how the GOP is killing us…

Posted: June 16, 2013 in politics, beliefs, science, policy
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images-174If you’re following politics at all, you’d be forgiven if you came to the conclusion that the Republican members of Congress are insane. What is happening in our country’s politics makes absolutely no sense…that is, until you factor in corporate money (legalized bribery) and rightwing extremism (the Tea Party and a loony-tunes brand of Christianity).

 

Three examples:

Guns
How in the world can a bill about basic background checks for gun purchases fail to win in the House, when 93% of the lawmakers’ constituents (the people they are elected to represent) want it? Especially when it’s already illegal for felons and spouse abusers and the mentally ill to purchase guns, and all that’s missing is a law that requires gun sellers to do a five-minute check to make sure the person trying to buy a gun isn’t in one of those categories.

The reason? Two things: Corporate money (these law makers are paid through campaign contributions to not agree to 7.6.12C.Money-Politics-610x427anything that would piss off gun manufacturers) and rightwing extremism (if you’re a lawmaker and the tea party nutwings find out you’re not toeing the party line, they will “primary” you).

ExxonMobile
How does ExxonMobile get to wreck an entire town in Arkansas with a sands oil spill and not have to explain to the public (or show photos) of how or why this happened? How do they get to legally keep reporters out of the area? How did they get a frickin’ no-fly zone over their clean up operations?!?! Why were they allowed to not make proactive repairs when they knew that the potential for disaster existed? (One executive famously stated: “We know the cost of a clean up operation is much less than the cost to improve equipment and avoid a disaster.”) And why we’re on the subject, why does this obscenely wealthy corporation get billions of dollars in subsidies and tax breaks every year???

The reasons? Legalized bribery. They give money to (usually) Republicans’ campaigns in exchange for no media accountability, lots and lots of free money and a free pass to fuck up the environment. And there are the extremists, of course. A tweet from Rep. Steve Stockman:

The best thing about the Earth is if you poke holes in it oil and gas come out.

95205167-global-warming-deniersClimate change
While the rest of the industrial world is working to curb global warming, why do our politicians continually vote against anything that would help to cool down the earth, even while 98% of scientists agree that a global temperature increase of just 5 degrees would be a disaster…AND that it’s becoming inevitable that this WILL happen if we don’t do something, and do it soon?

The reasons?

Corporate money: Reporters from The Independent researched the ways that corporate money is influencing politics in the area of climate change, and they discovered that the amount of money being spent on fighting the science of climate change is just over 500 million dollars each year. Here’s how it works: The Koch brothers (Bill and Charles), the guys who started (and fund) the Tea Party, own Koch industries, a large oil, gas and chemical conglomerate. Koch industries gives millions and millions of dollars each year to a group called the “Knowledge and Progress Fund,” which in turn gives the money to two sister groups: Donors Trust and Donors Capital Fund. These two groups then spend shitloads of money “educating” the public against climate change, buying “scientists” who will de-bunk the real scientists’ research results, and paying off congresspeople. So, while 98% of scientists believe that it’s time to yell “fire!” in regards to global warming, these clowns are pretending that, “Oh my gosh! There are scientists out there who are totally against climate change!” The end results? The Koch brothers get richer, and we as a planet experience more and more deaths through “extreme weather events” (drought, storms, tornados, fires, floods) and get closer and closer to complete ecological ruin and the extinction of species, including our own. Good work, Bill and Charles.

bp-funds-tea-partys-climate-change-deniersExtremism: Senator James Inhofe (R-OK) appeared on Voice of Christian Youth America’s radio program Crosstalk with Vic Eliason a few months back to promote his new book The Greatest Hoax: How the Global Warming Conspiracy Threatens Your Future, where he stated:

God’s still up there. The arrogance of people to think that we, human beings, would be able to change what He is doing in the climate is to me outrageous.

Enough said.

Of course, there are many, many more examples, including the corporations that are allowed to coat our vegetables with pesticides, the minimum wage, aid to the poor, colleges loans and more. Watch this space.

 

wait…the IRS manager is a…conservative Republican?

Posted: June 11, 2013 in politics
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images-171In recent weeks we have watched a number of right-wing invented scandals drown in a sea of facts. Of course, the Republicans won’t give up…they’ll continue to throw tantrums and talk impeachment and invent new scandals, just like they do every time the Democrats have the presidency. (And they will no doubt behave like disappointed two-year olds into the foreseeable future, since it’s very unlikely that the GOP will be regaining the presidency anytime soon).

So apparently President Obama was targeting his political enemies by denying them the 501(c)(4) tax exemption that they rightfully deserve. These, of course, were Tea Party groups who absolutely, cross their hearts and hope to die, were NOT, first and foremost, political organizations and who were operating exclusively for social welfare and spending almost no time lobbying for the right wing.

Ha ha.

Anyway, the IRS “scandal,” according to the Republican party, FOX news, and America’s sheep-class, was an elaborate scheme by Obama to silence the right.

But wait…the top congressman on the Oversight and Government Reform Committee conducting the probe into the “scandal” told CNN (regarding the IRS employee who initiated the IRS actions):

He is a conservative Republican working for the IRS. I think this interview and these statements go a long way toward showing that the White House was not involved in this. Based upon everything I’ve seen, the case is solved. And if it were me, I would wrap this case up and move on.

John Shafer, the IRS manager, told the Oversight Committee that he and another employee set aside applications from groups images-172with “Tea Party” and “patriot” in their names because granting them tax-exempt status could set a new precedent for the IRS. In other words, he was just doing the job he is paid to do, to make sure that groups are not wrongfully receiving an exempt status they do not deserve. (It should also be noted that, so far, no conservative groups have come forward to say they were denied the tax-exemption.)

Of course, Republicans will surely say that the manager is not a Republican. He is an undercover Democrat. Or his party affiliation proves nothing, he could still have been working in cahoots with the president. Except that investigators asked him if this was a scheme by the White House to target conservative groups, and he said:

I do not believe that the screening of these cases had anything to do with anything, other than consistency and identifying issues that needed to have further development. There is no reason to believe the white house was involved in any way.

One more right-wing, tinfoil hat scandal down, many more to go. Certainly we will hear Fox News relaying all of this information to their listening audience later. I’m sure they’ll want to set the record straight, right? Ha ha! No, Republican attack dog, Darrell Issa, is already saying this proves nothing. Of course it doesn’t. The Republicans in congress will continue to waste our money, refuse to govern, block any and all positive forward progress, and – hopefully – dig themselves a really deep hole with voters who will not forget in 2016.

you’re outraged NOW?!?!

Posted: June 9, 2013 in politics
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images-168Seriously?!  You’re outraged NOW?  Where was all the outrage 12 years ago when Bush was pushing the Patriot Act through Congress?   It’s great that we’re finally having a national discussion on the balance between personal freedom and security, but let’s not pretend this is some new activity coming out of the Obama administration.  bush-legacy

 

Sunday thoughts #23: defend the poor, the environment

Posted: June 9, 2013 in beliefs, poverty
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When we talk about the environment, about creation, my thoughts turn to the first pages of the Bible, the Book of Genesis, which states that God placed man and woman on earth to cultivate and care for it.  And the question comes to my mind: What does cultivating and caring for the earth mean? Are we truly cultivating and caring for creation? Or are we exploiting and neglecting it?

The popes have spoken of human ecology, closely linked to environmental ecology. We are living in a time of la-tot-cartoons-pg-ocean-acidification-killing-sea-life-we-are-culpritscrisis: we see this in the environment, but above all we see this in mankind … Man is not in charge today, money is in charge, money rules. God our Father did not give the task of caring for the earth to money, but to us, to men and women: we have this task! Instead, men and women are sacrificed to the idols of profit and consumption: it is the ‘culture of waste.’

-Pope Francis to the crowds of pilgrims and visitors to St. Peter’s Square this week

He went on to stress what has become a recurrent theme for him: the contrast between how culture views the well-being of the financial world with the well-being and needs of the poor and the homeless.

If you break a computer it is a tragedy, but poverty, the needs, the dramas of so many people end up becoming the norm. If on a winter’s night, here nearby in Via Ottaviano, for example, a person dies, that is not news. If in so many parts of the world there are children who have nothing to eat, that’s not news, it seems normal. It cannot be this way! Yet these things become the norm: that some homeless people die of cold on the streets is not news. In contrast, a ten point drop on the stock markets of some cities, is a tragedy. A person dying is not news, but if the stock markets drop ten points it is a tragedy! Thus people are disposed of, as if they were trash.  Our grandparents used to make a point of not throwing away leftover food. Consumerism has made us accustomed to wasting food daily and we are unable to see its real value.  Throwing away food is like stealing from the table of those who are poor and hunger.

Since taking office in March, Pope Francis has said he wants the 1.2-billion-strong Roman Catholic Church to defend the poor and to practice greater austerity itself. He has also made several calls for global financial reform.  Around 1.3 billion tons of food, or one third of what is produced for human consumption, gets lost or wasted every year, according to the United Nations’ food agency.

If more Christians thought this way, the world would be a different place.

why I still won’t shop at Walmart…

Posted: June 8, 2013 in economy, poverty
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If you shop at Walmart, you are contributing to this.

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human-caused climate change debunked using the Bible

Posted: June 8, 2013 in policy, politics, science
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cartoon_380First, a couple facts:

FACT 1 - 95% of scientists believe that man is the chief cause of climate change.

FACT 2 – Of the 5% that don’t believe this, somewhere around 85% of them are being funded by wealthy energy companies.  Yes, those scientists’ conclusions are for sale.

Smokey Joe Barton (R) from Texas, chair of the energy committee and one of the biggest recipients of fossil fuel lobbying money of anyone in congress, explained in a recent congressional hearing why there is some confusion about the science behind climate change.

(This was regarding the Keystone Pipeline debate, which he supports, of course, because he’s being paid to support it.)

He says:

I would point out that people like me who support hydrocarbon development don’t deny that climate is changing.  I think you can have an honest difference of opinion of what’s causing that change without automatically being either all in that’s all because of mankind or it’s all just natural.

wearedestroyingearthvoteby08aug08oOk – before we get to the rest of his quote, let me just say this.  This is NOT a matter of opinion.  The “opinion” he’s referring to is “Am I going to listen to the vast majority – the 95% of scientists – who say this is a man-made change, or not?”  This isn’t a “difference of opinion” like “I prefer chocolate ice cream” or “I prefer vanilla ice cream” or even “I’m pro-background checks for gun purchases” or “I’m against background checks for gun purchases.”   No – this is about choosing whether or not to believe science.

Smokey Joe went on to state in this congressional hearing:

I would point out that if you’re a believer in the Bible, one would have to say the Great Flood is an example of climate change, and that certainly wasn’t because mankind had overdeveloped hydrocarbon energy.

Yup, he really said that.

c’mon, Mr. Obama – grow a pair.

Posted: June 8, 2013 in policy, politics
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images-162Adnan Latif was found dead in his cell on September 10, 2012, just a day before the eleventh anniversary of 9/11. He was 32. Latif, a Yemeni citizen, had been detained at Guantanamo Bay for over a decade, despite being cleared for release in 2004, 2007, 2009 and 2010 by US District Court Judge Henry Kennedy.  There has never been any evidence that Latif ever committed a crime. He suffered at the hands of the US government in ways that most people can’t begin to comprehend, and his death should be a reminder that the national shame that is Guantanamo Bay lives on.

Latif wrote in a letter to his lawyer:

Do whatever you wish to do, the issue is over.  This is a prison that does not know humanity, and does not know except the language of power, oppression, and humiliation for whoever enters it.  Anybody who is able to die will be able to achieve happiness for himself, he has no hope except that.  The requirement … is to leave this life which is no longer anymore called a life, instead it itself has become death and renewable torture. Ending it is a mercy and happiness for this soul. I will not allow any more of this and I will end it.

The Obama administration appealed the 2010 decision to release Latif, in part because of a policy of not transferring detainees to Yemen, and so Latif remained in custody – not because of what he had done (which was nothing), but because of where he was born. The decision to appeal his release wasn’t a holdover from the Bush era. That was an affirmative decision made by the Obama administration, and any supporters who hoped Obama would close Guantanamo Bay should understand that fact.

Latif is far from the only prisoner still held at Guantanamo despite being okayed for release. Over half of the people left in Gitmo have been cleared for years.  That young man, who was, say, twenty when he is seized, is now thirty. He sees his life slipping away from him with no sign of release. Hopelessness takes lives at Gitmo now.

Some Guantanamo numbers:

  • Number of men imprisoned at Guantanamo by the Department of Defense since it opened in January of 2002:  779
  • Number of men still there:  166
  • The total number of those 166 who are actually serving sentences, because they had a trial:  3
    Did you catch that?  Three people in Guantanamo have actually been convicted of something.  And it gets worse…
  • The number of people still imprisoned at Guantanamo after being cleared for release by our government:   86
  • The percentage of prisoners who have never been even remotely connected to Al-Qaeda and have never fought against the US in any way:   92%
  • Percentage of prisoners who were actually captured by American troops:  5%
  • The percentage of prisoners who were picked up through a bounty ad: 86%
    This is absolutely amazing and tragic.  Our government put out ads in poor neighborhoods in Pakistan and Afghanistan  - here’s an actual quote:  ”We will provide you with millions of dollars, enough money to take care of your family, your village, your tribe, for the rest of your life.”  So what do those poor villagers do?  They turn in the village crank, the guy no one likes, the guy who was sleeping with your sister.

images-160

  • Age of the youngest detainee:  13
  • Age of the oldest detainee:  92
  • Number of children who have been held at Guantanamo:  21
  • Age of the youngest prisoner to kill himself:   21 (captured at age 16, for throwing stones at American forces.)
  • Cost per year to detain just the 86 prisoners who have been cleared for release:  69 million
  • Cost per year were these prisoners to be moved into federal prisons:  3 million 
  • Number of FBI agents who have personally witnessed and independently filed protests regarding the abusive treatment of prisoners:  Over 200
  • Number of prisoners transferred for prosecution in federal court:  1
  • The number of military prosecutors who have requested to be reassigned or who have quit because they considered the imprisonment of these men to be unjust:  7
This is the wrong thing to do.   This is not who we want to be as a nation.

It is inefficient, it hurts us in terms of our international standing, it lessens cooperation with our allies on counterterrorism efforts, it is a recruitment tool for extremists, it wastes the taxpayers money, it needs to be closed.  It is contrary to who we are.  Guantanamo is an indelible stain on America.

-Barack Obama

and013110b1Unfortunately, Guantanamo is now a sign of the compromise of Obama’s principles.  True, this wasn’t Obama’s prison – it was one of the many ways that the Bush/Cheney administration betrayed America and did irreparable damage to our reputation, our honor and our national conscience.  But Obama promised to close it, and in fact he signed an executive order to close it, but he backed down in the face of ferocious resistance from the Republican dominated Congress.  Congressmen cut the funds needed to transfer prisoners and adopted various measures to avoid sending them anywhere else. The president had the alternatives of vetoing congressional decisions or using executive order to circumvent them, but he preferred to give in, as he’s done in so many other areas in which he needed to stand up and do what’s right.  images-161

The men in Guantanamo are condemned to live in prison forever, with no evidence, no due process, no trial.  History is going to look back on this and rightly condemn us.   We are America.  We are better than this.  

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