therapy and healing.

And then goes on to write about this socialization process under the Nazi regime:

The Nazis provided the most extreme example of doctors' becoming socialized to atrocity.4 In addition to cruel medical experiments, many Nazi doctors, as part of military units, were directly involved in killing. To reach that point, they underwent a sequence of socialization: first to the medical profession, always a self-protective guild; then to the military, where they adapted to the requirements of command; and finally to camps such as Auschwitz, where adaptation included assuming leadership roles in the existing death factory. The great majority of these doctors were ordinary people who had killed no one before joining murderous Nazi institutions. They were corruptible and certainly responsible for what they did, but they became murderers mainly in atrocity-producing settings.

I think it's unreasonable to assume that a similar socializing process could never -- by either design or accident -- lead Americans trusted with the healing arts to commit equally abhorrant acts with impunity.

When I read that the ersatz president's latest rhetorical flourish on the stump is "we are turning the corner, and we're not turning back", I can't help but think of that "light at the end of the tunnel" in Vietnam; how once again we're entering the heart of darkness as yet another "big fools says to push on."

(Click pic for info about Ohio Democratic campaigns)

Phone canvassing for ACT yesterday at the SEIU Local 1199 union hall in Columbus yesterday was fascinating. I now have greater sympathy for phone solicitors everywhere, having learned first-hand how the computerized dialing/connecting system can cause those clicks and dead air sounds when you answer a ring from a dialing center in your home.

But the really fascinating part was getting to talk with so many interesting folks. We were making follow-up calls to a mailing ACT sent to voters 62-and-older to let them know they can request an absentee ballot this year and vote from the comfort of their own homes.

I have no idea how many calls I made, but, with few exceptions, the folks I talked to were very patient with me, even during the dinner hour. I was able to give my entire to schpiel to well over half the people I called. And that in spite of the fact that around a quarter of them were experienced poll workers and knew all about the absentee-ballot process! When one woman told me that after listening to my entire script, I said, "Oh, you should have cut me off so I didn't waste your time." But she just laughed and told me I was doing a great job and she didn't want to interrupt!

While I spoke with a lot of folks who appreciated the mailing and said they planned to request an absentee ballot to make sure they cast their votes this year, many, many more told me that they look forward to going to the polls to cast their vote. Most of them said the polling place was nearby, that they enjoyed the walk and the chance to see and talk with neighbors once they got there.

One man said he has to walk to the polls so he can urge other folks on his street to vote along with him; a woman told me she couldn't use an absentee ballot because if her neighbors didn't see her at the polls that day they'd think she didn't care enough to vote. By the end of the evening it was clear to me that down around Dayton-Springfield folks take voting seriously, both as individuals and as members of their communities.

Toward the end of my shift I even talked to a man who'd just returned from the convention in Boston. Needless to say, he knew more about everything -- including ACT and VIP, another get-out-the-vote campaign -- than I did. So we just compared stories about watching the convention on tv and actually being part of it inside the FleetCenter hall . . .

After talking to so many wonderful people, the 50-mile drive home didn't seem bad at all. Tomorrow we're driving over to Zanesville to greet the Kerry/Edwards bus caravan; gotta let the candidates know how hard Ohio's working to turn blue . . . .

Rush to Judment . . .

I'm nowhere near finished with the 9/11 report, but I know I'm not comfortable with these Congressional panels set up to review the commission's intelligence recommendations and act on the quick in the midst of a heated campaign season. Here's Matt Yglesias commenting at TAPP on the hurriedly assembled Senate hearings and Bush administration intent to enact commission recommendations by executive fiat:

This from an article called "Quick Fixes on Intelligence Considered." But we don't need quick fixes on intelligence, and we certainly don't need steps that "will relieve political pressure" on the administration. We could use intelligence reforms that, you know, actually work and make the country better. Can't they at least appoint some aides who will pretend that the president cares more about national security than about getting re-elected?

Doesn't anyone inside government remember what BushCo's politically rushed judgments have already cost us all?

Gettin' busy & thinkin' about things . . .

I'm off shortly to drive 50 miles to do phone canvassing for ACT later today. Up until now I've written little about the convention -- posted a few pics with comments and that's about all -- because I'm still thinkin' about things.

Over the weekend I hope to write something about what this convention, in the context of history, has meant to me. That will take a bit more reflection, and once I've put words into published form it will still be just a starting point. I've no doubt my views and my understanding of the narrative will change as learn more.

But the truly amazing thing right now, at least for me, is that I feel able to pick out a thread of narrative again. . .

Just plain sad . . .

In my previous post I guess you could say I gave last night's start of the Democratic National Convention a rave review. For pathetic contrast (and I mean that, it really is sad), check out this "review" in The Christian Science Monitor.

After reading it I felt compelled to send the following email to poor Jeremy Dauber, the reporter, and his editors at CSM:

Dear Editors:

I really just want to send my condolences to you and reporter Jeremy Dauber. I had no idea, until I read his snide and shallow "review" of the opening night of the Democratic National Convention, that he and your publication had become moribund.

Life is passion, conviction, hard work, wisdom and fun. I'm sorry you missed it.

With sympathy,

CS Hupp

Don't stop . . . thinkin' about tomorrow

What an incredible opening to the Democratic National Convention. No wonder the networks didn't want to broadcast it; the election would for all-extents-and-purposes be over now. There were so many great speeches; I especially loved how Carter took the role as most direct critic of GWB, past and present. The music was great . . . the camera pans of our party, our America . . . the young violinist playing "Amazing Grace" in tribute to the September 11th victims and families, with the hall darkened but for thousands of delegates holding aloft hand-held lights . . . When I wasn't clapping and dancing, I was crying, and lots of times I was doing all three at the same time. Democracy is a life force and it filled the Fleet Center convention hall last night.

I was so stoked when the party ended that I stayed up half the night visiting blogs to share the excitement and casting around for photos and texts of speeches on the Net. Here're some of the pictures I liked best, along with my comments. You can click on some of the pics to link to more information or go here for texts to some of the stirring speeches heard in the convention hall last night.

When Bill came out to the music "Don't Stop Thinkin' About Tomorrow" I actually felt my body growing lighter. The only thing that could have made last night more perfect -- and with Patti LaBelle belting out "Change is Gonna Come" it couldn't get much better -- would have been seeing Bill, Al, Tipper and Hillary arm-in-arm and friendships healed together on the stage.

E-Mergence

(Click pic for more from Reinvented's exclusively-the-convention blog)

Political blogs have surfaced as a real-world phenomenon at the Democratic National Convention. And as Scott Bai's lenghy article in the New York Times Magazine suggests, if the Democratic Party doesn't actively search for ways to merge its traditional methods of operations with the entrepreneurial progressive politics emerging via the internet, it may end up the party no one cares to attend . . .

The Decembrist: Kerry and the Possibility of Greatness

The Decembrist: Kerry and the Possibility of Greatness

http://www.typepad.com/t/trackback/954313

Viv�simo Clustering Engine - 911 Demo

Okay, I'm gonna be reading the 9/11 commission report for the next few days. It's simply too confusing reading all the blog posts out there about it without having read it myself.

One thought, though. I have an instinctively negative reaction to this rush to do something regarding the commission's recommendations -- and have big problems with Kerry jumping on the McCain-Lieberman bandwagon to write the legislation.

I don't favor inaction, just well-thought-out action, something we've seen little of since September 11, 2001. We must take time to digest and debate this report, unlike when we invaded Afghanistan, passed the Patriot Act, and marched mindlessly into war in Iraq.

Bigger breasts offered to U.S. soldiers

Yep, it's true, according to this report linked to by a DeepThought42 over at Eeschaton.

Go read the report, then click this link to read the same DeepThought's follow-up comment . . .

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