Angry America

The two big stories this week revolve around the leaking of classified national security information, whether it was deliberate or not, and the recall election in Wisconsin.

The "leak" is a perfect example of political asshattery. The argument revolves around whether this was a deliberate political move by the current administration. Senator McCain states that the leaks came from the "highest levels" at the White House and wants a independent investigation. President Obama says the accusations are offensive and wrong.

What the problem is with the debate, is that it doesn't discuss the information that was leaked. 

The real discussion should center on the use of drones itself. Right now we are working on developing drones the size of insects and birds. More of our weapons will be unmanned in the future, and it would seem that the discussion should center on the morality of their use. The power to kill from a distance with no immediate threat to one's life changes the whole game. What power that is. To inflict harm and terror to a populace while sitting in safety. Computers run drones, hackers run computers; there is so much that is, or could be, wrong here.

How about policing your own populace with this technology?  

Wisconsin's Governor Walker keeps his job for now. Outspending the democratic challenger eight to one, there wasn't much chance for the challenger. Some thoughts on the election claimed that what Walker and the republican party managed to do was build up resentment in the white blue collar worker vote against those who are better off than they. That and the fact that in Wisconsin's government there is a higher percentage of minorities in the workforce than in private jobs. Smaller government gets rid of the problem. Nice race card.

Voters are a fickle lot. Walker had a 58% disapproval rating, women were the target of anti-health laws and the state prosecutor is still looking at Walker for illegal activities. Still, the conservatives win. Some say it wasn't money, just good old divisive politics.

Everyone is the enemy.

This recall failure will effect politics this year. In Michigan, the recall effort for Governor Snyder was cancelled, due to lack of interest and not being able to build enthusiasm after Wisconsin's loss. 

The Presidential race has evolved into your basic slugfest. Every possible word that can be taken out of context is pounced on by the opposition. Every action, no matter how trivial, is exhorted into media headlines. 

Romney discusses what a poor leader Obama is, yet never lets us know any of his specific plans. What we know from recent statements is that Romney will repeal health care and will remove those awful subsidies. You might think that energy and agriculture to name a couple, would be his targets, but remember Romney is conservative. He would rather get rid of those awful art and amtrak subsidies; transportation and enjoyment are not on the list of approved benefactors.

Americans have failed to cultivate an intelligent democracy.

Planet Politics

Syria continues the onslaught on its own citizenry. On Thursday, United Nation monitors were not allowed access to the small town of Qubeir. When they were granted access on Friday they found scattered body parts and blood. Apparently the delayed access made it possible for a quick coverup. 

Brutal massacres are a part of Syria's history, and with Russia trying to maintain a foothold in the middle east, like China, nothing will be done to stop this horror. Another genocide because people do not matter to power. 

Egypt's runoff election will take place this coming weekend. Activists are planning to spoil their voting ballots in an effort to show whoever may win how many oppose the new ruler. Talk about not wanting a "military or religious fascist state" has met with some enthusiasm, but most of the problems deal with what is thought of as vote rigging in the May elections where those favored by the populace were tossed out of the final runoff. 

I don't think the civil unrest will stop after the election.

Iraq is still not enjoying civil unrest. at least 23 were killed by a car bomb on Monday, retaliation followed. Power sharing in ruling Iraq is the desire, so sunnis are killing shiites; if that makes any sense. Religion killing the religious. 

More good news in the constant killing department, the Azerbaijan-Armenia border is seeing some of the worst violence in years; we kill a few of yours, you kill a few of us. 

Britain celebrated the 60 year reign of the queen, and for some reason Americans love what they fought to escape. It's amazing how much time the media spends on this.

The Organization of American States is under attack by Bolivian President Evo Morales and Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa. They would like to reform the Human Rights Commission. Apparently the commission has identified those two with human rights abuses. Imagine that.

Puberty Police

The old and the new, starting with the old. 

In Michigan, a high school senior had sex with his freshman girlfriend. Age of consent is 16, he is now a sex offender. He received a one year prison sentence and three years of probation. After serving his sentence he resumed the relationship with the young lady that he loves, and received another five to fifteen years for violating his probation.

There seems to be a growing number of mothers who are not happy with the sex offender laws that make their sons and and daughters criminals for having consensual sex.

In St. Charles, MN, a graduation rehearsal at the local high school enjoyed some controversy. All of the seniors were given breathalyzer tests. In what appears to have been a trend for years now, school age children are taught that basic rights do not apply to them.

We go too far in the harassment of our country's youth. In Texas, Diane Tran spent a night in jail for missing too many days of school. Diane works two full time jobs since her parents had split and moved out of town. She is an honor student.

More and more teens are being charged as adults when it comes to crime.

Wicked Women

For some reason, women are the enemy.

This week the GOP house approved a Homeland Security spending bill. Weird included provision, no abortions for illegal immigrant detainees. According to Immigration officials, no abortions have ever been provided.

Why are women wicked? Apparently they are having abortions based on the sex of their child. The GOP controlled House failed to pass a bill that would make it a federal crime to abort a pregnancy because of a child's sex. They brought this bill up to attempt to switch the war on women theme that democrats have been using. Conservatives say the real war on women is allowing a fetus to be aborted based on the possible child being female. 

The Christian based groups are fighting back. Live Action, a supposed youth led pro-life movement, has video of a Planned Parenthood counselor dealing with a woman who only wants an abortion if the child is female. Of course the video is cut to make it look as bad as possible and we can't tell what really occurred unless we had the complete video.

Planned Parenthood fired the counselor, who they state was new. Others claim the video is a hack job.

The problem with sex based abortion bans is that it promotes racism. Since those occurrences happen in mostly Asian societies, Asians in the states would be looked at critically when wanting a legal procedure. Then there's the possibility of criminalizing doctors, since he's supposed to report any "hint" that it may be a sex based abortion or go to jail.

Though anecdotal, I have never heard of anyone being disappointed with the sex of a child in this country. I guess there may be some, but I don't see this as a major threat to women. 

God's Goofballs

Adriana found this gem. The same gentleman that burned a copy of the quran that set off three days of violence in Afghanistan has an effigy of President Obama hanging from a rope on the church's front lawn. The Secret Service will investigate, but since the gentleman in question is a man of god, I'm sure he'll be given a slap on the wrist at most. 

David Barton, the man who would rewrite American history in god's name, thinks that the poor are not spending enough time reading the bible. If they read the bible they would understand hard work. Interesting, another attempt to correlate god's blessings with wealth.

Tony Perkins is highly upset with this tourism video, it appears that somewhere in the video a man touches another. He says the video highlights same sex attractions. I say Tony is looking for some attention.

Education Enemies

One story stands out this week. Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant states that we should have prayer in school. That way we could let people know that there is a god, and let students know that that god cares about them. 

In Michigan religion is once again on the prowl. This weeks intrusion into education is a passed bill that is headed for the Governor's approval. Part of the bill states that a counselor's personal beliefs comes first, not the child needing guidance. 

Then there's this weird story. A teacher at Fresno's Hamilton School hands out an assignment that centers on the theme of drawing a "Help Wanted" poster for soldiers involved in the crusade. The winner's drawing is one of Jesus with a caption of "I want you to kill all the infidels." The drawing is posted in the main lobby where everyone sees it entering or leaving the building.

Final Fixation

Social networking sites attract different people with different agendas, and this one is no different. Twice we've had this REPORT CEENON blog posted on this site. I'm all for discussing new thoughts, but I have no use for a blog where comments are moderated. 

For me, this is like some preacher jumping on the site advocating whatever nonsense he believes in, and not allowing anyone to disagree. It should never be allowed. It infringes on the basic premise of a social network; one is not a network.

Only cowards moderate comments. They are afraid of critical thinking, of basic commentary, of questions that perhaps they can't answer.

May we say goodbye to the foolishness, or is this something our members want to see?