Get Paid For Murder, Legally?

The NY Times needs to make a new section for Unintentional Humor.

A Miami judge awarded more than $1 billion in damages to a Cuban-American who was involved in the 1967 capture and killing of the revolutionary Che Guevara. The judge, Peter Adrien, said he was sending a signal to the Cuban government. Such a large award may be impossible to collect, but lawyers involved in the case insist they will try. The award came in a lawsuit filed by Gustavo Villoldo, who blamed Guevara, Fidel Castro and others for his father’s 1959 suicide in Cuba. The family fled to the United States, and Mr. Villoldo later took part in the Bay of Pigs invasion and was involved in capturing Guevara in Bolivia. Cuba’s government refused to respond to the lawsuit.

Where do I start? The son of a man, openly involved in the capture and killing of another human being, is awarded $1 billion dollars damages because the murder victim is responsible for the murderers subsequent suicide?! Why doesn't Jeffrey Dahmer's parents sue for damages because the cannibal's victims are culpable for his murder in jail? I had to reread this item several times to ensure I wasn't hallucinating.
This highlights the obsessive and irrational compulsion America has with Cuba. I'm no lawyer, but I'm sure this ruling has no basis in law or common sense. In addition, it speaks volumes about the psyche and / or psychosis endemic in south Florida's Cuban / Cuban-American population. And at time when so much media energy is focused on Judge Sotomayor, a most blatant episode of judicial activism is ignored.

Obama National Security Pt. 2

“Unfortunately, faced with an uncertain threat, our government made a series of hasty decisions..based on fear rather than foresight..[so I] called for a new approach -- one that rejected torture and one that recognized the imperative of closing the prison at Guantanamo Bay.”

Why is Guantanamo Bay prison so unique? It surely is not the only prison created during the War on Terror, nor is it where the worst atrocities were committed. But when he says this, we’re impressed nonetheless. Obama promised this. “I argued that is should be closed throughout my campaign, and that is why I ordered it closed within one year.” He simultaneously placates and castrates progressives by invoking fulfilled campaign promises and conveniently avoiding the real problems: Abu Ghraib, mercenaries, extraordinary rendition, etc. President Obama is surgical with the English language.
He continues on theme saying Guantanamo “is a rallying cry for our enemies.” I’d assume the more effective rallying cry would relate to foreigners invading their country, occupying their nation, removing its government, and installing a puppet government in its place. Besides being great motivators, these actions are very imperial. Obama deftly prevents that question from entering your mind; “Fidelity to our values is the reason why the United States of America grew from a small string of colonies under the writ of an empire to the strongest nation in the world.” He invokes the taboo “E” word to describe Great Britain a few hundred years ago, but not the country he represents today.

President Obama doesn’t believe in dwelling in the past, near or ancient. He had to address the current nuclear dilemma that is Pakistan, and indirectly Iran.

“We have re-energized a global non-proliferation regime to deny the world's most dangerous people access to the world's deadliest weapons. And we've launched an effort to secure all loose nuclear materials within four years.”

I’m not denying that there are crazies that want nuclear weapons. It’s a fact. But we’ve created a situation of rewarding illegal nuclear powers (India, Israel, Pakistan) with legitimacy, giving motivation for rouge states to acquire nuclear technology. Appearing as nuclear hypocrite doesn’t help our global image. And speaking of image, he touches on the dreaded torture photos.

When talking about the torture photos he refuses to release Obama says,

“It was my judgment – informed by my national security team -- that releasing these photos would inflame anti-American opinion and allow our enemies to paint U.S. troops with a broad, damning, and inaccurate brush, thereby endangering them in theaters of war.”

Are you serious, looking at photos (of widely known criminal acts) will suddenly tarnish our glowing reputation in Iraq? Washington doesn’t want to show the photos because they fear what Americans will think or do in response. This has nothing to do with the rest of the world. The world knows of these abuses and have formed opinions long ago. And when does the perpetrator of crimes determine what happens to evidence? Why don’t we ask the victims in these photos if they want the world to see them?

Some wonder why Obama refuses to allow an investigation into the previous administrations war crimes, it’s because he’s continuing them.

Obama National Security Pt. 1

Now that you’ve enjoyed the fallout from Obama-Cheney Duel 2009, I want to depress.
As usual, the President’s delivery of his recent National Security speech met expectations. His oratory skills seldom disappoint. As for his competition, Nostra-Dick-us Cheney, predictor of future disasters and purveyor of fear, what can be said that hasn’t been already. He is so dense with evil and hatred that he implodes within his own gravity fusing together to radiate loathing and fear across the galaxy, like a bizarro sun. But back to Obama. I’ve sampled a few quotes from his eloquent speech which I find disturbing.

“For the first time since 2002, we're providing the necessary resources and strategic direction to take the fight to the extremists who attacked us on 9/11 in Afghanistan and Pakistan.”

I’m not naïve and I understand that hijackers or suicide murders operate within groups. They have associates complicit in their crimes. But how large is this group that 8 years and 200,000 US soldiers cannot find them? I gather Osama bin laden, 6’ 4”, dragging a dialysis unit through the hills of Afghanistan remains untraceable, totally understandable. So who else did we invade a sovereign nation for? And how do we distinguish between 9/11 conspirators and John Q. Pashtun pissed off America invaded, killed his neighbors, and continues to occupy his country? This is a very important fact that no one in Washington, Pentagon, nor the media want to address.

“We're building new partnerships around the world to disrupt, dismantle, and defeat al Qaeda and its affiliates.”

Whats the deal with this phrase “Al Qaeda and its affiliates” or enemy combatant, insurgent, or whatever vaguery du jour used to group together religious fanatics, rebels, kooks, crazies, and unlucky innocents? Actually there is a scientific process for defining who is an affiliate. I heard CIA is running an algorithm, 6 Degrees of bin Laden. I believe I'm on the list because I rode the bus next to the guy who works with the lady who emailed her cousin who pumps the gas for the dialysis repair guy who works for bin Laden. You better look out.

“We are indeed at war with Al Qaeda and its affiliates.”

He said it again, “its affiliates”. The affiliates are “enemies who did not abide by any law of war” necessitating “that our government would need new tools to protect the American people, and that these tools would have to allow us to prevent attacks instead of simply prosecuting those who try to carry them out.” Very noble, the idea of preventing crime and murder. I didn’t think it possible until I searched the web and found that Obama enlisted Tom Cruise and 3 drugged psychics, floating in a Jacuzzi to predict future terrorist acts? Or was that Jacuzzi actually a waterboard apparatus? Oh, who cares. Honestly, I know Obama had nothing to do with torture (yet). But didn't we hear a lot about new tools in the last administration?
Drones? Got ‘em.
Torture, sorry Enhanced Interogation Techniques? Check.
Extraordinary Rendition? Still using that.
Maybe Obama is thinking of PATRIOT Act 3000 to further erode our civil liberties. And as for this war, its one that we started, better yet created. War On Terror. Could something more vague be used as an excuse for senseless violence and death? This war is vague. Hence the enemy and his location are vague. How do we handle vague nondescript criminals? We need new vague laws of course! Bullshit. Sadly Obama is starting to remind me of his predecessor, except with brains. This could be very dangerous.
Part II coming soon.

The Other Afghanistan

“More than a dozen Ethiopian military trucks crossed the border into Somalia on Tuesday morning, officials said. The Ethiopian military set up a checkpoint at Kalabeyrka, according to the governor of the Hiran region, Sheik Abdirahman Ibrahim Macow. The Ethiopian troops, who had withdrawn from Somalia in January, returned days after a hard-line Islamist militia took over three towns, expanding its control over a large part of the country.” NY Times May 19

A very benign blurb and misleading. A little clarity, not much, can be gained by reading Al Jazeera from the same day.

“Ethiopian troops originally entered the country in 2006 to restore the UN-backed government to power in Mogadishu, which Islamist fighters had seized along with much of southern Somalia.”
“There have been sporadic reports of Ethiopian troops crossing the border since they pulled out of Somalia at the start of 2009 as part of a peace deal.”

Somalia was pulled into George Bush’s Crusade, oh um, War on Islam, oh I’m sorry, War on Terror for well, because the Islamic Courts wanted to establish Shar'ia law. I'm no fan of oppressive fundamentalist religion in any form, but if a country plagued with decades of violence finds peace through a sharia government, go for it.
Ethiopia has been acting not only as proxy for, but in concert with US military since early 2007. This is disturbing not only because it goes largely unnoticed, but that Pres "Change" is continuing W's folly. And because a government, of Ethiopian loyalists, was established with UN blessing doesn't Somalis can't see it for what it is, a puppet regime.

And similar to other countries affected by America’s War on Terror and weak puppet regimes (Iraq and Afghanistan), the true victims are the noncombatants maimed by errant bombs and bullets. The living also suffer; one quarter million Somalis have fled to neighboring Kenya, where they live in under-supplied over-crowded camps where they lack adequate food, water and shelter.

Washington needs to call back its goons, allow an indigenous and domestic stabilizing force to bring peace to this troubled nation.
And for the believers of this War on Terror, I’m not buying it here. No excuses of "Nukes" or imminent threat from impoverish Somalia.

Irony legalizing marijuana now

America is ready to discuss the legalization of marijuana. Why now? $$$$ of course! Because it makes fiscal sense. Corporations, banks, and investors (Wall Street) are still asking for more trillion dollar bailouts; Washington continues to operate under deficits and the current administration is planning on adding its own trillions to the national debt. Legalization of drugs would be an enormous profit maker for government. It has always been in America’s economic interests, unless you’re Nino Brown or the CIA (see Mike Ruppert). So let me ask a deeper question, “WHY-NOW?” Maybe because the poor no longer have the monopoly on suffering?
America’s biggest experiment with control of social vices, Prohibition, was a tragedy. Making alcohol illegal did not stop alcohol consumption. It did create an environment of destruction, murder, and profitability for organized crime. Our current “experiment”, the War on Drugs, has been waged unsuccessfully for decades. Unfortunately, from marijuana to crack cocaine, social (sometimes racial) prejudices are behind the demonization and subsequent legal treatment of those involved. And similar to the era of Prohibition, the lure of easy drug money and limited legal employment opportunities creates an atmosphere of desperation and murder. Mothers have cried over young lives cut short and fathers screamed about the destruction of families, neighborhoods, and entire generations. Their pleas have fallen on deaf ears. But when Wall Street whimpers for help; legalizing drugs will miraculously alleviate their pain.
Poor people dying for decades because of oppressive social paradigms isn’t worthy enough to foster debate on drug legalization, but heaven forbid some corporatist loses his billion dollar portfolio gambling on wall street; marijuana please come to the rescue. The irony sickens me. I don’t condone the abuse of psychoactive substances, but if legalization means one less senseless murder, I’m all for it. I pray that this long delayed debate on marijuana leads to its legalization. But I don't want us to ignore the underlying prejudices that underlie our discriminatory drug policy. Unless we honestly address social ills of our culture, the symptoms will reappear somewhere. Where next will America get its oppressive fix. Further neglect and deterioration of our public school system? Invading and colonizing more developing countries? More control of women’s bodies?

New Direction Afghanistan

What is Obama doing bringing in a new commander for Afghanistan? This is not the time to be changing leadership; its time to get the hell out of there. Someone needs to tell our President that Iraq is not the only unjustified war we’re fighting.
He constantly remarks that this is where the war on terror should have been waged shortly after 9/11. But that isn’t exactly correct. We were going after Osama bin Laden, not Afghanistan. The Taliban simply asked for proof, any proof of bin Laden’s connection, and they would hand him over. Instead of giving them proof (does it exist?), we invaded. We bombed. We droned. What we did give them was death, death to everyone but to whom the invasion was based.

When did we stop discussing the oil pipeline in the northern Afghanistan? You remember, the one started under Unocal. The Unocal who’s former consultant is president of Afghanistan. Or maybe we never started that discussion.
Obama is supposed to bring change. Empire continues forging forward. Deficit spending, corporate and military welfare continues, while the middle class suffers and the investor class gets to readjust their ledgers.

Could Obama really believe the need to continue in Afghanistan? Not that I’m surprised, listening to him on the stump. But damn, I was praying Afghanistan would be a campaign promise he would renege.