Category: Politics

Don’t vote!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UaRXvRwhOk&w=425&h=344]

“Don’t Vote!” on YouTube

Colorado has till Monday to register to make your voice heard, and this is one of the closest states in the whole country. Every single person is going to make a difference this time around, and the stakes couldn’t be higher.

No matter where you are in the country, you can find pretty much everything you need at this site. Registration information and deadlines, voting locations, it’s all there. Do yourself a favor and make your voice heard. If you don’t vote, don’t complain when you choose not to make a difference.

The Obama Tax Cut

This site is a great tool, check it out… Put in your basic tax information (nothing personal) and it calculates your tax cut under Barack Obama’s tax proposal – and how much more you will pay under McCain’s plan.

This is an important factor for conservatives to consider- the Republican party of the last eight years has abandoned the ideals of fiscal conservativism in pursuit of other priorities, such as their aggressive foreign policy agenda and expansions of executive privelege in an ever-more-powerful federal government. While the GOP once served the interests of responsible spending and limited government, this is no longer the case.

I make no claims that Barack Obama is himself a conservative- he is most certainly liberal in his views. However, his plans and policies (warning: PDF link) reach above partisan politics and should serve to benefit all Americans, not just liberals. Conservatives no longer have a party or candidate that truly stands for them, but I believe that Barack Obama’s tax cuts and other plans deserve a lot more attention from the displaced conservative demographic.

Report: End the war on terror, and end terrorism

This is an interesting report that got picked up on BoingBoing… It’s a statistical analysis of 268 terrorist groups and what came of them between 1968 and 2008. The study found that 43% of groups terrorists dissolved through political means, 40% fell to consistent policing, 10% were victorious in achieving their goals, and only 7% were defeated through military campaigns. That’s right: there have been more victorious terrorist groups than groups that have been defeated in war.

Terrorism must be stopped. Our leaders must re-evaluate their strategies, and implement truly effective means to protect us all.

How Terrorist Groups End: Implications for Countering al Qa’ida (RAND Corporation).

The US has Quit the Human Rights Council.

In case you missed it, the United States withdrew from the Human Rights Council yesterday.

But Eric Sottas, director of the International Organisation against Torture sees it as a a political gesture. “The US has always clearly shown its opposition to the Council. This is a slightly more public way of putting pressure on it in order to raise the stakes. What is more the Bush dynasty is coming to the end of its mandate,” he said. “It reminds me of the time when the Nixon administration, which backed Pinochet in Chile, chastized the UN for criticising the Chilean dictator. But when Carter was elected in 1977, the American government took the floor at the Human Rights Commission to ask forgiveness. After a presidency like that of Bush, you can expect some important changes in US policy on human right.”

Have we no shame? We are supposed to be a leader in justice, freedom, and humanity. But instead, our leaders seem to be turning this into a rogue state. We are using torture methods invented during the Spanish inquisition, for anyone trying to find comparable acts.

Thankfully both McCain and Obama won’t put up with this. Hopefully they can clean up this mess we’re in, and hopefully it doesn’t get much worse before they take charge.

College Student Schools Ashcroft on Torture

John Ashcroft spoke at Knox college – a rather liberal school. There was, as expected, a great deal of people protesting his visit, with varying levels of maturity. Howerver, one student had a very revealing exchange with Ashcroft:

ME: First off, Mr. Ashcroft, I’d like to apologize for the rudeness of some of my fellow students. It was uncalled for–we can disagree civilly, we don’t need that. (round of applause from the audience, and Ashcroft smiles) I have here in my hand two documents. One of them, you know, is the text of the United Nations Convention against Torture, which, point of interest, says nothing about “lasting physical damage”…
ASHCROFT: (interrupting) Do you have the Senate reservations to it?
ME: No, I don’t. Do you happen to know what they are?
ASHCROFT: (angrily) I don’t have them memorized, no. I don’t have time to go around memorizing random legal facts. I just don’t want these people in the audience to go away saying, “He was wrong, she had the proof right in her hand!” Because that’s not true. It’s a lie. If you don’t have the reservations, you don’t have anything. Now, if you want to bring them another time, we can talk, but…
ME: Actually, Mr. Ashcroft, my question was about this other document. (laughter and applause) This other document is a section from the judgment of the Tokyo War Tribunal. After WWII, the Tokyo Tribunal was basically the Nuremberg Trials for Japan. Many Japanese leaders were put on trial for war crimes and crimes against humanity, including torture. And among the tortures listed was the “water treatment,” which we nowadays call waterboarding…
ASHCROFT: (interrupting) This is a speech, not a question. I don’t mind, but it’s not a question.
ME: It will be, sir, just give me a moment. The judgment describes this water treatment, and I quote, “the victim was bound or otherwise secured in a prone position; and water was forced through his mouth and nostrils into his lungs and stomach.” One man, Yukio Asano, was sentenced to fifteen years hard labor by the allies for waterboarding American troops to obtain information. Since Yukio Asano was trying to get information to help defend his country–exactly what you, Mr. Ashcroft, say is acceptible for Americans to do–do you believe that his sentence was unjust? (boisterous applause and shouts of “Good question!”)
ASHCROFT: (angrily) Now, listen here. You’re comparing apples and oranges, apples and oranges. We don’t do anything like what you described.
ME: I’m sorry, I was under the impression that we still use the method of putting a cloth over someone’s face and pouring water down their throat…
ASHCROFT: (interrupting, red-faced, shouting) Pouring! Pouring! Did you hear what she said? “Putting a cloth over someone’s face and pouring water on them.” That’s not what you said before! Read that again, what you said before!
ME: Sir, other reports of the time say…
ASHCROFT: (shouting) Read what you said before! (cries of “Answer her fucking question!” from the audience) Read it!
ME: (firmly) Mr. Ashcroft, please answer the question.
ASHCROFT: (shouting) Read it back!
ME: “The victim was bound or otherwise secured in a prone position; and water was forced through his mouth and nostrils into his lungs and stomach.”
ASHCROFT: (shouting) You hear that? You hear it? “Forced!” If you can’t tell the difference between forcing and pouring…does this college have an anatomy class? If you can’t tell the difference between forcing and pouring…
ME: (firmly and loudly) Mr. Ashcroft, do you believe that Yukio Asano’s sentence was unjust? Answer the question. (pause)
ASHCROFT: (more restrained) It’s not a fair question; there’s no comparison. Next question! (loud chorus of boos from the audience)

The student has a detailed account of the entire event, with pictures and video, here.

I’ve said it before, but it bears saying again: Torture is not a political issue. Our own inhumanity encourages our adversaries to treat us with the same evil. This madness must be stopped.

Reigious Crackdown in Russia

Today’s New York Times has a saddening article about diminishing religious freedoms in Russia. While the constitution provides for freedom of religion, the Russian Orthodox Church has overwhelming power over Vladimir Putin’s government, which it is quietly using to persecute and eliminate other religious denominations, calling them “sects” in the derogatory.

Some protestants get random visits from the F.S.B. (think post-Soviet K.G.B.) and can no longer rent spaces of their own or express their beliefs in public- many have moved into hiding, meeting in private homes.

There are definitely much worse places in the world as far as freedom of religion is concerned – Turkey and China especially come to mind. But it’s disappointing to see a country take a step backwards when it comes to freedom. I hate to think of what life for followers of non-Christian faiths must be like in Russia.

Any religion can fall into the self-righteous trap of believing it is the only true one and all others are false, making this decision by faith alone. But even then, this does not give that group a free pass to do wrong to those with other beliefs. As Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.”

I surely hope that I will never make the mistake that the Russian government and Orthodox Church has made.

5 Years Later: The Words that Sent Us to War

The Hufffington Post has a good collection of commitments made to the American people regarding the Iraq war.

My personal favorite:

“The idea that it’s going to be a long, long, long battle of some kind I think is belied by the fact of what happened in 1990. Five days or five weeks or five months, but it certainly isn’t going to last any longer than that.”

– Donald H. Rumsfeld, U.S. Secretary of Defense, 11/15/02

Try five years, Rumsfeld.

Recession

A USA Today / Gallup poll released yesterday says the following:

  • 3 in 4 Americans agree that we are in an economic recession
  • 59% say it is likely that we will be in a depression that will last several years
  • 79% are worried about a depression

I have few money concerns compared to most of the country, but even I am beginning to feel the squeeze and notice how my dollars don’t go as far as they did just last year.

It’s still early, but this could very well be one of the biggest threats to our country’s future. It makes me wonder about the presidential campaigns right now – if a depression is looming, we need smart people in charge who can make the right decisions to get us back on our feet, free of liberal or conservative agendas.

I honestly don’t know which candidate is the strongest on the economy (Edwards comes to mind, but he’s out), and even an economically weak president could still put very smart people in their administration to right-side the economy.

President Bush’s first campaign was about compassionate conservativism and domestic policy reform. Then 9/11 happened and we had a president with zero foreign policy experience spending most of their time on global affairs. I would hate to see the same happen with the economy, but right now most of what I hear from each candidate has more to do with yesterday’s problems – how to reverse the Bush administrations mistakes, how to deal with the war in Iraq, what to do about healthcare and immigration. These are all important issues, but I am starting to think that the economy really isn’t getting the attention it deserves.

Incompatibilities

I am beginning to notice a couple of annoying personality traits I have:

  1. I have a tendency to be prideful, arrogant, controlling, and overly confident in my own work.
  2. I react with strong negativity towards others who are prideful, arrogant, controlling, or overly confident in their own work.

Reconciling the two is obviously difficult. I know that part of the solution comes in humbling myself and opening myself to others’ ideas… But when that happens, how do I protect myself from those who don’t do the same?

A lot of my life has been about recognizing that because everyone is imperfect and makes mistakes, we should try to find the best solutions to protect ourselves from our own mistakes so that we can live in relative peace with one another, even when we disagree over what is wrong or right.  Recently, I have been feeling more like there is a more obvious standard of right and wrong that can be derived from observation and logic. I recognize the slippery slope that puts me on, and I’m not sure if this change was brought about by an unchecked hardening of my own ego, or by “maturing” or something else completely.

While this definitely has implications in the spheres of politics and culture, I think that the place where it really hits home for me is in the spiritual realm. I have directly witnessed a pretty wide range of spiritual opinions, from “All roads lead to heaven,” to “there is no such thing as good or evil or God,” to “[Monotheistic religion] is the only true religion, all others are false and evil because they aren’t ours, and the world will only be at peace once it is a global theocracy under our control.”

Part of me is troubled by the apparent majority of people who adopt their religious, political, or cultural perspective because of their circumstances rather than a conscious logical evaluation of each alternative. I go to Christian churches, but I don’t know if I would had I been born in, say, Indonesia. Statistically, most people tend to vote for the same parties that their parents voted for. This doesn’t tell us which (or if) one is “wrong” or “right,” but people on either side fully believe in their decisions, and thus rifts are caused between people of different ideals – even though they would likely change their tune had they been born into different circumstances.

This might be my ego talking, so please treat it with the obligatory grain of salt, but I would like to think that I’ve done things a bit differently. Maybe it’s just been because I am the product of multiple divorced households with vastly different perspectives, but I think I’ve put a lot more thought into my choices where most just go in agreement with their peers and predecessors.  But even in this, I am unsure of myself – surely, my decisions are still influenced by “circumstance over logic” at an undetectable, subconscious level.

It hurts most when I see people with whom I have something in common, but were not there because of an educated decision. It is saddening to realize that people are most influenced by misinformation and personality smears in politics, or to see churchgoers who improperly use faith as an excuse to abandon the biblically commanded logic and questioning that protects them from false prophets and heretical teachings. While these people happen to have some views in common with me, there is really nothing different between them and the people they disagree with.

And amongst all of this, I am still plagued by the nagging feeling that I am being far too arrogant to think that I am above all of this – that I myself am guilty of the very same things I accuse others of doing. Part of me says, “Just worry about yourself and let others do the same,” and another part says, “Just because you’re being arrogant doesn’t mean you aren’t right!”

In all of this, my faith is the one thing that I do not doubt. I believe without doubt that God will not lead me astray, and that he is in control while we are all so messed up. I’m not sure of much beyond that, but I at least have the confidence that whatever reaction I have to these big questions, much wiser hands than my own are on the wheel.