Archive for July, 2009

A Couple Quick Notes About Obusha

July 31, 2009 at 7:38 am · Filed under Blogroll ·Tagged , , , , , , ,

Usually when writing this blog I reference a couple or few other blogs and/or articles that have formed part or all of my opinion on whatever the day’s topic is. I also post the articles – and more – on Facebook, sometimes with a little comment. As I have done in here in the past, I often use the term Obusha when talking about our president, Barrack Obama. Whenever I get into the habit of doing this, people tend to ask me why, most of them with angry looks in their eyes. Although it is much more complicated than this, the main reason I use this term is to get people angry. The people who were in the streets demanding Bush be ousted are often the same people who sit casually by as Obama commits genocide in the Middle East or OK’s torture. I am anti-war; I think one life taken for any grounds – especially monetary reasons – is completely unacceptable. I would not care if Obama was perfect in every other category (which he is not), as long as he is making decisions that are costing hundreds of lives per week, the fact that he is better than Bush does not allow me to sleep any easier at night.

I believe that during the Obama presidency I may get to see a doctor when I’m sick, gay people will probably get more and more rights (although, not necessarily with the help of Obama) and marijuana will get into the hands of sick people with no legal consequences. These things (and, I’m sure, more) are great, but there are also domestic policies that are completely unacceptable. I won’t go into too much detail since I don’t have an editor today, but I’ll refer you to Chris Floyd, who has written about Obama’s appointments for various US diplomat positions. While it has always been that case that those who end up as diplomats often end up in those positions because of the amount of money they donated to a campaign, Obama is being very unwise in his decisions. He has promised dozens – if not hundreds – of times, to be transparent. Appointing a Goldman Sachs executive to a position he has no experience in and then pressuring the German’s (who were refusing to accept him) into acquiescence sounds like something our former president would have done.

My other example is something that appeared in The Distant Ocean yesterday; again, I’ll let a real writer explain things better, but the premise of the blog is that Obama is strengthening law enforcement’s ability to racially profile. I’m not pointing this out because Obama is black (although I think that does make it worse), but because he is supposed to be this great liberal; this freer of all people. When Bush did things like this people were up in arms, but when it’s prince Obama, not many people seem to do anything.

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Why do we need a government again?

July 29, 2009 at 8:52 am · Filed under Blogroll ·Tagged , , , , , ,

I normally like reading Glenn Greenwald because even though he is not what one would call a radical, he still does his best to hold politicians accountable, regardless of what side of the aisle they sit on. Today however, I have a bit of a problem with what he wrote. I don’t want to go into too much detail (you can read it yourself) but it seems to me that he is pushing the whole Democrat vs Republican thing in today’s blog. He talks about whether Democrats will gain more seats or Republicans will make a bit of a comeback in the 2010 midterm elections. I say, first of all, that the elections are still over 15 months away, but more importantly they don’t really mean anything. These things go in cycles; Democrat president with Democratic majority, Democrat president with Republican majority, Republican president with Republican majority and so on and so forth for the past couple hundred years or so. Hundreds of “reporters” and talk show hosts get a paycheck because of this back and forth and they therefore fuel the fire. Greenwald uses the following poll to try to prove to us that the Democrats are in better shape than there so-called opponents:

A Wall St. Journal/NBC News poll from just last month also found:  ”25 percent hold a favorable view of the Republican Party, which is an all-time low for it in the poll.”  By contrast, “45 percent hold a favorable view of the Democratic Party”

People were only given two choices and yet neither party received more than 45% approval- what does that say? There are a growing number of people who would never vote Republican, yet are getting more and more dis-satisfied with Obama; does this mean that a third party finally has a chance?

Tariq Ali is an activist/writer whose books I’ve been meaning to read for a while now. Every once in a while I read an article or blog by him, and it is usually along the lines of my thought process. Today is no exception, as he talks about the war in Afghanistan and Pakistan, or AfPak as it is slowly starting to be called. Obama shows concern about protestors getting beat in Iran or the people not being heard in Honduras, while at the same time not blinking an eye when commanding a manless drone to kill dozens of innocent Pakistanis. As I’ve said a dozen times before (and I’m sure I’ll repeat at least another dozen dozen) Obama has made attempts at improving some facets of our lives, but for the most part he is no different than Bush II, Clinton, Bush I and so on. I find it very confusing that most of the people who elected Obama claim to understand that change comes from below, and they only way their savior is going to actually do anything is if we put pressure on him, yet hardly anyone is making a stink of the wars that he is expanding. Not many Obama supporters are in the street demanding that he stop torture, give prisoners back their rights, at least make an attempt to restore some of our civil liberties back here at home. If they truly understood that the only way things change is if the people make them, why would they even think they need a president? We are not going to stop the killing, oppression and torture happening in our names with our money until we start realizing the power we have.

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The Evil We Know

July 26, 2009 at 8:02 am · Filed under Blogroll ·Tagged , , , , , , ,

Things were so much easier when Bush and Cheney were maniacally destroying the world. Sure, things are still coming out about the secret programs they authorized. For the most part, the country – no matter which side you were on – knew what was happening. Some of us knew they were destroying lives all over the world and taking away our rights in the US because they didn’t try to hide it. The rest of people accepted what was being done because they thought it made the country safer. Now, we have a guy in office who says he will restore our constitutional rights, but his actions communicate something different. We have a leader who promised to shut down Guantanamo (which, itself isn’t that big of a deal, since we have dozens of other Guantanamos throughout the world), but is making no progress. In fact, he has made it so more people can be locked up with less chance of getting out. He led people to believe that he was – while maybe not anti-war – appalled by what was happening in the Middle East and would do everything in his power to end it. However, the war in Iraq has no end in sight (with more bases being built every time I blink my eyes) and the “good” war in Afghanistan is causing more and more deaths. Some people saw this coming, but the vast, vast majority of the country was blinded by this smooth talking, liberal president and what he represents (or seemed/seems to represent). Obama is trying to ensure that we all have health care (or most of us anyway), and that would be a good thing, it’s just that I have trouble celebrating the fact that I may be able to go to the doctor one day, while hundreds of people are dying, losing family members, being tortured, or disappearing every single day because of the orders of this same person.

I always get called naive when I point out the fact that politicians are politicians. For example, Obama got angry when he witnessed the incident with the Harvard professor. Obama should get angry when he has to comment on an incident like this. If this was something that happened once in a while, he should get as angry as he did, but knowing (as I’m sure he does) that this happens in every city, probably every day; one would be hard pressed to find a person of color who hasn’t been harassed by the police, his initial response was extremely subdued. When I tell more mainstream people that I think Obama under reacted, that he should be in front of the press pointing out that police are inherently corrupt (despite the fact that the majority of police officers may be good individual people). He should be pointing out that there is still slavery in this country. But he won’t because – as my mainstream friends and family tell me – he would lose votes, he would lose support on other things he is trying to accomplish. When I try to point out that maybe, possibly, there is a small chance that our whole system is beyond repair and if Obama was 1/10th of what people have made him out to be, he would not care about re-election or gaining more support from right wingers; he would represent the people on the bottom, and not just in the US, but around the globe. We spent eight years with a guy who was unapologetic about his racism, sexism, classism, and genocidical tendencies. And maybe that way was better because at least we began to open to the things actually happening.

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Humanity (or, I hate titles)

July 23, 2009 at 7:33 am · Filed under Blogroll ·Tagged , , , , ,

There is a concept that I have written about quite a few times in this blog; it is a simple concept, yet the vast majority of people do not seem to understand it. What I’m talking about is recognizing that each and every human being is just that- a human being. This means not only your immediate family and friends, but also that guy on the corner asking for some spare change or that little girl in Afghanistan who doesn’t have a school to go to because some unpersoned drone blew it up, thinking it was Bin Laden. This also means seeing the humanity in the Marine who gave the command to kill a whole village and the “Terrorist” sitting in a shed, building IEDs. It is as easy as it seems- if we understood this, it would be a lot harder to continue our complacency when it comes to things like this. If president Obama truly grasped this concept, would he be able to send people into some dark cage to be tortured for an undetermined amount of time? I am against war in almost all situations, but I understand the POW concept- if two countries or groups are fighting and there are people captured (which is better than being killed, if the correct laws are followed), then it makes sense that these people are held until the war is over. However, what the US has been doing – and what Obama has declared he will continue to approve – is not following any recognized laws. What the US has been doing is paying corrupt people to bring them prisoners and make up rules about what can and cannot be done to these prisoners. We are not fighting a war against another government which will end when one side surrenders, but rather a War On Terror against an enemy who gets bigger every time we kill or torture one of their members.

Another example of where humanity could come into play is the recent battle between the New Black Panthers and the KKK. It would be obvious for me to say that members of the KKK need to see black people as human, not much different than themselves (or as different as a random white, yellow, or gay person), but it goes deeper than that. I know it’s hard, but imagine the New BPP members – who, in the video, are wearing masks and making disparaging comments – could see the angry, hateful KKK members as human. If they were able to try and understand how these people end up where they are- was it taught? Were they picked on by a black person at school? Do hateful people even know where their hate comes from? I’m not taking sides here (although if I had to, you better believe that I wouldn’t stand with any KKK members), but some group has to be the bigger one.

I’m not trying to say that all of life’s problems will be solved if the majority of the world’s citizens could understand what I have been discussing, but there sure would be a big change. Even if everyone could try it for a week- or even a day; next time you are walking down the street and see a homeless person, think about that person taking a shit or losing their spouse. Next time you are traveling by subway or bus and a group of “scary looking” people get on, ask yourself why you perceive them as scary. Are they trying to be accepted? Are they trying to cover up their fear? The majority of people only want to be happy and lead a secure life and even if a very small minority of us can see that, the world will start changing without a single protest or rally.

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I’m Back

July 21, 2009 at 7:21 am · Filed under Blogroll ·Tagged , , , , , ,

My style has changed since I first started writing these blogs a year and a half ago. I have been waking up early and reading a number of different blogs and newspapers for a few years now; I used to send articles that I thought were important to a select number of people. As that group began to get larger, I decided to write something about the news I was ingesting, giving brief summaries that appeared on one page, so people could choose what to read. I would give links to the articles, while at the same time letting the reader know a little about what I thought. Slowly, my opinion started to take up more words, while talking about specific articles began to take up less. While doing things that way was more fun, it was also more work and possibly the reason why I discontinued it. I have wanted to start writing again for a little while now, but have been too lazy to think of my own ideas. Therefore, I have decided to try going back to the way things were.

I have heard and read snippets about the “C Street House” for a couple days now and I have to say that I don’t really give a shit. This will just be a tool for the left side of the Republicrat party to use, in order to convince the public that they are different than the right side of the same party. If we could just think for ourselves, we would see that this house is not in existence because the “Republican party” is crazy, but because politics and organized religion (and especially the mixing of the two) are inherently corrupt.

I read Chris-Floyd’s blog on this house, but I don’t want to dwell on the actual conspiracy. Instead, I want to talk briefly about something that Floyd brought up; the fact that a lot of people in this house have gotten in trouble for sexual misconduct. I do think it’s funny that politicians who publicly speak out against gay people are the ones who end up being gay, and that the religious zealots who focus on family values are – more often than not – banging someone 20 years their junior, behind the backs of their wives. However, I think this is a huge distraction. The media jumps all over these things- former presidents getting head from their interns, Representatives soliciting gay sex in public bathrooms, and Senators (or was it a governor) who run off with their mistress and disappear for a few days. These are definitely all things that most people would agree are morally wrong, but have nothing to do with public policy. George Bush is responsible for millions of deaths, Dick Cheney devised all sorts of secret plans that costs numerous lives, Barrack Obama sends robots into foreign countries to kill entire villages, and only a select few give a shit. It would be too much work to convene juries and hire special prosecutors to look into these acts of genocide, but let it come out that any of these three men had a homosexual experience in college or cheated on their wives with a younger women and I bet people would be leaping out of their seats calling for impeachments and beheadings. How long can this country survive when members of the news media – the people around for the sole purpose of keeping the people in power honest – are dumbing down their reports? I have asked this question in the past, but is the media making the population dumber by the day or are they (the media) just feeding the already dumbed down population all that they can handle?

Finally, I have been reading Distant Ocean for a few weeks now and, although the writings are very short, I have become addicted. Today, it talks about our economic situation. I can tell you from personal experience that more and more people are losing their jobs, getting their hours cut, and falling behind on their mortgages. The unemployment rate is the highest it has been in a long time, the amount of empty property in NYC is passing the rates of the 1980’s, and the amount of intersections (in perfect little Boulder, Colorado anyway) that feature beggars is literally growing by the day. This is nothing new- this was the problem six months ago, when our new Commander-in-Queef decided to bail out the already rich bankers with a few billion dollars. Now, here I am reading about the record breaking profits these banks are making and the bonuses these already rich executives are bringing home, and I’m trying to figure out how and where this is trickling down to Main Street. Unemployment is going up every month, the amount of foreclosed houses are not leveling off, and stores are still shutting down by the minute. Again, we seem to find a way to ignore this (maybe because the mainstream “news” channels refuse to devote much time to coverage) while getting worked up about dog owners not picking up their poop.

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