Posts Tagged ‘editorial’

We’re Not Being Told the Truth on Libya

Apr 11th, 11 / 0 Comments

Evans Liberal Politics
April 11, 2011

 

We’re Not Being Told the Truth on Libya

We’re Not Being Told the Truth on Libya, Common Dreams.org, originaly from The Independent (UK), April 1, 2011, by Johann Hari, used under Creative Commons 3.0 license, quoted verbatim:

Look at two other wars our government is currently deeply involved in – because they show that the claims made for this bombing campaign can’t be true

Most of us have a low feeling that we are not being told the real reasons for the war in Libya. David Cameron’s instinctive response to the Arab revolutions was to jump on a plane and tour the palaces of the region’s dictators selling them the most hi-tech weapons of repression available. Nicolas Sarkozy’s instinctive response to the Arab revolutions was to offer urgent aid to the Tunisian tyrant in crushing his people. Barack Obama’s instinctive response to the Arab revolutions was to refuse to trim the billions in aid going to Hosni Mubarak and his murderous secret police, and for his Vice-President to declare: “I would not refer to him as a dictator.”

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Yet now we are told that these people have turned into the armed wing of Amnesty International. They are bombing Libya because they can’t bear for innocent people to be tyrannised, by the tyrants they were arming and funding for years. As Obama put it: “Some nations may be able to turn a blind eye to atrocities in other countries. The United States of America is different”. There was a time, a decade ago, when I took this rhetoric at face value. But I can’t now. The best guide through this confusion is to look at two other wars our government is currently deeply involved in – because they show that the claims made for this bombing campaign can’t be true.

Imagine a distant leader killed more than 2,000 innocent people, and his military commanders responded to evidence that they were civilians by joking that the victims “were not the local men’s glee club”. Imagine one of the innocent survivors appeared on television, amid the body parts of his son and brother, and pleaded: “Please. We are human beings. Help us. Don’t let them do this.” Imagine that polling from the attacked country showed that 90 per cent of the people there said civilians were the main victims and they desperately wanted it to stop. Imagine there was then a huge natural flood, and the leader responded by ramping up the attacks. Imagine the country’s most respected democratic and liberal voices were warning that these attacks seriously risked causing the transfer of nuclear material to jihadi groups.
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Surely, if we meant what we say about Libya, we would be doing anything to stop such behaviour? Wouldn’t we be imposing a no-fly zone, or even invading?

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Yet, in this instance, we would have to be imposing a no-fly zone on our own governments. Since 2004, the US – with European support – has been sending unmanned robot-planes into Pakistan to illegally bomb its territory in precisely this way. Barack Obama has massively intensified this policy.

His administration claims they are killing al-Qa’ida. But there are several flaws in this argument. The intelligence guiding their bombs about who is actually a jihadi is so poor that, for six months, Nato held top-level negotiations with a man who claimed to be the head of the Taliban – only for him to later admit he was a random Pakistani grocer who knew nothing about the organisation. He just wanted some baksheesh. The US’s own former senior military advisers admit that even when the intel is accurate, for every one jihadi they kill, as many as 50 innocent people die. And almost everyone in Pakistan believes these attacks are actually increasing the number of jihadis, by making young men so angry at the killing of their families they queue to sign up.

The country’s leading nuclear scientist, Professor Pervez Hoodbhoy, warns me it is even more dangerous still. He says there is a significant danger that these attacks are spreading so much rage and hatred through the country that it materially increases the chances of the people guarding the country’s nuclear weapons smuggling fissile material out to jihadi groups.

So one of the country’s best writers, Fatima Bhutto, tells me: “In Pakistan, when we hear Obama’s rhetoric on Libya, we can only laugh. If he was worried about the pointless massacre of innocent civilians, there would be an easy first step for him: stop doing it yourself, in my country.”

The war in the Congo is the deadliest war since Adolf Hitler marched across Europe. When I reported on it, I saw the worst things I could have ever conceived of: armies of drugged and mutilated children, women who had been gang-raped and shot in the vagina. Over five million people have been killed so far – and the trail of blood runs directly to your mobile phone and mine.

The major UN investigation into the war explained how it happened. They said bluntly and factually that “armies of business” had invaded Congo to pillage its resources and sell them to the knowing West. The most valuable loot is coltan, which is used to make the metal in our mobile phones and games consoles and laptops. The “armies of business” fought and killed to control the mines and send it to us. The UN listed some of the major Western corporations fuelling this trade, and said if they were stopped, it would largely end the war.

Last year, after a decade, the US finally passed legislation that was – in theory, at least – supposed to deal with this. As I explain in the forthcoming BBC Radio 4 programme 4Thought, it outlined an entirely voluntary system to trace who was buying coltan and other conflict minerals from the mass murderers, and so driving the war. (There are plenty of other places we can get coltan from, although it’s slightly more expensive.) The State Department was asked to draw up some kind of punishment for transgressors, and given 140 days to do it.

Now the deadline has passed. What’s the punishment? It turns out the State Department didn’t have the time or inclination to draft anything. Maybe it was too busy preparing to bomb Libya, because – obviously – it can’t tolerate the killing of innocent people. (Britain and other European countries have been exactly the same.) Here was a chance to stop the worst violence against civilians in the world that didn’t require any bombs, or violence of our own. If the rhetoric about Libya was sincere, this was a no-brainer. It would only cost a few corporations some money – and they refuse to do it. So the worst war since 1945 goes on.

This all went unreported. By contrast, when the Congolese government recently nationalized a mine belonging to US and British corporations, there was a fire-burst of fury in the press. You can kill five million people and we’ll politely look away; but take away the property of rich people, and we get really angry.

Doesn’t this cast a different light on the Libya debate? We are pushed every day by the media to look at the (usually very real) abuses by our country’s enemies and ask: “What can we do?” We are almost never prompted to look at the equally real and equally huge abuses by our own country, its allies and its corporations – which we have much more control over – and ask the same question.

So the good and decent impulse of ordinary people – to protect their fellow human beings – is manipulated. If you are interested in human rights only when it tells you a comforting story about your nation’s power, then you are not really interested in human rights at all.

David Cameron says “just because we can’t intervene everywhere, doesn’t mean we shouldn’t intervene somewhere.” But this misses the point. While “we” are intervening to cause horrific harm to civilians in much of the world, it’s plainly false to claim to be driven by a desire to prevent other people behaving very like us.

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You could argue that our governments are clearly not driven by humanitarian concerns, but their intervention in Libya did stop a massacre in Ben Gazhi, so we should support it anyway. I understand this argument, which some people I admire have made, and I wrestled with it. It is an argument that you should, in effect, ride the beast of NATO power if it slays other beasts that were about to eat innocent people. This was the argument I made in 2003 about Iraq – that the Bush administration had malign motives, but it would have the positive effect of toppling a horrific dictator, so we should support it. I think almost everyone can see now why this was a disastrous – and, in the end, shameful – argument.

Why? Because any coincidental humanitarian gain in the short term will be eclipsed as soon as the local population clash with the real reason for the war. Then our governments will back their renewed vicious repression – just as the US and Britain did in Iraq, with a policy of effectively sanctioning the resumption of torture when the population became uppity and objected to the occupation.

So why are our governments really bombing Libya? We won’t know for sure until the declassified documents come out many years from now. But Bill Richardson, the former US energy secretary who served as US ambassador to the UN, is probably right when he says: “There’s another interest, and that’s energy… Libya is among the 10 top oil producers in the world. You can almost say that the gas prices in the US going up have probably happened because of a stoppage of Libyan oil production… So this is not an insignificant country, and I think our involvement is justified.”

For the first time in more than 60 years, Western control over the world’s biggest pots of oil was being rocked by a series of revolutions our governments couldn’t control. The most plausible explanation is that this is a way of asserting raw Western power, and trying to arrange the fallout in our favour. But if you are still convinced our governments are acting for humanitarian reasons, I’ve got a round-trip plane ticket for you to some rubble in Pakistan and Congo. The people there would love to hear your argument.

© 2011 Independent/UK

Johann Hari is a columnist for the London Independent. He has reported from Iraq, Israel/Palestine, the Congo, the Central African Republic, Venezuela, Peru and the US, and his journalism has appeared in publications all over the world.

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What’s in a Name? – Party Labels as Representative of the American Political Experience

Oct 6th, 10 / 0 Comments

Evans Liberal Politics
October 6, 2010

 

What’s in a Name? – Party Labels
as Representative of the American Political Experience


A lighthearted look at political party names and what is really representative of America today.

Evans Liberal Politics, October 6, 2010, by Jim Evans:

I think it’s time for a Party expert to weigh in on the whole new Party scene happening in America. On the one hand, I have worked in advertising, marketing and now as a political consultant for quite a few years. On the other side of things, having attended Ohio University — one of the premier party schools in America — I consider myself to have a better perspective than most on this situation. As I am also a Patriot, it therefore is my duty to share with America deeper insights into the Possibilities of Potential Third Parties.

American Politics, 2010 Edition:

First off, let’s examine the whole concept of The Tea Party.

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Unless you are a four year old girl with a plastic china set, the Tea Party label really shouldn’t excite you. Seriously — Tea? Isn’t anyone familiar with the phrase “Tea Totalers”? It’s a phrase used to indicate the exact opposite of a Party, in a different sense of the word. And, increasingly with every Christine O’Donnell press release I see, it also accurately describes what people like her would do to our country if we let them run it — Total it. As in a wreck that is too expensive to fix. But one thing for sure — these people are proving that no Tea Party is complete without some nutty fruitcakes.

The Coffee Party sounds attractive at first, but when I visualize the local Starbucks, and see bug-eyed, over-caffeinated people with no jobs, using wi-fi and chatting on Facebook about how they have no money, I think — of course you have no money! You don’t have a job and you are buying $5 coffee! And then it occurs to me — simply on the principle of more experience in deficit spending, plus the embracing of internet technology, The Coffee Party wins out over the Tea Party as being more qualified to run our government.

But is that really a good Party? Maybe if you graduated from Miami of Ohio. But for an Ohio U. guy — the kind who tells his Ohio State friends “I’m sorry about the beating Ohio gave you guys Saturday (of course, I’m talking about the mascots, not the football game” — the answer is No, that’s not a good party.

So let’s get serious. What we really need is The Reefer Party.

See if you can follow my logic, here.

The t-shirts would be cooler, because they would be tie-dye. There wouldn’t be any mad rantings about hating classes of people — the rally cry would be more like “I love you, dude!” And the economic recovery plan could be solely based on increased Dorito sales.

Plus, if we had some whack job who couldn’t pronounce an Iranian leader’s name, or thought they could see Russia from their doorstep, we would simply say, “How good is their stash?”

It might result in more teenage pregnancies. The candidates might lose track of their train of thought mid-sentence, and rely on a catch phrase to bail them out — like, I don’t know, maybe “you betcha!” Wait, that’s already in use by Tea Party types…. Oh, well.

The Reefer Party — they might make claims that are totally off the wall, and cave in completely under the pressure of sober interviews meant to judge intelligence, character and competency. That’s to be expected from stoners.

OMG — I think Sarah Palin has already invented this Party! Maybe I missed something. Maybe she really represents The THC Party.

That new Party would, however, face a stiff challenge from The Tequila Party.

Not surprisingly, this Party would have a solid Mexican immigration plan. A little salt on the hand, a twist of lime, and everyone does a shot. Whoever gets the worm gets citizenship.

That might work in the Southwest, but in the Heartland, I see a strong uprising from The Beer Party.

This Party would naturally be fond of Pork — preferably a nice grilled sausage with brown mustard. Conventions would be held in the parking lots of pro football games. And instead of loyalty oaths, only breathalyzers would be required.

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It all sounds good for the common man, but the rich amongst us will want something different.

They will want The Costume Party.

Everyone will wear masks. No one will be able to see the ‘real you’– only the image you want to promote to the public. If you don’t dress up right, you won’t be let into the festivities. And of course, it is ‘invitation only’.

Kind of like our rulers want Washington to be right now, if you think about it. But do we even need a new “Costume Party?” We already have the GOP, right?

I know– it seems like I’m not taking the problems of our country seriously, at all. It seems like I am abandoning any pretense of dealing with reality.

What I am really abandoning is the joke that is American politics in 2010.

Let’s face it– the Democratic and Republican parties seem like they are just two puppets on the same billionaires’ hands. Like Punch and Judy, only in this play, it’s the public that gets whacked.

It takes one million Americans making $50,000 a year to make one Bill Gates. One member of the Walton family. Hell, it takes one thousand Oprahs to make one of them.

We spend over $30,000 a year to put people in prison. 90% of them wouldn’t be in that situation if we gave them a job making that much. And the super rich in this country think that only they should be able to have health care– or to put it more bluntly, it seems they want the poor to just die.

But we keep voting for the same two Parties that got us here.

It really brings a whole new meaning to the phrase ‘Party Crashing’, doesn’t it?

Because that’s what all these Parties seem to want to do to our country, our lives and our futures. America has been made into a nation of, by and for the rich.

In reality, though, the most accurate description of how the American public deals with politics could only be expressed by yet another new group label. Most Americans really seem to have their heads in the sand in regards to what established parties are doing to us and our once-proud nation. Only one label can truly capture our apathy, and our willingness to be ruled, and devastated, by our rich overlords:

The Slumber Party.

Evans Liberal Politics would like to welcome Jim Evans on board our team as a new contributor. Jim has worked as a political consultant since 2006 and before that worked in advertising and marketing. He has a rock album out in the band Ten of Clubs called "Sleight of Hand" that is really good. He is currently writing a novel to be titled "Agent 42-7". Visit Jim’s media-marketing website called Evans-Creations.com. You are invited to visit Jim on Facebook. Email Jim, here.

If you are interested in posting material as an author on Evans Liberal Politics and are serious about liberalism and changing the status quo in America, please feel encouraged to email Paul Evans.

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31 Percent Unemployment is What I Think Of When I Hear the Expression ‘Compassionate Convervatism’

Sep 6th, 10 / 13 Comments

Evans Liberal Politics
September 5, 2010

 

31 Percent Unemployment is What I Think Of
When I Hear the Expression ‘Compassionate Convervatism’

 

Investment in American Workers and American Jobs:
Chances Are It’s Not Going to Happen

 

Evans Liberal Politics, September 6, 2010, Commentary by Evans Liberal Politics owner Paul Evans:

What the CEO’s and big business are doing now is really shameful.

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Companies are sitting on a record amount of money (capital from profits at their disposal in record amounts), which they could reinvest in workers and jobs and new equipment, but the business leaders have all decided that would not make them as much money as downsizing until America starts buying again. It’s more profitable now to invest in Chinese and Indian plants and workers and ship the items overseas, where we American’s buy all the plastic crap from Wal*Mart, than it is to have American workers make products.

The main reason we are stuck in the Great Recession for the indefinite future is that America — and here I mean the middle class, or what used to pass for it — CANNOT start buying again until the economic climate improves and workers again can get hired and find better jobs. A quarter of our homes are "under water" and many of the rest of them have debt attached to them, and we have no sources left to tap into for cash to even think about buying luxuries any more. Most of us are barely getting by, if that. The unemployment rate a few months ago for Americans making less than $20,000 a year stood at 31 percent, and it isn’t getting any better anytime soon, folks. Of COURSE we aren’t buying goods! No buying power until the economy improves.

So it’s a vicious cycle, but it’s the business community’s greed that is the problem. (Business profits are actually up, as are CEO salaries, big time.) If the American business community would just use its huge amounts of ready cash and INVEST in American workers and American jobs, EVERYONE would do better, including American businesses. But they will not do this although it is an easy option for them. What investment IS taking place is happening overseas, where Ford and GM, for example, are investing heavily in Chinese plants. American workers want to have a decent life, have expectations of a decent lifestyle, and cost more than Chinese workers, even when you factor in the shipping costs.

The Republican business community speaks of the need to deregulate business and industry so it can again be profitable. If you want to be sick to your stomach, just look at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s page on what they want for so-called "regulatory reform". If you want to see what deregulation and corruption about it did under Bush and Cheney in the oil and gas industry (leading directly to the BP oil spill disaster), read Cheney’s Culture of Deregulation and Corruption, AP on the Center for American Progress, June 9, 2010. The claim is that only once the business community stands deregulated and free to act as irresponsibly as they wish, can the economic climate improve.

This is a huge LIE. Business is very profitable now, Wall Street is doing fine, and profits were up in 2009. (This is actually a big part of the problem. The bailout worked fine for Wall Street and big business, but why should Wall Street or Exxon care if we American workers suffer while profits are good?) Americans have this silly thing called the American dream and workers make three, four and five times what Chinese and Indian workers make. It seems obvious that only if government steps in and makes the tax and economic climate favorable for investment IN AMERICA, for American workers and American jobs, can a true economic recovery take place. The only ways to do this involve government intervention and changes to the tax code. In other words, REGULATING business and forcing it to invest in America. The chances for that now seem to be slim to none.

31 percent unemployment for the poor and greed like this is what I think of when someone speaks of "compassionate conservatism." Let’s face it folk, the business community is pretty thoroughly Republican, and it is their greed and failure to care at ALL what happens to Americans and how much we suffer, which is at fault for all this. ~ Paul Evans

See Surfing in Style through the Great Recession, Campaign for America’s Future on Evans Liberal Politics, September 6, 2010, by Sam Pizzigati: Business Executives Slash Jobs to Win Higher Pay, Promotions.

See Yves Smith’s Op-Ed On Myopic Corporate Greed In Today’s NYT, Daily Kos on Evans Liberal Politics, July 6, 2010, by Bob Swern.

See 1938 in 2010, The New York Times, September 5, 2010, by Paul Krugman, excerpt quoted verbatim:

Even under F.D.R., there was never the political will to do what was needed to end the Great Depression; its eventual resolution came essentially by accident.

I had hoped that we would do better this time. But it turns out that politicians and economists alike have spent decades unlearning the lessons of the 1930s, and are determined to repeat all the old mistakes. And it’s slightly sickening to realize that the big winners in the midterm elections are likely to be the very people who first got us into this mess, then did everything in their power to block action to get us out. Emphasis added

But always remember: this slump can be cured. All it will take is a little bit of intellectual clarity, and a lot of political will. Here’s hoping we find those virtues in the not too distant future.

small thumbnail photo of Paul Krugman serves as a link for his 2007 talk, Income Inequality and the Middle Class "Income Inequality and the Middle Class:" Paul Krugman explains to us that income equality is made or unmade by the political climate, not circumstances. – 7:15

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Truthout Articles Celebrating Labor Day:


See The Face of Labor in the Streets (Photo Essay), Truthout, September 6, 2010, by David Bacon.

See Trumka: Most Crucial Election in 75 Years, Truthout, September 6, 2010, by Dick Meister.

See Poor Labor Day Gets No Respect. It’s the Rodney Dangerfield of Holidays., Buzzflash Blog, September 5, 2010, by Will Durst.

Also See Social Security and Medicare Don’t Make Hard Times, Military Spending and Tax Cuts for the Rich Do, Buzzflash Blog, September 6, 2010, by BuzzFlash.

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What It’s Like to Be Down and Out in America

Aug 28th, 10 / 39 Comments

Evans Liberal Politics
August 28, 2010

 

What It’s Like
to Be Down and Out In America

 

Inherent Worth and Dignity?

 

Commentary and Editorial by Evans Liberal Politics owner Paul Evans: In my opinion the “semi-rich” Chamber of Commerce businessmen are the worst in their arrogance about pulling yourself up by your bootstraps. They really believe in this two-tier society where people are born equal, but then you have to be born into wealth or somehow distinguish yourself to be equal later on in life. They have a name for this idea. It is part and parcel of the whole "family values" framework, but, even more, it is part of the Doctrine of "American exceptionalism." Various expressions which permeate American society today come to mind: "Rugged Individualism." "Pull yourselves up by your bootstraps." "Root hog or die." And the whole debate about welfare and cutting Social Security benefits or Medicare and the mess about extending unemployment benefits. It’s all part of the whole right wing framing which has successfully captured the heart and mind of America, especially for conservatives.

Prigs like George Will especially reek of this. For these people, privilege and a blind belief in the goodness of capitalism have blinded them to the ideals I grew up with as a child, that we are all equal before God and also among men. These people truly feel that some of us are more equal than others.

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In the Unitarian-Universalist church I used to go to – I go to a United Church of Christ these days – we used to have a set of Principles we really try to live by. The First Principle is the "inherent worth and dignity of every person." That has always seemed to me to be my favorite idea and is one of the main things I keep in mind as I live my life.

But when you’re down and out for real in this world, it’s amazing how your friends don’t want to know you anymore. I’m not ashamed to say I’ve "been down and out", and that I know what it’s like to actually be hungry. I don’t think rich businessmen can possibly understand this. People who have money simply don’t know what the experience of not "having ANY money" in our society is like. Maybe, as comedian George Carlin said, the time (seriously) has come for the government to take open land like golf courses and build some low-income, subsidized housing there. I don’t have that problem, I have a place to live, thank God, but I personally know people who have lived in homeless shelters, and I know what it’s like to have absolutely zero dollars that I can put my hands on.

Damn, sometimes I don’t know where people’s compassion goes. You have friends, and they see that you have nothing, and that you are in need, but they may see that you don’t have any apparent way out of your situation. So somehow this justifies in their minds not helping you — even when they are "good friends," longstanding friends, and they have plenty of money, and could easily help. I don’t get it. Why do your friends melt away and disown you when you are down and out?

To me, in such a situation, compassion – Christian compassion or even common decency — should trump any logic, and I know that I would give a person I knew not well at all, enough money to get by for a while if I had it. I know because I have done that. With friends, relative strangers and complete strangers I know not at all. No questions asked. Am I missing something here? Does a penniless person have no inherent worth and dignity? Are they rubbish to be avoided and discarded? Are we even a Christian society or do we live by moral and ethical principles as a nation, if we can permit such a thing as homelessness in our backyard, or in our nation?

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I’m interviewing for jobs like crazy, and so are my two housemates. The American Dream can sometimes come down to a question of just finding some way to survive for many of us. And I don’t think well off people can understand that experience — at all. People who work minimum wage jobs come close to getting it. Wal*Mart workers. Burger King workers. But in all honesty — and having really "been there" — (down and out I mean), I don’t think that even most of my own friends really understand what it’s like. With a few exceptions. I don’t think you can “get it” until you’ve been there.

Do you understand what it’s like to go months with zero money after the tenth or fifteenth of the month — or not at all? No money for basic necessities like soap and food for your dog, not to mention yourself? Do you really? I don’t think even my liberal friends get this at all. Certainly the "root hog or die" mentality of American capitalists and businessmen (and right wingers) would kind of fall apart if they knew what it was like to not have money to buy any gas for your car. Maybe they’d "get it" then.

Maybe if they had to live hand to mouth for a few months, selling off their possessions to get just a little gas money and a little food to eat — or to buy some soap and laundry detergent and some food for your dog. Maybe then they’d "get it". Getting a few cents on the dollar for possessions you always enjoyed having but having to sell your best stuff just to exist. Selling prized possessions that you know you are unlikely to ever be able to afford to buy again. And sometimes not being able to sell anything because in this economy everyone who is poor is trying to sell off their stuff and no one is buying the stuff at stores.

I’m not bitter AT ALL and I have a good positive attitude about my life, and about America. For me it basically happened after I had about $3,500 worth of fraud and bogus overdraft fees on my PNC bank account. Plus my father, who is my only living close relative, had to go permanently into a nursing home in January. Medicare only pays for two months of physical therapy, and that therapy is the basis for ALL these health insurance policies paying for a nursing home stay. So be forewarned if you have elderly parents. So my Dad uses up his money and has to go on Medicaid to pay for his stay at the nursing home. Well the law in these United States is that the moment a person applies for Medicaid, all access to that person’s funds is completely cut off. Even for family members. So I soon found myself basically penniless, on disability and desperately looking for a job. With a history — but no current symptoms at all — of mental illness, my parents had protected me by keeping me at home and out of the whole job/employment situation. They had great intentions, but now my sister and mother are deceased and my father can’t help me at all and I am desperately scrambling to get a decent job so that I can just survive. I live in Dad’s home, which thankfully has no mortgage, but with all access to his funds cut off, I have to pay for all the upkeep here, the electricity, repairs on the old house, repairs to my car, internet, phone — you know the drill. Believe me, I am really motivated to find work.

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I don’t want anyone to get the wrong idea here. I’m not trying to sound a negative tone at all with this story. I’m Very thankful for my life, all my many friends, and all the blessings I have enjoyed. I’ve lived a very good life, I’ve been blessed with a wonderful, caring and relatively well off family, most of my life, and my life is still great. I have nothing but great memories plus kindness and caring in my heart, and I’m a happy person. But I need a job! I set out to explain to people what it’s like to be down and out in America today, and that was my main goal in this article. But please don’t get the idea that I’m not grateful, happy or even content. I love people, and I love our wonderful country and all its many blessings. My life has been very good to me and I feel very lucky to have known many wonderful people, to have had such great parents, to have known many good times, to have been blessed with a great education, and I am a very loving happy person. But if the spirit moves you, please send this article to an employer who needs a skilled, educated and motivated worker, won’t you?

Don’t forget that unemployment is running at an official 31 percent for those making $20,000 a year or less. That doesn’t count the underemployed, those who want to work full time but are working part time, and those who have given up and quit looking. Thirty-one percent. Five job seekers for every job, and new jobs for the less skilled almost impossible to get unless you are young, and you have a job now. And try getting a job if you are disabled or have been out of the work force for a while or have a criminal conviction. It’s almost impossible right now. (I guess you heard that a lot of companies right now are not hiring you if you are unemployed. That’s one of their declared criteria — you have to have a job to get a job with them.) But it’s really amazing how your friends don’t want to have anything to do with you and some of them won’t return your calls, when they are aware you are going to ask them for help. It’s really true — "Nobody wants to know you when you’re down and out."

Please try to understand the dimensions of poverty and need in the world today. One billion people in the world today lack access even to readily available clean drinking water.

I think everyone under the age of 35 in America should have to serve in some kind of mandatory service that would teach them how to appreciate the experience of living with very little — I know Obama is trying to do that with his AmeriCorps. and other programs. But poverty is really hard for the rich, or anyone, to understand unless you’ve been there. Maybe if everyone had to "do" a year of service, living in extremely modest circumstances, no exceptions, then they’d understand, and maybe then a little progressive legislation could make its way through Congress. And God, wouldn’t it be great if even well intentioned legislation were actually progressive? You savvy, white man?

It would be easy for people to miss the main point that I am really trying to make with this article. I am not just pouring my heart out, oh poor sad me, telling my tale of woe. I wrote a lot of detail about what it’s like to be down and out in America, not for any sympathy, although I do have some hopes that someone might pass this on to just the right employer. No, I wanted people who are relatively well off to really get, deep down, what it’s like to be down and out. But why? Certainly not to make my friends feel bad, or for sympathy, or even primarily in hopes of getting a job.

It is because I wanted us to realize that ALL OF US have this "inherent worth and dignity," that everyone is a worthwhile person. Everyone. Every one. I perhaps hoped that we might approach those less fortunate than we are with a more caring, and also generous heart. Not just materially. Just don’t avoid really poor people. Treat them like they’re just as good as you, just as valuable, and just as good of a potential friend.

Are We a Compassionate People?


I believe that we must be a CARING society, and I think that crucial attribute has been falling away from the American culture, and that as a people we are too focused on material possessions and "the good life." We are supposed to be a Christian nation, but we avoid the poor, and we avoid really caring for them as a nation in the way we should. I believe we must be our brother’s keeper if we are to lead moral and ethical — or Christian — lives.

Before he ascended into heaven, Jesus asked Peter if he loved him. Peter replied, "Lord, you know I love you." And Jesus’ response was, "Feed my sheep." This was repeated a few times, and it is the last thing Jesus had to say to us…. You know what a caring life Jesus led, and that his whole life represented the essence of caring and compassion. I ask you, in your heart of hearts, do you really think Jesus is talking here only about our spiritual needs when he said, almost as a dare or a command to Peter, "feed my sheep?" You know, in your heart, that Jesus meant this both spiritually and materially. Jesus wasn’t a hypocrite. Are we as a nation going to be a truly caring society? Or are we going to concentrate on wealth and power as our focus? I feel that we need to concentrate a LOT more on being a caring society….as Jesus wished.

That’s the reason I wrote this article. I don’t make any money off of Evans Liberal Politics. The only reason I spend hours and hours working on this website is in hopes that, in some small way, I might influence even a few people to live more caring, compassionate lives. And if I were to die tomorrow, I’d be satisfied, and happy, because lately I’ve said and done everything I can to help people along. ~ Paul Evans

May God Bless You, each and every one of you.

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My wonderful friend, Fonda Lorenz, helped me tie together the various strands and get to the essence of what I tried to say with this article.

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GOP Blank Check for War?

Aug 4th, 10 / 4 Comments

Evans Liberal Politics
August 4, 2010

 

GOP Blank Check for War?

 

GOP Blank Check for War?, Human Events, August 3, 2010, by Patrick Buchanan, quoted verbatim in the public interest:

High among the blunders of history was the “blank cheque” Kaiser Wilhelm gave Vienna, after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand (in 1914), to deal with the Serbs as they saw fit.

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Five weeks later, Vienna cashed the check and declared war, after Belgrade refused to submit to all 10 demands of an ultimatum. Russia mobilized; Germany and France followed. And war came, the bloodiest in all of European history with 9 million soldiers in their graves.

Since June 1914, a “blank check” given by one nation to another for war has been regarded as strategic folly.

Thus it is startling to learn 47 House Republicans just signed on to H.R. 1553 declaring unequivocal “support for Israel’s right to use all means necessary to confront and eliminate nuclear threats posed by Iran … including the use of military force.”

These Republicans have just given Tel Aviv a blank check for a pre-emptive war that Israel, unless it uses its nuclear weapons, can start but not finish. Fighting and finishing that war would fall to the armed forces of the United States.

Who do these Republicans represent?

The Pentagon has made clear that with two wars of nearly a decade’s duration bleeding us, we do not want a third war with Iran. For while easy to predict how such a war begins, with air and missile strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities, no one can know how it ends.

Indeed, how would Israel reach its targets in Iran?

Turkey would not allow Israeli over-flights. The route over Jordan and Iraq would require U.S. military complicity, for we control Iraqi air space. Would Riyadh permit Israel to use its airspace to attack Iran, knowing Tehran could create havoc in the Gulf states and oil patch of northeastern Arabia?

The Israeli air force could destroy the nuclear power plant at Bushehr, the heavy water reactor at Arak and uranium enrichment facility at Natanz. But Israel cannot follow up and destroy all the dispersed nuclear facilities and missile sites of Iran. And no one knows what would follow.

How would Iran retaliate? Missile strikes on Tel Aviv? A missile barrage form Hezbollah igniting another Israeli-Lebanon war? How long could the United States stand by and watch Israel bombarded?

Indeed, the principal purpose and result of an Israeli pre-emptive war on Iran, bringing retaliation on Israel, would be to drag America in to fight and finish a war Israel had begun.

In whose interest is that? And who dreamed this resolution up?

If America joined the attack, we would have to complete the destruction of Iran’s nuclear facilities and destroy its missile sites, coastal defenses, navy, air force and hundreds of speedboats to prevent attacks on U.S. warships and tankers transiting the Strait of Hormuz.

We would have to strike all the Republican Guard bases near Iraq and Afghanistan to protect our troops. We would have to kill thousands of Iranians.

Would Iran retaliate by inciting the Mahdi Army to kill our men in Iraq? Would it set Hezbollah to kidnap or kill Americans in Lebanon? Would Iran retaliate for its civilian dead by activating agents to commit terrorism in the United States? No one knows.

In 1986, Ronald Reagan ordered air strikes on Libya to retaliate for Qaddafi’s bombing of the Berlin discotheque. In 1989, in retaliation, Qaddafi blew up Pan Am 103. Death toll: 270 men, women and children. It’s called blowback.

The House Republican resolution supports Israel’s use of “all means necessary” to “eliminate nuclear threats” that represent an “immediate and existential threat to the State of Israel.”

What “immediate and existential threat” are they talking about?

It is Israel that has hundreds of atomic bombs. Iran has no atom bombs, has tested no atomic device, has diverted none of its low-enriched uranium out of the sight of U.N. inspectors and has offered to ship half of its LEU to Turkey in exchange for fuel rods for a U.S.-built reactor that makes medical isotopes. And half of the centrifuges at Natanz have broken down.

Undeniably, Iran is gaining knowledge of how to build a bomb. But such a decision would seem idiotic from Iran’s standpoint, risking Israeli or U.S. nuclear strikes and provoking Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Egypt to follow suit and acquire the bomb, leaving Iran even more isolated and vulnerable.

Three years ago, 16 U.S. intelligence agencies reached a consensus that Iran had given up on the project of building a bomb. Do these Republicans have hard evidence Iran is diverting its enriched uranium to such a bomb? If so, where is it?

Have these Republicans forgotten what happened to their colleagues in 2006, who voted Bush that blank check for war on Iraq in 2002?

Why, with all the issues going for them, House Republicans would announce full-throated support for a pre-emptive war on Iran that Americans would have to fight and finish, escapes me.

But if this is where a Republican House would take America, into yet another war, best that we know it before voting this fall.

Mr. Buchanan is a nationally syndicated columnist and author of Churchill, Hitler, and “The Unnecessary War”: How Britain Lost Its Empire and the West Lost the World, “The Death of the West,” “The Great Betrayal,” “A Republic, Not an Empire” and “Where the Right Went Wrong.”

Comment by Paul Evans: by the way, the number of deaths in World War I was 16 million dead, with 21 million wounded. A war with Iran could turn out similarly.

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This and That: Sunday New and Opinion Update

Jul 25th, 10 / 17 Comments

Evans Liberal Politics
July 25, 2010

 

This and That:
Sunday News and Opinion Update

 

Evans Liberal Politics, Sunday, July 25, 2010, by Paul Evans

 

Tony Hayward to Quit BP

 

Tony Hayward to Quite BP, Guardian.co.uk, July 25, 2010, by Terry Macalister, excerpt quoted verbatim:

Beleaguered oil firm chief executive to be replaced by Gulf of Mexico clean-up chief Bob Dudley

BP is planning to announce the departure of chief executive Tony Hayward alongside its half-year financial results on Tuesday.

The BP boss will be replaced by Bob Dudley, who is currently overseeing the oil spill operation in the Gulf of Mexico.

The exit of Hayward, who has been vilified by American politicians since the 20 April blowout on the Deepwater Horizon rig, is the second dramatic change of leadership at BP in less than four years. Lord Browne, Hayward’s predecessor, left the oil group after a spat with the then chairman, Peter Sutherland, and a sinking of the share price after the Texas City refinery fire.

Hayward, 52, is today locked in meetings with the rest of the BP board about the final details of his financial leaving package, but he is expected to go under basic contractual terms. That means a one year’s £1m pay package but a giant pension pot of over £10m, capable of paying out more than half a million pounds a year from the formal retirement age of 60.

Get with the New Public Option!

 

Schakowsky: Want to cut the deficit? Get with our new public option:

The Raw Story, July 25, 2010, by Sahil Kapur:

LAS VEGAS – Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) said Saturday that serious deficit hawks ought to get behind a new “robust” public option bill that she and more than a hundred other members introduced days ago.

In an interview with Raw Story at the Netroots Nation conference, Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) predicted that a new “focus on deficit reduction” and rising public distrust of the insurance industry would generate stronger support for it among members of Congress.

“We’ve seen the cost [savings], and we’ve seen the behavior of the insurance companies,” she said. “I think that really puts a new atmosphere on the prospects for a new public option.”

Unveiled last Thursday by Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-CA), Schakowsky, and more than 120 co-sponsors, the measure would give consumers a choice between private and public health insurance plans in the new law’s exchanges. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office projects that it would cut the deficit by $68 billion between 2014 an 2020.

See Grijalva: Deficit hawks against public option are ‘hypocrites,’ ‘phonies’, The Raw Story, July 25, 2010, by Sahil Kapur, excerpt quoted verbatim:

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LAS VEGAS – Progressive caucus co-chair Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ) on Saturday issued an ultimatum to opponents of a public option who invoke deficit concerns: get behind this program, or you’re hypocrites.

In an exclusive interview with Raw Story at Netroots Nation, a large conference for progressive activists and media, Grijalva lamented how “one of the most important mechanisms [to cut the deficit] was left out of the [health reform] bill.”

Fear of Freedom, N.Y. Times Editorial, July 25, 2010, by N.Y. Times:

The Obama administration should not deliver Guantánamo prisoners to governments that have a record of torture and lawlessness, like Algeria.

“Rubicon”: Eerie portrait of “Top Secret America”, Salon, July 24, 2010, by Heather Havrilesky: AMC’s stylish drama about a powerful intelligence contractor isn’t pure fantasy, according to the Washington Post.

Please Give: Help Charities Working in the Gulf, American Express and Takepart.

How Charlie Rangel Can Survive, Salon, July 23, 2010, by Steve Kornacki.

We’re Not Winning. It’s Not Worth It, Newsweek, July 18, 2010, by Richard N. Haass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations, excerpt quoted verbatim:

GOP chairman Michael Steele was blasted by fellow Republicans recently for describing Afghanistan as “a war of Obama’s choosing,” and suggesting that the United States would fail there as had many other outside powers. Some critics berated Steele for his pessimism, others for getting his facts wrong, given that President George W. Bush ordered the invasion of Afghanistan soon after 9/11. But Steele’s critics are the ones who are wrong: the RNC chair was more correct than not on the substance of his statement, if not the politics.

The war being waged by the United States in Afghanistan today is fundamentally different and more ambitious than anything carried out by the Bush administration. Afghanistan is very much Barack Obama’s war of choice, a point that the president underscored recently by picking Gen. David Petraeus to lead an intensified counterinsurgency effort there. After nearly nine years of war, however, continued or increased U.S. involvement in Afghanistan isn’t likely to yield lasting improvements that would be commensurate in any way with the investment of American blood and treasure. It is time to scale down our ambitions there and both reduce and redirect what we do.

Thrown to the Wolves, The New York Times, Editorial, July 23, 2010, by Bob Herbert, excerpt quoted verbatim:

The Shirley Sherrod story tells us so much about ourselves, and none of it is pretty. The most obvious and shameful fact is that the Obama administration, which runs from race issues the way thoroughbreds bolt from the starting gate, did not offer this woman anything resembling fair or respectful treatment before firing and publicly humiliating her.

Moving with the swiftness of fanatics on a hanging jury, big shots in the administration and Bill O’Reilly of Fox News came to exactly the same conclusion: Shirley Sherrod had to go — immediately! No time for facts. No time for justice.

Comment: I have see other editorials to the effect that, given that Ms. Sherrod ultimately got some kind of justice in the affair and was reinstated to a position in the Agriculture Dept., that overall the whole drama represents a victory in the battle for fair race relation. Admittedly the initial response was, as Herbert suggests, all wrong. ~ Evans Liberal Politics owner Paul Evans.

Watch CNN Anchors Call For Crackdown on Bloggers, CNN YouTube video — 5:51 All about anonymous bloggers and the case of Shirley Sherrod’s smear.

Addicted to Bush, The New York Times, Editorial, July 22, 2010, by Paul Krugman, excerpt quoted verbatim:

For a couple of years, it was the love that dared not speak his name. In 2008, Republican candidates hardly ever mentioned the president still sitting in the White House. After the election, the G.O.P. did its best to shout down all talk about how we got into the mess we’re in, insisting that we needed to look forward, not back. And many in the news media played along, acting as if it was somehow uncouth for Democrats even to mention the Bush era and its legacy.

The truth, however, is that the only problem Republicans ever had with George W. Bush was his low approval rating. They always loved his policies and his governing style — and they want them back. In recent weeks, G.O.P. leaders have come out for a complete return to the Bush agenda, including tax breaks for the rich and financial deregulation. They’ve even resurrected the plan to cut future Social Security benefits.

Also see the latest Krugman column: Chocolate and Copper, The New York Times, July 25, 2010, by Paul Krugman.

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Shameful: Pentagon workers tied to child porn, Boston.com, July 23, 2010, by Brian Bender, with video, excerpt quoted verbatim:

WASHINGTON — Federal investigators have identified several dozen Pentagon officials and contractors with high-level security clearances who allegedly purchased and downloaded child pornography, including an undisclosed number who used their government computers to obtain the illegal material, according to investigative reports.

The investigations have included employees of the National Security Agency, the National Reconnaissance Office, and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency — which deal with some of the most sensitive work in intelligence and defense — among other organizations within the Defense Department.

Also see First year stands out for Sotomayor on Supreme Court, Boston.com, July 25, 2010, by Robert Barnes, excerpt quoted verbatim:

WASHINGTON — Several partygoers were on their way into the Supreme Court one Saturday evening in May to toast retiring Justice John Paul Stevens when they ran into Justice Sonia Sotomayor. She was not heading to the festivities, but coming from her chambers, where she had put in a weekend shift.

She looked neither tired nor overwhelmed by her new responsibilities, one of the partygoers noticed. “She was beaming.’’

In some ways, Sotomayor’s just-finished first term on the court was like those of many who have come before her: She worked constantly, turned down interview requests and most speaking engagements, wrote unglamorous and largely noncontroversial opinions, and was ideologically true to the president who appointed her. She voted with Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg more than any other colleague on the court.

In the news: Three Spaniards file charges over Israel flotilla raid, BBC News, July 23, 2010, by BBC, excerpt quoted verbatim:

Two Spanish activists and a journalist arrested in a raid by Israel on a Gaza-bound flotilla are filing charges against Israel’s prime minister.

The three accuse Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu, six cabinet ministers and the navy commander of illegal detention, torture and deportation.

The UN has meanwhile named a team of experts to investigate the raid.

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Singing Into the Fan – June 27, 2010

Jun 26th, 10 / 2 Comments

Evans Liberal Politics
June 27, 2010

 

Singing Into the Fan
June 27, 2010

 

Singing Into the Fan, Evans Liberal Politics, June 27, 2010, original post from June 24, 2010, by guest columnist Cary Curtis, used with permission, quoted verbatim:

I have a lot of thinking and feeling going on, and I’m not sure how to make it all come out neatly. Let me start with the easy part.

We have a 6 year old black Labrador retriever named Robin. In recent years, she has become increasingly distressed by approaching thunderstorms. We can tell there’s a storm coming when Robin hides in our closet, partially under J’s clothes. Generally, I close the blinds, give her a cookie, and leave her alone in there.

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While talking with our vet early this week, I learned that there is a thing called a Thundershirt for dogs. The very stretchy material wraps securely around the dog like a sweater, hitting all the right spots for creating feelings of security. Yesterday, we had two big storms, and Robin proved that the Thundershirt works like magic. How we enjoyed seeing her walking around us wagging instead of in the closet hiding.

OK. Here’s the hard part: Where’s MY Thundershirt? Where is yours? We are “living in interesting times”, to quote the old Chinese curse, and nothing feels secure any more. There’s war, famine, pestilence and death aplenty. The Gulf spill is back at full volume, and there is a fear that it may not be possible at all to stop it. There’s no guarantee that the relief wells will shut off the spate of toxic chemicals, when they are finally finished. And as the picture gets bleaker by the day, a judge rules against the moratorium on new offshore drilling; and BP plows ahead with Alaskan offshore drilling. Oh, wait. BP has built a little “island” of gravel and dirt on which they will plunk the well. That way, they can say it is not OFFshore. Aha.

In the HBO documentary, “Gasland”, we learn that large companies in pursuit of plentiful natural gas deposits make loaded contracts with landowners, leaving them helpless when their water wells are destroyed by leaking gas and chemicals. People and animals are sick and dying. Homeowners can light the water coming out of their faucets with cigarette lighters. The chemicals in the water are identified as coming from the gas well companies, and yet, the companies do not stop the drilling, nor do they provide help to their victims. They hide behind loopholes and refuse to see.

In Congress, Republicans and Democrat Ben Nelson have sabotaged the effort to extend unemployment benefits in this economic wasteland. In justifying their opinions, they refer to the unemployed in libelous terms and imply that ensuring their emergency security only leads to their continuing to breed more indigent brats.

In my neighborhood, this evening, the officers of our electric co-op preened their fine feathers by bragging that they have managed to get hold of lots of fossil fuels and can hold out till 2025 against new government plans for energy policy. These people, who advertise their virtues in their mini-bios – several teach Bible study classes and Sunday school – chant their relief that they have been able to help to stop Congressional work on Cap and Trade. 2000 people who are part of this co-op nod their heads knowingly, humbly grateful that they will not have to pay more for their company’s polluting. Without looking dissenters in the eyes, they say that, of course they believe in doing one’s best to clean up the planet, as long as THEY aren’t fined for doing so.

I long to rise from my seat and say loudly to all of them, “Wait! What would Jesus do?” If ever “good” people needed to be faced with walking their talk, it is now.

I watch the deterioration of ethical behavior in my country, and I cry out for my Thundershirt. I am afraid.

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Singing Into the Fan

Jun 16th, 10 / 6 Comments

Evans Liberal Politics
June 16, 2010

 

Singing Into the Fan

 

Singing Into the Fan, Evans Liberal Politics, June 16, 2010, by guest columnist Cary Curtis, used with permission, quoted verbatim:

Big week for family gatherings. Two times, we were with our Weinroth family branch. Granddaughter had a piano recital and then a dance/gymnastics recital. The second one was best because our son was able to join the family. Just out of the hospital, he says he is tired and he looks it. Work days are often abnormally long. It was good to see him eat and relax for just a bit.

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The grandchildren continue to amaze us with their insightfulness and creativity. They will surely help to keep us young. Grandson’s special performances yesterday included rolling his tongue in a way that no one else could do, and bending this thumbs and index fingers ‘way back without pushing them. Well, OK!

Our time with the family has been precious for many reasons. They’re wonderful, we’re wonderful, and put together, we’re all stupendous, of course. But more than that, these times underscore the value of family love and the growth possible for all in our mutual validation and support. We are a network and sometimes, the only place in which to rest when one is weary. We feed one another in respect and kindness.

I contemplate these REAL family values when I look outward toward my universal family. As such, this family includes the decision makers of Halliburton, BP, et al and their shocking inability to see clearly the impact of their choices on beauty, security, all living things, the perfection of Nature when left in peace to do its work. Their ethical and moral blindness is not a facade–they really DON’T see!

I think of the behaviors of these “relatives” of ours in business, and how, in forgetting who they truly are, they dishonor themselves and the rest of us. Building high risk structures out in the ocean, using shoddy equipment and inept labor. Financing exploration of the technology of building oil rigs while forgetting the financial necessity of creating emergency responses. Making noises about how sorry they are, like a remorseful drunk the morning after, knowing that they will not make one change more than is necessary to be forgiven for the moment. Keeping away from the site those who would measure and report the situation to the rest of the world. Trying to cut deals with the government, with the people of the Gulf, with the Press, with public opinion. And the deals look cheap and shoddy when compared with the true costs of their mistakes.

Each subsequent move shows how out of touch they are, how they are conniving to get themselves out of trouble any way they can… any way, that is, but the honorable way. With each misstep, they prove their insincerity yet again.

They’ve killed some of the family through negligence, and not just this time. They are bludgeoning others – the people of the Gulf and their work, the brown pelican, the sea turtle, the ocean, and the essential protection of the Delta wetlands among them. Some of our family, still alive and suffering, will follow the dead. The perpetrators will not acknowledge their culpability or see themselves as part of the interconnected web of all life, because to do so would cause them pain, emotional as well as financial. At this point, the pain remains the sole property of the victims and those who bear witness to their misery.

There has been a split in the family that cannot be healed until all the money and power seekers, from coal mine owners to bank/security companies; from those who cheat us of safe, decent food in their quests to “own” farming and food marketing to polluting oil companies; from the IMF and the World Bank who have held countries captive in their poverty to businesses that work their employees literally to exhaustion; till ALL who seek to profit at the expense of others find their souls again. Till they remember that WE ARE A FAMILY.

*****

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