For a White House that has claimed to represent "values", and constantly seeks to drive that point home with constant reminders exploiting issues such opposition to Gay marriage or to abortion, basic values such as honesty and character seem to have been left far behind somewhere.
With the indictment of "Scooter" Libby, White House Attorney, and former Supreme Court nominee, Harriet Miers made the recommendation that ethics classes be mandatory and held next week. But many, including conservative commentator, Pat Buchanan find this ethics crisis an absolutely embarrassing fact about this administration.
And according to James Paul of the New York based Global Policy Forum, "This is an administration that is not hestitant to torture, invade, break international law and break trreaties. And now they're suddenly figuring out that they need some ethics lessons?"
A U.N. watch dog organization has recommended that Halliburton, the company formerly headed by Vice President Dick Cheney reimburse Iraq for $208 million in overcharges for repairs to Iraq's oil infrastructure. Cheney apparently failed to leave ethical leadership at Halliburton upon leaving the company if the claims of the U.N. organization are true.
And for the first 40 years of his life, biographers such as Kitty Kelley claim that George Bush had abuse problems with alcohol or cocaine. In fact Kitty Kelly claims that these problems existed until 1988. Disputed stories of Bush involvement in a scandal while a young man supposedly getting a 15 year old girl pregnant and supposedly resulting in an abortion or an attempt to get a 14 year old girl drunk while attending the Houston Hemisfair exist on the Internet. Disputed facts do exist in one of the stories. And stories of a sexual affair with a married woman by Bush also exist on the Internet. Bush is the only president ever convicted of a crime to serve in office. While in college he was arrested and convicted of theft. There is a futher allegation that Bush was arrested for cocaine possession in 1972, but his father who was a congressman helped to arrange a ple bargain deal with a judge who gave him community service time at Houstn's Martin Luther King House. Bush admits doing some work there while he was supposed to be serving National Guard duty, but claims that the Guard stationed him there, which is a highly suspect claim never investigated by the media. And some drunk driving arrests have been claimed as well. As governor of Texas, a scandal involving the funeral industry existed, and if the facts were followed by a prosecutor could have resulted in a ethics conviction or other sanction for Bush, removing him from office as unfit. A current national poll finds that 58% of respondants do not feel that Bush is honest or trustworthy. His low poll ratings are drawing closer to that of Richard Nixon, the President most recognized for lies to the public and character shortcomings.
When running for office in 2000, Bush sought to politically capitalize on the ethics problems of Bill Clinton in the Monica Lewinsky scandal. Yet given his own history of alcohol, drug or alleged sexual excesses, was his character any improvement over the moral letdown of Clinton.
Former President Jimmy Carter is lamenting that the Christian Right with roots in Southern racism that started back 40 or 50 years ago, believes itself to be infallibly right about all matters and is promoting a blind faith in the current White House and Republican Party despite huge moral lapses of character and ethics.
A correct Biblical standard for Christian conduct is that ethics and character are constant and unchanging values, and ethical lapses and sin are not movable for political reasons. Some in the current White House claim to respect Biblical values, yet their deeds prove little of this actual respect, so now ethics classes are needed as though these White House adults have not yet learned that to lie, cheat or steal or morally wrong. Apparently the self proclaimed "values party" has much to learn about ethics. The moral problems confined to Bill Clinton have given way to a larger system of wholesale moral lapses in this curent administration. This is certainly no improvement for those concerned about government character or ethics. This is not the "values" government that was promised.
Minggu, 06 November 2005
Sabtu, 05 November 2005
"Over There" Cancelled After Faltering With Iraq War Weary Public
Lightning does not always seem to strike twice. Stephen Bochco's great "NYPD Blue" came to and end last year, as Bochco sought new creative avenues. "Blind Justice", while a good offering, quickly faltered. But the biggest disappointment to Bochco had to be the decision by FX last week not to renew the excellent Iraq War drama "Over There".
"Over There" had to be one of TV's greatest jewels. It was a wonderfully written, produced and acted program that dealt with the ongoing Iraq War. It was a gritty program, with harsh language, extreme and realistic violence, and shockingly graphic storylines. It was Emmy quality for sure. It started out with a strong 4.1 million viewers in the premier episode, but slowly faltered down to an audience roughly one third of what it once had. What went wrong?
It was an interesting experience watching a weekly war drama based on the ongoing war in Iraq. "Over There" was very realistic and extremely well done. Yet my opinion is despite the excellent quality, much of the public has become weary of the Iraq War on one level, and watching it unfold weekly as entertainment just couldn't hold an audience over the next weeks. Subconsciously, the war is wearing the American public down emotionally, it is not yet years removed like WWI, and even those who love war dramas tended to shut it out emotionally. Watching a young soldier shockingly losing a leg from a roadside bomb in one episode, and the slow recovery was emotionally painful for the audience to watch. It was too realistic of drama. It might have been well done. It provided weeks of a returning story line for a cast character. But it was hard on the viewer to stay drawn to it each week. Other FX programs like "Nip Tuck" where sexuality, personal and medical drama is a big drawing card, seem far more escapist by comparison, and continues to hold up good ratings. "Over There" just seemed too real and painful for many to watch.
And some programs on Cable such as "The Dead Zone", "Kojak", "Monk", "The Closer" and "Wanted" ran their series during the summer months or mainly during the months of network reruns, which gave them the advantage of a season not in direct competition with the prime new shows of the networks, who spend much time on promo ads during other programs to insure a heavy advertiser pleasing audience. "Over There" started during the summer months, by then continued to run head to head with the new prime network programs. This diluted the ratings. Yet another FX program, "Nip Tuck" has been able to buck this trend somewhat, and continues good ratings, so this is not the entire problem with the sagging ratings for viewers for "Over There".
And unlike WWII, characterized by large scale and dramatic battles, the Iraq War is like all slow simmering conflict in the MidEast. While "Over There" tried to speed things up somewhat, it still played out at somewhat the pace of all MidEast conflict. There are no Normandy Beach invasions that would make for a "Saving Private Ryan" in Iraq, only the slow grinding down of the American public will and appetite to accept the Iraq War with the steady drip of American blood through roadside bombs or other fairly random acts of violence.
WWII was heavily compacted in years of extreme violence between 1939-1945. By comparison, MidEast conflict started between Abraham and Hagar in the Old Testament. It resurfaced again in Middle Ages' crusades against Muslim control in Europe. And again resurfaced with the Ottoman Empire up to WWI, and left Britain with control in MidEast areas like Palestine, Egypt and the artificial state of Iraq, created from remnants of defeated Turkey and the old Ottoman Empire, pulling together three ethnic groups, the Kurds, Shiites and Sunni Muslims with nothing in common after a younger Winston Churchill drew up a conquest map in hotel room for British troops to occupy this MidEast region. It's pretty difficult to take such a slowly unwinding area of conflict and make it comparable to the huge and dramatic conflicts in WWII, but "Over There" did a fine job. It deserved far better than the untimely end it came to. It will be greatly missed.
"Over There" had to be one of TV's greatest jewels. It was a wonderfully written, produced and acted program that dealt with the ongoing Iraq War. It was a gritty program, with harsh language, extreme and realistic violence, and shockingly graphic storylines. It was Emmy quality for sure. It started out with a strong 4.1 million viewers in the premier episode, but slowly faltered down to an audience roughly one third of what it once had. What went wrong?
It was an interesting experience watching a weekly war drama based on the ongoing war in Iraq. "Over There" was very realistic and extremely well done. Yet my opinion is despite the excellent quality, much of the public has become weary of the Iraq War on one level, and watching it unfold weekly as entertainment just couldn't hold an audience over the next weeks. Subconsciously, the war is wearing the American public down emotionally, it is not yet years removed like WWI, and even those who love war dramas tended to shut it out emotionally. Watching a young soldier shockingly losing a leg from a roadside bomb in one episode, and the slow recovery was emotionally painful for the audience to watch. It was too realistic of drama. It might have been well done. It provided weeks of a returning story line for a cast character. But it was hard on the viewer to stay drawn to it each week. Other FX programs like "Nip Tuck" where sexuality, personal and medical drama is a big drawing card, seem far more escapist by comparison, and continues to hold up good ratings. "Over There" just seemed too real and painful for many to watch.
And some programs on Cable such as "The Dead Zone", "Kojak", "Monk", "The Closer" and "Wanted" ran their series during the summer months or mainly during the months of network reruns, which gave them the advantage of a season not in direct competition with the prime new shows of the networks, who spend much time on promo ads during other programs to insure a heavy advertiser pleasing audience. "Over There" started during the summer months, by then continued to run head to head with the new prime network programs. This diluted the ratings. Yet another FX program, "Nip Tuck" has been able to buck this trend somewhat, and continues good ratings, so this is not the entire problem with the sagging ratings for viewers for "Over There".
And unlike WWII, characterized by large scale and dramatic battles, the Iraq War is like all slow simmering conflict in the MidEast. While "Over There" tried to speed things up somewhat, it still played out at somewhat the pace of all MidEast conflict. There are no Normandy Beach invasions that would make for a "Saving Private Ryan" in Iraq, only the slow grinding down of the American public will and appetite to accept the Iraq War with the steady drip of American blood through roadside bombs or other fairly random acts of violence.
WWII was heavily compacted in years of extreme violence between 1939-1945. By comparison, MidEast conflict started between Abraham and Hagar in the Old Testament. It resurfaced again in Middle Ages' crusades against Muslim control in Europe. And again resurfaced with the Ottoman Empire up to WWI, and left Britain with control in MidEast areas like Palestine, Egypt and the artificial state of Iraq, created from remnants of defeated Turkey and the old Ottoman Empire, pulling together three ethnic groups, the Kurds, Shiites and Sunni Muslims with nothing in common after a younger Winston Churchill drew up a conquest map in hotel room for British troops to occupy this MidEast region. It's pretty difficult to take such a slowly unwinding area of conflict and make it comparable to the huge and dramatic conflicts in WWII, but "Over There" did a fine job. It deserved far better than the untimely end it came to. It will be greatly missed.
Jumat, 04 November 2005
Frustrations In The Muslim World Lead To Paris Riots
Many young men in the Muslim community in Paris as in much of the world find day to day find life very frustrating. In Paris, for example unemployment may range from 30-40% in neighborhoods. And like many of the nations in Europe, such as Belguim, the population of Muslims is rapidly growing. This has created a state of frustration between the governments and young Muslim men who are feel persecuted by the government, angry at joblessness, and sometimes in a state of unhapinessness at the morality of societies like France that run contrary to their faith values.
The world of many Muslim terrorists in the MidEast is similar as well. Muslim society is often very conservative, in fact overly so, where in some nations women are heavily covered by heavy clothing mandated by Muslim religious law, and sometimes the interaction and sexual availability of women is so limited to young muslim men that the sexual enticements of the rewards of many virgins to a suicide bomber who live in a frustrated sense because of poverty and lack of sexual fulfillment leads to violence.
But sometimes there are strange contradictions to this. While part of the anger against America that fueled the 9/11 attackers was a reaction against American society that is viewed as corrupt and immoral in much of the Muslim world, several of the 9/11 attackers actually spent the evening before the atttack in a Hollywood, Florida strip club. The attackers had a history of alcohol use while in America according to 9/11 reports to the Federal Government, as well as histories of gambling and frequenting of prostitutes. All of this is incontrast to the expected conservative values of the Muslim faith that the 9/11 attackers supposedly held close.
Most in Muslim world are good persons in which their faith elevates their entire life and promotes an alcohol free life based on good moral values. But as in every world community a number of alienated young men are prone to violence. This tendency towards violence manifests itself in frustrations in the Paris rioting and in the insurgent actions in Iraq to rid the region of the hated American influence are all signs of this.
Just like in the Christian or Jewish communities where religious leaders offer spiritual outreaches and counseling to their members, this might require that some Muslim religious leaders make a stronger spiritual outreach to members of their faith who feel alienated, especialy young men who fell that they have little to live or hope for.
I have both Muslim and Jewish friends. And I deeply like members of both religious groupings. I like many of Muslim men I know. They are friendly, decent and honest men whose faith have shaped their sense of values. They seem to be able to coexist in the Western world and are able to balance the values of the two communities and still remain true to their Muslim values. Every person's walk with God will face daily challenges. All religious communitie's young people feel these pressures. But in Paris and in Iraq, these pressures seem to have boiled over. Religious leaders need to be a front line in promoting the betterment of their communitie's as well as peace in their communitie's. Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King proved the power to elevate the concerns of the Black community and enact constructive change. This last week's look back at the life of Rosa Parks highlighted this. What are needed are more figures like this to elevate the concerns of various communities to the frustrated concerns of some of the young. This isn't the answer to all violence. In Paris, better understanding by government officials of the poverty and joblessness situation are neeeded as well. Violence caused by joblessness and lack of respect fueled race riots in 1960's America. Paris is suffering a similar growing pain with the growing ethnic Muslim community there. All Western societies should seriously consider goals to work towards full employment economies as well.
The world of many Muslim terrorists in the MidEast is similar as well. Muslim society is often very conservative, in fact overly so, where in some nations women are heavily covered by heavy clothing mandated by Muslim religious law, and sometimes the interaction and sexual availability of women is so limited to young muslim men that the sexual enticements of the rewards of many virgins to a suicide bomber who live in a frustrated sense because of poverty and lack of sexual fulfillment leads to violence.
But sometimes there are strange contradictions to this. While part of the anger against America that fueled the 9/11 attackers was a reaction against American society that is viewed as corrupt and immoral in much of the Muslim world, several of the 9/11 attackers actually spent the evening before the atttack in a Hollywood, Florida strip club. The attackers had a history of alcohol use while in America according to 9/11 reports to the Federal Government, as well as histories of gambling and frequenting of prostitutes. All of this is incontrast to the expected conservative values of the Muslim faith that the 9/11 attackers supposedly held close.
Most in Muslim world are good persons in which their faith elevates their entire life and promotes an alcohol free life based on good moral values. But as in every world community a number of alienated young men are prone to violence. This tendency towards violence manifests itself in frustrations in the Paris rioting and in the insurgent actions in Iraq to rid the region of the hated American influence are all signs of this.
Just like in the Christian or Jewish communities where religious leaders offer spiritual outreaches and counseling to their members, this might require that some Muslim religious leaders make a stronger spiritual outreach to members of their faith who feel alienated, especialy young men who fell that they have little to live or hope for.
I have both Muslim and Jewish friends. And I deeply like members of both religious groupings. I like many of Muslim men I know. They are friendly, decent and honest men whose faith have shaped their sense of values. They seem to be able to coexist in the Western world and are able to balance the values of the two communities and still remain true to their Muslim values. Every person's walk with God will face daily challenges. All religious communitie's young people feel these pressures. But in Paris and in Iraq, these pressures seem to have boiled over. Religious leaders need to be a front line in promoting the betterment of their communitie's as well as peace in their communitie's. Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King proved the power to elevate the concerns of the Black community and enact constructive change. This last week's look back at the life of Rosa Parks highlighted this. What are needed are more figures like this to elevate the concerns of various communities to the frustrated concerns of some of the young. This isn't the answer to all violence. In Paris, better understanding by government officials of the poverty and joblessness situation are neeeded as well. Violence caused by joblessness and lack of respect fueled race riots in 1960's America. Paris is suffering a similar growing pain with the growing ethnic Muslim community there. All Western societies should seriously consider goals to work towards full employment economies as well.
Kamis, 03 November 2005
Marlboro Cigarettes Celebrate 50 Years Of Injury And Death To The Public
As a result of tobacco lawsuits, Philip Morris has been backed into a reluctant educational campaign to inform the public of the wide swarth of injury and death that their products create. Now this campaign is being put on a back burner with a highly organized "celebration" of Marlboro's 50th anniversary as a brand of cigarettes. Very regretably, many top musicians such as John Mellencamp, Lenny Kravitz, Marc Anthony and other top acts will provide Marlboro concerts in New York, Chicago, Louisville and Miami.
This is completely outrageous and unacceptable. It only encourages young people to smoke and to enter the cycle of nicotine addiction and either cause injury and death to themselves, or to others. 50 million Americans still smoke. They injure themselves or others with secondhand smoke.
According to an official release from Philip Morris USA: "Public health officials have concluded that secondhand smoke from cigarettes causes disease, including lung cancer and heart disease, in non-smoking adults, as well as causes conditions in children such as asthma, respiratory infections, cough, wheeze, otitis media(middle ear infection) and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. In addition, public health officials have concluded that secondhand smoke can exacerbate adult asthma and cause eye, throat or nasal irritation".
Is 50 years of any product that causes injury or death to both users or nonusers any cause for celebration? My own mother is a lifelong nonsmoker. Her allergy problems were made into asthma and then emphysema all caused by secondhand smoke. She has breathing difficulties and has to spend $300 many weeks on medications to remain alive. Smokers have complelely destroyed her life and will be her eventual cause of death. Whether riding the bus to work or having to avoid backroom smokers at her work, she has faced serious injury and suffering so smokers could smoke for many years. Now her retirement is spent on huge medical bills and difficulty breathing as a reward for what smokers did to her while waiting for a bus to or from work, or eating lunch at work.
I have serious genetic disorder autoimmune health problems. I have a blood disorder which weakens my heart and lungs and can cause death by this weakening. Halloween day I was unwillingly subjected to secondhand smoke 5 times that day. Once while just walking outside to walk the dogs a few feet around my home. A few minutes later going to the hardware store. A couple minutes late again buyng gas at the gas station. Then twice Halloween night as a neighbor decided he must smoke in front of children "trick or treating" and that blew accross the street to me. I was so sick Halloween evening I nearly needed to be hospitalized. The secondhand smoke creating painful burning sensation all through my ears and sinuses that in turn created serious respiratory problems by morning. Cigarette poisoning is a serious issue that destroys my entire quality of life.
I'm not allowed walk through grocery store parking lots without holding breath or breathing through papertowels because of so much parking lot secondhand smoke. I have to be careful with my car defroster not to suck cigarette air from outside into my car. On a day when it is 90 or even 100 degrees, I have to drive with my windows rolled up with no air conditioning because secondhand smoke from traffic can go right into my car.
In Istanbul, Turkey 7 out of 10 children in a major hospital for ear surgery due to chronic ear infections were found to have a chemical that indicated nicotine in their urine from secondhand smoke that was thought to have caused their very painful and expensive health problems. And as noted above, SIDS has a strong connection to secondhand cigarette smoke. A small baby cannot tolerate the 4,000 poisons and heavy metals in cigarette smoke and exposure to secondhand smoke cause an overdose of poisons and kills many babies each year by cigarette poisoning.
It is absolutely outrageous that Philip Morris celebrates 50 years of marketing a product that has ruined the lives of numerous nonsmokers, limited their ability to even walk outside their home, or to walk into a store to buy a few groceries. Philip Morris deserves a tidal wave of lawsuits from nonsmokers who have had their lives destroyed by having secondhand smoke forced on them when they already have significant breathing problems to deal with. Cigarette smoking is a great moral evil that harms user and nonuser alike. All public smokng should be banned, and any smoking in the presense of children should be prosecuted as child abuse. Surely Philip Morris can find another business to profit from. Dealing in creating nicotine drug abuse in 50 million Americans, creating big health bills and injures or deaths to nonsmokers are hardly any grounds for celebration by Philip Morris. And celebrations of this 50 year legacy of a public health crisis created by a greedy profit driven company are absolutely unacceptable and immoral. Tobacco executive should face one public trial after another for their criminal conspiracy to create a public drug addiction and expensive life-destructive health crisis in America solely to profit.
This is completely outrageous and unacceptable. It only encourages young people to smoke and to enter the cycle of nicotine addiction and either cause injury and death to themselves, or to others. 50 million Americans still smoke. They injure themselves or others with secondhand smoke.
According to an official release from Philip Morris USA: "Public health officials have concluded that secondhand smoke from cigarettes causes disease, including lung cancer and heart disease, in non-smoking adults, as well as causes conditions in children such as asthma, respiratory infections, cough, wheeze, otitis media(middle ear infection) and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. In addition, public health officials have concluded that secondhand smoke can exacerbate adult asthma and cause eye, throat or nasal irritation".
Is 50 years of any product that causes injury or death to both users or nonusers any cause for celebration? My own mother is a lifelong nonsmoker. Her allergy problems were made into asthma and then emphysema all caused by secondhand smoke. She has breathing difficulties and has to spend $300 many weeks on medications to remain alive. Smokers have complelely destroyed her life and will be her eventual cause of death. Whether riding the bus to work or having to avoid backroom smokers at her work, she has faced serious injury and suffering so smokers could smoke for many years. Now her retirement is spent on huge medical bills and difficulty breathing as a reward for what smokers did to her while waiting for a bus to or from work, or eating lunch at work.
I have serious genetic disorder autoimmune health problems. I have a blood disorder which weakens my heart and lungs and can cause death by this weakening. Halloween day I was unwillingly subjected to secondhand smoke 5 times that day. Once while just walking outside to walk the dogs a few feet around my home. A few minutes later going to the hardware store. A couple minutes late again buyng gas at the gas station. Then twice Halloween night as a neighbor decided he must smoke in front of children "trick or treating" and that blew accross the street to me. I was so sick Halloween evening I nearly needed to be hospitalized. The secondhand smoke creating painful burning sensation all through my ears and sinuses that in turn created serious respiratory problems by morning. Cigarette poisoning is a serious issue that destroys my entire quality of life.
I'm not allowed walk through grocery store parking lots without holding breath or breathing through papertowels because of so much parking lot secondhand smoke. I have to be careful with my car defroster not to suck cigarette air from outside into my car. On a day when it is 90 or even 100 degrees, I have to drive with my windows rolled up with no air conditioning because secondhand smoke from traffic can go right into my car.
In Istanbul, Turkey 7 out of 10 children in a major hospital for ear surgery due to chronic ear infections were found to have a chemical that indicated nicotine in their urine from secondhand smoke that was thought to have caused their very painful and expensive health problems. And as noted above, SIDS has a strong connection to secondhand cigarette smoke. A small baby cannot tolerate the 4,000 poisons and heavy metals in cigarette smoke and exposure to secondhand smoke cause an overdose of poisons and kills many babies each year by cigarette poisoning.
It is absolutely outrageous that Philip Morris celebrates 50 years of marketing a product that has ruined the lives of numerous nonsmokers, limited their ability to even walk outside their home, or to walk into a store to buy a few groceries. Philip Morris deserves a tidal wave of lawsuits from nonsmokers who have had their lives destroyed by having secondhand smoke forced on them when they already have significant breathing problems to deal with. Cigarette smoking is a great moral evil that harms user and nonuser alike. All public smokng should be banned, and any smoking in the presense of children should be prosecuted as child abuse. Surely Philip Morris can find another business to profit from. Dealing in creating nicotine drug abuse in 50 million Americans, creating big health bills and injures or deaths to nonsmokers are hardly any grounds for celebration by Philip Morris. And celebrations of this 50 year legacy of a public health crisis created by a greedy profit driven company are absolutely unacceptable and immoral. Tobacco executive should face one public trial after another for their criminal conspiracy to create a public drug addiction and expensive life-destructive health crisis in America solely to profit.
The Moral Decline Of My Old High School
When I first entered Portland Oregon's Grover Cleveland High School in 1969, the Vietnam War was in full rage. Many of the best students became politically involved in opposition to it, and this inspired more serious study of politics by many. At the time, I didn't often agree with some of these positions as it seemed that America's foreign policy would be undercut by such a policy of "cut and run" from Vietnam despite the fact that the war seemed to be headed nowhere. Today, America finds itself involved in a similar quagmire. This time I'm out in front of efforts highly critical of this war, but I'm once again still very wary of leaving the effort without leaving a stable government in Iraq able to stand on it's own before American troops exit. But for high school students, this serious discussion of politics or the morality of life and death issues surrounding war proved to be a be a valuable part of the educational experience. War proved to be a powerful teacher in moltivating study by students and was a worthwhile part of the high school learning experience.
At the same time a negative culture existed. There was a place near the gym where a number of students chose to skip classes and stand around and smoke cigarettes. This area was so designated, "Cancer Hill", representing a area of lost souls, who probably graduated on to low paying jobs, drug addiction, crime or even prison. It was a regrettable and sad dumping ground for some lost souls.
I graduated high school in 1973, and "Cancer Hill" still existed at the time. But it was as bad as things were at the time. But 10 years later, in 1983, I drove to McDonald's to get some lunch to take to my TV shop, but on the way out, "Cancer Hill" had grown dramaticly, and the next entire street was blocked with a huge throng of young hoodlums who refused to allow traffic exiting McDonald's to use the street and proceed. I waited a couple of minutes and finally honked because I wanted to proceed through the street and get to work. But the crowd almost rioted at this turning angry and arrogant and spat on my car. This was an appalling display of the moral decline of far more students than the 1969-1973 days of a few losers at "Cancer Hill". This out of control situation soon led to police actions to control the situation. For a while a heavy police presense and a crackdown prevented such large groups from loitering or using or selling drugs at the "Cancer Hill".
A few years later, gangs had grown at Cleveland. In McDonald's parking lot, police stopped a car that was going to challenge some Asian gang members who had a trunk full of guns. Had the car not been stopped, then a potential gun battle at Cleveland near the "Cancer Hill" area with many deaths would have likely taken place. This was an outrageous degeneration of the moral values of some of those attending Cleveland High School.
Yesterday in Portland, some of the students at Cleveland took a new moral decline as two of three students attending Cleveland were arrested for the attempting beating death murder of a man in Sellwood Park. The teens, as young as only 15 years old, were apparently intoxicated and beat the man so severely that much of his skull had to be removed to prevent the damage from brain swelling, and the man is nearly braindead and in a probable permanent coma from the attempted murder.
From 1969, Cleveland's student problems went from a few smoking and skipping classes to gangs, hardcore drugs, guns and attempted murder. Parents should take a better role of responsibility in their child's lives. Churches need to be more active in inspiring good values. The moral decline of some young people should not continue if there is to be hope for a civil future society. Skipping school to smoke was bad enough. But to recent decline to guns, gangs, drugs and attempted murder have gone way too far.
At the same time a negative culture existed. There was a place near the gym where a number of students chose to skip classes and stand around and smoke cigarettes. This area was so designated, "Cancer Hill", representing a area of lost souls, who probably graduated on to low paying jobs, drug addiction, crime or even prison. It was a regrettable and sad dumping ground for some lost souls.
I graduated high school in 1973, and "Cancer Hill" still existed at the time. But it was as bad as things were at the time. But 10 years later, in 1983, I drove to McDonald's to get some lunch to take to my TV shop, but on the way out, "Cancer Hill" had grown dramaticly, and the next entire street was blocked with a huge throng of young hoodlums who refused to allow traffic exiting McDonald's to use the street and proceed. I waited a couple of minutes and finally honked because I wanted to proceed through the street and get to work. But the crowd almost rioted at this turning angry and arrogant and spat on my car. This was an appalling display of the moral decline of far more students than the 1969-1973 days of a few losers at "Cancer Hill". This out of control situation soon led to police actions to control the situation. For a while a heavy police presense and a crackdown prevented such large groups from loitering or using or selling drugs at the "Cancer Hill".
A few years later, gangs had grown at Cleveland. In McDonald's parking lot, police stopped a car that was going to challenge some Asian gang members who had a trunk full of guns. Had the car not been stopped, then a potential gun battle at Cleveland near the "Cancer Hill" area with many deaths would have likely taken place. This was an outrageous degeneration of the moral values of some of those attending Cleveland High School.
Yesterday in Portland, some of the students at Cleveland took a new moral decline as two of three students attending Cleveland were arrested for the attempting beating death murder of a man in Sellwood Park. The teens, as young as only 15 years old, were apparently intoxicated and beat the man so severely that much of his skull had to be removed to prevent the damage from brain swelling, and the man is nearly braindead and in a probable permanent coma from the attempted murder.
From 1969, Cleveland's student problems went from a few smoking and skipping classes to gangs, hardcore drugs, guns and attempted murder. Parents should take a better role of responsibility in their child's lives. Churches need to be more active in inspiring good values. The moral decline of some young people should not continue if there is to be hope for a civil future society. Skipping school to smoke was bad enough. But to recent decline to guns, gangs, drugs and attempted murder have gone way too far.
Rabu, 02 November 2005
Bush Overplayed His Hand With Alito Nomination
At a point of extreme political weakness over Iraq's continued string of bad news including more than 2,000 servicepersons killed, more powerful roadside bombs abd car bombings by insurgents, "Scooter Libby", Karl Rove, Katrina, intelligence problems leading up to the Iraq War, questions about Bill Frist and Dick Cheney, the Harriet Miers withdrawal after right wing pressure, an unpopular agenda and other problems, Bush and the political leadership of the republican party overplayed their hand with the push for the far right Alito nomination. With mounting problems, a further division issue was not needed. Democrats have found this a political opportunity to drive a truck through.
Yesterday in the senate, democrats voted for a closed session to crank up pressure for the 20month stall into the investigation of how intelligence prior to the Iraq War was handled. Was intelligence about WMD's grossly wrong or grossly distorted?
And Jimmy Carter has a new book dealing with values that is challenging the values of the religious right, and also is another political challenge to the vulnerable mess that republicans have currently dug themselves into. Tonight on Larry King he'll be discussing this book. Jimmy Carter may not have been the best American president ever, but he is admired and trusted enough that his words will bear some weight and will begin to unwind some of religious right efforts and challenge the republican party embrace of this radical political rather than spiritual movement that has little to do with Biblical values or even basic decency. There is nothing in the Bible to justify their radical antigun control views for example. And there is certainly nothing to justify the extreme views of Supreme Court nominee, Alito's views allowing for public ownership of machine guns. The right to bear arms is certainly protected by the Second Amendment. However some weapons intended for mass destruction need to be banned by government, and preventing public ownership of dangerous weapons that threaten public safety, police officers, or could contribute to serious crime or even terrorism is a reasonable exception to Second Amendment concers . The government has a legitimate public safety concern banning assault rifles, machine guns, "cop killer" bullets, handgrenades, bombs or even atomic weapons from public ownership. Alito and the far right may hold extreme views on this matter. However, most in law enforcement would certainly disagree and support reasonable restrictions on public ownership of very dangerous weapons.
It really was not the time at all for Bush or the republican leadership to overplay their hand, with the hope of a further divisive fight created with the Alito nomination. Democrats will actively stage a big political counterattack that will aim for public support, and as long as public support falls behind the issues democrats will champion in this new political offensive, the political offensive is likely to continue. Bush should have signaled a more cooperative political environment with a moderate Supreme Court choice. Instead he has left more political blood in the water for democrats to encircle like sharks upon when he chose the far right Alito to ignite a new controversy days after the White House was rocked by the "Scooter" Libby indictment.
The republican rule in Washington is rapidly beginning to unravel. With a sharp turn from more moderate, more mainstream policies under Eisenhower and Nixon, towards a steady drift to increasingly extreme values, the thin wedding of a procorporate agenda with values of the far right , involved a coalition whose values were not always in common, or acceptable for the wide public consumption expected of a party that holds many political majorities in legislative bodies and the White House. The democratic counterattack will not only use a scappel to chip away at the public acceptance of the values held by the far right or the procorporate agenda, but will find itself learning as it goes along what issues work and how much public support exists for this battle. It's early enough before the 2006 elections, that a trial ballon for this new political campaign has plenty of time for a trial.
Yesterday in the senate, democrats voted for a closed session to crank up pressure for the 20month stall into the investigation of how intelligence prior to the Iraq War was handled. Was intelligence about WMD's grossly wrong or grossly distorted?
And Jimmy Carter has a new book dealing with values that is challenging the values of the religious right, and also is another political challenge to the vulnerable mess that republicans have currently dug themselves into. Tonight on Larry King he'll be discussing this book. Jimmy Carter may not have been the best American president ever, but he is admired and trusted enough that his words will bear some weight and will begin to unwind some of religious right efforts and challenge the republican party embrace of this radical political rather than spiritual movement that has little to do with Biblical values or even basic decency. There is nothing in the Bible to justify their radical antigun control views for example. And there is certainly nothing to justify the extreme views of Supreme Court nominee, Alito's views allowing for public ownership of machine guns. The right to bear arms is certainly protected by the Second Amendment. However some weapons intended for mass destruction need to be banned by government, and preventing public ownership of dangerous weapons that threaten public safety, police officers, or could contribute to serious crime or even terrorism is a reasonable exception to Second Amendment concers . The government has a legitimate public safety concern banning assault rifles, machine guns, "cop killer" bullets, handgrenades, bombs or even atomic weapons from public ownership. Alito and the far right may hold extreme views on this matter. However, most in law enforcement would certainly disagree and support reasonable restrictions on public ownership of very dangerous weapons.
It really was not the time at all for Bush or the republican leadership to overplay their hand, with the hope of a further divisive fight created with the Alito nomination. Democrats will actively stage a big political counterattack that will aim for public support, and as long as public support falls behind the issues democrats will champion in this new political offensive, the political offensive is likely to continue. Bush should have signaled a more cooperative political environment with a moderate Supreme Court choice. Instead he has left more political blood in the water for democrats to encircle like sharks upon when he chose the far right Alito to ignite a new controversy days after the White House was rocked by the "Scooter" Libby indictment.
The republican rule in Washington is rapidly beginning to unravel. With a sharp turn from more moderate, more mainstream policies under Eisenhower and Nixon, towards a steady drift to increasingly extreme values, the thin wedding of a procorporate agenda with values of the far right , involved a coalition whose values were not always in common, or acceptable for the wide public consumption expected of a party that holds many political majorities in legislative bodies and the White House. The democratic counterattack will not only use a scappel to chip away at the public acceptance of the values held by the far right or the procorporate agenda, but will find itself learning as it goes along what issues work and how much public support exists for this battle. It's early enough before the 2006 elections, that a trial ballon for this new political campaign has plenty of time for a trial.
Selasa, 01 November 2005
Politically Weak Bush Allows Right Wing Thugs To Muscle His White House Around
As Bush grows weaker and weaker politically, strong forces within his party that he owes political favors continue to muscle him around. With the John Roberts nomination, big corporate contributors such as Wal-Mart no doubt played a major role in his selection of this corporate lobby attorney. Alice Walton, the Wal-Mart heiress, has already contributed more than $2.6 to Progress For America, the main organization that ran ads promoting Roberts to the high court. With issues involving Wal-Mart such as store sitings, labor or product liability lawsuits, Wal-Mart and other megacorporations had a tremendous financial interest in rebalancing the court as far as possible against the consumer and labor.
But as scandal, the worsening war in Iraq, and sagging public opinion polls begin to dominate Bush's second term White House, the far right who brought little financial contributions to the republican party find that they can also muscle around the White House as well. Bush chose his personal friend and attorney Harriet Miers to be nominated for the Supreme Court, but the far right proved that they could visciously attack her and force her out of consideration and force a far more confrontational choice. And this "brownshirt" political mentality looks forward to a division fight that will tear the country in two politically.
Normal people believe in a peaceful and civil political dialog, not a divisive dialog that tears the country apart in a new form of 1850's civil war "rebel yell" mentality. Where does such a crazy mentality of conflict come from. Scripture makes it clear that the devil is the father of all divisions and factions, and all conflict is from his very heart. Those that seek to injure America by advocating a deeply divisive judge like Alito and seek to impose a far right agenda on the country that is racist, antimmigrant, antilabor and anticonsumer, live only to fight battles. The far right raises money this way. They exaggerate the views of those they disagree with, and claim those they disagree with are evil, when the truth is Scripture plainly points out that the devil is the major source of the divisions and factions they create.
The leaders of the far right would be without a source of income from promotion of their invented "issues" for fundraising gain. They don't live to solve problems, but only to distort issues and create conflicts to base multimillion dollar fundraising on. The James Dobson's and Tony Perkin's of the far right would be without the access to millions in fundraising without having invented issues to exploit to live lifestyles comparable to the millionaire "lifestyles of the rich and famous". They can care less how much damage their promotion of conflict creates.
(Post Script: No it is not a typo that I refuse to capitalize the "devil". I refuse to even give him as much credit as to offer him capital letters. For me this is an important point)
But as scandal, the worsening war in Iraq, and sagging public opinion polls begin to dominate Bush's second term White House, the far right who brought little financial contributions to the republican party find that they can also muscle around the White House as well. Bush chose his personal friend and attorney Harriet Miers to be nominated for the Supreme Court, but the far right proved that they could visciously attack her and force her out of consideration and force a far more confrontational choice. And this "brownshirt" political mentality looks forward to a division fight that will tear the country in two politically.
Normal people believe in a peaceful and civil political dialog, not a divisive dialog that tears the country apart in a new form of 1850's civil war "rebel yell" mentality. Where does such a crazy mentality of conflict come from. Scripture makes it clear that the devil is the father of all divisions and factions, and all conflict is from his very heart. Those that seek to injure America by advocating a deeply divisive judge like Alito and seek to impose a far right agenda on the country that is racist, antimmigrant, antilabor and anticonsumer, live only to fight battles. The far right raises money this way. They exaggerate the views of those they disagree with, and claim those they disagree with are evil, when the truth is Scripture plainly points out that the devil is the major source of the divisions and factions they create.
The leaders of the far right would be without a source of income from promotion of their invented "issues" for fundraising gain. They don't live to solve problems, but only to distort issues and create conflicts to base multimillion dollar fundraising on. The James Dobson's and Tony Perkin's of the far right would be without the access to millions in fundraising without having invented issues to exploit to live lifestyles comparable to the millionaire "lifestyles of the rich and famous". They can care less how much damage their promotion of conflict creates.
(Post Script: No it is not a typo that I refuse to capitalize the "devil". I refuse to even give him as much credit as to offer him capital letters. For me this is an important point)
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