Letter to the Conservation Voters for Idaho

I sent a letter to the Conservation Voters for Idaho after receiving a mailer from them. Here is my comment I sent.

“…..I received your "absent electors ballot" in the mail yesterday. I found it rather ironic. "Conservation Voters". Hmm... It seems to me that the high gloss ink laden thick paper mailer isn't quite conservative in regard to natural resources it required to print it. Seems to me a standard black and white mailer on paper of average weight would have served as well. Also the cost of such a mailer doesn't conserve the money it cost to produce it.. I suppose it is all subjective. Just saying…”

Now, I know I am not perfect in regard to my own “conservation” and ecological choices. But it seems to me that this mailer sends a wrong message to those it is suppose to be supporting and lobbying for. They are supported by donations from the public. I have not joined groups such as the Sierra Club for similar reasons and have sent them letters also in regard to their extensive mailers seeking funds and their use of money to purchase “gifts” to send you if you join them. It just seems so extravagant, wasteful and not a good use of donated funds.

I have chosen to use my limited funds to donate to environmental organizations to groups such as Alliance for the Wild Rockies. They send out little in regard to fundraising and news letters, they use standard weight recycled paper, more earth friendly inks and don’t purchase cute little gifts (most likely made in China) to entice your support. I would rather my donations go to the actual work for the environment.

Am I being pissy or does this make sense to anyone one else?

All the rage in the news today is the announcement that Iran has told the U.N. nuclear watchdog it has a second uranium enrichment plant under construction. It isn't really a secret and hasn't been. The world wants to tell them that they are in violation of the non-proliferation treaty.. Now we have caught them “red handed”. I agree with the fact that they have violated the rules of the NPT.

Obama has just given a speech to the world on nuclear weapons and the United Nations Security Council on Thursday unanimously adopted a resolution from President Barack Obama strengthening international cooperation on nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament, and committing to collaborate toward a global community "without nuclear weapons.” Well that is all well and good. But I have a few questions on a related matter that seems to totally slip through the cracks.

Why has Israel declined to sign the NPT? Why does the world ignore this fact?

From Wikipedia:

….Israel is widely believed to possess weapons of mass destruction, and to be one of four nuclear-armed countries not recognized as a Nuclear Weapons State by the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). The US Congress Office of Technology Assessment has recorded Israel as a country generally reported as having undeclared chemical warfare capabilities, and an offensive biological warfare program. Officially Israel neither confirms nor denies possessing nuclear weapons….

Now Israel is making noise that they may attack Iran unilaterally and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called on the U.N to take action against them. If they do take action on their own you know who will be blamed. Not the Israelis, we will.

My opinion (and I am not alone) Israel is a rouge nation and we should stop financing their bad behavior at the tune of $114 billion not to mention $30 billion in military aid to them. If we hand the bully on the playground the stick he hits the others with, are we not as guilty as he is?

Addendum:

So here we are giving Iran alot of grief, understandably;y.. But what of India spurning Obama’s NPT call? So we have Israel, India and Pakistan all refusing to join the rest of the world. At least Iran and North Korea have joined the club even if they don't always play by the rules... But then some say neither do we.

A little tongue in cheek for you spurred on by the crazy debates on the Boise Weekly Forum.

NuclearShadows Newswire Sept 17-- A group of Democratic operatives have come up with a novel idea to save money in the new healthcare reform battle. Euthanasia. But unlike the current fear that is sweeping across conservative America, killing Granny, the program would focus on conservative America itself.

Current estimates show that 45% of Americans still believe Obama’s health care package contains taxpayer funding for the so called “death panels” despite the presidents assurance that it does not and the lack of any credible evidence… Most of those 45% identify themselves as conservative and/or Republican.

House bill HR666 is in the drafting at this moment but sponsors of the bill say it should be ready soon and enjoys wide support among Democrats. NuclearShadows Newswire has obtained a few advanced pages of the bill. Following are some of our findings.

The candidates for the procedure will first be screened by using a series of questions. Among them:

How old is the earth?

Is America a Christian nation?

Does human activity affect global warming and is global warming real?

How many people did Bill Clinton kill?

After answering the series of question the person will be scored and evaluated. All those with a score over 45% will be taken directly to secret government facilities for immediate processing and euthanasia. Since those chosen have been shown to undermine the security of the United States provisions of the Patriot Act and the Military Commissions Act will be engaged, rendering said person with no legal council with which to argue the reasons for said detention. Rather than needlessly spending additional tax dollars to house/cloth/feed said individuals the individual will have their sentence carried out immediately.

Although some may find these provisions drastic, the sponsor of the bill believe once the American people understand the huge saving to the treasury in health care, education and other costs, they will gradually embrace the wisdom of the new policy.

Idaho Peace Coalition to show Rethink Afghanistan

Please ignore the elephant in the room. What happened to the change Obama promised? Another opportunity down the drain as the Obama administration argued late Monday that allowing terrorism detainees in Afghanistan to file lawsuits in U.S. courts challenging their detention would endanger the military mission in that country. Although the Pentagon is giving the roughly 600 detainees at Bagram Airfield ( the other GITMO) a new chance to challenge their detentions, the Obama administration stuck with Bush administration policy in a court filing Monday night that said the Bagram detainees' rights shouldn't extend as far as U.S. courtrooms. The Pentagon will actually assign a non-lawyer soldier to them to help them gather evidence in an attempt to prove that they’re not guilty of whatever they’re being accused of. The military will then decide if they want to let them go or not.

It good to see some talk going on about Afghanistan. As several senators are beginning to openly question President Barack Obama’s plan for further escalation of the war in Afghanistan, a trio of hawkish Senators, John McCain, Joseph Lieberman and Lindsey Graham, have penned an op-ed piece for the Wall Street Journal calling for a significant increase in ground troops, likely beyond the escalation already backed by Obama and the additional escalation advocated by Gen. McChrystal. But Murtha is saying no more U.S. Troops for Afghanistan.

And new polls show that support for the ongoing war in Afghanistan has continued to drop, now down to only 39% in favor and 58% against.

The Idaho Peace Coalition soon will be having a public showing of the series Rethink Afghanistan. Come to the Hyde Park Street Fair this weekend and find the Idaho Peace Coalition and the Snake River Alliance combining efforts in the Idaho Chapter 17 of Veterans for Peace booth. There will printed information on this event.

Mini Rant 911

8 years ago we began our adventure into the "War on Terror". Please go to the website of the 911 Families for Peaceful Tomorrows and read their statement for today.

Now for other matters.
NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said he is concerned the public debate on Afghanistan “has started to go in the wrong direction” after the civilan airstrike deaths last week.

Airstrikes have dropped in half so maybe that is why four Marines died in eastern Afghanistan after their commanders reportedly rejected requests for artillery fire in a battle with insurgents.

Peaople are urging General McChrystal to explain the path forward for success in the new strategy in Afghanistan…

Even as people are found stealing our money in Afghanistan we are increasing the number of these private contractors to fight the war. What are they thinking?

Write to the Whitehouse and tell Obama to end this war.

Oh well….

Work for Peace

The Beat Goes On

Well we're winning hearts and minds again today with the killing 13 people, some said to be civilians, in Pakistan. This and other recent attacks have been focused on the followers of Baitullah Mehsud, the leader of the Pakistani Taliban who recent has said he will attack America. He is seen as posing one of the greatest threats to US President Barack Obama’s push to stem Pakistan’s slide towards instability.
All this while Obama is trying to get more troops into the war from Europe. He's not having much luck. This on the heels of General David Petraeus telling congress he needs 10,000 more troops than Obama has planned to send. Oh well... the beat goes on....

Greatest Hits Redux

Greatest Hits Redux

Well I was taken by the news that some of the top warmongers have set up shop again with a new name. Great! These jerks have now formed a new alliance and are calling themselves the Foreign Policy Initiative.

And the hits will just keep on coming.. You remember their greatest hit don’t you? I call it the “game plan”. I have always told people to go read it if they wanted to know what was up with America and its wars over the last 7 years. The little item I speak of is called “Rebuilding America's Defenses: Strategies, Forces, and Resources For a New Century” ( also called by some of us the Blueprint for Imperialism” ) and is an enlightening little 88 page primer that rivals a Steven King horror novelette. Here is a good “biopsy” of the document. They are famous for the phrase, "a new Pearl Harbor” and out of that popped up the Patriot Act much to their glee..

These guys formally were called The Project for the New American Century. PNAC for short. Heard of them? Their former members include some names I am sure you know and recognize. Dick Cheney, Paul Wolfowitz, William Kristol, Trent Lott, Newt Gingrich... These guys have been hiding in the shadows for a while and I have wondered what new scheme they were hatching and now we know… Anyway… Nuff for now.

Here is a great article titled, “Would you buy a used foreign policy from these guys?” that explores this issue a bit.

Please Visit My Website, Register and Join the Forum

Work for Peace

It's Alive!

Let's Start here with a little film.

I begin this post with this clip because as I was thinking of the events to which I am writing I was reminded that the Awakening Council and the Sons of Iraq are the creation of government. Now, like Frankenstein's Monster, our creation has come back to haunt us.

"Honestly, we're worried about the future. If the government doesn't pay us and incorporate us into the security services, I swear, bad things will start happening here a month from now," he says. "We won't attack them, but the situation will deteriorate again." That was spoken by Mustafa Kamel, the Sons of Iraq leader in the Baghdad who commands 800 fighters. This after the arrest of a leader of the Awakening Council was arrested by the Iraqi government the other day. At least four people were killed and 21 wounded in the two days of fighting between government troops and the Awakening Council.

When the Awakening Council was formed it had as many as 80,000 members across Iraq. They were viewed as saviors in quelling the violence and turning back the tide of Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia. Since 2005 they have been paid by the American military and the Iraqi government to lay down their arms against coalition forces, patrol neighborhoods, and to fight against other Sunni insurgents. The US military says the groups help it target Al-Qaeda in Iraq more precisely and avoid collateral damage.

Well it seems to me that the honeymoon is over and we are losing control over our monster. The Iraqi Defense Ministry has said that it plans to disband the Awakening groups so they do not become a separate military force. Well it seems that they are a bit late in that attempt. Back in 2007 we started to realize the implications of our creation and the possibility of what is happening today occurring.

It seems that we may not have learned from our past. We got the Shiites to rise up against Saddam at the end of the First Gulf War.. They did and we didn’t help them. They hated us for it. We helped create the Taliban then went on to attempt to destroy them. Now in Afghanistan we are offering money and such to get Taliban members to change their ways. Well, may work for a bit until we once again abandon them, like we are now doing to the Awakening Councils.

And Obama thinks we will leave Iraq and quell Afghanistan and Pakistan. Not if we keep creating monsters over and over and the abandoning them as our use of them is finished. I suppose we will see if the words quoted above are a prophecy or just more fear mongering. “…bad things will start happening here a month from now”

That’s my opinion and I am sticking to it…

Gaza

The Israeli assault on Gaza continues now on its seventh day. I and other members of the Idaho Peace Coalition penned a press release that has been sent out and also faxed to our congressmen. We have also signed on to an open letter to President-elect Obama as an organization and as individuals. We also urge everyone to contact the Whitehouse and State Department to protest the attacks and demand an immediate cease-fire. Here are those numbers.

Contact the White House
Call 202-456-1111 or
send an email to comments@whitehouse.gov

Contact the State Department at 202-647-6575
or send an email by going here: http://tinyurl.com/93ctpz

There is so much to say and so many issues to examine. But I have been writing about it a little everyday. If there is ever going to be a lasting peace in the Middle East I believe this particular conflict holds the key. This is just a tidbit of my thoughts for today.

So even though Israel knew where Hamas leader Nizar Rayan was and knew he had refused to leave his home why did they bomb his house rather than arrest or assassinate him? Instead they chose to bomb his house and kill 18 other people, including nine of his children, ages 2 to 19, two other children, all four of his wives and three other woman.

But with fewer targets left to strike – yesterday Israel bombed a mosque, the education ministry, the transportation ministry as well as the parliament building – a ground invasion would now appear imminent. Hamas says they intend to continue firing rockets until Israel ends its offensive and Israel says there will be no end to the violence for as long as rockets fly. It is doubtful either side will back down. Israel has rejected any calls for a cease fire even the French one that calls for a two day halt to get humanitarian aid into Gaza. But many more meeting for peace are ongoing.

So we can stay tuned for more civilian deaths. It seems that, just like the Lebanon war where more than 1,000 civilians killed, international calls for peace will only happen when the civilian deaths reach a tipping point. The Gaza Strip is one of the thickest populated places on the planet it probably won’t be long until the deaths climb up. So far there have been 4 or 5 Israeli deaths but if soldiers take to the streets their casualties will go up too.

So hospitals are now being accused by Israel as hiding places for Hamas militants, a charge that the hospital administrators emphatically reject. But no one can say for sure because of the blockade against journalists or anyone else to enter Gaza at all. But that may change as the Israel’s Supreme Court on Friday ordered the state to allow foreign reporters into the Gaza Strip. So since Israel is running out of targets I suppose they are attempting to set up hospitals as a legitimate target. This is in direct violation of Article 18 of the Geneva Conventions. But we know what Israel thinks of the damn pesky Geneva Conventions…

As expected a United Nations resolution calling on Israel to abide by its obligations under the Geneva Convention with regard to the protection of civilians in time of war was vetoed by the United States, even though the provisions calling for Israel to lift its blockade of Gaza and stop the collective punishment of the Palestinian people was removed.

Work for Peace.