Politics

“The entire deaths of Vietnam died in vain. And they’re dying in vain right this very second. And you know what’s worse than a soldier dying in vain? It’s more soldiers dying in vain. That’s what’s worse.” -Mike Gravel, former Senator of Alaska

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Senator John McCain believed the Vietnam war was winnable, and it is important to understand why he not only believed that Vietnam was winnable, but that Iraq is winnable as well. It goes back to core principals of honor which are shared by a long line of military commanders in McCain’s family. But Honor is an ideological tenant that can not be a shield from the realities of power and politics.

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Back in high school I remember hearing numerous people in different churches who talked about their belief that Jesus would come back to Earth in their lifetimes. They saw the signs and fulfillment from prophecy everywhere, but how much of this prophecy is self fulfilled from vague interpretations of scripture? Why are some Bible texts interpreted literally and others metaphorically? Why are some Christians so desperate to see the end of the world and to what ends does that affect the actions of fundamentalists in political office?

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No one knows what the revered civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. would say today about the war in Iraq. However we do know what he said about the war in Vietnam.

“..and I knew that I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without have first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today: my own government…” -Martin Luther King

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By now, everyone is talking about the economic crisis. From the workplace water cooler to bathroom chatter, everyone is mentioning it. And the situation is affecting everyone, or is it? Gas and food prices have been going up long before recent bank collapses and the problem in the housing market may have caused many home owners to lose their houses, but there are still plenty of apartments for rent. Is the government’s $700 billion bailout truly necessary, or is it simply placing more money into the hands of unscrupulous bankers whose poor decisions may not have the snowballing effect everyone is predicting?

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Last Saturday a protest rally was held, in front of the CNN center in Atlanta, GA. It was for a man named Troy Davis; a man on death row for allegedly killing a police officer.

Troy Anthony Davis, a thirty-nine year old former sports coach, allegedly killed a police office in Savannah, GA. He was convicted purely on eye-witness testimony and since his conviction, seven of the nine witnesses have recanted their account. Appealing his case has been difficult due to the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (AEDPA) signed in under the Clinton era which made appeals difficult for convicted criminals and sped up their sentencing.

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Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made a controversial trip to the United States to speak at the United Nations General Assembly. Time was short as many news correspondence sought interviews. Ahmadinejad has been known to speak often to foreign audiences, through the use of a translator, with his straightforward and sometimes compelling yet often humorous rhetoric including his famous, “There are no homosexuals in Iran” quote.

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I was at a friend’s apartment the other night and on the TV set was CNN’s Headline news. The story for twenty solid minutes: Casey Anthony. A woman who allegedly killed her 3-year-old daughter. There was not one mention of Lehman Brothers collapse, or the Merrill Lynch buyout. For twenty solid minutes, all that was seen was people commenting on Casey Anthony, protesters standing outside her home and Nancy Grace yelling annoying to the audience.

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There has been a lot of main stream coverage of the Democratic and Republican conversion. Kucinich’s “Wake Up American” speech and Palin denying accepting funds for “The Bridge to Nowhere” seem to take the top of the newsreel, with asides to the hurricane season upon us. However the real story of the protesters has been all but non-existent in the main stream media. At both the DNC and RNC, major protests have taken, and are currently taking place.

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In 2001, a trial began for the 1998 embassy bombings in East Africa. Prosecutors wanted to try Osama bin Laden along with the four men they had in custody, but in order to do so, they needed to prove he was the head of a criminal organization and charge him under racketeering laws (similar to the head of a mafia). To this end they enlisted the help of Jamal al-Fadl who build a foundation story that bin Laden was a criminal mastermind behind the organization Al-Qaeda. In reality, Bin Laden had a very small group. Some militants came to him for funding, however they were mostly independent and set their own objectives. Propaganda videos bin Laden produced were filmed with hired soldiers who were told to bring their own uniforms and weapons.

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