Booman Tribune

AG Mukasey Collapses During Speech

by BooMan
Fri Nov 21st, 2008 at 12:09:24 AM EST

This is terrible news:

Nov. 20 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey collapsed while giving a speech in Washington tonight and was taken to a hospital.

Mukasey, 67, began slurring his words, slumped at the lectern and fell to the floor as he neared the end of a speech to the Federalist Society. Several people gathered around him to offer aid and emergency workers arrived. He was taken to George Washington University Hospital, where Justice Department officials awaited word on his condition.

Members of the audience at his speech, including former Attorney General John Ashcroft, formed a human wall so people could not view Mukasey as he was taken away. A member of the audience offered a prayer for Mukasey from the lectern and told everyone to go home.

Mark Filip is the Deputy Attorney General. I hope that Mukasey recovers and has no lasting difficulties.



Display:
I started to shrug when I read this.  Then I remembered something.  

I am currently on a one year personal leave, that we probably honestly could not financially afford.  Emotionally, I could not afford to not take this leave. My principal for the last 4 years has been a rotten s.o.b who was positively evil to a number of teachers including me.  Unlike the others, I fought back. While all that fighting strengthened my backbone, it weakened my spirit.  I became more shrill and bitter every day.  With every atom in my body, I hated my boss. I was not a better teacher, friend, mother, or wife with all that hatred inside of me.

I certainly feel contempt for the policies that Mr. Mukasey supports. I refuse, however, to allow my own humanity to wither.  I hope he feels better and that this experience brings out a better person.  

Visit me at Tunnel Traveller

by Teacher Toni (tacoralatyahoodotcom) on Fri Nov 21st, 2008 at 10:50:43 AM EST
We express our sympathy to the dead and suffering not because we approve of their actions, but because to do otherwise lowers us to their level and dehumanizes all of us.

"We reported back to hearts what we had seen, and told our footsteps all about where we had been."
by Frank Schnittger (Frankschnittger at hotmail dotty communists) on Fri Nov 21st, 2008 at 11:09:19 AM EST
[ Parent ]
I'm curious, Frank. Do you express your sympathy to everyone who suffers and dies that you know about? I confess I don't. Seems like a tall order.

Will you express sympathy, for example, if somebody finally shoots bin Laden? Did you express sympathy when Pol Pot died or Charley Manson got a life sentence? That would be a noble thing that I can't even imagine happening in my psyche. Any sympathy I expressed for Mukasey would have to come from the same assumptions that led me to sympathize with Pol Pot, Manson, Cheney et al.

All these expressions of sympathy from folks who know what Mukasey and the rest of the Bushies stand for looks to me more like just another extension of celebrity worship: saw him on the TV so he's like one of the family.

FDR's response to progressive demands: "I agree. Now go out and make me do it."

by DaveW on Fri Nov 21st, 2008 at 11:45:23 AM EST
[ Parent ]
I generally express my sympathies to anyone I know reasonably well personally who is mourning a loss or suffering grievously in some way.  I do so regardless of whether I like them or approve of their actions in other matters.  I do not send my sympathies or condolences to people I don't know or who don't know me, as to do so would be pretty meaningless.

I may regret the passing of a prominent leader I don't know personally in any way, but to send my condolences would be pretentious, to say the least, no matter how much I might have admired him/her or felt diminished by their loss.  Equally, condemning Pol Pot on his death seems a little pointless, when a little action earlier might have been more useful to his victims.  

Sometimes we condemn people to absolve us of our own guilt at our own inactivity.  Equally we sometimes praise people to bask in their glory.  A more honest honest assessment would be to take responsibility for our own actions and let others take responsibility for theirs.   If people are opposed to Mukasey's  politics, let them oppose his politics.  Taking pleasure in his illness doesn't advance that agenda one bit, and may, indeed damage the political case against him by creating unwarranted political sympathy for him.

In 1945, Eamonn De Valera, the Irish Prime Minister at the time got into a lot of trouble for sending his condolences to the German Ambassador on the death of Hitler.  He did so in compliance with formal diplomatic protocol at the time where one Head of government always sent his condolences on the death of another.  It did not mean, nor was it intended to, any political sympathy whatsoever. He then got on with the business of trying to lead his country out of the devastation of post war Europe caused, in large part, by Hitler.

Diplomatic protocols, like good manners, exist for a reason.  They don't imply you like people or approve of them.  Indeed they can imply a refusal to be dragged down to the level of your opponents when they don't act in the same way.  Taking pleasure in the suffering of others is a characteristic of many who torture. This is usually rationalised as being necessary for some war effort, but the reality is the information gathered through torture is often worse than useless, and those who use it are demhumanized by the process.  

Please don't join them.  You should feel sorry for Mukasey - whilst retaining your right to condemn his politics and the actions of those he facilitated in their folly.

"We reported back to hearts what we had seen, and told our footsteps all about where we had been."

by Frank Schnittger (Frankschnittger at hotmail dotty communists) on Fri Nov 21st, 2008 at 12:43:07 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Setting aside protocol, when did Mukasey join the ranks of 'worst offenders' of the Bush administration?
by BooMan on Fri Nov 21st, 2008 at 12:12:10 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Latest on CNN is that he is conscious, alert and can talk. nearly 1 am EST
by Heart of the Rockies on Fri Nov 21st, 2008 at 12:48:25 AM EST
That's very positive news.
by BooMan on Fri Nov 21st, 2008 at 01:05:27 AM EST
[ Parent ]
This is terrible news

I guess you've really internalized this "bipartisanship" thing that our leader Obama says is so important.

People collapse all the time. Why should we care any more about Mukasey than about any random Joe? Even the NY Times doesn't care: this barely figures on their Web site.

He was giving a speech to the Federalist Society, for Christ's sake. The Federalist Society! Those are the people who are engaged in a conspiracy to destroy our legal system.

Next thing I know, you'll be saying that Hillary Clinton is a good pick for Secretary of State.

by Alexander on Fri Nov 21st, 2008 at 02:32:14 AM EST
I'm imagining the unbridled glee on any number of conservative sites if, say, Rahm Emanuel collapsed. Kudos for BooMan for not operating at that level. One can be fully partisan and still acknowledge the humanity of one's opponents.

OTOH, it's also terrible news because it makes it that much less likely that Mukasey will ever be indicted for obstruction of justice.

by Geov Parrish on Fri Nov 21st, 2008 at 02:45:19 AM EST
[ Parent ]
One can be fully partisan and still acknowledge the humanity of one's opponents.

Do you know something I don't know? Mukasey thinks torture is a good thing. Where is the humanity in that?

Bloomberg: Charles Manson suffered a stroke this morning.

Booman: This is terrible news.

Think about how that sounds.

How is Mukasey different from Charles Manson? Does he have more "humanity", just because he is part of the power structure and does not do the actual killing himself, but merely empowers those who do?

by Alexander on Fri Nov 21st, 2008 at 07:19:18 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Charles Manson has a swastika tattooed on his forehead. Mukasey just won't investigate and prosecute torturers and lawbreakers. Manson plays guitar and had a song on a Beach Boys album. There's other differences, too.
by Bob In Pacifica on Fri Nov 21st, 2008 at 09:16:44 AM EST
[ Parent ]
"Attorney General Mukasey was roughly twenty minutes into a speech defending the administration's torture policies ..."

If I believed in God, I'd say that was a warning shot.

by obsessed on Fri Nov 21st, 2008 at 03:25:32 AM EST
I've always wondered why these BushCo people weren't struck by lightning every time they spoke...

"Little people are very stuff-intensive."
by CabinGirl on Fri Nov 21st, 2008 at 06:23:00 AM EST
[ Parent ]
hey Boo- is this a "tongue in cheek" post?
  Or is this simply a comment regarding the reaction to the potential loss of another human being?
by billjpa (billjpa@aol.com) on Fri Nov 21st, 2008 at 07:10:31 AM EST
Maybe God just got sick of the torture.

You'll pardon me if I go about my day without giving a shit.

John Mccain Called his wife WHAT??

by brendan on Fri Nov 21st, 2008 at 07:46:05 AM EST
Given what Mukasey's allowed to continue I hope he DOES have lasting difficulties, both here in this world in and in Hell (if such a place exists).

John Mccain Called his wife WHAT??
by brendan on Fri Nov 21st, 2008 at 07:48:02 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Anyone notice that being an Attorney General for W is not a healthy position. John Ashcroft got sick and was hospitalized, Gonzo kept healthy cuz he did whatever W wanted, and Muskasey who just got ill.
by americanforliberty on Fri Nov 21st, 2008 at 08:06:11 AM EST
This is only one of the I don't how many people around the world who collapsed yesterday because of a stroke. Nearly none of them was praising the joys of torture, I'd bet. I don't wish ill of the Attorney General, but I'm certainly not going out of my way to wish him well just because he is a powerful man in the U.S. Obama is going first to smash a foot on all this team of rivals crap before it eventually dissolve into thin air.
by Quentin on Fri Nov 21st, 2008 at 08:46:58 AM EST
     I have no symapthy of any kind to spare for Mr. Mukasey. My sympathy goes to his victims; the innocents who died tortured to death under this godless and perverse White House. Those who langushed under this current admiistration, for years in pain and misery-never to see the light of day before they died screaming.
    He collapsed while defending Bush's policy of torture and unlawful detention-timing is choice. Do people realize how many of the innocent were tortured to death under these policies? Mukasey can kiss my ass. Couldn't care less.

On political conservatives: "I was so shocked I nearly dropped the Bible I was using to help me masturbate into my gun." Bill Maher
by lyvwyr101 (greatbear215@aol.com) on Fri Nov 21st, 2008 at 10:48:07 AM EST
Terrible news?  

 What, some old guy who enables torture had a stroke while whipping up the Party elite?  The world should be so lucky.

Who collapsed in Gitmo today?  Who died in the torture cells in Egypt?  

Have sympathy for those who deserve it -- victims, not enablers.

by John Brown (ruptured_duck@notmail.com) on Fri Nov 21st, 2008 at 11:15:39 AM EST
John Donne, "Devotions upon Emergent Occasions" (1623), XVII: Nunc Lento Sonitu Dicunt, Morieris - "Now, this bell tolling softly for another, says to me: Thou must die."

PERCHANCE he for whom this bell tolls may be so ill, as that he knows not it tolls for him; and perchance I may think myself so much better than I am, as that they who are about me, and see my state, may have caused it to toll for me, and I know not that.
The church is Catholic, universal, so are all her actions; all that she does belongs to all.
When she baptizes a child, that action concerns me; for that child is thereby connected to that body which is my head too, and ingrafted into that body whereof I am a member.
And when she buries a man, that action concerns me: all mankind is of one author, and is one volume; when one man dies, one chapter is not torn out of the book, but translated into a better language; and every chapter must be so translated; God employs several translators; some pieces are translated by age, some by sickness, some by war, some by justice; but God's hand is in every translation, and his hand shall bind up all our scattered leaves again for that library where every book shall lie open to one another.
As therefore the bell that rings to a sermon calls not upon the preacher only, but upon the congregation to come, so this bell calls us all; but how much more me, who am brought so near the door by this sickness.
There was a contention as far as a suit (in which both piety and dignity, religion and estimation, were mingled), which of the religious orders should ring to prayers first in the morning; and it was determined, that they should ring first that rose earliest.
If we understand aright the dignity of this bell that tolls for our evening prayer, we would be glad to make it ours by rising early, in that application, that it might be ours as well as his, whose indeed it is.
The bell doth toll for him that thinks it doth; and though it intermit again, yet from that minute that this occasion wrought upon him, he is united to God.
Who casts not up his eye to the sun when it rises? but who takes off his eye from a comet when that breaks out? Who bends not his ear to any bell which upon any occasion rings? but who can remove it from that bell which is passing a piece of himself out of this world? No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend's or of thine own were: any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.

by priscianus jr on Fri Nov 21st, 2008 at 02:56:56 PM EST


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