Tuesday, September 28, 2010

U.S. in Pieces!

Sadly the U.S. is still fighting the old Soviet Union -- or Muslims now? Our Secretary of Defense has a running battle with the pols who support military construction in their locales. We are supplying the bulk of the world's military equipment -- including that being used against our troops. Obama sadly continued the 'wars' against terrorism -- with the potential civil war again between the two rival Muslim communities in Iraq and the corruption of Karsai and friends and family in Afghanistan.

Obama had a mess to hold the country together amidst a near new great depression set running by Republicans going back to Reagan's cut in regulation. All the other major nations are providing free medical care and good education for their children. We are not because of the anti tax slogan that the Republicans have been pressing since FDR.

There are a few Nazis running around our nation and training to attack our government. But let us not forget that we had the same Nazi sympathizers until Pearl Harbor when FDR no longer had to sneak support to the Brits. The Bush grandfather was dealing with major Nazi corporations -- my Senator, Prescott Bush from Connecticut -- only broke his Nazi ties with Pearl Harbor and the Nazi declaration of war on us.

To put it in a word, we now live in a global economy, not a military world. 'Terror' is whoever happens to be one's enemy of the moment. We are terrorists in Afghanistan, although they tell us that the Taliban kills more innocents than we do? There are not dependable stats on killings -- drones from on high, 'classified' assassination teams?

Check with Google on what bad shape we are in with no easy outs, thanks to our pols and borrowing from the Chinese who have grabbed our working jobs for cheaper sales where American prefer to shop at the discount array.

Buy American? Are you kidding? Obama rescued our auto industry, but no man can do it all. Help? Can we put it back together? That is an ever decreasing possibility. WW2 bailed us out while Europe was being reconstructed. But we have no such solution now.
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent [blind copies]

Monday, September 27, 2010

The Elections?

We are facing both NY State as well as U.S. elections this fall. The big question is who will win what? It makes a big difference in both cases. Most of our NY prisons are upstate. Will prisoners be allowed to vote in their home districts or be counted as 'residents' of their prison locations?

Needless to say those who win houses in Congress would be able to continue the rich get richer policies started with Reagan and we may see a collapse of our economy already in bad shape. How can we compete for jobs with those nations filling our discount stores with bargains made possible by their abuses of their workers -- low wages and no benefits in China, where all the stuff to be sold at WalMart and Costco, etc. are blocking American workers from jobs. memories are short and the TV media will give the Tea Party massive support. Most scared Americans have only time for such falsehoods and deceptions. If we go back to Cheney days we may face a real global financial collapse.

I would add some sources here, but anyone with access to Google can do their own research and I wish Obama was being given proper air time. He is not and so the Tea Party c--p supersedes his highly intelligent statements. I disagree with his support of the 'wars', but perhaps he will keep his promise to get us out of them and let the people over there fix themselves as best they can. We can't make it with crooks such as Karsai and friends and relatives.

Some time ahead. I am on the edge of despair, myself. Let us hope!
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent [blind copies]

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

No End to U.S. Anti-Gay Military Policy

The fragment of today's NY Times editorial below tells it all. Politics has blocked the opening up of our military to gays -- many other nations have no problem with this and we lose great talents we could use with this political blockage. How sad and also hurtful to the U.S. which could well use the talents of gays from some of the nations with which we are dealing -- or at war.

Gay people tend to specialize in interesting things such as languages -- Arabic, etc. Negotiations with Iran and its language could be helped, too, although they execute gays there:

Saturday, July 23, 2005

"Execution of two gay teens in Iran spurs controversy"

International controversy erupted after Iranian officials executed two gay teenagers who were originally reported to be convicted of homosexuality, however later reports released by the Iranian government after international furor claimed the conviction was for the rape of a 13-year-old boy. The two were hanged July 19.

http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Execution_of_two_gay_teens_in_Iran_spurs_controversy


***********************************

Editorial
Military Equality Goes Astray
Published: September 21, 2010

The best chance this year to repeal the irrational ban on openly gay members of the military slipped away Tuesday, thanks to the buildup of acrimony and mistrust in the United States Senate.

Republicans, with the aid of two Arkansas Democrats, unanimously voted to filibuster the Pentagon’s financing authorization bill, largely because Democrats had included in it a provision to end the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy.
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent [blind copies]

Monday, September 20, 2010

An American Oligarchy?

Caring commentators are reaching for descriptive terms to fit what the U.S. risks becoming: "Third World Nation," "Unemployed Nation," "Angry Rich," "Tea Party," or my preference here, "Oligarchy." Nations can be and are operated in the interests of the rich at the cost of the poor. Our global economic competitors, India and China, as well as African and other nations are so fueled.

My question is whether Obama and our caring Democrats can hold the barriers high enough in the coming elections -- this fall and in 2012 -- against this monstrous takeover of our democratic republic? Already the gap between super rich and millions of hungry kids here is a national embarrassment! With the extension of unemployment insurance came a little noticed cut in food stamp allotments. Oil and medicine are making out like bandits while even Wall Street is feeling some quavers about our weak economy per a lead article in today's NY Times.

For the benefit of those searching for the right descriptive term, I have included the Wiki definition of oligarch below.

I wonder where our Wikileaks crowd is hiding out now -- under attack by both our key general in Afghanistan and the Obama team?

*****************************************

An oligarchy (from Greek ὀλιγαρχία, oligarkhía[1]) is a form of power structure in which power effectively rests with a small segment of society distinguished by royalty, wealth, family ties, or military control. The word oligarchy is from the Greek words "ὀλίγος" (olígos), "a few"[2] and the verb "ἄρχω" (archo), "to rule, to govern, to command".[3] Such states are often controlled by a few prominent families who pass their influence from one generation to the next.

Oligarchies have been tyrannical throughout history, being completely reliant on public servitude to exist. Although Aristotle pioneered the use of the term as a synonym for rule by the rich, for which the exact term is plutocracy, oligarchy is not always a rule by wealth, as oligarchs can simply be a privileged group, and do not have to be connected by bloodlines as in a monarchy. Some city-states from ancient Greece were oligarchies.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oligarchy

--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent [blind copies]

Friday, September 17, 2010

Belgium Is Presumably Only One of Many Nations Where Priests Abuse with Impunity

[There are some fine priests and Catholic Churches, but as we know from our American experience, unmarried priests (and bishops) are a menace to young people of both genders. Presumably this is a widespread criminal phenomenon -- protected by Church authorities from prosecution. The Catholic Church needs a new Martin Luther -- it has a number of internal critics whom it silences. The Roman model simply does not work, as we see from the Belgian horrors. The Vatican has been violating human rights for many centuries -- all those thousands of burnings at the stake, wars between Christian countries, crusades, pogroms, and the Holocaust with its background of decades of anti-Semitic German biblical scholars. My grand father was one who studied in Germany (Woolsey Professor of Biblical Studies at Yale eventually) who was horrified by his German scholarly colleagues who were setting the stage for Hitler.

I find it ironic that Benedict is now traveling in the highest circles in Britain.

What more can one expect of an ex Hitler youth?

Ed Kent]

***********************************************

In Britain, Pope Criticizes Response to Abuse Crisis

GLASGOW — Pope Benedict XVI arrived Thursday in Scotland, offering his strongest criticism yet of the Roman Catholic Church’s handling of the sexual abuse crisis. He said that church leaders had not been “sufficiently vigilant” or “sufficiently swift and decisive” in cracking down on abusers.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/17/world/europe/17pope.html?ref=todayspaper

--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent [blind copies]

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Voting for Bill Perkins and Eric Schneiderman

I finally put to use the walk and sit gizmo that one of my good daughters had gotten to get me out to the park, sun, and vitamin D to get to and from the voting arrangements at Riverside Church. Few were voting then and we had great help. We learned that it took the machines 45 minutes to operate after being turned on which may explain some of the troubles elsewhere.

I wanted to support particularly our good friend, Bill Perkins, and Eric Schneiderman. My son and I split on the alternatives to Charlie Rangel. It is so sad to see him now in trouble, having gotten to know him during his first (state) run as one of Ray Jones' (the "Harlem Fox") reform candidates. It looks as though Charlie did a solid job in office except for the most recent abuses -- even to assist City College:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100729/ap_on_go_co/us_rangel_ethics


Personally I think he should quit now rather than bringing embarrassment to his party, but he will certainly win re-election from his loyal supporters.

I will quit now after my exhausting trip to vote. Hopefully others will get there and support good candidates.
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent [blind copies]

Monday, September 13, 2010

The Homeless?

I was deeply saddened to learn that the numbers of homeless in the U.S. are increasing all too rapidly. One of my neighbors works with them and I am trying to get a sack of fresh rolls to her that one of my daughters brought us from a new Costco store in Manhattan yesterday:

I am all too aware of the increases in numbers because of the economic hardships our nation is facing which includes realistically a nearly 20% un- or under employment rate. For the first time middle income people are finding themselves joining the traditional homeless who usually have some mental or physical disabilities. Can one imagine taking one's family into such an environment for relatively brief nighttime stays -- most take people in late and oust them early.

*********************

According to the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, there were 664,414 sheltered and unsheltered homeless persons nationwide on a single night in January 2008. Additionally, about 1.6 million persons used an emergency shelter or a transitional housing program during the 12-month period between October 1, 2007 and September 30, 2008. This number suggests that 1 in every 190 persons in the United States used the shelter system at some point in that period.[3]

According to the United States Conference of Mayors,[4] the main cause is the lack of affordable housing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homelessness_in_the_United_States


The three next primary causes are:

* mental illness or the lack of needed services,
* substance abuse and lack of needed services.
* low-paying jobs.

The minor causes cited by the mayors were:

* Prisoner release.
* Unemployment.
* Domestic violence.
* Poverty.

What can we do? Obama is trying, but the Republicans are our greedy ones who seem to give not a damn about human death and suffering -- those wars and now those losing all that has meant home for them.

I dread the coming elections which may finally turn our country from a democratic republic into an oligarchy -- rule by and for the greedy rich: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oligarchy
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent [blind copies]

Thursday, September 09, 2010

You Can't Yell "Fire" in a Crowded Theater When There Is None!

Jerry Jones does not have absolute free speech rights. The moment he reaches for a Koran with a device for burning it in hand, he should be grabbed by the cops and led away to wait prosecution for one of the most vicious crimes that we have seen of late -- a character seeking publicity who would both cause needless deaths and injuries and also outrage Muslims world-wide.

There is only one thing to do with such -- lock him up and throw away the key.

One of the oldest limits on free speech is illustrated by the title of this report. Unhappily some of our special forces are using this argument to justify killing "terrorists" -- whatever they may exactly be. No one has really come up with a stable definition which leaves the doors open to so classifying not just a Jerry Jones but our drone operators as well who are killing innocent people.

This country is in serious trouble and may end up having to live with a Republican/Tea Party house or two. Needless to say no ready solution to the job problem will magically materialize with Republican leadership. Cheney (probably more accurately stated than Bush) has more or less shot away the foundations of our economy with military obsessions, torture, etc. The time for military domination has gone the way of our global economy which has allowed others to get better educations and be more productive with lower cost manufactures.

And so it goes -- down the the rabbit hole.

Alice where are you? We need you big time.
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent [blind copies]

Monday, September 06, 2010

"Labor" Day?

For 20% or more of Americans the name of this end of summer 'holiday' is the cruelest reminder of anxiety since, perhaps, the era of Taft and FDR when millions of Americans were desperately seeking to support themselves amidst the first major depression. Then at least many still lived on farms or had relatives who did who could provide food for themselves and others who needed it.

I recall our WW2 garden where we grew many of our vegetables. My mother canned fruits and tomatoes to get us through the winter. We still lived in a time when people could do much in the way of labor to provide their basic necessities.

But the times have changed and we now have two major political parties locked in mortal combat -- one concerned for providing for the needy -- particularly the millions of hungry American children. The other is playing the wealth game, protecting our super wealthy from taxes, and conning the truly needy with false hopes and barbaric falsehoods.

As a retired legal philosopher with time on my hands I watch this horrible game being played out. Obama is attacked for his good works and the Tea Party folks are fed an endless list of lies -- no need for taxes, big government is stealing what money you have. No scheme to help people by the Democrats is not drowned out by the latest grim murder of other distractions from the essential basic facts that we need to rescue ourselves from the "No" party which seems to care not a whit for those whom it should be working with Obama to rescue. They offer us privatized social security, i.e. each can invest in his own scheme to maximize income. I receive dozens of scams in my email each day that would con people out of what savings they still have. They come from all quarters of the globe -- out of reach, of course, from American justice. And we should end off Medicare rather than reform it?

One of my own trusted banks -- Chase -- converted an addition to funds available in my credit card which I had put through my bank by phone to a payment in October with an additional $90.00 thrown in. I had not yet even received a billing for September at the time. Neither Chase nor my bank could rectify this gross error. What had been done without my permission was a done deal. And there are far worse banks. One wants to charge a family member 29.9% for a late payment at the time we lost my beloved wife and mother of our three children. She did the bills and taxes and battled with the medical insurance companies that were denying thousands of dollars owed. She usually won her arguments.

But my heart goes out to the widows being conned who do not know the rules of American labor: the rich steal what they can and the rest of us battle to keep alive. Teddy Roosevelt at the turn into the 20th century warned us what was being done to us by the monopolies. Now people no longer read detailed reports. They hear the opinions -- left versus right -- in fragmented TV 'programs' -- a bit here and a bit there of non news or important information.

And then there are those mad wars that are supporting what Eisenhower called our "military industrial complex" in his last week in office. We still are wasting billions on both the wars and equipment fit to fight the no longer existing Soviet Union -- protected by the pols in the states where produced. Listen to Gates, our Secretary of Defense.

So such is Labor today -- a scam among scams.
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent [blind copies]

Sunday, September 05, 2010

And so we go -- to hell?

Here is the concluding paragraph of Frank Rich's extraordinarily pessimistic op-ed column today:

"And yet here we are, slouching toward yet another 9/11 anniversary, still waiting for a correction, with even our president, an eloquent Iraq war opponent, slipping into denial. Of all the pro forma passages in Obama’s speech, perhaps the most jarring was his entreaty that Iraq’s leaders “move forward with a sense of urgency to form an inclusive government that is just, representative and accountable.” He might as well have been talking about the poisonous political deadlock in Washington. At that moment, there was no escaping the tragic fact that instead of bringing American-style democracy and freedom to Iraq, the costly war we fought there has, if anything, brought the bitter taste of Iraq’s dysfunction to America."

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/05/opinion/05rich.html?pagewanted=2&ref=todayspape

Sadly it looks as though Obama, as able as he is, has been overwhelmed by the range of crises that he inherited from the Republicans -- an economic disaster close to the great depression that faced FDR, two hopeless wars, a labor shortage induced by the fact that we are now living in a global economy where other nations compete to mistreat their workers to keep prices so low that Americans now buy at discount houses rather than American made products.


The Republican suggestions that we privatize social security and cut Medicare rather than reforming abuses of it by greedy doctors will lead our nation down an even more disastrous financial path leading to a cliff to nowhere but the deaths of even more than our current suicides, murders, and medical treatment delays that turn a treatable illness into a deadly one.

If you have not done so, read the full Rich op-ed. It tells things as they have horribly developed with worse to come. If American voters let themselves be conned by putting Republican budget cutters into office, they will be signing their own and their children's death warrants.

Will they wake up in time? Probably not with the stresses facing all but the super rich 2% who can exit to one of their alternative homes and draw upon their (hidden) Swiss monies.

And so we go -- to hell?
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent [blind copies]

Thursday, September 02, 2010

Who's Kidding Whom Here? (See last quote below)

There is no way peace will be made with the Palestinians. Too many Israelis want it all -- particularly some of the settlers. I guess if one cares, one will try anything. But with all due respects, Netanyahu is the last guy in Israel who will do anything but oppress Palestinians -- 200 picked up in response to the killing of 4?

See the figures following:

Palestinian prisoners in Israel
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Palestinian prisoners in Israel mainly refers to Palestinians imprisoned in Israel following apprehension resulting from the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. There are over 7,000 prisoners (2010). Most prisoners are held after conviction by the Israel Prison Service, which is under the jurisdiction of the Internal Security ministry, while some are administrative detainees. The future of Palestinian prisoners detained by Israel has long been considered central to progress in Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations.[1]
Contents

* 1 Number of prisoners
o 1.1 Child prisoners
* 2 Imprisoned public figures
o 2.1 Marwan Barghouti
o 2.2 Ahmad Sa'adat
o 2.3 City officials
* 3 Prisoner exchanges and releases
* 4 Accusations of human rights abuses
o 4.1 Physical torture
* 5 Political & social mobilization
o 5.1 'Prison education' programmes
o 5.2 Hunger strikes
o 5.3 Palestinian Prisoners' Document
* 6 See also
* 7 External links
* 8 Notes

Number of prisoners

Between 1967 and 1988, more than 600,000 Palestinians were held in Israeli jails for a week or more, according to the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights.[2] According to the Guardian, approximately one-fifth of the population has at one time been imprisoned since 1967.[3] Those arrested were subject either to trial or administrative detention.[4]

In 1998, the number of Palestinians held in administrative detention began to gradually decline and averaged less than 20 from 1999 to October 2001. However, with the start of the Second Intifada, and particularly after Operation Defensive Shield, the trend was reversed, and the numbers began to steadily climb.[4] According to the Fédération Internationale des ligues des Droits de l'Homme (FIDH), from the beginning of the Second Intifada in 2000 through to April 2003, more than 28,000 Palestinians were incarcerated in prisons or prisoner camps. In April 2003 alone, there were more than 5,500 arrests.[5]

In 2007, the number of Palestinians under administrative detention averaged about 830 per month, including women and minors under the age of 18.[6] By March 2008, more than 8,400 Palestinians were held by Israeli civilian and military authorities, of which 5,148 were serving sentences, 2,167 were facing legal proceedings and 790 were under administrative detention, often without charge or knowledge of the suspicions against them.[7] In 2010, the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics reported that there were "over 7,000" Palestinians in Israeli jails, of them 264 under administrative detention.[8] The main prisons in which Palestinian prisoners apprehended by Israel are held are in the Ofer Prison in the West Bank and the Megiddo and Ketziot prisons in Israel.[7]

On 17 April 2008, the annual day of commemoration for Palestinian Prisoners, Adalah: The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, published a summary report of statistics noting that there were 11,000 Palestinian prisoners being held in prison and detention in Israel, including 98 women, 345 children, 50 members of the Palestinian Legislative Council, and 3 ministers of the Palestinian National Authority.[9] Of these 11,000 Palestinian prisoners, 8,456 were from the West Bank, 762 from the Gaza Strip, 552 from Jerusalem, and 132 from within Israel itself.[9] In October 2008, Haaretz reported that there are 600 Palestinians being held in administrative detention in Israel, including "about 15 minors who do not know even know why they are being detained."[10]
Child prisoners

Between October 2000 and April 2009, approximately 6,700 Palestinian children between the ages of 12 and 18 were arrested by the Israeli authorities, according to Defence for Children International's Palestine Section (DCI/PS). The number of Palestinian children held in detention and interrogation centers, as well as prisons, both in Occupied Palestinian Territory and inside of Israel, was 423 in 2009. In April 2010 the number was 280. DCI/PS reports that these detentions stand in contravention of international law.[11]
[edit] Imprisoned public figures

There are several Palestinian leaders and politicians held in Israeli jails, including 47 Hamas members of the Palestinian Legislative Council, in addition to some ministers and the mayors and municipal council members of various towns and cities in the West Bank.[3]
[edit] Marwan Barghouti
Main article: Marwan Barghouti

Marwan Barghouti a leader of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades militia and al-Mustaqbal political party, was arrested and tried by an Israeli civilian court for attacks carried out by the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades. He was convicted on May 20, 2004 on five counts of murder and sentenced to five life sentences and forty years.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestinian_prisoners_in_Israel

***************************************8

Israeli Peace Effort Rests on Netanyahu
By ETHAN BRONNER
Published: September 1, 2010

JERUSALEM — David Rubinger, one of Israel’s best-known photojournalists and a man firmly on the political left, cast his ballot last year for Benjamin Netanyahu for prime minister, the first time he had ever voted for the right-leaning Likud Party.
Related

*
Leaders Call for Peace as Mideast Talks Begin (September 2, 2010)
*
Palestinians Hunt the Killers of 4 Israelis (September 2, 2010)

Negotiating With the Israeli Settlers

Will Netanyahu ever be able to bring the settler movement on board in any peace process?

“The left wants to make peace but cannot, while the right doesn’t want to but, if forced to, can do it,” he said in an interview. “So last year I decided to vote not with my heart but with my head.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/02/world/middleeast/02israel.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper

--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent [blind copies]