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November 30, 2009
Afghanistan: Should we stay or should we go?
Today's Talk of the Nation on NPR had an interesting segment called What To Expect From Obama's Afghanistan Address (audio only). Neal Conan and Ted Koppel discussed Obama's upcoming speech and took several phone calls from listeners.
What I want to mention here is something Ted Koppel said where he paraphrases something Afghan President Hamid Karzi said recently. It begins at about 16:10 on the audio clip.
Ted Koppel:
Hamid Karzi said something that was very truthful the other day. He said in effect, 'Hey guys, you Americans are not here for my sake. You're not even here for "our" sake...' I'm... I'm transliterating now what he said. 'You're not here for the sake of Afghanistan. You're here to protect your own interests. So this notion of "we're gonna leave if you - Hamid Karzi - don't do exactly what we tell you" is nonsense. You won't leave as long as your interests are threatened. Once your interests have been met, nothing that does me any good is gonna keep you here anyway.'"That got me to thinking. We - and the rest of the world - tolerated the Taliban being in control of Afghanistan... UNTIL terrorists based in Afghanistan and supported by the Taliban brought us the 9-11-01 tragedy. We didn't go into Afghanistan to topple the Taliban. We didn't even go in to topple Al Queda. We knew they were in Afghanistan several years prior. In fact, when President Clinton fired cruise missles at Al Queda training camps Congressional Republicans complained loudly, calling it "wag the dog."
No, we went in explicitly in response to 9/11.
I'm as in favor of bringing greater freedom to the people of Afghanistan. Heck, I'm in favor of greater freedom for all people who are living under repressive regimes. But we can't save the world. We can't! There are reasons why we went into Afghanistan and Iraq rather than into Tibet and North Korea. Innocent people lived under tyranny in each of those places but there was ZERO chance that the Tibetians or the North Koreans were going to see American military hardware forcibly removing their tormenters.
Besides which, Koppel's transliteration of Karzi is spot on. These people know that we're there for our own reasons, not for theirs. So who are we fooling?
So... I'm torn. On the one hand I very much want to believe that somehow the Afghan people can be left with opportunities that they wouldn't have if we just left. But on the other hand, that seems like buying into spin. Plus the fact that no outsiders have EVER managed to tame the Afghan people.
Maybe, just maybe... if the Afghan people want freedom they're going to have to fight for it themselves. Maybe nobody can do that for them and we're just throwing good money (and blood) after bad because we can't or won't face that fundamental truth.
Posted by Kevin at 05:38 PM |
November 24, 2009
Microsoft Front Page 5.0 – The Web Editor Of PATRIOTS!
Nothing to do with Oregon, everything to do with Republican artistic tastes, and too good not to share; the website of George R. Hutchins, American, Ronald Reagan Republican, Jesse Helms Republican, who wants to be North Carolina's next 4th District Congressman.
This thing would best be described as if Lazlo Toth and The Onion got together to create a fake, over the top, conservative Tea Partier with illusions of vision and a program, and had Microsoft Front Page from Office 2003 to play with. Add the web sensibilities of a LOLCat maker and leave out on the sidewalk under the hot sun and …
Get on your 1997 Web Goggles and enjoy.
I still think The Onion is behind this, FWIW.
(via Eschaton)
Posted by The Chinuk at 02:50 PM |
OrGov: Wild Bill Sizemore Brings His "A" Game - Against His Own.
Wild Bill Sizemore: Surprise! I'm running for governor!
Smilin' Bob Tiernan: Sorry, I thought we quit you some time back:
When (Oregonian Political reporter Jeff Mapes) called Tiernan Monday to talk about Sizemore's candidacy, he expressed surprise and said he thought Sizemore "went off the deep end eight or nine years ago."
Wild Bill: Oh yeah? What if I win, huh? What then? What're ya gonna do? You're going down! (sticks tongue out)
So what is Bob Tiernan going to say if I win the Republican Primary? That his own party nominated someone who went off the deep end nine years ago? Smart thinking, Bob. You won't be able to take those words back, you know.
Recent media coverage of the OrGOPper chair report that he's patiently waiting for Hell to freeze over and pigs to fly.
Man this is getting better than Portland Wrestling (the Frank Bonnema era, of course). Thank you for coming back into the public arena, Bill, and don't feel too bad about the OrGOP dissing you.
Remember, it's not you, it's them. They've moved on.
Posted by The Chinuk at 01:27 PM |
The Recession, Animated
Sometimes it's enlightening to have statistics animated, but this animation left me with a kind of a sick feeling.
Via Echidne, this link (http://cohort11.americanobserver.net/latoyaegwuekwe/multimediafinal.html) supports an animated map of the USofA, divided into counties, from a year before the recession starts to the present day.
As you watch the map, all you really need to remember is the sunny, bright colors are nice, cheery, low unemployment, and the dark colors are sad, unhappy, high unemployment.
It's unsettling to see the map go dark like that.
Posted by The Chinuk at 03:33 AM |
Not A Title Gresham Wanted To Get
There's a little joke we here around the house where we try to come up with stock phrases you're likely to hear that, if you lost picture and they didn't station ID, you'd still be able to know which station you were on.
How would you know you're watching KPTV Channel 12?
"Police are looking for a man in Gresham."
If you can take the figures tallied by CQ Press as authoritative, in its annual rankings, CQ Press crunched the numbers and Gresham took the prize as the 157th most dangerous city in America, and the highest ranking on the list of all Oregon cities rated – ahead of (in order) Portland (173), Eugene (190), and Salem (230).
We saw the Gresham Chief of Police being interviewed on both KGW and KPTV newscasts. He holds that the states were badly reported; apparently Gresham officers have suddenly lost the ability to fill in crime reports correctly, for instance, marking all rape cases as 1st degree whether they were 1st or 2nd degree.
Looks like KPTV is going to remain busy in Gresham for a while.
Find a short article on the kerfuffle and a link to the CQ Press list at the Portland Business Journal here.
Posted by The Chinuk at 02:50 AM |
Bill Sizemore for Governor 2: Electric Boogaloo
Yes, he's back, the political gift that just keeps on giving, taking a break from playing martyr over his self-inflicted wounds generated from repeatedly shooting himself in the foot in is war against the eeeville teacher's unions over the past decade or so, in the election year blockbuster Wild Bill For Governor 2: This time, it's not Wild Bill For Governor Part 1.
No, seriously, he filed. Really! Stop laughing, I'm being serious here.
Apparently not happy with slandering public employees and helping to gut sensible public financing of education in Oregon, he wants to cap it all off by being the most pitiful footnote in Oregon electoral politics since Kevvy Mannix.
On the KPTV-12 news tonight the commentator relayed the comment Bill apparently said that the way things are going, he might have to run his campaign from jail, which is kind of grandiose – just because it was good enough for Lyndon LaRouche in 1992 doesn't necessarily mean it's good enough for him.
Moreover, I think if he runs his campaign from anywhere it should be from the asylum, in as much as he's been permanently barred from spending any money in politics.
And besides, Bill Sizemore applying for a job with the State?
Dude must be trippin'.
PS: Sorry about the worn "Electric Boogaloo" joke in the headline, but it just seemed to be something so right for something so retro.
PPS: Hey, Bill! Seriously, dude, thanks for stepping up, ya big meat rod. Here I thought the next election was going to be all dry'n'wonky. You bring the crazee!
Posted by The Chinuk at 02:34 AM |
November 22, 2009
Reaping The Catholic LGBT Whirlwind
One of the manifold reasons I'm disaffected with the Mother Church (my term for the Catholic Church) is that it has not only treated my human brothers and sisters who are LGBT so very unforgivably shabbily in the past, but continues to pretend that the those problems in the past were not such a big deal, and what attempts at healing there are are half-hearted at best, while still seeing to it that LGBTs are made to suffer or feel as guilty as possible over what they are.
The list of injustice has never been seriously addressed. How can such a church expect me to have faith that they speak for God when they will countenance such continuing behavior by its own – or even hold the well-being of the least amongst us as hostage to a city government's toeing the church's line on gay marriage?
By that measure alone, the Mother Church has lost all of its authority to even suggest that it has the charge to order my life – or, indeed, anyone's.
But I'm fortunate (if I can be excused an awkward word for the circumstance) to be "straight". Nobody's – well, ostensibly, anyway, coming after my way of life. At least as far as I can tell. But after years of being crapped on, there should be no surprise – and if you are surprised, come out of your cave, please – that those who have been pretty relentlessly attacked as abominations should object:
For generations, in Catholic churches across the country, LGBT youth are told they should be ashamed of who they are and that they should lead loveless lives as social and religious abominations. The emotional, psychological and spiritual abuse inflicted on them by Catholic priests and our church hierarchy is in reality as damaging as the physical or sexual child abuse anyone would quickly condemn. Yet to this abuse, few raise their voices and say "ENOUGH!"It is shameful that in many Catholic churches, this abuse is being supported by men, who are gay themselves, leading closeted lives of self-persecution and quiet desperation.
Even more shameful, is that many of these priests, while remaining silent, actually lead duplicitous lives rich with romantic and sexual relationships -- both homosexual and heterosexual.
This hypocrisy must end.
ChurchOuting.org is a website that's accepting stories from disillusioned Catholics about what they hold is the hypocritical conduct of many Catholic priests, and by doing so, illustrating that the Catholic priesthood, like many pastors of today's churches, are the "do as we say, not as we do" sort.
I grew up Catholic. In my time in the church (and I cared so much about being a Catholic that I saw to my own confirmation) I've never met a priest who was anything more than an honest worker and morally upright, but as news events here in Oregon have suggested, the Catholic Church clergy's sexual house is in such disarray that they really have no business telling any LGBT person that they are out of any sort of line.
I still am permanently fond of the Mother Church, but her behavior continually calls into question whether she hears God's voice anymore, and until they honestly resolve the questions of sex amongst the clergy – by healing past wounds and realizing that a celibate priesthood is an artifact of Man and does not result in a happy clergy – then I must hold myself at arm's length.
Perhaps such an evolution could result in a stronger, more just Church. Who knows? Certainly it's worth a try, I'd think.
But by continuing to pretend the problem has been solved, and that the Catholic Church can believe they are not acting unjustly … well, I believe reaping the whirlwind is from a phrase in the Bible, no?
The Church could take its own counsel in this area.
Then there would be no reason for websites like ChurchOuting to even exist.
Posted by The Chinuk at 07:06 PM |
November 21, 2009
OrGov: Sheilds, Walden Prefer Not To
Two names opted out of the upcoming Goobernatorial contest very recently: Steve Sheilds on the Democratic side, and Rep. Greg Walden on the Republican.
According to The Oregonian's Mike Russell, Sheilds read the winds and saw that he was a long shot at best.
That said, I found that experience in campaigning does matter. A key campaign skill is raising money. Unfortunately, this fact favors the career politician or the insider. Most of the rest of us do not gain this type of experience in our non-political endeavors. To be so totally dependent on raising money for success in running for any office puts a huge premium and advantage on those who do it well. I think successful fundraising says something about a candidate, but it certainly does not say everything about a candidate. To sort our leaders by how good they are at fundraising is a narrow filter indeed.
I find myself agreeing with this, but publicity was never on his side either. No disrespect meant, but I didn't even know he was running.
The other no-goer is that unique political animal, the only remaining Republican in the Oregon US Congressional delegation – Greg Walden, the Lone Ranger of the 2nd District, as reported by Keith Chu of the Bend Bulletin, who has ended speculation that he might enter the race for the chair:
“Much of the problem we face in Oregon starts right here in Washington,” Walden said.
And there you have it. He wants to remain part of the problem.
He's also taking a strong stand on popular issues (legislation online 72 hours before the vote) and opposing things that were never going to happen (the return of the Fairness Doctrine).
And he couldn't do that if he was Governor, I guess. He'd have to work for not only the Republicans of Oregon but also the Democrats, and do it with what is expected to remain a Democratic-majority Legislative Assembly.
Yeah, if I were him, I'd take the pass, too.
Posted by The Chinuk at 06:15 PM |
Merkley Gets The Golden Gavel
Clearing out my back-log, I see, back on the 18th, The Oregonian's Charles Pope reported that our freshman Junior Senator, Jeff Merkley, was awarded the Golden Gavel.
This is an award that any freshman US Senator that acts as presiding officer for 100 hours or more during any given session gets. The Veep is, of course, President of the Senate, but the Veep can't be there all the time, so it falls to the President pro tem, which is Sen Byrd of West Virginia. But what he typically does is delegate that.
The presiding officer of the Senate my not be the most exciting duty in the world, but it's mad keen if you're a wonk-y sort … or someone out to learn as much as you can. And Jeff's hard at work there, by the looks of it:
Presiding over the Senate chamber allows new members to become more familiar with the many rules, regulations, and procedures that govern how the United States Senate operates. In the late 1960s, to encourage freshmen senators to preside more frequently, the Senate majority leader created what has become known as the Golden Gavel Award to acknowledge the services of those who preside for 100 hours during any session.
The winning quote of the article, though, was from Jeff himself, who put the whole thing very aptly:
It's CSPAN live in concert.
True, that. Congratulations to Senator Merkley.
Posted by The Chinuk at 06:02 PM |
The Palienation Of The Teabag Right Wing
Your Neologism of the day:
pa•li•en•a•tion: (noun) The word that describes that betrayed feeling you get after waiting multiple hours in the rain and cold with two copies of a ghostwritten book by an archconservative former governor, when you discover that she's decided to swan on out of there because she's just too fabulous and divalicious to be seen with you any more.
An example of palienation:
I just spent 9 hours of my day, $40 of my hard earned money on two of your books, and took the whole day off work to watch you jump on a bus and throw a half-heated wave to the crowd you were avoiding.I have never felt so disrespected. How can you claim that you are different? You aren’t. You are just as selfish as everyone else in Washington. It breaks my heart. I thought you might be the answer to the turmoil this country is under but you aren’t. You just slapped hundreds of Hoosiers in the face. The hard working type of people that you claim to represent.
You say in your book that you chose to sleep well over eating well. At the end of the day I know that you don’t care that you wasted the whole day of some 20 year old college student who lives on their own. I understand that all that matters is that I spent my money on two of your books. I’m sure your eating well. You certainly have no reason to be sleeping well.
Well, we tried to tell you she was a big phony. It ain't about you; it's about her, which is classic diva. And there you are all wet and cold with two books with signature stickers in 'em that are just as good as the real thing, and you're feeling like kind of a tool.
I don't know about any of you guys, but I'm torn between schadenfreude and pity here.
How's that rogue workin' out for you guys?
(The above pullquote nicked from this entry at Rumproast which includes a whole lot more resentment and even a video clip of it all, which is now the awesomest politiblog in the nation, at least for the next fourteen minutes and fifty seconds)
Posted by The Chinuk at 09:11 AM |
November 20, 2009
Please Don't Make This Embarrassing Mistake When Critiquing Sarah Palin's Book
Her biography is called Going Rogue.
The parody comic book is called Going Rouge.
Easy mistake to make, actually. If Cory Doctorow isn't safe, then none of us are.
So, hey, be careful out there.
Also, CBC stumbled on this one. So don't feel too bad!
Posted by The Chinuk at 09:18 AM |
November 19, 2009
Damn Good Question Coming From A Minister
The Rev. Chuck Currie:
Someone needs to explain why CafePress.com allows death threats against the president of the United States to be sold on their website. Or why in the world this website - run by the folks selling products that clearly call for the death of the president - is allowed to remain online.
Yeah. I'd like to know the answer to the question too.
The double standard involved here should speak for itself.
And the cherry-picking of Scripture to bolster such a wish ought to not only be morally indefensible, but not even contemplatable. But this is America we live in, and that's apparently how we roll.
Posted by The Chinuk at 09:31 AM |
We're Not Getting Bigger As Fast, And That Worries Some People
… some people who want to make money off of more people coming here, by the looks of things.
The Oregonian reports that Oregon's population increased by a mere 0.9% percent last year:
The slumping economy is why, said Risa Proehl, a PSU demographic analyst who manages the annual population estimates."It's typical of an economic downturn, people tend to move around less," she said.
Or, as Mom always said, Oregon might be God's own half-acre, but you can't eat the scenery. True, that.
By the Portland State University estimates, PDX is the state's largest burg (a massive surprise, I'm sure) with an estimate of just over 582,000. Snailem and Eugene are still duking it out over the distinction of who gets to be Oregon's second and third cities, which is a little like fighting over who gets to be the ugly Kardashian sister. Right now the leader is Eugene by an estimated 95 citizens.
Go, Ducks.
And, I can't let this go by without saying that there are decided skeptics in the local 'sphere. So that goes.
The whole point to it lays, as usual, in the long green. Oregon, with her vaunted way of life, is said to better get ready for about a million kajillion bajillion people to move here over the next few decades, and we have to act NOW to lock in place policies to keep cities small and that means those people who strongly support the conventional wisdom – against whatever reality dishes up – will be the ones in the money. Name any condo developer latterly and you'll know who stands to benefit. If we're not getting bigger as fast as we thought we were going to, someone's profits are not going to be as huge as they hoped. And so that goes.
I find it amusing that the worry is that we're not getting bigger as fast. As long as we're overrunning every available bit of lifestyle out here as quickly as we can, then something's the matter.
Why do we have to keep getting bigger at all?
Oh, yeah.
Money.
Posted by The Chinuk at 04:11 AM |
Your Health Insurance Dollar Goes Somewhere In Oregon
Rick Attig, The Oregonian:
It's hard to know what to make of the report in Wednesday's Oregonian that regulators have signed off on every rate increase by Oregon's largest health insurance companies over the past three years, reducing their requests in only seven of 40 cases.It is striking that there is so little public attention or debate given to insurance rate-setting in Oregon.
By contrast, there are large, long and very public fights over utility rates in Oregon, which are overseen by the Public Utility Commission. In those cases, ratepayers have a fierce advocate on their side -- the Citizens Utility Board -- and business groups and other rate-paying entities also are strongly represented in PUC rate cases.
I don't have the answer either but I'm reminded of a something one of Thomas Pynchon's characters in one of his amazing books once said:
If you get them asking the wrong questions, you don't have to worry about the answers.
Years of watching what people consider important to argue about makes me think that there's a lot of misdirection going on.
The news report that Mr. Attig referred to not only drew the line between what amounts to a nearly regulation-free "pass through" attitude toward insurance rates at the State, but also, helpfully, lists the changes in compensation for those at the top of the insurers. Which makes for chewy food for thought – that has a slightly sour taste to it.
Like, for instance, did you know that Oregon's Kaiser supremo:
got a 59.2 percent boost in compensation last year, including a $142,049 bonus and $69,825 in other pay on top of his $479,956 salary.
It was to bring his salary more in line with his peers, don'tchaknow, because $434K (his 2007 salary) just doesn't stretch as far as it used to, and when him and the other CEOs get together for playdates all his chums point and laugh because of his low compensation package.
Life's unfair. I know. I can certainly relate there.
Between this and Wall Street honchos getting perferential treatment to access to H1N1 vaccine, I'm starting to think that maybe they aren't spending as much on P.R. as they used to. Or maybe they just don't care what anyone thinks anymore.
Posted by The Chinuk at 03:13 AM |
November 16, 2009
Tea-Bagger morons get PUNKED!!
(ht: Think Progress via spyder)
Posted by Kevin at 09:23 PM |
States should get out of the marriage business
An excellent guest column in the Oregonian by David Sumner arguing that States should get out of the marriage business.
I couldn't agree more and have been saying so for a while now. Here, here and here.
Posted by Kevin at 05:15 PM |
Money: the root of all (political) evil
Wow! What a stark example of the power of special interest money on our democracy.
McClatchy - Kentucky rep's votes on Cuba show the power of money:
Supporters of the U.S. embargo against Cuba have contributed $12,000 to Rep. Ed Whitfield since 2004 as part of a largely successful, multimillion-dollar effort to convince lawmakers to block efforts to weaken sanctions against the island, a new report shows.Up until July 2004, the Kentucky lawmaker voted repeatedly to repeal the travel ban and ease relations with Cuba, according to a report by Public Campaign, a nonprofit Washington-based organization that focuses on campaign reform. Later that month, Whitfield, R-Hopkinsville, received thousands in donations from groups opposed to easing sanctions. He has since consistently voted to uphold the sanctions.
And...
McClatchy - Money talks: Report links donations, Cuba embargo support:
All told, the political action committee and its contributors have given $10.77 million nationwide to nearly 400 candidates and members of Congress, the report says.The contributions include more than $850,000 to 53 Democrats in the House of Representatives who sent a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi earlier this month opposing any change to U.S.-Cuba policy. The average signer, the report says, received $16,344.
I've been saying for a long time now that until this country can find a fundamentally different way of funding election campaigns nothing will really change. Too many of our elected representatives are going to dance with them who paid their admission to the dance. Yes, public opinion matters to them but it doesn't fill the election campaign war chest. And it takes money to win. The results are entirely predictable.
Posted by Kevin at 04:59 PM |
"Birther" attorney digging herself deeper
U.S. District Court Judge Clay Land directed the U.S. attorney to collect $20,000 in sanctions from “birther” attorney Orly Taitz the day after her deadline passed to pay the money.Land’s Friday order and judgment stem from a Sept. 17 motion Taitz filed on behalf of former client Capt. Connie Rhodes, who sought to stop her deployment to Iraq on arguments that President Barack Obama couldn’t legitimately hold office. Land told Taitz the previous day that she could face sanctions if she ever again filed another “frivolous” suit in his court. When Taitz filed the motion for emergency stay, Land gave Taitz two weeks to explain why he shouldn’t sanction her $10,000.
On the deadline, Taitz, who no longer represented the captain, responded with a motion to recuse Land from the case and a request to extend her deadline. In his 43-page order, Land lays out a timeline of Taitz’s actions in his court, discusses why her numerous court filings were frivolous and addresses point-by-point her arguments for why he should be recused from the case. He also increased the original sanction by another $10,000 and gave her until Thursday to pay.
Follow the link to read the rest of the article.
Posted by Kevin at 04:43 PM |
Send Stupak amendment voters a coat-hanger
Jim Dean of Democracy for America frames the issue:
20 of the 64 Democrats who joined with
Republicans to pass this amendment were previously pro-choice. All 20
are men who ran on and have a record of casting pro-choice votes in
the past. These Democrats were elected by voters who never expected
their representative would take America back to an era of coat hangers
and back alley abortions.We're joining with CREDO Action to send them a message: reconsider
your vote and demand Congressional leadership strip the ban from the
final bill before it comes back to the House for the final vote.To make sure this is one message these men won't
miss, we're not stopping there. CREDO Action will send these
Reps a coat hanger for every person who signs the petition.
Posted by Kevin at 04:32 PM |
November 14, 2009
Holding them all accountable
Ex-Congressman William Jefferson, D-Louisiana, sentenced to 13 years
U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III said public corruption was "a cancer on the body politic.""There must be some sort of greed virus that attacks those in power," said Ellis, who lamented that so many other congressmen have been convicted on similar charges.
But the other punishments weren't quite as severe. For example, former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham, R-Calif., was sentenced to more than eight years in prison after pleading guilty in 2005 to taking $2.4 million in bribes from defense contractors. Former Rep. Bob Ney, R-Ohio, was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison for taking bribes from lobbyist Jack Abramoff, and ex-Rep. James Traficant, D-Ohio, served a 7-year sentence after being convicted in a 2002 trial of bribery and racketeering.
This seems as good a time as any to formally announce a couple additions to the sidebars here, both by PolitiFact.com. On the left side is a gimpy script tracking Obama's campaign promises and where they stand today. On the right side is their Truth-O-Meter which fisks a wide variety of political assertions.
I don't believe that this nation is any better served by those on the Left ignoring the sins of their own than it is by those on the Right ignoring the sins of their own. Thus these two new sidebar scripts as well as this post covering the crimes of a Democrat.
Posted by Kevin at 09:00 AM |
November 12, 2009
The Morality of Health Care Reform
Before today I'd never heard of Booman Tribune. But that changed when I followed a hit on our site meter back to a great post by Terrance called The Morality of Health Care Reform, Pt. 6. As the title implies it is part six (of a seven part) series on the morality of health care reform.
Terrance was kind enough to link back to PK with an image I took at the Forest Grove Tea Party:
I actually used a different pic of the same guy in my initial Tea Party post though. The above pic is from a much more recent post where I went with that pic because it showed the guy holding the sign even though it's a far worse pic in terms of clarity and legibility. Here's the first, more legible one:
Anyway, what I really like the most about Terrance's post - besides the fact that he used one of my pics (which I actively want to be more widely disseminated) - is that he quoted Alicia Morgan who, with vastly more eloquence and clarity than I've ever manged to muster, articulated the conservative's world view:
That's the essence of the conservative worldview: as long as I've got mine, I don't care if you have yours. The idea of everyone pursuing his or her own self-interest, then by the invisible hand, the self-interest of all will be maximized, or in the parlance of the Eighties, "Greed is good!" - is the one-size-fits-all answer to poverty, to injustice, to inequality. But what it boils down to in real life is "I've got mine." The idea that every person that works full-time is due enough compensation to support themselves, let alone a family, doesn't even enter into the calculation. It's okay for other people to be underpaid, overworked, taken advantage of. All that matters is - it's not me.
I couldn't possibly have said it better myself.
It's a long post but chock full of though-provoking goodness. Undoubtedly the previous five parts were comparable and the last part to the series will also be more than worthwhile reading and digesting.
Posted by Kevin at 12:23 PM |
ADL to GOP: WTF?
WASHINGTON (JTA) - The Anti-Defamation League is urging Republican congressional leaders to "condemn forcefully the invocation of Holocaust imagery" at last week's rally against health care reform.In a letter sent to House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio), House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and other Republican members of Congress who spoke at last week's event, ADL national director Abraham Foxman said he was "deeply disappointed at the failure of the Republican leadership to speak out" against comparisons of health-care reform to Nazi Germany."
The "Tea Party" crowd included attendees holding a pair of large banners picturing Holocaust victims with the words "National Socialist Healthcare, Dachau, Germany, 1945."
"As the world’s leading organization fighting anti-Semitism and all forms of bigotry, the Anti-Defamation League is nonpartisan and has no position on the issues underlying the health care debate," wrote Foxman. "However, we believe that the use of Nazi symbols and pictures of Nazi victims to advance a political agenda under any circumstance is inappropriate and profoundly offensive."
Raw Story (source of above photo) covered the protest and has lots of links to other coverage and commentary - especially of FOX News' heavy promotion of it.
Posted by Kevin at 12:06 PM |
Take Sen. Durbin's "Public Option" Poll
Posted by Kevin at 12:00 PM |
November 11, 2009
Veterans Day
In the few hours left of Veterans Day I point your attention to Paul Evans - an Air Force veteran of Afghanistan and former Mayor of Monmouth, Oregon.
On Veterans Day, remember that someone, somewhere always pays a price
Posted by Kevin at 09:03 PM |
November 10, 2009
Greek priest beater update
After initially telling police that he was the victim of an attempted robbery, and that he was the victim of a Muslim terrorist, and that he was the victim of an attempted robbery... Lance Corporal Jasen Bruce has somehow managed to retain a big-shot lawyer who is claiming that Father Marakis was actually trying to molest Bruce. Here's the local FOX affiliate's video clip about it:
From a current AP piece on Yahoo News:
But the Tampa Police report offered a far different account, saying Marakis was lost when he followed Bruce into the garage and asked for help, then was struck with the tire iron and chased several blocks. When officers arrived, Bruce called Marakis a terrorist and said the priest had shouted "Allahu akbar!" — Arabic for "God is great."Tampa Police spokeswoman Laura McElroy said Bruce's charge of a sexual advance was one of several explanations he offered when officers arrived. "One was that he tried to rob him. The other was that he was an Arab terrorist and shouted "Allahu akbar" and he explained that 'That's what they say before they blow you up.' And then he said that he grabbed his genitals and wanted to have sex with him. He gave various accounts of what happened," she said.
I did some digging and it appears that Lance Corporal Bruce's new attorney, Jeff Brown has a connection to Glen (sic) Beck (part way down in the biography).
Speaking of biographies... look how extensive Brown's is. How did a lowly Marine Lance Corporal manage to retain such a big-time lawyer in such a short period of time?
The timeline that I've seen shows that the cops responded to Bruce's 911 call, couldn't understand the bloody guy and had an ambulance take him in for medical treatment at a hospital. There they finally managed to effectively communicate with Rev. Alexios Marakis. Naturally the cops then went back to find Lance Corporal Bruce. But Bruce already had his attorney by then. All of this couldn't have taken more than maybe a couple hours tops.
Something seems very fishy about all this. The grab-bag of excuses by Bruce, the big-shot attorney at the ready by the time Rev. Alexios Marakis was finally able to communite effectively with the cops. That is unless this Lance Corporal Jasen Bruce is the scion of a wealthy family. In which case it would all make a great deal more sense. But scions of wealthy families don't typically go into the Marines.
Posted by Kevin at 09:34 PM |
Praise God and pass the tire iron!
A lost foreign man in Tampa, Florida stopped and asked Marine Reservist Jasen Bruce for directions using very limited English.
Assuming the man to be an Arab (dark skin, dark eyes, lots of facial hair), Jasen Bruce then deduced that the man was therefore a Muslim terrorist plotting some sort of evil. So he did what every Conservative nut wants to do - he struck the man in the head with a friggin' tire iron and chased him several blocks while calling 911 to report a terrorist on the loose.
The assaulted man was Greek Orthodox priest Alexios Marakis of Crete, Greece who is visited the United States. He'd gotten lost after performing a blessing on a local priest.
Reservist Bruce was arrested on a charge of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and is being investigated for a possible hate crime.
Think Progress has all the links to the various news coverage.
Posted by Kevin at 07:30 PM |
November 08, 2009
"intellectually honest discussion of Islamic ideology"
Reading an AP piece on Yahoo about alleged Ft. Hood gunman may have 9/11 mosque link I was struck by the following,
Another classmate said he complained (about Mr. Hasan) to five officers and two civilian faculty members at the (Uniformed Services) university. He wrote in a command climate survey sent to Pentagon officials that fear in the military of being seen as politically incorrect prevented an "intellectually honest discussion of Islamic ideology" in the ranks.
What "Islamic ideology" would that be?
Sunni? Shia? Sufism? Kharijite? One or all of the numerous sectarian branches within each of those schools of Islam? Or perhaps one of the heterodox schools like the Ahmadiyya or Zikri or their sectarian branches? Or maybe the Submitters down in Tuscan, Arizona?
Would "Christian ideology" fairly and adequately describe Southern Baptists, Unitarian Universalists and the Amish? Heck, those are just within the Protestant school of Christianity. Throw in Maronites, Armenian Apostolic, Armenian Catholics, Syrian Catholics, Syriacs, Russian Orthodox, Roman Catholics, Melkites and Assyrians, just to name a few, and it gets all the more complicated to reduce down to one sweeping "ideology".
Frankly, there are a lot of people worried about evangelicals running amok in our military. Maybe there should be an "intellectually honest discussion of" Evangelical ideology in the ranks? Hmmm?
Back to Islam for a minute here. I've heard and read many times about how there is no such thing as a moderate Muslim because the Quran calls for jihad. And that invariably from... well let's just call them "critics" of Islam.
Have you ever wondered what kind of Muslims are in the areas of Pakistan outside of the problematic tribal belt? One of the larger groups are Ahmadiyya. There's 170 million of them worldwide but most appear to live in or near Pakistan. The founder of the sect, Ghulam Ahmad, reinterpreted jihad as a nonviolent battle against nonbelievers, using as its weapon the pen instead of the sword. But you're unlikely to learn of it via the news or popular culture because there's no room in the average Christian Coalition/Republican Party type's world view for any interpretation of jihad that doesn't involve killing Christians or potential Christians.
Posted by Kevin at 09:34 PM |
Cruising in the time machine
Two compelling articles here. Ironically, both are from New York papers. Both are also first-hand observer accounts written by foreigners (to the sites of the respective events). And both extensively report on factors which directly contributed to the respective events.
First up is a long but excellent look back at the Gaza War by Lawrence Wright writing in The New Yorker.
Every opportunity for peace in the Middle East has been led to slaughter, and at this isolated desert crossing, on June 25, 2006, another moment of promise culminated in bloodshed. The year had begun with tumult. That January, Hamas, which the U.S. government considers a terrorist group, won Palestine’s parliamentary elections, defeating the more moderate Fatah Party. Both parties sent armed partisans into the streets, and Gaza verged on civil war. Then, on June 9th, a tentative truce between Hamas and Israel ended after an explosion on a beach near Gaza City, apparently caused by an Israeli artillery shell, killed seven members of a Palestinian family, who were picnicking. (The Israelis deny responsibility.) Hamas fired fifteen rockets into Israel the next day. The Israelis then launched air strikes into Gaza for several days, killing eight militants and fourteen civilians, including five children.
The second, by Serge Schmemann writing in the NYTimes, looks back at A Fateful Day which ended with the Berlin Wall being breached.
There was nothing through most of that gray, chilly Thursday to suggest that it would come to symbolize one of the great transitions of the 20th century, the triumphant end of a failed system. Even when the delirious crowds surged through the Berlin Wall shortly before midnight on Nov. 9, 1989, it was not because of any momentous decision or heroic feat; it was because of a bad translation, a confused border guard and a natural longing for a better life.
I've heard it said that individuals can't know who they are without first knowing where and what they came from. I believe that is true. In the same way, we as citizens of this country and of this planet have to know how things got to be the way they are today to fully understand the present day realities.
I'm reminded of a humorous bumper-sticker I saw about a year ago: "where am I going and what am I doing in this handbasket?" which of course is a play on the old "we're going to hell in a handbasket" saying.
If you'd rather not have any cherished preconceptions or assumptions challenged then I'd caution against reading either of these articles.
"There is a principle which is a bar against all information, which is proof against all arguments and which cannot fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance - that principle is contempt prior to investigation." - Herbert Spencer
Posted by Kevin at 12:07 PM |