Category: the global world

Oct 03 2006

Who is This America?

The scandal developing around former US House Rep. Mark Foley just blows my mind.  First of all, the breach of trust by the congressman is staggering.  But perhaps even more unsettling to me is the spin being put on this by the Republican leadership.  I’ve seen spin at first trying to down play the seriousness of the emails to even claiming that Foley was a “victim” of the 16 yr old boy. WTF? are you kidding me.  What is even more surreal about this whole thing, is that Foley helped craft the legislation that more than likely will should land him in jail.

Here is an excellent post on some of the aspects of the Foley scandal from Glenn Greenwald’s blog Unclaimed Territory: Various Foley Scandal Items 

What should be even more troubling to the administration and Republican leadership, is that it increasingly looks like this scandal could consume the upper echelons of the Republican House leadership.  The current Speaker of the House and House Majority leader have both been suspected of trying to cover up the Foley matter.  For details read this post from Greenwald’s blog: John Boehner = Denny Hastert plus Key Questions for Tom Reynolds.  Even the conservative Washington Times is calling for Hastert to resign.

So three high ranking Republicans were at least at some level involved in a cover up.  At least until the evidence was to great to overcome.  Then it was on to spin city.

I really don’t know what it means to be an American right now.  I’m really not sure it is something to be proud of.   I wonder if it is possible to restore what we’ve lost as a country in the past six years.

Update: This is ridiculous! According to Mr. Foley’s attorney, Mr. Foley was abused by clergy as a child and is gay.

So now the spin is trying to make this a “gay” issue.  As I read on another blog earlier, they are right, in one way it is a gay issue.  The fact that this man had hide who he was, be ashamed of who he was, because our so called “Christian” nation looked down on him is deplorable.  However, whatever may have happened to him as a child is still no justification for his actions.  His actions would have been just as disgusting if they were directed to a female congressional page.

Permanent link to this article: https://www.rhinoblues.com/thoughts/2006/who-is-this-america/

Sep 28 2006

We’ve lost all credibility…

As a nation, we continue down a road of insignificance.  Yesterday the House of Representatives passed HR 6166.  This resolution allows the following things: (from the sidebar of this CNN Article)

  • Requires that a defendant being tried by military commission have access to any evidence given to a jury.
  • Drops a section of the administration’s previous proposal that stated an existing ban on cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment satisfies the nation’s obligations under the Geneva Conventions.
  • Prohibits “grave breaches” of the Geneva Conventions. Defines grave breaches as acts such as torture, rape, biological experiments and cruel and inhuman treatment.
  • Notes the president has the authority to interpret “the meaning and application” of the Geneva Conventions.
  • Allows hearsay evidence.
  • Allows coerced testimony if the statement was acquired before a 2005 ban on cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment and a judge finds it to be reliable. Bans coerced statements taken after the 2005 ban went into effect if it violates constitutional definitions of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.
  • Bars individuals from protesting violations of Geneva Conventions standards in court.

(Bullet points from the Associated Press)

We are flaunting years of international agreements.  We are damaging America’s reputation with the rest of the world.  We are endangering our soldiers in future conflicts.  And for a country that is supposably “Christian,” we are not acting like it.  We will not be able to undo this legislation.  Even if the Democrats try to change it after the mid-term elections, they will not have enough votes to over rule a Presidential veto. Plus 34 Democrats voted for this resolution (names and states represented below the cut).  More than likely the Senate will pass this as well today and Bush will quickly sign it into law.

Why doesn’t American care?  What can we do?  Are we going to see a theocratic American in my lifetime?  These are my fears.  Its almost as if some of the “Christian right” are trying to speed along the rapture. 

US Senator Russ Feingold’s statement In Opposition to the Military Commissions Act

US Senator John Kerry speaks out as well as reported on The Democratic Daily. 

US Senator Hillary Clinton speaks as reported on Crooks and Liars. 

US Senator Barak Obama speaks as reported on Eschaton. 

Update: The Bill passes the Senate 65-34. 

Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://www.rhinoblues.com/thoughts/2006/weve-lost-all-credibility/

Sep 27 2006

A Definition of Cowardice

On Monday’s edition of Countdown, Keith Olbermann chimes in with another Special Comment.  The subject of this comment, Fox News interview of former President Bill Clinton.  [View Transcript (video is also available on the MSNBC site)]  I’ll quote a highlight below:

 Bill Clinton did what almost none of us have done in five years.

He has spoken the truth about 9/11, and the current presidential administration.

“At least I tried,” he said of his own efforts to capture or kill Osama bin Laden. “That’s the difference in me and some, including all of the right-wingers who are attacking me now. They had eight months to try; they did not try. I tried.”

Thus in his supposed emeritus years has Mr. Clinton taken forceful and triumphant action for honesty, and for us; action as vital and as courageous as any of his presidency; action as startling and as liberating, as any, by any one, in these last five long years.

The Bush Administration did not try to get Osama bin Laden before 9/11.

The Bush Administration ignored all the evidence gathered by its predecessors.

The Bush Administration did not understand the Daily Briefing entitled “Bin Laden Determined To Strike in U.S.”

The Bush Administration did not try.

Moreover, for the last five years one month and two weeks, the current administration, and in particular the President, has been given the greatest “pass” for incompetence and malfeasance in American history!

President Roosevelt was rightly blamed for ignoring the warning signs–some of them, 17 years old–before Pearl Harbor.

President Hoover was correctly blamed for–if not the Great Depression itself–then the disastrous economic steps he took in the immediate aftermath of the Stock Market Crash.

Even President Lincoln assumed some measure of responsibility for the Civil War–though talk of Southern secession had begun as early as 1832.

But not this president.

For me this is a scary thing.  The current administration seems to have no concept of humility.  As a country we have a huge responsibility to act as true leaders in the world.  We have done that in the past.  We are not doing it anymore.  If unchecked, we are heading to an authoritarian style of government.  Slowly our supposed “freedoms” are being whittled away in the name of “security.”  But are we safer from the actions of the current administration?  I would say in fact that we are moving further away from a world were some sort of peace is possible.  A place where instead of dividing, we as a world would be coming together.

Permanent link to this article: https://www.rhinoblues.com/thoughts/2006/a-definition-of-cowardice/

Sep 19 2006

Politics and Religion

I knew a little about this back in 2004 when it first came up, on Crooks and Lairs today there is a piece about the IRS investigation of All Saint’s Episcopal Church in Pasadena, CA.  Why Doesn’t the IRS Investigate James Dobson?  Basically a former rector of the parish delivered an anti-war sermon a couple of days before the 2004 elections.  Not long after that the IRS came knocking threating to revoke the parish’s tax exempt status.  The reason: The Rev. George Regas’ sermon was seen as “endorsing or campaigning against a candidate in an election.”

So why isn’t organizations like James Dobson’s Focus on the Family being threatened with revocation of tax-exempt status?  Many of the “christian right” groups are activively campaigning for and against candidates.  Yet few of these groups are being investigated for violations of the tax code.

Permanent link to this article: https://www.rhinoblues.com/thoughts/2006/politics-and-religion/

Sep 19 2006

a “MadHaiku”

from MadHaiku:

Two more years…

a new flick about
the bush administration:
jackass number two

All I’ve got to say is wow…cuz really could you think of two more asinine things than another jackass movie and the bush administration.

Permanent link to this article: https://www.rhinoblues.com/thoughts/2006/a-madhaiku/

Sep 19 2006

the media starts to stand up…

I liked Keith Olbermann when he was a sportscenter anchor on espn.  I like him more now that he is working in news outside of the sports world.  Now granted I don’t have msnbc, so I’m basing this comment on a few clips i’ve seen in the last few weeks on the crooks and liars blog.

On Sept. 11th, on his show “Countdown,” Olbermann talks about President Bush’s legacy 5 years after the Sept. 11th attacks.  Here is the link to the entry on crooks and liars: 9/11 Special Comment [Click through to view the video files].

In Monday’s Special Comment on Countdown, Olbermann talks about the President’s “justification” of the methods used in the “war” on terror.  [The President owes the country an apology] It amazes me that more of the country isn’t deeply ashamed of this administration.  It amazes me that the people of this country are still seemingly silent.  Maybe in November the mid-term elections will show that the “silent majority” really is fed up with Bush.  But what does it solve if we just get the Democrats back in control of Congress?  The administration seems to ignore the will of Congress now, and Republicans are in charge.

We like to call ourselves a “Christian” nation (especially the conservatives).  But are we truely living the gospel message?  Are we caring for the sick, the poor, our elders?  I don’t see it.  Heck, we don’t even do it for our own citizens, much less the global world that we want to lead by example.  We as a nation are falling short in our stewardship of the global community.  We need to be building up communities, even if they believe differently, instead of tearing them down.

Permanent link to this article: https://www.rhinoblues.com/thoughts/2006/the-media-starts-to-stand-up/

Sep 17 2006

Common Ties: Seclusion and prayer on Abbey Road

My friends Elizabeth and James (the ones driving around the US for a travel blog) posted about a great little trappist abbey in Oregon’s Wine Country.  Seclusion and prayer on Abbey Road.  If you click on the link, you’ll be able to view an audio slide show as well.  This is a place that I’ve wanted to do a 30 Day Monastic Retreat at for some time.  I’m hoping to make it work sometime in the near future.  I’ve quoted her text below:

We pull into Our Lady of Guadalupe Trappist Abbey at 6 a.m., the modest grounds emerging from a thick fog at the edge of the long and desolate Abbey Road in Oregon’s Willamette Valley.

It is a black morning, but Father Martinus greets us with a cheery shake of the hands; we find out later that our guide was, and usually is, awake by 2.

The atmosphere on the grounds is deliberately cloistered. Among the monks’ many vows is silence, practiced at various intervals throughout the day. We slip quietly into the church behind Father Martinus and take our seats among the dozen laymen gathered for Mass.

We later learn that the name Trappist is derived from the Cistercian Abbey of La Trappe, whose monks took refuge in Switzerland in the late 1700s when the French Revolution suppressed all religious houses. Trappist monks have for centuries lived by a strict code of poverty and seclusion, as set out by the Rule of St. Benedict.

Here, on the outskirts of the tiny enclave of Carlton, is no different. One by one the monks fill the front of the church, their long white robes glowing in the dim flicker of candlelight. Some of the monks are so old they stand leaning forward, hunchbacked and frail. I wonder how well they can hear the Abbott as he leads the church in Mass. It is a somber scene.

After prayers we meet with Father Martinus and are introduced to a few of the monks. Most are too shy to be interviewed, but Father Martinus can barely contain his enthusiasm; he has been with this order in Carlton since it moved from New Mexico in 1955, and he is delighted to share his home. He is an exceptional storyteller with a gift for vivid scene-setting, and he translates brochures into several languages for the abbey.

Thirty-two monks inhabit this order, down from 60 in 1955. There is also typically a small number of retreatants, who can stay for as short as a day and as long as a month. Brother Paul, a graduate of Notre Dame, is among the youngest in his 30s, and Brother Clarence, who tends to the abbey’s forest, is among the oldest in his 80s. And yet age doesn’t seem to matter here; the men share such fundamental beliefs that they become united through their choices, not their experiences.

The day progresses slowly, a welcome change from the chaos of our last few days in Portland. Throughout the grounds the monks speak in near whispers. Their movements are deliberate. Their schedules are tight. Church bells chime with each passing hour, and the simplicity is disarming. We breathe the clean air deeply.

When we pull away from the monastery at noon, past the 1,000 acres of forest, the sky is a pale gray and flocks of birds form shifting patterns above us. We are only an hour outside of Portland on our first stop of the Pacific Northwest leg of our tour, and already we have happened upon a place that feels worlds away.

Permanent link to this article: https://www.rhinoblues.com/thoughts/2006/common-ties-seclusion-and-prayer-on-abbey-road/

Sep 14 2006

Common Ties

My neighbor Elizabeth and her twin brother James are about to set off on a journey around the United States.  They are doing this for a new website called Common Ties.  The website launched at noon today with the beginnings of their travel blog.  The site should evolve over the next few months as the site expands with their travels.

On Saturday they will depart in a biodiesel powered Jeep Liberty for the first leg of the journey.  This first leg will take them to unknown places in Oregon, Idaho, Utah and Washington.  On the site you can send them emails and help direct the journey.  It’s kinda like a traveling “This American Life.”

Anyway, check out the site if you get a chance. 

Permanent link to this article: https://www.rhinoblues.com/thoughts/2006/common-ties/

Sep 11 2006

five years later

I don’t really have much more to add to my earlier post regarding CNN’s re-airing of there footage from five years ago.  I did get up early and watch the replay.  The shock and confusion was definitely evident.  I’m still not sure whether this truely served as a memorial or if it was just publicity stunt by CNN.

One interesting thing I did see today, Google Video is hosting a collaborative documentary called “7 Days in September,” it is a little over an hour and a half long, though short clips are available.  This is a very powerful video, composed of a lot of self shot footage, definitely not the same stuff the news covered.  Check it out if you want.

Permanent link to this article: https://www.rhinoblues.com/thoughts/2006/five-years-later/

Sep 08 2006

tribute or exploitation

Splashed across the top of the CNN homepage is a banner stating: “CNN Pipeline presents CNN’s TV  coverage of 9/11/2001 free, in real time.  Starting at 8:30am.” (Read the CNN Release)

I’m not really sure what to make of this.  Part of me is disturbed that they are going to be re-airing this.  I wonder what the reasons are behind it.  Whether or not it will be used to exploit the public and continue the culture of fear that this administration likes to promote.

On the other hand, I think it is important for us to remember the events of that day.  To remember the courage of those who gave their lives to help try to save people trapped in the burning buildings.  To remember those who are still giving their lives because they helped despite the air being unsafe after the collapse.

I truly believe that Sept 11, 2001 will be one of the defining moments of my generation.  Much like the assinations of JFK and Martin Luther King Jr. were defining moments of my parents generation.  I feel that the American people rose up and did a wonderful thing in the days after the attacks.  But I also feel that the current administration has tarnished that legacy.  By continuing to promote a culture of fear, of war and of moral superiority, I feel we discount the courage and love so many people showed in the days after the attacks.

It really makes what happened in South Africa after the fall of apartheid all the more amazing when you think about it.  Here was a situation where a minority of people had been exploiting the majority population for years and years.  Yet when this situation finally came to an end, a few men had the courage and strength to stand up and say, “I forgive you.”  They worked for reconciliation and peace.

A quote from Thomas Merton’s The Seven Storey Mountain as Merton talks about Aldous Huxley’s Ends and Means:

The point of his title was this: we cannot use evil means to attain a good end.  Huxley’s chief argument was that we were using the means that precisely made good ends impossible to attain:  war, violence, reprisals, rapacity.  And he traced our impossibility to use the proper means to the fact that men were immersed in the material and animal urges of an element in their nature which was blind and crude and unspiritual. (Merton. 202-3)

One small glimpse of grace in our chaotic world.  Just imagine if we approached all our conflicts with a goal of reconciliation and peace.  With grace in our heart.  What a wonderful world that would be.

Permanent link to this article: https://www.rhinoblues.com/thoughts/2006/tribute-or-exploitation/