Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Went to meeting

Senator Corker gave a pretty good talk this afternoon. Not much substance except that he feels we should give the President's escalation plan six months. I didn't hear him say what we should do at the end of six months. I also did not have a chance to speak with him one-on-one. I was pleased, however, that there was about 30 minutes of Q&A. Several people had good questions about the war against Iraq. There were a few questions regarding illegal immigration. There was a question regarding the Rules of Engagement for TN National Guard troops on the border, but I think the Senator misunderstood. The question related to the four TN Guardsmen who were confronted by a rather large group of armed men in early January. I think Senator Corker's answer related to the shooting of an un-armed man by two Border Patrol agents. In the Senator's defense, he has been on a whirlwind trip to Kuwait, Iraq, and several US cities over the last few days, and was sleep-deprived. All in all, I feel that he will be a pretty good Senator. Like all of our elected leaders, he will need our input in order to know how we feel. Please visit the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives websites to learn who your representatives are and how to contact them.


snikta

Goin' to meeting

United States Senator Bob Corker will be at the courthouse here at 2pm for a "town hall meeting". I'm a little skeptical about the true nature of this event. At a true town hall meeting, ideas are brought forth by the public, and everyone there is free to discuss and offer solutions. That is the purest form of democracy. I don't expect that to be the case. I'm sure that the Senator has a speech written, and that there will be no opportunity for the public to comment. There may be a few plants by the local Republican party with softball questions, but I'm a little doubtful of even that.

I disagree with Mr. Corker's stated position on some issues, like abortion and the Iraq war. But he did vote to increase the federal minimum wage, while my representative in the House did not. Shame on you, Rep. Davis. Both TN Senators voted "Yea" on the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2007. I am thankful for that. I look forward with interest (mixed with a small amount of hope and a little trepidation) to hearing what the Senator has to say this afternoon. I shall post later with my thoughts on what he says.


snikta

Saturday, February 17, 2007

Short post

Thank you, Representative Campfield. While I disagree strongly with most everything you say, you obviously put a lot of effort into your position, and people like you help me practice patience. That said...

What do you support? I see your opposition to the Governor and his policies, and to the Democratic party in general, but I don't see what you stand for. I am not a constituent, so I have no expectation of an answer. (If I REALLY wanted an answer, I would email the Rep. I am just posting it here.) I don't beleive that we need to have an alternative plan in order to complain, but I do kind of expect our elected leaders to go further than just saying "I don't like it." I would like to see his bill regarding issuing death certificates for aborted fetuses pulled. I will be contacting my repsentatives asking them to oppose it if it should ever get a vote. If you don't know about it-this is a bad bill. It's bad because it doesn't do what the Rep says. It's bad because it only divides us from each other. It's bad because it is not a stretch of the imagination to see this being used to harm women.

It is wonderful for people to oppose abortion. They have every right to do so. They need to be honest about their objectives when they do so, however. Stacey Campfield is trying to use his position in the General Assembly to take a sneaky swipe at abortion-and that is wrong.

Abortion is a legal and safe medical procedure. As such, it deserves the same treatment as any other. Leave abortion to those whom it affects. Let's stop trying to reverse Roe vs. Wade, or making thinly veiled attempts to get information about who is having abortions. If you just want to know how many (like you say), that info is available. If you want to know about statistics such as race and age and geography, it's not really your business, but do a study.

For a very good perspective on this issue and other issues facing (mostly) women, check out Women's Health News. The blogger is a friend of mine, and always makes valid points.


snikta

Thursday, February 15, 2007

commentary

**Note: this post is in response to a comment I read on Cup of Joe Powell. I was going to leave a comment of my own, but it just kept getting longer and longer, so I made it a post of my own. I do recommend this blog, though he occasionally gets his info from a biased source. So, without further ado, my post. . .


When will they learn? There is no way to defeat terrorism. The very act of fighting terrorism creates terrorists.

This is a problem whose only solutions are through words. The way to resolve this issue is through some combination of diplomats, civic organizations, and religious leaders. One of the biggest hurdles on the path to peace is the attitudes we all bring to the table. We cannot approach this issue with a closed mind (on either side), or failure is emminent. A fanatic CAN be reasoned with, but only when you and he both realize that you were created by the same God (or Allah-just different names for the same figure) with the same care and love, and that He doesn't favor one person over another. We need to come to the realization that we are not fighting Islam, we are fighting people. To claim that we are fighting Islam leads to the conclusion that this is another Crusade, and I think we all agree that the Crusades were not in accord with Christian beliefs.

Like many Americans, I was in support of the war before it started. I believed that the government in Iraq was actively seeking to do harm to us, and I was a little excited (I'll admit). Since then, though, we have learned so much:

We have learned that Iraq had no capacity to harm us or their neighbors. We learned that Iraq was not engaged in a program that would give them that capacity. We learned that there was no connection between Iraq and al-Qa'ida (though there is now-thanks to us). So we waged war based on contrived "evidence" that we were to be attacked again one of these days. What we don't hear enough of is that this war was waged in violation of international laws.

We invaded a sovereign nation, that had neither harmed nor threatened to harm anyone. Then we removed a democratically elected leader and arrested him for crimes that he did not commit. Yes- the election was rigged, and there was no chance of Saddam losing it, but our own elections are also corrupt. Yes- Saddam did commit horrible crimes against many thousands of people, and he stood trial and paid the price for those crimes. But what have we gained from this flaunting of international law?

Nothing.

We are not safer. So we haven't had a terrorist attack on U.S. soil since 9/11/01. That's 5 years and change. When was the last foreign terrorist attack on U.S. soil before that? Wasn't it in 1993? We didn't go on a global rampage after the WTC was attacked then, and we went 8 years without a foreign attack. And to say that the U.S. hasn't been the victim of an attack since 2001 is just inaccurate. We are attacked every day in Iraq.

To say that the terrorists will follow us home if we leave Iraq is nothing more than fear-mongering. I think we've had enough of that; what we need now is honest discussion. We need facts-not rhetoric.

We got off to a good start in Afghanistan, but we didn't finish. We just moved on to Iraq, and now Afghanistan faces a real threat from the Taliban. We overthrew the Taliban (which WAS a dangerous government) five years ago. Shouldn't Afghanistan be better off by now? Afghanistan has virtually no capacity to ensure public health, and medical care is almost non-existant. But what are we doing about it?

Also nothing.

Just like the Iraqi people, the Afghani people are worse off since our "help". Let's look for a diplomatic solution to Iraq, because there is no military one. Let's take care of the people we can take care of. Let's start here at home. Let's finish the job in Afghanistan. Let's finish the job in New Orleans. Let's fix our health care system. Let's fix Social Security. Let's urge and help our southern neighbors to create good-paying jobs, so that their citizens can stay at home and still make a living. Let's do something about global warming. Let's legislate higher CAFE standards for cars AND trucks. There is no reason that we should think of 20 mpg as good, even for a pick-up truck. Let's increase funding for embryonic stem-cell research, because that science has the possibility to cure diseases like Parkinson's, Alzheimer's and Diabetes. Let's do something about the ongoing genocide in Darfur, or the AIDS epidemic in Africa. Let's work to end hunger and poverty.

The war in Iraq is a waste of our resources. The last thing we should be doing is sending more of our brave soldiers to fight in a civil war. We certainly cannot cut off funding for our troops who are there right now, but I would like to see Congress refuse funding for any escalation of the war.


snikta