1/12/08

*An anniversary ~ not to celebrate 1 – January 11, 2008 marked six years since the opening of Guantanamo prison to hold suspected terrorists. I have commented often about this national disgrace. Imagine the uproar in the United States if one of our American soldiers was subjected to incarceration, torture, no habeas corpus, little or no legal representation...for an indefinite number of YEARS. The organization Witness Against Torture , a campaign to shut down Guantanamo, has many details about this facility. I do not doubt that some of these prisoners are very bad guys. There is also suspicion that some of these detainees were in the wrong place at the wrong time and may be innocent of wrong doing. That is why, in a free society, there is a legal system that is intended to punish the guilty and abrogate the innocent from suspicion. Guantanamo exists outside of our legal system and is a stain on our national honor. It has diminished our moral standing in the eyes of the majority of Americans and the world community. Imagine a U.S. soldier...

*An anniversary ~ not to celebrate 2 - This past week marked one year since President Bush announced the surge for Iraq. A.J. Rossmiller at americablog.com sums up this failure: “The goal of the surge was political reconciliation, i.e., to provide a low-violence atmosphere in which the Iraqi government would agree on issues including oil revenue sharing, de-Baathification, federalism, and more. In the past year, none of those political objectives have been accomplished. There is a reduction in violence, thankfully, which means fewer Americans (and Iraqis) are being maimed and killed. There is not any movement on the political front.” As I listen to John McCain and Joe Lieberman spin the situation I hear that the surge is working. They apparently are watching a different channel. The U.S is an occupying military force expecting disparate groups of Iraqis, who have despised each other for centuries, to suddenly morph into shades of a Jeffersonian democracy. As this is not occurring the U.S. is paying and arming Sunnis and other minority groups in Iraq and praying that these groups do not turn their weapons on American soldiers and the Shiite majority. F for failure.

*Gulf of Tonkin ~ Gulf of Bullshit - Perhaps it was the hyper-reporting of the New Hampshire primaries on January 8th that overshadowed a report on the same day that we should all note and remember. The 1964 Gulf of Tonkin incident “was a reported North Vietnamese attack on American destroyers that helped lead to president Lyndon Johnson's sharp escalation of American forces in Vietnam... The author of the report "demonstrates that not only is it not true, as (then US) secretary of defense Robert McNamara told Congress, that the evidence of an attack was 'unimpeachable,' but that to the contrary, a review of the classified signals intelligence proves that 'no attack happened that night.” Do you find it as dismaying as I do that the basis for the escalation of the Viet Nam war, being a deliberate and deceitful fabrication, received so little attention in this country? The Viet Nam war dramatically changed this country, cost tens of thousands of American lives, untold physical and mental injuries and enormous treasure. It was predicated on an incredible LIE. Can you say Iraq?

*Ventriloquist warfare? - Remember the video this week of U.S. warships being harassed by Iranian speed boats? Remember a voice on the video saying, "I am coming to you. You will explode after a few minutes." President Bush was quick to label this a provocative act by Iran. ABC is reporting that the Navy is now saying that, “the voice on the tape could have come from the shore or from another ship.” I have no way of knowing the truth but the history of the Bush administration and other administrations leaves one cynical. Reference Iraq. Reference the Gulf of Tonkin.

*Consequences – A new study by the World Health Organization estimates that 151,000 Iraqis died from violence in the first 3 years following the U.S. invasion of the country. That would be the equivalent of every man, woman and child living in Springfield, MA or Springfield, MO. The Bush group took the fight against terrorism to a country that was not responsible for terrorist acts against us and in the process increased terrorism in the world and the death toll. Consequences!

*No comment 1 ~ draw your own conclusion – President Bush said in an interview with Yonit Levi of Israel's Channel 2 News: “I can predict that the historians will say that George W. Bush recognized the threats of the 21st century, clearly defined them, and had great faith in the capacity of liberty to transform hopelessness to hope, and laid the foundation for peace by making some awfully difficult decisions." Okay, I will comment. My Aunt Mollie, rest her soul, was the Queen of Sheba.

*No comment 2 ~ draw your own conclusion – ThinkProgress.com noted that the conservative website Human Events chose Rush Limbaugh as their 2007 Man of the Year “for his relentless pursuit of truth”. Reference Aunt Mollie.

*New Hampshire Primary 1 – I liked Bill Scher’s observation on the NH primary polling at the blog Liberal Oasis. He said that the 2 best jobs in the world are weather forecasters and pollsters. The weathermen can be wrong more than 50% of the time and still get paid. Just prior to the New Hampshire primary none of the 9 pollsters had it right. Both CNN and Gallup were embarrassingly wrong. They both had Obama with a 10 point lead over Clinton and Clinton won by 3 percentage points. Having expressed my lack of confidence in polls before (they often claim, for example, that a poll of 679 people tell you what the entire country is thinking) I will let the pollsters of the NH primary misspeak for themselves. I would much prefer that polls prior to elections not be allowed. Voters would be better served concentrating on the candidates’ qualifications and platforms rather than how other voters “indicate” they will vote.

*New Hampshire Primary 2 - Prior to the actual voting, when we were told that Obama would decisively beat Clinton, the media gurus and pundits concluded that Obama would then automatically be anointed the Democratic nominee for president. Let’s try to interpret this. The nominee is “selected” following the results of two primaries that took place in states with small populations that may be the least demographically diverse in the country. What is wrong with this picture?

*The Decider pulled the trigger – On Tuesday President Bush signed into law legislation aimed at reducing gun violence. The law provides for improved checks of gun buyers to prevent criminals and emotionally disturbed people from purchasing weapons. Since Bush has rarely or ever contradicted the interests of the National Rifle Association – which opposes virtually any restriction on gun ownership – it was not certain that Bush would enact this bill. For those who are counting, this is the second week in a row I have had a positive comment about our President. The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence does important work on this issue and deserves our support and a visit to their site.

*Dickheads of 2007 – A reader sent me Rolling Stone’s Dickheads of the Year as selected by Bill Maher. Of the 13 selected there was maybe one that had not been discussed in SVN. You can review the less-than-honor roll at this link.

*Nothing is free – The Republicans repeatedly tell us that free markets, with no government oversight, are good for America. An example of this canard was cited by a recent editorial in the Star-Ledger (Newark, NJ). The volatility and magnitude of oil prices that could lead to $4 per gallon prices this summer is due, in part, to lack of government oversight of energy trading markets. “Washington had this authority until a company named Enron seduced Congress and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission into eliminating it for most of the energy markets back in 2000. Enron claimed growing electronic markets could operate fine on their own.” As we know, Enron’s management proved to be the personification of scumbags, cheating employees and investors out of tens of millions of dollars. The Star-Ledger suggests that restoring government authority to police energy trading markets would moderate wild petroleum price swings and even reduce prices. I continue to be amused (bemused) by the Republican fear machine that says “watch out”, Democrats will bring about higher taxes. What has been the cost of the Republican sell-out to U.S. business interests? I’ll take the taxes.

*Habla Espanol? – Rudy Giuliani has marketed his presidential campaign as tough on terror and tough on immigration. He has said that he believes all immigrants should be able to read, write and speak English in order to become U.S. citizens. I had to laugh the other day when I saw that he ran an ad in Florida in SPANISH. Although there is little to nothing that I like about Giuliani I do think that there is merit to the idea that some command of the English language be a requirement to citizenship or permanent residency. If this is the country in which an immigrant chooses to live their life they should be able to at least speak the language. They should be able to prepare their children for education in an English-speaking country. Both generations will be better prepared to take advantage of opportunities that America offers. Both generations will be more viable citizens. Habla Ingles?

*The odor of spoiled milk ~ and government performance – Effective February 1, 2008 the PA Dept. of Agriculture is prohibiting milk producers from labeling their cartons “no artificial hormones” .Dairy producers are not allowed to advertise the fact that growth hormones are NOT used on their cows. The synthetic hormones, produced by Monsanto, cause the cow to produce more milk but the effect on humans is not known. Imagine a state government agency, that has a mandate to protect citizen’s health, is interfering with the consumer’s ability to make healthy decisions. Ohio and other states are currently considering a similar regulation. I have just signed a petition to my Governor protesting this mindless ban on open labeling of milk. The petition is available at Consumers Union. Growth hormones may be okay for Barry Bonds and other cheating athletes but I have been told that my head is big enough.

*Crisis of friendship – I visited a friend the other night who was watching Walker, Texas Ranger. The show’s star is Chuck Norris, Mike Huckabee’s biggest supporter. Ugh. I did observe that Huckabee is a better actor than Chuck.

*Can you hear me now? 1 – “Telephone companies have cut off FBI wiretaps used to eavesdrop on suspected criminals because of the bureau's repeated failures to pay phone bills on time... A Justice Department audit released Thursday blamed the lost connections on the FBI's lax oversight of money used in undercover investigations. Poor supervision of the program also allowed one agent to steal $25,000, the audit said... We also found that late payments have resulted in telecommunications carriers actually disconnecting phone lines established to deliver surveillance results to the FBI, resulting in lost evidence, according to the audit by Inspector General Glenn A. Fine.” This situation is somewhat comical and more than somewhat serious. FBI management should be held accountable. At the same time a moment of perspective would be appropriate. I am grateful for the dedication and heroism that FBI agents exhibit in keeping us safe in a world filled with crime and hate. Yes there have been abuses by management and agents in this agency over the years but the entire organization should not be condemned because of occasional mismanagement and incompetence. It is a price we pay for bureaucracy.

*Can you hear me now? 2 – A number of telecom companies have forcefully lobbied for immunity from prosecution having broken the law assisting the government’s illegal wiretapping. They imply that they were supporting national security. When the government did not pay their phone bill the phone company pulled its patriotic plug. Oh say can you see?

*Will your vote count? – In the past I have referenced articles, organizations and studies that reveal unreliable and tamper-susceptible electronic voting machines being used across this country. A leader in the field of election integrity is Brad Friedman and his web site The Brad Blog is an excellent resource to learn more about this important subject. I mention it now because we are in a critical election year and The NY Times Magazine has a feature article that addresses this threat: “The winner of the 2008 presidential election could be decided by flawed, insecure, and hackable electronic voting machines.” Congress is about to consider a new emergency paper ballots bill. I signed a petition urging local, state and federal officials to require a paper trail for all votes cast in upcoming elections. The petition is available at this MoveOn.org web site.

*Will everyone’s vote count? – The Republican majority Indiana legislature enacted a controversial voter photo identification law that is now being reviewed by the Supreme Court (SC). The claimed intent of the law was to prevent voter fraud. This was in spite of the fact that there is no evidence of voter fraud. Groups opposing this law contend that the real purpose of the law was to disenfranchise poor voters who are much more likely to vote Democratic. Since the SC will likely rule before the November elections, the decision will therefore impact the elections. Having read about both sides of the argument it appears to me to be another attempt by the Republican Party to skew conditions in their favor (reference gerrymandering and the politicization and gutting of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division). Yesterday’s Philadelphia Inquirer Editorial spoke out against this law and offers a more complete analysis.

*Re-visiting Ron Paul ~ not unlike a root canal – Last week I made note of continuous racist and anti-gay remarks in newsletters published under the name of Ron Paul for some years. Copies of these newsletters have become quite public. This week Paul claims that he doesn’t know who wrote those comments. He is mystified. It was farcical watching Paul backpedaling and stuttering during a CNN interview. In case I am drafted to run for president some day I want to make the following statement: My name is Stephen Weinstein and I am solely responsible for everything written in Stephen Views the News. If nominated I will not likely run but I will accept campaign contributions. Thank you for your support.

* “But suppose God is black? What if we go to Heaven and we, all our lives, have treated the Negro as an inferior, and God is there, and we look up and He is not white? What then is our response?” Robert F. Kennedy (1925 – 1968)

1/1/08

*Lox and liver knishes – Certain things do not seem to go together. A recently released study of American Jewry by the American Jewish Committee verified an interesting phenomena/contradiction that I have wondered about. The study found that a strong majority of Jewish Americans are liberal in political philosophy and opposed to the Bush administration and its “campaign against terrorism”. By over a two-thirds majority they believe we should never have invaded Iraq. The contradiction is that the leading political Jewish voices in this country are Bush apologists and conservative/neo-con adherents. They helped concoct and/or support Bush’s misguided and failed unilateral foreign policy and preemptive war. Eric Alterman, writing for The Nation, notes that these less-than-representative Jewish voices dominate the political conversation. They include Irving Kristol, William Kristol, Seth Lipsky, Martin Peretz, Norman Podhoretz, John Podhoretz, Richard Perle, Richard Cohen, Mortimer Zuckerman, Alan Dershowitz, Jeffrey Goldberg, Lawrence Kaplan, Charles Krauthammer, David Horowitz, Jonah Goldberg, David Gelernter, Ruth Wisse, David Brooks and David Frum. Alterman notes, “Given the scare tactics the neocons routinely employ--from their frequent deployment of the intellectually vacuous term "Islamofascism," to Perle and Frum's warning that the nation's only choice is "victory or holocaust"--it is a remarkable tribute to the good sense of American Jewry that it remains a bastion of liberal humanism despite such naked attempts to manipulate longstanding fears and insecurities.” AND, like mayonnaise on corned beef, these pundits have been consistently wrong.

*Jews for Jesus in a Secular Society – This is a phrase I suggest characterizes the above noted Jewish “voices” that strongly support the poster boy for Christianizing America. Included in this group should be the Jewish Orthodox Joe Lieberman who genuflects at the Bush altar and recently endorsed for president John McCain, the man who said that America is a Christian nation. Apparently, selling one’s political soul has become a dollar store commodity.

*Let the games begin – Regardless of who wins the upcoming Democratic primary elections I will feel that America will be the winner. Edwards, Dodd, Biden. Obama, Kucinich, Richardson and Clinton give America a substantively better alternative to what we currently have and what the Republicans are offering. As noted by Markos at dailykos.com “every candidate on the Democratic side shares the same core principles, and that every candidate on the Republican side opposes them.” The choices are so clear and diametrically opposed that any candidates who speak of bipartisanship have a better chance of having pigs feet declared Kosher. Until the Republicans can locate a soul that embraces “American” values and the well-being of us citizens let them continue on the road to political Siberia.

*Platform for change ~ John Edwards– In an email I received this week from the John Edwards campaign he outlines some steps that he would take if elected President: “He will work to restore America's moral authority in the world by upholding the rule of law and safeguarding our civil liberties. He will say no to torture, protect our troops and our values by upholding the Geneva Conventions anywhere American security forces, military or civilian, are engaged. He will also restore habeas corpus. Because no president is above the law, he will respect the letter and spirit of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and end Bush's warrantless domestic spying program.
While much of the Patriot Act was necessary to ensure that intelligence agencies are able to share critical information, it included provisions that have been abused by this administration. John Edwards will restore important safeguards to the three provisions most susceptible to abuse: the "sneak-and-peek" delayed-notice searches, National Security Letters and the business and library records provisions.” These are certainly qualities that I expect of an American president.

*Recommended reading:
~NY Times Editorial 12/31/07 – As America moves beyond the Bush era it is imperative that we understand what took place during this administration so that it can be corrected and not repeated, continued or expanded. This editorial is an excellent primer.
~The Death of the Bill of Rights – markthshark at dailykos.com has written a well-documented timeline about how the Bush/Cheyney administration has damaged our democracy over the past seven years. The change that these men have insinuated into the framework of our government is not widely recognized nor does it bode well for our democratic well-being. When a society is relatively prosperous, relatively peaceful and has enjoyed unprecedented freedoms, there is a sense that it will continue unabated. World history has demonstrated this future view is naive. The vigilance that a free society requires has taken on a new importance.
~Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics has released it top ten ethics scandals of 2007

*Lest we forget – In 2007, one thousand and fourteen (1014) U.S. service men and women were killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. Since these wars began over 3900 American service men and women have been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. Most of these deaths as well as 30,000 injuries were unnecessary.

*Quote of note - Clarence Thomas recently told an overflow crowd at Chapman University that he never wanted to become a Supreme Court justice, or even a judge. "There's not much that entices about the job," Thomas said, answering questions from the public that provided a rare glimpse of the man behind the office. "There's no money in it, no privacy, no big houses, and from an ego standpoint, it does nothing for me." I would like to suggest to Justice Thomas that on January 21, 2009 he resign from the Supreme Court and reduce both his misery and that of the majority of Americans since his jurist philosophy is best suited to a Neolithic society.

*Xenophobia ~ pandering – Many are wondering how the subprime fiasco came about. Theories about greedy financial institutions and unethical mortgage sellers aside, we have an answer from the somnambulant Republican presidential candidate Fred Thompson. He told potential voters in Iowa that immigrants deserve some of the blame. "A lot of them couldn't communicate with the people they were getting the mortgage from." Hasta la vista Fredo.

*Scratching the surface ~ finding the tarnish – The site dailykos.com has done a series on Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul. When running for this high office virtually nothing in one’s past goes unnoticed. In 1992 The Ron Paul Political Report had the following: “Indeed, it is shocking to consider the uniformity of opinion among blacks in this country. Opinion polls consistently show that only about 5% of blacks have sensible political opinions, i.e. support the free market, individual liberty, and the end of welfare and affirmative action.... Given the inefficiencies of what D.C. laughingly calls the "criminal justice system," I think we can safely assume that 95% of the black males in that city are semi-criminal or entirely criminal... We are constantly told that it is evil to be afraid of black men, but it is hardly irrational. Black men commit murders, rapes, robberies, muggings, and burglaries all out of proportion to their numbers.” No oKKK to Paul.

*Privatizing immorality – “Two hundred and fifty-six people once held in Iraqi prisons -- and who were released without ever being charged with a crime -- have filed suit against a US military contractor for their alleged torture between 2003 and 2004. The former prisoners are asking for millions of dollars in compensatory and punitive damages against CACI International Inc. of Arlington, VA “. The State Department gave private contractors a free rein with no oversight. We will be learning much more about the murder, torture, rape and theft committed by employees of these private companies during the private war within the Iraq war.

*Did he really say that?
-Warning ~ from Mike Huckabee – The Republican candidate for president, once again establishing his “grasp” of foreign policy and protecting the home front, had this to say following the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, "We ought to have an immediate, very clear monitoring of our borders and particularly to make sure if there's any unusual activity of Pakistanis coming into the country.”
-Warning ~ about Mike Huckabee – On Meet the Press Mike Huckabee offered his solution to the illegal immigration problem. It goes something like this. During a 120 day window the U.S. will process out 15,000,000 illegal immigrants where they return to their country of origin. (Not to go unnoticed, this would require about 300,000 busloads or 50,000 flights.) The immigrants then apply to return to America while the borders are being sealed. Since this will all occur within 4 months the negative effect on the economy will be minimal.

*What’s good for the goose ~ is good for the goose – Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) has been one of the leading advocates for campaign finance reform. He must have meant for other people. The Washington Post reports: “McCain...has spent a long career decrying "special interests" and politicians who offer special access to them in order to raise money. As a presidential candidate this year, McCain has found himself assiduously courting both lobbyists and their wealthy clients, offering them private audiences as part of his fundraising. He also counts more than 30 lobbyists among his chief fundraisers, more than any other presidential contender.” McCain likes to characterize his political campaign bus as the “Straight Talk Express”. It may be the only evidence of “straight talk” in his campaign.

*Bah humbug CIGNA HealthCare – On December 11th doctors at UCLA Medical Center determined that 17 year old Nataline Sarkisyan needed a liver transplant. CIGNA denied payment. A groundswell of protests by friends, nurses and caring people eventually convinced CIGNA to reverse their decision on December 20th – the day that she died. The profits of America’s health insurers and the compensation paid to their executives are growing and the actual coverage that most of us receive is diminishing. This is a poignant example of the questionable state of healthcare insurance in this country. It is a situation that will only improve when a responsible and proactive federal government gets involved. At the present time both health insurers and the pharmaceutical companies virtually own the decision makers in Washington. Republican strategists would have us believe that the “profit motive” is the incentive for corporations to be responsible members of the community. Empirical evidence suggests not in this country in this century. It will require a leadership change in the White House and the congress for Americans and their doctors to regain a more responsible and responsive healthcare system.

*The President speaks - At a recent press conference President Bush said, “It’s what I do during my presidency. I go around spreading good will, talking about the importance of spreading freedom and peace.” If I were at the press conference I would have asked the location of the freedom and peace he has fostered. It appears to be one of those state secrets.

*A toast to 2008 - Drinking a little alcohol every day, especially wine, may be associated with an increase in life expectancy in middle-aged men. A 40 year Dutch study found that light alcohol consumption was associated with a lower rate of cardiovascular death and of death from all causes, and a nearly four year increase in lifespan. To your good health!

* “Cheers to a New Year and another chance for us to get it right.” Oprah Winfrey