More On Iran

Author: FourMajor
Date: 2007-09-27

I didn’t have time to find the full text of the bill, but here is another probably scary bill that just passed the House of Representatives 397-16, with 19 not voting:
H R 1400 – Iran Counter-Proliferation Act of 2007 – To enhance United States diplomatic efforts with respect to Iran by imposing additional economic sanctions against Iran, and for other purposes.

I call it scary because of the short description and because of who were among those who voted against it: John Conyers, Barbara Lee, and Ron Paul. Kucinich was a no-show, but I am guessing he would have voted no as well.

Update: Well, at least they threw this part in there: “Nothing in this Act shall be construed as authorizing the use of force or the use of the United States Armed Forces against Iran.” And here’s the full text.

Blackwater

Author: FourMajor
Date: 2007-09-19

A couple days ago, the mercenary company Blackwater was at the center of a rather large incident in Iraq allegedly involving a dozen or two dead Iraqi civilians. There are conflicting reports, depending on who you want to believe, from the US State Department, the Iraqi government, and eyewitnesses at the scene. Some say the Blackwater employees were fired on first, some say they were responding to an exploded bomb, some say the bomb was too far away for that to be the reason, some say that it was because a civilian car (mother and child) ignored an order from police to stop and was slowing moving into the intersection, prompting the firefight. I have my preferences on who and what to believe, you have yours.

In the end, it doesn’t matter. What it all boils down to is that the Iraqi government has ordered Blackwater out of Iraq. It’s their country, so it should be up to them, no? Evidently not. The US government and Blackwater are basically saying that the Iraqi government has no jurisdiction to kick Blackwater out. I think this is really going to blow up into a much larger issue than it already is.

Imagine if an Iraqi mercenary group were in Washington D.C. protecting Iraqi officials, and they were ordered out of the country by the US government and refused. Imagine the uproar that would ensue. Fortunately for the US government, we get what we want and those folks would be out of here and/or imprisoned faster than you can say quagmire.

For some really great entertainment, listen to or watch yesterday’s Democracy Now. Blackwater expert Jeremy Scahill has a debate, about halfway through the show, with a security/mercenary firm trade group representative. For some decent reading on the issue, I found today’s NY Times article to be quite good (page A12, or I am guessing on their website).

For Once, I Agree With Bush

Author: FourMajor
Date: 2007-08-22

Of course, actions speak louder than words, but this is the strongest I have agreed with Bush’s words in a LONG time:

…when asked about Mr. Levin’s assertion that the Iraqi Parliament should oust Mr. Maliki, the president’s answer — with its implicit lack of an endorsement — spoke volumes. “That’s up to the Iraqis to make that decision,” Mr. Bush said, “not American politicians.”

Source: Bush Takes a Step Away From Maliki – NY Times

Mercenary War

Author: FourMajor
Date: 2007-08-13

From CounterPunch, Jeremy Scahill, author of Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army, writes:

If you think the U.S. has only 160,000 troops in Iraq, think again.

With almost no congressional oversight and even less public awareness, the Bush administration has more than doubled the size of the U.S. occupation through the use of private war companies.

There are now almost 200,000 private “contractors” deployed in Iraq by Washington. This means that U.S. military forces in Iraq are now outsized by a coalition of billing corporations whose actions go largely unmonitored and whose crimes are virtually unpunished.

Read the full article.

San Francisco Mayoral Race

Author: FourMajor
Date: 2007-08-10

The 2007 San Francisco mayoral race will officially suck. Gavin Newsom is running for reelection and he doesn’t have any serious challengers. Matt Gonzales has announced he will not seek the office and Chris Daly has decided again that he will not run.

Now, I am not a huge Newsom hater. Actually I’d say that overall I approve of the job he is doing. But if Gonzales or Daly were running, I’d probably vote for one of those two. Also any way you look at it, especially with the city’s instant runoff voting, more choices are better. Right now the most serious contenders are Josh Wolf, the previously jailed journalist/blogger whose platform includes making San Francisco sovereign, and Chicken John, some performer/artsy type guy whose platform seems to mostly consist of “if we just make more art all of our problems will go away.”

I guess there’s always 2011 for an exciting mayoral race…

Democracy Now!

Author: FourMajor
Date: 2007-07-10

The past two days has brought two great segments of Democracy Now.

Yesterday, they aired a segment they did with Ralph Nader in June at a conference called “Taming the Giant Corporation”. I think I am starting to realize that Nader is my man for domestic policy and Chomsky is my man for foreign policy and high-level analysis. Anyway, it is really amazing to see that at 73 years old, Ralph Nader has not lost any of his spunk, his ability to retain information, and his quick off-the-cuff speaking. Here is a snippet from the interview that really hit home with me (emphasis mine):

AMY GOODMAN: How do you think mass movements should organize themselves and hold politicians accountable, make them more accountable to citizen, civilian, non-citizen movements than corporations?

RALPH NADER: Well, let’s start with the easy things, like half of democracy is showing up. So why don’t workers who have lost their jobs or their pensions to industries that have gone to communist China with US Department of Commerce subsidy and encouragement, why don’t they mass and rally? I mean, who’s keeping them from rallying and massing? American Idol? Is that what’s doing it? I mean, let’s stop making excuses for ourselves. Let’s take the farmers, the dwindling number of farmers. They have great important causes that mesh with environmental causes at times, and the whole issue of genetic engineering and the dispossession of the small family farm by the big suppliers corporations and the big buying corporations. Why don’t they come to Washington, the way they did twenty years ago with their tractors? Show up!

I have found that to be so true the past couple of months. In my efforts to get some sort of meaningful global warming group going in the city, I’ve found lots of interested people but almost no one that is even willing to click on a link to RSVP for an event. This is a huge problem.

You can view the full transcript of the Nader segment here and the full show in video here.

And today, another great show. They dedicated most of the show to the Jena Six, an extremely disturbing and ongoing story of unbelievable racism going on in Louisiana. You can view the full transcript here and the full video here.

Enjoy.

Supreme Court Ages

Author: FourMajor
Date: 2007-07-02

The Supreme Court has been in the news a lot recently. This has prompted me to check them out on Wikipedia. A bit disappointing for a flaming liberal like myself are the ages of the justices and how they align with their record on progressive causes. The justices, sorted in order of descending age, with their political leanings, below.

Stevens, 87, liberal
Ginsburg, 74, liberal
Scalia, 71, conservative
Kennedy, 70, moderate
Breyer, 68, liberal
Souter, 67, liberal
Thomas, 59, conservative
Alito, 57, conservative
Roberts, 52, conservative

So the three youngest are conservative. The two oldest are liberal. I just hope someone decent gets into the White House in case one of these old fogies croaks. Imagine Giuliani getting elected and Stevens biting the dust. I am sure he’d appoint another conservative like Roberts. Then it would be 5 vs. 3 vs. 1. But I am pretty sure the House and Senate are still going to end up Democrat and the presidency will go to a Democrat. I guess the question then becomes…even if it is a Democrat, is that going to do us any good. I feel very confident in Edwards and Obama doing the right thing, and somewhat confident in Clinton doing the right thing. She may be a war monger but I don’t see her screwing up the Supreme Court for some reason.