Politics, society and Faith from a Christian liberal prospective. We believe that we can all accomplish great things in the world if we can just get past the lust of the powerful and the fear of the comfortable.
I hate using the fear word but its going to be prominent in ’08. Fear of Iran, Al Qaeda, terrorists everywhere among us, immigrant hordes, liberals and worst of all taxes.
I have hope that none of it will work; Hope that the best Democrat will win the nomination; Hope that this Democrat will be president; Hope that war crimes will be on the road to justice; Hope that the fascist threat from the right-wing will be left in the dustbin of history.
Torture provides nothing positive, it only destroys, both the victim and all who come in contact or support of it. . Psychologist: Gitmo detainee to be released is 'broken into pieces' David Edwards and Jason Rhyne Published: Friday December 28, 2007 http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Gitmo_detainee_faces_psychological_struggle_after_1227.html . Direct from Guantánamo Bay March 27, 2007 Jumana Musa Advocacy Director for Domestic Human Rights and International Justice http://www.amnestyusa.org/waronterror/reportonhicks.html . David Hicks pleads guilty on one count. AI observer attends arraignment at Guantánamo http://www.amnestyusa.org/document.php?lang=e&id=ENGAMR510522007 . His confession was the result of torture and ill-treatment making it completely invalid. We are also expected to take the word of only his military accusers. This was a highly unconstitutional, immoral and again it must be stressed a completely un-American exercise in shame with much more in likeness to the old Soviet Union, China, or any other authoritarian government. . Justice delayed and justice denied? Trials under the Military Commissions Act(PDF) http://www.amnesty.org/en/alfresco_asset/04466604-a2cd-11dc-8d74-6f45f39984e5/amr510442007en.pdf . Close Guantanamo! Amnesty Speaks Out
. Once we believe that torture is okay, that we're still pure and clean and good for having accepted it, we open ourselves up to many evil embraced horrors of our own making. We already believe in pre-emptive war and collateral damage without a conscience thought, for even a moment of the results of our actions. . picture from: Amnesty International Volunteers http://www.amnesty-volunteer.org/
The assassination of Pakistan's former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto highlights the folly of Neocon policy in this region.
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When we disserted the people of Afghanistan and our troops who fought and died there in favor of an ill-conceived oil war in Iraq we aided in the situation that manifested itself as a murderous attack on the hope of democracy in nuke armed Pakistan.
It doesn’t matter who we think is responsible or who benefits as much as it matters who the people of Pakistan believe who is responsible and our response to them. .
The Cheney/Bush administration screwed the Afghanistan people and our troops who were fighting the terrorists who really did attack our country on 9/11 by running away from the ‘war on terror’ hijacking it for neoconservative desires in Iraq and at home.
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The Taliban is regaining strength in Afghanistan. Osama Bin Laden is still free and in charge of Al Qaeda which is gaining strength and free reign in western Pakistan. We can’t do anything to curtail their growth because we are bogged down in Iraq while seriously running down the morale and readiness of our military. Our continuing occupation of Iraq is harming us while allowing Al Qaeda to grow in organization, strength and territory to be able to set up training camps along with a platform to attack us.
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General Pervez Musharraf is a military dictator who acquired power by way of a coup. He’s just the latest example of ‘our dictator in the pocket’, at least until it all falls apart. Human Rights in Pakistan are horrendous, they have weapons of ‘mass destruction’, those who would attack us are educated, harbored and trained within their borders, and bin Laden is protected there.
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So we are stuck with a dictator with the Bomb, pointed at India, facing a Taliban-like insurgency that will have the Bomb, pointed at whomever, if they launch a successful coup. There is general dissatisfaction and protest among the population who Musharraf abuses for his own power-lust.
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The ‘declare success then cut and run’ tactic employed by the Bush administration in Afghanistan so we could engage in their dirty little occupation in Iraq has left this area of the globe much more unstable. And were left coddling another human rights violating dictator for short term gain hoping he will do for us what we should have done ourselves.
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If we know where Bin Laden is we should get him regardless of what Musharraf might say but to launch any military attack against Pakistan after the mess which was made in Iraq would be fool hardy at best especially with this current group we have occupying the Whitehouse.
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The next administration is left with diplomacy with human rights as its cornerstone. In all international dealings most feel that our national interests should be first and foremost. But when we side with a dictator against the best interests of the countries own citizens it always does them and us a great disservice.
The most threatening country to world piece, besides our nations threats on Iran, is Pakistan. If our little dictator ally falls to extremists we will have a radical Islamic government with the 'Bomb'.
Makes you wonder what they have planned for us if they view Musharraf's response to a puplic rising up peacefully against a military dictator as acceptable.
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Zardari rejects claim of al-Qaida link to Bhutto's murder Declan Walsh in NauderoTuesday January 1, 2008
. The real threat is the existence of conditions which allow terrorism to grow within third world countries, such as poverty, ignorance, lack of adequate health care and human rights.
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Those are the conditions which exist under the rule of self-serving dictators. The seeds of terrorism are sown in this environment and gradually grow to maturity. The mistake we make is that once terrorism rears its ugly head in a country, we support the dictatorship even more, thereby losing the trust and respect of the average citizens in that country.
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Someone in the United States might say, "How can anyone choose an extremist form of Islam over democracy?" But if America supports your leader and you’re living on a dirt floor while your baby is dying and your brother is rotting in prison because he spoke his mind, you might think, "How could radical Islam be any worse than the way I have it now?".
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If we wish to stop the rising tide of terrorism we must stop supporting or tolerating dictators and let the people of the country know this. At the same time we must encourage and help growth in the economy, education and human rights of these countries and not the military weaponry of tyrants.
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War is a poor answer to a human problem; a diplomatic problem. Don’t let the militaristic neoconservatives lead you to believe the only road to peace is by the gun. They are wrong.
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The threat and fear of radical fundamentalist Islam is morphing into a paranoid dread of all Islam.
I found this a few days ago and have been showing it to all the ‘young dudes’ in my home. They never watch the whole thing. They usually walk away laughing about the time the sunburn comparison is attempted. I would have seen parts of this at about the first or second grade. I remember having images in my little kid imagination of enemy soldiers attacking our school ‘Combat’ style. I wonder if this is one of a multitude of reasons why so many of the ‘peace generation’ has been so easily given to seeking violent solutions as a means for feeling safe.
That and they got a whole lotta stuff to lose and a credit rating to maintain and ‘what about the children?’.
There's no success in Iraq without a political solution and reconciliation between all groups including rights for women that keeps them from extremists fundamentalist oppression. Here's a bunch of links contradicting administration propaganda.
Destroying the evidence of a war crime is a crime deserving the strictest of penalties. These people will be out of power in a little over a year and those Dems in the Whitehouse and Congress better not let the investigations, charges and penalties languish. However, this is just another example of why impeachment should be on the table now!
I wrote this awhile ago and I thought I would go ahead and post it up here again. I'm not sure how the Republicans are going to handle the 'Iran not building nukes problem' but it looks like their pundits are going to take the enemy among us route who hate George Bush and the Iraq War. I think they're going to yell about illegal immigration, the threat of terrorism and scaring the common sense out of everyone they can suck in on Iran, all the more. This is just to shine another little light on the hypocrisy of right wing Christian zealotry.
Immigrants should be treated justly.
The most extreme conservative opinion, regarding undocumented workers and their families, is to arrest them all and ship them back to their country of origin. While there are people here illegally from many parts of the world this is first and foremost a reaction to the Spanish speaking Latinos from South of our border.
Massive roundups of those that are unjustly judged ‘unacceptable’ have never worked well for those being arrested or for the offending country involved. We have recent horror stories from Cambodia and Nazi Germany and in the United States with the Japanese internment and the Trail of Tears both of which were a disgrace. Tearing apart Latino families on our ‘liberty loving’ soil would be comparatively disastrous for obvious reasons for them but also for our national spirit which has suffered enough wounds already, most recently through the Bush years..
These people our not from the far flung reaches of the world, they are, especially from Mexico, our neighbors who share history with us. They are a part of the New World family, an ingredient of who we are. Their poverty and status has been used against them, as it was in the past for other immigrant groups deemed unacceptable, for the benefit of unprincipled business interests for many generations now.
It is immoral to use people then throw them away when they become inconvenient. Christian (isn't that the kind of country the religious right repeatedly says we have) kindness would dictate care and forgiveness for these people. Those who wear the bible on their sleeve should know very well how the Lord expects us to treat immigrants and all others who fall into need whether financial or medical. The arguments rationalizing this away do not come from God it comes from a much darker, hotter unholy place.
We need to protect the border as Democrats have been screaming about since 9-11, only to fall upon deaf administration ears. Many business interests seem to prefer the status-quo while others want the border closed simply out of unjustified prejudice. . Bring them into citizen ship in a manner that's just.
We need to have strict consistent punishment for all those who hire these people with the intent of misusing them for their own benefit.
Strong penalties need to be given for all those who pay substandard wages.
Any corporation that moves south of the border must pay livable wages and conform to rational environmental controls or risk a high tariff or lose the ability to trade with the United States. We must realize US involvement in many of the economic and political hardships suffered by others who share the Americas. We have a moral duty to work to make things right and that doesn’t begin with exploitation.
Any other solution that comes from Congress based on economic maltreatment or cloaked on hate and paranoia is unacceptable. . Imagine
May Day Immigration Reform Protest(scared angry people using understandibly bad language)
The president was his usual goofy self, actually embarrassing for the nation, during the press conference today. One person and only one person asked about the woman who was gang-raped in Saudi Arabia and sentenced to receive 200 painful bashes from a whip or cane or some such instrument.
Bush Doesn’t Recall if He Mentioned Saudi Rape Case to King Abdullah By: billw on Tuesday, December 4th, 2007
Saudi gang rape sentence 'unjust' A lawyer for a gang-rape victim in Saudi Arabia who was sentenced to 200 lashes and six months in jail says the punishment contravenes Islamic law. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7098480.stm Saudi Arabia has much less freedom than Iraq even under Saddam. Iran has somewhat more freedom than Saudi Arabia and a greater chance of obtaining their own homegrown democracy with greater human rights. Saudi citizens are the most responsible for funding of Sunni insurgents in Iraq who did kill our troops. They are the primary foreign aggressors in the Sunni areas of Iraq who local Sunni leaders grew tired of and decided to eliminate. They were after the Taliban in Afghanistan (and the great ineptitude and inattentiveness of the Bushies) the country most responsible for 9-11.
President Bush: a Nuclear Iran Risks World War III
Neocons along with their other cohorts on the right are not happy that Iran suspended it's nuclear weapons policy in 2003. The administration has been caught in many lies and this is just another one in a long stack. I've often thought their lies, ineptitude and corruption would bring their downfall but they just keep going with a little help from the spinal disorder afflicting the Democratic leadership. They still want a vigorous, all weapons options on the table policy toward Iran. They will still lie, exaggerate and enthusiastically pound the drumbeats of war.
. They worship at the Alter of Commerce in the Church of Supremacy. Their dungeons are full of skeletons and sinister secrets. Half truths, self- aggrandizement and trepidation are the subjects of their sermons. The virtues they cherish are greed, pride, gluttony and tyranny. The fruit they bare is misery, death and devastation. Darkness follows in their wake; And ruin is their toll. . Holy Dirt
“In Germany, they first came for the Communists,
and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist....
Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew.....
Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist....
Then they came for the Catholics
and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Catholic....
Then they came for me –
and by that time there was nobody left to speak up.”.....
Martin Niemoller
I hate using the fear word but its going to be prominent in ’08. Fear of Iran, Al Qaeda, terrorists everywhere among us, immigrant hordes, liberals and worst of all taxes.
