Tuesday, November 28, 2006

Power Play?

Newt Gingrich just doesn't get it. Bush doesn't. Cheney doesn't.

Fear works. It only works for so long, though, before you either need to deliver on your promises (which also works), or change horses.

Newt suggested (stated outright) yesterday (at a First Amendment awards ceremony yesterday of all places), and at recent visits with the media, that perhaps the First Amendment is... wrong!!!

Once again, the Republican machine of bad ideas has stated that the government should have a 'habeas-corpus-at-will', disposable 1st Amendment, and a muddled (missing) separation of church and state (bah, evil Jews! Die, nasty Arabs! Christ killers, all of you!)... Everything that the 1st stands for. So... Was this, like, a memorial for the 1st?

Oh, and shop Crate and Barrel. Bill O'Reilly doesn't want you to.

Sunday, November 19, 2006

Draft-y in Here?

Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY) said today that he'd like to see the draft reinstated with the advent of the new Democrat controlled House and Senate. His reasoning? He believes it will force future lawmakers (Republicans, specifically) to face their voting public if they choose to go to war in the future:
"There's no question in my mind that this president and this administration would never have invaded Iraq, especially on the flimsy evidence that was presented to the Congress, if indeed we had a draft, and members of Congress and the administration thought that their kids from their communities would be placed in harm's way."
I like his reasoning, but I think it's flawed. For one, as long as any elected official can easily get their children out of military service, or into the national guard divisions, why would they really worry? For another, when they actually do 'pull strings' for their children, there isn't actually a guarantee that said children will actually serve out their full time, as well we know with Mr. Bush. Finally, there is a reasonable chance that even a half-hearted push for this kind of bill by a Democrat controlled House and Senate could have a disastrous response at the next polls if it fails to deliver the point about the Republican war-hawks.

On the other hand, I could see this bill becoming very significant if they included a provision that states that any legislator seeking to back a war must commit their children to the war as frontline troops. I could see that making a serious impact on their decisions about future wars, since, unlike the voters, they MUST face their own children and families.

As for me, I'm no coward, but I won't fight for injustice and a false and lost cause: I'm saving up $16,000 and looking for a job in Canada.

Tuesday, November 14, 2006

Rum on the Rocks... Again?

It's no big secret that Don Rumsfeld (to say nothing of the rest of the Bushies) is guilty of heinous war crimes. As the US Secretary of Defense, however, he was protected. Protected by Bush's doctrines that protect Americans from trial in the Hague (a doctrine sure to be overturned in a future Democratic presidency with the support of a sympathetic House and Senate), the Bushies have worked with impunity spreading fear and extracting misinformation from captive prisoners, lying if only to make the torture stop.

At this point, even John McCain is on board with this policy. Finally though, a ray of hope shines through the darkness this week as Rummy has resigned his post as Secretary of Defense after orchestrating what may become known as the worst military campaign in US history. Immediately following that resignation, former 'detainees' in Iraq's Abu Ghraib and Cuba's Guantanamo prisons have brought a suit into a German court seeking an investigation and possible criminal prosecution against Rummy, as well as subordinates believed to support this policy.

According to the former prisoners' lawyer, the point is not to get Rumsfeld to stand up and defend himself or face consequences, but instead to show that there will be no safe haven for him. In a greater ramification, this trial could easily be a referendum on the entire war on terror and its leaders, and set new ground rules for treatment of any kind of prisoner of war without allowing leaders to break those rules with impunity.

Saturday, November 11, 2006

Let's Not Stop and Pat Ourselves on the Back

As I'm sure any of my readers would've noticed, it's been 10 days since I've posted. Not for lack of effort, mind you. I've just been extremely busy lately, and it's been a long week and a half.

Of course, since I last posted, we know that the Democrats have conclusively won the House and Senate (even if by a narrow margin in the latter). What will the next two years hold? I don't know that. All I can say is that it will, for certain, not be George W. Bush's agenda.

Bolton won't be confirmed. If (unlikely) any new Supreme Court seats open, they'll be our choices. The Republicans will no longer hold a chokehold over Iraq policy, and hell, we may even get to bring our boys home soon. This will no doubt be a costly withdrawal, seeing as how Iraq could become the very festering pit of terrorism it was said to be at the beginning of this war. That's why it's time for Iraq to stand up for itself, and the rest of the world to pitch in if they don't want to see that happen.

It's not all of America's fault that this happened. Maybe in the next two years (and hopefully many more after that) we can convince the rest of the world that we're worth their trust again.

Anyway, don't expect me, or other truly righteously minded individuals to fade away or silence ourselves just because we won. Now is the time to rebuild our country and our reputation. We saw what happened the last time we allowed ourselves to be shut down, and all we can say is to remind ourselves and others that "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."

Wednesday, November 01, 2006

Bad Jokes? No, Bad Honesty

There's much ado about something, namely, what John Kerry just said. John Kerry remarked yesterday that if the youth of today neglected their education, they would wind up stuck in Iraq. Immediately the Republican war machine launched a horrific and devastating attack against Kerry and did precisely what they aimed for. They slaughtered Mr. Kerry's political future.

I'm not going to debate the Republican moral standing that these attacks were based on, Kerry did a fine job of that himself:

"I'm sick and tired of these despicable Republican attacks that always seem to come from those who never can be found to serve in war, but love to attack those who did. I'm not going to be lectured by a stuffed-suit White House mouthpiece standing behind a podium, or doughy Rush Limbaugh, who no doubt today will take a break from belittling Michael J Fox's Parkinson's disease to start lying about me just as they have lied about Iraq."
What I am here to say and to make a point of is that, badly stated or not, Kerry was spot on. To understand why, you need to understand America, both then and now.

When John Kerry served America during Vietnam (as did John McCain, to whom I say "For shame, dirtbag, for attacking your fellow soldier on political grounds!"), the draft was alive and well, and the draft meant precisely what he said. If you were lax in school, you could easily find yourself in the mud of Vietnam.

In the America John Kerry serves today as a Senator, there is now a sort of 'back door' draft for today's Vietnam, Iraq. In poorer (and generally, uneducated) regions of America, the US military has launched a guerilla war to gain recruits for Iraq. The only viable way of escaping this is to get out of that, get smart, get an education, and make something of yourself (maybe even a Senator down the road).

John Kerry said nothing about soldiers in the military being stupid, or for that matter, uneducated. Some are. But then again, so are some Americans. And Frenchmen. And British. And Iraqis. That's not the point, though. What happened is that John Kerry misstated his point, and the Republican war machine let out a fatal barrage of misquotations, intentional wrongful paraphrasing, and demands for an apology for something he had no need to apologize for.

For shame, Republican scum.