Thursday, May 23, 2013

Gitmo is the Republican Problem. It is not about populism. It is about Human Rights.

The President or the Democratic Party does not own this problem. It should be made evident to the electorate in any election in 2014. 5 April 2013 Desperate Act (click here) "The continuing indefinite incarceration of many of the detainees amounts to arbitrary detention and is in clear breach of international law," Ms Pillay said in a statement on Friday.
"It severely undermines the United States' stance that it is an upholder of human rights.
"When other countries breach these standards, the US - quite rightly - strongly criticises them for it," she added.
Ms Pillay also said a continuing hunger strike among the inmates was a "desperate act" - but it was "scarcely surprising".
Human rights groups and lawyers representing the prisoners say the strike reflects growing frustration at the US military's failure to decide their future.
Many of those who have been cleared for transfer remain at the facility at the US naval base in Cuba because of Congressional restrictions and also concerns of possible mistreatment if they are sent back to their home countries....

Rep. Moran might wonder as some protesters do as well as to why President Obama hasn't carried out Executive power before now.

I believe it was his first inauguration when he stated he was the President of all the nation, not just a part of the nation. For his first four years President Obama has tried beyond any reasonable tolerance to work with the entire country. He tried in every way he knew to bring the people together.

As President he did not find Executive Branch power his obsession. He knew his job. He knew his responsibility. He also knew his nation and the path it was on and how terrible things could happen within the USA if he carried out his powers too soon and in strong and irreverent methods.

President Obama worked with Congress, not against Congress. His first two years were incredible and gave us some of the most sweeping health care reformation this country has ever witnessed. His most pressing problem was an American economy imploding and taking the global Western economy with it. There was much to be done and much was done. The US House Speaker Pelosi lead record number legislation and the Senate found enough cooperation to make the House matter.

If President Obama did not run for office again after the disastrous elections of 2010 no one would blame him, but, he persisted and the much needed change in path for the nation would be his focus until his re-election.

Since his re-election he has learned he is a man alone in the Executive Branch as the Senate can't even find the focus to confirm his nominees. Barak Obama had to come to his own conclusion about the respect his Presidency would receive and when he would depart from Congressional abuse of him and the nation and take the path he was entrusted with. 

Now, the Affordable Care Act is finally becoming reality and Democratic House Representatives remain under siege and can't find cooperation to move the country in the direction it demands. Today, President Obama made a speech to confirm the path forward. He finally came to terms with sincere hatred by the opposition party that could not care less about the people of this country, so much as their allegiance to their cronies. He found out the rhetoric about Right Wing Nuts is not rhetoric but the truth, now validated.

President Obama can lead this country forward and he will. The remnants of what he can't resolve because of Congress unable to function under political Right Wing dogma will be the shame of the nation. When the country moves forward in a way that save those areas within it's borders from gerrymandering and prejudiced values then the USA will finally have it's complete dignity back. 

I look forward to the next four years. The USA will begin to rebuild it's dignity and maybe when the country finds that dignity is important again it will matter in elections as well.

Katherine Guthrie, @kguth1130
8:10 PM on 05/10/2013
...The hunger strike has renewed (click here) focus on the detention facility, with President Obama calling for its closure in April. At Friday’s hearing, Rep. James Moran of Virginia, military personnel, and attorneys representing Guantanamo Bay prisoners all called for the transfer of the 86 cleared men as well as the closure of the facility.  “It should never have come into existence,” said Moran in his opening remarks.
Moran, a Democrat, called on President Obama to use his executive authority to begin the process of closing the detention center. He also admitted Congress’ role in derailing the president’s earlier efforts: “Now, yes, Congress has constrained the president’s options for closing this detention facility, but President Obama still retains the authority to do so should he wish to choose to fully exercise his existing power and authority.  He does have the authority to do so.”...
The War is Over.

President Obama accepts the reality majority of Americans have stated for a long time now. He accepts the fact that war begets war and the lands we occupied are not ours to do so.

The USA has acted to provide Third World countries where international criminals such as Osama bin Laden have taken refuge with the ability to secure their own borders. Whether that will result is not for us to carry out any longer. It can be stated it was never our place to do so, but, with so many Americans dead and causalities innumerable in so many ways, that point is mute.

Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda dreamscape was not the product of Afghanistan, yet the people of that nation was burdened with his criminal intent and content as their own. The Taliban was a creation in the region of Pakistan and Afghanistan, it has no ethnic basis, it is a power base, hence al Qaeda, The Base. The Taliban was not the creation of the USA or NATO, but it is there just the same. The prevalence of the influence of the Taliban is so wide ranging they have literally infiltrated these countries with their own form of subversive governing authority. So long as the USA and NATO are an enemy the Taliban has a reason to exist and carry out oppression of these peoples.

The longer we provide wars as an answer to the attacks of international criminals the more there will be wars. The USA cannot morally conduct such atrocities or afford to do so while depriving an entire generation of Americans their generational promise.

Today is a great day.

The Forever War is No More. 

Europe has a different relationship with their Muslim communities.




Europe seeks to actively remove oppression from women. They openly reject Sharia Law and demand headscarves and burkas to be removed, especially with children in schools. It could be viewed as a security issue in that children could be used to carry weapons under their clothing into school. 

Sharia Law is the most conservative Muslim culture and frequently the choice of extremists. There are other cultures within the Muslim faith that blends better in The West where many faiths live together in peace. 

Europe will have somewhat more angry people in Muslim conservative communities while banning aspects of the extreme conservative religious practices. I am sorry this is yet another time when Europe suffers an attack on good and decent people. Sincerest sympathies to the victim's family and friends. The geography of Great Britain is far smaller than the USA and these tragedies are more widely felt by the people of that country.
The Democrats that are going to be replacing these corrupt politicians need to be among the people today with their own non-profits to bring sincere purpose and dedication to the people they seek to serve. The DNC needs to appreciate the importance of the people now considered disposable by Republicans and push those able to win to start the campaigns now.

The USA Acting Director of the EPA needs to provide regulation for greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide and methane. There are now more deaths of precious Americans to justify the use of The Clean Air Act. There is testimony that can be found on a website for "Earth Rescue" (click here)  made to The New Source Review in verbal testimony in April and written testimony in May of 2003 and eight and a half years of entries on this blog to support such regulations. There are many Americans concerned about the large emissions of these gases to the troposphere and I am only one as a representative sample.

There is additional scientific research to support such regulation. It will be posted here eventually. Congress is intractably deadlocked in political obstruction, but, there is nothing preventing effective regulation. 

I demand it in the names of those dead in Moore, Oklahoma, the other death in Texas in the four days of tornadoes, the dead in France due to a historic heat wave, those dead in Russia due to fires, those dead in Australia due to wildfires and those dead in Africa due to intractable drought.

The USA is responsible for initiating huge amounts of greenhouse gas emissions which started the biotic degradation of Earth and those emissions continue still today.

Senator Coburn cherry picks his statistics and makes Senator Whitehouse' point.




Senators Inhofe, Coburn and McConnell are the problem and not the solution. 

If Senator Coburn thinks he can stand in contempt of those that know differently about four consecutive days of EF3 or higher tornadoes by taking the country hostage and stating to the nation, "It is my way or the highway." Then there is the highway. Coburn is welcome to lead his own restoration of Oklahoma and build his own 501(c)4 to assist.

The fact of the matter is there is proof and research to back up what Senator Whitehouse is stating from a scientific background. I'll be posting it here eventually.

Senators Inhofe and Coburn are bought and paid for by the petroleum industry like the former Romney Energy Advisor Howard Hamm. It is amazing to watch Senators Inhofe and Coburn selectively lie to constituents and Americans alike. Corrupt to the bone.

Ten children dead, two infants, one toddler and these Senators don't give a damn! Not one damn about the lives of those people! They throw the truth away like an old shoe. They are corrupt and disdain the people that die and defy their memory to change their political power wagon.

They are all despicable men and don't ask me what they are doing in the USA Senate. Criminals all.

Well done, Google. The USA needs more of these reunions without redeployment.

Drones started the Vietnam War, this is nothing new.

The military, Air Force I suppose, used to call it "The Big Orange."

It is new to average Americans. The large aircraft is a DC-130H. The small aircraft is a unmanned spy drone. 

The Gulf of Tonkin incident in 1964 that started the Vietnam War was as a worry to the USA because "Big Orange" crashed in China and the Chinese published pictures of the downed aircraft. Oops.

It was orange so it could be validated in flight as well as radar. There is very little color orange in any horizon when flying an aircraft.

The USA military has been using unmanned drone aircraft as spy planes since the 1950s. It was the same time when the USA military developed the internet. The problem today is that now they are armed with munitions.  

The Gulf of Tonkin incident was a spy mission gone wrong and gave LBJ 'the reason' he needed to declare a war that should never have occurred.

So, oops, four Americans are dead by a USA unmanned armed drone because they were in a war threater. How many Americans that sought jihad in Pakistan, Afghanistan and otherwise are dead because of bullets and bombs today? It just seems as though no one actually knows that number. 

The current complaints about the USA drone program is that the local sheriff has the capacity to use them now and they are known to kill Americans in foreign lands. So, will an American in the USA be killed by drones on their own soil? Oops.

The Vietnam War killed over 50,000 Americans and estimated to have killed over one million Vietnamese. Today the Culture of Fear for 'self' sparks all kinds of issues for Americans. It is a lot of fun for those that benefit from the Culture of Fear. There is always an issue that can spark hatred of government and benefit Republicans.

You know what I wonder? I am sure no one really cares. Why didn't the Associated  Press report on Big Orange before the invasion into Vietnam happened? I suppose it was classified. But, hey the Press always does what is best for Americans and war was best.

So, now, the Obama Administration is admitting four Americans in a war zone died in what is basically enemy territory by drone strike. What are the chances of that, huh?

When the Press whips up the fear and anger with their government this time, they should tell them how many American and NATO soldiers Kenan killed, too. It wasn't as though he was innocent, now is it?

Considering the picture it is obvious whom was his hero and considering he was probably bringing guns from the USA to Pakistan, I would say his American Freedom served him well. The thing is this, was he radicalized in Raleigh or Pakistan? I think the that is obvious. Does he have a family that actually cares about him? I think not.

The title should read, "Four Radicalized Americans Killed by American Drones, Right or Wrong?"


WASHINGTON — When Jude Kenan Mohammad (click here) was about 18 and living in Raleigh, N.C., according to people who knew him, he came under the influence of an older man, Daniel Patrick Boyd, who taught him a violent, radical version of Islam....

In all honesty though, if Americans are in their personal civil rights bubble while carrying out war against their nation they become more powerful facilitated by laws that are awaiting their trial. If Americans can be denied their Miranda Rights in the USA and detained, what is the difference?

Considering this is a military operation now and not a civil operation, to make it moral and 'military legal' there needs to be a court martial or court hearing in abstentia. I suppose it is like a bad marriage, the results of the trial can be published in all the pertinent newspapers. It would give the American public a way of knowing if there are mistakes made. It is an American civilian after all and the USA military should not be operating against their own people. There needs to be a legal military mandate for the operation when it involved Americans.

The entire operation under the CIA was completely "W"rong. It provided Black Sites for torture that resulted in faux information. That information, good or bad, could then immediately be used to target a person for 'death by drone.' There was no command structure, no fitting in to the overall military operation and absolutely no respect for human life no matter the citizenship. The CIA program was wrong when it comes to armed drones. Hopefully, the military will do better with it.