It’s time to come clean.

 

 

 

Let me start by saying that I am not a conservative. I don’t even know if I am a democrat at this point. I am definitely not an independent. I am just an individual of the United States of America right now trying to do the best that I can. I have friends that are conservative, democrat and independent. With that said….

I think now is the time for all radical or ultra whatever conservatives to come clean on their thoughts and feelings regarding the race of the President of the United States. Now I don’t want to call anyone a racist. In some exchanges I have had with conservatives, whether it be via social media or in person, they always come back with “…how come anytime someone says anything about this President, they always have to be a racist?” OK, let’s take racism off the table then. How about we just have honest and intelligent dialog of the explanations regarding the following list of the latest tidbits of conservative complaints.

1:    Republican Congressman Thaddeus McCotter has drafted a resolution that he has now put to committee for Congress to vote on a bill to force President Obama to apologize to Cambridge police officer Crowley for Obama’s statement to wit ”The Cambridge Police acted stupidly”. I repeat, “The Cambridge Police acted stupidly”. That statement absolutely did not name Officer Crowley. I believe that even the most radical conservatives will obviously agree that Professor Gates  should not have been arrested. Officer Crowley stated in his report that he arrested Professor Gates because he was yelling and being a little unruly. However, the released recording from the police cruiser, as well as the police report from another officer on the scene, showed no evidence of Professor Gates being unruly. Also, the Cambridge Police Department filed no charges against Gates.  They did in fact issue an apology to Professor Gates for the entire incident…..I’m refering to the period from the dispatcher call to the arrest itself. The President still thought it best to speak with Officer Crowley and Professor Gates personally and invited them both to come to the White house “for beer”.  The President also held another short press conference where he stated that he could have used different terminology in regards to his comments about the incident. Was that enough for the conservative right? Apparently not. Congressman McCotter and several other Republican Congtressman are still moving forward with their resolution. Why? Not because he’s the first Black President….. right?

2: Several Republican senators and congressmen offered media sound bites and talking points fanning a flame of hate and ignorance by questioning whether or not President Obama is actually a US citizen and whether or not he was born in the United States. It has gotten so rampant that that the President had his staff get a copy of his birth certificate, his hospital of birth record, as well as the original birth notice from the newspaper of the city he was born in and had all that information posted on several different news channels. Wasn’t that enough? No, not for the right-wingers! Still the House went ahead and passed a resolution honoring the 50th anniversary of Hawaii becoming a state, as well as confirming that President Obama was indeed born there. It passed 378 votes to zero. The reason that this vote is so hypocritical is that many of the Republicans that voted yes unanimously in that resolution were the same ones that fanned the controversy via television and radio and on the House floor with talking points. Did they really believe that President Obama’s mother, father, grandmother, and also the hospital and city newspaper, had the incredible forsight to forge his birth certificate, hospital records and newspaper notice with the hope that some day he might run for President. It’s absurd…..right? Again I ask, why? It’s not because their racists right?

3:  “Boss” Rush Limbaugh has repeatedly verbalized his hopes that President Obama is “doomed to failure”. Can you grasp that?….to actually wish that the President of your country fails? Does that help the country? “Boss” Limbaugh has a reported 20 million viewers a day. That is a lot of people to influence. He constantly questions the President’s patriotism, citizenship, religious beliefs, and whether or not he’s a racist or reverse racist. He constantly degrades Judge Sonia Sotomayor and makes jokes regarding her heritage and latina affiliations. He even said, ala Ricky Ricardo, that she “….had some splainin’ to do….”. Why? He doesn’t fan these flames of hate or separatism because he’s a racist, right? Then why does he do it? Is there any reasonably sane person that could say that race isn’t the driving force behind his comments? Really? Look in the mirror America! There’s a quote from one of my favorites movies that I would like to run by you. In the movie “The Godfather”, the Don says to this gangster (Solozzo) who wanted the Don to finance his drug venture, “It makes no difference to me what a man does to make a living”. I live by that same type of credo. It even extends to how someone feels about race. It makes no difference to me how a person feels about race. You can be either a card carrying stone cold racist, a closet racist, a part time racist or just someone who just isn’t ready for the United States to have a Black President. I don’t really care. I mean, you are already in the minority now. To me, that’s progress. My things is ADMIT IT ALREADY!!!! Why beat around the bush? Why lie? Why play partisan games? Can’t you stick up for your beliefs? If you can say it in private, why can’t you say it out front? Until you can, how can you expect even your followers to put any credence in what you say? Please listen to me carefully here folks. As an African American for 100% of my life, I am very accustomed to the fact that racism is real and it still exists in America. However, it is slowly but ever so slowly evaporating and it will continue to do so. Get onboard and at least have the courage to state your stance and stand by it and stand your ground if you must. The United States affords you the right to freedom of thought and speech. Don’t hide behind inuendos and bullshit talking points.

As usual:

That’s just my opiniion, I could be wrong.

To Torture or not to Torture.

 

 

 

I going to start this post with a basic dialog of the Rules of War;

Specifically Prisoners of War:

The difference between an ordinary criminal and a prisoner of war is important. An ordinary criminal may be detained, prosecuted, and punished in accordance with the domestic criminal laws of the country in which the crime is committed. A conventional soldier who is captured by the enemy must be humanely treated in accordance with the international rules of war. Under these rules prisoners of war are required to give their captors only enough information for identification, such as name, rank, serial number, and date of birth. Captors may not torture prisoners to extract information from them nor subject prisoners to punishment without first complying with specific legal procedures.

Under the rules of war, prisoners of war may not be punished for wrongs committed by the armed forces to which they belong, and medical and scientific experiments upon prisoners are forbidden. Captors must provide prisoners with sufficient food and beverages to maintain good health, and adequate standards of clothing, housing, sanitation, and hygiene are prescribed. To encourage accountability, captors are required to disclose the names of prisoners to the belligerent for which they were fighting when captured.

Now having said all that. I want to tell you a short story. I will not reveal  the source of this story for reasons that will be obvious as I continue.

In 1985 there was a DEA Agent that was killed in Mexico named Kiki Camarena. This murder was the incident that catapulted the US into “The War on Drugs” era, & into high gear. Nancy Reagan started a very high profile campaign. Now, to the average American smoking some weed, freebasing a pipe, snorting some coke or shooting some heroin, this didn’t mean a whole lot. However, to a Special Forces/Operations Soldier, this was a life altering experience.. Members of Special Forces Groups and Teams were being deployed to different areas of the World in attempts to slow down/stop the influx of drugs coming into this Country. For one particular squad this was about to be a pivotal point in their lives.

This group was deployed to South America. The mission was to burn coca fields that they were given the “grid coordinates” to.

When you are dropped into the Columbian jungle with a specific grid coordinate under the cloak of darkness and no Congressional approval/oversight, you are there in complete secrecy. Now you must remember, there was no Fox News and CNN smothering every Military action back then. A secret mission was just that, secret. There also comes with that specific rules of engagment that they were assigned to follow. I won’t get into to much specificty here, but let’s just say that in this type of capacity you only fire when fired upon. This allows you to hopefully complete the mission without collateral damage that then needs to be explained. Now back to the jungle. This patrticular squad while executing their mission were surrounded by Colombian rebels and taken hostage. The rebels did not fire when approaching, however, their numbers were too geat for the 7 man squad to engage. While being held the squad members were tortured for the purpose of revealing what the next times and grid coordinates were for the coca fields that were targeted. Now because the Operations Control Center always assumes nothing, each squad was given one set of grid coordinates at a time. This meant that no matter how intense the torture was, the squad members had no real answers for the torturers. In Military speak, that means that the rebels got no actionable intelligence thru the torture. This is the essence of why torture des not work and has no guarantees. The squad was held there for 7 days before being extracted by a British Commando Team that I will not name here today.

I guess the moral of this story is that no matter how long you torture, or the method of torture, you are more likely to get false information than anything that will solve your reasons for the torture. Not to mention that you now put bulleyes on anyone of your particular comrades if they are captured or held hostage.

I know that there are many members of the Bush Administration and even some of their follower who look at this subject rather trivially. I am here to tell you that there is nothing trivial about it. So before you agree with Cheney and Boss Limabaugh and the like minded, think very carefully.