Friday, September 29, 2006

The Terrorist Win Again

The house and the senate handed another victory to the terrorists yesterday. They passed a bill that will allow torture and show trials. The Republicans and some Democrats have shown that they have no respect for people. I do not know if it was done for political reasons or fear. I do know that they have made things worst. Fearless leader says we are there to promote democracy. How exactly are you promoting democracy when you adopt the tactics of the old Soviet Union? How exactly are you promoting democracy by abandoning some of its fundamental concepts? We are fighting a war of ideas and seem to be doing our best to lose it.

The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution are the bedrocks of our society. We are at our best when we attempt to live up to the ideals embodied in those documents. I still hold with them that their truths are universal. I believe they are the main reason that there have been so few terrorist attacks in the US. Now we are in the process of saying that these truths are only for US citizen and then not all the time. We are saying to the world that our values are not as important as the illusion of safety. We are saying to the world that we are no different than the other nations out there.

There is an old saying that action speaks louder than words. Think about what our actions say about us when we invade a country because we are scared. Think about what our actions say when we deny people fundamental right.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt - We have nothing to fear but fear itself.
The Republican Party - Fear everything

American Motto - Old - Land of the Free Home of the Brave
New - Land of the spied upon Home of the Chicken

Wednesday, September 27, 2006

Some correspondence with my senator

Dear Mr. Radulich:

Thank you for contacting me regarding your concerns about the treatment and prosecution of terrorist combatants captured in the global war on terror. I appreciate hearing from you and would like to respond to your concerns.

This war, which is unlike any other conflict our nation has fought before, has presented our country with many unprecedented and difficult choices. In particular, the debate surrounding the proper treatment and prosecution of captured terrorists has focused our attention on the fundamental problem of how to balance our desire to treat all people with proper dignity with our need to prevent future terrorist attacks.

This is a crucial debate. The strength of America depends on the preservation of our values. At its core, our society respects the dignity of every human life. Our nation can never support the use of torture, even when dealing with truly evil enemies. All sides of this debate agree that torture is unacceptable and that basic human rights must be preserved and protected at all levels of our government and military. We also agree that terrorists who are detained in this war should be afforded an appropriate legal process. However, terrorist detainees simply cannot and should not be afforded the same rights and process that our citizens enjoy in our courts.

As you are aware, the United States Supreme Court recently ruled that the procedures used to prosecute terrorist combatants must comply with U.S. statutes and the terms of the Geneva Conventions. As a result of this ruling, Congress has undertaken the task of passing legislation clarifying the procedures under which terrorist combatants are prosecuted and setting clear guidance on the treatment these individuals receive while they are in U.S. custody. By setting clear standards, this legislation will protect U.S. personnel from prosecution for war crimes based on vague and conflicting international interpretations of our military’s requirements under the Geneva Conventions. However, the legislation does not attempt to redefine the terms of the Geneva Conventions.

As we consider these procedures, we must balance two very important American principles: security and liberty. Our country must respect the human dignity of all individuals, but we must also remember that the terrorist combatants that have been captured have been engaged, in varying degrees, in an ongoing, violent and destructive war against the United States—a war in which the terrorists do not differentiate between civilians and military personnel. Therefore, it is important that these combatants are tried in congressionally approved military commissions that afford a fair and reliable prosecution that is consistent with our nation’s character and national security interests. I believe the legislation crafted by the Senate, which has been carefully negotiated between the White House and the Congress, will do that.

Please know that as we continue to debate critical issues in the war on terror, I will keep your concerns in mind. Again, thank you very much for sharing your opinions with me. If you have any additional questions or comments, please do not hesitate to contact me. In addition, for more information about issues and activities important to Florida, please sign up for my weekly newsletter at http://martinez.senate.gov.

Sincerely,

Mel Martinez
United States Senator


My response


In your answer to me you say this is a war like no other conflict before. May I remind you that the German's kill 6 million civilians just to kill them. The Vietnam war was guerrilla war. The Philippines took something like 12 years of guerrilla war to subdue them. The various indian wars this nation has undertaken.

This is not about terrorist, this is about what kind of people we are. Do we no longer believe the words of the Declaration of Independence

"When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.-"


This nation was conceived as a noble experiment. Are we to turn our back on it and say we are no different then the terrorist. Are we to demonstrate to the world that we no longer believe in good, that the only thing we believe in is power. Are we to scream to the world Might makes Right.

I personally am not religious but I keep hearing how we are a Christian nation. Exactly how do you square Christian values with torture?

I would also like to know how you spread Democracy by denying it to the very people you want to adopt it?

Last but not least I would remind you of your oath of office.

" I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter: So help me God."

Notice it says the constitution, not me, not the government, not the land. In a choice between safety or the constitution, you are bond by your oath to support the constitution.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt - We have nothing to fear but fear itself.
The Republican Party - Fear everything

American Motto - Old - Land of the Free Home of the Brave
New - Land of the spied upon Home of the Chicken

Tuesday, September 26, 2006

Bush - Clueless or Lying

As usual our fearless leader made a complete ass of him self. We have not left Iraq since the 1991 war. Both physically ( no fly zones) and politically (sanctions). And the nonsense that he does not use 9/11 for political purposes, pure bulls**T. It is the only reason he pays any attention to 9/11 at all. He knows that he would be nowhere without 9/11.

But to get back to why the terrorist attached us. Does anybody remember what Bin Laden wanted in the beginning? Let me refresh your memory. He wanted us out of Saudi Arabia home of the holy city Mecca. Why were we there? To protect the nations against Iraq and provide support for the troops that overflying Iraq. So take your choice fearless leader is clueless or is lying. Personally I would go with both.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt - We have nothing to fear but fear itself.
The Republican Party - Fear everything

American Motto - Old - Land of the Free Home of the Brave
New - Land of the spied upon Home of the Chicken

Sunday, September 24, 2006

Some thoughts on the Flag

I was walking through a park in St. Petersburg today and saw I war memorial. Part of the memorial was an ode to the flag. I read it, choked up and then thought that what they should be rhapsodizing is the constitution. There has been much ado over flag burning lately and how it insults those who died for it.

I fervently hope nobody died for the flag. I hope that those who died fighting for this country fought to sustain the ideas in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. Those who wish to ban things like flag burning are the ones disgracing the nation and dishonoring the dead. Much like the committee on un-American activities is the most un-American institution, those who wish to ban expression are the ones seeking to dishonor this country.

THIS IS NOT A PERSON YELLING FIRE IN A CROWDED THEATER. We have allowed the Nazi party to march in a jewish community and in the pass have allowed the KKK to march. I personally find O'Rielly, Limbaugh, and Ann Coulter highly offensive, dangerous and extremely anti-American. Should we band them?

If you ban flag burning, do you ban wearing it as clothing? Is having the flag on your butt anymore disrespectful than burning it? What about waving it a concerts? Do we find it more respectfully to wave the flag for commercial profit? How does that honor the dead?

Franklin Delano Roosevelt - We have nothing to fear but fear itself.
The Republican Party - Fear everything

American Motto - Old - Land of the Free Home of the Brave
New - Land of the spied upon Home of the Chicken

Friday, September 22, 2006

Eat S**t and Die

I happen to flipping through the channels the other day and was passing the Glenn Beck show. He was showing a moslem girl ( about 12?) who was voicing the opinion that Mr. Bush was an evil man and that he should die. He was apparently using this as an example of how corrupt their culture was.

I would think that this was more a dog bites man news item. Most of the world hates Mr. Bush. Most people I talk to who dislike the man are of the opinion he should eat s***t and die. He has done so many things wrong it is incredible. He is a disgrace to this nation, his office and the idea of America. Anybody who think water boarding is not torture should try it. We preach we are a nation of laws and then hold people indefinitely with a trial or even charging them.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt - We have nothing to fear but fear itself.
The Republican Party - Fear everything

American Motto - Old - Land of the Free Home of the Brave
New - Land of the spied upon Home of the Chicken

Thursday, September 21, 2006

New Attacks on our freedom's

When Social security was inaugurated, there was a big argument about it becoming our national number. When the law was enacted there was a provision that the number would only be know to three people; your job, you and Social Security. The only people who could use it for identification was social security. That lasted until the 70's. Now everybody knows it and it has become your national number.

Now they want to enact a bill that says you can not vote without a picture ID. It has passed the House and I'm not sure of it's status in the Senate. The democrats are against it because they think it will cut into their voters more than it cuts into the republican voters. The courts have knocked it down as unconstitutional in two states.

I'm against it because I see it as one more step down the slippery slope to a true national ID card that will have to be carried around all the time. That just doesn't sound right to me. It makes me nervous. The NRA does not want us to register guns because they are afraid that the government will then use that list to restrict or take away guns. How having a national card will be used in the future,I can not say. I do know that I do not want to find out.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt - We have nothing to fear but fear itself.
The Republican Party - Fear everything

American Motto - Old - Land of the Free Home of the Brave
New - Land of the spied upon Home of the Chicken

Monday, September 18, 2006

Vanishing Iraqis

Iraq People:

Population:
26,074,906 (July 2005 est.)

Age structure:
0-14 years: 40% (male:5,293,709; female:5,130,826)
15-64 years: 57% (male:7,530,619; female:7,338,109)
65 years and over: 3% (male:367,832; female:413,811) (2005)

Median age:
total: 19.43 years
male: 19.35 years
female: 19.51 years (2005)

Number of Iraqis that left Iraq 2003 - 2005

1.3 million as of 2005 5% of the 2005 population (ABC World News)
800,000 left in 2005

I guess they do not think we are winning the war.


Franklin Delano Roosevelt - We have nothing to fear but fear itself.
The Republican Party - Fear everything

American Motto - Old - Land of the Free Home of the Brave
New - Land of the spied upon Home of the Chicken

Sunday, September 17, 2006

Some Religious Thoughs

I hesitate to write this since this will enhance the stereo type that all Liberals are godless, but what the hell.


Why do all religions worship such small and petty gods?

I mean all these gods require man's help to do anything. They require prophets to come and teach us how to worship them. I quess the gods do not have time to come and show us themselfs.

God may have destroyed the walls of Jerhico but he required human trumpetters. He also required Joshua to destroy his enemies. I quess god did not want to soil his hands with killing them himself.

He lead his people from bondage in Egypt. No wait, that was Moses. Apparently he was unable to free the people without Moses help. Of course he did kill all the first born of Egypt which is strange that he would commit mass abortion.

Then there is the issue of all theses rites associated with religion. Apparently they need all this worship to survive. What other reason can there be? After all they supposable can see into our hearts and if that is the case then there need be no rites to show our piety. If they require our worship how mighty a god are they?

Here is an experiment that you can try. Get out of bed in the morning and wait for god ( not you or another human) to dress you. Try to go to work without you or another human getting you their. Hell, try to do anything without you or another human actually doing it.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt - We have nothing to fear but fear itself.
The Republican Party - Fear everything

American Motto - Old - Land of the Free Home of the Brave
New - Land of the spied upon Home of the Chicken

Saturday, September 16, 2006

Some thoughts on conservatism

con‧serv‧a‧tive  /kənˈsɜrvətɪv/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[kuhn-sur-vuh-tiv] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation
–adjective
1. disposed to preserve existing conditions, institutions, etc., or to restore traditional ones, and to limit change.
2. cautiously moderate or purposefully low: a conservative estimate.
3. traditional in style or manner; avoiding novelty or showiness: conservative suit.

1. Why would anyone want to be considered a conservative given the great conservative parties of the past - Tories, Confederate States of America, KKK, Know nothing party?

2. Given that every republican since and including Reagan have totally betrayed conservative principles, why do they keep voting republican? Is it because they are too chicken to nominate a third party candidate?

3. Exactly what have conservatives ever done for this country? Not universal suffrage, not civil rights, not the declaration of independence, not the constitution, not the bill of rights, not social security, not preparing for WWII, not the Marshall plan.


Franklin Delano Roosevelt - We have nothing to fear but fear itself.
The Republican Party - Fear everything

American Motto - Old - Land of the Free Home of the Brave
New - Land of the spied upon Home of the Chicken

Friday, September 15, 2006

Some thoughts the day after 9/12/06

I did not see The Path to 9/11. I still do not believe a docudrama this close to the event and a midterm election was appropriate, but at least in theory this is a free country. Of course if people were not so gullible it would not really matter. When my son was very young I stressed over and over again not to believe what he saw on TV or in the movies. I even stress that the news was to be viewed skeptically. I probably ruined GI Joe for him since I always stressed that you cannot throw that much ammunition around with out killing and maiming people.

In other Dog bites man news

Mr. Bush says that if we do not defeat terrorist now the will nuke us in the near future. He continues to spout the main stance of the Republican Be afraid, very afraid. He seems to be of the idea that a bullet can defeat and idea. In other words he is, as always clueless. Take his latest jag of comparing the war on terror with WWII. This much better than when he compared it to the crusades but totally wrong. In fact given that we are now saying our mission is to bring democracy to the Mideast, the crusades is probably a better comparison. Certainly a comparison to the cold war is better than WWII. What Mr. Bush is trying to do is link this to the last good war to improve his ratings.

But let us take his comparison. What exactly is the same? Pearl Harbor and 9/11? Pearl Harbor was a sneak attack (inadvertently since we were suppose to know about the declaration of war ahead of it). Bin Ladin had declared war on us well before 9/11. Bush and company were notified that there would be some sort of an attack well before 9/11. The attack on Pearl Harbor created a real security crisis, while 9/11 was incidental. By that I do not mean that it was not a major tragedy, something that we should always remember and do what we can (within the constitution) to avoid in the future. I mean that at no time was it a threat to the security of the US. Bin Laden was never going to overthrow our government or destroy our 200 million plus people. Bin Laden has no battleships, no million man army, no railroad guns, NO NUKES, no air force, no tanks, and no aircraft carriers. In short he has no means to bring down the US without our compliance. It is Bush, not Bin Laden, who has decided to infringe on our rights with warrentless eavesdropping. It is the Parks commission, not Bin Laden, that is keeping people out of the Statue of Liberty.

Where are the bond drives, draft, taxes, and scrap metal drives of WWII? If this is the same as WWII, why have we not turned our entire economy over to a war economy?

Then let us talk prisoners of war and war criminals. During WWII we treated German and Italian POW’s better than we treated blacks in our country. After the war the war criminals were tried in an open court before the whole world. Care to contrast that with our current treatment of POW’s and war criminals?

Did we defeat fascism? If you mean that we defeated the Axis powers, then you bet we did. If you mean that fascism was no longer capable of overthrowing a modern nation, absolutely. If you mean that we removed fascism from this planet, absolutely not. There still many people who see Hitler as a hero. We have all heard of white power and Aryan groups. The fact that they have not committed a major act of terrorism is most likely because they have a greater grasp of reality then the radical Islamic.

More dog bites man news.

The pentagon started that major drive in Baghdad last month and reported that they had cut the violence in half. Turns out that they did not need more troops to do this, all they needed was a sharp pencil. They accomplished the reduction by not counting whole categories of violence that they had previously counted. This administration continues to prove out the old riddle –

How do you know the administration is lying?

Answer – Their lips are moving.



Franklin Delano Roosevelt - We have nothing to fear but fear itself.
The Republican Party - Fear everything

American Motto - Old - Land of the Free Home of the Brave
New - Land of the spied upon Home of the Chicken

Face The Nation 9-10

Today I was watching Face the Nation on CBS and the final 5 minutes is always Bob Schieffer orated on something, usually the topic of the program. Today, of course, was on 9/11 and how safe the nation is. At the end he told how when he was speaking after 9/11 and mentioning the heroes, some stood up and said couldn't the hijackers be considered heroes- they were willing to die for a cause. Bob Schieffer reason that they were not heroes because they killed innocent people. While I agree they should not be considered heroes, I disagree with Bob Schieffer on why.

I disagree for three reasons. The first being that if that is the criteria, then al those people who flew in WWII could not be considered heroes. Carpet bombing certainly killed many civilians and many of them were children. I am certain some of them were pregnant women. In modern war it is virtually impossible not to kill civilians. Our weapons are too powerful.

The second reason is that there is no such thing as innocent civilians( excepting people under say 10 years old) in today’s world. I nations economy is as important as it's armed forces. The end of the cold war was basically a race to see who would go bankrupt first - the US or the USSR. Given that then we are all a part of the war machine. All soldiers in our own way.

The third reason is that we are a democracy. In theory, at least, we are the government and therefore responsible for it and the actions of the armed forces. That being the case we are all legitimate targets.

The reason I believe that they should not be considered heroes is because they were mercenaries. They did not die just to advance the beliefs or to save other people. They did it because by doing it they would automatically go to their version of heaven. The only differences with paying them money are that people will do more really stupid things for beliefs and it is a lot cheaper.



Franklin Delano Roosevelt - We have nothing to fear but fear itself.
The Republican Party - Fear everything

American Motto - Old - Land of the Free Home of the Brave
New - Land of the spied upon Home of the Chicken

Thursday, September 07, 2006

Path to 9/11

Today I received a missive from the Democratic party to protest ABC's Path to 9/11. They contend that it incorrectly puts the blame for 9/11 on the Democrats by showing scenes that not only did not happen but are directly opposite of what did happen. As much as I hate to condemn unseen, I did send an email to Eisner protesting. I did this for two reason.

The first is that this close to election day I considerate it bad taste to show a partisan docudrama on 9/11. I have no objection to the movie "World Trade Center", in fact I thought it was a great movie( My only bitch is that in the movie the two marines were white while in real life one was black. This is mainly a problem because of the big hubbub that was made over the the picture of the flag raising that included a black when there was none.). I intend to see United 93.

The second is the sheer absurdity that the Democrats can be blamed for what happened. The house and the senate have been under Republican control since 1994, the Presidency since 1/1/2001. It is the Republicans who are always saying they want to cut the budget ( except of course corporate welfare). It is this president who decided that China and Iraq were the big threats and ignore the terrorist.


Remember this - less than 300 people ( which includes Oklahoma) have died under a Democratic president as a result of terrorism. Over 6,000 have died under this president and the number continues to climb. I can not recall a lot of terrorist attacks under Clinton world wide ( excluding Israel). There have been a great many under this president and more happening everyday.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt - We have nothing to fear but fear itself.
The Republican Party - Fear everything

American Motto - Old - Land of the Free Home of the Brave
New - Land of the spied upon Home of the Chicken

Wednesday, September 06, 2006

Florida Election 2

I worked the elections yesterday. For a brief time I had hoped that things had changed. From the few people who said anything on their way out I thought, maybe America had changed. Then I read today's paper and our local bigot had won the republican nomination for State senate. Granted it was only Republicans but still. In other new(or should I say non news) Bush was gave another speech saying fear everything.



Franklin Delano Roosevelt - We have nothing to fear but fear itself.
The Republican Party - Fear everything

American Motto - Old - Land of the Free Home of the Brave
New - Land of the spied upon Home of the Chicken

Monday, September 04, 2006

Florida Election

I'm watching regular TV and there by getting a lot of political ads. The republicans are up to their usual tricks of emphasizing the two main legs of the party Fear and HATE. But I also notice one other thing - They are Regan Republicans not Bush Republicans. Not sure what they mean by this.

Do they mean that they are out to bust unions? (air traffic controllers)
Do they mean that they want to cut taxes for the rich while doubling taxes on the working man ?(Social security, a regressive payroll tax was doubled)
Do they mean they want to break the law (Iran-contra)?
Do they mean they want to run huge deficits? (Second biggest increaser of national debt- Bush II is the first)


Franklin Delano Roosevelt - We have nothing to fear but fear itself.
The Republican Party - Fear everything

American Motto - Old - Land of the Free Home of the Brave
New - Land of the spied upon Home of the Chicken