Caligula's Horse and the Emperor Dubya's Supreme Court

Summary:

- Caligula's Horse and the Emperor Dubya's Supreme Court
- Who's Tony Blair? Part 1 - 4


Caligula's Horse and the Emperor Dubya's Supreme Court

There is a dispute of whether Emperor Caligula made his horse a senator but it's certain that two thousand years later Emperor Dubya nominated his personal lawyer to the Supreme Court.

New York Democratic Sen. Charles Schumer said, "There's hope that Harriet Miers is a mainstream nominee". I read this comment in the same article where a few seconds earlier I read "a woman who is not a judge and whose views on major issues are largely unknown". (1)

In the same hours, in another palace of Rome... oops... I mean, Washington, DC, the Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr.'s Court was being inaugurated.

Chief Justice Roberts took the chair of his mentor and predecessor, Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist. "It was one month to the day since Chief Justice Rehnquist died. The flags on the court plaza, in fact, were still flying at half staff." (2)

The Empire always honors the best among its gentlemen. "In 1953, when William Rehnquist was a clerk at the Supreme Court and Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were about to be electrocuted at Sing Sing, he wrote a memo saying, 'It is too bad that drawing and quartering has been abolished.'

"Along the way the Rehnquist Court made such notable contributions to the uplift of society as ruling that the Constitution approved the execution of the mentally retarded and the execution of murderous 16-year-olds." (3)

When I met in New York with Curt Goering, Senior Deputy Executive Director of Amnesty International USA, he told me:

"The death penalty in the United States is like a lottery system. It's more a function of race, of politics, of money than it is a function of the severity of the crime. (...) Right now it's about four countries that carry out 90 percent of the world's executions. China is by far the largest offender in this respect. And next are countries like Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the United States. Those are the countries that carry out about 90 percent of the executions in the world today." (4)

Emperor Dubya takes a different view. While George W. Bush was governor of Texas, from 1995 to 2000, his execution chamber was by far the most active in the nation, killing 152 people - more than one prisoner every two weeks.

Maybe it's time to export Democracy and Human Rights to...



Who's Tony Blair? Part 1

"We are united in our determination that our country will not be defeated by such terror but will defeat it and emerge from this horror with our values, our way of life, our tolerance and respect for others, undiminished." (5)

It was 11 July 2005. Proconsul Blair was speaking at the House of Commons after the London bombings.

In the whole speech the word "Iraq" was never mentioned. The official line was (and still is) that the war of aggression against the people of Iraq has nothing to do with the London bombings.

It didn't matter if, poll after poll, more than 70% of people thought that Britain's participation in the Iraq war had made the UK more vulnerable to terrorist attack or if "The report [from The Royal Institute of International Affairs] claims that there is 'no doubt' that the invasion of Iraq has imposed particular difficulties for the UK and for the wider coalition against terrorism. According to the paper, the situation in Iraq has 'given a boost to the Al-Qaeda network's propaganda, recruitment and fundraising', whilst providing an ideal targeting and training area for Al-Qaeda-linked terrorists." (6)

About Proconsul Blair's legacy on "our values, our way of life, our tolerance and respect for others":

"Britain has one of the worst human rights records in Europe and faces investigation over its failure to comply with a series of European court rulings. More than 100 findings have been lodged against Britain to which the Government has not adequately responded, five years after Tony Blair said he had fulfilled his promise to "bring rights home" by implementing the Human Rights Act." (7)

And what about Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib?

"Some of the worst things that happened that you don't know about. OK? Videos. There are women there. Some of you may have read that they were passing letters out, communications out to their men. This is at [Abu Ghraib], which is about 30 miles from Baghdad -- 30 kilometers, maybe, just 20 miles, I'm not sure whether it's -- anyway. The women were passing messages out saying please come and kill me because of what's happened. And basically what happened is that those women who were arrested with young boys, children, in cases that have been [video] recorded, the boys were sodomized, with the cameras rolling, and the worst above all of them is the soundtrack of the boys shrieking. That your government has, and they're in total terror it's going to come out." (8)


Who's Tony Blair? Part 2

Rupert Murdoch, chairman and chief executive of News Corporation (the man behind Fox, The New York Post, The Sun and other delicatessens): "Tony Blair... told me yesterday that he was in Delhi last week and he turned on the BBC World Service to see what was happening in New Orleans, and he said it was just full of hate at America and gloating about our troubles" (9)

"Mr Murdoch revealed Mr Blair's private remark as he took part in a New York seminar hosted by Bill Clinton on Friday night. The former US president also took the BBC to task, saying it was "stacked up" to criticise the federal government's slow response." (10)


Who's Tony Blair? Part 3

"Tony Blair has admitted that he is changing his views on combating global warming to mirror those of President Bush - and oppose negotiating international treaties such as the Kyoto Protocol." (11)


Who's Tony Blair? Part 4

"My case is not important. But what happened to me when I was ejected from the Labour conference - simply for a one-word protest during Jack Straw's speech this week - tells us there is something deeply wrong with the culture of our Government under Tony Blair. (...) Tony Blair is the worst leader the Labour Party has ever had, Ramsay Macdonald included. Mr Blair's instincts are basically those of a Tory. He picked up this cause from the Americans without even analysing it. I suspect that he is too theatrical even to realise that he is lying." (12)

Maybe it's time to export Democracy and Human Rights to...


NOTES:

(1) Bush Picks Insider for High Court, REUTERS, October 3, 2005

(2) A Ceremonial Start to the Session as the Supreme Court Welcomes a New Chief Justice, by Linda Greenhouse, New York Times, October 4, 2005

(3) Death Trip: The American Way of Execution, by Robert Sherrill, The Nation, January 8, 2001

(4) Curt Goering, Senior Deputy Executive Director of Amnesty International USA; "American Voices of Dissent" by Gabriele Zamparini and Lorenzo Meccoli, Paradigm Publishers

(5) Blair House of Commons Statement on London Bombings (11/07/05)

(6) Security, Terrorism and the UK - The Royal Institute of International Affairs, 18 July 2005

(7) Britain in the dock for human rights failures after more than 100 'guilty' judgements filed, By Robert Verkaik, The Independent, October 3, 2005

(8) Seymour Hersh at ACLU Conference "Stand Up for Freedom", 8 July 2004

(9) Blair tells Murdoch: 'gloating' BBC is 'full of hatred for America'. Extraordinary attack on corporation's coverage of New Orleans disaster, by Francis Elliott, The Independent, 18 September 2005

(10) ibidem

(11) Blair falls into line with Bush view on global warming, by Geoffrey Lean and Christopher Silvester, The Independent, 25 September 2005

(12) Walter Wolfgang: 'We have been lied to about the war. I dared to speak the truth', by Walter Wolfgang, The Independent, 30 September 2005


Gabriele Zamparini is an independent filmmaker and freelance writer living in London. He's the producer and director of the documentaries XXI CENTURY and The Peace! DVD and author of American Voices of Dissent (Paradigm Publishers). He can be reached at info@thecatsdream.com