Category: Rant

Family Killed, Grandfather Charged

Posted on by TL

A horrible story out of Chicago this morning:

An Oak Forest man set a fire that killed his pregnant daughter, son-in-law and young grandson because he was upset over his daughter’s marriage, prosecutors said Tuesday.

Subhash Chander, 57, told police that he resented the couple for what he considered a “cultural slight” — that his daughter Monika Rani, 22, had married a man from a lower caste and done so without his consent, according to a court document.

One person commented on the story, saying the problem is immigration — all immigration should be stopped.  That’s completely off-base.  Do we really think this is a problem that politicians can fix, and immigration is the root cause?

The overwhelming vast majority of immigrants and “home-grown” are wonderful people, but we have major problems.  This one is simply horribly sad.

Why not ask the big questions instead of shooting from the hip?  Yes, the man should be prosecuted.  But our already over-burdened legal system will not and cannot fix the problem.

One of the big questions is, “How do we create a society where there is less violence?”  More laws won’t do it.  “Three strikes and you’re out” is just a silly placebo.  Politicians are ancillary.

Stop immigration?  We’re fooling ourselves.

This is the most violent country in the world outside of a war zone.  Face it — we have real problems here.  And the root cause is not immigration, socioeconomics, class, caste, race, sex, too many guns, too few guns, gay marriage, divorce, abortion, or anything else.  For some reason, Americans resort to violence first, and ask questions later.

The law is a last resort after everything else has gone to Hell.  We need to seriously ask ourselves how we can create a society where people do not resort to violence as a first option.

Prosecuting The Damned

Posted on by TL

We’ve heard the stories before. Soldiers in Iraq have committed suicide, others have attempted. The Army is prosecuting, according to The Washington Post:

In a nondescript conference room at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, 1st Lt. Elizabeth Whiteside listened last week as an Army prosecutor outlined the criminal case against her in a preliminary hearing. The charges: attempting suicide and endangering the life of another soldier while serving in Iraq.

Her hands trembled as Maj. Stefan Wolfe, the prosecutor, argued that Whiteside, now a psychiatric outpatient at Walter Reed, should be court-martialed. After seven years of exemplary service, the 25-year-old Army reservist faces the possibility of life in prison if she is tried and convicted.

Military psychiatrists at Walter Reed who examined Whiteside after she recovered from her self-inflicted gunshot wound diagnosed her with a severe mental disorder, possibly triggered by the stresses of a war zone. But Whiteside’s superiors considered her mental illness “an excuse” for criminal conduct, according to documents obtained by The Washington Post.

At the hearing, Wolfe, who had already warned Whiteside’s lawyer of the risk of using a “psychobabble” defense, pressed a senior psychiatrist at Walter Reed to justify his diagnosis.

“I’m not here to play legal games,” Col. George Brandt responded angrily, according to a recording of the hearing. “I am here out of the genuine concern for a human being that’s breaking and that is broken. She has a severe and significant illness. Let’s treat her as a human being, for Christ’s sake!”

I can’t even begin to comprehend what is happening here. Our fighting men and women are placed in extreme danger, in Hell. Their time in Iraq is extended. Some are sent back for two or three tours of duty. And some simply cannot take it any more.

This is not at all an article advocating suicide, nor an admission that this is the only alternative for those fighting in Iraq. If any of our veterans or soldiers currently serving read this, I have the utmost respect for you and your service to this country. I cannot imagine what you have gone through, or what you are going through if you are serving now.

This country is far too punitive, in every respect. We can’t build prisons fast enough. We have a problem, and our only solution is, “Lock-em up!” But prisons do not build a healthier society.

We all get one shot at life. Some have chosen to serve the United States of America in the Armed Services, and our Coward-In-Chief has put them in harms way. The Coward-In-Chief has yet to attend a single funeral for one of the fallen. The Coward-In-Chief never served, and neither have his children.

The Coward-In-Chief has damned these young people to Hell-on-Earth.

Those who command should spend more time with those who know something about the so-called “psychobabble”, and realize what they are doing to our young people.

Prosecution for an attempted suicide? This is a solution only for those who have ceased thinking, or those who have given up looking for solutions. We need to ask the big questions, and cease the clichés. Soldiers attempting suicide is a real problem, and these petty, simplistic prosecutions are no solution for those trapped in Hell.

Did Oprah Ruin It For Obama?

Posted on by TL

Did Oprah ruin it for Obama?

I wondered that this evening after I heard a friend remark that Oprah had brought the wrong kind of attention to Obama’s campaign.  Too many people see Oprah as “Hollywood” or removed from the real world, and Obama should not have accepted her help on the campaign trail, according to my friend.  He was also concerned that Oprah turned Obama into “the Black candidate”, where before Barack had succeeded in defining himself simply as a candidate.  The concern is that far too many whites will recoil now from Barack because he’s identifying too closely with Oprah.

Election politics always turn my stomach.

Meanwhile, as of today’s writing, John Edwards leads in Iowa — without Oprah.

The Many Problems with Congress

Posted on by TL

I don’t think there ever was a golden age when “the Constitution meant something.” Instead, I think there was a time when the system of checks and balances work more efficiently. We know, for example, that there have always been greedy selfish individuals in government and out. However, we have had periods where these greedy and selfish individuals have been exposed, particularly on the federal level.

I could cite individual examples.  Yes, we all remember Nixon.  Well, let’s assume we all at least heard of Nixon even if we’re too young to remember him — which I’m not.  We can’t be satisfied with the current occupant of the White House.  We’re not.  This man has been a miserable, horrible failure.  But we also cannot be satisfied when the United States Congress sits back and permits abuses to go on, unchallenged, and collectively loses its balls.

It seems like half of Congress wants to be president.  Perhaps that’s always been the case, but in this instance, they’re all running.

The most disappointing thing about this crowd in Congress is not that the Constitution has ceased to work. Rather, it’s that Congress has ceased working the Constitution.

The Dems’ “Alberto Moment”

Posted on by TL

So what happens to this guy now?  Alberto Gonzales is finally out as Attorney General, and we’re all wondering who will replace him.  But what happens to Alberto now?  Does he get a free ride?  Is the president so sure that he’s safer now?

Ruth Marcus at The Washington Post muses on what finally convinced AG it was time to flee:

Did Gonzales finally decide he preferred to leave, or was it decided for him? Based on Gonzales’s previous insistence on staying, I’d guess he was pushed, in one of those Washington, no-fingerprints ways.

We’ll never know for certain.   But Marcus nails the most convincing reason for Gonzales’ departure:

During the attorney general’s last, disastrous appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee a month ago, Wisconsin Democrat Herb Kohl asked the question that was on the mind of anyone watching, and wincing, at Gonzales’s pummeling: “What keeps you in the job, Mr. Attorney General?”

“Ultimately I have to decide whether or not it’s better for me to leave or just stay and try to fix the problems,” Gonzales replied. “I’ve decided to stay and fix the problems.”

This captured precisely why Gonzales needed to go. The notion that Gonzales could “fix the problems” ignored the fact that these were problems of his own creation — in many ways, he was the problem. Gonzales tended to talk about himself as if he were having an out-of-body experience, saying, for example, about the firing of U.S. attorneys: “I am not aware that it certainly was in my mind a problem or basis to accept the recommendation that they be asked to leave.”

Gonzales was the problem, and two major problems remain in Bush and Cheney.   Which brings me to a theme I’ve explored before on Turning Left: Where are the Democrats?  Are they having a collective “Alberto Moment” and forgetting what they were elected to do?  Where is their leadership?

Everyone is so concerned about being in on stage right now.  Seems like half the party is running for president.  Some of our best leaders right now are too concerned about image, too concerned about polls, too concerned about fund raising, too concerned about Iowa, that they’re forgetting to lead.  Some of our best leaders are focusing on the center, trying to be everybody’s lover, everybody’s buddy.

I’ve said this before: We need the Democrats now.  NOW.

Is Iraq Our Forgotten War?

Posted on by TL

Once again I am forced to ask, have we all grown comfortably numb?  Are we content to wait until the next presidential election to hope for any kind of change?  Do we really think a change in administration in the White House will make a difference, whether the victor be Republican or Democrat?

The Democrats are already preparing us for a let-down should they be victorious in ’08.  The New York Times reports:

Even as they call for an end to the war and pledge to bring the troops home, the Democratic presidential candidates are setting out positions that could leave the United States engaged in Iraq for years.

Why?  Their answers are all over the place.

John Edwards, the former North Carolina senator, would keep troops in the region to intervene in an Iraqi genocide and be prepared for military action if violence spills into other countries. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York would leave residual forces to fight terrorism and to stabilize the Kurdish region in the north. And Senator Barack Obama of Illinois would leave a military presence of as-yet unspecified size in Iraq to provide security for American personnel, fight terrorism and train Iraqis.

An American presence would be wonderful, were it not for the fact that we’re still dying.  3,689 American soldiers dead as of this writing.   $451.45 Billion spent.  National Debt, right now, $8.97 Trillion.

Wonderful,

Garrison Keillor on Bridge Collapse

Posted on by TL

Garrison Keillor turns his pen to the Minneapolis bridge collapse.  Along with his disdain for Minnesota government and they apparently abysmal attention paid to infrastructure in the past, he as this observation in today’s Salon.com on the belated political response:

The way to get money to fix a bridge is for it to collapse and kill people, and so Congress promptly awarded Minnesota $250 million for the fallen I-35W. The usual suspects held press conferences to express shock and concern, pledge support, etc. The governor called for a time of healing and he proclaimed confidence in his commissioner of transportation, a large ebullient woman in a bright red blouse. There were prayer services. The Current Occupant came to view the wreckage and to express, in that intense and aimless way of his, his hopes for a better life for us. And then, having raised our hopes, he did not resign from office after all.

The state of Illinois, currently embroiled in a ridiculous budget battle with Governor Blagojevitch, a man more concerned about his last haircut and always-being-right than true dialog with his legislature, has over 1,100 bridges considered to be at risk.  Keillor’s anger at Minnesota and the Feds for lack of foresight could just as well be turned on Illinois, or so many other states.  The politicians’ response is often too little, too late.  Again from Keillor:

Unless the bridges get blown up by helpful terrorists, making us eligible for Halliburton to come in and rebuild them, I don’t imagine that much will happen. There will be an investigation and someday, when we are much older, we will learn that the bridge collapsed due to a unique set of circumstances that could not have been predicted by anybody. Nobody had sex with that woman. Everybody was doing a heckuva job.

Iraqi political crisis grows – And We’re No Boy Scouts

Posted on by TL

I remember a few things from the Boy Scouts.  Leave a place better than you found it.

Yes, I remember.

And we’re so off in Iraq.  So much damage.  So much lost.  So much al Qaeda.  And, funny thing is, al Qaeda was not there in anywhere near the numbers before we arrived.

And now, their wonderful government is collapsing in upon itself:

BAGHDAD – Iraq’s political crisis worsened Monday as five more ministers announced a boycott of Cabinet meetings — leaving the embattled prime minister’s unity government with no members affiliated with Sunni political factions.

<snip>

The new cracks in Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki‘s government appeared even as U.S. military officials sounded cautious notes of progress on security, citing strides against insurgents linked to al-Qaida in Iraq but also new threats from Iranian-backed Shiite militias.

From the Associated Press.

Does anyone in Washington have a clue as to how we’re going to get out of Iraq, after leaving it worse than we found it?

I See White People

Posted on by TL

Oy.  Republicans.  White, one and all.  Even those who are not so white.

It’s true.

Take a look at the Cook County, IL, Republican Party Executive Board:

What a group.   I’m sure it’s a coincidence that all of their People of Color were not elected to office this year.  Must have had other things to do.

Or, perhaps the family maids and chauffeurs don’t get much of a vote in the GOP.

Obama Would Fight Pakistan

Posted on by TL

I’ve let this sink in for a few days.  And I don’t get it.  Obama’s foreign policy seems like it’s all over the place.  From the Washington Post:

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama issued a pointed warning yesterday to Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, saying that as president he would be prepared to order U.S. troops into that country unilaterally if it failed to act on its own against Islamic extremists.

In his most comprehensive statement on terrorism, the senator from Illinois said that the Iraq war has left the United States less safe than it was before the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and that if elected he would seek to withdraw U.S. troops and shift the country’s military focus to threats in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

“When I am president, we will wage the war that has to be won,” he told an audience at the Woodrow Wilson Center in the District. He added, “The first step must be to get off the wrong battlefield in Iraq and take the fight to the terrorists in Afghanistan and Pakistan.”

I don’t understand at all the logic in threatening Pakistan.  Musharraf is not to be taken lightly.  No world leader is.  However, Musharraf is a smart politician, with more experience than Barack Obama.  I am confounded by Barack’s approach.  Invade Pakistan?  When we cannot afford Iraq?

I don’t get it at all.