In one of the the most blatant blows ever to the American political system, Republican senator Tom Cotton (the man that said "Gitmo has too many empty beds"), and his 46 Neoconservative cronies did a dangerous, illegal, and plain scummy thing on Tuesday. They signed an 'open letter' to the government of Iran, undermining much of the Obama administrations efforts towards a peaceful solution regarding the Iranian nuclear debate. The letter stated that any deal that Iran has currently with the United States could and likely will be struck down in 2016 when Obama leaves office. I am not even much of an Obama fan, but this infuriates me almost as much as the NSA prism scandal does, because it is a major act of defiance towards our countries political system. If they can get away with that, what is to stop them from destroying future progressive change, simply by telling the people "It doesn't matter what you achieve, because when we are back in power, we will simply repeal it." That is a dangerous precedent to set. It effectively destroys the little remaining power that the people have over what our government does.
I think I can speak for the majority of America when I say that we are sick of war. ISIS is the result of over a decade of bad American war policy. While most Americans seem to understand that, our government does not seem to care. They are fully aware that ISIS is our own Frankenstein monster, and that's the way it was intended to unfold. A permanent war economy cannot thrive without war... Iran has been a favourite card of the Neocons, and they have had it under their sleeves since before 9/11. Apparently they won't fold without a fight.
We, the (majority of) the People, are not interested in starting a war with Iran. If a peaceful solution to this stupid age-old argument can be reached, than take it! We may never have another chance! Does anyone remember that Nixon secretly undermined a deal that the United Nations had in place to end the Vietnam war? Nixon effectively signed 1.5 million people's death warrants by destroying that deal, and the same thing could happen to the Iranian people if we let these radical right winger hard-liners get away with this. Not only that, but it makes our government look even more like nothing but a bunch of idiots.
One of the oldest laws in this country, the Logan Act of 1799, states:
“Any citizen of the United States, wherever he may be, who, without
authority of the United States, directly or indirectly commences or
carries on any correspondence or intercourse with any foreign government
or any officer or agent thereof, with intent to influence the measures
or conduct of any foreign government or of any officer or agent thereof,
in relation to any disputes or controversies with the United States, or
to defeat the measures of the United States, shall be fined under this
title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both.”
Just because that's an old law, does not make it null and void. Our constition is about 33 years older than that, and it is still the most important document written to date. So, I'd like to see these morons prosecuted.
Although this will probably never happen (hate to be the pessimist, but shouldn't Darth Cheney be in jail by now?), over the last day over 192,000
people have signed this petition to prosecute the 47 traitor Republicans. I'd like you to sign it as well, and share it on Facebook, Twitter, or whatever your social media platform of choice is.
Putting these Neocons in jail for a couple years may just buy us enough time to save our country from the insanity of the ultra-right-wing, fascist, warmongering, and evil government that has been infiltrating every part of this great country since post World War II. Did you know that 85% of the world considers the United States the greatest threat to world peace? Is that the kind of country you want to live in? Is that the country that my Grandfather nearly died defending during WWII? Fuck no. You still have a voice. So let's make them scream.
Wednesday, March 11, 2015
Sunday, March 1, 2015
The Internet Will Live
I'd like to clarify my opinion on the recent net neutrality victory. Despite some concerns, I do consider this a very good thing. In my previous post, I simply wanted to put on the radar that just because the FCC has sided with the people, it does not mean that the battle is over with. We must now make sure the FCC does what we asked them to do.
Over one year ago, when I became involved in the net neutrality debate, prospects seemed grim. Despite successful uprisings like the one against SOPA and PIPA, I admit that I did not expect that the people would win this time around. Corporations like Google, Facebook, and Netflix had not yet made apparent their stand, and it looked like it was the common man versus the wealthy ISP conglomerates. Nobody wanted the internet interfered with, even if they did not know there was a plot in the works yet. But it was not until president Obama addressed the issue and took a stand, urging the FCC to adopt 'the strongest possible net neutrality laws', that most Americans became fully aware of what was happening. This is the greatest thing that Obama has ever done, in my opinion. He may be able to salvage his legacy based on this one accomplishment alone. I do mean it when I say: Well done, Mr President.
In the following days, millions of pubic comments were filed with the FCC, and we even managed to overload and crash their servers once or twice because so many people took action. Ted Cruz even stepped into the debate, surprising nobody when he took the opposite stance, calling the situation "Obamcare for the internet." Whatever, America will never have a shortage of bigot idiots and a lack of empathy, and to Ted's credit, he did manage to give the story more press. He also managed to turn his ignorant hardliner-republican view into political poison with his remark. That's the only credit I will ever give that guy, for anything.
I am truly happy that so many became involved, and the net neutrality victory has restored some of my faith in our legal system. It is always a relief when the peoples will is respected.
Despite my paranoid nature and cynical views of government intention, I do believe that government is a necessary force at times. Under-regulated multi-billion dollar industries have wrecked havoc on the peoples of the Earth before, most recently and notably in the years preceding the stock market crash of 2008. The ISP business certainty appears to be another entity that needs oversight. Until this epic battle for the net, I absolutely detested the Federal Government, and never wanted anything from them except to go away and let the states do what they want. US drug policy, both domestic and abroad would be my first reason for the distrust and contempt I hold toward that institution. Foreign policy and the American war machine are two others.
But the battle is not over yet. It will never end. Freedom requires pro-activity and vigilance to infinity. Government does have a tendency to destroy whatever it touches, and this can only be mitigated by pressure from the people whom they work for. After all, we are the ones who put them where they are. We are also the ones who decide if they will stay in power. So question everything.
We all deserve some celebration, let's just not forget that freedom requires indefinate effort to maintain. There will always be those whom wish to take your freedom away for profit. So good job America, now stay vigilant!
Over one year ago, when I became involved in the net neutrality debate, prospects seemed grim. Despite successful uprisings like the one against SOPA and PIPA, I admit that I did not expect that the people would win this time around. Corporations like Google, Facebook, and Netflix had not yet made apparent their stand, and it looked like it was the common man versus the wealthy ISP conglomerates. Nobody wanted the internet interfered with, even if they did not know there was a plot in the works yet. But it was not until president Obama addressed the issue and took a stand, urging the FCC to adopt 'the strongest possible net neutrality laws', that most Americans became fully aware of what was happening. This is the greatest thing that Obama has ever done, in my opinion. He may be able to salvage his legacy based on this one accomplishment alone. I do mean it when I say: Well done, Mr President.
In the following days, millions of pubic comments were filed with the FCC, and we even managed to overload and crash their servers once or twice because so many people took action. Ted Cruz even stepped into the debate, surprising nobody when he took the opposite stance, calling the situation "Obamcare for the internet." Whatever, America will never have a shortage of bigot idiots and a lack of empathy, and to Ted's credit, he did manage to give the story more press. He also managed to turn his ignorant hardliner-republican view into political poison with his remark. That's the only credit I will ever give that guy, for anything.
I am truly happy that so many became involved, and the net neutrality victory has restored some of my faith in our legal system. It is always a relief when the peoples will is respected.
Despite my paranoid nature and cynical views of government intention, I do believe that government is a necessary force at times. Under-regulated multi-billion dollar industries have wrecked havoc on the peoples of the Earth before, most recently and notably in the years preceding the stock market crash of 2008. The ISP business certainty appears to be another entity that needs oversight. Until this epic battle for the net, I absolutely detested the Federal Government, and never wanted anything from them except to go away and let the states do what they want. US drug policy, both domestic and abroad would be my first reason for the distrust and contempt I hold toward that institution. Foreign policy and the American war machine are two others.
But the battle is not over yet. It will never end. Freedom requires pro-activity and vigilance to infinity. Government does have a tendency to destroy whatever it touches, and this can only be mitigated by pressure from the people whom they work for. After all, we are the ones who put them where they are. We are also the ones who decide if they will stay in power. So question everything.
We all deserve some celebration, let's just not forget that freedom requires indefinate effort to maintain. There will always be those whom wish to take your freedom away for profit. So good job America, now stay vigilant!
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