7/28/05
http://www.davidsirota.com/2005/07/which-of-15-dem-sellouts-should-start.html
Which of the 15 Dem Sellouts Should Start Looking For Another Job/Party?
We now know who the 15 Democrats are that each undermined their party and America's middle class by casting the deciding vote for the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA). The bill passed by one vote, meaning each of the 15 Democrats cast the deciding vote. When 27 Republicans vote against their own party leadership as they did on CAFTA, Democrats have only these 15 sellouts within their ranks - and groups like the DLC that pushed CAFTA - to blame for the fact that the Democratic Party has been relegated to permanent minority status.
The 15 Democratic sellouts were:
Melissa Bean (IL)
Jim Cooper (TN)
Henry Cuellar (TX)
Norm Dicks (WA)
Ruben Hinojosa (TX)
William Jefferson (LA)
Jim Matheson (UT)
Greg Meeks (NY)
Dennis Moore (KS)
Jim Moran (VA)
Solomon Ortiz (TX)
Ike Skelton (MO)
Vic Snyder (AR)
John Tanner (TN)
Ed Towns (NY)
Let's be clear - all of these people should never get a red cent from labor unions or the progressive community again, and that goes even for the ones who represent marginal districts. The idea that this was a "tough vote" for a Democrat who represents a swing district doesn't hold water - no one is getting voted out of office over voting against CAFTA, and voting for American workers. Remember, polls show that Americans are sick and tired of Congress passing these corporate-written "free" trade deals that sell out ordinary workers.
vote them out. period.
Thursday, July 28, 2005
Saturday, July 23, 2005
A different point of view
Letters to the editor
Published by news-press.com on July 23, 2005
http://www.news-press.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050723/OPINION/507230386/1015
Profiling is needed
I'm sure I'm going to offend some with these observations, but I have about had it with political correctness.
We have multiculturalists telling us that the American culture is just one of many different cultures, but not necessarily morally superior.
As I type this, both slavery and genocide are being practiced in Sudan and in other areas across Africa. I'm sorry, but that is not the moral equivalent of the American culture. Just this week there was a news story about a woman in India who was forcibly raped by her father in law. Would you like to know the punishment handed down by an Islamic court? Because she was no longer clean, she was to leave her husband who still loved her and marry the rapist because she had had sex with him.
In another case, in Pakistan, a religious court held that the sister of a man who had committed adultery was to be gang raped so as to bring shame upon his family.
Once again, I must apologize, but this is not the moral equivalent of Catholicism or Judaism. While true that all Muslims are not terrorists, it is equally true that almost all terrorists are Muslim. We know who the enemy is, young men of Middle Eastern descent. Rousting 5,000 Swedes at the airport will not make it fair. Profile.
LEONARD SWORD
Cape Coral
Shame lies with leaders
Re: "Shame on us," Bruce Diamond, July 20. Mr. Diamond's comparison of "the stereotype of the Moslem" with the "standard Nazi portrayal of the Jew ... published weekly in Der Sturmer" is way off the mark. He needs to acquaint himself with the facts concerning the Nazi/Jew situation and the USA/Muslim situations.
The Jews did nothing overt to attack the German citizenry of the Nazi party. Yet, they, as a religious group were officially set upon by their own government. We can never forget the brutality of the Holocaust.
Prior to 9/11, the American people had done nothing to harm the followers of the Islamic faith in the United States. As a nation, we have always maintained our national devotion toward freedom of religions.
Yet, we were attacked viciously in Beirut at our embassy and the Marine barracks, at Khobar Towers, at our embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. Also at Yemen harbor, nearly sinking the USS Cole and, finally, at the World Trade Center. Who were these attackers? They are identified by Islamic clerics and others as "radical followers of Islam."
Further, these Islamic leaders claim that these radicals comprise only approximately 1 percent of all Muslims. Do the math. One percent of 1.3 billion is 13 million Islamic fanatics.
Mr. Diamond, you should direct your finger of shame at the Islamic leaders and religious schools who have so far only uttered words of lamentation and condemnation. It is time for them to take positive action to stop these young fanatics before we kill them all in the war on terror.
COL. RICHARD L. HELLWEGE (USAF ret.)
Bonita Springs
Punish Democrats
Democrats motivated by hatred of George Bush for denying them power are throwing sand in the workings of our governmental process, often by proxy through liberal media. They will stop only when punished enough.
Super liberal Dan Rather came up with a fake memo purporting to show that George Bush shirked his National Guard duty. When that memo was revealed as a hoax, Newsweek charged that interrogators at Guantanamo had flushed a copy of the Quran. When that charge was unsubstantiated also, liberals and Democrats had to save face.
So we get the Karl Rove brouhaha. Democrat Sen. Schumer demands that Rove's security clearance be revoked. Democratic House Leader Nancy Pelosi weighs in with her usual partisan poison. It turns out that CIA operative Valeri Plame was not covert, after all; and that Karl Rove was the recipient, not the imparter of information.
It will be interesting to see how these liberal Democratic politicians who shot from the lip with such partisan fury without information try to wriggle out of this one. These are liberals; but nominate "moderates" such as Sen. Nelson and openly liberal Democrats often end up voting the same way. This has to stop. It will, when Democrats are punished enough at the ballot box.
JERRY R. SAWYER
Fort Myers Beach
Letters to the editor 050723_News-press_response
Tom Marshall
N Fort Myers, FL
A few of Saturday’s letters require responding to. Unlike Mr Sword, I Have “…had it with political correctness.”
Three of these writers have fallen into the “us” and “them” position practiced by those they would decry. “Us”, of course, being right, by definition. “Them”, being different, not right.
To answer Mr Sword, re: Profiling is needed, while I will agree with him that those actions he quotes may have happened, and may be morally reprehensible, the recent actions of the American government are equally “not the moral equivalent of Catholicism or Judaism”. Mr Sword has apparently forgotten the obscene actions of the bush administration in Iraq, and Afghanistan. How does he adjust the slaughter of innocent people in those countries by the illegal and immoral actions of the American government to his perception of “Catholicism or Judaism”.
War is a horrible obscenity. It is multiples of times worse when it is unnecessary. Then it becomes no more than terrorism. It is by now, established fact that the administration lied to the US Congress, the UN, and the American people, in their quest to invade Iraq at any cost. This alone has resulted in the destruction of tens of thousands of lives. Each life was a person, with families and friends, the same as you and I. And equally deserving of respect.
“…it is equally true that almost all terrorists are Muslim”? I’m afraid that he has lost sight of reality.
In Shame lies with leaders, Col. Richard L. Hellwege (USAF Ret.) points his finger at Mr Diamond for failing to condemn “…Islamic leaders and religious schools…”, while at the same time Mr Hellwage fails to point his “finger of shame” at those warmongers, war-profiteers, PR firms, and “Christian” preachers who have continuously flaunted their support of the unhappy situation in Iraq. Would you not call them “fanatics”? Even in the face of reality and failure on the ground there, the exposure of their lies, and the loss of respect and trust of the majority of the American people, they continue to rhapsodize about their fantasy of control and domination. And remember, almost 1800 of your fellow servicemen and women have been reported killed. That’s dead. For a lie. Where is your finger of shame?
Punish Democrats, from Jerry R. Sawyer, is just a gas. It’s so easy to pick apart.
The Dan Rather memo may or not have been “fake”, but no one has refuted, or called false, the facts contained in it. As for “flushing the Koran”, I would think that the reports of torture and abuse at Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib, alone, would have shamed him enough to not even want to bring up the Newsweek red herring. And, karl rove. Apparently, Mr Sawyer hasn’t been paying very much attention to recent events. The republican apologists for rove who have engaged “…with such partisan fury without information..." are attempting to "...try to wriggle out of this one”.
When we get into comparing “us” and “them”, we need to remember that “them” consider themselves as “us” and “us” as “them”. A simple piece of logic. Try it yourselves. Stand at the end of your block, and look down the street. Now walk to the other end and look back. A different point of view, isn’t it?
Published by news-press.com on July 23, 2005
http://www.news-press.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050723/OPINION/507230386/1015
Profiling is needed
I'm sure I'm going to offend some with these observations, but I have about had it with political correctness.
We have multiculturalists telling us that the American culture is just one of many different cultures, but not necessarily morally superior.
As I type this, both slavery and genocide are being practiced in Sudan and in other areas across Africa. I'm sorry, but that is not the moral equivalent of the American culture. Just this week there was a news story about a woman in India who was forcibly raped by her father in law. Would you like to know the punishment handed down by an Islamic court? Because she was no longer clean, she was to leave her husband who still loved her and marry the rapist because she had had sex with him.
In another case, in Pakistan, a religious court held that the sister of a man who had committed adultery was to be gang raped so as to bring shame upon his family.
Once again, I must apologize, but this is not the moral equivalent of Catholicism or Judaism. While true that all Muslims are not terrorists, it is equally true that almost all terrorists are Muslim. We know who the enemy is, young men of Middle Eastern descent. Rousting 5,000 Swedes at the airport will not make it fair. Profile.
LEONARD SWORD
Cape Coral
Shame lies with leaders
Re: "Shame on us," Bruce Diamond, July 20. Mr. Diamond's comparison of "the stereotype of the Moslem" with the "standard Nazi portrayal of the Jew ... published weekly in Der Sturmer" is way off the mark. He needs to acquaint himself with the facts concerning the Nazi/Jew situation and the USA/Muslim situations.
The Jews did nothing overt to attack the German citizenry of the Nazi party. Yet, they, as a religious group were officially set upon by their own government. We can never forget the brutality of the Holocaust.
Prior to 9/11, the American people had done nothing to harm the followers of the Islamic faith in the United States. As a nation, we have always maintained our national devotion toward freedom of religions.
Yet, we were attacked viciously in Beirut at our embassy and the Marine barracks, at Khobar Towers, at our embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. Also at Yemen harbor, nearly sinking the USS Cole and, finally, at the World Trade Center. Who were these attackers? They are identified by Islamic clerics and others as "radical followers of Islam."
Further, these Islamic leaders claim that these radicals comprise only approximately 1 percent of all Muslims. Do the math. One percent of 1.3 billion is 13 million Islamic fanatics.
Mr. Diamond, you should direct your finger of shame at the Islamic leaders and religious schools who have so far only uttered words of lamentation and condemnation. It is time for them to take positive action to stop these young fanatics before we kill them all in the war on terror.
COL. RICHARD L. HELLWEGE (USAF ret.)
Bonita Springs
Punish Democrats
Democrats motivated by hatred of George Bush for denying them power are throwing sand in the workings of our governmental process, often by proxy through liberal media. They will stop only when punished enough.
Super liberal Dan Rather came up with a fake memo purporting to show that George Bush shirked his National Guard duty. When that memo was revealed as a hoax, Newsweek charged that interrogators at Guantanamo had flushed a copy of the Quran. When that charge was unsubstantiated also, liberals and Democrats had to save face.
So we get the Karl Rove brouhaha. Democrat Sen. Schumer demands that Rove's security clearance be revoked. Democratic House Leader Nancy Pelosi weighs in with her usual partisan poison. It turns out that CIA operative Valeri Plame was not covert, after all; and that Karl Rove was the recipient, not the imparter of information.
It will be interesting to see how these liberal Democratic politicians who shot from the lip with such partisan fury without information try to wriggle out of this one. These are liberals; but nominate "moderates" such as Sen. Nelson and openly liberal Democrats often end up voting the same way. This has to stop. It will, when Democrats are punished enough at the ballot box.
JERRY R. SAWYER
Fort Myers Beach
Letters to the editor 050723_News-press_response
Tom Marshall
N Fort Myers, FL
A few of Saturday’s letters require responding to. Unlike Mr Sword, I Have “…had it with political correctness.”
Three of these writers have fallen into the “us” and “them” position practiced by those they would decry. “Us”, of course, being right, by definition. “Them”, being different, not right.
To answer Mr Sword, re: Profiling is needed, while I will agree with him that those actions he quotes may have happened, and may be morally reprehensible, the recent actions of the American government are equally “not the moral equivalent of Catholicism or Judaism”. Mr Sword has apparently forgotten the obscene actions of the bush administration in Iraq, and Afghanistan. How does he adjust the slaughter of innocent people in those countries by the illegal and immoral actions of the American government to his perception of “Catholicism or Judaism”.
War is a horrible obscenity. It is multiples of times worse when it is unnecessary. Then it becomes no more than terrorism. It is by now, established fact that the administration lied to the US Congress, the UN, and the American people, in their quest to invade Iraq at any cost. This alone has resulted in the destruction of tens of thousands of lives. Each life was a person, with families and friends, the same as you and I. And equally deserving of respect.
“…it is equally true that almost all terrorists are Muslim”? I’m afraid that he has lost sight of reality.
In Shame lies with leaders, Col. Richard L. Hellwege (USAF Ret.) points his finger at Mr Diamond for failing to condemn “…Islamic leaders and religious schools…”, while at the same time Mr Hellwage fails to point his “finger of shame” at those warmongers, war-profiteers, PR firms, and “Christian” preachers who have continuously flaunted their support of the unhappy situation in Iraq. Would you not call them “fanatics”? Even in the face of reality and failure on the ground there, the exposure of their lies, and the loss of respect and trust of the majority of the American people, they continue to rhapsodize about their fantasy of control and domination. And remember, almost 1800 of your fellow servicemen and women have been reported killed. That’s dead. For a lie. Where is your finger of shame?
Punish Democrats, from Jerry R. Sawyer, is just a gas. It’s so easy to pick apart.
The Dan Rather memo may or not have been “fake”, but no one has refuted, or called false, the facts contained in it. As for “flushing the Koran”, I would think that the reports of torture and abuse at Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib, alone, would have shamed him enough to not even want to bring up the Newsweek red herring. And, karl rove. Apparently, Mr Sawyer hasn’t been paying very much attention to recent events. The republican apologists for rove who have engaged “…with such partisan fury without information..." are attempting to "...try to wriggle out of this one”.
When we get into comparing “us” and “them”, we need to remember that “them” consider themselves as “us” and “us” as “them”. A simple piece of logic. Try it yourselves. Stand at the end of your block, and look down the street. Now walk to the other end and look back. A different point of view, isn’t it?
Wednesday, July 13, 2005
The Bricklayers Attacked
The attack on the bricklayers of Abu Ghraib
For the full story by John F. Burns see The New York Times: 7/13/05:p8
There are differing accounts of what happened to the 12 men from Abu Ghrib on the road to Baghdad.
The Police say that the men were involved in a roadside attack and exchanged fire with Americans and Iraqi police. The men were tracked to a Baghdad hospital where they were arrested and taken away in an armored vehicle.The men were brought to Yarmouk Hospital 14 hours after their arrest; eight were dead and four were unconscious; of the four only two survived One of the two survivors of the group, Diya Saleh, says the men were on their way to Baghdad in search of work bricklaying. Whether or not Mr Saleh is being truthful is immaterial at this point. The men were taken with and without injuries out of a hospital, possibly subjected to electrical torture in 110 degree heat and subsequently most of them were killed. A police officer at Yarmouk Hospital substantiated the story and told another. Several Hours after Mr. Saleh was admitted a group of four commandos and a civilian demanded to know where he was. When the officer called the local police for assistance the commandos left. They were presumably there to kill him.
It seems that there are very mysterious forces at work in Iraq. The local police it seems is more discriminating in its tactics than the military commando types. If any people should be sensitive to issues regarding torture it is the Iraqis. That we are exploring the outer limits of what we think are acceptable interrogation techniques in the field and at confinement centers like Gitmo is in direct conflict to our desired aim of turning over Iraq to the Iraqis--if the authorities in Iraq are going to continue to use torture they will never have legitimacy. Similarly the military intelligence bureau should do a study on the quality, quantity and value of information gained in this manner. My hunch is it they would agree with John Warner that the wealth of information has saved lives and been well worth it. However, when you consider the example it sets and the danger it presents to our own troops in the hands of an enemy it isn't. But under the defense secretary rumsfeld any concern for the grunts is purely unintentional.
Oh by the way if rumsfeld's boss wants the Rove story to die he might start by releasing Judith Miller. You can not still the press by firing its rockets.
For the full story by John F. Burns see The New York Times: 7/13/05:p8
There are differing accounts of what happened to the 12 men from Abu Ghrib on the road to Baghdad.
The Police say that the men were involved in a roadside attack and exchanged fire with Americans and Iraqi police. The men were tracked to a Baghdad hospital where they were arrested and taken away in an armored vehicle.The men were brought to Yarmouk Hospital 14 hours after their arrest; eight were dead and four were unconscious; of the four only two survived One of the two survivors of the group, Diya Saleh, says the men were on their way to Baghdad in search of work bricklaying. Whether or not Mr Saleh is being truthful is immaterial at this point. The men were taken with and without injuries out of a hospital, possibly subjected to electrical torture in 110 degree heat and subsequently most of them were killed. A police officer at Yarmouk Hospital substantiated the story and told another. Several Hours after Mr. Saleh was admitted a group of four commandos and a civilian demanded to know where he was. When the officer called the local police for assistance the commandos left. They were presumably there to kill him.
It seems that there are very mysterious forces at work in Iraq. The local police it seems is more discriminating in its tactics than the military commando types. If any people should be sensitive to issues regarding torture it is the Iraqis. That we are exploring the outer limits of what we think are acceptable interrogation techniques in the field and at confinement centers like Gitmo is in direct conflict to our desired aim of turning over Iraq to the Iraqis--if the authorities in Iraq are going to continue to use torture they will never have legitimacy. Similarly the military intelligence bureau should do a study on the quality, quantity and value of information gained in this manner. My hunch is it they would agree with John Warner that the wealth of information has saved lives and been well worth it. However, when you consider the example it sets and the danger it presents to our own troops in the hands of an enemy it isn't. But under the defense secretary rumsfeld any concern for the grunts is purely unintentional.
Oh by the way if rumsfeld's boss wants the Rove story to die he might start by releasing Judith Miller. You can not still the press by firing its rockets.
Saturday, July 09, 2005
The Nature of Terrorism and Political Change
The automatic and overwhelming question after an act of terrorism is why. The answer is almost as slow to appear as the act was instantaneous. I would like to suggest this approach: study the methods and motivations of ordinary political change and then apply that knowledge to the extreme elements in our society.
Ordinarily all political systems are in perpetual change. This change is driven by all of the leading and minor players. Anyone who is committed to changing "the system" may participate. Most change comes from the center of the political spectrum--hereafter called the reformers. The reformers are driven to make changes by all elements of the system but most strongly by the special interests of its own party--hereafter called the radicals. The changes are rarely what the radicals had in mind but it is change all the same. Think of the system as a filter--change filters in from the outside to the radicals and on to the reformers and is finally accepted or not. Occasionally radicals from both sides will agree and make an unfiltered change but this is rare.
On the fringes of participation are revolutionaries and terrorists. Terrorists assert that the system is corrupt because it filters legislation. Revolutionaries assert that the system is dysfunctional and filtering only the changes that will benefit it. To the terrorist everything is black and white, pro and con, good and evil. Unlike the radicals the terrorist is unwilling to use the system for change. Think of the child who is frustrated by a card game and throws all of the cards into the air. The terrorist would like to throw the system into the air and damn the consequences. The revolutionary is willing to see the terrorist succeed. If they do actually join forces the revolution is premature and will be corrupted--Soviet communism is an example. Most often the terrorist's objective is not power but the destruction of power or more precisely, the destruction of the illusion of power.
By shattering the peace the terrorist is trying to underscore the fact that your government cannot protect you. The terrorist is right; we will always be vulnerable to such attacks. The only way to stop terrorism is to improve the sense of helplessness that breeds such contempt. It must be improved in Indonesia, Morocco, Egypt, Arabia, Tanzania, Kenya, Columbia and a host of other places where hopelessness is the order of the day. We cannot coexist with such poverty and disease, and oppression. We have to ease it. Not because of terrorists, but because it is right and just. Terrorism to a healthy system is a symptom and nothing more. Terrorism to a corrupt system is a death Nell.
Ordinarily all political systems are in perpetual change. This change is driven by all of the leading and minor players. Anyone who is committed to changing "the system" may participate. Most change comes from the center of the political spectrum--hereafter called the reformers. The reformers are driven to make changes by all elements of the system but most strongly by the special interests of its own party--hereafter called the radicals. The changes are rarely what the radicals had in mind but it is change all the same. Think of the system as a filter--change filters in from the outside to the radicals and on to the reformers and is finally accepted or not. Occasionally radicals from both sides will agree and make an unfiltered change but this is rare.
On the fringes of participation are revolutionaries and terrorists. Terrorists assert that the system is corrupt because it filters legislation. Revolutionaries assert that the system is dysfunctional and filtering only the changes that will benefit it. To the terrorist everything is black and white, pro and con, good and evil. Unlike the radicals the terrorist is unwilling to use the system for change. Think of the child who is frustrated by a card game and throws all of the cards into the air. The terrorist would like to throw the system into the air and damn the consequences. The revolutionary is willing to see the terrorist succeed. If they do actually join forces the revolution is premature and will be corrupted--Soviet communism is an example. Most often the terrorist's objective is not power but the destruction of power or more precisely, the destruction of the illusion of power.
By shattering the peace the terrorist is trying to underscore the fact that your government cannot protect you. The terrorist is right; we will always be vulnerable to such attacks. The only way to stop terrorism is to improve the sense of helplessness that breeds such contempt. It must be improved in Indonesia, Morocco, Egypt, Arabia, Tanzania, Kenya, Columbia and a host of other places where hopelessness is the order of the day. We cannot coexist with such poverty and disease, and oppression. We have to ease it. Not because of terrorists, but because it is right and just. Terrorism to a healthy system is a symptom and nothing more. Terrorism to a corrupt system is a death Nell.
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