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  • Romney Palestine Flub Making Waves In The Arab World (Video/More)

    Posted on by G Comment

    Will the next protest involve the name Romney?

    From Al Jazeera:

    US Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has said that Palestinians "have no interest whatsoever" in peace with Israel, seemingly dismissing the two-state solution, in hidden camera video from May that only now has become public.

    The footage, which was posted online on Tuesday, shows Romney responding to a question about the "Palestinian problem" that was posed to him at a reportedly lavish $50,000-a-plate fundraiser in Florida, on May 17.

    "The Palestinians have no interest whatsoever in establishing peace, and … the pathway to peace is almost unthinkable to accomplish," Romney said.

    This entry was posted in Conservatives Elections International Religion and tagged Bookmark the permalink

  • Very Distressing: Charles Taylor, Liberian Ex-president, Had CIA Ties

    Posted on by G Comment
    Charles Taylor
    Former Liberian President Charles Taylor, currently on trial.

    When I think of Charles Taylor, I think of “blood diamonds.”

    And I am relieved that Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is currently President of Liberia, a country still recovering from the slave trade.

    Still recovering from the devastation wreaked by Europe and the Americas.

    So I was distressed to learn this week that Charles Taylor, currently on trial for Crimes Against Humanity, was at one point employed by the United States’ Central Intelligence Agency.

    From Al Jazeera:

    Liberia’s Charles Taylor, the first African head of state to be prosecuted for war crimes by an international tribunal, used to work with the CIA, according to a report in the Boston Globe from this week.

    The report, based on information uncovered through a Freedom of Information Act request made six years ago, said that Taylor had a relationship with the US spy agency for years, although the details of what he actually did were unclear.

    “The Pentagon’s response to the Globe states that the details of Taylor’s role on behalf of the spy agencies are contained in dozens of secret reports – at least 48 separate documents – covering several decades,” the US newspaper said.

    “However, the exact duration and scope of the relationship remains hidden.”

    A spokesperson for the ICC told the Globe that the Taylor-CIA relationship was unrelated to his charges at the court.

    The Globe report backed up long-standing rumours of Taylor’s work with the CIA, which confirmed a relationship with Taylor beginning in the early 1980s.

    Even though this happened during the Reagan administration, this still gives me no pride.

    Charles Taylor?

    Think “blood diamonds.”

    And mass executions.

    Taylor  is accused of 11 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity on claims that he armed Sierra Leone’s Revolutionary United Front (RUF) in exchange for illegally mined, so-called blood diamonds.

    This entry was posted in America General International Legal Liberia Bookmark the permalink

  • Obama Has Ethics: Pakistani Troops Linked to Abuses Will Lose U.S. Aid

    Posted on by G Comment

    From the New York Times:

    The Obama administration plans to refuse to train or equip about a half-dozen Pakistani Army units that are believed to have killed unarmed prisoners and civilians during recent offensives against the Taliban, according to senior administration and Congressional officials.

    The cutoff of funds is an unusual rebuke to a wartime ally, and it illustrates the growing tensions with a country that is seen as a pivotal partner, and sometimes impediment, in a campaign to root out Al Qaedaand other militant groups.

    The White House has not told Pakistan of the decision, even though senior Pakistani military and civilian leaders are here for a series of meetings, according to officials from both countries.

    It has privately briefed a few senior members of Congress, but it has not given them details about which Pakistani units will be affected by the suspension. One senior administration official said there was “a lot of concern about not embarrassing” the Pakistani military, especially during a week in which officials are here for the third “Strategic Dialogue” in a year.

    Well, I guess Pakistan knows now. Let’s hope they hear about this from Turning Left!

    This entry was posted in Barack Obama Conservatives Democratic News Ethics International Military Philosophical Bookmark the permalink

  • Have You Met The Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Behind Bars?

    Posted on by G Comment

    From The Economist:

    THE Nobel peace prize committee’s announcement on October 8th that they are giving the award to an imprisoned Chinese dissident, Liu Xiaobo, will infuriate Chinese leaders. It may well give extra ammunition to hardliners in China who argue that the West is bent on undermining Communist Party rule. This is the same faction that argues the party should take advantage of the West’s economic malaise to assert its own interests more robustly.

    China reacted with outrage in 1989 when the Nobel peace prize was awarded to the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan leader in exile, to all appearances as a rebuke to the government for having crushed the Tiananmen Square protests earlier that year. Though China regards Tibet as an integral part of the nation, Mr Liu stands apart as an ethnic Han Chinese who has devoted himself to addressing the politics of China proper.

    Mr Liu is precisely the kind of dissident that the party regards as most threatening. He is a seasoned campaigner, a veteran of the Tiananmen protests who has shown no sign of succumbing to the party’s intimidation in spite of three periods of incarceration over the past two decades (more than five years in total). He is a mildly spoken literary critic who has created the sort of consensus that is unusual to forge among China’s infighting intellectuals. Mr Liu’s Charter 08, a document that calls for democracy, was signed initially by more than 300 liberal thinkers (and then by thousands of others online). It struck a reasoned tone to which radicals and moderates alike could subscribe. The debate over “universal values” that it helped to fuel still rages within the party today.

    More here.

    This entry was posted in Crime and Punishment Ethics International Legal Bookmark the permalink

  • Roger Ebert Defends the Rights of Muslims to Open a Community Center

    Posted on by G Comment

    From Robert Ebert:

    As some chant "Death to America," what a mighty message we send if we support the mosque. THAT is the meaning of Freedom.

    Also, another Tweet from Roger:

    The NYC mosque exposes many on the right who don’t have a clue about the Constitution.

    I can’t believe the weird right is protesting this community center.

    This entry was posted in America Conservatives Homelessness International Liberals Race Rant Republicans Bookmark the permalink

  • Greenspan Turns Left: Calls for Repeal of All the Bush Tax Cuts

    Posted on by G Comment
    Alan Greenspan

    Former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan has officially moved to the left of President Obama on taxes. And that’s something, coming from a self-described lifelong Republican libertarian.

    From the New York Times:

    It was not enough, it seems, for Alan Greenspan, the former Federal Reserve chairman and a self-described lifelong Republican libertarian, to call for stringent government regulation of giant banks, as he did a few months ago.

    Now Mr. Greenspan is wading into the most fierce economic policy debate in Washington — what to do with the tax cuts adopted, in large part because of his implicit backing, under President George W. Bush — with a position not only contrary to Republican orthodoxy, but decidedly to the left of President Obama.

    Rather than keeping tax rates steady for all but the wealthiest Americans, as the White House wants, Mr. Greenspan is calling for the complete repeal of the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts, brushing aside the arguments of Republicans and even a few Democrats that doing so could threaten the already shaky economic recovery.

    “I’m in favor of tax cuts, but not with borrowed money,” Mr. Greenspan, 84, said Friday in a telephone interview. “Our choices right now are not between good and better; they’re between bad and worse. The problem we now face is the most extraordinary financial crisis that I have ever seen or read about.”

    Mr. Greenspan, who led the Fed for 18 years until he retired in 2006, warns that without drastic action to increase federal revenue and reduce the long-term growth in health care costs, bond investors could make a run on Treasury securities, driving up the nation’s borrowing costs and leading to another global economic crisis. This is not the first time Mr. Greenspan has urged fiscal restraint; he warned in 2008 that the country could not afford the tax cuts proposed by Senator John McCain, the Republican presidential candidate. But his sweeping call for rescinding the Bush tax cuts, which he has articulated in a recent appearance on “Meet the Press” and an interview with The Financial Times, among other settings, has rankled former colleagues.

    I never understood Trickle-Down Economics. Cutting government revenue never results in economic growth. Instead, the richest of the rich buy bigger yachts, and the national debt increases, often exponentially. Republicans never had the discipline to cut spending. Democrats fund projects that offend the G.O.P. and libertarians, but also balance budgets, repairing damage done by the G.O.P.

    I’m with Harry Truman and Bill Clinton: "If you want to live like a Republican, VOTE FOR DEMOCRATS."

    Sometimes, it’s that simple.

    Thanks, Alan.

    This entry was posted in Barack Obama Congress Conservatives Democratic News Economy Elections International Jobs John McCain Liberals Republicans Bookmark the permalink

  • Ebert Reviews 9500 Liberty: Big Thumbs Up

    Posted on by G Comment

    I had the opportunity to see a preview of 9500 Liberty about a year ago. Met Eric Byler and Annabel Parker. Liked them both.

    Roger Ebert just published a review of the film, not yet released in Chicago, although it should be, soon.

    Here’s the question to ask yourself: What if all the illegal aliens just left? What if they all left Arizona right now?

    Prince William County has been there, and went back. The results were disastrous for the local economy, quality of life. Turns out illegal-aliens were not responsible for more crime in Prince William County. In fact, as the number of illegals grew, crime went down. And when they left, there went the tax base, and legal residents of Prince William County found themselves facing 25% increases in taxes.

    So it goes.

    From Roger Ebert:

    When Prince William experienced a major building boom in the 1990s, a shortage of labor created a demand for workers, which led to an increase in the Latino population. Some of the newcomers were legal immigrants. Some were not. A blogger named Greg Letiecq began to write about his unhappiness with hearing Spanish spoken in public places. Finding an audience, he fomented about rising crime rates, rising taxes to pay for services for the newcomers, overcrowded dwellings, music played too loud, fast driving, and so on. He included Latino crime reports from the local police blotter. He even claimed armed members of the Mexican revolutionary group Zapatistas were moving to Prince William County.

    His organization, “Help Save Manassas,” issued saucer-sized red lapel stickers, and soon they were seen around the town. He and Board of Supervisors president Corey A. Stewart created a law that would require local police to stop people for "probable cause" and ask them to show their proof of citizenship. At the time, this measure seemed to have popular support, and there was resentment against a Mexican-American citizen who erected a large sign on his property (at 9500 Liberty St.) to object to it.

    About this time, filmmakers Eric Byler and Annabel Park (a Chinese-American and a Korean-American) began to post videos on YouTube that weren’t so much political as the raw material for a documentary. They showed discussions and arguments among local residents, testimony before the county board, Stewart, Letiecq and other pro-law figures and ordinary citizens. As the videos went viral, they inspired another local blog to counter Letiecq and a growing community discussion about the law.

    Among the law’s opponents was Charlie T. Deane, the long-serving, widely respected local police chief, who testified the law would cost about $14 million over five years to enforce, who said his officers had more important things to do and who said (along with the county attorney) that without video cameras in every police car, the officers and the county would be open to lawsuits. Cameras would cost another $3.1 million.

    Ironically,the law was partly to blame for a tax rate increase of 25% a year. There was another problem. Latinos began to move out of Prince William County or take their business to nearby friendlier areas. There was a retail slump, badly timed to coincide with the collapse of the housing market. As tax-paying “legals” left, the county tax base dropped. Restaurants and shops closed. Prince William County and Virginia have sales taxes, income taxes and other taxes that even non-citizens pay.

    Read Ebert’s full review here.

    And if you are among those clammoring for laws to protect us from illegals, be carefu what you wish for, my friend.

    This entry was posted in America immigration International John McCain Philosophical Republicans Bookmark the permalink

  • A Hole in the World: The BP Oil Hemorrhage

    Posted on by G Comment

    It’s not an oil spill. There is no mere spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

    There is a hole in the world. The floor of the Gulf of Mexico is hemorrhaging oil, and no one has a clue how to stop it. When they finally do plug the hold, the damage will likely be with us for decades.

    From The Nation:

    How long will it take for an ecosystem this ravaged to be "restored and made whole," as Obama’s interior secretary pledged it would be? It’s not at all clear that such a thing is even possible, at least not in a time frame we can easily wrap our heads around. The Alaskan fisheries have yet to recover fully from the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill, and some species of fish never returned. Government scientists estimate that as much as a Valdez-worth of oil may be entering the Gulf Coast waters every four days. An even worse prognosis emerges from the 1991 Gulf War spill, when an estimated 11 million barrels of oil were dumped into the Persian Gulf—the largest spill ever. It’s not a perfect comparison, since so little cleanup was done, but according to a study conducted twelve years after the disaster in the Persian Gulf, nearly 90 percent of the impacted muddy salt marshes and mangroves were still profoundly damaged.

    We do know this: far from being "made whole," the Gulf Coast, more than likely, will be diminished. Its rich waters and crowded skies will be less alive than they are today. The physical space many communities occupy on the map will also shrink, thanks to erosion. And the coast’s legendary culture will contract and wither. The fishing families up and down the coast do not just gather food, after all. They hold up an intricate network that includes family tradition, cuisine, music, art and endangered languages—much like the roots of grass holding up the land in the marsh. Without fishing, these unique cultures lose their root system, the very ground on which they stand. (BP, for its part, is well aware of the limits of recovery. The company’s "Gulf of Mexico Regional Oil Spill Response Plan" specifically instructs officials not to make "promises that property, ecology, or anything else will be restored to normal." Which is no doubt why its officials consistently favor folksy terms like "make it right.")

    If Katrina pulled back the curtain on racism, the BP disaster pulls back the curtain on something far more hidden: how little control even the most ingenious among us have over the awesome, intricately interconnected natural forces with which we so casually meddle. BP cannot plug the hole in the Earth that it made. Obama cannot order brown pelicans not to go extinct (no matter whose ass he kicks). No amount of money—not BP’s recently pledged $20 billion, not $100 billion—can replace a culture that has lost its roots. And while our politicians and corporate leaders have yet to come to terms with these humbling truths, the people whose air, water and livelihoods have been contaminated are losing their illusions fast.

    "Everything is dying," a woman said as the town hall meeting was coming to a close. "How can you honestly tell us that our gulf is resilient and will bounce back? Because not one of you up here has a hint as to what is going to happen to our gulf. You sit up here with a straight face and act like you know, when you don’t know."

    "Everything is dying."

    This entry was posted in Barack Obama Business Crime and Punishment Democratic News Economy Education Environment Ethics International Jobs Philosophical Rant Republicans Science White House Bookmark the permalink

  • Hold Those Poll Numbers – Obama Produces Results, Not Theater

    Posted on by G Comment
    President Barack Obama

    First, word from the latest CBS poll:

    Most Americans do not believe President Obama has a clear plan to deal with the oil spill in the Gulf, according to a new CBS News/New York Times poll.

    Just 32 percent say Mr. Obama has a clear plan to deal with the oil leak, while 59 percent (including 64 percent of Gulf coast residents) say he does not.

    The numbers are not much better among those who watched the president’s Oval Office speech on the spill last week, with 35 percent of that group saying he has a clear plan and 56 percent saying he does not.

    The spill isn’t the only issue on which the president is seen as lacking a plan of action: Just 41 percent say Mr. Obama has a clear plan for developing new sources of energy, while 45 percent say he has no clear plan. And when it comes to creating jobs, just 34 percent say he has a clear plan; 54 percent say he does not.

    A majority of Americans – 61 percent – says the president’s response to the oil spill was too slow. Just 31 percent say they have “a lot” of confidence in his ability to handle a crisis, though a majority has at least some confidence that he can do so. Since January, the percentage who says Mr. Obama has strong qualities of leadership has fallen from 70 percent to 62 percent.

    Overall, 43 percent approve of Mr. Obama’s handling of the oil spill, while 47 percent disapprove.

    I remember listening to Cokie Roberts speak at a luncheon of the Inland Press Association a few years ago. I was actually looking forward to her presentation. The 2008 Presidential Election was still before us, and I was hoping for some insider wisdom from one of America’s most popular journalists.

    When she opened her mouth, she graced us with poll numbers, the absolute “latest ABC poll results.” She presented us a good 20 minutes of meaningless drivel, letting us in on which way the winds had most recently blown.

    It was rather sad. Cokie tried to prognosticate, didn’t even try to elucidate.

    I was critical of President Obama after his speech last Tuesday evening. I wrote that I did not feel reassured by what the President said. I thought he sounded weak, and concluded with higher expectations for the morrow:

    At any rate, I hope the President shows more spark tomorrow when he meets with BP execs. behind closed doors. If BP’s royalty don’t emerge from their meeting with POTUS looking like they just had a “Come-to-Jesus” moment, well, shame on President Obama.

    The next day came the big announcement:

    President Barack Obama wrested a $20 billion compensation guarantee and an apology to the nation from British oil giant BP Wednesday, announcing the company would set up a major claims fund for shrimpers, restaurateurs and others whose lives and livelihoods are being wrecked by the oil flooding into the Gulf of Mexico.

    Applause broke out during a community meeting in Orange Beach, Ala., on the news.

    “We asked for that two weeks ago and they laughed at us,” Mayor Tony Kennon said. “Thank you, President Obama, for taking a bunch of rednecks’ suggestion and making it happen.”

    That floored me. Yes, $20 billion might be pocket change for BP in the long run, but it’s quite a bit for the people suffering loss – financial and otherwise – from the oil spill. Some members of the GOBP, like good old Joe Barton, criticized the agreement, calling it a “shakedown” and worse. Yes, Barton later apologized for that “misconstrued misconstruction,” or whatever. Members of the far right shuddered that there was no “due process,” as if every wrong can only be made right in this country by lengthy and extremely costly litigation.

    President Obama simply cut through the red tape. If BP wanted to, they could certainly, even now, seek remedy in the courts — but that isn’t likely.

    The President has resisted doing theater as Commander in Chief. Those moments are for campaigns, perhaps. A $20 billion (so far) agreement between a private corporation responsible for the worst environmental disaster ever in the Unted States and the highest elected official representing the people of this country — that’s incredible.

    Put away the poll numbers. The media wants theater at every turn.

    “No-Drama Obama” gets results.

    This entry was posted in America Barack Obama Business Conservatives Constitution Crime and Punishment Democratic News Economy Elections Environment Ethics International Jobs Liberals Republicans Bookmark the permalink