Michael Capuano is my congressman. He does not make me yearn for Joe Kennedy to return. That's the plus side.
He is now running for the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senator, that is, for Teddy's seat. He is not the favorite. But neither is my candidate, Alan Khazei, an honest-to-God community organizer who co-founded City Year. The favorite in the polls is the Massachusetts attorney general, Martha Coakley, who is long on seniority in public office and a woman with common sense, sound political judgment, true rather than hyperbolic liberal values. At the same time, Khazei would bring a seasoned but fresh look at the Commonwealth's politics in its interface with the national government. Sort of like Barney Frank. Khazei would also be a new kind of mind in the Senate.
Before he was elected to the House of Representatives, Capuano was mayor of Somerville, a town nearly as diverse, skin-wise, as the United Nations. Maybe that's where he got his yen for foreign policy.
And right now he is trying to separate himself and his colleagues on the House Sudan Caucus from the Obama administration's new policy and new top staffer aimed to stop the misery in Darfur. Separate himself at least for campaign reasons. A letter from Capuano appears in Friday's Boston Globe. Read it closely. It wants you to think that the Caucus has been in existence for a long time. It hasn't. It's been around maybe, two weeks.
But its distancing itself from the new policy and new aide, Scott Gration, is also so hedged and deferential that the letter actually asks for nothing. The Obami have been oozing themselves into an appeasement policy for Sudan for almost the entire time they've been in office. We've been commenting on this continually. Let's face facts: nobody in Washington really cares about dead black children and adults, especially those murdered and persecuted by Arabs. Not the black caucus, not even a black president. So why should Michael Capuano be held to a higher standard? But, then, why doesn't he stop pretending?
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COMMENTS (10)
This mishmash post is a marriage of opaque thinking and poor writing. I don't get it. First, I gather that Capuano might be Marty's third choice for the Senate nomination, behind the admirable Khazei (running at 4%) and the solid Coakley (the favorite and likely winner). Second, Marty excoriates the Obama Administration for cynicism and neglect of Darfur's blacks. Third, in one sentence he both defends Capuano against being unfairly singled out and knocks him for pretending to be better on the issue than the Administration.
This post IMHO constitutes reader abuse. Marty, I think you can do better. A lot better.
This mishmash post is a marriage of opaque thinking and poor writing. I don't get it. First, I gather that Capuano might be Marty's third choice for the Senate nomination, behind the admirable Khazei (running at 4%) and the solid Coakley (the favorite and likely winner). Second, Marty excoriates the Obama Administration for cynicism and neglect of Darfur's blacks. Third, in one sentence he both defends Capuano against being unfairly singled out and knocks him for pretending to be better on the issue than the Administration.
This post IMHO constitutes reader abuse. Marty, I think you can do better. A lot better.
Yes, JackR I didn't get the post either.
I watched the debate of the Senatorial candidates in my home State and came away with the impression that they were all short on international experience. I certainly wasn't impressed by Alan Khazei.
If I had to decide today my vote would probably go to Martha Coakley.
But there is still a month to go in this primary election and some other cadidate may surprise me.
Yes, JackR I didn't get the post either.
I watched the debate of the Senatorial candidates in my home State and came away with the impression that they were all short on international experience. I certainly wasn't impressed by Alan Khazei.
If I had to decide today my vote would probably go to Martha Coakley.
But there is still a month to go in this primary election and some other cadidate may surprise me.
"...The Obami have been oozing themselves into an appeasement policy for Sudan for almost the entire time they've been in office..."
Obami? Interesting turn of phrase.
"...The Obami have been oozing themselves into an appeasement policy for Sudan for almost the entire time they've been in office..."
Obami? Interesting turn of phrase.
"Obami"
It seems like Obama has acquire the plural status of an acient classical hero.
"Obami"
It seems like Obama has acquire the plural status of an acient classical hero.
MP:
Let's face facts: nobody in Washington really cares about dead black children and adults, especially those murdered and persecuted by Arabs.
george:
Or, to rephrase it, "let's face it nobody in Washington really cares about dead Palestinian children....especially those murdered by the Israeli government."
Congress will in fact be confirming that soon.
I suspect that in a parallel universe, one where Arabs did not figure into the tragedy in Sudan, Marty Peretz would respond to a parallel Darfur with, "Darfur? Never heard of it."
george
MP:
Let's face facts: nobody in Washington really cares about dead black children and adults, especially those murdered and persecuted by Arabs.
george:
Or, to rephrase it, "let's face it nobody in Washington really cares about dead Palestinian children....especially those murdered by the Israeli government."
Congress will in fact be confirming that soon.
I suspect that in a parallel universe, one where Arabs did not figure into the tragedy in Sudan, Marty Peretz would respond to a parallel Darfur with, "Darfur? Never heard of it."
george
The comparison between the Arab Israeli conflict with the tens of thousands of casualties on both sides to the Darfur massacres with its hundreds of thousands of dead is obscene. Only a Jew hating loony like Walton would come up with something like that.
I suspect that even the bizarre Walton knows how stupid his comparison is, but like the good little nazi that he is he thinks it’s funny to taunt Jews.
The comparison between the Arab Israeli conflict with the tens of thousands of casualties on both sides to the Darfur massacres with its hundreds of thousands of dead is obscene. Only a Jew hating loony like Walton would come up with something like that.
I suspect that even the bizarre Walton knows how stupid his comparison is, but like the good little nazi that he is he thinks it’s funny to taunt Jews.
"Or, to rephrase it, "let's face it nobody in Washington really cares about dead Palestinian children....especially those murdered by the Israeli government."
___________
Oslo-Based Palestinian Writer Ahmad Abu Matar: Why Do Arab Nationalists Demand the Liberation of Palestine If They Gave Up on Other Occupied Regions?
Following are excerpts from a TV debate with Oslo-based Palestinian author Dr. Ahmad Abu Matar and former head of the Arab Writers Union 'Ali 'Oqla 'Orsan. The debate aired on Al-Jazeera TV on July 22, 2008:
To view this clip, visit http://www.memritv.org/clip/en/1827.htm.
Ahma ... view full comment
"Or, to rephrase it, "let's face it nobody in Washington really cares about dead Palestinian children....especially those murdered by the Israeli government."
___________
Oslo-Based Palestinian Writer Ahmad Abu Matar: Why Do Arab Nationalists Demand the Liberation of Palestine If They Gave Up on Other Occupied Regions?
Following are excerpts from a TV debate with Oslo-based Palestinian author Dr. Ahmad Abu Matar and former head of the Arab Writers Union 'Ali 'Oqla 'Orsan. The debate aired on Al-Jazeera TV on July 22, 2008:
To view this clip, visit http://www.memritv.org/clip/en/1827.htm.
Ahmad Abu Matar: "Where are all the masses with regard to the Alexandretta province, which was occupied 80 years ago?! When the Turkish-Syrian border was demarcated a few years ago, any mention of the occupied Alexandretta province was erased from the Syrian curricula - from elementary school to university.
[...]
"They have forgotten all about occupied Al-Ahwaz, the Alexandretta province, and about Sabta and Malila. Who is against normalization? The resistance and Hamas, you say? Examine this shameful paradox - several months ago, Hamas would launch 'decorative' missiles, and would accuse the Palestinian Authority of Mahmoud Abbas of oppressing resistance fighters. Now, for the past two or three months, Hamas has given normalization a cute nickname - tahdiya - which sounds slightly nicer than 'normalization,' and it began to arrest people who launched missiles. What is this paradox?"
[...]
'Ali 'Oqla 'Orsan: "A people that participates in a campaign on the scale of the Arab-Zionist conflict and whose land is occupied cannot open a second front in Alexandretta or anywhere else. This does not mean that it has forgotten its rights, but that it would be crazy to open several fronts simultaneously all over the world. We learned this lesson painfully in 1967, when our army fought both in the south and in the north. We must not live in delusions."
[...]
Ahmad Abu Matar: "My colleague, Dr. 'Ali 'Oqla 'Orsan, said, regarding the question of why we have forgotten Alexandretta, that it is all a question of priorities. To be honest, I do not understand these priorities. Alexandretta was occupied in 1936, and we have forgotten about it, and Al-Ahwaz was occupied in 1925, and we have forgotten about it. Palestine was occupied in 1948 - so what are the priorities? Do you want to liberate the first region to fall, or the last? If you want to start with the last region - go ahead and issue just one statement about the UAE islands occupied by Iran. This proves that there is a defect in the thinking of the anti-normalization committees."
http://www.memri.org/bin/latestnews.cgi?ID=SD201708
______________
"In an August 6, 2008 column in the UAE daily Al-Ittihad, Dr. 'Abd Al-Hamid Al-Ansari, former dean of Islamic law at the University of Qatar and prominent liberal intellectual, attacked the Arab lawyers' unions for defending oppressors like Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir and Iraqi president Saddam Hussein while ignoring their victims in Darfur and Halabja.
"The excuses and justifications offered today in defense of Al-Bashir and his policies are [the same as] those offered in defense of Saddam and his escapades, all of which were in vain. They repeat the same canned excuses, such as 'the politicization of standards of justice,' 'judging by a double standard,' 'justice biased against the Arabs,' 'selectivity,' and 'the service of American schemes.' The most recent of these accusations was expressed by one reader in Al-Ittihad, who said: 'What kind of international justice is this, that holds [Sudan] to account for a domestic crisis in Darfur that has lasted less than five years, while continuing its policy of turning a blind eye to the most heinous crimes in Palestine, which have lasted for 50 years?'
"It is their right to defend Al-Bashir as they defended Saddam. And it is their right to demand universal international criminal standards and that they be applied in the case of anyone suspected of perpetrating similar crimes, as Dr. Saad Eddin Ibrahim says. But what these people always try to ignore is the victims.
"We will not be hearing the voice of the Lawyers' Union, which mobilized to defend accused presidents, [speaking out] for the weak and the marginalized. ... It is the victims of Darfur and the millions of the crushed and pulverized who are most in need of the legal support of masses of lawyers."
"... 300,000 people were killed in Darfur, and ... two million fled their homes after their villages were destroyed by the Sudan-backed Arab Janjaweed militias. Who is for them? Who is for the widows? Who is for the orphans? Who is for the displaced?
"These victims are all Muslims, and their only offense is that they are not Arab, the ethnicity of their rulers! If they find no support among those who are supposed to defend rights and help the weak, then to whom can they turn for shelter and protection? Is the international community to be accused if it intervenes to extend a helping hand?
"For five bloody years, the people of Darfur have been ruined and expelled, and the satellite television channels have broadcast horrific scenes that tormented the hearts of the world and make their consciences bleed - except for the Arab conscience, which was on vacation, and except for their [Arab] League, which remained comatose, and except for their media, which neglected to cover and broadcast the facts. "
http://www.memri.org/bin/latestnews.cgi?ID=SD203508
George prooves it's not onlycertain Israel supporters willing to pimp a genocide for their political agenda. The fact is that the Darfur refugee camps receive considerably less in aid than the Occupied Territories, and the disparity between the West Bank and the camps is particularly stark. George inadvertently makes Alan Dershowitz' argument: that the world is teaching the oppressed and impoverished they'll do better with terrorism than peaceful resistance.
George prooves it's not onlycertain Israel supporters willing to pimp a genocide for their political agenda. The fact is that the Darfur refugee camps receive considerably less in aid than the Occupied Territories, and the disparity between the West Bank and the camps is particularly stark. George inadvertently makes Alan Dershowitz' argument: that the world is teaching the oppressed and impoverished they'll do better with terrorism than peaceful resistance.
marty is a little sexist with this post, what about the female Obamae?
I remember Derbyshire at the National Review wrote a column expressing his relief that when an Egyptian ferryboat sank killing everyone on board that there were no (white) Europeans or Americans aboard. He then congratulated himself on his honesty of acknowledging his utter lack of caring.
There is nothing anywhere close to any broad spread sentiment to do anything substantial about Darfur. So yes, Marty is right Americans don't care about dead black children, nor do they care about dead brown ones, nor dead asian ones, so if he is aware of this then why lament the non-actions of the politicians who are simply following the ... view full comment
marty is a little sexist with this post, what about the female Obamae?
I remember Derbyshire at the National Review wrote a column expressing his relief that when an Egyptian ferryboat sank killing everyone on board that there were no (white) Europeans or Americans aboard. He then congratulated himself on his honesty of acknowledging his utter lack of caring.
There is nothing anywhere close to any broad spread sentiment to do anything substantial about Darfur. So yes, Marty is right Americans don't care about dead black children, nor do they care about dead brown ones, nor dead asian ones, so if he is aware of this then why lament the non-actions of the politicians who are simply following the will of the American people?
I know this might sound harsh, but sometimes righteous indignation in the face of certain non-action has an element of self-affirmation to it. This has been going on and on for years and the needle hasn't moved an inch. Since I am not going to do something myself about this (ie. join an aid group in Africa, smuggle weapons to the rebels) I see no reason to bang my head against the wall in useless caring.
Besides, I have enough cares. A neighbor child and a classmate of my son has the H1N1 virus, there is no vaccine available here yet, the economy is in the toilet, and there are plenty of financial worries.
Lymon, sorry but no, Dershowitz was wrong. For one, not everyone who takes up arms against oppression is a terrorist. As to true terrorism, no one anywhere (in the US) care about the Maoist terrorists in in the eastern state of Chattisgarh of India, nor do they care about the ones in Nepal (not even the Chinese) and the Shining path was a miserable failure. And I find the notion a bit disturbing that unless and until Americans care about something it really isn't important. America didn't care about the indigenous uprising in Chiapas last decade, but Mexico did. What is interesting is a lot of the "reforms" they laid out in allowing the indigenous more self rule has had a very negative impact on the women and the children in these communities. But this is a digression.
Many members of the Massachusetts Coalition to Save Darfur were upset by the inaccuracies and unfounded criticism contained in this blogpost by TNR editor-in chief Marty Peretz.
As Congressman to many of us and an active supporter of our work at both the Massachusetts Coalition to Save Darfur and Investors Against Genocide, Congressman Mike Capuano had been a leading voice in Congress for the people of Darfur. Involved in the issue since 2002, Congressman Capuano co-founded the Congressional Caucus on Sudan in October 2005 – not two weeks ago as Mr. Peretz incorrectly asserts. Since then he has travelled to Sudan and authored several pieces of legislation which have helped save countles ... view full comment
Many members of the Massachusetts Coalition to Save Darfur were upset by the inaccuracies and unfounded criticism contained in this blogpost by TNR editor-in chief Marty Peretz.
As Congressman to many of us and an active supporter of our work at both the Massachusetts Coalition to Save Darfur and Investors Against Genocide, Congressman Mike Capuano had been a leading voice in Congress for the people of Darfur. Involved in the issue since 2002, Congressman Capuano co-founded the Congressional Caucus on Sudan in October 2005 – not two weeks ago as Mr. Peretz incorrectly asserts. Since then he has travelled to Sudan and authored several pieces of legislation which have helped save countless lives and promote peace in the region. He has brought courage, compassion and commitment to his role as a champion of human rights in Sudan.
In his recent letter to the Editor in the Boston Globe regarding the Obama Administration’s new Sudan policy, the Congressman states, “It is not unreasonable to seek progress through greater dialogue, but experience has taught us that Khartoum must be made to understand that evasion or inaction will be met with grave consequences.”
We strongly agree with the Congressman that while the Administration’s policy looks good on paper, the true measure of its effectiveness will depend on its implementation. The Government of Sudan must be held accountable for its behavior. We are glad that Congressman Capuano, together with others in Congress who have long sought to end genocide in Darfur and enforce the peace treaty with the south, “will remain vigilant” on this issue.
As residents of Massachusetts, we are proud of Congressman Capuano’s leadership on Darfur and look forward to continuing our work with him and his office in the crucial months ahead.
Sincerely,
Susan Morgan
Director of Communications
The Massachusetts Coalition to Save Darfur