On the Contrary

There are various news stories out there that give us a real look in the mirror and bits and pieces is my attempt to summarize some of my favorite for your reading pleasure:

• Iraq and Afghanistan – Several stories have appeared recently documenting that in Iraq, there is still seething ethnic rivalries and resentment at the American occupation.  Baghdad is basically a segregated community where many Sunnis have not moved back.  In Afghanistan, similar dislike of the American occupation is being recorded and with the infusion of another 30,000 American troops, al-Qaeda and the Taliban are gearing up for heated battles.  Does it ever occur to anyone that maybe more troops is the problem?  What if they had a battle and no one came?  One thing we are learning is that military action is expensive.  So where does the Taliban and al-Qaeda get their dough?  If nobody cared would there be a problem anymore?  Maybe it is time for them to solve their own problems.
• The Washington Post on Sunday ran a front page story that basically told that the CIA’s first high value detainee, Abu Zabaida, which they tortured, and which Cheney and Bush lauded as a great source of information to justify their torture policies, gave no reliable information.  Well that is not quite true.  He gave some very reliable information before they started torturing him, but the reality was that he was not a kingpin in al-Qaeda as Bush and Cheney claimed.  This comes as no surprise to anyone who has read The Dark Side by Jane Mayer who last year pretty much totally chronicled the keystone cops approach to interrogation that the CIA applied, the torture that led to nowhere, and the murders and brutality committed in our names that was totally unproductive.  Jane couldn’t name sources, but apparently now they are willing to tell their tale so the major news organizations are picking it up.  Welcome America to a story that will make you sick to your stomach.
• In a related story, Spain may indict some of the Bush Administration officials for war crimes in their part in promoting torture.  It is a very sad day when we have to look to Spain to uphold the law that the United States used to stand for.  If the Obama Administration does not investigate our war crimes as required by our treaties and leaves it to other countries, it will further decay our moral standing in the world if not our morals themselves.  Why is this so hard?
• Meanwhile in Cambodia, they have started their first trial on the torture and killing that occurred at Tuol Sleng prison where at least 14,000 people were tortured before being executed during the reign of the Khmer Rouge.  And what is the chief warden’s defense.  I was just following orders and they would have killed me and my family if I did not comply.  It will be the same defense that will be heard in the U.S. if we prosecute those who partook in torture.  Sooner or later we have to establish that following orders is not a defense against these crimes against humanity.  Oh, I forgot.  We already did that at Nuremberg after World War II.  You think we could remember that.
• In North Korea, two American female journalists may face trails for entering the country illegally.  With the North Koreans, there is probably no basis to the charges.  The connection I see is the missile launch this month.  In the warped North Korean mind, it may seem logical to have a couple of American hostages in case we try to shoot down or prevent their missile launch.  If the launch occurs without incident, the situation with these two will probably clear up.  Hopefully.
• President Obama made another trip to Congress this week, this time in the House, to encourage Democrats to support his budget.  Some Democrats (Conseradems as Rachel Maddow calls them) in the Senate are playing right into the Republican’s hands with their idea to force many votes that would be subject to the filibuster.  Let’s get back to majority rule instead of minority rule so we can get something done.  If you are afraid we are being too aggressive, just think back to the last eight years and ask yourself we could do more harm than that.  It is time to try something new and that is what this budget is about.
• President Obama moved aggressively to reject the automakers plan, asked for CEO resignations, and set a deadline for real action.  Republicans are screaming government intervention and others are saying that the CEO should have stayed on.  Just remember the cardinal rule:  When the strategy must change, you need new generals.  Old thinking won’t get us there and that applies both to Republicans in general, and CEO’s specifically.  We don’t need to fight last years wars all over again.
• Simon Johnston and Paul Krugman, both economists, have noted something we all ought to be thinking about:  Restoring the financial markets to business as usual is just setting us up for failure once again.  Packaging and selling debt is not the growth industry of the future and financial institutions can never again be too big to fail.  There are major implications of these ideas in the regulations that must come out of this debacle and in the mindset of Wall Street.  You can bet the vested interests will fight this every step of the way and is why change and progress are so hard.  The pockets of both Democrats and Republicans is lined with Wall Street Money.
• In the debate to overhaul health care, many are arguing that a government program similar to Medicare competing with private insurers would be unfair.  But I have come up with a way to level the playing field.  All government programs would have to charge a 30% surcharge so that the administration costs of the private insurers trying to either deny claims or skim healthy members would be competitive.  Then every one would have the same inefficient systems.
• Our prisons are full and overflowing, and more importantly for most politicians that used “throw the key away” rhetoric to get elected, the costs are now swamping our state governments.  We have the largest incarcerated population in the world with 1 in 10 Americans having been incarcerated.  Why does it take the all mighty dollar for politicians to finely recognize that many in prison don’t belong there and to start doing the right thing?
• Last but not least is that there seems to be a bipartisan movement in the Senate to finally relieve the restrictions on travel and trade with Cuba.  Most now see our economic and travel restrictions there have been an abject failure.  But we still have diehards such as Senator Menendez, Democrat from New Jersey, who see this as rewarding their bad behavior.  Let’s see.  The policy has been totally unsuccessful, but to change it would be to reward them?  Is this not the definition of inflexibility and stupidity?  Reminds me of the Republicans and their continued campaign of denying global warming.  Those melting ice caps and the new studies by the majority of scientists that show the phenomenon accelerating are just liberal tactics to destroy the economy.  See any connection between this kind of thinking and the failure of the auto industry to adapt to change?

You know, it is sad when you can see the way forward but you just can’t get the rest of the country to move in your direction.  Whether it is health care, global warming, energy policy, torture investigations, our prison systems, or Cuba restrictions, why is it so hard to do the reasonable thing?

I am starting to get really disillusioned.  To understand what is really going on, one has to step back from the media which is focused on their incestual chatter and conventional wisdom and look at what is really happening.  From analysis of the stimulus package to what to do with your money, we are getting advice and sage wisdom from people who are repeating the same talking points over and over again.  Barack Obama had it right when he said the earth has moved under their feet, but even he fails to understand what that really means.

I have expressed my disgust at the economic stimulus package which has been gutted as to be totally ineffective by trying to cater to the Republicans.  Paul Krugman this morning eloquently laid out that argument in the New York Times.  I guess what is most disturbing is listening to Republicans gain traction on their failed economic ideas and watch Democrats try to make nice with them while they are in the process of creating a massive economic train wreck.  It is the same tired arguments we had during the election and apparently the election settled nothing.  I guess we will have to be lying in the wreckage of the train wreck before we finally get it.

But there are other things which need to be done and I am afraid we are backsliding.  Here is my list of things that could and should be done immediately:

• Stop air bombardment in Afghanistan and Iraq – Whether by drone or by aircraft, this policy of fighting a guerrilla war with proxy bombs kills innocents and is counterproductive, not to mention immoral.  Collateral damage is by definition failure in a war for peoples hearts and minds.
• Never, nunca, torture, ever – The whole premise of torture is that under extreme pain someone will tell you the truth.  It is a false premise.  They will tell you what you want to hear and that has nothing to do with the truth.  In the movie “Taken” the hero wires up a guy to the power gird to get him to tell him where his daughter is.  The guy spits in his face so he lights him up and he spills his guts.  Really?  I would have given him a convincing lie and it would have worked out better for the bad guy.  Oh, did I mention the moral argument for you Jesus freaks who think this is a good idea?
• Close Guantanamo and no “special trials” – If you buy the argument that there is evidence that is so secret that you just have to believe the government, it is the end of justice as we know it.  Our system of justice has evolved over 2000 years beginning with the Greeks and evolving into what we have today.  This is no time to deny that wisdom.  Find out what evidence there is, prosecute or release.  I am tired of watching “good” Americans clamber for a lynching.  Note that fool Lindsey Graham, who everyone thought was such a peach coming up with the military tribunal system, is also giving us wonderful advice on our economy. Any more help from him and we will finally hit bottom.
• Iraq and Afghanistan – The war party is over.  If most of you actually knew how much we were spending over there you would be appalled especially looking at the major whining that has gone over some of the minor items in the stimulus package.  Time to set a date and be out.  We simply can’t afford it anymore and why do we want to prop up nations that don’t believe in women’s rights?  I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to be part of bringing another theocracy into the world.
• Cuba – Just End the blockade and get on with normal relations.
• Marijuana – Just get over it, legalize it like alcohol, control it, and tax it.  It’s here, everyone uses it at one time or another and we are wasting precious time and resources playing cops and robbers.
• Immigration – Note this one has fallen out of view with the economic crisis.  That should tell you it was never really a problem in the sense that Mexicans were taking jobs away from Americans.  Get a reasonable program in place that legalizes those that are here, makes guest workers easy to accommodate, and does not punish their children because their parents brought them here.
• Get over the moral approach – Whether Cuba, Marijuana, or Immigration, this moral conservative approach to these issues has been bankrupt from day one and still we continue doing stupid counterproductive things.
• Refocus incarceration of criminals on rehabilitation – We have the largest gulag in the world.  Our approach to this problem is to take criminals and throw away the key.  In California the budget for prisons will soon exceed our budget for schools.  Something is not working so why do we continue to do the same stupid things.  Because conservatives use the fear card and the masses fall for it every time.
• Healthcare – I listen to more stupid discussions about how to provide universal healthcare than one can endure.  Watch my lips:  SINGLE PAYER SYSTEM.  It is the only thing that has worked elsewhere and yet once again conservative America holds us back from the obvious solution to an ever increasing problem.
• Abortion, gay marriage, and flag burning – Non-issues.  We have reasonable laws restricting abortion, but this issue is really about the basic right of women to control their lives.  Gay marriage is also a human rights issue as flag burning is a free speech issue.  If you don’t approve of any of the above, don’t do them, but don’t utilize government to take the rights away from others.
• Religion and Government – They don’t mix.  Religion is basically about faith and the definition of faith is belief that does not rest on logical proof or material evidence.  Our government of free debate and majority rule (don’t forget minority rights) is based upon the ideas from the Enlightenment that rational thought and discourse could convince the majority to do the right thing.  Get the disconnect?  One uses reason and logic to arrive at the appropriate course of action and the other ignores reason and logic to continue beliefs that belong in the dark ages.
• High Speed Rail – Build it and start focusing all big transportation projects on mass transit.  What part of petroleum dependence don’t we get?

So we muddle on going nowhere while conservatives continue to tell us they have the right path.  What appalls me is that anyone listens to them anymore.

As this year draws to a close and hopefully we are rid of the Bushies and all they stood for (lack of critical thinking), I was cataloging some of the more stupid things we do as a nation and a people that I would like to see end.  So, without further adieu, here they are:

• Our Cuba Policy – For forty years we have had a policy of isolation with Cuba and have pandered to the Cuban community in Florida that has resulted in nothing but failure.  Had we a more open policy to Cuba, Fidel might have been gone years ago.  Worse, remember the Elian Gonzalez fiasco?  That was when the courts ruled that Elian belong with his father (family law trumps international politics) and Janet Reno ordered his return to his father and Cuba.  This wonderful Cuban community voted in total for George Bush in the election of 2000 ensuring Florida’s close vote and enabling the disasters that have been fostered on us since.  So first and foremost quit listening to small thinkers and open up Cuba.
• Drug Wars – This approach to our drug problem has been so counter productive and destructive of human lives that it boggles the mind.  This approach to our drug problem of punishment has failed us miserably.  Our prisons are full of non-violent drug offenders.  Drugs are readily available anywhere you want to look.  If you have teenage kids, they can get you anything you might desire.  Maybe it is time to refocus this whole effort on the demand side instead of on the supply side.  Maybe we ought to spend our precious dollars on prevention and treatment instead of chasing around the bad guys in a game of cops and robbers.  When you read about one of those “great” marijuana seizures, wonder about the waste of resources that went into this and how they might have been more effectively employed.  It has no impact on the availability of weed.  Maybe we ought to learn how to live with it.
• Crime and Punishment – We have, in a similar fashion with the Drug Wars, taken a draconian approach to crime and punishment.  This has manifested itself in mandatory sentencing and three-strikes laws that are not effective as crime preventers and are filling our prisons to overflowing.  Worse, we forgot all about rehabilitation.  We became a nation that believes in Christian redemption but then denies it to our criminal element.  There are so many stories of injustice in prisons, that it is impossible to communicate them here.  We need to imprison the very bad and incorrigible, and rehabilitate the rest.  But we have too many people who still feel rehabilitation is coddling.  It is really working well isn’t it?
• The International Court – What is it about America that does not think they should be subject to international law?  If we ever catch Osama bin Laden which would you rather see him tried in, an international court where the full weight of the international community would judge his actions or an American court where  those who hate us will deny its legitimacy?  We, like everyone else, must live by international law
• Then there are the obvious domestic issues all of which revolve around the Religious Right/Catholic Church/Mormons wanting to enforce their religious beliefs on the rest of us:

1. Recognize gays are equal human beings and quit worrying about who marries whom.  If you don’t believe in gay marriage, don’t marry a gay person
2. We have a perfectly reasonable abortion law that restricts most abortions in the late term.  If you believe abortion is wrong, don’t get one
3. If someone makes an end of life decision, it is for no one else to judge.  Oregon has a perfectly rational approach to these decisions and why do others want to force people to live by their needs and desires?  Once again, make your own decision, but don’t make mine
4. Don’t pass laws or regulations that in effect prevent people from exercising their legal rights to access to abortions, birth control, and the morning after pill.  Bush’s latest regulation allows the Kmart checker the right to refuse to sell you birth control pills.  Who the hell do these people think they are? God? No they are tyrants who have no tolerance for tolerance.

• Finally on the Israeli/Hamas conflict, I am wondering if you finally get it.  Another cease-fire will just put off the inevitable.  It has to be decided and our actions to limit the damage are much like our actions to prevent forest fires.  It just delays what will finally be a monster firestorm.  There is fault on both sides, but the Israelis don’t launch missiles into Gaza to destroy anybody they can kill and they don’t deny the Palestinians right to exist.  And nobody in the Arab world gets upset about Israeli deaths.  Hamas is a radical Muslim group that has been arming themselves with ever more destructive weapons and needs to be destroyed.  Only when this true threat to peace has been removed, can the real grievances of the Palestinians be addressed and resolved.  Sadly had they taken the peaceful route after the Dayton Accords, they would be so much further along the road to a Palestinian State and would have the sympathy and support of the world.  Now they only have the sympathy of the Arab Street.  That would be a bunch of high testosterone men whose only aim is to riot, pillage, and institute a religious dictatorship that by holy decree makes women and the rest of us second class citizens.  They are great bunch.

I know I have said this many times, but doing the same things over and over again and expecting a different result is the definition of stupidity.