Comments on: Showboating for the Prez

By: Have you ever heard of Bagram? / Waging Nonviolence

Have you ever heard of Bagram? / Waging Nonviolence — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 11:40:21 +0000

[...] I joined Witness Against Torture earlier this year to protest torture and unjust detention, people passing by were often confused. Didn’t Obama promise to shut down Guantanamo? And end [...]

By: Have you ever heard of Bagram? | The Row Boat by Nathan Schneider

Have you ever heard of Bagram? | The Row Boat by Nathan Schneider — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 13:27:14 +0000

[...] I joined Witness Against Torture earlier this year to protest torture and unjust detention, people passing by were often confused. Didn’t Obama promise to shut down Guantanamo? And end [...]

By: Nathan

Nathan — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 16:48:46 +0000

Yes, you’re right, it was the Taoiseach. I admit I’m totally new to these strange terms in Irish politics!

By: Henry Bodah

Henry Bodah — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 16:42:58 +0000

A very small cavil: The Irish head of state is the Uachtarain or President, now a she, Mary McAleese, not a he as you wrote in your article.in the Huffington Post.
The head of government, theTaoiseach or Prime Minister, is Brian Cowen; maybe it was he who was whisked by the White House while you were there commendably objecting to the torturing of political prisoners. Keep up the good work.

By: Nathan

Nathan — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 02:43:25 +0000

Quentin, I think that two things brought Obama—and, for that matter, Bush—to power: a tremendous amount of interested money and millions of voters who trusted him. Especially as concerns the prospect of the restructuring of the financial system, we’ve got to tell him who is boss.

By: Quentin Kirk

Quentin Kirk — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 01:53:12 +0000

On second thought most of the good forces mentioned above did not save us in the Bush years. If you could find what forces brought Obama to power, from what seed bed did they begin, perhaps that is where the power is.
And perhaps there is no power, we are drifting.

By: Quentin Kirk

Quentin Kirk — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 01:16:20 +0000

I have a vague uncomfortable feeling that “power” discounts the circus, the letters to congressmen, and letters to the editor. I might even wonder if power actually resides in Washington DC at all but is rather located in our best writers, academicians who speak out and have a following, and famous people who take a stand, and a few good religious leaders who speak to us every week. When things go badly we look to those people and wonder why they did not wake us up.
We never seem to look to congressmen, business leaders, or people of the wealthy class. Occasionally there is a rare, rare exception.

By: Mitchell Schneider

Mitchell Schneider — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 00:39:26 +0000

Terrific article with a rhetorically powerful conclusion. Great work!