Obama on foreign policy - now comes the true test

Obama on foreign policy - now comes the true test

What a week it has been my friends. For all those who said that change wouldn't come, I point to this historic week. A week where we've seen our nation move past racial barriers most thought were unbreakable. A week where progress in our country began moving forward once again after eight long years of resistance. A week where the majority of Americans, for the first time in a long time, approve of the direction their country is headed in.

But we have to be realistic. We have all sorts of challenges facing our country, both internally and abroad. A skyrocketing national debt, two wars on a completely different continent, the worst business market our country has seen in decades, a global-wide recession - just to name a few.

I don't know about you guys, but to me this week really did seem like a grace period for President Obama. Not even by the actions of our new president - this administration has hit the ground running at full speed and I for one couldn't be more pleased. I guess it seemed like a grace period because behind all of the doom-and-gloom market reports and reports of mounting job losses there was a small word that was beginning to become more and more clear:

Hope.

Hope that together we will overcome the obstacles facing us. Hope that the comfort of peace will aid us in this time of struggle. Hope that our government will be aware of the problems affecting us and try to solve them, instead of just blatantly ignoring them.

This week has certainly brought us many historic things. Even Israel and Gaza were able to come to a ceasefire. But of course, not all good things can last, and President Obama, your grace period here is over.

Palestinian militants detonated a bomb next to an Israeli army patrol along the southern border with Gaza on Tuesday. One Israeli solder was killed in the blast, and the already fragile cease-fire died in that blast too.

The fighting came on the eve of a visit to the region by President Obama's newly appointed U.S. Mideast envoy, George Mitchell, and symbolically displayed the difficulty President Obama faces as he attempts to get Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts back on track.

Mitchell will arrive in Israel on Wednesday, under strict orders from President Obama to listen extensively to both sides first before offering solutions.

President Obama I'm not expecting you to solve the situation in Israel/Gaza. No president should carry that expectation.

That being said, I do hope that you can.

-Travis Erickson
News Today

The Inaugural Address I Heard

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Why 66 Million Americans Got It Right (This Time)

A handful of days ago, President-elect Obama sat down with the editorial board of the Washington Post. His remarks were completely unprepared, wholly off-the-cuff, unscripted...you get the point. Reading his answers reminded me just how far we've come in eight years, and just how much further we need to go before it's all said and done. I was also reminded (as if I needed to be) how far off the course of progress we've veered during the failed experiment in "compassionate conservatism" that was the Bush Administration.

When asked by the Post if promoting the American ideal of "freedom and democracy" would be part of his agenda, our President-elect responded,

"Well, I think it needs to be at a central part of our foreign policy. It is who we are. It is one of our best exports, if it is not exported simply down the barrel of a gun. I think a lot of the ways that he[Bush] spoke about it were very eloquent, but I think the mistake that was made is drawing an equivalence between democracy and elections.(emphasis mine)"

Get it, friends and neighbors? Simply holding elections does not equal democracy. Democracy is what's supposed to happen between elections. For example, our outgoing Prez'nint decided that he was going to shower the planet with Freedom Juice™. I'm not going to get into an argument over whether what happened next was piss-poor planning or the law of unintended consequences; I'm simply going to point out that Afghanistan is now a narco-state, Iraq has been engaged in religious cleansing for the last three years, Hamas was democratically elected to lead in Gaza, and Hezbollah was democratically elected to lead Lebanon.

It is with that sentiment in mind, elections aren't democracy, that reminded me where I was in 2000, and how I felt after Bush stole Florida. And how I felt last November when Brit Hume interrupted Karl Rove's "McCain has to win Ohio to win the election" comment to inform ol' Turdblossom that Obama had won Ohio. The rest of that evening is fuzzy in my memory thanks to 21yr. old single-malt whiskey.

President-elect Obama went on to address the problem with believing that elections equal democracy:

"They are one facet of a liberal order, as we understand it. And so in a lot of countries, you know, the first question is, if you go back to Roosevelt's four freedoms, the first question is freedom from want and freedom from fear.If people aren't secure, if people are starving, then elections may or may not address those issues, but they are not a perfect overlay. And if we ignore those things, then oftentimes an election can just backfire or at least won't deliver for the people the kinds of -- it may raise expectations but not deliver what they're looking for"

Dig it, folks? Ignoring the real problems that allowed Barack Obama to get elected will blow up in not only his face, but in everyone of ours who worked our asses off to get him elected. Again, the democratic process begins after the election, and doesn't stop after the first hundred days, or the first two years.

One thing Barack Obama has said over and over is that this election wasn't about him- it was about us. "Together, we can go to Washington", he said at one of his first stump speeches in Iowa, and we believed him. Given these remarks to the Post's editorial board, I am inclined to keep believing. I'm even inclined to scratch my head less over some of the choices he's made in terms of his cabinet. This is a man who can see the larger picture, opt for substance over style, and pragmatically, purposefully, and (yes) Presidentially move our country in the right direction.

But not without your help.

Til Next Time,

Editorial: On Inaugural Weekend, A Reflective Look Back

Mornin' (barely) Everyone,

This is the first in what I intend to be a weekly Sunday editorial. It is my hope that in the coming weeks, I will also be accompanied by some contributing writers. For those of you unfamiliar with me, I'm your Relevant Rhino.


This weekend is of particular importance to me, friends and neighbors. Not only because it was the second week in a row "Meet The Press" lost to lil' Georgie Stephanopolous (someone, give me five minutes with David fuckin' Gregory and the world will be a better place), but the Steelers *file photo* are in the AFC Championship game tonight.

We know that this weekend, as well as Monday and Tuesday, will be steeped in history. Both anniversaries and those that will become anniversaries will be celebrated, champagne will flow in America’s capital, followed by cocktails; which will lead to an awkward moment between John King and Anderson Cooper one morning in the CNN suite at the D.C. Hilton.

And one really awkward moment when the 45.7% of Americans who voted Republican will hear the words, “I, Barack Hussein Obama, do solemnly swear…”

But that’s not what I wanted to talk to you about.

I wanna revisit how we came to be here- in this moment: 48 hours away from electing America’s first half-black, Muslim, communist, fascist, “messiah”, anti-christ, socialist, corporate shill, Kenyan citizen/British citizen/Indonesian citizen.

A man who is building his own private army to force Marxism on our fair sod, and abort all the babies he can’t make gay.

A man who’s bigoted preacher wasn’t Pat Robertson, Billy Graham, or Jerry Falwell.

A man who said he would sit down and talk with our enemies- sans insulting demands (preconditions, for you righties)- instead of destroying their infrastructure, decimating its civilian population, forcing exile upon the educated and contributing members of their society, and simultaneously create both a com-fucking-pletely ruined view of our country on an international scale and new and exciting places for the terrorists to set up shop.

That one? How the hell did we end up electing that one?

George Walker Bush: 43rd President (R)- TX: First President with a criminal record

Shortly after he was elected, the US intelligence community figured out that al-Qaeda was responsible for the bombing of the USS Cole. Richard Clarke even briefed him on how to take down the terrorist organization. That, however, was not on Dubya's to do list. Instead, by as early as six weeks into his first term the Bush Administration had a plan in the works for invading Iraq and a post-Saddam era. By March, 2001, the Bush Administration had a plan for Iraqi oil exploration. Despite his warnings, Richard Clarke was told by Condi Rice that the President "didn't want any long memos". Apparently, "memos" meant "stuff I'd have to think about", and that didn't sit well with the new POTUS.

August, 2001: CIA briefs Dubya while on vacation in Crawford- the focus of the discussion is the "bin Laden determined to strike in the US" paper. After being shown incontrovertible evidence of an imminent threat on American soil, Dubya tells the analyst, "Well, I guess you've covered your ass..."

Just days after Richard Clarke's request for Predator Drones to fly over Afghanistan and take out bin Laden was rejected by the Pentagon, 19 hijackers overtake four airplanes and killed thousands. Remaining paralyzed for the better part of ten minutes, Dubya then flies around the country while vowing a "full scale investigation to find the folks who did it".

By December, Rumsfeld claims Afghanistan doesn't have enough targets, we've got to go after Iraq. By January of '02, with bin Laden in sight, the request for 800 Army Rangers to secure and capture bin Laden is instead outsourced by Dubya to the Pakistanis. Cooperative and sympathetic to both the Taliban and al-Qaeda, they let bin Laden escape.

The march to war with Iraq was fueled with lies, propaganda, a shell-shocked and compliant media, and fear. If you told BushCo that more troops would be needed to invade Iraq, you were fired. If you claimed the cost would reach a hundred billion, you were fired. If you revealed that the yellowcake was, in fact, just a slice of yellow cake, you were vilified, and your wife's covert status was exposed. If, however, you were complicit in the run-up to invading the wrong fucking country, you were given 'Medals of Freedom'. Even if you were convicted, your sentence was commuted by prez'nint Bush.

When we finally get to Iraq, things don't necessarily pan out the way that BushCo planned. The whole of the Iraqi army disbanded, statues toppled while Sunnis were slaughtered. We lost over 200,000 weapons and billions of dollars. Just. Lost. Mercenary groups are allowed to operate above the law...the US military is allowed to operate beyond the terms of the Geneva Convention and the laws of basic fucking human decency. One in six Iraqis are forced from their homes, while tens of thousands are rounded up and shipped to Abu Ghraib, or Gitmo, or who knows where to be held without charges and tortured. Including 1,200 American citizens.

Our rewards for this have been oil. Oil, and billions for Government contractors while the number of jobs lost during the Bush Administration has grown near 10 million.
We were rewarded with FISA.
We were rewarded with the Patriot Act.
We were rewarded with trillions in debt.
With a collapsing economy.
With three wars. Yes. Three. The "Global War On Terror" counts, and it counts in billions.
With warrantless wiretapping.
With No-Child-Left-Behind.
With "Heckuva job, Browine"
With 65,ooo New Orleans residents still living in FEMA trailers.
With signing statements that exclude or circumvent Dubya from any accountability or prosecutory measures.
With the Military Commissions Act.
With lower regulatory standards on everything from your money to the food you eat.
With the Clean Skies Initiative.
With the Healthy Forests Initiative.
With 2,000 miles of Appalachian streams choking on runoff from mountaintop removal mining.
Without capturing bin Laden.
With Hamas and Hezbollah elected democratically.
Without an exit strategy in Iraq.
With 7.2% unemployment.
Without a net gain in the average wage.
With union-busting.
Without the respect of the international community.
With the largest dropout rate in American schools. Ever.
Without a modicum of understanding on the part of the outgoing administration regarding what it is they've done to this country.
With a modicum of hope.

The red text was inspired by, and partially cribbed from Keith Olbermann's "Eight Years in Eight Minutes" segment from Countdown, 16 January, 2009.

Til Next Time...

The Bush Legacy: Talkin' TVA Coal Ash Spill Emory River Blues

On December 22nd, the TVA Kingston Fossil Coal Plant belched billions of gallons of toxic coal ash into neighboring communities- including the Emory River. The 300 acres of contaminated land and 5.4 million cubic yards of toxic fly ash make this incident larger than the '89 Exxon Valdez spill. As of today's posting, only minimal efforts by the TVA have been made to clean up the spill, and only after a congressional hearing and several damning articles/reports.

A group of researchers and environmentalists, working in tandem with Sandra Diaz (National Field Coordinator for Appalachian Voices) and students and faculty from Appalachian State University took to the Emory in dry suits and kayaks collecting water samples. While navigating the "ash bergs" and dead fish, the group was able to determine that the water contained over 300x the allowable amount of arsenic, as well as dozens of toxic metals. John Wathen, Huricaine Creekkeeper and credited photographer for this article, said of the spill,

“This is the largest loss of material into a river I have ever seen,” said Wathen. “It could rank as one of America’s worst environmental disasters in recent history if not the worst. This tops the Susquehanna cave in, the Exxon Valdez, or the Martin County KY Tug River slurry spill.”

Arsenic and other toxins weren't the only hostile elements the team met while on the Emory.

Wathen said the groups have been denied access to public roads and escorted out of a waterway by private TVA security police who claimed they were given federal authority through the Patriot act. These are, Watham said, “gestopo tactics intended to scare people away from the truth.”

Along with Donna Lisenby and Sandra Diaz, Watham skirted police lines and took samples. “Cops (were) yelling from both sides,” he said. “The cops in cars could not get to us for the water. The cops in the boat could not reach us for the mud and debris in the river, and the helicopter couldn’t land in the muck to pick us up either.”

That's right, friends and neighbors, the Patriot act somehow gives private security police the right to escort researchers off of public land, which they gained access to by public roads. And who knows? It just might, but I can't find anyone who's read the fuckin' thing...

In 2002, George W. Bush cancelled a health regulation that would have returned the "allowable amount" of arsenic (really? arsenic?) in drinking water to 10ppb. Instead, we have an EPA that, while recognizing the hazards of both arsenic and coal plant waste in print, has no authority to scale back the amount of fucking poison in our drinking water or treat coal ash as a hazard. Under W., the EPA has been turned into a "name only" organization, and it is my sincere hope that the incoming administration will view this agency in a com-fucking-pletely different light.

Yesterday, a second spill occurred at the Widows Creek Coal Plant in Stevenson, Alabama. The TVA initially denied the existence of any toxins in the creek, but 24 hours can make on hell of a difference.

A silvery gray sludge coated the shore in the photos taken at Bellefonte Landing, near a site for which TVA is seeking a permit to build a nuclear power plant.

"This is the same stuff on the shoreline up there at Kingston," said Morgan, who speculated that it came from Widows Creek.

TVA spokesman John Moulton said he didn't believe that whatever Morgan had pictured in photographs was ash or gypsum from either the Kingston or Widows Creek spills.

Ya got that folks? Moulton doesn't think the pictures are from Widows Creek.

He probably thinks that Dick Cheney is a swell fella, too.

'Til Next Time,