Effecting Change

While trolling the web, I came across a post that interested me. The blogger felt that the “left” (Democrats) needed to build a unified base within congress to get “things” through. This is true. Progressives need to prioritize issues and create an agenda with concrete actions for our current systemic failures: financial, social, foreign policy, etc. However, there were two underlying issues that I felt needed highlighting. First, the Democratic Party is part of the problem.

In 2008, the country stood behind Obama for different reasons, the biggest was fear of another Republican in office. The Democrats mistakenly view this as a mandate to do what they want. And unfortunate for us, most Democrats are unprogressive, spineless, parasites that have participated in creating many of the problems we face today.

Second is our electoral process. I'm cynical of our two-party political system (in-depth rant coming soon!), its back room dealings, how money equates to votes, and how stifling it is to progressive voices; but also realize that to effect change help is needed from those within it.

We have bought ourselves 4 years; we must act now. We must seek out and promote insiders who have the outsider’s perspective we desire. There are a few Democrats who honestly encompass many viewpoints shared by those on the progressive left and it is up to us to stand behind them and demand their voices be heard. That won't happen until we disengage from the distracting bickering and narrowly-framed debates of critical issues all too common on corporate media and subsequently discussed on progressive blog sites.

Better Late Than Never?

"Among other things, the Family Smoking and Tobacco Control Act would give the federal government the power to regulate cigarette ingredients ..."

An industry purposely poisoning its customers, immoral. The regulatory body protecting you complicit in this, criminal. It took our Congress 100 years to correct their mistake, but its better late than never!

When the FDA was created in 1906, nicotine was a regulated substance. Big Tobacco lobbied (read bribe) congress and exceptions were made for nicotine and cigarettes. For a century, Big Tobacco has added 600 ingredients to their products for decades, knowing that when burned a cigarette creates 4000 chemicals, many carcinogens. It wasn't until 1994 that a complete? list disclosed to the public. And even with industry cover-ups and government disregard of the facts, Americans have known that cigarettes were harmful. And as much as I would like to blame corrupt politicians and evil corporations, the brunt fall on us. We sat around and did nothing. We just accepted (ignored) the fact that cigarettes were killing us. I'm not advocating making smoking illegal, far from it. I'm disgusted we allowed an industry to poison our friends and family with 600 toxic chemicals, unregulated and legally!

This is my point. Politicians are our employees; they work for us. Its unacceptible that we continually allow them to lie, cause harm, and commit crimes; ultimately in our name! Its wonderful that we have finally corrected a 100 year old mistake. But how long will we allow continued poisoning of our water, land, air and bodies by dozens of other American industries?

Obama's New Beginning

I have read and re-read many times the President’s speech in Cairo. Naturally I wanted to discuss each section, tease out hidden meanings. But not today. It’s taken me a few days to formulate my thoughts, and I’ve decided to be positive. Why? Because I have allowed the negative-energy shit-storm called American politics to infect my soul; this is my holistic detox. So here it goes. As Whitney urged her Hillman dorm mates to do, “Relax.. Relate.. Release..”
The tone of his speech was hopeful.
That’s the best I can do. Sorry. After every read, my natural reflex is to cringe at each omission and nuanced falsity. I worry that listeners to this speech may have missed what I’ve read. My advice; before passing judgment on a much hyped speech, I recommend that you read it, for the words almost always betray feelings initially evoked. Just as sailors must beware the sirens song, so too must the world avoid hopeful words spoken from a lawyer’s forked-tongue.
The Cairo speech was about American foreign policy, area where most American’s are deficient, but the arena where the world’s problems will be addressed. And it is important to remember during these perilous times, that our president isn’t a visionary. He has no specific plans for change. Obama is a politician. A centrist American politician. And that’s how he must be viewed. And he won’t effect any changes unless we force him to.
Now that I’ve failed in my attempt at positivity, I’ll end with this. Obama’s the best president we’ve had in the oval office for several decades.

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.