Weird Morning

Hey. I'm back. Just had to write about this. I agree with Newt Gingrich. I'm watching C-SPAN right now and he is talking about his proposal for changing election debates. If you get a chance to pick up any snippits of it (if they let it onto YouTube...non-governmental items on C-SPAN are in a legal limbo), I recommend it. I say this as a former debator who is totally bored with the debate format currently used with candidates. I don't think we get any info on our candidates this way. Also, the way this system is currently run, candidates implode because of how they have to act. My example is Al Gore, though I'm sure his non-fans could come up with a better example. Now don't get me wrong, I wanted to change the channel a couple of times because of things Newt said, his debate premis really struck a chord with me.

People are Funny

Don't know if this is real, but found it out there on the interweb. Thought you guys might enjoy it.

Is Barack Obama a threat?

Warning: Political Rant

Apparently Americans are the only ones who have rights in this country! Now the Pentagon wants to be able to convict detainees based on hearsay and coerced confessions and also wants to be able to use the death penalty as a form of punishment. I see...so dramatically increase the likelihood of false conviction and infinitely raise the stakes of said conviction. You know, I don't want to get blown up in a building as much as the next person, but it's hard for me to get past the idea that the Bill of Rights, although written to ensure the liberties of citizens, is really the listing of rights to which we believe everyone should be entitled. These types of laws keep every person at "the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and Nature's God entitle them" (Declaration of Independence). I realize Jefferson was talking about a collective here and I also realize that not every person at this time was considered a part of that collective (namely slaves and women and, some might argue, non-WASP men), but if we believe in unalienable Rights, how can we justify not ensuring those rights for everyone on our soil. If we do not, we are dehumanizing non-citizens and further separating ourselves from the rest of humanity. How can we truly justify taking people from their families based on suspicion and supposition, holding them indefinitely (creating a hopelessness that is, in itself, a torture), and not even letting them have access to an advocate or even tell them why they are being held? How can we now justify the use of supposition, upon which we could never even try the most despicable citizen criminal, to put someone to death? Are we that terrified? Are we that immune to human suffering? To tread on unsafe ground, are we that xenophobic (some might say racist)? How can We the People, allow our government erode the basic human rights of any individual? I think it is truly despicable what we allow in the name of security and the way the government has pushed and pulled the boundaries of power, believing us to be too scared or apathetic to stop it.