Benazir Bhutto Death - Another Sign of a Failed Policy

The tragic death of Benazir Bhutto in Pakistan this week highlights the abyssmal failure that is Bush Administration foreign policy in the region. In the country where Osama bin Laden, this country's greatest nemesis. may very well be living, Ms. Bhutto, a beacon of hope for the Pakistani people's effort to return to democracy, was gunned down by an act of terrorism that was eerily foreseen and very much preventable. That Pakistan remains so lawless and such a rich proving grounds for terrorism in general, and Al-Qaeda in particular, is due in no small part to the Bush Administration's attention elsewhere, namely Iraq.

The Iraq war was sold to the American people with an argument that it was better to fight terrorism on foreign soil than American soil - a hugely attractive argument considering that nobody really desires a war in their own back yard. The trouble with choosing Iraq as the place to fight Al-Qaeda, however, is that Iraq isn't Al-Qaeda's back yard. Pakistan and Afganistan are!

The Bush Administration's lack of attention in Pakistan and Afghanistan has left Al-Qaeda free to regenerate on their own soil, in the comfort of their own back yard, free to pick and choose when they will attack U.S. interests and how. The killing of Benazir Bhutto proved just how effective Al-Qaeda's strategy has been...and just how little the Bush Administration has actually accomplished in fighting terrorism.

The Soldier and the Peace Activist

~ Soldiers and Peace Activists have a lot in common. They both want peace. They both struggle mightily. They both care for one another’s well being. They both have family, neighbors, and friends who care about them. They both have hope for a brighter future. They both believe in God, worship God, and pray for God’s strength and protection. They both laugh. They both cry. They both work. They both die. They both yearn for the comfort of a day with no worries. They both have courage. They both have conviction. They both love their nation and desire to see it prosper. They both sweat. They both hunger. They both suffer. They both sacrifice. They both possess moments of uncommon wisdom. They both display moments of downright stupidity. They both experience frustration. They both have ‘in-laws’. They both don’t completely understand each other. They both believe in a cause. They both endure criticism. They both wonder why. They both are valuable human beings made in God’s own image. ~

This Week in the GOP

Mitt Romney spent the week in familiar territory: trying to weasel out of his latest lie - claiming that he watched his dad marching with Doctor Martin Luther King. This from the same guy who lied on the campaign trail about receiving endorsements that were never given and lied about being a frequent hunter (to appeal to the NRA folks) when he barely knew from which end of the gun the bullet came. He also took a hit earlier in the week from Huckabee who claimed that the former governor from Massachusetts was a (L)iberal in disguise. Personally, as a liberal, I'm offended by the suggestion that Romney stands for anything I hold dear, but Huckabee's comments show just how low Huckabee is prepared to go.

Huckabee, who's found and awakened evangelicals who see his attitudes regarding the marriage of fundamentalist Christianity and government to be just the message they're seeking, is moving up in the Iowa polls. If you have ever had a moment where you believed that President Bush crossed the line separating Church and State, consider the fact that Huckabee doesn't believe that line should even exist. It that doesn't scare you, nothing will. It's hard to understand why a guy who helped spring killers and rapists from prison would still be in the race, but I guess that rule only applies to Democratic candidates. You'll have to pardon my forgetting how two-faced evangelical voters can be. Just ask Fred Thompson (see below)

McCain received several major newspaper endorsements this week in Iowa, but given the way evangelicals and many of my right-wing brethren loathe the media (even right-wing Iowa newspapers), those endorsements probably won't sway a lot of Iowa voters towards McCain. McCain, the most sensible of the GOP lot, has gained some ground in the polls - mostly by syphoning votes from 3rd tier candidates - but his overall campaign has yet to pick up the kind of momentum necessary to propel him to victory. They say "wisdom comes with age"...which probably explains why McCain has a lot of wisdom. Unfortunately, wisdom doesn't appear to be high on the minds of GOP voters. Let's hope that changes.

Guiliana got the flu and had to spend time in the hospital. In a week where negativity...not the nativity...among the GOP wannabees remained the norm, Guiliani was sick enough to remain above the fray and hopefully garnered some sympathy votes...not that many are out there in the ranks of GOP voters. The pundits say that Guiliani is still neck and neck with Romney for # 1 status in the national polls; I just keep wondering when the national poll participants will vote.

Not much happened with the Fred Thompson campaign. It has to be disillusioning for Fred to see all those evangelicals, who heretofore frothed at the mouth over the prospects of him running for president, now flocking to Huckabee in droves, especially given Huckabee's cavalier attitude towards crime and punishment and his naive foreign policy views. Fred made the mistake of assuming that evangelicals are loyal - they're not. In the evangelical world in American, show me the money and show me the power mean a whole lot more than show me the path to carry out the Will of God. I think Fred's campaign will stick around though...there's a writer's strike going on, so what else can the guy do?

Ron Paul continued to bask in the afterglow of an amazing influx of cash into his campaign. Now, if the guy could only convince GOP voters to be just as generous when it comes to paying down the National debt! Oh yeah, that would be too fiscally responsible, wouldn't it. We wouldn't want the Republicans to suddenly become fiscally responsible, would we?

Tom Tancredo of Colorado dropped out of the presidential sweepstakes this week. Once again, white powder is covering Colorado ski slopes and the Colorado Congressman recognized that there's more fun to be had on the slopes than on the campaign trail in the muddy fields of Iowa. Finally, a GOP candidate with sorely-need common sense...and to think the guy is now gone! Our loss.

The Ron Paul Money Machine

You’d think that at this point in his campaign, with his polling numbers being what they are, Ron Paul would be rolling up the tent and making plans for a nice, long winter vacation in the Caribbean, but that doesn’t appear to be happening as the “3rd-tier” Republican presidential candidate keeps raking in the dough. Apparently, there’s a hard-core element out there betting on Paul’s long shot chances and they’re willing to place their bets on the table. Who knows, in the “candidate-of-the-month” derby the Republicans got going, Ron Paul might even get to take his turn in the driver’s seat. Stranger things have happened.

Ron likes to rail against immigrants, as all the Republican candidates are doing these days, but his stance against the Iraq War and his anti-government rhetoric touch a nerve with lots of Republicans who oppose the war, but just can’t bring themselves to support any Democrat, no matter what their name, race or gender.

Ron Paul is the “old school” Republican candidate; that’s pre-Reagan and pre-Moral Majority. There must be a lot of Republicans out there who still yearn for that type of candidate, because the money keeps flowing into Paul’s coffers. As long as it does, you can bet that Ron Paul won’t be taking any vacations.

More Dirt from the White House

It shouldn't surprise anyone that White House lawyers would be involved in discussions with the C.I.A. regarding the destruction of videotapes taken of interrogation sessions where high-level terrorist suspects were tortured with waterboarding. The tapes, had they been released, would have turned the stomachs of most Americans, not to mention the rest of the world, and would have provided conclusive proof that, in fact, America does engage in torture and that the President and his Administration have boldly and consistently lied about that fact.

Despite the "official" contention that the tapes were destroyed to protect the identities of CIA interrogators and their families, that fact is...the tapes were destroyed to cover up lies. You'd expect Bush Administration lawyers to be at the forefront of those efforts since this Administration has been the most secretive administration in U.S. history. It's also been the most adamant in pursuing the notion that the Executive Branch is above the law.

As long as the American people allow the lies to continue, the Bush Administration will keep telling them.

Armed Guards at the Church Door

Your heart has to go out to the victims of the recent Colorado church shootings and to their families as the never ending cycle of violence that perpetrates this world continues, seemingly unabated. But it's somewhat troubling to consider that some Christian churches are now posting armed guards at their door, and that, at the New Life Church in Colorado where the second shooting occurred the other day, one of the church's armed guards might have fired the fatal shot that killed the troubled shooter.

It's bad enough that this country's fascination with guns has led to an ever-escalating stream of violence; what's worse is that it's led some Christian Churches to abandon the central core of Christ's teaching - non-violence, even in the face of violence - in favor of self-protection.

It's a sad day for the families and victims in Colorado...it's a sad time for the rest of us!

"Scooter" Appeal Skates Off Into Sunset

It's official - "Scooter" Libby has withdrawn the appeal of his perjury and obstruction of justice convictions. That should give him sufficient time to fly below the radar until, in the waning weeks of the Bush Administration, President Bush signs a full pardon and allows Mr. Libby to skate free of the "felon" label that attached at Libby's conviction.

Libby's lawyer offered an interesting explanation: "the appeal was too stressful"...and "carried a risk that his young family found too great to bear"...but they were only buzz word. The real reason for dropping the appeal is that Scooter doesn't want to put the President in the awkward situation of granting a pardon to somebody who is still fighting his conviction.

The idea of Scooter getting a pardon cuts two ways. On one hand, it doesn't seem fair that a guy like Scotter gets off just because of his high political connections; on the other hand, why should Libby suffer whan all the other characters, including the President - who we now know was knee-deep in the spy leak - get off scott-free? There's no justice in the latter.

Doubtfully, in about 2 years or so, "Scooter Libby" will be resurrected as an elder statesman in one or more Washington based, neo-con think tanks. Such is the fate of men with his connections. But that won't erase the fact that Scooter Libby played a dastardly role in the outing of a covert C.I.A. spy for revenge and for the President's political gain, and had the gull to lie about it in court under oath.

Scooter Libby is every bit the felon as O.J. - even when he skates away from the conviction as is bound to happen! He just has friends in higher places.

Huckabee's 'Willie Horton'

Now that the shoe is on the other foot, and it's a Republican presidential candidate who's responsible for securing the release of a violent criminal from prison, only to have that criminal commit a murder after serving his parole - ala Willie Horton, let's see if right-wing Christian evangelicals are really interested in seeking truth and justice or simply confirm themselves as a pack of hate-mongering hypocrits I've always taken them to be.

While Governor of Arkansas, current G.O.P. presidential hopeful, Mike Huckabee, appeared before the Arkansas Parole Board, in private, and urged the Board to parole Wayne Dumond, a violent criminal convicted of raping a woman, who just happened to be a distant cousin of Bill Clinton, the former governor of Arkansas. After the Board went along with Huckabee's request and paroled the rapist, Dumond killed and spent his remaining days in prison for murder.

Dumond was apparently a "cause celeb" among right-wing Christian evangelicals, who hate Clinton with a passion, and who took the position that Dumond's rape conviction was primarily the result of the victim's relationship to Clinton. Never mind that a jury of Dumond's peers were unanimously convinced otherwise after hearing the victim testify and never mind that said conviction was upheld on appeal.

Is hatred of Clinton so deep among Christian evangelicals that they'd side with a violent rapist who'd later escalate that violent to murder over the word of a rape victim? Apparently so! And that apparently goes for Huckabee too.

There's certainly room in this world for a lot more compassion, forgiveness and recognition that even well-intentioned folk sometimes make mistakes that are regrettable, but not indicative of deep-seeded character flaws, but there's no justification for allowing hate to rule reason.

It behooves the evangelicals who stood up for Dumond to acknowledge that their hatred of Clinton motivated their actions and that they acted wrongly. It behooves Huckabee to apologize too and not try to evade responsibility for his misjudgment. If Huckabee can't stand up and admit his mistake, he doesn't deserve to be President.

OPEN LETTER TO SANTA

Dear Santa,

My 9-year old daughter, Rachel, wants a Nintendo DS for Christmas. You've probably already received her letter stating as much, but I wanted to add that she's been a good girl this year and has been very helpful around the house. It's okay with Rachel's mother and I if you bring her one.

Rachel's Dad

The American Theocracy

Every Fourth of July we drag out our flags, march in our parades, wax on about freedom and the wisdom of our Founding Fathers, and then we spend the next 364 days marching blindly towards an American theocracy, in our case, a government based on fundamentalist Christianity. It's not what the Founding Fathers wanted - it is, however, what many Americans want - so it's probably a good idea that we only honor the Founding Fathers one day a year. Any more than that would expose our national hypocrisy.

The Iranians have a religious theocracy, and their leader can't stop using religion as a justification for wanting to wipe a neighbor off the map. The Iraqis have two theocracies, and both can't stop killing each other long enough to get the electricity turned on. The Saudis have a religious theocracy - and they use it to beat and jail their rape victims as criminals. Pakistan and Afghanistan are religious theocracies, and the Taliban is on the move again, trying to reclaim and re-establish the harshest of religious law in both. Life in either place has never been a picnic and only promises to get worse.

You can't really point to any religious theocracy, save perhaps the Vatican - which is just a religious seat for the Pope - and say that the people are actually thriving there. That's because religious leaders are frequently not interested in promoting freedom or the common good. They're interested in promoting their own brand of religion. There's a big difference.

I know we Christians believe we're different; that ours is the one true religion, and if folks would simply follow our way of thinking and live as we tell them to live, life would be great and they would be happy. But that's what every religious theocracy claims, and it's never yet come to fruition.

The Founding Fathers knew as much. That's why they chose to separate church and state instead of making the two inseparable. It's too bad we refuse to listen to them.

***

The New York Times printed an excellent op-ed piece on religion and the presidency, referencing Mitt Romney's attempt to court the Christian Fundamentalist vote. It's good reading.

http://nytimes.com/2007/12/07/opinion/07fri1.html/?th&emc=th

C.I.A. Destroys Videotape Evidence of Torture

Every state in the Union, plus the District of Columbia has laws on their books banning the destruction of evidence. That’s normally called “obstruction of justice”. The Federal Government has a similar statute for situations where Federal Courts have jurisdiction. In any trial, in any courthouse in America, a party destroying evidence suffers the sting of having that misdeed offered against them because it’s legally considered “evidence of a guilty conscience.”

Against that backdrop, consider the recent admission by Central Intelligence Agency (C.I.A.) director, Michael Hayden, that the Agency destroyed videotapes of C.I.A. interrogations of highly prized terror suspects. The Agency did so despite being warned not to do so by one of the few members of Congress who knew of the tapes existence, Jane Harman (a Democratic Representative from California), who sat on the House Intelligence Committee.

Mind you, the 9/11 Commission was never shown the tapes and the Congressional Committees that held hearings on the C.I.A.’s response to 9/11 and the lead-up to the Iraq War were also never given the tapes. The Agency kept the tapes in-house and then destroyed them once it appeared they might someday be used as evidence in a criminal prosecution.

The excuse now being given for the destruction of the tapes rings hollow: To protect the interrogators and their families.

First of all, the Bush Administration identified covert C.I.A. agent Valerie Plame without a second thought when it suited their desire to smear her husband.

Next, since torture was and still is a crime in the United States, if the interrogators engaged in torture, they and their family members are do no protection by the government for the interrogator’s misdeeds.

What’s obvious from this whole affair, is that interrogators with the C.I.A. engaged in torture and the tapes were destroyed to prevent anyone from proving it by videotape. Destroying evidence shows consciousness of guilt in anyone’s book, and that applies to the C.I.A. as well!

G.O.P. Senator Grassley Making The Televangelists Nervous

Christian televangelists are nervous about the prospect of Republican Senator Charles Grassley from Iowa holding Congressional committee hearings to investigate their financial dealings - and they should be. The Senator's decision to take on widespread financial corruption in the Christian Broadcast community represents a serious threat to money-grubbing televangelists nationwide.

If the product of Senator Grassley's proposed hearings is greater enforcement of existing IRS regulations that prohibit ministers from using their ministries to reap excessive personal financial gain, that would strike a serious blow to the lifestyles of many Christian televangelists who, for years, have thumbed their noses at the IRS, not to mention at Christ, while lining their pockets with millions of dollars of tax-deductible donations from their viewers. If Grassley's investigation results in regulation of ministry record-keeping and the enactment of rules requiring ministries to grant public disclosure of how and where funds are spent to maintain tax-exempt status with the IRS, Christian televangelist donations will almost certainly drop off because many viewers will donate elsewhere rather than lose a tax deduction for their contribution. It's no wonder the Christian TV hucksters are worried.

Even Christian ministries that are not being specifically targeted by the Grassley investigation are worried, because any rules promulgated by Congress on the tax issue will apply to them as well.

In my opinion, that's not a bad thing. If charities wish to make a living off tax-deductible donations, they owe a duty to the citizenry at large, and to the folks making the donations, to spend those funds for the purposes for which they were solicited, and not to enrich the charity's figurehead. At this point, the only way to insure that charitable funds are properly spent is to require public disclosure of charity financial records as a requirement for charitable organizations to maintain tax-exempt status.

The First Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibits the government from interfering in the practice of religion, but that civil right does not include the right to tax-exempt status for charitable donations that are not being used for charitable purposes.

The 27th Amendment - The Hawaii Amendment

Section 1. The right of the football team of the University of Hawaii, a Division-I school, who finished the 2007 season undeated, to play in the BCS Bowl Championship game in January of 2008, shall not be denied, especially in favor of teams with (11-1) and (10-2) records.

Section 2. The NCAA shall have the power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

(enough said)

Texas Creationists Raise Their Ugly Head

The Texas Education Agency has given the "heave-ho" to their Director of Science, Christina Castillo Comer, because she sent a pro-evolution advocacy group an e-mail informing the group of a presentation being given by a professor who provided expert testimony in the Dover, Pennsylvania creationism trial. Texas officials point out that Ms. Comer resigned, but resignation under duress isn't any different from an old-fashioned firing in my book.

The reason for Ms. Comer's canning is that "Creationism" (a/k/a "Intelligent Design") advocates won't take no for an answer and are preparing for a 2008 campaign to hijack the Texas Board of Education into making the same mistake as the Dover, Pennsylvania School Board and mandating the teaching of creationism as science.

Ms. Comer, a career science teacher, was seen by Pro-Creationism advocates as a major stumbling block in their drive towards mandating creationism in Texas schools, and they seized upon the e-mail as an excuse to remove that barrier.

The decision rendered by Federal District Court Judge Jones in the Dover "Intelligent Design" trial provides a thorough analysis of why "Intelligent Design" is not science, but rather a veiled attempt to teach religion in school under the guise of science. Such attempts by government to advance religion violate the First Amendment to the United States Constitution and cannot not be tolerated.

It's a sad commentary on the competency of education officials in Texas who refuse to learn from the mistakes of others, namely, the Dover School Board. You'd think they'd know better, but apparently not.

Three Cheers for Democratic Voters in Venezuela

Here's to the Pro-Democracy voters in Venezuela who defeated a referundum to grant current Venezuelan President, Hugo Chavez, near dictatorial powers for the remainder of his life. Here's to the rest of the world for allowing Venezuelans to decide their own destiny!

Make no mistake, at some point in the future, Hugo Chavez will try again to officially transform his position as President of Venezuela into supreme dictator, but for now, a majority of voters, albeit a slim one, have decided otherwise.

In the meantime, it behooves the rest of mankind to remember that nature abhors a vaccuum. Men like Chavez fill that void in the political world because "salt-of-the-earth" working people all too often find themselves without a voice, and will follow almost anybody they believe will empower them.

In their hearts, most people want to be free to determine their own future, but freedom means little if one cannot put food on the table for one's family.

Economic repression is just a dictatorial as political oppression. That's why Chavez took power in the first place. Fortunately, Venezuelan voters recognized that the opposite is true as well.

The Activist Conservative Judiciary

People who make a pastime out of hurling "activist judge" epithets at liberal leaning judges when it comes to Constitutional decisions are only fooling themselves. There isn't a single judge on the federal bench who isn't an "activist judge". The only difference between camps is what part of the Constitution a judge will choose to give preeminence.

"Conservative" federal judges are all too eager to ignore the privacy rights of ordinary citizens that form the linchpin of the Fourth and Fifth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution in the name of national security. While it is certainly understandable why a judge would instinctively want to do so - survival is the most basic instinct - the fact is, by ignoring the intent of our Constitutional Framers, they too become activist judges.

On other questions, like the Bush Administration's attempt to recreate an "imperial presidency" with virtually unchecked power therein, the conservative bench has time and time again jettisoned the wisdom of the Founding Fathers that Congress, the repository of the collective will of the people, should hold the ultimate power of government. In taking said approach, the conservative judiciary exhibits the very kind of activist behavior that critics of the liberal judiciary are quick to condemn.

The point is not that one side is right and the other is wrong. The point is, all judges are activists...the real question is what are they advocating?

An Old Friend Drops By And Gives the Heave-Ho

Richard Roberts, president of Oral Roberts University, the religious university built by former televangelist, Oral Roberts, resigned his post this past week amidst accusations of financial improprieties and misuse of university funds for his own private purposes. That's old news.

What's new to the storyline is that Richard Robert remarked to a gathering of students that his resignation was prompted by a visit from God, who reportedly told the embattled University President to hang up his shoes.

Over the years, Mr. Roberts has boasted of a close personal relationship with God, intimating in the process, that there was something more special about his relationship with God, than say, your or my relationship with God. Oh, he'd deny that was the case, for sure, but if you've ever heard him speak, you can't miss the implication that God has elevated him above all others for work more important than anything you or I do.

What I want to know is this: If the (Reverend) Richard Roberts was speaking with God on a daily basis, why didn't the subject of Robert's thievery - which is what his financial shenanigans amounted to in moral terms - come up sooner? I'm not seeking to question God here, I'm just questioning the sincerity of a man who claims he's got a special "in" with God.

Believe me - there's a big difference!