Accomplishment #1
They've learned how to say "no" to everything and anything.
Accomplishment #2
They've done nothing except say no
Accomplishment #3
Republicans have announced no programs, plans or legislation
Monday, April 27, 2009
Friday, April 24, 2009
It's time to put President Bush and his administration on trial
Enough is enough.
If any of us willfully broke the law we'd find ourselves wrestled to the ground by some overzealous cop and tossed into the hooscow until we were tried. If conviced, we'd be sent up the river.
Torture, waterboarding specifically, is against US law. It's not a question for debate.
Torture is illegal.
Bush and his Administration approved torture that is expressly forbidden by US law. Thankfully, they left a paper trail as long as the distance from the White House to the Lincoln Memorial outlining and rationalizing their illegal acts.
It's time for them to be held accountable.
It's time for Bus and Company to stand trial.
It's also time for Obama to grow a pair and appont a special prosecutor to handle the investigations and trials.
Until then, America and our claim to be a Christian, moral nation is forever stained.
If any of us willfully broke the law we'd find ourselves wrestled to the ground by some overzealous cop and tossed into the hooscow until we were tried. If conviced, we'd be sent up the river.
Torture, waterboarding specifically, is against US law. It's not a question for debate.
Torture is illegal.
Bush and his Administration approved torture that is expressly forbidden by US law. Thankfully, they left a paper trail as long as the distance from the White House to the Lincoln Memorial outlining and rationalizing their illegal acts.
It's time for them to be held accountable.
It's time for Bus and Company to stand trial.
It's also time for Obama to grow a pair and appont a special prosecutor to handle the investigations and trials.
Until then, America and our claim to be a Christian, moral nation is forever stained.
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Torture is wrong unless we do it
“We don't torture people in America and people who say we do simply know nothing about our country.” – President George W. Bush in an Interview with Australian TV - October 18, 2003.
As the recent releases of Bush Administration papers reveal, Bush lied.
Torture is illegal in the United States. Not sometimes, all the time. There are no exceptions to the rule.
One only has to read the convoluted paperwork of the Bush Administration to see the extreme they went to in order to rationalize and justify the crime of torture.
The people involved; Bush, people involved in creating the policy and those who carried out the torture should be prosecuted.
There is no excuse for what we did. It is ethically and morally reprehensible.
It is wrong.
And yet we continue to turn a blind eye, try to pretend it didn’t happen or rationalize it away.
And now the president I had hope for has opened with the German gambit (also called the Nuremburg Defense), the torturers were just following orders and won’t be prosecuted. That’s the same excuse Nazis used to justify torture and extermination camps. The Nuremberg Principles put a quick end that excuse.
Nuremberg Principle IV states:
"The fact that a person acted pursuant to order of his Government or of a superior does not relieve him from responsibility under international law provided a moral choice was in fact possible to him."
The United States military adjusted the Uniform Code of Military Justice after World War II. They included a rule nullifying this defense, essentially stating that American military personnel are allowed to refuse unlawful orders.
“Our enemies didn't adhere to the Geneva Convention. Many of my comrades were subjected to very cruel, very inhumane and degrading treatment, a few of them even unto death. But every one of us -- every single one of us -- knew and took great strength from the belief that we were different from our enemies, that we were better than them, that we, if the roles were reversed, would not disgrace ourselves by committing or countenancing such mistreatment of them.”
- Senator John McCain
Someone needs to show this quote to President Obama. It might remind him what our country is all about.
President Obama's decision in not prosecuting Americans who tortured detainees is reprehensible. Torture is illegal - these people broke the law - there is no excuse for torture. Letting the perpetrators get away with it sends a sickening message to the world.
The canard that they "were only following orders' is the excuse we wouldn't let the Germans and Japanese use after WW II. Why are Americans the only ones who get to use this excuse?
Shame on America for practicing torture and then not abiding by the laws we created in our country and helped create for international law to prevent torture.
What message does Obama’s decision send to the world? We are opposed to torture unless we do it, then its okay. What would the US do if our citizens were tortured like the detainees of Guantanamo or Abu Grahib or the secret little prisons around the world were we tortured people?
You can bet America would be up in arms if any of our citizens were tortured with the same techniques we have been using for the past six or seven years. We wouldn’t stand for it.
Why are we now?
All those who participated in torture and those who ordered it should be held accountable for their actions - and that means a trial. America needs to be the example of how laws should be followed.
We need to send a message loud and clear to the rest of the world. We are the beacon of liberty and freedom. We are a country of laws and we will follow them. Torture is never, never, never appropriate.
“The United States participated actively and effectively in the negotiation of the Convention. It marks a significant step in the development during this century of international measures against torture and other inhuman treatment or punishment. Ratification of the Convention by the United States will clearly express United States opposition to torture, an abhorrent practice unfortunately still prevalent in the world today.”
- President Ronald Reagan, May 20th 1988
Shame on Bush and his Administration for believing torture is appropriate.
Shame on Obama and his Administration for sweeping these crimes under the rug.
As the recent releases of Bush Administration papers reveal, Bush lied.
Torture is illegal in the United States. Not sometimes, all the time. There are no exceptions to the rule.
One only has to read the convoluted paperwork of the Bush Administration to see the extreme they went to in order to rationalize and justify the crime of torture.
The people involved; Bush, people involved in creating the policy and those who carried out the torture should be prosecuted.
There is no excuse for what we did. It is ethically and morally reprehensible.
It is wrong.
And yet we continue to turn a blind eye, try to pretend it didn’t happen or rationalize it away.
And now the president I had hope for has opened with the German gambit (also called the Nuremburg Defense), the torturers were just following orders and won’t be prosecuted. That’s the same excuse Nazis used to justify torture and extermination camps. The Nuremberg Principles put a quick end that excuse.
Nuremberg Principle IV states:
"The fact that a person acted pursuant to order of his Government or of a superior does not relieve him from responsibility under international law provided a moral choice was in fact possible to him."
The United States military adjusted the Uniform Code of Military Justice after World War II. They included a rule nullifying this defense, essentially stating that American military personnel are allowed to refuse unlawful orders.
“Our enemies didn't adhere to the Geneva Convention. Many of my comrades were subjected to very cruel, very inhumane and degrading treatment, a few of them even unto death. But every one of us -- every single one of us -- knew and took great strength from the belief that we were different from our enemies, that we were better than them, that we, if the roles were reversed, would not disgrace ourselves by committing or countenancing such mistreatment of them.”
- Senator John McCain
Someone needs to show this quote to President Obama. It might remind him what our country is all about.
President Obama's decision in not prosecuting Americans who tortured detainees is reprehensible. Torture is illegal - these people broke the law - there is no excuse for torture. Letting the perpetrators get away with it sends a sickening message to the world.
The canard that they "were only following orders' is the excuse we wouldn't let the Germans and Japanese use after WW II. Why are Americans the only ones who get to use this excuse?
Shame on America for practicing torture and then not abiding by the laws we created in our country and helped create for international law to prevent torture.
What message does Obama’s decision send to the world? We are opposed to torture unless we do it, then its okay. What would the US do if our citizens were tortured like the detainees of Guantanamo or Abu Grahib or the secret little prisons around the world were we tortured people?
You can bet America would be up in arms if any of our citizens were tortured with the same techniques we have been using for the past six or seven years. We wouldn’t stand for it.
Why are we now?
All those who participated in torture and those who ordered it should be held accountable for their actions - and that means a trial. America needs to be the example of how laws should be followed.
We need to send a message loud and clear to the rest of the world. We are the beacon of liberty and freedom. We are a country of laws and we will follow them. Torture is never, never, never appropriate.
“The United States participated actively and effectively in the negotiation of the Convention. It marks a significant step in the development during this century of international measures against torture and other inhuman treatment or punishment. Ratification of the Convention by the United States will clearly express United States opposition to torture, an abhorrent practice unfortunately still prevalent in the world today.”
- President Ronald Reagan, May 20th 1988
Shame on Bush and his Administration for believing torture is appropriate.
Shame on Obama and his Administration for sweeping these crimes under the rug.
Friday, April 17, 2009
bang bang; you're dead.
Here are some words to live by:
"I think the only choice that will enable us to hold to our vision. . . is one that abandons the concept of naming enemies and adopts a concept familiar to the nonviolent tradition: naming behavior that is oppressive" - Barbara Deming
It happened in the space of one weekend. 62 times by so called mass murderers, hell bent on revenge for some wrong or slight. Children, mothers, fathers, cops all killed by someone for some reason we may or may not know.
We didn’t count the individual killings across the country.
Sadly, most of us heard the news and moved on to the next story on the evening news or in our newspaper, covered in the same way they’d cover a traffic accident or a store opening – 30 or 45 seconds of video with someone saying something about the tragic incident, then moving to the next story.
We have become a nation so numb to violence that when we hear about a mass killing we just don’t react. Violence is so pervasive in our society we just don’t care.
Who do you blame? Lax gun laws? Obama? The UN? Not having a fully armed citizenry?
We need to get to the root of the problem.
Us.
We love our violence. Whether it’s video games, absurdly violent movies, pro wrestling, football highlight reels, cage fighting, cock fighting, dog fighting, hunting pigs and wolves from helicopters… the list goes on and on ad nauseum (find a Latin student if you don’t know what that means).
It’s sickening. It’s pathetic that as a society we get such a kick out of watching or participating in events designed to kill, maim or make bleed.
The reality of violence is now a blur, clouded by video games, movies and TV shows.
Today’s video games can be so realistic, so true to life. You see the blood, you see the gore, you see the pain; you see the carnage on a 42 inch TV in graphic detail.
Worst of all, we let our children play these games without a second thought.
We let them watch the movies and play video games designed specifically to offer the viewer as much killing as possible in as many ways as possible.
Not only that, we seem to honor violence as some sort of right of passage (check out any small town newspaper to see photos of eight-year-olds with their first hunting kill).
You are a product of your environment. Considering what we present to ourselves and our children, why should any of us be surprised when Johnny takes a gun and opens fire on his classmates or the man upset because he lost his job takes it out on co-workers with every gun he or she can get their hands on?
We’re not. It doesn’t even faze us any more. We’re used to the daily violence, whether it’s in Pennsylvania, Iraq or Oklahoma.
We claim to be a nation wedded to our faith. Most religions of the world teach peace and love. They encourage kindness and good deeds.
Now we use religion as an excuse for killing (an eye for an eye and all that Bible quoting stuff).
Why are we not just allowing but encouraging violence?
What has happened to us?
Simple.
We are a society that believes violence solves problems. It's the macho things to do. It's easier than actually sitting down and working to solve a problem (although on TV, movies and video games, violence is the solution we present - dont' ever forget that).
It's time for us to stop the violence. It starts at home. It starts with the idea that everyone deserves to live, that violence never solves a problem.
Violence is easy.
"Non-violence leads to the highest ethics which is the goal of all evolution. Until we stop harming all other living beings, we are still savages. - Thomas Alva Edison.
Perhaps Edison's quote will turn on the light bulb inside our collective heads.
Until then, until that day comes when we finally figure it out, we'll continue to kill each other at an alarming rate.
How much longer can you stomach all that hate?
"I think the only choice that will enable us to hold to our vision. . . is one that abandons the concept of naming enemies and adopts a concept familiar to the nonviolent tradition: naming behavior that is oppressive" - Barbara Deming
It happened in the space of one weekend. 62 times by so called mass murderers, hell bent on revenge for some wrong or slight. Children, mothers, fathers, cops all killed by someone for some reason we may or may not know.
We didn’t count the individual killings across the country.
Sadly, most of us heard the news and moved on to the next story on the evening news or in our newspaper, covered in the same way they’d cover a traffic accident or a store opening – 30 or 45 seconds of video with someone saying something about the tragic incident, then moving to the next story.
We have become a nation so numb to violence that when we hear about a mass killing we just don’t react. Violence is so pervasive in our society we just don’t care.
Who do you blame? Lax gun laws? Obama? The UN? Not having a fully armed citizenry?
We need to get to the root of the problem.
Us.
We love our violence. Whether it’s video games, absurdly violent movies, pro wrestling, football highlight reels, cage fighting, cock fighting, dog fighting, hunting pigs and wolves from helicopters… the list goes on and on ad nauseum (find a Latin student if you don’t know what that means).
It’s sickening. It’s pathetic that as a society we get such a kick out of watching or participating in events designed to kill, maim or make bleed.
The reality of violence is now a blur, clouded by video games, movies and TV shows.
Today’s video games can be so realistic, so true to life. You see the blood, you see the gore, you see the pain; you see the carnage on a 42 inch TV in graphic detail.
Worst of all, we let our children play these games without a second thought.
We let them watch the movies and play video games designed specifically to offer the viewer as much killing as possible in as many ways as possible.
Not only that, we seem to honor violence as some sort of right of passage (check out any small town newspaper to see photos of eight-year-olds with their first hunting kill).
You are a product of your environment. Considering what we present to ourselves and our children, why should any of us be surprised when Johnny takes a gun and opens fire on his classmates or the man upset because he lost his job takes it out on co-workers with every gun he or she can get their hands on?
We’re not. It doesn’t even faze us any more. We’re used to the daily violence, whether it’s in Pennsylvania, Iraq or Oklahoma.
We claim to be a nation wedded to our faith. Most religions of the world teach peace and love. They encourage kindness and good deeds.
Now we use religion as an excuse for killing (an eye for an eye and all that Bible quoting stuff).
Why are we not just allowing but encouraging violence?
What has happened to us?
Simple.
We are a society that believes violence solves problems. It's the macho things to do. It's easier than actually sitting down and working to solve a problem (although on TV, movies and video games, violence is the solution we present - dont' ever forget that).
It's time for us to stop the violence. It starts at home. It starts with the idea that everyone deserves to live, that violence never solves a problem.
Violence is easy.
"Non-violence leads to the highest ethics which is the goal of all evolution. Until we stop harming all other living beings, we are still savages. - Thomas Alva Edison.
Perhaps Edison's quote will turn on the light bulb inside our collective heads.
Until then, until that day comes when we finally figure it out, we'll continue to kill each other at an alarming rate.
How much longer can you stomach all that hate?
Saturday, April 11, 2009
Random Thoughts on a Saturday Morning
I can’t help but believe that the Americans who held the original Boston Tea Party (which was preceded by a cocktail party at a local pub) are spinning in their graves at the mention of the effort by some disgruntled citizens to hold tea bagging parties. As near as I can tell, these middle class citizens just got an income tax DECREASE s I’m not sure what they are complaining about.
On NBC’s evening news many were still claiming Obama isn’t an American citizen (some lies never die) and that the government doesn’t listen to average Americans.
Why should they? Most Americans don’t vote. They don’t get involved in the political process, be it local, state or national.
What we do have is an ill informed electorate that likes to whine and bitch more than they like to learn about the issues and then work the system to make changes.
And then there’s FOX News. They’re blatant (self) promotion of this tea thing only confirms what many of us current and former journalists know, FOX is a partisan media organization dedicated to getting it’s political message out at the expense of broadcasting real news.
We are becoming a nation of sheep, willing to be led by whoever is telling a lie we like.
And the sheep FOX is gathering aren't all the brightest penny in the pile. Expect some violence directly related to the feeding frenzy FOX and Am Hate Radio are whipping up.
It’s time for a change like the tea baggers say – the change needs to come from our hearts and souls. That is where America is truly lacking.
The whole gay civil union/marriage issue is back in the news. I firmly believe that gay couples should have the same legal rights as any other couple. If they can find a church that will allow them to marry, so be it.
50% of heterosexual marriages end in divorce so us straight folks haven’t exactly done right by the sacred institution of marriage.
Our country has many important and pressing issues to deal with right now. Gay civil union and marriage isn’t one of them.
The recent spate of mass killings in the US leaves my European friends confused. They wonder why we make it so easy for the killers.
I’m all for the Second Amendment.
But, what is it about our culture that encourages this behavior and numbs us to the violence around us?
Watching a few video games and some of the current movies in the theatres will give you a clue. Violence sells the more bloody and gruesome the better.
I believe had the Iraq War happened in an age prior to these absurdly violent shoot ‘em up games and movies we would have seen protests against the war. As it is, the war looks too much like the video game.
America’s sensibilities have shifted way off track.
And now for me, it’s 0630. It is chilly here in Oklahoma but the song birds are in full throat. The house is quiet and the coffee hot.
I’ve been reading a lot of Thomas Merton and Thich Nhat Hahn during my recovery. I highly recommend Merton’s “Solitude” and Hahn’s book on mindfulness. It is so important to be aware of every moment. We spend way too much time rushing about. We miss too much of our lives because we forget to stop and smell the roses.
It is my wish that Sunday everyone take some time to stop and really become aware of what is around them.
Easter is a great day to smell those roses.
On NBC’s evening news many were still claiming Obama isn’t an American citizen (some lies never die) and that the government doesn’t listen to average Americans.
Why should they? Most Americans don’t vote. They don’t get involved in the political process, be it local, state or national.
What we do have is an ill informed electorate that likes to whine and bitch more than they like to learn about the issues and then work the system to make changes.
And then there’s FOX News. They’re blatant (self) promotion of this tea thing only confirms what many of us current and former journalists know, FOX is a partisan media organization dedicated to getting it’s political message out at the expense of broadcasting real news.
We are becoming a nation of sheep, willing to be led by whoever is telling a lie we like.
And the sheep FOX is gathering aren't all the brightest penny in the pile. Expect some violence directly related to the feeding frenzy FOX and Am Hate Radio are whipping up.
It’s time for a change like the tea baggers say – the change needs to come from our hearts and souls. That is where America is truly lacking.
The whole gay civil union/marriage issue is back in the news. I firmly believe that gay couples should have the same legal rights as any other couple. If they can find a church that will allow them to marry, so be it.
50% of heterosexual marriages end in divorce so us straight folks haven’t exactly done right by the sacred institution of marriage.
Our country has many important and pressing issues to deal with right now. Gay civil union and marriage isn’t one of them.
The recent spate of mass killings in the US leaves my European friends confused. They wonder why we make it so easy for the killers.
I’m all for the Second Amendment.
But, what is it about our culture that encourages this behavior and numbs us to the violence around us?
Watching a few video games and some of the current movies in the theatres will give you a clue. Violence sells the more bloody and gruesome the better.
I believe had the Iraq War happened in an age prior to these absurdly violent shoot ‘em up games and movies we would have seen protests against the war. As it is, the war looks too much like the video game.
America’s sensibilities have shifted way off track.
And now for me, it’s 0630. It is chilly here in Oklahoma but the song birds are in full throat. The house is quiet and the coffee hot.
I’ve been reading a lot of Thomas Merton and Thich Nhat Hahn during my recovery. I highly recommend Merton’s “Solitude” and Hahn’s book on mindfulness. It is so important to be aware of every moment. We spend way too much time rushing about. We miss too much of our lives because we forget to stop and smell the roses.
It is my wish that Sunday everyone take some time to stop and really become aware of what is around them.
Easter is a great day to smell those roses.
Saturday, April 4, 2009
Stop Talkng About His Death, Start Doing What He Taught
In Saturday’s Washington Post column “On Faith”, Erick Neece hit the spiritual nail on the head with his Guest Voice column entitled “Save Jesus, Ignore Easter”.
In his writing, Neece talks about losing his faith in mainstream Christianity. His thesis?
Christians spend a lot of time "celebrating" Easter and Christmas and not nearly enough time celebrating and actively practicing the life and teachings of Jesus.
As a child and young man, I too was struck by this "He was born and He died" theology. Was that it?
Today Christians use His birth as an excuse for a month long party (can you say Saturnalia?) and His death as an excuse for Mardi Gras parties and then the feast of Easter Sunday.
What we need form our spiritual leaders is a little less focus on politics and the "you're a sinner and going to Hell" sermons and a great deal more teaching and preaching about how to live your life every day using the teachings of Jesus as a model for how to live your life.
Personally, I'm bored with mainstream Christianity. It preaches and condemns while posing as righteous. And like the money changes of Biblical times, it spends way too much time on fleecing the flock. Salvation is equated with church giving, the more you give, the closer you are to God – and presumably salvation.
The reality is that most don't even begin to practice their faith, relying on the "Jesus died for my sins" escape clause in the Bible to justify their unwillingness to practice their faith.
Just listed to the holier than thou politicians who profess their deep Christian faith while cutting funding for Medicare or food stamps or housing assistance or any of the other programs that actually help people.
If I hear one more sanctimonious politician saying the destitute, the infirm and the hungry need to “pull themselves up by their bootstraps” I may puke.
And why is it churches like the Catholic Church and the Mormons, can amass millions of dollars in wealth and never have to use it or pay taxes on it? Why should any church not spend every dime it has on doing God’s work?
Didn’t Christ say something about helping those who can’t help themselves?
Which is more of a sin: that tax dollars go to help feed the poor and help the sick or that 25% of Oklahoma’s children go to bed hungry and have no health insurance (and with that, no health care)?
Jesus had it right: do good things, help the sick and the poor and the downtrodden; let God judge, you worry about helping your fellow man.
Here’s a challenge to mainstream Christian churches; stop spending so much time talking about how Christ was born and how he died and spend a little more time on how he lived.
After all, life is what this is all about.
In his writing, Neece talks about losing his faith in mainstream Christianity. His thesis?
Christians spend a lot of time "celebrating" Easter and Christmas and not nearly enough time celebrating and actively practicing the life and teachings of Jesus.
As a child and young man, I too was struck by this "He was born and He died" theology. Was that it?
Today Christians use His birth as an excuse for a month long party (can you say Saturnalia?) and His death as an excuse for Mardi Gras parties and then the feast of Easter Sunday.
What we need form our spiritual leaders is a little less focus on politics and the "you're a sinner and going to Hell" sermons and a great deal more teaching and preaching about how to live your life every day using the teachings of Jesus as a model for how to live your life.
Personally, I'm bored with mainstream Christianity. It preaches and condemns while posing as righteous. And like the money changes of Biblical times, it spends way too much time on fleecing the flock. Salvation is equated with church giving, the more you give, the closer you are to God – and presumably salvation.
The reality is that most don't even begin to practice their faith, relying on the "Jesus died for my sins" escape clause in the Bible to justify their unwillingness to practice their faith.
Just listed to the holier than thou politicians who profess their deep Christian faith while cutting funding for Medicare or food stamps or housing assistance or any of the other programs that actually help people.
If I hear one more sanctimonious politician saying the destitute, the infirm and the hungry need to “pull themselves up by their bootstraps” I may puke.
And why is it churches like the Catholic Church and the Mormons, can amass millions of dollars in wealth and never have to use it or pay taxes on it? Why should any church not spend every dime it has on doing God’s work?
Didn’t Christ say something about helping those who can’t help themselves?
Which is more of a sin: that tax dollars go to help feed the poor and help the sick or that 25% of Oklahoma’s children go to bed hungry and have no health insurance (and with that, no health care)?
Jesus had it right: do good things, help the sick and the poor and the downtrodden; let God judge, you worry about helping your fellow man.
Here’s a challenge to mainstream Christian churches; stop spending so much time talking about how Christ was born and how he died and spend a little more time on how he lived.
After all, life is what this is all about.
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