Writing Life

An article in the Washington Post today (Feb 2, 2010) talks about the slow process to repealing the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell law/policy. I think this policy should never have been put in place, and it’s even worse that it was codified as law. It should be repealed as soon as possible.

One thing that caught my eye was a group that the top civilian and military leaders say they want to create. This group would oversea plans for changing the policy, and,

Among the issues to be addressed by the group: whether gay soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines will face any restrictions on exhibiting their sexual orientation on the job; whether the Pentagon will be obligated to provide for their domestic partners; and whether straight military personnel could be compelled to share quarters with gays.

Wow, to me, this reeks of moving second class citizens out of a closet but keeping them as second class citizens. If you’re in a marriage, be it gay, straight or whatever, you’re in a marriage and the Pentagon should be taking care of your spouse. Also, if homophobic service members will be allowed to oppose being quartered with gays and lesbians, will gays and lesbians be allowed to refuse to be quartered with other groups? And what’s a group? These are all culturally constructed.

Further, what the hell does “exhibiting their sexual orientation on the job” mean? Are hetero-soldiers required to hide their orientation “on the job”? A bunch of old white men are being forced to confront the 21st Century and move away from hate-based paradigms. Let’s make it happen quicker rather than slower.

I saw some statistics in the Fall 2009 Update put out by American University’s School of Public Affairs. In an article featuring Jennifer Lawless, who ran for the U.S. House seat in Rhode Island’s 2nd District, there was a stat “cheat sheet” at the end. I’ve heard these numbers in various places, but never gathered together. This is a call for change:

• The United States ranks 85th worldwide in the percentage of women serving in the national legislature.
• Eighty-three percent of the members of Congress are men
• Three-quarters of statewide elected officials and state legislators are men
• Men occupy the governor’s mansion in 44 states.
• In 89 of the nation’s 100 largest cities, men run city hall.

Following up from an earlier post, Howard County’s state’s attorney’s office won’t file charges against an undercover cop who “accidentally” shot two unarmed boys with his one magic bullet. The Baltimore Sun reports that the officer is on administrative duty pending an internal investigation. No word on whether that report will be released or if he’ll be exonerated behind closed doors, judged not by his peers but by his colleagues.

The shooter’s identity is being protected by police and government officials by claiming that his undercover status is of higher civic value than justice for the two teens he shot. I find it telling that these same police leaders have no problem repeatedly publicizing the name of the woman who accidentally struck and killed a Howard County police officer who was making “step-out” traffic stops on a County highway. She too wasn’t indicted by the grand jury, but her identity isn’t being protected.

The Baltimore Sun is reporting that prosecutors won’t file charges against two teens who were mistakenly shot by police. The April incident featured two undercover officers and two teens in a neighborhood off Route 1 in Jessup. The cops claimed the boys were involved in a drug deal, and one of the undercover officers came out of his car, gun drawn, finger on the trigger. The officer shot one of the boys, and there’s confusion as to whether he shot the other one too or if a magic bullet scenario played out with one bullet hitting both teens. The officer claimed that his gun accidentally went off (i.e. people don’t shoot people, guns shoot people).

What is shocking to me is that prosecutors didn’t bring any charges against the officer who shot the two innocent boys. (And yes, they were innocent, having been cleared by officials as not being involved with drugs or drug deals.) I haven’t heard much about how the police department will penalize the shooter and his undercover partner. If a lawful individual with a valid license to possess a gun accidentally shot a police officer, I’m not so sure the scenario would have played out in the same way.

What we saw in this case was the prosecutors bestowing upon the two victims the right of not being prosecuted for a crime, which I can only imagine would be described by prosecutors as “voluntarily stepping in front of a righteous officer’s accidentally fired bullet.” One of the boys’ families will be filing a civil suit and the other is waiting for their son to recover from his wound before moving forward.

Neal Potter, a longtime fixture on the political and activist scene in Montgomery County, passed away on Tuesday, May 27th. Neal served on the County Council in Montgomery County for an unprecedented six terms from 1970 through 1990. He then was elected to be the fourth County Executive, serving one term from 1990-1994. The County Council put out a nice press release on his impressive contributions and life.

The Baltimore Sun carried an AP wire report about the Maryland and Virginia Milk Producer’s Cooperative plant leaking at least 400 pounds of ammonia back in July 2006. This is the first I’ve heard of this leak at a plant that’s only a few miles from my house. Turns out the facility never reported the leak even though federal law requires the notification of authorities and emergency responders for releases over 100 pounds. That means the plant leaked at least four times the legal limit; hardly something it can say is just a technicality or “just over the limit”.

Today, the dairy agreed to pay a federal fine of about $71,000. Additionally, it will pay for eight hours of emergency responder training at its North Laurel facilty, and is installing a new control system at its Newport News, VA facility. The wire report says the deal was announced today. I wonder if the public had any input into the deal. I could have missed it but I thoroughly read the local papers and the Howard County coverage by the Washington Post and Baltimore Sun. It’s a little worrisome if the deal was reached behind closed doors and then the ammonia release and settlement become public at the same time.

Ken Ulman presented his 2009 budget this week. In it, he provides funds for hiring 22 new police officers for the department. This is part of his overall plan to increase the number of officers by 100 during his tenure as County Executive. These new hires are slated to do good and important work. Ten will be patrol officers, five will go toward creating a repeat offender unit and one will work on gang awareness. Others will go to the child abuse and domestic violence units. These are all important duties to be undertaken and I particularly applaud the attention to child abuse and domestic violence.

I’ve lived in Howard County since 1991 and while there is crime here, as there is everywhere, I don’t see rampant violence, abuse and mayhem that would warrant adding 100 more police over the period of 2006-2010. Currently, there are 423 sworn officers on the Howard County force. This includes 32 new positions that were added by Ulman in the current fiscal year. The additional officers in the new budget would put him more than halfway to his goal. Do we really need almost 500 officers for our County of about 270,000 people? (That population number is an estimate from 2005.) At the current staffing level, that’s one officer for every 639 people. Staffed at 500 officers, that would mean one officer for every 540 residents.

In a County where Head Start is having difficulties with funding, it seems that budget priorities could be tweaked. Electoral promises to increase police officers often plays towards community fears of unfettered violence and does not necessarily reflect real needs. Law and order was once used as a bludgeon against Democratic candidates, and they responded by picking up the mantle and running with it instead of exploring solutions to fundamental problems of justice, poverty, racism, sexism, etc.

Is this the situation here? Maybe, maybe not. But, there must be ways to provide solid policing and good community services at the same time. I urge the Administration and the County Council to work with this budget as a starting point and not a end.

In today’s Baltimore Sun, Larry Carson writes that Ken Ulman’s Howard County administration is ending its program of providing low-cost diesel fuel and bus repairs to the county’s Head Start program. Given only one week’s written notice, County advocates are scrambling trying to find some way to restore the program or find alternative sources. Already, an additional bus that was to be added to the program will be skipped.

One rationale for cutting the program was offered by Lonnie Robbins, the chief administration officer for Howard County. He based his decision on a technicality that says the IRS ruled in 1998 that it was illegal for the County to resell gasoline without federal taxes being paid on it.

It’s sad that it took ten years, an entire decade, before the County found this clever little “get out of helping poor people” card. Community Action Council chairman Michael McPherson says that the “purchase of government gas is not illegal, but the subject of an IRS rule that could be changed”. He also said that Head Start has insurance to cover any potential lawsuits that would be brought against the County.

I understand that the County is facing budget pressures with a weak economy in Maryland and across the country. However, there’s funding for new police officers, a new environmental position, leasing an entire floor for county government business, refurbishing schools, traveling to India for exploring new business opportunities, funding the formerly private 4th of July events at the Lake, and providing high level staffers of the County government six figure salaries (usually around $150,000). The fact that one of the richest counties in the United States can’t provide even the most minimal of funding and support for its most needy citizens is outrageous.

One motto of the County and this administration that I hear is “Making Howard County Even Better.” The question I have today is “for whom?”

I ran across this New York Times piece about the Senate having pro forma sessions during the holiday break to prevent President Bush from recess appointing even more of his Administration. What struck me the most was when it got off topic and talked about Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA 04). Congressman Frank gave a speech before heading home. To quote from the NY Times article:

Mr. Frank, who is Jewish, took to the floor on Tuesday to apologize for abstaining from a vote on a resolution about the Christmas holiday. Or rather he apologized for not similarly abstaining from an earlier vote about the Muslim holiday Ramadan.

Mr. Frank said he had been concerned that the Christmas resolution improperly mixed government and religion by making statements about the role of Christianity in the United States.

Later, he said, he realized that he had supported a resolution earlier in the year congratulating people for observing Ramadan when he should have abstained from that, as well.

“It is really none of the business of the Congress of the United States as an official body whether or not people celebrate religious holidays; our job is to preserve a free society,” he said. “So I will announce in the future that I will not applaud people for Ramadan or for Christmas, for Yom Kippur or for any of the other holidays.”

He concluded, “Let’s leave religious holidays in peace.”

Absolutely. Neither support nor deny religion. Follow the beliefs of the Founders.

Guess who’s investigating the disappearance of the CIA’s torture tapes? The organization that videotaped its torture of captives (CIA) AND the organization headed by a Attorney General (Justice Department) who refused to answer during his confirmation hearings whether or not he thought a specific act of torture was really torture. Said act, waterboarding, had been considered torture by the U.S. Army and the U.S. Government since about the time of the Spanish American War, and has been called torture since the time of the Spanish Inquisition.

Now, these two groups, and the White House, are saying that Congress shouldn’t use its Constitutional oversight right to help investigate the potential illegal destruction of these videotapes as well as the acts shown on the tapes. The Attorney General say that such an investigation would politicize it. Does he realize his boss is doing just that, telling a court not to investigate? That the US tortured these people is without dispute. Even a former CIA interrogator said so, citing his own involvement in the crimes videotaped. That these tapes were destroyed even though a court order told the U.S. Government not to destroy such evidence, is also not in doubt.

So, a crime has been committed. The White House’s insistence that the courts ignore the situation is moot. Of import now is to remove the Attorney General, who’s boss is the White House, and the CIA, who tortured, taped, then destroyed those tapes, from leading the investigation. How can they investigate what they themselves have done? Let’s appoint a special prosecutor to independently assess the situation and bring charges where necessary.

Seems like the CIA and the intelligence community have been getting pretty smart lately. First, their new National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) says that Iran stopped its nuclear weapons development program in 2003.

Now, it appears the CIA destroyed videotapes of interrogations it conducted with suspects it’s held in connection with the war on terror. [Note that I say suspects not terrorists, because with this new disclosure and all the rest this Administration has done, including this, we don't even know who's who among those arrested and detained without charge for years.]

That smacks of destroying evidence. Especially since no videotaping is done anymore, and these are supposedly the only tapes ever made. [One wonders if any home video is floating around, like what happened with Abu Ghraib.] The CIA destroyed the tapes as public and congressional opinion was beginning to urge a review of interrogation practices of the Bush regime. The ostensible reason is that the tapes might be leaked or become public and reveal the identities of the interrogators. Come on people! I’m thinking they were more afraid of practices that they knew were torture being shown on those video tapes. That’s pretty hard evidence. And, as the mood of the country swings away from free-flowing torture (except for the Republican presidential candidates), it’s best to not have too much evidence around.

A Dutch delegation visited the U.S. prison in Cuba and then Washington had a confrontation with U.S. Rep. Tom Lantos (D-CA 12), the chair of the House Foreign Affairs committee. Lantos, you might remember, recently derided fellow House members who spoke up for a Congressional resolution on the Armenian genocide. A genocide survivor himself, from the Holocaust, it seemed a very surprising stance at the time.

It appears he seems to like this spotlight. In response to the Dutch parliamentary delegation’s call for the closure of Guantanamo Bay, Lantos complained that “Europe was not as outraged by Auschwitz as by Guantanamo Bay.” Lantos then demanded the Dutch keep their NATA troops in Afghanistan. To bolster his stance, he spewed out a whoper:

“You have to help us, because if it was not for us you would now be a province of Nazi Germany.”

Oh yeah, that’ll tell ‘em Tom. That pretty much shut down any discussion. So much for our enlightened leader of Foreign Affairs in the U.S. House of Representatives. While alienating most of the delegation, Lantos found himself in close agreement with one of its members on the Guantanamo issue. Lantos hasn’t called for closing this stain on America’s international reputation. In this, he was joined by far right Dutch Freedom Party leader Geert Wilders:

“Let’s not forget we are in a state of war — not only the United States but also my country — with Islamic terrorists. I think we could only learn from Guantanamo.”

Nice company you’re keeping, Tom.

I’ve just finished watching Cheney’s Law, a PBS Frontline documentary about Vice President Dick Cheney, his cronies, and their sweeping usurping of power from Congress, the Supreme Court and the American People.

The U.S. Constitution starts out with the words “We The People.” I think Cheney classified then shredded that memo. This documentary is terrifying, depressing and one hopes, motivating. These figures are still just people. We can take back the power. We can take back our rights. Go out, get involved in the political process. 2008 is around the corner. Presidential and Congressional races are important so that we can free ourselves again. It’s time for the 2nd Revolutionary War. We must overthrow King George, or at least his ideas and make sure that this country returns to its place in the world: the beacon of freedom and democracy. We need to turn the lights back on in the Statue of Liberty to purge the darkness.

Definitely check out the Frontline site. You can find more information as well as watch the episode online.

Seems that Attorney General nominee Michael B. Mukasey isn’t that far away ideologically from his predecessor Alberto Gonzales. First, he refuses to call waterboarding torture. Now, it appears he’s all for making presidents into kings, as long as there is a war going on, regardless of the legitimacy of such a war. In a report from the Washington Post on his testimony, it seems as if Mr. Mukasey thinks that the president can use his supposed powers as commander-in-chief to supersede U.S. law:

Under sharp questioning about the Bush administration’s warrantless eavesdropping program, Mukasey said there may be occasions when the president’s wartime powers would supersede legal requirements to obtain a warrant to conduct wiretaps.

But yesterday, he said this:

Mukasey also said the president cannot use his powers as commander in chief to override prohibitions against using torture or cruel, inhuman and degrading conduct in the interrogation of prisoners.

Do these two points of view contradict each other? It seems that he’s hedging the second one, since the President and his cohorts have already said that by definition, anything the US does isn’t torture since the US doesn’t torture. I used to get in trouble in high school geometry class when I tried to prove things using such tautological arguments. No one seems to be scolding the cronies in charge, at least not yet.

We scream it from the pulpit, broadcast it over the radio, and stump it on the campaign trail: genocide is bad and we must never forget and never allow it to happen again. Though, it seems that if there’s some personal interest at stake, then, hold your horses, let’s not get all up in arms about something. Especially if it’s not something going on right now. Moreover, it really seems to be okay to ignore or downplay ongoing genocide if it’s somewhere where the people’s skin is darker, their bank accounts empty, or their natural resources scant, plundered, or exhausted.

Today, the House Foreign Affairs committee passed a resolution condemning the massacre of Armenians by Turks and the Ottoman Empire during the World War I period. Rep. Tom Lantos (D-CA 12), a vociferous Holocaust survivor, said that “We have to weigh the desire to express our solidarity with the Armenian people … against the risk that it could cause young men and women in the uniform of the United States armed services to pay an even heavier price than they are currently paying.” I wonder if he’d say that about a Congressional Resolution recognizing the Holocaust? Or voicing concern about the Genocide in Darfur? As a matter of fact, Rep. Lantos and Candidate Bush (prior to the 2000 election) both supported calling these early 20th Century killings genocide. Now, their running from their conscience and conviction due to the fact that the US needs Turkey right now to prosecute Iraq war (and maybe an Iran war). Turkey is also a longtime ally and member of NATO, and is also trying to get into the European Union.

What bothers me is that it appears we have classes of genocide. There are the ones we always talk about and never waver on. There are those we sometimes support unless it’s in our short-term national interests to wobble a little. Then there are those we don’t care about that much. Finally, there are those we never talk about (e.g. the one that began with the person we celebrated as a federal holiday this past Monday). Genocide is genocide, plain and simple. One isn’t better, more noteworthy, more deserving than another. Innocent human beings are or were slaughtered in large numbers for no reason other than simple human hate. We’ve got to stand firm and not waver. Never again must have a solid foundation that doesn’t crack during short-term tremors. If it doesn’t, then let’s just stop using the phrase and shed what little humanity we’ve clothed ourselves in over the last 10,000 years.

As many have heard, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas published a memoir on Monday. It’s been all the rage, since it’s full of rage, Mr. Thomas’s to be precise. He rails against liberals, Yale, Senator Joe Biden and other groups that opposed his nomination. He compares anyone who stood against him to the KKK, even implying that they were worse than that. With no more detail than during his confirmation hearing, he yet again dismisses the charges raised by his former employee, Anita Hill.

The New York Times editorial board has raised an important question. Can this Justice, who harbors such hatred for any idea that he disagrees with and any person who dares question him, rule impartially when those ideas or those individuals appear before the Court?

Words are hard to find to describe the depth of disgust and utter disbelief I have in what George W. Bush has done to our country, our Government, and our reputation int he world. All for personal political gain and ideological purity. Any who try to defend Mr. Bush need to sit down and read through this article in tomorrow’s New York Times. It discusses the history of CIA interrogations and how they were secreted away and justified by political appointees who passed loyalty oaths to George W. Bush, not to the almost sacred Office of the President of the United States. George W. Bush has brough shame on the office, more than any other president in our nation’s long history.

The Post, and others, report that Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE)’s plan to partition Iraq passed with bipartisan support today in the Senate, on a vote of 75 to 23. What’s interesting, though, is that I thought Iraq was a sovereign nation? Why is the United States Senate declaring that Iraq should be divided into three autonomous regions with a weak federal government? I thought that would be up to the Iraqis? [Yes, I am being sarcastic here, just in case you missed it.]

And, while Bush played with his generals in Iraq and Congress bipartisanly rejected doing anything about it (through abdication by Republicans or lack of skill/power by Democrats), it seems that the Tabliban are resurgent in Afghanistan. Thanks Mr. Bush.

No vote for citizen-residents of the District of Columbia and no right to habeas corpus for detainees being held indefinitely without charge by the United States.

Congressional and Administration Republicans want it both ways. In the first case, they hold up the U.S. Constitution as sacrosanct and that only “the few states” can have a voting Representative in the U.S. House. In the second case, Republicans throw out the Constitution, its rich common law history, and forfeit a long-standing U.S. tradition of supporting human and civil rights. Ideally, I really think Republicans would like a King and they would then be able to fill its court: feasting without the need to think or act responsibly. Your time is running out. You might want to get one last drink and toast the king before the castle crumbles down around you.

The Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) released their top 22 most corrupt Members of Congress list today. Four Republican Senators were named along with 14 of their Republican House colleagues. There were four Democrats listed, all House members, all pretty dirty. Along with the top (or should I say bottom) 22 were two dishonorable mentions for Republican Senators Larry Craig (ID) and David Vitter (LA).