Who would you vote for today.

Greeny · November 05, 2008, 03:24:18 AM

Back to guitars and music then...

alitivity · November 05, 2008, 04:26:12 AM

62 million to 55 million although a very commanding and respectable win was not a landslide. Nearly half of the votes went to McCain, which means that even though power has shifted, the country is still very much so divided.

Obama was elected on an image not substance, he never defined what he meant by change, but he did make some serious statements that will eventually be our undoing if he is allowed to follow through. Of course the love affair with Barrak and the Media quickly pushed them to the side and kept them quite for the sake of making history and getting the medias candidate elected.

Here is the statement that concerns me the most

"It's my intention, if elected, to disarm America to the level of acceptance to our Middle East Brethren. If we as a Nation of warring people, should conduct ourselves as the nations of Islam, whereas peace prevails. Perhaps a state or period of
mutual concord between our governments. When I become President, I will seek a pact or agreement to end hostilities between those who have been at war or in a state of enmity, and a freedom from disquieting oppressive thoughts. We as a Nation have placed upon the nations of Islam an unfair injustice."

Oldrottenhead · November 05, 2008, 07:15:17 AM

Quote"It's my intention, if elected, to disarm America to the level of acceptance to our Middle East Brethren. If we as a Nation of warring people, should conduct ourselves as the nations of Islam, whereas peace prevails. Perhaps a state or period of
mutual concord between our governments. When I become President, I will seek a pact or agreement to end hostilities between those who have been at war or in a state of enmity, and a freedom from disquieting oppressive thoughts. We as a Nation have placed upon the nations of Islam an unfair injustice."

that quote is one that should give you hope.

Greeny · November 05, 2008, 07:47:08 AM

Quote from: oldrottenhead on November 05, 2008, 07:15:17 AM
Quote"It's my intention, if elected, to disarm America to the level of acceptance to our Middle East Brethren. If we as a Nation of warring people, should conduct ourselves as the nations of Islam, whereas peace prevails. Perhaps a state or period of
mutual concord between our governments. When I become President, I will seek a pact or agreement to end hostilities between those who have been at war or in a state of enmity, and a freedom from disquieting oppressive thoughts. We as a Nation have placed upon the nations of Islam an unfair injustice."
that quote is one that should give you hope.

If he meant it and actually does it!

alitivity · November 05, 2008, 10:35:05 PM

So you are saying that disarming our military to a point that is acceptable to our enemies should give me hope? I'm all for peace talks, and ending the agression between us and them, but I'm sorry that is a rediculous plan, and it will make us week in their eyes, and that much easier to inflict terror. Obama also likes to look soley at the middle east. What about Russia, Venezuela, and North Korea. I believe they would love to see us disarm. Then there would be no one to stop them from doing what ever they want.

Oldrottenhead · November 06, 2008, 01:19:54 AM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqBOMBSDQsI

Oldrottenhead · November 06, 2008, 02:26:23 AM

Dear President Obama:

The Bush administration had eight years to run our country's reputation on human rights into the ground. It succeeded not only in tarnishing America's image, but also in derailing the entire international human rights movement. As a professor of human rights who has studied the opportunities and challenges for the White House in transition periods, I know that the window of opportunity for distinguishing yourself from your predecessor is open now, but you must act quickly and decisively if you are to get human rights back on track. Here are four steps that you can take:

Step one: Create a relationship with U.S.-based human rights organizations.

The Bush administration treated human rights advocates as enemies and shrugged off their reminders of international standards as inconvenient roadblocks. The Obama administration should consider these same groups to be allies and even partners in promoting human dignity and freedom at home and worldwide. Reaching out to human rights activists can be accomplished by calling to the White House a broad range of human rights advocates for regularly scheduled dialogues on human rights. Listen to the advocates. They know their constituencies, and many have fresh knowledge and experience from human rights frontlines and fault-lines. The kind of information they can provide is so central to the creation of your foreign policy strategies that you may wish to launch the dialogue before you take office.

Step two: Repair your relationship with human rights bodies at the United Nations.

Instead of seeking solutions to problems within UN structures designed to unify countries in a common quest for peace, President Bush took a "go-it-alone" approach. This "you're with us or against us" mantra was designed to separate and divide. The Obama administration can publically reaffirm its commitment to the UN human rights framework and reassert its interest in taking part in the Human Rights Council, the new centerpiece of the UN human rights system. The Bush administration pulled out of the running for a seat on the body because it feared being subjected to review. (The Council reviews its own members first and, thus, would have subjected the United States to review just as it was being criticized for its practices on torture). Although the Council is a deeply flawed institution, the United States has the responsibility to work with those who are trying to get it right. It would be exceedingly helpful if the new appointments of Americans to UN bodies shared a concern with making human rights mechanisms work. That would be a tremendous difference from the Bush administration appointees, who ranged between being skeptical to being openly hostile toward human rights.

Step three: Do something that unequivocally demonstrates that the United States will no longer act as if it is above international law.

A good start would be the creation of an independent body to investigate the role of military and civilian authorities, acting with direct or implicit approval of the U.S. government, in the torture and abuse of detainees. The investigation can start with Guantánamo, but its mandate should be broad. The Bush administration played one legal game after another to advance a distorted view of the proper usage of military courts and to assert a legally incorrect definition of torture. You can count on support from military lawyers on this one. During the first Bush administration, (especially during the Gulf War), U.S. military lawyers played a key role in overseeing the legality of the actions of not only the U.S. military, but also its allies. The second Bush administration, however, marginalized and ignored those same military lawyers. (George W. Bush's administration didn't like the legal answers it was getting from military experts on torture, so it turned elsewhere for lawyers willing to follow the administration's script). Your administration can reaffirm White House respect for military lawyers by hearing and valuing their analysis of the missteps in Guantánamo, Afghanistan, and Iraq.

Step four: In your first week in office, get out your pen and begin signing some long overdue international human rights treaties.

President Bush's scorn of international treaties went so far as to lead him to take the unprecedented move of "unsigning" the treaty establishing an International Criminal Court and the Vienna Convention on Treaties. You might begin by re-signing these, as well as signing on to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, a convention signed by every country in the world except for the United States and Somalia, and the Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities, a convention modeled largely on American disability law. These are no-brainers. As to the rest of the human rights treaties that are not signed and/or not ratified, or that are signed and largely ignored, you should appoint an independent board of experts to study and report on the likely outcome of greater American engagement in the treaty processes.

Instead of being viewed as a magnanimous human rights leader, the United States is today considered to be an arrogant human rights cheater. Rebuilding the reputation of the United States and reestablishing its role as a global leader on human rights will take time. But these four steps will give your administration a good start.

Sincerely yours,
Julie Mertus