Facts Matter Even Ten Years Later.

 terror, Truth, Uncategorized  Comments Off
Sep 102011
 

Ten years later the wounds are still fresh, the emotion is still high, the outrage is still visceral. As Americans we mark this anniversary with horror, fascination and dread. 9/11 tore a hole in the fabric of our national psyche that we struggle to patch even now. As we endeavor to mend the damage, are we willing acknowledge facts that we all too willingly ignored at the time? Will we face facts about what those who would terrorize us wanted? Will we spend another ten years believing comfortable but inaccurate platitudes like “they hate us for our freedoms”?

Will it make a difference?

I don’t know.

An honest acknowledgement of fact may not lead to truth but it is a damn fine place to start.

The terrorist don’t give a flying fuck about our freedoms, they don’t give a fuck about anything we do as long as we are doing it within the boundaries of our country. Remember the vitriol that spilled (mostly) from the right when the inaccurate reports surfaced that there would be a mosque built at ground zero? Many in our country were completely incensed that such a thing could possibly be allowed, tempers flared, blood boiled and it wasn’t even true… Not only that, it happened in a country FOUNDED on the concept that free expression of religion is fundamental. Osama Bin Laden objected to American military presence on soil his religion considered sacred. Imagine how simple it was for him to inflame the passions of religious people that were offended that a foreign country is interfering with their lives, in their region, and that these foreigners can easily be defined as infidels…

Cool down, I am not suggesting that there is ANY justification to the horrific acts that took place that Tuesday ten years ago today. What I am saying is that if we aren’t willing to “see” what occurred we diminish our capacity to react appropriately.

The world is NOT black and white, each time we try to distill it to the scope of a GOP talking point we reduce our nation and it’s capacity to the lowest common denominator… It wasn’t good enough then, it isn’t good enough now, it will not be good enough going forward.

An honest acknowledgement of fact may not lead to truth but it is a damn fine place to start.

It’s about time we start.

 Posted by R. Paine at 8:35 pm

An Open Letter to AG Holder

 debate, government, Hypocrisy, Justice, Politics, terror, Torture  2 Responses »
May 092010
 

Attorney General Holder;

I watched your appearance on Meet the Press today and openly admit that I was shocked and disappointed with your seeming acquiescence to the chattering idiots who advocate the application of justice by the wholesale destruction of the justice system.

When I hear that the lesson from this latest brush with terrorism on our shores is that we should rethink the provisions of Miranda I am flabbergasted.

When George Tiller gunned down a physician for performing legal operations was there a rethinking of our gun laws?

Should we let a terrorist, so incompetent that he left the keys to his get away car in a Pathfinder shaped smoke bomb, force us to change the very rights and protections that the American justice system affords all its citizens?

Should we let a terrorist, who only really managed to scorch his genitals, cause us to abandon our ideals about torture?

Are we so timid that we would let these clowns dictate our behavior?

Are we so frightened that we would allow these events to tear at our values?

The “war on terror” is an idiotic concept, articulated by an intellectually challenged moron for the justification of an insane policy that does nothing to augment our safety or our freedom.

Terror is an emotion. Terror is the reaction to an event that has been perpetrated by those who don’t care about the action, only the reaction. We reacted to the third degree burns of a moron’s scrotum by whipping up the actual terror that the perpetrator was seeking. We are now reacting to an idiot that built a smoke bomb and wasn’t bright enough to even take the keys to his get away vehicle along with him.

Terrorists will do the things that they do for the reasons that make sense to them. We can choose to deal with the situation with the clear eyes of fact and law, or we can descend into the panic that accompanies terror, torture, suspension of habeas corpus and rethinking of Miranda… Where exactly on this path are we to declare the terrorists victorious? If we let them terrorize us into abandoning the best of what we are they drive us closer to the caricature that they create of us to justify their actions. Making their actions ever easier to justify…

Extremists attack and extremists react, please don’t let the principles upon which our nation are founded be the victims in the equation.

You cannot make the American people safer by removing the legal protections that our system provides them. One innocent man that is denied due process represents an unimaginable loss to all Americans.

Justice must not be swayed by political hyperbole. The founders of our nation understood the brilliance of creating a society in which all are equal before the law. Please don’t allow fear and the promotion of fear to diminish the heart of what ultimately allows us to declare our nation… Just.

Respectfully,

 Posted by R. Paine at 5:12 pm

Newt is moot…

 Hypocrisy, Newt Gingrich, Politics, terror, Truth  Comments Off
Mar 252010
 

Newt Gingrich has stepped up to defend government of, by and for the people from, well the people… kinda, well, not so much, well, uh…

“I would condemn any kind of activity that involves that kind of personal threat.

“But look, I think there’s something very disingenuous about the Democratic leaders who attacked the tea party movement, who refused to hold town hall meetings, who refused to go back home, who kept the Congress locked up in Washington, and are now shocked that people are angry.

“I think the Democratic leadership has to take some moral responsibility for having behaved with such arrogance, in such a hostile way, that the American people are deeply upset. So let’s be honest with this. This is a game that they’re playing.

“People should not engage in personal threats. I’m happy to condemn any effort to engage in personal threats. But I think the Democratic leadership has to take some real responsibility for having run a machine that used corrupt tactics, that bought votes, that bullied people, and as a result has enraged much of the American people.”

What “corrupt tactics” exactly do you refer to Newt? Being a majority? Delivering on campaign promises? Refusing to cave to ridiculous hyperbole about the processes of health care reform when the individual elements of the legislation were extremely popular?

I heard your “statements” on NPR while I was driving home this afternoon and I literally started screaming at my radio… And then I took a deep breath and thought “how horrifically irresponsible for Newt to be justifying the actions of the fringe which the GOP helped to inflame with their fantastic claims” and then I took another breath and thought “does Newt really think that people are so stupid to buy this crap?” and then I took another, very deep breath and I realized… Newt Gingrich hasn’t truly been relevant for a decade. Newt Gingrich will say ANYTHING to be relevant or to feel relevant again. Newt Gingrich is a small man, with a small view, who desperately wants people to believe that he is bigger than he is… sorry Newt I still find you irrelevant.

 Posted by R. Paine at 6:42 pm

Full throated protest

 government, healthcare reform, Hypocrisy, Obama, Politics, Religion, terror, Torture, Truth  2 Responses »
Feb 202010
 

I am so sick of hearing one conservative or another using the phrase “jamming it down our throats” I swear half of them are closet fluffers protesting their secret desires. Ultimately the meme “jamming it down our throats” is disgusting, disrespectful and only truly accurate in current political rhetoric to waterboarding which is only advocated by conservatives.
It is only the latest example of Republicans telling you what to fear from Democrats when they are the ones guilty of the accused behavior.

“Democrats are fiscally irresponsible” - Republican administrations spent 82% of the national debt.

“Democrats take away our freedoms” – the patriot act, warrantless wiretapping, suspension of habeas corpus and torture are all Republican programs and the biggest blows to freedom in this country since the internment camps of WWII.

“Democrats make us less safe” – The examples of torture and unlimited detentions set at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo were the most powerful recruiting tools the terrorist could have possibly hoped for.

So when a Republican says that he doesn’t have any problem with gays he just doesn’t want them “jamming it down our throats” I say that the LEGAL definition of marriage shouldn’t have nothing to do with YOUR religion that you apparently want to “jam down our throats”.

And when Republicans say that the Democrats are going to jam health care reform “down the throats of the American people I say that Obama received more votes for president than any candidate EVER, and he ran on a platform of health care reform.

The Republicans are the ones doing the jamming around here.
Jamming an ill advised war with faulty intelligence down our throats.
Jamming a tax cut for the wealthiest Americans as the standard of living for everyone else declined.
Jamming the stripping of regulations of our environment and financial institutions.
Jamming the trashing of rights with warrantless wiretaps, torture and endless dententions.
So I don’t want to hear their disgusting little saying anymore, it’s crass, it’s disrespectful and near as I can tell it is their sin not ours. If of course they don’t quite “get it” I welcome them to print out this blog post, roll it up, AND JAM IT DOWN THEIR THROAT!

 Posted by R. Paine at 4:37 pm

Try try again

 KSM, terror  Comments Off
Nov 162009
 

The controversy swirling around the upcoming trial of Khalid Sheik Mohammed and four of his accused cohorts has prompted many a discussion about the wisdom of holding these trials. Having avoided any in depth conversation for a couple of days I am ready to plow headlong into that abyss that is taking a stand.

Khalid Sheik Mohammed and the others should stand trial in Federal court. The primary reasons I believe so are below:

Federal courts have vastly more experience at handling this kind of trial than military commissions do.

Military commissions lack the transparency of a federal trial.

The perception of fairness from a military commission could never rival that of a Federal court in the United States or around the world.

I am not willing to throw out our values for terrorists, and I will not be scared into believing I need to by hysterical rhetoric.

I don’t want these guys to be more special than they are, try them, convict them, and punish them.

If the process of trying KSM is more difficult because he was tortured than it should be! I don’t give a shit about KSM, but I do give a shit that members of my elected government that work for me broke our laws. This does not give KSM a pass for the deplorable things that he is accused of, it also doesn’t make it alright to ignore our values and laws to provide a fair trial prior to conviction and punishment.

There are people who claim that giving a trial to KSM would result in the United States being on trial, if memory serves these are the same people who defended the use of torture in the first place rendering their opinion in my view worth less than nothing. KSM confessed to his involvement before he was tortured, therefore the fact that he was tortured does not invalidate his confession. And while we are on the subject, torture is not legal, we are going to get a black eye for employing it. The real question is will we come clean and move forward, or let that stain hang around our neck. The fact that we are a great nation does not mean that we are a perfect nation, those that recognize our flaws are more likely to help the nation stay great than those who thump their chests and bury their heads.

Most importantly the prosecution of “the war on terror” should be removed from the military. The term “war on terror” is idiotic, terror is an emotion and war connotes a military response in a territorial theater of combat which is becoming less and less the case. It is time to start thinking and stop reacting, terrorism is not going to magically go away, but the fight should be waged through the intelligence community and international law enforcement. Trying to fight Al Qaeda with an army is like trying to kill a bacterial infection with a hammer, stupid and ineffective.

Ultimately the trial is not for KSM it is for the American people, an affirmation that the values we hold are more important than the terrorists. Why the hell would we want to throw our values on the rubble of the world trade center? What the terrorists knocked down was flesh, steel and concrete, what the hysterical right would have us tear down in response is far more precious.

 Posted by R. Paine at 11:50 am
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