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—————————————————————————————————————————————————— The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA)  passed through both houses and was recently signed by President Obama. The Act allots $662 billion, “for the defense of the United States.”  This defense involves military health care costs, counter-terrorism, military modernization, as well as establishing economic sanctions against Iran and refocusing the strategic goals of NATO towards energy security. The part that is being hotly opposed is the counter-terrorism part and it’s detainee laws.

The entire Bill can be read if you copy and paste the link below.  Careful, there is also some really graphic stuff about sexual misconduct.  Scroll down to sections 1031 and 1032 to read specifically about the new detainee information.  

http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BILLS-112s1867pcs/pdf/BILLS-112s1867pcs.pdf

The military is required, through the passing of this law, to detain those thought to be tied with al Qaeda.  “ For foreign nationals accused of being members of Al Qaeda, military detention is mandatory; for U.S. citizens, it is optional. This section does not exempt U.S citizens from the presidential power of military detention: only from the requirement of military detention.”

The death of Anwar al-Awlaki involved a decision made by President Obama to kill an American citizen without a trial.  There was much discussion about the legal aspects of killing an American citizen accused of being an al Qaeda operative.   Doctrines and previous supreme court judgements deemed it permissable to kill him if capturing him was not feasible.  Another American named Sam Khan was also killed but was not targeted.  He was “collateral damage”.  Mr Khan’s family is petitioning a law suit.   Awlaki and Khan were killed by a missile strike in Yemen.  The Yemeni government secretly gave permission to the United States military to do so.  This secret permission was revealed by wikileaks. 

So there are sound reasons congress and the President might seek the ability to detain, capture or kill persons tied with al Qaeda.  They would like to be able to stop people like Awlaki before the bomb gets on the flight to Detroit or the car bomb is discovered in a SUV in Times Square.  They would like to be able to detain people like Awlaki who are plotting, but are currently protected by the rights of being an American. They want to take these people out before they take more innocent lives.  This is a good thing eh?

The concern is that this ability will be abused.  Where will the definition of al Qaeda activity begin and end?  If I wrote a book or a magazine highlighting stories about people who enjoy Taliban rule would I be considered an al Qaeda loyalist and therefore a terrorist?  Would I be an enemy of the state if I wrote such a story?  Does anyone enjoy the Taliban’s rules? –> why?   My sitting here in my American home writing my free American thoughts, could I be deemed supporting terrorism?  Could I be detained? 

This is the concern of many Americans.  Does this new law take it too far?  The President should be concerned about taking a life especially an American life without first considering whether the information he’s been given is factual and not just hateful.  Awlaki probably needed to be dead and I think the President made a good decision as did the Yemeni government in assisting that decision.  Maybe the Yemeni government wanted him dead, maybe the arms dealers wanted him dead, maybe the oil barons wanted him dead?

If  we let the dirty deeds of the bad guys destroy our free American life then the bad guys win.

The United States government pays companies to build tanks and jets to provide security and to protect the nation from bad guys.  But if the government pays a corporation to build solar panels, high speed rail, or windmills to provide energy independence  (which is a better source of security) than it is called socialist government intervention or “Big Government”.   Why isn’t it called socialist government intervention for us to subsidize the building of war machines?

Socialism is when the state owns the tank building company.  Capitalism is when the tank building company is owned by the corporation.  Subsidizing is when the state pays the corporation to build the tanks.  We have been doing this subsidizing for years.  The Federal Reserve loves it and so do the folks who build the tanks and especially those who own the tank building company.

Everybody is happy until the state says it would rather subsidize high speed rail.  The tank builder doesn’t know how to build high speed trains and therefore shouts SOCIALISM.  Corporate backed media gets on TV news and separates us.  Before you know it Americans are telling other Americans to leave the country if they’d rather have trains then tanks.

Did you know Tanks are only useful for war?  Tank builders therefore need war.  Good tanks protect our soldiers.  So here we are gladly subsidizing tank building to protect our sons.

Why can’t we also subsidize weapons of peace that contribute to energy independence?  Things like high speed rail, and Renewables.  Things that keep the planet clean and alive, and we get to live out our 70 to 80 years in peace?  Unfortunately, some people just don’t get peace.  Maybe a nice long clean peaceful life is just too boring to be enduring.

So what happened to President Obama?

I knew we weren’t going to get much out of him re: the environment, it wasn’t high on his agenda.  I didn’t like his plan to expand oil drilling but I liked him getting our troops out of Iraq and providing health care.  I didn’t think he deserved the Nobel Peace Prize, but, I do like that the rest of the world seems to have a better view of us, because of him.  I guess when you get placed too high on a pedestal you fall hard and fast.  What has he done, or not done to make you so angry?

People who support our cool, private and formal President are up against a loud unified “tea-party”  Conservatives vs Liberals — one accusing the other of not staying on top of the facts. I’m glad our Liberal forefathers fought for our National Parks System, Medicare, Federal Highways, banning nuclear testing,  clean air and water, public schools, religious freedom, and being able to sit anywhere on the bus we want regardless of our skin color.  I am very grateful they stood up and fought the hard fight to provide these wonderful American ways of life for us.

Who were they fighting?  Who didn’t want these things?  Most people simply hate and fear the unknown.  There is no evil motivation. If you show them a plan for a better way they fight it, dealing with what they know is easier then figuring out a better way.   That thinking was manipulated by the powerful money handlers who were profiting from the unregulated timber industry or cheap child labor in factories.  Factory owners lobbied against mandatory education and the timber industry didn’t want National Parks.

Just like now, Corporate interests don’t want public healthcare available to all Americans and have convinced many Americans that the government is going to kill grandma and infiltrate their personal lives with this crazy healthcare for all scheme.  If healthcare was to become available to all Americans then  some  innovative Americans would go out and open a small business not needing corporate insurance benefits anymore. They don’t want that.

What did out conservative forefathers achieve for us?

Ronald Reagan played a big part in the USSR breaking apart and losing it’s power.  George HW Bush had a short successful war.  Nixon brought our troops home from Vietnam and re-opened trade with China — some may say China trade wasn’t such a good thing, because before that we made our own toasters and jeans.   Conservatives are pro-life and Christian.  They don’t like government intervention, they prefer corporate rule.  They refer to Liberals as elitists, I’m not sure where that came from.

As for me, I was raised in a Republican, military, Methodist, household.  My father hated “All in the Family” and he loved Nixon.  I remember sadness and tears in my household when Nixon resigned.  He said the presidency always involves covert happenings that the public has no business knowing.  In my mind, that, is big government and from that time on I silently went my own direction to find truths.  Nixon was big government and I think we should be much more afraid of his kind than of Obama.

Conservatives don’t like “Obamanomics” stimulus and infrastructure and all Americans having health insurance;  too costly. I say we need to work together to get jobs back in America.  Small business needs to prosper.  Corporate growth needs to stop being the impetus.  “Improving stockholder profits” needs to stop being our battle cry.  Americans need to move back into main street and open their hardware stores and butcher shops and make glassware in their small factories on the edge of town.  Stop hating and start coming up with solutions.  Yelling, table pounding, hate-filled accusations are  just counter productive exchanges of air

Stuff made in China is cheaper than American made stuff (for the most part) because the Chinese have little kids making it.  They don’t have rules.  No 40 hour work week with overtime.  No  clean air and water rules,  their factories pollute at will.  They don’t have a strong liberal front fighting for them.

We need to change our buying habits away from Target and Wal-Mart (unless they start stocking the shelves with American made products) and go back to main street.  Obama didn’t create this mess, I’m not sure he is doing everything right to fix it, but, I am sure it can’t be fixed without our participation.

The Swiss bankers and the Roman Catholic Church were complicit in the Nazi regime. These were not terrible people. They were normal people. They closed their eyes to evil or justified it, for the sake of peace or gain or national loyalty. I sometimes wonder (and fear) whether I would have done the same if I had been in that society at that time. It is so easy not to see, not to hear, not to understand, when one’s own peace or prosperity is involved. There have been times, after all, when I have allowed blatantly racist statements to pass unchallenged in the name of good manners, or of just keeping the peace. For so little of one’s soul, or at least a little piece of it, is on the auction block.”

The Reverend Kathleen Damewood Korb

Certain persons in the media have made mephistophelian bargains for power and fame using fear and greed as their catalyst.  A few of them have marketed themselves as chosen.  Chosen to teach us what God wants us to do.  People blindly believe their utterances and it is becoming impossible to sit idly by or “close my eyes for the sake of peace”.

“Never talk politics or religion at the dinner table.”  Adhering to that rule makes for a peaceful dinner especially among friends and family with differing political values.  Once the plates are cleared and the wine and chocolates or coffee and cheesecake starts a few fists have pounded the table. There are times when we need to discuss and debate, to provide the other side of a point. Informing ourselves, sharing what we’ve learned removes animosity and hatred and misunderstanding.  Not talking at all, not sharing likes and dislikes is only useful for augmenting paranoia. 

It is always important to challenge hate; challenge it’s source and find it’s solution. When you don’t like the way things are, there is always a chance for a different outcome.  Our conversations need to look at all sides and possible outcomes. Are we better off doing nothing vs doing things differently?

When fists are pounding or all capital letters are being typed, chances are a point is being made.  Hopefully the point is to liberate us from hate

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Soldiers going off to wars to die for some cause.  What a strange world we have created.  We get feelings of pride and gratification or at least a feeling of safety from their sacrifices.  I wish we had a world where, no one ever has to endure the impending doom soldiers in war face everyday. I hate the idea of someone dying for my safety.  I wish extremists of every form would just bring it down a notch.  Go hug a baby or something.  Back off the medication or take more — or something.

Being good is insurance for when you’re dumb — Alexis Ohanian

“Don’t be Evil” — Google

There is evidence that a student of Aristotle noticed and documented how human activities disrupted the climate back in 300 BC. Now, I’m not sure how anyone is sure about what was said in 300 BC, but, I am sure that my fifth grade teacher taught us (many years ago) how human activity disrupts the climate.

I wasn’t a student as long ago as Aristotle, but, science has recognized and studied the problem for long enough. My weekly reader explained the effects burning coal and petroleum has on the atmosphere. I was apparently dismayed by this information because I remember it vividly. I remember feeling worried.

In 1965 U.S. President Lyndon Johnson told Congress: “This generation has altered the composition of the atmosphere on a global scale through…a steady increase in carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels.”

We know that this planet is pretty small as far as planets go and extremely unique as far as being inhabitable. Since we know good planets are hard to find, you would think the world would find that taking care of this one is much more important than pretty much anything else. Why then would senators boycott a meeting designed to protect the climate of our planet.

We heeded the advice of British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher after she explained to the United Nations: “The problem of global climate change is one that affects us all and action will only be effective if it is taken at the international level. It is no good squabbling over who is responsible or who should pay;” The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was created in 1995.   They concluded that humans are causing global warming, saying: “the balance of evidence suggests a discernible human influence on global climate.”

The world is finally deciding we need to do something and our senators are boycotting meetings. Why!!

The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee tried to overcome a Republican boycott of a major climate bill. Only one Republican senator even showed up for the meeting, and he stayed just long enough to ask for a five-week delay and more study. (I won’t go as far back as Aristotle, but, it’s been studied) Senator Bernie Sanders lamented the obstruction tactics by what he called “the party of no.” The stalling strategy has so far blocked action on critical issues ranging from health care to global warming. The country, Sanders added, has gone from electing a new president one year ago whose uplifting promise was “yes we can” to the spectacle of a small but stubborn rump group of senators whose motto is “no we won’t.”

http://sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/photos/gallery/?id=b862022d-95b1-4625-963d-34a3a69ac839

So in 2009 our President, along with the other – Group of Eight leaders agreed industrialized nations should cut emissions on average by 80 percent by 2050 and limit warming to a maximum of 2 Celsius above pre-industrial times. The 8 leaders went home to their various congresses and parliaments so we could get it together for our unique planet.

Our senators are so busy disliking our President that they are forgetting what their job is. I guess the citizens who vote for these senators are so busy disliking our President that they are ignoring scientific facts. I just want to jab my eyes out when I read about crap like this! What would happen to you or me if we didn’t go to work because we didn’t like our boss.  Come to think of it the American public is their boss and we should be outraged.

Some people have been in the Ozarks so long I guess they don’t see its beauty and they leave junk and trash and it makes me mad and I tend to say so.  I don’t like the chicken factories and all the crap they spread on the fields that ends up in the rivers and lakes and I tend to say so.  I don’t like that so much of the population here doesn’t have healthcare and I tend to say so.   I don’t like the coal fired power plant industry actively trying to squash energy innovations and I tend to say so.

Loretta asked me why I complain so much about where we live.  An apology was wholeheartedly given and then a mental inventory was done of the times I’ve been derogatory–>pretty often. Loretta and I live here. This has always been her home. Loretta’s stories of life growing up in the Ozarks make me laugh; what a wonderful time she has had.

I grew up on military bases.  As a teen I worked in a restaurant where we wore nametags stating our name and where we were from.  Mine said,  I was from Don and Barbara. (my parents).  Growing up on military bases was fun.  Like small towns except no one is actually from there.

I asked one of the doctors Loretta and I work with why people around here whoot so much. They don’t whoot on airbases, although they salute often.  In return, he asked me if I’d ever been so happy that I just wanted to holler out my joy.  I decided to try whooting and now I find myself enjoying a good whoot now and then.

I actually love it here and Loretta is one of the reasons why.  We have conversations about dreams, pasts, kids, parents, our fold.  Loretta  doesn’t easily allow anyone in to her fold and I am privileged to be in it.  Her wit cracks me up and she lives her faith.  Many people around here talk faith talk, she exemplifies her faith and doesn’t have to talk it.

We are inquisitive and have had engaging conversations about our different pasts.  Her children and her family are her center. Family picnics and summers at the creek or the lake.  I love that.   She inspires me to see what is in front of me and never complains or says a bad thing about another person or place.  I’m embarrassed that I have dissed her home.

Being accepting is the best way to heal this sore world.  Accepting various religions and ethnicities.  Deserts, mountains, beaches,  cold vs hot climates.  It is a good thing we don’t all like the same things or we’d all be piled up in Lorettas town.

but why would someone come to a beautiful place like this and leave trash.  It makes me mad and I tend to say so.

Can you imagine living in rural America almost your entire life and then someone knocks on your door and tells you you have to go live in Guatemala.  My friend (I’ll call her Maria) and co-worker had that very thing happen to her.  She grew up in a small southern town after her mother came here from Guatemala to work in a chicken factory.  The chicken factory paid for her mother to come here with her two kids, Maria and her little brother.

Ok, so Maria grows up, goes to school, graduates and gets a job in a hospital while trying to put herself through nursing school.  She falls in love with the wrong man and has two children. (it happens)  Going to school is even more difficult, so she just concentrates on working to provide for her little ones and buys a house and a car and pays taxes on all of it and she marries an American boy.

Now, I think I need to add, that I had no idea that Maria wasn’t American, she looks American, talks American and puts ketchup on her french fries and ranch dressing on her salad.

The hospital loves her because she is able to wear many hats.  Nurses aide, unit secretary and pharmaceutical tech as well as Spanish language  interpreter.  When the hospital finds out that they are going to lose their beloved Maria, they write letters, and raise money and call Senators and Congressman.  None of this seems to help.  Lawyers have taken her money and the Senators and Congressmen say they can’t interfere with the deportation “process”.  The hospital has lost a wonderful employee and a wonderful, kind person.  I lost my Spanish teacher.

Maria told me she didn’t even know where Guatemala was and we looked it up on the internet.  I exclaimed, Guatemala is beautiful!  Why would you want to stay in a chicken factory town when you could live on the beach?  She said, “because this is my home, I’ve never been anywhere else.”  So many American kids would give anything to get out of their chicken factory towns.  But — would they really give anything?

http://www.trekearth.com/gallery/photo538621.htm

http://www.trekearth.com/gallery/photo575092.htm

So I guess my idea is.  Why don’t we go to Guatemala and open hospitals and resorts  so Maria will want to live there  and she won’t even miss the chicken factory town.   Americans will be able to work in the chicken factory instead of Maria’s mother.  Maria will be working at a posh American resort in Guatemala on the beach and we can have our chicken factory jobs back.  Then everyone is happy right?

I have a friend (I’ll call him Jack) who  came back from Vietnam full of hate.  He hated  “gooks” and he was pretty mad at the rest of us for not understanding what he had just been through.  He explained that his job fixing the lights along the freeway seemed mundane and all the people in the cars just don’t understand the chaos and death and hate going on in the world.

We’re putting on our make-up, changing our radio stations, worrying about our mortgage payments while soldiers are dying for them.  “No one seems to care”.   He went home every night to his wife and kids and they didn’t seem to care or understand either.  He loved her and she him, but,  his wife asked him to leave because he was too angry all the time.  He found a motel room that he rented by the week.

There was also a Vietnamese refugee who was working as a cook and trying to Americanize himself living in that same motel. He was friendly and sat outside his room after work, seemingly enjoying his good fortune while Jack bemoaned his sad fate. I don’t know the details of just how it happened, but,  Jack and the Vietnamese fellow became friends and had beers together and talked and laughed.

Jack brought him to my house and introduced him to my kids.  He was hard to understand, but he was amazingly grateful and that was clear.  Jack  made fun of how he messed up the English language.  Then would teach him how to speak words correctly.  They didn’t become lifelong friends or anything like that, but, both of them had enhanced lives because they allowed each other in.

God is a much better teacher than hate.

By the way, Jack and his wife got back together and are growing old together.  He is still grumpy and unaccepting, but, not so full of hate.

knats says:

hating haters still makes you a hater.

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