ON HUMAN RIGHTS: GW Bush and the Definition of Audacity

Could there be a better definition of audacity: George W. Bush, at the opening of the 62nd session of the United Nations General Assembly, lecturing the world on human rights from the very pulpit he used four and a half years ago to launch his crusade of endless war and human suffering.

This American president, who has become such a mockery that our allies cringe and our adversaries laugh when he addresses them in public forums, has done more to damage, compromise and eviscerate the cause of human rights than any other.

I can only guess it was a cruel prank by a young speechwriter who never imagined the president would take the bait. He framed his address on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations on December 10, 1948.

It has become habit for the president and his neocon controllers to use Orwellian doublespeak at every opportunity, but this was the penultimate abuse of both language and principle. Anyone who is even remotely aware of the contents of that visionary document must despair and cry out: "Hypocrisy! Damnable hypocrisy!"

It is roughly equivalent to John McCain addressing a conference on the virtues of pacifism or Hillary Clinton on the certitude of moral founding.

The president’s citation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights provides an opportunity to review those rights and our government’s record in upholding or obstructing them. In so doing, we must hold America to a standard of leadership for it is that role the president has claimed and the nation should rightly hold.

Mindful that the most common excuse for violations of human rights is security and protection from danger, the preamble of the Declaration refers specifically to "freedom from fear."

Has this government delivered freedom from fear or rather has it delivered fear as an excuse for disregarding freedom? There is more than sufficient evidence that the government has invented danger far more than it has encountered it. On the eve of every election, timed to every revelation of government corruption, fraud or abuse of power, we are presented with a fresh new reminder that terror is lurking behind every corner. In the alleged war against terrorism, we have become a nation of cowering fools.

The preamble also refers to the equal rights of men and women – a reminder that we have not passed the common sense and fundamental Equal Rights Amendment to the constitution. Where was the protest from the White House when the new Federalist Society Supreme Court (Ledbetter v. Goodyear 2007) effectively nullified a woman’s right to equal pay?

George Bush speaks out for the rights of women only when it is convenient to his war plans. Among the stated reasons for bombing Afghanistan back to the Stone Age was the Taliban’s treatment of women. Are the women of Afghanistan better off today and who in the Bush administration cares?

The first article of the Declaration states that "all human beings are born free and equal in dignity" and that they should "act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood." Did we act in the spirit of brotherhood when we divided the world into us and them? Did we act in goodwill when we christened the doctrine of aggressive war on an innocent people with "Shock and Awe"?

Article two of the Declaration declares the universal entitlement of rights "without distinction…of race, color, sex, language, religion [or] political…opinion." Did the Bush operatives act without distinction of race and political opinion when they disenfranchised thousands of predominantly black voters in Florida and Ohio?

Article three states simply: "Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person." The Bush administration fails on all counts, denying life to tens of thousands of innocent civilians in unwarranted wars for corporate greed, denying liberty without recourse to countless individuals caught in a war zone, and denying the right of privacy to millions with unwarranted eavesdropping in direct violation of federal law.

Article 5 is a blanket prohibition of torture and "cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment." This government redefined torture as anything that falls short of organ failure. This government gave us Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo Bay and rendition of terrorist suspects to nations that have no reluctance to apply medieval methods of information extraction.

Article 6 acknowledges the universal right to recognition "as a person before the law" while Article 7 provides for "equal protection of the law." On suspicion of terrorist ties, Jose Padilla (an American citizen) was denied habeas corpus and detained until the courts insisted on a legal process. He joined hundreds classified as "unlawful combatants" fully exempted from all legal protections by this government.

Article 8 asserts the right to "effective remedy by competent … tribunals for acts violating fundamental rights." Leave alone "unlawful combatants" and those renditioned to foreign nations, where is the legal recourse for the Iraqi civilians gunned down by the killers of Blackwater USA?

Article 9 prohibits "arbitrary arrest, detention or exile." In the aftermath of 9-11, hundreds if not thousands of American Muslims were rounded up, detained and exiled on minor immigration violations. Since then, under the broad authority of the USA Patriot Act, countless others have suffered a similar fate.

Article 10 requires "a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal." The proceedings at Guantanamo Bay were neither fair nor public and the Justice Department has only made adjustments to appease or circumvent the courts.

Article 11 upholds the presumption of innocence – a presumption summarily denied all detainees.

Article 12 offers protection from "arbitrary interference with…privacy, family, home or correspondence." We have no idea how many people were effected by the president’s willful violation of FISA statutes prohibiting eavesdropping on American citizens – even those who dare send email overseas – without a warrant or judicial review.

Article 18 asserts "freedom of thought, conscience and religion." While no government can ban a thought, when officials decry dissent as treachery, even to the point of accusing antiwar activists of aiding the enemy, the intent is clearly to silence dissent and provide the citizenry with dictates of acceptable thought.

Article 19 upholds "freedom of opinion and expression" and the right to "impart information and ideas through any media." Journalists have been killed, professors have been harassed and Al Jazeera (CNN of the Middle East) was bombed in Afghanistan and banned in Iraq for trying to exercise this right. The American war machine decided early on that the only acceptable media was the imbedded kind.

Article 20 proclaims the right to freedom of assembly. That right was abridged at the 2004 Republican National Convention in New York City when hundreds of protesters were rounded up and caged in an abandoned warehouse for the length of the proceedings. Similar acts of abridgement have followed while the media asserted its right to ignore the offense.

Article 21 is an assertion of the right of the people to democratic government: "The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government." The mastery of Karl Rove was his orchestrated betrayal of democracy in Florida 2000 and Ohio 2004 – mass disenfranchisement and electronic fraud. The expressed will of the people to end the Iraq War in the 2006 election was summarily ignored.

International policy has been to pay lip service to democracy while opposing it where it opposes America’s designs (Venezuela, Palestine) and supporting dictators like Pakistan’s Musharraf when it is convenient.

Articles 23 and 24 assert the rights of labor, including the right to decent working conditions, living wages, reasonable working hours, the right to form unions and equal pay for equal work. This administration, in concert with the nominal party of opposition, has done all it could to destroy labor by promoting anti-labor laws and "free trade" globalization.

Article 25 addresses medical care and social services while Article 26 asserts the right to education, including the right to higher education on the basis of merit. We are all aware of the state of medical care in America and we remember a time in this nation when even the poor could find a way to a college education. Now, higher education is the privilege of the anointed class.

Article 27 addresses the right to "share in scientific advancement." Consider the two tiers of quality health care and the federal blockade on stem cell research. Clearly, the Bush administration does not support science and is even less interested in giving the benefits of science to the underprivileged.

Article 28 declares the right to "social and international order." What president in history has done more to create chaos in international order?

Article 30 states that nothing in the Declaration should be interpreted to justify "any act aimed at the destruction of any of the rights and freedoms set forth herein."

That is precisely what the president did when he launched his wars of aggression in the names of democracy and human rights.

By my count, this president has done immeasurable harm to 22 of 30 articles enumerated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and has done little or nothing to advance any others. That is not a record that entitles him to lecture the world. That is in fact compelling evidence that he has lost all sense of himself and his actions as Chief Executive. If the president were a ship’s captain, his officers and sailors would be obliged to mutiny.

In short, George W. Bush will leave behind an appalling legacy on human rights and his successors will be charged with removing the stain of his record and the stench of his hypocrisy for generations to come.

Jazz.

JACK RANDOM IS THE AUTHOR OF THE JAZZMAN CHRONICLES (CROW DOG PRESS) AND GHOST DANCE INSURRECTION (DRY BONES PRESS). THE CHRONICLES HAVE BEEN POSTED ON THE ALBION MONITOR, PACIFIC FREE PRESS, BUZZLE.COM, COUNTERPUNCH AND DISSIDENT VOICE. SEE WWW.JAZZMANCHRONICLES.BLOGSPOT.COM.