A Gentleman’s view.

For Specter of Pennsylvania, this is a statement of character or lack thereof.

I suspect some citizens of Pennsylvania may take issue with the vernacular in which I write this view of the senior Senator’s switch to the Democratic Party. I have listened to some of the view of long time admirers of the man over the years who say that his position as a politician has always been one taking actions that was in the best interest of his fellow citizens from his home state as he saw their interest being the same as his. Before I can proceed with the rest of the praise heaped upon the gentleman from my neighboring state of Pennsylvania, I get stuck right there; ‘he always made political decisions in the best interest of his fellow Pennsylvanians’.

First, I respect that Michael Smerconish, Governor Edward Rendell, Mayor Nutter and Vice President Joe Biden and even the President are open to a man’s change of heart about his political affiliations. Second, I am cognizant of what it means to the Democrats to have a filibuster proof vote in the Senate, especially with some of the major projects on the President’s agenda during this particularly disconcerting period in which we find ourselves. I was told as a young man growing up that life is basically; what you see is that which you will receive, the large leopard is incapable of changing its spots. This man who took part in a party which for at least the last thirty years of my lifetime of following politics, has sought to play mean, disparage women and minorities, use differences in a individual’s culture as weapon to maintain advantage when seeking all ends as a political party. This party has sought to maintain if not strengthen even more than previously existed the white male’s position of dominance in this country to the detriment of every other ethnic group, women, children and even the overall financial and fiscal health of the country. This party has purposely held back so many diverse groups who may have offered untold advancements and or inventions to the American cause just to maintain the status quo of the white male.

This man opens up with what might be considered a political sin of sorts by stating indirectly that he knew what the political outcome would be had he stayed in his party of choice for over 30 years. He refused to allow a legitimate process of an election to stop him from being Senator, so he would circumvent that process of all those who supported who he said he previously was. People who donated who knows what part of their financial well being to his continued support over the years and now feel betrayed as loyal members of the Republican Party he represented. Are they just to continue their support when all of a sudden for them, an open mind that just follows the man versus the party’s principles as they have done up until this time? What about all of the things that you believed you shared with this man, now with sudden change of perspective that suggest in order for the party now accepting him with open arms, they will have at least some expectations of toning down opposition of previously held positions not in line with his new associations. There has to be some left feeling betrayed with the move made clearly to prolong one individual’s personal ambition over the chosen interest of the citizens of that district by fair competition for the opportunity to be that representative of Pennsylvania. The writing on the wall for the Republican Party should be one of concern, but for those previously invested in this man and that position; the writing on the wall is one of political expediency.

Men have lost touch with maleness and manhood to a serious degree.

When I ran away from home at fourteen years of age, I had the mean streets of New York City and all five boroughs. I didn’t know my father, my mother told me that I didn’t belong to her and if I misbehaved, I would be sent back somewhere. I had two cousins; one was a jailbird and the other, a hard working family man. I think he worked in a factory or something, I don’t recall. Men in my neighborhood were seen just going to work and coming home. I got to see a couple of guys in my building and who my mom dated. Only one stood out; he was a former Lieutenant from the Army. I believed he served in World War II, worked in the Post Office on 34th Street and Eighth Avenue. He went to work every day while he was with my mother, other men in the neighborhood did the same. The only thing anyone of them was picky about was their cars. You didn’t sit on them, lean on them, even look at them it felt like at the time. My point is about men today, if we did get a strong male message playing sports or hanging around or acting like a jock, where do males today get some kind of message about the things that are expected of men throughout their lives.

I am a 54 year-old black male whose formative years from 14-17 were spent on the streets of New York City and developed my sense of manhood from the big screen like many of my counterparts, maybe more so, as I spent many nights sleeping in the movie theaters of 42nd Street , right smack in Times Square. I developed much of who I am today from watching guys like Charlton Heston, Charles Bronson, Humphrey Bogart, Clint Eastwood and even Ricardo Montablan. These guys played roles of men with grit, integrity, strength of character, having courage on one’s convictions, men of honor generally speaking. Mostly, they represented different versions of tough guys who could withstand adverse or even extreme circumstances befallen them and come out leading all survivors of said calamity to the Promised Land, showing courage and dignity along the way. I now understand why the males are so confused and getting into so much drama like they do today, they have no toughs to look up to.

Hollywood has long beaten down the mainstream population with the new metro sexual male looking like he could make his way thru life whether it is a fight club in the basement of some tenement up in the Bronx, or picking up daughter from soccer game after getting his nails done on discount Tuesdays. They may have done that and much more, but I can guarantee you, you did not think of Charles Bronson or Humphrey Bogart in that manner as a male figure in this world. I know that locally there all many heroes, but nothing on a more national level. At this point in time with the economy in shambles, no one knows what’s ahead, it just stands out to me that there are no male roles models anywhere in America, on the block, the big screen, or real life period, except maybe President Barack Obama.

In depth debates about the legality of how far to go with torture is revealing.

Please feel free to read the torture memos on tab above or the Pages panel called BUSH.

They, Bush and Cheney, claim to have been operating in the best interest of this country by using these formerly declared illegal tactics to interrogate suspected Al Qaeda terrorist. This was in an attempt to obtain information about events the terrorist had participated in or was planning to implement on US soil or possessions. They claim also to have obtained valuable intelligence from of the sessions of enhanced interrogation. Documentation state all legitimate information was obtained before they decided to use those techniques, but they did so anyway even after being told upfront by experts that they did not work and were counter- productive to military and intelligence gathering efforts. The Bush/Cheney co-dictatorship decided in America’s name and revenge that it was okay to brutalize people not proven to be guilty of any but being Muslim in their own back yard. Worse still they wanted to send a very strong white male macho message to the Muslim world, ‘DON’T EVER F*@K WITH US LIKE THAT AGAIN OR ELSE, UNDERSTAND!’

We, as Americans must understand what we have participated in by either standing by while it happened or supporting these tactics as a statement of how we now do business. If not, declare the new manner in which believe in and own it, if it is what we believe to be good for America. Leaders around the world already accuse us of belligerence and speak of possible implications to the treatment of our citizens caught in any number of unlikely circumstances that might put them under the control of a group of citizens from a country no longer appreciative of our present state of hospitality. The 266 times of just using the one enhanced interrogation technique of making an individual believe that death by drowning is imminent is nothing less than torture. 186 times to just one person over an 30 day period is astounding whether that man is brain dead or not today. I can almost guarantee that Cheney, though capable of coming up with the idea, was definitely not man enough to carry it out on anyone. I was abused, so let’s take a stroll down memory lane with a more personal view of both the position of the abuser and the detainee, shall we?

First, for those of you who visit this site; THANK YOU! WITH ALL OF MY HEART! But, this is why I am out here in internet cyberspace, bullies, terror, beatings, rape, abuse, torture and people being mean to people. I was bound, hands and feet, awaiting punishment for she claimed her silverware was being lifted from the house. I was not the one doing it; I didn’t know who was doing it. I was not a belligerent child by any means, but by eight, all respect for authority was shot to hell by then, because of the constant beatings for any and every little thing that went wrong in my mothers’ world and sexual abuse by a white male leader of my church. On this occasion, bound as I was, she decided to go and take a nap to have the energy needed to beat me the way I deserved to be beat for disrespecting her by stating that I was tired of her beating me for something I did not do. At first my mission was just to be a better kid, but better though I felt I was being, never came, and the beatings never stopped. Next, I, being raised as a catholic in New York City, sought help in my church. That was a mistake; a male somehow got the impression that meant I wanted to be sexually intimate with him. Next, I just wanted to duration of the beatings to lessen or cease, but they didn’t, so then you steel up and pray for help or talk to people in school and they in turn call in the very person you are seeking protection from, your mother. This is taking place during the mid-sixties. Finally, you steel up real hard and you just take the blows, barely flinching as the tears stream down your cheeks giving away the fact the body is experiencing terrible pain, never ever screaming again as long as you live.

So, while that was going on, I was a witness to the amount of physical involvement there was also for the person who inflicted all of this on me and my brother, my mother. As we progressed through the levels of beatings, I watched the impact and change on her as well. A major amount of energy was expended on her part as well during this evolution that during one session of her beating my brother, she knocked out four front teeth of my brother. I had to start screaming for her to stop hitting him as I was sure he would be killed. At fourteen, I had had enough and ran away to be on the streets of New York City for two and half years. I thought home was bad; boy I was under the wrong impression. I had no idea just how good home was, I just could not take the abuse coming like that consistently from someone who loved me.

The point was it took six years before I decided enough was enough, how long does it take if you think you are surely going to die if the treatment keeps up. What do you do if the essence of your day is experiencing simulated drowning six times? How long does it take for anyone one soul to break down and start making up all kinds of stories if they think just one more thing I can come up with will stop this agony. This continues for a month straight, personally I believe that I would be making up some stories also in any attempt to stop the water boarding. How many shifts of how many interrogators did it take to maintain the madness thru this period?  Are these the ones committing suicide presently back at home in the US? The federal statutes already states it is against the federal law, several international treaties we have signed and the Uniformed Code of Military Justice (UCMJ), which governs all members of the military. That suggests that there should be filed at some point in the future 266 charges of the war crime of water boarding against Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, Powell, several attorneys, and others on the high end of government operations for approving of using torture as a means to obtain information in the name of protecting America. I don’t think it is going to be a matter of if we are going to use legal recourse against them, but when. If we don’t, who knows what will be the long term price to Americans all over the world.

I am posting this for all those who want to participate in the US torture program. Author unknown

Dear Civilians,

We know that the current state of affairs in our great nation has many civilians up in arms and excited to join the military.  For those of you who can’t join, you can still lend a hand.  Here are a few of the areas where we would like your assistance:

1. The next time you see any adults talking (or wearing a hat) during the playing of the National Anthem – kick their ass..

2. When you witness, firsthand, someone burning the American Flag in protest – kick their ass.

3. Regardless of the rank they held while they served, pay the highest amount of respect to all veterans. If you see anyone doing otherwise, quietly pull them aside and explain how these veterans fought for the very freedom they bask in every second. Enlighten them on the many sacrifices these veterans made to make this Nation great.  Then hold them down while a disabled veteran-  kicks their ass.

4. (GUYS) If you were never in the military, DO NOT pretend that you were. Wearing battle dress uniforms (BDUs) or Jungle Fatigues, telling others that you used to be “Special Forces,” and collecting GI Joe memorabilia, might have been okay when you were seven years old.  Now, it will only make you look stupid and get –  your ass kicked.

5. Next time you come across an Air Force member, do not ask them, “Do you fly a jet?”  Not everyone in the Air Force is a pilot.  Such ignorance deserves an ass-kicking.  (children are exempt).

6. If you witness someone calling the US Coast Guard “non-military,” inform them of their mistake – and –  kick their ass.

7. Next time Old Glory (the US flag) prances by during a parade, get on your damn feet and pay homage to her by placing your hand over your heart.  Quietly thank the military member or veteran lucky enough to be carrying her – of course, failure to do either of those could earn you a – severe ass-kicking.

8. Don’t try to discuss politics with a military member or a veteran.  We are Americans, and we all bleed the same, regardless of our party affiliation.  Our Chain of Command is to include our Commander-In-Chief (CinC).  The President (for those who didn’t know) is our CinC regardless of political party.  We have no inside track on what happens inside those big important buildings where all those representatives meet; all we know is that when those civilian representatives screw up the situation, they call upon the military to go straighten it out.  If you keep asking us the same stupid questions repeatedly, you will-  get your ass kicked!

9. “Your mama wears combat boots,” never made sense to me – stop saying it!  If she did, she would most likely be a vet and therefore could – kick your ass!

10. bin Laden and the Taliban are not Communists, so stop saying “Let’s go kill those Commies!” And stop asking us where he is!  Crystal balls are not standard issue in the military.  That reminds me – if you see anyone calling those damn psychic phone numbers, let me know, so I can go-  kick their ass!

11. “Flyboy” (Air Force), “Jarhead” (Marines), “Grunt” (Army), “Squid” (Navy), “Puddle Jumpers” (Coast Guard), etc., are terms of endearment we use describing each other.  Unless you are a service member or vet, you have not earned the right to use them. Using them could – get your ass kicked.

12. Last, but not least, whether or not you become a member of the military, support our troops and their families.  Every Thanksgiving and religious holiday that you enjoy with family and friends, please remember that there are literally thousands of soldiers, sailors, marines and airmen far from home wishing they could be with the their families.

Thank God for our military and the sacrifices they make every day.  Without them, our country would get it’s “ass kicked.”

It’s the Veteran, not the reporter, who has given us the freedom of the press.

It’s the Veteran, not the poet, who has given us the freedom of speech.

It’s the Veteran, not the campus organizer, who gives us the freedom to demonstrate.

It’ s the Military who salutes the flag, who serves beneath the flag, and whose coffin is draped by the flag, who allows the protester to burn the flag.

One more: 13. If you ever see anyone either standing for or singing the national anthem in Spanish – KICK THEIR ASS.

Last one: 14. If you get this Email and don’t pass it along – guess what?  You deserve to get your ass kicked!

The torture memos support everything believed about a renegade government.

There appears a lack of opportunity for the good ‘ole phrase; ‘why can’t we all just get along’ and let bygones be bygones, please don’t hold grudges. The American soul is a forgiving one known for accepting the view of life being about new chances and opportunities. Looking back and dredging up proof of illegal activities such as listening to American citizens here, unlawful acts such as making detainees stand nude in one spot for over twenty four hours or no food for the same amount of time, violations of the rule of law, namely; our Constitution of one, international treaties for another, the fate of any of our captured Americans anywhere in the world as a basic principle, or the chance we, as a country could be guilty in any way should not be something we should waste our time on. Our country’s reputation and honor damaged to the point that it could take a generation to recover is nothing the average citizen should concern themselves about. If we just forge ahead, charting a new course with a new rapport with our allies and others around the world, we can start anew.

This is what our President is trying to ask of us with the lack of motivation or conviction to pursue an investigation or indictment against the former administration’s officials responsible for now more than ever before with the release of the torture memos by his administration of the Bush’s administrations legal wrangling over this subject, whether for legal recourse or not, is a glaringly clear statement of knowledge of potential criminal activity involved. The essence of those memos in their vivid detail from the legal analysis displayed demands investigations and so much more. This was we the people of these United States failing to rectify the activities of the leader of this less than perfect union of ours who approved holding a man down covered with cloth while pouring water over his face making him think he was drowning. Obama feels it would not be conducive to our country’s future if we spend a lot of time seeking to point the finger of guilt for all the wrongs of the war with Iraq.

Former President William Jefferson Clinton was impeached for having an affair and then lying about it and it turned out they had not the stomach to actually force him out of office. The main point was that they thought those actions of a sitting President warranted such a use of the people’s time, money and effort on their (the Congress) part to pursue to an end. Former President George Bush is responsible for presenting false documents, cherry picked intelligence material, and outright lying to the nation and the world thru the United Nations Security Council to have us as a nation bogged down in two wars with no support from any other country in the world to include a majority of our most dedicated allies. Once he (Bush) achieved this thus engaging our entire military apparatus to two wars on top of being world cop already, he sent the military into ‘harm’s way’ without the proper equipment or mission to be successful in the accomplishment of it. Then, he proceeds to use illegal surveillance techniques, wiretapping U.S. citizens without the proper cause or authority. That was not enough for this decider of men, he decides thru the use of extraordinary rendition who the bad guys are, and what we do with them when we say who they are, then where we send them once we decide who they are and what we are going to do with them because we have made that decision. All the time, it was he, who was the final authority to make said decision about anyone anywhere around the world to include American citizens. Added to that resume, the lost treasury of both wars, the upper crust tax cut during such trying times for any nation, the downfall of four major American institutions to with; Wall Street, Banking, Automotive Manufacturing, and housing all on his watch. His question was “Are we safer?”

For these activities, as outrageous as minor as they may seem depending on who reads this column and whatever the persuasion, we must remember that American Service Women and Men, who swore the oath to defend our Constitution of our United States wearing our nations’ uniforms, have died doing so and are still out there doing so. If we take lightly the reason we sent them out there just based on that alone, then they would have died in vain and still are dying so. We need to find out the reason that a President responsible for all that wasn’t impeachable, while Slick Willie, who just couldn’t keep his pants up, was.

I am posting this in support of accountability.

Olbermann: We cannot let mistakes of the past haunt our future

As promised, a Special Comment now on the president’s revelation of the remainder of this nightmare of Bush Administration torture memos. This President has gone where few before him, dared. The dirty laundry — illegal, un-American, self-defeating, self-destroying — is out for all to see.

Mr. Obama deserves our praise and our thanks for that. And yet he has gone but half-way. And, in this case, in far too many respects, half the distance is worse than standing still. Today, Mr. President, in acknowledging these science-fiction-like documents, you said that:

“This is a time for reflection, not retribution. I respect the strong views and emotions that these issues evoke.”

“We have been through a dark and painful chapter in our history.

“But at a time of great challenges and disturbing disunity, nothing will be gained by spending our time and energy laying blame for the past.

Mr. President, you are wrong. What you describe would be not “spent energy” but catharsis.
Not “blame laid,” but responsibility ascribed. You continued:

“Our national greatness is embedded in America’s ability to right its course in concert with our core values, and to move forward with confidence. That is why we must resist the forces that divide us, and instead come together on behalf of our common future.”

Indeed we must, Mr. President. And the forces of which you speak are the ones lingering — with pervasive stench — from the previous administration. Far more than a criminal stench, Sir. An immoral one. One we cannot let be re-created.

One, President Obama, it is your responsibility to make sure cannot be re-created. Forgive me for quoting from a Comment I offered the night before the inauguration. But this goes to the core of the President’s commendable, but wholly naive, intention. This country has never “moved forward with confidence”.without first cleansing itself of its mistaken past.

In point of fact, every effort to merely draw a line in the sand and declare the past dead has served only to keep the past alive and often to strengthen it. We “moved forward” with slavery in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. And four score and nine years later, we had buried 600,000 of our sons and brothers, in a Civil War.

After that war’s ending, we “moved forward” without the social restructuring — and protection of the rights of minorities — in the south. And a century later, we had not only not resolved anything, but black leaders were still being assassinated in our southern cities.

We “moved forward” with Germany in the reconstruction of Europe after the First World War.
Nobody even arrested the German Kaiser, let alone conducted war crimes trials then. And 19 years later, there was an indescribably more evil Germany and a more heart-rending Second World War.

We “moved forward” with the trusts of the early 1900s. And today, we are at the mercy of corporations too big to fail. We “moved forward” with the Palmer Raids and got McCarthyism.
And we “moved forward” with McCarthyism and got Watergate. We “moved forward” with Watergate and junior members of the Ford administration realized how little was ultimately at risk.

They grew up to be Paul Wolfowitz and Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney. But, Mr. President, when you say we must “come together on behalf of our common future” you are entirely correct. We must focus on getting things right in the future, as opposed to looking at what we got wrong in the past.

That means prosecuting all those involved in the Bush administration’s torture of prisoners, even if the results are nominal punishments, or merely new laws. Your only other option is to let this set and fester indefinitely. Because, Sir, some day there will be another Republican president, or even a Democrat just as blind as Mr. Bush to ethics and this country’s moral force. And he will look back to what you did about Mr. Bush. Or what you did not do.

And he will see precedent. Or as Cheney saw, he will see how not to get caught next time. Prosecute, Mr. President. Even if you get not one conviction, you will still have accomplished good for generations unborn.  Merely by acting, you will deny a further wrong — that this construction will enter the history books: Torture was legal. It worked. It saved the country.

The end. This must not be. “It is our intention,” you said today, “to assure those who carried out their duties relying in good faith upon legal advice from the Department of Justice that they will not be subject to prosecution.” Mr. President, you are making history’s easiest, most often made, most dangerous mistake — you are accepting the defense that somebody was “just following orders.” At the end of his first year in office, Mr. Lincoln tried to contextualize the Civil War for those who still wanted to compromise with evils of secession and slavery. “The struggle of today,” Lincoln wrote, “is not altogether for today. It is for a vast future also.”

Mr. president, you have now been handed the beginning of that future. Use it to protect our children and our distant descendants from anything like this ever happening again — by showing them that those who did this, were neither unfairly scapegoated nor absolved. It is good to say “we won’t do it again.” It is not, however…enough.

This is about more than a Vice Presidential abuse of power.

The Vice President of these United States takes the oath of office as does the President and just about anyone who serves the government of this great country of ours. I took the oath when I was sworn into the United States Army for what became six years of service, it is an oath to “Support and defend the Constitution of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic” and to bear true faith and allegiance to the same. This oath of allegiance does not have a limited warranty, expiration date, but does have the expected guarantee that he who swears this oath willfully does so in principle for the rest of their natural life. I expect from the behavior of the man, he didn’t get the memo about principles, though educated in politics, BA and MA, and he was very masterful with his skills in that arena. But, this is not just about whether the Vice President or the President, or the Secretary of Defense was guilty when it comes to giving the order to torture any detained or arrested during this experience we call the Iraq War. This is about the damage inflicted by the actions of professionals of many different levels of the military and civilian authorities within our government.

Oh, I don’t mean to suggest that it did not matter that former President George W. Bush and former Vice President (in name only) Dick Cheney decided that it was okay to use that method to gather intelligence about our enemies around the world and count on it as one of the primary means of gathering intelligence about our enemies both foreign and domestic. But they had to give those orders to others, first the memo John Woo wrote that made this issue all that it has become. Someone was picked and assigned the task of granting permission for the gathering of information by the use to techniques already declared by legal statute because of previous actions brought to the bar and convictions obtained at the time, to be war crimes. To with; enhanced interrogation techniques to include from what was observed from photos, testimony and eye witness accounts of actions taken by American military and civilian operatives of the United States government.

Techniques noted; water boarding, humiliation by nudity, chaining to cells, sleep deprivation, degradation of religious material or equipment. He, who agreed in principle to find the words that ignored an agreement with the international community already in place called the Geneva Convention, and gave an unlawful permission to issue the order to members of the medical military somewhat, the security or police military, who for obvious reasons, had to participate in keeping these detainees to begin with. Then there were the doctors of psychology that had to determine how long to keep them awake, and what to expect from that kind of treatment. Then, add the nurses who monitored the blood pressures and the breathing and the traumatized heart rates. Water boarding takes a lot of energy as the one being held down, can’t but help to attempt to keep from dying as that is what is perceived to be happening. Whether the American or Americans who held each and every one of them down while water was poured on their faces making them experience the sensation of desperate drowning, (publically, Bush administration officials have admitted to seven to date), worked for Uncle Sam as a Marine, or CIA operative, whatever the number may turn out to be, they are all guilty of the War Crime of Water Boarding.

The military is the ultimate environment where life is based on the rule of law. There are laws that state shaking your head in disagreement or possible denigration of a higher ranking individual in your immediate presence can constitute an act of disrespect requiring prosecution and possible confinement if pushed to the fullest extent of the law. These laws cover every aspect of life in the military and all the branches. The ultimate power of that mentality lies in individual always. As there are laws that govern life, there is what is called lawful and unlawful orders. If a Captain tells one private soldier to shoot another without just cause, that is an order that does not have to be followed. It will obviously have to be justified to the letter of the law, but it is possible for this kind of thing to happen in the military, especially during times of stress and danger like in the middle of a war in a foreign country where you don’t speak the language, look like the people or live like they do. This is why you don’t go sending your mighty military to get revenge chasing men in the desert wasting precious resources for over seven years.

We must know how many different people of principle in how many different professions from how many parts of our country did we corrupt when we decided, and we did when our former President decided, that the Geneva Convention which pretty much has kept the animals of other lands from treating our nationals like we were the dregs of the earth, did not matter, and said torture is required to complete this mission of the war on terror. We must know how many Hippocratic oaths, how many bars and how many rules of law were violated by all the various participants of seeking intelligence to find more enemies of our enemies.

This was an article from the St. Petersburg Times Newspaper on Sunday.
The Business Section asked readers for ideas on “How Would You Fix the Economy?”

I thought this was the BEST idea. I think this guy nailed it!

Dear  Mr. President,

Patriotic retirement:

There’s about 40 million people over 50 in the work force;
pay them $ 1 million apiece severance with these stipulations:

1) They leave their jobs. Forty million job openings – Unemployment fixed.
2) They buy NEW American cars.  Forty  million  cars ordered – Auto Industry fixed.

3) They either buy a house or pay off their mortgage – Housing Crisis fixed.

4) Cost: $40,000,000,000 not 100′s of billions or even trillions.

Stimulus accomplished and no increase in taxes!!!