Archive for January, 2008
January 31, 2008 at 9:23 am
· Filed under Blogroll ·Tagged democracy, divide and conquer, Equality, freedom, Kenya, murder
The United States of America was the world’s first (and possibly now its strongest) Democracy; the people who live in the US are freer than most, if not all, other countries. It’s great that I can wear a shirt that calls our president a clown or can write a blog in which I say almost anything, and chances are that nothing bad is going to happen to me. However, we are not completely free until we can do whatever we want, short of hurting other people. I get angry when I see things like the Protect America Act giving retroactive immunity to major corporations who broke laws that were originally put on the books for the exact circumstances that we are in now. I get almost violently angry when I hear Mukasey’s comments yesterday, basically calling torture illegal. I feel like screaming from the top of my apartment building when I watch the Democratic controlled Congress wag their fingers at Mukasey, but really do nothing meaningful about it. I get sick to my stomach when I think that hurricanes Katrina and Rita happened two and a half years ago, yet our fellow citizens are still roaming around homeless (or living in trailers that are giving them diseases) because our government is too busy killing other brown people halfway around the world in our name. I walk around all day with these thoughts floating around in my head and – although overall I am a very happy person – it makes me feel hopeless about the future of humankind. Then, every once in a while I’ll hear or see something that makes it all bubble to the top and bring me to the verge of an explosion; last night was one of those times. I was discussing the politics of Boulder, Colorado with a few friends last night; most of us were taking the side that – while still light years ahead of most cities, especially in the middle of the country – it is not as progressive a town as it appears from outside. One of our group said that Boulder is a great place because she can – as an openly gay business owner – make out with her girlfriend in the busiest section of town and no one harasses them. As soon as she said it, there was a twinge in my stomach, which I ignored and went on talking. It wasn’t until I got home that night that I began to think about it; I began to think that I never have to worry about anyone harassing me because I’m holding hands with my wife, I can go anywhere at anytime and kiss her without people reacting in a negative way. When we decided that we were in love and wanted to spend the rest of our lives together, we got married; never thinking that some people in our great, free country do not even have that right. How can any of us call ourselves free, when there are people living among us who still have to worry about holding the hand of someone they love in public? How can we participate in a society that refuses to allow two people who are deeply in love and want to express it through marriage, the right to do so? We are a work in progress and it is important that we remember that; as long as people are getting put in cages because their skin is dark, as long as people are getting arrested with no charges because they worship a different god than the people in charge, and as long as one only gets to express their love freely if it is for someone of the opposite sex; as long as any of this is happening, none of us are free. We all have a duty as human beings to fight until total equality is achieved.
Getting lower and middle class people to feel alienated from people in the same situation is the divide and conquer technique that the people in charge have been applying for a long time now. When a poor person, living in a trailer park, working for shit wages, can’t see that (s)he has more in common with a just-as-poor black person than with a white CEO, that is a problem. There are straight white males who are in the same boat as gay black men or lesbian Latinas, but are taught to see their outer differences. If, instead, people were able to see that they are all being treated like commodities, they are all be used as machines by the people telling them what to do, maybe something would be done about it. I’m having great trouble putting this into words right now, but my point is that if anything can be used to separate one human being from another, it should be the oppressor/oppressed relationship, as opposed to the skin color, religion, sexual orientation relationship. If you’re a poor white Christian male and you think that a rich white Christian male gives two shits about you, you are sorely mistaken and falling right into the trap they set for you.
Another member of the Orange Democratic Party has been killed; this one by a police officer. Raila Odinga – head of the ODM – says that it was a political killing, the second one this week, in order for the ruling party of Mwai Kibaki to cut down on the majority that the ODM has. Kibaki says that it was a scorned lover who did the killing, as the body was found with a female police officer and that police officers boyfriend committed the murder. No matter why it happened, things are getting progressively worse since both sides have pretty much given up completely on nonviolence; almost 800 are dead and the number of people who have had to flea their homes is approaching 300,000. It is not too late, it is never too late, but people need to start talking; there will never be a conclusion if the fighting continues. These things don’t just work themselves out with machetes and guns.
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January 30, 2008 at 8:01 am
· Filed under Blogroll ·Tagged authority, blackwater, civil liberties, Kenya, Laziness, Newspapers, Obey, Protect America Act, Protests, Truth
There are many reasons why human beings obey the people that are in authority positions; that’s the way they were brought up, religion, low self-esteem, non-caring, and (what seems to be happening the most these days) fear are but a few. We have boys and girls being brainwashed into thinking some brown people halfway across the world are their enemies, and then being sent over there to kill them in the name of democracy. We have an administration with more power than any other US administration in our lifetimes, and yet are out there fighting for even more. We are having our rights slowly stripped from us, one at a time, by smiling people whom we elected to represent our best interests. Why are the great majority of us – although upset at what’s going on and what it could lead to – doing absolutely nothing, short of complaining to a few friends? We are afraid; if we pull our troops out of Afghanistan and Iraq, then – we are being told – the crazy terrorists who want nothing more than to destroy your freedom will be running rampant on the streets of every major city in the United States. If the Democrats let the Protect America Act expire (even though it has a written in clause, stating that if it expires its powers are still active for one year) then the terrorists all over the world will be able to pick up their phones, turn on their computers, and make plans to take over the world. Are so many of us really willing to give up our right to privacy in order to feel a little safer? Do we really think that the United States would immediately be attacked by ‘terrorists’ simply because we stop killing innocent people? The government does not have a right to listen to our phone calls or read or email. They certainly do not have a right to use our brothers and sisters to kill our other brothers and sisters for financial gain. However, people get the government they deserve and as long as we sit on our hands doing nothing; thinking that as soon as we have elections in nine and a half months, everything will work itself out, it is all our fault. The majority of the people in power enjoy their power and wouldn’t mind having more of it, therefore we can’t totally fault them for trying to grab up all they can; they are not going to stop on their own.
Sometimes I think that the reason why people – for the most part – are not doing anything to reclaim their freedoms or save the lives of their brothers and sisters who are pointlessly dying all over the world is because they simply do not know the truth. It is true that there are some people who have to work two or three jobs to support their family, have no money newspapers, cable, or the internet at home, and have no time to go the library for a newspaper or internet connection, and therefore do not have as much access to the truth. However, the majority of us do have access to and time for the truth; most of the time it isn’t as far away as it seems. So, is it that we see it but are afraid to acknowledge it? Is the way I feel about 9/11 (that if I found out it was an inside job or something along those lines, I fear my head might explode) that prevents people from really studying the truth? What is going through a person’s mind as they read an article about how without warrantless wiretapping we are all going to die; if they know this not to be true, how do they rationalize not standing up and shouting the truth to everyone they know? Maybe people just forget; leading up to the United States’ unjustified attack on the citizens of Iraq, the news was filled with UN weapon inspectors letting the public know that Saddam did not have any weapons of mass destruction. Hell, Saddam himself was doing everything he could to stop the attack he feared (rightly so, it turned out) was on its way. Yet, here we are – January of 2008, not even five years later – and this has pretty much been forgotten. History repeats itself; maybe that’s the most important thing for people to learn. Maybe if people studied not only history that’s already happened, but also future history (in other words, what’s happening right this second) we wouldn’t be so easily fooled. If we saw one of our fearless leaders on TV saying something about Iran building nuclear weapons, we could remember what happened five years ago (or even a couple months ago) and immediately question what is presently being said. As long as we only care about what is happening to ourselves at this very second, we will continue to have the wool pulled over our eyes.
In a couple weeks or months from now, we will probably pick up a newspaper or turn on the TV news to see a story about how another unjustified mercenary attack has killed innocent [fill in the blank here- Iraqi, Afghan…] civilians. We will be outraged and demand, in letters and telephone calls, that something is done about these mercenaries running rampant in foreign countries. Of course, we won’t remember that this is the same reaction we have for the first few days every time this happens. We won’t remember that Blackwater employees – just a few months ago – opened fire on dozens of innocent Iraqis, shooting indiscriminately into the crowd, killing 17 unarmed citizens. There were a few people who did not lose their anger as soon as the mainstream media stopped running stories about this event; seven people were arrested (although many more participated) for reenacting that days events in font of Blackwater’s main training ground in North Carolina and spent a few days in jail (which is a few days more than any of the Blackwater murderers spent). We could look at their arrests as valid – they did break laws – but how can we not see the insane hypocrisy involved? They were arrested for trespassing and destroying property (they put red handprints on a sign with the Blackwater logo), meanwhile Blackwater continues to commit both of these crimes every minute of every day and yet not have anything done to them about it. I challenge anyone to pick up any of the mainstream papers this morning and read about these people all being found guilty of these crimes. Or go online to any mainstream outlet’s site and see how far back you have to go to find an article about the event that occurred only a few months ago.
Things have gone from bad to worse in Kenya, with many people calling the ongoing violence ethnic cleansing. Supporters of Raila Odinga who feel that he was the actual winner of December’s presidential election are wielding machetes and using them to kill members of President Mwai Kibaki’s tribe – the Kikuyu – throughout the region. There have also been reported cases of trapping members of Kikuyu in their huts and burning them to death. Because of this, police have been ordered to shoot to kill should they see any threats of violence occurring. Odinga and Kibaki have started meetings yesterday and are both calling for the violence to cease, but no one seems to be heeding their words.
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January 29, 2008 at 7:36 am
· Filed under Blogroll ·Tagged Chris Dodd, filibuster, Protect America Act, State of the Union, Telecom Immunity
I hate to get my hopes up when it comes to anything that has to do with a positive move by Democrats, and I understand (as Glenn Greenwald very negatively points out) that this is probably just temporary, but Chris Dodd’s filibuster has – for the moment – been successful, and the Protect America Act has not been sent to George W Bush with telecom immunity or warrantless wiretapping in it. Even more surprising than that (and even more surprising than the fact that a Republican – Arlen Specter – came to the Democrats side) is that both Hilary Clinton and Barrack Obama showed up to work yesterday and voted with their team. After the filibuster worked, the Republicans put a cloture on the floor – basically ignoring everything and voting yes or no on the actual bill – and it failed 48-45, with Clinton and Obama staying at work and once again voting with their side. Everything is a bit murky now, but what looks as though it’s going to happen is (since the House has work today and then the rest of the week off) a thirty-day extension will be suggested. Bush has vowed that an extension is unacceptable and that he will veto it as soon as it appears on his desk. If he does that (assuming the Democrats don’t back down at the last second and pass the bill out of fear) then George Bush – the man who says that we will certainly be attacked without warrantless wiretapping capabilities – will have let the PAA expire. I’m pretty sure that both the White House and the media will find some way to spin this to make it look like the Democrat’s fault; it’s important that we not only pay attention to what’s really happening, but also let other people know the truth. For the first time in a long while, politicians (not just seemingly honest ones like Chris Dodd, but ones that don’t usually listen, like Obama and Clinton) heard what we the people had to say in our letters and phone calls, and reacted accordingly by doing their jobs. Like I said before; I don’t want to get my hopes up, and in the end all of this probably won’t mean anything more than a couple headlines, but for this moment it’s pretty exciting.
Another reason to be happy (but also something else that might not end up like we think) is that George Bush gave his final state of the union address last night. He is a lame duck president who is simply trying to secure his spot in history; although what that spot is, is up for debate (with 67% considering him a pretty poor president and the rest being legally insane). He considers himself a war president with orders from Jesus Christ to defeat the axis of evil. He talked about Iraq and what a great job we’re doing over there, he reminded us that Iran wants to destroy us with their nukes (completely ignoring – and assuming (probably correctly) we have forgotten – a report by the NIE a couple months ago stating that Iran hasn’t been working on nuclear weapons in years), and he completely left out North Korea; the lone non-brown members of the axis. The thing that annoys me the most about the annual state of the union address (whether it is a Republican or a Democrat up there) is the politeness and partisanship during the speech. I went to a debate last night between the three men and woman running for the soon to be vacant House of Representatives seat for the district I live in, and during the debate they got a bull card. With this bull card they were able to call out their opponent when bull was spewed. George Bush (and all presidents before him) have let fly a lot of bull, especially during their state of the union speeches, yet there is never any negative response. Not one elected member of either branch of government responsible for checking the president ever boos or yells the truth. This wouldn’t bother me as much as it does if he did not get just under 70 standing ovations last night. If anyone can name 70 positive things that bush has done in the previous 2,565 days that he has spent in office, I will give you my life savings. Barring any unforeseen incidents over the next 366 days, next year at this time we should be watching the first state of the union address in this nations history, delivered by either a woman or a black man.
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January 26, 2008 at 8:50 am
· Filed under Blogroll ·Tagged Annan, blame, Change, Kenya, not your daddy, Paul Wolfowitz, President, solution, subprime mortgage crisis, US Security Panel, violence
Change, change, change. Everyone running for president (and probably the House and Senate too, but I haven’t paid much attention to those people) has been caterwauling that word from anywhere anyone will listen; but obviously they don’t really mean it. Real change would mean not just a few new faces doing the same old thing, following the same system that got us into all the messes that we’re in. In the circumstances we are in right now, we can blame a lot of people for a lot of different things, but I don’t think that matters so much. Not Your Daddy wrote a blog saying that everyone is to blame for the subprime mortgage crisis (although he does go out of his way to say that the Democrats are wrong for only blaming the lenders, while not mentioning at all that the Republicans are only blaming the borrowers); the lenders should have known better than to lend their money to people who can’t afford to pay it back, while the borrowers should have known that getting a house with no money down and a large monthly payment would end up screwing them in the long run. I’m not disagreeing that everyone is to blame, but I’m saying that we are in the situation that we are in and trying to figure out who should take the blame isn’t going to help us progress out of it. I’m not claiming to have a solution, but if we all put as much energy into figuring out what to do now as we do into placing blame, I’m sure we would have one in no time. The candidates are too busy slinging mud to actually give us any real plans or solutions that they may think of; what are any of the candidates plans to fix the battered US image? What are their plans to assure that people are taken care of when they become sick and/or elderly? How about a plan to stop us from sinking into a recession? It’s time to demand real change, because just talking about change isn’t anything different than what has been going on since the beginning of politics.
Paul Wolfowitz, who was one of the designers of the blunder we call the Iraq Occupation and was then forced to resign as head of the World Bank due to corruption, has now been named head of the US Security Panel. If anyone was serious about any kind of real change they would be speaking out right now. All the members of our wonderful Congress (including the two major Democrat candidates) are Senators who can stand up and make a stink when corruption like this occurs. However, they are too busy worrying about themselves and winning the next primary. They are spending so much time talking about change that they have no time to actually enact any.
In the past two days in Kenya, Kofi Annan has arrived, President Mwai Kibaki has met with opposition leader Raila Odinga, and tribal violence has broken out, killing at least 45 additional people. At this time last week, things looked as if they were headed in the right direction; The Orange Democratic Movement (the opposition group, headed by Odinga) were holding protests every day – for the most part, not responding violently to the violence being inflicted upon them – and planning for boycotts of the major companies supporting the president. Politically, they won a vote and their party’s representative was named speaker. Then, all of a sudden their patience ran out (not very much patience for a supposedly Democratic country) and they took back to the streets with machetes and bows and arrows. As it stands now, since December 700 people are dead and 250,000 have been forced to flee their homes.
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January 25, 2008 at 8:11 am
· Filed under Blogroll ·Tagged 9/11, checks, Chris Dodd, Democrats, Disappointment, economy, FISA, Gaza Strip, Harry Reid, Israel, Kenya, Lies, Paul Krugman, Protect America Act, Telecom Immunity
I’m not sure which is the most disturbing; that the president has been spying on US citizens without warrants, that the telephone companies participated fully (knowing that it was illegal), that Congress is trying to give the telecoms immunity, or that the Democrats (with a few exceptions) are doing everything they can to help. I have never felt as duped as I have for the past few months. I remember how much effort I put behind John Kerry in 2004; I went door to door in a heavily Republican neighborhood (at one point even getting threatened with a gun) trying to get funding for the man, I tried to get as many people as I knew to vote, and when the time came for election day I was more nervous than I am about the upcoming Super Bowl. Kerry was defeated and I was heartbroken, but the thing that bothered me the most was that he went back on his promise to not give up until every vote was counted; it was almost as if there was some kind of deal between Bush and himself. I didn’t care about politics for a few months – I wouldn’t even watch the Daily Show because I just couldn’t laugh at the heartbreak I had just experienced – before I realized things could still get worse and there was still a battle left to fight that I could make a difference in. When 2006 rolled around, I was even more excited about the prospects of the Democrats winning something- the country was a mess, Iraq was quickly turning into a quagmire, and people were finally starting to wake up. I remember getting a six-pack, packing a bowl, and watching the numbers come in like it was game seven of the World Series. The Democrats won and it was like a giant weight had been lifted off of my shoulders; things were finally going to change for the better. Here we are, over a year later and not much has actually been altered. If anything, I’m more disappointed because it is the people who I back who are wrecking my country. Senate majority leader Harry Reid is doing everything he can to make sure the telecoms get full immunity and this president – along with the next president; Republican or Democrat – can continue his spying ways. For the past year he has had a deal with the Republicans, whereby they do not even have to filibuster- a bill will not even go to the floor unless the sixty votes needed to overcome the filibuster have been guaranteed. Chris Dodd (who is no longer running for president, yet still planning on trying his hardest to stop this bill, thereby proving the Republican pundits wrong) and a few of his supporters have promised a filibuster- and Reid has responded by saying that he will fight it, he will make sure Senate stays in session for as long as it takes. He treats the opposition better than he treats people on his side, he does not care what public opinion says, and he is a mouthpiece for the president- the person he was re-elected to help stop. The two front running Democratic candidates – Barrack Obama and Hilary Clinton – have both said (when asked) that they do not think there should be immunity, but will not be doing anything to stop it. The two most powerful Democrats – the two Democrats with the most attentive ears listening to what they have to say – aren’t working any harder than you or me to stop our civil liberties from being eroded. What do you think they are going to do when they get into office? I would almost rather have another four years of a Republican; at least then I know what we’re getting into and I have no hopes of things changing for the better.
There are so many lies that have been told about the wiretapping that I really don’t understand how there are still people out there who trust everything that is being said about it. We are in a post 9/11 world and wiretaps are necessary to prevent another attack- there are people out there that want to kill us because we’re free. That’s the statement I hear the most from people who support the Protect America Act, but it’s total bullshit. All it takes is a tiny bit of research (which I know is hard to find time for when there are so many articles about Heath Ledger) to find out that the wiretaps were put in place (maybe on a lesser level than now, but still put in place) as much as seven months before September the 11th. Obviously the people who flew planes into a few buildings (assuming that’s even what really happened) didn’t talk about it too much on the phone. I have been really into The Wire lately and have also watched each episode of The Sopranos many times; if all of these uneducated criminals know not to talk on the phone or if they have to, to use code, then why would international terrorists who are smart enough to design a plan like 9/11 talk openly? There are so many things wrong with this that we should all be on the brink of insanity every time we hear another lie or see another bill getting passed. The people in charge are slowly taking away our rights to privacy and we are just sitting back and letting it happen; at times, even encouraging it.
Another among the many ways in which our country is in trouble is economically. Although stocks around the world have settled down after a couple of turbulent days earlier this week, things are still headed downwards. All it will take is a sharp rise in gas or food prices (or one of hundreds of other things) to make everything around us come crashing down. What is the government’s solution? Stop sprinting towards $1 trillion spent in Iraq and Afghanistan? Take back money from the rich people? Start taxing the oil companies way more than they are getting taxed now? Nope, give everyone in the country a check and hope they spend it. The first problem with this is that the more money one makes, the bigger check one gets- this doesn’t do a thing to help the people in need. Second of all, if the money is put into a bank account (which it probably will be for the rich people) or used to pay off a credit card, a mortgage, or any other kind of debt, it does nothing to stimulate the economy. I plan on taking my check, putting it in my savings account, and pretending it never even came. I hope every one else does the same. Paul Krugman does a much better job of explaining why – even if people don’t follow my plan – this ‘everyone gets a check’ plan is not a good idea.
I’m running out of time here, so I can’t comment fully about two more things that I would like to talk about. However, check out the articles on the increasing mess in the Gaza Strip and the continuing violence in Kenya.
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January 24, 2008 at 8:22 am
· Filed under Blogroll ·Tagged Accountablity, Bolton, Congress, coup, Glenn Greenwald, Kenya, Kofi Annan, lies about Iraq, Media, Miers, Power, President, spineless, subpoenas, the people
The way the power structure is set up within this USian Democracy is not (or, at least should not be) how it seems. The president – who people think have the most power – actually should not; when he (or soon enough she) does something that seems corrupt or illegal it is the job of the United States Congress to perform an investigation and hold accountable whoever needs holding accountable. If the corruption in the White House gets bad enough and Congress is either just as corrupt or simply turning a blind eye to the situation, it is the responsibility of the people – all of us – to step up and do something. That something that we should do can range from writing letters and making phone calls, to planning a campaign for a third party, to – in some dire situations – a coup. The way our system actually is working is nowhere near this idealistic way; the President and people in his office appear to have been involved in things like ordering torture, spying on US citizens, sending out illegal warrants, firing attorneys, and making millions of emails disappear; among other things. When the Democrats first took over the Congress, they promised investigations; a bunch of people were subpoenaed, some of them came and refused to say anything, and then some (Harried Miers and Josh Bolton) were ordered by the president not to even show up. In a situation like this, it is the job of the Congress to find them in contempt, which could eventually lead to them sitting in jail until they agree to testify. It has been almost a year since some of these investigations started, and six months since Miers and Bolton were subpoenaed and yet – besides a bunch of empty threats – not one thing has happened (although the Senate does go after people like Mark McGuire if he refuses to testify). Congress has recently made clear that, in the spirit of bi-partisanness (a phrase that should make anyone who is paying attention get angry) they are putting all of that on the back burner in order to help the economy. Now we come to step three; now that the President has committed acts which, at the very least, merit an investigation and the Congress (the supposed opposition) has refused to investigate, it is our turn. No matter what we the people decide to do – be it write letters, make phone calls, protest, or do that other thing I mention earlier – there are two important things that must happen first; 1. we have to remember things for longer than a few days after they happen and 2. the majority of us have to care.
Glenn Greenwald points out in a blog from yesterday that Republicans use fear as a threat to the Democrats (saying that if they vote against FISA they will look weak or if they continue with the investigation into the Presidents office, they will look like they’re just trying to start a fight) who fall for it each and every time. He then goes on to quote a bunch of polls that show the majority of people polled approve of investigating the president, think the president should cooperate, and think the Protect America Act is a bad idea. He uses this to say that the fear is false and if the Democrats just did what is right, the people would support them. While I also think that the Democrats are spineless imbeciles, I disagree with this theory. In my opinion, people are fickle; if the Democrats were to grow some courage this afternoon and immediately begin investigations and refuse to give telecommunication companies immunity, the people would be happy. However, if August or September rolls around and suddenly there is another 9/11 type disaster, the Republicans will blame it on the fact that the Democrats spent so much time focusing on getting the president on trouble that they forgot about national security, which the right-wingers are so good at, and suddenly the numbers will shoot downwards. If the majority of the voting public in this country actually took time out of their day to read a couple different newspapers or if the people who sit at work all day surfing Facebook, instead surfed for the truth, maybe I would have a little more faith; but I don’t. I’m not saying that the Democrats are right for doing what they are doing – if they had any kind of conscious they would in politics to make the world a better place instead of making their bank accounts bigger and all of this would be moot – but they are not the only ones who deserve blame.
For those who believe that the reason we are in the dark is because the government is that good at hiding secrets and the truth is hard to find – read independent newspapers. Papers like the NY Times do have some good articles, but they were one of the main cheerleaders for war in the months leading up to March of 2003. When more people can spout out Brittany Spears’ custody agreement than can tell us why we are in Iraq or the name of the current Secretary of Defense, we are a country in trouble. Two nonprofit journalism organizations have just finished a study documenting each and every lie that was told by the administration in order to get us into Iraq. Two websites have been created that make it easy to search for terms such as Weapons of Mass Destruction or Mushroom Bomb; one puts in those words and all the speeches and (public) documents that they appeared in will pop up on one’s screen. This process takes just as long as going to any other website, but instead of hearing gossip about your favorite star or how much the Patriots are favored by (the Giants are getting underestimated yet again) you find out information that directly effects your everyday life, whether your realize it or not.
People are still dying in clashes in Kenya – the total has gone over 800 – but hope has arrived. Kofi Annan has met with both Raila Odinga (opposition party leader) and Mwai Kibaki (president) separately and then together. Although nothing has been accomplished as of yet, Odinga did agree to call of rallies that were supposed to be held today. Maybe they should bring in Jesse Jackson.
If you are not part of my email reminder list and would like to be, shoot me an email, at expatriate16@gmail.com
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January 23, 2008 at 7:47 am
· Filed under Blogroll ·Tagged blackwater, blame, contractors in iraq, egypt, FISA, Israel, mercenaries, palestine, Protect America Act, Republicrats, weak, wimps
The telephone industry immunity act (also known as the Protect America Act) expires on February 1st, so it is time for the Republicrats to ‘argue’ amongst themselves for a couple days about whether or not to include immunity. The Democrats will stand up and say it is unfair if these companies – who broke federal law simply because the president asked them to – get off scott-free (or maybe we should start calling it scooter-free). The Republicans will say that they refuse to accept any kind of extension or immunity and if the Democrats use their majority to provide either, they are being weak on terror and it is completely their fault if the United States gets attacked again. As Glenn Greenwald points out, the Democrats do not want to appear weak (even though the majority of their base would prefer no immunity) and will therefore cave in and give the Republicans whatever they want, thereby proving that they are tremendously weak. The three major candidates for president on the Democratic side (who also happen to be the top three receivers of money from the telecommunication companies) are all claiming that there should be no immunity, but are too busy campaigning to actually do anything about it. Every time I think that I might vote Democrat in November, I receive a reminder like this that they may be even worse than their Republican ‘opposition’. I’m starting to think that maybe Bush and his crew should be getting less blame then I have been giving them; if the Democrats showed the slightest sign of backbone, Bush would not be able to do most of the things he does. Blaming Bush (or even the Republicans) is just as misguided as blaming Adolph Hitler for everything that occurred during the holocaust and World War II. Without the cooperation of both his friends and enemies, doing whatever he wanted would have been impossible. How are things going to be different if we elect a Democrat into office? As long as there is still one Republican or member of the media screaming that the Democrats will be weak if they don’t do this or vote that way, they will cave. How can we elect someone to run our country in a time of such global turmoil when he or she can’t even stand up for what they believe in? Another topic that is important to the future of our country – and that none of the major candidates on either side have put any effort into addressing – is the growing amount of contractors in both Iraq and Afghanistan and the lack of prosecution when they do something illegal. Our tax dollars, the money that we are forced into paying just to participate in society, are being used to pay people large amounts of money to go to other countries (countries where we are trying to win hearts and minds) and basically do whatever they want, knowing that they are not going to be held responsible. During the few days last year when most newspapers actually did some reporting on this (because of Blackwater employees, after shooting randomly into a crowd of Iraqis, killed 17 humans) people were truly outraged. Unfortunately, due to our short-term memories and inability to care about anything that isn’t being reported by the mainstream media, people seem to have moved on to other things. There were over 600 reports of ‘serious incidents’ committed in a nine-month period by contractors in Iraq, yet only one person has been tried for a crime. There are men and women who are over there (rightly or wrongly) risking their lives because they want to protect their fellow countrypeople or get money to go to college; they are getting paid an average salary of $30k a year and being held responsible for (most of) their actions. Meanwhile, mercenaries are over there getting paid ten times as much, with better equipment and protection, and are not held accountable for anything they do. Maybe I’ve missed something, but neither Barrack Obama, Hilary Clinton, nor (the man for the people) John Edwards have said a word about what a travesty this is. Even if our troops are in Iraq doing the best they can, trying to make friends with the regular citizens, and honestly trying to make a difference, it doesn’t matter because the average Iraqi cannot tell the difference between a soldier and a mercenary (who, by the way, outnumber the soldiers by about 20,000- even after the surge). Could the fact that no one is being held accountable for the mercenaries running wild and none of the candidates are speaking out have something to do with the fact that Blackwater alone has hired three separate lobbying firms?
Egypt has finally spouted a bit of a heart; a day after firing at Palestinians crossing the border for food, fuel, and other supplies they have decided (thanks in part to the giant holes the Palestinians blew in the border wall) to allow them to cross. Israel has allowed a couple days supply of fuel to cross their security lines, but is still imposing a blockade of most goods to the suffering residents of the Gaza Strip. Attempts at settling this confrontation and trying to stop the budding humanitarian crisis have gone nowhere, as the representatives from both sides spent more time arguing at the UN than actually trying to hammer out a solution. Israel continues to say that they will not give in until Hamas ceases the rocket fire while Hamas says they will not stop firing rockets over the border until Israel begins treating them fairly. Based on the past 50 or so years, it doesn’t look like either side will cave any time soon.
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January 22, 2008 at 7:50 am
· Filed under Blogroll ·Tagged bill clinton, dick cheney, Hamas, impeachment, Israel, Obama brochure, palestine, religion, right thing, secret muslim, south carolina
Talk about going from one extreme to the other; for the past year and change, there have been rumors being spread via TV, Internet, and word of mouth, that Barrack Obama is a “secret Muslim”. Obama has – besides the occasional denial – pretty much ignored these claims, as he should. Even the few times that he denied it he probably went about it the wrong way; saying that he is not a Muslim is fine, but why can’t he at least say something like, “so what if I am?” He went though a year of speculation concerning his running, debates, and a few primaries without any kind of strong denial; until yesterday. Yesterday he woke up and realized that he needed to win the heavily Christian South Carolina and therefore decided to come up with a brochure. He really drives home the fact that he is a dedicated Christian whose has been chosen by Christ to be a follower (of god and a leader of people). I understand that a lot of people (even occasional thinking people) have a belief in a god, and that’s fine; people need something to make them feel like they have a purpose. What I don’t understand is why it is so important for anyone running for any major political position in our country has to be a god fearing, Jesus worshipping member of one of our major (not including Islamic) religions. If someone has led a good life – takes care of his or her fellow human beings, does the right things simply because they are the right things to do, and so on – is it really important that they go to a building once a week and (pretends to?) worship something that will never be proven? For the past seven years and two days we have had a president who feels like he was personally chosen by Jesus Christ to rule the world, has declared a crusade on Islam, and has pretty much shat on poor people throughout the world, but he continues to get at least 30% approval no matter what he does, simply because of his supposed belief in and following of an old bearded man in the sky. And which one is the fundamentalist country?
If someone running for president would admit that she or he is a Muslim (or – possibly worse – a Pagan or something) they would not stand a chance. If someone said that they had no belief in any sort of omnipotent creator and ruler, their approval numbers would quickly go down to single digits. However, when someone who is already in power – and claims to have strong belief – tell lies and manipulates information which lead to upwards of one million deaths, we cannot hold that person responsible. Although the call to impeach Dick Cheney is growing by the day, it still has nowhere near enough steam for anything to actually happen with it. There are nine Democrats (of 23) on the House Judiciary Committee who favor beginning impeaching proceedings; more importantly, the majority of the country thinks that there should, at the very least, be hearings. I know this has been said thousands of times and it is common knowledge, but I feel that it bears repeating: Bill Clinton was brought to trial for lying about getting head from someone that wasn’t his wife! That was fine, that wasn’t a witch-hunt, there were no show trials there, but trying to hold a murderer accountable would somehow prevent congress from doing their jobs. The Democrats live in this world of constant fear- they’re afraid that if they back the impeachment thing and it actually gets under way, maybe it won’t be successful. If it isn’t successful (or if it’s simply not finished by the time elections roll around) then the Republicans would go on the warpath, saying the Democrats are just trying to make headlines, they are wasting taxpayer dollars, and they are ignoring real issues like immigration and gay marriage. At what point is it time for one to start doing things simply because they are the right things to do and not because of money or political power?
I hear about members of Hamas and Hezbollah and the Iranian government calling for the destruction of Israel and I get angry and nervous; it would be a sad day, should a country (any country) be hit with a nuclear device. However, seeing the way the Israeli government treats the Palestinian people, I can understand why some of their neighbors may get a little angry. Although some fuel and food are allowed into the Gaza strip, there is still a blockade, people are still starving, no one knows if and when they will simply run out of fuel, and there is sewage flowing into the streets. This is being done because other citizens are firing rockets into Israel. Firing rockets is by no means the right way for Hamas to be acting, but punishing people who are taking no part in it is only creating more enemies. I just really have trouble with a group of people who created their own country from almost nothing because they needed protection from another Holocaust, fighting tooth and nail for the right to live together, and then treating human beings as poorly as they are right now. Some kind of minister of something (from Israel) was on the BBC yesterday talking about how the people of Palestine are the ones who elected Hamas, so they deserve to be punished for the actions of Hamas. I’m not arguing for or against that train of thought, but if it is to become something we follow, then it should apply to the whole world.
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January 21, 2008 at 10:05 am
· Filed under Blogroll ·Tagged Anonymous Liberal, Gaza Strip, Hilary Cinton, Hilzoy, Israel, John McCain, man-crush, ny times, Smear Campaign, William Kristol
It’s pretty obvious that no matter whom the Democrats end up nominating, the Republicans will fill the airwaves with lies and smearing. However – as the Anonymous Liberal through quoting Hilzoy points out – there is a lot more to be said about Hilary Clinton than the other candidates. A lot of people have a lot of strong feelings towards Hilary; a lot of people (on the left as well, but mostly on the right) actually hate her with a passion, and have for years. Republicans have been planning their attack since the first rumors five or six years ago, that one day she might run for president. Hilzoy also points out that since most people remember the eight years of Clinton rule that this country already had, they will remember the feeling of sleaziness that is associated with that name, and therefore the attacks against her will be more believable. I’m not sure how much I believe this because Obama is relatively new to the political scene and there are a lot of people out there who believe that he is a secret Muslim who went to a Muslim school, got sworn in on the Koran, and refuses to salute the flag during the Pledge of Allegiance. No matter who runs, there will be dirt thrown at them and no matter how completely false it is, there is a large section of people who believe what the see on TV (need I mention the Swift Boat ads of four years ago? While I can list a dozen reasons why the Democrats should not nominate Hilary Clinton, the fact that the Republicans will talk bad about her is not one of them.
After taking time out from his (I’m assuming) busy schedule to go down on John McCain with a passion, William Kristol wrote yet another op-ed in the New York Times professing his love for the man. Although it was probably hard to write with Cupid’s arrow stuck somewhere in his body, Kristol manages to push the pain out of his mind just long enough to tell us how great McCain is for memorizing poetry and being a prisoner of war, and not over thinking his campaign. All the other candidates are too modern while McCain is a “neo-Victorian”, which is apparently what this country needs. Kristol is not the only one who has a man-crush on John McCain; there have been numerous articles over the past couple months about how great McCain is- how he was the popular kid at school, how he’s tough yet likeable, and now how he’s a poet. It is hardly mentioned that he likes to sing songs about bombing Iran and wants our troops to stay in a foreign country risking their lives for nothing for another hundred years or so. I thought the New York Times was supposed to be an upper-crust newspaper, read by intellectuals when they want serious news- everything that’s fit to print or whatever bullshit they have the balls to use as their slogan. The entire media needs to be torn down and rebuilt otherwise we’re going to elect our next president based on how cool he is or that she is human enough to shed a couple tears.
What is the right thing to do if a few of your neighbors are throwing rocks at your house? Do you try to make peace or maybe figure out what the real reason for your beef is and work on that? Do you isolate the ones (the minority) who are causing the damage and try to become friends with the rest? Well, according to the Israeli government you cut off all their supplies, knowing that you are affecting the people who aren’t throwing the rocks a lot more than the people who are throwing them. Gas and power supplies to the Gaza strip have been dramatically reduced, causing much suffering to the innocent as well as the guilty residents of this already poor area. Hospitals are only performing emergency surgery, as gas supplies for the generators are running dangerously low. The UN aid workers who help the residents are now saying that they don’t know how much more they will be able to help, due to shortages. Ehud Olmert opinion on the situation was summed up by his statement of, “As far as I’m concerned, all the residents of Gaza can walk and have no fuel for their cars, because they have a murderous terrorist regime that doesn’t allow people in the south of Israel to live in peace.” What a great way to treat your fellow human beings; what if all people who are living under a “murderous terrorist regime” had all their supplies cut off? I think Israelis, along with you and I would be in quite a horrible situation. I’m not saying Israel is evil and Palestine and Hamas are poor, innocent victims, but I am saying that just because a few assholes fire rockets is no reason that old people, children, and other innocent people who just happen to live there have to starve to death. Things will never get better as long as a group of people is treated as less than another group.
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January 20, 2008 at 9:31 am
· Filed under Blogroll ·Tagged CIA, Hilary, missing emails, Nevada, ny times, Obama, politico, Tom Andrews
Another state has made their choice about which Democrat they want to represent them, and once again it is Hilary Clinton. I don’t know what to think of this, but my gut tells me to be afraid. I feel like Clinton is someone who the right wing truly despises and therefore all the Republicans who are sick of their party still wouldn’t cross the lines. There are also a lot of left-wingers who – because of her stance on the war in Iraq and the potential war in Iran among other things – would not vote for her. I am very frustrated with the Democratic Party (and the whole two party system in general) but might be able to be convinced to vote for Obama. The amount of mudslinging that has gone on from Hilary’s camp over the past couple weeks in Nevada is sickening; how is she supposed to unite our country if she cannot even be civil to her fellow party members? However, I don’t think we should be too afraid yet; she still has only a slim lead over Obama (with Edwards slowly fading into oblivion) and there are still quite a few states left for a comeback. After Obama took Iowa and had (what appeared to be) a big lead in New Hampshire, people were saying that Hilary was done, and look where she is now.
If one of these candidates demanded impeachment hearings and constantly brought them up in speeches, they might get my vote. If any of these candidates demanded hearings concerning the attorney firings, the lies that got us into Iraq, the missing emails, the destroyed CIA tapes, the Valerie Plame case, or one of 100 other crimes that have occurred during the past seven years, they would get my vote. However, none of them are talking about anything important, none of them have plans to hold anyone accountable; none of them are talking about any kind of real positive change. Something comes up – right now it’s the thousands of missing emails and the lies about the Iran speedboats – people make some noise about it, and then it quietly fades away into nothing. These guys (and girl) are all cut from the same mold; some are a little bit to the right, some are a bit to the left, some sit dead center, but none of them give two shits about cleaning up government or holding murders and thieves accountable. They know that if they do speak up –in interviews, debates, or speeches – any chance they have of receiving good press and thereby support of the idiot masses will simply vanish.
I have been fooled. A few days ago I read an article on Politico.com where they said the major anti-war groups were backing off their pressures to actually end the war and were instead going to focus on making sure that the US doesn’t have troops in Iraq forever. I wrote about it in my blog and I got very angry at all these fake groups who were just giving up because they didn’t seem to be making any progress. Today in the Huffington Post, Tom Andrews (the national director of Win With War) denies this report and says none of the major groups will be backing off one inch. Although I don’t think the groups will make any difference unless they all join together and start some kind of third party, at least they will continue to push hard to try and stop the murdering of innocent Iraqis, Afghans, Pakistanis, and US soldiers. I don’t donate money to anyone (except maybe the occasional homeless person who guilts me into it) but if I did, it would be to an anti-war group rather than a political candidate.
Also, there’s an Op-Ed in the liberal NY Times today from a former Navy guy, talking about how we should bomb Iran now in order to save ourselves from a bigger war later.
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