I sure can't.

I have been a life member of the NRA for about 45 years, but I can't seem to explain that YES, Obama has voted for firearms control every chance he got, and NO, Barack Obama probably never touched a firearm in his life, and never went target shooting, and wasn't in the military, and doesn't like guns because he has no experience with them.

Here in the Midwest there is a real and significant problem with meth - to the point of paranoia on the part of both the population and government.  This has led to laws restricting access to certain precursor drugs and chemicals, reports of environmental damage (meth labs tend to produce some really nasty chemical contamination), and the development of special task forces of local, state and federal police agencies to target meth production and distribution.  It is the War on (Some) Drugs on steroids.

I am a bit of an idealist, I think. But am I a purist?

I don't think so. If I were a purist, I might see things the way Christopher Hitchens did. As the so-called 'liberal' Iraq war advocate, he made the case for the Iraq war, at least initially, not so much out of the desire to fetch oil or strengthen Western hegemony. He felt the war was closest to his ideal that we should help the oppressed.

And you know what? In that, he may have been right. The belief that the Iraq war was wrong is a form of realpolitik, at least it was for me. Mindful of the Just War doctrine's credo, my opposition was rooted in the conviction that "the use of arms must not produce evils and disorders graver than the evil to be eliminated; the power of modem means of destruction weighs very heavily in evaluating this condition."

Today on CBS' Face the Nation, Senator Joseph Lieberman offered a blunt reason for why we should vote for Senator John McCain instead of Senator Barack Obama;

"Our enemies will test the new president early," said Lieberman.  "Remember that the truck bombing of the World Trade Center happened in the first year of the Clinton administration. 9/11 happened in the first year of the Bush administration."

Jonathan Martin of Politico comes away from that statement with the following observation;

That is some statement -- and one that I doubt Lieberman just hatched over coffee in the Green Room.

Now for my response.

Six years after the invasion of Afghanistan, the Taliban have been getting stronger. The Afghan government blames Pakistan for failing to prevent the insurgents from entering its territories. But most Afghans blame their own government. Who's to blame? And are the Taliban really making a comeback?

So, here I am happily returned from gathering signatures for our neighborhood on a new rule we wish to put in.  I figured I'd scan DKos and The Page by Mark Halperin real fast and see what I had maybe missed.  It seems I missed alot this last week.

Every week, on Friday, Mark puts out a PDF for "Campaign Scorecard".  I usually find it interesting, but something stuck out at me like a sore thumb, considering I made a post about it last night here.

Was rather surprised to have what I said in the Lara Logan diary, to be so blatantly confirmed by Mark.

I thought all the crossable lines had already been crossed.  Clearly I was wrong.  It appears, after yesterday's Congressional hearing on the current administration's use of 'enhanced interrogation techniques' (aka torture) that there is a vast grey area which could cross us further into outrageous behavior in the war on terror.  

After everything we have seen and heard, the mismanagement and misdirection that has led to to the losses of thousands of lives -- by some estimates more than a million -- and trillions of dollars wasted for a cause that seems at least partially inspired by greed; and the neglect of our country's infrastructure, our food security, our healthcare, etc...  Really too many lines have been crossed already into the wrong side of morality -- for what?  we still don't fully know.  

A Canadian Court has ruled that the US government is using torture in its Guantanamo bay detention facilities, and Canada is a complicit accomplice.

Kirk Makin reports:

"The information is relevant to the applicant's complaints of mistreatment while in detention," Judge Mosley added. "While it may cause some harm to Canada-U.S. relations, that effect will be minimized by the fact that the use of such interrogation techniques by the U.S. military at Guantanamo is now a matter of public record and debate."

Every once in a while, I like to find out what the wingnuts are saying.  I used to put on Limbaugh once in a while if I drove to get lunch, or Hannity on the way home for work now and again.  It helps because I when I engage a wing-nut (aka visit my dad) I know what the arguements will be before he opens his mouth, and I have my answers already worked out.

Hi folks,

Wanted to bring this to the attention of people here in the States because it's the only pressure the Colombian government fears. Yes, that "War on Terror" ally of Mr. Bush (and DynCorp, Blackwater etc) Colombian government.

The right in Colombia has had blood, or corruption money, on its hands since time immemorial and the only pressure they fear is in Washington. Let's pay them back for supporting Bush & Co. when they lied to get us into an unnecessary war. A very profitable war for his buddies in the oil and armaments' industries, I might add.

These are the first few lines of a letter signed in the last few days by Professor Chomsky, and others, addressed to President Alvaro Uribe, with copy to the Colombian Ambassador Carolina Barco and Secretary of State Condoleeza "Condi" Rice. It was sent today.

the rest can be read at:   Colombia Support Network

It should be clear by now that the McCain campaign and the GOP surrogates are all over Obama's allegedly being "soft on terrorism".  "Terrorism" is the new Communism.  But it's not an ideology. Just a time-honored tactic that almost every ideological, nationalistic, or patriotic movement has used. The Boston Tea Party was an act of terrorism in some ways.  I cannot understand how the Democrats have bought into the terminology of the "War on Terror". Edwards came close to bringing this out into the open when he called it a "bumper sticker slogan" or something like that.

OK, never mind all that.  Maybe it's too late to educate the public on this issue.  Perhaps the public understands that the "war on terror" means how to prevent radical Islamic terrorist attacks.

But the "pre-9/11" failures are those of the GOP, not the Democratic administration.  Who is making this point besides Vincent Bugliosi in his new book, THE PROSECUTION OF GEORGE W. BUSH FOR MURDER?

This, and foreign policy in general, should be our issue, not theirs.

I thought hard on whether this merited a "posted without comment". Really I did. But then the deep feelings of nausea came in waves from my inner realms and I couldn't help myself.

Ladies and gentleman, we don't want our soldiers running away from the armed forces and we CERTAINLY can't afford to give them all sorts of college tuition benefits and what-have-yous. In fact, it's so hard to keep them in these days, we've partnered up with Dale Earnhardt Jr. to help us stem the tide.

General William G. Boykin (ret.), implementer of US torture policies in Iraq under Donald Rumsfeld:

Here's the way I want to enter the gates of Heaven. I want to come skidding in there on all fours. I want to be slipping and sliding and I want to hit the gates of heaven with a bang. And when I stand up and I stand before Christ, I want there to be blood on my knees and my elbows. I want to be covered with mud. And I want to be standing there with a ragged breast plate of righteousness. And a spear in my hand. And I want to say, "Look at me, Jesus. I've been in the battle. I've been fighting for you." Ladies and gentlemen, put your armor on and get into battle. God bless you.

A very ecstatic crowed cheered as Ethiopian forces withdrew from their post in Beletwein this weekend. Thousands in Somalia took to the streets last month to protest U.S. attacks and express frustration at the chaos that ensued Washington's proxy-war in Somalia. It's evident that the presence of Ethiopian forces in Somalia and the existence of U.S. support for this invasion are not well received by Somalis. The U.S. has launched four widely under-publicized air strikes in the country and is responsible for providing monetary and logistical support to Ethiopia's invasion of Somalia. A new insurgency has emerged from the catalytic effects of CIA funded "Alliance for Restoration of Peace and Counter-Terrorism in Mogadishu" (ARPCT) and Washington's counter-terrorism campaign in Somalia. Apparently not satisfied with the precarious and seemingly endless quagmire in Iraq and Afghanistan, Washington is determined sink our Ethiopian allies in the same position in Somalia.

I've been following the expansioin of the war in Afghanistan into Pakistani territory. To recap briefly, Pakistan held elections, and the newly elected national and regional government in the frontier provinces won on a pledge to talk to and make peace with the tribesmen in Pakistan's frontier provinces bordering Afghanistan.  Pakistan has no further intention of killing its own citizens to pleae the US, and, predictably, the US is reacting violently.

Last week a major incursion and air strikes took place into the Pakistan border region, with 11 Pakistani Frontier Corps soliders killed in US airstrikes. The US is still denying this, but at the same time, US puppet Karzai just issued threats to cross the border with the Afghan Army and target Batullah Mehsud, the top Pakistani Taliban leader, and the US launched another strike into Pakistani terrotory, targetting Batullah, while the British have confirmed a large expandion of their Special Forces operations in Pakistani terrority. The sound you are hearing is the US being sucked into a major escalation of conflict with a nuclear Muslim power.

Read on for the Apocalypse Now update.    

In case you haven’t heard, Nestles has come out with an "Eco-Shaped" bottle for water.  They are telling us it’s good for the environment because it uses less plastic than it used to and has a smaller label.  But before you run out and buy a bunch of these things to save the environment, you should recognize that your local water utility provides the same product minus the environmental costs associated with creating and disposing of plastic containers, which makes the Nestles ad a case of greenwashing.

Greenwashing, and the larger issue of environmental degradation, may not be a problem well-suited to America's strengths.  Like the Romans, we are better at handling threats from without the imperial walls than those festering within.  We have tried and true methods for dealing with fascists, communists, and now terrorists.  When we have a problem abroad, we know what to do.  We blow it up.

"No freeman shall be taken or imprisoned or dispossessed, or outlawed, or banished, or in any way destroyed, nor will we go upon him, nor send upon him, except by the legal judgment of his peers or by the law of the land." 1

"One of the worst decisions in the history of this country." 2

"The privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion the public Safety may require it." 3

McClatchy has started a series today on our 'War on Terror'.

McClatchy tracked down 66 men released from Guantanamo in the most systematic survey to date of prisoners held there. Many had no connection to terrorism, but their experience turned them against America.