June 2008 Archives
America has a Double Standard When It Comes to Kids. Victims if Prostitutes, Terrorists if They Are Caught Fighting the US
by Dave Lindorff
Double standards when it comes to children are pretty appalling--especially when it comes to "our" kids vs. "their" kids, but here in America they aren't limited to just right-wingers.
Take reaction to the US Supreme Court's latest ruling that you cannot execute rapists--even those who rape children--on the theory that only killing someone justifies execution.
Politicians who make their careers by promoting state sponsored murder have been quick to condemn this latest "liberal outrage" by calling for more laws that would make execution the punishment for raping a child (admittedly a monstrous crime).
"Anybody in the country who cares about children should be outraged that we have a Supreme Court that would issue a decision like this," says Republican Alabama Attorney General Troy King, who said the court's 5-4 decision makes America "a less safe place to grow up."
Even Barack Obama has weighed in, along with John McCain, in condemning the court's decision, saying that states should be free to pass death statutes for child rape.
Texas Republican Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, supporting death for "repeat child molesters," says, "Our top priority remains protecting our most precious resource -- our children." (Huh? I thought in Texas it was oil.)
Then there's the FBI's latest sweeping busts of child prostitution rings, which rescued 21 juveniles from sex-selling rings. In announcing the arrests of some 300 people, FBI Director Robert Mueller said, "Our top priority in these cases has always been to identify children victims and move swiftly to remove them from these dangerous environments."
"These kids are victims," said Ernie Allen, president of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. "They lack the ability to walk away. This is the 21st-century slavery."
The question is, where are Mueller and Allen and these allegedly concerned politicians when it comes to children who are forced or lured into fighting against the US, whether in Afghanistan or Iraq? Where are they when those children are captured by US military forces and incarcerated with adult captives in hell-holes like Bagram Airbase in Afghanistan, Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, or Guantanamo, where there was a special children's section called Camp Iguana? I certainly haven't heard a word from either Obama or that famous POW McCain in defense of America's child war prisoners.
Take Omar Khadr, shot and then captured and tortured by US forces at the tender age of 15 in 2002 in Afghanistan and held for six years in Guantanamo. Last week, I reported on his story and on plans to try him by military tribunal as a terrorist because he had dared, allegedly, to toss a grenade at US Special Forces troops who had called in an air strike on him and several adult fighters, killing one US soldier (at least one witness to the incident, a US soldier, says it was not Khadr who three the grenade). Nobody's saying that Khadr was a victim. Nobody's saying that he "lacked the ability to walk away" from the Taliban forces that his father and older brothers had him join at the age of 14 a year before. Nobody's saying he should be "identified" and "removed from these dangerous environments."
Nobody in government or in child protection organizations is even investigating to see if Khadr, as a 15-year-old captive, was tortured! Indeed, the US has been blocking both Khadr's military defense attorney and his Canadian lawyer (Khadr is a Canadian citizen) from getting military records giving the details of his capture and subsequent treatment.
Canadian journalist Chris Cook reports that the Canadian government actually argued in Canadian court against releasing the US reports in its possession claiming to do so might "upset relations" between Canada and the United States. (The Canadian Supreme Court in May rejected that pathetically subservient claim by a 9-0 vote, ordering full disclosure.)
The thing is, Khadr is just one of at least 2500 children who have been captured and held as "enemy combatants" by the US in the Bush/Cheney so-called "War" on Terror.
Like child prostitutes, these captives, if they were even actually involved in operations against the US (who would know, since they've never been given hearings in court, and since in many cases the evidence, such as it is, against them is the result of torture, either of the children themselves, or of others), are at worst child soldiers, who cannot be held responsible for their actions. Indeed, under the UN Charter and the Geneva Convention, as amended by a protocol signed by the US in 2002, any of them who, at the time of their capture, were under 18, as was Khadr, are to be considered not POWs or "enemy combatants," but rather victims, who need care and treatment.
Aside from Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), who has filed an article of impeachment against President Bush, charging him with a war crime for holding these children, and for authorizing rules of engagement that have encouraged the killing of children as young as 14, who are "presumed" to be combatants, and for the six other members of the House who have co-signed his impeachment bill (Rep. Robert Wexler, D-FL, Rep. Barbara Lee, D-CA, Rep. Lynn Woolsey, D-CA, Rep. Tammy Baldwin, D-WI, Rep. Maurice Hinchey, D-NY, and Rep. Sam Farr, D-CA), no members of Congress have called for the protection of children captured or held by US military forces.
Their, and the American public's "concern" for the welfare of children is narrowly limited to those who are lured or forced into prostitution. That's it.
Of course, we should not be surprised at this double standard. Most of these same politicians are also quick to support laws that take young children from poor (and usually minority) urban backgrounds who commit violent crimes and have them tried, and punished, as adults. Again, these children are as much victims as the kids who become child prostitutes, but there's no love lost on them by these "child welfare" charlatans.
posted on www.SmirkingChimp.com - June 26, 2008
GREAT ARTICLE....
ShareA great comedian who always made us laugh at ourselves while seeing the truths about our politics, our religions, our morals and our culture...... I will never forget the GREAT GEORGE CARLIN.... G-d Bless his Soul...
My thoughts and prayers go out to his family and friends....
Sharefunny as s.... but sad...
Remember "D" means forward and "R" means backwards....
SO VOTE "D" ACROSS THE BOARD!!!
HAVE A GREAT WEEK.....
ShareHistory repeating itself?
Lesson to be learned?
Does McCain, the next Bush, really care?
On another note: Regarding the economic depression and surge in oil and gas prices we're experiencing... The Pundits don't elaborate, but the truth is-- its all related to the War in Iraq. The billions and billions spent and will be spent has undermined the liquidity of our nation. Those same billions placed back here would certainly change and create a positive economy in a New York minute. Also since the enormous federal deficit created by this lame war, the dollar is worth crap; hence the real cause of the surge of oil prices and gas. Since the dollar is linked to oil, when the dollar falls, the price of oil will obviously goes up... So the answer to immediately save our dismal economy is simple - GET THE FUCK OUT OF IRAQ!!!!
HAVE A NICE WEEKEND...
AND HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!!!!!
LOVE & LIGHT
ShareRepublicans Block Extra Taxes On Oil Companies
by H. JOSEF HEBERT | June 10, 2008
posted on the Huffington Post
WASHINGTON — Senate Republicans blocked a proposal Tuesday to tax the windfall profits of the largest oil companies, despite pleas by Democratic leaders to use the measure to address America's anger over $4 a gallon gasoline.
The Democratic energy package would have imposed a tax on any "unreasonable" profits of the five largest U.S. oil companies and given the federal government more power to address oil market speculation that the bill's supporters argue has added to the crude oil price surge.
"Americans are furious about what's going on," declared Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., and want Congress to do something about oil company profits and "an orgy of speculation" on oil markets.
But Republicans argued the Democratic proposal focusing on new oil industry taxes is not the answer to the country's energy problems.
"The American people are clamoring for relief at the pump," said Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., but if taxes are increased on the oil companies "they will get exactly what they don't want. The bill will raise taxes, increase imports."
The Democrats failed, 51-43, to get the 60 votes needed to overcome a GOP filibuster and bring the energy package up for consideration.
Separately, Democrats also failed to get Republican support for a proposal to extend tax breaks for wind, solar and other alternative energy development, and for the promotion of energy efficiency and conservation. The tax breaks have either expired or are scheduled to end this year.
The tax provisions were included in a broader $50 billion tax measure blocked by a GOP filibuster threat. A vote to take up the measure was 50-44, short of the 60 votes needed.
The windfall profits bill would have imposed a 25 percent tax on profits over what would be determined "reasonable" when compared to profits several years ago. The oil companies could have avoided the tax if they invested the money in alternative energy projects or refinery expansion. It also would have rescinded oil company tax breaks _ worth $17 billion over the next 10 years _ with the revenue to be used for tax incentives to producers of wind, solar and other alternative energy sources as well as for energy conservation.
The legislation also would:
_Require traders to put up more collateral in the energy futures markets and open the way for federal regulation of traders who are based in the United States but use foreign trading platforms. The measures are designed to reduce market speculation.
_Make oil and gas price gouging a federal crime, with stiff penalties of up to $5 million during a presidentially declared energy emergency.
_Authorize the Justice Department to bring charges of price fixing against countries that belong to the OPEC oil cartel.
Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky has acknowledged that Americans are hurting from the high energy costs but strongly opposes the Democrats' response and has ridiculed those who "think we can tax our way out of this problem."
"Republicans by and large believe that the solution to this problem, in part, is to increase domestic production," McConnell said.
A GOP energy plan, rejected by the Senate last month, calls for opening a coastal strip of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska to oil development and to allow states to opt out of the national moratorium that has been in effect for a quarter century against oil and gas drilling in more than 80 percent of the country's coastal waters.
GREAT ARTICLE!!!!
AS THEY SAY SHAME ON THEM ONCE SHAME ME TWICE.... SEE WHAT THE REPUBLICANS HAVE DONE TO AMERICA AFTER EIGHT YEARS:
CORRUPTION...
BANKRUPT OUR GOVERNMENT...
CONTINUATION OF A WAR BASED ON LIES...
A FAILED ECONOMY...
AND AS THE OIL FUTURES SURGE AND GAS PRICES AT SKY HIGH RECORDS AND THE OIL COMPANIES ARE MAKING RECORD PROFITS - YET McSAME - McBUSH - McCAIN ALONG WITH HIS REPUBLICANS DON'T WANT CHANGE BECAUSE THEY WANT THE SAME OLD GAME TO REMAIN THE SAME - MORE FOR MILLIONAIRES AND MORE FOR THE OIL COMPANIES WHILE THE REST OF AMERICA PLUNGES TOWARD POVERTY.... AND THE AVERAGE AMERICAN SUFFERS MORE...
BECAUSE SIMPLY PUT - THE REPUBLICANS DON'T GIVE ONE FLYING FUCK ABOUT YOU, ME AND THE REST OF AMERICA - NEVER AND NEVER WILL...
REPUBLICANS = NARCISSISTIC
SO YES WE CAN!!!! NO MORE OF THE SAME GAME... NO MORE OF BUSH, THE REPUBLICANS & NO MORE SAME OLD CRAP THAT McCAIN WANTS TO MAINTAIN ... CAUSE ITS ALL THE SAME GAME!!!
MARK "D" IN NOVEMBER - AND OBAMA FOR PRESIDENT!!!!
ShareGREAT SPEECH!!!!
WHAT A GREAT VP SHE WOULD BE....
THE DREAM TICKET CAN BE....
OBAMA / CLINTON - THE ONLY TICKET WITH UNITY...
OBAMA / CLINTON 2008
THE PRESIDENT AND VICE PRESIDENT WILL BE
ONLY WITH UNITY!!!!
ShareWhat would be better then Karl Rove being caught with his pants down?
Since Karl Rove has been shitting all over us, what would be better then a little payback?
OKAY - HOW ABOUT A DEMOCRAT FUCKING A NEOCON FOR A CHANGE?
HOPE YOU ALL ENJOYED THE LAUGH!
POLITICS IS LIKE A CAR; "D" STANDS FOR FORWARD AND "R" MEANS BACKWARDS, SO THIS NOVEMBER VOTE FOR CHANGE! VOTE "D" ACROSS THE BOARD AND WE'LL MOVE FORWARD!!!!
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