Goodman - Standing Up to the Madness

Our deepest thanks go to the courageous people whose struggles are the subject of this book. In particular, Malik Rahim, Raed Jarrar, Peter Chase, Janet Nocek, George Christian, Jean Maria Arrigo, Steven Reisner, Stephen Soldz, Bonnie Dickinson and the student cast members of Voices in Conflict, Caseptla Bailey, Robert Bailey, Theo Shaw, Tina Jones, Augustn Aguayo, Ehren Watada, Liam Madden, and Jonathan Hutto were especially generous with their time, and trusted us to tell their stories well. We hope we have done them justice.

We are also grateful to the folks at Hyperion who encouraged us to share these stories. Thanks to editors Leslie Wells and Zareen Jaffery; to Christine Ragasa for getting out the word; and to Will Schwalbe and Bob Miller for having faith.

Thanks as always to our agent Luke Janklow for the magic he works, and to Claire Dippel. And thanks to Anthony Arnove for helping to get our words out across the pond.

We are grateful to those who helped us in our travels and with our ideas. Thanks to Democracy Now! producer Mike Burke for help with book research. Thanks also to Jacquie Soohen and Rick Rowley of Big Noise Films for their invaluable help in Louisiana. A heartfelt thanks to Denis Moynihan for the intelligence and humanity that he brings to everything he does.

Our hats are off to the remarkable team of producers who bring Democracy Now! to the world every day, including Sharif Abdel Kouddous, Anjali Kamat, Jeffrey Hagerman, Robby Karran, Steve Martinez, Aaron Mat, and Nicole Salazar. With their ears tuned to the streets, to the resisters and to the activists, this amazing group of people breaks news that makes a difference, and breaks the silence imposed by the ever-consolidating corporate media. And there would be no Democracy Now! (or later) without Juan Gonzalez, Karen Ranucci, Julie Crosby, Emily Calhoun, Mike Castle-man, Samantha Chamblee, Andres Conteris, Michael Di Filippo, Hugh Gran, Clara Ibarra, Angie Karran, Michael Kimber, Peter Kurys, Hany Massoud, Emma Missouri, Brenda Murad, Miguel Nogueira, Edith Penty, Isis Phillips, Dave Rice, Jeremy Scahill, Chuck Scurich, Silky Shah, Neil Shibata, Rebecca Silver, Becca Staley, Joy Hornung, and Jim Carlson.

Thanks also to Patrick Lannan, Andy Tuch, Laurie Betlach, Randall Wallace, Brenda Coughlin, Diana Cohn, Israel Taub, Irma Weiss, Jon Alpert, and Keiko Tsuno. And thanks to Caren Spruch, Elisabeth Benjamin, Dan Coughlin, and Maria Carrion.

From David: Hugs and thanks to Ariel and Jasper, who allow me time away to research and write, and are the two biggest reasons I always come back. And to Sue Minter, the love of my life, who makes the worldand my worldbetter every day.

From both of us: Thanks to our family, Dan Goodman, Yujin Weng, Steve Goodman, Ruth Levine, and Anna, Sarah, and Eli. As always, the memory of our late father, George Goodman, continues to inspire and guide us. Finally, a heartfelt thanks to our mother, Dorrie Goodman, to whom we dedicate this book. No writers could have a better editor and cheerleader. And no son and daughter could wish for a wiser and more loving mom.

When fascism comes to America it will be wrapped in the American flag.

This prophetic warning, variously attributed to author Sinclair Lewis and Louisiana governor Huey Long, could have been written about post-9/11 America. Using fear, electoral fraud, and the smokescreen of terrorist attacks, the Bush administration has given us a lesson in how quickly a nation can be hijacked and core tenets of democracy trampled. Who would have imagined that once sacred principles of libertythe right to a fair and timely trial, the checks and balances that keep our political leaders from being dictators, the freedom from arbitrary detention, the international prohibitions against torture and wars of aggressioncould be thrown on the scrap heap so quickly?

President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney have asserted the presidents right to wield virtually unchecked power. They have used the tragedy of 9/11 to implement a radical political agenda, attempting to ram through a right-wing wish list, from gutting social security to delivering tax cuts to the rich, to discarding basic civil liberties. Our government now routinely invades the privacy of its own citizens, then pulls the cloak of national security over its operations to hide its deceptions and blunders from public view. The economy has been trashed, inequality is now at levels not seen since the Great Depression, and at least 5 million more Americans live in poverty than did at the start of the Bush presidency. Many eminent historians and economists are concluding that George W. Bush has earned the distinction of being the worst president ever.

Where is the outrage? The U.S. corporate media and the Democrats complain politely, and then resume their deferential posture to enable the next disaster. The media, so helpful in launching the Iraq War by acting as a conveyor belt for Bush administration lies, has shifted targets and now passes along White House propaganda about Iran.

As for the so-called opposition party that assumed control of Congress following their electoral landslide in November 2006, Democrats have boldly flexed their muscleby rubber-stamping Bushs war on the Constitution. In a series of remarkable capitulations in late 2007, the Democratic majority in Congress approved President Bushs request for expanded warrantless wiretapping of Americans, once again cowed by White House propaganda about being soft on terrorism; approved hundreds of billions of dollars in Iraq War funding requests by President Bush; embraced retired Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez by having him deliver the Democratic response to President Bushs weekly address, in spite of the fact that Sanchez has been accused in at least three lawsuits of having authorized the torture of prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison; and approved the nomination of Attorney General Michael Mukasey, despite his refusal to acknowledge that wa

It is business as usual in our one-party state.

The damage to our society that has resulted from the actions and inactions of our political leaders runs deep. Some of the damage can be quantified: thousands of American soldiers killed in a war of choice in Iraq, tens of thousands wounded and maimed, and untold numbers of servicemen and women discarded by their own government and condemned to a lifetime struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder. More than a million Iraqis killed in a pointless and hopeless war and occupation. A great American city destroyed first by Hurricane Katrina, then ravaged by racism and official neglect. Thousands of immigrants rounded up in midnight raids and deported. The list goes on and on.

Then there is the psychic damage done to our society. When the president and vice president champion the use of warrantless spying, detention without trial, and torture as valuable tools for dealing with enemies (which is anyone whom the president so designates), these once reviled practices suddenly become normal. Torture is now an everyday occurrence in the United States. Witness the almost casual use of Taser stun guns, which the UN has deemed to be a form of torture. Bystander videos are routinely posted on YouTube and other Web sites of innocent people being Tasered: In September 2007, police Tasered and arrested 21-year-old journalism major Andrew Meyer at a lecture given by Sen. John Kerry at the University of Florida after the student tried to question Kerry about African-American disenfranchisement in the 2004 presidential elections; a young couple in Brattleboro, Vermont, were Tasered by police while chained to a barrel during a peaceful protest against the construction of a truck stop on a vacant lot in July 2007; UCLA police repeatedly shocked an Iranian-American student with a Taser in November 2006 when he failed to show a student ID as he was using the campus computer lab; and a Utah Highway Patrol officer Tasered a man in September 2007 for refusing to sign a speeding ticket.