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Comments Posted By choicelady

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What Can Be Done to Stop Children From Crossing Our Borders?

First hand observers say the issue of childhood asylum by the US is NOT a factor – no one in Honduras knows that. It is just desperation to find a better life – or life at all. Many of the kids have some family here, so those who can connect up are headed for the US. Others in Mexico are the ones who do NOT have family here. If your only hope in life is to flee just to exist, then you will do it. There is no truth to the rumor that they think they will be free here in the US from what people working with those children tell us.

» Posted By choicelady On July 1, 2014 @ 8:04 pm

No one is telling them anything – they run because they must to stay out of gangs and alive. Gangs take little boys and tattoo them as their property. If they refuse to belong, they are butchered. Killed and dismembered. THAT is what is causing families to risk them on this long horrid journey. Whatever they find here is better than there. Desperation, not policy or politics, is driving this exodus.

» Posted By choicelady On July 1, 2014 @ 8:01 pm

As one first hand observer noted, they aren’t reading their iPhones and tweeting as they come. They don’t know anything about US policy – they are desperate because of the gangs that scoop them up or kill the unwilling. They come because of the drugs unleashed in the 80s by the Contras that are now a pandemic in Central America as are the gangs that sell them.

They SHOULD be considered refugees and treated as such. The government is unifying those who have family here but are working to help Central American governments end the reign of terror there. We are sending billions to those countries to fight the gangs, then some of the children with no one in the US to take them will be sent back if they can be safe.

It IS a beautiful welcoming country for the MOST part. Most Americans want to do something positive for immigrants. It’s the Tea Party that is blocking reasonable solutions. In the meantime the children are being housed poorly in situations that were not prepared for them, and efforts via FEMA are being made to make things better.

There is no truth that they think US laws will let them stay. They don’t know our immigration policies. They do know they cannot live – literally – where they were. We need to see them as the refugees they are and help make this better, not worse.

» Posted By choicelady On July 1, 2014 @ 7:59 pm

The Court Ruling that Could Kill ACA

Nope – I don’t think they’re the Tea Party, but I know from years of paying attention that Cato and the Kochs put property rights front and center over human rights.

That some Libertarians think civil rights are paramount does not outweigh that. The Kochs work through the GOP now but to secure a Libertarian foothold.

Pay attention to the Pauls – the son is also a Dominionist, anointed by Ted Cruz’s extremist father the same day Ted was. Rand said he opposed the extension of the Civil Rights Act to businesses – private property – where one ought to be free to discriminate totally.

There is no way around it. That’s who they are. Cato championed Hobby Lobby over you.

Personal liberty is found most readily at the hands of the Dems, not the Libertarians. Only point of agreement is on decriminalizing or legalizing drugs. That, to me, is wholly insufficient a reason to follow them.

» Posted By choicelady On July 11, 2014 @ 5:08 pm

That, I fear, is NOT what underpin Libertarianism as a political movement.

It is, and you can follow this, a fervent belief that property rights trump everything else. Libertarians oppose all governmental support for civil rights when it requires property owners to admit all people, no discrimination.

Your view is your view, but it is not the fundamental value of the Libertarian movement. The Koch brothers are Libertarian – they hate government for its support of human rights over their right to have mercenary forces wage violence in developing nations to take their resources, don’t want to serve minorities if they think it might hurt business, don’t want to have schools and public institutions they have to support with tax dollars, and on and on and on.

Your desire for PERSONAL liberty is understandable. It’s not the fundamental concern for Libertarians. It’s property over people, the preservation of riches and power of the few against the many.

Please understand we see your concerns and share them, but the gulf between personal ‘liberty’ and the Libertarian party platform is a significant difference we hope you and others will note and take seriously. It matters.

» Posted By choicelady On July 9, 2014 @ 9:29 pm

Murph – I am looking at this case of course, but your source, Jonathan Turley, is a Libertarian, and he got let go at MSNBC because his views and interpretations of the law were at odds with even Roberts et al. Of course ThomasScaliaAlito (they are just one person) will vote Libertarian on all cases, but I think it likely that the ruling would come down on the same basis that the overall Constitutionality did. Turley has an axe to grind here, and he is not the definitive source of even mainline conservatism on Constitutional issues.

» Posted By choicelady On July 7, 2014 @ 12:07 pm

Iraq And The Ghosts Of South Vietnam

Oh, Nirek – that IS the burning question, isn’t it? How much death and destruction, and for WHAT?

So horrid. Such waste. I hope we have turned such a firm corner that we will never have to send another generation of our people to kill a generation of others.

» Posted By choicelady On June 25, 2014 @ 3:02 pm

Thank you, NoManIsAnIsland. How interesting – I was a CA staffer for McGovern in the Long Beach area. His was a good cause, I don’t think we were idiots to try, and his long-term legacy endures. Two years later as I was bemoaning his loss during Watergate, a friend noted that we’d never have brought Nixon to heel had McGovern been elected; the Watergate investigation would have been perceived as an act of vengeance, not justice, and it would have lost the support of the nation. I guess it was a critical example of something good emerging from something really awful. I think my friend was correct.

Vinh was amazing. There is a lot more to his story, but the powerful point is that he rose above petty politics and even fury at what happened to him after his capture to see things very clearly and humanely. He had a delicious sense of humor, and how he accomplished that after all he’d been through remains a bit of a minor miracle I quite admire.

Thank you for ‘adopting’ him as part of your memory of that time. I’m sorry you never knew him. He was a special man who personified courage and humanity. He is sorely missed.

» Posted By choicelady On June 25, 2014 @ 3:00 pm

Breaking news – Syria just relinquished ALL of its chemical weapons, and Putin just relinquished ALL his war powers with respect to the Ukraine.

I have great trust in this president. He says we aren’t going back to Iraq. We are NOT going back.

In that iconic photo from 1975 was a man I came to call a friend. Vinh Ngo was a Captain in the South Vietnamese Army who just wanted independence for his country. He did not want imperialist presence of anyone – not China, Russia, the USA but allied with us as the lesser of three evils. On that fateful day Vinh helped hundreds escape. What happened after that no one knows. He was found, unconscious, in the Embassy and captured. He did five years in a North Vietnamese re-education camp, beaten often, abused always. He managed to escape and get to Australia where his family had located. Then most of them got to the US where he became a leader of the CA South Asian populations, helping them discover their political voice, their rights, their activism. There is much more to his story I cannot reveal, but he was one of the most amazing people I ever knew. On May 10, 2001, he was in a meeting of an organization for which we both worked when he had a massive seizure. That was not unknown since he had them as a result of brain injuries from the beatings, but this time was fatal. He died. He was only 51.

He had commanded the troops that saved what was left of our forces pinned down 100 days at Khe Sahn, one of the most horrific battles of Vietnam. He saved hundreds, and we all owe him a debt of gratitude even though he did not want this horrific war, did not want the aftermath, did not bear ill will to Ho Chi Minh, did not want us in his country. He did honorable and brave things, and he continued that in civilian life.

I am touched and honored to have been his friend. I miss him to this day.

Because of Vinh and because of the men and women I’ve known from those years into the present, there is no excuse for wars that can be avoided. Iraq was a complete fiction, motivated by both religious zealotry and a quest for control of that nation’s oil. It was pure fabrication destroying much of an ancient civilization and not replacing it with a single thing that was better than the tyrant we supposedly deposed.

Not one more person. Not one more drop of blood. Not one more lie. not one more day of imperial power. We have a president who understands that civilization cannot any longer move on militarism but most advance via diplomacy and negotiations. He probably, somewhere, has the bumper sticker a friend of mine has with the Stars and Stripes and the words: “These colors don’t run…the world.”

New day. New vision. New hope. Never again.

» Posted By choicelady On June 24, 2014 @ 9:09 pm

“I Get Bergdahl- Been There.” Words From A Young Iraq/Afghan Vet

Nirek – however stupid it sounds, we currently have a mountain lion roaming our very urban streets. (Climate change, lack of game, desperation.)

So comments in the local paper are to let it be – maybe it will eat homeless people.

I went ballistic because about 50% of our homeless men are veterans. They are harassed, despised, reviled – and because of that one is currently living on my front porch to give him safe haven. He took up the care of a dog of another homeless vet I’ve written about who died in our alley in March. The last thing I promised him was care for Puppy (we all lack imagination on names) but Pat took her over, and I don’t have to integrate one demented cat and one sad and lonely dog. The least I can do is take care of both Pat and Puppy when the police won’t let them be.

For all the good fucking faux “Chrissss tians” in my neighborhood who do round-robin phone calls to the cops complaining falsely about these homeless vets, several of us actually care. This is my payback to Pat – I have him as a ‘boarder’ with a dog on my porch. That is the opposite of what Old and New Testaments require of us – first fruits for the poor. Now? They get the dregs. And they get no regard for the wars the naysayers pushed them into, for the sacrifices of health and heart and mind that are those legacies of war.

I’m just waiting for the second round – the Iraq and Afghanistan vets – to show up. I must say our VA does a great job, but it’s not evenly operated through the nation. We are lucky – most of the guys get at least medical care. Housing? Not so much. But it’s a start.

I cannot wrap my mind around being the daughter of a WW II vet who got all kinds of help living today with men who get almost nothing. How did we, the descendants of the “Greatest Generation” abandon those who also fought and gave so much? I was very anti-war in Vietnam. I was never opposed to the men and, yes, women, who were there.

Maybe if we take back the House we will once again honor the men and women whom we sent into harm’s way. I sure the hell hope so.

» Posted By choicelady On June 21, 2014 @ 5:53 pm

Oh, Murph – this is heartbreaking and not at all uncommon. I deal with a lot of homeless vets from Vietnam who have that same sad emptiness all these many years later. The NY Times just ran an article on how much the PTSD intervention is NOT working, never has worked for too many vets.

At the core of this lies guilt I suspect. However much they believe in helping their nation, they are engaged in a far more ‘up close’ kind of combat than we saw in WW II. They have committed acts against people who are NOT our enemies because they are not Al Q’aeda but ‘collateral damage’. We began that heartless dismissal of civilian casualties in Vietnam and carried it into the Mideast. It is one reason I do not focus my opposition on drone strikes that have bad consequences but in far fewer numbers to bystanders. I remember when in 2003 our forces bombed a bazaar in Baghdad – ONLY civilians were killed and in the hundreds. I have no idea how many were wounded. It is war we should revile, not hardware.

But the emptiness of purpose and heartache of people such as your young neighbor cannot be measured. They are our ‘lost generation’ again. WW I, Korea, Vietnam, Mideast – we’ve waged countless wars that had no reason to exist and our young people know it. They have seen and done horrific things to people that are not our enemies. How anyone gets past that is unknown.

Bowe Bergdahl is the face of all those who’ve come home gutted by what they experienced. If I live long enough I think I’ll be seeing more and more of this generation sleeping in our parks, wandering the streets, hopeless and lost in the power of their stark and horrific memories. There is nothing we can do for them unless we make them and their recovery a major priority. They are not just collateral damage. They are our neighbors and our children. We are failing them once again.

» Posted By choicelady On June 21, 2014 @ 11:18 am

Lobbying: Good or Bad?

Well any citizen can PROFFER a bill including me. The issue really is accountability. I don’t do this alone but with allies seeking to make things better – and we bring ideas to legislators sometimes in lawfully crafted form. But the author MUST take note of who is behind the bill, not just as a ‘sign on’ but as a ‘sponsor’ and since that is not required, we, the people, take full responsibility while corporations just rock back and forth whistling in the wind pretending it wasn’t them.

In many cases those who want a bill also are those with deep knowledge. I would hasten to say most government reform bills have been written by government reform advocates such as Common Cause or Clean Money. No legislator can handle all that without insights from citizen groups. But it is also VERY CLEAR who is behind the bill. THAT is important, and that’s what corporations don’t have to own up to.

The bills the lobbyists wrote in the 1990s are also different in that they were about their companies – they were regulatory bills. I don’t have anything much TO regulate in my organization, but that is where corporate sponsorship should be banned. You can’t write bills as a lobbyist that favor your own company or interest. That’s just wrong. That we could end quickly were we so inclined.

» Posted By choicelady On June 20, 2014 @ 1:19 pm

Totally agree about Citizens United. What is jaw droppingly awful for me is that it rests very thinly on “Southern Pacific RR v Santa Clara County” a previous SCOTUS decision from 1886. It has always been the foundation for seeing corporations as ‘fictitious persons’ but in fact does not say that at all.

The issue of ‘fictitious personhood’ lies in a NOTE written by a clerk filing the decision not in the decision itself.

The SCOTUS judges from Citizens United should know this but chose to ignore that issue. Yes corporations can and probably should have some independent standing separate from the shareholders. There is a reason to limit liability of the corporation TO the corporation and not to widows and orphans who might have a little stock. No good would come from their losing their homes, bank savings, etc. and taking on personal liability for the actions of a company. It is sufficient for them to lose the value of the stock, period.

That said – there is a humongous gulf to be lept between a ‘fictitious person’ in corporate form and giving said fictitious person RIGHTS that pertain to NON business actions. Corporations cannot vote, are not citizens, and, as you wisely note, are often so multinational you cannot unpack WHERE that ‘citizenship’ would lie.

All round stupid decision based on legal precedent that actually does not exist.

» Posted By choicelady On June 20, 2014 @ 1:14 pm

PBO can keep them out of the White House though it’s fine to have representatives speak their mind so long as all sides get equal time, IMHO. But the GOP especially during the Clinton years invited them into congressional offices to WRITE bills favorable to their industries and employers.

I’ve written bills, too. Many citizens do that, lobbyists or no. But we have clear disclosure as ‘sponsors’ here in CA. When the big guys do it, we don’t know who they are because they don’t become sponsors. There was one Dem Assembly Member who pimped for corporations, and she cost herself her own political future doing so. It was her bill that got overturned in Prop. 39 voters passed 18 months ago. Couldn’t have happened to a more deserving witch.

By and large, CA is pretty clear on who’s who doing what. It’s the national level where sponsorship and language provisions in bills is very murky. Yes, it’s always been that way (see the film, “Lincoln” for the best examples of bribery and favors I’ve ever seen.) But it doesn’t have to BE that way. We can change it if we collectively have the political will.

But then, when you challenge Citizens United that does let lobbyists shovel the cash via phony non profits, you get the Ted Cruzes of the world saying we’re trying to abolish ‘free speech’. Sigh. No use quitting, but do note what we’re up against.

“Corporations are people, my friend” my ass.

» Posted By choicelady On June 19, 2014 @ 4:44 pm

Good lord, no! I think your piece is excellent – I’m just reminding people we are NOT powerless (not even in DC) and have resources ahead of major reform we can and must use.

Nobody can EVER pillory lobbyists enough because the ones who are shilling for corporations are often incredibly vile. We must have the reforms you recommend. I’m definitely in agreement on all you said. Except may taking people to dinner…anyone who can be bought for that alone is beyond hope!

» Posted By choicelady On June 19, 2014 @ 4:35 pm

Nirek – there is a world of difference between state and federal laws governing lobbying, and that’s why what you write is important. No matter how much certain states work to control things at that level, there are almost no restrictions nationally in DC.

I think it MIGHT be an overstatement to say most of us are good and decent! The role of non profits is powerful but not at the federal level. We serve there as a counterbalance, but it’s much, much tougher to see the influence. Common Cause was the first ‘citizens’ lobby and we have proliferated, so when you read there are 10-20 lobbyists per elected official that’s GOOD because it includes us. However, we are seriously outnumbered.

We are definitely outspent.

Yes the rules must be tightened, but until we overturn Citizens United AND the Merconish decision on publicly funded elections, the trickle down to lobbyists will abide. Money here will be ‘free speech’ as well. I probably don’t help noting the power of citizen action – that’s the justification – but it DOES happen at state levels. It also was the force nationally behind ACA – a deeply UN-reported story. So we can offset the big bucks, but it takes constant unrelenting action, and it’s an uphill climb. How much easier is it to dump $10K on someone than to mobilize 10,000 individuals?

Your report is accurate, but I still know lobbying and campaign cash cannot offset entirely the will of people. It’s just that we can keep this up only so long and really should not have to fight our elected officials to assure they do the right thing. THAT is what needs to be reformed.

BTW the election of Kevin McCarthy as House Majority Leader means one more doofus in power who never found a dollar he did not love. Gag.

» Posted By choicelady On June 19, 2014 @ 1:52 pm

Guess what? I am a registered lobbyist. Yup. I work for a non profit doing advocacy on a wide range of human rights and justice issues. We all – non-profit and for-profit – have to take the same ethics courses every two years, and in our state there are major limitations on us as people. The limits are not so grave upon our employers, however – they can make campaign contributions. We personally cannot. I rather like it – saves me a bundle every election year and allows me to tell dunning callers for candidates that I can’t talk with them. Nice that.

I have written laws. That in itself is not a sin. It is that such items we proffer are vetted, changed, altered, and put forward with clear “sponsorship” of our name. Not always clear if it’s Chevron…

States tend to have much more strict controls than do the feds. And yes, it comes down to money. Our state Fair Political Practices Commission requires quarterly revelations on every single dime we put forward. I have some beef with the limits on taking people out to dinner – that is not and never has been the way people are ‘bought’. It’s the trips, the behested donations to fave charities, the game tickets, etc. that are the serious problem. That’s where the big money can be spent so long as it’s declared, and it’s hard to see how a dinner outweighs that.

Here in my state legislators are barred for a year from lobbying, staffers the same. It seems to help.

But here is the biggie – over the 12 years I’ve been mobilizing ordinary people to do grassroots advocacy, that, more than any factor, has been the creation of good legislation that trumps money any day of the week. We are a seriously underfunded organization that has transformed significant legislation with the voices of people from around the state. No money at all. We beat the crap out of the soft drink companies, we beat Big Oil three times over, we were the forces behind the success of ACA federally, and we have triumphed over the auto industry on the state’s Clean Air Act.

Yes the power of people almost always wins. Lobbyists for the big money forces cannot hold a candle to the power of the people WHEN THEY ACT. Money wins in silence and lack of opposition. Money almost always loses when diverse groups unite around a common cause and the people speak.

We definitely need laws federally that are at least as good as good state laws. But we don’t have to wait. I have seen the power of people and its tidal wave of success when people unite and speak out. THAT is the thing that we cannot stop doing. Even as a lobbyist I have little impact until around the state our members and their allies rise. Then we are unstoppable.

Only way money wins is to be silent or gripe exclusively on blog sites. Way money loses is when we speak out, get persistent, keep advocating. Democracy is NOT a spectator sport.

» Posted By choicelady On June 19, 2014 @ 10:15 am

Understanding How the Military Works

Indeed – and why should they?

» Posted By choicelady On June 18, 2014 @ 8:43 pm

That is a useful NEW piece of info I’d not known, thank you.

» Posted By choicelady On June 17, 2014 @ 8:29 pm

In theory a blind trust makes investments without telling the beneficial owner. But that presumes it is not a static set of investments. Of course when it IS, the beneficial owners – Cheney, Romney – know EXACTLY what side their bread is buttered on.

» Posted By choicelady On June 17, 2014 @ 8:28 pm

I happen to know a relative of Raymond Patriarca late head of the New England mob. My friend ran numbers for him because
as a kid my friend had a photographic memory so – no paper.

Yes the mob was horrific in many ways, but it had codes of honor however weird that sounds. Cheney et al. have NO code of honor – they seek absolute power at anyone’s expense. In that respect they rival only the most bloodthirsty gangs from Columbia etc. that have no problem murdering and torturing even babies. That’s our guy, Cheney. I am therefore in total agreement about the Mafia v. Cheney. Give me the mob if I have to make a choice.

» Posted By choicelady On June 17, 2014 @ 8:26 pm

I’ve missed where you live, but I can say without fear that YOU sent all our weird folks to get them out of your country!

Thanks a LOT. (Snark)

» Posted By choicelady On June 17, 2014 @ 8:21 pm

Yeah – lucky you. We don’t get Al Jazeera here in CALIFORNIA because our cable company doesn’t carry it. Bah! You get it in MO??? How weird is this disconnect?

» Posted By choicelady On June 17, 2014 @ 8:19 pm

I think you mean Cheney not Bergdahl?

When it was reported that the mechanical heart would produce NO PULSE in Cheney, my first thought was – who’d notice?

» Posted By choicelady On June 17, 2014 @ 8:18 pm

Think how much grief and loss of life would have occurred if we’d not screwed it all up in the first place/

» Posted By choicelady On June 17, 2014 @ 8:15 pm

When we see only what is close, we miss the long, long story. At the Alhambra in Granada, there is a room on the second level where Isabella and Ferdinand forced the Muslims – the people in charge of southern Spain for centuries – to hand over the entire nation to them. That was the same room where Columbus got his commission and the Inquisition – aimed at Muslims and Jews – got its start.

From the Crusades to Bush’s desire to bring End Times via the ‘fall of Babylon’ (Iraq) the West has invaded, controlled, shaped the national lines, imposed its colonial rule, and basically reduced Arabic nations to mere fields to be plowed for western wealth.

So a few sheiks got rich from oil. It never once offset the imperialism, the rape of nations, the attempt to obliterate cultures. See “Battle of Algiers” about the French torture and mandates that prohibited even Islamic MARRIAGE ceremonies to put France in control of Algeria by exterminating Algeria culture.

The USA, Britain, France, Spain – it is endless. We pillaged the mid East as if it were ours to strip of resources, and when we could, we replaced real leaders with those the CIA hand picked. Remember Iran and Jimmy Carter’s support for the Shah? He was a CIA plant, a massive tyrant, and while I detest religious autocracy, I perfectly well understand the 1979 coup as a reaction to the brutality the US supported and ignored.

A handful of rich sheiks does not a fondness for the western imperialists obtain.

» Posted By choicelady On June 17, 2014 @ 8:14 pm

The Bush Legacy 2.0: The Dissolving of Iraq Into Warring Factions

Thanks funk. No one should ever underestimate the role of extremist religion in Bush’s rationale. This was to usher in End Times via the fall of Babylon. He announced his plan his first day in office. Oil excited Cheney but prophecy played a huge role for Bush however idiotic that was. The Dominionists must be thrilled as they watch “Babylon” unravel again. Keep an eye on war supporters since they think this civil war is a sign from God.

» Posted By choicelady On June 14, 2014 @ 7:26 am

Baghdad, Blowback and Bush

Hi KT – I agree with all you’ve said. I fear every day for this president. It’s not the Bundy lovers and white supremacists that scare me – it’s the people in dark places with ‘authority’ who think they have the right to make their own decisions on who lives, who dies. And if their private world of dark power is sufficiently threatened, well…

One needs to ask who is behind ISIS. We may never know. It may not be who is the public face at all.

» Posted By choicelady On June 15, 2014 @ 10:27 pm

In the absence of Khirad, our Middle East Specialist of yore, you are filling the gap beautifully, Murph. Thank you!

» Posted By choicelady On June 15, 2014 @ 9:42 pm

Some of us lived through all this – not knowing the truth at the time – and pay a lot of attention now to the destabilization that the CIA has been responsible for creating. I have no idea if it’s still true because I fear that even an administration trying to corral them could be deceived, deluded, misled at every turn. The CIA is ubiquitous and completely without a shred of accountability. So my rule of thumb is – where there is something sudden and destabilizing, look for the CIA. I’m not a tin foil hat person, but history gives us great pause.

The other factor I learned from Jeff Sharlet’s amazing book, “The Family” is the power of private support for tyrants. I recommend that and John Perkins’ “Confessions of an Economic Hit Man”. He was actually one of the latter, creating ‘economic improvements’ that decimated indigenous people in less developed nations to build dams, etc. for the uses of the rich whom the CIA and US corporate/religious right interests supported. The web of corruption is vast and deep, and Saddam was just one tool – used or disposed of – in the game of global power waged by neo-cons and other extremists. Nasty business that I think this president is trying to stop. I wish him well. I hold out very scant hope.

» Posted By choicelady On June 15, 2014 @ 9:39 pm