Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Sadistic Interrogation

This is one of the three reasons why there has to be an independent commission (retired judges?) to investigate the Bush, Cheney, Yoo and Company, CIA sadistic interrogation practices. #1 is they probably committed illegal acts and if we are a civilized country that goes by rule of law, well ..... #2 is there has to be an investigation and probable prosecution to draw the line in the sand to future thugs and fascists that this won't be tolerated, it's essential to retaining our national identity and stopping the slide into fascism and #3, like she says, those torture memos were just the authorizing legalese, we still don't know what REALLY happened and it is probable that other abuses occurred beyond those authorized in the memos, and the tactics authorized were probably exceeded in many instances.

Friday, May 8, 2009

Florida Dems Pushing War on Iran Again!

(This is a commentary, not a link to any show).

After their reckless Iran naval blockade resolution backfired last year, Congressmembers Robert Wexler (who had the good sense to revoke his cosponsorship after being exposed by The Mark Weaver Show, although any causal connection is unproven), unrepentant Ron Klein and Republican Gus Bilirakis are pushing war-by-other-means-leading-to-real-war with a “rebranded” act to choke off Iran’s refined petroleum imports. This time around the destructive duo are joined by newly elected Democrat Suzanne Kosmas, who picked up one of two Republican seats in November. Funny how the Democrats keep the perpetual war pipeline full with people who are no better, and often times worse, than the Republicans they replace on the greatest issues of war and peace while diverting funds from the progressive agenda with their bloated military spending.

J Street, the new moderate Jewish lobby (they’re still a tad too center-right for me) formed as a counterweight to the extremist right American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) says the backers of the resolution are trying to “thwart” and “undercut” President Obama’s efforts to negotiate with Iran. The opponents of Obama’s agenda, J Street’s Issac Luria says, “are proposing aggressive new sanctions on Iran just as diplomatic outreach begins …. the Orwellian named “Iran Diplomacy Enhancement Act” was introduced in the House (cosponsored by Kosmas, Klein and Wexler in Florida, among others) - a bill that in reality does nothing to ‘enhance diplomacy’ but instead imposes further sanctions on Iran, directly undercutting the President’s diplomatic message.”

Neoconservative scholar Fred Kagan of the American Enterprise Institute says “Iranians are going to die if we impose additional sanctions.” We can therefore infer that Democrats Kosmas, Klein and Wexler are advocating the killing of Iranian civilians. Kagan, who supports the sanctions, being a neocon, is at least honest. He says there is a “human cost” any time sanctions regimes take away a “vital resource” from a society. A U.S. embargo on spare aircraft parts is already causing an increase in civilian airplane crashes in Iran, so the killing is already underway.

Imagine a Chinese-dominated international embargo on gasoline and jet fuel imports into the U.S. It would drive up prices and wreak havoc in the U.S. Do you think that would drive American public opinion toward war with China?

The Senate version of the Act was introduced by …… are you ready for this? ……. Joe Lieberman. We can therefore infer as we learned in our algebra classes that at least in this critical case Joe Lieberman = Ron Klein = Robert Wexler = Suzanne Kosmas = Florida Neocons in Liberals’ clothing. The House bill is introduced by Republican extremist Mark Kirk (IL). What are these three Florida Democrats doing joining up with Bilirakis, Kirk and Lieberman?

I am heartened to see that there is a growing cry from Rick Spisak, Susan Smith and others of the FPC and other grassroots Florida Democrats for accountability from Democratic politicians and getting them on the record on the major issues.

We need to get Senate candidates Kendrick Meek and Dan Gelber on the record on this. Would they cosponsor or would they vote for Joe Lieberman’s Act? This is the most important vote on Iran so far in 2009. It’s major folks. It could get us into a war with Iran.

You can hear more about the coming war with Iran, along with Obama’s alarming bumbling into a war in Pakistan, on the May 9 Mark Weaver Show — The Leading Edge

These Democrats will probably weasle by telling you that they support Obama’s diplomacy but they want to back him up with the coercion of more sanctions as another “bargaining chip”. Why this is destructive, needless and will probably backfire is the subject of part 2. I heard Wexler tell Nicole Sandler on WINZ last year that if it comes down to it, we should bomb Iran. And of course, not having any political background whatsoever, she left him unchallenged.