Electronic Writer

Negotiation apparently means “compromise” for Democrats and perhaps a more sinister term for Republicans.  “Leverage” might be the definition internalized by Republicans ( could be a euphemism for “extortion opportunity” or “Democrat weakness”).  Let me be clear—I am tired of this arrangement.

I know the new debt ceiling vote isn’t complete, yet . . . but, the newest debt ceiling legislation feels like a loss for Liberals.  We have two votes for the debt ceiling (albeit the second vote is watered down in teeth, but will be a press-generating opportunity for Government-killing Tea Party legislation).  The legislation cuts spending—by TRILLIONS.  The legislation does not raise any revenues.  ZERO.    And, there is a vote for a balanced-budget Amendment to the constitution to be scheduled—also, a press-generating opportunity for ultra-conservatives.  It appears as if the Republicans got everything they wanted.
When we review the spoils of the Democrat-side of this deal, we have:  uhhhm, the promise to leave Medicare and Entitlement cuts alone . . . .  Yep—that is all, folks.  That, and the ability to get back to work.

There was a time in our not-so-distant past when an evil dictator rolled tanks into the Czech Republic and claimed that it was his to take.  The world, at the time, gave it to him.  They told that evil dictator, and his ideology, that we won’t fight you on Czech Republic issue if you promise to not take any more countries.  Of course, he promised and was happy at how easy his first conquest had been.

The evil dictator and his ideology were lying.  He would use the newfound leverage to wield uncertainty and indecision amongst the leaders of the rest of the world and as a springboard for his attacks.  Many, many people had died before the world was moved to respond.

My first message is to Democrat politicians.  Please learn from history.  Placating Hitler did no good.  His singular focus of conquest and extermination outweighed all logic.  His greed for power erased his ability to compromise.  Democrats—you have to do better.  You MUST take a stand.  Protecting entitlement programs from the chopping block is NOT A VICTORY.  It is merely the best outcome of a catastrophic loss.

There is no reasoning with Republicans, Conservatives and Tea Party members—their singular desire to hunt-down and eradicate the people who utilize entitlements is non-stop.  The want all of the poor, minorities, sick, elderly and young to get out of their way while they make money.  There is no village in their distorted view of the world—merely profit margins.  They will happily poison the town well, because they are selling water and will make a larger profit without the competition.

Republicans, Conservatives and Tea Partiers are driving the United States, whether they know it or not, into a tribal/feudal state—where the tribes are multinational corporations with their own armies, bottomless pools of lawyers and lobbyists, unlimited money, and not a single person to be held accountable in a court of law.

My message to Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, the poor, the elderly—anyone who does not generate money (or value) for those multinational corporations is simple.

Run

Have you ever wanted proof that the Republicans have lost sanity, clarity, and have become virulent and hurtful? (It is in this article.) Do you feel that one party has become so hypocritical and hurtful that they are destroying America and the democratic process–to further their political agenda?  (Proof is in this article.)  Do you feel that sometimes your politicians simply don’t reflect your values?

Well, proof is in this article.

This has become a skipping record for the McCain/Palin team.

A reporter starts digging around, and talks with someone who worked fro Sarah Palin.  At some point in their working relationship, she stopped liking them.  So, she tries or succeeds at firing them.  I suppose, we haven’t seen this kind of open brazenness since LBJ . . . .

The details THIS TIME are:

• The person fired is John Bitney, a long-time friend of 30 years and a key aide in her 2006 gubernatorial campaign
• John gets a divorce
• Sarah Palin gets a call from another friend, Scott Richter, that his wife and John Bitney are having an affair
• Sarah Palin fires John Bitney for “poor job performance” a few days later

So they say that history repeats itself.  I guess in the case of Alaska Governor and now Vice Presidential Candidate, Sarah Palin, those historical circles are repeating quickly.  So far, the firing because I don’t like you list consists of:

1. Wasilia Town Librarian , Mary Ellen Baker’s, job was threatened by Sarah Palin because she would NOT remove books from the library shelved because Sarah Palin found them objectionable.  (NOTE: This was a botched attempt because 2% of Wasilia’s population rallied behind the Librarian.)
2. Mike Wooten married Sarah Palin’s little sister.  During their divorce and custody dispute, Sarah Palin and her Husband, Todd, contacted Mike Wooten’s boss more than 20 times to get him fired–and, even broke into confidential records and hired a personal investigator.  (NOTE: This was also an unsuccessful attempt.  Fortunately for Wooten, the Alaska State Troopers and their union have a very impartial way of dealing with disciplinary actions, and Mike Wooten had a great boss who respected those processes.)
3. Sarah Palin fired Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan–Mike Wooten’s boss.  Palin refused initially to articulate why Monegan was fired, but her office recently stated, “Palin said he wasn’t doing enough to fill state trooper vacancies and battle alcohol abuse issues. She said he “did not turn out to be a team player on budgeting issues.””
4. And now, John Bitney (see above).
5. [ This space is currently available. ]

Who is next?

Read the entire Huffington Post article >>

Read the entire Wall Street Journal article >>

This is an impressive example of courage, bravery and patriotism on the part of a 21-year old protester at the Republican National Convetion.

Fox news provides the video, the story, and the commentary.  In true sincerity, it is good reporting–even when the reporters were ordered to leave.

Watch the Video HERE >>

This is a quote from an article published at OhMyNews:

The Twin Cities’ North Star Health Collective (NSHC), a local group that coordinated media response during the protests, began training sessions for street medics weeks before the convention. On Sept. 5, NSHC representatives held a press conference denouncing the “police detention and abuse of medical volunteers.” They also shared examples of the types of weapons used on protesters.

“My medic partner and I were treating a handicapped male in a wheelchair for pepper spray to the face at the parking lot of Jackson Street,” recounted Sean McCoy, an EMT and a Navy veteran. “In the process of treating the patient, we were surrounded by several police officers in riot gear and forcibly thrown to the ground and told we were under arrest. We were then forcibly removed from our patient, handcuffed, and forced to lay face down on the ground while the officers proceeded to cut our bags off of us and remove all of our medical gear by dumping it on the ground.”

Read the entire article, “‘Street Medics’ Describe RNC Protests“

In the issue regarding the John McCain campaign denying United States Citizens their right to Freedom of Speech, I guess there are others who agree with me.

Here is the interview of the Librarian on Keith Oberman:

Dear Senator McCain,

If you were to become Commander-in-Chief, you are going to have to do a bit better.

Freedom of Speech is a RIGHT guaranteed to every Citizen of the United States of America by the Constitution–the Supreme Law of the Land.  I learned this in 5th Grade.

You cannot take it away from Citizens who happen to exercise it and say things that do not agree with you–even if it has done before–and right before your very eyes.

If someone were jumping off of a cliff, would you follow him?  NO.  Well, just because someone breaks the Supreme Law, do you have to follow him? (Please follow the article on the “Free-Speech Zone” in The American Conservative.)

Clearly, in the VIDEO below, your actions show that you are breaking the law and denying Citizens of the United States of America their right to Freedom of Speech, and that you are asking other Citizens and Police Officers to enforce it.  What you did to the Librarian who was holding a sign at the rally in Denver, CO was illegal.  She should have never been given a ticket and a court date for exercising her rights afforded to her as a Citizen.

Please do better, and respect the Supreme Law, the Constitution of the United States of America, and the RIGHTS of Citizens.

Thank you,

-Electronic Writer

This is truly sad.

Yesterday, I read an article that described the violence that President Robert Mugabe used to intimidate opposition party leaders, members, and their families.  It was horrific.

The details, as clinically presented as they were, were BEYOND my worst imagination of what human beings can do to other humans.  My personal response moved immediately past rage and disgust.  I am actually shocked that people can live with themselves–that the attackers and mindless followers of Mugabe would commit such atrocities to preserve the “power” of the leader that rules them with fear, as well.

I suppose smaller versions of that happen in places that are closer than we might think.

The article in the NY Times today describes the opposition party’s leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, announcement that he was withdrawing from the election.  He had won by all accounts in the last election (including Mugabe’s), but Mugabe chose not to recognize it and his thugs set about to do their work–kill more than 86 high-level opposition party officials, main and brutally, violently beat more than 10,000 members of the opposition party, burn more than 20,000 residences and displace nearly 200,000 from their homes.

At a rally today, with only 5 days remaining until the vote, Tsvangirai decided that the price was too high.  He was unwilling to ask the party’s supporters to go to the polls on Friday “when that vote will cost them their lives.” (NY Times)

My ruminations turn to our own country.  For two elections in a row, there have been dubious results.  One was descided by the judicial branch, and the second was decided by a few Americans who were already loyal to the winner under a shroud of secrecy and armed guards.

Prior to the 2004 election, our own FBI went to the homes of dissenters to “question” Americans from demonstrating at the Republican National Convention (NY Times Article, CommonDreams.org Article, ACLU Article).  Although some of those FBI agents articulated that the request for them to do so was unconstitutional, but they did so anyways.

How much further is the political landscape in Zimbabwe from the political landscape from the United States  today?

I am truly glad that there are still some freedoms here, and that those enforcing it are thinking (and love our country).  If you love your freedom, in November of 2008, please VOTE.

• NY Times Article: Zimbabwe Opposition Leader Pulls Out of Runoff
• NY Times Article: Assassins in Zimbabwe Aim at the Grass Roots (WARNING: This is a clinically presented, but extremely GRAPHIC article.  The details are horrific.)

Lt. Cmdr. William C. Kuebler is a military lawyer for a detainee at Guantanamo Bay.

In the NY Times article, “An Unlikely Antagonist in the Detainees’ Corner,” by written by William Glaberson (published June 19, 2008), Kuebler articulates, from an insider’s perspective, my worst fears about the Military Tribunal system created by the Bush Administration.

The Bush administration’s war crimes system “is designed to get criminal convictions” with “no real evidence,” Commander Kuebler says. Or he lets fly that military prosecutors “launder evidence derived from torture.”

Ugh.

When I first read about the creation of the war crimes system (military tribunal) by the Bush Administration, I understood the goal immediatly–to create more legal grey area. If you take foreigners (or even American Citizens) and remove them from their country, and put them on soil governed by America but not in America, you have problematized some legal foundations. Some laws clearly do not apply.

In a foreign country, you would be subject to the laws of that country. On American soil, your actions would be subject to American Civil Law. However, Guantanamo Bay is NOT on American soil, and what happens there is NOT subject to the laws of Cuba. It is, legally problematic on many levels

• Justices Reject Gitmo Tribunals (USA Today)
• Bush’s Military Tribunals Violate the Law
• Tribunal System, Newly Righted, Stumbles Again (NY Times)

On a side note: Foreign laws apply to you in a foreign country UNLESS you are an American private contractor working in Iraq. They signed statements binding them to NOT be held accountable to laws of Iraq, and they are not on American soil, so they cannot be held accountable to American laws. Basically, the American private contactors in Iraq are living above and beyond the laws of ANY country. See HERE, and HERE and HERE and HERE for the consequences of such a policy–or, at least examples of some people who discovered ways to manipulate that gray area.

Lt. Cmdr. Kuebler has acknowledged the fundamental flaws of this system and rather than simply defending his client, he has attacked the flawed system.

Lt. Cmdr. Kuebler, thank you for making America a better place. You are a constitutional hero (and already in the Wikipedia).

You can read the entire NY Times article here.

The American Library Association is an entire collection of Constitutional Heroes–pun intended.

The ALA was truthfully an unexpected segment of resistance to the denigration of the Constitution.

In my opinion, their most celebrated act was the first line of defense against the Patriot Act.  The Librarians in the American Library Association worked tirelessly to keep censorship out of our libraries and information and research materials available to the public.

These heroes have worked with Congress to fight portions of the Patriot Act that have violated our Constitutional Rights.  Specifically, they worked to thwart the components of the Patriot Act (Title II) that required a librarian to surrender library usage information about any individual requested by the FBI and forbade them to even speak of the materials being requested for 5 years afterwards.

Their response to such an obvious circumvention of the Constitution and Rule of Law was to destroy that information daily.  At the end of the day, and in a consolidated act, Librarians shredded paper trails and deleted electronic records to preserve our freedoms.

You are HEROES!  Thank you, Librarians and ALA, for working to preserve our freedoms.