Hi All,
Too often politicians spin terms to advance their agendas. Even to the point that, in a country created by the most liberal constitution known in history, the term "liberal" was turned to a nasty word.
A rose by any other name still smells as sweetly as a rose and calling torture “enhanced interrogation” still is inhumane and remains torture. The “enhanced interrogation technique” now known as “water boarding” that was not only permitted but also now known demanded under the Bush/Cheney administration is nothing less than “torture”. Politicians in the United States of America, since the time of John F. Kennedy, have learned to buy and sell the mass media. Allowing politicians to misguide the public by spinning words to reduce or increase the “sting” of the word. The current attempt of politicians to rename “torture”, as “enhanced interrogation, is a continuance of the deceptive policy of redefining terminology. Other “enhanced interrogation techniques” aside, the water torture now called “water boarding” is without doubt a form of torture. The attempt to define ‘water-boarding’ as ‘enhanced interrogation’ and not as ‘torture’ is purely political. It is an attempt to steer the public from the fact that the United States government under the auspice of the Bush/Cheney administration knowingly committed war crimes. Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz (Boston Globe 5-15-2004) probably coins the phrase, “water-boarding” in reference to a form of “water-torture”. Water boarding is, of course, actually a form of surfboarding. A great thing for the spinning of words for politicians, giving a form of water tortures the connotation of a sporting event. The United States of America was instrumental in drafting, defining and ratifying the terms of the 1948 documents outlawing wartime crimes. The United States was most adamant in this because of the inhuman treatment suffered by an astronomical amount of brave American soldiers, especially in the World Wars. War crimes under the Geneva Convention include, "...willful killing, torture or inhuman treatment (cruel treatment), including biological experiments, willfully causing great suffering or serious injury to body or health." Article 3 of the Geneva Convention extends the articles of the treatise to include those not classified as “prisoners of war”. Hence, the attempted spinning of “war prisoners” to “detainees” will not protect one from committing a war crime. The water torture now called "water-boarding" surpasses "inhuman treatment" and "willfully causing great suffering", which is also illegal under the convention standards. Water boarding is nothing less than "torture", if it were not so, it would still be a war crime under the Geneva Conventions. Torture is defined as an inflicting of physical punishment which causes someone extreme pain, physical or mental anguish. Water boarding is a water torture that causes extreme pain, physical anguish and mental anguish. Water boarding is a torture. Our own Federal Criminal Code defines torture as “the intentional infliction of severe mental pain or suffering," In the United States, that called ‘water-boarding’ has long been considered and defined as “torture. The water torture now called water boarding has been an illegal war activity for many years. John McCain, past Presidential nominee and torture victim during the Vietnam War, said of the water boarding technique that it is a “very exquisite torture”. In Vietnam, United States Generals reiterated that water boarding was illegal and they were serious. A U.S. soldier found guilty of water boarding in Vietnam and sent to prison. Water boarding has long been considered an illegal wartime crime of torture whereby the United States holds its own accountable. A definition of water boarding as torture that goes back as far as 1901. A United States Army major, in the Spanish/American War, when found guilty of water boarding received a sentence of 10 years at hard labor. Only in the past few years has this been an issue. When it leaked that the United States had water boarded “detainees” at Guantanamo. The “spin” began water torture became water boarding, like the sport. Water boarding became an “enhanced interrogation technique” as opposed to the torture that it is. It is a hard pill to swallow, the idea of holding, especially before the world, one’s own responsible for such actions. However, this is a very resilient country, one of pride, which should not become a false pride by the subversion of words. To ignore our own morality and ideals, those that we have projected to the World, will be far worse than calling torture what it is, torture.
It is no longer news that the administration of the Arizona State University decided not to give an honorary degree to the president under the pretence of he has not done enough, while in reality this action was motivated by egocentrism, dogmatism, hegemony mentality and archaism by those who are working with that school to retrogressively impact on the country.
President Barack Obama has delighted many of us with several wise decisions before, during and after the presidential election. Beginning with his decision to become a community organizer rather than take the seven figure salary from Wall Street to his recent decision to act as a commander in chief of the United States of America and thrive to protect every lives including those of a minority military personnel that have in a very troubling manner treated prisoners or perceived terror suspects, he has demonstrated that he is way above his compatriots.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/05/13/obama-asu-address-watch-t_n_203240.html
Many people especially in opposition to the president have underestimated the seat of wisdom that reside within him and unfortunately for these calibers and the interest they sort to protect, Americans are beginning to see beyond the deliberate obstacles of painting the president as a socialist among other melancholic terms.
Amy Smoucha, Health Care Organizer, Missouri Jobs with Justice and Stacey Sickler, Coordinator, Missouri Health Care for All: Fighting for affordable, quality health care for every person in Missouri: Opportunities and challenges for health reform at the state and federal levels.
Keith Tubbs Missouri Pro-Vote St. Louis Regional Organizer: Missouri Progressive Vote Coalition (Pro-Vote) is a statewide coalition of over forty labor unions and community organizations founded in 1992 to give grassroots organizations the tools to engage their membership in the public policy process.
Race (Click to Sort) Poll Results Spread
Maine Rasmussen Obama 56,McCain 43 Obama +13
National Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby Obama 50, McCain 44 Obama +6
Virginia Mason-Dixon Obama 47, McCain 44 Obama +3
Minnesota Star Tribune Obama 53, McCain 42 Obama +11
Pennsylvania Morning Call Obama 52, McCain 45 Obama +7
Colorado Denver Post/Mason-Dixon Obama 49, McCain 44 Obama +5
Michigan Detroit Free Press Obama 53, McCain 37 Obama +16
Iowa Des Moines Register Obama 54, McCain 37 Obama +17
Nevada LVRJ/Mason-Dixon Obama 47, McCain 43 Obama +4
Ohio Columbus Dispatch* Obama 52, McCain 46 Obama +6
We need absolutely every availabe volunteer possible to work the phones and canvass for Senator Obama these next few days. The battle-ground states are particularly important folks! Let's please do all that is necessary to push Senator Obama on to victory this coming tuesday night. We cannot afford to let up, not now. We have come way too far with this campaign to rest on our laurels and get complacent. Phone-calls and canvassing are still very much needed in order to reach the still undecided voters out there.
Let's please not allow ourselves to wake up on wednesday morning to hear the dreadful news that Senator John McCain has won the presidential race. Well that will not be possible if we strongly keep at it right through tuesday!!! If you must, please consider taking off work for a day or two in order to secure that win that Senator Obama really needs right now. We really do have to fight for the little kids right now, as we set the stage for their future. Yes, it's that important!!
So let's please do what absolutely must be done and go for it without reservation. Everything is on the line so let's just get our there and pour out all the energy that we've got into this worthwhile cause. Again, a very huge thanks to all who are working diligently and hard out there for a much better and brighter future for our children and all of America. God bless you!!!!
Jarvis
UNITED AMERICANS 4 CHANGE
If the election were to be held today and based on pundits and the opinions of majority of Americans Sen. Obama will have a landslide victory over Sen. McCain. However this in my opinion is not even the most imperative development in the current political dispensation when compared to the fact that America is pragmatically on the path that may as well essentially lead to the process of reclamation, renovation and reconstruction of the fundamentalism and idealism of the nation.
What is most appealing given the massive and unquantifiable gravitation of the majority of Americans at home and overseas to the movement of hope and change in the country as enunciated by Sen. Obama is the fact that many of these diverse populations can emphatically relate with every part of his speech, ideas, articulations and manifesto. White, Blacks and Brown alike have seen their commonalities magnified and the concept of unity in diversity simplified beyond the racial rhetoric of the minority of Americans.
It is in fact an exceedingly gratifying feeling and with total sense of belonging and commitment to see, feels and watches how Obama has electrified the political landscape with his authentic, pragmatic and honest conviction that if we are ready to work with him this country can once again see better days. Never has any candidate in recent times inspired the people and help them fashion their destiny for the common good of the country in the fashion that Obama has brought into the current dispensation.
The 44th president of the United States will take office in an uncertain and dangerous time for this country. The challenges we face both overseas and here at home are complex and unfamiliar, and the road ahead is likely to be very different from the road we have traveled to get here.
Leading the country in such a time will require someone of intellect, creativity, honesty and passion for those traits that have made America great. That person is U.S. Sen. Barack Obama.
http://www.ajc.com/blogs/content/shared-blogs/ajc/bookman/index.html
God bless USA
God bless Obama & Biden
Below is an interesting read from Washingtonpost.com:
There was a revealing exchange about midway through the debate. When asked whether Americans other than our men and women in uniform should be asked to sacrifice for the country, McCain spoke almost entirely about cutting or freezing government programs. It was a strange answer from a man whose military career was characterized by years of punishing patriotic sacrifice.
Obama caught the idealism behind the query, criticizing President Bush's call for Americans to shop after the Sept. 11 attacks. He spoke of the need for individual energy conservation; called for expansion of service programs, including the Peace Corps; and described the hunger among young people to serve their country. McCain sounded like a legislator, Obama like a president.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/07/AR2008100702438.html
A word is enough for the wise.
Until recently the current political dispensation has been saturated with too many nonentities and inconsequentialities that issues such as lipstick on a big becomes a record heat in terms of the insatiability of the media to further the campaign of fantasy rather than the reality of a gigantic country that is more or less facing extinction from the egocentrism and myopia of its self professed leaders.
My dad always tell me to make sure that I deal gently, patiently and honestly with situations while at the same time being very pragmatic and authentic to myself about the prevailing realities that may relate to such scenarios. The present economic woes confronting the country is not any different from my father’s postulation that care and meticulousness needed to be adhered to especially at this very crucial stage in the country’s history.
I dare to challenge any who want to doubt me that this situation as a matter of fact may amount to blessing in disguise for this country and may as well provide the recipe needed to reawaken in us the necessity of authentic patriotism and dealing with our issues rather than procrastinating and hoping that some how it may just disappear and we will all wake to live in a country that was not built by us!
Over the course of nearly eight years in office without an iota of doubt and based on the pragmatism of the articulations and implementation of the Republican Party designed leadership of President George Bush, this country has indeed witnessed the most detrimental and inimical socio-economic squalor in modern time since the 1930’s.
Within the horizon of realism, this party has orchestrated policies and agendas that holistically damage the image of the country, while at the same time dehumanizing the essentiality of the idealism of America’s dream of being the land of freedom, opportunity, prosperity and symbiotic diversity.
The latest economic crisis did not just originate overnight but as a matter of fact was a sequel to the much recklessness, irresponsibility, greed and the lack of patriotism on the part of those responsible for protecting the fundamentals of the country’s goal of being an abode of haven for mankind.
It is rather ridiculous and at the same time contradictory for the Republican Party congress members to all of a sudden wanting to give the impression to the American people that they are fiscally responsible and are siding with the American people over the prevailing economic woes and the necessity of bailing out Wall Street.
Where were the same congress members when President George Bush was asking congress to immediately pass legislation that will warrant the perpetuation of reckless spending on the war in Iraq and so many other projects that have little or no realistic bearing on the people of this great country? There action is nothing short of mere hypocrisy and design to create the image that they have since lacked during the height of the tenure of the incumbent administration.
The bottom line is that the Republican Party has failed America and by deduction those who help it failed in such a woeful fashion must be accountable to the people one way or the other. We have seen this nonsense of the executive arm of government cajoling and perpetuating the campaign of fear and desperation before and while I am not in the position to understand the exact gravity of the situation, nevertheless inaction may not be the exact solution to the ongoing crisis.
We must all stop fooling ourselves and get down to the business of appreciating the necessity to act in a fashion that will protect Americans and the country and not the corporate executives, lobbyists and their surrogates.
Well there's only a few short weeks left everyone, so we cannot afford to waste any time in getting Senator Obama elected as our next commander in chief. I'm personally appealing to every able bodied volunteer to please do all that you possibly can for Barack's presidential bid. We simply cannot afford to get complacent, nor take anything for granted. It's crunch time folks!!
We need to get folks registered to vote in our communities, set up rides and carpools for the disabled on election day, continued neighborhood canvassing, yard sign placements, relentless phone-banking, and of course donating whatever you can to the campaign. And let's not forget to wear our Obama hats, buttons and T-Shirts whenever possible, because it helps to create visibility as well as a good impression for the Obama campaign. And lets not forget the bumper stickers!
Hats off and a really huge thank you to all of the many volunteers out there that are working hard and furiously to make election day a resounding success for the Obama presidential campaign! Let's go getem folks and godspeed!
United Americans 4 Change
A book is not judge by its cover but the content it possesses. It is also of essence to note without doubt that the convictions and ideology a man tends to admire and advocate for could as well attest to the part in life that he or she is inclined to follow. In other words the window to elucidate the unthinkable about a man is to reflect on what principles have guided his lives, actions, words and sympathy.
Sen. McCain happens to be an individual called a ‘maverick’ as a result of his inclination to unilateralism in some instances when he has to even run against his party and pursue bi-partisan ventures. Nevertheless, President Bill Clinton has manifested this same bi-partisan inclination in an objective and holistic manner than McCain.
The national security articulations of McCain as enunciated by his surrogates are not far from those of the incumbent and in fact as a matter of fact have the capacity to plunge the country into its worst era in foreign affairs matters. Simply put the McCain doctrine will represents an exponential facet of that of President George Bush in that, his military record have inimically rather than objectively shaped his dogmatic, archaic and sentimental campaign of divisiveness, discriminations and punitive mentality on nations with divergent views and with little or no inclination to diplomacy, dialogue or even any form of engagement.
STERLING, Va. (AP) — Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Biden said Friday that "ending the cowboy mentality of the Bush-McCain era" is part of the solution to the country's financial crisis.
"These guys have worshipped at the shrine of deregulation," Biden told about 1,000 supporters at a women's issues rally at a park in Loudoun County, a Virginia suburb of Washington that has been a key battleground in what is generally regarded as a swing state.
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5i7K20RiBJeMQhhTZUST64ABObHjAD93A0O380
What inspires me most about Senator Obama is his thought process. He goes beyond angst and socials wars to achieve a reconciling third view. This is why he will ultimately be better in foreign policy, as he will seek a convergence of the best ideas and approaches. He doesn’t want to treat immigrants as scapegoats, and he has a plan that uses tax dollars wisely by assisting those with the greatest need. Even when I disagree with him, I still find his thought process to be clear and full of depth. Obama cares about the things I care about such as alternative energy, taking care of the poor and middle class, using diplomacy first, compassionate immigration reform, health care, etc. It tells me that as a human being he pays attention to the soul, and I feel that he is a good man.We need honesty, the ability to lead and make decisions, and we need the needs and concerns of the people to be heard. We need a president who has the ability to synthesize varying points of view to come to consensus to solve problems. We need to be inspired to do better than we are doing by someone with integrity and respect. We need someone to speak the language of our collective, American soul in such a way that it gets us involved, but also lays out a bit of a roadmap for us. We need to know we are going in a positive direction without veils of secrecy and misconduct. I see a good degree of all of these in Senator Obama. I pray our nation gets a chance!
At least from my own perspective the media reporting about how energized the Republican Party faithful are and also Sen. McCain taking the lead over Sen. Obama may as well be yet another syndicated dissemination of information that is more or less completely different from what I am experiencing among Americans and surprisingly from Republicans who are for Obama.
As I continue to make phone calls and receive response through the same medium and in my emails, I am completely flabbergasted and astonished by the near contrast between my experience and what the media is reporting and this again reminded me of the presidential primaries that we have seen resulted in the candidacy of Obama in addition to the pragmatic, realistic and articulate choice of Sen. Biden as the vice presidential nominee which as adequately seconded by the Clinton’s and host of other Americans.
I want to once more use this medium to thank the Republicans for Obama, especially sympathizing with those who attended the GOP convention and were molested, hurt, disgraced and beaten up by the law enforcement agents for attempting to make their voices held. Even though the local media largely undermined the protest, especially the peaceful one, which in my opinion is tantamount to the compromising of the ethics of journalism, nevertheless it will still go down in history as a convention filled with the filth of character assassination rather than the necessity to address the issues.
The night of the living Palin-drones is upon us. Before November 4th dawns, John McCain may become an afterthought for his own voters. We've got to be fighting back now, and we've got to have some ammunition that will work.
Governor Kathleen Sebelius is well situated for this fight. She has the credibility and the ability. She has spoken out before as a spokesperson for the Democratic Party and she must be put more and more into this fray. [Full disclosure: I love Joe Biden and have no trouble supporting our ticket, but Sebelius was always my first choice for the v.p. slot.]
This first link will give you a chance to see what Governor Sebelius has to say about Governor Palin's and Mayor Palin's experience, as opposed to her caustic rhetoric (written by Bushies for her to mouth at the convention).
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/04/sebelius-accuses-palin-of_n_123883.html
Another woman offering thoughtful, on-the-site comments is Anne Kilkenny from Palin's hometown. She gives the Alaskan governor her due on several counts, but raises frightening alarms on a dozen fronts of vital importance to us. If you haven't read her open letter, here it is:
http://mudflats.wordpress.com/2008/09/04/a-letter-about-sarah-palin-from-anne-kilkenny/#comment-8140
In less than a month voter registration ends in my state and in most other states. In less than two months we will decide who our next president will be. Now is our defining moment, now is when we must rise to the challenge and turn back the dismissive, self-serving smugness that is the McCain - Palin campaign.
Are you fired up? Are you ready to go? --Ruairi O'Muchu 7 September 2008
By JULIE PACE and STEPHEN OHLEMACHER, Associated Press Writers 37 minutes ago
CLAIRTON, Pa. - Five days a week, Linda Graham trolls tattered neighborhoods of this once thriving steel city outside Pittsburgh for unregistered voters she can sign up as Democrats — one of thousands of unknown volunteers whose work outside the limelight has already altered the basic arithmetic of the November election.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080907/ap_on_el_pr/voter_registration;_ylt=Arn_MaFXX2z.YAoL9hwdEtSyFz4D
This development is real and not subject to any kind of polls or permutations that can be influenced by the syndicated organs that are deliberately trying to make the curren dispensation a tight race whereas in reality there is actually nothing tight about it.
Let the people decide on whether they want to remain in their present socio-economic abysmal conditions or support the candidate for hope and change and help resurrect the country to become a key player again!
