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20:27:14 02/03/12
Fake Salt Being Sold in Anhui Province, China
[LESS INFO] 0 VIEWS | ADDED 20:27:14 02/03/12
Fake Salt Being Sold in Anhui Province, China
For more news and videos visit ☛ english.ntdtv.com Follow us on Twitter ☛ http Add us on Facebook ☛ on.fb.me And the latest in a series of food safety scandals in China, Anhui Province authorities have discovered fake edible salt made from the residue of agricultural chemicals. Three people are being held in connection with the case. Police in China's Anhui Province have warned that products made with fake edible salt extracted from agricultural chemicals may have made it onto the market. According to state-run China Daily, police in Anhui arrested three people in connection with the case. The three are suspected of manufacturing and selling 10-thousand tons of the salt. They set up business in 2009, purchasing waste residues from the factory of Zhenjiang Jiangnan Chemical Engineering Company. The factory was under the impression that they were using the residues to produce industrial salt. So far, no cases of illness have been reported in Anhui in connection with the salt. But Chinese citizens, disturbed by a string of food scandals over the last few years, see this latest case as a major problem. [Mr. Long, Resident]: "The slide in morality, the loss of sincerity in our society has already reached a very serious extent. I feel that it's a problem with the system that these illegal companies can be so bold and succeed for a period of time. Why can't our watchdog organizations and officials carry out their responsibilities? I fear this is a major problem." The three ... From: NTDTV Views: 933 10 ratings Time: 01:54 More in News & Politics
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11:57:20 01/30/12
The Dalit Massacre of Paramakudi
[LESS INFO] 0 VIEWS | ADDED 11:57:20 01/30/12
Tamil Nadu Police uses teargas, lathi and guns on unarmed dalit protesters. 11th September, 2011 was the day Paramakudi resident Valiswamy’s wife Gayatri gave birth to their first child. He was a dalit while she was from an upper caste family. In a caste sensitive area like Paramakuddi, inter-caste marriages are rare and they have to survive immense social pressure to come together. Valiswamy and Gayatri had fought hard and negotiated a truce with these forces. He was on his way to the hospital when he was caught in the Paramakudi firings, a widely reported incident in which the Tamil Nadu police opened fire on a group of unarmed dalits who were staging a peaceful protest. Valiswamy would not survive to see his newborn. “The families of the bereaved have received their compensations from the government but other than that, nothing has happened. The perpetrators are scot free. In fact, the chief minister has since been effusive in her praise for the state police. And the dalits are continuing to live in a stifling atmosphere of violence and fear. The incident has been a backlash to dalit morale in Tamil Nadu.” Dalit activist and IndiaUnheard Community Correspondent Mani M. aka Makkal Sevakan sounds angry and weary as he describes the situation in Paramakudi 5 months after the police’s attempts to disband a peaceful protest against the incarceration of popular dalit leader John Pandian resulted in the murder of 6 dalits and injuring many others. The incident caused uproar in the country. Dalit and Human Rights Organizations from across the nation condemned the attack and called for investigation. The media covered the incident extensively. The fact finding team set up to probe the incident made a strong case against the actions of the police but still as Mani puts it ‘nothing has happened.’ 54 years ago, Paramakudi was witness to one of the biggest caste riots in the country, a skirmish that cost the life of dalit iconoclast and leader, Immanuel Sekaran who was amongst the first Tamil Nadu dalits to advocate for dalit empowerment and rights against 3000 years of upper caste oppression. On 11th September, John Pandian was scheduled to arrive to pay his respects at Sekaran’s memorial. But using the sensitive atmosphere caused by recent murder of a dalit high school boy for allegedly writing offensive graffiti against the upper castes as a pretext, the police pre-emptively arrested him. When the crowd gathered to receive Pandian heard news of the arrest, they protested by peacefully occupying the road. The police’s diplomatic response was teargas and a lathi charge. The mood soured and the crowd turned unruly. A few protestors began pelting stones against the police. The police responded with gunfire. “It is not like the police could not handle the situation. There is an upper caste festival in Paramakudi each year that goes smoothly without the need to resort to pre-emptive arrests and lathi and gunfire. But the first time the dalits try to get together and organize a festival, it ends in tragedy,” says Mani. Mani was in Chennai on the fateful day when he heard of the Paramakudi firings. He immediately got on the first train. When he arrived, he saw a wasteland of police barricades, empty streets and burning vehicles. Some of Mani’s friends who had been part of the protest had managed to record footage of the police bashing in the heads of the people and shooting at unarmed civilians. The footage, which offers a birds eye view of the incident, justifies the statements of the fact finding group but there has been similar footage before and witness accounts and reports and photographs and yet, ‘nothing has happened.’ Of all the cases filed in the Tamil Nadu Courts under the Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribes Protection Act, 95% are acquitted. It is a disturbing figure that makes the atrocities seem insignificant or routine. In the 1969 Kilvenmani massacre, 44 landless dalit labourers were burnt alive for demanding better wages. In 1997, the dalit panchayat president and others were murdered in Melavalau. In September 2002, at Kaundampatti in Dindigul district, a dalit worker was forced to drink urine for having lodged a complaint of trespass with the police. In May 2002, two dalits were forced to eat human excreta in Thinniyam village in Tiruchi district. In 2011, on the 54th anniversary of a dalit massacre and the subsequent murder of Immanuel Sekaran, 6 dalits are killed in broad daylight by the state police. And not a single perpetrator has been brought to justice. Almost as if nothing had happened. ——————————————- For a brief account of the dalit struggle in Tamil Nadu, read http://www.pragoti.in/node/3947
40 Views
19:21:00 10/28/11
@ Brookings Podcast: Targeting U.S.-Born Terrorists Abroad
[LESS INFO] 40 VIEWS | ADDED 19:21:00 10/28/11
When a U.S. drone strike killed American-born terrorist Anwar al-Awlaki in Yemen, questions arose about the legality of action. Senior Fellow Benjamin Wittes explains the statute that gives U.S. officials the legal right to target terrorists who are U.S. citizens in foreign countries. Wittes says that while a compelling legal and moral case for such action can be made, the law should be updated to reflect the new realities of the terrorist threat facing the nation, and the Obama administration needs to do a better job of explaining the law and its use. Featured
Benjamin Wittes
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20:29:06 10/24/11
Chinese Toddler Yueyue's Death Sparks Outrage
[LESS INFO] 1 VIEWS | ADDED 20:29:06 10/24/11
Chinese Toddler Yueyue's Death Sparks Outrage
For more news and videos visit ☛ english.ntdtv.com Follow us on Twitter ☛ http Add us on Facebook ☛ me.lt It's a story that has shocked many in China and worldwide. A two-year old girl named Wang Yue was hit by two vehicles, and then ignored by over a dozen passersby. She passed away on Friday, but her story continues to spark debate throughout Chinese society. A warning%mdashthis story contains images that may be disturbing. Wang Yue, named "Yueyue" by the media, was pronounced dead on Friday. As seen in surveillance footage widely viewed online, the child was run over by two separate vehicles, then ignored by many passersby%mdashuntil a garbage collector tried to come to her rescue. She was soon declared brain-dead, and then put in intensive care in the Guangzhou Military Hospital. Now she has passed away, but not before provoking a firestorm of anger and criticism among Chinese citizens. Many are outraged over the way she was first brutalized%mdashthen apparently deliberately ignored. Some are calling it a sign of moral failure. [Yang Yaying, Beijing Resident]: "Now people have become so selfish. So many people walked by but no one helped her because they didn't want to get themselves into trouble." China's Communist authorities can sometimes be spurred into action by popular anger, and this case is no different. Local police in the city of Foshan say they have now arrested the two drivers who fatally injured Wang Yue. There are signs, though, that this is not enough to defuse the ... From: NTDTV Views: 7 2 ratings Time: 02:10 More in News & Politics
8 Views
20:20:56 09/30/11
Opening the Floodgates: Why America Needs to Rethink Its Borders and Immigration Laws
[LESS INFO] 8 VIEWS | ADDED 20:20:56 09/30/11
Seeking to re-imagine the meaning and significance of the international border, UC Davis Law School Dean Kevin Johnson makes a case for eliminating the border as a legal construct that impedes the movement of people into this country. Johnson offers an alternative vision of how U.S. borders might be reconfigured, grounded in moral, economic, and policy arguments for open borders. Series: "Walter H. Capps Center Series" [Public Affairs] [Show ID: 22633]
4 Views
09:28:24 09/19/11
Strauss Kahn Denies Violence In Sex Assault Case
[LESS INFO] 4 VIEWS | ADDED 09:28:24 09/19/11
Strauss-Kahn Denies Violence in Sex Assault Case
Dominique Strauss-Kahn has broken his silence four months after a New York hotel maid accused him of sexual assault, calling his encounter with the woman a "moral failing" he deeply regrets. (Sept. 19) From: AssociatedPress Views: 206 2 ratings Time: 01:31 More in News & Politics
13 Views
01:50:07 09/07/11
Dan Savage & Ross Douthat Values Added Monogamish Edition
[LESS INFO] 13 VIEWS | ADDED 01:50:07 09/07/11
Dan: Monogamy can be a disaster for marriage...
The social conservative case for infidelity...
Ross accuses Dan of naïvet%eacute...
When cheating is the least bad option...
Are open relationships morally praiseworthy?...
The foot fetishist whose wife won’t proffer her toes...
135 Views
21:39:37 08/26/11
Christopher Hitchens: God Is Not Great
[LESS INFO] 135 VIEWS | ADDED 21:39:37 08/26/11
In this classic FORA.tv program from May 2007, noted atheist Christopher Hitchens discusses his bestselling book, God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything. This event was recorded in collaboration with Washington, D.C.'s Politics and Prose Bookstore.
Christopher Hitchens speaks about his new book God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything.
Hitchens, an always colorful and sometimes outrageous commentator, now takes aim at God. Sam Harris and Richard Dawkins have tried, but that hard-to-hit Fellow keeps popping back up. Worse still are the violent ways of his flock: waging religious warfare, keeping women enslaved, fomenting universal hatreds. Hitchens makes a powerful case for atheism. - Politics and Prose Bookstore
Christopher Hitchens is an author and journalist whose books, essays, and journalistic career span more than four decades. He has been a columnist and literary critic at The Atlantic, Vanity Fair, Slate, World Affairs, The Nation, Free Inquiry, and became a media fellow at the Hoover Institution in 2008.
3 Views
19:44:16 08/22/11
Nick Gillespie Defends The Indefensible On Stossel
[LESS INFO] 3 VIEWS | ADDED 19:44:16 08/22/11
Nick Gillespie Defends the Indefensible on Stossel
Reason's Nick Gillespie appeared on Fox Business' Stossel show on August 18, 2011, to "defend the indefensible." The co-author of the new book The Declaration of Independents: How Libertarian Politics Can Fix What's Wrong with America (declaration2011.com), Gillespie and David Boaz of the Cato Institute and Alex Tabarrok of George Mason University made the moral and economic case for often-vilified practices ranging from ticket scalping to human-organ sales to the creation of private currencies. About 19 minutes Go to Reason.tv for HD, iPod and audio versions of this video and subscribe to Reason.tv's Youtube channel to receive automatic notification when new material goes live. From: ReasonTV Views: 10449 263 ratings Time: 18:46 More in News & Politics
2 Views
16:44:26 07/28/11
Speaking of economists...
[LESS INFO] 2 VIEWS | ADDED 16:44:26 07/28/11
[ VIDEO ] Reason commemorates economist Milton Friedman's 99th birthday!
> There's no way to appreciate fully the contributions of Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman (1912-2006), who would have turned 99 years old this weekend, to the growth of libertarian ideas and a free society.
This is the man, after all, who introduced the concept of school vouchers, documented the role of government monopolies on money in creating inflation, provided the intellectual arguments that ended the military draft in America, co-founded the Mont Pelerin Society, and so much more. In popular books such as Capitalism and Freedom and Free to Choose, written with his wife and longtime collaborator Rose, he masterfully drew a through-line between economic freedom and political and cultural freedom.
Yet his ultimate contribution to freedom and liberty is found less in any of the specific argument he made and more in the ways he made them. Friedman provided an all-too-rare example of a public intellectual who was scrupulously honest, forthright, and fair in every debate he entered. Whether he was duking it out with fellow Nobel Prize winners and other high-profile economists or making the case for the morality of capitalism with TV hosts such as Phil Donahue and angry students, he always argued in good faith, admitted when he was wrong, and enlarged the circle of debate.
Long after some of his technical points and social insights have been superseded, that commitment to relentless inquiry and search for truth wherever it takes us will survive.
Milton Friedman gave us something much better than revealed truth: He showed us the process by which we might continue to indefinitely learn about our world and the human condition. In this sense, the Friedman Century is far from over; indeed, it's just getting started.
Written and narrated by Nick Gillespie. Produced and edited by Jim Epstein, with help from Jack Gillespie.
About 2.30 minutes. His work probably isn't in the public domain, but I have seen clips of his appearance on Donahune. This is something I need to read up on as well!
2 Views
13:58:45 07/28/11
Happy 99th Birthday, Milton Friedman! A tribute to the late, great economist
[LESS INFO] 2 VIEWS | ADDED 13:58:45 07/28/11
Happy 99th Birthday, Milton Friedman! A tribute to the late, great economist
There's no way to appreciate fully the contributions of Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman (1912-2006), who would have turned 99 years old this weekend, to the growth of libertarian ideas and a free society. This is the man, after all, who introduced the concept of school vouchers, documented the role of government monopolies on money in creating inflation, provided the intellectual arguments that ended the military draft in America, co-founded the Mont Pelerin Society, and so much more. In popular books such as Capitalism and Freedom and Free to Choose, written with his wife and longtime collaborator Rose, he masterfully drew a through-line between economic freedom and political and cultural freedom. Yet his ultimate contribution to freedom and liberty is found less in any of the specific argument he made and more in the ways he made them. Friedman provided an all-too-rare example of a public intellectual who was scrupulously honest, forthright, and fair in every debate he entered. Whether he was duking it out with fellow Nobel Prize winners and other high-profile economists or making the case for the morality of capitalism with TV hosts such as Phil Donahue and angry students, he always argued in good faith, admitted when he was wrong, and enlarged the circle of debate. Long after some of his technical points and social insights have been superseded, that commitment to relentless inquiry and search for truth wherever it takes us will survive. Milton Friedman ... From: ReasonTV Views: 11380 444 ratings Time: 02:33 More in News & Politics
43 Views
18:49:00 05/13/11
@ Brookings Podcast: Are Harsh Interrogation Tactics Justified in the War on Terror?
[LESS INFO] 43 VIEWS | ADDED 18:49:00 05/13/11
While some argue that harsh interrogation techniques helped the U.S. find Osama Bin Laden, expert Benjamin Wittes notes that it’s impossible to say whether the same information could have been extracted using conventional military interrogation methods. Wittes says we cannot duck the question of whether such techniques as water boarding and sleep deprivation produce sound intelligence—but we must also consider the legal and moral aspects of such brutal interrogations. Wittes is co-author of a new report, " The Emerging Law of Detention 2.0: The Guantánamo Habeas Cases as Lawmaking ." Featured
Benjamin Wittes
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4 Views
18:00:06 02/28/11
Paul Wolfowitz says Bush went 'too far' with Libya, blames Pan Am Flight 103 families for deal, and bashes American Right
[LESS INFO] 4 VIEWS | ADDED 18:00:06 02/28/11
Fareed Zakaria did something fascinating yesterday: He actually spent four minutes of his show teaching a little history. He explained how the Middle East was formed as a political bloc and how that led to what's happening there now. Can you imagine learning something on cable TV?
The pretext for the lesson was that he was interviewing Paul Wolfowitz, one of the architects of the Iraq War. Predictably, Wolfowitz attacked the Obama administration over its handling of the Libya uprising, but I was kind of surprised to see Wofly bash the Bush administration as well for making a deal with Libya when Bush took them off the terrorist list -- but in doing so, he ascribed blame to the families of the tragic Pan Am Flight 103 bombing. Of course, Wolfowitz has no actual proof that they put pressure on Bush.
Fareed Zakaria GPS: >
ZAKARIA: You were in the administration that have - that normalized relations with Libya. It is the Bush administration that brought him in from the cold - from the cold. Were you opposed to that decision?
WOLFOWITZ: Look, I think we needed to give some acknowledgement to the fact that he handed over his nuclear weapons program. But it was an illegal program, and I thought we were giving him a lot by in effect saying you wouldn't suffer the fate of Saddam Hussein. I don't think we had to go nearly as far as we went.
There was a lot of pressure from Pan-Am 103 families because they wanted to collect the money that Gadhafi was offered. I -
ZAKARIA: Do you think that's really -
WOLFOWITZ: At one point, I believed - well, I was being told that the pressure was - I believe it was significant. I can't prove it. The United States went ahead and restored full diplomatic relations and had the Secretary of State visit.
I think we have should have drawn more of a line. Some move was appropriate. I think we went too far, and I think the Obama administration continued that.
The man who heaped spoons full of love towards attacking Iraq is shoveling garbage on shattered families of the Flight 103 nightmare. A real class act.
From 2008: Libya pays $1.5 billion to settle terrorism claims >
Libya has paid $1.5 billion to the families of terrorism victims, overcoming the final obstacle to full relations with the United States, the State Department said Friday. The payment ends Tripoli's legal liability in U.S. terror cases and paves the way for increased U.S. involvement in the oil-rich nation. President Bush signed an executive order Friday restoring Libyan immunity from terrorism-related lawsuits and dismissing pending cases over compensation as part of a deal reached this summer.
David Welch, the top U.S. diplomat for the Middle East, who negotiated the agreement, called Libya's rehabilitation from a terrorist nation to a U.S. ally "historic." The pact closes the book on a contentious period in U.S.-Libyan relations, which began in the 1980s with a series of attacks involving the two countries, including the bombings of Pan Am flight 103, a German disco and U.S. airstrikes over Libya .
U.S. business executives hope the new relationship will lead to billions of dollars of new investment in Libya, a country rich in petroleum reserves but lacking a developed infrastructure.
Wolfowitz attacked many people in this interview, including the American Right generally -- for, as Zakaria puts it, losing sight of the importance of the importance of democracy. That means you, Rush Limbaugh! >
ZAKARIA: What about the American right? Is it - has it become so fearful of some kind of radical Islam that it is losing sight of the importance of the importance of democracy, in your view?
WOLFOWITZ: Look, I - I think there's too much attempt to put foreign policy views in - in right/left terms. The view that I would like to associate with is the one I think of as Harry Truman and John Kennedy and Ronald Reagan, who believed that support for freedom, support for democracy is not only something that is morally important for the United States but equally is strategically important, and a freer, more democratic world is good for us.
ZAKARIA: But - but the people who are arguing against it on the right are saying we are looking at what's going on inside these societies and they're going to end up being - becoming radical Islamic societies, and that's why we - we oppose them.
WOLFOWITZ: Look, there's a - there's a dangerous argument, I think, that almost says if - if you're a Muslim and you're not an extremist, then you're not a good Muslim, and it's coming from people who aren't Muslims at all. What I know is that there are 200 million Muslims in the Indonesia country that I know very - I - it's an exaggerated - it's a complicated country, but I know a lot about it. Most of those 200 million Muslims are very tolerant people. They liked nothing better than to live in a country that's like the United States.
We certainly shouldn't say, oh, anyone who is of that faith is a problem. And they are our best allies.
I'm sure very soon Wolfowitz will be going on RushBo's show to bow down, kiss the ring and beg for forgiveness from the Holy One.
4 Views
18:00:06 02/28/11
Paul Wolfowitz says Bush went 'too far' with Libya, blames Pan Am Flight 103 families for deal, and bashes American Right
[LESS INFO] 4 VIEWS | ADDED 18:00:06 02/28/11
Fareed Zakaria did something fascinating yesterday: He actually spent four minutes of his show teaching a little history. He explained how the Middle East was formed as a political bloc and how that led to what's happening there now. Can you imagine learning something on cable TV?
The pretext for the lesson was that he was interviewing Paul Wolfowitz, one of the architects of the Iraq War. Predictably, Wolfowitz attacked the Obama administration over its handling of the Libya uprising, but I was kind of surprised to see Wofly bash the Bush administration as well for making a deal with Libya when Bush took them off the terrorist list -- but in doing so, he ascribed blame to the families of the tragic Pan Am Flight 103 bombing. Of course, Wolfowitz has no actual proof that they put pressure on Bush.
Fareed Zakaria GPS: >
ZAKARIA: You were in the administration that have - that normalized relations with Libya. It is the Bush administration that brought him in from the cold - from the cold. Were you opposed to that decision?
WOLFOWITZ: Look, I think we needed to give some acknowledgement to the fact that he handed over his nuclear weapons program. But it was an illegal program, and I thought we were giving him a lot by in effect saying you wouldn't suffer the fate of Saddam Hussein. I don't think we had to go nearly as far as we went.
There was a lot of pressure from Pan-Am 103 families because they wanted to collect the money that Gadhafi was offered. I -
ZAKARIA: Do you think that's really -
WOLFOWITZ: At one point, I believed - well, I was being told that the pressure was - I believe it was significant. I can't prove it. The United States went ahead and restored full diplomatic relations and had the Secretary of State visit.
I think we have should have drawn more of a line. Some move was appropriate. I think we went too far, and I think the Obama administration continued that.
The man who heaped spoons full of love towards attacking Iraq is shoveling garbage on shattered families of the Flight 103 nightmare. A real class act.
From 2008: Libya pays $1.5 billion to settle terrorism claims >
Libya has paid $1.5 billion to the families of terrorism victims, overcoming the final obstacle to full relations with the United States, the State Department said Friday. The payment ends Tripoli's legal liability in U.S. terror cases and paves the way for increased U.S. involvement in the oil-rich nation. President Bush signed an executive order Friday restoring Libyan immunity from terrorism-related lawsuits and dismissing pending cases over compensation as part of a deal reached this summer.
David Welch, the top U.S. diplomat for the Middle East, who negotiated the agreement, called Libya's rehabilitation from a terrorist nation to a U.S. ally "historic." The pact closes the book on a contentious period in U.S.-Libyan relations, which began in the 1980s with a series of attacks involving the two countries, including the bombings of Pan Am flight 103, a German disco and U.S. airstrikes over Libya .
U.S. business executives hope the new relationship will lead to billions of dollars of new investment in Libya, a country rich in petroleum reserves but lacking a developed infrastructure.
Wolfowitz attacked many people in this interview, including the American Right generally -- for, as Zakaria puts it, losing sight of the importance of the importance of democracy. That means you, Rush Limbaugh! >
ZAKARIA: What about the American right? Is it - has it become so fearful of some kind of radical Islam that it is losing sight of the importance of the importance of democracy, in your view?
WOLFOWITZ: Look, I - I think there's too much attempt to put foreign policy views in - in right/left terms. The view that I would like to associate with is the one I think of as Harry Truman and John Kennedy and Ronald Reagan, who believed that support for freedom, support for democracy is not only something that is morally important for the United States but equally is strategically important, and a freer, more democratic world is good for us.
ZAKARIA: But - but the people who are arguing against it on the right are saying we are looking at what's going on inside these societies and they're going to end up being - becoming radical Islamic societies, and that's why we - we oppose them.
WOLFOWITZ: Look, there's a - there's a dangerous argument, I think, that almost says if - if you're a Muslim and you're not an extremist, then you're not a good Muslim, and it's coming from people who aren't Muslims at all. What I know is that there are 200 million Muslims in the Indonesia country that I know very - I - it's an exaggerated - it's a complicated country, but I know a lot about it. Most of those 200 million Muslims are very tolerant people. They liked nothing better than to live in a country that's like the United States.
We certainly shouldn't say, oh, anyone who is of that faith is a problem. And they are our best allies.
I'm sure very soon Wolfowitz will be going on RushBo's show to bow down, kiss the ring and beg for forgiveness from the Holy One.
5 Views
16:00:53 02/12/11
Tim Pawlenty Echoes the Bush Years in His CPAC Speech
[LESS INFO] 5 VIEWS | ADDED 16:00:53 02/12/11
Although this year's CPAC convention has been strangely void of any formal discussion about the events unfolding in Egypt or jobs for unemployed Americans, Tim Pawlenty did manage to remind us all of what these last three weeks would have looked like if George Bush had been in office. In his speech today, Pawlenty slammed President Obama for allowing Egyptians to determine Egypt's future in their way and their time. >
"Bullies respect strength, they don't respect weakness," Pawlenty said in a speech to the annual Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington. "So when the United States of America projects its national security interests here and around the world, we need to do it with strength. We need to make sure that there is no equivocation, no uncertainty, no daylight between us and our allies around the world."
Pawlenty called it a simple principle that the White House "doesn't seem to understand."
"We undermine Israel, the U.K., Poland, Czech Republic, Colombia, amongst other of our friends," Pawlenty said. "Meanwhile, we appease Iran, Russia, and adversaries in the Middle East, including Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood.
"Mr. President, with bullies, might makes right. Strength makes them submit. We need to get tough on our enemies, not on our friends. And, Mr. President, stop apologizing for our country," Pawlenty said in one of his speech's biggest applause lines.
"The bullies, terrorists and tyrants of the world have lots to apologize for. America does not."
It's worth contrasting that with President Obama's speech made shortly after TPaw's spew:
(More follows) >
And above all, we saw a new generation emerge -- a generation that uses their own creativity and talent and technology to call for a government that represented their hopes and not their fears; a government that is responsive to their boundless aspirations. One Egyptian put it simply: Most people have discovered in the last few days -- that they are worth something, and this cannot be taken away from them anymore, ever.
This is the power of human dignity, and it can never be denied. Egyptians have inspired us, and they've done so by putting the lie to the idea that justice is best gained through violence. For in Egypt, it was the moral force of nonviolence -- not terrorism, not mindless killing -- but nonviolence, moral force that bent the arc of history toward justice once more.
And while the sights and sounds that we heard were entirely Egyptian, we can't help but hear the echoes of history -- echoes from Germans tearing down a wall, Indonesian students taking to the streets, Gandhi leading his people down the path of justice.
As Martin Luther King said in celebrating the birth of a new nation in Ghana while trying to perfect his own, There is something in the soul that cries out for freedom." Those were the cries that came from Tahrir Square, and the entire world has taken note.
For TPaw, respecting Israel et al means showing force, shaking our guns at whoever they call enemy instead of respecting the right of people to determine their government. How is it disrepecting democracies to support democracy?
When I read what he said, I was whisked back to the days of George W. Bush. In 2002, he gave a speech where he called for Palestinians to enact true political reform, including free and fair elections. He promised that if they did so, the United States would support them.
In 2006, the Palestinians elected Hamas in elections supervised by the UN and deemed to be free and fair. In a press conference following the elections, Mr. Bush paid lip service to the democratic process and then refused to acknowledge the Palestinians' duly elected representatives.
Juan Cole, writing for Salon: >
In a mystifying self-contradiction, Bush trumpeted that "the Palestinians had an election yesterday, the results of which remind me about the power of democracy." If elections were really the same as democracy, and if Bush was so happy about the process, then we might expect him to pledge to work with the results, which by his lights would be intrinsically good. But then he suddenly swerved away from this line of thought, reverting to boilerplate and saying, "On the other hand, I don't see how you can be a partner in peace if you advocate the destruction of a country as part of your platform. And I know you can't be a partner in peace if you have a -- if your party has got an armed wing."
So Bush is saying that even though elections are democracy and democracy is good and powerful, it has produced unacceptable results in this case, and so the resulting Hamas government will lack the legitimacy necessary to allow the United States to deal with it or go forward in any peace process. Bush's double standard is clear in his diction, since he was perfectly happy to deal with Israel's Likud Party, which is dedicated to the destruction of the budding Palestinian state, and which used the Israeli military and security services for its party platform in destroying the infrastructure of the Palestinian Authority throughout the early years of this century. As Orwell reminded us in "Animal Farm," some are more equal than others .
Which is precisely what TPaw said in his speech. Some are more equal than others. Poland, the UK, Columbia, Israel. Those democracies are just fine. But in Egypt's case, we should have been strong, firm, unequivocal in our undying support for the dictator. Because THAT would somehow have protected our national interests.
Democracy is democracy, regardless of whether this country likes the outcome. As President Obama said, the way forward for Egypt won't be easy, and I expect it also won't be pretty, because democracy means letting everyone have a voice, even when you don't like what they say. This is what conservatives and TPaw really don't understand at all. In their minds, we should undermine and starve any democracy that isn't aligned with our express (white, Anglo-Saxon, conservative Christian) ideals, because we don't like it.
This clip with The Nation's Katrina VandenHeuvel puts an exclamation point on it:
Click here to view this media
TPaw's speech is nothing more than a living example of that. From the day Barack Obama was elected, they have worked to de-legitimize his presidency. Birthers. Glenn Beck. Fox News. They work with one goal, to undermine a democratically-elected president that they don't happen to agree with.
Who are the real dictators here?
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19:00:35 12/31/10
Pope Benedict declares pedophilia was 'normal' back in the '70s
[LESS INFO] 31 VIEWS | ADDED 19:00:35 12/31/10
You can watch the entire movie here.
There must be something very wrong at the Vatican. The Pope's new scapegoat for the Church's sex abuse scandal is the 1970s.
Belfast Telegraph: >
Victims of clerical sex abuse have reacted furiously to Pope Benedict's claim yesterday that paedophilia wasn't considered an “absolute evil” as recently as the 1970s. In his traditional Christmas address yesterday to cardinals and officials working in Rome, Pope Benedict XVI also claimed that child pornography was increasingly considered “normal” by society. “In the 1970s, paedophilia was theorised as something fully in conformity with man and even with children,” the Pope said.
“It was maintained — even within the realm of Catholic theology — that there is no such thing as evil in itself or good in itself. There is only a ‘better than' and a ‘worse than'. Nothing is good or bad in itself.”
The Pope said abuse revelations in 2010 reached “an unimaginable dimension” which brought “humiliation” on the Church... read on
I watched this gut wrenching documentary last night called Deliver Us From Evil , about a serial pedo-rapist that the Catholic Church enabled for three decades. I cried along with Mr. Jyono, who thought Father O'Grady was a friend to his family only to find out after O'Grady was arrested in another county that he had raped his daughter for seven years. Clearly the Church covered it up, as video testimony shows, and instead of dealing with the problem, sent him out of town so he could hunt for new victims. It would be as if the Attorney General of California, after arresting Ted Bundy for being a serial killer, decided to give him a bus ticket to Iowa and told him to just stay away from girls -- while the AG then offered support with prayers to Bundy and maybe even a pension plan if kept quiet. What would Ted do?
I've been covering the child abuse cases that have been revealed in recent times along with finding out the Vatican and their hierarchy , instead of acting like the moral authority they claim to be, covered up the hundreds of abusers and actually allowed them to destroy future families for decades. And so much of this happened under Cardinal Raztinger's (Pope Benedict XVI) watch . >
The office led by Cardinal Ratzinger, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith , had actually been given authority over sexual abuse cases nearly 80 years earlier, in 1922, documents show and canon lawyers confirm. But for the two decades he was in charge of that office, the future pope never asserted that authority, failing to act even as the cases undermined the church’s credibility in the United States, Australia, Ireland and elsewhere.
Bishop Geoffrey Robinson, an outspoken auxiliary bishop emeritus from Sydney, Australia, who attended the secret meeting in 2000, said that despite numerous warnings, top Vatican officials, including Benedict, took far longer to wake up to the abuse problems than many local bishops did.
Digby writes: >
I'm fairly sure that pedophilia was considered an absolute evil in the 1970s. It was just covered up --- mostly because of institutions like the Church which made even the thought of sex so shameful that even innocent victims of abuse were afraid to admit it. But whatever "context" he's thinking of, in normal society sexual exploitation of children wasn't part of it except on society's fringe (just as it is today among certain fundamentalist sects .)
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There are many examples of our leadership and elite institutions and leadership failing, but I think this one is the best example. When even the Church that has made human sexuality a purely procreative necessity within sanctioned marriage is making excuses for pedophilia among its priests because of "the times" then it's fairly clear that any institution can be thoroughly corrupted to its very core. It tends to create just a little mistrust among the people.
You can see why blowhard Catholic sex-abuse apologists like Bill Donohue are around. To him, these child molesters weren't even pedophiles. They make plenty of cash off of doing their best to beat back any criticism directed at the Church.
