Quote of the day--on war. And peace

Jimmy Carter, telling it like it is (guest post)

From the The Gazette last evening:

U.S. drone attacks amount to human rights violations, Carter says

America's citizens accepting human rights violations never imagined before 9/11

Former President Jimmy Carter said Thursday that America is engaging in – and its citizens are accepting — human rights violations that “would never have been dreamed of” before the terrorist attacks that occurred in this country 11 years ago.

The nation’s 39th president said the U.S. government under both Republican and Democratic administrations has violated 10 of 30 provisions set out in a universal declaration of human rights that was forged after World War II, including perpetually detaining people in prison without informing them of any charges, providing them access to legal counsel or bringing them to trial and more recently by killing people via the use of unmanned drones.

“We have now decided as a nation that it’s OK to kill people without a trial with our drones, and this includes former American citizens who are looked upon as dangerous to us,” Carter told a group of Drake University students involved in a social-justice learning program.

“Not just terrorists, but innocent participants in weddings and so forth that happen to be there. I think this is acting in a way that turns people against us unnecessarily because there is a great deal of animosity about the United States that is unnecessary, in my opinion, because our drones are performing these things” in places like Pakistan, Afghanistan, Yemen and even in the Philippines, he said.

“These are the kinds of actions that would never have been dreamed of before 9/11,” Carter noted, referencing the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.

“I think we need to go back to the purity of the guarantees of basic human rights,” he added. “Most Americans either don’t know about it or accept it. I’m not criticizing one leader compared to another because both Democratic and Republican leaders are participating in these violations. We should all look upon human rights as something that is precious to us because we need to get back and be the champion of human rights and I believe the champion of peace as well.”

And he's so right. This is all a horrible travesty and no way to operate in the world.

Full story here: http://thegazette.com/2012/09/13/u-s-drone-attacks-amount-to-human-rights-violations-carter-says/

Jimmy Carter, analyzing elections, needed here in the States

I've been listening to NPR this week as former President Jimmy Carter has been overseeing Egypt's elections.

Wow. What a great guy. What great work.

I don't know of another president who, once out of office, did so much for so many with his time and energies.

This is the 90th election Mr. Carter and his Foundation has overseen.

Good for him.

And in the case of each of those elections and nations having them, good for them.

But you know what?

The time has come, it seems obvious, that Mr. Carter's efforts to see to it that elections are run fairly, honestly and justly comes all the way back home to his own nation, here, in the U.S. of A.

Ever since the election of 2000, at least, when that one for our nation leader--our president--was so obviously at least manipulated, if not out-and-out stolen, it's been clear that our elections need 3rd party, unbiased oversight.

We've already got Republicans writing and passing all kinds of legislation in several states, at least, disenfranchising their citizens and possible voters. It even happened here in Kansas and Missouri.

It's been documented how African-Americans, in particular, all across Florida, had their votes ignored or thrown away, in past elections.

And now it seems to be happening yet again in Florida:

Florida telling hundreds of eligible citizens that they are ineligible to vote

Here's just four brief, different examples from the article:

- 1638 people in Miami-Dade County were flagged by the state as “non-citizens” and sent letters informing them that they were ineligible to vote.

- Of that group, 359 people have subsquently provided the county with proof of citizenship.

- Another 26 people were identified as U.S. citizens directly by the county.

- The bulk of the remaining 1200 people have simply not responded yet to a letter sent to them by the Supervisor of Elections.

We need election oversight here in the United States.

Please, Mr. President, bring your people and efforts back home where we sadly, badly need them.

Links: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/jimmy-carter-says-despite-violations-in-egypts-presidential-election-vote-acceptable/2012/05/26/gJQAtkMZsU_story.html; http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2012/05/27/491012/exclusive-florida-ineligible-to-vote/?mobile=nc; http://www.addictinginfo.org/2012/05/27/when-you-cant-win-cheat-election-fraud-from-coast-to-coast/; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bush_v._Gore;http://world.std.com/~cme/html/election2000.html; http://gadfly.igc.org/politics/dissent.htm;http://www.stripersonline.com/t/847402/what-if-obama-v-romney-is-bush-v-gore-close

Election year prediction

"If Mitt (Romney) loses Michigan on Tuesday, the Republicans won't have a candidate until the Republican convention, and he'll be barely strong enough to give acceptance speech." Robert Reich, yet another "tweet" last evening." --American political economist, professor, author, and political commentator. He served in the administrations of Presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter and was Secretary of Labor under President Bill Clinton from 1993 to 1997.

Quote of the day

“We must make it clear that a platform of ‘I hate gay men and women’ is not a way to become President of the United States.” --Former President Jimmy Carter

Quote of the day

"Make no mistake: We are still held hostage by radical right. Paying ransom always leads to more extortion." --Robert Reich, political economist, professor, author, and political commentator. He served in the administrations of Presidents Ford and Carter and was Secretary of Labor under President Bill Clinton from 1993 to 1997. Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Reich

Suddenly Jimmy Carter looks far more prescient, doesn't he?

There is a report out today of a secret military analysis of the world oil markets that says we may have already hit the "peak oil" moment or, if we haven't, that it will happen this year and what that means for the world: German military report: Peak oil could lead to collapse of democracy Peak oil has happened or will happen some time around this year, and its consequences could threaten the continued survival of democratic governments, says a secret Germany military report that was leaked online. According to Der Spiegel, the report from a think-tank inside the German military warns that shrinking global oil supplies will threaten the world's economic foundations and possibly lead to mass-scale upheaval within the next 15 to 30 years. As if that weren't enough, the article points out similar information may be going through Britain, as well: Last Sunday, the UK Observer reported that Britain's Department of Energy and Climate Change is refusing to release documents related to peak oil, even though, as the Observer noted, previously released documents argue the veil of secrecy around the issue is probably "not good." Turns out now former President Jimmy Carter was far more wise while he was in the White House after all, then, doesn't it? At the time, people laughed at him because he carried his own luggage (which, admittedly, was pretty dumb and unnecessary, I'll give you that), but also for asking us to wear sweaters and turn down our furnace thermostats. If this report is true, he had his eye much more on the bigger picture for the country than he's been given credit. If we had done what Pres. Carter had said and continued to wean ourselves off oil, the likelihood that we'd be in the Middle East, sending soldiers there to fight and some to die, and then blowing it up and rebuilding it--essentially wasting billions of dollars in resources--that likelihood would have been reduced greatly. So here's to you, Jimmy Carter. We apologize for not listening. (On a more local note for the Kansas City metropolitan area--suddenly that mass transit idea doesn't seem so stupid and unnecessary, does it?) Link to original post: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/0901/german-report-peak-oil-collapse-democracy/