The Sunday Evening Post: Censorship Edition

Internet Censorship Comes to the Western World

The Internet Is such a powerful tool for exposing those who do wrong, and everyone from the suburban mother to the Chinese government realizes that. Australia also seems to know that and is preparing a blacklist that that blocks a government accountability website, WikiLeaks. The reason for the block is that WikiLeaks exposes government website censorship lists, which in turn list out sites containing illegal porn. There is absolutely no reason to block WikiLeaks if their web filters work correctly, just because there’s a list somewhere of banned websites doesn’t give anyone inside Australia a magic key to get past their filter.

GOP Wants Execs to Keep Multimillion Bonuses

There’s been a huge firestorm over the million dollars bonuses executives and others associated with AIG have received. The Republicans have been steady lambasting Democrats, especially Chris Dodd, in an attempt to make them look like corporate cronies. But when it came to doing something about the reckless bonuses the majority of House Republicans voted to let AIG executives keep over $200 million of taxpayers money.

Obama Administration Really Understands Energy

Six people in the Obama administration don’t drive cars. Presumably they have the funds to acquire a vehicle but have decided that since DC has so many other great ways to get around (Metro, bicycle, walking, and even the dreaded bus) they don’t want a polluting and fattening automobile. It’s great to see that some of the people making energy policy decisions like Carol Browner, the Energy and Environment Czarina and Steven Chu, the Secretary of Energy understand that automobiles are a huge part of the global warming problem. Hat tip, CommuterPageBlog.

Previously on “The Young American.”

Since we last left you, a new administration has taken over Washington D.C. Democrats have finally found themselves in control of everything, and it’s all they’ve ever wanted. Yet unfortunately,  partisanship has rebounded, and Senators Ben Nelson of Nebraska (”D”) and Susan Collins of Maine (R)  find themselves as the most powerful people in the United States right now.

The inauguration on January 20th could probably be considered the worst in history if it hadn’t been so historical . Yo-Yo Ma’s music was a recording, Aretha Franklin’s voice was dreadful, and Elizabeth Alexander’s poem could best be described as silly and unemotional. Let’s not even talk about the oath flub.

President Obama issued an executive order closing the “detention center”/torture camp at Guantánamo Bay in his first day in the White House. It could take up to a year, and terrorists could soon be coming to a town near you. No seriously, this is a good thing. At a time when the United States’s image is tarnished around the world, it’s an important signal that we are ready to rejoin the world community by rejecting torture.

The passage of the $789 billion economic stimulus had to have been one of the most dramatic events in modern world history. Or at least CNN made it seem that way. Wolf Blitzer interrupting nice anchor lady: “Hold on a minute Candy, we have some breaking developments. President Barack Obama’s economic stimulus plan has not been talked about in the last five minutes. We just wanted to give you an update. Nothing has happened.” (Not an actual quote.)

In local news, billionaire Meg Whitman, and former CEO of eBay, has announced that she intends to run for governor of California. She’ll have no chance at election once the public gets a good look at her 0% “feedback rating.” Rihanna got beat up by lover Chris Brown. Reports are saying the attack involved an umbrella-ella-ella-eh-eh-eh. At least I tried.

Enough Fun. It’s time to get serious now. There are still serious issues plaguing the American public right now. ‘What can I do to help?’ we ask ourselves. President Obama can’t do it alone. If anything, he needs our support and our ideas. Conservatives are already claiming the Obama presidency has failed. We cannot let that happen. Nobody said this was going to be easy. Please follow me on Twitter.

From Political Rival to Top Cabinet Position.

It is all but official that New York Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton will become the next Secretary of State under the incoming Obama-Biden Administration. Clinton, who is seen by many as the leading rival of Obama within the Democratic Party, now is taking a huge step over political stubbornness and is accepting a position. Although highly coveted, this position will take her away from the political stage which she has grown to love. Many have argued that the Democratic Party is currently split in two. One group being the strong supporters of Obama who are among all age groups within the party, but with a large majority being those under the age of 45.  While group two are strong supporters of Clinton. The demographic makeup for Clinton supporters are those more mature in age and more women tend to support Clinton.  Supporters of both Obama and Clinton have been mixed in their reviews of this next phase in the Clinton/Obama saga. It seems that the majority of not only Democrats, but Americans as a whole, view Clinton’s rise to the head of the State Department as a good choice.

However, there are some who are very skeptical of this rumored pick. There are some Obama supporters who were very angered by the campaign run by Clinton during the primary season and did not wish to see her attaining a top level position in the Obama Administration. While they understand the reasoning that Obama is picking a “Team of Rivals,” they feel with Clinton at the helm of the State Department she will slowly but surely begin to create her own foreign policies and will push back against the orders from the Oval Office as much as she will follow those orders. With Clinton being married to former President Bill Clinton, his foundation donor lists being in question during the primary season, there are some who would question Hillary’s motivation while working with those international officials who have been major financial backers of her husband.  Then you have those supporters of Clinton who are excited to see their preferred presidential candidate rising to a high level position and they wonder if this choice was all but political. With Clinton being the top rival of Obama’s supporters, many have been quietly murmuring that this choice removes her from the political scene, and that all Obama is doing with the creation of his “Team of Rivals” is to ensure that he is the only leader within his party. They feel this move is to ensure that Clinton remains a strong supporter of Obama’s and is unable to create any new whirlwind that she may decide to run again during the 2012 election (this is of course contingent on the fact that Clinton remains Secretary of State for Obama’s entire first term).

One must also consider what will be the role of a Vice President Biden, who was during the general election, a strength for Obama in terms of foreign policy. Now with Clinton at the head of the State Department, what will this mean to Biden who has vowed to be an integral part of the foreign policy strategies as the issues may arise. This however seems to be far from reality with Clinton in control of the State Department. One thing is clear about Clinton, and that is simple, she is a leader and if she is taking the post at the State Dept. it will have been made clear that she will run the department without much input from Biden unless the orders come from the Oval Office.

Who really knows what this decision will actually mean to President-Elect Obama or Senator Clinton. It is certain that from the outset this seems to be a positive joint venture and will bring the celebrity cabinet that Obama desires.

The American Dream Deferred

The American Dream Deferred

“America was established not to create wealth but to realize a vision, to realize an ideal - to discover and maintain liberty among men. “-Woodrow Wilson

It has been many years since the time of American Dreams realized. It would seem, since the birth of this great nation, that we the people have forgotten to realize the vision. A vision , that sculpted the mountain of the American way and made the U.S. the pinnacle of the World. Founded on the principles of liberty, freedom, and justice for all, we have throughout history contradicted the very principles that made us who we are. We as America have been the wind that has carried democracy, natural rights, and freedom throughout the valleys of the world, yet we deny many who are our fellow the natural right for well being.

Today’s America has matured from the days of slavery, denial of women’s rights, civil rights for all Americans, and public discriminatory racism to childish bickering of democrats versus republicans, conservatives versus liberals, and patriots and terrorism. When will the debauchery in America end. When will our greed and selfishness be replaced with Americanism and selflessness. People elect their representatives for irrational views than for the commonwealth of people and our nation. Our country bled the blood of countrymen for rights of freedom of religion but dictated politicians to the code of “Christianity”. Our spite of our fellow man and self interest blind our founding principles of the American way. The American dream.

Somehow we as a people have tarnished the glorious western light of liberty with pettiness and and foreign bullying. We arrogantly borrow from countries whose governmental ideologies differ from one another and then shove democracy in to nations whose culture and religion that conflicts with our concepts. The American Dream has evolved into the nightmare from the west, who dictates and forces our religion and democratic ideologies on the very difference that we cherish as America. How have we stray so far from home. Why do we roam for fear and force instead of exploration and innovation. We have allowed our fear to distort our vision of the world and manipulated Christianity to justify the cause.

It is that clouded judgment that has somehow made Christianity a qualification to be a real American. In a country founded on the bases of freedom of religion, we have become a nation that persecutes and isolate those whose religious preference differs from our own. In today’s world, we fight the crusade against Muslim nations and label it the war on terror so we can have a clear conscience. when we go to bed at night. Subsequently. we have become the very terrorist we despise and seek out. Not to point fingers but, it seems since Conservative Republicans took office eight years ago, hate, fear, and deception has been the fuel that drove our military into the heart of Muslim nations to wage war with and idea.

From observation of this nation’s past decade, one notion is true the American dream has been lost, abandoned for hate, diminished by fear and discouraged by deception. When will she return, when lady America grace American shores with her glory. It is not certain the time nor the hour, but merely determined by the minds and hearts of the American People who dream the dream of dreams.- William R. Gilbert, Jr.

Wake Up America

Why America? Why?

What are we fighting for in Iraq?

What are we trying to win?

What are we trying to accomplish?

What are we winning?

Where is the honor in fighting in Iraq when we invaded on false pretenses?

What is the mission we are trying to accomplish?

We used the names and the lives who were lost on 9/11 in vain to validate a dishonorable war in

Iraq.

What are We doing America?

Why have we lost sight of our true American Ways?

When will America act like America and have the unity that makes us the “United” States?

We all must be able to compromise on our views,feelings, and opinions in order to do good for the Whole.

“He who exercises government by means of his virtue may be compared to the north polar star, which keeps its place and all the stars turn towards it. “- Confucius

We as a Nation must grow together as one. Since the days of our founding fathers we have been

the light of the world’s horizon and to ensure that our light shines into the future collectively as

one we must resound the voices of liberty across the world.

Wake Up America.

- William Gilbert, Jr.

Barack Obama, President

For months I have been mulling a Bob Barr endorsement. But after some consideration, I will reluctantly support Barack Obama.

In the first months of the primaries, I supported libertarian Ron Paul, since I am a libertarian. If Ron Paul would have won the Republican nomination, I am confident he would win in a landslide. But once it was inevitable that Paul had lost the nomination after loses in Iowa and New Hampshire he did fairly well in Nevada and won in Louisiana - people will tell you McCain won it, but Paul did - I endorsed Bill Richardson.

Shortly after that Richardson dropped out, and I endorsed the last good candidate left in the race, Hillary Clinton. I felt Hillary had the executive experience, and that Senator Obama’s only executive experience was on the board of Chicago’s Annenberg challenge, which is not presidential.

Obama was a state Senator, only active in the US Senate for 146 days, whoever supported him in the primaries (nearly 18 million voters) must have been high on something! But Hillary Clinton (a little over 18 million votes) had the experience to be president. But once Joe Biden was picked, I knew Barack Obama was walking away from just saying “change” and “hope” to focusing on the issues like Hillary Clinton.

Bob Barr seems like a good candidate with seven percent of responders in today’s Rasmussen tracking poll choosing someone besides Obama or McCain. But he still seems like a waste of a vote.

And so I reluctantly support Senator Barack Obama for president.

Not Change

McCain is not change, and neither is his wing man, Pallin. Obama is the change candidate, he is the candidate that used the change platform. Since the Republican convention it seems the Same Old Party has been trying to adopt change as it’s new name, with little challenge from Obama (swift boats anyone?). However Barack Obama is now visibly hitting back in an email he sent to supporters this afternoon:

[McCain's] new ad uses what news organizations are calling “naked lies” to reinvent two politicians whose records embody the same culture of corruption and far-right policies we’ve seen from the Bush administration.

The biggest whopper in the ad (that’s still being repeated day after day by McCain and Palin on the campaign trail) is that Governor Palin stopped the infamous “Bridge to Nowhere” — in fact, she supported it, and even hired a lobbyist in Washington to get more pork-barrel projects like it.

If the McCain-Palin campaign wants to have a debate about who is prepared to bring the change we need, we’re more than ready.

More than this not being change, the McCain story has been floundering on their experience equals judgment claims too. It seems they can’t use judgment to come up with their own campaign motto’s (the best judgment would be actually joining the progressive platform, not just using it’s campaign language).

Stop acting like we won! And vote the right way.

I was not pleased with the Democratic convention last week, when all the big Democrats were acting like we won this election and there is no need to attack John McCain’s negative personal record. I could tell you, during next weeks Republican national convention, the Republicans won’t be talking about how  Barack Obama is a great patriotic American, and how he is only wrong on the issues! We have to stop playing Mr. Nice Guy and attack McCain for running a campaign based on his POW record. We need to swift boat him!

I was recently talking to a progressive, and asked him who he is voting for, and he said ‘McCain’.  I asked why, and he said ‘ Well, Obama will win New York anyways, so lets give the underdog some respect’. The Obama camp must talk to these crazy voters!!!!

For your frustration: More VP news!

Voting Race: How the Republicans can or will beat Obama.

In the past few weeks I have seen lifelong Democrats reluctant to vote for Barack Obama. In my neighborhood (which is Democratic by a large margin) most people supported Hillary Clinton (as I did). I have seen cars parked who used to have Hillary stickers now have McCain stickers. Why? I asked some people about it and they think Obama would be the presidential version of the former NYC African American mayor David Dinkins, who was not popular even among the black community.

Polls show Barack Obama winning by a razor thin margin. There is always the possibility that people are donating money and telling pollsters that they will vote for Obama to sound politically correct, and by the election they will vote for McCain or not vote at all.

I asked that question to Professor KC Johnson (BA and PhD. from Harvard University, MA from University of Chicago) who a few weeks ago predicted Obama would win in a landslide with well over 300 electoral votes.

Read more

Obama Campaign: Ready to fight

Today the Washington Post reported that Barack Obama’s campaign for president will open 20 new offices in the state of Virginia.  Some of these offices are located in areas where he didn’t do well in the Virginia Primary, and where Senator McCain is favored greatly.  The Obama campaign is putting resources into areas where the pundits would have you believe he doesn’t stand a chance.  This campaign, however, is not going to concede any state without a fight. Read more

69 People I Will Not Have Dinner With

The FISA Amendments Act of 2008 has passed the Senate. For those who did not read my post yesterday, this bill grants the telecom companies immunity for helping the NSA spy on phone conversations so that we may never know the extent of the NSA’s warrentless wiretapping program, and grants the president even more warrentless wiretapping powers. What follows is a list of all the senators that voted in favor of the FISA bill. Hopefully, I never have to meet any of these people (again), because I do not want to shake their slimy hands. Read more

Hersh: Congress Agreed to Bush Request to Fund Major Escalation in Secret Operations Against Iran

Veteran Investigative Journalist Seymour Hersh has published an article in the New Yorker Magazine that asserts that congressional leaders agreed to a request from President Bush last year to greatly increase funding, to 400 million dollars, for a major escalation of covert operations against Iran. This escalation of these covert and secret activities is meant to destabilize the religious leadership of Iran. Hersh wrote his article based upon information from “current and former military, intelligence, and congressional sources.” The article notes that covert activities by the United States are not new in Iran–we have been conducting cross-border operations from Southern Iraq since last year.

The request for the $400 million was described in something called a “Presidential Finding”, signed by President Bush, and, under Federal Law, these Presidential Findings “must be issued when a covert intelligence operation gets under way and, at a minimum, must be made known to Democratic and Republican leaders in the House and the Senate and to the ranking members of their respective intelligence committees”. The article by Hersh noted later that, “In other words, some members of the Democratic leadership—Congress has been under Democratic control since the 2006 elections—were willing, in secret, to go along with the Administration in expanding covert activities directed at Iran, while the Party’s presumptive candidate for President, Barack Obama, has said that he favors direct talks and diplomacy.” This is a glaring contradiction and hypocrisy that is certainly not unfamiliar to the politics of the United States.

I hope that we all can now clearly see that the Republican Party is a war-like party of imperialists and interventionists. And I hope that we can now also clearly see that the Democratic Party is a war-like party of imperialists and interventionists, through their aiding and abetting of policies that are as such. I hope that we can now clearly see that both political parties are about policing the world, and spending huge amounts of taxpayer dollars to do so. We are spending 400 million dollars alone on trying to destabilize one single country. That money could have gone to education. That money could have gone to healthcare. That money could have gone to infrastructure. But, out of all of the needy areas of our country, our political leaders, of both parties, decided to direct the money instead towards destabilizing another country. 400 million dollars! That could not be described as “spare change”. Obviously, though, there is no “change” that our leaders can spare. And the small, superficial change that they do provide is worthless.

But Iran is not the only country targeted by the United States. According to Dennis Kucinich’s 35 Articles of Impeachment against President Bush, “On September 30, 2001, then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld established an official military objective of overturning the regime in Iran, as well as those in Iraq, Syria, and four other countries in the Middle East, according to a document quoted in then-Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Douglas Feith’s book, ‘War and Decision’.” The four other countries in the Middle East were, according to Wesley Clark, Libya, Sudan, Somalia, and Lebanon.

It is my opinion that the United States has been the interventionist policeman of the world for too long. And especially covert interventions, because that promotes “blowback”, defined as a term used in espionage to describe the unintended consequences of covert operations. Hatred in the Middle East towards the United States as a result of our covert operations targeting Middle-Easterners, and then Middle-Easterners demonstrating their hatred in a terrorist attack, is an example of blowback.

Is it honestly in our best interest to undertake operations such as this, especially when domestic issues are in such dire need of attention? And, ask yourself, do we even have the right to interfere in and destabilize another country, someone else’s country, as such? My personal opinion is that we have neither the right nor the obligation to try to destablize the governments of other countries and throw them into political chaos. Aside from the concerns of blowback and the misplacement of tax money, it is very important to do unto others as you would want done unto yourself.

The perfect Veep?

I’m going to give you some biographical information about an individual who I think would be a perfect VP choice for Barack Obama. Based on the information, see if you know right away who I’m talking about:

… Graduated from La Salle Academy in Providence and attended the United States Military Academy in West Point, where he received a Bachelor of Science degree in 1971. Following his graduation and receiving an active duty commission, [he] attended the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, where he received a Masters in Public Policy.

[...]

… An Army Ranger and a paratrooper, served in the 82nd Airborne Division as an Infantry Platoon leader in the 325th Infantry Regiment, a Company Commander, and a Battalion Staff Officer. He returned to West Point in 1978 as an Associate Professor in the Department of Social Sciences.

[...]

… Resigned from the army in 1979 as a captain and enrolled in Harvard Law School.

[...]

… Elected as a state senator in 1984 and served three terms. In 1990, was elected to the United States House of Representatives. For the next six years, [he] became well known in his state for his positions on education and health care…

[...]

U.S Senator since 1996… currently a member of the Senate Armed Forces Committee, the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, and the Senate Appropriations Committee. Americans for Democratic Action has often listed him as a “hero” as they indicate he has one of the most liberal voting records in the Senate.

[...]

Voted NO on authorizing use of military force against Iraq; voted NO on constitutional ban of same-sex marriage; rated 100% by NARAL, indicating a pro-choice voting record; rated 100% by the NAACP; rated F by the NRA, indicating a pro-gun control voting record; rated 100% by the AFL-CIO, indicating a pro-union voting record; voted YES on adding 2 to 4 million children to SCHIP eligibility; the list goes on and on.

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