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May 27, 2009 in current events, Economy, politics, The Front | Tags: administration, Barack Obama, Cheney, Conservatives, democrats, Economy, financial bail-out, Iran, Israel, John McCain, Liberals, middle east, Obama administration, Pakistan, Politicians, Republicans, Rush Limbaugh, Saudi Arabia, socialism, stimulus, TARP, Terrorism | 3 comments
I honestly cannot believe those of us on the left that are frothing and chomping at the bit for radical change to the makeup and practices of the United States still do not realize the value in moderacy. We cannot run willy-nilly, pushing our agenda like we’ve only got 4 years to make up for all the lost freedoms, injustices, and societal ills from the past three decades or so. It looks panicked. The U.S. has enough going on that just needs to be fixed, or at the very least, stabilized. An economy in shambles, with nearly every single major American industry affected, job losses like we haven’t seen in a while, and a war on a distant front (three of them) that is all but forgotten and our medicaland social support systems can’t do much for the wounded and broken young men and women when they get back…the American dream is weaker than ever. Let’s test out the minds of a younger, more team-solution oriented American workforce to solve some problems in the financial sector. Let’s see what deadlines do for the car manufacturers, and apply those deadlines (in a more creative way ) to TARP and stimulus funded states on those shovel-ready programs we promised before we were sidetracked. Let’s take dead US manufacturing jobs and create an in-house green supply industry; working to build the parts that will make green energy attainable, get our best scientific minds finding the best methods, or fund building the systems that make our wind, solar and geothermal energy sources work for us. If we do well enough at this, we fix the job problem (by creating some), we fix the global warming/dirty energy issue and save the earth, and we fix the trade issue by creating a product that other countries would invest in or purchase. Let’s also stay away from as many special interest groups as possible.
If our party wants to do the greatest good, we need to first strengthen what we know is broken, win the support of the very people our party is founded upon–even if they are not Democrats–and once the danger of utter collapse is past, then take our newfound support and make America great again by proving that if our ideas are great when we’re working with the “big ticket” items, wait and see what we can do with the emerging ideas, job markets, and concerns. If we focus on this “strategy”, we may have at least four more years of time. Instead of splitting our energy into a million + one things that liberals have wanted to accomplish for a long time (and feel like Obama’sadministration is the perfect time to do so), we probably need to focus on restoring our image as a party of the people and do the most beneficial work for as many Americans as is possible. Sure that may sound socialist, but given the alternative…an America in despair…I’d rather sound socialist.
Speaking of that distant war, remember the war in Afghanistan that turned into the war in Iraq that turned into the war in Pakistan (which, save the border areas, we are largely uninvolved in)? See if we can name all the countries in the middle east that haven’t made the news for conflict lately. Let’s see–there’s Oman, which from the lack of fiery reports, sounds like a wonderful country to take a holiday in. I haven’t heard much about Lebanon lately, or Jordan, or Yemen or oddly enough, Saudi Arabia. The last one concerns me, since the entire region is suffering through no small amount of instability and they are second only to Iran in size, smack in the middle, but why do we not hear the Saudi voices of concern about the state of their region? Now, I am not a Saudi Arabia hater–no!–I was just as enthralled by all the cool stuff that Air Force Dad brought back from Saudi as the next military kid, but I just find it so odd that they are so silent. Maybe they’re not talking to us since we crashed the stock market–that was full of their money. If anyone has any insight or any news from al Jazeera that I may be missing, please don’t hesitate.
Poor Pakistan. Is this the price a country that appearsto be an ally of the US must pay? Pakistan went from a normal country, fairly progressive even, in the Middle East to a warzone in a relatively short amont of time. They were warned, though. Even the Bush administration had enough sense to warn Pakistan to get their border region in check, but they only half listened. Our drone attacks haven’t helped any. I worry about my Pakistani friends’ families and if they’re in an affeccted region, because as bad as it already is, it could get worse relatively quickly. I feel like the U.S. as “visitors” in the region are at a distinct disadvantage simply because we are in the middle of some really fierce “family feuds” right now and do not adequately understand the culture after all this time, becuase through all the years of the random acts of west-hating terrorist attacts, Iran-Contra and even prior transgressions (such as creating Israel and the ensuing fallout) we never tried to understand who they were, we just assumed they would conform to the ways of the western world and simmer down. To make matters worse, Iran is poking at the exposed wounds of several countries in the area to provoke…well…I don’t know, but they are certainly provoking some kind of response. There is no action great enough and no words wise enough to help even a single person in the most embattled parts of the Middle East, and I feel so sad and powerless to make this any better in my lifetime.
Heading back to the Right, I have to say I have had this incredible craving for news radio, and so during my lunch breaks, there is only a 2 minute blurb of the day’s events so far on NPR, and I indulge in the Rushbag’s show. I have to say, some of his rantings are coherent and well thought out. but lately he’s been on this “blah, blah…this only shows who Obamais…blah, blah” kick. Sotomayor proves who Obama is. The auto bailout proves who Obama is. So on, and so on. I’m not sure what that’s all about, but I do agree with him on the fact that Republican party does not need to “cow down” to every popular opinion. It makes even the real, good, and conservative politicians seem less real. I still have a soft spot in my heart for John McCain who is real (he just picked a dumb running mate) and out of every politician in D.C., I’d like to hear more of what he has to say about the torture memos. Speaking of those, does Dick Cheney know that he is not in charge of destroying the United States anymore? I don’t want to be scared to death–I want a solution to make the world insurgents live in more stable so that they want to function as a part of the normal society in their home country, which makes ours more stable as a desireable by-product.
Honestly our country is in a make or break position. We have some real challenges that cannot be tackled when our pols on the left or right cannot refrain from sensationalizing their displeasure in anything that wasn’t their idea. This is destructive, and we need to drop the partisanship now. Especially now that millions of Americans are suffering through the temper tantrums without jobs and homes.
Ahmadinejad not in a position to lecture, but he made some good points.
September 24, 2009 in current events, The World | Tags: Afghanistan, Ahmadinejad, commentary, democracies, democracy, dictatorships, God, Imperialism, Iran, Iraq, Israel, mccarthyism, oppression, Pakistan, Palestine, political propaganda, regimes, Terrorism, totalitarian, UN, UN Speech, United Nations, United States, Zionism | Leave a comment
I had to take a day to collect myself after hearing Ahmadinejad’s UN speech. I actually had to lie down directly after hearing it. Don’t get me wrong–I DO NOT AGREE WITH EVERYTHING he says (and really disagree with what he does, for that matter), but I tried to listen to the speech with an open mind. I also try to listen often to the EIB with an open mind…although my teeth remain clenched more often than not. The Iranian leader’s speech was actually a nice break from that.
Yesterday, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made a scary amount of sense in what he had to say. Now, he does not have the mandate of God to sit in the ivory tower and shout down the truth at us, not with the magnitude of human rights atrocities that have and are still occurring in Iran. But…we majority nations–the U.S. (anihilation of many Native Americans, slavery, acutal use of atomic weapons, the Jim Crow/civil rights era, McCarthyism), Great Britain (imperialism on a GRAND scale, religious intolerance, oppression of the poor); add to this list the former Soviet Union, China, Germany, Israel–can not exactly claim purity, and can only speak from the perspective of repented sinners that have not been 100% rehabilitated. Not one of us may cast the first stone.
That being said, if it helps, remove the man himself from the statements and just listen to the speech. There are parts that could appeal to anyone and every nation. I can only pull from the experience of being an American, so this is what I heard.
The above statement would ring true with about 95% of our U.S. population, although we (myself included) would pick and choose what aspects of the statement we agree with.
When he spoke to Katie Couric, there was some ambiguity on whether Ahmadinejad now believes (or whatever) that the holocaust did occur. How one cannot believe that this happened is completely unfathomable, but he does state that the genocide and the consequence or outcome (creating Israel) do not logically make sense. It was, after all, a Nazi Germany that perpetuated the crimes, and our solution (although noble in intent) was to partition off a part of Palestine? In my lifetime, there has always been an Israel, and thus, there have always been strained relations with other nations in the middle east.
There has been unbelieveable cruelty from both Palestine and Israel towards each other. In the U.S. we tend to hear the Israeli side, and it is heartbreaking what they go through in an attempt to simply live their lives. But a clear picture requires the other side of the story as well. An interesting take on the Palestinian side is from the documentary “Death in Gaza,” which is well worth the time a viewing takes. After watching the documentary, genocide may not be the best descriptor, though.
Hmm….he goes on to say:
Before “Practice what you preach, brother,” is said, take into consideration the truth in those words. I cannot understand how this is the same man who pretty much authorized the torture and murder of election protestors and supressed the media (so the rest of the world wouldn’t find out about it? Really? In the age of Twitter???) during the same time frame. And while he also has a real problem with Israel, the recommendations he made to the UN to restructure are pretty logical too.
Still, I feel that we need to discuss with Iran why they want to enrich uranium, then, lend Iran the assistance of our best scientists, and help to keep the nuclear activities focused on electricity and medicine. Maybe forge a new partnership in creating something great that would benefit many nations? Someone on Huffington Post made a good point; if Iran gets and uses a nuclear weapon to harm anyone else in the world, they will cease to exist (some nation will make sure of it)–and nobody really wants that.
Had we and the British not interfered and had Mosaddeq overthrown, Ahmadinejad, his regime, and his views might not be before us today. Iran could have been our greatest ally in all of the events of the past half-century, and especially throughout the last decade. But here we are instead. *sigh*
(Oh, and by the way, a Republican administration made the original “overthrowing” happen.)