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*Warning* Political statements

Myr

By Myr
in The Lounge

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dkstories Master Scribe

dkstories

Posted
Posted

Hehe, I wouldn't deny the blow jobs under the desk either. :)

 

Eric, the Michael Douglas movie was "The American President". It's on the atlanta cable station every now and then and I enjoy watching it whenever it's on.

 

The War of 1812 was not just about Canada. The impressment of American merchentmen was a major issue, as was the forced servitude of many Americans overseas by both the British and French (although most of it was by the British). For those that don't know what impressment is, basically a British vessel would board a US merchant ship and take members of the crew into forced service on their vessels. This also happened to businessmen and travelers in Britain during that timeframe and was a major cause for the establishment of the US Navy and the building of the Frigate vessels like the U.S.S. Constitution.

 

The issue of the people being held in Guantanamo is one of the things that bothers me the most. Most of the people held there were captured under arms against the United States during a military action. I have no problem with holding them or interrogating them, but they should have been granted rights under the Geneva Convention that we would expect and demand if they were Americans. Being shipped overseas, held incommunicado, and NOT charged with any crime is something that we, as Americans should denounce under any circumstances. I certainly believe that the men who signed the Declaration of Independence might have some troubles with such actions by this country. Why? Here are some of the reasons they stated for our Independence:

 

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended offences:

 

Further, in our consititution and its amendments, certain principles were set out. As foreign nationals, these men may not enjoy these rights, but what gives us the right, as a nation, to abandon these principles? Are not all men created equal? Is that not a founding principle upon which our history, our culture, our very nature as Americans is based? Have we not abandoned what it means to be American when we treat others in a way that we would protest and go to war over if these were Americans being treated this way? Have we become so scared of shadows that we will treat human beings in ways that we would not treat other Americans?

 

The constitution says we can't hold people without charging them for crimes. Prisoners of War are to be returned to their country upon cessation of hostitilities (over two years ago for Afghanistan). None of the people being held there have been charged with crimes (while I am not so naive to believe that they are all innocent of plotting against the US, I do believe that they should either be tried and sentenced, or freed immediately). If any of them were heavily involved in 9/11, my opinion is they should be tried, convicted and shot. If they were just al-Quaeda members or Taliban members, let them go, track them, and the minute they take arms again, kill them. If you can't track them down like that, convict them of being 'hardened enemies' of the United States and lock them up.

 

I don't want to let people go who will turn around and try to kill Americans again, but neither do I like the secrecy and blank imprisonment that is going on. Put them into a real prison as a danger to our society, or kill them. I'm a liberal, but I'm not a bleeding heart liberal. What we're doing now is worse than either of those actions.

 

Also, don't get me started on the Patriot Act. In the 1930-1960's under Herbert Hoover, the FBI and law enforcement did acts of spying and violations of what we today view as personal privacy to get everything they could on those who broke the law or spoke out against the government. That was changed in the late 60's and throughout the 1970's to keep the government out of the private lives of people and to stop them from harrassing, ridiculing, or locking up people who disagreed with the government.

 

Since the Patriot Act restored most of these abilities to the government's law enforcement agencies, the majority of uses of these functions was NOT to prosecute terrorism, but for common criminal investigations. Most people wouldn't blink an eye at a man being investigated because he attends the same Mosque as a suspected terrorist, but would they care at being investigated, watched, and having their phone lines tapped because they went to the same gym as a guy who's embezzling money from his employer (a little far fetched yes, but under the Patriot Act, anyone who belongs to the same gym can be followed, investigated, have wire taps established, computers investigated, etc.)?

 

One of the biggest successes of the new Patriot Act powers that the FBI has been promoting was the break-up of a baby-milk theft and re-distributing ring work millions of dollars.

 

Yep, we gave them powers to hunt down terrorists and they not only use them against potential terrorists but against baby milk stealers. These powers were taken away from them because they didn't just use them against criminals but against political opponents and government protesters. Do you really believe that they won't be abused again? We gave these powers to fight terrorists, but they already use them mostly in criminal cases. How long is it before they abuse them again? (Or do you really believe they aren't already being used? Just ask some of the reporters who are already being arrested or harrassed under these powers)

 

When I see an ad endorsed by George W. Bush that says Kerry will weaken our defenses against terrorists because Kerry wants to restrict the Patriot Act to terrorist cases, I shake my head at the poor fools that believe the ad. What we see today is the beginning of an era very much like the early US 1950's. The principles on which this country was founded are being assaulted not by terrorists or other countries, but by our own government, led by George W. Bush.

 

Frankly, it's better to be lied to about a blow job in the office than about how our rights are being taken away, and why our men and women are dying around the world in fights that did not need to be started. Iraq was contained, the damage they could do was negligible outside their borders. By containing him, his threat to the world and anyone but Iraqi citizens was minimized. He could have sat in the box we made for him for another ten years and not seen over 570 american soldiers dead in that country within the last 365 days (do the math, it's a little over 1 american dead per day we've been there). He would have eventually tried to break out of the box, and we could have gotten the world to help us in smacking him down then, or would have died of old age, giving us an opportunity to work for better change then, without a need to invade. Instead we were told he had Weapons of Mass Destruction, was connected to 9/11 and posed a clear and present danger to the safety of our country.

 

Ironically, more Americans have died there in the past year than have died in operations in the area since he invaded Kuwait in 1990.

 

I for one am sick of the lies and misrepresentations of this administration and will vote for the person that offers the best alternatives the mess that the current President has led us into since 9/11/2001. Hopefully this time the Supreme Court won't put him back into office.

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