Helen Thomas and the Degradation to the 1st Amendment
Posted by Andrew | Filed under Politics
Tell them to get the hell out of Palestine. Remember, these people are occupied and it’s their land. It’s not German, it’s not Polish. -Helen Thomas
That is the quote that apparently cost 89 year old Helen Thomas, veteran of the White House press corps, her job. She said it to a Rabbi named David Nesenoff. The United States has become a country where you aren’t allowed to say anything that is critical of Israel, despite what the 1st amendment of the Constitution says.
A gentleman from the great state of Maine was kind enough to share his experience on a flotilla headed for the Gaza strip when Israeli forces attacked it recently. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defended the attack of a ship carrying aid to the Gaza strip and vowed to continue a blockade against Gaza.
Don’t forget that it was only a few months ago when Israel was planning new construction of homes for Jews in the disputed areas in East Jerusalem. A move that demonstrates that the Israeli state does not recognize the legitimate claim of the Palestinians who occupied that land before them in an almost sociopathic way. If Jordan or Syria was doing the type of things Israel is engaged in, we would go to war against them.
In response to Helen Thomas, who is of Lebanese decent, suggesting that the Jews in Israel return to Europe, Rabbi Nesenoff asked if she was familiar with the history of the region. He apparently isn’t aware that modern Israel was established in 1948 by mandate of the United Nations to create a Jewish home country out of the British Mandate of Palestine. This caused a Civil War and the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. From that, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict continues to this day.
It is time for the United States, a country which has been Israel’s strongest and at some points only ally in the world to demand the establishment of Palestinian state. Peace in the middle east is not possible unless the nation of Palestine is recognized. It is also time for Israel to stop bullying the Palestinians who have just as much of a legitimate claim to the land in Israel as they do, and both need to establish borders and boundaries that both should agree to follow if both intend on remaining there.
This is not about anti-semetism like some suggest. Just because I don’t agree with the recent child abuse scandal of the Catholic church does not mean that I am anti-Catholic. And just because I don’t agree with Israel attacking aid boats and abusing land claims does not mean I am anti-semetic. Helen Thomas made a statement concerning a state which is made up mostly of people who’s families had immigrated from Europe and are a majority Jewish.
If Helen Thomas, previously one of the most powerful journalists can not speak her true mind, then who can? You can watch the video of the impromptu interview here.
Bradshaw vs. Noyce, SL's District 1 Showdown
Posted by Andrew | Filed under Politics
I’ll be honest, I leaned Republican when I lived in Maine. In 2008, I voted for Republican incumbent Senator Susan Collins and I voted for Charlie Summers over eventual winner Chellie Pingree.
Now, I live in Utah. What passes for a Republican in Maine is a Democrat in Utah and what passes as a Republican in Utah would be arrested for anti-government terrorism in Maine. So, this year, I signed up to be a Democratic delegate for my precinct which was easy because only two people showed up to the caucus and we needed two delegates. First stop, the County Convention at West High School in Salt Lake City.
Since this is Utah, nominating Democrats to run for office is easy considering that usually only one person from the party will stand. In the two county wide elections where the nomination was contested, we easily nominated Holly Mullen for the County Council At-large “B” and Sim Gill for the Salt Lake County District Attorney. Unfortunately, I live in Salt Lake City, which is like San Francisco if you replace the bay and Pacific ocean with the Wasatch and Oquirhh mountains. Very liberal city.
So, our County Council district (District 1) had three Democrats vying for the seat, whoever got the nomination would most likely be the victor in November. To make it even more stereotypically liberal, all three were homosexuals. The candidates were Arlyn Bradshaw, Cal Noyce, and Mike Fife. We had our first vote, each candidate requires at least 40% of the vote to move on to the second round. Mike Fife was killed off quickly, he had no prominent endorsements and it came down to Bradshaw and Noyce. Bradshaw was the leader with 49% of the vote, but after Fife decided to make an endorsement of Noyce, Noyce got 51% of the vote in the second round.
Normally, that would be the end of the story, but in Utah, you need 60% of vote to leave the convention with the nomination. Otherwise, a primary vote would have to be held where the majority vote gets the nomination. However, Noyce only got 54% of the vote when all was said and done. Prior to the third vote, the candidates begged the delegates not to push a primary, but 18 voters for Bradshaw including myself, decided to push for it.
The reason I voted against Noyce was simple, I didn’t like his resume. It seemed to be a long list of volunteering and I couldn’t find anything on his education or his professional experience. Has he lived for the last 40 years off of donations? While I could have called him and asked him questions as a delegate prior to the convention and asked him about this. However, the average voter usually doesn’t have that opportunity and I decided not to go down that road and only use the materials that those average voters had.
Bradshaw has been working for the County Council for the past few years and has worked for Congressman Jim Matheson in the past. He also has an MPA (Masters in Political Administration) from the U. Yes, I do endorse Bradshaw over Noyce and if you live in Salt Lake County’s Council district 1, please go vote for him on June 22nd.
Leave Toyota Alone, Please
Posted by Andrew | Filed under Business, Politics
Eleanor Holmes Norton, the Democratic congressional delegate from the District of Columbia, decided to use the congress’s inquiries into the Toyota recall situation to ask about her own car.
This action should not have been tolerated by any of the other members of the Transportation and Infrastructure committee overseeing these hearings. I’m sure Ms. Norton felt she was making an important point, but it was not only pointless, but it was selfish. “So I ask you, is there any chance that the Camry hybrid will be recalled?” Probably a question that millions of other Toyota owners in this country alone would like to ask the company’s executives but won’t get the chance.
This question was proceeded by a story of Ms. Norton looking for an “American” hybrid, which apparently she defines as a hybrid produced by either Chrysler, Ford or General Motors. By the way, Ford and GM (to my current knowledge) both do make hybrids, but apparently Ms. Norton was unaware of that. She also wasn’t aware that most Toyotas sold in North America are built in the U.S. with parts made in the U.S., as Mr. Yoshimi Inaba told her following the story.
She then said that it was Toyota and suggested that therefore must be a Japanese car, and then accused the executives of disavowing themselves from the car and blaming Americans for the problems that the vehicles are being recalled for. Whether or not it was in jest, that really is an inappropriate comment to make to a company that is providing jobs to Americans even though they don’t really have to.
Do you think that the comments made by Ms. Norton were appropriate? John C. Dvorak on the latest episode of No Agenda (episode 177 from 2/25/10) doesn’t think so. And honestly, I agree with him and I hope the voters of D.C. are paying attention.
Q&A with Senator Orrin Hatch
Posted by Andrew | Filed under Politics
Today, I went to a class where Utah’s Senator, Orrin Hatch was the guest speaker. Senator Hatch allowed us to ask him questions and answered all of them, including one I asked him about torture concerning his comment back in August on ABC’s This Week saying “we don’t want to cripple our ability to be able, in very crucial times, to get the information we’ve got to have to save our country and to protect our people.”
I asked him what his thoughts were on water boarding, torture and other interrogation techniques and he says that water boarding does work and does get people to talk. He also says that military personnel such as the Navy Seals also get water boarded as part of their training so that they no what it feels like. He also said that he is not really for water boarding detainees and that there is a limit to what interrogators should be able to do. Interesting, considering that some leaders in his party continue to claim that they are for water boarding detainees and that it is not torture.
After the class, I was able to speak with him and hear him answer more questions. He recently said that Guantanamo Bay beats Illnois, referring to the weather of course. According to him, Guantanamo has all new facilities and that their is nothing illegal or immoral happening there. And with the recent objections of people like New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg saying he would like the trial Khalid Shaikh Mohammed moved out of Manhattan, the trial may be held in Guantanamo after all.
Another thing that I said that I really agree with is in defense of NASA and the space program which has recently been the subject of proposed budget cuts. This maybe because his constituency will be hit with the budget cuts as it would cut jobs in Utah as Representative Rob Bishop has pointed out, but also as the amount of technology that NASA has been able to develop that has benefited the country. NASA’s budget in 2011, they propose spending $100 billion over the next five years (2011-15), which seems like very little compared to $548.9 billion for the Department of Defense or even $49.7 billion for the Department of Education’s discretionary spending.
Senator Hatch also mentioned in the discussions that he believes Mitt Romney will be the Republican nominee in 2012, citing his experience with economic matters and in business as the former CEO of Bain & Company. I also agree with this, however there will be a lot of competition from Sarah Palin and the Tea Party movement.
Overall, I enjoyed the Q&A with Senator Hatch, he is an excellent on the spot speaker and is able to eloquently defend his positions on the issues. If the Republican party wants to take back control of Washington, they need more people like Senator Hatch on their side.
My Opinion on Citizens United
Posted by Andrew | Filed under Politics
Recently, the Supreme Court of the United States, this somewhat helpless but wonderful country I happen to reside in decided that corporations had the same rights as a citizen of the country in regards to free speech. Particularly with regards to donating money to political campaigns. The High Court has handed down their opinion on the matter, and now here is mine:
If corporations now have the same rights as regular individual citizens, then I like some extra rights as well. You see, a few days ago, my wireless mouse that I use with my laptop at home broke and now continues to click continuously despite whether or not I am actually pressing the button. Therefore, I would classify it as a troubled asset and I request that the government give me $1 million of TARP funds for it. Hey, I’m going bankrupt every day that I wake up and decide that I am hungry, the least this government could do is buy one lousy million dollar broken mouse to help me through this economic crisis.
Another way I would like to survive the economic crisis is to sell shares of myself on the New York Stock Exchange. I was thinking a modest $50 million IPO just to help fund some upcoming projects I have in mind like dumping toxic waste in the west desert of my home state of Utah or purchase the naming rights to an arena to be used by a WNBA franchise.
You see, I really don’t understand what Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Scalia, Kennedy, Thomas, and Alito (do you see a pattern here?) are thinking in their decision to pass this decision down. That’s right folks, politics is going to become more like NASCAR! I can just see Sarah Palin wearing a racing jump suit that says Palin/Beck 2012 on the front and DuPont and Kellogg’s on the back (because you know she would). And get this, apparently Obama’s re-election campaign is brought to you by JP Morgan Chase and AIG, what a surprise!
This is going to be a disaster. We already are fully aware that corporations fund campaigns as much as they want through certain means such as political donations from their major shareholders. The Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act created by one of the most non-conservative conservatives in the Senate, John McCain from Arizona, and one of the most liberal, Russ Feingold from Wisconsin, came together to cosponsor it. The bill’s main purpose was to stop soft money from freely flowing into campaigns. It also requires the candidates to stand by their advertising.
I’m Andrew Davis, and I approve this blog post.