July 15, 2008 archive

Bloggers demand more than sound bites and platitudes

Recently both leading presidential candidates have increased their outreach to Latino voters with appearances at various events sponsored by prominent Latino organizations. Not surprisingly, the topics of immigration and immigration reform have played a central role in this outreach effort.

As an issue where both candidates feel they exhibit some strength with Latino voters, they have both attempted to utilize this perceived strength to make inroads into what most believe will be a crucial voting block this coming November.

But what we have received from both candidates thus far are vague promises and pleasant platitudes about “A Nation of Immigrants.”

This is a complex issue, and as the history of failed efforts at reform clearly shows, it will take more than quick sound bites and quotes from Emma Lazarus to solve the problems with our failed current immigration system. In order to enact meaningful immigration reform that is practical, rational, fair and most of all humane, tough questions must be answered and problems dealt with.

One MILLLLION Terrorists!!!!!

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WASHINGTON (AFP) – A watch list of suspected and known terrorists, compiled by the US authorities, has ballooned and contains more than one million names, the American Civil Liberties Union said Monday…

snip

The Center “had over 700,000 names in its database as of April 2007 and that the list was growing by an average of over 20,000 records per month,” according to a report by the Justice Department Inspector General, the rights group said.

“By those numbers, the list now has over one million names on it,” the ACLU said in a statement.

Ten lessons from recent torture hearings

Before I post up what I brought I’d like to point out that when Our Government changes It’s Policies to Match those of what we call enemies it Endangers All The Troops in Active Theaters as well as the citizens of this country!!

And it leaves us not only open to condemnation but at a place where we cannot condemn others!!

Omar Khadr: Growing Up In Gitmo (Updated x 3)

cross-posted from The Dream Antilles

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Omar Khadr at age 14 (in 2000)

Omar Khadr (born 9/19/86) is a Canadian who has been imprisoned in Guantanamo in connection with the alleged killing of a US soldier during a battle in Afghanistan in 2002.  At the time of his capture by US forces, Khadr had been shot three times and was near death. Khadr was 15 at the time, a child soldier. He will be 22 in September. He has been detained in Gitmo for more than 6 years in essentially solitary confinement.  Today some video of his interrogation was released in Canada.

The video is here via BBC.  It is not of good quality, but the audio works.  It is revolting.

Please join me in Gitmo

Spiraling War Culture and Human Empathy

A people who plans, organizes, and executes the torture of human beings must consider whether they are properly called demonic or evil.  The word demonic implies agency from an autonomous power,  While modern science has thoroughly discredited the existence of mythical demons, recent and current self-destructive behavior of humans give the appearance of springing from some power whose interests are at direct odds with the crucial needs of the human race.  We will take a look at the parable of the tribes, an explanation of how ongoing war-culture pressures civilization to adopt increasingly self-destructive traditions, actions, beliefs, and symbols.  We will then look at the antidote, focusing on an idea reached separately by the wise men of widely varying cultures, all in the throes of war and instability:  the Golden Rule.  I will present the Golden Rule as neither a commandment from god nor as a merely moral imperative; rather, it can be seen as a technology of human psychology and spirituality.  Empathizing with others before acting may be the key to human behavior which can free us from our current accelerating death spiral.

Loss of innocence

I don’t remember exactly what day it was. It was sometime after Bush got re-elected, sometime before the Democratic take-over of the Senate. To better help you cast the scene in the all-seeing eye of your mind, let’s call it December of ’05. That was when I lost that youthful exuberance, the perpetual flush of happiness that pretty much all Americans have at some point in their lives.

It was then that I finally succumbed to the pressures from someone very close to me, and I joined DailyKos.

She had been trying to get me involved in politics for a long time at that point. I never saw the purpose, never really wanted to know more than what I saw from the TV. I was a self-described Republican, happy Bush got re-elected, questioning Kerry’s Vietnam credentials, and generally clueless as to the state of our country.

It was odd; I supported women’s rights to choose, gay marriage, Affirmative Action, had all the usual liberal positions on all the policies. I think I was afraid of the word “liberal” at the time, buying into all the crap fed to us from the traditional media and blowhards on the radio and on cable “news” shows. But that’s neither here nor there.

Spiraling War Culture and Human Empathy

A people who plans, organizes, and executes the torture of human beings must consider whether they are properly called demonic or evil.  The word demonic implies agency from an autonomous power,  While modern science has thoroughly discredited the existence of mythical demons, recent and current self-destructive behavior of humans give the appearance of springing from some power whose interests are at direct odds with the crucial needs of the human race.  We will take a look at the parable of the tribes, an explanation of how ongoing war-culture pressures civilization to adopt increasingly self-destructive traditions, actions, beliefs, and symbols.  We will then look at the antidote, focusing on an idea reached separately by the wise men of widely varying cultures, all in the throes of war and instability:  the Golden Rule.  I will present the Golden Rule as neither a commandment from god nor as a merely moral imperative; rather, it can be seen as a technology of human psychology and spirituality.  Empathizing with others before acting may be the key to human behavior which can free us from our current accelerating death spiral.

Not only American Soldiers are dying in Bush’s Wars

We, as a nation have gone through one of the most ridiculous and ill-constructed “regimes” in world history when considering the Bush-Cheney Administration.

Their inability to do anything but invoke the Reverse Midas Touch to anything and everything they touch has to be one of the most incredulous stories in written history.  Their ability to come out smelling like roses in the media must also be one of the most incredulous stories in written history.  

Unfortunately, for those soldiers that have fought Bush’s wars, the smell of death permeates this story.  Their inability to have anything more on their side but a bunch of Profits-Above-ANYTHING Neo-Con’s and a group of Citizens that are not listened to by their Governments has been to their serious detriment.  A lack of necessary equipment, food, clean water and a goddamned PLAN has all come together to cause much more death and destruction for not only those soldiers from “our side”, but the civilians and families in the coutries that Bush determined were to be brought under control.  (See Oil, Natural Gas Pipelines and Profit).

It is not just American Soldiers dying in Bush’s wars.  Soldiers from other countries, who joined the with Bush on his quest for profit and retribution are dying as well.

Dead soldier Sean McCarthy’s body returns to Australia

Use Iraq Moratorium Friday to stop a war with Iran

Friday, July 18, is Iraq Moratorium day #11.

It is a day, as is the Third Friday of every month, on which individuals and groups across the country take some action to call for the end to the war and occupation of Iraq.



The number of listed events on the Iraq Moratorium national website, IraqMoratorium.org, is approaching 100, with more still being added.  

Since it began in September, more than 1,000 events in 41 states and 235 communities have taken place under the Iraq Moratorium banner.

Participants either take part in a group action or do something individually — wear an armband or button; write, call or email their Congressional representatives; put up a yard sign, or donate to a group working to stop the war.  Group actions include rallies, marches, vigils, speakers, films and other activities.

There are lots of ideas and organizing tools on the website, as well as reports, photos and videos from around the country.

This month, many peace groups are asking people to contact Congress members on Iraq Moratorium day and ask them to stop a new proposal, House Concurrent Resolution 362, which essentially calls for a blockade of Iran and is steamrolling its way through the House.

HCR 362 is a dangerous bill calling for severe sanctions–far beyond those proposed by the Bush administration–and could be interpreted as an act of war under international law. It would further alienate Iran and could trigger retaliation against our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, blockage of oil shipments through the straits of Hormuz, and potential involvement of other nations in the region. If we want catastrophe in the Middle East, deeper recession and gas at $6 per gallon, this would do it.

United for Peace and Justice, the nation’s largest antiwar coalition (and an endorser of the Iraq Moratorium) has designed July 19-21 as days of action to stop a war with Iran.   Details here.

The whole concept of the Moratorium is to do something to interrupt business as usual — to stop what you’re doing on Friday, interrupt your normal routine, and do one thing, whatever it may be, to end this senseless, bloody war.

Will you do something?

 

Midnight Thought on the Next American Revolution

Now in the Midnight Oil … also up at Agent Orange, so tipping and rec’ing that diary might help get the word out in a small way.

What do you do when you are a Congressional candidate … your Presidential candidate is campaigning on the basis of Potemkin Energy policies like drilling for an extra 100,000 barrels of oil a day starting a decade from now (when a Saudi announcement of an extra 500,000 barrels later this year did not move prices by any discernable amount) … and a gas tax holiday …

… especially when in the last contentious Ohio State highway funding fight, you as the Republican voted for Governor Taft’s gas tax hike, and your Democratic opponent voted against it?

Simple: you lie.

Well, of course, this is a Republican candidate for Congress we are talking about here … you don’t lie yourself, you have an “independent group” with a name like Freedom’s Watch lie for you.

just a few things . . .

here’s a link to a handy little site: the bank implode-0-meter

i wonder, when we find ourselves in times like these, just who is running the world? and how stupid does one need to be to qualify for the leaders of the world club.

do you ever, secretly and on occasion, watch those reality TV shows. like the real housewives of beverly hills or the real housewives of nyc?

Bush: Cowardly Appeaser (*this* is McCain’s new hero?!)

Note: Cross-posted at orange.

In today’s Abbreviated Pundit Roundup over at orange, my attention was called to Michael Barone’s jingoistic, bullshit fluff piece on “the surge” in the creepy-ass, Pro-Republican Moonie Times.  What neither Barone, nor McCain, nor Bush, nor Hannity, nor Limbaugh, nor Lindsey Graham, nor Lieberman, nor McConnell, et mal mention is Bush’s program to bribe insurgents to stop killing U.S. Troops.

Bottom line:  paying former “insurgents” to switch sides and stop killing our troops is, it seems, working.  I am troubled by the amnesty given to many (dozens, hundreds, thousands?) who were just a year or two ago killing Americans, or damn-sure trying to.  However, if it ends up saving American Soldiers’ and Marines’ lives, and getting us the hell out of Iraq, then I suppose it’s the lessor of Bush-initiated evils.

Keep going . . .

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