Tuesday, May 30, 2006

WAR AND PEACE cont...

Today I was really contemplating what it means to have a "Just War". I exchanged a couple of emails and ideas with Mark Griffith, a Professor of Politics at the University of Alabama today and he made me think about the theories that define what is or is not a Just War. This is what I found on Wikipedia:

JUST WAR THEORY

Just Cause:
Force may be used only to correct a grave public evil (e.g. a massive violation of the basic rights of whole populations) or in defense;

St Augustine categorised just cause into three elements which justified warfare

1. defending against an external attack
2. recapturing things taken
3. punishing people who have done wrong

A contemporary view of just cause was expressed in 1993 when the US Catholic Conference said: "Force may be used only to correct a grave, public evil, i.e. aggression or massive violation of the basic human rights of whole populations"

Comparative Justice: While there may be rights and wrongs on all sides of a conflict, to override the presumption against the use of force, the injustice suffered by one party must significantly outweigh that suffered by the other;
Legitimate Authority: Only duly constituted public authorities may use deadly force or wage war;
Right Intention: Force may be used only in a truly just cause and solely for that purpose- correcting a suffered wrong is considered a right intention, while material gain or maintaining economies is not.
Probability of Success: Arms may not be used in a futile cause or in a case where disproportionate measures are required to achieve success;
Proportionality: The overall destruction expected from the use of force must be outweighed by the good to be achieved.[3]
Last Resort: Force may be used only after all peaceful and viable alternatives have been seriously tried and exhausted.

I can find instances where the war in Iraq can be interpreted as falling into some of these categories. Punishing people who have done wrong might be one. Saddam Hussein did kill his own people... but I thought we had already taught him a lesson about that back in Desert Storm I. Liberation wasn't our justification to begin with. If Bush had come out in one of his pro-war speeches before the invasion and said that the most important thing in this mission was to liberate the Iraqi people and build a democracy in the Middle-East, everyone in America would have thought he was nuts!

Nobody should ever forget the real reason our military was sent to war - which was the potential of a "mushroom cloud over one of our cities" as Dick Cheney once so elegantly put it. There were no WMD's and there were no connections to Al Qaeda; anyone who pays attention to the news (other than faux news) knows that.

Whether Iraq and Saddam Hussein did something that constituted a "Just Cause" for our invasion of their country is really a matter of individual interpretation. I personally believe very strongly that it was unnecessary, but that's neither here nor there. Were in there... now what do we do?

CONDUCTING A WAR

----Just War conduct should be governed by the principle of discrimination. The acts of war should be directed towards the inflictors of the wrong, and not towards civilians caught in circumstances they did not create. The prohibited acts include bombing civilian residential areas that include no military target and committing acts of terrorism or reprisal against ordinary civilians. Some believe that this rule forbids weapons of mass destruction of any kind, for any reason (such as the use of an atomic bomb).

Haditha Massacre: On November 19th, 2005 in the city of Haditha, Iraq, up to 24 innocent Iraqi civilians including 11 unarmed women and children were murdered from point blank range.

This is what wikipedia says about the incident:
On 19 November 2005, US Marine Lance Corporal Miguel Terrazas and a number of Iraqis were killed in Haditha after an alleged roadside bomb attack on soldiers from Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines. The unreleased report of the US military investigation into the event is said to have found that 24 unarmed Iraqis, including 11 women and children, were killed by 12 members of the US Marines, apparently in retaliation for the death of Terrazas.

---Just War conduct should be governed by the principle of proportionality. The force used must be proportional to the wrong endured, and to the possible good that may come. The more disproportional the number of collateral civilian deaths, the more suspect will be the sincerity of a belligerent nation's claim to justness of a war it initiated.

---Just War conduct should be governed by the principle of minimum force. A certain amount of force must not be used if a lesser amount of force would accomplish the same goals. This principle is meant to limit excessive and unnecessary death and destruction. It is different from proportionality because the amount of force proportionate to the goal of the mission might exceed the amount of force necessary to accomplish that mission.

---Torture, of combatants or non-combatants, is forbidden.

---Prisoners of war must be treated respectfully.

"It is debasing human dignity to force men to give up their life, or to inflict death against their will, or without conviction as to the justice of their action." -- Albert Einstein, Mahatma Gandhi in the Manifesto Against Conscription and the Military System

I'd say those are some pretty good guidelines for what makes a war just. What about Iraq? Make your own decision.

Monday, May 29, 2006

Conversations With God: Living In Fear


For the last two years or so I've been reading a series of books by Neale Donald Walsch called Conversations With God. This website is suppose to be partially about spirituality so I thought I would add a portion of a part of the first book in the series. They've completely changed the way I think and live my life and I try to share everything I've learned from them with everyone I know. I used to care what people thought about my interest in this kind of stuff; call me crazy, call me a hippy, but just read it and let the message speak for itself.

The book is in the form of a conversation so there are questions, and lots of answers. I'll post a new passage every now and then.

Neale: You make it sound so easy, and yet in the moment of decision fear wins more often than not. Why is that?

You have been taught to live in fear. You have been told about the survival of the fittest and the victory of the strongest and the success of the cleverest. Precious little is said about the glory of the most loving. And so you strive to be the fittest, the strongest, the cleverest - in one way or another - and if you see yourself as something less than this in any situation, you fear loss, for you have been told that to be less is to lose.
And so of course you choose the action fear sponsors, for that is what you have been taught. Yet I teach you this: when you choose the action love sponsors, then will you do more than survive, then will you do more than win, then will you do more than succeed. Only then will you experience the full glory of who you really are, and who you can be.
To do this you must turn aside the teachings of your well-meaning, but misinformed, worldly tutors, and hear the teachings of those whose wisdom comes from another source.
There are many such teachers among you, as there have always been, for I will not leave you without those who would show you, teach you, guide you, and remind you of these basic truths. Yet the greatest reminder is not anyone outside you, but the voice within you. This is the first tool that I use, because it is the most accessible.
The voice within is the loudest voice with which I speak, because it is the closest to you. It is the voice which tells you whether everything else is true or false, right or wrong, good or bad as you have defined it. It is the radar that sets the course, steers the ship, guides the journey if you but let it.
It is the voice which tells you right now whether the very words you are reading are words of love or words of fear. By this measure you can determine whether they are words to heed or words to ignore.
Neale: You said that when I always choose the action that love sponsors, then I will experience the full glory of who I am and who I can be. Will you expand on this?
There is only one purpose for all of life, and that is for you and all that live to experience their fullest glory.
Everything else you say, think, or do is attendant to that function. There is nothing else for your soul to do, and nothing else your soul wants to do.
The wonder of this purpose is that it is never-ending. And ending is a limitation, and God's purpose is without such a boundary. Should there come a moment in which you experience yourself in your fullest glory, you will in that instant imagine an ever greater glory to fulfill. The more you are, the more you can become, and the more you can become, the more you can yet be.
The deepest secret is that life is not a process of discovery, but a process of creation.
You are not discovering yourself, but creating yourself anew. Seek, therefore, not to find out Who You Are, seek to determine Who You Want to Be.

Wednesday, May 17, 2006

"Tax Cuts" Mean Tax Cuts For the Wealthy

Here's what blogger David Sirota over at Huffingtonpost.com had to say about the recent tax cuts. He's a much better writer than me minus my tendency to rage and rant in my posts:

... When you hear a politician these days talk about "tax cuts," they are really only talking about tax cuts for the wealthy - not tax cuts for regular folks. The new "tax cut" bill moving through Congress shows exactly what I'm talking about. Here we have leading Republican politicians waxing poetic about supposedly providing new tax cuts to ordinary folks, when what's really going on is the elimination of tax cuts for ordinary folks as a way to pay for new tax cuts for the super-rich.
Here's the key excerpt from the Associated Press story:

"Top Finance Committee Democrat Max Baucus of Montana said it was wrongheaded to pass capital gains and dividend tax cuts -- 'a provision that doesn't take effect until 2009 for the most wealthy' -- while letting languish tax breaks on college tuition and state and local sales taxes, as well as a research and development tax credit for businesses, all of which expired in December...A joint study by the Urban Institute and the Brookings Institution shows taxpayers with incomes greater than $1 million per year winning tax cuts of $42,000 under the bill, while families with incomes of $50,000 a year would average a $46 tax cut."

There you have it folks - a Republican "tax cut" bill that extends new tax cuts for the wealthy while letting tax cuts for ordinary citizens expire. That is your Congress at work. That is the hostile takeover of America's government by Big Money interests in all its glory, for all to see.

-- here's one of the comments attached that was just entered by some guy named Pete:

The GOP is simply the political wing of corporate America. How can we stop it? We have a corporate lawyer heading the Supreme Court for God's sake. Elections are a sham in this country now, so we can't vote these people out. We're fucked. So much for the American middle class. Welcome to corporate fuedalism, where the poor do the work and the rich get richer.
- pete, 05.17.2006

I become more and more intrigued by the ideas of Karl Marx everyday. No I'm not a communist. Neither was he... at least not the capital letter kind. Communism hasn't ever worked effectively under any government, but the modern ideology is based on Marx's writings:
"The oppressed are allowed once every few years to decide which particular representatives of the oppressing class are to represent and repress them.”

"For the bureaucrat, the world is a mere object to be manipulated by him."

"The rich will do anything for the poor but get off their backs."

"Workers of the world unite; you have nothing to lose but your chains."

Dangerous ideas... for all the people who have something to lose from sharing wealth and resources. Remember that kid in pre-school who would always hog all the toys and never let you play? That's the immature nature of the ideals of the Republican Party basically summed up in my opinion (every man for himself). Just because you're skilled at making money and feel that you have earned it doesn't make your necessities any greater than those of the working class, or the poor, or the sick, or the starving for that matter. Why don't we put the needs of these people who make up the majority of the population first?

The answer is simple: Because we let our government exploit us, and we don't care enough to do anything about it. All you have to do is cast your vote. This is unacceptable, especially in a time of record international deficits and consumer debt. It just doesn't make sense.

Sunday, May 14, 2006

Laura Bush: Straight Outa' Stepford

Usually I don't like to post unflattering pictures because it's rude and unnecessary but I thought that this fit the topic well because she is pretty funny...

I'm really conflicted when it comes to the first lady. On one hand, she seems like this very sweet and caring woman, but... on the other hand, either she's really not all that bright up there in the head, or she really truly thinks that were all just brainless. I still can't figure out if all these neo-conservatives keep messing up because they're all idiots, or they're screwing up this country for their own benefit because they know were stupid enough to let them. I think it's a little bit of both. If they were really that smart, they would be wise enough to realize that bankrupting the national treasury and lying about reasons for going to war are bad ideas.

Laura Bush recently claimed that she did not believe the polls conducted by Gallup, Fox, CBS, NBC, CNN, Newsweek, USA Today, LA Times, NPR, Time, Washington Post and many others that clearly show the President's approval rating with the public hovering around the lower 30's.

The Wall Street Journal Online recently reported a poll showing a 29% approval rating, the [third] worst rating for any president in 50 years. Reuters

"I don't really believe those polls. I travel around the country. I see people, I see their responses to my husband. I see their response to me," she said. "As I travel around the United States, I see a lot of appreciation for him. A lot of people come up to me and say, 'Stay the course'."

I don't know if she knows this or not (she has to), but everything that I know about public appearances and speeches by both President Bush and Laura Bush are that they are screened so that only people who register as Republican's and donate their own money to the GOP are allowed to attend. Ok... so you're only allowed to see people who agree with everything that your husband does and you think that the majority of america is in support of his crazy, destructive and intrusive political policies. Makes sense... but not the common sense kind of sense.

She would rather believe that there is this huge media conspiracy, involving even the most conservative media corporations in the country to make George look bad, than to believe in advanced random polling practices that have been refined and fine tuned over the last century.

I really don't dislike our first lady. She obviously loves her husband and is more than willing to stand behind him through thick and thin no matter what happens. You have to respect her for that.

Saturday, May 13, 2006

NSA Wiretapping

All I have to say is wow... I'm working on a post for the NSA program about the information that was just disclosed by whistleblower Russel Tice yesterday. 200 million american customer's phone records have been turned over to our government voluntarily by 3 of the major phone companies: bellsouth, at&t and verizon. If you've ever read anything about our bill of rights, you'll automatically realize that this is an obvious breach of the fourth amendment which basically states that -

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

200 million American's individual rights to privacy have been blatantly violated. Your phone calls are being monitered. Your internet habits are being recorded and stored in the largest computer database ever created. Apparently according to Tice, this is "only the tip of the iceberg"... so this will obviously be something I'm going to be talking about for a long time. Just waiting for all the facts to come in. Stay tuned

Friday, May 12, 2006

Political Insanity


These guys are seriously trying really hard to bankrupt our nation’s treasury. Republicans will not stop giving away money to the super duper uber-rich that they don’t have (because we have a 460 billion dollar deficit with a ten trillion dollar cap) while screwing the middle class and the majority of their own voters. We have got to stop this myth about the trickle down effect. It has never worked in the entire economic history of the United States. I’m a college student and I get nothing. Here are the facts about the latest tax cuts that were just passed by the House of Representatives, the Senate and Dubya who has never vetoed one bill in the history of his presidency:

--A person who makes a million dollars a year gets an extra $41,977 on top of the overall 7 percent cut in income taxes that they’ve received over the last 6 years.
--A person who makes $41,977 a year gets $46… Enough to fill up your gas tank.
--The Republicans decided to drop a provision that would allow college students to get deductions for tuition costs.
--The bill gives oil companies (with record breaking profits) a tax break of 4.3 billion dollars.

"We're on the side of the taxpayers," said Sen. George Allen, Republican from Virginia, who is up for reelection. "They're (the Democrats) on the side of the tax spenders."

Right… cut taxes while putting the American people in further and further debt by spending their money more and more and more. Federal spending hasn’t been this high since World War II. Spending hasn’t increased at a higher rate since the Nixon administration. This march, federal spending hit 250 billion, resulting in a 85.5 billion dollar deficit for the month.
Independent Institute: Federal Spending
MSNBC: Spending Hits Record High
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,191532,00.html --very short story about record spending; two paragraphs. Wonder why…

Democrats are for tax cuts too, but not for people WHO DON’T NEED THEM. Oh that’s great, all the millionaire’s get enough money back to buy another Jaguar for their collection… What would they do without all that money to spend? God forbid! Children are starving and people are dying but the rich absolutely need more and more. Why? I just don’t understand…

Senate Votes to Pass Tax Cuts

Wednesday, May 10, 2006

I Love the Daily Show


Almost two years ago, in a speech to announce his decision to appoint Porter Goss to the head of the Central Intelligence Agency Bush said:
"He's the right man at this critical point in our nation's history."

Quick Summary: Porter Goss lasted 1 year and 8 months as the CIA Director (the man who was appointed specifically to reorganize and reform the way the agency operated). The abrupt resignation is rumored to be related to prostitution scandals thought to be involved with over 6 senators in the United States Senate. This seems like a weird pattern to me. Every week or so now for like 2 months, these guys have been dropping like flies. It's obviously never that anybody got fired, but it's the closest your going to get to an admition of guilt from anyone in power in this administration.

Bush can't ever admit that any of his decisions turned out bad because he has this dillusion of being "infallable", like the pope of the catholic church. But it's never anyone you've ever heard of before. And there's no explanation for it. It truly is "rearanging the deck chairs on the Titanic".

Anyways, when Bush recently nominated Gen. Hayden (head of the domestic spying program) to replace Porter Goss as the CIA Director he had this to say:
"He's the right man at this critical point in our nation's history."

He must really think were all idiots....

Watch Jon Stewart clown on Dubya on The Daily Show:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2006/05/09.html#a8220

Monday, May 08, 2006

Pseudo-Christianity: 5/8 Rant


Gay marriage, abortion, activist liberal judges, the liberal aids conspiracy, there's a war on Christmas and Easter and family values!... white girls are being abducted at an alarming rate! Islam is going to destroy us all! The moral fabric of our society is in shambles because of the disease that is the Democratic Party.

The people bitching the loudest about being persecuted for their Christianity aren't Christians at all. They're demagogues and conmen and scolds. The only thing that they worship is power. They use these claims to manipulate and terrify you into following them, because they are the way... the only ones you can trust because they believe in the lord and savior Jesus Christ. Because they're better than you... because they are closer to the divine and can actually talk to god; but you can't, so you're just going to have to take their word for it.

"If you believe Jesus ever had a good word for war or torture or tax cuts for the rich or raping the Earth or refusing water to dying migrants, then you might as well believe bunnies lay painted eggs."--Bill Maher

Thomas Jefferson called the type of Christian who trumpets his own belief in the divinity of Jesus rather than the morality of Jesus, a Pseudo-Christian... and that's who's running our country today.

You might be a Pseudo-Christian if you...
-Claim to be a Christian, but don't follow the teachings of Christ.
-Lead a life of materialism, selfishness and disregard for the impact of your life on your fellow man and the Earth on which we all depend.
-Are intolerant of the lifestyles of others.
-Only have compassion for those who believe as you do.
-Disregard Jesus' admonition against the sin of violence, including and especially war.
-Interpret some version of the Bible in whatever manner suits your pre-determined beliefs.

The Bible is not, as the Bible-ists would have others believe, the "Word of God".
The Bible is, rather, a complex and often contradictory recording of innumerable oral histories. In many cases those oral histories are of uncertain origin. And there is no one Bible. There are thousands of translations of that record of oral histories, modified by various religious persuasions to suit their own purposes. Remember, the printing press didn't exist 2,000 years ago... not even 500 years ago.

People like Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell make me want to vomit everytime I hear them open their hateful, judgemental, prejudice, lying mouths. I can almost see the bullshit pouring out of their ears. I was raised a Christian, and I think I know what it means to think and act like Jesus a little better than these clowns... so that's why I'm not going to say that these "reverands" are about as close as you get to the anti-christ and devil himself... (oops). Seriously though, the Christian-Right hasn't stopped to check out the New Testament for a pretty long time now. I think it's time for a Bible Study!

By the way, this isn't a self-righteous post. I'm not claiming to be a better, or smarter Christian... even a Christian at all. I don't believe in categorizing and conforming to any particular belief system. Christianity has a lot of great ideas, and it's sad that the person the religion is named after is being completely ignored. At least I'm not preaching my beliefs and constantly contradicting them. Nobody's perfect, but I just can't help hating blatant hypocrits.

Want to see what Pat Robertson is really like? Here's Robertson uncensored:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=XQaUfgCrWGo&search=pat%20robertson

Thursday, May 04, 2006

Illegal Immigration=Illegal Food

My favorite journalist, Tim Dickinson really knows how to get down to the ugly, nitty gritty truth of every issue. Here's what he posted recently on Rollingstone regarding illegal immigration:

Illegal Food
Here’s the fundamental truth about illegal immigration. Without undocumented workers we don’t eat.

Illegal aliens pick our food. They slaughter our food. They pack our food. They prepare our food in restaurants. They clean our plates when we’re done. The entire industrialized American food chain is fueled by the cheap labor of undocumented workers. From your morning OJ to your boneless, skinless chicken-breast dinner. Even that glass of wine you had as a nightcap. All coming to you by the grace of illegal labor.

Consider that the May Day protests forced the closure of more than two dozen Tyson, Cargill and Purdue meatpacking plants — which employ more than 20,000 people, at mostly nasty, dangerous, finger- and limb-threatening jobs.

Why isn’t the Justice Department launching an investigation into the hiring practices of these firms, who evidently flout prohibitions against hiring illegals? Because no one in Washington is actually serious about ending illegal immigration. They’re just interested in exploiting the issue to maximum electoral effect.

... i'm working on an article about the environment called bury your head in the sand; it's hard to disagree with the truth. If you don't believe or care about global warming and ecological destruction, you've buried your head in the sand. It's long, but more important than just about every other issue so have patience, I'll try to keep it interesting.