Tag Archives: military

Prayer and Information Request

My sister, a member of the National Guard, asked me to request prayers and information
on behalf of am Army Reserve friend of a hers from basic training. Since Katrina
hit the Gulf Coast, my sister has been trying to reach Teresa Export to no avail.
She is worried about her safety and that of her child.

She’s a 20-something black woman, approximately 5’7″ tall with an average build.
Her son, Deondre is around 1 year old. Last my sister knew, they were living in
Hattiesburg, Mississippi. I know that’s not exactly rare combination, but I figure
we have nothing to lose by trying. If anyone has any information about Teresa Export,
please email me.

If you are of the praying sort, please remember Teresa and Deondre in your intentions.

Update 09/05/05: Teresa contacted my sister yesterday. She and her son are
fine. She didn’t give any details (such as whether she fled before the storm or
endured it). I’ll let you folks know when I know more. Thanks for all the prayers.

Last Resort? I Don’t Buy It, Mr. President

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Bush: Force last resort on Iran

“JERUSALEM (Reuters) — U.S. President George W. Bush said on Israeli television he could consider using force as a last resort to press Iran to give up its nuclear program.”

“‘All options are on the table,’ Bush, speaking at his ranch in Crawford, Texas, said in the interview broadcast on Saturday.”

“Asked if that included the use of force, Bush replied: ‘As I say, all options are on the table. The use of force is the last option for any president and you know, we’ve used force in the recent past to secure our country.'”

I have that deja vu feeling all over again. I’m almost certain Bush said the very same thing (almost to the word) about Iraq before the invasion. Hmmm…

“‘In all these instances we want diplomacy to work and so we’re working feverishly on the diplomatic route and we’ll see if we’re successful or not,’ Bush told state-owned Israel Channel One television.”

My memory is getting clearer now…

I couldn’t find a quote from before the Iraq invasion, but I did find this from the 2004 presidential debates.

“But a president must always be willing to use troops. It must – as a last resort.”

“I was hopeful diplomacy would work in Iraq. It was falling apart. There was no doubt in my mind that Saddam Hussein was hoping that the world would turn a blind eye. “

“And if he had been in power, in other words, if we would have said, ‘Let the inspectors work, or let’s, you know, hope to talk him out. Maybe an 18th resolution would work,’ he would have been stronger and tougher, and the world would have been a lot worse off. There’s just no doubt in my mind we would rue the day, had Saddam Hussein been in power. “

“So we use diplomacy every chance we get, believe me. And I would hope to never have to use force. “

Any of that language sound familiar to anyone besides me? When Bush gives lip service to diplomacy and calls military action the last resort, it seems to be code for “Yeehaw! Lock and load!” Brace for impact, folks. We’ll be going to war faster than you can say “plumeting approval rating”.

BTW, if anyone has a relevant Bush quote from before the invasion, let me know. 🙂

Holding Politicians Accountable

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Remember that raise PA legislators gave themselves? Well, Operation Clean Sweep Pennsylvania isn't the only group torqued by it. Common Cause Pennsylvania wants in on the butt-kicking.

"A citizens lobby called Common Cause/Pennsylvania is considering a wide range of options, including a lawsuit and two pieces of legislation, to fight the pay raise that state legislators approved for themselves in the early-morning hours of July 7."

"'We are exploring all our options, including the litigation option,'' said Executive Director Barry Kauffman."

"Despite unsuccessful lawsuits against previous raises, one in 1986 by a group called the Consumer Party and another in 1995 by Harrisburg activist Gene Stilp, Duquesne University law school Professor Bruce Ledewitz believes the Legislature's action this time clearly violated the state constitution, which prohibits a legislator from getting a raise during his or her term."

"To avoid the constitutional prohibition, legislators are calling their raises, which began taking effect on Monday, "unvouchered expenses'' rather than actual raises."

When I last checked, CC/P hadn't posted anything on their site about potential legislation or litigation. I'll be sure to keep an eye on them and let you know if they need support.

On another front in the war for accountability in politics, I received the following in an email from the Libertarian Party.

"Does the Bush Administration Take Its Job Seriously?"

"(Washington, D.C.) On Wednesday, 14 Marines deployed to Iraq from Ohio were killed when their armored vehicle hit a roadside bomb. The attack is one of the deadliest attacks to take place in Iraq. Days earlier, six Marines from the same unit were killed in a fire-fight near Haditha."

"Meanwhile, Republican President George W. Bush set out yesterday to begin his five-week vacation in Crawford, Texas. The planned vacation will be the longest presidential getaway in 36 years (Richard Nixon spent over a month at his San Clemente estate in 1969)."

"While Bush's aides and enablers defend the president's aggressive vacationing, it is simply poor leadership on the part of the Commander in Chief. While American soldiers, sailors, Marines and airmen are disallowed from simply returning to the United States as scheduled and risks their lives in Iraq each day, the President of the United States enjoys the comfort and pleasures of his Crawford ranch."

"'As a self-professed 'Wartime President', George W. Bush needs to start taking his job seriously by showing the leadership that our troops deserve,' said Shane Cory, director of communications for the Libertarian Party."

"Cory continued, 'Throughout his presidency, Bush has wrapped himself in patriotic rhetoric by using the troops as the focus of American pride. It's time for Bush to take a step toward working as hard as they do by simply staying on the job and finding a way to bring our troops home.'"

Amazing…I actually agree with the Libertarian Party on something other than the need to break the two-party's stranglehold on this country. Adding shock to amazement, here's another idea I agree with.

"Libertarians upset about a Supreme Court ruling on land taking have proposed seizing a justice's vacation home and turning it into a park, echoing efforts aimed at another justice who lives in the state."

….

"The plot mirrors the party's ongoing effort to get the town of Weare, about 45 miles to the southeast, to seize Justice David Souter's home. Souter's property is also the focus of a proposal by a California man who suggested the town turn the farmhouse into a 'Lost Liberty Hotel.'"

Set Rumsfeld Machine to Stun

Militant Secular Fundamentalism?

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Today The Revealer points to this review over at Reason Online, wherein Chris Lehmann, of New York Magazine, has little nice to say about The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason, by Sam Harris. It would seem Mr. Harris possesses an unusually single-minded (dogmatic?) devotion to casting all religious thought in an eerie, monochromatic light. Lehmann writes:

Never mind … that militantly atheist movements like Soviet and Khmer Rouge communism-as well as volkish pagan ones like Nazism and Tutsi supremacy-stand behind some of the worst mass violence of the past century. Harris believes religious belief is the single greatest threat to the survival of the human species. Religious faith is not merely a maladaptive superstition, Harris writes; it is the ‘common enemy’ for all reasonable people concerned with the preservation of the world as we know it. All extant religious traditions, to him, are without exception ‘intellectually defunct and politically ruinous.’

I’ve long been a proponent of the idea (heh heh!) that ideas have consequences and that sometimes ideas can even kill. But this is not a viewpoint we’ve come to expect from secularism. Harris seems to promote a slightly more militant version of secularism than we’re used to. Lehmann goes on to say:

… Harris, as it happens, is only getting warmed up with the 9/11 scaremongering. He’s ready to roll up his sleeves and endorse pre-emptive assaults on both individual bad believers and dangerous Islamist regimes by any means necessary. In a world-class show of ‘this hurts me more than it hurts you’ disingenuousness, Harris makes it clear that the fault for this state of affairs resides entirely with the believers he thinks we may have to kill. ‘Some propositions are so dangerous that it may even be ethical to kill people for believing them.’

Full disclosure: I’ve not read Harris’ book. But sometimes the reviews are entertaining enough.

Ales Rarus

A Rare Bird, A Strange Duck, One Funky Blog