22 February 2007

Separation of Church and State

The Freedom From Religion Foundation, "an American Freethought organization " (Wikipedia) will "fight its most high-profile battle when the
U.S. Supreme Court hears arguments on its lawsuit against
President Bush's faith-based initiative
" (Associated Press story on Yahoo! News).

Since King George Sr. injected religion into the oval orifice, the lines separating church and state have been blurred further and further. Today, King George (jr.) and his "faith based initiative" allows government taxpayer money to be channeled through religious organizations doing good deeds for communities. While a noble gesture, they are clearly allowed to push their own faith and beliefs on anyone in need of their charity.

If there is such a need for charity in the public sector, why is it up to non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to help people out? Isn't that the governments job in the first place, to ensure the rights and benefits of its own citizens?

But a much larger issue is at stake here, the Constitution of the United States of America. Therin, the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights clearly states that there should be a separation of church and state. Like it or not, it is the highest law in the land and you either support the Constitution (as we true patriots do) or you do not (and can thus get the hell out of my country). It doesn't get any more cut and dry than this my friends.

13 February 2007

US House debating Iraq escalation

The House has finally begun a long awaited debate on the direction of our failed policy in Iraq. As you recall, King Georges Republican party threatened to filibuster debate on the senate floor (perhaps Democrats should remove that parliamentary procedure, as Republican threatened to do while stocking the courts with ultra conservative activist judges last year). Each [House] member will have five minutes to speak ahead of Friday's [non-binding resolution] vote. BBC.


Pressing the feeble dictator-presidents failed policies is a new bad guy in this arena, John Boner R-OH (the name says it all), the House minority leader who has troubling ties to corrupt lobbyists such as Jack Abramof (the man who defrauded native american tribes to the tune of tens of millions of dollars and is currently incarcerated) and the Mark Foley paedophelia scandal. Boner stated that, "attempts to undermine US policy would embolden terrorists worldwide, a pathetic and untenable defense, and that, Democrats of trying to "cut off funds for troops in harm's way and leave Iraq in chaos. First off, I am pretty tired of the neocon puppets hiding behind our troops to defend their failed policies and second, it was these horrible policies that created the chaos on Iraq. As ridiculous as it is to defend King Georges disasterous policies, it is sort of nice to have a new bad guy to target.


But back to the point. After 4 years of a gag-order on any serious debate in congress (and by default, the mainstream media) over how to take positive action in Iraq, we finally have a chance to have a minimal debate. Very refreshing to see a counterbalance to King George and his dictator like ways.


UPDATE - "Because they cannot defeat Americans on the battlefield, al-Qaida and terrorist sympathizers around the world are trying to divide us here at home," John Boner (the AP. Same old tired attack rhetoric from the quasi-fascists.

I like this quote, "If we let Democrats force us into a debate on the surge or the current situation in Iraq, we lose," Reps. Peter Hoekstra (news, bio, voting record), R-Mich., and John Shadegg. You know they understand the weakness of their position and arguments when they make a statement like this.

12 February 2007

N'kisi the talking Parrot

Humans usuall have such rigid arrogance about "intelligence". Anyone who spends any time with animals can see coherant thoughts, emotion, preplanning, etc. Case in point, N'kisi, the African Grey parrot that has a 950 word vocabulary (BBC). Reminds me Koko the gorilla, who could use ASL (American Sign Language) with 1000 signs and could understand 2000 English words. See Kokos favorite signs. Thats more than some humans can do.

11 February 2007

John Howard, Bush's Aussie Puppet


Australian Prime Minister John Howard has claimed al-Qaeda should be "praying as many times as possible" for an Obama victory in the 2008 elections. King Georges little Aussie puppet should mind his own business, or at the very least listen to his fellow countrymen who strongly advocate withdrawing their own troops instead of attacking an American with the balls to say it here. Just shows what type of person John Howard really is inside.

A New Cold War?


Vladamir Putin, the president of the Russian Federation was warned
"unilateral, illegitimate actions have not solved a single problem, they have become a hotbed of further conflicts" and that "one state, the United States, has overstepped its national borders in every way." the AP. In response, the new US Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates
tried to deflate President Putin's attack by poking a bit of fun at their past careers as spies.
according to the BBC.




Now, I personally have a great deal of respect for Robert Gates. His straight forward style of speech and honesty is very refreshing for the dictatorial policies of King George. None the less, the facts speak for themselves.

When Mikhail Gorbachev ended the Cold War with such bold steps as glasnost and perestroika, the US missed a golden opportunity. Instead of disarming the bulk of our nuclear arsenals (which Putin is still actively trying to get an agreement on), downsizing our gigantic military (the US spends over a third of our annual budget on military related expenditures, which is more than the next 10 nations military budgets combined), shutting down most of the CIA and NSA activities (relating to the fight against communism), and most importantly, stopping the extremely aggressive posture (which included funding islamic terrorist organizations in Afganistan in the 80s), the US did the opposite.





The military industrial complex in this country decided that Reagan and the warmongers here somehow 'won' the Cold War, and without anyone to counter our might, they expanded their activities. Even in diplomatic measures, we bully other nations to do our bidding (see: pressure to sign on to invade Iraq, have secret CIA torture bases and detainee flights, etc.).

Most disconcerting for Russia, is the expansion of NATO and the US into former regions of the Soviet Union. How can this be perceived as anything but aggressive? Now that Russia is back on its feet (at least economically due to oil prices), how dare they speak up for themselves. I am sure the neo-con assholes in the US will take this as a sign that the Russians want to fight again, and it will serve as fuel in the fire of their mistrust and suspicion. There is word for what they are: bullies.

04 February 2007

Taxes



Finally someone running for president has the balls to call for what is really needed in the economic realm. John Edwards, former US Sentator from North Carolina, said "he would raise taxes, chiefly on the wealthy, to pay for expanded healthcare coverage. source: Yahoo! As someone who works their ass on a low paying job with no insurance, I know this is good news for most of America. The state of our public health is comparable to the third world. Being the wealthiest country in the world and last remaining developed nation without it, it is high time for free public health care.

"We'll have to raise taxes. The only way you can pay for a healthcare plan that cost anywhere from $90 to $120 billion is there has to be a revenue source," Edwards said on NBC's Meet the Press news program. King Georges tax cuts for the rich, powerful, and big corporations have bankrupted America and benefitted only a small portion of our society. They are wrong, pure and simple. See the National Debt Clock

John Edwards is the first to take the politically dangerous step to call for what is right and just in the economic realm. This guy has some serious potential.

01 February 2007

The Kosovo Syndrome



The BBC reports that special UN envoy to the Kosovo region of Servia stated that "Kosovo 'should split from Serbia". For those of you who have been under a rock for the last 10 years, a brief history. As punishment for loyalty to the former Soviet Union, the US and NATO plotted to break up the Balkan European country of Yugoslavia. This ethnically diverse country had been established at the conclusion of WWII as an entity large enough to be self sustaining and defensible (much as greater Poland and Czechoslovakia was). Pushing ethnic divisions, the US sponsored dissident independence movements in Slovenia, Croatia, and the multi-diverse Bosnia (and soon Macedonia). The Serb led nation fought many wars to keep national unity, but was severely outclassed at every step.



Then the US govt and the CIA began giving financial, diplomatic, and logistical support to the Kosovo Liberation Army, an ethnic Albanian terrorist organization seeking seperation of a region inside Serbia. Due to demographic trends (mainly a low birth rate for ethnic Serbs and a very high birth rate for ethnic Albanians) in the Serbain province of Kosovo, ethnic Albanians grew to be a strong majority of the population. This presented the US with a perfect opportunity to further punish Serbia for their support to the former communist block.



In accord with the noble beliefs of Woodrow Wilson, former president of the USA in WWI, the current corrupt US govt perverted his ideal of self determination for ethnic areas to support a the KLA. This would normally be a good gesture if done with honesty. However, Kosovo is the heartland of the Serbian nation, their most sacred place mainly due the valiant but futile efforts of their ancestors to stem the Ottoman Turkish invasion of Europe centuries ago. By WWI, the Serb population has disintegrated to 40% of the province.



Following the NATO bombing campaign in the Kosovo conflict (which included massive bombing, thousands of deaths, cluster bombs hitting even ethnic Albanian villages, etc.), most of the remaining Serb population (and other ethnicities) fled, fearing murder, rape, and other forms of oppression by the ethnic Albanians. Now the UN commander says the province should become a new nation.

How would people in the United States feel if the latino majority in southern California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas suddenly decided to succeed from the USA? Perhaps ethnically cleanse all of the non-latinos from this area. Don't get me wrong, I support many movements for self-determination in the world, including the Catalans, Basques, Galicians, Corsicans, Tyrolians, Scots, Welsh, Brittany, Kurds, Tamil, etc. But to create an artificial stimulus to such ends is purely vial.