The Financial Mess

I ran across this while reading the Washington Post this morning. It was in the comment section of an article describing how Bush has lost the respect of the American people. The commentor did not give his name, but I thought it summed up how I feel about Bush and Congress.

Bush the Criminal President said:
"I recognize this is a difficult vote for members of Congress. Many of them don't like the fact that our economy has reached this point, and I understand that. But the reality is that we are in an urgent situation, and the consequences will grow worse each day if we do not act."

TRANSLATION:
"I know you Republicans who have supported every criminal action I asked you to support will probably be voted out of office in a few weeks. I know that you are upset because you were not able to grab as much cash for yourselves as we were able to push through to our corporate supporters and war profiteers. But the reality is that we have gone as far a we can in keeping this financial house of cards afloat on the taxpayers back and we are in an urgent situation. The consequences of inaction will be that our good old boy supporters on Wall Street who are starting to see their multi-million dollar bonus dry up before the year end need our help. Otherwise there will be no more cash filled envelopes or behind the scene political action committees, which will result in our inability to buy elections. This will grow worse each day if we do not act and commit to cover the billion dollar life styles of our rich friends. They have lived well off the savings of the little people (aka American Tax Payers) which is our administration's way of life, but it seems like the little people want some of their money back, and those kooks overseas who brought up all those bad loans that their companies bundled and sold as "High Paying Investments", (He-He-He that was so unbelievable) now want some of their money back. Our friends on Wall Street certainly don't want to dig into their own pockets to try and fix the mess they made while taking millions out of their own companies. They certainly don't want to give anything back. They want to skate with the billions they got while the pickings were good, and leave us holding the empty bags! We can not allow this to happen. It will mean no last minute campaign slush funds just 6 weeks before the election which we will probably loose. So we must act now while we still have the power to keep using tax payer's money to support and protect our self interests. We've already hocked them into debt that their grandchildren will still be trying to pay off. Let's take one more bite of the pie and hock their great-great-grand children, but we must act now before they find out what we are really doing! So, keep doing what you do best. Don't ask questions. Dont read the fine print. Just rubber stamp my proclamation and let me get on with our Conservative agenda. (He-He-He!)"

The Chinese Torture Test

Yesterday the New York Times reported:

The military trainers who came to Guantanamo Bay in December 2002 based an entire interrogation class on a chart showing the effects of “coercive management techniques” for possible use on prisoners, including “sleep deprivation,” “prolonged constraint,” and “exposure.”

What the trainers did not say, and may not have known, was that their chart had been copied verbatim from a 1957 Air Force study of Chinese Communist techniques used during the Korean War to obtain confessions, many of them false, from American prisoners.

Link to Article

So we are using almost 50 year old communist techniques that were determined to produce false confessions? I wonder how many of those terror alerts and warnings that have caused fear and stress were based on false confessions? During those 50 years, Americans were appalled and angered by the Chinese torture techniques that were used against our soldiers. Are these once condemned acts now American policy?

It appears that we have gone from a nation respected for its protection of human rights to a country that practices torture and rendition. Bush has chosen to defend our country with methods that are ineffective and evil, instead of holding our country to high the principles that make it worth defending. This comes from an administration whose campaign was based on moral Christian beliefs. I doubt Jesus would approve of these tactics.

Next week when I go through the TSA airport security gauntlet, I will wonder if humiliating passengers is really necessary to fight terrorism or is it a method of putting fear into voters?

Koodos to the Supremes

June has been a good month for those who favor civil rights. Twice now, the Supreme Court has sent the government the consistent messages: civil liberties, fairness, and, freedom will not be over ridden by political agendas.

The lastest ruling has told local governments they can not outright prohibit the ownership of handguns in a citizen's home. Gun control advocates argue that the writers intended for 2nd Amendment to refer to government militias and not citizens. If that were the case, I suppose the 1st Amendment would only apply to the press. However, Courts have consistently ruled citizens have the right to free speech. Remember, the amendment authors were a bunch of radicals who had just overthrown their British oppressors. I find it hard to believe they would tolerate any arrangement where our government held a monopoly on instruments of deadly force. In World War II, the Germans and Japanese knew all to well that an attack on American soil would be fruitless because of armed citizens. During the cold war, the former USSR officials were aware of the same. For the same reason, it would be very difficult for our citizens to become oppressed by own government. A nation armed to the teeth can never readily be invaded or defeated.

There will always be a readily available black market in guns within our country, ban or no ban. Therefore the honest law abiding citizen should have the right to bear arms to protect ourselves. It is virtually impossible for the police to protect us against an active criminal. Under the best case scenario a victim is on his own for the first five or so minutes, assuming a call was made to 911. The victims best hope for survival during this time is for himself to have ready access to a weapon or an off-duty officer or competent gun carrying citizen to happen into the event. More armed citizens lessons the chance of a violent encounter. After all, most of these thugs or sick individuals seek an opportunity where he has the less chance of retaliation. I have always said if every passenger on airplanes were armed, there would never be a hijacking and 9/11 would still be just a date in September.

Those in disagreement with the gun ruling argue suicides, thefts and accidental shootings will increase. A depressed person hell bent on suicide will find a method. The ruling did not prevent legislation requiring unattended handguns from being locked up. I support such legislation. Most are unaware that all federal law enforcement officers are required to secure their weapons by lock if not wearing the weapon.

Most polls show the majority of voters support the right to own handguns. For this reason, the Republican Party has taken pro gun stance in their campaigns. The Democratic Party should reconsider there agenda on gun control if they wish to retrieve their grassroot supporters who favor gun ownership. Gun control advocates haven't prevented a single gunshot death in the US, but by opening the door to tyrants like Bush, they have caused hundreds of thousands of gunshot deaths abroad.

On Rendition and Torture

Rendition involves secretly taking persons suspected of terrorist activities to a foreign country where torture is practiced. Instead of staining American soil with blood of potentially innocent parties, you do so on foreign land where such tactics are accepted interrogation techniques. Think of it as imprisonment without trial, no rights, and no due process. Then add torture to the process. What better way to do protect your human rights record than by giving the nod for another country to use whatever means necessary in the name of protecting more lives.

One's first thought is it might not be so bad for a savage terrorist. Then ask yourself - how are we sure this person is not innocent? Remember they have not been given any due process. It seems to me that Americans are above savage treatment. How can someone who approves of torture go to church every Sunday? You can not tell me Jesus would approve of torturing another human being. I remember the torture scene in The Deer Hunter where the North Vietnamese tortured an American POW. The scene made me furious - like I wanted to drop a nuke on North Vietnam. Well what kind of leader allows us stoop to that level?

It has been said that for every person tortured one hundred people rise up to perform acts of vengeance. You get an ever increasing cycle of violence. There is little evidence that torture actually provides useful information. There is no way two wrongs can make a right. I guess this stance makes me a bleeding heart liberal to those who shut their minds to the facts that this does happen.

Americans have prided ourselves on being world leaders and a society governed by the rule of law. Part of that was innocent until proven guilty. It was also based on the principles laid out in the Geneva Convention. The Clinton administration actually approved renditions. However, the presidency of El Supremo (Bush) and his band of party loyalist, have taken renditions to a higher lever. This administration thinks people have no rights when accused of anything. That’s quite ironic for an administration whose party platform was based on family values, morality and religion. (Personally I think he duped the voters.) Americans remain oblivious to these actions because they think it doesn’t effect them. As our rights are eroded away, it will slowly become easier for a future and smarter El Supremo to seize all of rights. At that point we will be powerless to stop them. At that point, the government starts accusing everyone and society turns into complete chaos. Torturing and killing people, guilty or not leads to anarchy.

Those who claim that rendition, torture and the abuse of basic human rights are necessary to protect our way of life are as wrong as the terrorists and suicide bombers.

Don't buy into offshore drilling to lower gas prices

Bush’s latest plea to Congress to open more of our country’s coastline to oil drilling will not lower the price of gas. We consume 25% of the worlds oil deposits, but have only 3% in reserves. With those numbers, it is mathematically impossible to drill ourselves to lower gas prices. Besides, it would take 7-10 more years to bring the new offshore fields into production. It has also been reported that the oil companies have only explored 25% of their present leases. What Bush’s present plan will do is give the oil companies more leases in environmentally protected areas. This is just a last minute gift in the form of future oil leases from Bush and Cheney to their pals at the big oil companies. Congress should respond with a bill that requires oil companies to explore a lease within a reasonable set amount of time or loose the lease. Quite frankly, I am not opposed to drilling along coast lines and ANWAR, but selling or inferring this as a fix to today’s high gas prices is simply not true, but typical of this administrations practices.

The only solution to lower energy prices is to wean us off of oil by curbing our consumption now and by switching to renewable sources of energy. Some of this is already happening. People are driving less and using more fuel-efficient cars. Much more can be done with a forward-looking energy strategy that encourages and rewards renewable energy and conservation. We need to immediately begin approving new nuclear power plants and encouraging other means of energy generation such as wind and water. The automakers who sell cars in the US should be forced to triple (or at least increase) vehicle gas mileage rates.

Furthermore, Congress needs to do everything in its power to push more US research into alternative sources of energy. Whichever country makes this happen quickly will benefit by having developed the necessary technology, which can then be profitably exported to other nations. We can be that country. If we continue to bury our head in the sand by listening to oil companies excuses (which are designed to make them more money), we will end up trying to catch up to other countries.